By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chook Tune of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Tulare Ave., Contra Costa, California, United States. “In magnolia tree at approx. 8 ft off the bottom, immediately above microphone.” Barking canine, however energetic hen!
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In Case You May Miss…
New Covid knowledge, with wastewater enhance.
Mangione hit with Federal costs, demise penalty doable.
Biden wasn’t been governing the nation, an extra-constitutional entity was.
DOGE is one other extra-constitutional entity.
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Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in truth a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
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Biden Administration
“How the White Home Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Cost” [Wall Street Journal]. It took me awhile to get previous the paywall. As of the 2020 marketing campaign: “Biden, now 82, has lengthy operated with a tightknit interior circle of advisers. The protecting tradition contained in the White Home was intensified as a result of Biden began his presidency on the top of the Covid pandemic. His employees took nice care to forestall him from catching the virus by limiting in-person interactions with him. However the shell constructed for the pandemic was by no means absolutely taken down, and his superior age hardened it. The construction was additionally designed to forestall Biden, an undisciplined public speaker all through his half-century political profession, from making gaffes or missteps that would injury his picture, create political complications or upset the world order. The system put Biden at an uncommon take away from cupboard secretaries, the chairs of congressional committees and different high-ranking officers. It additionally insulated him from the scrutiny of the American public.” And: “Interactions between Biden and plenty of of his cupboard members have been comparatively rare and infrequently tightly scripted. A minimum of one cupboard member stopped requesting calls with the president, as a result of it was clear that such requests wouldn’t be welcome, a former senior cupboard aide mentioned.” And: “Former administration officers mentioned it typically didn’t seem to be Biden had his finger on the heart beat.” • “Circle” is an attention-grabbing phrase. Proper after Biden slipped a cog in debate, I selected that phrase:
I’ve been attempting to consider a phrase for this extra-constitutional entity, this small group that may play — or maybe is already taking part in the identical function within the Biden Presidency that the group round Edith Wilson performed in Wilsons. The Axios URL reveals the unique headline was one thing like biden-debate-replace-advisers, however the editors jacked it as much as learn “Biden oligarchy.” However that’s flawed; oligarchy is a complete political system. (“Biden oligarchs” might need been OK, however to me, an oligarch is a member of the one small group that basically issues: The squillioniares, and though Biden et al. might service the squillioniares, they don’t seem to be, themselves, squillionaires.) I considered cabal, milieu, gang, clique, crew, faction, workforce, troop, membership, coterie, posse, and eventually settled on the time period “circle,” since a circle has a middle (Biden), connotes repetitiveness and stability, and has allied phrases “social circle” and “interior circle.”
So it’s clear that america has been ruled by an extra-constitutional entity (Biden’s “circle”) for fairly a while, presumably since Biden’s inaugural. Yikes! (“Presidenting is tough work” —George W. Bush.)
“The terrifying scandal is that Biden was NEVER president. The total fact in regards to the cover-up, Dangerous Physician Jill and all of the enemies inside have to be uncovered” [Daily Mail]. “Having been lied to for years by the Democratic Occasion machine and a lot of the mainstream media — who insisted Joe Biden was not diminished by his age however energized by it — nicely, it seems we skeptics have been proper all alongside.” The Day by day Mail isn’t flawed right here. Extra: “And what we’re studying is terrifying. Infuriating. An unacceptable abuse of energy, a usurpation of the presidency itself by a anonymous, faceless cohort.” Or right here. Extra: “Subpoena [Karine Jean-Pierre]. For actual. Subpoena her – and all of Biden’s high interior circle, those who stored him ‘bodied’, as one supply mentioned, to a level unprecedented for any sitting US president: Ron Klain (former White Home chief of employees), Mike Donilon (senior advisor) and Jennifer O’Malley Dillon (marketing campaign supervisor) to call a number of.” Not a nasty concept. Why not? And: “If there’s any justice, the post-White Home e-book offers and board seats will vaporize as rapidly because the Biden legacy.” • ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. And deliciously–
“How vengeful Jill Biden is urging ‘depressed’ Joe to ‘burn the entire thing down’ of their remaining days… with Obama, Kamala and Pelosi on the high of her ‘naughty checklist’ [Daily Mail]. “Between organizing this yr’s White Home Christmas decorations, employees vacation events and a string of ultimate goodbyes, the president and First Woman Jill Biden have been quietly sharpening the metaphorical carving knives, with their sights set firmly on the one-time allies they understand as having wronged them….. ‘Jill views Democrats on Capitol Hill, the [wider] celebration, the Obamas, employees inside and out of doors the White Home, the media, and all of Washington DC with such misguided resentment that I can’t think about she [isn’t] encouraging [Joe] to burn the entire thing down, regardless of his higher judgment,’ an insider mentioned.” And: “One Democratic mega-donor, Floridian legal professional John Morgan, is now questioning aloud whether or not Biden intentionally compelled Kamala Harris onto the ticket – throwing his endorsement behind her inside minutes of pulling out – to spite Pelosi and Barack Obama, who had additionally labored behind the scenes to push Biden out, and who each held critical reservations about Harris’s capabilities.”
“Joe Biden goes out quietly however with trademark decency” [Margaret Sullivan, Guardian]. “Biden stays himself to a big extent: respectable, optimistic, patriotic and empathetic.” • Effectively, apart from the genocide. I used to respect Sullivan till she began writing about politics.
Trump Transition
I haven’t adopted all of the twist and turns of the most recent authorities shutdown saga as a result of its simply too silly:
“Closures, Social Safety checks, furloughs: What a authorities shutdown would possibly imply” [Associated Press]. “Congress has till midnight Friday to give you a solution to fund the federal government or federal businesses will shut down, that means lots of of 1000’s of federal workers could possibly be despatched house — or keep on the job with out pay — simply forward of the vacations. Republicans deserted a bipartisan plan Wednesday to forestall a shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk got here out in opposition to it. Trump informed Home Speaker Mike Johnson to basically renegotiate the deal days earlier than a deadline when federal funding runs out.” Importantly to some: “Recipients of each Social Safety and Medicare would proceed to obtain their advantages, that are a part of obligatory spending that’s not topic to annual appropriations measures.”
Elon’s pleased dance on Wednesday:
Yesterday’s invoice vs right this moment’s invoice 😂 pic.twitter.com/L3Omn964mw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2024
That is amazingly silly, even for a billionaire. The measure of a invoice isn’t its web page depend, however how efficiently it provisions the citizenry (“common concrete materials advantages”), simply because the measure for software program is be aware traces of code, however performance for the consumer.
“Johnson strikes ahead on spending Plan C: Breaking apart the payments” [Politico]. “Speaker Mike Johnson has moved on to a Plan C to avert a authorities shutdown: Breaking apart every bit to go them individually. Below the Home GOP’s newest plan, Republicans will attempt to go three separate payments: stopgap funding laws with a one-year farm invoice extension, cash for current pure disasters and assist for farmers, in line with two individuals with direct data of negotiations. A shutdown deadline is now about 12 hours away — the plan would punt that deadline to March 14. ;We’re going to speak to the convention and I’ll provide the remaining resolution when that is over,” Johnson mentioned as he walked into a personal Home GOP assembly Friday morning.”
A nation that’s sovereign in its personal forex can not go bankrupt. However right here we’re:
Both there’s huge change or America goes bankrupt, subsequently there have to be huge change!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024
How true it’s: “Sensible males, who imagine themselves to be fairly exempt from any mental affect, are often the slaves of some defunct economist.” —John Maynard Keynes
“DOGE Can’t Do It All. Right here’s What It Can Do” [Politico]. “However given the sensible limits of DOGE’s energy (it’s not really a authorities company, regardless of its title), it might want to have buy-in — from lawmakers, from the incoming Cupboard as nicely and, after all, from Trump. ‘They don’t have any authorities,’ Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former head of the Congressional Price range Workplace who’s president of the American Motion Discussion board, mentioned to me about DOGE. ‘On my most cynical days, I feel they’re only a suppose tank, and I run a suppose tank. I understand how little energy I’ve.’ Simply have a look at a previous, DOGE-like effort: the Grace Fee within the Nineteen Eighties. It was the identical fundamental concept — a private-sector advisory group designed to take a look at methods to make authorities work higher. Nearly none of that physique’s recommendations have been really adopted, regardless of a mandate from then-President Ronald Reagan.” • DOGE definitely isn’t a thinktank, as a result of a suppose tank has some company kind, like a 501(c)(3). DOGE is definitely not a govenrment company. Not is it advisory physique, as a result of it doens’t meet the necessities of FACA (as HICPAC should do, for instance). DOGE is simply two guys stirring up froth on social media. To the extent it has any actual energy, it’s as an extra-constitutional entity. Didn’t we simply undergo that with Biden?
Democrats en déshabillé
I preserve getting adverts like this from Kamala:
President Biden and I are dedicated to constructing an financial system that works for each American. We’ve got taken historic motion to create jobs, spend money on small companies, and forgive pupil mortgage and medical debt. pic.twitter.com/crBAUFiXP8
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 18, 2024
It’s like she thinks she’s nonetheless working. Or is that this the most effective the DNC can do on messaging proper now?
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Luigi Mangione Charged With The Stalking And Homicide Of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson And Use Of A Silencer In A Crime Of Violence” (press launch) [United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York]. However not terrorism, apparently. “FBI Assistant Director James E. Dennehy mentioned: “Luigi Mangione allegedly performed the rigorously premeditated and focused execution of Brian Thompson to incite nationwide debates. This alleged plot demonstrates a cavalier perspective in direction of humanity – deeming homicide an acceptable recourse to satiate private grievances. Via continued shut partnership with the NYPD, the FBI maintains our steadfast dedication to fervently pursue any particular person who promotes a private agenda via violence.” • Versus a company agenda?
“Federal homicide cost in opposition to Mangione may imply demise penalty in CEO killing” [NPR]. “The federal costs in opposition to him embody: one depend of utilizing a firearm to commit homicide, which carries a most sentence of demise or life in jail; one depend of interstate stalking leading to demise; and one depend of stalking via use of interstate services leading to demise (every carrying a most sentence of life in jail); and one depend of discharging a firearm outfitted with a silencer to commit a violent crime (which carries a sentence of 30 years to life in jail.”
“How Luigi Mangione’s pocket book helped federal prosecutors construct their case and what’s subsequent as he faces mounting costs” [CNN]. “The push for federal costs got here from the US Lawyer’s workplace, a number of legislation enforcement sources informed CNN. As a result of the FBI was already concerned within the investigation helping the NYPD with out-of-town leads, FBI brokers have been requested to attract up the federal grievance primarily based on proof collected by NYPD detectives engaged on the state costs and police in Pennsylvania who arrested Mangione. Federal prosecutors say they’ve jurisdiction within the case as a result of Mangione’s ‘journey in interstate commerce’ – taking a bus from Atlanta to New York previous to the killing – in addition to ‘use of interstate services’ by allegedly using a cellphone and the web ‘to plan and perform the stalking, taking pictures, and killing’ of Thompson in broad daylight on a Manhattan sidewalk.” • Oh. Any crime involving a cellphone or the Web is doubtlessly a Federal case? Is that what I’m studying?
“A whirlwind day for Luigi Mangione ends with new costs, revelations from a pocket book and switch to a federal jail” [CNN]. “The 26-year-old homicide suspect started his day at a jail in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, his house for the final 10 days, and ended it in a infamous federal jail in New York…. Mangione has been indicted on 11 costs in New York, together with first-degree homicide as an act of terrorism. He has not but pleaded to the fees. He additionally faces costs in Pennsylvania in connection to the 3D-printed firearm and false ID allegedly in his possession when he was arrested. Blair County District Lawyer Peter Weeks mentioned he wouldn’t push to have these costs heard forward of Mangione’s way more critical costs in New York. And a federal grievance in opposition to him was unsealed noon Thursday including 4 new costs and offering new particulars on a pocket book authorities say was in his possession.” • Mangione’s manifesto mentions the pocket book (“The spiral pocket book, if current, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it”). Now right here it’s. Why wasn’t it within the Central Park backpack with the monopoly cash? And all the opposite paraphernalia, if it involves that.
“Learn the Luigi Mangione federal felony grievance” [CBS]. From the Pocket book as excerpted within the grievance:
(“Checks each field” feels like some species of sophistication evaluation, though box-checking per se isn’t dialectical, as Bourdieu reveals.) I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing the whole pocket book anytime quickly….
“Meet the Authorized Insider Defending Luigi Mangione” [Wall Street Journal]. “Just some years in the past, Karen Friedman Agnifilo managed the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace and its fleet of greater than 500 attorneys…. Whereas Friedman Agnifilo has minimal courtroom expertise as a criminal-defense legal professional, her private {and professional} curiosity in psychological well being, empathetic method to shoppers and intimate data of her former workplace might be key, colleagues mentioned. ‘She’ll be capable of predict what the prosecutors will do earlier than they do it,’ mentioned lawyer Danya Perry, who has labored along with her in non-public apply… Her husband, the protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo, is predicted to play a supporting function within the case. He’s additionally representing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs [(!!!)] at his federal sex-trafficking trial this spring.
“Luigi Mangione canonized as a ‘saint’ by crazed on-line followers after demise penalty bombshell” [Daily Mail]. “Many on-line are claiming Mangione is going through worse punishment that hardened criminals and college shooters, speculating that the federal government needs to make an instance out of him and forestall some form of revolt in opposition to company America. One X put up learn: ‘They wanna give Luigi Mangione the demise penalty. That’s the one cause they making him face federal costs. ‘They actually wanna kill him for daring to threaten capitalism and company greed. They don’t even do that to highschool shooters.’ One other X consumer added: ‘Only a few faculty shooters have gotten the demise penalty. But the U.S. is attempting to cost Luigi Mangione so he will get the demise penalty for killing one man. You may kill dozens of youngsters and get a lesser sentence as a result of their lives don’t matter as a lot as a CEO’s. That’s America.’ Some are declaring that the federal government’s dealing with of Mangione, which included a perp stroll straight out of a Hollywood movie, is barely rising the general public’s fixation on him. One X consumer mentioned: ‘luigi stepping out with a contemporary reduce/shave, doable demise penalty costs, and an nypd photoshoot is the craziest factor on this planet. are they actively attempting to make him a martyr? whether or not you’re for or in opposition to him, they’re making it SO simple for everybody to lionize him.’” • The perp stroll:
NYPD apparently sat round asking themselves “how can we prepare to move Mangione in a manner that makes him look to his supporters like Christ being taken to the cross” pic.twitter.com/psP9W7PDlx
— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) December 19, 2024
After all Mayor Adams (heart left, ha ha) has to get into the act…
Syndemics
“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
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Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the handle given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Assets, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reviews); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, KidDoc, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep secure on the market!
Transmission: H5N1
Lengthy-lasting fomites:
Wow look how lengthy #H5N1 can keep infectious on 🪶 feathers, soil & feces !!! It is winter & colder temperatures preserve the virus alive longer.
At 4 CFeathers 5 monthsSoil,mud. 4 monthsFeces 2 months
— Sphagnum Moss (@moss_sphagnum) December 20, 2024
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TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts
Wastewater
★ This week[1] CDC December 16
Final week[2] CDC (till subsequent week):
★ Variants [3] CDC December 21
★ Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC December 14
Hospitalization
★New York[5] New York State, knowledge December 19:
★ Nationwide [6] CDC December 19:
Positivity
Nationwide[7] Walgreens December 16:
Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic December 14:
Vacationers Knowledge
★ Positivity[9] CDC December 2:
★ Variants[10] CDC December 2::
Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 20:
Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 20:
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new right this moment; all others should not up to date.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (CDC) Seeing extra pink and extra orange, however nothing new at main hubs.
[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has achieved an awesome job normalizing successive waves of an infection.
[4] (ED) A little bit uptick.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward development since, nicely, Thanksgiving.
[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Leveling out.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants). Positivity is new, however variants haven’t but been launched.
[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.
[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.
Stats Watch
Inflation: “United States PCE Value Index Annual Change” [Trading Economics]. “Annual PCE inflation within the US accelerated for a second month to 2.4% in November 2024 from 2.3% in October, however under expectations of two.5%.”
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Manufacturing: “Boeing charts ‘aggressive’ 737 Max manufacturing ramp-up in 2025” [The Air Current]. “Boeing’s provide chain needs the aircraft maker to be boring in 2025. Boeing has different concepts… Now, the corporate is progressing with a steep manufacturing acceleration on its single-aisle 737 Max that may check its youthful workforce, fragile provide base and its chief regulator within the yr to return. Presently, Boeing goals to have its manufacturing traces constructing 737 Max jets absolutely transitioned to a fee of 38 monthly in Might 2025, in line with a number of individuals aware of Boeing’s planning inside the corporate and the provision chain. Whereas Boeing mentioned it’s approaching its restart and ramp up “methodically”, one senior official at a serious Boeing provider informed The Air Present that the aircraft maker is susceptible to repeating previous errors — accelerating its manufacturing unit tempo too rapidly and pushing the deliveries from its provide chain past what the suppliers and their manufacturing traces can accommodate. “That’s extremely aggressive, in all probability unrealistic,” mentioned the provider official. Underscoring the fragility of the belief between Boeing and its huge community of suppliers, the official mentioned: “All I would like is a yr the place they’ll do what they are saying they’ll do,” noting that the corporate’s manufacturing steerage for the provision chain has repeatedly didn’t materialize since even earlier than the 737 Max was grounded for 20 months beginning in March 2019.” • Effectively, Ortberg is barely betting the corporate. So what’s the problem?
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At the moment’s Worry & Greed Index: 28 Impartial (earlier shut: 22 Worry) [CNN]. One week in the past: 49 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 20 at 1:31:53 PM ET.
Permaculture
“Analyzing our 2024 Backyard: peas, beans, carrots and greens” [The Re-Farmer]. Typically every little thing doesn’t go in line with plan. On the beans: “With the bush beans, the primary sowing didn’t succeed in any respect – and these have been new seeds! I used to be capable of purchase extra and tried once more. This time, we had a pleasant, brief row of bush beans emerge. They did fairly nicely… Till they received eaten by deer. They recovered and began going nicely once more. Then received eaten by deer once more. Amazingly, they recovered once more!” • Classes discovered, an attention-grabbing style.
The 420
“Hashish pollen dispersal throughout america” [Nature]. “For the just lately legalized US hemp trade (Hashish sativa), cross-pollination between neighboring fields has turn into a big problem, resulting in contaminated seeds, diminished oil yields, and in some circumstances, mandated crop destruction…. Our findings reveal that pollen deposition charges escalate from summer time to autumn as a result of discount in convective exercise throughout daytime and the rise in wind shear at night time because the season progresses. We discover diurnal variations in pollen dispersion: nighttime circumstances favor deposition in proximity to the supply, whereas daytime circumstances facilitate broader dispersal albeit with diminished deposition charges. These shifting climate patterns give rise to particular areas of CONUS extra susceptible to hemp cross-pollination.”
Gallery
“The Lacking van Gogh Masterpiece” [kottke.org]. “I didn’t know that the whereabouts of considered one of Vincent van Gogh’s most necessary works, a 1890 portray known as “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”, is unknown and that the portray had not been seen publicly for the reason that Nineteen Nineties.” And quoting the New York Occasions; “4 artwork world insiders mentioned they think the portray is held by a personal, very wealthy European household…. The query has grown extra related because it turns into clearer that almost all museums can now not outbid billionaire collectors for the best artistic endeavors…. ‘Persons are allowed to personal issues privately,’ mentioned Michael Findlay, who was concerned as a specialist for Christie’s within the 1990 public sale sale of the Gachet. ‘Does it belong to everyone? No, it doesn’t.’” • Says the auctioneeer.
I can’t imagine it’s not butter:
‘Mound of Butter.’ (1875/1885) Émile Zola hailed Antoine Vollon as the primary ’employee’ painter to return alongside since Gustave Courbet. A star in his day. A specialist in nonetheless he was, ‘maybe, the best painter dwelling,’ in line with one up to date critic. ‘He can paint with… pic.twitter.com/xGWGdfaLji
— Richard Morris (@ahistoryinart) December 19, 2024
Zeitgeist Watch
“Polyamory doesn’t Liberate; Monogamy doesn’t Shield” [Carsonogenic]. “The traditional poly delusion, is to suppose that through poly, you will get your whole wants met. Polyamory literature says you may’t anticipate one particular person to satisfy your whole emotional wants. That is true. The shadow implication of this assertion is which you can anticipate a handful of individuals to satisfy your whole emotional wants. This isn’t true. Different individuals don’t exist to fill our emotional voids. To cite Bo Burnham ‘If you need love, the love has gotta come from you……” So and however: “The foremost monogamy delusion is clear. It’s easy: the concept you possess your companion, or that you just even can – the concept by irrevocably binding your self to somebody, you may keep away from any risk of abandonment or heartbreak.” • Youngsters lately. San Francisco-based children…..
Information of the Wired
“For airports, background music now not is an afterthought” [Associated Press]. “Background music is now not an afterthought at many airports, that are hiring native musicians and thoroughly curating playlists to assist lighten vacationers’ moods… Tiffany Idiart and her two nieces have been delighted to listen to musicians throughout a current layover at Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport. ‘I prefer it. There’s lots of people right here and so they can all hear it,’ mentioned Grace Idiart, 9. ‘If their flight received delayed or one thing like that, they may have had a tough day. And so the music may have made them really feel higher.’ Airports are additionally rigorously curating their recorded playlists.” • This does sound like a good suggestion. OTOH, my shadow aspect brings Temple Grandin to the floor…
“Ten Thousand Years” (podcast) [99% Invisible]. “The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the nation’s solely everlasting underground repository for nuclear waste…. Finally, WIPP might be sealed up and left alone. Years will go and people years will turn into many years. These many years will turn into centuries and people centuries will roll into millennia. Folks above floor will come and go. Cultures will rise and fall. And all of the whereas, under the floor, that cave stuffed with waste will get smaller and smaller, till the salt swallows up all these oil drums and entombs them. Then, all of the outdated radioactive gloves and instruments and little bits from bombs –all nonetheless radioactive– might be solidified within the earth’s crust for greater than 200,000 years. Principally perpetually. Storing one thing safely perpetually is a large design downside.” I’m undecided what the answer was, however this one was proposed: “[Philosophers] Bastide and Fabbri got here to the conclusion that probably the most sturdy factor that humanity has ever made is tradition: faith, folklore, perception techniques. They could morph over time, however an important message can get pulled via over millennia. They proposed that we genetically engineer a species of cat that adjustments coloration within the presence of radiation, which might be launched into the wild to function dwelling Geiger counters. Then, we’d create folklore and write songs and inform tales about these ‘ray cats,’ the ethical being that once you see these cats change colours, run far, distant.” • Submitting that resolution away….
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Contact info for vegetation: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a test in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photos of vegetation. Greens are superb! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you need your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it initially of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From SV:
SV writes: “Emmi does Van Gogh. Cheers!” I strive by no means put up photos of animals, as a result of these are for antidote and Hyperlinks. However right this moment I’m breaking that rule — guidelines are, in any case, made to be damaged — as a result of Emmi is fairly cute, and we’ve been speaking about Van Gogh just lately, and right this moment. Additionally, a jailhouse lawyer would level on the market are vegetation within the Van Gogh puzzle that Emmi helps to assemble.
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This entry was posted in Water Cooler on December 20, 2024.
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