By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Hen Track of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Tulare Ave., Contra Costa, California, United States. “In magnolia tree at approx. 8 ft off the bottom, straight above microphone.” Barking canine, however energetic fowl!
In Case You Would possibly Miss…
- New Covid knowledge, with wastewater enhance.
- Mangione hit with Federal costs, loss of life penalty doable.
- Biden wasn’t been governing the nation, an extra-constitutional entity was.
- DOGE is one other extra-constitutional entity.
Politics
“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in actual fact a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
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 . 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 might harm 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 lots of of his cupboard members had been comparatively rare and infrequently tightly scripted. No less than 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 usually didn’t appear to be Biden had his finger on the heart beat.” • “Circle” is an fascinating phrase. Proper after Biden slipped a cog in debate, I selected that phrase:
I’ve been making an attempt to think about a phrase for this extra-constitutional entity, this small group that will play — or maybe is already enjoying 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 incorrect; oligarchy is a whole political system. (“Biden oligarchs” might need been OK, however to me, an oligarch is a member of the one small group that actually issues: The squillioniares, and though Biden et al. could service the squillioniares, they don’t seem to be, themselves, squillionaires.) I considered cabal, milieu, gang, clique, crew, faction, crew, troop, membership, coterie, posse, and at last 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, probably since Biden’s inaugural. Yikes! (“Presidenting is tough work” —George W. Bush.)
“The terrifying scandal is that Biden was NEVER president. The complete reality concerning the cover-up, Dangerous Physician Jill and all of the enemies inside should be uncovered” [Daily Mail]. “Having been lied to for years by the Democratic Get together machine and a lot of the mainstream media — who insisted Joe Biden was not diminished by his age however energized by it — properly, it seems we skeptics had been proper all alongside.” The Every day Mail will not be incorrect 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 prime interior circle, those who saved 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 foul thought. Why not? And: “If there’s any justice, the post-White Home guide offers and board seats will vaporize as shortly 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 closing days… with Obama, Kamala and Pelosi on the prime of her ‘naughty listing’ [Daily Mail]. “Between organizing this 12 months’s White Home Christmas decorations, employees vacation events and a string of ultimate goodbyes, the president and First Girl 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] social gathering, 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 lawyer John Morgan, is now questioning aloud whether or not Biden intentionally pressured 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 severe 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.” • Nicely, aside 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 provide you with a strategy to fund the federal government or federal companies will shut down, which means a whole lot of hundreds of federal staff may very well 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 towards it. Trump informed Home Speaker Mike Johnson to primarily 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 joyful dance on Wednesday:
Yesterday’s invoice vs as we speak’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 will not be its web page depend, however how efficiently it provisions the citizenry (“common concrete materials advantages”), simply because the measure for software program is notice 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 move them individually. Beneath the Home GOP’s newest plan, Republicans will attempt to move three separate payments: stopgap funding laws with a one-year farm invoice extension, cash for latest pure disasters and help for farmers, in response to two individuals with direct information 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 closing determination 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 foreign money can not go bankrupt. However right here we’re:
Both there may be huge change or America goes bankrupt, due to this fact there should be huge change! https://t.co/JLDBbvt41w
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024
How true it’s: “Sensible males, who consider 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 isn’t really a authorities company, regardless of its title), it might want to have buy-in — from lawmakers, from the incoming Cupboard as properly and, after all, from Trump. ‘They don’t have any authorities,’ Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former head of the Congressional Finances 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 assume tank, and I run a assume 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 thought — a private-sector advisory group designed to have a look at methods to make authorities work higher. Nearly none of that physique’s strategies had been really adopted, regardless of a mandate from then-President Ronald Reagan.” • DOGE definitely isn’t a thinktank, as a result of a assume 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 maintain getting adverts like this from Kamala:
President Biden and I are dedicated to constructing an economic system that works for each American. We’ve got taken historic motion to create jobs, spend money on small companies, and forgive scholar mortgage and medical debt. pic.twitter.com/crBAUFiXP8
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 18, 2024
It’s like she thinks she’s nonetheless operating. Or is that this the very best 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 angle in direction of humanity – deeming homicide an acceptable recourse to satiate private grievances. By way of continued shut partnership with the NYPD, the FBI maintains our steadfast dedication to fervently pursue any particular person who promotes a private agenda by means of violence.” • Versus a company agenda?
“Federal homicide cost towards Mangione might imply loss of life penalty in CEO killing” [NPR]. “The federal costs towards him embody: one depend of utilizing a firearm to commit homicide, which carries a most sentence of loss of life or life in jail; one depend of interstate stalking leading to loss of life; and one depend of stalking by means of use of interstate services leading to loss of life (every carrying a most sentence of life in jail); and one depend of discharging a firearm geared up 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 Legal professional’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 had been requested to attract up the federal grievance based mostly 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 costs. 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 Legal professional Peter Weeks mentioned he wouldn’t push to have these costs heard forward of Mangione’s rather more severe costs in New York. And a federal grievance towards 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” appears 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 lawyer’s workplace and its fleet of greater than 500 attorneys…. Whereas Friedman Agnifilo has minimal courtroom expertise as a criminal-defense lawyer, her private {and professional} curiosity in psychological well being, empathetic method to purchasers and intimate information of her former workplace might be key, colleagues mentioned. ‘She’ll have the ability to predict what the prosecutors will do earlier than they do it,’ mentioned lawyer Danya Perry, who has labored along with her in non-public follow… Her husband, the protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo, is anticipated 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 loss of life penalty bombshell” [Daily Mail]. “Many on-line are claiming Mangione is going through worse punishment that hardened criminals and faculty shooters, speculating that the federal government desires to make an instance out of him and stop some type of revolt towards company America. One X submit learn: ‘They wanna give Luigi Mangione the loss of life 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 loss of life penalty. But the U.S. is making an attempt to cost Luigi Mangione so he will get the loss of life penalty for killing one man. You’ll be able to 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 stating that the federal government’s dealing with of Mangione, which included a perp stroll straight out of a Hollywood movie, is barely growing the general public’s fixation on him. One X consumer mentioned: ‘luigi stepping out with a recent lower/shave, doable loss of life penalty costs, and an nypd photoshoot is the craziest factor on the earth. are they actively making an attempt to make him a martyr? whether or not you’re for or towards him, they’re making it SO straightforward for everybody to lionize him.’” • The perp stroll:
NYPD apparently sat round asking themselves “how can we prepare to move Mangione in a approach 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
Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Common Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be happy to contact me on the deal with given with the crops. 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 studies); 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 maintain the virus alive longer.At 4 C
Feathers 5 months
Soil,mud. 4 months
Feces 2 months https://t.co/fsoQhCcCVZ— Sphagnum Moss (@moss_sphagnum) December 20, 2024
TABLE 1: Every day Covid Charts
| Wastewater | |
| ★ This week[1] CDC December 16 | Final week[2] CDC (till subsequent week): |
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| ★ Variants [3] CDC December 21 | ★ Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC December 14 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★New York[5] New York State, knowledge December 19: | ★ Nationwide [6] CDC December 19: |
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| Positivity | |
| Nationwide[7] Walgreens December 16: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic December 14: |
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| Vacationers Information | |
| ★ Positivity[9] CDC December 2: | ★ Variants[10] CDC December 2:: |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 20: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 20: |
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LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new as we speak; all others usually are 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 performed an awesome job normalizing successive waves of an infection.
[4] (ED) A bit uptick.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward development since, properly, 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 Worth 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%.”
Manufacturing: “Boeing charts ‘aggressive’ 737 Max manufacturing ramp-up in 2025” [The Air Current]. “Boeing’s provide chain desires the airplane 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 can check its youthful workforce, fragile provide base and its chief regulator within the 12 months to return. Presently, Boeing goals to have its manufacturing traces constructing 737 Max jets absolutely transitioned to a fee of 38 per thirty days in Could 2025, in response to a number of individuals conversant in 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 significant Boeing provider informed The Air Present that the airplane maker is vulnerable to repeating previous errors — accelerating its manufacturing facility tempo too shortly and pushing the deliveries from its provide chain past what the suppliers and their manufacturing traces can accommodate. “That’s extremely aggressive, most likely 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 12 months 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.” • Nicely, Ortberg is barely betting the corporate. So what’s the problem?
In the present day’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]. Generally the whole lot doesn’t go in response to plan. On the beans: “With the bush beans, the primary sowing didn’t succeed in any respect – and these had 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 properly… Till they bought eaten by deer. They recovered and began going properly once more. Then bought eaten by deer once more. Amazingly, they recovered once more!” • Classes discovered, an fascinating 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 change 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 season to autumn as a result of discount in convective exercise throughout daytime and the rise in wind shear at evening because the season progresses. We discover diurnal variations in pollen dispersion: nighttime situations favor deposition in proximity to the supply, whereas daytime situations facilitate broader dispersal albeit with diminished deposition charges. These shifting climate patterns give rise to particular areas of CONUS extra weak to hemp cross-pollination.”
Gallery
“The Lacking van Gogh Masterpiece” [kottke.org]. “I didn’t know that the whereabouts of one in all Vincent van Gogh’s most vital 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 Nineties.” And quoting the New York Occasions; “4 artwork world insiders mentioned they believe 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 artworks…. ‘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 consider 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 response to one modern critic. ‘He can paint with… pic.twitter.com/xGWGdfaLji
— Richard Morris (@ahistoryinart) December 19, 2024
“Polyamory doesn’t Liberate; Monogamy doesn’t Shield” [Carsonogenic]. “The basic poly delusion, is to assume that through poly, you will get all your wants met. Polyamory literature says you possibly can’t count on one particular person to satisfy all your emotional wants. That is true. The shadow implication of this assertion is you could count on a handful of individuals to satisfy all your 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 most important monogamy delusion is clear. It’s easy: the concept you possess your accomplice, or that you just even can – the concept by irrevocably binding your self to somebody, you possibly can keep away from any chance of abandonment or heartbreak.” • Children as of late. San Francisco-based youngsters…..
“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 punctiliously curating playlists to assist lighten vacationers’ moods… Tiffany Idiart and her two nieces had been delighted to listen to musicians throughout a latest layover at Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport. ‘I prefer it. There’s lots of people right here they usually can all hear it,’ mentioned Grace Idiart, 9. ‘If their flight bought delayed or one thing like that, they may have had a tough day. And so the music might 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 move and people years will change into many years. These many years will change 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 filled 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. Mainly ceaselessly. Storing one thing safely ceaselessly is a big design downside.” I’m undecided what the answer was, however this one was proposed: “[Philosophers] Bastide and Fabbri got here to the conclusion that essentially 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 by means of over millennia. They proposed that we genetically engineer a species of cat that modifications 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 while you see these cats change colours, run far, far-off.” • Submitting that answer away….
Contact info for crops: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photos of crops. Greens are fantastic! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you need your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of 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 submit photos of animals, as a result of these are for antidote and Hyperlinks. However as we speak 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 as we speak. Additionally, a jailhouse lawyer would level on the market are crops within the Van Gogh puzzle that Emmi helps to assemble.
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