By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Affected person readers: Sure, as we enter the vacation season, I’m going to loosen up on Water Cooler (which is tough, as a result of the world doesn’t cease being attention-grabbing, or unstable, just because the West has a spiritual vacation, and in any case I don’t actually deal with holidays all that a lot).
At the moment’s Water Cooler would be a full complement, besides that I’m having my principal laptop computer’s keyboard repaired, and I foolishly didn’t put a duplicate of my Water Cooler template on this backup machine. So the construction will likely be a bit off, and the Covid tables gained’t seem. Oops! –lambert
Hen Tune of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Antietam Nationwide Battlefield, Sharpsburg, Washington, Maryland, United States. “Grownup male Northern Mockingbird singing from energy strains and deciduous timber at intersection.” Seventeen minutes of mimicry, plus a cow, so take pleasure in your espresso.
In Case You May Miss…
- Trump to tug out of WHO.
- Boeing 737 crashes not as a consequence of MCAS?!
- Covid and the mind.
- Quantum consciousness.
Politics
“”So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in truth a rational administration of symbolic capital.”” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Trump Transition
“Donald Trump’s transition workforce seeks to tug US out of WHO ‘on day one’” [Financial Times].”Members of Trump’s workforce instructed the consultants of their intention to announce a withdrawal from the worldwide well being physique on the president-elect’s January 20 inauguration. The departure would take away the WHO’s greatest supply of funds, damaging its potential to answer public well being crises such because the coronavirus pandemic. ‘America goes to go away an enormous vacuum in world well being financing and management. I see nobody that’s going to fill the breach,’ mentioned Lawrence Gostin, professor of worldwide well being at Georgetown Regulation, including that the plan to withdraw ‘on day one’ can be ‘catastrophic’ for world well being.” • WHO’s efficiency on Covid was additionally catastrophic, so it’s Sophie’s decisions all the best way down. I did simply examine to see if this notorious tweet has lastly been taken down:
It appears to have been (until search has been gamed). So I suppose a tiny quantity of progress has been made.
“Gaetz Paid for Intercourse, Used Medicine Whereas in Congress, Panel Finds” [Bloomberg]. “Home investigators discovered “”substantial proof”” former Consultant Matt Gaetz paid a number of girls — together with a 17-year-old lady — for intercourse and purchased and used unlawful medication whereas in Congress, in response to a bipartisan committee report launched Monday. Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump initially nominated to be his lawyer common, had requested a courtroom to stop the report’s launch, however his paperwork was filed incorrectly. The committee wrote there was ample proof “”that Consultant Gaetz violated Home Guidelines and different requirements of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible presents, particular favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”” Along with the sexual misconduct, the committee discovered proof that Gaetz used illicit medication and created a pretend e-mail from his Capitol Hill official congressional workplace “”for the aim of buying marijuana.”” The report additionally accuses Gaetz of accepting extreme undisclosed presents, together with a 2018 Bahamas trip. Gaetz, a Florida Republican who has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing, in November resigned his congressional seat and bowed out of consideration to be Trump’s lawyer common amid opposition to his affirmation from GOP senators. However the particulars within the report nonetheless elevate questions on his political future, together with a potential run for governor of Florida.” • At the least Gaetz isn’t a genocidaire…
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 Sequelae
“COVID-19 could Enduringly Affect cognitive efficiency and mind haemodynamics in undergraduate college students” [Brain, Behavior, and Immunity]. From the Conclusion: “The current examine discovered proof suggesting that COVID-19 an infection is related not solely with subjective cognitive impairment but additionally with extended goal cognitive impairment, particularly in govt functioning, in some however not all undergraduate college students. Furthermore, we discovered novel proof of distinct task-related anterior prefrontal haemodynamic responses in college students reporting a previous COVID-19 an infection relative to these reporting no previous an infection, and exploratory analyses steered this can be notably true for individuals who reported experiencing mind fog as a consequence of COVID-19. This new data could show essential as we transfer ahead in direction of creating interventions in response to the mounting proof that COVID-19 has extended influences on mind well being. In closing, we name for scientists to reply urgently to the quickly growing prevalence of lengthy covid signs pertaining to the mind.”
“Persistence of spike protein on the skull-meninges-brain axis could contribute to the neurological sequelae of COVID-19” [Cell]. The Highlights: “SARS-CoV-2 spike protein persists within the skull-meninges-brain axis in COVID-19 sufferers. Spike protein is ample to induce mind pathological and behavioral modifications in mice. Spike protein enhances mind vulnerability and exacerbates neurological harm in mice. mRNA vaccines cut back, however don’t remove, the spike burden.”
Stats Watch
Manufacturing: “United States Sturdy Items Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for manufactured sturdy items within the US decreased 1.1% month-over-month to $285.1 billion in November 2024, following an upwardly revised 0.8% rise in October and far worse than market forecasts of a 0.4% decline.”
“Airline Watchdog Raises New Questions On NTSB Dealing with Of Boeing 737 MAX Electrical Faults” [Simple Flying]. “The Basis for Aviation Security, based by Ed Pierson, a former Boeing 737 manufacturing facility supervisor turned whistleblower, has renewed its requires investigators to evaluate manufacturing processes at Boeing’s Renton amenities within the context of the 2 deadly 737 MAX crashes…. In accordance with the muse, the paperwork show that Boeing and the FAA have been conscious of high quality management and set up problems with the Electrical Wiring Interconnect System (EWIS) whereas the 737 MAX plane have been being constructed on the manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, the US. ‘MCAS software program and the shortage of pilot coaching didn’t set off these two deadly crashes. Shockingly, the [official] paperwork present that Boeing suspected the brand new ET302 airplane had intermittent electrical faults within the airplane’s wiring earlier than it crashed.’” Extra: “[A]fter the Ethiopian Plane Accident Investigation Bureau (EAAIB) revealed its last report of the Ethiopian Airways 737 MAX crash that occurred in March 2019, NTSB pushed again in opposition to claims made by the Ethiopian investigators. The latter social gathering concluded {that electrical} issues that existed for the reason that time of the accident plane’s manufacturing date resulted within the left angle of assault (AoA) sensor heater failing, ensuing within the AoA sensor offering faulty values to the 737 MAX’s flight laptop,” • Hoo boy. Not the MCAS?
Manufacturing: “American Airways is reducing worldwide flights subsequent yr — and blaming Boeing” [Quartz]. “American Airways (AAL) will likely be doing rather less worldwide journey subsequent yr, apparently as a result of it gained’t have the planes it wants to take action. The airline mentioned it is going to be laying aside quite a few new routes because of Boeing (BA) fulfilling jetliner orders extra slowly than anticipated.”
Manufacturing: “COMAC courts airways in Cambodia, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia for C919 orders” [Aerotime]. “COMAC (the Industrial Plane Company of China) has been making strikes to draw airways based mostly in Indonesia, Cambodia, and Kazakhstan, to position orders for its C919 narrowbody 158-192 seat plane. The transfer comes because the Chinese language planemaker seeks its first orders for the jet exterior of mainland China, say sources near the Shanghai-based firm…. COMAC’s alternative to draw extra airways to its C919 jet (which competes out there with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX) has improved all through 2024 as high quality points at Boeing plus provide chain bottlenecks and delayed deliveries have plagued the opposite two producers. However these points and compounding the state of affairs for airways is that each Airbus and Boeing narrowbody manufacturing strains are offered out till past 2030.”
Tech: “Bluesky finds with development comes rising pains — and bots” [Associated Press]. “However with development comes rising pains. It’s not simply human customers who’ve been flocking to Bluesky but additionally bots, together with these designed to create partisan division or direct customers to junk web sites…. Little knowledge has emerged to assist quantify the rise in impersonator accounts, synthetic intelligence-fueled networks and different doubtlessly dangerous content material on Bluesky. However in latest weeks, customers have begun reporting giant numbers of obvious AI bots following them, posting plagiarized articles or making seemingly automated divisive feedback in replies.”
At the moment’s Concern & Greed Index: 29 Impartial (earlier shut: 28 Concern) [CNN]. One week in the past: 54 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 23 at 1:15:00 PM ET.
Xmas Pre-Recreation Festivities
“Santa Confirms Everybody Getting Bag Of Glitter Labeled ‘Fairy Mud’ His Sister-In-Regulation Sells On Etsy” [The Onion]. • However as so typically with this decade’s Onion, the headline is all you actually need to learn…
Thriller Drones
“Why drone hysteria has taken off” [CBS]. “George Mason College engineering professor Missy Cummings, who has been doing drone analysis for 25 years, says what most individuals are literally seeing are probably plane, stars, or reflections off of objects, like towers. ‘Of all of these choices, drone is the least probably, as a result of it’s really fairly onerous to select these out of the sky,’ she mentioned. ‘If you happen to’re really lights from a drone, it signifies that you’re undoubtedly not a overseas adversary, as a result of they’re refined sufficient to show the lights off.’” • Truthful sufficient. I reiterate that the preliminary NY sightings have been SUV-sized, and whereas I can’t say that none of them had lights on, what I can say is that report that I learn that they did. So I’m a hard-core laggard on this; I don’t assume any official determine has given a public account of the preliminary giant drones, and the media protection, which conflated all drones with vivid lights within the sky, has efficiently obscured the preliminary sitings, whether or not by means of sheer laziness or intent, who is aware of. File beneath “I assume we’ll by no means know.”
Gallery
Pissaro:
Zeitgeist Watch
Paganism makes a rebound:
Your reminder that church buildings don’t pay taxes as a result of they’re supposedly spending their cash to assist their communities by means of issues like meals banks, shelters and after-school applications. https://t.co/D8Emc50qiY
— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) December 20, 2024
Information of the Wired
Science is popping:
“Darkish vitality thriller is lastly SOLVED – as scientists give you a radical new idea to clarify the mysterious pressure” [Daily Mail]. “[N]ew proof helps the ‘timescape’ mannequin of cosmic growth, which doesn’t have a necessity for darkish vitality. This ‘timescape mannequin’ takes under consideration the truth that time itself strikes a lot slower within the presence of a gravitational area, such because the one round Earth. … This idea does away with the necessity for darkish matter by difficult one of many primary assumptions of conventional cosmology…. It could be mind-blowing to us human beings, however variations in gravitational forces change the best way that point progresses within the universe. The timescape mannequin suggests {that a} clock positioned on Earth would transfer 35 per cent slower than one tossed into cosmic voids between superclusters of galaxies. By the point the clock right here on Earth has accomplished one 24-hour spherical from midnight to midnight, the clock in house would already present 08:00 am the following day. On the time scale of the universe, this implies billions of extra years have already handed within the voids between galaxies than on the coronary heart of the Milky Approach. So, even when the universe is increasing on the similar fee it was after the Large Bang, the areas between galaxies would have grown way more than we’d count on – creating the phantasm of acceleration.” • For the physicists within the readership, the unique paper–
“Supernovae proof for foundational change to cosmological fashions” [Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]. From the Summary: “We examine the usual homogeneous cosmological mannequin, i.e. spatially flat chilly darkish matter (CDM), and the timescape cosmology which invokes backreaction of inhomogeneities. Timescape, whereas statistically homogeneous and isotropic, departs from common Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker evolution, and replaces darkish vitality by kinetic gravitational vitality and its gradients, in explaining unbiased cosmological observations.” Properly, er, however concluding: “These outcomes present proof for a have to revisit the foundations of theoretical and observational cosmology.” • Extra analysis wanted!
“Your Consciousness Can Join With the Complete Universe” [Popular Mechanics]. “A latest groundbreaking experiment by which anesthesia was administered to rats has satisfied some scientists that tiny buildings within the rodents’ brains are liable for the expertise of consciousness. To drag it off, microscopic hole tube buildings known as “”microtubules”” carry out some superior physics; the consultants imagine microtubules carry out unimaginable operations within the quantum realm. Citing the work of earlier researchers, the examine infers that the identical sorts of quantum operations are probably occurring within the human mind.” And: “The Wellesley examine is critical as a result of the bodily supply of consciousness has been a thriller for many years. It’s a serious step towards verifying a idea that our brains carry out quantum operations, and that this potential generates our consciousness—an concept that’s been gaining traction over the previous three a long time.” And: “If this quantum idea of consciousness tied to microtubules seems to be appropriate, it may revolutionize our understanding of consciousness and even strengthen the trailblazing idea that consciousness, on a quantum degree, is able to being all over the place on the similar time. In different phrases, it may well exist in every single place concurrently, suggesting that your personal consciousness can hypothetically join with quantum particles past your mind, possibly entangling with consciousness all throughout the universe.” • Simply don’t inform the advertising and marketing division.
Contact data 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 if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are nice! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you would like your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it in the beginning 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 CK:
CK writes: “An autumnal plantitude from way back and much away.”
And: “A bonus. These three (sure, there’s a cat in that tree) lovelies have just lately handed on. For me, this picture captures absolutely the magic of our shared years.”
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not lined by the annual NC fundraiser. Materials right here is Lambert’s, and doesn’t specific the views of the Bare Capitalism web site. If you happen to see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see wherever else, please don’t hesitate to precise your appreciation in tangible kind. Bear in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common optimistic suggestions each makes me really feel good and lets me know I’m heading in the right direction with protection. Once I get no donations for 3 or 4 days I get frightened. Extra tangibly, a continuing trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I consider that trickle when setting fundraising objectives:
Right here is the display screen that may seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:
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