By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Affected person readers, right this moment it was ProtonVPN. Extra quickly! –lambert UPDATE All accomplished.

Flutist Wren, La Escalera, Venezuela. Incomes its title!

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Politics

Lambert right here: One reader recommended altering these quotes; I don’t assume it’s a foul concept, however I want to consider it. I don’t need to be too doomy — we’re not wanting stock in that division — however I don’t need to go all chipped and Pollyanna-esque, both.

“However what’s authorities itself, however the best of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They’d realized nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

“When the going will get bizarre, the bizarre flip professional.” –Hunter Thompson

Capitol Seizure

UPDATE “Jan. 6 committee to attach Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and QAnon to Trump allies” [Los Angeles Times]. “Join.” With extra yarn? ” The committee investigating the Capitol revolt will focus for the primary time this week on the connection between folks in former President Trump’s orbit and the extremist teams that deliberate and orchestrated the violence on Jan. 6, 2021.” Who doesn’t love an unlawful parade? Extra: “Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who will lead the listening to with Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), has made clear the committee received’t current smoking-gun proof.” • Effectively, I’m glad that’s settled.

UPDATE “The January 6 Committee Strikes the Needle” [Political Wire].

A brand new Politico/Morning Seek the advice of ballot suggests the January 6 Committee may very well be altering the general public’s understanding of that day’s occasions:

• 66% of voters say Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election.

• 66% say he claimed the election was fraudulent with out proof.

• 59% say he misled the general public in regards to the end result of the election.

Additionally fascinating: 44% of Republicans say Trump lied in regards to the election outcomes. That’s up seven factors for the reason that finish of June.

Abortion

UPDATE “Two lengthy weeks: Inside Biden’s wrestle to reply to abortion ruling” (not paywalled) [WaPo]. “For Jennifer Palmieri, a White Home communications director beneath Obama, the criticism [of Biden’s initial response] was by no means honest to start with. ‘Republicans gamed the system, and so they obtained two Supreme Courtroom justices they shouldn’t have, and people folks had a 40-year plan to overturn Roe and so they did it. And to proceed guilty Biden for the truth that extra People didn’t vote for Democrats is an epic instance of lacking the forest,’ she stated. ‘We’re in such a much bigger struggle than what the president of the US can ship, and should you’re pondering that it may be solved by a president taking any motion in the midst of the 2 weeks after the choice, then you definitely’re not appreciating what a giant struggle it’s and what a precarious second it’s,’ Palmieri added.” • So, simply to be clear, Democrats let Republicans recreation the system (Obama, for instance, didn’t put Garland on the Supreme Courtroom as a recess appointment, as a result of that will have been enjoying hardball, or sumpin’. And no matter planning horizon Democrats have, it’s not — I’m being variety right here — forty years out. Lastly, when Democrats lose elections, they blame voters (being totally with no capability for self-reflection). I’d say Palmieri’s assertion is beautiful, but it surely’s solely beautiful as a result of she’s so open about it.

UPDATE “White Home Privately Signaling It’s Shifting Ahead With Anti-Abortion Courtroom Decide” [HuffPo]. “It might need appeared just like the White Home has been backing off Meredith’s potential nomination given its silence in response to the Democratic outcry. However behind the scenes, the White Home is outwardly signaling that it nonetheless plans to maneuver ahead along with his nomination. ‘They’re defending it,’ the supply briefed final week on the White Home’s plan informed HuffPost, after requesting anonymity so as to converse freely about personal conversations. This supply additionally believes that Meredith would doubtless be introduced as half of a big bundle of judicial nominees that would come with many picks that Democrats do like.””

UPDATE “Minnesota choose strikes down quite a few state abortion restrictions” [NBC]. “A choose in Minnesota struck down a number of state legal guidelines proscribing entry to abortions Monday, discovering they violated the state’s structure. In a 140-page ruling, state District Choose Thomas Gilligan of Ramsey County issued a everlasting injunction blocking a wide range of restrictions, together with a 24-hour ready interval and a requirement that solely medical doctors carry out the process. He stated they run afoul of a 1995 state Supreme Courtroom ruling that abortion is protected beneath the Minnesota Structure. Gilligan, who has presided over the case for 3 years, wrote that “this court docket concludes that Minnesota abortion legal guidelines regarding mandated doctor care, hospitalization, criminalization, parental notification, and knowledgeable consent are unconstitutional.” • So, states’ rights, mkay?

Biden Administration

“‘We’re not tacos’: Latin group slams Jill Biden for saying they’re as distinctive as ‘breakfast tacos’ as she refers to bodegas as ‘bogedas’ at ‘Latinx Luncheon’ in San Antonio” [Daily Mail]. • Effectively, no less than she didn’t attempt to converse Spanish.

2022

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“Home Math and Historical past” [The Cook Political Report]. “Nearly each election analyst and handicapper agrees that the Home is all-but-certain to flip. The one disagreement as of late is what number of seats Republicans will acquire. On paper, the grim political atmosphere suggests the type of wave election that rivals the wipeouts of 1994 and 2010, when the celebration in energy misplaced greater than 50 seats. Nonetheless, our present forecast, as analyzed by Home editor David Wasserman, is for GOP good points within the 20-35 seat vary. Why don’t we foresee 50-60 seat sweep?” • Helpful chart:

Extra: “Underneath the high-end state of affairs, the GOP would acquire 41 seats. The lower-end state of affairs reveals Republicans selecting up 19 seats. Keep in mind, this isn’t the web, as we haven’t factored in GOP seats which will flip to Democrats. Proper now, we checklist 10 GOP-held seats as weak. Backside line: if Republicans are going to choose up the 50-60 seats they did in 1994 or 2010, they will must win a considerably larger share of districts that Biden carried by greater than 10 factors. Within the ‘outdated days’, most of the incumbents in these ‘protected seats’ would scoff at any suggestion that they may very well be at risk. However, after 4 straight wave elections, most of these members have (or no less than ought to have) realized to take these warnings severely.”

UPDATE “Doomsday political state of affairs takes form for Democrats” [The Hill]. “‘They’re not simply shedding Independents or you understand, By no means-Trump Republicans,’ stated [Reinish, managing director at the political strategy firm Mercury], referencing two blocs that helped Biden set up a various coalition in 2020. ‘They’re shedding their very own voters. Democrats’ personal voters don’t really feel as if their leaders hear their issues.’” And: “[S]ome distinguished centrists have gave the impression to be shifting away from Biden in latest weeks. The newest got here from [CIA Democrat] Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who is often outspoken in regards to the risks of shifting too far to the left forward of election time. She just lately gave a speech in Woodbridge the place she failed to supply even a tacit nod to the commander-in-chief. And Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), certainly one of Biden’s shut private pals who’s working for the Senate, additionally determined to not present up for an occasion the president held in Cleveland.” • I’m wondering who the centrists need to run…..

2024

“Training divide”:

UPDATE “Joe Biden Is Too Previous to Be President Once more” [Michelle Goldberg, New York Times]. “As a latest New York Occasions/Siena Faculty ballot discovered, 64 p.c of Democrats need a totally different presidential nominee in 2024. These Democrats cite Biden’s age greater than some other issue, although job efficiency is shut behind.” • However keep in mind: That ballot reveals — and Goldberg erases — that it’s the outdated who assume Biden’s too outdated. The younger assume his efficiency is awful, and so it’s.

Democrats en Déshabillé

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Social gathering (“the Democrat Social gathering is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated publish, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “stay” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Social gathering is, actually, a tough drawback. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:

The Democrat Social gathering is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Pay attention, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Social gathering didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” in fact.) Second, all of the working elements of the Social gathering reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Social gathering (ka-ching, however not totally) these components comprise a community — a Flex Web? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with belongings within the press and the intelligence group.

Observe, in fact, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed by different lessons; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.

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Democrat psychology:

UPDATE “The By no means-Ending Conflict on the Woke” [Alex Pareene, Forum]. “For my complete life, white moderates have been complaining about how tough the folks on the aspect of multiracial democracy are making it for them to win their idealized suburban voters. I’d ask Marshall and From—and Carville and Teixera and the heavy-breathing authors of Politico’s Playbook—solely to acknowledge that they received. They obtained what they wished. Barack Hussein Obama might have briefly disrupted the pure order [for about thirty seconds, probably by accident], however the ‘particular pursuits’ have been routed, and the white suburban voter granted pleasure of place within the scrum for electoral energy. Union membership is all the way down to single-digits within the private-sector workforce. The communities of shade that Clinton-era Democrats made such a performative level of rebuffing on the precept that they have been securely captive constituencies have grown disenchanted, and in some instances began to edge rightward. The president’s approval amongst younger folks particularly is shockingly dismal. Joe Biden is the president of the US. Invoice Clinton’s “PC” cupboard misplaced the 1994 midterms. Congratulations to the anti-PC brigade. You’ve gotten gotten what you’ve wished, time and again, for a few years. How’s it going?” • Certainly….

#COVID19

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Lambert right here: I’m however a humble tape-watcher, however I by no means thought it could come to this: Essentially the most well timed and dependable instruments for making private danger assessments become the Walgreens positivity chart, anecdotes on the Twitter, and the “Neighborhood Transmission” chart that CDC deprecates. All of those alerts have been flashing purple for weeks. In the meantime, case counts are at finest useful to intuit the regional conditions, “Neighborhood Profile” knowledge (speedy riser counties and hospitalization) has been reduce to twice per week, variant knowledge is absurdly gradual and dated, and I can’t get CDC’s spandy new wastewater web page to load [bangs head on desk]. That is the scenario “the adults within the room” have created. Because it seems, Ron Klain, Pandemic Czar, shouldn’t be put in control of a lemonade stand. Nor any of ’em. One other anecdote:

Propaganda works (and this “conscientious, educated grownup hasn’t been studying NC).

UPDATE “Is BA.5 the ‘Reinfection Wave’?” [Ed Yong, The Atlantic]. The ultimate paragraph: “The stakes of that recreation rely upon a quite simple query: Ought to we nonetheless care about stopping infections? If the reply is ‘not a lot,’ which is the implicit and generally specific posture that America’s leaders have adopted, then BA.5 modifications little. But when the reply is ‘sure,’ as I and a lot of the specialists I discuss to nonetheless consider, then BA.5 is an issue.” • That is about as near “‘Democidal elites’ is a parsimonious clarification” because the very measured Ed Yong is more likely to come….

“Reality Sheet: Biden Administration Outlines Technique to Handle BA.5” [The White House]. I may very well be too jaded and cynical, however I’m not seeing a lot new right here. On masks:

Making free high-quality masks broadly out there and talk clear suggestions about when folks ought to contemplate masking: Specialists agree that masking in indoor, public areas is a vital software to manage the unfold of COVID-19. The . As BA.5 drives a rise in instances, the Administration continues to encourage People to go to COVID.gov to seek out the extent of COVID-19 of their group and comply with CDC’s suggestions on sporting masks in public, indoor settings.

First, “folks ought to contemplate masking” is weak tea; what’s flawed with “folks ought to”? Second, I’m under no circumstances amazed or shocked that the White Home continues to advocate CDC’s discredited “Neighborhood Ranges” metric (see NOTE beneath within the Transmission part). This advice just isn’t solely flawed, however doubtlessly deadly, since it would trigger folks to masks up too late. Third, what about indoor, personal areas? I’ve seen anecdote after anecdote about households with a single member contaminated with Covid, the place isolation, masking, and Corsi containers protected the remainder of the household.

And so the propaganda line shifts on a dime. CNN:

Sure, there’s no such factor as a mandate, and even collective motion; what must occur is {that a} mass of atomized people must “personally implement mitigation methods” as a result of some CNN speaking heads determined they need to. Not that the recommendation is all that unhealthy, though 3Cs (closed areas, crowded locations, close-contact settings) is healthier; CNN disregarded “close-contact settings.”

CBS:

So, after a year-and-a-half trashing non-pharmaceutical interventions, the celebration line has modified to assist them.

“Omicron-Particular COVID Boosters Are Coming” [Scientific American]. A bit of late, it could appear. “Current vaccines goal the ancestral type of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, which first surfaced in Wuhan, China. However though these pictures nonetheless broadly shield in opposition to extreme illness, “their effectiveness does seem to wane with time,” stated Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Middle for Biologics Analysis and Analysis, in the course of the late June VRBPAC assembly. Every new variant has been successively extra contagious than its predecessor. And all through the world, Omicron subvariants have been fueling elevated infections and hospitalizations—the latter particularly amongst older folks. The deliberate updates are presently restricted to mRNA vaccine boosters developed by Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration.” • Oh, swell. mRNA solely.

“Latest Omicron subvariants can evade boosters, antibody therapies” [Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy]. “The newest Omicron subvariants behind new COVID-19 surges in the US and overseas have an enhanced skill to flee immunity conferred by three vaccine doses and all however one antibody remedy examined, finds a laboratory research revealed yesterday in Nature. Omicron BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5, the latter two of which now make up greater than 70% of US COVID-19 infections, are extremely transmissible and evasive owing to new mutations within the virus’s spike proteins…. Relative to BA.2, the BA.2.12.1 subvariant was about 80% extra resistant (1.8-fold) after three vaccine doses, however BA.4 and BA.5 have been no less than 4.2 instances extra resistant, rising the probability of breakthrough infections. When the researchers additionally evaluated the flexibility of 19 monoclonal antibody therapies to neutralize the subvariants, they discovered that just one—Eli Lilly’s intravenous bebtelovimab—retained its full efficacy in opposition to these strains.”

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In the event you missed it, right here’s a publish on my queasiness with CDC numbers, particularly case depend, which I (nonetheless) contemplate most vital, regardless of what Walensky’s psychos at CDC who invented “group ranges” assume. However these are the numbers we have now.

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Case Rely

Case depend for the US:

Persevering with rise. There was a bizarre, plateau-like “fiddling and diddling” stage earlier than the Omicron explosion, too. This conjuncture feels the identical. Underneath the hood the BA.4/BA.5 are making up a higher and higher proportion of instances. Keep in mind that instances are undercounted, one supply saying by an element of six, Gottlieb pondering we solely decide up one in seven or eight.) Therefore, I take the case depend and multiply it by six to approximate the true stage of instances, and draw the DNC-blue “Biden Line” at that time. The earlier depend was ~107,200. Right this moment, it’s ~119,000 and 107,200 * 6 = a Biden line at 714,000 per day. That’s somewhat lots of instances per day, when you consider it. Not less than we have now affirmation that the extraordinary mass of case anecdotes had a foundation in actuality. (Keep in mind these knowledge factors are weekly averages, so day by day fluctuations are smoothed out.) The black “Fauci Line” is a counter to triumphalism, because it compares present ranges to previous crises.

Regional case depend for 4 weeks:

Largely the South.

The South:

Florida and Texas. Dudes!

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s take a look at positivity tracker:

8.9%. Hoo boy. Appears like lots of people got here again from the Fourth of July barbecue hacking and wheezing. The Covid prepare at all times leaves on time! (I additionally surprise if there’s a Keynesian Magnificence Contest impact, right here; that’s, if folks encounter a sympotomatic particular person, whether or not of their social circle or in regular exercise, they’re extra more likely to get a take a look at, as a result of they consider (accurately) that it’s extra doubtless they are going to be contaminated. What we’re seeing right here is the steepest and largest acceleration of positivity on Walgreen’s chart.

Transmission

NOTE: I shall most actually not be utilizing the CDC’s new “Community Level” metric. Because CDC has combined a leading indicator (cases) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning sign of a surge, and a poor way to assess personal risk. In addition, Covid is a disease you don’t want to get. Even if you are not hospitalized, you can suffer from Long Covid, vascular issues, and neurological issues. For these reasons, case counts — known to be underestimated, due to home test kits — deserve to stand alone as a number to be tracked, no matter how much the political operatives in CDC leadership would like to obfuscate it. That the “green map” (which Topol calls a “capitulation” and a “deception”) is still up and being taken seriously verges on the criminal. Use the community transmission immediately below.

• For grins, here is “Community Levels,” the CDC map I only track after I’m put on my rubber gloves:

Even CDC’s obfuscatory map shows we’re in trouble. Hold onto your hats.

Here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to community transmission. This is the map CDC wants only hospitals to look at, not you. For June 30 – July 6:

Establishment, i.e. it’s a not-over pandemic.

Lambert right here: After the transfer from the CDC to the laughingly named ‘https://healthdata.gov,” this discover appeared: “Efficient June 22, 2022, the Neighborhood Profile Report will solely be up to date twice per week, on Wednesdays and Fridays.” Therefore, the “NOT UPDATED”s; my unhealthy. So now the administration has belatedly come to the belief that we’re in a BA.5 surge, and but important knowledge for making our private danger evaluation is simply out there twice per week. What’s the over/beneath on whether or not they really ship tomorrow?

NOT UPDATED Fast Riser knowledge, by county (CDC), July 7:

Good job. Because the report moved over to healthdata.gov, every little thing has gone swimmingly. Simply get the effing stories out on time. How arduous is that this?

NOT UPDATED Hospitalization knowledge, by state (CDC), July 7:

Very unstable.

Variants

Lambert right here: It’s past irritating how gradual the variant knowledge is. I seemed for extra charts: California doesn’t to a BA.4/BA.5 breakdown. New York does but it surely, too, is on a molasses-like two-week cycle. Does no one within the public well being institution get a promotion for monitoring variants? Are there no grants? Is there a single lab that does this work, and everyone will get the outcomes from them? Further sources from readers welcome [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk].

NOT UPDATED Variant knowledge, nationwide (Walgreens), June 18:

Variant knowledge, nationwide (CDC), June 25:

BA.5 shifting alongside properly.

• “Omicron subvariants threaten COVID-19 resurgence throughout US” [ABC]. “Well being officers are as soon as once more elevating the alarm about the specter of a resurgence of COVID-19 infections throughout the nation, as issues develop in regards to the new omicron subvariant, BA.5, which is now the dominant viral pressure within the U.S… As BA.5 spreads, a rising proportion of U.S. counties are seeing will increase in infections and associated hospital admissions.” • Wait. You’re telling me Covid is not over?

Wastewater

Wastewater knowledge (CDC), Jun 19, 2022 – Jul 03, 2022:

A lot of orange, some purple. Not good. This chart works a bit like speedy riser counties: “This metric reveals whether or not SARS-CoV-2 ranges at a web site are presently larger or decrease than previous historic ranges on the similar web site. 0% means ranges are the bottom they’ve been on the web site; 100% means ranges are the very best they’ve been on the web site.” So, there’s a bunch of purple dots on the West Coast. That’s 100%, so meaning “ranges are the very best they’ve ever been.” Not damaged down by variant, CDC, good job.

Lambert right here: I waited 5 minutes for this web page to load. That’s sufficient. Perhaps I’ll have higher luck on the world’s premier public well being company tomorrow!

Deaths

Dying fee (Our World in Knowledge):

Whole: 1,046,232 1,045,792. I’ve added an anti-triumphalist Fauci Line. It’s good that for deaths I’ve a pleasant, easy, day by day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, in contrast to every little thing else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job.

Stats Watch

Inflation: “United States Shopper Inflation Expectations” [Trading Economics]. “US client inflation expectations for the yr forward jumped to a brand new report of 6.8 p.c in June 2022 from 6.6 p.c in Could. Expectations about year-ahead value modifications elevated for gasoline (5.6 p.c), hire (10.3 p.c), medical care (9.5 p.c), and school schooling (8.7 p.c), whereas households’ assessments of their present monetary scenario deteriorated. Then again, the median anticipated one-year-ahead change in residence costs dropped sharply to 4.4 p.c, from 5.8 p.c in Could, the bottom stage since February 2021.

Optimism: “United States NFIB Enterprise Optimism Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NFIB Small Enterprise Optimism Index in the US decreased to 89.5 in June of 2022, the bottom since January 2013, and in comparison with 93.1 in Could. A internet destructive 61% of small enterprise house owners anticipate higher enterprise circumstances over the following six month, the bottom stage recorded within the 48-year survey.” • That’s small enterprise–

Optimism: “United States IBD/TIPP Financial Optimism Index” [Trading Economics]. “The IBD/TIPP Financial Optimism Index within the US elevated to 38.5 in July of 2022 however nonetheless remained near an 11-year low of 38.1 hit in June. The family’s monetary outlook for the following six months deteriorated additional to a report low of 45.3. In the meantime, a measure of how customers really feel in regards to the economic system’s prospects within the subsequent six months rose to 32.2 from June’s mark of 30.6. On the similar time, confidence in federal financial insurance policies improved to 38.0 in July from 37.4 within the earlier month.” • IBD = Traders Enterprise Every day. TIPP = TechnoMetrica Institute of Coverage and Politics.

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UPDATE Tech: Massive if true:

Sadly, you need to click on to develop the total desk, however whenever you do, you’ll se that there are 70,198 verified profiles (“Blue Checks”) in the US. That, then, is a fairly good approximation of the scale of the political class, inside which I embody the press. There usually are not very most of the Shing.

Mental Property: “Lawsuit over on-line e-book lending may bankrupt Web Archive” [Ars Technica]. “4 of the nation’s main e-book publishers have sued the Web Archive, the web library finest recognized for sustaining the Web Wayback Machine. The Web Archive makes scanned copies of books—each public area and beneath copyright—out there to the general public on a web site known as the Open Library. ‘Regardless of the Open Library moniker, IA’s actions grossly exceed respectable library providers, do violence to the Copyright Act, and represent willful digital piracy on an industrial scale,’ write publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random Home of their grievance. The lawsuit was filed in New York federal court docket on Monday. For nearly a decade, the Open Library has supplied customers the flexibility to ‘borrow’ scans of in-copyright books through the Web. Till just lately, the service was primarily based on an idea known as ‘managed digital lending’ that mimicked the constraints of a traditional library. The library would solely ‘lend’ as many digital copies of a e-book because it had bodily copies in its warehouse. If all copies of a e-book have been ‘checked out’ by different patrons, you’d have to hitch a ready checklist. In March, because the coronavirus pandemic was gaining steam, the Web Archive introduced it was shelling out with this waiting-list system. Underneath a program it known as the Nationwide Emergency Library, IA started permitting a limiteless variety of folks to take a look at the identical e-book on the similar time—even when IA solely owned one bodily copy. Earlier than this modification, publishers largely seemed the opposite manner as IA and some different libraries experimented with the digital lending idea. Some publishers’ teams condemned the observe, however nobody filed a lawsuit over it. Maybe the publishers feared setting an opposed precedent if the courts dominated that CDL was authorized. However the IA’s emergency lending program was tougher for publishers to disregard. So this week, as quite a few states have been lifting quarantine restrictions, the publishers sued the Web Archive.” • Hmm.

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Right this moment’s Worry & Greed Index: 27 Worry (earlier shut: 27 Worry) [CNN]. One week in the past: 23 (Excessive Worry). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Jul 12 at 12:53 PM EDT.

E book Nook

An especially neat e-book, Frank Adams’s Writing Tables. The entire thread is value a learn:

So, when Hamlet says (Act I, scene 5): “My ,–meet it’s I set it down, That one might smile, and smile, and be a villain,” maybe he had in his pocket a replica of Frank Adams’s Writing Tables, or one thing comparable, and was utilizing its “erasable pages” function to make an observation. (Utilizing the phrase “function” intentionally right here; see the thread.)

The Gallery

Greek statuary was gaudy:

It at all times astonishes me what the human hand and eye can do:

Zeitgeist Watch

“A Idea of Vibe” [Glass-Bead]. “What provides a vibe ‘authenticity’ is its skill to evoke—utilizing a small variety of disparate components—a sure time, place and milieu; a sure nexus of historic, geographic and cultural forces.’ … we’d speculate {that a} dense vibe within the imaginative panorama related to a murals doubtlessly acts as a structural illustration of a free vibe of the collective objects and phenomena of a real-world area. I’d provide, equally, that the ‘dense aesthetic construction’ in query thus doubtlessly supplies a schema for deciphering the objects and phenomena of a real-world area in accordance with a ‘systemic gestalt’ given via the imaginative panorama of the literary work.” • I don’t assume that is bullshit. Actually, “vibe authenticity” thus described is lots just like the cultural markers that evoke class.

Guillotine Watch

I’d put this beneath “Sports activities Watch,” however no:

And:

And Rutgers isn’t even a top-rank faculty. One wonders what’s going with different Division 1 “faculties.”

Class Warfare

Amazon:

Information of the Wired

“Primatologist Jane Goodall will get Barbie doll in her likeness” [Channel News Asia]. “Wearing a khaki shirt and shorts and holding a pocket book, Goodall’s doll has a pair of binoculars round her neck and David Greybeard by her aspect, a duplicate of the primary chimpanzee to belief the primatologist as she performed her analysis at Gombe Nationwide Park, in what’s now Tanzania in east Africa. ‘I wished a doll to be me even earlier than this concept got here up. I’ve seen…little ladies enjoying with Barbie dolls and definitely originally, they have been all very girly girly and I believed little ladies want…some alternative,’ Goodall informed Reuters.” • Good, I believe.

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Contact data for vegetation: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a verify in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are superb! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you would like your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it firstly 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 MG:

MG writes: “Right this moment was a type of afternoons the place the sky is a blue dome, the temperature is beautiful, light breeze . .. not sufficient to utterly blow away the scent of the blooms. This can be a half the Owen Rose Backyard in Eugene, Oregon. I like to return to this half to calm and middle, or as finest I can try this.” MG despatched me a number of very good pictures, however I picked this one, though the roses are within the background, as a result of I like what I believe are known as “Peace Vegetation” within the foreground.

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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not lined by the just lately concluded and — thanks! — profitable annual NC fundraiser. So should you see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see wherever else, please don’t hesitate to specific your appreciation in tangible kind. Keep 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. After I get no donations for 5 or ten days I get frightened. Extra tangibly, a continuing trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I think about that trickle when setting fundraising objectives:

Right here is the display that can seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:

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