By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Chook Music of the Day

Spectacled Finch, Nar Gali, North-West Frontier, Pakistan. Obtained some factors knocked off by purists for the freeway noise, however what a efficiency!

Politics

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

“Right here’s meals for thought, had Ahab time to assume; however Ahab by no means thinks; he solely feels, feels, feels.” –Herman Melville, Moby Dick

“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in truth a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Biden Administration

“Biden’s Ending of the Covid Emergency Is a Public Well being Catastrophe” [Gregg Gonsalves, The Nation]. So I’m not the one one. “[T]wo current selections—by a Democratic Congress and the Biden White Home—symbolize dangerous motion relatively than dangerous inaction. Let’s begin with the omnibus invoice signed in December…. In 2020, Democrats and Republicans—sure, in bipartisan trend—allowed individuals on Medicaid to repeatedly keep on the rolls till the general public well being emergencies that had been declared initially of the pandemic had been lifted. This was a momentous choice and a clever one. Based on the Kaiser Household Basis, ‘Whole Medicaid/CHIP enrollment grew to 90.9 million in September 2022, a rise of 19.8 million or greater than 27.9 % from enrollment in February 2020.’ That represents near a 3rd of all Individuals who had been protected against shedding their medical health insurance for the previous three years. Nonetheless, Senate majority chief Chuck Schumer, then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and President Biden determined to do the inexplicable [No, it’s not] simply in time for the vacations: They put a measure into the invoice to delink the continual enrollment provision in Medicaid from the general public well being emergency and finish it as of March 31, 2023. Based on Kaiser, ‘between 5 million and 14 million individuals will lose Medicaid protection as soon as the continual enrollment provision ends.’ However the Democrats weren’t completed. On Monday, the White Home introduced that it’s going to let the Covid-related public well being emergency declarations expire on Could 11, 2023… [T]he numbers don’t lie. As Alyssa Bilinski and Kathryn Thompson from the Brown Faculty of Public Well being, together with Ezekiel Emanuel from the College of Pennsylvania’s Perelman Faculty of Medication, wrote in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation in November: ‘The US continued to expertise considerably increased Covid-19 and extra all-cause mortality in contrast with peer nations throughout 2021 and early 2022, a distinction accounting for 150,000 to 470,000 deaths.’ Final week, extra individuals died of Covid than perished within the Twin Towers on 9/11.” • When you settle for that the Democrat coverage is mass an infection with out mitigation, these selections should not “inexplicable” in any respect. They’re not bugs. They’re options. Options that make Pfizer very completely happy!

“What Ron Klain Realized within the White Home” [The New Yorker]. You can slaughter 1,000,000 individuals with none political pushback? Kidding! Hagiography, however this little vignette: “The low level got here within the fall of 2021, when progressives within the Home withheld their help for a bipartisan infrastructure deal on the suspicion that moderates within the Senate wouldn’t comply with by way of on a social-policy invoice. The White Home seemed feckless, and, in keeping with ‘The Battle of His Life,’ by Chris Whipple, a brand new ebook on Biden’s first two years, Klain considered resigning. As an alternative, he turned, as soon as extra, to outdated relationships. [Ro] Khanna instructed me that Klain appealed to him for assist, saying, ‘This has gone on lengthy sufficient.’ Khanna agreed. ‘I stated, ‘Ron, I’m occurring ‘Face the Nation.’ I’m going to interrupt from the progressive caucus and say I’m going to vote for the infrastructure invoice.” Biden beseeched extra liberals to help the invoice, and prevailed; in November, 2021, he signed it into legislation in a ceremony on the South Garden.” • The Freedom Caucus minimize a a lot better deal for themselves, didn’t they?

2024

“Why DeSantis Is on Observe to Beat Trump” [Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine]. “In contrast to Trump’s 2016 opponents, who cycled by way of a collection of unsuccessful assaults, DeSantis has additionally clearly ready a successful distinction over Trump’s help for COVID-19 vaccines. Anti-vaccine sentiment has exploded on the fitting, and DeSantis has seized its management. ‘I feel the blood-in-the-water knockout blow is the vaccines,’ former conservative radio host John Ziegler instructed Matthew Lewis, ‘as a result of Trump is so deluded into believing that the vaccines — as a result of he desires to take credit score for them — had been the best factor ever. That’s the place, with far more than 50 % of the Republican base, DeSantis can strike a knockout blow.’” • Perhaps. However possibly not. If the problem is vaccine mandates, these had been imposed by Biden.

“Nikki Haley, as soon as Trump’s UN ambassador, to take him on in 2024” [Reuters]. “ormer South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will kick off her marketing campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination this month, squaring off towards her one-time boss, Donald Trump, two sources aware of her plans stated on Wednesday. The transfer would make her simply the second declared Republican candidate and will set the stage for a extra combative section of the marketing campaign, probably placing her within the sights of the pugnacious former U.S. president. Haley’s marketing campaign despatched an electronic mail to supporters on Wednesday inviting them to a Feb. 15 occasion in Charleston. There she’s going to declare her candidacy, the sources stated. South Carolina is anticipated to host one of many first Republican nominating primaries in 2024 and can play an essential position in choosing the eventual candidate.” • So superior. Clyburn muscled the Democrat main to South Carolina, too! “South Carolina is simply too small for a republic, however too massive for an insane asylum.” –James Louis Petigru of Charleston, South Carolina (1860).

“Contained in the GOP’s “Save the youngsters” technique” [Axios]. “The fractious Republican Get together is consolidating round a ‘Defend the youngsters’ platform for 2024 that aggressively targets faculty insurance policies on gender id and how racial points are taught. A 12 months earlier than presidential primaries start, Republicans see this as a successful formulation that may fireplace up their base and entice some independents, pointing to the current electoral success of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. A lot of the battle is being fought on the state and native ranges, giving an edge to GOP officers resembling DeSantis and Youngkin — each potential presidential candidates who acknowledged the efficiency of academic points early on.” • I dread 2024. I don’t assume it’s going to be… enjoyable. In any respect.

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, it appears that evidently persons are really studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are lots of updates. So I should do this. –lambert

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

The Democrat Get together is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Get together didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working components of the Get together reinforce one another. Depart apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Get together (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 property within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.

Word, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is restricted by different courses; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

RussiaGate

“The press versus the president, half one” [Jeff Gerth, Columbia Journalism Review] (and two, three, and 4). • I’m nonetheless reeling from this. Inside 24 hours after Mueller goes down in flames earlier than Congress — and the very expectant press — Trump picks up the cellphone and makes a name to get filth on Joe Biden* — from a CIA asset: Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I’m certain the Massive Z couldn’t imagine his good luck, and instantly bought Trump to his handlers. In so some ways, Trump comes throughout as… effectively, as a bit of youngster. An harmless in a world of malevolent grownups (which, given Fred, was definitely true, at the very least for a short while in Trump’s life). When you’ve got the time to sit down down with this, it’s actually value it, simply to get the extremely grotty timeline straight. NOTE * I’m not, after all, implying that there isn’t a filth on Joe Biden.

Realignment and Legitimacy

Jimmy Dore on Tucker Carlson:

Massive Due to @TuckerCarlson for letting somebody say this on TV. I might like to deliver this message to @MSNBC @CNN @NPR @abcnews and many others..however they gained’t have me. We’re going to have to come back collectively to cease the conflict machine: pic.twitter.com/KePBod5ASJ

— Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) February 1, 2023

Good for him. Do it, say I.

“Can we please distinguish between antiwar and simply conflict politics?” [Carl Beijer]. “Right here, I’d like to simply make a fundamental definitional level: simply conflict arguments should not antiwar arguments. I don’t perceive how anybody might object to this, first as a result of it’s simply logically true due to what “anti” means, and second as a result of nearly everybody believes in some model of simply conflict concept. If we will simply agree to make use of these phrases constantly, possibly the discourse on Ukraine will develop into at the very least marginally much less ridiculous. The truth that each side are leaning so closely on practically equivalent arguments — “it isn’t conflict in case you’re combating in self-defense” — must be a giant purple flag regardless of which facet you’re on, as a result of it reminds us how simply this war-is-peace rhetoric may be abused. I don’t assume that the case for conflict is even remotely defensible right here, however in case you’re going to make it, personal it.”

“We’re Dominated By [glass bowls] As a result of We Have [glass bowl] Methods: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix” [Caitlin’s Newsletter]. Quoted textual content not essentially protected for work: “Folks have a reasonably straightforward time accepting that issues are fucked as a result of we’re dominated by corrupt assholes. They’ve a a lot tougher time accepting that we’re dominated by corrupt assholes as a result of our corrupt asshole techniques will all the time essentially elevate corrupt assholes to the highest. It’s simpler in charge our issues on oligarchs or the Deep State or a cabal of satanic pedophiles than it’s in charge them on techniques that we ourselves take part in and have lived our whole lives intertwined with and which have been repeatedly normalized inside our tradition. If the issue is just some corrupt assholes then it’s not a really daunting downside, as a result of all it’s important to do is take away these corrupt assholes and every thing’s golden. If the issue is the techniques round which our whole civilization is structured, it’s much more daunting. It’s straightforward to think about a future with out corrupt assholes. It’s virtually unattainable to think about a future the place human habits just isn’t pushed by revenue for its personal sake, the place we have now moved from competition-based techniques to collaboration-based ones the place all of us work collectively for the frequent good.” • Therefore, the destruction of public well being and, in truth, the very notion of a “public” (however possibly it was time for that?)

“What’s the Matter with Males?” (overview) [The New Yorker]. Richard V. Reeves, Of Boys and Males: Why the Trendy Male Is Struggling, Why It Issues, and What to Do About It. Fast abstract: “[T]he speedy liberation of ladies and the labor-market shift towards brains and away from brawn have left males bereft of what the sociologist David Morgan calls ‘ontological safety.’ They now confront the prospect of ‘cultural redundancy,’ Reeves writes. He sees telltale indicators in the best way that boys are floundering in school and males are leaving work and failing to carry out their paternal obligations. All this, he says, has landed hardest on Black males, whose life prospects have been decimated by a long time of mass incarceration, and on males with out school levels, whose wages have fallen in actual phrases, whose life expectations have dropped markedly, and whose households are fracturing at astonishing charges. Issues have develop into so dangerous, so rapidly, that emergency social repairs are wanted. ‘It’s just like the needles on a magnetic compass reversing their polarity,’ Reeves writes. ‘All of the sudden, working for gender equality means specializing in boys relatively than women.’” • Anyone who thinks that being a member of the PMC is about “brains” is a really specific form of idiot. I do know; these are my individuals!

#COVID19

Lambert right here: I’m however a humble tapewatcher, however not like Eric Topol, I’m not calling a surge, as a result of the final peak was Biden’s Omicron debacle, and after an Everest like that, what’s left? Topol’s view is the institution view: Hospital-centric. Mine is infection-centric. I don’t see the common acceleration or doubling in instances that I might count on to see primarily based on previous surges.

I’m calling a “One thing Terrible.” It’s gonna be dangerous, in some new method, and we don’t understand how, but (however see right here for immune system dysregulation, which is wanting fairly terrible).

Lambert right here: Appears to be like like “leveling off to a excessive plateau” throughout the board. Keep protected on the market!

• “China Covid: Coffins promote out as rural losses mount” [BBC]. “There was a lot debate about the true variety of Covid deaths in China, after the virus ripped by way of its megacities. Some 80% of the inhabitants – greater than a billion individuals – have been contaminated since China scrapped restrictions in December, in keeping with main epidemiologist Wu Zunyou. Final weekend China reported 13,000 Covid-related deaths in lower than every week, including to the 60,000 deaths it has counted since December. However these deaths have been in hospitals. In rural areas there are solely sparse medical amenities and those that die at residence are largely not being counted. . However the BBC discovered proof the loss of life toll is mounting. We visited a crematorium and so they too have been busy, mourners wearing white strolling ahead carrying the ceremonial field which might finally include the stays of a beloved one. In one other village, we noticed one man and lady loading enormous tissue paper birds onto the again of a flatbed truck. ‘They’re cranes. You experience the crane into the afterlife,’ the lady stated. As they packed up different elaborate, Buddhist pictures newly created from tissue paper they stated they’d had an explosion in demand for his or her funeral decorations, two or 3 times what’s regular. Everybody we met on this a part of Shanxi who’s linked to the funeral trade instructed us an identical story about a rise in deaths and so they all attributed it to the coronavirus.” • We’d like higher proxies. However… No estimate for rural deaths? Actually?

• “Commercialization of COVID-19 Vaccines, Remedies, and Exams: Implications for Entry and Protection” [Kaiser Health News]. • Right here we go:

Whereas every of those two adjustments – the depletion of the federal provide and finish of the PHE – issues by itself, their interplay additionally issues and should amplify entry challenges.

• The extent of those challenges varies by product and is most acute for therapies and exams. Whereas COVID-19 vaccines, together with boosters, will proceed to be accessible free of charge to nearly all these with private and non-private insurance coverage even when there isn’t a longer any federally-purchased provide remaining or PHE protections in place, this is not going to be the case for COVID-19 therapies and exams, the place price sharing can be extensively permitted.
• These entry challenges may also fluctuate by payer, with the uninsured and the underinsured standing to lose probably the most. Whereas these merchandise will proceed to be coated by each private and non-private insurance coverage after the federal provide is depleted and the PHE safety interval is over, albeit in some instances with price sharing, this isn’t the case for adults who’re uninsured, who can have restricted entry to free vaccines, and no protection for the price of therapies and exams.
• Lastly, even when shoppers are nonetheless assured free entry or protected towards some prices, they may face entry challenges if adequate provides should not accessible from producers or procured by pharmacies or different suppliers.

“Value sharing.” What a euphemism.

“May a well-liked COVID-19 antiviral supercharge the pandemic?” [Science]. Sure, really. Molnupiravir: “A extensively used COVID-19 drug could also be driving the looks of latest SARS-CoV-2 variants, sparking issues it might delay and even reinvigorate the pandemic. The drug, molnupiravir, produced by Merck & Co., is designed to kill the virus by inducing mutations within the viral genome. A survey of viral genomes reported in a brand new preprint, nevertheless, suggests some individuals handled with the drug generate novel viruses that not solely stay viable, however unfold.” • That preprint in Hyperlinks, 12/23/2022. Now it’s in Science….

• “Home invoice seeks to finish CMS’ COVID-19 vaccine rule for healthcare amenities” [Becker’s Hospital Review]. • Not a “rule.” A mandate. Fairly a distinction.

• I agree with this:

I personally dodged many a bullet, I want to imagine protected by my protocol, however I do know others who weren’t so fortunate. It’s very laborious for me to imagine that 1,000,000 individuals can die — particularly elders, whose loss of life essentially results generations — with no society-wide expression of grief. There was an AIDS quilt — 54 tons value of it — and a Nationwide AIDS memorial. Why no equal for a a lot bigger, society-wide, culling occasion? I can solely assume that there should an unlimited quantum of “stuffed” emotion surrounding the pandemic, some maybe displaced onto rage (blaming masks, for instance), however most unexpressed. Very unusual.

• Maskstravaganza: Helpful timeline:

• An excellent tip on overhead vent hoods:

I definitely don’t have psychological mannequin of how air circulates in a confined house like a bagel store. Could be helpful!

Case Information

NOT UPDATED BioBot wastewater information from January 30:

For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater information as one of the best proxy for case information (ignoring the scientific case information portion of this chart, which in my opinion “goes dangerous” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). A minimum of we will spot tendencies, and evaluate present ranges to equal previous ranges.

Transmission

Right here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to neighborhood transmission (the “purple map,” which is the map CDC desires solely hospitals to have a look at, not you.) The map is alleged to replace Monday-Friday by 8 pm:

The earlier map:

NOTE: I shall most definitely not be utilizing the CDC’s new “Group Stage” metric. As a result of CDC has mixed a number one indicator (instances) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning signal of a surge, and a poor technique to assess private threat. As well as, Covid is a illness you don’t need to get. Even in case you are not hospitalized, you’ll be able to undergo from Lengthy Covid, vascular points, and neurological points. That the “inexperienced map” (which Topol calls a “capitulation” and a “deception”) remains to be up and being taken severely verges on the prison.

Positivity

From the Walgreen’s check positivity tracker, printed February 2:

0.4%. Slight improve (nonetheless at a excessive plateau).

Wastewater

Wastewater information (CDC), January 29:

Once more, what the [family blog] is the [family blogging] use of a nationwide wastewater map the place practically all the gathering websites are [family blogging] greyed out?

January 28:

And MWRA information, January 30:

Appears to be like to me like New England’s regional surge is winding down. No bump from the scholars returning. Readers?

Variants

Lambert right here: It’s past irritating how gradual the variant information is. 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 all people will get the outcomes from them? [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk]. UPDATE Sure. See NC right here on Pango. Each Friday, a stately, educational tempo completely incompatible with defending your self towards a variant exhibiting doubling habits.

Variant information, nationwide (Walgreens), January 23:

Lambert right here: XBB overtakes BQ. CH not transferring too quick, reassuring, as a result of a Tweet in Hyperlinks, January 11 from GM drew consideration to it (“shows such a excessive relative progress benefit”) and in Water Cooler, January 18, from Nature: “CH.1.1 and CA.3.1 variants had been extremely immune to each monovalent and bivalent mRNA vaccinations.”

Lambert right here: Wierdly, the display screen shot about has been changed at present by information from “10/7/2022.” (It’s clearly not present information; BQ.1* and XBB don’t dominate.

NOT UPDATED Variant information, nationwide (CDC), January 7 (Weighted Estimates Solely*):

BQ.1* takes first place. XBB developing quick. (For BQ.1/XBB and vaccine escape, see right here.) CH.* now seems, every week after Walgreens. Right here is Area 2, the Northeast:

CH.1* seems, however barely under the nationwide common. XBB completely dominates, making clear that Area 2 (New England) varies drastically from the nationwide common. Wouldn’t it’s fascinating if we ended up with completely different variants dominating completely different components of the nation.

NOTE * CDC used to have a “Nowcast Off” radio button, which I used due to my dangerous expertise with CDC fashions like Nowcast. CDC explains (I feel) the change within the following notice:

Weighted estimates (supplied for all weeks besides the newest three weeks) are variant proportions which can be primarily based on empirical (noticed) genomic sequencing information. These estimates should not accessible for the newest weeks due to the time it takes to generate the unweighted information, together with pattern assortment, specimen remedy, transport, evaluation, and add into public databases.

Sublineages with weighted estimates lower than 1% of all circulating variants are mixed with their mum or dad lineage. When the weighted estimate of a sublineage crosses the 1% threshold and has substitutions within the spike protein that would have an effect on vaccine efficacy, transmission, or severity, it could be separated from its mum or dad lineage and displayed by itself within the variant proportions information.

Nowcast estimates (supplied for the newest three weeks when the “Nowcast on” choice is chosen under) are model-based projections of variant proportions for the newest weeks to allow well timed public well being motion. CDC makes use of the Nowcast to forecast variant proportions earlier than the weighted estimates can be found for a given week.

Somebody who can interpret The Nice Runes can take a look at this; however I don’t have time at present.

As a examine, since New York is a BQ.1* hotbed, New York hospitalization, up to date February 1:

Not as excessive as Biden’s ginormous jouissance, however nonetheless excessive.

Hospitalization information for Queens, up to date January 29:

Deaths

Demise fee (Our World in Information):

Whole: 1,134,259 – 1,132,935 = 1324 (1324 * 365 = 483,260 deaths per 12 months, at present’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would love, although they’ll speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I may should determine that is what the powers-that-be take into account “mission achieved” for this specific tranche of loss of life and illness).

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, day by day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, not like every thing else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job. (Although CDC could also be jiggering the numbers quickly. Decrease, naturally.)

• “Extra Californians Are Dying at Residence. One other Covid ‘New Regular’?” [Kaiser Health News]. “The covid-19 pandemic has spurred a surge within the proportion of Californians who’re dying at residence relatively than in a hospital or nursing residence, accelerating a gradual however regular rise that dates again at the very least twenty years…. ‘Each time I ask, ‘The place do you need to be if you breathe your final breath? Or when your coronary heart beats its final beat?’ nobody ever says, ‘Oh, I need to be within the ICU,’ or ‘Oh, I need to be within the hospital,’ or ‘I need to be in a talented nursing facility.’ All of them say, ‘I need to be at residence,” stated John Tastad, coordinator for the advance care planning program at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego.” • So, good!

Stats Watch

There are not any official stats of curiosity at present.

Retail: “The Junkification of Amazon” [New York Magazine]. The deck: “Why does it really feel like the corporate is making itself worse?” • As a result of it’s.

Promoting: “Fame: Manufacturers wanna reside perpetually” [Bob Hoffmann, Campaign]. “Whether it is true that every one we have now are likelihoods and possibilities, we should always ask ourselves what the one consequence of promoting is that’s almost definitely to end in enterprise success? I imagine the reply is apparent. Fame. All the world’s massively profitable manufacturers have one frequent attribute. They’re well-known. A model that’s well-known has huge benefits over its opponents that aren’t well-known. Conventional entrepreneurs and advertisers will usually assert that differentiation or positioning or ‘model which means’ are the important thing promoting drivers of name success. I’ve heard them say that fame with out ‘a purpose’ is empty and nugatory. They are saying that positioning or differentiation are the primary job of promoting as a result of they offer substance to fame. In different phrases, positioning and differentiation are the components that make fame productive. I feel that is improper. In actual fact, I feel it’s precisely the alternative. I feel that fame, by itself, inherently creates the strongest kind of positioning and differentiation. Essentially the most highly effective differentiator for any model is being probably the most well-known in its class. Essentially the most highly effective place for any model is being probably the most well-known in its class. Fame has many optimistic however not essentially logical associations. These embrace belief, social acceptance, and credibility. Any model can attempt to differentiate or place itself by claiming to engender ‘belief, acceptance, and credibility.’ However solely fame has the distinctive means to speak these attributes with out having to say them.” • Hmm.

Tech: “The Billions-Greenback VR/AR Headset Query” [Daring Fireball]. “The enchantment and utility of all-day [Augmented Reality (AR)] glasses is apparent. However we’re clearly very distant from such units being potential, at any value. And I don’t assume such units will ever be goggles with a display screen, utilizing cameras to point out the true world. I feel they should be see-through lenses that by some means embrace show expertise that may mission opaque objects and digital ‘screens’ inside your visual field. I’m satisfied we are going to get there. I’m equally satisfied we aren’t near having the ability to make such units…. My robust intestine feeling is that mass-market all-day AR glasses gained’t be possible till 15 or so years after the primary sensational VR goggles. They’ll require that a lot of, and that many, generational leaps ahead: chip miniaturization, battery tech, show tech, and sensor tech.” • That’s a very long time to attend…

As we speak’s Concern & Greed Index: 73 Greed (earlier shut: 73 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 68 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Feb 2 at 2:08 PM EST.

Photograph E-book

Black and white (1):

f64 little doubt… Sharp all the best way again to the mountains!

Black and white (2):

Below the Affect

That is like a kind of Onion headlines the place you don’t even should learn the story. One tweet will do:

The 420

“Excessive Nervousness” [Spotlight PA]. “Nervousness problems are actually the main purpose Pennsylvanians get a medical marijuana card, a first-of-its-kind evaluation of greater than 1.1 million certification data obtained by Highlight PA reveals… The Division of Well being’s guidelines and enforcement give these physicians nice leeway in deciding whether or not to subject certifications. The division adopted laws that require medical marijuana docs to overview accessible well being care data, however these guidelines don’t spell out how suppliers ought to decide if data exist. The division has additionally acknowledged that sufferers won’t have data for sure situations and certifying docs would be the ones ‘making the preliminary analysis.’ Some medical marijuana card firms actively court docket shoppers who lack a previous analysis or medical data exhibiting they’ve an nervousness dysfunction.” • The distinction to the free cross given to oxycontin is fairly apparent. Then once more, what on earth is there it’s anxious about? What’s improper with these individuals?

Well being Care

“Incorrectly recorded anesthesia begin occasions price medical facilities and anesthesia practices vital income” (press launch) [American Society of Anesthesiologists]. n= 40,312. “Inaccurately recording the beginning of anesthesia care throughout a process is frequent and ends in vital misplaced billing time for anesthesia practices and medical facilities, suggests a examine being introduced on the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2023, the Anesthesiology Enterprise Occasion. The anesthesia begin time (AST) should be documented from a pc logged into the digital well being report (EHR), and usually happens as soon as the affected person is within the working room (OR). Nonetheless, the anesthesiologist meets with the affected person previous to their arrival within the OR and begins duties which can be very important to the process — resembling administering pre-medication and attaching displays — and that point usually just isn’t recorded. Relying on the affected person and process, including two to 5 minutes to the AST when logging it might account for the preparation and transit time, researchers say. ‘These seemingly minor inaccuracies of recorded AST can price medical facilities and anesthesia practices a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} in misplaced income,’ stated Nicholas Volpe Jr., M.D., MBA, lead creator of the examine and an anesthesiology resident doctor at Northwestern College McGaw Medical Middle, Chicago. ‘We suspect most anesthesiologists are unaware that they aren’t recording AST precisely. It’s not a results of negligence, however relatively displays that workflow hasn’t been optimized for accuracy.’” • Good to see our M.D.s specializing in what actually counts!

Zeitgeist Watch

“Relatable: Marie Kondo Provides Up” [Gizmodo]. “‘Up till now, I used to be an expert tidier, so I did my finest to maintain my residence tidy always,’ [Kondo] stated through interpreter in a current media webinar, as reported by the Washington Submit. Extra not too long ago although, ‘I’ve form of given up on that,; she famous. And declared, ‘my house is messy,’ in no unsure phrases. Kondo gave delivery to her third youngster in 2021, and has seemingly been re-evaluating her priorities since. She stated she’s deserted peak group ‘in a great way.’ As an alternative of dedicating limitless hours to making sure her house is completely put collectively, ‘Now I notice what’s essential to me is having fun with spending time with my kids at residence.’ To her, specializing in household over folding is time spent ‘the fitting method for me presently, at this stage of my life.’ To which Gizmodo says: good for her! She could have constructed an organizational empire off of books, TV reveals, model partnerships, and residential items all primarily bearing the message of ‘get your self collectively,’ however everybody deserves a break from the never-ending work of categorizing life’s litter. Plus, if Marie Kondo isn’t even KonMari-ing, possibly meaning the remainder of us are free to stew in our slop.” • Yay!

“The Filth on Pig-Pen” [Astra]. From the Peanuts cartoon strip: “There’s something laborious to pin down in Pig-Pen’s situation. The character, even the bodily habits of Pig-Pen’s filth fluctuates. From one week to a different, it’s likened to chalk powder (as when he ‘washes’ his fingers by beating them collectively, ‘the best way they clear erasers’), to sand (you might put ‘4 boards round that child and have an ‘prompt sandbox”), to soil, mud, and mud. He’s described as being ‘cooled by a number of layers of clay’ (defending him from warmth), or mixing in with the filth at second base. He’s related to micro organism, carrying his Easter jelly beans round so lengthy that they begin to ‘ferment.’ Violet describes him as a ‘germ provider.’ Pig-Pen appears offended, however declares that even germs want a relaxation. The bodily filth itself: Is it natural or inorganic? Does it come off? Does Pig-Pen need it to? Pig-Pen first seems in 1954. Violet’s judgmental good friend, Patty, sees him taking part in within the sand and asks his title. Pig-Pen replies that he doesn’t have one; individuals simply name him ‘insulting issues.’ Patty asks for specifics. ‘I’ll let you know in case you gained’t giggle,’ Pig-Pen says. His title is a punch line. For a very long time, Pig-Pen’s title constantly seems in citation marks, reminding us that it isn’t actually a reputation — that he has, presumably, one other one which he doesn’t know.”

Black Injustice Tipping Level

“Low Decision Historical past” [London Review of Books]. “Probably the most revealing issues about dialogue of The Girl King has been how low-resolution standard data of African historical past stays. Half a century after the Regius Professor of Trendy Historical past at Oxford declared that there was no African historical past to show, solely the ‘historical past of Europeans in Africa’, many within the West would nonetheless fail to call a single pre-colonial African kingdom if requested. The Girl King represents a step ahead generally consciousness, but it surely’s in a cultural local weather the place discussions of Africa can’t take any pre-existing data without any consideration. For a lot of, the picture of pre-colonial West Africa stays considered one of undefined ‘tribes’ and males with spears. Discourse about ‘Africans promoting Africans’ can be frequent, however slaves had been most continuously captured in inter-state conflicts, by individuals who noticed them as categorically completely different. This was a time earlier than Pan-Africanism was even a twinkle in Kwame Nkrumah’s eye. And attitudes differed amongst these in energy: Ghezo’s dedication to ending the commerce was shaky however, as Walter Rodney famous in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, considered one of his Dahomey predecessors, Agaja Trudo, actively raided and looted European forts and slave camps on the coast. All this nuance is misplaced within the widening gyre of latest political imperatives, and no Hollywood film can moderately be anticipated to behave as a microcosm of a whole historic period, not to mention an already underrepresented one.”

Class Warfare

“The distinction between ‘wealthy’ and ‘rich,’ in keeping with New York Instances ‘Wealth Issues’ columnist” [CNBC]. “To the frustration of a few of his readers, [Paul] Sullivan got here to outline wealth not as a greenback determine however by way of what your financial savings mean you can do. ‘The folks that I take into account rich — whether or not you’re a schoolteacher or a billionaire — are the individuals who, once they need to do X, they’ll do it,’ he says. He pointed to billionaire businessman Jon Huntsman, whose company invented, amongst different issues, the plastic clamshell containers that Massive Macs used to come back in, in addition to to his personal aunt, a retired schoolteacher whose financial savings enable her to purchase no matter she desires for herself and to journey to go to household every time she pleases. On the rich-but-not-wealthy facet of the equation, Sullivan says you’re more likely to discover loads of hedge fund managers. ‘They make a ton of cash, however they could even be extremely leveraged,’ he says, which means that a lot of their cash on paper could come from investing borrowed cash. Lack of management over their very own monetary decision-making is a key indicator that they’re not, in truth, rich, he provides: ‘Life goes to make selections for them.’” “Life” doesn’t “make selections” for working class individuals? All of them, with out exception? In a method that “life” doesn’t “make selections” for, say, Trustafarians?

“Tech layoffs strip the facade off TikTok’s ‘day within the life’ movies” [NBC]. The deck: “Creators pivot to content material about unemployment and labor rights as a substitute of aspirational movies of company perks.” • Wow, TikTok permits that?

Information of the Wired

“A city-wide examination of fine-grained human feelings by way of social media evaluation” [PLOS One]. “On this examine, we develop upon the earlier analysis area and make the most of information from the social media platform Twitter to investigate fine-grained human feelings at a metropolis huge stage. Totally different approaches for robotically detecting fine-grained human feelings from the social media platform Twitter had been examined and evaluated. Afterwards, Neural Community classifiers had been used to establish feelings from geotagged tweets in two cities, San Francisco and London and information from Open Avenue Map information was used to spatially contextualize the social media info….. [W]e examined seven completely different fine-grained feelings (Anger, Anticipation, Disgust, Concern, Belief, Pleasure and Unhappiness) at a city-wide stage primarily based on large-scale information evaluation from social media… The outcomes confirmed vital variations with regard to the kind of place, resembling how tweets in London confirmed considerably extra Anger at Transportation and Sport areas than at Training, and Residential areas and the way .” • Attention-grabbing, really!

“The science behind seasonal despair” [Scientific American]. “As a lot as three % of the overall inhabitants is assumed to expertise SAD, however one examine Rosenthal printed in 1990 discovered that the situation grew to become extra prevalent within the U.S. in northern latitudes, with as many as 10 % of New Hampshire residents reporting the situation.” • Not all research agree, and there are lots of confounders. That stated, I imagine SAD is actual, and I additionally imagine it has to do with change in accessible gentle, i.e., you may get it transferring away from the solstice in addition to in direction of it. My recommendation, as normal, is to stroll outdoors within the daylight, and look up on the sky and the bushes, not down at your ft. In the future the buds on the tree branches will seem!

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 pictures of crops. Greens are superb! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you’d 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 marku52:

marku52 writes: “Purple Scorching Pokers this fall in SW OR.”

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