Home Economics 2:00PM Water Cooler 11/7/2024 | bare capitalism

2:00PM Water Cooler 11/7/2024 | bare capitalism

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2:00PM Water Cooler 11/7/2024 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Affected person readers, I rebooted the syndemics part, so the politics part is briefly very mild. Extra quickly! –lambert UPDATE All performed!

Chook Tune of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Sharpsburg., Washington, Maryland, United States. Grownup Northern Mockingbird imitating the flight track of Willow Flycatcher.” “Sharpsburg” makes me suppose maybe I ought to do a tour of Civil Battle battlefields; I noticed “Antietam” in passsing as we speak additionally.

* * *

In Case You Would possibly Miss…

  1. BIden addresses the nation.
  2. Deploy the Blame Cannons!.
  3. Air flow in faculties (in Australia and the USA).
  4. Mushroom shade atlas.

* * *

Politics

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

* * *

2024 Submit Mortem

“I advised you so” [Sam Kriss, Numb at the Lodge (DC)]. Good clear enjoyable: “Do you bear in mind Brat Summer time? I bear in mind Brat Summer time. It was genuinely superb, one of the vital weird mass psychological phenomena I’ve ever seen. Earlier than a clock spring popped out of Joe Biden’s brow on stay TV, Kamala Harris was the least in style Vice President in current US historical past. There have been a whole lot of causes for this, however I feel the massive ones are these. Firstly, she was already deeply unpopular—0% polls, bear in mind—earlier than she turned VP. Secondly, she’d performed completely nothing with the place besides emit unusual and incomprehensible bromides at any time when she opened her mouth. However as quickly as she turned the candidate, regardless of nothing about her really altering, her approval score skyrocketed. It seems that each one you must do is inform the Democratic base that they ought to love somebody, and so they’ll simply begin liking her. I feel that is proof of a rare generosity of spirit.” • Or Gleichschaltung.

* * *

“Watch stay: Biden addresses nation after Democrats’ election losses” [The Hill]. • Clip:

BIden: “To see one another not as adversaries, however as fellow People.” Actually? So all that stuff about “our democracy,” “fascism,” “Hitler”:

* * *

Deploy the Blame Cannons!

“Why Kamala Harris misplaced the election” [Politico]. And after Democrats excised Biden from the ticket, [Kamala] quickly consolidated her moribund occasion, rallying girls, setting TikTok and Instagram creators ablaze with supportive memes and elevating eye-popping sums from donors. However the momentum advisers insisted she’d constructed didn’t materialize. She by no means sufficiently buried Biden’s ghost, severely hamstringing her capacity to promote voters on the concept that hers was the turn-the-page candidacy. It occurred, merely, as a result of Harris refused to make a clear break from the final 4 years when voters indicated that’s what they wished. … ‘We ran the very best marketing campaign we may, contemplating Joe Biden was president,’ grumbled one Harris aide granted anonymity to talk freely. ‘Joe Biden is the singular cause Kamala Harris and Democrats misplaced tonight.” One other Harris aide mentioned it was clear Biden ought to have made a swish exit a lot sooner, permitting Democrats to carry a main they believed Harris would have gained.” And: “So resounding was the thumping that a few of the occasion’s next-generation leaders had been signaling the necessity for a deep post-mortem of the occasion’s failures to cease the purple wave.” • Lol. As if. Keep in mind the Unity Reform Fee?

“This Time We Must Maintain the Democratic Social gathering Elite Liable for This Disaster” [Jeet Heer, The Nation]. “The important thing to understanding the Trump period is that the true divide in America isn’t between left and proper however between pro-system and anti-system politics. Professional-system politics is the bipartisan consensus of firm Democrats and Republicans: It’s the politics of NATO and different army alliances, of commerce agreements, and of deference to economists (as once they say that value gouging isn’t the reason for inflation). Trump stands for no mounted ideology however reasonably a common thumbing of the nostril at this consensus. The principle reality of American politics within the post-Obama period is that an ever bigger majority of People are indignant at the established order and open to anti-system politics.” And: “Democrats might want to radically reform themselves in the event that they wish to ever defeat the unconventional proper. They’ve to appreciate that non-college-educated voters, who make up two-thirds of the citizens, have to be gained over. They should understand that, for anti-system People, a promised return to bipartisan comity is simply ancien régime restoration. They should develop into the occasion that aspires to be greater than caretakers of a damaged system however reasonably is prepared to embrace radical insurance policies to vary that establishment. That is the one path for the occasion to rebuild itself and for Trumpism—which with out such efficient opposition is more likely to lengthy outlive its standard-bearer—to really be defeated.” • So the Democrats are doomed then? (I do know that events do reinvent themselves, however this iteration of the Democrat Social gathering appears unusually tenacious.)

“Dems rage towards Biden’s ‘conceitedness’ after Harris loss” [Politico]. “In response to interviews with practically a dozen officers and occasion operatives, Biden squandered invaluable months solely to finish in catastrophe on the controversy stage. And by the point he determined to go the torch, he had saddled Harris with too many challenges and much too little time to construct a successful case for herself.” Nonetheless: “[Biden] aides and allies contended, Tuesday’s defeat was so complete it’s unclear any Democrat may’ve gained below such circumstances. The anti-incumbency anger ignited by inflation that had swept throughout Europe lately lastly arrived within the U.S. And as working-class voters shifted decisively towards Trump, they expressed doubt Harris may’ve cobbled collectively a workable coalition even when she’d had extra time to marketing campaign.” And: “However past the coverage turning factors, critics faulted the president and his shut advisers for badly misreading Democrats’ 2020 victory as pushed by a groundswell of help for Biden himself — reasonably than a brief expression of dissatisfaction over the pandemic and an unpopular incumbent in Trump.” • On condition that Biden, like Kamala, was put in by a cabal, it’s odd to suppose there was ever a “groundswell” in Biden’s favor in any case. Third time is the appeal, although, so maybe the subsequent candidate elected by the Democrat[ic leadership] will do higher.

“All of the Incorrect Strikes: An Early Post-mortem of Kamala Harris’ Marketing campaign” [Newsweek]. Not too early, I belief; we wouldn’t need the physique to twitch. Extra: “The primary flawed assumption was that there have been additional inroads to be made with Republicans who’re uncomfortable with Trump. As I argued right here not too long ago, most of these individuals have already switched events and have been Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents for years. Nothing that Trump did over the previous six months, as loopy as this appears, is way completely different from issues he did starting in 2015. . That signifies that her closing flurry of marketing campaign stops with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and certainly the entire “Republicans for Harris” effort together with the deeply conservative messaging and rhetoric that the marketing campaign adopted starting on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in August, was possible all for nothing. Worse, it might have actively alienated younger individuals and lower-propensity voters who had been in search of change. These are teams of voters who’re disproportionately dissatisfied with the established order, and nothing says “I’m the established order” greater than cavorting with a extensively disliked Republican congresswoman who’s the icon of a long-vanished Republican political coalition that steered the nation into a number of gigantic icebergs within the early 2000s and which now not has any significant political constituency in America.” • I like the practice metaphor, however certainly with a billion {dollars} to spend, the Harris marketing campaign did some inner polling on this? What occurred?

“‘I’m Profoundly Disturbed!’ Sunny Hostin Denounces Trump Win as a ‘Referendum On Cultural Resentment’ in Jawdropping A-Block on ‘The View’” [Mediaite]. Hostin: ” And so I fear not about myself, really, I don’t fear about my station in life. I fear concerning the working class.” • No, you actually don’t.

* * *

“The tip of an American world” [Le Monde]. “The trail on which Trump, strengthened for his second time period by his occasion’s success within the Senate, will take his nation diverges essentially from the one charted by the USA because the finish of the Second World Battle. It marks the tip of an American period, that of an open superpower dedicated to the world, wanting to set itself up as a democratic mannequin. It’s the well-known “shining metropolis on a hill,” extolled by President Ronald Reagan. The mannequin had been challenged over the previous 20 years. Now, Trump’s return is placing a nail in its coffin. Trump views the world solely by means of the prism of American nationwide pursuits. It’s a world of energy struggles and commerce wars, which scorns multilateralism. A world the place transactional diplomacy replaces value-based alliances. A world, finally, the place the US president reserves his harshest phrases for his allies however spares the autocrats, who’re seen as companions reasonably than adversaries.” • What’s Le Monde been smoking? France, like Germany, is a vassal state. How on earth is NATO a “value-based” alliance?

* * *

PA: “Why Kamala Harris misplaced the election” [Politico]. “Three weeks earlier than Election Day in Pennsylvania, the most important swing state, Jewish Democrats and their allies met behind closed doorways with Harris officers in Pittsburgh, in accordance with 4 individuals who attended or had been briefed on the dialogue. They mentioned the surrogate operation was less than snuff, a criticism echoed in different key states. They mentioned the Pennsylvania crew lacked relationships with key elected officers; that this mattered as a result of it meant validators weren’t successfully getting used to assist persuade voters to help a candidate they barely knew…. Throughout the state, in Philadelphia, Latino and Black Democrats held related personal conferences with Harris’ crew within the weeks main as much as Election Day, the place they made most of the identical complaints. And on Wednesday, Democrats had been additionally beginning to level fingers at Harris’ information crew. A Pennsylvania Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to talk freely, mentioned that the Harris marketing campaign predicted increased turnout in key counties reminiscent of Chester and Montgomery within the Philadelphia suburbs. ‘That is wanting like Robby Mook 2.0,’ the particular person mentioned.” • Some extent improve? Ouch!

PA: “Harris concedes, telling supporters ‘don’t despair;’ Pa. Senate race may head to a recount; Harris marketing campaign pushes again on Philly Dem chair’s claims” [Philadelphia Inquirer]. “ice President Kamala Harris’ marketing campaign sharply criticized Philadelphia Democratic Social gathering Chairman Bob Brady after he laid blame with them for lower-than-expected turnout within the metropolis. Brendan McPhillips, a senior adviser to the Harris marketing campaign in Pennsylvania, mentioned in an announcement that their crew ‘knocked greater than two million doorways within the weekend main as much as Election Day, which is 2 million extra doorways than Bob Brady’s group can declare to have knocked throughout his total tenure as occasion chairman.’ McPhillips added: ‘If there’s any quick takeaway from Philadelphia’s turnout this cycle, it’s that Chairman Brady’s decades-long apply of fleecing campaigns for cash to make up for his personal lack of fundraising capacity or management is a nugatory endeavor that no future marketing campaign ought to ever be compelled to entertain once more.’” So why is Brady nonetheless chair? What does that say concerning the Social gathering? Extra: “The criticism directed at Brady, the longtime head of the Democratic Metropolis Committee, got here shortly after the previous member of Congress advised The Inquirer that he felt no duty for the purple wave that descended on the state. Brady mentioned cash was a problem, and criticized the Harris marketing campaign for paying solely about ‘half’ of the cash the town committee requested for its get-out-the-vote effort. These funds, in any other case often known as “avenue cash,” are used to pay committee members to get out the vote.” • No strolling round cash? In Philly? Actually?

Republican Funhouse

“Trump Wins As a result of He’s Simply Higher” [RealClearPolitics]. “Trump is noticeably extra genuine, relatable, charming, intelligent, convincing, insightful, intuitive, and enjoyable than Kamala. Trump gained on each coverage and character.” • Again in 2023, Trump visited East Palestine, the place Norfolk Southern’s poisonous derailment occurred. I wrote:

“Watch: Trump stops at McDonald’s throughout East Palestine go to” [Fox8]. “Whereas visiting the positioning of the horrific practice derailment in East Palestine Wednesday, former President Donald Trump stopped in at an area restaurant — McDonald’s. ‘Is everybody prepared to simply accept free meals from Trump?’ he requested as he walked into the quick meals spot, saying he deliberate to additionally buy meals for the native fireplace and police departments. He advised the workers he knew the menu higher than them and requested for a ‘good array of issues,’ whereas refraining to make an order for himself. Fielding questions from reporters, whereas getting his picture taken by close by clients and workers alike, the President mentioned he didn’t consider deregulation had something to do with the practice incident and that he had traveled to the world to verify residents had been taken care of.” • On “regulation,” see below Class Warfare; notice that not one of the reporters requested him about Precision Scheduled Railroading (and Trump, not being a element particular person to say the least, in all probability doesn’t even know). Two Democrats react:

At all times good to see liberal Democrats calling for the deaths of their political opponents; it’s an ever-green trope! Notice additionally the give attention to being good (vs. IQ of fifty), the deregulation speaking level (it’s Trump’s fault the brake techniques are unhealthy, not Precision Scheduled Railroading and the “sizzling field”). Then there’s the same old refusal to simply accept reponsibility (Trump and Biden killed one million individuals between them, Biden killed extra, and for my part has the higher culpabiliity, as a result of he ought to have recognized higher than to undertake a coverage of mass an infection with out mitigation).

Personally, I feel this can be a good search for Trump, and never simply because Biden was off swanning about in Kiev; Trump appears to be like good striding round on the February grass within the black coat and purple hat, no tie; it’s a a lot better look than the pomp of Air Pressure One. Nonetheless ready for quondam Presidential hopeful and Democrat, Sherrod Brown, to point out up. Then once more, why can be? They’re solely residents.

In some ways, this episode leads on to the McDonald’s and rubbish truck stunts. He actually was the higher candidate. (And it took Biden a 12 months to make the identical go to.)

Syndemics

“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

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Covid Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be happy to contact me on the handle given with the crops. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Sources, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater stories); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).

Sources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tricks to useful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, KidDoc, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep protected on the market!

Airborne Transmission

“Requires indoor air high quality mandate and $10 billion for college air flow” [ABC Australia]. “A current examine of 60 New South Wales public faculties discovered if home windows had been shut, classroom carbon dioxide (CO2) ranges simply exceeded 2,500 elements per million (ppm), which was ‘actually unhealthy air flow’, in accordance with Mr Hanmer. In Australia, outside CO2 ranges sit at round 415ppm. Australia’s Nationwide Development Code specifies indoor CO2 ranges mustn’t exceed 850ppm averaged over eight hours, however that is solely a tenet. Mr Hanmer mentioned when CO2 went above 1,200ppm, it began to impair individuals’s cognition, which was an enormous drawback in a classroom surroundings.” • So perhaps if we ventilate we will come out even on the mind injury. Value a shot!

“Air flow in Faculties, Places of work, and Industrial Buildings” [United States Environmental Protection Agency]. New steering. “Annually, respiratory viruses are chargeable for hundreds of thousands of diseases and hundreds of hospitalizations and deaths in the USA. Along with the virus that causes COVID-19, there are various different kinds of airborne respiratory viruses, together with influenza (flu) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that may unfold extra simply indoors than outside since their focus can construct up indoors and persons are typically nearer to one another. One necessary method to scale back the unfold of frequent respiratory viruses, is to extend air flow, which is the quantity of air transferring out and in of a constructing. Air flow removes indoor air that could be concentrated with airborne viruses and replaces it with contemporary outside air. Making certain correct air flow is a vital part of selling good indoor air high quality on the whole.” • Commentary:

This isn’t an endorsement, however right here is the Korean nasal spray:

Transmission: Covid

“COVID Instances Replace: Map Reveals Return of ‘Very Excessive’ Water Virus Ranges” [Newsweek]. “After weeks of decline, ‘very excessive’ ranges of coronavirus have been detected in wastewater samples within the U.S. ‘Excessive’ ranges of viral exercise are additionally on the rise with detections now in 5 U.S. states, in accordance with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC). ‘Very excessive’ ranges of viral exercise have been detected in Montana, with ‘excessive’ ranges in Arkansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming.” • That is their map:

(You may inform that the map wasn’t created by CDC as a result of it’s utilizing purple in a wise manner, as a substitute of CDC’s horrid and incomprehensible colorway of greenish pastels). I don’t use this model of map besides when I’ve to (Walgreens). I don’t consider state-level details about tranmission is helpful to readers, particularly for journey and masking functions. “Covid is excessive in Helena, Montana” is helpful. “Covid is excessive in Montana” isn’t.

Elite Maleficence

How eugenics performs out within the price range course of:

“Inside Canada’s chaotic response to avian flu” [CTV News]. “For years, Canadian farmers and authorities businesses have waged a fierce battle towards the brand new wave of avian flu, which consultants say is way more transmissible than earlier variants of the virus. Now, newly uncovered paperwork reveal the [Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)] and business had been caught unprepared for the outbreak, which overwhelmed the company’s sources and compelled it to depend on third-party contractors who typically broke bio-security guidelines meant to maintain the virus in test. The IJF and CTV Information have reviewed hundreds of pages of CFIA documentation about their response to the present outbreak, together with discipline stories, manuals on most popular killing strategies, inner correspondence and dozens of invoices. The information, which had been obtained through entry to info regulation by animal-rights group Animal Justice, paint an image of the CFIA’s wrestle to include a large outbreak of avian flu during which greater than 11 million Canadian farm birds had been killed. Internally, prime CFIA officers described the business, and the company, as being unprepared for such an outbreak. At instances, inspectors described operating out of carbon dioxide (CO2) fuel — the popular instrument for euthanizing massive numbers of birds. CFIA workers typically arrived at farms the place many birds had been already lifeless. In addition they relied closely on personal firms, the paperwork mentioned, who typically didn’t comply with bio-security protocols meant to cease the unfold of the virus. ‘CFIA has taken the result in date as a result of business was not ready,’ wrote CFIA Atlantic regional veterinary officer Dr. Margaret McGeoghegan in an October 2022 e mail to colleagues.” • Properly, let’s hope whichever entity finally ends up operating the Trump administration’s response to H5N1 — assuming the Biden Administration doesn’t handle to let it free within the transition interval — gained’t make the identical errors.

Now that the election is over, CDC says that Chook Flu Is Dangerous:

To be honest, I haven’t checked the CDC website. Extra on “headache”:

Yeah, however which pandemic are they speaking about?

* * *

Lambert right here: I’ve rebooted Desk 1. There are, surprisingly, no unhealthy surprises, besides that New York Hospitalization has no new information (my oldest and most dependable information sequence, sigh). I feel that if, throughout and after the Thanksgiving, there isn’t any surge, I’ll rethink this presenation.

TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC October 28 Final Week[2] CDC (till subsequent week):

Variants [3] CDC October 26 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC October 26

Hospitalization
New York[5] New York State, information October 23: Nationwide [6] CDC October 31:

Positivity
Nationwide[7] Walgreens November 4: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 2:

Vacationers Knowledge
Positivity[9] CDC October 14: Variants[10] CDC October 14:

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC October 28: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC October 28:

LEGEND

1) for charts new as we speak; all others usually are not up to date.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Excellent news!

[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* nonetheless in style. XEC has entered the chat.

[4] (ED) Down.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Steadily down.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Really improved.

[7] (Walgreens) Down.

[8] (Cleveland) Down.

[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Down.

[10] (Vacationers: Variants). Now XEC.

[11] Deaths low, positivity down.

[12] Deaths low, ED down.

Stats Watch

Employment State of affairs: “United States Preliminary Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of people submitting for unemployment advantages within the US edged increased by 3,000 from the earlier week to 221,000 within the final week of October, aligned with market expectations. Regardless of the slight enhance, the rely remained nicely beneath averages from earlier within the month, persevering with to level to some extent of resilience within the US labor market. ”

* * *

Tech: “16 U.S. States Nonetheless Ban Group-Owned Broadband Networks As a result of AT&T and Comcast Advised Them To” [TechDirt]. “For years we’ve famous how U.S. broadband is expansive, patchy, and gradual due to senseless consolidation, regulatory seize, regional monopolization, and restricted competitors. That’s resulted in a rising variety of pissed off cities, cities, cooperatives, and city-owned utilities constructing their very own, locally-owned broadband networks in a bid for higher, cheaper, quicker broadband. Regional giants like Comcast, Constitution, or AT&T may have responded to this natural pattern by providing higher, cheaper, quicker service. However finally they discovered it far cheaper to undermine these efforts through regulatory seize, congressional lobbying, lawsuits, protectionist state legal guidelines, and deceptive disinformation. At present sixteen states have legal guidelines — often ghost written by regional telecom monopolies — limit or outright ban neighborhood broadband. A few of these legal guidelines are outright bans on neighborhood broadband, principally letting Comcast or AT&T veto your native infrastructure voting rights. Others erect elaborate, cumbersome restrictions on the financing and enlargement of such networks and fake that’s not a ban. The excellent news: The Institute For Native Self Reliance (the place I examine and write about broadband entry) notes that these sixteen legal guidelines are a notable discount from the 21 state legal guidelines we had in 2020. What precipitated the change? The pandemic house training and telecommuting growth highlighted the important nature of broadband (or extra precisely, the costly, sluggish, horrible nature of monopoly choices).

* * *

As we speak’s Worry & Greed Index: 60 Greed (earlier shut: 57 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 46 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Nov 7 at 2:06:30 PM ET.

Permaculture

“Gardens scale back seasonal starvation gaps for farmland pollinators” [Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences]. “Gardens can profit pollinators residing in surrounding farmland landscapes, however the cause for his or her worth isn’t clear. Gardens are not any completely different from many semi-natural farmland habitats by way of the amount of floral sources (pollen and nectar) they produce, however the timing of their useful resource provide may be very completely different, which can clarify their worth. We present that gardens present 15% of total annual nectar in farmland landscapes in Southwest UK, however between 50% and 95% throughout early spring and late summer time when farmland provides are low. Gardens can due to this fact scale back seasonal nectar gaps skilled by farmland bumblebees. According to this sample, bumblebee exercise elevated in gardens relative to farmland throughout early spring and late summer time…. We present that over 90% of farmland in Nice Britain is inside 1 km of a backyard and due to this fact optimistic actions by gardeners may have widespread spillover advantages for pollinators throughout the nation. Given the widespread distribution of gardens world wide, we spotlight their necessary interaction with surrounding landscapes for pollinator ecology and conservation.” • Land use very completely different within the UK, I feel, however the precept is identical.

Gallery

“Dwelling” [Mushroom Color Atlas]. “The Mushroom Coloration Atlas is a useful resource and reference for everybody interested in mushrooms and the attractive and delicate colours derived from dyeing with mushrooms. However it’s also the beginning of a journey and a degree of departure, introducing you to the kaleidoscopic fungi kingdom and our connection to it. My hope is that by means of this Atlas everybody can be impressed to be taught extra concerning the mycological world, and start to know the significance of the networks, connections and symbiotic relationships that stay in our forests. Most significantly, understanding our affect on these delicate networks and our position as stewards of the land, bringing optimistic change to our native environments and our planet.” • Some swatches:

Guide Nook

“It’s time to radicalize your e book membership” [Literary Hub]. “It’s necessary to get collectively — it’s time to activate your communities: your e book membership, your operating group, your knitting circle, your group texts. We’ve got to attract these bonds of neighborhood tighter. We don’t have time to attend 4 years…. To cite Kwame Ture, it’s the ‘peak of bourgeois propaganda’ to suppose that your ‘duty is proscribed to a one-day vote. Politics is day by day, each minute.’ Get your e book membership and your communities concerned. Let’s begin inviting one another into neighborhood organizations, mutual help teams, unions, and political organizations working for one thing brighter. It’s time for solidarity and collective motion.” • Honest sufficient, however “at all times has been.”

Musical Interlude

“Emptyset – ash” [neural.it]. “James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, aka Emptyset, mark the fiftieth launch for the Subtext label (based by Ginzberg) with Ash. It’s considerably of a return to the label’s roots– the duo recorded the album in 2023 in Bristol, the town the place Subtext was based. Emptyset benefit from spatialized recording strategies, dynamic controls, and a sequence of analogue machines, giving life to polymorphic, artificial and sculptural compositional constructions, echoing the sound system tradition which have been central to every thing that has emerged from Bristol because the nineties.” • Bristol is the house of Huge Assault, so, fascinating. I’m unsure I like this, however right here it’s anyhow:

“A Symphony of Terror” (press launch) [NewsWise]. “The screech of a dissonant violin, a ghostly whisper, a cry within the night time, a sinister snort, a distant rumble, a howling wind. These unsettling sounds are the stuff of horror movies and haunted homes. They’ll make our blood run chilly…. [P]sychoacoustics measures a sound’s timbre or high quality on a scale of vivid to darkish. A joyful sound is mostly ‘vivid,’ energetic, harmonious and richer within the excessive frequencies. Nonetheless, if the timbre is extra dissonant, excessive frequencies may also arouse concern or terror due to their resemblance to human screams.”

Information of the Wired

“The English Paradox: 4 Many years of Life and Language in Japan” [TokyoDev].

“The Highly effective Density of Hypertextual Writing” [Kottke.org]. Keying off this New York Occasions opinion piece: “What makes this piece so efficient is its plain language and its info density. This density is an actual power of hypertext that’s typically ignored and brought without any consideration. Solely 110 phrases in that paragraph but it surely incorporates 27 hyperlinks to different NYT opinion items printed over the past a number of months that increase on every linked assertion or argument. When you had been inclined to comply with these hyperlinks, you would spend hours studying about how unfit Trump is for workplace. A easy listing of headlines would have performed the identical primary job, however by presenting it this manner, the Occasions editorial board is concurrently capable of ship a powerful opinion; every of these hyperlinks is sort of a fist pounding on the desk for emphasis… [B]am! bam! bam! bam! bam! Right here! Are! The! Fucking! Receipts! How the hyperlinks are deployed is an integral a part of how the piece is learn; it’s a mode of writing that’s native to the online, pioneered by websites like Suck within the mid-90s. It appears to be like so easy, however IMO, that is top-notch, delicate info design.” • 100% appropriate, and naturally that is one method any blogger can be very famliar with. That mentioned, whereas model is its personal reality, it isn’t reality, and maybe not even a partial reality.

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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 test if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are advantageous! 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 initially 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 SK:

SK writes: “You’ve been skirting the perimeters, so thought I’d ship you this. There are crops there… It was sprinkling ever so calmly this AM after I went out entrance to get the paper. There have been spots of blue sky amidst the still-pink low clouds, however arcing over all was an entire rainbow. Ten minutes later boy #2 despatched me this shot, from 5 miles away, wanting throughout Corte Madera Creek at Mt. Tamalpais.” I suppose I may make an occasional exception for spectacular pure phenomena. However the place are the ponies?

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I’ve had a correspondent characterize my views as lifelike cynical. Let me briefly clarify them. I consider in common applications that present concrete materials advantages, particularly to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime instance, however tuition-free faculty and a Submit Workplace Financial institution additionally fall below this heading. So do a Jobs Assure and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can ship on such applications, as a result of the 2 are completely different flavors of neoliberalism (“As a result of markets”). I don’t a lot care concerning the “ism” that delivers the advantages, though whichever one does should put frequent humanity first, versus markets. Might be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t a lot care, so long as the advantages are delivered.

To me, the important thing problem — and for this reason Medicare for All is at all times first with me — is the tens of hundreds of extra “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton examine, and different current research. That giant physique rely makes Medicare for All, on the very least, an ethical and strategic crucial. And that degree of struggling and natural injury makes the considerations of id politics — even the worthy struggle to assist the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — vivid shiny objects by comparability. Therefore my frustration with the information circulation — at present for my part the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the opposite by out-of-power liberals and their allies within the State and within the press — a information circulation that continually forces me to give attention to issues that I regard as of secondary significance to the surplus deaths. What sort of political economic system is it that halts and even reverses the will increase in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I’m additionally very hopeful that the persevering with destruction of each occasion institutions will open the house for voices supporting applications just like these I’ve listed; let’s name such voices “the left.” Volatility creates alternative, particularly if the Democrat institution, which places markets first and opposes all such applications, isn’t allowed to get again into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I like the tactical degree, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been running a blog about it day by day for fourteen years, however every thing I write has this attitude in the back of it.