By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Chook Track of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, 138 Captains Dr, West Babylon US-NY, Suffolk, New York, United States. “Two cuts of the identical chicken. Loaded with mimicry: Carolina Wren (tune and name), American Crow, Blue Jay, Pink-bellied Woodpecker, Home Finch (name), Killdeer, Northern Flicker, Monk Parakeet, Tree Swallow, American Robin (name), Northern Cardinal, Japanese Phoebe, Pink-tailed Hawk, Pink-winged Blackbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Japanese Towhee, and probably a number of others of borderline high quality.” Over seven minutes! (There are two different Mockingbird recordings from the identical location. Apparently 138 Captains Dr, West Babylon is a Mimus polyglottos hotbed!

In Case You Would possibly Miss…

1. Trump transition.
2. How Kamala’s marketing campaign butchered floor operations in Philly.
3. Boeing Whistleblower: 42 faulty rudders go lacking; requires breakup develop.
4. Congo thriller illness

Politics

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

Biden Administration

“Biden shrinks from view forward of Trump’s return to Washington” [Politico]. “Joe Biden is president of america for 42 extra days. However throughout the Democratic Get together, on Capitol Hill — and even inside his personal administration — it looks like he left the Oval Workplace weeks in the past. Biden has successfully disappeared from the radar within the wake of Democrats’ bruising electoral loss. Since Nov. 5, he’s largely caught to ready remarks, prevented unscripted public appearances or press questions and opted to sit down out the raging debate over Donald Trump’s victory, coverage conversations in Congress and the Democratic Get together’s future. ‘He’s been so cavalier and egocentric about how he approaches the ultimate weeks of the job,’ mentioned a former White Home official.” • However–

“Biden officers race to assist stabilize Syria after regime collapse” [WaPo]. • “Race” in a headline is all the time a inform that it doesn’t matter what the natural causes of the race are, the article won’t cowl them.

* * *

“Clyburn says he’d assist Biden pardoning Trump” [The Hill]. Shot (December 4). “‘Keep in mind that Trump has not been convicted of something within the federal realm,’ Clyburn informed CNN’s ‘Laura Coates Dwell’ on Tuesday, particularly highlighting the president-elect’s New York hush cash case. ‘These convictions are state convictions.’ ‘So, I’m not speaking about state right here, I’m speaking about issues that might impede our federal authorities,’ he continued, referencing outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin’s (I-W.Va.) comparable sentiment earlier this week, when he too known as for the president to pardon Trump.”

“White Home blames Rep. Jim Clyburn for convincing Biden to pardon Hunter” [New York Post]. Chaser (December 6). “Jean-Pierre claimed Biden, 82, “wrestled” with the choice to pardon his son for any and all crimes he dedicated between 2014 and 2024 — however it was a go to by Clyburn, 84, that tipped the scales and led the president to return on his repeated guarantees not to take action.

Trump Transition

“Hegseth Brings His Nomination Again from the Brink” [The Bulwark]. As of December 6. “Aides consider that the longer Hegseth stays in rivalry for the put up, the upper his probabilities of affirmation will likely be, just because it topics GOP senators to a sustained stress marketing campaign from the MAGA base, and since many may have a tough time scuttling him in a public vote. These aides additionally consider that if Hegseth is drawing hearth from critics, there will likely be much less consideration and warmth on Trump’s different controversial nominees like Kash Patel (FBI), Tulsi Gabbard (director of nationwide intelligence), or Robert Kennedy Jr. (HHS). ‘Hegseth is a heatshield,’ mentioned a senior Trump adviser. ‘Pete can take the warmth, and that’s higher for everybody else.’”

* * *

“Trump Faucets Fiserv’s Bisignano for Social Safety Administration” [Bloomberg]. “If confirmed by the Senate, Bisignano would head an company chargeable for working the Social Safety program, a retirement belief fund that faces a finances shortfall and that’s politically dangerous to alter as a result of older People who profit from these funds make up a vital bloc of voters…. A nonpartisan finances watchdog [The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget] in October estimated that Trump’s second-term agenda would drive this system to insolvency three years earlier and slash advantages by almost a 3rd. The group cited proposals together with plans to deport unauthorized immigrants who now pay into Social Safety, finish taxes on extra time and suggestions, and finish taxation of Social Safety advantages. All these measures would shrink income for the belief fund, the group mentioned. In the course of the marketing campaign, Trump pledged to remove taxes on Social Safety funds for seniors, which might profit some aged People however pressure future advantages for these but to retire.” • However Federal taxes don’t fund Federal spending…

“DOGE Heads Musk and Ramaswamy Sign Social Safety Cuts Are Coming” [Truthout]. “Requested by host Kristen Welker on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ program whether or not the DOGE initiative would come with cuts to Social Safety, Trump mentioned ‘no,’ apart from maybe cuts associated to allegations of ‘abuse’ or ‘fraud’ related to this system. Notably, such fraud occurs at extraordinarily low charges… Musk and Ramaswamy have made it evident that cuts to Social Safety will likely be thought of. After the 2 met with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill final week in regards to the DOGE initiative, Home Majority Chief Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) mentioned they’d expressed sentiments that contradicted Trump’s feedback on Sunday. ‘Nothing is sacrosanct. Nothing. They’re going to place every little thing on the desk,’ Scalise informed reporters after the assembly, with Fox Enterprise elaborating that cuts to Social Safety, Medicare and Medicaid can be mentioned.” • I feel President Trump and President Musk have to have a chat.

* * *

“Kudlow: DOGE Is Going To Take Out The Unelected Regulatory State That Has Been Mismanaging America” [RealClearPolitics]. “In my frequent conversations with Vivek Ramaswamy, it looks as if chopping down the Regulatory State and lowering the overextended authorities energy of the chief department is a principal DOGE aim. I’ve served a number of presidents through the years, however I had no thought there are over 220 of those companies. After all, taxpayers don’t want all of them, and working down a number of pages of those companies, it certain seems to be like many are duplicative or completely pointless. Vivek has informed me he intends to make use of Supreme Court docket choices, reminiscent of West Virginia vs. EPA, and the so-called Chevron Deference resolution, each of which criticized regulators for doing something with none Congressional mandate. That in fact is what central planners all the time do, they devise authorities to run the nation, however there isn’t any constitutional authority, there isn’t any Congressional authority, there isn’t any taxpayer authority. They only do it to boost their very own energy. They usually’ve been getting away with it for a very long time, till now, till DOGE.” • What the heck does this man suppose the Government Department is? Is it central? Does it plan? (Sure, I can see a functioning legislature that might write guidelines and laws, if there was a department of the civil service to assist that. In any other case, we would as effectively simply hand the leglslative department over the company authorized and public relations departments.

“Musk and Ramaswamy’s DOGE Venture to Eviscerate the Federal Authorities is a Authorized Practice Wreck” [Washington Monthly]. ” DOGE, no matter it’s, just isn’t a “division” within the constitutional sense. The Structure makes use of the phrase “division” to imply both a department of presidency, such because the “judicial division,” or a “freestanding part of the chief department, not subordinate to or contained inside some other such part,” to which the regulation assigns duties, such because the Division of the Treasury or the Environmental Safety Company. DOGE’s fabulists presumably selected the identify to suit the Musk-preferred acronym but in addition to confuse the general public as to their place and authority. So far as the federal government is worried, DOGE has neither. Journalists ought to cease calling it ‘the division.’ Name it a ‘challenge’ or an ‘initiative.’ Don’t deal with it as weightier than it’s.” Importantly: “Opposite to the DOGE Manifesto, it’s uncertain that Musk and Ramaswamy can function indefinitely in secrecy as freelance advisors. The duo known as themselves ‘outdoors volunteers, not federal officers or staff’ and asserted that Trump personally named them to go the DOGE. They anticipate advising the initiative ‘at each step’ and dealing with a group of presidency officers embedded inside authorities companies. FACA covers ‘any . . . activity power, or different comparable group, or any subcommittee or different subgroup thereof (hereafter on this paragraph known as ‘committee’), which is . . .established or utilized by the President. . . . within the curiosity of acquiring recommendation or suggestions for the President or a number of companies or officers of the Federal Authorities.’ Every such committee should develop a public constitution, conduct conferences in public, and hold minutes of its conferences.” • Readers will recall FACA from our work on HICPAC.

2024 Put up Mortem

“How Alarmed Harris Staffers Went Rogue to Attain Black and Latino Voters” [New York Times]. “Marketing campaign organizers in Philadelphia mentioned they had been informed to not interact within the bread-and-butter duties of getting out the vote in Black and Latino neighborhoods, reminiscent of attending neighborhood occasions, registering new voters, constructing relationships with native leaders and calling voters. As a substitute, they mentioned, they had been instructed to spend most of their days phoning the identical small pool of volunteers and asking them to knock on voters’ doorways and assist run discipline places of work. The technique basically turned skilled organizers into glorified telemarketers making lots of of calls day by day, with some harried volunteers begging to be taken off name lists.” And holy moley:

On election evening, Ms. Harris drastically underperformed in Philadelphia. Though she picked up assist in white precincts close to downtown, she misplaced votes in some Latino and Black neighborhoods elsewhere within the metropolis. In interviews, many Democrats expressed little shock, saying that the Harris marketing campaign had devoted a lot of its power to profitable over reasonable white voters in wealthier neighborhoods and suburbs, each in Philadelphia and across the nation. In an October memo, her marketing campaign wrote that the ‘path to win Pennsylvania capitalizes on Trump’s unprecedented weak spot within the suburbs.’ In consequence, many workers members felt that Philadelphia’s racially numerous neighborhoods had been ignored. . A number of recounted being compelled to raid the marketing campaign’s better-stocked suburban places of work or to boost cash independently.

All this within the largest metropolis in an important swing state. Extraordinary. Sounds worse than Clinton 2016! The entire article is value a learn. I extracted parts about Harris marketing campaign butchery, however the unhappy half is that native Democrat volunteers self-organized and self-funded to rescue the nationwide get together from itself. Why?

Our Famously Free Press

“Taibbi: Belief In The Media Can’t Be Fastened, Not One Journalist Has Come Ahead To Say “Yeah, We Screwed Up” [RealClearPolitics]. TAIBBI: “Belief is a human factor. You may’t mechanize it. And within the journalism enterprise if you make errors it’s a must to stand in entrance of the digicam and come clean with it or else audiences won’t ever once more belief you. And there are years and years of errors about main consequential information cycle-dominating tales like Russiagate and COVID the place the networks and main dailies have merely not come ahead and mentioned ‘Yeah, we screwed up” they usually have to try this in the event that they’re going to get viewers again. However they refuse to and I simply don’t suppose that’s — they’re ever going to be taught.’”

Syndemics

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

Covid Assets, 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 Common Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).

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

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

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

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

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

Keep secure on the market!

Transmission: H5N1

“‘Geese falling out of the sky’: Avian flu begins to contaminate birds within the KC metro” [KCTV5]. “As calls proceed to roll in about geese which have fallen out of the sky, wildlife officers have warned residents within the Kansas Metropolis metro that these birds present indicators of avian flu. Operation Wildlife, a Linwood-based wildlife rehab, introduced on Friday, Dec. 6, that avian influenza has been confirmed to be within the Kansas Metropolis metro space. With a rise within the variety of geese attributable to migration, rescuers have seen an uptick in calls about ‘geese falling out of the sky.’ Group leaders famous that almost all of those calls have been associated to snow geese – about 40 up to now 3 days.” • Is that this regular throughout migrations, and we’re solely listening to about it now?

Transmission: Congo Thriller Illness

“Why we nonetheless don’t know what’s inflicting the thriller illness within the Democratic Republic of the Congo” [EuroNews]. “There are a number of potential culprits behind a thriller outbreak that has sickened lots of of individuals within the Democratic Republic of the Congo – however an absence of medical provides and logistical issues are slowing down illness detection within the distant area. Between October 24 and December 5, there have been 406 circumstances of an unidentified flu-like sickness, largely amongst youngsters underneath 5 years outdated, within the nation’s Kwango province, in line with the World Well being Group (WHO). The UN well being company has verified 31 deaths, however the DRC’s well being officers say that when together with sufferers who died outdoors of medical services, at the least 71 individuals have been confirmed useless. The sickness has signs that embrace fever, headache, cough, runny nostril, fatigue, and physique aches.” And: “WHO mentioned that based mostly on individuals’s signs and the variety of deaths to this point, authorities consider the sickness could also be acute pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19, measles, or malaria.” Oh. And: “Malnutrition probably additionally performs a job, the company mentioned, given the entire sufferers with extreme sickness had been malnourished.”

“‘Illness X’ Outbreak Widens as UN Sends Well being Crew to Congo” [Bloomberg]. “Malaria is frequent within the space, and it might be inflicting or contributing to the circumstances, the United Nations well being company mentioned. ‘Laboratory assessments are underway to find out the precise trigger. At this stage, it is usually doable that a couple of illness is contributing to the circumstances and deaths.’” • “Illness X” is a extremely unlucky label, beforehand reserved by the NIH (plus WEF, CEPI, and the EcoHealth Alliance) for no matter illness sparks the following pandemic (fairly probably chicken flu). No matter this illness is, it’s not that, or hasn’t been proven to be.

Maskstravaganza

Sure, Virginia, respirators do entice viruses:

If you’re pondering, that is simply salt, not viruses, to not fear. Scientists have examined N95s utilizing actual viruses utilizing a world normal check known as Viral Filtration Efficency (VFE). N95s filter viruses extraordinarily effectively. https://t.co/M9jVI6bloA

— Gerard Hughes ( @ghhughes@zeroes.ca ) (@ghhughes) December 7, 2024

Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

Stocking stuffer:

FYI Enovid is now NoWonder

No surprise you couldn’t discover it 😝

Stick with it. That is just for the nasal-cleansing hedge-betting viral vigilantes. pic.twitter.com/vBiQEP197H

— Dr. Sean Mullen (@drseanmullen) December 7, 2024

Elite Maleficence

“CDC an infection management physique rejects the science on airborne transmission” [Julia Doubleday, The Guantlet]. Good HICPAC round-up. ” it’s vital to notice that for many years, there was a big monetary incentive in opposition to trying too intently on the declare that flus, colds, and different frequent viral and bacterial infections had been being unfold solely through massive ‘droplets.’ ‘Droplet’ precautions are comparatively low-cost and simple in comparison with the extra complicated and costly necessities of controlling totally airborne infections. If a virus spreads by coughs and sneezes, how do you forestall transmission? Effectively, all of us bear in mind early pandemic steering. Unfastened becoming surgical masks, social distancing and maintaining diners (or sufferers) six toes aside, placing up bodily obstacles to guard from spit, and easily washing palms and protecting coughs and sneezes are all examples of droplet-based an infection management measures…. Correct airborne an infection management procedures are costly, however they don’t seem to be mysterious. Some adjustments can be comparatively easy; masking with correct respirator-style masks, fairly than surgical, is an apparent, essential improve. New air flow and filtration requirements are a easy repair technologically, however require funding. Instruments like Far UVC are thrilling and will imply drastic leaps ahead in each affected person outcomes and occupational security for HCW. Most certainly, so as to get monetary savings long run and make airborne an infection management sustainable, hospitals themselves can be constructed with airborne an infection management, affected person isolation, airflow, air flow, and so on. as main priorities within the strategy of designing the infrastructure. Airborne an infection management would require, fairly than tinkering on the edges of current practices, a top-down rethinking of hospital protocols.” • These protocols being precisely what HICPAC refuses to alter.

Not one CDC whistleblower. Not one:

In early 2020, when the CDC was saying don’t purchase masks they don’t work, I received a name from a buddy whose accomplice labored on the CDC: “He mentioned to let you know to purchase and put on masks. He says they’re mendacity to the general public as a result of they’re apprehensive a couple of scarcity.” I take into consideration that rather a lot. https://t.co/FR6zsg8npe

— Tyler Austin Harper (@Tyler_A_Harper) December 8, 2024

Handwashing for the holidaze:

Why is @SF_DPH posting nonstop about handwashing to cease unfold of germs however not as soon as about air cleansing (filtration + air flow)?

Past elevated danger of infections from breath particles exhaled throughout vacation gatherings cooking can generate numerous particles. https://t.co/UN3DD2MXqE

— Devabhaktuni “Sri” Srikrishna (@sri_srikrishna) December 7, 2024

TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

Manufacturing: “Boeing failing to maintain monitor of non-conforming elements, whistleblower says: “It’s like Russian roulette’” [CBS]. “[Whistleblower Sam] Mohawk mentioned he began noticing issues on the Renton facility through the COVID-19 pandemic, when Boeing was ramping up manufacturing and coping with provide chain points. ‘The thought is to maintain these airplanes transferring, hold that line transferring in any respect prices,’ he mentioned. As a high quality investigator, a part of Mohawk’s job is to maintain monitor of faulty airplane elements in what some staff name ‘the elements jail.’ It’s known as that, Mohawk mentioned, as a result of the elements are supposed to be underneath lock and key and tracked like a series of proof. However Mohawk says that amid stress to maintain manufacturing transferring, some staff sidestepped Boeing protocol and took dangerous elements out of the ‘elements jail’ when his group wasn’t trying.” Huh? How did that occur? Extra: “Mohawk’s concern is that these dangerous or ‘non-conforming’ elements he says are getting misplaced or taken, may very well be ending up on planes. ‘There’s a lot chaos in that manufacturing unit,’ Mohawk mentioned. ‘There’s a desperation for elements. As a result of we’ve issues with our elements suppliers. So there’s, so as to get that aircraft constructed and out the door in time, I feel sadly a few of these elements had been recycled again onto the airplanes so as to construct, hold constructing the airplane and never cease it in manufacturing.’ Mohawk believes it’s taking place repeatedly. ‘We’ve got hundreds of lacking elements,’ he mentioned. It’s not simply elements like bolts which are going lacking, in line with Mowhawk, but in addition rudders, one of many main instruments for steering planes. Mohawk mentioned 42 flawed or ‘non-conforming’ rudders, which he says would probably not final the 30-year lifespan of a jet, have disappeared. ‘They’re large elements,’ he mentioned. ‘They usually simply fully went lacking.’” • Holy moley!

Manufacturing: “Boeing Was on 60 Minutes Final Night time. Right here’s What We Discovered.” [Barron’s]. “Sunday, the CBS information program 60 Minutes ran a characteristic interviewing Boeing whistle-blowers…. Buyers can’t be blamed if their knee-jerk response was to cower…. However a number of new tidbits for traders from the studies qualify as comparatively excellent news. There’s a helpful lesson in Monday buying and selling too. Not one of the individuals interviewed or points raised had been new. That’s one cause why the inventory didn’t react negatively.”

Manufacturing: “Saving Boeing is the toughest job and largest alternative in enterprise” [Dominic Gates, Seattle Times]. Covers Ortberg’s November 20 all-hands speech, which I discussed contemporaneously that Gates didn’t, oddly, cowl. Now Gates has a replica of the presentation. “[Ortberg] evoked the ‘Working Collectively’ motto that former Industrial Airplanes CEO Alan Mulally championed within the Nineties throughout improvement of Boeing’s profitable 777 jet. That was management that explicitly built-in enter from all stakeholders: engineers, manufacturing unit employees, elements suppliers and airline prospects. Workers who spoke with The Seattle Instances about Ortberg’s speech welcomed this precept and had been usually optimistic that he can lead Boeing out of its present disaster. Nonetheless, one engineer and a veteran staffer within the Industrial Airplanes High quality group, each of whom requested to not be named to guard their positions, expressed disappointment that whereas Ortberg spoke of tradition change he requested that staff transfer previous the strategic errors which have introduced Boeing down. ‘Don’t sit on the water cooler and bitch,’ Ortberg informed his viewers. ‘I can’t think about how a lot time we’re spending complaining about what McDonnell Douglas did, what Jim McNerney did, what Dennis (Muilenburg) did.’ However overturning what these and different former CEOs wrought for the reason that McDonnell Douglas acquisition 27 years in the past — the acute concentrate on the share worth, the crushing of unions, the squeezing of suppliers, the cost-cutting, the outsourcing of labor and treating longtime staff as dispensable — is what many see because the important tradition change.” • “Look ahead and never again.”

Manufacturing: “Inner Voices Name For Boeing Breakup To Enhance Inventory By 100%” [Barron’s]. “In a big and sudden improvement, senior managers at Boeing have expressed their assist for dismantling the conglomerate and a full breakup of the corporate. After Boeing’s workforce despatched a letter on to The Edge, expressing their settlement with the agency’s advice for a company breakup, this shift gained momentum. This inside push highlights a profound acknowledgment from these closest to the corporate’s operations: Boeing’s present construction not solely impedes operational effectivity but in addition hinders its potential to attain optimum market efficiency. The alignment of inside voices with exterior evaluation underscores the urgency for transformative change…. The Edge Consulting Group, who’ve suggested on breakups for the final 20 years, sees a 100% improve within the inventory worth from the sum of the elements if Boeing had been to interrupt up within the method advised…. Uncommon and potent is that this second of employee-driven lobbying.” • Hmm.

Manufacturing: “Boeing cancels its office surveillance program, will take away sensors” [Seattle Times]. “Boeing introduced late Friday that it’s canceling a office occupancy program that might set up digicam sensors in its places of work, lower than a day after The Seattle Instances made this system public. The corporate mentioned in an electronic mail that this system ‘has been cancelled, and we’re eradicating the sensors which have been put in.’ The choice adopted unfavourable response streaming in to managers from staff involved about their privateness. Seattle Instances reader feedback confirmed the same outcry.” • Smart.

Right now’s Concern & Greed Index: 51 Impartial (earlier shut: 53 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 62 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 9 at 1:30:39 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes down one on Oil Provide/Value. “Oil Demand drops with a worldwide decelerate” [Rapture Ready]. Document Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 182. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is nice.) • Onerous to consider the Rapture Index goes down. Doesn’t the collapse of Syria deliver the Third Temple nearer? Do these individuals know one thing we don’t?

Picture Ebook

You may virtually really feel the chilly steaminess:

Information of the Wired

“How A lot Do I Must Change My Face to Keep away from Facial Recognition?” [Gizmodo]. An aggregation of quotes from specialists within the discipline. Right here’s probably the most optimistic one: Even the most effective neural networks battle with low-quality photographs that lack information-rich pixels of the human face, particularly when matching in opposition to a big listing of potential identities. Thus step one is to disclaim the algorithm these pixels by occluding the face. Cowl the face in circumstances the place that isn’t suspicious, e.g., put on a shawl within the wintertime, solar glasses on a brilliant day. Hats with extensive brims are additionally a confound, as they’ll cover the brow and hair, and solid a shadow on the face. Holding a hand over the face can be good for this. The second step is to look down whereas in movement so any digicam within the neighborhood won’t seize an excellent frontal picture of the face. Third, if one can transfer rapidly, that may trigger movement blur within the captured picture—take into account jogging or driving a motorbike. My finest sensible recommendation for evasion: know the place facial recognition is being deployed and easily keep away from these areas. How lengthy this recommendation stays helpful although will depend on how widespread the know-how turns into within the coming years.” • Information you need to use!

Contact data for crops: Readers, be at liberty 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 pictures of crops. Greens are wonderful! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! In order for you your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at first of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From RH:

RH writes: “Apple camp 2024, Maine.”

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