By Lambert Strether of Corrente.<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
House Wren, Coronado National Forest, Pearce, Ash Springs Trail, Cochise, Arizona, United States.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n
(1) Trump posts bond.<\/p>\n
(2) Kennedy makes the ballot in NC.<\/p>\n
(3) Shanahan: More detail.<\/p>\n
Politics<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.\u201d \u2013Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
Less than a year to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
RCP Poll Averages, March 29<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/rcp_polls.png\")
<\/p>\n
I think I\u2019ll leave this up until this coming Friday, so I can at least mumble something about trends. Nationally, Trump is up 2.4% in the Five-Way, same as last week, give or take. Trump is still up in all the Swing States (more here). I\u2019ve highlighted PA, (1) because Trump is actually down there, and (2) it\u2019s an outlier, has been for weeks. Why isn\u2019t Trump doing well there?<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump posts $175 million bond in New York civil fraud case\u201d [NBC]. \u201cFormer President Donald Trump has posted a $175 million bond in the New York civil fraud case, preventing seizure of his assets while the case is under appeal\u2026 Knight Specialty Insurance Co., the entity that underwrote Trump\u2019s bond, is part of a group of companies run by Los Angeles-based billionaire Don Hankey, who is No. 128 on the 2023 Forbes 400 list and No. 317 on the 2023 Forbes billionaires list. Hankey has been an investor in Axos Bank, the financial institution that refinanced Trump\u2019s loans on Trump Tower and Trump National Doral Miami in 2022. Axos has lent Trump $100 million in his refinancing of Trump Tower and $125 million more for Doral. Neither loan is due until 2032, according to the Office of Government Ethics disclosure Trump submitted in August.\u201d \u2022 File that name away.<\/p>\n
\u201cEx-Trump aide Hope Hicks expected to testify in former president\u2019s New York criminal trial\u201d [NBC]. I\u2019ve always had a soft spot for Hicks, because one of the earliest stories I read on Trump was from a Bloomberg reporter; Hicks told him she couldn\u2019t take his call just then because she was going to take a nap. A little taste of what was coming, I suppose. More: \u201c\u2018I have learned that in the days following the Access Hollywood video [\u2018grab \u2019em by the pussy\u2019], [then-Trump lawyer Michael] Cohen exchanged a series of calls, text messages and emails with Keith Davidson, who was then [Stephanie Clifford [a.k.a. Stormy Daniel]\u2019s attorney, David Pecker and Dylan Howard of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, Trump, and Hope Hicks, who was then press secretary for Trump\u2019s presidential campaign,\u201d the FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. \u2018Based on the timing of these calls, and the content of the text messages and emails, I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public, particularly in the wake of the Access Hollywood story,\u2019 the affidavit said.\u201d \u2022 Hicks will testify for the prosecution. We\u2019ll see what she has to say.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump Media Shares Slump as Early Fervor Fades\u201d [New York Times]. \u201cShares of former President Donald J. Trump\u2019s social media company slumped more than 20 percent on Monday, as the fervor around the company\u2019s debut on public markets last week appeared to subside. The sell-off cut the market value of Trump Media & Technology Group, which trades under the ticker \u2018DJT,\u2019 by some $2 billion, to about $6.5 billion. The value of Mr. Trump\u2019s majority stake in the company fell to about $3.7 billion, from over $6 billion at its peak last week. Still, shares of Trump Media were higher than they were immediately before the firm merged with a public shell company on Tuesday and began trading on the Nasdaq. Strong support for the merged company after it began trading pushed its market value as high as $10 billion at one point last week. That raised eyebrows across Wall Street, given the relatively small size of Trump Media\u2019s business. A filing on Monday showed that the company generated just $750,000 in revenue in the fourth quarter last year, bringing its full-year total to $4.1 million. Trump Media recorded a $58 million loss in 2023. It got more than $300 million in cash as part of its merger with the shell company. All the company\u2019s revenues come from advertising on Truth Social, the digital platform that has become Mr. Trump\u2019s main outlet for reaching his supporters and blasting his critics, political opponents and other perceived enemies, including the prosecutors and judges involved in his criminal and civil cases.\u201d \u2022 I don\u2019t play the ponies, so I don\u2019t know if Trump has been able to convert any of this paper to cash, or how he would do so, absent simply sellling it, which he seems not to have done. Readers?<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s VP search is starting to get serious\u201d [Politico]. \u201cSusie Wiles, a top adviser to Trump, is leading a close-to-the-vest process of narrowing a list of around a dozen lawmakers and other Republican personalities under consideration, according to multiple people familiar with the process. The campaign has already hired an outside firm to vet candidates and prepare research documents. Former first lady Melania Trump, who influenced Trump\u2019s decision to select Mike Pence in 2016, has been kept apprised. And Trump\u2019s son Donald Trump Jr. said he speaks with his father frequently about who is in contention. While who is up or down seemingly changes by the minute, the list has included everyone from Tim Scott and Kristi Noem to Byron Donalds, Elise Stefanik, Tulsi Gabbard and J.D. Vance, whom Trump has called a \u2018fighter.\u2019 Trump, despite saying he doesn\u2019t think the vice president matters all that much, regularly asks guests at his Mar-a-Lago club for their opinion on different options and, with a flair for suspense, teases his choices in private meetings and media interviews. The process is expected to take months. \u2018He\u2019s going to draw this out \u2018Apprentice\u2019-style,\u2019 said one person close to the Trump campaign who was granted anonymity to speak freely.\u201d <\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Kennedy (I): \u201cRFK Jr. has qualified for ballot in North Carolina, campaign says\u201d [The Hill]. Swing state. \u201cRobert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s campaign has added North Carolina to the expanding list of battleground states in which it has qualified for the ballot in November. The independent candidate\u2019s campaign says it now has enough signatures to list Kennedy as a White House contender through the \u2018We The People\u2019 party, gathering 23,000 pledges of support in the purple state. \u2018We have the field teams, volunteers, legal teams, paid circulators, supporters, and strategists ready to get the job done,\u2019 Kennedy\u2019s campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear said Monday in a statement announcing the news. North Carolina is considered an important swing state for all parties in 2024, including a potential third-party ticket. Former President Trump won the state by just more than 1 percentage point in 2020, giving Republicans a slight edge and inspiring Democrats to try to win it this cycle. The addition of the Tar Heel state brings Kennedy\u2019s ballot qualified total to five states so far, including Utah, New Hampshire and Hawaii. In Nevada [second swing state], he cleared the signature threshold prior to meeting the requirement of having a declared vice president alongside his name, raising questions about whether he will have to regather signatures of support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy (I): \u201cRFK Jr. calls Biden \u2018genuine threat to our democracy\u2019 over social media censorship\u201d [New York Post]. \u201cIndependent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reiterated Tuesday that he believes President Biden to present a greater threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump. \u2018Biden has done something that no other president in history has done, which is to order media \u2014 particularly social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google \u2014 to censor his political opponents,\u2019 the 70-year-old told \u2018Fox & Friends\u2019 on Tuesday. \u2018If you have a president who can censor his political opponents, he has the license for any kind of atrocity \u2014 that is a genuine threat to our democracy.\u2019 Efforts by the Biden administration to flag content for social media companies to moderate, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been subject to litigation before the Supreme Court. Justices on the high court heard oral arguments last month in a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration\u2019s actions. On Monday night, Kennedy caused a stir by telling CNN that he \u2018can make the argument that President Biden is much worse\u2019 than Trump in terms of protecting democracy, drawing swift backlash from Democrats.\u201d \u2022 No doubt!<\/p>\n
Kennedy (I): \u201cColumn: Voters wishing for an alternative to Trump and Biden got one. Unfortunately, it\u2019s RFK Jr.\u201d [Los Angeles Times]. \u201cLong before Trump, RFK Jr. was the original election denier, insisting that Republicans stole the 2004 election. Before COVID, Kennedy was already famous for falsely claiming that all vaccines are dangerous and that some cause autism. He also stands by his claim that cellphones and Wi-Fi cause cancer despite the lack of evidence of an increase in cancer rates amid exploding use of those technologies. Kennedy\u2019s default position is that official explanations are suspect, which is another way of saying that all conspiracy theories \u2014 from 9\/11 trutherism to fringe theories about the assassination of his own father to the idea that the COVID virus was engineered to spare Jewish and Chinese people \u2014 deserve the benefit of the doubt. It\u2019s as if his entire political persona were designed to monetize what the political historian Richard Hofstadter called \u2018the paranoid style in American politics.\u2019 It\u2019s a testament to the pervasiveness of the paranoid style that it\u2019s difficult to figure out which party Kennedy will take more votes from. \u2018Our campaign is a spoiler all right,\u2019 Kennedy said last week while announcing his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, in Oakland. \u2018It is a spoiler for President Biden and for President Trump.\u2019 But there\u2019s the rub: The same duopoly that Kennedy is running against ensures that he can be a spoiler for only one candidate. Hofstadter also said, \u2018Third parties are like bees: once they have stung, they die.’\u201d \u2022 On election 2004, it\u2019s a judgement call. Kennedy\u2019s post is, IIRC, on Ohio. I live-blogged that election all the way \u2019til coverage ended (from a caf\u00e9 in Philly; yes, I\u2019m that old). There was plenty suspect shenanigaos in Ohio; I\u2019m too lazy to dig out the links \u2014 though I will at reader request \u2014 but there were plenty of sober-minded, non-conspiratorial observers who thought the results stank. On Covid: The Times link on SARS-CoV-2 being engineered to \u201cspare Jewish and Chinese\u201d people links to the New York Post, which cites to a video, providing a partial transcript. So I don\u2019t think we\u2019re dealing with the press simply making up quotes, as they often have done with Trump.<\/p>\n
Kennedy (I): \u201cWhy Silicon Valley Reactionaries Love RFK Jr.\u201d [The Nation]. \u201cSilicon Valley money, often tied to people in the circle of Peter Thiel, has fueled Kennedy\u2019s presidential run. As Axios reported last June, \u2018Several of Silicon Valley\u2019s noisiest tech moguls have begun to support the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vocal anti-vax activist who\u2019s xcvkl;\u2019 for the Democratic Party nomination.\u201d These early backers included Elon Musk as well as venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya and David Sacks (a longtime business and ideological ally of Peter Thiel, a Paypal and Facebook tycoon who backed Donald Trump in 2016). Writing about this cohort in The New Republic in 2022, Jacob Silverman noted that a pivotal movement that helped coalesce the group was the successful campaign to recall Chesa Boudin as district attorney of California because of his support for criminal justice reform. Both Shanahan and Sacks contributed heavily to the Boudin recall campaign, which demonstrated that Silicon Valley money could roll back left-wing social movements. Prior to 2022, Shanahan was a typical wealthy Democratic Party donor, giving to figures such as Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden. But in 2022 she joined the anti-Boudin campaign, which connected her with a wider cohort of reactionary tech figures. As Shanahan explained, she didn\u2019t think that criminal justice reform was necessary and \u2018Chesa came into a situation that needed to be maintained, in my opinion, not necessarily reformed.\u2019 There\u2019s a pipeline that runs from anti-Boudin sentiment to supporting Robert Kennedy, but law-and-order politics is just one component of Shanahan\u2019s journey. Another key factor was openness to alternative medicine and quack science, defended with the familiar contrarian defense that we need to ask questions. \u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Kennedy (I): \u201c55 Things You Need to Know About Nicole Shanahan\u201d [Politico]. \u201cIn divorce proceedings, which were finalized in 2023, Shanahan sought over $1 billion from Brin. The final division of assets was settled in confidential arbitration.\u201d \u2022 Hmm. Either Brin wants it confidential because she got a billion, or she does, because she didn\u2019t. Regardless, she has enough to help Kennedy right now. Whether she can harvest from Silicon Valley \u2014 and, if so, from whom? \u2014 remains an open question.<\/p>\n
\u201cTech leaders have all the skills for politics. Still, most don\u2019t want to run\u201d [USA Today]. \u201cShanahan, a self-proclaimed \u201ctechnologist,\u201d is also a research fellow at CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, which focuses on \u2018humanistic coding.’\u201d From the her Stanford bio: \u201cApart from the practical applications of legal technology, her academic research centers around Ronald Coase\u2019s work on transaction cost theory. Entitled, \u2018Coasean Mapping,\u2019 she theorizes on the pace and nature of society\u2019s adoption of artificial intelligence for law and government.\u201d \u2022 Any readers have views on Ronald Coase and his work? <\/p>\n
\u201cRFK Jr.\u2019s running mate an \u2018unknown quantity\u2019 with \u2018deep pockets\u2019 as GOP, Dems fear spoiler campaign: experts\u201d [FOX]. \u201cWho exactly Shanahan will appeal to, and which candidate that in turn hurts, remains unknown.\u201d \u2022 Yep.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Democrats en D\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy Democrats Can\u2019t Quit Trump\u201d [Wall Street Journal]. \u201cI suspect, if I could speak uncharitably, that many Democrats secretly miss the Trump years\u2026 Most high-level Democrats had a lot more fun during the \u2018resistance\u2019 than they\u2019ve had professing to believe, against all evidence, that President Biden is fully in control of his faculties and that his administration hasn\u2019t been embroiled in one debacle after another from the beginning. Today\u2019s liberal politicos look back on the years 2016-20, I imagine, in much the same way baby-boomer leftists used to talk about protesting the Vietnam War. We stood for something back then, man. We weren\u2019t gonna let the pigs win! While Mr. Trump was in the White House, you could imagine yourself part of some noble band of freedom fighters, willing to do what it took to stop America\u2019s slide into right-wing tyranny. Rereading accounts of the early Trump years, you can\u2019t miss his enemies\u2019 self-dramatization. \u2018I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration . . . there\u2019s no way [Trump] gets elected\u2014but I\u2019m afraid we can\u2019t take that risk,\u2019 FBI investigator Peter Strzok texted his colleague and lover Lisa Page in summer 2016. \u2018It\u2019s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you\u2019re 40.\u2019 Mr. Strzok is among the partisans who dreamed up the idea that Mr. Trump won his election by colluding with the Russians\u2026. Or recall Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) urging supporters in 2018 to harass top administration officials in public places. \u2018If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station,\u2019 she told supporters, \u2018you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they\u2019re not welcome anymore, anywhere.\u2019 How exciting it was to lead the struggle against dictatorship!\u201d \u2022 It\u2019s as if Aaron Sorkin wrote a second \u201cWest Wing,\u201d but in their brains\u2026.<\/p>\n
Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n
#COVID19<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in earnest \u2014 I will not equivocate \u2014 I will not excuse \u2014 I will not retreat a single inch \u2014 AND I WILL BE HEARD.\u201d \u2013William Lloyd Garrison<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); \u201cIowa COVID-19 Tracker\u201d (in IA, but national data). \u201cInfection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts\u201d (especially on hospitalization by city).<\/p>\n
Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put \u201cCOVID\u201d in the subject line. Thank you!<\/p>\n
Resources, United States (Local): 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 reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d\u2019Alene; 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 (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).<\/p>\n
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).<\/p>\n
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux us\u00e9es); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).<\/p>\n
Hat tips to helpful 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, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3). <\/p>\n
Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Maskstravaganza<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth systems ease up on masking\u201d [Becker\u2019s Hospital Review]. \u201cHealth systems are scaling back mask rules for staff, patients and visitors as respiratory virus season wanes\u2026. Now, health systems are once again loosening masking guidelines. MaineHealth ended masking requirements for staff members providing direct patient care March 18, citing \u2018a substantial decline in overall infection rates\u2019 over the past month.\u201d \u2022 It worked, so let\u2019s stop (which is gonna be a big problem of avian influenza gets traction). This urge to control, this urge to do homework, this urge to twiddle, must be a PMC affliction. If you\u2019re not going to clean the air \u2014 and nothing tells me hospitals are willing to commit to this, facility-wide \u2014 then just make masks the default policy, universally. Stop tinkering! I grant that means less make-work for administrators, but surely they can find other things to do with their valuable time. Oh, and Covid isn\u2019t seasonal. I understand the institutional \u2014 as opposed to the scientific or medical \u2014 reasons why CDC would choose to manage all viruses transmitted through the respiratory tract is if they all were seasonal, but again, Covid is not seasonal.<\/p>\n
Elite Maleficence<\/p>\n
But why?<\/p>\n
1\/ EXCUSE ME?! <\/p>\n
“The King\u2019s attendance [at church] was part of a carefully planned and pared-down Easter morning, during which he had little personal contact with others inside to shield him from infection during his [cancer] treatment.” <\/p>\n
\u2014 Dr David Berger, aBsuRdiSTe cROnickLeR (@YouAreLobbyLud) April 1, 2024<\/p>\n
From what \u201cinfection\u201d is Charles II being \u201cshielded\u201d?<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n
LEGEND<\/p>\n
1) \u2605 for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n
2) For a full-size\/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and \u201copen image in new tab.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOTES<\/p>\n
[1] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out at the level of previous Trump peaks. Not a great victory. Note also the area \u201cunder the curve,\u201d besides looking at peaks. That area is larger under Biden than under Trump, and it seems to be rising steadily if unevenly.<\/p>\n
[2] (Biobot) Backward revisions, I hate them.<\/p>\n
[3] (CDC Variants) As of May 11, genomic surveillance data will be reported biweekly, based on the availability of positive test specimens.\u201d \u201cBiweeekly: 1. occurring every two weeks. 2. occurring twice a week; semiweekly.\u201d Looks like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they\u2019re telling us variants are nothing to worry about. Time will tell.<\/p>\n
[4] (ER) CDC seems to have killed this off, since the link is broken, I think in favor of this thing. I will try to confirm.<\/p>\n
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Looks like a very gradual leveling off to a non-zero baseline, to me.<\/p>\n
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Still down. \u201cMaps, charts, and data provided by CDC, updates weekly for the previous MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Department Visits, Test Positivity) and weekly the following Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET\u2020\u201d. <\/p>\n
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.<\/p>\n
[8] (Cleveland) Flattening.<\/p>\n
[9] (Travelers: Posivitity) Now up, albeit in the rear view mirror.<\/p>\n
[10] (Travelers: Variants) JN.1 dominates utterly.<\/p>\n
Stats Watch<\/p>\n
Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Job Openings\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe number of job openings went up by 8,000 from the previous month to 8.756 million in February 2024, above market expectations of 8.75 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Factory Orders\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cNew orders for US manufactured goods rose by 1.4% from the previous month to $576.8 billion in February of 2024, trimming the upwardly revised 3.8% drop in January, and above market expectations of a 1% increase to point to further resilience of the US economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Retail: \u201cAmazon Ditches \u2018Just Walk Out\u2019 Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores\u201d [Gizmodo]. \u201cThough it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.\u201d \u2022\u00a0Just like robot cars lol.<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cNew XZ backdoor scanner detects implant in any Linux binary\u201d [Bleeping Computer]. \u201cFirmware security firm Binarly has released a free online scanner to detect Linux executables impacted by the XZ Utils supply chain attack, tracked as CVE-2024-3094. CVE-2024-3094 is a supply chain compromise in XZ Utils, a set of data compression tools and libraries used in many major Linux distributions. Late last month, Microsoft engineer Andres Freud discovered the backdoor in the latest version of the XZ Utils package while investigating unusually slow SSH logins on Debian Sid, a rolling release of the Linux distribution.\u201d \u2022 The XZ backdoor is actually post-worthy, given its social engineering aspects.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 62 Greed (previous close: 72 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 67 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Apr 2 at 1:49:21 PM ET.<\/p>\n
Rapture Index: Closes down one on Plagues. \u201cThe lack of activity has downgraded this category\u201d [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 187. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) \u2022 Bird flu not a concern? <\/p>\n
Groves of Academe <\/p>\n
The Gallery<\/p>\n
\u201cA Family Tree: Hippolyte Hodeau\u2019s Trench Art (ca. 1917)\u201d [The Public Domain Review]. \u201cLike many soldiers, Hodeau spent hours huddled in these muddy channels. In order to kill time, perhaps, or lift his spirits, he gathered leaves from an oak tree \u2014 elongated, striated, forest green \u2014 and used a form of relief carving to inscribe the names of his daughters, Andr\u00e9e and El\u00e9onore, as well as the word \u2018souvenir\u2019 and what looks like \u2018Argonne\u2019. \u2018Trench art\u2019, as it\u2019s called, wasn\u2019t necessarily fashioned in dugouts and wasn\u2019t usually so fragile. Collectors seek out letter openers made of shrapnel; crucifixes made of bullets; and artillery shells fashioned into everything from bracelets to clocks to candelabras. Wooden walking sticks were festooned with intricate carved heads, and tiny valentine pillows sewn and beaded for sweethearts back home. Hodeau\u2019s engraved leaves are part of this resourceful genre, but there is another artistic tradition to which they also belong \u2014 that of arborglyphs, or tree carving. Humans have long regarded trees as witnesses\u2026.. As unique as his objects may seem, Hodeau was not alone in carving leaves. The art form flourished during World War I as a way to enhance letters home with a unique lightweight enclosure. Soldiers used a needle or knife to whittle between the oak and chestnut veins, leaving only words or, sometimes, an image. Due to the partial opacity of perforated leaves, the carvings are especially enchanting when lit from behind; sometimes they\u2019re called \u2018feuilles de poilus\u2019, or \u2018tree leaf lace.’\u201d \u2022 An example (others at the link):<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/trench_art.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Zeitgeist Watch<\/p>\n
\u201c28 deaths at a California skydiving center, but the jumps go on\u201d [SF Gate]. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to calculate the fatality rate per jump at the Parachute Center, because no one keeps track of how many people jump out of planes there \u2014 or how many have died while doing so. In 2018, [the center\u2019s former owner, Bill Dause] told Sacramento\u2019s KXTV-TV even he wasn\u2019t sure how many deaths had occurred at his business. Dause declined to speak with SFGATE for this story.\u201d \u2022 Why can\u2019t people just make their personal risk assessments? <\/p>\n
Guillotine Watch<\/p>\n
\u201cElon Musk\u2019s ambitions for Mars branded \u2018dangerous illusion\u2019 by top astronomer\u201d [Daily Express]. \u201c[Martin Rees, a leading astrophysicist and member of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom under the title of \u2018Astronomer Royal\u2019,] told the House of Lords\u2019 podcast Lord Speaker\u2019s Corner: \u2018I don\u2019t think [SpaceX\u2019s plans] realistic and we\u2019ve got to solve those problems here on Earth.\u2019 \u2018Dealing with climate change on Earth is a doddle compared to making Mars habitable. So I don\u2019t think we should hold that out as a long-term aim at all.\u2019 \u2018I think there might be a few crazy pioneers living on Mars, just like there are people living at the South Pole, although it\u2019s far less hospitable than the South Pole. \u2018But the idea of mass migration to avoid the Earth\u2019s problems, which he and a few other space enthusiasts adopt, that, I think, is a dangerous illusion.’\u201d \u2022\u00a0<\/p>\n
News of the Wired<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Human Hemisphere\u201d [Radical Cartography]. \u201cJust under 88 percent of humanity lives in the Northern Hemisphere; 82 percent lives in the Eastern Hemisphere\u2026. So it looks like there might be some justification for Eurocentrism after all, at least geographically. Ah well.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/hemisphere.png\")
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Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From TH:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/cyclamen.jpeg\")
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TH writes: \u201cClose-up of one of Sherman Library and Garden\u2019s lovely cyclamen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn\u2019t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I\u2019m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals<\/p>\n
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png\")
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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!<\/p>\n
![\"Print](\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\")
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