By Lambert Strether of Corrente<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Blue Mockingbird, Presa Los Zompanties, Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico. Ten minutes of mockingbird!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n
Charts Friday: New RCP charts (bad news for Trump); many Covid updates (a little good news).
\nKamala\u2019s VP search
\nCovid and traffic safety (i.e., cognitive issues). New study from AAA (!).
\nAphantasia and prosopometamorphopsia.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/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
Trump Assassination Attempt<\/p>\n
\u201cVideo from Trump assassination attempt victim\u2019s POV shows figure moving on roof moments before gunfire\u201d [FOX]. \u201cA video from James Copenhaver, one of the victims critically wounded in the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Trump, shows a figure moving across the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building just minutes before gunfire rang out at Trump\u2019s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In the video taken at 6:08 p.m. on July 13, the person appears on the roof of the building adjacent to where Trump is speaking and can be seen walking from the 1:00 second mark to about the 2:50 second mark.\u201d \u2022 Oh. This entire story makes less and less sense as it goes on.<\/p>\n
\u201cPennsylvania county law enforcement officials say Secret Service is presenting a \u2018misleading\u2019 picture of Trump shooting scene\u201d [CNN]. <\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
Less than one hundred days to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s RCP Poll Averages:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/rcp_2023-08-02.png\")
<\/p>\n
Drops for Trump across the board, including a 2.5% drop nationally (almost outside the margin of error, ha ha), and a blue triangle on the mao for the first time.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
The Campaign Trail:<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cThe presidential election is a toss-up\u201d [Nate Silver, Silver Bulletin]. The deck: \u201cKamala Harris is giving Democrats the race that Joe Biden couldn\u2019t.\u201d From today\u2019s RCP chart, that\u2019s true. More: \u201c[W}hen we launched the presidential model on June 26 \u2014 in the lifetime ago when Joe Biden was the Democratic nominee \u2014 the headline in the post that introduced the model was that the election wasn\u2019t a toss-up. Instead, Biden had persistently been behind in the states that were most likely to decide the Electoral College, enough so that he was about a 2:1 underdog in the election despite the uncertainties in the race. His situation wasn\u2019t unrecoverable, or at least it wasn\u2019t until the debate. But you\u2019d rather have had Donald Trump\u2019s hand to play every day of the week and twice on Sundays\u2026 Now that the election is in kamala_mode, however, it\u2019s far from clear whose position you\u2019d rather be in, and I wouldn\u2019t blame you if you wanted to bet either on Harris or on Trump\u2026. It\u2019s also a toss-up in the states that are most likely to decide the election\u2026 And although we can\u2019t tell you who\u2019s going to win, there\u2019s one thing I think we can say with some confidence: Democrats are lucky that they\u2019re getting a second chance in this election with Harris instead of Biden.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cCan Kamala Harris Rebuild the Democratic Coalition?\u201d [New York Times]. Nope. PMC 4EVA. That\u2019s not salvageable. \u201cAlready, recent polls suggest Ms. Harris is not so weak. It\u2019s still too soon to tell how strong she really is among young and nonwhite voters, as some polls \u2014 like New York Times\/Siena College polling last week \u2014 find her running far ahead of Mr. Biden, while others show little change. But either way, even her best tallies still fall short of typical Democratic margins over the last 15 years. She doesn\u2019t even fare as well as Mr. Biden did in 2020, and his performance among these groups was relatively weak for a Democratic presidential candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
The VP search:<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cVetting of Harris V.P. Picks Is Said to Be Complete\u201d [New York Times]. \u201cVice President Kamala Harris is already scheduled to begin campaigning with her running mate on Tuesday. The decision is now in her hands after a law firm hired to vet possible picks completed its work, according to two people briefed on the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cKamala Harris\u2019 veepstakes races toward the finish line\u201d [Politico]. \u201cSome of the aides and allies involved in the vice presidential nominee decision-making process are Harris chief-of-staff Sheila Nix, Harris campaign chair Jen O\u2019Malley Dillon, former Rep. Cedric Richmond and Harris\u2019 brother-in-law Tony West, according to two people familiar with the discussions and granted anonymity to discuss a private process. The Harris vetting team has already met with Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Andy Beshear of Kentucky; Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly; and others. The team has also asked vice presidential nominee candidates for previous ads they\u2019ve filmed\u2026. Harris has told aides that she wants someone, ideally, with some sort of executive experience and with whom she has a good rapport. One of the people familiar with the process said Harris is \u2018looking for a governing partner above all else. She knows the process better than most, and understands the challenges and opportunities.\u2019 Adam Hodge, a former Biden administration official, noted that Harris is picking someone to potentially govern by her side for years, not just to help her in one election.\u201d \u2022 We\u2019ll see how that goes.<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cHow a sexual harassment scandal involving a Josh Shapiro aide could affect the Pa. governor\u2019s VP chances\u201d [Philadephia Inquirer]. \u201cErin McClelland, the Democratic nominee for state treasurer in November\u2019s election, drew eyeballs last week with a thinly veiled and unusual intraparty jab, saying in a tweet that she wanted a vice presidential pick who, among other things, \u2018doesn\u2019t sweep sexual harassment under the rug.\u2019 Though she did not identify Shapiro by name, McClelland\u2019s pointed remarks were widely interpreted as a reference to the resignation last year of one of Shapiro\u2019s top aides and closest allies, Mike Vereb, amid a sexual harassment investigation. Vereb, 57, abruptly stepped down in September, three weeks after Shapiro\u2019s administration quietly agreed to pay $295,000 to settle claims from a governor\u2019s office employee who said he\u2019d made repeated sexual advances toward her and often spoken openly \u2014 and lewdly \u2014 about her, other staff members, and a female state senator. Shapiro\u2019s administration has largely avoided discussing Vereb in the year since, describing his departure as a private personnel matter while maintaining it \u201ctakes allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously.\u201d His silence has drawn criticism from female state lawmakers in both parties, who have called for a more transparent accounting of what Shapiro knew about his aide\u2019s conduct and when.\u201d \u2022 Whoopsie.<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cHarris VP mystery: Signs point to Shapiro\u201d [Axios]. \u201cLike all big White House secrets \u2014 Supreme Court picks or the decision to drop out of the presidential race \u2014 the universe of people who have hard intelligence is quite small. But as an announcement nears, that universe starts to expand. For reporters and political obsessives, the game is on. More people know. Then more people think they know. And, finally, everyone pretends to know. Eventually the three groups converge. News leaks out, sending reporters scrambling to confirm if it\u2019s true, which it isn\u2019t always. Trust us, there\u2019s nothing worse than not knowing who the VP pick is after spending months following a candidate around the country when, say, the AP has it. Minutes feel like hours. Hours like days. You wish you\u2019d taken the bar and become a lawyer.\u201d \u2022\u00a0A more subtle take than usual on horse-race coverage.<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cMark Kelly emerges as the front runner to become Kamala Harris\u2019 running mate; Here are the reasons\u201d [Economic Times of India]. \u201cIn this survey, Senator Mark Kelly has emerged as the favorite among all contenders. The former Astronaut who represents the state of Arizona in the US Senate is also a critic of the gun laws in the US. Further, Harris who may lose out on the votes of white American males may count on Senator Kelly to attract the votes of this community\u2026. Mark Kelly also may be the best candidate to take on Trump\u2019s views on immigration. He is a Senator from a border state. 22% of the respondents view him favorably. He is also viewed negatively by 12%. He is still the best performing candidate\u2026. Arizona is a swing state and this may enable the Democrats to focus on gaining precious votes from this state.\u201d \u2022 Obama, according to rumor, wanted Kelly at the top of the ticket, not Kamala.<\/p>\n
Kamala: \u201cWho is Mark Kelly, the potential vice-presidential pick from Arizona?\u201d [Guardian].\u201d The Arizona senator was a US navy pilot who served multiple deployments. He was on Celebrity Jeopardy. He is a steadfast partner to his wife, former US representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt at a public event in Tucson in 2011 and has worked alongside Kelly to limit guns since. Oh, and he\u2019s been to space multiple times because he was an astronaut, along with his twin brother, Scott. He even wrote a children\u2019s book about it, called Mousetronaut\u2026. He first ran for office in 2020, winning a special election against Republican Martha McSally to take a Senate seat. He won again in 2024 in the regular Senate election against Blake Masters, a well-funded Peter Thiel acolyte. To win the Senate seat in a purple state, Kelly has struck a centrist tone and proven himself a prolific fundraiser. He hasn\u2019t inspired the intra-party ire that Arizona\u2019s other senator , now-independent Kyrsten Sinema, has. He polls at the top of Arizona politicians for favorability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cMark Kelly Wasn\u2019t There for Labor When Labor Needed Him\u201d [John Nichols, The Nation]. \u201cAfter the Democrats took charge of the White House and both chambers of Congress in January 2021, lawmakers introduced the PRO Act in an effort to expand union power. The measure is a sweeping plan to remove barriers to organizing workplaces across the country, and to make it possible for labor and national unions to bargain equitable contracts. The AFL-CIO describes the PRO Act, which is ardently backed by union activists and by Biden and Harris, as \u201cthe most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression.\u201d Predictably, it is opposed by corporate interests and their congressional allies\u2026. The Senate failed to do so because, in addition to overwhelming Republican opposition, a handful of Senate Democratic Caucus members were reluctant to sign on for the measure, including West Virginia\u2019s Joe Manchin, Maine\u2019s Angus King, Virginia\u2019s Mark Warner, and the two senators from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema and Kelly. In the face a major campaign led by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and other unions, Manchin and King joined the vast majority of Senate Democrats as co-sponsors in April 2021, bringing the number of co-sponsors to 47. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber would bring the measure to a vote if 50 Democrats agreed to co-sponsor it. Strategizing began for efforts to break an anticipated Republican filibuster in order to pass the bill. Kelly was seen as the key senator to make it all happen. If he moved, the argument went, Sinema could be convinced to do the same. And if they both signed on, a massive AFL-CIO push was planned in order to get Warner on board. But Kelly never moved, assuring that the measure would, in the words of the Revolving Door Project \u2018stagnate in the Senate.’\u201d \u2022 He\u2019s perfect!<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cSen. Mark Kelly\u2019s past days hawking vitamins in China resurfaces amid veepstakes\u201d [New York Post]. \u201c\u2018I took Shaklee vitamins and the Shaklee rehydration drink while in orbit aboard the space shuttle,\u2019 the former astronaut boasted to the crowd\u2026. The California-based multilevel marketing company lined Kelly\u2019s pockets for a series of speeches in China and the US between 2011 and 2016, which the Huffington Post first reported during the Arizona Democrat\u2019s campaign for the US Senate in 2020. His wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), was serving in the US House of Representatives in 2011 \u2014 and financial disclosures show Kelly netted $50,000 for Shaklee speeches in that year alone.\u201d \u2022 $50,000? That\u2019s all?<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Cancellations:<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cShapiro cancels fundraising trip in the Hamptons ahead of Harris picking running mate\u201d [CBS]. But:<\/p>\n
BREAKING: Gov. Tim Walz has announced the cancellation of his scheduled events for this weekend. The Governor was set to attend two county fairs, a high school football game, and go square dancing. The cancellations have been issued with no specific reasons provided.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Amzi \ud83e\udd65 \ud83c\udf34 (@AmziQureshi) August 1, 2024<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cBeshear\u2019s absence generates political buzz as GOP set to dominate stage at Fancy Farm\u201d [Kentucky Lantern]. \u201cAn annual West Kentucky church fundraiser famous for barbeque, political speeches and cheers and jeers from onlookers is set to be a Republican-dominated affair this weekend as the only two statewide elected Democrats will be elsewhere. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear\u2019s absence from this year\u2019s Fancy Farm festivities may produce more buzz than his presence would have \u2014 thanks to speculation that Beshear is still under consideration as running mate to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.\u201d And\u2013<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cKamala Harris\u2019 veepstakes races toward the finish line\u201d [Politico]. On Friday, \u201cButtigieg truncated his visit to Kokomo, Indiana, due to \u2018some unforeseen scheduling constraints.’\u201d<\/p>\n
And:<\/p>\n
So am I right that every veep contender cancelled their events but Mark Kelly, who also released a video?<\/p>\n
\u2014 Nomiki \u2014 “No-me-KEY” (@NomikiKonst) August 2, 2024<\/p>\n
Lambert here: My personal theory (\u201cwithout evidence,\u201d as we say) is that Kamala already chose Shapiro, which is why she visited Philly. Why else do that? Then the Shapiro sex scandal finally punched through her staff bubble, and it was back to square one.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cThe Fight of Trump\u2019s Political Life\u201d [Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal]. \u201cCan Mr. Trump shift gears? He grew up, as I did, watching \u2018The Ed Sullivan Show.\u2019 I\u2019m sure it was on every Sunday night at 8 at the Trump house in Queens. On that show you saw every week the great Borscht Belt comics of 1950-70. Their timing\u2014\u2019Take my wife\u2014please!\u2019\u2014is ingrained in him. What he does now is shtick, because he likes to entertain and is a performer. The boat\u2019s sinking, the battery\u2019s spitting, the shark\u2019s coming!\u2026 This works so perfectly for those who support him. For everyone else it\u2019s just more evidence of psychopathology. He has to freshen up his act. Can he?\u201d Good point. And: Ms. Harris will dominate the coming week with the unveiling of her vice-presidential choice. Then there will be the convention, in which they\u2019ll pull out all stops. And then August will be over. Meaning a third of the 100-day campaign will be over. Does Mr. Trump know that he\u2019s fighting for his life?\u201d Also good point. But: \u201cDoes she think seriously, deeply, soberly?\u2026. Some will respond, \u2018But Donald Trump isn\u2019t serious!\u2019 My answer would be: That\u2019s why he lost the popular vote twice. If Democrats lose the popular vote, they almost certainly lose the election. Mr. Trump himself would reply: I controlled the nuclear arsenal for four years. Nothing blew up.\u201d \u2022 The whole piece is worth reading in full, especially for Kamala\u2019s positives, which are real (new, shameless on policy, born performer, beautiful, pent-up support). <\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cHillbilly Apprentice: An Interview With Trump Running Mate JD Vance\u201d [RealClearPolitics]. \u201cIf there is any confusion about Vance, it isn\u2019t because he is hiding his views. While accepting the vice-presidential nomination in Milwaukee, he blamed the Biden-Harris administration for continuing the foreign interventionism, deindustrialization, and globalism that he insists have hollowed out the heart of the country. Bad trade deals, foolish economic policy, and disastrous wars: He lays it all at the feet of Democrats during each campaign stop. Yet those decisions were often bipartisan. Vance knows this and offers as much of a critique against the old GOP as a rebuke against the current White House. At each stop, Vance, a former U.S. Marine, walks on stage to \u2018America First,\u2019 an anti-war ballad from the Bush era by the late country legend Merle Haggard. \u2018Let\u2019s get out of Iraq and get back on the track,\u2019 the song declares, \u2018and let\u2019s rebuild America first.\u2019 Both the messaging and the foreign policy proposals espoused by Vance alarm the traditional internationalists inside his political party. The junior senator from Ohio appalled many of them while first running for election. \u2018I\u2019ve got to be honest with you,\u2019 Vance told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon during a 2022 interview. \u2018I don\u2019t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.\u201d The vice-presidential nomination has made him only slightly less inflammatory.’\u201d \u2022 Not my favorite Ohioan, but it says a lot about his strengths that the Democrats dogpiled him with snark as their first move. I mean, the best they can do? (It\u2019s also really unfortunate that the Trump campaign didn\u2019t punch back hard, although perhaps not directly (\u201cI want to hear him deny it\u201d)).<\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cTrump\u2019s Racist Attack on Kamala Harris Was No Accident\u201d [Susan Glasser, The New Yorker]. \u201cHarris has always been proudly biracial: she is the daughter of an Indian mother and a Black, Jamaican father, both of whom immigrated to the U.S.\u201d \u2022 Whatever (and see yesterday\u2019s essay on essentialist views vs. social constructionist view of race). Think of it this way. The Democrat PMC base is intimately familiar with the workings of Human Resources (HR) departments. HR departments often use forms where you check a box for your race: White, Black (or, in Elizabeth Warren\u2019s case, American Indian).These boxes are mutually exclusive. Kamala\u2019s campaign managed race in the rollout of her supporters just like an HR department does: Black, White, AAHNPI. The idpol verticals were pure. Kamala personally behaves as if HR didn\u2019t exist, and that racial caregories are not mutually exclusive, as Glasser argues; it\u2019s possible to be Black and Indian (although when Mother Jones writes \u201cWhite Man Tells Black Journalists His Black Opponent Is Not Black\u201d they\u2019re fully on board with the HR paradigm. The issue is that the Democrats want to have it both ways: They want to appeal to a \u201cpure\u201d Black identity vertical, but they want a candidate is Black and Indian (and Kamala, as I documented yesterday, also presents as Indian). I personally don\u2019t care either way, but the Democrat thinking on race is completely incoherent. Which is pretty amazing for a party whose first move is so often to play the racist card.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Syndemics<\/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
Covid 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, KF, 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
Transmission: H5N1<\/p>\n
\u201cBlowflies are potential vector for avian influenza virus at enzootic area in Japan\u201d [Nature]. From the Abtract: \u201cHigh pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) poses a significant threat to both domestic and wild birds globally. The avian influenza virus, known for environmental contamination and subsequent oral infection in birds, necessitates careful consideration of alternative introduction routes during HPAI outbreaks. \u2026 Blowflies represent a potential vector of HPAI, particularly in enzootic regions. The effectiveness of virus detection from flies relies heavily on the prevalence of infected and deceased wild birds. C. nigribarbis is widespread in human-populated areas across Japan, including semi-rural regions with poultry farms. Like other insects, C. nigribarbis intermittently disperses its feces, leading to environmental contamination. In this study, we focused on C. nigribarbis because it was the dominant blowfly species in our study field and the season, but we could not exclude the contribution of other necrophagous blowflies in HPAI propagation, especially in geographical areas.\u201d \u2022 Oh, super. An insect vector. I\u2019m sure CDC and USDA are all over this.<\/p>\n
Sequelae: Covid<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pandemic\u2019s Tenacious Grip on Traffic Safety\u201d (press release) [American Automobile Association]. \u201cA new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reveals the COVID-19 pandemic\u2019s deadly impact on traffic safety in the United States. Researchers at the AAA Foundation found dangerous behaviors like speeding, not using seatbelts, and impaired driving contributed to a significant rise in fatal crashes compared to pre-pandemic times. Notably, the new research highlights a disparity in the pandemic\u2019s impact on traffic safety. Black and Hispanic Americans, already disproportionately affected by traffic fatalities, saw even more significant increases from 2020 through 2022. Similarly, those with lower educational attainment experienced a much sharper rise in fatalities compared to college graduates. Foundation researchers found that 114,528 people were killed in traffic crashes on U.S. roads from May 2020 through December 2022, a 17% jump in traffic deaths (nearly 17,000 additional fatalities) compared to what would have been expected under pre-pandemic trends.\u201d Note especially: \u201cThe increase in occupant deaths was almost entirely among those not wearing seatbelts.\u201d No wonder the seatbelt argument didn\u2019t persuade anti-maskers. Anyhow, go long exective dysfunction.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Lambert here: New York hospitalization leveling out, WalGreens positivity down for two weeks, and now Cleveland positivity down, are the first positive signs I\u2019ve seen in a long time. Wastewater still going strong, though!<\/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] (CDC) This week\u2019s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. Keeps spreading.<\/p>\n
[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular.<\/p>\n
[4] (ER) Worth noting Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.<\/p>\n
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveling off. Doesn\u2019t need to be a permanent thing, of course. (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.)<\/p>\n
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.<\/p>\n
[7] (Walgreens) An optimist would see a peak.<\/p>\n
[8] (Cleveland) Slowing. Comment on the Cleveland Clinic:<\/p>\n
Why is the Cleveland Clinic building a new facility for a professional basketball team? These hospitals are not ‘nonprofits’ they are ridiculously profitable monopolies with an endless cash gusher to point at whatever they want. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 29, 2024<\/p>\n
Ka-ching.<\/p>\n
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn\u2019t even run back to 1\/21\/23, as it used to, but now starts 1\/1\/24. There\u2019s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn\u2019t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that\u2019s why the shape of the curve has changed.<\/p>\n
[10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads. <\/p>\n
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.<\/p>\n
[12] Deaths low, ED up.<\/p>\n
Stats Watch<\/p>\n
Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Unemployment Rate\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe unemployment rate in the United States rose to 4.3% in July of 2024 from 4.1% in the previous month, the highest since October of 2021, and above market expectations that it would remain at 4.1%. In the meantime, the labor force participation rate edged higher to 62.7% from 62.6%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Factory Orders\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cNew orders for US manufactured goods fell by 3.3% from the previous month to $564.2 billion in June of 2024, a bigger contraction than market expectations of 2.9%, to mark the sharpest decline since January. The contraction was largely due to the plunge in orders of transportation equipment (-20.6% to $75.79 billion), as the gauge that excludes transportation edged higher by 0.1% from the previous month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retail: \u201cUnited States Total Vehicle Sales\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cTotal Vehicle Sales in the United States increased to 15.82 Million in July from 15.18 Million in June of 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cFully-automatic robot dentist performs world\u2019s first human procedure\u201d [The New Atlas]. \u2022 No.<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cEerie new mind-controlling tech can manipulate emotions and even appetite without any invasive surgery\u201d [The Sun]. \u201cWith an external magnetic field, scientists at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea found they could manipulate nanoparticle-activated \u2018switches\u2019 inside the brains of mice. The technology, dubbed Nano-MIND (Magnetogenetic Interface for NeuroDynamics), allowed researchers to control the emotions and appetites of mice from afar\u2026. Scientists manipulated these neurons by magnetically twisting a tiny actuator to pull or push nanoparticles implanted in the mice\u2019s brains. But this is the first that hasn\u2019t involved invasive surgery, and bulky external systems, which has instead allowed mice the freedom of movement. \u2018This is the world\u2019s first technology to freely control specific brain regions using magnetic fields,\u2019 Jinwoo Cheon, director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine, said in a statement. Cheon, a senior author of the study that was recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, added: \u2018We expect it to be widely used in research to understand brain functions, sophisticated artificial neural networks, two-way [brain-computer interface] technologies, and new treatments for neurological disorders.’\u201d \u2022 Just don\u2019t tell the marketing department!<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cMeta blames \u2018hallucinations\u2019 after AI error over assassination attempt on Donald Trump\u201d [The Telegraph]. \u201cMeta has blamed hallucinations after its AI assistant said that the recent assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump didn\u2019t happen. Artificial intelligence chatbots are said to \u2018hallucinate\u2019 when they generate misleading responses to questions that need factual replies. \u2018These types of responses are referred to as hallucinations, which is an industry-wide issue we see across all generative AI systems, and is an ongoing challenge for how AI handles real-time events going forward,\u2019 said Joel Kaplan, Meta VP for global policy.\u201d \u2022 They\u2019re not \u201challucinations.\u201d They\u2019re bullshit.<\/p>\n
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Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 55 Neutral (previous close: 42 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 40 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 31 at 2:15:54 PM ET.<\/p>\n
Photo Book<\/p>\n
My first serious camera was a Mamiya C330:<\/p>\n
Yashicaflex TLR Repair + DX report pic.twitter.com\/Ap2yuwcmHM<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sarah\u2122 (@sarahdavs1) June 11, 2021<\/p>\n
Zeitgeist Watch<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Happens in a Mind That Can\u2019t \u2018See\u2019 Mental Images\u201d [Quanta]. \u201cTwo years ago, Sarah Shomstein realized she didn\u2019t have a mind\u2019s eye. The vision scientist was sitting in a seminar room, listening to a scientific talk, when the presenter asked the audience to imagine an apple. Shomstein closed her eyes and did so. Then, the presenter asked the crowd to open their eyes and rate how vividly they saw the apple in their mind. Saw the apple? Shomstein was confused. She didn\u2019t actually see an apple. She could think about an apple: its taste, its shape, its color, the way light might hit it. But she didn\u2019t see it. Behind her eyes, \u2018it was completely black,\u2019 Shomstein recalled. And yet, \u2018I imagined an apple.\u2019 Most of her colleagues reacted differently. They reported actually seeing an apple, some vividly and some faintly, floating like a hologram in front of them. In that moment, Shomstein, who\u2019s spent years researching perception at George Washington University, realized she experienced the world differently than others. She is part of a subset of people \u2014 thought to be about 1% to 4% of the general population \u2014 who lack mental imagery, a phenomenon known as aphantasia.\u201d \u2022 Word of the day\u2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow a Rare Disorder Makes People See Monsters\u201d [The New Yorker]. \u201cAfter he recovered, [Jason ] \u201c?Werbeloff was eager to be around people again, and he spent a night clubbing. In the shifting red light, he looked at a friend\u2019s face and realized that the right side looked odd. It seemed to stretch outward, like Silly Putty being pulled, and a dark, rough patch was visible around the friend\u2019s right eye. Werbeloff blinked and looked away, and his friend\u2019s features briefly returned to normal. Then the distortions appeared again. \u201cThat is when people got ugly,\u201d Werbeloff told me.<\/p>\n
In the weeks that followed, Werbeloff started to notice similar unsettling changes in everyone he looked at.\u201d Via Facebok, Werbeloff encounters Brad Duchaine, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College. In May, 2021, Duchaine interviewed Werbeloff via Zoom. Had Werbeloff suffered any traumatic brain injuries? (No.) Did he ever see faces change before his bout with mono? (No.) Did he see distortions on half of the face, or all of it? (Only the right half.) Duchaine said that Werbeloff seemed to have a rare and largely unexplained condition called prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO. He was trying to meet as many PMO sufferers as he could\u2014not only to identify why the distortions were occurring but to illuminate the intricate way in which the human brain perceives faces.\u201d \u2022\u00a0Another word of the day\u2026. <\/p>\n
News of the Wired<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly Bookcases, Cupboards & Carousels\u201d [Lost Art Press]. \u201cAlthough many medieval books written on thick parchment or vellum and often bound in leather could possibly stand on end, titles were not put on the spine until the 16th century. There was also no standardization of book sizes. Some books were small enough to fit in one hand, while others were so large and heavy it took two people to lift one. As a result, books were placed flat, often with the spine turned inwards. The title might be handwritten on the fore edge or foot edge. Alternatively, the title could be written on the cover.\u201d \u2022 Like this:<\/p>\n
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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\/08\/begonia.jpeg\")
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TH writes: \u201cI believe this is a begonia of some sort. It can be found flaunting its stuff in the hothouse of the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA.\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 three or four 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
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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!\n<\/p>\n
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