By Lambert Strether of Corrente<\/p>\n
I hope everyone had an excellent Labor Day weekend!<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n
Let us continue on with our catbirds!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gray Catbird, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. The mimics always sound like they\u2019re having fun, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n
The Democrat debate.
\nKamala\u2019s staff.
\nMcDonalds store bans masks.
\nFlorida real estate.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Look for the Helpers<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure where to file this, but the teenager did seem to be helping in some way:<\/p>\n
As a teenager in Neustrelitz (East Germany), I painted small stones purple and left them all over town. Did it for years. It drove the police and Stasi nuts. It meant nothing. It just felt good to do something they couldn’t control or understand.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Fesshole (@fesshole) September 2, 2024<\/p>\n
Maybe more of us should try this. Butterflies flapping their wings in Brazil, and all\u2026. <\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
My email address is down by the plant; please send examples of there (\u201cHelpers\u201d in the subject line). In our increasingly desperate and fragile neoliberal society, everyday normal incidents and stories of \u201cthe communism of everyday life\u201d are what I am looking for (and not, say, the Red Cross in Hawaii, or even the UNWRA in Gaza).<\/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 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_2024-08-30.png\")
<\/p>\n
The good news for Trump is that Kamala\u2019s post-convention \u201cbounce\u201d seems to have been slight. The good news for Kamala is Trump\u2019s continued deterioration in North Carolina, plus taking a slight lead in Pennsylvania. Remember, however, that all the fluctuations \u2014 in fact, all the leads, top to bottom \u2014 are within the margin of error. <\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
The Debate (September 10)<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrat governor says don\u2019t \u2018underestimate\u2019 Trump in high-stakes debate against Kamala Harris\u201d [New York Post]. \u201cDemocratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker declared Monday that nobody should \u2018underestimate\u2019 former President Donald Trump\u2019s ability to beat Vice President Kamala Harris in their upcoming high-stakes debate. \u2018He has won a couple of debates that he did,\u2019 Pritzker said of Trump during an appearance on CNN. \u2018Certainly, people would say that he won the debate against President Biden a couple of months ago,\u2019 the Harris surrogate added. Pritzker, 59, argued that Trump, 78, bested former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in at least one of their three 2016 presidential debates and that despite Harris being a \u2018tremendous person with great capability\u2019 she should be cautious on stage with the former president.\u201d Meanwhile: \u201c[Frank Luntz,] pollster and political strategist suggested that voters will be interested to see if Trump can \u2018keep quiet\u2019 and \u2018listen to a response\u2019 and if Harris can \u2018seem open minded\u2019 and \u2018willing to take in information.’\u201d \u2022 Readers will remember that Trump kept quiet when Biden was impaling himself. Meanwhile, I\u2019m not sure Luntz has the right read on Harris (though she\u2019s so vacuous it\u2019s hard to know what the right read might be).<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Kamala (D): \u201cInside the tension in Harris\u2019 \u201cFrankenstein\u201d team\u201d [Axios]. \u201cThe good vibes of Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 campaign mask tensions among competing factions, as Harris loyalists and Obama alumni are grafted onto what had been President Biden\u2019s campaign. New people are remaking the campaign on the fly. The result is a large and at times unwieldy team, with internal worries about cohesiveness when inevitable stumbles arise, six people involved in the campaign tell Axios. Biden\u2019s campaign was insular, with a few long-serving aides making big decisions. The Harris campaign has become a diffuse \u201cFrankenstein\u201d team with multiple power centers. Harris kept most of Biden\u2019s team in place. But the main architect of the Biden campaign\u2019s messaging strategy, Mike Donilon, has left and returned to the White House. Harris has brought on her own staffers along with prominent aides from President Obama\u2019s 2012 re-election campaign, while also keeping many top Biden campaign officials. Harris\u2019 team has been wary of making the Biden people feel set aside. But that has led to some internal confusion about who\u2019s in charge.\u201d \u2022 No wonder there\u2019s no messaging on policy. They can\u2019t decide what it is. I looked at Kamala\u2019s campaign masthead in Ballotpedia: It\u2019s built for conflict. For example, the campaign manager, Julie Ch\u00e1vez Rodr\u00edguez, a Biden holdover, I would grade B+; her nominal subordinate, David Plouffe, parachuted in from Obama\u2019s faction, I would grade A. And so forth. Now, with only 63 days left, there\u2019s no time for major schisms to appear. And her staff can endure her for that long. But 63 days is a long time in politics.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cA Trump loss could stabilise US politics for a generation\u201d [Janan Ganesh, Financial Times]. \u201cIf Donald Trump loses, there is an underrated chance that America and its politics will stabilise for a generation. \u201cStabilise\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201cbecome Luxembourg\u201d. Polarisation will endure. But the received wisdom that Trumpism will outlast Trump \u2014 that he is just the face and voice of deeper societal forces, liable to rock the republic for decades \u2014 is shakier than it was four years ago. The lesson of 2024 so far is that American populism will find Trump hideously difficult to replace\u2026. Trump has political superpowers almost unique to him. I count three. The most obvious is star quality\u2026 Then there is what we might call emotional sunk cost. For voters who committed to Trump circa 2016, and who paid a toll for it among friends, relatives or social media sparring partners, abandoning him is a personal defeat. A new leader, however faithful to his ideas, can\u2019t just inherit that support\u2026 The last and most counter-logical of Trump\u2019s advantages is his perceived incompetence\u2026. A politician who pairs Trumpist views with operational grip would lose as well as gain support, would frighten as well as impress. Was Trump\u2019s rise to power a personal feat or historically ordained by decades of deindustrialisation, porous borders and other provocations that were due an electoral revolt? \u201cBoth\u201d, no doubt: it takes a remarkable individual to capitalise on structural trends. The breakthrough of populism in other democracies suggests something deep is at work. In the end, though, especially in a presidential system, the individual is the catalyser, and American populists don\u2019t have one on the horizon.\u201d \u2022 The hour will produce the person\u2026 <\/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
Airborne Transmission: Covid<\/p>\n
I guess it doesn\u2019t matter how you close the sale:<\/p>\n
This is the new angle, clean air advocates<\/p>\n
\u2014 Amanda Hu (@amandalhu) September 1, 2024<\/p>\n
Maskstravaganza<\/p>\n
Where the heck are the lawsuits?<\/p>\n
A @McDonalds declaring it will not serve a mask-wearing customer is the equivalent of @McDonaldsCorp saying it will not serve someone with HIV or cancer or immunocompromised. Shameful. And ridiculously illegal. Human rights lawsuits written all over this. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) September 3, 2024<\/p>\n
This looks like technology worth evaluating:<\/p>\n
has started trial operation,Supports both PC and mobile devices. supports PayPal payment, and the first batch of logistics has been opened to 100 countries. It has all the models that Zimi normally sells and produces. Among them, ZM100F (black headloop),\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/xM6oJQvBAl<\/p>\n
\u2014 Zhou Liang’s mask (@zhouliang_mask) September 3, 2024<\/p>\n
Funny where \u201cinnovation\u201d takes place. And what kind of innovation\u2026 <\/p>\n
Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions<\/p>\n
\u201cFar-UVC Light Can Virtually Eliminate Airborne Virus in an Occupied Room\u201d (press release) [Columbia University]. From April, missed this one. \u201cA study by Columbia researchers now shows that far-UVC light [222-nm wavelength] inactivated nearly all (>99%) of an airborne virus in an occupied work environment, showing that the technology can work as well in a real-life scenario as in the laboratory. \u2018The results show that far-UVC is highly effective at reducing airborne pathogens in an ordinary occupied room, and so it\u2019s practical to use far-UVC light in indoor areas where people are going about their business,\u2019 says David Brenner, PhD, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study. \u2018If this virus had been a disease-causing virus, the far-UVC light would have provided far more protection against airborne-disease transmission than any ventilation system,\u2019 says Brenner.\u201d \u2022 Hmm. Readers? <\/p>\n
Transmission: Covid<\/p>\n
\u201cSpatial and Temporal Hotspot Analysis of COVID-19 in Toronto\u201d [medRxiv]. From the Abstract: \u201cThe COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, Canada was unequal for its 2.7 million residents. As a dynamic pandemic, COVID-19 trends might have also varied over space and time. We conducted a spatiotemporal hotspot analysis of COVID-19 over the first four major waves of COVID-19\u2026 Results highlight potential clustering of COVID-19 case rate hot spots in areas with higher concentrations of immigrant and low-income residents and cold spots in areas with more affluent and non-immigrant residents during the first three waves.\u201d And: \u201cSociodemographic and socioeconomic differences dictate the different physical\/built environments residents of Toronto find themselves in, which may interact to impact the risks of acquiring COVID-19 and experiencing adverse outcomes if infected. For instance, low-income communities, which also often have higher concentrations of immigrants, tend to have larger household sizes and a higher proportion of multigenerational housing, which may limit personal space for social distancing, increase the risk of spreading respiratory infectious diseases within households, as well as facilitate spread of infection between age groups (e.g., from school children to their grandparents)\u2026. Furthermore, these communities also tend to have a higher concentration of residents that provide essential services \u2013 working as personal support workers, in food supply, at warehouses, and in retail\u2014often with limited access to personal protective equipment, lack of paid sick leave and fewer options to work from home or \u201cshelter-in-place\u201d. \u2022 So funny that the PMC, who get to say home with their laptops, do not provied \u201cessential services.\u201d And yet everything is optimized for their brunches. It\u2019s a funny old world.<\/p>\n
Infection Control<\/p>\n
\u201cViewpoint: The impending pandemic of resistant organisms \u2013 a paradigm shift towards source control is needed\u201d [Medicine]. \u201cThe United States needs a paradigm shift in its approach to control infectious diseases. Current recommendations are often made in a siloed feedback loop. This may be the driver for such actions as the abandonment of contact precautions in some settings, the allowance of nursing home residents who are carriers of known pathogens to mingle with others in their facility, and the determination of an intervention\u2019s feasibility based upon budgetary rather than health considerations for patients and staff.. Facilities are becoming over-reliant on horizontal prevention strategies, such as hand hygiene and chlorhexidine bathing. Hand hygiene is an essential practice, but the goal should be to minimize the risk of workers\u2019 hands becoming contaminated with defined pathogens, and there are conflicting data on the efficacy of chlorhexidine bathing in non-ICU settings. Preemptive identification of dedicated pathogens and effective source control are needed. We propose that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should gather and publicly report the community incidence of dedicated pathogens. This will enable proactive rather than reactive strategies. In the future, determination of a patient\u2019s microbiome may become standard, but until then we propose that we should have knowledge of the main pathogens that they are carrying.\u201d \u2022 As we said in the print shop: \u201cThere\u2019s never time to do it right, but there\u2019s always time to do it over.\u201d (Boeing believes this too, although Deming did not.) Anyhoo, more work for HICPAC to avoid doing?<\/p>\n
Elite Maleficence<\/p>\n
Covid is not like the flu:<\/p>\n
A vaccine is supposed to prevent transmission or harm from transmission of disease. It can\u2019t do that if transmission is widespread and wildly out of control well before the vaccine is available. And it\u2019s not like we haven\u2019t seen this pattern every single summer.\ud83e\udd26\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jerome Adams (@JeromeAdamsMD) September 2, 2024<\/p>\n
CDC continued effort to force-fit Covid into the existing, seasonal vaccination schedule has been a debacle. To some desk creature inside Festung Peachtree Street, it makes sense to do all vaccination at one time; but reality is more cunning than any theory, and Covid has other ideas. (We should also stop saying \u201csummer covid,\u201d etc. We\u2019ve got \u201cVacation Travel Covid,\u201d \u201cBack to School Covid,\u201d \u201cHoliday Covid,\u201d and so forth. Social relations and behavior are what matter here, not the tilt of the Earth\u2019s axis.)<\/p>\n
About the extremely soothing color scheme CDC uses for Covid transmission:<\/p>\n
If you want to make an ordinary COVID transmission map less informative, just adjust the hue by -150 in PhotoShop to turn scary red to calming blue. #LaissezFairePublicHealth pic.twitter.com\/T9KNC6X54a<\/p>\n
\u2014 Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) September 2, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n
Wastewater<\/p>\n
This week[1] CDC August 26:<\/p>\n
Last Week[2] CDC (until next week):<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-2.png\")
<\/p>\n
Variants [3] CDC August 31<\/p>\n
\u2605 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 24 <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-ed-natl.png\")
<\/p>\n
Hospitalization<\/p>\n
\u2605 New York[5] New York State, data August 30:<\/p>\n
National [6] CDC August 10:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
Positivity<\/p>\n
\u2605 National[7] Walgreens September 3:<\/p>\n
Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 24:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cleveland-positivity-.png\")
<\/p>\n
Travelers Data<\/p>\n
Positivity[9] CDC August 12:
\n Variants[10] CDC August 12:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
Deaths<\/p>\n
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 24:<\/p>\n
Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 24:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/covid-cd-ed-natl.png\")
<\/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. XDV.1 flat.<\/p>\n
[4] (ED) Down, but worth noting that Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.<\/p>\n
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Flat, that is, no longer down.<\/p>\n
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.<\/p>\n
[7] (Walgreens) Big drop, but all those white states showing no change: Labor Day weekend reporting issues?<\/p>\n
[8] (Cleveland) Dropping.<\/p>\n
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down. 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 range. 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) What the heck is LB.1?<\/p>\n
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up. If the United States is like Canada, deaths are several undercounted:<\/p>\n
Tara Motarity has confirmed our fears.Most provinces are only reporting about 20% of covid deaths.Maybe even less.Which suggests the deaths are close to 5 times to 6+ times the reported figures.Nova Scotia has reported 270 so far this year. It’s actually 1,325-1,700 so far. pic.twitter.com\/6xF6SREyKB<\/p>\n
\u2014 Dr.Robert Strang (@DSlayer520) September 2, 2024<\/p>\n
[12] Deaths low, ED up.<\/p>\n
Stats Watch<\/p>\n
[to come]<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Real Estate: \u201c\u2018Worst case scenario\u2019 of Florida real estate crisis revealed as desperate residents flee\u201d [Daily Mail]. \u201cRecently, a new law was introduced that requires increased safety checks on Florida condos. The legislation was brought in following the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Tower South in Surfside, which killed 98 people. It later emerged that the condo association had postponed crucial repairs to avoid increasing costs, prompting lawmakers to introduce new regulations that are set to take effect at the end of the year. Because of this, many residents have had to leave their condos and look elsewhere to call home. \u2018If the crisis deepens, there could be a mass exodus of residents from affected condo buildings, leading to a glut of unsold properties and further declines in prices,\u2019 he said.\u201d \u2022 Not even climate! Yet.<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cShocking leak suggests your phone really is listening in on your conversations\u201d [Daily Mail]. \u201cAn apparent pitch deck from one of Facebook\u2019s alleged marketing partner appears to detail how the firm eavesdrops on users\u2019 conversations to create targeted ads. In a slideshow, Cox Media Group (CMG) claims that its \u2018Active-Listening\u2019 software uses AI to collect and analyze \u2018real-time intent data\u2019 by listening to what you say through your phone, laptop or home assistant microphone. \u2018Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers,\u2019 the deck states. The pitch deck goes on to tout Facebook, Google and Amazon as clients of CMG, suggesting they could be using its Active-Listening service to target users.\u201d \u2022 Yikes!<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cOn Boeing\u2019s factory floor, workers feel \u2018overmanaged and undersupported’\u201d [Seattle Times]. Worth reading in full. \u201cIn those interviews, workers portrayed consistent problems on Boeing\u2019s factory floor: The company hemorrhaged institutional knowledge during the pandemic and hasn\u2019t yet caught up. Boeing pushes workers to move quickly to get planes out the door, sometimes ignoring the correct sequence of work and neglecting to document deviations. Upper management doesn\u2019t want to hear safety concerns, they say\u2026. Boeing lost nearly 15,000 workers in Washington \u2014 roughly 21% of its workforce in the state \u2014 between 2019 and 2020 due to retirements, layoffs and voluntary buyouts, according to company data. The aircraft manufacturer was dealing with a slowdown in air travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a slowdown in production after the fatal MAX crashes and subsequent grounding of the MAX fleet. It started to ramp up hiring again in 2022, bringing on more than 4,000 workers in Washington that year and 6,600 more last year. It still hasn\u2019t reached 2019 employment levels. Today\u2019s new hires are navigating work on the factory floor without the generational knowledge that so many mechanics relied on, current employees told The Times and the NTSB.\u201d \u2022 But muh spreadsheets!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 68 Greed (previous close: 63 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 55 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Sep 3 at 1:37:31 PM ET.<\/p>\n
Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 182. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) \u2022 Hard to believe the Rapture Index is going down. Where are there people getting their news?<\/p>\n
Gallery<\/p>\n
Not what I expect from Cezanne:<\/p>\n
The Feast, 1867 pic.twitter.com\/Skuoyrs5a8<\/p>\n
\u2014 Paul Cezanne (@cezanneart) September 1, 2024<\/p>\n
The Exterminating Angel comes to mind\u2026. <\/p>\n
News of the Wired<\/p>\n
Fewer dimenions = greater readability?<\/p>\n
1: #Tokyo metro map in 2D.
2: The same map in 3D.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\ude87\ud83c\udf10\ud83e\uddf5 pic.twitter.com\/nYQSA9DvpR<\/p>\n
\u2014 \ud835\ude83\ud835\ude8a\ud835\ude9b\ud835\ude8a\ud835\ude9c \ud835\ude76\ud835\ude9b\ud835\ude8e\ud835\ude9c\ud835\ude8c\ud835\ude98\ud835\ude8e \ud83d\ude87 (@grescoe) August 31, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
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\/09\/black_bat.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
TH writes: \u201cA volunteer acting as guide in the San Diego Botanic Garden\u2019s Dickinson Family Education Conservatory pointed this one out to us. It\u2019s is a Tacca chantrier, also known as a black bat flower; a member of the yam family Dioscoreaceae.\u201d Yikes!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert\u2019s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. 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
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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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