2:00PM Water Cooler 4/2/2024 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Fowl Track of the Day

Home Wren, Coronado Nationwide Forest, Pearce, Ash Springs Path, Cochise, Arizona, United States.

In Case You May Miss…

(1) Trump posts bond.

(2) Kennedy makes the poll in NC.

(3) Shanahan: Extra element.

Politics

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

2024

Lower than a 12 months to go!

RCP Ballot Averages, March 29

I feel I’ll depart this up till this coming Friday, so I can not less than mumble one thing about traits. Nationally, Trump is up 2.4% within the 5-Manner, similar as final week, give or take. Trump continues to be up in all of the Swing States (extra right here). I’ve highlighted PA, (1) as a result of Trump is definitely down there, and (2) it’s an outlier, has been for weeks. Why isn’t Trump doing nicely there?

* * *

“Trump posts $175 million bond in New York civil fraud case” [NBC]. “Former President Donald Trump has posted a $175 million bond within the New York civil fraud case, stopping seizure of his property whereas the case is beneath attraction… Knight Specialty Insurance coverage Co., the entity that underwrote Trump’s bond, is a part of a bunch of corporations run by Los Angeles-based billionaire Don Hankey, who’s No. 128 on the 2023 Forbes 400 record and No. 317 on the 2023 Forbes billionaires record. Hankey has been an investor in Axos Financial institution, the monetary establishment that refinanced Trump’s loans on Trump Tower and Trump Nationwide Doral Miami in 2022. Axos has lent Trump $100 million in his refinancing of Trump Tower and $125 million extra for Doral. Neither mortgage is due till 2032, in response to the Workplace of Authorities Ethics disclosure Trump submitted in August.” • File that identify away.

“Ex-Trump aide Hope Hicks anticipated to testify in former president’s New York prison trial” [NBC]. I’ve at all times had a mushy spot for Hicks, as a result of one of many earliest tales I learn on Trump was from a Bloomberg reporter; Hicks informed him she couldn’t take his name simply then as a result of she was going to take a nap. A bit of style of what was coming, I suppose. Extra: “‘I’ve discovered that within the days following the Entry Hollywood video [‘grab ’em by the pussy’], [then-Trump lawyer Michael] Cohen exchanged a sequence of calls, textual content messages and emails with Keith Davidson, who was then [Stephanie Clifford [a.k.a. Stormy Daniel]’s legal professional, David Pecker and Dylan Howard of American Media Inc., the writer of the Nationwide Enquirer, Trump, and Hope Hicks, who was then press secretary for Trump’s presidential marketing campaign,” the FBI agent wrote within the affidavit. ‘Based mostly on the timing of those calls, and the content material of the textual content messages and emails, I imagine that not less than a few of these communications involved the necessity to stop Clifford from going public, significantly within the wake of the Entry Hollywood story,’ the affidavit mentioned.” • Hicks will testify for the prosecution. We’ll see what she has to say.

* * *

“Trump Media Shares Hunch as Early Fervor Fades” [New York Times]. “Shares of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media firm slumped greater than 20 % on Monday, because the fervor across the firm’s debut on public markets final week appeared to subside. The sell-off reduce the market worth of Trump Media & Know-how Group, which trades beneath the ticker ‘DJT,’ by some $2 billion, to about $6.5 billion. The worth of Mr. Trump’s majority stake within the firm fell to about $3.7 billion, from over $6 billion at its peak final week. Nonetheless, shares of Trump Media had been increased than they had been instantly earlier than the agency merged with a public shell firm on Tuesday and commenced buying and selling on the Nasdaq. Robust help for the merged firm after it started buying and selling pushed its market worth as excessive as $10 billion at one level final week. That raised eyebrows throughout Wall Avenue, given the comparatively small measurement of Trump Media’s enterprise. A submitting on Monday confirmed that the corporate generated simply $750,000 in income within the fourth quarter final 12 months, bringing its full-year complete to $4.1 million. Trump Media recorded a $58 million loss in 2023. It obtained greater than $300 million in money as a part of its merger with the shell firm. All the corporate’s revenues come from promoting on Reality Social, the digital platform that has change into Mr. Trump’s foremost outlet for reaching his supporters and blasting his critics, political opponents and different perceived enemies, together with the prosecutors and judges concerned in his prison and civil instances.” • I don’t play the ponies, so I don’t know if Trump has been in a position to convert any of this paper to money, or how he would achieve this, absent merely sellling it, which he appears to not have executed. Readers?

* * *

“Trump’s VP search is beginning to get severe” [Politico]. “Susie Wiles, a high adviser to Trump, is main a close-to-the-vest means of narrowing a listing of round a dozen lawmakers and different Republican personalities into consideration, in response to a number of folks acquainted with the method. The marketing campaign has already employed an out of doors agency to vet candidates and put together analysis paperwork. Former first girl Melania Trump, who influenced Trump’s choice to pick Mike Pence in 2016, has been stored apprised. And Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. mentioned he speaks together with his father ceaselessly about who’s in competition. Whereas who’s up or down seemingly adjustments by the minute, the record has included everybody from Tim Scott and Kristi Noem to Byron Donalds, Elise Stefanik, Tulsi Gabbard and J.D. Vance, whom Trump has known as a ‘fighter.’ Trump, regardless of saying he doesn’t assume the vice chairman issues all that a lot, commonly asks friends at his Mar-a-Lago membership for his or her opinion on completely different choices and, with a aptitude for suspense, teases his decisions in personal conferences and media interviews. The method is predicted to take months. ‘He’s going to attract this out ‘Apprentice’-style,’ mentioned one individual near the Trump marketing campaign who was granted anonymity to talk freely.”

* * *

Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. has certified for poll in North Carolina, marketing campaign says” [The Hill]. Swing state. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s marketing campaign has added North Carolina to the increasing record of battleground states during which it has certified for the poll in November. The unbiased candidate’s marketing campaign says it now has sufficient signatures to record Kennedy as a White Home contender by means of the ‘We The Individuals’ occasion, gathering 23,000 pledges of help within the purple state. ‘We’ve got the sector groups, volunteers, authorized groups, paid circulators, supporters, and strategists able to get the job executed,’ Kennedy’s marketing campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear mentioned Monday in a press release saying the information. North Carolina is taken into account an necessary swing state for all events in 2024, together with a possible third-party ticket. Former President Trump gained the state by simply greater than 1 share level in 2020, giving Republicans a slight edge and galvanizing Democrats to attempt to win it this cycle. The addition of the Tar Heel state brings Kennedy’s poll certified complete to 5 states to this point, together with , and . In [second swing state], he cleared the signature threshold previous to assembly the requirement of getting a declared vice chairman alongside his identify, elevating questions on whether or not he must regather signatures of help.”

Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. calls Biden ‘real menace to our democracy’ over social media censorship” [New York Post]. “Unbiased presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reiterated Tuesday that he believes President Biden to current a higher menace to democracy than former President Donald Trump. ‘Biden has executed one thing that no different president in historical past has executed, which is to order media — significantly social media, Fb, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google — to censor his political opponents,’ the 70-year-old informed ‘Fox & Associates’ on Tuesday. ‘When you’ve got a president who can censor his political opponents, he has the license for any sort of atrocity — that could be a real menace to our democracy.’ Efforts by the Biden administration to flag content material for social media corporations to average, particularly in the course of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been topic to litigation earlier than the Supreme Court docket. Justices on the excessive courtroom heard oral arguments final month in a lawsuit difficult the Biden administration’s actions. On Monday night time, Kennedy brought on a stir by telling CNN that he ‘could make the argument that President Biden is far worse’ than Trump by way of defending democracy, drawing swift backlash from Democrats.” • Little question!

Kennedy (I): “Column: Voters wishing for a substitute for Trump and Biden obtained one. Sadly, it’s RFK Jr.” [Los Angeles Times]. “Lengthy earlier than Trump, RFK Jr. was the unique election denier, insisting that Republicans stole the 2004 election. Earlier than COVID, Kennedy was already well-known for falsely claiming that all vaccines are harmful and that some trigger autism. He additionally stands by his declare that cellphones and Wi-Fi trigger most cancers regardless of the lack of proof of a rise in most cancers charges amid exploding use of these applied sciences. Kennedy’s default place is that official explanations are suspect, which is one other means of claiming that each one conspiracy theories — from 9/11 trutherism to fringe theories concerning the assassination of his personal father to the concept the COVID virus was engineered to spare Jewish and Chinese language folks — deserve the good thing about the doubt. It’s as if his complete political persona had been designed to monetize what the political historian Richard Hofstadter known as ‘the paranoid model in American politics.’ It’s a testomony to the pervasiveness of the paranoid model that it’s tough to determine which occasion Kennedy will take extra votes from. ‘Our marketing campaign is a spoiler all proper,’ Kennedy mentioned final week whereas saying his working mate, Nicole Shanahan, in Oakland. ‘It’s a spoiler for President Biden and for President Trump.’ However there’s the rub: The identical duopoly that Kennedy is working in opposition to ensures that he generally is a spoiler for just one candidate. Hofstadter additionally mentioned, ‘Third events are like bees: as soon as they’ve stung, they die.’” • On election 2004, it’s a judgement name. Kennedy’s submit is, IIRC, on Ohio. I live-blogged that election all the way in which ’til protection ended (from a café in Philly; sure, I’m that outdated). There was a lot suspect shenanigaos in Ohio; I’m too lazy to dig out the hyperlinks — although I’ll at reader request — however there have been loads of sober-minded, non-conspiratorial observers who thought the outcomes stank. On Covid: The Instances hyperlink on SARS-CoV-2 being engineered to “spare Jewish and Chinese language” folks hyperlinks to the New York Submit, which cites to a video, offering a partial transcript. So I don’t assume we’re coping with the press merely making up quotes, as they typically have executed with Trump.

Kennedy (I): “Why Silicon Valley Reactionaries Love RFK Jr.” [The Nation]. “Silicon Valley cash, typically tied to folks within the circle of Peter Thiel, has fueled Kennedy’s presidential run. As Axios reported final June, ‘A number of of Silicon Valley’s noisiest tech moguls have begun to help the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vocal anti-vax activist who’s xcvkl;’ for the Democratic Occasion nomination.” These early backers included Elon Musk in addition to enterprise capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya and David Sacks (a longtime enterprise and ideological ally of Peter Thiel, a Paypal and Fb tycoon who backed Donald Trump in 2016). Writing about this cohort in The New Republic in 2022, Jacob Silverman famous {that a} pivotal motion that helped coalesce the group was the profitable marketing campaign to recall Chesa Boudin as district legal professional of California due to his help for prison justice reform. Each Shanahan and Sacks contributed closely to the Boudin recall marketing campaign, which demonstrated that Silicon Valley cash might roll again left-wing social actions. Previous to 2022, Shanahan was a typical rich Democratic Occasion donor, giving to figures akin to Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden. However in 2022 she joined the anti-Boudin marketing campaign, which related her with a wider cohort of reactionary tech figures. As Shanahan defined, she didn’t assume that prison justice reform was vital and ‘Chesa got here right into a scenario that wanted to be maintained, in my view, not essentially reformed.’ There’s a pipeline that runs from anti-Boudin sentiment to supporting Robert Kennedy, however law-and-order politics is only one part of Shanahan’s journey. One other key issue was openness to different medication and quack science, defended with the acquainted contrarian protection that we have to ask questions. ”

* * *

Kennedy (I): “55 Issues You Have to Know About Nicole Shanahan” [Politico]. “In divorce proceedings, which had been finalized in 2023, Shanahan sought over $1 billion from Brin. The ultimate division of property was settled in confidential arbitration.” • Hmm. Both Brin needs it confidential as a result of she obtained a billion, or she does, as a result of she didn’t. Regardless, she has sufficient to assist Kennedy proper now. Whether or not she will harvest from Silicon Valley — and, if that’s the case, from whom? — stays an open query.

“Tech leaders have all the talents for politics. Nonetheless, most don’t wish to run” [USA Today]. “Shanahan, a self-proclaimed “technologist,” can also be a analysis fellow at CodeX, the Stanford Heart for Authorized Informatics, which focuses on ‘humanistic coding.’” From the her Stanford bio: “Other than the sensible functions of authorized expertise, her tutorial analysis facilities round Ronald Coase’s work on transaction price idea. Entitled, ‘Coasean Mapping,’ she theorizes on the tempo and nature of society’s adoption of synthetic intelligence for legislation and authorities.” • Any readers have views on Ronald Coase and his work?

“RFK Jr.’s working mate an ‘unknown amount’ with ‘deep pockets’ as GOP, Dems concern spoiler marketing campaign: consultants” [FOX]. “Who precisely Shanahan will attraction to, and which candidate that in flip hurts, stays unknown.” • Yep.

* * *

Democrats en Déshabillé

“Why Democrats Can’t Stop Trump” [Wall Street Journal]. “I believe, if I might converse uncharitably, that many Democrats secretly miss the Trump years… Most high-level Democrats had much more enjoyable in the course of the ‘resistance’ than they’ve had professing to imagine, in opposition to all proof, that President Biden is totally in charge of his schools and that his administration hasn’t been embroiled in a single debacle after one other from the start. Immediately’s liberal politicos look again on the years 2016-20, I think about, in a lot the identical means baby-boomer leftists used to speak about protesting the Vietnam Conflict. We stood for one thing again then, man. We weren’t gonna let the pigs win! Whereas Mr. Trump was within the White Home, you would think about your self a part of some noble band of freedom fighters, keen to do what it took to cease America’s slide into right-wing tyranny. Rereading accounts of the early Trump years, you’ll be able to’t miss his enemies’ self-dramatization. ‘I wish to imagine the trail you threw out for consideration . . . there’s no means [Trump] will get elected—however I’m afraid we will’t take that threat,’ FBI investigator Peter Strzok texted his colleague and lover Lisa Web page in summer season 2016. ‘It’s like an insurance coverage coverage within the unlikely occasion you die earlier than you’re 40.’ Mr. Strzok is among the many partisans who dreamed up the concept Mr. Trump gained his election by colluding with the Russians…. Or recall Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) urging supporters in 2018 to harass high administration officers in public locations. ‘For those who see anyone from that cupboard in a restaurant, in a division retailer, at a gasoline station,’ she informed supporters, ‘you get out and also you create a crowd, and also you push again on them, and also you inform them they’re not welcome anymore, wherever.’ How thrilling it was to steer the wrestle in opposition to dictatorship!” • It’s as if Aaron Sorkin wrote a second “West Wing,” however of their brains….

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Why are Individuals so sad?” [The Hill]. “Total, Individuals really feel broke and brokenhearted even with general good nationwide information on inflation.” Lol. Extra: “America is in a interval of inner dissonance — not fairly decay however one thing akin to it. We don’t really feel like a contented nation. Monetary stress is one purpose so many Individuals wish to transfer to a different nation. In a latest ballot by Monmouth College, one-third of respondents mentioned they wish to dwell in a special nation — a determine that stood at 10 % 50 years in the past. (Not many individuals had an actual vacation spot in thoughts.) Different components contribute to unhappiness, however the frequent concern is generalized fear about the place America is occurring virtually each concern from schooling to politics, in response to the latest Gallup polling knowledge. And the discontentment results in a perception that America shouldn’t be nicely revered abroad. Individuals’ satisfaction with our international place is at its lowest since 2017 — additionally in response to Gallup. Unhappiness is each a political state and a psychological well being disaster, though we not often see them as interrelated. Nervousness impacts 1 in 5 adults. Greater than 20 % of teenagers have significantly thought of suicide. Consultants on psychological well being level to social media as one purpose for social disconnectedness.” • A unbroken pandemic would, after all, have nothing to do with “social disconnectedness.” Nor the million deaths and counting, which “disconnected” households, associates, co-workers, neighbors. Anyhow, if you happen to’re one in all that one-third contemplating expatriation, it is likely to be sensible to buy a Canadian lapel pin…. (The Monmouth ballot that determine is predicated in doesn’t take both earnings or location into consideration, ffs.)

#COVID19

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep secure on the market!

Maskstravaganza

“Well being programs ease up on masking” [Becker’s Hospital Review]. “Well being programs are scaling again masks guidelines for employees, sufferers and guests as respiratory virus season wanes…. Now, well being programs are as soon as once more loosening masking pointers. MaineHealth ended masking necessities for employees members offering direct affected person care March 18, citing ‘a considerable decline in general an infection charges’ over the previous month.” • It labored, so let’s cease (which is gonna be a giant drawback of avian influenza will get traction). This urge to regulate, this urge to do homework, this urge to twiddle, should be a PMC affliction. For those who’re not going to wash the air — and nothing tells me hospitals are keen to decide to this, facility-wide — then simply make masks the default coverage, universally. Cease tinkering! I grant which means much less make-work for directors, however absolutely they’ll discover different issues to do with their helpful time. Oh, and Covid isn’t seasonal. I perceive the institutional — versus the scientific or medical — explanation why CDC would select to handle all viruses transmitted by means of the respiratory tract is that if all of them had been seasonal, however once more, Covid shouldn’t be seasonal.

Elite Maleficence

However why?

1/ EXCUSE ME?!

“The King’s attendance [at church] was a part of a fastidiously deliberate and pared-down Easter morning, throughout which he had little private contact with others inside to defend him from an infection throughout his [cancer] therapy.” https://t.co/EH49PJgfLu

— Dr David Berger, aBsuRdiSTe cROnickLeR (@YouAreLobbyLud) April 1, 2024

From what “an infection” is Charles II being “shielded”?

TABLE 1: Each day Covid Charts

LEGEND

1) ★ for charts new right now; all others aren’t up to date.

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

NOTES

[1] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out on the stage of earlier Trump peaks. Not an ideal victory. Notice additionally the world “beneath the curve,” in addition to peaks. That space is bigger beneath Biden than beneath Trump, and it appears to be rising steadily if erratically.

[2] (Biobot) Backward revisions, I hate them.

[3] (CDC Variants) As of Could 11, genomic surveillance knowledge shall be reported biweekly, based mostly on the supply of optimistic check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice per week; semiweekly.” Seems like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.

[4] (ER) CDC appears to have killed this off, for the reason that hyperlink is damaged, I feel in favor of this factor. I’ll attempt to affirm.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Seems like a really gradual leveling off to a non-zero baseline, to me.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down. “Maps, charts, and knowledge supplied by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Check Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Flattening.

[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Now up, albeit within the rear view mirror.

[10] (Vacationers: Variants) JN.1 dominates completely.

Stats Watch

Employment Scenario: “United States Job Openings” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of job openings went up by 8,000 from the earlier month to eight.756 million in February 2024, above market expectations of 8.75 million.”

Manufacturing: “United States Manufacturing facility Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for US manufactured items rose by 1.4% from the earlier 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% improve to level to additional resilience of the US economic system.”

Retail: “Amazon Ditches ‘Simply Stroll Out’ Checkouts at Its Grocery Shops” [Gizmodo]. “Although it appeared fully automated, Simply Stroll Out relied on greater than 1,000 folks in India watching and labeling movies to make sure correct checkouts. The cashiers had been merely moved off-site, they usually watched you as you shopped.” • Identical to robotic vehicles lol.

Tech: “New XZ backdoor scanner detects implant in any Linux binary” [Bleeping Computer]. “Firmware safety agency Binarly has launched a free on-line scanner to detect Linux executables impacted by the XZ Utils provide chain assault, tracked as CVE-2024-3094. CVE-2024-3094 is a provide chain compromise in XZ Utils, a set of knowledge compression instruments and libraries utilized in many main Linux distributions. Late final month, Microsoft engineer Andres Freud found the backdoor within the newest model of the XZ Utils package deal whereas investigating unusually sluggish SSH logins on Debian Sid, a rolling launch of the Linux distribution.” • The XZ backdoor is definitely post-worthy, given its social engineering elements.

Immediately’s Concern & Greed Index: 62 Greed (earlier shut: 72 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 67 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Apr 2 at 1:49:21 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes down one on Plagues. “The shortage of exercise has downgraded this class” [Rapture Ready]. Document Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 187. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Fowl flu not a priority?

Groves of Academe

“Twilight of the Wonks” [Walter Russell Mead, The Tablet]. “The pre-modern college was a small, loosely managed affiliation, and its officers wanted to pay the payments, self-discipline the scholars, arbitrate the petty jealousies of the school, and maintain the college as an entire on the suitable facet of the political and ecclesiastical powers of the day. A contemporary college, even of the second or third tier, will typically be massive sufficient to play a big function as a neighborhood and even regional engine of financial growth. It might be the most important employer within the metropolis or city during which it’s sited. It should typically handle operations starting from top-of-the-line hospitals to world-class athletic amenities to tutorial printing presses and day care facilities. Bigger universities function eating halls that feed 1000’s and even tens of 1000’s of individuals daily and perform tasks as numerous as cattle breeding and subatomic analysis…. On the similar time, the connection between increased schooling and social management has largely damaged down. In pre-modern instances, college graduates had been virtually fully recruited from the higher lessons, and their college research was consciously meant to equip them for the train of actual energy and management. The pre-modern college was devoted to the artisanal manufacturing of latest generations of elite leaders in a handful of roles intently associated to the survival of the state. The fashionable college produces scientists, bureaucrats, managers, and diverse functionaries on an industrial scale to supply governments and the personal sector with a spread of expert professionals and data staff, most of whom will spend their lives following orders quite than giving them.” • Mead is a little bit of a flannel service provider, however the subject is value discussing….

The Gallery

“A Household Tree: Hippolyte Hodeau’s Trench Artwork (ca. 1917)” [The Public Domain Review]. “Like many troopers, Hodeau spent hours huddled in these muddy channels. To be able to kill time, maybe, or carry his spirits, he gathered leaves from an oak tree — elongated, striated, forest inexperienced — and used a type of aid carving to inscribe the names of his daughters, Andrée and Eléonore, in addition to the phrase ‘memento’ and what seems to be like ‘Argonne’. ‘Trench artwork’, because it’s known as, wasn’t essentially long-established in dugouts and wasn’t often so fragile. Collectors hunt down letter openers product of shrapnel; crucifixes product of bullets; and artillery shells long-established into the whole lot from bracelets to clocks to candelabras. Picket strolling sticks had been festooned with intricate carved heads, and tiny valentine pillows sewn and beaded for sweethearts again house. Hodeau’s engraved leaves are a part of this resourceful style, however there may be one other creative custom to which in addition they belong — that of arborglyphs, or tree carving. People have lengthy regarded bushes as witnesses….. As distinctive as his objects could appear, Hodeau was not alone in carving leaves. The artwork kind flourished throughout World Conflict I as a technique to improve letters house with a singular light-weight enclosure. Troopers used a needle or knife to whittle between the oak and chestnut veins, leaving solely phrases or, typically, a picture. Because of the partial opacity of perforated leaves, the carvings are particularly enchanting when lit from behind; typically they’re known as ‘feuilles de poilus’, or ‘tree leaf lace.’” • An instance (others on the hyperlink):

Zeitgeist Watch

“28 deaths at a California skydiving middle, however the jumps go on” [SF Gate]. “It’s unimaginable to calculate the fatality fee per bounce on the Parachute Heart, as a result of nobody retains observe of how many individuals bounce out of planes there — or what number of have died whereas doing so. In 2018, [the center’s former owner, Bill Dause] informed Sacramento’s KXTV-TV even he wasn’t certain what number of deaths had occurred at his enterprise. Dause declined to talk with SFGATE for this story.” • Why can’t folks simply make their private threat assessments?

Guillotine Watch

“Elon Musk’s ambitions for Mars branded ‘harmful phantasm’ by high astronomer” [Daily Express]. “[Martin Rees, a leading astrophysicist and member of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom under the title of ‘Astronomer Royal’,] informed the Home of Lords’ podcast Lord Speaker’s Nook: ‘I don’t assume [SpaceX’s plans] reasonable and we’ve obtained to resolve these issues right here on Earth.’ ‘Coping with local weather change on Earth is a doddle in comparison with making Mars liveable. So I don’t assume we must always maintain that out as a long-term intention in any respect.’ ‘I feel there is likely to be a couple of loopy pioneers dwelling on Mars, similar to there are folks dwelling on the South Pole, though it’s far much less hospitable than the South Pole. ‘However the concept of mass migration to keep away from the Earth’s issues, which he and some different house fans undertake, that, I feel, is a harmful phantasm.’” • 

Information of the Wired

“The Human Hemisphere” [Radical Cartography]. “Slightly below 88 % of humanity lives within the Northern Hemisphere; 82 % lives within the Japanese Hemisphere…. So it seems to be like there is likely to be some justification for Eurocentrism in any case, not less than geographically. Ah nicely.” • Hmm.

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