2:00PM Water Cooler 5/10/2023 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Fowl Tune of the Day

Nice Eared-Nightjar, Parambikulam Tiger Reserve– Pulickal, Palakkad, Kerala, India.

Politics

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

Biden Administration

“Debt nervousness falls just a little on the Hill. It may not be sufficient.” [Politico]. “President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy are nonetheless very a lot within the finger-pointing stage of the economy-rattling debt disaster. But some doable indicators of life have begun to emerge. Senior Hill aides have agreed to start out extra in-depth talks on authorities spending — although Democrats insist these are on a separate observe from elevating the nation’s debt restrict. Biden has stated he’d take a ‘exhausting look’ at unspent Covid help cash within the talks. A prime White Home advisor is laying out concepts for vitality allowing reform — one of many GOP’s largest debt restrict priorities. It’s all far in need of a compromise to bridge the mile-wide hole between get together leaders, who’ve retreated to their corners since their Oval Workplace sit-down on Tuesday. High Democrats are nonetheless refusing to entertain the GOP’s spending reduce calls for, with Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer castigating McCarthy in a bid to separate him from Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell. And Republicans are complaining that Biden is operating out the clock. So the minor indicators of progress which are seen within the Capitol are leaving some lawmakers to wonder if they’re significant or extra of a mirage because the deadline to keep away from a full-blown financial disaster attracts nearer.” • I ponder if any of that unspent Covid cash was going to go to nasal vaccine improvement. I’m guessing sure.

“White Home eases COVID protocols as emergency lifts” [Associated Press]. • First superspreader occasion in how lengthy? Readers?

The Supremes

“Clarence Thomas Reversed Place After Presents And Household Funds” [The Lever]. “The so-called ‘Chevron deference’ doctrine stipulates that the manager department — not the federal courts — has the facility to interpret legal guidelines handed by Congress in sure circumstances. Conservatives for years have fought to overturn the doctrine, a transfer that will empower authorized challenges to federal company rules on every part from local weather coverage to office security to additional time pay. Thomas wrote a landmark Supreme Court docket opinion upholding the doctrine in 2005, however started questioning it a decade later, earlier than ultimately renouncing his previous opinion in 2020 and claiming that the doctrine itself could be unconstitutional. Now, Thomas might assist overturn the doctrine in a brand new case the excessive courtroom simply agreed to listen to subsequent time period. nGroups throughout the conservative authorized motion funded by Leonard Leo’s darkish cash community and affiliated with Thomas’ billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow have organized a concerted effort lately to overturn Chevron. That marketing campaign unfolded as they delivered presents and money to Thomas and his household within the lead-up to his shift on the doctrine.”

2024

I assume it’s time for the Countdown Clock!

Christmas music within the shops on Halloween, however right here we’re…

Lambert right here: I bope this factor is counting down; the UI/UX for constructing a clock modified from final 12 months, and never for the higher.

* * *

“Trump discussion board an enormous check for CNN, moderator Kaitlan Collins” [Associated Press]. “Donald Trump’s city corridor discussion board on CNN [at 9pm] on Wednesday [That’s today!] is the primary main tv occasion of the 2024 presidential marketing campaign — and a huge check for the chosen moderator, Kaitlan Collins…. A Trump adviser, who was not licensed to talk publicly and spoke on situation of anonymity, stated CNN executives made a compelling pitch to the previous president. The adviser additionally famous that Trump discovered success in 2016 by stepping outdoors Republicans’ conventional consolation zone… ‘I discover it very exhausting to defend the selection to present him a reside platform, regardless of how it’s dressed up,’ MSNBC’s Chris Hayes stated on his present, which can immediately compete with Trump on Wednesday.” • Effectively, he would, wouldn’t he.

“Trump assaults ‘biased’ decide and can attraction after jury finds he sexually abused author E Jean Carroll in altering room” [Sky News]. “The previous US president was additionally discovered to have defamed E Jean Carroll, however the civil trial rejected her declare she was raped in the course of the encounter. Trump should pay the previous Elle journal recommendation columnist $5m (£4m) in damages.” • The drumbeat for a few years is that Trump was rapist. Because it seems, he’s not, however that’s not the story. It appears to be like to me like Trump was slapped with $5 million in damages for being a [glassbowl]; which, reality to inform, he’s. Michael Tracey is just not unsuitable:

In her 2022 deposition Carroll stated till 4 or 5 years prior, the claimed encounter with Trump in 1996 had “no impact” in any respect on her life, however then someday round 2017-2018 (which might’ve been the time she was writing the e-book) she realized it destroyed her romantic life pic.twitter.com/aOSR8quS4o

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 10, 2023

If Trump wished to argue that this case was an instance of lawfare, provided that Carroll was funded by Democrat and Silicon Valley squillionaire Reid Hoffman, and provided that the swimsuit solely went forward due to New York’s “Grownup Survivors Act,” which created a “a year-long time frame by which sexual assault and rape survivors might sue their abusers in civil courtroom, lengthy after the statute of limitations for legal instances had handed,” and which looking back appears tailor-made for Trump, he may get some traction (“Ms Carroll, 78, is among the many first to sue below the Grownup Survivors Act, which got here into impact on Thursday.” Tidy!)

“Why some in new ballot nonetheless need Trump in 2024 even when he’s criminally charged” [ABC]. The deck: “‘He could be a foul individual, however he is an effective president,’ one individual stated.” Extra: “Trump’s backers embrace those that assume he broke the legislation, with 18% of respondents who stated Trump ought to face legal fees in investigations of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election outcomes additionally saying they’d be inclined to vote for him.”

“California Gov. Newsom declines to again reparations checks, says slavery’s legacy is ‘greater than money funds’” [FOX]. “FIRST ON FOX: California Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to endorse the money funds — which might attain as excessive as $1.2 million for a single recipient — beneficial by his reparations process power, telling Fox Information Digital that coping with the legacy of slavery ‘is about rather more than money funds.’ ‘The Reparations Job Pressure’s unbiased findings and proposals are a milestone in our bipartisan effort to advance justice and promote therapeutic. This has been an vital course of, and we should always proceed to work as a nation to reconcile our unique sin of slavery and perceive how that historical past has formed our nation,’ Newsom stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital. Whereas the Democratic governor applauded the duty power’s work, he declined to endorse any particular suggestions, although he pledged to proceed to ‘advance systemic modifications that guarantee an inclusive and equitable future for all Californians.’” • The canine caught the automobile. What to do?

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, evidently individuals are really studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are a lot of updates. So I should do this. –lambert

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Occasion (“the Democrat Occasion is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated submit, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “reside” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Occasion is, the truth is, a tough downside. I do assume the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:

The Democrat Occasion is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Occasion didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” in fact.) Second, all of the working elements of the Occasion reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between components of the Occasion (ka-ching, however not totally) these components comprise a community — a Flex Internet? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with belongings within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.

Notice, in fact, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed by different lessons; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

“USE YOUR VOICE. REPORT HATE” [California Civil Rights Department]. From the FAQ:

[1] Insanely obscure. “Expression or motion” (be aware the everyday conflation with “act”), “could also be motivated”, “precise or perceived.” After all the sacred “id” idea is just not outlined. This all appears to be like extremely gameable, to me, particularly by conservatives. One may contemplate the general public use of “ammosexual” or “gun-humper” as an assault on those that “determine as” gun-owners, for instance. The entire doc is worthy of research.

[2] Notice that hate incidents — to be reported — usually are not hate crimes. The definition of incidents is far broader.

[3] A nation of snitches. How enticing.

[4] And to the guts of the matter: A jobs assure for id politics operatives (as if there weren’t sufficient already).

#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); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. We at the moment are as much as 50/50 states (100%). That is actually nice! (It happens to me that there are makes use of to which this knowledge could be put, past serving to folks with “private danger assessments” acceptable to their state. For instance, considering pessimistically, we’d keep the record and see which states go darkish and when. We’d additionally tabulate the properties of every web site and search for variations and commonalities, for instance using GIS (an train in Federalism). I don’t that CA stays just a little sketchy; it feels just a little odd that there’s no statewide web site, however I’ve by no means been capable of finding one. Additionally, my working assumption was that every state would have one web site. That’s turned out to not be true; see e.g. ID. Trivially, it means I must punctuate this record correctly. Much less trivially, there could also be extra native websites that needs to be added. NY metropolis in NY state springs to thoughts, however I’m certain there are others. FL additionally springs to thoughts as a particular case, as a result of DeSantis will most likely be a Presidental candidate, and IIRC there was some foofra about their state dashboard. Thanks once more!

Assets, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin); 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, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tricks to useful readers: Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (9), JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (5), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3).

Search for the Helpers

I recall that now we have a minimum of one NC reader who offers away masks; that strikes me as a really type strategy (therefore not prime of thoughts for me, sadly):

I do know we’re all burnt tf out and it shouldn’t be on excessive danger folks to coach however I’m making an attempt to choose my battles. I most likely is not going to spend vitality on somebody who overtly doesn’t care anymore however somebody coming again to masking is displaying an initiative of care/concern

— Lauren Kayes (@LaurenRKayes) May 5, 2023

Covid Is Airborne

The facility of small good points:

For these hellbent on saying Air flow, Filtration and masking are futile…hope will get you zero achieve! pic.twitter.com/TvvZULsUJn

— Robert Bean #COVIDisAirborne (@healthyheating) May 7, 2023

The identical works for avoiding an infection, too — even delayed an infection. Your baby, contaminated zero or one instances, will over time accrue, nicely, social capital in comparison with those that are broken by covid an infection, just a bit extra with every repeated an infection. And after, say, 10 years of this? I might additionally urge that the layered strategy is extra more likely to produce many of those small good points:

There isn’t a silver bullet resolution to mitigating the hurt attributable to COVID. We’d like masks, clear air, vaccines, therapies and extra. None of this stuff are good, and none alone are enough to stop all of the hurt being brought on. We’d like all of them. Preserve talking up for layers!

— Dr. Fortunate Tran (@luckytran) May 7, 2023

“No Proof of Induced Pores and skin Most cancers or Different Pores and skin Abnormalities after Lengthy-Time period (66 week) Power Publicity to 222-nm Far-UVC Radiation” [Photochemistry and Photobiology]. “Far-UVC radiation, sometimes outlined as 200-235 nm, has related or higher anti-microbial efficacy in contrast with standard 254-nm germicidal radiation. As well as, biophysical concerns of the interplay of far-UVC with tissue, in addition to a number of short-term security research in animal fashions and people, counsel that far-UVC publicity could also be protected for pores and skin and eye tissue. Nonetheless, the potential for pores and skin most cancers after power long-term publicity to far-UVC has not been studied. … No proof for elevated pores and skin most cancers, irregular pores and skin growths or incidental pores and skin pathology findings was noticed within the far-UVC-exposed mice. As well as, there have been no important modifications in morbidity or mortality. The findings from this research assist the long-term security of long-term power publicity to far-UVC radiation, and subsequently its potential suitability as a sensible anti-microbial strategy to cut back airborne viral and bacterial masses in occupied indoor settings.” • I’ve gotta say, and I do know this isn’t totally rational, that I’m nonetheless skeptical. I do know filters work and are no danger. I can’t convey myself to say “no danger” with UV. I might be much more snug with UV in areas by means of which individuals moved quickly, like hallways or entrances, versus areas the place folks stay for minutes at a time. Sorry, UV advocates!

Maskstravaganza

Common masking as an ADA lodging?! Hmm:

Essential life-saving data: when you have a situation on the CDC’s record of danger elements for COVID-19 you may get common masking as an ADA lodging.

This is some useful data on how this is applicable to healthcare from @PeoplesCDC : https://t.co/4Y0tPrUng1

— Anna Pakman (@Annatated) May 9, 2023

If appropriate, this minimizes my reservations about an ADA-based strategy, expressed right here.

“ADA+ Rights Workshop” [People’s CDC]. That is actually good. Folks’s CDC doesn’t fiddle. On Lodging:

I might think about the varied “temper problems” created by previous Covid an infection are well-documented. Extra:

This all appears to be like good to me. Readers? ADA professionals?

Masks as vogue:

Masking has counter-cultural attraction. We’re cool and sizzling & now we have nice aesthetics & nice politics. Folks need to hang around with us. We’re badass & radical. By no means fucking overlook it. We are the good sort of bizarre. We’ll win. https://t.co/yc1YpgWlTJ

— full quantity large bang idea theme track (@LizWhatsherface) May 7, 2023

Someway, I don’t assume Goth fashion goes mainstream. That’s not the purpose of being a Goth! However I feel the bigger level is that aesthetics depend, and as a lot as I like my 3M Aura, 3M is a big monopoly that conceptualizes and kinds masks in the event that they had been medical home equipment. However the process earlier than us is to normalize masking, and which means transferring them out of the medical bucket into the buyer bucket (i.e., make them vogue).

Testing and Monitoring

La-la-la, I can’t hear you!

CDC actively tracks flu exercise however is ending their monitoring of covid transmission, a virus that’s rather more dangerious than the flu.

— Covid Report (@CovidDataReport) May 6, 2023

Sequelae

“How lockdowns turned us into delinquent goblins – and why it issues” [New Scientist]. “Lately, some colleagues of mine placed on a public well being convention. Greater than 80 folks registered for the in-person-only occasion, and we ordered coffees and snacks for just a little below that quantity – assuming, as is the norm, that 20 to 30 per cent of individuals would drop out. Surprisingly, it was nearer to 90 per cent. Solely a handful of individuals confirmed up. We had been shocked and distressed, and began speculating about why the turnout was so dangerous. Then somebody talked about that this type of factor is extra frequent after the covid-19 lockdowns: folks simply don’t like leaving their houses….The behaviours now we have seen –

and proceed to see, if our current convention failure displays wider traits – point out that covid-19 lockdowns pressured a sort of reverse cultural evolutionary course of. We’re social animals who want common interplay, and depriving us of socialising releases a culturally primitive, largely delinquent goblin. ” • Or maybe potential attendees made a private danger evaluation, and determined that the social and symbolic capital to be amassed from the convention wasn’t definitely worth the danger of cumulative neurological and vascular harm. Definitely the standard of this paper lends assist to that speculation. In any case, this introvert is of the view that extroverts are gonna kill us all. A view for which there’s some assist, since apparently there’s a factor that we’d label “acquired extroversion”–

“Selective Neuronal Mitochondrial Focusing on in SARS-CoV-2 An infection Impacts Cognitive Processes to Induce ‘Mind Fog’ and Leads to Behavioral Adjustments that Favor Viral Survival” [Medical Science Monitor]. We’ve linked to this already, however right here is are some tweets with a helpful diagram that makes the central mechanism extra penetrable:

Copying the hyperlink with the picture that explains what’s taking place.
Probably the most vitality/oxygen delicate elements of the mind are emotional regulation and govt operate. It’s why stroke sufferers can appear effective, however have long-term emotional modifications not seen within the hospital. https://t.co/3rDJ9YSbuq

— CZEdwards (@CZEdwards) May 9, 2023

I like* the a part of c19 analysis mainly going, “Yeah, we predict it causes the identical YOLO impact as toxoplasmosis does to rats, however on people. C19 REALLY needs you to have a child’s celebration at a busy Chuck E Cheese, then go clubbing!”

*am horrified by

— CZEdwards (@CZEdwards) May 9, 2023

So now we have a single mechanism that will clarify each mind fog in Lengthy Covid and the collective, post-Covid temper change (extra anger, extra impulse) that so many have commented upon. Parsimony is sweet. Oh, and a brand new phrase:

It’s not denial. It’s not a sensory-specific or hemispheric subject. It’s not an amnesia, or an incapability to kind a brand new reminiscence (although it might be associated).
It does make common household relationships troublesome — it’s usually the underlying downside when it’s time to take the automobile keys.

— CZEdwards (@CZEdwards) May 10, 2023

Anosognosia. After all, that is all speculative, I hate medicalized explanations for social phenomena, and so forth. But it surely’s an intriguing, “The Final of Us”-style viewpoint.

* * *

“Lengthy Covid: clues about causes” [European Respiratory Journal]. “Given the rising proof that completely different patterns of signs could be pushed by distinct pathophysiological pathways (determine 1), it’s important that rigorous and evidence-based classifications of illness are used to design trials of particular interventions based mostly on this information. Many medical trials are underway to determine potential therapies [8] however there’s a danger that these trials will present no advantages if sufferers with completely different pathogenic pathways usually are not differentiated.” • Right here is Determine 1:

“The plasma metabolome of lengthy COVID-19 sufferers two years after an infection” (preprint) [medRxiv]. N = 108. From the Summary: ” On this research, our objective was to evaluate the plasma metabolome in a complete of 108 samples collected from wholesome controls, COVID-19 sufferers, and lengthy COVID sufferers recruited in Mexico between 2020 and 2022…. The comparability of paired COVID-19/post-COVID-19 samples revealed 53 metabolites that had been statistically completely different (FDR < 0.05). In comparison with controls, 29 metabolites remained dysregulated even after two years…. Mitochondrial dysfunction, redox state imbalance, impaired vitality metabolism, and are more likely to be the primary hallmarks of lengthy COVID even two years after acute COVID-19 an infection.”

“Submit COVID-19 situation after delta an infection and omicron reinfection in youngsters and adolescents” [The Lancet]. “In our potential paediatric research, we confirmed that older age, having acute signs, and better antibody titres are related to long-term signs after SARS-CoV-2 delta an infection. The affiliation between antibody titres and long-term signs beforehand described in adults can on this research be prolonged to youngsters. Therefore, in sustaining signs in youngsters, as noticed in adolescents after different viral infections. The three commonest long-term signs after delta an infection in our cohort had been fatigue, dyspnoea and cognitive impairment, with increased frequencies in adolescents than in youngsters. These three had been lately confirmed because the frequent clusters of long-term COVID signs, and regularly reported as persisting paediatric signs. We noticed that adolescents extra regularly reported persistent and long-term signs than youngsters, confirming the affiliation between signs and age post-puberty, regardless of excessive vaccination charges in adolescents. When evaluating teams of vaccinated and unvaccinated adolescents, we discovered no important variations in reported acute and chronic signs….”

Elite Maleficence

“Go to work with a chilly – cough on a colleague” [Henrik Widegren, Sweden Posts English]. I believed that was just for People. Guess not. Framed as a “debate,” so I assume intentionally controversial: “Sweden, I’ve information: Covid-19 is now not a illness harmful to the general public and society! I repeat: Covid-19 is below management! Now some might imagine that I’ve been residing below a rock and have missed that the pandemic has subsided within the final 12 months, however I’m penning this as a result of many individuals are nonetheless behaving as if we had a harmful pandemic. In current months, I’ve had acquaintances who canceled dinners, colleagues who complained that the preschool didn’t need to settle for their snotty youngsters, and sufferers who canceled appointments. Motive: Chilly. Chilly?! A chilly has now grow to be a purpose to cancel something: A gathering, a espresso on the town, an on-call, a fiftieth celebration. And it’s all the time with the altruistic clarification: ‘I don’t need to infect others with my chilly.;… The Covid-19 pandemic was a superb train for future critical pandemics, however now the train is over and we will return to virus on a regular basis life. Loosen up and embrace your chilly! It exhibits that you’re alive! Take two Alvedon, nasal spray and go to work. Cough on a colleague, sneeze on a buddy, and sneeze on a toddler! (As a result of they nonetheless snitch on you.)” • The writer is an ear, nostril and throat physician at Skåne College Hospital.

“Let me see your smile!” From DG, who writes: “Nancy the long-running cartoon [has] many surreal features. Nancy is sort of all the time unusual. Cultural criticism of smiles and the eye-smile relationship (if I could put it that manner)”:

The highway to stochastic eugenics:

Psychology masterclass at work.

v1.0 “We’re sort of on this collectively”
v(-1.0) “You do you”
v(-2.0) “You do you, so long as it is what I would like you to”
v(-3.0) “Do what we wish, or one among us will struggle you for it”

— If I could… (@Mr_Inquisitr) May 7, 2023

The Jackpot

A small instance of cascading disasters that work together:

Final evening, whereas in line to get gasoline, as hundreds of individuals had been fleeing my hometown, I referred to as my aunt, whose residence close to Edmonton can be the pure place for us to go. Whereas she stated we will come, her son seemingly has COVID. That’s when how fucked issues actually are hit me.

— PropaGandalf 🌾 (@xghostnotesx) May 5, 2023

Lambert right here: I’m getting the sensation that the “One thing Terrible” could be a sawtooth sample — variant after variant — that averages out to a completely excessive plateau. Numerous exceptionally nasty sequelae, most probably deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson).

Case Knowledge

NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater knowledge from Could 8:

Lambert right here: Until america is totally, er, distinctive, we needs to be seeing a rise right here quickly. UPDATE Certainly, a slight uptick. Nonetheless on the excessive plateau.

For now, I’m going to make use of this nationwide wastewater knowledge as the perfect proxy for case knowledge (ignoring the medical case knowledge portion of this chart, which for my part “goes dangerous” after March 2022, for causes as but unexplained). A minimum of we will spot traits, and evaluate present ranges to equal previous ranges.

Variants

NOT UPDATED From CDC, Could 6, 2023. Right here we go once more:

Lambert right here: Seems to be like XBB.1.16 is rolling proper alongside. Although XBB 1.9.1 is within the race as nicely.

Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, from Could 6:

NOTE “Charts and knowledge supplied by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not all the pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “similar to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is acceptable for each_{MR SUBLIMINAL I hate these folks a lot}. Discover additionally that this chart exhibits, a minimum of for its time interval, that Covid is not seasonal, although CDC is making an attempt to get us to imagine that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the prevailing institutional equipment for injections.

Positivity

NOT UPDATED From Walgreens, Could 8:

Lambert right here: Walgreens is again up (hat tip, alert reader ChrisRUEcon). Hoorary! (I assume this additionally means you may nonetheless get check kits at Walgreens. It appears to be like like you may order free check kits till Could 11. What occurs after that’s not clear to me. Readers? (I might even be very completely satisfied if the positioning continued reside after Could 11.)

Lambert right here: 4%. That’s so much. Although I don’t know the way whether or not they reported, or are interpolating, the information from April 11, the final day I recorded, till right now.

Deaths

Demise fee (Our World in Knowledge), from April 30:

Lambert right here: So this knowledge feed, er, got here alive once more.

Whole: 1,162,474 – 1,162,471 – 1,162,403 = 3 (2 * 365 = 730 deaths per 12 months, right now’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “residing with” Covid (fairly a bit increased than the minimizers would love, although they’ll speak themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I may need to resolve that is what the powers-that-be contemplate “mission achieved” for this explicit tranche of loss of life and illness).

Lambert right here: 3 appears low.

Extra Deaths

NOT UPDATED Extra deaths (The Economist), revealed Could 9:

Lambert right here: I don’t like sudden drops to zero a lot. The identical factor additionally occurred with the loss of life fee knowledge after WHO took over the feed.

Lambert right here: Primarily based on a machine-learning mannequin. (The CDC has an extra estimate too, however because it ran without end with a large typo within the Legend, I figured no one was actually it, so I obtained rid it. )

• These two mortality websites appear to be telling very completely different tales, each from one another and from the Economist’s chart above. I’m not a mortality maven. Can readers make clear?

Mortality Watch (fjallstrom):

US Mortality (aleric):

Stats Watch

Inflation: “United States Client Value Index (CPI)” [Trading Economics]. “The Client Value Index for All City Shoppers (CPI-U) elevated 4.9 p.c over the past 12 months to an index stage of 303.363 (1982-84=100). For the month, the index elevated 0.5 p.c previous to seasonal adjustment.”

Tech: “RIP Metaverse” [Business Insider]. “The Metaverse is now headed to the tech business’s graveyard of failed concepts. However the quick life and ignominious loss of life of the Metaverse presents a obvious indictment of the tech business that birthed it…. The Metaverse additionally suffered from an acute id disaster. A practical enterprise proposition requires just a few issues to thrive and develop: a transparent use case, a audience, and the willingness of consumers to undertake the product. Zuckerberg waxed poetic in regards to the Metaverse as “a imaginative and prescient that spans many firms” and “the successor to the cell web,” however he didn’t articulate the essential enterprise issues that the Metaverse would tackle. The idea of digital worlds the place customers work together with one another utilizing digital avatars is an previous one, going again so far as the late Nineteen Nineties with massively multiplayer on-line role-player video games, corresponding to “Meridian 59,” “Ultima On-line,” and “EverQuest.” And whereas the Metaverse supposedly constructed on these concepts with new expertise, Zuckerberg’s one precise product — the VR platform Horizon Worlds, which required using an extremely clunky Oculus headset — didn’t counsel something approaching a highway map or a real imaginative and prescient. Regardless of the Metaverse’s arrested conceptual improvement, a pliant press revealed statements about the way forward for the expertise that had been someplace between unrealistic and outright irresponsible. The CNBC host Jim Cramer nodded approvingly when Zuckerberg claimed that 1 billion folks would use the Metaverse and spend tons of of {dollars} there, regardless of the Meta CEO’s incapability to say what folks would obtain in alternate for his or her money or why anybody would need to strap a clunky headset to their face to attend a low-quality, cartoon live performance.” • Play silly video games, win silly prizes. So why do we predict the cash behind Generative AI is any smarter?

Tech: “Wendy’s Turns to AI-Powered Chatbots for Drive-Through Orders” [Bloomberg]. From the deck: “Restaurant chains are pushing into AI to cut back labor prices.” • All the things’s going based on plan! And simply wait till one among chatbots will get blasted by a not-entirely-gruntled ammosexual buyer.

Right now’s Concern & Greed Index: 59 Greed (earlier shut: 60 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 57 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Could 10 at 1:37 PM.

Groves of Academe

“Jeff Ettinger, former Hormel Meals CEO, named UMN interim president” [Pioneer Press]. “The College of Minnesota Board of Regents picked an outsider over a crop of teachers Monday in making former Hormel Meals CEO Jeff Ettinger the U’s subsequent president on an interim foundation…. ‘I simply assume we’re prepared for a really completely different standpoint that embraces the mission, but brings us one thing contemporary and completely different that we will construct on,’ Regent Mary Davenport stated. Ettinger, who ran for Congress final 12 months, described himself in his software as a possible ‘bridge builderwith the U’s stakeholders.” • Lord is aware of I’ve no love for college administators, however is educating college students actually like canning spam?

Zeitgeist Watch

No:

I used to reside in Somerville, “the compost heap in again of Harvard Yard.” This isn’t Somerville.

Class Warfare

A extremely nice thread from the script author’s strike that exhibits how Hollywood actually works at floor stage. Price studying in full:

It’s gonna be a very long time earlier than AI does any of that. After all, that little downside will be solved by relentlessly crapifying the product; in case your angle is “Who wants continuity?” it follows you don’t want writers to supply it.

Information of the Wired

UI/UX design:

Great things!

It’s solely Hump Day however however:

Contact data for crops: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a test in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are effective! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you need your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it at first of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From Lee:

Lee writes: “Bushes in silhouette, throughout and after a storm. Taken by my son from his window overlooking neighbors’ again yards.”

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Right here is the display that can seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:

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