2:00PM Water Cooler 5/14/2024 | bare capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Affected person readers, I obtained wrapped across the axle on the Bragg trial. Extra quickly! –lambert

Chook Music of the Day

Baltimore Oriole, Lansing, Myers Level, north aspect of Salmon Creek, Tompkins, New York, United States. “Music and calls of second particular person. 6-20m away, 6-10 m up, at instances there have been two males and a feminine on this space chasing one another about.” From 1998. Twelve minutes.

Politics

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

2024

Lower than a half a 12 months to go!

RCP Ballot Averages, Could 10:

Nationwide outcomes now transferring Trump’s method. The entire Swing States (extra right here) are actually in Trump’s column, together with Michigan and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania leans extra Trump this week than final. In fact, it goes with out saying that these are all state polls, due to this fact unhealthy, and a lot of the outcomes are throughout the margin of error. Now, if both candidate begins breaking away in factors, as a substitute of tenths of some extent…. NOTE I modified the notation: Up and down arrows for will increase or decreases over final week, circles for no change. Purple = Trump. Blue can be Biden if he have been main anyplace, however he isn’t.

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Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Michael Cohen testifies in Trump hush cash trial” [CNN]. From Cohen’s testimony: “Trump Group CFO Allen Weisselberg advised Cohen he can be paid $420,000 for Daniel’s cost over 12 months. He testified that the cost collection arrange for future authorized companies was a reimbursement.” • I’ve but to see, within the protection, a quotation to a statutory definition of “authorized companies” in New York (members of the New York Bar please chime in). That is unsurprising, since on the Federal degree, within the “Authorized Companies Company Act,” “authorized companies” are usually not outlined both. (Neither is “authorized companies” outlined within the ethics FAQ of the New York Metropolis Bar, or in Rule 1.5, “Charges,” from the American Bar Affiliation.) The widespread sense definition of “authorized service” is “that which you pay a lawyer for”; Cambridge Dictionary: “work performed by a lawyer for a shopper”; Authorized Info Institute at Cornell Regulation Faculty: “[W]ork produced by an lawyer for a shopper. These companies embody any recommendation, counsel, or help involving law-related issues that helps purchasers navigate the authorized system and shield their rights. Particular examples of companies are drafting paperwork, reviewing contracts, negotiating enterprise preparations, or representing purchasers in court docket.” Below these defintions, not less than, Trump paid Cohen for authorized companies, there is no such thing as a enterprise data violation in any respect, and Bragg’s case falls to the bottom. “Truly,” then, is doing a variety of work in CNN’s protection.

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Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr. is defying the percentages — towards getting on ballots across the nation” [Politico]. “The marketing campaign turned in additional than twice the signatures wanted to qualify for the poll in Texas, which requires greater than 100,000 signatures from registered voters. Kennedy and his rookie marketing campaign group’s means to achieve the requirement is an organizational feat — one they’re repeating in state after state. ‘The pundits, who initially of this marketing campaign, have been saying it could be unimaginable for us to get on the poll, and we obtained on the poll in Texas,’ Kennedy mentioned at a rally in Austin, Texas, after delivering the petitions to the Secretary of State’s workplace. ‘And if we will get on in Texas, we will get on in all places.’ Kennedy and his working mate, Nicole Shanahan, are actually on the poll in 4 states. They’ve completed signature gathering in 9 extra and are circulating petitions for 29 others. The marketing campaign hopes to defy the percentages and get on the poll in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., — guaranteeing that his candidacy will have an effect on the November election. ‘Within the final two or three months, I’ve been very impressed with the Kennedy operation for having the ability to well maneuver and get on ballots that have been costly and troublesome,’ mentioned Michael Arno, whose poll entry agency labored with No Labels.” And No Labels did nicely, getting within the poll. Extra: “It appears like they’ve performed very nicely in each Texas and New York, and that’s very spectacular and an actual feather of their cap.’” • California, too. It is spectacular. Time for a fawning profile of Kennedy’s marketing campaign group?

At this time’s Worry & Greed Index: 50 Impartial (earlier shut: 47 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 47 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Could 13 at 12:21:57 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes up one on Earthquakes. “The strongest quake in 25 years hit Taiwan” [Rapture Ready]. Report Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 188. (Do not forget that bringing on the Rapture is nice.) • Chook flu not a priority, apparently. And I hate even to go right here, however the “Tribulation Temple” class is a mere 3. If Tribulation Temple = Third Temple = no matter temple it’s that the Purple Heifer loons need to construct, then the Rapture Index made the appropriate name, amazingly sufficient. It mentioned: “Don’t fear concerning the Purple Heifers.”

The Gallery

“Why make artwork at midnight?” [Aeon]. “What we do know is that in the course of the Higher Palaeolithic (c45,000-15,000 years in the past), our distant ancestors ventured deep underground to make these photographs. In these unfamiliar environments, they produced a wealthy show – from uncommon summary kinds to extremely detailed renderings of animals – beneath the dim glow of firelight solid by their lamps. Naturalistic animal outlines, rows of finger-dotted marks and splatter marks preserving the shadows of historic palms stay frozen in time throughout the caves, representing tens of 1000’s of years of individuals returning to the darkness to interact in art-making…. Pareidolia – a visible phenomenon of seeing significant kinds in random patterns – appears to be a product of this manner by which our visible system selectively focuses on sure visible data and makes assumptions when ‘finishing’ the picture. Pareidolia is a common expertise; all of us have checked out clouds and recognised faces and animals, or perceived gnarled, twisting tree trunks in dim mild as uncommon creatures rising from the darkness. Whereas we’d consider these visible photographs as a mistake – we all know there isn’t a big face looming down at us from the clouds – it appears to have emerged as an evolutionary benefit. By assuming {that a} fragmentary define is, the truth is, a predator hiding in foliage, we will react shortly and keep away from a grisly loss of life, even when mentioned predator seems to be an phantasm brought on by merely branches and leaves…. If we think about, nevertheless, that we lived in small teams inside a sparsely populated panorama the place our survival relied on the flexibility to determine, observe and hunt animals, we’d moderately anticipate that our visible system would develop into attuned to sure animal kinds as a substitute. We might be visually educated to determine the partial outlines of animals hiding behind foliage or the distant, obscure outlines of creatures distant within the panorama. We might even have an intimate data of their behaviours, how they transfer by way of the panorama, the refined cues of twitching ears or raised heads that point out they may be alerted to our presence. Our Ice Age ancestors could have due to this fact skilled animal pareidolia to the identical diploma that we expertise face pareidolia. The place we anthropomorphise and understand faces, they’d have zoomorphised and perceived animals. ‘Is that…?’ You start to doubt your individual eyes. A shadow sparkles, drawing your consideration to the motion. Cracks, fissures and undulating shapes of the cave wall begin to blur within the darkness to kind one thing acquainted to your eyes. Below the firelight, it’s troublesome to differentiate it instantly. Because it sparkles out and in of view, you begin to see horns fashioned by cracks, the refined curvature of the wall as muscular options. A bison takes form and emerges from the darkness.” • Hmm.

Ebook Nook

“Head boy of Surrealism” [Times Literary Supplement]. “Breton is a head boy, foppish and extreme, implementing the home guidelines. His directions on be playful are rigid. You should be fully open to all the pieces – however solely within the method I proscribe. It’s essential to abandon all logic – in line with this new guidelines. To step exterior conformity, comply with my instance. For a motion that was avowedly anti-clerical, it has a determined whiff of issues pontifical. Newcomers to Surrealism could also be mystified as to what it was Breton truly did, besides preach. He talked a very good recreation of mad want, however it appeared to go away few traces on his personal work. He had beautiful style as a collector, however his drawings, similar to ‘Cadavre exquis’ (‘Panorama’, 1933), appear a bit professional forma, whereas his varied ‘poème objet’ collages look genteel positioned towards the same experiments of Max Ernst. And for somebody who claimed literary forebears such because the Comte de Lautréamont, Swift and de Sade, his poetry and prose are a bit moony and idealistic. His autobiographical novel Nadja (1928) options the notorious closing line ‘Magnificence might be CONVULSIVE or won’t be in any respect …’, however the narrator, ‘André’, doesn’t appear a convulsive form of fellow. All of the anticipated bins are ticked: an opportunity encounter in backstreet Paris, girl as muse determine (‘mysterious, unbelievable, distinctive, bewildering’), shout-outs to Surrealist friends. Breton invested rather a lot within the concept of ‘computerized writing’ to discover the unconscious. The outcomes initially startle, however quickly flip formulaic: ‘Stiff discuss of Suzanne uselessness particularly village of flavours with a lobster church.’ When all the pieces is surreal, nothing is surreal. The poet Louis Aragon, for one, was unconvinced: ‘If you happen to write deplorable twaddle utilizing Surrealist strategies, it would nonetheless be deplorable twaddle.’” • Ouch!

Information of the Wired

“It’s an age of marvels” [The Universe of Discourse]. “As I stroll round Philadelphia I typically converse with Benjamin Franklin, to see what he thinks about how issues have modified since 1790. Typically he’s astounded, different instances much less so. The issues that astound Franklin aren’t all the time what you may suppose at first. Electrical streetlamps are an excellent invention, and whereas I believe Franklin can be more than happy to see them, I don’t suppose he can be shocked. Higher avenue lighting was one thing everybody wished in Franklin’s time, and this was one thing very a lot on Franklin’s thoughts. It was actually clear that electrical energy might be become mild. Franklin might have and may need thought up the fundamental mechanism of an incandescent bulb himself, though he wouldn’t have been in a position to make one…. The actually attention-grabbing stuff is the on a regular basis stuff that makes Franklin goggle. CAT scans, for instance. Odd endoscopy will curiosity and maybe impress Franklin, however it gained’t boggle his thoughts…. To this point although probably the most Franklin-astounding factor I’ve discovered has been GPS. The reason begins with ‘nicely, first we put 32 synthetic satellites in orbit across the Earth…’, which is already astounding, and might derail the dialog all by itself. However it simply goes on from there getting an increasing number of astounding: ‘…and each has a clock on board, correct to inside 40 nanoseconds…’ ‘…and might talk the precise time wirelessly to the complete half of the Earth that it may possibly see…’ ‘… and since the GPS machine additionally has an ideal clock, it may possibly compute how far it’s from the satellite tv for pc by evaluating the 2 instances and multiplying by the velocity of sunshine…’ ‘… and since the satellite tv for pc additionally tells the GPS machine precisely the place it’s, the machine can decide that it lies on the floor of a sphere with the satellite tv for pc on the heart, so with messages from three or 4 satellites the machine can compute its precise location, as much as the error within the clocks and different measurements…’ ‘…and it suits in my pocket.’ And that’s not even entering into the hair-raising problems launched by common relativity. ‘It’s a bit fiddly as a result of time isn’t passing on the similar charge for the machine as it’s for the satellites, however we have been in a position to work it out.’… In fact not all marvels are good ones. I typically clarify to Franklin that we’ve got gotten so good at fishing — too good — that we’re in actual hazard of fishing out the oceans. A marvel, however.” • Philadelphians. Nonetheless running a blog!

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

Frank Little writes: “Montana Alpine. This photograph accommodates Milkvetch (creamy, sort unknown), Sedum (yellow, sort unknown), Neglect-Me-Not (blue, within the background), and lichen (orange) on limestone.”

Bonus plant:

I ought to pair this with a pine tree, however I don’t appear to have one within the queue….

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