Northern Mockingbird, Big Bend NP-Chisos Basin Campground, Brewster, Texas, United States. "Singing lustily before first light." Indeed! This spectrogram shows the virtuosity very clearly (not all do).
"So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital." -Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
BFFs:
So much for all that "
"Biden, Trump Die 2 Minutes Apart Holding Hands" [The Onion]. "'Only minutes before their deaths, they requested that their hospital beds be pushed together -- it's like they knew what was coming,' said Marlene Kato, a nurse who confirmed that medical staff at Walter Reed Medical Center, where the two presidents spent their final hours together, were stunned when Biden died at 8:05 p.m. and Trump followed at 8:07. 'They were rivals in life, but they came together with love in death. They were both very weak, but turned their heads to face each other and smiled. Biden said, 'You were the only one who ever got me,' and Trump said, 'I know.' I started tearing up right there and then. It was just so beautiful. Then they used their final breaths to request a shared burial plot at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.' At press time, a coroner's report revealed that Trump had strangled Biden and then succumbed to a heart attack two minutes later."* Oh.
2024 Post Mortem
"The State-Level Differences Between the Presidential and Senate Races" [Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball]. The Abstract: "Split outcomes between presidential and Senate results saw a resurgence in 2024, as at least four Donald Trump-won states sent Democrats to the Senate. Republicans still took the majority in the Senate because while Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) performed notably better than Kamala Harris, they did not do so by enough to hold their seats. Across most key Senate races, Senate Democrats ran better than Harris in rural parts of their states but were comparatively weak in some suburban counties. In one of Harris's best states, Maryland, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) stood out as Republicans' top overperformer, although Harris's 26-point margin in the state was too much for him to overcome." * Handy map:
"I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD." -William Lloyd Garrison
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 "COVID" in the subject line. Thank you!
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, KidDoc, 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).
"Bird flu: Canadian teenager is critically ill with new genotype" [BMJ]. "A Canadian adolescent is in a critical condition in a British Columbia hospital after becoming infected with a new genotype of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The patient, who has not been publicly identified, developed conjunctivitis on 2 November, followed by fever and coughing. While these symptoms have been common in people infected with H5N1 bird flu in North America -- until now, all US cases -- the teenager in Canada then developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and was admitted to intensive care on 8 November. "
"Canada: PHAC Confirms HPAI H5N1 Genotype D1.1 In B.C. Human Infection" [Avian Flu Diary]. "We now have the answer to at least 2 of our questions regarding the H5 virus infection in a teenager from British Columbia; according to a statement from the PHAC (h/t FluTrackers) the subtype has been confirmed to be H5N1 and the genotype is D1.1. " More on D.1.1:
Perhaps we should give consideration to invoking the precautionary principle:
We really shouldn't play "let 'er rip" with H5N1, but that's what we're doing.
"Covid grifters are (still) wrong: the structure of esoteric knowledge" [ClosedForm]. "I could take a weathered desire path here and argue that these analyses are politically dangerous in addition to being ignorant; that they misidentify the culprits, misunderstand the problems, point people galvanized to 'get involved' down dead-end paths. Someone else can make those arguments. I want to talk about something weirder: the funky thread of esotericism running through the beautiful tapestry of the Covid grifter community and through its associated epistemological stance.... The Covid grifters miss ('miss' is a bit passive) alternative explanations because they assume that if it is published in a scientific paper, it must be true and must confirm their existing belief. This is a grave misunderstanding of what the scientific literature is. It's not a repository of truth claims. It's a body of work produced by people working in a specific political economy, one that incentivizes publishing 'statistically significant' findings (which are not the same thing as actually significant or meaningful findings), and really incentivizes publishing anything about hot topics like, say, a devastating pandemic."
The UK, but yikes:
"There's a Better Way to Talk About Fluoride, Vaccines and Raw Milk" [Emily Oster, New York Times]. "Consider three topics of much public discussion: measles vaccines, raw milk and water fluoridation. All three represent fault lines between what is said by public health agencies and by Mr. Kennedy and other skeptics. Where their messages differ is in the strength and complexity of the evidence.... My suggestion is that when asked about these topics, health experts provide this level of detail. Simply saying that vaccines are good and raw milk is bad misses specifics that people find important. People often do their research, and if they feel the risks of raw milk have been exaggerated, it can erode their trust. Now perhaps that person is more likely to distrust the vaccine messaging, too. With more information, we provide room for people to drink raw milk but also vaccinate their kids. Which is, basically, a reasonable choice. Providing context also helps people make sense of new information.... Being more nuanced will not be easy for public health agencies. They need to put more trust in their audience.... If health experts share a more balanced message about raw milk, more people might drink raw milk. And, yes, that does entail some increased risk. I am arguing that in exchange you may get higher measles vaccination. It's not a perfect scenario, but it may mean that fewer people get sick and die. Which, after all, should be the ultimate goal." * The problem here is that Oster, an economist, has track record:
Just like all the pro-Iraq pundits, still making bank, twenty years later...
HICPAC meeting today and tomorrow:
I apologize for not getting to this earlier; mentally, I'm still digging out from the election. Here are the drafts HICPAC has been working from:
For the latest on HICPAC, see NC here.