2:00PM Water Cooler 8/2/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Song of the Day

Blue Mockingbird, Presa Los Zompanties, Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico. Ten minutes of mockingbird!

In Case You Might Miss…

1. Charts Friday: New RCP charts (bad news for Trump); many Covid updates (a little good news).
2. Kamala’s VP search
3. Covid and traffic safety (i.e., cognitive issues). New study from AAA (!).
4. Aphantasia and prosopometamorphopsia.

Politics

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

Trump Assassination Attempt

“Video from Trump assassination attempt victim’s POV shows figure moving on roof moments before gunfire” (FOX). “A video from James Copenhaver, one of the victims critically wounded in the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Trump, shows a figure moving across the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building just minutes before gunfire rang out at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In the video taken at 6:08 p.m. on July 13, the person appears on the roof of the building adjacent to where Trump is speaking and can be seen walking from the 1:00 second mark to about the 2:50 second mark.” • Oh. This entire story makes less and less sense as it goes on.

“Pennsylvania county law enforcement officials say Secret Service is presenting a ‘misleading’ picture of Trump shooting scene” (CNN).

2024

Less than one hundred days to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Drops for Trump across the board, including a 2.5% drop nationally (almost outside the margin of error, ha ha), and a blue triangle on the mao for the first time.

* * *

* * *

The Campaign Trail:

Kamala (D): “The presidential election is a toss-up” (Nate Silver, Silver Bulletin). The deck: “Kamala Harris is giving Democrats the race that Joe Biden couldn’t.” From today’s RCP chart, that’s true. More: “(W}hen we launched the presidential model on June 26 — in the lifetime ago when Joe Biden was the Democratic nominee — the headline in the post that introduced the model was that the election wasn’t a toss-up. Instead, Biden had persistently been behind in the states that were most likely to decide the Electoral College, enough so that he was about a 2:1 underdog in the election despite the uncertainties in the race. His situation wasn’t unrecoverable, or at least it wasn’t until the debate. But you’d rather have had Donald Trump’s hand to play every day of the week and twice on Sundays… Now that the election is in kamala_mode, however, it’s far from clear whose position you’d rather be in, and I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to bet either on Harris or on Trump…. It’s also a toss-up in the states that are most likely to decide the election… And although we can’t tell you who’s going to win, there’s one thing I think we can say with some confidence: Democrats are lucky that they’re getting a second chance in this election with Harris instead of Biden.”

Kamala (D): “Can Kamala Harris Rebuild the Democratic Coalition?” (New York Times). Nope. PMC 4EVA. That’s not salvageable. “Already, recent polls suggest Ms. Harris is not so weak. It’s still too soon to tell how strong she really is among young and nonwhite voters, as some polls — like New York Times/Siena College polling last week — find her running far ahead of Mr. Biden, while others show little change. But either way, even her best tallies still fall short of typical Democratic margins over the last 15 years. She doesn’t even fare as well as Mr. Biden did in 2020, and his performance among these groups was relatively weak for a Democratic presidential candidate.”

* * *

The VP search:

Kamala (D): “Vetting of Harris V.P. Picks Is Said to Be Complete” (New York Times). “Vice President Kamala Harris is already scheduled to begin campaigning with her running mate on Tuesday. The decision is now in her hands after a law firm hired to vet possible picks completed its work, according to two people briefed on the process.”

Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris’ veepstakes races toward the finish line” (Politico). “Some of the aides and allies involved in the vice presidential nominee decision-making process are Harris chief-of-staff Sheila Nix, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, former Rep. Cedric Richmond and Harris’ brother-in-law Tony West, according to two people familiar with the discussions and granted anonymity to discuss a private process. The Harris vetting team has already met with Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Andy Beshear of Kentucky; Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly; and others. The team has also asked vice presidential nominee candidates for previous ads they’ve filmed…. Harris has told aides that she wants someone, ideally, with some sort of executive experience and with whom she has a good rapport. One of the people familiar with the process said Harris is ‘looking for a governing partner above all else. She knows the process better than most, and understands the challenges and opportunities.’ Adam Hodge, a former Biden administration official, noted that Harris is picking someone to potentially govern by her side for years, not just to help her in one election.” • We’ll see how that goes.

Kamala (D): “How a sexual harassment scandal involving a Josh Shapiro aide could affect the Pa. governor’s VP chances” (Philadephia Inquirer). “Erin McClelland, the Democratic nominee for state treasurer in November’s election, drew eyeballs last week with a thinly veiled and unusual intraparty jab, saying in a tweet that she wanted a vice presidential pick who, among other things, ‘doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug.’ Though she did not identify Shapiro by name, McClelland’s pointed remarks were widely interpreted as a reference to the resignation last year of one of Shapiro’s top aides and closest allies, Mike Vereb, amid a sexual harassment investigation. Vereb, 57, abruptly stepped down in September, three weeks after Shapiro’s administration quietly agreed to pay $295,000 to settle claims from a governor’s office employee who said he’d made repeated sexual advances toward her and often spoken openly — and lewdly — about her, other staff members, and a female state senator. Shapiro’s administration has largely avoided discussing Vereb in the year since, describing his departure as a private personnel matter while maintaining it “takes allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously.” His silence has drawn criticism from female state lawmakers in both parties, who have called for a more transparent accounting of what Shapiro knew about his aide’s conduct and when.” • Whoopsie.

Kamala (D): “Harris VP mystery: Signs point to Shapiro” (Axios). “Like all big White House secrets — Supreme Court picks or the decision to drop out of the presidential race — the universe of people who have hard intelligence is quite small. But as an announcement nears, that universe starts to expand. For reporters and political obsessives, the game is on. More people know. Then more people think they know. And, finally, everyone pretends to know. Eventually the three groups converge. News leaks out, sending reporters scrambling to confirm if it’s true, which it isn’t always. Trust us, there’s nothing worse than not knowing who the VP pick is after spending months following a candidate around the country when, say, the AP has it. Minutes feel like hours. Hours like days. You wish you’d taken the bar and become a lawyer.” • A more subtle take than usual on horse-race coverage.

Kamala (D): “Mark Kelly emerges as the front runner to become Kamala Harris’ running mate; Here are the reasons” (Economic Times of India). “In this survey, Senator Mark Kelly has emerged as the favorite among all contenders. The former Astronaut who represents the state of Arizona in the US Senate is also a critic of the gun laws in the US. Further, Harris who may lose out on the votes of white American males may count on Senator Kelly to attract the votes of this community…. Mark Kelly also may be the best candidate to take on Trump’s views on immigration. He is a Senator from a border state. 22% of the respondents view him favorably. He is also viewed negatively by 12%. He is still the best performing candidate…. Arizona is a swing state and this may enable the Democrats to focus on gaining precious votes from this state.” • Obama, according to rumor, wanted Kelly at the top of the ticket, not Kamala.

Kamala: “Who is Mark Kelly, the potential vice-presidential pick from Arizona?” (Guardian).” The Arizona senator was a US navy pilot who served multiple deployments. He was on Celebrity Jeopardy. He is a steadfast partner to his wife, former US representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt at a public event in Tucson in 2011 and has worked alongside Kelly to limit guns since. Oh, and he’s been to space multiple times because he was an astronaut, along with his twin brother, Scott. He even wrote a children’s book about it, called Mousetronaut…. He first ran for office in 2020, winning a special election against Republican Martha McSally to take a Senate seat. He won again in 2024 in the regular Senate election against Blake Masters, a well-funded Peter Thiel acolyte. To win the Senate seat in a purple state, Kelly has struck a centrist tone and proven himself a prolific fundraiser. He hasn’t inspired the intra-party ire that Arizona’s other senator , now-independent Kyrsten Sinema, has. He polls at the top of Arizona politicians for favorability.”

Kamala (D): “Mark Kelly Wasn’t There for Labor When Labor Needed Him” (John Nichols, The Nation). “After the Democrats took charge of the White House and both chambers of Congress in January 2021, lawmakers introduced the PRO Act in an effort to expand union power. The measure is a sweeping plan to remove barriers to organizing workplaces across the country, and to make it possible for labor and national unions to bargain equitable contracts. The AFL-CIO describes the PRO Act, which is ardently backed by union activists and by Biden and Harris, as “the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression.” Predictably, it is opposed by corporate interests and their congressional allies…. The Senate failed to do so because, in addition to overwhelming Republican opposition, a handful of Senate Democratic Caucus members were reluctant to sign on for the measure, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, Maine’s Angus King, Virginia’s Mark Warner, and the two senators from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema and Kelly. In the face a major campaign led by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and other unions, Manchin and King joined the vast majority of Senate Democrats as co-sponsors in April 2021, bringing the number of co-sponsors to 47. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber would bring the measure to a vote if 50 Democrats agreed to co-sponsor it. Strategizing began for efforts to break an anticipated Republican filibuster in order to pass the bill. Kelly was seen as the key senator to make it all happen. If he moved, the argument went, Sinema could be convinced to do the same. And if they both signed on, a massive AFL-CIO push was planned in order to get Warner on board. But Kelly never moved, assuring that the measure would, in the words of the Revolving Door Project ‘stagnate in the Senate.’” • He’s perfect!

Kamala (D): “Sen. Mark Kelly’s past days hawking vitamins in China resurfaces amid veepstakes” (New York Post). “‘I took Shaklee vitamins and the Shaklee rehydration drink while in orbit aboard the space shuttle,’ the former astronaut boasted to the crowd…. The California-based multilevel marketing company lined Kelly’s pockets for a series of speeches in China and the US between 2011 and 2016, which the Huffington Post first reported during the Arizona Democrat’s campaign for the US Senate in 2020. His wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), was serving in the US House of Representatives in 2011 — and financial disclosures show Kelly netted $50,000 for Shaklee speeches in that year alone.” • $50,000? That’s all?

* * *

Cancellations:

Kamala (D): “Shapiro cancels fundraising trip in the Hamptons ahead of Harris picking running mate” (CBS). But:

BREAKING: Gov. Tim Walz has announced the cancellation of his scheduled events for this weekend. The Governor was set to attend two county fairs, a high school football game, and go square dancing. The cancellations have been issued with no specific reasons provided.

— Amzi 🥥 🌴 (@AmziQureshi) August 1, 2024

Kamala (D): “Beshear’s absence generates political buzz as GOP set to dominate stage at Fancy Farm” (Kentucky Lantern). “An annual West Kentucky church fundraiser famous for barbeque, political speeches and cheers and jeers from onlookers is set to be a Republican-dominated affair this weekend as the only two statewide elected Democrats will be elsewhere. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s absence from this year’s Fancy Farm festivities may produce more buzz than his presence would have — thanks to speculation that Beshear is still under consideration as running mate to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.” And–

Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris’ veepstakes races toward the finish line” (Politico). On Friday, “Buttigieg truncated his visit to Kokomo, Indiana, due to ‘some unforeseen scheduling constraints.’”

And:

So am I right that every veep contender cancelled their events but Mark Kelly, who also released a video?

— Nomiki — “No-me-KEY” (@NomikiKonst) August 2, 2024

Lambert here: My personal theory (“without evidence,” as we say) is that Kamala already chose Shapiro, which is why she visited Philly. Why else do that? Then the Shapiro sex scandal finally punched through her staff bubble, and it was back to square one.

* * *

Trump (R): “The Fight of Trump’s Political Life” (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal). “Can Mr. Trump shift gears? He grew up, as I did, watching ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ I’m sure it was on every Sunday night at 8 at the Trump house in Queens. On that show you saw every week the great Borscht Belt comics of 1950-70. Their timing—’Take my wife—please!’—is ingrained in him. What he does now is shtick, because he likes to entertain and is a performer. The boat’s sinking, the battery’s spitting, the shark’s coming!… This works so perfectly for those who support him. For everyone else it’s just more evidence of psychopathology. He has to freshen up his act. Can he?” Good point. And: Ms. Harris will dominate the coming week with the unveiling of her vice-presidential choice. Then there will be the convention, in which they’ll pull out all stops. And then August will be over. Meaning a third of the 100-day campaign will be over. Does Mr. Trump know that he’s fighting for his life?” Also good point. But: “Does she think seriously, deeply, soberly?…. Some will respond, ‘But Donald Trump isn’t serious!’ My answer would be: That’s why he lost the popular vote twice. If Democrats lose the popular vote, they almost certainly lose the election. Mr. Trump himself would reply: I controlled the nuclear arsenal for four years. Nothing blew up.” • The whole piece is worth reading in full, especially for Kamala’s positives, which are real (new, shameless on policy, born performer, beautiful, pent-up support).

Trump (R): “Hillbilly Apprentice: An Interview With Trump Running Mate JD Vance” (RealClearPolitics). “If there is any confusion about Vance, it isn’t because he is hiding his views. While accepting the vice-presidential nomination in Milwaukee, he blamed the Biden-Harris administration for continuing the foreign interventionism, deindustrialization, and globalism that he insists have hollowed out the heart of the country. Bad trade deals, foolish economic policy, and disastrous wars: He lays it all at the feet of Democrats during each campaign stop. Yet those decisions were often bipartisan. Vance knows this and offers as much of a critique against the old GOP as a rebuke against the current White House. At each stop, Vance, a former U.S. Marine, walks on stage to ‘America First,’ an anti-war ballad from the Bush era by the late country legend Merle Haggard. ‘Let’s get out of Iraq and get back on the track,’ the song declares, ‘and let’s rebuild America first.’ Both the messaging and the foreign policy proposals espoused by Vance alarm the traditional internationalists inside his political party. The junior senator from Ohio appalled many of them while first running for election. ‘I’ve got to be honest with you,’ Vance told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon during a 2022 interview. ‘I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” The vice-presidential nomination has made him only slightly less inflammatory.’” • Not my favorite Ohioan, but it says a lot about his strengths that the Democrats dogpiled him with snark as their first move. I mean, the best they can do? (It’s also really unfortunate that the Trump campaign didn’t punch back hard, although perhaps not directly (“I want to hear him deny it”)).

Trump (R): “Trump’s Racist Attack on Kamala Harris Was No Accident” (Susan Glasser, The New Yorker). “Harris has always been proudly biracial: she is the daughter of an Indian mother and a Black, Jamaican father, both of whom immigrated to the U.S.” • Whatever (and see yesterday’s essay on essentialist views vs. social constructionist view of race). Think of it this way. The Democrat PMC base is intimately familiar with the workings of Human Resources (HR) departments. HR departments often use forms where you check a box for your race: White, Black (or, in Elizabeth Warren’s case, American Indian).These boxes are mutually exclusive. Kamala’s campaign managed race in the rollout of her supporters just like an HR department does: Black, White, AAHNPI. The idpol verticals were pure. Kamala personally behaves as if HR didn’t exist, and that racial caregories are not mutually exclusive, as Glasser argues; it’s possible to be Black and Indian (although when Mother Jones writes “White Man Tells Black Journalists His Black Opponent Is Not Black” they’re fully on board with the HR paradigm. The issue is that the Democrats want to have it both ways: They want to appeal to a “pure” Black identity vertical, but they want a candidate is Black and Indian (and Kamala, as I documented yesterday, also presents as Indian). I personally don’t care either way, but the Democrat thinking on race is completely incoherent. Which is pretty amazing for a party whose first move is so often to play the racist card.

* * *

Syndemics

“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

Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

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!

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’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).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

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

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).

Stay safe out there!

Transmission: H5N1

“Blowflies are potential vector for avian influenza virus at enzootic area in Japan” (Nature). From the Abtract: “High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) poses a significant threat to both domestic and wild birds globally. The avian influenza virus, known for environmental contamination and subsequent oral infection in birds, necessitates careful consideration of alternative introduction routes during HPAI outbreaks. … Blowflies represent a potential vector of HPAI, particularly in enzootic regions. The effectiveness of virus detection from flies relies heavily on the prevalence of infected and deceased wild birds. C. nigribarbis is widespread in human-populated areas across Japan, including semi-rural regions with poultry farms. Like other insects, C. nigribarbis intermittently disperses its feces, leading to environmental contamination. In this study, we focused on C. nigribarbis because it was the dominant blowfly species in our study field and the season, but we could not exclude the contribution of other necrophagous blowflies in HPAI propagation, especially in geographical areas.” • Oh, super. An insect vector. I’m sure CDC and USDA are all over this.

Sequelae: Covid

“The Pandemic’s Tenacious Grip on Traffic Safety” (press release) (American Automobile Association). “A new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reveals the COVID-19 pandemic’s deadly impact on traffic safety in the United States. Researchers at the AAA Foundation found dangerous behaviors like speeding, not using seatbelts, and impaired driving contributed to a significant rise in fatal crashes compared to pre-pandemic times. Notably, the new research highlights a disparity in the pandemic’s impact on traffic safety. Black and Hispanic Americans, already disproportionately affected by traffic fatalities, saw even more significant increases from 2020 through 2022. Similarly, those with lower educational attainment experienced a much sharper rise in fatalities compared to college graduates. Foundation researchers found that 114,528 people were killed in traffic crashes on U.S. roads from May 2020 through December 2022, a 17% jump in traffic deaths (nearly 17,000 additional fatalities) compared to what would have been expected under pre-pandemic trends.” Note especially: “The increase in occupant deaths was almost entirely among those not wearing seatbelts.” No wonder the seatbelt argument didn’t persuade anti-maskers. Anyhow, go long exective dysfunction.

Lambert here: New York hospitalization leveling out, WalGreens positivity down for two weeks, and now Cleveland positivity down, are the first positive signs I’ve seen in a long time. Wastewater still going strong, though!

Ka-ching.

(9) (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.

(10) (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads.

(11) Deaths low, but positivity up.

(12) Deaths low, ED up.

Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Unemployment Rate” (Trading Economics). “The unemployment rate in the United States rose to 4.3% in July of 2024 from 4.1% in the previous month, the highest since October of 2021, and above market expectations that it would remain at 4.1%. In the meantime, the labor force participation rate edged higher to 62.7% from 62.6%.”

Manufacturing: “United States Factory Orders” (Trading Economics). “New orders for US manufactured goods fell by 3.3% from the previous month to $564.2 billion in June of 2024, a bigger contraction than market expectations of 2.9%, to mark the sharpest decline since January. The contraction was largely due to the plunge in orders of transportation equipment (-20.6% to $75.79 billion), as the gauge that excludes transportation edged higher by 0.1% from the previous month.”

Retail: “United States Total Vehicle Sales” (Trading Economics). “Total Vehicle Sales in the United States increased to 15.82 Million in July from 15.18 Million in June of 2024.”

Tech: “Fully-automatic robot dentist performs world’s first human procedure” (The New Atlas). • No.

Tech: “Eerie new mind-controlling tech can manipulate emotions and even appetite without any invasive surgery” (The Sun). “With an external magnetic field, scientists at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea found they could manipulate nanoparticle-activated ‘switches’ inside the brains of mice. The technology, dubbed Nano-MIND (Magnetogenetic Interface for NeuroDynamics), allowed researchers to control the emotions and appetites of mice from afar…. Scientists manipulated these neurons by magnetically twisting a tiny actuator to pull or push nanoparticles implanted in the mice’s brains. But this is the first that hasn’t involved invasive surgery, and bulky external systems, which has instead allowed mice the freedom of movement. ‘This is the world’s first technology to freely control specific brain regions using magnetic fields,’ Jinwoo Cheon, director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine, said in a statement. Cheon, a senior author of the study that was recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, added: ‘We expect it to be widely used in research to understand brain functions, sophisticated artificial neural networks, two-way (brain-computer interface) technologies, and new treatments for neurological disorders.’” • Just don’t tell the marketing department!

Tech: “Meta blames ‘hallucinations’ after AI error over assassination attempt on Donald Trump” (The Telegraph). “Meta has blamed hallucinations after its AI assistant said that the recent assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump didn’t happen. Artificial intelligence chatbots are said to ‘hallucinate’ when they generate misleading responses to questions that need factual replies. ‘These types of responses are referred to as hallucinations, which is an industry-wide issue we see across all generative AI systems, and is an ongoing challenge for how AI handles real-time events going forward,’ said Joel Kaplan, Meta VP for global policy.” • They’re not “hallucinations.” They’re bullshit.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 55 Neutral (previous close: 42 Fear) (CNN). One week ago: 40 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 31 at 2:15:54 PM ET.

Photo Book

My first serious camera was a Mamiya C330:

Zeitgeist Watch

“What Happens in a Mind That Can’t ‘See’ Mental Images” (Quanta). “Two years ago, Sarah Shomstein realized she didn’t have a mind’s eye. The vision scientist was sitting in a seminar room, listening to a scientific talk, when the presenter asked the audience to imagine an apple. Shomstein closed her eyes and did so. Then, the presenter asked the crowd to open their eyes and rate how vividly they saw the apple in their mind. Saw the apple? Shomstein was confused. She didn’t actually see an apple. She could think about an apple: its taste, its shape, its color, the way light might hit it. But she didn’t see it. Behind her eyes, ‘it was completely black,’ Shomstein recalled. And yet, ‘I imagined an apple.’ Most of her colleagues reacted differently. They reported actually seeing an apple, some vividly and some faintly, floating like a hologram in front of them. In that moment, Shomstein, who’s spent years researching perception at George Washington University, realized she experienced the world differently than others. She is part of a subset of people — thought to be about 1% to 4% of the general population — who lack mental imagery, a phenomenon known as aphantasia.” • Word of the day….

“How a Rare Disorder Makes People See Monsters” (The New Yorker). “After he recovered, (Jason ) “?Werbeloff was eager to be around people again, and he spent a night clubbing. In the shifting red light, he looked at a friend’s face and realized that the right side looked odd. It seemed to stretch outward, like Silly Putty being pulled, and a dark, rough patch was visible around the friend’s right eye. Werbeloff blinked and looked away, and his friend’s features briefly returned to normal. Then the distortions appeared again. “That is when people got ugly,” Werbeloff told me.

In the weeks that followed, Werbeloff started to notice similar unsettling changes in everyone he looked at.” Via Facebok, Werbeloff encounters Brad Duchaine, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College. In May, 2021, Duchaine interviewed Werbeloff via Zoom. Had Werbeloff suffered any traumatic brain injuries? (No.) Did he ever see faces change before his bout with mono? (No.) Did he see distortions on half of the face, or all of it? (Only the right half.) Duchaine said that Werbeloff seemed to have a rare and largely unexplained condition called prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO. He was trying to meet as many PMO sufferers as he could—not only to identify why the distortions were occurring but to illuminate the intricate way in which the human brain perceives faces.” • Another word of the day….

News of the Wired

“Early Bookcases, Cupboards & Carousels” (Lost Art Press). “Although many medieval books written on thick parchment or vellum and often bound in leather could possibly stand on end, titles were not put on the spine until the 16th century. There was also no standardization of book sizes. Some books were small enough to fit in one hand, while others were so large and heavy it took two people to lift one. As a result, books were placed flat, often with the spine turned inwards. The title might be handwritten on the fore edge or foot edge. Alternatively, the title could be written on the cover.” • Like this:

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:

TH writes: “I believe this is a begonia of some sort. It can be found flaunting its stuff in the hothouse of the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA.”

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