Thursday, January 1, 2026

CDC Rigs Its Own Monkeypox Case Reports by Not Including Questions on Airborne Transmission

A careful examination of CDC’s data collection on monkeypox transmission.

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/15/2022

~ Today’s Water Cooler: Open Thread ~

Links 8/15/2022

More US Eyepoking of China with New Congresscritter Visit to Taiwan; What Will China Do Next?

The US is still escalanting with China over Taiwan. And China most assuredly is keeping score.

For Medically Vulnerable Families, Inflation’s Squeeze Is Inescapable

Inflation is putting families with big ongoing medical costs under terrible stress.

Researchers Ask: Does Enforcing Civility Stifle Online Debate in Social Media?

As toxic as political discourse has become, it seems almost quaint that a little over a decade ago, many social scientists were hopeful that by allowing political leaders and citizens to talk directly to one another, nascent social media platforms would improve a relationship tarnished by distrust.

A Marine’s Assessment of Russia’s Military “Operation” in Ukraine (a “Profound Appreciation of All Three Realms in Which Wars Are Waged”)

A dissident view on Ukraine. The first of many?

Links 8/14/2022

Striking a Bargain: Narrative Identification of Wage Bargaining Shocks

Workers and employers bargain over the surplus income generated by an employment relationship. This column uses information about key events in Germany relevant for wage negotiations, like labour strikes and the introduction of a minimum wage, to pinpoint changes in bargaining power between workers and employers. It finds that such wage bargaining ‘shocks’ are important drivers of unemployment and inflation and that their effect on wages is almost fully reflected in prices. Furthermore, they reduce the vacancy rate and increase firms’ profits and the labour share of income in the short run, but not in the long run.

Links 8/13/2022

Climate Bill Passes: It Could Short-Circuit EV Tax Credits, Making Qualifying for Them Nearly Impossible

Did Joe Manchin sneak an EV poison pill of sorts into the just-passed climate legislation?

The Fervent Debate Over the Best Way to Confront Global Warming

Supporters of cutting carbon emissions to tackle global warming have long struggled against advocates of climate-change adaptation strategies

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/12/2022

By Lambert Strether of Corrente Bird Song of the Day White-winged Triller, Western Australia, Australia. Energetic * * * Politics “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51 “They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord “Here’s food for thought, had Ahab […]

‘Dictatorship Never Again’: Massive Pro-Democracy Protests Sweep Brazil

Protestors in Brazil want to change the government, end neo-fascism, and ensure Constitutional rights.

Links 8/12/2022