The new 2024-25 COVID vaccines are available, so FunkyPlaid and I got ours on Friday. Because we went to a pharmacy, my health insurance didn’t cover them, so I had to use funds from my HRA. (We could have waited until our medical provider had appointments, but that would have been late September or early October — and with travel coming up soon, I was unwilling to wait.)

It is bizarre and enraging to see how agencies supposedly dedicated to public health are flailing in this moment. I’m extremely fortunate to have a job that provides health insurance, an HRA, and sick leave, and I can afford KN95 masks and rapid antigen tests. What about people who are uninsured or underinsured?

I know it’s a bummer to read this, but it’s a bigger bummer to try to survive during yet another COVID surge. Let’s take care of our health, for ourselves and for our communities.

Concentrating on

This time of year is Planner Season, when the 2025 planners are released and people like me (and maybe you too) gobble them up and then spend the rest of this year hoping that next year we have lives exciting enough to plan.

Ever the optimist, my planner line-up for 2025 is:

• For my personal planner, daily log, habit tracker, reading journal, and commonplace book, I’ll be trying the Sterling Ink Common Planner in their new N1 size, which fits inside a Traveler’s Notebook. I’m currently using a Hobonichi Weeks, which is 95mm x 186mm; the N1 size is 110mm x 210mm.
• For my work planner, the Wonderland 222 A5 Weekly Planner has been working well for me this year, so I’ll try it again in 2025.

Cultivating

✍???? Drafting two stories, one for performance (I hope ????????) and one for a collection.

???? Still knitting that gift for someone.

???? Food I made that was yummy:

• Peperonata with peppers from a coworker’s CSA box, plus peppers from our own CSA box. CSA boxes are great!
• Gluten-free vegan apple crisp. I am not a huge fan of apples in their primary form; I prefer them as a cinnamon delivery device. So this recipe from Minimalist Baker, apples chopped up and baked with oats and sugar? That works.
• Sliced heirloom tomatoes on toast spread thinly with mayonnaise. Truffle salt if you’re feeling fancy. (I was.)

???????? Learning Italian with Duolingo.

???? The workweek was short because of the holiday on Monday, but also long because of everything. I’m still trying to create better boundaries around that.

Consuming

????️ One of my planner pals shared a sample of Bungukan Kobayashi’s Yagentoshiro Reflex Violet, a dusky blue with iridescent purple shimmer.

???? “girlfriend” by Hemlocke Springs is on repeat on my brain radio.

???? You don’t need to be a Rolling Stones fan to enjoy the “I Can’t Get No Legal Action” episode of the Judge John Hodgman podcast.

???? Still working my way through the crossword puzzle books I’ve hoarded and enjoying the daily Cross|word on Puzzmo. Also, Minute Cryptic is quite humbling.

???? One last episode of “Fargo” to go, then we’ll start the latest season of “Slow Horses”.

???? What I’m reading and quoting:

• “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler: “The great and terrible thing about humankind is simply this: we will always do what we are capable of.”

Some links

From “What would an adequate COVID response look like?” by Julia Doubleday:

Right now, state representatives are deliberately avoiding mention of COVID, while propagandizing the safety of infection and/or the end of the pandemic by refusing to mask. It is hard to imagine how successful a pandemic response might be if public officials were actually trying to end the pandemic. We quite literally have public health and political and media figures working to hide three pieces of critical information: public knowledge of the virus, public knowledge of mitigation measures that would reduce viral spread, and public knowledge of the severity of the virus (which would motivate desire to reduce viral spread).

Other links:

• NaNoWriMo Shits The Bed On Artificial Intelligence (Chuck Wendig)
• Why Goblin Mode Is the New Self-Care Routine (Cleveland Clinic)
• 2024 Winners of the 17th Annual iPhone Photography Awards

One more thing

Today I’m journaling about this quote from Seneca: “Life, if well lived, is long enough.”

Look at this absolutely good girl: my canine sister, Willa.

Concentrating on

Rest, relaxation, and quality time with loved ones! We’re visiting family in Pennsylvania this week and attending a wedding in Kentucky on Friday.

When packing, I restricted myself to three notebooks and three pens because I tend to overpack and then immediately regret as I am schlepping around a stationery store in my backpack.

Cultivating

✍???? Drafting two (very different) stories. I’m looking forward to time off work to let my creative writing brain percolate.

???? Food I made that was yummy:

• Pork chops in garlic mushroom sauce, with mashed potatoes and salad on the side. I am not a huge fan of pork chops, but I got them in our CSA box, so I looked for a recipe that incorporated other things I am a huge fan of, like garlic and mushrooms.

???????? When my brain is full of Italian, I switch over to music lessons in Duolingo. It’s fun!

???? No.

Consuming

????️ Only three pens means only three inks: De Atramentis Charles Dickens, Sailor Manyo Hinoki, and Robert Oster Sydney Lavender.

???? I heard “White Gloves” by Khruangbin for the first time in a while and forgot how much I enjoy their music.

???? Recently FunkyPlaid and I tried to watch the show “Kaos” and lasted about ten minutes. I had listened to the Pop Culture Happy Hour episode on the show and thought I might enjoy it.

???? No time for games this week. I’m looking forward to some Puzzmo!

???? We started watching “My Brilliant Friend”, the adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet, which I read last year and loved.

???? What I’m reading and quoting:

• “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler: “How we see the world matters — but knowing how the world sees us also matters.”

Some links

• I love Tracy Durnell’s latest weeknotes post. I’m not even mad at how it makes me feel like I’ve done absolutely nothing in comparison. ????
• Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars (Albert Burneko)
• Firefly Atlas: I’m eager to see fireflies while I’m here, so I’m doing some research.

One more thing

I was a bit anxious to travel during a COVID surge, so in addition to getting the new vaccine as soon as I could, I invested in a Flo Mask Pro to wear in airports, planes, and any other crowded spaces. I’m so glad I did; it was very comfortable to wear all day, once I got used to how it felt. My glasses didn’t fog up at all, which is a minor miracle. I did get some looks (you know the kind) but that was a small price to pay for a greater chance of avoiding Covid and/or Long Covid. I only saw a handful of other people masked.

velocityconf: RT @courtneynash: Bill Scott's #fluentconf keynote theme also rings true re #velocityconf: tech change is really about people/culture change

Yong Suk Moon
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 152 (), 5095-5103.
Abstract, references and article information

When using the distinct count function in SAS Visual Analytics reports, you might find that a negative value is displayed instead of the actual distinct count: imgalt="distinct_count" src="{fusion_66562_1_disti

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Culture notes: Europe's broken promises to Africa The World Today mhiggins.drupal 1 August 2022

Europe’s ‘gas grab’ in Africa is just the latest abuse of its relationship with the continent, says Catherine Fieschi.

When Emmanuel Macron made one of his first visits to Africa as France’s recently elected young president in 2017, his speech at Ouagadougou University in Burkina Faso was designed to set the tone for a new relationship between his country and African countries. 

‘There no longer is a French policy for Africa,’ he said.

This was a signal away from ‘la Françafrique’, with its post-colonial accents and the propping up of regimes friendly to France, to something that was more strategic, equitable and transparent – more partnership and less tutelage. 

And Europe seemed to be following suit. In March 2020 the European Union and Africa decided that they would redefine their relationship. The European Commission unveiled its vision for a ‘comprehensive strategy with Africa’. The roadmap would give Africa significantly more say over the nature and extent of the relationship, more choice and more political agency.

But what, today, is left of these aspirations? Despite repeated statements, Europe seems to be saying one thing and doing another. 

Earlier this year, after the long-awaited 6th annual EU-African Union summit in Brussels, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa was frank when he summed up the gap between stated ambitions and the current relationship. The pandemic-weary Global South had reason to be wary. Ramaphosa laid out missed opportunities, disappointment and the low expectations that act as self-fulfilling prophecies. 

Europe’s changing focus in Africa 

From the apparent high point of the Ouagadougou speech, Macron has now turned to the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) in Africa for geopolitical purposes. His primary aim is to combat the rise of Islamist militants and terrorism in the Sahel as well as to tackle the growing influence of China and Russia in the region. 

Russian inroads – via the security firm Wagner in Mali, for instance – have given France further cause to use the OIF to counter destabilization activities. Both the United Kingdom and France train African military in the Sahel, but now, with the end of France’s anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane in Mali, the subsequent withdrawal of French troops and the increasingly established presence of the Wagner group, the security situation in the region is expected to deteriorate dramatically and become increasingly impermeable to European interests and forces.

As for development aid, Britain’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy makes no bones about the fact that Asia is now a priority over Africa.

The relationship between Africa and Britain is being transformed as a result, most obviously through the cuts in development aid, with African aid cut by 66 per cent in 2021. But the nature of the relationship, which has become both more conditional and more transactional, has also changed. 

The UK is emphasizing human rights and ‘free societies’, but also pushing for free market principles rather than the kind of state involvement that some African countries often prefer as a road to accelerated and more autonomous development. 

The future of energy exports and COP27

The issue of energy exports points to what will most likely trigger the greatest disappointment in the next few years – climate and climate finance. 

Green energy deals, like the $8.5 billion COP26 package from the EU, United States and UK to South Africa, look far more problematic now in the light of Europe’s African gas-grab. Indeed, Europe is importing as much African gas as it can after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia reduced supplies. Yet African countries are still being told to curb their own use of ‘dirty’ energy. 

As an illustration, Nigeria holds 3 per cent of the world’s gas reserves, but has barely tapped them, while 40 per cent of its output is exported to Europe. In April, Italy closed deals to buy gas from Angola and the Republic of Congo, while Germany did the same with Senegal.
 

At COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries pledged an annual $100 billion in climate finance to developing countries for both adaptation and mitigation. But pledges have never really materialized. The aid agency Oxfam estimates that only about a third of the money has been delivered. Climate finance was again the main focus of COP26 – and dismissed by Greta Thunberg as more ‘blah, blah, blah’.

This series of repeated resets, pledges and disappointments tells a story – indeed, several stories. First and foremost, it is one of arrogance and betrayal. That much is obvious. But it is also a story about stories – about how the narratives elaborated by various European countries and leaders never amount to more than a sum of transactions. 

Climate change places Europe, and other rich nations, at a crossroads in its relationship with Africa: the former holds the wealth, but also some of the keys and threats to the transition. COP27, to be held in Egypt in November, will be the next chapter in the story. 

For data that is being loaded from a SAS Stored Process Server, an insertion process might fail to a MySQL database with a warning, as well as an error message that says "During insert: Incorrect datetime value…"

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Titles and footnotes do not span the entire width of the page when you use the COLUMNS= option with a value that is greater than 1 with the TAGSETS.RTF_SAMPLE tagset. When a value that is greater than 1 is specified for th

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Culture notes: Populists of the world unite The World Today rsoppelsa.drupal 25 May 2022

America’s hard-right has successfully played a long game at home, and now it’s schmoozing Europe. We should be worried, says Catherine Fieschi

The politics of advanced democracies is a rather Janus-faced affair these days. No sooner have we breathed a sigh of relief at the results of the French presidential election than a leaked United States Supreme Court document on Roe v Wade signals American abortion rights are under threat. 

Yes, Europe seems to be maintaining political unity in its support of Ukraine, and the US is lavishing eye-watering sums on it both in military and humanitarian aid. Yet one cannot help but feel that these might be short-lived spells of relief in the face of mounting storm clouds on the political horizon. Both at the domestic and international level, populist politics looks to be gathering pace still. 

On the domestic front, we should be cautious in our relief. In the French elections Emmanuel Macron was indeed re-elected, and comfortably so, but there is no denying the space occupied by populist politicians on the left and the right. In the first round, Marine Le Pen gained 23 per cent of the vote, left populist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon 22 per cent, and far-right candidate Éric Zemmour 7 per cent. Add to this a record low turnout, and the picture is one of a system in which mainstream politics has overall been rejected in favour of various populist options. 

The Hungarians weren’t so lucky, and Viktor Orbán’s capture of the media and quashing of the opposition over his years in power delivered solid victory. 

What should be cause for further concern is what is happening in the United States, as well as its potential impact on European politics. A quick flick through American politics today suggests dysfunctionalities of staggering magnitude and depth, and the full extent of the success of the right-wing Republican project, as confirmed by the intention to reverse Roe v Wade. 

Any reversal of Roe v Wade is a further step towards a drastic re-territorialization of American politics: into red states and blue states, into urban v rural, into places where taxes fund public education and public goods and where they won’t. It is also about a re-territorialization of institutional power away from the federal and into state institutions. 

The words of JD Vance, the Ohio Republican senatorial candidate – author of the rather good memoir Hillbilly Elegy – pander to an ‘American heartlands’ view of the United States’ role in the world. Asked about the fate of Ukraine, Vance simply replied that he ‘didn’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another’. 

On an even more basic level, we would do well to keep in mind that there were 440 anti-voter bills in 49 states at the end of 2021 and rising, calling into question citizens’ basic rights to vote. Republicans have pursued this agenda relentlessly. They have played a long game and invested in media, education and minor and not so minor projects – all of which have secured them a social and political base that is well-disposed towards the deep reversal of the American liberal global project and that of its allies across the world.

And it is perhaps on this last point that we should be most alarmed. Between May 18-20, the Conservative Political Action Conference, an American conclave of the right, was held in Europe. Viktor Orbán gave the keynote speech, and other speakers included the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, and the president of Spain’s far-right party Vox, Santiago Abascal, as well as some well-known American Trumpian voices, including Trump himself. Marine Le Pen, whose earlier appearance at the conference had met with rapturous applause, chose not to cosy-up too closely to Orbán in the run-up to the French parliamentary elections in June but she sent her deputy. 

The export of the Fox News-driven conference from across the Atlantic is deeply worrying. Up until now populists have failed in their attempts at international alliances. At the European Union level their nationalism has always been in the way of their working together, and their groups tend to be short-lived or ineffective as a result. As for American attempts in Europe, the one led by Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser, in 2020 that aimed to create an Academy for the Judeo-Christian West ended as a damp squib – possibly not helped by his dismissal from the White House amid charges of defrauding donors.

But something may be changing: the conference’s embrace of Orbán and an international smattering of ‘strongmen’ hailing from the hard-right, aligned with Putin and sup-ported by Trump and a media empire, suggests that we are entering a Trumpian-infused second act that in its triumphal revanchism is seeking to create an international right-wing populist, or even authoritarian front. This is about politics, media, but also money – something European populist parties have been short of. As Marine Le Pen explained to French voters, her party is so poor it had to borrow money from a Russian bank.  

As some have pointed out, the Russian aggression against Ukraine has complicated matters when it comes to Russian funding of disinformation to the West. Many routes have been shut down. But a new route between the US and Hungary as a platform to floss Europe with dirty money is a good replacement to the old Russian route. 
 

Culture notes: Will the EU find its voice at last? The World Today mhiggins.drupal 30 January 2023

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has galvanized the bloc, but doubt remains about how it can capitalize on this moment, writes Catherine Fieschi.

Despite its reticence to believe that Russia would attack Ukraine, once Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled across the Donbas, the European Union finally grasped the momentous nature of the events unfolding on its eastern flank. The immediate reaction of Europe’s member states was one of unity, resolve and uncharacteristically rapid decision-making, at least on sanctions and energy policy.

That they would need to act in concert across a concatenation of crises that would be either triggered (energy), worsened (inflation) or heightened (geopolitical instability) by Putin’s move was obvious. And so, Europe’s collective narrative of this past year slid into place, and it goes something like this: We gave Russia the benefit of every doubt, including after their invasion of Crimea when we still tried to bring them back to the negotiating table, but Putin has made the fundamental choice of turning away from democracy and the rule of law.

Now, the narrative goes on, we have to treat them as enemies and give ourselves the means to become resilient in the face of aggression as Ukraine is all that stands – both symbolically and geographically – between us and the chaos of a Europe-wide war.

Like any good narrative, it is anchored in previous trials and exploits. Having learnt from its failure to coordinate action during the eurozone crisis and then the migration crisis, Europe was keen to make the most of its resilience in the face of the Covid pandemic in the form of the joint vaccine purchases and a massive recovery plan.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is an added – albeit dramatic and costly – opportunity to pursue further collective action and discover the next chapter of its shared purpose, as a political and perhaps even a defence alliance.

Europe had long been in need of an arc to follow. In the aftermath of the Second World War, peace and prosperity seemed enough. But the new multipolar world that emerged from the ashes of the Cold War and then 9/11 were more difficult to navigate for a largely commercial and regulatory alliance.

Could the EU, then, ever find its political voice?

David vs Goliath

While Brexit and Covid created rallying points, the shock and tragedy of the invasion delivered everything the EU needed in narrative terms: a David and Goliath story, with the opportunity to feature on Team David in European terms while allying with the United States, and a ‘band of brothers’ element to shore up a union bruised by the defection of a key but troubled member. Above all, the appearance of an arch-villain in the form of Vladimir Putin put Europe back into the familiar and mythical territory of the 1940s and then the Cold War.

When on May 28, 2016, Putin seated himself on the throne of the Byzantine emperors in Mount Athos’ Protaton Church in Greece in a scene truly worthy of Game of Thrones, the writing should have been on the wall. That day he explicitly laid out his aim to appoint himself as the new Eastern emperor who would fight the decadence of the West.

‘Today,’ Putin told the world, ‘we restore the values of patriotism, historical memory and traditional culture.’ Later, he cited Ukraine as the biggest unfinished mission of his years in power. That Europe – and Germany in particular – had taken so long to decipher Putin’s dark designs only adds to the narrative’s epic quality, positioning Europe as a victim of its own good faith and open heart.

Cracks in the narrative

But the narrative is not free from cracks. The Baltic states would argue that they had long warned of Putin’s nefarious intentions; and Poland has always been convinced of the threat posed by its neighbour.

Nov. 12—The Gonzaga women's basketball team has much to learn after a challenging loss at Stanford on Sunday. Losses have a way of exposing a team's shortcomings. And there is much to learn from the worst loss (89-58) in coach Lisa Fortier's 11 seasons. Stanford, unranked in the preseason poll for the first time since 1999-2000, is unranked no more. The Cardinal (3-0) entered at No. 24 in the ...

The importance of Ukraine and the Russian Federation for global agricultural markets and the risks associated with the war in Ukraine. 

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