By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Bird Song of the Day
Readers have been so happy with the mockingbirds I’m going to keep doing them. Now entering Week Three!
Long-tailed Mockingbird, Road to Ronquillo at -14.80588, -74.78986, Ica, Peru. “Birds singing on top of tall cacti early in the morning.”
Readers, this Water Cooler is abbreviated because I am finishing up a post on the “Insect Apocalypse.” Herewith some current events as conversation starters:
“Schwab, Fidelity, other online trading brokerages appear to go dark during huge market sell-off” [Associated Press]. “Several online brokerage firms including Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard appeared to be down for thousands of users early Monday during one of the biggest stock markets sell-offs of 2024. User reports appeared to peak around and just before 10 a.m. ET, data from outage tracker Downdectector shows. Some frustrated customers online said that they were unable to log in or access their account balances.” • Not like what Goldman did to Michael Burry in The Big Short, I am sure. Honor roll:
🚨#BREAKING: Multiple brokerages, including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, TD Ameritrade, E-Trade, UPS, CenturyLink, and Interactive Brokers, are currently down and reporting errors amid market crashes. pic.twitter.com/H2htHnXynT
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) August 5, 2024
Meanwhile, “to the bare walls!”
CVS last night
Flowflex completely gone
Several other brands gone
Binax being snatched up pic.twitter.com/NrlMnz9yI7
— Alexander Riccio (@co2trackers) (@ariccio) August 5, 2024
This is New York. I imagine similar scenes in California.
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 jsn:
jsn writes: “Hollyhock in front of the old store.”
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:
If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
