2:00PM Water Cooler 2/4/2025 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether.

Fowl Track of the Day

Brown Thrasher, Hilltop Reservation, Essex, New Jersey, United States.

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In Case You Would possibly Miss…

DOGE: Recent lawsuits and probes.
The DNC… . Oh, Lordie…
How one programmer’s ideas on bitcoin modified.
Oldest recognized portrait.

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Politics

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

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Spook Nation

Couldn’t occur to a nicer set of goons:
It nonetheless hasn’t sunk in: the FBI took half in framing not simply any random individual as a Russian agent, however the President of america. Within the course of, the FBI endorsed the Clinton marketing campaign’s condescending, elitist message that voters who did not push the button for Hillary… https://t.co/jOatk6aRve
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 4, 2025
“The State of affairs: What’s Happening on the FBI?” [Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare]. On the January 6 investigation: “Issues have clarified sufficient in the present day to say one factor clearly: Lots of people on the bureau—management and road brokers, analysts and employees alike—are flirting with heroism proper now…. How widespread is the inner resistance? I don’t know. However we’re going to discover out quickly… Will the performing deputy lawyer normal, Emil Bove, obtain a pile of actionable materials or will he obtain what quantities to a big pile of spoiled questionnaires? And both manner, what is going to he—and the White Home—do with no matter it receives? In a single state of affairs, it must tackle the fact {that a} shockingly giant variety of bureau personnel performed a job, fairly unsurprisingly, within the largest federal investigation in American historical past. They executed search warrants, ran down leads, interviewed individuals, made arrests and testified in a number of of the 1,500 plus federal prosecutions that resulted. Does Bove think about that he’ll fireplace all of those individuals?”
“FBI brokers attempt to block administration’s effort to look at Trump, Jan. 6 circumstances” [WaPo]. “A bunch of 9 FBI brokers requested a federal choose on Tuesday to dam the Trump administration’s efforts to gather data on 1000’s of case brokers throughout the nation who labored on investigations tied to the President Donald Trump or the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol…. Every of the plaintiffs within the go well with labored both on a Jan. 6 case or the investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of categorized paperwork after his first time period as president, their lawsuit states. They’re searching for an injunction that will bar the Justice Division from any of brokers that will establish brokers and different personnel.’” • I just like the underlined language. Possibly apply it to no matter scheme DOGE is working as much as?

DOGE

“Elon Musk is a ‘particular authorities worker.’ What does that imply?” [WaPo]. “White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that Elon Musk — the tech billionaire whom President Donald Trump tapped to guide a large-scale effort to chop authorities spending and regulation — is a particular authorities worker.’ … A particular authorities worker is ‘anybody who works, or is anticipated to work, for the federal government for 130 days or much less in a 365-day interval,’ with or with out compensation, in accordance with the Justice Division. … Particular authorities staff, or SGEs, ‘are topic to most guidelines, though generally in a much less restrictive manner,’ the Justice Division stated in a abstract. For instance, SGEs who’re paid at or under the extent of federal staff with Senior Govt Service standing are ; as an alternative, they’ll file a report confidentially if they’re anticipated to ‘have a considerable position within the formulation of company coverage,’ in accordance with the U.S. Workplace of Authorities Ethics. That is particularly related in Musk’s case, as a result of critics have argued that his possession of Tesla and SpaceX represents a battle of curiosity in his evaluation of presidency spending and regulation, significantly in his dealings with authorities companies which have previously determined whether or not to award contracts to his firms or laid out guidelines that affect his firms’ actions and income.” • To not point out his advocacy of the blockchain….
“Unions sue to dam Musk crew’s entry to Treasury funds” [Politico]. The lawsuit. “The Alliance for Retired Americans, along with the American Federation of Government Employees and Service Employees International Union, claim that Musk’s efforts may have illegally exposed the personal data of millions of federal employees — as well as any other individual who does business with the federal government — to unauthorized Department of Government Efficiency personnel. ‘The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the groups said in their complaint, which was filed in federal court in the District of Columbia. The complaint accuses the Trump administration of illegally granting Musk’s team access in violation of federal laws that govern the privacy of agency records and protect the confidentiality of taxpayer information.’ • Access is bad enough. But according to Wired reporting, DOGE has admin privileges.
“Warren, Wyden call for probe of Musk aides’ access to Treasury payments” [Politico]. “The top Democrats overseeing the Treasury Department are calling on a congressional watchdog to investigate the Trump administration’s decision to give Elon Musk’s team access to the federal system that controls trillions of dollars in payments…. ‘GAO must investigate and determine who was granted access to these systems, why and how this access was granted, and the implications for the nation’s economic and national security,’ Warren and Wyden wrote in a letter to the congressional watchdog that was shared with POLITICO…. Bessent on Monday night assured House Republican lawmakers during a closed-door meeting that Musk and his team did not enjoy control over Treasury’s payment systems and that DOGE was reviewing federal payment processes to find inefficiencies and root out waste and fraud.” • You’d think Bessent might have assured everyone. Again, access, access, access.
“Bessent tells lawmakers Musk’s DOGE does not control Treasury payments system” [Politico]. “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent privately reassured Republican lawmakers Monday that Elon Musk and his team do not have control over a sensitive government system that manages the flow of trillions of dollars in payments, according to five lawmakers in the room for a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill…. The remarks, relayed by lawmakers in the room who were granted anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting, came during a two-hour gathering between Bessent and GOP members of the House Financial Services Committee Monday night that included a reception and dinner…. Bessent declined to comment on the matter exiting the gathering.” That’s a confidence builder: “Other Republican lawmakers on Monday also brushed aside criticism from Democrats that Musk and his team could abuse access to the system to shutter payments that Americans rely on. ‘It’s important for them to be able to know what is being spent — and make certain it’s being spent A, the way Congress intended, and B, the way the President would want it to be spent,’ said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio). ‘Sometimes you have to go into the actual disbursement system, because that way you don’t get misinformation, which a lot of bureaucrats do.’” • This is stupid. DOGE’s team isn’t big enough to audit a lemonade stand, let alone the entire Federal government. Whatever is going on is not an audit.
DOGE (1):
DOGE already drilled through untold layers of government bureaucracy and found the heart of the Deep State beast.
USAID
Amazingly, this made all the Deep State puppets in our government “prairie dog” to complain, so we can easily spot them going forward. Don’t miss that part of…
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) February 3, 2025
Oh, is that the place it’s? USAID? Fairly pissant, in the event you ask me.
DOGE (2):
🎯 https://t.co/4itxXyTzOV
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
Dudes, come on. Not even shut. Then once more—
DOGE (3)
Those that know, please reply to this publish itemizing all of the evil issues that NED has achieved. It’s a protracted record. https://t.co/8smJsP5Hji
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

Nominations

“Sen. Todd Younger will again Tulsi Gabbard as director of nationwide intelligence” [Politico]. “In a letter that Younger posted on-line Tuesday, Gabbard dedicated to ‘holding accountable’ any intelligence group worker, contractor or subcontractor who who leaks intelligence; that she wouldn’t ‘shield’ members of the intelligence group who interact in an unauthorized disclosures; and dedicated to not ‘making any suggestions in a private or career [sic] capability’ relating to Snowden’s authorized standing,”

2024 Publish Mortem

“How Democratic Gen Z activists misplaced the Gen Z vote” [Vox]. “Six months in the past, younger Democrats have been getting ready for a really totally different dialog. They have been respiratory a sigh of aid after Joe Biden formally dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest. Gen Z, some stated, was able to really feel the “#Kamalove” and break with the previous that Biden represented. The flurry of ‘Brat summer time’ and coconut-tree memes that stuffed social media platforms was absolutely proof that there was a latent enthusiasm for Harris among the many youth….. The work might now focus extra on turning out the youth for a recent candidate as an alternative of persuading those that had been disillusioned by Biden to pull their strategy to the voting sales space. This election was now extra a matter of merely getting youth to indicate up.” Whoops: “See, there’s a elementary divide between the younger individuals who care about Democratic politics and the type of individuals they have been making an attempt to steer. Lots of their turnout targets merely didn’t belief establishments or the established order like organizers and younger Democrats did. They existed in numerous data bubbles and media ecosystems, lacking persuasion efforts together with memes, superstar endorsements, or digital organizing. whether or not Democrats could possibly be trusted to assist them get forward financially, and whether or not Harris or Trump can be an even bigger disruptor of the established order.” • BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!
“How Democrats Misplaced the Dissident Vote” [Ross Barkan, New York Magazine]. “However the truth that [Gabbard and RFK] are nominees for very important cupboard positions in a Trump presidency is a mirrored image of Democratic weak spot. One, Trump received. Two, the Individuals who admire Kennedy and Gabbard have been overwhelmingly Democrats a mere decade in the past. Simply as Kennedy and Gabbard maneuvered into Trump’s orbit, their supporters largely did the identical — concluding that just one social gathering could possibly be hospitable to them. A method to consider these Individuals is as dissident voters. The time period itself is broad and slippery sufficient, and right here it would check with a individuals from a variety of backgrounds. At their core, dissidents are skeptics of establishments, whether or not that is likely to be the federal authorities, the military-industrial complicated, company America, or the pharmaceutical trade. A few of them are anti-vaxxers and a few of them are 9/11 truthers. Some indulge in lots of conspiracies and a few none in any respect. Some homeschool their youngsters. Some care an awesome deal about wellness and bodily health and have unconventional concepts for the way they could obtain optimum well being. Components of the Kennedy and Gabbard worldviews communicate to a large swath of those voters, who’re nowhere close to a majority of Individuals however make up a minority that may’t be readily ignored. ” • Hmm.

Democrats en déshabillé

Closing festivities on the DNC:
In the meantime on the DNC headquarters…The Democrats are not any totally different than the band who performed on because the Titanic was sinking. pic.twitter.com/CcSiJMgu4N
— Energy to the Individuals ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) February 2, 2025
Martin the brand new chair:
Highly effective
Ken Martin received the chair seat, however simply earlier than the vote, former chair @donnabrazile talks about member’s freedom to vote their conscience with out retaliation. https://t.co/8DDmZV586w pic.twitter.com/XIzZhbrOXZ
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) February 1, 2025
Consultants, your contracts are protected:
pic.twitter.com/cuzaXDtwKH
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) February 1, 2025
The same old thuggery:
Highly effective
Ken Martin received the chair seat, however simply earlier than the vote, former chair @donnabrazile talks about member’s freedom to vote their conscience with out retaliation. https://t.co/8DDmZV586w pic.twitter.com/XIzZhbrOXZ
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) February 1, 2025
Did I point out that “daring” was a phrase to be careful for, mainly a synonym for PR-driven and ephemeral?
largest purple flag but is that this publish lol https://t.co/h8pIjQnQOS
— soul khan (@soulkhan) February 2, 2025
They’ll die as a celebration reasonably than change (1):
The Democratic Nationwide Committee apparently thinks it is vitally vital to elect JD Vance President in 2028. https://t.co/zEYH0j8uNy
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) February 2, 2025
They’ll die as a celebration reasonably than change (2):
Outgoing DNC Chief Jaime Harrison says he thinks Kamala ought to run once more and may win in 2028. pic.twitter.com/HNUhwSPoTV
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) January 31, 2025

Syndemics

“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

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Covid Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, ~~Biobot~~; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Normal Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the tackle given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Sources, United States (Native): 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 reviews); 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 (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (~~wastewater~~); WY (~~wastewater~~).

Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).

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

Hat tricks to useful 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, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep protected on the market!

Sequelae: Covid

Humorous all of the airline crashes of late:
Pilots should be examined for spatial issues post- Covid. There’s a rising physique of analysis displaying publish Covid mind harm, esp with reminiscence and spatial abilities. 46 Visuospatial Capabilities in Sufferers After COVID-19 Diseasehttps://t.co/p6McS5BX2m https://t.co/gOt0MaALKL
— Martha Younger- JD, MBA, N95-clean the air:🦋😷 (@mryoung151) February 2, 2025

Morbidity and Mortality

“Early grownup loss of life charges stay increased than anticipated post-pandemic” [News Medical Life Sciences]. “New analysis from the College of Minnesota and Boston College Faculty of Public Well being (BUSPH) exhibits that loss of life charges for early adults, or adults aged 25-44, rose sharply in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and stay increased than anticipated post-pandemic. Heightened loss of life charges in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic intensified an already adverse development for early adults, which started round 2010. Consequently, early grownup loss of life charges in 2023 have been about 70 % increased than they could have been if loss of life charges had not begun to rise a couple of decade earlier than the pandemic.” • 2010? Thanks, Obama!

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Lambert right here: Wastewater is again (and down). Good.

TABLE 1: Each day Covid Charts

Wastewater
★ This week[1] CDC January 27	Last week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC January 18	Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC January 11

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data February 3:	National [6] CDC January 24:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens January 27:	Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 18:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC December 30:	Variants[10] CDC December 30

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 11:	Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 11:

LEGEND

1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Down, nothing new at major hubs.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.

[4] (ED) A little uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped, but no exponential growth either, Odd.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.

[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.

[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.

[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.

Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Job Openings” [Trading Economics]. “Job openings in the United States fell by 556,000 to 7.6 million in December 2024, missing the market expectation of 8.0 million and indicating a gradual cooling of the labor market.”

Manufacturing: “United States Factory Orders Ex Transportation” [Trading Economics]. “Factory orders excluding transportation in the United States rose by 0.3% over a month earlier in December 2024, following a 0.2% increase in the prior month.”

Supply Chain: “United States LMI Logistics Managers Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Logistics Manager’s Index in the US climbed to 62 in January 2025 from 57.3 in December 2024, signaling the fastest expansion in the logistics sector since June 2022. This growth reflects the sustained expansion of the US economy, alongside a sharper-than-expected rise in inventories amid uncertainty surrounding trade regulations, particularly tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China.”

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Manufacturing: “Boeing Deferred Production Costs: $39bn since 2019 MAX grounding, $22bn for 737” [Leeham News and Analysis]. “[T]he balance sheet does indicate a figure of $87.55bn sitting in the Inventory account, but what is the detailed break-down of what is contained therein?… Each quarter, in the Boeing financial reports section titled Inventories, are the details of what makes up that account…. Typically, expenses are recorded onto the Income Statement during the period for which they are incurred, matching revenues and costs. Program Accounting allows Boeing to put those amounts into Inventory and keep them there, until it decides to pull them out. Normally these accrued amounts are expensed with a delivery. Other times, they are written off. Many investors would look at the balance sheet and assume that Boeing has over $87bn in product that it is able to sell to customers.” • If you play the ponies on Boeing, this post is definitely worth a read.

Manufacturing: “Boeing’s Starliner Fiasco Has Now Burned Through $2 Billion” [Gizmodo]. “Nearly five months after an uncrewed Starliner undocked from the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing announced that it lost an additional half a billion dollars from its troubled spacecraft as the fate of its contract with NASA remains unclear. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Boeing reported a total of $523 million in losses from the Starliner Commercial Crew Program in 2024. That brings the total amount of losses from the ill-fated program to a whopping $2 billion in cost overruns. Boeing cited ‘highly complex designs and technical challenges,’ as well as ‘schedule delays and cost impacts,’ that increased the cost estimates for its programs…. Boeing had forewarned that more losses were coming during the fourth quarter of 2024, and it turned out to be the heftiest bill of the entire year.”

Manufacturing: “Airbus Vs Boeing Vs COMAC: How The Plane Makers’ Market Share Compares In Asia” [Simple Flying]. “COMAC has a long way to go to ramp up and challenge Airbus and Boeing in any meaningful way. In January 2025, Flight Plan reported that COMAC delivered 12 C919 narrowbodies in 2024 (up from just two in 2023). It added COMAC plans to establish a production system able to produce 150 aircraft annually by 2028. Simple Flying has already reported COMAC plans to deliver 50 C919s in 2025…. COMAC’s currently low production numbers, together with China’s massive and growing aviation market, mean that Chinese airlines will have no choice but to continue ordering Airbus and Boeing aircraft for a long time to come (including all of their widebody aircraft). Time will tell how fast COMAC can ramp up production to meet more and more of its domestic requires and produce surplus for export. The COMAC faces a potentially bright future because it is a Chinese aircraft. China now boasts one of the world’s largest airline markets (the United States retains the largest), meaning that there is plenty of domestic market potential even before considering exports.”

Tech:

If China pulls a DeepSeek on the Adobe creative suite they’ll have us singing Red Sun in the Sky by Q2 2025
— Q. Anthony Ali (@NobleQAli) January 27, 2025

I assumed I ran this, nevertheless it doesn’t present up in search, so…

Tech: Of Sam Altman:

I might observe that Sam – and too many others like him – have the identical relationship with AGI as do teenage boys with their raging hormones and intercourse:
He can’t inform us precisely what it’s, however he assures us he’ll realize it when he sees it. He thinks that everybody is doing it when…
— Grady Booch (@Grady_Booch) February 1, 2025

Tech: A very good query:

Why do all of the AI logos appear like butt holes? pic.twitter.com/O5VC3bAgP5
— greg (@greg16676935420) January 31, 2025

NOTE I solely had time to confirm OpenAI’s emblem….

The Bezzle: “After twelve years of writing about bitcoin, right here’s how my considering has modified” [Moneyness]. From 2024, nonetheless germane. “If you wish to purchase some bitcoins, go proper forward. We will even assist by regulating the buying and selling venues to make it protected. However don’t power others to play. Alas, that appears to be the place we’re headed. There’s a rising effort to arm-twist the remainder of society into becoming a member of in by having governments purchase bitcoins, within the U.S.’s case a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The U.S. authorities has by no means entered the World Sequence of Poker. Nor has it gone to Vegas to wager billions to tax payer funds on roulette or constructed a strategic Powerball ticket reserve, nevertheless it seems to be genuinely entertaining the thought of rolling the cube on Bitcoin.” And: “Bitcoin is an extremely infectious early-bird sport, one which after sixteen years continues to discover a fixed stream of latest recruits. How contagious? I initially estimated in a 2022 post, Three potential paths for the price of bitcoin, that adoption wouldn’t rise above 10%-15% of the global population, but I may have been underestimating its transmissibility…. It begins with a small strategic reserve of a few billion dollars. It ends with the Department of Bitcoin Price Appreciation being allocated 50% of yearly tax revenues to make the number go up, to the detriment of infrastructure like roads, hospitals, and law enforcement. At that point we’ve entered a dystopia in which society rapidly deteriorates because we’ve all become obsessed on a bet.” • Sadly, “early bird game” is undefined. Readers?

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Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 45 Fear (previous close: 44 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 47 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Feb 4 at 2:10:42 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes down one on Food Supply. “The lack of activity has downgraded this category” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 180. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • This is a tough crowd. Surely Trump’s first month brought the Rapture closer?

Gallery

“Dolní Vĕstonice Portrait Head: The oldest known human portrait in the world” [LiveScience]. “This sculpture, discovered at the archaeological site of Dolní Vĕstonice in the Czech Republic in the 1920s, is considered the oldest surviving portrait of a person anywhere in the world, at 26,000 years old…. Carved with stone tools out of mammoth ivory, the tiny head measures just 1.9 inches (4.8 centimeters) tall and 1 inch (2.4 cm) wide. The sculpture appears to represent a woman’s face, with engraved eyes, a dimpled chin, and a raised nose and mouth. She may be wearing her hair in an updo or under a hat. Unlike other objects from the site — such as the Venus of Vĕstonice, which lacks facial features — this face seems to be individualized, making it the earliest known depiction of a specific person.” Also in the camp: “In one of these burials, covered in red ocher and arrayed with 10 drilled fox teeth, excavators discovered the skeleton of a middle-aged woman in 1949. Her skull was asymmetrical, potentially due to a traumatic childhood injury. When researchers used forensic techniques to reconstruct the woman’s face from the skull in 2018, they discovered it was very similar to the tiny ivory carving, whose left eye is significantly smaller than the right…. [T]his little head carved from mammoth ivory is likely the earliest personal portrait in the world.” • Here she is: