DL Open Thread: Saturday, November 27, 2021

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on November 27, 2021

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Interview With Sondheim.  Sondheim was a sounding-board for Miranda during the creation of Hamilton:

Sondheim was one of the first people I told about my idea for a piece about Alexander Hamilton, back in 2008. It was in this townhouse, on the first floor. I’d been hired to write Spanish translations for a Broadway revival of “West Side Story,” and during our first meeting he asked me what I was working on next. I told him “Alexander Hamilton,” and he threw back his head in laughter and clapped his hands. “That is exactly what you should be doing. No one will expect that from you. How fantastic.” That moment alone, the joy of surprising Sondheim, sustained me through many rough writing nights and missed deadlines. I sent him early drafts of songs over the seven-year development of “Hamilton,” and his email response was always the same. “Variety, variety, variety, Lin. Don’t let up for a second. Surprise us.”

Two happy geniuses (genii?) reveling in each other’s presence.

O-Mi-Cron.  World panics again:

Omicron’s actual risks are not understood. But early evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants, the WHO said. That means people who contracted COVID-19 and recovered could be subject to catching it again. It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.

Some experts said the variant’s emergence illustrated how rich countries’ hoarding of vaccines threatens to prolong the pandemic.

Fewer than 6% of people in Africa have been fully immunized against COVID-19, and millions of health workers and vulnerable populations have yet to receive a single dose. Those conditions can speed up spread of the virus, offering more opportunities for it to evolve into a dangerous variant.

“This is one of the consequences of the inequity in vaccine rollouts and why the grabbing of surplus vaccines by richer countries will inevitably rebound on us all at some point,” said Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Britain’s University of Southampton. He urged Group of 20 leaders “to go beyond vague promises and actually deliver on their commitments to share doses.”

‘Why The Energy Transition Will Be So Complicated’.  Whenever Daniel Yergin writes about the issue, I pay attention:

The coming energy transition is meant to be totally different. Rather than an energy addition, it is supposed to be an almost complete switch from the energy basis of today’s $86 trillion world economy, which gets 80 percent of its energy from hydrocarbons. In its place is intended to be a net-carbon-free energy system, albeit one with carbon capture, for what could be a $185 trillion economy in 2050. To do that in less than 30 years—and accomplish much of the change in the next nine—is a very tall order.

Here is where the complexities become clear. Beyond outerwear, the degree to which the world depends on oil and gas is often not understood. It’s not just a matter of shifting from gasoline-powered cars to electric ones, which themselves, by the way, are about 20 percent plastic. It’s about shifting away from all the other ways we use plastics and other oil and gas derivatives. Plastics are used in wind towers and solar panels, and oil is necessary to lubricate wind turbines. The casing of your cellphone is plastic, and the frames of your glasses likely are too, as well as many of the tools in a hospital operating room. The air frames of the Boeing 787, Airbus A350, and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet are all made out of high-strength, petroleum-derived carbon fiber. The number of passenger planes is expected to double in the next two decades. They are also unlikely to fly on batteries.

This is but a mere snippet from the story.  Read it, even if it means getting a subscription to The Atlantic.

News-Journal Buries The Lede On Connections’ Delaware Successor.  As in, yet another legislator cashes in:

The state has been extremely helpful in transitioning Connections’ assets and operations to Conexio and Coras, but they didn’t do us any favors, Inperium CEO Smith said.

“I don’t want to feed the notion that the state did favors for us like they may have done alleged favors for Connections,” he said. “But…without the partnership with the state, we would not be where we are, and the clients would not be where they are.”

As Conexio and Coras continue to improve the delivery of services and right size the organizations providing services to thousands of Delawareans, it hired State Rep. Kendra Johnson, D-Bear, in August as the director of community relations for Conexio and Coras.

Johnson, who has a master’s degree in human services from Lincoln University, has worked in the field since graduation. She also served as the board president of the Ability Network of Delaware, an advocacy group focused on nonprofit human service providers.

Johnson previously worked as the executive director of Employment & Adult Day Services at Elwyn, an education, treatment and support services provider for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and other related behavioral health challenges, according to her online legislative biography.

When asked whether Johnson’s employment could create conflicts of interest, Conexio CEO Lynn Kovich dispelled the notion.

“Serving as a state representative and being an employee of a private company that receives state funds doesn’t violate any state ethics rules or Conexio’s Conflict of Interest Policy as long as that relationship with the private company is properly disclosed to both parties, which it was, and that Ms. Johnson doesn’t use her position to influence state funding to Conexio, which she doesn’t,” Kovich said.

Pro-tip to the reporter: ‘Dispelled’ doesn’t mean the same as ‘disputed’.  I call bullshit.  On both the companies and on Rep. Kendra Johnson, who should have known better.

You just knew we weren’t calling this a wrap without some Stealth Sondheim.  This one seems most appropriate for today:

What do you want to talk about?

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  1. Joe Connor says:

    Darius Brown, Mike Brown, Hanifa Shabbaz all alumni of Connections I are digging up their resumes for Connections II 🙂

  2. C says:

    Director of Community relations = government relations = lobbyist lite