Monogamous Prairie Voles Reveal the Neurobiology of Love Scientific American. Please don’t tell the marketing department.
The Fed will be in the thick of the debt limit mess Axios
The tl;dr on Powell Stephanie Kelton, The Lens
Unraveling Dollarization Phenomenal World
Chapter 2: “Rainbows and butterflies” American Banker. Part two of a five-part series. The more revealing URL: why-wells-fargos-fake-accounts-problem-festered-for-so-long.
Climate
Net zero requires massive tracts of land. Habitat conservation lies in the details. Anthropocene
Fusion Energy: A Different Take Mother Pelican. From January, still germane.
Soil tainted by air pollution expels carbon (press release) University of California, Riverside. Original.
Water
California releases its own plan for Colorado River cuts AP
#COVID19
Facing the New Covid-19 Reality New England Journal of Medicine. “There is much to lament in the politicization of the Covid-19 pandemic.” Well worth a read; the authors seem to have achieved a level of sanity. Readers?
Global COVID-19 cases down, but deaths on the rise Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “The WHO urged caution in interpreting the trends, due to reduced testing and delays in reporting.”
Using a Dynamic Causal Model to validate previous predictions and offer a 12-month forecast of the long-term effects of the COVID-19 epidemic in the UK Frontiers in Public Health. From the Abstract: “A previous 12-month prediction of the size of the epidemic to October 2022 underestimated its sequelae by a fifth. This analysis seeks to explain the reasons for the underestimation before offering new long-term predictions….. The increase in transmissibility together with the public’s response provide plausible explanations for why the model underestimated the 12-month predictions to October 2022. The 2023 projection could well-underestimate the predicted substantial next wave of COVID-19 infection. Vaccination alone will not control the epidemic. The UK COVID-19 epidemic is not over. The results call for investment in precautionary public health interventions.” Ah, “the public.”
China?
We Wanted China’s ‘Zero Covid’ to End, but Not Like This NYT. Matt 27:24.
China’s ‘disappearing market confidence’ presents major test for the Communist Party SCMP
Philippines grants U.S. greater access to bases amid China concerns Reuters
Myanmar
In Myanmar, Resistance Forces Pursue Home Rule Foreign Policy. It’s hard to think otherwise than that the Myanmar NUG gets no support from the “In this house” crowd exactly because they’re fighting a fascist regime.
India
Citigroup wealth unit stops margin loans against India Adani’s securities – source Economic Times
Adani abandons US$2.5 billion share sale in big setback to Indian tycoon Channel News Asia
Dear Old Blighty
Blankets, Food Banks, and Shuttered Pubs: Brexit Has Delivered a Broken Britain Foreign Policy
British workers unite in largest strike in a generation Al Jazeera. “Up to half a million British teachers, civil servants, train drivers and university lecturers…. About 300,000 people on strike on Wednesday are teachers, according to the Trades Union Congress.” Soon, firefighters.
Unions Get a Taste for Mass Strikes After UK’s Day of Action Bloomberg. Lead: “The UK’s labor unions emerged emboldened from the country’s worst [sic] day of strikes for a decade, threatening further coordinated action to force the government’s hand in pay negotiations.” ZOMG ZOMG this is very bad where are the whips and chains
New powers to curb strike disruption approved by MPs BBC. Wowsers:
Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg [(!!)] also raised concerns about the bill, saying it was “badly written” and vague.
The former business secretary said he supported the aims of the legislation and would not vote against it but hoped it would be amended in the House of Lords.
He criticised a so-called “Henry VIII clause” in the bill, which would allow ministers to amend the legislation after it has become law without full parliamentary scrutiny.
Or, in the original German, Ermächtigungsgesetz.
Those on strike not only deserve the pay they’re demanding, we need them to get it if the economy is to survive Tax Research UK
European Disunion
Hungarian President: Hungary strives for a quick ceasefire in Ukraine Daily News Hungary
Orbán comes under Nato scrutiny over purge of military top brass FT
New Not-So-Cold War
Patrick Lawrence: The Pathology of Ukrainian Nationalism ScheerPost. Thoughtful, well worth a read.
Estonian PM shows giant statue of Zelenskyy in style of Statue of Liberty Ukrainska Pravda
Ukraine EU membership: No short cuts on joining, officials warn ahead of summit BBC. After rolling over on the tanks. Please.
How Many Su-27 Interceptors Does Ukraine Have Left? Forbes
Hard Drinking and Murky Finances: How an American Veterans Group Imploded in Ukraine NYT
War tourists fighting on a virtual front, since Ukraine-Russia war Phys.org
The Ukraine War And Von Clausewitz: Strategy Vs. Mere Tactics 1945
Ukraine Support Justified by Realism about U.S. Interests National Review
Politics and Strategy Valdai Discussion Club. Always worth a careful read; Valdai is like a combination of Brookings and CFR; propaganda with an analytical veneer. Or, indeed, vice versa. Fascinating example of mirroring by Russian “scholars” at the WikiPedia entry.
The Caribbean
4 key suspects in Haiti presidential slaying in US custody AP
Biden Administration
Corporate and White-Collar Prosecutions Hit New All-Time Lows in FY 2022 TRAC
U.S. Restores Protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest Smithsonian
2024
Delawhere? The Justice Department Remains Silent on Curious Omission from Searched Locations Jonathan Turley
Police State Watch
As Officers Beat Tyre Nichols, a Crime-Fighting Camera Watched Over Them NYT
Body Cameras for Police Threaten Public Safety The Tyee
Tech
AI as Systemic Risk in a Polycrisis (PDF) cepAdhoc. “As our increasingly dynamic and interdependent world deviates from past observations used for design and training, AI systems will become less reliable.”
Shape-Shifting Robot Resembles Terminator Model Manufacturing.net
Assange
Revealed: Sweden destroyed a substantial part of its documents on Julian Assange Il Fatto Quotidiano
Healthcare
‘Hospital purgatory’: Confidence in healthcare plunges as criticism grows louder and larger Becker’s Hospital Review
Sports Desk
Walking the Basketball Dog Kottke.org
Imperial Collapse Watch
CEPR Sanctions Watch, January 2023 CEPR (GF).
Diplomatic Immunity London Review of Books
Class Warfare
Owning Farmland Is Now Cool, Even If You Don’t Farm AgWeb. Plus, you can always hire sharecroppers!
What Is Stoicism? A Definition & 9 Stoic Exercises To Get You Started Daily Stoic. Granted, a Stoic store seems a little… contradictory?
Independent Media Need You to Get the Word Out on Social Media FAIR. Readers?
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
