Aposiopesis’: Watch 12-year-old win US Spelling Bee BBC
How the Guinness Brewery Invented the Most Important Statistical Method in Science Scientific American
JP Morgan Launches Fractional Shares For Self-Directed Investors Finance Feeds. “With the latest capability, investors can buy a fraction of a stock or exchange-traded fund for as little as $5, said the announcement.” Awesome. Taxi drivers, hairdressers, and the like.
Climate
We’re All Roadkill Now Salon
Angry homeowners in affluent California city demand faster action on insurance crisis San Francisco Chronicle
Coevolution a driving force behind biodiversity on Earth (press release) Australian National University
Global tourism is booming. These people would rather it wasn’t BBC
Syndemics
A third U.S. farmworker infected with bird flu is the first to experience respiratory symptoms STAT
We Know How to Eradicate TB. We Just Need the Will. Governing
Dengue fever, once confined to the tropics, now threatens the U.S. NBC
Acute and post-acute respiratory complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection: population-based cohort study in South Korea and Japan Nature. N = nationwide claim-based cohorts. From the Abtract: “The risk of acute respiratory complications or post-acute respiratory sequelae is significantly increased in people with SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the general population…. [W]hile the excess post-acute risk diminished with time following SARS-CoV-2 infection, it persisted beyond 6 months post-infection.”
Three-year outcomes of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 Nature. From the Abstract: “Here we built a cohort of 135,161 people with SARS-CoV-2 infection and 5,206,835 controls from the US Department of Veterans Affairs who were followed for 3 years to estimate risks of death and PASC.” And the Discussion: “n aggregate, our findings show reduction of risks over 3 years of follow-up but persistent increased risks of major adverse outcomes among hospitalized individuals.” Commentary:
The big revelation here is that the risk persists for 3 years in several organ systems (e.g. GI and nervous system) even 3 years after a mild infection.
Healthcare professionals are taught that acute infections as short-term events with health effects that manifest around the…
— Ziyad Al-Aly, MD (@zalaly) May 30, 2024
More commentary:
How can a study have a 3-year “control group without SARS-CoV-2 infection” when Americans are getting COVID an average of approximately every 12.5 months?
It can’t — not without using historical controls. Here are some alternative gist-level ways of viewing the new Nature… pic.twitter.com/rSRu41HvyZ
— Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) May 30, 2024
The High-Risk/Low-Risk Fallacy: Part 1 Pandemic Accountability Index (AK). Part 2. Word of the day: vexillology.
China?
The pivot to China, a long thread from the experts:
China’s volunteer programmers work in the shadows to set the internet free Al Jazeera
The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023 The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China. Horrid formatting, but the “Next Page”-style links do work. “Long-standing disparities in the distribution of income between labor and capital have resulted in the most severe wealth gap since the Great Depression of 1929.” Where’s the lie?
Britain’s century long Opium trafficking and China’s century of humiliation (1839-1949) MR Online
Why Dollarization Is the Solution to Laos’ Economic Woes The DIplomat
Africa
Zimbabwe Set to Be Invited to Join BRICS InfoBRICS
Where wealth is concentrated in Africa BNE Intellinews
Syraqistan
Joe Biden’s Terrible Israel Policy Is Really About Getting in Bed With Saudi Arabia The Intercept
Israel won’t end war for deal to free all hostages, PM’s aide said to tell families Times of Israel
Israeli forces ‘categorically’ ignoring court orders, killing people, says charity Anadolu Agency. Save the Children, ffs.
How Israeli Security Nixed Haaretz’s Report Into Alleged Mossad Extortion of International Court Prosecutor Haaretz. “I was explained [sic] that if I publish the story, I would suffer the consequences and get to know the interrogation rooms of the Israeli security authorities from the inside.”
Nothing Is Off the Table in Netanyahu’s Mafia State of Israel Haaretz. “Who’s being naive, Kay?”
Haaretz stories cast doubt on health of Israel’s ‘democracy’ Al Jazeera
New Not-So-Cold War
Why the US is giving Ukraine the green light to attack inside Russia The Atlantic Council
U.S. Lets Ukraine Fire Ballistic Missiles Deep Into Russia: Will Missile Early Warning Radars Be Their First Target? Military Watch
Germany Says Ukraine Can Hit Russia Using Western-Supplied Arms Bloomberg
A major ammo supplier to Ukraine says poor quality parts are impacting half the shells it’s trying to deliver Insider
US to offer Ukraine security pact as tensions rise between allies FT
‘Ukraine Has Gone Through a Terrible Period’: A Q. and A. with Frederick and Kimberly Kagan NYT. If the Kagans are slithering out from their viper’s den into the light, we are in for a bad time.
Russian FinMin introduces first corporate and personal tax hike in two decades BNE Intellinews
South of the Border
Border Traffic Phenomenal World. Ecuador.
The Caribbean
Haiti’s new prime minister vows to seek unity after he is selected by transitional council AP
Global Elections
Narendra Modi eyes India ‘hat trick’ as world’s biggest, longest election ends and Cyril Ramaphosa’s future in doubt after disappointing South African election FT
India’s National Elections—A New Ingredient in the Mix RAND
Democracy Was a Decolonial Project Boston Review
2024
Guilty on all counts Politico. The headline is deceptive. Trump was convicted on all the business records charges, which are misdemeanors. However, Merchan structured the jury instructions such that we do not know which of three “object offenses” Trump was guilty of: campaign finance violations, paying off a mistress, or a tax violation where the government made money. These were the crimes that raised the business records charges to felonies, and yet we don’t know which of these crimes Trump was convicted of. It would seem to me that voters would and should want to know what the object crimes were — and that giving voters that information would be paramount in a functioning democracy — but Merchan concealed that information. “Our law,” “our democracy!”
Hush-money trial was Trump’s to lose. Here’s why he did BBC
The prosecution used meticulous documentation to show falsified business records, but the evidence that Trump actually intended to commit or conceal that all-important second crime was “thin to nonexistent”, Randall Eliason, a professor at George Washington University Law School, told the BBC.
Trump’s team did not focus on hammering this weakness, though in his summation, Mr Blanche gave the jury a list of reasons for reasonable doubt. Instead, they argued that the central events of the case never happened, or that witnesses had lied.
From the reporting, this is correct. Lots of hammering on Cohen; nothing that attacked the architecture of the case. Caveat that the reporting was dreadful, and the relevant transcripts have not yet appeared.
Everybody has won, and all must have prizes. –Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Best Liberalgasm: Trump Convicted of Fraud to Cover-Up Fucking a Sex Worker emptywheel
Runner-Up, Liberalgasm:
Best historical perspective:
Having spent 30 years observing the political career of Silvio Berlusconi I can confidently predict Trump will survive this and probably benefit from it
— Jonathan Hopkin (@jrhopkin) May 30, 2024
Best Dry Humor:
Runner-Up, Dry Humor:
Just because someone is convicted doesn’t mean we have to give their donations back. Lots of our donors have felonies for falsifying business records. And those that don’t, just haven’t been caught.
— Associate Deans (@ass_deans) May 30, 2024
DJT stock drops 8% after Trump found guilty in hush money trial Yahoo Finance
All Quiet on the Western Front Spy Talk. An odd article. “[Hayden] also took for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nations political health, the only real expression of its subconscious.” –John LeCarré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Supremes
SCOTUS National Bank Act Preemption Ruling Adam Levitin, Credit Slips
The Supreme Court Could Make the President a King Politico
Digital Watch
AI Is a False God The Walrus
The ugly truth behind ChatGPT: AI is guzzling resources at planet-eating rates Guardian
Computational Law and Epistemic Trespassing (PDF) Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law. “Legal experts have a responsibility not to defer mindlessly to technologists’ claims.”
OpenAI content boss: ‘Incumbent’ on us to help small publishers, not just the giants Press-Gazette. “Tom Rubin also clarified a common misconception about the partnerships being signed between OpenAI and news publishers: they are ‘largely not’ about training but are instead focused on the display of news content and use of the tools and tech.” So therefore it’s all about the training sets and small publishers will be destroyed (if possible).
Google’s AI Search and “Web” View Michael Tsai
Our Famously Free Press
A national network of local news sites is publishing AI-written articles under fake bylines. Experts are raising alarm CNN
The Groves of Academe
‘We’re seeing Universities following a corporate agenda to get favor with donors’ FAIR
Healthcare
Thousands of cancer patients to trial personalised vaccines BBC
Boeing
Boeing Sets Its Own Quality Targets Under Pact With FAA WSJ. What a time for FAA to go soft!
Boeing releases Executive Summary of FAA plan (Update with FAA comment) Leeham News and Analysis
Imperial Collapse Watch
John Mearsheimer on Ukraine, Gaza & escalation dominance (video) SpectatorTV, YouTube
Class Warfare
Mercedes’ Use of Union-Busters in Alabama Highlights the Need for Disclosure Reform On Labor
Fifa warned players could go on strike BBC
Stop Asking For Validation Connor Wroe Southard, A Lonely Impulse of Delight. Part 2. On the publishing industry (and getting published).
The Federalist No. 1: Annotated JSTOR Daily
Antidote du jour (Patricio Mena Vásconez):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
