Watch a Moose Walk into an Alaskan Movie Theater, Eat Popcorn, and Leave Field and Stream
You’ve Heard About Behavioral Finance. But What About Physical Finance? Institutional Investor
Why Our National Gene Bank System is the Backbone of the Breeding World Seed World
Climate
What Real Meteorologists Wish You Knew About Your Weather App Slate
#COVID19
COVID-19 outbreak hits large Bay Area hospital, prompting new mask rules San Francisco Chronicle. Hospital infection control whacks a few more patients:
Kaiser officials issued a written statement stating that doctors and staff must wear masks while providing direct care to patients in the Santa Rosa hospital and emergency department. There are approximately 3,500 health care workers at the facility. Visitors are also required to wear face coverings [like gaiters? Baggy blues?] inside the hospital.
No. #CovidIsAirborne. Universal inside the entire facility (that is, if protecting patients from infection is the top priority). See Water Cooler here from yesterday for longer form.
POV: The Benevolent Violence of an Unmasked Hospital Long Covid Families. Where are the lawsuits?
Histopathology and SARS-CoV-2 Cellular Localization in Eye Tissues of COVID-19 Autopsies The American Journal of Pathology. “This is the first report to definitively localize SARS-CoV-2 to the retinal inner and outer nuclear cells, retinal ganglion cells, and ocular surface by ISH, validating previous studies that have exclusively used PCR-based methods. These observations highlight the need to better elucidate mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence in the eye…”
China?
China takes the yuan global in a bid to repel a weaponised dollar Business Standard
Many wealthy people are considering leaving China The Economist
US seeks meeting with China Defence Minister after being spurned Straits Times
Why China needs to rein in ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats to reset its global image South China Morning Post
China’s second-richest province goes big into green economy, innovation Straits Times
Is Japan’s military fit for purpose? FT
Myanmar
China’s potential peacemaker role in Myanmar driven by economic, geopolitical interests; no end in sight for crisis Channel News Asia
Adani Group exits Myanmar with sale of port business FT
Global rice shortage is set to be the biggest in 20 years CNBC
The Kingdom Of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin For Years Forbes
India
Congress Files Complaint With EC Against PM’s Invocation of Hanuman at Poll Rally The Wire
How U.S. Efforts to Guide Sudan to Democracy Ended in War NYT but see The Mainstream Media’s Admissions That American Meddling Ruined Sudan Are Misleading Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter (MT, MT).
Biden Signs Executive Order to Impose Sanctions on Sudan Antiwar.com (Rev Kev).
European Disunion
French Foreign Ministry remains silent over alleged US interference Anadolu Agency
Dear Old Blighty
RMT members back further strike action in row with train operating companies Sky News
Tories suffer ‘terrible’ night with English local election losses France24
Voters leave in tears as Brits without ID turned away in local elections chaos The Mirror. For example:
New Not-So-Cold War
Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner Group boss says he will pull troops out of Bakhmut BBC. Wut.
Zelensky in the Hague: Ukraine’s President calls for ICC to punish Putin France24
Dutch PM says talks on F-16s for Ukraine progressing Reuters
Zelensky regime’s fate is sealed Indian Punchline
Russian gold in hands of obscure firms as JPMorgan, HSBC exit Bloomberg
Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, UN technical personnel to discuss grain deal Anadolu Agency
Caribbean
Word of the day: “Bwa Kale”:
The word around Port-au-Prince is Bwa Kale, a spontaneous self-defense movement that is taking on many forms. But can People’s machetes compete with an onslaught of the highest caliber U.S. arms that the gangs possess from their trafficking contacts? #BwaKale https://t.co/re5B6uM80Z
— Danny Shaw (@dannyshawcuny) May 4, 2023
Biden Administration
How Biden Lost the Balkans Foreign Policy
The Supremes
Supreme Court will consider major case on power of federal regulatory agencies SCOTUSblog. Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’ WaPo
B-a-a-a-d Banks
Regional Bank Woes Didn’t End With First Republic Rescue Bloomberg
Pressure grows for regulatory intervention as US bank rout deepens Reuters
Spook Country
Who Helped Overturn the “Pentagon Papers Principle”? The Washington Post and New York Times Matt Taibbi, Racket News. Today’s must read. The ongoing blobbification of the Democrat Party, the spooks, and the national press, which started with the state of exception declared by the PMC in 2016, and whose intensification for 2020 is well-documented in The Twitter Files, reaches “some kinda awful climax” as — entirely a coincidence, I assure you! — top Blob Flexians wargame out a Hunter Biden laptop-like scenario (a “hack-and-dump” exercise), and then replay it in real life just weeks later. A follow-up must-read:
A Good Catch by a Reader, Regarding the Break from the “Pentagon Papers Principle Matt Taibbi, Racket News:
Following the release of today’s article about news organizations junking the “Pentagon Papers Principle,” reader Ben O’Neill made a good observation that should have been in the piece. In the newly-found summary emailed by an Aspen Institute figure in September 2020, “Partnership for a Healthy Digital Public Sphere,” the section about “hack-and-dump” exercises asks [emphasis mine]: “What happens when fabricated documents are released alongside genuine (stolen) content? How can social feeds avoid serving as promoters of foreign or other adversarial entities?”
…[T]hat last line is a great example of what former cybersecurity official and Foundation for Freedom Online head Mike Benz calls the “foreign-domestic switcheroo.”
It’s the basic rhetorical trick of the censorship age: raise a fuss about a foreign threat, using it as a battering ram to get everyone from congress to the tech companies to submit to increased regulation and surveillance. Then, slowly, adjust your aim to domestic targets.
Also pleasing to see Taibbi hoisting a reader comment.
Police State Watch
Activists Face Felonies for Distributing Flyers on “Cop City” Protester Killing The Intercept. Good to see liberal Democrats Ossoff and Warner all over this. Oh, wait…
Assange
Breakthrough for Julian Assange as Anthony Albanese criticises Wikileaks founder being kept behind bars in the UK: ‘Enough is enough’ Daily Mail
Porn industry backers sue Utah over age verification law FOX
Digital Watch
Teens are turning to ‘My AI’ for mental health support — which doctors warn against FOX
The Untold Story of the Boldest Supply-Chain Hack Ever Wired
Class Warfare
Why was Labor Productivity Growth So High during the COVID-19 Pandemic? The Role of Labor Composition (PDF) BLS Working Papers
Want More Jobs? Raise the Minimum Wage Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture
U.S. Pilot, Air Traffic Controller Shortage Leading To Fewer Flights Forbes
Miffed Googlers meme on CEO’s $226M pay award amid cost-cutting campaign The Register. Lol. That’s why they were given the award.
Netflix Condemns WGA Strike For Putting Future Show Cancellations Behind Schedule The Onion
The I Ching in America JSTOR Daily
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
