Nature’s 10 Best Animal Dads Treehugger
Deep-Sea Footage of a ‘Smiling’ Snailfish Laughing Squid (Re Silc). From 2023, still germane.
Gretchen Morgenson: From Wall Street to Journalism (podcast) Barry Rithjholz, Masters in Business. ”
Juneteenth
A beginner’s guide to Juneteenth: How can all Americans celebrate? AP
Incidence of Labor Relations (1962) Nonsite.org
How city BLM art and changing politics intertwine Axios
Dwight’s Glasses Richard Reeves, Brookings Institution
Climate
This Is Why Nobody Will Do Anything Until It’s Too Late Charles Hugh Smith. Commentary:
Water
A Slow-Moving Disaster — The Jackson Water Crisis and the Health Effects of Racism New England Journal of Medicine
This year California’s snowpack reached record-high levels — 40 million acre-feet at its peak in April. LA Times
Feds announce start of public process to reshape key Colorado River water-use rules by 2027 The Colorado Sun
#COVID19
Documents Link Potential Covid Patient Zero to U.S.-Funded Research in Wuhan Ryan Grim, The Intercept. Good to see “U.S-funded” in the headline, because it’s true.
Persistent Brainstem Dysfunction in Long-COVID: A Hypothesis ACS Chemical Neuroscience. From the Abstract: “While the possible causes of long-COVID include long-term tissue damage, viral persistence, and chronic inflammation, the review proposes, perhaps for the first time, that persistent brainstem dysfunction may also be involved. This hypothesis can be split into two parts. The first is the brainstem tropism and damage in COVID-19. As the brainstem has a relatively high expression of ACE2 receptor compared with other brain regions, SARS-CoV-2 may exhibit tropism therein. … The second part concerns functions of the brainstem that overlap with symptoms of long-COVID.” Handy chart:
The Risks of Even Mild COVID-19: 1 in 4 Showing Cognitive Deficits After Mild Case, Brazilian Study Finds Brain Facts. N = 130. “Researchers found 1 in 4 showed significant cognitive impairment in visuoconstruction skills — the visual ability to spatially reproduce designs or patterns — matching the increased levels of inflammation they were seeing on blood panels as well as in neuroimaging.”
Markers of limbic system damage following SARS-CoV-2 infection (accepted manuscript) Brain Communications. N = 105. “These results highlight the long-term consequences of SARS-Cov-2 infection on the limbic system at both the behavioural and neuroimaging levels.” Handy chart:
(The recognition of emotions in others, not one’s self.)
China?
Antony Blinken visits Beijing on a mission to mend fractured US-China ties FT
Amid US-China rivalry, a landmark science deal faces new scrutiny Channel News Asia
Investors sour on Beijing’s bid to boost state-owned enterprises FT. Commentary:
5/5
Prices for Chinese banks are currently low, in other words, but they are not necessarily cheap. In the long term, as growth expectations continue to drop, they will become lower. In the short term, however, banks stocks may be excellent ways to play changes in expectations.— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) June 18, 2023
Interesting thread for any readers who play the ponies in Chinese bank stocks (!!).
US Military Gets ‘Unimpeded Access’ in Papua New Guinea Under New Deal Antiwar.com
India
More violence in Manipur: Mobs try to torch houses of BJP leaders, dispersed by security forces The Indian Express
Parched and Forgotten: The Everyday Struggle for Water in the Villages of the Kashmir Valley The Wire
The Happy Country
‘We were not prepared, we are not prepared’ – What we learned from week 1 of COVID Inquiry Sky News
Alert not alarmed: Australians less concerned about COVID despite rising cases Sydney Morning Herald
Syraqistan
Iran, Saudi Arabia pleased with reestablishment of diplomatic ties Anadolu Agency
Dear Old Blighty
Tories gotta Tory:
The day before this party, I drove from France to England to visit my parents. I hadn’t seen them for many months. I left a bag of food on their doorstep in Kent, then drove to London and went into quarantine for 10 days – because those were the rules. https://t.co/GrE70WLXI8
— Adrian Norris (@adriannorris) June 17, 2023
New Not-So-Cold War
‘Mines Everywhere’: Ukraine’s Offensive Is Proving a Hard Slog WSJ. “In the southern Zaporizhzhia and eastern Donetsk regions, Ukrainian troops are still working their way through Russia’s first lines of defense, and haven’t yet reached the main line of Russian fortifications.” And after the first defensive echelon, there are two more.
Ukrainian defenders strike 16 clusters of Russian military manpower – General Staff report Ukrainska Pravda. See any dragon’s teeth in the aerial photos? No? That means Ukraine hasn’t reached the second echelon of Russian defenses. There is a third.
Dreizin brain candy explosion (& BIGGEST VIDEO DUMP IN HISTORY) The Dreizin Report. Forgive me, I need to take a shower after reading this site [showers]. Be that as it may, search the page for “(70+ new videos of Ukrainian shyt blasted, wasted, torn up, etc.)” and you’ll find some interesting material.
Mystery over the condition of Kyiv’s ‘incredibly ruthless’ spy chief who vowed ‘to kill Russians all over the world’ as he remains unseen weeks after Russian claimed to have injured him in missile strike Daily Mail. Rumors from not especiallly reliable sources that he got whacked in a Russian missile strike. (Then again, Budanov sent Azov-wannabes over the border into Belgorod with Western weapons, which was a stupid, reckless stunt. It would be irresponsible not to speculate that our spooks whacked him pour encourager les autres not to slip the leash. Who knows….)
An Inside Job NYT. “A dam in Ukraine was designed to withstand almost any attack imaginable — from the outside. The evidence suggests Russia blew it up from within.” But could they really get a yacht that close? Did any Russian passports float to the surface?
Ukraine Situation Report: Waning Flood Waters Could Provide Opportunity For Kyiv’s Forces The Drive. Dubious, although it does raise the question cui bono, conspicuously not addressed by the NYT.
Partners in Doomsday Seymour Hersh, Sheerpost. Full version.
Sergei Karaganov’s latest controversial article in ‘Russia in Global Affairs’ Gilbert Doctorow. Hersh “rambling.”
Gonzalo Lira’s Father Pleads With US Government To Save His Son From The SBU (video) Kim Iverson, YouTube
The Ukraine Lobby’s Latest Targets The American Conservative
Kremlin: there appears to be ‘no chance’ of extending Black Sea grain deal Reuters
One glorious day in Sevastopol 12 years ago, I saw what was coming. That’s why I won’t join this carnival of hypocrisy Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail. From 2022, still germane.
2024
“Can You Give Me The Odds?”: The Betting on Trump is Based on the Wrong Question Jonathan Turley
Spook Country
How Israeli Spyware Endangers Activists Across the Globe In These Times
Digital Watch
Crypto collapse? Get in loser, we’re pivoting to AI Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain. “‘Current AI feels like something out of a Philip K Dick story because it answers a question very few people were asking: ‘What if a computer was stupid?’”?
Stump the Medical Experts Eric Topol, Ground Truths
The 420
Losing hope of finding kids in plane crash, Indigenous searchers turned to a ritual: Ayahuasca AP
How a dose of MDMA transformed a white supremacist BBC
Groves of Academe
Why more and more colleges are closing down across the U.S. CNBC (Re Silc). “About 95% of U.S. colleges rely on tuition, according to Franek, meaning they rely on money from students to operate. Dwindling enrollment numbers mean less money, fewer student offerings and eventually a shuttered institution.” Start by firing as many administrators as possible?
Zeitgeist Watch
The Secret History And Strange Future Of Charisma NOĒMA
Shiny Happy People is a great reminder of why cult documentaries should exist Vox
Realignment and Legitimacy
Has the West already suffered a coup d’etat? Have the central bankers already seized power? Funding the Future
Imperial Collapse Watch
America Still Leads the World, But Its Allies Are Uneasy Niall Ferguson, Bloomberg. Hmm:
I tried these ideas out in Paris in conversations that included two of President Emmanuel Macron’s advisers. Supposing there was a war between the US and China over Taiwan, I asked, on whom could Washington rely? “Japan, the UK, Australia. Maybe Canada. That’s it,” was one of the replies.
I was even more startled by the pessimism about Ukraine. “If Trump wins in November next year,” I ventured, “then Zelenskiy is screwed.” “He is screwed whatever happens,” another of my interlocutors replied. “Ukraine cannot get back the Black Sea coast that it has lost” — the so-called land bridge to Crimea. “So the war is effectively over and Putin has won.”
I think we’d better double down. There’s no alternative!
What the price of an ancient Roman nail tells us about value FT
Class Warfare
Teamsters Vote to Authorize UPS Strike as Contract Talks Continue WSJ
Subsuming Finance New Left Review
You might want to ditch your desk job to become an electrician Fast Company. “Mr. Orr is expert with tangibles.” –Ursula LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven. Good strategy!
Kierkegaard on the Value of Despair The Marginalian. “The self is a relation which relates to itself.” –Kierkegaard. Interesting data structure.
Eating 400 calories a day from these foods could raise your dementia risk by over 20% MarketWatch. These are not “foods.” They are “food-like products.”
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
And a double bonus:
What good kitties!
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
