Is the yield curve lying? FT
Unanswered questions about stolen body parts eroding public faith in Harvard, crisis PR experts say Boston Globe
Fed publishes master account list Banking Dive
Why Americans Are Still Splurging Even as Inflation Bites Barron’s. Carpe diem….
Tourist Submersible Debacle Watch
Titanic tourist submersible: Search relocated after noises heard BBC
Coast Guard Sends Another Submersible Full Of Billionaires After The First One The Onion
Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering Ars Technica
Missing Titanic Sub Once Faced Massive Lawsuit Over Depths It Could Safely Travel To The New Republic. And speaking of depths–
‘My family would want me to be here’: Stepson of British billionaire on board missing Titanic sub attends Blink-182 concert AFTER learning of disappearance and says: ‘Music helps me in difficult times’ Daily Mail
Climate
UN members adopt first-ever treaty to protect marine life in the high seas AP. Orcas fi
stn-bumping. “We did it!”Himalayan glaciers could lose 80% of their volume if global warming isn’t controlled, study finds AP
Al Gore: The Intersection of A.I. and Climate Change (interview) Eric Topol, Ground Truths
On Marshy Ground London Review of Books. For NC on peat, see here, here, here, and here.
#COVID19
SARS-CoV-2 and the host-immune response Frontiers in Immunology. From the Abstract: “The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the COVID-19 disease have affected everyone globally, leading to one of recorded history’s most significant research surges. As our knowledge evolves, our approaches to the virus and treatments must also evolve…. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 by summarizing the virus and human response. The focuses are on the viral genome, replication cycle, host immune activation, response, signaling, and antagonism.”
Differences in airborne stability of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern is impacted by alkalinity of surrogates of respiratory aerosol Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Important. Press release. From the Discussion: “The data reported in this study fully support three mitigation techniques: improved ventilation, social distancing and mask wearing; all are key to minimizing the number of infectious droplets reaching another person with the virus still infectious.” And: “[W]hile effective to control fomite spread of SARS-CoV-2, the use of bleach could inadvertently increase the length of time SARS-CoV-2 remains infectious in air through buffering the pH of the exhaled aerosol. The interplay between volatile acids produced from cleaning products with the survival SARS-CoV-2 in the aerosol phase should be explored further.” Hoo boy.
The Potential Nexus between Helminths and SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Literature Review Journal of Immunology Research. From the Abstract: “Chronic helminth infections (CHIs) can induce immunological tolerance through the upregulation of regulatory T cells…. CHIs may reduce the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection by reducing hyperinflammation and exaggerated immune response. Thus, retrospective and prospective studies are recommended in this regard.”
Support for “doing your own research” is associated with COVID-19 misperceptions and scientific mistrust Misinformation Review, Harvard Medical School. Like I’m gonna wait for Harvard to sort out nasal sprays for me. Or aerosol transmission, for that matter.
China?
China hits out at US after Joe Biden calls Xi Jinping a ‘dictator’ FT
America’s Goal Should Be a Democratic China Foreign Policy. “America’s Goal Should Be a Democratic
ChinaAmerica.”Boeing, GE optimistic for return to normalcy with China Leeham News and Analysis
Myanmar
New Delhi Is Backing the Wrong Horse in Myanmar The Irrawaddy
The Koreas
Jeju Island’s peace message – truth and reconciliation in Korea Pearls and Irritations
India
Poor people’s lifeline, Indian railway network, is collapsing Asia Times
Modi visits US to deepen ties, says no doubting India’s position on Ukraine Channel News Asia
European Disunion
Rheinmetall expects German ammunition order worth billions soon, CEO says Reuters
New Not-So-Cold War
End game in the Ukraine war approaches with lightning speed Gilbert Doctorow
Ukrainian Counteroffensive’s Second Week Ends in Failure Internationalist 360°
Biden walks back on Ukraine’s Nato accession Indian Punchline
NATO Chief Says No Formal Invite for Ukraine to Join Alliance at Vilnius Summit Antiwar.com
Dissecting West Point Think-tank’s New Analysis of Russia’s Military Evolution Simplicius the Thinker(s).
Europe slow to sign military procurement contracts needed to supply Ukraine with weapons BNE Intellinews
Pentagon overestimates value of weapons, equipment given to Ukraine by $6.2B Anadolu Agency
Russia moves to legalise prisoners fighting in Ukraine war Al Jazeera
South of the Border
Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers visit Mexico Mexico News Daily
Biden Administration
USA Today publisher follows DOJ in alleging Google runs online ad monopoly Yahoo News
The Supremes
Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court Pro Publica but Justice Samuel Alito: ProPublica Misleads Its Readers WSJ
Democrats en Déshabillé
A Neocon Monster: The Ruinous Lies & Crimes of Bill Kristol, Now a Major Foreign Policy Thought-Leader in the Democratic Party Glenn Greenwald.
Democrats fed up with Tuberville want to change Senate rules The Hill. But not the filibuster, oh no no no no.
Digital Watch
Dialogue Balloons: AI and Soul The Comics Journal
How Should the U.S. Government Buy AI Tools? RAND
No, GPT4 can’t ace MIT Raunak Chowdhuri, Neil Deshmukh, and David Koplow.
I miss Twitter Jonathan Katz, The Racket
More on Preemptively Blocking Facebook’s Imminent ActivityPub Entry Daring Fireball
The Bezzle
SVB Customers Who Lost Their Deposits Remain on the Hook for Loans WSJ
Healthcare
‘It’s beyond unethical’: Opaque conflicts of interest permeate prescription drug benefits (excerpt) STAT
No, We Haven’t Lived with Diseases for Millions of Years. Jessica Wildfire
Experiences of US Clinicians Contending With Health Care Resource Scarcity During the COVID-19 Pandemic, December 2020 to December 2021 JAMA. N = 23, 21 doctors. From the Conclusion: “[M]any theoretical plans intended to protect frontline clinicians from decisions about resource allocation were ultimately unworkable, leaving clinicians in the difficult position of having to allocate scarce resources and adapt care as best they could. Collectively, our findings highlight the importance of integrating frontline clinicians into institutional planning and operations when dealing with the realities of chronic resource limitation.” So, an administrative debacle?
Realignment and Legitimacy
Analysis: John MacArthur Disqualified Others for Their Kids’ Behavior But Exempts Himself The Roys Report
Class Warfare
Kaepernick on joining Marxists to edit new book: Black liberation ‘isn’t possible under capitalism’ The Hill
Teamsters strike with UPS could snarl commerce as labor flexes muscle The Hill. Just give the workers what they want and deserve.
The unfinished business of East Palestine Politico
Inside the Fashion World’s Dark Underbelly of Sexual and Financial Exploitation: ‘Modeling Agencies Are Like Pimps For Rich People’ Variety (Re Silc).
A Non-Definitive Guide to Non-Duality Every
What if things could turn out differently? How the multiverse got into our heads and didn’t let go AP
Antidote du Jour (via):
Bonus antidote and/or anti-antidote (John Zelnicker):
On June 4, my daughter, Lynn, got up and went out to feed her two dozen ducks. Much to her surprise, there was an alligator walking through her back yard. Fortunately, he was headed back to the swampy woods at the bottom of her yard:
Six days later, when she went out to feed the ducks the alligator was on her back porch! He had broken through a low fence and was probably looking for more ducks to feed on as he had already taken a couple over the previous few days.
It didn’t take him/her long to find the duck house and head over there looking for more ducks to eat:
Lynn called the local police and the operator laughed and said they couldn’t help. However, not long after, a police officer showed up. Eventually, there were four officers trying to get a lasso around the alligator’s head without success. Finally, one got an assault rifle (?) and shot the gator between the eyes. (Gators are hard to kill. If you don’t hit just the right spot on their forehead, you’re likely to get shrapnel bouncing back at you.)
The alligator was about 8 (!) feet long. I’m not including a picture of the dead, bloody body where the length is more obvious than in the pix I’m sending you.
After 3 days, Lynn was finally able to get some local agency to get the carcass out of her duck house and dispose of it.
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
