This bird can predict the intensity of a hurricane season. Here’s how. National Geographic
This songbird’s genes may show how climate change has sped up evolution WaPo
Jackson Hole: established policy models are under threat FT
Climate
Earth’s ‘third pole’ and its role in global climate Phys.org
Is Cheap Gas Worth Our Children’s Health? The Brockovich Report
Discovering a Green Marx: Kohei Saito’s Marx in the Anthropocene Protean Magazine
Water
Climate change may force more farmers and ranchers to consider irrigation Chicago Tribune
Drought-hit Panama Canal to restrict access for one year Agence France Presse
Europe’s water crisis: how supplies turned to ‘gold dust’ FT
#COVID
Eugenics, straight up (1):
Not one single mention of airborne transmisson, ventilation, or masking. Not one. Cohen does, of course, mention “common sense strategies like washing your hands.”
Eugenics, straight up (2):
Covid and countless other threats to human health will always be with us. If you avoid having fun because of covid, you will never again have fun.
2/2— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) August 26, 2023
What kind of Propagandaministerium are they running over there at the Stanford School of Medicine, anyhow?
HICPAC:
Public Pushes Back On CDC’s Plan To Weaken Infection Control Forbes
Patients asked a CDC advisory panel to be more transparent. Then their comments disappeared. Source NM. The deck: “CDC re-posts YouTube recording of public meeting after taking it down.”
Excess All-Cause Mortality in China After Ending the Zero COVID Policy JAMA. From the Abstract: “[A]n estimated 1.87 million excess deaths occurred among individuals 30 years and older during the first 2 months after the end of China’s zero COVID policy. Excess deaths predominantly occurred among older individuals and were observed across all provinces in mainland China, with the exception of Tibet.” Life is cheap in the Orient. As opposed to the West, where every life matters.
What you need to know about BA.2.86, the new ‘highly mutated’ COVID variant Today
As schools resume, CDC reports new rise in COVID emergency room visits from adolescents CBS. NC readers know that ER Covid visits have been increasing for weeks.
BRICS is fake Noah Smith, Noahpinion. If Biden wants to call BRICS, who picks up the phone on the other end?
China?
How China’s economic crisis serves as unparalleled trial by fire for Premier Li Qiang South China Morning Post
Country Garden to Be Cut From Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index Bloomberg
China Ponders Russia’s Logistical Challenges in the Ukraine War The Diplomat
Non-Events New Left Review. Chinese painting.
The Japanese student dorm that governs itself The Face
India
The Constitution Isn’t a Colonial Imposition – It Emerged From a Great Mass Movement The Wire
Africa
Charismatic leader is gone but Wagner will survive in Africa, analysts say Al Jazeera
Syraqistan
Six Tropes to Look Out for That Distort Israel/Palestine Coverage FAIR
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine will speed up advance on southern front, commander says Reuters
Ukraine’s army has broken through the first line of Russian defense in ‘bloody, long, and slow’ counteroffensive, US Gen. Milley says Business Insider. I’m not seeing aerial photos or videos with dragons’ teeth.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces approach next breakthrough of Russian defensive positions – ISW Ukrainska Pravda
The Ukrainian counteroffensive has already failed. The West could limit the damage by opening negotiations with Moscow. Exclusive interview with Professor Geoffrey Roberts (Google translate) Strumenti Politici
How Russia’s War In Ukraine Could ‘Collapse’ 1945. This pearl of wisdom:
Moltke lays out the logic succinctly: “”The tactical defense is the stronger [form of war], the strategic offensive the more effective form—and the only one that leads to the goal.”” In other words, the contender that seizes or occupies some object or parcel of territory, then defends it tactically, primes itself for strategic and ultimately political success. In colloquial terms: grab something and hold it, and dare your enemy to come and take it back while fighting at a daunting disadvantage. For the German sage, in short, waging offense through defense blazes a path to triumph.
Advantage: Russia.
Hmm. Maybe if the Confederacy had tried that….
Time and Logistics are Working Against Ukraine National Interest
Ukraine’s Vain Search for Wonder Weapons The American Conservative
SITREP 8/26/23: Wagner Denouement and BRICS Rebirth Simplicius the Thinkers(s)
Who killed Yevgeny Prigozhin? Gilbert Doctorow
Medical Services chief who criticised poor quality of tourniquets is severely reprimanded Ukrainska Pravda
OPINION: The Myth of Ukraine as ‘Most Corrupt Country in the World’ Kyiv Post
Biden Administration
Everyone Wants to Talk to Gina Raimondo–Even China WSJ
2024
Trump campaign raises $7.1 million in fundraising since mugshot was taken Thursday, Fox News confirms FOX because Trump Pays $12 Extra To Get The Cool Laser Background Mugshot The Babylon Bee
Trump’s Prosecution Is America’s Last Hope Wired. The deck: “Social norms—not laws—are the underlying fabric of democracy. The Georgia indictment against Donald Trump is the last tool remaining to repair that which he’s torn apart.” So we’re prosecuting Trump because the Norms Fairy is having a sad? Really?
A Trump Victory Would Create a Constitutional Crisis David Atkins, Washington Monthly. Personally, I think normalizing the concept that one party’s election officials can take another party’s candidates off the ballot in “self-executing” fashion is already a Constitutional crisis (albeit a crisis in our unwritten Constitution, since political parties are not Constitutional entities. I say this, in full multitude-containing mode, having just slagged “norms” above).
Is Trump disqualified for the N.H. primary? The secretary of state is seeking legal advice. Boston Globe
Trump co-defendant denied bond, held in jail The Hill. “Harrison Floyd, the leader of Black Voices for Trump.”
Former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin accuses Joe Biden, Hunter and Burisma of corruption and claims he was POISONED twice by enemies trying to silence him Daily Mail
Spook Country
CIA stairwell attack among flood of sexual misconduct complaints at spy agency ABC
Digital Watch
California DMV Steps Into Autonomous Taxi Debate, Tells Cruise to Halve Its Fleet In SF SFist
Open challenges in LLM research Chip Huyen
The Bezzle
‘Worthless’ forest carbon offsets risk exacerbating climate change Phys.org
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa Fashion
Can fast fashion kick its dirty habits? FT. No.
Supply Chain
A rice shortage is sending prices soaring across the world. And things could get worse AP
Extreme heat could cause an olive oil shortage, skyrocket prices CBS
The Myth of Global Grain Shortages Business & Finance
The Jackpot
The polycrisis Aeon
Overcoming fear Funding the Future. “Fire and fear, good servants, bad lords.” –Ursula LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Class Warfare
Food delivery startup Getir to cut 11% of workers in global restructuring Reuters
The Vicious, Multibillion-Dollar War Over Sports Trading Cards The New Republic
How Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg, and Andreessen—Four Billionaire Techno-Oligarchs—Are Creating an Alternate, Autocratic Reality Vanity Fair. They are the oligarchs who currently get the most press. But there are others, just as “effective.”
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
