The Manufacturing Boom’s Hidden Costs Barron’s
Russia is set to launch Islamic banking: All you need to know Al Jazeera. I wonder what Islamic banking’s views on cash are.
Climate
Hurricane “”Idalia”” threatens parts of Florida with catastrophic storm surge, U.S. The Watchers. As of this writing:
5am EDT 30 Aug: #Idalia has become an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane, and is nearing landfall in Florida Big Bend region this morning. Catastrophic & life-threatening impacts from Storm Surge & Winds expected as Idalia moves ashore. https://t.co/y75tVkKVK7 pic.twitter.com/0NfINii9Mo
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) August 30, 2023
‘Waffle House Index’ is used to determine severity of Hurricane Idalia FOX
Green Colonialism 2.0: Tree Plantations and Carbon Offsets in Africa Oakland Institute
Carbon offsets aren’t helping the planet — four ways to fix them Nature
The summer ahead The Monthly
Solar Boom Spreads to Timberlands and Self-Storage Rooftops WSJ
Wind power industry faces size problem as blades get longer than football pitches FT. Gigantism is never a good sign.
Residential development in Erie, Longmont stalled after wells plugged decades ago start leaking oil and gas Colorado Sun
#COVID19
Former Trump COVID Adviser: We’re Living in ‘Fantasy World’ The Messenger. Commentary:
“”If you can hear my voice and you know 2 or 3 people who have COVID, that means that 5% to 10% of your friends already have COVID. That means there is a lot of COVID out there & we’re not testing for it & we’re not telling people to get tested.”” https://t.co/MbO401wiZa
— Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) August 30, 2023
China?
Goldman Sachs bought UK and US companies using Chinese state funds FT
Commerce chief says US firms complain China is ‘uninvestible’ Channel News Asia
China’s moralising of public policy risks eroding gains in human welfare South China Morning Post
Myanmar
Myanmar and the Death of ASEAN The Irrawaddy
India
Today’s India Has All the Markers of a Failing Democracy. But the Situation Is Not Irreversible. The Wire
Africa
Gabonese soldiers announce they have seized power Anadolu Agency
Syraqistan
Saudi Arabia: Man Sentenced to Death for Tweets Human Rights Watch
European Disunion
Rod Dreher’s BFF (sorta):
Ep. 20 Hungary shares a border with Ukraine. We traveled to Budapest to speak with the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. pic.twitter.com/LOzpMrQNIz
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 29, 2023
Albania: Europe’s hidden haven for digital nomads Sifted. Some damned thing in the Balkans, dude.
Zijin mulling multi-billion dollar expansion of Serbian copper mine Mining.com. Normally, I don’t like to include links about decisions that might be made, but this is interesting.
Dear OId Blighty
UK air traffic chaos ‘not result of cyberattack,’ says transport minister Anadolu Agency. Well, that’s a relief!
New Not-So-Cold War
Escaping Attrition: Ukraine Rolls the Dice Big Serge Thought. “Ukraine may not be interested in a war of attrition, but attrition is certainly interested in Ukraine.” Grab a cup of coffee, this is an excellent read. It occurs me that we might need a new unit, call it The Zelensky Unit, following the precedent of The Friedman Unit*. The Zelensky Unit = X months starting from when Ukraine trains up a new army and ending when the Russian meatgrinder spits it out, and the cycle begins anew. It’s my impression that Z has been shortening over time, so perhaps Z is not a constant, like the Friedman Unit, but decays. Interestingly, a potential culmination point for our proxy war in Ukraine could be expressed in Z units; in fact, I’d argue we have 1 (one) Zelensky Unit to go. Yves wonders whether there’s a prediction market for the date of Ukraine’s culmination point; given our embubblement and penchant for self-delusion, I’d argue no. NOTE * Coined by Atrios.
Luxurious Villa owned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Family Discovered On Egyptian Coast Punch. What, no airstrip? (Accompanying YouTube disabled, so I assume the story is authentic.)
An evacuation order finds few followers in northeastern Ukraine despite Russia’s push in the region AP
Ukraine’s real killing fields: An investigation into the war’s first aid crisis The Spectator
Ukraine SitRep: Topography Shapes The Battle Field – Abysmal Medical Service Causes Death Moon of Alabama. Two, two, two posts in one. The second, “first aid crisis,” cites to The Spectator above.
Western funding is key to the Ukraine counteroffensive: How long can that support go on? France24. Either well before the Democratic National Convention in 2024, or after the election. Could depend on when Ukraine’s culmination point is, and whether we get that right!
Volodymyr Zelenskyy: The United States and the EU should share the risks of possible elections in Ukraine during the war President of Ukraine
The Case for Negotiating with Russia The New Yorker. From denial, to anger, to bargaining… Now, what would be really interesting is if some “Russian scholar” could come up with an article entitled “The Case for Negotiating with the United States,” from the Valdai Discussion Club or similar. I’m guessing no. Russia mavens?
Ukraine’s Future Isn’t German or Israeli But Korean Bloomberg. Let me know how that works out.
Why the US and Europe Still Buy Russian Nuclear Fuel Bloomberg
He pleaded for F-16s for Ukraine but died in a crash before he could fly one WaPo. I was guessing the photo would be a baby, but I was wrong; it’s a grieving family.
Biden Administration
After Supreme Court Forces Its Hand, E.P.A. Curbs Wetlands Protection NYT
Democrats Déshabillé
Retirees Crash Adams Event to Blast Medicare Advantage Plan The City (MR).
Digital Watch
AI could choke on its own exhaust as it fills the web Axios. “Exhaust”? Why use euphemisms when you can use a word like autocoprophagous?
Behind the AI boom, an army of overseas workers in ‘digital sweatshops’ WaPo. Naturally.
ChatGPT is a stunning intellect David Llewellyn-Smith, Macrobusiness. Or post-structuralism is (a) bullshit and (b) massively over-reresented in the training sets.
The end of the Googleverse The Verge
Web Scraping for Me, But Not for Thee (Guest Blog Post) Technology & Marketing Law Blog
The Bezzle
America’s financial cops say Impact Theory’s NFTs were unregistered securities The Register
Groves of Academe
University cuts itself off from internet after mystery security snafu The Register
University of Minnesota faces lawsuit over potentially massive data breach Star Tribune
Healthcare
Ohio Medicaid seeking public comment on changing estate recovery rules through Wednesday Dayton Daily News. We first posted on so-called “estate recovery” in 2014. Nine years, and nothing has been done.
Zeitgeist Watch
Tracking Orwellian Change: New Meanings of “Deep State” and “Working Class” Matt Taibbi, Racket State. Back in the dear dead days of the Blogosphere, glossary projects like this were a genre. Kudos to Taibbi.
This special ops leader secretly ran a popular military meme page — here’s how it helped him do his job FOX
Class Warfare
Alienation Under Capitalism and the Conspiracy Pipeline Agonas. Well worth a read.
Labor unions are pushing hard for double-digit raises and better hours. Many are winning CNBC
Regressive and Passive UFT Pales Behind Aggressive and Progressive Unions: Is it the Leadership or Membership? Ed Notes Online
“”Now We Can Begin””: Annotated JSTOR. Crystal Eastman
Of science friction and chocolate fireguards Splash 247. Fun!
Could the Universe be a giant quantum computer? Nature
How to Knife Throw: An Essential Guide to a Very Cool Skill Field & Stream
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
