Yves asks me to apologize for the lack of original posts today; she is doing post-fundraiser planning — thank you, dear readers* — and other administrivia. –lambert. NOTE * I can’t think of a snowclone for “____ couch” (as in fainting couch) that covers the idea of overwhelming relief and gratitude instead of fainting, so I’ll have to go meta here instead of making an actual joke; load off one’s mind-couch is just too awkward. But you see what I mean.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return to Earth: Live updates Space
Bears raid a Krispy Kreme doughnut van making deliveries on an Alaska military base AP
Many people hate wasps, but research shows they’re smarter than you might think and ecologically important Phys.org. Tsk! I identify as a WASP!
Climate
How Europe’s forests regenerate—without any human interference Phys.org
Plant and forest researchers: do not “anthropomorphize” plants (press release) University of Heidelberg
Minnesota Judge Rules That Criminalizing Enbridge Line 3 Water Protectors Would Be a Crime Exposed by CMD. Good news!
Colorado wants to create carbon-capture hubs across the state. But locals aren’t sold. Colorado Sun
Why Batteries Might — Might! — Solve America’s Power-Line Shortage Heat Map
Degrowth and Ecosocialist Revolution Science for the People
Learn to live with wildfire smoke, British Columbians told Castanet
#COVID19
Biden administration announces $600M to produce COVID tests and will reopen website to order them AP. A bit late. Apparently, nobody in the molasses-brained West Wing has been following the wastewater numbers. The story doesn’t say whether RAT (false negatives) or PCR, or both. If this year’s site is the same as last year’s, there will be PCRs at “more than 15,000 sites nationwide.” Readers? (Of course, a test is useless if you can’t afford the vaccine, so it’s another “access to” scheme, but better than nothing, I suppose.)
Opinion: The mistake hospitals made on Covid-19 CNN. Doing better scientific communication than the CDC:
Does the risk of getting long Covid increase each time you get reinfected? STAT (MV).
Convalescent plasma may lessen the odds of long COVID, study suggests Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
Continued selection on cryptic SARS-CoV-2 observed in Missouri wastewater (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “SARS-CoV-2 lineages of an unknown source that have not been detected in clinical samples, referred to as cryptic lineages, are sometimes repeatedly detected in specific locations. We have continued to detect one such lineage previously seen in a Missouri site. This cryptic lineage has continued to evolve, indicating continued selective pressure similar to that observed in Omicron lineages.” Still out there, mutating away, as one does, if one is a virus.
Water
The Fight Continues For Those Affected By Camp Lejeune The Brockovich Report
China?
Foreign investors still shunning China despite signs of upturn FT
Chinese blockade on Taiwan would be ‘monster risk’: Pentagon Channel News Asia
White House told U.S. ambassador to Japan to stop taunting China on social media NBC. That Rahm. Such a kidder!
High-level disappearances deepen China’s political black hole Channnel News Asia
In search of the eagle huntresses Al Jazeera
Myanmar
Myanmar Junta Seeks Chinese Help Acquiring Nuclear Technology The Irrawaddy
Okinawa governor tells U.N. that U.S. military base threatens peace Japan Times
India
India suspends visa services for Canadians as diplomatic row deepens FT
What we know about the Sikh murder that soured India-Canada ties Channel News Asia
Africa
The Moti Files – Zunaid Moti’s grand lithium ‘sting’ Daily Maverick. They salted the rock samples; oldest trick in the book!
Dear Old Blighty
I’ll tackle climate change – but I will NOT punish Sun readers to get to Net Zero Rishi Sunak, The Sun
London Playbook PM: Caught in the net zero Politico. “Standing at a podium with a new slogan, ‘Long-term decisions for a Brighter future’, Sunak….” Not a parody, apparently. “Brighter decisions for a long-term future?” “Future decisions for a brighter long term”?
Sunak heads for the the gutter as Packham takes the lead: a tale of two climate interventions Funding the Future
New Not-So-Cold War
Zelenskyy at the White House: Five things Ukraine wants from the US EuroNews
Poland’s president: Ukraine like ‘drowning person clinging to anything available’ The Hill
Ukrainian defenders strike Russian Black Sea Fleet’s command post in Sevastopol Ukrainska Pravda
Lockheed Martin Boasts to Investors: Ukraine War Fueling “$10 Billion of Opportunities … Now to the End of the Decade” Lee Fang (GF).
Looking Beyond the War: Planning for Ukraine’s Reconstruction RAND. Let me know how that works out….
Operation ‘carte blanche’ : Ukraine’s new defence minister cleans house France24. And not a minute too soon!
Four Russian oligarchs want billions from Ukraine on basis of Ukraine’s agreement with Belgium and Luxembourg Ukrainska Pravda. Comedy tonight!
Did Kennan Foresee Putin? Foreign Affairs
Azerbaijan to hold peace talks with Armenian separatists after Karabakh victory France 24
US says it hopes Karabakh cease-fire ‘comes to fruition’ Anadolu Agency
The Caribbean
Poison and Magic in Caribbean Uprisings JSTOR
South of the Border
The Mexican Question New Left Review
Ferromex suspends operations of 60 freight trains in Mexico Mexico News Daily. “After a string of accidents involving migrants riding the rails.”
Biden Administration
The anti-vaccine movement is on the rise. The White House is at a loss over what to do about it. Politico. Resign en masse and immediately?
Tech
AI about to pollute our antidotes, if we’re not careful about provenance (which we are):
How to create CUTE sleeping Animals with AI
Prompt
Cute {animal} lying on floor sleeping with closed eyes, realistic photo, light {color type} color background –ar 16:9Using Midjourney I created cute sleeping animals with super quick. All you have to do is change the… pic.twitter.com/Hfq8WKq5Pt
— KALSON. (@kalsonkalu) August 20, 2023
History, too:
New: this is crazy. The top Google image search result for “tank man” right now is an AI-generated “selfie” of the man. Shows that as AI content becomes more and more widespread, the platforms we use to surface content don’t have a good way to identify it https://t.co/vi2hxkH9Uh pic.twitter.com/6mfaUsdXbj
— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) September 20, 2023
Monitoring, Streamlining and Reorganizing Work with Digital Technology Cracked Labs. The deck: “A case study on software for process mining, workflow automation, algorithmic management and AI based on rich behavioral data about workers.”
Zeitgeist Watch
Russell Brand was the norm in the nasty noughties The Economist. Odd, then, that only Brand is being dogpiled.
Russell Brand is not the main target, but a mere proxy for the censors’ global assault on free speech Dossier
Realignment and Legitimacy
Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics Pew Research Center. Handy chart:
I don’t have a dismal view of “politics.” I have a dismal view of parties (and, I suppose, party animals). More:
Hard to argue with this, though how to have politics, in any form, without “division,” without harshing somebody’s mellow, is an open question. Sortition? Deliberative democracy?
What to Do When Your Political Party Loses Its Mind The Atlantic. A party, of course (?), does not have a “mind.” But whatever the process is that causes “loses its mind” to be applied to one is something it would be useful to understand, and of broader application than the Tories. (It’s not the “madness of crowds,” because a party is not a crowd.)
Black Injustice Tipping Point
Editorial: Why skeptical Californians should rethink cash reparations for slavery LA Times
Imperial Collapse Watch
Inside the delicate art of maintaining America’s aging nuclear weapons AP
Class Warfare
Pontifications: IAM 751 gearing up for Boeing contract talks in 2024 Leeham News and Analysis
Go North The Baffler
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/09/links-9-19-2023.html“>here.
