Hunting for future-proof marine plants in the acidic waters bathing a volcano Monga Bay
All hail, ‘Toadzilla’: Giant toad in Australia could be world’s largest WaPo
Things are looking up for the global economy FT
Violence was widespread in early farming society, says new study Phys.org (AL).
Davos
World Economic Forum: Here Are All The Covid-19 Precautions At Davos 2022 Forbes. Oddly, I’m not seeing any take-up on this story from official organs like WaPo or the Times. Commentary:
Live like a billionaire–get yourself a HEPA filter and open some windows!
— Dr Jonathan Douglas PhD CPsych (@JonathanCOnP) January 20, 2023
The 5 Creepiest Moments at Davos Ken Klipperstein
Climate
Temperatures in One of Earth’s Coldest Corners Are the Highest in 1,000 Years Scientific American
Solar expected to see demand boom from Inflation Reduction Act in 2023 as supply chain remains uncertain Utility Dive
Biofoul: The Stowaway Turning Dream Cruises Into Trips to Nowhere NYT
#COVID19
The costly lesson from COVID: why elimination should be the default global strategy for future pandemics The Conversation. A natural experiment in Canada:
Let’s be clear: Variants evolved because we didn’t follow elimination strategy.
Fundamental result of elimination strategy wherever it was introduced: *dramatic reduction in virus volume*!
Small volume of virus = no VOCs evolving
3/ pic.twitter.com/yPolSflLue
— Malgorzata (Gosia) Gasperowicz (@GosiaGasperoPhD) January 20, 2023
A point-by-point rebuttal of the Washington Post’s double down on Covid deaths being “overcounted.” Inside Medicine
Nick Bostrom, Longtermism, and the Eternal Return of Eugenics TruthDig
What we know about how COVID-19 vaccines may affect menstrual cycles The Hill
What’s standing in the way of wastewater data becoming a more mainstream public health tool STAT. So, after the Biden administration destroyed case counts from testing, we’ll have to wait at least three years for a national wastewater system to be built, hopefully in time for the next pandemic, good job.
We Need a Revolution in Clean Indoor Air The Tyee
China?
China Helped Raise My American Kids, and They Turned Out Fine NYT
Japan was the future but it’s stuck in the past BBC
The Lucky Country
COVID is still wreaking havoc across Australia but political and medical debate seems to have succumbed to pandemic weariness ABC Australia. “Pandemic weariness”/”Pandemic fatigue” seem to be the latest talking points in support of mass infection policies.
European Disunion
French government plays down cost of strikes after huge turnout against pension reform France24
French unions call for more protests on Jan. 31 against pension changes Angel Angelou
On corruption (ctilee):
New Not-So-Cold War
Russo-Ukrainian War: The World Blood Pump Big Serge Thought (Rodeo Clownfish). Excellent tour d’horizon, and backed by good collateral. Though I must say I wish I knew who “Big Serge” is. A friend of Fat Tony?
Defense chiefs fail to resolve dispute on tanks for Ukraine AP
US still holds back long-range ATACMS missiles from Ukraine Defense News. The deck: “‘Our judgement to date is the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze,’ says top defense official.”
The New Crimean War? The American Conservative
How far should US intelligence go in supporting Russia’s armed opposition? The Hill
Russia’s Fifth Column in Ukraine Is Alive and Well Foreign Policy. I thought SBU and Azov would have whacked them all by now?
Don’t Fear Putin’s Demise Foreign Affairs
DC think tank addresses undisclosed conflicts of interest Responsible Statecraft. The Atlantic Council.
South of the Border
Despite tear gas, Peru protesters vow to keep demonstrating AP. Also despite the US-backed regime whacking 40 or so of ’em, post-coup. Really remarkable watching the story being force-fit into the “demonstration”/”protest” frame.
Peru’s Democratic Dysfunction Foreign Affairs. Matt 27:24.
Peru unrest threatens to choke off almost 2% of global copper supply Mining.com
Biden Administration
68 Days of Silence: Why the White House Stayed Mum on Classified Documents NYT. “Since the Biden documents were found last fall….” Note lack of agency.
Ex-Clerks and Experts Left Puzzled by Vague Report on ‘Dobbs’ Leak National Law Journal. The deck: “‘I suspect the justices decided that the risks to the separation of powers were greater than the risk of not finding the leaker,’ said law professor Josh Blackman about the high court’s choice to not use federal investigatory resources.”
Analysis Shows Corporate Prosecutions Hit Record Low in 2022 Under Biden Common Dreams
Democrats en Déshabillé
CrowdStrike, like a bad penny:
And:
5/7 Oh wow, this one is huge. That “forensic report” on Seth’s laptop? It was indeed produced by CrowdStrike. Major ramifications…https://t.co/CtOnLCMISc
— Ty Clevenger (@Ty_Clevenger) January 21, 2023
I seem to recall a similar case…
Larry Summers Advised A Possible Crypto Fraudster. Is Anyone Going To Ask Him About It? Revolving Door Project
Healthcare
Aspirin or Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin for Thromboprophylaxis after a Fracture NEJM. From the Abstract: “In patients with extremity fractures that had been treated operatively or with any pelvic or acetabular fracture, thromboprophylaxis with aspirin was noninferior to low-molecular-weight heparin in preventing death and was associated with low incidences of deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism and low 90-day mortality.” Hmm. I wonder which one is cheaper.
Tech
Generative AI and the future of the creative industry: ‘there is going to be pain’ The Drum
Abstracts written by ChatGPT fool scientists Nature and Comparing scientific abstracts generated by ChatGPT to original abstracts using an artificial intelligence output detector, plagiarism detector, and blinded human reviewers bioRxiv. From the Abstract: “ChatGPT writes believable scientific abstracts, though with completely generated data. These are original without any plagiarism detected but are often identifiable using an AI output detector and skeptical human reviewers. Abstract evaluation for journals and medical conferences must adapt policy and practice to maintain rigorous scientific standards; we suggest inclusion of AI output detectors in the editorial process and clear disclosure if these technologies are used. The boundaries of ethical and acceptable use of large language models to help scientific writing remain to be determined.”
Dr. OpenAI Lied to Me MedPage Today. Uh oh:
What’s the evidence for that, please?
OpenAI came up with this study in the European Journal of Internal Medicine that was supposedly saying that. I went on Google and I couldn’t find it. I went on PubMed and I couldn’t find it. I asked OpenAI to give me a reference for that, and it spits out what looks like a reference. I look up that, and it’s made up. That’s not a real paper.
It took a real journal, the European Journal of Internal Medicine. It took the last names and first names, I think, of authors who have published in said journal. And it confabulated out of thin air a study that would apparently support this viewpoint.
How Smart Are the Robots Getting? NYT. I wonder if people ever ask them hostile questions….
It’s 2023, where are the sex robots? ‘They will probably never be as huge as everyone thinks’ Guardian
New study finds libertarians tend to support reproductive autonomy for men but not for women PsyPost (PR). Shocker!
Supply Chain
Polycrisis to disrupt commodity supply and demand Hellenic Shipping News
Imperial Collapse Watch
Imperialism’s Death Spiral Glen Ford. From 2014, still germane. (Ford was a founding member of Black Agenda Report.)
Now is the time to save the all-volunteer force. Brookings Institution
Guillotine Watch
One last con! Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes tried to FLEE to Mexico on one-way ticket after being convicted, prosecutors claim as they urge judge to lock her up by April Daily Mail (BC).
Class Warfare
Age of Invention: The Bourgeois Supremacy Anton Howes, The Age of Invention
PMFault: Faulting and Bricking Server CPUs through Management Interfaces (PDF) University of Birmingham. Halt and Catch Fire (HCF).
Free Will Is Only an Illusion if You Are, Too Scientific American
How Should We Teach Kids to ‘Pay It Forward’? The Cut
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
