Anger, sadness, boredom, anxiety – emotions that feel bad can be useful The Conversation
Recession reality hits major economies Axios
The Economics Teacher of the New Generation: Cryptocurrency Ideology MR Online
Climate
“Lost winter”: Great Lakes ice cover sets record-low for mid-February Axios
Global tree-planting push threatens African grasslands, warns report FT
How air pollution prevents pollinators from finding their flowers WaPo
JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock drop out of massive UN climate alliance in stunning move FOX
EU says small modular reactor deployment can help cut emissions 90% by 2040 S&P Global
New Global BRICS Driving Emerging Architecture InfoBrics
#COVID19
Lies, Damned Lies, and Manometer Readings Asterisk. The deck: “America’s HVAC labor force is plagued by dishonesty and frequently incapable of meeting industry standards. Interventions in indoor air quality are the next frontier in pandemic prevention — but are they up to the task?”
One little COVID infection is no reason to miss work, says Biden’s very science-believing CDC The Gauntlet. Liability for Covid infection is never covered, from which we can deduce it’s an important.
Tucson pilot battles with FAA after being grounded for ‘post-COVID neurocognitive deficits’ KOLD:
Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy is a professor at the University of Arizona studying patients with Long COVID symptoms. While he cannot speak to Hotto’s case specifically, he did say it’s not just pilots having to quit their passions because of the virus.
“We have seen situations where people are being told the task is too complex and that they are not able to function according to the standards,” Parthasarathy said. “There are also circumstances where I see patients with this problem where they themselves have recognized that it’s unsafe for them to do the work that they are doing because too many lives depend upon them.”
Parthasarathy says anyone who develops COVID is at risk of developing Long COVID. He said the best way for anyone to avoid having to give up their job or hobbies is to get fully vaccinated and be aware of the wide-ranging impact COVID can have on your life.
That last sentence is obligatory with physician quotes and it’s wrong. The “best way” is to develop and stick to a protocol of layered protection, which may indeed include vaccines. Amazing that to see doctors and the press collaborate to erase non-pharmaceutical interventions.
Global Elections
Wellingborough and Kingswood: Tories suffer two by-election defeats with big swings to Labour BBC
‘Mandate thieves’: New Pakistan government takes shape amid slew of jabs Al Jazeera
Understanding the Federal Police operation in Brazil: Why Bolsonaro and allies could be arrested Brasil de Fato. Now they have been.
China?
As Chinese scramble to save money, ‘everyone realises winter has come’, and they’re trying to get out of the cold South China Morning Post
Hong Kong authorities arrest seven in US$1.8 billion money laundering case Channel News Asia
China’s Expanding Influence Operations: Online Propagandists Play the Long Game Nippon
Dry Bulk Market: Are China’s Commodities Imports Sustainable? Hellenic Shipping News
India
‘Here for the long haul’: Protesting Indian farmers set up camp Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
Gaza and the End of the Rules-Based Order Foreign Affairs
Why a Demilitarized Palestine Won’t Work Foreign Policy
Israeli rappers call for Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid and Mia Khalifa to be KILLED in controversial chart-topping war anthem which tells the celebrities they deserve ‘what’s coming’ Daily Mail. Ness ve Stilla are at it again.
Egypt Builds Walled Enclosure on Border as Israeli Offensive Looms WSJ (Furzy Mouse).
After months fighting Houthis on the USS Eisenhower, sailors face a new kind of sea threat FOX
The Seals and the Dhow Seymour Hersh. Not paywalled. “I have learned in six decades of chasing down hidden stories that it is delving into the little lies that reveals much about the bigger lies.”
The Perfect Recipe For A Real Antisemitism Crisis Caitlin Johnstone
Jewish Identity with and Without Zionism The New Yorker
European Disunion
EU partners lose trust in Berlin after policy U-turns FT
They Ploughed the Fields & Scattered Literary Review
France’s ‘Article Pfizer’: A Controversial Shift in Health Policy and Free Speech BNN. India. This story seems to have its origin in this “Advisory Opinion” (Google translation) issued by France’s Conseil d’Etat in 2023. But sourcing is awfully sketchy. Can knowledgeable readers comment?
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukr Collapse: Avdeyevka Defence Breaks, Troops Flee, Rus Missle Strikes, Syrsky Admits Rus Advances (video) Alexander Mercouris, YouTube. Shout-out to NC.
Ukraine withdraws units from parts of Avdiivka, sends in crack brigade Reuters. Azovs into the meat-grinder.
A Long War Made Longer by the West’s Unaddressed Mistakes Wilson Center
Can Ukraine Still Win? The New Yorker
South of the Border
Mexico overtakes China as the leading source of goods imported by US AP
Chinese Carmakers Want Factories In Mexico. That Can Mean Only One Thing The Drive
Biden Administration
US House of Representatives starts recess without voting for Ukraine aid bill Ukrainska Pravda
Spook Country
Explaining Russiagate Exposé (video) Matt Taibbi, YouTube. How the spooks went after Trump (sadly paywalled at both Racket News and Public. Well worth a listen.
U.S. Government Is Hiding Documents That Incriminate Intelligence Community For Illegal Spying And Election Interference, Say Sources (excerpt) Public. More on “the binder” (surely, for good or ill, a MacGuffin?).
2024
Ex-F.B.I. Informant Is Charged With Lying Over Bidens’ Role in Ukraine Business NYT (Rev Kev).
Digital Watch
AI comes for video (and, presumably games (“Learn to code,” lol)):
This video was made with the not-yet-released Sora AI technology just announced from OpenAi. This changes everything. It’s 27 seconds from a text prompt.
Here is their prompt:
Prompt: A white and orange tabby cat is seen happily darting through a dense garden, as if chasing… pic.twitter.com/8XxxFqiywC— Ben Nash (@bennash) February 15, 2024
An enormous training set, stolen and capitalized by bullshit artists. This “changes everything”?
FTC Wants to Penalize Companies for Use of AI in Impersonation Bloomberg
IT body proposes that AI pros get leashed and licensed to uphold ethics The Register. In the UK.
No ‘GPT’ trademark for OpenAI TechCrunch
how to uninstall copilot? i dont want to disable it i want to completely remove it from my system its a waste of space to me. Microsoft. Co-pilot is Microsoft’s new AI tech, which is now “integrated with operating system” exactly as Internet Explorer once was.
Healthcare
A pilot study of chlormequat in food and urine from adults in the United States from 2017 to 2023 Nature. “Toxicological studies suggest that exposure to chlormequat can reduce fertility and harm the developing fetus at doses lower than those used by regulatory agencies to set allowable daily intake levels. Here we report, the presence of chlormequat in urine samples collected from people in the U.S., with detection frequencies of 69%, 74%, and 90% for samples collected in 2017, 2018–2022, and 2023, respectively. Chlormequat was detected at low concentrations in samples from 2017 through 2022, with a significant increase in concentrations for samples from 2023.”
Older Americans skipping surgeries over cost, missed work worries Benefits Pro
Our Famously Free Press
Joe Rogan and Bret Weinstein Promote AIDS Denialism to an Audience of Millions Vice
The Ongoing Impacts of US Imposition into Gayogohono Governance Stiking Distance. A new local paper.
Gunz
Kansas City police link Super Bowl rally shooting to dispute, not extremism Reuters
Black Injustice Tipping Point
Slaughtering Abolition Democracy Rutgers Law Journal. On Reconstruction.
Imperial Collapse Watch
World leaders’ responses to conflict imperil the rules-based world order Al Jazeera
Trump’s awful truth: the US can go it alone FT
Class Warfare
Employment’s Hidden Figures City Journal
Nearly all wealth gained by world’s rich this year comes from AI Business Standard
Metaphors make the world Aeon
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
