Nature’s Oldest Mandolin: The Poetic Science of How Cicadas Sing The Marginalian
A rare burst of billions of cicadas will rewire our ecosystems for years to come Vox
The Judgment Holder Problem in Sovereign Debt Workouts Credit Slips
Climate
Market-based schemes not reducing deforestation, poverty: Report Phys.org
Climate change: World’s oceans suffer from record-breaking year of heat BBC. Now that we know whales talk… WHALE 1: “It was hot today!” WHALE 2: “How hot was it?”
The Mega-Donor Who Colluded With OPEC Prospect. FTC hard at work. Donor to both parties….
Mycocycle uses mushrooms to upcycle old tires and construction waste TechCrunch
Pandemics
Does the public understand that “variant” means “vaccine resistant”? The Gauntlet
FDA postpones advisory committee meeting on next COVID vaccines Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
The ‘Ruby Princess’ case and the future of COVID litigation Peter Vogel Legal. “The Plague Ship.”
A Fight About Viruses in the Air Is Finally Over. Now It’s Time for Healthy Venting Scientific American
Long Covid at Work: A Manager’s Guide Harvard Business Review. Under, I kid you not, the rubric of “Diversity And Inclusion.”
Could bird flu become the next COVID? How worried should we be? Boston Globe
Meet Dr. Sammy, the Colorado researcher trying to fend off the next honeybee pandemic Colorado Sun
Water
England’s rivers to remain in poor state as EU laws ignored post-Brexit, says watchdog Guardian
China?
Xi Skips Visit to Bombed Embassy After Vowing to ‘Never Forget’ Bloomberg
Embarking on a Golden Voyage in China-Hungary Relations Magyar Nemzet
China’s Exports Rebound in April in Boost for Economy Bloomberg
China just sent a secret mini-rover to the far side of the moon on its Chang’e 6 sample-return probe Space.com
How food and chopstick skills are helping ease US-China tensions Al Jazeera
Rather than Putting Shareholders First, Japanese Companies Should Prioritize Wages and Capital Spending over Dividends Nippon.com
India
Brand New India Phenomenal World
Syraqistan
Biden: I won’t give Israel offensive weapons to attack in populated parts of Rafah Times of Israel. The deck: “Unprecedentedly blunt threat marks stunning shift from president, who long rejected conditioning aid to Israel; official says US still committed to freeing hostages. Commentary:
Israel Commits to Limit Rafah Operation, Grant Control of Crossing With Egypt to Private U.S. Firm Haaretz. The security firm is not named.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s dilemma: save the hostages or his government FT
What Went Wrong in Yemen: Q&A with Alexandra Stark RAND
Letter by US politicians to ICC undermines international law South China Morning Post (Furzy Mouse).
European Disunion
Eurovision Song Contest kicks off in Sweden amid Gaza protests France24
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine Warns Of Outages After “Massive” Attack On Power Plants NDTV
Power import cannot completely cover deficit after Russian attack Ukrainska Pravda
Ukraine parliament passes bill for prisoners to join army Al Jazeera. Barrel-scraping.
Ukraine SitRep: Eating The Seed Corn – Intervention Threats And Responses Moon of Alabama
EU agrees to arm Ukraine using profits from Russian state assets FOX
Ukrainian-made satellite systems may end up being used by Russian army – Slidstvo.info investigation Ukrainska Pravda. “These systems are manufactured in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, by a plant owned by American outsourcing company Jabil Circuit for the Israeli corporation Gilat Satellite Networks.” So, back doors?
Russia’s stealth tanker fleet refueling in European waters as EU mulls new curbs S&P Global
Nobody could have predicted:
One evening in the biting winter cold of 2014, I went down to Maidan with my Ukrainian translator and her mother. It was packed, lively like a festival. “What do you think of all this?” My translator asked me as her mother waved a large Ukrianian flag above her head.
“It won’t… pic.twitter.com/7HnPHoolh3
— Johnny miller (@johnnyjmils) May 7, 2024
The Caribbean
Transitional council in Haiti embraces new changes following turmoil as gang violence grips country AP
Global Elections
‘My vote snatched’: How to win India’s election without a single vote Al Jazeera
‘Funk Money’: The End of Empires, The Expansion of Tax Havens, and Decolonization as an Economic and Financial Event Past & Present. From 2020, still germane.
BRICS: The Gold Rush Has Gripped the Union InfoBrics. Let me know how that works out.
Biden Administration
US chip production capacity may treble by 2032, says industry group Business Standard
Groves of Academe
UCLA encampment:
Under the Jumbotron London Review of Books
A Year Under the Palestine Exception at Columbia University The Nation
Ghosts of ’68 Sidecar. A must-read.
No One Knows What Universities Are For The Atlantic
Sullivan & Cromwell Plans Vigilant Hiring Checks After Protests Bloomberg. Exceptionally nasty.
The crackdown on campus protests has gone way too far Perry Bacon, WaPo
Editorial: Amid campus chaos, frat bros step up for American values Boston Herald
Police State Watch
NYPD union sues Adams administration over new ‘zero tolerance’ policy on steroid use among cops New York Daily News
Florida deputies who fatally shot US airman burst into wrong apartment, attorney says Orlando Sentinel
Digital Watch
Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership — users banned for deleting answers to prevent them being used to train ChatGPT Tom’s Hardware. Open theft. As usual. Just like Reddit. Training sets = looting.
Writers and publishers in Singapore reject a government plan to train AI on their work Rest of World
Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content Simon Willison’s Weblog
Big brains divided over training AI with more AI: Is model collapse inevitable? The Register. The deck: “Gosh, here’s us thinking recursion was a solved problem.”
AI, Reducing Internalities and Externalities Cass Sunstein, SSRN. “AI-powered Choice Engines might also take account of externalities, and they might nudge or require consumers to do so as well. Different consumers care about different things, of course, which is a reason to insist on a high degree of freedom of choice, even in the presence of internalities and (to some extent) externalities. But it is important to emphasize that AI might be enlisted by insufficiently informed or self-interested actors, who might exploit inadequate information or behavioral biases, and thus reduce consumer welfare.” It’s a phishing equilibrium, so not “might” but “will,” indeed “already are.”
OpenAI offers a peek behind the curtain of its AI’s secret instructions TechCrunch
Boeing
Boeing whistleblower says he was pressured to hide defects The Hill. A new one, Santiago Paredes. “He said he would see hundreds of defects in parts on a regular basis, even earning the nickname ‘showstopper’ from higher-ups for how frequently he slowed production due to his inspections.”
Class Warfare
Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World — by Brett Christophers (review) Marx and Philosophy
When Employers Violate the NLRA, the Harm is Always Irreparable On Labor
The New Sundown Towns The New Republic
The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes Quanta
Antidote du jour (via:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
