Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Is Bursting With Life WSJ
Bacteria Are Eating the Titanic Discover
A Japanese Island Where the Wild Things Are NYT
An elephant living in a Berlin zoo learns how to peel a banana CNN. Curiously, when I searched for the headline at NC to make sure I wasn’t going to post a dupe, this from 2016 came up, the single hit: “Nassim Nicholas Taleb: How to Own a Slave.” Hmm.
5 citizen scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries NOAA (LawnDart).
Climate
These laws have formed a foundation to fight climate change World Economic Forum
Insect Farming Startup Raises $175 Million for Food Expansion Bloomberg. Filed next to WEF for obvious reasons.
What Makes People Act on Climate Change, according to Behavioral Science Scientific American
Should we study geoengineering a lot more? Peter Singer, Bangkok Post (Furzy Mouse).
Water
Greenland’s melting ice could be changing our oceans. Just ask the whales NPR
Striking before-and-after satellite photos show the great California snowmelt underway LA Times
The 100-year-old mistake that’s reshaping the American West Vox
Mekong River: Turning declaration into actions Lowy Institute
#COVID
Singapore in the middle of COVID-19 wave, about 30% of cases are reinfections: Ong Ye Kung Channel News Asia. Worth a read for Ong’s idiocy, so much like our own. Truly, the PMC is international! (After all, they went to the same schools….)
Avoid gatherings, wear masks: Govt advisory amid Covid case spike Indian Express
Hanoi requires face masks in public places DTI News. The image, of course, is of a “baggy blue.”
* * * Back to the future: Redefining “universal precautions” to include masking for all patient encounter Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. The Abstract: “Despite recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allowing institutions to relax in-facility masking strategies and due to our evolving understanding of respiratory pathogen transmission during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we propose an updated standard for universal precautions in healthcare settings: permanently including universal masking in routine patient-care interactions. Such a practice prioritizes safety for patients, healthcare providers (HCPs), and visitors.” From a professional journal, so in future no Hospital Infection Control administrator that demasked their hospital can claim ignorance. Pay attention, lawyers.
* * * SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection induces rapid memory and de novo T cell responses Cell. “Our study demonstrates that a rapid and extensive recall of memory T cell populations occurs early after breakthrough infection and suggests that CD8+ T cells contribute to the control of viral replication in breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections…. Although unvaccinated and vaccinated cohorts show similar peak viral load after infection, vaccinated individuals exhibit accelerated viral clearance in the upper respiratory tract (URT) beginning 4 to 6 days after symptom onset.”
China?
China ramps up construction on new Antarctic station: Report Channel News Asia
Container oversupply risk looms over China with empty containers at ports Hellenic Shipping News
The Dilemma of Foxconn Moms: Social Reproduction and the Rise of ‘Gig Manufacturing’ in China (abstract only) Critical Sociology. “[C]hanging dynamics in the realm of social reproduction makes Foxconn workers, especially women with children, constantly struggle between work and the family. Working together, these factors have led to extremely high turnover rates, bleak prospects for labor solidarity, and the rise of ‘gig manufacturing’ in China.” I wish people would stop thinking of China as socialist, let alone communist. As we see here, the Chinese working class is dealing with China’s own version of capitalism, which Xi’s decision to throw them under the bus with “Let ‘er rip” also shows (despite Xi’s knowledge that Covid is airborne, the time bought and squandered for systemic non-pharmaceutical intervention with Zero Covid, and Xi’s utter failure, despite knowing that Covid is airborne, to mandate improved ventilation, which no country was better placed to execute than manufacturing powerhouse China. Is Xi no better than Biden? Perhaps worse?).
US cannot store arms in Philippines to defend Taiwan, Manila says in ‘friends to all’ policy South China Morning Post
Myanmar
‘Profit from the coup’: Myanmar ethnic rebels welcome pro-democracy fighters Channel News Asia
India
Four charts map Gautam Adani group’s debt pile, reliance on global banks for funding Times of India
Adani’s Next Big Test Is Pulling Off a $3 Billion Slum Revamp Bloomberg. Fan service?
Syraqistan
Great, but:
How these engineers in Afghanistan made the country’s first sports car called the “Helmet” 👇 pic.twitter.com/NXDOnsStod
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 16, 2023
Dear Old Blighty
King Charles’ coronation cross will include fragments believed to be from Jesus’ crucifixion FOX. Oh.
The Davis Downside Dossier Yorkshire Bylines. A compendium of Brexit downsides.
New Not-So-Cold War
How Long Should Ukrainian Forces Defend Bakhmut? Lessons From Stalingrad Modern War Institute
Ukrainian tank operators go through ‘condensed’ Leopard tank training course in Poland France24. Morituri te salutant. I mean, honestly. Why invest a lot of time?
This is the stupidest timeline:
1) “Brave drone operators” is the most hilarious phrase.
2) Several of these heroes displayed a Nazi flag the whole time (oops).
3) Mark now wants to be a “fella”: a group begun by avowed anti-Semites (oops).
4) From experience: no sub-culture is dumber than Hollywood: https://t.co/GmGOLTc8oG
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2023
* * * Ukraine agitates to keep EU bid on Europe’s mind Politico
* * * The Other Georgia Welcomes You WSJ. The deck: “… intrepid travelers head to the remote highlands …”. Other recent articles: Reuters on Georgian dumplings. NYT on “Dad planning a family trip” to Georgia. Plus a Harris visit and “huge community solar deal.” Softening us up for a color revolution to come? “We Georgians understand that dumplings are Freedom, and besides, they deserve a Protected Designation of Origin from the EU, which we will join after victory.”
Biden Administration
As Fears of Banking Crisis Surged, Members of Congress Sold Bank Shares NYT
Spook Country
Pentagon docs allegedly leaked by Jack Teixeira reveal at least 4 additional Chinese spy balloons: report NY Post. Well, you don’t want to leave any remaining potential for hysteria about Chinese spy balloons un-ginned up. Think, people!
Hearing for military document leak suspect Jack Teixeira delayed AP:
The person also told the FBI that Teixeira switched from typing out documents in his possession to taking them home and photographing them because he “had become concerned that he may be discovered making the transcriptions of text in the workplace.”
That’s different from what posters have told The Associated Press and other media outlets, saying the user they would call “the O.G.” started posting images of documents because he was annoyed other users weren’t taking him seriously.
Yves and I discussed the case. To understand the, er, story, it’s critical to keep an iron grip on the exact provenance and exfiltration of the documents. And here we have a major discrepancy. Also, Teixeira has not entered a plea.
Read the criminal complaint against Jack Teixeira NYT. From last week, still germane. I’m not sure this clarifies much. Case number: 23-4293-DHH.
Why a junior US guardsman had top secret access Agence France Presse. “Teixeira ‘was a systems administrator, so he was a computer specialist that worked in an intelligence unit,’ US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told journalists in Sweden on Wednesday. ‘Part of his responsibility was… maintaining the network that they operate on.’” Two days a month? Was he logging in from his Mom’s basement?
Teixeira’s Intel Unit Ordered to Halt Mission After Discord Leaks Time. The deck: “The U.S. Air Force says the intelligence unit at the center of has been ordered to halt its mission.” “One of the” is doing a lot of work. Bigger than Snowden? Bigger than Wikileaks? Bigger than the Pentagon Papers? Really? (Every single one of these “leaks” had either no or salutary effects on U.S. interests, BTW, very much including Teixera’s.)
Lambert here: I know the world is messy and not always consistent, and I don’t want to get too foily, but I really think the showrunners need to be working harder on this one.
Gunz
Motive in Nashville shooting remains unclear weeks after 6 people were killed at a Christian school NBC. Commentary:
We’ve spoken with 2 major law firms in Nashville who said they’d send retainer letters to represent us suing FBI and the Nashville PD to obtain the manifesto of the Nashville shooter, only to back out at the last second.
The political pressures are intense. We should see it.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 17, 2023
Common mistakes, uncommon reactions in 3 separate shootings AP
Fake 911 Calls About Active Shooters Are Hitting More Schools WSJ
Digital Watch
Google’s Rush to Win in AI Led to Ethical Lapses, Employees Say Bloomberg. Google?!
With Bedrock, Amazon enters the generative AI race TechCrunch
Digital identities might be the best way to prove who you are online TechCrunch. Ugh. Thanks, AI. An innovative and disruptive new “service” from the creeps and spooks in Silicon Valley, I suppose. Like an arsonist selling water at the fire they set.
Zeitgeist Watch
I Really Didn’t Want to Go Harper’s (IM Doc). The deck: “On the GOOP cruise.”
Imperial Collapse Watch
Militarism and the Coming Wars MR Online
Economists We’ll Be Talking About: Wassily Leontief Building a Ruin
Beyond GDP: Three Other Ways to Measure Economic Health Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis
Class Warfare
‘We may be looking at the end of capitalism’: One of the world’s oldest and largest investment banks warns ‘Greedflation’ has gone too far Fortune. From early this month, still germane. Prices rise because firms raise them…
Poverty in the U.S. should be considered a ‘major risk factor for death’ — and is associated with more fatalities than guns or homicides, study finds MarketWatch (tegnost). Tegnost: “Well, knock me over with a feather…” Lambert; “Everything’s going according to plan!”
Sand and Civilization (excerpt) Delancey Place
New Map of Dark Matter Validates Einstein’s Theory of Gravity Gizmodo
Antidote du jour (via):
This is the Hour of the Wolf News!
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
