Recent Items

Links 7/5/2024

Posted on by

Rewilding plan aims to bring majestic white storks to London Guardian

The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes NPR

July 4 Post-Game Analysis

Fireworks (1):

Fireworks (2):

Fireworks (3):

Climate

Market forces are not enough to halt climate change FT

The risks of leaving long-duration energy storage short of money S&P Global

Datacenter demand driven by AI… but constrained by power shortages The Register. The deck: “Not content with drinking up all our water, now we’ll compete with DCs for power.”

Satellites burning up in the atmosphere may deplete Earth’s ozone layer Physics World

Syndemics

Vaccines and social distancing saved 800,000 American lives from COVID, according to a new study by a CU professor Colorado Sun

* * *

The ‘Ruby Princess’ case and the future of COVID litigation Peter Vogel, Case notes and legal musings. Australia.

Trends in Sudden Cardiac Death in Pilots: A Post COVID-19 Challenging Crisis of Global Perspectives (2011-2023) (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “Recent studies suggest a potential increase in SCD incidence among pilots following the COVID-19 pandemic.”

* * *

Infective SARS-CoV-2 in Skull Sawdust at Autopsy, Finland Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC

‘Visionary’ study finds inflammation, evidence of Covid virus years after infection STAT

COVID’s Hidden Toll: Full-Body Scans Reveal Long-Term Immune Effects Science Alert

Cold, Flu Virus Can Trigger Long COVID Relapse MedScape

China?

China’s Communist Party on track for 100 million members by year’s end South China Morning Post

Xu Gao on housing sector’s centrality to China’s economy and how to save it The East is Read

Controversial clause on ‘hurting the feelings of the Chinese nation’ dropped from China’s proposed security law Channel News Asia

A Rare Cross-Section Illustration Reveals the Infamous Happenings of Kowloon Walled City Colossal. For example:

Philippines president orders de-escalation in South China Sea, military chief says Reuters. More:

The Great Game

Xi Jinping tells leaders at Central Asia summit to ‘resist external interference’ Channel News Asia

Georgian NGOs: The threat of freezing the EU accession process is real JAM News

Bloggers in the Crosshairs: The Complex Reality of Media Freedom in Uzbekistan The Diplomat

Notes on Tajikistan Matt Lakeman

Syraqistan

Mossad chief likely to lead Israel’s negotiating team to Gaza cease-fire talks Anadolu Agency

Africa

Junta-leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to hold first joint summit France24

Dear Old Blighty

For Labour Now, It’s the Gilts Market, Stupid John Authers, Bloomberg. The deck: “Like Thatcher and Blair before him, Keir Starmer surges to power in a mandate dictated more by brutal finances than voters.”

* * *

He’s derided as dull, but Keir Starmer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory AP

Keir Starmer, the steely incoming Labour prime minister FT

* * *

While much of Europe embraces hard-right parties, the UK has swung wildly to the left. Here’s why CNBC. Commentary:

And:

But:

* * *

George Galloway loses Rochdale seat to Labour months after recent by-election win Independent. Commentary:

* * *

Photos: The dogs of UK election day Al Jazeera. Commentary:

New Not-So-Cold War

Putin ‘is prepared to SHARE Crimea with Ukraine according to new peace plan that has been presented by Russia to the US’ Daily Mail

‘Istanbul deal’ could be used for future talks with Kiev – Putin Russia Today. We have always been at war with Eastasia:

* * *

Hungary’s Orban urges ceasefire on Kyiv visit BBC

Zelenskyy comments on Orbán’s ceasefire proposal Ukrainska Pravda

Putin dismisses ceasefire in Ukraine, says Kiev could arm itself anew Deutschen Presse-Agentur

* * *

Ukraine’s army retreats from positions as Russia gets closer to seizing strategically important town AP

* * *

Ukrainian President’s Office denies Zelenskyy interview with Tucker Carlson Ukrainska Pravda

Moscow Responds to Hillary Clinton’s Ukraine ‘Chat’ With Russian Pranksters Newsweekd

As an American in Kyiv, I’m proud of how much we helped Ukraine and scared we may let it down Kyiv Independent

Biden Administration

Students at fake university in Michigan created by ICE can sue US, court rules Detroit Free Press

2024

What if Biden spoke these words? (not paywalled) Editorial Board, WaPo

Biden tells Democratic governors he needs more sleep and plans to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m. Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN

The Supremes

Roberts court hands major wins to Trump, conservative movement in 2023-24 term SCOTUSblog

The Assassination Hypothetical Isn’t Even the Scariest Part of the Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Slate

Digital Watch

AI has all the answers. Even the wrong ones FT

This Week in AI: With Chevron’s demise, AI regulation seems dead in the water TechCrunch

Sports Desk

Joey Chestnut shows no rust as he downs 57 hot dogs in competition at Fort Bliss FOX

The Final Frontier

We could terraform Mars with desert moss — but does that mean we should? Space.com

Russian space agency head says Moscow has proof America really DID go to the moon BNE Intellinews

Zeitgeist Watch

The Nibelung’s Ring: Prelude Ecosophia. Commentary:

Class Warfare

07/04/2024: More Starbucks Nonsense Matt Bruenig, NRLB Edge

Warren Buffett pledges $100 billion for nothing in particular Axios

The Journal of Scientific Integrity Bits of DNA. See KLG here and here. Commentary:

Antidote du jour (Lip Kee):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
This entry was posted in Links on by .

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

Subscribe to Post Comments
47 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Conversation
    Stephen Eckhardt☀️
    @seckhardt
    Careful with those at home fireworks displays. Don’t let it become a disaster like this one.’

    Hope you didn’t forget your M-320s.

    ‘Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it.’

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2d652_2hE (1:46 mins)

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen

      These disaster video recaps always lead me to the cynical point of view…thinning of the herd and the future scenario as projected by the film Idiocracy…might be too late(!)

      Darwin award candidates, please accept your prize with your remaining 9 fingers intact. A shame about that thumb on your left hand!

      Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      The actual 12 year old version of me (as opposed to the current 12 year old version of me all grown up) loved fireworks, and really about the only PRC imported item I can remember (Stolichnaya vodka was the only Soviet import) being for sale in the USA.

      We’d go down to Tijuana every year, and in theory it was about dad showing us the cardboard shacks on a hill and how good we had it in comparison, but in reality it was all about scoring firecrackers for yours truly or something with more bang for the buck in a store on Avenida Revolución, that one with a faux zebra in front-in wait of a photo op with a dumb gringo, and a street taco vendor.

      Fast forward a few years and i’m playing pinball @ the Texaco gas station in East LA where I grew up, and this really old guy (must have been 18, in retrospect) walks in and asks, ‘hey you kids want to buy some fireworks?’

      This would be tantamount to Howard Carter asking if we want to look into Tut’s tomb, and off we walked to his Toyota Celica with it’s tiny trunk loaded to the gills with bricks of firecrackers (144 packs of 16, for those of you scoring at home) bottle rockets, M-80’s and more, and dirt cheap, I think I paid $6 per brick of firecrackers. I must have felt like Musk or Gates that day, the richest man in the world, well at least in things you blow up real good.

      Driving to Colorado this winter, the Moapa tribe’s gas station/fireworks stand is right off Interstate 15 about 40 miles from Pavlovegas, and they have literally a warehouse full of fused items, with the most curious sales, such as buy 1-get 2 free, who does that in retailing?

      Bought a 4 pack of stout rockets for $19.99 and this item was buy 1-get 1 free, so my cost per rocket was a measly $2.50 per, and here in Tiny Town, March is the time to let loose with those bad boys-as everything is green and it’d be hard for anything to catch fire and my gosh, what bang for the buck as each rocket came with about a dozen explosions, in their field report up there.

      They’d lock me up and perhaps throw away the key, were I to attempt a similar ignition yesterday… as everything is bone dry, all of the green grasses have died back with their roots on, in search of a spark.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        p.s.

        I’ve seen a few drone shows @ Burning Man, and really impressive in person!

        A great alternative to much louder gunpowder ~

        Reply ↓
      2. The Rev Kev

        As a kid, we all looked forward to “Cracker Night” and in the months leading up to it, we frantically saved up our money to buy bungers, crackers, pin-wheels and whatever else we could. Each of us had our own private stash and around the corner the kids would start piling up timber, bits of wood and anything else flammable for the bonfire that we had on cracker night. We all had a great night around that bonfire that we had all built up and out would come out our horde of goodies. One kid had a spark fly into the case he had his crackers in and the entire lot went up at once. My older brother claimed that if you lit a bunger and held it at the extreme end, that it would not burn you. Turns out he was wrong. And then one year the government announced that Cracker Night was to be no more because of the smoke, kids getting injured and any other reason that they could find. They said, don’t worry. We will have a huge fireworks show on that night instead for all the kids. Come the following year the government said ‘Fireworks show? Don’t know what you are talking about.’ My mistrust of governments dates back to then-

        https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/rewind–cracker-night-20170602-gwj9fj.html

        The Northern Territory still has a fireworks night where ‘Territorians are provided five hours to legally blow up fireworks without needing a permit or special training, the only instance of its kind in Australia.’

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          I was in NZ for Guy Fawkes Night a few times, hard to catch a rainforest on fire, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort, good fun!

          Reply ↓
  2. Amateur Socialist

    Here in southern VT we skipped the fireworks in favor of on-screen explosions. I picked the July 4th movie some weeks ago, thinking that George Clooney’s good night, and good luck. would be a worthwhile celebration. The biopic of Edward R Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly did not disappoint, and everyone agreed the movie turned out to be more timely than expected.

    In the discussions that followed everyone wondered where is the Murrow of today?

    Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Where is George? He got with the program. I would have liked to have seen his face as he was watching the Trump-Biden debate though. But yeah, not a bad movie at all.

        Reply ↓
    2. britzklieg

      …and where is that Clooney, now that he’s gone full McCarthy w/RussiaRussiaRussia and all the Illiberal Democrat agitprop in which he now wallows ?

      Reply ↓
    4. EMC

      We watched “The Most Dangerous Man in America” which also felt timely. A good reminder that we once knew we were steeped in lies.

      Reply ↓
  3. Jake

    Watching the News Hour on PBS has become surreal. Yesterday they has a segment on AI and the huge waste of electricity. The pro AI guy actually said that we can think of this massive waste of electricity as ‘stored energy’ because these LLMs can continue to be used for a long time. So some D bags can continue running ChatGPT, producing crap of questionable value for years. Of course, this guy has to know that these LLMs will be obsolete in a few months, and they will need to create new ones. So amazing to watch this hype cycle and the D bags that plan to make a killing firing up old coal power plants so they can build something that will clearly never amount to anything. All this just after the crypto hype cycle crashed and burned. Tough to watch, really glad I don’t have children. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ai-and-the-energy-required-to-power-it-fuel-new-climate-concerns

    Reply ↓
    2. vidimi

      I don’t believe in electoral suffrage any more but it was still very depressing to wake up to the news this morning of the Worker’s Party getting smashed, Galloway losing his seat and none of the other great candidates winning theirs. Increasingly I am resigned to the idea that any change will have to come via a military defeat. Perhaps the Starmer/Van der Leyen politics are the most progressive after all.

      Reply ↓
      1. Samuel Conner

        It will be intriguing to see how a Starmer-led government addresses the suffering of the people of UK. Per the Authers article at Bloomberg, there isn’t a lot of policy flexibility under current funding practices (I suppose that if BoE were to outright monetize the UK deficit and accept a decline in the exchange rate, there would be more policy freedom, at the cost of imports inflation).

        I’m not optimistic about the prospects for national-level politics. Perhaps what truly Left groups there are can organize from the bottom up.

        Reply ↓
  5. JW

    The FPTP system in the UK gave the other big ‘anybody but the Tories ‘ party the win everyone was expecting. The exit polls could have been taken a week ( month?) ago. The flip flop voters between the two parties are unlikely to have read the manifestos of either party. If they had , neither would probably have got over 20% of the votes.
    As its been said , probably correctly, the ‘elite’ want continuation of policies in one or other of the two main parties, and the early election ‘surprise’ called by Sunak did not disappoint.

    Reply ↓
  6. The Rev Kev

    “Putin ‘is prepared to SHARE Crimea with Ukraine according to new peace plan that has been presented by Russia to the US”

    ‘The demands were that Ukraine must completely withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, both of which are now partially annexed by Russia.
    But Russia would hand over Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station and the nearby town of Enerhodar to Ukraine.
    And he would discuss the possible transfer of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the control of Ukraine.
    Crimea would become a ‘specially demilitarised administrative territory with dual subordination to Ukraine and the Russian Federation’.
    ‘Ukraine must take on itself legally binding international guarantees, not to block the supply of water to Crimea,’ said Gordon, reading from a document.’

    In other news today, the Daily Mail has announced that future stories will be vetted by The Onion and the Babylon Bee.

    Reply ↓
    1. Polar Socialist

      Isn’t that pretty much what we’ve learned was offered in Istanbul in 2022? The peace deal that Zelensky turned down. There’s no way Russia would accept that as a starting position two years later, while advancing on every front (and apparently creating new ones as we speak).

      Reply ↓
  7. Mikel

    “This week the NY Times just casually dropped that the official U.S. intelligence assessment has always been that Putin didn’t want to expand the Ukraine conflict beyond Ukraine. But in public, Biden and other U.S officials have been pushing a domino theory…”

    Countries in Europe have been boosting military budgets based on yelling “the Russians are coming.”

    Reply ↓
    1. Benny Profane

      The winner goes to Finland, who went from neutral to hosting about a dozen American bases in just a few years.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        The funny part there is that they are shouting how Russia is colonizing the Ukraine, while they let the US/NATO colonize their military bases in their own country.

        Reply ↓
        1. Louis Fyne

          much of human culture, at the micro and macro levels, is “elite” mimicking.

          People still want to be like America (thanks Hollywood!), particularly if one’s view of America is stuck in 1999.

          to paraphrase Milton, better to be pimped put by Adonis than be loved by the local gas station attendant w/nukes.

          Reply ↓
          1. Mikel

            “People still want to be like America (thanks Hollywood!)…”

            The kind of thing that makes China and Russia more cautious in the face of threats from the USA than any weapons system.

            Reply ↓
  9. Steve H.

    > The Journal of Scientific Integrity Bits of DNA. See KLG here and here.

    Luebbert and Pachter are very careful in stepping through what they are saying. As Boyd said, “Don’t get hosed.” The full context of the objective facts they present cannot be understood without examining the realities of the environment in which they are produced, which KLG lays out in the first link.

    Reply ↓
  10. Mikel

    “Russian space agency head says Moscow has proof America really DID go to the moon” BNE Intellinews

    That’s a weird debunking story to put out without saying when they were provided samples.
    Weird that it’s something that should even be bothering Russia right now with all the country has to deal with.

    Reply ↓
  12. funemployed

    Re growing moss on mars: I’m so tired of this nonsense. Mars lacks a viable atmosphere because it lacks enough of a magnetosphere to stop solar winds from blowing most of the atmosphere away. For this reason there is no liquid water on the surface. None whatsoever. Sooooo, can’t grow moss there guys, no matter how hardy. It isn’t magic space moss. That doesn’t exist. But yeah, maybe once we develop the technology to reheat and spin up Mars’ planetary core we can grow this cool moss there.

    Yet we still have 2 paragraphs at the end of the article to dedicate to questions about the “ethics” of terraforming.

    Reply ↓
    1. Acacia

      Whatever happened to the canals of Mars?

      I mean, I know they never existed, and least not in this millennium, but was there ever a kind of “oh… uh.. sorry” retraction?

      (Fun fact: “A Fog-Filled Canal on Mars” was painted by Chesley Bonestell in 1956.)

      Reply ↓
      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        It’s hard to look back, but it was likely an optical illusion combined with knowledge the Martian polar ice caps changed size with seasons and changing quality of the catchall telescopes.

        A few kept making claims after the first proper pictures of the surface were made (circa early 1900’s), but the “canals” were seen for the previous 50 years by various people.

        Given the timeline, it was more a case of mistaken ideas dying out as definitely better tools couldn’t replicate the canals.

        Reply ↓
    3. Wukchumni

      When I came to your planet all those years ago, I’d been here a short time when Mars Air went Bk, and I couldn’t get a return flight home.

      Ever notice how you never see any Martians in all the photos and videos from the Mars Landers?

      We’re really good hiders…

      Reply ↓
    1. Cassandra

      Biden might not be the lesser evil.

      I had decided that by 2020, but I still couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump. I ended up voting for Howie as the Lesser Evil, secure in the knowledge he would never be president.

      I spent years as an activist, getting people registered to vote, collecting signatures to get candidates on the ballot, canvassing, GOTV, poll watching. This year, for the first time, I may not vote.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        As far as I know, the only votes cast for Wink Martindale in the 2016 & 2020 Presidential elections, came of my hand.

        It doesn’t have to be that way, we could have dozens, no, daresay hundreds of write-ins for a game show host & a NFL defensive coordinator all in one name.

        Reply ↓
  14. Aurelien

    I’m glad you linked to Richard Murphy’s more downbeat assessment of yesterday’s election results in the UK. As he says, the Tories lost, Labour didn’t win. We have in effect reverted to the traditional pattern of British politics, where one of the two main parties has been a long time in power, and loses popularity to a third party or parties, who don’t get enough votes to win many seats, but prevent the government from holding a lot of theirs. A famous, catastrophic example occurred in 1983, when disaffected Labour voters turned to the SDP and delivered to Thatcher a massive majority she hadn’t earned.

    Interestingly, the Grauniad has a remarkably good statistical breakdown of the results, showing how flaky and contingent they were. In effect, Labour has scarcely more than a third of the popular vote, but more than two thirds of the seats.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jul/05/eleven-charts-that-show-how-labour-won-by-a-landslide

    Reply ↓
  15. The Rev Kev

    “Opinion: As an American in Kyiv, I’m proud of how much we helped Ukraine and scared we may let it down”

    It seems like the authoress – Anna Belokur – is as much an American as Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, the Vindman twins, Marie Yovanovitch, etc. who all knew which country to put first when it came down to a matter of loyalty.

    Reply ↓
  16. Wukchumni

    Joey Chestnut shows no rust as he downs 57 hot dogs in competition at Fort Bliss FOX
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    MLE (Major League Eating) is an up and comer* in professional gluttony tournaments, indorsements being the key ingredient.

    In some ways it mirrors our obscenely rich and their see me-dig me lifestyle, who frankly only want more, lots more than they need.

    *if I ate say 6 hot dogs, I might give them all back @ once

    Reply ↓
  17. GlassHammer

    “U.S officials have been pushing a domino theory that if we negotiated an end to the war, Russia would invade Poland and beyond”

    Yes, I to follow the theory of “if you give a mouse a cookie” when negotiating with others.

    It’s never failed me.

    Reply ↓
  18. Vander Resende
    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *