Butterflies Can Make Epic Atlantic Ocean Voyages, Shocking Scientists Science Alert
Scientists re-emerge after a year in Mars simulation project Deutsche Welle
Climate/Environment
Record-setting heat will continue to torment millions of Americans this weekend CNN
Blazing hot surfaces are a danger for catastrophic burn injuries in Phoenix Copper Courier
Princeton Scientists Develop Passive Mechanism To Cool Buildings in the Summer and Warm Them in the Winter SciTech Daily
How We Solved the Hole in the Ozone Nautilus
Pandemics
The histamine receptor H1 acts as an alternative receptor for SARS-CoV-2 mBio. Commentary:
6) These findings suggest that widely available antihistamine drugs could be a promising treatment option for COVID-19, as they can block a key entry point for the virus.
Thanks for reading 🙏 pic.twitter.com/4ZPOn7pVKi
— Emmanuel (@ejustin46) July 6, 2024
New data from the official Spanish health survey. The share of the population that has a chronic illness now stands 9.8 standard deviations above its prepandemic average. Hospitalizations, 5.9 standard deviations above its average. All age groups doing badly. pic.twitter.com/nGsWe9q6lh
— SamuelHurtadoBE (@SamuelHurtadoBE) July 5, 2024
***
The Corporate Greed Behind Bird Flu The Progressive Magazine
Africa
The View From Nairobi-Washington Phenomenal World
Kenyan Protests, Part One: The political education of President William Ruto An Africanist Perspective
Yoh Kenyans, watch Prof. @gchelwa unpack the Kenyan protests on Bad Faith with @briebriejoy #RejectFinanceBill2024 #RutoMustGo https://t.co/M3BDVzInB7
— Catherine, Treasonous Baddie (@catherine_amayi) July 6, 2024
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso military leaders sign new pact, rebuff ECOWAS Al Jazeera
China?
Chinese government and overcapacity: historical patterns, current context, and response strategies The East is Read
My dad’s friend is a senior executive at a large pharmaceutical company in China.
During dinner yesterday, he said most of China’s economic issues can be solved by more strict implementation of labor laws, AND raising employee benefits to blue collar workers.
Here’s why:
1/9🧵 pic.twitter.com/4ZozX6IVHZ— Zhao DaShuai 东北进修🇨🇳 (@zhao_dashuai) July 6, 2024
***
Biden Declares Checkmate on China in Pacific – Naval Experts Disagree gCaptain
Philippines Turned Down US Help Amid South China Sea Tensions Reuters
Syraqistan
Does ‘Israel’ want war? Alastair Crooke, Al Mayadeen
***
CIA director to travel to Qatar for Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal negotiations Axios. “A key remaining gap centers on Hamas’ demand for written commitments from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar…Israel does not accept Hamas’ demand for a written commitment”
The Israel Defense Forces’ Use of AI in Gaza: A Case of Misplaced Purpose Royal United Services Institute. Depends on what the purpose is.
***
Absolutely damning US Defense Intelligence Agency report spells out in forensic detail the Empire’s crushing defeat by AnsarAllah. Global trade massively disrupted, dozens of major Western corporations harmed, “at least” 65 countries impacted. Beautiful.https://t.co/nJoGuyRBCy pic.twitter.com/A1jO3wZWXU
— Kit Klarenberg 🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 (@KitKlarenberg) July 6, 2024
EU naval mission says it destroyed two drones in Gulf of Aden Al Arabiya
European Disunion
Terrified by Hamas red triangle, German House votes on banning symbol Al Mayadeen
German Industrial Output Unexpectedly Sinks as Rebound Struggles Bloomberg
Gaucho-Lepénisme? New Left Review
‘Italy-style’ technocratic government in France likely to face challenges Euractiv
New Not-So-Cold War
Hungarian premier blasts ‘Brusselian bureaucratic nonsense’ on Russia-Ukraine war Anadolu Agency
Viktor Orban’s peace mission to Moscow Gilbert Doctorow
NATO leaders to announce ‘bridge to membership’ plan for Ukraine next week: Senior US official Anadolu Agency
WEST STILL GRASPING AT STRAWS AS UKRAINE’S MILITARY SITUATION BECOMES MORE DIRE Larry Johnson
LONG READ: The war in Ukraine is inching towards a ceasefire as pressures mount bne Intellinews
SITREP 7/6/24: Narrative Builds that Putin Desperate to End Conflict – Is He Really? Simplicius the Thinker
🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 The Armed Forces of Ukraine are killing Russian soldiers who have been captured or have surrendered – The New York Times on Ukraine’s violation of the Geneva Convention.
Caspar Grosse, a German medic in a Ukrainian unit, said he saw a Russian soldier asking for medical… pic.twitter.com/M3OBlmHcGc
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) July 6, 2024
Moscow to probe newly reported war crimes in Ukraine RT
Ukraine recruits criminals in fight against Russia Deutsche Welle
Shaping Tomorrow: A Roadmap for Ukraine’s Reconstruction using Virtual Assets Royal United Services Institute
The Caucasus
U.S. ‘Indefinitely’ Postpones Noble Partner Exercise in Georgia Civil Georgia
Old Blighty
Labour is not going to deliver Funding the Future
Keir Starmer Is Very Serious About the Status Quo In These Times
The Rejection of Starmerism Craig Murray
South of the Border
Colombia warns about danger for migrants after Panama closes Darien routes Anadolu Agency
A senator from Javier Milei’s party proposes legalising the sale of children by families whose resources are overstretched https://t.co/M0SusiLlR7
— David Broder (@broderly) July 6, 2024
Biden
Biden’s doctor reportedly met with top neurologist at White House The Guardian
The Joe Biden Policy Platform Matt Bruenig. Or lack of.
Hollywood moguls want to replace Biden for America’s leading role Axios
Biden: Like the nation, I am indispensable too Daniel Larison, Responsible Statecraft
Trump
Trump separates himself from Project 2025 blueprint crafted by the Heritage Foundation Washington Times
RFK Jr.
RFK Jr. fails to gain traction despite Biden’s disastrous week The Hill
Democrats en déshabillé
Democrats fear years of work in rural America erased by debate Politico. They’re really going to try to blame all their failures on the guy they supported until a week ago.
The Hole at the Heart of the Democratic Party How Things Work
If Biden withdraws, how about a ticket of Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney to show this election is about our democracy? Country over party.
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) July 5, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
How Its Airports Underscore America’s Decline Hungarian Conservative
Antitrust
Florida Republicans protected insurance companies from competition. Florida homeowners are now paying higher prices. Seeking Rents
AI
How Good Is ChatGPT at Coding, Really? IEEE Spectrum
The Bezzle
Half of Singapore’s e-commerce scams now happen on WhatsApp, Facebook, or Instagram Rest of World
Healthcare?
Bad Moods Parapraxis. “The half-life of the serotonin hypothesis.”
Supply Chain
Spot rate surge to continue past Golden Week, with surcharges causing more pain The Loadstar
Class Warfare
Algorithmic wage discrimination: Not just for gig workers The Register
Housing for All with Chris Martin MR Online
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
249 comments
Comments are closed.
“Scientists re-emerge after a year in Mars simulation project”
So I was just reading this-
‘Mars also lacks the magnetosphere that protects Earth. The average natural radiation level on Mars is 24-30 rads or 240-300 mSv per year. This is about 40-50 times the average on Earth.’
So maybe they should have been pointing a low-power X-ray machines at those volunteers the past year to make it more realistic. It’s not exactly a factor that you can pretend does not exist-
https://phys.org/news/2016-11-bad-mars.html
There are places on earth that approach those levels of background radiation.
Lots of studies on the effects.
https://radwatch.berkeley.edu/background-radiation/
https://aerb.gov.in/images/PDF/image/34086353.pdf
Interesting. I remember hearing that the the radiation levels on Mars due to the lack of a working magnetosphere made long-term habitation impossible, and the whole Mars project a bit silly – yet here’s data that shows similar levels in one terrestrial settlement, Ramsar, with no conclusive studies on the long term effects of it’s residents – unlikely, then, that they all succumb to cancer at early ages.
As my Grandfather used to say….”Go with God, but just GO!!!” Anyway… It’s about as realistic as going to war with Russia or China or both. Not gonna happen. I would guess that at least 95% of people are ready to get home after a week of camping let alone a trip to Mars. Just shoot me!
Could it be that the people living in places like Ramsar, Iran have become genetically adapted to the radiation after living there for generations?
And from “Martian Residents: Mass Media and Ramsar High Background Radiation Areas ”
“It is worth noting that, due to small sample size, to draw a firm conclusion about the health effects of high level natural radiation in Ramsar, in particular about the cancer risk, current information is not sufficient and further studies are needed. ”
I do not think we should be wasting time trying to figure out if we can live on Mars when we cannot even figure out how to live on Earth…another hot one for Seattle today!
All living things have been continuously exposed to radiation, just the levels of exposure are different.
Nobody knows how living things have genetically adapted to radiation exposure.
It is possible that too low of radiation exposure has negative effects.
Google radiation hormesis, read a few different results and you will get an idea of how difficult it is to understand the actual long term effects.
The level of exposure is the problem being investigated.
What I mean to say is maybe the people of that area adapted genetically to the radiation. Like if I lived in Ramsar would I be more likely to get cancer than someone whose has a genetic history of living there? Humans do genetically adapt to their environment, like how the plague has left its genetic mark on Europeans.
And humans have adapted to the sun’s radiation by changing the amount of melanin in our skin.
https://english.cas.cn/newsroom/research_news/life/202209/t20220927_320797.shtml
A quick read on hormesis: there is no evidence for hormesis in humans and in the case of the National Research Council hormesis is outright rejected as a possibility.
Since the incidence of cancer is so high ( currently about a 40 percent lifetime chance in the US ) and the population of the area is so low, no one can predict your chances vs their chances.
It does seem possible after enough generations genetic selection could take place.
Current non threshold linear response theory
https://api.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/dms/digital-medias/Fact-Sheet-Linear-Non-Threshold-Model-2013.pdf/object
suggests that you would have a higher risk if you lived there long enough.
As far as the outright rejection by the National Research Council, and the no evidence, it is not that simple.
As the above link shows, there is no evidence for increased risk below 100 mSv dose.
Below that dose it gets complicated.
https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/31/1/11
Hormosis studies were done on new nuke workers without accounting for the fact that their incomes had just shot up and they started getting good healthcare so they got a bit healthier for a moment until the radiation damage caught up. More industry BS.
Um, the hormesis studies included Canadian nuclear workers who get the same healthcare as all other Canadian citizens, you know that socialist stuff. As well, it was about cancer mortality, dying from cancer.
Also it included studies of Japanese atomic bomb survivors and people with radon exposure.
Anyways, stay away from cat litter, you do know it is radioactive.
https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/consumer/miscellaneous/cat-litter.html
Better genetic repairing mechanisms. Birds, due to their high intensity methabolism have evolved to have an excellent tuning between nucleus and mithocondria, and maybe because are many times exposed to higher levels of radiation due to flying up, good repairing mechanisms.
Most birds are allotted a bit less than three score and ten. We have more time to, uh, incarcinate.
Rev Kev: It’s not exactly a factor that you can pretend does not exist-
Indeed.
Earth’s magnetosphere extends as far as the Moon. So human astronauts have in fact never been exposed to the ordinary range of radiation elsewhere in the Solar System.
Elon Musk’s Mars proposals are in a number of ways deeply questionable, but one of his big chemical rockets could in principle get to Mars after 9-10 months thanks to Newton’s First Law of Motion. However, by then everyone aboard would be riddled with cancers, if not dead.
Nuclear rockets (many designs exist, besides the infamous Orion) could get human beings to Mars in 7-9 weeks, especially if those rockets ran at 1G constant thrust/acceleration. This would reduce exposure to cosmic/solar radiation in interplanetary space. Once down on the Martian surface, though, those humans would still need intense shielding from radiation; any colonies would do best to dig in under the surface.
NASA has been thinking about these problems for decades. After its Twins Study —
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/twins-study/
— NASA’s chief geneticist, Chris Moore, modestly came up with a 500-year plan to genetically engineer Homo astronauticus.
https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/5121/The-Next-500-YearsEngineering-Life-to-Reach-New
The propaganda campaign in support of the Mas Project is already in play. The methodology of building habitat on Mars is already being gamed out.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDlFGRuK8B0&t=2s&ab_channel=VentureCity
18 minutes, but fascinating.
We would be better off making our planet more habitable (less pollution and wars) than wasting time on a mission to Mars. It’s just another colonialism dream.
From SciFi novels, one possible solution to the long trip time/radiation is to build a large, well protected station with an orbit that travels between near-Earth and near-Mars. The trip time may not be much less but the astronauts would be more comfortable (less stressful) and protected from the radiation. Once it’s in orbit launchers wouldn’t need to make the full trip, just to the station as it passes the planet.
An alternative would be to use solar sails to alter a large asteroid’s orbit and hollow it out to perform the same mission. This would definitely block the radiation and could be mined while providing safe, comfortable passage.
Neither of these would be fast, cheap, or easy but they are doable and would have to be considered a long-term investment.
They can’t get enough gravity on a ship. There is a big lifespan toll to being in a low G setting for any length of time.
I wonder what a grain of space dust hitting the “1G constant thrust/acceleration” spaceship would do to the mission?
At an impact velocity of ~ 12km/sec, the dust and roughly an equivalent amount spaceship hull will be instantly turned into plasma. The surrounding hull surface would be briefly exposed to radiant energy from the plasma. It’s kind of like a really tiny nuke, but there’s no blast or thermal pulse from a fireball, just the initial prompt radiation, but no neutrons, x-ray/gamma only.
A grain of dust isn’t too bad, a paperclip is gonna hurt.
Also we can’t get any where near a 1g constant thrust vehicle, best we could do is maybe 1/100th of a G using Ion thrusters.
A half inch of boron carbide(used to make some kinds of sand paper and grinding tools) on your roof might help with that.
“Hollywood moguls want to replace Biden for America’s leading role”
I got an idea. How about those Hollywood moguls push for someone that they know to replace old Joe. Someone that they know can be counted on. One who is a committed Democrat who has supported Obama, Hillary and old Joe. So how about George Clooney? No, no, no – hear me out. He is only 63 years old which by American political standards makes him a young whippersnapper. He can be counted on for looking the role, already has star power, is known not only by Americans but most of the world and would maybe make the Presidency cool again. He would probably be even able to hold his own over Trump with a bit of practice-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Clooney#Political_views
He’d bring along tons of fame and the arguably most stunning first lady ever. Trump would respect that, it’s one of his primary weaknesses.
I do believe though that Clooney once said that he had no intention of running for office. And there are the Hollywood blind item rumors about the marriage.
And presumably, he would also bring his own coffee cartridge machine.
And really good tequila.
From a link at today’s Automatic Earth:
Or the billionaire..
And this is a LA Times big feature today:
https://www.latimes.com/la-influential/story/2024-07-07/the-establishment/
They are the bosses, elected officials and A-list names calling the shots from the seats of power.
That was hilarious!
I’ve heard a few well known celebs being asked this question over the past couple years. Matthew McConaughey for one, mostly in the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting debacle. I don’t recall what his opinions or stances are in particular.
Dwayne Johnson is another, he has possibly a bigger personal brand, has surrounded himself with capable business people and also comes across well in television interviews. Outside of business or ESPN / entertainment interviews IDK what his political opinions are.
Heck… American Idol 2024. It’s a popularity contest, vote your favorite poseur for POTUS (!)
Then there’s The Voice where one finds Lila Forde singing an Ode to Joe B.::
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyvJQamd5E&t=170s&pp=ygUueW91dHViZS5jb20gImxpbGEgZm9yZGUiIGNhbnQgZmluZCBteSB3YXkgaG9tZQ%3D%3D
I’m going in a different direction. The late and great singer Robert Palmer..
“The lights are on
You’re not home
Your mind is not your own..
You like to think you’re immune to this media stuff,
Might as well face it, you’re addicted to Hollywood’s love…”
For a second I thought you said: Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho
I would certainly go that direction but alas,I don’t know the movie Idiocracy well enough. But yes, Mike Judge is a master artist of the fictional films. The fictional becoming prophetic!
Office Space being the classic…ageing nicely it seems.
As folks were pointing out, will the moguls hire the version that endorsed Hillary and Biden? Or the one that wrote and directed good night, and good luck.? A version of which will soon launch on Broadway?
His position on Gaza is complicated to use the popular phrase. He’s managed to get ink for complaining to the white house about the prosecution of the war without saying much about it publicly.
His position on Gaza is complicated
…and then there is the whole White Helmets thing.
You can sense that Hollywood is fading as a force, the movies they pump out are crap, and having long lost exclusivity, the industry is floundering.
That said, the old guard is well known, and being a known known in politics for a mere mortal takes years for a rookie, advantage thespians!
George ‘Washington’ Clooney/Tom Cruise 2024!
Seems last year’s strike really dented the output this year. Which doesn’t mean they aren’t crap. I was even disappointed in Dune 2 to which I had been looking forward.
As for the geezers, Bruce Willis has the Biden disease and has retired. Nic Cage continues to be a thespian energizer bunny.
But the low budget geezer films won’t do much to fill the void that is big studio creativity. Gosh knows when the controversial new Disney Snow White will come out.
Dune 2 – I couldn’t finish watching it. :-/
Villeneuve isn’t good at scifi set in a different environment to our contemporary world. Arrival was good, the new Bladerunner and Dune just full of sci fi tropes, he has no imagination.
You kinda get the feeling that similar to the Great Depression killing off vaudeville, the pandemic did in Hollywood.
And affordable home theaters.
Willie Nelson for prez, Taylor Swift for vice! All the bases covered! Chris Rock secretary of state!
Clooney got nothing on Zelensky’s bro, Sean Penn.
George Clooney likely would be pro-Palestine via his wife.
Paging the AIPAC gong.
Let’s go for a genuine movie star who has all the presidential experience in the world, Ronald Reagan. I understand that he has a lot of time on his hands, and he’s just lying around, with nothing to do. But you say he’s dead. The constitution doesn’t say that the president must be alive. Remember, you have to read the text exactly as the framers wrote it, and where does it explicitly disqualify the dead? 💀 Here’s a selfie Joe Biden recently took of himself. Let’s dig up the Gipper and see how they match up. I’m willing to bet that it would be nearly impossible to tell the difference, especially if someone could get Biden to stop dragging out an infant’s skull from his suit coat, but Joe has really big pockets, and he keeps them full. Joe delivered in Gaza for the Jewish citizens of Israel. Those tiny skulls are the fruit of his labor. What baggage does Reagan carry around? A grave question.
I think that is the real reason for the two term limit, otherwise you would end up with the same President forever.
You just described the Duopoly. We have different Presidents, but the same Permanent State, cycle to cycle.
That’s why I’m down with Prof. Irwin Corey for Prez. I know, he’s dead. But Joey from Scranton has one foot in the grave and he is not providing and laughs.
As I’ve done several times in the past I may vote for Pat Paulson. “He ran the supposed campaigns using obvious lies, double talk and tongue-in-cheek attacks on the major candidates, and he responded to all criticism with his catchphrase, “Picky, picky, picky”. His campaign slogans included “Just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America’s destiny” – Wikipedia
On another note, how about Madonna? I’ve heard that she’s a shrewd business person who certainly has experience in multiple businesses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna
Then there’s Cher, Lady Gaga, and many other performers. Just a thought.
Having lived in the New England area for a few years I am favorable to former presidential candidate Virgil Bliss.
Marshall Dodge as Virgil Bliss: 1980 Satirical Campaign Ads
“He’s different, but so are you.”
Even if a dead person could be elected, how would he or she take the oath?
Thinking about it: if a mute person is elected president, how would he or she take the oath?
The most appropriate choice for our current timeline would have to be Meghan Markle.
Well, if we’re going full Hollywood, I’m going to hold out for a guy that understands his relationship to the oligarchs:
Fourth Wall Breaking Bugs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y5jeJqo6VU
Might as well lean into cartoon President. And they can obviously make him do whatever they want…
AIPAC doesn’t like his wife…
Well then they’re gonna love Gibson/Gibson ’24!!!
Mel Gibson as Pres, with author William Gibson as back-up. They can narrate the decent into Jackpot in real time.
The heat is on…early July and records be falling daily. As the saying goes, find some shade and keep plenty of “high quality H2O” in reach. Or to borrow a quote from Aliens, stay frosty.
Personally speaking these moments of highly consistent heat and sun didn’t bother me nearly as much in my youth. IDK what these folks are thinking when they go on a hike… probably mid day and not well planned, is one obvious takeaway.
It hit 114 here yesterday in Tiny Town, and its a dizzying heat that after a few minutes outside, you’re crying uncle. The great indoors is where its at.
This is prime temblor time-earthquake weather, just felt a 1.36546!
I couldn’t imagine being a firefighter in the midst of the big heat, and thankfully no conflagrations near us, although they’re breaking out all over the state with a week more in the warm up.
I wish you people would report on an worldwide recognized and used scale. Not only for temperature.
And Phillips screws really suck.
We were supposed to be metric by the Bicentennial, but it didn’t take.
My parents moved from rainy Eugene OR in the 1980’s to a nice mobile home park in Yuma AZ. On fourth of July weekend in1995, when I went to visit them it was 124 and I complained I couldn’t take the heat. My dad’s advice to me was relax and not to worry because it was a “dry heat”!
Where I live, on an island in San Francisco bay off the coast of Oakland, we have a natural air conditioner during the summer: high fog flowing in from the Pacific ocean through the golden gate. But the effect is limited. One can drive north, south, or east for thirty minutes and experience temperatures from twenty to thirty degrees higher. We get a brief period of hotter weather typically in late September and early October when the prevailing winds change direction and begin flowing from the super heated central valley east of us instead of from the sea. But this year we’ve had higher temperatures than are usual for this time of year. Still not nearly as hot as those just outside our microclimatic enclave, which have been hitting triple digit temperatures.
Re the IEEE ChatGPT and coding article, I have observed many of the same findings. That said, I am using ChatGPT and other models regularly to generate useful code for real-life productive work. The current state of the art is not yet ready for one-shot code writing for complex applications, but LLMs are game changing when paired with people who are good at writing system requirements and debugging of code. I have found that tasks that may have taken me days or weeks to complete can now be performed in minutes or hours with well formed requirements (prompts) and some human review and corrective direction to the LLM.
Over my career, I spent a lot of time coding, debugging, and writing system requirements, and have moved on the larger issues of process, metric, and architecture. In that role, I often interact with developers to get the coding done. I have found that it is much faster and more reliable to go through iterations of interaction with the LLMs than working with developers that may not have available bandwidth. Plus, I can call on the LLMs 24×7.
I don’t think LLMs will replace programmers as much as substantially raise the bar for the level of productivity from programmers. I WAS a programmer, but my skills in the role NOW are less sharp, and I am able to get substantive value out of using LLMs. When tools like Copilot and LLM integration with Integrated Development Environments (IDE) are wielded by actual developers, the results are amazing.
Make no mistake, the practical details are being fleshed out, but AI coding tools are now becoming a must have for the foreseeable future.
One quick question: Do you trust ChatGPT to create and maintain the test cases? In my experience (high reliability server development) that was often as time consuming as the actual code, if not more.
So maybe with ChatGPT and coding the key concept will be to trust, but verify.
I would expect similar results in using LLMs to generate test cases in that I would expect them to save time and bring some ideas into the mix from their training, but still requiring last mile intervention to achieve the desired results.
BTW, new open source LLMs are becoming very competitive with ChatGPT 4.o, especially when applied within agent frameworks. I am starting to transition away from the proprietary cloud-based solutions to models that can be run fully within on premise hardware. ChatGPT has opened the door to this new world, but I don’t trust the cloud developers and institutional big tech companies for a second not to eventually use all your IP against you for fun, power, and profit.
The open-source LLMs that run on local hardware are rapidly improving and useful. Unfortunately, most were trained by big-tech companies that will control future updates and associated crapification opportunities.
I have the suspicion that the main effect of those tools will not be to improve the quality of the code being generated, but to increase the quantity of code being produced. Just like there is now a deluge of AI-generated images, text, videos, that are superfluous or junk.
In other words: more software being programmed faster — requiring in principle even more testing, but crucially, and more worryingly, imposing an even faster increasing maintenance burden.
The answer that “we’ll put AI to do it” is not satisfying: if we still have to check what AI produces in the first place, then we will have to check every kind of maintenance operation as well. Will there be the human capacity to do it? Knowing, as the article points out, that the code generated by AI has the same, or greater complexity than code produced by human programmers, I have the uneasy feeling that things risk going seriously haywire.
Or to put it in another way: we need tools to produce less and better, not more and faster; current AI approaches and tools derived from them do not fit the bill.
As a historical note, 30-40 years ago a big topic in software engineering was reusability and avoidance of new developments. Approaches proposed then largely failed, but what is worrisome is that the topic does not seem to attract much interest any longer. This makes me think this is general: 30-40 years ago, devices were designed to be repairable and recyclable — no longer. In all cases, the attitude is just to produce more new gizmos — whether electronic gadgets or web sites.
30-40 years ago, monkeys with typewriters was a thought experiment. Now it’s real, and renamed to AI. :)
Somewhat different use of “AI” at my job, but when I started about 13 years ago, we had what was then called “automation” that was supposed to be able to read incoming payment documents and then post the payment transaction into the accounting system. Except that it couldn’t really read the documents accurately, and got a lot wrong, requiring someone to double check every transaction for accuracy. I tried it once and figured if I had to double check everything, I might as well just enter the transactions myself and get it right the first time. I never used it again after my first day.
We now have a new accounting system, this time it has “AI”, and it’s set up so that we can’t just skip over it. I find that this system works about as well as the one from 13 years ago, in other words not that well at all. It often can’t even get a simple date right and will sometimes switch US dates around into European format for no particular reason I can fathom. The difference now is you can report the “AI” errors to help train it. Of course this greatly slows down the work process and even though this is a large accounting platform with probably thousands of users and growing who are all reporting errors, it keeps making the same simple mistakes. So I refuse to report the mistakes, at least until the software company starts paying me for my time training its “AI”, which will likely happen just a little before never.
In this I thought SudoLang was a neat idea, a language for interacting with an LLM devised by an LLM. Never quite figured out how to use it successfully though. I felt like I was writing so close to code that I almost might as well just write correct code instead of semi-code. Plus coding inside a ChatGPT input field is nasty. I guess maybe with a real UI on top of the ChatGPT API. I haven’t looked, this probably exists.
Amongst developers, there’s a very old joke:
…which rather applies to this situation.
“Viktor Orban’s peace mission to Moscow”
It was not just the entire EU/NATO political establishment that denounced him daring to talk to Putin but the Ukraine went ballistic-
‘Ukraine is ready to state its conditions for peace negotiations with Russia via third countries, but potential mediators must align their public statements with Kiev’s position, Vladimir Zelensky’s top aide, Mikhail Podolyak, has said.’
In other words, any country wanting to approach Russia should clear it first with the Ukraine and then adopt Zelensky’s 10-point plan and present that to Russia. These are not serious people.
https://www.rt.com/news/600569-ukraine-russia-mediators-ceasefire/
Reminds me of the scene in “The Princess Bride” when Vizzini uses the word “inconceivable” one too many times and not in the right context.
The Spaniard just looks at him and says “I do not think he understands what that word means.”
Likewise, I do not believe the Ukrainian guys understand what the word “mediator” means.
Selling children–
Ah yes. Back to the good old days. Really old days, like the Late Bronze Age. This is how things worked in the Ancient Near East in those days as recorded in the Book of the Covenant found in Exodus. Get yourself in financial trouble? First, sell your kids. Then your wife. Then yourself. Hey, it’s only for seven years if they heed the biblical norms.
Say, maybe Milei can take a leaf from the book that Pinochet’s Chile used and just kidnap children from their poor parents. This happened with about 20,000 babies and young children there and those kids are still trying to find their real parents. Bonus points for Milei in that he would not have to pay those parents a single peso and the market would have spoken-
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/28/chile-stolen-children-adoptions/70359250007/
In Ukraine, the good old days are now. You can even sell someone elses kids, or wife. Also, in parts.
We do not need to go that far back. In the Roman empire, it was common for poor people (but legally free citizens) to sell their children as slaves.
Swift satirically proposed the same nearly 300 years ago as A Modest Proposal
No, they weren’t just going to be slaves. They were going to be food. Gloves. Etc. (Many people took it seriously, rather than as a metaphor intended to equal in savagery the savage condition of the native Irish.)
Happens regularly in Myanmar. I personally know someone who is the the microscopic category of having escaped on her own, as opposed to via the intervention of an NGO. And no doubt routine in many war zones and very poor countries.
Perhaps the difference is that in Myanmar and other countries selling one’s children is, I presume, formally illegal, whereas in the Roman empire it was perfectly legal?
Understood, but I notice a loophole with respect to the woman I met. Not that this is why she was sold, mind you.
https://www.mlis.gov.mm/mLsView.do;jsessionid=F7B374A1A9DEC2DEF52D28C813D3F36C?lawordSn=18398
On a quick read, the law seems to key on being able to determine the age of the child, as in having some sort of record. After she escaped and earned some money, she went back to where she was born. The aunt who had sold her (long story there) made her buy the house she basically stole from the woman’s mother to get identity records (of someone else!) so she could get a (faked) passport to leave the country.
So the person I know appears to have fallen outside the law by virtue of having no records with respect to her birth and therefore citizenship.
Holly molly, what tribulations…
Selling children: happens regularly in Afghanistan.
for centuries in all cultures people have striven to sell their female children at quite young ages into service to other families as unpaid baby producers, nurturers, and housekeepers. female children can be traded in this way for a family to get ahead, or even just to unload the cost of supporting them. female children can hold their value for sale up into their early childbearing years. they are conditioned to expect, accept, and even embrace this as their adult life to come. toward the end of a long life, if they survive and are lucky, they can sometimes become powerful matriarchs, able to negotiate the sales of further generations of female offspring.
Chinese and Korean historical dramas, from times much closer to us than the Roman Empire, are full of such stories. Heck the last Chinese TV drama, with action ~ 1900 portray such an action.
My grandfathers father was sold in an auction in 1866, with his brother and sister. This was in the Nordics, where it was a form of “social security” to auction off orphans to anyone that asked least for their upkeeping. Not exactly slavery, but at times pretty darn close.
My great-grandad and his siblings were lucky*, as the lowest bidder took them in as pretty much as their own. Sure, they had to work a lot, but they all also had a chance to train as craftspeople and eventually even changed their family name after the new family.
* a relative term, naturally.
China, Korea, Afghanistan, you name it.
The real point is that those Argentinian neo-liberal whackos want to legalize the practice (as it was, in an extreme form, in the Roman empire). Denouncing a case of child-sale would be simply dismissed by any judge as not being a prosecutable offense.
That is distinct from a practice that may be widespread, but is formally illegal — and thus ultimately looked down upon and that can potentially lead to a prosecution.
I am wholly ignorant of the civil and penal laws of the aforementioned countries in their respective historical context, but at least nowadays, I do not know of any country where selling children, for whatever purpose, constitutes a legally valid transaction. That is why that Argentinian proposal is insane; we truly are witnessing Western civilization crumbling.
Given that the number of children being born is now below replacement rate in many countries, the children are not available to sell.
And I would say in the 50’s in the UK when they took away women’s children for being unmarried, was pretty much the same thing as some of the examples above.
But that someone in Milei’s government suggested this is not a surprise – he is an example of extreme libertarianusm or neo-liberalism.
Kouros, do you have a name for that historical drama? I’d like to watch it.
These are the kind of leaders that the USA establishment loves to support.
Due Dissidence guys talking about RFKjr, after reading the Vanity Fair article. utube, ~28+ minutes.
RFK Jr WON’T DENY Damning Allegations in New Vanity Fair Article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xz7dlg25Pg
re: Democrats fear years of work in rural America erased by debate
Um, what work in rural America are they talking about? Flying every 2-4 years to ask for money and then vanishing? They erased Howard Dean’s 50 State Project that helped elect O. They actively undermine good local Dem candidates in rural states that could win a governorship or House seat but aren’t part of and have different ideas from the main estab narrative group? Seriously. The Dem estab has done a pretty darn good job of destroying rural state Dem parties as anything other than a part of their money machine. imo. Pretty funny this Politico headline coming out after the big donors are threatening to stop donating unless B is replaced. imo.
One example: Bernie swept my red state’s 2016 Dem primary. Yuge turnouts. Eventually, Hill’s got the nomination. Then Bernie announced a speech and rally to raise money for the local state Dem party to help build and support local Dem candidates for office. Great idea. The rally raised a yuge amount of money – for this part of the country. And where did that money go? Why, it went back East to the Dem estab’s coffers and Hill’s campaign. A very small fraction of the money was left to the local state party to cover the costs of renting the hall and advertising for the rally. That’s the kind of work I’ve watched the Dem estab do for rural areas for the last 20 years.
I remember how the Democrat’s biggest own goal was back in 2016. Obama let the finances of the party go to rack and ruin under his watch so Hillary was able to go in and virtually buy the machinery of the party. What it meant was that all the money raised by the State Democrats had to be sent to Brooklyn where Hillary had her headquarters but trouble arose when those very same States found themselves starved of cash and Brooklyn refused to send back money so that they could finance State campaigns. This meant that those States went up against Trump’s machinery with nowhere enough money to counter him. The rest is history.
This is something thought about when talk of replacing Biden turns to the money Biden/Harris raised being non-transferable. I’m not a campaign finance expert but it seems like the Dems have form of shuffling money wherever they want and it’s all been Jake. Iirc, even money intended for Sanders ended up with Clinton, which was part of the Sanders donors lawsuit against the DNC. I feel money is a convenient, and dishonest, excuse.
When you think of all the basic laws of justice that have been bent, spindled and mutilated in order to try and get Trump just this year, I have full confidence that all those lawyers will be able to come up with some way to get that money away from Biden. They should just run it through some New York courts.
At this point, if nothing else, I’m at least enjoying the Dem estab star as Wile E. Coyote in this latest Road Runner cartoon. How could I not enjoy watching the “best and brightest and most credentialed ever ™” Dem estab keep stepping on the rake like Sideshow Bob – to mix cartoon characters – after listening to them lecture me for years that they know best? / ;)
Test balloon for wider Blame Biden campaign?
Someone has to be the fall guy for the ongoing futilities, so why not the senile embarrassment with zero future and gigantic liabilities? His family will be going down with that dinghy that pretended to be a ship.
Then comes the quick pivot to anywhere except at acknowledgement of anything that that can’t be blamed on the current regime, realistically or otherwise.
Not to mention, since Obama rural health care facilities have been snapped up and destroyed by private equity. There are increasingly areas with no critical care hospitals at all, or they’re barely functional and can’t make payroll. What a complete debacle. This ought to be unconscionable.
It is already unconscionable. What it ought to be is illegal. Anyone remember the concept of the Public Good?
I have T shirts, I made at home that say:
WTF
Happened to the
Common
Good?
most of my shirts are much blunter now… it all makes me want to weep…
“WTF Happened to the Common Good?”
Seems to have gone the way of the Commons.
It’s been many years since I had cataract surgery at my local rural hospital by my local eye surgeon. He was paid an absurd amount of money LESS than if it had been done at an urban hospital. The same for the hospital. I, of course with just Medicare, had to pay the same 20% that came to around $3000, So rural hospitals and physicians are being paid around 20% of what urban hospitals are being paid for the same procedures. I imagine this is a plan and not a bug to make what Jason observes happening to rural health care.
What it shows is that Urban hospitals charge 80% more than the procedures should really cost.
The CEOs of those Urban hospitals should be sold off for parts.
I like that Hamilton Nolan understands that early endorsements make no sense for organized labor but mostly I was surprised that a woman now leads the AFL-CIO and that that was news to me. I now know that Liz Schuler came up through the IBEW but not as an actual electrical worker. First she was an organizer, then lobbyist and finally a union officer. So far as I can tell, she is not and never has been an electrician.
Schuler may be a great union leader but her background screams anything but. Unions, like PMCs, have exactly zero record of successful generational leadership, in fact just the opposite. If you browse through a list of union leaders you will see very few Jr.s and no IIIs or IVs. Fresh blood made unions strong and this also used to be true of Democrats.
I swear the old AFL-CIO motto used to be, “If you meet your union president on the road, kill him/her/them.” I can’t help but think that American labor would benefit from a wholesale firing of its C-suite employees.
Here’s an old union president story. 1983, steelworkers union, local factory, contract talks ongoing. Meeting between president and management right after lunch. Lunch tables just outside of the office where current blowhard union president was telling all us workers how he was going in that office and tell them how it was going to be – like it or not – and we will win. Blah, blah, blah.
Management came over the loudspeaker; John XXXX please report to the office. Blah, blah, blah off he went. Then it got interesting. Of course he went into the meeting, but he didn’t tell how it was going to be – he gave them a tongue bath, and a dandy one at that – and we could all hear the entire thing.
They intentionally kept the speaker on so we could see what kind of a POS he was.
When he came out, he started with the BS again. Someone finally told him he better shut up. Why? They quoted one of the things he said, and told him they kept the mike on and we heard the whole thing.
He turned white as a sheet and walked out the door. I thought they were going to string him up, and there were people there that would have if someone suggested it.
We eventually did get an agreement, but the place closed a year later.
great story!
The AMFA airline union would allow union members to observe negotiations. At one point the observers got pissed that a union official was playing computer games on their laptop during negotiations.
On the other hand, it was interesting to read the International Association of Machinists contract notes handed down to AMFA as what the IAM told the membership (The Company Is Delaying Negotiations) was BS as the IAM wanted negotiations in resort locations.
This is becoming a norm. Trumka came initially into his union as a staff worker, not as a worker. Jimmy Hoffa Jr arrived in the Teamsters as an attorney, not as a truck driver. And there are more.
Randi Weingarten is a lawyer, not a teacher.
She had half a cup of coffee in the classroom, teaching part-time at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn while being groomed to take over from Sandra Feldman, who took over the AFT after Albert Shanker’s death. Smart lady, but a total fraud as a union leader: she spent her years in NYC selling off existing contractual protections in exchange for salary increases that still had city teachers earning less than in surrounding communities. She did nothing to stop the epidemic of public school closings and charter school encroachment under Michael Bloomberg.
The governing caucus in the UFT – one of, if not the largest, local unions in the country – Unity Caucus, has been in control of the union since its founding in 1960, runs the union as a one-party state (though it recently lost an important election) and is one of the last of the urban political machines.
what union member in their right mind would cast a vote for a nafta democrat? to imply labor must have a seat in the party of nafta, was the article supposed to be published in the onion or babylon bee, but got picked up by mistake and published as fact?
“nafta democrat”. That’s it. That’s really the essence of the creation of the uniparty. Thanks.
No frickin’ kidding. Not to mention clinton giving China “most favored nation status” and his support for its inclusion in the WTO.
After being shit on for decades, it’s not Labor’s responsibility to fix the democrat party. Democrats deliberately abandoned working people, not the other way around.
There are plenty of people who say that unions should just stick to their knitting, improving workplace conditions and pay, and get out of politics altogether. There are also plenty of people who say that one of the reasons unions have fallen out of favor is the use of dues to support politicians with whom members do not agree, and by whom they are taken for granted.
Union members are fully capable of deciding for themselves which candidate they’ll support with donations or a vote. They don’t need their overpaid and underdelivering mouthpieces, eager to keep their cushy seats at the elite table, pretending to speak for them, and using their own hard-earned money to do it.
Democrats, but for the brief McGovern interregnum, abandoned working people when they abandoned Henry Wallace and accepted the poisoned chalice of the British Empire.
The Tweet proposing a Harris/Cheney ticket is the kind of think I had to look hard at to determine if it was parody or not. I’m sure it’s honest and the twit who posted it isn’t the only one who thinks this is a great idea. Lord, this silly season is going to be epically silly.
both losers, literally… lol!
i am truly disappointed that my hillary/haley ticket has not been floated…yet…
Unity!
I had the same reaction. I thought it was a parody until I realized who the author was – one of Mueller’s chief Russiagate “investigators” among his many other Establishment positions.
Dick Cheney is arguably the worst war criminal of the 21st century. Nothing Trump has ever done can hold a candle to Cheney’s level of evil. To my knowledge his daughter has not repudiated any of his actions or ideas. Yet she can be held up as the very ideal of courage and integrity by delusional liberal Democrats. Remember when Robert Reich wrote this?
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/liz-cheney-for-president
I have an idea for all those Hollywood moguls and famous celebrities who are distraught about ol’ Joe’s chances. Let’s get behind that “unity” ticket of Harris-Cheney! Country over Party! C’mon everyone, this is about “our democracy” after all!
I’d *love* to see how such a dream ticket would do against Trump.
I can say with certainty that, were that to happen, I’d do anything to stop them, even if Trump were to come out that he is Satan himself. Better Satan than the Cabal.
I’ve floated that ticket to my TDS sisters, who all had ‘Black’ lovers (one was of Kamala?s persuasion). They still hold those memories dear. As loyal Dems, they still staunchly defend minority rights, even though the suitors themselves were unsuitability wealthy or college-educated.
Obama, however — They hang posters of him in their bedroom.
All three of them *love* the Kamala-Cheney ticket.
Parody and satire is being provided at a healthy, quickened pace thus far in 2024…the below article from the satirical site The Bee has the goods.
https://babylonbee.com/news/nancy-pelosi-says-we-must-re-elect-biden-to-see-if-hes-senile
Didn’t she actually say that, literally? I could swear that I’ve seen the clip on an actual alleged news site (eg sites like CNN, although I can’t remember where exactly.)
It is a reference to Pelosi talking about the PPACA: “We have to pass the bill, so that you can find out what is in it — away from the fog of the controversy.”
Details here:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/18/14957708/pelosi-pass-the-bill
“Experience” would have been clearer than “find out”, as the latter didn’t require passing it.
“Biden: Like the nation, I am indispensable too”
‘I believe in myself so I have already won!’ – anonymous headstone
Isn’t electiondwnial a felony now? (Granted, 2024 election hasn’t happened yet?). If the Dems stage their own Jan 6, in some form, in 2025, shouldn’t they be prosecuted for “insurrection” too?
The Observer [Sunday version of The Guardian]
Stunned silence, hugs and a very big kiss: at home with the Starmers on election night
“At 9.59pm, the countdown began. Starmer and his wife locked their bodies together. Vic’s left arm stretched around his shoulders to clasp his left hand, while he did the same to reach for her right. “As Big Ben strikes 10, the exit poll is predicting a Labour landslide,” intoned the BBC. “Keir Starmer will become prime minister with a majority of around 170 seats.”
The man they were talking about wrapped both his arms around his wife to share an extravagant kiss. Then he reached out for his 13-year-old daughter. They embraced for a moment but he jolted into a tighter, protective grip as he realised it was all becoming too much. I looked away and stared at the TV as it chattered on. The room suddenly felt hot and, not for the first time since I began writing Starmer’s biography two years ago, I knew this was intruding on something very personal.”
This long article is generous to put it very mildly. Despite my deep political distrust of the man, I do appreciate having a prime minister who has a seemingly healthy relationship with his kids.
Another view of Blighty prospects from Ted Dalrymple.
I enjoyed that reading Neutrino.
” …has a seemingly healthy relationship with his kids.” … And no one said nuttin’ about Starmer’s role in the Jimmy Savile scandal. / ;)
Well he never said that he had a healthy relationship with other people’s kids, particularly if they are poor.
“Terrified by Hamas red triangle, German House votes on banning symbol”
So what happens if Hamas adopts the symbol of two red triangles? One inverted and place over the top of the other. Will the German House vote to ban that symbol as well?
What if Hamas just changes the colour? Will the German parliament have to adjust the law — perhaps prohibiting triangles of any hue and tint?
It’d be awesome if they came up with some super complex geometry proof that defined what was ok and what was not.
Does this also mean that the flag of Réunion is now illegal?
This is quite the call back to the “good old days” of the Reich. Then, homosexuals had to wear a Pink Triangle, even on their Brownshirts.
Confusing the map for the territory here the German Parliament is.
Terrified by Hamas red triangle, German House votes on banning symbol
And yet, they support the tattooed Azovs.
I really can’t.
They support the tattooed Azovs, because Israel certified them as kosher.
ChatGPT and coding. Never trust an academic when it comes to coding, because those who can code will code and those who can’t will teach or tell people how to code. Leetcode problems generally can be solved with at most 100 lines of code, and they are never useful on their own. Most programmers nowadays don’t write code from scratch, rather they maintain and modify existing code bases which can run to millions of lines of code. I will tremble in my boots when ChatGPT can do the following:
1. List out all the functionalities contained within a code base. Can CodeGPT perform a self inspection of its own code base and enumerate the things it can and can not do?
2. List out all the bugs/hallucinations and perform the required fixes.
Am I asking too much? Not really, because that’s what most programmers do day to day i.e. they have to understand an existing code base, fix bugs, introduce new functionalities, configure environments on top of doing some system integration. Academics telling people about how to write code is no different from economists telling businessmen how the real world really works. Tools like ChatGPT can be useful, but only in the right hands, because I can definitely see how it can help a good developer’s productivity, but one of the reasons LLM was invented is because good developers are hard to find …………
TLDR The rich will get richer.
Oi! Some academics can code. 2 of my 3 years of my PhD involved me learning all the horrific mistakes you can make when learning to program in Fortran.
A colleague and I got to learn the hard way how not specifying the potential size/decimal places of an output variable could be catastrophic. Our teacher let us “learn the hard way” but ensured if we hadn’t learnt of our mistake he’d put us right.
Can’t produce a PhD based on terrible code. At least you couldn’t back in 2001 ;-)
You had it easy, In my day we didn’t use floating point, as integer maths was much faster, to do this the physical constants had to be scaled or combined depending on the situation. And we had no fortran libraries for fourier or complicated maths.
Depending on whether you were using Unix or VMS the binary representation of numbers was different.
I got moaned at to use meaningful variable names, but when I got a new compiler it gave loads of warnings – like shite1 is not a very nice variable name.
And I had to do all my work in a shoe box in middle of road – you youngsters don’t know your born.
I won’t claim my generation knew our stuff as well as those who went before.
My favourite anecdote concerns UK A Levels (the typically 3 subjects you take to determine whether you got accepted to your preferred university). In 1991 I was taking past papers to practice for the real thing. However, to practice for “further mathematics” we did “single/normal mathematics” past paers from pre 1981.
Thus a LOAD of the “single mathematics” (required to study for medicine etc) had been deemed “too difficult” and was in 1991 only part of “further mathematics” (taken by practically no medics). This is just one reason I’m humble but also think 99% of medical doctors treating me are incompetent. BTW “you’re” not your. Pedantry is fine unless you can’t even get it right.
And I know the typo. Before someone wants to seem “clever”
Sorry, it was meant to be humour, a mangled quote from a famous Monty Python sketch (The four Yorkshiremen)
I’ll have to remember to use /sarc,
Sorry i got snarky! Hopefully no damage done and we are on same page
That tbose who can’t motif applied to teachers is complete crap. I was a teacher (elementary) and I can tell you that many people cannot do this job.
It’s strange that all the people who like to use that quote would be useless teachers – and are usually bullshitters.
“SITREP 7/6/24: Narrative Builds that Putin Desperate to End Conflict – Is He Really?”
Near the end of this article it talks about how some of the troops plane to leave the Ukraine with their families when this war is finally over. We may see another wave of Ukrainians leaving that wrecked country to start a new life elsewhere then. The only question is whether by that point how many nations will open their doors to them. I would not be surprised to see the EU slam their doors shut and even try to get rid of the Ukrainian that have fled there. I suppose that future textbooks will refer to it as the Ukrainian Diaspora.
Traditionally the receiving country would be Canada. I’ve heard that there are already well established local support groups that are respected even on the parliamentary level.
You think that in 60 years time we will see an aged member of the Azov brigade stand up in the Canadian Parliament to loud applause?
21st century Argentina.
I foresee the Azovs turning the European branch of ISIS.
“BREAKING: U.S. ‘Indefinitely’ Postpones Noble Partner Exercise in Georgia”
So Georgia saves themselves a bundle by not hosting those exercises and can spend that money on their own army instead. Georgia got badly burned back in 2008 when NATO encouraged them to fight the Russians leading to the loss of two provinces and remain wary of them. Come to think of it, NATO held an exercise a few weeks before the war called Immediate Response 2008. There were mutterings at the time that the real purpose of these exercises was to get the Georgians ready to go to war.
They lost those provinces to rebellions in the 90s. What happened in 2008 is that they tried to reconquer them, with American encouragement and despite UN-mandated Russian peacekeepers standing in the way. It didn’t work out very well for them, though, no.
If I recall correctly, President Mikheil Saakashvili had this “cunning” idea to launch this invasion while the Olympics were being held in Beijing and Putin was going to be in China. Five days later he was diving onto the ground with his security people piled on to of him because a Russian aircraft flew overhead. You could see the wild-eyed fear in his eyes.
Rev Kev and Daniil Adamov:
Important summary of the Georgian 2008 attack on South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Thank you.
https://x.com/nickanderegg/status/1809763332636790833?s=46
It’s 16 tweets.
Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/16/7/1029
said an introductory tweet published on X for this study.
But a lot of the information points to this being preventative so I don’t know why the tweet focuses on treatment. Also, and reading the responses to the tweet some people said that antihistamines had been studied early in the pandemic and weren’t found to be useful. Well, we are dealing with a very different strain now, so maybe that’s why? 🤷🏼♂️
Anyway, it would be great if this subject were picked up by knowledgeable people here in the commentariat, if not today then hopefully in the coming week.
quercetin may lessen the risks of developing symptoms of c19
https://ajp.mums.ac.ir/article_22920.html
Don’t forget good ol’ Ivermectin, a mainstay at our house (cheap too).
The Spanish nursing home study from 2021: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7833340/#!po=34.9057.
“Biden Declares Checkmate on China in Pacific – Naval Experts Disagree” gCaptain
If they “checkmated” China, then why is Bloomberg doing a National Lampoon imitation with this article today?
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-07-07/a-european-army-could-stop-taiwan-and-china-s-world-war-iii-really-lybi4uqm?srnd=homepage-americas/
A European Army Could Save Taiwan. Really.
As China and Russia get more aggressive at sea, Taipei can no longer rely solely on the US to save it from conflict.
re: antihistamines v. COVID
I tried reading the study but my brain seized up a quarter of the way in. Can anyone comment on whether it’s a good idea to start taking antihistamines as a supplement vs. COVID? Thanks!
I second your comment, I tried to read it but my brain froze up and I also made a comment asking for edification from the commentariat but for now my comment is stuck in moderation
said the tweet, but a lot of the information in the underlying report points to this being preventative so I don’t know why the tweet focuses on treatment. Also, reading the responses to the tweet some people say that antihistamines had been studied early in the pandemic and weren’t found to be useful. Well, we are dealing with a very different strain now, so maybe that’s why?
The other tweet about the increase in chronic diseases in Spain following the pandemic is even harder to parse. He provides no source for his claim. I am trying to find news stories about increases in chronic diseases and this is what I’ve come up with so far, from the national institute of statistics in Peru:
Of course the whole purpose of the article is to encourage people to take the vaccine…. exercise and eat better
https://www.infobae.com/peru/2024/05/21/crisis-de-salud-en-peru-enfermedades-cronicas-aumentaron-y-ya-afecta-a-casi-la-mitad-de-la-poblacion-segun-inei/#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17203659132004&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infobae.com%2Fperu%2F2024%2F05%2F21%2Fcrisis-de-salud-en-peru-enfermedades-cronicas-aumentaron-y-ya-afecta-a-casi-la-mitad-de-la-poblacion-segun-inei%2F
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1pPLW
January 15, 2018
Life Expectancy at Birth for United States, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, 2017-2022
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1pPM2
January 15, 2018
Infant Mortality for United States, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, 2017-2022
And with all the laws passed about how much of certain antihistamines can be bought due to the battle with methamphetamine production….
Maybe they should study how well Covid spreads among meth heads?
It’s a decongestant drug, pseudoephedrine, that can be used to produce methamphetemine. It is often included in over-the-counter allergy and cold products that also include antihistamines, cough suppressants, pain relievers, etc.
I have hay fever and routinely take antihistamines in the spring and summer, and have done so for many years. I have gotten COVID a few times including at least once during the summer months. I doubt it is a panacea for avoiding the illness, but the side effects of antihistamines are very minimal if any, so you can give it a try. If you’re not already doing so, wearing a mask in public is probably a better idea.
For more than 40 years now i have been suffering pollen allergy (from early to late spring) plus mite allergy (more an autumn thing were I live) thought the first few years were the worst. I only take antihistamines when allergy reaches the point of noticeable interference with my activities, which is only about 1-2 weeks per year in late spring. So I spend about 1 pack/year at most.
Please no. Why so many are so willing to go brainless for the next miraculous product that saves you from any illness?
Go and read the summary of the paper cited there. The possible use of certain antihistamines is intended as a TREATMENT when you have already got infected. Do you really want to be having a treatment for ever solely because you believe it might be pre-emptive? Antihistamines have several side effects and who knows what more if you take them daily forever. Not that pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be glad if you do so.
Go and buy a few more masks please!
Thanks for your comment ignacio. It’s hard to understand because they talk about antihistamines preventing covid but then they refer to it as a treatment. I saw it as part of the Swiss cheese strategy. I open the windows when I go on the bus, I wear a mask, i use diluted iodine gargles, and I could do this during the times when a lot of people are coughing. I have to say that it’s very confusing for anyone who tries to read this study because they talk about prevention but then say it would be a good treatment. It would be nice if this was addressed
Indeed. 25 year career in patient preferences/medical statistics and I still daily encounter stories of the next “wonder drug”. That’s an oxymoron. People refuse to accept that there is practically not a single medication that has negligible risks.
I take a medication for the most awful lifelong insomnia that may well hasten dementia. Everyone else seems to believe in unicorns. Then get angry at me when I have the temerity to discuss end of life care, something I have peer reviewed publications on. FFS.
BTW I’ve had people threaten to beat me up in the street when wearing a mask. People round here generally aren’t very nice IMNSHO.
And people also seem disinclined to believe there is no cure for many diseases. Witness people trying all sorts of nonsnse to cure themselves.(btw I have an incurable cancer – luckily slow growing).
Death comes to us all.
So sorry to hear that but it is good that people talk about mortality.
Broadcasting all the good vibes I can.
GHB is better than any sleep med and is out of your system in four hours. You cannot not sleep once you figure out your dose. You start losing motor control. But due to this (and not trumped up date rape aid pretexts, any effective barbiturate will do that w/ alcohol), it has been made illegal pretty much everywhere. Unlike meth, I understand it is pretty easy to cook up…..
Thank you for the clarification. I do mask up, to be sure.
A possible preventative for airborn Covid virus is coating your nasal passage (inner nose) with Neopsporin. It contains Neomycin and engenders an immune response in some people that helps to prevent the virus getting to your lungs.
“Go and buy a few more masks please!”
Of course.
Loratadine was one of the studied drugs.
However, this was identifying an “alternative” receptor, not the main receptor, so…
Has there been no massive study of novids to see what we have n common?
Loratadine has PLENTY of data to evaluate it.
Personally, based on personal use and feedback from clinicians, I don’t worry about it….. But it should definitely be watched on ongoing basis to look for any new things.
What is more interesting to people like me is that when a UK surgeon has to perform a septoplasty (s)he will typically ask the patient if they want their turbinates lasered. This is not done unless the surgeon is already doing something up there cause it has poor success rate. It actually worked for me: no more continual rhinitis.
However my rhinitis mysteriously reappeared in first half of 2020. I wonder what could have caused that? /sarc
The antihistamine in the study is an anticholinergic drug like benadryl, and there is a fair bit of evidence that chronic use of anticholinergics is bad for the brain. They can be literal lifesavers, but not good candidates for supplements.
(NB I am not an MD, this is not medical advice)
I always hated taking Benadryl as it makes you sleepy. I avoided it, nowadays there are much better choices that don’t make you drowsy and it was supposedly a possible cause of Alzheimer’s.
Thanks for your warning. I think I read something to that effect years ago when I had to take anti-rhinitis meds every day. It all fits with my views elsewhere in this thread that there’s no free lunch.
My levels of anger have gone beyond argument stage and I now just say “ok” to family and friends who repeat pharma initiated nonsense. I’m done with arguments. Not good for my blood pressure.
Wildlife Protections Take a Back Seat to SpaceX’s Ambitions
Yep, wealthy person does whatever he wants; gets away with it. What else is new?
This guy should be in jail.
(bold mine)
Absolutely in jail.
Thanks Obama, for ushering in an era of elite lawlessness on such a scale!
If say by Bastille Day, Kamala is President, it would be les Cent-Jours…
What would her policy be towards the wars in Ukraine & Israel, and just how owned is she by the latter?
Well, looking at Kamala’s history it seems that she is always been an empty suit. And let’s remember that it was the donors that positioned her as the vice president, being well aware of the possibilities of our current situation.
I’m sure she is someone easily controlled and influenced, but I think she would still lose to Trump. The donors who put her in position were likely only thinking about the fact that she was a woman and not white. She’s the Democratic party’s version of Sarah Palin.
With Kamala, the Devi is always in the details…
‘She’s the Devi in disguise.’
With apologies to Elvis the King.
“Better the Devi you know than the one you do not.”
Well not exactly empty. She wiggles A TON when speaking…which even in a suit, leads one to pay attention to taken notice of something than her face. One you see this effect, it is hard to unsee.
If, after 3 infections you have a 38% chance of Long Covid and the average American Schoolchild catches Covid 2-3 times a year where are the workers going to come from in a decade? Two decades?.
And how soon will we hear “Bring out your dead” on a daily basis along with warnings to avoid the smoke from the burn pits?
That is what’s coming and if Bird ‘Flu is still nasty when it fully jumps to Humans it could be less than a year away.
Who said the plan is to have as many live-to-adulthood workers in the future?
A senator from Javier Milei’s party proposes legalising the sale of children by families whose resources are overstretched https://t.co/M0SusiLlR7
— David Broder (@broderly) July 6, 2024
I’m guessing that we will soon see a significant and progressive downward anomaly in the scores distributions of standardized tests, and the “return to normal” classroom practices will make it difficult to blame this on the protective measures adopted in 2020 but subsequently abandoned. Perhaps there will be “natural experiments” in which comparisons can be made between schools with and without better approaches to indoor air quality.
Unless these things stop being measured, or are deliberately ignored (and I suppose, given the background of the current political crisis, that intentional ignorance or obfuscation of concerning data is conceivable), I think that there will be growing awareness of the damage that is being suffered by the young. Whether this awareness will lead to better practices and protective measures remains to be seen. If nothing is done, it will IMO be a plausible inference that mass disablement was a conscious policy choice.
There is a significant decline in test scores in US from 2020 to 2023
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2023/
The time resolution of this series is very low, but one imagines that if this does not stabilize but instead gets progressively worse in future years, someone will start to wonder “why?”
Will H5N1 be a deadly virus for people? Not in the past year as I understand it.
Is the panic to do more with getting everyone so scared they will will be stampeded into having a H5N1 vaccination? Idk, but am entertaining this possibility.
The swine flu springs to mind.
On Record-setting heat will continue to torment millions of Americans this weekend
So I’ve been fearing this since 2004, when I knew we’d all burn alive. Sort of like that scene in Millennium where the guy burns alive in the microwave oven; but anyway. I’m not the only one curious:
A physiological approach for assessing human survivability and liveability to heat in a changing climate
This requires a detailed, slow read to even begin to follow, though. The final summary is a useful take away though:
And it’s hard not to consider what’s going to happen to infrastructure; a power failure will quickly make a heatwave that’s survivable by most and drop everyone in the 19th century. Good luck with that. I guess when this happens, it’ll be a mass heat death event; after a few of these, what kind of population migration might we expect to see?
I always find these papers that propose “By end-of-century” X Y or Z will happen to be way too optimistic. By the end of his century life on most of the planet will be nearly impossible.
RE: Yoh Kenyans, watch Prof. @gchelwa unpack the Kenyan protests on Bad Faith with @briebriejoy #RejectFinanceBill2024 #RutoMustGo.
That interview embedded in the link is a must IMO. Thank you for that link. I know, i know it is painful to watch how financial colonialism and the “rules based order” works but IT IS A MUST.
[ Kenya: I know, i know it is painful to watch how financial colonialism and the “rules based order” works but IT IS A MUST. ]
Ignacio is correct.
The New York Times however is markedly wrong and there has been no correction. Kenya has been growing markedly slower than countries all over Africa, especially slower than immediate neighbors Ethiopia and Tanzania. Why the relatively slow Kenyan growth, is the question.
Importantly incorrect, never corrected: “Kenya, the fastest growing economy in Africa”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/business/kenya-tax-protests-debt.html
June 26, 2024
Behind the Deadly Unrest in Kenya, a Staggering and Painful National Debt
Kenya, the fastest growing economy in Africa, is on the brink of a fiscal calamity. Across Africa, nations are spending more on interest than on health or education.
By Patricia Cohen and Keith Bradsher
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1bAoy
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and China, 1992-2022
(Indexed to 1992)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1bAou
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and China, 1992-2022
(Percent change)
Kamala and Liz? Why settle for less? Kamala and Hillary is just so obvious. Only question is, who’s on first? Rock, scissors… or, maybe Hillary has a coin?
Imo dems need a new team to have any chance. And they should focus on the rust belt… if it’s tight it’ll pivot around that part of the country. Pritzker is popular and can fund a run, then replace Kamala with Gwen Moore (ways and means) to mollify the black vote. Both are probably about as progressive as dems get these days.
You might note the exclusion of Governor Good Hair, who always bets on scissors to come through, in game of life.
There’s no there-there, kinda like Oakland & Kamala, thus kismet.
Now that I think about it I doubt that the “black vote” majority really likes Kamala the person. They just don’t want to see a black woman pushed aside for a white man or a white woman or a black man. What a ridiculous way to choose your country’s leadership!!
> What a ridiculous way to choose your country’s leadership!!
When one considers that we’re actually by these means choosing our misleadership, it doesn’t seem quite so ridiculous.
When it doesn’t matter who the leadership is, because they just have to take orders, then may as well go for the PR option.
And someone who has a lot of skeletons in the closet to make them pliable.
If Kamala tops the ticket I may register and vote for her, for comic relief. My schadenfreude won’t last forever.
The food taster full employment ticket.
Are there still people around who haven’t lost their sense of taste?
British airport consultancy Skytrax releases an annual ranking of global airports; in the 2024 edition, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (#24) is the only American representative in the top-25.
How Its Airports Underscore America’s Decline Hungarian Conservative
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We pretend everything still works-they pretend to pay attention to us.
While I should be more grateful for the convenience of direct flights pretty much anywhere in the East, Atlanta’s airport definitely has gone into decline as it has changed its primary mission from serving the flying public to being a giant money-laundering and shake-down operation.
Home of the $14 bag of nuts, and homeless sleeping in the Atrium. And always under construction, no doubt providing lots of kickbacks and walkin’ around money for local politicians and their friends and fam.
Every couple of years the Georgia State government suggests taking over Atlanta’s cash cow, which causes the City of Atlanta government to pitch a hissy fit. Great entertainment. Maybe grifter fights are better than bum fights.
There’s a joke that when you die, no matter if you are going to Heaven or Hell, your soul will still have to transit Atlanta airport.
{26 hours 47 minutes 23 seconds}
Our President which art in DC, Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom comes thy Kingdom goes
Pack thy bags
The Party giveth and the Party taketh away.
Blessed be the Name of the Party.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/second-gentleman-doug-emhoff-tests-positive-for-covid/
Politics
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff tests positive for COVID
How can he be asymptomatic if he is “experiencing mild symptoms”?
The study i linked to today showed that even asymptomatic infection leads to T cell exhaustion. Not good. Included pre Pandemic controls.
I guess he experienced mild symptoms on Saturday, but is currently (on Sunday) asymptomatic.
I’m continually amazed at the viciousness of the COVID safe question replies by nurses on Dating App. Today I was mocked that I must think she licks poles and a remote worker can’t know anything, she works in the hospital. Really bizarre. Not even educational or kind, just demeaning. Replies are optional as well, 99% just ignore.
Another non healthcare woman said she had had long COVID. I suggested nasal sprays and mouth wash to avoid future infection. She seemed puzzled what I’m doing with my life hiding.
This is gonna be a long Pandemic.
I’m sorry for your experiences, Jason. I don’t know if it helps to consider that you are probably hearing from women who have had Covid multiple times and have lost whatever executive function they had.
I keep thinking about toxoplasmosis and mice…
parapraxis “magazine” is a scam non-profit that runs out of a $2.2 million house in california. so much for being organized by communists. disappointed to see this kind of shill publication on NC. one look at any of their articles shows nothing but pseudo intellectual bullshit. there are far better sources for the serotonin debate.
Thanks for the comment. As you know, we post from a wide range of sources. If there are problems with the Parapraxis story, please point them out. Just because it’s a small non-profit doesn’t necessarily discredit its writings. You’re also welcome to provide other links you think better deal with the topic – either here in comments or you can email them to us to include in future links. We’re always looking for better sources!
French exit polls just now from the Guardian:
6m ago16.50 EDT
The latest Ipsos projections:
Left-green New Popular Front: 177-192 seats
Macron’s allies: 152-158 seats
Far right National Rally and allies: 138-145 seats
Mélenchon is both pro-Palestine & pro-Russia. A really bad outcome for US & co.
Consortium News
DIANA JOHNSTONE: Genocide Meets French Devotion to Israel February 11, 2024
snip
I said at the time, good for Mélenchon.
And bad for “markets” as it means roll back those pension reforms, mon Dieu!
Give to the people what they want!
Run-off elections were never a good idea, they allow too much opportunity for political chicanery during an election. This is just an extreme instance.
It was the standard second round.
EuroNews
‘New Popular Front is ready to govern,’ says victorious Mélenchon
snip
The Guardian analysis:
France’s progressives keep out the far right, but what could happen next?
They have upped their estimate for the NFP to 170 to 215 MPs in the 577-seat assembly.
The Guatdian is a neo-liberal.newspaper, and most of what they write about political issues is opposed to any kind of politics that would actually help the poor and working people.
It is the UK’s equivalent of the NY Times in.many respects (although not as bad).
They aren’t going to support the French Left alliance. They are totally behind Starmer (a neo-liberal Conservative politician).
Agreed, not the paper of yore, it was the only one I found at the time.
Macron must be disappointed – I’m pretty sure he secretly wanted RN to win so that he could abdicate responsibility – now he’s still carrying the can while facing an even more troublesome Mélenchon. It would have been so easy to blame RN when French economy goes tits up.
Contrary to general opinion – RN have ended up with the ideal outcome even if they don’t openly admit it. It sets Le Pen up for winning the next presidential election – which is worth more than winning government.
And in the meantime they get to make Macron’s life hell in the Parliament.
Biggest Mistakes When Baking Macrons
Substituting Centre-Right flour with another flour.
Forgetting to sift the candidates together.
Picking the wrong Socialist to add to your batter.
Using whites from la classe ouvrière.
Adding too much personne de couleur.
Over-mixing the electoral batter.
Clever that. But wait – are you saying that Macron is half-baked then?
Touché… err… maybe done for too?… :-)
Stuffed like a turkey?
His stuffing is on the outside…
And he is a turkey.
Ah, that Traditional dish, ‘Turquie en Sarcophage.’
Who’s up for rewatching that curious film, “Marine’s Feast?”
Remember that Philadelphia radio station interview with Biden?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/us/politics/biden-interview-radio-host-resigns.html/
Radio Host Who Was Fed Questions by Biden Campaign Leaves Philadelphia Station
WURD said that the interview with President Biden was not up to its standards and that the host, Andrea Lawful-Sanders, had resigned in a mutual decision.
“…WURD said in a statement on Sunday that “agreeing to a predetermined set of questions jeopardizes” its listeners’ trust. The host, Andrea Lawful-Sanders, resigned in a mutual agreement, according to WURD…”
Then the end:
Earl Ingram, the host of “The Earl Ingram Show,” which broadcasts on WAUK in Waukesha, Wis., also interviewed the president last week and told The Associated Press that he had received a list of prepared questions. The queries and responses in the two interviews are remarkably similar.
The Biden campaign said it would not suggest questions for future interviews.
I have a follow-up to last weekend’s post “Survey Trolls, Opt-In Polls, and the New Era of Survey Science” . . . I saw a link yesterday (it may have posted a day or two earlier) from the poll I cite most — the Gallup “Party Affiliation” poll:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/Party-Affiliation.aspx
Roughly every month for two decades now, Gallup has been asking if respondents consider themselves Democrats, Republicans, or independent. Most often, and continually for the past ten years and longer, more people have described themselves as neither Rs nor Ds than as either one. But the main reason I bring this poll to the attention of the Commentariat now is that, for the first time ever (AFAICS), the “independent” tally is over 50%.
I think if this fact comes to the attention of more people, it might just snowball further — and get the “double-haters” recognized instead under a more positive label. (I haven’t got a good candidate for that new nickname yet; “people-deserve-betters” covers a fair amount of the meaning, but hardly flows neatly off the tongue. Suggestions welcomed.)
And, as Yves would rightly point out, this Gallup poll does have a pushback-polling follow-up question — asked only of “independents”, of course — and equally of course, it’s not “Which other party do you support?” Rather, it’s: “As of today, do you lean more to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party?” And then Gallup melts the poll-pushed into the pot of the usual poll-payers.
IMO, it would be helpful if Gallup tried asking a flip-side follow-up for those who answer the first question by saying they’re dedicated Democrats or righteous Republicans . . . something like this: “If you knew your one vote would swing the decision to your preferred party or candidate, which party would you vote for then?” It would be interesting, and informative, to find out how many would admit to leaning toward alternatives if they believed it would make a difference. . . .
Finally watched the five-minute video version of how Allan Lichtman’s checklist favors keeping Biden on the ticket.
Just wow. I’m always in awe of analytics guys who can’t see past their stats to notice that we’ve gone from “interesting” to “history making” times. I wonder if Ukraine surrendering to Russia is on his checklist, or if genocide in Gaza was already factored in. Does Lichtman’s list apply if Joe [family blog]s his pants on national TV?
I really had a good rant worked up and then I noticed I was spending a lot of time getting worked up about whether a stupid list was predictive of this election. Instead of focusing on the fall of Ukraine or the continuing genocide in Gaza I was getting pisßy about horserace politics.
Nice try El Blobbo but I’m going back to doomscrolling your wars now. Some credit due, they did trick me into keeping my eyes on their lies for half an hour so I guess that’s a partial win for the disinformationists.
Another electoral earthquake coming – this time Japan. Kisha’s days as Prime Minister rapidly coming to an end.
@RinNishimura: “Mainichi with an exclusive over the weekend that the LDP presidential election may be held on September 20, the earliest day possible under the LDP Charter, which says Diet member voting must take place within 10 days of term end (September 30).”
https://x.com/RinNishimura/status/1810133124422262906
Beryl is coming! Hang on everyone:. Sal gives an update on how the ports and ships are getting ready:
Beryl Clears Texas Shipping | Ports of Corpus Christi and Houston Close | Ships Evade the Storm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpRRqc94OZ0
Let’s hope the wind and flooding are minimal.