On patrol with Thailand’s ‘Anti-Monkey Unit’ battling to keep primates at bay in Lopburi ABC Australia (Kevin W)
What explains the variations in sexual sensation between us? aeon (Chuck L)
What becomes of the broken-hearted? Scientists investigate New Scientist (Micael T)
Smashing idea: how East Germany invented ‘unbreakable’ drinking glasses Guardian (Kevin W)
World’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas Reuters (Kevin W)
Bite-sized Threats of Ticks Your Local Epidemiologist (Dr. Kevin)
#COVID-19
BREAKING! Parts of China witnessing a COVID-19 resurgence driven by a new recombinant Delta and Omicron variant. XDV.1 Thailand Medical News (IM Doc)
Climate/Environment
Zhidan County in Shaanxi, China, has been hit by flash flooding. Heavy rain, which broke historical records with up to 179.1 mm of rainfall, occurred from the evening of August 8 to the morning of August 9 👀pic.twitter.com/XHCglntuM3
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) August 9, 2024
‘Cruisezilla’ passenger ships have doubled in size since 2000, environmental group warns CNN (Kevin W)
The new EU initiative to Solve Plastic Waste is stupid, will do nothing, may be counter-productive and loads of people think it’s totally cool anyway eugyppius (Micael T)
Avocado goldrush links US companies with Mexico’s deforestation disaster Reuters (Robin K)
In 2023 the world’s forests stopped acting as a carbon sink REDD Monitor (Micael T)
China?
This is a good read by a former GM executive, analysing the extraordinarily fast rise of China's domestic car makers and the resulting drop in the sales of foreign car brands: https://t.co/ltSqhu2xqo
The key driver was of course the rise of EVs: "The EV share of total car sales…
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) August 7, 2024
Numerous airlines are once again canceling flights to China The Street
TSMC Arizona struggles to overcome vast differences between Taiwanese and US work culture Tom’s Hardware. Micael T: “So all this American Talwan vs. China nonsense iis really about importing new management practices to the US?” Moi: Some of you may remember that Toyota went into a joint venture with GM to take over GM’s worst plant, which feature regular absenteeism and drunkenness in its workforce, and of course high defect rates. Toyota got the plant performance to above average for Toyota plants, which was much higher than GM levels.
Bangladesh
Regime change in Dhaka a morality play M.K. Bhadrakumar, Deccan Herald (Chuck L)
Bangladesh as color revolution on India’s doorstep Asia Times (Kevin W)
Gaza
‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 307: At least 56 Palestinians killed across Gaza as Israel bombs two more schools in latest massacres Mondoweiss (guurst)
🚨While the world reads the news as mere headlines, many fail to grasp the full impact of Israeli war, including hunger, displacement, poverty, disease, and fear faced by these children in #Gaza ! pic.twitter.com/aZF6hcByAG
— Nour Naim| نُور (@NourNaim88) August 9, 2024
Besides the military support, the co-management of the “humanitarian” conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Gaza Palestinians as a group. Gaza has been starved and left without the necessary medical aid (leading to excess deaths) for 10 months. https://t.co/FS5qt8CvGR
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) August 8, 2024
State-funded Chief Rabbis of Tampa Florida's sister city Ashdod (Israel's 6th-largest city, pop. 225,000) rule that females above the age of 9 may not ride scooters and their voices may not be heard when they ride city buses, where they are already forced to sit in the back seats https://t.co/Z700qMof8H
— David Sheen (@davidsheen) August 8, 2024
Alaskan F-22 Fighters Forward Deployed to Support Israel Against Iran: Qatari Airbase Plays Host Military Watch
Cost rising for US as it fights off Houthi drones Politico
Airlines suspend flights as Middle East tensions rise Reuters
US accuses Israeli far-right minister of ‘misleading’ Gaza ceasefire comments Financial Times. ZOMG, the US thinks sending the zero credibility yapping dog spokescritter John Kirby against Smotrich, or any Israel official, is going to make an iota of difference? In fact, it will be correctly recognized as yet another admission of weakness.
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine SitRep: Kursk Campaign Designed To Keep War Going Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). Alexander Mercouris has an interesting theory as to why the Russias were caught flat-footed. He assumes that Russia did see forces massing in Sumy region, but assumed they were for defensive purposes, that no one would be so dumb as to throw some of their best remaining units into (at best) a Hail Mary pass.
While the AFU's Kursk raid does not look like a major operational or strategic threat, it's still a bad, bad sign of things to come. One of the most gruesome scenarios would be if the Ukrainians have accepted and internalized that the frontline is fucked for them, and decide to… https://t.co/DsQ1KUCqP2
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) August 8, 2024
Ukraine to unleash robot dogs on its front lines Agence France-Presse (Li)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Comment from the TSA on Tulsi Gabbard and the “Quiet Skies” Program Matt Taibbi
Russia’s Biometric Boom Faces Rising Data Security Fears Reclaim the Net. Micael T: “It seems as if Russia too is aboard on the WEF dystopia.”
10 years after Michael Brown’s death, police body camera effectiveness still elusive Axios
DHS Prioritizes Investigating FAM Whistleblowers Over Quiet Skies Surveillance Abuses UncoverDC (furzy)
Trump
The Post-liberal Catholics Find Their Man in J. D. Vance Atlantic (furzy)
Trump calls Tim Walz ‘freakish,’ stepping up attacks on Dem ticket Politico. Trump still of his marks.
Kamala
Kamala was too nervous to go to dinner and needed training.
This is a woman in her late 50s.
Amazing.
She couldn’t handle a dinner party. No wonder they won’t let her do interviews.https://t.co/xoRsyrH3Y7 pic.twitter.com/reB7wrAaKq
— Coddled affluent professional (@feelsdesperate) August 8, 2024
‘Uncommitted’ leaders demand Harris back Israel weapons embargo to get endorsement Detroit News (ma)
From Aaron Bushnell To “I’m Speaking” In Five Months Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)
Our No Longer Free Press
More on Scott Ritter, Ukraine and Israel and My Conversation with an Iranian Professor Larry Johnson (furzy). Linked for the discussion of Ritter but the other parts have merit too.
20 months in prison for a Facebook post is insane. The UK has fallen. pic.twitter.com/duT8y8oVQn
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 9, 2024
Mr. Market Has a Sad
Global financial markets settle into ‘yo-yo pattern’ after Monday’s meltdown City A.M.
US consumer spending slowdown weighs on travel and leisure groups Financial Times
Do the math. Recession risks add up. Washington Post
Another recession signal: Credit card spending is slowing significantly. FXStreet
Abortion
Judge to rule whether Alabama can prosecute people who aid out-of-state abortions The Hill
Antitrust
The Google antitrust remedy should extinguish surveillance, not democratize it Pluralistic (Chuck L)
Elon Musk’s X sues advertisers over alleged ‘massive advertiser boycott’ after Twitter takeover ABC (furzy). f they colluded, which having a brand named org coordinating suggests, it’s a restraint of trade and Musk, despite his warts, would have a case
Advertisers axe corporate responsibility scheme after lawsuit from Musk’s X Guardian (furzy). A guilty look. A more pointed account X and Rumble’s Lawsuit Topples Alleged Censorship Cartel Reclaim the Net (Micael T)
AI
Google DeepMind develops a ‘solidly amateur’ table tennis robot TechCrunch (Dr. Kevin)
The Bezzle
How Intel, the weak link in the chip strategy of Bidenomics, is resorting to financial engineering to raise billions for fabs. Adam Tooze (Paul R)
Apple’s new charging cords have ruined my life. Welcome to Charging Cord Hell. Business Insider (Kevin W)
USPS Text Scammers Duped His Wife, So He Hacked Their Operation Wired
ATM Software Flaws Left Piles of Cash for Anyone Who Knew to Look Wired (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
State Behemoths Are Devouring the Global Economy Bloomberg
Germany could partially nationalize key weapons maker – media RT (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour. Tracie H:
The owner of this exceedingly mild mannered little ladies’ man that my husband and I encountered at a local coffee shop was telling us how everywhere they go the little fellow is adored by all the waitresses and baristas.
And a bonus (Chuck L):
This made my day! pic.twitter.com/uhY4CQhmar
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 7, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘David Sheen
@davidsheen
State-funded Chief Rabbis of Tampa Florida’s sister city Ashdod (Israel’s 6th-largest city, pop. 225,000) rule that females above the age of 9 may not ride scooters and their voices may not be heard when they ride city buses, where they are already forced to sit in the back seats’
When those little girls start studying black American history studies, I am sure that they will recognize some parts. In Israel itslef, the ultra-orthodox believes that a woman’s place is in the home – and nowhere else. One of the way that this manifests itself is where they will digitally remove females from photos taken and hilarity ensued when visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had her photo taken with the Israeli Cabinet but when it was published in some newspapers, there was no Hillary to be seen. If only real life was so easy.
What makes you think those little girls will ever receive an education in a world they live in?
Hmmmm. Good point. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
20 months in prison for a Facebook post is insane. The UK has fallen. pic.twitter.com/duT8y8oVQn
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 9, 2024
https://postimg.cc/5XLzS1jP
https://babalublog.com/2024/05/26/george-orwell-reads-2024/
That’s how you do it. You take some poor sucker, throw the book at him with a maximum sentence, and then make everybody else scared to retweet or forward a post so that they keep on having to second guess themselves. And of course all the big social media corporations will do all they can to ID any wrongdoer and any associated accounts to turn over to the Starmer government to keep in his good books.
To the gulag!
20 months in an insane asylum under the 1983 Mental Health Act for posting anything to Facebook.
There, fixed it ;)
Facebook? Don’t forget to poke your grandma!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaHb8IG06jY (1:18 mins)
That episode is so hilarious. Ahead of their time quite likely!
One theme from Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage was music being made illegal in order to make everyone eligible for selective prosecution.
Re: Tick-borne diseases
It should be noted that, per the underlying study of deer tick distribution, the white counties in the range map do not indicate the absence of ticks — they merely indicate the absence of data.
My father likely contracted Lyme disease as a young man in the CCC’s in a “white” Wisconsin county in the 1930s. His “arthritis” plagued him from his early fifties.
2024 election campaigns, first TV advertisement for the Harris/Walz ticket. Not a horrible ad, quickly to the points about “lowering health care costs” or “affordable housing” and “Trump just wants to cut taxes for billionaires”…
No personal anecdotes, no hint of pandering. I thought well done. First hints I’ve seen yet on policy ( okay the substance will eventually follow ).
First hints I’ve seen yet on policy ( okay the substance will eventually follow ).
The “substance” has never followed before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
I suppose we could always try holding someone’s Louboutins to the fire…
Democracy Lite! 100% policy free!
“TSMC Arizona struggles to overcome vast differences between Taiwanese and US work culture”
I’ve begun to wonder about this ongoing story and am thinking that perhaps that there is more to it than you might think. Is it really in TSMC’s interests to have a successful plant up and running in the US? For a start, I myself believe that TSMC was forced by the US to open up a plant in the US and did not really want to do so. So consider this. US officials have already promised to bomb TSCM’s facilities in Taiwan if it looks like China will take it over. That US plant then may be a way for the US to ensure that they have their own supply of chips for themselves and will be free to bomb those facilities in Taiwan when the need arises. TSCM may not want their facilities to be bombed for some reason so they may be slow-walking that Arizona plant through the use of ‘cultural issues’ until they can create an escape route. Maybe by creating a generation of chips that the plant in the US can’t make so make themselves too valuable to bomb.
If you read the comments for that article, someone made an observation that Samsung has not been experiencing these issues even though there’s plenty of cultural differences between South Korea and the US. The work culture in Korea, where the economy is dominated by a few chaebols is not really different from the typical East Asian work culture i.e. work till you drop.
Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC was always against the idea of expanding to the US, so I wonder if there’s another story behind this story.
In my experience, well run multinational companies are pretty good at adapting their work culture in different countries. They usually learn the hard way that if you try to push an inappropriate work culture on a branch, you end up losing lots of money.
I once worked for a company based in London that was a partnership of several engineering companies – one US, one British, one Anglo-Danish, one French. The difference in work culture was startling. The US company struggled hard to recruit in the UK until they adopted (for one thing, no European engineer will accept 14 days leave a year, it not even legal). They also had to loosen their very strict alcohol rules for the World Cup – no self respecting English engineer was going to stay out of the lunchtime pub when a big match was on. The French did entirely their own thing – starting very early in the morning, do a few hours of intense, focused work (they would refuse point blank to attend any morning meetings), then have a long, leisurely and alcohol rich lunch with a gentle wind down, which would include snoozing through meetings. To general surprise, the French company proved by far the most efficient. In my personal experience, French workers are by far the hardest working and most productive per hour in the world, they just do it for fewer hours than anyone else.
I know a few Japanese, Chinese and Korean people here who work in branch offices of Asian banks in Europe. Without exception they adopt a European work culture (they have little choice if they want to recruit), and this is generally very popular with relocated Asian staff, to the extent that some refuse to return. A Japanese financial analyst I know refused a promotion because it would mean dealing more with Japanese clients. When later having to return to Asia for family reasons she got a transfer to Singapore, as the place with the most ‘European’ culture in Asia.
Hannibal Doctrine meet Systemicaly Important
Recession signals… consumer spending is a topic du jour no doubt. Certain comments from CNBC this week rely heavily on the tried and true “resilient American consumers” but I’m sensing a weariness on this front. Upon signing a new rental lease that takes hold middle October, I was pleased that base rent expense went up roughly 1.5% or so. But you gotta mind the add on fees, and layer everything together. Ho hum it’s the nature of this beast.
Elsewhere I do see trends this week from US streaming media behemoths that are going to seriously struggle or have already been on that struggle bus, seated beside an Intel, by example. Warner Bros Discovery took a massive write down in their quarter, and losing the media rights in the next NBA agreement is going to leave a big hole in programming. Paramount is laying off more people but that’s in some level of turnaround mode, with a potential ownership change on the table.
Some added detail on Warner Bros Discovery.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/08/warner-bros-discovery-ceo-david-zaslav-to-deliver-value-for-shareholders.html
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ubers-second-quarter-revenue-beats-ride-sharing-demand-2024-08-06/
“While there have been some concerns about consumer spend on restaurants and delivery, we are not seeing any impact today,” Khosrowshahi said, adding that a greater push on groceries through expanded partnerships with Instacart (CART.O), opens new tab and Costco Wholesale (COST.O), opens new tab was boosting deliveries.”
When people can afford to take expensive taxis and order overpriced deliveries, the economy has to be doing quite well. Consumers are ride hailing through the “recession”.
The author of that piece should try “ride hailing” in flyover country.
I’m not so sure about his viewpoint. If those people have been totally priced out of the possibility of buying a home or even starting a family, then you would expect to see loose money going to ‘expensive taxis and order overpriced deliveries’ and maybe even travel. If this is the case, then the outlook of such an American economy would not be good or even healthy long term.
What masochist is still paying good money to take Delta to China?!
Re: U.S. Approves Massive Arms Sales to Israel, Waives Leahy Sanctions Against Abusive Israeli Military Unit Amid Ongoing Atrocities
No mention of Harris in this article.
Safe to assume she approves of this, approves of carrying moar water for the Empire, though she will lie about it to try and get votes.
Same old same old.