A couple had an owl be the ringbearer at their wedding — It flew away New York Post
What plant philosophy says about plant agency and intelligence aeon (Dr. Kevin)
The Passing of the Age: The Battle of Lepanto Big Serge. Big Serge is always a great read.
John Lee Clark is pioneering an emerging language — and culture MPR (Chuck L)
Midlife Blood Biomarkers Predict Late-Life Dementia MedPage
Bird flu cases are going undetected, new study suggests. It’s a problem for all of us. CNN. Paul R: “They are getting sick from it without being diagnosed with it. So there is limited visibility.”
US Prepares For Bird Flu Pandemic With $176 Million Moderna Vaccine Deal ars technica
#COVID-19
People who had severe covid-19 show cognitive decline years later New Scientist. Paul R: “An analysis of people who were hospitalised with covid-19 in the first wave of the pandemic has revealed that the ongoing decline in their cognitive abilities is the equivalent to losing 10 IQ points”
Climate/Environment
🚨In the 24 years that have elapsed since the year 2000 we humans have dug, drilled and blasted more minerals/metals/fuels from the earth's surface than we did in the ENTIRE 20th century. Way more.
🧨This is our story – like it or not.
🪨We are living in a Material World🪨 pic.twitter.com/4p9G7SgevO— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) August 1, 2024
Hillary Clinton-run group helps fund Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion Telegraph
Maui Wildfire Plaintiffs Reach $4 Billion Settlement as Anniversary Nears New York Times (Kevin W)
China?
China Continues To Crush In Science & Intel Falters In Chips Ian Welsh (Micael T)
China central bank adviser calls for greater stimulus, inflation goal Reuters
US to tighten China chip squeeze with old Cold War rule Asia Times (Kevin W)
Supply Chain
CO2 shortages: How did we get here? Gas World
Hospitals face shortage of bottles for blood cultures, and it’s a big problem Chief Healthcare Executive
Africa
Famine officially declared in Sudan Telegraph
European Disunion
EU snubs Hungary and Slovakia over Ukraine oil sanctions Politico
Scholz cuts funding for social housing Jacobin via machine translation (Micael T)
Sweden and the United States enter into new nuclear power agreement Government.se. Micael T: “First step of Sweden to develop and station nuclear weapons on its territory? Sweden did sign the surrender agreement for ”defense cooperation”, which does not exclude nuclear weapons in Sweden directed at Russia.”
Old Blighty
The number of births in Scotland has fallen to its lowest ever recorded level BBC
Gaza
>In show of support for Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader, US to send more fighter jets and warships to Middle East WSWS
Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israel kills 5 in Tulkarem strike, raids city Aljazeera
Exclusive: Haniyeh killed by projectile and not a planted bomb, eyewitnesses say Middle East Eye. This matters because the NYT ran a long piece attributing the blast to a bomb planted about two months ago.
Erdogan to Biden: Israel wants to spread Gaza conflict to region Middle East Online
Houthis Urge ‘Dangerous’ Response to Israel Over Killing of Hamas, Hezbollah Leaders Sputnik
Gazans’ extreme hunger could leave its mark on subsequent generations The Conversation (Dr. Kevin)
Craig Murray: The Israeli Nihilist State Consortium News (Judith)
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine SitRep: Catch up Moon of Alabama. A good overview, particularly for those who haven’t had time to keep close tabs.
The interesting details of the prisoner exchange between Russia and the USA Anti-Spiegel (Micael T)
Russian-West Prisoner Exchange – What the MSM Won’t Tell You, Real Target of Israeli Assassination of Hamas Political Chief in Iran is the USA, more Mark Sleboda, Faultlines
Ukraine watches warily as prisoner swap shows Moscow and West can negotiate Washington Post (Kevin W)
Russian MOD Purges Hit Fever Pitch, as Belousov Scythes Corruption Simplicius
Syraqistan
As Misery Multiplies, Pakistanis Rise Up Against the Ruling Elite New York Times
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Here we go again with more AI crime prediction for policing The Register
Imperial Collapse Watch
U.S. not ready for global war, commission warns. Axios
Germany helps protect South Korea’s border Tagesschau via machine translation (guurst)
Georgia Averts Coup by US-Backed War Criminal Group Active Measures (Micael T)
Pentagon chief revokes plea deal with three September 11 attack suspects, reinstating them as death penalty cases ABC Australia (Kevin W)
TRACKING DOWN LIEUTENANT CALLEY Seymour Hersh (Robin K)
Kamala
Harris campaign eager to maintain its momentum The Hill
KAMALA — UNSCRIPTED FOR THE FIRST TIME:
"This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy."
WHAT? pic.twitter.com/lxlhhG1xhT
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 2, 2024
🚨 Harmeet Dhillon TORCHES "Chameleon" Kamala after working professionally with her for +20 years:
"Kamala only seemed to be Indian when she's asking for money from Indian-Americans. Her ludicrous accent, she's not from the South. No one talks like that in Jamaica. Its Cringe" pic.twitter.com/dp7FGhsW9m
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 1, 2024
Trump
Biden victim of ‘a coup’ – Trump RT. Trump has been throwing a lot of wide-of-the marke haymakers recently. Perhaps is he regaining his footing?
I am crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump.
Many — including a former version of myself — get trapped in a mental framework that becomes their identity and prevents them from radically evolving their thinking with new facts and information. I…
— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) July 31, 2024
Trump Assassination Post Mortem
Secret Service’s Tech Issues Helped Shooter Go Undetected At Trump Rally Guardian
SECRET SERVICE AND FBI STILL NOT TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT WHO SHOT CROOKS Larry Johnson
GOP Clown Car
Paul Dans, the Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans ProPublica (Robin K)
2024
Mr. Market Has a Sad. READER ALERT: See the three data points indicating a sudden, sharp weakening in the US economy. Do you have any consistent or contradictory anecdata or industry news?
Intel Stock Drops Toward 50-Year Low Amid Mass Layoffs Business Insider
Central banks are turning the ship, but their path is unclear Reuters
Wayfair CEO likens home goods slowdown to 2008 financial crisis CNBC
Hershey Slashes Annual Forecasts After Sales Collapse Finimize
Hoisting from Lambert’s 8/1 Water Cooler:
"We have a 30 year old family member who works on the assembly line building Peterbuilt trucks in Denton, Texas. (a PACCAR company) He has seniority and works the #1 shift. He was told not to come to work next week. Shutting down the assembly line for a week due to lack of…
— Dave Collum (@DavidBCollum) July 31, 2024
Our No Longer Free Press
Censorship Industry: GARM Members Receive Billions in Federal Contracts Foundation for Freedom Online (Li)
TikTok to Ban Some Criticisms of Zionism Following Pressure from NGO Backed by Former Israeli Intelligence Officials Lee Fang (Robin K). From earlier in the week, still germane.
Falling Apart Boeing Airplanes, Space Edition
IT’S SOUNDING LIKE BOEING’S STARLINER MAY HAVE COMPLETELY FAILED The Byte (Paul R). At least the astronauts can be rescued.
Class Warfare
The hidden role of public pensions in raising rents in California Los Angeles Times. Paul R: “Pirate equity buys apt building, jacks up rents. Tenants shocked to find that CALSTRS invests in funds like that. Oops.”
Antidote du jour. Karma fubar sent this a long time ago, so apologies!
A young hawk shot by my stepmom at my parents house. They have a large wooded lot, and hawks set up a nest in one of the larger beech trees. I reduced the file size via jpeg compression, but did no other alterations. I particularly like the painterly effect of the background caused by being out of focus.
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Re Owl: worst ringbearer since Gollum.
At least it didn’t fall into a volcano.
Even in the Harry Potter movies, the Owl Post was more problematical than not.
Daughter this AM sent a ring video of an owl “weathering” a hard rain on the rail of her deck late last night. In Hooksett NH.
Link for World Socialist
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/03/coyv-a03.html
“EU snubs Hungary and Slovakia over Ukraine oil sanctions”
The remarkable thing is that the European Commission is siding here against two EU members – Hungary & Slovakia – with a country that is not even a member of the EU at all that is breaking a trade agreement with the EU itself. They even told them to get their oil elsewhere to diversify away from Russian fuels, even though the EU is still importing them themselves via third parties. I suppose that this is only petty revenge on Hungary really for trying to open up peace negotiations and the Hungarians have wondered out aloud whether it was the EU that told the Ukraine to cut the oil. Of course if Hungary & Slovakia cut off the electricity to the Ukraine that they are supplying, I am sure that the European Commission would get on their case at the injustice of it all.
If you’ve noticed, nobody seems to be clamoring to get into the EU anymore. NATO, yes, but that’s a dead end, too. One wonders who the next Brexit will be. That’s going to be messy.
Two anecdotes: My Dad’s main employee (from Slovakia) is not a big follower of the news but finds it weird that we believe the BBC when it seems llke local versions of Pravda when she was young.
Second is my former barber (from Bulgaria) – was the first person to note a COVID sequelae (“you have a 50 pence piece sized alopecia patch suddenly on top of your scalp – that’s weird”) . He annoyed his wife because he blabbed too much. His most notorious (to me) example was “Why did the EU let us in? I’m glad they did and I get to run a business here but our country is family-blogged – I’d be paying the poiice almost daily to do the drives I used to to.” The guy was not a nobody – he’d been part of the Bulgarian army.
“People who had severe covid-19 show cognitive decline years later New Scientist. Paul R: “An analysis of people who were hospitalised with covid-19…”
It could be Covid and/or host of other things caught while in the hospital. @#$% didn’t and still don’t want to wear masks in hospitals. And there are all kinds of viruses and bacteria lurking in hospitals.
During the worst of the pandemic I “stepped up” when our local – regional specialist – hospital lost over half of its admin staff (largely due to resignation, thankfully not death). I was neither a touch typist or an expert in oncology. However a long career in health (non-clinical) meant I could type fast and could recognise a lot of drugs and conditions.
Literally 7 days after I started the process to “get me police clearance etc” I was OKed and doing audio-typing for oncology consultants. Of the four suspected COVID infections I’ve had, the only confirmed one was when I caught it from someone at the hospital and had to go through the testing procedure. I notice my cognitive impairment after every suspected infection. Yeah it scares the beejezus out of me.
I will not under any but the worst circumstances go to the Emergency Dept of my hospital. Frankly, IMNSHO it is close to a death sentence.
Off-topic but just in case you missed it since it’s now over a dozen “items” ago:
Here’s my guess as why you might be having your replies appear in unexpected places from time to time. (It doesn’t have to do with Skynet.)
That’s a great explanation, thanks.
Always glad to learn I’m not going senile ;)
Plus I don’t like to annoy the powers that be, especially since in the early days of NC Yves went out of her way to explain why the hosters of the website could be “weird”.
>IT’S SOUNDING LIKE BOEING’S STARLINER MAY HAVE COMPLETELY FAILED The Byte (Paul R). At least the astronauts can be rescued.
According to the article: Many signs are now pointing towards SpaceX rescuing the stranded astronauts, according to Ars. These signs include the space agency giving more than a quarter million dollars to SpaceX for a “SPECIAL STUDY FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE,” and SpaceX actively training for the likely situation of the company sending a Dragon capsule to the space station to bring the astronauts home.
Be even better if Musk says: Hell, we’ll do it for free this time, just to rub Boeing’s nose in it. Sending in the Varsity to get the job done and all…
A couple paragraphs after that in the article: It would be a bad look all around, because it would mean the American government had funneled a total of $5.8 billion into malfunctioning junk.
I”m getting the idea that is what we are excelling at lately. Jesus, $5.8 billion? Rounding error in the Government’s checkbook. Just another day that ends in the letter Y.
I’m just waiting for the Russian’s to offer to retrieve those astronauts. How many heads would explode over that? Can you imagine Biden having to have a press conference (or his flacks), explains why they have to turn down the offer?
It was only a few short years ago that NASA rejected Boeing on a whole series of major contracts because they were not up to it and couldn’t get the job done. So when all these stories about Boeing’s Starliner started to crop up I was a bit surprised. I guess that Congress leaned on NASA to cough up on those new contracts so now of course Congress will blame NASA over this fiasco.
>I guess that Congress leaned on NASA to cough up on those new contracts so now of course Congress will blame NASA over this fiasco.
I suppose a quick check of Boeing’s political donations to those on the committees overseeing NASA would add a bit of knowledge to this…
Ed Conway twX on mining: If it wasn’t grown, it was mined.
So it’s either rocks or crops.
US Prepares For Bird Flu Pandemic With $176 Million Moderna Vaccine Deal – ars technica
“mRNA vaccine technology offers advantages in efficacy, speed of development, and production scalability and reliability in addressing infectious disease outbreaks, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the announcement..”
WTH? They are still calling that stuff “vaccine”.
It hasn’t stopped the spread of any damn thing.
“They” changed the scientific and medical definition of vaccine in the first stages of Covid, if memory serves. Reading links and comments, maybe memory serving is passee…
Mr Market has sad…
It’s going to be interesting to have a recession with the seemingly highest cost of living of all time.
“The role of public pensions in rising rents in California” – LA Times
At some point a society becomes so greedy and corrupt that it’s just silly. Deadly and dangerous, but still silly AF. And thinks it’s full of “high IQ” people.
And they aren’t even eating enough chocolate!
Spread the word, s’mores parties are now the new Friday afternoon company event. :)
And Saturday at home or a park.
Chocolate consumption is good on any day that ends in a y.
Keir Starmer (or his people) are gonna completely mismanage the fallout from the Southport killings and the ongoing anti-[a lot of things but mostly immigrants] rioting.
Latest example is this tweet which came with a nice picture of a pink building. Performative crap and people from all sides reacted badly.
Between 25 and 35 more “rallies” are being planned for this weekend. I expect more battles with the police and more damage (a la Sunderland yesterday).
UK Prime Minister
@10DowningStreet
We stand in solidarity with Southport.
Tonight, Downing Street lights up pink as a mark of respect and solidarity with everyone affected by the tragic incidents which took place earlier this week.
#SouthportTogether
Re: blood culture bottle shortage article above…..
I never dreamed something as mundane as blood cultures would be grist for this site. However, it is actually a critical thing for diagnosis – and this supply chain incompetence/failure is so emblematic of entire failures in our society.
When I was a young doctor, there was a lab tech named Marge in the microbiology lab. At that time in medicine, interns were responsible for drawing blood cultures, it was a learned skill. This test is done in patients with fevers and you have reason to believe there is a blood borne infection. The blood would be carefully placed in sterilized glass bottles ( any old bottles would do – they just had to be autoclaved) and the glass bottles contained an anticoagulant and a growth media ( ie fertilizer). These would then be placed in a row in an old fashioned oven with a glass door – all in a row based on general time when they came in. The oven was set at about 110 degrees if I recall. Marge, a very skilled individual doing this for years, would quickly glance over the bottles every hour or so. She had a hawks eye. The color would begin to change if there was a positive test – and she would drag those out and further process them. I recall no difference between Marge and the machines we use now.
Fast forward to today. It is no longer any glass bottle. It is bottles which are proprietary and strictly made for the machine in your lab. Everything is automated. Marge is long gone and is now replaced by multiple machines doing individual parts of the process Marge used to do all by herself. These proprietary blood culture bottles cost about 2000 dollars each ( compared to any old sterilized and reused glass bottle from the 1980s) – they have a sensor pad on the bottom- and are stuck in a 2-3 million dollar device that warms them – and then probe the bottom every 5 minutes ( just like Marge used to do scanning them in the oven). And then if they are positive – they are sent on to another 3-4 million dollar machine to ID the bug. Marge used to do this with Petri dishes and plates – and much faster and the antibiotic sensitivity with Marge was much more reliable.
So, if you do not have the proprietary bottles – you cannot use your multiple multimillion dollar machines. You are basically out of luck. These bottles are shaped weird – and any glass bottles laying around will not fit. By the way, Marge, who did this all with tender loving care for decades is long gone. In fact the whole lab which used to be teeming with humans is now a humming computer bank.
I often reflect fondly on the Marge days – things were so much different and better then. She was likely only costing the health care system I would guess 80K salary in today’s dollars – add in another 80K-120K for all the sterilizing and supplies – and that would be the microbiology lab for the year. But it is far more important to spend 2000 dollars a pop for every patient – and have machines that break down all the time and cost 10-15K for these repairs twice a month or so. And their initial cost is in the millions. And we wonder what is wrong.
This blood culture bottle shortage has been a thing where I work for many months now. Instead of realizing the problems and the care deficiencies it is causing, the FDA and other health agencies seem not to care. At least I cannot tell anything is being done about it at all. Proprietary throw away equipment like this may be the death of our whole society. It is rampant, expensive and fragile. It is also laying waste to our environment. ( Just multiply blood culture bottles out by the millions in all kinds of industry) But it is much more “Star Trek” than Marge – much more bright lights and alarms- so the medical leadership will keep right on doing it- because “progress.”
>Proprietary throw away equipment like this may be the death of our whole society. It is rampant, expensive and fragile. It is also laying waste to our environment. ( Just multiply blood culture bottles out by the millions in all kinds of industry) But it is much more “Star Trek” than Marge – much more bright lights and alarms- so the medical leadership will keep right on doing it- because “progress.”
This paragraph IMHO pretty much describes the thinking and processes that has infected EVERYTHING in our society.
I forgot to add – the blood culture bottle swindle is basically the same model as the model of the ink jet printer and razor blades. In the case of the blood culture bottle swindle, the 2-3 million dollar processing machines are the loss leader. The bottles are the cash cow. The bottles themselves are proprietary. The machine does not work on any other bottles. And these bottles cost about 2000 bucks each. I would say in the big inner city hospital I worked at – approximately 70-80 times a day, blood cultures were done. You do the math.
You might enjoy a book by renowned thinker John Michael Greer called “Retrotopia.” Greer talks often about what we call “progress” and makes the point that once progress went hand in hand with prosperity but that link ended some time ago and that now progress is the enemy of prosperity-
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-06-05/retrotopia-review/
In that book he also talks about what we call “efficiency” with the question ‘Efficient for what output in terms of what input.’ I am sure that Marge could have answered that question.
Re: anecdata and industry news… See also theatre and concert ticket sales which are in a serious slump after a decent recovery in 2022-2023. A friend who owns a couple local cinemas says he is having his worst summer since 2020, he’s owned 2 multiplexes for over a decade. A list of music festivals cancelled so far in 2024
The Hershey’s item made me think of the ongoing crisis in disposable income. People who aren’t struggling with housing, energy, health care and insurance bills yet probably expect to soon. Discretionary spending is tight, I can see it in the finances of our struggling little pinball joint.
Mr. Market Has a Sad. READER ALERT: See the three data points indicating a sudden, sharp weakening in the US economy. Do you have any consistent or contradictory anecdata or industry news?
The Architectural Billings Index, which tracks design contracts for buildings, has been in the tank – under 50% – for over a year. The WSJ has used the ABI as a leading indicator for recession in the past.
re: the Benny Johnson ‘x’ (tweet) above
Harmeet Dhillon had me until the last 2 seconds when she referred
to Khameleon Harris as an idpol pandering — ‘Marxist’!?
oy
Fracking changed everything! Interesting charts…
How Does Your State Make Electricity? NYT archive
Charts do not include imports which is a major shortcoming for the Acela corridor states. Renewables are mostly window dressing.
Netzero electricity in New York State by 2040? Pure hopium and a grift project for cronies. Here is reality: New York could see electricity demand grow 90% by 2042: ISO . So in 15 years the amount of generation will nearly double while the fleet of 4 nuclear plants are at the end of their 60 year licenses. Paging Bill Gates, got any small nuclear reactors for sale that use uranium fuel produced in the USA? Maybe fusion will save us? Not!