The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
The sports where women outperform men BBC (Dr. Kevin)
Has pop music got less melodic? I’ve immersed myself in 70 years of hits – this is what I’ve found Guardian (Kevin W)
This 112-Year-Old NYC Icon’s Secret to Living Forever Is Pretty Easy Vice
#COVID-19
Disappearing Seats, Defiant Eateries and the End of an Era: Outdoor Dining Deadline Arrives THE CITY. As in Covid “dining sheds” which often were partly or fully enclosed and so did nada to reduce Covid risk.
Climate/Environment
US to invest $2.2 billion to overhaul national power grid Reuters (Kevin W). First, the amount sounds like couch lint. Second, how much will wind up paying for what utilities would have done anyhow?
Cheaper, Faster, Cleaner: Scientists Have Developed the World’s First Anode-Free Sodium Battery SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
Rising rates of cancer in young people prompt hunt for environmental culprit Financial Times
EPA Takes Emergency Action To Stop Use of Dangerous Pesticide Washington Post
China?
South China Sea: Chinese military holds joint patrol around Scarborough Shoal South China Morning Post
Giorgia Meloni and Europe’s incoherence over China Asia Times (Kevin W)
US, China compete to study water on the moon: Why that matters for future missions Des Moines Register. Robin K: “China’s moon water breakthrough came as NASA shuttered VIPER program.”
The Koreas
Read North Korea’s Official Announcement as it Forward Deploys 1000 Manoeuvrable Solid Fuelled Precision Guided Missiles Military Watch
Thai Constitutional Court dissolves progressive Move Forward Party Aljazeera
Africa
How PMC Wagner Got SMOKED in Africa History Legends, YouTube
Bangladesh
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to head Bangladesh’s interim government Guardian. Hoo boy. See this takedown of microcredit.
Old Blighty
UK Travel Alerts Issued Worldwide Asia Today
Top prosecutor considers terrorism charges over riots, as more suspects face court BBC. The BBC made it extremely difficult to access this story.The site initially goes for me to my bookmark, bbc.co.uk, so I very briefly see the UK headlines. Then it quickly flips to bbc.com with a different landing page. On bbc.com, when I searched on “prosecutor terrorism riots,” this article did not come up. I had to load bbc.co.uk 6 times and click on the headline. Even then it usually flipped to the bbc.com landing page first, but I finally got to the article.
Anglo-Italian arms firm Leonardo embroiled in Indonesia corruption scandal Declassified
Gaza
Hamas chooses Yahya Sinwar as new leader following Haniyeh killing Middle East Eye. Recall Haniyeh was moderate…so the Hamas hardliners winding up in a stronger position looks to have been an intended outcome.
Israel’s Bomb Shelters Are Last Line of Defense as Iran Strike Looms Wall Street Journal
Hezbollah drones strike Israel; 12 killed in Israeli raids on West Bank Aljazeera
Hiroshima commemoration and the genocide in Gaza: discussion on Iran’s Press TV Gilbert Doctorow
Gaza As A New(?) Western Method To Wage War Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
The Yemen deal: Riyadh capitulates, Washington loses leverage The Cradle (Chuck L)
New Not-So-Cold War
What the Ukraine war has in common with Vietnam Responsible Statecraft
800,000 Ukrainians Have Gone ‘Underground’ To Dodge Draft – MP RT. We reported some months ago (largely hoisting one of the few in-depth discussion of current economic conditions in Ukraine) that the Ukraine government had put a tight cordon on its borders. Hence hiding as opposed to fleeing.
Zelenskyy extends mobilization, martial law by another 90 days in Ukraine Anadolu Agency
US warns Turkey of ‘consequences’ over military-linked exports to Russia Financial Times
🚨🇺🇦Uprisings against Zelensky in the ethnically Polish city of Kovel in Western Ukraine. Is this Poland's chance to annexe it's former territory?
The uprising in Kovel and the sabotage, partisan activities such as etting military recruitment cars on fire will seem like… pic.twitter.com/L96woKEPfi
— Aussie Cossack (@aussiecossack) August 4, 2024
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Israeli Study Shows Smartwatches Can Warn You Have COVID or a Migraine Is About to Happen Haaretz (ma). IMHO the real utility is the Mossad getting your data.
Imperial Collapse Watch
The U.S. Faces Multiple Crises: Who is Running the Government? Glenn Greenwald
Now Labour is the incumbent Single Transferable Party of government what chance is there for the Left? Richard Murphy. Colonel Smithers highlights big shout out to Aurelien.
Kamala
Kamala Harris introduces running mate Tim Walz at raucous Philadelphia rally Guardian
‘Republicans for Harris’ rallies members of GOP to campaign for Democratic ticket Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
IMHO important because it speaks to poor staff work:
Remember that time Kamala Harris discovered that electricity doesn’t have a smell and then held onto the plug as if she was pumping gas into the car?
Today feels like a good day to re-share one of the great moments in political history.pic.twitter.com/7DHykmdFfo
— Mark Harris (@itismarkharris) July 3, 2024
The Republican talking points v. Walz:
Welcome to the race, Tim Walz!
Let’s make sure America knows who you are.
You helped ignite the George Floyd riots, the worst the country had seen in decades. While Minneapolis burned, you stalled on deploying the National Guard for an entire day, blaming the city for not…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 6, 2024
Tim Walz was arrested for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone, then blew a .128. That's really bad, but just as bad is that he's lied about it ever since. He's repeatedly claimed he wasn't even drunk, and has instead blamed it all on him being deaf. But the court transcripts tell a… pic.twitter.com/D1CL13mWMA
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 6, 2024
Li asks, “Did they vet this guy?”
𝐄𝐗𝐂 – 𝐕𝐏 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐓𝐢𝐦 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐳 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩’𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.
He spoke alongside the president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with… pic.twitter.com/IRqlV1Qb7o
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) August 6, 2024
Democrats en déshabillé
“Squad” Rep. Cori Bush loses her Democratic primary Politico
Governor Newsom is effectively putting Oakland's law enforcement under state trusteeship, sending in CHP to do the job of a local force unable to do basic police work, and National Guard lawyers to make the prosecutions the county DA refuses to make. https://t.co/KWQBhmNV6e
— Leighton 明 Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) August 6, 2024
Trump Assassination Post Mortem
BREAKING: @HawleyMO says @SecretService whistleblowers tell him that the lead agent on the Trump Butler job was NOT enforcing the normal security protocols that day and she wasn’t having ID’s checked that day. He describes it as a free-for-all and says as we speak, this lead… pic.twitter.com/g0bR55KPas
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) August 6, 2024
Our No Longer Free Press
The GARMs Race: The House Moves Forward With its Investigation of Blacklisting Company Jonathan Turley. NewGuard picked on some of the wrong people.
NEW: Axios is laying off 50 people across the company. CEO @JimVandeHei just sent out this note — which says the layoffs are because of “changes in the media business” pic.twitter.com/lLVemNFh0N
— Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson) August 6, 2024
Elon Musk’s X sues coalition of advertisers over boycott The Hill (Kevin W). Of course, freedom of speech exists only in a government context, as in officials or agencies not suppressing speech. But the antitrust angle here is clever. If it is well enough argued, he could get past summary judgement and get to root around in the advertisers’ communications. No only might he encounter plenty of salaciously ugly stuff, but there might be some evidence of collusion with governments.
Mr. Market Has a Sad
Tokyo stocks brace for further volatility after biggest single-day jump Nikkei
A tale of two bubbles Asia Times
Antitrust
The Biggest Loser in Google Search Ruling Could Be Mozilla and Firefox Fortune
Apple Thinks Bing is Pretty Bad The Verge. From the ruling in the Google anti-trust case.
Falling Down Boeing Airplanes….and More!
It Turns Out Boeing’s Derelict Starliner Is Unable to Fly Without a Crew on Board Futurism (BC)
NASA likely to significantly delay the launch of Crew 9 due to Starliner issues ars technica (BC)
The Bezzle
Intel: Our balance sheet is a smoking ruin, but we think our new chips work The Register
Class Warfare
U.S. households are piling on record credit card debt, says Fed report Yahoo! Finance (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour. Tracie H: “While visiting the San Diego Botanic Garden; peering from a pond strewn with many little yellow flower petals, was this little prince-to-be, waiting for his kiss.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Top prosecutor considers terrorism charges over riots, as more suspects face court BBC.
Mercouris, Duran, expressed his opinion that at least in London, the media is exaggerating and hyping riots and in addition being totally inappropriate in linking them to terrorism. In his opinion, the point is that the ground work is being laid for the government to seize additional powers to crush legitimate dissent against government policy which has been for sometime reducing the standard of living of most citizens.
I find myself agreeing here as I remember the Brixton riots being much worse. But when I went to give a link, Google coughed up several years when there were riots in Brixton. I notice that this time that not only is Starmer talking tough, he keeps on talking about the internet as that will have to be heavily monitored and censored as well. Damn, but Starmer is starting to remind me of Chancellor Adam Sutler from “V is for Vendetta.”
Starmer turned Labour hard-line Zionist. That means his party and the EDL have something in common: support from Israeli and Zionist interests.
Meanwhile Craig Murray reports how cops are actively trying to stop him and others from defending communities from Tommy’s thugs.
Exactly how the game is played. Tommy Robinson is also heavily Zionist supporting and has been treated extraordinarily well by UK courts in a way that allowed to him to exit Britain and remain free to cause more trouble and stir more Islamophobia. The UK establishment is very good at causing/making up problems abroad to be “fixed” by more Western intervention, why would it not be doing the same at home. Starmer is the perfect choice to impose a greater level of authoritarian rule as he continues with austerity for the many and the looting of the state for the rich, while redirecting more money to a useless military.
‘Charlie Kirk
@charliekirk11
Tim Walz was arrested for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone, then blew a .128. That’s really bad, but just as bad is that he’s lied about it ever since. He’s repeatedly claimed he wasn’t even drunk, and has instead blamed it all on him being deaf. But the court transcripts tell a different story.’
Being a drunk driver and speeding at nearly twice the amount of speed that you are supposed to be doing is pretty bad. But lying your face of repeatedly when he was tested and it actually went to court is unforgivable. But if we are going to be honest, George Bush also was caught drunk driving and spent the night in jail. Bonus points as he had his sister in the car at the time. But that story got deep-sixed by a friendly media so perhaps Walz was hoping for the same treatment.
So Walz is just another lying corrupt politician funded by oligarchs. Harris would not be allowed to pick anyone that isn’t, at least she didn’t pick the uber-Zionist alternative – perhaps that would have been a bridge too far to have the presidential candidate married to a Zionist and the vp candidate a full on Zionist. Twitter is already full of Zionists complaining her choice was anti-semitic!
With the genocide going on in Gaza right now, having a Veep that is ex-IDF was just a bridge too far. So they went with a guy that looks like an uncle.
That was a rather brief honeymoon. It shouldn’t come as a shock if Walz is just another …….career politician. BTW, if Johnny q public blows a 128 he’s gonna be walking to work for a stretch.
Yves, wrt your BBC web site issues, did you try setting your VPN to UK?
I use a vpn but sometimes when I am physically in Britain and the Vpn is set to London, the BBC website blocks sports videos I try to watch allegedly because I am out of area. The site is capricious, to say the least, sometimes it continuously reloads until you simply give up.
You can’t watch the BBC iPlayer unless you have an account on the BBC and a television license. They seem to go through an awful lot of trouble to keep non-Brits away.
Yves issue wasn’t to do with iPlayer. Just fetching web pages. Her browser redirected once it figured out client location. Hence the flashes as one index page redirects to another but no actual denial of access to the target article page she wanted.
For anyone who doubted Hamas’ resolve. They’re ready to struggle until liberation, whatever the cost.
Here’s the working link for the Mozilla story in Fortune:
https://fortune.com/2024/08/05/mozilla-firefox-biggest-potential-loser-google-antitrust-search-ruling/
The dog days of summer are here, and with markets looking shaky, and AI looking quite fake, September looms for corporate America:
(Sing to the tune of “Camelot” from the musical. Note that MAD magazine did a parody of this back in the 50’s but an Internet search did not find any copies. If anyone has those please post!)
Can a lot
It’s true! It’s true! The street has made it clear
Our profits must be maximized all year
A law was made a distant moon ago here
Our profit margins cannot be too hot
But when we start to burn through cash in dog years
We’ll can a lot
Confession is forbidden ’til December
Our stock options we’ll exit on the dot
By order, CFO says: cut expenses
We’ll can a lot
Can a lot! Can a lot!
You might be fired by AI
But when we can a lot, can a lot
There’s just no point to asking why
Operations may be running on a shoestring
Our IT systems run by grace of God
In short, we’re simply caught
We’re in a real tight spot
For happy life-altering my dear
So, hear! We’ll can a lot
Can a lot! Can a lot!
I know it gives a person pause
But when we can a lot, can a lot
We’ll not break age discrimination laws
The rumors never end on social media
By nine a.m. the all-hands must appear
In short we’re simply caught in
An economic drought
For happy life-altering my dear
So hear! We’ll can-a-LOT!
Lol! I’ll be canning tomatoes this week.
HaHa, mrsyk. I thought ChrisFromGa was writing a paean to the joys of preserving! It’s that time of year here in Chautauqua County, NY. We water-bathed 6 pints of peach jam yesterday, and the dehydrator was running last night to dry a batch of peach slices.
Rewriting the lyrics to reflect the joys of canning vegetables and fruits is an exercise left to the reader. I sense a lot of humor potential on the laugh-o-meter.
“Scam a lot” is another good candidate.
mmmm, peaches. Ours are close. We like to make peach salsa.
Anglo-Italian arms firm caught up in Indonesian scandal. The truly bumptious and corrupt details are in the center of the article, mentioning that President Joko Widodo didn’t want the helicopter, nor did the army chief, yet these clowns went ahead anyway.
But: Local color. Leonardo comes up regularly in Italy. Defense minister Guido Crosetto, who is also from the Undisclosed Region, has some rather too-interesting ties to Leonardo.
From his English-language Wiki entry:
Crosetto became minister of defense in October 2023. Hmmmm.
And, yes, Leonardo is named after that Leonardo, all-around genius and gay icon. Appropriating Leonardo is just part of the vulgarity of the times (see: Olympics, “Christian” / fatso Dionysos / kerfuffle / rissa).
Are you sure that they were not referencing “Fat Leonard” instead? It would be more fitting-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Leonard_scandal
‘Aussie Cossack
@aussiecossack
🚨🇺🇦Uprisings against Zelensky in the ethnically Polish city of Kovel in Western Ukraine. Is this Poland’s chance to annexe it’s former territory? The uprising in Kovel and the sabotage, partisan activities such as setting military recruitment cars on fire will seem like kindergarten. They will start to kill each other. The families of the victims, and the returning survivors who were once arrested and packed a recruitment van will come home to their regions with a vengeance.’
The recruiters were so sour at their vans being set on fire that a local commander gave an order to shoot arsonists on sight. In any case, they are not so much recruitment squads as press gangs-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghaiing
That Aussie Cossack is quit the character. He spoke in favour of Russia so the authorities got on his case because that is not allowed. Last I heard he took refuge in Russia’s Sydney Consulate where he was eventually awarded Russian citizenship and continues supporting Russia through social media like here.
I think both the links under the Anti-Trust section might not be to the right article.
“800,000 Ukrainians Have Gone ‘Underground’ To Dodge Draft – MP”
Anecdata: I was chatting with a Ukrainian who lives in my condo building a couple of days ago. He said he was able to escape his hometown of Lugansk last year by getting a Russian passport, but has several male friends who are hiding at home in Kiev to avoid the press gangs.
Things may be changing as the press gangs get more desperate for cannon fodder but they were originally mainly in action in Russian speaking areas, plus areas with mainly Hungarian and Romanian ethnic populations. Kiev and Lvov residents were able to party on in relative safety from recruiters.
Not likely that he can ever go back the Ukraine either as he may be on a wanted list for not only leaving the Ukraine but obtaining Russian citizenship as well. It would not be wise for him to find out either.
Bing is pretty bad, or it was in my experiences using it. Not here to defend the 800 pound gorilla in the room, Google has plenty of lawyers earning their keep on the case!
Regarding Tropical Storm Debby, an acquaintance who lives in the wilds of the Savannah River Forest upriver from Savannah put out a 5-gallon bucket when the rain began Monday evening. By Tuesday morning it was nearly full – at least 12 inches of rain. Still raining this morning as the final(!) band whirls counterclockwise through the area. Along the coast Johnson Rock seawalls were breached in several places, with more beach erosion to follow.
Nothing to see here, move along. It’s just the weather (caused by a Gulf of Mexico at a comfortable bathwater temperature).
I’m definitely not gonna link to it directly, but there is now video evidence out there of Israeli soldiers gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner. Easy enough to find on twix.
I’d link to an MSM story about it,but obviously there isn’t one.
Transmission lines. Most articles put the numbers in the 3+ trillion range.
I read stuff all the time about US gov agencies giving a few million dollars to so new solar companies to improve things. Meanwhile China is investing many billions.
What I can’t figure out is, the low numbers all they can come up with or is it just optics?
There was Jamaal Bowman, now Cori Bush. The AIPAC political ad linked to here is startling to me:
https://x.com/asadabukhalil/status/1821054365882339536
asad abukhalil أسعد أبو خليل @asadabukhalil
This is actually a good admission: that elections in the US can be bought on behalf of Israeli occupation and genocide.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUWvQgMWMAAuiij?format=jpg&name=900×900
1:22 AM · Aug 7, 2024
The hits from our black-robed bandits (Citizens United) keep on coming.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/nyregion/aipac-bowman-latimer.html
June 20, 2024
AIPAC Unleashes a Record $14.5 Million Bid to Defeat a Critic of Israel
The deluge in outside spending, which also includes another $1 million from another pro-Israel group, threatens to sink Representative Jamaal Bowman.
By Nicholas Fandos
So AIPAC has been contracted by the Democrat party to get rid of the Squad for them, leaving them with clean hands. Doesn’t really matter as the Squad were more loyal to the Democrats than to their voters – and this is what their loyalty got them. Will AOC be next?
re: Musk’s X sues coalition of advertisers over boycott.
Rumble joins Musk’s X suit against the advertisers boycott
https://s3.amazonaws.com/b2icontent.irpass.cc/2730/rl136649.pdf
“US, China compete to study water on the moon: Why that matters for future missions”
Hard to understand why the US cancelled that program. The thing about space travel is that it is all about weight. Transported water to the Moon would be a major stressors on the program because water is heavy to transport. But if there is water on the Moon, a lot of your problems go away and you can – if your are actually smart and not a capitalist – keep on recycling that water endlessly with occasional top-ups from Lunar sources. Two thousand years ago when the Romans decided to build a town, the very first thing they thought about was water supplies as that would tell them not only if that town was viable but how large it could grow. Same here for the Moon. No water, no Lunar base.
US cancelled that program becase Musk promised jacuzzi on Mars before the end of this decade.
edit:
This was supposed to be a reply to The Rev Kev post, but my dyslexia thought otherwise.