Giant pigeon to visit New York BoingBoing. We have the same type of pigeons here as in NYC except they are on average a bit smaller. Due to the heat?
Engineers Gave a Mushroom a Robot Body And Let It Run Wild ScienceAlert (Chuck L)
Oyster shells repurposed as magic ‘Seawool’ Taipei Times (Robin K)
If new technologies snarl your airline experience, here are old-school strategies to cope The Conversation
No Screens Before Age of Two, Swedish Health Authority Tells Parents Guardian
Having Your Tubes Tied May Not Be as Reliable For Birth Control as You Think ScienceAlert (Chuck L)
Companies are crafting new ways to grow cocoa, and chocolate alternatives, to keep up with demand Associated Press (Robin K)
Mpox Outbreak Hits Iowa Prison As Multiple Inmates Infected Vice
#COVID-19
As COVID Surges, the High Price of Viral Denial The Tyee
In 2021, at the start of this graph we warned about Covid infections increasing the risk of the development of drug resistant bacteria.
Look what has happened since covid was allowed to run rampant and vaccinations were withdrawn. pic.twitter.com/2yfiBqJNQ7
— tern (@1goodtern) September 4, 2024
Houston Health Department opens COVID-19 testing centers as surge happens nationwide @HoustonChronhttps://t.co/3i1z2qs49H
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) September 4, 2024
Climate/Environment
Texas woman uses AirTags to see where recyclable plastics REALLY end up – and is left speechless Daily Mail (Kevin W)
Clean energy’s next trillion-dollar business Economist (Dr. Kevin)
Breaking News!
The August monthly global surface temperature anomaly is in, and it is nearly a tie! I'm going to wait for the final audited results (about a week) before reconciling the #climatecasino wager.
August, 2023: 1.505°C
August, 2024: 1.497°C pic.twitter.com/gJURXSEXB7— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) September 2, 2024
🌡️EUROPEAN HISTORIC HEAT WAVE
Hundreds of records in Germany,Austria,Hungary,Slovakia,Balkans, etc
Including hottest autumn nights in Hungary and Croatia,states records in Austria etc.
See below the most important ones.
MANY more tomorrow with Poland joining the "party" 👇 pic.twitter.com/ZS3TcvTGVE— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) September 2, 2024
Historic Drought Cuts Zambia’s Power Supply to Three Hours a Day Bloomberg
Extreme weather drives surge in Pakistan child marriages DW
Extreme heat worsens chronic health conditions in millions of Americans NBC
World’s biggest underwater methane hotspot is found off Barents Sea coast Barents Observer
What back-to-back storms did to Lake Charles, Louisiana Grist
Cloud computing hits the nuclear button amid energy crisis The Register
China?
Former high-ranking Hochul aide arrested for acting as a foreign agent for China New York Post
Pro-China activists harassed anti-Xi Jinping protesters in San Francisco Washington Post
South of the Border
USD/ARS: Argentine Peso Alternative Emerges in La Rioja: the Chacho Bloomberg (furzy)
European Disunion
European legal drift disguised as “rule of law” Cocominute (Micael T)
Europe Jumps On the Train El Pais
Sweden’s ‘Queen of Trash’ on trial for mountains of waste BBC (Kevin W)
Is Germany in crisis? Giants consider pulling billions from economy Fortune (Kevin W)
End of the German export model German Foreign Policy (Micael T)
Therefore, we should care more about Germany than the United States Aftonbladet. Micael T: “Sweden starts to take notice but still verboten to mention the reason why the German economy is deindustrializing. Most likely because Sweden also suspended their investigation into Nordstream 2.”
Old Blighty
Starmer to face test next week as MPs vote on limiting winter fuel allowance Guardian
Gaza
Palestinian Resistance: From the Lone Sniper to an Army of Snipers Orinoco Tribune (Robin K)
US charges Hamas leader, other militants in connection with Oct. 7 massacre in Israel Associated Press (Kevin W)
the Zionist propaganda line about "OMG KHAMAS KILLED AN AMERICAN!!!" is so deranged. As if the Israeli regime doesn't routinely kill Americans, from Rachel Corrie to Shireen Abu Akleh, without even flinching. And of course nothing is done about it, as John Mearsheimer notes: pic.twitter.com/UP0tZM3Itj
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) September 3, 2024
Trump’s Former Envoy to Israel: US Should Fund Israeli Annexation of West Bank Antiwar (Kevin W)
Why the West should stand up to Netanyahu Middle East Eye (guurst)
Why Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitic Wall Street Journal (Dr. Kevin)
There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral Caitlin Johnstone (Dr. Kevin)
New Not-So-Cold War
Mongolia was meant to arrest Russia’s President Putin last night. It didn’t, and now it’s in trouble CNBC. This is silly. All UN members are members of the ICJ (which handles disputes between countries and on treaty/charter matters) but countries can opt out of the ICC (which is why the US and Russia are not subject to ICC rulings). I believe countries can opt out of the ICC with six months notice. So Mongolia needs to get rolling. I would think Mongolia took stock of what would happen next when it decided to assure Russia it would not execute the arrest warrant.
Ukrainian foreign minister resigns in government shake-up Financial Times
Russian missile attack on Lviv: 7 people killed, including 3 children, and 47 injured – photos, video Ukrainska Pravda. Wonder what was targeted so far west.
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Cops’ favorite face image search engine fined $33M for privacy violation ars technica (Kevin W)
Trump
Trump Calls Journalists “Enemy Of The People” During Pennsylvania Rally Minutes Before Man Storms Into Media Section Vanity Fair (Dr. Kevin)
Kamala
James Carville: Kamala Harris’s Best Strategy to Defeat Trump New York Times
Via e-mail, DLG, Reality Czar, as a cook, took exception to the idea of washing greens in a bathtub. It appears black cooks very much agree. From a 2022 article, Woman Seen Cleaning Collard Greens In Bathtub: Black America Responds. Note the disapproval included the use of soap in the viral video, which one assumes was deemed necessary because bathtub.
Why vote for Trump? Why vote for Harris? Amazon’s Alexa gives shockingly different answers YouTube (Micael T)
Our No Longer Free Press
Warning labels from fact checkers work—even if you don’t trust them—says study MIT Sloan School of Management
Robert Reich Calls for Arrest of Elon Musk for Resisting Censorship Jonathan Turley
People trying to access Elon Musk’s X in Brazil face daily fines greater than their annual wage Fortune
Musk threatens to go after Brazilian government assets RT. Unhinged unless Musk has a trick up his sleeve.
Starlink in Brazil’s crosshairs as spat over Elon Musk’s X escalates CNBC
Canadian journalist outs himself as Canadian, Ukrainian intelligence collaborator The Grayzone (Kevin W)
AI
Google’s James Manyika: ‘The Productivity Gains From AI Are Not Guaranteed’ Financial Times. But its enormous energy bill is.
Embedded Bias: STAT investigates use of
race in clinical algorithms STAT (Dr. Kevin)
The Bezzle
Watch: Flamethrower robot dog spits fire at YouTuber after ‘bark’ command fail Interesting Engineering. Micael T: “Both horrifying and hilarious. Why do we need these robots but also a new type of Darwin Award Sports, preferrably for spoiled rich kids that can afford this 100K robots. The action at 7:19”
Guillotine Watch
Robbie Robertson estate battle holds lessons for inheritance disputes SF Chronicle
Class Warfare
Koch says its $3.6 billion purchase of Iowa fertilizer plant finalized Des Moines Register. Robin K: “Public subsidy of the outrageously rich.”
Party of one: Restaurants are catering to a growing number of solo diners Associated Press (Kevin W)
NEW: Alabama is farming out incarcerated people to work at hundreds of companies, including McDonald’s & Wendy’s.
The state takes 40% of wages and often denies parole to keep people as cheap labor.
Getting written up can lead to solitary confinement. This is modern day slavery. pic.twitter.com/A7TxkpCkAC
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) September 3, 2024
Antidote du jour. Tom H: “Junkyard cat at the local salvage shop in Berkeley, CA, fast asleep in the middle of everything.”
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Honey badger vs 3 Leopards pic.twitter.com/fGy2VBnR9m
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 3, 2024
A second, atypical bonus (Shiela M):
A video that made our day better, the little girl dances wonderfully pic.twitter.com/9WkYvURFuj
— Enez Özen (@Enezator) July 13, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
KAMALA
(melody borrowed from Girl by The Beatles)
Grampa Fuddy-Duddy cannot lift you unto glory
Just like you he’s only a cliche
With two months to go your campaign smells quite piscatory
You clearly plan to lead us all astray
Ah, girl . . .
Girl, girl . . .
You’re an empty suit when what we need is an achiever
A trait you never could exemplify
Here’s our nation raging wildly now with Covid fever
No one needs your Freedom Lullaby
Ah, girl . . .
Girl, girl . . .
We live in a world of tumble-down dead ends unfair and pointless rules
We can’t afford our neighborhood our college loans or parenthood—it’s cruel
Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!
Girl . . .
Girl, girl . . .
When you speak with a forked tongue we heed and take your measure:
You will bring us circuses and bread
When our nation’s been hijacked by men in search of treasure
Why would we elect their figurehead?
Ah, girl . . .
Girl, girl . . .
(musical interlude)
Ah, girl . . .
Girl, girl . . .
The archive .is link didn’t work for me. Working link for WSJ Anti-Zionism article:
https://archive.ph/wftom
Thanks. Fixing. Looks like I’ve used a VPN too many times and now I’m running into a lot of “are you a bot?” challenges.
Anti-Zionism—opposition to the Jewish right of self-determination in the Jewish people’s historic homeland—is antisemitic, because it attacks a core belief of Judaism…
Academic boycotts of Israel curtail the free exchange of ideas with Israeli scholars and institutions, and they seek to undermine the connection between diaspora Jews and the Jewish homeland in Israel. By giving its imprimatur to such anti-Israel boycotts, the AAUP has done a disservice to the principles of inclusion and academic freedom that it purports to champion.
I wonder if the timing of this article is related to Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with John Rich where they discuss the Scofield Bible, John Darby and Pre Tribulation Rapture.
“they seek to undermine the connection between diaspora Jews and the Jewish homeland in Israel”
If there is a “connection,” it can be highly contentious. Recently I’ve been surprised to discover just how much Zionists, e.g.Gershom Scholem, sought to discredit “exilic” Judaism in controversies that extended over much of the 20th c. The versions that emerged during the Diaspora and were grounded in Torah scholarship, in favor of an aggressive Judaism cum Zionism that was more oriented to mystical teachings. Gabriel Piterberg, in his “The Returns of Zionism,” charts this very well.
“Mongolia was meant to arrest Russia’s President Putin last night. It didn’t, and now it’s in trouble’
Not sure but I think that with ICC warrants, that there are a few opt-out sections and one is dealing with heads of states. I really don’t know why the west and especially the Ukraine is so outraged by Putin not being arrested by the Mongolians. In a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday, a Mongolian government spokesperson said-
‘Mongolia imports 95% of its petroleum products and over 20% of electricity from our immediate neighborhood, which have previously suffered interruption for technical reasons. This supply is critical to ensure our existence and that of our people’
In other words, if they had arrested Putin, by that night North Korea would have more lights on than Mongolia. But Putin has been a friend to Mongolia so they are not going to do anything stupid. If the west thought that they were going to fly Putin to the Hague, it should be pointed out that a plane would have to fly over Russia or China to do so so no, not going to happen. Meanwhile the Ukraine has promised consequences! They are going to bring in NATO to punish the Mongolians.
https://www.politico.eu/article/mongolia-failure-arrest-vladimir-putin-international-warrant-international-criminal-court/
As far as I understand the Rome Statues (and be advised – that’s not very far) the ICC itself has no tools to enforce co-operation from states that are members. If there is a specific request from the court to the state, and the state refuses to co-operate, the court can refer the matter to the Assembly of States (the ICC oversight committee), which in due time can send a stern letter to the state and ask for an explanation on how the state in the future will co-operate with the court.
And that’s about it. When the powerful came up with the concept of ICC, they sure included a “get out of jail” card for the powerful.
That’s right. The ICC is a treaty-based organisation, and it follows the standard rules of such organisations. Nations are not obliged to accede (China and Russia have not) and may withdraw if they like. The Court itself is seen as a common expression of the will of the States Parties to punish individuals, and the organisation itself is a consensual one. States have duties, as with any such treaty, but if they don’t fulfil them, all they can be accused of is failing to perform these duties. In some countries it might be possible to take the government to a domestic court, but that’s about it. There’s sometimes a confusion with the ad hoc tribunals of the 1990s (Yugoslavia and Rwanda) but they were subordinate organs of the Security Council and states had an obligation to cooperate with them. I can’t imagine any government would have signed the Rome Statute if the ICC had an enforcement mechanism attached.
I see that Putin invited Mongolia to the BRICS summit in Russia next month. So maybe a future invite for Mongolia to join the BRICS? That is going to make a tough choice for Mongolia down the track. Join BRICS or obey the ICC. They may have to think that one out. Meanwhile I am still waiting for the ICC to make out an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/09/03/putin-invites-mongolian-president-to-brics-summit-in-kazan-a86236
Dining Alone (Carla Bley)
Lovely. And at the same time cuts to the bone…
In years gone by when I traveled to USA a lot for work, I quite liked that so many places had bars/restaurants where you could eat solo at the bar without the stigma of being “at a table solo”.
Maybe the stigma was just me, but having some background TV and occasional chat with bar staff made it feel better. Plus I sometimes got chatting to very interesting other solo patrons.
When eating at a table in Sweden I felt like I was patient zero carrying a plague.
„The Swiss population still feels less healthy than before the Covid pandemic. These are the findings of the Health Survey 2024 conducted by the Sotomo research institute on behalf of health insurer CSS.
More than two thirds of around 2,456 people surveyed said they were often tired and exhausted. Among the under-36s, the figure was as high as three quarters, with this category perceiving a particularly high level of pressure to perform.“
https://www.zentralplus.ch/news/viele-personen-sind-muede-und-erschoepft-2689018/
As is well known, Switzerland’s policy was based on a „soft fight against the pandemic“ („sanfte Pandemiebekämpfung“), as one German newspaper euphemistically called it.
Personally I think we’ve been the proverbial frogs in a pan with gradually increasing temperature for 40 years. COVID has turned up the dial by 20 degrees suddenly and lots of us frogs are jumping out of the pan.
If there are future generations to write history books they might write that covid did us a “sort of favour” by alerting enough of us.
I had been wondering when the breaking point would be reached, that is, what level of dislocation of the social and economic life would compel TPTB to change course and take public health seriously. After all, with a population unremittingly sickened by repeated viral infections of all kinds and their consequences on the immune system and the physiology, eventually the situation would become untenable.
I no longer believe this.
After all, till well into the 19th century, the vast majority of the population was in a state of quasi permanent infection — and there were no vaccines against virii, no antiobiotics against bacteriae, no ivermectin&co against parasits, no water treatment, no filters against air pollution… The general poor health of the population (which was in addition overworked on the fields or in the manufacturing plants) must have been quite a drag on productivity, but TPTB of those days did not seem to have been bothered — except when an outbreak of plague or cholera would sweep through a country and threaten them.
I once thought the neoliberal “elite” wanted to bring us back to the 19th century; I am now convinced it wants to go all the way back to the 18th century. For the 1% and their 9% dutiful servants, the 90% in a permanent state of sickliness does not merit any consideration.
That’s what I need. An attorney who is a junkyard cat !
That cat may look sleepy and a bit mangy but the mice in that junkyard know him at nighttime as ‘Whispering Death’.
As for the nature video, I think the message thereof is “Don’t mess with Ratels”. That ratel looked incredibly smug as it waddled off.
“Trump Calls Journalists “Enemy Of The People” During Pennsylvania Rally Minutes Before Man Storms Into Media Section’
Well he’s not wrong. Trump may have been taking about how they have been treating him the past few years but as a general case, the main stream media could disappear overnight and the result would be better informed people. The article says the following-
“The level of distrust in the American media is unprecedented,” Reporters Without Borders wrote of the United States. “The disinformation affecting American society has created an atmosphere where citizens no longer know who to trust.
What Reporters Without Borders does not say is that the two biggest sources of disinformation are the government but who is in turn outdone by the mainstream media itself. During Presidential campaigns it was overheard how journalists would say to each other which candidate they would cover and who that would never bring up to silence them. Proof of this at work was in 2016 when instead of covering a Sander speech, the networks focused on an empty stage where Trump was due to speak but was running about 20 minutes late. The talk about plucky Ukraine fighting the bear but never showing actual Nazis at work. So yeah, the media is actually the enemy of the people.
Can you name any powerful institution that has not, practically speaking, adopted a posture that is basically adversarial toward the well-being of much of the populace?
IMO, if there is any intention behind this rhetoric, aside from “useful in the moment”, it’s a misdirection tactic: “Look over there!”
Call me old fashioned but I believe that a healthy media should act like the nervous system to the body politic alerting it to what is going on around them. The present media in the western body politic act as if it suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
I don’t disagree with the “ideal” concept; my point is that everything is diseased. The sick media is a symptom of much wider problems. DJT’s “the media are ‘enemy of the people’ ” rhetoric seems to me to function as a distraction from the reality that the duopoly parties, the banks, industry, the healthcare provision system, etc., etc. are all in effect enemies of the people that in a properly functioning world they would serve.
>Robert Reich Calls for Arrest of Elon Musk for Resisting Censorship- Jonathan Turley
Reich has always shown a chilling fluidity in how free speech is protected and argued that public interest should be able to trump the right of any citizens in espousing views that he believes are dangerous.
I used to have a soft spot for RR. He would often speak eloquently in defense of labor and his rhetoric always included standing up for the little guy (pun intended). I often used to hear him as a guest on Amy Goodman’s DN, when I used visit that site, many years ago. The two part debate/interview he had with Chris Hedges was an early indicator of how far he would/has fallen.
His admonishment that in NOT voting for HRC was to ignore the “clear and present danger” of a Trump presidency and fascism. He was still then at an early stage TDS infection, it has metastasized and he is calling for censorship…they have become that which they warned against.
https://youtu.be/jr4cXH3Fil8?si=pdl5tPQvmXtU2NkO
https://youtu.be/ql7FQenIQEE?si=ykoUFRbxV62AzpTM
RE: As COVID Surges, the High Price of Viral Denial The Tyee
Just wondering what would happen if Trump is elected, RFKJ becomes the MAHA* “czar,” and Ivermectin is made freely available to all. Could be interesting.
*MAHA: Make America Healthy Again
“Russian missile attack on Lviv: 7 people killed, including 3 children, and 47 injured – photos, video”
That close to the border would mean maybe a coordination center for transport or some such. The more important attack was in the east in a city called Poltava. The media keeps talking about 50 people killed and over 200 other people injured while omitting the fact that those people mostly wore green clothes. The place hit was training radio and radar operators so that is a big loss for the Ukrainians and Moon of Alabama talks about a bunch of Swedes trainers caught there as well-
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/09/ukraine-russian-missile-strike-hits-swedish-instructors.html
Oh, I had looked at Moon earlier but that post obviously went live after I checked. Thanks!
And the delicious irony of Swedish invaders getting blown up in Poltava, of all places…
So, they are blaming pedophilia on weather? It was a monsoon season, your honor.
Gotta love markets linked to AI. This parasitic conjunction brings us mopes under a wonderful circularity: “surveillance pricing,” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-surveillance-pricing-practices-under-federal-probe/ which figures out the maximum price we can “agree” (not even “afford”) to pay for something. All while other AI and lesser mechs unearth all the triggers that “create demand” for that same necessity or object of desire, and endeavor to boost the price we will ineluctably be impelled to pay, even way beyond the fiscal ability to pay. https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/5-strategies-for-generating-consumer-demand/230981 Generating debt, subject to compound interest, and predatory fees and such profit centers.
Rinse and repeat, until we all own nothing and can’t afford to live.
Thereupon we will be offered the option of “assisted dying,” now being marketed very successfully in Canada and other places: 4% of all “excess deaths” in Canada are now “MAID” (Medical Assistance In Dying) , up 31% year over year. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/maid-canada-report-2022-1.7009704 Vulture capitalists are unsurprisingly making inroads into the death industrial complex. https://jacobin.com/2023/05/private-equity-hospice-care-profit-regulation
Growth in Death! A libertarian wet dream!
Had a friend, years ago, who had PhDs in cell mechanics and neurobiology and who decided to step out of the research racket for a couple of years to have kids. To keep her hand in, she volunteered to assist on a project to study the response of pleasure centers to various combinations of colors, forms and aromas, research being done by General Foods. With the clear goal of seeing what tricks can be used to make products essentially irresistible to “consumers.”
Fun world we think we live in.
Regarding this link— https://archive.ph/wftom
Note that the Palestinian right not to be ethnically cleansed plays no role— her religious need for Jews to live there trumps their petty concerns.
I often wonder what goes on in the heads of supposedly intelligent people when they say nothing about an obvious point that destroys their argument. Are they consciously aware of it?
“vaccinations [that neither stop transmission nor infection] withdrawn” LOL!
“Giant pigeon to visit New York”
Have to admit that my first thought was how big a bird was coming to New York-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnG6To_tVbs (4:57 mins)
Thank you for the wonderful videos of honey badger vs. cats and the little girl dancing. She will bring a smile to your face.