Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Private Equity Now Buying Up Primary Care Practices
Private equity is doing yet more damage to heath care as it buys up primary care practices en masse.
The Icepick Surgeon: Tales of Scientists Gone Rogue (or Worse)
Author Sam Kean follows the long trail of amoral scientists, and their justifications.
2:00PM Water Cooler 7/23/2021
By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day “Neural representations of space in the hippocampus of a food-caching bird” [Science]. “Spatial memory in vertebrates requires brain regions homologous to the mammalian hippocampus. Between vertebrate clades, however, these regions are anatomically distinct and appear to produce different spatial patterns of neural activity. We asked […]
Artificial Intelligence Wants You (and Your Job)
Yves here. Two things about increased automation frost me. One is its stealth or main purpose as forcing planned obsolescence. So irrespective of the impact on job/labor content, any savings won’t necessarily accrue to users. Two is automation/AI serving as an excuse to shift costs and tasks onto consumers. How many times do customer service […]
Quelle Surprise: Covid Cases Surge in Europe’s Tourism Hot Spots, Just One Month After Grand Reopening
It turns out that a massive increase in cross-border travel — particularly by air — is a great way of spreading an airborne virus.
Financial Times: “Things Could Fall Apart for Biden”
Even Biden loyalists are getting nervous.
Reconstructing US-China Relations
Can the US and China be friends, or at least not so hostile? Jeffrey Sachs has some ideas.
A Round-Up of Anti-Covid Nasal Spray Research
Nasal sprays for vaccination, treatment, and prophylaxis (the last with two over-the-counter products not delivering drugs).
2:00PM Water Cooler 7/22/2021
~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
DOE Quietly Backs Plan for Carbon Capture Network Larger Than Entire Oil Pipeline System
Obama Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and major labor group AFL-CIO are behind the “blueprint” for a multi-billion dollar system to transport captured CO2 — and offer a lifeline to fossil fuel plants.
Quelle Surprise! New Study Confirms that Public Pension Funds Use Flattering Benchmarks to Hide Failure to Beat Simple Indexing; CalPERS Is a Case Study
Documenting yet another way public pensions funds lie to themselves and their many constituencies about their performance.
The Delta Variant Thrives in a State of Political and Public Health Discord
More worries about Delta.
