Patient readers, I have been prolix. Two wars, that’s a lot! I will remove some excess shortly. –lambert UPDATE Finished!
Apple revival: how science is bringing historic varieties back to life Nature
Horrifying parasitic wasp with a giant head is one of more than 100 newfound species discovered in the Amazon Live Science (Furzy Mouse).
Octopus Intelligence Shakes Up Darwin’s Tree Mind Matters. I cannot forbear from quoting:
Animals without backbones hid from each other or fell down. Clamasaurs and Oysterettes appeared as appetizers. Then came the sponges which sucked up about ten percent of all life. Hundreds of years later, in the Late Devouring Period, fish became obnoxious. Trailerbites, chiggerbites, and mosquitoes collided aimlessly in the dense gas. Finally, tiny edible plants sprang up in rows giving birth to generations of insecticides and other small dying creatures.
Wall Street’s Latest Obsession Is an Unknowable Number WSJ. Term premium.
Bloomberg Says It Is Using Machine Learning to Deliver Near Real-Time Bond Prices Institutional Investor
Climate
A Startup Battles Big Oil for the $1 Trillion Future of Carbon Cleanup Bloomberg. On carbon capture, see NC here, here, here, and here.
Wildlife Poop Is the Climate Solution You’ve Never Heard Of Scientific American
Water
Maya reservoirs relied on aquatic plants like water lilies to help keep water clean Ars Technica
#COVID19
Long COVID research risks losing momentum – we need a moonshot Nature. I’m so old I remember when NIH spent a billion dollars preparing the prerequisites for future Long Covid survey instruments, and didn’t even look for biomarkers. Good times. Commentary:
This is going to make lots of people angry at me, and I understand
If omicron reinfections average six months, and long Covid rates for reinfections remain 10-20%, The rate of long Covid in the USA per lifetime will be over 99.9%
— AJ Leonardi, MBBS, PhD (@fitterhappierAJ) May 29, 2023
People who’ve had Covid at least 5 times describe how the illness changed with each reinfection NBC
China?
China’s Xi announces over US$100 billion in new Belt and Road funding Channel News Asia
Bondholders of China’s Country Garden seek talks after missed payment: Sources Channel News Asia
China Sept coal output hits six-month high on rising power demand Hellenic Shipping News
Myanmar
Exclusive: Inside the Chinese-Run Crime Hubs of Myanmar that Are Conning the World: ‘We Can Kill You Here’ Pulitzer Center
Newsrooms should be prepared for deepfakes at a “staggering” scale Axios
Syraqistan
Israel-Hamas latest news: Biden ‘privately’ gave Israel green light for Gaza invasion – report Telegraph
Israel will let Egypt deliver some aid to Gaza, as doctors struggle to treat hospital blast victims AP
U.S. troops fend off drone attack in Iraq: CENTCOM Just the News. And no wonder, after Biden just painted a target on their backs. Fortunately, we have a carrier in the area, so we can enter the conflict for reals.
State Department official resigns over Biden’s handling of Israel-Palestine conflict Anadolu Agency
A large group of protesters chanted calls for a cease-fire in the Middle East as scores were arrested inside a House office building. Politico. Another occupation:
Jewish-Americans occupy Congress to demand an immediate ceasefire and a free Palestine. Because Jews have always been part of an anti Zionist movement and US support for Israel is not about protecting Jews. #Gaza #Genocide #Ceasefire #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/GNJdxJztq6
— Noura Erakat (@4noura) October 18, 2023
* * *
A Ceasefire in Gaza International Crisis Group. The deck: “Western leaders should join calls for a pause to save lives, prevent fighting from spreading and give diplomacy a chance.”
The Anti-Imperialist Movement That Supports Palestinian Liberation—And Runs Part of the UK Declassified UK. Sinn Féin.
Revisiting Yeshayahu Leibowitz JSTOR Daily
* * *
How fake accounts sowed mass confusion in the immediate aftermath of the Gaza hospital blast Daily Dot
Was this photo of a dead Israeli baby AI-generated? When AI-detection errors muddle public debate France24
* * *
Biden backs Israel as Middle East protests Gaza hospital blast (video) Channel 4 News. Level-headed wrap-up, worth a click-through and a listen:
Gaza hospital blast: Initial U.S. intel assessment is Israel “not responsible” Axios
It’s Significant That Putin Didn’t Ascribe Blame For The Gaza Hospital Catastrophe Andrew Korybko, Eesti Eest!
Israel-Gaza war: China condemns ‘heinous attack’ on hospital and urges ceasefire as priority at UN Security Council South China Morning Post
* * *
Netanyahu aide walks back Gaza hospital air attack admission TRT Afrika. Turkish-funded.
Palestinian envoy revokes claim that Israel issued warning of hospital attack beforehand TASS
Defense expert refutes Israeli military claim about hospital attack in Gaza Anadolu Agency. Iron Dome should have been activated by a rocket.
Absence of craters in Gaza hospital attack suggests use of ‘proximity fuse’: Ammunition specialist Anadolu Agency. If we accept some digital evidence of the parking lot.
* * *
US vetoes UN’s call for ‘humanitarian pause’ and corridors into Gaza Guardian. Good to see diversity in our diplomatic corps, that’s the important thing here:
The United States has just vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution trying to establish a “humanitarian pause” in the onslaught to allow for lifesaving aid to be brought into Gaza.
It was the only country to vote against it. https://t.co/IRSekyK859
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) October 18, 2023
‘Gaza Is Being Strangled’: Why Israel’s Evacuation Order Violates International Law Madras Courier
* * *
‘This is their 9-11’: Absent a US House speaker, McCaul emerges as GOP lead on Israel-Hamas war Austin-American. Double down:
McCaul Preparing Authorization of Military Force for If Gaza War EscalatesHe said the AUMF would apply to Hamas, Hezbollah, Shia militias in the region, and Iran if it enters the warby Dave DeCamp@DecampDave https://t.co/jPDlmxzSRw pic.twitter.com/F73IFUBs7F
— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) October 17, 2023
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (PDF) John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. From 2006, still highly germane (and the paper that got Mearsheimer blackballed in the Acela Corridor just as badly as Thomas Frank with Listen, Liberal!). 40 pages, but well worth a read. From paragraph four: “[T]he overall thrust of U.S. policy in the region is due almost entirely to U.S. domestic politics, and especially to the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby.’”
European Disunion
French left-wing alliance on brink of collapse over Middle East conflict France24
Europe’s Richest Royal Family Builds $300 Billion Finance Empire Bloomberg
Dear Old Blighty
Let them eat old vaccines AND plague Nate Bear, Do Not Panic
South of the Border
Washington says will ease Venezuela oil, gas sanctions after election deal France24
New Not-So-Cold War
News conference following the visit to China (transcript) President of Russia
Putin in Beijing Gilbert Doctorow
No More Malarkey on Ukraine The American Conservative
Ukraine’s Economy Starts to Rebound as It Adapts to War NYT
Republican Funhouse
Push to empower McHenry grows The Hill
Antitrust
Amateur astronomers file class-action lawsuits alleging telescope price-fixing conspiracy CBC. One for Stoller.
Tech
The shadowy underbelly of AI FOX
The world’s biggest AI models aren’t very transparent, Stanford study says The Verge
The Bezzle
Why can’t our tech billionaires learn anything new? Dave Karp, The Future, Now and Then. Crime makes you stupid. –Detective Frank Pemberton, Homicide
No, Really, What Is Going On With Sam Bankman-Fried’s Baffling Defense? Slate
Sports Desk
Tectonic Shifts RealClearPolitics
The Regulatory State
Wedding Websites, Free Speech, and Adverse Drug Effects NEJM. Important:
The First Amendment is traditionally seen as protecting the freedom of individuals’ speech from government interference. But in recent years, it has also been invoked by conservative litigators and relied on by judges to justify forbidding ‘compelled speech.’ In this view, just as the government cannot prevent a person from saying something, it cannot oblige a person to say something. Both uses of the newly weaponized First Amendment have become powerful tools in conservatives’ attempts to dismantle ‘the regulatory state.’ In 2023, pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck objected to provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices, arguing that requiring the company to state its acceptance of a future negotiated price would represent impermissible compelled speech. Merck’s argument and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and 303 Creative cases also reflect another development that was probably not anticipated by the Founders: that corporate entities deserve the same constitutional rights as individuals. The latter cases represented extensions of the Court’s 2014 Hobby Lobby ruling that a company can claim religious-freedom rights that exempt it from covering contraceptives under its employee health insurance.
Realignment and Legitimacy
Understanding democratic decline in the United States Brookings Institution. Blue cope, as Brookings fails to maintain even nominal even-handedness. The inability of liberal Democrats — and their base — to self-reflect never ceases to amaze (and is, in itself, a reinforcing factor in “democratic decline”).
Class Wafare
On the Unwholesomeness of Honest Toil Louise Crowley, The Anarchist Library. From 1966, still germane.
Life and Death and More Life: Leo Tolstoy on Science, Spirituality, and Our Search for Meaning The Marginalian
Antidote du jour (via):
Winter is coming.
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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