Looking for honey? This African bird will heed your call and take you there NPR
Mercury may have a ‘potentially habitable’ region below its surface, salty glaciers suggest Live Science
Misery Has Company, But Recession Is a No-Show John Authers, Bloomberg
Climate
COP28: Where Fossil Fuel Industries Go to Gloat Dissident Voice
‘Small minority’ of nations blocking progress on fossil fuels at COP28, says at-risk Vanuatu France24
Phasing out fossil fuels is key to COP28 success, says UN’s Guterres Reuters
At UN climate talks, cameras are everywhere. Many belong to Emirati company with a murky history Chicago Tribune
#COVID19
CDC rift with Cal/OSHA over when to use N95 masks could put California health workers at risk again San Francisco Chronicle. When HICPAC’s guidance guts protection in hospitals, the workplace will follow.
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Experiences of Canadians with long-term symptoms following COVID-19 Statistics Canada. Commentary:
StatCan just dropped a bombshell report on LC. This is the most important figure. It highlights that the risk of long term symptoms is cumulative, it increases with increasing number of infections. By 3+ infections, 38% report long term symptoms — that’s 1 in every 2.6 people. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/acqgNGiW12
— Dr. Lisa Iannattone (@lisa_iannattone) December 8, 2023
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Virological characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 JN.1 variant (preprint; PDF) bioRxiv. From the Abstract: “The SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 lineage, first identified in August 2023, is 32 phylogenetically distinct from the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron 33 XBB lineages, including EG.5.1 and HK.3. Comparing to XBB and BA.2, BA.2.86 34 carries more than 30 mutations in the spike (S) protein, indicating a high 35 potential for immune evasion.” And from the Text: “These results suggest that JN.1 may soon become the dominant lineage 59 worldwide. Indeed, by the end of November 2023, JN.1 has already overtaken 60 HK.3 in France and Spain.”
Post-COVID exercise intolerance is associated with capillary alterations and immune dysregulations in skeletal muscles Acta Neuropathologica Communications. N = 11. From the Abstract: “We present an in-depth analysis of skeletal muscle biopsies obtained from eleven patients suffering from enduring fatigue and post-exertional malaise after an infection with SARS-CoV-2. Compared to two independent historical control cohorts, patients with post-COVID exertion intolerance had fewer capillaries, thicker capillary basement membranes and increased numbers of CD169+ macrophages. … We hypothesize that the initial viral infection may have caused immune-mediated structural changes of the microvasculature, potentially explaining the exercise-dependent fatigue and muscle pain.”
* * *
George Clooney Directed The Boys in the Boat From iPad amid COVID Outbreak: ‘I Was Really Sick’ (Exclusive) People. Moar celebrities. Yet another celebrity:
Who else has had the latest Covid strain? I’m into day 7 of incessant cough, snotty nose, raging sinuses, asthma-like breathing, Barry White voice, and tedious fatigue.. would love to hear it’s only an 8-day thing.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 10, 2023
Out of time Adam Kucharski. Understanding the Unseen
China?
China’s economy has a ‘steep hill to climb’ despite positive export surprise, HSBC says Hellenic Shipping News
China’s Top Leadership Pledges Stronger Focus on Growth Next Year Caixin Global
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China Stocks’ Premium Over HK Peers Climbs to Highest in Year Bloomberg
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Yan Xuetong says telling truth from falsehood is top priority for students of international relations Pekingnology. Let me know how that works out.
Xi to visit Vietnam for first time in 6 years as China, US compete for influence in Southeast Asian nation South China Morning Post. Good. Let the bamboo sway in the breeze. That’s exactly what our foreign policy establishment should be aiming for.
Myanmar
For Myanmar’s generals, energy crisis threatens shaky grip on power Al Jazeera
India
Secret Indian Memo Ordered “Concrete Measures” Against Hardeep Singh Nijjar Two Months Before His Assassination in Canada The Intercept
Syraqistan
All of 2024 likely to be spent in ‘war mode’ against Hamas, IDF says YNet News. “[O]n the ground, the army is amazed every day by how strong Hamas is. It is a real army (…) that was established 50 minutes from Tel Aviv over the past years.”
Jordan’s foreign minister says Israel aiming ‘to empty Gaza of its people’ and Israel cannot carry out ‘collective punishment’ of people in Gaza: Lavrov Al Jazeera
Houthis widen ship targets Splash 247
* * *
Israel-Hamas war: ‘For the moment, Netanyahu strongly rejects the two-state solution’ Le Monde (Furzy Mouse).
By Trying to Humiliate Gaza to Its Core, Israel Is the One Being Humiliated Haaretz
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US skips congressional review to approve emergency sale of tank shells to Israel Reuters
[sigh]:
Thank you @SenSanders for your strong opposition to a permanent ceasefire with Hamas.@FaceTheNation pic.twitter.com/78PdsAKm1D
— AIPAC | Text ISRAEL to 24722 | #StandWithIsrael (@AIPAC) December 10, 2023
Dear Old Blighty
Labour’s Wes Streeting just used the winter crisis to argue AGAINST more NHS funding Canary. “Labour” supports NHS privatization. A big tip of the hat to the spooks, the press, the Israeli embassy, and Parliamentary Labour for defenestating Corbyn and installing these ghouls.
Britain slipping back to social divide of Victorian era (press release) Centre for Social Justice
European Disunion
Western democracies face crisis of confidence ahead of big votes, poll shows Politico
Lauterbach urges people to take precautionary measures during Advent because of Corona (Google translation) Der Spiegel. The deck: “Masks, no Christmas parties indoors, home office: The Minister of Health warns of a new corona wave and everyone should increase protective measures.”
Georgia sews EU flag of record size JAM News
The Untold Story of Vienna’s Global Influence Foreign Policy
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukrainians question Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ‘rose-tinted’ speeches FT
Ukraine’s Percolating Hatred of America Matt Bivens, The 100 Days
Zelenskyy to make last ditch trip to D.C. to meet Biden and push Congress for aid Politico
* * *
The Shortest Path to Victory in Ukraine Goes Through Crimea Foreign Policy
‘We Only Need Some Metal Things’ George Packer, The Atlantic
* * *
The Majority Never Had It So Good Russia.Post. Interesting. Anybody know the word for “deplorables” in Russian?
Incompetent Russia Hilariously Fails to Prevent Ukraine from Losing. The New Kremlin Stooge
* * *
How Ukrainian civilians fought Russia’s occupation in Kherson for months CBS
455 Ukrainian cities and towns have no power due to weather, hostilities, and technical issues Pravda
* * *
Gonzalo Lira:
An American YouTuber has been imprisoned for 5 years in Ukraine, and allegedly tortured, for making videos.
This is not ok. https://t.co/NPbvARtnde
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2023
Dueling “Community Note,” one of which cites to “The New Voice of Ukraine.” Dudes, come on.
Brookfield chides US bank regulator for ‘secret’ auction of housing loans FT
Antitrust
FTC opens inquiry of Chevron-Hess merger, marking second review this week of major oil industry deal AP. I’ve gotta say, even if Biden isn’t running on — indeed, seems to be actively suppressing — his anti-trust record, it actually distinguishes him from Trump, and might lead some to give consideration to the idea of actually voting for him.
Bending Spoons, The Parent Company That Now Owns – And Laid Off The Staff Of – Filmic Daring Fireball. “Apps seemingly don’t thrive after acquisition by Bending Spoons — instead, they get bled dry.” Another one for Stoller.
Digital Watch
The Curse of Recursion: Training on Generated Data Makes Models Forget (preprint) arXiv. I’ve been muttering about AI autocoprophagy for some time. Now there’s a study. From the Abstract:
What will happen to GPT-{n} once LLMs contribute much of the language found online? We find that use of model-generated content in training causes irreversible defects in the resulting models, where tails of the original content distribution disappear. We refer to this effect as Model Collapse and show that it can occur in Variational Autoencoders, Gaussian Mixture Models and LLMs. We build theoretical intuition behind the phenomenon and portray its ubiquity amongst all learned generative models. We demonstrate that it has to be taken seriously if we [who?] are to sustain the benefits of training from large-scale data scraped [stolen] from the web. Indeed, the value of data collected about genuine human interactions with systems will be increasingly valuable in the presence of content generated by LLMs in data crawled from the Internet.”
I love the idea of collecting data about “genuine human” “interactions” with “systems.” Techie to Normie: “Everything you do will be tracked, now please interact for me in a totally genuine manner.” Do these brain geniuses read what they write? The power trip is the same as “I want to see your smile.”
Is AI leading to a reproducibility crisis in science? Nature. Not “leading to.” “Amplifying,” perhaps; see KLG here.
Popular Retailers Accused Of Using AI To Illegally Record Customers Banning-Beaumont CA Patch
AI Is the Y2K Crisis, Only This Time It’s Real Peggy Noonan
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Tesla drivers run Autopilot where it’s not intended — with deadly consequences WaPo
Healthcare
Quebec adopts sweeping health-care reform bill CBC. “Santé Québec will become the sole employer.”
Groves of Academe
The College Presidents Were Right About Campus Antisemitism Schools should regulate conduct, not speech. Jonathan Chait, New York Intelligencer
Obituaries
Persona Grata New Left Review. Kissinger.
Zeitgeist Watch
The Age of Doom Infinite Scroll. Slightly wrong quote from Louis CK at the end.
Guillotine Watch
Fraud, Lies, Exploitation and Eugenic Fantasies Truthdig
Class Warfare
Inside an alleged Amazon union-busting campaign in Kentucky: ‘They want to scare us’ ABC
Book Review – A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness The Inquisitive Biologist
Time and Space the Miyazaki Way Animation Obsessive
Learning to comfort well Orlando Sentinel
Antidote du jour (KatieBird):
Bonus antidote:
Because every heart can feel affection pic.twitter.com/BUFWYHBZ0z
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) December 7, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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