Patient readers, my triply-redudant connectivity system has had a hiccup. In the interests of speed, I did not archive any links for you, as I have recently been doing. Sorry! –lambert
Bald eagle thought to be hurt was really just ‘too fat to fly,’ Missouri officials say St Louis Post-Dispatch
Baby boom prompts call to boost wild beaver population BBC
‘Obscenely greedy’ oil executives handed Swiss jail terms for role in 1MDB fraud FT
Climate
How heat affects the mind American Psychological Association
Yes, corn can sweat. And it may be why hot Midwestern summers are getting more humid PBS. Handy map:
Urban heat island can’t compete
Corn fields spike dewpoints into the lower 80s meaning heat index goes to 120°F 📈
Iowa yesterday was literally steaming from the climate-fueled corn sweat 🌽 pic.twitter.com/rsWpeMsgcH
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) August 27, 2024
Living in tree-filled neighborhoods may reduce risk of heart disease, study shows NBC
Lightning & Thunderstorms – World Map Blitzortung.org. Animated, near-real time.
Water
Water On The Brain: Irrigation Then And Now 3 Quarks Daily
Syndemics
The disappointing international response to mpox FT
Fibrin drives thromboinflammation and neuropathology in COVID-19 Nature. From the Dicussion: “Although clotting complications in COVID-19 have previously been attributed primarily to systemic inflammation14, our findings suggest that coagulopathy in COVID-19 is not merely a consequence of inflammation, but rather serves as an apical driver of infection-induced thromboinflammation and neuropathology. Our data reveal a causal immunomodulatory role for fibrinogen in thromboinflammation and neuropathology in COVID-19.”:
Japan warns against panic buying as rice shortages bite Channel News Asia
China?
China’s international use of renminbi surges to record highs FT
Chinese Localities Adopt ‘Sell Everything to Save the Day’ Policy to Ease Debt Caixin Global. Commentary:
4/9
That’s because the only sustainable way to increase the role of consumption in the economy requires that households retain a larger share of GDP, which in turn means that some other sector retain a lower share. In the end the least bad “other sector” is local governments.— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) August 29, 2024
Protests on rise in China amid sluggish economy, housing crisis: Report Business Standard
China’s urban-rural gap is a threat to growth. Is the divide too wide to fix? South China Morning Post
‘Little desire to have kids’: More young Chinese choosing pets over children Channel News Asia
Are China’s vast bamboo forests the answer to forever fossil plastics? South China Morning Post
How to Manage Escalation with Nuclear Adversaries Like China RAND
People’s uprising against an autocratic state Anarchist Library. Bangladesh.
Africa
World’s police in technological arms race with Nigerian mafia BBC
Syraqistan
Largest in 2 decades, Israeli army launches major military operation in northern West Bank Anadolu Agency
Israel has launched a massive assault on the West Bank. Why and why now? Al Jazeera
Gaza breakdown: 20 times Israel used US arms in likely war crimes Responsible Statecraft
European Disunion
When French Citrus Colonized Algeria JSTOR Daily
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia warns the United States of the risks of World War Three Reuters
Did Ukraine just call Putin’s nuclear bluff? Vox
The False Promise of Ukraine’s Deep Strikes Into Russia Foreign Affairs
Ukraine successfully tests its first ballistic missile Politico. The deck: “Ukraine’s president offers no details on the test, but says that it was ‘positive.’”
Ukraine to present ‘victory plan’ to US – Zelensky BBC
* * * Pentagon maintains restrictions on Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia Ukrainska Pravda
Russia says Ukrainian drone attack started fire at oil depot, disrupted air traffic Anadolu Agency
* * * The Murky Meaning of Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive Foreign Policy
* * * How the Russian Establishment Really Sees the War Ending Foreign Policy
Biden Administration
Almost half of FDA-approved AI medical devices are not trained on real patient data, research reveals Medical Xpress
Fermilab is ‘doomed’ without management overhaul claims whistleblower report Physics World
2024
Vibes:
How it started. How it’s going.
Ten years later, and it’s still a good look! https://t.co/NKXRGNgJPv pic.twitter.com/KeI1gn7HSg
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 28, 2024
Harris and Walz to sit down with CNN for first formal interview of campaign Al Jazeera
Spook Country
Durov formally charged, released on €5mn bail BNE Intellinews
Pavel Durov and the Abuse of Law Craig Murray
Telegram’s Loudest Defender: The Global Crypto Industry NYT
Hmm:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Donald Trump told him this week that former CIA Director Mike Pompeo “begged” him to not release the JFK files.
The comment came during RFK’s interview with Tucker Carlson who called Pompeo a “criminal.”
“I was astonished that Trump didn’t declassify… pic.twitter.com/0LjbuasYTL
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 27, 2024
Digital Watch
Imagining Intelligent Machines Communications of the ACM. “The current advances in AI are based on ideas invented decades ago, enhanced by huge data and compute. I believe these statistical methods have a ceiling. Without new ideas, everybody will, in time, be doing the same thing and the results will be increasingly incremental.” Commentary:
With enough money, you can bubble sort anything.
— Phil Libin (@plibin) August 27, 2024
The World’s Call Center Capital Is Gripped by AI Fever — and Fear Bloomberg
Why AI can’t spell ‘strawberry’ TechCrunch
* * * Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms? NYT
TikTok must face lawsuit over 10-year-old girl’s death, US court rules Reuters
* * * Roblox is Already the Biggest Game In The World. Why Can’t It Make a Profit (And How Can It)? Matthew Ball
CrowdStrike estimates the tech meltdown caused by its bungling left a $60 million dent in its sales AP
Tumblr to move its half a billion blogs to WordPress TechCrunch
Net Negativity: Thinking About Online Brutality and Ways to Fix It Nippon.com
The Final Frontier
The Local Bubble: How our solar system got caught up in a cosmic crime scene Space.com
Zeitgeist Watch
The Best Novel About 21st-Century Male Loneliness Was Written in 1989 Literary Hub
Class Warfare
Work to Rule and Open Bargaining Back Down Kroger Warehouse Bosses Labor Notes
The slow evaporation of the free/open source surplus Baldur Bjarnason
The Shrewd Business Logic of Immigrant Cooks JSTOR Daily
Labor’s Reckoning: What We Can Learn From the Cold War History of the AFL-CIO Workday Magazine
Chaos and cause Aeon
Antidote du jour (KetaDesign):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
