Schrödinger’s Neighbor Says Thought Experiment Very Interesting But He’d Really Just Like A Straight Answer On Where His Cat Is Babylon Bee (Li)
A spirit so good people are smuggling it in suitcases BBC (Robin K)
What Can We Learn from Menstrual Blood? New Yorker (Dr. Kevin)
Struggling to Unlock Your Phone? You Might Have Lost Your Fingerprints Wired (Dr. Kevin). *Sigh*. Makes “lost” fingerprints seem temporary or a function of age. Yours truly did not have readable fingerprints in my early 20s and that has been persistent (and no, I have not done strenuous manual work or handled harsh chemicals). Goldman tried 3x to satisfy NASD requirements and had to put a note in my file instead. Having prints so shallow as to be not readable makes using contact lens very difficult. The lens makes a tight seal to the finger and does not want to release to the eyeball.
23&Me is collapsing: turns out, all that precious DNA data is worthless Sasha Latypova (Micael T)
#COVID-19
US faces another COVID-19 surge The Hill. And school is starting.
Univ. of Kentucky researchers find Alzheimer’s-like brain changes in long COVID patients University of Kentucky (Paul R)
Michigan Supreme Court won’t rule on COVID lawsuits, income tax trigger Detroit News (ma)
Climate/Environment
US Government Opens Up 31 Million Acres of Federal Lands For Solar Electrek
Largest dam removal in U.S. history frees Klamath River Los Angeles Times (Chuck L)
China?
China’s 5% Growth Target Faces Rising Doubt as UBS Cuts Outlook Bloomberg
China’s factory activity seen extending declines in August Reuters
Chinese leverage has crept up to a new record Financial Times
US trade chief Tai lauds Canada’s steep new tariffs on Chinese EVs and metals South China Morning Post
If voted to power, Kamala Harris would ‘responsibly manage’ US-China ties, Sullivan assures Chinese top brass FirstPost. Since when does one administration speak for a possible future one?
South of the Border
Venezuela’s diaspora flexes its might Aljazeera
The effects of the dollar shortage in Bolivia: international freight costs increase by 50% America Economia
Africa
Mpox outbreak in Africa: Looming economic crisis Africa News
The ripple effects of Sudan’s war are being felt across three continent Economist
European Disunion
German politician hit with paint ahead of state election DW. Sahra Wagenknecht.
France: What Happened to You, Man? Matt Taibbi
Old Blighty
Suicide rates in England and Wales reach highest level since 1999 Guardian
Far right is very real threat, says Keir Starmer BBC (Kevin W)
UK rail minister got engineer sacked for raising safety concerns Politico (Kevin W)
Gaza
UN food agency suspends operations in Gaza after car hit by gunfire at Israeli checkpoint Guardian
War on Gaza: Aid workers killed in Israeli strike on humanitarian convoy Middle East Eye (Kevin W)
How Israel’s Elite Intelligence Unit Targets Queer Palestinians in the West Bank DropSite (Dr. Kevin)
West Bank attacks: To western leaders, there are no red lines for Israel’s slaughter Middle East Eye (Micael T). A major escalation that’s getting pretty much no notice in the Anglosphere media.
President of the painters and allied trades union Jimmy Williams Jr says the union is directing its massive international pension fund to make sure none of its investments are going to support the “genocide in Gaza”. pic.twitter.com/KVVKKGMzS2
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) August 29, 2024
Israel is not an outpost of the West Asia Times (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
Last of the Wunderwaffen? F-16 Blasted Out of Sky in First Mission Simplicius. A Ukraine MP says friendly fire from a Patriot downed the plane. Some experts say it was hit on the ground by an Iskander and the pilot and others were in proximity.
EU to Move Forward With Russian Asset Plan Regardless of US Bloomberg
Diplomacy Watch: F-16 crashes, Zelensky says they need more Responsible Statecraft. At the close of his show on Friday, Alexander Mercoursis disagreed long form with the claim in the subhead, that Kiev seems “keen” to negotiate. Mercoursis, who IMHO generally is more optimistic about the possibility of negotiated outcomes than I am, says he has concluded Kiev will never negotiate (at least under the current regime) and (my words, not his), all they do is string various players along.
How drone attacks are changing the rules and the costs of the Ukraine war The Conversation (Dr. Kevin). Includes some questionable claims along with useful observations.
ICC orders Asian country to arrest Putin RT (Kevin W)
Kremlin wages campaign to justify Putin’s falling rating over situation in Kursk – ISW Ukrainska Pravda
Bloomberg: Ukraine war bankrupts Alaskan fishery International Affairs (Micael T)
Imperial Collapse Watch
How Many Americans Will Die From Civilization Collapse? Ian Welsh (Micael T)
Trump
The Slump American Conservative
After decades of anti-vaccine rhetoric, RFK Jr. pivots to chronic diseases — and gets Trump on board STAT
Trump seeks to shift debate on IVF with pricey proposal The Hill. Oddly one never sees covering Ozempic described as expensive. The only time I can recall that concern raised was with a big ticket, not great efficacy Alzheimers med.
Kamala
Kamala BOMBS First Interview, SPIRALS OUT of Control DeVory Dawkins. ZOMG, CNN asked some real questions. Even with an edited interview, she does not look so hot.
Harris rules out Israel arms embargo: ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ Anadolu Agency. Chas Freeman made some caustic comments about her statement on a new Nima talk.
2024
Harris Has Taken Narrow Lead Over Trump, WSJ Poll Finds Wall Street Journal
Texas T-Zones Obsolete Man (Micael T)
Leaked Gaza Cable. US military in 74 countries. Election Hysteria. Ken Klipperstein. See opening section on election interference claims
Our No Longer Free Press
All the news on Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest The Verge
The Geopolitical Fallout of Telegram Founder Pavel Durov’s Arrest Foreign Policy
Musk’s X banned in Brazil after disinformation row BBC
Major publishers sue Florida over ‘unconstitutional’ school book ban Guardian
Mr. Market Gets What He Wants
US economic growth for last quarter is revised up to a solid 3% annual rate Associated Press. (Robin K). Shameless.
Intel Weighs Options Including Foundry Split To Stem Losses; Shares Soar Bloomberg
AI
Digital twins are making companies more efficient Economist (Dr. Kevin)
OpenAI and Anthropic to share AI models with US government TechXplore (Dr. K)
This new AI pin could be the personal transcriptionist I’ve been waiting for – if it works ZDNET (Dr. Kevin). Great. Adds to AI training sets.
LLMs produce racist output when prompted in African American English Nature (Paul R)
Antitrust
Judges Rule Big Tech’s Free Ride on Section 230 Is Over Matt Stoller. Important
Class Warfare
Book Review: Technology and chaotic government programs doom family farms in ‘Land Rich Cash Poor’ Associated Press (Robin K)
Antidote du jour (Cheryl K):
A bonus (Chuck L):
That jaguar is gorgeous!! pic.twitter.com/hBMoja5T8q
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 29, 2024
A second bonus:
This is what happiness looks like..🐮😊 pic.twitter.com/Gw0ibXyljZ
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) August 29, 2024
A third bonus. Having been a minder of Abyssinians (and this very model, a Ruddy), this is so how they are. Abys care about what their humans think, at least more than most cats:
— Cats That Heal Your Depression (@Catshealdeprsn) August 29, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
