How a 150-year-old Japanese workshop survived the age of slop and distraction Big Think
‘Walk for Peace’: Buddhist monks arrive in in Washington after 108-day journey Aljazeera, YouTube (resilc)
Away From Pomp of Olympics, Homeless Shiver on Streets of Milan New York Times (resilc) 🙁
SOLVED: The Fermi silence is not a mystery. It is arithmetic.
The Great Filter isn’t hiding in asteroid impacts, grey goo, or runaway nanobots.
It is already here.
It has always been here.
It is encoded in the single most unforgiving line of mathematics any civilization ever… https://t.co/QLxSUPv921
— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) February 9, 2026
Common Sweetener May Damage Critical Brain Barrier, Risking Stroke Science Alert (resilc)
Coffee and Tea Intake, Dementia Risk, and Cognitive Function JAMA. Validation for caffeine junkies. 2 to 3 cups a day keeps dementia somewhat at bay.
Doctors discover new virus can cause dementia… and 20 million Americans already have it Daily Mail
FDA refuses to review Moderna’s application for mRNA flu vaccine, company says CNN (Kevin W)
#COVID-19/Pandemics
COVID-19 vaccine trust and uptake: the role of media, interpersonal and institutional trust in a large population-based survey Lancet (Robin K)
Avian flu behind mass skua die-off in Antarctica, scientists say CIDRAP
Climate/Environment
Another El Nino Already? What Can We Learn from It? Jim Hansen
Will the Pacific Decadal Oscillation turn neutral (or positive 🫣) this year?
If the negative PDO was natural variability and has *relatively* limited regional and global heat uptake, the next positive (=not good) PDO will lead to further acceleration of global warming. https://t.co/2iTVEOxTSK pic.twitter.com/sF1R7bG4Om
— Leon Simons 🌍 (@LeonSimons8) February 8, 2026
HISTORIC MIDDLE EAST HEAT WAVE
Records of Hottest February day in history pulverized:
33.6C Sedom ISRAEL33.4C Ghor El Safi JORDAN
Records also at Jericho PALESTINE
The exceptional heat will spread allover Asia and last the whole of February. Expect hundreds of records pic.twitter.com/i60Fv9huXa
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) February 8, 2026
Methane spiked after 2020 and the cause was unexpected Science Daily (Kevin W)
Electric Cars Are Making It Easier To Breathe, Study Finds The Drive.com
‘Stark warning’: pesticide harm to wildlife rising globally, study finds Guardian
China?
China property sales forecast cut by S&P as market slump deepens Investing
China steps up dangerous air encounters near Taiwan Financial Times
Is China Cooking Waymo? China Talk
Japan
Beware of ‘right-wing spiral’ driven by interaction between Japanese politics and internet rightwingers Global Times. Recall that this is effectively a house organ of the Chinese government.
China’s US Treasurys exit could limit Japan’s military spending Asia Times (Kevin W)
Africa
Heat with no end: climate model sets out an unbearable future for parts of Africa Modern Ghana
‘Our children are next’ fear Kenyans as drought wipes out livestock Addis Standard
South of the Border
Venezuela Ships First Crude Cargo to Israel as Oil Exports Reopen After Maduro’s Ouster Bloomberg (Kevin W)
🇺🇸 The Pentagon announced the seizure of the Panamanian-flagged tanker “Aquila II” in the Indian Ocean.
The US justified this seizure by claiming that the tanker violated the oil blockade in the Caribbean imposed by President Trump. pic.twitter.com/8rf76crebf
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) February 9, 2026
Cuba’s capital airport declares jet fuel unavailable as energy crisis deepens Flight Global
El Salvador declares national emergency: more than 600 forest fires reported so far this year Noticias Ambientales
The port of Chancay: a dramatic boost for extractivism in South America CADTM (Micael T)
European Disunion
Von der Leyen seeks to break key EU pillar RT (Kevin W)
Entre Paris et Genève, les multiples facettes de Jeffrey Epstein Marc Endeweld (Aurelien). Machine translation here.
How the Epstein scandal brought down Jack Lang: ‘Everyone knew he never paid for anything’ Le Monde
Farmers report ‘catastrophic’ crop damage as Storm Marta sweeps Spain and Portugal France24
Old Blighty
Gilt yields soar again as No10 turmoil rocks the markets… sparking fears of a Liz Truss-style financial crisis This is Money
Lower-income families face 137-year wait for living standards to double, says UK thinktank Guardian
🇬🇧 The Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the UK’s largest court reporting archive.
Courtsdesk, a platform launched to improve media access to magistrates’ court data has been ordered to delete its archive of records by David Lammy’s Ministry of Justice.
According… pic.twitter.com/PRVDWdhRbk
— Europa.com (@europa) February 9, 2026
Hundreds of flood warnings and alerts in place across UK following days of non-stop rain LBC
Israel v. The Resistance
Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate Aljazeera (guurst)
I’m Not Done with You Baffler. Important.
Those are the water tanks the Israeli military detonates in order to exacerbate thirst and collective death in Gaza. This is why Doctors Without Borders is being banned from the occupied Palestinian territory in violation of the Genocide Convention. https://t.co/o7rkTSkxlv
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) February 10, 2026
Odds are 8-1 Trump won’t start a Gulf war Indian Punchline. Contra the view of Larry Johnson and the rumors heard by Daniel Davis.
Col. Larry Wilkerson: The U.S. Just Hit a Point of No Return . Dialogue Works, YouTube. Wilkerson confirms a scenario we had warned about, starting at 2:20. He has heard from reliable sources that Netanyahu is bringing Epstein documents to his meeting with Trump to blackmail him to force an attack Iran. If Trump were sufficiently ruthless, he could record the Bibi threat and have him arrested and incarcerated. Blackmail is a crime, after all. But Trump beats up only on parties he regards as weak.
War and ‘Covert Action’ Are Not How to Deal With Iran American Conservative (resilc)
Syraquistan
Turkey’s army chief says ‘no plans to withdraw’ from Syria Al-Monitor
New Not-So-Cold War
In Ukraine, deaths from hypothermia rise as Russia attacks energy system Aljazeera
Russia STILL Losing? Julian Macfarlane
Who or What Putin Works For Olivier Boyd-Barrett
Dark fleet expansion looms as EU seeks to cut maritime lifelines for Russian oil Splash 247
As Beijing and Moscow tout ties, China’s firms keep Ukraine’s lights on South China Morning Post
Imperial Collapse Watch
The President’s Murder Spree Hasn’t Ended Daniel Larison
Do you think “It can’t happen here”? Revelations of Joint Chiefs of Staff spy operation against White House Lucy Komisar
C. Thi Nguyen on Why Measuring Everything Ruins Everything Yascha Mounk. A long standing pet peeve. See Management’s Great Addiction Conference Board Review
Trump 2.0
American Optimism Slumps to Record Low Gallup (resilc)
Trump to Order Pentagon to Buy Coal Power for National Security OilPrice. resilc: “Horse calvary next?
ICE Rampage
ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next Wired
Without explanation, FAA closes El Paso and New Mexico airspace for 10 days, cites national defense El Paso Matters! Paul R: “ICE storm brewing I guess.”
L’affaire Epstein
If true, this would also support the idea that the huge amount of so-far hidden Trump-Epstein dealings means that it is a near certainty that Israel has its own Epstein kompormat on Trump:
🚨 MAJOR BREAKING: Lawmakers say Trump’s personal lawyers — Bondi, Blanche, and Patel — withheld or redacted an estimated 95% of references to Donald Trump in the Epstein files — roughly 950,000 of 1M+ mentions, per staff calculations.
If accurate, this is one of the largest…
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) February 10, 2026
Commerce chief Lutnick admits to visiting Epstein Island during Senate grilling The Hill
Trump cabinet member ensnared in Epstein scandal Popular Information
Democrats Suck
What Democrats can actually learn from the 1992 election G. Elliott Morris (Robin K)
Police State Watch
In Australia The Police Beat You Up For Opposing Genocide Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)
Shared with us from Sydney happening now. He had his hands up. pic.twitter.com/Ubdo00Y15j
— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) February 9, 2026
Our No Longer Free Press
TikTok on Payday’s Reporting Gets 21,000 Likes in Brasil, But Blocked by Trump Regs in U.S. Mike Elk
Economy
Climate risk threatens credit ratings for dozens of countries Economic Times
AI
Trump to hyperscalers: your datacenters, your power bill The Register
The Politics of AI NBER (resilc)
The Bezzle
Crypto revolt exposes fragility of Trump’s coalition Axios (resilc)
Deepfake Fraud Taking Place On an Industrial Scale, Study Finds Guardian
Bitcoin remains in tight range under $70,000 ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. jobs report Coindesk
Class Warfare
US Consumer Delinquencies Jump to Highest in Almost a Decade Bloomberg
NYC Private School Tuition Breaks $70,000 Milestone for Fall Bloomberg
Is Immigration Good for Health? The Effect of Immigration on Older Adult Mortality in the United States NBER (resilc)
I realized this morning that I made the crossover.
It’s permanent. You don’t go back.
While getting ready for work, my wife asked me what I thought about the story of Savannah Guffrey and her mother being kidnapped.
Without hesitation, I said, “It’s a psyop.”
She stopped and…
— Maryland HODL (BitBonds = Structural Innovation) (@MarylandHODL21) February 10, 2026
Antidote du jour (Mark T):
A bonus:
A koala at the zoo approaching its favorite zookeeper, getting petted and hugged.
pic.twitter.com/rfvIx6Y98h
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 11, 2026
A second bonus:
Aww.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/IPwO9Yx2d8
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) February 10, 2026
And a third:
Sometimes, the best things in life happen when we least expect them. pic.twitter.com/VSReOM5ks4
— Out of Context Human Race (@NoContextHumans) February 11, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
