Why help? In a cooperative woodpecker, close genetic bonds are only part of the story PNAS
The History of the White Cloth in a Broken Down Car Window North Carolina Rabbit Hole
Climate
The climate is doomed if we continue to be fixated by economic growth Physics World
#COVID19
CDC will adopt California “one-day” isolation policy (in practice, mandating Covid infection) today:
2) what the CDC is doing is relaxing the guidelines of isolation to effectively ‘you can go out and have fun as long as you’re improving since yesterday’. Yes it’s ridiculous. Others have written on it. And it is totally public health abdication. https://t.co/g6aoNK4n0C
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) March 1, 2024
That’s bad. Feigl-Ding then gives an epidemiologist’s view of the “data analysis” on which the CDC’s new guidance is putatively based. There’s a lot wrong (read the whole thread), but this seems like the most wrong:
8) According to sources, the data analysis is mainly based on change in COVID levels after a certain state announced & enacted a similar controversial isolation relaxation policy — on Jan 9th 2024!!! It’s a brand new policy after the Nov-Dec 2023 wave had already peaked! The peak… pic.twitter.com/CbmLsEDtzE
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) March 1, 2024
CDC has crossed the Rubicon. For a generous-minded person like myself, it has been possible to model the practice of science at CDC as primarily driven by institutional factors and impacted paradigms; “droplet dogma,” for example, whose defeat will proceed “one funeral at a time.” No longer. CDC is justifying an openly eugenicst policy with junk science, produced to order for that purpose. Every author, every editor, and every administrator who signed off on this thing should resign. Of course they will not; in fact, most are likely to be promoted (“Thank you for your service”). Je répète: CDC should be burned to the ground, the ashes scattered, the rubble plowed under, and the ground salted.
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Breaking: Coworker who gave entire office Covid promoted for never taking a day off The Beaverton
Man with measles ate at Mississauga restaurant Insauga. It was probably “mild” case.
China?
China’s economy suffers blow as factory activity slows FT
1H2024: Slower Growth to Drag On in Dragon Year Macro Polo
Demographic transition in China:
2/In China, the year of “Dragon Babies” could give it a baby bump as in the past. But a single-year bump won’t reverse the population decline in what is now the world’s second-most populous country. pic.twitter.com/NMkUJAdlzB
— MacroPolo (@MacroPoloChina) February 7, 2024
Lots of charts!
India
India’s economy grows at its fastest pace in six quarters in election boost for Modi Channel News Asia
India’s Urban Company revolutionised gig work for women. Then it bled them Al Jazeera
Vietnam: Leaked Communist Party document warns of ‘hostile forces’ BBC. NGOs….
How Vietnam Has Become One Of Asia’s Fastest Growing Markets With New Multiplexes, A Movie-Hungry Audience & Vibrant Local Film Biz Deadline
The Koreas
South Korea police raid medical association office over walkout Channel News Asia
Africa
Washington Wants to Revive a Critical Minerals Mega-Railway Through Africa Foreign Policy
Syraqistan
What We Know About the Deaths Near the Gaza Aid Convoy NYT. What “we” know is based on digital “evidene” from IDF.
IDF says troops fired ‘warning shots’ as mob rushed aid convoy, leading to more than 100 killed FOX. Even if we accept that the mob rushed the trucks, who created the desperate situation?
* * *
“Between The Hammer and the Anvil” The Intercept. “The Channel 12 podcast interview with [Anat] Schwartz, which The Intercept translated from Hebrew, opens a window into the reporting process on the controversial story [“How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence “] and suggests that The New York Times’s mission was to bolster a predetermined narrative.”
The ‘Guardian’ exposes how CNN slants the Gaza news Mondoweiss
* * *
ICJ closes final day of West Bank occupation hearings The Cradle. Commentary:
If there’s any plea from the ICJ hearings worth listening to it’s this one. Full transcript of Ralph Wilde’s speech here (from p25): https://t.co/eEfwBsMiaC
pic.twitter.com/Hqe7V9mYiE https://t.co/9DVnXkBAWX
— 🙂 (@chattyreality) February 26, 2024
An Assessment of Visual Material Presented by the Israeli Legal Team at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) (PDF) Forensic Architecture. For the January 12 hearing.
* * *
“In the interim, a variety of morbid symptoms appear.” –Gramsci
Dear Old Blighty
Britain’s cash-strapped Navy ‘may be forced to sell off its £3.5 billion aircraft carrier the HMS Prince of Wales’ amid funding issue Daily Mail
New Not-So-Cold War
Breakaway Transnistria Asks for Russian Aid Foreign Policy
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Putin says West risks nuclear war if NATO sends troops to Ukraine France24
NATO Will Be Drawn Into War With Russia if Ukraine Loses: Lloyd Austin Newsweek
* * *
Ukraine Sees Risk of Russia Breaking Through Defenses by Summer Bloomberg
Ukraine’s Frontline Is Collapsing Newsweek
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After two years of war, Europe emerging from shadow of Russian gas S&P Global
South of the Border
AMLO’s push for environmental reforms angers Canadian mining sector Canadian Dimension
Haiti: Journey to the Heart of the Anti-Ariel Henry Mobilization Internationalist 360°
Biden Administration
Report finds EPA failing to do its job amid thousands of Seresto flea and tick collar complaint The New Lede
Democrats en Deshabnillé
MSNBC legal analyst says First Amendment makes US ‘vulnerable,’ calls for ‘common sense’ speech restrictions NY Post. Love the book title: Attack from Within. Joe McCarthy would be proud.
2024
Biden invites Trump to work together to lobby Congress on an immigration bill as both candidates visit border NBC
The Crisis at the Border: A Primer for Confused Americans RAND
* * *
The US is bracing for complex, fast-moving threats to elections this year, FBI director warns AP. When all the players have done their best to create a complex election system intrinsically vulnerable to attack (and implicitly putting the spooks in charge of legitimating or delegitimating election results based on whatever intelligence they concoct reveal).
Global Elections
Far right makes gains in Israeli municipal elections Al Jazeera
‘Vote-thief!’: Imran Khan allies protest ‘rigged election’ as Pakistan swears in new parliament France24
Pakistan’s Electoral Chicanery London Review of Books
Spook Country
Former US ambassador, NSC member charged with acting as secret agent for communist Cuba for decades: DOJ FOX
Digital Watch
I Wrote What? Google’s AI-Powered Libel Machine (unlocked) Matt Taibbi, Racket News. ChatGPT hallucinates an entire news cycle. Folllow-up (locked): If AI Thinks George Washington is a Black Woman, Why Are We Letting it Pick Bomb Targets? Good question!
Yes, AIs ‘understand’ things Robert Wright, Nonzero. The deck: “At least, the classic argument against AI understanding—John Searle’s ‘Chinese Room’ thought experiment—is fatally undermined by large language models.” Would any philosphers in the readership care to comment?
Surveys show lack of consumer trust in banks’ AI American Banker. Huh.
Assange
Assange Final Appeal Day 2 – Your Man in the Public Gallery Craig Murray
Bushnell
Aaron Bushnell and the Power of Protest Boston Review
Aaron Bushnell’s Self-Immolation Protest Needed to Be Seen. But That Didn’t Make It Easy to Report Rolling Stone
Healthcare
Data demonstrate higher risk of surgical-site infection at US safety net hospitals Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
The Final Frontier
Goodnight, Odysseus. Intuitive Machines’ private moon lander goes offline — but could it rise again? Space.com
Why Interstellar Objects Like ʻOumuamua and Borisov May Hold Clues to Exoplanets JSTOR Daily
Travel
London’s Savoy Hotel Delancey Place. For G&S fans. And cultural historians.
Zeitgeist Watch
The State of the Culture, 2024 The Honest Broker
The meeting scheduling crisis is an indicator of a much bigger problem Science for Everyone
Class Warfare
Labor Market Exposure to AI: Cross-country Differences and Distributional Implications (PDF) International Monetary Fund. “Complementarity” = “complement or a substitute for labor, where complementarity reflects lower risks of job displacement.” From the Abstract: “Within countries, common patterns emerge in [Advanced Economies (AEs)] and [Emerging Markets (EMs)]. Women and highly educated workers face greater occupational exposure to AI, at both high and low complementarity. Workers in the upper tail of the earnings distribution are more likely to be in occupations with high exposure but also high potential complementarity.” So the PMC have a lot of thinking to do, fast. Odds are they won’t do it well. (Also, “Advanced Economies” vs. “Emerging Markets” is a weird dichotomy. Are not the economies markets, and vice versa?
AI Could Actually Help Rebuild The Middle Class Noēma
* * *
As Council prepped public support, local Google workers learned of layoffs Austin Monitor. Commentary:
I genuinely believe this should be a viral national story. Google refused to come to the bargaining table after this team unanimously unionized. We bring a reso supporting the workers to council. The day the workers show up to testify on the reso, Google lays off the entire team. https://t.co/KihF9l8Rwp
— André Treiber (@andrebttx) March 1, 2024
UAW board removes secretary-treasurer from department roles over alleged violations Detroit News
The Death of the Non-Compete Clause May Be Imminent On Labor
The Decimal Point Is 150 Years Older Than Previously Thought, Medieval Manuscript Reveals Smithsonian
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
This video was shot from inside my car, across the road at the entrance of the Heritage Trail. I remembered the MIC this time.🤷♂️. Pay special attention to the woodpecker after a piece of bark falls off. That tongue goes bonkers. #TwitterNatureCommunity pic.twitter.com/Q9f6P1eB1D
— Roppity Photography (@RoppityPhotos) February 27, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here