How Did Ötzi the Iceman Get His Tattoos? Archaeologists and Tattoo Artists Unravel the Mystery Smithsonian Magazine
Swimming and spinning aquatic spiders use slick survival strategies Ars Technica
Bodies Don’t Decompose as Normal in This Colombian Town, And Nobody Knows Why Science Alert
‘Shut up and calculate’: how Einstein lost the battle to explain quantum reality Nature
Climate/Environment
Human activities have an intense impact on Earth’s deep subsurface fluid flow Phys.org
Abundance, capitalism and climate change Branko Milanovic, Global Inequality and More 3.0
Water
It’s the world’s first Indigenous-led ‘blue park.’ And Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation pulled it off without waiting on Canada The Narwhal
A water crisis in Mississippi turns into a fight against privatization Grist
Are the Great Salt Lake scientists all right? High Country News
Pandemics
Worried About Bird Flu? Welcome to The Party, Pal. You’re Late. OK Doomer
How Did Bird Flu Virus Fragments Get into Milk Sold in Stores? Morning AgClips
Bird flu outbreak in Jharkhand; 2 doctors, 6 others quarantined in Ranchi Times of India
Florida Dolphin Dies of Bird Flu as Alarm Grows Over Species Spread Gizmodo
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Once a Doctor Has Minimized Literal Death for Young People, Should We Value Their Opinion on Any Topic Less Consequential Than Literal Death? Science-Based Medicine
ONS LONG COVID DATA:
I’m still working through the raw data released yesterday by ONS revealing the prevalence of Long Covid in England & Scotland.
Some interesting (& concerning) data points are emerging so I wanted to do a quick thread on what it reveals for CHILDREN…
🧵 https://t.co/9M9fL4XFEC pic.twitter.com/nv40KG7m4t
— Cat in the Hat 🐈⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 (@_CatintheHat) April 26, 2024
Africa
Russian Mercenaries Hunt the African Warlord America Couldn’t Catch Rolling Stone
Somalia detains US-trained commandos over theft of rations Arab News
China?
Beijing urges Taipei to resume cross-Strait passenger flights & shipping, starts opening tourist groups Pekingnology
U.S. strategy of damage limitation vis-à-vis China: long-term programs and effects China International Strategy Review
The Jones Act: Consequences of a Destructive Industrial Policy Conversable Economist. “The US military relies on Chinese-built ships to support its military vessels.”
Syraqistan
Hamas has ‘no major issue’ with Israel’s Gaza truce counter-proposal The New Arab
Israel’s Smotrich threatens to bring down government if it accepts new Gaza cease-fire proposal Anadolu Agency
US working to prevent ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu: Reports Middle East Eye. Commentary:
But I think mainly they want Israel to delay to “listen to US concerns” while the initial energy of the encampments fizzles. The students go home for the summer in mid-May. Then they find a way to restart the operation with a transfer corridor established.
— Dan Kervick (@DanMKervick) April 28, 2024
PFLP warns British troops in Gaza would be ‘legitimate target’ The Cradle
The Curious Case of the Freedom Flotilla Craig Murray
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‘It Doesn’t Fit Some People’s Narrative’ | Sheryl Sandberg’s Film Gives Voice to Israeli Victims of Hamas Sexual Violence Haaretz
This guy is so close to understanding something. https://t.co/dvtBF95q2H
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) April 28, 2024
Old Blighty
Home Office to detain asylum seekers across UK in shock Rwanda operation The Guardian
DWP has the power to help people. Why is it choosing to threaten disabled people instead? Big Issue
People detained under the Mental Health Act dying at three times the rate of those held in prisons The Independent
Amid talk of renationalising the railways, PETER HITCHENS’ provocative view… The disastrous break-up of British Rail created chaos in the name of competition. And nothing Labour does will alter that The Daily Mail
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine pulls back from three villages in east as Russia claims gains Al Jazeera
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Applaud $95 Billion Supplemental Arms Package Lee Fang
War Analysts Say Ukraine Should Treat the Latest US Aid Package Like It’s the Last One It’ll Get Military.com
The war in Ukraine could reach a decision point by the NATO Summit. Policymakers need to prepare now. Atlantic Council.
***
Why do the US and its allies want to seize Russian reserves to aid Ukraine? Brookings. Commentary from the Robert Solow Professor of economics emeritus, MIT Senior Fellow:
I thought it was a bad idea to seize Russian reserves before the US congress had voted on the Ukraine package. It gave too easy a way to Congress to vote no and pass the buck. Now that they have voted, it is hard to think of good reasons not to seize. Yes, it will create a…
— Olivier Blanchard (@ojblanchard1) April 25, 2024
‼️🇩🇪🇷🇺 Germany opposes Western plans to seize Russia’s frozen assets – Wall Street Journal
▪️In Berlin they fear that this will create a precedent and provoke new lawsuits against Germany for crimes of World War II.▪️Germany believes that Russian assets should be left… pic.twitter.com/HaJ8a4ljmY
— — GEROMAN — time will tell – 👀 — (@GeromanAT) April 28, 2024
***
UK Secretary of Defence Reveals Italian Supply of Storm Shadow Missiles to Ukraine The Aviationist
Turkey in talks with ExxonMobil over multibillion-dollar LNG deal, FT reports Reuters
Travel notes, St Petersburg, April-May 2024: first installment Gilbert Doctorow
The Caucasus
Georgia, Armenia and the death of the NGO state The Duran (Video)
Thousands protest in Georgia against controversial ‘foreign influence’ bill France24
The miserable career of Nikol Pashinyan only makes sense if you see his employers as being the US imperialists. His only real mission is to create problems for Russia in the region and if Armenia is destroyed in the process the imperialists will barely blink. Any Armenians who… https://t.co/VgcjEycmse
— Marx Engels Lenin Institute (@MarxEngelsLnin) April 28, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
To sail no more: the US Navy has ended all work on cruisers COWPENS CG63 and VICKSBURG CG69 and now, after hundreds of millions of $$$ with zero ROI, both will be decommissioned this year. Another “tough decision.” 63 seen at San Diego in Feb; 69 at Norfolk in April pic.twitter.com/oxBWOaQbyP
— Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) April 28, 2024
New Marine One Helicopters Aren’t Allowed to Carry the President Because They Could Scorch the Lawn Military.com
Karl Polanyi’s failed revolution Thomas Fazi, Unherd. “The liberal world order is collapsing once again.”
Illiberal Developmentalism Phenomenal World. “Indonesia under Prabowo.”
B-a-a-a-a-d Banks
Why Bigger Increasingly Means Better In US Banking Investopedia
Biden
Fund manager indicates Jim Biden was in business with Qatari officials POLITICO
AI
Apple in talks with OpenAI to integrate AI into iPhones: Report Interesting Engineering
WILL HUMAN SOLDIERS EVER TRUST THEIR ROBOT COMRADES? IEEE Spectrum
Healthcare?
Medscape severs ties with tobacco industry after backlash over $3M Philip Morris International deal The Examination
Money as Medicine: Rethinking Health Beyond the Clinic Mad in America
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: Did Texas Join OPEC? BIG by Matt Stoller
Jassy, Bezos, other Amazon execs used Signal messaging app, a problem for FTC Seattle Times
Police State Watch
The Louisiana Town Where a Traffic Stop Can Lead to One Charge After Another ProPublica
Groves of Academe
Yale:
BREAKING: Hundreds of Yale students have restarted a campus encampment following dozens of arrests this past Monday and a state-wide march and rally in New Haven of over 1,000 today. pic.twitter.com/Jx9fytahfF
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) April 28, 2024
UCLA:
The way we learn from each other how concretely our struggles are connected once we all get out there and do the damn thing. Got the tenants’ rights organizers at the campus divestment protest ID’ing and exposing local slumlords in the Zionist counter-demo at UCLA. 😍 https://t.co/BWohttWuhu
— OLAASM (@craigtoennies) April 28, 2024
UCLA—A haunting scene as University Police file in on the side of the Zionist counter-protest.
The Zionists chant, “L-A-P-D! WE LOVE YOU.”
A man on a megaphone yells, “Let’s leave! It’s their turn now.
The counterprotest clears out. Police file in. pic.twitter.com/ux0giL7dDF
— nolan (@RevSouthNolan) April 28, 2024
Columbia:
It’s going to be so funny when the most reactionary, amoral 10% of Columbia’s graduating class can’t find jobs at the white collar crime factory because other kids were protesting genocide https://t.co/nm0OVgRMkL
— David Klion (@DavidKlion) April 28, 2024
Well he just said it out loud. The reason they don’t like tenure is because these billionaires want to be able to call your dean and get you canned for not being an obedient serf. https://t.co/UKqaDUf4vF
— Jason Coupet (@ProfessaJay) April 27, 2024
Priorities:
I just found out that all kinds of colleges have moved to virtual classes. This must make the disabled & immunocompromised community great, after they were told that’s impossible
— الكسندرا ميراي🇵🇸 (@LexiAlex) April 28, 2024
The Bezzle
A wrestling match over who should control robotaxis is playing out in California TechCrunch
Our Famously Free Press
“Decency” and Genocide Tarik Cyril Amar
Tax Breaks Can’t Save Local Journalism Boondoggle
Class Warfare
The Chamber’s noncompete challenge is assigned to Trump appointee Judge J. Campbell Barker, a hired hand.
Since 2020, Barker has struck down the CDC’s pandemic eviction moratorium, CFPB’s banking discrimination rule, FDA cigarette warning labels, and NLRB’s joint employee rule. https://t.co/X3yJXyhAXx
— Lee Hepner (@LeeHepner) April 27, 2024
Union Starbucks stores get surprise visits Labor Tribune
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus:
Paul Barton, once a concert-pianist, lives in the jungle of Thailand where he plays music to blind, injured and orphaned elephants of a sanctuary with extraordinary results.https://t.co/XZlLBRek58
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 28, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.