World’s oldest badger turns 54 at German zoo UPI
Review of Catland by Kathryn Hughes – Thought Guardian Guardian. More interesting than a stupid title.
The weather
What you need to know about the record-breaking heat in the Atlantic Yale Climate Connections
The World Ignores Another Deadly Type of Carbon Fiber
****** The Eeriness Of England indi.ca
Colorado chickadees may be losing their good memory to adapt to climate change, researchers find Colorado Sun
****** Ian Angus’s The War Against the Commons: A Critical New History of the Bloody Rise of Firebrand Capitalism
The ‘right to roam’ movement is fighting to restore normalcy to the Monga Bay community
Syndemics
HHS development plans to produce 4.8 million H5N1 vaccine doses Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Obviously, we will have to vaccinate selectively, probably near the “hot spots.” But with seemingly untouchable dairy farmers resisting inspections, and the CDC killing our ability to find contaminated water, it’s hard to know on what basis the selection will be made. What about the lottery?
Michigan reports human case of bird flu, second in nation linked to H5N1 outbreak in dairy cattle STAT. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nasal swabs taken from Michigan farm workers were negative for the flu. But the person’s eye swab was sent to the CDC, where it was found to be negative for the H5 influenza virus, although the final confirmation of the H5N1 subtype is awaiting genetic sequencing.” I believe that the eye has the senses of birds, unlike the respiratory tract. Maybe that’s why.
****** NC House votes against bill that restores mask restrictions CBS17. But:
…w/ redacted words, it goes back to the first chamber (the House, this time), to committee. They decide whether they will “go along” quickly with the changes or not. If they choose not to, a “conference committee” of Sens & Reps forms to fast-track the names. That’s where…
– J. Offir, Ph.D. (@dontwantadothis) May 22, 2024
So, a modified rapture, albeit a terrible Senate bill he can they have passed. So keep calling.
New Types of Covid FLiRT Have FDA Assessing Regenerative Medicine Bloomberg
The science behind the nose: correlating volatile organic compound characterization with canine biodetection of COVID-19 European Respiratory Society. From the Abstract: “This study provides analytical confirmation that canine training aids can be produced safely and reliably with good discrimination between positive samples and negative controls.” Training the dogs took 19 weeks, but I’m sure we really were interested in getting Covid, some investment can reduce that time.
****** Whatever your views on the origins of Covid, the NIH and CDC, according to the institute, do not appear to be rotten peas in the same pod:
What’s happening right now is re: NIH/NIAID senior advisor’s alleged attempts to remove + evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Documents like this concern both the GOP and the Democrats 1/x pic.twitter.com/SbS6JXtqsc
– Alison Young (@alisonannyoung) May 22, 2024
‘Reject, criticize, delay’: the battle against the dangers of highly processed food FT
China?
China is creating an LLM trained to discuss the philosophies of Xi Jinping The Register
India
“Everybody is completely shocked”: Inside the US ally’s secret war on its American critics Vox
Syracistan
Norway, Ireland, Spain to recognize the state of Palestine; Israel calls Channel News Asia delegates
Janet Yellen warns Israel not to cancel bailout on Palestinian banks FT
****** China hopes ICC will be ‘objective’ behind demand of Israel, Hamas leaders
US Senator supports ICC warrants arrest of Israeli leaders Anadolu Agency. Sanders.
****** Iranian media suggest ‘foul play’ and ‘conspiracy’ over Raisi’s death BNE Intellinews. “In general, an official report from an investigative team will be authoritative and credible.” Naturally! Still worth reading, even offline, for perspective and background.
****** The Israeli army moved to Rafah, and continued the attack in the north of France24
Egypt changed terms of Gaza ceasefire deal presented to Hamas, surprise talks, sources tell CNN
New 9/11 Evidence Shows Depth of Saudi Complict The Atlantic. Weird time?
Hello Old Blighty
How Rishi Sunak is scaring Westminster with a snap general election FT
Long Covid teachers come together to sue ministers Schools Week. Good. Something like this, please. Not just part of the case; the “power pooling” part.
The Government is advising families to prepare an ’emergency kit’ The Telegraph. “Sit down, kid!”
The New Cold War
Read the transcript of Volodymyr Zelensky’s interview with The Times NYT. “Q. What do you say to people who argue that it is too dangerous to allow Ukraine to use these weapons inside Russia because of the risk of escalation? [BIG Z:] There are no climbing hazards. Escalation has already happened: Russia’s rise against Ukraine…. When [Putin] he failed to hold us in the first year of the war, he did not use it [nuclear weapons] – because he may be irrational, but he loves his life very much and understands that the doors will be closed completely, completely, if he uses nuclear weapons. Because the use of nuclear weapons is not a red line. It’s a different level. So it is. This is the Third World War. So, tell me, what could be a bigger increase than mass killings in Ukraine? ”
US does not support strikes against Russia with Western weapons, but reaches Ukraine – Blinken in Congress Ukrainska Pravda
Victoria Nuland: Ukraine “Can Turn This Around,” Bases Inside Russia “Should Be Fair Game” (transcript) RealClearPolitics
Pentagon says Russia has ‘probably’ launched a space weapon into orbit of US satellite France24. Let’s just hope Biden doesn’t have a hairtrigger problem. and everything else.
****** NATO’s Phantom Armies Aurelien, Trying to Understand the World
‘Everything’s on fire’: Fighting rages outside Kharkiv as Ukraine tries to contain Russia ahead of CNN
Advice Leads Us To Hell The Anarchist Library
****** Chechen leader meets Russia’s Putin, offers more troops to Ukraine Reuters
Global Election
A family in the remote Himalayas finds a polling station for India’s election News Channel Asia
Lok Sabha elections: Anatomy of Kashmir’s voter turnout Business Standard
The Biden administration
CFPB Bitter-Enderism Adam Levitin, Credit Slips
Not being trusted
US Justice Department to seek Live Nation-Ticketmaster breakup Bloomberg
Why Does the Biden White House Hate His Agenda? Matt Stoller, BIG. I can only imagine that the whole effort is a long con; when the time comes, the Democrats will lift Lina Khan aside and cut the deal with Silicon Valley, take boatloads of money, and more importantly, more control of the platforms.
A digital clock
AI problems (1):
Google AI overview suggests adding glue to get cheese to stick to pizza, and it turns out the source is an 11-year-old Reddit comment from user F*cksmith 😂 pic.twitter.com/uDPAbsAKeO
— Peter Yang (@petergyang) May 23, 2024
AI problems (2):
Meanwhile, it’s a Google search.
Andrew Johnson was killing it, I never knew. pic.twitter.com/IV2zCmI6Zv— MMitchell (@mmitchell_ai) May 22, 2024
I stumbled upon LLM Kryptonite – and no one wants to fix this bug that breaks the Registry model. Deck: “Flawed models may not be dangerous … but they can be dangerous. So why are reports of problems being ignored?” First: A lot of stupid money floating around under financing; too many tech bros are addicted to science fiction at the age of fifteen that they never get over it; wild corruption.
****** A bill developed by lawmakers to strengthen the White House’s hold on the deployment of the AI model is the Register. Clearly, if we want to remain the “top dog” in the international rules-based system, we must release as many AI models as possible, and encourage people to use them.
Meta AI CEO says big language models will never reach human intelligence in FT
Inside NASA talks via ChatGPT FedScoop
Exclusive: OpenAI pledged 20% of its computing power to combat the most dangerous form of AI—but it never came, sources tell Fortune. OpenAI lied? Absolutely not.
****** Spyware found in US hotel check-in computers TechCrunch
Bezzle
UNIT ecosystem Unit Foundation. A book of brochures. “UNIT (token) is a unit of account of the UNIT ecosystem, which represents an equal share of the underlying UNIT basket, which contains 40% of gold and local currencies, which are freely exchanged for gold. Each UNIT token is a fully scalable currency unit. The intrinsic value of a UNIT is based on the current value of a basket of underlying assets, measured in gold.” Oh.
‘People don’t worry about being ripped off’ BBC
The Final Frontier
The Madness of Artemis Idle Words. Love the site’s motto: “Brief is for the weak.”
Assange
Turn of the Tide Craig Murray. Murray reports on the Assange hearing. Rule of law > an international order based on rules, at least in some jurisdictions, and in some jurisdictions?
Boeing
Revealed: 300 Boeing planes operated by United and American Airlines have faults that could cause the planes to explode in mid-air The Daily Mail. It’s a 777 airworthiness directive, so the headline is more than a little clickbait-y. But it is surprising to see Leeham quoted in the Daily Mail…
Guillotine Watch
Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced Scientists Permanent Chemicals They Found in Human Blood Were Safe ProPublica
How financial workers destroyed the homes and lives of thousands of people Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic
Humphry Davy’s notebooks reveal a love of nitrous oxide, poetry, and the dark side of the Chemistry World
What is Human Power? Lapham’s Quarterly
Antidote du jour (Luc Viatour:
See yesterday’s links and the Antidote du Jour here.
