How to Build 300,000 Airplanes in Five Years Building Physics
How the Folger Shakespeare Library Will Soon Be a Smithsonian
The weather
The New Republic’s Biggest Tool to Fight Climate Change Hiding in Plain Sight Civil annulment (!).
Zero-carbon cement process can reduce emissions New Scientist construction
****** Climate change could make aviation chaos worse CNN
Something strange is happening with the Vox hurricanes
****** Natural disasters hit 1 in 5 US adults by 2023: Fed Phys.org
****** Japanese Study Warns of Deadly Air Pollution Risk from Siberian Wildfires Nippon.com
The Vital Near-Magic of Fire-Eating Fungi JSTOR Daily
****** America’s Hottest City Experiences Rising Deaths Scientific American. Phoenix.
California’s giant sequoias face new threat – and world’s largest tree could be in danger SF Chronicle
Water
Mexico’s drought, heat and water shortages are so bad that even police blocked cars at the AP protest
Syndemics
NNU has been invited to join the CDC’s HICPAC infection prevention team (press release) National Nurses United. Good news, for once.
****** Covid Returns To Andalusia As Murcia Cases Triple Today
DOH: Philippines maintains low risk of COVID-19 despite rising PhilStar cases
Our Lying at the End of the World Jessica Wildfire, OK Doomer
****** The consensus of the global pandemic is at hand: don’t beat nature. How sad that the WHO completely ruined its credibility by declaring that Covid was not airborne, and fighting the aerosol scientists tooth and nail.
Reporting standards for outbreak data: A systematic review (preprint) medRxiv. A systematic literature review. From the Abstract: “The current landscape of data reporting on disease outbreaks is ad hoc and variable. Public health authorities have discretion to decide when, where, how, and what outbreak data to report. This uneven flow of information hampers response efforts by reducing the accountability and transparency needed to build public trust in public health responses. ” As we can see very clearly with the ongoing H5N1 debacle.
****** USDA expands H5N1 response support to additional dairy producers Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
Despite growing concern about bird flu, many US dairy workers have not received protective equipment FOX
Influenza viruses H5N1 and H1N1 are frequently transmitted in unpasteurized milk in areas of milking equipment (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “Bovine H5N1 and human 2009 H1N1 influenza viruses were found to be persistently infectious in common areas of milking equipment for several hours. The data presented here provide a compelling case for the risk of contaminated environments produced during milking to facilitate the transmission of H5N1 from cows to cows and to dairy farm workers.”
****** Long-term COVID study urges Biden on ‘minimum funding’ in budget request The Hill
Moderna’s long version of Covid Politico
China?
America must face the truth and prioritize China over Europe FT
China claims that the Taiwan exercises tested its ability to ‘take power’ over the French island24. Useful map:
The map shows that China uses hundreds of ships and planes to surround Taiwan and its islands! #PrayforTaiwan #TaiwanUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/Tna999rM6M
— Go Fund Taiwan (@GoFundTaiwan) May 23, 2024
It seems that I am blocked, as Yves suggested a long time ago.
China pressures Afghanistan’s Taliban to stop attacks on its interests in Pakistan, lays an economic carrot South China Morning Post
Brussels and Washington are looking for ways to be less dependent on the output of the Chinese shipyard Splash 247
India
How do you find a bride? A new struggle in rural India Al Jazeera hit by disaster
Africa
Pentagon orders all US troops to withdraw from Niger Politico
Syracistan
Israel and Hezbollah Inch Closer to Military Foreign Policy
****** The 94-year-old Holocaust survivor recommended the arrest of Israeli leaders and Hamas Forward.
ICC prosecutor threatens: Court ‘built for Africa and criminals like Putin’ Anadolu Agency
****** From crisis to prosperity: Netanyahu’s vision for Gaza 2035 revealed online The Jerusalem Post. From the beginning of May, still germane. “The AI has produced a localized image of Gaza [Prime Minister’s Office’s] the post-war Gaza plan”:
It almost restores my faith in the human condition to consider the idea that for Bibi, genocide may not be the end, but merely a means to an end: Successful real estate speculation. The scheme is more ambitious than that, but let’s start there. Hope!
This AIPAC Donor Has Paid Millions to the IDF Unit Accused of Violating Human Rights
The breakup of Europe
Macron tells New Caledonians he will not impose voting reforms that have sparked riots France24
War Machine New Left Review. Spain, Podemos.
Hello Old Blighty
Sunak faces a series of setbacks on the first day of the UK election campaign FT
The New Cold War
Rosenberg: Putin’s military purge echoes Prigozhin’s call for action BBC
****** ‘New ground is being broken’: EU seizes Russian profits for Ukraine Al Jazeera
Putin Allows US Assets In Russia To Be Seized In Retaliation Bloomberg
****** Italy reiterates that it is not sending troops to fight in Ukraine Anadolu Agency
The Biden Administration
Lawmakers officially hand over Big Oil investigation to DOJ: “Deception and deceit must end” Climate Integrity
The Supremes
An unusually important legal decision has just come down, and no one is talking about it at Popular Information
Considerations Against Innovation in the Roberts Court’s Separation of Powers Case (PDF) Harvard Law Review. From the Abstract: “After comparing Burkean minimalism with the minimal originalism the Roberts Court has recently applied in several high-profile constitutional rights cases, this Note traces and critiques the workings of presumptions against innovation in recent separation of powers decisions. It ultimately concludes that anti-innovation considerations produce novel outcomes, and in doing so increase judicial discretion – and judicial power – at the expense of the democratic process. “
Assange
Withdrawal of Assange’s New Left Review
A digital clock
AI problems (1):
Google, FFS. pic.twitter.com/UHtLQ5SdpG
— Melanie Mitchell (@MelMitchell1) May 23, 2024
AI problems (2):
How shitty Google is at its job pic.twitter.com/bdx97oZNv6
— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) May 23, 2024
It’s not an “information update” ffs. What a big mistake of category (or great marketing hype, take your pick MR SUBLIMINAL Or take both!)
Underpaid People Behind AI’s Smarts Ask Biden to Free Them from Wired ‘Modern Slavery’ Synonym for “not smart.”
****** How does ChatGPT ‘think’? Psychology and neuroscience crack open AI big language models Nature. Stake: “Researchers are trying to reverse engineers’ artificial intelligence and examine the ‘brains’ of LLMs to see what, how and why they do it.” So funny. We don’t even know how to fix stupid things.
International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI (interim report; PDF) UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. This caught my eye: “[C]existing methods to explain why general-purpose AI models produce any given are very limited. “
Bezzle
State of Wisconsin Buys Nearly $100M Worth of BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF CoinDesk
Our Famously Free Press
Selling Your Wood House Hamilton Nolan, How Things Work
Linkrot Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic. It is worth considering that the library on paper is much stronger against the Jackpot than the data center (absorbing energy, rolling water).
Supply Chain
These are the Choke Points That Pose the Biggest Risks to Global Shipping Bloomberg
Class War
Why Alabama’s Mercedes Union Campaign Stumbled But Revisited: How Reformers Revamped Vermont AFL-CIO Membership Staff Notes
Part I: The Case for Part-time Cooperative Regulation of Labor. Part II, Part III.
Janet Yellen says many Americans are still struggling with inflation FT. No. They struggle with real wages.
Billionaires’ tax revenue reaches $1.8 billion, on pace to double WGBH estimates. Now make inherited wealth….
A little of this, please:
Everest a few days ago. Why would anyone want to be a part of this? The worst kind of adventure capitalism. pic.twitter.com/f0aW7GyD3K
– Iain Cameron (@theiaincameron) May 23, 2024
Antidote du jour (Bernard Gagnon):
See yesterday’s links and the Antidote du Jour here.
