Kansas biologists find ‘extremely rare’ endangered species in mouth of hungry frog KSNT (RK).
11 Unusual Sharks That Live in the Deep Sea ZME Science
How private equity has pitted banks against the web of credit FT. Commentary: Private Equity Puts Debt Everywhere Matt Levine, Bloomberg.
Private Equity Gets Smart Buying Time for Big Profits. Clients Say Pay Me Now Bloomberg
Private equity is eating up the economy as startup entrepreneurs exit—but a new form of employee ownership could change that fortune.
The weather
Wet Globe High Temperature Danger Arctic News
What It Feels Like to Have Heatstroke Outside
Trees reveal climate surprise: Bark-dwelling bacteria remove methane from atmosphere Phys.org
Syndemics
The 2024 Paris Olympics have been hit by the first cases of COVID, but organizers seem unconcerned about the risk of a major outbreak on CBS. Comment:
Aaaaarrrrrggghhhhhhhhhh
Four and a half years into the pandemic and the only recommended form of protection at the already COVID-infested Olympics is HAND SANITIZER.
Hand sanitizer will not prevent airborne germs.– Trisha Greenhalgh (@trishgreenhalgh) July 24, 2024
Additional comments:
Officials Contemplate Consolidating Olympics And Paralympics By Simply Infecting All Athletes Repeatedly With Covid. pic.twitter.com/oyBuu7MkXy
– The Vertlartnic (@TheVertlartnic) July 24, 2024
China?
China aims to strengthen energy cooperation with Russia despite US sanctions, South China Morning Post reports
Sold a False Dream: Inside China’s Dying Real Estate Development China Spotlight
Why is Bangladesh Boiling? Free news journal
Commentary: Bangladeshi students are revolting, but a broad movement against the government seems unlikely Channel News Asia
in Myanmar
Myanmar Runs Out of Fuel. What Happens Next? Diplomat
Mourning James C. Scott, Sterling anarchist and friend of Myanmar Frontier Myanmar
Espionage and Sabotage: The Truth About Ninja Nippon.com
The Great Game
A representative of the US military will serve as an adviser to the Armenian Ministry of Defense JAM News
Syracistan
Highlights: Netanyahu addresses Congress (video) Politico. Comment:
🧵 Series – Standing ovation tracker for Bibi Netanyahu’s address to Congress:
One
— Andy Powlas (@andypowlas) July 24, 2024
Total: 58.
Netanyahu appeals for unity, but draws fire inside and outside Capitol Hill. Comment:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation in the House Chamber today was the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary who was invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States.
Many of us who love Israel spend time today listening to Israelis…
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 24, 2024
Additional comments:
To be clear, Netanyahu has lost so many people that he is talking to half of Congress.
When this happens, they fill the seats with non-members, like they do at awards ceremonies, to give the appearance of full presence and support.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 24, 2024
The Watergate Hotel was cleaned after maggots were released to protest Netanyahu’s stay on The Hill. Comments (2020):
🇮🇱🇺🇸 Did you know that Benjamin Netanyahu actually brings suitcases full of dirty laundry for government workers to clean?
That’s one way to assert your dominance I guess… pic.twitter.com/6IU5dTZnNg
– Censored Men (@CensoredMen) July 23, 2024
****** How Israel is reducing Gaza’s ‘safe zones’ Al Jazeera
‘Soldiers! Soldiers! Soldiers!’ The Flautist
Gaza as a bleak, empty land in Israeli Reservist’s Haaretz paintings
****** The Untold History of Joe Biden’s Support for Israel Branko Marcetic, These Times
The New Cold War
War in Ukraine: ‘Russia is progressing, but it is a matter of progress for children, not a war of movement’ Le Monde
Ukraine Military Map Shows Two Wars at Risk of Encirclement: ‘Horrifying’ Newsweek
SITREP 7/24/24: General Syrsky Shocked by News of Russian Arms and Army Rising Simplicius the Thinker
****** Fitch downgrades Ukraine’s rating to ‘C’ Anadolu Agency
EU discusses permanent freeze on Russian assets to secure G7 loan Ukraine Ukrainska Pravda
Ukrainians remove Tesla batteries to keep the lights on at FT
****** War in Ukraine: Can China use its power to play peacemaker? Deutsche Welle
What one Moscow square has to say about Russia’s troubled relationship with the West BBC
Winds of Change: Ukrainian Politics React to US Election Game The Wilson Center
****** Rheinmetall officially receives order from Ukraine to build ammunition factory Ukrainska Pravda
****** NATO Faces New Long Game Against Putin’s Foreign Policy
The Declaration of NATO and the Deadly Strategy of Neoconservatism Jeffrey Sachs, Common Dreams
The Biden Administration
FAA Begins Investigation of Southwest Airlines After Shutdown Calls WSJ
2024
Joe Biden says he is ‘passing the torch’ to save US democracy FT
Biden drops hard facts in first speech since leaving BBC race
Wreckage Biden Leaves Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News
Our Famously Free Press
When the mainstream media swallows Terry’s Substack garbage
A digital clock
The CrowdStrike fiasco highlights the growing independence of the Sino-Russian Registry technology
****** AI models fail when trained on data that is repeatedly generated by Nature. From the Abstract: “We find that arbitrary use of model-generated content in training causes irreversible errors in the resulting models, where the tail of the original content distribution disappears. We refer to this effect as ‘model collapse’ and show that it can occur in LLMs as well as in hybrid autoencoder (VAEs) and Gaussian (GMMs) models. We develop a theoretical intuition behind this phenomenon and show its ubiquity among all studied production models. We show that it should be taken seriously if we want to keep the benefits of training on big data extracted from the web. ” Autocoprophagy, as I said from the beginning of the AI bubble.
OpenAI training and inference costs could reach $7bn by 2024, AI startups set to lose $5bn – reports Data Center Dynamics
VCs pour billions into AI startups Tech Crunch
Boeing
Boeing Receives Best Orders at International Airshow WSJ
Boeing is not looking at clear skies in China as deliveries resume, an executive told the South China Morning Post
The US file details of Boeing’s claim related to the plane crash. AP is now in the hands of the judge
The Final Frontier
Mercury has a diamond layer 10 miles thick, NASA spacecraft finds Space.com
Supply Chain
Two Swiss lawyers aim for light flags in the new book Splash 247
Academe qualifications
How much is the University Fee? (quoted) Doomberg
Imperial Collapse Watch
Loss of kingdom, loss of understanding pearls and anger
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fashion
Amazon’s entry into fast fashion will be a big change for e-commerce Fashion United
Class War
Americans fall behind on their car payments FOX
39% of Americans are worried they won’t be able to pay their bills CNN
The era of privatization is almost over. But cleaning up the mess left behind will take Guardian years
At The Money: Morality Beats Intelligence (transcription) The Big Picture
US markets suffer worst day since 2022 as Tesla and AI shares fall FT
Antidote du jour (Biscutella):
See yesterday’s links and the Antidote du Jour here.
