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2024’s Water Cooler fundraiser is coming down the home stretch, with 307 donors (goal is 400, so [let me break out my calculator] 76% of goal). Please go straight to the Water Cooler “Donate” link and dig deep. Remember, you are giving back for work I have already done, in 2023. I hope 2024 will be even better! –lambert
Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone Nature. If only humans could do that!
Why more CFOs are becoming CEOs FT. So more companies can become like Boeing?
Climate
Study highlights effect of aerosols over Asia on Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Phys.org
Mars Has Unexpected Effect on Earth’s Deep Oceans Newsweek. Original.
Texas wildfire Thursday recap: Smokehouse Creek Fire becomes largest fire in Texas history Amarillo Globe-News
Mass Timber is Great, but It Will Not Solve the Housing Shortage Construction Physics
#COVID19
Covid, 4 years on Eric Topol, Ground Truths
The Majority of SARS-CoV-2 Plasma Cells are Excluded from the Bone Marrow Long-Lived Compartment 33 Months after mRNA Vaccination (preprint) Research Square. N = 19. From the Abstract: “[O]ur studies demonstrate that rapid waning of serum antibodies is accounted for by the inability of mRNA vaccines to induce [bone marrow (BM)] [long-lived plasma cells (LLPC)].” Not an RCP, though (perhaps in this case, it should be?).
* * * My daughter was ‘poorly’ with cough, two days later she was dead Liverpool Echo. “Her asthma attack, which was , was described by Bethany’s doctor as the most severe asthma attack they had ever seen.” I wonder what virus? ‘Tis a mystery! And where could she have caught it? “She knew people were relying on her for help .” And the deck: “Bethany would see people who needed kindness, who needed people to stick up for them, and she did it.” So it seems like there’s some sort of selection process going on….
Why are so many young people getting cancer? What the data say Nature. It’s almost as if some system that protected young people against cancer was turned off, simultaneously, in all of them. But why? ‘Tis a mystery!
* * * “Poor, poor pitiful me”: Was Martin Kulldorff fired by Harvard? Respectful Insolence. These eugenicist creeps are still making bank, too.
Japan’s unions find surprising allies in push for higher pay, work with government, companies Channel News Asia
China?
China makes clean energy the cornerstone of its long-term growth as trade falters S&P Global
China Outpacing U.S. Defense Industrial Base Center for Strategic and International Studies
China’s poker-style game, mentioned at ‘two sessions’, takes Communist Party by storm with players ‘throwing eggs’ South China Morning Post. Guandan.
Poo bags and trackers: Nepal orders new Everest rules Channel News Asia
New Not-So-Cold War
Explosive Secret French Military Report Makes Shocking Admissions: “Ukraine Can’t Win!” Simplicius the Thinker
ISW warns of danger of sudden breakthrough by Russian troops Ukrainska Pravda
‘Days Where We Wouldn’t Even Shoot’: US Vet Fighting in Ukraine Pleads with Congress to Pass Stalled Aid Military.com
* * * Ukraine Hits Third Russian Refinery in Escalating Drone Strikes Bloomberg
Europe’s refineries in demand as Ukraine war boosts oil margins FT
* * * Claims That Sanctions Hurt Europe More Than Russia Are Wrong Foreign Policy. “A false narrative is being peddled by the Kremlin and its Western friends”, so-called (whose sites presumably we’ll be able to deplatform soon, after the TikTok bill completes its mad rush to Biden’s desk).
Syraqistan
Houthis claim hypersonic missile test success i24
US Army Sets Sail on Some Slow Boats to Gaza (video) What is Going on With Shipping?
* * * Netanyahu Is Making Israel Radioactive Thomas Friedman, NYT. Let’s hope not literally so.
US trying to overthrow Netanyahu’s government, senior Israeli official says Jerusalem Post. Oh.
* * * Israel has deliberately starved the people of Gaza Jeffrey D. Sachs, Pearls and Irritations
British lawyer Andrew Cayley to oversee ICC Gaza probe The New Arab
The Caribbean
Haiti crisis boils over, forcing pivot in US policy The Hill
US deploys Marine anti-terrorism unit to Haiti to protect embassy FOX. The deck: “Officials say Port-au-Prince embassy remains open to support ‘peaceful transition of power’.” Oh.
* * * Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier: The former cop-turned-gang leader bringing Haiti to its knees Independent. I’m dubious about this “gang” word I keep hearing — does it mean “cop”? “Statesman”? “Founder”? — but I don’t have good sources on Haiti, at all.
* * * Analysis: Has Evangelical Aid Contributed to Current Chaos in Haiti? The Roys Report. Throwing a flag on the Betteridge’s Law violation.
Haitian Cannibal Gangs Pour Over US Border After Seeing How Fat Americans Are Babylon Bee
Biden Administration
Creators are frustrated but energized as TikTok ban gains momentum TechCrunch
15 CFR § 7.4 – Determination of foreign adversaries Legal Information Institute. In the TikTok legislation, I questioned what “foreign adversaries” were. There’s a list, determined by the Secretary of Commerce, driven by Blob Vibes (“(4) Reports and assessments from the U.S. Intelligence Community, the U.S. Departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security, and “).
* * * The State of the Union is “Failed” Black Agenda Report
Biden Raved About EVs to the Special Counsel: ‘Damn, They’re Quick’ Heatmap. The deck: “He then made an unspecified ‘car sound.’” “Car sounds” reminds me of this:
Spook Country
Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira agrees to accept 16-year prison sentence ABC. Missed this earlier in the month.
U.S. Government Seeks “Unified Vision Of Unauthorized Movement” The Intercept
The day I realized I was in the wrong place Science for Everyone. Well worth a read. I suppose “citizen scientists” would be guilty of “unauthorized movement” almost by definition.
The Bezzle
California Retail Theft Rings Making Millions Allegedly Just Selling Stolen Goods on Amazon SFist
Bitcoin: The Gambler’s Currency Madras Courier
Digital Watch
AI and the Future of Work Uncharted Territories. “A pretty basic version of a customer service bot has replaced 700 full time agents at Klarna.” Why aren’t we trying to replace Boards and CEOs? A question that answers itself, once asked.
Ownership and Trust – A corporate law framework for board decision-making in the age of AI European Corporate Governance Institute. From the Abstract: “The paper proposes a framework for judicial review of board decisions that have been augmented by an AI.” Why merely “augment”?
* * * NYU Tandon study exposes failings of measures to prevent illegal content generation by text-to-image AI models (press release) New York University. That’s not a bug. It’s a feature.
Google’s Gen AI Search Threatens Publishers With $2B Annual Ad Revenue Loss AdWeek. Outright theft by Google (unsurprisingly, since “original accumulation” of training sets from any and all human-created material is the foundation of the AI project).
* * * AI safety is not a model property AI Snake Oil. The deck: “Trying to make an AI model that can’t be misused is like trying to make a computer that can’t be used for bad things.”
Whizkids jimmy OpenAI, Google’s closed models The Register
Healthcare
More than 80% of TB patients lack persistent cough, study finds Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Here is what CDC has to say on TB:
What a surprise. CDC’s top symptom doesn’t apply in 80% of the cases, just like Covid, where CDC erases asymptomatic transmission. Since today is my day to be kind, I will simply wonder whether we can zero out CDC’s budget now, instead of my usual position, which is that they should all in the dock at The Hague.
The Final Frontier
Scientists find black hole spaghettifying star remarkably close to Earth Space.com
Guillotine Watch
Companies paid top executives more than they paid in US taxes – report Guardian
Class Warfare
Is This What Happens When You Build a Real Social Safety Net, Then Take It Away? NYT. That is, get punished at the polls for gutting universal concrete material benefits? The “real social safety net” was the CARES Act, passed under the Trump Administration. The CARES Act actually reduced poverty. The Democrats dismantled it immediately. So, honestly now, file “Bidenomics” under “The Department of How Stupid Do They Think We Are?”
Part-time jobs, no benefits: The real state of the working class Struggle La Lucha
A splash of cold water Indignity
Pi, pie, and the making of a mathematical star The Daily Edition. Since this is 3.14…
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
This tortoise understood it can go much faster with the help of a vehicle: it also learned how to make effective turns.
[📹 Mh0MLiErcV8E97C]pic.twitter.com/UMkT3B3kmI
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 13, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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