Who Knew Reptiles Could Be Such Romantics? NYT
Harvard study on monkeys reignites ethical debate over animal testing CBS
Guilty Before Innocent Jed Rakoff, The Nation (NL). Review of Daniel Medwed’s Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get Out of Prison.
Sorry, But This Is Not “Repatriation” Hyperallergic
Climate
NASA Finds More Than 50 Super-Emitters of Methane Smithsonian
Indigenous Leaders Fight to Keep Natural Gas Pipelines off Sacred Lands Texas Observer. Exactly like the Gomeroi people in Australia, in yesterday’s Links.
In Spain’s La Rioja, old vines could future-proof wine against climate change Reuters
Enormous river discovered beneath Antarctica is nearly 300 miles long Live Science
#COVID19
A multinational Delphi consensus to end the COVID-19 public health threat Nature. “Although the nature and vectors of SARS-CoV-2 transmission were not clearly understood early in the pandemic, current evidence guided the panellists to near-unanimous agreement that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus that presents the highest risk of transmission in indoor areas with poor ventilation.” Everybody seems to get this except the public health establishment and the governments who listen to them.
Israeli long COVID study: 1 in 3 people fail to regain regular health months later Times of Israel
China?
The Real China Hands Foreign Affairs
US chip-gear makers told to wait for relief from China curbs South China Morning Post
Local government spending:
I've long argued that the only sustainable way China can manage its economic rebalancing and resolve its bad debt is by forcing local governments to absorb the costs by transferring or liquidating assets. This year the process may be starting in earnest.https://t.co/a3HxDeMCzD
— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) November 4, 2022
Forest fire-fighters universally popular:
Warga melepas damkar setelah memadamkan api hutan di Yongcheng, Hunan.
Menjadi pelayan masyarakat di China menyenangkan juga, dihargai secara tulus oleh masyarakat.pic.twitter.com/ogB7EcOEkn
— Daemoen (@Mentimoen) October 29, 2022
China, Vietnam Pledge To ‘Manage’ South China Sea Dispute Barron’s
Myanmar
The Koreas
How a night of Halloween revelry turned to disaster in South Korea Reuters
(LEAD) Ruling party says not time for parliamentary probe into Itaewon tragedy Yonhap News Agency. No doubt they said “now is not the time” about the MV Sewol ferry sinking, too.
Syraqistan
Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan ‘doing fine and stable’ in hospital after assassination bid Channel News Asia. Interesting:
This is unprecedented.
A Pakistan army tank, displayed as a symbol of the military’s might in Peshawar — and so many other cities across the country — is vandalised by angry protestors after the attack on Imran Khan.
Not in 75 years of history has this been witnessed in Pak. pic.twitter.com/DM4sYYWdNV
— Waj S. Khan (@WajSKhan) November 3, 2022
Warning of ‘imminent’ Iranian attack in Saudi Arabia raises eyebrows Responsible Statecraft
Saudi firm has pumped Arizona groundwater for years without paying. Time to pony up USA Today. No, time to stop entirely.
Ethiopian govt, Tigray agree to end fighting after 2 years AP
Glencore fined $314 million for ‘endemic’ bribery of African oil officials CNN
European Disunion
Turkey holds off on Finland and Sweden in NATO Deutsche Welle
Real-Time Statistics on Europe’s Gas Supplies Der Spiegel. Real-time tracker.
Dear OId Blighty
Bank of England raises interest rates by biggest hike in 30 years Politico
Bank of England Is Back to Reality After Truss Fiasco Bloomberg
Not de-regulation but double regulation for the chemical industry after Brexit Northwest Bylines. Sunlit uplands.
The SNP must get real on the currency question Richard Murphy, Prospect
New Not-So-Cold War
New Commander, New Goals for Russia in Ukraine Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Russia’s Kherson retreat plan ‘well advanced,’ says Western official Politico
Ukraine Situation Report: Russian Flag Removal In Kherson City Is A Trap Kyiv Says The Drive. Well…. I’m looking at the sourcing here, and it looks like Ukrainian PR, to me. I mean, Visegrád 24? “Kyiv based independent foreign policy/security analyst”? Really?
* * * ‘Not acceptable’: Ukraine laments delays as EU inks €5B aid deal Politico. Commentary:
Is Kyiv the New Lisbon?
Cheap beer, hearty food, and electrical outages that lend the city a moody, noirish sense of mystery make the Ukrainian capital a must-visit—with or without drones.
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) November 2, 2022
‘A joke that went out of control’: crowdfunding weapons for Ukraine’s war Guardian]
* * * ‘Social catastrophe’ at Europe’s doorstep as crisis bites Euractiv
The European Project Is Now at the Mercy of the Weather Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy
Grain at the Center of the Global Geopolitical Dispute Internationalist 360°
Biden Administration
Here’s How the US Can Stop Wasting Billions of Dollars on Each Transit Project Vice
Russiagate
The Untold Story of ‘Russiagate’ and the Road to War in Ukraine NYT. Random paragraph:
What had Putin in a lather was a pro-Western and youth-led democracy movement that had caught fire just as Ukraine’s second post-Soviet leader, the dictatorial and Kremlin-aligned Leonid Kuchma, prepared to step down. To succeed him, the reformists had lined up behind a politician named Viktor Yushchenko. Pro-American and married to a former State Department official, Yushchenko vowed to join NATO and the European Union. To the Kremlin, as one influential Russian defense analyst put it at the time, a Yushchenko victory would represent “a catastrophic loss of Russian influence throughout the former Soviet Union, leading ultimately to Russia’s geopolitical isolation.”
“A pro-Western and youth-led democracy movement that had caught fire just as….” Totally! I mean, are we children of six?
Democrats En Déshabillé
A quiet race to succeed Pelosi is underway in San Francisco Politico. “Christine Pelosi, a Democratic activist who has served as a surrogate for her mother, is widely expected to pursue the seat if it opens.” Well, it’s not like our oligarchy is congealing into aristocracy.
Our Famously Free Press
Elon Musk Begins Layoffs at Twitter NYT. This seems to be the email:
“Team.”
Big if true:
Instead of covering the industry with a business press lens or a consumer lens they started covering it with a very tough investigative lens — highly oppositional at all times and occasionally unfair.
Almost never curious about technology or in awe of progress and potential.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 3, 2022
Sports Desk
Travis Basevi: the Statsguru visionary who transformed cricket Guardian
Realignment and Legitimacy
“World War III Has Already Effectively Begun” (interview) Nouriel Roubini, Der Spiegel
New Hulu Documentary Recaps Rise of Moral Majority and Downfall of Jerry Falwell Jr. The Roys Report. The lead (!!): “Look, if I would have known that accepting this woman’s invitation to go back to her hotel room would’ve led to a scandal involving the president of the largest Christian university in the world and the president of the United States, I would’ve walked away and just enjoyed my private life.”
Zeitgeist Watch
As Profits Soar, The Disneyland And Disney World Magic Is Dying Kotaku. That’s a damn shame.
Imperial Collapse Watch
Guillotine Watch
Class Warfare
We Mean Nothing to the Company The Baffler. The deck: “Most Americans are already subject to authoritarianism—at work.”
Big Tech’s Algorithms Are Built With Invisible Labor Jacobin
Algorithms Quietly Run the City of DC—and Maybe Your Hometown Wired
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus Antidote; time again for Maru:
Double Bonus Antidote:
Cat slide.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/5uaULGvxyG
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) November 3, 2022
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
QUANG TRI
(melody borrowed from Suzanne by Leonard Cohen)
I could see they tried to save you
Someone tried to stop your bleeding
But I found you past all worries
Far beyond all mortal needing
I still wonder who you once were
Your childhood and your teachers
Your classmates and your sweetheart
And your village and your creatures
You were little more than sixteen
With your AK and your backpack
But you slowed down your companions
And then soon it didn’t matter
If any of them came back
And you went to war forever
And you went into it blind
And you left it only knowing
That you’d never know what you have left behind
The photo in your hand
Was of your mother and your father
Were they proud and glad to send you
To the jungle and the slaughter
Your letters stopped arriving
And you never more did see ’em
While the dirt below a sweet gum tree
Became your mausoleum
Somewhere out in Quang Tri province
Your remains of meat and bone
Forsaken, almost human
And after sixty years you’re still alone
And you went to war forever
And you went into it blind
And you left it only knowing
That you’d never know what you have left behind
Now if ever I could find you
Off that trail beyond that river
I would bring a simple marker
A white stone I would deliver
And I’ll speak these words above you
If the gods are ever willing
That the moments that we shared there
Marked the day that I stopped killing
We shall never leave the jungle
But my friend I am still mourning
That we ever had to meet there
Where your death brought me a warning
That the end is always near
And we went to war forever
And we went into it blind
And we left it only knowing
That we’ll never know what we have left behind
Thank you. It hurts to remember but remember we must.
haunting
You awakened a memory from an anti-war march of nearly fifty years ago:
Quang Tri, An Loc,
Take Saigon by six o’clock.
The war was almost over. The NVA was marching south. There were North Vietnamese flags flying in the march. And the construction workers pissed on us from above.
You have a true talent.
Cried a bit. And it’s still going on, but now in Ukraine (and Somalia, and Armenia, and … and… and?). When will
theywe ever learn, when willtheywe ever learn?“The Great Mandella (The Wheel of Life)” by Peter, Paul and Mary…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpIh68Kh_-s
So I told him that he’d better shut his mouth
And do his job like a man.
And he answered “Listen, Father,
I will never kill another.”
He thinks he’s better
than his brother that died
What the hell does he think he’s doing
To his father who brought him up right?
Chorus:
Take your place on The Great Mandala
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now you must choose now
And if you lose you’re only losing your life.
Tell the jailer not to bother
With his meal of bread and water today.
He is fasting ’til the killing’s over
He’s a martyr, he thinks he’s a prophet.
But he’s a coward, he’s just playing a game
He can’t do it, he can’t change it
It’s been going on for ten thousand years
(Chorus)
Tell the people they are safe now
Hunger stopped him, he lies still in his cell.
Death has gagged his accusations
We are free now, we can kill now,
We can hate now, now we can end the world
We’re not guilty, he was crazy
And it’s been going on for ten thousand years!
Take your place on The Great Mandala
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now you must choose now
And if you lose you’ve only wasted your life.
That’s gorgeous, Antifa. I mean…harrowing…but still gorgeous.
South Korea and the stampede story, there is a lesson I’m sure. Maybe crowd control if the count at the particular metro station is absurdly high. I dunno. I’m not a crowd control type or really into crowds in general anymore. The biggest crowd events I might attend are in a college football stadium or a college basketball arena, either instance like once per year. I can suggest that the crowd for the Eagles concert this past April had maybe about 15,000 in attendance, if that.
Damn shame that it happens on Halloween.
Gotta love that Matty G. doesn’t get promoted around these parts even when he’s more prescient than our own benefactors, despite his well researched and critical takes offering solutions and alternatives, but the moment he veers into unfalsifiable conspiracy crank territory, he’s a hot topic.
The real question is, why wouldn’t traditional journalism not be a bit adversarial to big tech algorithmic social media companies?
We saw this in the Murdoch v Facebook kerfuffle in Australia.
Obviously it’s a direct competitor for ad dollars, let alone mindshare, let alone the silicon valley bros deserve to be held under suspicion.
The more important point here is that the bluecheck mark was a salvo from Big Tech on traditional journalism, because it increased the credibility of the information people could find on Twitter, to Twitter’s benefit, while circumventing the paywalls or both-sides editorialism that most big journals were starting to throw up.
Misty Flip returns with yet another new name and the same old neoliberal affect pollution, trying to sell their infantile belief that elites care about numbers more than they care about conserving elite relations. They must have been on another assignment for a while.
Also, there were very few blue checks outside Thinktankistan and the MSM cartel. The abusive Puritan celebration of mythical potentials is not only not an argument, but not even evidence. And you misspelled “increased the credulity“. Is there any particular reason you decided to ignore the scarlet letters of “state-affiliated media” that were selectively applied by “tech bros” as if they were a shot against “both-sidesism”?
Is this sarcasm?
Investigative journalism can be confrontational and oppositional.It depends on what is discovered in the reasearch.
And there is no requirement for journalists or any one to be in “awe” of platforms that are under the banner of “tech”. Be in “awe”? WTH kind of corporate worship mess is that?
It may be debated how well the Tjmes did that, but I also think the NY Times had put in enough ink on “tech” before without asking seruous questions about much of the BS being peddled.
I’m a member of (and on the finance committee of) the Social.coop Mastodon instance. We run ourselves as a co-op, utilize Loomio for collective decision-making, and ask for a minimum £1/month contribution to be a member (which gets you on our Masto instance, and entitles you a free video conferencing account with Meet.coop). Elon buying twitter has caused a massive influx of new members — and we purposefully make it a bit of a pain to sign up, just to keep the trolls away, so this is really quite unprecedented. My inbox is filling up with notifications from Open Collective that yet another person is making a 1 or 5 or 10 pound monthly contribution. Our bank account was already building up a nice surplus, which we’ve been discussing how to deploy, and now we’re going to have even more money to throw around. Thank you Elon! Please, do Facebook next!
“New Hulu Documentary Recaps Rise of Moral Majority and Downfall of Jerry Falwell Jr.”
She did the pool boy? Isn’t this a trope? Sure this wasn’t Mrs. Robinson.
The Bible’s not the only old, old story going on here….
Gives a whole new meaning to getting on your knees for the church.
Well it’s not blood against blood like the story of Cain and Abel, as far as we know. Used to be adulterers might get the public stone treatment, but these are modern times after all. If I bothered with a subscription to the streaming service I would probably watch this.
Times have changed. In the old days if you committed adultery, you got stoned. These days you get stoned, then you commit adultery.
Adultery to some is spice to others. It’s not cheating if everyone involved chose to play a different game.
It has been said by some that the plural of spouse is spice – but I ain’t going there.
RE: Ukraine Situation Report: Russian Flag Removal In Kherson City Is A Trap Kyiv Says The Drive. Well…. I’m looking at the sourcing here, and it looks like Ukrainian PR, to me. I mean, Visegrád 24? “Kyiv based independent foreign policy/security analyst”? Really?
It could be a trap. Interestingly this occurring a few days before midterms with Biden admin pushing for something imagine it is turned into a muddy trap by releasing massive amounts of water from the dams.
Pure speculation, but…
It’s also an excuse for Ukraine not to claim the victory they have been promising for months.
It seems that the Ukrainians are saying it’s a trap, while the Russian social media is saying that Russian flags are still in Kherson, the checkpoints are still manned, the front line hasn’t really moved in days and Ukrainians have mostly stopped even the probing attacks.
The evacuations are still going on, though, and there’s a 24/7 curfew in Kherson at the moment. The social media seems to think Russians are expecting some kind of Ukrainian provocation before or on the 8th. Not a dambuster type of provocation, more akin to a Ukrainian sleeper cell making video of raising a Ukrainian flag over Kherson. Or some other Tik-tok challenge.
Removing the population and emptying the streets is the easiest way to make life difficult for any Ukrainian activist or infiltrators.
The Duran (or one of them individually? Not sure which vid but I saw it yesterday) said it was taken down from the regional admin building since the admin people are working from an eastern town and the building is historic and they do not want it to be a legit target but flags are still on other buildings.
In Mercouris’s report yesterday, he said some Russian journalists went to Kherson to get the straight scoop and they reported that the flag came down because the building is empty and speculated it was a signal that it has no value to Ukraine as a military target.
Mercouris also said that Russians are removing a number of important Russian monuments in Kherson for safe-keeping. He was pretty flummoxed by this if they have no intentions of withdrawing.
He complained about the Russian military’s lack of transparency on conditions in Kherson. Secrecy about military ops is one thing, he said, but secrecy about non-military stuff just fuels speculation on the Russian side that would be “demoralizing.” On the other hand (I think he admitted this) feints about their intentions (e.g. withdrawing) could be a way to confuse the enemy, e.g. before offensive ops.
Mercouris was saying yesterday that the flag is not there because all the staff has been move at a safer location, and the building is not used , or not for governmental/administraive business.
“Ukraine Situation Report: Russian Flag Removal In Kherson City Is A Trap Kyiv Says”
You know, the Ukrainians aren’t stupid and they can see that this is a trap. And they don’t need Admiral Ackbar to tell them that. But all these mind games that the Russians have been playing like lowering their flag, abandoning checkpoints, etc. are not for the benefit of the Ukrainians. They are for the benefit of NATO leadership and particularly the Biden White House. You just know that in the White House right now there must be some policy wonks – maybe even Blinken himself – arguing to make the Ukrainians leave their positions and go attack Kherson City and take it thus giving old Joe a victory against the Russians in the final days before the midterms voting start proper. it would be a sweet PR victory that they could show their voters and for them, they may not be able to resit telling the Ukrainians to attack -or else.
Just after writing this comment, I see that Ignacio has some of the same suspicions as I.
‘We mean nothing to the company’
I think of company policy regarding employees as a collection of tripwires used to show cause any time a manager wants to fire an employee. They have to write down something to avoid a lawsuit and policy is a ready made script, complete with legalese.
Lately it seems I’m hearing more and more as a customer about some place’s “policy”, by way of saying ‘sorry, we can’t/won’t do that, it’s our policy’, delivered by a low-wage minion. Corporations aren’t just antidemocratic regarding their employees, but their customers as well. It’s both a legal sword and shield for their profits.
Modern US corps regard their customers as victims.
“You bought from us? Sucks to be you….”
I think the term “marks” is more appropriate…
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2022/08/11/saudi-firm-fodomonte-pay-arizona-groundwater-use/10271103002/
The mysteries of “human resources,” a department that has as its sole purposes (1) protecting the company and (2) shoring up various cliques within the company. Also, too, wrecking the dental plan.
So Twitter is now in downsizification. The biggest issue for “human resources” is going to be calculating the buyouts. Image the way people are going to be forced into a buyout with much, much paperwork to sign. Your money and your life!
The e-mail has already thrown people out of the workplace, and many will have their access cards turned off today.
Too bad about not unionizing: Hey, Twitter employees, unions are like totally nineteenth century, as we all know. But you could have used one.
My question: Sending people notification through their private e-mail account that they are fired. That has a whiff of the illegal and unethical about it.
Any labor law experts here?
Or is Personnel, ever-caring, ever-compassionate, ever-multicultural, ever-positive, worried that someone might hit the Reply All button for funsies?
Sic transit gloria twitteri.
Opening scene of the excellent Margin Call is a wrenching vision of packing your work life quickly away and being escorted away to your new exile. Man, that Friday in early May 2009 sucked when it happened here.
And just wait when the now unemployed Twitter folk are reading the COBRA forms and fine print to fill out if you choose to enroll to maintain your coverage. Yikes, my monthly coverage will now cost how much ?
I heard from people I know in the sillycon valley that, although Google and Meta current have hiring freezes in place, they are making exceptions for skilled Twitter devs and managers. Probably not everyone fired today will make this cut, but it’s not quite as dire as many news reports are making it.
I’ve heard of people being fired by mass voicemail. So sadly the e-mail part is probably kosher.
That part is likely not illegal but a mass layoff w/o giving 60 day notice is.
“World War III Has Already Effectively Begun” (interview) Nouriel Roubini, Der Spiegel
> Interview Conducted By Tim Bartz und David Böcking
> 28.10.2022, 13.53 Uhr
Given the precise time-stamp, I reckon this interview was posted on the webpage on 28 Oct. I wonder when it was actually conducted?
Some interesting comments but
> … [central banks may] wimp out and blink, don’t raise rates and inflation keeps rising.
> I think the Fed and the ECB will blink – as the Bank of England has already done.
he was badly wrong-footed there.
“World War 3 Has Already Effectively Begun.” Der Spiegel.
And Germany has already effectively lost.
Not necessarily. It is easy to reverse interest rate hikes. See what 2023 has in store.
“Real-Time Statistics on Europe’s Gas Supplies”
So in talking about the Baltic Sea explosions, Der Spigel had this to say-
‘In late September, a large leak in the pipeline was discovered. It is unclear if deliveries through the pipeline will ever resume.’
Yeah, a leak sounds like something you have in a bike tire. The reality that they are trying to hide was different. So Putin had this to say-
‘I received a report this morning from [Gazprom chief Alexey] Miller that they had done an examination. Gazprom was allowed to examine the sites of the explosions, by the way,” the president said.
He said two craters had been found: One is three meters deep and the other five meters.
“A 40-meter length of the pipeline was ripped out. The rupture is, the pipes have come 259 meters apart, I think,” he said,” he said.
Putin added that the examination of the sites of the explosions left no doubt the explosions were a terrorist attack.
“It was an obvious terrorist attack, an obvious one,” the president said when fielding questions from reporters.
“The piece of pipe that was ripped away, was twisted at 90-degree angle and thrown 40 meters aside, exactly towards Nord Stream 2, which was also damaged. Apparently, by this blast and the fragments of this pipe,” Putin went on. “It’s hard for us to control this, because all this happened in the special economic zones of Denmark, Sweden and Germany.’
https://tass.com/politics/1530615
Some leak. And they must have used a hellluva lot of explosives. Come to think of it, Sweden shut down the whole area and sent in their own team right after those explosions. Remember how one pipeline was not destroyed? What if that team went in not to inspect the pipelines but to retrieve the explosives package attached to that pipeline that never went off?
Knock. Knock.
Who’s there?
Ben.
Ben who?
Ben Dover, President Manchin is going to fix Medicare and Social Security again.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3718743-manchin-calls-for-deal-on-social-security-medicare-medicaid-in-new-congress/
‘Manchin proposed addressing that shortfall by increasing the amount of income subject to taxation to fund Social Security from $147,000 to $400,000.’
Isn’t that what should have been done years and years ago? Increase the taxation threshold? But if he plays funny buggers and try to do what Clinton and Obama wanted to do with those programs, I can see how it would go for him the next time he goes back home-
‘Senator Manchin! Senator Manchin! There is a huge crowd of your fellow West Virginians who depend on Medicare and Social security outside to talk to you – and they all have hammers!’
Isn’t that what should have been done years and years ago?
Um…..Yes?
Of course, and that is exactly why Manchin’s proposal is not serious. If it was, it would have been done already.
Voters are best to keep in mind that politicians are like magicians. While they distract their audience with one waving hand (raise the FICA cap!) the other works the “magic”. And then, out of the hat, pops the rabbit: “Lookee, lookee, no cap increase!”
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fica.asp
He wants this because he knows that Sinema will never, ever sign on to it. Duh.
They will “compromise” by raising the age for benefits.
Based on lower life expectancies due to covid, they should lower the age for benefits.
A song to save his party’s election, nothing more.
It’s his attempt to embarrass Mark Warner types into associating with him when otherwise Manchin has proved too embarrassing for even Mark Warner, who jumped to Manchin’s defense last year for half a day and then scurried away.
My wife and I have been planning our vacation in December and the kids are 11 and 9 so we decided to go to Florida and do the fun things – drive the highway on the Keys, Cocoa Beach and watch Rockets launch, a fan boat trip…. And of COURSE Orlando, these kids would love it, right? Nuh uh, they are very opposed to Disney World, amongst their peers it has a reputation for being awful. Enthusiasm remains for the Harry Potter thing and Universal Studios tho it really struck me how Disney now has a bad reputation among 9-11 year olds
I suppose that the place has changed a lot over the decades-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-dEXvSTBA (8:01 mins)
And have a great holiday in Florida.
Quite a video, really fun to watch, thanks for posting! Observations: people are quite well-dressed, nobody is obese (or even fat, for that matter), mainly whites and some Asians, very few black or hispanic. Times change. One can only imagine how innovative this amusement park must have been at the time.
It seems they are really aiming the Disney parks at the self professed Disney Adults these days. I know the times they’ve been, my mom and sister were much more excited about going to Disney World than my niece.
Do you suppose they see Disney as a lifestyle brand, like Apple?
My suggestion, having been a Bore-lando resident many years back, is to do any and all of the Florida theme parks on LSD. You haven’t ridden a ride until you are seeing rainbow streaks. Before you get on the ride.
I can happily say as parents we never took our kids to Disney World. My daughter finally got there on a high school trip and came out of it without buying a single souvenir.
St Petersburg, on the west side, has a great circus museum. Ringling lived there. We found the mechanics of moving from city to city fascinating.
The Ringling Museum is great but it’s in Sarasota, not St Petersburg. St Pete, however, is developing a very nice collection of museums: Salvador Dali, James Museum of Western Art, Imagine Glass Museum, and the new Arts & Craft museum are all very good.
Lots of stuff to do in FL that’s not disney that kids might like.
Check this out–Sheriff’s Ghost Walk Tour–in St. Augustine, the nation’s oldest city:
http://sheriffsghostwalktours.com/
My son interned at Disney under the College Program in 2011. His take on Disney was a place where you pay the price of admission to come in and shop. The rides are loss leaders that you enter and exit through the souvenir shops.
Bezos and his housekeeper: There could be two themes that get borne out.
1. He really did overwork her in bad conditions. If it works for Amazon workers, why not at home? :/
2. He and other .0001%ers have attorneys, investigators and, um, freelancers poking around their households to dig up anything for a shakedown buck.
Why rob
banksd-bags? Willie Sutton would tell you that that is where the money is.Re: Matt Y’s twitter thread, I listened to as much as I could stand of the Engadget podcast this morning and Blue Checks were a big part of their Twitter/Musk discussion. The panel, three Blue Check journos, all seemed quite bothered by the idea of their Checks losing specialness. Of course, it could also be that Engadget is closer to the cheerleading of tech Matt is bemoaning too, though in my experience they are not. But I am proud of them that they stopped just short of calling the movement against the Blue Checks a MAGA conspiracy. They only went one toe over that line, hehe.
Terrible podcast anyway but sometimes it’s interesting to see how the other half live ,in this case, journos who live online and to their core believe Twitter is this super important communication medium that is nearly all powerful. They also asked “is it a national security risk to have someone as unstable as Musk owning Twitter?”, fretted the “500%” increase in hate speech after Musk’s purchase (unsourced) and also bowed heads and nodded solemnly agreed how Twitter affected the 2016 election (again, unsourced.)
Blue check merit badges are now buyable. Oh the pain, the pain.
I wonder how many people on Twitter will spend the money to buy themselves a Blue Check – even just for a month – just so that they can send a tweet to people like those journos and tell them that they have a Blue Check as well now.
I once met Jerry Falwell Jr early in pandemic and about a week before everything blew up for him (photo holding the drink). Holy cow, he was a total d-bag.
Dad has met both Falwell boys years ago. He said the minister seemed to be a dopey minister type, nothing jumped out. He even predicted Jonathan would largely just keep to Thomas Road. Jerry Jr would have had to be polite at the time, but dad said he gave off the same vibes as John Sununu, a cold evil.
Someone needs to call Kevin McCarthy and tell him to put on his Speaker shoes
“Turnout is down from the 2018 midterms even as voter registration has increased. With 12 days left to go (as of Oct 29), Arizona voters have submitted 783,439 early ballots. At this point in 2018, 837,861 ballots had been cast.”
This trend is present in counties with a higher percentage of registered Democrats as well.
As of Oct 31, “So far in Pima County, early voting is still down this year by over 42,000 votes compared to 2018.”
Obama was just here the other night begging us to “save the country’s democracy” (and to check out the Phoenix Suns that he wants to buy).
When Trump annuls the 2020 election and kicks Brandon to the curb, it’s all our fault.
I am in a blue community with a very sizable Latino community. They have all been registered Democrats for their entire voting lives. I would say not so reliable as voters who actually show up in the past.
Our county just opened up its early voting in the past week. The voting location is a few buildings down from where we had a family event this past Saturday. I have been hearing my Latino patients decry and slam the Dems at every opportunity in my office for the past year. I knew what I am about to describe was coming but even I could not believe the intensity with which it was happening.
There was a line to vote that was more than a block long. Almost all Latino families. Many if not most of them wearing all kinds of FJB bling. Anti-Dem signs and slogans everywhere. Note – there were no Pro-GOP signs or bling that I could see at all. At the very edge of the line where campaigning was not allowed were tables and stands full of people making certain voters understood the FJB concept. It was a party atmosphere. Not a Dem campaigner in site for the whole two hours we were there. The line never really went down the whole time.
As has been clear to me from the beginning listening to my patients of all stripes – this outpouring is most definitely ANTI-DEM – in a big and nasty way for them. I would not at all characterize it as PRO-GOP.
This scene could be construed as a “heavy Dem turnout”. However, anyone who believes that translates to safe Dem victories at least in our community is in for a big surprise.
I agree about the Speaker shoes for McCarty. I think this has the potential to be a shocker in our country. I hope and pray it is. We will soon see what is happening everywhere else. This country needs a party that stands for the small guy and the workers in this country. Forcible and humiliating disgorgement of the current goons in control of the Dem party and every bit of their nonsense is essential. When they start to stand up again for the common man – this Dem will be back with open arms. Until them – I am with the above Latino crowd.
aside from MIL, who is habitual democrat…and younger BIL, who is almost as cynical as me, but with less study about polital economy under his belt…
all of my wife’s Famila is republican.
have been as long as i’ve known them> mostly due to abortion and such…but i grok it also has to do with the striving to enter the local bougie ranks.
MIL asked if i was gonna vote…i said, “prolly not…nobody to vote for”…she mentioned beto…sigh…i said i’d consider voting just to vote for him…not because of policy, or that i think he could actually do anything in Texas…but to do my part to slap abbott.beto as gubernator would provide hilarity and give the litegov/radio preacher conniptions.
i scrutinised the ballots that were in the local paper/brochure…and bet6o vs abbott is all there is.
dems…if they run anyone at all in races i can vote in…are stuck in neoliberal/goplite mode.
since there’s no longer a space for write ins, i see little point in participating in the farce.
this will be the second time in my life i didn’t vote…first was the recent primary, and for the same reasons.
i’ll instead continue to focus on the whole autarky/think like a state/personal secession project.
i sincerely hope that some of the hillfort dems come down among the mundanes and ask me in the feedstore if i voted…i’d love to give them an earful.
I only voted because they (Kansas) have an awful Constitutional Amendment to authorize the Legislature to overturn ANY action by the governor with a simple majority. With that, what’s the point of having a governor?
This was inspired by our governor sending all the school kids home in March of 2020 because of the pandemic until at least August 2020. And I think it continued for some months after that. But I don’t remember how long it was.
She was the first governor to do that and I admire her for it. But she’s really getting hammered in the ads.
>>>have been as long as i’ve known them> mostly due to abortion and such…but i grok it also has to do with the striving to enter the local bougie ranks.
I get some of the social issues. If you believe abortion is murder, you should fight it, but this social climbing is silly.
What is the point of joining the local American kleptocracy? All it seems to be is how much you can steal, how to kick down, and who to kiss up; the old WASPs and the local gentry of the various parts of the country a century ago had some concern about building up the country or creating a decent society. At least, sometimes that is what they actually did.
Now? Bleep you. I got mine, now go die, you scum. How embarrassing.
the (local) bougie striving is due to being one generation away from poverty and chip sandwiches for dinner and being brown in white rural texas, etc.
but 2 generations in to breaking out of that, and it tends towards pretension and snobbery and a focus on aesthetics and perceptions of others.
Even the MSM is catching on… I think it was Andrea Mitchell on ABC news the other day who said “But the people I speak to keep asking about the economy” after the daily dose of the D’s pearl clutching “save our democracy” BS.
“We need a party that stands for the small guy” I’m fairly small. I agree.
So I have several choices. 1. Vote Democrats, as I always do. 2. Vote Republican – as I never do – to teach the Democrats a lesson for their ineffective leadership. 3. Don’t vote at all.
Of course there are local elections that concern me – and also a bunch of ballot initiatives – that will get me into mailing my ballot in (It’s California they make it easy to vote).
Will voting Republican actually bring about the positive changes needed in the Democratic Party – once they are trounced in this midterm? Or – will voting Republican be too dangerous – based on their anti – democratic messaging and voter suppression tactics, and their potential messing with SNAP and Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid – all of which are of benefit to myself – little guy.
Between a rock and a hard place. The Republicans worry me more than the Democrats. I’m voting Democrat this time, yet again.
I voted by mail.
No Dems at the State level, one at the County level who has done a decent job.
Third party or Republican otherwise.
Re: NASA finds methane leaks.
I spent half an hour chasing down links and found it maddening that only 4 (perhaps 11) of the “more than 50” release sites were identified. One worries this information is being Classified.
In this link there is a map. Not comprehensive. Some regions not monitored.
Interesting map. Looks like the Yamal and Brotherhood lines in Russia are seriously leaky, which is hardly a surprise. Pakistan also looks to have major problems. The leaks in Central Asia are hardly a surprise as that area was a wild west for exploration back in the 1990’s, my brother used to work as a driller out there back then. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the problem is unplugged exploration wells.
One issue that isn’t often looked at is old coal workings. Many years ago I saw a study that reckoned that unplugged Chinese coal mines were one of the biggest sources of methane (this was before the boom in fracking and LNG). I wonder if the hotstpots in China are gas facilities or associated with coal mines or a bit of both.
Looks like NS 2 should be featured somewhere, wasn’t it the largest single release in the history of ever?
Not just old coal workings. New Zealand’s 2010 Pike River mine disaster which killed 29 was the result of inadequate ventilation leading to a methane build up. Presumably had the ventilation been adequate all that methane would have been vented to the open air to become someone – everyone – else’s problem while the mine’s owners carried on happily pocketing the profits. Instead they were able to walk away, declare bankruptcy and live happily ever after.
“In July 2013, Pike River Coal was ordered to pay $110,000 to each of the victims’ families and fined $760,000. In the end it did not pay the fine and only paid $5,000 to each family, saying it did not have the money.” – Wikipedia.
Thanks, Ignacio. However your link appears to be from before the New and Improved(TM) EMIT satellite data.
Years ago, an intelligent race of beings could have imposed a pollution tax on such leaks.
Matthew Yglesias is wrong on the big point almost as often as Megan McArdle is.
His thesis is that the role of the press covering technology is to act like breathless stenographers of their claims, like they did with Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, or Juiciero.
His central thesis is the argument is that journalists are too mean to tech companies, but compared to the good folks at NC, places like the NY Times are remarkably solicitous to the Silicon Valley snake oil salesmen.
It’s mindless contrarian bull **family blog**, or what I call Michael Kinsley disease, and Yglesias has been a devotee of this since his days as a Harvard student.
The little point, that journalists have butt-hurt because they are losing a perk, is a valid one, but that is true about journalists forever, and it misses the forest for the trees.
Here at NC, the “counter-suggestibility” principle means the default classification for extraordinary Big Tech claims is The Bezzle, until solid evidence proves otherwise.
Agreed, but it is possible to cheer invention and demonize the capitalizers at the same time. Profit encourages invention but to the profit of individuals or the society we live in. Look at the difference between Apple and Google. One has largely kept its integrity and continues to make a quality product. as Steve Jobs was not going to compromise quality for profit.The Google business plan, on the other hand, has been to construct a slave auction and sold us all down the river.
Instead of rewarding those who would make a better society we incentive an aristocracy. Journalists know where their bread is buttered. Long live the king. And Megan was brought to us by no less the the Koch machine.
OK, since Google stole the algorithm used to search academic journals, when has there been a real invention in big tech since 1998?
Payment systems? Nope.
Social Media/BBS? Nope.
Mail order? Nope.
Taxis? Nope.
The “innovations” coming from Silicon Valley are marketing, regulatory arbitrage (cheating), and outright fraud (advertising).
RE: ‘Not acceptable’: Ukraine laments delays as EU inks €5B aid deal Politico.
It would seem there are “good” reasons for ukraine’s relentless whining and begging for bucks.
You go to proxy war to save democracy with the corruption-riddled “ally” you have, not the one you wish you had.
http://johnhelmer.net/thieves-paradise-in-kiev-imf-admits-it-doesnt-know-how-much-ukraine-has-received-of-35-billion-in-promised-foreign-cash-or-where-the-money-was-spent/
A nice Rioja is one of my go-tos for Sunday afternoons– inexpensive and delicious, a ten-buck bottle of that and a good book and I’m set for the day.
Climate change is wrecking hell on the industry, and I hope these scientists have continued success, stay in front of the curve, as what’s the point of living without at least a few simple pleasures?
Yep. The other day i bought a very fine young Rioja for just 6.45€. Viña Alcorta tempranillo grapes. Incredibly good for that price.
So jealous – taxes and general costs here mean its very hard to get a decent Rioja for less than 10euro (an endless source of complaint from French/Spanish/Italians in Dublin). But now I’m thinking of my Friday evening wine already and I’ve a few hours of work to go….
Alcorta really is a great deal for the price.
During COVID I discovered the Spanish wine site Decantalo. Sadly for you, PK, they do not seem to ship to Ireland.
Re: Pettis and China’s “problem”
It’s interesting to read Pettis’ tweet opposite bwilli123’s LRB link on today’s Hudson post.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/11/the-destiny-of-civilization-an-interview-with-michael-hudson-on-economic-development-rentierism-debt-china.html#comment-3808967
Excellent pick up GramSci. Pettis’s comments read very similar to those reasons made at the time to sell off UK land in the LRB article and Hudson’s comments. Same outcome most likely if it happened.
“Saudi firm has pumped Arizona groundwater for years without paying. Time to pony up”
The whole operation should be shut down immediately and police investigations launched as to who authorized that sweetheart deal. That alfalfa being shipped overseas contains a lot of that water and it is never coming back. Well, maybe occasionally as a passing cloud. We do the same here in Oz where we ship wheat and rice that contains bulk fresh water overseas which slowly but surely drains fresh water supplies here.
I’m curious what role wine grape rootstocks play in the changing climate. Most root stock is of American varietals, as it is blight (phylloxera) resistant. Other varieties are then grafted on to those American varietal root stocks.
Found this: https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/blog/researchers-pinpoint-drought-resistant-traits-grape-rootstocks
I think the more important modern rootstock distinction is between traditional very deep rooting types vs the newer ‘riparian’ rootstocks which are shallow and allow for “greater control” in the vineyard through surface applications of water, nutrients and pesticides.
as well as facilitating ripping all the vines out…both as an hopefully unnecessary last gasp at controlling some disease…as well as because tastes changed in the winesnobbiate.
(i live in the northern edge of the texas hill country wine boom.)
one of the reasons for finally covering my giant greenhouse frame is rooting out rootstock of the local native grapes.
Deficit irrigation was developed in Australia. They used to crank out a lot of crappy wine because the rootstock was too robust for the grape. So they found if they cut back irrigation at certain stages they could still produce a decent wine on the same roots. There are a handful of wine varietals compared to over a thousand rootstocks. The important thing is to match the rootstock not just to the rainfall but to the soil conditions. One can always irrigate (except in France) but one cannot control the rain. Another point effecting grape quality as well as water consumption is shoot pruning. It only requires about twelve leaves per cluster to produce sufficient sugar for vintification. We prune throughout the season. We don’t need shoots without grapes and we don’t want the vine to put energy into making excess leaves beyond what is needed to make good fruit.
It is difficult for me to view Ukraine as anything other than a failed state. Its economy and grid are so severely damaged that they are barely functional. It cannot provide the barest of necessities – food, warmth, water, shelter. Its population to survive will have to emigrate elsewhere. For survival, its government needs US and EU welfare. If Russia were merely to continue this degradation without any major kinetic offensive, has it not already laid the foundation for achieving its demilitarization and denatzification goal?
The theory: Zelensky’s goal of turning Ukraine into a “Big Israel.”
The practice: a painful drawn-out process where Ukraine ends up as a “big Gaza Strip” instead.
hmm, CDC article about Aerosols and mentions ventilation, from Taiwan. The URL has “0666_article”, weird coincidence
Probable Aerosol Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through Floors and Walls of Quarantine Hotel, Taiwan, 2021
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/12/22-0666_article
Abstract
We investigated a cluster of SARS-CoV-2 infections in a quarantine hotel in Taiwan in December 2021. The cluster involved 3 case patients who lived in nonadjacent rooms on different floors. They had no direct contact during their stay. By direct exploration of the space above the room ceilings, we found residual tunnels, wall defects, and truncated pipes between their rooms. We conducted a simplified tracer-gas experiment to assess the interconnection between rooms. Aerosol transmission through structural defects in floors and walls in this poorly ventilated hotel was the most likely route of virus transmission. This event demonstrates the high transmissibility of Omicron variants, even across rooms and floors, through structural defects. Our findings emphasize the importance of ventilation and integrity of building structure in quarantine facilities.
“A quiet race to succeed Pelosi is underway in San Francisco…”
Christine Pelosi, the “filmmaker” who just happened to be in the capitol on the morning of January 6th with a full film crew? What a coincidence.
Wiener, a carpetbagger from New Jersey who is the developers’ best friend in the legislature and who is responsible for ramming hundreds of thousands of housing units down the throat of California cities. The last gasp of the low interest rate developer civil right complex.
Make sure and check out images of the Folsom Street Fair at which Wiener appears. That’ll attract a lot of Democratic voters in Middle America for sure.
Cue the DemoCircular Firing Squad.
Wheat is the canary in the coal mine and black swan in alternating beats. When it shows up in geopolitics, it all comes into focus, i.e., climate, energy, nutrition, power, past, and future. Supplies of wheat are tighter than the last several years excluding China, the #1 wheat producer in the world, who uses all its’ production and imports large amounts too. Sales ex-USA are surging ahead of USDA projections even with prices banging and bouncing around over $2/bu (60lbs) in spite of $USD trading at near 20 yr highs, making exports more expensive. Under nearly all conditions dollar strength kills US export markets and drives prices down, not so today. With rice prices and supply fairly stable, wheat gets the attention. Drought this time of year in HRW wheat belt does not correlate to harvest yield, but can support price and threats of LaNina for the growing season adds to uncertainty.
The geopolitics here favor Russian actions to loosen trade restrictions on Ukraine and give away wheat and fertilizer in Africa and using Erdogan to facilitate actions and poke NATO with one of their own while the EU goes down the tubes. Russia endgame taking shape.
If you think wheat is expensive now, wait until next year.
In Ukraine, if winter wheat isn’t planted by October 1st, it won’t germinate. There will be almost nothing coming from one of the world’s largest grain suppliers next summer.
not true, winter wheat will germinate and grow year around. It needs to vernalize or have a freeze to head out and make kernels, spring wheat does not.
From Newsweek:
Lockdowns: The Penal Pandemic Solution | Opinion
https://www.newsweek.com/lockdowns-penal-pandemic-solution-opinion-1752919
A touching parade video of forest firefighters being saluted, as opposed to the coppers they can pretty much only be heroes.
The signs sprung up all over tiny town during the KNP Fire last year, all in praise.
We can close the books on the 2022 wildfire season in Cali and it was thankfully, a bit of a dud compared to previous efforts.
Only 365k acres were burned, about 1/6th of the 2021 totals.
I’ve advocated setting up hundreds if not thousands of prescribed burn areas in the state and using Mother Nature to do all the heavy lifting of putting them out.
It takes an awful lot of prep to make sure a planned fire goes how you want it to proceed and most of them go off without a hitch, with a tiny amount getting out of control.
You light them up a few days before the first storm of the year if it’s big enough and a no doubt about it beauty such as the atmospheric river about to engulf the state and the Sierra Nevada in particular.
This year wouldn’t work as a storm a few days ago that wasn’t potent enough to put out blazes came and went, messing up the possibility.
When you can’t light em’ up like this year, keep expanding the prescribed burn prep area in expectation of that first big storm of 2023 be just right (3 out of the last 5 years would’ve worked in the scheme as i’ve described it) and you light em up, instant fire breaks all over the place.
Talking firebreaks, Tulare County Fire crews have been cutting a 40 foot wide firebreak above Mineral King road and are up to close to 4 miles now-going all the way to mile 8. All of it is being chipped off down the downside of the twisty road, and they’ve left enough trees on the rims of the hills on the upside so you’d hardly notice their work, which is evident when you stop and take a look.
The road represents the only place to take a stand against a wildfire, and further up the road in Mineral King in Sequoia NP, you can see the firefighters did the very same thing in the KNP Fire, but in much more haste…
p.s.
Another loud day of F-35 flyovers, something’s up
A modest proposal (or “hail Mary” pass) for a negotiated settlement on Ukraine for your consideration
Premise: No NATO country wants to be on its eastward extremity with non-NATO land. Such countries (formerly Germany, and now Poland) will prefer the initial front lines of a future war to move further eastward, hence NATO expansion. For Europe, membership of Ukraine in NATO would be a boon: it would ensure that in any future land war with Russia, the starting killing fields would not be the Warsaw Pact countries but Ukraine. Any country with a memory of the horror of World War I and II, and what the shelling did to the countries that hosted these battles, will want some other country to “host” these battles in the future.
When it became clear that Putin was going to invade Ukraine, Europe and the US were almost certainly hoping (and maybe convinced) that economic sanctions would succeed in ending the conflict rather quickly; or Russia would succeed rather quickly. But if the war was to be prolonged, NATO would much prefer the killing fields to be in Ukraine NOW rather than on NATO turf later. I suspect NATO’s thinking (then or now) is to give Putin enough of a bloody nose in Ukraine that Russia will cease forever having any ambitions of going further West.
Right now, the war continues because a Russia “win” is intolerable to the West, and a Ukrainian “win” is intolerable for Russia. How does the “concert of nations” get out of this mess with a semblance of collective geopolitical security (or even gain, e.g. a pathway to future expanded peace, trade and prosperity)?
Premise #2: if expanding further East for NATO brings more security for the incumbent members of NATO, why stop at Ukraine?
To me, the obvious solution–and I believe Putin has proposed this–is the inclusion of Russia in the EU and NATO. Might that be a possible “grand bargain” outcome of this war? Maybe other NC readers have put forward similar ideas in the past.
Such a “grand bargain” could accomplish one important objective: it would put Russia — and its vast resources — back more securely in the European orbit, and potentially loosen Russia’s growing bonds with China. This would achieve more security for Europe, and might strengthen the West vis-a-vis China.
By this logic, this proposal could also mean inclusion of Turkey in the EU, a major objective of that country. It would also bring a huge peace dividend, in the form of lower MIC expenditures, for Europe, the US and Russia.
Well, NC readers, what do you think? Could this work? It would require a major paradigm shift in thought and the overcoming of major cognitive biases on all sides. Or is this pure fantasy?
And the reason for NATO to think that Russia had any ambitions of going further (sic) west is…?
Russia tried to join NATO but were shut out. And before the war, the EU was shutting Russia out of every single organization that they had together until there was virtually nothing left. So it would be the EU/NATO that would have to change but it is too late. Russia has given up on Europe and is turning its eyes east instead.
What’s to stop NATO (US) from expanding further and absorbing India and China, along with Brazil and Mexico? This way NATO (US) would rule the world as it has always dreamed of doing. Of course the military industrial complex would prefer to have never ending global conflicts in order to sell more weaponry, so a global peace even under the auspices of NATO(US) can never be tolerated. There must always be a few bogeymen out there.
New Commander, New Goals for Russia in Ukraine
Good to see a sound analysis!
In other words, Russia aims to put a stop to the intensive fighting before winter sets in, effectively freezing the conflict and retaining the territorial gains it has made so far.
Did the author miss the fact that the SMO start This is not the 30 Years War where troops went into winter quarters.ed on Feb 24?
It is frightening that I am seeing a lot of this. I finally having to convince myself that most of the commentariat in the west actually believe the fantastical stuff they are writing. I originally thought we were seeing some ignorance about Russia and a willingness to toe the Gov’t line but they really are believing their own propaganda.
Like the Russians, we too may soon be sending drones on one-way trips to Kiev, but this would really be a humanitarian droning!
Swiss researchers create edible drone for emergency scenarios
It may not be the tastiest meal ever flown, but researchers in Switzerland have developed an edible drone designed to serve as life-sustaining nutrition for people stranded in emergency situations.
https://dronedj.com/2022/11/04/swiss-researchers-create-edible-drone-for-emergency-scenarios/
If I were stranded, I’d be wondering, if they can send a drone then why can’t they just fly me the F outta there?
Russia made that proposal 20 years ago & it was soundly rejected. Even were NATO membership offered, there is zero chance that Russia would agree to this today. It would (correctly IMO) be seen as the “camel’s nose under the tent” in search of resources to plunder.
Regarding “NASA Finds More Than 50 Super-Emitters of Methane” I’ll bet none of them are cattle farms. I am a vegetarian but am not a purist and appreciate that people choose to eat meat. I love how WEF and other powers (Belgium, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Germany) are trying to shut down cattle farms because of their high levels of methane production. I call BS> farms do not emit nearly the methane that the oil industries do. Cut the gas, not the beef.