Why are Colorado rabbits growing tentacles and horns? Denver Post
Insecure about their looks, more men than ever are getting plastic surgery STAT
Climate/Environment
International “State of the Climate” report confirms record-high greenhouse gases, global temperatures, global sea level, and ocean heat in 2024 American Meteorological Society
First-ever detection of a toxic chemical pollutant in the atmosphere Earth.com
Gulf region sees temperatures spike above 52°C (125.6°F) as electricity grids buckle Intellinews
Wildfires spread dangerously close to southern European capitals FT
Hot, dry summers bring new ‘firewave’ risk to UK cities, scientists warn BBC
Mortality associated with fine particles from wildfires may be underestimated by 93% Barcelona Institute for Global Health
Pacific Ocean changes may ‘lock in’ US megadrought for decades New Scientist
Gen Z Wants To Buy Homes in the Country’s Most Affordable Areas—but There’s a Long-Term Downside Realtor
Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims Carbon Brief
Pandemics
Unpublished data on #LongCovidKids from an Australian clinic — 44% are attending school less than 1/2 the time, “Imagine what this means for their future”
Powerful presentation from Michelle Scoullar, @BurnetInstitute on “Impact, Treatment and Outcomes of Paediatric Long COVID” pic.twitter.com/R7DmUeVsEZ
— Patient-Led Research Collaborative (@patientled) August 11, 2025
Clean Air at School American Lung Association
India
India and China eye resumption of border trade after five years AFP
China?
China cracks down on foreign companies stockpiling rare earths FT
For the first time in human history, China imposes financial sanctions on the EU. Two Lithuanian banks UAB Urbo Bankas and AB Mano Bankas are now banned from transactions and cooperation with any Chinese entity. This strategic signalling. 🧵1/
— MENA Unleashed (@MENAUnleashed) August 14, 2025
China to launch new type of visa for young science, technology professionals Xinhua
Beyond America: The New Routes of Chinese Migration China Observers
O Canada
The Banderite Occupied Government of Canada is just going to absorb every Ukrainian veteran who survives the war into the Canadian military, incredible https://t.co/ujD33Fcm53
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) August 14, 2025
Syraqistan
Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 32 people as four more die from malnutrition Al Jazeera
Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis has damaged sewage infrastructure, flooding the Nasser Medical Complex and turning its hospital corridors into health hazards.
Doctors and nurses are navigating stagnant, contaminated water. With generators offline, emergency rooms are now… pic.twitter.com/tfRMgQRYSV
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 14, 2025
‘Legitimization Cell’: Israeli unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas +972 Magazine
Do not share that video of Marwan Barghouti, as the Jewish Supremacists want you to… so share his defiant images from before starvation and torture. They filmed it looking down at him from a high angle, to enlarge the presence of that diminutive Jewsader Ben-Gvir. pic.twitter.com/P8NfnHEoTa
— Free Palestine TV (@TVFreePalestine) August 14, 2025
Israel to Okay Plan Splitting West Bank in Two to ‘Bury the Idea of a Palestinian State’ Haaretz
The Nuremberg Movement Ian Welsh
***
Palestinian Official: Turkey Pressuring Hamas to Disarm, Resume Gaza Cease-fire Talks Haaretz
Turkey to help Syria with weapons systems, equipment under new deal: report Turkish Minute
European Disunion
Scandal erupts in Hungary over PM Orbán’s summer residence and park with zebras “like Yanukovych had” – photos Ukrainska Pravda
EU, Ukraine both seek regime change in Hungary — top diplomat TASS
Fire hazard junge Welt (machine translation). “Merz, EU and US-Russia summit.”
New Not-So-Cold War
Alaska: “Its a Trap!” The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda (video)
Some Thoughts On The Upcoming Summit Moon of Alabama
Summit Preparation News From Russia Karl Sanchez
Russia’s Summit Preparation Sends an Unmistakable Message to Washington and the World Larry Johnson
Putin outlines prospects for nuclear deal with US RT
🚨 Ukraine Strikes Russia 🇺🇦⚡
Massive drone attacks hit Russian territory overnight — before the Putin 🤝 Trump Alaska summit 🇷🇺🇺🇸#Ukraine #Russia #Putin #Trump pic.twitter.com/fx09G74KI5
— Hindustan (@InsideHindustan) August 12, 2025
What we’re seeing right now – and have been for some time, frankly, but it’s going to get bad in the near future – is Ukraine’s online supporters having a collective mental break.
This is literal, unironic Army Detachment Steiner stuff. https://t.co/158kAtcAgX
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) August 14, 2025
I always tell people to go read the congressional briefings, so that you have an idea of what you’re dealing with. Understand that the US does not view Russia as a credible threat and believes that it is too economically broken to rebuild. This is the basis of the US position. pic.twitter.com/TGkXWaXBiV
— Dr.Snekotron (@snekotron) August 14, 2025
The Caribbean
US military deploying forces to southern Caribbean against drug groups Reuters
Spook Country
Russiagate Releases Lifting a Veil on Surveillance State Abuses Matt Taibbi
“Liberation Day”
Wholesale prices rose 0.9% in July, much more than expected CNBC
Why are wholesale vegetable prices spiking, and what’s that mean for consumers? Marketplace
Trump Tariffs Are Burdening US Families With ‘Back-to-School Tax’: Analysis Common Dreams
Greedflation Is Back as Corporations Use the Tariff Excuse to Hike Prices BIG by Matt Stoller
Trump 2.0
Building New Rafts: Trump’s Inheritance of the Legacy of the Left Salmagundi
Democrats en déshabillé
Obama takes part in call with Texas Democrats The Hill
Texas Democrats say they will return to state once session ends, California unveils retaliatory map Texas Tribune
Mamdani
Some Democrats Panicked Over Mamdani. Obama Called Him. New York Times
Obviously Mamdani is better than the other corporate ghouls in the race & I’m not telling anyone to not vote for him. But it’s important to get people to start recognizing how the Democratic party captures & kills genuine socialist movements. It’s the entire purpose of the party.
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) August 14, 2025
Police State Watch
Homeless people in detention camps? Fears grow about Trump and the Olympics Los Angeles Times
DC’s Homeless Have Nowhere to Go. Trump Might Send Them to Jail. Mother Jones
Immigration Detention Has Become a Booming Business for Private Prison Giants Truthout
Don’t forget: “crime” by black and brown folks has long been the pretext for bringing the boomerang home, militarizing our streets, & deploying the tactics of colonial control on citizens. It’s how fascism will be snuck into America https://t.co/kLCMfzl7Gv
— Julian Go (@jgo34) August 14, 2025
The thing about US power under Trump is that the capriciousness everyone in the US is experiencing, is exactly what folks in the tri-continents have experienced under even urbane presidents like Obama.
— Laleh Khalili 🇵🇸 (@LalehKhalili) August 14, 2025
Monrovia Man Is Hit and Killed By A Vehicle As He Attempted to Run Away From ICE LA Taco
AI
An internal Meta AI document said chatbots could have ‘sensual’ conversations with children Engadget
Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York. Reuters. Commentary:
The AI apocalypse we’re racing towards doesn’t look like a Terminator scenario in which AI violently wipes us out. Instead, the AI apocalypse we’re racing towards is one in which we wind up drowning in so much AI generated nonsense & manipulation that we lose our grip on reality. https://t.co/HHLT7QiAcH
— Librarianshipwreck (@libshipwreck) August 14, 2025
Facts: Google’s push to AI hurts publisher traffic Digital Content Next
xAI Was About to Land a Major Government Contract. Then Grok Praised Hitler Wired
A.I. as normal technology (derogatory) Read Max
GPT-5 Set the Stage for Ad Monetization and the SuperApp SemiAnalysis
OpenAI’s Waterloo? Gary Marcus
‘Absolutely immense’: the companies on the hook for the $3tn AI building boom FT
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
“Privacy preserving age verification” is bullshit Cory Doctorow
Supply Chain
Nation’s IV Saline Shortage Is Over, FDA Declares MedPage Today
Healthcare?
Eli Lilly Hikes UK Mounjaro Price By Up To 170% As Trump Pressure Mounts Investor’s Business Daily
Eli Lilly endorses Trump’s goal of aligning US, international drug prices Fierce Pharma
Guillotine Watch
Giving Pledge is falling far short of its promise, report finds Philanthropy News Digest
Class Warfare
Why A Farm Workers Union Leader Choose Self-Deportation The Progressive
Italian Amazon Workers Strike and Win. Will Unions Elsewhere Follow Suit? Truthout
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘MENA Unleashed
@MENAUnleashed
For the first time in human history, China imposes financial sanctions on the EU. Two Lithuanian banks UAB Urbo Bankas and AB Mano Bankas are now banned from transactions and cooperation with any Chinese entity. This strategic signalling. 🧵’
Wait! Are they allowed to do that? My first thought was that perhaps Kaja Kallas or Ursula herself could jump a jet to Beijing to make them reconsider but why make the situation even worse.
My first thought was that Baltic Chihuahuas are powerful enough to bark at Russia and China at the same.
P.S. I’ve typed powerful into WIkipedia search, and got a picture or Putin. :) Also, Angela Merkel below.
(lets see how well this ages…)
The not so anticipated meeting in the Oblast Frontier took place at JBER, mainly on account of it having a bitchin’ military acronym for the acrimonious as it were.
Nobody frankly expected Putin to be sporting a flag lapel pin, and to make matters worse, his red, white & blue was larger than the old glory one affixed to blue like glue.
It immediately put Team Trump into a quandary, yeah they could order a larger size pin on the internet and expedite delivery and this being Alaska, it still might take a few days F.O.B. China, better go to Deft Con 1, and carefully cut up one of the flags fluttering @ Elmendorf, and repurpose it proudly on the left chest of the Chief Executive so as to not have a flag size gap.
“Pacific Ocean changes may ‘lock in’ US megadrought for decades’
Gotta say that my first thought at reading that was to recall the fate of the Wukchumni tribes which Wukchumni himself has talked about from time to time. A megadrought hit them if I recall correctly and it was game over, man, game over. Without water, a city like Las Vegas may end up looking like the version of it in the film “Blade Runner 2049”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZAH3H7ANCk (4:14 mins)
It was Chaco Canyon and the Anasazi who had to beat it, in the face of a decades long drought. House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest by Craig Childs, is an excellent read on what he postulates became of them…
Just the opposite with Wukchumni and other Yokuts sub-tribes who had figured out to be as close to running water as possible in the Sierra foothills where the largess from on high had to flow by, no matter the amount. They were here around 3,000 years until Measles killed 85-90% of the tribe in 1868-69.
You might want to consider putting the word “Links” in the title of this post.
That’s a lot of clapping to be done by the Parliament of Canada.
“OpenAI’s Waterloo? [with corrections]”
What if – stay with me here – what if the present iteration of AI will be as good as it gets. Sure they might add a few bells and whistles on it but don’t expect major improvements. The present state of AI has basically run out of road and if anything might get worse as it starts to incorporate data training sets that include more and more AI outputs. Certainly AI can be put to productive use in a number of fields with proper supervision but in general use? Nah, not really. Twenty years from now they will write about it like we write about MySpace now.
As good as it gets: Menschliches, allzu menschliches. AI still doesn’t have real free will, but most humans never use that, anyway.