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Links 8/6/2025

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Hiroshima marks 80 years as US-Russia nuclear tensions rise Agence France-Presse

Lightning Kills Way More Trees Than You Would Ever Believe ScienceAlert (Dr. Kevin)

Titan implosion that killed all five on board was ‘preventable’, says report BBC (Kevin W)

Fraudulent Scientific Papers Are Rapidly Increasing, Study Finds New York Times

Our Brain—Immune Axis Gets A Jolt Eric Topol (Robin K)

COVID-19/Pandemics

Global outbreak fears surge as virus in China prompts quarantines and thousands of new cases are reported Daily Mail

Climate/Environment

Fire in southern France burns 8,000 hectares Le Monde

The surprising reasons floods and other disasters are deadlier at night Grist

‘Maddening’ Proof Plastics Industry Knew Recycling Was False Solution in 1974, New Document Shows DeSmog

China?

China’s high-speed rail nears 50,000km milestone – but debt and profit concerns mount South China Morning Post

China Deploys its Most Heavily Armed Nuclear Submarine Class For New Operations Military Watch

Africa

Trump’s Africa deal: Peace plan or power grab? Aljazeera

AFRICA/DR CONGO – Ituri youth peace demonstration marked by Komanda church massacre Agenzia Fides

South of the Border

US steps up efforts to help Bolsonaro avoid jail over alleged coup plot Guardian (resilc)

European Disunion

Fyodor Lukyanov: Europe’s last security project is quietly collapsing RT

How a fertiliser crunch made Europe’s defence industry more vulnerable Euractiv

Germany’s bizarre selective outrage: legitimising extremists abroad while delegitimising democracy at home Ciarán O’Regan

Their families fled the Nazis. Facing Trump, US Jews are making Germany ‘Plan B’ France24 (resilc)

F-35 Not Purchased, FCAS is Falling Apart: Spain Faces Sad Prospect of Being Left With 4th-Gen Fighters Defense Express (resilc)

Estonia to solve wild boar meat surplus by sending it to Ukraine err.ee Micael T: “‘…spread of African swine fever’- so now the Ukrainians know what the Estonians really think of them. “

Old Blighty

Rachel Reeves needs to put up taxes to cover £40bn deficit, thinktank says Guardian

Israel v. The Resistance

With No Governing Alternative in Gaza, Israel’s Push for Hamas to Disarm Is a Pretext for Forever War Haaretz (resilc)

Bennett: Israel’s status in US ‘has never been so bad,’ it’s becoming a ‘leper state’ Times of Israel (resilc)

US Congressman Khanna leads push to recognise Palestinian state Middle East Eye. resilc: “Too funny.”

Israel evacuates embassy staff in Greece amid anti-war protests: Media Anadolu Agency

‘World has been turned upside-down’: Sa’ar says UNSC, world must condemn Hamas Jerusalem Post

Iran and the Logic of Limited Wars Rand (Robin K). From July, still germane.

New Not-So-Cold War

US Greenlights $200M More in Military Sales to Ukraine Kyiv Post. Couch lint.

Sanctions on Russia’s partners ‘obvious next step’ – US NATO envoy (VIDEO) RT

The Secondary Sanctions Squeeze Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

About 50 thousand Ukrainian militants and foreign mercenaries may try to break into the Bryansk region TopWar. Micael T: “So it wasn’t enough with 70,000 dead in Kursk? The bloodlust, the bloodlust.”

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Mastercard wants everyone to have a digital wallet and mDL to make ID like payments Biometric Update. I am opposed to getting a mobile digital license.

Imperial Collapse Watch

The great myth of empire collapse Aeon. Anthony L: “This time will be different. The Holocene is in the mirror.”

The Militarization of Silicon Valley New York Times (resilc). This is news?

IMEC’s imperial illusion: Why the US-backed trade corridor will fail The Cradle

Christian Nationalism’s Plot on Civil Society: The Seven Mountains Mandate Matthew Boedy (resilc)

Trump 2.0

Trump Promised to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill.’ The New Rigs Are Nowhere to Be Found Wired. resilc: “Lots of steel in that rig.”

Fighting Wildfires Is Hellish Work. It’s Even Worse Under Trump. New Republic (resilc)

NASA Satellites That Scientists and Farmers Rely On May Be Destroyed On Purpose NPR

Trump Threatens Federal Takeover of D.C. After Member of DOGE Assaulted New York Times (resilc)

Trump may be off the hook for his 2020 election plot, but his allies aren’t Politico. Lead story.

Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research STAT

* * *

Trump Just Got a Fresh Shot at Bending the Fed to His Will Wall Street Journal

Trump rules out Scott Bessent as Fed chair New York Post

Tariffs

What’s It Like to Deal With Brutal U.S. Tariffs? Ask Malaysia. New York Times (resilc)

Russiagate

Clintons subpoenaed to testify in congressional Epstein investigation BBC (Kevin W)

Meet the 30-Year-Old Far-Right Provocateur Nominated by Trump to Investigate Jack Smith Zeteo

Why my liberal friends disowned me Unherd (Anthony L). “Russiagate drove Americans mad”

GOP Clown Car

Trump and Johnson face escalating GOP revolt on redistricting Axios

Early GOP rift emerges as Congress braces for shutdown fight The Hill

Democrat Death Wish

Where are all the Democratic donations? Angry Bear. A must read.

AI

Microsoft CVP thinks we’ll be ditching mice and keyboards in a future version of Windows in favor of AI chats — “The world of mousing around and typing will feel as alien as it does to Gen-Z to use MS-DOS.” Windows Central (Kevin W)

An Illinois Bill Banning AI Therapy Has Been Signed Into Law Mashable

‘We didn’t vote for ChatGPT’: Swedish PM under fire for using AI in role Guardian (resilc)

Google Agrees To Pause AI Workloads To Protect the Grid When Power Demand Spikes The Registe

The Bezzle

The housing market is a rigged game Steve Keen (Micael T)

Foxconn says EV sales are so slow it’s converting a factory to build AI servers instead The Register

So Long to Tech’s Dream Job New York Times (resilc)

Class Warfare

Buy now, pay later is taking over the world. Good Economist

Versus the discussion by Charlie Kirk starting at 28:30. Recall that Kirk is not even remotely a finance guy but does talk to tons of right-leaning young people, mainly men. If he is hearing about a lot of reports about debt overhang and distress when that is the sort of issue he would not be following, this is a real concern. Recall that the likes of the Economist were all for microfinance, which put people (mainly women) in poor countries in debt traps.

About half of US adults say grocery costs cause major stress, poll finds Associated Press. resilc: “Excluding food and energy is the joke the the century.”

Poorest US workers hit hardest by slowing wage growth Financial Times

For a Few CEOs, Pay Keeps Growing—by the Billions Wall Street Journal. resilc: “Luigisation of USA USA needs to expand greatly.”

Antidote du jour (via):

A bonus (Chuck L):

And a second:

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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110 comments

  1. Wukchumni

    We got it together didn’t we?
    We’ve definitely got our thing together, don’t we baby?
    Isn’t that nice?
    I mean, really, when you really sit and think about it
    Isn’t it really, really nice?
    I can easily feel myself slipping more and more ways
    That super world of my own
    Nobody but you and me

    We’ve got it together baby

    Ahh, the first, my next to last, my everything
    And the answer to all my Nippon dreams
    You’re my light of a thousand suns, my guiding star
    My kind of wonderful, that’s what you are
    I know there’s only, only one like you
    There’s a way to the will to make bad Hiroshima-fu
    You’re all I’m living for
    Your love I’ll keep for evermore
    You’re the first, you’re the next to last, my everything

    In you, I’ve found so many things
    A love so new only you could bring
    Can’t you see if you
    You make me feel this way
    You’re like the first ever fallout
    On a brand new day

    I see so many ways that I
    Can love you, ‘til the day I die
    You’re my reality, yet I’m lost in a dream
    You’re the first, the next to last, my everything

    I know there’s only, only one like you
    There’s no way they could have made two
    Atomic Age you’re my reality
    But I’m lost in a dream
    You’re the first, you’re the next to last, my everything

    You and me Little Boy
    Just you and me
    Ya you are the first, the next to last
    My everything

    You’re the First, the Last, my Everything. by Barry White

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2dwSG1×984&list=RDf2dwSG1×984

  2. Lazar

    The Grayzone
    US backed ethnic cleansing of Serbs, top diplomat secretly told Croat leader
    https://thegrayzone.com/2025/08/04/us-ethnic-cleansing-serbs-croat/

    The ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Serbs by a US-backed Croatian leader was premeditated, according to newly-uncovered files revealing the operation’s planning. After the bloodshed subsided, Richard Holbrooke, a top US diplomat, assured him: “We said publicly… that we were concerned, but privately, you knew what we wanted.”

    August 4, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Operation Storm. Little known outside the former Yugoslavia, the military campaign unleashed a genocidal cataclysm that violently expelled Croatia’s entire Serb population. Dubbed “the most efficient ethnic cleansing we’ve seen in the Balkans” by Swedish politician Carl Bildt, Croat forces rampaged UN-protected areas of the self-declared Serb Republic of Krajina, looting, burning, raping and murdering their way across the province. Up to 350,000 locals fled, many on foot, never to return. Meanwhile, thousands were summarily executed.

    …

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      Lazar:

      In Conor Gallagher’s excellent post of this morning, One of the World’s Most Powerful Countries Ruled by…, he quotes Quinn Slobodian: ‘Existing autocratic polities like Dubai serve as rough prototypes for how nations could be dismantled into “a global spiderweb of tens, even hundreds, of thousands of sovereign and independent mini-countries, each governed by its own joint-stock corporation without regard to the residents’ opinions.”’

      I’d argue that Yugoslavia’s breakup, largely sponsored by Germany, was the dress rehearsal. Living as I do in Italy, I now read regularly in Italian commentary how much of a disaster the end of Yugoslavia was and has been for Italy. Italy was much better served by having a sizable, stable country to its east, not nostalgic republics of Montenegro and vassal states like Kosova.

      1. Bugs

        The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia could not be allowed to survive intact. It provided a counter example to nearly every Western political and economic dogma. It was a danger that had to be dealt with one way or another. Frankly, it was more of an incongruous case to neoliberal eyes than is China today, because it also proved that prosperity is not solely based on material wealth and infrastructure development.

    2. Henry Moon Pie

      In our time in Istria in the mid-Oughts, after some grappa, Croats would speak about the Serbian friends they lost during the 90s as the Serbs left predominately Croat areas. Most would then go on to how they missed Tito when Tito’s idiosyncratic approach to communism, with private ownership of homes and small businesses, combined with non-alignment to produce good times.

    3. Aurelien

      For Klarenberg it’s not bad: reasonably well written and fairly accurate, although with lots of exaggeration and pointless invective. US involvement was well known to insiders at the time, and an open secret soon after, so there’s nothing really new here. It was part of Clinton’s plan (of which the first step was the 1994 Croat-Muslim Federation,) to bring an end to the fighting by weakening the Serbs generally. This worked, to the extent that Milosevic, who was surprised and disappointed by the recapture of the RSK, then began to put a lot of pressure on the Serb leadership in Bosnia to compromise. Clinton was starting to think about re-election at the time, and was paying off his debts to US NGOs and human rights groups, most of whom were violently anti-Serb as a result of skilful propaganda by the Croats and Muslims.

      1. Bugs

        It would be extremely interesting if you would elaborate more about this, and your experience in situ, in your Substack publications. I’d buy the book if you ever wrote it!

  3. spc

    kursk 70000 dead >> lol>> you mean 10k to 12k dead with total force emplyed 35k to 45k. 50k maybe, maybe.This is realistic.
    Not a brain rot of twitter. Will Schryver anyone.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Those are western estimates of Ukrainian casualties which have proven to be nothing more than garbage. Russia’s defence ministry says Ukrainian forces suffered more than 76,000 dead and injured soldiers in Kursk so you would reckon it to be at the very least about 25,000 dead gong by one dead to two wounded. Wouldn’t want to be a foreign merc in the Bryansk region though. By the end of the operation in Kursk, the Russians were no longer interested in taking mercs prisoners anymore so it would be the same in Bryansk.

      1. Mass Driver

        25,000 is notably less than 70,000, and more realistic. Large percentage of those were just left to rot, and ended up in those freezer trucks we saw in the news.

        1. The Rev Kev

          The Ukrainians don’t seem keen to retrieve their dead, hence the large numbers in freezer trucks. I suspect that the reason is so that commanders can continue to collect the pay of those soldiers by keeping them on the books which makes it tough on their families. Saw a Russian drone video once of a Ukrainian truck dumping the bodies of some of their soldiers out in the woods so tend to believe this story.

      2. ChrisFromGA

        Keeping 50k men in reserve while Pokrosvk falls (with all those mines and rare erfs that Blackrock had their eyes on) seems like the equivalent of putting your best cover CB on the fat, slow receiver while Randy Moss gets to run free.

        Which means either:

        1. Zelensky really is the worst military strategist ever, or
        2. The story is a bunch of bunk.

        I lean towards door number 2.

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          I see pieces like this as Ukraine disinfo. They aren’t directed at Russia since Russia has more than enough ISR to know if Ukraine troops in meaningful numbers are moving or otherwise being assembled.

          So this is for the likes of the US and European media/social media, which needs regular doses of Ukraine hopium in order to keep the faith.

          1. ChrisFromGA

            The element of surprise would certainly be lacking. After the last debacle, it is hard to see how Russia hasn’t reinforced all the borders and it would likely turn into a kill zone.

            Desperate animals do crazy things when cornered, though.

        2. moog

          Zelensky knows that Pokrovsk is lost anyway. What really worries him is another dash towards KIev, and he must have some reserve speedbump forces for that eventuality (if only to buy him time to pack his bags and get on the last train heading west).

          1. The Rev Kev

            Zelensky is smart that way. He must remember how when Afghanistan’s leader fled the country by plane when the Taliban were taking over, how he had to leave cases of cash on the runway because the plane could not take off with all that weight. With a train, Zelensky can take the lot, including the Ukraine’s entire financial reserves to fund his government in exile from one of his many mansions.

    2. Socal Rhino

      You may have missed that Ukraine kept feeding reinforcements across the border, and Russia left routes open to encourage that.

  4. The Rev Kev

    ‘Karim Wafa-Al Hussaini
    @DrKarimWafa
    Both the famines in Palestine and Sudan have crossed beyond stage 5. This means they’ve reached a level of no return. Beyond fixation. The starvation has changed the very genetics of our people. I will never forgive the world for what it allowed to happen. We are beyond tired.’

    The evidence of this famine in Gaza will be in the bones of the people living there. Was watching a doco about how they were excavating an archaeological site by a church and they located the grave of a bishop from centuries earlier. A forensic examination of those bones revealed that that bishop suffered from starvation when a young child and in spite of reaching lofty heights, the evidence of his youth was still in his bones. So it will be for the people of Gaza.

  5. Wukchumni

    Lightning Kills Way More Trees Than You Would Ever Believe ScienceAlert
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    I walks a bit in the High Sierra and it isn’t unusual to come across solo scorched trees from a lightning strike fire, and sometimes as many as a dozen torched trees in the surrounding area from the instigator.

    About 5 years ago in our cabin community in Mineral King, a Lodgepole pine got hit in the premath of Thor’s Hammer not far from a cabin, and a sizable chunk of tree’s trunk fell to the ground-the power!

  6. Wukchumni

    Titan implosion that killed all five on board was ‘preventable’, says report BBC (Kevin W)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Lime and limpid long green a second scene
    Now fights below the blue you once knew
    Floating down, the sound resounds
    Around the icy waters underground

    Famous Hamish is on Titan
    Costrophobia can frighten

    Blinding lack of oxygen signs flap,
    Flicker, flicker, flicker blam, pow, pow
    Still life portrait stare, $250k a dare, who’s there?

    Lime and limpid long green, the sounds around
    The icy waters under
    Lime and limpid long green, the sounds around
    The icy waters underground

    Astronomy Domine, by Pink Floyd

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJh9OLlXenM&list=RDpJh9OLlXenM

  7. The Rev Kev

    ” ‘World has been turned upside-down’: Sa’ar says UNSC, world must condemn Hamas”

    Chutzpah much? Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is demanding that the UN and world media condemn Hamas for the starving condition of those hostages. But the whole world knows that the reason that they are starving is that they are eating the same amount of food as Gazans, hence their condition. And it is the Israelis who are starving some two million people to death. When this war is finally over and Israelis start going on about how they suffered because of the Holocaust and everybody owes them, I think that a lot of people will just tell them to shut the hell up about the Holocaust as nobody is interested any more. Nobody cares. Gaza wiped that slate clean.

    1. Christopher Mann

      “Gaza wiped that slate clean.”

      It is worse than that. Many people are now questioning the Holocaust narrative. Ordinary people are getting a little niggling questioning in the back of their minds – “What if Europe’s Jews were really the nefarious cabal that antisemites said they were? They must have done something wrong to be so despised! There can’t be any smoke without a fire!?”

      I think it was Alhon Mizahri who pointed out that Zionists love to be hated so this will totally delight them.

      The Gaza genocide has irreparably besmirched Judaism (a terrible injustice for the righteous ones among them). Zionism has discredited the West. The response from Germany, France, UK, USA has been grotesque. With legitimacy lost, the West will now have to resort to increased authoritarianism. Many of us must be wishing for the Western sh|tshow to implode already and hand over the reins to Russia and China to lead us out of this hell world. We have a very interesting decade ahead of us.

      1. Joe Renter

        If we make it out of this decade it will be a win for humanity. These are the darkest hours. Not going to get all esoteric, but will say that there are some dark forces at play here. Greed , materialism and power are rampant. Might want to be some sort of pepper, IMO.

      2. XXYY

        Zionists love to be hated.

        It’s easy to show that portraying yourself as unfairly despised and discriminated against is something that’s easily weaponized and is routinely used to create and hold on to a cohesive group and increase your own power. It doesn’t matter whether the original narrative is true or not, what matters is that in the present, it’s a useful and valuable thing.

        The DEI movement is in excellent recent example. (Very real) discrimination against women and minorities has been used as a justification for a relatively small group of liberal arts majors to grab tremendous amounts of corporate power and create for themselves jobs and in many cases whole departments in large companies.

        Israel is of course another famous example that far predates DEI. Israel has long marketed itself as a refuge from the (supposed and in some cases very real) anti-Semitism of the rest of the world. Non-Jews in Israel are therefore easily demonized as threats to Jews and even as subhumans who can be wiped out without remorse.

        This whole tactic is of course self-defeating in the long-term, since the victims eventually look more and more like victimizers and a real history that needs to be acknowledged and addressed becomes obliterated by recent events.

      3. converger

        Russia and China have their own imperial fantasies. They are not going to lead us out of this hell world.

        The EU plus a coalition of countries that are not the US, China, or Russia might be able to pull off a global rebalancing without destroying global civilization. But first they need to understand that negotiating with the US is a waste of time.

      4. bertl

        Too many young people have been exposed to the truth of Zionism and the Shoah has lost relevance given the horrors perpetrated on the Palestinians and their supporters over the years by Jewish Zionists and their Western supporters. The Shoah was never a Holocaust in any normal sense. The Nazis didn’t consider each death as a sacrificial offering to their God(s). The Zionists, on the other hand, are making burnt offerings to their God in Gaza, forcing the men, women and children they haven’t already killed by bombs, bullets and incendiary devices to starve to death on blood soaked earth as human sacrifices to God the Mighty Realtor.

        Every state, institution and individual that offered, and continues to offer, any rationale for the moral and criminal support for the creation and maintenance of any Jewish state at any time and anywhere has been washed away in the blood of Palestine’s children, as will the Jewish state itself. And the first mission of a new multipolar world should be to hunt down and prosecute the Zionists and those who have been complicit in this genocide. The institutions representing a world of diverse cultures can unify around ensuring justice is meted out to the supporters and perpetrators of this, the greatest and most cynical crime of the modern age,

  8. moog

    China Deploys its Most Heavily Armed Nuclear Submarine Class For New Operations Military Watch

    Trump will immediately respond by deploying two most heavily armed nuclear submarines for new operations on Twitter.

    1. Polar Socialist

      That reminded me, yesterday I saw news that the earthquake moved Kamchatka two meters closer to Hawaii.

      Tomorrow I saw somewhere in Telegram: because Trump moved two nuclear submarines closer to Russia, Putin moved Russia closer to US submarines…

    1. LawnDart

      This time may be different, counterpoint:

      “Self-termination is most likely.” This expert believes our civilization is on a crash course led by narcissistic leaders

      Kemp identifies a particular threat coming from leaders who are “walking versions of the dark triad”: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

      https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/self-termination-is-most-likely-this-expert-believes-our-civilization-is-on-a-crash-course-led-by-narcissistic-leaders/

      1. Don

        Exactly what civilization is Kemp is referencing — seems to have a 5,000-year arc, so all civilizations combined? If so, what then are Kemp’s points of comparison? I was already unimpressed, and then at “Kemp singles out Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping as embodiments of these traits” (narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism). He/she/it totally lost me.

        At best, sloppy and lazy; at worst, stupid and dishonest. Bafflegab.

        2. Hickory

          Actually, no. Kemp is referencing a problem that has slowly spread around the world for a few thousand years. When a ruling class takes hold, the same kinds of deep problems always result.

          Consider these comparisons:

          The top of the article, published 2025: “a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished”
          In 1381, English activist John Ball said, “Nothing will be well in England until we are in the same condition.”
          In ~30 CE, Jesus Christ said, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”

          Anytime a few people rule over the rest, you have massive inequality and corruption. These troubles don’t exist in healthy cultures where no one/group rules over the rest.

          Kemp simply hasn’t found any examples of actually-free nations where no one rules over anyone else – no ruling class, no obedience. Where everyone upholds laws they agree on instead of obeying laws they’re given, and people maintain a respectful way of life.

          It’s very understandable, all ruling classes try to keep their conquered people from learning about free nations. It’s a common pattern throughout the last few thousands of years.

          Look at appendix 3 of this book for the list of healthy nations – there are 73 listed, all of which referenced in the book, and some explored in detail. Many are still alive today; I got to spend time with a fully traditional, sovereign healthy nation in 2015. The book explores what life is like in societies without a ruling class, and why so few Americans (or Russians, or Chinese) have ever heard of them. And it explores what it would take for us to live that way again.

      2. anahuna

        Be warned.

        I clicked on the link, only to discover that the author’s examples of “narcissistic leaders” are Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinpeng.

    2. Jeremy Grimm

      After reading “Rewards of Ruin” I learned to stop worrying and love the impending collapse and ruin. I did have to fight a new feeling of affection for Donald Trump and his inspiring efforts to pull down the Empire as fast as possible. But then I remember the admonition “not welcome or try to accelerate towards a future collapse”.

      History records the view of the 1% much as present day ‘news’ forwards the views of the 1% and the views and opinions they want to impress upon their minions. Using height as a proxy for welfare, archeological evidence suggests collapse is beneficial to the health and welfare of the previously enthralled. And I am so glad migration is not a horrible thing. I am sure whatever problems the migration of a few billion people might entail will smooth out to general benefit after allowing enough time.

      “What we need now is a history of collapse for the 99 per cent.” In any case I doubt many tragic poems or inscriptions on monoliths will preserve the 1% view of the current Empire after its collapse. Without electricity or more permanent recording media much of the Imperial history, culture, science, and technology will disintegrate with age. Some written material may last a few decades longer but most of the paper it is written on will soon turn to dust. I suppose Trump should write an executive order to build a giant statue of himself that can survive as single giant foot.

      However, a niggling worry lingers. Somehow this collapse really does seem different.

      2. LifelongLib

        My guess is that for most people in ancient empires, the necessities of daily life were produced locally. Long-distance trade (maybe with some exceptions like grain) was in luxury items. Living in the U.S. today I’d have to hunt for something that was Made in America, much less in the area where I live. And how many people are skilled at growing or making anything?

  10. eg

    “Buy now, pay later is taking over the world. Good”

    Now more than ever The Economist needs to be burnt to the ground and its fields sown with salt.

    Where this particular vomit-worthy offering is concerned I see information asymmetries and phishing for phools — it will all end in tears …

  11. The Rev Kev

    ‘Amanda Goodall
    @thejobchick
    WTF
    Atlassian laid off 150 employees via pre-recorded video???
    Workers had to wait 15 minutes after watching it to find out if they were cut.
    Then came the email.
    Then came the laptop lockouts.
    The reason?
    “AI can do it now.”
    Welcome to the future of work… or shall I say… layoffs?’

    By coincidence, came across these two tweets earlier today-

    ‘Stop the Forever Wars
    @DoctorFishbones
    Billionaire: “DeepAI, should I fire half of my workforce and give them no severance or warning or reason”
    DeepAI: “Yes! Studies show this is the correct thing to do. The world will be better”

    Stop the Forever Wars
    @DoctorFishbones
    Isn’t it weird how the all-knowing AI always produces the answer the billionaires want’

    1. Hickory

      I don’t see any AI in Atlassian’s layoffs. They sent a prerecorded video, then an email blast to all layoff targets+lockouts. It’s just impersonal, no sign of AI.

      Not saying that would make it easier to be on the receiving end.

  12. .Tom

    Antidote watch

    1. Don’t be fooled. That squirrel has an agenda. They all do. It’s either distracting you so its buddy can steal your wallet or it’s buttering you up before asking for money or smokes or both.

    2. Did you know that dog dock jumping is an organized competitive sport? My Lucy is a strong and keen swimmer but has never taken a flying jump and leapt in. Zeno has jumped a couple of times but is generally not so confident to go for a swim.

    Man, the dogs had it rough yesterday. Walking in the woods we were suddenly attacked by a swarm of wasps. Poor pups had a dozen or so each on them as I hurried to pick them off and get them away. Hard to know how many stings each got. My wife had three. They weren’t right for the rest of the day but seem back to normal this morning, thankfully.

    1. dave -- just dave

      Driving on interstate highways through the American south through miles and miles of forests I would see, from time to time, a tree with a split, forked trunk with the top of the tree held in it. How did this happen, I wondered?

      Twenty years ago experience showed me the in-retrospect obvious answer. A tree in a forested area, fifty feet behind my house, was struck by lightning and the phenomenon was explained. It was several years before the rotting of the tree resulted in the top falling from the fork. Part of the tree lived on and still has leaves today.

  13. eg

    ‘We didn’t vote for ChatGPT’: Swedish PM under fire for using AI in role

    What — have the Swedes run out of chickens to gut? Are there no bones to cast, nor flights of birds to scry?

    I’d as soon trust a Prime Minister who employed a medium to consult with his dead dog …

      1. JohnA

        Ha, despite the number of parties in parliament, the uniparty is always at the controls in Sweden. I was amused by the Unherd article by a woman who used to be married to a Russian. And how all their liberal friends totally swallowed the Russiagate and unprovoked attack on Ukraine propaganda. It is the same in Sweden. When I was in Stockholm not long before Sweden joined Nato, I was socialising with friends there. They asked me what plans I had. I replied I was thinking of going on the No to Nato march that Saturday. The look of sheer horror and disbelief on their faces was a sight to behold.

    3. Eclair

      Yesterday and today, our economically depressed, formerly prosperous industrial city is hosting the Swedish Ambassador to the United States, Urban Ahlin. I met him at a reception held at the Robert Jackson Center (Jackson was the chief counsel at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which accounts for the Soviet flag on display in the foyer.). He is totally charming and disarming, a former ‘Talman’ of the Riksdag, and a teacher. He and the sponsor of his visit, Congressman Nicholas Langworthy, of New York’s 23rd District, have, and I quote, a ‘special relationship.’

      Our city had one of the largest populations of Swedish immigrants and spends much time dwelling on its past, as its present is, well, tattered. The Ambassador gave a lovely talk, spending much time on NATO, Sweden’s reasons for joining (the Russian Threat, although he glossed over the fact the Sweden has invaded Russia a few times, but never the reverse, but there’s always Finland,) and how NATO is cementing the long-held friendship with the US. And, of course, he talked of investments Sweden has poured into the US. He had the audience, mostly local pols and movers and shakers, in the palm of his hand, nodding their heads in time. The man is good!

      He is visiting today one of the few remaining employers (other than government and fast food) in the City: TitanX, maker of drive train cooling systems, with other plants in Sweden, and Mexico. He emphasized its Swedishness, avoided the fact that it is now owned by the Tata Group, of India. Well, we do have one lndian Restaurant in town, if it hasn’t gone out of business.

      The performance left me wondering if the visit is not a bid for some stepped-up Swedish investments in our city, peopled by, as was mentioned frequently, ‘hard-working’ Swedish/Americans, with a fantastic ‘work ethic.’ Who will probably work for cheap, as almost anything beats employment at McDonald’s and that Canadian invader, Tim Horton’s.

      1. Jesper

        Urban Ahlin, here is a story about how he is representing the values of the Swedish elite (in Swedish, use preferred translator):
        https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/4BmA4e/urban-ahlins-miljoner-fran-staten-trots-ambassadorslon
        Short of is that former parliamentarians in Sweden get a guaranteed income from the government coffers until they find paid employment.
        Supposed to keep parliamentarians honest and from selling out to get well paying gigs. Easily abused system as what they do is set up a limited liability company which they own 100%, invoice from that company and then they do not take any salary from that company until after they got the maximum from the government. If someone were wondering why Swedish parliamentarians love to make it as easy as possible to create limited liability companies then the above might be an explanation….
        In practice the ease of setting up and maintaining limited liability companies has removed to limited liability for small businesses as the updated version of limited liability companies can quickly, easily and legally be emptied of assets thus stiffing suppliers and long term creditors. The result is that suppliers and long term creditors require personal guarantees and that is why limited liability in practice does not exist for small limited liability companies in Sweden.

        Anyway ambassador Urban Ahlin took it one step further and gets paid for being an ambassador and also the guaranteed income as he believes he is entitled to it. Supposedly he is not in paid employment so he happily accepts payment for his services as ambassador and also accepts the income for not being in paid employment without even needing to set up a limited liability company.

        1. Eclair

          Thank you, Jesper. I was hoping our Swedish commenters could add some interesting background information.

          1. Terry Flynn

            I echo this. I’m one of those people who had a bad experience living and working in Sweden. However my Swedish boss was best boss I EVER had. I had a couple of natives who took me aside to explain “it’s not you….. it’s the system”.

            Now I look back and just feel sorry that such a generally nice people (perhaps a little TOO reserved) are having their least attractive traits appealed to and catered to by elites….. but that criticism applies just as much to UK, Australia, USA etc…… so I’m wary of being the guy living in a glass house throwing stones.

    4. Birch

      “I’d as soon trust a Prime Minister who employed a medium to consult with his dead dog …”

      I’d trust William Lyon Mackenzie King over many of the Prime Ministers out there today. He enjoyed three full terms as PM and led Canada through WWII, and his dead dog informed many important decisions through the whole thing.

  14. Neutrino

    About that plastics recycling, I wouldn’t be surprised by a future study that found microplastics in tobacco plants. Big plastic and big tobacco, two industries that have hired the alleged scientists to support their public relations and legal flaks.
    In the end, they really didn’t have any decency.

  15. Ben Panga

    A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians (Guardian)

    “Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe

    …According to three Unit 8200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank…”

  16. The Rev Kev

    “F-35 Not Purchased, FCAS is Falling Apart: Spain Faces Sad Prospect of Being Left With 4th-Gen Fighters”

    Do they even need them? Who is going to attack Spain? For arguments sake, lets say that Russia was going to attack Spain because they want to occupy the south for all those beaches. Looking at a map, the Russian army would first have to fight their way through Poland, then they would have to fight their way across Germany and finally fight their way all across France just to reach the Spanish border. And at that point the Guardia Civil would simply arrest whoever is left.

    1. ambrit

      This is preparing for the upcoming policy of “Espanya Irredenta.” Expect to see an Imperial Spanish task force re-re-conquering Greater Colombia and New Spain soon.

  17. MicaT

    Wired article drilling. I’m unclear about the quip.
    The number of rigs is a specific number of rigs actually drilling or on a well site ready to drill. It’s not the number of actual rigs in the US, which is a much higher number.

    As to the costs, the cost of the steel pipe that lines the hole and can go for up to a few miles in length is not a trivial expense. If that is up 50% it’s a big number.

    The lower oil and gas prices are the less drilling will happen especially with fracking wells as they are the most expensive to make and maintain.

  18. eg

    Re The Secondary Sanctions Squeeze

    The entire premise of the sanctions regime has struck me from the very outset as based upon a false premise: that Russia relies upon exports, fossil fuels in particular, to “pay for” its war effort.

    What has been entirely absent for over three years now is any analysis demonstrating the extent to which Russia relies upon imports to build its weapons. Without this information it is IMPOSSIBLE to know the extent to which sanctions can have any effect whatsoever, let alone an effect size so large as to alter the balance of the conflict away from Russia’s obvious advantages (population size, industrial capacity, natural resources) over Ukraine and whatever materials its allies can manage to ship into the theatre.

    My suspicion, is that Russia’s domestic industrial base (and in particular its total reliance upon domestic weapons production), fossil fuels, mining and metals, along with food production render it as autarkic in military production terms as it is possible to be: in other words, everything except some technical products it likely sources from China (which has resolutely refused to participate in sanctions against Russia) which it needs to prosecute its war, including paying its soldiers, is for sale in Roubles. The only purpose of exports for any country is to get foreign currency to buy things that it CANNOT buy with its domestic currency!

    So no — absent such an analysis, I reject the entire “pay for” premise underlying the sanctions regime. At best they crimp availability of other goods that the Russian population would “like” to have, which is not at all the same thing as materially impacting the war effort.

    If I am correct, the sanctions are a foolish exercise in self-harm on the part of European governments who have chosen to “be seen to be doing something” over the material wellbeing of their own citizens. They can, of course, rely upon public ignorance of macroeconomics to facilitate their mendacity … 🤨

    1. cfraenkel

      It’s exactly the same elementary school level thinking the idea that tariffs are paid by the exporting country.

      As Conner put it, we are led by spoiled children.

    2. Henry Moon Pie

      It’s hard not to think about what the USA would be like if we’d had people with foresight and concern for the people in charge for the last 30 years instead of the Bushes, the Clintons and the Obamas. People might have laughed at Trump rather than desperately pinning hope on him to deliver us. From the frying pan into the fire. At least we know what to look for in the aftermath of our current elites leading us into 90s Russia redux.

    3. skippy

      Trump is a classic case of someone reading[???] a book or two, better yet being informed by some ridged ideologue wrapping themselves in the title of an Economist about stuff. In this case it related to a period around a 100 years ago, trips all Trumps environmental biases and self perception about being the big man.

      Not that its all bad history, world is completely different, etc.

      Its as bad as AET Carl Menger reading some Law about money creation via deductive methodology without any evidence. Excepted as fact as it both vindicates/anchors his whole ideology dressed up as economics and then started a cult.

      1. mahna

        Trump is a classic case of someone not reading a book but watching a movie adaptation. That’s why he is so convinced that USA won all the wars single-handedly.

  19. Otto Reply

    Re: Clinton subpoenas
    Listening to Julie K. Brown’s “Perversion of Justice” (terrific example of investigative reporting.) Epstein claimed to be involved in the founding of the Clinton Global Initiative. Wonder if congresscritturs will ask about that.

    1. t

      My sense is the called are smart enough to rope DJT and hills into any answer, but possibly so convinced of their own smarts they’ll come up with a very stupid “3D chess” strategy along the lines of “I did not have sex with that woman.”

  20. The Rev Kev

    “Where are all the Democratic donations?”

    ‘Here’s what that number means: for every dollar a grandmother in Iowa donates believing she’s saving democracy, 98 cents goes to consultants and operational costs.’

    And that is why the Democrats are not a serious political party. They are deliberately set up to make wealthy the elite of the party and all these consultants who wok for them. Not only do they not care about their fellow Americans, they could care less about those members of the Democrat party and actually went to court to prove that they did not have to listen to them. There is nothing to reform here. They are a lost cause, a place where progressive politicians go to die. And they aren’t even serious about winning power. Back in 2016 when Hillary took over the Democrat party, she arranged all the donations received by the State Democrats to be sent direct to her Brooklyn HQ. Trouble was that that was where it stayed and politicians were dying in all the States as they did not have the money to campaign against Trump with which is a big reason why Hilary lost in 2016. Needless to say, all those party officials and consultants were still handsomely paid.

    1. Henry Moon Pie

      The two parties should be thought of as (the only!) two contestants on Shark Tank competing to be the people who impose the judges’ (i.e. the billionaires’) will upon the people. (It used to be that they competed to sell the billionaires’ agenda, but that wasn’t going so well.)

  21. LawnDart

    Falling aid crate kills Palestinian nurse in Gaza

    Bosnia-Herzegovina, winter of 1992-93: so there I was… a volunteer for the first composite aircrew (Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard; members from different units) tasked for support to the UNs Provide Promise air-land missions, a component of which were airdrops.

    We quickly learned that dropping pallets over a “safe” drop-zone was no good, as snipers, light artillery, etc., would sight-in to pick-off villagers as they attempted to recover these from fields.

    So we dropped these over town, within days recieving messages to “Stop!!! Please stop!” It seems that most roofs can’t absorb the impact of a airdropped pallet any better than they could artillery or bombs, and we had inadvertently damaged many structures.

    Plan C: cardboard bins set on plywood bases and filled with small, individual aid packets (think MREs)– thousands of packets per load. Nearing the drop-zone we’d remove straps/restraints, open doors, adjust pitch (5-degrees nose up, I think) with just the gate (cargo strap at aft end of load) holding the bins in place until green-light: you’d yank a cord connected to a guillotine blade positioned on the center of the gate which sliced the strap, the bins would roll out, hit the airstream and scatter their contents across the drop-zone– a much safer approach than dropping full pallets… except that retrieving aid became a scavenger hunt that cost time and increased exposure to any threats that might be present, like those aforementioned snipers.

    So early on during that operation, it was widely known that our airdrops were a failure, often endangering those we were attempting to help as much as assisting them, but command determined that the airdrops should continue– performative BS for TV viewers.

    But could our “Plan C” of then be safer for Gaza now?

    Distributing aid this way is kinda like tossing tee-shirts into a crowd at a game or show– token theatrics, but snipers aside (can Israeli “duck hunters” be kept at bay?), if they’re gonna put in a show until checkpoints are opened and meaningful aid delivered, at least they might make it somewhat safer for those on the ground.

    1. amfortas

      damn, dude.
      an idea is to bring the Russian Army to Gaza, and set up a cordon around whats left of the place, and have them distribute the aid, and medical starvation stuff.
      or, the damned PLA.
      go get in the way.
      our western/usa PTB know in their bones they cant afford a direct fight, after all.
      let trumpers rant and rave on whatever his personal network is called..,.and that will be that.

      ending this atrocity will take military intervention, period.
      be the bigger badass.

    1. Screwball

      FTA:

      You might remember that back in 2022, inflation was raging. On the morning of December 13, 2022, the markets were on pins and needles waiting for the 8:30 a.m. November Consumer Price Index report. About one minute before the release, 10-year U.S. Treasury Futures began to skyrocket, along with equity futures. At 8:30 the BLS reported that inflation for November came in much lower than expected, something that would have caused bond and equity futures to surge higher, like they did 60 seconds prior to the release! The March 2023 Ten-Year Treasury futures saw the buying of 13,000 contracts seconds before the release, a notional value of nearly $1.5 billion.

      I remember watching my trading software live that morning as I frequently do, just to see if this kind of stuff happens. This was real, watched live, something was no doubt funny. Of course nothing happens, as usual.

      Also FTA:

      Interestingly, while there was much hand-wringing, the incident passed without any investigation. This was a bit “disconcerting” since the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) could have discovered who traded right before 8:30 a.m.

      The CFTC could have rounded up all the Futures Clearing Merchants and had them divulge which clients placed the trades. It might have taken subpoenas and some investigative work, but the government has folks who do that sort of thing. As far as we know, this was never done, or at least disclosed.

      Wouldn’t CUSIP numbers reveal who did what and when?

      From Investopedia:

      What Is a CUSIP Number?

      CUSIP numbers are used to create a concrete distinction between financial securities that are traded on public markets, including equity, debt, derivative, and others. These numbers help facilitate trades and settlements by providing a constant identifier to help distinguish the securities within a trade.

      Each trade and the corresponding CUSIP number are recorded to facilitate the tracking of actions and activities.

      1. FreeMarketApologist

        The CUSIP # is just the identifier of what traded – similar to a stock symbol – there’s a separate CUSIP for each type of stock (e.g., common, preferred), and CUSIPs for each option duration, and derivative. What one wants are the the actual trading records of each broker, and the settlement records, which would indicate who bought/sold what, and at exactly what time — every order submitted to a broker/dealer (electronically or by phone) must be tagged with identifying information, source account, price, and timestamp (to the fraction of a second for equity products). Those are all readily discoverable by the CFTC. FINRA does this all the time to identify problematic trading. CFTC could as well, were they so motivated.

  23. Jason Boxman

    So it looks like that wank Hustle B1tch is doing exactly what I suggested yesterday in regards to the NY Times story on this; Using it for both anti “lockdown” rhetoric and China baiting. Fun times. In this case, engagement farming by a tool, but nonetheless, a dangerous narrative.

    If this leads to a resistance to treat for mosquitoes as that move ever northward in the US, that’s going to be problematic. In the past century, getting yellow fever and the like was a right of passage in for example New Orleans, where you couldn’t be part of the local gentry without having survived a summer there. (Because sometimes new residents died of tropical diseases.)

    Coming to a city in the United States near you again!

    1. t

      Drone are being used – from every source I can find – to look for standing water. The fines are for allowing standing water. Even the video shows people just walking around.

      But you are right, no one is going to “do their own research” and look at non-US news sources or, if they are me, ask someone who is Chinese and lives in China.

  24. The Rev Kev

    ‘HustleBitch
    @HustleBitch_
    🚨 CHINA IS BACK IN LOCKDOWN – THIS TIME, IT’S MOSQUITOES
    – 7,000+ infected with chikungunya, a rare mosquito virus.
    – Entire districts in Guangdong sealed off.
    – Patients isolated in mosquito-proof quarantine beds.
    – Drones, fines, chemical sprays: full COVID-style crackdown.
    A virus that doesn’t spread person to person and they’re locking people up again?’

    Boy, there are a lot of triggered people in the replies to that tweet-

    https://xcancel.com/HustleBitch_/status/1952801278402138584

    If this is the way that the Chinese want to fight this outbreak, then good luck to them. It’s their country. Maybe they are not so hung up by the word ‘lockdown’ as some people are. But it occurs to me that if there was an outbreak of the chikungunya mosquito virus in the west, most governments wouldn’t even supply you with a fly-swatter and if you got sick, would say that it was your responsibility not to get sick so get back to work.

  25. Jason Boxman

    And on micro-finance, suicide as well:

    India’s micro-finance suicide epidemic

    15 years ago.

    But the small loan has turned out to be a big curse for many in the state.

    More than 80 people have taken their own lives in the last few months after defaulting on micro-loans, according to the government.

    This has triggered the worst ever crisis in India’s booming micro-finance industry.

    This was sort of a trial run, I guess. Now we’re visiting this upon Americans. Shocking, I know. Although we’ve had payday lending and pawns shops forever. But being able to do this in a single click of a button is a “tech innovation” twist.

    When anyone says “innovation”, hold on to your wallet, you’re about to be robbed.

    1. Stevew

      This piece, as you say from 15 years years ago, is full of mistakes and mis-characterization. For example, how is “….average debt of $660..annual income of $1060…” at say 30% … translates into “….60% of…income paying off loan…” not misleading or mis-characterization. Also, loan sharking is more like 50% per month or 600%pa interest.
      Micro-loans are meant for micro enterprises getting some financing for their humble equipment and tools such as a small seeing machine or basic input materials, supported by social circle guarantees. By the way, 24-30%/interest is lower than lots of credit card rate and much much less than payday loans.
      Typical BBC/Economist hit piece. I am a Canadian and have no gig in this fight.

      1. Jason Boxman

        Or from the deeply anti-capitalist Bloomberg:

        Big Money Backs Tiny Loans That Lead to Debt, Despair and Even Suicide (2022)

        A wave of suicides in India a decade ago challenged the idea that microlending might eradicate poverty, but today’s more modest goal of financial inclusion, an attempt to reach people without access to the banking system, is no less fraught. The expansion of the loosely regulated business—all those loans added up to $160 billion in 2020, about twice the amount 11 years earlier, according to industry estimates—has resulted in millions of new borrowers for whom the dream of inclusion has turned into a nightmare of debt.

  26. The Rev Kev

    “Fyodor Lukyanov: Europe’s last security project is quietly collapsing”

    Reading this, I miss the days when Europe was quiet, the Common market helped join countries together and countries like Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Finland enjoyed their neutrality.

  27. Billydontchalosemynumber

    What is Clinton supposed to be potus-humorlessly impeached? “No, I did not molest …” Is he supposed to pull out his Kavanaugh style calendars and weepily testify how he and Donny Tiny Hands never arranged rotating schedules of Island visitations, WH Visits and daughter wedding guest lists? How many headlines about ignored subpoenas does it take?

  30. Mikel

    The Militarization of Silicon Valley New York Times (resilc).

    “This is news?” I share the sentiment.
    This is just the Valley returning to its roots.

    1. Duke of Prunes

      Exactly. As a young lad in the mid-80s, I scored an interview with GTE in Mountain View to program with Ada for a classified project. My office would be located in a safe.

      As I recall from my tour of the local area, there were roughly as many defense contractors as computer companies, but only the defense companies were hiring. It must have had something to do with Ronnie Raygun. I declined the job offer, and took a job in the midwest communications company. I didn’t like the idea of feeding the MIC beast, but i did get a free trip to CA.

  31. Mikel

    Microsoft CVP thinks we’ll be ditching mice and keyboards in a future version of Windows in favor of AI chats — “The world of mousing around and typing will feel as alien as it does to Gen-Z to use MS-DOS.” Windows Central

    The world of “tell me what you think I’m saying or SHOULD say”…no thanks.

    1. Henry Moon Pie

      Wendell Berry refused to buy a computer in 1988. He managed his considerable output by writing it out in cursive with a gracious and loving wife who typed it from his notes. This is a fairly recent interview of Berry about his choice, now and then. From the interview:

      Nobody could be bored who is really searching the world for knowledge to inform the mind. So why stick a keyboard and a screen between the mind and the world? I’m not without information. I study the fields, the woods, and the river. I read, and I hear, and I remember. Berry’s pointing out that we’re paying a price in our relationship with Nature.

      Says me writing a comment with my mouse and keyboard. But something to think about. The Amish avoid some technologies not because they believe their god permits some and denies others, but because they deem some technologies and practices to undermine rather than support social harmony and cohesion.

  32. cfraenkel

    Working link for the Windows Central ‘we don’t need no stinkin mice’:
    (there was an extra “http://: ” left in the href. I think that happens if you click in the field before pasting )
    https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows/the-world-of-mousing-around-and-typing-will-feel-as-alien-as-it-does-for-gen-z-to-use-ms-dos-microsoft-cvp-opines-on-the-future-of-an-ai-first-voice-first-windows-12-for-2030

    So if you thought the phone style interactions they’ve been polluting our computers with was bad enough, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

    1. Acacia

      I for one hope that some Microsoft execs get a brainwave that AI voice command is the future and the next version of Windoz should no longer even support a mouse or keyboard. They’ll hyperventilate about how much $ they can save by completely eliminating both the hardware and OS support. Why should users get to control anything on the screen, anyway?

      Meanwhile, back in reality, most people simply hate phone tree menus.

      But please bring it on, Microsoft.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Can you imagine a scientist writing a paper on leprosy on one of these computers, and every time he uses the word ‘leper’ he has to argue with the computer to let him use it? It’s happening now with those AI agents.

        1. Acacia

          Yes, IM Doc has commented on exactly this. Beyond awful. It’s being presented as a better version of auto-correct, but really we’re talking about calling the language police into what was heretofore a humble text editor. No thanks.

          Actually, thinking about this a little, it struck me that Microsoft has tried this sort of thing at least once before, e.g., when they rolled out the Windoz 8 “Metro” UI that aimed to force a tablet UX on desktop users. They yanked the “Start” menu and had apps take over the entire screen, pretty much like a phone app. Needless to say it was extremely unpopular and many people just never bothered with “Metro”.

  33. juno mas

    Re: Iran and the logic of limited wars

    This is pure misdirection. Israel did not limit the war (unfortunately) Iran did. Israel failed in its attempt to decapitate Iran. If the Iranian missiles had continued much longer much more of Tel Aviv would look like Gaza. Israel simply discovered the Iron Dome is useless and the next war with Iran will be fatal.

  37. stukuls

    The actual problem about wild boar in the Baltics is that they are radioactive so I guess it’s giving it back to Ukraine. My dad’s old house is near the Russian border and no one was eating the swine do to fears of radiaactivity.

  38. Henry Moon Pie

    Fires–

    Not just in France. Canadian wildfire smoke has been nasty in Detroit, so much so that some local officials requested Ambassador Hoekstra to inform those smoky future 51st state residents that this smoke thing can’t become a regular deal. Not mentioned was how they propose to improve the situation. There was mention that the smoke kinda messes with the whole Pure Michigan thing when they have to issue the pollution warning. They should adopt our brilliant President’s theorem that Fewer Tests = Fewer Cases. What they don’t know, won’t hurt ’em (until later).

  40. ArvidMartensen

    And who would like to bet that the new NASA carbon observatory will be weaponised against China, Russia, Iran and maybe India.
    Prepare for moral outrage stoked in the western world as the ‘neutral’ observatory proves that almost all the world’s CO2 comes from these evil nations.

    And Trump will say “I don’t care what NASA thinks”

  41. obryzum

    Regarding the Branswell STAT article on mRNA vaccines, she says that the HHS decision amounts to “a crippling blow to the country’s capacity to develop vaccines during the next pandemic or public health emergency.”

    But why is it a crippling blow when there are other platforms available? What is wrong with the adenoviral vector platform, which also allows for gene transfer, with more targeting to particular cells, and with a better safety profile? The problem with the mRNA platform is that it is inherently nonspecific; the lipid nanoparticle can attach to any type of cell in the body. The presupposition that the vaccine would stay in the muscle and be taken up locally proved to be untrue. Instead, the vaccine circulated throughout the body. Given a choice between a delivery platform that targets certain cells and one that does not, I would think that the choice would be obvious. Even better would be the protein subunit vaccines, which reduce the uncertainty about how much of the antigen the body will be exposed to, and for how long.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      What follows is devil’s advocacy: Recall that the adenovirus vector vaccines did not have a great safety profile either. I had to have nearly $40,000 of medical care (including outpatient surgery) due to my side effects from a single J&J shot. As John Hopkins pointed out, the Covid adenovirus vector vaccines had a similar mode of operation to the mRNA vaccines:

      All those vaccines introduce the genetic recipe for the spike protein into our cells, and then our own cells make the protein to which our immune system responds.

      https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-novavax-protein-based-vaccine

      It may be with the Covid spike that anything other than a killed whole virus vaccine (which is less effective) and Novavax-style is prone to a high level of injuries. See the difference, again per Hopkins:

      The Novavax vaccine [was built with] a much older technology for vaccine development where, instead of injecting the genetic recipe, we actually inject the protein. It [uses] a combination of spike proteins that form what are called nanoparticles, which group together. The Novavax vaccine also has an adjuvant, an immune stimulant to get a better immune response. In some ways, this is an older technology

      Second, mRNA vaccines can be developed faster than other types.

      1. obryzum

        Yves, I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with the J&J. Yes, the issue may have been with the spike protein antigen as distinguished from the delivery platform.

        To share my own personal experience: I was in no rush to be in the front of the line for the Covid vaccines. However, I was in the hospital for sinus surgery in 2021, and to kill some time during my recovery, I visited the family medicine clinic to ask about the shingles vaccine. During that visit, the professor asked me if I planned to get a Covid vaccine. I said that I was waiting for the Novovax. Her response (paraphrased): “If I had a choice, I would do the same — because that is a better technology — but I did not have a choice ….” It was so refreshing to hear someone give an honest opinion rather than just parrot the official position. Alas, because of travel requirements, I had to get a Covid vaccine before the Novovax was available, and so I decided to get the J&J because it was just one shot, and because the adenoviral vector platform was more established. But before I got it, and for two weeks after, I also took aspirin and nattokinase because of the known clotting issues. I had no side effects, but shortly thereafter that I went in for my annual checkup and the endoscopy revealed that I had a stomach ulcer — probably from the aspirin. The stomach ulcer healed soon enough. In hindsight, I think I made the right decision to take the aspirin and nattokinase.

        I agree with you that mRNA development may be faster than some other platforms, but the adenoviral vector platform was even faster than the mRNA. Sputnik was the first vaccine to come out. But in my opinion, speed should not be the primary consideration. One of the lessons from Covid is that vaccines should not be rushed without appropriate safety data (or at the very least a better system of safety monitoring than the flawed VAERS system).

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