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Links 10/14/2025

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‘Their resilience is a lesson to us all’: The maritime lions hunting seals on the beach BBC (Kevin W)

The Best Medicine For Joint Pain Isn’t What You Think, Expert Says The Conversation (Chuck L). This is the sort of one-size-fits all nonsense that makes me want to break china: “Yet people who exercise regularly are physically and biologically protecting themselves from developing the disease [osteoarthritis] and from suffering its worst effects.” Complete garbage. My chondromalacia patella is the DIRECT result of exercise. And this article treats all exercise as beneficial for arthritis, when there are many exercises that would further damage my joints. One of my MD, a top specialist in non/minimally invasive procedures says (in my nomenclature, not his) that for women, jogging is knee surgery futures due to nearly all women having too much joint laxity to not suffer damage.

Breakthrough Discovery Could Finally Be the Key to Male Birth Control SciTech Daily (Chuck L)

Your type of depression could shape your body’s future health ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

A Japanese screw craftsman who single-handedly produces 400,000 screws a day — and How to Make It YouTube (resilc)

The Limits of Data Issues in Science and Technology (resilc). Today’s must read.

Climate/Environment

China?

Bessent says China wants to ‘pull everybody else down’ Financial Times. Lead story. Exclusive interview. I always thought Bessent was an idiot but here he may just be a mouthpiece for his boss. I can read it and the headline is representative. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a non-paywalled link that shows the content.

Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified Telegraph (resilc)

US-China trade tensions simmer as port fees take effect BBC

Sending a message: Beijing issues documents without Word format amid US tensions South China Morning Post (guurst)

Hu Xijin: Silence is not gold Pekinology. On the rise in self-censorship.

India-Pakistan

Pakistan closes border with Afghanistan after dozens killed in overnight clashes France24

The Ganges Water Crisis , A Parched River, A Thirsty Nation Dainik Jagran

One after another, Pakistan endures successive climate disasters Mongabay

Southeast Asia

Photos show a town ravaged by civil war in Myanmar Independent

Thailand’s debt spiral BBC. The loan shark rates are horrific.

Africa

Massacre’ in Sudan kills at least 53 including 14 children and 15 women Sky

Madagascar president flees after losing support of key army unit Guardian

South of the Border

The US vs. Venezuela: Who Will Win? Top War (Micael T)

How the IMF and US helped loot and entrap Argentina with debt Thomas Palley

Protesters clash with police in Ecuador amid nationwide strike over fuel prices Independent

A Nation Starves: Haiti’s Hunger Crisis Puts 6 Million at Risk Modern Diplomacy

European Disusion

Europe’s future depends on dismantling the EU — part four Thomas Fazi

How Nord Stream 2 has blown up Europe Unherd

Europe’s Suicidal Follies Gordon Hahn (Micael T)

“Insane” social cuts deepen social divisions Sozialsmus (Micael T)

Old Blighty

Reeves faces a historic challenge with record state spending The Times

Pro-Israel group gets £7m from UK government to ‘identify’ antisemitism Middle East Eye

England sees second worst harvest on record, analysis shows Independent

Israel v. The Resistance

All living Israeli captives and hundreds of Palestinians released; Trump addresses Knesset DropSite

Gaza Hostages Released as Questions Remain in Ceasefire Process Bloomberg. Across the page banner headline and no paywall.

Another Tenuous Ceasefire in Gaza Daniel Larison

Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan… A Wedding Without a Bride and Groom Larry Johnson (resilc)

The October 7 Industry American Conservative (Kevin W)

* * *

Private US military consultants flock to bolster Lebanese military Intelligence Online

Intensive Israeli air strikes kill one, injure seven in southern Lebanon Aljazeera

IMF Warns Yemen on Brink of Economic Collapse as Public Debt Surpasses 100% of GDP Yemen Online

New Not-So-Cold War

As Russian Aggression Turns West, Poland Says It’s Ready Wall Street Journal

The Taliban Claimed That The Crocus Terrorist Attack Was Orchestrated From Pakistan Andrew Korybko

Hillary Clinton replies to my question as a liar or utterly ignorant of reasons for U.S. war in Ukraine. Lucy Komisar. ZOMG. A postcard from neocon alternative reality

Imperial Collapse Watch

Who maintains the scaffolding of freedom? Shruti Rajagopalan

The United States, Israel, and their “right” to murder Rebelion via machine translation (Micael T)

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee Goes to War American Conservative

Nobel Piss Prize Julian Macfarlane (Micael T)

Trump 2.0

Trump Promised a Shipbuilding Boom. He’s Sinking It Instead Washington Monthly (resilc)

JPMorgan announces $1.5 trillion U.S. investment initiative Axios

Benioff retreats from idea of sending troops in to clean up San Francisco The Register

Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump New York Times

Immigration

ICE Raids Are Only Half The Story YouTube. Chris C:

Video where the vlogger talks about farm labor and the H2A visa system. She also talks about changes made to the H2A visa system by the Trump administration as well as the role of farm owners and labor contractors in these changes. Important information about current farm slavery in the U.S.

Shutdown

Why It’s Pointless for Democrats to Negotiate a Shutdown Deal New Republic (resilc)

Dwindling paychecks add pressure on GOP, Trump, Democrats to end shutdown The Hill

Supremes

The Missing Defenses of the Court’s Behavior Steve Vladeck

Our No Longer Free Press

News outlets broadly reject Pentagon’s new press rules Axios. Lead story.

AI

A small number of samples can poison LLMs of any size Anthropic (resilc)

The Grand AGI Delusion Gary Marcus

AI Is Juicing the Economy. Is It Making American Workers More Productive? Wall Street Journal

What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer 404 Media

Mr. Market is Moody

Stock Bubble Dread Grips Central Bankers in Washington Bloomberg

Watch out for black swans: The trigger for financial crashes rarely is predicted by watchdogs This Is Money

The cracks are starting to appear in the shadow banking bubble

AI rally fuelled by junk debt as crash fears grow Telegraph. Important

Economy

Congo’s Cobalt Export Shock Spurs Rally and Doubts Over Supply Bloomberg

Stronger Growth, Weaker Hiring: Forecasters See a Split-Screen Economy Wall Street Journal

Americans Are Falling Behind on Their Car Payments Wall Street Journal Telegraph

The Dismal Science

The Ghosts of the Physiocrats Relearning Economics (Chuck L)

Process knowledge is crucial to economic development Programmable Mutter (resilc)

Trio win Nobel economics prize for work on innovation, growth and ‘creative destruction’ Reuters. As in the Swedish central bank prize i the name of Alfred Nobel

The Bezzle

Crypto’s Biggest Crash Reveals a Market Littered With Pitfalls Bloomberg

$19B crypto market crash: Was it leverage, China tariffs or both? CoinTelegraph

Class Warfare

Plastic Surgery Comes for the Waist New York Times (resilc)

Antidote du jour. Janet T: “Duchess (yellow lab who has prompted more laughter than any other dog we’ve had) and Moogie (fluffy and chonky boy kitty who is a love), watching the birds and chipmunks.”

And a bonus (Chuck L):

A second bonus:

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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38 comments

  1. hayrake

    The Limitations of data article is good. Read it and see, but if you don’t have time the short version is: Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm

      One more point to consider: suppose your “data” has a life and changes with time and other/external events?

      In battle management data systems one issue is the state of one unit of interest is effected by a lot of externalities…… They called it pedigree of the data.

      Data sets are not concrete.

      That said suppose they trained a US command center AI on Douglas MacArthur?

      Reply ↓
    2. DJG, Reality Czar

      hayrake: I think that Nguyen makes some pretty basic mistakes in the article. The first is the airy dismissal of data as individual observations in favor of the current faddish idea of “data” as information. Information is always going to be messy. The second is inherent in Nguyen being a professor of philosophy: There isn’t much in the article about methods of data collection, except anecdotally.

      I happen to have served as development editor for a dozen or so introductory statistics books for high-school and college students. There is a constant stress in these books on data as individual observations that are then arranged into datasets (which can introduced bias). There is a constant stress on developing an eye in dealing with categories — which are slippery forms of data. As students progress, they learn that certain statistical tests shouldn’t be used in certain situations. And small data sets are always a problem.

      Nguyen isn’t reporting anything new. A badly designed statistical experiment that collects data sloppily produces a mess. It is incumbent on informed citizens to interpret these studies. That’s the long and the short of it.

      “Data-based” medicine has this problem, now much in evidence. Where do the data come from? Who gathered the data? Why? And isn’t the person under treatment worth studying, too, for that person’s individual needs, habits, desires, and genetic inheritance?

      I made a comment at the excellent post by Richard Murphy about sloppy use of the word “theory” to prop up econ departments and biz schools. Here we see the sloppy use of “data” as information and it biases and the term “data.”

      What was remarkable to me was that so many of the questions that Nguyen is asking are in textbooks that college students are now supposed to be studying. One doesn’t need a data ethicist to know that a bad study, with built-in biases, isn’t going to be helpful.

      Reply ↓
  2. The Rev Kev

    “Hillary Clinton replies to my question as a liar or utterly ignorant of reasons for U.S. war in Ukraine”

    There is one question that I will always wonder about Hillary Clinton. She was the Golden Girl who was supposed to have been crowned President back in 2016, right? It was all planned out and set up – until it wasn’t. So the question that haunts me is that if Hillary had become President back in 2016, whether she would have set off the war in the Ukraine during her first term – say about 2018. That Project Ukraine would have been launched way back then. Well Hillary didn’t get to be President and Project Ukraine had to wait until 2022 when Biden was already two years in power. That six year delay proved a godsend to the Russians as it gave them all that time to prepare their country for the onslaught. Still the question remains. Whether it would have been Hillary that would have pulled the trigger back then.

    Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        I think that the assumption by NATO was that as they were training five battalions of Ukrainians to NATO standards annually and equipping them with NATO equipment, that they would quickly break and overrun the inferior, amateur, cowardly Russians who would break at the sight of the Ukrainians. At least that was the stated attitude.

        Reply ↓
      2. chris

        And with another several hundred billion and another six years, they could have been contenders!

        Ukraine really should be the moment the West read the writing on the wall. We can’t fake this anymore. It’s time to give up the idea that we can do this now or that we ever could. The entire idea of how we fight wars, with what equipment, and how to train people, is obviously dead. The only thing we created with that time and effort was wasted revenue. It’s obvious. But people like Clinton cannot accept that. Because any of the alternatives seriously limits her ability to earn money or talk about policy.

        We need fo give up the idea of nation building. We need to give up the idea of a NATO backed hegemony. We need to scrap the F-35 and most of our current weapons platforms. We need to give up the idea that we can fight wars cheaply using failed methods, and have any hope that those methods will overcome significant benefits like manufacturing dominance and efficient supply chains. We need to give up the idea that we can fight wars without manufacturing capabilities.

        I’d like to suggest we give up the idea that we fight wars to fuel the needs of our corrupt elite, but I know we’ll never do that.

        Reply ↓
        1. bwilli123

          Yes, but all it will take is a little war on Iran, which we hope will provoke the Iranians into closing the Straits of Hormuz, thus cutting most of China’s oil which will cause their economy (and thus the CCP) to collapse and then we can attack Russia through the back door in Siberia.
          A bonus is that the Middle Eastern Oil Kingdoms will also collapse and we can take over there too (or get Israel to do it on our behalf)
          A walk in the park!

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            Or the Iranians can take a page out of the Yemeni book and only attack shipping from Western interests – while giving Chinese and Russians ships free passes.

            Reply ↓
      3. ilsm

        Debate continues on whether Hitler and the allies would have been “better prepared” to enter the second world war in 1941!

        Hitler decided in 1939 Germany was good enough vis a vis the allies. In May 1940 the general staff was still not sure.

        As Rumsfeld said you go to war with what you have”,…… will it ever be enough??

        In 2018 the Russians would have gone tac nuke.

        Why does the deep state ignore nukes? do they think they can kill Russia with a hundred thousand FPV drones and not go nuclear?

        Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer”

    Worth while reading this article. You get to understand that AI has the Reverse Midas Touch – everything that it touches turns to s***.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      In private equity land, killing patients is a good thing. It cuts down costs – dead patients don’t require pesky nurses who demand to get paid, doctors, medicine, etc.

      Reply ↓
  6. Wukchumni

    The Best Medicine For Joint Pain Isn’t What You Think, Expert Says The Conversation
    ~~~~~~~~~~~

    I reckon i’ve walked maybe 5,000 miles in Sequoia-Kings NP so far-so good (feeling a smidge better as of late, did a 3 mile hike the other day on the Nature Trail amidst fall colors-with only a soupçon of knee pain) so I haven’t lacked for exercise much.

    When the doc showed me X-rays of my knee 4 months ago, there was some concern that perhaps a cartilage embezzler had made away with mine, there not being a whole lot left.

    I got osteoarthritis the old fashioned way, I wore myself out.

    Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        In my defense versus runners, always had one foot firmly on the ground. all of the hard core runners I know are paying the price for all that levitation.

        What really did me in was about a gajillion stone steps on the Inca Trail walking to Machu Picchu, here-have at it for a minute from the privacy of your screen.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmV2rgJVdNA

        Reply ↓
        1. Ignacio

          I was a runner but left the vice because muscular lesions. Now I ride bicycle (MTB) and i like it much more than running or walking. I ride with all the cautions. A coward when the path gets too rough (too “technical” the bikers say). Even with caution it is inevitable to crash like once a year but so far without consequences. I truly enjoy it and can do up to 90 km (about 55 miles) rides with or without company.

          Reply ↓
        2. mrsyk

          From my days as a runner many years ago, I was taught by my coaches to avoid running on asphalt or other similarly hard surfaces and stick to trails and grassed sports pitches to save the knees from wear and tear. This was fifty years ago, and I know not if this is still considered a thing.

          Reply ↓
  8. chris

    Re: Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified – Telegraph

    The archive link keeps timing out for me, but putting in the title brings you to enough different sources to get the gist of the Telegraph article. The bottom line is that the UK is installing roughly 2500 high quality manufacturing robots per year, the US 34000, and China is installing roughly 295000. So almost factors of 10 between the three nations. Ford executives are seeing this and freaking out. Not sure why Ford is scared. They’re been making high quality robots for decades, they just keep putting them in management. Perhaps if they made them for the factory floor their vehicles would be better built…

    Reply ↓
    1. ocypode

      I’ve been having the same problem, changing the .is domain to .li usually works out. The piece is pretty interesting, especially how there are essentially workerless factories in China to the point they don’t even keep the lights on.

      Reply ↓
  9. ChrisFromGA

    Good morning. Those Sea Surface Temperature charts from the China/North Korea coast are downright scary. How much worse will it get when the Tech Bastards get all their coal-fired power plants built, at taxpayer expense, to power their data centers so that we can all make videos of our cats throwing the winning TD in the Super Bowl?

    Will we be swimming in 80-degree water off the coast of Jersey in December? Lake Superior as the new tropical destination?

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      In July of 2023 in Manatee Bay Florida, the temp was 101 degrees-rendering the ocean a hot spring of sorts.

      I would loved to have experienced that, being an agua caliente tribal member.

      But in its way, the Big Heat is fascinating thing to watch-as norms are what you make of them, as per Mother Nature’s whims.

      That said, i’m giving this planet 25 years to straighten up its act, or i’m outta here.

      Reply ↓
  10. Adam1

    “The Best Medicine For Joint Pain Isn’t What You Think, Expert Says”

    I’d agree that movement it probably the best thing from a preventative perspective, but in the entire article I didn’t find yoga or stretching mentioned once. Those are the types of movements you need for ensuring your joints aren’t grinding against each other.

    Additionally, arthritis is a disease of inflammation and inflammation is an immune system response. Having sub-optimal vit D levels can allow your immune system to get out of kilter. Vit D is important in regulating your inflammatory response mechanisms. And as we age our body’s ability to make vit D declines significantly and most of us don’t get enough regular exposure to the sun anymore so most of us are sub optimal in our vit D levels even though we haven’t yet got rickets.

    Reply ↓
  11. The Rev Kev

    “Sending a message: Beijing issues documents without Word format amid US tensions”

    Well I suppose that it is their bat and ball so they get to make the rules. And that WPS Office already comes pre-installed on Amazon Fire tablets so is not that obscure-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPS_Office

    Both China and Russia are less and less willing to put up with the antics of the west. Lavrov was at a press conference recently and said during it that he would only take questions in Russian and not English which he actually speaks quite well.

    Reply ↓
  12. William Beyer

    Regarding “Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified,” when I was a member of the national board of directors of the American Institute of Architects, our president-elect returned from a trip to China and reported that the Chinese executives he had met had basically told him that China would be eating America’s lunch and there was nothing we could do about it. The year was 2003.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Wasn’t really hard to work out though I missed it myself. China spent their money on infrastructure, training and development. America decided to spend their money in the sandboxes of Iraq and Afghanistan so that some insiders could become newly minted billionaires.

      Reply ↓
  13. Mikel

    Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified – Telegraph

    https://www.eastisread.com/p/dandan-zhang-chinas-factory-workers/
    (This info or article was previously presented on NC. I bet the visiting execs took note of this army of workers too)

    https://jacobin.com/2025/10/china-logistics-gig-work-labor/
    (just another take that that gives a workers point of view…since we’re talking about who is “terrified”!)

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773067025000214/
    (comes from a site that has the word “science”” in it)

    Reply ↓
  14. The Rev Kev

    ‘Zlatti71
    @Zlatti_71
    🇱🇻🇷🇺 “Second class”: Latvia will forcibly deport Russian pensioners by November
    By November, the country will begin forcibly expelling Russian citizens who failed to pass the Latvian language exam. This was reported by Riga City Council deputy Yulia Sokhina. According to her, the authorities’ attitude towards Russian speakers is second-rate.’

    Meanwhile silence emanates from organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the EU, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament, etc. about this blatant violation of older people’s rights. Some of those old folks have already been kicked out of the country and Russia takes them in and sets them up with social security as it turns out that they are a Christian nation and are not neoliberal enough to throw them out onto the streets. Who knew?

    Reply ↓
  15. LawnDart

    Re; Immigration

    H-2A Visa Abuse: Exploitation of Farm Workers and Solutions

    The H-2A Visa: From Labor Lifeline to Modern Slavery – And What We Actually Need to Fix It

    Quick takeaway: migrant workers used to be able to move between employers for better pay, work conditions, etc., but the H-2A legally binds them to a single employer– you quit, you have to go back to whatever country you came from and start over.

    Why did farmers vote for Trump? Because this program is being expanded, and Team Trump has cut the minimum wage paid to these workers (more profits!).

    Don’t feel too bad about US being cut-out of the Chinese soybean market either, because, in addition to bailouts, there’s this:

    A New Road for Soybeans: Building New Domestic Demand

    With the loss of Chinese demand, U.S. ag is searching for its next “shining star.” Researchers at Iowa State may have found it for soybeans: the road beneath your feet and the refineries needed to fuel your truck or car.

    It’s a win-win for US “farmers” (agribusiness, not small-farm types) and US oil refineries.

    Reply ↓
  16. MicaT

    Cobalt
    While the majority of US battery OEM’s still use NMC, China has almost completely changed to LFP.
    The power, energy,weight of LFP vs NMC has gotten to where it’s almost the same. But the price is substantially lower and safety is much higher as well as much better for the environment.

    Now of course sodium is the where CATL and BYD are putting most of their money on. Already it’s being used in cars, and energy storage systems. It’s substantially less expensive than LFP and safer yet and a more environmentally sustainable yet.

    Anyone still talking about shortages of lithium and cobalt etc isn’t keeping up with the extremely fast moving battery industry. Which is going to LFP and sodium partially because the raw materials are so much easier to get.

    Reply ↓
  17. Roxan

    Yves, you are 100% right about joint pain! When I talked to a surgeon about getting a new knee, I mentioned I used to do a lot of sports, he just nodded, and said ‘that will do, it!’ Anyone who advises exercise as a ‘cure’ for arthritis never had a sore joint themselves.

    Reply ↓
  18. The Rev Kev

    “Trump Promised a Shipbuilding Boom. He’s Sinking It Instead”

    This is what i have noticed about the Trump regime. That will announce all these grandiose plans but there is never any carry through. There is no assessing where the US is, thinking through where they want the US to be, sketching out all the steps necessary to get there, allocating the resources and the people to make it all happen and then carrying it out. That was how the US was able to place men on the Moon in only several years back in the 60s. Now? There seems to be no understanding of this approach or willingness to do the hard work to do it. It’s just all PR fluff.

    Reply ↓

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