Japanese city captures black bear after multiday hunt DW. Black bears in the US aren’t much of a threat to people in the US (property is another matter). I wonder why they are so aggressive in Japan. Or (warse) are some rabid?
Good design is ruining American flags Works in Progress (Micael T)
How much should you talk to your toddler? Linguistic Discovery (Micael T)
CALCIDIUS THE LATIN PLATO Antigone (Anthony L)
A widely used joint-health supplement may have an unexpected dark side for the aging brain.
➡️ Researchers analyzing >12 years of health records found that glucosamine use was associated with a 25% higher risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease,… pic.twitter.com/5PRtp1qJ50
— Vipin M. Vashishtha (@vipintukur) June 9, 2026
Why are so many young people getting cancer? What researchers do and don’t know Nature
Ebola
Man shot during protest against proposed US Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya Guardian
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Anguished Parents, Crying Doctors: Life Amid Utah’s Measles Outbreak Wired
As vaccination rates plunge in Pennsylvania schools, measles cases surge in largest outbreak in three decades Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Every social justice movement is impacted by the Long COVID crisis Sick Times
Climate/Environment
Climate Change, Pollution Push Oceans to Tipping Point, UN Report Says Insurance Journal
An invisible forever chemical rain is falling across the planet Science Daily (Kevin W)
Nino region 3.4 SST update for June 8.
By year's end: a global temperature spike, record floods & droughts, massive heatwaves & storms, global crop failures & famine, wildfires, dead coral and other marine life, inflation and infrasructure collapse.
Your mileage may vary. pic.twitter.com/BtirvDaWdu
— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) June 8, 2026
El Niño will influence precipitation extremes.
A moisture connection from the tropical Pacific to the U.S. during fall could drive flooding rainfall.
Meanwhile, droughts are possible in the Caribbean, northern South America, West Pacific, India, Indonesia and Australia. pic.twitter.com/kAWtFh6yLq
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) June 6, 2026
India prepares crop protection strategy as El Niño threatens monsoon rainfall TBS News
Drought forces wheat abandonment across parts of Great Plains Brownfield
Farmers For Action says biofuels, not diet cuts, must lead net zero drive Farming UK
China?
Macron reportedly to host video call between G7 and China amid trade divergences Global Times
Offshore oil is booming. So are the Chinese companies that make the equipment for it. Kevin Walmsley
This is extraordinarily rare.
In fact, according to a key figure in the German business community (who is a dear friend of mine), it's unprecedented.
An op-ed, two pages, centerpiece, in Germany’s most important economic newspaper (the Handelsblatt) that begs the German… pic.twitter.com/k7Uhv2HwaE
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) June 10, 2026
European Disunion
EU proposes entry ban for Russian Ukraine combatants DW
The US’ Reportedly Canceled Tomahawk Deployment To Germany Isn’t That Big Of A Deal Andrew KorybkoINTERVIEW: Iceland joining EU a ‘big step away from democracy’ Euractiv
“Burn for us!” Tarik Cyril Amar (Micael T). Important
Old Blighty
UK leaders call for calm as protests break out after Belfast street stabbing Associated Press
Israel v. The Resistance
Middle East crisis live: Iran launches broad retaliatory attacks after US strikes over downed helicopter Guardian. Much more in today’s Iran war post.
In south Lebanon, Israeli drones use the sound of crying children to lure civilians Middle East Eye
Did CNN just out Azerbaijan as Israel’s secret military partner? Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W)
The Iran War and the Future of American Empire American Conservative (Kevin W)
Balkans
‘Act without delay’: Brussels warns Albania over Trump-linked resort project Euronews
What’s Happening in Albania? Multipolar Press (Micael T)
Syraqistan
Pakistan carries out new deadly strikes on Afghanistan: government officials Reuters
New Not-So-Cold War
Dawn of Spacewar Events in Ukraine. I’ve only gotten a bit into this but it is a very good piece. Also identifies shortcomings with Russian drone operations, so much more objective-seeming than most assessments, which tend to cheerlead for one side.
Russian Battle Tank Attrition Completely Reversed – Top Western Analysts Simplicius
Russia Ukraine War: Wiping Out Ukraine’s Deep Bunkers (ft Mark Sleboda) Jamarl Thomas, YouTube
Tests Suggest Russian Satellites Can Jam GPS On a Continental Scale ars technica
No precise date for Witkoff, Kushner’s visit to Russia – Peskov and Putin-Trump phone call not on agenda for now – Kremlin spokesman Interfax
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Meta Deletes Face-Recognition System From Its Smart Glasses App Wired
Imperial Collapse Watch
America’s Allies Are Starting To Panic Carl Zha and TIO Talks with Warwick Powell, YouTube. This is really quite the talk. It starts with AUKUS, which we said at the time was a dreadful deal for Australia, and proceeds to the current conduct of the US.
Give Up on the Pursuit of Dominance Daniel Larison
Trump 2.0
A new low for Trump approval on the economy, expectations of a drawn-out Iran war, and more: June 5 – 8, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll
‘Disgrace to our city’: Donald Trump sparks outrage for falling asleep at Game 3 Yahoo Sports (resilc)
Vance refers Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota attorney general to DOJ for fraud investigation NBC
Immigration
ICE Eliminated Essential Medical Care for Detainees, Yet Continues to Expand for On-Site Medical Waste Capacity W. A. Lawrence. Um, so they can dispose of needles and condoms used by staff?
Democrats Suck
Platner sails through primary amid controversy: 5 takeaways from Tuesday’s elections The Hill
The Democratic establishment begrudgingly moves to embrace Graham Platner Politico
Economy
Small Business Hiring Plans Are the Lowest in Six Years Michael Shedlock
Mr. Market Needs a Therapist
SoftBank sinks 10% as Asia tech stocks tumble, tracking Wall Street losses CNBC
AI
DeepSeekV4 1.6T Day 0 to Day 43 Performance Over Time – Huawei, GB300 NVL72, MI355X, B200 SemiAnalysis. Over my pay grade :-). But an expert weighed in:
Summary: Deepseek slow on day 1 partly due to constraints contained in the nvidia device. Sped up 100x by removing the constraint and tuning the Deepseek model. What wasn’t mentioned is that Deepseek 4 was designed to run on Huwaie devices which have a different geometry (shorter conduction path with larger gaps between transistors). My feeling is that once the Chinese get smaller geometries (by using ASML machines) it’ll eat ChatGPT’s lunch at a FAR cheaper price.
As an aside ChatGPT now stops before it gives you the final answer and demands you pay up. “And the answer is… pay up and I’ll tell you”. Deepseek is getting better (I used both today to help with an engineering problem) and not only does it give you the answer but it gives you links to the sources so you can follow up on your own. ChatGPT is getting to be like the US arms industry, very flashy, promises a lot to justify its very high cost and then provides mediocre performance when it comes to be used.
This AI bubble burst is going to be spectacular.
Local Brand Realizes Customers Hate Its AI Ads, Switches to Charming Homemade Ones Instead Futurism
The revenge of Claude Mythos Gary Marcus
Ex-CIA disguise chief says AI elevates spy wars to new heights Asia Times (Kevin W)
Majority of US’s new AI datacenters to be built on drought-hit land Guardian
People Are Now Getting Plastic Surgery to Look More AI-Generated ZME Science (Dr. Kevin). Kill me now. I thought the Mar-a-Lago face was bad enough.
The Bezzle
An AI Trojan Horse Oligarch Watch
Class Warfare
The slot machine – when gastronomy becomes an assembly line Creative Cuisine (Micael T)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus (Robin K):
Clearly, this is not the first time he's done this 😅pic.twitter.com/MHe43KwYB4
— Community Notes & Violations (@CNviolations) June 9, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Wrt the bear in Japan, they are not the same species as North American black bears, but a subspecies of the Asian black bear (aka moon bear, for the crescent shaped patch of white fur on their chest.) They are bigger than the North American black bears, although not as big as grizzlies. Unlike their North American counterparts, they haven’t adapted well to human presence and are quite vulnerable conservation wise.
I think a lot of it comes down to physical geography. In Japan, almost the entire population live in either narrow plains or valley floors, with little of a buffer zone between them and forested mountains (either wild, or more commonly, commercial forestry). So even in densely populated regions there can be little geographical separation between urbanites and bear habitat. There are plenty of Japanese cities where quite densely populated suburbs directly abut very dense forestry at the foot of mountains. Often the only human intrusion into those mountain barriers is a narrow winding secondary road (an example burned into my memory is having to cycle between Hiroshima and the old Navy city of Kure, where I was thrown off a ferry for having the wrong ticket), so there is little or nothing to stop bears and boars wandering widely, even in the densely populated regions like Kansai.
I suspect that there are also behavioural issues – in Montana I was told that simply waving a red bear spray can was an effective way of persuading grizzlies to keep away, as most will have had a sniff of it at some stage or other. Similarly with handguns. Fortunately, despite seeing plenty of them along the Great Divide Trail I never had to test that theory out.
“Good design is ruining American flags”
If it is ruining American flags, then it is not good design at all. It could get worse, you know. You could have Republicans demanding that local flags should have a lot of red in it while Democrats would insist on blue being the major colour. Can you imagine? But maybe these people should calm down and watch first an information video on flags before they do anything-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IceJTXb7RI (8:37 mins)
the STL is the best
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_St._Louis
correct link for The “Big Shrink”: Over half of 50 largest school districts in US facing deep cuts as war on education escalates
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/06/10/vahi-j10.html
‘Oh no. Public education is failing. Quick, we have to privatize those schools to save them.’ After the Russians sent up Sputnik, the US decided what was needed to revamp education to keep itself in the game. And here we are some seventy years later. Living in a so-called information society where education will be a critical need in the years to come so that the US can compete with countries that take education seriously and what happens? Education is being devalued as is research and development because reasons.