Thriving Otters in North America Linked to Nuclear Weapons Tests. Here’s Why. ScienceAlert. Chuck L: “I never knew that the USA had done nuclear testing in the Aleutian Islands.”
I looked out my airplane window and was stunned — TikTok helped me solve the mystery New York Post (BC)
Using Early Human Existence To Understand Historical Societies Ian Welsh (Ian W)
Mathematicians found a guaranteed way to win the lottery in 2023 New Scientist (David L)
Gaza, Ukraine, and other conflicts could be accelerating antibiotic resistance/a> STAT (Dr. Kevin)
#COVID-19
Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses Nature (Paul R)
Unexpected New COVID Symptoms Arise As JN.1 Variant Continues To Spread IFLScience (furzy)
“Yet another health care giant will have a mask mandate as the local COVID wastewater continues to surge and infections rise”
“Mass General Brigham will be bringing back its staff mask mandate”
Take note MGB: Boston Herald picture shows N95shttps://t.co/J8ddAdUsVL
— Yaneer Bar-Yam (@yaneerbaryam) December 29, 2023
Climate/Environment
The year in clean energy: Wind, solar and batteries grow despite economic challenges Associated Press (Kevin W)
40% of US Electricity Is Now Emissions-Free ars technica
World’s tallest wooden wind turbine starts turning BBC (David L)
Danube River floods Budapest Anadolu Agency
Dramatic flooding in Santa Cruz County as storm breaches coastline SF Gate (Kevin W)
China?
‘Fighting spirit’: Xi Jinping reveals China’s push for global power after rare closed-door meeting on foreign policy South China Morning Post
Huawei says business ‘back on track’ despite U.S. crackdown Nikkei
China Confronts a New Political Reality in Taiwan: No Friends Wall Street Journal
Japan eyes lethal weapon exports to South-east Asia to boost regional security Straits Times
European Disunion
“Scholz is more afraid of angering the Americans than his own voters” Anti-Spiegel via machine translation (Micael T)
Far-right extremists stage rural land grab across Germany Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
Do our schools promote the democratic spirit? Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
Consistent with the philosophy of his favourite thinker Hayek, Milei aims to impose a shock therapy of liberal market order where democracy is secondary.
He has just introduced a bill that, in practice, aims to close Congress and consolidate the sum of public power.
1/— Karina Patrício (@KPatricio_) December 27, 2023
Gaza
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 83: Israel attacks 10 Palestinian cities in largest West Bank invasion since October 7 Mondoweiss (guurst)
Billionaires, imperialists, and antisemites: The forces behind the assault on opposition to Gaza genocide WSWS (Micael T)
Israel-Gaza war live: Hamas delegation due in Cairo to look at Egyptian ceasefire proposal Guardian
ISRAEL IS SINKING IN GAZA’S QUAGMIRE WITHOUT ANY FEASIBLE OBJECTIVES. Elijah Magnier
Biden Needs To Come To Israel’s – And His Own – Rescue Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
If you ACTUALLY want to fight antisemitism, I am absolutely convinced that your foremost priority right now should be to not let the Netanyahu government and his coalition of far right extremists define Jewish identity.
This is the real battle against antisemitism right now.…
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 27, 2023
Israel’s attack on Gaza sits comfortably in the top quartile of most devastating bombing campaigns in history.
And Bellingcat has sat the whole thing out. Do you get it yet?https://t.co/AWPktWKmmX
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) December 29, 2023
NEW – Lindsey Graham: “Hit Iran… blow it off the map.” pic.twitter.com/5dfhVQOcja
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) December 28, 2023
Greek tanker KRITI STATE owned by AVIN, a VARDINOGIANNIS fleet company in Athens, isn’t Israel connected. But through MOTOR OIL HELLAS, the Vardinogiannis refinery in Corinth, it sells oil products to the US NAVY fleet now operating in the Red Sea against the Houthis. pic.twitter.com/vEzUhlL6jf
— Dances_with_Bears (@bears_with) December 29, 2023
New Not-So-Cold War
The Biden Administration Is Quietly Shifting Its Strategy in Ukraine Politico
Ukraine attacked with 158 missiles and drones, says military BBC
⚡ 🇷🇺🇺🇦 The damaged Russian warship cost the Ukrainians dearly.
Ukraine’s largest missile attack to date, according to Ukrainian officials.
Affected facilities:
Lviv-NATO mercenary base, energy and warehouses.
Khmelnytskyi airport, planes, warehouses
Kiev-factories,… pic.twitter.com/qMBHVBqHvQ— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) December 29, 2023
Scott Ritter: Maryinka’s Liberation ‘Major Victory’ for Russia Sputnik
A cargo ship picking up Ukrainian grain hits a Russian floating mine in the Black Sea, officials say Associated Press
Lavrov Warned Armenia Against Ceding Its National Security To NATO Andrew Korybko
A new Sputnik feature article worth reading on the attempted regime change operation in Belgrade these past several days Gilbert Doctorow
Syraqistan
US base attacked in northeast Syria Almayadeen
Imperial Collapse Watch
How The Hell Did We Get Here? Caitlin Johnstone (Chuck L, Dr. Kevin)
US, Europe Likely On Track to Become ‘Failed Economies’ Sputnik. Based on interview with Michael Hudson.
The biggest foreign policy losers of 2023 Responsible Statescraft
Trump
Against Immunity for Trump Wall Street Journal (David L)
Colorado puts Trump back on 2024 GOP primary ballot while ruling is appealed New York Post
Biden
GOP Clown Car
Haley’s Civil War remarks stir backlash at crucial moment for campaign The Hill. Lambert covered yesterday in Water Cooler but fallout continues.
Immigration
Blinken Meets With Mexico’s President About Surge in Migration at the Border New York Times (Kevin W)
New York City, Denver, Chicago attempt to clamp down on migrant busings with ordinances Axios (furzy)
Exclusive: DOJ threatens lawsuit if Texas enforces new border security law Houston Chronicle
Our No Longer Free Press
WOW 🚨 On The Record Testimony & Evidence That Barack Obama Created An Illegal Psyop Against The American People To Interfere In Future Elections
“2 days ago, my colleagues and I published the 1st batch of internal files from the Cyber Threat Intelligence League, which show US… pic.twitter.com/1d2WpWcNe8
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) December 27, 2023
AI
New York Times Sues Microsoft and OpenAI, Alleging Copyright Infringement Wall Street Journal
The New York Times Has an Edge in Suit Against OpenAI, Microsoft Bloomberg (furzy)
🧵 The historic NYT v. @OpenAI lawsuit filed this morning, as broken down by me, an IP and AI lawyer, general counsel, and longtime tech person and enthusiast.
Tl;dr – It’s the best case yet alleging that generative AI is copyright infringement. Thread. 👇 pic.twitter.com/Zqbv3ekLWt
— Cecilia Ziniti (@CeciliaZin) December 27, 2023
MICROSOFT PATENTS GROUNDBREAKING IN-BROWSER AI TECHNOLOGY FOR ON-DEVICE PROCESSING Cryptopolitan (David L)
EU competition chief defends Artificial Intelligence Act after Macron’s attack Financial Times
OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla predicts AI will deflate the economy over the next 25 years Business Insider
Boeing urges inspections of 737 Max planes for ‘possible loose bolt’ CNBC (Kevin W)
The Bezzle
Stock market outlook: Why Roaring 20s may be back for investors, economy Business Insider (Kevin W). Do these people realize what they are saying? The 1920s did have a real economy growth impetus, as in electrification and new consumer goods, like radios. But the stock market boom was to a significant degree was the result of stock market leverage on leverage, which as Frank Partnoy described long ago in the Match King as including structures that were just like CDOs.
Class Warfare
“Reality Is Submerged in Fantasy”: The Villages Is a Boomer’s Utopia—And Demographic Time Bomb Vanity Fair (Dr. Kevin). One, I would need a lobotomy to live in a place like this. Two, separately it seems insane to live there. I see NO mention whatsoever (perhaps I missed it) as to how the residents get care when they need short term rehab or become too feeble or cognitively impaired to care for themselves.
Antidote du jour. mgl:
This is a red-crowned parrot (aka kākāriki) as seen at an enclosure at Pūkaha/Mt Bruce National Wildlife Center (Masterton, Wairarapapa, New Zealand) in 2017, clearly eating kiwifruit. They’re so cute!
And a bonus (guurst):
No need to do dna test pic.twitter.com/lQz3L6eUcQ
— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) December 25, 2023
A different sort of bonus (Chuck L):
This is the incredible moment Lucy, a 13-year-old who is blind and neurodiverse, played a highly-complex Chopin piece, leaving @MikaSounds and @Lang_Lang speechless.
The Piano, presented by @ClaudiaWinkle, starts tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.
Stream Free on All 4. #ThePiano pic.twitter.com/09YFNM2tOh
— Channel 4 (@Channel4) February 15, 2023
Yet another different sort of bonus (Chuck L):
As holiday cheer rumbles across the world, Russia’s interference in US election project is entering the final stage – our super new software update is ready to be installed into the object (aka President Biden). 3, 2, 1… pic.twitter.com/AjJpzwmDED
— RT (@RT_com) December 26, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
