Links 1/16/2021
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Dear patient readers,
Many of you expressed concern about Lambert not posting his usual Water Cooler yesterday. Not to worry. He got confused about which day of the week it was.
Left stranded: US military sonar linked to whale beachings in Pacific, say scientists Guardian (David L)
Climate disasters in the US broke records in 2020. Scientists may now know why: Earth was the hottest it has ever been. Busness Insider (Kevin W)
The planet is dying faster than we thought LiveScience (David L)
This Seagrass Traps Marine Plastic Smithsonian (David L)
A Big Science Publisher Is Going Open Access. But at What Cost? Undark (Dr. Kevin)
Hooray (fk):
We are delighted to announce that the 33rd stamp in the US Postal Service Literary Arts series honors Ursula. Stamp release will be later this year, date TBD. From then on, all our letters will be three ounces! Thank you @USPS for this distinction. https://t.co/H0jw1KmhUb pic.twitter.com/NA8Yz7I7fl
— Ursula K. Le Guin (@ursulaleguin) January 15, 2021
#COVID-19
Every small improvement in the seal/ filtration of your mask helps mitigate risk and reduce the viral load you are exposed to.
Pls watch/ share my quick 2 min demo🙏🏼👉🏼 https://t.co/ST13cQ7bKG#maskhacks #maskssavelives #wearmasksproperly😷 https://t.co/H0rytHcJCD pic.twitter.com/hhe4yts7TP
— Dr Sandhya Ramanathan (@SandhyaRamanat1) January 15, 2021
COVID-19: Ice cream tests positive for coronavirus in China Sky (resilc). Nothing is sacred.
Science/Medicine
Covid-19 infection grants immunity for five months, UK study suggests CNN. We’d warned about banking on happy talk about immunity of a year or longer. Having said that, there is a school of thought that the vaccines may confer longer-lived immunity.
New variants are a shot across the bow: the virus can become much more dangerous. Scary study: “SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to escape an effective immune response and that vaccines and antibodies able to control emerging variants should be developed” https://t.co/XVu782nm9L 10/
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) January 16, 2021
The bacteria in your gut may play a role in the severity of COVID-19 infection and the strength of your immune system response, a new study suggests. https://t.co/b5xNm7a4fF pic.twitter.com/HXDBe1A4VQ
— WebMD (@WebMD) January 16, 2021
Covid-19 vaccination associated with adverse drug reactions in elderly people who are frail Statens legemiddelverk (Halcyon)
US
President-elect Biden on COVID-19 Vaccination Plan CSPAN (Kevin C). I am proven wrong. Biden says he will use the Defense Production Act. But yours truly wonders if that is a threat as opposed to a commitment.
Covid-19 Vaccine Leaders Waited Months to Approve Distribution Plans Wall Street Journal. Looks like they assumed a can opener, that the private sector could largely handle the last mile of distribution.
Study: COVID-19 Reduced Life Expectancy in US by a Year Mother Jone
Some big U.S. pharmacies will not check ID before administering COVID-19 vaccines Reuters (resilc)
Microsoft, Oracle & Co full speed ahead on Covid-19 vaccine passports, citing incipient government demand RT (Kevin W). “Incipient demand” = like stocks, this will be sold, not bought.
Mink farm workers await vaccine as industry’s viability questioned WKOW
UK/Europe
All UK travel corridors to be closed, says Boris Johnson Guardian (Kevin W)
Covid: Why hasn’t the UK banned all international flights? BBC
The covid social study asked people how many days they isolated for after they had symptoms
This results are frankly horrifying pic.twitter.com/G3U39yL0Fv
— Rowland Manthorpe (@rowlsmanthorpe) January 13, 2021
Finance/Economy
Biden “recovery” plan will fail to relieve social misery or stop pandemic death WSWS
‘Spend as much as you can,’ IMF head urges governments worldwide Reuters (resilc)
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his entire Cabinet resign over child welfare scandal CBS
Brexit
Awake worrying – Yesterday @DPDgroup_news said we cannot ship products to EU – horse pet food – 30% of business gone unless we can find a new shipper. 100 plus parcels returned – list of prohibited items is huge @guardian @thetimes @northwaleslive @talkRADIO #BrexitReality pic.twitter.com/QBmixFcOet
— forageplus (@forageplus) January 15, 2021
New Cold War
Russia follows US to withdraw from Open Skies Treaty DefenseNews. Kevin W: “Biden has only three weeks to decide whether to renew the only arms control treaty left between Russia and the US – the new START treaty.”
Syraqistan
No, We’re Not Going to War with Iran National Review (resilc)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Signal is a government op Yasha Levine
FAA Approves First Fully Automated Commercial Drone Flights Wall Street Journal
Impeachment
No matter Impeachment 2.0, Trumpism will haunt America Asia Times (Kevin W)
Franklin Graham Compares 10 Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump to Betrayal of Christ Newsweek
GOP divided over Liz Cheney’s future The Hill
Trump Transition
Trump says only Jesus Christ more famous than him MSN
US set for flurry of ‘Christian nationalist’ bills advanced by religious right Guardian (resilc)
GOP in bind over Trump as corporate donations freeze The Hill
Capitol Seizure
The Radicalization of Kevin Greeson: How one man went from attending President Barack Obama’s inauguration to dying in the mob protesting Donald Trump’s election loss during the Capitol insurrection. ProPublica (resilc)
SECRET MESSAGE CONSPIRACY Desperate QAnon fans spout bogus claim Trump spoke to them in MORSE CODE Sun
American democracy is still under attack—by corporate influence Quartz (resilc)
Ex-McCaskill staffers launch PAC to block Hawley’s electoral ambitions Politico
Biden
Biden appoints geneticist Eric Lander as science adviser and head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Science (Kevin C)
Stop Biden’s Neocon Nominee to the State Department American Conservative
Why Joe Biden Can’t Bring His Peloton to the White House Popular Mechanics (resilc)
Our Famously Free Press
Twitter, Facebook and Co.: The Growing Problem of Online Radicalization Der Spiegel. Resilic: “Gee, who wooda thunk it?”
100 days of warning: inside the Boogaloo killings of US security personnel Guardian
Big Tech Has Helped Trash America New York Times (David L)
Gunz
Democrats cheer as NRA declares bankruptcy, seeks to escape ‘corrupt’ New York by moving to Texas RT (Kevin W). Sadly less consequential than this sounds, see below.
NRA to move to Texas, fleeing litigation brought against it by New York state Washington Post (furzy)
A Reckoning for Political Science Chronicle for Higher Education (Robert M)
Is Tesla a car company, or a casino? New Statesman (resilc)
America Abandoned Its Economic Prophet. The World Embraced Him. Foreign Policy (Kevin C)
A Story of Use and Abuse: Athenian democracy in the political imagination Lapham’s Quarterly (Anthony L)
Hannah Arendt YouTube (Thomas R)
Antidote du jour (CV):
And a bonus:
oh my god pic.twitter.com/WQh6YxB0co
— Cute Animal Vines (@CuteAnimaIVines) January 14, 2021
See Yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
