Yves here. A little light on Links at launch time. Please come back at 7:30 AM for a full serving.
Taronga Zoo: Five lions escape exhibit at Sydney zoo BBC (furzy)
Black Holes Can Behave Like Quantum Particles Space
Huge ‘planet killer’ asteroid discovered – and it’s heading our way Guardian (furzy)
A Mathematician Who Fled to Freedom but Still Stares Down Doubts Quanta (David L). Bothersome to see the politicization. Women in the US of her age and younger are also discouraged from studying math. Cathy O’Neil (mathbabe) has told personal horror stories and those elicited others from female math grad students and post-docs.
The Worst Pediatric-Care Crisis in Decades Atlantic. Resilc: “No problem kiddies, go to playgroups and skoolz.” Per his photo: “Get kids and parents sick, the fill your hospital beds”
Pulse oximeters and their inaccuracies will get FDA scrutiny today. What took so long? STAT (furzy)
Why aesthetic value should take priority over moral value Aeon (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
Could SARS2—which attacks all your blood vessels—account for this apparent 535% rise in heart attacks one year later in the greater Mumbai area?
Nah…probably “Overambition” 🤡 pic.twitter.com/vDajfIAECs
— Radical Centrist, wrathful tantric deity 🇺🇦 (@RadCentrism) October 17, 2022
U.S. CDC director experiences COVID rebound after taking Pfizer’s Paxlovid Reuters. We said early on, based on the input of the Covid Brain Trust, that the only thing Paxlovid is good for is breeding more variants.
Asia
Coronavirus: Chinese authorities race to contain new waves of ‘dire and complicated’ outbreaks South China Morning Post (resilc)
Monkeypox
Letter to Lawrence Tabak, Acting Director, NIH House Committee on Energy and Commerce (ma). Money quote:
It appears that the project is reasonably anticipated to yield a lab-generated monkeypox virus that is 1,000 times more lethal in mice than the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans and that transmits as efficiently as the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans. The risk-benefit ratio indicates potentially serious risks without clear civilian practical applications.
Climate/Environment
Tree-planting and land pledges would need area bigger than US, report estimates Financial Times (David L)
West accused of double standards over oil and gas exploration in DRC Guardian (resilc)
China?
China iPhone factory quadruples bonuses to workers amid anger over Covid curbs Guardian (resilc)
Tesla cars and components are almost entirely “Made in China” Gizchina (resilc)
Lula
Lula never left Brazil’s centre stage Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia Says It Will Rejoin Ukraine Grain-Export Deal Wall Street Journal. Breaking at Links launch time, so no details as to what concessions Russia got. Will add links as more comes out.
PATRICK LAWRENCE: War as Presentation Consortium News (furzy)
US Inspectors in Ukraine Won’t Be Near the Front, Pentagon Says Military.com. Smuggling is not one of may categories. This is better than nothing but among other things would drive trafficking to happen post inspection points…with dimunition perhaps due to trading in smaller lot sizes.
A rumor from Yury Podolyuk on Telegram (via machine translation):
…the Minister of Digital Transformation, Mikhail Fedorov, said that public Wi-Fi points will be equipped in Ukraine in November using Starlink terminals, which will provide access to the Internet even in the absence of electricity.
The source adds that every month the situation in the banking sector will worsen, where there are constant interruptions due to blackouts. The financial system will gradually “burst at the seams”. If the West does not increase financial assistance to Ukraine, then Bankova will have to devalue the hryvnia against the dollar.
It sure seems like intermittent power and resulting difficulty in keeping bank servers and ATMs and retail devices running would put a kibosh on commerce. And I don’t see how throwing more Western $ into the Ukraine burn pit would solve these problems.
Syraqistan
Saudi Arabia fears imminent attack from Iran – WSJ RT (Kevin W). Iran has repeatedly made clear it will strike only in defense, but will be brutal if so.
Iran protests: University students stage sit-down strikes BBC (furzy)
Israel Election Exit Poll: Netanyahu Secures Razor-thin Majority, Shock Triumph for Far Right Haaretz
Will a Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir gov’t change Israel as a Jewish state? Jerusalem Post (resilc)
Bahrain’s Shiites hope pope raises human rights during visit Associated Press (resilc)
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Big Brother is Watching if You Vote Matt Taibbi. Countersuggestible moi would make damned sure not to vote after getting a letter like his.
US Banks Spent $1 Billion on Ransomware Payments in 2021, Treasury Says Bloomberg
Imperial Collapse Watch
Integrated idiocy: US not ready for a major war Asia Times
Hands on with Raytheon’s anti-drone laser weapon Popular Science. Resilc: “Try it out on the Raytheon test site, aka Ukraine.” Moi: Won’t be ready in production volumes any time soon.
Biden
Debbie Wasserman Schultz introduces Biden in Florida:
“C’mon people, let’s wake up! We got the President of the United States in the house! C’mon now! […] Just wanted to make sure you’re still here.”
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 1, 2022
Democrats en déshabille
Roberts temporarily blocks House from obtaining Trump tax returns Politico. I hate sounding like I am defending Trump, but this case never should have gotten as far as this messy Roberts intervention. The Ways and Means Committee, as in the tax committee, wanted Trump’s tax returns, with the excuse being they wanted to see how the IRS handled audits of presidents. But the tax years and audits in question were before Trump was president! Yes, the Ways and Means Committee does have the right to see any tax return. But this was a fishing expedition of the worst sort.
Read the Criminal Complaint Against David DePape, Suspect in Paul Pelosi Attack New York Times (furzy). We’ve been through so many tweaks of the supposed story that at this point, the only bit I trust is the 911 call, which IIRC was published before the original account started being questioned.
GOP Clown Car
Supreme Court clears way for Sen. Graham to testify in Ga. election probe Washington Post (Kevin W)
Abortion
Requests for Self-managed Medication Abortion Provided Using Online Telemedicine in 30 US States Before and After the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Decision Jama Network (resilc)
More details on the GPS suit for $180 million against researcher Dr. Marwa Zaatari. It looks like GPS used bogus data to sell > $2,000,000,000 to schools using Federal money. Please read the Motion and this thread! @kprather88 @jljcolorado @CorsIAQ @ShellyMBoulder @DrEricDing https://t.co/IjHtON7MzD
— Jim Rosenthal (@JimRosenthal4) November 1, 2022
Our No Longer Free Press
Elon Musk’s Disastrous Weekend on Twitter Atlantic (resilc)
I had to screenshot rather than embed this tweet since Twitter does not allow tweets with “sensitive content” to be viewed. Even worse as you in the second screenshot below, Twitter suggest to nonTwitter account holders that the tweet is sexual! You can watch the video here.
Trump won’t return to Twitter right away: Musk enlists panel to review suspended accounts CNN
Twitter Advertisers Urged to Avoid Site If Musk Lowers Standards Bloomberg (furzy)
Inflation/Supply Chain
Food Prices Soar, and So Do Companies’ Profits New York Times (resilc)
The Documentary Podcast, The scramble for rare earths, part 2 BBC (resilc)
How to Buy a Car in a Recession Jalopnik (resilc)
Stuff
‘Extremely rare’ first-edition US Constitution could fetch $30 million CNN. Kevin W: “Seems awful cheap.”
Chuck L sent this Lambert in mind. I would have loved this is as a kid; my favorite toddler toy was a crash car. I enjoyed having it fly apart when it hit the wall and having to put it back together:
🚂It is fascinating to see mechanical miracles become reality on the table! 🙌The clever design allows you to enjoy the fun of puzzles with your family or friends.😍
🎁🛒 Shop now 👉 https://t.co/PNlkr6VCYp pic.twitter.com/lhoqn5dQPw— Toyiszone (@Toyiszone) October 24, 2022
The Bezzle
Your car’s automated safety features are probably making driving less safe Boing Boing (resilc). Forced obsolescence via destruction?
PayPal Records Its Slowest Percentage Growth in User Accounts Since 2010 at 6.5% Trading Platforms
Class Warfare
Pedestrians give panhandler more than twice as much money when he wears a suit versus jeans, experiment find PsyPost (Dr. Kevin)
They quit their jobs. Here’s what they are doing now. Washington Post (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
