Links 2/6/2021
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Septuagenarian Laysan albatross Wisdom hatches new chick on Midway Star Advertiser (Cathy T)
Drunk birds in North Texas BoingBoing (resilc)
‘How good were koalas?’: A national treasure in peril Sydney Morning Herald
Biologists Discover Modern-Day Corn Dog Descended From Ancient Aquatic Sausage The Onion (David L)
Remastered images reveal how far Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the Moon ars technica (Kevin W)
Study: Earth Warmer Than Any Time in Last 12,000 Years Defend Democracy
World’s biggest battery with 1,200MW capacity set to be built in NSW Hunter Valley Guardian
#COVID-19
The Coronavirus Vaccine Fail and International Elites Dean Baker, CEPR (Gary O)
Science/Medicine
Shifts in global bat diversity suggest a possible role of climate change in the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Science (Paul R)
What If the COVID Pandemic Never Really Ends? New York Magazine (resilc)
When Will Life Return to Normal? In 7 Years at Today’s Vaccine Rates Financial Post
Children and COVID-19 spread Harvard Medical School. Kids have high viral loads.
Willingness to receive vaccination depended upon vaccine country of origin, effectiveness, rate of serious side effects, and site of vaccination. Communicating the collective benefits of herd immunity was associated with significantly less #COVID19 vaccine hesitancy. pic.twitter.com/bpQDAiPzwU
— The Lancet (@TheLancet) February 6, 2021
Study shows young COVID survivors can get reinfected MedicalXpress. Not liking the look of this. 10% reinfection rate in frigging Marines. Ggiven the study time frame v. when Covid got going in the US, the majority of the men who were reinfected were reinfected in less than six months. This seems not at all consistent with the UK and other study data claiming that there’s evidence of immunity lasting >6 months, and another >8 months. But those are extrapolations based on antibody levels or Tcells or other blood factors, not based on actual cases of reinfection.
Computer model can determine whether you’ll die from COVID-19 Science. Resilc: “I’m sure all the data from white, healthy, sane Denmark is relevant to USA USA.”
US
How the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Was Hobbled by Turf Wars and Magical Thinking Vanity Fair (resilc)
America’s Soviet-Style Vaccine Rollout Atlantic
Rural community in shock after Georgia raids clinic vaccinating teachers NBC
A SoulCycle Instructor Got the Vaccine as an ‘Educator’ New York Times (resilc)
Walgreens, CVS beef up protections against threat of ‘bot’ attacks on vaccine program Reuters
UK/Europe
Britain risks becoming virus ‘melting pot’ as mutations spread FT (Kevin W)
Male Tory MPs taking off more clothes than is strictly necessary to be photographed getting a vaccination: an occasional series pic.twitter.com/q7OeWwUPCA
— Tom Hamilton (@thhamilton) February 5, 2021
Finance/Economy
Under The Hood Of A Bad Jobs Report Heisenberg Report (resilc)
Bad jobs report boosts Biden stimulus case The Hill
The Employment Situation in January White House
Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein pushes back on the Larry Summers op-ed (https://t.co/Rjg7rXm3fd) warning that the $1.9T stimulus plan could be too big and carry its own economic risks: “I think he’s wrong. I think he is wrong in a pretty profound way about that.” pic.twitter.com/1GiNlxrStB
— Megan Cassella (@mmcassella) February 5, 2021
‘Lost generation of unemployed’: Covid hits careers of over-50s Guardian
The Catholic Church took more than $3 billion in taxpayer-backed pandemic aid. Slate (resilc)
Mitt Romney Wants to Give Your Baby $62,600 New York Magazine
‘I have to do this to survive’: a night with Jakarta’s silvermen Guardian (resilc)
Brexit
Brexit is coming apart at the seams Chris Grey
On one of THE biggest courier platforms there are currently FIVE U.K. vans out in Europe looking for a reload back to the U.K. . The previous low point was twelve . There are virtually no U.K. vans out – and I’m coming back empty costing me a potential 1500.00 in lost wages
— ciaran the euro courier 🇪🇺🇮🇪 (@donnyc1975) February 3, 2021
UK fashion industry facing ‘decimation’ over Brexit trade deal Irish Times (guurst)
Live farm animal exports to mainland EU at a standstill post-Brexit Guardian (resilc). Richard North described in gory detail early on that this would happen, and even some industry groups for live animal exporters raises alarms well before the fall.
Old Blighty
Insults and expletives turn parish council Zoom meeting into internet sensation Guardian
Following the money behind Myanmar’s coup Asia Times (Kevin W)
New Cold War
Exclusive: Navalny affair no grounds to cancel Nord Stream pipeline, new German CDU chief says Reuters
What Putin nemesis Alexei Navalny is, and what he is not Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
Syraqistan
Palestinian shot dead by Israeli settlers in West Bank Al Jazeera (resilc)
U.S. Support for the Saudi Coalition War on Yemen Is Finally Ending American Conservative
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Coming to Your Neighborhood? Amazon Delivery Vans With ‘Roaming Eyes’ Cameras Children’s Health Defense (furzy)
Trump Transition
Biden says Trump should no longer receive classified intelligence briefings CNN (Kevin W)
Capitol Seizure
Acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman delivered a statement on the eve of the one month anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol C-SPAN (Kevin C)
Rachel Powell, Mercer County Mother Of 8 Wanted In Connection To Capitol Riots, Taken Into Custody CBS Pittsburgh (UserFriendly)
Blowback: How US-funded fascists in Ukraine mentor American white supremacists Grayzone (Chuck L)
New Section 230 reform bill would have sweeping unintended consequences. We have to oppose it. Fight for the Future
Biden
‘We’ve learned to love the guy’: How Biden charmed the left Politico (Chuck L)
Biden Should Use Executive Action All He Wants Washington Monthly (resilc)
Kamala Harris’s niece reacts as protesters burn her picture in India Independent
Border Killing Cover-Up Was Part of Pattern, Former DHS Supervisors Say Intercept. Note that this was an Obama Administration practice.
Democrats en déshabillé
Old democrat vs. new democrat White Hot Harlots (UserFriendly)
From dk. A very important thread, do click through:
Here’s a story of unintended consequences, of academic theories and government policy gone wrong, of how damn hard it is to tackle organized crime, and of insights into what criminal organizations really want and do.
It starts in Medellin.
[Paper: https://t.co/NoAYORVMUz] pic.twitter.com/0xRdNDixzl
— Chris Blattman (@cblatts) February 5, 2021
Our Famously Free Prees
Fox News has dropped ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight,’ promoter of Trump’s false election fraud claims Washington Post
U.S. senators propose limiting liability shield for social media platforms Reuters (Kevin W)
Company towns but make it 𝓽𝓮𝓬𝓱 https://t.co/E24ivGNiUz
— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) February 5, 2021
In Epically Nerdy Interview, Elon Musk Discusses Build Quality Problems With Engineer Who Compared Model 3 To ‘A Kia In The ’90s’ Jalopnik (resilc)
Wall Street Veteran Says Market Could Plunge 15% Bloomberg
Class Warfare
Amazon has lost its bid to delay Alabama union vote The Verge (Kevin W)
NEW: Amazon workers are exposing what’s happening in Alabama.
They say Amazon is forcing them into anti-union meetings, texting them up to 5x daily, putting messages in bathrooms, even changing traffic light patterns to harm union organizing. pic.twitter.com/ADnYYm08B4
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) February 5, 2021
Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers Into Brutal ‘Megacycle’ Shifts Vice (resilc)
Medicare for All and the Black Freedom Struggle YouTube (Kevin C)
Antidote du jour. Found this in my e-mail box from 2017 from crittermom and I am embarrassed to say I am pretty sure I haven’t posted it:
A male (buck) pronghorn in the wild out West.
Often referred to as an antelope, it is not, belonging to a family of its own.
They are the second fastest mammal in the world, next to the cheetah, & North America’s fastest land animal, able to reach speeds up to 60 mph, & to maintain half that speed for miles.
Unlike deer, elk or bighorn sheep, pronghorn rarely jump fences, crawling under them instead.
That is why ranchers are encouraged to keep the bottom of their fences 18″ off the ground, as pronghorn migrate for hundreds of miles.
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Icy School Excursion🐦🦜🕊️🎵🐧❤️🐧 pic.twitter.com/3ZEtxJ3kdv
— World birds (@worldbirds32) June 14, 2020
An extra bonus. Furzy:
In Rajasthan, India, in a village, everyday at night a wild Cheetah and his family would come to a farmer’s hut and snuggle up to the farmer.
One day he mentioned it to the local wildlife preservation department. Just for fun, disbelieving the farmer, they installed a CCTV camera in the hut.
