Colombia Struggles to Control Exploding Population of Over 100 Invasive Hippos Field and Stream
Scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost CNN [shudder].
California’s ‘Zombie Forests’ Are Cheating Death—but Maybe Not for Long Smithsonian. Zombies in the Zeitgeist right now? I wonder why…
Climate
Brazil’s Amazon deforestation again hits record high for February Al Jazeera
US grandfather survives week in snowbank on croissants and biscotti BBC (Re Silc).
#COVID19
Beyond COVID: A Look Ahead (interview) Ashish Jha, AARP:
Nursing homes got hit hard during COVID. What are the lessons for the future?
[JHA:] One of the most important systemic changes we can make is improving indoor air quality in nursing homes
Great. Where’s the money?
At Year Three, Americans Split on Whether Pandemic Is Over Gallup. Very interesting. The “Covid cautious” exist in appreciable numbers (after several enormous propaganda campaigns). Handy chart:
Worth noting that despite the “split” between Republican and Democrat voters, both party leaderships are united in their determination to destroy public health, conceptually, institutionally, operationally….
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New report warns long COVID could be “mass disabling event” Insurance Business
Exposure to Air Pollution Linked to Risk of Long COVID in Young Adults MedPage Today
Long COVID: 3 years in The Lancet
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SARS-CoV-2 infection induces DNA damage, through CHK1 degradation and impaired 53BP1 recruitment, and cellular senescence Nature. From the Abstract: “Here we show that SARS-CoV-2 causes DNA damage and elicits an altered DNA damage response…. We propose that SARS-CoV-2, by boosting ribonucleoside triphosphate levels to promote its replication at the expense of dNTPs and by hijacking damage-induced long non-coding RNAs’ biology, threatens genome integrity and causes altered DNA damage response activation, induction of inflammation and cellular senescence.” Awesome. Next, variant humans. OK, OK, fearmongering!
SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-mediated cardiomyocyte fusion may contribute to increased arrhythmic risk in COVID-19 PLOS One. From the Abstract: “The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can directly perturb both the cardiomyocyte’s repolarization reserve and intracellular calcium handling that may confer the intrinsic, mechanistic substrate for the increased risk of [sudden cardiac death (SCD)] observed during this COVID-19 pandemic.”
SARS-CoV-2 Exposure in Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) from New York City American Society for Microbiology. n = 79. “The host tropism expansion of SARS-CoV-2 raises concern for the potential risk of reverse-zoonotic transmission of emerging variants into rodent species, including wild rat species. In this study, we present both genetic and serological evidence for SARS-CoV-2 exposure to the New York City wild rat population, and these viruses may be linked to the viruses that were circulating during the early stages of the pandemic. We also demonstrated that rats are susceptible to additional variants (i.e., Alpha, Delta, and Omicron) that have been predominant in humans and that susceptibility to infection varies by variant. Our findings highlight the reverse zoonosis of SARS-CoV-2 to urban rats and the need for further monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in rat populations for potential secondary zoonotic transmission to humans.” “Further” monitoring? Further than what?
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Nasal administration of anti-CD3 mAb (Foralumab) downregulates NKG7 and increases TGFB1 and GIMAP7 expression in T cells in subjects with COVID-19 PNAS. Significance: “We show here that nasal administration of a fully human anti-CD3 Mab (Foralumab) modulates T cell inflammatory responses in COVID-19 by suppressing effector features in multiple T cell subsets, an effect also seen in subjects with multiple sclerosis. Immunomodulation by nasal anti-CD3 mAb represents a novel avenue for treatment of inflammatory human diseases.” On the theory that a gold rush profits only the sellers of picks, shovels, and pans, go long intranasal drug delivery….
China?
Li Qiang becomes China’s premier, tasked with reviving economy Reuters. Commentary:
9/9
A successful development model is, by definition, one that addresses existing imbalances in the economy and resolves them. That means that it is also, by definition, one that makes itself obsolete. But abandoning once-highly-successful growth models has never been easy.— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) March 10, 2023
Chinese property developer CIFI posts profit warning, as the cash-strapped firm formulates plan to repay defaulted offshore debt South China Morning Post
China’s local governments boost revenue by selling land to their own entities FT
Is China’s ‘Straddle’ on Ukraine Coming to an End? The Diplomat
Myanmar
Radical monks grace murderous militias in Myanmar Asia Times
A Silent Sangha? Buddhist Monks in Post-coup Myanmar International Crisis Group
Chiang Mai air pollution worst in the world, masks distributed to residents Channel News Asia. Hopefully, the Brownstone Institute can parachute some anti-mask zealots in, to talk the native population out of their benighted ways.
Syraqistan
Mediated By China Iran And Saudi Arabia Restore Ties – There Are Winners And Losers Moon of Alabama (Carolinian).
European Disunion
Dear Old Blighty
Rishi Sunak May Have Exorcised The UK’s Diplomatic Demons In Renewed Friendship With France PoliticsHome
Thousands of Scots nurses ‘with Long Covid left destitute and begging for handouts’ Daily Record. Go long robots, I guess.
New Not-So-Cold War
Divers used chartered yacht to sabotage Nord Stream pipelines – report Guardian. Here is an image of the yacht mentioned by the “report,” the Andromeda:
It’s 15 meters long. The smallest milspec diving chamber I can find is 3 meters long, or 3/15 = 20% of the yacht’s length. Maybe they can strap the high explosives to the deck, or something? Shove the chamber in the galley, the explosives in the cabins, while the team clings to the masts, topside?
Views From Space Show Bakhmut Burning As Ukraine Battles To Hold The City Forbes
Pope says not only Russian ‘imperial interests’ behind war in Ukraine Andalu Agency
Fragmented Globalization Mohamed A. El-Erian, Project Syndicate
Biden Administration
Exclusive: US probe of dog breeder scrutinizes why USDA left thousands of beagles to suffer Reuters
FACT SHEET: The President’s Budget Reduces Deficits by Nearly $3 Trillion Over 10 Years Whitehouse.gov. “The President also calls on Congress to require employers to provide seven job-protected paid sick days each year to all workers.” That’s enough for one and 2/7ths paid sick days for multiple Covid infections (if you believe CDC’s five-day limit). In other words, the President’s Budget is completely aligned with the President’s policy of mass infection without mitigation (although, hilariously, “Covid” does not appear on the “fact sheet,” presumably because it’s no longer a fact.
Biden’s FY 2024 Workplace Safety and Health Budget Confined Space
Banking
This weekend is everything for Silicon Valley Bank and its customers Axios
What’s Going on With Silicon Valley Bank? WSJ. We gave the tech bros a bank. What could go wrong? Besides not making payroll:
The #1 pressing issue for these startups is *payroll* – you can’t have people work if you can’t pay them.
This means mass furlough.
It might mean thousands of startups die before the FDIC gets through its receivership process and releases the funds.
— Garry Tan 陈嘉兴 (@garrytan) March 10, 2023
Which $250,000 in FDIC coverage will most definitely not cover:
Because Silicon Valley/tech is a place that loves to live in delusion, I’m seeing some takes about SVB that say “this will be fine, the FDIC will take care of it.”
The FDIC is only on the hook for $250K per bank account, which is not going to cover even one executive’s salary.
— Heidi N. Moore (@moorehn) March 10, 2023
(Moore played a rather equivocal role in the Great Financial Crash, so very long ago, but this thread is at least link-heavy.)
Silicon Valley Bank shut down by US banking regulators FT. Let’s just hope there’s no contagion:
I have two busy stores on Etsy. My daily deposits didn’t happen today. And apparently a bunch of other sellers are reporting the same thing. SVB had some sort of relationship with Etsy. Etsy is saying it’s a glitch.
“There was a delay with your recent scheduled deposit. We’re… https://t.co/GZP2VQbpZx pic.twitter.com/xD078S0yq0— Not a Pilot (@NotAPilot2) March 11, 2023
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Silicon Valley Bank shutdown sends shockwaves through US start-up community Straits Times. That’s a damn shame. Know your customer:
1. Only 2.7% of SVB deposits are less than $250,000.
Meaning, 97.3% aren’t FDIC insured. pic.twitter.com/NTWu17MVmW
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) March 10, 2023
(Not insured above the $250,000 limit, that is. That’s $250,000 / $7,000 per bottle of Petrus = 35 bottles / 12 bottles per case = ~3 cases of wine. That’s not very much.)
USD Coin stablecoin falls further from peg on SVB exposure risk Business Times
How Biotech Could Take a Hit From the SVB Closure Barron’s
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The Fed is Breaking Things (and it could get worse) Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture
SVB Chief Pressed Lawmakers To Weaken Bank Risk Regs The Lever
Democrats en Déshabillé
The Democrats Have Lost the Plot Matt Taibbi, Racket News. “There are no more pockets of Wellstones and Kuciniches who were once tolerated and whose job it is to uphold a constitutionalist position within the larger whole. That crucial little pocket of principle is gone, and I don’t think it’s coming back.”
With the Twitter Files, Democrats Support Government Censorship of Lawful Speech Bracing Views
2024
Our Famously Free Press
Substack: Empire of Narratives The Generalist
Screening Room
‘The Big Lebowski’ Turns 25: “People Didn’t Get It,” Jeff Bridges Recalls Hollywood Reporter. The opening scene:
(I skipped most of the Sam Elliot intro.)
Zeitgeist Watch
The basic concept here seems to apply to a lot, just now:
I just found out that saying “don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash” isn’t as universally known as I thought it was.
— AshleyStevens (@The_Acumen) March 10, 2023
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Some Reasons Why Smartphones Might Make Adolescents Anxious and Depressed Freddie DeBoer
The Illusion of a Frictionless Existence Persuasion
Class Warfare
Interview: Auto Workers Region 9 Winner on Rebuilding a Fighting Union Labor Notes
Scabby the Rat is an American labor icon. Why are his manufacturers disowning him? Guardian
The most miserable weekend of the year? What to know about daylight saving time The Hill
The Most Boring Number in the World Is … Scientific American
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
