Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.
And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.
–Yves
P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:
Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.
Darwin Was Right: Birds Really Are More Colorful In The Tropics Forbes (Robert H)
Pet-friendly offices are in high demand following pandemic boom Washington Post (furzy)
Canadian police fatally shoot polar bear that wandered into Quebec community Guardian (resilc)
See The Exquisite New 100 Megapixel Photo Of Two Galaxies Merging 40 Million Light-Years From Us Forbes (David L)
AI research is a dumpster fire and Google’s holding the matches The Next Web (David L)
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
The clock is ticking ⏰
“BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 escape antibodies elicited by Omicron infection”
_
H/T @siamosolocani
Link:https://t.co/7DnyMGM5De pic.twitter.com/smkbdrDJak— Gabriel Hébert-Mysterious™ 😎 (@Gab_H_R) May 2, 2022
Covid booster vaccine may not provide added protection against Omicron Express (furzy)
6 new variants appear for every 1 million cases.
In Jan-Feb 2022, countries were detecting more than 1 million cases per day.
If the spread continues, the number of RBD variants could double every 89 days compared to the previous one.https://t.co/BazBYDlZIX
— Abdulkadir YILMAZ (@a__virologist) May 2, 2022
Re: What the HELL is this ? pic.twitter.com/wgcEZYIPL0
— Gabriel Hébert-Mysterious™ 😎 (@Gab_H_R) May 3, 2022
Mysterious hepatitis outbreak in children has now been spotted in 20 countries, WHO says Daily Mail (Kevin W). Under Covid because GM says odds are 99% that this is the result of Covid.
If anybody thinks is the result of schools closing for a few months and not Covid: they’re a fucking idiot. I missed years of school…IT DIDN’T MAKE ME STUPID. If anything it had the opposite effect. I’ve heard similar stories from teachers in the UK about their children https://t.co/U5je27cx89
— Chris Turnbull (@EnemyInAState) May 2, 2022
Cognitive Impairment From Severe COVID-19 Equivalent to 20 Years of Aging Neuroscience News (David L)
Molnupiravir’s authorisation should be re-evaluated after the Panoramic trial is reported BMJ (GM)
Looks like Merck’s covid antiviral Molnupiravir has a rebound just like Paxlovid, and in its case treatment increases risk of severe outcome over the long term.
Why is this drug still out there???
https://t.co/bLKFoem9uF— 📖Author Alisa Lynn Valdes🖋 (@AlisaValdesRod1) May 2, 2022
US
Jonathan Karl tests positive for Covid after sitting next to Kim Kardashian Politico
Covid deaths no longer overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated Washington Post (furzy)
Climate/Environment
Data centres now consuming more electricity than rural homes CSO. dk: “The word ‘tax’ doesn’t appear in the text.”
Forest trees also take up nanoplastics PhysOrg (Robert M)
The Dawn of the Pandemic Age New Republic (resilc)
In wildfire country, towns build permanent evacuation centres Globe and Mail (Dr. Kevin)
China?
Why Europe will have to face the true cost of being in debt to China BBC (resilc)
North Korea fired ballistic missile, South Korean and Japanese officials say CNBC
BRICS+ 2.0: Toward a polycentric world order Asia Times (resilc)
El Salvador: Evidence of Serious Abuse in State of Emergency Human Rights Watch (furzy)
Brexit Made Boris Johnson. Now He Has to Face Its Costs Bloomberg
New Not-So-Cold War
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 1 Institute for the Study of War. Resilc: “Meanwhile from the Kagan kastle…….’
* * * EU proposes gradual ban on Russian oil in sixth round of sanctions against Moscow CNBC
Hungary Voices Objection to EU Sanctions Plan on Russian Oil Bloomberg
The EC called the decision of “Gazprom” to cut off Poland and Bulgaria from gas a violation of contracts Teller Report. Surprised I am not seeing this in the usual English language sources, at least based on a couple of searches. Maybe reported in French or German ones?
Russia avoids default at the last moment as a clearinghouse processes its dollar bond payments Business Insider
* * * India, Germany cogitate on Ukraine Indian Punchline (Kevin W). Ooof, brutal take on Germany.
Ucraina, il Papa: ‘Non andrò a Kiev, ma ho chiesto incontro a Putin. La sua ira facilitata dall’abbaiare della Nato alle porte della Russia’ Il Fatto Quotidiano. DLG, Reality Czar:
Pope Francis has gone into the realm of “politically unreliable.” Or: Many unionists and leftists are now pointing out how much they agree with him:
Abbaiare della Nato, which means “Nato’s barking / baying” at the gates of Russia, as you can see in the link’s title.
Meanwhile, there are major tensions in Parliament over shipment of arms—and a group of dockworkers in Genova is being lionized for blocking shipments. It’s Italy’s second port by volume.
Further, the Italian constitution is a peace constitution, like Japan’s. It repudiates war. Verb: repudiare. The section is now being much quoted.
Lavrov’s ‘anti-Semitic’ remarks Gilbert Doctorow (guurst)
Today, the #Estonian Parliament will consider a proposal to the government to withdraw its signature on the 2014 border treaties with #Russia.
After the Soviet occupation, the county of #Petserimaa, as well as the Narva suburb were taken away from #Estonia. pic.twitter.com/e6LODz4p2X
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 3, 2022
Syraqistan
Israel Plans Zip Line for Ancient Jerusalem New York Times. Resilc: “Soon strip club with Ukie grrrls???”
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Woman tried to drive her SUV down a flight of stairs because her GPS told her to BoingBoing (resilc). This famously happened too in NYC many years ago when GPS told a driver to go down stairs from Riverside Drive into Riverside Park. But there were no conflating factors there.
Imperial Collapse Watch
NASA chief says cost-plus contracts are a “plague” on the space agency ars technica (Kevin W)
Medicare at 60 would have harmful unintended consequences STAT (Dr. Kevin)
GOP Clown Car
Trump-backed Vance wins Ohio GOP Senate nod Politico
MAN WHO PAINTED TRUMP’S FACE ON LAWN COULD BE HEADED TO CONGRESS Intercept (resilc). He did win the primary.
Who Bankrolled Ginni Thomas as She Sought to Overthrow the 2020 Election? Common Dreams
Supremes
The Irrational, Misguided Discourse Surrounding Supreme Court Controversies Such as Roe v. Wade (BC). Important.
The Senate Will Vote on a Bill Creating a Federal Right to an Abortion, Schumer Says NPR (furzy)
‘It will be chaos’: 26 states in US will ban abortion if supreme court ruling stands Guardian (Kevin W)
US states could ban people from traveling for abortions, experts warn Guardian. Resilc: “So we’ll have check points on state borders?”
Anarchist Collective Shares Instructions to Make DIY Abortion Pills Vice. Resilc: “What could go wrong? Better quality from Russian mafia and Mezzikin cartels.”
Our No Longer Free Press
PayPal’s IndyMedia Wipeout Matt Taibbi (Chuck L)
Elon Musk floated the idea of making Twitter available for commercial and government users at ‘a slight cost’ Business Insider
The Aerospace Industry Is Grappling With A Titanium Supply Shortage OilPrice
How the Fed lost the plot Edward Luce, Financial Times. Luce was Larry Summers’ speechwriter….
Class Warfare
Some Latinos are just as likely to be discriminated against by Latinos than people outside their ethnic group, survey finds CNN (resilc). Observations like this are why Dems are losing “Latino” support. “Hispanics” is probably more accurate since what they share is a language, and it ain’t Latin. Just like there are plenty of subtle and not so subtle prejudices among various whites (come to the Upper Peninsula, where the Scandinavians are seen as outclassing the Poles and French Canadians), it’s pretty rich to assume Cubans and Puerto Ricans and Dominicans and Mexicans are just one big happy family. In addition, some Hispanics are not keen about undocumented workers.
Beyond GDP: Time to measure inclusive wealth and change economics ScienceBlog (Dr. Kevin)
Antidote du jour. Kiyo T: “Sure sign of spring here in Maine. A happy snapper!”
And a bonus (furzy):
See yesterday’s Antidote du Jour and Links here.
