Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has fostered the worst media environment ever. We hope that readers will cooperate in mitigating the fog of war – the real fog and theater fog – in the comments. None of us need more encouragement and repetition of memes without association; There are platforms for that. Low-value, correlation-free boom boom waves will be hit.
And for those new here, this isn’t just a polite request. We have written the site policies and those who have commented have agreed to these terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting down comments entirely until more rationality prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 elections, we will be ruthless in terms of moderating and blacklisting offenders.
– Eve
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The oldest DNA from a domesticated American horse lends credibility to the Folklore Science Daily (Kevin W.) shipwreck. Long live Misty Chincoteague!
Engineering analysis reveals how birds mastered flight (David L.)
Why do so many cars have rats in them now The New York Times
Influential music executive Mo Austin dies at 95 NPR (David L)
#Covid-19
The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Vaccine Policy: Why Mandates, Passports, and Restrictions May Do More Harm than Good Assessment of Potential Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates and Passports BMJ Global Health
Memory problems after COVID-19 become more common in people with anosmia
SARS-CoV-2, but not Omicron, replicates less efficiently in pediatric primary nasal epithelial cells PLOS Biology
You are traveling abroad. I tested positive for COVID. You’re on your flight anyway. slate (resilc)
Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 antibody treatment is being sold commercially by The Wall Street Journal
monkeypox
How does monkeypox spread? Local epidemiologist (Dr. Kevin)
The US could have gotten more doses of monkeypox vaccine this year, New York Times (Kevin W.)
From Politico’s European Morning Newsletter:
The monkey sees, the monkey does not: While in the United States, Canada and Britain, tens of thousands of people have already been vaccinated, in the European Union, doctors are forced to turn patients away for lack of doses.
Why is this important: As we’ve learned from COVID, clinicians see vaccination as the most effective way to impede the widespread spread of the disease and prevent new mutations from occurring.
take Madrid, which last month hosted Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ pride parade, identified by doctors as a transmission hotspot. The city has so far only been able to give 790 doses of the vaccine – meanwhile, around 2,000 people have tested positive for monkeypox in Madrid, and two people have died of monkeypox in Spain.
or Brussels: The city is recording a rapid increase in cases, but is short on doses. (Belgium received $3,000 for the entire country across the EU.) “The vaccine is not available in Belgium at the moment, despite public announcements,” said Dr. Jean-Christophe Govard of Erasme Hospital.
“Over the past two weeks, we have had a growing demand for tests… and nearly 90 per cent of the cases have tested positive. We do not have the impression that we are currently able to control the epidemic well.”
Climate/Environment
Alarming new research shows warm water rushing toward the world’s largest ice sheet in Antarctica’s PhysOrg (Kevin W)
How Siestas could help Europe survive deadly resilc heat waves
A race to save fish while the Rio Grande dries up, even in Albuquerque Associated Press (David L)
Japan Is Getting So Hot That Dogs Have Their Resilc
China?
China Solution John Robb (Chuck L)
China’s C919 prepares to challenge Boeing and Airbus Asia Times (resilc)
US, Indonesia hold joint military exercises amid China’s diplomatic concerns
Pelosi after
People’s Liberation Army exercises across Taiwan continue to “exercise the reunification process” after Pelosi’s visit, “island blockade exercises to become routine” Global Times. Important.
China says US ‘responsible’ for Taiwan crisis after Pelosi visit; Alexander Mercuris “trains” the Chinese military. Discuss official and semi-official statements from China. He also shouted to NC at 44:10.
China is set to begin a virtual blockade of Taiwan hours after Nancy Pelosi wrapped up a visit to the South China Morning Post
China points to plan to launch missiles over Taiwan in a dramatic and alarming escalation for US news (David L)
Nancy Pelosi, China and the Slow Decline of the US Army Matt Stoller. Important. No wonder we are disgusted in Ukraine. This also seems to apply to Russia: “in purchasing power parity”, it is [military bureaucrat Cameron Hold] “They spent roughly $1 to our $20 to reach the same capacity,” he said.
20 percent of the USAF’s B-2 force is deployed “below” the drive. Kevin W.: “Wonderful. In the event of a war, the primary target of a Chinese nuclear attack would be only about 20 kilometers away.”
More dangerous Democrat than Nancy Pelosi Alex Lu, South China Morning Post (@resilc)
How a missile in Kabul communicates with a speaker in Taipei Baby Escobar, The Cradle (Chuck L)
‘Pelosi’s plane shot down’: Chinese online reaction to FT’s Taiwan visit
The xenophobic rhetoric about all the racist cartoons I see about the Chinese on Twitter right now is wild and disgusting. Liberals and conservatives have fully united into a bloc that behaves just like the anti-racist parts of the 1920s and 1940s.
– Companion (Sanctumhaze) August 3, 2022
‘Hobla and the yellow press’: Taiwanese Americans bemoan media fears of Pelosi’s visit to The Guardian
‘A very serious interest’: Indonesia wants AUKUS submarines monitored by UN watchdog The Sydney Morning Herald
The people in Hiroshima didn’t expect it to either counter punch (resilc)
Old Blighty
Prohibited Russian oligarchs have exploited the BBC’s British secrecy loophole
Dover turmoil – is this the new normal for Britain’s borders? The United Kingdom in a Changing Europe
UK inflation will rise to ‘astronomical’ levels over the next year, warns think tank The Guardian
Life and Deaths of Tory England, American Conservative
A new not cold war
Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians. He asserts a long-standing charge that Ukraine is using civilians as human shields. Paul JH refers to:
The good thing here is that Amnesty has for years been an outspoken critic of the Putin regime, so it has moral credibility as well.
I hope the EU/NATO can draw conclusions from this or at least let go of their anger.
The Senate voted 95 to 1 to add Sweden and Finland to NATO The Hill
* * * After months of war, Ukrainian refugees are slow to join the EU workforce The Washington Post
More than 70% of European gas storage facilities are full; Gazprom transit order via Interfax Ukraine 41.9 million cubic meters
* * * Volodymyr Zelensky seeks ‘direct talks’ with China’s Xi Jinping to help end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine South China Morning Post
Ukraine SitRep – Report on the ground – Ukrainian front line Alabama moon collapses
Ukraine war: IAEA says Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant out of control BBC (Kevin W)
AFU bombards the center of Donetsk again, at least four people have been killed so far, many wounded – as I said in the last episode, this is a reaction to the successful attack near Donetsk, the Ukrainians are feeding the Russian forces to move faster than they should https:// t.co/R82WCJJIeD
– Russians with Attitude (RWApodcast) August 4, 2022
* * * British Labor sacks Audrey White after standoff with Sir Keir Starmer BBC
Taoiseach Says ‘Time to Move On’ by Sabina Higgins Controversy, Defending Right to Free Speech The Irish Times
sirakistan
Iraq “Jinja Tower”, which will collapse soon
Taliban’s black gold: Militants seize coal to revitalize economy Financial Times
Senate Republicans threatened to burn a bill that would have helped veterans. Here’s why. Fox (Reselect)
Watch Imperial Collapse
Why it’s important to understand what the other “man” Larry Johnson is thinking
UH Task Force discovers fuel in marine waters after it has been deemed safe for civilian strike
Biden administration
Democrats’ Weak Seat The American Conservative (resilc)
miscarriage
After Kansas is defeated, what’s the next step for abortion ban? BBC (Kevin W)
The moment Alex Jones discovers that his incompetent attorneys sent Sandy Hook’s parents’ attorney, all of his emails and texts are incredible. pic.twitter.com/PtKoYOHdxJ
– WUTangKids August 3, 2022
Calpers transfers $600 million of state workers’ fortune to Wall Street Forbes (Kevin W.). A more accurate headline for our report a month ago: CalPERS cooks the books while incurring an unnecessary loss of $6 billion in private equity positions.
Walmart puts hundreds of workers in companies The Wall Street Journal
Lollipops Hustle on Amazon Costs Family Candy Business Millions Bloomberg (ma)
ladybug
Michael Saylor Bets Billions on Bitcoin and the Lost Wall Street Journal
class struggle
WeWork will come for .01% to New York Bloomberg
‘American Cartel’ authors go inside the NPR opioid industry (David L)
Today’s antidote (Across):
Bonus (Chuck L):
Respect from this picture. 🦈 pic.twitter.com/elgPScOzUr
– James Melville 🚜 (JamesMelville) August 3, 2022
More Animal Sports (Chuck L):
Natural born goalkeeper! 😂🐱⚽️🐾 pic.twitter.com/H6ome7Whex
– Fred Schultz (@FredSchultz35) August 2, 2022
See yesterday’s and Antidote du Jour links here.
