Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months New Scientist
Martian dust storms parch the planet by driving water into space Science
Pierre Wunsch: Germs, war and central banks (PDF) Bank of International Settlements. Interesting on r* and models.
5 killed, 25 injured in shooting at LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado; gunman subdued by patrons KCRA. Commentary:
The refusal to wait until basic facts are known in these horrific cases — due to eagerness to exploit the dead for political causes — is not just unseemly but reckless.
It’s what lead huge numbers to believe – falsely – that the PULSE massacre was driven by anti-gay animus: https://t.co/EkbKU3Lbhn
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 20, 2022
Climate
The COP jamboree desperately needs a reboot FT
Extreme lake effect snow around the Great Lakes The Watchers
2 volcanoes rumble into action in Russia’s far east AP
It’s not just the dump — it’s the dump trucks. Lee health officials to study health risk of GE’s proposed PCB site Trucker World. And the liners. Liners always fail.
The Difficult Search for Dangerous Space Junk WSJ
#COVID19
Post–COVID-19 Symptoms 2 Years After SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Hospitalized vs Nonhospitalized Patients JAMA. Last sentence: “Current evidence supports that long COVID will require specific management attention independently of whether the patient has been hospitalized or not.” So the singular focus of the CDC and the public health establishment on hospitalization as a metric (see CDC’s infamous “green map”) is, well, wrong.
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is more stable than the ancestral strain on various surfaces (preprint; PDF) bioRxiv. “We examined the stability of this SARS-CoV-2 variant on various surfaces and revealed that the Omicron variant is more stable than its ancestral strain on smooth and porous surfaces.” Commentary here: “But [Linsey Marr, a researcher on the airborne transmission of viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and a professor at Virginia Tech] stressed the study’s conditions don’t reflect real-world scenarios. The volume of droplets used in the lab research — five microlitres — might sound small, but it’s ‘actually huge compared to droplets we usually spew out,’ she said. That means the exact timings might not pan out for people living their daily lives, though Marr did feel the comparison between the ancestral virus and Omicron was notable.”
Proposed Non-infectious Air Delivery Rates (NADR) for Reducing Exposure to Airborne Respiratory Infectious Diseases (PDF) The Lancet COVID-19 Commission Task Force on Safe Work, Safe School, and Safe Travel. From the Executive Summary: “[SARSCoV-2] and other respiratory pathogens are effectively transmitted through the inhalation exposure route indoors, mostly in places with inadequate ventilation and filtration.”
China?
China’s Guangzhou locks down, Beijing shuts schools over COVID Al Jazeera. First mention of ventilation I’ve seen (see quote in blue), which is encouraging:
2) Beijing is also recommending wearing the public to wear masks in public. And they mentioned the “highly contagious” #BF7 variant of Omicron being a potential factor. #BringBackMasks https://t.co/Wvu5K5HkE7https://t.co/dQdu1HhOln pic.twitter.com/w7nfUCUroS
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 20, 2022China has the operational capabiity, industrially and as a state, to move beyond hazmat suits and do what it takes with ventilation. Hop to it!
Younger Chinese are spurning factory jobs that power the economy Reuters
The Koreas
(LEAD) S. Korea’s new COVID-19 cases at around 23,000 amid virus resurgence worries Yonhap News Agency
Deadline for Malaysia coalitions to present numbers, propose PM candidates extended to Tuesday: Palace Channel News Asia
How Malaysians Raced Against The Clock To Deliver At Least 33,000 Overseas Ballots Home For The Election Buzzfeed
Syraqistan
Evacuation of CIA’s Afghan Proxies Opens the War’s Blackest Boxes The Intercept
European Disunion
European industry pivots to US as Biden subsidy sends ‘dangerous signal’ FT
Success of Germany game could lead to more NFL games across Europe and beyond Boston Globe. Sure, we deindustrialized them, but we gave them NFL football!
New Not-So-Cold War
‘Ordinary Germans are paying’: anti-war protests stretch across central Europe FT. Finally this story breaks through to the mainstream.
* * * Ukraine’s Kherson Win Shifts Dynamics Across Whole Front With Russia WSJ
Ukraine shipping hub cheers as Kherson win foils Russian Black Sea hopes Hellenic Shipping News
* * * German Army Facing Severe Arms Shortage, Has Ammo Only To Last 2 Days Of War, Says Top MP Republic World
* * * Ukraine updates: Nuclear plant rocked by ‘explosions’ Deutsche Welle. Explosions from where? ‘Tis a mystery! (Except you know that if it were Russia, the fog would suddenly part…).
What happens if Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant explodes? Al Jazeera
* * * “When I learned who Dylann Roof was, I began to admire him.” Ishgal
Police State Watch
The Department of Homeland Security is the pinnacle of bureaucratic dysfunction The Verge. Hat tip, Joe Lieberman.
DEA’s most corrupt agent: Parties, sex amid ‘unwinnable war’ ABC
TSA screeners missed boxcutter used to threaten passengers on chaotic flight NY Post
Biden Administration
A formula to finally get DoD on the path to clean financial audits Federal News Network
2024
Trump says he has no interest in returning to Twitter after reinstatement The Hill
Schiff says ‘evidence is there’ to make a criminal referral against Trump The Hill. So why didn’t Garland do that?
The Bezzle
AWS and Blockchain Tim Bray
A Tempest in a Teapot? Policy Tensor
Finding Your Calling Lapham’s Quarterly. The deck: “Charles Ponzi becomes Charles Ponzi.”
How Intangible Assets Shape Markets Investor Amnesia
The Groves of Academe
How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campus Life NYT (Re Silc).
Sports Desk
The eerily quiet $200billion World Cup stadiums marooned in the Qatar desert: Lacking in atmosphere with little fanfare and battered by sandstorms, the ‘no frills’ venues hosting football’s greatest showpiece Daily Mail
World Cup 2022: Capitalism can’t kill football — try as it might Al Jazeera
Imperial Collapse Watch
Assessing Trade-Offs in U.S. Military Intervention Decisions RAND. List price: $37.00 (!).
If you want to land a job or get a raise in the tech industry, you have to pass a test — and pretty much everyone is cheating on the exams Business Insider. Oh.
Class Warfare
Rail union votes could force Congress to head off a strike Politico. “Rail union votes could force Congress to side with workers.” Fixed it for ya.
* * * The University of California Strike Has Been 50 Years in the Making Curbed
UC may dock pay from striking academic workers, faculty Daily Californian
UC’s striking workers do much of the actual teaching. Here’s why a ‘livable wage’ is so elusive San Francisco Chronicle
Flying solo? Airlines push to ditch co-pilots, cut costs despite safety fears South China Morning Post. Over-optimization. US rail firms want to do the same thing.
What happened to those cheap airline tickets? Elliott Confidential
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
This reindeer easily keeping pace with a train pic.twitter.com/nfRVWqAjAa
— B&S (@_B___S) November 15, 2022
Dashing through the snow!
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
