Links 12/21/2022 | naked capitalism
Astute border collie remembers disc golf course after first run Laughing squid. Better than the title.
[ RIFFUSION ] (David L.)
ChatGPT: a stunningly simple key to understanding Medium (David L.)
Study shows AI assistants help developers create code more likely to contain bugs Register
Popular red food coloring causes intestinal inflammation in mice New Atlas (fluffy)
First Romantics aeon
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
In 21, we published that Covid resembles an autoimmune disease and is characterized by immune dysregulation. https://t.co/Y6OFKXl5JW
Recently, Covid has been added to the list of autoimmune diseases.
I told you. The immune system harms people and suffers from Cov2https://t.co/zVHy3I0ySc pic.twitter.com/NHxPF8Gh6d
— Anthony J. Leonardi, PhD, MS (@fitterhappierAJ) December 19, 2022
The effectiveness of the bivalent vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) MedRxiv (preprint)
Asia
China has studied Western coverage of the Ukrainian conflict:
Hearses line up at Beijing crematorium even though China reports no new COVID deaths https://t.co/c9VDxBUDop pic.twitter.com/JjiJAdlwoy
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 21, 2022
The Chinese hospital system continues to plunge into chaos!
Video from this morning in Tianjin hospital#Tianjin#China #COVID-19 #chinese fever pic.twitter.com/NcrGtjoHXi— Prashant Dhawan (@DhawanPrasant) December 21, 2022
Japan warns of COVID situation in China, lowers opinion on factory production Reuters
Other viruses are out of control
RATED FEVER MEDICINES — Major pharmacies CVS and Walgreens are restricting the sale of children’s pain and fever medications due to high demand. ➡️It will only get worse – pharmacies in the USA, Canada and some European countries are running out of such drugs. Even in China there is a shortage. https://t.co/e5tfmcGKfu pic.twitter.com/9t2zqVjkWP
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 20, 2022
Inside a children’s hospital: struggling to cope with a surge in respiratory illness KN
Climate/environment
California passed a major law banning drilling in the area. Now Big Oil launched a counterattack. groats
That’s why over 32,000 abandoned and abandoned sea wells litter the outer continental shelf qCaptain (guest)
Excrement analysis shows endangered bears survive solely on litter vice 🙁
EPA tightens rules on pollution from vans, buses and trucks New York Times (Kevin W.)
China?
China accused of new territorial takeover in South China Sea bloomberg
Philippines ‘worried’ over Chinese land reclamation in disputed sea Bangkok Post (furry)
Medvedev met with Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss strategic partnership and Ukraine Reuters
Civil exams in China Conclusion (Anthony L.)
Canada sinks firmly into Indo-Pacific waters Asia Times (Kevin W.)
European disconnect
Corruption scandal ‘undermines’ EU credibility, says Charles Michel political But not a word about Ursula von der Leyen.
Old Blighty
Struggling to pay their heating bills, Britons turn to ‘warm banks’ to keep warm Reuters
“How to keep warm without turning on the heating”: poverty in the UK and its “idiot bonus” Counter attack
Government fails to win dispute over NHS payment Richard Murphy
New not-so-cold war
War in Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky visited the front-line town of Bakhmut BBC. Given the state of Bakhmut, it would be necessary to have a very broad definition of its municipal boundaries for Zelensky to visit it plausibly. Notice the tight frame indoors. Lambert had a gander and other images that are superficially similar. However, as emphasized by Alexander Merkuris, this stunt means that Ukraine is doubling down on its intentions to keep Bakhmut. This must be music to the ears of General Surovikin.
Zelensky to visit Washington as part of first foreign trip since Russian invasion Sydney Morning Herald (Kevin W.)
▪️At the meeting between Biden and Zelensky, it is planned to discuss the situation on the strategic battlefield, sanctions and assistance to Ukraine.
The White House says the US does not seek a direct confrontation with Moscow and will not bother to bring its troops into Ukraine.
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) December 21, 2022
What Zelenskiy wants — but is unlikely to get — from Biden and White House leans on Congress, rallies allies to help Ukraine weather winter of war political
Belarus says its Russian S-400s and Iskander missiles are on ‘combat duty’ Defense News
Moscow says US policy has brought US and Russia to the brink of ‘direct confrontation’ Defend Democracy
Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy manifesto in Foreign Affairs. Gilbert Doctorow
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s response to a media question in connection with the statement by State Department spokesman Ned Price that Russia is to blame for the deterioration of Russian-American relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (amfortas)
EU energy regulator casts doubt on ‘untested’ new bloc gas price ceiling Financial Times
in Syracuse
Derailment of nuclear deal with Iran exacerbates Biden’s failures in US foreign policy Moon of Alabama
Big Brother is watching you
Police use Covid-19 technology to expand global surveillance Associated Press
Finally, an Alexa-enabled toilet for $11,500 Edge (Dr. Kevin)
MSG defends use of facial recognition to kick lawyer out of Rockettes show Ars Technique
Imperial crumbling clock
You don’t really help when you “support” protesters in empire-aimed countries Caitlin Johnston (Kevin W.)
Trump
House committee votes to release Trump’s tax returns Guardian
Find out how much Trump paid – or didn’t pay – in taxes each year. CNBC
Trump prosecution faces major First Amendment challenges Atlantic
A case of hope, not experience: Referral J6 does not match a credible criminal case Jonathan Turley
Migrants rush to the US border, hoping to enter when Title 42 policy expires business insider
Iran and Russia too distracted to meddle in midterm elections, US general says CNN (Amfortas)
Our press is no longer free
Twitter helped the Pentagon in its covert online propaganda campaign Li Fang, Interception
Equating rhetoric with violence to accuse political opponents of massacres Glenn Greenwald
Musk steps down as Twitter CEO to focus on development Bloomberg. But remember: Who cares if Elon Musk is the CEO of Twitter? He OWNS it. intercept
Bezl
OneCoin co-founder pleads guilty to $4 billion fraud Register
Core Scientific Files For Bankruptcy While Mining Continues: Report Coindesk
FTX’s Bankman-Fried signs extradition paperwork as hearing approaches Wednesday Reuters
Audi is converting all factories to make electric vehicles as it phases out petrol cars electr
USPS plans to buy only electric vehicles starting in 2026 Engadget
Wells Fargo to pay record CFPB fine to settle allegations of harming customers Wall Street Journal. Please note that this will only settle CFPB claims.
class war
Antidote du jour (Marcy):
Bonus (Carolyn W):
Rescuing a sea anemone from a starfish… in an interesting way.
An effective reminder that sea anemones are animals. pic.twitter.com/SKhlHEKKFd
— Curious Archive (@curious_archive) April 24, 2022
And the second bonus (furry):
Rudolph is warming up before takeoff.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/Dl6CSIMKbE
— Buitengebiden (@buitengebiden) December 20, 2022
See yesterday’s links and Antidote du Jour here.