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

The effectiveness of the bivalent vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) MedRxiv (preprint)

Asia

China has studied Western coverage of the Ukrainian conflict:

Japan warns of COVID situation in China, lowers opinion on factory production Reuters

Other viruses are out of control

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.)

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

GOP bloc in House of Representatives threatens to ‘interfere’ with legislative priorities of GOP senators who vote for omnibus Hill

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

FBI paid Twitter $3.5 million to ‘do it’: Taxpayer money used to ‘process requests’ from bureau amid Hunter Biden censorship scandal – as anger grows over covert government censorship of the American people daily mail

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

The authorities poisoned the academy Pasture

Antidote du jour (Marcy):

Bonus (Carolyn W):

And the second bonus (furry):

See yesterday’s links and Antidote du Jour here.

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