Nature’s oldest mandolin: the poetic science of cicada song The misfit
A rare explosion of billions of cicadas will restructure our ecosystems for years to come Voice
The judge’s problem in sovereign debt restructurings Credit slips
Climate
Market-based programs do not reduce deforestation and poverty: report Phys.org
Climate change: the world’s oceans suffer from a year of record heat BBC. Now that we know whales talk… WHALE 1: “It was hot today!” » WHALE 2: »How hot it was?”
The mega-donor who colluded with OPEC Perspective. FTC at work. Donor to both parties….
Mycocycle uses mushrooms to recycle old tires and construction waste TechCrunch
Pandemics
Does the public understand that “variant” means “vaccine resistant”? The glove
FDA postpones advisory committee meeting on upcoming COVID vaccines Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
* * * The “Ruby Princess” Case and the Future of COVID-Related Litigation Peter Vogel Legal. “The Plague Ship.”
The fight against viruses in the air is finally over. Now is the time for healthy ventilation Scientific American
Long Covid at work: a manager’s guide Harvard Business Review. Under, I’m not kidding, the “Diversity and Inclusion” section.
* * * Could bird flu become the next COVID? How worried should we be? Boston Globe
* * * Meet Dr. Sammy, the Colorado researcher trying to fend off the next honey bee pandemic Colorado Sunshine
Water
England’s rivers will remain in poor condition as EU laws ignored after Brexit, watchdog says Guardian
China?
Xi abandons bombed embassy visit after vowing to ‘never forget’ Bloomberg
Embarking on a golden journey in Sino-Hungarian relations Magyar Nemzet
* * * Chinese exports rebound in April to boost the economy Bloomberg
How Food and Chopstick Skills Help Ease U.S.-China Tensions Al Jazeera
India
New India Phenomenal world
Syria
Biden: I will not give Israel offensive weapons to attack populated areas of Rafah Israel Times. The text: “Unprecedented and brutal threat marks a stunning shift by the president, who has long rejected conditional aid to Israel; Official says US is still committed to freeing hostages. Comment:
Yes, right after a Biden official quietly admitted that Israel already had all the American weapons it needed to invade Rafah: https://t.co/HzCnqUYky7 https://t.co/92o6EujOMa pic.twitter.com/LVurjteHC1
– Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) May 8, 2024
Israel pledges to limit Rafah operations and grant control of crossing with Egypt to private US company Haaretz. The security company is not named.
* * * Benjamin Netanyahu’s dilemma: save the hostages or his government FT
* * * What went wrong in Yemen: Q&A with Alexandra Stark RAND
US politicians’ letter to ICC undermines international law South China Morning Post (Furzy Mouse).
European disunity
Eurovision Song Contest kicks off in Sweden amid Gaza protests France 24
A new not-so-cold war
Ukraine warns of blackouts after ‘massive’ attack on power plants NDTV
Electricity imports cannot completely cover deficit after Russian attack Ukrainian Pravda
* * * Ukrainian Parliament passes bill allowing prisoners to join the army Al Jazeera. Barrel scraping.
SitRep Ukraine: Eating Corn Seeds – Intervention Threats and Responses Alabama Moon
EU agrees to arm Ukraine using profits from Russian state assets FOX
* * * Ukrainian-made satellite systems could end up being used by the Russian military – investigation by Slidstvo.info Ukrainian Pravda. “These systems are manufactured in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, by a factory owned by the American outsourcing company Jabil Circuit for the Israeli company Gilat Satellite Networks.” So, back doors?
Russia’s stealth tanker fleet refuels in European waters as EU mulls new restrictions Global S&P
* * * No one could have predicted:
One evening, in the bitter cold of winter 2014, I went down to Maidan with my Ukrainian translator and her mother. It was crowded, lively like a festival. “What do you think of all this?” My translator asked me as her mother waved a large Ukrainian flag above her head.
“This will not be the case… pic.twitter.com/7HnPHoolh3
– Johnny Miller (@johnnyjmils) May 7, 2024
The Caribbean
Haiti Transitional Council adopts new changes following unrest as gang violence grips country P.A.
World elections
“My vote snatched”: how to win Indian elections without a single vote Al Jazeera
“Funk Money”: the end of empires, the expansion of tax havens and decolonization as an economic and financial event Past present. As of 2020, still relevant.
BRICS: The gold rush has taken hold of the Union InfoBrics. Let me know how it works.
Biden administration
U.S. chip production capacity could triple by 2032, industry group says Commercial standard
Academy Groves
UCLA Camp:
Under the Jumbotron London Review of Books
A year under Palestinian exception at Columbia University The nation
* * * The ghosts of 68 Sidecar. A must read.
Nobody knows what universities are for Atlantic
* * * Sullivan & Cromwell plans vigilant hiring checks after protests Bloomberg. Exceptionally nasty.
The crackdown on campus protests has gone far too far Perry Bacon, WaPo
Editorial: Amid Campus Chaos, Fraternal Brothers Rally for American Values Boston Herald
Police state surveillance
NYPD union sues Adams administration over new ‘zero tolerance’ policy on steroid use among cops New York Daily News
Florida deputies who killed US airman broke into wrong apartment, lawyer says Orlando Sentinel
Digital watch
Stack Overflow mass bans users who rebel against the OpenAI partnership – users are banned for deleting answers to prevent them from being used to train ChatGPT. Tom’s equipment. Open flight. As per usual. Just like Reddit. Workout sets = plunder.
Singapore writers and editors reject government plan to train AI for their jobs Rest of the world
Slop is the new name for AI-generated spam content Simon Willison’s blog
* * * Big Brains Divided on Training AI with More AI: Is Model Collapse Inevitable? The register. The deck: “My goodness, here we are thinking that recursion is a solved problem.”
AI, reducing internalities and externalities Cass Sunstein, SSRN. “AI-based choice engines could also take externalities into account, and could incentivize or require consumers to do the same. Of course, different consumers care about different things, which is a reason to insist on a high degree of freedom of choice, even in the presence of internalities and (to some extent) externalities. But it is important to emphasize that AI could be leveraged by insufficiently informed or self-interested actors, who could exploit inadequate information or behavioral biases, and thus reduce consumer welfare. This is a phishing balance, so not “could” but “will”, in fact “already will”.
OpenAI offers a glimpse of its AI’s secret instructions TechCrunch
Boeing
Boeing whistleblower claims he was pressured to hide defects The hill. A new one, Santiago Paredes. “He said he would regularly see hundreds of defects in parts, earning him the nickname “showstopper” from his superiors because of how often he slowed down production due to his inspections .”
Class struggle
Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World – by Brett Christophers (magazine) Marx and philosophy
When employers violate the NLRA, the harm is always irreparable On the work
The new cities at sunset The New Republic
The mystery of extinct multicellular prokaryotes Quanta
Antidote of the day (via:
See yesterday’s links and Antidote du Jour here.
