Links 11/24/2020
Zebra finches amazing at unmasking the bird behind the song ScienceDaily (Kevin W). Cool.
Humans get sick diving in the ocean, but here’s why dolphins don’t Inverse (David L)
The Botanist Daring to Ask: What If Plants Have Personalities? Bloomberg (Robert M)
Remote Islands Will Be One of the Largest Wildlife Sanctuaries in the World MyModernMet (David L)
Utah helicopter crew discovers mysterious metal monolith deep in the desert CNN (David L)
Utah wants to keep the coordinates of the monolith secret.
(I agree with them, I just wanted to say “…keep the coordinates of the monolith secret.”) https://t.co/IxBANEdLai
— John Wiseman (@lemonodor) November 24, 2020
NASA’s Curiosity rover finds evidence of an ancient ‘megaflood’ on Mars 4 billion years ago – raising the possibility that LIFE once existed on the Red Planet Daily Mail (Kevin W)
Flow physics could help forecasters predict extreme events PhysOrg (David L)
We should hold animals accountable for their crimes. Here’s how AI can help NextWeb (David L)
Psilocybin and Migraine: First of Its Kind Trial Reports Promising Results New Atlas
#COVID-19
Chaos erupts at Shanghai airport after mass COVID-19 testing ordered over cluster New York Post (Kevin W). We are so fucked. 2 people infected, and they ran >11,000 tests in the effort to contain it.
Covid in North Dakota: One day inside a rural US hospital’s fight BBC (resilc)
Science/Medicine
Covid vaccine: CDC should warn people the side effects from shots won’t be ‘walk in the park’ CNBC (furzy)
Some things don’t add up about the Astrazeneca trial results. Covid-19 Data Science (Biologist)
Putin Can’t Take Russia’s ‘Safe’ Covid-19 Vaccine, Kremlin Says Bloomberg
People who recover from Covid-19 can be reinfected with new strain, study shows National News (Robert M)
Damaged Sense of Smell in Covid Patients Holds Clues to How Recovery Might Work Wall Street Journal
Sixty-Day Outcomes Among Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 Annals of Internal Medicine (Robert M)
Universally available herbal teas based on sage and perilla elicit potent antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro BioRxiv. Warning! Preprint!
Short term, high-dose vitamin D supplementation for COVID-19 disease: a randomised, placebo-controlled, study (SHADE study) BMJ. Note small sample.
I’ve written a new article describing what we know about children, schools, & #COVID19.
➡️ Children & adults are equally susceptible, & likely transmit the virus at the same rate.
➡️ Schools are a driver of the second wave in Europe, Canada, & elsewhere.https://t.co/25T9HwHBlt
— Dr Zoë Hyde (@DrZoeHyde) November 24, 2020
US
US air travel rises despite Thanksgiving pandemic warnings Financial Times
Why are millions of Americans traveling for Thanksgiving as the pandemic rages? WSWS. One friend, who clearly thinks his family is being careful, nevertheless has a daughter joining who is flying across the country since her college is on break. My youngest brother is first driving across Florida to see two of his wife’s cousins for Thanksgiving, then driving to Long Island to see her mother and two sisters. One aide has her uncle and aunt joining for Thanksgiving. They are an hour drive away. The only person I know who is as stringent as we are (no people not in our household bubble), aside from my 59 year old obese brother, is our former NYC taxi driver aide, whose partner has had four relatives die of Covid, all under 40 and she has two relatives of hers now in the hospital (and since you had to ask, she is white and he is a person of color). Is that what it will take for Americans to get serious?
Two School Districts Had Different Mask Policies. Only One Had a Teacher on a Ventilator. ProPublica
Arizona university locks students out of classes for not getting mandatory coronavirus tests KTLA
Europe
Coronavirus: German states agree on Christmas rules DW
Germany Can Fund Virus Aid Into 2021, Merkel Lawmaker Says Bloomberg
China?
Exclusive: In latest China jab, U.S. drafts list of 89 firms with military ties Reuters (resilc)
China Requires Real Names, Bans Spending By Teens In New Curbs On Livestreaming Nikkei
Thousands march in Taiwan against US pork imports Associated Press
Singapore civil activist Jolovan Wham to plead not guilty over ‘smiley face’ protest South China Morning Post (resilc)
Brexit
Brexit: House of Lords inflicts government defeat over devolved consent to Internal Market Bill powers Independent
THE COST OF DATA INADEQUACY New Economic Foundation (guurst)
Peru: Mass Protests Against Hypercapitalist Narco-State Force Presidents’ Resignations TheAnalysis.news
Syraqistan
Why has the US sent B-52s back to the Middle East? Jerusalem Post (resilc)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
‘Smart’ Doorbells For Sale On Amazon, eBay Came Stocked With Security Vulnerabilities Cyberscoop
Imperial Collapse Watch
Divided Societies In Decline Use Scapegoats To Re-Unify Ian Welsh
Trump Transition
Immigration arrests along the Mexico border surged again in October Washington Post
Trump v. Hawaii and Kleindienst v. Mandel Verso. Chuck roast: “Blast from the past.”
Trump Supporter Who Breathed on Protesters Is Facing Assault Charges Vice. Resilc: “I spent the day cutting trees with a chain saw. Helps with my PTSD from election.”
2020
Michigan certifies its election results, making Biden’s win official and rebuffing Trump New York Times
Biden win recognized by key government agency and formal transition begins CNN
Biden
Know what I would like Biden’s cabinet to look like?
Working people.
— RoseAnn DeMoro (@RoseAnnDeMoro) November 23, 2020
Biden cabinet: Inner circle get key posts as John Kerry named climate envoy BBC (furzy)
Markets cheer Yellen pick for Treasury, seeing her focus on fixing the economy and not politics CNBC. More on this later…but even my right wing contacts are quick to point out that Yellen cares about inflation when there is no inflation, and not people.
Elizabeth Warren appointed Secretary of Janet Yellen BeetPress (UserFriendly)
Should Michèle Flournoy be Secretary of Defense? CounterPunch. Chuck L: “Both Wheeler and Sprey were part of John Boyd’s military reform underground.”
The Data for Progress Cabinet Tracker Carl Beijer. UserFriendly: “0 for 6.”
This Is Your Brain On Echo Chambers: Right Calls Biden A Xi Puppet As He Packs His Cabinet With China Hawks Caitlin Johnstone (furzy)
Biden appointees point to Asia policy pivot Asia Times (Kevin W)
The conservative case for cancelling student loans Student Loan Justice (Alan C)
100-mph Tesla Model 3 crash sent hundreds of scorching battery cells flying, started a fire in a house, and took 3 hours to clean up Business Insider
Comcast To Enforce 1.2TB Data Cap In Entire 39-State Territory In Early 2021 ars technica
Apple’s head of global security indicted on bribery charges MSN (resilc) and Apple’s Chief Security Officer has been charged with bribery related to concealed carrier permit. County of Santa Clara, Office of the District Attorney (BC)
Walmart Thanks Government For Completely Obliterating Their Small Business Competition Babylon Bee (BC)
Sarah Chayes’ On Corruption in America, and what is at stake. It’s simpler than it looks (UserFriendly)
The Wound That Never Heals: Lacan Meets Trump notesfromdisgraceland (resilc). Important.
Guillotine Watch
Need a Pandemic Puppy ASAP? Call the Bernedoodle Delivery People Wall Street Journal
Class Warfare
How Venture Capitalists Are Deforming Capitalism New Yorker (furzy)
Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups Vice
World Bank urges governments to guarantee private profits Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
Ron Howard’s Film to Appalachia: ‘Get a Job’ DailyYonder (Kevin W)
Keep Calm & Just Die Lee Camp, Consortiumnews. Furzy: “Lee misses the fact that there is no FREE markets…..and the traditional definition of capitalism doesn’t feature the multi national conglomorates….”
Remember this when your mayor tells you they can’t create more housing or provide safer shelter for people experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness https://t.co/unVmGYGq5p
— Camonghne “Stokely Carmichael in Designer” Felix (@CAMONGHNE) November 23, 2020
Antidote du jour. This is Homer, who was a birthday present to Furzy’s husband Ron. Furzy assures us “Ron NEEDS a doggie.”
And a bonus (guurst):
Ik ben geen ervaringsdeskundige, maar ik kan me voorstellen dat je als aanstaande moeder best even een panda zou willen zijn. pic.twitter.com/dM2tTPCFFw
— Ilja Gort (@iljagort) October 21, 2020
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
