Links 4/8/2022

Lambert and I, and many readers, concord that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We promise readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of state of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-costless repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.

And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite asking. We have written site Policies and those who annotate take accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, every bit nosotros did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly later on the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.

–Yves

P.S. Besides, before farther stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:

Please do not write us to ask why a comment has non appeared. Nosotros do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments department to complain almost moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don't exercise it. Those comments volition also be removed if we encounter them.

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Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activeness Imperial Society Open Science. From the Abstract: "Bold that spikes of electric activity are used by fungi to communicate and procedure information in mycelium networks, nosotros group spikes into words and provide a linguistic and data complexity analysis of the fungal spiking activeness. We demonstrate that distributions of fungal discussion lengths match that of human languages. We also construct algorithmic and Liz-Zempel complexity hierarchies of fungal sentences and show that species S. commune generate the nearly complex sentences." More than from the Guardian. "Fungal sentences." Cracking!

Tanis: Fossil of dinosaur killed in asteroid strike institute, scientists merits BBC

Climate

Increase in atmospheric methane ready another record during 2021 NOAA

Politics is the barrier to tackling climate change FT

Climate scientists are drastic: we're crying, begging and getting arrested Guardian

#COVID19

'Pokemons', WhatsApp chats: Lawsuit reveals inner workings of nationwide COVID testing performance USA Today

China?

Summaries, Analysis and Simulations of Recent COVID-19 Epidemics in People's republic of china (preprint) medRvix. Simulation model. From the Determination: "Information technology is not wise strategy to withdraw all prevention and control measures before the number of the all infected people take been cleared. 100% blocking the speed at which COVID-19 infection spreads is cardinal. Strategies forearly clearance or reduction of epidemic spread [are] possible."

Prc's lockdowns put working class, poor provinces at risk of 'falling back into poverty' Southward China Morning Postal service

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What Lessons Does China Take From Putin's War? Foreign Policy

Russian MP: Russia is fully willing to utilise RMB for settlement and has started negotiations with Red china What China Reads

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Red china Rips Pelosi Over Reported Taiwan Trip, Setting Up Showdown Bloomberg

China warns United states over artillery supplies to Taiwan TASS

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Sudden loss of power while driving! Tesla recalls well-nigh 130,000 vehicles and announces price hikes What China Reads

Taiwan to motility away from zero-COVID strategy: Health government minister Aqueduct News Asia

New Zealand'southward leading health officials resign every bit COVID deaths mount WSWS

Myanmar

Junta-appointed Myanmar central bank deputy head shot Reuters. Sending a message.

Sketches smuggled out of Insein prison expose harsh weather Al Jazeera

India

I don't know how representative this reaction to the US muscling India might be. All the same:

Sri Lanka: Gota needs to get – but so does the ethnocratic state Al Jazeera

India sends over 270,000 MT of petrol, diesel to Sri Lanka under credit line Mint. Commentary:

The Street Has Spoken. Will Sri Lanka's Strongmen Mind? Bloomberg. Commentary:

United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland/EU

Emmanuel Macron reckons with anger and aloofness every bit French election day looms FT

2022 presidential election: The dangers of an uncertain ballot Le Monde. From their new English edition. Give Thomas Frank a column!

Why Viktor Orbán keeps winning The Spectator

New Not-Then-Cold War

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy speaks to Arnab Goswami nearly Russian federation's invasion (video) Democracy. India. Zelensky, 2:13: "I can tell you and your people I'm non ready to uh have whatsoever respond to government minister Lavrov proverb that the situation in Bucha was a fake. Well, await at the rhetorics of the person." Not impressive. 9:38: Zelensky wants to negotiate one-on-ane with Putin.

Ethnic Greek Azov Fighter Overshadows Zelensky Speech at Greek Parliament Greek Reporter. Well, when Zelensky finally makes it to the US Congress, let'due south hope he'southward less careless. If careless he was.

Whitewashing Nazis Doesn't Help Ukraine Branko Marcetic, Jacobin

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US shale gas, LNG firms meet European countries over supply crisis Reuters

In the Blind Spot on Fri (Yergin, Nukes, Democracy) Izabella Kaminska, The Blind Spot. Quoting Daniel Yergin:

I remain utterly perplexed every bit to why the serious people of finance Twitter can't grasp the basic fact that shutting out Russian gas/oil will injure us more than than it will hurt them. Or to what degree leaders volition end up accountable for causing global famines and mass poverty if they go alee with this policy.

I am not convinced at all that the rest of the earth will ever be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to make this a feasible long-term policy.

Yes the touch on Russia is likely to be more than painful for them than the states in the immediate term. But the slow burn down effects for the residual of the world may be much bigger. The idea we tin can plug the gap with US LNG exports and renewables is laughable. It'due south going to take a minimum of 2-v years to realign the energy organisation, and in that time far likewise many people may die from the imbalances that are going to be caused by this policy.

Usa diplomat: Mediterranean gas pipeline to Europe not feasible AP

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Collecting Bodies in Bucha The New Yorker. "A team of Ukrainian volunteers say that, since the Russian retreat, they have picked up three hundred corpses."

Happy anniversary:

If we really had a "rules-based international order," this is what we would be doing:

U.N. suspends Russia from human rights body, Moscow then quits Reuters

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In a break with the past, U.South. is using intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn't rock solid NBC. "'It doesn't have to be solid intelligence,' one U.S. official said. 'It'southward more important to go out alee of them [the Russians], Putin specifically, earlier they practice something.'" So, those who make the propaganda drive the train. Good to know.

U.s.a. Officials Acknowledge They're Literally Just Lying To The Public About Russia Caitlin Johnstone

Whitewashing Ukraine's Corruption The American Consservative

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Ukraine appeals to Nato: 'Weapons, weapons, weapons' The Irish gaelic Times

US preparation 'small-scale number' of Ukrainian troops on Switchblade drones The Hill. Since last fall. Just a dozen. In the The states. "For military training." Really? Where? The School of the Americas?

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The US volition be the ultimate winner of Ukraine'south crisis Janan Ganesh, FT

The State Section Failed To Forestall The War. Will It Now Forbid The Peace? The American Conservative. The State Department is in the business of starting wars, not preventing them. But the text is much better than the headline.

Russia suffered pregnant losses in Ukraine, this is 'huge tragedy' — Kremlin spokesman TASS

Biden Administration

To Protect Its Reputation, the Court Must Overturn Roe in Full National Review. Too bad Democrats never codified Roe five. Wade into law. On the bright side, they raised a lot of money off "fighting for it.

Shortages

Exponential Risk: The Only Two Black Swans That Matter AgWeb

Guest Mail: America's stainless steel shortage Metal Miner

Our Famously Complimentary Press

What If Flim-flam News Viewers Watched CNN Instead? Matt Yglesias, Bloomberg

Wellness Care

Judgment Under Doubtfulness Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture. "Making proficient investment decisions and making skilful health care decisions are not all that different." Because markets….

Zeitgeist Watch

Jerks Consortium News. Well worth a read.

Form Warfare

Biden Offers Amazon Workers Rhetoric, But No Action The Lever

Instacart claims it'll now protect workers' tips even when *sshole customers bait and switch The Verge

The Antitrust Instance Confronting Gig Economy Labor Platforms Marshall Steinbaum, Law and Political Economy. Of import!

Peter Thiel claims 'finance gerontocracy' is belongings dorsum bitcoin FT. Micheal Pettis: "I am all in favor of a "revolutionary youth move" that will overturn finance and threaten the billionaires, but must it involve behest up the toll of an asset of which a middle-aged billionaire is a major holder?"

Antidote du Jour (via):

Musical interlude.

See yesterday'south Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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