Gonzalo Lira was born at the moment; like Frederick within the Pirates of Penzance, February 29 would have been his birthday. –lambert
The Groundhog Watchers Nautilus. Citizen science!
One in every of world’s smallest fish discovered to make sound as loud as a gunshot Guardian
‘Dune’ stunt double? Terrifying creature could also be even weirder than film’s sandworms Examine Finds. However most are lower than six inches lengthy. To date.
Berkshire Hathaway’s 2023 Outcomes — Overview The Rational Stroll
Local weather
Nature’s Heartbeat, Visualized Local weather & Capitalism
Texas wildfires forces shutdown at nuclear weapon facility. Here’s what we all know AP
The reawakening of America’s nuclear dinosaurs Searchlight New Mexico
#COVID19
Why Are We Nonetheless Flu-ifying COVID? Katherine Wu, The Atlantic
China?
‘Two periods’ 2024: China indicators extra fiscal pump-priming for the economic system South China Morning Submit
China broadens legislature on state safety to incorporate ‘work secrets and techniques’ Enterprise Commonplace
Welcome to China’s Cat Island, the place fortunate strays watch for a brand new house WaPo
AI in Southeast Asia: As dangerous actors achieve new high-tech weapons, so too for the defenders Channel Information Asia
Vietnam’s ‘rice bowl’ cracks in monster heatwave Channel Information Asia
Sri Lanka ends visas for lots of of 1000’s of Russians staying there to keep away from warfare Unbiased
One in 4 City and Village Elections in Japan Going Uncontested Nippon
India
With handouts, piped water and cooking fuel, India’s Modi woos ladies voters Channel Information Asia
Syraqistan
Past the Houthis’ assaults on delivery: The absurdity of the India-Center East Hall Hellenic Delivery Information. “Dry canals can not compete with ‘moist’ canals! And that’s the reason there isn’t a really dry canal on the earth.”
Israel, ICJ and the motion for a principled and simply world order Al Jazeera
New Not-So-Chilly Struggle
Professional-Russian separatists in Moldova search Moscow’s ‘safety’ France24. The tail finish of Moldova is about 60km from Odessa….
Ukraine’s International Ministry on enchantment by Transnistrian “lawmakers”: Russia can’t be a peacemaker Ukrainska Pravda
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ISW: Russia holds offensive initiative Kyiv Unbiased
‘There’s solely Plan A’: Protection leaders concern failure in Ukraine Politico
Nord Stream: Denmark closes investigation into pipeline blast BBC. So I assume Blob appendage Anne Applebaum’s husband was proper. His famously deleted tweet:
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Emmanuel Macron’s provocative advocacy of European troops on the bottom in Ukraine Gilbert Doctorow
Germany guidelines out sending any troops to Ukraine Anadolu Company
Estonian PM helps Macron’s thought of Western troops in Ukraine Ukrainska Pravda. Little doubt.
Fireplace Jens Stoltenberg Now Earlier than It Is Too Late! Weapons and Technique
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Russia-Ukraine Struggle: China’s Vanishing Neutrality The Diplomat
The US artwork market is a sanctions black gap FT
Biden Administration
McConnell departure leaves GOP’s Reagan wing reeling Politico
Home Freedom Caucus mocks McConnell as ‘(D-Ukraine)’ after retirement information The Hill
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Congress reaches fiscal 2024 funding deal, new stopgaps in hopes of averting shutdown Authorities Govt
Johnson ‘unchanged’ on Ukraine, border disaster regardless of stress at ‘intense’ White Home assembly FOX
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Biden govt order goals to cease Russia and China from shopping for Individuals’ private information Engadget. However not in america–
The Authorities Actually Is Spying On You — And It’s Authorized Politico
Antitrust
The $25B Kroger-Albertsons Merger Is Going to Fail Matt Stoller, BIG
2024
Biden simply obtained a bodily. However a cognitive check was not a part of the evaluation NPR. Right here is the Doctor to the President’s memo (PDF), addressed to Karine Jean-Pierre, curiously. (Biden appears to be on numerous medicine, together with statins, however presumbly interactions aren’t vital.) On gait: “The group concluded that a lot of his stiffness is in truth a results of degenerative (‘put on and tear’) osteoarthritic adjustments (or spondylosis) of his backbone.” As readers know, I’m not a fan of distant analysis (and I’m nonetheless ready for a White Home “reporter” to ask Biden to rely backwards by sevens throughout a presser). That mentioned, the canines aren’t barking within the night time on this. The primary non-barking canine is the White Home: Given the givens, it appears affordable to conclude that no cognitive checks had been run as a result of the White Home, at a minimal, was not sure what the outcomes could be. Subsequently, the conclusion that “Biden has cognitive points, recognized to his inside circle,” appears inescapable (and says nothing about their nature or diploma, or the consequences of hyypothesized “juice”). By the identical token, I might anticipate the environment friendly Republican oppo machine to have produced critical, medically-driven movies documenting Biden’s gait, flubs, and many others., by now. That hasn’t occurred both. Maybe they need to prop Biden up simply as a lot as Democrats do?
The Supremes
The One Huge Query (PDF) Richard M. Re, College of Virginia College of Legislation. “Ought to courts, notably the US Supreme Court docket, have numerous energy?”
Spook Nation
The CIA in Ukraine — The NY Occasions Will get a Guided Tour Patrick Lawrence, ScheerPost
Did The New York Occasions publish its “The Spy Struggle: How the CIA Secretly Helps Ukraine Struggle Putin” piece to disclose authorities secrets and techniques within the public’s curiosity? Or was it to persuade Individuals that “Now these intelligence networks are extra vital than ever?” John Kiriakou, ScheerPost
The Bezzle
A marker:
Prediction: A nationwide authorities can be revealed this yr to have been shopping for Bitcoin—the fashionable substitute for financial gold—with out having disclosed that truth publicly.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 28, 2024
Digital Watch
Google CEO calls AI software’s controversial responses ‘utterly unacceptable’ Semafor. Nonsense. That is PR-driven “Honey, I’ve modified”-style cope by Pichai. Anyone who is aware of something about software program improvement, particularly in massive firms like Google, is aware of that Gemini was accredited by a number of layers of administration at each step of the best way: whiteboarding, PowerPoints, demos, stand-ups, conferences, blah blah blah, and doubtless conferences with key distributors and shoppers, too. Gemini does every part that Google needs it to do, and any “guardrails” (how I hate that trope) put in now will be eliminated by Google at leisure.
Welcome to the Period of BadGPTs WSJ. “A brand new crop of nefarious chatbots with names like ‘BadGPT’ and ‘FraudGPT’ are bobbing up on the darkest corners of the online, as cybercriminals look to faucet the identical synthetic intelligence behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT.” Implying, after all, that ChatGPT itself just isn’t based mostly on theft, and doesn’t drive fraud. However nonetheless.
OpenAI sued, once more, for scraping and replicating information tales The Register. The deck: “The Intercept, Uncooked Story, AlterNet need damages and to have their content material faraway from fashions.”
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An replace on the BBC’s plans for Generative AI (Gen AI) and the way we plan to make use of AI instruments responsibly BBC
Indexing the data age Aeon. Dublin Core (DC) metadata, 1995. Glad, harmless days. And at the moment:
That was like, my total work historical past from 2013 – 2018, movies that went insanely viral and had been nonetheless bringing in 1000’s of {dollars} a month – simply scrubbed from the web, there isn’t even any report they ever existed.
— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) February 24, 2024
Assange
Julian Assange’s Grand Inquisitor The Chris Hedges Report
Justice Minister defends home arrest energy for individuals feared to commit a hate crime in future Globe and Mail
Transportation
All Aboard the Forms Practice Asterisk. Horrible headline, nicely price a learn. Deep-dive into public transportion value construction, within the US and worldwide.
The Tradition of Aviation Security (excerpt) James Fallows, Breaking the Information
The Carry-On-Baggage Bubble Is About to Pop The Atlantic
Zeitgeist Watch
This bookshop in Fort Collins is paying individuals to sit down down and skim quietly The Colorado Solar
Odd thrift retailer donation discovered to be a WWII-era grenade, prompts evacuations: ‘A rarity’ FOX
The Closing Frontier
The mathematically good exoplanet system — a fantastic place to seek for alien tech Area.com
Guillotine Watch
A billionaire-backed marketing campaign for a brand new California metropolis is off to a bumpy begin AP. “[Former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek’s] California Without end firm can rely on the deep pockets of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and enterprise capitalists, together with philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.” Then I’m certain every part can be high-quality.
Class Warfare
Scenes From the Bat Cave Maureen Tkacik, Prospect. The headline is cute however doesn’t match the affect of the submit, which exhibits how personal fairness looting turns hospitals into demise traps.
Setting: The rich trigger local weather change; the poor undergo its penalties Pearls and Irritations
Is The New York Occasions’ newsroom only a bunch of Ivy Leaguers? (Kinda, sorta.) Nieman Lab
Amid cholera outbreaks, determined international locations face depleted world vaccine stockpile Heart for Illness Analysis and Coverage. I blame the lockdowns.
Antidote du jour (by way of):
See yesterday’s Hyperlinks and Antidote du Jour right here
