Links 9/20/2022 | naked capitalism

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Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free 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 request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.

–Yves

P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:

Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.

Lambert here: Patient readers, I apologize for the slightly late publication of a complete Links, and subsequent formatting issues. I experienced a VPN debacle just as I was about to press the submit button.

Tardigrades survive being dried out thanks to proteins found in no other animals on Earth Live Science. On tardigrades, see NC here.

Hungry bears are getting desperate in Montana High Country News

François Villeroy de Galhau: Armed peace and risk proportionality – how to strike the right balance Bank of International Settlements. Pungent with Clausewitz metaphors.

Nearly One Third Of Homes In US Purchased By Investors, New Study Reveals NWPB. From July, still germane.

Puerto Rico’s Bankrupt Power Utility Heads Toward Litigation After Debt Talks End Bloomberg

Fiona’s outages rekindle anger over Puerto Rico’s privatized electric grid Politico

Climate

Making Earth the Shareholder Inequality. Except… The Earth is not the shareholder. Nor could be be, not being a legal person.

Fears of ‘subprime’ carbon assets stall crypto rainforest mission Reuters

Are There Too Many Farms in the World? New research on agricultural productivity in developing countries Yale Economic Growth Center

Electric Vehicles Took Off. Car Makers Weren’t Ready WSJ

Scientists discover bacteria that can use light to ‘breathe’ electricity Interesting Engineering

Water

Surfing in the California desert? Developer’s plan sparks outrage over water use, drought LA Times

Rhine Water Levels in Germany Approaching Normal Depths Maritime Logistics Professional

#COVID19

Hilarity ensues:

I promise you that if I’m elected, I’ll always tell you the truth.

I’ll listen to the experts and do everything I can to contain this virus.

And I’ll always put your health and safety first — no matter the political cost.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 9, 2020

* * *

Bioelectronic face mask can detect COVID-19 in real time, scientists say ABC Australia (Rev Kev). Original.

Advances in treating the sickest Covid patients have stalled. Why? STAT

On Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron” (podcast) Literary Studies. From the New Books network, whose content makes me hopeful there’s a lot of thinking and writing going on out there.

Do You Speak Virus? Phages Caught Sending Chemical Messages Scientific American

China?

Chinese cities Qingdao, Suzhou reinstate homebuying curbs a day after scrapping them, leaving market in limbo South China Morning Post. Commentary:

6/6
Both conflicts are likely to play out most dramatically in the property sector. When property is the main source of growth and wealth generation, it also becomes the main locus of distributional conflicts.

— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) September 20, 2022

Chinese buyers snap up luxury homes as ‘hard currency’ in soft property market Reuters

Myanmar

Fear, defiance as fighting rages in Myanmar’s north Channel News Asia

The Pendulum of Non-Alignment: Charting Myanmar’s Great Power Diplomacy (2011–2021)* Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs

India

Great stuff:

My friend Andrew Schelling just gave me @JLFLitfest Boulder his new book of translations of 4thC poet Bhartrihari & its such wonderful stuff! Bhartrihari oscillated between the rigours of renunciation & the abandon of the sensualist & both sides of his character are in his poetry pic.twitter.com/3Uu9TYvLTN

— William Dalrymple (@DalrympleWill) September 18, 2022

Put your crown on your head Africa is a Country. Jean-Michel Basquiat:

Uganda condems EU resolution slamming oil pipeline Maravi Post

Old Blighty

How Long Was the Queue? An Estimated 250,000 People Bloomberg. From the coverage, I would have thought a million. Commentary via alert reader DM, who writes: “Thisbee demonstrating his objection to the ridiculous coverage of the royals!”:

I’m with Thisbee on this one

Queen Elizabeth II’s Final Hearse Is a Jaguar She Designed The Drive. Lucas electrical components?

All hail our postliberal prince The Critic. Commentary:

Establishment projecting it’s own attitude onto everyone else.

I’m now getting a good idea why they had to take down corbyn.

— Mxv02 (@Mxv021) September 18, 2022

European Disunion

EU Unveils Anti-Crisis Plans to Force Firms to Supply Key Goods Bloomberg

Investors Watch for Italy’s Finance Chief: Here Are Some Options Bloomberg

Beware Italy’s ‘Mafia Entrepreneurs’ Bloomberg

The UK isn’t the only poodle around:

Europe busy destroying themselves for the sake of the American empire. Remarkable to watch pic.twitter.com/cJS8Q9Nd8p

— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) September 19, 2022

New Not-So-Cold War

Putting Ukrainian battle successes into cold, hard perspective Responsible Statecraft

‘We’re Working 24/7’: Ukraine Keeps Its War Machine Humming Foreign Policy

Ukraine: The CIA’s 75-year-old Proxy Covert Action. Let it never be said the spooks can’t take the long view.

Ecuador reaches deal with China to restructure debt Reuters

Biden Administration

Is a Bidenomics Manufacturing Policy in Progress? Industry Week

Biden administration releases digital asset regulation framework Banking Dive

Biden hits the Covid trifecta Politico

SEC Claims All of Ethereum Falls Under US Jurisdiction Decrypt (Rev Kev).

What Happened to America’s Civil Libertarians? Matt Taibbi, TK News. “The implicit argument of Trump’s pursuers has always been that any rule-bending is worth it because, like Saddam Hussein, Trump was and is a unique danger, an ‘exceptional’ or ‘existential threat.’” “Sovereign is he who declares the exception.” —Carl Schmitt, Nazi legal theorist.

Intelligence Community

Pentagon orders audit of clandestine information warfare: report The Hill

Shortages

A Natural Gas Shortage Is Looming For The U.S. OilPrice.com

Adderall Shortages in US Spread to Two More Drug Suppliers Bloomberg

Our Famously Free Press

Fifth Circuit Upholds Texas Social Media Law LawFare. NetChoice v. Paxton (PDF). The opening salvo:

Never thought I’d say “God bless the Attorney General of Texas” (Paxton), but here we are.

How to Ditch Facebook Without Losing Your Friends (Or Family, Customers or Communities) Electronic Frontier Foundation

Sports Desk

Checkmate JoeBlogs

Ban on saliva to shine cricket balls made permanent by ICC ENCA. Droplet dogma infests cricket authorities.

Viking Textiles Show Women Had Tremendous Power Scientific American

Class Warfare

Dominant Employers May Add To Unemployment In Rural US As Fed Raises Rates International Monetary Fund (!).

AI Art Is Here and the World Is Already Different New York Magazine. Awesome. Now no image anywhere is trustworthy, Silicon Valley, good job.

Beware the rise of the black box algorithm FT. “The factors underpinning the Compas system, used in the US to measure the likelihood of reoffending, are not publicly available because they are treated as company property.” Oh.

Antidote du jour. From Cathy, who writes:

Aloha Yves and NC gang,

$50 check is “in the mail.”
I would be ignorant of just about everything going on in the world today if it weren’t for Yves, Lambert, the other posters and contributors (current & past), moderators, members of the various brain trusts and the commentariat (current & past) of Naked Capitalism. Even worse, if I were dependent on the MSM, I might think of myself as an informed person, when, in fact I would only have been mis- and dis-informed. That said, even my infrequent (and decreasing) ventures into “news” coverage reveal that is has become crazily incomprehensible, if not irrelevant, on almost any subject. (And this is an election year. Ain’t that just great?)

NC has provided enough sunlight (even if it sometimes hurts the eyes) that I can attempt to make sense of things and resist the urge to just hide where no one can see me (see attached*).

$50 does not come close to the value of NC to me. So, I hope that I am taking advantage of someone else’s generosity to increase the value of my small contribution. But, really, it would be far better still if the full train has departed without me and faster donors sucked up all that generosity.

*This is our neighbors’ cat, Cyrus. And, yes, that is our carport storage closet, not that of Cyrus’ own family.

Mahalo for ALL you do, even the work that I can’t see,
Cathy

Bonus Antidote: A baby hummingbird sipping from a raspberry (via):

Double Bonus Antidote: I have to include this:

Really cool footage of a capybara running underwater. pic.twitter.com/QfUvITMBtW

— The Depths Below (@DepthsBeIow) September 15, 2022

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.