Links 11/9/2023 | naked capitalism

Translucent microbe deviates from universal genetic code PNAS

Why My Recession Rule Could Go Wrong This Time Claudia Sahm, Bloomberg. URL: “one-highly-accurate-recession-indicator-could-be-wrong-this-time.” Why didn’t the editor just write “This One Neat Recession Trick”?

How one patient found errors in the algorithm making transplant decisions FT

Couchfish: The Rent Seekers Of Travel Couchfish. Well worth a read, especially for the twist at the end.

#COVID19

Long COVID changed the disability landscape. What does that mean for HR? HR Dive.

Many HR people, [Disability Management Employer Coalition CEO Bryon Bass] has found, are expecting employees to “”use the magic words of FMLA, or ‘.’””

“”That’s not something that the average person is going to just spew,”” Bass said.

So write those words down. Also, “spew”? From an advocate?

China?

China slips back into deflation in worrying sign Straits Times

Discontent in China on the rise as economy slows: survey Business Times

Myanmar

A turning point in Myanmar as army suffers big losses BBC

Chinese Evacuate Border ‘Scam Town’ Besieged by Myanmar Resistance The Irrawaddy. If China had an aristocracy, Southeast Asia would serve as “a gigantic system of outdoor relief” for them, much as the Colonies did for the UK in the days of the Empire.

India

Bihar Caste Survey: The Who’s Who in the Data The Wire

Why The Demand For Art Brushes Is Decimating India’s Mongooses Madras Courier

Syraqistan

Tunnel Rats Redux (excerpt) Spy Talk. The moral is in the lead, though.

Inside Israel’s tunnel war in Gaza: The terrifying reality of clearing Hamas’s ‘city beneath a city’ that stretches for miles – as witnessed by The Mail’s NICK CRAVEN who joined IDF soldiers who found at least 17 subterranean fortifications Daily Mail. That said, the Hamas tunnels… 

… remind me powerfully of Al Quaeda’s mountain redoubt. Same energy:

The redoubt that Bin Laden had somehow managed to wrestle his kidney dialysis machine into. Anyhow, IDF assures us that everything’s going according to plan:

IDF combat engineers are currently working to expose and destroy Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including tunnels. Water and oxygen storage discovered inside the tunnels indicates Hamas’ preparations for prolonged stays underground.

130 tunnel entrances have been… pic.twitter.com/McuxQHc1b2

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 9, 2023

So, since the IDF line is the official line, what Seymour Hersh and his sources emitted a mere three days ago was cope?

Some Israeli officials fear that time is running out because it’s not known how long the air in the tunnels will be breathable.

Meanwhile, the Hamas soldiers still alive in the tunnels underneath Gaza will be suffocating soon from a lack of fresh air, as there is little fuel left to run the generators necessary for a constant flow of oxygen.

I mean, either “time is running out” out on Hamas or they’re prepared for “prolonged stays underground.” One or the other I wouldn’t presume to say who’s lying — and they all could be — but somebody is. (Oh, and all the coverage seems to say “130 tunnels” have been destroyed. But I’m not sure whether it’s tunnels per se, or tunnel entrances. The mostly duplicative photos suggest the latter.)

Investigation disproves Israel claim of Hamas tunnel under Gaza hospital Al Jazeera. One for the judges, I suppose.

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A broken Netanyahu is miscalculating over Gaza, former Israeli PM says Politco

Parody: Psychiatrist of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Commits Suicide SOTT. From 2020. Note the word “parody.” This story has now mutated and propagated widely. Search on the most vivid phrase, in this case the putative psychiatrist’s “I can’t take it anymore” — a good rule, and in this case clearly directionally correct — and you’ll find a slew of recent screen shots (although nary a link to this, the original source). 

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A Biden goal is restraining Israel ‘through the bear hug’ The Editorial Board. It is true that embracing Bibi before slipping in the shiv would be very on-brand for Democrats. I haven’t seen any signs of it, though. It is, after all, entirely possible that Biden is actually deranged enough to believe what he’s saying….

US calls for Palestinian Authority to run Gaza and West Bank after the war with Hamas FT. I dunno. Will the PA have time for that, what with wiping down the settlers’ granite counter tops, cleaning their pools, and providing other miscellaneous services?

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The World Won’t Be the Same After the Israel-Hamas War Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy

How Would a Humanitarian Pause Work in Gaza? The New Yorker. “Work” for whom? 

Palestine complains to IAEA about Israel’s threat to drop nuclear bomb on Gaza Anadolu. Yes, “Heritage Minister” and goat-sacrifcing loon Amichai Eliyahu, did rather let the cat out of the bag on Israel’s nuclear status, didn’t he? Good to have that cleared up.

A History of Helplessness Dror Poleg

Dear Old Blighty

Starmer sacks Jewish staffer for helping organise pro-Gaza protests The Sqwawkbox

Brexit Impact Tracker – 8 November 2023 – Honesty Is not An Option: Evolving pro-Brexit arguments in post-truth Albion Gerhard Schnyder

Building Increasingly Complex LEGO Machines In Order to Sink Progressively Larger LEGO Boats Laughing Squid

New Not-So-Cold War

Zelensky fears that the West wants a way out The Spectator 

KYIV BLOG: Beginning of the end of the war in Ukraine? BNE Intellinews

Was the death of Zaluzhny’s Military Aide an Assassination? Weapons and Strategy 

Russia’s Sandworm – not just missile strikes – to blame for Ukrainian power blackouts The Register

Russian political elites on their U.S. counterparts: card cheats! Gilbert Doctorow, Armageddon Newsletter

The Caribbean

The U.S. Is Preparing an Outsourced Invasion of Haiti Foreign Policy

2024

Who’s Ready for a Trump-Biden Rematch? Anyone? Hello? Bloomberg

Do unbiased jurors exist to serve at Trump’s 2020 election trials in the age of social media? PBS. From September, still germane. Good question!

Voters Overwhelmingly Pass Car Right to Repair Law in Maine 404 Media

Spook Country

3 are charged with running sex ring that catered to politicians, military and others NPR. My goodness. Sounds like a honey trap. I wonder who could have been running it?

Court rules automakers can record and intercept owner text messages The Record.  Not sure about the venue, but links in both SlashDot and Hacker News.

Digital Watch

G.M.’s Cruise Moved Fast in the Driverless Race. It Got Ugly. NYT. The lead is buried one paragraph from the end:

Half of Cruise’s 400 cars were in San Francisco when the driverless operations were stopped. Those vehicles were supported by a vast operations staff, with 1.5 workers per vehicle. The workers intervened to assist the company’s vehicles every 2.5 to five miles, according to two people familiar with is operations. In other words, they frequently had to do something to remotely control a car after receiving a cellular signal that it was having problems.

“Driverless” my Sweet Aunt Fanny. The Cruise cars were “driven” by Mechanical Turks (and to think I imagined Detroit would do better than SIlicon Valley, because Detroit actually builds cars. OTOH, for all we know, maybe they are!).

Best Way to Extinguish a Flaming Electric Vehicle? Let It Burn WSJ

Andreessen Horowitz would like everyone to stop talking about AI’s copyright issues, please Business Insider. IOW, AI cannot function as a business without the theft of intellectual property, on a positively grandiose scale, to create its training sets. That sounds rather like “the tendency of the rate of profit to fall,” to me.

Is the web actually evaporating? Garbage Day. Personally, I would categorize the web as more solid than liquid. YMMV!

Supply Chain

Greeks and Chinese dominate global fleet market Container News

Zeitgeist Watch

Antidepressants or Tolkien character? (game) Vercel (?).

Feral Hog Watch

Wild pig-like animals are tearing up an Arizona golf course. The internet is delighted Salon

Guillotine Watch

Former Google CEO Launched A $100 Million Company With His Girlfriend. It’s Not Going Well Forbes. That’s a damn shame.

Since When Do Millennials Love to Sew? WSJ

‘I just lost the fear’: why more older people are founding start-ups FT. I wonder why. ‘Tis a mystery!

Class Warfare

SAG-AFTRA Approves Deal to End Historic Strike Variety. As usual, if you only read the headline, you won’t understand that union members must still vote on the deal.

SAG-AFTRA and the studios just reached a deal to end the actors’ strike. What’s next? LA Times

Las Vegas Strip Workers Reach Tentative Labor Deal with Caesars WSJ

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Pilot shortage spurs six-figure bonus offers and poaching of personnel Marketplace. Something seems to be affecting the labor market, but what? ‘TIs a mystery!

Real Estate Helped Drive Wealth Gains during the Pandemic Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis

The significant health benefits of walking backward CNN

Why the fairies disappeared Unherd

Antidote du jour (via):

Bonus antidote:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.