Bernard Lown, Inventive Heart Doctor and Antiwar Activist, Dies at 99 New York Times (Kevin C)
Larry, No.10’s ‘Chief Mouser’, Celebrates 10 Years at Downing Street Sputnik (Kevin W). Too bad the UK is a Parliamentary system. Otherwise, Larry for PM!
Snake escapes in Cologne, 10 apartments evacuated DW
Stray dogs with bright blue fur found in Russia Reuters (resilc) 🙁
New ‘Meltdown’ film: A different kind of Greenland ice documentary Yale Climate Connections
Caffeine consumption found to alter brain structure New Atlas (David L). Hard to see how there can be significant changes in a mere 10 days. Also seems to contradict studies that find that high consumption of coffee (5 cups a day, gah!) counteracts Alzheimers symptoms.
Bill Gates: Rich nations should move to ‘100 percent synthetic beef’ The Hill
Identifying ‘ugly ducklings’ to catch skin cancer earlier MedicalXpress (Chuck L)
‘New Car Smell’ Is The Scent of Carcinogens, And Even Short Trips May Overexpose Us Science Alert (Chuck L). A good idea to open windows for 1 minute after your car has been in the sun and breeze out the vehicle. Those volatiles get released even in an old car in the heat.
How Popperian falsification enabled the rise of neoliberalism aeon (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
Survey finds 40% of Palestinians have coronavirus antibodies Times of Israel (Kevin W). Holey moley!
Israel blocks Covid-19 vaccines destined for Gaza Middle East Eye (Kevin W)
Science/Medicine
SARS-CoV-2 with Genomic Deletions Escapes an Antibody The Scientist (Dr. Kevin)
AI used to ‘predict the next coronavirus’ BBC (furzy)
Long COVID is an inconvenient truth for proponents of the grossly unethical infection-acquired herd immunity strategy (AKA: let the virus spread).
Of course long COVID is being downplayed. https://t.co/FOG2DltHKw
— Dr Zoë Hyde (@DrZoeHyde) February 17, 2021
US
#OpenOurSchools: GOP targets teachers unions in bid to retake suburbs NBC (Kevin W)
Covid wars launch DeSantis into GOP ‘top tier’ Politico (resilc)
Hospitals still ration medical N95 masks as stockpiles swell Associated Press
S–t Public Defenders See: The Great Covid-19 Jury Charade Matt Taibbi
N4T Investigators: Outrage after large maskless pool party at off-campus UArizona housing complex KVOA (Arizona Slim)
UK/Europe
New language’: School asks parents to rate their ‘whiteness’ & become ‘white traitors’ or ‘abolitionists’ RT (Kevin W). Martin Luther King would be spinning in his grave.
German election fever has EU sweating on vaccines Politico
Breaking News the Dutch Parliament has voted to shut down Holland’s mink farming industry after major outbreaks of Covid 19. This sends a message to the world that the cruel fur industry must end to protect animals & people. Britain should now ban sale and import of fur products pic.twitter.com/QrxAfBEOD2
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) February 17, 2021
China?
China Blocked Jack Ma’s Ant IPO After Investigation Revealed Likely Beneficiaries Wall Street Journal
China under US pressure to condemn Myanmar military coup South China Morning Post
Ugandan President Museveni: “The Europeans Suffer from Arrogance” Der Spiegel
Brexit
Something that was suspected but not known – the UK rejected a transition period for the new trading arrangements covering Northern Ireland. https://t.co/S8ciew3N94
— David Henig (@DavidHenigUK) February 16, 2021
Syraqistan
NATO Will Not Leave Afghanistan ‘Before Time Is Right’ Antiwar (resilc)
Is Biden Committing Diplomatic Suicide Over the Iran Nuclear Agreement? Counterpunch
Princess Latifa: ‘Hostage’ ordeal of Dubai ruler’s daughter revealed BBC
The Empire Attacks BDS For The Same Reason Nixon Started The Drug War Caitlin Johnstone (furzy)
Analysis: Saudi Arabia eyes Dubai’s crown with HQ ultimatum Reuters
Imperial Collapse Watch
Who Are the Ultimate War Profiteers? U.S. Air Force Veteran Removes the Veil CovertActionMagazine (Kevin W)
We had a tiny amount of snow starting when I was turning in, which resulted in my going out at 7:30 AM to open 2 frozen car doors, backing the car all the way under the carport, running the engine for a few minutes, and sweeping off all the snow on it. This mind you is a heroic encounter by local snow standards. Fortunately the snow here didn’t amount to much but a lot of places stayed closed because it looked dicey in the AM.
Texplainer: Why does Texas have its own power grid? Texas Tribune (resilc)
This is how cold it is at my Apartment.
As a Texan, yes, I’m certainly not built for this. I don’t even care. pic.twitter.com/FMt8imglJp
— 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 ☩ (@ThomasBlackGG) February 16, 2021
It’s confirmed: The blackouts in Texas are primarily because of frozen instruments at gas, coal and nuclear plants — as well limited supplies of gas, according to Ercot.
Frozen wind turbines were the least significant factor.https://t.co/10L8Br20iY pic.twitter.com/MBoWt7BDmu
— Catherine Traywick (@ctraywick) February 16, 2021
It’s confirmed: The blackouts in Texas are primarily because of frozen instruments at gas, coal and nuclear plants — as well limited supplies of gas, according to Ercot.
Frozen wind turbines were the least significant factor.https://t.co/10L8Br20iY pic.twitter.com/MBoWt7BDmu
— Catherine Traywick (@ctraywick) February 16, 2021
It’s looking like power plants in Texas unplugged to avoid skyrocketing natural gas spot market rates that went to hundreds of $$ to avoid losses. @ERCOT_ISO has now passed an emergency order allowing them to charge consumers those spot market prices. Capitalism at its finest. pic.twitter.com/xxaHsSbgCX
— Joel Montfort 🌊 (@jmontforttx) February 16, 2021
Massive Texas gas failure during climate extremes gets blamed on wind power Renew Economy (Paul R)
Trump Transition
Trump unloads on McConnell, promises MAGA primary challengers The Hill
Republicans in Oregon, Arizona, and Hawaii show post-Trump GOP is not changing Vox. Resilc: “Why should they, 74 million votes.”
Capitol Seizure
The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot Glenn Greenwald
Deplatform Hate: The Undercover Anti-Fascists Who Expose the Far Right Rolling Stone (furzy)
Nevada wants to totally upend the 2024 calendar CNN (furzy)
Our Famously Free Press
Judge refuses to ban Capitol riot suspect from Twitter and Facebook Politico
How to have better arguments online Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
New language’: School asks parents to rate their ‘whiteness’ & become ‘white traitors’ or ‘abolitionists’ – RT (Kevin W). Martin Luther King would be spinning in his grave.
Zuckerberg responds to Apple’s privacy policies: “We need to inflict pain” ars technica
Apple wins victory as North Dakota votes down bill that would regulate app stores CNBC
Privatization Would Doom Biden’s Infrastructure Plan In These Times
$900m gaffe: US judge says Citigroup can’t recoup Revlon payout Al Jazeera (Kevin W). Because this was a prepayment of a total that would eventually be shelled out. But still really really wild.
Class Warfare
The Thirty Tyrants Tablet (Katniss Everdeen)
Why I was wrong to be optimistic about robots Financial Times (David L)
See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.