New paper published arguing that the collapse of the Alaskan crab fishery was caused by warming in the Bering Sea.
Australia's 26 million people declare war on its 24 million feral pigs.
The winner and some other nice photos from Nikon's photomicrography competition. See all the past winners here.
Polish authorities confiscate a long-rumored hoard of medieval jewelry dug up by looters, put it on display.
Drought along the Amazon reveals faces carved in stone.
Ben Pentreath explores the neoclassical wonders of Petworth House, with extra stops at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum and the Queen's House at Greenwich.
Where did the thousands of human remains in the American Museum of Natural History come from, and how did they get to the museum?
Kevin Drum wonders why the authors of a major study showing that family income has a major effect on student test scores didn't at least consider the possibility that heredity is one of the causes.
Nobody cares about inequality during the summer.
Space junk burning up in the atmosphere "could change our planet's atmosphere in ways we still don't fully understand."
The mysterious orcas supposed to have hunted alongside humans in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Neolithic passage grave with 14 skeletons found in Orkney.
Forty-one states sue Meta because Facebook and Instagram are too popular with teens. Or at least that seems like the complaint to me. The attroney generals claim proof that social media is causing the decline in youth mental health but there is no such proof. That somebody else (parents?) ought to be involved seems to have been tossed aside. (Kevin Drum, Reuters, NPR)
UAW gets tentative agreement with Ford that includes 25% pay rise, 11% immediately. Still has to be put to the members for a vote. (Vox, Reuters) Notice that all the wild stuff the union mooted early on, like a 32-hour workweek, got dropped in the negotiations.
The surfboard-stealing otter of Santa Cruz has a baby pup. Maybe that will limit her delinquency.
This week's bizarre headline: Ancient Voyager Probes Plead for Death, NASA Says "No".
The German Left Party, the descendant of East Germany's Communist Party, has split in two between one group that is more like a standard European left-wing party and a dissident faction that accuses the others of going "woke" and no longer really advocating for workers; the rebels want to end immigration and stop supporting Ukraine. (NY Times) As elsewhere in the world a divide between populist nativism and elite cosmopolitanism is messing up old left/right thinking.
The Age of War: Russian Duma approves 68% increase in military spending.
Ukraine Links
First-hand account of the first days of Russia's assault on Avdiivka, beginning on September 30.
Ukrainian journalist reviews the Russian attack on Avdiivka as of October 22, includes list of the units involved.
Claim from a Russian source that 73 Russian soldiers were killed in a single missile attack on a Russian barracks in Donetsk.
Ukrainian reserve officer Tatarigami and his team analyze satellite imagery from the Avdiivka front, identify 109 Russian armored vehicles lost between October 10 and 20. Most are IFVs but there are also quite a few tanks. They say estimates that 200 Russian vehicles have been destroyed in this offensive are believable but 109 is all they can document with certainty.
Dara Massicot on Russia's Avdiivka offensive, which he says implies that 1) Gerasimov is in complete control of the Russian campaign, with nobody around who has the status to push back against his bad offensive ideas; 2) Russia has a lot more men than some give them credit for, along with a rising supply of artillery ammunition.
On October 26, Ukrainian journalist Butasov says Russian attacks toward Avdiivka from the south have been stopped but from the north they have advanced a kilometer and the situation is worsening for Ukraine. Russian losses are high but the Russian command seems determined to ignore that and keep feeding in men.
And now a "mine-clearing drone," metal detector attached to a drone that can be flown over the battlefield to detect mines.
Repurposing missiles: just a note that in this war both sides are rejiggering missiles to use them for different purposes than they were built for. Both sides have turned SAMs into surface-to-surface missilies, the Russians having a lot of success with old S-300s and Ukraine some with even older S-200s. Meanwhile NATO and Ukraine, running low on SAMs, are turning NATO's vast supply of air to air missiles into SAMs. This is something I did not anticipate and changes the calculations of missile supply; Russian may be low on Iskandrs and Kinzhals but they have a ton of S-300s, and NATO has a ton of old Sidewinders.
1 comment:
The German Left Party, the descendant of East Germany's Communist Party, has split in two between one group that is more like a standard European left-wing party and a dissident faction that accuses the others of going "woke" and no longer really advocating for workers; the rebels want to end immigration and stop supporting Ukraine. (NY Times) As elsewhere in the world a divide between populist nativism and elite cosmopolitanism is messing up old left/right thinking.
This totally ignores the realities of "Communist" and "Worker's Rights" parties in the past. In (for example) the Victorian era, many such parties were intensely Nationalistic, Anti-Immigrant, and even Anti-Women's Suffrage.
We have a somewhat different notion in America because we've more or less always been a multi-racial, multi-ethic, multi-cultural nation, and so our Workers' Parties tended to be more egalitarian and cosmopolitan. But in places like Germany, Workers' Parties tended to be comprised almost entirely of poor German working men alone, and their concern was overwhelmingly for their own well-being, not for those of other groups.
They resisted giving rights to women, on the grounds that it would take jobs / money / influence away from working men. They resisted immigration from foreigners, on the grounds that it would take jobs / money / influence away from Germans. Etc.
This isn't an example of "a divide between populist nativism and elite cosmopolitanism messing up old left/right thinking" - this is a return to a divide that was foundational to an even older form of left/right thinking.
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