What Makes a Great Bookshop? Culture Dump (Micael T)
Why Every Great Story Follows the Same Ancient Pattern Classical Wisdom (Micael T)
Stunning fossil discovery challenges the origins of animal life Science Daily (Kevin W)
First Real-Time Brain-Controlled Hearing Device Neuroscience News
Arts and Cultural Engagement ‘Linked To Slower Pace of Biological Aging’ Guardian
Do Young People Suck? Lyman Stone (Micael T). Trust me, this is a really good piece.
Shame them, shun them, ban them, beat them! Experimental History (Micael T). Important.
Hantavirus
WHO officials warn of more possible hantavirus cases in coming weeks CBS. Trying to close the barn door after the horse is in the next county.
Woman Diagnosed With Hantavirus After Being on Cruise Ship Now on an Artificial Lung in ‘Final Stage of Supportive Care,’ Doctor Says People. This may seem to be scare-mongering and click-bait but as we said during Covid (we called the pandemic in January when it was not official until March) that the precautionary principle, particularly with diseases with high fatality rates, demands excessive vigilance until risk can be better assessed. Our putting commerce ahead of public health has produced instead intense messaging to keep people proceeding as normal. If the US had not so totally demonized masking, that would be a cheap and easy fallback in communities that might be at risk.
On masking, it is depressing that someone has to say something this obvious:
Physical measures that can protect against COVID-19, including masks, air purifiers, and ultraviolet sterilizers, can also protect against the hantavirus. This is different from biological protection measures, such as vaccines. Therefore, the most effective way to deal with a new…
— Adam Wong (@Engineer_Wong) May 12, 2026
COVID-19/Pandemics
It’s probably worth noting that there was a nearly 50% jump in covid detections in England last week on the NOIDS causative agents data, and that data isn’t complete.
— tern (@1goodtern) May 12, 2026
‘Very contagious’ parvovirus swirling throughout Northern California SFGate (Paul R). Symptoms mild but risky for pregnant women. I saw no word re the immunocompromised.
Climate/Environment
Thousands of trout are released into Stockholm’s stream here Mitti via machine translation (Micael T)
New May spark plumes show El Niño rapidly intensifying, with 8 of 10 models pointing to a super event and four projecting the strongest on record.
Across all 693 ensemble members, the mean reaches +2.8˚C, consistent with the strongest El Niño on record. pic.twitter.com/9pDxNxAkXz
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) May 10, 2026
Global fire outbreaks hit record high as ‘unprecedented’ heat extremes loom, scientists say Reuters
Wildfires are climbing Europe’s mountains as heat dries forests Earth
EXTRAORDINARY HEAT WAVE
Weeks with deadly heat and thousands of records in every single African country.There has never been anything like this:
‼️Today 47C in Algeria,Burkina Faso,Mali,Niger,Senegal,Chad,Mauritania,Chad,Sudan
May Record again at Ouahigouya 🇧🇫with 44.9C. pic.twitter.com/vHebe76meU
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) May 11, 2026
‘Not normal’: On one April day, all of the planet’s top 50 hottest cities were in a single country CNN
Australia Rainfall Deficiencies Deepen Across Eastern States E+E Leader
For global ocean temperatures only, @NOAANCEI reports that April 2026 was the 2nd-warmest April on record, behind only 2024. Ocean temps checked in at 0.95°C above the 20th-century average, or about 1.13°C above the mean of 1880–1920.
The wild part is that this is happening at… pic.twitter.com/OfSPPIxDVp
— The Global Warmer🔥🌏 🔥 (@TheGlobalWarmer) May 11, 2026
Wild Blueberry Farms Across Maine Suffer as Climate Change Upends Growing Seasons Inside Climate News 🙁
China?
Trump’s China visit watched in US for signs of stability – and tangible wins South China Morning Post
Trump Flies to Beijing — But Who’s Actually Desperate? Think BRICS
Elon Musk and Tim Cook among CEOs joining Trump on China trip BBC. Some readers had expressed doubt that Trump would be able to round up an entourage.
Washington slaps new sanctions on China–Iran oil network ahead of Trump’s visit to Beijing The Cradle (Kevin W). I do not see how China can give the US anything in light of these insults right before the summit. This is intended to humiliate and China is very sensitive to that.
Trump-Xi Summit: Trump to ask Xi to ‘open up’ China DW. A stupid ask but will play well in the US.
Trump-Xi summit to show that everything now is leverage Asia Times (Kevin W)
China reiterates opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan Xinhua
Africa
How Nigerians are coping with heat waves amid crippling power outages Global Voices. Coming to many more countries soon
South of the Border
Trump shares image depicting Venezuela as ’51st State’ after remarks on possible annexation Anadolu Agency
CIA escalates secret war on cartels with deadly operations inside Mexico CNN (Ann)
European Disunion
Was this European figure bribed by Team Trump to kill Airbus sales?
A TOP EUROPEAN OFFICIAL today suggested the west could sabotage planes western companies sold to China.
“Europe could ground more than half of all Chinese commercial planes by withholding software updates for China’s Airbus fleet,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European… pic.twitter.com/RccGoKQyKj
— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) May 11, 2026
Europe’s energy ministers shun crisis meeting Euractiv
EU to ban Brazilian meat imports from September Euronews
French Jobless Rate Jumps Above 8% for First Time Since 2021 Bloomberg
Old Blighty
Jess Phillips resigns as minister telling Starmer ‘deeds, not words, matter’ after PM says he won’t quit BBC. It took a while, but it looks like a fuse has finally been lit.
Starmer faces endgame as Wes Streeting launches ‘coup’ to beat rivals to the top job Middle East Eye
Israel v. The Resistance
The Israeli military is planting explosives and detonating life-sustaining infrastructures in southern Lebanon to escalate mass expulsions. https://t.co/L1novNrUR0
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) May 12, 2026
Discord over Israel splits Eurovision Politico. I hate to reveal how parochial I am, but I do not understand why anyone cares about Eurovision. Having said that, de-legitimating Israel is a worthy enterprise.
Chinese Oil Tanker Tests Safe Passage Through Strait of Hormuz OilPrice. Note: “…f it is allowed to pass, it would only be the third tanker carrying oil for China from the Persian Gulf that has traversed Hormuz since the start of the war.”
U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities New York Times. More on this in our daily Iran post.
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia Deploys Pacific Fleet to East China Sea to Protect Shipping Against U.S. Armed Takeovers Military Watch
Lavrov accuses West of putting pressure on countries not to buy Russian oil TASS
Reflections on a Day Scott Ritter (Micael T)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
They’re Attacking Online Anonymity, And Other Notes Caitlin Johnstone (Micael T)
Imperial Collapse Watch
What Happens When Americans Realize How Miserable We Are? Paul Krugman. Good review, but would have been nice if Krugman had included inequality. Unequal societies are unhappy societies.
Federalism For Anti-Fascists Chris Armitage
Trump 2.0
Three Republicans Thrown Into Fiery Furnace For Not Bowing Down To Trump Statue Babylon Bee
$1.5b Trump Tower deal on Gold Coast, Australia scrapped. Developer says the brand is “toxic” ABC Australia (Ann)
McConnell hammers Hegseth over Pentagon funding plan, alienating allies The Hill
How Trump’s $500 Million UAE Crypto Deal Trades U.S. National Security for Family Profit Center for American Progress
John Helmer: Iran Just Did the Unthinkable – China’s Response to Trump Changes EVERYTHING Dialogue Works. Helmer goes on at length about Trump’s cognitive limits, which are severe.
Trump had one of his worst mental health episodes yet last night, posting over 55 times in 3 hours. Here is the list:
10:15 PM – Accuses Obama of attempting a coup in 2016
10:15 PM – Says Obama worked with CIA to overthrow Trump
10:15 PM – Reposts tweet saying Obama is a…— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) May 12, 2026
The Supremes
The Kitchen Where the Supreme Court Went to Die W. A. Lawrence
Our No Longer Free Press
Looks like Israeli intel got wind of Nick Kristof’s forthcoming NYT report containing first hand testimonies and extensive documentation of systematic Israeli rape of Palestinian detainees, and activated its assets to deflect the PR blow w/ a Daily Mail hoax article the next day https://t.co/sgNJe4KTGm
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 12, 2026
Economy
The Worst Spring Drought on Record Is Putting U.S. Crops at Risk Time
Tomatoes CPI +15.1% yoy
Ground beef CPI up 14.5% yoyChilli cookoffs are gonna be expensive this summer! pic.twitter.com/oznLq1A8Qd
— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) May 12, 2026
Mr. Market is Off His Rocker
Shipping industry fears fuel shortages as Iran war squeezes bunker fuel supply Associated Press. Important and discussed in our Iran post
The Price Isn’t Right Arthur Berman
As the paper oil market rallies, in the North Sea physical market we have seen today the first trade at a **discount** to the Dated Brent benchmark since the war started.
The ironies of the oil market: when plenty (next few days) and dearth (next few weeks) coexist.
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) May 12, 2026
AI
Where Are All The Data Centers? Ed Zitron
‘
The Bezzle
Waymo issues recall to deal with a flooding problem Techcrunch (Kevin W)
Marc Andreessen just leaked the system prompt he uses to make every LLM 10x smarter.
It’s called the Anti-Glaze System Prompt.
One paste. Your AI stops kissing your ass and starts telling you the truth.
Here’s what it actually does:
→ Kills “great question” forever
→ Kills… pic.twitter.com/f153qbxj8u— Guri Singh (@heygurisingh) May 12, 2026
Class Warfare
GM Cutting Hundreds of Salaried IT Workers As It Trims Costs, Evaluates Needs CNBC
There Is a Fire Sale on M.B.A.s Wall Street Journal. No archived or syndicated version yet.
Antidote du jour. Tracie H: “This is one I pulled up for Mother’s day”:
And a bonus. Is this a result of dogs with old human carers who perform manual labor?
While her owner struggled to lift a loaded wheelbarrow, her dog saw her and immediately ran to help her. ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/fmB4lzShZZ
— The Best (@Thebestfigen) May 12, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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