What Makes a Great Bookstore? The Culture Dump (Micael T)
Why Every Great Story Follows the Same Ancient Pattern Ancient Wisdom (Micael T)
Surprising fossil discovery challenges origin of animal life Science Daily (Kevin W)
First News of a Real-Time Controlled Brain Device
Art and Culture Interactions ‘Linked to Slower Speed of Biological Aging’
Do Teens Breastfeed? Lyman Stone (Micael T). Trust me, this is a really good piece.
Shame them, be careful, prevent them, beat them! A History of Exploration (Micael T). Important.
Hantavirus
WHO officials are warning of more hantavirus cases in the coming weeks on CBS. Trying to close the barn door after the horse is in the next stall.
Woman Diagnosed With Hantavirus After Being On Cruise Ship Now On Artificial Lungs In ‘Last Stage Of Supportive Care,’ Doctor Says People. This may seem alarming and click-click but as we said during the Covid (we called this epidemic in January when it is illegal until March) that the principle of precaution, especially with diseases with high mortality rates, is to be overly cautious until the risks are better assessed. Our putting commerce ahead of public health has produced powerful messages to keep people going as usual. If the US didn’t completely demonize masking, that would be a cheap and easy retreat for potentially vulnerable communities.
In disguise, it’s sad that someone would say something so obvious:
Physical measures that can protect against COVID-19, including masks, air purifiers, and ultraviolet disinfectants, can also protect against hantavirus. This is different from biological preventive measures, such as vaccines. Therefore, the most effective way to deal with youth…
– Adam Wong (@Engineer_Wong) May 12, 2026
COVID-19/Pandemics
It is worth noting that there was an almost 50% jump in covid detections in England last week in the NOIDS data for causative agents, and that data is not complete.
— tern (@1gootern) May 12, 2026
‘Highly contagious’ parvovirus circulating throughout Northern California SFGate (Paul R). Symptoms are mild but dangerous for pregnant women. I didn’t see anything re the immunocompromised.
Climate/Environment
Thousands of trout are released into the Stockholm stream here in Mitti by machine translation (Micael T)
New forecasts for May show El Niño rapidly intensifying, with 8 of 10 models pointing to a major event and four showing the strongest on record.
Across all 693 ensemble members, the average is +2.8˚C, in line with the strongest El Niño on record. pic.twitter.com/9pDxNxAkXz
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) May 10, 2026
Global wildfires have hit record highs as ‘unprecedented’ heatwaves sweep through, scientists told Reuters
Wildfires are rising in Europe’s mountains as heat dries up the Earth’s forests
UNUSUAL HEAT WAVES
Weeks with deadly heat and thousands of records in all African countries.There has never been anything like this:
‼️Today 47C in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Mauritania, Chad, Sudan
It can also record in Ouahigouya 🇧🇫 at 44.9C. pic.twitter.com/vHebe76meU
– Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps) May 11, 2026
‘Unusual’: One day in April, all the 50 hottest cities in the world were in one country CNN
Australia’s Rainfall Shortage Deepens Across Eastern Countries E+E Leader
With only global ocean temperatures, @NOAANCEI reports that April 2026 was the 2nd hottest April on record, behind only 2024. Sea temperatures came in at 0.95°C above the 20th century average, or about 1.13°C above the 1880–1920 average.
The surprising part is that this happened in… pic.twitter.com/OfSPPIxDVp
— The Global Warmer🔥🌏 🔥 (@TheGlobalWarmer) May 11, 2026
Maine’s Wild Berry Farms Suffer As Climate Change Extends Growing Seasons Inside Climate News 🙁
China?
Trump’s visit to China looks to the US with signs of stability – and wins the South China Morning Post
Trump Flies to Beijing – But Who’s Really Desperate? Consider the BRICS
Elon Musk and Tim Cook are among the CEOs joining Trump on the BBC’s China tour. Some students expressed doubt that Trump would be able to assemble a team.
Washington slaps new sanctions on China-Iran oil network ahead of Trump’s visit to Beijing The Cradle (Kevin W). I don’t see how China can offer anything to the US because of these insults right before the summit. This is intended to humiliate and China is very sensitive to that.
Trump-Xi summit: Trump will ask Xi to ‘open up’ China DW Stupid to ask but it will play well in the US.
Trump-Xi summit will show that everything is now in power Asia Times (Kevin W)
China again opposes US arms sales to Taiwan Xinhua
Africa
How Nigerians cope with heat waves during crippling blackouts Global Voices. We are coming to many more countries soon
South of the Border
Trump shared a photo depicting Venezuela as the ’51st State’ after commenting on the takeover of Anadolu Agency
CIA steps up secret war on deadly cartels inside Mexico CNN (Ann)
The breakup of Europe
Was this European figure bribed by Team Trump to kill Airbus sales?
A senior European official today suggested that western countries could destroy aircraft sold by western companies to China.
“Europe could ground more than half of all Chinese commercial aircraft by intercepting Chinese Airbus fleet software updates,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European… pic.twitter.com/RccGoKQyKj
— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) May 11, 2026
European energy ministers avoided the Euractiv meeting
EU to ban imports of Brazilian meat from September Euronews
France’s Unemployment Rate Jumps Above 8% For First Time Since 2021 Bloomberg
Old Blighty
Jess Phillips resigned as minister telling Starmer ‘deeds, not words, matter’ after the PM said he would not quit the BBC. It took a while, but it looks like the fuse has finally been lit.
Starmer faces endgame as Wes Streeting launches ‘coup’ to beat leading rivals Middle East Eye
Israel v. The Resistance
Israeli forces planted explosives and blew up life-saving infrastructure in southern Lebanon to fuel mass displacement.
– Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) May 12, 2026
Conflict over Israel divides Eurovision Politico. I hate to express how parochial I am, but I don’t understand why anyone cares about Eurovision. Having said that, delegitimizing Israel is a fair business.
Chinese Oil Tanker Tests Safe Passage Through Strait of Hormuz OilPrice. Note: “… if allowed to pass, it would be only the third ship carrying Chinese oil from the Persian Gulf to pass through Hormuz since the war began.”
US Intelligence Shows Iran Maintains Major Missile Capability New York Times. More on this in our daily Iran post.
The New Cold War
Russia Sends Pacific Fleet to East China Sea to Protect Shipping from US Armed Takeover Military Watch
Lavrov accuses the West of putting pressure on countries not to buy Russian oil TASS
Reflections on a Day by Scott Ritter (Micael T)
Big Brother Watching Watching
Attacking Anonymity On The Internet, And Other Notes Caitlin Johnstone (Micael T)
Imperial Collapse Watch
What Happens When Americans See How Sad We Are? Paul Krugman. Good review, but it would have been nice if Krugman had included the disparity. Unequal societies are unhappy societies.
Federalism for Anti-Fascists Chris Armitage
Trump 2.0
Three Republicans Are Thrown Into The Furnace For Not Bowing To Trump’s Image Babylon Bee
A $1.5b Trump Tower deal on the Gold Coast, Australia has been scrapped. Developer says brand is “toxic” ABC Australia (Ann)
McConnell hits out at Hegseth over the Pentagon funding scheme, alienating The Hill allies
Trump’s Crypto Deal for 500 Million UAE Crypto How to Trade US National Security for Family Profit Center for American Progress
John Helmer: Iran Just Did the Unthinkable – China’s Response to Trump Changes EVERYTHING The Conversation Works. Helmer goes on at length about Trump’s mental limitations, which are severe.
Trump had one of his worst mental health episodes last night, posting over 55 times in 3 hours. Here is the list:
10:15 PM – He accuses Obama of attempting a coup in 2016
10:15 PM – He says Obama worked with the CIA to overthrow Trump
10:15 PM – Retweeting that Obama is…– Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) May 12, 2026
The Supremes
Kitchen Where the Supreme Court Died in WA Lawrence
Ours is No Longer Free
It seems that Israeli intel got wind of Nick Kristof’s upcoming NYT report containing first-hand evidence and extensive documentation of Israeli systematic rape of Palestinian detainees, and turned on their assets for a PR diversion w/ a Daily Mail hoax article the next day.
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 12, 2026
The economy
Worst Spring Drought on Record Puts US Crops at Risk
Tomato CPI +15.1% yoy
Ground beef CPI is up 14.5% for the yearChili cooking is going to be expensive this summer! pic.twitter.com/oznLq1A8Qd
– Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) May 12, 2026
Mr. Market is off His Rocker
Transportation industry fears fuel shortages as war in Iran cuts fuel supplies Associated Press. Important and discussed in our Iran post
The price is wrong Arthur Berman
As the paper oil market rallied, in the North Sea virtual market we saw today the first trade at a **discount** to the Dated Brent benchmark since the start of the war.
The irony of the oil market: when the glut (the next few days) and the famine (the next few weeks) meet.
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) May 12, 2026
The AI
Where Are All The Data Centers? Ed Zitron
‘
Bezzle
Waymo is having trouble remembering to deal with flooding Techcrunch (Kevin W)
Marc Andreessen recently leaked the system he uses to make all LLMs 10x smarter.
It’s called Anti-Glaze System Prompt.
You have attached one. Your AI stops kissing your ass and starts telling you the truth.
Here’s what it actually does:
→ You kill the “big question” forever
→ It kills… pic.twitter.com/f153qbxj8u– Guri Singh (@heygurisingh) May 12, 2026
Class War
GM Cuts Hundreds of Salary IT Workers as It Cuts Costs, Examines Needs CNBC
There’s a Fire Sale in MBAs Wall Street Journal. No version is archived or for sale yet.
Antidote du jour. Tracie H: “This is what I stood up for on Mother’s Day”:
And a bonus. Is this a result of dogs with older caretakers doing manual labor?
When his owner tried to lift the loaded wheelbarrow, his dog saw him and quickly ran to help him. ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/fmB4lzShZZ
— The best (@Thebestfigen) May 12, 2026
See yesterday’s links and the Antidote du Jour here.
