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marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
April 26, 2025
Dan Davies' "Unaccountability Machine" is a highly unusual management book with a revolutionary message
By Paul Rosenberg
Contributing Writer
Published April 26, 2025 9:00AM (EDT)
(Salon) There are many ways to understand the political chaos of our time. Many of those recall the famous folktale of the blind men and the elephant, while a handful offer more comprehensive takes. With its focus on the problem of information overload, Dan Davies' book “The Unaccountability Machine” provides an unexpected example of the latter, with a distinctive twist: Davies is a former banking regulator with a clear sense of what needs to be done to restore a sense of order on more equitable foundations.
....(snip)....
Davies writes that his central subject is “the biggest problem of modern industrial life — the problem of being overloaded with information, of ‘trying to get a drink from a firehose.’” But as he unfolds his explanation, it has much broader application in understanding our current worldwide political situation. He tells the story of three successive intellectual and organizational revolutions: the all-but-forgotten managerial revolution, the promising, but partially derailed cybernetic revolution — which could have made sense of the managerial revolution and built on it constructively — and then the neoliberal revolution that overtook us instead.
....(snip)....
Your book is about information overload, and specifically the problems of unaccountability that come out of that. You start by developing the idea of an “accountability sink.” What does that mean, and how does it work? And how is it sometimes beneficial?
The accountability sink was the original concept that I started thinking about when doing the research for this book. It's just a social, organizational, legal and managerial mechanism whereby a decision is created that has no identifiable human being as its owner. You have a decision that nobody seems to have made, and consequently nobody can be held accountable for it. I wanted to write a book about how terrible this all was and what bad people managers were. Nobody took accountability for anything anymore, and isn't that terrible.
....(snip)....
With that we move from the managerial revolution and the cybernetic revolution — which tried to make sense of the managerial revolution — to the neoliberal revolution of the 1970s onward. Your essential insight about neoliberalism, as I read it, is that it emerged in a time of crisis with a strong identity tied to systematically throwing away, or “attenuating,” an enormous variety of data, basically everything except present-tense costs and prices. That was a way to simplify the world for top decision-makers who faced what Alvin Toffler described as "Future Shock." Is that a fair reading?
..... Around the time of the 1970s when the leveraged buyouts, Milton Friedman, all those people got going, there were still plenty of people like J.K. Galbraith and Herbert Simon who were writing about the world of industry as if we were in a new period where “capitalism versus socialism” was no longer particularly relevant, because the modern industrial world was controlled by a techno-structure, and the people who were now interesting to look at were not the capital owners, the bourgeoisie and the investors, they were the managers, soldiers and civil servants who were the people who actually controlled the means of production in the world. That was something in the air at that time. ..............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/26/why-the-world-stopped-making-sense-how-the-neoliberal-class-war-fueled-global-chaos/
Why the world stopped making sense: How the neoliberal "class war" fueled global chaos
Why the world stopped making sense: How the neoliberal "class war" fueled global chaosDan Davies' "Unaccountability Machine" is a highly unusual management book with a revolutionary message
By Paul Rosenberg
Contributing Writer
Published April 26, 2025 9:00AM (EDT)
(Salon) There are many ways to understand the political chaos of our time. Many of those recall the famous folktale of the blind men and the elephant, while a handful offer more comprehensive takes. With its focus on the problem of information overload, Dan Davies' book “The Unaccountability Machine” provides an unexpected example of the latter, with a distinctive twist: Davies is a former banking regulator with a clear sense of what needs to be done to restore a sense of order on more equitable foundations.
....(snip)....
Davies writes that his central subject is “the biggest problem of modern industrial life — the problem of being overloaded with information, of ‘trying to get a drink from a firehose.’” But as he unfolds his explanation, it has much broader application in understanding our current worldwide political situation. He tells the story of three successive intellectual and organizational revolutions: the all-but-forgotten managerial revolution, the promising, but partially derailed cybernetic revolution — which could have made sense of the managerial revolution and built on it constructively — and then the neoliberal revolution that overtook us instead.
....(snip)....
Your book is about information overload, and specifically the problems of unaccountability that come out of that. You start by developing the idea of an “accountability sink.” What does that mean, and how does it work? And how is it sometimes beneficial?
The accountability sink was the original concept that I started thinking about when doing the research for this book. It's just a social, organizational, legal and managerial mechanism whereby a decision is created that has no identifiable human being as its owner. You have a decision that nobody seems to have made, and consequently nobody can be held accountable for it. I wanted to write a book about how terrible this all was and what bad people managers were. Nobody took accountability for anything anymore, and isn't that terrible.
....(snip)....
With that we move from the managerial revolution and the cybernetic revolution — which tried to make sense of the managerial revolution — to the neoliberal revolution of the 1970s onward. Your essential insight about neoliberalism, as I read it, is that it emerged in a time of crisis with a strong identity tied to systematically throwing away, or “attenuating,” an enormous variety of data, basically everything except present-tense costs and prices. That was a way to simplify the world for top decision-makers who faced what Alvin Toffler described as "Future Shock." Is that a fair reading?
..... Around the time of the 1970s when the leveraged buyouts, Milton Friedman, all those people got going, there were still plenty of people like J.K. Galbraith and Herbert Simon who were writing about the world of industry as if we were in a new period where “capitalism versus socialism” was no longer particularly relevant, because the modern industrial world was controlled by a techno-structure, and the people who were now interesting to look at were not the capital owners, the bourgeoisie and the investors, they were the managers, soldiers and civil servants who were the people who actually controlled the means of production in the world. That was something in the air at that time. ..............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/26/why-the-world-stopped-making-sense-how-the-neoliberal-class-war-fueled-global-chaos/
April 26, 2025
Trump's agenda is unravelling - and Americans are taking note
Polls suggest that voters are increasingly losing confidence in Trump’s policies
Radina Gigova
April 26, 2025 6:00 am (Updated 8:38 am)
Confidence in President Donald Trump’s agenda is steadily eroding, according to multiple polls that show his approval rating hitting new lows as scandals, feuds and policy U-turns become an increasingly prominent part of his presidency.
As the 100th day of Trump’s second term draws near, the repercussions and reality of his swift and sweeping policies are becoming ever clearer to the American public.
Several polls this week showed his approval rating sinking to -19, according to the Pew Research Centre, -13, according to the Economist and YouGov, and -11, according to Reuters-Ipsos.
The US President has often called unflattering reports and comments “fake news”, but the latest polling includes even administration-friendly outlet Fox News, which gave him a -11 approval rating.
“What you’re seeing with the disapproval of President Trump is not surprising,” said Michael Sozan, Senior Fellow at the Washington-based think-tank the Centre for American Progress. ...............(more)
https://inews.co.uk/news/trumps-agenda-is-unravelling-and-americans-are-taking-note-3661211
Trump's agenda is unravelling - and Americans are taking note
Trump's agenda is unravelling - and Americans are taking note
Polls suggest that voters are increasingly losing confidence in Trump’s policies
Radina Gigova
April 26, 2025 6:00 am (Updated 8:38 am)
Confidence in President Donald Trump’s agenda is steadily eroding, according to multiple polls that show his approval rating hitting new lows as scandals, feuds and policy U-turns become an increasingly prominent part of his presidency.
As the 100th day of Trump’s second term draws near, the repercussions and reality of his swift and sweeping policies are becoming ever clearer to the American public.
Several polls this week showed his approval rating sinking to -19, according to the Pew Research Centre, -13, according to the Economist and YouGov, and -11, according to Reuters-Ipsos.
The US President has often called unflattering reports and comments “fake news”, but the latest polling includes even administration-friendly outlet Fox News, which gave him a -11 approval rating.
“What you’re seeing with the disapproval of President Trump is not surprising,” said Michael Sozan, Senior Fellow at the Washington-based think-tank the Centre for American Progress. ...............(more)
https://inews.co.uk/news/trumps-agenda-is-unravelling-and-americans-are-taking-note-3661211
April 26, 2025
Trump is not invincible: Democrats, immigrants and the politics of due process
Polls suggest Trump is losing his appeal on immigration, suggesting his opponents can shape public opinion
By Charles R. Davis
News Editor
Published April 25, 2025 12:00PM (EDT)
(Salon) It’s a setup, they said: President Donald Trump, an accomplished demagogue with his finger on the pulse of America’s most reactionary voters, wanted Democrats to make a big fuss about his lawless deportations and extraordinary renditions — to show how out of touch they are with the majority of Americans who say they want fewer people to step foot in their country.
“Look, what Donald Trump did was set up a trap for Democrats to run into,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told a newspaper in Tucson last month. He was talking about the hundreds of Venezuelan men expelled from the country without due process and sent to a prison in El Salvador, where, according to the administration, they should remain until they die. “Of the 500 they sent there, I’m sure 200 of them are actually hardcore criminals,” Gallego said (reporting suggests that more than 90% have no criminal conviction anywhere in the world). “Now, are we going to go run to the podium and defend and try to get those people back? No, absolutely not.”
....(snip)....
Democratic timidity is an understandable reaction to seeing former Vice President Kamala Harris lose to an already-disgraced man who campaigned on little more than the idea that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and, accordingly, responsible for all of its problems. It’s also craven and wrong; even if throwing foreigners into a volcano polled at upwards of 90%, opposition would be both justified and required for the simple fact that civilized, free societies do not incinerate their guests.
....(snip)....
For too long, many Democrats have treated public opinion as something they must respond to rather than shape. That has resulted in cliched language that tests well in a focus group but feels inauthentic to real voters who do not actually care, in practice, about Bipartisan Solutions to America’s Policy Challenges. In the case of immigrants, some Democrats decided to just do the right thing — to not just abandon an inconvenient category of human beings — while noting that the rule of law benefits all. .................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/25/is-not-invincible-democrats-and-the-of-due-process/
Trump is not invincible: Democrats, immigrants and the politics of due process
Trump is not invincible: Democrats, immigrants and the politics of due process
Polls suggest Trump is losing his appeal on immigration, suggesting his opponents can shape public opinion
By Charles R. Davis
News Editor
Published April 25, 2025 12:00PM (EDT)
(Salon) It’s a setup, they said: President Donald Trump, an accomplished demagogue with his finger on the pulse of America’s most reactionary voters, wanted Democrats to make a big fuss about his lawless deportations and extraordinary renditions — to show how out of touch they are with the majority of Americans who say they want fewer people to step foot in their country.
“Look, what Donald Trump did was set up a trap for Democrats to run into,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told a newspaper in Tucson last month. He was talking about the hundreds of Venezuelan men expelled from the country without due process and sent to a prison in El Salvador, where, according to the administration, they should remain until they die. “Of the 500 they sent there, I’m sure 200 of them are actually hardcore criminals,” Gallego said (reporting suggests that more than 90% have no criminal conviction anywhere in the world). “Now, are we going to go run to the podium and defend and try to get those people back? No, absolutely not.”
....(snip)....
Democratic timidity is an understandable reaction to seeing former Vice President Kamala Harris lose to an already-disgraced man who campaigned on little more than the idea that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and, accordingly, responsible for all of its problems. It’s also craven and wrong; even if throwing foreigners into a volcano polled at upwards of 90%, opposition would be both justified and required for the simple fact that civilized, free societies do not incinerate their guests.
....(snip)....
For too long, many Democrats have treated public opinion as something they must respond to rather than shape. That has resulted in cliched language that tests well in a focus group but feels inauthentic to real voters who do not actually care, in practice, about Bipartisan Solutions to America’s Policy Challenges. In the case of immigrants, some Democrats decided to just do the right thing — to not just abandon an inconvenient category of human beings — while noting that the rule of law benefits all. .................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/25/is-not-invincible-democrats-and-the-of-due-process/
April 25, 2025
Humans think — AI, not so much. Science explains why our brains aren't just fancy computers
New research is revealing how specialized neurons give our brains an edge artificial intelligence can only dream of
By Carlyn Zwarenstein
Published April 25, 2025 5:30AM (EDT)
(Salon) The world, and countless generations of interactions with it, coaxed our brains to evolve in the unique way that humans perceive reality. And yet, thanks to the past century's developments in cognitive science and now artificial intelligence, we have entrenched a view of the brain that doesn't spend much time on this dynamic. Instead, most of us tend to see our brains as a "network" made of undifferentiated brain cells. These neurons produce cognition by the patterns in which groups of them fire at once — a model that has inspired advanced computers and AI.
....(snip)....
In fact, in the modern, popular understanding of the brain, we really tend to think of this organ as a sophisticated version of the technology it inspired. Merriam-Webster defines neural network as "a computer architecture in which a number of processors are interconnected in a manner suggestive of the connections between neurons in a human brain and which is able to learn by a process of trial and error." This is a typical definition, in which the computer-brain analogy focuses on the distributed connections between neurons (or, in a computer, nodes) with no attention to what exactly those neurons are for.
....(snip)....
There are brain cells that represent entire concepts, some with an affinity for visual information and others for olfactory input. Scientists have also found neurons that can encode entire concepts with the firing of a single cell, or that are devoted to specific aspects of cognition and how we represent the world, and that fire when their particular function is needed: warm-sensitive neurons, place cells and related time cells, olfactory concept cells, visual concept cells, Lepr neurons that control metabolism... the list of discoveries is long and still growing.
....(snip)....
There are brain cells that represent entire concepts, some with an affinity for visual information and others for olfactory input. Scientists have also found neurons that can encode entire concepts with the firing of a single cell, or that are devoted to specific aspects of cognition and how we represent the world, and that fire when their particular function is needed: warm-sensitive neurons, place cells and related time cells, olfactory concept cells, visual concept cells, Lepr neurons that control metabolism... the list of discoveries is long and still growing. .....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/25/humans-think--ai-not-so-much-science-explains-why-our-brains-arent-just-fancy-computers/
Humans think -- AI, not so much. Science explains why our brains aren't just fancy computers
Humans think — AI, not so much. Science explains why our brains aren't just fancy computers
New research is revealing how specialized neurons give our brains an edge artificial intelligence can only dream of
By Carlyn Zwarenstein
Published April 25, 2025 5:30AM (EDT)
(Salon) The world, and countless generations of interactions with it, coaxed our brains to evolve in the unique way that humans perceive reality. And yet, thanks to the past century's developments in cognitive science and now artificial intelligence, we have entrenched a view of the brain that doesn't spend much time on this dynamic. Instead, most of us tend to see our brains as a "network" made of undifferentiated brain cells. These neurons produce cognition by the patterns in which groups of them fire at once — a model that has inspired advanced computers and AI.
....(snip)....
In fact, in the modern, popular understanding of the brain, we really tend to think of this organ as a sophisticated version of the technology it inspired. Merriam-Webster defines neural network as "a computer architecture in which a number of processors are interconnected in a manner suggestive of the connections between neurons in a human brain and which is able to learn by a process of trial and error." This is a typical definition, in which the computer-brain analogy focuses on the distributed connections between neurons (or, in a computer, nodes) with no attention to what exactly those neurons are for.
....(snip)....
There are brain cells that represent entire concepts, some with an affinity for visual information and others for olfactory input. Scientists have also found neurons that can encode entire concepts with the firing of a single cell, or that are devoted to specific aspects of cognition and how we represent the world, and that fire when their particular function is needed: warm-sensitive neurons, place cells and related time cells, olfactory concept cells, visual concept cells, Lepr neurons that control metabolism... the list of discoveries is long and still growing.
....(snip)....
There are brain cells that represent entire concepts, some with an affinity for visual information and others for olfactory input. Scientists have also found neurons that can encode entire concepts with the firing of a single cell, or that are devoted to specific aspects of cognition and how we represent the world, and that fire when their particular function is needed: warm-sensitive neurons, place cells and related time cells, olfactory concept cells, visual concept cells, Lepr neurons that control metabolism... the list of discoveries is long and still growing. .....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/25/humans-think--ai-not-so-much-science-explains-why-our-brains-arent-just-fancy-computers/
April 25, 2025
Why MAGA media is fixated on a Texas teen murder case
The racist exploitation of Austin Metcalf's killing shows how MAGA tears local communities apart
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published April 25, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)
(Salon) If anyone hoped that the Jan. 6 defendants Donald Trump released from jail would be humbled enough to embrace a quieter, more productive existence, well, the exact opposite is happening with quite a few of them. And one post-pardon case is already sticking out for sheer depravity. Jake Lang, who spent years in jail while contending with multiple charges for violence during the Capitol riot, is making a racist spectacle of a high school murder case in Texas.
On April 2, Austin Metcalf, 17, was stabbed to death at a track meet in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas. Karmelo Anthony, also 17, was charged with murder, after admitting he stabbed Metcalf to police. Metcalf was white. Anthony is Black. Lang saw an opportunity and leapt into action. After circulating a flyer with Metcalf's face labeled "Protect White Americans," Lang descended on this Texas suburb to lead a rally painting Black Americans as a near-existential threat to white Americans.
When Jeff Metcalf, the victim's father, called Lang during the rally, the former inmate now running for State Secretary Marco Rubio's Florida Senate seat, got visibly excited. But his joy turned to rage when Metcalf did not play along with the racist stunt. "You’re trying to create more race divide than bridging the gap," Metcalf declared, and an enraged Lang called this reaction "weakness."
Lang is a clown, but he is not an outlier. The whole of right-wing media, including Fox News, has decided to make a spectacle of this case, with endless, breathless coverage painting this single situation as symbolic of what they view as a racist war on white people. It's useful agitprop for MAGA, which desperately needs a distraction from Trump's failures and falling approval ratings. It's gross, and it's coming at a high cost for the families involved and the larger community, ratcheting up racial tensions and sowing paranoia, all over a case that is already heart-wrenching enough. .................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/25/why-maga-media-is-fixated-on-a-texas-teen-case/
Desperate MAGA exploits a teen killing
Why MAGA media is fixated on a Texas teen murder case
The racist exploitation of Austin Metcalf's killing shows how MAGA tears local communities apart
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published April 25, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)
(Salon) If anyone hoped that the Jan. 6 defendants Donald Trump released from jail would be humbled enough to embrace a quieter, more productive existence, well, the exact opposite is happening with quite a few of them. And one post-pardon case is already sticking out for sheer depravity. Jake Lang, who spent years in jail while contending with multiple charges for violence during the Capitol riot, is making a racist spectacle of a high school murder case in Texas.
On April 2, Austin Metcalf, 17, was stabbed to death at a track meet in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas. Karmelo Anthony, also 17, was charged with murder, after admitting he stabbed Metcalf to police. Metcalf was white. Anthony is Black. Lang saw an opportunity and leapt into action. After circulating a flyer with Metcalf's face labeled "Protect White Americans," Lang descended on this Texas suburb to lead a rally painting Black Americans as a near-existential threat to white Americans.
When Jeff Metcalf, the victim's father, called Lang during the rally, the former inmate now running for State Secretary Marco Rubio's Florida Senate seat, got visibly excited. But his joy turned to rage when Metcalf did not play along with the racist stunt. "You’re trying to create more race divide than bridging the gap," Metcalf declared, and an enraged Lang called this reaction "weakness."
Lang is a clown, but he is not an outlier. The whole of right-wing media, including Fox News, has decided to make a spectacle of this case, with endless, breathless coverage painting this single situation as symbolic of what they view as a racist war on white people. It's useful agitprop for MAGA, which desperately needs a distraction from Trump's failures and falling approval ratings. It's gross, and it's coming at a high cost for the families involved and the larger community, ratcheting up racial tensions and sowing paranoia, all over a case that is already heart-wrenching enough. .................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/25/why-maga-media-is-fixated-on-a-texas-teen-case/
April 24, 2025
For passengers who don’t want to buy a pricey Amtrak ride to Philadelphia, taking a SEPTA train from Trenton has been the cheaper option.
But that option could disappear as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Public Transportation Authority, SEPTA, tries to close a $213 million budget gap by axing five commuter rail lines, 50 bus routes, closing 66 stations and shutting down metro and commuter rail service at 9 a.m.
A 21% fare increase accompanies the service cuts.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it is the doomsday cycle of service cuts and falling ridership advocates feared would happen to NJ Transit without a dedicated source of funding. ........................(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/55284374/nj-trenton-philadelphia-train-service-faces-elimination-in-septa-budget-cuts
Trenton-Philadelphia train service faces elimination in SEPTA budget cuts
For passengers who don’t want to buy a pricey Amtrak ride to Philadelphia, taking a SEPTA train from Trenton has been the cheaper option.
But that option could disappear as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Public Transportation Authority, SEPTA, tries to close a $213 million budget gap by axing five commuter rail lines, 50 bus routes, closing 66 stations and shutting down metro and commuter rail service at 9 a.m.
A 21% fare increase accompanies the service cuts.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it is the doomsday cycle of service cuts and falling ridership advocates feared would happen to NJ Transit without a dedicated source of funding. ........................(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/55284374/nj-trenton-philadelphia-train-service-faces-elimination-in-septa-budget-cuts
April 24, 2025
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a series of education-focused orders Wednesday related to accreditation in higher education, school discipline policies, historically Black colleges and universities, artificial intelligence in education and workforce development.
The executive orders are the latest in a slew of efforts from Trump to dramatically reshape the federal role in education. Last month, Trump called on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of her own agency.
In one executive order, Trump aims to “overhaul” college accreditation, setting up more of a clash between his administration and higher education as they look to reform the system responsible for ensuring institutions meet quality standards.
The order directs McMahon to hold accreditors accountable by “denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, for accreditors’ poor performance or violations of federal civil rights law,” according to a White House fact sheet. ...............................(more)
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/04/24/repub/trump-signs-education-orders-including-overhaul-of-college-accreditations/
Trump signs education orders, including overhaul of college accreditations
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a series of education-focused orders Wednesday related to accreditation in higher education, school discipline policies, historically Black colleges and universities, artificial intelligence in education and workforce development.
The executive orders are the latest in a slew of efforts from Trump to dramatically reshape the federal role in education. Last month, Trump called on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of her own agency.
In one executive order, Trump aims to “overhaul” college accreditation, setting up more of a clash between his administration and higher education as they look to reform the system responsible for ensuring institutions meet quality standards.
The order directs McMahon to hold accreditors accountable by “denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, for accreditors’ poor performance or violations of federal civil rights law,” according to a White House fact sheet. ...............................(more)
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/04/24/repub/trump-signs-education-orders-including-overhaul-of-college-accreditations/
April 24, 2025
A torrent of infectious diseases is erupting from melting ice. We shouldn't freak out just yet
As the world heats up, vast numbers of microbes frozen in vast amounts of ice are set to thaw. We must prepare
By Carlyn Zwarenstein
Published April 24, 2025 5:15AM (EDT)
(Salon) You may feel that we all have enough to worry about, and thus have no need for the spectre of zombie-like reanimated bacteria or viruses in thawing permafrost that set off a story straight out of a sci-fi flick. Unfortunately, it's a looming reality thanks to climate change.
Luckily, scientists tell us that while it's high time we thought carefully about how we are going to manage the vast numbers of microbes being released along with equally vast quantities of melting ice and thawing permafrost as a result of global heating, there is no need to panic nor to sensationalize the issue.
....(snip)....
"The rate at which we lost ice during these 23 years is approximately the amount of water contained in four Olympic pools, per second. So that's a lot of microbes that will disperse around the ecosystems, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems," said Yarzábal, who published a 2021 review with two colleagues exploring existing literature regarding the consequences of such a large store of microbes being steadily released back into the environment. And that's just glaciers. There are still the thawing permafrost and melting ice sheets to take into account. All of these, however unpolluted, contain their own microbial worlds. Worlds with between ten and 100 million microbes per milliliter of ice, depending on the kind of ice, Yarzábal said.
....(snip)....
Already we've had a warning of what could happen: in 2016, Siberia had an extremely hot summer. The permafrost melted, exposing in the process the frozen carcasses of reindeer who had died an estimated 150 years before thanks to an epidemic of anthrax. While the animals were dead, some of the bacteria in them had remained alive, and when curious living reindeer came into contact with the remains of their frozen ancestors, they became infected with the spore-forming bacteria, Bacillus anthracis. As Yarzábal told Salon, almost 2,500 animals died and many hundreds of people (who, in this area, are in close contact with reindeer, relying on them as a source of protein for food and commerce) became infected, with at least one small human child dying as a result. ...................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/24/a-torrent-of-infectious-diseases-is-erupting-from-melting-ice-we-shouldnt-freak-out-just-yet/
A torrent of infectious diseases is erupting from melting ice. We shouldn't freak out just yet
A torrent of infectious diseases is erupting from melting ice. We shouldn't freak out just yet
As the world heats up, vast numbers of microbes frozen in vast amounts of ice are set to thaw. We must prepare
By Carlyn Zwarenstein
Published April 24, 2025 5:15AM (EDT)
(Salon) You may feel that we all have enough to worry about, and thus have no need for the spectre of zombie-like reanimated bacteria or viruses in thawing permafrost that set off a story straight out of a sci-fi flick. Unfortunately, it's a looming reality thanks to climate change.
Luckily, scientists tell us that while it's high time we thought carefully about how we are going to manage the vast numbers of microbes being released along with equally vast quantities of melting ice and thawing permafrost as a result of global heating, there is no need to panic nor to sensationalize the issue.
....(snip)....
"The rate at which we lost ice during these 23 years is approximately the amount of water contained in four Olympic pools, per second. So that's a lot of microbes that will disperse around the ecosystems, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems," said Yarzábal, who published a 2021 review with two colleagues exploring existing literature regarding the consequences of such a large store of microbes being steadily released back into the environment. And that's just glaciers. There are still the thawing permafrost and melting ice sheets to take into account. All of these, however unpolluted, contain their own microbial worlds. Worlds with between ten and 100 million microbes per milliliter of ice, depending on the kind of ice, Yarzábal said.
....(snip)....
Already we've had a warning of what could happen: in 2016, Siberia had an extremely hot summer. The permafrost melted, exposing in the process the frozen carcasses of reindeer who had died an estimated 150 years before thanks to an epidemic of anthrax. While the animals were dead, some of the bacteria in them had remained alive, and when curious living reindeer came into contact with the remains of their frozen ancestors, they became infected with the spore-forming bacteria, Bacillus anthracis. As Yarzábal told Salon, almost 2,500 animals died and many hundreds of people (who, in this area, are in close contact with reindeer, relying on them as a source of protein for food and commerce) became infected, with at least one small human child dying as a result. ...................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/24/a-torrent-of-infectious-diseases-is-erupting-from-melting-ice-we-shouldnt-freak-out-just-yet/
April 24, 2025
Recent news reports have given Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plenty of reason to sweat under the bright lights, but he still doesn't want people to know where he fixes his makeup.
The former Fox News host turned head of the Department of Defense raged over a CBS News report that he installed a makeup studio just outside of the Pentagon's press briefing room. The outlet shared that Hegseth had spent "several thousand dollars" to add a new chair and mirror with makeup lighting in the green room.
"Totally fake story," Hegseth wrote on X. "No 'orders' and no 'makeup' — but whatever."
Hegseth went on to suggest that the "leftist 'news' media" would rather see him install "tampon machines in every men’s bathroom at DoD." ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/23/should-have-installed-tampon-machines-hegseth-bashes-report-of-his-new-makeup-room-in-pentagon/?in_brief=true
Hegseth rages over makeup room report
Recent news reports have given Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plenty of reason to sweat under the bright lights, but he still doesn't want people to know where he fixes his makeup.
The former Fox News host turned head of the Department of Defense raged over a CBS News report that he installed a makeup studio just outside of the Pentagon's press briefing room. The outlet shared that Hegseth had spent "several thousand dollars" to add a new chair and mirror with makeup lighting in the green room.
"Totally fake story," Hegseth wrote on X. "No 'orders' and no 'makeup' — but whatever."
Hegseth went on to suggest that the "leftist 'news' media" would rather see him install "tampon machines in every men’s bathroom at DoD." ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/23/should-have-installed-tampon-machines-hegseth-bashes-report-of-his-new-makeup-room-in-pentagon/?in_brief=true
April 23, 2025
The Walls are Starting to Close in On Trump
Story by Stephen Silver • 22h
Several weeks of bad polling for U.S. President Donald Trump led to a new poll featuring what, in that poll, is the lowest approval rating of Trump’s second presidency.
....(snip)....
Reuters/Ipsos found that Trump’s approval rating was underwater on most major issues, including “from inflation and immigration to taxation and rule of law.” Even on immigration, traditionally seen as Trump’s strongest issue, 45 percent of Reuters respondents approve and 46 percent disapprove.
Of those polled, 83 percent said the president “ must obey federal court rulings even if he doesn't want to.” In addition, a full two-thirds of respondents, 66 percent, answered that they “did not think the president should be in control of premier cultural institutions such as national museums and theaters.”
....(snip)....
“As more and more Americans begin to feel the pain of his policies, we may well look back on his first 100 days as the prelude to a historically unpopular presidency,” Sosnik, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, wrote in the Times. ..............(more)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-walls-are-starting-to-close-in-on-trump/ar-AA1DoU0J
The Walls are Starting to Close in On Trump
The Walls are Starting to Close in On Trump
Story by Stephen Silver • 22h
Several weeks of bad polling for U.S. President Donald Trump led to a new poll featuring what, in that poll, is the lowest approval rating of Trump’s second presidency.
....(snip)....
Reuters/Ipsos found that Trump’s approval rating was underwater on most major issues, including “from inflation and immigration to taxation and rule of law.” Even on immigration, traditionally seen as Trump’s strongest issue, 45 percent of Reuters respondents approve and 46 percent disapprove.
Of those polled, 83 percent said the president “ must obey federal court rulings even if he doesn't want to.” In addition, a full two-thirds of respondents, 66 percent, answered that they “did not think the president should be in control of premier cultural institutions such as national museums and theaters.”
....(snip)....
“As more and more Americans begin to feel the pain of his policies, we may well look back on his first 100 days as the prelude to a historically unpopular presidency,” Sosnik, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, wrote in the Times. ..............(more)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-walls-are-starting-to-close-in-on-trump/ar-AA1DoU0J
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