Golf’s cruelest moment: The physics behind the ‘lip out’ phenomenon PhysOrg. An IgNobel prize contender?
2.7-million-year-old tools reveal humanity’s first great innovation ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Canterbury Cathedral: the idea of a sacred building still matters Hilary White (Micael T)
“Good Heavens what insect can suck it?” Brian Klaas (Micael T)
Retire statistical significance! Lars P. Syll
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Using surveillance data from the CDC for notifiable infectious diseases, researchers in Science have made a comprehensive statistical analysis of the indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a range of infections occurring in the U.S.
Learn more: https://t.co/pYyS9Xz3QV pic.twitter.com/lJeHf5BLRQ
— Science Magazine (@ScienceMagazine) November 5, 2025
COVID-19 is spreading again — how serious is it and what are the symptoms? Nature
Tom Hanks explains to Stephen Colbert why he masks on the subway:
“I’m doing a play right now so I cannot get sick… I’ve had COVID enough in my life, I don’t need to do that again. So I’m wearing this for health reasons.”
Thank you Tom! Masks are a key part of public health. pic.twitter.com/DJhzaRbvPf
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) November 4, 2025
Climate/Environment
Six radical ways to cool the planet The Times
Breaking News!
Code UFB!!!The 3-year mean rate of atmospheric CO2 growth just hit a new record high, reaching a growth rate of 7.88 ppm per 3 years for October, 2025. This breaks the previous record high of 7.83 ppm per 3 years, from February, 2019.
Net-Zero by 2050? pic.twitter.com/Bv1jf3b7r2
— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) November 1, 2025
Antarctic Glacier Saw the Fastest Retreat In Modern History CNN
Deadly Rivers in the Sky Washington Post. We’ve had a very wet and long rainy season here. And it’s been weirdly cool.
The level of anomalies in the Northern Hemisphere is insane, we are past the 2023/2024 anomalies and the +1C vs 1991/2020
Note specially the anomalies from 30N to 80N: It’s brutal and there is not a bit of hype here.
It is what it is: insaneMaps kudos:Tropicaltibit & Ryan Maue pic.twitter.com/iP1iRrHiHt
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) November 3, 2025
Storm warning in Brazil and Paraguay: gusts of wind and hail cause massive damage Global Vision
How a warmer world is making pregnancy riskier Financial Times
Water
Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future World Bank
India’s digital thirst: Data centres are rising in water-scarce regions — and locals are paying the price Down to Earth
Iraq facing ‘worst drought season’ since its establishment: MP New Region
Only three to five years left to save Gorgan Gulf, watchdog warns Iran International
China?
China Fields World’s First Stealth Fighters Equipped For Air Defence Suppression Military Watch
Why climate change now threatens China’s future Economist
Indonesia’s China-backed bullet train derailed by mounting debt Financial Times
Koreas
US issues new North Korea sanctions, pressures UNSC to follow suit The Cradle (Kevin W)
Africa
Hundreds feared dead in days of protests after disputed Tanzanian elections Sky
Starvation as a weapon of war: how Ethiopia created a famine in Tigray The Conversation
O Canada
TMX Opens Asia Route As Canadian Crude Discounts Narrow OilPrice (resilc)
European Disunion
Germany is arming itself to the teeth to transform Europe again Telegraph
FT: How Friedrich Merz is testing Germany’s patience International Affairs (Micael T)
Paris’s futile efforts: why is French military-technical cooperation with its allies failing? NEO (Micael T)
Old Blighty
Anxious Aston residents prepare for Villa’s match against Maccabi Tel Aviv Guardian
EXCLUSIVE: We can reveal the police assessment behind the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans found hundreds of them in Amsterdam were “linked to the IDF”.
Dutch police said they were “experienced fighters”, “highly organised” and “intent on causing serious violence”.
Full story below pic.twitter.com/e7323vPR85
— Imran Mulla (@Imran_posts) November 4, 2025
Israel v. The Resistance
The Israeli army has launched raids and intensive artillery shelling while carrying out demolitions in southern Gaza amid the ongoing ceasefire.
🔴 Follow our LIVE coverage ⤵️ https://t.co/0HtlbtBAZX
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 5, 2025
Gaza Ceasefire Illusion: The Art of Turning Truces into Tactical Pauses 21st Century Wire
Money, mercenaries and mayhem: How Israel and UAE are investing in regional chaos Middle East Eye (resilc)
.
New Not-So-Cold War
American nazis in Kyiv Events in Ukraine
Pentagon Concedes Russian Threat as Trump-Era Policy Shop Faces Revolt in Senate Hearing Kyiv Post
Imperial Collapse Watch
The New Reality of War – Russian Think Tank Analysis Simplicius. A must read. Implications way beyond the Ukraine conflict.
How Many More Cloud Scares Does Europe Need? Project Syndicate
Our $100,000 GMC is Total Garbage YouTube (resilc)
Running it back with better standards! These companies have some explaining to do! YouTube (resilc)
Trump 2.0
An Anarchist’s Conviction Offers a Grim Foreshadowing of Trump’s War on the ‘Left’ Wired (resilc)
Why the Hell Did JD Vance and Erika Kirk Hug Like That? New Republic
Dick Cheney, Good Riddance
Cheney, architect of endless war, helped kill our faith in leaders Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
Dick Cheney Proves Old Proverb is True Larry Johnson
Shutdown
Army charity offers grants to soldiers missing SNAP payments Task & Purpose. resilc: “When does the fragging start?”
Democrat Death Wish
Zohran Mamdani wins New York as Democratic US electoral sweep deals blow to Donald Trump Financial Times. Lead story. No archived version yet. Trump is managing to rescue the Democrats from themselves, at least so far. Given Trump’s propensity to violence to reassert his manhood, this result pretty much guarantees more domestic thuggery and increases the odds of some sort of action versus Venezuela.
Democrats Dent Trump’s Coalition With Three Big Election Wins Wall Street Journal. Lead story. No archived version yet.
Trump blames shutdown for Republicans’ election losses to Democrats Axios
The Democratic Establishment’s Scam: Pretend Populism Corbin Trent (resilc)
Bernie Sanders: ‘There Ain’t Much of a Democratic Party’ New York Times (resilc)
Democrats brace for Nancy Pelosi’s possible retirement NBC
California voters approve new US House map to boost Democrats in 2026 Associated Press (Kevin W). A rare and effective show of muscle.
Hakeem Jeffries Says Trump Is Running “Pedophile Protection Program” New Republic. resilc: “we will see how Hakeem sings when Billy Clinton is on the list…..”
Mamdani. Key is that he got 50.3% of the vote. Even though a bare majority, it is a majority, so he can’t be depicted as not really representing the will of NYC voters. And this despite billionaire and Zionist opposition and the Democrats ranging from not supporting him to opposing him. Please be sure to check out today’s Coffee Break, since I am highly confident that Nat will cover it, having been just about alone in highlighting the importance of the NYC mayor’s race before Mamdani became a serious contender.
Mamdani seals remarkable victory – but real challenges await BBC. Dependence on New York State and Federal funding, which can be used to jerk Mamdani around, is one:
Zohran Mamdani is elected NYC mayor, defeating Andrew Cuomo in historic win Gothamist
Mamdani wins: How a democratic socialist toppled the Empire State machine Salon
Mamdani’s victory is a rebuke to the failed strategies of the Democratic party Guardian (Kevin W)
Our No Longer Free Press
A low-stakes critical thinking exercise for online media Libre Solutions Network (Micael T)
The War Party Is Out of Ideological Ammunition Antiwar (resilc). More on the Zionists hating on Tucker
A Journalist Asked Why Israel Isn’t Paying to Rebuild Gaza. It Cost Him His Job. Intercept
Mr. Market is Moody
Tech and chip stocks tumble across Asia as investors rethink the AI boom Business Insider
Banking System Vulnerability: 2025 Update Liberty Street Economics
Economy
Why the Administration Is Happy Not to See the October Employment Numbers Menzie Chinn
Mapped: GDP Growth by U.S. State (1990-2024) Visual Capitalist (resilc)
AI
Here’s How the AI Crash Happens The Atlantic (Paul R)
‘Godfather of AI’ says tech giants can’t profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replaced Fortune (resilc)
The police’s new tool: AI-generated child porn Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
The Bezzle
They survived the hurricane. Their insurance company didn’t. Grist
Waymo To Expand Robotaxi Service To Las Vegas, San Diego and Detroit Next Year Reuters
Class Warfare
Top 10 US billionaires’ collective wealth grew by $698bn in past year – report Guardian (resilc)
Private equity firms are snapping up mobile home parks − and driving out the residents who can least afford to lose them The Conversation
Kraft Heinz Says Consumers CUTTING Staples From Grocery Cart Breaking Points. We posted on Kraft Heinz’s woes before. It’s not just rising consumer stress but also those who have the budget room choosing healthier options. But this segment has other factoids that demonstrate how widespread belt-tightening is.
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
The elderly dog is forced to do water aerobics and is fighting a sedentary lifestyle against the treadmill.
— The Best (@Thebestfigen) October 8, 2025
A second bonus:
This man is bottle-feeding baby deer fawnspic.twitter.com/O85KAY6XPy
— Wolf of X (@tradingMaxiSL) November 4, 2025
And a third:
This Snow Leopard caught on a trail cam pic.twitter.com/XFAQbYsMqJ
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) November 3, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
