God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours.
HMM: Deadly form of skin cancer ‘overdiagnosed’ in some patients, study finds.
Elizabeth Bowen, Eva Trout. Bowen has to be one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century. No human ever has told me to read one of her books! Yet this one is a subtle knockout.
Book: The Restless Republic:
The author is Anna Keay and the subtitle is Britain Without a Crown, of course covering the 17th century British interregnum without a king. Here is one relevant bit:
The rise of the newspapers was itself an aspect of the explosion in publishing which took place in the mid-seventeenth century. In the year 1500 just over fifty books were printed in England, in 1600 the number was 300, come 1648 more than 2,300 titles poured off the presses in a single year. Perhaps 30 percent of all men and 10 per cent of all women could read, and over double those percentages in the capital, a readership now offered an addictive weekly news fix that involved them as never before in the turbulent goings on of their kingdom.
One of my ongoing projects is to brush up on my seventeenth century European history, out of fear that it may be an especially relevant era right now. The Keay book I found excellent throughout, especially her treatment of the Levellers, Sir William Petty, and more generally how the Irish and English histories of that time intersect.
Do pictures signal less power than words? - new research
This research shows people are perceived as less powerful when they use pictures versus words. This effect was found across picture types (company logos, emojis, and photographs) and use contexts (clothing prints, written messages, and Zoom profiles). Mediation analysis and a mediation-by-moderation design show this happens because picture-use signals a greater desire for social proximity (versus distance) than word-use, and a desire for social proximity is associated with lower power. Finally, we find that people strategically use words (pictures) when aiming to signal more (less) power. We refute alternative explanations including differences in the content of pictures and words, the medium’s perceived appropriateness, the context’s formality, and the target’s age and gender. Our research shows pictures and words are not interchangeable means of representation. Rather, they signal distinct social values with reputational consequences.
That is from new research by Elinor Amit, Shai Danziger, and Pamela K. Smith. Via the excellent Kevin Lewis.
P&O Ferries sparks outrage by sacking 800 workers BBC
From pasta shortage to run on iodine pills, panic buying hits Europe again Financial Times
This is how the world ends Gilbert Doctorow. Important. Many nuggets, such as who Putin’s “fifth column” remarks on the 16th targeted.
The US arming of Ukraine and the preparations for war WSWS
U.S. Public Views of Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Biden’s Response Pew
WATCH: UN Security Council on Ukraine’s Bio Labs Consortium News
Roaming Charges: The Thoughts That Pulled the Trigger CounterPunch
Ukie War: Blackwater Mercenary Teams Eradicated in Precision Russian Strike on Luxury ‘Skivvy’ Hotel Veterans Today
Hillary Vows To Stop Importing Dossiers From Russia Babylon Bee
Readout of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Call with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China White House
President Xi Jinping Has a Video Call with US President Joe Biden Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. Way way more detail than US version and released almost immediately after the call, unlike US version. I welcome reader input, but this looks for the US to have come out on the very bad end of plausible outcomes. Xi upped the ante re Taiwan, telling Biden the US was responsible for loose-lipped talk regarding Taiwan independence, with Biden reaffirmed that the US does not support. So it’s now on Biden’s desk to turn those, ahem, misperceptions around. Xi also made it clear that China will not intermediate among the US, NATO, Ukraine, and Russia (which the US has always meant to equate to “China muscles Russia to stand down.”).
Xi urges US, NATO to talk with Russia, opposes indiscriminate sanctions Global Times. The failed Jake Sullivan meeting followed by the Biden call request was clearly an escalation, and the Chinese are not at all happy with the US refusing to take “no” as an answer. I don’t read Global Times regularly but the tone seemed caustic.
