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Will the coronavirus kill off the ‘dinosaur’ world of academic publishing? (SCMP)
Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen The deadly pandemic has brought back to life a long-running debate about companies profiting from the publication of research often freely supplied by the author. As the biggest names in the business respond to academics’ demands to bring down paywalls, new platforms are getting fresh studies out to the public.
Unlock Coronavirus research for world's scientists
Right now, thousands of scientific studies about the Coronavirus are locked behind subscription paywalls, blocking scientists from getting access to research needed to discover antiviral treatments and a vaccine to stop the virus. Although publishers have made some research available via Open Access, thousands of articles remain locked behind paywalls. Publishers must immediately unlock every scientific article containing the term “Coronavirus.” It is a moral imperative.
Academic Publishing Mafia Stats:
In 2013, the five editorial groups Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell, Taylor & Francis, and SAGE Publications published more than half of all academic papers in the peer-reviewed literature. At that time, Elsevier accounted for 16% of the world market in science, technology, and medical publishing. (wikipedia)
A taste of the broken mindset of knowledge oligarchs:
"Leading Through Change" - Video Interview with Kumsal Bayazit, Chief Executive Officer, Elsevier (CogX 2019) -
Apple fined a record $1.2 billion by French antitrust authorities (CNBC)
Attac activists protesting at an Apple Store in France (via) French antitrust authorities ordered Apple on Monday to pay a 1.1 billion euro ($1.23 billion) fine for anti-competitive behaviour. The French competition authority said the iPhone-maker was guilty of creating cartels within its distribution network and abusing the economic dependence of its outside resellers. Two of Apple’s wholesalers were also fined for agreeing on prices: Tech Data and Ingram Micro. The French authority said this penalty - totalling 1.24 billion euros - was the largest ever handed down in one case.
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Mecca has shut down for the first time in history (indiapost) (alt)
St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican City in Italy is deserted. The Pope, supreme Pontiff has cancelled all meetings and engagements in Vatican City. The world is cut off with Rome. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has temporarily banned Umrah pilgrims from all over the world. A day earlier, the Kingdom also restricted its citizens and residents from visiting Makkah. The Holy Kaaba is a deserted place.
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Spanish king turns off the money tap to his father (alt)
Treasure of the Ancient Aztecs - Cortes and his Conquistadors plunder old Mexico
Felipe VI. ends the standing order to his father and predecessor Juan Carlos – and later renounces his legacy. The split is about Saudi millions and a dubious foundation.
Spanish king named on offshore fund linked to €65m Saudi 'gift' (telegraph)
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Low-Cost Breathing Ventilators - by @lowtechmagazine
Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies: The high price of machine ventilators forces many hospitals in the poorest regions of the world to rely on a simple solution known as an Ambu Bag that requires constant manual pressure in order to get oxygen to the lungs.The Umbulizer is a mechanically powered version of the Ambu Bag.
Italian hospital saves Covid-19 patients lives by 3D printing valves for reanimation devices
An Italian hospital ran out of ICU valves. A local biz brought a 3D printer to the hospital, redesigned & produced the valves in a few hours. “At the time of writing, 10 patients are accompanied in breathing by a machine that uses a 3D printed valve.” Apparently the hospitals ICU valve supplier was not happy about this & refused to supply blueprints. (via)
#Comment: This is a nice example that the notion of intellectual property (IP) law is outdated & dangerous. Break all IP needed to save lives should be the directive.
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What Happened After Market Street in Sanfranscio Went Car-Free (citylab)
Less than two months after San Francisco’s Market Street went mostly car-free, the central downtown artery is palpably calmer. While freight deliveries, fire trucks, buses and streetcars are still trundling along the vehicle lanes, navigating by bike, scooter or foot feels far less death-defying now that clots of private autos and ride-hailing vehicles are no longer allowed to vie for space among them.
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"Winners" and "losers" of wars are frequently confused. The perceived loser might have actually won the war, just not on the battlefield but during what Prussian military theoretician Karl von Clausewitz called “The postwar”. In actually, in war there are only losers.
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International Space Station Camera Captures Cone-Shaped UFO Escaping Earth (ibtimes)
A UFO expert reported that a UFO leaving Earth was captured by one of the cameras mounted on the International Space Station (ISS). The expert claimed that the UFO’s departure might be related to the spread of COVID-19 on Earth. The UFO sighting was made by Scott Waring of ET Data Base. He came across the video while viewing the live feed from the ISS.
NASA recorded a giant "thing" infront of the sun (NASA)
Stereo A, NASA camera which films the sun, captured a circular UFO (right side of screen). The unidentified object appears to shoot or eject something? Left side of screen is Mercury and Venus. Official explanation is: "PLASTIC suffered a high voltage anomaly on December 5. The instrument is in the process of being recovered to full operating mode, which is expected to take several days. Until this process is completed, PLASTIC data should be considered as untrustworthy. "
Space Force Just Received Its First New Offensive Weapon (The Drive)
U.S. Space Force has begun operating a new offensive weapon system, an upgraded version of a ground-based satellite communications jamming system, for the first time in its short history. The first iteration of the Counter Communications System entered U.S. Air Force service in 2004 and the program has now gotten transferred to the newest branch of the American military.
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Ancient Maya kingdom unearthed in a backyard in Mexico (brandeis & brown university)
Left, drawing of a tablet found at the site. Right, a digital 3D model. Associate professor of anthropology Charles Golden and his colleagues have found the long-lost capital of an ancient Maya kingdom in the backyard of a Mexican cattle rancher. Among their findings is a trove of Maya monuments, one of which has an important inscription describing rituals, battles, a mythical water serpent and the dance of a rain god. They’ve also found remnants of pyramids, a royal palace and ball court.
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Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for Coronavirus
- Beijing is promoting traditional medicine as a 'Chinese solution' to coronavirus (CNN)
- TCM proven effective in treating coronavirus (New China)
- Experts highlight traditional Chinese medicine in fight against novel coronavirus (New China)
- Traditional Chinese Medicine included in the WHO's global diagnostic compendium (Nature, 2019)
- Demand for Chinese herbs, acupuncture spikes amid coronavirus outbreak (nypost)
- At the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, Western medicine meets traditional Chinese remedies (theglobeandmail)
- China using traditional Chinese medicine on coronavirus patients (straitstimes)
- Ancient Chinese medicine unlocks new possibilities for cancer treatment (yale)
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So how long until the Epstein Videos hit the internet? Weeks? Month?
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MI5 boss Andrew Parker asks tech firms: Create a way to let us read suspects' secret messages to stop UK terror attacks (feb.2020, ITV)
The director general of MI5 has called on tech companies to create methods which would allow the security services to access the secret, encrypted messages of people suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in the UK. Speaking to ITV, Sir Andrew Parker says while the real world is regulated and policed, he finds it "mystifying" the same does not apply to cyberspace, calling it "a wild west, unregulated [and] inaccessible to authorities."
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Defender 2020 is "frozen" Corona slows down NATO exercise in Europe (alt, alt)
Because of the corona virus pandemic, the large-scale maneuver "Defender Europe 2020" is apparently on the verge: After the "de facto suspension" of US military forces, the Bundeswehr canceled its participation in a joint military exercise on Friday. Instead of 20,000 US soldiers, only those 5,500 Americans who are already in Europe are now to take part. That was communicated by the US headquarters in Wiesbaden. The exercise was "frozen", no more troops and materials were moved to Europe.
Defender of Europe 2020: a Dangerous Provocation on Russia’s Border - by Ellen Taylor (counterpunch)
The largest military exercises in Europe in over 25 years. A massive US build-up in countries bordering Russia.
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Above-average February temperatures set over 1,000 new records in US alone (Yahoo)
After delivering waves of springlike temperatures across the globe and even toppling a few daily highs, February 2020 ranked globally as the second warmest on record, which date back to 1880. The month's global land and ocean surface temperature departure from average measured 1.17 degrees Celsius (2.11 F) above the 20th century average, according to the NOAA's Climate Report.
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Open Source Initiative bans co-founder, Eric S Raymond
Raymond made the following statement, on February 27, 2020, on his personal blog:
“I – OSI’s co-founder and its president for its first six years – was kicked off their lists for being too rhetorically forceful in opposing certain recent attempts to subvert OSD clauses 5 and 6. This despite the fact that I had vocal support from multiple list members who thanked me for being willing to speak out. It shouldn’t be news to anyone that there is an effort afoot to change – I would say corrupt – the fundamental premises of the open-source culture. Instead of meritocracy and “show me the code”, we are now urged to behave so that no-one will ever feel uncomfortable. The effect – the intended effect – is to diminish the prestige and autonomy of people who do the work – write the code – in favor of self-appointed tone-policers. In the process, the freedom to speak necessary truths even when the manner in which they are expressed is unpleasant is being gradually strangled. And that is bad for us. Very bad. Both directly – it damages our self-correction process – and in its second-order effects. The habit of institutional tone policing, even when well-intentioned, too easily slides into the active censorship of disfavored views.”
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“Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.” ― George Carlin
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World’s Richest Nearing $1 Trillion Wipeout in 2020 Rout (bloomberg)
Illustration of 19 century Robber baron The world's 500 richest people lost a collective $331 billion on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. This is the biggest one day drop in the eight year history of Bloomberg's Billionaire's Index. The rich have lost 16% of their collective net worth since the beginning of the year. The slowdown has affected every industry from every geography.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw a $8.1 billion net worth drop in one day.
Fed to Inject $1.5 Trillion in Bid to Prevent ‘Unusual Disruptions’ in Markets (Wallstreet)
The Federal Reserve said it would make vast sums of short-term loans available on Wall Street and purchase Treasury securities in a coronavirus-related response aimed at preventing ominous trading conditions from creating a sharper economic contraction.
Putin Unleashes Strategic Hell on the U.S - by Tom Luongo (strategic culture)
"And with natural gas prices in Europe already in the gutter from oversupply and a mild winter, there isn’t much time or money lost in the end. Better to take the world oil price down well below U.S. production costs which ensure that Trump’s prized LNG stays off the European market as the myth of U.S. energy self-sufficiency vanishes in a puff of financial derivative smoke. Now Trump is facing a market meltdown well beyond his capacity to fathom or respond to. While Russia is in the unique position to drive costs down for so many of the people while riding out the shock to the global system with its savings."
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South Sudan Is Building Its Electric Grid Virtually From Scratch (IEEE Spectrum)
Jacob M. Deng, in a khaki suit, talks with utility workers during the commissioning of a substation in Juba, South Sudan. The government could instead partner with private investors to “lay decentralized grid networks” and provide incentives for “a mix of solar, small hydro and thermal power” that’s generated by independent producers, households, and institutions, the Sudd Institute, an independent research organization, wrote in a 2018 report. That way, should the country’s fragile peace unfurl, people would still have access to electricity to meet their basic needs.
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How’s the economy? Fed increasingly turns to private data (AP)
#Comment: Predictably, computational economics is take centre stage, even in the brain-dead US public discourse. It is a key component towards turnkey "Computational Totalitarianism" - a concept which elites around the global are embracing as a new governance system.
