Origins of SARS-CoV

From  Nature

SARS-CoV-2 itself is not a recombinant of any sarbecoviruses detected to date, and its receptor-binding motif, important for specificity to human ACE2 receptors, appears to be an ancestral trait shared with bat viruses and not one acquired recently via recombination. 

More evidence of natural development rather than man-made  as conjectured by, er, some

Not definitive but evidence at least of a plausible path

Death of the dollar

Such news is premature

Dollar is still the reserve currency, 

Thus US will run trade deficits,

Candidates to replace the dollar are still choosing to effectively import jobs by running surplus leading to a weakening currency

Perception and reality

is reality constructed by the brain?

Misinformation

misinformation  and why it’s hard to correct.

I used to believe that the “truth” emerges from the community discussion but after seeing bad faith actors exploiting psychology in order to achieve their goals, I am now pretty disillusioned .

Some thoughts on prevention

Climate

Tightening up the error bars... how hot is it going to get?

How sleep cleans up the brain

REM tidies up toxins

Police brutality, systemic racism, and a hidden ideology helped shape American policing - Vox

American policing is even more broken than you think.

Police brutality, systemic racism, and a hidden ideology helped shape American policing - Vox

Lit crit

what went wrong with postmodernism

What comes next?

what might the post-Covid world look like?

A new WPA might be good

Martin Wolf addresses the need to strengthen the middle class