Turkish chef recreates 8,600-year-old Neolithic bread Anadolu Agenvy
On Moss, Rock, Lichen, and Survival Buttondown
California Burning
LA wildfires mapped: Palisades and Eaton blazes now cover nearly 30,000 acres Independent. Commentary:
So from the production side, the disparity is all class-influenced. But from the consumer side, a mix of peasant celebrity/rich-worship, but also schadenfreude gawking from the vast nobodies, in which the Santa Ana winds are a celestial Luigi.
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) January 9, 2025
What ignited the deadly California wildfires? Investigators consider an array of possibilities AP
Oligarch farmers and the fires in Los Angeles Yasha Levine, Weaponized Immigrant
Power Failure: On Landscape and Abandonment Switchyard
Climate
‘We have been heard’: Montana youth score a major climate victory in court Grist
Earth records hottest ever year in 2024 and crosses key 1.5C threshold Al Jazeera
The Horror of Witnessing a Massive Oil Spill Up Close and Personal Narrative
The Subseafloor Crustal Biosphere: Ocean’s Hidden Biogeochemical Reactor Astrobiology
Syndemics
First H5 Bird Flu Death Reported in United States (press release) CDC
Coronavirus epidemic broke out in East Asia around 25,000 years ago, gene study shows ABC Australia. Original Biology
Unravelling viral ecology and evolution over 20 years in a freshwater lake Nature
Receptor-binding proteins from animal viruses are broadly compatible with human cell entry factors Nature
The Arctic Plague Ship Part 2 Nate Bear, ¡Do Not Panic! Part 1.
China?
China: Shanghai Bans Live Poultry Sales A Flu Diary
China plans to build ‘Three Gorges dam in space’ to harness solar power South China Morning Post. Commentary:
Reading so many ignorant takes on this microwave energy-beaming technology…
First, this isn’t new tech – NASA and the US Department of Energy have actually been studying it since the 1970s. In fact, they demonstrated successful power transmission from space in 1975!
The…
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) January 10, 2025
China hit record trade barriers in 2024 as overcapacity fears spread to developing world South China Morning Post
The Koreas
Two weeks in, South Korea’s latest leader Choi walks political tightrope Straits Times
Syraqistan
“The lobby is working overtime” w/ John Mearsheimer (video) Makdisi Street, YouTube (Alice X). Well worth a listen, even given the length. Mearsheimer reflects on his long career as a realist. Commentary:
“I tweeted Free Palestine. Less than 10 minutes later, I got a call from the NBA commissioner, agents, people in my foundation, and even folks from Texas, telling me to take it down”
NBA star Dwight Howard. pic.twitter.com/Q1uyH98mGm
— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) January 7, 2025
Israeli settlers in West Bank see Trump win as chance to go further BBC
Who is Joseph Aoun, the new president of Lebanon? Al Jazeera
European Disunion
Moldova torn between European aspirations and nostalgia for Soviet era France24
Scholz blocks new German assistance package to Ukraine worth billions of euros – Spiegel Ukrainska Pravda
Elon Musk hosts leader of Germany’s far-right AfD on X ahead of election Al Jazeera. Commentary:
Elon Musk and Alice Weidel (of the far-right German AfD party) put their brains together for a discussion:
Weidel: “The National Socialists (Nazis) were socialist. Adolf Hitler was a socialist.”
Musk: “Yeah, they nationalized industries like crazy.”
Weidel: “He was a… pic.twitter.com/TmDzHqTidM
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 9, 2025
Dear Old Blighty
Corbyn pushes government on RAF base’s role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza The Canary
New Not-So-Cold War
Fiber optic drones revolutionize combat in Russia-Ukraine war Anadolu Agency
Competing Visions of Restraint for U.S. Foreign Policy RAND
Branko Milanović – “To the Finland Station” Brave New Europe
The New Great Game
U.S. Congress introduces ‘Georgian Nightmare Non-Recognition Act’ JAMA News
Trump Transition
The mysterious ways of Donald J. Trump Gilbert Doctorow
* * * Trump tariffs will probably be 20% on most Chinese imports, not 60%: Goldman Sachs South China Morning Post
What Tariffs Can and Can’t Do Project Syndicate
* * * Why Is Trump So Obsessed With Greenland? Foreign Policy
* * * Supreme Court allows Trump to be tainted as a felon. But there’s a catch Andrew McCarthy, FOX
Navigating the Nonsense and Propaganda of Clownish Authoritarianism Democracy Americana
O Canada
What Trudeau learned from watching ‘The West Wing’ MacLeans. For those who came in late, see here.
BREAKING: Sources have confirmed that Juan Guaidó has declared himself Interim Prime Minister of Canada. 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/vkToo8Kd9C
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) January 7, 2025
Biden Administration
Biden to Further Limit Nvidia AI Chip Exports in Final Push Bloomberg
Judge scraps Biden’s Title IX rules, reversing expansion of protections for LGBTQ+ students AP
Police State Watch
Researcher Turns Insecure License Plate Cameras Into Open Source Surveillance Tool 404 Media
Our Famously Free Press
Scoop: Heritage Foundation plans to ‘identify and target’ Wikipedia editors Forward
Digital Watch
Don’t Count Out Human Writers in the Age of AI Wired. The deck: “The appetite for AI-derived drivel isn’t as strong as many publishers would have you believe, and demand for quality content is growing.”
Apple Intelligence News Notification Summaries Michael Tsai
* * * Leaked Meta Rules: Users Are Free to Post “Mexican Immigrants Are Trash!” or “Trans People Are Immoral” The Intercept
A Day in the Life of a Prolific Voice Phishing Crew Krebs on Security
Sports Desk
Steph Curry and the NBA’s most confounding paradox EPSN
Glory to gloom: The fall of India’s Test cricket supremacy BBC
Imperial Collapse Watch
Yes, US generals should be fired Responsible Statecraft
Ships Must Practice Celestial Navigation U.S. Naval Institute
Class Warfare
Wall Street Job Losses May Top 200,000 as AI Replaces Roles Bloomberg
Saying ‘No’: On Power And Reality 3 Quarks Daily
Winning coalitions aren’t always governing coalitions Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic
Antidote du jour (Charles J. Sharp):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
