World’s oldest 3D map discovered ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Babies born on Mars could diverge from Earthlings within a couple of generations ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)
Lifetime risk and projected burden of dementia Nature Medicine (guurst). Eeek.
Climate/Environment
PFAS: The astronomical cost of depolluting Europe Le Monde
Supreme Court Allows Hawaii To Sue Oil Companies Over Climate Change Effects CBS
Looking at another year of @ECMWF reanalysis data, it still looks like the AMOC is rapidly slowing down.
Northward heat transport through the tropical Atlantic Ocean has decreased significantly.
A decrease of 0.5 PW represents ~16,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules per year! https://t.co/ngpE5VMBOW pic.twitter.com/aC1XifqPUs
— Leon Simons (is fine) (@LeonSimons8) January 12, 2025
The utterly plausible case that climate change makes London much colder Financial Times
World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South Mongabay
RECORD HEAT ALLOVER AFRICA
Records keep being smashed allover the tropics,every day
CAMEROON Douala also broke its January record with 36.2C after breaking those of all previous monthsFRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES
Insane MIN 30.1 MAX 36.9 Juan de Nova
RECORD HOTTEST DAY & NIGHT pic.twitter.com/dHf19LJE6K— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) January 11, 2025
Climate change forcing farmers to replace cows with goats, chickens with ducks FirstPost
China?
US finalizes rule to effectively ban Chinese vehicles, which could include Polestar The Verge
Why China’s Ice Silk Road has Trump up in Arctic arms Asia Times (Kevin W)
In 2024, China’s electricity demand grew by approximately 1.4 Germanys.
Or 70% of one full Japan.
(rough calcs ahead, reader beware) pic.twitter.com/v1f8SAGjNs
— David Fishman (@pretentiouswhat) January 13, 2025
TSMC ‘a piece of meat on the chopping block’ the US would rather destroy than lose: spokesperson Global Times (guurst)
China plans to blow Starlink out of the sky in a Taiwan war Asia Times
Koreas
S Korea impeached president arrested after investigators scale walls BBC. Wowsers
O Canada
Canada Says It Will Match US Tariffs If Trump Launches Trade War Michael Shedlock
European Disunion
🇩🇪 The German left-wing chancellor candidate, Sahra Wagenknecht, has called for lifting sanctions against Russia and maintaining the import of Russian gas.
In her view, the U.S. sanctions policy has nothing to do with the Ukrainian conflict and is solely aimed at boosting the… pic.twitter.com/JS4ZpGrm9r
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) January 12, 2025
The window of opportunity for a possible rehabilitation of Nord Stream is closing Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
EU’s enlargement process expected to gain impetus: Commissioner Anadolu Agency
Israel v. The Resistance
Israel’s Ben Gvir Threatens To Quit Government Over Ceasefire Deal Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
Trump’s Action Demonstrates Biden’s Failure In Stopping The Genocide Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). Headline assumes Israel won’t flagrantly violate the ceasefire as it has in Lebanon, and that it gets done.
Pretty fascinating interview with outgoing US Amb. to Israel Jack Lew, where he says the Biden admin has never ordered Israel to end its rampage in Gaza, never criticised its expanding the war to Lebanon, nor its assault on Rafah, never imposed an arms embargo. pic.twitter.com/qK3aGwh7yl
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 13, 2025
In Israel, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt paints the “genius” pager attack in Lebanon as a model for countering “antisemitism” in the US
Almost seems like Greenblatt is appealing to a foreign apartheid state for terror tools to use against American citizens pic.twitter.com/yWq8e4nviH
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 14, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Large frontline summary 7-13 January 2025 Marat Khairullin. Grimmer than a lot of YouTube takes.
But then:
#Ukraine launched a total of 200 drone strikes and 15 ATACMS missiles on various parts of #Russia. The main attack areas were the Tula region and the city of Kazan. pic.twitter.com/RLXwPMuahk
— Mina (@Mina696645851) January 14, 2025
🇺🇦🇷🇺🇹🇷🇪🇺 Ukraine attacked European gas supplies!
“On January 11, Kyiv attempted to attack a station in Kuban, which supplies gas via the Turkish Stream, with 9 UAVs in order to stop gas supplies to Europe. During the repulse of the attack, air defense units shot down all the… pic.twitter.com/wrKpr5kDq5
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) January 13, 2025
Why NATO’s Plan to Conscript Ukraine’s Youth Will Fail Glenn Diesen (Micael T). For some definition of failure. Aside from the lack of a Plan B, motives include having Ukraine seem remotely viable at least through German elections and get Trump attached to the tar baby (by continuing funding by following the ongoing fallacy of trying to improve Ukraine’s position before negotiations)
Russia Says Ukraine Targeted Infrastructure of Gas Pipeline to Turkey Defense Post (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
How Trump can break China’s tightening grip on Central Asia Asia Times (Kevin W)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Government Sites Across the U.S. Are Awash in Hardcore Porn Intercept
Imperial Collapse Watch
The State of Western Warcraft Lee Slusher (AG). Important
Califorinia Burning
What happened on Tuesday, Jan. 14 during the Eaton, Palisades firestorms in Southern California Los Angeles Times. Live updates
House barrels toward fight over placing conditions on California fire aid The Hill
1/6
Jan. 6 committee members talk to White House about pardons Punchbowl. Take with your preferred dose of salt.
Trump 2.0
Hegseth’s views on women in combat, infidelity and more — in his own words Associated Press (Kevin W)
The Predictable Capitulation of Tulsi Gabbard Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News
Move fast, break things – sprint to kiss Trump’s ring. It’s the tech bros inauguration derby Guardian (Kevin W)
Biden
Biden Will Remove Cuba From List of State Sponsors of Terrorism New York Times
Biden’s national security advisor just said an “unexpected event” in the next few days is “totally possible” and would be the only thing that keeps him in power.
Do you think this is a threat?pic.twitter.com/fMTH4hqBxE
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) January 15, 2025
Our No Longer Free Press
Fake news is not just the practise of the Right Bill Mitchell. On economic and fiscal canards.
The insane hypocrisy of this.
On the one hand the US government is arguing in the Supreme Court that banning TikTok doesn’t violate the First Amendment on free speech because TikTok isn’t distinctive enough that Americans’ speech taking place on the platform could not happen… https://t.co/st6QTVW2Wg
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) January 15, 2025
US TikTok users flock to Chinese app Xiaohongshu in protest with TikTok ban looming Associated Press (Kevin W)
Google requiring re-education classes for people who spout Wrongthink — as a condition to being able to use YouTube after a “violation” — is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever heard: https://t.co/ZIr55K5CzI
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 14, 2025
Mr. Market is Moody
Credit Card Default Wave Hits U.S. Banks Doug Casey (Micael T)
Producer Prices Angry Bear
PPI Inflation Accelerates to +3.3%, Driven by “Core Services,” +4.0%, both the Worst Readings in Nearly 2 Years Wolf Richter
Falling birth rates raise prospect of sharp decline in living standards Financial Times. Sigh. Japan has weathered this very well. But it is also very cohesive, with low income inequality.
AI
Training AI models might not need enormous data centres Economist (Kevin W)
Water shortage fears as Labour’s first AI growth zone sited close to new reservoir Guardian
The Bezzle
The New $30,000 Side Hustle: Making Job Referrals for Strangers Bloomberg
Class Warfare
US Employee Engagement Sinks To 10-Year Low Gallup
Even Harvard M.B.A.s Are Struggling to Land Jobs Wall Street Journal
Over a century ago, the Clayton Antitrust Act declared that “the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce,” and that “nothing contained in the antitrust laws shall be construed to forbid the existence of labor . . . organizations.”
After President Wilson… https://t.co/rKRMXOLVzy
— Basel Musharbash (@musharbash_b) January 14, 2025
Hanging out at Starbucks will cost you as company drops open-door policy Seattle Times (Kevin W)
Drug Commercials Aren’t Just Annoying — They’re Costing You Money The Lever. This may seem like old news (as in the outrageous expenditure on marketing exceed R&D) but this focuses on misinformation, a less well-publicized angle.
Antidote du jour (Cheryl K):
And a bonus (Chuck L). Balance of power!
In Africa, the encounter between two lions, four vultures, a hyena and a giraffe, who did not know what to do next, was filmed. pic.twitter.com/VCo8OxM4Rt
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) January 15, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
