The Heroic Industry of the Brothers Grimm Hudson Review (Anthony L)
Scientists Find ‘Spooky’ Quantum Entanglement Within Individual Protons Space
Cold weather alerts from New Mexico to Florida, with another winter storm expected ABC News (Kevin W)
France sees temperatures as low as -33C ConnexionFrance
You Are What Your Ancestors Didn’t Eat Nautilus (Micael T)
Are Some Ultra-Processed Foods OK? New Study Has Answers Wall Street Journal. Does not address ultraprocessed foods like whey protein. These are not exactly fun to eat but can be made reasonably tasty.
The Midlife Transition: Confronting Mortality and Rebirth Neo-Feudal Review (Micael T). I must confess that I don’t relate to this.
Climate/Environment
Earth shattered heat records in 2023 and 2024: is global warming speeding up? Nature
Climate Models Can’t Explain What’s Happening to Earth Atlantic
Permafrost thaw beneath Arctic lakes poses surprise pollution threat New Scientist
California and environmental groups sued Exxon over plastics. Now Exxon is striking back. Grist. Lawyers in the house, feel free to correct me, but I believe CA has pretty strong anti-SLAPP laws so that the defendants can countersue and delay the underlying case (delay is generally seen as unfavorable to plaintiffs). However, I doubt that matters much to Exxon, since the point is likely to impose costs (and legal bills will do just fine) and deter others.
Thailand Bans Imports of Plastic Waste To Curb Toxic Pollution Guardian
Cava crisis: Spanish fizz must adapt amid torrid droughts Drinks International
Lords Of The Untamed Wild Nomea (Anthony L). From last month, still germane.
California Burning
Thousands told to abandon homes as huge wildfire rips through Los Angeles suburbs BBC. Lead story and BBC knows I am not in the US. Apparently the big risk is extraordinary high winds, which could blow hot embers far and wide.
California wildfires live updates: New blazes erupt as crews battle Palisades Fire NBC
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso calls into Fox News and says “there’s no water coming out of the fire hydrants” in the Palisades.
The mayor is out of the country. The resources aren’t in place to manage this disaster.pic.twitter.com/sBi1RV5Twg
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) January 8, 2025
Getty Villa Museum grounds catch fire Los Angeles Times
China?
1/6
Very interesting FT article: “Chinese venture capitalists are hounding failed founders, pursuing personal assets and adding them to a national debtor blacklist when they fail to pay up, throwing the country’s start-up funding ecosystem into crisis.”https://t.co/0xWJMWoTVF— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) January 6, 2025
Key section from underlying Financial Times story:
Once blacklisted, it is nearly impossible for individuals to start another business. They are also blocked from a range of economic activities, such as taking planes or high-speed trains, staying in hotels or leaving China. The country lacks a personal bankruptcy law, making it extremely difficult for most to escape the debts.
O Canada
Canadian PM Trudeau’s Resignation is Perfectly Normal Ian Welsh (Micael T)
The Authoritarian Legacy of Justin Trudeau Reclaim the Net (Micael T)
European Disunion
EU will defend borders, says French minister in response to Trump’s Greenland threats Financial Times
Therefore, the court returned the weapon to a 17-year-old gangster Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
Israel v. The Resistance
South Lebanon today |
Despite a ceasefire in place for weeks now, and no hostilities between Israel and south Lebanon
Israeli forces continue in full force to flatten and demolish the homes of displaced Lebanese civilians pic.twitter.com/8uzfSQMA6o
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) January 6, 2025
Chris Hedges: Genocide — The New Normal Consortium News (Robin K)
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Israel’s Conflict Expansion: A Costly Gamble Backfiring Dialogue Works, YouTube
After Iraq, Libya, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, the Pentagon attacks Yemen Voltaire.net (Micael T)
New Not-So-Cold War
WaPo Editors – Ending The War Is Worse Than Losing Moon of Alabama
Trump’s Ukraine aide postpones trip to Kiev – Reuters RT
🇺🇦🇷🇺 RUSSIA CAPTURES THE BIGGEST LITHIUM DEPOSIT IN UKRAINE!
The village of Shevchenko to the west of Kurakhovo, where the largest lithium deposit in Ukraine is located was captured by the Russian army, this was announced by Ukranian deep state mappers.
The Russians announced… pic.twitter.com/4Ujpi4PyzH
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) January 7, 2025
“Whoever comes to us with a sword will perish by the sword!” – Thousands of foreign mercenaries killed in Ukraine International Affairs (Micael T)
Electronic warfare will be useless against Ukrainian FPV drones on fiber optics: shotguns are needed – lots of them TopWar (Micael T). Erm, there were articles on Russia having deployed this type of drane back in March: Russian Fiber Optic Drone Beats Any Jammer Forbes
Syraqistan
Why water scarcity is key factor in Syria’s protracted conflict The Week
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Hackers Claim Massive Breach of Location Data Giant, Threaten To Leak Data 404media
Pornhub pulls out of Florida, VPN demand ‘surges 1150%’ The Register (Dr. Kevin)
1/6
AOC’s Blatant January 6th LIES Glenn Greenwald
Trump 2.0
Trump Declines to Rule Out Military Action to Obtain Greenland, Panama Newsweek
Trump Imagines New Sphere of U.S. Influence Stretching From Panama to Greenland Wall Street Journal. Amusing to see the Journal ‘splain Trump.
JUST IN – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill text that would officially change the name of “The Gulf Of Mexico” to “The Gulf Of America”. – Daily Caller pic.twitter.com/XbFqZUoaLx
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) January 7, 2025
Crisis? What Crisis? A Video for Elon Musk on the Deficit Steve Keen
Trump’s Trade Policies Spark Rare Earth Uncertainty Metal Miner
Judge temporarily blocks release of special counsel report on Trump cases as court fight simmers Associated Press
Elbridge Colby and the Reurn of Republican Realism Drop Site (Robin K)
Our No Longer Free Press
Meta ending fact-checking program: Zuckerberg The Hill
BBC Middle East Editor Collaborated With CIA, Mossad Consortium News
Mr. Market is Moody
Continued Labor Market Deterioration Angry Bear
Versus: Labor Market Dynamics Retighten, Job Openings Jump Again. Fed Faces Scenario of Solid Job Market, Re-accelerating Inflation Wolf Richter
Bank of Japan research refutes the main predictions made by economists about the impacts of large bond-buying programs Bill Mitchell. Important. It confirms a point many, including yours truly, have made repeatedly over the years: QE is not money printing and does not generate inflation.
Antitrust
Big Landlord Settles With US, Will Cooperate In Price-Fixing Investigation ars technica. This was fast for at least one defendant. See date on this article: US Justice Department accuses six major landlords of scheming to keep rents high Associated Press
How the OS/2 flop went on to shape modern software The Register (Kevin W)
AI
A malfunctioning Waymo left a passenger stuck in the autonomous vehicle as it drove circles around a parking lot Business Insider
At the Intersection of A.I. and Spirituality New York Times
Cybertruck driver used ChatGPT to plan Las Vegas attack, police say CBS 42
The Bezzle
Carvana: A Father-Son Accounting Grift For The Ages Hindenburg Research (Micael T)
The Great Crypto Crash Atlantic
Class Warfare
Why the Left needs to watch Star Trek: It has lessons for today’s techno-optimists Yanis Varoufakis, Unherd
New federal rule will remove medical debt from credit reports ABC (Kevin W)
The case against ‘Western’ Marxism MR Online (Anthony L)
Antidote du jour (Chet G):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
