Sorry to be thin on original posts. Impressive thunder and lightening led to a service interruption but not a fatal one.
Powerful Winds Carve Surreal Sand Sculptures Across a Frozen Beach My Modern Met (David L)
Spain’s festival of Las Luminarias – in pictures Guardian (resilc)
World’s Deepest Squid Discovered at Staggering Depth Under The Sea Science Alert (Chuck L)
Tonga volcano eruption created puzzling ripples in Earth’s atmosphere Nature (furzy)
It’s time for science to abandon the term ‘statistically significant’ Aeon (Dr. Kevin)
Ultralow-field MRI scanner could improve global access to neuroimaging Physics World (Dr. Kevin)
A huge project is underway to sequence the genome of every complex species on Earth The Conversation (Kevin W)
Does marmalade exist? London Review of Books (Anthony L). On Malcolm Bull. So much to read, so little time…
#COVID-19
Face masks can make you more attractive: study Reuters. Haha! Readers discussed this the other day and came to same conclusion.
Science/Medical
Omicron Is a Bigger Risk for the Young, Medical Data Shows Bloomberg
Israel 🇮🇱, the only quadruple-vaxxed country in the world (also using mask mandates and Covid passports), just broke global record for daily Covid cases 💪 pic.twitter.com/G1ZDuVG2Ru
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) January 18, 2022
Antigen Tests: Real World Data Katelyn Jetelina. Dr. Kevin” “How to keep from screwing up when using rapid Covid tests.”
Asia
Hong Kong to shut secondary schools from Monday over COVID fears https://t.co/xd4XFYrT5j pic.twitter.com/fJhG5Ix452
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 20, 2022
UK/Europe
UK PM JOHNSON DROPS COVID RULES: “The government will no longer mandate the wearing of face masks anywhere…We will no longer require face masks in classrooms…We will trust the judgment of the British people and no longer criminalize anyone who chooses not to wear one.” pic.twitter.com/wgE1pBgSdb
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 19, 2022
US
Top Florida health official on leave over support for vaccination BBC. Only in America…
New Mexico asks National Guard to teach as COVID shuts schools Reuters
Why Covid-19 Didn’t Create the Nursing Crisis New York Times (resilc). IM Doc I am sure will beg to differ. One our aides had been a CNA in hospital and quit when her floor was turned over to Covid duty. We had other aides, CNAs in nursing homes, who quit those jobs for similar reasons. But these vantages may not be representative. What do nurses and other front-line medical personnel think?
Why Joe Biden Gave Up on Covid New Republic
Climate
Lumber Prices Are off the Rails Again. Blame Climate Change. Atlantic (resilc)
A68: ‘Megaberg’ dumped huge volume of fresh water BBCMore protected areas won’t save biodiversity, warn experts PhysOrg (Robert M)
China?
Protesting Winter Olympics athletes ‘face punishment’, suggests Beijing official Guardian (resilc)
Will America Ever Be Able To Challenge China’s Lithium Battery Dominance OilPrice
Old Blighty
Residents in Cheshire flats ‘trapped’ in homes that have plummeted to value of 1p Cheshire Live. Kevin W: “Fallout from the Grenfell fire.”
Bombing the ‘Irish Beatles’ – who ordered their murder? Declassified UK (Chuck L)
Examining the poor reputation of African armies DW (resilc)
Starving Afghans Use Crypto to Sidestep Sanctions, the Taliban Intercept
New Cold War
President Biden on Russia, Ukraine, and Putin C-SPAN
Biden expects Putin will order Ukraine invasion, vows ‘disaster for Russia’ CNBC (furzy). Lotta college tuitions must be riding on this….
Putin’s Challenge to Western hegemony Adam Tooze
Germany Has a Russia Problem Der Spiegel (resilc)
How Russia Went Wrong American Conservative
Brzezinski becomes US ambassador to Poland RT (resilc)
Syraqistan
China plays discreet, but critical role in Iran nuclear negotiations France24
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
The White House Is Worried About Open Source Software Security Bloomberg (David L)
WhatsApp Ordered To Help US Agents Spy On Chinese Phones Forbes
Meta wants to track people’s facial expressions in metaverse New York Post
Imperial Collapse Watch
Can Humanity Survive Washington’s Delusional Belief in its Omnipotence? Paul Craig Roberts (Chuck L)
America Needs War. Andrei Martyanov (Chuck L)
1/6
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to shield records from Jan. 6 committee The Hill. Not to defend Trump, but given that he regularly flip flops between extreme positions, it’s going to be easy to find incriminating statements. And they are sure to be taken out of context and given more weight than they should given the context of the entire discussion. Trump was a terrible president, so you think just a fair and square presentation of his erraticness, emotional instability, cronyism and shambolic conduct would do. Nope. He has to be made into Hair Furore.
The Supreme Court ruling here.
SELECT COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS TRUMP ALLIES INVOLVED IN ATTEMPTS TO CHALLENGE OR OVERTURN 2020 ELECTION RESULTS House.gov (Kevin C)
Biden
Joe Biden’s Awesome First Year Matt Taibbi
‘It’s a tough time’: why is Biden one of the most unpopular US presidents? Guardian
Joe Biden one year on: Has the United States become ungovernable? BBC. Resilc: “That’s the plan.”
Democrats en déshabillé
RDemocrats Fail in Push to Change Senate Filibuster, Sinking Elections Bill Wall Street Journal
The Voting-Rights Debate Democrats Don’t Want to Have Atlantic (resilc)
Why Schumer picked a filibuster fight he couldn’t win Politico
Why Democrats Keep Bringing Up Voting Rights Legislation FiveThirtyEight
Alabama football coach Nick Saban and other sports legends with ties to West Virginia urge Joe Manchin to step up for voting-rights bill MarketWatch (resilc)
Woke Watch
Teaching Censorship: National Education Association Called On Social Media Companies to Silence its Critics Jonathan Turley (Chuck L)
Our Famously Free Press
Social Media Bans of Scientific Misinformation Aren’t Helpful, Researchers Say Gizmodo
The Feds Are Investigating a YouTuber Accused of Crashing a Plane For Views The Drive
Police State Watch
Police in this tiny Alabama town suck drivers into legal ‘black hole’ al.com (UserFriendly)
Godzilla v. Mothra, 5G Edition
Henry Jones Resigns, Theresa Taylor Takes Control of CalPERS Board SWFInstitute
U.S. to let teens drive big rigs in test apprenticeship program to help ease supply chain backlogs ABC7 (resilc)
Trains intended for unbuilt Milwaukee-Madison high-speed rail line going to Nigeria Wisconsin Public Radio
Crypto.com CEO Confirms Hundreds of Accounts Were Hacked The Verge. Not just hacked, contents stolen.
Guillotine Watch
As the world reels, Bentley sales skyrocket Globe and Mail
Class Warfare
I asked Wharton students what they thought the average American worker makes per year and 25% of them thought it was over six figures. One of them thought it was $800k. Really not sure what to make of this (The real number is $45k)
— Nina Strohminger (@NinaStrohminger) January 20, 2022
Antidote du jour. CV: “Look what Santa left under the catnip plant”:
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Red-footed Booby (Sula sula)🐦🦜🕊️🎵🐤❤️🐤 pic.twitter.com/ozwPGQElYV
— World birds (@worldbirds32) January 19, 2022
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
