The Wondrous Birds of the Himalayas and the Forgotten Victorian Woman Whose Illustrations Rewilded the Western Imagination The Marginalian
The First Photo-Illustrated Book, Anna Atkins’ Austerely Beautiful Photographs of British Algae (1843) Open Culture. From 2016, but a good pairing.
It’s time to reassess the ‘dark arts’ of central banks The Telegraph
Bezos Bucks? Get Ready For Corporate Digital Currency IEEE Spectrum
Amazon’s Silent Sacking Justin Garrison
Is This How Amazon Ends? The Atlantic
#COVID19
Several Chicago-area health systems reinstate mask requirements as respiratory viruses spread NBC. Based on lagging indicators, i.e. too late, which is why requirements for respirators should be permanent and, since Covid spreads like smoke, universal throughout the facility.
2023 was the year of the party — and it’s just getting started MSNBC. The deck: “After years of being told to isolate, we wanted to immerse ourselves in mobs of people.” Extroverts are gonna kill us all.
WA Health cuts hundreds of jobs as federal COVID funds run out Seattle Times
Epidemiology of COVID-19 in Infants in the United States: Incidence, Severity, Fatality, and Variants of Concern Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal
The United States is not a serious country:
China?
China struggles to disperse cheap loans to businesses in economic slowdown FT. Commentary:
3/4
in 1980s Japan was referred to as “window guidance”. The purpose of monetary expansion, in Japan then and China today, is not to boost market-based demand but rather to boost supply in targeted sectors. Monetary expansion is disinflationary, rather than inflationary.— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) December 31, 2023
Back to ‘black box’? As China tightens access to court records, legal experts fear for future of judicial transparency South China Morning Post
Cathay Pacific Blames End Of Year Flight Cancelations On Crew Illness Simple Flying. “Seasonal illness” is the new euphemism….
Myanmar
Myanmar Gives China Green Light to Proceed with Strategic Seaport Maritime Executive. And the junta gets?
High-impact ‘drop bombs’ retaking the sky from Myanmar junta Straits Times
The Koreas
US Overtakes China as South Korea’s Top Export Market Bloomberg
Syraqistan
Updated List: Shipping Firms Reactions To Houthi Attacks In The Red Sea Reuters
Houthi Red Sea attacks ‘will likely continue,’ US Navy says FOX
Exclusive: US to bring back aircraft carrier from eastern Mediterranean ABC
Report: Ships Make Novel Use of AIS to Ward Off Attacks by Houthis Maritime Executive
Reversing America’s Ruinous Support For Israel’s Assault On Gaza War on the Rocks. When you’ve lost War on the Rocks….
Israeli minister reiterates calls for Palestinians to leave Gaza Al Jazeera. Speaking on Israeli Army Radio:
Smotrich agrees with @mashagessen that Gaza is a ghetto: “If we act strategically they will emigrate and we will live there. We won’t let 2 million stay. With 100-200K in Gaza, the ‘day after’ debate will be diff. They want to leave, they’ve been living in a ghetto for 75 years.” https://t.co/jbUaFBClMF
— Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין (@MairavZ) December 31, 2023
Smotrich has been excluded from Netanyahu’s war cabinet, but is still Finance Minister.
Israel eyes UK’s Tony Blair as mediator for Gaza, Palestinian refugees – report Jerusalem Post
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia intensifies Ukraine attacks on New Year’s Eve FT
Zelenskyy: Next year the enemy will experience the fury made in Ukraine Ukrainska Pravda
End of 2023 Roundup – Update on the War’s Technological Progress Simplicius the Thinker
Ukraine War Day #676: “Did you jump high enough?” Awful Avalanche
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, Moscow, December 31, 2023 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Putin did ‘everything possible’ to make peace, veteran Ukrainian diplomat says Aaron Maté
Ending The Ukraine War Without Ending The Ukraine – OpEd Eurasia Review. Why is that a requirement? Prussia, for example, is no more.
Biden Administration
DOJ accused of covering for ‘deep state’ by not holding second SBF trial on illegal political donations: ‘Disgrace’ NY Post
Big money dispute shows value of ‘hired gun’ economists FT
Spook Country
Operation Triangulation: The last (hardware) mystery Securelist
2024
Exclusive: Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election CNN Politics. I’ve been muttering for awhile that this line of inquiry was the most dangerous to Trump, not the J6 hysteria. Not least if the “contingent” electors were scammed.
EXCLUSIVE: A missing laptop could be key to prosecuting Trump. This rural Georgia county only recently admitted that it exists Daily Dot
Maine Secretary of State says home ‘swatted’ after Trump removed from ballot and Swatting incidents at GOP lawmakers’ homes on the rise over holidays Politico
The Supremes
Behind the Scenes at the Dismantling of Roe v. Wade NYT
Digital Watch
Taking Back the Web with Decentralization: 2023 in Review Electronic Frontier Foundation
OpenAI annualized revenue tops $1.6 billion- The Information Reuters. Crime pays.
How one of the world’s oldest newspapers is using AI to reinvent journalism Guardian. “With the AI-assisted reporter churning out bread and butter content, other reporters in the newsroom are freed up to go to court, meet a councillor for a coffee or attend a village fete.” But you know the reporters will be the first to go.
Healthcare
More Undocumented in California Will Be Eligible for Medi-Cal Health Insurance in 2024 Times of San Diego
More than 13 million people lost Medicaid coverage this year, with Texas an epicenter of the ‘unwinding’ NBC
Gunz
US appeals court allows California to bar guns in most public places Reuters
New Year’s Post-Game Analysis
New Year Intentions: How to Have a Magical New Year Teen Vogue. From 2023, but showed up in my mailbox. So, great start?
Why We Make Resolutions (and Why They Fail) The New Yorker
Bones of Tomorrow Simplicius the Thinker
Obituaries
John Pilger, Australia-born journalist and filmmaker known for covering Cambodia, dies at 84 AP
There Is a War Coming Shrouded in Propaganda. It Will Involve Us. Speak Up John Pilger
Groves of Academe
I Vote on Plagiarism Cases at Harvard College. Gay’s Getting off Easy vs. President Gay Plagiarized, but She Should Stay. For Now. Harvard Crimson
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Crumbling of the Pax Americana (video) Chas Freeman, Watson Institute for International Affairs. Parts two and three. From 2016; the alarm has been sounding for some time, though few have had the ears to hear.
A Seamless Web of Deserved Trust The Rational Walk. Munger and Buffet. But “trust” to do what?
Without End Cory Robin, New Left Review. On historian Arno Mayer. “Where other Marxist historians of the twentieth century spoke of the transition to finance capital and the corporate form, Arno was more impressed by the staying power of the family firm.”
Class Warfare
Workers at Bay Area Locations of Iconic Sex Shop, Good Vibrations, Move to Unionize SFist
Labor 2023: A lot of noise but few strikes Freight Waves. “[T]here is a price to be paid for labor peace. Contracts ratified during 2023 came with employee wage and benefit increases.”
Working Class Perspectives on the ‘Migrant Crisis’ Texas Observer
How We Obscure the Common Plight of Workers The Hedgehog Review
How to Be a Policy Entrepreneur in the American Vetocracy American Affairs (RR).
When Paris Sneezed London Review of Books. “The cult of 1789.”
The Thing That Is Silence The Convivial Society
The bliss — and benefits — of slow reading FT
Antidote du jour (via):
2024 is said to be the Year of the Dragon. Bonus antidote:
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See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
