Thursday, January 25th, 2018

1

Death Valley

"The saiga is an endearing antelope, whose bulbous nose gives it the comedic air of a Dr. Seuss character ... Every spring, tens of thousands of them gather in the same place to give birth. These calving aggregations should be joyous events, but the gathering in May 2015 became something far more sinister when 200,000 saiga just dropped dead. They did so without warning, over a matter of days, in gathering sites spread across 65,000 square miles—an area the size of Florida. Whatever killed them was thorough and merciless: Across a vast area, every last saiga perished." For even the most seasoned researchers, the event was unprecedented and confusing. After a lot of analysis, their most plausible explanation was that a relatively slight rise in temperature might have caused a biological chain reaction. And those temperature rises are the new normal. The Atlantic: Why Did Two-Thirds of These Weird Antelope Suddenly Drop Dead?

+ NPR: Are There Zombie Viruses In The Thawing Permafrost?

+ Bloomberg: Climate Change Could Make Your Basement Uninsurable in the Next Decade.

2

What the Bull Market Busts

"There are millions of Americans whose suffering, through material poverty and poor health, is as bad or worse than that of the people in Africa or in Asia." In the NYT, economics Nobel laureate Angus Deaton compares the deep poverty in America with that found in other places around the world. The results might surprise you.

+ "The richest 2,000 people on the planet ... saw their wealth increase by a staggering $762 billion in just one year. That's an average of $381 million apiece. If those billionaires had simply been content with staying at their 2016 wealth, and had given their one-year gains to the world's poorest people instead, then extreme poverty would have been eradicated." Felix Salmon with some interesting takes on the latest Oxfam poverty report.

3

Olympic Blames

"As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable. As president, it is only natural that I am the focus of this anger." Following the sentencing of Larry Nassar, Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon submitted her resignation. (Resignations like this sometimes confuse me. If you did nothing wrong, then keep your job. If you did something wrong, then writing it all off as you being a victim of politicization isn't nearly enough.)

+ How Aly Raisman's leadership reformed women's gymnastics—and heralded Larry Nassar's downfall.

+ We'll be spending years figuring out how this serial abuse was allowed to infect gymnastics for so long. But it's worth pausing for a moment to reflect on the fact that we found out much of what we know so far because of the investigative reporters at IndyStar.

4

Trade Winds

"The world marked a turning point in global trade on Tuesday, when 11 countries agreed to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, announcing they had finalized the pact and expected to sign a deal on March 8 in Chile." The United States was not one of those 11 countries, even though the agreement was "was conceived and constructed by the United States." The NYT on one of the big themes emerging from Davos and beyond: As U.S. Trumpets ‘America First,' The Rest of the World Is Moving On.

+ While Trump is at Davos, his lawyers are still responding to his meeting with reporters in which he said he looks forward to speaking under oath with the special counsel. WaPo: Trump surprises his lawyers and alarms his friends by saying he will talk with Mueller.

5

Chit Chat with Chitwood

"So how, in this time of acrimonious national division, did Volusia County elect as its sheriff a man like Michael J. Chitwood, a product of South Philadelphia, a self-styled progressive reformer, a vocal defender of undocumented immigrants? How did Chitwood gain endorsements from both the National Rifle Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and decisively defeat both the favorite of the good-ol'-boy network and the darling of the deputies union?" The Marshall Project on the new sheriff in town. One clue to his unlikely rise could be his, well, plain-spoken vibe. When presented with criticisms from all political sides, Chitwood responds: "All I am gonna say is this: f*ck ‘em. I got a job for four years, if they don't like it, get out." (Suddenly, I'm rethinking my strategy for responding to hate mail...)

6

Parsing Sage Reminders And Time

"Last week the Pentagon issued a new national defence strategy that put China and Russia above jihadism as the main threat to America. This week the chief of Britain's general staff warned of a Russian attack. Even now America and North Korea are perilously close to a conflict that risks dragging in China or escalating into nuclear catastrophe." The Economist on the growing danger of great-power conflict.

+ The Doomsday Clock just moved: It's now 2 minutes to ‘midnight,' the symbolic hour of the apocalypse. (Hopefully, world events don't lead to premature concatenation.)

7

Pulp Nonfiction

"'For a guy who always had control over actors, filmmakers, his company, his family—everybody—this was the first time I saw that he couldn't control a situation.' Even so, Weinstein seemed hell-bent on trying." Vanity Fair: Inside Harvey Weinstein's Frantic Final Days. (Something tells me things might get more frantic for Harvey before this story ends...)

8

Egg Fubar

"When a consumer orders an 'egg,' they expect to get an egg. I don't think consumers understand these other products that have five or more ingredients." WaPo: Panera is calling for a federal crackdown on the eggs in its competitors' breakfast sandwiches.

9

Chairlift to Heaven

Warren Miller passed away this week at the age of 93. If you've ever watched a movie on skiing or any other snow sports, you've probably seen Miller's work. "He essentially invented an entire genre of outdoor filmmaking, and he produced over 750 movies."

10

Bottom of the News

"While their brains may be the size of the period at the end of this sentence, they are finely tuned blood-hunters. And a new study by researchers from the University of Washington, the University of California-Riverside, and the California Institute of Technology, suggests that the mosquito species responsible for perennial outbreaks of dengue fever, chikungunya, and Zika, is actually capable of learning." MoJo: Swat at a Mosquito and It Could Remember You for Days. (In other words, don't miss?)

+ "I'm a keep it real. I forgot I did that s***" 50 Cent forgot that he once accepted Bitcoin as a payment for a 2014 album. It's now worth millions.