Links For Today

Trump Tells Protesters “Help Is On Its Way,” Cuts Off Negotiations With Regime

Starlink tries to stay online in Iran as regime jams signals during protests

Poland is on track to surpass Japan in real GDP per capita (PPP).

R.I.P. – Dilbert Creator and Early Trump Supporter Scott Adams Passes Away at 68

Reg E is not uniformly loved in the financial industry. In particular, there has been a concerted effort by banks to renegotiate the terms of it with respect to Zelle in particular. This is principally because Zelle has been anomalously expensive, as Reg E embeds a strong, intentionally bank-funded anti-fraud regime, but Zelle does not monetize sufficiently to pay for it. And thus a history lesson, a primer, and an explanation of a live public policy controversy.

35 Theses on the WASPs

Links For Today

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 12, 2026

Israeli intelligence estimates that at least 1,000 Iranians have already been killed in the wave of protests sweeping the country. Even by moderate assessments, the current death toll has surpassed that of the 2022 protests, which began after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the regime’s ‘Morality Police’ for disregarding the hijab law.

The Cyber Wars that Weren t

Spanish Outbreak of African Swine Fever in Wild Boars Renews Biosafety Concerns. A disturbing clash between evidence that points away from a lab leak and the uneasy reality that a reference strain used in nearby high‑containment labs somehow appeared in the forest.

Overhauling Air Traffic Control Involves 5,000 Locations And 600 Radar Systems: Here’s What To Know

The unpowered SSDs in your drawer are slowly losing your data

Links For Today

Syrian army besieges Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo following clashes

With protests surging across cities and towns across Iran, the regime has reportedly unleashed foreign fighters to crack down on protesters. The U.S. State Department raised the alarm about Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi terror militia set loose on Iranians.

Lamenting the Liberal Order That Never Was

The day the cloud went out

17 House Republicans Join Democrats to Restore Obamacare Subsidies Extension

Links For Today

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 9, 2026

Russia’s Oreshnik Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Used In Large-Scale Attack On Ukraine

In Defence of our Neighbours, Pt. 2

In a major economic achievement for President Milei, Argentina has fully and rapidly repaid the US$ 2.5 billion drawdown from a US$ 20 billion currency swap facility with the United States Treasury.

Microbial patterns in colorectal tumors may predict patient survival and disease progression

Among the Agents. How I use coding agents, and what I think they mean

Links For Today

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 8, 2026

Days Of Rage, Nights Of Flames Across Iran

The Unfortunate Greenland Kerfuffle

A video short that went viral showed Weaver talked about moving home ownership from an “individualized good” to a “collective good,” saying that “especially white families, but some POC families” are going to have to embrace a “different relationship to property” than “the one that we currently have”:

The Tyranny of the Complainers

Young women are radicalising This article calls to mind “It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy.”
― George Orwell, 1984

Links For Today

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 6, 2026

Thousands of residents in southwest Berlin are still without electricity and heating amid freezing temperatures after a weekend attack on a cable bridge caused a power outage. Some 14,000 of the some 45,000 households initially affected have had their power restored, but provider Stromnetz Berlin said it might take until Thursday for complete coverage to return.

Pakistan’s high fertility has driven population growth faster than India’s. In 1952 Pakistan had about one-tenth of India’s population; by 2025 it had grown to nearly one-seventh.

Notes on Afghanistan

A Mysterious Weak Spot in Earth’s Magnetic Field Has Grown Nearly Half the Size of Europe

Links For Today

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 5, 2026

Cuba says 32 Cuban officers were killed in US operation in Venezuela

Israeli’s propaganda or real knowledge. Could be both. Iran’s Khamenei Plans to Flee to Moscow if Regime Collapses

U.S. Special Ops Aircraft Arriving In UK Could Point To Looming Oil Tanker Boarding Operation

The Unreported Story Of Grid Scale Battery Fires. The geniuses who are planning New York’s energy future think that they can make intermittent wind and solar generators work to power the electrical grid by the simple device of providing some battery storage. It turned out that the big problem was that these facilities were subject to large and dangerous fires on a regular basis. In some cases the same facility would catch fire multiple times.

The depressing thing about this link is the complete lack of even minor skepticism in comments. I am not saying that there are not valid reason to move away from a particular way of doing things but you have to read a lot of comments before you get to someone who actually talks about the benefits of Desflurane vs other options so that you can judge for yourself if this makes sense and not just a money saving thing disguised as green initiative that dumb people just lap up. Desflurane is a common anesthetic used in hospital operating rooms worldwide. It’s also a climate super pollutant. Now, several decades after the drug was first introduced, a growing number of US hospitals have stopped using the anesthetic because of its outsized environmental impact.

Links For Today

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 4, 2026

This is a China friendly site so you can think of this as an English version of China’s message to the world. PLA’s Drill Around Taiwan, Explained

Up to 45,000 households in Berlin expected to be without power for days as a result of a fire next to a power plant; far-left group claims attack, says it targeted the ‘fossil fuel economy’