Odds and Ends — 1 January 2025

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:

For Hive Power Up Day, I staked 142.107 HIVE.

Proposal mandating the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin now underway

Crypto Scammers Are Now Stealing From Other Crypto Thieves

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

‘Moral imperative’: WHO presses China to share COVID origins data

I’m an Emergency Physician Keeping an Eye on Bird Flu. It’s Getting Dicey.

All year, I’ve been keeping tabs on the H5N1 avian flu outbreak in dairy cattle and birds in the United States. As a frontline emergency physician, my stake in this is clear: I want to know if there is an imminent threat of a sustained deadly outbreak in people.
Until now, I’ve been concerned but not worried. That has changed recently.

DenyDefendDepose:

"Real risk of jury nullification": Experts say handling of Luigi Mangione's case could backfire

Politics:

Questions About Trump’s Return to Power

How serious is Trump about using state power to go after his political enemies? Unchastened by total control in Washington, what guardrails will constrain him? Will he use the early days of his administration to set the new tone, and what will that tone be? What norms will he bulldoze through? And how will a lame duck Trump administration look different, unconstrained by the need to win reelection?
Then there are the practical questions about the new administration. What does opposition to Trump actually look like this time around? Who are the leaders of that movement and how do you balance trying to be the grown ups in the room with being the opposition at the same time? Historically, there’s nothing that brings Democrats together like opposing Trump, which at this point is their best hope of some kind of unity.

https://twitter.com/thejackhopkins/status/1874345251806339565
https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/1874330180690600160

On final day in office, Gov. Roy Cooper grants clemency to 15 on NC’s death row

https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1874103046445138256

You reap what you sow: Chief Justice John Roberts sounds alarm over potential defiance of court rulings

https://twitter.com/UROCKlive1/status/1873896749359923506

Judge allows California's ban on addictive feeds for minors to go into effect

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1874007858809053609

Ukraine Forces a Halt to Flow of Natural Gas

The flow of natural gas through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe was cut off early Wednesday after Ukraine refused to renew an agreement that allowed for the transit of Russian gas through its territory.
The move to suspend the flow of gas through a pipeline that had carried Soviet and then Russian gas to Europe for decades is part of a broader campaign by Ukraine and its Western allies to undermine Moscow’s ability to fund its war effort and to limit the Kremlin’s ability to use energy as leverage in Europe.

Serendipity:

https://twitter.com/RufusTSuperfly/status/1873773064170987740

Whales can live way longer than scientists had thought, with potential lifespans as much as double previous estimates

https://twitter.com/PinstripeBungle/status/1874051078221922555

^{Badge thanks to @arcange}

^{Want a free Hive account? Join Hive using my referral link.}

What is Hive?