- It’s Time to Stand Up for the Climate—and for Civilization (Wired) "The building blocks of our common home—science and diplomacy and also civility—are hard-won, and history would indicate that they can fade fast. In fact, we now seem likely to start tossing them away based on nothing but the politically useful whim that climate change is a hoax. We seem intent on blinding ourselves, on ripping out the smoke detectors even as the house begins to burn. Either we solve this soon or we don’t solve it. And if we don’t, then the cascading crises that follow (massive storms, waterlogged cities, floods of migrants) will batter our societies in new ways that we are ill prepared to handle, as the xenophobia of this election season showed."
HEALTH:
- The Heroism of Incremental Care (New Yorker) "But once I took in the fact that patient and doctor really knew each other I started to realize the significance of their familiarity. For one thing, it made the man willing to seek medical attention for potentially serious symptoms far sooner, instead of putting it off until it was too late. Success, therefore, is not about the episodic, momentary victories, though they do play a role. It is about the longer view of incremental steps that produce sustained progress. The coming years will present us with a far larger concern, however. In this era of advancing information, it will become evident that, for everyone, life is a preexisting condition waiting to happen. This is a problem for our health-care system. It doesn’t put great value on care that takes time to pay off. But this is also an opportunity. We have the chance to transform the course of our lives. But the basic decision has the stark urgency of right and wrong. We can give up an antiquated set of priorities and shift our focus from rescue medicine to lifelong incremental care. Or we can leave millions of people to suffer and die from conditions that, increasingly, can be predicted and managed."
NEWS:
- Trump Disrupts World (New Yorker) "Donald Trump knows how to rattle the world. Since Friday, the President-elect has given two interviews that jolted governments from Brussels to Beijing. The pushback, on Monday, was fast and furious. French President François Hollande warned that Europe 'has no need for outside advice to tell it what to do.' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that Trump’s comments had caused 'astonishment and commotion' among every NATO nation. He expressed 'amazement' that Trump’s comments contradicted the testimony of his own foreign-policy team. China was unusually blunt. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, chastised the President-elect as 'stunningly confident in his ostensible knowledge of the job, though he speaks like a rookie.' The state-run China Daily, the country’s largest-circulation newspaper, warned of 'a period of fierce damaging interactions in which 'Beijing will have no choice but to take off the gloves.' In Mexico, Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, the economy secretary, countered that his government and others have to act swiftly 'to neutralize' the impact of crippling new U.S. tariffs. Merkel was more gracious. 'We Europeans have our fate in our own hands,' she told reporters, in Berlin. 'I’m personally going to wait until the American President takes office, and then we will naturally work with him on all levels.'"
- Why James Mattis is a popular choice for defence secretary (Economist) "It is easy to understand by so many regard Mr Mattis as a steadying force. Unlike the president-elect who is keen on the brevity afforded by Twitter, the general is an avid writer and reader, who is said carry a copy of Marcus Aurelius’s 'Meditations'. He is well versed in working within America’s traditional alliance systems. He is no fan of the Kremlin, testifying before his confirmation hearing last week that there’s an 'increasing number of areas where we're going to have to confront Russia'."
- Trump National Security Team Gets a Slow Start (NYT) "Less than three days before President Obama turns the keys to the White House, and the nuclear codes, over to President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Trump’s transition staff has barely engaged with the National Security Council below the most senior levels."
- 10 Times Trump Spread Fake News (NYT) "'I don’t know what they made up; all I can do is play what’s there,” Mr. Trump said on NBC’s 'Meet the Press.' All I know is what’s on the internet.'"
- Will John Brennan’s controversial CIA modernization survive Trump? (WaPo) "What’s the right course? After interviewing several dozen CIA officers and veterans over the past several months, my conclusion is that Brennan’s reforms should continue, but only with adjustments that reduce the bureaucratic layering and duplication that his overhaul unintentionally fostered. The CIA’s old culture was broken, as Brennan argued, but a new version hasn’t yet taken root. That will be Pompeo’s challenge. The modernization upheaval has reminded agency officers that while they all share some common identity, their specialties are different. Analysts need to be fiercely independent; they must resist the groupthink that sometimes develops within a joint team. Operators need to be bold and manipulative; they’re the recruiters and deal closers."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Alexa Is Conquering the World. Now Amazon’s Real Challenge Begins (Wired) "For now, Amazon remains focused on getting Alexa into as many places as possible. And the details are of little concern to most companies, which see Alexa as little more than a sellable upgrade. That’s OK. New technology is always messy. It exposes what works and what doesn’t, and the difference between ubiquity and utility. Eventually, all these disparate threads might come together to create a truly useful ecosystem."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Snoop Dogg Blasts ‘Uncle Tom’ Black Artists for Performing At Trump’s Inauguration (Breitbart)
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- Trump National Security Team Gets a Slow Start (NYT) "Less than three days before President Obama turns the keys to the White House, and the nuclear codes, over to President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Trump’s transition staff has barely engaged with the National Security Council below the most senior levels."
- 10 Times Trump Spread Fake News (NYT) "'I don’t know what they made up; all I can do is play what’s there,” Mr. Trump said on NBC’s 'Meet the Press.' All I know is what’s on the internet.'"
- Will John Brennan’s controversial CIA modernization survive Trump? (WaPo) "What’s the right course? After interviewing several dozen CIA officers and veterans over the past several months, my conclusion is that Brennan’s reforms should continue, but only with adjustments that reduce the bureaucratic layering and duplication that his overhaul unintentionally fostered. The CIA’s old culture was broken, as Brennan argued, but a new version hasn’t yet taken root. That will be Pompeo’s challenge. The modernization upheaval has reminded agency officers that while they all share some common identity, their specialties are different. Analysts need to be fiercely independent; they must resist the groupthink that sometimes develops within a joint team. Operators need to be bold and manipulative; they’re the recruiters and deal closers."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Alexa Is Conquering the World. Now Amazon’s Real Challenge Begins (Wired) "For now, Amazon remains focused on getting Alexa into as many places as possible. And the details are of little concern to most companies, which see Alexa as little more than a sellable upgrade. That’s OK. New technology is always messy. It exposes what works and what doesn’t, and the difference between ubiquity and utility. Eventually, all these disparate threads might come together to create a truly useful ecosystem."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Snoop Dogg Blasts ‘Uncle Tom’ Black Artists for Performing At Trump’s Inauguration (Breitbart)
Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News
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