When Usually Solitary Octopuses Get Together, Odd Things Happen Atlas Obscura (furzy)

‘Hug-buddy’ is Flemish word of the year Politico

Kangaroos can learn to communicate with humans, researchers say Reuters

Monarch butterflies denied federal protection as California population plunges Merced Sun-Star (David L)

A palm oil alternative could help save rainforests BBC (furzy)

All the Stuff Humans Make Now Outweighs Earth’s Organisms Wired

‘We’re getting Europe’s waste?’ US hit by plastic debris lost from UK ship Guardian

Small Modular Reactors Produce Clean Hydrogen Popular Mechanics

#COVID-19

Covid-19 vaccine stickers could encourage people to get vaccinated CNN (Kevin W). Sigh. Psychological research finds that presenting people with information that contradicts their priors only leads them to double down.

Hong Kong lawmaker floats idea of HK$5,000 pay-off for taking Covid-19 shot https://t.co/6KYB7Nwj00

— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) December 16, 2020

Don’t Force Employees to Get the Covid-19 Vaccine Bloomberg

Santa likely delivered coronavirus to nursing home, infecting 75 people Boing Boing

Saudi begins registering people for COVID vaccination Al Jazeera (resilc)

Singapore to open travel bubble as it prepares to stand in for Davos Reuters

Science/Medicine

America Is Running Out of Nurses New Yorker

FDA Authorizes 1st Home Coronavirus Test That Doesn’t Require A Prescription NPR

Moderna submits data to FDA showing vaccine can potentially prevent infection, not just severe disease CNN

They argue that this is within expected range. Total nonsense, unreferenced, and is something I know quite a bit about.https://t.co/Zf4fbZMiEc

Any vaccination program should definitely pay attention to neurological side effects moving forward, esp with the GBS-Flu Vax history pic.twitter.com/rEBNMtBTI7

— Andrew Morris (@ASPphysician) December 8, 2020

MORE #BellsPalsy reported in #Moderna‘s data (page 6)

“Throughout the safety follow-up period to date, there were three reports of facial paralysis (Bell’s palsy) in the vaccine group and one in the placebo group.” https://t.co/ycUn09tc4U https://t.co/IFIYIORnwv

— Karina (@KarinaRa1776) December 16, 2020

New CDC study from Mississippi:

📍SHOCKER—Children’s parties, playdates, weddings/funerals, and visitors to one’s home ➡️ increased odds of #COVID19.

💡AMAZING—Wearing masks inside school led to **lower** risk of infection—**even if attending school!**https://t.co/u0tfFiRW4c pic.twitter.com/qQPOMVP4BL

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 16, 2020

Moderna vaccine appears to protect against coronavirus infection NBC (furzy)

UK/Europe

COVID-19: For the first time in its history UNICEF will help feed children in the UK Sky

Coronavirus: France replaces lockdown with evening curfew BBC

Covid Second Wave: Sweden Offers Hard Reality Check Ahead of Christmas Bloomberg (furzy)

US

Hunger spikes, demand rises for US food banks BBC

Hunger in America, Covid-19 and the Nightmare of Food Insecurity TomDispatch

Fridges Feeding the Hungry Weather Growing Pains With Creative Alliances THE CITY

Amazon ecourages California warehouse and Whole Foods workers to get weekly Covid tests CNBC

Finance/Economy

Locked Down and Broke: 20,000 Vermonters Could Lose Unemployment Benefits Seven Days Vermont (resilc)

Sanders, Hawley embrace odd couple status in push for stimulus checks The Hill

I’m watching Fox News, and they’re citing @mtaibbi on the stimulus deal (made a whole graphic out of it) while talking to Josh Hawley about why there should be more stimulus checks.

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) December 16, 2020

Confirming our cross post yesterday:

Global South countries, led by South Africa and India, have requested a suspension of the WTO’s patent rules to enable them to manufacture or import affordable generic versions of the COVID-19 vaccine. Shockingly, Britain and other rich countries have refused.

— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) December 15, 2020

TOM CURSE Raging Tom Cruise warns Mission: Impossible crew they’re ‘f***ing gone’ if they break Covid rules on set The Sun

China?

Revealed: China suspected of spying on Americans via Caribbean phone networks Guardian. Resilc: “Sort of like Walmart, Amazon, Google, NYTimes, Fox, Home Depot?”

China Attempts to Cap Soaring Coal Prices as Imports Tumble Caixin

Brexit

Progress on Brexit issues, next days critical, EU says Reuters. Wowsers, is the press desperate to amplify any scrap of positive news. Other headlines more boosterist, when von der Leyen almost exactly repeats Barnier’s early “narrow path” formulation.

Global Britain ditches EU for an Asian future Asia Times (Kevin W). Good luck with that.

Facebook To Move UK Users To California Terms, Avoiding EU Privacy Rules Reuters

Mexico lashes out at U.S. with law expected to harm cooperation on drug fight TheHour (Kevin W)

Syraqistqan

Iran’s Pres. Rouhani to Biden: We will Fulfill our Nuclear Obligations on Day One if you Return to 2015 Deal Juan Cole

Camp closures force Iraqi families back to shattered homes Associated Press

Julian still hasn’t been given his warm clothes. The prison gave him two blankets, but it’s not enough to keep the cold out. His window is permanently boarded up with books for insulation. It’s still freezing at night.#FreeAssangeNOW#Assange#PardonAssange@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/GAqMpM4zCl

— Stella Moris (@StellaMoris1) December 15, 2020

Imperial Collapse Watch

French and Russian Trolls Wrestle For Influence In Africa, Facebook Says Reuters. But American trolls receive no mention.

Trump Transition

President Trump to veto national defence bill, White House says Al Jazeera. Subhead: “Broad support in Congress for bill containing language that would impose limits on US troop withdrawals from overseas.”

William Barr: The Carl Schmitt of Our Time New York Review of Book (resilc)

DeVos urges career staff to ‘be the resistance’ as Biden takes over Politico

Biden

Biden Taps Pete Buttigieg for Transportation Secretary New York Times (Kevin W)

Some quality #wokewashing from @Timodc & of course super woke @11thHour host Bryan Williams. LGBTQ kids everywhere can look at Mayor Pete & see that they too can grow up to work at McKinsey, enable police brutality, wax poetic about civilizing natives in Afghanistan. Williams… pic.twitter.com/wxjIyM6Qh4

— Katie Halper (@kthalps) December 16, 2020

Joe Biden has created the most diverse cabinet in the history of Goldman Sachs

— Fishbones (@Fishbones2020) December 15, 2020

Lindsey Graham: Big ‘threats to conservatism” are election officials helping people to vote, and social media disinformation crackdown Boing Boing

Republicans Will Take Their Assault on Democracy to Congress—and It Will Be Awful Nation (resilc)

I’m sure you can find a way to avoid ActBlue:

BREAKING: IT’S HAPPENING – @ninaturner has announced her run for U.S. Congress if Marcia Fudge is confirmed as Secretary of HUD

Fundraising begins NOW: https://t.co/O2p9iPsYt9#OH11 pic.twitter.com/1WEmzBSwUK

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) December 15, 2020

Paris city hall fined for putting too many women in senior roles Guardian (Kevin W)

FDA funding study around blood donations from gay men: report The Hill (UserFriendly)

Police State Watch

Defund Campus Police Slate

It’s Not Just You, USPS Packages Are Massively Delayed Again Vice (resilc)

Walmart Will Use Fully Driverless Trucks To Make Deliveries In 2021 The Verge

“It is rare for such a simple measure to promise such an enormous impact,” Gary Kalman of @anticorruption says of a historic bill requiring U.S. companies to report their true owners to @USTreasury and allow banks and law enforcement to request that info. https://t.co/vGEn81xd9c

— ICIJ (@ICIJorg) December 16, 2020

Trump Financial Regulator Quietly Shelved Discrimination Probes Into Bank of America and Other Lenders ProPublica

Class Warfare

Pay gap in Britain between executives and workers ‘obscene’, says union Guardian

Antidote du jour (furzy):

And a bonus from furzy. Don’t try this at home!

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here