1. Flight 8501
Indonesian search and rescue team coordinating the search area on December 29, 2014 in Belitung, Indonesia. (Oscar Siagian/Getty Images)
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A plane with 162 passengers went missing in Indonesia Sunday.
[Vox / Joey Stromberg]
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The flight, en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, was operated by Indonesia AirAsia, an affiliate of the Malaysian carrier AirAsia.
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The head of Indonesia's search and rescue team said the plane was probably "at the bottom of the sea."
[NYT / Thomas Fuller]
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"If all of [Malaysia-based AirAsia] Flight 8501’s passengers have perished, that would mean the three deadliest aviation disasters of 2014 are all tied to Malaysia."
[NYT / Michael Forsythe]
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It appears that weather is the likeliest explanation for the disappearance, but we don't know enough to say yet.
[Slate / Jeff Wise]
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By contrast, the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines plane in March doesn't appear to have been weather-related.
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Even including this flight and the Malaysian Airlines flight, 2014 had relatively few deaths from plane accidents.
[Vox / German Lopez]
2. Athenian democracy
Syriza leader and likely next prime minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
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Greece is having elections on January 25 after parliament couldn't agree on a pick for president (a ceremonial position).
[Vox / Matt Yglesias]
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The most recent poll have the left-wing Syriza party in the lead with about a third of the vote.
[Wikipedia poll roundup]
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Syriza wants Greek bondholders to take a haircut, for the European Central Bank to directly fund the Greek government, and a massive jobs program for the 25 percent of Greeks who are unemployed.
[Business Insider / Mike Bird]
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Some fear a Syriza government could force Greece to exit the Eurozone, but the party opposes leaving and an exit remains unlikely.
[Brookings / Douglas Elliott]
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Financial markets are freaking out about the possibility of a Syriza victory, but it doesn't seem like the concern is spreading to other countries like Spain or Italy.
[NYT / Neil Irwin]
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The case for a Syriza win: "The policies currently imposed upon Europe’s periphery are worsening the crisis … Greek government that rejects these self-defeating policies will do more help than harm."
[NYT / James Galbraith and Yanis Varoufakis]
3. An unfortunate EURO trip
House GOP whip Steve Scalise. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call Group / Getty)
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House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has admitted he likely spoke at a 2002 meeting of a racist hate group.
[Vox / Andrew Prokop]
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The group, known as European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO, was founded by former KKK Grand Wizard and Louisiana politician David Duke.
[Southern Poverty Law Center]
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A spokesperson for Scalise, who was then a state legislator, says he was "unaware at the time of the group’s ideology and its association with racists and neo-Nazi activists."
[Washington Post / Robert Costa]
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Someone who claims to have attended the speech recalled on the racist forum Stormfront that Scalise railed against "graft within the Housing and Urban Development Fund, an apparent give-away to a selective group based on race."
[Lamar White Jr.]
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Influential conservative commentator Erick Erickson: "How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?"
[Red State / Erick Erickson]
4. Misc.
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Philosopher Susan Schneider argues that if we find intelligent life in the universe, it'll be hyper-intelligent robots, not organisms.
[Vice / Maddie Stone]
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In 1975, over 65 percent of salaried workers qualified for time-and-a-half overtime pay; today, only 11 percent do.
[Salon / Paul Rosenberg]
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Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna want to give money where it can do the most absolute good. The hard part is figuring out where that is.
[Washington Post / Ariana Eunjung Cha]
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Germany in 1939 was about as rich as Tunisia or South Africa are today.
[The Atlantic / David Frum]
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Since 2000, states have raised cigarette taxes five times as often as they've raised alcohol taxes.
[Washington Post / Niraj Chokshi]
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Could being a bit colder make our metabolisms faster and cut obesity?
[The Atlantic / James Hamblin]
5. Verbatim
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"After adjustments for inflation, the United States will spend about 50 percent more on the military this year than its average through the Cold War and Vietnam War."
[The Atlantic / James Fallows]
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"Roughly three-fifths of all farmland is used to grow beef, although it accounts for just 5 percent of our protein."
[Outside / Rowan Jacobsen]
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"'Slay, mama,' the final Lady Gaga fan yelled before the portal closed and all the demons returned to their native land."
[Vox / Alex Abad-Santos]
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"You know you’re in New Hampshire when your rental car bottoms out in a pothole 400 yards past the state line. "
[NY Mag / Mark Jacobson]
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"The system would find its champion under Stalin, whose Gulag rose in part on the back of Trotsky’s few unremarkable weeks in an internment camp in Nova Scotia."
[Lapham's Quarterly / Andrea Pitzer]
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"Your telephone is ringing. I'm Ira Glass. Thank you for being a sustaining member of public radio. Everyone has a story, and your phone's story is that it's ringing."
[Ira Glas on Bojack Horseman via Business Insider / Brett Arnold]
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