First up: happy New Year, despite everything.

Fire crews in south-west Sydney. By Helitak430. CC BY-SA 4.0.

“A burning nation led by cowards”. From Australia, of course.

There are suddely protests everywhere. Martin Gurri offers optimistic and pessimistic interpretations: the pessimistic version is that loss of control of information is systemically fatal to governments. Related: Learning from Hong Kong about resilient social movements.

Ten things that help us understand China. Foreign Policy rounds up five of its own pieces, and five from elsewhere, that maybe help us look below the surface.

How Silicon Valley has failed. Yes, the online world is increasingly toxic. But its real failure is that all “the smartest minds in the world’s richest country” have produced is a bit more consumer convenience.

The new nature writing is a way to imagine other futures. Ian Christie and Kate Oakley reflect on the nature writing boom and announce a new writing competition

Cats always land on their feet. The physics of this is complicated.

We need satire more than ever. The Art Newspaper podcast from earlier in 2019 on the collages of Christopher Spencer, aka Cold War Steve. (25 minutes) His Twitter account:@coldwar_steve.

“The whole world’s at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn’t fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.” (Thornton Wilder)

Image credit: Wikipedia

• Jeff Bezos doesn’t want the world. He wants to go into space. An epic profile of the Amazon boss in Atlantic magazine.

• On which subject, it’s getting tougher being an internet giant. Politicians, regulators and journalists are finally catching up.

• It was all the fault of Netscape. It was liberating, 25 years ago, when the world’s first commercial internet browser was launched.

• Impossible not to mention Brexit this week. The historian David Edgerton suggests that one of the causes is the decline of British business and British finance.

• Masculinity is morphing. We knew that. GQ has been talking to some of the men who are morphing it.

• In Hong Kong, women are redefining their role through the street protests. A fabulous visual Twitter thread (one of several) by Hong Kong activist @uwu *wears a scary mask*.

• Right here, right now. If you didn’t see it, Fatboy Slim remixes his classic dance track with Greta Thunberg’s UN speech. Video, 2’19″

If you see an article worth sharing on Sixes and Sevens, please add it to the Comments.

“The whole world’s at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn’t fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.” (Thornton Wilder)

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Hong Kong’s protestors are fighting a visual battle. On the basis of these posters, they’re probably winning.

It’s time to scrap London Fashion Week. At least until it’s worked out how to be sustainable.

Population growth rates are slowing. Yes, we know this already, but it has huge implications. 

‘Techlash’ has reached Stanford. It may be Silicon Valley university, but today’s computer students aren’t keen on working for Facebook and Google.

Stress, depression and anxiety accounted for half of UK sick days in 2017/18. The reason: changes in the nature of work.

Women writers didn’t need a room of their own. They needed access to contraception.

The abolition of time. Well, at least clock time.

If you see an article worth sharing on Sixes and Sevens, please add it to the Comments.

“The whole world’s at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn’t fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.” (Thornton Wilder)