02 Dec 24 Monday Briefing

All aboard the clown train

News Roundup

Clown Car 1 and Clown Car 2 continue to jockey for pole position in DC, Clown Car 3 has a “victory plan” for NATO, colour revolutions continue apace, Hong Kong remains desperate for a shred of financial relevance in a rapidly changing world, and the sheen wears off a star.

Watch/Scroll

This is why journalism was invented.

Interestingly, the Chinese name for North Korea is the historical 朝鮮/Choseon.

Skincare for dummies – mostly useful for debunking some popular myths

Read

What happens when a full-stack engineer goes full geek on flour, water, salt, and yeast? BREAD CODE.

Most people associate the interlocking wooden brackets with traditional Japanese architecture (jigoku-gumi), but as with most of their cultural inheritances, it was derived from Chinese dougong. Grandpa Wang Yongxian has discovered the power of short-form videos to reach a new, younger audience.

Ponder

What does the Professional Managerial Class (PMC) have to do with Trump’s second election? Adam Tooze expounds in this longish but very digestible read.