Well, the work week is upon us again: it’s Monday, January 12, 2026, the beginning of a long and dispirited week, and National Marzipan Day (I have a marzipan pig as a Christmas treat; my sister sends me one every year in memory of the time we lived in Germany). Marzipan is traditionally molded into various shapes and then colored, most often as small fruits. Here’s how they’re made in Sicily (sound up):
@bakinghermann Sicily’s fruit-shaped marzipan 🇮🇹 #fruttamartorana #italianfood #vegan
It’s also Kiss a Ginger Day (if you’re a redhead, you’ve got it made), National Curried Chicken Day, International French Onion Soup Day (not eaten by many French people), National Glazed Doughnut Day (the worst type, espeically in the Krispy Kreme form, which seems to be mostly air), and National Hot Tea Day.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the January 12 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The protests in Iran are growing, and the government has imposed a complete blackout of the Internet (they don’t want news going out or the protestors communicating with each 0ther).
For a third night in a row, nationwide antigovernment protests rocked Iran, according to witnesses and videos verified by The New York Times, posted on BBC Persian and social media, even as the government intensified its crackdown and the military said it would take to the streets in response to the unrest.
In Heravi Square in Tehran, thousands of people marched through the streets, clapping rhythmically and chanting slogans against Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, videos verified by The Times showed. “You can’t see the start and end of the crowd,” shouted a protester moving the camera.
Videos and information from Saturday’s protests were hard to obtain, trickling in only with hours of delay, as the government maintained the internet blackout it imposed Thursday and blocked calls from abroad. Iran’s Telecommunication Ministry said in a statement that security officials had decided to shut down the internet because of the “situation unfolding in the country.” But the death toll appeared to be rising.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have not updated their casualty numbers since Thursday, when both were reporting 28 protest-related deaths. But two other rights groups focused on Iran, the Washington-based HRANA and the Norway-based Iran Human Rights, each said their tally was about 70 killed, among them minors and about 20 members of the security forces.
The Iran Human Rights group said that Rubina Aminian, a 23-year-old college student, died when she was shot in the head on Thursday after leaving her college campus and joining protests in Marivan, a Kurdish city in northwest Iran.
“The situation is extremely worrisome; this regime has always prioritized its survival over all else, and it will do so again, at the cost of people’s lives,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights.
Here’s a video of Masih, quite distressed and exercised, describing on CBS News the unrest in Iran (and the Internet blackout, which has cut off her main source of information; h/t Frank). She says the Iranian people are calling for help from President Trump.
Noa Tishby said this on her instagram page:
A Tehran doctor told @time on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital had recorded at least 217 protester deaths, “most by live ammunition.”
The death count, if confirmed, would signal a feared crackdown presaged by the regime’s near-total shutdown of the nation’s Internet and phone connections since Thursday night. It would also constitute a direct challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier in the day warned that the regime would “pay hell” if it killed protesters who have taken to the streets in growing numbers since Dec. 28.
But as of now, the AP puts the toll at “at least 544”, though that comes from activists.
*According to the Times of Israel and other sources like the Wall Street Journal, if the U.S. goes after Iran, that country has threatened to strike U.S. bases but also Israel (it’s always good to throw in attacks on Israel if you’re under siege).
Tehran threatened on Sunday to retaliate against Israel as well as US military bases in the event of American strikes on Iran, issuing the warning as Israeli sources said the country was on high alert.
With Iran’s clerical establishment facing the biggest anti-government protests since 2022, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in recent days amid reports of a growing death toll from a crackdown on demonstrators.
US media reported that Trump had been presented with options for potential strikes, including on non-military sites in Tehran.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, speaking in parliament on Sunday, warned against “a miscalculation.”
“Let us be clear: in the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories [Israel] as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s elite paramilitary Revolutionary Guards.
“We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat,” he said.
Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Three Israeli sources, who were present for security consultations over the weekend, said Israel was on a high-alert footing for any US intervention, but did not elaborate on what that meant.
Note that Khameni is a religious leader, but is the one who makes the big decisions. I still don’t think Trump will physically attack Iran, nor do I think that would be wise, as it would set a bad precedent for our interfering in other countries’ purely internal affairs. On the other hand, there are more indirect ways he can penalize Iran, as the next post shows.
*The WSJ suggests how Trump can make good on his threat to the Iranian regime without having to strike it with the military.
President Trump has warned Tehran that Washington is “locked and loaded” if the regime slaughters peaceful protesters. Iran is calling his bluff. With at least 42 confirmed dead, the president’s warning is now a policy test. Will America enforce its red lines?
Mr. Trump has proved he isn’t Barack Obama on Iran policy. Whereas President Obama made a nuclear deal enriching Tehran’s theocrats, Mr. Trump withdrew from that flawed agreement and pursued a sanctions strategy robbing the regime of oil revenue. When Iranians took to the streets starting in 2017, unlike Mr. Obama in 2009, Mr. Trump offered robust political support to protesters and torpedoed the conventional wisdom in Washington that doing so would be the kiss of death.
Now, as the regime is firing at hospitals and warning of no leniency, protesters inspired by President Trump’s promise are beseeching him to help, even naming streets after him. Will Mr. Trump replicate Mr. Obama’s 2013 red-line debacle in Syria, which undermined U.S. deterrence globally, locked in a teetering regime for more than a decade, and plunged the Middle East into bloody conflict begetting a refugee crisis?
The Islamic Republic is betting that it can suppress this latest uprising with lethal force while the West watches. Mr. Trump can prove them wrong. How? By tracking and confiscating oil tankers, something the U.S. has done with Venezuela. These tankers, dubbed the “Shadow Fleet,” are illicitly transporting Iranian oil to China and undermining Mr. Trump’s policy of maximum pressure.
This approach allows the U.S. to inflict acute pain on the regime without immediate military strikes against Iranian territory. It also buys time for Iranian protesters to grow their numbers on the street.
President Trump has warned Tehran that Washington is “locked and loaded” if the regime slaughters peaceful protesters. Iran is calling his bluff. With at least 42 confirmed dead, the president’s warning is now a policy test. Will America enforce its red lines?
Mr. Trump has proved he isn’t Barack Obama on Iran policy. Whereas President Obama made a nuclear deal enriching Tehran’s theocrats, Mr. Trump withdrew from that flawed agreement and pursued a sanctions strategy robbing the regime of oil revenue. When Iranians took to the streets starting in 2017, unlike Mr. Obama in 2009, Mr. Trump offered robust political support to protesters and torpedoed the conventional wisdom in Washington that doing so would be the kiss of death.
Now, as the regime is firing at hospitals and warning of no leniency, protesters inspired by President Trump’s promise are beseeching him to help, even naming streets after him. Will Mr. Trump replicate Mr. Obama’s 2013 red-line debacle in Syria, which undermined U.S. deterrence globally, locked in a teetering regime for more than a decade, and plunged the Middle East into bloody conflict begetting a refugee crisis?
The Islamic Republic is betting that it can suppress this latest uprising with lethal force while the West watches. Mr. Trump can prove them wrong. How? By tracking and confiscating oil tankers, something the U.S. has done with Venezuela. These tankers, dubbed the “Shadow Fleet,” are illicitly transporting Iranian oil to China and undermining Mr. Trump’s policy of maximum pressure.
This approach allows the U.S. to inflict acute pain on the regime without immediate military strikes against Iranian territory. It also buys time for Iranian protesters to grow their numbers on the street.
Iran gets a fair amount of prized heavy crude oil from Venezuela, which it apparently processes and resells, often to China. I’m not sure how “acute” the pain to Iran will be, though. Much as I want the regime to fall, it’s not good optics for us to be attacking every country whose politics we don’t like and who can’t do a lot of damage to us. North Korea would be an obvious target save for its proximity to South Korea, which would be destroyed.
*Maryellen MacDonald, professor emerita of psychology and language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written an op-ed in the WaPo called “Gen Zers aren’t talking—and it could cost them.” (Note that Gen Z is supposed to eomprise people born between 1997 and 2012: between 14 and 29 years old.
Gen Z’s interaction anxiety has expanded beyond “telephobia.” Despite craving closeness, they’re now reluctant to engage in face-to-face conversations. Opting for texting might seem like a convenient alternative, but this avoidance is costing the generation in more ways than they realize. What will it take to get Gen Z talking?
The social consequences of talking aversionare obvious: Businesses are starting to worry that young employees won’t be able to engage effectively with co-workers and customers.Young adults are lonelier. Dating is declining, and friend groups are shrinking.
But the problem isn’t just a matterof social awkwardness. Talking is important brain exercise, a desirable difficulty that enhances our cognition — in the moment of talking, and over our lifetimes. Young adults frequently listen to other people’s speech via podcasts, YouTube, TikTok and the like, but these activities don’t provide the same cognitive stimulation. The mental effort required to speak is much greater than what’s needed to understand someone else, and the cognitive benefits of talking exceed those of listening.
Those benefits are extensive: Talking about goals boosts mental focus and follow-through. Athletes are routinely coached to talk to themselves to improve perseverance, focus and mood. Talking about a topic speeds up learning and makes it more durable. And it continues to tune our brains all the way to old age, when high rates of socializing guard against dementia.
Young adults who avoid conversation are missing out on all of that. We don’t yet know the long-term consequences of losing talk-based cognitive, emotional and social enhancement, but the link between silence and dementia is worrisome.
What caused this talking avoidance? The pandemic is one likely culprit, as it removed opportunities for young people to practice socializing while they transitioned to adulthood. Remote work further reduces talking practice and degrades social skills. Helicopter parenting also clears away many challenges of childhood, leading to lower coping and social skills. For over-snowplowed adults still living at home, the parent concierge remains ready to take on phone calls and other talking challenges. It’s a vicious cycle: Reluctant talkers gravitate to non-talking activities like looking at their phones and moving through life with earbuds, which discourages anyone from striking up a conversation.
Actually, though I don’t interact much with Gen Zers since I’m a quasi-geezer, I do interact with people over 40, and have found that many of them prefer texting to talking. This saddens me as texting is not only slower and less detailed than regular conversation, but does lend a certain and unwanted formality to interacting with friends. Right off the bat I can think of two people who I really want to talk to, but who seem to prefer texting. And yes, I do think that the latter is injurious, as there’s a whole lot of cues you miss when talking: facial expressions, for one thing, including laughing, which comes out as “LOL” in text. Seriously, who really “laughs out loud” when they’re texting? I’ve done it maybe twice in a gazillion years. Get off my lawn!
*Get this: a group of Buddhist monks, accompanied by a rescue dog, are walking from Texas to Washington D.C., scheduled to arrive in the capital in February. That’s a long walk for both Buddha and Buddha’s Best Friend. But I don’t want to be snarky, as they’re walking for peace:
A group of Buddhist monks and their rescue dog are striding single file down country roads and highways across the South, captivating Americans nationwide and inspiring droves of locals to greet them along their route.
In their flowing saffron and ocher robes, the men are walking for peace. It’s a meditative tradition more common in South Asian countries, and it’s resonating now in the U.S., seemingly as a welcome respite from the conflict, trauma and politics dividing the nation.
Their journey began Oct. 26, 2025, at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Texas, and is scheduled to end in mid-February in Washington, D.C., where they will ask Congress to recognize Buddha’s day of birth and enlightenment as a federal holiday. Beyond promoting peace, their highest priority is connecting with people along the way.
“My hope is, when this walk ends, the people we met will continue practicing mindfulness and find peace,” said the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, the group’s soft-spoken leader who is making the trek barefoot. He teaches about mindfulness, forgiveness and healing at every stop.
And people love them, waiting for hours by the roadside to see them. Does this mean we all have a Buddha-shaped hole in our souls? (Sorry, I don’t mean to be so flippant!) Although Buddhists believe in things like karma and reincarnation, which are manifestly ubevidenced, they are in general one of the least harmful relgions. But wait–there’s more!
Preferring to sleep each night in tents pitched outdoors, the monks have been surprised to see their message transcend ideologies, drawing huge crowds into churchyards, city halls and town squares across six states. Documenting their journey on social media, they — and their dog, Aloka — have racked up millions of followers online. On Saturday, thousands thronged in Columbia, South Carolina, where the monks chanted on the steps of the State House and received a proclamation from the city’s mayor, Daniel Rickenmann.
. . . .Hailing from Theravada Buddhist monasteries across the globe, the 19 monks began their 2,300 mile (3,700 kilometer) trek at the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth.
Their journey has not been without peril. On Nov. 19, as the monks were walking along U.S. Highway 90 near Dayton, Texas, their escort vehicle was hit by a distracted truck driver, injuring two monks. One of them lost his leg, reducing the group to 18.
Well, more power to them and Aloka, and I’m sad that one monk lost his leg. This won’t really bring peace in the world, but it’s brought happiness to a lot of people. Here’s a five-minute news report:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is lonely but not alone. In fact, Kulka and Szaron are right there! (Remember that HIli hates Kulka but is friends with Szaron.)
Hili: Loneliness is a very painful feeling,
Me: But you’re not alone.
Hili: Sometimes the presence of others only deepens the feeling of loneliness.
In Polish:
Hili: Samotność to bardzo przykre uczucie.
Ja: Przecież masz towarzystwo.
Hili: Czasem obecność innych zwiększa poczucie samotności.
*******************
From The 2025 Darwin Awards!!!/Epic Fails!!!: I just looked this one up on Snopes, and (fortunately for the woman) it is false. Beware of fake-news memes!
I don’t know where I got this, but I like it:
From Cats Doing Cat Stuff. What a toy!
The numbers of Iranian dead are growing quickly. This is from noon yesterday and I’ll update it this morning:
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying.
Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals.
This is a massacre unfolding in Iran💔— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 11, 2026
From J. K. Rowling, posting about Iran. Are they going to demonize her for this, too?
If you claim to support human rights yet can’t bring yourself to show solidarity with those fighting for their liberty in Iran, you’ve revealed yourself. You don’t give a damn about people being oppressed and brutalised so long as it’s being done by the enemies of your enemies. pic.twitter.com/eK3jjh3pD6
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 11, 2026
I came across this tweet while browsing. What do you think of the paintings? What’s irritating is that they don’t tell you which painting surpasses the Mona Lisa:
Leng Jun’s 2004 oil painting is often cited by experts as “the painting that surpasses the Mona Lisa.” It is considered one of the world’s most hyperrealistic works.pic.twitter.com/KVy9ar9fu7
— Tansu Yegen (@TansuYegen) January 8, 2026
From FB, a lovely way to honor the death of Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. I’d like to be the person who controls the lights on the Empire State Building:
From Malcolm; Niagra Falls in winter and summer. I don’t think they ever freeze over.
Niagara Falls looks great in summer… But winter is on another level.pic.twitter.com/1JvlIW9pIT
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 2, 2026
One that I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Romanian Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was seven years old and would be 88 today had she lived. https://t.co/l0W2UJ0GZi
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) January 12, 2026
Two from Dr. Cobb, famous author. First, a colorful montage of beat scat:
Get yourself a friend who will send you postcards of brightly colored bear scat, because she knows you, and only you, will adore it. @staycurious.bsky.social this makes my WEEK.
— Bethany Brookshire (@beebrookshire.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T20:34:29.436Z
I may have posted this, but why not see the lovely shrimp again?
The world feels rough right nowSo please enjoy this shrimp, filmed off Cozumel, Mexico. It may be a larval reef shrimp, but we don’t know what species or how long it lives or what it eats. The world is still full of wonder and beauty and mystery. 🎥 @pedrovalenciam scuba diver on Insta
— Rebecca R Helm (@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T20:20:53.607Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country. -Hermann Göring, Nαzi military leader (12 Jan 1893-1946)
It also requires enough people falling for it. Definitely will not work in the US. The US is full of intelligent and independently thinking people. Dogma and insecurity is not their thing.
I sense that your tongue was firmly in your cheek.
I prefer texting because I do not think on my feet, I suffer from esprit de l’escalier after I hang up, and I am old enough to remember when a phone call at night had at least a 50% chance of being bad news.
Thanks for “esprit de l’escalier”! All these years I’ve known the feeling but not the phrase.
I do not think fast or well on my feet either, Reese, but still prefer talking…really prefer video talking to see expressions. If (when) I have said something stupid or mis-spoke, I can always send a follow-up lower bandwidth but more well thought out email or text. I really prefer the high bandwidth long sessions of talking with people while trailwalking or at coffee shops. Of course being 77/78 and not having a job to go to allows that luxury….and early arthritus in hands and fingers makes typing more difficult as the day progresses.
I have four gen-Z grandchildren plus their spouses and while they do spend considerable time attached to their phones, so far they seem to fully engage in verbal conversation with us and each other when we are all together. They and their parents often group text with us during the day as it is multi-player and asynchronous, not to avoid talking. My 6-7 data point anecdote FWIW.
Thanks for the lovely shrimp😻
Leng Jun’s paintings show amazing skill, but photorealism is not necessarily the goal of art. Most great paintings are great because they go beyond what we would see with a camera.
Yes. It is how it makes one feel.
Now they tell me. All my life I’ve been told to shut up and listen. I can’t imagine how many opportunities to interrupt other people I’ve missed. 🙂
From Cat Stevens’s incredible song “Father and Son:”
“From the moment I could talk
I was ordered to listen, now there’s a way
And I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go.”
Does anyone have an idea how the U.S. can best support the Iranian people against their theocratic oppressors?
Don’t TACO this one.
That’s cool Empire State lit up for Bob Weir (I love the Dead). They have some spectacular theme every night. I look south at home so can’t see the Empire but the Liberty Tower (fmr WTC) gets lit every night. I (heart) NY.
Agree w/ PCC(E). I haaate texting but most Zs and many millennials rely on it like we enjoy our email. We probably still have to communicate with them tho. 🙂
D.A.
NYC/ FL
Among the Leng Jun paintings, I’d expect the one that is compared to the Mona Lisa is the last one in the clip, since the subject is clearly posed like her.
My experience with young people of Gen-Z age is that they seem to be timid and shy. I see many every day at our gym, and they rarely engage either with me or with each other. This is glaringly different from the gym I frequented on Orcas Island, where the population skews much older. (Maybe they are just shy around me, as young people often defer to their elders, but I think their shyness is more general.)
I also observe that young men in the locker room are way more modest than older men. Whereas older men dress and undress freely at their lockers—and use the showers—the younger ones seem rarely to undress fully, wearing their workout clothes under their street clothes. Also, if I’m near my locker and a young man turns into that locker area to get a locker, he will often see that someone is in the area and will turn away and go to an unoccupied area instead. It’s very noticeable, and my wife notices the same in the women’s locker room. There, she tells me, young women either go into the private shower stalls to change or they wrap themselves in towels and change under the towels.
All of the above may simply mean that young people are more modest than older ones. (My university owned a swimsuit-optional lake in the 1970’s. So, indeed, times have changed.) But the way the young people at the gym behave it almost seems as if they are afraid of human engagement. This (if true) is consistent with the habit of using text to communicate, rather talking in person. All of this, of course, is speculation, but it does seem that the Gen-Z population is different.
(The above comment is 287 words.)
I lean towards the theory that Trump will attack Iran. Why? Two reasons come to mind. First, he has done it before. Second, he killed Qasem Soleimani (first term). This is not advocacy either way on my part.
Let me offer two more reasons. First, Maduro. Second, long before Trump, the US has fought wars (really battles, Operation Praying Mantis (1988)) with Iran. The results from the Iranian standpoint were not good.