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Editor's note: The earth tilts closer to the sun today—we're at perihelion, and the light burns different even as the cold bites deeper.

Picture this: a man who thinks ketchup is a vegetable now wants you taking aspirin like it's candy. The metallic taste on your tongue, that slight burn in your throat, blood thinning in your veins because someone saw a headline once and decided to make it everyone's problem.

The damage: Trump's pushing aspirin as a cardiovascular cure-all, ignoring decades of nuanced medical research that shows it helps some people and kills others through internal bleeding. We're talking about actual fucking bodies—your grandmother's stomach lining, your uncle's brain hemorrhage risk—being pawns in a political theater where "traditional medicine" means whatever Fox News said last Tuesday. The FDA's explicit guidelines? Complicated. Trump's take? "Everyone should take it." Medical professionals are already bracing for the ER visits from people who hear "aspirin" and start popping them like Tic Tacs.

Response: Cardiologists are scrambling to clarify that aspirin therapy is prescribed based on individual risk factors—age, blood pressure, existing conditions. The American Heart Association is preparing public campaigns. Your move? Listen to your actual fucking doctor, not a reality TV president with a medicine cabinet full of vibes. Read the full story

Smell it: burning plastic in the Jakarta sun, acrid smoke coating the back of your throat. Electronic waste piled in Ghana, children's hands sorting through circuit boards laced with lead. The metallic tang of heavy metals leaching into groundwater where families drink, where crops grow, where bodies slowly accumulate the West's discarded convenience.

The science: Rich nations produce 75% of global waste but export millions of tons to the Global South annually. E-waste contains cadmium, mercury, beryllium—poisons that bioaccumulate, that fuck with developing brains, that cause cancers flowering years later. The Basel Convention technically restricts this, but loopholes and mislabeling mean container ships keep sailing south with our used electronics, our plastic packaging, our chemical nightmares dressed up as "recyclables." Meanwhile, communities near these dump sites show elevated rates of respiratory disease, developmental delays in children, contaminated food chains.

Action: Organizations like Basel Action Network track illegal waste exports. Support right-to-repair legislation that keeps electronics out of the waste stream. Buy less shit. Demand corporate accountability for the entire product lifecycle. Indigenous and local activists in receiving countries are fighting back—amplify their voices, fund their legal battles. Read the brutal history

Hands gripping hands at rallies. The particular light through stained glass at trans memorial services that happened too fucking often in 2025. But also: laughter in community centers, testosterone shots celebrated, chosen families gathering strength like roots spreading beneath concrete.

Stakes: 2025 was carnage—over 600 anti-trans bills introduced, healthcare access gutted in red states, bathroom bills turning basic human dignity into a legal battlefield. Kids ripped from supportive families. Adults denied life-saving care. But here's the thing: trans organizing has never been stronger. Legal defense funds are flush. Mutual aid networks have mapped every hostile policy gap. The community knows what's coming and they're ready.

Movement: Activists are shifting from defense to offense—proactive legislation in blue states, sanctuary policies, underground networks ensuring hormone access. Youth organizers who cut their teeth fighting bathroom bills are now running for office. The 2026 midterms could flip state legislatures. Trans joy as resistance isn't just a slogan anymore—it's strategic survival. Community centers are packed. The work continues. Read the roadmap forward

When Prayer Backfires Gloriously: MAGA officials invited a "Christian pastor" to open a city council meeting, salivating for some good old culture war validation. Instead, they got Reverend Dr. Nathan Empsall blessing LGBTQ+ rights, affirming trans dignity, and preaching radical inclusion while they squirmed in their seats. The particular shade of red creeping up a council member's neck, the shuffle of papers, the "we've made a terrible mistake" energy crackling through that room. Chef's fucking kiss. Watch the divine schadenfreude

Iran's Women Rising, Again: Boots hitting pavement, chants echoing off Tehran's buildings. Women burning hijabs in public squares, the smell of fabric smoke mixing with tear gas. Morality police fleeing as crowds grow. Every woman's uncovered hair is an act of warfare against theocracy. The regime's terrified—you can taste it in their increasingly desperate crackdowns. Amplify these voices. Watch what courage looks like. Follow the resistance

Perihelion: When Earth Leans Into the Sun's Embrace: Today, we're 3 million miles closer to the sun than we'll be in July. Feel that? No, you don't—because it's fucking January and the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from that solar heat. This cosmic intimacy happens while we're bundled in winter, a reminder that proximity isn't everything. Distance, angle, tilt—relationships are complicated, even 93 million miles out in space. Understand our solar dance

Winter Citrus Life Hack: Your hands are cold, your vitamin D is tanking, and those blood oranges at the market are screaming to save you. Here's the move: Segment citrus like a pro—slice off top and bottom, stand the fruit up, curve your knife along the flesh to remove peel AND pith in one motion. You're left with naked fruit. Now slice between membranes for perfect supremes. Toss with olive oil, flaky salt, fresh mint. Eat with your hands. The juice running down your wrist, the burst of acid and sugar, winter suddenly bearable. Five minutes, maximum impact.

January Cooking: Root Vegetable Mash That Fucking Delivers: It's cold, it's dark, you need comfort that sticks to your ribs. Cube equal parts sweet potato, parsnip, and celery root. Roast at 425°F until caramelized, about 40 minutes. Mash with butter (don't be shy), cream, roasted garlic, fresh thyme. The earthiness of roots meeting dairy richness, that perfect texture between smooth and chunky. Serve it under anything—braised meat, roasted mushrooms, a fried egg if you're eating breakfast for dinner. This is January survival food that tastes like you give a shit about yourself.

Vox | Multiple experts. Picture standing at the edge of 2026 with binoculars, trying to see through fog thick as propaganda, and these are the shapes emerging: MAGA's second act, climate chaos accelerating, AI crossing thresholds we're not ready for, and the slim possibility that we course-correct before the ship fully capsizes. Read the predictions

The Ancient Practice of Lying to Yourself Productively: Babylonians made promises to their gods to return borrowed farming equipment (the original "new year, new me"). Romans pledged good behavior to Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings (fitting). Medieval knights renewed their chivalric vows. We're continuing a 4,000-year tradition of seasonal optimism meeting human nature's stubborn resistance to change. But here's the thing: the ritual matters even when we fail. The trying is the point. Discover resolution history

January Sky: What to Look Up For: The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks tonight—up to 80 meteors per hour streaking through cold air so clear each star feels close enough to touch. Venus blazing in the western sky after sunset. Jupiter still dominant overhead. Bundle up, find somewhere dark, let your eyes adjust. Watch the universe show off while your breath makes clouds and your neck aches from looking up. Worth it. Plan your sky watching

Clickbait: Siblings Can't Stop Laughing While Discussing Dead Baby Brother—And Their Grief Is More Real Because of It: Two adult siblings absolutely losing it with giggles while remembering their baby brother who died, their laughter so hard they can barely speak, tears streaming, the particular hysteria of grief that the living don't talk about because it looks wrong. But this is how humans survive the unsurvivable—we laugh at funerals, we make inappropriate jokes, we find absurdity in devastation because the alternative is drowning. Their honesty is a fucking gift. Watch authentic grief