Vox Sentences: What we know about the missing plane in Indonesia

1. Flight 8501

Indonesian search and rescue team coordinating the search area on December 29, 2014 in Belitung, Indonesia. (Oscar Siagian/Getty Images)

• A plane with 162 passengers went missing in Indonesia Sunday.

  [Vox / Joey Stromberg]

• The flight, en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, was operated by Indonesia AirAsia, an affiliate of the Malaysian carrier AirAsia.

• The head of Indonesia's search and rescue team said the plane was probably "at the bottom of the sea."

  [NYT / Thomas Fuller]

• "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]

• It appears that weather is the likeliest explanation for the disappearance, but we don't know enough to say yet.

  [Slate / Jeff Wise]

• By contrast, the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines plane in March doesn't appear to have been weather-related.

• 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)

• Greece is having elections on January 25 after parliament couldn't agree on a pick for president (a ceremonial position).

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• The most recent poll have the left-wing Syriza party in the lead with about a third of the vote.

  [Wikipedia poll roundup]

• 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]

• 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]

• 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]

• 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)

• House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has admitted he likely spoke at a 2002 meeting of a racist hate group.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• 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]

• 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]

• 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.]

• 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.

• Philosopher Susan Schneider argues that if we find intelligent life in the universe, it'll be hyper-intelligent robots, not organisms.

  [Vice / Maddie Stone]

• In 1975, over 65 percent of salaried workers qualified for time-and-a-half overtime pay; today, only 11 percent do.

  [Salon / Paul Rosenberg]

• 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]

• Germany in 1939 was about as rich as Tunisia or South Africa are today.

  [The Atlantic / David Frum]

• Since 2000, states have raised cigarette taxes five times as often as they've raised alcohol taxes.

  [Washington Post / Niraj Chokshi]

• Could being a bit colder make our metabolisms faster and cut obesity?

  [The Atlantic / James Hamblin]

5. Verbatim

• "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]

• "Roughly three-fifths of all farmland is used to grow beef, although it accounts for just 5 percent of our protein."

  [Outside / Rowan Jacobsen]

• "'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]

• "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]

• "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]

• "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]