A World Health Organization official says the Omicron variant will infect more than half of Europe in the next two months. / CNN

Hundreds of thousands of students in Los Angeles return to school from winter break today. Chicago schools reopen tomorrow. / The Los Angeles Times, ABC7

Related: In case you missed that post from a student in a New York City school grappling with Omicron, here's an interview with updates. / Reddit, Slate

Dr. Nahid Bhadelia: We do not exist in a balance with Covid yet. / Twitter

Uganda reopens classrooms after the world's longest pandemic-prompted shutdown—and many students, teachers, and schools won't return. / The New York Times

China locks down a third city for an indefinite period. / The Associated Press

Alex Ross profiles a woman who's keeping a village of 30 people alive in Death Valley. / The New Yorker

Unrelated: A slow drive (with bad music) through redwood trees. / The Morning News

The first transplant of a genetically altered pig heart into a human sparks questions from bioethicists. / STAT

Medieval warhorses were no bigger than modern-day ponies. / The Guardian

A man writes a thank-you letter to an IKEA employee for tracking down his child. / Michael McWatters

See also: Learning to like softness as a valuable human trait. / Meditations in an Emergency

For Generation Z, coming of age during Covid, the '80s "represent analog freedom and fun." / Jezebel

As modern and contemporary art has moved away from shock, a potentially very different aesthetic is coming into focus. / 3:AM Magazine

Hillbilly Elegy's J.D. Vance purports to be a "common good" conservative while cosplaying Donald Trump Jr. online. / The Washington Post Magazine

Who said avant-garde is dead? Dennis Cooper's favorite fiction, poetry, nonfiction, music, film, art, and internet stuff of 2021. / Dennis Cooper

A round-up of several dozen of the best "asks" from Ask Metafilter in 2021. / Phil Gyford's Website