Happy New Year!

Jan. 1, 2015 The Agenda Happy New Year! Mic Happy New Year from all of us at Mic! It's been a turbulent and exciting year, and we're looking forward to delivering you the best news and analysis in 2015. As always, we welcome your feedback and tips via email. Thanks for reading! + In case you're hurting right now, here's a user's guide to dealing with your New Year's Day hangover.  + Science explains why it's so damn difficult to keep your New Year's resolutions. + The traditional midnight kiss captures everything people don't like about New Year's Eve. Officials may have located the final resting place of AirAsia Flight 8501 Mic The search for doomed AirAsia Flight 8501 might soon come to an end: Indonesian officials believe a sonar-detected image of a large, dark object floating deep in the Java Sea is the missing airliner. The development comes as the massive multinational search effort consisting of several ships, helicopters and planes ended its fourth day after the passenger jet with 162 aboard lost contact with air traffic control midway through its short flight Sunday between Surabaya, Indonesia, and Singapore. Flu season is already approaching epidemic proportions in the U.S. Mic The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that this year's flu season has breached the "epidemic threshold" as the virus continues to spread across the United States. + Fifteen children have died from the flu during the 2014-2015 season so far, and the number of states reporting "high" levels of the virus jumped from 13 to 22 in just one week. The data also shows the hospitalization rate is the highest among those 65 and older, at 38.3 per 100,000 people. + The CDC came to that conclusion after its data revealed startling information, including the fact that nearly 7% of all deaths in the U.S. for the week ending Dec. 20 were due to pneumonia and influenza. In order to qualify as an epidemic, the number of deaths caused by the flu and pneumonia must reach the threshold of 6.8%.  Marvels How a simple Google Image search exposes society's most harmful stereotypes. [Mic] My mother, the ganja dealer. [Narratively] Why smart people sometimes do idiotic things. [Scientific American] President Obama just responded to one black teen's heartbreaking Christmas wish. [Mic] Never use shampoo ever again. [the New York Times] A man lived in 23 Nevada brothels to reveal what sex work really looks like. [Mic] R.I.P. bae. [the Atlantic] Why does Alexei Navalny scare Vladimir Putin so much? [Vox] For the first time, the U.S. stopped more non-Mexicans than Mexicans at the border. [Mic] Parents are not happy that Play Doh gave their kids plastic penises. [Bloomberg Businessweek] The case against New Year's Eve, in one tweet. [Mic] Photo of the Day Relive 2014 through the lens of a single photographer: Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson has had a busy, eventful year. Based in New York, his job took him not only around that city, but to hotspots around the world, covering sports, fashion, policy-making, protest, daily life, war and much more. By one count, the Reuters news agency distributed nearly 5,000 photos taken by Jackson in 2014. Mic Check is carefully and dutifully assembled each day by Jared Keller. Did we miss something you wanted to read about? Want to see us focus on an under-covered issue? Have a tip for the next edition? Email jared@mic.com. Share Mic Check and help your friends stay informed: http://eepurl.com/of1jj. Follow Mic!      Copyright © 2015 Mic, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you opted in while creating an account on Mic. Our mailing address is: Mic 325 Hudson Street 1001 New York, NY 10013 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences