I root for the Grinch every time.

The thing I like most about the Christmas season is that it really exemplifies society's sense of taste and restraint. I found it especially heartwarming to learn that one Rhode Islander creates giant holiday displays of those celebrities who truly exhibit Christmas-like quality every day, like Madonna and, this year, Paris Hilton. According to the guy who made it, he was inspired by her sweetness. It doesn't say how much this travesty cost in materials or electricity, but I'll bet I could think of a few ways to spend that much money that are a little more in line with the "holiday spirit" and don't resort to glorifying a brainless, hyperindulged celebrity whose lifelong list of accomplishments is "made a sex video". I honestly find all the huge Christmas displays people do to be tacky at best, and mostly wasteful, pointless, and vain, but this is just stupid.

And speaking of Christmas, it seems the end of the world is nigh. It turns out that all the people in The Core died in vain. (Not really. Magnetic north is just being wobbly, and even if it shifts tomorrow, which would suck in many ways, it probably wouldn't be catastrophic.)

The History Channel thinks that the Titanic might broken into three pieces and sunk very quickly. I like what Bob Ballard (who found the wreck about twenty years ago) said about it: "When you go down there, there's stuff all over the place. It hit an iceberg and it sank. Get over it."

I just found PhysOrg.com, a space/physics news site. Looks pretty good.

Not much is new personally. I got an excellent French coffee press (a Bodum Chambord or something like that) and managed to destroy it the first time I used it (the directions say don't use it when it's chipped, but what about shattered in a million pieces on the floor? Still no?) but it made excellent coffee. Highly recommended. And I'm getting new boots (Garmont Vegans) hopefully next week. They're excellent hiking/walking boots, and I kind of destroyed my old pair by accident so I'm looking forward to getting these. And that's about all that's new here.