Wednesday, 26 November
14:00 EST
Solar’s growth in US almost enough to offset rising energy use [Ars Technica - All content]
Worries about the US grid’s ability to handle the surge in demand due to data center growth have made headlines repeatedly over the course of 2025. And, early in the year, demand for electricity had surged by nearly 5 percent compared to the year prior, suggesting the grid might truly be facing a data center apocalypse. And that rise in demand had a very unfortunate effect: Coal use rose for the first time since its recent collapse began.
But since the first-quarter data was released, demand has steadily eroded. As of yesterday’s data release by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which covers the first nine months of 2025, total electricity demand has risen by 2.3 percent. That slowdown means that most of the increased demand could have been met by the astonishing growth of solar power.
Better than feared
If you look over data on the first quarter of 2025, the numbers are pretty grim, with total demand rising by 4.8 percent compared to the same period in the year prior. While solar power continued its remarkable surge, growing by an astonishing 44 percent, it was only able to cover a third of the demand growth. As a result of that and a drop in natural gas usage, coal use grew by 23 percent.
RFK Jr.’s new CDC deputy director prefers “natural immunity” over vaccines [Ars Technica - All content]
Under ardent anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has named Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham as its new principal deputy director—a choice that was immediately called “dangerous” and “irresponsible,” yet not as bad as it could have been, by experts.
Physician Jeremy Faust revealed the appointment in his newsletter Inside Medicine yesterday, which was subsequently confirmed by journalists. Faust noted that a CDC source told him, “I heard way worse names floated,” and although Abraham’s views are “probably pretty terrible,” he at least has had relevant experience running a public health system, unlike other current leaders of the agency.
But Abraham hasn’t exactly been running a health system the way most public health experts would recommend. Under Abraham’s leadership, the Louisiana health department waited months to inform residents about a deadly whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak. He also has a clear record of anti-vaccine views. Earlier this year, he told a Louisiana news outlet he doesn’t recommend COVID-19 vaccines because “I prefer natural immunity.” In February, he ordered the health department to stop promoting mass vaccinations, including flu shots, and barred staff from running seasonal vaccine campaigns.
OpenAI says dead teen violated TOS when he used ChatGPT to plan suicide [Ars Technica - All content]
Facing five lawsuits alleging wrongful deaths, OpenAI lobbed its first defense Tuesday, denying in a court filing that ChatGPT caused a teen’s suicide and instead arguing the teen violated terms that prohibit discussing suicide or self-harm with the chatbot.
The earliest look at OpenAI’s strategy to overcome the string of lawsuits came in a case where parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine accused OpenAI of relaxing safety guardrails that allowed ChatGPT to become the teen’s “suicide coach.” OpenAI deliberately designed the version their son used, ChatGPT 4o, to encourage and validate his suicidal ideation in its quest to build the world’s most engaging chatbot, parents argued.
But in a blog, OpenAI claimed that parents selectively chose disturbing chat logs while supposedly ignoring “the full picture” revealed by the teen’s chat history. Digging through the logs, OpenAI claimed the teen told ChatGPT that he’d begun experiencing suicidal ideation at age 11, long before he used the chatbot.
HP plans to save millions by laying off thousands, ramping up AI use [Ars Technica - All content]
HP Inc. said that it will lay off 4,000 to 6,000 employees in favor of AI deployments, claiming it will help save $1 billion in annualized gross run rate by the end of its fiscal 2028.
HP expects to complete the layoffs by the end of that fiscal year. The reductions will largely hit product development, internal operations, and customer support, HP CEO Enrique Lores said during an earnings call on Tuesday.
Using AI, HP will “accelerate product innovation, improve customer satisfaction, and boost productivity,” Lores said.
Russia’s Soyuz 5 will soon come alive. But will anyone want to fly on it? [Ars Technica - All content]
After nearly a decade of development, Russia’s newest launch vehicle is close to its debut flight. The medium-lift Soyuz 5 rocket is expected to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome before the end of the year.
The Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, has released images of final processing of the Soyuz 5 rocket at the Progress Rocket and Space Center in Samara, Russia, earlier this month before the booster was shipped to the launch site in Kazakhstan. It arrived there on November 12.
Although the Soyuz 5 is a new vehicle, it does not represent a major leap forward in technology. Rather it is, in many ways, a conventional reaction to commercial boosters developed in the West as well as the country’s prolonged war against Ukraine. Whether this strategy will be successful remains to be seen.
Vision Pro M5 review: It’s time for Apple to make some tough choices [Ars Technica - All content]
With the recent releases of visionOS 26 and newly refreshed Vision Pro hardware, it’s an ideal time to check in on Apple’s Vision Pro headset—a device I was simultaneously amazed and disappointed by when it launched in early 2024.
I still like the Vision Pro, but I can tell it’s hanging on by a thread. Content is light, developer support is tepid, and while Apple has taken action to improve both, it’s not enough, and I’m concerned it might be too late.
When I got a Vision Pro, I used it a lot: I watched movies on planes and in hotel rooms, I walked around my house placing application windows and testing out weird new ways of working. I tried all the neat games and educational apps, and I watched all the immersive videos I could get ahold of. I even tried my hand at developing my own applications for it.
OpenAI Needs At Least $207 Billion By 2030 Just To Keep Losing Money, HSBC Estimates [Slashdot]
OpenAI will need to raise at least $207 billion in new funding by 2030 to sustain operations while continuing to lose money, according to a new analysis from HSBC that models the company's cloud computing commitments against projected revenue. The bank's US software team updated its forecasts after OpenAI announced a $250 billion cloud compute rental deal with Microsoft in late October and a $38 billion deal with Amazon days later, bringing total contracted compute capacity to 36 gigawatts. HSBC projects cumulative rental costs of $792 billion through 2030. Revenue growth remains strong in the model -- the bank expects OpenAI to reach 3 billion users by decade's end, up from roughly 800 million today -- but costs rise in lockstep, meaning OpenAI will still be subsidizing users well into the next decade. If revenue growth disappoints and investors turn cautious, the company's best option might be walking away from some data center commitments.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China's Dual Squeeze on European Industry Intensifies [Slashdot]
European manufacturers are facing a two-front assault from China that has German industry associations warning of deindustrialisation: on one side, artificially cheap Chinese goods are flooding into Europe, and on the other, Beijing has demonstrated its willingness to abruptly cut off access to critical inputs like rare earths and semiconductors. The alarm intensified in October when China added five rare earths to its export-licensing regime and then banned exports of computer chips made by Nexperia, a Dutch-headquartered but Chinese-owned chipmaker that supplies numerous European carmakers, according to The Economist. Several European firms warned of production stoppages, and some German companies put workers on leave without pay. Germany's trade deficit with China hit $76.52 billion last year and is expected to surge to around $100.87 billion this year, The Economist reported, driven by collapsing German exports and a rush of imports in categories like cars, chemicals, and machinery that were once German specialties. Chinese brands now account for 20% of Europe's hybrid market and 11% of electric vehicle sales. German cars command just 17% of the Chinese market, down from 27% in 2020. The rare earth controls were suspended for a year after the US and China struck a trade deal on October 30th, but the EU found itself a bystander to negotiations that directly affected its economy. Writing in the Financial Times, Robin Harding argues that China's explicit goal of self-sufficiency leaves Europe with few options. "There is nothing that China wants to import, nothing it does not believe it can make better and cheaper," he wrote, concluding that large-scale protectionism may be unavoidable if Europe wants to retain any industry at all.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
4 marketing tricks to not fall for this holiday season [NPR Topics: News]
Act
fast! This is your sign! Last chance! If marketing messages
like these are making money fly out of your wallet, they're doing
their job. These tips can help you guard against artificial
offers.' />
Retailers use marketing techniques to get you to spend more, like creating a false sense of urgency or creating artificial discounts. Outsmart the gimmicks with these tips.
(Image credit: Mininyx Doodle)
Medicare negotiated lower prices for 15 drugs, including 71% off Ozempic and Wegovy [NPR Topics: News]
Medicare announced 15 lower drugs after a second round of negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. The drugs include Ozempic and also drugs to treat asthma, breast cancer and leukemia.
(Image credit: Eric Thayer)
The undocumented have departed, but the number of jobs keeps going up [Philip Greenspun’s Weblog]
In Immigrants expand our economy, but millions of immigrants exiting the U.S. don’t shrink our economy we looked at a New York Times report, “Immigrant Population in U.S. Drops for the First Time in Decades”: “An analysis of census data by the Pew Research Center found that between January and June, the foreign-born population declined by nearly 1.5 million.” (An analysis of January-September data by CIS found a reduction of 2.3 million.)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the “Civilian noninstitutional population” is up by about 2% year-over-year (this is limited to those age 16+, which is why it isn’t the same as the 343 million official Census population estimate) and “Civilian labor force” is up by 1.5%. November news:
The rate of natural increase in the U.S. is only about 0.3% (too small for those who want the Ponzi scheme of infinite growth; excessive for those who care about the environment, traffic congestion, affordable housing, etc.). If the foreign-born population, which has been driving nearly all U.S. population growth, is shrinking, shouldn’t the number of people and the number of people in the labor force be going down or, at most, be flat?
A simple answer would be that the 1.5 million (or 2.3 million) reduction is only among noble undocumented enrichers and that we enjoyed enrichment by 3 million legal immigrants (family reunification, H-1B nonimmigrant immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, etc.). But that isn’t consistent with the Pew/NYT report cited above, which says that there has been in a reduction in the number of “foreign-born” residents of all categories. (The more complete CIS study also reports a “foreign-born” reduction.)
The post The undocumented have departed, but the number of jobs keeps going up appeared first on Philip Greenspun’s Weblog.
13:00 EST
Crypto hoarders dump tokens as shares tumble [Ars Technica - All content]
Crypto-hoarding companies are ditching their holdings in a bid to prop up their sinking share prices, as the craze for “digital asset treasury” businesses unravels in the face of a $1 trillion cryptocurrency rout.
Shares in Michael Saylor-led Strategy, the world’s biggest corporate bitcoin holder, have tumbled 50 percent over the past three months, dragging down scores of copycat companies.
About $77 billion has been wiped from the stock market value of these companies, which raise debt and equity to fund purchases of crypto, since their peak of $176 billion in July, according to industry data publication The Block.
Dell Says Windows 11 Transition is Far Slower Than Windows 10 Shift as PC Sales Stall [Slashdot]
Dell has predicted PC sales will be flat next year, despite the potential of the AI PC and the slow replacement of Windows 10. From a report: "We have not completed the Windows 11 transition," COO Jeffrey Clarke said during Dell's Q3 earnings call on Tuesday. "In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS end of support, we are 10-12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation." Clarke said that means 500 million PCs can't run Windows 11, while the same number didn't need an upgrade to handle Microsoft's latest desktop OS. The COO therefore predicted the PC market will "flourish," but then defined the word as meaning "roughly flat" sales despite Dell chalking up mid-to high single digits PC sales growth over the last year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
NASA Rover Makes a Shocking Discovery: Lightning on Mars [Slashdot]
An anonymous reader shares a report: It is shocking but not surprising. Lightning crackles on Mars, scientists reported on Wednesday. What they observed, however, were not jagged, high-voltage bolts like those on Earth, arcing thousands of feet from cloud to ground. Rather, the phenomenon was more like the shock you feel when you scuff your feet on the carpet on a cold winter morning and then touch a metal doorknob. "This is like mini-lightning on Mars," Baptiste Chide, a scientist at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetary Science in Toulouse, France, said of the centimeter-scale electrical discharges. Dr. Chide and his colleagues reported the findings in a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The electrical sparks, although not as dramatically violent as on Earth, could play an important role in chemical reactions in the Martian atmosphere.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade [NPR Topics: News]
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is back this year and promises to be bigger than ever. Here's a preview of what to expect and how to watch.
(Image credit: Eugene Gologursky)
Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau announce their government takeover on state TV [NPR Topics: News]
Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau appeared on state TV saying they have seized power in the country, following reports of gunshots near the presidential palace.
(Image credit: TGB Guinea-Bissau)
The Georgia election interference case against Trump and others has been dropped [NPR Topics: News]
The historic Georgia election interference case against President Trump and allies for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election is no more.
(Image credit: Pete Marovich)
At long last, the mystery of lightning on Mars is solved [NPR Topics: News]
A chance discovery by a NASA rover on Mars shows that the red planet has a form of lightning, which researchers had suspected for decades but never seen.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/University of Arizona)
12:00 EST
Apple Set To Become World's Top Phone Maker, Overtaking Samsung [Slashdot]
Apple will retake its crown as the world's largest smartphone maker for the first time in more than a decade, lifted by the successful debut of a new iPhone series and a rush of consumers upgrading devices, according to Counterpoint Research. From a report: The iPhone 17 models introduced in September have been a hit both domestically in the US and in Apple's other critical market, China. They've enticed more people to upgrade, leading to double-digit year-over-year sales growth in both markets, according to the researchers. The US company also is benefiting from a cooling of US-China trade tensions and a depreciating dollar that has boosted purchases in emerging markets, they added. The growth will propel Apple past longtime rival Samsung this year, according to Counterpoint's figures. Shipments of the iPhone are set to grow at 10% in 2025, compared with 4.6% for Samsung.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A New Test for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? [Science-Based Medicine]
The headline reads, “Breakthrough blood test finally confirms Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.” As you might imagine, the story is far more complicated than that. Let’s start with some background of chronic fatigue syndrome, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). As the name implies, it is a syndrome, meaning a collection of symptoms with a typical natural history – CFS is characterized by severe debilitating […]
The post A New Test for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.11:00 EST
Tech firm’s new CTO gets indicted; company then claims he was never CTO [Ars Technica - All content]
When four people were arrested and charged with a conspiracy to illegally export Nvidia chips to China, there was an interesting side note. One of the arrestees, Alabama resident Brian Raymond, was the chief technology officer of an AI company called Corvex.
Or was he? Corvex certainly seemed to think that Raymond was its CTO in the days before his indictment. Corvex named Raymond as its CTO in a press release and filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which detailed plans for a merger with Movano Health.
But once Raymond was arrested, Corvex told media outlets that it had never completed the process of hiring him as an employee. While someone could technically be a CTO as a contractor and not a regular employee, a company spokesperson subsequently claimed to Ars that Raymond had never been the CTO.
World's Central Banks Are Wary of AI and Struggling To Quit the Dollar, Survey Shows [Slashdot]
An anonymous reader shares a report: AI is not a core part of operations at most of the world's central banks and digital assets are off the table, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. The working group of 10 central banks from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia managing roughly $6.5 trillion in assets also found that the institutions that have delved deepest so far into AI are the most cautious about the risks. The primary concern is that AI-driven behaviour could "accelerate future crises," the survey showed. "AI helps us see more, but decisions must remain with people," one participant was quoted as saying in the group's report. More than 60% of respondents said that AI tools - which have sparked layoffs already at technology companies and retail and investment banks - are not yet supporting core operations.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
What’s in my NOW? — Emma Christley [Cool Tools]
Emma Christley is a music writer and personal essayist currently publishing on Substack. Her weekly album review series focuses on albums that she’s not heard, but probably should have by now. When she’s not working on her newsletters, she’s either reading or watching ER.emma christley writesweekly (new to me) album reviews and long-form essays covering popular music with a sprinkle of musicological perspectiveBy emmaechristley
PHYSICAL
- Mechanical Keyboard—All writers know it can be hard to wrangle your brain into settling down and actually focusing on doing the thinking and the writing. I love the ASMR videos of these online so I got one thinking the more I write, the more I get to listen to the fun sound. And you know what, it’s actually working.
- Noise-cancelling headphones—Like I said I have trouble focusing with all the noise in my brain and the literal noise of the world so these have been life-savers. Plus they’re cute.
- My ecosystem of notebooks—I am an obsessive notebook keeper. I prefer handwriting as much as I can, but I need separate notebooks for each category. I have one for a planner, one for my journal, one for Substack ideas, one for research notes, etc. They are truly my brain outside of my body, so when my notebooks were lost in an overseas move a few years ago, it was a devastating blow. I cried like someone had died. Because I had moved for school, I couldn’t completely fall apart and had to just carry on with my life. And while it is still the loss of my life (so far) I have rebuilt my ecosystem and come to believe that any ideas in those lost notebooks that were truly important will come back to me, and if they don’t, they must not have been that important.
DIGITAL
- ER (1994-2009)—I started watching this series for the first time earlier this year. I needed something to fill the void left by The Pitt before the next season. I know people started watching the show initially for Clooney and stayed for Noah Wyle, whereas I started watching it for Wyle, but stayed for Anthony Edwards’ character Mark Greene. Obviously this show is specific to what goes on in hospitals, but I’ve learned some very real general life lessons from watching this show.
- swipewipe—My brain gets overwhelmed very easily and this has been something really helping to quiet the noise. It turns cleaning my photos into a game so it helps to keep me from doomscrolling too, which we know is all too easy to do.
INVISIBLE
Your choices don’t have to make sense to anyone else.
As I’m searching for my next big step, I find I can’t help but be a little concerned about what other people will think. Will my next job be prestigious enough? If I pack up and move countries, will the people in my life think I’ve lost it or worse, think it was the wrong decision? But none of that matters. It’s my life, not theirs. And if the choice is mine and not theirs, so are the consequences.
Sign up here to get What’s in my NOW? a week early in your inbox.
Some progress toward Navajo/Chilean prices for our National Parks [Philip Greenspun’s Weblog]
Loyal readers may recall What if our National Parks charged Navajo prices? (2023)
$100 per person per day is the “Navajo rate” for what could reasonably be charged … the Chileans charge foreigners $35 per adult to visit their signature national park for one day. Even at Chilean prices it would seem that the NPS could easily be self-funded.
“Department of the Interior Announces Modernized, More Affordable National Park Access” (yesterday):
Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the Annual Pass will cost $80 for U.S. residents and $250 for nonresidents, ensuring that American taxpayers who already support the National Park System receive the greatest benefit. Nonresidents without an annual pass will pay a $100 per person fee to enter 11 of the most visited national parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee.
Orwell fans will appreciate the contrast between headline (“more affordable”) and body (“$100 per person extra”). Also, nobody questions that “American taxpayers [SHOULD] already support the National Park System”. Why does a working class American who can’t afford the epic costs of airline tickets, rental car, hotels, etc. have to pay taxes to subsidize rich people from around the world who can afford the $1,200/day cost of a hotel-based family National Parks trip? (I estimated $1,000/day in 2023, but airline ticket, restaurant, and hotel prices have gone up significantly since then.) Separately, if the NPS funds itself via entry fees it won’t have to turn people away during the inevitable government shutdowns.
I can’t understand how the new park entry pricing system will work. Americans aren’t required to carry passports. Tens of millions of residents of the U.S. have no documents at all (22 million as of 2016, according to Yale). How is a gate agent at a National Park supposed to determine if a visitor is a U.S. resident? We’re informed that it is racist to demand ID for voting. Could a National Park demand to see a state-issued driver’s license or other ID before offering the “resident discount” rate? We’re informed by CNN that “Outdoor recreation has historically excluded people of color” and “racist laws and customs kept Black Americans out of these parks”. Surely our government wouldn’t want to intensify the racism inherent in the racist National Parks by demanding ID from visitors of color?
Loosely related, a couple of photos from the Schoodic Peninsula, an often forgotten piece of Acadia National Park. As with the core portion of Acadia, the land was donated to the American People. The Rockefellers donated the island land and Schoodic was donated anonymously in 2015. This reminds me to note the tragedy of Bill Gates giving all of his money to Africa, which doesn’t seem to help average Africans (every year that the Gates Foundation has operated in Africa, the number of needy Africans has increased; maybe some rich people in Africa have gotten richer?). If Gates had to sell the Microsoft stock and pay capital gains before shipping the proceeds to Africa, the tax revenue would easily fund an additional national park. Alternatively, if he spent his money on unspoiled U.S. land he would easily be able to create five new national parks.
The post Some progress toward Navajo/Chilean prices for our National Parks appeared first on Philip Greenspun’s Weblog.
10:00 EST
Many genes associated with dog behavior influence human personalities, too [Ars Technica - All content]
Many dog breeds are noted for their personalities and behavioral traits, from the distinctive vocalizations of huskies to the herding of border collies. People have worked to identify the genes associated with many of these behaviors, taking advantage of the fact that dogs can interbreed. But that creates its own experimental challenges, as it can be difficult to separate some behaviors from physical traits distinctive to the breed—small dog breeds may seem more aggressive simply because they feel threatened more often.
To get around that, a team of researchers recently did the largest gene/behavior association study within a single dog breed. Taking advantage of a population of over 1,000 golden retrievers, they found a number of genes associated with behaviors within that breed. A high percentage of these genes turned out to correspond to regions of the human genome that have been associated with behavioral differences as well. But, in many cases, these associations have been with very different behaviors.
Gone to the dogs
The work, done by a team based largely at Cambridge University, utilized the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, which involved over 3,000 owners of these dogs filling out annual surveys that included information on their dogs’ behavior. Over 1,000 of those owners also had blood samples obtained from their dogs and shipped in; the researchers used these samples to scan the dogs’ genomes for variants. Those were then compared to ratings of the dogs’ behavior on a range of issues, like fear or aggression directed toward strangers or other dogs.
The Underwater Cables That Carry the Internet Are in Trouble [Slashdot]
The roughly 500 fiber-optic cables lying on the ocean floor carry more than 95% of all internet data -- not satellites, as many might assume -- and they face growing threats from natural disasters, terrorists and nation-states capable of disrupting global communications by dragging anchors or deploying submarines against the infrastructure. The cables are protected by layers of copper, steel, and plastics, but they remain vulnerable at multiple points: earthquakes can disturb them on the seafloor, and the connections where cables meet land-based infrastructure present targets for bad actors. National actors including Russia, China and the US possess the capability to attack these cables. A bipartisan Senate bill co-sponsored by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican John Barrasso is under consideration. The legislation would require a report to Congress within six months on Chinese and Russian sabotage efforts, mandate sanctions against foreign parties responsible for attacks, and direct the US to provide more resources for cable protection and repair.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Malaysia's Johor Bans Low-Tier Data Centers Over Water Strain [Slashdot]
Malaysia's Johor, one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing data center hubs, has announced it will no longer approve applications for Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centers because of their enormous water consumption -- up to 50 million liters daily, or roughly 200 times what higher-tier facilities require. The Malaysian state has approved 51 data center projects as of November 2025. 17 centers are already operational, 11 are under construction and 23 received approval this year. The announcement follows concerns raised by a local politician who pointed to water supply disruptions in Georgia in the US after a data center began operations and protests in Uruguay over fears that data centers could affect farms.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Death toll in Hong Kong high-rise fire rises to 44, with 279 reported missing [NPR Topics: News]
Hong Kong leader John Lee has said 36 people were reported killed in the fire that spread through a dense high-rise residential housing complex Wednesday. He said another 279 people were reported missing.
(Image credit: Yan Zhao)
Trump backs Witkoff after leaked call with Russian aide. And, Thanksgiving air travel [NPR Topics: News]
Leaked call transcripts between special envoy Steve Witkoff and a Putin advisor could derail Trump's progress on peace in Ukraine. And, air travel is back to normal just in time for Thanksgiving.
(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)
Our readers' tales of kindness will surprise you, warm your heart and make you smile [NPR Topics: News]
We invited you to share acts of kindness. The topics include new shoes, a basket of berries that aren't very tasty and an unexpected twist for someone treating the person behind them in line.
(Image credit: Ana Caroline de Lima)
Greetings from Amman, Jordan, where history lent a colossal hand [NPR Topics: News]
Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
The snowplows are cruising by [Pharyngula]
We got about 6 inches of snow last night, creating a winter wonderland out there. It’s not great. Mary was stuck at work last night, not getting home until after midnight…and then her car got stuck in the snow on the road, and the sheriff’s deputy had to shuttle her home. The car is still stuck out there. This morning we’re going to have to clear our driveway, and then call a tow truck to bring the car home. It’s all a big headache.
I also think we’re going to have to go shopping on Black Friday, which I’ve always avoided, but I don’t think Mary’s winter coat is quite adequate, and since all the predictions say this will be a snowy winter. That is, we’ll go shopping if our car is back and functional in the next day or two.
In happier news, today is Knut’s birthday, and he’s away in Korea learning Tae Kwon Do.
If only he were here, he’d have all the snow cleared in a flash.