THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches new Beidou satellites, rocket booster lands near house. The Chinese have a history of being unconcerned about falling boosters, as do the Russians.

HMM: Intermittent Fasting Seems to Result in Dynamic Changes to The Human Brain.

MARK JUDGE: Christians and Conservatives Have Not Faced It: We are No Longer Living in America.

OUT: DRY JANUARY. IN: “DAMP JANUARY.”

NOBODY NEEDS AN AR-15: Seattle Homeowner Uses Rifle to Fend Off 4 Home Invaders in Early Morning Home Invasion Attempt.

SO I’VE FINISHED THE LAST BOOK (SO FAR) of Tom Burkhalter’s World War II series, and I’ve quite enjoyed it. Highly recommended.

The action in New Guinea reminds me of my 8th grade history teacher, Mr. Rufus Pannell, who was an antiaircraft gunner in New Guinea from 1942-1945. We quickly learned that he could be diverted from the day’s assignments with questions about his time there, and while we thought we were getting away with something, we also learned some things about American history that weren’t in the textbook.

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: New Mexico’s Two-Tier Criminal Justice System Overlooks Law-Breaking Gun Control Group…So Far. “Last week, we shared the insane story of a gun control group in New Mexico that managed to run afoul of a lot of gun control laws. All of these were laws that the group supports, and even had a hand in helping some of them to pass. Now, we’re seeing that they’ve likely committed a number of felonies and have even admitted to violating some of them. But state and federal authorities have done nothing so far. For some reason.”

David Gregory was not available for comment.

SELFISH GENE: Revealing how an ancient genetic invader inhabits our DNA.

WHO CAN BLAME THEM? Researchers find reindeer sleep while chewing their cud.

HMM: Owning a pet may slow rate of cognitive decline, study suggests.

PREDICTION: Higher Education Stories That Will Dominate Next Year.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Japan’s SLIM successfully enters lunar orbit, gears up for precision moon landing.

IS THAT ALL? 71 things higher ed declared racist in 2023: Actual racism is rare today, but academia continues to find it.

Well, academia.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: WSJ: Near Misses and Runway-Traffic Jams: The Risks Your Flight Faces at the Airport: Officials seek solutions after an uptick in serious close calls in 2023. “A rise in narrowly averted airline crashes at U.S. airports this year rattled air-safety and industry officials, spurring investigations on what happened and how to avoid them in the future. The Federal Aviation Administration identified 19 serious runway incursions this year through October, the most since 2016. Officials have traded theories about the near misses, including staffing issues in air-traffic control towers, a lack of experience among newer pilots and a need for better technology.”

DON SURBER: Like Bud Light, Harvard discovers backlash: Claudine Gay shows why you shouldn’t hire a person based solely on sex and race.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Pro-Hamas graffiti smeared at Lincoln Memorial blamed on police cuts.

RACE-GRIFTING IS THE BUSINESS, AND BUSINESS IS GOOD: The 10 Best Nikole Hannah-Jones Articles of 2023: The hardest-working woman in ‘antiracist’ show business.

WAR, DROUGHT, AND DETOURS: Top ocean shipping stories of 2023.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE, in Houston. There’s certainly no shortage of available surface water there.

OPEN THREAD: Expatiate as you please.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Lagrange Points Could Become Battlegrounds in a New Space Race.

FLOSS: Expert Reveals a Surprising Link Between Oral Health And Your Brain.

BOB MCMANUS: Depraved pro-terrorist protesters try to cancel Christmas as politicians coddle them. “When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announces that Jesus was Palestinian, or when a gaggle of city councilors shows up wearing pro-Hamas T-shirts, or when iconic city celebrations are flamboyantly disrupted, you know whose side they are on.”

PROGRESS: Revolutionary Success: NASA’s 3D-Printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Soars. “That kind of sustained burn emulates typical requirements for a lander touchdown or a deep-space burn that could set a spacecraft on course from the Moon to Mars, said Marshall combustion devices engineer Thomas Teasley, who leads the RDRE test effort at the center.”

OH, CANADA: Canadian Health Care Leaves Patients Frozen In Line. “This year, Canadian patients faced a median wait of 27.7 weeks for medically necessary treatment from a specialist after being referred by a general practitioner. That’s over six months—the longest ever recorded.”