Sunday Reading

Here are some things I"m reading this morning, as I avoid the work I should be doing.

Brain function 'boosted for days after reading a novel'
Reading a gripping novel causes biological changes in the brain which last for days as the mind is transported into the body of the protagonist

We still don’t really know how bicycles work
Forget mysterious dark matter and the inexplicable accelerating expansion of the universe; the bicycle represents a far more embarrassing hole in the accomplishments of physics.

These 5 Things Will Get Cheaper In 2014
Cars ... winter coats .. .Textbooks ... TVs ... Cruise liner vacations.

Here's a photo of Times Square in New York taken 105 years ago.

It wouldn't surprise me to see war-zeppelins or giant robots looming in the background of that picture.

Here's a photo of the London Eye the day the royal baby was born in 2013 ...

The lightning strike in the background makes the birth of George, son of Prince William and his wife Kate, positively Shakespearean.

NSA Intercepted Children’s Letters To Santa
Because, obviously, Santa is a socialist who violates US airspace with impunity. Well, okay, that's not the reason. The real reason is only slightly less stupid. Click through to read about Operation Milk Cookies (I'm not making that part up).

Hazards of Revolution
The pattern set in Chechnya has been repeated elsewhere with depressing frequency. The extent of the failure of the uprisings of 2011 to establish better forms of governance has surprised opposition movements, their Western backers and what was once a highly sympathetic foreign media. The surprise is due, in part, to a misunderstanding of what the uprisings were about.

Oligarchs, Demagogues and Mass Revolts . . . Against Democracy
The use of mob violence and “mass revolts” to serve the interests of oligarchical and imperial powers against democratically-elected governments has been a common strategy in recent times.

Not mentioned in this story -- though I think it should be -- is the Brooks Brothers Riot that stopped the Bush/Gore Recount in Florida in 2000.

 But maybe that one wasn't "popular" enough, LOL.

No Evidence Al Qaeda 'Had Any Role' In Benghazi Attack
Not that certain people will let that stop them.

There could be 10,000 drones buzzing around America's skies by 2017, reckons the FAA