From the "this is why we can't have nice things" department:

Republican Acceptance of Evolution Plummets (Slate Magazine)

A poll released today by the Pew Research Center reveals that acceptance of evolution among Republicans has plummeted in recent years, from 54 percent in 2009 to a jarring 43 percent today. The poll also found that a startling 48 percent of Republicans believe that all living things today have existed in their present form since the start of time.

Democrats and independents fared much better: 67 percent of Democrats accept evolution today (up from 64 percent in 2009), while 65 percent of independents accept it (down from 67 percent in 2013[sic]).

(That "67 percent in 2013" should read "...in 2009".)

But there's more: for purposes of this poll, "evolution" means only "humans and other living things have evolved over time", even if some supernatural intelligence were responsible for this change. Many Americans who accept "evolution" in this general sense don't understand or believe that it's due to natural selection, so only 32% of the American public overall believe one of the most basic tenets of biological science.

Perhaps the only good news here is that acceptance of evolution (in the general sense) is higher among young people, suggesting that despite the anti-science faction fighting tooth-and-nail, gains are being made in science education.

"At 12:18 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Aug. 2, 1971, Commander David Scott of Apollo 15 placed a 3 1/2-inch-tall aluminum sculpture onto the dusty surface of a small crater near his parked lunar rover. At that moment the moon transformed from an airless ball of rock into the largest exhibition space in the known universe. Scott regarded the moment as tribute to the heroic astronauts and cosmonauts who had given their lives in the space race. Van Hoeydonck was thrilled that his art was pointing the way to a human destiny beyond Earth and expected that he would soon be “bigger than Picasso.”"

The Bizarre, Tangled Tale of the Only Sculpture on the Moon (Slate Magazine)

One crisp March morning in 1969, artist Paul van Hoeydonck was visiting his Manhattan gallery when he stumbled into the middle of a startling conversation. Louise Tolliver Deutschman, the gallery’s director, was making an energetic pitch to Dick Waddell, the owner. “Why don’t we put a sculpture of Paul’s on the moon,” she insisted. Before Waddell could reply, van Hoeydonck inserted himself into the exchange: “Are you completely nuts? How would we even do it?”

"The 45 women and girls who became pregnant despite, according to what they told interviewers, being virgins at the time of conception differed in several ways from peers who acknowledged that men had had a role in their procreation." Yes, I suppose so.

Claims of virgin births in U.S. near 1 percent: study (Reuters)

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Nearly 1 percent of young women in a U.S. study who have become pregnant claim to have done so as virgins, according to a report in the Christmas edition of Britain's BMJ medical journal.

The authors of "Like a virgin (mother)" - whose prose is devoid of irony - say such scientifically impossible claims show researchers must use care in interpreting self-reported behavior. Fallible memory, beliefs and wishes can cause people to err in what they tell scientists.

"A Salvation Army bell ringer in Phoenix said she was assaulted outside a Walmart store for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”"

See also the story of an African-America Santa Claus shot in the back with a pellet gun during a D.C. Christmas Eve toy giveaway. Shooting Santa and punching out Salvation Army bell-ringers, way to keep the X in Xmas, folks.

The Imaginary “War On Christmas” Inspires Real Violence | The Raw Story

Of course, eventually the audience is going to start taking it to heart if you run an endless stream of stories claiming they’re oppressed if holidays other than Christmas are acknowledged or how very important it is to have a white Santa lest anyone else start getting the idea that they deserve to be included in the holiday celebrations. Some people are really, truly going to believe that ’tis the season for conservative white Christians to be relentlessly assured that they matter more than everyone else, and they’re going to take action if they aren’t getting the special treatment they’ve been told is their due. And so it has happened...

Small computers mean computers can be anywhere. Computers can be anywhere means computers can be hidden. Ubiquitous wi-fi and 3g means computers anywhere can connect to the net. Hilarity ensues.

Trust Me (I'm a kettle) - Charlie's Diary

The internet of things may be coming to us all faster and harder than we'd like.

Reports coming out of Russia suggest that some Chinese domestic appliances, notably kettles, come kitted out with malware—in the shape of small embedded computers that leech off the mains power to the device. The covert computational passenger hunts for unsecured wifi networks, connects to them, and joins a spam and malware pushing botnet. The theory is that a home computer user might eventually twig if their PC is a zombie, but who looks inside the base of their electric kettle, or the casing of their toaster? We tend to forget that the Raspberry Pi is as powerful as an early 90s UNIX server or a late 90s desktop; it costs £25, is the size of a credit card, and runs off a 5 watt USB power source. And there are cheaper, less competent small computers out there. Building them into kettles is a stroke of genius for a budding crime lord looking to build a covert botnet.

As the author notes, "CONAD [NORAD's predecessor] had a vested interest in PR campaigns as well as military ones. It was primed, basically, to take advantage of the good cheer of Christmas for its own ends—among them, promoting its military technology." Still, the image of a hard-bitten officer waiting for the Rooskies to launch the inevitable sneak attack, getting instead a call from a little girl looking for Santa, kinda tugs at the heartstrings. Maybe ­­­-- just maybe -- that occasional reminder of childhood innocence helped keep the war furor and paranoia in check and helped up survive the Cold War.

NORAD Tracks Santa's Path on Christmas Eve Because of a Typo (The Atlantic)

It was 1955, and Christmas was approaching, and Sears had a new idea for a yuletide gimmick. In local newspapers, the department store placed ads ... on behalf of Santa himself.

"HEY, KIDDIES!" the ad read, in a greeting that would seem creepy only in retrospect. "Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally any time day or night."

The ads then listed local numbers for area children to call to get some one-on-one Kringle time....

Like many innovations, though, Sears's frictionless Santa scheme found itself with an unforeseen problem. In the ad the company had placed in the local paper in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Sears had listed Santa's number as ME 2-6681. Which, according to Snopes, contained a typo: It was one digit off of the intended one. The number Sears had ended up printing and distributing to the city's citizens? The one for, as it happened, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD)—the predecessor of NORAD—which, like Santa, specialized in aeronautics. And which, unlike Santa, was based in Colorado Springs.

Apparently a break-away faction, as I'm pretty sure those rainbow kerchiefs aren't standard issue kit.

Boy Scouts Delivering Pizza To Utah's County Clerks Who Skipped Their Lunches To Process Gay Marriages Will Make Your Day - December 23, 2013 - The Gaily Grind (The Gaily Grind)

A picture tweeted by @MattLyonSLC, shows boy scouts in Salt Lake City wearing rainbow kerchiefs, delivering pizza to county workers who are skipping their

"USPTO’s report was released in March 2012, and received a lot of attention. Yet just one month prior, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released the findings of a survey on business use of intellectual property....

• "In 2010, 87.2% of businesses reported that trademarks were “not important” to them.
• "90.1% of businesses reported that copyrights were “not important” to them.
• "96.2% of businesses reported that patents were “not important” to them."

When asked, vast majority of businesses say IP is not important (To Promote the Progress?)

Last year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released a widely cited report entitled “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus.” This report played up the importance of IP, claiming “the entire U.S. economy relies on some form of IP,” and estimated that “IP-intensive industries” accounted for 40 million American jobs and 35% of the U.S. GDP in 2010.

While many pro-IP groups hailed the report as demonstrating the importance of IP to the American economy, the report was panned by critics who pointed out that the definition of “IP-intensive industries” was so broad as to be meaningless. Indeed, according to the report, the number one IP-intensive industry by employment in the United States was… grocery stores. Furthermore, although supporters of stricter IP regulation and enforcement continue to rely on the report to justify policies relating to copyrights and patents, the vast majority of the report’s purported economic benefits were attributed to trademarks.

"In 2005, Utah calculated the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for an average homeless person was $16,670, while the cost of providing an apartment and social worker would be $11,000."

Utah Is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 With This One Simple Idea (NationSwell)

Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 78 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. How’d they do it? The state is giving away apartments, no strings attached. In 2005, Utah calculated the annual cost of …

"“We believe that the ASA’s endorsement of a boycott is warranted given U.S. military and other support for Israel; Israel’s violation of international law and UN resolutions; the documented impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian scholars and students; the extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that violate human rights; and the support of such a resolution by many members of the ASA,” the national council said in a statement announcing the decision."

U.S. academic group votes to boycott Israel - Diplomacy and Defense (Haaretz.com)

The American Studies Association, which has 5,000 members, cites 'Israel's violation of international law and UN resolutions' among reasons for boycott of Israeli academic institutions.