Read it.

In previous years, I’ve organized this by price, but after the political earthquakes this year, everything has been shaken up, including the gift guide. This year the organizing principle is “What sort of cook are you shopping for?” There are many, many different sorts of cooks, and our rule is “To each according to their ability, to each according to their needs …” (Unless otherwise stated, products are available at Amazon.com.)

Well worth the read. Chick knows her stuff.

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Vegetarians will still be a pain in the ass, however.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

No word on whether they’re gluten-free.

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The location of the castle has been the subject of thousands of years of rumour and speculation. Even the existence of the famous King is heavily disputed.

Now, though, Professor Peter Field, an expert in literature on the mythical Arthur, has claimed the location of Camelot was a small Roman fort at Slack, to the west of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.

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Tell the truth: You didn’t even know that there were Turkish Roots in Jewish history.

New research suggests that the majority of the world’s modern Jewish population is descended mainly from people from ancient Turkey, rather than predominantly from elsewhere in the Middle East.

That’s going to come as a shock.

The new research suggests that most of the Jewish population of northern and eastern Europe – normally known as Ashkenazic Jews – are the descendants of Greeks, Iranians and others who colonized what is now northern Turkey more than 2000 years ago and were then converted to Judaism, probably in the first few centuries AD by Jews from Persia. At that stage, the Persian Empire was home to the world’s largest Jewish communities.

Diversity? Check.

Dr Elhaik, an Israeli-born geneticist who gained his doctorate in molecular evolution from the University of Houston, believes that three still-surviving Turkish villages – Iskenaz, Eskenaz and Ashanaz – on the western part of an ancient Silk Road route were part of the original Ashkenazic homeland. He believes that the word Ashkenaz originally comes from Ashguza – the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian name for the Iron Age Eurasian steppeland people, the Scythians.

I’m sure Conan fits in there somewhere. Perhaps his name was originally Cohen.

Check it out.

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Guess the Russians hacked the weather, too.

How about that Global Warming, eh? Women and minorities hardest hit, of course.

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The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor’s (ITER) Tore Supra tokamak in France will start its first set of experiments this coming spring. It will heat gas to several million degrees Celsius and contain the plasma from the resulting reaction. Construction of the tokamak began in the 1980s.

Let’s hope it works.

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A Democratic elector in Maine who is required by law to cast his Electoral College vote for Hillary Clinton on Monday says he will choose Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders instead.

David Bright announced on his Facebook page that he is picking Sanders in order to instill hope in young voters, especially those who supported the democratic socialist in the Democratic primaries.

Now there is a principled stand.

Of course, it also demonstrates the congenital Democrat propensity to obey only the laws they like. You can imagine the meltdown if Republicans acted that way.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Tactical Christmas Stockings.

Official KFC Candle. Presumably smells like chicken.

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Tomorrow is coming, if the statists don’t ruin it for everybody.

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Those that can, do; those that can’t, whine.

Which would you rather have in charge of your government?

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Don’t say we never have useful stuff here.

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Perfect for a Hillary supporter who Just Can’t Let It Go.

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Iraq’s Mosul dam is showing signs of collapse, threatening to engulf the entire city and displace millions of people.

The Antiplanner reports.

Portland housing prices have been rising faster than in any other major city in the nation, but the latest data show that the city has fallen to number 2 in that measure. Seattle housing prices rose by an annualized 11.0 percent in September, while Portland prices rose by “just” 10.9 percent. No other major city saw prices rise as fast as 10 percent.

I thought perhaps they had lost their title as The Whitest City in America, but apparently that one is still safe.

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Should be about right for Obama, then.

Guitar-Shotgun Hybrid.

Portion Control Pasta Basket.

Magnetic Tool Holder. I have something like this for knives in my kitchen, but this is the first time I’ve seen one for actual tools. But it makes perfect sense.

Foldscope Paper Microscope.

Pocket Saw. I think I saw one of these in Batman’s utility belt.

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Since the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United States has carried a disproportionate share of the burden for defending the West. Indeed, today, in addition to America, only four allies meet the 2 percent of GDP NATO defense spending requirement: the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece and Estonia.

…

Enter candidate Donald Trump. From March 21 to March 29, 2016, Trump made his feelings about NATO members’ failure to live up to their defense spending obligations abundantly clear. In the Washington Post, he stated: “NATO is costing us a fortune and yes, we’re protecting Europe but we’re spending a lot of money. Number 1, I think the distribution of costs has to be changed.” He told the New York Times, “NATO is unfair, economically, to us, to the United States. Because it really helps them more so than the United States, and we pay a disproportionate share.” On the Charlie Sykes radio show, Trump escalated the rhetoric: “We are getting ripped off by every country in NATO.” Then, at a rally outside Milwaukee, he laid out the consequences of continued allied inaction: “Either they have to pay up for past deficiencies or they have to get out.”

Trump’s comments on NATO were criticized by his Republican competitors, and Hillary Clinton brought up Trump’s NATO views repeatedly in the presidential debates. Trump was accused of undermining the NATO alliance and causing our allies to lose confidence in America’s commitment to them. But something amazing started happening: America’s allies began pledging to increase their defense budgets. For example, on October 15, Germany said that it was going to spend €1.5 billion on five new corvettes to patrol the Baltic Sea, and that the ships would be dedicated to NATO missions.

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A team of researchers from the US and Germany have now confirmed that the Wendelstein 7-X (W 7-X) stellerator is producing the super-strong, twisty, 3D magnetic fields that its design predicted, with “unprecedented accuracy”. The researchers found an error rate less than one in 100,000.

Read it.

Even Social Justice Warriors get it right sometimes.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

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This is from The New Yorker so who knows how practical it might be, but I’m sure it will look authentic.

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Among bacteria’s many attributes, perhaps one of its most overlooked yet important ones is its ability to propel itself via flagellum, a unique appendage hanging off its end. This mechanism is a perfect example of a naturally occurring, biological wheel.

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On Feb. 29, Carol Greider of Johns Hopkins University became the third Nobel Prize laureate biologist in a month to do something long considered taboo among biomedical researchers: She posted a report of her recent discoveries to a publicly accessible website, bioRxiv, before submitting it to a scholarly journal to review for “official’’ publication.

Disintermediation is our friend.

Self-Watering Planter.

Kitchen in a Box.

Baseball Brush Cleaner. For those of you with dirty balls (you know who you are).

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Probably just needed some of those little plastic clips you use to keep bags closed after you’ve opened them. We’ve all been there.

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Go ahead, laugh, but that was a real possibility.

The Topeka man donated his sperm to Jennifer Schreiner and Angela Bauer in response to a Craigslist ad, for the price of $50 per semen donation. Schreiner had his baby girl in December, 2009, but later split up with her partner. Now she’s trying to force the William Marotta to supplement the assistance she’s getting from the state to raise the girl.

Progressive Rule Nr 1: Somebody else has to pay for my stuff.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Me, I just want to go to the toilet.

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Just waiting for the eco-Nazis to call for them to be banned….

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Good advice, if you have a cow.

Don’t say we never have useful stuff here.

Read it. And practice assiduously.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

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I still have my first edition of The Anarchist Cookbook, which is probably worth a pretty penny by now.

Read it.

Read it.

If you’re into that sort of thing, which I happen to be.

The new annotated translation of Justinian’s Code is going to be a useful reference. I am also looking forward to reading The History of William Marshal, The Complete Literary Works of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and Harima Fudoki.

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The road to Heaven runs through the belly of a pig.

Check it out.

Bag Butler.

Swan Ladle. Go ahead, play with your food.

Spotlight Rechargeable LED Vehicle Light.

Cool Touch Microwaveable Mug Set.

STK Multitool.

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President-elect Donald Trump promised Americans that he would “build a great wall” and make Mexico pay for this proposed border barricade between the two countries. On Wednesday, a Mexican cement manufacturer says he wants to help Trump build it.

The CEO of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) wants to bid on any contract to build thebarrier to illegal immigration.

Enrique Escalante told Reuters, “We can’t be choosy. We’re an important producer in that area and we have to respect our clients on both sides of the border.”

Eat it.

To write on spag bol is to wade into a mire of controversy thicker and darker than any ragu that ever came out of nonna’s kitchen. People feel very strongly indeed about what is, basically, a meat sauce of no more particular merit than, say, a shepherd’s pie, or a chilli, to the extent that, earlier this year, a group of Italian chefs organised a worldwide day of action to promote the “authentic” recipe, as laid down by the Academia Italiana della Cucina back in 1982.

The event was billed as a protest against the “improbable concoctions” served under the name around the globe, with a spokesman decrying the “remarkable variety of ingredients” that defiled his beloved bolognese – including cream. That’s cream, as used by the well-respected Italian cookery teacher and writer Ursula Ferrigno, and the rather less Italian, but pretty reliable Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Hey, it’s Thanksgiving — we’re talkin’ food here.

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Sometimes the old ways are best.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

The video of the frozen turkey hitting the hot oil is worth the price of admission. Just sayin’.

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President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he plans to nominate school-choice activist, philanthropist and Republican mega-donor Betsy DeVos to lead the Education Department.

Boy, what a sexist that Donald Trump is.

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Much the best thing I’ve ever heard about Justin Bieber. Perhaps he’s finally hit puberty.

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That Donald Trump, he’s such a sexist.

Read it. And watch the video.

This video dates back to July, so it might not be news for some viewers. But the video elucidates in clear and simple terms why climate model error is actually far worse than those pretty spreads provided by the IPCC. I thoroughly recommend watching the video to anyone keen to understand why climate models are so bad at prediction.

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Just when you thought it was safe to go into the snack aisle….

And don’t get me started on Snickerdoodles.

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According to a new study released by the Department of Education, students who pursue an occupational credential (an education that is career-centered) are more likely to be employed than those who get an academic credential. This suggests that recent efforts to encourage more individuals to pursue college (President Barack Obama said that all Americans should have at least some postsecondary education) may be misguided. The data also suggest that the administration’s antagonism toward more career-focused educational tracks—often provided by for-profit trade schools and community colleges—is misplaced.

Knork.

Hillary Hammers.

Date rape nail polish. I am not making this up.