Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than...

Put this on as your background music while reading. It's a one hour loop of holiday music from Magic Kingdom's Main Street USA.

I look forward to my next opportunity to visit Houston and go see the MFAH's new Kinder Building.

This photograph of the sun isn't really all that great until you realize it was taken using neutrinos passing through the earth's surface.

Like most lists, the 30 best comedy movies of all time make me a) aware of ones I haven't seen like Blazing Saddles and b) curious about the ones they omitted like Spinal Tap (or my personal favorite, Kung Pow). 

Another case - the ranking of breakfast sandwiches - disappoints because the Egg McMuffin landed at #4. 

And again: Goodreads' 200 most difficult novels. I can't for the life of my understand why Crime and Punishment is on this list. It's excellent but I wouldn't call it difficult. I first read it when I was 18. And Lolita? It might make some readers uncomfortable if they can't get past the sexual bit but IMO it doesn't come close to being difficult. My tally of the 200? 35.

I should probably not mention all the things I'm keeping on the list of 54 things nobody should be keeping.

Given my fixation with the Disney animated WWII film Victory Through Airpower, I'd love to be able to see the exhibition The Walt Disney Studios and World War II at the Disney Family Museum but I don't think that's gonna happen.

You can watch clips from the highly-praised documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi beginning here.

For my baseball friends is this video exploration of what it takes to catch a 1,000 mph fastball.

Musicality:

• Liquid Tension Experiment 3 coming in 2021
• Mujo by Eraldo Bernocchi and Hoshiko Yamane
• Tranceportation Remixes by Sonar
• Hopium by Colin Edwin
• PORTAL by Lorenzo Feliciati and Pat Mastelotto 
• Road to the Sun by Pat Metheny
• Piano recital at St. Mary's by Gary Husband
• Landings by Alex Haas

Google's plan for avoiding employee burnout? No meetings weeks.

A proposed new formulation for a periodic table of the elements.

Here's an article that briefly explores the possibility for unauthorized use of nuclear weapons after an authorized, limited strike. Clearly I am not an expert in this field but I find the scenarios a bit on the fringe give what I do know about military command and control structures.

Here are some of the things envisioned for future versions of the XB-70 before it was cancelled. 

"What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?" One of 36 questions developed by a psychology student that are intended to develop closeness within a peer group.

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1967 sold at auction for $31.3 million yet it was only the 9th highest price paid for art during 2020. 

Ze Frank does it again with True Facts: Army Ant Riders.

Nine of the weirdest penises (how many weird ones are there total) in the animal kingdom reveals - in addition to the obvious - that animal penises are much more studied than animal vaginas. 

Bees protect themselves against murder hornets using poop.

...to excel among the fools. ~Dogen