Greetings from The River of Boiling Water where we have single digit temperatures, snow and ice on the ground, and I do my best to stay indoors.

On the Internets:

Henry VIII’s late life tyrannical behavior may have been the result of head trauma. A 12-year old girl in India has ants that seem to spontaneously come out of her ears EVERY FUCKING DAY. A phone hacker is kickstarting a service to fight telemarketers. A Florida man was banned from all Wendy’s restaurants and charged with assault with a deadly weapon when he threw an alligator into the drive-thru window. A 94 year old former Nazi has gone on trial for the murder of 170,000 people. Mothers in richer countries are having more twins. Michelle Obama called White House wi-fi “a little sketchy”. Rom-coms may promote stalking behavior. Gravitational waves may have been found. In the wake of the Flint water crisis, it’s important to note that there used to be a Lead Industries Association that was essentially the equivalent of Big Tobacco, but with lead. A bill in the US House is looking to weaken local bills that try to weaken encryption on personal electronic devices. A video game company is being sued due to unlicensed depictions of NBA players’ tattoos.

And a town in Slovenia is building a public beer fountain.

Locally:

The big news for me this week was that I got called to serve Jury Duty. I would talk about that more, but technically the case is still on going, so maybe next week. Other than that it’s been a pretty quiet week.

I’ve Been Reading:

Finished The Girl With All the Gifts. The hype from my sister and a few other people was very founded.

Warren Ellis has written a story in the Project Superpowers universe called Black Cross. It added a strange supernatural sort of element which I’m not sure it needed, but still a fun read.
Caught up on the new run of Doctor Strange written by Jason Aaron. I’m not exactly sure I like the way he’s writing Strange…There’s no calm cool collectedness to it, but more of a “HEY LOOK GUYS, I KNOW MAGIC AND I’M FUN AT PARTIES.” I’m going to see how this arc wraps up, and then make a decision if I want to drop it or not.
Speaking of Jason Aaron, his book Southern Bastards is an amazingly fun book, especially for someone from the South. The Walking Dead has hit 150 issues, and it’s still plugging away. I’ve never seen the TV show, but I’ve heard there’s enough difference that I’m not sure I would be into it.

And as far as television adaptations go, it appears there’s a version of Lucifer out now (presumably based on the Mike Carey books, which is weird, since Holly Black (who wrote the YA Spiderwick Chronicles series) has taken over on it and it is ridiculously good.

Also, this awesome article on Congolese sapeurs.

In the Earhole:

Rank	Avatar	Artist name	Scrobbles
1		Love	17
2		The Pretty Things	14
3		Iron & Wine	11
4		The Kinks	10
5		Band of Horses	9
6		The Decemberists	9
7		The Shins	8
8		Brandi Carlile	7
9		Neko Case and Her Boyfriends	7
10		The National	7

Eye Pollution:

The week saw more reading, and less television. That said, I’ve been watching Deutschland 83 and it’s absolutely fantastic. Highly recommended.

Boring, Boring Arsenal:

Danny Welbeck, fresh back from injury time put away a last ditch free kick from Ozil to beat high flying Leicester City 2-1, keeping their title hopes alive.