Rogue One

Go see it. It was incredible.

West African leaders talk Gambian president into stepping down

• Banana Republic: Check
• Rolls-Royces: Check
• Tacky presidential palace furniture: Check

Race relations in Singapore

Economist article here.

Cold weather trips past and future

For Christmas, we are going to be in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am excited not only because I'll be seeing my cool in-laws, but because it will be my first white Christmas. This is what it looked like today.

I've raised the prospect of eating lutefisk (dried cod reconstituted with lye) and was promptly shot down. As a compromise, I will be bringing a bottle of Norwegian aquavit as a housewarming gift. I had no idea it needed to cross the Equator twice.

I had been to Minnesota once before, in 2003, when I visited the SPAM museum in Austin (home of Hormel). The whole town smelled like canned meat. Look at these photos, taken with a Canon 3-megapixel camera!

Going to frigid Minnesota also made me try to recall the coldest weather I had ever experienced. Nothing too bad, actually.

The absolute coldest temperature I had ever lived through was 3 degrees F. It was in October 2007 in Fairbanks, coming back from my trip to the Arctic Circle. It wasn't so bad because I was prepared and wearing warm clothing.

It was probably just in the 20s, but my night in a yurt in Karakul Lake in Xinjiang felt the coldest. We were 12,000 feet up, so I was battling altitude sickness as well. We stayed overnight in this poorly insulated, crappy yurt next to the lake. I remember uncomfortably and dizzily walking out at night, into the pitch black, to the outdoor squat pit to piss. I was too disoriented to put on shoes and just walked out in my socks. It was pure misery.

Source of US oil imports

Switching from Uber to Lyft

Why?

• I'm tired of Uber's open disregard for rules, regulations, and laws.
• I always support the underdog.
• Lyft has always exuded a more egalitarian vibe with respect to the driver-passenger relationship.

Are there any Lyft customers out there? What are your thoughts?

Conan drinks and drives in Germany

Drinks:

Drives:

Dubai 1991 versus 2013

Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling

Does anyone remember this from their childhood?

I was at a networking event yesterday and an attendee mentioned a women's empowerment group called G.L.O.W. A friend who overheard it asked: Doesn't that stand for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling? I had completely blocked it out of my mind for almost 30 years.

Swedish sci-fi drawings featuring old cars

Source.