How to compose good powerpoint presentations. (via Macaroni)
Archaeologists find the missing Persian army.
Jeremy Teigen discusses voter turnout in New Jersey. I was surprised to learn that 10.4 percent of our population aren't citizens.
My co-bloggers at Everyday Politics have begun to hit their stride. Michael Xenos writes about the youth vote in off-year elections. Scott Lemieux wonders whether Obama can be considered to be a Reconstruction President. Reconstruction Presidents, according to Stephen Skowronek, act as a battering ram to the old order; they shift party alliances and establish new policy preferences. My response to Lemieux? Skowronek also says that modern presidents can never truly reshape the political system, like Lincoln and FDR did, because of the huge growth of the bureaucracy, which limits change.
Garbage patches in the Pacific.
My Grandmother's War Stories. Great art!
As I spend days sorting through barely played games and toys, I would love to have a No-Gift Christmas.
Apt. 11d 
I’m afraid to read your first link for fear that it actually teaches me how to make good powerpoint presentations. As near as I can tell the only effect of being able to make good slides is that people ask you to make more slides.
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The article about the lost army of Cambyses is so exciting! Thanks.
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Melissa and I decided that the kids aren’t getting any gifts from us or from the parents (mine) who just said money this year; instead, we’re all going on a December trip to Sea World in San Antonio. I guess that still counts as a “gift,” of course, but at least it doesn’t add to toys we don’t need.
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I just recently finished Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuszcinski, so thanks for the Persian link!
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As I spend days sorting through barely played games and toys, I would love to have a No-Gift Christmas.
The answer is simple. This year, give more socks and underpants. There will always be a use for them. More seriously, though, the article was a bit of a mess, mixing in people who have serious economic hardships with people who are anti-consumption and people who want to do something else instead as if they were all part of a trend. And, it’s not as if the super-stress and dumb gifts are not largely self-inflicted wounds. People can stop doing that sort of stuff and not need to completely not give gifts to do it.
(Also, I’d just once like to see someone say something like, “This year we’re trying to get back to the original spirit of Christmas. That’s why we’re going to give everyone gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” As for me, I don’t celebrate Christmas at all and just exchange gifts for the new year with my wife.)
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We did digital scrapbooking and had Walmart and Walgreens print up photobooks for the relatives last Christmas. We were 4 or 5 years behind with our digital photos, so it was a huge production, as was going through 4 or 5 years of video footage to produce a watchable collection of clips. I think one of the photobooks came out too yellow or green and we made a lot of different versions for different people. However, being able to type in captions with names, places, and dates was priceless, as is being able to order up extra copies later. This year, we’ll probably do just two versions: the usual one and the vision impaired vision (only one photo per page). Last year we sent both photobooks and presents, but I’m mulling just sending photobooks this year, plus actual presents for kids.
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You could have an Ayn Rand Christmas where everybody buys presents for themselves.
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MH,
Ooo, I like it. Possible variant–the solipsist’s Christmas. Everybody gets together, does a collection and sends the solipsist to Hawaii, because if he goes, we all go!
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