Strange Visitor & Stuff

-- Last year's funky flying rock, ‘Oumuamua, that visited our solar system, has turned out to be even funkier as scientists have studied it. This article in Scientific American outlines some of the oddball things about our strange visitor from another star.

-- If you're curious about where some of the different scenes in old silent movies were filmed, you can explore them here at Silent Locations. You can see how many different scenes were filmed on the same spots, where those spots are on a map and in some cases an overhead photograph, and some pictures of what they look like today. No audio.

-- Once again the good folk at Mental Floss have found some words we used to use that we ought to use again, this time related to winter and Christmas. My favorite is quaaltagh, a Manxian Celtic word that describes the first person you see on Christmas or New Year's morning (or the first guest to enter your house on those days). This person was supposed to have some bearing on what kind of year you will have after seeing them. I have never been so grateful to not have a single news channel on my TV. That way I can avoid all of the over-stuffed egos displaying their devotion to apolausticism.