Americathon

Barack Obama is so eloquent.

Happy New Years, Tokelau!

The nation of Samoa, and the US dependency Tokelau, are now west of the International Date Line rather than east. This means that they are now the first to see the new year, instead of the last. According to theWashington Post:

The date line dance came 119 years after U.S. traders persuaded local Samoans to align their islands’ time with nearby U.S.-controlled American Samoa and the U.S. to assist their trading with California.

But the time zone put Samoa and Tokelau nearly a full day behind neighboring Australia and New Zealand, which are increasingly important trading partners.

Santa Claus came late this year

Donald Trump leaves the Republican party.

A very Wisconsin rear bumper

Here. (via Ann Althouse's blog.)

Kim Jong-il dead at 69

I doubt that Santa was bringing him anything nice.

Quote of the day

All other things being equal, we would not expect a 2% resurrection rate.

- Bill Ricker, commenting on the breast cancer survival curves produced by Edward Tufte.

The end of days

If the above image doesn't convince you that the apocalypse is just around the corner, try looking at this. Grim times. (And if this isn't a sign of the antichrist, then I'm not sure what would be. H/t Overlawyered.com)

Aren't kids cute?

The stop of defendant’s car was with reasonable suspicion that it was involved in a bank robbery. After the stop, defendant’s three year old daugther was found in the car, and she was asked where they were coming from, and she pointed toward the bank. Asked if they were at the bank, she said yes. The registration of the car was expired, and its impoundment was valid. United States v. Brumfield, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137834 (N.D. Ga. February 17, 2011).

- from FourthAmendment.com