Midday Open Thread

• Bill and Hillary Clinton are going to be a part of the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square tonight. They'll have the honor of pushing the button to drop the ball.
• Despite the economy, the Russians are planning to launch a record 39 space missions in 2009.
• Time Warner Cable customers may be in for a rude awakening at midnight tonight. TWC is locked in battle with Viacom and if a deal isn't reached, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, and a host of others will go dark for Time Warner customers at 12:01am. No word yet on whether the Colbert Nation will rise up and riot.
• It sounds like a movie plot:

  ... a new book says Moscow acquired the secret of the hydrogen bomb not from its own scientists but from an atomic spy at the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico. Historians call its case sketchy but worthy of investigation, saying the book, "The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation," by Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman, adds to a growing number of riddles about who invented the Soviet H-bomb a half century ago.

  -- Plutonium Page
  

• Sure, tomorrow morning, you'll be in too much pain to care, but here are twelve myths about your hangover. Like:

  MYTH: Wine is the Gentlest Choice

  FACT: Red wine contains tannins, compounds that are known to trigger headaches in some people. Malt liquors, like whisky, also tend to produce more severe hangovers. If you’re worried about how you’ll feel in the morning, the gentlest choices are beer and clear liquors, such as vodka and gin.

  Thanks, I'll remember that.

  -- Plutonium Page