SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

THINK IT'S TOO WARM? – From KCEN:   (WFAA) -- The long-awaited storm system is making its way into Texas, and promises to bring a variety of weather through Monday. A crippling winter storm will strike West Texas with heavy snow and high winds leading to what the National Weather Service is calling a "historic blizzard."  Meanwhile, severe weather will break out in our part of the state and points south. All forms of severe weather will be possible, including large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. Flash flooding will also be a concern.  But it should also be pointed out that many areas will just be getting a simple soaking rain.  Strong to severe storms will break out to the west and northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon, spreading slowly to the east during the evening.  Take that, global warmers!

UK AMBASSADOR WAY OUT OF LINE – From The Hill:  The United Kingdom's top diplomat in the United States is a fan of President Obama.  “I think the legacy, the balance sheet, doesn’t look bad," Sir Peter Westmacott, the outgoing British ambassador in Washington, said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper.  "It certainly doesn’t feel to me like this is a lame-duck presidency which has given up," he added. "He’s motoring along and he’s doing through executive action what he needs to.”...He lauded the deals Obama struck with Iran and Cuba, saying they took "political courage."  Both Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, "did a remarkable job of making America loved again after the difficult years of the previous regime,” Westmacott said.   Entirely inappropriate comments by a foreign ambassador regarding our internal affairs.  Unusual for a British diplomat, who should know better.  As for our being "loved again," I wonder who the lovers are.  This man deserves a reprimand, but he's retiring anyway.

FROM THOSE INVENTIVE YANKS – From the TimesGazette.com:   Scientists from the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science come with significant results in creating an incredibly strong but still lightweight new structural metal by using a novel way.  Scientists announce that the new metal shows extremely high specific strength (the weight, which a substance can resist before breaking) and particular modulus (stiffness-to-weight ratio). The metal is produced when magnesium is mixed with dense ceramic, silicon carbide nanoparticles, which are equally spread in magnesium. The particular material might be used in creating cars, lightweight airplanes, mobile electronics, spacecraft as well as medical devices. Because of its light weight, this unique metal may also assist in improving the fuel effectiveness of airplane and spacecraft, or other vehicles.  Leave it to our guys to come up with something great.  If the story proves out, this could have an important impact on energy policy.

December 26,  2015