As your faithful scribe, I welcome you all to another edition of Overnight News Digest.
I am most pleased to share this platform with jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, rfall, JLM9999 and side pocket. Additionally, I wish to recognize our alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb along with annetteboardman as our guest editor.
Neon Vincent is our editor-in-chief.
Special thanks go to Magnifico for starting this venerable series.
Lead Off Story
President Obama's Merry And Bright New Year
President Barack Obama is ending the year on an upswing, with his approval rating climbing to a 20-month high. But are his new and improved numbers simply a shot of holiday cheer?
With 48 percent of Americans giving him positive reviews, the president's approval rating is its highest since March 2013, according to a new CNN/ORC International poll. Gallup's weekly tracker shows his job approval rating jumped two points last week to 45 percent, his highest since May.
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Obama has since turned out to be the lame duck that roared, as one commentator put it. The midterm shellacking liberated the president to set off on a post-election sprint, announcing his support for strong net neutrality, jump-starting international climate talks with a Chinese carbon emissions agreement, and issuing an executive order protecting millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Then came a sweeping Environmental Protection Agency ruling on air pollution, the protection of Alaska’s Bristol Bay from oil and gas exploration, a budget deal that kept the government open, and the move to normalize relations with Cuba. Even the beleaguered Obamacare website, which vexed the White House last year, is running smoothly, with 6.4 million Americans now signed up.
While those moves infuriated some of the president's political foes, they appear to have won him public support, particularly among those directly affected by his new policies. More than six in 10 Americans support restarting diplomatic relations with Cuba, according to CNN/ORC's poll. His support among Latinos jumped 10 percentage points after he announced his immigration order. And, according to Gallup, his approval rating among younger voters, is up 10 percentage points, to 56 percent.
A flurry of positive economic news also could be responsible for some of the president's gains, including a third-quarter boom and a drop in unemployment applications last week, a sign the job market is making progress.
bloomberg
World News
Pope Calls For Greater Empathy In Christmas Eve Mass
Pope Francis urged people to have greater empathy towards family and friends with problems in his Christmas Eve mass on Wednesday, saying the world "needs tenderness" and warmth.
"Do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us?" the Argentine asked in his traditional homily given in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
"Or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!" he said.
The short address laden with Gospel references was a far cry from his barbed Christmas speech to cardinals, bishops and priests on Monday.
In an unprecedented outburst, the 78-year old lambasted the Vatican's bureaucracy, listing 15 "ailments" within the Church, including lust for power and "spiritual Alzheimer's", which he hoped to see cured in the new year.
Among the ills was lack of empathy, with the pope warning against "the sickness of indifference towards others, when each person thinks only of themselves and loses the sincerity and warmth of human relationships."
france24
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Resistance To German Anti-Immigrant Movement Mounts
Business leaders, the political class and average Germans are pushing back against a growing anti-immigrant movement, saying it threatens the values and image the country fought hard to establish since the war.
At counter-demonstrations and on social media, opponents have mobilised against the far-right group which claims Germany is being overrun by Islamic extremists.
President Joachim Gauck, who was a pro-democracy pastor in communist East Germany, devoted his annual Christmas speech to a forceful appeal for compassion and openness toward asylum seekers.
Faced with the emergence of the group "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident," or PEGIDA, which has been staging weekly marches, Gauck said he was confident the majority of Germans would resist its call.
"That we react with empathy to the plight around us, that most of us don't follow those who want to seal off Germany - that is for me a truly encouraging experience of this year," he said in the address to be broadcast Thursday.
hurriyet
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For Iraqi Christians, A Season Shrouded In Memories Of Christmas Past
No, Miriam, Santa Claus did not forget you this year.
In these circumstances, though, and being far from home, it is a reasonable question for a 5-year-old to ask.
“Yes, he will come, he will never forget you,” Miriam’s mother, Hamama, told her.
For months now, since militants of the Islamic State stormed her hometown, Qaraqosh, in northern Iraq, near Mosul, and began killing and driving out Christians, home for Miriam and dozens of her old neighbors has been the run-down Al Makasid Primary School in Baghdad. To get by, they have relied on the kindnesses of the nearby church, and of local Muslims, too.
In the school’s dingy courtyard there is a tree, trimmed in balls and bells, and a nativity scene. A few gifts have been donated — toys, clothes, dolls and candies. It is not much, and nothing like being at home, but Christmas has not been the same in Iraq for a long time now.
Two numbers tell that story. In 2003, when the Americans invaded, there were an estimated 1.5 million Christians living in Iraq. Today, experts say, there are fewer than 400,000, many of them on the run from the Islamic State.
nytimes
U.S. News
'No Place Like Home For The Holidays': NYC's Homeless Endure The Winter
“There’s no place like home for the holidays,” sings Perry Como in music piped through New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal. Played at a low volume the late crooner’s voice does little to stir the slumber of dozens of homeless New Yorkers who camp here overnight. They're used to it — for some, the transport hub is the nearest they have to a home during the cold nights of the holiday season.
Deborah Absalam, who said she has lived on the streets since 1997, has come to rely on the bus terminal for shelter and other facilities.
The 55-year-old woman describes sneaking a wash in the Port Authority bathroom each morning. It’s prohibited, but can be done. “If nobody sees you, it’s allowed,” she said standing in the basement of nearby Penn Station, where Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, the Long Island Railroad and city subway lines converge.
Her daily routine — sleeping on trains, bathing in public bathrooms, relying on about $5 worth of panhandling change to buy breakfast — is all too common for those down on their luck in New York City.
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Finding a warm place to spend the night is crucial during the winter months. Every year, around 700 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in the U.S. are killed from hypothermia, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
aljazeera
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CDC Monitoring Lab Tech For Possible Ebola Exposure
A laboratory technician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was being monitored Wednesday for possible accidental exposure to the Ebola virus that came during an experiment, officials said..
The person working in a secure laboratory in Atlanta may have come into contact with a small amount of a live virus, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said in an emailed statement. The experimental material was on a sealed plate, but wasn't supposed to be moved into the lab in which the technician was working, Reynolds said. The worker will be monitored for 21 days and the person's name hasn't been released.
Additional employees have been notified, but none has required monitoring, Reynolds said. Other staff will be assessed for exposure.
There is no risk to the public and lab scientists notified CDC officials of what happened on Tuesday, Reynolds said. The lab has been decontaminated twice, and the material in question was destroyed before CDC officials became aware of the mistake.
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The CDC plans to publish a report on what happened, Reynolds said. It is also planning to report the potential exposure to an external advisory committee that offers advice on best practices in lab science and safety.
chicagotribune
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Early Gift To Christmas Travelers: Winter Storm Weakens
Travelers got an early Christmas present from Mother Nature on Wednesday when a cold front that forecasters feared could have dumped up to 6 inches of snow over Chicago’s airports moved farther east and waned as temperatures rose..
Air travel across the nation did not encounter serious problems Wednesday, but not everyone has dodged the wintry weather bullet: a Christmas Day snowstorm is expected to dump 4 to 7 inches of snow in several Rocky Mountain states and may cause delays at Denver International Airport.
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On Wednesday, travel delays were manageable. Flights at Newark International Airport were delayed an average of 45 minutes because of rain and wind in the afternoon, and flights out of San Francisco were temporarily delayed because of fog.
At Philadelphia International Airport, flights were delayed for an average of nearly two hours Wednesday because of ground traffic, not the weather, according to the FAA.
Thunderstorms were causing delays of 16 to 30 minutes at Tampa International Airport, according to the FAA. The Weather Service told residents to watch out for thunderstorms in the Southeast.
latimes
Science and Technology
There’s More To Frankincense And Myrrh Than Meets The Eye
As per the Biblical tale, as recounted in Matthew 2:1-12, an infant Jesus of Nazareth was visited in Bethlehem on the eve of his birth by Magi bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. To our modern sensibilities, these three gifts don't seem quite even. Gold, then as now, is a highly valuable treasure. But frankincense and myrrh... what even are they?
According to Simon Cotton for Chemistry World, frankincense and myrrh are sap, drawn from the Boswellia sacra and Commiphora trees, respectively. Frankincense was often burned as an incense, while myrrh made its way into medicine and perfume. In antiquity, writes Cotton, these saps were worth just as much as gold. But as modern science has shown, these Magi (or wise men or kings, as they've come to be known) may have been onto something with their gifts. More than just aromatic compounds, frankincense and myrrh have interesting medicinal properties.
“From tests on mice, chemists at the University of Florence have found that molecules in myrrh act on the brain’s opioid receptors, explaining its painkilling action,” says Cotton. The key active ingredient in frankincense, boswellic acid, meanwhile, “has a structure not dissimilar from some hormones like testosterone.”
Boswellic acids have anti-inflammatory and antiarthritic effects, so that they are finding pharmacological use in both East and West. These compounds seem to work by preventing the body from making pro-inflammatory compounds, whilst they also exert antitumor effects in colorectal cancer cells. Atop its analgesic action, myrrh also seems to have anti-cancer properties.
Of the Magi's three gifts, maybe gold was the least valuable of all?
smithsonian
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Could Playing Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker' And Other Music Improve Kids' Brains?
Children who play the violin or study piano could be learning more than just Mozart. A University of Vermont College of Medicine child psychiatry team has found that musical training might also help kids focus their attention, control their emotions and diminish their anxiety. Their research is published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
James Hudziak, M.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families, and colleagues including Matthew Albaugh, Ph.D., and graduate student research assistant Eileen Crehan, call their study "the largest investigation of the association between playing a musical instrument and brain development."
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As children age, the cortex -- the outer layer of the brain -- changes in thickness. In previous analysis of MRI data, Hudziak and his team discovered that cortical thickening or thinning in specific areas of the brain reflected the occurrence of anxiety and depression, attention problems, aggression and behavior control issues even in healthy kids -- those without a diagnosis of a disorder or mental illness. With this study, Hudziak wanted to see whether a positive activity, such as music training, would influence those indicators in the cortex.
The study supports The Vermont Family Based Approach, a model Hudziak created to establish that the entirety of a young person's environment -- parents, teachers, friends, pets, extracurricular activities -- contributes to his or her psychological health. "Music is a critical component in my model," Hudziak says.
The authors found evidence they expected -- that music playing altered the motor areas of the brain, because the activity requires control and coordination of movement. Even more important to Hudziak were changes in the behavior-regulating areas of the brain. For example, music practice influenced thickness in the part of the cortex that relates to "executive functioning, including working memory, attentional control, as well as organization and planning for the future," the authors write.
sciencedaily
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Genetically Modified Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire
Roasting chestnuts on an open fire is supposed to be one of the quintessential Christmas experiences. But I'd never tasted nor smelled a roasted chestnut until I got into the genetics lab of William Powell at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York.
For 25 years, Powell and his colleague Charles Maynard have been using genetic engineering methods to try to revive the American chestnut tree. The tree once reigned over eastern forests from Maine to Georgia, composing up to 25 percent of the canopy and providing food for wildlife and lumber for people. Then, in the early 1900s, a fungus from Asia began to kill off billions of American chestnut trees, and to this day it still plagues the trees, and keeps the species from reasserting its dominance.
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The team has created transgenic chestnut trees that use a wheat gene to fight blight. The trees are being grown in labs and test sites, and the team may soon seek federal approval to set them loose in forests.
The project has drawn mixed reactions. On the one hand, the team aims to restore the traditional, natural ecosystem of the east coast. On the other hand, they're trying to do that through genetic modification, a process long reviled by environmental activists, even though the science suggests the biotechnology is perfectly safe.
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The next logical step, says Powell, will be to seek regulatory approval from the FDA, USDA, and the Environmental Protection Agency, so they can start planting the trees far and wide. The applications would involve followup studies and a lot of questioning and answering, including addressing concerns from the public. The entire process could take about five years, Powell estimates, and is complicated by the fact that the transgenic chestnuts would need to be deemed safe to eat.
popsci
Well, that's different...
Bright Ideas
Britain's Home Office revealed in November (by releasing archived documents from 1982) that among the contingency suggestions for worst-case nuclear attack on the country was commissioning "psychopaths" to help keep order. They are "very good in crises," an advocate wrote, because "they have no feelings for others, nor moral code, and tend to be very intelligent and logical," and thus could do quite well at containing the vigilante survivalist enclaves that might develop in the event parts of the kingdom became lawless. (After an apparently thoughtful debate, the suggestion was not agreed to.)
newsoftheweird
Bill Moyers and Company:
The New Robber Barons
Washington continues to reward wealthy donors and Wall St but what about everyday Americans? Author and historian Steve Fraser has answers.