Merry Christmas – open thread

Merry Christmas to all, even though it is past midnight on the east coast, and the holiday is officially “over.” However it is not over to the West, and, in a sense, it is not over anywhere, ever.
Even if the entire human race chooses to become ignorant, Truth remains true. It is a light which darkness cannot quench. There is no such thing as a flashlight which can produce a ray of darkness, but a single candle can defeat the darkness of a vast cave.
In my youth I was always on the lookout for some sort of Christmas miracle, some proof light was more powerful than darkness, and I usually could find one, because I took the time to look. We are in fact surrounded by “signs” of the power of Truth, though we may be blinded by discouragement and fail to see them.
Although the beauty of science is that it shows us the Truth, a true Christmas miracle cannot be replicated, and therefore is outside the bounds of science. In fact most of mine are minor things most would not call miracles, though they were miracles to me. (For example, if your mother-in-law said something nice about you, it might be a miracle to you, but no big deal to anyone else.)
However one time I had this really amazing thing happen on Christmas Eve that was so neat I have to tell the tale, though I won’t blame you if you don’t believe me:
Rent was due, and I was five dollars short. I lived in a motel unit, in a rough part of a rough town, and the owner of the motel was from India and could care less if it was Christmas Eve. He had a reputation for putting an odd clam-shell thing on your doorknob if you were late with your rent, and it kept you from opening your own door, until you came up with the rent. But I figured if I flourished fifty-five dollars in his face, he might let me stay in my unit on Christmas Eve, though the rent for the motel unit was sixty. However when I peeked through the picture window into the front office, I had my doubts. He had a mean look that evening. Not Christmassy at all. I figured I’d likely be sleeping in my car that night.
A blast of wind blew dust across the parking lot, and it was cold. Then I noticed this little ball of paper tumbling over the tar. I swear I knew it was a five dollar bill even before it stopped at my feet. Then I stooped, picked it up, un-crumpled it, and saw old Abe Lincoln. I shook my head and said, “You’ve got to be Sh—ing me.”
I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me. To be scientific you’d have to replicate the event, but I don’t expect I’ll ever see that sort of coincidence ever happen again, in my life.
However now I’ll tell you of a Christmas miracle we all witnessed. It involves a cold wind blowing, six years ago, and fellows like me getting scolded for saying there was ever such a thing as Vikings growing grain and raising cows in Greenland, because that was “denier” talk. There was no place to turn, because WUWT did not exist, back then. Then, five Christmases ago, like a five dollar bill blowing across a parking lot, this unexpected event, an event you could not replicate, occurred. WUWT was lit like a little candle lit in darkness. And for most of us, learning it existed had us shaking our heads in happy disbelief, and saying, “You’ve got to be Sh—ing me.”
Only now are we becoming aware there were some who don’t like the light of Truth, and who were spending vast amounts of money to keep the public in the dark. However they failed to include the internet into their calculations.
We have all witnessed, and indeed been part of, a miracle. Despite the best efforts of those enamored of darkness, Light always finds a chink, and shines through. Remember that, and keep the faith, should times grow dark, this coming year.

In a groveling display of special pleading, climate scientists studying a developing tropical cyclone east of Darwin have named it “Grant” and have written it up before it is finished.
However, instead of growing through class 3, to 4, to the top rank of 5, it has now been degraded to a “low”.
Those who have tickets on themselves about understanding tropical cyclones, their conditions of formation and the controls on their paths, should study this cyclone to be humiliated. Two turns of 180 degrees in a day or so. In Africa they say “Mumbo jumbo”. Here we say “sit down talk”.