Esteemed scientists and famous cultural figures who died this year

This time of year brings an endless supply of best/worst lists most of which I ignore. The ones that I read are those of people who have died because often news of such people’s passing was lost in the noise when it happened. One such list that I read are those of actors but this one of scientists who died is also noteworthy, the most famous of whom was Stephen Hawking.

Another is this list of writers, musicians, and actors who died.

The Rapture and The Book of Revelation

Most people are familiar with the wacky ideas about the Rapture, where the chosen are whisked away into heaven leaving those behind to face years of carnage in the battle between good and evil. Into this mix are thrown ideas about the AntiChrist leading the forces of evil against the forces of good that culminates in the end of the world. In his new book The Book of Revelation: A Biography, Timothy Beal, professor of religious studies at Case Western Reserve University, explains that although many people think that these ideas about the Rapture emerge from the Book of Revelation, that is not the case.
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Live by the stock market, die by the stock market

During all the fiascos that have been happening one after the other during the Donald Trump presidency, there was one thing that he could boast about and that was the stock market. During his first year of office, it rose by a whopping 25%, greatly pleasing the wealthy class that are the ones who have most of their assets in the stock market. Ordinary people with retirement plans also have a stake in the stock market because those funds are invested in it but I suspect that most are like me and have little idea of what is happening because we do not actively buy and sell stocks ourselves.
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A small but significant shift against US involvement in the war in Yemen

Clio Chang and Ryan Grim describe the delicate maneuvering that went into the Senate vote against US involvement in the war in Yemen and what happened in the House. In both cases we saw people like Bernie Sanders and progressive forces in the Democratic party push a reluctant party leadership to support the moves, while liberal groups for various reasons tended to sit on the sidelines or provide only lukewarm support.
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The tightly knit but strangely solitary world of QAnon cult members

Sometime ago, I wrote about the mercurial rise within about a year of the QAnon phenomenon, one of the more bizarre political developments of the internet age, that says that Donald Trump is a genius who is cleverly drawing his enemies out into the open before he and his allies in the military suddenly swoop and arrest all of them. The evildoers include “the global banking elite, death squads operating on orders from Hillary Clinton, deep-state intelligence operatives, and Pizzagate-style pedophile rings.”
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Don’t cry for Mattis – he was as bad as the other generals that once surrounded Trump

Lucian K. Truscott IV has some harsh words for the outgoing secretary of defense Jim Mattis, touted as the ‘Last Adult in The Room’, just like all the other high-ranking military officers that the media automatically endows with sterling qualities simply by virtue of their office. Truscott says like the other three generals that Donald Trump once had and have now left, Mattis was a toady who went along with pretty much all Trump’s hare-brained ideas, resigning only because his feelings were hurt that he was not consulted about the Syria withdrawal.
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I’m with Rat on this one

One of the things that I disliked about winter was having to get up in the morning when it was still dark outside. Now that I am retired, I go to bed late and get up late, well after the sun has come up. Add to that the ability to stay indoors on really cold, snowy, and windy days and that has made winter a lot more tolerable, though I still don’t like it.

LeBron James lashes out at NFL owners

If there is one athlete in professional sports who is untouchable, that is LeBron James. He is increasingly using that power to speak out in harsh terms against the power structure in professional football and to support the protests of people like Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid who have been punished by NFL owners for their kneeling protest against police brutality, an issue that Donald Trump exploits whenever he needs a distraction from his own problems.
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