The FBI cannot account for 18 minutes of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik's activities after the shootings at San Bernadino.

Agents said Tuesday they have yet to figure out what the couple were doing for a critical chunk of time — 12:59 p.m to 1:17 p.m. When Farook and Malik resurfaced, they were a mile from the center, which at that time was flooded with paramedics, police, reporters and family members frantically searching for loved ones.

They remain convinced, however, the shootings were terror-inspired but not terror-directed:

During a news conference Tuesday, Bowdich said the investigation had turned up no evidence that the attack was orchestrated from abroad. “This seems to be an inspired terrorist act,” he said.

It's another season of the Bachelor. Ben seems very vulnerable and lacking in self-confidence. It's hard to tell if that's the way he really is, or its just a story line crafted from the "edit" from last season. (His reaction to being rejected was to voice his fear he was unlovable.)

The women so far are the typical mix of beach blond bombshell wannabes, weirdos (the dentist), annoying chirpy voices (the one who just passed the bar exam), and sad sacks who are going to share their personal tragedies with us, regardless of whether we want to hear about them. I'm having a hard time telling one blond from another. I also don't like Ben's haircut, it's way too short. His eyes seem much closer together than they did last season. And where are his muscles?

Will I make it through another season? Too soon to tell.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

President Obama outlined his 10 point execution action plan for gun control today.

Among the changes:

Anyone who makes a living from selling guns online or at gun shows, two locations where sellers are often considered collectors or hobbyists and freed from the requirement that they conduct background checks, will be required to be federally licensed.

He is also asking for $500 million for mental health treatment. In a statement, he acknowledged these measures will not stop every violent crime or prevent every mass shooting. [More...]

The final season of Downton Abbey is about to begin.

I watched the Royals for the first time this weekend. It's incredibly trashy and very hard to follow. But better than what Hollywood has offered this year.

In unrelated UK news, ISIS released a video threatening David Cameron. It had a wannabe Jihadi John doing executions. Some think he is Abu Rumaysah al-Britani (protest video with him in UK is here.) From a production value standpoint, I thought it was pretty weak. While ISIS has multiple video departments, I wonder if the al Hayat media producers have all been killed off. Very few of ISIS' recent videos have a "wow" factor.

Saudi Arabia executed 47 people including a Shia cleric, angering the world. It also broke off relations with Iran. (Skip the NYT version, it has auto-play video.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

29 days until the Iowa Caucus. Via HuffPo here is the polling state of play:

Nationally in the GOP race, Trump holds a wide lead over Ted Cruz 39-17. Everyone else is an also ran. But of course national polling doesn't mean much until later.

Among Dems nationally, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 57-31. I'd give the same general caveat but think the lead in the Dem race is more meaningful given the demographic makeup of the support for the candidates (yes PoC overwhelmingly support Clinton.)

More on the race in early states on the flip.

As much as I disliked 2015, I have very positive feelings about 2016. I don't much believe in resolutions, so I can't offer up any, but here's an open thread for yours, and anything else that's on your mind.

Looking back at the news during 2015, it was a year that sucked big-time, around the world.

Here's a few examples, with just a few of the dozens of graphics I used throughout the year. Feel free to add your own events (mine is just a partial list), or disagree. Just stay on topic -- it's a list of bad things that happened in 2015, not a place to debate specifics or rehash evidence. [More...]

TalkLeft was down from yesterday until just now. The hosting Company in New York had a problem, moved the site to new hardware, and then could not establish network connectivity until just now. Hopefully it's all fixed. A big thanks to our webmaster Colin who kept at them to hurry up.

This is an open thread, Happy New Year's Eve to all. What are your plans tonight? [More...]

Weight Watcher's stock soared today. Why? Oprah Winfrey, now a 10% shareholder in the company, released an ad featuring Oprah and Oprah sent out a tweet with the ad. That's apparently all it took.

I have always liked Weight Watchers. It was founded in the early 1960's by Jean Nidetch, then a Brooklyn housewife and compulsive eater. Her partners were her overweight husband and another couple. Within 5 years, there were 5 million members and franchises everywhere. The message was that over-eating is an emotional problem.

Jean died last April at age 91. I spent a week at a health spa with her in the early 80's, which was a few years after she and her partners sold the company to R.J. Heinz (for $71.2 million) and probably around the time she retired from her public relations role.

She was very smart and funny and fun to be around.

When the powers that be decide to target you, there's very little that can be done to change their mind. An arrest warrant has been issued for Bill Cosby, for an incident that allegedly took place in 2004. You can read the Complaint here.

I continue to have zero interest in this story, and I doubt I'll write more about it. For those who feel differently, here's a place to discuss it.

The U.S. today said it killed 10 ISIS leaders this month. One was an associate of the "mastermind" of the Paris attacks.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

(This is just a computer rant, and a pretty boring one at that. You may want to skip it and make better use of the five minutes it will take to read it. Just saying....)

Yesterday afternoon my Netgear AC1900 router (an R7000) lost its connection to the internet. Nothing would restore it. Both my networks (2.4 and 5GZ) were no longer in the list of recognized available networks. They were disconnected.

I spent an hour on the phone with Comcast doing the usual, turning on and off the cable box, modem, router, etc. They told me it was a Netgear issue and helpfully gave me the phone number for Netgear support. (Comcast was right because when I moved my laptop to the living room near the router and modem, and plugged an ethernet cord into the laptop, the LAN worked fine.) But I wanted my wireless back so I'm not tethered to the living room couch. So then I spent almost half hour on the phone with Netgear. [More...]