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...]

The time between Xmas and New Years is like a dead zone. But, since some people, including me, will sometimes have something to say, I'm going to fill it with open threads.

Here's one, all topics welcome.

Worst Media Internet Practices of 2015 (Worthy of a Boycott of Sites That Use Them)

1. Auto-playing videos on news sites that slow or hang my computer. I continue to refuse to link to any site that has auto-play video and I close the window as soon as I see it. Worst offenders: CNN, ABC and local news, but almost everyone is doing it now. Fewest might be Reuters and NY Times, but even they do it sometimes.

2. News articles republishing unconfirmed facts without doing any independent investigation to verify. There's no excuse for lazy. San Bernadino is this year's best example.

[More....]

A drug cop in Ponce, Puerto Rico took three of his fellow cops hostage and shot and killed them today.

Our condolences to the families and loved ones of the slain officers.

Pointing out the obvious: Stricter gun laws wouldn't have prevented this tragedy.

One of the slain officers is believed to have shot the alleged killer officer in the arm: [More...]

I've only binge-watched one series so far this weekend -- Netflix' Frankie and Grace with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. They play two 70 year olds who are married to law partners. In the first episode, the law partners announce they are leaving their wives to marry each other, and reveal they've been secretly having an affair for 20 years. There are 13 episodes. It has many recognizable stars. Parts of it are very funny. Lily Tomlin has been nominated for a Golden Globes award for her performance and it's been renewed for a second season. Jane Fonda looks terrific.

The beach house where most of it was filmed is very nice (although not as nice as Diane Keaton's beach house in the Hamptons in "Something's Got to Give."

I'm not finding much else to watch despite all the offerings. What are you binge-watching on this weekend? Are you using Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, or your cable service?

ISIS leader al Baghdadi released a new audio speech today. I haven't seen a full English translation yet (a French one is available.)

In it, he threatens Israel:

"With the help of Allah, We are getting closer to you every day," al-Baghdadi told his Israeli listeners. "The Israelis will soon see us in Palestine. This is no longer a war of the crusaders against us. The entire world is fighting us right now."

The ISIS leader continued, "The Israelis thought that we forgot Palestine and that they had distracted us from it. That is not the case. We have not forgotten Palestine for one moment."

This is the first public audio speech since May. I don't think he's been seen since mid-2014 when he announced the Caliphate. As to when this message was made, Haaretz says it was after the beginning of the Russian airstrikes.[More....]

Stephen Silva, the long time friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was sentenced in federal court this week to time served for his possession of a weapon with a partially obliterated serial number and distribution of heroin. (History and details here.)

Why the break? He cooperated and testified at Tsarnaev's trial that he loaned Tsarnaev a Ruger P95 9mm pistol. He said Tsarnaev had told him it would be used to rob students who attended the University of Rhode Island. The gun was used after the Marathon bombing to kill MIT officer Sean Collier. (Tamerlan is alleged to have used the gun days later in the Watertown shootout. An officer testified Tamerlan threw it at him when he ran out of bullets.)

Last night while rummaging around the Internet, I found the transcript of Silva's testimony here. Not surprisingly, it contains many details I don't recall the media reporting when covering his testimony or sentencing. The sentencing pleadings by both sides contain even more details. Recap below: [More...]