OF SANTA CLAUS, CHILDREN NAUGHTINESS, AND VIRUS: A CHRISTMAS TALE

Keywords: Christmas, Xmas, Santa, Santa Claus, Christmas Eve, Xmas Eve, children, kids, virus, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, flu, measles, naughtiness, naughty list, myth, popular belief, North Pole, deprivation, hospitals, United Kingdom, UK

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Ooooh, hello dear English speaking-reading-hearing visitor, welcome back to me, @sciencemug, the blog/podcast/twitter&instagram accounts/entity behind the unsuccessful e-shop stuffngo (sNg) on zazzle.com which tells you science stories while exploring all the 11 dimensions of spacetime while putting its virtual ear on them vibrating membranes hoping like that to catch the voice of a trans-dimensional entity of mighty wisdom talking about how to correctly answer your significant other’s question: ”does this dress make me look fat?”, aaand which talks to you thanks to the voice, kidnapped via a voodoo-wireless trick, from a veeery very very dumb human.

Aaand which does all of this in English-question-mark, a language that is to proper English what 2020 is to an even slightly not crappy year for human kind.

Today I’m gonna tell you a story that debunks (or not, who knows, dear wait-and-find-out reader) the notion according to which Santa Claus only visits children who well behaved during the year (and no, Santa, it’s not the outfit, you ARE fat!).

 

Santa Claus & the naughtiness issue (by @sciencemug)

[Badass Santa pic, by hue12 photography, is a free pic (source: Unsplash); adapted by @sciencemug]

 

Six scholars from Harvard and other universities and medical institutions of the USA and United Kingdom (UK), in 2016 publish a paper (P) on the science journal The BMJ (formerly know as the British Medical Journal), which, founded in 1840, “is one of the world's oldest general medical journals” (see) out there.

The six academics, led by at the time prestigious Kennedy scholarship owner John J Park (we’ll call the JJ6 from now on), decide to investigate whether it be true or not the commonly accepted opinion that Santa Claus (“also known as Saint Nicholas, St Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Santy, or simply Santa” (P)) decide which kids to visit depending on their past year round good or bad behavior.

Now, the JJ6, to test this popular belief, select

NEW POSTS/PODCAST EPISODES COMING SOON!

Heeeello dear dearest buddy reader/listener!

I just want to tell you this: new posts/podcast episodes are coming!

Soon*! 

Ciaz!

(Wow, four "!" in a row, that's something! Oooh, five! Oooh, six! Ooooh... Ok, I stop it now)

SM

Here's a picture of a seal (or at least I guess it is it, otherwise it's the oddest chicken I've ever seen…) that is just really excited about the news.

A thrilled seal [in reality, it thought some fish were coming, it couldn't care less 'bout the news (I spare you the pic where it finally realizes no fish is coming, it's too heartbreaking)]

[The seal pic, by Karen Lau, is a free pic (source: Unsplash)]

 

*

"Soon" is an acronym standing for: "Suuureoh-ohneverthelessdon'tbetoooptimisticI'mstillalazydumbblogafterallbutI'mactuallyworkingonitthepost/podcastepisodeImeannotmylackofcommitmentorlackofbrain"

FAREWELL, ARECIBO TELESCOPE! (Nov 1963 - Dec 2020)

Completed in November 1963, the giant (its dish is/was 305 meters wide) Arecibo radio telescope of the Arecibo Observatory (near Arecibo, in Puerto Rico) suffered apparently irreparable damage on the early morning of December 1st, 2020. 

On that day, indeed, the telescope’s instrument platform (a 900 tonnes juggernaut, like about a hundred fully loaded 5th Wheel Camper), suspended above the already previously partially damaged dish, crashed into it definitely completing the destruction job.

Here a full account and footage of what happened.

The following cartoon is this dumb blog's homage to this invaluable piece of technology and source of scientific discoveries and, ultimately, of human progress.

 

Farewell, Arecibo Radio Telescope! (by @sciencemug)

[The Arecibo Telescope pic by Jaro Nemčok, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (source: Wikimedia Commons); the pic is adapted by @sciencemug]