Welcome to the week-end! Today we start talking about time as a commodity; what follows is; Russian GPS problems, tears for the Taco Shop, the best science images, what to watch, UFOs, and much more.  Let’s get to all the news today.

In a piece on NPR’s radio show, Geoff Brumfiel talks about time.  The work starts with Brumfiel heading to an interview with Jeff Sherman at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and he’s running late.  Sherman runs the lab, and one of the first things he talks about is how time is the least renewable resource.  That is a lot to take in, it may be the least renewable in whatever you added to that moment in time, but do we know how much there is?  In the interview’s first section, Brumfiel and Sherman discuss the Colorado Atomic Clocks that set the time for everything.

Following Brumfiel talks with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist at the University of New Hampshire.  Their discussion is about how time is different relative to space.  According to Prescod-Weinstein, time is not absolute, and gravity can play a role in time.   People who live on the International Space Station age at a different pace than people on earth.

Brumfiel talks with two other scientists about time, one who talks about time and distance and why we can see the beginning of the universe with new telescopes.  Another one tries to step back that time is counting and that when she meditates, she can slow time, at least to her.  This all goes back to Joe Jackson and his classic track Got the time, he says it right here:

Maybe not scientific, but you can dance to it!

Wired reported widespread disruption in GPS services in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.  As many of us in the West have come to depend heavily on GPS, it’s hard to imagine going back to the days of paper maps or getting turn-by-turn directions from someone before you head out to a destination.  We might think about Google/Apple maps when we hear the term GPS, but GPS is now used in all types of devices, services, and things we take for granted.  It is also a significant part of tracking and military operations using satellites to determine troop locations and targeting.  Take out GPS capabilities, and many things go dark.

We over-report the bad and under-report the good.  Often because the good isn’t looking to be written on.  Isabel Milan was not looking for notoriety; she only wished for customers to enter her family’s restaurant.  Isabel took to social media, and her message struck a familiar chord with many people.  According to the story on the Today Shows website, in less, this Tik Tok video has had almost 40M views in less than a week. Are Good.

The comments supporting the restaurant and the family have been overwhelming.  Some people droves hours to each at this little restaurant, and the support poured in.  This would not have only happened this quickly with social media.  Most of us are it, and we can choose how to use it.  Merry Christmas, Taco-Bout-Joy’s; we are rooting for you!

Science.Org announced the Breakthrough of 2022, and the images sent back from the James Webb telescope are the winners.  The post has some great pictures and what the photos mean.  When the new telescope came online, we didn’t think much about it other than it was a replacement for the Hubble telescope.  We were wrong; Webb is not an upgrade but a new platform or category altogether.  The images are stunning and now tell us or confirm galaxies we didn’t know existed and the age of stars.

Some of the scientific runners-up are also impressive, everything from farming techniques to AI, and who can forget, we went all Armageddon on an asteroid this year.  Go to Science.Org to see all the breakthroughs.

We listed this under the No Words category – if you listen to the podcast on this one, you will understand why…

The NYT has an excellent section called simply Watching and is what it is.  The Watching Team will help you curl up over the cold and dark winter months to watch whatever you are into.

From NYT:

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Time.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

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With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.