THURSDAY NEWS:
* "The criminalization of protest: police and politicians ignore the First Amendment when we need it the most." Top read.
* Sea lions disappear from San Francisco pier.
* MGK with the latest on Canadian political shenanigans.
* Hot damn. 'Europe's Goce satellite is returning remarkable new data on the way the pull of gravity varies across the Earth."
* Bonus: xkcd visualizes gravity wells.
* Russia considers plan to divert asteroid that wasn't hitting the Earth anyways.
* The Explainer, on celebrating New year's on the ISS.
* WeeklyCrisis.com presents ten media properties that need comic book spinoffs. (A couple of which my friends and I have theorized in conversation.)