Is there still gender discrimination in science?    We hear about it even today but is it a real problem or is it primarily a problem in that 'if there is even one instance it is too many' way that zealots insist on zero tolerance, even when applied to individuals who sometimes make decisions based on silly reasons.

Environmental groups are concerned they have lost the trust of the public regarding global warming so they have taken to new marketing approaches.    They started the last decade with runaway public interest and goodwill and ended it with scandals and black marks on the credibility of the climate field.

Wrestlers are taught to ignore an opponent's eyes and instead watch his waist - nothing much is happening that his waist won't be involved in whereas eyes can be misleading.    That means wrestlers are conservatives, according to new research coming out in Attention, Perception&Psychophysics.

Progressives follow eye movements more than conservatives, the authors contend.   That means that progressives (also, liberals, if you don't know what the word liberal means) and conservatives quite literally do not see the world in the same way.   The researchers measured reaction to 'gaze cues' - the tendency to shift attention based on another person's eye movements.  Essentially, they wanted to find out who looked more at what distracted someone else.

In the category of lesser-known holidays that could be celebrated on December 25th, the coronation of William of Normandy in 1066 A.D. as first King of what we know as modern England would have to be considered.    It was the last time a foreign nation would conquer the island nation and years later the Brits gave us all Shakespeare, Christmas Island and America.

What do you get when you cross Science 2.0, the cultural buzzterm that really took off in 2010 (and brought with it a whole host of colloquial meanings veering into 'web 2.0-ish, it means whatever you want it to mean' jargon) with a western world Christmas season?

You get an excuse to do a compilation of science articles, that's what.

So once again this year I have compiled topical articles from this year and seasons past.