Happy New Year's Eve! Remember to play safe if you are heading out to celebrate tonight, as there will be a lot of amateur drinkers out there possibly driving (please don't be one of them). And as always, for those in areas where it's already 2017, please don't tell us what the future holds or we may alter the timeline. We're just hunkering down in the BlueTower tonight for a quiet evening. If I was going to head out today, it would be for one last sandwich from the Carnegie Deli, which will be closed for good tomorrow *sniff* (thanks Neutronbeam), but at least we got there recently for one last visit.

One more note for the new year: There will be some scheduled maintenance on the server here tomorrow, which will result in downtime. This will hopefully be routine, and if things go smoothly you probably won't notice. But there's always the possibility that there will be complications, so apologies in advance if the site is inaccessible at points tomorrow. Here's a hearty thank you to Frans for taking care of these technical things so well. It should be noted that nearly two years of uninterrupted uptime will be broken when the server is taken offline for maintenance, which is impressive, especially considering the points in the site's history when 24 hours without a server crash was a rare accomplishment.

R.I.P.: Allan Williams, the Beatles' first manager, dies. Thanks nin.
R.I.P.: Tyrus Wong, ‘Bambi’ Artist Thwarted by Racial Bias, Dies at 106.

Eve of Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	The Shadow Realms Arcade.
Stories:	Comet to zip across night sky on New Year's Eve. Costner Wants To Direct A 10-Hour Western. So shorter than Dances with Wolves?
Science:	Low Iron Levels May Be Linked to Hearing Loss. A chemical imbalance in the brain could be causing people to exercise less, study finds.
Media:	Adam Ruins Millennials. 11 year old uses saved birthday money for Dad's Xmas Present. Amazon Alexa Gone Wild.
Follow-up:	More Time Spent On Final "Thrones" Episodes. Stars We Lost In 2016.