1. A dear friend suffered a terrible loss this week, so putting up funny links or MST3K quotes doesn’t feel right today. Instead, I will tell you to travel safely and hug your loved ones and try to make your part of the world more full of light.

2. I’ll also give you a space picture, since that’s how I cope:
(Click the image to see it bigger–every speck of light you see is a galaxy.)

This was the last image featured on The Atlantic’s space Advent calendar. As the caption there said:
This Hubble image is one of several, including the Ultra Deep Field, which peer into seemingly empty space, leaving the camera shutter open for hours, and reveal that billions of galaxies made up of billions of stars fill our skies in every direction as far as we can possibly see, separated by almost unimaginable distance and time, yet still reachable, visible as an image of their long-ago selves.