SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

TODAY –  Today, December 2nd, is the 75th anniversary of humankind's first sustained nuclear reaction, achieved under the stands at Stagg Field, a football stadium, at the University of Chicago.  As a student at that university, I passed the site of the experiment every day, and saw the plaque commemorating the experiment, which was under the direction of Enrico Fermi.  The sustained nuclear reaction made possible the development of the atomic bomb.  When the experiment succeeded,  Nobel laureate physicist Arthur Holly Compton telephoned James Conant, chairman of the National Defense Research Committee, and reported, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world."  "How were the natives?" Conant asked.  "Very friendly," Compton replied. 

TOO EXTREME? – FROM CNN:    ABC News announced Saturday that it has suspended investigative reporter Brian Ross for four weeks without pay after Ross was forced to correct a bombshell on-air report about Michael Flynn.  "We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday. The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process," ABC said in a statement. "As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online."  "It is vital we get the story right and retain the trust we have built with our audience -- these are our core principles," the statement added. "We fell far short of that yesterday."  Citing a single anonymous source, Ross told viewers during an ABC special report on Friday morning that Flynn was prepared to testify that Donald Trump, as a candidate for president, told him to contact Russians.  During Friday's edition of "World News Tonight," Ross walked back his report, telling viewers that the source who had provided the initial information for his story later told him that it was as president-elect, not as a candidate, that Trump asked Flynn to contact Russians.  Okay, big mistake.  Poor editorial checking.  But ABC made a sincere and full effort to correct the error.   In my view, the correction was sufficient.  No need to go overboard in reprimanding the reporter.  Looks very pompous to me.

OH DEAR, CAN WE GET THIS RIGHT? – FROM DAILY CALLER:  Global warming has not accelerated temperature rise in the bulk atmosphere in more than two decades, according to a new study funded by the Department of Energy.  University of Alabama-Huntsville climate scientists John Christy and Richard McNider found that by removing the climate effects of volcanic eruptions early on in the satellite temperature record showed virtually no change in the rate of warming since the early 1990s.  “We indicated 23 years ago — in our 1994 Nature article — that climate models had the atmosphere’s sensitivity to CO2 much too high,” Christy said in a statement. “This recent paper bolsters that conclusion.”  I do wish that "science" would get this right.  Are we in danger, or are we not?  It seems to me we get more political science than real science.

December 2, 2017