Atmospheric Circulation of Hot Jupiters

Abstract
The full-phase infrared light curves of low-eccentricity hot Jupiters show a trend of increasing dayside-to-nightside brightness temperature difference with increasing equilibrium temperature. Here, we present a three-dimensional model that explains this relationship, in order to provide insight into the processes that control heat redistribution in tidally locked planetary atmospheres. This three-dimensional model combines predictive analytic theory for the atmospheric circulation and dayside–nightside temperature differences over a range of equilibrium temperatures, atmospheric compositions, and potential frictional drag strengths with numerical solutions of the circulation that verify this analytic theory. The theory shows that the longitudinal propagation of waves mediates dayside–nightside temperature differences in hot Jupiter atmospheres, analogous to the wave adjustment mechanism that regulates the thermal structure in Earth's tropics.

Happy New Year!

"....from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved...."

Parasitic fungus doses cicadas with psilocybin and makes their butts fall off.

Eidolon is generally not high on my list, but this article about teaching middle-schoolers Latin is charming.

Most 6th graders seem to readily adopt ancient language and culture. (I remember going through a serious ancient Egypt phase myself in the 6th grade.) They’re not only excited to speak a dead language — they want to live it. One parent shared with me that her son was regularly reclining at the dinner table “like a Roman.” Another set of parents shared that their daughter was calling them “mater et pater” at home. This engagement with the culture is most resonant in mythology. Many students come into my class with extensive background in Greek and Roman myths, partly due to the popular Percy Jackson series and partly due to classics like D’Aulaires. My jaw dropped the day I heard a 6th student casually include ichor in our informal discussion of the Greco-Roman pantheon.

Byrne's edition of Euclid's Elements, online.

ht: Open Culture

Flaming Pudding Carol Lyrics

A public service, since these proved rather hard to track down via Google - the lyrics to The Flaming Pudding Carol:

Come bring with a noise
My merry, merry boys
The Christmas pudding a-flaming.
Hospitality
Bids ye all be free
And eat to your hearts' desiring.

With the last year's brand
Light the Yule Log and
For good success in his spending
On your psalteries play
The sweet luck may
Come while the log is a-tending.

Drink now the strong beer,
Cut the white loaf here
The while the meat is a-shredding.
For the rare mince pie
And the plums stand by
To fill the paste that's a-kneading.

Repeat first verse

(The recording has "Drink now with good cheer." Whatever.)

Season's Greetings in Reykjavik:

A new statue of the Icelandic Yuletide cat was revealed last weekend in Lækjartorg in the city centre. It's a five metre tall and fairly creepy statue of this strange folkloric being, known for eating children who didn't get new clothes for Christmas.

AI does classic book covers: Link one.
AI does classic book covers: Link two.

A soundtrack for the Yule Goat as he abducts children to his mountain fastness in Lapland.

Bleg: what should I read to understand the Maronites?