The Pentagon isn't known as the Spentagon for nothing. Their penchant for paying too much for too little is well-documented. But apparently, the potential costs related to an internal study of their bureaucratic spending was the one price they deemed too high to pay. From WaPo's Bob Woodward and Craig Whitlock: The Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in waste: "Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results."

Many people have been complaining that 2016 is an awful news year. Well, there's no better way to put 2016 into perspective than by imagining a 2017 that gets even worse. Bloomberg shows you what your social news stream could look like next year with The Pessimist's Guide to 2017. (If Bloomberg can still find an optimist, they should print his or her predictions as well...)

"The full veil is not appropriate here. It should be banned wherever it's legally possible." So said Germany's Angela Merkel as she called for a widespread ban on ‘full veil' Islamic coverings. Such a ban would probably only impact a few hundred of Germany's 4.7 million Muslims. But this announcement is less about an actual policy shift and more about the way the political winds are blowing. And they are blowing hard.

"A parent's worst nightmare is losing a child, and if that unfortunate event should occur, the last thing a parent should have to face is someone calling to collect money for student loans. This law will put an end to that practice and help establish new policies to put in place." Thanks to some good work by investigative journalists, New Jersey will no longer collect loans from families of dead students.

If you visited just about any news site on Tuesday, you encountered a top news story about another presidential tweet. This time its target was Boeing: "Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!" Is this news? Yes, for a variety of reasons, it really is. But is it the day's top story? Hell no. But that's the kind of coverage it got. Donald Trump will soon be America's new Commander in Chief. But apparently his role as America's Editor in Chief has already started. Here's my message to the folks who run big media outlets: You're Editors. So Edit.

+ If you're looking for a big air travel related story, there's always this: United Airlines will charge an extra fee for use of overhead bins. (By my count, about 95% percent of social media posts are either about Trump or United Airlines.)

"They will create a shared database with the unique digital fingerprints -- called 'hashes' -- of terrorism images and videos that violate their content policies." The big social media players are teaming up to combat the spread of terrorist content.

+ The Verge: Facebook and Google make lies as pretty as truth.

"The whole of physics is predicated on the constancy of the speed of light." Motherboard on the scientists out to prove that the speed of light has slowed over time. (At least I'm not the only one.)

"That's a feat that I would put money on to probably never be touched again in the history of basketball. It's unbelievable." That's how Steph Curry described Klay Thompson's scoring performance during last night's Warrior win over the Pacers. Thompson scored 60 points in 29 minutes. And get this: "Thompson only needed 11 dribbles to make his 21 field goals. In all, he only had the ball for a grand total of 88.4 seconds." (In other news, my son and I definitely picked the right game to attend...)

Planning to groom, mow the lawn, manscape, or wax Brazilian? Well, wait. It turns out that the hair down there may serve a higher purpose. "Frequent removal of pubic hair is associated with an increased risk for herpes, syphilis and human papillomavirus." From NPR: Going Bare Down There May Boost The Risk Of STDs. (I knew my 70s style would come back into vogue...)

"Yellowbrick was founded a decade ago specifically to treat 'emerging adult' brains. It helps its patients navigate the extended period between childhood and adulthood by fostering habits vaguely existential in nature: the realistic setting of life goals, the formation of an adult relationship to one's family, 'identity consolidation' and self-esteem." From Fusion: Welcome to Yellowbrick, a rehab for stuck millennials that attempts to turn them into adults.

+ Beyonce tops the Grammy nominations.

+ Fidel Castro's other gig: Copy editing for Gabriel García Márquez.