Ripped from the Headlines: December 2019: This Week In Culture: December 14–20, 2019

The engineer who built a glitter bomb to combat the widespread theft of packages left outside people's front doors has created an updated version. The new fake package explodes with glitter, but also emits a foul smell and makes police siren sounds. As with the first version, the video of which was viewed over 77 million times, this bomb also uploads video of the thieves, known as "porch pirates," to the cloud. Brazen comes from the old English bræsen, meaning "made of brass."

This survey of the biggest science stories from the past decade includes the arrival of quantum computing, sophisticated genetic editing, the discovery of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, dramatic increases in the power of AI, and quickening climate change. Many of these advances represent successes, but all of them present challenges to societies, governments, and the planet as a whole.

On Twitter, New York Times food critic Pete Wells crowdsourced opinions about the top restaurant trends of the last decade. Instagram, more diversity and ethical standards in kitchens, meatless burgers, smaller plates, talented chefs opening outside of the big cities, and changes to the traditional business models all made his list. To disseminate has its roots in the Latin word for seed, in the sense that seeds are spread widely across a field.

An ancient Roman cetaria, or fish sauce factory, was discovered in Israel. The Romans fermented small fish like anchovies with salt to make a liquid called garum which featured prominently in their cooking; they used it in almost everything and prized its salty, funky flavor. Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam produce most of the world's fish sauce today, and it's a foundation of their cuisines.

A study of plankton has revealed that the oceans contain many more microplastics than previously estimated: 8.3 million pieces per cubic foot of water. Plastic microbeads were recently banned from cosmetics and personal care products after they were found in high concentration inside the stomachs of fish and other marine life. Scientists are now calling for a ban on glitter, since it too doesn't break down and is toxic to sea creatures. Porch pirates are also believed to support the glitter ban.

The Rise of Skywalker drops next week, and the reviews are pouring in. This one is mixed, saying the film takes on too much and raises too many questions. Plumb comes from the Latin plumbum, meaning "lead." It's where we get "plumber" from as well, since Roman pipes were made from lead. A plumb line is a string with a weight at the end; it's used to determine whether something is straight, and also, in the case of water, how deep it is.

Morfydd Clark will play the young Galadriel in Amazon's forthcoming Lord of the Rings prequel series. The show, which will last five seasons, takes place during Middle Earth's Second Age, during which time the rings of power were forged by Sauron. The show is expected to premiere sometime in 2021.

Hypnospace Outlaw is a retro video game where you assume the role of a moderator for an online community, seeking out malware, hackers, and pirated content to ban. Over time, your job becomes more complex as the fictional universe readies itself for Y2K. And it evidently gets even more complex and rewarding from there.

Young Adult (YA) fiction has been a huge force in the market since Harry Potter first arrived on the scene, but there are signs that the genre may be losing some steam as copycat franchises flood bookstores and movie adaptations underperform. YA titles are losing out on bestseller lists to books like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid; the most recent volume in that series is currently the top-selling book in any genre.

Well Groomed is a new documentary on HBO about competitive dog grooming. It shows the incredible lengths people go to to transform their dogs, mostly standard poodles, via haircuts and dye jobs, in a limited time on a stage with other competitors. If you enjoy fetching tails of dogged determination and bone-deep passion, this might be the movie fur you.