​Happy New Year. We're kicking things off here this January by taking a quick look at how same-sex marriage affected life in New York in 2011, and how it's shaping up primary politics in Iowa in advance of tomorrow's caucuses.

Gay marriage, of course, just became official in New York last year. As a result, the number of marriage licenses was up 14% in the city last year over the latter half of 2010. Stopping this kind of marriage surge must be the kind of thing thrice married adulterer Newt Gingrich wants to put in an end to in his campaign to "save" the institution.

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​Welcome back, all! Perhaps you've been working for days already, or perhaps you've been relaxing on a balmy beach -- in any case, we're here to ease you through your troubled Tuesday. First up: Weather. It is cold, the coldest all year (you've heard that joke already?): 27 degrees with a low of 16, though it "feels like" 15 degrees currently and will feel like 8 degrees by 9 p.m. It's windy, and there is a chance of flurries. Use this opportunity to take your coat out of the closet and wear it. It will thank you, and you it.

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​If you're not a fan of bluster and braggadocio, you have to admire Eli Manning, and you have to appreciate what he's done over the last two weeks to make life better for fans not only in the New York area but around the rest of the NFL as well.

What Eli has done, in successive weeks, is shoot down two Ryans. If he was a World War I ace, this would probably go under the heading of "Blimp Busting." On Christmas Eve, despite completing just 9 of 27 passes, Manning was able to throw the ball deep enough to collect 225 yards in a 29-14 victory over the Jets in the Battle of Jersey's Finest. That pretty much settled Rex Ryan's hash. Then last Sunday, Eli threw for 336 yards to finish off the Dallas Cowboys and with them, presumably, the career of Rex Ryan's brother Rob, the Dallas defensive coordinator.

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A young Debbie Cook, back before the trouble started

​The world of Scientology watching is still reeling after Debbie Cook's New Year's Eve e-mail landed in the inboxes of thousands of church members Saturday night.

A few minutes after midnight, we began receiving copies of the broadside, written by one of Scientology's most important former executives. Citing the words of L. Ron Hubbard, Cook trashed the church's current management under leader David Miscavige, complaining about a "new age of continuous fundraising" and "extreme over-regging."

Over the next couple of days, it was remarkable to watch the reaction of church members who received the e-mail and variously praised it, condemned it, or simply freaked out.

Then, we noticed this statement by Larry Brennan, an ex-Scientologist who helped reorganize the corporate structure of the church in 1980s, and who knows perhaps as much as anyone else about the strength of Scientology to defend itself:

Organized Scientology was structured to withstand 'attacks' from the outside. But all its corporate veils and religious cloaking are powerless to prevent an implosion, emptying course rooms, and causing a mass exodus.

Implosion? A mass exodus? Can a single e-mail really cause such widespread panic? We asked someone who knew Debbie Cook and could explain to us what her salvo means for an organization on the edge.

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​The end of today's non-work day means that the holidays are officially over. Yes, we know that Three Kings Day falls on January 6th but we're tired of waiting around so long for it. It's time to get rid of the lights and decorations and fall into the ho-hum that is winter in New York. So what do you do with that huge green behemoth just hanging out in your living room? It's time to bring the good ol' Christmas tree down to Tompkins Square Park and get it turned into a huge bag of mulch. Our favorite neighbor EV Grieve gives us the tip that it's time to store away the ornaments and join MulchFest 2012.

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Ooh BURN!

​Republican candidates are making their last moves across Iowa today as GOP voters try and decide who they will support in tomorrow's caucus. The Iowa Caucus doesn't really pick the official nominee, as much as it just kills off the struggling candidates. Essentially, a bunch of white corn farmers get to choose who isn't going to be president by not voting for them. Seems fair enough. Mitt Romney is currently polling in first place, just ahead of Ron Paul, and he has a secret weapon in his stash. Americans don't care about the unstable economy, unemployment rates, or social issues -- "it's the celebrities stupid!" Yes, Mitt has pulled The Kim Kardashian Kard folks.

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​When you have to open an arena that seats a crowd of 18,000 skeptical New Yorkers, there's really only one person you can call to give you advice -- dear old Mickey Mouse. The House of Mouse entertains visitors with extreme robotic precision and that's what the Brooklyn Nets are looking to emulate. According to The New York Post, the owners of the Barclays Center, the new home of the Brooklyn Nets, are working closely with the Walt Disney employee training division to make sure their workers are well versed in perfect customer service. The Nets are even thinking about using 4-D sensory technology that could even make Walt's frozen face change into a grin.

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​The NYPD is currently looking into a string of Molotov cocktail attacks that happened last night in Jamaica, Queens. One of those four homemade bombs was thrown at the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center, a Shiite Mosque and community center. The New York Daily News reports that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime. Three out of the four bombs were fashioned out of Starbucks Frappuccino glasses. The attacks took place between 8pm and 10:15pm and no one was hurt.

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The new year has already started with a bombshell, but we wanted to get a longer view of how 2012 might turn out for Scientology watching. So we asked a couple of far-seeing church observers to give us their thoughts.

We have some fascinating prognostication from Mark Bunker, whose film Knowledge Report should be coming out this year. And from Mike Rinder, the former church spokesman with some thoughts on what sort of a year Scientology leader David Miscavige may experience. (And as a bonus, Bunker sent over the clip you see here of Rinder from the upcoming documentary!)

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The wheel of fortune has spun once again, and the GOP Next President of the United States of the Week is now Rick Santorum.

Mind you, no one thinks Santorum will actually be the nominee. He's just running third in some optimistic polls -- of the Iowa caucuses, which is no bellwether. Yet all the world declares a Santorum Surge.

In rightblogger world, where everyone gets to be the NPOTUSOTW for a couple minutes at least, that's usually good enough for some rah-rah. Yet the brethren are surprisingly neutral to negative on Santorum. Why?

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​In yesterday's story celebrating our commenting community at the end of the year, I mentioned that back in the summer, I had planted a puzzle in our very successful series, The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.

Despite the large readership of that series, no one managed to spot the little visual quiz I had embedded in it.

But today, one of our loyal readers has submitted a winning solution to our quiz!

After the jump, we'll show you that correct answer, but we can't tell you the winner -- he's asked to remain anonymous!

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via NASA

​For a couple of hours after 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Quadrantids meteor shower will be putting on a show for anyone willing to get up (or stay up) for it. According to NASA, "the Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 100 per hour," which, weather permitting, should make for a pretty cool sight. If your New Year's resolution was to sit outside in the cold while craning your neck, you're in luck. Video of the Quadrantids meteor shower from two years ago after the jump.

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Dubai rang in the new year last night by shooting flames out of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. If you ever wondered what a half-mile-tall sparkler looks like, watch the above video.

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​After compiling our list of the most-read Village Voice stories of 2011, we got to thinking about what the new year will bring. While it's impossible to accurately foresee the coming news cycle, we've used complex algorithms and web-based analytics to predict ten stories that will rock the world this year.

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Debbie Cook: Cooked after this broadside against church management?

​UPDATE: Debbie Cook has asked me to take down her e-mail, and I am complying. See note below.

Very shortly after midnight last night, after the ball had dropped in Times Square to welcome in 2012, we started to receive fevered e-mails from several of our Scientology-watching sources.

The first big breaking story of 2012 had happened only 36 minutes into the new year.

A woman named Debbie Cook dropped something of an atom bomb on the membership of the Church of Scientology last night, and as of this minute -- about noon on New Year's Day -- her Facebook page is still going a bit crazy as her fellow church members deal with the fallout.

Cook was once a very high ranking executive in Scientology's Sea Org. She led the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Florida, which made her one of the most important executives at the spiritual headquarters of the worldwide organization. Several years ago, she left that position and the Sea Org, but she is still a member of the church in good standing.

That will probably change after the e-mail she sent out, reportedly to 12,000 members of her religion, which condemns church leader David Miscavige for turning Scientology into little more than a money-hungry fundraising machine.

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​Once upon a time, people expressed concern come the New Year that they would forget to write the correct date on their checks. Because the only people who still use checks are con artists, there is one less thing to worry about as we ring in 2012. Still, it may be difficult to remember what year it is, and forgetting this information could be humiliating. That's why we've thought of a couple mnemonic devices to help you remember that, for the next 366 days, it will be 2012.

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L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology's founder

​Although we've written hundreds of articles about Scientology over the years, and other news organizations have contributed hundreds more -- not to mention the numerous books, television programs, and countless websites dedicated to the subject -- without fail we regularly run into people who ask us, "Yeah, but what is Scientology?"

We can't blame them. One of Scientology's appeals is its complexity and secrecy, and it can take years to fully absorb some of its arcane concepts. So for those coming to the subject for the first time, as well as those who want a deeper understanding, we're starting off the new year with this handy guide to L. Ron Hubbard's creation. We'll introduce concepts at a basic level, and provide links to further reading. With the help of our amazing commenting community -- which includes former Scientology executives with decades of experience -- we'll all learn more about an enigmatic organization that begins another crucial year of transition.

After the jump: a science fiction writer unlocks the secrets of the human mind...

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The above video, from the AP, shows yesterday's successful test of the Times Square ball drop. Now that you've watched that, you don't have to watch it on TV tonight. You're welcome.

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​The year-end list is an odd phenomenon. In the past, they were one-offs newspapers ran to fill space during the holiday doldrums. Because the Internet is basically an excuse to run slideshows and top tens, year-end lists take center stage. You've read dozens of these pointless and arbitrary rankings in the past week, so we present to you the most pointless and arbitrary year-end list of them all: The top ten numbers used in year-end top ten lists.

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You're probably busy getting ready for the festivities tonight, but please, take the time to watch the above video. It's a demonstration of Pizza Prints, which are meltable graphic decals you apply directly onto pizza. Pizza Prints are more than just fun, delicious, and gluten-free--they are quite possibly the most important invention in human history.

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