HAPPY slow-cooker holidays!

HELPING INJURED MICE WALK with algae and light. “In theory, two-way optogenetic traffic could lead to human-machine fusions in which the brain truly interacts with the machine, rather than only giving or only accepting orders. It could be used, for instance, to let the brain send movement commands to a prosthetic arm; in return, the arm’s sensors would gather information and send it back. Blue and yellow LEDs would flash on and off inside genetically altered somatosensory regions of the cortex to give the user sensations of weight, temperature, and texture. The limb would feel like a real arm. Of course, this kind of cyborg technology is not exactly around the corner. But it has suddenly leapt from the realm of wild fantasy to concrete possibility.” Faster, please.

TOO MUCH SELENIUM boosts cholesterol?

I CAN’T SAY I BLAME THEM: No One Wants The West Bank.

A BLU-RAY PLAYER THAT CONSUMER REPORTS RATED “BEST BUY” for well under 200 bucks. Lots cheaper than the one I bought. And this check-rated model from Sylvania is just $119.15. They’ve become commodity items, I guess.

UPDATE: Reader Matthew Moss writes:

For $127.99, you are buying yourself a lot of headaches. Firmware updates have to be done by CD. Load times are forever, quality is at best Okay. And not to state the obvious but look at the price, it is the equivalent of less than four Blue Ray discs. If you can only afford that, you can’t afford to go Blue Ray.

At $220.00 you can get something with LAN connectivity and Netflix online, plus Youtube and few other features you’ll probably never use. If you want a Netflix hub, this the way to go.

But if that isn’t important to you, then why jip yourself? Get a Sony PS3, top of the line Blu Ray player and the best gaming console currently out there. Price? Same as the Magnavox.

Wow, those have gotten cheaper.

ROGER SIMON: The Importance of Being Lieberman: “I am increasingly becoming convinced he is the indispensable man in the US Congress, indeed in the entirety of our government, a welcome whiff of integrity in a morass of group think, self interest and outright dishonesty.”

REASON TV: At least Al Sharpton admits he hasn’t read it!

JOHN BIRMINGHAM: “It’s kind of embarrassing the way Australia puts itself out there as a barbecue-savvy culture, because you know what, we’re crap.”

A COMEBACK FOR SCALLOPS in Long Island Sound? It used to be a cornucopia of shellfish.

WE’RE NUMBER ONE: It’s official: ORNL’s Jaguar is No. 1 in the world. Though actually, the University of Tennessee’s Kraken is Number Three. Still, a pretty good concentration of supercomputing power in the greater Knoxville area.

KABOOM: Blitzer Railgun Completes First Successful Test Firing.

AUTOBLOG: Toyota May Offer to Fix 4 Million Accelerator Pedals.

APPLE PATENTS A TOOL to force you to pay attention to ads. What could go wrong?

CALL-GIRL BLOGGER Belle de Jour comes out of the closet. In her day job, she’s a cancer epidemiologist and developmental neurotoxicologist.

IN THE MAIL: Amy Alkon’s new book, I See Rude People: One Woman’s Battle to Beat Some Manners Into Impolite Society.

HOSTAGES: Michael Yon on David Rohde.

CALIFORNIA PENSION UPDATE: L.A. Times: Are CalPERS’ Hands Clean?

Sacramento Bee: Get to the root cause of CalPERS mess.

San Diego Union-Tribune: Ignorant arrogance / CalPERS should apologize, not proselytize.

Pittsburgh Tribune: CalPERS’ troubles mirror issues for many public savings systems.

Related: American Thinker: California’s Tax Follies. “Despite the way many taxpayers feel, a tax refund is not free money from a benevolent government. It’s actually surplus collected and used by the government interest free. Surprise! The loans that Californians are now forced to make to their squandering state government will pay 0% interest.”

STIMULUS! Will GM Spend Taxpayer Bailout Money on Overseas Operations? “GM’s Chief Executive Fritz Henderson recently announced that the bailed-out automaker might use its U.S. funds to help restructure its European unit Opel, noting that the financing agreements with the Treasury for the $34 billion of bailout funds already spent allow GM to spend any subsequently earned funds as its executives see fit. Some $16 billion remaining after its bankruptcy has strings attached. In a world where funds are fungible, where GM has yet to repay the $50 billion bailout, and where GM only remains in existence because of those bailout dollars, critics argue sending these funds to Europe is essentially the same as sending taxpayer dollars overseas.”

LIMITED ENTHUSIASM FOR Barney Frank and Chris Dodd’s banking “fix.” “You have to hand it to the ethically challenged Dodd, he of the sweetheart mortgages from Countrywide. He possesses a unique ability to overlook the role he played, turning a blind eye to problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two former government- sponsored enterprises that were placed in conservatorship last year.”

MOE LANE: ‘Boring’ sounds like a wonderful quality for a 2012 candidate.

As I mentioned a while back, a campaign consultant in Inman Majors’ The Millionaires says that there are really only two campaign themes: “Bright New Day” and “Back to Basics.” Given how “Bright New Day” is working out, the back-to-basics approach may be looking pretty good next time around . . . .

IS TV TOO SLOW? I think it depends. It can show you things that can’t be described, and it can introduce you to people you wouldn’t know the same way if you only met them in print. Or, it can just have the usual talking heads spouting off.

PSYSTAR loses battle with Apple over Mac clones.

PETER SUDERMAN ON the eliminationist narrative of 2012. “2012 seems to express an earnest hope that, from the smoldering ashes of modern civilization, humanity will triumph, reforming and rebuilding itself into a fresh and functional egalitarian society. . . . Well, almost all, anyway: In 2012, both the knowledge of the impending apocalypse and the planning for its survival is limited to the member countries of the G8. Sorry, South America and Africa.”

UPDATE: Reader Alex Minick writes:

Funny you mention that about South America and Africa. I’m currently deployed to Afghanistan (Khowst province), and a soldier and I were looking out from the guard tower we go to talking how the Afghans would be best prepared for the end of the world. They’re already living it. You take away the cell phones and the cars (brought to you courtesy of the West), and they’re already living in what we would consider a post-apocalyptic world. I mean hell, even the Romans had sewers and running water. These people don’t even have that. So I’d actually argue we can plan all we want, but its the places like Afghanistan that would probably be best off in the apocalypse… if they even realize its happened.

I suspect they’re more dependent on the outside than it appears — most places are — but yeah.

ANOTHER BEST BOOKS LIST: A history-heavy top 25 list from The Atlantic.

HMM: ATR, AWF Demand Probe Of SEIU’s Stern For Illegal Lobbying. And congratulations to Hot Air for the exclusive on this.