AT AMAZON, Best Books of 2011.

REASON TV: Hot for Teacher: Criminalizing Sex Between Legal Adults?! Nanny of the Month November 2011.

IS PHYSICAL STRENGTH THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? “Most important may be not quite right; yet it’s more important than ever, morally and even politically.”

If you agree, this is a good place to start.

THE CADILLAC WORLD THORIUM FUEL CONCEPT. “Here’s another one from the world of unlimited conceptual design: the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel concept. Otherwise known as the Cadillac WTF. Created by Loren Kulesus, everything about the WTF has been created to last 100 years without maintenance. That’s the reason for the element number ninety, thorium: to act as a nuclear fuel powering batteries that would power the car.” Yeah, this is from a while back, but I’d missed it.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Darpa seeks nanotechnology defense against novel pathogens.

TECHNOLOGY: Firefox Add-on ‘Undoes’ U.S. Government Domain Seizures.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: What Not To Say To Someone Who Has Breast Cancer.

BOB ZUBRIN: Methanol Wins.

BUMMER: Southgate House closing: Renowned Newport music venue hosted wide variety of acts.

I had a good time there a while back.

FASTER, PLEASE: Gene Therapy Can Protect Against HIV. “Gene therapy, an approach most commonly explored for curing chronic genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, may also prove practical for disease prevention. In research published today in Nature, scientists in California show that a single injection — which inserted the DNA for an HIV-neutralizing antibody into the muscle cells of live mice — completely protected the animals against HIV transmission.”

Here’s the paper.

JOBLESS RATE DROPS UNEXPECTEDLY. The folks at ZeroHedge say it’s because of workforce shrinkage, and suspect chicanery at the BLS. I should note that I’ve looked into the chicanery issue, and folks who worked there under Bush don’t think there’s any funny business going on now.

Meanwhile, James Pethokoukis explains why it’s better but still terrible.

#GREENFAIL: Walter Russell Mead: Top Science Journal Challenges Green Carbon Assumptions. “This is modern science in action: some of the best minds in the discipline probing the validity of others’ hypotheses in the interest of advancing our understanding of the world around us. But don’t tell the folks in Durban — for the unicorn chasers, the science is settled.” They’re not chasing unicorns. They’re seeking power.

AMITY SHLAES: Taylor Swift As A Counterculture Icon For Young Girls. “Swift, the phenom, suggests the market for pop culture features elements of a vicious cycle perpetuated by music professionals, at least in the case of girls. She’s won Grammys. But she’s won more American Music Awards. The distinction is that the former prize is chosen by players in the entertainment industry. In the AMAs, music buyers choose the winner. Maybe the professional entertainers held sway too long.”

ROGER KIMBALL: Technophobia vs. Technophilia.

A TAX ON OPINION COLUMNS: Some thoughts inspired by Paul Krugman. Plus this: “Let the record show that neither of the two official long-range budget proposals for fiscal year 2012 (now entering its third month without even the semblance of a budget!) propose cutting spending.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Yesterday’s InstaVision with Virginia Postrel is now on YouTube.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Another renewable energy loan recipient hires lobbyists, has fundraising ties to Obama.

CHARLES GASPARINO: Printing Money To Save Euro Socialism.

PHONY SALES? GM Channel-Stuffing Surges To All-Time Record. “Because when economic growth at all costs is needed to demonstrate just how viable America is, and a semi-nationalized car marker is one of the only conduits to ‘generate’ economic growth, it does not matter if the end product is actually demanded or will simply corrode and rust in some dealer showroom in perpetuity. After all it is the act of building the car that matters for various monthly PMI, CMI, regional Fed and GDP purposes.”

Related: GM willing to buy back Volts. “General Motors will buy Chevrolet Volts back from any owner who is afraid the electric cars will catch fire, the company’s CEO said Thursday. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, CEO Dan Akerson insisted that the cars are safe, but said the company will purchase the Volts because it wants to keep customers happy. Three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests done by the federal government.”

UPDATE: Ronnie Schreiber emails:

Only one fire has broken out in a crash tested Volt. The other fires were in battery packs, not cars. One Volt that was tested earlier in the year by NHTSA, and after a 20mph side impact into a pole, followed by a rollover test, it caught fire three weeks later. Within the last month NHTSA performed additional testing but from my reading of the press release it appears that the testing was on battery packs alone. Since the battery pack in the Volt that caught fire had been penetrated during the testing, NHTSA tested three batteries by damaging the cases, cutting the coolant lines, and then rotating the batteries. The experiment was designed to replicate the conditions of the Volt that burned. Of those three batteries, two experienced “thermal events”.

I think that’s the source of the “three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests” meme. . . One battery started to spark and smoke soon after the damage and inversion, one battery initially showed a temperature increase and then a week later caught fire, and one battery didn’t do anything. According to some reports, the battery that sparked and smoked extinguished the fire itself. While there were two “thermal events” in the battery testing, it appears that there was actually only one fire. So, rather than “three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests” it’s really more like one fire in a crash tested Volt and one fire in a crash tested battery pack.

GM crash tested the Volt plenty before sending it off to NHTSA. NHTSA and also IIHS, the insurance ind