AT AMAZON, rolling out the New Year’s Eve deals. Get ’em while they’re hot.

Plus, up to 50% off on Winter Storm Preparation gear.

Also, up to 30% off on strength training and agility equipment from SKLZ.

ROBOSEXUALITY UPDATE: ‘Interactive’ Gets a New Meaning: Sex Toys and Cybersex Are Enhanced by New Technology.

THE HAZARDS OF PREHISTORIC MISCEGENATION: Diabetes Gene “From Neanderthals.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The 14 Habits Of Highly Miserable People. Or, you know, not.

BRING BACK DDT: Debilitating Virus Infects Island Paradise. “Given a choice between dengue fever or another mosquito-borne disease called chikungunya fever, choose dengue every time. Neither has an available vaccine or treatment, but chikungunya (pronounced chik-un-GUHN-ya) is far more severe – it literally means ‘that which bends up’ because patients are often stooped over from debilitating joint pain.”

CHANGE: In Salvaging Cold War Industries, Russia Trains Eyes On Space.

THE RETURN OF four-wheel steering.

WHAT IT’S LIKE to be a tech geek in prison.

FOR FITNESS, INTENSITY MATTERS. That’s been my experience.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: When You Have An “Undateable” Credit Score. One of the examples is explicitly because of student loans. Should I have tagged this “Higher Education Bubble Update” instead?

A SLOGAN FOR THE GOP’S 2016 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: “Vote for me, and help the press start doing its job again!”

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 232.

WEAKENING: The Marines Corps quietly puts off the requirement that female Marines perform 3 pullups. “Only 45% of female recruits could meet the standard, which 99% of male recruits meet.”

IT’S FUNNY WHEN STEREOTYPES SELF-CONFIRM: Obamacare’s Pajama Boy: ‘I am a liberal f***.’ “A Liberal Fuck is not a Democrat, but rather someone who combines political data and theory, extreme leftist views and sarcasm to win any argument while make [sic] the opponents feel terrible about themselves. I won every argument but one.” Yeah, the one where you showed your face. He also hates “conservative gay pricks.” In other words, he’s pretty much exactly what you figured when you saw his picture. Most self-revelatory remark: “I’m afraid it would be the ultimate surrender if I knew the truth.” Or maybe this one: “We have no morals, and we will attack you.” So he’s ready for his MSNBC co-anchor slot.

WELL, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DEFINE “SEXUAL ASSAULT” DOWN:

A photo of a female protester kissing an Italian riot policeman hailed as an emblematic image of peace in Italy, has not gone down well with a police union, which wants the protester prosecuted for sexual violence. . . .

“We have accused the protester of sexual violence and insulting a public official,” said Franco Maccari, the union’s general secretary. “We fully expect an investigation to start.”

Mr Maccari said he was not prepared to brush off the incident as a peaceful gesture.

“If the policeman had kissed her, world war three would have broken out,” he said. “Or what if I had patted her on the behind? She would have been outraged.

“So if she does that to a man on duty, should it be tolerated?”

Miss De Chiffre has also done her bit to spoil the photo’s apparent message of non-violence, claiming she was trying to provoke the officer into reacting.

“No peace message,” she wrote on Facebook. “I would hang all these disgusting pigs upside down.”

Charming.

PROSECUTORS, and the use of mandatory minimums as “’sledgehammers’ to extort guilty pleas, effectively vitiating the right to a trial.” Why should the government be entitled to demand years of a man’s life, simply for forcing it to go through the bother of a trial?

As I note in my Ham Sandwich Nation piece, prosecutorial discretion needs to be reined in, and prosecutors need to have some skin in the game, too.

WAR ON MEN: Cathy Young: Guilty Until Proven Innocent: How the government encourages kangaroo courts for sex crimes on campus.

GROOMING THE NEXT GENERATION: So, The TSA Has A Video Explaining Butt-Fondling To Your Kids.

POLL EXPERTS: Public Tired Of Presidential Complaining. “A Gallup poll released yesterday showed Obama’s approval rating at a paltry 39 percent.”

WHY DO PEOPLE HATE OPTIMISTS? I dunno, but it’s sure to end badly, take it from me.

AT AMAZON, New Year’s Deals in Electronics.

Also, today only: 50% or More Off 7 For All Mankind Denim. For women and men.

Plus, also today only: Mountek nGroove Universal CD Slot Mount for Cell Phones and GPS, $15.99 (36% off).

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Colleges Trim Staffing Bloat: Amid Tuition Backlash and Cuts in State Subsidies, Schools Target Efficiencies. It’s about time:

Federal higher-education data, while delivered on a two-year lag, show back-office expenses have been growing rapidly. The number of employees hired by colleges and universities to manage or administer people, programs and regulations rose 50% faster than the number of instructors between 2001 and 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

At the schools where new efficiencies are being touted, costs have shot up over that same time frame. In inflation-adjusted dollars back-office expenses between 2001 to 2011, as measured by the combined categories of academic and institutional support as reported to the Department of Education, increased 68% at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; 91% at the University of Texas at Austin; 59% at the University of California Berkeley; and 99% at the University of Kansas.

The changes described here are penny-ante by comparison. And there’s no sign of anyone adopting my proposal to replace high-paid administrative drones with low-paid contract-worker “adjunct administrators.”

JOEL KOTKIN: The Metro Areas With The Most Economic Momentum Going Into 2014. “Despite all the attention lavished on places like Manhattan or Chicago’s central core, virtually all the fastest-emerging economies coming out of the recession are either in the Southeast, Texas, the Great Plains or the Intermountain West. Of our top 10 metro areas, only one is on a coast: 10th-ranked San Jose/Silicon Valley. Most of the strongest local economies combine the positive characteristics associated with blue states — educated people, tech-oriented industries, racial diversity — with largely red, pro-business administrations. . . . As has been the case for most of the past five years, Texas cities are clearly the place to be in terms of job creation, wealth formation and overall growth.”