ECONOMIST: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Cars.

Then there is the question of where the hydrogen comes from. At present, industrial hydrogen (which is used as a feedstock for refining oil, as well as for making chemicals, electronics and foodstuffs) is produced by reforming natural gas with steam. This is not a particularly clean process. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal facility in Colorado, producing a kilogram of hydrogen by steam reformation generates 11.9 kilograms of carbon dioxide. As the Honda Clarity could travel 68 miles (109km) on a kilogram of hydrogen, it would cause 175 grams of carbon dioxide to be dumped into the atmosphere for every mile it was driven.

By way of comparison, Volkswagen’s small diesel cars produce 145 grams per mile. On that reckoning, even petrol-electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius, which produces 167 grams per mile, are cleaner than the fuel-celled Clarity. Admittedly, fossil fuels also produce carbon emissions while being dug out of the ground, refined and transported to the pump. But burning hydrocarbons in internal-combustion engines is becoming cleaner all the time. When measured on a well-to-wheels basis, the steadily declining emission levels of conventional vehicles is putting the squeeze on so-called ZEVs.

Until you can electrolyze hydrogen with power from orbital solar plants, it probably isn’t going to be all that clean.

IN END-STAGE SOCIALISM, IT’S ALL ABOUT HOARDERS AND WRECKERS: Nicolas Maduro says he has proof Venezuela blackout was Right wing sabotage.

IF YOUR FRIENDS’ FACEBOOK POSTS MAKE YOU WONDER IF THEY’RE PSYCHOPATHS, they probably are.

WAR ON MEN: Are ‘feminine’ looks the future of men’s fashion?

CONGRATULATIONS TO OHIO, the “sweariest” state in the Union.

IT’S TAX-DEDUCTIBLE: A fund-raising drive at Reason.

ACCOUNTABILITY: After Wishing Someone Would Defecate in Sarah Palin’s Mouth, Martin Bashir Resigns from MSNBC.

GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMEN: Walk of shame! A third of Brits have sex with a colleague after the office Christmas party. Walk of shame? Or walk of awesome? Depends on the colleague, I guess. . . .

VICTORIA’S SECRET WAGES WAR ON MEN:

A former Victoria’s Secret employee told us that workers at her Chicago-area store were trained to treat male customers differently from female ones.

“The general feeling about men is that they would buy anything in order to get out of the store as quickly as possible,” the worker, who wished to remain anonymous, told us. “That means they would spend more money.”

While workers tell women about promotions like 5 for $25 panties, they are more likely to sell men full-priced merchandise, the worker said.

Gender profiling. Can a class-action suit be far behind?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Great Stratification. “Given that there are more than 1.4 million college faculty members in the United States, it is clear that they are not disappearing. But the all-purpose professor has faded. We have tended to see the professor as a single figure, but he is now a multiple being, of many types, tasks, and positions. And instead of the traditional idea of a community of scholars, all roughly equivalent, we now have a distended pyramid, with a huge base of people whose primary job is teaching, often entry-level courses; a layer of specialists in particular fields and researchers who may hardly even teach above them; and a thin spire of administrators commanding the peak.” Actually, the administrators outnumber faculty. But academia has become a stratified environment, with a comparatively small nobility reigning over an army of low-paid adjunct serfs. But don’t worry — the people at the top spend a lot of time decrying inequality!

I think we should convert administrators into low-paid, contract-worker “adjunct administrators.” In fact, I argue for this in my forthcoming book, among other things.

GOOD QUESTION: Why Do Men Put Up With A Short Leash? But many do.

THE GUT BACTERIA REVOLUTION: A Pill Filled with Bacteria Instead of Drugs: Delivering healthy bacteria in a pill could help patients harboring out-of-balance microbial communities.

Yogurt eaters already know that not all bacteria are bad for you. They may not realize that some bacteria are so important that one day people may fight off disease with pills filled with bacteria instead of drugs.

Seres Health hopes to develop the first regulated, clinically approved bacteria-filled pill to treat diseases associated with disruptions to the microbes inside the human body. The company launched last month with $10.5 million in investments; its founders have been working on the bacteria pill for two years and say they’re already testing one candidate treatment in patients.

A new understanding of the microbiome—the collection of microbes inhabiting a body—has led a wave of companies, from startups to large pharmaceutical companies, to look at bacteria as a new area of focus. While some companies plan to develop drugs to “reset” the microbiomes of sick people, Seres is one of a few planning to use live bacteria to do the same job.

Faster, please.

SO WITH LEFTIES’ PLANNED FAST FOOD STRIKES, A REMINDER: Robot Serves Up 360 Hamburgers Per Hour.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Know Your Mechanical Exoskeletons: Wearable exoskeletons will revolutionize manufacturing, healthcare, and the military.

READER BOOK PLUG: From Martin Roth, Brother Half Angel.

CURING THE HEALTHCARE CRISIS BY ENDING THE WAR ON THE POOR: The welfare state has eroded the culture of individual initiative.

JIM TREACHER: The wholesome, carefree world of Archie Comics invaded by the ugliness of gender discrimination.

WHY MILLENNIALS CAN’T GROW UP: Helicopter parenting has caused my psychotherapy clients to crash land. “I suggested finding a job after graduation, even if it’s only temporary. She cried harder at this idea. ‘So, becoming an adult is just really scary for you?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ she sniffled. Amy is 30 years old.”

AT AMAZON, get a $25 promotional credit with purchase of select SodaStream home soda makers.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Millennials Abandon Obama, ObamaCare. “Young Americans are turning against Barack Obama and Obamacare, according to a new survey of millennials, people between the ages of 18 and 29 who are vital to the fortunes of the president and his signature health care law. The most startling finding of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics: A majority of Americans under age 25–the youngest millennials–would favor throwing Obama out of office.”

Everybody likes an underdog, but nobody likes a loser.

TOO DANGEROUS. PEOPLE MIGHT TRY TO EXPAND THAT “FREEDOM” STUFF NATIONWIDE: Rand Paul offers ‘Freedom Zones’ to save bankrupt Detroit.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 209.

WORKER EXPLOITATION: Obama Organization Doesn’t Pay Interns. Hey, if you’re lucky you can get an unpaid gig with Organizing For America — in which you work to increase the minimum wage!

MORE NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF “SMART DIPLOMACY:” Mixed Messages From Washington Confuse Asian Allies. “Washington needs to get its ducks in a row. The different branches of the US government can’t be sending out mixed messages. Our allies in Asia are watching very closely to gauge the depth of the US commitment to stability in Asia. Diplomatic missteps, confusion, mixed messages, and incompetence will only further convince our allies that the US ship has sailed.” We elected a post-American president. Not surprising that his diplomacy is pushing us toward a post-American world. Hey, it’s not like you weren’t warned.

Now back to the latest episode of Post-American Bandstand.