NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Novel properties for nanotechnology rebar-graphene reinforced with carbon nanotubes.

BRING BACK DDT: Tennessee confirms 2nd chikungunya case in Knoxville area. “Symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, rash and joint pain. The only prevention is avoiding mosquito bites.”

52 THINGS, 52 WEEKS: A Night At The Drive-In.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: MN Teen Suing School, Police Chief After He’s Suspended for Tweet.

IS HE AN IMPROVEMENT ON CANTOR? ONLY BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO CANTOR. Kevin McCarthy Elected GOP Leader.

Related: Rep. Scalise Wins Majority Whip Race.

THOUGHTS ON DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION AND ITS CRITICS.

Clayton Christensen seems to have become a target of lefties lately. I think it’s probably because of his work on disruptive innovation in higher education.

WISCONSIN’S “DEEP STATE” hasn’t given up on Scott Walker. This is just a spoiling attack to try to keep him out of action for 2016.

WELL, THAT’S WRONG: Most People Think Alzheimer’s Is a Normal Part of Aging. “Aging increases a person’s odds of getting Alzheimer’s disease, and researchers are still learning how age disposes neurons to the disease process, but it’s clearly distinct from normal aging.” It’s also important to treat it early, which can slow the progress somewhat.

OBAMA: No “Boots On The Ground” In Iraq, Just 300 “Military Advisors.” Who will, presumably, be wearing sneakers or something. . . .

Related: What Kind Of Iraq Did Obama Inherit? “A fair-minded reading of the facts, I think, shows that when Mr. Obama was sworn in, the Iraq war had more or less been won. Things were fragile to be sure. But the errors that were made during the occupation of Iraq following the fall of Saddam, which were extremely costly, were corrected in 2007. . . . By the time the surge ended in 2008, violence in Iraq had dropped to the lowest level since the first year of the war. Sectarian killings had dropped by 95 percent. By 2009, U.S. combat deaths were extremely rare. (In December of that year there were no American combat deaths in Iraq.) Iraq was on the mend. Even Barack Obama, who opposed the surge every step of the way, conceded in September 2008 that it had succeeded in reducing violence ‘beyond our wildest dreams.'” Joe Biden was calling it a “great achievement” for the Obama/Biden Administration in 2010. But then Obama screwed up in Libya and, especially, Syria and it all went to hell.

REPORT: Chinese Phone Comes Preloaded With Spyware. Bad news: Pretty much all phones come from China now. . . .

MARK RIPPETOE: Why Being Sore Doesn’t Mean You’re Getting Stronger. “Judge your workout by performance gains, not by how you feel the next day.”

PROGRESS: New manufacturing methods needed for ‘soft’ machines, robots. Also, “Soft Machine” was an underrated band.

THIS IS THE LAMEST CORRECTION EVER: “An earlier version of this story mischaracterized Huelskamp’s remarks.”

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: FBI buys 3D printer to research improvised explosive devices; $19,000 printer is only one meeting “all the technical requirements of the FBI.” And as for the expense, well, this is the federal government, you know.

NOW OUT FROM LARRY CORREIA: Monster Hunter: Nemesis.

CHANGE: Tesla’s gains on the dealership status quo freaking people out.

ANDREW MOSEMAN: You Can Now Buy a “Cheap” iMac, But You Shouldn’t.

POLL: The Massachusetts pol New Hampshire Republicans want to send to the White House . . . Mitt Romney? Well, Obama’s second term is certainly making Romney look better by comparison, but . . .

WELL, GOOD: The Bakken gets bigger – likely a LOT bigger. Given events in Iraq, more North American oil can only be a good thing.

HOW BUSHIAN: Obama tells Congressional leaders he needs no authorization to act in Iraq. Oh, wait, I forgot — Congress, including Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid, did vote to authorize Bush’s action before he did anything.

DO TELL: Ex-Obama adviser and other Iran experts: Obama is blowing it.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 406.

WHY DO TECH WRITERS WANT FEWER ASIANS IN TECH?

So why does the “mostly white” meme persist about tech companies? I think it’s because those who are obsessed with diversity for diversity’s sake have a hard time reconciling one very inconvenient truth: If you want to equalize the races—be your concern tech companies or colleges, the two places this argument seems to pop up more than anywhere else***—you must do so at the expense of Asian Americans. Rather than saying “Ugh, these institutions are disproportionately Asian,” the diversity set says “Wow, these places are mostly white!” While accurate(ish), this kind of dodges the question, doesn’t it? Because it’s not so much the proportion of white folks as the proportion of black and hispanic folks that concerns them. It’s no fun for the diversifier to say “Geez, we need fewer Asians at these institutions to make way for blacks and hispanics.” Forcing them to acknowledge the costs—more blacks and hispanics means fewer Asians, if proportion is all that matters—creates a serious mental tension. That mental tension leads to a mental block. And that mental block leads to the brain spitting out the following formulation: “These companies are mostly white!”

Cognitive dissonance. It’s a hell of a drug.

And it’s a drug in widespread use.

ED MORRISSEY: Lost IRS E-mails Point to an Abuse of Power and Cover-Up.