DEFENSE: South Korea says North Korea doubled size of its “cyber forces,” can nuke US.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: MakerBot Invents a Way to 3D Print With Limestone, Metal, and Wood.

ENDORSED! Roger L. Simon for Senate!

A NEW DRUG in the age of antibiotic resistance.

ASHE SCHOW ON REPUBLICAN WOMEN AND SEXIST MEDIA: “It’s tough to be a woman in the GOP. Republican women who want to be outspoken members of their party, defying the narrative that the GOP is the party of old, white men, risk heightened scrutiny from a mainstream media dead-set on proving that the GOP is the party of old, white men.”

INSTAVISION: I talk with Mickey Kaus about the GOP and immigration.

UPDATE: Yes, my encouragement of a second Kaus Senate run does seem prescient in light of this morning’s announcement: Sen. Boxer, liberal lion from California, to retire after 2016.

WE NEED TO BE TARGETING THE PEOPLE IN SAUDI ARABIA AND THE GULF STATES WHO ARE FUNDING THIS: Nigeria’s 9/11: Boko Haram Kills 2000 in Attack, Baga City Burnt To The Ground.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 609.

RAIL FAIL: California Goes Full Boondoggle on Train Project.

IF the internet doesn’t change the way people work, reducing both commuting and the demand for business travel, IF the giant project doesn’t mimic almost all similar projects and develop gigantic cost overruns that make a mockery of the initial cost elements, IF resourceful NIMBY groups and their lawyers don’t find too many endangered species in its path or otherwise tie it up in endless litigation, IF self driving cars don’t make rail travel obsolete, IF the fares aren’t so high even with subsidies that passengers shun it, and IF like almost all other passenger rail service in the U.S. it doesn’t lose buckets of money, this project could look like a smart move.

For those who don’t buy the Great Green Train story, this looks like a last ditch effort to project 20th century ideas about transportation into the future, while both appeasing greens (it’s a train!) and lubricating traditional Democratic labor and business constituencies (it’s a gigantic public works project!). It’s brilliant in its own way, but it’s not the kind of thinking California needs.

It’s a boondoggle and a waste of money.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Are So Few Black People Using Bitcoin?

AT AMAZON, New Year, New You.

Plus, up to 30% off select Pfister faucets.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Confessions of a Fixer: How one former coach perpetuated a cheating scheme that benefited hundreds of college athletes.

The handwritten notes, by a onetime academic adviser and college-basketball coach, are part of an elaborate scheme. Over the past 14 years, he says, he has used test keys to cheat for hundreds of athletes, helping them meet the eligibility requirements of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

For some players, he says, he did their work outright. For others, he provided homework answers and papers that the students would submit themselves. At exam time, he lined up proctors and conspired with them to lie on behalf of students.
Mr. White describes his goals for the players.

Many times, he says, the players’ coaches directed athletes his way. Sometimes, players’ parents or handlers arranged the details.

He did most of his work in college basketball, but he has also helped football players, baseball players, and golfers, among others. The vast majority of his clients never made it big. But, according to records he shared with The Chronicle, his fraud reached the highest levels. A handful of the players listed in his notes were drafted to play in the NBA. At least two are the children of former professional athletes. One is a back-up catcher in Major League Baseball.

The fixer’s name is Mr. White. He spoke to The Chronicle on the condition that his first name not be used, for fear of retribution. He is a married, 42-year-old father of two. Over a nearly 20-year career, he worked for four colleges, from the mid-Atlantic region to the South.

It’s enough to make you question the integrity of the system.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND A LONG HISTORY OF SLIME:

As registered sex offenders go, the 61-year-old Epstein remains a wildly popular guy.

Powered by his purse, the reported billionaire–who once palled around with Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and other royals–remains a prominent patron and donor to individuals and organizations that seem to have little problem accepting money from the felon.

Pecunia non olet.

FREEZING OUT YOUNG SCIENTISTS:

Ten years ago, a report from a National Academy of Sciences committee sounded an alarm about the barriers that young biomedical scientists face in launching their research careers. If improvements aren’t made, the report warned, there could be dire consequences to the future of biomedical research in the U.S.

Since then, the situation has only grown worse, as the share of research money going to young scientists has continued to decline, according to a paper by Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels. The paper was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The implications of these data for our young scientists are arresting,” Daniels writes. “Without their own funding, young researchers are prevented from starting their own laboratories, pursuing their own research, and advancing their own careers in academic science.”

As a result, many young scientists are leaving academic research in favor of industry jobs or jobs outside of science.

Honestly, if you wanted to create a system to squash originality you’d be hard-pressed to do better.

THE HILL: Support builds for medical device tax repeal.

ROLL CALL: A Battered Reid Stays On Message.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Call for new thinking on Islam ignored: Prior to Paris terror attack, Egyptian president warned imams of dangers of extremism.

The slaughter in Paris Wednesday shocks the conscience but hardly shocks the intellect. In other words, no one is surprised that Muslim extremists are capable of doing this sort of thing. And nearly everyone expected in the early moments of this story that the culprits would be revealed to be Islamic extremists.

It is a sad commentary that the more shocking and, arguably more significant, event came a week earlier in Cairo. Egyptian president (and strongman) Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivered a possibly epochal speech at Al-Azhar University on New Year’s Day. More than a thousand years old, Al-Azhar is considered by many to be the epicenter of scholarly Islam.

Addressing the assemblage of imams in the room, al-Sisi called for a “religious revolution” in which Muslim clerics take the lead in rethinking the direction Islam has taken recently.

Did they listen?

REPUBLICANS WISH HE WERE THIS TOUGH WITH DEMOCRATS: Boehner defends retribution.

AND NOW, A Long-Distance Dedication To Steve Kroft.

AVNER ZARMI: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité: 225 Years of an Unchanging Left. The same goals, since the French Revolution.

SHOCKER: Paris Attack Yet Another Case of ‘Known Wolf Syndrome:’ One of the suspects was well-known to authorities for sending men to fight in Iraq in 2005.

SMART DIPLOMACY: John Kerry’s ‘Moderate’ French Imam Threatened Would-Be Cartoonists Who Mocked Mohammed During Danish Cartoon Crisis.

ROGER SIMON: After Paris, Will Obama Continue to Close Gitmo?

TAR. FEATHERS. In Joyless Nanny State Called America, Government Prohibits Sledding.