NOTHING TO SEE HERE: FBI agreed to destroy laptops of Clinton aides with immunity deal, lawmaker says.

Immunity deals for two top Hillary Clinton aides included a side arrangement obliging the FBI to destroy their laptops after reviewing the devices, House Judiciary Committee sources told Fox News on Monday.

Sources said the arrangement with former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and ex-campaign staffer Heather Samuelson also limited the search to no later than Jan. 31, 2015. This meant investigators could not review documents for the period after the email server became public — in turn preventing the bureau from discovering if there was any evidence of obstruction of justice, sources said.

More effective than even BitBleach.

MATHEMATICS IS THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE: Mimicking the Veins in a Leaf, Scientists Hope to Make Super-Efficient Displays and Solar Cells.

UNRAVELING THE CASE? Plea Deal For Hit Man In Dan Markel Murder?

FASTER, PLEASE: ISIS’ Al-Bayan Radio Station in Mosul is Bombed Into Silence by Iraqi Jets.

The Al-Bayan radio station was “one of the strongest” propaganda tools for the militants inside Mosul, a spokesman at Iraq’s Joint Operation Command told NBC News.

Broadcasting stopped Sunday after the station was bombed by Iraqi jets, the spokesman said.

Backed by U.S. forces, the country’s military is poised for an attempt to retake the city of 1.2 million, which was overrun by ISIS fighters in June 2014.

Godspeed.

SO AFTER FINISHING THE LORD DARCY MYSTERIES I MENTIONED A WHILE BACK, I went and pulled another old book off my shelves and am now reading A. Bertram Chandler. Holds up surprisingly well for hard SF of its era. And as we’ve discussed here before, Chandler — a merchant captain who wrote his stories while at sea — was a pretty interesting guy.

In the comments to my last SF post, someone asked how I found time to do all this reading. What I’ve learned is that if I don’t give myself an hour or so to read recreationally at the end of the day, my productivity goes down after a while. It helps get me out of the day, and into a more relaxed mode for sleep.

WORLD’S LARGEST DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT found in Mongolian desert.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: What Just Happened In Colombia?

SHOT: The US has said it is suspending talks with Russia over Syria, accusing Moscow of having “failed to live up” to its commitments under a ceasefire deal.

CHASER: White House Warns of ‘Actions’ If Russia Won’t Negotiate.

Who’s in charge of our foreign policy, anyway?

11 QUESTIONS THE PRESS SHOULD ASK ECO-WARRIOR LEONARDO DiCAPRIO, BUT WON’T.

Related: Titanic schooling! DiCaprio’s ‘climate change’ panic gets politically scienced by Ricochet’s Jon Gabriel.

DALLAS BAR: “For people who are anti-hate, they sure are hateful.”

THE HILLARY ADMINISTRATION THE MEDIA YEARNS FOR WILL BE A DISASTER, Roger Simon predicts.

Just as the post-9/11 GWB era seems like a far more positive time when looked at through the rear-view mirror, I wonder if in a few years, we’ll similarly be looking back at endless train wreck of 2016 as the good old days?

In the meantime though, Hillary’s response to Roger’s prediction? What, me worry?

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Men Get Osteoporosis, Too. “‘We need to pay a lot more attention to osteoporosis in men,’ Dr. Adler said in an interview. ‘It’s erroneous to think it’s a lady’s disease. And because many men and their doctors think that, men are less likely than women to be evaluated and treated after a low-trauma fracture.'”

ROBO ROCKER: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WROTE BEATLES-ESQUE POP SONG.

12 years for Tech Central Station, I described how such a song would be presented:

It’s entirely possible that within ten or twenty years, teenagers will be worshiping entirely computerized pop stars: digital video animation will create their looks, programs such as Vocaloid will create their vocals, and a combination of pre-recorded loops of sound, crack studio musicians and software synthesizer programming will create their backing tracks. There have been plenty of rock videos shot for MTV that have been built around digital animation — building them around entirely digital singers seems like only the next logical step.

I didn’t predict that AI would be writing their music, but that’s a logical progression – and I for one welcome our virtual reality pop stars. (But only if they make better pop music than is currently being written by their human counterparts.)

NO SCARINESS PLEASE, IT’S HALLOWEEN: New Haven Public Schools Call For Ban On Clown Costumes.

Halloween is approaching and a school district in Connecticut has called for a ban on clown costumes and any “symbols of terror” as the “creepy clown” phenomena has put Americans in multiple states on edge, the Associated Press (AP) reported Tuesday.

Authorities at New Haven Public Schools said Monday that principals and building leaders were urged to ban clown costumes until more information on clown-related incidents is available, according to the AP.

“Clown-related incidents” has entered the American lexicon — this is not the 21st Century I was promised.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TELLS BLACK PARENTS THEIR SCHOOL CHOICES ARE RACIST.

Why are Democrat-monopoly institutions, like, err, the Democratic Party, such cesspits of racism?

OHIO, THAT DANGEROUS HOTBED OF DEPLORABLES: As Hillary Abandons Ohio, Media Says Ohio Is ‘Too White and Uneducated’ Anyway.

Ahh, how times change. I’m old enough to remember when the media (and Obama himself) were angry at “too white and uneducated” males for being Hillary voters.

SHARKS GOTTA SWIM, BATS GOTTA FLY, BUBBLES GOTTA POP: Manhattan Apartment Sales Plunge Almost 20 Percent.

After the financial crisis, developers rushed to build luxury apartment towers with outsize apartments priced at $10 million or more. Now that they’re coming online, many are sitting unsold.

The overseas rich are no longer buying like they were a year ago, as China’s economy slows, oil prices hurt Russia and the Middle East, and Latin America suffers recessions. Meanwhile, American buyers are nervous about the November elections and the unsteady stock market.

There is an excess supply of apartments priced at more than $5 million “and more supply continues to come onto the market,” Miller said.

The supply of new development is rising three times as fast as existing apartment inventory, he said. Listing inventory of new development jumped 27 percent compared with last year, and the absorption rate increased 36 percent to an eight-month supply.

Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller says the market is settling down to “something more sustainable,” but those numbers in the last graf tell a different story.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1244.

WHAT DID OBAMA KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT? Was Obama wise to Hillary’s 3-Headed crime?

HMMM: Is Hillary Abandoning Ohio?

IT’S THE GELL-MANN AMNESIA EFFECT ON BARRY BONDS-LEVEL STEROIDS: These Aren’t the Jews Politico Is Looking For.

(Classical reference in headline.)

THEY WERE ALL IN ON IT: Turkey Suspends 12,800 Police Officers Following Failed Coup.

It wasn’t a failed coup; it’s a successful purge.

SHOCKER: Wall Street Big Winner In Chicago Schools Meltdown:

The catastrophic fiscal mismanagement of Chicago’s public schools is creating a windfall on Wall Street as the district borrows from big banks at ruinous rates. . . .

The seeds of the crisis in Chicago were planted long ago when powerful teachers’ unions negotiated implausible lifetime pension guarantees, and politicians, eager to win their favor, acceded. It turns out that Wall Street financiers are an unexpected beneficiary of this corrupt bargain.

Debt service is already eating up ten percent of the Chicago School District’s budget, and city’s deteriorating finances may cause creditors to jack up rates even further. If it doesn’t find a way to plug the holes in its fiscal ship, Chicago could well face the same fate as Puerto Rico and Detroit the next time a recession causes its tax base to contract.

Gotta squeeze every last bit out first.

MICHAEL WALSH: FBI Colluded with Democrats, Team Clinton on Email ‘Prosecution.’

Unexpectedly.