WARNING: AUDIO PRODUCTION WONKERY AHEAD: Izotope’s powerful new RX6 audio restoration software is reviewed by yours truly over at PJ Lifestyle section.

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: New Drugs Needed For Nerve Gas Exposure.

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Plus, save on Office Products.

WE’LL CALL IT BILL CLINTON THERAPY: Trauma patients may benefit from ice bag on face after blood loss. “Cooling the face of an accident victim who has lost a lot of blood may help prevent a life-threatening drop in blood pressure, according to preliminary research. The researchers said first responders could apply an ice bag to the face of trauma victims to help ensure that their heart, brain and other vital organs continue to receive adequate oxygen. Sudden drop in blood pressure — known as cardiovascular decompensation — is a major risk after blood loss. And it’s even a danger after the patient is no longer bleeding, the researchers added.”

DON’T HAVE SPACESUIT, WON’T TRAVEL: NASA is running out of space suits — and it’s years away from having new ones ready.

GEORGE SOROS, INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY: “In Hungary, It’s a Duel to the Death between the P.M. and ‘Dr. Evil,’” Michael Walsh writes, advising, “Keep an eye on Budapest — what happens there will ripple westward. The whole world will soon be watching.”

Read the whole thing.

SHOCKER: Most Americans Don’t Want People To Buy Soda And Candy With Food Stamps.

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: Spying on Students in the Classroom.

THE PARTY OF NO: Dems threaten to oppose bill to prevent shutdown if health care vote happens before Saturday.

DEADSPIN: ESPN’s Diminished Future Has Become Its Present.

The causes of the layoffs are clear. As ESPN’s subscriber base, and the rate those subscribers paid monthly, grew in the late aughts and early 2010s, Bristol spent flagrantly. They created the Longhorn and SEC Networks, built a massive new SportsCenter studio, hired hundreds of writers to cover specific teams, and, most importantly, spent billions of dollars on live sports rights. They made big bets. They made wrong bets.

Right around the time the ink dried on a $15.2 billion deal to broadcast the NFL, subscribers began fleeing cable television in droves—not because of anything the Worldwide Leader did wrong, but because of secular changes in the way broadcast and video works. Phones, Twitter, and YouTube began instantaneously delivering highlights and entire games to fans, obviating the need for anyone to watch SportsCenter, or any other news shows, to catch up on what happened in sports, or even, in some cases, to watch live games. Terrestrial ad revenue never migrated online, and the revenue to be found there was largely eaten up by Facebook and Google, leaving little to pay those new ESPN.com reporters.

And after spending the last few years annoying much of its subscriber base, ESPN doesn’t have any goodwill to lean on while it tries to restructure itself.

THE INSTAWIFE: Rand Paul: Real Men Cut Taxes.

WAIT, WHAT? The Accord V6 Coupe Is the Last Real American Muscle Car. “This is not a joke.”

GENTLEMEN, YOU CAN’T CRITIQUE HERE — THIS IS A UNIVERSITY! Students Claim Professor Broke Law in Writing Book Critical of Title IX.

TAMARA KEEL: Tips For Buying A Used Gun.

VIDEO: Maxine Waters Forgot How to Say ‘North Korea’

It can be difficult to tell if Waters has forgotten many things, or if she just didn’t know much to begin with.

IT NEVER IS: We Will Hit Peak Oil By 2030 But It’s Not What You Think.

In fact, they’re saying will hit “peak oil” by 2030, but it won’t be because our supply of oil won’t be increasing. It’s because they anticipate demand will plummet as electric cars become more and more enticing. Joel Couse, the chief energy economist for Total S.A.—one of the biggest oil companies in the entire world—told a Bloomberg conference that yes, the end is nigh:

The surge in battery powered vehicles will cause demand for oil-based fuels to peak in the 2030s, Total Chief Energy Economist Joel Couse said at Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s conference in New York on Tuesday. EVs will make up 15 percent to 30 percent of new vehicles by 2030, after which fuel “demand will flatten out,” Couse said. “Maybe even decline.”

And it’s not just Total S.A., either. The Bloomberg story notes that the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, Ben van Beurden, has given an even more aggressive estimate, with peak oil coming in the late 2020s.

I look forward to this new version of peak oil, when electric-car owners will make it possible for me to continue putting cheap diesel into my SUV.

WITH ENEMIES LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS FRIENDS? Alt-Right Leader Richard Spencer Turns Against Trump: ‘It’s a Betrayal of His Campaign’

TIME TO RETHINK SPONTANEOUS GENERATION? Microbes Have Been Found Growing “Out of Nowhere” After a Volcanic Eruption.

WELL, WE CAN’T HAVE THAT: In Ann Coulter’s Speech Battle, Signs That Conservatives Are Emboldened.

READER BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Reader Walt Pimbley writes:

If you like mil-sci-fi books, you’ll enjoy C. J. Carella’s Warp Marine Corps series. I’m kind of shy of the genre now – I’ve followed too many privates up the ranks to general in their Heinlein knock-off battle armor. But Carella’s future fighters are not from that mold.

Carella’s got a unique vision of what Faster Than Light travel might be, and it drives the strategies and tactics here. There are also lots of alien races, and none of them are sexy or comic, and that’s a plus.

The books have unappetizing titles, which maybe makes them not as popular as they should be. Decisively Engaged has a gripping plot, totally worth the $3.99. The second one’s maybe better, and still $3.99. . . . Carella’s an Indy: no publishing house. (But the books are well written and pretty well edited.) Sci-Fi’s waxed political, what with Tor guys at daggers drawn with Baen guys. But I see no political commentary in these novels.

Again, if you like reading military sci-fi novels, you’ll like these very much.

So there you are.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: DARPA to Use Electrical Stimulation to Enhance Military Training.

PERVERSE INCENTIVE: California bill would force utilities to give rebates for energy-storage systems.

The Energy Storage Initiative (SB700) was approved last week by the state’s Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee and is awaiting a full senate vote.

The bill, authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, would require the electric utilities to provide rebates to their customers by Dec. 1, 2018 for the installation of energy storage systems meeting certain requirements.

SB700 would require utilities to collect up to $166 milliion annually from ratepayers from 2018 through 2027 to fund the Energy Storage Initiative, which would then use the funds to provide rebates to customers who install energy storage systems.

People who don’t need batteries to round out peak hour usage — like on the North Coast, where the climate is moderate enough that air conditioning is almost unheard-of — would be incentivized to buy batteries for the sole purpose of not paying for the energy needs of southern and inland Californians.

This looks to me like yet another scheme to subsidize rich battery manufacturers and gentry liberals, all on the backs of California’s poorest residents.

TWO STEPS FORWARD… China Eyes Tighter Sanctions on N. Korea, but Limits Remain.

Analysts in China say the government is already doing all it can to keep the North in check. China cut coal imports from North Korea earlier this year and has been tightening financial flows to the North.

Lu Chao, a North Korea scholar at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences in northeast China says all Chinese banks have stopped banking with their North Korean counterparts.

“China has imposed the harshest sanctions ever against North Korea, the effect of which may take some time to kick in, but they will be effective,” Lu says.

Over the past week, the price of gasoline has surged in North Korea and some suspect Beijing is behind the price hike.

It is not clear what caused the spike. Some analysts say North Korea could be stockpiling gas for fear that imports could soon be banned. Others say that when tensions rise, the military gets priority.

North Korea’s military always has priority.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UC President Janet Napolitano hid $175 million while raising tuition, paying excessive salaries.

THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Fatal Malaria in the U.S. More Common Than Previously Known. “Serious and fatal bouts of malaria in the United States are a greater problem than has been previously reported, according to a new study. Most appear to be in immigrants who have made summer or Christmas visits to their home countries without taking precautions against infection.”