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RIP: Astronaut John Young, the 12th man to walk on the moon and who famously smuggled a corned beef sandwich into orbit, dies aged 87.

Young served as command module pilot on Apollo 10, the critical dry run for the Apollo 11 landing, before “the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972, his fourth space flight, took Young to the lunar surface,” and he served as commander on that mission. “Young’s fifth space mission was as commander of the inaugural flight of NASA’s first space shuttle, Columbia, in 1981.” His last flight was the ninth space shuttle mission, which deployed its Spacelab payload for the first time.

This detail from his Gemini days though, is the best:

That’s valuable zero gravity space research for the future of mankind, right there.

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY:  The Huffington Post asks “Why Black People Own Guns.” This is the lede:

As much as America loves her guns, she has never liked the idea of seeing them in black hands.

Alfonzo Rachel, call your office!

Found via Twitchy, which asks, “Hey, HuffPost: Who exactly is determined to keep the black populace unarmed?”

LAYERS AND LAYERS OF FACT CHECKERS AND EDITORS: “Why believe Michael Wolff? Because, for now, this stuff is too good not to,” shouts a headline atop an L.A. Times opinion column.

Keep rockin’!

Related: Tony Blair: Wolff book claims “a complete fabrication.”

GALLERY: Scenes From A Rare Snowy Day In Charleston.

WORKING FOR THE CLAMPDOWN: “Iran’s protests look like they are over, but their underlying reasons haven’t gone away,” the Atlantic tweets.

Funny, they don’t look like they’re over.

DID A REPUBLICAN SENATOR ACTUALLY MEET WITH A PSYCHIATRIST ABOUT TRUMP’S SANITY? “The ‘meeting’ isn’t quite what Politico made it out to be.”

Unexpectedly.

Related: How The Media Mainstreamed A Democratic Conspiracy Theory.

HMMMMM: Report: Ex-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrested for inciting unrest.

MACHO, MACHO MAN: Biden responds to Howard Dean’s remarks about older Dems: ‘I can take him.’

WOMEN HAVE HAD SEX ROBOTS FOR OVER A CENTURY. THEY’RE CALLED VIBRATORS: Maybe Sex Robots Will Make Men, Not Women, Obsolete.

Question: Would the editors of Bloomberg View let a male author get by with a stereotype-slur like this one? “Men will likely have trouble with things like household chores and remembering to go to the doctor regularly, but they’ll manage. Maybe Siri can make their appointments.”

NOTHING GOOD: WHAT WOULD REALLY HAPPEN IF RUSSIA ATTACKED UNDERSEA INTERNET CABLES?

CHANGE: Researchers grow skin, with hair, from stem cells.

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SPACE: The US Dominated Rocket Launches in 2017.

GOOD QUESTION: You’re Over 75, and You’re Healthy. Why Are You Taking a Statin?

WORKING FOR THE CLAMPDOWN: As the Iranian people rise up, Hollywood curls up, Tammy Bruce writes.

RIGOR MORTIS: On the hetero-patriarchal trappings of “academic rigor” at Purdue.

f you are thinking of building a bridge, be careful if your engineer went to Purdue University. Donna Riley, the head of the engineering department at Purdue, has put the world on notice that “rigor” is a dirty word. In an article for Engineering Education called “Rigor/Us: Building Boundaries and Disciplining Diversity with Standards of Merit,” Professor Riley, who is also the author of Engineering and Social Justice, argues that academic “rigor” is merely a blind for “white male heterosexual privilege.” Yes, really. . . . Professor Riley’s gibberish is meant in earnest. Her essay appears not in a science fiction journal or a publication intended for the denizens of a sanatorium but a journal concerned with science. This woman is the head of a department of engineering in an institution of higher education. The moral is, we suppose, that things are always worse than they seem.

Engineering Education seems to be a place to exile faculty who aren’t up to teaching actual engineering.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Cowboys TV ratings in Dallas-Fort Worth market plummeted to lowest point in decade in 2017 season.

ROGER SIMON SPOTS THE MAN WHO SHOULD REPLACE STEVE BANNON AND WHY.

Read the whole thing.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. “Perhaps the most insidious threat facing Western democracies has been the progressive decline of elite accountability and responsibility.”

CONSERVATIVES’ MEMO TO CONGRESS – YOU STILL GOTTA KILL OBAMACARE: It shouldn’t have to be said but a large group of influential conservative activist groups know Republicans leading Congress need to be reminded over and over – they promised for seven years to repeal Obamacare, so what are they waiting for now, eight years later?

LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby points out that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has his mind on other matters: “McConnell has sent conflicting signals in recent weeks. He told National Public Radio before Christmas that the Senate would ‘probably move on to other issues.’ Later, he told reporters at his end-of-the-year news conference that he would commit to a vote on a plan offered by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) if they can get enough support. ‘I wish them well,’ he said.”

In other words, get lost. That could be the message voters send McConnell and other Republicans of like mind, come November.

AN ECONOMIC SUMMARY FROM MATT DRUDGE: