WELL, THEY SHOULD: After Google acquisition, some Fitbit users worry about privacy.

LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES: Portland, Oregon, paramedics learn self-defense amid attacks.

TRAILER: “Balloon” is a new film that tells the true story of two East German families who made a daring escape to the West via a homemade hot-air balloon.

Having been during the Bad Old Days to the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum with all its escape exhibits, I’m really looking forward to this.

I’M GLAD TO HEAR THAT ADAM SCHIFF MAY CONTRIBUTE TO CANCER RESEARCH: ‘Missing link’ between pond scum and humans discovered, holds promise for cancer research.

DON’T IT MAKE MY RED STATE BLUE: ‘Don’t Californicate Colorado’ calls rise as Democrats embrace Golden State policies.

The Colorado-based Freedom to Drive Coalition filed a lawsuit this month against the state’s adoption of California’s zero-emissions vehicle standards, arguing that the rules violate state law and would add thousands of dollars to the cost of the heavy-duty vehicles favored by drivers navigating Colorado’s snowy roads.

Meanwhile, supporters of the Electoral College are balking at the lopsided flood of cash pouring in from California to prevent Colorado voters from overturning the National Popular Vote bill, which Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed into law in March.

Figures compiled by Protect Colorado’s Vote show that more than 98% of the donations to Yes on National Popular Vote have been from Californians, while Coloradans have contributed 99% of the revenue raised to exit the compact.

We’re becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sacramento.

THREAD: “Rarely has there been a more dramatic example of epistemic closure than Democrats refusing to admit Obama put kids in cages. Confronted with iron-clad evidence, they respond by deleting the evidence and pretending nobody saw it. They simply cannot admit it happened.”

AT AMAZON, Holiday Deals in Toys & Games.

HMM: British Mom Long Targeted by Trans Activists Denied Entry to the U.S.

WELL, GOOD: New Allergan migraine drug seems safe, effective in late-stage trial. For me, Ibuprofen is a great treatment, and CoQ10 seems to be a good preventive.

GEN Z ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Teen uses remote-controlled car to smuggle drugs across border, officials say.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: You Can Make a Rocket Engine’s Entire Combustion Chamber in One 3D Print.

WHY ARE ONE-PARTY BLUE CITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF CORRUPTION? Former Baltimore Mayor indicted on 11-counts of fraud, tax evasion charges. “The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland has charged former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh with 11 counts of Wire Fraud and Tax charges related to the selling of her children’s book series Healthy Holly. . . . According to Pugh’s indictment, since 2011, Pugh owned a company called Healthy Holly, LLC to publish and sell her children’s books while she served in the Maryland State Senate and became Baltimore Mayor in 2016. The indictment said from June 2011 to August 2017, Pugh published four books under her company and sold them to non-profit organizations and foundations that were in business with the Maryland and Baltimore City governments. The indictment suggests that Pugh worked with Gary Brown, a Baltimore City employee, to defraud buyers of her books to fund her political career, her campaign for Baltimore mayor, and to renovate a house in Baltimore City. The indictment also alleges that Pugh issued about $35,800 in Health Holly LLC checks to Brown to fund money using names of straw donors which were later funneled into Pugh’s election account. The indictment states that Pugh committed tax evasion by hiding that she created fake business expenses to offset her sales from her children’s books. It said Pugh filed false income tax returns for 2016 and 2015, in which she underreported her income.”

BLUE SKIES, NOTHING BUT BLUE SKIES: Secretive energy startup backed by Bill Gates achieves solar breakthrough.

Heliogen, a clean energy company that emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday, said it has discovered a way to use artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Essentially, Heliogen created a solar oven — one capable of reaching temperatures that are roughly a quarter of what you’d find on the surface of the sun.

The breakthrough means that, for the first time, concentrated solar energy can be used to create the extreme heat required to make cement, steel, glass and other industrial processes. In other words, carbon-free sunlight can replace fossil fuels in a heavy carbon-emitting corner of the economy that has been untouched by the clean energy revolution.

“We are rolling out technology that can beat the price of fossil fuels and also not make the CO2 emissions,” Bill Gross, Heliogen’s founder and CEO, told CNN Business. “And that’s really the holy grail.”

That’s genuinely impressive, but still dependent on the weather.

HMM: Ukrainian MPs demand Zelensky, Trump investigate suspicion of U.S.-Ukraine corruption involving $7.4 bln. “Ukrainian members of parliament have demanded the presidents of Ukraine and the United States, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, investigate suspicions of the legalization of $7.4 billion by the ‘family’ of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych through the American investment fund Franklin Templeton Investments, which they said has ties to the U.S. Democratic Party.” Well, stay tuned.

LAWSUIT: Schiff Colluded With Politico To Leak False Info To Further Sham Impeachment. “On Monday, Kash Patel, a White House official serving on the National Security Council (NSC), filed a $25 million lawsuit against Politico, alleging that Adam Schiff, the California Democrat, leading the sham impeachment against President Trump, ‘weaponized the media’ with defamatory information to advance his goal of removing the president from office.”

WHY IS THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR SUCH A CESSPIT OF DISCRIMINATION? Longtime law professor Josephine Potuto sues, says NU pays women less. “The longest-serving female professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has sued the university, alleging she has received unequal pay because of her gender. Josephine Potuto has been a law professor for 45 years and is the longest continuously serving professor in the NU College of Law, male or female. The suit was filed Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court by her Lincoln-based attorneys, Vincent Powers and Kathleen Neary. The defendant officially is the governing board of the NU system, the Board of Regents.”

She has high-powered representation.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Navy Wants to Eject SEAL from His Elite Unit, Despite Trump Pardon. “Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher might be forced out of the Navy’s elite SEAL unit, despite being acquitted in July on nearly all charges and a recent pardon from President Trump on the one minor charge that did stick.”

A lot to chew on in this case.

ROGER KIMBALL: Adam Schiff, ‘Lt. Col.’ Vindman and the impeachment ratings flop. “The Democrats thought they could transform this tawdry revenge fantasy into reality. It isn’t working. . . . Lt. Col. Vindman loves his uniform — all those medals and embroidery — and he thought that Donald Trump was contravening the policies endorsed by the National Security Council. That is the essence of his complaint. But that is just too bad for the Lt. Col. He does not set the policies. The president of the United States does.”

Related: Alexander Vindman condemned himself in his impeachment testimony. So much entitlement and self-importance on parade.

Also, how did so many once-masculine fields, ranging from sports journalism to the CIA, become dominated by prissy, self-important weasels? See also, Peter Strzok.

THAT’S CRAZY. FORTUNATELY, SCARLETT JOHANSSON CAN PLAY HER TODAY: Studio Exec Suggested Julia Roberts Play Harriet Tubman, Harriet Screenwriter Says.

MATT MARGOLIS: Ten Reasons Vindman’s Testimony Was Bad for Democrats.

11. Hardly anyone outside the MSN-DNC bubble gives a damn.

CYBERSECURITY: Hundreds of millions of Android phone cameras can be hijacked by spyware.

Rogue Android apps can hijack the default camera apps on Google and Samsung smartphones, and probably the camera apps on many other brands of Android phones, to take photos and record video and audio without the device users’ permission.

The apps can also view phone locations and other apps’ files, turning the phones into perfect spying devices. Even the best Android antivirus apps might not be able to protect you.

This flaw has been patched in Google and Samsung devices, according to Checkmarx, the Israeli security firm that found the vulnerability. But it’s not clear how many other phone makers have taken sim