IT’S THE 21ST CENTURY: Drinkable, carbon monoxide-infused foam enhances effectiveness of experimental cancer therapy.

RIDLEY SCOTT ON NAPOLEON’S BATTLE SCENES: “We wanted to do it without CGI.”

Industrial Light & Magic: Hold our pixels!

SPACE: Japan successfully launches spy satellite.

DEMOCRAT STILL PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1859: Jerry Nadler Slammed After Claiming ‘Many Illegal Immigrants’ Needed To Pick Vegetables.

SCIENCE: Biorobotic heart could aid research on heart disease treatment.

OH, CANADA: As renewables fail, electrical grid in Alberta under stress in deep cold.

Meanwhile, back in the States: Will the Texas grid hold up in the freeze? Experts give their confidence scores.

JIM TREACHER: Did Somebody Really Make an AI George Carlin Album?

Hey, wait a second. Doesn’t Will Sasso do impressions?

Well, sort of…

He’s no Fred Travalena. But he can kinda sound like a bunch of people who are more famous than he is.

Does Will Sasso do a George Carlin impression? You know what, I’ll bet he does. I’ll bet that’s what you just heard. I’ll bet it’s no more an AI than Crow T. Robot is.

Here’s how you do it, folks:

Write an hour’s worth of middling Carlin-esque material. Deliver it in your middling Carlin-esque voice. Slap a purposely fake-sounding laugh track over it, and pair it with a bunch of AI-generated images.

Then claim it was all completely generated by an AI, created by some secret startup company that made you sign an NDA so you can’t talk about it. And if people want to know more, they gotta check out your dumb podcast.

Presto! Instant free publicity. Bad press is better than no press, right?

Gotta admit, as cynical as it is, it’s a clever reversal. Instead of an AI that makes you think it’s a human, it’s a human trying to make you think he’s an AI.

Sure, Max Headroom did it 40 frickin’ years ago, but…

Exit questions: “Which scenario is less ethical: Creating an AI to emulate a dead comedian for a cynical cash-grab? Or pretending you created an AI to emulate a dead comedian, also for a cynical cash-grab? Good work, Will Sasso. You proved artificial intelligence isn’t the only thing that can get a lot of press for being mediocre yet vaguely evil.”

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Houthi and the Blowhard Edition.

NOW OUT FROM ROGER SIMON: American Refugees: The Untold Story of the Mass Migration from Blue to Red States.

MARK JUDGE: Pop perfection: Lauren Daigle’s brilliant and inspiring new album.

WARDROBE ESSENTIAL: CHAOREN Leather Ratchet Belt Men. #CommissionEarned

DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.—A Proud Unapologetic Zionist.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Vanderbilt has 1 administrator for every 2 students: analysis.

CHIEFS-DOLPHINS PLAYOFF GAME EXCLUSIVELY STREAMING ON PEACOCK: Pro Sports goes Back to the Future!

The NFL is the only league that can remotely consider a pay-per-view model. Because Peacock is 24/7, and offers a wide array of other programming, Dolphins at Chiefs is not a PPV game, but for a lot it will feel like it.

Boxing adopted the PPV in the mid ‘70s, and multiple generations of sports fans know the only way to watch premiere fights is to fork over $50. Or $60. Maybe $80.

It made those at the top of the boxing pyramid obscene money, but the lack of exposure on broadcast television did incalculable damage that the sport feels to this day. Boxing ain’t dead; boxing is just small.

The challenge for NBC, and the NFL, is to condition the consumer to expect to spend extra money for an event that was previously free.

The challenge for the consumer/fan is to “Just say no.”

On a conference call this week with the media, NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution Hans Schroeder tried his best to “language” his way through questions about the outrage at NBC’s decision to air a game that requires a subscription.

“We look at it holistically,” Schroeder said.

(“Holistically” has replaced “synergy” in the corporatey-corporate dictionary. It applies to every potential scenario, and no one really knows what it means).

He continued, “There’s a number of different factors that we incorporate from competitive to fans to partners.”

That’s weird. No mention of money.

“We know and we see the continued evolution in the media landscape, and we want to be where our fans are,” he said of the digital world.

Let me tell you where fans aren’t: Peacock. Because if they were, there would be no outrage.

Yes. So is this a sign that streaming (and perhaps the NFL) is getting over its skis in 2024, to mix sporting metaphors?

● Amazon’s hundreds of reported job cuts show the tech giant bit off more than it could chew with streaming and movies.

● Sources: More than 200 NFL league employees offered buyout package.

● Universal Music, NBC Layoffs Join Tech, Media 2024 Job Cuts.

● Hallmark Channel & Hallmark Streaming Services Reportedly Lay Off More Staff.

Or is there another path for the league? ESPN, NFL in advanced talks on agreement that could give league equity in TV giant.

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER! Only ‘students of color’ are eligible for new USC and Compton College ‘Faculty Prep Academy.’

GOOD: Taiwan voters rebuff China and give ruling party third presidential term. “Taiwanese voters swept the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te into power on Saturday in an explicit rejection of China’s warnings not to vote for him in an election Beijing framed as a choice between war and peace. Current Vice President Lai’s DPP, which champions Taiwan’s separate identity and rejects China’s territorial claims, was seeking a third term, unprecedented under Taiwan’s current electoral system.”

#JOURNALISM:

Taylor Lorenz really made a four minute TikTok about some guy named Dick Stroker lmfao https://t.co/jKq9xAnig2

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 12, 2024

#JOURNALISM: “On the Ballot in Iowa: Fear. Anxiety. Hopelessness.” “But isn’t it this fearful fragility the real threat to democracy? Why do mainstream media stoke despair and anxiety? Why don’t they — why don’t we — build our resiliency and optimism?”

Because they want us to be weak, frightened, and easily led.

AT AMAZON, Shop the Winter Sale. #CommissionEarned

THAT SEEMS RIGHT: Employers’ Talking “About Race—Any Race—With a Constant Drumbeat of Essentialist, Deterministic, and Negative Language” Risks Racial Harassment Liability.

Shut up and let people do their jobs.

AND THERE YOU GO: Democrats: We Need Illegals to Do Menial Tasks.

U.S. HITS 60+ TARGETS AT NUMEROUS IRANIAN-BACKED HOUTHI FACILITIES THROUGHOUT YEMEN: U.S. OFFICIALS.

Although the medical miracle behind this could be the bigger story:

Is that the same SecDef Lloyd Austin who's still in the hospital? https://t.co/zuBrwztItZ

— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) January 12, 2024

And speaking of miracles, the left suddenly rediscovers the Constitution! Democrats fume after Biden orders Yemen airstrikes without congressional approval: ‘Unacceptable violation of the Constitution.’

STANDING UP AGAINST BIGOTRY AND HATE: National Paramedic Association Hit With Lawsuit Over Scholarship Discriminating Against White Students.

FAUCI ENTERS FUGUE STATE: Dr. Anthony Fauci Cannot ‘Recall’ Much About COVID Origins, Pandemic Responses. Fauci, who can’t remember the origins of the “6 feet” rule of social distancing, now says the lab leak origin is credible.

Regarding the latter: Lab Leak Is Not a Conspiracy Theory, Anthony Fauci Concedes. The doctor’s claims that he was open to either explanation is flatly contradicted by his literal words.

LOL, THE MEDIA SAID A LOT OF THINGS: Media Said Biden’s Election Meant ‘Competence Is Making a Comeback.’ So How Did the Defense Secretary Go AWOL?