A NOBLE EFFORT: Xenon gas shows promise in Alzheimer’s treatment, leading to clinical trial.

COMPROMISES WERE MADE: 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Tested: Better Mileage with Some Trade-Offs.

I WOULDN’T MIND A BOX-MAG SHOTGUN: First Look: Mossberg 590M Mag-Fed Professional Series.

“CONSPIRACY THEORIES.” New DJI drone policy could fuel even more conspiracy theories: The manufacturer will no longer enforce ‘No Fly Zones.’ The Chinese manufacturer won’t stop them from flying in forbidden U.S. airspace. Yeah, any worries are just “conspiracy theory.”

I actually wish they hadn’t called them that, since so far the conspiracy theorists are up like 2231 – 0.

WHY DOES GREEN STUFF KEEP WORKING OUT THIS WAY? Zero-carbon shipping fuel could be a new source of pollution: The shipping industry is planning to swap some fossil fuels for green ammonia – but that could create a major new source of nitrogen pollution.”

MARS: Signatures of ice-free ancient ponds and lakes found on Mars.

BAD GOVERNMENT, BAD RESULTS.

Democrats have controlled every level of government in California for nearly two decades. Republican policy solutions like CEQA exemptions for wildfire preparedness have been blocked or vetoed by this Governor, and the People have a right to demand accountability. pic.twitter.com/HOuEsJ3Ip2

— Bill Essayli (@billessayli) January 15, 2025

SHE CAN’T WRITE A BOOK, SHE CAN’T EVEN DICTATE ONE. AND WHO WANTS TO HEAR MORE ABOUT THE MOST BORING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN MY LIFETIME? Kamala Harris’ potential next move: A book. I mean, Bob Dole wasn’t Mr. Excitement, but he was a war hero. Kamala Harris’s service was less than heroic.

It’ll just be another political-payoff book, with a fat advance it’ll never earn back. And this article, originally from NBC News, reads like a press release from her agent.

RFK, JR. IS ALREADY FORCING CHANGE: U.S. to ban the long-used Red No. 3 dye in food products by 2028. You can see Helen’s nutritionist/trainer Krystal Goodman in the video.

CHANGE: After 50 years, several women’s studies programs on chopping block.

OH, DRY UP: University of New Mexico website features multiple ‘Land, Labor, and Immigrant acknowledgements.’

ED MORRISSEY: Biden’s Valediction: Sheer Projection. “Joe Biden will leave office just as he entered it — twenty pounds of bull**** in a ten-pound bag.”

A FRIEND COMMENTS: “Joe giving a farewell speech is like an encore at a Yoko Ono concert.”

Related: Don Surber: Trump Splits The Press.

THESE GUYS SHOULDN’T BE TOO FULL OF THEMSELVES AT THE MOMENT:

In several recent publications, I’ve seen quotes from the Joint Staff that the Chairman is “ready to work with” President Trump. This phraseology should concern anyone who cares about civilian control of the military. First, the Chairman doesn’t have an option to work for the…

— Ezra A. Cohen (@EzraACohen) January 15, 2025

Posted just yesterday 👇 pic.twitter.com/c4uH3IV2du

— HAPnightowl (@HChocogenes) January 15, 2025

CONGRATULATIONS! Blue Origin’s Giant New Glenn Rocket Reaches Orbit on Its First Try. “Blue Origin now stands as the first private space-launch company in the West to reach orbit on its first attempt with a rocket of its own design. SpaceX needed four tries with its Falcon 1 rocket, Rocket Lab needed two for its Electron, and other, smaller, US space startups have seen their would-be debuts end with one anomaly or another. . . . The second job for New Glenn’s first stage—landing on a barge named Jacklyn after Bezos’s mother—did not go as well. Telemetry from the booster froze after it began its reentry burn, with the last figures putting it at 4,285mph and an 84,226-foot altitude.”

Nobody’s perfect. I wish them many happy repeats, and an advance to bigger and better rockets.

RON HART: California: All You Need to Know About Conservative vs. Liberal Rule.

DEMOCRATS ARE DUMB: Eight takeaways from Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing.

EMPTY SUIT AT WORK:

Gavin Newsome kicks Elon Musk and Starlink out and welcomes Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in with open arms. This perfectly sums up how California got here. https://t.co/1xYqCcOmvL

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) January 16, 2025

LAFD begged for more funding for staff and to fix old trucks and the city refused pic.twitter.com/ViyaPv5naj

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 15, 2025

NOT ALL IMMIGRANTS ARE THE SAME:

Two countries in Europe have made a thorough analysis of the fiscal contribution of immigrants by country of origin, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The findings from these two countries look remarkably similar: pic.twitter.com/aWBFSTzH8U

— Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) January 15, 2025

ALL FAMILY BUSINESS IS BEING SETTLED:

🚨MASSIVE BREAKING: Speaker Mike Johnson has removed Congressman Mike Turner, who voted against the resolution to censure Adam Schiff, from the Intelligence Committee.

Mike has also been very outspoken on funding for Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/HXGYolhSzR

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 15, 2025

JEFFREY CARTER: The Opportunity Costs of Offensive War: They Used To Be High.

I listened to Marc Andreessen’s interview with the Hoover Institution. It’s worth your time. One subject they talk about is drones. Drones started out as a game. Fun to fly. Businesses have adopted them for different projects. But, as we have seen in Ukraine, drones can be a highly effective offensive weapon on the battlefield.

I think running down the rabbit hole of drones, robots, autonomous vehicles, and war is worth your time. I seriously doubt if Senator Virtue Signal (Hard lefty Tammy Duckworth) has seriously considered it. She’s worried about breastfeeding on the battlefield.

But, a war for humans gets hyper-scary when you think about those things. All of a sudden, the sci-fi movies of the 90s become real. Watch The Terminator, Minority Report, and other 90s sci-fi flicks for a taste and to lubricate your imagination.

Andreessen asks the question, what does a battleship do when 1000 armed drones attack at sea?

What happens when POW camps are all run using robots, AI, cameras, and algorithms?

Imagine being in a foxhole and autonomous tanks, autonomous drones, and armed robot infantry attack you. How do you stop it when there are thousands of them? Imagine if the Nazis had that at a place like Bastogne.

More importantly, several pieces of the puzzle stop countries from attacking other countries. China is rumored to be planning an attack on Taiwan. What’s stopping them today? Amphibious landing for sure. They are difficult to pull off. But what if you did it with self-driving boats, robots, and drones? No people.

World opinion, banks, and financial markets offer some deterrence. The threat of another country retaliating is a deterrent.

But, the largest deterrent and the highest opportunity cost is human life. Even butchers like Putin have a breaking point when it comes to losing human lives. Internal opinions can topple him if it gets too bad.

What happens to the costs/opportunity costs when you minimize the potential human losses on your side to almost nil?

The defender must transfer the human costs to the attacker via nuclear weapons, or the destruction of the Three Gorges Dam.

Plus:

This is why it is job number one to win the tech race on both Earth and in space. The next war is going to be fought in outer space as well as on Earth. The US cannot finish in second place when it comes to this arms race. Finishing second means losing.

I didn’t hear one question from any Senator about that when the presumptive Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified.

California politicians were ignorant and thought they could defy nature. Are Washington politicians any different when it comes to defense and thinking about the future?

Nope. They’re morons.

THE WORLD IN 2025:

What could explain this? We'll never know. It will remain a mystery, like Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster. pic.twitter.com/eSAHqpEwKb

— Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 (@pmarca) January 15, 2025

HEH. YEAH.

When I see a GOP senator in the year 2025 talking lovingly about FISA after all the abuse we’ve seen, I see a man who’s been approached by the intelligence services with pictures of him and midgets.

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) January 15, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Make it special.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: What’s next for the 2 private landers SpaceX just launched toward the moon?