BRAVE NEW WORLD: Plagiarism detection software sparks widespread student concern.

I’ve seen undergraduate students bragging (anonymously) about successfully using ChatGPT to cheat.

THE PROCESS IS THE PUNISHMENT. ALSO, THE PUNISHMENT IS THE PUNISHMENT. Bombshell Report Calls for FBI Investigation Into Liz Cheney.

STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: Twirling body horror in gymnastics video exposes AI’s flaws. Just remember, the AIs get better every year. People stay the same.

MOVE YOUR MUSCLES: Increasing daily steps might help depression.

MOST FUNDING FOR THE ARTS IS A MONEY LAUNDRY FOR THE LEFT: Federal agencies fund ‘highly ideological’ university art projects: report.

LOL: 100 University of Chicago faculty and activists protest lack of ‘Gaza Scholars at Risk’ program.

DON SURBER: How Woke Died. At various points, my fellow reporters at major news organizations told me roads and birds are racist. Voting is racist. Exercise is super racist.”

THIS PROBABLY MEANS THEY’RE NOT CHEATING TOO MUCH ON THEIR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: Black Student Enrollment At Harvard Law Drops By More Than Half. “The Supreme Court decision, and the fact that Harvard College was named in the case, played a role, according to David B. Wilkins, a Harvard law professor who has studied Black representation in the legal profession. The law school also saw a steep decline in Hispanic students, to 39 students, or 6.9 percent, this fall, from 63 students, or 11 percent of the total, in 2023. Enrollment of white and Asian students increased.”

REVENGE OF THE NERDS: Musk crushed Taylor Swift as top 2024 surrogate, over 2-to-1.

SOME PARTS OF THE 21ST CENTURY ARE TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED:

This video shows the number and frequency of all SpaceX launches over the years

In 2024 alone, SpaceX has completed 95 rocket launches pic.twitter.com/LYgNgbw0UO

— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) December 16, 2024

SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: Dragon’s Daring Return: SpaceX Capsule Heads for Florida Splashdown.

THEY LIKE TO WEAPONIZE THESE THINGS: Duke lacrosse rape hoax accuser’s confession teaches a lesson the left won’t learn. So they don’t want to learn.

OUR VERY, VERY SERIOUS RULING CLASS: Ketanji Brown Jackson Goes Broadway: Why choose tragic love, when self-aggrandizement is still an option? The Supreme Court Justice acts out the answer in a cheery agitprop romp.

OF COURSE THEY ARE, AND SO ARE THEIR SUPPORTERS:

Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia University revealed they are "fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."

Why are taxpayer dollars going to Columbia University when they are teaching students to take down Western civilization? pic.twitter.com/Y4n6vz28BZ

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) December 16, 2024

AS ARGENTINA DEMONSTRATES, IF WE SLASH GOVERNMENT WE’LL ALSO GET FASTER GROWTH EVEN AS WE CUT THE DEFICIT: How faster growth can offset America’s debt problem. Really. “Well, that in addition to making us all a lot richer.”

THOUGHTS ON Team Players and Group Think. “On balance, women tend to be more groupish, while men tend toward the team-ish.”

OPEN THREAD: Because I love you and want you to be happy.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China kicks off Guowang megaconstellation with Long March 5B launch.

MEANWHILE, UP NORTH: Even Trudeau loyalists are fleeing to escape deficit disaster.

FASTER, PLEASE: Rise in Antimatter Research Could Push Us Closer to The Ultimate Space Engine. The problem is that antimatter is to some degree an energy-storage medium. It releases colossal amount of energy when it combines with normal matter, but it takes colossal amounts of energy to create. Yes, the annihilation creates more than it takes to make the antimatter, but not that much more . . . .

MARTIN GURRI: A new age of politics is upon the world — as toppled leaders lose their grip on power.

This was more than a loss for the Democrats. It was the overthrow of “our democracy” — a regime that felt so virtuous and scientific that it expected to last forever.

Two days later, the German government collapsed, supposedly over disagreements about the budget but really because the principals couldn’t stand each other.

The German economy is flatlining and, other than quarreling, the political class has no clue what to do about it. Nevertheless, elections will be held early next year.

On Dec. 3, the president of South Korea, locked in a political struggle with the opposition majority in parliament, tried to gain the upper hand by the clever expedient of declaring martial law. His opponents, he insisted, were really a bunch of Commie stooges of Kim Jong Un — and since they were elected officials, it was best to dispense with this democracy thing.

It didn’t work. Within 24 hours, martial law was undeclared by the legislature and the sitting president abruptly found he had a lot of explaining to do.

Hardly democracy

Two days later, the French government collapsed because — you probably guessed this — it failed to come up with a budget that didn’t incite car-burning riots in the streets of Paris.

The French have already had their election. In an unusual twist on democracy, President Emmanuel Macron asked all the losers to form a government and kept the winners out.

Four days later, in another interesting interpretation of how democracy should work, Romania’s Constitutional Court canceled the presidential election because a “far right” populist appeared certain to win.

The world has the worst ruling class in a long time.

HE CAME IN LIKE A BUM, HE GOVERNED LIKE A BUM, AND NOW HE’S GOING OUT LIKE A BUM’S BUM:

HE LITERALLY JUST PARDONED HIS SON FOR GUN CRIMES! https://t.co/IpGvieaSAI

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) December 16, 2024

NO VERY DEEP THOUGHTS THOUGH: Dogs Can Talk? Study Confirms Dogs Intentionally Use Soundboards To Communicate.

HMM: Reiki might help ease pain for cancer patients.

THIS DOESN’T SOUND GOOD: We Spent Four Days Alone in the Woods With the Mammoth Overland TL Tall Boy Adventure Trailer—and Didn’t Die.