THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL TO WATCH, FROM A SAFE DISTANCE. Scientists Uncover Evidence of a Colossal Megaflood That Refilled the Mediterranean Sea.

DAVID MASTIO: More often than I’d like to admit, @realDonaldTrump has the big things right.

SO YOU’RE SAYING THE MARKET FOR FSD IS PRETTY DAMN BIG: You’re a Bad Driver if Tesla Full Self-Driving Is Better at Driving Than You. The difference is, the Teslas will continue to improve, and the human drivers, alas, will not.

CHANGE: South Korea’s birthrate set to rise for the first time in nine years. “The Asian country has recorded the world’s lowest fertility rates, but the number of newborns between January 2024 and November 2024 rose 3% from a year earlier to 220,094, monthly government data showed on Wednesday. . . . Last year, South Korea rolled out various measures to encourage young people to get married and have children, after now impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a ‘national demographic crisis’ and a plan to create a new ministry devoted to tackling low birth rates.”

I hope it’s a real change, and not a dead-cat bounce.

MISINFORMATION: Possible evidence of bird flu vaccinations driving virus evolution.

PROF. JACOBSON: Trump’s Merit-Based DEI Executive Order Is A Sledgehammer.

CHANGE: The future of AI is even more fossil fuels.

THEY’RE NOT SERIOUS: Researchers say new attack could take down the European power grid: Power grid in Central Europe uses unencrypted radio signals to add and shed loads.

HMM: Controlling infections might reduce risk of dementia, study says.

READER BOOK PLUG: From Mara Schiffren: The Mistake.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Job postings in higher ed hyperfocus on equity, omit traits like ‘quality,’ ‘efficiency’: research.

CHANGE: West Point appears to end its Diversity and Inclusion Studies Minor.

IT’S WORKING ALREADY: Swaths of U.S. Government Grind to a Halt After Trump Shock Therapy: Rescinded job offers, delayed health updates and confusion over cutting government checks upend business as usual across Washington. I know this headline is supposed to alarm me, but . . .

HA HA, LIZ WARREN IS THE WORST:

“The Secretary of Defense has to be ready to go 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

Twice in his tenure, the last SecDef, who she voted for, literally disappeared and didn’t tell anyone where he was! https://t.co/q7TilrwqZK

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 24, 2025

“RULE OF LAW.”

Related:

Just two months ago, DC Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Paulette Harlow who is 75-year-old and in poor health to 2 years in prison for praying outside an abortion clinic.

When her husband begged for mercy for fear she would die in prison due to poor health, the Judge… pic.twitter.com/ootBjC3Nt6

— Dr. Ben Braddock (@GraduatedBen) July 17, 2024

Also:

Maybe the birthright citizenship order will ultimately be held unconstitutional, but I find it highly embarrassing for a judge to say something so unequivocally at a preliminary stage without the slightest acknowledgement that there is an entire literature that disagrees. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2R4OE9lT8a

— Ilan Wurman (@ilan_wurman) January 23, 2025

A BLOW AGAINST RACISM AND BIGOTRY: Cal State Alters Systemwide Program Excluding Whites and Women Challenged By Equal Protection Project.

KEEP THOSE JUDICIAL VACANCIES COMING:

CHANGE:

Yesterday, there were 45 reported ARTICLE III vacancies. Today, 47 vacancies are reported.

new:
J. JAMES O. BROWNING, DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO;
C.J. DANNY C REEVES, DISTRICT OF EASTERN KY;

— Seth Barrett Tillman (@SethBTillman) January 24, 2025

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Trump can fix biased, bloated bureaucracy — by abolishing the civil service.

CHANGE:

We are currently watching the wokest elements of the left realizing in real time that they are a tiny minority and that most Americans hate them and their ideas.

For a long time they thought they were the dominant force in America, socially and politically.

It is now dawning on…

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) January 23, 2025

PHILIP HAMBURGER: How Washington Can Get Back to Fiscal Sanity. Cut, baby, cut.

YEP.

You might be confused as to why agencies would fight so hard to keep DEI officers in place.

It’s totally understandable if you haven’t accepted the fact that DEI officers are actually communist political commissars. https://t.co/BpXxA6PUoG

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) January 22, 2025

THIS IS THE MOST LIBERAL-WHITE-WOMAN THING EVER.

On behalf of middle aged white women, I’m sorry. https://t.co/F5LtsIosKb

— Emily Zanotti 🦝 (@emzanotti) January 23, 2025

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Trump can fix biased, bloated bureaucracy — by abolishing the civil service.

OPEN THREAD: Disport yourselves in the comments.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches fourth batch of Thousand Sails megaconstellation satellites.