2017, GOING OUT IN STYLE: A Woman Allegedly Got Drunk And Destroyed Her First Date’s Fine Art, Including Two Andy Warhol Paintings.

2018: Feels like another “Hold My Beer” year, but we’ll see.

SAD: Eric Garner’s daughter Erica declared brain dead with no chance of recovery after massive heart attack.

POWER, UNLIMITED POWER: Game changing nuclear molten salt reactor will be cheaper than natural gas.

Natural gas and coal remain the most cost-competitive sources of energy for industrial heat and electric power provision, with natural gas becoming increasingly important. Fossil-fuel dominance will continue as long as there is no alternative dispatchable, reliable, versatile energy source that is more cost-competitive. In North America, Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) power generation is now the preferred new-build power plant because of its low costs, and because of currently low North American natural gas prices, a product of fracking innovations.

IMSR® power plants are far simpler to build and operate than conventional nuclear power plants. They cost less than USD $1 billion, can be built within 4 years with much lower project risk, and can be financed by ordinary means.

PLUS:

ThorCon is designed to bring shipyard quality and productivity to fission power. But ThorCon’s structure is far simpler and much more repetitive than a ship’s. The silo hall employs concrete-filled, steel plate, sandwich walls. This results in a strong, air-tight, ductile building. A 1 GWe ThorCon requires about 18,000 tons of steel for the fission island, all simple flat plate. A properly implemented panel line will be able to produce these blocks using less than 2 man-hours per ton of steel.

Similarly, all the other components will be manufactured on an assembly line and delivered to the site as fully outfitted and pre-tested blocks. Each power module will require a total of 31 blocks. Upon arrival at the site, the blocks will be dropped into place and the wall and roof blocks welded together using the automatic hull welding machines the yards have developed for this purpose. The wall cells will then be filled with concrete. Almost no form work is required.

To make the system work we must have big blocks — blocks that are far larger than can be transported by truck or rail. ThorCon blocks are up to 23 meters wide and 40 meters long. Such blocks can be barged well up most major rivers, including the St. Lawrence and into the Great Lakes.

A 1 GWe ThorCon is so small that the fission island almost fits into two center tanks of the Hellespont Metropolis, and requires one fourth as much steel. This steel requirement is roughly equivalent to a medium size, Suezmax tanker.

The Suezmax can move herself at 15 knots, survive a hurricane, and discharge her cargo in about a day. A good shipyard can profitably build a Suezmax for 60 million dollars.

A big shipyard can turn out 100 of these ships a year. It could easily manufacture 100 one GWe ThorCons per year.

Faster, please.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: The First Anti-American President.

Barack Obama will no doubt be chronicled, among other things, as the first anti-American president. No wonder; he’s the product of an educational system that has become increasingly radical and anti-American with each passing decade, and his mother was a stereotypical leftist anthropologist with a passion for the Third World.

The pattern is unmistakable. As Luis Fleischman notes, Obama wanted to make deals with our enemies, Iran being the most dramatic example.

That’s just the intro. Read the whole thing.

WINNING: Judge grants Project Veritas a victory over Michigan teachers union.

A Wayne County circuit judge in September blocked Project Veritas, a group run by provocateur James O’Keefe, from disclosing videos of other information it obtained in an undercover operation carried out against the American Federation of Teachers chapter in Detroit.

AFT Michigan alleged that Project Veritas operative Marisa Jorge used the name Marissa Perez and posed as a University of Michigan student to gain access to the chapter as an intern. The group claimed Jorge “unlawfully accessed and transmitted proprietary and confidential information and engaged in unlawful and unauthorized surveillance of” employees.

AFT Michigan had sought an injunction citing a strong likelihood of success with respect to violations of the Michigan Uniform Trade Secrets Act, the Michigan Eavesdropping Act and Jorge’s breach of fiduciary duty, all of which failed to hold up in court.

U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker ruled that the AFT failed to meet the proper criteria for issuance of a preliminary injunction.

Parker said not one of the 221 documents the chapter produced fell within the “trade secret” description as defined by MUTSA. She also said the chapter lacked evidence that Jorge did anything to violate the state’s eavesdropping act.

Let’s see the video.

THAT’S A RELIEF: No, bitcoin isn’t likely to consume all the world’s electricity in 2020.

PAULA BOLYARD: 50 Top Conservative Websites.

RACISM, STRAIGHT UP: 37 Things White People Need To Stop Ruining In 2018.

Earlier today, BuzzFeed fired White House correspondent Adrian Carrasquillo merely for appearing on a spreadsheet of “S—-y Media Men.” I wonder what they’ll do with the author of this piece, Patrice Peck.

Or is it verboten to make fun of media people, but perfectly OK by BuzzFeed to trash an entire race of people?

EXPOSED: Milo Yiannopoulos’s Cancelled Autobiography and His Editor’s Scathing Notes Go Public.

WINNING: ISIS has lost 98 percent of its territory — mostly since Trump took office, officials say.

The massive gains come after years of “onerous” rules, when critics say the Obama administration “micromanaged” the war and shunned a more intensive air strategy that could have ended the conflict much sooner.

“The rules of engagement under the Obama administration were onerous. I mean what are we doing having individual target determination being conducted in the White House, which in some cases adds weeks and weeks,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence. “The limitations that were put on actually resulted in greater civilian casualties.”

And this is an important reminder:

AND THIS FLASHBACK FROM VOX: The latest anti-ISIS strategy from the Pentagon looks a lot like the one under the Obama administration.

This timeline makes clear the two worrying trends underlying Trump’s approach to ISIS. As a candidate, he largely bragged about a secret, foolproof plan that didn’t exist and, as Vox’s Yochi Dreazen and Jennifer Williams explain, couldn’t have been executed anyway. Now as president, Trump has not only continued to be reticent on his plan but seems to have clocked out from devising his ISIS strategy entirely, ceding an alarming degree of power to the military.

Neither of these approaches bodes well moving forward.

That was in July. December looks much different, doesn’t it?

Rebecca Tan’s piece was meant to rebuke Trump, but instead is inadvertently devastating to Barack Obama. Obama apparently had the same plans Trump did, or near enough, but chose to impose “onerous” rules of engagement and let innocents die, rather than contradict his pet theory about terrorism. Trump’s “secret” plan may have been nothing more complicated than lifting the Obama-era ROEs which stood between the Coalition and victory over ISIS — and while that might not seem like much of a secret plan, it was enough.

Or as Gen. George Patton once said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” Obama had a good plan years ago, and chose to execute it never. Trump took the same plan and executed it immediately.

The difference is what is known as “winning.”

TONI AIRAKSINEN: Feminist Professor Praises ‘Happy Abortions’ in New Book.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Venezuelans scramble to survive as merchants demand dollars.

“There’s no point keeping bolivars.”

For a decade and a half, strict exchange controls have severely limited access to dollars. A black market in hard currency has spread in response, and as once-sky-high oil revenue runs dry, Venezuela’s economy is in free-fall.

The practice adopted by gourmet and design stores in Caracas over the last couple of years to charge in dollars to a select group of expatriates or Venezuelans with access to greenbacks is fast spreading.

Food sellers, dental and medical clinics, and others are starting to charge in dollars or their black market equivalent – putting many basic goods and services out of reach for a large number of Venezuelans.

According to the opposition-led National Assembly, November’s rise in prices topped academics’ traditional benchmark for hyperinflation of more than 50 percent a month – and could end the year at 2,000 percent. The government has not published inflation data for more than a year.

“I can’t think in bolivars anymore, because you have to give a different price every hour,” said Yoselin Aguirre, 27, who makes and sells jewelry in the Paraguana peninsula and has recently pegged prices to the dollar. “To survive, you have to dollarize.”

Eventually, every America-despising socialist state ends up pining for US dollars it can no longer steal enough to trade for.

Unexpectedly.

AND ANOTHER ONE: BuzzFeed has fired its White House correspondent after allegations of inappropriate comments to a colleague.

Adrian Carrasquillo was let go following an internal investigation, a representative told Business Insider on Wednesday.

“We are saddened by these circumstances, but we take these issues extremely seriously,” the representative said. “We’re committed to ensuring that BuzzFeed remains a place where everyone is treated respectfully by his or her peers.”

Last month, BuzzFeed News began investigating several of its staffers after their names appeared on a Google spreadsheet titled “S—-y Media Men” that was being passed around media circles. It listed unverified allegations against men in the media and publishing industries. Carrasquillo’s name appeared on a version of the list seen by Business Insider.

The White House correspondent was fired Wednesday after a new complaint came to light that included evidence of inappropriate comments he’d sent to a coworker.

“In responding to a complaint filed last week by an employee, we learned that Adrian violated our Code of Conduct by sending an inappropriate message to a colleague,” a spokesman said. “This followed a reminder about our prohibition against inappropriate communications.”

The existence of the list, which was circulated following revelations of decades-long harassment by the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, was reported by BuzzFeed, with the list including anonymous allegations of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse that the list’s author advised should be taken “with a grain of salt.”

The JournoList lives.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: More Jobs in 2018, Obama’s Echo Chamber and Much, Much More.

POWER PROJECTION: South Korea, Japan Mull F-35Bs for Amphibious Assault Ships.

Citing military sources, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the Lockheed Martin Corp.-made short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35Bs would be part of South Korea’s long-term plan to build a “blue water” navy.

South Korea currently has one amphibious assault ship, the 14,300-ton, 653-foot Dokdo, which is the largest ship in the South Korean navy. A second Dokdo-class amphib is planned for 2020.

“I understand that the military top brass have recently discussed whether they can introduce a small number of F-35B fighters and operate them aboard the new ship that has already been deployed and one to be additionally built,” a military source told Yonhap.

Japan is also considering buying F-35Bs to operate from its helicopter carrier, the Japan Times reported.

None of this comes as a surprise to anyone who has been following the development and deployment of Japan’s Izumo-class “destroyer” for any length of time.

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS SO HOSTILE TO THOSE WHO FIGHT OPPRESSION? Woman accused of racism by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is human-rights activist.

WINNING: Perhaps ‘Fewer Than 1,000 ISIS Jihadists Left in Syria and Iraq.’

LINDA SARSOUR: You Have No Right to Tell Us We Can’t Kill Jews.

The full quote, in case you think the headline might be hyperbolic:

“Nobody gets to tell an occupied people how to respond to their own oppression and the continued stripping of their humanity, agency and land whether they are Palestinians or not. Nobody. Oppressed people determine how, when and where to resist. They set the parameters.”

In other words, you have no right to tell them they can’t kill Jews.

LICENSING GONE WILD: Why Does Blow-Drying Hair in Arizona Require 1,000 Hours of Training?

Picking up a hair dryer in the state of Arizona and using it to dry someone else’s hair, for money, requires more than 1,000 hours of training and an expensive state-issued license. Blow-drying hair without a license could—incredibly—land you in jail for up to six months.

America is saturated with ridiculous licensing rules that do little to protect public health or safety. They exist mostly as a way to drive-up prices and restrict employment. Cosmetology licensing laws are some of the worst offenders of common sense, and Arizona’s cosmetology licensing laws truly boggle the mind. Doing something as simple as shampooing, drying, and styling hair requires a full-fledged cosmetology license, which includes years of training in hair and skin care, makeup application, and other un-related skills.

Before applying for that license, an applicant would have to graduate from a beauty school, which can cost as much as $15,000 in tuition.

State Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-Scottsdale) says the licensing requirement is particularly troublesome for so-called blow-dry bars—salons that offer nothing more than shampooing and styling of hair, without cutting, coloring, or other more advanced hair care.

She plans to introduce a bill to exempt workers who “dry, style, arrange, curl, hot-iron, or shampoo and condition hair” from the state’s cosmetology licensing law, as long as they do not use chemicals to permanently straighten or curl hair and do not cut hair either.

That would be nice, but a complete dismantling of these legally-mandated trade guilds would be even better.

UNFORCED ERROR: “We’ve centralized all of our data to a guy called Mark Zuckerberg” says Pirate Bay Founder.

At its inception, the internet was a beautifully idealistic and equal place. But the world sucks and we’ve continuously made it more and more centralized, taking power away from users and handing it over to big companies. And the worst thing is that we can’t fix it — we can only make it slightly less awful.

That was pretty much the core of Pirate Bay’s co-founder, Peter Sunde‘s talk at tech festival Brain Bar Budapest.

But then there’s this:

Everything has gone wrong. That’s the thing, it’s not about what will happen in the future it’s about what’s going on right now. We’ve centralized all of our data to a guy called Mark Zuckerberg, who’s basically the biggest dictator in the world as he wasn’t elected by anyone.

Trump is basically in control over this data that Zuckerberg has, so I think we’re already there.

Huh?

HOW DARE THEY! Hillary Fans Lose Their Minds After Vanity Fair Suggests She Learns to Knit.

SECURITY: Specially prepared photos shown bypassing Windows Hello facial recognition.

Microsoft added an “enhanced anti-spoofing” mode in the Windows 10 Creators Update earlier this year that properly defeats the attack, but it’s neither enabled by default nor compatible with all Windows Hello hardware.

The obvious question with any kind of facial recognition-based biometric authentication system is, how easily can it be tricked with a photograph? Since it’s easy to take a picture of someone’s face, often without them even knowing, a facial recognition system that can be fooled by a photo isn’t much use. The Windows Hello system has two main parts: there’s the physical hardware, which for Hello is a webcam with infrared illumination and detection, and the software algorithms, which are part of Microsoft’s Biometric Framework. With this design, Microsoft can refine and improve the algorithms, and the improvements should work for any compatible hardware.

Windows Hello’s infrared requirement should protect it from being spoofed by regular photos. So what the researchers from SySS did was use a photo taken with an infrared camera. This photo was then adjusted to change its contrast and brightness and printed at a low resolution on a laser printer. The resulting picture was successful at authenticating a user with Hello on two separate devices: a Surface Pro 4, using its integrated camera, and a laptop, using a discrete LilBit USB camera.

Like several similar biometric security hacks, this one doesn’t seem to be much of a real-world security threat.

I’M STILL WAITING ON THAT CALIGULA REBOOT: The 10 Worst Movie Remakes of All Time.

BLUE STATE BLUES: Americans Fled Blue States In The Hundreds Of Thousands Due To High Taxes, Leaving Fewer To Pay The Democrats’ Tab.

CHANGE: China halts oil product exports to North Korea in November as sanctions bite.

Beijing also imported no iron ore, coal or lead from North Korea in November, the second full month of the latest trade sanctions imposed by U.N. China, the main source of North Korea’s fuel, did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to its isolated neighbor last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday.

November was the second straight month China exported no diesel or gasoline to North Korea. The last time China’s jet fuel shipments to Pyongyang were at zero was in February 2015.

“This is a natural outcome of the tightening of the various sanctions against North Korea,” said Cai Jian, an expert on North Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai. The tightening “reflects China’s stance,” he said.

OR IS IT? Chinese ships accused of breaking sanctions on North Korea.

Chinese vessels are secretly trading oil products with North Korea in violation of UN sanctions, diplomats have confirmed.

The news is likely to embarrass China and raise questions about its record of enforcing sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Diplomats from an Asian country confirmed information published this week in the South Korean press that such trade persists despite sanctions.

Last month the US Treasury published satellite photos of ships linked to each other at sea, apparently trading oil. Chosun, the prominent South Korean newspaper, on Tuesday cited people within South Korea’s government saying 30 such hookups had been spotted by spy satellites since October.

The clandestine oil trade apparently started soon after new sanctions capped the amount of oil products North Korea was allowed to import. 

It’s complicated.