IT’S COME TO THIS: New Segregation Signs Pop Up in Leftist Establishments.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What Would an iPhone X Have Cost in 1957?

Consider the 256 GB memory iPhone X: Implemented in vacuum tubes in 1957, the transistors in an iPhoneX alone would have:

• cost 150 trillion of today’s dollars: one and a half times today’s global annual product
• taken up a hundred-story square building 300 meters high, and 3 kilometers long and wide
• drawn 150 terawatts of power—30 times the world’s current generating capacity

Read the whole thing.

THE BLOG WHOSE TIME HAS COME: Sativa Las Vegas.

JOHN ELLIS: The Best Albums of the Carter Presidency.

I’m suspicious of any “best” list from that era which doesn’t include Steely Dan’s Aja or Rickie Lee Jones’s self-titled debut album. Otherwise, though, solid picks all around.

YOU DON’T SAY: Renewables Are Expanding at an Astounding Pace. But It’s Still Not Enough to Meet Climate Goals.

And that “astounding” expansion is being funded through tax breaks and subsidies, not because renewables are competitive or desirable compared to fossil fuels or nuclear.

POLL: Novelty of the Stay-at-Home Dad Trend May Be Wearing Off.

I’ve found even working from home can be tedious, and make the effort to get out more, even if it means dragging a laptop to somewhere with wifi.

POWER OF THE PURSE: A Chicago Judge Amazingly Rules That Grant Money Can Be Mandatory.

The scrapping over JAG money (Justice Assistance Grants) for sanctuary cities reached the next level this week. A federal judge in Chicago somehow issued an injunction preventing the Justice Department from not issuing grant money to non-compliant cities. As the Associated Press reports, it was Chicago bringing the challenge, but the judge extended his ruling to cover the entire country.
…
So what is Judge Leinenweber basing this ruling on? I’m not going to jump to any conclusions about bias in the case, particularly since he was a Reagan appointee and a Republican member of the state legislature before that. But the arguments he’s putting forth in the ruling seem to be indicating that not only do cities have some sort of inherent right to JAG money, but that they could suffer “irreparable harm” if they didn’t get it.

Read the whole thing.

The entitlement mentality isn’t limited to welfare recipients. In fact, the higher up you go, the worse it gets, whether it’s giant insurance companies or overbearing tech companies.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: 5 Characters Michael Keaton Crushed on the Big Screen.

He’s underrated — you’re gonna need a bigger list.

MOVE ON: NYT Reporter: I Know People Who Are ‘Still in Therapy’ Because Clinton Lost.

But does she know any Trump voters?

DEDICATION: Biologist reaches into electric eel tank, comes out with equation to measure shocks.

Electric eels’ leaping behavior had been described by Alexander von Humboldt way back in the 1800s. Humboldt claimed to have witnessed a dramatic battle between electric eels and horses in the Amazon. But, Catania says, “No one really necessarily believed it, or if they did, they thought it was just kind of weird.” Whatever they thought, it was more or less forgotten.

To understand the dynamics of the electrical circuit created when an eel contacts another animal, Catania developed an apparatus to accurately measure the strength of the electric current through a human arm when the electric eels leapt in attack. Catania put that apparatus to use with his own arm and a relatively small, and therefore less powerful, eel.

As reported in the new study, the electrical current delivered by the eel peaked at 40-50 milliamps. That’s more than enough to cause a person or animal considerable pain, but not enough to actually hurt them. In a video, one can see Catania’s arm reflexively pull back, an involuntary reaction similar to what would happen if you touched a hot stove.

“It’s impressive that a little eel could deliver that much electricity,” Catania says. Of course, they have good reason as they may encounter crocodiles, predatory cats, and “who knows what else,” he adds. “We don’t know the main driver of the behavior, but they need to deter predators, and I can tell you it’s really good at that. I can’t imagine an animal that had received this [jolt] sticking around.”

The video is definitely squirm-inducing.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Who’s a Fascist? Why Does it Matter?

TYLER O’NEIL: $450,000 Spent and 1 Life Lost to Remove Robert E. Lee Statue.

STUNNING: NASA’s Free E-Book Offers Top 100 Cassini Images.

FLASHBACK: Bernie in 1987: Medicaid for All Would ‘Bankrupt the Nation.’

His position has merely evolved leftward, as always seems to be the case.

CREATIVE BANKRUPTCY: Here Are All of Disney’s Upcoming Live-Action Remakes.

You may have noticed that Disney, not content with the success of its Pixar releases, Marvel movies, or massive Star Wars universe thanks to the Lucasfilm purchase, has started remaking its classic animated films in live-action form. It sort of began with Maleficent, the pricey retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale from the villain’s point of view with Angelina Jolie taking on leading lady duties. The film was a sizeable success, but instead of continuing to put twists on older films, Disney instead started straight-up remaking them.

Big budgets, safe bets, shrinking audiences.

GET OFF MY ROOF! Angry grandpa throws burglary suspect off roof, ends the police standoff.

ART IMITATES LIFE: Books about Russia are red-hot right now.

Russians are hot in the publishing world these days, and leading the pack is “A Legacy of Spies” by John Le Carré, his first George Smiley novel in 25 years.

The latest book finds Smiley protege Peter Guillam retired from the world of spies, enjoying some rest and relaxation on a farm in southern Brittany. But his Cold War past gets dredged up again as he and other colleagues are called back to London to account for past misdemeanors, actions taken during a time when the methods used against the Soviets mattered less than winning the ideological war.

Other recent and upcoming diplomatic thrillers — and you’ll know one when you see it: blocky font, red type, Kremlin on the cover, hammer and sickle optional — include “The Defectors” (Atria, out now) a page-turner by Joseph Kanon involving the KGB, the CIA and two American brothers caught between the two; and “The Shadow List” (GP Putnam’s Sons, out Tuesday) by Todd Moss, formerly the top American diplomat in West Africa, which deals with a Nigerian e-mail scam, a married couple that works for the US State Department and the CIA, and a Russian master criminal nicknamed The Bear.

I’m less sure about the others, but the Le Carré just went to the top of my Kindle stack.

MARY KATHARINE HAM: Can Trump Shoot The Wall In The Middle Of Fifth Ave And Get Away With It?

SPENGLER: Germany’s refugee crisis through the looking-glass.

NASA HAS A TUMBLR of photos and animations of Cassini’s best discoveries.

PATRICK POOLE: Two Separate Terror Attacks in France Today, One Suspect Still on the Loose.

BATTLESWARM BLOG: Clinton Corruption Update.

It’s been almost five years since a Clinton last held public office, but these corruption stories go on and on.

TRUTH, JUSTICE… ALL THAT STUFF: Superman Protects Undocumented Workers From Armed White Supremacist in Latest Comic.

Kate Steinle could not be reached for comment.

JOHN BOLTON: ‘There Is Simply No Argument About Continuing This Iran Deal, Period.’

REPORT: Trump Called AG an Idiot, Told Him to Quit.

Whether or not there’s any truth to the report, Sessions has not proven himself to be the Attorney General this administration needs.