GOOD LORD: Radiation at Japan’s Fukushima Reactor Is Now at ‘Unimaginable’ Levels.

Adam Housley, who reported from the area in 2011 following the catastrophic triple-meltdown, said this morning that new fuel leaks have been discovered.

He said the radiation levels – as high as 530 sieverts per hour – are now the highest they’ve been since 2011 when a tsunami hit the coastal reactor.

“To put this in very simple terms. Four sieverts can kill a handful of people,” he explained.

He said that critics, including the U.S. military in 2011, have long questioned whether Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and officials have been providing accurate information on the severity of the radiation.

TEPCO maintains that the radiation is confined to the site and not a risk to the public. It’s expected to take at least $300 billion and four decades to fix it.

Faster, please.

SUPER! Marvel Comics to Abandon Social Justice Storylines?

The comicbook industry has suffered from a lot of self-inflicted wounds.

SOCIAL JUSTICE MEDIA:

Anything is tolerated on Twitter, so long as it isn’t dissent. Or humor. Or fun.

I’m in the process of moving my Twitter-type social-media cocktail-party activities to gab.ai. It’s in beta and a little rough around the edges, but I like what I see so far — and they promise unmitigated freedom to speak and no shadow-banning.

LASERS, IS THERE ANYTHING THEY CAN’T DO? Lasers help doctors remove brain cancer.

Lasers can help surgeons rapidly analyse brain cancers and decide how much tissue to remove, a study shows.

It is a difficult decision as taking too little leads to the cancer coming back, while too much could lead to disability.

The technique, called SRS microscopy, has been tried on more than 360 patients at the University of Michigan Medical School and Harvard University.

The next stage is for it to be tested in full clinical trials.

“Brain cancer is like a cloud, you can define the centre, but the edges are really hard to discern,” says one of the researchers, Dr Daniel Orringer.

In other cancers – such as in the bowel – doctors would just take some of the non-essential surrounding tissue as well.

However, there is no non-essential tissue in the brain.

This study is so impressive that I’m not going to quibble with that last line.

REGULATORY CAPTURE: Fixing the Federal Policy on E-Cigs Will Save Lives.

Unless something changes soon, the doomsday clock will strike midnight on the e-cigarette industry. Thanks to regulations finalized in August 2016 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), manufacturers of e-cigarettes and nicotine vapor products now have less than two years to complete an expensive and arduous application process to keep their products on the market. Unable to shoulder the costs, many mom and pop vape shops are already starting to shutter. Thousands more are likely to close soon.

Meanwhile, smokers and former smokers who rely on e-cigarettes as smoking-cessation tools or lower-risk alternatives will soon encounter limited options and increased costs. In all likelihood, many probably will be driven back to combustible cigarettes. This would be a real shame, since e-cigarettes are at least 95 percent less harmful than combustible alternatives and smoking-related illness is a leading cause of preventable death in America.

These Obama-era FDA regs are about collecting tax revenue and protecting established players in the nicotine-delivery business (AKA, Big Tobacco).

ENERGY: Global oil glut disappearing faster than expected.

“This implies that current crude oil price levels are near the point where the market balances, allowing U.S. and OPEC production to increase to meet higher demand in 2017 and 2018,” the EIA said.

Total world consumption for crude oil and liquid fuels is expected to average 98.09 million barrels per day this year, up from the previous forecast of 97.2 million barrels a day, the EIA said in its latest report.

The EIA also raised its price forecast for West Texas Intermediate crude CLH7, -0.71% to $53.46 a barrel this year, from the previous forecast of $52.50. For 2018, it upped its view by $1 to $56.18. It also lifted forecasts on Brent LCOJ7, -0.44% to $54.54 this year and $57.18 next year.

Notice that prices are expected to hover in the $50-$60 range (as predicted here and many other places), rather than in the $100-$140 range.

Have you hugged a fracker today?

BUT OF COURSE: Russian opposition leader ‘found guilty’

Russia’s main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been found guilty of embezzlement, local media report.

A judge is still reading the verdict in the city of Kirov, but news agencies said it was clear in his remarks that Mr Navalny had been convicted.

Even a suspended sentence would bar him from running for president next year.

An outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, Mr Navalny has denied the accusations, saying the case is politically motivated.

Show trials for political troublemakers (or even those suspected of merely harboring anti-Party leanings) have been a staple of Russian “justice” since the 1930s.

MSNBC’S KATY TUR: Like Putin, Trump Might Kill Journalists.

How does anyone on the Left sleep at night?

BUFFS WITH FRICKIN LASER BEAMS: Air Force Laser Weapons to Defend B-52 Bomber.

Offensive and defensive laser weapons for Air Force fighter jets and large cargo aircraft have been in development for several years now. However, the Air Force Research Lab has recently embarked upon a special five-year effort, called the SHIELD program, aimed at creating sufficient on-board power, optics and high-energy lasers able to defend large platforms such as a B-52 bomber.

“You can take out the target if you put the laser on the attacking weapon for a long enough period of time,” Air Force Chief Scientist Greg Zacharias told Scout Warrior in an exclusive interview.

Possibly using an externally-mounted POD with sufficient transportable electrical power, the AFRL is already working on experimental demonstrator weapons able to bolt-on to an aircraft, Zacharias added.
Given that an external POD would add shapes to the fuselage which would make an aircraft likely to be vulnerable to enemy air defense radar systems, the bolt-on defensive laser would not be expected to work on a stealthy platform, he explained.

However, a heavily armed B-52, as a large 1960s-era target, would perhaps best benefit from an ability to defend itself from the air; such a technology would indeed be relevant and potentially useful to the Air Force, as the service is now immersed in a series of high-tech upgrades for the B-52 so that it can continue to serve for decades to come.

Classical reference in the headline.

AGENDA: 5 Great Reforms Betsy DeVos Will Bring to the Department of Education.

I’d be happy with just one reform — abolishing the department.

STUDY: 92% of ‘Anti-Fascist’ Protesters in Europe Still Live With Their Mom.

They’re venting their frustration at their parents for having made their lives too easy.

NOT SMART: Open-Carry Stunt in Police Station Ends with Arrests.

It could have ended with a lot worse than arrests.

THIS IS SPINAL TAP: Spinal Tap creators aim to ‘go to 11’ with $400m lawsuit.

The off-screen reunion brings together the characters of bassist Derek Smalls (played by Shearer), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead vocalist and guitarist David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), as well as director and narrator Rob Reiner.

They claim Vivendi manipulated accounting data, while ignoring contractually obligated accounting and reporting processes, to deny them their rightful stake in the film’s profits.

The complaint alleges that between 1989 and 2006, Vivendi reported that the total income from soundtrack music sales was just $98.

It also claims that Vivendi reported that the four creators’ share of total worldwide merchandising income between 1984 and 2006 was $81, despite music and merchandise linked to the film racking up “tens of millions of dollars” in revenue.

Guest said: “The deliberate obfuscation by Vivendi and its subsidiaries is an outrage. It is vital that such behaviour is challenged in the strongest way possible.”

That’s just nitpicking, isn’t it?

BIG BROTHER: Vizio Caught Spying on Customers Through Their TVs.

The popular TV maker Vizio began in 2014 to incorporate software into its TV sets to collect information about our viewing habits on a second by second basis. Then, working with a data analytics company, they were able to associate that data with very detailed and specific personal information of the viewers. Yes, Vizio sold you a TV set and turned around and spied on you as a thank you for your business!

Vizio installed the software on 11 million TV sets without ever asking for permission or informing their owners that they were collecting the data. After a lawsuit was filed by the FTC and the State of New Jersey, Vizio settled and paid a fine of $2.2 million.

We have one of those so-called “smart” TVs, but Samsung is crazy if they think I’m ever going to give it the password to my WiFi.

THE END OF KEMAL’S TURKEY: Turkey dismisses 4,400 public servants in latest post-coup attempt purge.

Erdogan has had a busy week, consolidating his power.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: Neil Gorsuch Needs 60 Votes.

FLASHBACK:

They don’t call it “the Reid Option” for nothin’.

GOOD ADVICE, BUT THEY WON’T TAKE IT: I Helped Create the Milo Trolling Playbook. You Should Stop Playing Right Into It.

In 2009, I helped sketch out a marketing campaign for an internet personality and blogger named Tucker Max. With a very limited advertising budget available for the independent movie he had written and produced, we had few options for getting the word out.

Maybe it was crazy but my thinking was that one of the best ways to get young men to go see a movie was to tell them they should not be allowed to see it. What ensued was several months of chaos and controversy that ultimately drove Tucker’s book to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, sold out a multi-college bus tour and ultimately sold millions of dollars worth of tickets, dvds and books.

It was a masterful bit of trolling that admittedly felt a lot more meaningful and exciting when I was younger than it does to me today: We encouraged protests at colleges by sending outraged emails to various activist groups and clubs on campuses where the movie was being screened. We sent fake tips to Gawker, which dutifully ate them up. We created a boycott group on Facebook that acquired thousands of members. We made deliberately offensive ads and ran them on websites where they would be written about by controversy-loving reporters. After I began vandalizing some of our own billboards in Los Angeles, the trend spread across the country, with parties of feminists roving the streets of New York to deface them (with the Village Voice in tow).

But my favorite was the campaign in Chicago—the only major city where we could afford transit advertising. After placing a series of offensive ads on buses and the metro, from my office I alternated between calling in angry complaints to the Chicago CTA and sending angry emails to city officials with reporters cc’d, until ‘under pressure,’ they announced that they would be banning our advertisements and returning our money. Then we put out a press release denouncing this cowardly decision.

When your personal morality is defined by your ability to be seen being outraged, you’ll fall for these methods every time. Milo creates extra outrage because he’s conservative, white, and gay.

TODAY’S HEADLINE: Warren Silenced For Reading Coretta Scott King Letter at Sessions Debate.

FLASHBACK: Senate Dems planning “unprecedented” obstruction of Cabinet nominees.

UPDATE: Don’t miss the video of Warren.

YES. Is it possible to be too ‘nice’ for your own good?

YOUNG PIONEERS: Socialist Student Group Teaches How to Beat Up Trump’s ‘Fascists’

A wise man once said something about punching back twice as hard.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED IT WAS A TERRIBLE FIGHTER: F-35 Scores Impressive 15:1 Kill Ratio at Red Flag War Games.

Running from January 23 to February 10, this year’s Red Flag involves more threats to pilots than ever before, including surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), radar jamming equipment, and an increased number of red air, or mock enemy aircraft. Against the ramped-up threats, the F-35A only lost one aircraft for every 15 aggressors killed, according to Aviation Week.

The F-35 Lightning II’s advanced avionics software was the star of the show, as multiple F-35s successfully compiled data into a detailed layout of the battlefield with each individual threat pinpointed. The stealthy aircraft could then slip into weak spots in the defensive layout and take out SAM targets, opening up the space for follow-on forces of legacy fighters. Even when the F-35s ran out of munitions, F-22 and fourth-generation fighter pilots wanted the aircraft to remain in the combat zone, soaking up data and porting target info to the older fighters.

And the next batch of Air Force F-35As should come in at under $100 million per copy, thanks to Lockheed’s continuing production and volume efficiency improvements. That price is down 60% since the initial low-rate production run, and each new batch has come in at a lower flyaway cost than the preceding one.

The wisdom of forcing nearly-identical airframes into VTOL service (Marine F-35B) and aircraft carrier service (Navy F-35C) can and should still be debated. But the F-35A seems, at long last, to be performing to Air Force spec.

There’s some icing on this cake, too. We’ll build a couple thousand of our second fifth-generation jet, while the Russians and Chinese struggle to put up just one or two stealth fighter squadrons of dubious quality.

GOOD JOB, EVERYBODY: 3 Signs the U.S. Liquor Business Had a Great 2016.

One counterindicator is that my health has never been better.

GET OFF MY LAWN — EVEN THOUGH YOU LOOK FABULOUS! Bernie Sanders Inspires Balenciaga Fall 2017 Collection.

Haven’t fashionistas gotten the message? Bernie is so 2016.

BIRTH CONTROL EQUALITY: Male contraceptive gel passes monkey test.

DUCK! YOU’RE GETTING A DELL! Dell laptop explodes 4 times in terrifying surveillance video.

(H/T, Will Collier.)