NEWS: Coke In Pyongyang, Hantavirus In Yosemite, Mitt In Action

Isaac's aftermath.

Mitt ... helps? ... a woman who's lost her house to the storm.

The revenant Ralph Reed.

Augmented cell phones will soon be able to screen for HIV:

The gadget, called Smartscope, is a small 1-millimeter (0.04-inch) microscope and light which clips over a smartphone's camera.

A standard chip with a blood sample then slides into the gadget in front of the microscope. Next, a special phone programme photographs the sample and analyses the cells.

The team hopes that trials in clinics may start next year ...

The new technology is destined for AIDS treatment in remote communities in South Africa and Swaziland, where clinics often don't have the technology to do these tests effectively.

A lonely Greek gay boy's imaginary friend comes to life, looking rather like Maria Callas circa 1972.

Two dead, thousands at risk from hantavirus after a stay in Yosemite:

Yosemite officials earlier this week shut down all 91 of the insulated tent cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through holes the size of pencil erasers, nesting between the [cabins'] double walls.

Park authorities said on Friday that they had contacted approximately 3,000 parties of visitors who stayed in the tent cabins since mid-June, advising them to seek immediate medical attention if they have symptoms of hantavirus.

Coca-Cola reaches Pyongyang. Freedom can't be far behind.

California's John Perez, the first openly-gay speaker of a state legislature, to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

Frank Bruni on the RNC:

... you certainly didn’t see anyone openly gay on the stage in Tampa. More to the point, you didn’t hear mention of gays and lesbians. Scratch that: Mike Huckabee, who has completed a ratings-minded transformation from genial pol to dyspeptic pundit, made a derisive reference to President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage. We were thus allowed a fleeting moment inside the tent, only to be flogged and sent back out into the cold.

It was striking not because a convention or political party should make a list of minority groups and dutifully put a check mark beside each ... It was striking because the Republicans went so emphatically far, in terms of stagecraft and storytelling, to profess inclusivenes ...

Republicans to descend on DNC for counter-convention, because ... they're unhappy with the one they just had?

... as many as 50 “communicators” ... will be stationed right outside the gates of the Time Warner Cable Arena. And there will be plenty of gimmicks and props, including “You Build It” Legos, “You Build It” Monopoly and plenty of Kleenex “because breaking up is hard to do.”

You've heard folkie Roy Zimmerman's not-quite-hit "Defenders of Marriage"? Or his "Romney Mitt: The Demon Barber Of Wall Street"? Well -- do, if you haven't. And AFTER THE JUMP, find out what he learned at the RNC ...

Two Terrible Centennials: VIDEO

On April 15th, 1912, the Titanic sank in the icy north Atlantic. Some 1,500 human beings lost their lives to drowning and hypothermia. On April 15, 2012, hundreds of other human beings take to the oceans to pay their respects.

At the same time, thousands of North Koreans take to the Pyongyang streets to mark the 100th birthday of Kim il-Sung in Mangyeongdaeguyeok. Though it made fewer headlines at the time, hindsight has proven the birth of Kim il-Sung a far crueler tragedy than the Titanic's sinking; Kim and his progeny have killed well over a thousand Titanics' worth of human beings through starvation, war, and political oppression. Nevertheless, the commemorations of the birth are rather less somber than those of the sinking. Watch an excerpt from North Korean TV AFTER THE JUMP ...

The Year In Review

Watch AFTER THE JUMP as Talking Points Memo does the year in 100 seconds.

NEWS: Santorum Surges, Kids Come Out, And Aliens Get Jiggy In Nevada

 The Santorum Surge:

“People say, well, when are you gonna get your surge?” says Santorum. (Some of the “people” are the reporters in the back of the room; some are the Iowa conservatives who keep doubting him.) “Everybody in this race has had their surge, and their bump. Why haven’t you had it? I say, I’m gonna get mine the old fashioned way. Actual people who know the candidates coming on board and helping us. Not some media creation. Not some clever line. But actually folks who are taking their time to look at the records, to look at the vision, to look at the character, to look at the courage.”

Santorum has been saying this all year. It stopped sounding ridiculous on Wednesday.

Rasmussen: If the election was tomorrow, Romney would beat Obama like a gong.

More speculation on Hillary as veep.

CNN.com's running a series of coming out stories from LGBT youth.

 Jim Burroway explains why so many racists and homophobes can dig a libertarian.

On harness-training a kitty.

Entrepreneur to rebrand brothel as "Area 51 Travel Center," Nevada's one-stop shop for sci-fi sex:

Hof describes the current state of the bordello as a “disgusting, terrible place” without a single window. The partners are hoping to finish a complete conversion inside of a couple of months, before beaming in customers.

The important details regarding the working women are still being hashed out, such as whether or not to paint the women green to resemble Orion Slave Girl characters from Star Trek.

However Hof tells CBS Las Vegas that for the clients he is reaching out “to everyone, all the Star Wars fans and Trekkies,” and cater to all flavors of geek fantasy.

Hof also hopes to collaborate with science fiction icons such as William Shatner – known better to his prospective clients as “Captain Kirk.”

China to land astronaut on the moon:

While Chinese scientists have previously discussed the possibility of a manned lunar mission, a government white paper published on Thursday is the first public government document to enshrine it as a policy goal.

China will “conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing”, the white paper said.

Although a manned moon mission is still some time off – Chinese experts say after 2020 – the statement highlights Beijing’s soaring ambitions just five months after the US retired its space shuttle programme . “Chinese people are the same as people around the world,” Zhang Wei, an official with China’s National Space Administration, said at a briefing. “When looking up at the starry sky, we are full of longing and yearning for the vast universe.”

Salon wonders: "Does gay sex cause incontinence?"

Reddit wonders: Did North Korea Photoshop a giant into pics of Kim Jong-il's funeral?

The Teens from Teens React wonder: What the hell is Rick Perry's "Strong" ad all about? Watch them discuss it AFTER THE JUMP ...

He's Dead.

Just a moment ago, the world learned that Kim Jong-il, supreme regent of his dead father's necrocracy, creator of famines, and would-be owner of a nation's souls, is dead, dead, dead. The Times had its obituary up in minutes. They've been waiting for this a long time. Lots of people have. 

From the Times:

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-il, the reclusive North Korean leader who has been battling ill health following a reported stroke in 2008, has died, the North’s official news media reported on Monday.

“Our great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il passed away at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 17,” Korean Central TV reported.

... Called the “Dear Leader” by his people, Mr. Kim, the son of North Korea’s founder, remained an unknowable figure. Everything about him was guesswork, from the exact date and place of his birth, to the mythologized events of his rise in a country formed by the hasty division of the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II.

North Koreans heard about him only as their “peerless leader” and “the great successor to the revolutionary cause.” Yet he fostered what was perhaps the last personality cult in the Communist world. His portrait hangs beside that of his father, Kim Il-sung, in every North Korean household and building. Towers, banners and even rock faces across the country bear slogans praising him.

That business will probably go on a while. CNN just announced that there will be a state funeral in Pyongyang on December 28th. It will undoubtedly be one of the greatest pageants of all time, though many North Koreans will be celebrating for more reasons than their state TV will let on.

Behind the scenes, old veteran generals of Kim Jong-il's administration will likely spar with the deceased despot's son and heir apparent, the 20-something-year-old Kim Jong-un, for control of the country's decrepit infrastructure, hungry masses, defective rockets, nuclear warheads, and outsized military. There's no telling what kind of North Korea will eventuate. Whatever comes, though, almost anything will be better than what's come before.

South Korea in 'Crisis Status' After North Korean Shelling

Tensions are high on the Korean peninsula following shelling of areas of South Korea earlier today by North Korea:

"Two South Korean soldiers were killed, 15 were wounded and three civilians were injured, said Kiyheon Kwon, an official at the Defense Ministry. The South Korean military went to 'crisis status,' and fighter planes were put on alert but did not take off. South Korean artillery units returned fire after the North’s shells struck South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island at 2:34 p.m., said Mr. Kwon, adding that the North also fired numerous rounds into the Yellow Sea. Television footage showed large plumes of black smoke spiraling from the island, and news reports said dozens of houses were on fire."

White House statement from Robert Gibbs: 

"Earlier today North Korea conducted an artillery attack against the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. We are in close and continuing contact with our Korean allies. The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement. The United States is firmly committed to the defense of our ally, the Republic of Korea, and to the maintenance of regional peace and stability."

Watch some raw footage, AFTER THE JUMP...