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A growing number of men are undergoing a radical and expensive surgery to grow anywhere from three to six inches. The catch: It requires having both your femurs broken. GQ goes inside the booming world of leg lengthening.

On the other hand, you get titanium femurs, and how cool is that?

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Believe it.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Of course, you have to be rich or have a job that doesn’t tie you down to one place. How many 28-year-olds can say that?

(Key point: “… it’s cheaper than living onshore in Southern California …”)

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It needs reliable cheap electricity.

IN JUNE, A vast new vertical farm opened on the outskirts of the English town Bedford. At a swanky opening event, members of the UK Parliament heard that the gleaming facility would one day produce 20 million plants annually. It was the latest opening for Infarm, a European vertical farming company that had raised over $600 million in venture capital funding, promising a future where vegetables are grown in high-tech warehouses stacked with LED lights rather than in open fields or greenhouses.

But now the future of the Bedford farm looks less than gleaming. On November 29, Infarm’s founders emailed its workforce to announce they were laying off “around 500 employees”—more than half of the workforce. The email detailed the firm’s plans to downsize its operations in the UK, France, and the Netherlands, and concentrate on countries where it had stronger links to retailers and a higher chance of eventually turning a profit. In September, Infarm had already laid off 50 employees, citing a need to reduce operating costs and focus on profitability.

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For more than thirty years, Scott Adams has captured the absurdity and humor of office life in his popular syndicated newspaper cartoon strip “Dilbert.” The title character, an oblong-headed, cubicle-dwelling everyman, is one of the most familiar cartoon characters in America, but last September he vanished from more than seventy newspapers.

Shortly before Dilbert’s partial disappearance, his opinionated creator had set his sights on ESG. Adams’s views on the vogue for “Ethical, Social and Corporate Governance” investment strategies weren’t exactly difficult to discern. In one strip, for example, Dilbert asks, “What is this ‘ESG’ thing I keep hearing about?” His sidekick Dogbert offers a definition: “Imagine if a crooked politician and a crooked financial advisor got married and had a baby.” “So… ESG would be that baby?” “Only if it is colicky and has firehose diarrhea.”

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The tedious proglodyte trope “FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!” gets threadbare pretty quickly when you realize that THE SCIENCE changes from year to year, sometimes even from month to month. Remember when red meat was bad for you? Remember when butter was bad for you? Remember when eggs were bad for you? Remember when fat was bad for you? Well, it turns out that THE SCIENCE was actually wrong.

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The key distinction here is between income and wealth. Really Wealthy People have income, of course, but they don’t need it; if you have a million dollars, you can spend $50,00 a year (and I could live quite comfortably on $50,000 a year) for twenty years with no income at all.

The fly in the ointment is that everyone, no matter what his or her income, can always think about somebody who is far richer, and naturally thinks, by comparison with that person I am middle class.  That’s why the vast majority of people in the U.S. think they are ‘middle class’, even if they are demonstrably not.

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Supposedly, European high-speed trains are so successful that the airlines stop operating when new high-speed rail corridors open. The reality is much more dismal: in order to guarantee customers for its trains, France is banning airline flights in corridors served by high-speed rail. This is a tacit admission that government-owned trains can’t compete without forcibly shutting down competitors.

Under the new rule, commercial air flights are banned in corridors where trains can make the same journey in under 150 minutes. So far, this is limited to Paris-Bordeaux, Paris-Lyon, and Paris-Nantes. The French government wanted to extend it to five more city pairs, but the European Commission ruled that France could only ban air travel in corridors that had not just fast but frequent rail service. Members of France’s Green Party also want to extend it to corridors where trains make the journey in under 240 minutes.

Paris-Lyon is supposed to be the most successful high-speed rail corridor in Europe, one that supposedly makes a profit. The Antiplanner has questioned such claims because the state-owned rail company hasn’t published actual numbers, but France’s effort to legislate away the competition suggests that the trains aren’t doing as well as people claim.

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We’ve all seen the videos of activists from Extinction Rebellion and similar groups who glue themselves to roads, trains, walls, and works of art to protest governmental and corporate climate policies. Motorists in Germany had apparently had enough of all that nonsense, and forcibly removed the glued-on protesters.

It’s important to note that these pro-active citizens seemed to be “New Germans”. Perhaps “Germans who have been here longer” were unwilling to take the risks associated with unauthorized spontaneous actions.

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Sometimes I wonder whether he’s even Christian.

The title of this post is a reference to an old rhetorical question — which was also usually accompanied by an allusion to the defecatory habits of ursines in an arboreal environment — intended to convey the idea that one’s interlocutor was stating something obvious. Concerning the Pope, however, the question is no longer a rhetorical one. He’s not really Catholic, but what is he?

jRead it.

You have to see it to believe it.

How Greenland’s Mineral Wealth Made It a Geopolitical Battleground (Foreign Policy)

Norwegian companies submit record $20.5 billion fossil fuel investment plans amid Russia-Ukraine war

Moldova suspends 6 TV channels over alleged misinformation (Washington Post)

Germany Unleashed Half-Trillion Dollar ‘Energy Bazooka’ To Keep Lights On

Kremlin TV Stars Combust as Russians Admit War Is Aimless (Daily Beast)

How Putin’s technocrats saved the economy to fight a war they opposed (Financial Times)

Pacifist Japan unveils biggest military build-up since World War Two (Reuters)

Russian Diplomat Hospitalized In Mail-Bomb ‘Terror Attack’

Japan Unveils Biggest Military Buildup Since WW II Amid China Worries

Fresh Missile Barrage Leaves Cities Across Ukraine Without Power Or Water In Sub-Zero Temps

India Test-Fires Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile After Minor Border Clash With China

Ukrainian Commander: High-Caliber Weapons Dealing Russians ‘Heavy’ Losses

South Dakota Gov. Noem Proposes Legislation To Restrict Chinese Purchase Of US Farmland

US Sends Infantry Unit To Base Just Miles Away From Russian Border In Estonia

Blossoming Iran-Russia Axis Becomes a Big Problem

Peace Between Jordan and Israel Unraveling, Report Says

US Believes Ukraine Can Retake Crimea, But May Provoke Nuclear Escalation

Iran asking Russia to sell military ships, help build new designs: Israeli sources

However, she now qualifies for a Federal agricultural program that pays her more for NOT raising sheep than she ever made from raising them. Plus she now has more free time for social media.

Not a problem. Order a Quarter Pounder: The keto dweeb gets the meat, the vegetarian gets everything else, and have Uber Eats deliver it. Problem solved.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking his state’s attorney general to investigate how a network of private organizations is colluding with the Biden administration to facilitate the worst border crisis in American history.

Like the European NGOs providing fake migrant ‘rescues’ in the Mediterranean.

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People in the “news business” are very upset that interest in their work is fading, and business isn’t booming. But in sharply divided times, the “news” too often sounds like it goes from one extreme to another. It comes across as either viciously negative or mawkishly positive. It feels less like information and more like propaganda.
On December 12, CBS Mornings gushed over filmm

ker Alexandra Pelosi, who’s made a series of political documentaries for HBO. But the latest is Pelosi in the House, a valentine to her mother and her career. This isn’t a first for HBO. Ten years ago, Rory Kennedy made a film about her mother Ethel, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy. At least, Ethel Kennedy didn’t have her own political legacy to promote. But these are more like home movies. What makes them interesting is daughters making films about their mothers.

CBS, like other supine publicists, touted Alexandra’s “extraordinary access,” which is actually quite ordinary for mother and daughter. She ridiculously claimed “I was never actually given permission” to film. CBS, like other soft-touch outlets, let Alexandra claim “I’m not a political person.” This is transparently false. You can’t make political documentaries and claim you’re not a political person.

UPDATE: Here Are The Worst Moments From Alexandra Pelosi’s HBO Doc On Her Mom

Ukraine Situation Report: Russia Relying On ‘Degraded’ Ammo Says Pentagon

Success! Air Force’s First Hypersonic Weapon Completes Full Test With Flying Colors

Army Has Newly Modified Vehicles For Impersonating Russian And French Types

U.S. sends first shipment of power gear to aid Ukraine (Reuters)

Grim winter takes hold in Ukraine: US and its NATO allies need to act before it’s too late (The Hill)

Group Behind 9/11 Gets Hands on Material to Make Nuclear Bomb—Report (Newsweek)

Ukraine Attacked ‘Wagner HQ’ Using US-Supplied Rockets: Report

No longer science & technology projects, high-energy laser weapons are now operational

The Black Market For Oil Is Booming  Markets work, even when you don’t want them to.

Zelenskyy: Putin’s Death Would End War  So would Zelensky’s, I suspect.

Ex-Marine Faces Charges Over Chinese Military Pilot Training

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Really, you just can’t make this shit up.

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We have the technology.

Join that to the ‘robot workers’ trend and eventually they won’t send paramedics, just a drone with a big box of bandages and directions to the nearest hospital. (Maybe with a 10%-off coupon.)

UPDATE: Find My lays out global anatomy of an iPhone theft  You won’t get your property back, and nobody will go to jail, but at least you get to watch an episode of Where In The World Is Fred’s iPhone.

The only photograph of Maxine Waters smiling.

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Anarchy gets a bad rap, mainly because the word sounds cool and gets used as a synonym for chaos, disorder and violence. A lot of people will laugh when you bring up the idea of anarchist leadership, or anarchist organizations. When you introduce yourself as an anarchist you often wind up needing to cover a fair amount of rhetorical ground just to convince people you’re not a violent maniac or an adult with the brain of a teenage skateboard punk from a Disney Channel Original movie.

There are a lot of different ways to ‘do’ anarchy, but the general goal is always the same: the dismantling of unjust hierarchies. Murray Bookchin was an American. The ideas that wound up shaping the system in Rojava were originally conceived because they were the system he thought could best take hold in the United States. Bookchin saw massive, dense urban areas making laws for rural mountain-dwellers hundreds of miles away. He saw small-town voters forcing their beliefs on cosmopolitan city-dwellers via legislation. The goal of Libertarian Municipalism was to break down these unfair hierarchies.

Is there such a thing? Read and find out.

Europe is simply switching gas dependency from Russia to U.S.-RIA cites Kremlin (Reuters)

Analysis Shows More Iranian-Made Drones in Strikes on Ukraine Infrastructure

Nato Chief Fears Ukraine Will Precipitate “Major War” Between West and Russia

Which Countries Believe WWIII Is Coming?

WINNING: Big Brother And The Invisibility Cloak

INFORMATION WARFARE: Russian Cyber War Fails In Ukraine

Fighting Rages in East Ukraine, West Eyes More Sanctions on Russia

Pentagon Gives Tacit Support For Ukrainian Drone Attacks Deep Inside Russia

Report: Russia Using Ukrainian-Made Missiles Against Ukraine

Zelensky Seen Sitting On Mall Santa’s Lap Asking For Another $50 Billion (Babylon Bee)

Israel Threatens to Bomb Beirut Airport if Iran Smuggles Weapons: Report  Unlike Democrats, the Israelis are not to be fucked with.

Ukraine Intelligence: Russian Military Loses 24 Tanks in a Single Day  Well, were did you see them last?

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One Negro: Check.

One woman: Check.

I guess they couldn’t find a Nonbinary Person of Color for their largesse. Pity.

A prison inmate … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A convicted felon … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A drug cartel minion … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A drug dealer … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A drug addict … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A homeless ‘street person’ … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A coyote human trafficker … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A person with tattoos … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A person with body piercings … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A person with unnaturally colored hair … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

Someone who follows a daily horoscope … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A Wiccan … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A modern ‘pagan’ … votes Republican? votes Democrat?

A pedophile … vote Republican? votes Democrat?

Read it.

AT MOFFETT FIELD in Mountain View, Calif., Lighter Than Air (LTA) Research is floating a new approach to a technology that saw its rise and fall a century ago: airships. Although airships have long since been supplanted by planes, LTA, which was founded in 2015 by CEO Alan Weston, believes that through a combination of new materials, better construction techniques, and technological advancements, airships are poised to—not reclaim the skies, certainly—but find a new niche.

Although airships never died off entirely—the Goodyear blimps, familiar to sports fans, are proof of that—the industry was already in decline by 1937, the year of the Hindenburg disaster. By the end of World War II, airships couldn’t compete with the speed airplanes offered, and they required larger crews. Today, what airships still linger serve primarily for advertising and sightseeing.

LTA’s Pathfinder 1 carries bigger dreams than hovering over a sports stadium, however. The company sees a natural fit for airships in humanitarian and relief missions. Airships can stay aloft for long periods of time, in case ground conditions aren’t ideal, have a long range, and carry significant payloads, according to Carl Taussig, LTA’s chief technical officer.

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Engineers ought not to design products. Products need to be designed by users, or with users in close proximity to the design process–and never go to market without extensive User Acceptance Testing. “Looks cool” doesn’t square with “practical”, and practical is what drives sales.

I wish there were a mutual fund that tracked the Obesity Index. That would be an investment.

ZMan’s weekly podcast. Highly recommended.

Years ago I did a show on what it means to be on the dissident right, but it was long enough ago to revisit the topic. Back when I did the show, hardly anyone used the term so it was a different conversation than today, when lots of people use it. In fact, far too many people recklessly throw around the label. Just because you got booted from your Facebook group for using the N-word does not make you a dissident.

What you see is lots of people who used to claim the label alt-right having stopped using that now discredited term and picking up this new label. Their opinions have not changed and their understanding has not changed. They just needed a new label so they scanned around and found one that had not be ruined yet. In many cases, these people have no coherent politics at all, just grievances.

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Tell the truth: You didn’t miss them, did you?

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We treat those inside differently than we do those outside. This is necessary and good. The disaster at the southern border is an illustration of what happens when a community refuses to police its boundaries. A nation simply can’t exist without them. But neither can any human organization, whether it’s the family, a neighborhood, a corporation, or a school of thought. Knowing who’s “in” and who’s “out” is essential for allocating resources, building consensus, and organizing effectively to pursue goals.

At the same time, policing the wrong boundaries—or policing them too severely—can lead to paralysis and death. From the 1960s until the end of the Obama Administration, the borders of the conservative movement were very clearly understood. This was true even as, or perhaps in part because, the movement was growing more and more sclerotic. Trump played a key role in breaking up this ossified Republican establishment, but he wasn’t the initiator. The structure was already hollowing out, and Trump’s victory in the 2016 primaries only administered the final push.

The rain came down, the floods rushed in, the winds blew and beat against that house, and great was the fall of it. After the collapse, we didn’t simply aim to re-build. We set ourselves to the work of building a new movement—leaner, stronger, and custom-designed for the powerful new storms we face. Elements of the old guard have recognized the need for something new and brought their wisdom to bear on the new coalition. But many have “self-deported” or been replaced. The old priests of the commentariat—Boot, Kristol, French, etc.—have been cast, teeth gnashing, into the outer darkness, and a great diversity of new voices and ideas has risen to prominence.

In the last six years, we have made enormous progress. So much, in fact, that some are feeling the urge to begin marking our new borders and policing who is inside and outside. This is a natural impulse, and it is a task that will need to be done eventually—but in my view, it is too early to begin gatekeeping. There is still much building to be done, after all, and our progress to this point has been a product of a vigorous dialogue among a broad array of thinkers with divergent ideas and common interests. Nevertheless, we do need strategies that allow us to best allocate our resources. We need some criteria by which to evaluate where effective alliances can be made—a way to know the people with whom we can have a productive dialogue, and a way to know when we’re wasting our breath. I propose two criteria by which to make these determinations: honesty and sacrifice.

Trump at his worst is still better for the country than any Democrat at his (or her) best.

That’s all you really need to know.

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Yet another rich person’s toy.

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Since cities are the base of Democrat cronyism and corruption, which is in turn the foundation of their electoral power, they would appear to be in trouble.

ZMan jerks back the curtain.

The reason our elections are meaningless, of course, is that no human society ever subjects important things to democracy. The old joke about if voting mattered, they would not let us do it was funny because it is true. There is no correlation between public opinion and public policy. This study from 2014 went through 1800 issues and found no link between what the people told the politicians they wanted and what the politicians eventually did.

If nothing important is ever subjected to democracy and democracy never results in the public will manifesting in public policy, then why are people hooked on the act of voting and why is democracy an object of worship. Based on observation it appears there is no argument that can be made to convince the bulk of the people to end this absurd charade we call voting. Suggest a boycott of the process and the typical suburban peasant gives you a sermon about democracy.

Compounding this bizarre worship of democracy is that most modern people live a third of their lives as fascists. The self-employed person has almost disappeared from the labor market. Small business is following the self-employed into the abyss as big business dominates the marketplace. That means most people work in companies that operate along fascist principles. If half of your waking life is committed to fascism, how in the world has democracy become an object of worship?