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designed a heat engine with no moving parts. Their new demonstrations show that it converts heat to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency — a performance better than that of traditional steam turbines.

The heat engine is a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell, similar to a solar panel’s photovoltaic cells, that passively captures high-energy photons from a white-hot heat source and converts them into electricity. The team’s design can generate electricity from a heat source of between 1,900 to 2,400 degrees Celsius, or up to about 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

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While remote work has enabled some people to relocate from expensive metro areas, many of the smaller cities and towns they went to have quickly developed housing shortages of their own.

America wasn’t always like this — we once built all those countless cities and towns, after all.

A common thread: American towns and cities are no longer able to adapt to new residents as they once were, thanks to rigid zoning codes and tangled bureaucracy that makes infrastructure cost far more than it does in Europe or Asia. Even a simple bus lane can take over a decade to implement. And trying to change this can result in endless political fights.

So what if we just started new cities?

What if we just got rid of zoning regulations? Houston demonstrates that not even big cities really need them.

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First off, AWFLs (I love that acronym: “affluent white female liberal”) seem to have relatively fixed notions of what constitutes personal security.

Credentialism. If you took the right course or earned the right certificates you are entitled to the matching job. I recall seeing a video of then Gov. Chris Christie facing a hostile crowd of teachers. A woman stood up and declared that because she had a master’s degree, she was entitled to a certain guaranteed salary level. When Christie said that if her degree were actually that valuable, why not take it out into the job market and get paid for it. There was a brief “does-not-compute” moment by her and then the crowd followed with angry outbursts.

…

Guarantees.  Women are by nature more risk-averse than men. “Safety net”, “single-payer” and anything else that sounds like it reduces the possibility of loss tends to be welcomed, especially by single women. Increased taxes only fall on the rich so that becomes the cognitive equivalent of having Daddy pay for it, which is the least he can do after having abandoned …

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Union + Minimum Wage -> Automation

Pretty soon the Democrat base will be all robots.

Jan. 6 revelations will ‘blow the roof off the House,’ Rep. Jamie Raskin says (NBC News) Who?

Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 Actions Qualify as ‘Treason’: Glenn Kirschner (Newsweek) Apparently he’s never read the Constitution, or doesn’t care to; typical Democrat.

J.D. Vance’s Former Roommate: He’s ‘the Most Dangerous Candidate’ (Daily Beast)

Jimmy Kimmel Rips Into ‘Glazed Ham’ Trump Over Sweaty Piers Morgan Interview (Daily Beast)

Trump Brags He Threatened to Not Defend NATO Allies From Russia (Newsweek) Betcha he didn’t.

Ron DeSantis’ Florida Congressional Map Is One of the Most Biased in U.S. (Newsweek)

Secrecy, sex and sun: captain reveals life aboard superyachts (The Guardian) Tabloid journalism without the journalism.

Virginia School Administrator Says She Was Harassed, Forced Out for Questioning Critical Race Theory

MSNBC: ‘Mafia Feel’ to DeSantis Revoking Disney Special Status

Escobar: Big Tech’s “Cancel Culture” Love-Affair

‘Balanced’ PBS NewsHour SMEARS Parents’ Rights Movement as QAnon Kook Fringe

CNN Condemns Florida For Not Teaching Conservatives Are Racist in Math Class

Florida releases 4 examples of CRT textbook content rejected for public schools

The GOP war on democracy is working. Just look at Ohio. (Washington Post) In the Narrative Media, ‘democracy’ means ‘Democrat vote fraud’.

The Babylon Bee Stands In Solidarity With Its Fellow Cancelled Satire Site CNN+  Babylon Bee.

How the left is further taking over public schools in Minnesota

American Library Association Picks Self-Proclaimed Marxist as President

2013 ‘Lie of the Year’ Winner Obama Claims ‘People Are Dying’ Because of Online Misinfo

Baltimore Residents To Get $1,000 Checks In UBI Pilot Test 

New York Democrats Aim To Tax Ammo To Fund Anti-Gun Research

Durham springs the trap on Hillary Clinton’s lawyer

Wisconsin Dem Rakes in Money From Corporate-Funded PACs While Raging Against Corporate Money

BBC Lauds Implantable Microchip “Wallet”

Twitter To Remove Ads That Contain ‘Misinformation’ About Climate Change

MSNBC’s Velshi Warns of ‘Dystopian’ Post-Roe America  After all, who would want to live in a world where mothers can’t kill their inconvenient children?

Acosta, Navarro Accuse Republicans of ‘Cancelling’ Disney

Secret Service claims it has ‘no records’ of who visits Biden in Delaware The Hunter BIden cover-up continues.

Biden administration asks federal judge to deny request to immediately block end of Title 42 (CNN)

West Virginia joins coalition challenging Title 42 decision

Migrant buses continue to arrive in Washington, DC from Texas

“Wrong And Reckless”: More Democrats Split With Biden As White House Hints At No Delay In Scrapping Title 42

Nets Ignore 13th Kamala Staffer Resigning: This Time, It’s Her Chief of Staff

What my great-great-grandfather, Theodore Roosevelt, got wrong about climate justice (CNN) Well, he never used the proglodyte term ‘climate justice’.

Dear Mr. President: C’mon, man, make climate a populist cause (Seattle Times)

Rising sea levels, erosion — already impacting Maryland — expected to worsen in next 2 decades (WBAL)

Five charts that show why our food is not ready for the climate crisis (The Guardian) Well, you can’t really argue with a chart, can you?

A kitchen-table solution to climate change (The Hill)

Sea level rise is a threat to all Californians, whether they live near the coast or not (KCRA Sacrament0)

Twitter Bans Paid Climate Skeptic Advertisements

Dispelling The Doomsday Propaganda In DisneyNature’s New Polar Bear ‘Documentary’

Increased Plant Productivity: The First Key Benefit of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment

Black leaders call on woke companies to support police, not BLM: ‘They should know better’

Zelenskyy says Ukraine invasion only the beginning; another apparent mass grave found near Mariupol (CNBC)

Russian General Lets Slip a Secret Plan to Invade Moldova and Seize Ukraine’s Entire Coastline (Daily Beast) My rule of thumb is, if the Daily Beast says it, you know it isn’t true.

Despite U.S. sanctions, oil traders help Russian oil reach global markets (NPR)

Why the U.S. is going after yachts and mansions of Russian billionaire oligarchs (CNBC) Because that’s where the money is?

Putin Tells EU Chief That Kiev Not Allowing Azov Militants To Surrender In Mariupol

Ukrainian Tennis Star Demands Russian Players Be Subjected To Ideological Purity Test

The city stopping the fall of south Ukraine

Indonesia Bans Edible Oil Exports, Sparks “Mayhem” As Global Food Crisis Ahead 

Kill the Tank: America’s Javelin Missile Is Second to None

Russian Diamond Flow To India Stops As US Sanctions Cause Gem Chaos 

Finland Says Will Likely Submit Application For NATO Membership In Coming Weeks  And Putin has only himself to blame.

The Russia-NATO Cyber War Is Escalating Fast

NATO & Russian Military Presence In Mediterranean Sea At Cold War Levels

Germany’s Scholz Resists Sending “Quickly Available” Tanks To Ukraine: ‘Could Lead To Nuclear War’

Liberals, Conservatives, and Russia: the Drama Triangle

Buchanan: First Priority – Avoid US War With Russia

What doctors wish patients knew about the BA.2 Omicron subvariant (AMA) They wish they knew how to PANIC!

Covid Whiplash: Now-Dominant BA.2 Variant Being Quickly Overtaken Across The U.S. By Yet Another Faster-Growing Omicron Offshoot, Says CDC

LA County reinstates mask mandate aboard public transit, ride share and LAX despite federal rules

Mapping environmental injustice (B0st0n Globe)

CBS Skips Philly Ending Mask Mandate After Week of Spreading Fear Over Rising Cases

Shanghai Doubles Down On Quarantine Measures Despite Decline In Cases

“Pandemic Treaty” Will Hand WHO Keys To Global Government

King Felipe and Queen Letizia strike post pandemic first as they begin engagements without face masks

Facing Fauci’s fury

Showdown Looms Over Vacated Mask Mandate

“It is important to be open minded, but not so open minded that one’s brain falls out.” – Richard Feynman

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Imagine a world in which we could take care of our friends’ kids when they need to pop out, because our friends live a stone’s throw away. A world where any time you wanted to head out for a quick drink there would be a friend within ten minutes’ walk to go with. A world where you can easily get a pal over to set up a barbecue, or where you can play board games or have supper with friends on the slightest whim. Why don’t we live in that world already?

I live in London, a pretty large city. When I want to see my friends I often have to travel 45 minutes or an hour across town to do so. This level of latency is pretty annoying. Imagine how many Friends plotlines would have been broken if they hadn’t always been agglomerating across the hall from one another or in Central Perk.

This is much easier to do if everybody is renting in a dense urban area instead of owning homes in the suburbs, which is more usually the case.

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I really am flummoxed by the ineptitude of President Joe Biden and his chief of staff, Ron Klain. Biden has been a Washington politician for half a century, including eight years as vice president and before that a senior senator. Klain is a consummate Washington insider, having worked for Janet Reno, Al Gore, Biden and others.

How are they this inept?

Last summer, the border got swamped with migrants. They sent Vice President Kamala Harris south of the border and the situation never improved. Activists accused border patrol agents of whipping refugees with horsewhips. The White House condemned the act. But an investigation recently revealed no immigrants were whipped. White House staff have declined to apologize for believing the allegation.

Many border patrol agents are Hispanic. The criticisms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the border patrol by the left are criticisms of Hispanic voters and their families — a constituency the Democrats are losing. But the White House seems openly hostile to both.

Read it.

Now that’s comedy.

Against my natural inclination I’m starting to like Justin Hammer Elon Musk.

Read it.

Most everywhere you look on Wall Street, interest rates are going up. For everyday savers: not so much.

Read it.

Well, we shall see.

*sigh* I ought not to need to do this but …

• If it’s Right, it isn’t New. The whole point of Right is to be not-New.
• If it’s New, it isn’t Right. Yes, I’m looking at YOU, Jonah Goldberg.

That’s all you really need to know.

A reporter from Vanity Fair does his obligatory ticket-punching anthropological trip outside of the Left Coast.

But the people these pieces describe, who made up most of the partygoers around me, were only the most buttoned-up seam of a much larger and stranger political ferment, burbling up mainly within America’s young and well-educated elite, part of an intra-media class info-war. The podcasters, bro-ish anonymous Twitter posters, online philosophers, artists, and amorphous scenesters in this world are variously known as “dissidents,” “neo-reactionaries,” “post-leftists,” or the “heterodox” fringe—though they’re all often grouped for convenience under the heading of America’s New Right. They have a wildly diverse set of political backgrounds, with influences ranging from 17th-century Jacobite royalists to Marxist cultural critics to so-called reactionary feminists to the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, whom they sometimes refer to with semi-ironic affection as Uncle Ted. Which is to say that this New Right is not a part of the conservative movement as most people in America would understand it. It’s better described as a tangled set of frameworks for critiquing the systems of power and propaganda that most people reading this probably think of as “the way the world is.” And one point shapes all of it: It is a project to overthrow the thrust of progress, at least such as liberals understand the word.

The only thing missing is the Marlin Perkins Mutual of Omaha commercial.

“The fundamental premise of liberalism,” Yarvin told me, “is that there is this inexorable march toward progress. I disagree with that premise.” He believes that this premise underpins a massive framework of power. “My job,” as he puts it, “is to wake people up from the Truman Show.”

Yarvin understands the essential nature of Progressivism (not liberalism, which is an older and more feeble impulse that latched onto Progressivism during the Roosevelt years). This is what makes Yarvin (‘Mencius Moldbug’) worth reading.

Read it.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

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If you look closely at everything China has done since 1999 – at all aspects of its economic, military, diplomatic, and technological relations with the rest of the world – it’s like watching “Unrestricted Warfare” come to life. One can find other glimpses into the secretive mentality of the CCP leaders, but this one is the single most important book for understanding the China of today. “Unrestricted Warfare” is the main blueprint for China’s efforts to unseat America as the world’s economic, political, and ideological leader. It shows exactly how a totalitarian nation set out to dominate the West through a comprehensive, long-term strategy that includes everything from corporate sabotage to cyberwarfare to dishonest diplomacy; from violations of international trade law and intellectual property law to calculated abuses of the global financial system. As one of the authors stated, “The only rule in ‘Unrestricted Warfare’ is that there are no rules.”

Duh – Communist.

Read it.

In recent years, the attitude of liberals toward Critical Race Theory has been summed up as: “It doesn’t exist. And it’s awesome!” But as the infiltration of CRT into curricula across the country has become impossible to deny, promotion of racism and anti-Americanism has come out of the closet. Thus we see the public schools in St. Paul announcing a new “Critical Ethnic Studies” curriculum.

REQUIRED for all 10th graders.

Time to leave.

Read it.

Already all but forgotten about in mainstream media headlines, war-torn Afghanistan has witnessed a series of deadly bombings this week, including the latest blast Friday which ripped through a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz.

Afghanistan’s national Tolo News has said as many as many as 30 people may have been killed in the attack, with dozens more wounded, and health officials at a nearby hospital have cited between 30 to 40 victims admitted.

The report details: “The district security chief, Hafiz Omar, said the blast occurred at 3:30 pm after explosives placed in the Mawlawi Secondar mosque detonated while many people were there to worship. The mosque is also used as a religious seminary.”

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Two men who collected money from the public under the promise of using the funds to build a border wall have been arrested on fraud charges.

Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato both plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud Thursday in a Manhattan federal court, according to the New York Post. The duo admitted to lying to donors, saying that they intended from the beginning to use the funds for personal gain. The pair took large salaries from the donations and covered their tracks by lying on their tax forms.

Children and adults call for environmental justice review of proposed Newark power plant (NJ.com) There’s that new meme ‘environmental justice’.

Racial Cult Murder in Georgia?

Tucker Takes on the Racial Wreckening on the Roads

Racism at the New York Times

Lower-income Americans have thrived under Biden. It probably won’t last. (Philadelphia Inquirer) A more blatant lie I have rarely seen.

O’Rourke highlights Texas property taxes in new attack on Abbott (The Hill) First time I’ve ever seen a Democrat object to high taxes. His campaign ought to use a pander-bear as its mascot.

The Supreme Court would risk more than legitimacy by imposing Christian nationalism (Washington Post) Whatever world Jennifer Rubin lives in, it isn’t this one.

Serbia ‘sliding towards autocracy’ as president secures second term (The Guardian) I’m guessing he isn’t socialist enough.

Former McDonald’s CEO to fight woke corporate politics

NorCal tourists kidnapped at gunpoint inside Airbnb, police say (S.F. Gate) That’s what ‘defund the police’ gets you. Time to leave.

Meta COO Pressured Tabloid To Shelve Piece On CEO Boyfriend: Report

Massachusetts Parents Sue School District For Hiding Child’s ‘Alternate Gender Identity’ From Them

CNN Host Rolls Out Red Carpet for Abortion Clinic Owner to Strike a Moral Pose

Internet Archive ‘Excluded’ Taylor Lorenz Twitter Profile From Search

‘It’s A Lie, Simply A Lie,’ Israeli PM Calls CNN Host A Liar

CNSNews on MSNBC Attacking Parental Rights Since 2013

Stelter: ‘Too Early to Know’ if CNN+ Was ‘a Success or a Failure’  Really – Brian Stelter is a Seinfeld character.

Secret Service Failed To Keep Records Of Visitors To Biden’s Delaware Homes

Child Of Leftist Parents Tired Of All The Crying  Babylon Bee.

Open Letter to NPR: Why Leave Nina Totenberg’s Sister’s Name Out of Your Story on MTG?

‘What we now know … they lied’: how big oil companies betrayed us all (The Guardian)

Americans are fleeing climate change — here’s where they can go (CNBC)

California’s radical plan to defend homes from sea level rise: move them (S.F. Chronicle)

‘Green industry wants to take our land’: the Arctic paradox (The Guardian)

In Bolivia, a battle over a receding glacier ‘doomed to disappear’ (Reuters)

Global warming is speeding up ocean currents. Here’s why (Science.org)

Once again, money and greed won the day over the environment in Tallahassee (Gainesville Sun) Translation: Somebody isn’t following the Narrative.

Hollywood barely talks about the climate crisis. This group wants to change that (CNN) Funny, I’d say that ‘Hollywood’ does nothing but.

Klaatu barada nikto! “Scientists” warn aliens about our climate “crisis”!

Washed Away – A Short Film About Sea Level Fall

Soylent Green’s Failed 1973 Vision of Present Day ‘Global Warming Dystopia’

Claim: ‘Climate change’ could ’cause languages to die’ – ‘May affect linguistic diversity’ – ‘A leading driver of language loss’

It’s Earth Day. Again. Contain Your Excitement

Soaring gas prices test Biden on climate change (NBC News)

GOPers ask if Russian linked to Hunter Biden sanctioned over Ukraine Of course not. Perish the thought.

Candidate suing to add ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ to his name on ballot (The Hill)

More than 20 states ask judge to immediately block Biden from ending Title 42 (CNN)

Nets Ignore Report Hunter Biden’s Tax & Paternity Records Subpoenaed

Trump Says Biden Has Done More Damage in Year Than 5 Worst Presidents Combined

‘Al Qaeda Is On Our Side’: How Obama/Biden Team Empowered Terrorist Networks In Syria

Fleeing by the Dozen: Kamala’s Chief of Staff Becomes 12th Aide To Ditch Scandal-Plagued Veep

“They’re Playing Hardball”: Feds Subpoenaed Hunter Biden Paternity Docs, Including Tax Records  The Powers That Be must have decided it’s time to start replacing Biden.

For Earth Day, Mitchell Hits Biden From the Left on Climate Promises

Biden’s Failures Highlight How Federal Government Is Too Big

An incredibly damning quote from Mitch McConnell on January 6 (CNN) Or maybe not. Chris Cillizza isn’t the most reliable of reporters.

McCarthy said he would urge Trump to resign after Jan. 6, new audio reveals (NBC News) Or maybe not. if true, it doesn’t surprise me.

The One Way History Shows Trump’s Personality Cult Will End (Politico) Dream on, snowflake.

Manhattan DA’s Star Witness: Indict Trump Now or I’m Out (Daily Beast)

Jordan Klepper Reveals Europeans Are Just as Deluded as MAGA Morons (Daily Beast)

‘The Daily Show’ correspondent talks Hungary trip, warning signs for America (CNN) Jordan Klepper really gets around, doesn’t he?

Ron DeSantis’s war on Disney points to an ominous GOP future (Washington Post) How about Disney’s war on truth?

The Jan. 6 committee and Merrick Garland must protect our endangered democracy (Washington Post) In the Narrative Media, ‘democracy’ means ‘Democrat vote fraud’.

One of Twitter’s most popular right-wing hatemongers was unmasked. Good. (MSNBC)

MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd: Today’s Conservatives Would Call Jesus a Woke Groomer Socialist  As if anybody at MSNBC had a clue about Jesus.

Book Claims Kevin McCarthy Wanted Big Tech to Ban More Republicans After Jan 6

‘Beyond outrageous’: L.A. company faked COVID test results, authorities allege (L.A. Times)

Philadelphia will lift recently reinstated indoor mask mandate (ABC)  I guess The Science changed its mind.

Pandemic economy: Americans richer, but wealth gap a roller coaster (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

How a single judge’s ruling upended national covid policy (Washington P0st) Well, unconstitutional government action sometimes goes that way.

Fauci fears judge’s ruling on travel mask mandate may set “dangerous precedent” (CBS News) Yeah, following the Constitution would indeed be a ‘dangerous precedent’.

Vaccines, antibodies, antivirals: How some immunocompromised can cut Covid risk (NBC News)

Duke health experts concerned about possibility that future COVID variants could evade vaccines

Did virus hunters cover up a lab leak?

Shanghai Authorities Promise Better Oversight Of Emergency Supplies Amid Reports Of Rotten Food  There are plenty of prepper companies in the U.S. that will sell them MREs.

CNN+ Sides With Fauci Against Judicial Oversight of CDC, Mask Mandate  Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

Boosters customised for Omicron seem to offer little advantage

11-Year-Old Killed by the Vax in Brazil

One nation under the CDC

Watch: Fauci Decrees That CDC Should Be Above Authority Of Courts

‘Noooo, My Source Of Poweeeeeer!!!’ Cries Disintegrating Fauci As Mask Mandates Lifted  Babylon Bee.

Fauci speaks

The COVID-19 Authoritarians Panic Over the End of the Mask Mandates

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By early April, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. had reached $4.23, up more than 78% in the 14 months since President Joe Biden took office. It’s a political albatross around his neck, but it’s one that his policy team has deliberately placed there. If the president wants to blame someone for higher prices, he need only look at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Biden promised to wage war on the U.S. energy industry. “I want you to look at my eyes,” he said. “I guarantee you. I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuel.” That’s pretty unequivocal. And his policies reflect that.

Read it.

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Eggs or yogurt, veggies or potato chips? We make decisions about what to eat every day, but those choices may not be fully our own. New University of Pittsburgh research on mice shows for the first time that the microbes in animals’ guts influence what they choose to eat, making substances that prompt cravings for different kinds of foods.

“We all have those urges — like if you ever you just feel like you need to eat a salad or you really need to eat meat,” said Kevin Kohl, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. “Our work shows that animals with different compositions of gut microbes choose different kinds of diets.”

Read it.

Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

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As millions of Jews continue to celebrate Passover, a holiday dedicated to the achievement of a free society devoted to the God-given rights of all people, this week also marked the left’s favorite holiday—Tax Day.

Tax Day represents more than the left’s desire to endlessly take the fruits of our labors and expand the government. Its tax plans are designed specifically to make the government the sole decider of what is produced, who benefits from it, and how our economy is shaped—socialism in practice, if not overtly by name.

The double, triple, and intentionally punitive taxation of investment—the engine that drives our economy—is how the left visits this plague on every American household.

By taxing these means of production at high enough rates, and multiple times, it hopes to drive private investment into the ground, leaving only the government in a position to dictate the details of our economy.

And this ongoing hatred of investment is behind the constant headlines “Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than Their Secretaries!” — which is a lie; what they do is pay lower tax rates than their secretaries, because their income comes not from wages but from dividends and capital gains — the fruit of investment.

Statists would like nothing more than to tax the fruits of investment as if it were merely wage labor, as well as to strip entrepreneurs of the wealth they have gained by taking risks and working hard.

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You can’t just turn a seven-year-old child loose in a comic-book store to look at the superhero comic books. Just like I couldn’t take him to the last big Avengers movie, to see which of his favorite heroes might have gotten un-murdered, after they got murdered in the big Avengers movie before that, which I also couldn’t take him to. My seven-year-old really wanted to see that last Avengers movie, and he really wanted not to see it; that is, he wished it were a movie he could see, but he understood that it was, instead, a movie designed to scare and sadden him—a movie actively hostile to people like him.

I loved superheroes when I was his age. Now I’ve gone back to reading and watching superhero material to keep him company. The only problem is that the superhero industry hates children. It’s the most childish thing about the genre—not the musclebound people in tights, but the insistence that the musclebound people in tights should be grim and mature.

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My generation we grew up being told that ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me’. Western culture of course changes with each generation: now free speech is considered violence by some. There’s a whole thing happening at Twitter in particular about it. Expect it to get louder now actual money might be on the table. And do we get free speech back, or another billionaire plaything that dies in darkness, like CNN+ just did after three weeks and $100m down the drain?

Yet sometimes there obviously *is* a link between words and broken bones. Mike Tyson just repeatedly punched a man on a plane… because he repeatedly insulted a former boxing world heavyweight champion. The Russians say, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” And, boy, are there some stupid games –and words– out there. And some stupid plans and game-plans.

Relatedly, Tyson also once opined, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” On Wednesday, markets tried to plan for “peak inflation”; on Thursday, they were punched in the face, US stocks slumping (S&P -1.5%) and bond yields soaring (US 2s +10bp at the close, 10s +8bp, and 30s +6bp).

I can’t imagine any circumstance in which I would disagree with Mike Tyson – to his face.

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The impending change in status comes after senior Disney representatives repeatedly criticized the GOP in Florida—currently the ruling party in the state—for legislation that had nothing to do with Disney’s ability to do business in the state. Perhaps not surprisingly, this caused numerous GOP officials to question why Disney was receiving special privileges denied even to Disney’s direct competitors. In the past, Disney would normally be shielded from dangers to its special status, as Disney has famously showered politicians in the state with gifts and campaign cash and other types of special favors that normal people would identify as bribes. Many of the same people who are now voting to repeal Disney’s special status have accepted such “gifts” in the past. But for whatever reason, the political landscape has changed enough in recent years that it appears to many policymakers that it is now more politically rewarding to punish Disney rather than cater to its whims. The effort to strike back at Disney was likely also fueled by national politics and the fact that Disney has long been a platform for leftwing politics through its media outlets like ABC and ESPN.

This special status was granted under a Democrat administration and would to this day not be in question if Disney had simply avoided messing with the bull.

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Trade in the amphetamine-type stimulant Captagon in the Middle East grew exponentially in 2021, to top $5 billion, posing an escalating health and security threat, a report this month from the New Lines Institute revealed.

Hizballah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, is one of the pivotal actors, along with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s family and high-ranking members of his regime. “Lebanon has served as an extension of the Syrian captagon trade, a key transit point for captagon flows, with Syrian government-connected Hizballah leaders participating in the trade’s expansion,” said the report’s authors, Caroline Rose and Alexander Söderholm.

Analysts believe drug trafficking is a key Hizballah revenue source, providing it with hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Read it.

There have been cases before of thieves using a burner iPhone and Apple Pay to spend on stolen credit cards. But now a new report quotes one fraudster as describing Apple Pay as the “easiest way” to make money.

Read it.

I am not making this up.

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A French politician who wants to prioritize housing for French residents, as opposed to Middle Eastern immigrants and refugees, is considered extreme right. But a Canadian politician who proposes to ban purchases of homes by foreigners is considered a liberal.

What’s the difference? Mainly that Canada has approved the ban while polls show that the “extreme right” candidate is likely to lose. I guess if you call yourself a liberal you can get away with a lot that leads people to demonize conservatives.

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

Administration and the Biden Clown Show that go beyond inflation, energy market disruptions, foreign policy cluelessness, and other totems of the dismal 1970s.

Carter, we tend to forget today, was the Democratic establishment’s necessary and acceptable choice to outflank George Wallace, who had a real shot of winning the Democratic nomination in 1976. In 2020, it was the credible threat that Bernie Sanders might win the Democratic nomination that sent the Democratic establishment to rally behind Slow Joe Biden to stop Sanders. One thing Carter and Biden have in common is that both largely sold out to the left wing of the party, despite prior reputation as “moderates.”

But even Carter started getting a clue by the fourth year of his presidency, increasing defense spending in the face of a growing Soviet threat, installing Paul Volcker to fight inflation seriously, and beginning, however haltingly, to de-regulate domestic energy production. Biden shows no sign of progress on the easiest of learning curves.

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It appears that parts of Europe are about to launch a Chinese-style social credit system. The first rollout will reportedly be in Italy, but based on the following article, the planning for the Bavarian version was first: it began back in 2019.

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Before starting this research, I was unaware of the presence of yellow dots on printed paper. I find it remarkable that something so common on an everyday object could be this unknown to the public. Learning and becoming a master on a subject few people even know about feels fantastic. Even the majority of law enforcers have only heard rumors that it exists. The research itself was challenging because of the monotonous coloring and reviewing of the patterns. However, the moments when I found something useful were rewarding enough to continue.

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This essay represents a “conspiracy theory” (or better, a conspiracy hypothesis) about the uses of the term “conspiracy theory” itself. I acknowledge that the term is one of the most potent epithets that can be hurled at a writer or speaker, that it is mostly used to delegitimize and dismiss its target, and that it serves not only to discredit the claim that a writer or speaker makes but also the very investigation into purported conspiracies. The phrase represents a condensed, shorthand means of labeling a claim negatively and humiliating the claimant, disqualifying the claimant and the claim a priori. Likewise, in writing of the “conspiracy” behind the use of the phrase, I am hereby opening myself up to the charge of “conspiracy theory.”

Not all actions-in-concert are the result of conscious conspiracy. People who hold the same values and believe the same lies about their opponents will pretty much always act the same way in any particular situation. This is why doing otherwise is so remarkable.

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The Russia collusion hoax was exposed long ago as a fraud, but these Rasmussen survey results suggest that it was one of the most effective fake news campaigns ever.