OPEN THREAD: It’s showtime, folks!
Archive for 2023
February 26, 2023
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Space Force looks to energize industry with next round of launch contracts.
THE POWER OF NONCOMPLIANCE: Hijab Protests in Iran Succeed:
“I have not worn a scarf for months — I don’t even carry it with me any more. Whether the government likes to admit it or not, the era of the forced hijab is over.”
Said Kimia, 23, a graduate student in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, quoted in “Their Hair Long and Flowing or in Ponytails, Women in Iran Flaunt Their Locks/Defiant resistance to Iran’s mandatory hijab law has exploded across the country after nationwide protests that erupted last year” (NYT).
Even many religious women who wear a hijab by choice have joined the campaign to repeal the law…. Maryam, 53, who observes the hijab law and lives in Tehran, recently traveled with her daughter to the holiday island of Kish in the Persian Gulf. They were surprised to find most women wearing short-sleeved sun dresses, sandals, capri pants and T-shirts. “Are we in Turkey or Iran?” asked her daughter, Narges, 26.
Shortly after the trip, Narges changed all of her social media profile photos to one in which her long brown hair was flowing over her shoulders and her fist was raised in the air… “I will never bring down my fist until freedom, even if we have to wait for many years,” Narges wrote on her Instagram page.
Fight the power. Also, could we have more of that spirit here, please?
ALSO, CHINA LACKS THE LAUNCH CAPACITY: China Launching 12992 Satellites to Suppress SpaceX Starlink Will Backfire.
FARMER IN THE SKY: Revolutionizing Agriculture: The Next Frontier of Farming on the Moon.
I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Cancer screening rates fell among Americans in the second year of the pandemic. And not just lockdowns, but other annoying Covid protocols like mandatory masking, spacing of appointments leading to longer wait times, etc.
READER FAVORITE: JoyJolt Layla Red Wine Glasses. #CommissionEarned
HMM. BUG, OR FEATURE? Some People on Ozempic Lose the Desire to Drink. Scientists Are Asking Why.
As Ozempic gains more attention and more people use the diabetes drug off-label to lose weight, doctors say that many patients are reporting similar experiences: They start the medication and then stop wanting to drink alcohol.
“It’s certainly something I’ve heard many of my patients say, usually in a positive way,” said Dr. Robert Gabbay, the chief scientific and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association.
Tina Zarpour, 46, who works at a museum in San Diego, used to have a glass of wine a few times a week while she cooked dinner. But after she started taking Wegovy — a weight loss drug containing semaglutide, which is the active ingredient in Ozempic — in 2021, she found herself “repelled” by alcohol, she said. She would try to have a drink but struggled to finish. “It was like, ugh, I don’t want to,” she said.
Even during a birthday lunch, the type of social event where she would typically enjoy a cocktail or two, she couldn’t bring herself to drink. She ended up ordering tea. “I just wasn’t expecting it,” she said of her new distaste for alcohol. But she said she was grateful for the push to cut back on drinking.
Scientists are working to understand why people like Ms. Zarpour experience this side effect. There are some clues: Semaglutide belongs to a class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists, which mimic a hormone in our bodies that makes us feel full. Semaglutide helps control insulin and blood sugar levels, and can also potentially affect the areas in the brain that regulate our desire for food, said Dr. Janice Jin Hwang, the division chief of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Some people taking Ozempic have reported feeling less excited or, in some cases, even disgusted by the foods they once enjoyed. It’s unclear why that reaction may extend to alcohol.
Nearly all of the existing research on GLP-1 receptor agonists and alcohol over the last decade has been conducted on animals and with compounds similar, but not identical, to semaglutide. Rats, mice and monkeys receiving GLP-1 receptor agonists have been shown to consume less alcohol and exhibit less of a desire for it than those that are not given the medication. (Animal studies involving these chemicals and drugs like nicotine, opioids and cocaine have reported similar findings.)
Whether it’s a plus or not depends. If you’re a sommelier, or a master distiller, it’s probably a major drawback. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s a plus.
FORMER GOVERNOR JIM MARTIN: N.C. NEEDS MORE NUCLEAR. Amen. (And don’t accuse me of NIMBY–I live near the pictured nuclear plant.)
As an aside, a retired engineer I know who worked for a major supplier to the nuclear industry told me it’s an open secret that the U.S. Northeast in particular would absolutely collapse without nuclear, even while the region’s Democrat pols frequently grandstand against it and for “renewables.”
I BELIEVE IT, BUT YOU CAN’T PUT THAT IN A BOTTLE AND SELL IT: Exercise more effective than medicines to manage mental health, says study.
READER FAVORITE: BERCOL Rechargeable LED Flashlights. #CommissionEarned
GREAT WORK, GUYS: FDA Authorizes At-Home Test for Both Flu and COVID — But the good news comes a little too late for the test’s manufacturer. “The EUA appears to have come a little too late for Lucira Health, the test’s manufacturer, which announced on Wednesday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.”
I THOUGHT SALT WAS ALWAYS BASICALLY POISON: Too little salt could be risky for heart failure patients. “Doctors currently recommend a low-sodium diet to lower blood pressure and avoid fluid buildup and swelling, which can be common symptoms for heart failure. The condition develops when the heart muscle becomes too weak or stiff to effectively pump blood to the rest of the body. But the new meta-analysis of nine randomized, controlled trials found that restricting dietary sodium intake below the standard recommended maximum of about 2.3 grams per day did not bring additional benefits, and it also may increase the risk of death.”
And you thought the science was settled.
Related: The FDA’s Sodium Folly.
SONNY BUNCH REVIEWS COCAINE BEAR: “Are you here for backstory? Do you really care about Keri Russell’s relationship and why it’s annoying her daughter? Do you want to know more about the trio of ruffians who have named their gang after Marcel Duchamp? Really? Of course you don’t. No one wants backstory from Cocaine Bear. They just want cocaine and a bear. And, I’m glad to say, Cocaine Bear delivers on this promise.”
LIMIT IT TO 18 AND ABOVE: Social Media is a Major Cause of the Mental Illness Epidemic in Teen Girls. Here’s the Evidence. “Journalists should stop saying that the evidence is just correlational.”
NEVER LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF RACE-BAITING: What Buttigieg Ignored about the Construction Industry. Whites are actually underrepresented in the construction industry. Far from helping minorities, the Biden administration has enacted policies depriving minorities of opportunities in the industry.
SNL WAS STILL MAKING NIXON JOKES IN 1980: ‘SNL’ is Afraid to Satirize Biden, Remains Focused on Trump.
It’s not only Trump who appears more frequently than Biden. Defeated GOP candidates Kari Lake and Herschel Walker have made double the appearances of the president.
The show also hasn’t found a bit suitable for Rachel Levine, a kooky transgender admiral, or Sam Brinton, Biden’s former nuclear official/luggage thief.
Content gold gone to waste.
Both the Left and Right provide endless fodder for satire. But brands like “SNL,” “The Daily Show,” and late-night programs pander only to one-half of the country.
Thus, the viewership exodus of each program.*
In 2021, Matt Purple of Spectator World referred to the myriad leftist cable hosts who followed in the wake of Jon Stewart’s version of The Daily Show (a show that itself was inspired by SNL’s “Weekend Update” segment) as churning out “partisan comfort food.” In the age of a massively splintered media, the palace guard approach is the safest method to holding onto an audience that’s a sliver of what Johnny Carson enjoyed:
This is also my theory about the big entertainment awards shows like the Oscars and the Emmys. If the big, broad, general audience you used to have is gone, and deep down you think it’s never coming back, then why not make a harder bid for the loyalty of the smaller audience you’ve got left? In a time when the entertainment industry is (or thinks it is) a one-party state with no dissenters, you had better echo that politics back to your base.
What were once cultural institutions with a broad, bipartisan audience are becoming niche players with a narrow fan base. They no longer view partisan politics as a dangerous move that will shrink their audience. Instead, they’re using partisan politics as a lure to secure the loyalty of their audience, or what is left of it. Not that it’s going to work over the long term, because people who want to have their biases confirmed will just watch the five-minute YouTube clip Chris Cillizza links to the next day.
—Why Late Night Hosts Like Jimmy Kimmel Are Suddenly So Political, Robert Tracinski, the Federalist, October 5, 2017.
* And Greg Gutfeld becoming the new king of late night TV: Conservative Night Live. “The winner in the Who Can Hate Republicans the Most Contest could rely on about 1.5 million Democrats to remain loyal daily viewers, and that’s all they needed to remain competitive—and even on top—in the ratings battle. The only problem is you drive away everyone else. Four or five hosts were competing for the liberal Democrat audience, and the rest of us—half of the country, at least—have nothing to watch. What we could not choose was a show hosted by a center-right personality. If you were watching a nightly talk show, you were watching a liberal.”
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): On the other hand, they weren’t afraid to open with this.
Woody Harrelson hosted Saturday Night Live and used his opening monologue to criticize Big Pharma's response to COVID-19:
"The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in… pic.twitter.com/i0PfNrlcGd
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 26, 2023
WELL, SURE, IT’S POOR SALESMANSHIP FOR THEIR POSITIONS: Virginia teachers union, Democrats oppose teaching about victims of communism.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Turns Out They Are Coming for Your Gas Stoves. “A new Biden administration rule on cooking appliances would effectively ban half of all gas stoves on the U.S. market from being sold, according to an Energy Department projection.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Latest Pell Grant proposal would fund skills training, close workforce gaps.
I REMEMBER WHEN THIS WAS DISMISSED AS A RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY THEORY: WSJ: Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Agency Now Says: Energy Department’s revised assessment is based on new intelligence.
The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office. . . .
The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view.
The FBI employs a cadre of microbiologists, immunologists and other scientists and is supported by the National Bioforensic Analysis Center, which was established at Fort Detrick, Md., in 2004 to analyze anthrax and other possible biological threats.
U.S. officials declined to give details on the fresh intelligence and analysis that led the Energy Department to change its position. They added that while the Energy Department and the FBI each say an unintended lab leak is most likely, they arrived at those conclusions for different reasons.
The updated document underscores how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how Covid-19 emerged. More than one million Americans have died in the pandemic that began more than three years ago.
The National Intelligence Council, which conducts long-term strategic analysis, and four agencies, which officials declined to identify, still assess with “low confidence” that the virus came about through natural transmission from an infected animal, according to the updated report.
Honestly, I have “low confidence” in the entire intelligence community. But I’m inclined to believe the lab leak theory, as much because of how China acted as anything else.
Yes, that’s right, folks: It’s a Black Op. MAGA-world’s most dedicated sleeper agent has finally accomplished her mission, sitting through nearly a year’s worth of grand-jury testimony and only now breaking her silence to strategically discredit the entire set of jury recommendations in the most brilliantly indirect way: not by making direct partisan statements, but by revealing herself in public, forever, to be a blithering goddamned idiot. Beschloss is such an eminent historian that I’m forced to defer to his unquestionable authority, so I must take him at his word: Trump has truly pulled off an intelligence/deep-cover coup here, the likes of which mark him out as having a political operation to be taken gravely seriously as a stealthily subtle force in the campaign to come.
While the Georgia foreman forewoman foreperson was thrilled to talk with CNN and MSNBC, there are curious limitations as to which cable news networks she’ll appear on: ‘Cat’s Got Her Tongue?’: Fox News Anchor Wonders Why Talkative Grand Juror Passed On Invite.