THE NEW SPACE RACE: Japan’s Interstellar aims for orbital launch in 2025.

JULIETTE OCHIENG: Scary Story.

OF COURSE IT IS. NEXT QUESTION? Cotton: It’s impossible for Trump to get a fair trial in DC. That’s the point.

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOMS: From Dormancy to Drama: Litli-Hrútur Volcano Erupts After 800 Years.

HMM: NASA: Artemis moon program launch schedule intact for now.

TOO MUCH SUGAR IS BAD FOR YOU: Sugary drinks linked to higher risk of liver disease, cancer among women.

And that venti moccachino has a crapton of sugar in it.

SO CHARGE THEM WITH CONSPIRACY: Women guilty of smashing windows of Norwich Barclays bank. “The two protestors caused more than £5,000 of damage to the Barclays branch. Two women have been found guilty of criminal damage after they smashed the windows of a bank in Norwich. Barclays on St James’ Court was attacked in April 2021. Extinction Rebellion later claimed its members carried out the damage using hammers and chisels.”

OUT ON A LIMB: Face It — Women’s Soccer Just Isn’t Very Good.

“I’ve watched soccer for 30 years,” said Cooke. “I’m a fan of the game, and the difference between the strength and skill and pace between the men’s game and the women’s game just makes the women’s game unwatchable for me.

“The U.S. women’s team could be and in fact was beaten by an average high-school boys team. It’s not good sports. I love watching women’s tennis, for example, because although there’s a power differential, the skill level is so high that it makes it equally entertaining.”

He added, “And I read recently that Megan Rapinoe is in favor of men playing in women’s soccer now, and for once she and I agree — that is what it’s going to take to make it interesting.”

Rapinoe went out of her to sabotage her team while she was on it, so saying she’s in favor of men playing on it is the perfect going-away present.

SO A FEW YEARS AGO, I BOUGHT A SIG P226 LEGION, which is an accurized P226 with a fancy Sig Master Shop trigger. It comes with an included Romeo optical sight, which is quite nice. When I went to shoot it a couple of weeks ago, the battery for the sight was dead, and I though “good chance to use the iron sights.”

First couple of rounds were dead-on, then everything else was hitting way to the side. After spending a bit of time wondering if something was suddenly wrong with my grip or trigger pull, I looked at the rear iron sight and saw that it was sliding back and forth in its mounting.

I disassembled the gun when I got home and found no adjustment, so I got in touch with Sig. After a short phone conversation — their customer service setup is really great — I shipped it back to them under warranty. Got it back in about a week, shot it today, and everything was great. (Shipping via FedEx was covered by them).

I still don’t understand what happened to the rear sight, since the gun hadn’t been banged around or anything. A guy at the gun range said he’d had the same experience with his P365XL and had fixed the rear sight using blue Loc-Tite. (I had actually considered something similar but figured hey, it’s a lifetime warranty.)

I don’t know if there’s some sort of generic problem with Sig rear sights, as it would take more than two experiences to tell, but the service was certainly excellent.

“JUSTICE.” AUSA Laura Cofer Taylor Trying to Muzzle Reporting on Her Prosecution in the AutoKeyCard Case.

I’VE NOTICED: Colorado ‘restaurant inflation’ highest in nation, reveals data analysis. “Believe it or not, a recent data analysis published by USA Today has revealed that Colorado’s restaurant inflation – the increase in how much Coloradans are spending while eating out – is the highest in the nation, at 24 percent between November 2022 and June 2023.”

I knew it was bad but I didn’t realize it was that bad.

DOES THE BIG GUY GET HIS CUT? Biden Admin Reportedly Set to Buy Back Five U.S. Hostages From Iran for $6 Billion.

BOOK OF THE DAY: The Sleep Solution: why your sleep is broken and how to fix it. #CommissionEarned

“SOUND OF FREEDOM” OR “SOUND OF FABRICATION”?:  Red-Pilled America podcast–hosted by Patrick Courrielche and Adryana Cortez–is pointing out that maybe, just maybe, the movie “Sound of Freedom” is not quite on the up and up.  When they looked at the court records, they found many contradictions–too many–between the real story and movie.

You might want to read my sex trafficking Commissioner Statement from a few years ago.  There are many different problems, all of which tend to get called “human trafficking,” e.g., labor trafficking, prostitution by consenting adults, prostitution by teenagers who are under the age of consent but who nevertheless sought out the opportunity, sex slavery of adults, and sexual slavery of children.  Unfortunately, they tend to get conflated.  The reality is that each of these problems is different.  Each has its own solutions.  The last of these, sexual slavery, whether of adults or children, is extremely serious.  But there is a lot less of it than we are sometimes led to believe.

YOU’VE CUT THE CORD, NOW STOP THE STREAM! Disney announces price hike for Disney+ and Hulu, crackdown on password sharing.

JOHN LUCAS: Who Are the “Elites” Anyway? More condescension from the New York Times.

DOOCY REVEALS FUNNY BACKSTORY TO EXPLOSIVE EXCHANGE WITH BIDEN — AND THE WH RESPONSE:

Doocy joked it was a “middle of the road” question but that he knows that they “don’t want to talk” about this scandal. He did give Biden credit for calling him over, but I think that’s part of Biden’s psyche, too — he thinks he can handle any reporters, even though his staff knows differently. As Biden special assistant Michael LaRosa admitted to Fox’s Howard Kurtz, the Biden team lives “in a bunker mentality often, they treat the press as a threat, as a hazard and not as an opportunity.” We’ve seen explosive responses from Biden before, including when Biden called Doocy a “stupid son of a b**ch.”

Biden must have plenty to hide, since he’s considered reporters as “a threat, as a hazard” for decades, which is an extremely curious stance, since the vast majority are his party’s operatives with bylines.

UPDATE: The Most Interesting Man In The World.

FASTER, PLEASE: Repairing the heart with silicon nanowires and stem cell cardiomyocytes.

I SUPPOSE IT’S BETTER THAN NUKING CHINA, THOUGH LESS LIKELY TO WORK: Would a massive shade between Earth and the sun help slow climate change?

WOW, I DIDN’T THINK THAT WAS EVEN POSSIBLE: Joe Biden’s Response to Devon Archer Testimony Is More Incriminating Than You Think.

FASTER, PLEASE: Single-dose injectable nanovaccine-in-hydrogel for robust cancer immunotherapy.

THE COST OF CHINA’S 21% YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT: ‘Bedmates’ are a hot commodity for China’s broke and jobless youth, who say they need to sleep next to strangers just to survive in the country’s megacities.

WELL, THAT DOESN’T SEEM SURPRISING, IT’S HERMETICALLY SEALED: Study finds more harmful chemicals on International Space Station than in homes.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Five Nauseating Reasons Why Joe Biden Is a Terrible Human Being.

21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: Study details dangers of texting while walking.