EAT MORE MEAT: Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to Type 2 Diabetes: Study Reveals How To Cut Your Risk.

HMM: Psilocybin may curb mental illness linked to eating disorders.

STANDARDS BEING SET: Kia EVs to Start Getting Tesla Supercharger Adapters in January.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG:

.@CocaCola's custom can website allows you to use "Harris Walz 2024" but restricts you from using "Trump 2024" because it's "political in nature" or "offensive."

Care to explain @CocaCola? pic.twitter.com/sr37epWhdn

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 25, 2024

UPDATE: Community notes for the win once more. It’s nice to see a major corporation not taking sides but part of me wonders if Coke banned both out of fear that Trump would win the “Coke poll.”

LIGHTNING DEAL: KYY K3 15.6 inch Monitor. #CommissionEarned

OR MAYBE HE JUST DOESN’T KNOW WHAT HE’S SAYING — YOU MAKE THE CALL! Biden Is Totally Trying to Sabotage the Harris-Walz Campaign.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Minnesota Update: Eighth Circuit Court Strikes Down Minnesota’s Firearm Carry Age Restrictions.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: For the first time, Blue Origin has ignited an orbital rocket stage.

Twenty days after it rolled out to Blue Origin’s launch site in Florida, the second stage of the massive New Glenn rocket underwent a successful hot-fire test on Monday.

The second stage—known as GS2 for Glenn stage 2—ignited for 15 seconds as part of the “risk reduction” hot-fire test, the company said. The two BE-3U engines, fueled by liquid oxygen and hydrogen and each producing 173,000 pounds of thrust, burned with a nearly transparent flame that approached a temperature of 6,000° Fahrenheit.

This marked the first time that Blue Origin, a space company founded by Jeff Bezos more than two decades ago, has integrated and fired an orbital rocket stage. After the test, Blue Origin said it is still tracking toward a November launch of the New Glenn rocket.

This vehicle is really big, standing 320 feet (98 meters) tall. By comparison, NASA’s titanic Saturn V Moon rocket was 363 feet tall. New Glenn’s first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 rocket engines, which burn methane and liquid oxygen. The performance of these engines has previously been demonstrated in flight on the debut of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket at the beginning of this year.

Although Monday’s test checked an important box for Blue Origin, there is still much work to do to prepare the New Glenn rocket for its debut. Crucially, the company must complete assembly of the first stage, and then roll this vehicle out from its assembly building a couple of miles to Launch Complex-36, along the Atlantic Ocean.

Then, the first and second stages will be mated. This is a complex endeavor, and as it will be the first time technicians and engineers from Blue Origin attempt the procedure, they will undoubtedly find some issues that need to be addressed. After the vehicles are integrated, the combined stack is due to undergo a short hot-fire test. Following a review of this data, the company is expected to launch the vehicle.

Godspeed.

While I love the work Elon Musk is doing with SpaceX — and fully appreciate how vital it is to our national security and the future of humanity — Musk himself would be the first to tell you it’s unwise to keep all your eggs in one basket.

LIKE THE COUNTRY, THE CANDIDATE IS IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Secret Service Knew of Trump Shooter 27 Minutes Before Shots Fired.

GOOD LORD:

NEW: In a multi day operation on Nantucket Island, ICE’s Boston office announces they arrested four illegal aliens who are charged with raping or sexually assaulting Nantucket children or residents – all of whom were released from local custody despite the serious charges.

They… pic.twitter.com/K3LlfR6NqP

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 24, 2024

H.L. Mencken warned them, if only they would listen.

CHRIS QUEEN: The ‘Science’ Has Spoken. “The only way Scientific American could make it more obvious is to give Harris a halo and Donald Trump a mustache to twirl. The magazine gives us details that continue to lay out the devil vs. angel lens through which ‘science’ views the election.”

Heh.

BULLET, DODGED: In the room where it happened: When NASA nearly gave Boeing all the crew funding.

YOU STAY CLASSY, BOBBY: De Niro Hijacks ‘Megalopolis’ Q&A, Rages Against Trump.

Francis Ford Coppola’s dream project arrives with plenty of bad buzz, from seriously negative reviews to press reports suggesting the director misbehaved on the set. (Coppola is suing Variety about said allegations).

Monday offered Coppola the chance to change the conversation. He appeared via livestream to share the journey behind “Megalopolis” and what the film means to him.

And us.

He was joined by Robert De Niro and Spike Lee, old industry friends who shared stories of their first meetings In conjunction with the 62nd New York Film Festival.

Dennis Lim, artistic director of NYFF, moderated the live event.

The Q&A, shown to dozens of theaters across the country before the movie, started with Coppola, Lee and De Niro recalling their early days in Hollywood. Lee unofficially kicked off the event’s partisan nature with a reference to “eating cats and dogs.”

The quip recalled allegations that Haitian immigrants are doing just that in the small town of Springfield, Ohio.

That was just the progressive appetizer.

Much more at the link.

I fully expect “Megalopolis” to be a hot mess, but it’s a Francis Ford Coppola hot mess that he spent $100-plus million of his own money to produce, so there’s no way I can resist going to see it.

QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING: Why Do People Care That Chappell Roan Won’t Endorse Kamala Harris?

Chappell Roan isn’t endorsing a candidate for president. While this seems hardly newsworthy, the internet virtually erupted in horror that the 26-year-old musician, who shot to fame earlier this year, doesn’t want to use her frame to urge fans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I have so many issues with our government in every way,” Roan told The Guardian last week. “There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote—vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.”

Backlash to Roan’s comments swiftly proliferated online.

“Chappell roan is an embarrassment to lesbians,” one X user wrote in a post with more than 4 million views. “You can’t borrow from drag aesthetics and embrace your sexuality and then pretend the party that would criminalize our happiness is the same as the one who protects it.”

“How do you feel about tens of thousands of pregnant rape victims forced to carried their rapists’ children to term?” reads another viral response. “LGTBQ+ rights? The future of democracy? The future of the planet? Anything???”

These users weren’t alone in their outrage. One post on X detailing the interview has 74 million views and counting, with tens of thousands of comments and quotes debating Roan’s comments.

Related:

SEPSIS UPDATE: Freely available tools improve accuracy of pediatric sepsis diagnosis.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: It’s the ‘Caddyshack’ Election. “‘The slobs versus the snobs’ might be America’s greatest contribution to the art of cinema, and when I say, ‘art of cinema,’ I mean ‘movies’ because I’m not one of those snobs — and we’re watching that classic theme play out once more in the presidential election.

READER FAVORITE: Van Heusen Men’s Dress Shirt Regular Fit Poplin Solid. #CommissionEarned

PUT COMRADE BERNIE IN CHARGE AND SOON EVERYONE WILL BE SKINNY, NO DRUGS REQUIRED: Sanders tells Ozempic drugmaker’s CEO to stop ‘ripping off’ Americans.

WHATEVER DID HAPPEN TO THAT EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST…

Diddy's bodyguard says there are videos of politicians at 'freak offs'. The monstrously grotesque culture of a corrupt system.https://t.co/IEuttcY01e

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) September 25, 2024

…or to Epstein, himself, for that matter?