ICYMI: Another Media Outlet Crashes and Burns.

Wrong link — fixed now!

SKYNET FROWNS: AI poisoning tool Nightshade received 250,000 downloads in 5 days: ‘beyond anything we imagined.’ “It’s a strong start for the free tool and shows a robust appetite among some artists to protect their work from being used to train AI without consent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 2.67 million artists in the U.S. alone, but Zhao told VentureBeat that the users of Nightshade are likely even broader.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Starlab—with half the volume of the ISS—will fit inside Starship’s payload bay.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY: 60% of the Time It’s Naked Every Time. “It’s your much-needed break from the serious news and this week we have more public nudity than you can shake a stick or whatever at, a low-rent art heist, and Colorado Man’s personal Cannonball Run.”

IF SO, IT’S IN SPITE OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM, NOT BECAUSE OF IT: Has the Great Upshift arrived?

HOW WASHINGTON FIGURES JOB CREATION: Hiring Accelerated With 353,000 Jobs Added in January.

How the private sector does it: January hiring was the lowest for the month on record as layoffs surged.

HOW TO LOSE A WAR WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK: Guess What Happened After Biden Gave Iran a Preview of Its Retaliation Plans?

IT’S NOT AN ACCIDENT: Many U.S. adults report feeling lonely, survey shows.

PUNCTURING POLYAMORY: Kay Hymowitz examines the increasingly visible polyamory movement and concludes that, in addition to all the predictable problems that plague such arrangements, it is “a textbook example of what Rob Henderson calls ‘luxury beliefs.'”

Those are views held without risk of being subjected to reality. Think of the rich liberal proclaiming “defund the police,” who lives in a high-dollar, gated community with well-armed security.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Federal Judges Strikes Down California Background Checks For Ammo.

VALENTINES DAY GIFT: HOUNDSBAY Admiral Dresser Valet Box & Men’s Jewelry Box Organizer. #CommissionEarned

TRUE: Biden Can’t Deter Iran. He’s in Bed With Iran.

KRUISER: Trump Derangement Syndrome Meltdown of the Week — ZOMG ‘ENVIRONMENTAL APOCALYPSE’ Edition.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Elon Musk’s SpaceX could launch a private moon lander within weeks.

The robotic Nova-C spacecraft was encapsulated inside the payload fairing of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today (Jan. 31) to prep for liftoff, which is right around the corner.

“As our combined teams closed the two fairing halves, I saw the lunar lander for the last time on Earth,” Trent Martin, vice president for space systems at the Houston company Intuitive Machines, which built the lander, said during a call with reporters this afternoon.

Launch, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida’s Space Coast, will occur during a three-day window in mid-February, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX and Intuitive Machines have not yet announced what those dates are, though Martin said today that Nova-C’s lunar landing try will take place on Feb. 22 regardless of which day it takes flight.

If launch cannot occur during the February window, the next opportunity will come in March.

The coming mission, called IM-1, aims to put Nova-C down near an impact crater called Malapert A, which lies within 10 degrees latitude of the moon’s south pole. This area is of great interest to scientists and exploration advocates, for it’s thought to harbor large amounts of water ice.

That would make Malapert A an extremely valuable piece of lunar real estate.

Related (from Ed): Jeff Bezos is also doing his bit to advance 21st century rocketry:

A louder rumble in Rocket City! We just completed our first BE-4 engine hotfire test at the historic Test Stand 4670 in Huntsville. We also continue to test BE-4 engines at our Texas facility. The BE-4 engine produces 550,000 pounds of thrust and is our most powerful engine yet. pic.twitter.com/iyLb3p67PE

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) February 2, 2024

PRESUMPTION OF WEIRDNESS: ‘You Have the Right to Remain Woke!’ El Paso Cops Required to Ask Perps Their Pronouns.

GOODER AND HARDER, PORTLAND: Last Portland REI closing permanently.

A sporting goods staple in Portland’s Pearl District is set to close its doors for good. The REI store located at Northwest 14th and Johnson will open at 10 a.m. Thursday and permanently close at 7 p.m.

The decision to close the Portland store was announced by the company in April 2023, citing the highest number of thefts and break-ins in its 20-year history at this location.

Despite efforts by Mayor Ted Wheeler and the Portland Police Bureau to enhance security and convince the company to keep the store open, the closure proceeded.

No word yet from Rep. Ayanna Pressley about this blatant act of racism.

EVERY SUCCESSFUL SYSTEM ACCUMULATES PARASITES, AND SCIENCE HAS BEEN A SUCCESSFUL SYSTEM: Scientists warn: Declining academic standards mixed with DEI a recipe for disaster.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: Hey, Jimmy — Have You Seen My 50 Million Dollars? “How do you make a small fortune providing news on the internet?”

HISTORY OF HATE: A history of Students for Justice in Palestine, the anti-Israel group behind recent campus controversy.

NEW BOOK BY BLACK PROFESSOR: MINORITY STUDENTS NOT HARMED BY TEACHING THEM STANDARD ENGLISH. That things have reached the point where such a book is required is a severe indictment of “academia.” Think I am exaggerating? Think again:

What are “anti-racist” courses like? One academic who has written about his approach is Professor Asao Inoue, who claims that individualism is an undesirable aspect of “whiteness.” In his courses, students are not graded down for failing to write in standard English. Instead, he has implemented a “labor based” grading system in which students are graded on the basis of the amount of effort they claim to have put in on an assignment.

I have no words…

SPOILER: IT WON’T WORK. FCC moves to criminalize most AI-generated robocalls. “The change will particularly empower state attorneys general to take legal action against spammers who use AI, the spokesperson said. New Hampshire’s attorney general’s office has announced an investigation into the fake Biden call.”

Actual solution: Require a 25-cent credit card deposit to make a call, with all deposits for previously unanswered calls to a single number fully refundable — once the recipient accepts a call and doesn’t report it as spam. Just making spammers provide a credit card number would stop most spam.

SPEAKING OF PROTECTING KIDS: You no doubt heard or read about the latest edition of “Tech CEOs Let Congress Bash Them for the Cameras,” the Senate hearing earlier this week during which, among much else, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “apologized” to the crowd of grieving parents in the audience who claimed their children died due to bullying on social media or other causes related to the digital universe.

And speaking of Facebook, Tara Fredericks, the Heritage Foundation’s resident expert on these issues, spent a good part of her career at Facebook prior to hitching up with the country’s biggest conservative think tank. Here’s her take on the hearing and the issue that prompted it:

“This hearing is taking place against the backdrop of mounting evidence of a direct link between social media and negative mental health impacts on children and teenagers. A 2023 study by University of North Carolina neuroscientists found that habitual social media use may be rewiring the brains of children as young as 12 years old.

“Similarly, a March 2022 study by Cambridge University discovered a direct relationship between increased social media use and a decrease in life satisfaction in young adolescents. While these studies show alarming trends, we also know the real-life consequences from talking with parents who have seen firsthand the effects of social media on their own children.

“This hearing is an important step toward accountability and solutions, especially as companies target younger and younger users. Insulating our children from the predations of Big Tech and empowering parents to fight back must be a top priority.”

Frankly, I am skeptical that anything concrete will actually happen as a result of the hearing, but one can always hope. It was worth watching if only to see the Zuck actually turn and face his accusers in a moment of something approximating accountability.

WHAT ABOUT THAT ABORTION REVERSAL PILL? It stands to reason that a chemically-induced abortion can under the right circumstances be reversed, thus saving the unborn child from death.

Thus far, the Abortion Reversal Pill (APR) is not fail-safe, but the latest “What Would You Say?” video on HillFaith presents solid evidence that the medication does work about two-thirds of the time. Bet you haven’t read that in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Constitutional Death by a Thousand Pronouns. “The fuel for this societal fire is the unfortunate 21st century, social media era notion that everybody’s feelings are important and should be shared with the entire planet as frequently as possible. Gone are the halcyon days when people — men especially — were embarrassed by the very thought of publicly disclosing thoughts, desires, or struggles. It’s a veritable feelingsgasm out there now.”