HMM: Replacing regular salt with potassium-enriched salt.

FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Reverse Alzheimer’s Memory Loss by Repairing Damaged Synapses.

FASTER, PLEASE: Study finds new treatment to reverse inflammation and arterial blockages in rheumatoid arthritis.

I HOPE NOT BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO WORK WITH THE GUY WHO PLAYS JEFFREY DAHMER: No, you don’t need to be disabled to play Richard III: Actors don’t need to share the ‘lived experience’ of their characters. “It’s called acting for a reason.”

Everyone knows this, except for the morons who have taken it upon themselves to recast our social mores in their own, moronic, image.

Plus:

As Laurence Olivier famously said to a strung-out Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man (after he’d stayed awake for 48 hours straight to simulate the torment of his character): “Why not try acting dear boy?”

It’s a thought.

SERIOUS SUV: 2024 Lexus GX First Drive Review: Is It Better or Just Boxier? The previous-gen GX is a great vehicle, off-road, or in snow. Or even just down the Interstate.

MICROBIOME NEWS: Common food preservative has unexpected effects on the gut microbiome.

MORE COMPETITION WOULD BE BETTER, BUT IMPOSSIBLE: Airlines learn patience in constrained Airbus-Boeing duopoly.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: US patient ‘happy again’ after brain implant treats epilepsy and OCD.

UM: Alzheimer’s may have once spread from person to person, but the risk of that happening today is incredibly low.

NEW SENATE BORDER BILL HAS DROPPED, to bad reviews:

🚨The new Senate border bill is out (https://t.co/tyjA6Jyz7R) and we are evaluating it, but here are TEN things you should know to start with (there are more).

In sum, it appears to be WORSE THAN the current law.

Read this 🧵and decide for yourself.

— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) February 5, 2024

"The border never closes" is a good summary of this bill, and of Joe Biden's policy.

I can understand why Chris Murphy supports it. I cannot imagine why any Republican supports this atrocious proposal. https://t.co/ekv7LJ8qbO

— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 5, 2024

Well-summarized https://t.co/HSF5R8LyaA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2024

Plus: House Speaker: Senate Immigration Bill ‘Dead on Arrival.’

MAKE THEM PAY: Complaint filed in lawsuit involving former Ohio Northern prof who allegedly lost job over anti-DEI stance.

MICHAEL WALSH: Happy Birthday to Us, Not to Lenin.

AMERICANS DIDN’T WANT WORLD WAR I EITHER BUT WOODROW WILSON GAVE IT TO THEM: Pollster John Zogby warns against a Biden war ‘people have said they don’t want.’ But to be fair Wilson was smart enough to wait until after the election.

ICYMI: MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Biden and the Border: Are we approaching a Civil War?

As always, if you like these essays please consider a paid subscription.

A NEW CONSENSUS FORMS?

Agreed https://t.co/IgoByJAmqm

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) February 3, 2024

INDIA: A Triumphant Modi Consolidates His Power: In the meantime, Rahul Gandhi continues to bring down Congress Party.

I’m reading Andrew Wareham’s latest book, set in India in World War Two, and Mountbatten is predicting that India will be independent after the war, and that without the British to keep the Hindus and Muslims from going at each other’s throats things will be dicey. It did pretty much turn out that way, even after the (also predicted) partition leading to the creation of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

JOHN LUCAS: True to Its Nature, CNN Continues to Lie About the Border.

WALL STREET JOURNAL axes its entire PRC coverage team. Well, the WSJ already has one reporter in jail in Russia, so maybe hard-hitting reporting in dictatorships isn’t working out for them.

So if China isn’t a place that can where you can do straight reporting, it’s probably not a good place to invest.

THE RULES ARE NOT FOR THE NOMENKLATURA AND ITS TOOLS: Ex-White House advisor Andy Slavitt is refusing to comply with a subpoena over questions about how he tried to censor me and others in 2021. “Ignoring a similar subpoena got Trump advisor Peter Navarro convicted of contempt of Congress; but Biden’s Justice Department says it won’t prosecute Slavitt. Rules are for thee, not for Andy.”

MEH. IT SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT DISCIPLINE AND INTELLIGENCE, BUT I KNOW PLENTY OF SMART LAWYERS WHO TOOK MORE THAN ONE TRY TO PASS THE BAR. 69% Of America’s ‘Best Lawyers’ Question The Competency Of Any Lawyer Who Has Difficulty Passing The Bar Exam.

As Ben Barton has demonstrated, the bar exam was introduced mostly to protect existing lawyers from new competition.

OPEN THREAD: It’s Saturday night.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches 20 satellites on separate inland and sea rocket launches.

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL: Antifungal Creams Could Be Triggering a Wave of Superfungal Skin Infections.

PUBLIC HEALTH SUFFERS FROM LOST TRUST: Measles, once controlled through widespread vaccination, is resurging due to misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. “The UK was deemed measles-free in 2016 but lost its status just two years later. And now there are rising case numbers across England, with significant outbreaks in London and the west Midlands.”

NOW OUT FROM ANDREW WAREHAM: The Last Campaign (Innocents No More Book 7).