HMM: FDA clears Wegovy manufacturer to market weight-loss drug for heart health.

BACK WHEN I WAS WRITING THE NEW SCHOOL, I TALKED WITH HIM A LOT AND TOURED UDACITY HEADQUARTERS: Software-Defined Humanist Sebastian Thrun Is Always Learning.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Lifesaving AI in Aisle 12? 3D mammography is coming to the big box store—and it could transform breast cancer screening.

THEY’RE NOT FLOODING US WITH FOREIGNERS FOR THE GOOD OF THE NATION:

Most Americans do not know that the US census currently counts, for purposes of voting power, all people in a district, regardless of citizenship!

Senate Democrats just voted unanimously to defeat an amendment that would have stopped counting illegals for congressional seat… https://t.co/5gXt4Z1wzP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2024

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Quest for ice spurs NASA’s first mobile robotic moon mission. He who controls the ice controls the water; he who controls the water controls the Moon. As well as cislunar space and possibly Mars transits.

WHY ARE SO MANY DIVERSITY OFFICERS SO BIGOTED? Johns Hopkins Medicine Chief Diversity Officer resigns after ‘poorly worded’ email about men, ‘White people,’ and ‘Christians.’

COLLUSION: Qatar keeps close ties to American universities.

ICYMI: NATO Officially Adds New Member State. Welcome, Swedes. Putin started a war for fear of NATO encroachment, reaped more NATO encroachment. Smart.

DON SURBER: America wants Biden vs. Trump: Democrats think it is a cinch. Trump supporters want a do-over.

HELEN DALE REVIEWS ROB HENDERSON’S NEW BOOK, Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class. “Henderson is best known for developing the concept of ‘luxury beliefs,’ which are political ideologies and policy proposals that confer social status on the well-to-do folk who support them. Meanwhile, those same policies injure poor and working-class people when implemented at the state’s behest. His insight is startling and applies to many more interventions than obviously daft ones like defunding the police.”

Plus: “More broadly, Troubled is an excellent primer on the state of elite US higher education. Completed last year—before October 7 and a university presidents’ Congressional hearing now seared into the nation’s eyeballs—it captures the extent to which the activist output of universities is not, in any useful sense, about making things work. It pretends to be at some grandiose moral level but is nothing of the sort. Instead, clever people who’ve never had a difficult day in their lives get to parade their piety, while the Rob Hendersons and Robbie Waynes of the world are left to sink out of sight.”

Here’s a longer, but excellent review of Henderson’s book, too. Excerpt:

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about one aspect of this book: the extent to which dishonesty is entirely normalized in our society among the elite. The luxury classes people pretend to believe that marriage doesn’t matter, but very few of them have children out of wedlock. They pretend to believe that fat-shaming is a serious moral affront, while they spend a fortune on organic food and personal trainers to keep themselves fit and trim. They pretend to believe many things that their lives betray they don’t actually believe at all.

It’s easy to think that most of them are just going along with the crowd and don’t realize they’re lying, but the truth is that most of them do know, which is why they expressed agreement with Rob in private. This is a familiar dynamic; I used to get DMs on Twitter from people apologizing that they couldn’t follow me (though they made a point to daily read my tweets) without upsetting their coworkers. These people included a couple of college professors, a Unitarian minister, and a couple of therapists, and possibly others I’ve forgotten.

Dishonesty is so normalized that this kind of performative fragmentation—signaling that one believes certain things while acting as if one believes other things—may eventually be recognized as a marker of intelligence and proper preparation for class climbing (or class maintenance, if one starts off in that class).

This dynamic is going to destroy us all if we don’t find a way to fix it. Soon.

Yes.

OPEN THREAD: Make it special.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA, SpaceX looking to extend lifespan of Crew Dragon spacecraft to 15 flights.

HUNGER: Study Reveals a Major Drawback to The Health Benefits of Fasting.

LONGEVITY: Beyond Telomerase: The Quest for Chromosome Immortality.

OUR GOVERNMENT IS RUN BY EVIL MORONS: ATF Director Faces the Nation with His Ignorance of Firearms.

THE EV FIRE SALE CONTINUES: 2024 Nissan Ariya Electric SUV Trim Prices Slashed by Thousands.

FASTER, PLEASE: 20 Megawatt Nuclear Reactors That Can Fit In a Truck.

DO NOT BUY: “Disgraceful”: Messy ToS update allegedly locks Roku devices until users give in.

HMM: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking. It’s baffling scientists and leading to more research. “According to a California study, lung cancer rates are dropping for every group except nonsmoking Asian American women — for whom they’re actually increasing by 2% per year. While lung cancer is traditionally associated with cigarettes, as many as 20% of U.S. cases happen in never-smokers every year. Among Asian American women who have lung cancer, more than 50% have never smoked.”

I had a Japanese ex-girlfriend who died of lung cancer at the age of 33, having never smoked.

THE SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM IS A BOONDOGGLE AND SPACEX’S STARSHIP WILL BE MUCH CHEAPER: NASA tests limits of updated engines for future Artemis missions.

I USED TO BE ANXIOUS ABOUT LIFE. NOW I’M JUST ANXIOUS ABOUT THOSE FLYING 8-FOOT SQUIDS. FDA designates LSD-based drug as possible breakthrough treatment for anxiety.

And there’s something creepy about that girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

EVOLUTION IN ACTION: Nine Species of Human Once Walked Earth. Now There’s Just One. Did We Kill The Rest? Actually, we absorbed some of them through crossbreeding. Homo Sapiens are just that sexy.

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF ANTISEMITISM? (CONT’D): Middlebury College faces federal antisemitism investigation.

One of the alleged instances of antisemitism referenced in the complaint involved a vigil organized by Jewish students on campus to honor lives lost in the October 7 attacks that university administrators purportedly “attempted to prevent and then to limit the Jewish students’ request for a police presence,” according to the complaint.

The complaint further alleges that campus officials told the students “to not display any Israeli flags during the event and to remove the word ‘Jewish’ from all literature for the event.”

The complaint also alleged Middlebury ignored complaints from Jewish students who alleged members of the campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter intimidated students by blocking entrances to the dining halls.

Another incident mentioned in the complaint involved a Jewish student who allegedly faced disciplinary action after reporting a resident assistant in a campus dormitory for having the words “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” posted on their door.

Though the statement is generally understood to refer to the destruction of Israel, many college students do not understand what it means.

The StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice has initiated legal action against other universities as well.

Make them pay.

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF ANTI-SEMITISM? Jew-hating maniac gives anti-Semitic presentation at Queens College, says racism is central to Judaism.

I LIKED “LAST MAN STANDING:” Tim Allen Coming Back To ABC With New Comedy Pilot.

This may be a cultural indicator of sorts.