HMM: Heart Shrinkage Linked to Popular Weight-Loss Drug Ozempic/Semaglutide.

IN OTHER NEWS, LIBERACE TURNS OUT TO HAVE BEEN GAY: Paul Reubens Comes Out as Gay in Posthumous Documentary: The documentary, Pee-wee as Himself, premiered this week at Sundance.

HE’D BE CALLED A SPREADER OF “MISINFORMATION” TODAY: The obscure ‘quack’ who helped pioneer the modern clinical trial.

Francis Hauksbee the Younger, an 18th-century instrument maker and scientific lecturer, proposed a formal comparative study in 1743 to evaluate the “safety and efficacy” of his medication for venereal disease.

Published as a pamphlet “A Further Account of the Effects of Mr. Hauksbee’s Alterative Medicine,” his plan aimed to compare his treatment against others by organizing a controlled trial. The study included a detailed methodology, patient consent and it called for transparent documentation of patient outcomes.

Doctors didn’t know much back then. That said, don’t mock the “opium-laced alcohol tinctures.” They may not have cured anything, but I’m sure they made patients feel better.

A FRIEND COMMENTS: “Hoist on their own PETArd.”

PETA activists attempted to dump a truckload of dirt in front of the ASPCA headquarters but failed because the dirt had frozen. 🤣🤣🤣@PETA, how about stopping the waste of money on ridiculous stunts and teaming up with the ASPCA to actually save animals? Instead, you just end… pic.twitter.com/GbxiB0oXdB

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) January 24, 2025

WELL, THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG:

🚨 BREAKING: Following retaliatory measures announced by President Donald Trump Colombian President Gustavo Petro now is offering his presidential plane to help repatriate deportees pic.twitter.com/Mcei5f1lUi

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 26, 2025

UPDATE:

🚨 Trump just posted this 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/70MWvhJG9e

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 26, 2025

So much winning, but I’m not tired of it yet.

MORE:

LOL, no they won't, Colombia already caved.

Morons.

— Usually Right (@normouspenis) January 26, 2025

You can tell who is a disingenuous paid shill by the fact that every single one of them said coffee and flowers were going to be very expensive for Valentine’s Day five seconds after Donald Trump responded to the president of Columbia’s very stupid decision to reject repatriation…

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) January 26, 2025

MORE STILL:

I am totally not kidding when I say this is a historic moment. History books will discuss this as much as they discuss Alexander Graham Bell's first words through a telephone.

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) January 26, 2025

As Elon Musk is fond of saying, X is the global town square.

ONLY TRAINED LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS CAN BE TRUSTED WITH FIREARMS: Jacksonville Cop Fired After Shooting Motorist With His Own Gun.

#JOURNALISM:

When Obama was president, these guys were still blaming Bush for the economy in Year Eight, but with Trump, it's 100% his economy after five days. https://t.co/jHkfmObNBi

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) January 26, 2025

I get what you’re doing here but technically data for egg prices won’t be based on Trump’s actions for at least a month because they just released December’s data on Jan 15.

So if eggs are at an all-time high you can still thank Biden. :) https://t.co/tZZipxWG97

— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) January 26, 2025

A HARD ARGUMENT TO DISMISS:

People killed by AI: 0
People killed by the State: hundreds of millions

AI safetyists: Let's put AI under the control of the State

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 25, 2025

FLASHBACK: The Coming “Symbolic Analyst” Meltdown.

THE NEW SPACE RACE, SLOW-HORSES DIVISION: NASA’s Artemis II rocket booster stacking process reaches new milestone.

MASS-FORMATION PSYCHOSIS: British study finds children citing distress over gender dysphoria rose 50-fold.

YES:

The last week has totally reset my conception of what's possible, in two wholly different dimensions. 🤯

— Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 (@pmarca) January 26, 2025

I TALK ABOUT EXERCISE AND POLITICS WITH MARK RIPPETOE on the Starting Strength podcast.

JOHN LUCAS: Whither General Milley? A prescription for accountability from General Milley.

UPDATE: I originally linked to an earlier version of this piece. The link above now goes to a revised version.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Sanctioned Penn Professor Amy Wax Says ‘Possibility’ Trump Will Join Her Fight Against University That Punished Her for ‘Offensive’ Speech.

Professor Amy Wax, in an interview with the Sun, discloses that “the possibility has been brought up” that the Trump administration could join her federal civil lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania for violating “core principles of the First Amendment” and enforcing policies that are “racially discriminatory.”

Penn, as it’s called, has been trying to fire Dr. Wax, a tenured legal scholar who has argued cases before the Supreme Court and also happens to be a physician, for years due to statements she’s made — most controversially about the performance of her Black students — that have roiled the campus and made her persona non grata among the overwhelmingly liberal faculty.

Dr. Wax is now suing Penn after it punished her, including reducing her compensation, with what her complaint calls “academic discipline in the form of major sanctions.” The suit, in which the law professor uses a legal theory whose shape emerged in the wake of the attacks of October 7, 2023, to take on her hostile employer, could gain momentum from Washington’s help. The Trump administration could see in the polarizing professor an ally in its push to change the culture on America’s campuses.

Penn accuses Dr. Wax of committing a “major infraction” for “making intentional and incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic statements and actions that inflict harm.”

Penn’s faculty appears to have been especially incensed at Dr. Wax’s claims that “non-Western groups” are resentful toward “Western people” and that in her experience, Black students had rarely graduated at the top of their law school classes. She told the Sun in 2023 that she rejects the “premise that all groups are equal in their skills, ability, preferences, and talents,” but has always maintained that she has never discriminated against any student.

Penn and its lawyers ruminated on how to punish Dr. Wax in spite of her tenure. The university settled on a punishment that included a one-year suspension at half pay, the loss of a named chair and summer pay, a public reprimand, and a requirement that she note in the course of every public appearance that she does not speak for Penn. She calls the process that led to her sanctions “abnormal.”

Penn called her comments all sorts of things, except false.

YEP: Roger Kimball: Trump 2.0: A Shockwave of Change in Just Six Days.

GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS: Was Pete Hegseth’s Accuser Offered A Quid Pro Quo For Her Bogus Affidavit?

THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE: In California and Michigan, a Surprising Force Drives Anti-Israel Campus Activism: Labor Unions: ‘You basically have auto workers across the nation subsidizing these trust fund graduate students.’

#JOURNALISM: NYT: It Is Just a Clump of Cells if They’re American; It Is a Child If the Mother Is ‘Undocumented.’

EXPLAINING LIFE TO IDIOTS:

The French have not been in Haiti in over 200 years.

In the past two centuries, Haitians have not managed to do anything except cause nearly animal to go extinct and to deforest 99% of the vegetation on their side of Hispaniola. https://t.co/lP9X1Kss9x

— Rich 🐺 (@heywildrich) January 25, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Party like it’s Saturday night.

FASTER, PLEASE: Beam me to the stars: Scientists propose wild new interstellar travel tech.

BRAWNDO HAS WHAT PLANTS CRAVE: Electrolyte Drinks Can Make Things Worse When You’re Sick. Here’s Why.

FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Discover Promising Molecule That Restores Cognitive Function in Early Alzheimer’s.

21ST CENTURY PARENTING: Octomom Nadya Suleman’s kids speak out for the first time: ‘She had to sacrifice so much.’