MAKE THEM PAY: Florida Appellate Court to Pulitzer Board: Stand Up And Take Your Medicine in Trump Defamation Case. “Talk about desperation. Why would the Pulitzer board try to get out of a trial with a claim of executive privilege? Are they that afraid of losing at trial? They should be, given what Senior Judge Robert Pegg had to say in his ruling on their initial motion for dismissal.”
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
May 30, 2025
AN INDICTMENT IN ONE PHOTO:
“The gold standard for expertise.” https://t.co/y2Bxpaphvv pic.twitter.com/kzjHWKoomL
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) May 29, 2025
Related: The Suicide of Expertise.
May 29, 2025
OPEN THREAD: Because I love you and want you to be happy.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese launch startup conducts vertical takeoff and splashdown test.
HOWARD WOLOWITZ HAS OTHER PLANS: Robot Hand Could Help Scientists Decode Why Tickling Makes Us Giggle.
CHINA IS ASSHOE: Disbelief as Chinese paraglider sucked into freezing, high altitude vortex is punished. This story literally refreshed and vanished while I was making this post. But basically this guy was sucked up to a height of 28,000 feet before he was able to descend. Local authorities punished him for telling about it, and punished his flying partner for publishing the video, apparently for fear it made the community look bad. But they made it look worse.
A paragliding enthusiast surnamed Ou told Jiupai News that Peng, known by the nickname Lao Liu, has become a legend.
They were also shocked to learn that the local authorities had decided to punish Peng, banning him from flying for six months and asking him to submit a report.
The Gansu Provincial Aviation Sports Association published their decision on May 28.
They also banned Peng’s flying companion Gu Zhimin from flying for six months for “publishing the video without permission and causing bad influence”.
One angry online observer said: “How is publishing videos of a personal experience something punishable? And how can they reflect on an accident?”
“He survived being sucked into a sub-zero cloud vortex but not the official investigation,” said another.
Local authorities are an embarrassment around the world, but this takes the cake.
ELIMINATING THE INFLUENCE OF ROTTEN, CORRUPT INSTITUTIONS:
BREAKING: In a letter sent today, @AGPamBondi informed the American Bar Association that they will no longer enjoy "special access to judicial nominees." The ABA will no longer be granted waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information, and judicial nominees will no… pic.twitter.com/QugLesKfwB
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) May 29, 2025
HAHA:
With Ban on International Students, Harvard Forced To Begin Accepting Students From Ohio https://t.co/MMsIr3aki7 pic.twitter.com/NZqa2iSTi8
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 28, 2025
DOES THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE NEED TO BE SAVED: Can Hydrogen Save the Internal Combustion Engine? These Engineers Say Yes.
I feel like my thoughts on hydrogen cars from Popular Mechanics are still valid. “The car advertises itself as petroleum-free, which is true. But—and here’s my problem with hydrogen cars—it’s not really fossil fuel free. Most hydrogen is made by ‘steam reformation’ of natural gas, which is still a fossil fuel. You can also make it out of water, via electrolysis, but unless you’ve got a non-fossil source of electricity the hydrogen is really just functioning as an energy-storage medium, rather than a source of energy. Of course, build lots of nice, clean nuclear plants, or orbiting solar power plants, or whatever, and that problem goes away.”
MY LATEST SUBSTACK COLUMN: Scary AI and Scarier Not-Scary AI.
As always, if you like these essays, please take out a (preferably paid) subscription. I will thank you, and my family will thank you.
UPDATE: This from the comments at Substack made my day: “I want to comment just on the writing style of this essay: exceptional. They say writing ability is like a muscle you can develop through exercise. Your writing muscles are in top shape.”
Well, I’ve always said you can only be so smart but you can always be a better writer.
JOHN ROBERTS SHOWS NO SIGNS OF THINKING:
John Roberts has a lot of hard and serious thinking to do in the weeks ahead. I hope he doesn't have fixed summer vacation plans. https://t.co/CbmoIA7S4Q
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) May 29, 2025
BIG BANG: First Look: Rossi R95 Triple Black Pistol. “Rossi R95 Triple Black pistols are available in four different centerfire calibers including .454 Casull, .357 Mag, .44 Mag. and .45-70 Gov’t.”
BAD NEWS FOR WOLVES: Coastal Alaska wolves exposed to high mercury concentrations from eating sea otters.
NOW OUT FROM ANDREW WAREHAM: Saturn Ascendant (The Call of the Sea Book 14).
BAD NEWS FOR BATS: A new pathogenic fungus is threatening bats.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches Tianwen-2 asteroid and comet study mission.
THAT’S BAD FOR MOST ANYONE: Long hours in bed tied to impaired thinking in post-stroke patients.
THE PRESS: EVERYTHING IS AWFUL!
The voters:
For the first time, 50% of American voters feel the nation is heading in the "Right Direction," according to fresh polling from Rasmussen. https://t.co/j7goz2V4cC
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) May 29, 2025
WHAT AN IDEOLOGICAL MONOCULTURE LOOKS LIKE: Yale dean emails everyone anti-Trump essay: ‘I know you share my concern.’
WHAT, DO THEY THINK IT’S STILL 2021? Illinois Wesleyan University promotes ‘Gender Diversity’ with ‘Rainbow Floor,’ ‘Universal Bathroom Map.’
EXACTLY:
"At one level, Black Lives Matter was merely a get-rich-quick swindle … At another level, however, it was about converting accusations of racism into political capital for Democrats."https://t.co/HR9bsB7Fo4
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) May 29, 2025
YES, MY STUDENTS WRITE THEIR EXAMS IN CLASS WITH NO INTERNET ACCESS: The Solution To Cheating On Exams With ChatGPT Is Painfully Old-School: Blue Books.
JOSH BLACKMAN: President Trump Has to Obey the Constitution, But So Does Chief Justice Roberts. “Roberts is quite right that the rule of law is ‘endangered,’ the separation of powers are out of balance, and ordered liberty depends on a ‘normal appellate review.’ But what Roberts misses is that he has exacerbated these problems in crucial moments. For nearly two decades, Roberts has decided contentious cases not based on the best reading of the law, but rather on a crude calculus of political costs and benefits. These rulings have corroded the Supreme Court as an institution, such that reasonable observers will always question whether Roberts’s decisions are based on law or politics. Recently, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas declared in dissent that ‘Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law.’ These justices are emphatically correct. As Roberts continues to lecture Trump about weakening the rule of law, the Chief should realize he shares in the blame.”
Nobody respects a trimmer.
And The Constitution isn’t a synonym for what lefties and NYT editorial boards want.
Related: Courts are infected with ‘injunctivitis’ — and tempting Trump’s defiance.