Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
January 12, 2025
ULTRAPROCESSED FOOD IS BAD UNLESS IT’S FAKE MEAT: Crafting the perfect bite of meat: Engineers develop metamaterials that mimic muscle and fat architecture.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: US company Firefly Aerospace to launch for moon next week.
WHY SHOULD THEY BE ANY DIFFERENT FROM HUMAN DOCTORS? Test of ‘poisoned dataset’ shows vulnerability of LLMs to medical misinformation.
INTERESTING:
Interesting chart from GS that unlike the US, Eurozone, China, and Japan did not return back to their pre-pandemic real GDP economic growth trend. pic.twitter.com/ixA6YOkX0c
— Eugene Ng (@EugeneNg_VCap) January 10, 2025
WELL, TO BE FAIR, DAVID FRUM IS A PUTZ:
Remembering those bygone days when you could turn to Twitter for fast and trustworthy information on a rapidly developing story like:
– The reseviors were all full
– Hunter's laptop
– Covington Catholic
– White supremacist at Youngkin rally
– Border Control whips
– Jussie… https://t.co/t3zsVB6cwf— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) January 11, 2025
THE ENEMY WITHIN:
One of the main organizers behind the UPenn encampment just posted, "I would give up every right and freedom I have right now to be a part of Oct. 7th."
Never let anyone tell you the encampments were pro-peace. This is the type of rhetoric @penn allows to foster on campus. pic.twitter.com/kNQ1laz77N
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 11, 2025
AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK:
Overheard in California: “But wouldn’t it be easier to just run it… competently?”
— Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 (@pmarca) January 12, 2025
REMEMBER, FINANCIAL CRISIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SLASH PROGRAMS: Why America Is in So Much Trouble. “There aren’t too many problems in America that can’t be traced back to the growth of big and incompetent government. . . . This road to financial perdition cannot stand. It risks blowing up the Trump presidency. Upon entering office, Trump should on day one call for a package of up to $500 billion of rescissions — money the last Congress appropriated but has not been spent yet. Canceling the green energy subsidies alone could save nearly $100 billion. Why are we still spending money on COVID-19? We could save tens of billions of dollars by ending corporate welfare programs — such as the wheelbarrows full of tax dollars thrown at companies like Intel in the CHIPS Act. The Elon Musk Department of Government Efficiency is already identifying low-hanging fruit that needs to be cut from the tree. Along with extending the Trump tax cut of 2017, this erasure of bloated federal spending is critical for economic revival and for reversing the income losses to the middle class under Biden. This is especially urgent because the curse of inflation is NOT over. Since the Fed started cutting interest rates in October, commodity prices are up nearly 5%, and mortgage rates have again hit 7%, in part because the combination of cheap money and government expansion is a toxic economic brew — as history teaches us. Nothing could suck the oxygen and excitement out of the new Trump presidency more than a resumption of inflation at the grocery store and the gas pump. Trump’s record-high approval rating will sink overnight if the cost of everything starts rising again.”
And if it happens, the press, which covered for Biden, will do its best to amplify it.
I HAVE BEEN PROUD TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE POST.
Anyone else notice that NY Post is the only news outlet that has covered the nonstop crime in NYC?
I haven't seen the NYT write a single story about the daily stabbings, shootings, and muggings. https://t.co/rHXXh14kgg
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 12, 2025
I MENTIONED JIM BENNETT’S SUGGESTION ALONG THESE LINES HERE EARLIER. NOW IT’S GETTING TRACTION: An Alternative to Buying Greenland That Could Actually Work.
Greenlanders are almost entirely indigenous Inuit peoples, not Danes. They have their own language and their own culture. They do not want to be a tiny part of a vast, culturally alien nation.
They don’t want to change which larger country they are part of; they want independence.
So, Denmark doesn’t want to sell to us, and Greenland doesn’t want to join us. Does that mean the case is closed?
Not at all. Trump can use Greenland’s desire for independence to leverage a deal that gives him almost everything he wants while also appealing to Greenland’s and Denmark’s pride and interests.
That’s what a COFA could do. The United States has three such treaties with the Republic of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. The U.S. supplies each with economic aid and access to many government programs such as Medicaid. Imports from these countries are largely tariff-free, and citizens of these nations can live and work in the United States.
In exchange, the U.S. handles all defense obligations. It can exclude other nations’ militaries, has certain rights to station troops and establish bases, and can operate its military forces within these nations’ boundaries.
This would meet the American desire to keep China and, to a lesser extent, Russia out of its backyard. The Arctic Ocean ice is rapidly melting, making the Arctic Sea lanes viable for shipping. China has shown a keen interest in the region, establishing a Polar Silk Road program to encourage its dominance in this increasingly important part of the world.
China has also tried to establish an economic foothold in Greenland. The island is reported to have significant reserves of rare earth minerals needed for modern electronic equipment — and China is currently the globe’s major supplier. It has also tried to exploit Greenland’s control over its own mineral development to start and explore for oil and natural gas.
I like this idea.
Related: Denmark to Trump: Let’s Make a Deal?
I BELIEVE THIS:
There is a culture of Ped0philia among the British elite.
They are protecting each other now because they know how common it is among them.
That is also why they don’t prosecute the Pakistani gangs. The British elite don’t view it as a real crime. https://t.co/yZnNEEdq8M
— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) January 11, 2025
The gangs may also have blackmail material. Gangs usually do.
BRYAN CAPLAN: How Bad Is White Nationalism? “White nationalism is one of the most reviled ideologies on earth. But what exactly is so awful about it? Menachem Rosensaft‘s piece in Slate quotes some leading white nationalists, but never really explains why this nationalism is worse than all other nationalisms.”
January 11, 2025
OPEN THREAD: Have your usual wild Saturday night.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Watch Blue Origin launch its 1st New Glenn rocket early Sunday in a free livestream.
I wish them luck.
I’VE BEEN SAYING THIS SINCE 2021: It’s shocking that a man in this mental condition is President of the United States.
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK:
Confirming that FEMA is kicking people out of hotels right now.
On the phone with a man and his girlfriend, hotel kicking him out as we speak.
He's frantically screaming into the phone, "THERE IS SNOW EVERYWHERE AND I DON'T EVEN HAVE A TENT MAN, PLEASE HELP ME!"
— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) January 11, 2025
THE LORD MOVES IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS:
So James Woods’ house miraculously survived after left-wingers said it burning down was a sign from God.
So what’s the sign now? Will we get any updates?
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 10, 2025
BUT OF COURSE:
Obama StafferBro podcasters using the fires to fundraise for ActBlue really is the cherry on top of this whole saga of Democrat corruption and incompetence huh
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) January 11, 2025
UPDATE:
This is the group @jonfavs is bragging about routing money to through ActBlue.
The relief fund is a front for an open borders communist organization. https://t.co/WBHagNwbL6
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) January 11, 2025
SHOCKER:
STUDY: MRC researchers have once again caught Google rigging Trump nominee searches by massive margins. https://t.co/mIRhcpNE7f
— Tom Olohan (@tolohan) January 9, 2025
I DIDN’T HAVE “WINKLEVOSS BROTHER AS MORAL LEADER” ON MY CARD FOR 2025, BUT HERE YOU ARE:
This has got to be one of the most morally depraved questions I’ve ever seen. Maybe he’s after justice. And the implication that crimes against children are somehow mitigated or should be ignored because they were committed more than a decade ago, is unconscionable. https://t.co/VJj1PoDIfJ
— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) January 10, 2025
BBC LISTS FIVE CAUSES OF THE CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES. #1 is “Rapid Fuel Growth.” They don’t get to “climate change” until #5, and even then they say “it is too early to establish whether or how much climate change contributed to these fires.”
Well, it certainly didn’t cause the gross institutional and personal incompetence that we saw everywhere.