THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX rolls 7th Starship spacecraft out for testing ahead of next launch. Cool photos at the link. Some parts of the 21st Century are turning out as I’d hoped.

PROFESSOR CARRINGTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Our Sun Could Be Overdue For a Violent Superflare, Study Warns.

HAHA, CRY MORE. LA Times Owner Killed Another Editorial and Progressives are Worked Up. “Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times, continues to shock the progressives who work at and buy his newspaper. He made news when he killed an endorsement of Kamala Harris prior to the election. This move was overshadowed when the Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, did the same thing. Last month, Dr. Soon-Shiong killed another editorial, this one critical of Trump’s cabinet picks. . . . The editorial never ran. Instead, they went with another piece which was less critical of Trump’s cabinet picks. This is in keeping with a new push at the Times to expand the range of commentary. Last month Dr. Soon-Shiong said he wanted voices from ‘all sides.'”

Plus “He hasn’t done anything wrong here, he’s just telling the progressives who work for him that he wants a new tone at the paper he owns. He has every right to do this, whether they like it or not.” They don’t, and their outraged entitlement is beautiful.

MAKE THEM PAY: George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump, are forced to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit. Plus attorney’s fees.

UPDATE (From Ed): Question asked and answered:

So the fact that ABC News and George Stephanopoulos have agreed to pay Donald Trump $15 million for defamation with a false claim of rape is going to be a front-page, lead of the evening news story for the next 3 days, right?

Stop laughing.

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) December 14, 2024

WELL, GOOD: The Emerging Breast-Cancer Treatment: No Surgery Required.

GOOD: 2025 Lexus GX SUV Gets Even More Off-Road-ier.

LEFTIES CAN’T GIVE UP: Michigan’s Misguided Attempt to Bankrupt Gunmakers.

SPACEWAR: The US military is now talking openly about going on the attack in space.

RSV VACCINES FOR KIDS HAVE A CHECKERED HISTORY: FDA Advisors Say More Data Needed for RSV Vaccines in Young Kids: A “very complicated situation” after mRNA vaccine trial was halted, expert says. “FDA advisors said that more data are needed to fully understand if there are broader safety concerns related to use of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines in young children after an mRNA vaccine trial was halted earlier this year. Moderna, which had been developing an mRNA vaccine candidate for RSV in infants and toddlers, notified the FDA in July that it had paused a phase I trial due to an imbalance of severe/hospitalized RSV cases in RSV-naive infants ages 5 to 7 months who had received the vaccine versus placebo, raising concern for possible vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD), according to FDA briefing documents.”

An earlier effort at RSV vaccine had a similar problem.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA updates ‘Moon to Mars’ roadmap for exploring Red Planet.

THE VEGAN MAFIA IS EVERYWHERE: Proposed USDA guidelines support beans, lentils for protein versus meat.

FROM DAVID FRIEDMAN, another AI-generated SF story.

PUSHBACK: Ohio law schools end race-based programs after think tank probe.

HIGHER EDUCATION IS A MONEY LAUNDRY FOR LEFTISTS: University of Iowa paid MSNBC host Joy Reid $55k to speak on campus.

DAVE FRIEDMAN WROTE A SCIENCE FICTION STORY USING AI: Here’s the prompt: “Write a 10,000 word1 short story about an asteroid miner marooned on an asteroid. Narrate in first person. The miner has a wry, ironic, and detached demeanor, but he really pines for his family back home. He has a number of robots to keep him company, including one which helps him with sexual needs, but as he becomes more aware of how inextricably marooned he is, he starts to think about descending through Dante’s circles of hell. The overall message is one of increasing existential despair, akin to Sartre’s No Exit. Now, this is a science fiction story, but I want it to be a well-written, *literary* science fiction story–think something akin to Alastair Reynolds’ style.” Story at the link.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER ON X:

This gotta be the greatest community note I ever seen. https://t.co/CxSAQq6hgc

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) December 13, 2024

SUCCESS:

That is the goal. This platform only seems to”right-wing” to the left. https://t.co/5Gk0lYn1gl

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2024

As the most politically balanced site on the Internet, X seems “right wing” to the left.

OFF AND RUNNING: Trump forms MAGA ‘Dream Team’ for 100-day sprint.

I HAVE NO INTEREST IN MLB, THE NFL, OR THE NBA THESE DAYS:

Star-driven league. When Magic and Bird are your leading faces, you’re gonna thrive. When Jordan takes over, you’re gonna really shoot for the moon.

Hand the league to some childish commie like LeBron for 20 years, and this is what you get. https://t.co/tXG4JDp05W

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) December 13, 2024

MAKE THEM PAY: Amy Wax Threatens To Sue Penn for Race Discrimination, Breach of Contract: The embattled law professor says she will take legal action if Penn doesn’t lift the sanctions against her.

HEH:

My favorite part of this story is when a liberal bartender was forced to admit that Republicans are cooler people than Democrats. pic.twitter.com/fnlcTyQ6xB

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 13, 2024

2022 FLASHBACK:

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.

A MOON-SHATTERING KABOOM: Meteor strikes on the moon! Astronomer captures possible Geminid lunar impacts.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE NOT MENTALLY WELL: Incoming West Virginia state representative charged with threatening to kill GOP lawmakers.