Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

NOW HE’S CONNECTING PEOPLE’S CELLPHONES TO SATELLITES:

Best part: “I’m really smart, I work for the Wall Street Journal.” “I’m smart, not like everybody says, like dumb! I’m smart!”

That was in 2018. Now: SpaceX Starlink Has 227 Direct to Cellphone Capable Satellites. “The Direct to Cell network leverages the infrastructure they have built for Starlink over the past several years. Direct to Cell satellites plug into the existing Starlink satellite constellation via laser backhaul; meaning even our early satellites can provide services anywhere with regulatory approvals without requiring dedicated ground infrastructure. They also leverage all the existing networking, ground stations, and Points of Presence (PoPs) Starlink has developed. The Direct to Cell data travels over Starlink’s core directly to the operator’s core, providing a seamless integration.”

They’re going to activate direct to cell service in Florida after Hurricane Milton strikes, too.

Think how much more they could be doing if Elon were as smart as a WSJ reporter. . . .

TO BE HONEST, DENTISTS WERE FOOLS TO ENDORSE FLUORIDE, IT WRECKED THEIR CAVITY-FILLING BUSINESS MODEL: Court tells EPA to consider fluoride risk, to dentists’ dismay. “A federal judge last month handed a major victory to opponents of water fluoridation, capping a seven-year legal battle over whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has failed to protect the public from potential toxic effects of fluoride, which is added to the tap water of around 200 million Americans.”

CHRIS BRAY:

2024, summarized: You’re sitting in a ballpark, watching a baseball game. The person sitting next to you has a radio, tuned to the play-by-play announcer. You watch the batter drill a line drive up the left field line. The third baseman dives for it, missing, and the batter races around first and keeps going, as the third base umpire throws out an arm to signal that it’s a fair ball. “A swing and a miss for strike three,” the announcer says on the radio. “That’s Ohtani’s second strikeout of the game.” You squint at the radio. “That’s not true,” you say, pointing at the field. “He’s sliding into second.” An usher comes running down the stairs. “Excuse me!” he shouts. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for disinformation! Do I need to call security?”

On October 4, the relentlessly appalling Anne Applebaum hosted a podcast at The Atlantic website on the topic of American freedom. . . .

Opening the discussion, Applebaum and co-host Peter Pomerantsev “explain” that there are two competing models of freedom in the American past. One model is adherence to American political norms, centered on submission to the authority of the federal government. Read this carefully: . . . Freedom is choosing who rules you.

Plus: “Just a few days ago, I argued that whole layers of high-status American political and cultural figures are ‘no longer culturally American.’ They don’t see the country, they don’t like the country, and they don’t have the most basic American instincts.”

REMINDER:

FROM YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT TO GOD’S EAR:

IT’S COME TO THIS: FEMA hurricane aid stopped by ‘Road Closed’ sign? That’s Kamala Harris in a nutshell. “Yes, per on-the-ground reports out of tiny Bat Cave, NC, which was absolutely smashed by the storm, FEMA refused to enter the town because its workers are ‘not allowed’ to drive around a sign announcing a road closure. Even though the road was drivable, according to residents: just ‘officially’ closed. . . . Add in reports of authorities shutting down private-citizen rescue efforts — like that undertaken by heroic local helicopter pilot Jordan Seidhom.”

MEN ARE EXPENDABLE:

ENEMIES OF CIVILIZATION: Columbia Student Protesters Celebrate Hamas on Anniversary of Attack. “Here’s the pro-Hamas student group. I’m not hearing any chants for a ceasefire. They are chanting ‘Intifada, people’s war.’ These Columbia students support Hamas. Notice their faces are all covered.”

OPEN THREAD: This is it, we’ll hit the heights.

“CALL HER DADDY PODCAST” INTERVIEWS KAMALA: “I listened to the entire show, by the way. Of course, it’s a softball interview, a complete safe space for Harris, so we don’t get to see her tested under pressure. We never do.”

WELL, OUR RULING CLASS IN THE WEST IS MOSTLY GARBAGE PEOPLE: The West has turned its back on Jews. “Politicians and the media alike emphasise the parallel rise of Islamophobia. Yet two-thirds of all religious hate crimes in America were directed at Jews, despite them accounting for just two per cent of the population.”

It’s all about narratives.