FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Jesse Singal: after the replication crisis and into the youth gender medicine debate.

THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT COVERING ITSELF WITH GLORY HERE: The Hurricane Helene Hall of Shame.

TYPICAL: NYT opinion columnist M. Gessen displays shockingly little concern for free-speech values.

Flashback: “There are no working-class censors.” “The dirty secret of content moderation all over the world is that it’s a tiny sliver of educated rich correcting everybody else. It’s telling people what fork to use, but you can get a degree in it, basically. The problem is America has the most useless aristocrats in history. . . . These people have no honor, no belief, no poetry, no art, no humor, no patriotism, which is unique to them, no loyalty, no dreams, and no accomplishments. They are simultaneously illiterate and pretentious, which is very hard to pull off. They may have one idea, and it’s not even an idea, but a sensation. Fear. Rightly so, because they snitch each other out at the drop of a hat. They’re afraid of each other. But they’re also terrified of everyone outside their social set, and they live in near constant dread of being caught with even one original opinion.”

KIMBERLEY STRASSEL: Jack Smith’s October Surprise: It’s impossible not to suspect the special counsel’s filing is politically motivated. “Politics hath no fury like a prosecutor scorned, and it appears the American electorate won’t be allowed to forget it. That’s the best read of special counsel Jack Smith’s newly unsealed filing in his criminal case against Donald Trump. Congratulations, Attorney General Merrick Garland: You’ve got your own 2024 ‘election interference’ story line. Mr. Smith filed the 165-page brief last week, his latest response to an embarrassing defeat at the Supreme Court in July.”

Everything Jack Smith does is politically motivated.

HEH:

MSNBC's Ari Melber loses it after the anti-Trump impeachment witness he invited on his show said he was voting for Trump because of how bad things are

Melber: You said it was a no from me after J6. Now you say it's a yes?

Sondland: It's an absolute yespic.twitter.com/aMx1x5jfER

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 2, 2024

I REMEMBER WHEN THEY PITCHED KEIR STARMER AS THE CAUTIOUS MODERATE: No Time Like the Present for the UK to Give Away *gulp* Diego Garcia.

NOTHING THAT DAMAGING TO THE DEMOCRATS CAN BE TOLERATED: Dockworkers strike suspended, tentative agreement includes 62% pay raise over 6 years. “The tentative agreement does not resolve differences between the union and shipping companies over the use of automated machinery, sources said. That will be a key focus of negotiations between both sides from now until January 15.” Which is conveniently after the election.

UPDATE: A friend messages: “Haha, the Dems got to them. And all this time the unions thought they were telling the Dems what to do. I bet most longshoremen are Trumpy, tho.”

Safe bet.

OPEN THREAD: Disport yourselves in the comments.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Commercial space’s critical role in the race to outpace adversaries.

FALLS AND DEMENTIA: “The findings from a team of researchers in the US do not prove falls contribute to dementia (although this can’t yet be ruled out either), but they do suggest that falls could be an early indicator of deteriorating brain conditions that lead to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.”

I’m still young enough that when I trip over something (which is common, as I am clumsy), it’s just “he fell.” At some point you cross a line in which people start saying, in hushed tones, “he had a fall.” For me, the upside of being clumsiness is that I’m really good at falling. My dad, on the other hand, was an athlete who almost never fell, but who usually broke a bone when he did.

FIVE BIG NUCLEAR BOMBS: Explosion As Powerful as Five Nuclear Bombs: Hidden Trigger of Hunga Tonga Eruption Revealed.

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

Leiter characterizes the Internet as undermining the authority of the mainstream media by injecting false rumors into the public conversation. But that is not how the mainstream media lost its perch.

In the Internet era, a random individual who went by the pseudonym “Buckhead” was able to discredit a report by famed mainstream reporter Dan Rather and CBS news. On Sixty Minutes, Rather had shown a damning letter about George W. Bush’s military service. “Buckhead” pointed out that the letter’s proportional spacing showed that it had been typed using Microsoft Word, which did not exist at the time it was purportedly written. Therefore, it was fake.

The Internet era has seen mainstream media’s flaws exposed again and again. And mainstream journalists have styled themselves as activists rather than truth-tellers. They have been unable and unwilling to try to earn back the public’s trust.

The Enlightenment eroded the epistemic authority of the Church, making beliefs contestable. The Internet has eroded the meta-epistemic authority of the mainstream media, making beliefs even more contestable.

Leiter longs for a new meta-epistemic authority to play the role formerly played by the mainstream media. That is not going to happen. We are not going back to letting the NYT tell people who to believe any more than we are going to go back to letting the Pope tell people what to believe.

In a world of contestable ideas and opinions, the solution is not to choose an authority, meta-epistemic or otherwise. The key is to have in place a process that gives higher status to people who pursue truth using careful reasoning.

What we have now in academia is a process that used to work but has become corrupted. It is gamed by recent generations of professors who have been taught to believe that power trumps truth and have proceeded to live by that belief.

Decline is a choice, and our institutions have made their choice.

THIRD-WORLDING: California health officials warn residents about ‘unprecedented’ spread of dengue fever.

WELL, GOOD: Runaway EV Battery Fire Issues Could Soon Be Extinguished By New Tech.

WELL, TIM KAINE: Hung Cao Annihilates Tim Kaine in Senate Debate.

LAKE LURE, NC SAYS THEY’RE DOING FINE AND DON’T NEED YOUR HELP. “The Town of Lake Lure greatly appreciates the additional offers of assistance from private organizations; however, at the present time, National, State, and Local authorities are managing the situation effectively.”

FLYING: Toyota Pours More Money Into Air Taxi Company Joby Aviation.

SO YOU’RE SAYING AI IS SUCCEEDING? AI-generated college admissions essays tend to sound male and privileged, study finds.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Artificial left ventricle mimics the shape and function of the human heart.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s use of rover prototype on Earth will pave way for Artemis V lunar surface travel.

I WANT TO GET MINE AT A BEACH: Bright-light therapy improves outcomes in treating non-seasonal depression, study shows.

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER: To ‘decenter whiteness,’ UMich study says count staff by race at meetings.

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF ANTI-SEMITISM? Boston University faces federal investigation over anti-Semitism complaint.

JOHN LUCAS: Tim, Don’t Try to Pass Off a Lie by Saying You “Misspoke.” Tim Walz’s love affair with China and its communist government.

JOY: Gun sales higher since Harris replaced Biden as 2024 nominee.