WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Self-deployable, biodegradable electrode offers minimally invasive brain signal monitoring.

ABOUT AS HEALTHY AS YOU MIGHT EXPECT: Sleep experts weigh in on ‘bed rotting,’ other TikTok sleep trends.

IN A NUTSHELL:

This is a thing of beauty. And the background art is nice and subtle. pic.twitter.com/Uo0ORLT4T8

— Julie Frost–That Werewolf Writer🐺🦉 (@JulieCFrost) August 24, 2024

JOY:

This might be why https://t.co/1kK3Krq3yd doesn’t have a single page of policy on it – she can’t even get Democratic lawmakers to support her proposals. https://t.co/pYeST61Hjs

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 26, 2024

JAMES LILEKS: Aspicable Me: I may have helped perpetuate a lie about our culture as told by ‘regrettable food,’ but I don’t really regret it.

A BLOW AGAINST BIGOTRY: U. Missouri black group ‘heartbroken’ over having to change racially exclusive event name: ‘Welcome Black BBQ’ now called ‘Welcome Black and Gold BBQ.’ “The Legion of Black Collegians, which according its website is ‘the only Black Student Government in the Nation,’ noted on Instagram that it was ‘heartbroken’ by the university’s name-change decision, and that it spent ‘several months’ fighting it. Mizzou’s school colors are black and gold.”

EVEN A FLATWORM IS SMART ENOUGH TO TURN AWAY FROM PAIN: California universities ban campus encampments after chaotic anti-Israel protests.

MESSAGING: Harris Features Trump Border Wall in Campaign ad to Great Mockery.

SPREADING MISINFORMATION AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: “And multiple speakers delighted the crowd by alluding to the fabricated viral claim that Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, wrote in his memoir about having sex with furniture.”

PUT A STAKE THROUGH ITS HEART: Did DEI die?

REMEMBERING BIDEN’S BIGGEST FAILURE, WHICH THE PRESS HAS MEMORY-HOLED: Kabul’s Child Sacrifice – Three Years On: The fault, shame and humiliation are all ours; all red, white, and blue.

In a defeat of choice in a complete collapse of competence at the most senior levels of our civilian and military leadership … we did. In our panicked retreat we had our deadliest day in 11 years. Our Marines, Sailor and Soldier filled with their bodies the gap in intelligence, planning, and leadership by – what we are all told – are the very best, most credentialed from the finest institutions and selection processes to produce competent leaders for our nation of 330+ million souls.

They physically stepped in the real-world breach created by the wholesale failure of our intelligentsia and its rent-seeking nomenklatura.

They did their job; everyone whom they trusted with their lives in DC and Tampa did not.

That is the first lesson here; our self-described “best” that claim to be the ruling class are not our best. They are not good at their jobs. Their ideas are garbage. Their ethics are fetid to the core. Their morality sold for a farthing’s worth of power, fame, and influence.

Yep. Plus: “At the tactical level, from the C-17 aircrew to the leaders on the ground, they did the best they could with the ROE, restraints, and constraints that were put on them from DC. The American military from field grade officers to the 20-yr old E3s did an exceptional job – but there was only so much that could be done inside a structure of incompetence and politicized uniformed nomenklatura that we allowed to rise to the top over two decades.”

FRACTURED: Sanders reacts to Harris’s strong military talk at the DNC: ‘Enough is enough.’

EARLY OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

WOEING: Starliner to return from ISS without astronauts on board.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Second Amendment Roundup: 8th Circuit Rules in Favor of Pistol Brace Owners.

THIS WOULD BE A SIGNAL TO START A LITERAL REVOLUTION: Could Elon Musk actually be arrested and X cancelled? “With each passing day, as the forces that control our nation and the world get more surreal and foreboding, the ‘unthinkable’ suddenly morphs into the ‘inevitable.’ At least for me. As someone who pays close attention to the politics and the media in the United Kingdom and Europe, I began to notice a shocking narrative emanating from a growing number on the left there calling for the arrest of Elon Musk as well as the cancellation of X, the social media site he owns.”

The governments of the West decided a few years ago to go to war against their own citizens. I’m not sure exactly why, though I have ideas.

THIS IS PITCHED AS A STORY OF INDEPENDENCE, BUT IT SOUNDS MORE LIKE IT’S ABOUT THE CONSTRAINTS OF HYPERGAMY: One Husband Is Enough: Women in Their 60s See No Need to Remarry.

Plenty of American women are finding that they don’t need a husband to enjoy their golden years. Both men and women in their mid-60s or older are more likely to be divorced or never married than at any time in the past three decades. But the women are much less likely than their male counterparts to get remarried.

Part of the reason is that women have a smaller pool to choose from. They on average live about five years longer than men, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . . .

After a divorce or bereavement, younger women are more likely than men to find a new partner. That trend shifts after age 35. By age 55 to 64, men are twice as likely to remarry, and more than three times as likely when they are age 65 and older. . . .

Rosemary Hopcroft, a sociology professor emerita at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, found that higher-income men are more likely to get married and remarried than men who make less money. For women, the effect is the opposite, at least for remarriage: Higher-income women are less likely to get remarried than other women.

“As women get older, the group of men they find attractive gets smaller and smaller; whereas for men, as they get older and more financially stable, the group of women they find attractive gets larger and larger,” said Hopcroft.

So independence, sure, but set against worse options.

CONGRESS LACKS THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER TO REGULATE ABORTION: Trump would veto legislation establishing a federal abortion ban, Vance says. “Donald Trump’s view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don’t want to have a nonstop federal conflict over this issue.”

Flashback: Taking Federalism Seriously: Lopez and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

OUT: QUALITY IS JOB ONE. IN: DIVERSITY IS JOB ONE:

The Department of Homeland Security put out its Information Technology Strategic Plan for 2024-2028. Guess what @DHSgov’s #1 goal is…

It’s not to protect America and it’s not to advance our capabilities to beat our enemies. Nope.

Their #1 stated goal is advancing DEI. Insane. pic.twitter.com/twTGHDKAPr

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 24, 2024

ICYMI: MATT TAIBBI: Note to Philip Bump: The Washington Post columnist speaks on CNN; a brief reply.

Bump says the Twitter Files stuff has been “debunked a thousand times over.” In fact it caused Washington Post editors to append numerous corrections, including to Bump’s own work.

THE REST SHOULD JUST SHOW UP FOR WORK ON ELECTION DAY ANYWAY:

Breaking News: In Wayne County Michigan, over 700 Republicans applied to be poll watchers and out of the 2,350 poll watchers they hired, only 50 out of the 700+ applicants were Republicans.

— Wendy Patterson (@wendyp4545) August 25, 2024

A LOT OF THINGS DO, THESE DAYS: Why Kamala Harris’ DNC nomination reminds me of the Soviet Union.

OPEN THREAD: It’s there, it’s there for you, it’s what you want.

I WISH THEM LUCK: Blue Origin sets date for next New Shepard flight after completing parachute investigation.

OFF FOR SUSHI; BACK LATER. Eating Seaweed May Help Prevent Parkinson’s, Study Finds.