IS IT BANNED IN EUROPE YET? Sony’s Cooling Neck Device Is Coming to the US, and I Got a First Look. “The device’s plate uses a Peltier element, which a Reon representative described as a semiconductor module. When an electric current is applied, it can cool on one side and heat on the other. To maximize cooling performance on the plate’s skin-contacting side, a high-volume fan, a vapor chamber and heat-dissipation fins are used to release the internal heat generated on the opposite side of the plate.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
June 30, 2026
LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS: NPR’s Justice Alito ‘Retirement’ Scoop Lasted About 10 Minutes.
I WANT MORE LASERS, TOO: The Army Wants More Lasers – They’ve Ordered 8,936 DAGIR-V1 Multi-Platform Systems From B.E. Meyers.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Comcast Split Shows Bigger Is No Longer Seen As Better In The Media Business. “Things have been trending this way for a while, with AT&T’s ill-starred $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner helping to cement the idea that it was possible to be too diversified. Long gone are the days of Redstone or Murdoch empire-building, or GE’s Six Sigma spell-casting.”
Disney was supposed to be too big to fail after buying out every studio it could, but look at what’s become of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Marvel under its stewardship.
SPIT TAKE, INDEED:
I just spit out my iced coffee 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/UkaLB1SEM1
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) June 30, 2026
YOU MIGHT HAVE TO SQUINT TO SEE IT: The Political Upside of Losing the Birthright Citizenship Case.
THE UN IS CORRUPT AT EVERY LEVEL: ‘Journalist or terrorist’: Israeli envoy accuses UN of amplifying Hamas ‘lies’ on world stage.
WOEING:
New NASA Inspector General report on the Commercial Crew Program, which is mostly about Starliner.https://t.co/4RhTIN9YXj
Snip: pic.twitter.com/nvUNRJqy4V— Marcia Smith (@SpcPlcyOnline) June 30, 2026
Exit quote: “We question $127.9 million in payments to Boeing, in addition to the $43 million we questioned in a prior 2019 CCP-related report, for a mission that is far from certain.”
SPACE: This Scrappy Little Rocket Company Just Made a Big Play Against Elon Musk. “Maybe you’ve heard of Rocket Lab, the scrappy New Zealand-based launch company whose innovative Electron small-lift rocket quickly became one of the most popular in U.S. service, thanks to its high success rate and rapid launch cadence. Except for nerds like me paying close attention to the launch industry, Rocket Lab gets a little lost in SpaceX’s shadow. But that might be about to change with the company’s multibillion-dollar acquisition.”
CHANGE: Cornerstone University launches ‘100%’ smartphone business degree.
Cornerstone University, located in Grand Rapids, is offering an associate’s degree and bachelor’s degree in strategic business management along with a master’s in organizational leadership through its new program.
Students pay a fixed rate of $2,400 per four-month term or $3,750 for the graduate level work. The intended audience is working adults.
According to the program’s website, SOAR aims to remove the financial barriers of traditional higher education by providing an affordable tuition structure where students “pay at least 50% less than other private online colleges.”
To achieve this, the platform prioritizes providing a “flexible schedule” driven by “engaging microlearning” through original podcasts, videos, audiobooks, and presentations developed by Cornerstone faculty. The goal is “to help students soar in all aspects of career and life.”
It remains to be seen whether smartphone degrees are worthwhile. But at a time when private schools are under tremendous financial pressure, adding tuition-paying students at basically zero marginal cost to the school seems smart.
WHOSE CAR IS IT, ANYWAY? Trump signs presidential memo that gives Americans more options to fix their cars. “The memorandum allows consumers to fix their own cars with aftermarket or third-party parts, directs the Environmental Protection Agency to issue guidance clarifying what actions individuals may take to fix their vehicles’ emissions systems, and expedites ways for consumers to acquire aftermarket auto parts.”
Cool. Now kill the kill switch.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Mr. Obama, Are the Slaveowners in the Room With Us Right Now?
CHANGE (IT BACK): Ford rehires experienced engineers after AI misses the mark.
Ford has rehired experienced human engineers to help address the shortcomings of artificial intelligence (AI) tools meant to tackle quality issues in the automaker’s production processes.
The hiring push helped Ford top the JD Power 2026 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS) for the first time since 2010 amid improvements in the quality of its new vehicles, and follows some hard-learned lessons about the ability of AI to replace human knowledge in production processes.
“Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, said on a press call Wednesday, according to a report by Bloomberg.
“Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles,” he said.
The current Shiny New Thing is AI, but at least once each generation some Shiny New Thing comes along that makes people forget that lesson about human experience.
WELL, THAT DOESN’T PASS THE SNIFF TEST: Finally, a Budget Democrats Will Cut: The Guy Who Investigates Fraud.
CHECKS OUT:
Europeans dying of heat stroke: “Can we please turn on the AC?”
Their governments: “Best we can do is replace you with migrants and prosecute you for Facebook posts.” pic.twitter.com/aYt0QfrJrI
— The Drunk Republican (@DrunkRepub) June 30, 2026
From the replies: “Europeans are now rioting just to get cooled off by the water canons.”
BODY POSITIVITY: Medicare will start covering weight-loss drugs on July 1 for the first time. Here’s what you need to know.
Medicare is prohibited by law from covering weight-loss drugs, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is allowed to run short-term demonstration projects to test new payment and coverage models. The Bridge effort is part of a deal that the Trump administration announced in November with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to reduce the cost of their blockbuster anti-obesity medications.
Doctors and patient advocates have been clamoring for years to expand Medicare coverage to weight-loss drugs, arguing that obesity should be treated like any disease. The cost of buying GLP-1 medications without insurance can still run into hundreds of dollars.
Dr. Catherine Varney, obesity medicine director at the University of Virginia, has about 100 Medicare patients who will probably be eligible for Bridge program. None of them can afford to pay for weight-loss medications out of pocket, she said. Several have told her they are relieved that they may finally be able to obtain the drugs at a reasonable price.
“Most of these patients that I wanted to start on this medication are ticking time bombs,” said Varney, who is also a trustee of the Obesity Medicine Association. “They’ve got prediabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, all these cardiac risk factors that are leading to heart attack and stroke.”
Maybe it’s time to change the law, because these are not quack medications.
SALENA ZITO: The spirit of ’76 lives on as Pennsylvania rallies for America’s birthday.
Two days ago, Beth Ann Bossio woke up to the news that Pennsylvania would not have a booth at the Great American State Fair, the Fourth of July celebration underway on the National Mall in Washington.
The decision was made by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who told the New Republic he would not send a delegation to the fair in honor of America 250 after his administration said it canvassed opinions among Pennsylvania businesses and told the reporter, “None of them were interested.”
Shapiro said their disinterest “reflects the sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in that the president politicized this to a degree that businesses don’t want to participate.”
Spoilsport.
More:
Her reaction wasn’t alone. Sens. David McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) were on the phone at the crack of dawn Saturday as soon as the New Republic Shapiro interview became public.
Within hours, McCormick and Fetterman were working the phones, reaching out to the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, PennAg, and scores of businesses, urging them to step up. Most Pennsylvania businesses answered the call.
So far, Crayola, the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, Core Natural Resources, Quandel Construction, Schlouch Construction, Utz, Orvis Hill Country, GNC, MSA, The Safety Company, Vitro Glass, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Neighbor Helping Neighbor Food Bank, and Camp Susque are all donating displays, manpower, carpentry expertise, or donations.
Volunteer firefighters from across the state offered to staff the booth. So did the owner of a pest control company in Montgomery County. They are just a few examples of the people, small-business owners, and large companies now clamoring to make Pennsylvania’s booth reflect the state’s cultural and economic influence, past and present.
So much more at the link. And if anyone “politicized this,” it was Shapiro.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: We Regret to Inform You That Election Integrity Won’t Be Returning.“It was Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett who decided to aid and abet the Democrats in their election fraud efforts. I can complain all I want about activist libs in the judiciary, but they never, ever waver on this issues that are most important to the Democrats.”
SOCIALISM: The construction failures and risky geography behind Venezuela’s quake tragedy.
When late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez built this coastal housing development bearing his name as part of his socialist revolution, residents found a fresh start after deadly floods had decimated the area more than a decade earlier.
But after two back‑to‑back earthquakes flattened parts of the 1,100-unit complex on Wednesday, engineers are urging the Venezuelan government to swiftly audit similar public housing that is still standing.
“I lost my whole apartment,” said Yelsa Rojas, who since 2015 has lived on the second floor of the building colloquially known as ‘Los Cocos’, for its proximity to a beach of the same name.
“We think everyone on the second floor is dead,” she said. The only reason she’s alive is because she was at a medical appointment when the quakes hit, she added.
While engineers and construction specialists said it was too soon to declare exactly why individual buildings collapsed, decades of neglect, a lack of enforcement of building codes and shoddy licensing practices under Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, likely exacerbated the disaster’s human cost.
So many broken eggs, and still not a single omelette.
THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE THE DATA:
Why would anyone use prediction models when we can use real mortality data?
Answer: Because you can't make bodies appear out of thin air, but you can make fake projections appear out of thin air.
When we look at mortality data what do we see? All cause mortality went down. HIV… https://t.co/ZGntngt8xf pic.twitter.com/h5VqM2tTnk
— Aesthetica (@Anc_Aesthetics) June 30, 2026
“As predicted, USAID was just a Democrat slush fund they used to pay their activists, journalists and NGO workers.”
OWN GOAL: The Left Asked for This, It Got It, and I Can’t Stop Gloating. “Ironically, leftist insistence that Americans drop their predilection for brutish, uncouth sports like football and baseball and embrace a cultured, international sport like soccer brought this about.”
I GUESS THEY COULD STILL SURPRISE US, BUT…:
Signs we lost birthright citizenship:
No leaks to the press on the decision
No fencing around the Supreme Court
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 30, 2026
BRITTANY SHEEHAN ON SOME RECENT(ISH) SCOTUS HISTORY, AND WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: How Did We End Up With ACB Instead of Barbara Lagoa on the Supreme Court? I Have Thoughts.
According to CNN’s reporting based on nearly a dozen sources, White House officials had begun making plans for Trump to meet with Lagoa in person. Then that idea got scrapped.
Barrett’s supporters inside the White House — including White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Vice President Mike Pence — moved quickly to lock in their pick before Trump could change his mind. They ran out the clock.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had already told Trump that senators felt comfortable with Barrett and that anything complicating the confirmation timeline needed to be avoided at all costs.
Trump never sat down with Lagoa. He nominated Amy Coney Barrett on September 26th.
The evening before announcing Barrett, Trump was still polling guests at a fundraiser about whom he should pick.
When someone suggested Lagoa, he said:
“Let her know she’s going to have her chance.”
Read the whole thing.