January 13, 2026

SCIENCE, UNSETTLED:

Posted at 10:22 am by Ed Driscoll

THE BIG DEAL ISN’T THE APP, BUT THAT IT WENT VIRAL: Are You Dead?: The viral Chinese app for young people living alone.

A new bleak-sounding app has taken China by storm.

Named Are You Dead? the concept is simple. You need to check in with it every two days – clicking a large button – to confirm that you are alive. If not, it will get in touch with your appointed emergency contact and inform them that you may be in trouble.

It was launched in May last year to not much fanfare but attention around it has exploded in recent weeks with many young people, who live alone in Chinese cities, downloading it in droves.

This has propelled it to become the most downloaded paid app in the country.

According to research institutions, there may be up to 200 million one-person households in China by 2030, Chinese state media outlet Global Times reports.

Sad.

Posted at 9:37 am by Stephen Green

WELL:

Posted at 9:12 am by Glenn Reynolds

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Minnesota Is Not Well — Ilhan Omar Edition. “I think we can agree that there is an inherent sleaze factor associated with all Congressional Democrats. Ethical concerns regarding some of Omar’s past (Wedding bells!) have arisen, too. One doesn’t need to overdose on imagination to believe that a massive scandal in Minnesota involving recently-arrived Somalis might, just might, get back to Omar at some point.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green

I LOVE HOW LEFTISTS FORGET EVERYTHING OBAMA DID:

UPDATE: Related:

Posted at 8:38 am by Glenn Reynolds

WHAT ARE THEY DOING THESE DAYS AT THE FBI?

Exit question from the above tweet: “So, that begs the question: if our leaders could easily stop it… why haven’t they?”

Speaking of which:

Posted at 8:35 am by Ed Driscoll

SHARKS GOTTA SWIM, BATS GOTTA FLY: California Restricts Free Speech.

California’s far-left Supreme Court has ordered restrictions on the speech and expressive conduct of California’s lawyers “at all times,” including during their unrelated business activities, political endeavors and personal lives.

Just before Christmas, the even more radical California State Bar imperiously advised the state’s 200,000 lawyers “Read it, declare it, mean it.” That ominous warning introduced the California Supreme Court’s Orwellian Rule 9.7 which requires every lawyer to attest that: “As an officer of the court, I will strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy and integrity.” The license of any lawyer who fails or refuses to acquiesce will be invalidated, and any lawyer who violates the oath is subject to “appropriate fees and penalties” to be set by the Bar.

For a nanosecond, that’s an appealing concept. But, under the First Amendment, no instrumentality of government may condition an individual’s livelihood on complying with its view of “dignity” or “courtesy,” in their political or personal endeavors. Invalidating the licenses of non-compliant lawyers also violates procedural due process under the Fifth and 14th Amendments. Tying the oath to meaningless pap about a lawyer being an “officer of the court” exposes the premeditated overreach.

As a threshold problem, even in traditional usage, “strive,” “dignity” and “courtesy” are so vague that no lawyer could know what is required, violating substantive due process.

What a mess.

Posted at 8:35 am by Stephen Green

IF YOU AGREE WITH 1990s BILL CLINTON ON CRIME OR IMMIGRATION NOW, YOU ARE “FAR RIGHT.”

Posted at 8:33 am by Glenn Reynolds

I THINK IT WAS HENRY KISSINGER WHO SAID AN IRANIAN MODERATE IS ONE WHO IS RELOADING:

But:

Posted at 8:31 am by Glenn Reynolds

ROGER SIMON: Time to Find Out Who’s Being Paid By Qatar.

With all that dough, you have to know you are a magnate for the second of the Seven Deadly Sins—Greed, and its partner, envy.

You can use this for all manner of purposes, political, cultural, economic, and religious.

In the process, you have on your side the widespread secularism of the West, from the USA and across Europe, actually just about anywhere, even among the most superficially religious.

In this, we have the example of Tucker Carlson, who allegedly adores and wants to buy a home in the country that is the greatest supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose intent has always been the destruction of all other religions but Islam. This would include the Christianity to which Carlson passionately swears his devotion. Could his faith all just be a masquerade for something more potent, as some have alleged with receipts?

As America’s Newspaper of Record “joked” yesterday:

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll

THE NEW YORK TIMES THINKS PERFECTLY ORDINARY CUTOFF SHORTS ARE “HOT PANTS.”

They literally know nothing, as Ben Rhodes observed.

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

HMM:

Posted at 7:48 am by Stephen Green

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Author of ‘How Fascism Works’ Says Trump Is Leading an Unlawful Takeover of the Government.

“Trump is the first ‘fascist’ in world history whose singular governing principle is to reduce the size, scope and power” of government? Calvin Coolidge would like a word here.

Related: NSFW language alert:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

IN ADDITION TO “HOW NOT TO BE SEEN,” THAT IS: What the Chinese learned from America’s raid on Venezuela.

To be sure, what happened Jan. 3 in Caracas was important to the Western Hemisphere. I don’t want to minimize the importance of knocking over a neighborhood bully in Venezuela, but the most important part of the story may be that the U.S. military, as it usually does, demonstrated that it is superior in weaponry and skill to any other force on the planet. Communist China’s weapons systems had a real-world test, and it was a disaster.

That has to be giving the crew in Beijing, which would like to be global bullies, nightmares.

The simple reality is that the communists in China have not been involved in a legitimate shooting war in 75 years. They have had no real way to test and improve their weapons under battlefield conditions. Every single one of their weapons systems is essentially undergoing a beta test the first time they are used in combat.

Anything that erodes Beijing’s confidence in its own weapons and soldiers and increases its sense of discomfort about invading Taiwan (or anywhere, really) is a good thing. In the big scheme of things, the attack in Caracas may have saved Taiwan and potentially the thousands (or millions) of lives that would have been lost in the course of a war in the Pacific.

Whatever else you might think of President Trump’s adventure in Venezuela, you should consider the very real possibility that it deterred or delayed the very worst impulses of the communists in Beijing.

“Peace through strength” requires the occasional demonstration.

Posted at 7:33 am by Stephen Green

HARSH BUT FAIR:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds