CHANGE: Strength training is replacing weight loss as the top goal at the gym — and it has to do with GLP-1s.

ICYMI: ANDY KESSLER HAS A NICE COLUMN ABOUT MY SEDUCTIVE AI BOOK IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Archived version here.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Kitchen Habits That Are Truly Dangerous and the Ones That Are Just Gross.

THE LEADERS, AT LEAST, ARE NOT COMPLACENT, THEY ARE COMPLICIT: Europe Is Suicidally Complacent About the Islamist Threat.

I LOVE THIS:

Important announcement: I am upping my offer, $10 million dollars for a head-to-head basketball game between the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces and a boy's high school state title team of my choice. If the Aces beat my team, I will give them $10 million.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 3, 2026

There’s no way they will accept, of course, which tells you all you need to know.

MOST ENVIRONMENTALISM IS MORE FOCUSED ON MAKING YOUR LIFE WORSE THAN ON MAKING THE PLANET BETTER: Don Surber: The plastic straw man argument. Communists: Making life miserable for the middle class one mandate at a time.

AND? U. Tampa English professor claims Trump’s words contribute to declining support for trans rights.

HOW LOW CAN THEY GO? University of California weakens due process in student discipline cases.

ACADEMIA IS, IN FACT, TOTALLY BROKEN.

That there’s even a controversy about this story is incredible. If a Cambridge prof can plagiarize this carelessly and get away with it for years, and still have defenders, shows academia is totally broken https://t.co/R5TNdxBYgt

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) August 2, 2026

HUH. GO FIGURE.

This conversation on Reddit has gone viral: A 30 year old woman who doesn’t want kids is complaining that she can’t find the high-effort, successful man that she’s looking for who has everything together because these men all want to have kids, and the ones who don’t want kids… https://t.co/Nl0dgmkO7W

— Lisa Britton (@LisaBritton) August 2, 2026

THE NASHVILLE BOOK SCENE GOES JUDENFREI: ‘White. Blonde. Jew’ author says store canceled event amid backlash. “Just two days after Nashville bookstore Bell Bird Books issued a statement defending its book launch with “White. Blonde. Jew.” author Alyssa Rosenheck, the event now appears to have been cancelled. Rosenheck said in a statement on July 31 that Bell Bird Books cancelled the event days earlier amid ongoing social media backlash and calls to boycott the store. Critics said the event was promoting Zionism, the belief that the Jewish people have the right to the creation and protection of a sovereign state in Israel.”

So what if it is? Zionism is good, and this is supposed to be America. You can bet that the “Republicans banned books” people are okay with this, too.

CDR SALAMANDER: Shipbuilding, Merchant Shipping, Commerce, and the American Project.

EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED, BUT SOME ARE MORE OBVIOUS ABOUT IT: Fifth Amendment Fauci’s Narcissism Destroyed Faith in Scientific Methodology. Congress may be investigating COVID, but the deeper scandal is how one bureaucrat reshaped science into dogma.

THE VIDEO IS OF A CIVILIAN WHO STOPPED A WOULD-BE MASS SHOOTER IN IDAHO THIS WEEKEND:

What if the 1.3 million active duty Americans we trust with firearms, train to the highest standards, and hold to strict accountability were actually encouraged to carry them?

Months after @PeteHegseth ordered bases to allow concealed carry, why are so many bases still refusing…

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) August 2, 2026

And the question is valid.

JOHN LUCAS: Negotiating with the Iranian scorpions. I think Trump is stringing them along, the way they’ve traditionally strung U.S. negotiators along. He knows they’ll break any agreement.

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

GOOD THING HUMAN BEINGS DIDN’T EXIST YET I GUESS: Dinosaur-killing asteroid may have caused firestorms 17 times hotter than the thermal limit lethal to humans.

And how’s that space program coming along? Because there will be a next time.

CHANGE: Hell-World Venus May Have Once Had Oceans Across 90% of Its Hot, Dry Surface.

ANDY KESSLER HAS A NICE COLUMN ABOUT MY SEDUCTIVE AI BOOK IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Archived version here.

MICROBIOME NEWS: Study Finds a Surprising Link Between Gut Microbes and Aging.

INVESTIGATE THEIR FINANCES.

Read that again; Republicans are the ones blocking this. https://t.co/WNACYZb22O

— Lara Logan (@laralogan) August 1, 2026

PILLS NOT SHOTS? The new weight-loss pill vs. the shot: A doctor’s honest answer on oral Wegovy.

REVIEW: 2027 Tesla Model Y L In-Depth Review: Tesla’s Bestseller Gets Longer and More Useful.

GOOD: A Fifth Circuit Case Could Jeopardize the Feds’ Commerce Clause Grip on Guns. “The court has agreed to rehear United States v. Squire en banc, reopening a major fight over whether Congress can use the Commerce Clause to criminalize firearm possession simply because a gun or ammunition once moved in interstate commerce. The Fifth Circuit’s rehearing order even drew a warning from Judge Stephen Higginson that the court had ‘welcomed the possibility’ of holding that Congress’ Commerce Clause power can’t support § 922(g).”

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Schools are rethinking whether every student needs a laptop.