SIGH.

You have to have a heart of stone not to laugh https://t.co/CP5aar5fYv

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 17, 2026

OPEN THREAD: Party on, dudes and dudettes.

WELL, WE CAN BRING BACK THE NINTH PLANET, PLUTO: It’s time to reassess the size of our solar system, scientists say.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Sherrod Brown Wanted Our Vietnam POWs Kept Captive to Protect Hanoi From US Bombs.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh writes: “I was intrigued by the post, and I tracked down the letter.”

He adds: “As I understand it, the argument wasn’t that he wanted POWs kept captive. Rather, he was arguing that Vietnam wouldn’t rationally agree to releasing POWs before peace is negotiated. Am I mistaken on that? I also don’t think it’s terribly relevant what an 18-year-old thought or said 55 years ago, though I of course know that politics routinely stoops to that, as with the Mitt Romney school bullying claims.”

ALIENS: JWST Detected a Mysterious Signal From Empty Space. Nobody Knows What It Is.

EUROPE:

As France is burning, I keep thinking of what the UAE Foreign Minister said a few years ago 👇

He accurately predicted this. pic.twitter.com/EgQClncb2s

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 17, 2026

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Why most published research findings are still false: 94% of medical treatments lack evidence of benefits.

MICROBIOME NEWS: Giant bacteria could be living in your gut. “Our gut microbiome is home to trillions of microbes, but they may not all be microscopic. Giant bacteria, which can reach a centimetre in length, are generally found in niche environments, such as mangroves and fish guts. But now, microbiologists have detected signs of DNA from Epulopiscium, one of the largest known types of bacteria, in human gut microbiomes from around the world. Bacteria are usually around 2 micrometres long, while giant ones are generally defined as being larger than 10 micrometres. But species belonging to the Epulopiscium genus can reach up to 600 micrometres – more than half a millimetre – in length.”

THERE SHOULD BE THE DEATH PENALTY FOR THIS KIND OF THING: Before COVID, an NIH lab chief proposed making a SARS-like bat virus more infectious: Newly released records show Vincent Munster suggested inserting a furin cleavage site and that his lab obtained unpublished SARS-related sequences. Nothing links the research to SARS-CoV-2.

It’s actually worse if multiple people were wanting to do this.

ZOOM: 2028 Tesla Roadster First Look: Tesla’s New Supercar Can Actually Freaking Fly.

NO. Is Anyone Surprised the Gun Control Industry Has Gotten Behind Michigan Islamist Abdul El-Sayed?

THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: 1,000-Foot ‘Invisible’ Waves Are Tearing Through the Deep Ocean.

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT: A dog longevity pill is nearing FDA approval. A vet explains what it can and can’t do.

CHANGE: The first new sunscreen ingredient in 25 years just hit store shelves. Will people actually use it? It offers broad-spectrum protection without the white cast.

WHAT A GYP, GIVEN ALL THE HYPE: Not losing weight on Ozempic? Doctors explain what might be happening and what to do next.

REMINDER:

Never forget: Democrats were throwing Molotov cocktails at Teslas because Elon Musk wanted to DOGE government fraud. pic.twitter.com/nsM4lOKPbF

— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) October 16, 2026

WHY ARE SO MANY “RELIGIOUS” SCHOOLS WORSHIPING LEFTISM? Baylor accused of ‘mission drift’ after high-profile Christian apologetics event canceled.

ME ON SUBSTACK ON ELON’S FLYING CARS, AND THE PEOPLE WHO HATE THEM.

Related:

They’re saying this is the most American sentence ever typed https://t.co/GG9WIZ3bv9

— Mary Tiles Texas (@MaryTilesTexas) October 16, 2026

RULE OF LAW: NYU student group demands 20 percent black enrollment despite Supreme Court ruling. New York University’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter is pressing the school to raise Black enrollment and hire more Black faculty. Let’s not pay attention to SDS demands, m’kay?

JOE WON’T BE REMEMBERED, BUT TO BE FAIR, HE DOESN’T REMEMBER IT EITHER.

* Who was president 2021-2025? It remains a mystery. We know it wasn’t the massively corrupt career incompetent dementia case. We know the broad outlines, a cabal of Obama bros with an autopen, probably taking direction from Obama. Who still thinks he’s some kind of shadow…

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) October 17, 2026

OUT: BELIEVE ALL WOMEN. IN:

This should be just the beginning of the normalization. Let’s hope that someone else apologizes and helps restore some of what you lost.
Hope this also helps your alumni who were side victims of the mass hysteria.
Big hug.

— Cristina Muñoz Pinedo (@crismunozp) October 17, 2026

ROGER KIMBALL: Jack Smith’s Plot Against the Republic.

Six hundred and thirty-nine thousand. Thanks to the indefatigable Chuck Grassley, we now know that that’s the number of individuals whose names Special Counsel Jack Smith hoovered up for Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice when Joe Biden occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. (“Occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” it may almost go without saying, seems more accurate than saying “when Biden was president.”)

Senator Grassley has been terrier-like in pursuing evidence of wrongdoing by people like Jack Smith, Merrick Garland and their many confrères in the deep state, which is to say, the Democrat State. Grassley had earlier shown that nearly 5,000 GOP donor checks, mostly for piddly amounts, had been collected as “evidence” by Garland’s minions. “Evidence of what?” That’s a very good question. The answer, in brief is, “Evidence of sympathy for or making donations to Donald Trump.” Is that actionable? You betcha. At least, it was. . . .

Jack Smith and his not-so-merry band of anti-Trump zealots came within a hair’s breadth of destroying Donald Trump – and also shutting down the rights of those 639,000 individuals who donated to Trump’s campaign or ponied up for his merch. Had the Supreme Court not upheld Trump’s claim of immunity he would be in jail now. So many things had to go Trump’s way. All the important ones did. But, like the Battle of Waterloo according to the Duke of Wellington, it was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”

Indeed. Now we need to administer sufficient pain to ensure that no one wants to risk trying it again. We’re nowhere close to that.

IS ANYONE SURPRISED BY THIS? The Left is angrier over Shane Gillis’s joke than illegal immigrant violence against women.

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS HATE FRATERNITIES BECAUSE LEFTISTS HATE ALTERNATIVE POWER CENTERS:

Michael S. Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, is calling for fraternities to be forced to admit women to change the culture. It is a call that is feeding a familiar mob forming over a case before any charges or evidence is established …

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 16, 2026

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.