OPEN THREAD: Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
May 18, 2026
ACTIVATING THE BRAIN’S DORMANT FLIGHT CENTER: Scientists Gave People Wings in VR, And It Triggered Changes in The Brain.
MAYBE WE KNEW LESS THAN WE THOUGHT: New Study Challenges What We Know About Consciousness and the Brain.
WHEN NARRATIVES FAIL:
Trump is literally older than the People's Republic of China. https://t.co/atU1CHCkuR
— Project Liberal (@ProjectLiberal) May 18, 2026
A REVOLUTION IN HUMAN AFFAIRS: Wealth and health divide: Obesity rates plateau in rich nations but surge in developing world.
Future archaeologists will be stunned at the rapid discontinuity in human remains between malnutrition and obesity.
HOW IT’S DONE:
🚨 BREAKING: A principal in Pennsylvania just drew a line and didn’t blink.
Students tried to stage an anti ICE walkout during school hours.
Daniel Weber walked straight outside and shut it down.
His message was simple. You want to protest on school time? You’re suspended.… pic.twitter.com/RoJ6ncOdHt
— John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (@MrJohnJnr) May 17, 2026
FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Why We Carry: Defensive Gun Uses Outnumber Criminal Gun Uses 5 to 1.
HELD UP BY ALL THOSE VANISHED SHIPS? Forget the Bermuda Triangle — Bermuda itself is the mystery.
AMERICANS WILL DO ANYTHING TO AVOID USING THE METRIC SYSTEM: Watch an asteroid the size of a blue whale hurtle towards Earth live online May 18. Closest approach is 5:23 pm ET.
IF YOU STARVE A COLD, YOU’RE FEEDING A FEVER: A New Study Backs Up 1 Old Theory About Getting Sick.. “The study, which was published in the journal Nature, discovered that your body’s T cells—considered the ‘soldiers’ of the immune system—respond better to a threat when you’ve eaten something.”
WE’VE KNOWN ABOUT THE MUNCHIES FOR A LONG TIME: “Participants took a CBD capsule or a placebo, without knowing which. People ate about 193 calories more at lunch after taking CBD compared to placebo; roughly a 16% increase. This was statistically meaningful and unexpected, since the researchers had actually predicted CBD would reduce appetite based on its known biology.”
ARRESTS AND EXPULSIONS ALL AROUND: Georgetown U. anti-Israel protesters disrupt senior convocation.
BARBARIAN SAVAGES SHOULD BE PUT DOWN. INSTEAD THE WEST’S RULING ELITES CELEBRATE THEM:
When you understand that what ISIS did to its victims at Bataclan is almost identical to what Palestinians did on October 7, you will realize what Israel is up against but on a massive scale. If Israel ever loses, it will be a Bataclan-level massacre x 1000s. https://t.co/R8NAYwKvPt
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) May 17, 2026
Related:
*Mobs of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist supporters go after synagogues, block off roads, and assault people*
Mamdani: *Remains silent, and vetoes bill that would create buffer zones around places of worship that don't allow such "protests" within a certain distance*
*Muslim man… https://t.co/e1pe2m7WcJ
— Leftism (@LeftismForU) May 18, 2026
JONATHAN TURLEY: Why Israel’s lawsuit against Times over ‘blood libel’ has a chance.
I BLAME — ER, I MEAN, CREDIT — GLOBAL WARMING: Why Are Bikinis Getting Smaller?
Modern bikinis leave 95% of a woman’s body bare, but men show respect by mostly staring only at the parts that are left covered.
MELT HARDER: Minnesota Dems Melt Down After Gun Ban Vote Fails.
LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES: Review: ‘Blood & Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America’ by Noah Rothman.. “This is a book about the assassins, the vandals, the small-cell terrorists, and the lizard-brained mobs that mete out destruction, violence, and death in the name of political causes and in the pursuit of political outcomes.”
This happens because society tolerates it. Society tolerates it because the perpetrators are overwhelmingly children of the elite, or their peers.
IT’S THEATER KIDS ALL THE WAY DOWN:
Will never get over this dude turning from Carlton Banks to young Al Sharpton in basically a weekend.
This is just cosplay. pic.twitter.com/Dobp80iojP https://t.co/nuRJbeyjnU
— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) May 17, 2026
THE KIDS AREN’T AS ALRIGHT AS YOU THINK: The deeper signal is youth risk did not disappear. It migrated inward.
So the surface looks healthier. Fewer kids drinking. Fewer kids using weed. Fewer kids doing reckless things in public.
The hidden layer looks worse. The young are less reckless because they are less socially embodied. Less initiation. Less unsupervised friction. Less courage-building. Less embarrassment and recovery. Less real dating. Less independence. Less contact with the physical world before adulthood demands it.
The old teenage world produced damage, stupidity, alcohol abuse, pregnancy risk, fights, accidents, and bad decisions. No need to romanticize it. But it also produced social reps. It forced young people through discomfort. It made them practice attraction, rejection, conflict, reputation, risk, repair, and status in the open.
The new world suppresses visible risk while increasing invisible fragility.
That is the trade.
A teenager can avoid drinking, avoid parties, avoid sex, avoid driving, avoid real confrontation, avoid rejection, avoid shame, avoid danger, and still arrive at 23 emotionally underbuilt. Cleaner behavior does not automatically mean stronger formation.
This is why the marriage chart and the teen drinking chart are the same story at different stages. People are not suddenly failing to pair in adulthood. The whole pathway into embodied adulthood has been slowing for years before marriage even becomes the question.
The real truth: society solved part of the teen vice problem by shrinking the arena where teenagers become adults.
I believe this.
May 17, 2026
OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.
EVERYONE DESERVES A GLOW-UP: NASA’s Perseverance rover is positively glowing in its new selfie on Mars.
THEY CAN HANDLE TACO BELL AFTER 30? Humans in The Andes Have Evolved a Strange Digestive Superpower.
Actually, I’ve always been able to digest Taco Bell fine, though I don’t eat it often.