RED MOON RISING: This Subtle Change to Your Fingernails Can Be a Sign of Hidden Disease.

METFORMIN UPDATE: Could a Decades-Old Diabetes Drug Help the Body Age More Slowly?

A cautionary note: While metformin is regarded as quite safe, a reader wrote that he suffered severe and lasting side effects from metformin and a GLP-1 (he didn’t say which one). I tried microdosing Ozempic and then Tirzepatide, which a lot of medical people I know are doing for metabolic and neurological benefits (it’s thought to reduce dementia risk). In my case I found that it raised my resting heart rate from the mid-50s into the low 70s in the case of Ozempic, and the mid 60s with Tirzepatide. That’s a known side effect considered harmless, but I didn’t feel good about it. It also reduced my HRV (Heart Rate Variability) which is possibly bad. I have gone back to normal since going off, but it took a couple of months. (And I wouldn’t have even known absent the Oura Ring, which tracks those things.)

HEH: Flight Attendants want to tape you to your seat if you order THIS drink: What we learn from repetitious clickety-bait.

WHAT’S THE POINT OF A SELF-DRIVING RACE CAR? A Dramatic Autonomous Racing Crash Showed How Far Self-Driving Race Cars Have to Go.

IF GUN CONTROL IS A “COMMON SENSE” IDEA, WHY DO ITS PROPONENTS ALWAYS HAVE TO LIE ABOUT IT? Giffords Lies About Gun Crime to Push Their Slate of Gun-Grabbing Candidates.

LACK OF CONTROL: Compared to driving, flying is extraordinarily safe – but why doesn’t it feel that way? “Driving gives people a steering wheel, a brake pedal and the belief that their skill can protect them. Flying asks passengers to place control in the hands of pilots, airlines, regulators, air traffic controllers and a complex technical system.”

One of my colleagues who used to fly B-52s hates flying as a passenger. I feel the opposite: If the plane crashes, it won’t be my fault. “Duty is as heavy as a mountain; death is as light as a feather.”

Or as one of my friends says, people will be afraid to fly in a 777, but will climb onto a Ferris wheel that was put together in a grocery store parking lot in three hours by a 25 year old meth head.

BRIAN WANG: SpaceX’s Huge Next Flight and 150 Days to Change the World.

KING CANUTE AND CALIGULA SMILE: More than 100 people gather in San Francisco to scream at the ocean.

ONCE THE JEWEL OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION:

Rampant grade inflation means that grades don't tell us anything about a person's competency. The UC system doesn't accept standardized tests, which do tell us about a person's competency.

The UC system is now flooded with people that require remedial education. https://t.co/Llo1I2okMV

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) September 15, 2026

HOW A GENERATION LOST ITS COMMON CULTURE: What happens when education prepares students for everything except understanding the civilization they inherited.

None of this is by accident, nor is it well-intentioned but simply misguided.

SUPERVISION: Trump DOJ completes nationwide crackdown on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

THIS IS WHAT 21ST CENTURY “CONSPIRACIES” LOOK LIKE:

I followed the money behind the “slow down AI” movement.

What I found is not a secret conspiracy.

It is more interesting than that.

It is a documented influence network connecting billionaire funders, nonprofits, creators, media, activists, frontier labs, and lawmakers.

🧵 pic.twitter.com/prT7YY7Yza

— Rooke Poole (@rookepoole) September 15, 2026

WELL, THAT WAS EASY. Don Surber: We Beat Climate Change! Hurricanes are a thing of the past, right?

Climate change is dead according to the rules laid out by its proponents. They said there would not be snow. There was. They said there would be lots of hurricanes. There aren’t.

Richard Feynman wrote, “First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess. Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is—if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it.”

A decade later, he warned, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists.”

It’s not science if it can’t make correct, testable, predictions.

IT WASN’T AN ACCIDENT: Neuroticism, Narcissism, and Nihilism Strangled Natalism. “Birth rates keep falling in almost every country. Fertility rates have remained below replacement rate for a generation in most of the developed world. Yet a birth gap has emerged. People who start families are having children at rates consistent with history. The overall decline is driven by the growing share of those who have none. We must do everything we can to counter the demoralization. The dating, labor, and housing markets critical to family formation are are broken.”

None of this is an accident.

THE FREELOADERS INTERNATIONAL SPEAKS: ‘I Don’t Wanna Pay It Back’: Socialist Senate Nominee Angie Nixon Says It’s ‘Crazy’ She Has To Pay Her Taxes And Student Loans: Nixon laments the injustice of having to pay her own fair share as she campaigns on raising taxes on the wealthy.

CAN CONFIRM:

“The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit — replacing what works with what sounds good.”

— Thomas Sowell

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) September 14, 2026

I BELIEVE THIS IS NOW CONSIDERED A “FAR RIGHT” OPINION. Legalizing Child Murder Would Be Bad.

YOU LAUGH, BUT WE’LL SOON HEAR HOW HURRICANES ARE VITAL TO THE ECOLOGY OF THE MIDWEST AND SOUTHWEST:

Climate Activists Blame Global Warming For Zero Hurricanes Forming In Atlantic This Year https://t.co/It7RVYCTl3

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 14, 2026

Without even an admission that just a few months ago there were dire predictions of more hurricanes due to “climate change.”

BRYAN CAPLAN: Neurotic Politics. “Quick version: When neurotics turn to politics, they find an infinite series of reasons to feel bad, which helps them stay one step ahead of the realization that their fundamental problem is inside their own heads and can be fixed by no one but themselves.”

ACTUALLY, AS PAUL STARES WROTE YEARS AGO, THE UNITED STATES HAD FUNCTIONAL ANTISATELLITE WEAPONS AND SATELLITE INTERCEPTORS BASED ON THE AGENA CHASSIS BACK IN THE SIXTIES:

The U.S. has officially announced that it’s keeping both offensive and defensive weapons in space.

The type of weapons and how many are up there hasn’t been revealed.

It’s the first time the U.S. admits to having combat capabilities in space. pic.twitter.com/9babKcWxzg

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 15, 2026

The fact that this is being publicly debuted suggests that kinetic and nonkinetic space control systems have been in development and deployment for a considerable time. Things are probably at the point where the systems can no longer be concealed or their capabilities selectively…

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) September 14, 2026

But the technology has advanced rather a lot since then.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

HMM: Strange Material Gets Better at Conducting Electricity The Thinner It Gets.

WELL, GOOD: Scientists Resurrect 160-Million-Year-Old Molecules With Surprising Power Against Superbugs.

JOHN ONDRASIK IS A GREAT AMERICAN:

25 Years ago I was honored to play Superman at the Concert for NYC.
Sharing the stage again with our incredible first responders under two light beams soaring to the heavens was sublime.
Our Promise to "Never Forget" is Eternal. God Bless America.🇺🇸❤️👊pic.twitter.com/A5jbXqoLmh

— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) September 14, 2026

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Hormone therapy isn’t a general treatment for depression — but a new menopause study found intriguing mood changes.