HMM: Carry On? Carry Often: Building a Handy AR-15 PDW Folder.

IS IT REALLY A GOOD IDEA FOR THEM TO BE ABLE TO OUTRUN US? Robot dog runs a marathon faster than the average human, all on a single charge.

CHANGE: Airbus A350F Makes First Flight. “Airbus’ next-generation A350F freighter, which the manufacturer confirmed to be under development in July 2021, has finally conducted its maiden flight.”

COFFEE, IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Since it’s National Coffee Day, let’s talk about this massive study that says coffee helps women age better.

NO THANKS: A Change in Your Voice Could Foreshadow Cognitive Decline, Major Study Finds.

SEDUCTIVE AI: “‘They’re relating to it like a conscious being,’ realized Rabbi Navon, a former computer engineer who wrote his dissertation on the ethics of machine consciousness.”

I’m not impressed with that. Humans anthromorphize everything. Cars, boats; research even shows kids see Alexa and Roombas as moral beings. Even Tim The Pencil.

MASKS OFF:

They had them at “Death to America.”

I expect this new variant will resonate with the target audience. https://t.co/Cpyrw1JpBM

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) September 30, 2026

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Cal State lecturer removed after kicking student out for question on Native American alcoholism rates.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University of Minnesota plans $225M in cuts across five-campus system: The university says expenses are outpacing revenue as it faces enrollment shifts and uncertain state and federal funding.

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

DON SURBER: Carney’s trade war should drive Canadians to drink. “In slapping a retaliatory tariff on us, Mark Carney overlooked the fact that Canada sells 10 times the whiskey to the USA as we do to Canada. . . . We drink 93% of the booze it exports.”

Don’t start an asymmetric contest when you’re on the wrong side of the asymmetry.

Related:

What is seriously wrong with Carney? Why didn’t he stand and applaud a Canadian Army Veteran with the rest of the people around him? This is truly disrespectful. https://t.co/qFnlbu8mak

— Bradshaw (@myabradshaw78) September 30, 2026

It’s possible he’s not really committed to the best interests of Canada or Canadians.

THE NEW ERA:

It took Obama over 3 years to build and launch HealthcareDOTgov. It cost taxpayers $2 billion and was riddled with bugs, making it unusable for months after launch.

It took Trump 13 months to build and launch AmericaDOTgov. It cost taxpayers a couple million dollars and works…

— Bad Hombre (@Badhombre) September 29, 2026

SO TRUE:

It's s really interesting to review Karl Marx's life, who was undoubtedly a talented and intelligent man, but he was consumed by bitterness and jealous after being ousted from academia. It comes through it just in his theory but even in his style of writing. More people should…

— Charlie Zulu (@charlie1zulu) September 30, 2026

Much pain and horror could have been avoided if he and Hitler had just been given cushy academic positions. Then they could have terrorized the faculty lounges and no more.

WHAT ELSE ARE THE FOREIGN POLICY GRAYBEARDS MISSING? The Parade of Hormuz Horribles Fizzles Out.

The news out of the Strait of Hormuz is pretty straightforward: The Islamic Republic of Iran has all but lost whatever control it once had over the maritime traffic flowing through that contested choke point. “Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded this month to around their highest level since the war began in February,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Shipments via Hormuz and bypass routes were delivering just under 80% of their prewar regional flows as of last week, according to tracker Kpler.”

That’s just about where the U.S. wants energy exports out of Hormuz to be. After all, the whole point of the blockade is to ensure that Iranian exports never make it to market in the first place. In that sense, U.S. policy in the region has succeeded. Iranian outbound flows are basically at zero.

Since mid-August, the Trump administration has maintained that the blockade, and its efforts to protect shipping through the strait’s southern Omani channel, is bearing fruit. At the time, the claim met with some understandable skepticism. But, as I wrote then, it made sense that the inventories that Trump officials had described were invisible to trackers. They wouldn’t become visible until they’d successfully evaded Iran’s dragnet. Now, six weeks later, “It’s clear that Washington’s figures were substantially correct,” former Bush administration official Michael Allen observed. “As many as 22 million barrels may have passed through the strait in 48 hours over the weekend, compared with about 20 million a day before the war.”

If the community of foreign-policy observers has internalized the news that Iran is losing control of the strait, they have not yet wrangled with the development’s implications. We can speculate about these implications by reviewing the claims made by those who, mere months ago, not only anticipated that Iran’s control of the strait would persist indefinitely but also thought that it represented a greater geostrategic lever for Tehran than even a deployable atomic weapon. . . .

If the sequence of events that these and many, many other foreign-policy analysts forecast over the late spring and summer came to pass, it would represent a strategic disaster for the U.S. But since it hasn’t, what are the consequences?

Don’t rely on the people who got it wrong to tell us.

THE PURPOSE OF A SYSTEM IS WHAT IT DOES: For Some Reason, New York’s Rent Regulations Don’t Seem To Be Keeping Rents Low.

ICYMI: I DID NOT EXPECT THIS:

Sunny Hostin, a former sex crimes prosecutor, actually defends the Cornell 7. She argues that under New York State law, the girl consented and that the media is "reporting this story inaccurately. I think they're reporting it unfairly."
"The pictures of these young men who have… pic.twitter.com/ZbnJpS8G6R

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 29, 2026

IT REALLY DOES: Jack Smith Was Even Scummier Than We Thought Which Seems Impossible.

IMPORT ANTISEMITES, IMPORT ANTISEMITISM:

This is the single most consequential policy to combat antisemitism in the US in the last decade and it's not even close. And the Trump admin — and especially those like @StephenM who implemented it — will get no thanks or credit from legacy Jewish organizations, which is… https://t.co/kIQtUoFfSw

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) September 29, 2026

And vice versa.

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s Groovy.

WOEING: Boeing’s Starliner won’t launch astronauts until 2028 (and may need a new rocket), NASA says.

TALKING ABOUT NEGATIVE EMOTIONS TENDS TO REINFORCE THEM: Venting Doesn’t Reduce Anger, But Something Else Does, Research Finds.

NOTHING GOOD: Scientists Reveal What Could Happen if Yellowstone Erupted Now.

I DID NOT EXPECT THIS:

Sunny Hostin, a former sex crimes prosecutor, actually defends the Cornell 7. She argues that under New York State law, the girl consented and that the media is "reporting this story inaccurately. I think they're reporting it unfairly."
"The pictures of these young men who have… pic.twitter.com/ZbnJpS8G6R

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 29, 2026

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is Apple Cider Vinegar Good for Digestion?

SECURITY: New Investigation Reveals How Easily Connected Cars Can Be Hacked.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Momentum: We Really Need Another 100 Shooting Ranges Built Across The Country.