OPEN THREAD: You know what to do.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
October 22, 2026
HMM: Could a $200K bond for satellites paid before launch prevent a space junk disaster in orbit? Here’s why some scientists think so. Scientists aren’t exactly experts at regulatory matters. This isn’t promising:
“Low Earth orbit looks like lots of other resources that we have trashed as economic actors,” Daniel Kaffine, a professor of environmental and resource economics at University of Colorado Boulder, told Space.com.
(1) Resources are generally more trashed by governmental actors. Most space debris created in recent years has come from Chinese and Russian military posturing. For that matter, the environmental record of governments in general is much worse than that of “economic actors.” See, e.g., the Aral Sea, the Gold King Mine/Animas River EPA spill, etc.
(2) I question the value of space regulatory advice from a “professor of environmental and resource economics.” Nor is such a person a “scientist.”
(3) That said, the bond idea isn’t a bad one except that (a) there’s nobody empowered to impose the requirement; and (b) there’s nobody empowered to administer it.
I recommend space salvage. The Outer Space Treaty is a barrier, but we could probably end run it via the Artemis Accords.
THERE WAS NO PRELAPSARIAN GOLDEN AGE: 75,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Skeleton Reveals a Mysterious Spear Wound Aimed at the Heart. Life was nasty, brutish, and short.
WELL, THAT’S DISAPPOINTING. There is no magic diet.
AS A KID I WAS TAUGHT THAT ROLLING SNAKES WERE A MYTH: This snake cartwheels to escape danger.
PROTEIN IS GOOD: Does Eating Less Protein Boost Autophagy? New Study Says No.
ELON HAS HIGH-LEVEL ACCESS TO PALANTIR AND, I SUSPECT, AN EXTRA-STRENGTH VERSION OF GROK.
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets … https://t.co/L7xNa6yCm0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2026
DIVERSITY PROBLEM: Zero Republican political science professors found at 4 major Pennsylvania universities, research shows.
Academia is unwise to align itself entirely with one political party.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Switchblade Ban Violates Second Amendment, Fifth Circuit Holds. Tennessee did this legislatively, but good.
THE ANACONDA STRATEGY CONTINUES TO SQUEEZE: Iran’s Fleet of Shadow Tankers Has Run Out of Oil After Monthslong U.S. Blockade: Tehran had millions of barrels of crude in tankers in Asian waters that gave it a steady flow of cash. Now, that oil has dried up.
For most of the war, Iran had an invaluable cushion: dozens of oil tankers holding millions of barrels of crude sitting safely in waters in Asia. Tehran steadily sold the oil to China, bringing in billions of much-needed cash.
Now, that floating storage is gone. By mid-October, the reserves were fully depleted, according to analysts at Kpler, as a U.S. naval blockade prevented Iran from replacing the crude it normally sells to Chinese refineries.
“There’s no more oil to discharge to China anymore,” said Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude-oil analysis at Kpler.
The drop in oil revenue is a further blow to Iran’s struggling economy, already facing runaway inflation and widespread shortages. U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, said Saturday that the blockade has denied Tehran at least $25 billion worth of oil revenue, which will, in turn, constrict Iran’s ability to replace destroyed factories and weapons.
U.S. actions have “imposed devastating costs on Iran’s security apparatus,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command.
Even as the U.S. pressure has choked off Iranian exports, oil from elsewhere in the Middle East is flowing, recently exceeding prewar levels, as U.S. protection helps secure the passage of non-Iranian oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
The plan is working, though you wouldn’t know it from most press coverage.
THIS WAS NO ACCIDENT:
Myriam was a 7-year-old French Jewish girl. She witnessed a terrorist break into her school and kill two of her classmates.
She tried to run but tripped while grabbing her schoolbag, causing her ballet slippers to fall out. She stopped to pick them up. He chased her and grabbed… https://t.co/tJZAegpdby pic.twitter.com/dQz8EFGXeA
— Dr. Maalouf (@realMaalouf) October 21, 2026
“Myriam was a 7-year-old French Jewish girl. She witnessed a terrorist break into her school and kill two of her classmates.
She tried to run but tripped while grabbing her schoolbag, causing her ballet slippers to fall out. She stopped to pick them up. He chased her and grabbed her by the hair, shooting her in the head at point-blank range.
The man was Mohamed Merah, and a rap song honoring him and other Muslim terrorists has become the unofficial anthem of the ‘student protests’ in France.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: I’m Fascinated By The Sex Gurus Of Cornell University. “I came across these materials because as the Cornell alleged frat-house rape scandal has percolated, so too have takes attempting to link the event to Cornell Health. Wesley Yang, for example, noted that ‘Cornell health educators, like health educators at colleges and high schools across America, promote pornography, group sex, open relationships, bondage, and S&M as normal and healthy in chipper instructional materials bearing the school’s official endorsement.'”
October 21, 2026
OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.
AI IS EVERYWHERE: The Way You Sleep Can Reveal Your Risk of Heart Failure Up to 10 Years in Advance. “All that is needed is the data from one electrocardiogram (ECG) lead, placed on the chest during sleep. With that, artificial intelligence can predict someone’s risk of an irregular heartbeat, stroke, heart failure, or death from any cause in the next 10 years.”