March 12, 2026

SYPHILIS WASN’T BROUGHT BY COLUMBUS: A 5,500-Year-Old Skeleton Reveals the Deep Origins of Syphilis. Instead, the traditional belief that it was taken to Europe from the Americas seems correct: “A newly reconstructed genome from the bacterium responsible for syphilis, Treponema pallidum, is providing new clues about the long history of treponemal diseases in the Americas. The research is based on a 5,500-year-old specimen discovered in Colombia. The results indicate that the origins of syphilis were not tied to the rise of agriculture or the crowded living conditions that often accelerate the spread of infectious diseases. Instead, the pathogen appears to have emerged within the environmental and social settings typical of hunter-gatherer communities.”

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

AIYATOLLAH:

Posted at 6:25 pm by Stephen Green

THAT’S NOT THE TOTAL NUMBER, THAT’S THE NUMBER CURRENTLY IN SERVICE ALL AT ONCE:

Most impressive.

Posted at 5:39 pm by Stephen Green

14 WAYS TO FIX MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: Leave it to my long-time unindicted co-conspirator, Dr. Robert Moffit at the Heritage Foundation, to find 14 ways Congress could vastly improve the Medicare Advantage option.

Bob is a former Deputy Secretary for Congressional Relations at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from the Reagan era and still knows where a lot of bodies are buried there.

Posted at 5:07 pm by Mark Tapscott

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN TAKE IT:

Posted at 4:37 pm by Stephen Green

A SCREEN IS NOT A HUMAN BEING: Heavy social media use linked with loneliness in college students, new research finds.

“Despite the intention of social connection, social media platforms may not provide college students with the necessary social fulfillment to combat loneliness,” the study found.

Published in February in the Journal of American College Health, the study had crunched the social media use data of 64,988 students ages 18 to 24 at more than 120 four-year universities.

The results? “Students who used social media at least 16 hours a week — averaging more than two hours a day — had significantly higher odds of reporting loneliness,” a news release from the university stated.

One key reason why social media use is linked to increased loneliness is because it has replaced real, face-to-face interaction in many cases, said University of Cincinnati health promotion and education Professor Rebecca Vidourek, a co-author of the study.

“Social media is used as a substitute for human interaction rather than a supplement,” Vidourek told The College Fix. “That can contribute to feelings of isolation and loneliness.”

It’s been a few decades, but the first thing I did at college was ask about which bars just checked for a student ID, instead of a driver’s license for proof of 21.

The results were hit and miss, but it sure beat the hell out of X.

Posted at 3:51 pm by Stephen Green

KNOWN WOLF:

Alternate Insta-headline: The enemy within.

Posted at 3:35 pm by Stephen Green

I REALIZED YEARS AGO THAT “VEEP” IS USUALLY THE BEST-CASE SCENARIO:

Previously:

Say what you will about Crenshaw, but he nailed that one.

Posted at 3:04 pm by Stephen Green

SOMETHING’S FISHY: Hospital drug prices can vary up to 2,000X across country. “A report from 3 Axis Advisors used publicly available hospital data to analyze the cost differential between the same generic prescription drugs in hospitals across the country. It found a 2,347x differential between the minimum and maximum prescription drug prices in some cases. This means one insurance company could pay $1 for a prescription drug while another could pay $2,347 for the same drug purchased at a different hospital.”

Posted at 2:49 pm by Stephen Green