21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Swarmbotics Wins US Army Contract for Swarming Ground Robots.

The award stems from Swarmbotics’ performance at last year’s xTechOverwatch competition, where its autonomous ground robotics technology competed against dozens of innovative small business teams.

Designed to operate as swarms, the sUGVs aim to create multiple dilemmas for adversaries at lower cost than traditional manned platforms, reflecting army interest in scalable force multiplication.

Soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division assessed autonomous capabilities across ground and airborne systems as part of the evaluation, which was facilitated by the US Army’s Transformation and Training Command and key stakeholders.

“Mass is our objective, by employing swarms of heterogeneous small sUGVs we create multiple dilemmas for our adversaries at fractions of the cost of exquisite platforms,” Swarmbotics chief executive officer Stephen Houghton said.

Great name for the company, too.

TAMARA KEEL: The Decision Cycle. “The people who do well in these situations not only see the situation developing, they recognize it for what it is, have a plan to execute in that situation, and the skills available to execute the plan.”

Plus: “Remember this: when you hear someone say, ‘They just came out of nowhere!’ well, ‘They’ really didn’t just come out of nowhere.”

STATE LAW MUST SUPERSEDE ACCREDITOR REQUIREMENTS. If a school can’t be accredited and also follow the law, it should take the conflict up with both legislators and accreditors, but it has to follow the law.

Ultimately, the solution may be that some state regulations against any concept even DEI-adjacent are loosened (Plato? Come on…), while accreditors dial back their DEI requirements. Both sides have something to lose if they don’t come to an agreement. But the major share of the blame has to be on accreditors, who should have understood that their power up until now relied on a nearly universal belief that their requirements weren’t used to play political games. But they played stupid games, and now they’re winning stupid prizes.

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Commie China Condemns Pro-Democracy Jimmy Lai to Jail.

TRUMP JUST DOES THE JOBS CHICAGO MAYORS WON’T: Chicago Mayor Confesses to 30% Homicides Drop After Trump Crackdown.

GET IN SHAPE: Brooks Women’s Glycerin 23 Neutral Running Shoe. #CommissionEarned I got these and they are awesome.

HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW NOBODY FROM THE PRESS ASKED CHINESE ATHLETES WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT JIMMY LAI’S PERSECUTION? China critic Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years in jail after landmark Hong Kong trial. Given his age, that’s a life sentence.

CENSORSHIP: California Sues The Gatalog, CTRLPew for Distribution of Code for 3D Printing Guns. “Frustrated by the spread of 3D technology and their inability to nationalize their increasingly oppressive gun control laws beyond a few like-minded blue states, politicians in California have looked for ways to spread their tentacles into free America. They took a big step toward doing exactly that on Friday when Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed suit against two popular repositories of 3D printing files, The Gatalog and CTRLPew.”

MIDDLE EAST: Uncle Sam Assembles Big Stick For Iran. “The U.S. military has some of the biggest sticks in the world, and right now a lot of them are Voltroning together within striking distance of Iran.”

CULTURE ISN’T JUST SOMETHING YOU CONSUME, IT’S SOMETHING YOU MAKE:

🚨BREAKING: Music Industry is Shook as Kid Rock OVERTAKES Bad Bunny for the Top Song in the World.

This is despite Apple’s nonstop promotion of Bad Bunny.

We have the power to change culture 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/iMbCOLi5cA

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 9, 2026

To be fair, vastly more people had heard of Kid Rock prior to the Super Bowl than had heard of Bad Bunny: HALFTIME S***SHOW: Even NFL Players Have No Idea Who Bad Bunny Is (Just Like the Rest of Us).

MAJA: Japan’s Iron Lady Took a Risk — and Won Big. “Takaichi is also eager to align with other nations that have conservatives in leadership. You could almost say that her slogan is 日本を再び偉大にする — “Make Japan Great Again.” What makes Sanae Takaichi interesting isn’t any slogan, though; it’s the snap election gamble she took and how decisively it paid off.”

LIMITED TIME DEAL: TurboTax Deluxe Desktop Edition 2025, Federal & State Tax Return. #CommissionEarned

LOVIN’ IT: McDonald’s Sales Jump 2.4% After They Revived This Old School Strategy.

With its consumer sentiment on the decline (and a U.S. sales dip of 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024), the fast-food giant refocused its efforts on offering more choices at affordable prices.

In January, McDonald’s launched McValue, a new menu and platform that offers popular $5 Meal Deals along with exclusive and local discounts, as well as a “Buy One, Add One for $1” offering, available all day.

“When it comes to value, we know there’s no one-size-fits-all,” Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said in a press release. “We’ve worked closely with our franchisees to create a new platform that will let our customers define value on their own terms.”

It never ceases to amaze me that even large corporations forget that what their customers value most is… value.

UPDATE: Sorry, had the wrong link before. Fixed now.

THE E.V. BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Stellantis swallows $26 billion costs as it rethinks its EV strategy: The automaker follows Ford and GM in writing down huge sums after betting wrong.

FINALLY: We Finally Have a Trans Athlete Whom the Media Isn’t Gushing Over.

Carhartt Men’s Relaxed Straight Rigby Cargo Pant. #CommissionEarned

WELL, GOOD: Surgical innovation may cut ovarian cancer risk by nearly 80%.

“THIS IS NOT WHERE I WAS ANTICIPATING GETTING STUCK.”

🚨HOLY CRAP!!!

The Democrat Sheriff of Charlotte NC, Gary McFadden, was just completely unable to answer:

a) What the 3 branches of government are.
b) Which branch he serves under.

This is genuinely painful to watch… completely shocking. pic.twitter.com/PRIAkvFxCw

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) February 9, 2026

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: More than one-third of American college students say they’ve scrolled on their phone during sex.

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE, NOT THE ACTIVISTS:

Activist: "Your cows are fed soy from cleared rainforests."
Farmer: "My cows eat grass."
Activist: "All cattle eat soy."
Farmer: "Mine don't. They're ruminants. Grass is literally what they're designed to eat."
Activist: "Industrial cattle are fed soy."
Farmer: "I'm not… pic.twitter.com/S2wOnY4p6W

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) February 6, 2026

THE GOODBYE LOOK: Cuba warns airlines they can’t refuel amid Trump tariff threat.

The communist government warned international airlines they can no longer refuel at its main airport in Havana for the next month after Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any nation that supplies Cuba with oil. A-1 jet fuel won’t be available at Jose Marti International Airport beginning Tuesday through March 11, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said in a notice Sunday.

The fuel supply situation on Cuba is critical, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, according to news agency Interfax. However, he didn’t specify whether Moscow is planning to provide oil products to the island.

Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, cancelled its Monday commercial flight to Cuba and instead sent the empty plane to pick up stranded tourists, Russia’s tour operators association said in a statement. Aeroflot flights to Cuba have been suspended until late March, it added. The group estimates there are about 4,500 Russians vacationing on the island at present.

Nicaragua, meanwhile, altered its immigration rules to block Cuban citizens from entering the Central American country without a visa. Nearly one in five Cuban residents has fled the island over the past decade amid a worsening economic crisis.

With Moscow’s attention more or less fully committed to Ukraine, there’s never been a better time to put the screws to Cuba’s commies.

FEMINISM TODAY NOW MEANS SAYING “DUDE, CONTROL YOUR WOMAN:” Bill Belichick Facing Calls To End Relationship After ‘Inappropriate’ Outfit. “Bill Belichick is facing calls to end his relationship with Jordon Hudson after she wore an ‘inappropriate’ outfit to Saturday night’s UNC vs. Duke game.”

COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM:

“She’s so pretty… why don’t we just let her get raped?” says an angry leftist while threatening a young Christian woman.

And they think they’re the good guys… pic.twitter.com/wIJdvGu6BM

— Samantha Smith (@SamanthaTaghoy) February 9, 2026

What horrible people.

Related:

I think people underestimate how psychotic and dangerous the left has become, and not just at the national level. I have "friends" from high school and college on FB posting about how Trump is going to cancel the midterms and worse. Mass psychosis. https://t.co/0GiAnF6b7b

— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) February 9, 2026

Rotten children with violent streaks.

ESCAPE FROM LA: ‘Full-scale migration of wealth:’ Rich California and Washington residents flocking to Las Vegas.

ERIC FLORACK: Fake AI Videos. (Florack Was a Good Friend of Epstein!)