THIS IS COOL:  Free Blockbusters are popping up to bring back physical media. Think a little free library, but for Friday night movie marathons.

RO KHANNA THINKS A LOT OF STUPID S[TUFF]:  Democrat Ro Khanna Thinks That Racist America Needs a ‘Multi-Racial New Deal’.

BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FIT THE NARRATIVE:  The Quiet Manufacturing Boom.

IF IT WERE ONLY IN NEW ZEALAND:  Indigenous Knowledge, Public Money, and Bad Science.

NO. NOT EVEN CLOSE:  Was This July Really the “Hottest Month in History”?

IT NEEDED ONLY THAT:  Does the Chinese police eavesdrop via ZOOM calls ? Is ZOOM used by the Chinese security organizations to surveil targets abroad !? Although we can’t provide a clear answer, we explore this question through a little anecdote with a worrying conclusion.

WHY DON’T WE BUILD NUCLEAR REACTORS LIKE CARS?  Imagine building a car from scratch. A parable for zero-carbon energy.

IT’S ALL THROUGH THE ESTABLISHMENT:  It’s not just Fauci.

IT’S HORRIFIC:  RFK Jr. reveals what HHS found when they went looking for the 375,000 migrant kids Biden lost. “It’s a huge, huge tragedy.” “One guy pretended to be the parent of 42 children. We have no idea what happened to those kids.”

HE’S RIGHT YOU KNOW? There’s no creature more pathetic than a doomer.

But one wonders how many of them are real doomers, or you know… enemy agents.

SOME TOWNS REALLY WANT TO SURRENDER:  A New York town is facing a federal lawsuit after officials refused to allow a Christian Nativity display in a public square while permitting Islamic religious displays.

X-Cancel.

THEY ONLY WANT TO DEFUND THE POLICE UNTIL THEIR SQUADS TAKE OVER: Defund the Police?

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: ‘This goes beyond showcasing technological soft power’: China’s new moon map signals bold space ambitions.

IT’S NOT JUST CHOLESTEROL: US Cardiologists Issue New Guidelines For How to Manage Cholesterol. I question the benefit of screening 9 year olds for cholesterol, though. Starting a 9 year old on statins, for a disease that won’t affect them for probably 50 years?

IT’S A WONDER DRUG: “People who drank more coffee had less total body fat and visceral fat, along with greater skeletal muscle mass, even though their body mass index (BMI) was similar to that of participants who drank less coffee.”

RACISM IS SUCH A RARE COMMODITY DOMESTICALLY THAT WE HAVE TO IMPORT IT:

Why are we bringing foreigners to our country to break our civil rights laws? https://t.co/ksyDWujl3d

— Katya Sedgwick (@KatyaSedgwick) August 16, 2026

DSM-VI IS GOING TO INCLUDE A DIAGNOSIS FOR THIS: Nurse Fired for Calling Jews “Vermin” Claims To Have Been With Luigi Mangione on Night of Murder.

WELL, THAT’S NOT HARD SINCE BMI IS A LOUSY MEASURE: New Obesity Definitions Reveal Ill Health More Accurately Than Body Mass Index.

SCHRÖDINGER’S EMPATHY:

Schrödinger's Empathy pic.twitter.com/WeVKGALKIL

— Jonathan Wong (@WONGthink) August 15, 2026

WILL JASON ARDAY BE MEMORY HOLED OR DISMISSED AS A ONE-OFF BAD APPLE? They’re the Ones Who Told Us to Pay Attention to Jason Arday.

Yes, Arday is a symptom, and him getting away with his lies as long as he did indicates that Cambridge is in even worse shape than most of us thought. If universities don’t want the scrutiny that comes with being high-prestige institutions, they can no longer continue with the assumption that the rest of us should be deferring to them on intellectual, moral, or political issues. You’re the ones who told us that being the “youngest black professor in the history of Cambridge” was newsworthy.

“Crémieux” tweets, “The people trying to dismiss criticism of Arday by saying he’s irrelevant or small potatoes have to reckon with the fact that he was celebrated by the mainstream.”

That may be understating it:

HE’S JUST DOING THE HIT-AND-RUNS AMERICANS WON’T DO:

This story gets crazier. The Mayor of Lawrence, left court today in a Dodge Charger and rammed into another car and left the scene. Same Mayor that can't speak English, and stole $1.5M in covid money. https://t.co/kGWRp0O6o5 pic.twitter.com/JvoCF11yJo

— Lee Kuan Yimby (@LeeKuanYimby) August 15, 2026

Oh, and also the theft.

YES: Donald Trump Already Won the Iran War. Ending It Is Tehran’s Problem Now.

CHANGE:

Things that are now rightwing:

Investigative journalism
Academic rigour
Scientific dissent
Nature
Facts
Biology
Politeness
Punctuality
Normality
Free speech
Individual rights
Rationality
Objectivity
Self-reliance
Emotional restraint
Delayed gratification

— Alice Smith (@TheAliceSmith) August 15, 2026

UPDATE (From Ed): Did conservatives win the culture war?

And don’t forget physical fitness:

And eating healthy and reading epic poetry:

DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: Terry Moran Says ABC News Is ‘Liberal Institution’ That Lacks ‘Viewpoint Diversity’ — Well, Duh!

Terry Moran admits that ABC News is a "liberal institution."

"Like a lot of mainstream media, it's because of a lack of viewpoint diversity."

Confirming what everyone already knows here now that there is zero downside to him for doing it. pic.twitter.com/zdEp0E1aGF

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 15, 2026

Much like Hollywood, the on-air talent is uniformly to the left, but the behind the cameras crew are not. No wonder in 2000, Leonardo DiCaprio could seamlessly switch over from acting to interviewing “Bill Clinton about the environment for Earth Day. The staff, including Sam Donaldson, and outside critics erupted in a barrage of outrage. How dare ABC suggest that a dim-bulb movie star can do the same job as a seasoned journalist? The defensiveness was telling. Because the truth is that most news readers are little more than actors. That’s one reason so many attractive young women want to be an actress/model/news anchor when they grow up.”

While Leslie Stahl couldn’t name any conservatives at CBS 23 years ago when asked by Cal Thomas on a Fox News show, thanks to radical right wing zealot Bari Weiss, Stahl can now actually name, err, two: 

● Lefties Freak Out Over ‘Right-Wing Religious Zealot’ Ross Douthat Joining 60 Minutes.

● “[I]n recent years, as a columnist for The [London] Times and on Sky News, [Trevor] Phillips has moved further towards a small-c conservative liberalism, with tough love for some long-standing fixations of the Left.”