December 21, 2025

FROM M. C. A. HOGARTH:  Clays Upon the Sands (The Stone Moon Trilogy).

The treasured anadi who must learn what it means to choose… the mysterious chenji whose magic comes at a terrible price… the jeweler who finds that love requires facing the unknowable future… and the Claw of the empire who discovers that loyalty has limits. Clays Upon the Sands, volume 2 in the Jokka Clays series, collects seven more stories of the Jokka of Ke Bakil, an alien species with two chances to change sexes: female, neuter or male… a species where destiny and biology intertwine in ways both beautiful and heartbreaking. Whether it’s accepting an unwanted Turning, defying an empire’s cruelty, or learning that some truths can only be spoken in the dark, each Jokkad must navigate the complex currents of identity, duty, and desire.

Seven voices. Seven transformations. A world where nothing is certain but change itself. Come explore.

Posted at 1:36 am by Sarah Hoyt

December 20, 2025

OPEN THREAD: It’s all you.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: A Much-Needed Exposé of Academic Fraud: A new book reveals why academic-publishing incentives must change. “Perhaps the most (in)famous case of research fraud is that of Dutch professor Diederik Stapel, who published many papers on social psychology and was something of a rock star in the academic world—until he was exposed as a fraud. Bazerman writes, apropos of one of his papers, that ‘Stapel was confident his hypothesis was true, but the actual data didn’t support it. So Stapel sat at his kitchen table and began typing numbers into his computer that would produce the intended effect.’ After initially getting away with that, Stapel stopped doing any research at all, merely fabricating data to support his conclusions. When finally exposed, he admitted everything.”

Posted at 8:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

NO THANK YOU: “Unintended Steering Wheel Movement.” “If you’ve noticed the steering wheel in your BMW X3 moving without you touching it, you’re not going crazy. According to a new recall submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, several thousand 2025 and 2026 BMW X3 crossovers have a problem with their steering system software that could cause the wheels to move unintentionally.”

Posted at 5:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

“HISTORY IS ONE DAMN THING AFTER ANOTHER,” BUT MAYBE ESPECIALLY NOW:

Posted at 1:13 pm by Stephen Green

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Return of the King Edition.

Okay, John Hinderaker went and did it last week! He has abused his stewardship of TWiP and went full Die Hard Christmas Movie Denialist!  As the Dude says in The Big Lebowski, this aggression will not stand, man! To restore proper balance in the universe, I [Steve Hayward] am staging a coup d’tat, and am taking over this week’s TWiP. To mix movie references further, John has done a Denethor-level job as Steward of TWiP; time for the Return of the (TWiP) King! Actually, like the Gaza and (prospective) Ukraine ceasefires, we’re going to share power, and alternate TWiP each week. And so as the great John McClain would say on basic cable Christmas season reruns, “Yippie-ki-yay, melon-farmer!”

‘Tis the season:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

AMERICA FIRST IS NOT HATRED — IT’S STEWARDSHIP: From that title’s basic and most essential understanding, Virgil Walker’s Sola Veritas column includes much wisdom, including a warning to the churches — Protestant and Catholic alike — about their role in the American story:

“Today’s political disorder is downstream from theological failure.

“For years, the American Church avoided hard categories. Pastors replaced clarity with emotionalism. Stewardship was recast as selfishness. Prudence became fear. Borders became taboo.

“The result was not greater compassion, but moral confusion.

“Christians were taught how to feel, not how to think. How to sympathize, not how to steward. Loving your neighbor was weaponized against loving your nation, as if responsibility were a sin.

“It is not.

“Compassion without boundaries is reckless. Hospitality without expectation is destructive. A silent Church does not preserve a nation. It hastens its unraveling.”

Posted at 8:43 am by Mark Tapscott