Even though author JK Rowling controversially believes that being a woman might be more than a state of mind, people bought "Hogwarts Legacy" in droves last year. It was the top-selling game, beating out new entries in the popular "Call of Duty" and "Diablo" franchises.That is if current trends from November held up. December can be a real confounder because "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III" came out in November - and quickly rose to the number two spot. It could have beat Harry Potter but we won't know until Activision releases its numbers. Also impressive was "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom", because it was only available on one platform, the Nintendo Switch, while Harry Potter was also available on Xbox, Playstation, and PC.

How much corporate journalism health informations published each day is as evidence-based as the graphic on my coffee cup below?Nearly all of it. And like 100 years ago, it was designed to advance an agenda, not inform public health, but journalists promoted it because they were part of the tribe saying it. In this case, there was an effort to push back the 'coffee invasion' in Britain. Coffee houses were all the rage on the continent and Big Tea was scared.Nothing drove that home like saying British men would become French.

After Harvard leader (and Board member of Harvard Corp.) Claudia Gay dismissed concerns about anti-Semitism due to lack of protection from hate speech and violence directed at Jewish people, the broader community began to look at the scholarly work of this little-known activist who somehow was placed in charge of nearly $60 billion in money - and having a vote in hiring or firing herself.There was an alarming amount of plagiarism, yet the New York Times quickly rushed to defend their political ally and reframe it as "duplicative language" - but that was not Joe Biden stealing British politician Neil Kinnock's life story for a speech, this was printed scholarship.

A CNN article notes that black students may now feel less inclined to mention their race when applying to colleges. They frame it as a blow against Affirmative Action by pesky conservatives on the Supreme Court, but removing racism can't be a bad thing.

In arguably their most important 2023 legislative move, Democrats have given California a state...bat.
The rationale was that bats are 'as diverse as California' so why government immediately chose an official government winner, the pallid bat, is as mysterious as why we have a state goldfish, a state marine mammal, and a state butterfly.There are overwhelmingly 4,000 species of mammals so California has a way to go before they pick an official member of each.

Climate change conferences are always ironic. Wealthy celebrities flying in on emissions-belching planes while claiming they bought 'carbon offsets' from companies that made Al Gore so rich he is the kind of oligarch Republicans only wish they could be is always going to create skepticism.Having it in a mideast dictatorship that funds terrorism using wealth it derived from oil is next level.It's more ironic this year, that's harmless enough, yet more worrisome, because climate activism has increasingly been taken over by socialist activism, and a quasi-feudal belief in agricultural mysticism. 

We all remember when progressives gushed over the Prius as the car that was saving the planet. In standard 'endorse the alternative until it becomes the standard and then sue them and collect checks along the way' fashion, environmentalists have no turned on them.They are being declared NRE - which in this case isn't Not Really European, the NRE that white liberals on The Continent use to refer to immigrants, but Not Really Electric.Electric Car Government Relations get paid to pave the road for their clients/employers, so they do what you probably expect; create trade groups and even entire nonprofits to advance their agenda. And pay those naturally inclined to help, or even those who are 'useful idiots.'(1)

The House Agricultural Committee has undone a decade-long travesty brought on by the Obama administration, where they decided in defiance of the entire science community that low-fat and non-fat milk would lead to healthier outcomes in children.

NASA’s Voyager spacecraft is 15 billion miles away, out beyond Pluto, which means it can't be fixed if there is a mechanical issue. But FORTRAN is pretty elegant code, and it's self-powered, so if the CMOS isn't messed up and the telemetry modulation unit gets going it should be communicating fine for decades. Maybe even long enough to leave the solar system - in 25,000 years.

The the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized $18 million in vaping products from China. They're cheering that they are protecting American youth but...from what? $18 million is nothing, and yet the Biden administration spent three months preparing to nab it. All because on surveys, if you count any young person who claims to have used a vaping tool, and massage the numbers, you can manufacture an 'epidemic.'