Readers of the blog likely recall this lawsuit, brought by climate scientist Michael Mann against columnist Mark Steyn, blogger Rand Simberg, the National Review, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (see our various posts on the subject). The National Review and CEI had been granted summary judgment in 2021, but in January 2024, the jury found Steyn and Simberg liable for defamation, to the tune of $1 compensatory damages + $1M punitives against Steyn, and $1 compensatory + $1K […]

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Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected the Trump Administration’s motion for a stay pending appeal of a district court’s universal preliminary injunction against enforcement of President Trump’s Executive Order curtailing birthright citizenship. Other circuit courts have similarly ruled. Interestingly enough, the Department of Justice did not try to argue that it was likely to prevail defending the merits of the Executive Order. Rather, the government’s briefs maintained that it was likely to prevail […]

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At the entrance to the St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum, guests are greeted by a two-page broadsheet published in London in 1605, now locked behind a panel of protective glass. It is a royal decree from King James I of England warning that anyone caught in the act of piracy “shall suffer death, with confiscation of lands and goods.” So it’s amusingly ironic to come upon another royal declaration elsewhere in the exhibits, this one issued by […]

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Sales of meat alternatives dropped between 2021 and 2023, according to the Good Food Institute. A big problem is price. The closer companies get to mimicking meat, the more obvious the stubbornly high premium becomes. Prime Roots hopes to escape this trap with their alternatives to deli turkey, ham, and salami, since sandwich fillings already command relatively high prices. Prime Roots products are made of koji, the fungi that make soy sauce delicious. Koji is eerily fast-growing, which […]

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