Very quiet, very comfortable room. (It is a Hilton; it better be.) There is an indoor skydiving business across the street; if we had more time, I would go over there. I have always wanted to experience skydiving without the adrenaline rush of jumping out of a perfectly functional plane while wondering if my parachute is going to work.
Attempted but did not reach four dead because of a good guy with a gun. 8/2/26 Newsweek:
A man armed with a handgun exchanged gunfire with the suspect during Saturday's deadly shooting at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, forcing the gunman to take cover, according to an eyewitness cited in multiple reports.
Lane Koehn told The Associated Press he saw a man carrying an AR-style rifle emerge near the drive-thru on Saturday afternoon before another man pulled a pistol and fired at the gunman.
It is an article of faith that a good guy with a gun (at least a concealed one) will not stop someone with an "assault weapon." At first glance, this seems to make sense: they have a powerful weapon, dangerous to 100 yards plus.
But in this case, the murderer blew away any tactical advantage: he was shooting apparently randomly as he approached. At 100 yards, yes, the rifleman has the clear advantage. At 15 yards, not so much.
As with many of these tragedies, one shot, the murderer committed suicide. I will be surprised if this does not turn out to be mental illness induced.
A University of Minnesota project to create “therapeutic” transgender dolls for children as young as 4 is officially launching this year.
However, the project continues to face criticism from medical leaders, as well as questions about whether public funding is involved.
“Join the waitlist” and “Launching in 2026,” the MyGender Dolls website tells visitors.
“Grounded in gender-affirming clinical practices,” the dolls will be a “therapeutic” resource for clinicians and educators who work with children ages 4-10, it states.
The new website only includes a few details about the dolls, a years-long project by faculty at the university’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. Some of the links on the site are not working yet, but there is a “waitlist” form that people can fill out “to be kept up to date about the MyGender Dolls.”
The College Fix contacted the email address listed on the website and the project organizers via email on July 2 and 5, asking for information about the product and launch date. No one responded.
Previously, the university had a webpage dedicated to the project, but it was removed at some point after The College Fix first reported on it in December 2024.
According to the page, MyGender Dolls mimic classic paper dolls, featuring drawings of children of different ages, shapes, and skin colors to represent “all” kids. Children will be able to choose different internal and external genitals, clothes, and other accessories to help them “visualize their anatomy and genders,” the page stated.
Stunning video taken by a covert sea drone shows a Chinese warship lingering inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The 42-second clip shows a ship identified by Reuters as a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, floating 65 miles off Luzon Island in the Bashi Channel on June 16.
The ship was identified by “the deck layout, superstructure, crane and mast,” according to the company, “which matched archive imagery.”
Seasats, a San Diego startup, told The Post its drone, the Lightfish USV, was “conducting a commercial operation to prove the feasibility of autonomous operations in the Taiwan Strait.”
I hope this is a company either with, or on its way to, a government contract. Swarms of sea drones might make invading Taiwan so clearly impossible that we can avoid war with China.
