A few thousand years ago: “nomads experienced a spike in mutations that boosted their immune system and that may have helped them resist the diseases they contracted”

https://archive.ph/20250709235604/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/science/archaeology-diseases-pathogens.html#selection-809.145-813.100

This is extremely recent and rapid evolution and thus it would not be surprising if there were bad effects such as auto-immune disorders. The nomads had huge plagues die-offs. Makes me wonder if Ghengis Khan had a hidden bioweapon.

Peoples of NA and Australia did not have those mutations. OTOH with a quick lit review I saw note of lower incidence of MS in native American peoples.

“European farmers and hunter-gatherers had not evolved resistance to diseases such as plague and may have died off in huge numbers, making it easier for the nomads to move in.”

Blue Bonds: “Democrat-controlled “Blue” states and allied municipalities can issue municipal bonds to supplant funds illegally cut and impounded by the federal government.”

https://moneyontheleft.org/2025/05/09/blue-bonds-a-fiscal-strategy-for-overcoming-trump-2-0/

Or states issue cryptocurrency and IOU’s against the federal government. There may also be a historical precedent for not paying taxes to king who does not provide needed services.

Only one of many emerging ideas.

“U.S. agriculture is on the brink of a financial shakeout that will be the worse since the farm crisis of the 1980s”

https://www.twincities.com/2025/07/06/real-world-economics-looming-farm-crisis-by-the-numbers/

Low interest rates caused land prices to rise and commodity prices are now falling. Some of this is Trump, other parts are longterm.

Meanwhile Trump is decimating healthcare in rural America while young women continue to leave.

“increase in hip and pelvic fractures with semaglutide that was 4 times as high as that with placebo”

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2507452?query=TOC&cid=DM2406464_Non_Subscriber&bid=-1277228401

“maximum loss of fat-free mass as measured by DXA had occurred by 1 year after the start of a weight-loss intervention, but by 8 years fat mass was regained without regain of fat-free mass”

Areas of active research. We don’t know if strength training offsets these effects but we do know most people will not voluntarily do exercise.

Structured Exercise after Colon CA Chemo: “The 8-year overall survival was 90.3% in the exercise group and 83.2% in the health-education group”

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2502760?query=TOC

“The 5-year disease-free survival was 80.3% in the exercise group and 73.9% in the health-education group”

This is a much bigger effect than I would have expected. It’s a strong study design. There was no diff in body weight, this was not an obesity effect.

Scraping wars are new spam wars.

https://www.wired.com/story/cloudflare-blocks-ai-crawlers-default/

ICYMI – we lost the spam wars. This is about giving publishers more leverage in their negotiations with the answer engines.

“Cloudflare’s shift to blocking by default could prove a significant roadblock to surreptitious scrapers and could give publishers more leverage to negotiate, whether through the Pay Per Crawl program or otherwise.”

“using the gimmick of ignoring the tax extensions by saying they are simply a continuation of policies already in place, the Senate claims the bill will cost $442 billion”

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-28-2025

OTOH everybody knew the GOP was lying when they set a sunset date. If they won the cuts would be extended.

OTOH they lied then and they are now lying about the rules.

OTOH nobody sane trusts the GOP.

“With Barr publicly opposing his renegade colleagues, the leadup to the next FOMC meeting, July 30- 31, seems like a standoff from Gunsmoke.”

https://www.twincities.com/2025/06/29/real-world-economics-fed-up-delusions-about-the-central-bank-continue/

Details of the Fed you never see elsewhere.

“by last month, the money supply was 42% greater than it was pre-COVID while real output is not even 14% greater.”

Exotic gut bacteria implicated in MS transmit disease in a mouse model.

https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-think-they-found-two-key-bacteria-that-cause-multiple-sclerosis/

“In animals that received bacteria from the sibling with multiple sclerosis, paralysis appeared within twelve weeks. Mice given microbes from the healthy twin stayed mobile the entire study.”

I did not expect this. More to come I am sure.