People are concerned about cranberries again this November, but it isn't a new phenomenon.

Cranberries were actually the first modern chemophobia scare, when anti-science activists got government to first do what they have since done to weedkillers, trans fats, ultraprocessed foods, BPA, you name it - terrify the public about a product using bad epidemiology despite there being no science basis for it.(1)

At the upcoming American Heart Association meeting, participants will learn of the epidemiological results of 63,656 military veterans with Type 2 diabetes in the Million Veteran Program who took GLP-1 receptor agonists (semaglutide - "Wegovy", dulaglutide - "Trulicity", etc.). The survey analysis found that those who also changed their lifestyle habits had a 50% lower risk of serious cardiovascular events(1) compared to those who didn't report a healthier lifestyle and received diabetes care without GLP-1 RA medication.

America uses less energy per capita than we did in World War II, and even World War I. Thanks to natural gas, we provide energy in most states at an affordable cost.(1) With the help of a new data set that shows where air conditioning is used, it will be even easier to know where things can be improved.

In France, you have to get permission from both the government and your neighbors to put in air conditioning. You will also want to be wealthy because it is more profitable to sell it to the rest of Europe than domestically.(2) America has far more equity, about 90% of people have air conditioning but the new AC Map shows that not all of it is optimal. Portable units in a humid area are not very effective, for example.

When I wrote Halloween Science 2.0, I wanted to get it down to a brisk 150 pages, which means taking a chainsaw to a lot of the material I had.(1)

Like the woman who left her corporeal significant other to become a ghost groupie. Amethyst Realm, that is not her Dungeons&Dragons name, she calls herself that for real, cheated on her totally organic fiancé with a ghost but she suggested it was kind of his fault. He moved them into a haunted house.

There is legitimate concern about increased social authoritarianism in governments worldwide. The state has gained more financial control everywhere. Even in the U.S nearly 60% of wealth is controlled by politicians, and it is the most "capitalist" country.

It led to a culture where the American federal government forced employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine or be fired. Yet 20,000,000 government employees were not given that same ultimatum.
The same mentality has led to countries where companies in the organ transplant business want you to be an organ donor by law. It would create another schism in U.S. culture, where body autonomy remains an issue. There can be no body autonomy if the government can force you to donate your organs.

In early 2018, colleagues and I released The Next Plague and How Science Will Stop It and coronavirus was in there, because there had already been two coronavirus pandemics, SARS and MERS, this century.

No one anticipated that SARS-CoV-2 would erupt in Wuhan, China, and be the worst pandemic since the 1950s but one thing I had long been concerned about was how unprepared the CDC was. Thanks to government becoming more overlords and less public servants - sorry, George Soros and friends, 'no kings' was a problem decades before President Trump was elected - and government employees spent their days grasping for more money rather than helping anyone.(1)