Perhaps an early (bad) sign of what is to come:
Vinay Prasad, who helped lead a campaign against lifesaving mRNA vaccines at FDA, is being welcomed back to the University of California San Francisco, where he was prior to joining the Trump administration.
Isn't it great that I was live on television talking about poop and balloons started descending all around me? Thank you, Apple, for creating "Reactions" triggered by certain gestures that are still "on" even when I turned them "off" on my phone!
At least we were able to make fun of it!
I will be on CTV Montreal News around 6:20PM ET (in 30 minutes or so) to talk about this new study by NIST about gut microbiome kits.
So much money... all going down the toilet.
www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...
The podcasting-to-government-regulation-to-podcasting revolving door is something more people should criticize, I think.
Prasad said to leave again. Let's see how fast he comes back.
SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26
NO - 41%
YES - 38%
UNSURE - 21%
But these microbiome kits are just one more example of scienceploitation (h/t @caulfieldtim.bsky.social). People hear that research is being done, so they expect products, and companies are all too happy to sell them... even if the results are a crap shoot.
www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...
But perhaps the most fascinating part of the study is how the national measurement institute of the United States, NIST, spent *years* working on a "human fecal standard," one poop sample to rule them all and in the darkness... well....
Guys, there were "pilot" versions!
Those gut microbiome kits you pay good money for may as well be a ticket to see your local fortune teller.
Seven different companies; a standardized poop sample; and results that are all over the place.
My latest for @mcgilloss.bsky.social.
www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...
Is Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk trolling teleheath company Hims & Hers with a new video? A spokesperson from the company told me there was "no connection." Here's a clip from my new @statnews.com video
R.I.P. - Mass Market Paperbacks.
Not quite dead, and of course huge used market, but they are going extinct.
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
MONEY PLANE has truly turned out to be the prophetic movie of the century.
I see more media outlets covering this. I'm about to be interviewed for TVO about it.
I wrote this in early December and it's still fresh.
www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...
David Ellison has a beautiful, beautiful bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. Never used, very beautiful.
Some say it's the most bridge that perhaps we've ever seen....
variety.com/2026/tv/news...
Everyone who tried to draw around me and started drawing LOVED it at the beginning because of their QUICK IMPROVEMENT. Then quit when they hit The Wall™️.
But it's when you hit The Wall™️ that you NEED to push through with practice!! And you gotta do it for yourself, because it's ALWAYS worth it! 😤
My article this week will be about poop, and I invite you all to read it in the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
"Draft curriculum inspired by Casey & Calley Means"
😶
WOW. This is a masterclass in beginning with neutral, hand-holding education about renewable energy...
... and then unleashing a hurricane of righteousness.
WOW. Stay until the end. It's well worth the 90 minutes.
youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM?...
Sure. That's one example. But people seem to think that just because something is a peptide, that it'll work just as well as Ozempic.
Peptides are just a class of molecule. There's nothing magical about them.
Since my post is blowing up, this is what I wrote way back in November 2023. Little has changed.
www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...
If you’re wondering why “peptides yes but vaccines no,” it’s partly because a hallmark of conspiracy ideation is rejecting the mainstream and embracing whatever the alternative is.
Vaxx = mainstream = corrupt & bad
Peptides = fringe = secret & good.
If you look at the list of peptides, one of the peptides on that list (Melanotan II) is one where my husband treated someone in the ER who lost the ability to speak in words for half a day after injecting it.
It takes about an hour to unfurl a thousand maps.
They are "endocrinolologists," which you can become by paying US$ 2,000 to a mail-in university.
Those extra two letters make it so much easier.
Industrial sludge. It's all the rage in the future. Makes you see things.
You have to inject it straight into the heart, though.
Headline from someone's Substack from the year 2100 (because all newspapers are dead):
"Cornelius Ford at the heart of new mayoral scandal."
Because "Cornelius" makes a big comeback in a few decades.
We will grow genetically-modified maple trees in Florida, and Canadian flags will be planted at the top of every head on Mount Rushmore.
Then Canada can take over the United States. AT LAST.
Excerpt from the UATX newsletter. Photo of an anvil with sparks flying around it. "How to Think Like a Founder." UATX x Palantir. April 25, Austin, TX. Text reads: Palantir built the software the intelligence community used to hunt terrorists. Today they’re one of the most important defense and AI companies on the planet. On April 25, they’re on UATX’s campus for a day — and you get to work with them. The lineup: First, a UATX seminar on how the American Founders thought about ambition. A real debate on whether AI should make us optimistic or terrified. Then, a hands-on Palantir session on “The Art of Decomposition” — how their teams break impossible problems into solvable ones. A closing reception will be open to families.
Panopticon-deploying evil corporation comes to fake university campus to recruit doe-eyed students who think this is all about free speech.
It’s like when someone from McKinsey came to my campus, but way worse.
This is exactly the sort of photo that, if it hadn't been posted by WaPo, I would think,
"AI."
Sourcing will become even more important as we move forward.
