The Delusions and Dangers of the New Mercantilism

Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Richard M Ebeling

“Tariffs and other trade barriers hampered the free flow of goods and services and investments across political boundary lines around the world after 1945. However, they almost seem mild and ‘enlightened’ compared to the current crop of protectionist weeds and their policy effects, particularly over the past year during Donald Trump’s second presidency. With autocratic caprice, arrogance, crudeness, and rudeness, Trump has assumed the powers of a near absolute monarch to decide when, why, and against whom he will arbitrarily raise and lower and raise again tariffs on the importation of goods into the United States from all the other countries on the planet.” (02/10/26)

https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/02/the-delusions-and-dangers-of-the-new-mercantilism/

Thomas L. Knapp

US FDA moves to ban food additive BHA

Source: NBC News

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday took steps toward banning BHA, a food additive used in processed foods such as meats and bread. BHA, or butylated hydroxyanisole, has been used in the food supply for decades. The FDA first listed it as ‘generally recognized as safe’ in 1958 and approved it as a food additive in 1961. It’s used to prevent fats and oils in food from spoiling and can show up in products such as frozen meals, breakfast cereals, cookies, ice cream and some meat products. The agency said it’s launching a new safety review of the chemical, pointing to long-standing concerns that the food additive might cause cancer in humans.” (02/10/26)

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-moves-ban-bha-additive-processed-meats-bread-cancer-rfk-jr-rcna258337

Thomas L. Knapp

NASA delays rocket launch to ISS over weather conditions

Source: France 24 [French state media]

“NASA is now aiming to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, in another delay over weather conditions, the US agency announced Tuesday. It is targeting February 13 for the lift-off of Crew-12’s mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a window opening at 5:15am local time (10:15am GMT). … Weather at the site in Florida has been in fact favourable, NASA officials told a briefing Monday, but higher winds forecast across the rest of the East Coast are to blame for the delays.” (02/10/26)

https://www.france24.com/en/science/20260210-nasa-delays-rocket-launch-iss-over-weather-conditions

Thomas L. Knapp

Can This AI Predict How You Will Die?

Source: Reason
by Ronald Bailey

“How high is your risk of developing pancreatic cancer or suffering a heart attack in the next 20 years? A new generative artificial intelligence system called Delphi-2M aims to answer that question and offer personalized forecasts of your long-term health trajectory. Developed by a team of European biomedical researchers and detailed in a September 2025 Nature article, Delphi-2M represents one of the most ambitious efforts yet to apply AI to predictive medicine. Large language models (LLMs) that power chatbots such as ChatGPT trained on massive amounts of text data to predict the next word in a sentence. Delphi-2M trained on a vast amount of medical data to predict the next stage in a person’s health.” (02/26)

https://reason.com/2026/02/10/does-ai-know-how-you-will-die/

Thomas L. Knapp

Lutnick admits Epstein island lunch as pressure mounts to resign

Source: France 24 [French state media]

“Facing growing calls for his resignation, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted Tuesday to having lunch on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in 2012, but strenuously denied any closer relationship with the convicted sex offender. Lutnick’s ties to Epstein have come under intense scrutiny after email exchanges included in newly released files undermined his earlier insistence that he had cut all links with the late financier back in 2005. So far, President Donald Trump’s administration has stood by Lutnick, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying the president ‘fully supports’ him.” (02/10/26)

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260210-us-commerce-secretary-admits-epstein-island-lunch

Thomas L. Knapp

Is There Any Good News Out There?

Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis

“Yes, there is. You might have to look hard to find it, but it’s there. Actually, the best news is right before our eyes, but most people refuse to look at it. I confess, as I have before, to being a bit of a cynic (no, a lot of a cynic, not terribly optimistic). That may partly come from the clinical depression I fight every day of my life, but it also comes from history, Bible study, and current events. How can a person not be somewhat of a cynic when viewing the modern, evil, putrid Democratic Party? I look at the NFL now and want to barf; I used to be a devoted fan of the league, but then they left me with their woke, racist, anti-American, promiscuous-promoting pig slop, and I haven’t watched an NFL game in years (or MLB or NBA, either).” (02/10/25)

https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/02/10/is-there-any-good-news-out-there-n2670989

Steve Trinward

“Royal Society” of Bay Area tech CEOs, Epstein planned to gather in Napa

Source: SFGate

“In the summer of 2010, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and some of the most powerful tech executives in the world were invited to gather in the rolling hills of Napa as part of an exclusive retreat that discussed proteomics, a niche scientific field adjacent to the study of genetics. The event, which was scheduled to take place in St. Helena, was called ‘EDGE Master Break’ and hosted by John Brockman, a prominent science writer who established an esoteric nonprofit called Edge.org. Danny Hillis, an entrepreneur, was scheduled to appear that year, along with author Stewart Brand. The invitees included Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Sergey Brin and several other high-profile guests, documents released by the Justice Department as part of the Epstein files show. Though it’s not clear whether Epstein attended the 2010 event, he did end up meeting with some of its invitees eventually …” (02/10/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/epstein-napa-tech-ceos-21343280.php

Thomas L. Knapp