Barry Jordan

@rorysutherland was it Hayek? It bet it was Hayek!

I was once at Dublin airport and noticed someone struggling with the screen on the self-tagging machine at check-in. I won't name him, but he held a Nobel Prize in Economics. BA rolled back on this daft idea at LHR. At some point, when you arrive at an airport, you want a human being to say "Right, you're good to go."

I didn't know Helen of Troy could generate so much conflict.

@bryan_johnson "Before this experiment, I did over 200 sauna sessions at 200°F for 20 min." This is everything. You adapted. Your body adapted to the sauna heat. It's irresponsible to present this information for others to pursue without that context. Could actually kill people.

Most people might miss the biggest benefit of sauna You need to get really really hot… Your core body temperature needs to hit 102.4°F (39°C). For reference, a fever is anything above 100.4°F (38°C) So I swallowed a temperature monitoring pill. It goes through your digestive tract and precisely measures your internal temperature every 30 seconds. When your core body temperature hits the goal of 102°F, your body releases these proteins (heat shock proteins - HSPs) that clean up your body’s debris. I was curious what time my body hits this goal because up until now, I’ve been doing 20 mins of 200°F dry sauna. … it turns out it takes 31 minutes It feels like you’re dying. I didn't expert such pain and panic. Before this experiment, I did over 200 sauna sessions at 200°F for 20 min. This means I likely never achieved the heat shock protein (HSP) threshold at 102.4°F (39°C), which deprived me of so much sauna-health goodness. If your sauna doesn’t heat up to temperatures allowing your core temperature to reach 102.4°F (39°C) or you struggle to tolerate heat, do not be discouraged. The dry sessions I did at 200°F (93°C) for 20 min still showed incredibly health benefits. My previous 20 min sessions still showed: 1) 10+ yr reduction of my vascular age 2) 87% reduction of microplastics 3) detox of environmental toxins 4) fertility marker improvement Will report back once I have results on this new protocol…

@Rainmaker1973 Replication crisis bait

The Batman effect. A female experimenter, appearing pregnant, boarded the train. In the experimental condition, an additional experimenter dressed as Batman entered from another door. Passengers were significantly more likely to offer their seat when Batman was present (67.21% vs. 37.66%). [Francesco Pagnini et al.,"Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect", Nature, 2025]

@bryan_johnson How often do you cry? Cry tears of joy everyday for a week and report back.

I started milking my eyelids. Here's the situation. My eyes have been dry/irritated/red for the past year or so. I started using eye drops to moisten and it didn't make a difference. So I went to see an eye doctor. The source of the problem is that my meibomian glands, the tiny oil glands lining the eyelids, were clogged up. Without the meibum they secrete, the tear film on my eye evaporates in seconds which is bad for eye health. We're not sure of the cause of the dysregulation. We have few theories that we're looking into. Taking a closer look with infrared meibography, the imagery showed that my meibomian glands were congested, distorted, and partially dropped out. This is bad news because atrophied glands don't regrow! It's situations like this that makes me wonder why we do not have a better operating manual for the human body. How could I have prevented this from happening and why didn't I catch this sooner!? I did additional tests to assess the damage and my situation now. The Schirmer test (paper strip measuring tear wetting over 5 minutes) came back at 6 and 6.5 mm. A borderline reading consistent with mild dry eye. A healthy reading is typically 15 mm or above. Here's what I'm doing now to try and nurture my remaining glands back to good health: 1) Forma RF, Radiofrequency (microwave) heat applied from outside the lid, melting the obstruction. 2) LipiFlow, a device that sandwiches each eyelid: heat from the inside, pulsed pressure from the outside, squeezing the obstruction out. 12 minutes, both eyes. 3) Both capped at 41°C, not the standard 42°C, to spare eyelid collagen and elastin. No thinning skin, no premature sagging. 4) IPL around the eyes that shut down the abnormal blood vessels feeding chronic lid inflammation, the engine of MGD. 5) Manual gland milking, the doctor squeezes the lid margin between two instruments, forcing the plugs out. Hard, pasty secretions came out initially. The second and third mechanical milking the glands are returning to a normal, expected oily state. 6) Daily upkeep includes warm compresses, lid hygiene, omega-3 to keep secretions thin and glands moving. My next check in is 3 weeks form now. My doctor mentioned that meibomian gland dysfunction in her patients has increased since Covid, likely driven by the rise in screen time. When staring at screens for long stretches, people blink less frequently and less completely. Normal blink rate is roughly 15-20 times per minute but drops significantly during screen use. Incomplete blinks mean the meibomian glands don't get fully expressed, which over time contributes to gland dysfunction and evaporative dry eye. It's worth you getting checked for this and a good practice generally to make sure your eyes are in good health.

@bryan_johnson Were there more people in the study or authors of the study?

Surprising new findings about coffee: you are drinking coffee for the gut bugs that run your brain. > coffee affects the gut which then affects your brain > it's the coffee bean, not the caffeine, doing most of the work > polyphenols feed gut microbes, microbes send chemical messages, brain responds > both coffees lowered inflammation, caffeine drove it further down (IL6, IL10) > decaf raised systemic inflammation markers (hs-CRP, TNF-alpha) > decaf uniquely fed the protective gut microbes > caffeine blocked those gains by pushing food through too fast for the Clostridia bacteria to finish their work > at baseline, coffee drinkers sat in the bottom 25 to 30 percent for protective gut metabolites compared to non-drinkers > coffee lifted mood, cut depression and stress > caffeine specifically lowered anxiety. > the stress hormone story people tell about coffee does not hold up, cortisol did not budge Study details: 62 people, 14-day coffee washout, then 21 days randomized double-blind to caffeinated or decaf. They measured gut bacteria, stool and urine chemistry, cognition, mood, blood inflammation, and cortisol. What to do Caffeinated in the morning for focus and lower anxiety. Decaf in the evening for memory and gut. One cup 6 hours before bed still acts like half a cup at bedtime. Less is better than more either way. The takeaway You are drinking coffee for the bugs that run your brain.

I think a major first step to improving healthcare is eliminating provider networks. Make them illegal so that your insurance company pays whoever you get your care from as long as it’s at their negotiated rate or lower. Make it so every provider in good standing is in network. I don’t know why the @ahahospitals doesn’t create a network with all their members and offer a template for direct contracting by employers, allowing them to use all member hospitals. It would increase profits by hospitals and reduce costs for employers and patients.

Treatment for mental health disorders should focus on stabilizing blood sugar through more protein, less sugar, and more movement after eating meals. We have to improve our metabolic health to have mental wellness.

The people of Moldova have spoken: our EU future will now be anchored in the constitution. We fought fairly in an unfair fight—and we won. But the fight isn’t over. We will keep pushing for peace, prosperity, and the freedom to build our own future.

One part of German I've struggled with is whether to address people with Sie or Du. Germans have internalised it to such an extent they're awful at explaining when to use them. Luckily, I found this, but how simple can grammar be when it needs a flowchart to explain?

RIP Steve Albini—an unparalleled producer and an exceptional writer. His 1993 essay 'The Problem with Music' is the most clear-eyed examination of money in the arts that I have ever read. Every artist in every discipline should read it. thebaffler.com/salvos/the-pro…

At the weekend, ordinary Germans came out in their hundreds of thousands to protest the extreme right & the AfD. Now companies are doing the same, with this advert from supermarket EDEKA showing consumers what AfD policies & lack of diversity really mean for Germany. #Vielfalt

They stole something for you. For decades, they stole it. That thing they stole? Your entire culture. For all of human history, works created in living memory entered the public domain every year. 40 years ago, that stopped. 1/

@OptimoPrincipi "Be sure to drink your ovaltine"

A tidal wave of new primary sources from the ancient world could very soon be on its way - enough to keep scholars busy for decades! The first words have being read from digitally ‘unrolled’ carbonised scrolls from a Roman library in Herculaneum! (Image: Nat Friedman)

Unsolicited Journalism Advice #1: Always bury your lede. It will give your editor something to do and keep his paws off the rest of your story.

It's not that cyclists have no regard for traffic laws, it's that traffic laws have no regard for cyclists.

When Neil took this pic of me it was very spontaneous. He said "stop right there" & I turned. You can see the motion of the strap #Apollo11

President Clinton at the George W. Bush Library tonight.

Because these hard-working & grateful immigrants, & their kids, have often contributed more to America than the heirs of old & tired elites. twitter.com/tuckercarlson/…

One of the best things about dancing at a club in Berlin is not one person has their phone out! If they got rid of cigarettes = pure heaven