WHY IT’S STUPID TO blame “speculators” for high gas prices.

GO ARMADILLO at the touch of a button. “Located on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, ‘The Safe House’ by Katowice-based architectural office KWK Promes is a two-storey residential house that aims to provide a feeling of maximum security for the residents. True to its name, the most distinguishable element of the design is the moveable exterior wall components that allow the house to be completely closed to its environment or open and connected to the rural landscape.”

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “So, is this the house in which to ride out the pending zombie apocalypse?” Looks perfect!

YOU’LL SEE MORE OF THIS: Tea party gets involved in local school board elections.

EDUCRAT FAIL: Education Department Admits Errors in Draft Version of 3-Year Default Rates. Shockingly, the “error” inflated the relative default rate of for-profit vs. non-profit schools.

UPDATE: Reader William A. Taylor says I’m wrong:

Calculating, the Department of “Education” overstated the default rate for-profit colleges by 11.6% (=2.6%/22.4%), the private non-profits by 13.4% and the publics by 11.3%. If anything, the initial publication of these bogus statistics are an indictment of incompetence on the part of the DoEd rather than a bias against for-profits. I make this claim because the errors are similar across all higher-education-delivery paradigms. In fact, I think your comment is factually incorrect. “Relatively” (your term), the error inflation was worse for the privates.

I think he’s right.

LARRY SABATO looks at the electoral map.

CATHY YOUNG: Duke accuser’s murder arrest shows domestic violence isn’t one-way.

The tragic latest chapter in Mangum’s story has two particularly ironic aspects. First, this reminder of the Duke rape hoax comes just as the Obama administration is leading a push for a more aggressive pursuit of sexual assault charges on college campuses, including policy changes that would strip important protections from the accused. . . .

No less striking, while the Duke case sparked intense debates on feminism and rape, the new charges against Mangum spotlight another major feminist controversy: gender and domestic violence. While advocates often portray domestic abuse as a male “war against women” — an assumption reflected in the federal Violence Against Women Act championed by now-Vice President Joe Biden in the 1990s — many such assaults have female perpetrators and male victims. In particular, FBI statistics from recent years show that about 20 percent of victims of murder by spouses or partners are male.

Many feminists claim that women regarded as domestic abusers are usually victims fighting back (a claim some of Mangum’s supporters are already making). Yet the handling of Mangum’s previous domestic violence case lends more credence to the assertions of men’s rights activists that domestic assaults by women tend to be treated with extra leniency.

Read the whole thing.

SMARTPHONE POLICE SEARCHES NOT SO SMART: I’ve got a piece in Popular Mechanics.

11 PRICES that will rise along with your gas.

THE BOTNETS THAT won’t die.

FASTER, PLEASE: Researchers identify genes causing antimalarial drug resistance.

“I SAID, ‘You talkin’ to me?'”

HONDA CIVIC HYBRID scores 44 mpg across the board. “It’s not 50 miles per gallon (rest, easy Prius) but the mpg numbers for the 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid impress us nonetheless: 44/44/44. That’s city/highway/combined, and it’s a nice jump – especially in the city – from the 40/43/41 numbers sported by the 2011 model.” Hmm.

SO LET’S MELT IT: Atmosphere’s worth of dry ice found at Mars south pole.

MISSISSIPPI: NAACP Official Convicted Of Voter Fraud. “In Tunica, Mississippi, ten guilty verdicts of voter fraud were returned yesterday against NAACP officer Lessadolla Sowers. She was sentenced to five years for each count without the possibility of parole and will serve the terms concurrently. Sowers manipulated the absentee ballot process in the 2007 election. Absentee ballots in Mississippi are notoriously subject to voter fraud.” Wait — I thought voter fraud was just a myth. . . .

SLATE: If the Ryan budget is so unpopular, where are the town-hall meltdowns?

IN THE MAIL: Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power.

HEY, THIS SOUNDS KINDA FAMILIAR: Oregon House votes to limit legislators from sliding into higher-paid state jobs. Not really the same thing as my 50% surtax on post-government income for federal officials, but animated by a similar principle.

NOW THAT THE ELECTIONS ARE CONTESTED, IT’S “POLITICIZED:” “A handful of conservative candidates are challenging a relatively apolitical group of incumbents for control of a rural Montana community college’s board of trustees, politicizing what is typically a sleepy and often uncontested spring election for the body. Among other stances, the challengers hold that the college relies far too much on federal funding — one has gone as far as to argue that Pell Grants are unconstitutional — and that the college’s faculty and staff should not have the right to collectively bargain for their salary or benefits.”

Politicized or not, I think you’ll see more of this, and not just at community colleges. Note the outraged sense of entitlement in response.

MORE ON VIBRATORS, from Eugene Volokh. I linked to the old version of this last night, but he’s reposted it so that there are comments.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Could Brazil Still Go Off The Rails?

PRICELESS: What Is the Cost of a Law Review Article by a Top Prof? Estimate Is $100K. “Neumann’s estimate assumes the professor spends up to 50 percent of his or her time on scholarship and writes one article a year. The figure is based on salary, benefits, possible research grants, and the cost of research assistants.” There’s also the cost of the student time editing them. Students aren’t paid, of course, but the time they spend on law-review work isn’t actually free. More here.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

BLOGGINGHEADS TV: The “New Civility” As Asymmetrical Warfare.

OF COURSE NOT. ACCOUNTABILITY, LIKE TAXES, IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: SEC can’t be held liable to Madoff victims for its gross incompetence.

MY LINK YESTERDAY to Steven Pressfield’s Do The Work got this enthusiastic endorsement from reader Cheryl Drury:

Thanks for the recommendation. Just read it over my 2nd cup of coffee (yes, the whole thing). I am at the start of a rather daunting project, finding so many reasons to postpone it. I’m ready now.

This book is the best possible use of anyone’s lunch hour. Download it (for free), get a sandwich and find a quiet spot to read. Then…DO THE WORK.

Thanks, as always.

Note that there’s a free Kindle version at the link.