PROF. JACOBSON: Hey, at least Romney didn’t talk about the Palestinians the way Obama talked about the Pennsylvanians.

ANNALS OF THE ONE PERCENT: Obama Arrives in New York for $40K/plate Fundraiser; Rush Hour Expected To Be A Mess.

PERSONALLY, I BLOG: What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast.

POLIWOOD: Hollywood Legend, Frank Price, on How to Make and Market Great Films.

GUTSY CALL? Obama canceled Bin Laden ‘kill’ raid three times at aide Valerie Jarrett’s urging.

UPDATE: A couple of readers email that now they know why Obama thought it was “gutsy” — it involved standing up to Valerie Jarrett. . . .

ACTUALLY, I’M NOT SURE WE EVER REALLY HAD A RECOVERY: A Double-Dip By Election Day?

PUSSY RIOT: Female punk band goes on trial in Russia for Putin protest.

ROMNEY EXPECTED TO GET a very friendly reception in Poland. “The Republican presidential nominee has a strong ally in Lech Walesa, who personally asked Mr. Romney to visit Poland on July Fourth. Mr. Walesa — a stalwart of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, icon of the Solidarity movement and Nobel Prize winner — turned down a meeting with President Obama when he came to Poland more than a year ago, however. Mr. Obama also created a controversial stir last month after referring to ‘Polish death camps’ rather than “Nazi death camps,” a gaffe that prompted him to write a letter of apology to Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski. In the meantime, Mr. Walesa is not mincing words.”

EXPERTS: Cloud Computing Brings Vulnerabilities. Ya think?

HOW TO SURVIVE BEING THE NEW GUY AT WORK. First, remind yourself that in this economy, you’re lucky to have a new job. Or an old job. Or any kind of job . . . .

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is Algebra Necessary? Call me crazy, but I don’t think the problem with America’s public schools is that they’re teaching too much math. But I think there’s a desperate shortage of even competent math teachers. I never liked math until I started using it in science classes, not just studying it in (usually) badly taught math classes. To be fair, that’s not entirely inconsistent with the thrust of this piece.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Amen to this. This was me, too. (And I was good at math.) It’s the difference between learning a dead language and learning French through immersion in Paris. We NEED math to do science well and the data we scientists churn out now is so voluminous and complex that we need really good mathematicians to correctly interpret its significance.”

If only there were a way to learn math that was the equivalent of having a French girlfriend.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brian Erst writes: “Just make the coming generation of fembots user-programmable in a way that requires good math and logic skills. You will very quickly have a generation of mathematical and programming geniuses.”

MORE: A reader sends this suggestion, but I think the fembots would be far more effective.

Plus, thoughts from Clayton Cramer.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Long-Term Survival In The Coming Dark Age: Preparing to Live after Society Crumbles.

HOLY CRAP: India’s Power Grid Fails, Leaves 370 Million Without Electricity. “While the midsummer outage was unique in its reach – it hit 370 million people, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined – its impact was softened by Indians’ familiarity with almost daily blackouts of varying duration. Hospitals and major businesses have backup generators that seamlessly kick in during power cuts, and upscale homes are hooked to backup systems powered by truck batteries.” We’re not so well prepared in the United States.

Related thoughts here and here.

YOU’RE NOT AS LAZY AS YOU THINK: Hunter-gatherers, Westerners use same amount of energy, contrary to theory.

The research team behind the study, led by Herman Pontzer of Hunter College in New York City, along with David Raichlen of the University of Arizona and Brian M. Wood of Stanford measured daily energy expenditure (calories per day) among the Hadza, a population of traditional hunter-gatherers living in the open savannah of northern Tanzania. Despite spending their days trekking long distances to forage for wild plants and game, the Hadza burned no more calories each day than adults in the U.S. and Europe. The team ran several analyses accounting for the effects of body weight, body fat percentage, age, and gender. In all analyses, daily energy expenditure among the Hadza hunter-gatherers was indistinguishable from that of Westerners. The study was the first to measure energy expenditure in hunter-gatherers directly; previous studies had relied entirely on estimates.

These findings upend the long-held assumption that our hunter-gatherer ancestors expended more energy than modern populations, and challenge the view that obesity in Western populations results from decreased energy expenditure. Instead, the similarity in daily energy expenditure across a broad range of lifestyles suggests that habitual metabolic rates are relatively constant among human populations. This in turn supports the view that the current rise in obesity is due to increased food consumption, not decreased energy expenditure.

Hmm. I wonder what Gary Taubes would say.

SHOCKER: Casual sex more likely after consuming Red Bull and alcohol.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Hey, Dan Pfeiffer, How About Admitting That I Was Right And You Were Wrong About That Churchill Bust? “The Oval Office Churchill — the one in question, the one Pfeiffer says never left the White House — did leave the White House, was returned to the British government, and sits proudly at this very moment in the British ambassador’s residence. Was that little photographic switcheroo an honest mistake on ­Pfeiffer’s part? Or was it deliberate deception? I have no idea.”

The White House communications shop hasn’t been looking especially sharp lately.

SUSAN KUO AND BENJAMIN MEANS ON Corporate Social Responsibility And Disaster Response.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: London Didn’t Matter Much For Romney. Jerusalem Does. But It Isn’t About The Jews. “For many voters, the perception that President Obama is cool toward Israel strengthens their suspicion that he is somehow cool toward traditional American values and that he is skeptical of the US assuming some kind of transformational world role. Anti-Israel equals pro-Jeremiah Wright.”

JOEL KOTKIN: Let L.A. Be L.A. “They want to turn this into something like East Germany.”

ALL YOUR BREASTS ARE BELONG TO MIKEY: Mayor Bloomberg pushing NYC hospitals to hide baby formula so more new moms will breast-feed.

THE ENTIRE OBAMA PRESIDENCY in one anecdote.

WELL, ANYONE COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING: “Veggie” diet blamed for poor performance of China’s women volleyball team. Bacon is the breakfast of champions.

100 KINDLE BOOKS for $3.99 or less.

Also, today only: Philips Fidelio Docking Speaker for iPod and iPhone, $59.99.

ARE BOURGEOIS VALUES THE NEW SEXY? My column in today’s New York Post.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse has thoughts. And, from the comments: “If you don’t think there is shame implied these days in having traditional values, well you aren’t fit to be mayor of Boston, Chicago or even NYC that is for sure.”

Plus: “You didn’t build that welfare state. Somebody else did that.” But they expect you to pay.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Apparently, I was just reprising G.K. Chesterton. Reader Alan Bart sends this:

Related to your op ed:

“The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.”

by G. K. Chesterton A Defense of Humilities, The Defendant, 1901

Well, you can do a lot worse than reprising Chesterton.