IT’S ALL ABOUT EVOLUTION: Chimps and orangutans may experience midlife crises, say scientists. “Radical and often ill-advised changes in lifestyle have become the calling cards of the midlife crisis, but if it is more than a myth, then humans may not be the only animals to experience it. Now an international team of scientists claims to have found evidence for a slump in wellbeing among middle-aged chimpanzees and orangutans. The lull in happiness in the middle years, they say, is the great ape equivalent of the midlife crisis.”

I think a midlife crisis is designed to kick you into breeding again before it’s too late. That may not be what you think is going on, but . . . .

ARE NUTS AND SEEDS really healthy?

PROF. JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The subtlety of media myths: A ‘New Yorker’ brief and the napalm-attack myth.

The myth the New Yorker insinuates is especially pernicious: It suggests U.S. forces dropped the napalm that wounded and terrified a group of Vietnamese children — a moment captured by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut in one of the most memorable images of the Vietnam War.

In a brief retrospective review of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film, The Birds, the New Yorker said a scene in that movie of “screaming schoolkids fleeing down a lonely road disturbingly presage[d] the iconic news image of Vietnamese children escaping from American napalm attacks.”

The reference to “iconic news image of Vietnamese children” running from “napalm attacks” points unmistakably to Ut’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, which was taken June 8, 1972, not far from the village of Trang Bang, in what was then South Vietnam. The centerpiece of Ut’s photograph shows a naked, 9-year-old girl screaming in pain and terror as she fled the attack.

The media myth associated with the image is that U.S. forces carried out the aerial napalm attack that terrorized and injured the children near Trang Bang.

But that interpretation — or, perhaps, the reflexive inclination to blame the American military — is in error: The napalm was dropped in a misdirected attack by the South Vietnamese Air Force, as news reports of the time made clear.

In the 40 years since, however, the erroneous interpretation has emerged not infrequently.

It fits the “America is always at fault” narrative that tickles the oikophobe’s heart.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS electronically embarrassing themselves.

ROGER SIMON ON BENGHAZI AND GAZA: “Has Benghazi helped Israel? It’s hard to calculate the amount, but it seems likely that the evolving Libyan scandal has been useful to Israel in its struggle with Hamas in Gaza. The embarrassing — even humiliating — mishandling and subsequent misnaming of the terror attack on the U.S. consulate/CIA installation has made the administration look quite ridiculous in its claim that al-Qaeda and similar Islamic extremist organizations were on the run. With four Americans dead in Benghazi, the reverse appears to be true. Sympathy for Islamofascists is not at a high point and, consequently, Barack Obama, not always Benjamin Netanyahu’s best friend, has been remarkably understanding.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Free Textbooks Spell Disruption for College Publishers. “Diaz, who still resents how much he’d paid for textbooks in college and graduate school, realized he’d hit on his next business idea. In 2011, he started Boundless Learning, a Boston company that has begun giving away free electronic textbooks covering college subjects like American history, anatomy and physiology, economics, and psychology. . . . On average, college students spend around $1,200 each year on books and supplies. Those costs, which sometimes exceed the tuition at a community college, are prompting a wider rebellion against commercial publishers.”

I use my own materials whenever possible, and am thinking about expanding that to other courses because I’m so appalled at what the texts cost, particularly in light of their often-mediocre quality.

BENGHAZI AND SMOKING GUNS: Then And Now. “By the way: are there any White House tapes? No one’s ever asked, although it would be an interesting question.”

PJTV: Israel vs. Hamas: Israeli Consul General David Siegel Gives His Take On The Violence.

SHINING LIGHT ON BULBS’ APPEAL: Former RPI professor leads crusade to show incandescent lights are superior to CFLs.

Renowned lighting designer Howard Brandston, a retired Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor and a founder of RPI’s Lighting Research Center, is leading a crusade to save the incandescent light bulb.

From his farmhouse in the Columbia County hamlet of Hollowville, Brandston is almost singlehandedly trying to preserve Thomas Edison’s iconic invention so it is not relegated to the dustbin of history.

Brandston calls it a misguided energy conservation effort by the federal government to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with compact fluorescent lamps, known as CFLs.

He said CFLs are far more expensive, their energy savings is insignificant and they pose potential health and environmental problems because they contain mercury, a toxic heavy metal.

Just another #Greenfail.

LAWS, LIKE TAXES, ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: So while the folks at the EPA are conspiring to keep illegal email accounts secret, the Democratic-controlled Senate wants to let the Feds read your email without even a warrant. “CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.”

Leahy often postures as a defender of privacy.

BIG BIRD WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: Second Accuser In Elmo Sex Scandal Was Also Underage; Kevin Clash Resigns.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Most Terrible Places To Have Sex.

TIM CAVANAUGH: Unions vs. Democratic Mayors: The longstanding love affair between Democrats and organized labor is on the rocks.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: The Flat Tax Solution.

I’LL BELIEVE IT’S A CRISIS WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO KEEP TELLING ME IT’S A CRISIS START ACTING LIKE IT’S A CRISIS: CIA climate-change unit closes its doors.

SUSAN ESTRICH: Excuse Me? What “Mandate To Raise Taxes?”

Within days of winning the election, President Obama announced that his victory gave him a mandate to raise taxes on the “rich.”

Come again? This was a two-and-a-half-point election. It reflected a painfully divided electorate. The only mandate I saw was to unite a divided country. . . . I did not vote for Obama because I think I am paying too little in taxes.

Obama needs to be very careful. Yes, he was re-elected. But so were all those folks who blocked the extension of the Bush tax cuts if they excluded individuals and small businesses who make enough money to qualify as rich — but not enough to send their kids to college, or help their aging parents, or buy a home in a decent neighborhood.

We need to avoid going over the fiscal cliff. But Obama must also avoid the political cliff.

One of the amazing things about this country is that the middle class doesn’t hate the rich. We are not a society divided by economic castes. Yes, there are real issues as the gap between the top and the middle, between CEOs and those in good but not great jobs, grows. But beginning a new term with what will look to many like a class war is not the way to fulfill the real mandate of this election, which is to bring us together, not turn us against each other.

Sorry, sister. Divide-and-demonize is all he knows. #Forward! to #Revenge!

GOOD FOR HIM: Rep. Darrell Issa Wants To Make It Clear That You’re Allowed To Rip Your DVDs. As I keep saying, Republicans could get a lot of mileage out of getting on the right side of the IP wars.

JUST RAN ACROSS THIS PIECE, which ties in with my general stuff on hardening systems against disaster: Why Cellphones Went Dead After Hurricane Sandy. Who needs regulation here? If cellphone companies don’t want to take reasonable steps to ensure reliability, then they should be liable to customers who suffer injury from failed service.

AT AMAZON, Black Friday deals in TV, Audio, & Video.

Also, today only: 50% Off On Select Melissa & Doug Toys.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Forget Secession, Try Federalism.

MICHAEL BARONE: Can Both Sides Compromise On The Fiscal Cliff?

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: What Is The EPA Covering Up With Those Clandestine Email Accounts? I suspect it’s political coordination — possibly illegal and certainly politically embarrassing — with lefty interest groups and journalists. But we can’t really know, as long as they keep the mails secret. All we can know is that they’ve calculated that if we did know what they’re hiding, it would be worse for them than our knowing that they’re hiding something.

YESTERDAY I CRITICIZED THE REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE for withdrawing its paper on intellectual property. That brought this email from the RSC’s Brian Straessle:

Hey Glenn, just responded to your Tweet but also wanted to email with a longer explanation of why that copyright Policy Brief was removed from our website.

On issues where there are several different perspectives among our members, our Policy Briefs should reflect that. This Policy Brief presented one view among conservatives on U.S. copyright law. Due to an oversight in our review process, it did not account for the full range of perspectives among our members. It was removed from the website to address that concern.

I know some want to point fingers elsewhere, but the simple fact is that we screwed up, we admitted it, and we hope people will now use this opportunity to engage in polite and serious discussion of copyright law.

Feel free to post in full.

Done! But I think that the rain-in-the-desert reaction to this paper should provide guidance on how things ought to go in the future.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Cumpton writes: “So now we’re supposed to engage in discussion about a policy brief that was taken down? Is a new policy brief going up I wonder?” I think the discussion he refers to is internal. But the paper is still available here.

THE HILL: Marco Rubio takes step along path to 2016. And the Dems, via their press auxiliary, are already trying to take him out. The GOP would be well-advised to start efforts to neutralize potential 2016 Dems, too — though Hillary and Biden, at least, seem to be neutralizing themselves.