LEARNING MANDARIN from sexy glamour models.

IN PRAISE OF WOODEN SPOONS. “They’re practical. They have a rich cultural history. And they last forever.”

IN PARIS, Gastronomic Flash Mobs.

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals in sporting goods.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Encouraging professors to retire.

Plus, when university presses shut down.

SHOCKER: Gun ownership up, crime down: FBI violent-crime rates show safer nation with more gun owners.

NEW INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER’S WATCHDOG SITE.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Is The U.S. Economy Losing Jobs Again? “The weakness in this report, particularly in the job openings figure, serves as a reminder that the labor market remains far from healthy.”

CHANGE: Monoclonal Antibody Treatment Shows Promise for Curing Ebola.

REPORT: Secret Service agents partied like rock stars on Obamas’ Vineyard Vacation. “Local residents say wild parties, fights and late-night carousing involving Secret Service members have become commonplace in recent years at the Vineyard, a favorite getaway for the First Family and longtime destination for upper-crust members of the Northeastern political, media and business establishment.” Plus lost badges, and security breaches.

JAMES POULOS: Obama, Interrupted.

THOUGHTS ON INFORMATION AND THE FIRM: “Big data, Mr Evans believes, has the potential to transform corporate strategy from prizing vertical integration (ie, owning parts of the value chain) to a horizontal approach, in which companies need to work more with outside firms.” Do tell.

WISCONSIN HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM: “Competency, not seat time.”

Hmm. What could be going on?

TENDING THE BODY’S MICROBIAL GARDEN.

ANOTHER BOOK PLUG: James Lileks’ novel, Falling Up The Stairs, is on Kindle and it’s free for Amazon Prime subscribers. Lileks emails:

Last year I decided to write a series of mystery novels, price them cheap, and put them on the Kindle. Oh, I could go the traditional route, and wait six months for some underpaid reader in a Manhattan publishing house to get around to it, sniff at its deficiencies, lament its worldview, stamp PASS on the envelope – or pay a pittance, dump it in the market, and consider “mailing an uncorrected proof” to a newspaper reviewer to constitute “marketing and publicity.” I work at a paper, and I see the number of books that come in every day. We have a special room to hold the ones that will never be cracked.

So, no. I wrote three novels over a year and a half, and the first is ready to go next month. I’ll write two more next year to complete the story.

Thanks to a link you posted a while back, I learned about a promotional technique that seemed daft: give the book away for free for a while. I give enough away for free as it is, but since I have an old book spiffed up and Kindlized, why not? My first novel, “Falling Up the Stairs,” is now available gratis for Amazon Prime customers. It was written in 1986, so it contains absolutely no gripping sequences of people bent over computers, advancing the plot with dramatic typing.

How do you advance the plot without dramatic typing?

UPDATE: Note that you have to be a Prime member, and “borrow” (rather than buy) the book to get it free. Otherwise it’s all of $2.99.

SO I SAW THIS POST ABOUT THE IMMUNE SYSTEM REMOVING BETA-AMYLOID PLAQUE FROM BRAINS, and I thought, “Vitamin D boosts the immune system, I wonder if that might help?” Then I remembered posting this link on how Vitamin D helps remove amyloid plaque. So I guess I don’t have Alzheimer’s yet, anyway.

OUT: ROAD RAGE. In: Charger rage? In very select locales, maybe.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: Psychology vs. Public Policy. “Why do moral intuitions break down in complex social institutions?”

MORE ON MSNBC: MSNBC takes Romney’s “WaWa” remark out of context for the purpose of mockery.

Shame on Andrea Mitchell and Chris Cillizza for their clown work in this travesty of journalism.

You’ve got to watch the clip, knowing how completely out of context it is. Look at the bullshit blank disbelief mugging they do for the camera. How embarrassing!

Well, it is MSNBC. “How embarrassing” is a better slogan for them than “lean forward.”

NEVER TRUST A HAPPY SONG: Fresh Violence in Nigeria Contradicts MSM’s Sunny Africa Spin. “It is the duty of news organizations to report the actual news, not to fluff up the feel-good narratives they wish would come true. The MSM needs to temper its PC instincts to focus on the ‘good news’ in Africa and report the ugly but vital facts about such real if regrettable stories as the ominous rise in Muslim-Christian tensions.”

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: How and Why Law Schools Take From the 99% to Give to the 1%. Ironic, given the political tilt of most law faculties. Or maybe not. . . .

MICKEY KAUS: The maddening details of Obama’s DREAM Decree are becoming clearer.

DAVID MARANISS’S OBAMA BIO IS NOW OUT. You can read it for yourself and not just rely on media excerpts. Though those have been interesting.

SMART DIPLOMACY: Chewing gum the whole time.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “I assume he was sitting and not walking.”