NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED, thanks to Flickr.

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TURKEY SCIENCE BEGAN WITH THE MAYA: “A new University of Florida study shows the turkey, one of the most widely consumed birds worldwide, was domesticated more than 1,000 years earlier than previously believed. Researchers say discovery of the bones from an ancient Mayan archaeological site in Guatemala provides evidence of domestication, usually a significant mark of civilization, and the earliest evidence of the Mexican turkey in the Maya world.”

OLD GREEN: CLEAN ENERGY. New Green: No Energy. “For years, the green argument was something like this: If only we can replace fossil fuels with cleaner, renewable energy sources, we can enjoy our current standard of living without endangering the environment. Now it appears some greens have advanced the argument to a brand new phase: It’s as if they’ve replaced a green energy policy with a no-energy policy. Good luck with that.”

I’m beginning to think they just don’t like people.

ANIMAL FARM, the full-length 1954 animated movie.

READER BOOK PLUG: Reader Patrick Wayland asks me to plug his novel, The Jade Lady, a mystery with a hunt for World War Two treasure set in Asia. Done!

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Want To Live Longer? Eat Less, Have More Sex.

SEXISM ON MSNBC: MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell demeans women, parrots Axelrod: ‘Ryan is not a pick for moms, women.’ Funny, because I seem to see a lot of women in those pictures of the incredibly long lines at Romney-Ryan rallies. . . .

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: My Husband Won’t Move In With Me.

RUTH WEDGWOOD: Ban Ki-Moon Is About To Break The Boycott of Iran. “Maybe the secretary general hopes to show that he is not constrained by the foreign-policy preferences of the Western democracies.”

ENTHUSIASM: Reader Tim Ellis emails from outside the Romney-Ryan rally in High Point, North Carolina: “I am in line at the High Point NC rally, I can’t possibly begin to tell you how many people are here. The line is winding around buildings at least 3 blocks. People are still flowing in too (into line, not the building), we drove 200 miles and may not get in. That will be fine though just to see this level of support.”

Related: This is what 2012 looks like — lines around the block at Romney-Ryan rally in High Point, NC. “Let this be a lesson for The Eeyores Among Us.”

CYNTHIA YOCKEY COULD USE SOME HELP. I donated.

BOYCOTTING THE BOURGEOIS INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE, but demanding the bourgeois institution of wifely inheritance. Wait, you mean that “all property is theft” stuff only applies to other people’s property?

Gabrielsson and Larsson weren’t just a couple, but also a leftist action group. First they were Maoists and then Trotskyists, voicing their criticism of the Swedish welfare state from a leftist point of view. She was an architect, while he worked for a news agency. They managed to make ends meet, and had no children. Like many Swedes of their generation, they were anti-bourgeois.

In their social circle, while couples may have been monogamous, they didn’t marry. But under Swedish law, a member of an unmarried couple doesn’t inherit anything from his or her deceased partner, no matter how long the couple was together. Blood trumps love, unless a will exists, but Larsson hadn’t written one. For that reason, the rapidly growing proceeds from the sale of the books and the film rights went to two biological relatives, Larsson’s father Erland (his mother Vivianne is dead) and his younger brother Joakim. . . .

After Larsson’s death, when his novels suddenly became such a huge success, the widow who isn’t a widow under the law sat down with Erland and Joakim Larsson to discuss what should happen next. An agreement seemed possible. But then attorneys took over the case, and an inheritance war ensued — one in which the Stieg Larsson fan community has participated extensively.

Two camps have since formed in Sweden: the (primarily female) Eva camp, with its own website (www.supporteva.com), and the (primarily male) Larsson camp (www.moggliden.com).

Shocking, that division. Plus, this: “The inheritance dispute is being waged publicly. It culminated when Gabrielsson and Joakim Larsson went on Swedish television to explain their respective positions on the dispute. The widow, invoking a higher form of justice, said that the money had made the two Larssons greedy. Joakim Larsson defended his right to the inheritance and, in his modesty, came across as likeable.”

“A higher form of justice” translates as “give me the money regardless of the law.” “Greedy” means “you won’t give me what I want, just because it’s yours, not mine.”

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Boom-and-Zoom vs. Turn-and-Burn: “By picking Paul Ryan, Romney has decisively broken from Obama’s policy path. The selection of Ryan means Romney is no longer running as Obama-lite. He’s bet that the guys in no-man’s-land don’t want Government Cheese. They want a real job. They want a real future. They want to be citizens of the greatest country on earth again.”

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VIDEO: DNC Chair Doesn’t Know Political Affiliation Of Obama Endorsed Super PAC.

UPDATE: Moe Lane: “Debbie, Debbie, Debbie Wasserman Schultz: there are lies, and there are STUPID lies. You know who’s behind Priorities USA.”

#TSAFAIL: Stranded jet-skier saunters through JFK safeguards. “A stranded jet-skier seeking help effortlessly overcame the Port Authority’s $100 million, supposedly state-of-the-art security system at JFK Airport — walking undetected across two runways and into a terminal, The Post has learned. Motion sensors and closed-circuit cameras of the Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, or PIDS, were no match for Daniel Casillo, 31, of Howard Beach, who easily breached the system meant to safeguard against terrorists. . . . Dripping wet and in a bright-yellow life jacket, Casillo climbed the perimeter fence, which is eight feet high, and walked across that runway and intersecting Runway 31L — and made it all the way to Terminal 3 without anyone noticing.” He’s been charged with criminal trespass — no, really — while the officials involved should be charged with criminal negligence. But it’s doubtful that anyone will even lose their job over this.

UPDATE: Reader Brian Medcalf says I’m wrong to blame the TSA, which isn’t responsible for airport perimeter security. That’s a fair point, I suppose. But if the perimeter is this insecure, what’s the point of having the TSA gropefest at all?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Shane Nichols writes: “I disagree. Reader Brian Medcalf has missed the point, which is that the TSA is an incredibly expensive farce. The fact that a stranded jet skier was able to access the very assets that TSA is spending billions to protect (runways and terminals) makes that point even more difficult to refute. It may be that TSA is blameless for allowing the man to scale the fence undetected. But that would make it no less appropriate to criticize the TSA for wasting our time and money to play security theater at the front door of the airport, while utterly failing to account for the unguarded back door. Arresting the stranded jet skier is an adolescent attempt to divert blame and attention from TSA’s breathtaking incompetence.” Among others’.

MICHAEL BARONE: Romney-Ryan ticket puts entitlement crisis at center of campaign.

Romney’s choice was not much of a surprise after he told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Thursday that he wanted someone with “a vision for the country, that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country. I mean I happen to believe that this is a defining election for America, that we’re going to be voting for what kind of America we’re going to have.”

This arguably describes some of the others mentioned as possible nominees, but it clearly fits Paul Ryan.

He doesn’t fit some of the standard criteria for vice president. He hasn’t won a statewide election, held an executive position or become well known nationally or even in much of Wisconsin.

But more than anyone else, more even (as impolite as it is to say) than the putative presidential nominee, Ryan has set the course for the Republican party for the past three years both on policy and in politics. From his post as Chairman of the House Budget Committee, he has made himself not just a plausible but a formidable national nominee by advancing and arguing for major changes in entitlement policy.

He has argued consistently that entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid — are on an unsustainable trajectory. Left alone, they threaten to crowd out necessary government spending and throttle the private sector.

Few public policy experts, on the center-left as well as the right, disagree. But many politicians, certainly those in the Obama White House, shy away from confronting the entitlement crisis. Better to demagogue your way through one more election cycle and kick the can down the road.

That’s going to be harder to do, now. Plus this:

Ryan and Romney can make the point — lost in the shuffle when this is a low-visibility issue — that their plan leaves the current Medicare system in place for current recipients and those over 55. Those who have made plans based on the present program can continue to rely on it.

But they can also make the point that their reforms are necessary in order to make sure Medicare is sustainable in the long run. Polls show that many voters under 55 doubt that they’ll ever get the Medicare and Social Security benefits they’ve been promised.

One more thing about Ryan, I think, appealed to Romney. He has already shown he cannot be intimidated by the most eminent opponent. Watch the video of Ryan’s five-minute evisceration of Obamacare at the president’s Blair House meeting. You can tell that Obama didn’t like it one bit.

You know what will kill Medicare as we know it? Medicare as we know it. And he’s right about the intimidation bit. Compare to Tim Pawlenty’s failure at a crucial moment.

Also, Paul Ryan seems surprisingly popular among senior citizens. “Despite the attacks on Ryan over his budget plan, he’s easily the most liked of the short-listers among likely voters 65 years of age and over, with a 52/29 favorability rating. His ‘very favorable’ rating of 31% in the 65+ group is more than 10 points better than the other shortlisters in the Rasmussen survey (again, save Rice). Jindal did well, too, with a 44/28, as did Pawlenty with a 40/30 and Portman at 37/26, but Ryan’s draw among seniors outpaced all of them. Ryan has plenty of room to be defined in either direction with 35% of voters overall not having an opinion, but that’s only true of 20% of seniors — and Ryan already has a majority of them on his side.”

But then, a 2011 Gallup Poll showed that seniors liked Ryan’s budget plan better than Obama’s by a substantial margin.

UPDATE: Jennifer Rubin: 10 Ways Paul Ryan Annoys The Liberal Media. Only 10? Well, here’s one: “In choosing Ryan over less ideological figures Romney showed that he in fact cares about ideas, is determined to fix our fiscal problems and is devoted to free markets. Ryan in that sense validates Romney’s core beliefs.”

Meanwhile, the line to see Romney-Ryan this morning is over a half-mile long. More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Carlos Myers writes:

For once, we have someone who will be competent to be President of the Senate. What does this have to do with Ryan and the VP pick? That is because the VP is also the President of the Senate. So main job of the VP isn’t to be a “heartbeat away from the Presidency,” but to lead the Senate. The office of the President of the Senate has been largely maligned through US history, and its duties have been largely cooped by the Senate Majority Leader. So the question is, would Paul Ryan be the man that will insist in taking leadership in the Senate or will he, like every VPs before him, just sit back in the shadows so as to not rock the boat?

I had some related thoughts on the legislative role of the vice presidency here, in the New York Times, and at somewhat greater length here, in the Northwestern University Law Review.

MORE: Social media pushback: Running scared: Obama frantically tweets ‘FACTS’ about Ryan; citizens respond with truth. “Oh, dear. President Obama’s Twitter feed is a hot mess of scared.”

STILL MORE: Romney-Ryan event packed — here’s a pic of the overflow crowd from Sister Toldjah.

Plus, GayPatriot tweets on the lack of counterprotesters: “There were a total of six Obama supporters on the mile road into the complex. It was sad.”

LIFE IN BLOOMBERG’S NEW YORK: Bronx pol’s secret Facebook page with staffer boytoy.

She’s a real swing voter.

To constituents, she’s Naomi D. Rivera, a mild-mannered, bespectacled Bronx assemblywoman whose social-media page is dotted with her accomplishments, thoughtful sayings and the latest neighborhood news.

But on another, secret Facebook page, she’s Daniela Rivera, a sultry single 47-year-old who shows off her curves, her dance moves and, in one photo accessible to the public, the top of her lacy red bra.

But more than anything, the lawmaker’s Internet alter-ego is devoted to Tommy Torres, a fellow Democrat eight years her junior whom she has been dating for at least two years — and whom she put on her government payroll.

But of course. Plus: “After Post inquiries, she took down the Daniela page. Rivera’s father is former Bronx Democratic Party boss and Assemblyman José Rivera, who in 2008 lost control of the borough machine amid charges of nepotism. Her brother is Joel Rivera, a city councilman.”

FROM HOPE AND CHANGE TO RACISM AND IGNORANCE: Congresswoman Donna Christensen: ‘Are there black people in Virginia?’

ETHANOL VS. THE WORLD: The corn fuel mandate is raising food prices and hurting the poor.

In 2007 and 2008, food prices spiked, resulting in much higher U.S. grocery bills and far more hunger in the poorest countries as the global supply chain buckled. The world may now be on the cusp of a 2012 reprise amid the drought in the Midwest farm belt, the worst in 50 years. Luckily, there are plenty of simple, modest things Washington can do to alleviate and even prevent another crisis.

The problem is that these fixes are opposed by a minor industry that adds little if any value to the economy, even counting its prodigious Beltway operations. Yup, the ethanol lobby strikes again. It can’t succeed without a mandate that forces consumers to buy its product every time they fill up the tank, and if the resulting corn shortages drive food prices up in a way that punishes consumers around the world, so be it.

They’re politically well-connected.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Galloping To Insolvency.

The spiraling rise of component costs in higher education are helping to inflate the higher-education bubble. One of the reasons those costs are out of control is that colleges and universities see no merit in keeping track of some of the larger ones. You cannot exercise fiscal discipline if you have no idea what you’re spending. Higher education has at least two major cost drivers that it hides from rational oversight: diversity and sustainability. . . .

Of course, diversity and sustainability have real costs, even if they aren’t properly counted or disclosed, and such ideas can and should be subject to critical scrutiny. I’ve been doing my part in developing critiques of both movements. The dysfunctions in higher education’s financial model seem likely to make these matters more urgent. The “common good,” as my correspondent phrases it, isn’t achieved by pretending that we can ignore costs and bypass reason. Ostriches may achieve a certain moral clarity but we would do better from a higher vantage point.

When I see a school bragging about its “sustainability” efforts, I take that as an indicator that it’s on an unsustainable financial path. And I wrote at some length about university administrations’ efforts to expand diversity bureaucracies even as they cut teaching faculty.

PROFILES IN DECLINE: Comparison of 2010 and 2011 Enrollment and Profile Data Among Law Schools.

MESSAGE TO WOMEN: You Must Hate Paul Ryan.