ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How Did Stainless-Steel Appliances Get So Popular?

PETER BERKOWITZ: Sex Smears And The Rule of Law at Yale. More of the former than the latter, alas. “If Yale and other institutions across the country were fulfilling their promise to educate students, then their faculties would teach that riding roughshod over due process shows ignorance of or contempt for the rule of law. Professors would be teaching that the presumption of innocence is rooted in a commitment to treating individuals as ends in themselves and not as a means to advancing some social goal or another, even if that goal is given the name of equality or justice. And students would be learning that our established and legitimate justice system does not presume guilt, because to do so is to fail to appreciate the limits of human knowledge and the propensity of those who wield power to abuse it. The need to restore due process on campus—and in the directives of the federal government—is urgent.”

UPDATE: Reader John Lucas writes: “A red light violator facing a $50 fine gets more due process than a student at Yale (or most other universities) now.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Dave Ivers writes: “I’ve wondered what would happen if every male athlete at Yale looked around a classroom and noticed a young woman looking at them and than filed an ‘informal’ complaint. Under the Yale rules that ‘looking’ at well-built athletes could be a sexual crime. Since the athletes don’t know for sure, shouldn’t they file to protect themselves and then get victim status?”

IS THE SUSAN G. KOMEN FOUNDATION the Left’s latest Wisconsin?

Related: James Taranto: Big Sister Is Watching You: Totalitarian feminism and the smearing of Susan G. Komen. “In truth, Komen was under no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood. Its decision not to do so was not punitive and did not even appear to be. The episode is reminiscent of George Orwell far more than Joe McCarthy. Komen’s actual aim was to extricate itself from the divisive national battle over abortion by severing its connection with a leading combatant.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: As Obama Crows, Real Story Is 10.5 Mil Jobs Deficit.

Obama likes to blame his predecessor for this. And true enough, 4.4 million jobs disappeared during the 2007-08 panic. But after Obama took office, an additional 4.3 million jobs disappeared. So when Obama says “we’ve added 3.7 million new jobs,” he’s not giving you the full story.

We are still 5.6 million jobs below where we were at the peak in 2007. Add to that the 4.9 million new jobs that would have had to be created just to soak up new entrants into the workforce, and all told we have a jobs deficit of 10.5 million.

Read the whole thing.

WELL, WHY CHANGE NOW? “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he would not bring a budget to the floor for a vote this year, the Hill reports, which would make this the third straight year without such a resolution.”

SCIENCE: Study: Sex with Your Ex Can Be a Good Thing. “Researchers at the University of Arizona looked at post-breakup psychological adjustment and ongoing contact among 137 married adults who had recently separated. As you’d expect, people who accepted the breakup were generally better adjusted while those who still pined for it weren’t. But that’s not all: for those who didn’t accept the breakup, making a clean break (the advice everyone gives after a breakup) didn’t leave them any happier than trying to keep up a friendship. And if they stayed in touch with their exes, they were actually doing better if they kept having sex with their partner.”

So in your pre-nup, be sure to provide for post-separation sex. Which I think is the punchline from an old New Yorker cartoon.

ARTIST SPEAKS TRUTH TO POWER: Controversial Artist Depicts Obama Trampling The Constitution.

SPENGLER: Lessons About Iran From Hitler.

CLIMATE-CHANGE CHANGE: Global Warming Engine Unexpectedly Slows.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Blatant violations of international human rights where terrorists are concerned — only it’s Sweden, not the United States, that’s involved.”

AT AMAZON, 30% off on Kindle accessories.

Also, Spotlight Deals on Blu-Ray.

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: Monsanto lobbyist uses power as FDA food czar to target Amish.

ZEROHEDGE ON THE WARPATH: Implied Unemployment Rate Rises To 11.5%, Spread To Propaganda Number Surges To 30 Year High.

OBVIOUSLY RACIST: “White Parties” in Davos.

A DEVIOUS NOTION! Scott Walker supporters advocate writing in Scott Walker’s name in the primary that will determine who will be his recall opponent. “Wisconsin’s system of open primaries means voters do not have to share a political party’s affiliation to vote in its primary. So, there’s nothing to stop Republicans from voting in a Democratic recall primary — and from writing in Walker’s name.” Then Walker can run against himself!

IDENTICAL TWIN STUDIES reveal mechanisms behind aging. “In a recent study led by Uppsala University, the researchers compared the DNA of identical (monozygotic) twins of different age. They could show that structural modifications of the DNA, where large or small DNA segments change direction, are duplicated or completely lost are more common in older people. The results may in part explain why the immune system is impaired with age.”

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Grills & Smokers.

FROM GREGORY BENFORD, a space science fiction reading list.

HEY, WAIT — I READ MUTANT 59 AND THIS DOESN’T SOUND SO GREAT: Amazonian Rainforest Fungus Eats Polyurethane, Potentially Solving a Big Landfill Problem.

LIST: Favorite Classic Science Fiction.

UPDATE: Had the wrong link before. Fixed now. Sorry!

SOUNDS MORE LIKE STERILIZATION THAN MALE BIRTH CONTROL.

The procedure: a few zaps to the balls with a high-frequency ultrasound and POOF! His swimming friends who threaten your womb with gestation disappear! Well, that’s what happened to male rats in a recently published study. After each rat had two ball-zapping treatments, researchers found that the rat’s sperm count was zero and its sperm-making germ cells were eradicated. (Yay! I think?)

Scientists believe these same results may possibly translate to men, but the risks and full effects of the treatment are still unclear. I am definitely a little confused. After we detonate our partner’s sperm and sperm-producing cells, are we supposed to resurrect them at a later date with a please-friendly-sperm-come-back-to-life incantation if we decide to have babies together?

Like I say, if it works in humans at all it sounds more like a non-invasive replacement for vasectomy.

THE RACE TO BUILD A REAL STAR TREK TRICORDER. “The two groups announced this month that they are joining forces to launch the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, a $10 million competition to build a handheld, mobile device able to quickly diagnose a range of health problems and measure real-time information such as respiratory rate and blood pressure.”

EDUTOPIA: “Shop” Is Not a Four-Letter Word.

TOM FRIEDMAN WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: China’s Pollution Problem Is Visible From Space. “World Health Organisation guidelines suggest that PM2.5 levels above ten micrograms per cubic metre are unsafe. The boffins have found (as the map shows) that almost every Chinese province has levels above that. Indeed, much of the country’s population endures air so foul that it registers above 30 on the PM2.5 scale, with Shandong and Henan provinces topping 50. Because these readings reflect the average pollution that a typical resident in a province is likely to endure during a given year, they underplay the sharp spikes in pollution that are seen on particularly dirty days, when spot readings go much higher. That is why Beijingers should take little comfort from the fact that the capital’s pollution measures only 35.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: No Money Down!

With public university administrators continually arguing for tuition increases to counter state appropriations cuts, it seems far-fetched that their budget problems could be solved by eliminating student tuition and fees altogether.

But that’s the idea put forth by a group of students from the University of California at Riverside, who in January proposed a new funding model for the University of California system that seeks to solve two of the system’s biggest problems: unpredictable and large decreases in state appropriations, and the steady increase in tuition costs.

Under the students’ plan, called the UC Student Investment Proposal, students in the system would pay no upfront costs for their education but would agree to pay 5 percent of their income to the system for 20 years after graduating and entering the workforce.

Well, this would give universities some skin in the game.