PJTV: Roger Simon interviews Jack Cashill on Obama’s literary agency’s claim that he was born in Kenya.

More fun here.

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll: Was Obama Himself the First Birther?

OUCH: A close friend of the suicide wife of RFK Jr. says: “She had cause. She was used up and tossed away by Bobby. That was awful.”

MICHAEL TOTTEN: The Woman Who Blew Up the Arab World.

MORE ON LONGEVITY: Telomerase Gene Therapy Boosts Mouse Longevity. “This is an interesting result for a number of reasons. First off, why don’t mice just have longer telomeres at the start? If the increased life expectancy has no cost in fitness why aren’t mouse telomeres longer already? Second, I am surprised that the longer telomeres didn’t enable more cancer growth and therefore cause shorter life expectancy. Telomere shortening every time a cell divides acts like a counter on the max number of times a cell can divide. This functions as a defense against cancer. Some cancers mutate their way past this defense (e.g. by turning on telomerase to make telomeres longer). But presumably others get stopped by cells with telomeres too short to allow further cell division. The researchers address the cancer issue in a way that suggests to me this would not work for humans.”

THOUGHTS ON MITT ROMNEY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL. “From a purely utilitarian perspective this is ridiculous. You have a man with a vast fortune and a (temporary) physical impairment. It would be an obvious gain from trade if rather than providing his hobbled physical labor, Romney were instead to give Christensen $100 and tell him to hire a day laborer. Of course if it happened like that the story would be the plot to an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the upshot that Larry David is an obtuse misanthrope, not a religious testimonial with the upshot that Mormons have a strong community. Indeed this story is in the middle of a paragraph which begins and ends by talking about how as a general matter Mormons are eager to help one another and is part of a broader argument about how Mormons provide both mundane and ecclesiastical services to one another directly rather than through professionals. In the context of the essay, the practical value of the impaired labor that Romney provided is clearly secondary to the affirmation of moral community implied by his willingness to provide it. In this sense, that Romney was injured makes his contribution more significant, not less, which is why Christensen chose to draw attention to it.”

YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN TO SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING: MIT Names Its Provost, Who Led Online-Education Efforts, as New President. “Mr. Reif led the development of MITx, the institute’s new online-education program, university officials said. He is also credited for his lead role in the formation of edX, a new partnership between MIT and Harvard University that will offer free online courses from both institutions.”

JOHN MCGINNIS: Better Policy Through Better Information.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: Steak Specialists Discover a New Cut of Beef.

But don’t worry, there’s a role for lawyers, too: “Most interesting is the fact that this new cut of meat apparently counts as intellectual property, replete with its own licensing and a patent on the cut’s fabrication.” I hope the legal fees were, er, juicy.

WELL, MORE NERVOUS, MAYBE: 5 Powerful Music Apps That Should Make Middlemen Nervous.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Novel silicon nanostructure extends battery life.

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Drink coffee, live longer. “After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn’t matter. The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it’s a guilty pleasure that may do harm. . . . Coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart or respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, injuries, accidents or infections. No effect was seen on cancer death risk, though. Other research ties coffee drinking to lower levels of markers for inflammation and insulin resistance.”

Note: A 600-calorie mochalatte may not have the same effect. . . .

A SMART PHONE THAT CAN sniff out sickness?

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: Finally, a Spray That Gets You Instantly Drunk for Just a Few Seconds.

GOOD GRIEF: ‘Queen’s knickers’ up for grabs on eBay. “It is alleged the bloomer-style knickers, which have not been confirmed as authentic by any official sources, were left on a private aeroplane during the Queen’s visit to Chile in 1968.”

AN EPIDEMIC OF fake hair.

VIDEO: Seven Times in 2008 Obama Promised To Create 7 Million New Jobs.

Related: Six Times Obama Promised To Cut The Deficit.

HORSE/BARN DOOR: Biden muzzled: Staffers pulling reporters off line. But does this suggest that Obama might replace Biden on the ticket? That would signify. . . .

A READER BOOK PLUG REQUEST: Alexander Neill writes:

I’ve been a reader since 2002 and recently leapt into the world of Kindle publishing with a fantasy trilogy entitled Kaunovalta. The first book, The Running Girl, has received a very favourable review from someone in North Carolina, and all three have begun to sell in North America, the UK and Germany. I’d be most grateful for a mention on your site!

The trilogy can be found here at the Amazon Kindle Store, and features elves, dwarves, dragons, comedy, tragedy, magic, monsters, and love triumphant. No bit with a dog, though.

Too bad. I hear they’re delicious.

A RIFLE REVIEW: THE REMINGTON R15 VTR.

GIVE EARLY AND OFTEN: Rand Simberg has launched a Kickstarter project: Rationalizing Our Approach To Safety In Space. I donated.

MICKEY KAUS: “Warren Buffett has bought $256.5 million of GM stock for his firm Berkshire Hathaway. Did he buy it to make money, or to help Obama**? Or is he, in an ominous corporatist mixture of the two, investing in Obama? Does even Buffett know for sure at this point?”

UNEXPECTEDLY! Index of U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Falls 0.1%.

LIZ PEEK: How California Unions Hijacked The Golden State.

CANDLEPOWER EQUALS AUTHORITY: So I bought this LED flashlight, and tried it out last night. It works pretty well — on a dark night, it illuminated houses and trees a couple of blocks away. That’s useful in a variety of circumstances. (My brother, once a nighttime caretaker at a nature park, used to say that at night “candlepower equals authority.”) It’s very solidly built, though if you want a flashlight that doubles as a billyclub you’re probably better off with one of the big 6-D-cell Maglites.

I kinda wish I’d sprung for the 1000 lumen model now, though.