THIS DOESN’T SOUND GOOD: New bird flu strain seen adapting to mammals, humans. “A genetic analysis of the avian flu virus responsible for at least nine human deaths in China portrays a virus evolving to adapt to human cells, raising concern about its potential to spark a new global flu pandemic.” These things usually fizzle, or evolve to be less lethal — but not always.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Why I Didn’t Write About Gosnell’s Trial–And Why I Should Have. “Gosnell is accused of grisly crimes that I didn’t want to think about. . . . I understand why my readers suspect me, and other pro-choice mainstream journalists, of being selective—of not wanting to cover the story because it showcased the ugliest possibilities of abortion rights. The truth is that most of us tend to be less interested in sick-making stories—if the sick-making was done by ‘our side.'”

BEATING BUGATTI: How a Texas Tuner and a Technicality Took Down the World’s Fastest Car.

HOLD ON TO YOUR WALLETS: The White House pulls a switcheroo on retirement savings accounts.

SPACE EXPLORATION: SpaceShipTwo Moves Forward to First Powered Flight.

PERSONALLY, I THINK THAT’S A GENEROUS TIMETABLE: Stephen Hawking Says Humans Won’t Survive Another 1,000 Years On Earth. We need sustainable off-Earth settlements by the end of this century.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestselling big-screen HDTVs. Just this week they were installing an 80″ Sharp Aquos in our faculty study as part of a new distance-learning program. It was huge, but surprisingly inexpensive.

INSTAVISION: Now On YouTube: My Interview With Chris Lewicki of Planetary Resources.

IN POPULAR MECHANICS, A LIONFISH REPORT FROM CAYMAN: Yes, You Can Fight Invasive Species by Eating Them.

RAY KURZWEIL ON LONGEVITY RESEARCH: “People say, ‘Oh, only the rich are going to have these technologies you speak of.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, like cellphones.’ A kid in Africa with a smartphone is walking around with a trillion dollars of computation circa 1970s.”

JOURNALISM: Investigation: Why did David Corn Run with a False McConnell Tape Transcript?

ACCORDING TO THE NEW DSM-V, everyone is crazy. Well, that fits in well with Obama’s background-check approach . . . .

CHARGE YOUR CELLPHONE: Geomagnetic storm could hit Earth this weekend.

ROGER SIMON: GosnellGate: It’s the A-Word.

UPDATE: Salon.com shouts “Look, Squirrel!” to deflect #Gosnell outrage. Well, that’s their function. It’s why they’ve been subsidized by rich lefties all the way back to the Lewinsky scandals.

Related: Elizabeth Scalia on Gosnell from 2011.

And reader Reid Freeman writes: “The legacy media won’t cover the Kermit Gosnell case because they understand it could be utilized by anti-abortion activists in the way anti-Second Amendment activists utilized the Sandy Hook murders.”

CLAYTON CRAMER: Background Checks And Murder Rates. “What is the statistical evidence of the effects of state mandatory firearms background check laws on murder rates? For states that adopted or repealed such laws after 1960 (when consistent and high quality murder rate data becomes available), an interrupted time series analysis shows that five out of nine states have statistically significant changes in murder rates, with three having higher murder rates during the background check period, and two having lower murder rates. Of the four states with statistically insignificant changes in murder rates, two had higher murder rates during the background check period, and two had lower murder rates during the background check period.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Truth About Weight Training vs. Cardio.

AT AMAZON, up to 60% off on Athletic & Outdoor Shoes. Summer is coming.

Also, today only: Prospera Electronic Pulse Massager, $24.99 (50% off).

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, WE’D HAVE A FATCAT PRESIDENT WHO BARELY PAID TAXES. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Obama’s Tax Rate 18.4%.

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: “The Senate has severely scaled back the Stock Act, the law to stop members of Congress and their staff from trading on insider information, in an under-the-radar vote that has been sharply criticised by advocates of political transparency.”

A reader comments:

This is symptomatic of the bigger and very true point you make in the legal protection for 401ks post: behavior changes dramatically when we don’t expect growth. It’s a fight for share. Thus politicians fighting so hard to preserve their information advantage in the public markets.

Old ways to get rich:

Invent good stuff.

New ways to get rich:

Insider trading.
Taxes and rents.
Capital raids.

This is what politics becomes like in a society with narrow horizons. it’s not necessarily bad for those who excel at such maneuvering. For them, a dynamic society is limiting.

ED DRISCOLL: Old Media Slowly Awakens To Gosnell Horrors. “The key word is slowly; if you haven’t seen it yet, click over to to Hot Air for the photo of row after empty row of seats in the media section of the trial of Kermit Gosnell. But Terry Moran of ABC’s Nightline slowly awakens to the horrific Gosnell story ‘Kermit Gosnell is probably the most successful serial killer in the history of the world.’ As Jim Treacher responds, ‘Don’t tell us. Tell your viewers.’”

Related: The Atlantic: Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story: The dead babies. The exploited women. The racism. The numerous governmental failures. It is thoroughly newsworthy. “This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors.”

SCIENCE: Southerners Not Actually Fatter Than People From Other Regions, Just Less Likely To Lie About Their Weight.

By comparing the BRFSS self-reported weight data with the REGARDS scale-weight data, researchers found that most everyone fudges, or underreports, their weight when asked on a telephone.

Turns out that Southerners fudge less, he said.

The study analyzed the weights in the nine geographic regions used by the U.S. Census Bureau.

It found that the West North Central region, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and North and South Dakota, ranked fourth in obesity by the telephone survey results. But when actually weighed in the REGARDS study, people from that region ranked first in the nation for obesity.

In the telephone survey results, the East South Central region, which includes Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, ranked highest. But when weighed, that southern region ranked fifth.

“It is hard to know exactly what is going on, but my speculation is that people in the South are telling the truth more,” Howard said.

Well, that makes sense.

ADOPTION AS EVIL? “Best option? abort your unwanted baby. Second best option? ‘guardianship’ administered by the government.” Well, kids do belong to the community, not their parents.

WHEN PUBLIC EDUCATION BECOMES INDOCTRINATION, THE K-12 IMPLOSION BECOMES MORE LIKELY: Dad Furious After Finding This Crayon-Written Paper in Florida 4th-Grader’s Backpack: ‘I Am Willing to Give Up Some of My Constitutional Rights…to Be Safer.’ “Harvey’s son attends Cedar Hills Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla. Back in January, a local attorney came in to teach the students about the Bill of Rights. But after the attorney left, fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Sabb dictated the sentence to part of the class and had them copy it down, he said.”

IF THEY CAN: Will Teachers’ Unions Kill Virtual Learning? But I don’t think they’ll be able to stop the K-12 Implosion by regulation, though they’ll likely try.