OR YOU COULD JUST DRINK LESS: For $250, This Nurse Will Help Cure Your Hangover.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Insane Jet-Powered Hoverboard Lets You Fly Over the Waves.

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! US to Build Big Processing Facility for Migrant Kids.

ASKED, AND ANSWERED: How Dumb Is Our Government?

#WARONWOMEN: Democratic Candidate for Governor Sued for Paying Women Less than Men. “After his campaign manager was forced to resign last week following the Washington Free Beacon’s report on his past offensive tweets towards women, King is facing fresh attacks regarding his own history and comments regarding women’s issues. Gov. Susana Martinez’s (R.) reelection campaign released a new ad on Thursday calling King’s record on equal pay for women ‘troubling.'”

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF DATA, ANONYMITY IS HARD TO ARRANGE: Poorly anonymized logs reveal NYC cab drivers’ detailed whereabouts.

WITH BLOOD PRESSURE, lower isn’t always better.

The observational study, published online in JAMA Internal Medicine, involved 4,480 people. In the 22 years covered by the study, there were 1,622 heart attacks and other serious cardiac problems. Cardiac events were more common in people whose blood pressure exceeded 140, and particularly among those with readings over 160.

But there was no difference in the risk for heart failure, stroke or heart attack between those in the normal range (120 to 140) and those with a level below 120. Researchers controlled for smoking, use of blood pressure drugs, and other variables.

There are downsides to low blood pressure. For many years, mine was very low — numbers like 105/60 — and I had problems with dizziness if I stood up too fast. Now it runs about 10-15 points higher and I feel better.

JOSH MARSHALL IS EXACTLY RIGHT about the ScotusBlog credentialing debacle.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Your Questions About the Gravitational Waves Controversy, Answered.

GETTING IN SHAPE FOR YOUR OLD AGE: Shockingly, weight training and higher protein intake help. Also Vitamin D.

Wow, who could have seen that one coming?

Also, this bit about muscle mass peaking in the early 40s is iffy. I certainly carry more muscle mass now than I did at 40, and in fact more than I’ve ever carried in my life, though I’m not exceptionally huge. The reason is that I exercise for that, while a decade ago I was more focused on cardio. But you see older bodybuilders in their 60s and even 70s carrying a lot of muscle. Maybe it’s less than they would have had in their early 40s if they’d started lifting at 16, but I don’t think the decline is as clearly programmed as these articles suggest.

FROM PAULA SCHAEFER: A Primer on Professionalism for Doctrinal Professors.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN is on how the VA scandal illustrates that government can’t be trusted to favor the common good. Plus, a discussion of Jerry Pournelle’s Iron Law Of Bureaucracy.

BETRAYAL! Lefties Aghast as Leaked Global Trade Deal Turns Out To Be About . . . Financial Deregulation. Hey, they don’t call him President Goldman Sachs for nothing.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 411.

RESPONDING TO THE SMEAR ATTACK AGAINST GEORGE WILL: Rage Against The Outrage Machine. But let’s be clear. People aren’t “misunderstanding” what Will wrote. They deliberately misrepresented what Will said, and they did it to chill debate. That’s who they are, that’s what they do.

Related: George Will Meets The Clerisy Media.

BYRON YORK: Three Key Moments From Last Night’s IRS Hearings.

UPDATE: Roger Kimball: A word of encouragement for John Koskinen.

ANOTHER UPDATE: U.S. Archivist: IRS ‘Did Not Follow The Law’ After They Lost Lerner Emails; Archivist confirms IRS broke Federal Records Act.

PETER BEINART IN THE ATLANTIC: Obama’s Disastrous Iraq Policy: An Autopsy; The president ignored the country for years, with tragic results. And liberals shouldn’t be afraid to admit it.

Yes, the Iraq War was a disaster of historic proportions. Yes, seeing its architects return to prime time to smugly slam President Obama while taking no responsibility for their own, far greater, failures is infuriating.

But sooner or later, honest liberals will have to admit that Obama’s Iraq policy has been a disaster. Since the president took office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has grown ever more tyrannical and ever more sectarian, driving his country’s Sunnis toward revolt. Since Obama took office, Iraq watchers—including those within his own administration—have warned that unless the United States pushed hard for inclusive government, the country would slide back into civil war. Yet the White House has been so eager to put Iraq in America’s rearview mirror that, publicly at least, it has given Maliki an almost-free pass. Until now, when it may be too late.

Obama inherited an Iraq where better security had created an opportunity for better government. The Bush administration’s troop “surge” did not solve the country’s underlying divisions. But by retaking Sunni areas from insurgents, it gave Iraq’s politicians the chance to forge a government inclusive enough to keep the country together. . . .

For the Obama administration, however, tangling with Maliki meant investing time and energy in Iraq, a country it desperately wanted to pivot away from. A few months before the 2010 elections, according to Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker, “American diplomats in Iraq sent a rare dissenting cable to Washington, complaining that the U.S., with its combination of support and indifference, was encouraging Maliki’s authoritarian tendencies.”

More attention to Iraq would have interfered with golf. Also, Iraq was required to be a failure, according to the Party narrative, and thus had to be made into one, even if only on a nunc pro tunc basis. That Obama and the Dems might have to deal with the resulting mess apparently wasn’t considered.

GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: Patient Admitted To VA Hospital For Mental Problems Went 8 Years Before First Psychiatric Evaluation. “The new findings indicate that sizable numbers of patients may be receiving substandard medical care and that the VA has failed to correct problems despite being made aware of them. The latest revelations go beyond the recent reports of problems in the VA health care system, which have largely centered on long delays for veterans seeking appointments for outpatient specialty care, particularly at a Phoenix, Ariz., veterans hospital.” It’s like the bureaucrats care more about themselves than about the mission or something.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Boomer Housing Bust Ain’t Happening Yet. Two personal observations: First, most of the people we know who talk about downsizing look at some places, then realize that while “downsizing” sounds good, they don’t want to do it if it means moving into a smaller house. Second, in my area at least, sales are up because the market is capitulating: People are finally pricing their houses at market-clearing levels (typically involving zero or negative appreciation over the past several years) instead of holding out for a market “recovery.” But if you sell a house that you bought for — to pick one example we saw recently — $409,000 in 1999 at an asking price of $429,000 you’re actually losing money after the real estate commission, etc. And, of course, you’re not keeping pace with inflation. That isn’t exactly a bust, but. . . .

AT AMAZON, deals on Summer clothes for men. Also for women.

Plus, new Outdoor Shoes.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN is on how the VA scandal illustrates that government can’t be trusted to favor the common good.

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER GODDAMN THING ABOUT MY CARBON FOOTPRINT: Greenpeace executive flies 250 miles to work: Environmental group campaigns to curb growth in air travel but defends paying a senior executive to commute 250 miles to work by plane. I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.

FROM VICTORY TO FAILURE IN 2 1/4 YEARS: America’s Foreign Policy Mobius Loop.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: Taking its views on Israel from David Duke.