CAN YOU SEE THE REAL ME? The film version of The Who’s Quadrophenia turns 35. I have a look at how the British Mods and Rockers were a perfect case study in what Tom Wolfe calls “Information Ricochet,” and how the Mods would go on to inadvertently influence a very different style of dance music a decade after their demise, at Ed Driscoll.com.

HILLARY’S 2016 BUMPER STICKER:

FROM THE HOME OFFICE IN BILL AYERS’ LIVING ROOM: Top 5 Least Funny Jokes Told by President Obama at the WHCD.

AND SPEAKING OF ENERGY: Japan exploring new ways to power civilization.

YOU SMELL SO GOOD!:  Apparently, the smell of men and women is discernible to mice, and the smell of men induces anxiety, not just in mice, but several other studied species such as guinea pigs, dogs and cats.  Laboratories might be well advised to use more women to conduct certain experiments.

Relatedly, a new study shows that exposure to male and female hormones communicate gender to us, without any overt visual clues.  Apparently, women can smell men, and men can smell women.  “Interestingly, the researchers found that homosexual males responded to gender pheromones more like heterosexual females did. Bisexual or homosexual female responses to the same scents fell somewhere in between those of heterosexual males and females.”

GRIM MILESTONE ACHIEVED: The IRS Scandal, Day 360, at TaxProf blog.

AND WHILE WE’RE GIVING YOU FREE STUFF: I have a free short story for another couple of days.  It’s called Where Horse and Hero Fell.  I wrote it eleven years ago, a week after getting severe concussion.  It’s the only story of mine I read as a total stranger, because I have no memory of writing it.  It’s not half bad.

GET THE LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION’S FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK: “The Human Race to the Future and What to Do” for free from May 4 to May 5.

OR WE COULD CONTINUE WITH EARNEST DISAPPROVAL: Can the West find the energy to deter Russia?

GEORGE WILL “VERY PRO-TEA PARTY”:  The conservative icon talks to Jamie Weinstein of the Daily Caller about the tea party, correctly observing that it is a “huge force” in the GOP.  Yep–exactly.

FROM THE NRA: Shooting Education Videos For Women.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in Lawn, Patio & Garden. Browse and save. Summer is coming!

Also, deals on Bestsellers in Kitchen & Dining.

Plus, top Kids & Family titles in Entertainment.

THE RISE OF CO-WORKING.

DUMBING DOWN TORTURE:  A UN Committee Against Torture is considering a claim by liberal groups that the Vatican has violated the UN “torture” convention by– get this– not acting swiftly and resolutely enough to respond to allegations of sexual abuse by priests.  Don’t get me wrong–sexual abuse of children by priests is abhorrent and dioceses should pay dearly for these transgressions. And the Vatican has already been formally criticized by the UN for violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is understandable.

But to say the Vatican has committed “torture” by not responding quickly or vigorously enough waters down the meaning of “torture” to include anything that someone thinks is not a good or sincere enough apology.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Writing Instructor, Skeptical of Automated Grading, Pits Machine vs. Machine.

Mr. Perelman’s fundamental problem with essay-grading automatons, he explains, is that they “are not measuring any of the real constructs that have to do with writing.” They cannot read meaning, and they cannot check facts. More to the point, they cannot tell gibberish from lucid writing.

He has spent the past decade finding new ways to make that point, and the Babel Generator is arguably his cleverest stunt to date. Until now, his fight against essay-grading software has followed the classic man-versus-machine trope, with Mr. Perelman criticizing the automatons by appealing to his audience’s sense of irony.

By that measure, the Babel Generator is a triumph, turning the concept of automation into a farce: machines fooling machines for the amusement of human skeptics.

Now, here in the office, Mr. Perelman copies the nonsensical text of the “privateness” essay and opens MY Access!, an online writing-instruction product that uses the same essay-scoring technology that the Graduate Management Admission Test employs as a second reader. He pastes the nonsense essay into the answer field and clicks “submit.”

Immediately the score appears on the screen: 5.4 points out of 6, with “advanced” ratings for “focus and meaning” and “language use and style.”

Mr. Perelman sits back in his chair, victorious. “How can these people claim that they are grading human communication?”

The Insta-Daughter faced machine-grading in middle school and figured out how to write for the machines, even though she thought the writing they wanted was lousy. Interestingly, when she was in online high school her essays were graded by real teachers.

BAB’S UVULA REDUX: Union Monopoly Protects Pennsylvania Children from DRUNKEN SLAUGHTER!

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS IS A WALKING JOKE, LITERALLY. At the White House Correspondents Dinner, Obama exploits the woman for laughs, acting as if his slide show is broken and then calling someone out to fix it. Sebelius is the sight-joke punchline. Hey! War on Women… don’t you think?

SIGNS THE DEMS ARE LESS THAN OPTIMISTIC: WaPo: Midterm Elections Are Stupid.

R.I.P.. WALTER R. WALSH, 106, the New York Times reports:

Walter R. Walsh, a world-class marksman who shot clothespins off laundry lines as a boy and went on to become an F.B.I. legend in shootouts with gangsters in the 1930s, an Olympic competitor and a trainer of generations of Marine Corps sharpshooters, died on Tuesday at his home in Arlington, Va. He was 106.

The American Rifleman profiled Walsh in 2010:

At Walsh’s 100th birthday party, his family served three cakes: One had the seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the second, the seal of the United States Marine Corps; and the third bore five Olympic rings. Each represented a major achievement in Walsh’s life, and each could make a major story. For one man to be presented all three indicates just how special that person is.

Read the whole thing.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: The New Post-Tenure Review.

LIBERAL STUPIDITY ON RUTGERS CAMPUS:  Condoleeza Rice withdraws from the Rutgers commencement speech after a small minority of idiotic faculty and students protest, calling her a “war criminal.”  This, alone, lowers my opinion of Rutgers and its faculty significantly.  Have they never heard of “tolerance” or “diversity of ideas”?  Apparently not.

THE WEEK IN PICTURES, DUDE-ISM EDITION, at Power Line.

And one more, via Twitchy. Shot:

My very own heckler! #WHCD pic.twitter.com/IWNVdvAt8c

— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) May 3, 2014

Chaser:

@TVietor08 Soon to have your very own prosecutor. ;-)

— Elbridge Condee (@econdee) May 3, 2014

Heh.™

ORWELL, CAPITALISM, AND SOCIALISM (and Animal Farm re: MSNBC’s Krystal Ball), from Neo-Neocon.

THAT ANY JUDGE THOUGHT OTHERWISE IS A POOR REFLECTION ON THE JUDICIARY IN GENERAL AND THE INDIANA COURT OF APPEALS IN PARTICULAR. First Amendment protects speech that threatens to expose judges to “hatred, contempt, disgrace, or ridicule.”