THE ROMANCE OF EXPLORATION: In Space, Everyone Can Hear You Poop.

STAY QUIET AND WIN:  This seems to be Hillary Clinton’s electoral strategy for controversial issues upon which the polls don’t provide a clear consensus for the progressive/liberal base. Her latest non-position is on President Obama’s controversial trade deal.

If Clinton doesn’t answer questions from the press and doesn’t take a position on issues beyond those clearly embraced by the progressive/liberal base, the low information voter can be won, as research indicates LIVs are much more likely to vote for well known politicians accused of corruption.

THE IMPORTANT THING IS, WHAT KIND OF SHIRT WAS HE WEARING? The Engineer Who Saved The Curiosity Rover.

IT’S ABOUT TIME:  Asian American coalition files discrimination complaint against Harvard with the DOJ.  The complaint, in part, says:

Over the last two decades, Asian-American applicants to Harvard University and other Ivy League colleges have increasingly experienced discrimination in the admissions process. Many Asian-American students who have almost perfect SAT scores, top 1% GPAs, plus significant awards or leadership positions in various extracurricular activities have been rejected by Harvard University and other Ivy League Colleges while similarly situated applicants of other races have been admitted. Because of this discrimination, it has become especially difficult for high-performing male Asian-American students to gain admission to Harvard University and other Ivy League colleges. In recently years these trends have become more and more severe.

It’s nice to see the concept of “diversity” come back to haunt the elitist higher education institutions that created this race-based cancer.

Students regularly tell me that they didn’t reveal their race, or they check the “other” box, because they’re afraid that their “whiteness” is a handicap. This isn’t true, but checking the “black/African-American” box is a huge plus in admissions, as is “Native American.” But Asians– who are consistently the most high achieving group, academically, can be hit very hard, especially in the California public university system, where there is an “abundance” of Asians and universities don’t feel they need “more” of them for diversity purposes.

Pitting groups against each other, based on their race, is a disastrous way to operate higher education (or anything else) in a pluralistic society.  But this is exactly what affirmative action does.

FASTER, PLEASE: New Memristors Could Usher in Bionic Brains. “The researchers claim that the memristive devices they have developed mimic the brain’s ability to simultaneously process and store multiple strands of information.” I’ll be wanting an upgrade in a few years.

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HMM. Man Arrested For Flying A Drone At The White House. Hey, Obama has drones.

REVIEW: 2016 Audi Q7: Worth The Weight. “Judging from the appearance, it’s hard to believe that more than 700 pounds have been cut out—per Audi—in the transition from old Q7 to new.” I drove one of the old ones, and while it was nice — with a lovely interior — it was kind of . . . lumbering. So this is good news.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Conference video: Microscopic Reversibility: The Organizing Principle for Molecular Machines.

WHY NYC WOMEN WISH THEY LIVED IN THE ‘MAD MEN’ ERA:  Or, why the “Sex & the City” life isn’t so great for finding a permanent mate.

The proliferation of online dating sites and “hookup culture” — or decreased stigma around no-strings-attached sex between strangers — means that immature men’s playground is no longer just the halls of their office buildings. It’s the entire city. . . .

“When I watch ‘Mad Men,’ I think, ‘Wouldn’t it have been great to date a man who knows what he likes to drink, who pulls out the chair, who dresses up and is clean shaven and at least wears a sport jacket?’ It’s sexy,” said Notkin.

Pretty much, except I would say that it’s not just immature men, but also equally immature women, that are perpetuating hookup culture.  And I don’t know many women who’d really want to work in the office environment portrayed in Mad Men.  But the well mannered, well groomed men and women portrayed in the series do seem to be endangered species nowadays.

IN MEMORIAM: Denise McCluggage Should Be Your Hero.

DON’T BE SILLY. JEB’S BROTHER IS TOTALLY RELEVANT, BUT HILLARY’S BROTHERS BARELY EVEN EXIST. Hillary Clinton’s brothers could cause major problems for her presidential campaign.

SMOKING OUT CONSERVATIVE DONORS:  The Center for Competitive Politics–a conservative-leaning supporter of free political speech–has petitioned the Supreme Court to stop California state Attorney General Kamala Harris from gaining access to its list of donors, contained in a Form 990 that is filed with the Internal Revenue Service (as part of its application for 501(c)(3) educational organization status).  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered CCP to comply with California’s demand.  In their filing, CCP asserts that it has a First Amendment right to keep its donors private, based on the Supreme Court’s 1958 decision in NAACP v. Alabama, in which the Court unanimously protected the NAACP’s membership lists against compelled disclosure to Alabama officials, declaring:

This Court has recognized the vital relationship between freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations. When referring to the varied forms of governmental action which might interfere with freedom of assembly, it said in American Communications Assn. v. Douds, “A requirement that adherents of particular religious faiths or political parties wear identifying arm-bands, for example, is obviously of this nature.” Compelled disclosure of membership in an organization engaged in advocacy of particular beliefs is of the same order. Inviolability of privacy in group association may in many circumstances be indispensable to preservation of freedom of association, particularly where a group espouses dissident beliefs. . . .

Petitioner has made an uncontroverted showing that on past occasions revelation of the identity of its rank-and-file members has exposed these members to economic reprisal, loss of employment, threat of physical coercion, and other manifestations of public hostility. Under these circumstances, we think it apparent that compelled disclosure of petitioner’s Alabama membership is likely to affect adversely the ability of petitioner and its members to pursue their collective effort to foster beliefs which they admittedly have the right to advocate, in that it may induce members to withdraw from the Association and dissuade others from joining it because of fear of exposure of their beliefs shown through their associations and of the consequences of this exposure.

It is not sufficient to answer, as the State does here, that whatever repressive effect compulsory disclosure of names of petitioner’s members may have upon participation by Alabama citizens in petitioner’s activities follows not from state action but from private community pressures. The crucial factor is the interplay of governmental and private action, for it is only after the initial exertion of state power represented by the production order that private action takes hold.

If protecting NAACP membership lists is protected by the First Amendment, there is no principled reason why CCP’s membership lists should be any different. Progressives have shown that they are more than willing to harass and intimidate donors to conservative organizations.  Just ask the tea party groups targeted by the IRS, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), or the conservative groups such as Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservatives in Wisconsin.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 737.

IT WORKS FOR ME: Strap In For A Long Oil Price War.

Saudi Arabia has strong-armed the rest of OPEC into going along with its strategy not to cut production in a bid to gain market share on U.S. shale firms, and ahead of the cartel’s semi-annual meeting next month there’s little sign that any dip in output is forthcoming. By abdicating the role of the global swing producer, OPEC believed it would put pressure on the relatively high-cost shale boom, forcing producers to trim production as certain plays became unprofitable.

But U.S. firms haven’t assumed that role as readily as the Saudis would have hoped. Rather, they’ve been hard at work innovating their way to profitability even at $65 per barrel. True, shale growth is expected to slow this year and the next, but it isn’t going away. Combine that with production growth from other non-OPEC producers, and what the cartel is left with is a longer-term price war than it likely bargained for. . . .

The Saudis have the funds to make up for the budget shortfalls cheap oil is foisting upon them, but the rest of OPEC isn’t anywhere near as well prepared. Nigeria, Iran, and Venezuela have all agitated for the cartel to take action, though none have volunteered to be the one to actually make the necessary cuts. Saudi Arabia is realistically the only member capable of meaningfully moving the market, but it no longer seems willing to take one for the team, as it were, and cut production. As the IEA pointed out, this price war is only just beginning.

I can live with that.

GERRYMANDERING IN 7 MAPS:  An interesting visual of the phenomenon of gerrymandering.

ISLAM AND FREE SPEECH: The Final Posts Of A Murdered Blogger.

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THIS SEEMS CRAZY — AT LEAST, I CAN’T IMAGINE WHY THESE SYSTEMS WOULD BE INTERCONNECTED AT ALL: Hacker told F.B.I. he made plane fly sideways after cracking entertainment system. Which is not to say it’s impossible, since poor design is quite common.

GYROCOPTER PILOT WAS TRYING TO “SAVE DEMOCRACY”:  That’s his claim in a Washington Post oped today.  The pilot, Doug Hughes, says his reckless act to protest Citizens United was “a message Americans agree with.”  I think if most Americans really understood what Citizens United was about–allowing groups of people to exercise their First Amendment rights–they would feel very differently.

THIS ISN’T HAPPENING BY ACCIDENT: We’re asking presidential candidates all the wrong questions.

Asking presidential candidates whether they support or would change past foreign policy decisions is the most common line of questioning among members of the media. It’s also the most pointless.

Should President Clinton have killed Osama bin Laden when he had the opportunity in 1990s? Should President Bush have sent the U.S. military into Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein in 2003? Should President Obama have withdrawn all troops from Iraq in 2011?

Such questions provide no real insight into future considerations. Whether or not they would have done anything differently no longer matters. Besides, since when is hindsight not 20/20?

Here is today’s reality: Iraq is aflame, Afghanistan rests on perilous ground, Yemen has descended into chaos, Libya has devolved into a failed state and the Islamic State not only threatens many parts of Africa but also inspires pledges of solidarity from around the world, including in the United States.

Earlier this month, jihadists from Arizona drove to a Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, to massacre hundreds of people. They might have succeeded if not for an off-duty traffic officer who skillfully killed them before they could harm anybody.

Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated — if not outright angry — as they read daily headlines such as “Enemy Inside: ISIS the ‘Greatest Threat since 9/11,'” “DHS Secretary: ‘New phase’ in the global terrorist threat” and “Former CIA official cites agency’s failure to see al-Qaeda’s rebound.”

The U.S. is losing the war against radical Islamists, and Americans want to know if there is anybody capable of doing anything about it. They are pleading for a commander in chief who can shine in the following three areas.

Yeah, but since we’re stuck with Obama, and the press wants Hillary, we get questions about 2003.

HARRY REID: O’Malley Who? “Harry Reid, in classic Harry Reid style, utterly dismissed the presidential aspirations of his Senate colleague Bernard E. Sanders, former Sen. Jim Webb and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in one biting sentence in an interview airing Friday. For the Senate minority leader, the independent from Vermont and the Democrats from Virginia and Maryland governor, respectively, don’t even merit a mention.”

THE HILL: DHS chief: Drones ‘an issue’ for security in 2016 race. “Johnson made the comments in response to a question from NBC’s Chuck Todd, who asked him whether the Secret Service was ‘panicked’ about the proliferation of drones. Todd said he wondered how it would effect security at outdoor campaign events in 2016.”