ROBOTS ARE JUST PEOPLE WE HAVEN’T CREATED YET: This Guy Wants to Save Robots From Abusive Humans. “It’s about having a solid ethical foundation and perhaps even a legal structure for non-human personhood in place for the moment if and when ‘robots’ become self-aware and wish to begin participating in society along with the rest of us sapient beings.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: What Will The Future Of Molecular Manufacturing Really Be Like? This really describes early-mature nanotechnology, though, not fully-developed molecular manufacturing.

TO BE FAIR, I WAS PREDICTING THAT HERE AT INSTAPUNDIT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING: Bruce Thornton: The EU Experiment Has Failed.

NUMBER OF THE BEASTLY: TaxProf Roundup: The IRS Scandal, Day 666. It’s still an unholy mess, and so far no one’s done much to exorcise the IRS’s demons.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Why You Should Care About Hillary’s Email:

What can Hillary Clinton have been thinking? On January 13, 2009, she — or, more likely, someone on her staff — registered a new domain: clintonemail.com. And for her entire term as secretary of state, she would use private e-mail instead of government accounts for all her electronic correspondence. She never even got a government e-mail address, which must have taken some doing, because in most organizations, those e-mail accounts are created before the new employee even arrives.

As Politico points out, keeping Clinton’s e-mails off government servers means that they were invisible to Freedom of Information Act requests about her communications with anyone outside the State Department. Her staff has turned over e-mails from the private account, but this is not the sort of job that should be performed by someone personally employed by Hillary Clinton. Decisions about what to turn over and what to keep private should be made by career government lawyers whose job comes from the agency, not Hillary Clinton.

It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that this was an attempt to avoid transparency and accountability for whatever it is she wrote. Such manipulations should severely hurt her presidential aspirations. Odds are, however, that Democrats will rally around her, because what choice do they have?

After all, power for the Party is more important than, well, anything. Plus:

That’s bad news for the country. It’s bad enough that our last two presidents developed a penchant for secrecy and executive overreach once they got their hands on the reins of power. But if Hillary Clinton starts at “flagrantly breaking transparency rules,” where can we expect her to end up?

Where, indeed?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Man Who Snuck Into the Ivy League Without Paying a Thing. “Guillaume Dumas attended classes, made friends, and networked on some of America’s most prestigious campuses—for free. What does this say about the value of a diploma?”

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HONESTLY, THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR SHOULD CARRY THE DEATH PENALTY: California Prosecutor Falsifies Transcript of Confession; California Attorney General Kamala Harris Defends.

Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski declared months ago in a much-quoted opinion that there is “an epidemic of Brady violations abroad in the land.” And yet, prosecutors continue to deny there’s a problem. Indeed, the Department of Justice gets outright indignant at the suggestion, and so do many state court prosecutors. They bristle at the very mention of the possibility.

But here’s another doozy: The People (of California) v. Efrain Velasco-Palacios. In this unpublished opinion from the Fifth Appellate District, the California Court of Appeal reveals that state prosecutors and California Attorney General Kamala Harris continue to be part of the problem. Kern County prosecutor Robert Murray committed “outrageous government misconduct.” Ms. Harris and her staff defended the indefensible—California State prosecutor Murray flat out falsified a transcript of a defendant’s confession.

Kern County prosecutor Robert Murray added two lines of transcript to “evidence” that the defendant confessed to an even more egregious offense than that with which he had been charged—the already hideous offense of molesting a child. With the two sentences that state’s attorney Murray perjuriously added, Murray was able to threaten charges that carried a term of life in prison.

Capitalizing to the maximum on his outright fabrication, state’s attorney Robert Murray committed his own crime against the defendant at the crucial time when defense counsel was consulting with the defendant on a possible plea.

Prosecutor Murray had ample time and opportunity to correct his lies and his falsification of the transcript, but instead, he let it go until defense counsel had encouraged his client to plead guilty based on this fabricated evidence. Not until after defense counsel requested the original tape recording from which the transcript was made did Mr. Murray admit that he had added the most incriminating statements to the transcript.

Disgraceful. But wait, there’s more: “Undaunted by the criminal conduct of a state prosecutor, or the district court’s opinion, Ms. Harris appealed the decision dismissing the indictment. According to the California Attorney General, only abject physical brutality would warrant a finding of prosecutorial misconduct and the dismissal of an indictment. Fortunately for all of us—and the Constitution—she lost again.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Number of LSAT Test-Takers, Law School Applicants at 30+ Year Lows.

Say, did I mention that applications at the University of Tennessee College Of Law are up 79%?

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Rape charge dropped, Saint Peter’s student plans to sue.

A Saint Peter’s University student who was arrested and accused of raping a fellow student last November before the charge was dropped one month later plans to sue Hudson County and its prosecutor’s office, saying their case against him was “frivolous from the start.”

Jean S. Jecrois, 19, who spent 20 days in Hudson County jail on a second-degree sexual assault charge before the charge was dismissed, says in a notice of claim to Hudson County and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office that officers who arrested him on Nov. 12, 2014 relied on conflicting statements from the alleged victim to build their case.

Officers also put a “major and material misstatement of fact” in Jecrois’ arrest warrant that made it appear that a consensual sexual encounter between Jecrois and the other student was violent, according to the notice of claim obtained by The Jersey Journal.

Jecrois, a sophomore studying biology at the Jesuit university, told The Jersey Journal his life has been a “mess” since he was released from prison on Dec. 2. He said he can’t focus on his academics, he is bullied on social media by students who believe that he is a rapist and he has to stay 50 feet away from the woman who accused him of raping her.

“I have no social life anymore,” he said. “Everyone keeps their distance.”

That kind of bullying seems cruel, and certainly the fear of such behavior would probably produce a hostile educational environment, in which male students were disadvantaged because of their sex.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: At VA health facilities, whistleblowers still fear retaliation. “Whistleblowers across the country have faced reprisals for reporting a range of concerns, including accounting irregularities, nursing shortages and mishandling of health-care funds, according to the Office of Special Counsel. Yet despite promises from Washington, retribution against VA whistleblowers continues.”

Government is just a word for the things we do together, like ignoring sick veterans, and making sure that snitches get stitches.

ASHE SCHOW: The other side of the campus sexual assault equation.

A recent documentary (I use the term liberally) called the “Hunting Ground” purports to be a “startling expose of sexual assault on U.S. campuses, institutional cover-ups and the brutal social toll on victims and their families.”

But the film, with the help of depressing and dramatic music, exposes only a one-sided view of the issue designed to tug at the heartstrings and make all sexual assault accusations look credible when not all are.

The center of the film revolves around the accusation by Erica Kinsman that Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston raped her in 2012 and that the school covered it up. Stuart Taylor, co-author of the book about the Duke Lacrosse rape hoax, wrote a detailed article for Real Clear Sports about the evidence that at the very least casts doubt on Kinsman’s story.

But the”Hunting Ground”never tells any side other than Kinsman’s, which has changed significantly since she first reported the alleged rape. The movie doesn’t attempt to present the other side of any of the detailed accusations outside of claiming schools wouldn’t respond to the filmmakers’ request.

An organization dedicated to stopping sexual assault and protecting due process rights for those accused, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments, has some issues with the”Hunting Ground.”Mainly, the organization criticizes the film’s lack of attempt to “verify the accuracy of the accounts presented.”

In response to the”Hunting Ground,”SAVE produced a short video (complete with its own depressing music) in which Joshua Strange and his mother Allison tell the story of how he was expelled by Auburn University after being accused of sexual assault. Josh’s expulsion from his dream school occurred even though there wasn’t sufficient evidence for a grand jury to indict him.

The video is RapeHoax: The Joshua Strange Story.

TITLES OF NOBILITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Gallup: U.S. Federal Employment Related to Higher Financial Well-Being. “The survey data indicate that working for the federal government is associated with higher financial well-being when compared with other U.S. workers, holding across income and education levels.”

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Rachel Respess, teacher in Destrehan sex case, awaits word on criminal charges. “Rachel Respess, one of two former Destrehan High School teachers accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student, must wait longer in legal limbo before she learns what’s to become of her criminal case. A Jefferson Parish prosecutor said Thursday (March 5) he had no update on the case, meaning the district attorney’s office still has not decided whether or how to proceed.”

I kinda doubt they’d have taken that long for a male teacher.

HOW TO STOP CHINESE HACKING: Poison The Well.

UPDATE: Link was bad before: Fixed now. Sorry!

THIS IS THE PROPER ATTITUDE TOWARD GOVERNMENTAL OVERREACH: Sled On! Residents Defy Ban and Sled Down Capitol Hill.

District of Columbia residents who took a stand against a ban on sledding on Capitol Hill drew dozens of reporters to the West Lawn Thursday afternoon as snow blanketed the Capitol grounds. But for the kids and parents, this wasn’t exactly major news. They just wanted to enjoy the rare inches of snow in the nation’s capital.

“I think it’s crazy, there’s so much going on in the world,” Capitol Hill resident Lyndsey Medsker told CQ Roll Call. “But I think sledding is something that people can rally behind and there’s no reason for people to oppose it. … I think all around the country when kids have snow days, they like to go out in the snow and play and sled. And we live in an urban area where people don’t have backyards and their own spaces to do so, so this is our space.”

Medsker organized the “sled-in” starting at 1 p.m. Thursday after news broke Wednesday night that the Capitol Police Board denied a request from Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., to temporarily waive the ban on sledding ahead of the major winter storm.

“That’s when I decided that we were going to come anyway,” Medsker said. She also started a Change.org petition asking that the policy be scrapped, and that has garnered more than 800 signatures so far.

Medsker also tried to sled on the Hill two weeks ago, but was told by Capitol Police that she and her two young boys had to leave. She said they weren’t given a reason, but were told those were the rules.

How about we all start ignoring laws we don’t like? You know, like President Obama does!

WELL, THAT’S NICER THAN “LYING,” BUT LESS TRUE: Texas AG accuses feds of misleading on immigrant work permits.

The Texas Attorney General is accusing the Obama administration of misleading a federal court by renewing about 100,000 work permits for illegal immigrants, under new rules that many did not know had gone into effect.

“In an apparent attempt to quickly execute President Obama’s unlawful, unconstitutional amnesty plan, the Obama Administration appears to have already been issuing expanded work permits, in direct contradiction to what they told a federal judge previously in this litigation,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

“The circumstances behind this must be investigated, and the motion we seek would help us determine to what extent the Administration might have misrepresented the facts in this case.”

Paxton’s motion presses the government to explain whether it misled the court by renewing work permit applications for three years — instead of two — under new changes to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He cites government filings that show the Justice Department told the court the agency wouldn’t be processing any applications until mid-February.

A group of 26 states, including Texas, are suing the administration over President Obama’s immigration executive actions, which would defer deportations for millions of immigrants living in the U.S. and expand their access to work permits.

The Department of Homeland Security had been gearing up to implement those executive actions until a federal judge halted the implementation of those policies in February. Since that ruling took place before the start date of the most contentious parts of the immigration plan, many assumed that none of the changes had taken effect.

The Justice Department admitted in a court document filed Wednesday that there may have been “confusion” surrounding the administration’s decision to extend renewals to three years.

Until some people pay an individual price for misconduct, there will be no real accountability.

ROGER SIMON: Email Eruption: Hillary Hidden Emails Multiply By Ten.

WELL, THEY LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE: Did the Obama Administration Lie to the Federal Court About Implementation of Executive Amnesty?

PROFESSOR JACOBSON: Scott Walker’s rivals have a plan, a bad plan.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MOTHER JONES: Breaking: Food, Language, Global Warming, and Your Mother Are Now All Racist.

YEAH, THAT’S NOT AN ACCIDENT: The Hill: Modern media and the destructive representation of conservativism. “Whereas Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Hillary Clinton are all hailed for their various policy proposals, as well as their personal and professional achievements, individuals like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are ruthlessly assailed for every quip or comment, be they contextual or otherwise.”

CLAIM: Emulsifiers in food may make you fat via their effect on gut bacteria.

Here we report that, in mice, relatively low concentrations of two commonly used emulsifiers, namely carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80, induced low-grade inflammation and obesity/metabolic syndrome in wild-type hosts and promoted robust colitis in mice predisposed to this disorder. Emulsifier-induced metabolic syndrome was associated with microbiota encroachment, altered species composition and increased pro-inflammatory potential. Use of germ-free mice and faecal transplants indicated that such changes in microbiota were necessary and sufficient for both low-grade inflammation and metabolic syndrome. These results support the emerging concept that perturbed host–microbiota interactions resulting in low-grade inflammation can promote adiposity and its associated metabolic effects. Moreover, they suggest that the broad use of emulsifying agents might be contributing to an increased societal incidence of obesity/metabolic syndrome and other chronic inflammatory diseases.

That’s a PDF link to Nature; here’s a (non-PDF) shorter news treatment.

CAYMAN UPDATE: Dot-KY Domain Going Global.