MORE GOOD NEWS! A Malfunctioning, Flaming Wind Turbine Is Actually Quite Beautiful.

AT LAST SOME GOOD NEWS: Guys, the Perseid meteor shower is here, and it’s going to be twice as good this year.

SPEAKING OF PARASITES: Mutant ‘Super Lice’ Outbreak Has Now Spread to Nearly Every State.

THE GOVERNMENT’S WAY OF HELPING: When You Are Looking For Help The Last Thing You Need Is Hostility.

PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH EVERY CHAMBER LOADED: The shotgun election.

OTOH, WE MIGHT FINALLY HAVE SOLVED THAT “IS OBAMA EVIL OR STUPID” QUANDARY: Taken — to the Cleaners.  Sure, the answer might be “yes” but if he were a little brighter, he’d understand this would blow up in his face?

SHOCKED, SHOCKED! Australia suspends World Vision funding over allegations its Gaza representative funneled millions to Hamas.

THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE WAS DONE ENTIRELY IN INTERPRETIVE DANCE: Feminist Declares The Invention Of The Alphabet The Root Of Sexism, Misogyny And Patriarchy…

ONCE YOU GIVE THE DANE HIS GELD: Pallets of cash have a predictable effect on hostage-takers.

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ROLL CALL: Recent Breaches Raise Fears of Voting System Hacks.

In an already topsy-turvy presidential campaign, the recent breaches of Democratic Party computer networks have fueled fears about potential foreign meddling and raised questions about how secure the electronic systems that record and tally votes across the country are from sophisticated hackers.

For years, computer security experts have warned that electronic voting is vulnerable to hacking that could alter vote tallies and theoretically swing an election. The intrusions that compromised the Democratic National Committee and the House Democrats’ fundraising campaigns’ systems — both of which cybersecurity experts have blamed on groups linked to Russian intelligence agencies — have only heightened those concerns.

Even a minor breach could wreak havoc by undermining the public’s faith in the integrity of the balloting, particularly in a campaign as contentious as this year’s presidential race.

Paper ballots are the answer. I’ve been saying it for years, but has anybody listened?

I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW ROBOTIC PIZZA OVERLORDS! God Bless America: The Pizza ATM is Finally Here.

(Classical allusion in headline.)

SEASTEADING-LITE: People are buying second homes on cruise ships. “Residents of this ‘community-at-sea’ collectively own the ship, and can thus choose their own itinerary along with the captain.”

TRUMP ENDORSES RYAN: Don Surber, author of Trump The Press, said Trump’s a rookie candidate and he’ll learn as the campaign goes forward. I included some of Don’s latest assessments in this week’s War On Honesty column for The New York Observer.

HUH? The Battle Brewing to Become the Coors Light of Craft Beer.

Any worthy contender to be the Coors Light of Craft Beer (sorry if the phrase turns your stomach) must walk a fine line. It would have to taste good to keep craft drinkers happy, but couldn’t be so strong or full of flavor that it wouldn’t be “sessionable,” to use a popular craft beer phrase. It would also have to be made by an independent company rather than be yet another label owned by a Big Beer corporation, because the “little guy” factor is undeniably part of the attraction in craft beer circles.

It’s this concept that inspired House Beer, based in southern California and sold in simple cans that bear a little resemblance to old-school Miller Lite, to enter the market. Frustrated at having to “choose between beers that were great for drinking and beers that tasted great,” the company website says, House Beer’s founders wondered, “Why can’t you have your beer and drink it too?”

The goal for House Beer was to combine the quality of “craft beers with the drinkability of Coors Lite,” for a product that’s “brewed with taste and care you would find in most craft beers but one you can drink time and time again,” a company PR contact explained.

I get it, but it still seems like trying to become the Darth Vader of charitable giving.

NEWS YOU CAN ABUSE: An Incomplete List of Why Nobody Really Gives a Shit About the Olympics Anymore.

Nick Gillespie’s advice applies here as well: “Add your own in the comments. After all, it’s not like you’re going to be watching the Rio Games…”

HILLARY NOW SAYS SHE “SHORT CIRCUITED” HER ANSWERS ABOUT EMAIL: No, she lied. Again. Comey didn’t exonerate her. She’s going to keep claiming she was exonerated and betting her Ultimate Media Privilege (mainstream media bias) will act as an echo chamber. We don’t know who got to her email traffic –Comey shucked and jived on that question– but her server was easy pickings. As Sec State she was a high value target so you know she got hacked and American adversaries obtained classified information. Providing enemies with classified information has consequences.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Number of LSAT Test-Takers Falls In June.

WAIT, THE HYPE WAS JUST HYPE? Some Millennials Are Not Having Sex. But a Vast Majority Are.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How do you come to terms with the fact that you’re just ordinary?

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COLUMNIST (AND OCCASIONAL COSPLAYER) EMILY ZANOTTI: Feminists Bemoan a ‘Sexualized’ Harley Quinn, but They Don’t Understand Her Character.

Harley has never been the “toy” of more powerful characters. She’s a villain in her own right—murdering, maiming and destroying with the best of what the Batman comics have to offer. Her position in the “Suicide Squad” is earned not by her association with the Joker, but because she’s a hell of a bad guy (or gal).

She’s also always been a character with more complex terms. Starting with her origin story—as a doctor treating the Joker in his prison cell at Arkham Asylum—she ultimately chooses her path of destruction; she’s psychotic but struggles with moments of clarity that interrupt her ability to fully integrate into a criminal persona.

Harley’s creator, Paul Dini, may have put it best. Harley is a feminist: “I think Harley’s entire character is based on the concept of choice,” he told CNN this week. “As long as she has that element of choice to either be like the Joker or to get away from him, that defines her life. She’s not a victim who just goes where she’s told to.”

There’s absolutely nothing real-world feminists can’t suck the fun out of.

SAD PUPPIES? That pricey dog food won’t extend Fido’s life.

Americans are crazy about their pets, so it’s natural we want to keep them alive as long as possible. That seems to be what Mars PetCare U.S. was depending on in marketing its pricey Eukanuba brand of dog food, which the company said could extend a canine’s life by several years.

But that claim is false, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday in announcing that Mars Petcare had settled charges of false advertising related to Eukanuba, which ranges in price from $13.99 to $57.99.

Our dogs are on prescription food for health and weight control, and as long as they’re healthy and happy we’re going to keep them on it.

METAPHOR ALERT: Rio officials had to open Olympic Stadium with bolt cutters after losing key.

CONFIRMED: HOLLYWOOD STILL OFFICIALLY BANKRUPT OF NEW IDEAS. Rebel Wilson to Star in Gender-Flipped ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ Remake.

Coming hot on the high heels of the Lady Ghostbusters box office misfire and the upcoming remake of Splash with Channing Tatum in the Daryl Hannah role. One of the themes of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind’s 1998 history, and its accompanying documentary of the young Turks who bested (for a time) the Hollywood studio system is that in the 1960s, Hollywood’s old guard, utterly obsessed with producing another hit the size of 1965’s The Sound of Music, pumped out inferior musical after inferior musical.

As Wikipedia notes, Hollywood “produced a series of musical flops in the late 1960s and early 1970s which appeared to seriously misjudge public taste. The commercially and/or critically unsuccessful films included Camelot, Finian’s Rainbow, Hello Dolly!, Sweet Charity, Doctor Dolittle, Star!, Darling Lili, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Paint Your Wagon, Song of Norway, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Man of La Mancha, Lost Horizon and Mame. Collectively and individually these failures crippled several of the major studios.” Did American audiences’ tastes change in post-JFK ‘60s (see also: massively growing popularity of rock music during that period), or were they turned off by obviously inferior product? It’s likely it was a combination of both, but there’s a reason why MGM, which dominated the genre in the 1950s, imploded by the end of the following decade, and it became much rarer for movie characters in general to suddenly burst into song with invisible orchestras accompanying them.

This time around, it’s a different sort of prewar industry nostalgia — an obsession with political correctness, a byproduct of Germany’s 1920s Weimar-era Frankfurt School — rather than swinging big bands and Fred Astaire-style dancing that’s driving this Hollywood trend. But will all of the gender-flipping, endless cast-in-the-mold superhero movies, and the rest of Hollywood’s increasingly limited genre options produce a similar sea change in the industry as with that of the late ‘60s? for the sake of the audience (remember them?) it could certainly use it.