HOT OFF THE PRESS: THE MONOLITHIC MEDIA MAY BE BIASED!   Dr. Hal Pashler and I ran a psychology experiment showing that one’s ideological point of view will tend to color one’s judgment on what is newsworthy. If a news story seems to provide ammunition for one’s own viewpoint, it’s more likely to be viewed as newsworthy. The result may not come as a bolt from the blue for savvy Instapundit readers. But by golly, it’s science now. (Note that the article contains lots of groovy graphs. I’ll bet that you didn’t think I could make graphs like that.)

TRUMP’S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION HAS STILL NOT WITHDRAWN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S SCHOOL DISCIPLINE POLICY: Still waiting. But in the meantime, here’s an explanation of why the Obama-Era policy was outside the scope of the Department of Education’s powers. More complete version here.

MORE OF THIS PLEASE:  Stephen has already posted the story that the Trump Administration will now require hospitals to post standard prices online.  Hallelujah!  I wish the Administration would extend this to nursing homes.  My mother recently spent seven months in such a place.  My sister and I never did figure out the pricing structure–even after I met with someone from the finance department to try to figure it out.  There was no way to price compare. And the charges were extraordinary (even with Medicare and long-term care insurance).

AUGUST 7 IS THE 276^th ANNIVERSARY OF NATHANAEL GREENE’S BIRTH: During the Revolution, General Nathanael Greene was second only to George Washington in importance. Honors were heaped upon him just after it ended. To give you just a taste, the following places were named for him: Greensboro, N.C., Greenville, N.C., Greenville, S.C., Greeneville, Tenn., Greenburg, Penn., Greene Co., Mo., Greene Co., Va., Greene Co., Penn., Greene Co., Tenn., Greene Co., Ohio, Greene Co., N.C., Greene Co., N.Y., Greene Co., Miss., Greene Co., Ill., Greene Co., Iowa, Greene Co., Ind., Greene Co., Georgia, Greene Co., Ark., and Greene Co., Ala.

But Greene died just five years after Yorktown at the age of 43. In part for that reason, his fame has been eclipsed by other Founding Fathers who played a role in the making of our Constitution or in the early years of the Republic. I suspect few school children, even those living in the various Greene Counties, have ever heard of Nathanael Greene. I count my blessings when they know something about George Washington beyond his owning slaves.

IT’S A GENUINE SCANDAL THAT A GOP SENATE HASN’T BEEN ABLE TO CONFIRM AN ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS:   It’s been over a year since Eric Dreiband was nominated to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.  The amount of time it took to nominate him was bad enough.  But now we’re almost halfway through the Trump Administration, and nothing has happened.  Despite the Senate being in GOP hands, Dreiband has not been confirmed.

GREAT SCOT! ALEXANDER FLEMING, DISCOVERER OF PENICILLIN, WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1881: The story is that just after returning to his laboratory after a month-long vacation, he saw that one of his staphylococcus-containing petri dishes had gotten moldy. Upon closer inspection, lo and behold, he saw the area adjacent to the mold was bacteria free.

Fleming was modest about his discovery, saying that sometimes one finds what one is not looking for. But it would be wrong to believe that the good doctor was just a lucky guy who happened to run across the moldy bread that revolutionized medical science—à la Jed Clampett discovering oil on the Beverly Hillbillies. Fleming already had a reputation as dogged and meticulous researcher (if occasionally an untidy one). And he was looking for a method to eradicate harmful staphylococcus. When he looked at that petri dish, he had a fighting chance of recognizing what he was looking at. The rest of us … not so much.

COMPANIES FLOCK TO COLUMBUS, OHIO TO TEST MARKET PRODUCTS:  It’s a pretty good cross-section of America.  John Fund writes that we should think of Tuesday’s special election for Ohio’s twelfth congressional district (which includes parts of Columbus) that way. Though it leans Republican, it may be a useful barometer for measuring the mood of the electorate.

THEY’RE FREE NOW. THAT’S EVEN BETTER: I’m sure I’ve mentioned how much fun Paul Taylor’s Kindle Books—The Big Picture: An Illustrated Guide to Modern American Trends (Volumes I and II)—are for policy nerds like me. Well, they are free now. Enjoy!

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: New York City schools use a Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) to determine which students get into its elite high schools and which do not. Mayor Bill de Blasio has opposed the test essentially on the ground that it lets in too many students of some races and not enough of others. But a just-made-public 2012 study shows that the test does indeed identify the students who are most likely to succeed at their studies.

As always, I remind everyone that you are not doing students any favors, no matter what their race, by admitting them to academic programs where their academic credentials put them toward the bottom of the class. Students learn more in programs where they are competitive with other students. See Want to Be a Doctor? A Scientist? An Engineer? An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances and A “Dubious Expediency”: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students.

THIS IS GETTING REALLY OUT OF HAND:   Facebook blocks ad by Elizabeth Heng, GOP candidate for Congress.

UPDATE (by Charlie): This is the video:

THE MASK SLIPS IN SANTA BARBARA:  In dealing with the plastic straw crisis, city councilman states, “Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.” 

THE TRAGIC BEGINNINGS OF MODERN FIRE SCIENCE: On this day in 1949, the infamous Mann Gulch Fire claimed the lives of 13 young firefighters.

Lewis & Clark had stopped by Mann Gulch and given it its name on their westward journey in 1805. One hundred and forty-four years later, its location in the wilds of Montana was almost as remote as it had been then.

The fire had been spotted by James O. Harrison, a college student working over the summer as a ranger and fire lookout for the National Forest Service. Harrison had been a smoke jumper—a firefighter who leaps out of airplanes to stop remote wildfires—the previous year, but he had decided the job was too dangerous. Once Harrison alerted the Forest Service, a crew of elite smoke jumpers was dispatched from Missoula to fight the fire.

At first, the fire didn’t seem that impressive. Fifteen smoke jumpers, led by 33-year-old Wagner “Wag” Dodge, parachuted out of a Douglas DC-3 into what had become one of the hottest days of the year. Harrison was already on the scene to help. Despite the wind and heat, with their backs to the Missouri River, their position seemed relatively safe as they moved in to bring the fire under control.

But the fire crowned. Now it was in two places. And suddenly, their escape route toward the river was cut off. To get away from the rapidly advancing flames they would have to run up a steep hill toward a rocky ridge. Fire runs much faster uphill than it does on level ground.

Only four made it to the top. Of those, only two—Walter B. Rumsey (21) and Robert W. Sallee (17)—managed to scramble through a crevice in the rocks to safety. Meanwhile, Wag Dodge had a different idea. Recognizing that he could never make it up the hill in time, he lit the grass around him in an effort to create a safe zone that the main fire would pass over. He yelled to the crew to lie down with him inside the zone. But they didn’t understand him. Or they thought him a fool. They kept running.

Dodge survived (only to die a few years later of cancer). But 13 died—including Robert J. Bennett (22), Eldon E. Diettert (19), James O. Harrison (20), William J. Hellman (24), Philip R. McVey (22), David R. Navon (28), Leonard L. Piper (23), Stanley J. Reba (25), Marvin L. Sherman (21), Joseph B. Sylvia (24), Henry J. Thol, Jr. (19), Newton R. Thompson (23), and Silas R. Thompson (21).  Many were WWII veterans who had survived the war, but not the peace.

There was a public outcry over the tragedy. We need to know a lot more about how fires behave and how to best control them, people argued. We need better training and better equipment. And, of course, they were right. We needed all those things; we’d always needed them.  And soon after Mann Gulch Fire, we started getting them. In that sense, the deaths of these young heroes were not in vain. Our willingness to study fire in a serious manner took a giant leap. So, in time, did our knowledge. While fighting wildfires remains frighteningly dangerous, no doubt lives have been saved as a result of that willingness to learn from tragedy.

(My gentleman friend knows that over the last couple of years I have become a bit obsessed with Cry, Cry, Cry’s song about the fire—entitled Cold Missouri Waters. I blame Powerline’s Scott Johnson for this. Scott posted a video of the song a couple of years ago. I’ve probably played it 150 times since them. The Mann Gulch Fire was also immortalized in Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire.)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON:  In general, I am not a fan of royalty (being an American and all).  But I am willing to make a tiny exception for Elizabeth, the late queen mum.  Today, August 4 (at least it’s still August 4 here on the West Coast), would be her 118th birthday.

The reason for my willingness to make an exception is her statement during the London Blitz.  Asked whether she was going to have the princesses removed from London for their safety, she is said to have replied:  “The girls will not leave unless I do. I will not leave unless the King does. And the King will not leave under any circumstances whatsoever.“

THE LITIGIOUS LEFT: Transgender employee sues the University of Georgia, because insurance doesn’t cover “gender affirmation” surgery.

A NEW STUDY FINDS STRONG EVIDENCE THAT THEY DO:  Do law schools discriminate against conservative and libertarians in faculty hiring?

THAT WAS FAST:  The College of Charleston rejects race-preferential admissions policies.  No wait!  The College of Charleston embraces race-preferential admissions policies.

ON THIS DAY IN 1912, MILTON FRIEDMAN WAS BORN: Here is something I find interesting about his birth:

The hand that rocks the economist’s cradle rules the study of economics for generations. His mother—Sarah Ethel Landau Friedman—emigrated from Carpathian Ruthenia (a flea-bitten part of what was then considered the Kingdom of Hungary) when she was 14. She started out working as a seamstress in a sweatshop—an opportunity she was delighted to have. She later went into business with her husband in a dry goods store and an ice cream parlor (both of which she ran). Contrast that with John Maynard Keynes’s upbringing in a prominent British family.   His mother, Florence Ada Keynes, who, like Sarah, was a formidable woman, is most often referred to as a “social reformer” or a “politician.”

It’s fun to imagine how the study of economics (and maybe the world’s economy) would have been different if Sarah had gotten her first job with the government (or if the Keynes family’s fortunes had gone seriously south, forcing Florence to open a rooming house).

THIS WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN, YOU KNOW:  Gender Fluidity Has Its Advantages.

FOUR FIREFIGHTERS NOW DEAD IN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES:  And fire season has just begun.

CIVIL WAR NEWS:  University of Georgia dean apologizes for calling his childhood friend–now a GOP candidate–a “nice guy.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NASA:  On this day in 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, thus creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

DOES THE 13TH AMENDMENT’S BAN ON SLAVERY AND INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE GIVE CONGRESS THE POWER TO BAN HATE CRIMES?:  Here is a quick version of the argument that it does not.

HOMICIDE RATES ARE STARTING TO RISE AGAIN:  Beginning just a few years ago, I started regularly hearing arguments about crime and punishment that I hadn’t heard much of since the 1960s and 70s.  Lessons learned then have evidently been forgotten.  Prediction: This won’t end well.  

“WHO DO THEY EXPECT TO BELIEVE THIS STUFF?”:  This really is a cute video of Mitch McConnell.

LYFT WILL BE BEEFING UP BACKGROUND CHECKS AFTER DRIVER ARRESTED FOR RAPE: This is a real land mine area for employers (or anything that looks like an employer). You can be damned if you do or damned if you don’t. If you check into a job applicant’s criminal record, you may end up being held in violation of Title VII. (Somehow we got ourselves into the position of believing that an employer who wouldn’t dream of discriminating on the basis of race is engaged in race discrimination if he or she checks into whether job applicants have criminal records.)   If you don’t check, and something bad happens, you may be liable for negligent hiring or for the underlying harm via respondent superior.

If you are interested in just how messed up the law is here, I wrote about it in connection with a report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights a few years ago.