MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Education Apocalypse Now? The Ivy League Hits An Iceberg.

SHE’S BAAACK: Big Sister Returns: Criticism of My Work Is a Dire Threat to Democracy.

Remember the Biden Administration’s Ministry of Truth? Almost exactly two years ago, Joe Biden attempted to launch a ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ within the Department of Homeland Security. The mission would focus on correcting what the Biden administration’s bureaucrats considering ‘disinformation’ and demand that tech platforms intervene to remove it.

Biden appointed supposed expert Nina Jankowicz as the “disinformation czar” to run the board, and … hilarity almost immediately followed. A quick search of Nina Jankowicz’ social media feed turned up her efforts to spike the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020, calling it “a Russian influence op,” a “fairy tale,” and suggested six months later that it was part of a Kremlin election-influence operation. The next day, John dug up several videos of Jankowicz singing her way through various claims, among other oddities.

Within a week, Republicans in the Senate called this idea of speech control “un-American” and vowed to defund it. A fortnight or so later, Biden threw in the towel — and threw Jankowicz out, too. The very next day, coincidentally or not, NBC News reported that the Hunter laptop was real and spectacular.

After a brief bout of claiming victimhood over right-wing attacks, Jankowicz disappeared from the national scene. Now Jankowicz is back to reclaim the mantle of Big Sister, Luke Rosiak reported late yesterday at the Daily Wire, and wants to silence all critics in her new role, too. Because democracy depends on shutting down criticism, or something.

As a great man once said, “do the letters F O mean anything to you?”

OPEN THREAD: Enjoy.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Russia vetoes U.N. resolution on nuclear weapons in space.

The Outer Space Treaty already forbids those, so this is basically a symbolic move on both sides. But to the extent that the Outer Space Treaty’s prohibition is weakening, the prospects for a nuclear Orion spaceship improve.

WELL, THERE YOU ARE: A Scientist Says He Has the Evidence That We Live in a Simulation. The headline overpromises a bit, but it’s interesting.

Related: Is this the real life? Or just a fantasy?

IF YOU’RE OLD, being fat improves life expectancy. We’ve seen other studies to this effect. It may just be a marker for the people who aren’t wasting away with sarcopoenia, though, rather than any specific benefit to being fat.

NO COMPETITION, PLEASE: ABA proposal to accredit online law schools faces opposition from law deans.

THERE’S AN ELECTION SIX MONTHS AWAY, SO PROBABLY: Should You Be Worried About Bird Flu?

HEADLINES FROM 1890: Rush hour chaos in London as 5 military horses get spooked, run amok.

THE RULING CLASS’S PRIORITIES AND SENSITIVITIES ARE NOT SHARED BY THE CITIZENRY: More Harris Poll: Half of Americans Want ‘Mass Deportation’ of Illegal Aliens.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA will unfurl a 860-square-foot solar sail from within a microwave-sized cube: The highly advanced solar sail boom could one day allow spacecraft to travel without bulky rocket fuel.

21ST CENTURY JUSTICE: Deepfakes in the courtroom: US judicial panel debates new AI evidence rules.

Related: Who can you trust? Did Robert Heinlein have the answer to deepfake photos and video?

EUGENE VOLOKH: Private, Shmivate: Sit-ins, Campouts, and True Threats Are Constitutionally Unprotected at Universities, Whether Private or Public.

NEEDS MORE PROTEIN: USDA announces new school meal standards that call for less sugar, salt in students’ food.

HMM: “After earnings yesterday showed strong revenues but that Meta was investing heavily in AI, they took Meta stock down 15%.”

LESSONS:

In the same month, the Fed missed its target for the consumer-price index; inflation registered 8.2%, some six percentage points higher than the 2% reading at which the central bank was taking aim. Behold physics—and behold economics."

— GRANT'S (@GrantsPub) April 24, 2024

MARK JUDGE: ‘Risky Business’ As Conservative Morality Tale?

ANYTHING TO HURT AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS: War on Guns: Biden Commerce Dept. Will Make Small Arms Export Pause Permanent.

ICYMI, MY LATEST NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Jewish students, come here to the South — where you’ll be safe.

TRUMP’S CLEVER UNDERGROUND PROGRAM TO GET RE-ELECTED WHILE DISCREDITING HIS ENEMIES PROCEEDS APACE: Pro-Palestinian students set up ‘liberation zone’ encampment in Harvard Yard.

THE WEST BANK COMES TO MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: Columbia is issuing press passes, but the pro-Hamas occupiers are in charge of journalists’ access.

YEP: The Morning Briefing: Columbia University Has Become the Epicenter of Insidious Hate.

I WISH THIS WERE FUNNIER:

'Trump Will Receive A Fair And Impartial Trial,' Says Judge As Construction Crew Builds Gallows Outside Courtroom https://t.co/i9cZTi5EfQ pic.twitter.com/AwoFDTowQp

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) April 24, 2024

JOHN LUCAS: Negotiating with Uniformed and Well-Supplied Terrorists (not “Demonstrators”).

This “Bits and Pieces” will discuss three related matters surrounding the current take-overs of the Columbia University campus and other venues: (1) The perpetrators are terrorists, not “demonstrators,” (2) the uniforms they choose show their tribal affiliation with the Hamas butchers, and (3) the logistical support they are receiving from unidentified supporters and financiers. It will close with a modest proposal for action: Sue the bastards.

I agree.

THEY’RE RIGHT: House Republicans back Netanyahu in comparing anti-Israel college protests to 1930s Germany.