HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Harvard’s application crash should scare other elite schools on antisemitism.

HOW COLLEGES TURNED PINK: There’s a bigger gender gap today than when Title IX was passed, but the other way round: Why?

Because of the War on Boys, in colleges and perhaps more importantly in K-12.

OH.

By the way, this is who started International Transgender Visibility Day pic.twitter.com/B3r1srWRO1

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) March 30, 2024

UPDATE: John Lucas on Biden’s Transgender Day of Visibility.

And from the Prez himself:

"I didn’t do that," Biden said when asked about proclaiming Easter Sunday 'trans day of visibility." Asked about Speaker Johnson's claim otherwise, the president replied, "he’s thoroughly uninformed."

— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) April 1, 2024

It just went out under his name. I believe him, since that’s how everything else works. More here: ‘Didn’t Do That’: Biden Denies He Proclaimed Easter Sunday ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’ (He Did).

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: That 1938 Feeling: A Scent of Trouble in the Air.

IT’S THE LOW GRAVITY AND THIN ATMOSPHERE:

Real photos of sand dunes on Mars from NASA. Quite amazing, we don’t have these patterns on earth. pic.twitter.com/MkOj8hyLEV

— Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) March 31, 2024

Or maybe it’s something else.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s mini moon rovers go for a test drive ahead of 2025 private lunar launch (photos).

AT LEAST NO SNAKES DIED TO PRODUCE THIS OIL: Large Review Finds CBD Products Don’t Relieve Chronic Pain After All.

The press spread rather a lot of medical misinformation on this topic.

BECAUSE THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE IS THAT THE NORMALS WILL MEET THEIR VIOLENCE WITH FORCE: ‘Racist Killer’: Why BLM Protesters Are Throwing Fits At Kyle Rittenhouse Events.

HEH:

In Hilarious April Fools Joke, Congress Announces They Are Working Hard To Serve The American People https://t.co/cRh9S9eeL8 pic.twitter.com/6Vdk3mmDbr

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) April 1, 2024

EXERCISE AS MEDICINE: Revolutionary Study Reveals High-Intensity Exercise May Reverse Parkinson’s Disease Neurodegeneration.

DEEPFAKES R US: OpenAI can clone voices with just 15 seconds of audio.

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

REMEMBER THE HONEYBEE POPULATION COLLAPSE? WELL, THEY’RE BACK. “America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.”

But, of course, some people are unhappy about that. Remember, it’s always a crisis, the nature thereof just changes from moment to moment as needed.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Kentucky Joins List of States Protecting Gun Owner, Consumer Privacy.

SPACE: Curiosity rover searches for new clues about Mars’ ancient water.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Moore’s Law meet Musk’s Law: the underappreciated story of SpaceX and the stunning decline in launch costs.

Many reporters, as well as the general public, fail to grasp that SpaceX’s approach to rocket development differs fundamentally from NASA’s. Instead of extensive ground testing and a cautious pace to minimize launch failures — which can lead to longer development timelines and higher costs — SpaceX embraces rapid iteration and learning from failure. Elon Musk’s company views each launch, whether completely successful or not, as an opportunity to gather valuable data and improve future designs. Starship is no different. Its “failures” are stepping stones to success, at least so far.

That iterative approach, combined with their vertical integration and in-house manufacturing capabilities, allows SpaceX to move more quickly and cost-effectively than traditional aerospace players — with amazing results. . . .

Berger’s key phrase: “a world in which launch is cheap and abundant.” It’s worth spending a moment on the revolutionary decline in launch costs, the key enabler of the emerging new space age. As Citigroup outlined in a 2022 research note, NASA Launch costs dropped significantly from over $100,000/kg in the mid-1960s to around $5,400/kg for the Saturn V used in the Apollo launches starting in 1967. After the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the average launch cost remained relatively stable for decades, averaging about $16,000/kg for medium/heavy payloads and about $30,000/kg for light payloads. This was due to factors such as the use of existing launch systems, reduced number of launches, high reliability requirements for human spaceflight, and a government-funded spending culture. Bottom line: There simply wasn’t much innovation or financial motivation to be innovative.

Then came SpaceX, which pioneered lower launch costs with the Falcon 9 in 2010 ($2,500/kg) and Falcon Heavy in 2018 ($1,500/kg) that are 30 times lower than NASA’s Space Shuttle in 1981 and 11 times lower than the average launch costs from 1970 to 2010, according to Citi.

I discussed this change and its implications a few years back in my America’s New Destiny in Space.

I’M A FEW DAYS LATE FOR THE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, BUT IT’S STILL WORTH NOTING: The man who wrestled global hunger to the ground. Happy 110th birthday to Norman Borlaug, a great American credited with saving a billion lives.

Environmentalists aren’t crazy about him, though, since he made it possible for so many to avoid starvation.

MAKE THE RUBBLE BOUNCE: Captured Hamas Operatives Say Group Collapsing.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Travis Kelce’s dad-bod is preferred by stunning women like Taylor Swift, according to science.

Kelce is, of course, a world-class athlete, but he’s not visually striking at all.

Flashback: This article from back when Salon was actually readable.

TO BE HONEST, I’M GRATEFUL FOR THE HYPOCRISY HERE: Biden Suddenly Uninterested in Environment When Uranium is Involved.

The largest uranium producer in the United States is ramping up work just south of Grand Canyon National Park on a long-contested project that largely has sat dormant since the 1980s.

The work is unfolding as global instability and growing demand drive uranium prices higher.

The Biden administration and dozens of other countries have pledged to triple the capacity of nuclear power worldwide in their battle against climate change, ensuring uranium will remain a key commodity for decades as the government offers incentives for developing the next generation of nuclear reactors and new policies take aim at Russia’s influence over the supply chain. . . .

The biggest change is the fact that the Biden administration is suddenly going all-in on nuclear power. That may come as a surprise to parts of his base who have continued to oppose nuclear power ever since Three Mile Island. In fact, I won’t be shocked if some of them start showing up and protesting Biden over this as soon as they finish their pro-Hamas protests. Then again, he’ll probably convince at least some of them by reminding them that nuclear reactors produce no carbon and are thus blessed by the Climate Goddess.

The other factor is the fact that Russia controls a significant amount of the world’s current uranium supplies. They’re not exactly fans of ours at the moment and the price of Russian uranium is continuing to rise. Much the same way that China is capable of cutting off the global supply of rare metals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles, Russia could choke off much of the uranium supply. We have plenty of uranium in the United States, but we haven’t mined much of it since the early days of our nuclear weapons program.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the current progress that’s being made. I’ve been saying here for years that I’m in favor of an “all of the above” energy plan, and that includes nuclear. The problem is that it takes forever to get a new nuclear plant approved because of endless government regulations, so few energy companies want to invest in it. What bothers me here is all of the blatant hypocrisy on display, not that this is anything new. Nuclear power was evil and bad until somebody realized that it might fit in the climate cult model. Then, almost overnight, it became popular. Fine. Do whatever it takes. Just make sure you look into those new small modular reactors that are in development. They really make nuclear power a lot more flexible and usable in more areas. They’re also a bit cheaper.

I agree entirely.

KURT SCHLICHTER ON THE LEGAL CHAOS SURROUNDING TRUMP: “I shake my head when people ask me my legal opinion about what’s going on. My legal opinion about what’s going on is it has nothing to do with the law at all.”

WATCH WHAT THEY DO, NOT WHAT THEY SAY:

The true state of international relations is most candidly expressed not in diplomatic statements but in defense budgets.https://t.co/GMyaiDsQMH

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) March 31, 2024

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U. Oregon professor to lecture on ‘surplus’ white nationalism and its ‘climate obstruction.’

I remember when higher education was supposed to make intellectual contributions.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: ‘Equity-Based Algebra’ Is as Bad as You Imagine It to Be.

HOPE FOR TURKEY:

including 14 large and significant ones such as Ankara (the capital), #Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya and more.
According to Turkish media, this was a surprise they did not expect. (2/5)

— AbuAliEnglish (@AbuAliEnglishB1) April 1, 2024