WORRIES ABOUT Iran’s Asymmetric Warfare.

TODAY IN LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP.

AT AMAZON, a sale on Levi’s jeans for men.

TOM MAGUIRE: Orlando Sentinel has two voice recognition experts; I have four.

TEN YEARS AGO ON AOL/INSTAPUNDIT.COM:

OKAY, THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND: I thought the whole AOL acquisition routine was pretty obviously an April Fool joke, but I just got an inquiry from a Big Media guy who seemed very excited about the whole thing and wanted to do a story on it, so I guess I need to be clear here: It’s not real. It was an April Fool’s story in The Register, which I just picked up on because it mentioned me. I’m still independent, and I have, yet again (the first time was in ’88 or ’89, and I think AOL was still called Quantum or something like that) missed out on my chance for big AOL bucks. . . .

Er, that also means that you shouldn’t ignore the “tip jar” to the left on the presumption that I’m now filthy rich because of the new acquisition. Sadly, my financial status remains unaltered.

Oh, and at the risk of spoiling things, I don’t think Bjorn Staerk has suddenly become a Stalin (and Chomsky)-worshipping communist, either. But, interestingly, his April Fool posting is more coherent and persuasive than most of the folks he’s parodying.

A lot of people fell for the Staerk thing.

UPDATE: How things have changed in 10 years: From joking about AOL buying InstaPundit to joking about InstaPundit buying AOL.

JOURNALISM NARRATIVE MAINTENANCE: Lawyers Who Voted for Obama Want His Health Care Law to be Upheld. “It turns out that the only ‘Reagan Administration lawyers’ they are able to quote are Charles Fried and Doug Kmiec, both of whom quite publicly endorsed candidate Obama in 2008. Kmiec, in fact, was rewarded with an ambassadorship for his service.” Not David Savage’s finest moment.

MITT ROMNEY and his running mate Paul Ryan.

CALIFORNIA: Where You Need A Lobbyist To Build A House. “The country’s most populous state is strangling itself in red tape. And if you need to hire a lobbyist to negotiate the permit process for building a home, ask yourself what starting a business or building a factory will involve.”

GREED: Reader Hank Bradley writes: “Today the Seattle Times launches the first of four feature articles, attacking Amazon for insufficient charitable donations by the corporation in its hometown. One of the leads: ‘Despite sales of $1,500 per second, Amazon gives little to charity’. Someone sorely wishes to dip a beak in that income stream.”

Of course they do. Though they’re probably just following the example of Joe Biden. Meanwhile, a note to the Amazon folks: If you’re feeling unappreciated in Seattle, I’m sure Tennessee would welcome a headquarters relocation. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Scott Cosman writes: “It is really amazing how bad the Seattle Times has become. Except for outstanding high school sports coverage, they offer little. This article was basically a listing of people/groups that feel they deserve some Amazon money. The article was sad and an embarrassment.”

I’VE BEEN POSTING LINKS TO GARDENING BOOKS, and reader James Foster emails a recommendation for The Backyard Orchardist: A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees in the Home Garden.

CHANGE: 49% to 38% — voters trust Republicans over Democrats on the economy (which they consider the most important issue). “Back in January, Republicans had the edge by 47% to 40%, so that’s a 2 point shift toward Republicans, the highest since last October. Voters have favored Republicans over Democrats on the economy since June 2009.”

WHEN ACADEMICS are out of touch.

SHOCKING: Biden’s Jobs Claims Fail Fact Check. “In all, since Obama took office, the U.S. has lost 661,000 manufacturing jobs. In fact, the manufacturing sector has taken a bigger hit under Obama — undercutting Biden’s claim that ‘manufacturing is back.’”

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Obama campaign reviewing background of volunteer fundraiser accused of fraud. “Assongba disputes the allegations, but the mysteries around her personal life highlight a challenge for Obama’s reelection effort and other presidential campaigns. The astronomical cost of running for the White House requires an army of bundlers, many of whom are strangers to the campaign. And as candidates quickly learn, it is no small task to woo — and vet — those citizen fundraisers.”

Really. “An Army of Bundlers?”

PERSONAL ASSISTANTS FOR THE MASSES:

Three years ago, Ted Roden was sitting in a maternity ward with his wife and newborn baby when he came to a realization. Between his full-time job as a New York Times developer, the book he was writing, and his family, when would he ever again find time for the small yet necessary tasks of everyday life like booking a dinner reservation? Or paying his electric bill? Or scheduling a phone call with this reporter?

That’s when Roden came up with the idea for Fancy Hands, a team of personal assistants that helps you accomplish the kinds of basic tasks anybody can do, so you have more time to do the things only you can do. For example, Fancy Hands can’t write this article for me, but they can do all the things that might be keeping me from writing it, like calling the cable company or scheduling a dentist appointment. . . .

While Roden is coy about the specific number of requests Fancy Hands handles daily, he says that during January and February of this year, his assistants logged over 40,000 minutes on the phone for his clients–that’s about a full month straight of talk-time. And phone jobs don’t even make up the majority of Fancy Hands’ work; most requests involve emailing, proofreading, and research.

Interesting.

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Simulations unravel mysteries of 2009 Jupiter impact.

FIVE REASONS WHY Syria Isn’t Libya.

AT AMAZON, Easter markdowns in Kitchen, Dining, and Bakeware.

BAD AS THINGS WERE, THEY COULD BE A LOT WORSE: Japan experts warn of future risk of giant tsunami. “Much of Japan’s Pacific coast could be inundated by a tsunami more than 112 feet high if a powerful earthquake hits offshore, according to revised estimates by a government panel. The panel of experts says any tsunami unleashed by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake in the Nankai trough, which runs east of Japan’s main island of Honshu to the southern island of Kyushu, could top 34 meters at its highest.” How do you prepare for something like that?

THE MARS MYSTERY CLOUD, explained.

THAT LIBYA THING LOOKING MORE EXPENSIVE IN RETROSPECT:

Air operations in Libya made it clear that European made missiles and smart bombs were every bit as good as the American stuff. As a result, the major European arms manufacturers (mainly BAE, EADS, and Finmeccanica) suddenly have billions of dollars in new orders. While some of this business comes from existing customers replacing all the missiles and bombs they used in Libya, a lot of new customers have shown up. These European weapons are now “battle tested” in a highly publicized and successful operation. Many countries are glad to see credible competition for American weapons. Competition means the buyer can negotiate a better deal.

The air campaign over Libya also demonstrated that one European missile, the Brimstone, was unique and superior to anything the U.S. had.

Oh, goody.

GARDEN AND GUN: Remembering Earl Scruggs.

REVIEW: The 2012 BMW 335i.

IN THE MAIL: From Milton C. Johns, Patriot Future – Author’s Draft.

MY SUNDAY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN: Don’t blame Verrilli: It’s hard to defend the indefensible.

REX MURPHY: The tale of Trayvon Martin is a tragedy turned into a race parable.

FREE ON KINDLE: With Fire and Sword An Historical Novel of Poland and Russia.

A FOLLOWUP ON THOSE “TAX CHEAT” BILLS: The other day I asked for sightings in the wild. A reader sends this:

I own a car wash and see a lot of currency. “Tax cheat” is very rare but always good for a smile. Let’s say it breaks down like this:

Allocation of stamped bills:

“Tax cheat”: 0.1%

“I grew hemp” cartoon bubble: 0.1%

“Ron Paul” related craziness: 1.0%

www.wheresgeorge.com : 98.8%

So the “tax cheat” guys are fighting the power as effectively as the hemp hippies at this point. You bet that if a couple cash businesses got that tax cheat stamp and really went to town you’d notice in your community, but someone would have to be really motivated to do that. I’m more motivated to fight the very cumbersome dollar coin.

Please no names—it is a bad idea to give your name after a digression about all the cash you see.

Good point. And reader Donald Barnhardt writes:

Glenn – here are a couple of Timmies I got in change recently. These two appear to be rather ‘enthusiastically’ stamped. Maybe the stamper had just finished his taxes.

Plus, a cautionary note from reader Jed Skillman: “Whoa! George Washington is the Father of Our Country…He is not a tax cheat! Who ever is stamping ‘Tax Cheat’ on Tim Geithner bills needs to circle Geithner’s name and draw an arrow to it so the point is made clear to the most casually informed among us.” For the ones I’ve seen it’s been pretty obvious, but a fair point.

And several readers point out that the Tax Cheat Stamps guy is still in business, apparently undeterred by being audited shortly after their introduction.

HOPE AND CHANGE: Democratic mayors challenge teachers unions in urban political shift. No, really: This change represents a new hope for public schools.

UPDATE: Reader Brian Cragin writes: “Gov. Chris Christie does this and he’s a bully. Dems do it and we get an honest analysis of the value of unions. Taking on unions is positive progressive, unless you’re republican.”

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Also, today only: 50% Off LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning System and Games.

GOOD: Opposition claims Burma’s Suu Kyi wins parliamentary seat.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Where Are David Brooks & HuffPo’s William Bradley Getting Their Story Ideas? And why are lefties pushing a (recent) gay-baiter?

WORST EMAILER IN THE WORLD? Keith Olbermann’s Angry Email Trail Traces Breakup With Current TV. “Olbermann never came close to the more than 1 million viewers he had averaged at MSNBC, but his Current show was drawing more than 100,000 in the prized 25-to-54 age group last summer—and that gradually dwindled to 30,000.” Dude.

PETER WOOD: How to Ask A Question. “Events open to public response these days are swamped with people who don’t know how to ask questions. College campuses present some of the worst spectacles of faux-questioning prolixity and inconsequence. In principle, students and faculty members should have long since mastered the art or know enough not to display their incompetence. But no, they seem more and more possessed with a demon of self-expression that has recklessly discarded restraint.”

LOWER EDUCATION UPDATE: Detroit High School Protest: Students Suspended After Demanding ‘An Education.’

SO I MISSED THE EMAIL until it was just un-buried, but Stephen Gordon’s blog post, In The Future Everything Will Be A Coffee Shop, got turned into a more-polished op-ed for The Boston Globe.

THE HILL: Dispute among Senate Dems threatens postal reform before May 15 deadline.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Did Law Schools Underreport Student Debt?

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: My dinner with Nick Denton.

PALIN TO COURIC: Game On! Well, it was Andrew Breitbart who said that Sarah Palin should be the Red State Oprah.

CELEBRATING HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT HOUR: Stately InstaPundit manor is so brightly lit you can see it from space.

UPDATE: Reader Ross Wolfe writes: “Your house is so bright it can be seen from space? And yet you’re still not using up as much energy as Al Gore is at his house.” I don’t ask strange women to release my chakras, either.

TOM MAGUIRE exercises skepticism.

HARTNOLL BROTHERS UPDATE: After eight years, the return of Orbital.

JOURNALISM NARRATIVE MANAGEMENT: Tom Maguire critiques CNN: “CNN pretends to reprise the witnesses to the Trayvon Martin shooting and aftermath. They paint a picture of a ‘fair and balanced’ effort but omit ‘John’, the most important eyewitness to the scuffle that preceded the shooting. John says Zimmerman was on the ground getting beaten and calling for help; odd that CNN missed that.”

It’s still unclear exactly what happened on that night, but it’s pretty obvious what’s happening in the press now.

UPDATE: ‘He Looks Black’: NBC Launches Internal Investigation into Selective Editing of Zimmerman Police Tape.

ANN ALTHOUSE CONTINUES TO CALL OUT RACISM WHEREVER SHE SEES IT. Plus, from the comments: “I really get the sense that last week’s SCOTUS arguments gave lefties a dose of cognitive dissonance that’s taking them a long time to rationalize away. In the meantime, all they have to fall back on is invective.”

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, THE MEDIA WOULD BECOME PRUDISH AND MEAN — AND THEY WERE RIGHT: Newspaper Fires Writer Sarah Tressler Because She Also Worked As A Stripper.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Reader Dave Lange writes:

Re: your post on the proposed Clery Act expansion.

Ever notice how, in all the Administration’s posturing about reducing college tuition costs, the subject of eliminating all of those Federal mandates that greatly contribute to universities’ expenses never comes up? Of course, the diversity machine is the biggest part of that, but things like this don’t help.

I don’t know if diversity is the biggest single part or not, but yeah. Here’s more on that, and here’s John Leo on how even broke universities won’t cut diversity programs.

UPDATE: Reader Robert Rogers writes: “I don’t know what schools Dave Lange is familiar with, but in my experience diversity is a drop in the bucket compared to the compliance costs for things like federal grants and accreditation. Yes, a lot of administrative bloat is of our own making, but a huge portion is thrust upon us. (And don’t get me started on how most compliance exercises are completely ineffective.)”

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals on videogames.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: NBC News Charged With Misleading Editing in Zimmerman 911 Call.

In the NBC segment, Zimmerman says: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”

The full version, though, unfolds like this:

Zimmerman: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”

911 operator: “Okay. And this guy, is he white black or Hispanic?”

Zimmerman: “He looks black.”

It’s as if they’re pushing a predetermined narrative regardless of the evidence or something.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Costello emails: “ABC did the same thing. Aren’t these the same people who accused Andrew Breitbart of deceptive editing?” Yeah, go figure.

NICK GILLESPIE: Stop Panicking About Bullies. “I have no interest in defending the bullies who dominate sandboxes, extort lunch money and use Twitter to taunt their classmates. But there is no growing crisis. Childhood and adolescence in America have never been less brutal. Even as the country’s overprotective parents whip themselves up into a moral panic about kid-on-kid cruelty, the numbers don’t point to any explosion of abuse. As for the rising wave of laws and regulations designed to combat meanness among students, they are likely to lump together minor slights with major offenses. The antibullying movement is already conflating serious cases of gay-bashing and vicious harassment with things like…a kid named Cheese having a tough time in grade school.”

RACISM IN THE AGE OF OBAMA: “Seven black teens have been arrested on suspicion that they committed a hate crime when they attacked a 15-year-old Hispanic boy while he was walking home from school in Southern California, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. . . . During the beating, the teens made racially derogatory statements that were captured on the video, Ford said.”

Following the lead of the folks at MSNBC, I suppose I should blame the climate of hate whipped up by the President and his supporters’ racially-charged rhetoric.

THE HUFFINGTON POST’S UNPAID BLOGGERS LOSE THEIR LAWSUIT and get no sympathy from Ann Althouse: “You want to get paid for your writing? Bargain for it. And quit whining. No one wants to read things written by whiners, so you’re only digging yourselves a deeper hole.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Middle-aged borrowers piling on student debt. “Everybody believes they will get out school, get a job and pay it back. Few really take the time to do the math and decide how much they could afford to borrow.”

CANADA eliminates the penny.

PHIL BOWERMASTER: Teleportation In The News. “The guy who lands on the other side isn’t me — he just thinks he is. I’m dead.”

AT AMAZON, digital deals.

FROM THE FOLKS AT REASON, It’s the Nanny Of The Month.

HMM: California State Colleges and Universities May Screen for Sexual Orientation in Admissions Applications.

I wonder if it’ll work like in this Fedde LeGrande video? Transfer to Sector 8!

QUESTIONS ABOUT Scotusblog’s objectivity? From the comments: “As for the RNC ad, Goldstein’s comments reflect more the tendency of any small, in-bred group to protect its own. Verrilli is a certified, card-carrying member of the SCT bar — he personifies it in his background, current position and likely future career. Goldstein certainly sees himself as part of the same elite crowd. So it’s not political; it’s just a ‘let’s defend Don’ moment. Unfortunately it is likely to backfire badly with anyone not living in the same bubble.”

UPDATE: Related: Legal Elites And Strategic Behavior.

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

ON BRIAN WILSON’S RADIO SHOW, the Insta-Wife talks about negative media images of men.

ER, FASTER PLEASE? Vaccine to stop heart attacks could be here in 5 years. “Scientists have discovered that the drug stimulates the body’s immune system to produce antibodies which prevent heart disease by stopping fat building up in the arteries.” Well, stay tuned.

STEPHEN GORDON: The Medical Lab ON Your Body.

IN THE MAIL: Leading at The Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition.

KEITH OLBERMANN’S DEPARTURE: The Day The Muzak Died. Heh.

BRITAIN’S FUEL PANIC: “Self-Inflicted Insanity.” “The ambulance had enough diesel to get to the destination but they were struggling to find fuel to allow the team to return to Yorkshire to do further work.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE? What higher education bubble?

JONATHAN ADLER: Why Did Legal Elites Underestimate the Case Against the Mandate?

Related thoughts from Peter Suderman.

JAMES TARANTO: Leonid Brezhnev lives. “The presumption that history inevitably moves in one ideological direction is reminiscent of Marx, just as the determination to defend decades-old revolutionary gains echoes the Brezhnev Doctrine.” Hey, if we have a living constitution, that means it can change to meet changed circumstances. Such as our going broke under the old living constitution.

AT AMAZON, Today only: 60% or more off on Barska flashlights.

SCIENCE: EPA Backpedals on Fracking Contamination: Texas Water-Pollution Suit Dropped; Third Recent Setback on Drilling for Agency. “The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its claim that an energy company contaminated drinking water in Texas, the third time in recent months that the agency has backtracked on high-profile local allegations linking natural-gas drilling and water pollution.”

THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE: “A very unattractive descent into tribalism.” Hope and change!

WAPO QUESTIONS: Did the White House Pressure Washington Post to Change Fact Checker?

On March 27, Josh Hicks of the Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave White House regulation czar Cass Sunstein one “Pinocchio” for his defense of the Obama administration’s regulatory record. However, the same article, a day earlier, was far more critical of the administration, giving Sunstein a total of three Pinocchios.

Below (as text, and in Word document at the end of the article) is a comparison of the first (3 Pinocchio) and the second (1 Pinocchio) versions of the Fact Checker article, with extensive changes indicated.

But wait, there’s more: Washington Post and the Rush Limbaugh Memory Hole. Now they don’t mention that Limbaugh lost “fewer than five” advertisers.

The Post — and other media folks — need to realize that this sort of change doesn’t go unnoticed. But I wonder if this means that the White House’s pressure on Kaplan, the cash-cow that keeps the Post afloat, is bearing fruit. More on that here. (Bumped).

#OBAMAFAIL: Obama Campus Fervor Losing to Apathy as Students Sour on 2012. They should be sour, as they’ve done worse under Obama than almost any other group. “Obama came in with so many big ideas and big promises and this mantra of hope and change and something new. . . . I was more excited in 2008, but I was also very much naive about how politics work.”

TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE: Want To End Rabid Partisanship? Reform American Academia. “When you look at the three values that conservatives (according to Haidt) honor but liberals do not — loyalty, respect for authority, and sanctity — these are precisely the values that are flouted in the precincts of American academe. The result is a more impoverished moral imagination amongst students, a stubborn inability to understand the beliefs and the motives of conservatives, and thus the imputation of nefarious motives to those irrational conservatives who do not see things in the ways the illuminati do. If you don’t believe that this has contributed to the partisanship we’ve observed in recent years — particularly the exceedingly nasty way in which liberals in general have responded to the Tea Party movement, to social conservatives and generally to anyone who refers too much to moral sanctity and loyalty to American traditions and institutions, then I think you’re wearing exactly the kind of blinders Haidt talks about.”

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: Democrats In Disarray. “Hoping to spend the week sliming Paul Ryan and screeching about the mythical Republican ‘war on women,’ the Democrats instead have been set back as the news cycle spun out of their control. Foreign policy, health care, and energy have forced them into a defensive crouch. No wonder I’m in such a good mood.”

PUBLIC EDUCATION: We’ve Added Feathers and it Still Won’t Fly?!?

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “MICHAEL JUDGE blows the whistle on the various neo-temperance outfits currently crusading against drinking. My advice to the public-health community: start focusing on things like anthrax and smallpox, instead of announcing bogus studies with the shocking discovery that college students like to drink.”

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KEITH OLBERMANN: The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Funny, but wasn’t it supposed to be Limbaugh going off the air?

UPDATE: Reader Michael Harlow writes: “You’ll hear a lot more in the press about Rush Limbaugh losing sponsors than you will about Keith Olbermann losing his job.” True.

EURO UNRAVEL: The central bank of Germany will no longer accept bank bonds backed by Ireland, Greece and Portugal as collateral.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Senate Bill Would Expand Clery Act To Include Dating Violence, Stalking. “Colleges would be required to track and report claims of dating violence, domestic violence and stalking on campus if a bill before the Senate is passed. While some hail it as an important step toward stopping those crimes, others call it a well-intentioned but perhaps misdirected effort that would prove burdensome to colleges.”

If passed, I predict it will be implemented in a sexist fashion, with stalking and violence by female students against male students largely ignored or excused. This will no doubt serve to exacerbate the already burgeoning gender imbalance in higher education, which these “reformers” seem uninterested in addressing. But perhaps male students will report females who text them 20 times in an hour for “stalking.”

Plus, from the comments: “Statistically, traditionally aged college students are safer than similarly aged people anywhere else in the country…in small towns…in urban settings…anywhere…why don’t they push for legislation to track this out in the world? Why not…because they can force colleges and universities to do anything they want with the whip of taking away financial aid. Every regulation that is passed causes cost of attendance to rise.” Yes, the social-experimentalists have universities under their thumb, the way they’d like to have everyone else under their thumb. Ironically, this is helping to undermine the solvency — and legitimacy — of their main source of support.

UPDATE: Reader Gregg Hanke writes: “If the Republicans want to poison-pill this bill, they only need to add a clause expanding the act to cover Senate interns.” Heh.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Kinde Durkee, once a trusted treasurer to dozens of California Democrats, pleaded guilty in the biggest campaign embezzlement case ever to hit U.S. politics.

LAYERS OF editors and fact-checkers.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Kindle Deal of the Day.

Plus, a sale on Dockers shorts for men.

BLOG REPORTS ABOUT NIKKI HALEY SEEM TO BE LESS RELIABLE THAN THE USUAL: IRS not investigating Nikki Haley for tax fraud.

GOING COMING GREEN: A solar-powered sex toy.

ADVICE: American Men Should Be Upfront About Asking For Sex, Like French Men.

But you follow that advice, you’re a harasser.

UPDATE: Reader Ray Dawson writes that the trick is to ask in a French accent, so as to bypass the oikophobia. Good point!

AL GORE’S CURRENT TV TERMINATES RELATIONSHIP WITH KEITH OLBERMANN: round up of links from Ed Driscoll; schadenfreude from Ace, and an employment opportunity from the Daily Caller.

UPDATE: “Olbermann now has the distinction of being fired from almost every major cable news channel on television – CNN, MSNBC and now Current. He never appeared on Fox News, but he did work for Fox Broadcasting, and was fired from there.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: “Keith Olbermann has been fired from Current TV, because he no longer reflects the company’s values, it was announced today. He will be replaced by a man who cheated on his wife with a prostitute.”

Plus this: “His viewer must be devastated.”

And, “One suspects that this might have something to do with the lawsuit involving James O’Keefe, but truthfully that is rank speculation.”

A CAUTIONARY NOTE FROM DEWEY & LEBOEUF: “In simple terms, it appears that Dewey (a) overpaid for M&A both big (firm mergers) and small (lateral partners), and (b) acted like it was making more money than it was, while not fully recognizing liabilities. One key to the Dewey story is the degree to which the wounds are self-inflicted, so the tendency of most folks will be to say ‘Well, there are no lessons there for us to learn, we would never make those mistakes.’ . . . The irony is that law, which should be managing to longer-term time horizons, seems to be more short-term oriented than most other businesses. When the Great Recession struck in 2008, most companies were able to do a “great reset,” re-setting stakeholder expectations by cleaning up balance sheets, lowering short-term profit expectations and making the case for strategic investments. But the folks running law firms don’t seem to feel they have the latitude to fess up that firms need to revamp to focus on client value, not near-term profits. That’s partly because in a cash-basis business they do have less latitude to clean things up, but also reflects deeper issues for which Dewey is an avatar, not an outlier.”

Related: The $60 an hour lawyer?

TOO CLEAN: RISE IN ALLERGIES LINKED TO WAR AGAINST BACTERIA.

“Allergic diseases have reached pandemic levels,” begins David Artis’s new paper in Nature Medicine. Artis goes on to say that, while everyone knows allergies are caused by a combination of factors involving both nature and nurture, that knowledge doesn’t help us identify what is culpable—it is not at all clear exactly what is involved, or how the relevant players promote allergic responses.

There is some evidence that one of the causes lies within our guts. Epidemiological studies have linked changes in the species present in commensal bacteria—the trillions of microorganisms that reside in our colon—to the development of allergic diseases. (Typically, somewhere between 1,000 and 15,000 different bacterial species inhabit our guts.) And immunologists know that signaling molecules produced by some immune cells mediate allergic inflammation. . . .

It has been well known for some time that IgE mediates allergies. But no one knew that bacteria living in the gut may use it to check the growth of immune precursor cells in the bone marrow. The finding might have wide ranging implications and help us make sense of other chronic inflammatory disease states that have also been associated with changes in this bacterial populations. Commensal bacteria might impact these other inflammatory conditions—including cancer, infection, and autoimmune disorders—through this mechanism, as well.

Experts have puzzled over the enormous explosion of asthma and allergies in recent years, and been unable to pinpoint the cause. This paper suggests that perhaps the overuse of antibacterial products could be to blame.

It’s a complex world.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why You Should Sell Out To the Man.

FASTER, PLEASE: Life-extending drug without the negative side effects.

It was a bittersweet discovery: a drug that extends life but at the cost of causing diabetes. Now the drug’s dual nature has been teased apart, raising the prospect of a new life-prolonging drug without the harmful side effects.

Rapamycin is regularly given to prevent transplant rejection and treat cancer. Previous studies have also shown that it extends the life of animals, but simultaneously causes glucose intolerance – a side effect reported in humans, too.

Nice to get the upside without the drawback.

FOR MARKETING PURPOSES, I THINK THEY’LL NEED A MORE ATTRACTIVE PHOTO: ‘Cyberplasm,’ a Micro-Robot Modeled After the Sea Lamprey, Could Swim Around Inside You.

AT AMAZON, bestselling Audible Audiobooks.

VIDEO: Health Care Mandates vs Pizza Toppings.

LIZ PEEK: Obama’s Folly: Choosing Switchgrass Over Oil.

FASTER, PLEASE: Lab-Created Cells Could Target Tumors and Deliver Drugs.

SEEN IN THE MARKET SQUARE PARKING GARAGE ON TUESDAY, a bumper sticker for a political ticket I could really get behind!

BOB OWENS: The Appleseed Project: History, Character, and Rifles.