20 WAYS TO DO THE FOURTH OF JULY RIGHT: Plus, a look at the science of fireworks.

BILL GATES SLIPS: “Microsoft founder Bill Gates looks to have lost his title as the world’s richest man, toppled from top spot by the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim.”

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

MYSTERY PORK at the University of Tennessee? I have no idea what this is about, though there’s no particular reason why I would.

“DOMESTIC TERRORISTS” TARGET UCLA PROFESSOR: Another in a line of despicable attacks on science that don’t get enough attention.

BRING IT ON: “North Carolina State University physicists have recently deduced a way to improve high-energy-density capacitors so that they can store up to seven times as much energy per unit volume than the common capacitor. High performance capacitors would enable hybrid and electric cars with much greater acceleration, better and faster steering of rockets and spacecraft, better regeneration of electricity when using brakes in electric cars, and improved lasers, among many other electrical applications.” Still a long way from production, alas. But it’s good that this subject is getting more attention, as it seems to be.

I WOULD HAVE LIKED Summer Explosives Camp. Not sure it’s the Insta-Daughter’s cup of tea, though.

Plus, explosives video from James Lileks.

WHY DON’T AL QAEDA ATROCITIES GET MEDIA ATTENTION?

Because that might help Bush.

UPDATE: A journalist whose name you’d recognize emails:

Yon’s story doesn’t get attention because it is humiliating.

It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., – can’t do squat about such determined use of force.

Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.

So we pretend Yon’s massacre – and the North Korean killing fields, the Arab treatment of women, the Arab hatred of Israel, etc. – doesn’t exist, and instead focus our emotions and attention on the somewhat-bad domestic things that we can ‘fix’ with our DC-based allies. Things such as Abu Ghraib, wiretapping, etc. When we ‘fix’ them, then we get status, applause, power, new jobs, ego, etc.

Please don’t be surprised. We media are an interest group not much different from the automakers, the unions, and the farmers.

Sadly, this makes sense. And this fits the pattern.

VIDEO: James Lileks goes fireworks shopping.

DEAN BARNETT JOINS THE LONG LIST OF THOSE unhappy with Delta Air Lines.

Much like my own experience with Delta, what’s really striking is how no one from Delta seemed to care whether their customers were happy. In fact, they almost seem to prefer making their customers unhappy. Contrast that to my experience with American Airlines.

DON SURBER ON politics and healthy diets.

JONAH GOLDBERG on American-ness.

THE LONDON CAR BOMBS: Meant to kill women?

THE NYT LOSES A CASE: “I might be a little more sympathetic towards the Times if it had not abandoned the First Amendment in case after case.”

WELL, RACISM DOES LEAD TO GENOCIDE:

The former French president François Mitterrand supported the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide despite clear warnings that mass killings of the Tutsi population were being orchestrated, according to declassified French documents.

The publication of the documents in today’s Le Monde for the first time confirms long-held suspicions against France. The previously secret diplomatic telegrams and government memos also suggest the late French president was obsessed with the danger of “Anglo-Saxon” influence gripping Rwanda.

Even when it’s racism against les Anglo-Saxons.

DOCTORS AS TERRORISTS: Dr. Sanity takes a look.

JULIAN TEPPER: “Congress is supposed to make laws, not break them. But that’s not what’s going on right now.”

IN THE MAIL: Glenn Kaplan’s Evil, Inc., which is not to be confused with the Hardy Boys novel of the same title. . . .

A CAPSULE HOTEL: I’ve certainly stayed in worse. And paid more to do it.

SELF-MADE MUMMIES.

HEALTH CARE: WE’D ALL LOVE TO SEE THE PLAN.

THE AWESOME POWER OF THE SUN — and of modern technology: We’re on vacation, and yesterday we went sea kayaking. (Thanks to “scheduled posting” the blog perked on!) The sun here in South Florida is pretty strong, and I slathered up with 30-power sunscreen. I wasn’t the least bit burned even after a full day, except for one small spot on my foot, which somehow got missed when I slathered the sunscreen on. Downside — it’s nasty. Upside — boy, it sure proves how well the sunscreen works. Sunscreen makes such a difference with what you can do outdoors in the summer; it’s one of those humdrum inventions that has a lot more impact than you tend to think. Er, when you actually get it onto your skin. . . .

A MATTER OF TRUST: Bob Owens on A.P., Reuters, and “Decapi-Gate.”

A GLOBAL WARMING POLL:

The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested.

The Ipsos Mori poll of 2,032 adults – interviewed between 14 and 20 June – found 56% believed scientists were still questioning climate change.

There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found.

Ridiculous. Next they’ll be doubting Al Gore’s sincerity.

UPDATE: Yep.

DEAN BARNETT: “As far as the blogosphere is concerned, both the left and right blogopsheres have readerships that are puny parts of the electorate. Rush’s and Sean’s audiences are each nearly 50 times the size of the most-read center right blog. But the blogs provide an even earlier alarm system. If we’re going berserk in the blogosphere, the smart politician should take note. . . . The political class would be well advised to remember that the message that so distresses them comes from the people.” READ THE WHOLE THING.