PROGRESS IN UNDERSTANDING MEMORY: “Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it.”

My question is, why is there so much room? I was listening to Santana’s Moonflower in the car a while ago, which I’ve barely listened to since college, and not only did I realize that all the licks were stored in my brain, I actually found myself noticing when skips that were present on my original vinyl version didn’t appear in the new one. What a waste of brain cells! And yet, I often have trouble remembering more mundane things, and always have. Seems like the storage part is easier than the retrieval part. (In high-school, we used to joke about Write-Only Memory). This might prove a major handicap if people live longer, requiring some sort of memory training. Or we could do what the Google generation does, and not try to remember anything, since you can just look it up . . . .

JAMES JOYNER: “New” Europe Outworks “Old.”

TOM MAGUIRE: The Smell of Fear.

All you need, in Dan Rather’s words, is courage.

LAWRENCE SOLOMON ON OIL SANDS: “Russia’s energy supplies enabled their aggression, Canada’s supply could be the placating alternative.”

USING FACEBOOK TO CREATE A zombie army.

IN THE MAIL: Somaly Mam’s The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “The artistic qualities of this McCain ad completely distracted me from whatever words were spoken or shown.” That’s not a problem that Republican candidates usually face.

A FIRST LOOK at the new Dell Mini 9 tiny laptop.

POLITICO: Crowds Turn Out for Palin. More on that here, with photos.

STILL MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED PUBLIC PENSIONS:

The American Academy of Actuaries is considering new standards that would require local governments to provide two estimates of returns on investments made on behalf of public employee pension funds, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Most municipalities estimate returns on investments at 8 percent, about twice the amount federal regulations permit for private firms, the Post reported.

But, the estimate may be too high. The number of public pension budgets considered underfunded jumped fivefold to 40 percent in 2006, compared with 2000, the Government Accountability Office reported.

Pension fund managers are reportedly unhappy, but this seems like a good move to me. Much more on the story here. The goal of politicians, of course, is to promise as much as possible to government workers so as to get their support, while putting as little as possible away to fulfill those promises, so as to have as much money available to do other things they want to do. Seems like they’ve been getting their way too much. And the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac examples should illustrate what happens when future risk involving public money isn’t properly accounted for.

MORE PROBLEMS for Charles Rangel. Perfectly timed for an anti-Congress campaign by the G.O.P., too, unless I miss my guess.

REMEMBER IRAQ? Here’s some news.

SOMEBODY HAS SET UP A SARAH PALIN SEXISM WATCH BLOG. It’s already got quite a few posts.

Plus, a fake Sarah Palin bikini photo. Nice photoshop work, though. And I have to say that the photoshopped Sarah Palin looks better than the original model . . . .

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey notes another Palin smear that’s exploded and comments: “Just spitballing here, but what stereotypes of naughty women have the media and the lunatics missed? So far, they’ve made her out to be a slut, a b***h, a beauty-queen airhead, and an unfit mother. She’s obviously not frigid, so that smear won’t work. How many other demeaning gender-based slurs can they throw her way?”

They’ll be analyzing her walk by Monday.

ANN AND NANCY WILSON OF HEART are unhappy with the RNC’s use of their Barracuda. But despite the obvious tie-in with Sarah Palin’s basketball nickname of “Sarah Barracuda,” it’s a bad campaign song anyway since, if you listen to the lyrics, it’s about a manipulative phony who’ll say whatever people want to hear: “Smiles like the sun, kisses for everyone, and tales, it never fails . . . . And if the real thing don’t do the trick, you better make up something quick.” At least, it’s a bad campaign song if it’s supposed to be about Sarah Palin.

And congrats to Howard Mortman for remembering that Crazy on You is the best Cold-War inspired oral-sex song ever.

UPDATE: Reader Gerry Daly says I’m wrong: “The song was in response to ugly, unfounded sexual rumors being spread about the Wilson sisters. In that regard, it is extremely fitting for Palin. Honestly, can you think of a more fitting rejoinder to her foes in politics and the media than ‘And if the real thing don’t do the trick, you better make up something quick’?” Good point.

VIDEO: Sally Quinn’s apology.

(Via Michael Silence, who originally blogged it live.). She’s showing her age with that “George Romney” slip, though.

Semi-related item here.

“COUNTRY FIRST:” A fascist idea? Wasn’t that a line from Mussolini? “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” (Translated from the original Italian . . . . “Non chiedere cosa il tuo paese può fare per voi, chiedete cosa potete fare per il tuo paese.”)

UPDATE: Les Jones says it was a different Italian.

FOR OBAMA, an existential crisis?

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Technology Killed Socrates.

BRIAN WANG: U.S. and Canadian Natural Gas Production Will Increase. Good.

BOB OWENS is blogging Hanna.