THE SECRET TO SUCCESS: Bigger subsidies, paid by someone else.

BIG MARKDOWNS ON automotive stuff. Well, with nobody buying new cars . . . .

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Investigator uses phony documents to get passports. “Using phony documents and the identities of a dead man and a 5-year-old boy, a government investigator obtained U.S. passports in a test of post-9/11 security. Despite efforts to boost passport security since the 2001 terror attacks, the investigator fooled passport and postal service employees four out of four times, according to a new report made public Friday.”

OKAY, A BUNCH OF PEOPLE have sent me this post on surviving the Argentine financial collapse. I can’t vouch for its genuineness, or its usefulness in the event that things tank here, but given the interest I’m posting the link.

A MODERN-DAY Noah’s Ark.

A BUNCH OF LINKS TO resources for self-education.

IT’S AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED: 2009 Rosemary Award for Worst FOIA Performance Goes to FBI. “The FBI’s reports to Congress show that the Bureau is unable to find any records in response to two-thirds of its incoming FOIA requests on average over the past four years, when the other major government agencies averaged only a 13% ‘no records’ response to public requests.”

UPDATE: Reader Mike Gannis writes: “The FBI may indeed be as inept as this news item implies. But be fair — the folks who gave the award don’t seem to have considered the possibility that no records were found because there *never were* any records to be found. I’ll bet the FBI gets a *lot* more FOIA requests from people who are erroneously convinced that the Feds are keeping a dossier on them than, say, the Department of Agriculture does.” Yeah, and those people would probably be disappointed to acknowledge that the FBI just wasn’t that into them. . . Good point.

PLASMA TV’S IDENTITY CRISIS. “The Upshot: Under $500 for a 42-inch screen?” Works for me.

But this Panasonic, which I bought for our bedroom a while back for $999, and which was selling for $699 not long ago, is now showing at $2499. What gives?

SCALING SOLAR POWER TO TERAWATT LEVELS, with nanotechnology. Faster, please.

MY FORBES COLUMN ON LONGEVITY RESEARCH produced these thoughts from John Tierney. Interesting discussion in the comments. Plus, some earlier thoughts of mine on whether increased longevity would lead to stagnation.

TATTOO BARBIE: Harmless, or Harlot?

AN ECONOMIC BRIGHT SPOT: Sales of guns, ammo still high.

SEA LEVEL RISE SEEN ACCELERATING. Hey, wait, I thought we took care of that.

SALT: Nature’s Antidepressant?

A NEW, SUPER-FAST-CHARGING LITHIUM BATTERY FOR CARS. But there’s one hitch: “A five-minute charge would require 180 kW or more, which is not something that’s available at home or any existing charging stations.”

PRESIDENT GORDON GEKKO: White House: Greed will help.

Better Gekko than Emily Litella.

MORE ON THE PROBLEMS OF Urban Czar appointee Adolfo Carrion.

TOM MAGUIRE CALLS OUT civil liberties poseurs.

DEREK LOWE: “The real reason that we don’t have lots of new antibacterial drugs is that it’s really hard to find them, for one thing, and the the bacteria are more than capable of fighting back when we try.”

CAN POLITICIANS KEEP MADOFF DONATIONS? “These contributions all look like classic fraudulent transfers.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Why Jon Stewart Really Attacked Jim Cramer.

EXPOSING CORRUPT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, with Jason Mattera.

THE MOST sexually-explicit TV ad ever?

HIGH-SPEED BRAINS are in the genes.

HERE’S A LIST OF “TEA PARTY” PROTESTS THROUGH THE WEEKEND.