ALAN BOYLE REPORTS ON fusion power developments, including Polywell (Bussard) Fusion.

VITAMINS: What’s worth paying for.

OBAMA SLIPS BELOW 50% IN CNN POLL. “CNN finds that Obama’s approval rating has slipped below 50% for the first time. It’s now at 48%, versus 50% who disapprove.”

CATHY YOUNG: Tiger Woods, Gender & Domestic Violence. “To suggest that cultural complacency toward female-on-male violence should extend not only to slapping and shoving but to acts capable of causing serious injury is not only bizarre but offensive. . . . A review of hundreds of studies, published in 2000 by British psychologist John Archer of the University of Central Lancashire, found that women are as likely to initiate partner violence as men and that male victims account for a third of domestic violence injuries. But Rosin ignores this vast research, much of it done by women, in favor of a single ‘expert’ on ‘the myth of the battered husband syndrome’: Jack Straton, an assistant professor of University Studies at Portland State University whose Ph.D. is in quantum physics and whose background in domestic violence is that of a feminist activist, not a scholar.” (Via Dr. Helen).

NATURAL GAS IN SHALE: THERE’S LOTS OF IT! “Just a few years ago, the industry didn’t have the technology to unlock these reserves. But thanks to advances in horizontal drilling and methods of fracturing rock with high-pressure blasts of water, sand and chemicals, vast gas reserves in the United States are suddenly within reach. . . . Recoverable U.S. gas reserves could now be bigger than the immense gas reserves of Russia, some experts say.” Over a century’s worth of reserves, at least. It’s domestic, and much cleaner than coal. But many environmentalists are against using it . . . .

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: The Jobs Picture Crashes Into Debt Realities.

HOW TO ADDRESS GLOBAL WARMING: “How about we do a bunch of easy stuff first with deregulation and money that is already committed, like making it a lot easier to build nuclear power plants and spending that ‘stimulus’ money on a massive upgrade of electrical grid instead of repaving 12 miles of highway in each Congressional district?”

No opportunities for graft or power-grabs there, so that’s a nonstarter.

HOW TO BUILD A propane-powered metal forge.

TALKING ABOUT THE POLITICAL IMPACT OF CLIMATEGATE, over at The Hill.

HYBRIDS GET THE HYPE, BUT DIESELS GET THE DOUGH: Green Car Of The Year Is A Diesel, Again. “The Audi A3 TDI was just named the 2010 Green Car of the Year.”

CLIMATEGATE: BBC: UN body wants probe of climate e-mail row. “The head of the UN’s climate science body says claims that UK scientists manipulated data on global warming should be investigated. . . . Dr Pachauri told BBC Radio 4’s The Report programme that the claims were serious and he wants them investigated. . . . Jonathon Porritt, the former chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, called the developments ‘very worrying’ because the row threatened to undermine the integrity of the IPCC. ‘Without that integrity, politicians cannot necessarily trust what the scientists have been telling them,’ he warned.”

MORE ON THE DEBUT of the plug-in Prius.

VIEW FROM WEST POINT: We Are Not The Enemy.

IN THE MAIL: The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism.

TOM BLUMER: Three Big Stories, Three Media Disappearing Acts.

JULIE MASON: Obama finds a less friendly Pennsylvania on his return. “Obama was the fifth consecutive Democratic presidential candidate to carry Pennsylvania, and winning the 21 electoral votes from the Keystone State helped him clinch the presidency. But just below the national political radar, Pennsylvania last month held statewide judicial races in which six of the seven contests on the ballot were won by Republicans.”

THE PERILS OF HEALTH CARE COST CONTROL:

The problem with diseases that affect only a small number of people is that there isn’t really much savings in denying a treatment, and the payoff is high in publicity and voter goodwill. The problem with diseases that affect a large number of people is that then huge numbers of voters can imagine themselves dying for want of some procedure, and the political cost to denying it is huge. Either way, I don’t think our nation’s politicians have the willpower to resist those incentives. And so far, I’m right.

Indeed. My take: If healthcare is as important as they say, why would we trust Congress to run it?

SANDY LEVINSON: Original Intent and the White House Social Secretary.

LOTS OF CLIMATEGATE COVERAGE at Andrew Bolt’s blog.

L.A. TIMES: Take back Al Gore’s Oscar, 2 Academy members demand in light of Climategate.

ADVICE ON BACKING UP COMPUTER DATA. I’ve got Carbonite on my MacBook Pro, but it has its limits — I tried it for the computer in my study where I do photo editing, etc., and there are so many big files that the upload was only half done when the trial period expired — meaning that the restore would take forever anyway. I let it drop and continued with the external hard-drive approach . . . .

JOHN STOSSEL: Who Creates Jobs?

THE CBC’S REX MURPHY ON CLIMATEGATE:

Kind of sad when you’re getting more coverage from the literally state-controlled Canadian media than from some outlets in the United States.

UPDATE: Various Canadian readers say that CBC isn’t government-controlled, but simply government-funded with an independent governing board.

STEVE CROWDER: WAR Helps… A lot! (Featuring John Lennon).

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: The Demise of Newspapers: A Market Failure? I Don’t Think So.

UPDATE: Henry Waxman, Meet Jenny Beth Martin.