MURDER! INTRIGUE! ASTRONOMERS? New evidence in the Tycho Brahe case.

AN APPEALING CLEMENCY CASE FOR CHRIS CHRISTIE. This conviction seems like it might be a Second Amendment violation, actually.

ADD A FEW ZEROS AND HE’LL BE READY TO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT: Man Steals $4.5 Million From Columbia University Using Simple Accounting Tweak.

A DARK JUPITER at the edge of the Solar System. “In 1999, Matese and colleague Daniel Whitmire suggested the sun has a hidden companion that boots icy bodies from the Oort Cloud, a spherical haze of comets at the solar system’s fringes, into the inner solar system where we can see them. In a new analysis of observations dating back to 1898, Matese and Whitmire confirm their original idea: About 20 percent of the comets visible from Earth were sent by a dark, distant planet.”

POLITICAL HACKS VOTE AGAINST BAN ON HACKDOM: “Republican Sens. Bob Bennett (UT), Thad Cochran (MS), Susan Collins (ME), Jim Inhofe (OK), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Richard Shelby (AL), and George Voinovich (OH) all just voted against an amendment in the Senate that would have banned Congressional earmarks.”

UPDATE: “It’s all rigged.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader James Hicks writes that Richard Lugar voted against the earmark ban, too: “I’ll certainly donate to his opponent. His no vote is an act of contempt for the voters. Time for him to go.”

HOSPITAL QUALITY STUDY finds no improvement.

IN THE MAIL: From Glen Cook, Starfishers Volume 3: Star’s End and Darkwar.

TIM CAVANAUGH: Is California’s Decline Just More Right-Wing Propaganda?

VIDEO: Freedom By The Pound.

BILL QUICK: Pathetic, Gutless Poseurs. “Switch out your ant-drenched Jesus for an ant-riddled Mohammed.”

FDA: THE CONQUERING BUREAUCRACY. A new history of the FDA shows how regulators entrenched and extended their own power.

THOUGHTS ON THE POLITICS OF WIKILEAKS, from Pejman Yousefzadeh. “In addition to their being no big lies, there are also no surprises–at least, no surprises for anyone paying attention to foreign affairs. Anyone really surprised by the fact that in private, Arab leaders are just as worried about a nuclear Iran as is Israel? Anyone really surprised that Nicolas Sarkozy has been said to have an authoritarian streak, that Silvio Berlusconi is too much of a party animal for his (and his country’s) own good, that democracy is dead in Russia, and that the Chinese are sick of the antics of the North Koreans? Oh, sure, the cables are very interesting, and informative. But are they all that shocking in their content? Hardly; we all are familiar with the storylines found in them. The titillating aspect of the cables is that they confirm what many have suspected regarding the opinions that are held by American diplomats, and that many of the cables make their points in interesting and colorful language.”

There’s not a lot of damage here to the country, but there’s a lot of damage to the bureaucratic establishment. If I were more suspicious, I would say that this is someone’s effort — perhaps someone burned by leaks in the past Administration — to teach the career bureaucrats who were behind those leaks that leaking may be a bad thing, and that a world in which any statement may be leaked to the press is not a world that’s good for them.

ARE WE ENTERING another phase of financial crisis? I thought everything was fixed with “Recovery Summer.”

TODAY ONLY: A sale on Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series on Blu-Ray and DVD.

JIM TREACHER: Libs freak out over Obama’s meaningless spending freeze. The thing to remember is that the audience for lefty blogs contains a lot of government employees. And while meaningless in itself, this looks like the camel’s nose.

PJTV: Poliwood: Robert Duvall: Why Hollywood’s Best Actor Isn’t Very “Hollywood.”

WIKILEAKS: Hezbollah Smuggled Weapons In Ambulances.

JACK SHAFER AT SLATE: Hillary Must Go: The leaked cables make it impossible for Hillary Clinton to continue as Secretary of State.

DON SURBER: Democrats Fight For Highest-Paid Federal Employees.

JONATHAN ADLER: Did the TSA back down?

CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Democrats Should Seek Eric Holder’s Resignation. “President Obama’s supporters should hope Attorney General Eric Holder resigns. His embarrassing tenure has given Republicans a potent symbol of leftist extremism combined with comic incompetence. This nasty blend is symbolic of the entire administration, as shattered expectations of moderation and competence played a significant role in the midterm tsunami. . . . If nobody is fired by the time Holder next testifies, Congress can seek the names of the officials responsible for the mess and subpoena them to testify. Congress can ask Holder why he didn’t overrule these bureaucrats and order immediate lawsuits when non-compliance was discovered in August, and earlier. Congress can ask why these bureaucrats failed to reply to the Pentagon’s request for assistance to give states guidance to implement the new law. Military voters and their families who lost their right deserve answers. It will be a nasty experience for the administration if Holder is on the firing line. Wiser Democrats should ensure he isn’t.”

THE IMPORTANCE of incandescence.

HAS VITAMIN D BEEN OVERSOLD? I’m not sure, but I’m going to keep sitting in the sun, drinking red wine. Why take chances?

WIKILEAKS: Obama lied, diplomacy died.

MEGAN MCARDLE: The Miracle Of Jet Lag.