HARVARD RESEARCHERS BREACH STUDENT PRIVACY.

TRANSPARENCY: House GOPers losing patience with Obama stall on Solyndra loan guarantee documents. “A House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee months ago asked President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget for documents concerning a $335 million federal loan guarantee given to a politically correct clean energy firm. Some of the documents were provided, but many more have been withheld without explanation. Making matters worse, Jack Lew, Obama’s OMB Director, failed to clear the way for the key official within his agency on the loan guarantee – OMB deputy director Jeffrey Zients – to testify before the subcommittee to explain why the documents had not been provided. So committee leaders are now preparing to consider issuing a subpoena.”

WELL, THAT WAS QUICK: Gladney trial ends in acquittal.

THE ROAD TO SERFDOM and the Arab Revolt.

CHANGE: Gold Hits New High After Fed Comments.

UPDATE: Europe’s Banks Readying For Worst. “Some of Europe’s biggest banks are taking steps to shore up their defenses should the debt crisis spiral out of control and one or more countries leave the euro zone, a sign of the financial sector’s increasing worries over the continent’s plight.”

Related: Ireland’s Bonds Downgraded To Junk.

STACY MCCAIN IS ROUNDING UP STUFF ON THE CA-36 SPECIAL ELECTION: “How worried are Democrats? Janice Hahn is accusing Republicans of ‘voter suppression.'”

More here.

UPDATE: Official results, as they come in. Thanks to reader Roger Bogh for the link.

BILL TO REVERSE INCANDESCENT BULB BAN fails in House.

There’s still time to stock up!

UPDATE: Reader Kim Sommer emails: “I predicted the outcome to you a few weeks ago on how the vote would go. And have been stocking up regularly.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “The U.S. has an unemployment problem. It has an education problem. It has a regulation problem. And they are fundamentally interrelated.”

BASSIST HOLDS UP DRUGSTORE, still makes it to the concert.

HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT “wall of fire.”

THE IRS BACKS OFF ON ATTACKING POLITICAL DONORS — temporarily. “Whoever gets credit for this delightful interlude, the effect of the investigation was to make an example of high-dollar donors and discourage political speech. By leaving open the possibility of future investigations, the IRS has also left a lingering atmosphere of uncertainty among current donors. We doubt that’s unintended.”

SO MY BROTHER’S BAND, 12 STONES, just got back from a tour of Japan where they visited numerous U.S. military bases. And now their new single, Bulletproof, is out and downloadable for 99 cents at Amazon. It’s also on iTunes.

Yes, Brad’s life is more exciting than mine, these days.

SCIENCE: National Academy of Sciences warns EPA to get its science straight or risk irrelevance.

UPDATE: Reader Sean Gilligan writes: “They told me if I voted for John McCain, we’d have an administration that had no credibility with the scientific community – and they were right!” They usually are.

GOOGLE SEEKS IMMEDIATE REVIEW of Street View wiretap decision:

Google is demanding a federal judge grant it permission to appeal a decision that approved a federal wiretapping lawsuit over its interception of unencrypted Wi-Fi traffic.

The Mountain View, California, media giant responded late Friday to a Silicon Valley federal judge’s June 29 decision in nearly a dozen combined lawsuits seeking damages from Google for eavesdropping on open, unencrypted Wi-Fi networks from its Street View mapping cars. The vehicles, which rolled through neighborhoods across the country, were equipped with Wi-Fi–sniffing hardware to record the names and MAC addresses of routers to improve Google location-specific services. But the cars also secretly gathered snippets of Americans’ data.

Google claims it is was not a breach of the Wiretap Act to intercept data from unencrypted, or non-password-protected Wi-Fi networks. Google said open Wi-Fi networks are akin to “radio communications” like AM/FM radio, citizens’ band and police and fire bands, and are “readily accessible” to the general public — a position rejected by U.S. District Judge James Ware.

More at the link.

KENNETH ANDERSON: Robotics As Social And Legal Policy.

WHAT IT’S LIKE giving birth to a 16-pound baby.

STATE OF THE CULTURE: An interview with James Lileks.

A HOUSING BUBBLE, A HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE, AND NOW . . . A BURGER BUBBLE? “Michelle Obama invested heavily in burgers. I’m thinking it’s time to short them.”

FASTER, PLEASE: Desalinating Seawater With Minimal Energy Use.

FROM INSTAPUNDIT READER JAMES BECKER TO MICHELE BACHMANN’S EAR? Bachmann would consider debt limit increase — in exchange for Obamacare repeal.

HUMANITY IN THE LAW: Law Student Offers To Donate Kidney To Lawprof’s Daughter.

OBAMA: PASS MY DEBT CEILING OR I’LL STARVE GRANDMA.

UPDATE: Reader David Gulliver emails: “They told me if I voted for John McCain . . . the President would stop paying social security to our most vulnerable elderly and disabled Americans – and they were right!”

Related: The U.S. Treasury Will Not Default If Debt Ceiling Isn’t Raised: “I’m afraid Secretary Geithner and others in government are doing the moral equivalent of yelling ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater and they are doing so for political reasons rather than financial reasons. . . . If we do not raise the debt ceiling by August 2nd, we will not default on Treasury obligations. Nor, will we have trouble making Social Security payments.” Unless the President orders them stopped. Though it’s not clear that Treasury can stop.

Plus, an open thread on debt-ceiling bargaining.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on patio furniture, etc.

POLIWOOD: C’est Bon? The Legacy of French Cinema.