HE WILL BE MISSED: Steve Jobs Has Died.

UPDATE: And read this from Virginia Postrel.

WINNERS OF THE 2011 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.

OCCUPY HOLLYWOOD & VINE! Reader Paul Schauder writes:

In this month’s Vanity Fair, Johnny Depp admits he’s overpaid. Roughly $300 MM from the Pirates series.

Coincidentally there’s a lawsuit being filed against a studio by unpaid interns for exploitation and breach of contract I think.

Anyway, maybe this is a good time to create a law stating that no-one involved with the making of a movie can make more than 10x the lowest person’s salary.

And that all participants must have an equal share of profits.

Maybe we should Occupy Hollywood and Vine.

I like it. Somebody needs to come up with a “worker-friendly” labor law reform package for the motion picture industry, and attach it to everything. It can go along with my list of Hollywood-related revenue-enhancement measures.

UPDATE: Reader Martin Kunert writes: “Big difference: Hollywood never asked for a bail-out.” My response: Yes they did — in the form of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the DMCA. His reply: “That is true.”

SARAH PALIN NOT RUNNING. Audio of her interview today breaking the news to Mark Levin at the Daily Caller.

ARE WE LIVING IN an era of stagnation?

MORE PRIZES, PLEASE: Electric Airplane Wins $1.35 Million Prize From NASA. “NASA announced this week it has awarded the $1.35 million prize for its CAFE Green Flight Challenge to the team from Pipistrel-USA.com. The twin-fuselage, four-seat electric airplane beat out the eGenius team from Germany during two competition days held last week at the Sonoma County Airport in California. The eGenius team will take home $120,000 for second place and another $10,000 for a separate competition from the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize for the quietest aircraft during the week.”

DO MENOPAUSAL WOMEN represent an evolutionary shift?

All I can say is that if a man wrote a piece like this, it would be received differently, if it were published at all. On the other hand, who can hate a game called “Stuff It, Barbara Ehrenreich?”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Americans Have No Choice But To Get More Frugal.

A RESPONSE to some Occupy Wall Street demands.

My question is, why aren’t they presenting their demands to President Goldman Sachs at the White House? Where do they think Obama’s campaign donations came from? Who has gotten rich — and bailed out — under his Administration?

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Senate Democrats Rewrite Obama’s Jobs Bill: “Senate Democrats are scrambling to rewrite portions of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill as they seek elusive party unity around the measure even as Obama tries to pin the blame squarely on Republicans for Congress’ failure to act. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell moved to call the president’s bluff Tuesday by pushing for a quick Senate vote on the bill, but Democratic leader Harry Reid derailed the effort as all sides maneuvered for position in a potentially defining battle in the 2012 presidential campaign.”

The one thing that’s certain is that no jobs will be created, though a few politicians hope that their jobs will be saved. . . .

SECURITY: Smart Gadgets Are Like Sleeper Cells In Your Kitchen. “Once a device is hooked up to an energy management system, things get interesting. Did you realize, for example, that your refrigerator’s ice maker’s defrost cycle can be shifted to another time of day by your utility in order to drive down power use during times of peak demand?”

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Sports & Outdoors.

GREEN FAIL (CONT’D): Dept of Labor IG: Obama’s green-jobs training program a flop. “A $500 million green jobs program at the Department of Labor has so far provided only 15 percent of current participants with jobs, leading the agency’s inspector general to recommend that the bulk of the money be returned to the Treasury.”

COVERING THE WHITE HOUSE, OR COVERING FOR THE WHITE HOUSE? Is CBS Silencing Its Fast And Furious Reporter Due To White House Pressure?

GREEN FAIL: U.S. unlikely to hit Renewable Fuel Standard for cellulosic biofuels: report. “There are no commercially viable biorefineries for cellulosic ethanol today.” Seems like they were a little optimistic in setting these targets.

WASHINGTON POST: Opposition to Obama grows — strongly.

Four in 10 Americans “strongly” disapprove of how President Obama is handling the job of president in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll, the highest that number has risen during his time in office and a sign of the hardening opposition to him as he seeks a second term.

While the topline numbers are troubling enough, dig deeper into them and the news gets no better for Obama. Forty-three percent of independents — a group the president spent the better part of the last year courting — strongly disapprove of the job he is doing. Forty-seven percent of people 65 years of age and older — reliable voters in any election — strongly disapprove of how he is doing his job.

Strong opposition to Obama has grown markedly since the start of the year.

Well, he took a bad economy and made it worse, all while seeming contemptuous of ordinary workers. That’s not a recipe for electoral success.

HMM: Alzheimer’s Might Be Transmissible in Similar Way as Infectious Prion Diseases, Research Suggests. “Researchers injected the brain tissue of a confirmed Alzheimer’s patient into mice and compared the results to those from injected tissue of a control without the disease. None of the mice injected with the control showed signs of Alzheimer’s, whereas all of those injected with Alzheimer’s brain extracts developed plaques and other brain alterations typical of the disease.”

CONFRONTING THE COST OF HEALTH CARE: “One of the major factors contributing to the general feeling that people aren’t as well off as they used to be is that they are consuming more and more of their income as health benefits. Though there’s obviously controversy over how much of this represents real gains, there’s no question that a lot of it is an actual material improvement in peoples’ lives. . . . The problem is that people don’t feel richer. In part that’s because the costs are hidden–employers rarely tell you how much health care you’re being ‘paid’ with–and in part it’s because almost all of our health care compensation consists of embedded options, rather than direct consumption.”

GEORGE PRIEST is now blogging for Forbes.

F.I.R.E. OFFERS PRAISE: Getting It Right: Dean of George Mason Law Sets Excellent Example.

CARS: With plug-in sales, GM and Nissan aren’t competing, they’re learning.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Indict Eric Holder. “A major-league pitcher was indicted for lying to Congress about steroid use. Administration memos show Eric Holder lied about what he knew about Fast and Furious and when he knew it. What’s the difference?”

Plus this: “Somewhere, Scooter Libby must be scratching his head. He was indicted and convicted simply because his recall of when a meeting occurred differed from others. He didn’t lie about a gun-running operation that led to the deaths of two American agents and at least 200 Mexicans. But Attorney General Eric Holder did, according to memos obtained by CBS News and Fox News.”

UPDATE: “Accessories to murder.”

BROADCASTING ADVICE from Dave Foulk.

LARA LOGAN MIGHT WANT TO LEAVE TOWN: “Tahrir Envy” Meets “Tea Party Envy” on Wall Street.

IN NASHVILLE ON SATURDAY, a rally to support Gibson Guitars.