AT AMAZON, new releases in Mystery, Thriller and Suspense.

AN ELECTION-YEAR FLIPFLOP: Chu renounces his desire for higher gas prices. “President Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, renounced his previously-stated desire to see gas prices rise to match European levels in order to motivate alternative energy research, telling the Senate today that he wants gas prices to fall for the sake of the economy.”

RODDY BOYD IS asking for reader support.

RIGHTHAVEN DEAD: Judge orders failed copyright troll to forfeit “all” copyrights. “The irony of this? Perhaps those who buy the copyrights could issue DMCA notices to the Review-Journal stopping them from redistributing them?”

Make the rubble bounce.

THIS WEEK in the future.

JAMES CAMERON’S deep-ocean quest.

WHO NEEDS MOBILITY WHEN YOU’VE GOT THE INTERNET? Meet the Go-Nowhere Generation. “In the most startling behavioral change among young people since James Dean and Marlon Brando started mumbling, an increasing number of teenagers are not even bothering to get their driver’s licenses.”

EXAMINING THE SPACE MISSIONS THAT NEVER FLEW.

For every spacecraft that rises from its launch pad, there have been dozens that were conceived but not built. For every brave space mission flown, there have been dozens that flew only in the mission architect’s imagination. Most of these missions that never were only progressed as far as paper studies. In a few cases, however, flight-worthy space vehicles have become scrap or museum exhibits. In other cases, engineers developed alternate flight plans for missions that flew; for example, NASA planned (ironically, as it turned out) a lunar-orbit photography mission for Apollo 13 in the event that its Lunar Module failed and could not be used to land on the moon.

In this blog, I will describe many space missions and programs that never were. I’ll seek to place them in historical context, and to explore why they failed to make the difficult jump from plan to reality. Along the way, I’ll write about our evolving knowledge of the Solar System, NASA’s symbiotic relationship with the Soviet space program, and intricacies of the U. S. political process. My posts will tend to run long, and some might be serialized over several weeks. Above all, they’ll be a meaty treat for my fellow space fans and, I hope, a window into a new world for people who have seldom given spaceflight more than casual consideration.

Sounds like fun.

MORE FALLOUT FROM THAT SOLEDAD O’BRIEN BIT: Wikipedia editor responds to ‘Critical Race Theory’ edit war.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMENTS.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What Do Men Think Of “Boudoir Photos?”

REASONS THAT Vitamin D May Matter.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Another White House Event Planned on College Costs. “Another group of college presidents and chancellors has been invited to the White House for a meeting on college affordability and productivity. Details about the meeting, scheduled for March 23, are scant, including whether President Obama will attend (as he did when another group of college presidents was invited to White House in December). . . . The White House has focused increasingly on college costs and productivity as Obama ramps up his re-election campaign, including proposals to tie some forms of financial aid to measures of ‘value’ in higher education.”

HOW TO MAKE ETHICAL ROBOTS.

ANOTHER HAPPY READER: Michael Kauzlarich writes:

I just wanted to write to thank you for tuning me into Gary Taubes. As someone who has struggled most of his adult life with weight, I have been thrilled to see how effortlessly I have been able to lose weight by incorporating the concepts he highlights (15 pounds in 5 weeks and counting – and I can eat bacon!) As a physician, I intend to purchase a bulk order of his books and begin handing them out to the patients in my family practice when I get that inevitable question: “I’ve tried everything doc, but I can’t seem to keep the weight off. What can I do?”

I started a private practice about a year and a half ago, but in the previous 10 years I was a full-time professor in a family medicine training program, and as far as I’m concerned “Good Calories, Bad Calories” should be required reading for every single medical student. Very, very eye opening! Keep up the good work, sir. Your blog is essential daily reading for me!

Glad to help. I recommend both Why We Get Fat and Good Calories, Bad Calories.

And reader Cindy Follick writes: “I’ve been meaning to thank you for your repeated references to Gary Taubes. I have been pre-diabetic for over five years. I didn’t take it seriously for a long time, as I was only a couple of points over the limit (99) for fasting glucose. Last summer, though, it hit 113, and it began to sink in that it was a real problem. I eventually clicked on a Taubes link – I had been skipping over them – and in January my husband and I changed the way we eat. After five weeks, my fasting glucose is 92 and I’ve lost five pounds without trying. Many thanks!” Glad to be of help.

AFGHANISTAN: Obama Loses “The Real War.”

A SMARTPHONE APP THAT HELPS YOU find your way around the mall.

IT’S GREENHOUSE-FRIENDLY! Despite Fukushima, Nuclear Keeps Powering Ahead: A few countries have scaled back in response to the disaster, but many others are building or planning new nuclear reactors.

HMM: New Rent Report Suggests Possible Bubble. (Via NewsAlert).

PEW SURVEY: Liberals Most Intolerant Online. I’d send this to David Gerrold, but he defriended me the other day for suggesting that it was wrong to try to remove Rush Limbaugh from the airwaves . . . .

UPDATE: “It seems my Facebook page has been taken down because someone reported it as fraudulent.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bill Maher’s Media Fatwa. “Since the attack on 9/11, Americans have rightly been reminded how unfair it is to equate the hundreds of millions of decent Muslims with radicals who behead, car bomb and assassinate in the name of Islam. Would that our liberal commentariat could make a similar distinction between a conservative and a terrorist.”

FISKER UPDATE: The Saga Continues: Consumer Reports’ Fisker Karma gets new battery pack.

THOSE STICK-IN-THE-MUD KIDS ARE JUST BEING OBEDIENT: “Isn’t that what the Boomer generation told them to do? Cars are bad. They are destroying the planet. Then, when they avoid driving, we scold them for being — what? — sedentary? unambitious? incurious?!”

SCIENCE: Refining The Formula That Predicts Celebrity Marriages’ Doom.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION? Natural Gas Bill Driven Forward By Harry Reid-T. Boone Pickens Ties.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: Is Women’s Empowerment A Bureaucratic Imperative?