A NEW COMPETITOR FOR SIRI: An app named Evi uses semantic data to provide a wider range of answers. “Created by True Knowledge, a Cambridge, U.K.-based semantic technology startup, Evi, like Siri, can answer questions posed aloud in a conversational manner. But unlike Siri, which is only loaded on the latest iPhone, Evi is available as an app for the iPhone and phones running Google’s Android software.”

SUBOPTIMAL: Funding Comes Too Late In Biomedical Research Careers. “So the younger scientists don’t start getting their own direct funding until they are past their peak years of research productivity. That’s dumb. They spend their younger years as grad students and (poorly paid) post docs. This puts their research directions much more under the control of (older) professors who run labs and have grants flowing to them. The young turk with a hunch does not always have the freedom to follow that hunch. Not good.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The Rage Behind A Woman’s Stare.

DISTURBING TREND: Condo Owners Told They Can’t Charge Their EVs.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Home prices drop, and consumers turn gloomy. “Home prices fell more steeply than expected in November, and consumer confidence soured in January, highlighting the hurdles still facing the economic recovery.”

Plus: “Highlighting the difficulty facing lawmakers who are aiming to rein in the deficit, congressional forecasters said the United States is on track for a fourth straight year with a $1 trillion-plus budget deficit as a sluggish economy holds down corporate tax revenue.”

MORE EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF BAREFOOT RUNNING.

RAND SIMBERG: Time To Get Religion Out Of Science Classes.

VIDEO: Election Day Tea Party 2012: A New Beginning.

SPEAKING OF THAT WHOLE “GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT” THING: Obama green jobs program faces further investigation. “House Republicans are expanding their probe into the Obama administration’s energy programs, investigating $500 million in green job training grants that placed just 10% of trainees in jobs, according to a government report.”

AND IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING: Law-Abiding Mexicans Taking Up Illegal Guns.

In Mexico, where criminals are armed to the teeth with high-powered weapons smuggled from the United States, it may come as a surprise that the country has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world.

Law-abiding Mexicans who want a gun to defend themselves have no good options. Either they fight government red tape to get a legal permit, or they buy one on the black market.

After an outbreak of violence, one embattled community in northern Mexico called Colonia LeBaron has begun to ask if it’s time for the country to address its gun laws. . . .

The cold-blooded murders of Benjamin LeBaron and Luis Widmar galvanized the community, Julian LeBaron says. It prompted them to take a stance that is familiar to Second Amendment advocates in the U.S., but one that is taboo in Mexico.

“I think there would be less violence if there were more guns, in the sense that I could barge in here and do whatever I want, knowing that this guy doesn’t have a gun,” says Jose Widmar, the brother of slain Luis.

Today, if the gangsters return, the LeBaron colony is locked and loaded.

What’s really interesting is that the NPR coverage is surprisingly positive. And SayUncle comments: “Maybe ATF could walk some guns to the good guys?”

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: This is Why Your Employees Hate You.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Claremont McKenna Inflated SAT Scores for Rankings.

UNDER THE BUS: “Gainful Employment Rule” Comes To The NonProfits. “Increased scrutiny and regulation aren’t just for for-profit colleges anymore.”

AT AMAZON, Up to 60% off on Luxury Watches.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Occupy support drops more than 20 points in … San Francisco? You can tell that the movement has lost popular support because the press suddenly stopped the breathless coverage. As I predicted, once it became clear the movement was hurting the Democrats, the coverage dried up.

#NARRATIVEFAIL: Tax Foundation: Income Inequality Is Lower Now Than It Was Under Clinton.

TSA UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT: “Instead of screening passengers as they boarded trains — which is standard security procedure — officers were screening passengers as they were getting off trains.”

MILTON FRIEDMAN ON GREED: “Every now and then I love watching this (and things like it) to remind me that we’ve seen all this nonsense before. Note the year: 1979, the tail-end of another president’s single term.”

BIPARTISAN COMMISSION IN FAVOR OF VOTER ID: “Critics of requiring voters to present a photo ID at the polls say the practice would disenfranchise minority voters, and some even accuse proponents of being motivated by racism. They don’t mention, however, that a 21-member bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter, advocated just such a policy in 2005.”

MORE VOTE FRAUD: W.Va. county sheriff, clerk caught in vote probe. “Lincoln County Sheriff Jerry Bowman and Clerk Donald Whitten will plead guilty to charges that they attempted to flood the 2010 Democratic primary with fraudulent absentee ballots, becoming the latest southern West Virginia officeholders ensnared by an investigation into election fraud, federal and state officials announced Monday. Bowman has agreed to plead guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. He is accused of trying to stuff the ballot box in his favor while running for circuit clerk, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin and Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said. Whitten will plead guilty to lying to a criminal investigator for Tennant as her office scrutinized the influx of absentee ballots.”

UPDATE: Name That Party!

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): “The economy did horribly in the last three months of 2011.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Eric Holder’s False Testimony Warrants Impeachment. “Did Holder and his White House masters really think it was worth losing a few U.S. lawmen if it meant gaining public support for the idea of gun control in the U.S.? Are they that politically venal? Unfortunately, the failure of the White House to hold anyone accountable points to just such a conclusion. Either Holder should resign or be impeached, or someone in the White House should. Either way, Fast and Furious is a criminal disgrace.”

THE CONTINUED DECLINE OF RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION: Desegregation an Unsung U.S. Success Story.

As the figure shows, as of 1970, almost 80 percent of either whites or blacks would have had to move neighborhoods in order to achieve an even distribution of whites and blacks within the average metropolitan area. By 1990, that dissimilarity measure had dropped to 66 percent; it is 54 percent today. We are very far from living in a perfectly integrated society, but our nation is far more integrated than it was 40 years ago.

The progress over the last decade has been particularly dramatic. Every one of the 10 largest metropolitan areas experienced drops in both dissimilarity and isolation of 3.6 points or more. The isolation index is below 45 percent in every one of those 10 largest areas, except for Chicago. Long among the most segregated places in America, the Windy City has experienced a particularly dramatic decline in segregation since 2000.

Read the whole thing.

CLIVE CROOK: Federal Worker Pay: This Much Is Too Much.