NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Rational design of peptoids: a route to advanced nanotechnology?

IT SEEMED LIKE IT WAS THERE, BUT WHEN WE TOOK A CLOSER LOOK — NOPE! Scientists Cast Doubt On Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.

SAY, HOW COME WE’RE NOT HEARING ABOUT GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JILL STEIN?

CHANGE: Northeastern Republicans Show Signs Of Life.

Connecticut might be the last place you’d expect Republicans to pick up a U.S. Senate seat this November, but it may happen. In the race for retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman’s seat, Linda McMahon, the co-founder of the highly profitable World Wrestling Entertainment, leads Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy by three points, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.

Those numbers terrify Democrats, so much so that at the party’s convention in Charlotte, N.C., this week they frantically shuttled Mr. Murphy around town to meet deep-pocket Democratic donors.

Connecticut hasn’t had a Republican senator in modern times—with the exception of Lowell Weicker, who was so liberal that the Democratic Mr. Lieberman unseated him in 1988 by running to his right. Barack Obama carried the state by 23 points in 2008.

But Nutmeg State voters today are cranky, and even Mr. Obama is up only seven points on Mitt Romney in the latest Quinnipiac poll. One reason for their angst is tax-happy Gov. Dannel Malloy, who has raised income, sales and 70 other taxes and fees while insisting that taxpayers would be glad to pay the higher charges. They haven’t been—in part because the budget remains steeped in red ink and the unemployment rate remains persistently above the national average. Barron’s recently rated Connecticut the worst-run state in the country.

Hard to believe that the state that gave us Chris Dodd could have sunk to such depths. . . .

A HANDS-ON REVIEW of the just-announced Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

MANCESSION UPDATE: Why is the participation rate of men in the workforce so low?

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals on Pet Products.

Also, today only: $1.99 Kindle Romance Novels.

THE HILL: FCC Backpedals From Internet Tax Proposal. “The Federal Communications Commission is rapidly backpedalling from a proposal to tax broadband Internet service after a public outcry over the issue. Democrats and Republicans at the agency are now blaming each other for pushing the idea in the first place.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Once A Student, Now Dogged By Collection Agencies.

At a protest last year at New York University, students called attention to their mounting debt by wearing T-shirts with the amount they owed scribbled across the front — $90,000, $75,000, $20,000. On the sidelines was a business consultant for the debt collection industry with a different take.

“I couldn’t believe the accumulated wealth they represent — for our industry,” the consultant, Jerry Ashton, wrote in a column for a trade publication, InsideARM.com. “It was lip-smacking.”

Though Mr. Ashton says his column was meant to be ironic, it nonetheless highlighted undeniable truths: many borrowers are struggling to pay off their student loans, and the debt collection industry is cashing in.

As the number of people taking out government-backed student loans has exploded, so has the number who have fallen at least 12 months behind in making payments — about 5.9 million people nationwide, up about a third in the last five years.

How’s that hopey-changey stuff workin’ out for ya? Alas, there’s not much to be done for these poor students. But, for future students, a helpful resource.

CONN CARROLL: The Obama Recovery Is Rapidly Descending Into The Obama Recession.

While U.S. employers did create 96,000 jobs last month, 368,000 Americans lost hope of finding a job and stopped looking for work entirely. Or as Paul Ryan said on CNBC, “For every net job created, nearly four people left the workforce.” Obama has now presided over a record 43 months of unemployment above 8 percent. . . .

In fact, as the chart below shows, the U.S. economy actually lost jobs according to the survey the Labor Department uses to calculate the unemployment rate. And not for the first time. The U.S. workforce has declined for each of the last two months as has the number of employed Americans. The Obama recovery is rapidly descending into the Obama recession.

I’m not sure there ever really was a recovery.

UPDATE: Whistling Past The Graveyard At The Democratic National Convention. “The current state of the Democratic Party is both the natural consequence of a longtime trend and the reflection of a president who is tragically unequipped to do his job.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): AP: War-weary US is numbed to drumbeat of troop deaths. Also, with a Democrat in the White House they don’t get nearly as much attention.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Mr. Reynolds, I read your item on the AP moaning over lack of interest among journos over the Afghani campaign, and noticed that the writer mentioned “grim milestones such as 1,000 and 2,000 dearths” — but then failed to give a current death-total.

To me, more telling was, how many died on Bush’s watch, and how many under [Obama]?

You can guess based on how much attention the numbers are getting . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Senator Blutarsky emails: “Since You Asked – Afghanistan Losses Under Obama More Than Twice Those Under Bush.”

PHOTO: Corporations aren’t people, but the DNC was certainly happy to have their money.

AND RIGHTLY SO: Asia Sees Blue Social Model as a Cautionary Tale. “Over the past few decades, rising countries in Asia have looked to American and European systems of social services as something more or less to aspire to. But as both the U.S. and European safety nets fray under staggering budget deficits, unfulfilled promises to public-sector workers, and unsustainable healthcare costs, countries like China and India are realizing that they may need to find alternatives to the blue social model.”

RAND SIMBERG: The Obama Campaign’s New False Narrative: Was fixing the economic mess really too big a job for any president? Obama didn’t simply fail to fix the economic mess. He made it worse.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

Heh.

OBAMANOMICS: 173k New Food Stamp Recipients, 96k New Jobs.

FORBES: Jeff Bezos And The End Of Powerpoint As We Know It.

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Parley writes: “After I’d read the Jeff Bezos Forbes article, it struck me: in two weeks not one pol gave a speech during the conventions using these techniques. Imagine if he/she had!”

THIS SHOULD REVEAL A BUNCH OF NEW FEDERALISM FANS: Paul Ryan: States Have the Right To Legalize Medical Marijuana.

TROLLING: In Which Dave Weigel Forgets He Was a Member of JournoList.

AND I THOUGHT IT WAS “SWORDFISH.” Ed Driscoll: The Password Is “Trolling.”

MORT ZUCKERMAN: These Jobless Numbers Are Even Worse Than They Look.

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals in Blu-Ray and DVD.

#OBAMAISNTWORKING: White House to miss deadline for report on ‘fiscal cliff’ budget cuts.

WELL, MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA HAS HAD OTHER PRIORITIES: Bed Bugs Confirmed at L.A. Central Library. Hmm. Kindle books looking better. . . .