A LOOK AT POST-BANKRUPTCY SAN BERNADINO: “This is what a blue death spiral looks like. Years and years of unsustainable pension promises, profligate spending and poor fiscal leadership slowly add up until the money runs out and there’s nothing left to pay for the services that keep the city running. Bankruptcy can help get a city’s finances back on track, but it’s extremely difficult to run a city on a shoestring budget, as San Bernardino is now learning. It is truly unfortunate that the good citizens of San Bernardino are caught up in this mess. In the meantime, this should serve as a warning to the rest of us.”

DAVID FRENCH: David Gregory and the Decline of the Rule of Law. “Of course prosecuting Mr. Gregory would have been sad and — on many levels — absurd, but so is the law under which he would have been prosecuted. In fact, if absurdity were a defense to prosecutions or other adverse legal actions, an enormous swathe of our regulatory state would be swept away. Can we even speak of the rule of law as a meaningful concept when we combine an explosive regulatory state with near-absolute prosecutorial discretion?”

COMING: Bendable Phone Screens. I want a phone that unfolds into a laptop, or unfolds halfway into a tablet.

READER DENNIS MULCARE WRITES: “Perhaps, if you can encourage your readers to have their young children write Obama about their angst regarding the national debt, he will publish 23 ways to address federal spending.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: First Nanodiamond Arrays Created By Biological Molecules.

SPRING IS COMING: Markdowns in Patio, Lawn & Garden.

HOW’S THAT “ARAB SPRING” WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Egyptian court sentences Christian family to 15 years for converting from Islam.

CHANGE: The Underdog Operating Systems Set to Shake Up the Smartphone Scene. “Yoffie notes that Android was originally seen as an unbiased player with no hardware or sales revenues from handsets—a software “Switzerland”—but Google’s purchase of Motorola’s handset business makes the software more threatening to other hardware makers, and he believes this is leading a number of them to consider alternatives. New entrants include Tizen, a platform that’s supported primarily by Samsung and Intel; Firefox OS, created by the Mozilla Foundation, which makes the Firefox Web browser; and a version of the free, open-source Ubuntu Linux operating system designed for smartphones. There are also several efforts under way to revive Hewlett-Packard’s critically acclaimed webOS.”

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: What Rights Do Faculty Have in the Decision to Close a Law School?

CHILL OUT. THE GYM IS A PHYSICAL PLACE. Reports of “Gym Gross-Outs.” I mean, some of these are genuinely gross, but others are just silly.

LIKE THE BASTARD OFFSPRING OF A SEGWAY AND A UNICYCLE: One wheel, no handles: Is the Solowheel at CES better than a bike?

AUDIO: Portland Mayor Charlie Hales Doesn’t Know Anything About Guns. Or Oregon gun law. The fun starts at about 4:30.

RETIRED FEDERAL JUDGE JOINS IN CRITICISM OF PROSECUTOR OVER SWARTZ CASE: “A prominent retired federal judge is adding to the chorus of criticism of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz following the suicide of Aaron Swartz last Friday. . . . For 17 years, Nancy Gertner sat as a federal judge here in Boston. She says she was troubled by much of what she learned and saw from the bench before leaving in 2011. And she says Ortiz should not have prosecuted Swartz.”

A SELF-PUBLISHING SUCCESS STORY: Author Writes Own Happy Ending.

MORE BAD NEWS FROM NORTH AFRICA: Attackers kill, injure workers in Algeria; Americans held hostage. Since that Libya intervention, things haven’t really gone according to plan. Er, if there was a plan.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Weight Loss Surgeon Says Chipotle Has The Healthiest Fast Food.

THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE, NOW 400% MORE ALOOF! White House quadruples number of signatures needed to respond to a petition. I wonder if that’s because the petition to fire Aaron Swartz’s prosecutor, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, has already broken the 25,000 mark.

IN CASE YOU DIDN’T WRITE THEM DOWN: A List Of the President’s 23 Gun Control Executive Orders. “One thing the POTUS missed…there is no executive order preventing the Federal Government from selling weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels…everyone would support that one.” Not everyone, apparently.

UPDATE: Summarized.

WATCH FOR IMPOTENT BOYCOTT THREATS FROM THINKPROGRESS: Whole Foods CEO says Obama healthcare law is ‘more like fascism.’ “Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it, and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms.”

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? APPARENTLY THERE IS. Study: Vitamin D Doesn’t Reduce Knee Pain.

LIKE CHATROULETTE IN REAL LIFE: This App Schedules A Date Between Two People Who Know Nothing About Each Other. Okay, you’re still matched according to OKCupid’s algorithm, I think, so it’s not exactly random.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Where the unmarried guys are. “Ladies, they are not on the east coast. Here’s a map to guide you, but of course, you won’t go there. That’s why the imbalance exists. You won’t go there. But you guys, in New York and Massachusetts (and #1, my home state, Delaware), you have rich pickings in the female-heavy disproportion, where you can continue to behave in ways that women will angst over in the pages of the New York Times, which the guys in North Dakota and Alaska and Wyoming probably don’t read, but if they did, would they shed a tear for you? Of course not. They’re out in the fracking oil fields being sweaty and manly…. Oh, the sexy married life you could have together! But the NYT would have you believe the men out there are a bunch of sexist louts.”

UPDATE: Related item here.

JACOB SULLUM: How Does the Sandy Hook Massacre Demonstrate the Need for Gun Controls That Have Nothing to Do With It? It’s like they’re just cynically exploiting tragedy to advance a pre-existing agenda.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Moody’s now has negative outlook for all U.S. universities.

“The U.S. higher education sector has hit a critical juncture in the evolution of its business model,” said Eva Bogaty, Moody’s assistant vice president, in a statement. “Even market-leading universities with diversified revenue streams are facing diminished prospects for revenue growth.”

Can I say “I told you so?” Because, you know, I did.