MICKEY KAUS: “I suspect Obama is indeed pursuing a legacy of lasting power — he’d be foolish not to — but why shouldn’t it be power to get done what Obama wants to get done, as opposed to what his presidential successors want to get done? Does he want to empower Ted Cruz?”

YEARS BEHIND DICK CHENEY, AND DAYS BEHIND ROB PORTMAN: Hillary Clinton — at long last — endorses same-sex marriage. I wonder if she ran her statement by Huma Abedin.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Oregon professor fired for bizarre tirade, allegedly threatening student protesters.

MAYBE HE WAS JUST TRYING TO AVOID OBAMACARE: FBI arrests NASA contractor employee trying to flee to China. “Bo Jiang, the Chinese national scientist employed by a NASA contractor for work at the space agency’s Langley Research Center, was arrested Sunday by the FBI at Dulles International Airport as he tried to flee to China, according to Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA. Wolf said during a Capitol Hill news conference today that Jiang’s work at the NASA facility had given him access to information that ‘would be of the greatest interest to foreign spies, including China.'”

UPDATE: Related: Defense contractor charged with sharing top secret information. “According to the affidavit, between May 2011 through December 2012, Bishop willfully communicated classified national defense information on multiple occasions to Person 1, an individual not entitled to receive such information. The affidavit alleges that Person 1 is a 27-year-old female citizen of the People’s Republic of China who is residing in the United States on a visa and who does not possess, nor has ever possessed, a U.S. security clearance, and thus is not entitled to receive U.S. classified information.”

LESLIE EASTMAN: “The women’s studies crowd looked constipated.”

MAGPUL INDUSTRIES: If Hickenlooper Signs The Gun Bill Wednesday, We’re Leaving Colorado.

Hey, Magpul — come to Tennessee! No state income tax, lower property taxes, a gun-friendly environment and workforce. You’ll love it!

HMM: Hacker Begins Distributing Confidential Memos Sent To Hillary Clinton On Libya, Benghazi Attack. Based on the Sid Blumenthal hack: “As TSG reported last week, after Blumenthal’s e-mail account was compromised, the hacker searched it for e-mails sent to Clinton, and further sorted the mail to segregate any attachment–like Word files–that were included in Blumenthal’s correspondence to Clinton. Many of these pilfered documents were memos to Clinton on foreign policy and intelligence matters.”

PROTECTING THE SUBMARINE CABLES that wire our world.

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Savings account seizure plan draws fury in Cyprus.

If I were a Republican in Congress, I’d introduce a bill — tomorrow! — banning, and, in fact, criminalizing, such seizures in the United States. That would be popular, and if the Democrats were dumb enough to oppose it, it would make people wonder what they were up to.

UPDATE: The EU Crosses the Rubicon; How Far Behind Is the US?

I RAN ACROSS this piece on Silicon Valley by Virginia Postrel from 1997 recently. It’s still worth a read. Though I think Silicon Valley is looking more and more like the Establishment now. Call it Detroit circa 1939.

AT AMAZON, Up to 51% off select episodes of Star Trek.

THE OTHER MARRIAGE INEQUALITY: My USA Today column for tomorrow is up.

RING OF BITCOINS: Why Your Digital Wallet Belongs On Your Finger.

Shrem’s hackers made off with a big pile of Bitcoins, but there was a much larger pile — about one-third of Shrem’s total Bitcoin savings — that they couldn’t touch. That’s the pile he keeps on his finger.

About a month ago, Shrem bought a brand new netbook online (from Bitcoinstore, naturally). Without plugging it into the internet, he installed a program called Vanitygen, which generated both a Bitcoin address (a cryptic set of numbers and letters that people could use to give Shrem Bitcoins) and a private key (a longer, cryptic set of numbers and letters needed to give Shrem’s Bitcoins to anyone else).

Then Shrem asked his father, a jeweler, engrave the private key on a ring. Yes, a physical ring he could slip onto his finger. “I took the key, and I literally called my father and said it to him over the phone,” Shrem remembers. “He wrote it down on a piece of paper. In his factory here in New York City, he has a jewelry engraver. He took a piece of silver, and he engraved it into a ring.”

Well, he engraved most of it into the ring. To add a little extra security, Shrem had his father leave out one of the digits from the private key. That’s stored in Shrem’s head — and only his head.

You see, Shrem — like many other Bitcoin traders — doesn’t trust digital copies of this most digital of currencies. “Even if all of your assets are in Bitcoins, you have to diversify them,” he says. “Twenty percent you should keep on your computer. The rest should be kept in cold storage.”

Cold storage can mean an encrypted USB drive, a computer that is not connected to the internet, a piece of paper, or some other physical medium. Shrem puts his on a ring, but other Bitcoiners are using paper — or even physical coins.

Not a bad approach.

WELL, YES: Maher: Bloomberg’s Ban On Sodas “Makes Liberals Look Bad.” “I think this is what makes liberals look bad. This is what makes liberals look like elitist bullies who think they know everything and can tell people what to do.”

WELL, THAT WOULD BE NICE: New FDA Proposal May Someday Save Your Brain.

JENNIFER RUBIN: EXCLUSIVE: Priebus on RNC report.

YOU GET MORE OF WHAT YOU REWARD, AND LESS OF WHAT YOU PUNISH. HOW HAS “MANLINESS” BEEN TREATED OVER THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES? Modern Manliness and the Perpetual State of Low Expectations.

Related: The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in Home & Kitchen.

Also, coupons on groceries.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Merit Scholarships: 69% of Students Retain Them, 47% of Law Schools Fail to Comply With ABA Disclosure Rules.

COMMUNICATIONS: The Power Of Touch.

THOUGHTS ON THE FINDING OF ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN ANCIENT MUMMIES: “The more important point is that atherosclerosis does not equal heart attack. Atherosclerosis is an important risk factor, but extensive cardiac autopsy studies have suggested that traditional cultures with near-zero heart attack incidence have coronary atherosclerosis. Although they tend to have less atherosclerosis than industrial populations when adjusted for age, differences in atherosclerosis alone cannot explain their remarkable resistance to heart attacks: other factors must be involved. These could include the tendency of the blood to clot, the tendency of atherosclerotic plaque to rupture, and perhaps the diameter of the coronary vessels. Some have used the mummy paper to argue the view that it’s silly to try to eat like our ancestors because they got sick just like we do. The paper does not support this view, for two reasons. First, as I said previously, atherosclerosis is not the only risk factor for heart attacks, and we have extensive cardiac autopsy data from multiple non-industrial cultures indicating that the actual rate of heart attacks was very low, even when adjusted for age. And second, although arterial calcification was common in all cultures represented by the mummies, it was less common in the coronary arteries, where it matters most for heart attack risk. . . . The mummy data do not overturn our thinking about atherosclerosis; they simply confirm what we already knew from other sources: developing atherosclerosis with age is part of being human, but the modern diet and lifestyle increase its severity, particularly in the coronary arteries, contributing to a higher risk of heart attack.”

SCIENCE: Scientists Resurrect Bonkers Extinct Frog That Gives Birth Through Its Mouth.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: School Board To Consider Layoffs Tomorrow. “If approved, one principal, 20 certified teachers, and 19 non-certified personnel would be laid off. The district would also reduce travel costs and spend less on staff development, supplies, computers, printers and furniture. The move would save nearly $2.5-million.”

Related: If you missed it over the weekend, The K-12 Implosion got a really nice review from Walter Russell Mead.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Tom Perez: What You Need To Know About the Most Radical Cabinet Nominee.

HISTORY CHANNEL: Hey, sorry about that whole Obama/Satan thing.