NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Nanotubes aren’t stiff if they aren’t straight. “Materials scientists have pursued the question of why vertically aligned carbon nanotube forests show much lower modulus values than expected. Now researchers from Georgia Tech have found that the nanotubes they fabricate contain kinks that dramatically diminish modulus value. In other words, the nanotubes are not straight; therefore, they are not stiff.”

BRENDAN LOY: Nearly-Naked Karen Twerks Toward Gulf Coast.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Mini-skirt ban prompts underwear protest at Hungarian college.

UPDATE: More on this vital story, including photos.

THOUGHTS FROM JIM HOFT on his sickness nigh unto death, and recovery therefrom.

MICKEY KAUS: Stop selling Obamacare with stars and pols! “I would never doubt the persuasive power of Michael Cera, or even Kathleen Sebelius, but let me suggest (as someone who wants Obamacare to succeed) that the administration is using the wrong spokespeople. Everyone knows Hollywood is insensibly in love with Obama and will promote whatever he tells them to. And nobody trusts politicians anymore about anything. Their exhortations are discounted accordingly. Instead, the administration should use … doctors. . . . This isn’t like urging folks to vote. Obamacare’s opponents–who have, after all, been winning the debate–have given people the impression that Obamacare will not just be costly–it will be a living nightmare, bureaucratically and medically. A non-trivial portion of the population even thinks it will be such a nightmare that it’s worth shutting down the government or defaulting on our debt over.”

ED DRISCOLL ON the resurgence of “punitive liberalism.”

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A MODEL: Because I’m getting older, my days as a model are numbered – and I’m not sure what to do next. “I’m not out at bars every night doing bumps of coke or guzzling free drinks. I’m home early five days a week putting moisturiser on my face, thinking I’m fat, and drinking water. When you’re a model, you know that last night’s cocktails show up as dry skin on your face the next morning. I might have been able to swing that a few years ago, but not any more.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How the Market Can Rein in Tuition Costs: Align the cost of college degrees with the potential earnings they’d bring.

AT AMAZON, Fall Picks In Men’s Clothing.

Also, deals in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

IT’S POTEMKIN VILLAGES ALL THE WAY DOWN: Obamacare Poster Boy Chad Henderson and His Dad Haven’t Signed Up for Obamacare, Says His Father.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Ennahda, the Tunisian Islamist party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, has been forced from power by an overwhelming secular opposition. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but I had a pretty strong sense that it would. Tunisia is a modern, pluralistic, civilized place. It’s striking liberal compared with most Arab countries. A person couldn’t possibly show up in Tunis from Cairo and think the two are remotely alike. Egypt is at one extreme of the Arab world’s political spectrum, and Tunisia is at the other.”

THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: Miriam Carey Shatters Media Dreams. “The segments and the stories were already being written in their minds, their imaginations went wild. . . . The possibilities were endless! And then came the facts.”

IDENTIFIED: The voice of Siri.

FREE SPEECH UPDATE: School apologizes for making girl change out of NRA T-shirt.

BLUE ON BLUE: Green Activists Picket Public TV Station Over Koch Donations. “Koch, a prominent Mitt Romney fundraiser last year, has donated $18.6 million to WGBH since 1982 and $10 million specifically to the science program NOVA.” Why does the environmental movement hate science? And public TV!

THREE-PEDAL CLUB: Cars That Only Come With Manuals.

MEH. I WAS MUNCHING FRIED GRASSHOPPERS AS A KID: 7 Insects You’ll Be Eating in the Future.

AT AMAZON, Kindle Daily Deals.

I PREFER DIRECT QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT, MYSELF, BUT THAT’S NOT SCHEDULED UNTIL THE IPHONE 10: How Apple Could Boost Speeds 20 Times on the Next iPhone.

PJTV’s “backpack satellite link” — which actually uses a bunch of cellular data connections — already does this trick, but it also cost something like $25K.

AND YET I REMAIN SKEPTICAL OF THE WHOLE ENTERPRISE: High-Tech Advances In Airport Security.

RUMSFELD ON OBAMA: “I Begin With Incompetence As A Problem.”

Plus, journalistic reflections on Colin Powell: “Colin Powell seems not to feel the same sense of obligation. For the Rice profile, I also got to spend a little time with Powell and while I’m not saying he polishes a shiny statue of Colin Powell that he keeps by his bedside every morning, he has jealously guarded his good name, sometimes at the expense of the men he served with.” Yes, if by “sometimes,” you mean “at every opportunity.”

THIS ISN’T A METRIC BY WHICH OUR “SMART DIPLOMACY” EXCELS: Prestige And Power In Statecraft.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 148.

WHAT IF THEY ADOPTED A NATIONAL HEALTHCARE PROGRAM AND NOBODY SIGNED UP? (CONT’D): Paging Federal Obamacare Enrollees: Is Anybody Out There?

We’ve written before that critics of Obamacare shouldn’t put too much weight on early glitches and technical failures, but the problems may be even more extensive than we thought. Wonkblog states that reporters haven’t yet been able to locate a single person who has successfully signed up for coverage on the federal exchanges. . . .

Even Matt Yglesias, that erstwhile supporter of the ACA, who once wrote a post entitled “Obamacare Rollout Is Going to Be Like a Train Getting You to Your Destination in a Timely Manner,” is now saying that the launch was “an embarrassing failure.” On the other hand, Ygelsias also points out the irony in all this: if the GOP hadn’t pursued the shutdown, chances are the botched rollout will be front and center in every paper, and Obamacare would become even less popular. The GOP may have shot itself in the foot with its political strategy.

I think that’s just an excuse. I frankly doubt that the press would be playing up ObamaCare failures under any circumstances. And they did find that one guy who signed up, he just turned out to be an OFA volunteer. . . .