SCIENCE: “In this study, male cells were found in the brains of women and had been living there, in some cases, for several decades. What impact they may have had is now only a guess, but this study revealed that these cells were less common in the brains of women who had Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting they may be related to the health of the brain.”

MUSIC ON MP3: Classic Deals On Classic Hits.

OBAMA’S AMERICA: Our Future Will be Hunger Games USA.

THE POWER OF HABIT INVESTMENTS:

Let’s take a few examples:

Spend just a few minutes a day studying Anki flashcards, and at the end of a year, you have a ton of new phrases and sentences learned of a new language. Sure, it’s not the same as being fluent, but it’s much better than you were a year ago.
Spend just a few minutes a day doing pushups (even if you can’t do any at first), and by the end of a year, you’ll be much stronger. I’ve seen the same thing happen to me when it comes to lifting weights — I was very weak when I started, and though I’m not going to impress any weightlifters with what I can do now, I’ve made remarkable progress over time.
I started out not being able to run 10 minutes, but started with 7 minutes. Soon I could run 10, then 12, then 15. At the end of my first year of running, I ran a marathon.

Adding little amounts over time makes a huge difference.

It does.

UPDATE: Reader Richard Samuelson writes: “Combine that with maintenance sex and you really got something.” Yes, you do.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: 5 Romantic Things To Do With Your Cat This Valentine’s Day.

AMMUNITION HAS SOME INTERESTING ACCOUNTING PROPERTIES.

FORBES: The Cheapest 2013 Cars To Own.

AT AMAZON, markdowns and recommendations on Valentine’s Day gifts.

NEW WEDDING TREND: “You’re Not Invited.”

AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Remembering The Tunguska Asteroid Strike.

Related: Canada’s New Asteroid-Hunting Satellite.

It’s no bigger than a suitcase but it could save our lives some day.

Canada’s Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, scheduled to launch from India next month, will hunt for asteroids that could strike Earth. NEOSSat will also act something like a traffic guard, monitoring the orbit of other satellites to prevent collisions with space junk and debris in an increasingly crowded sky.

Faster, please.

REALITY-BASED POLICY: El Paso, America’s safest big city, defies Obama on gun control. “President Obama offers gun control as a means of fighting violence, but America’s ‘safest city’ has lax gun control laws, and local officials mean to keep it that way.” They’re not “lax.” They’re “sensible.”

AARON HANSCOM ON WORKING WITH ROGER SIMON: Editing With The Most Interesting Man In The World.

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: An automated Rube Goldberg-style pancake-making robot.

LOWER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Stanford University study finds charter school pupils gain an extra three months of learning. “Detroit school children are learning at a rate of an extra three months in school a year when in charter public schools compared to similar counterparts in conventional Detroit Public Schools, according to the findings of a Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) study done by Stanford University on students in the Detroit area.” News like this will only boost the outflow from traditional public schools, moving us closer to The K-12 Implosion.

“NEVER FELT SO SAFE:” Second Amendment rallies draw gun-toting citizens to state capitols [photos].

IS CAR-SHARING IN YOUR FUTURE?

Liana Hill signed up for a corporate Zipcar account in December. “At first we signed up mainly for the parking, because it’s so difficult to park in Back Bay,” says the store manager for the Ibex Outerwear company’s location in Boston’s Back Bay. The car subscription service is ideal for her store’s particular needs: The business doesn’t use a car regularly enough to own one, and employees mainly commute via public transportation.

Ms. Hill and her staff use the car service for quick, irregular day trips – “Making a Home Depot run for soil and plants, or when we need to go to a meeting at corporate headquarters in White River Junction [in Vermont].” Reimbursement for gas and parking from Ibex when using their own cars for such errands “far exceeds the cost of using Zipcar,” she says.

About 750,000 Zipcar members have similar motivations in their personal use. These are people who don’t need a car on a regular basis, but could use one for the occasional errand – a trip to Target, for instance, or helping a friend move. They pay an annual membership fee plus an hourly use rate for access to cars parked in various locations in each city. Gas, insurance, and tolls are included. All they have to do is share the service with other users.

A useful service.

CLINT EASTWOOD: If DC Doesn’t ‘Give a Damn,’ How Can We?

REMINDER: The Sequester Was Obama’s Idea.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Diet Soda May Be the More Dangerous Alcohol Mixer.

RED-LIGHT CAMERA FRAUD: Chicago scandal leads to shake-up at red-light camera firm. “The chairman of the Australian company behind Chicago’s red-light program resigned this week and trading in the company’s stock was suspended amid an intensifying investigation into allegations of corruption in its Chicago contract. Redflex Holdings Ltd. announced the extraordinary actions just days after board members were briefed by an outside legal team hired to examine ties between the company’s U.S. subsidiary and the city official who oversaw its contract, a relationship first disclosed in October by the Tribune.”

I think the whole thing’s a scam, personally.

MATT WELCH: Republicans Are Almost As White and Male as Every New Republic Editor, Ever! Or a Howard Dean meetup, or an MSNBC hosts’ convention. Or an Obama campaign headquarters.

But the real point of stories like this is as a herding mechanism: To make white people who aren’t Republican feel smug, while scaring any wavering minorities back onto the Democratic plantation.

JOURNALISM: Mediaite: When Crazed Shooters Can’t Be Linked To The Tea Party, Media Shows Admirable Restraint.

ROBERT MCMANUS: Cuomo’s Nixon Game: A new low in cynical politics. “While it’s easy to knock down straw men, it would be far better if Cuomo applied his considerable talents to solving problems of substance. Heaven knows New York has its share — high unemployment, a withered upstate and morally corrupt (and politically corrupting) public-employee unions top the list. Style or substance — that’s Cuomo’s challenge. And his choice.”

MARK TAPSCOTT: Would Lincoln Have Droned Robert E. Lee?

UPDATE: Reader Dillis Freeman emails: “I believe the better question is whether Nixon would have droned Bill Ayers?”