… who are denaturing science as they’re trying to denature everything else … a Microsoft nerd put a nuclear reactor in his garage and invited smart kids to come play with it.

The project aims to reimagine what science class might look like, and nudge dozens of kids into careers in science and technology.

It started with a guy named Carl Greninger, and his realization that tight budgets and fear of lawsuits have pushed out much of the fun, dangerous stuff from high school science labs, leaving “nothing sharper than silly putty.

“I walked into a classroom and I saw a science teacher. And he had a string and a paper cup. And he says, well, we’re studying physics, and I looked back at the kids and I saw the word ‘lame’ tattooed across their foreheads. And I said, I can do better than this in my garage” ….

Great story. Great everyday — or maybe not quite everyday — act of helpful subversion. :-)

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• The newspaper that said, “Up yours” to the Internet.
• A bit of good news from the Supremes — though (typically) it may not mean much in practice.
• This Saturday is Data Privacy Day. Though since it was declared such by Congress, it may not mean much in practice, either.
• Good one, MamaLiberty. Did those guys in the SUV really have curly earpieces, too? LOL.
• Two lessons from the Megaupload seizure. Big lessons. May God (if any) keep and preserve Glenn Greenwald.
• Simon Black echoes the sentiments.
• “Another reason to homeschool,” sez D, who sent this link. What kind of screwed-up society deliberately hides kids’ records from parents while giving access to darned near everybody else?
• “Don’t be evil.” It’s not just an empty slogan any more. It’s a bookmarklet to bypass Google shenanigans.
• In the land of the free (but certainly not the home of the brave).

Source. And just think — we’ve gotten so much freer since Russmo created this oldie-but-goodie!

(Thanks to the feeder of needy Panda bears.)

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Happy New Year — even if it is already old news.

Whew. What a couple of months its been. I’ve been deadlining solidly since at least early November, and though it’s interesting work (art, mostly), I’m tired.

This week is the biggest push of all, so in a minute here I’m going to turn the blog over to MJR (who found and sent a host of interesting newsbits) and get back to work on my assignments.

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But first … some more thank yous.

Thanks to JS and SC at Paladin Press, I got a photocopy of that Playboy article about Peder Lund that I was questing for in vain. Good title: “The World’s Most Dangerous Publisher.”

Even though I belong to (perhaps) the less dangerous part, I feel proud to be associated with such an entity.

Thank you to everybody who offered to send copies of the article or who went out and found clever ways I could have gotten it myself.

More thanks … When I blogged on Christmas eve, I hadn’t yet received all my gifts. Since then, I’ve gotten several more. But not one of the new arrivals came with a “from,” so I’m giving public thanks in hopes the senders will see it here.

Thank you — Secret Santa — for the beautiful book on painting light and shadow with pastels. (I also see that a pad of Stonehenge paper is on its way, which I’m guessing might be from the same mystery sender.)

And oh my. Thank you, Secret Somebody for the handmade chocolates and the unbelievable treat of California dried apricots hand-dipped in dark chocolate. Mmmmm. I know these must have come from somebody who knows my address, and I’m tempted to go randomly thanking people who live in New England. But whoever you are, know that your gift is delicious and is being savored.

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Now, on to the news. Most of today’s items come coutesy of MJR, though I did manage to lift my head up from the drawing board long enough to come up with one or two.

• If you expose unsavory, inhumane, or unhealthy practices in the food industry you may be a terrorist. Does that make you the next candidate to be “disappeared” into military custody forever?
• New AT&T/NSA conspiracy theory. (ADDED: Not new; this is from 2006. Still all too relevant.)
• Just in case you’re not feeling sufficiently paranoid.
• I’m really starting to like Cenk Uygur. For a liberal and all. I might not agree with solutions he’d propose. But he’s one of the few in the mainstream who recognizes how serious things have gotten and that it’s not just about phony “left” and “right.”
• Are guns & ammo the new silver & gold? Some interesting stats …
• Anonymous publishes A Survival Guide for people who might be ending up in a revolution.
• Do you remember the Michigan woman who, last summer, faced months of jail time for growing her veggies in her front yard instead of her back yard? When JS sent a link about her, I realized there’s been no follow-up & I wanted to see what happened to her. Good news: she won — though not without more hassles.
• The veggie lady also has a fine, fine blog. And I call your attention to her very recent series, “The Confidence Game.” It’s about how we ordinary people are losing confidence in our abilities to do things that ordinary people have been doing for centuries. She begins with why people question whether we’re “qualified” to teach our own children.

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Finally, another thank you. That was a great comment section on Friday’s blog dithering about going offshore. Even better than usual.

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