U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson has struck down the Obama administration’s mandatory health care coverage provision - essentially forcing people to buy health insurance whether they want it or not, much like we have to pay into social security whether we want a government retirement plan or not - as unconstitutional.  But the fight isn't over, since everyone knew this would end up in the Supreme Court the minute it was signed.

Three days before he was shot, John Lennon talked optimistically about his family and future, saying that he had "plenty of time" to accomplish some of his goals.

Lennon's final interview was released to The Associated Press by Rolling Stone on Wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the musician's death. The issue using the full interview will be on magazine stands Friday. Brief excerpts of Jonathan Cott's interview with Lennon were also released for a 1980 Rolling Stone cover story days after Lennon's death but this is the first time the entire interview has been published.

On his choices:

There are few instances where climate scientists attribute specific events to climate change - the only time anyone prominent did it, Al Gore when he implied Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming - made scientists cringe a little, though they scrambled to rationalize it for him.

They haven't done it because science doesn't work that way.   It's fine for sociologists to portray odd correlation-causation claims as fact, like that good grades make students healthier, but physical sciences prefer to stick to the data and away from circumstantial evidence.

U.C. San Diego researchers have discovered that some ad codes are tracking user history far beyond what was previously believed - and not just shady sites.  

This 'history sniffing' was found on large sites like Morningstar.com and Newsmax.com, among others.  The culprit in those cases - ad-targeting company Interclick - admitted to being the tracking code on those sites.

Interclick said its new homegrown code

I can't make sense of the point behind this video but that's why I have a science site and not a chat show like "Gylne Tider".

They made a promotional video of people lip syncing a remake (1987) of Paul McCartney's "Let It Be" (I know, I know, it was technically The Beatles, but we all know their agreeing to list themselves as Lennon-McCartney gave John Lennon a lot more credit for Beatles work on those last few albums than he deserved - he was phoning it in) but they aren't singers - and the subtitles are fun to read.

Tonya Harding, the not Don Johnson guy from Miami Vice, Glenn Close Botox-ed into oblivion, Katarin Witt on air guitar and many others - this is a keeper.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski announced Wednesday that he has circulated draft rules that will "preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet" - but they ironically couldn't be disclosed to the public ahead of the December 21st vote.

Yes, rules on openness no one in the public will get to see.  Welcome to government oversight of Internet freedom.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which wasn't officially on a secret mission though it raised various alarms when it disappeared for two weeks, has returned.  

Tracking X-37B was a delight for amateur astronomers since, let's be honest, you can't really keep a secret in the sky from them.   While NASA employees were drinking coffee, an amateur found a gaping hole in Jupiter, so not a lot gets by unpaid sky watchers.

The Post Carbon Institute has a video on 300 years of fossil fuel usage.  It isn't entirely accurate (we didn't 'run out' of wood, it got surpassed) but it's interesting.

As they write "While there's a damned good chance we'll fall off a cliff, there's still time to control our transition to a post-carbon future" - the private sector will do it.   There is a reason we are not an alcohol or whale oil economy, after all.

Scientists at the Vatican support so-called genetically modified crops but the head of the Catholic Church's science advisors has now said that the statement does not represent an official Church endorsement - only 18% of the scientists present agreed with the endorsement though, to be fair, that is many more than the 2% of astronomers who determined Pluto is not a planet.

Given the recent endorsement of condom use, where the Church is now for it unless it is against it, and subsequent clarifications, means Catholics have a crisis of communication these days.