The Obama administration delayed, and then canceled, the Keystone XL Project expansion that would have generated up to 120,000 jobs and lowered the cost of fuel for Americans.  Now, with oil at $108 a barrel, the opposition party has him scrambling to rationalize how that is a good thing.

Science 2.0 favorite Garth Sundem has a new book coming out Brain Trust, where he gets lab-tested advice from 93 Nobel laureates, MacArthur geniuses, and National Science Medal winners on topics ranging from surfing to Scrabble.  In this Men's Journal interview, he culls together his favorite tips, including how to lose weight on a diet of Cherry Garcia ice cream and potato chips, and reveals why he does his interviews in his car.

Can you live the scientifically perfect life?  Garth thinks so.  

Save your breath.  We've heard all the arguments that Valentine's Day is an artificially manufactured holiday designed to bilk men out of money, just like we have heard postmodernists and humanities people (are they any different today?) argue that Communism is great, it is simply that none of the communist countries do 'real' Communism.  It doesn't matter; if you step out of line for Valentine's Day, the romantic equivalent of the KGB is knocking on your door.

But just because it is a marketing-driven, pressure-filled fabrication doesn't mean you can get away with just anything.   Writing on Real Clear Science, Katherine Dickinson notes 6 ways science totally sucks the romance out of Valentine's Day.

For decades, tourists visiting Lake George, N.Y. could view the skeletons of soldiers from nearby French and Indian War sites depicted in James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans". 

In 1993, though, a reburial ceremony put the 18th century remains to rest. Except that never happened.  The collection of remains was taken to Arizona and Canada for study and never returned.  Even Robert Blais, mayor of Lake George since 1971, didn't know. He learned about tit from The Associated Press, who spoke to archaeologists who have dug at the site, fort officials and the anthropologists who have the remains to confirm that the bulk of the skeleton collection is not at the fort.

French women are quite giving - after all, they let their husbands have a girlfriend, a mistress and a whore.  It only makes sense that generous nature would translate into parenting as well.  Even if that sometimes means a laissez faire approach to childrearing.

Former Wall Street Journal reporter and current Paris ex-pat Pamela Druckerman was intrigued by the manners of French children - in a country famous for being rude - so she set out to study what they were doing and then wrote a book on it.  It's not an Asian "tiger mom" approach, by any means, but Druckerman says it is less coddling than the American way.  

A social psychologist who doesn't spend his days finding ways to rationalize being progressive? University of Virginia Prof. Jonathan Haidt certainly was a partisan liberal, he says, but researching John Kerry's failure to connect with voters in 2004 made him see things a little different, and now he is a moderate - which is still right wing in the social sciences, so a bold step not without risk.

If you want cool stuff that no one else will believe, look to Russia.(1)  It isn't just the home of rampant piracy and corruption (and trademark infringement, in the case of their ridiculous theft of "Science 2.0" for a terrible television show) it is also the place to find kooky confirmation of odd beliefs.
 
Leonid Ksanfomaliti of the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences says he analyzed photographs from the Venus mission made by a Soviet landing probe, Venus-13, in 1982 and found...aliens. Well, he found a black dot that may have not been the same as another black dot.

For being progressives, California has a states-right belief that really hasn't been seen in America since the South in 1860.  If it isn't in the US Constitution they think they can do it.

More rational people have believed that the Obama administration was not going to like any state circumventing U.S. law so when medical marijuana dispensaries were 'legalized' in California (medical marijuana itself was sort of legalized in the 1990s), the DEA busts began. Some municipalities defer to federal law and ban marijuana 'dispensaries' even while California claims they are legal.

Expect to hear a lot about the Mayans until December 22, 2012. End of the world conspiracies happen pretty much five times a year but it's still going to get its attention because a lot of older people now read books in the 1970s, when they were young, about aliens populating Earth. "Chariots of the Gods" and all that.

But Americans hate to be left out.  Want people to watch The Olympics?  Americans had better be winning gold medals.