* Top security chief says cyber-attacks pose the most dangerous immediate threat to the United States. * Republicans and Democrats' proposed budget plans aren't like apples and oranges; they're apples and bicycles. * Public defender who never stops working explains what it's like to carry
* Republicans tried to stop the U.S. military from buying renewable energy and going green; the military fought back. * Thousands of dead pigs found in Shanghai's main water source provides impetus for environmental reform in China. * Ai Weiwei to release heavy metal album with nine songs, some "
* U.S. issues new sanctions in response to North Korea's "scrapping" of the 1953 armistice. * Among the sabers that North Korea may still rattle: instability; nuclear swapping; terrorism. * Blogging proving popular in Vietnam—and so is an ugly and effective crackdown on political dissent. * Pictures from
* Inspired by Senator Paul's recent performance, an explanation of how filibusters work. * Wrigley introduces new caffeinated "chewable pellet" based on product it developed for the military. * CT scans of 137 mummies find atherosclerosis—"long before the arrival of junk food and flat-screen televisions."
* Friday job numbers show spike in hiring, but economists warn the sequestration may wipe away that growth. * Thanks to the sequester, more cocaine will be showing up on our streets. * Physicist falls in love with bikini model he met online; model asks him to bring her a suitcase; physicist goes
* Highly sought al Qaeda militant—Osama bin Laden's son-in-law—detained in U.S. operation in Jordan. * Ahmadinejad: "I have no doubt that [Chávez] will return alongside Jesus Christ...to establish peace and justice in the world." * Pentagon required to find other methods of training
* Meticulous study of global temperatures finds current levels warmer than at any time in at least 4,000 years. * Rand's filibuster over drones yesterday may have been silly, but at least he had the guts to stand there and filibuster. * See also: Brief history of robot planes. * Forget
* Nora Ephron's son on her last days, final work, and feeling guilty about crying in the hospital when Hitchens had not. * The death of Hugo Chávez as told by front pages from Latin American newspapers. * Final moments of the Chebarkul meteor reconstructed in order to pin down its
* Berlusconi convicted over wiretap, meanwhile appealing another conviction and facing two additional verdicts. * Logic says the CIA didn't give Chávez cancer; its history of assassination ploys suggests it would have used a poisonous wetsuit. * North Korea threatens pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea.
* Health care, housing, and other reasons to be optimistic about the U.S. economy. * Last year carbon emissions rose at their second highest rate since 1959, surpassing scientists' worst-case scenarios. * Timeline of memorable Chávez moments. * Chávez bequeaths a nation beset by crumbling infrastructure, unsustainable public spending, and underperforming
