ARE THE positive U.S. employment numbers cooked? More at Zero Hedge.

UPDATE. Maybe not.

SOME NEEDED -though maybe insufficient- moves by the Spanish government to fix the banking mess:

Spain’s new conservative government on Friday imposed sweeping new rules it hopes will flush out bad property loans and foreclosed property from the financial system, restore confidence in banks and set the ailing economy back on track toward recovery.

The regulations approved by the Cabinet require banks to set aside an estimated €50 billion ($65 billion) more in provisions to cover toxic real estate assets by the end of the year.

Those unable to do so can present merger plans by the end of May and get government assistance from an existing bailout fund that will be strengthened with an addition €6 billion.

To avoid being forced to raise so much money for the real estate provisions, banks will face enormous pressure to sell assets like land and foreclosed or unsold homes at lower market prices.

The aim is to keep them from hoarding the loans and property on their balance sheets, a practice which has already sapped strength from the banking system and the country’s finances overall for years.

USA vs. China: a visual comparison of the two economies.

ARNOLD KLING: Why government can't create jobs.

ANOTHER GREAT Star Wars-themed Volskswagen ad:

THE BEST science pictures of 2011, at National Geographic.

SPAIN'S opposition odd concept of what 'renovation' is:

Spain's Socialists, struggling to regroup after a crushing November electoral defeat, are considering choosing a female leader for the first time in their history.

They meet this weekend to decide between ebullient 40-year-old ex-defence minister Carme Chacon and her rival, the wily, highly experienced former deputy premier, 60-year-old Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.

If Chacon emerges victorious from the party congress being held from Friday to Sunday in the Andalusian capital of Seville, southern Spain, she will be the first woman to lead one of Spain's two main parties.

Nothing like the just-ousted deputy prime minister or the just-ousted defense minister, having both just suffered the worst electoral defeat on record, to revive a struggling party, eh?

IT'S GROUNDHOG DAY TODAY: How accurate is Punxsutawney Phil?

IT'S GROUNDHOG DAY TODAY: How accurate is Punxsutawney Phil?

IT'S GROUNDHOG DAY TODAY: How accurate is Punxsutawney Phil?

(but why I'm repeating myself?)

THE WORLD'S 20 most beautiful bookstores.

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AND STAYING with historical recordings, this is the just-released tape of Air Force One's radio traffic immediately after Kennedy's assassination.
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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: let me introduce you to Otto von Bismarck. It's a 1889 recording of his voice, be Edison.

UPDATE. And more: this is the voice of Helmuth von Moltke, Bismarck's Field Marshall; it's the only known recording of someone born in the 19th 18th century. Impressive.

WHAT?

Spain's Prado Museum says it has a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" that was painted at the same time as the original in the same studio, perhaps making it the earliest replica of the masterpiece.

A museum spokeswoman said the work was painted alongside the 16th century original that now hangs in the Louvre in Paris. It was done by one of da Vinci's key students.

UPDATE. You can see it here, alongside the original.

UPDATE II. Just to be clear: it's not that the Prado Museum found the painting in its vaults all of a sudden. They had the painting and they knew about it; what they just found out is that it's a contemporary painting, not just one of the hundreds of replicasmade over the centuries.

THE TWELVE most debilitating phrases to use in business.

THE EUROPEAN SUPERHIGHWAY OF DEBT: an infographic showing how much banks loaned to the PIIGS that will take your breath away.

ARE STOCKS about to collapse?

SOME CONSENSUS, HUH? Sixteen prominent scientists say in an open letter that there's no need to panic over global warming:

A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.

In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"

In spite of a multidecade international campaign to enforce the message that increasing amounts of the "pollutant" carbon dioxide will destroy civilization, large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific "heretics" is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts.

Don't miss the rest.

PAIN NOT OVER:

Spain’s unemployment rate has jumped to nearly 24 percent in the fourth quarter, Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said Thursday, confirming that the country is still in the throes of a long and painful economic crisis.

Montoro told a parliamentary commission Thursday that official figures due out Friday will show 5.4 million people were out of work at the end of December, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter, when the jobless rate was 21.5 percent.

APPLE'S DARK SIDE: this is how it manufactures its stuff in China.

THE BREATHTAKING hypocrisy Julian Assange:

How foolish of me it was to question whether Wikileaks founder Julian Assange really had a deal to distribute his new talk show to hundreds of millions of viewers. It turns out he does: with Russia Today, the English-language news network launched by the Russian government to massage its international image.

That’s right: Assange, self-styled foe of government secrets and conspiracies of the powerful, is going to be a star on a TV network backed by the Kremlin. The same Kremlin that has done suspiciously little to investigate or prevent the killings and beatings of journalists that have plagued Russia for more than a decade. The same Kremlin accused of blatant fraud in December’s parliamentary elections. The same Kremlin whose control of the country’s broadcast media allowed it to suppress coverage of the massive protests mounted in response to that fraud. The same Kremlin whose embrace of corruption led to Russia being named “the world’s most corrupt major economy” by Transparency International in 2011.

DAMN, it seems the danger I'm always in is real: you can really die trying to escape from five women trying to kiss you. However, unsure if the solution is to escape better or just accept your fate. I'll keep you posted...

WHEN 'ecochondrias' collide: "Woman Claims Neighbor’s Energy Efficient Windows Are Melting Her Toyota Prius"

GREAT MOMENTS in American newspaper's opinion pages:

Last week, Nicholas Kristof wrote a column about Americans losing faith in free markets and the financial industry. He described how he was startled during a visit to Swarthmore College, where a student asked him whether it was immoral to seek banking jobs. Using the student as a foil, Kristof worried that “America’s grasping capitalists are turning young Americans into socialists.” He advised liberals to “be wary of self-selecting” out of jobs in the financial industry, and cautioned students not to “mock their classmates who choose Citigroup over CARE.”

I’m the student who asked Kristof the question. He’s wrong.

MEGA-MAN: The fast, fabulous, and fraudulent life of Kim Dotcom. A must-read.

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DAN KAUFMAN at the New York Times:

Yet Judge Garzón is now himself under legal attack for confronting Spain’s own dark history. He is on trial this week before the Spanish Supreme Court for daring to investigate crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War and the nearly four-decade dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. The case against him is fueled by domestic political vendettas rather than substantive legal arguments and it could dramatically set back international efforts to hold human-rights violators accountable for their crimes.

Wrong. Wrong. Oh, and wrong.

IS FRENCH PARENTING really superior?

AGAIN, in the coverage of the trials against judge Garzon in the English-language media (for example) we see an amazing display of distortion, if not ignorance.

He's was not tried last week for going against a corruption network, or this week for going after Franco's crimes, or soon for something related to both cases. No; on the first two cases he's being tried for abuse of power, and on the third for allegedly taking bribes, no less. So as not to repeat myself, let me redirect you to two posts I wrote some about this some time ago: one, two.

AND YET more Photoshop disasters...

EUROPEAN BANKS prepare for worst, hoard cash

IS the 'Proustian phenomenon' (smells triggering evocative memories) true? Maybe not, according to a study.

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WHY labor is what's killing Spain economy: the divide between insiders (with fix long-term contracts) and outsiders (with temporary contracts). I agree except with one thing: introducing a single open-ended contract only for new hires, as the post suggests, does resolve the problem albeit too slow -- the country wouldn't have a single labor contract, in practice for its whole workforce, until all current insiders are retired. This will take years, and the country can't afford it. Somehow it needs the new regulation affecting everyone, both new and old contracts, already. Yes, this will mean some sacrifice from current workers with a fix contract but, after all, isn't everyone saying that to solve the crisis it's necessary that the haves give something to the have-nots in the name of solidarity? Or is that only for the financial haves?