Lupe Fiasco Thrown Off Stage At Inauguration Concert After Bashing Obama  —  At the StartUp RockOn event in Washington, the rapper's performance upsets the hosts.  Video, tweets, and the statement from organizers. … A statement from one of the concert's sponsors:

Quick Hits, Lighter Moments From Inaugural  —  We're not expecting to hear big policy proclamations or specific details of President Barack Obama's second term agenda in his inaugural speech.  And that's just fine with 32-year-old Sean Payton, a Democrat from Highland Ranch, Colo., visiting Washington for the inauguration.

(APPLAUSE)  —  That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Today we continue a never ending journey to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.

The Big Deal  —  On the day President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, an exuberant Vice President Biden famously pronounced the reform a “big something deal” — except that he didn't use the word “something.”  And he was right.  —  In fact, I'd suggest using this phrase to describe the Obama administration as a whole.

Golfer Phil Mickelson May Call It Quits Due To Climbing Tax Rates  —  LA QUINTA, CA - JANUARY 20: Phil Mickelson hits his second shot on the tenth hole at the Nicklaus Private Course at the PGA West during the second round of the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation …

How M.I.T. Ensnared a Hacker, Bucking a Freewheeling Culture  —  In the early days of 2011, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology learned that it had an intruder.  Worse, it believed the intruder had been there before.  —  Months earlier, the mysterious visitor had used …

Obama Averages 49% Approval in First Term  —  Approval has been climbing in recent quarters  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama averaged 49.1% job approval during his first term in office, among the lowest for post-World War II presidents.  Only Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford had lower job approval averages.

Atari U.S. operation files for bankruptcy  —  The U.S. operations of pioneering video game company Atari Inc. is seeking to break free from French parent Atari S.A. and in the next few months find a buyer to take the company private.  (Strong National Museum of Play / January 20, 2013)

GOP wants budget; Schumer warns they will get one  —  Associated Press/J. Scott Applewhite, File - FILE - This Jan. 1, 2013 file photo shows House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walkig past reporters after a closed-door meeting meeting of House Republicans on Capitol ...more

Obama's Startling Second Inaugural  —  This was the most sustainedly “progressive” statement Barack Obama has made in his decade on the national stage.  —  I was expecting an anodyne tone-poem about healing national wounds, surmounting partisanship, and so on.

Wanted: ‘Adventurous woman’ to give birth to Neanderthal man - Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby  — His ambitious plan requires a human volunteer willing to allow the DNA to be put into stem cells, then a human embryo  —  They're usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species.

Obama Takes One Last Look At Inauguration Crowd: 'I'll Never See This Again'  —  Departing the West Front of the U.S. Capitol after delivering his second inaugural address on Monday, President Obama wanted to take one last glance of the hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered to celebrate his second term.

Colin Powell: Republicans should halt voter ID push  —  Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that Republicans should not have tried to reduce voter turnout during their failed effort to win the White House, doubling down on his recent criticism of the GOP.

It's snowing, and it really feels like the start of a mini ice age  —  Something is up with our winter weather.  Could it be the Sun is having a slow patch?  —  “The Sun is god!” cried JMW Turner as he died, and plenty of other people have thought there was much in his analysis.

Saudi Arabia Sent Death Row Inmates to Fight in Syria in Lieu of Execution  —  (AINA) — A top secret memo sent by the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia reveals the Saudi Kingdom sent death-row inmates, sentenced to execution by decapitation, to Syria to fight Jihad against the Syrian government …