The 12 members of the Debt "Super Committee" are now official, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi named her three appointees Thursday. She chose Reps. James Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra of California, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

As reported here yesterday, the other nine members have already been chosen. Here's the full panel lineup:

• Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) - co-chair
• Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI)

With world markets in turmoil, many investors are turning to an age-old safe haven: gold. While the price has fluctuated this week, it has flirted with record highs. But what, exactly, makes this precious metal so valuable? We decided to explore the issue, in verse:

Economic collapse, adrift without maps, lost in a sea with no rudder,
Wall Street is jaded, the U.S. downgraded, financial reports make us shudder.

Earlier this morning, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, launched an experimental hypersonic glider.

Japan is removing its nuclear regulatory agency from the control of its trade ministry, dissolving a relationship that was criticized in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. The new nuclear safety agency will be under the environmental agency, Kyodo News reports.

The move, coming exactly five month after a powerful earthquake and tsunami set off a nuclear crisis in Japan, may help ease criticisms that regulators are too cozy with pro-nuclear interests.

Any time you report on promising but preliminary results about a new therapy for a lethal disease, you worry that you might be raising false hopes. So be warned: Although this is a "good news" story, it's preliminary. Don't expect to find it at a hospital near you any time soon.

A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state's juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presiding over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash."

The AP adds:

Doctors are crazy for computed tomography, or CT scans. The medical images can help them make diagnoses quickly, and they're easy to use. The scanning devices are often housed in the emergency department, which is one reason CT use among emergency patients rose 330 percent 1996 to 2007, according to a study out this week. By 2007, 1 in 7 emergency patients got a CT scan, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.

In reaction to last month's deadly rail crash, China has decided to slow down all of its high-speed trains. Starting Sept. 1, China's fastest trains will run at 185 mph, instead of 215 mph.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Ari Berman is a contributing writer for The Nation magazine and an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute.

On Tuesday Harry Reid announced his picks for the Congressional debt-reduction "super-committee": Senators Max Baucus, John Kerry and Patty Murray.

Daniel Halper is the deputy online editor for The Weekly Standard.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid picked his three representatives to the twelve congressional member supercommittee Tuesday, selecting Max Baucus, John Kerry, and Patty Murray. The first two choices make sense: Baucus is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004 and, as his website describes, "holds senior positions on the Finance, Commerce, and Small Business Committees."