Hacker News on 25 December 2012

• Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email
• Expedia: Bad for the Traveler, Bad for the Hotel
• Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
• A Self-Made Man Looks At How He Made It
• Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know
• SpaceX Grasshopper Takes Off and Lands Vertically [video]
• Half the Facts You Know Are Probably Wrong
• Are mass shootings really random events? A look at the US numbers
• How the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition
• Python alternatives for PHP functions