A BOOMING BUSINESS: Battling bedbugs.

TIMING: Senate Gun Hearing The Day Of Delaware Primary.

HOW TO MAKE CANDLES from used shotgun shells. Just be sure they’re used.

FIRST PHOTO: NASA Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes Comet Target.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE NEWS: Higher Debt: Is the student loan industry headed for a meltdown?

A MESSAGE FROM RENEE ELMERS, who’s running against “Huggin’ Bob” Etheridge in North Carolina.

EVOLUTION AND the selection of leaders. “When you view leadership and followership through the prism of evolutionary psychology, many peculiarities about the way we choose our leaders look less odd. For example, political scientists have no convincing rational explanation of why taller candidates almost always beat shorter rivals. But hundreds of thousands of years ago, when tribal conflicts were resolved physically, lofty tribesmen would have enjoyed an edge over opponents of modest stature. Our societies continue to insist leaders should look “statesmanlike” without spelling out what this means, which suggests that we have some innate concept of what a leader should look like.”

“WHAT THE HECK IS A ZESTER?” Good grief, doesn’t everyone know that?

BLAST FROM THE PAST: 1970s Biker Magazine Covers. Personally, I always preferred Iron Horse to Easy Riders, but that’s a matter of taste.

CHANGE: Last GE light bulb factory closes. “It is doubly sad. The workers are losing their jobs, and we, who love traditional light bulbs are being deprived of a product we want. And those vile CFL bulbs? They’re made in China. Thanks a lot, Congress.”

LEARNING TO LOVE the prenup.

THAT MAKES FOR A GOOD DRY WEIGHT FIGURE: Microwave-Powered Rocket Ascends without Fuel.

DAN MITCHELL: A DEBATE BETWEEN JOHN F. KENNEDY AND BARACK OBAMA ON TAXES. Video at the link.

ROBIN HANSON: Romantic Love vs. Religious Conversion.

REPUBLICAN PROPOSAL: Roll back spending to 2008 levels, extend all tax cuts. “Be sure to stick around to the end, when George Stephanopoulos makes sure that he asks Boehner about the real pressing issue of … his tan. Boehner laughs it off with good humor, but seriously, is this the best that Stephanopoulos can do in the middle of a midterm election season?” Yes.

Plus, from the comments: “Stephie is just warming up for his interviews with Crist, one supposes.” Heh.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Inflation Won’t Help Us With Our Debt Load. “The broader availability of information on things like currencies makes it much harder for governments to get seignorage. There’s a lot of data that would tip analysts to a money supply growing unexpectedly rapidly, which means that interest rates on government debt would rise too fast for the inflation to do much good. That’s why I find the historical examples of all the sovereigns that debased their currency in order to ease their debt burden less than convincing, even though they are much beloved by many history-minded conservatives. I do not want to fall into the error of thinking that we are so modern as to be beyond all that sordid nineteenth century mess; human nature doesn’t change much. But technology has, and it has made this particular piece of trickery much harder.”

A NOISEMAKER for electric vehicles.

WITH THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE, a textbook bubble? “Prediction: Just like the unsustainable housing bubble eventually peaked and crashed, the textbook bubble is likewise unsustainable and is set to crash.”

UPDATE: Reader David Christian writes:

Having just spent $500.00+ on my freshman son’s textbooks, I really wish the professorial community was more aware of Connexions (http://cnx.org ). This is a site that allows professors and other learned folk to contribute textbook content under the creative commons license. It also allows teachers to mash up content to customize material designed for their course. Students can download this mashed up content, in the form of a free PDF or have the PDF printed and bound (for a fee). It’s all sponsored by Rice University./blockquote>

So noted.

PAM GELLER: My position on the Koran burning in Florida by a whacko church aligned with the vile anti-military, anti-semitic Westboro Church that defiles the funerals of our honored fallen soldiers. “The burning of books is wrong in principle: the antidote to bad speech is not censorship or book-burning, but more speech. Open discussion. Give-and-take. And the truth will out. There is no justification for burning books.”

STILL MORE ON THE EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (D-TX) SCANDAL: Johnson requested scholarship money be sent directly to family members. “According to letters obtained by the Morning News, however, Johnson was not only involved in the decision to give the money to her family members, she also personally intervened to make sure they literally received it, instead of their schools.”

THE EPA’S new grading scale.

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY.

TOWING AN AIRPLANE with a Mazda Miata? Mazdas. Is there anything they can’t do?

EVEN ANDY GRIFFITH’S POLL NUMBERS are being driven down by ObamaCare.

UPDATE: Jim Treacher: Andy Griffith throws away 50 years of good faith in 30 seconds. Ouch. And I doubt he changed anybody’s mind.

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