SOME RECOMMENDED light reading for a law student.

THE SUNDRIES SHACK: The Right-Wing “Rift” and the Wormtongues Who Want It.

BLOWBACK: Iowa Lawmakers Consider Ban on Faculty Sabbaticals.

CLAIM: Incest among animals cuts male sexual aggression.

DOES GLENN BECK KNOW ABOUT THIS? Superheavy Element 111 Found In Gold.

200 YEARS, 200 COUNTRIES, 4 MINUTES.

HOW TO ENSURE THAT YOUR PACKAGES arrive in one piece.

THE LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION IS HOLDING ITS end of the year fundraiser.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

THOUGHTS ON women, rules, school, and work.

SHOULDA LISTENED TO GLENN BECK: Gold hits record high. Also, unemployment goes up, unexpectedly!

CHANGE: IBM Unveils Nanophotonic Chips that Could Lead the Exascale Computing Revolution.

MEET WIKILEAKS’ first likely victim. Obviously, anyone injured or even endangered should sue. Lawfare can be lucrative and fun!

WORRIED ABOUT DISASTERS? You might want to check out Bill Quick’s disaster-preparedness forum, where that’s what they talk about.

Also, a list of disaster-preparedness supplies, and some “bug-out bag” recommendations.

ANDREW KLAVAN: Is America Satanophobic?

THE FUTURE OF metabolic engineering.

THE UNIVERSE HOLDS three times more stars than previously thought. Shouldn’t this knowledge lead to a universe-wide real-estate collapse?

IMPORTANT HEALTH NEWS: Women who sunbathe live longer. “Studies of the sun exposure habits of 40,000 women in southern Sweden have found that the health benefits of spending extended periods in the sun outweigh the negatives, such as the increased risk for skin cancer.”

Plus, an important scientific illustration.

REPORT: First Nissan Leaf delivery coming soon.

YEAH, BLOGGING’S A LITTLE LIGHT. As I mentioned, I’m traveling. Email-reading is much lighter too, so if you’ve written and I’ve missed, it, sorry.

IN THE MAIL: After You Shoot: Your gun’s hot. The perp’s not. Now what?

A NEW VIDEO FROM DAN MITCHELL: Keynesian Economics Is Wrong: Economic Growth Causes Consumer Spending, Not the Other Way.

DON SURBER ISSUES THE SURBER CHALLENGE. “So that is my challenge to readers. $10. Each. Just remember, that’s $10 more than Warren Buffett or Fareed Zakaria paid.”

LAURA ROWLEY: Is The College Debt Bubble Ready To Explode?

In some respects, the student loan crisis looks remarkably like the subprime mortgage crisis. First, outstanding student loan debt has ballooned: It grew roughly four-fold in the last decade to $833 billion as of June — surpassing outstanding credit card debt for the first time.

Secondly, defaults have soared amid the difficult job market. In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, nearly 3.4 million borrowers began repayment, and more than 238,000 defaulted on their loans. The number of loans that went into forbearance or deferment (when borrowers receive temporary relief from payments) rose to 22 percent in 2007, from 10 percent a decade earlier, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Over a 15-year period, default rates range from 20 percent for federal loans to 40 percent on loans to students who attend for-profit schools, The Chronicle found.

Just as lenders offered easy no-money-down mortgages to unqualified borrowers, private student loan firms offered instant online approval for up to 100 percent of college costs to students. . . . While the housing collapse’s impact was wide-ranging — wreaking havoc on a multitude of industries and market participants — the primary losers in this debacle are the borrowers. Lenders can’t repossess a college degree, and changes to the bankruptcy law in 1984 and 2005 mean borrowers can’t charge off their obligations the way they can shed credit-card, mortgage or even gambling debt when they file for bankruptcy.

Read the whole thing.

THE CYBER WEEK SALES aren’t quite over yet.