THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE, as portrayed by The Simpsons.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Harvard Study: Hey, Maybe Not Everyone Should Go To College.

And note this comment in particular.

CHANGE? WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT CHANGE? “The Obama administration has been a golden age for lobbyists, which is a big part of the reason why Washington D.C. and its suburbs are now the nation’s richest province.”

ED DRISCOLL: The Manic-Depressive MSM.

CHANGE: “So hotshot financial types are hoarding nickels, apparently. This can’t be a positive sign for the economy.” Well, when a 5-cent coin is worth 7 cents, it’s a pretty good buy.

WHAT “ZERO TOLERANCE” TEACHES: The Lesson to You Schoolchildren for Today: People in Authority Are Often Idiots.

WELL, LET’S HOPE: The Tunisian Revolution Is Looking Like A Success.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Computer Outlet sale.

PAUL HSIEH: America’s Other Drug Problem: “During the past year, medical professionals have received alarming reports about critical shortages of important drugs. These drugs aren’t the common over-the-counter medications that consumers purchase in their local drugstores. Rather, the shortages are in various injectable drugs typically administered to seriously ill patients in hospitals.”

MY GUESS IS, THEY MISSED THE WINDOW FOR THIS: Aptera: We need government money to bring vehicle to market.

GRIDEYE: A tool for predicting power blackouts.

Related: Rolling blackouts in Texas cause gas shutoffs in New Mexico. Remember, tightly coupled systems experience cascading failures. Think resilience engineering, people!

CANADA FOLLIES: Rex Murphy: “Human Rights” Meets Its Match In The Microwave Oven. “How long must it be before provincial and federal political parties come out of their respective caves of cowardice and timidity and pronounce on the degradation of human rights in Canada? The public are so far ahead of the politicians on this issue that it has become a matter of wonder why the politicians continue to hold back.”

PATERNALISM IN ALL FORMS, BUT why no job paternalism? asks Robin Hanson. “Why are kids allowed to attempt to pursue mostly ‘dead end’ careers as actors, musicians, or athletes against their parents wishes? Why are young kids allowed to take classes preparing them for such career attempts?” Perhaps it’s an admirable humility as jobs that look good at a given moment often turn out to be lousy in a decade or two, and vice versa.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “The nanny-state is maternal, not paternal. Moms prefer clean, safe jobs like acting, singing, and teaching. Dads are the ones who encourage kids to take jobs where they have to get their hands dirty and there is risk.”

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.

Related: List: Recommended survival gear for your car or SUV.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “Look, if Godzilla appeared on the Mall this afternoon, Al Gore would say it’s global warming.” Followed immediately in the transcript by [Laughter].

CHANGE: Egypt’s ruling party leadership resigns in newest shakeup.

SO I LINKED TO AMAZON’S VALENTINE’S DAY COOKWARE SALE THIS MORNING, and some readers wrote that they didn’t think much of this item, a knife holder called “The Ex,” by Raffaele Iannello. It does seem to take a view of violence toward men that society would never accept if it were directed at women.

Can you imagine a knife holder like this, only with a female figurine, being routinely sold and viewed as some sort of a “gag” item? I can’t.

Certainly I expect it would create quite a stink, as all the usual sources weighed in on how this reveals our culture’s contempt for women, yada yada. And it wouldn’t get a pass as simply “edgy.” Would it?

More thoughts here.

SAVING AFRICAN CHILDREN’S LIVES with genetically-modified cassava. “While non-modified cassava supplies just one-fifth of daily protein requirements, the extra protein is enough to supply the needs of infants on a typical cassava-based diet (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016256). Fauquet says his root could save 1 in 4 African children from a potentially fatal condition called protein-energy malnutrition.”

IN THE MAIL: From Greg Egan, Zendegi.

OKAY, I LINKED SPENGLER LAST NIGHT, BUT THIS PASSAGE HAS RELEVANCE for those who are excessively optimistic about a “fight the power” revolution in Egypt:

Nine out of ten Egyptian women suffer genital mutilation. US President Barack Obama said Jan. 29, “The right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny … are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere.” Does Obama think that genital mutilation is a human rights violation? To expect Egypt to leap from the intimate violence of traditional society to the full rights of a modern democracy seems whimsical.

In fact, the vast majority of Egyptians has practiced civil disobedience against the Mubarak regime for years. The Mubarak government announced a “complete” ban on genital mutilation in 2007, the second time it has done so – without success, for the Egyptian population ignored the enlightened pronouncements of its government. Do Western liberals cheer at this quiet revolt against Mubarak’s authority?

Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt’s First Lady, continues to campaign against the practice, which she has denounced as “physical and psychological violence against children.” Last May 1, she appeared at Aswan City alongside the provincial governor and other local officials to declare the province free of it. And on October 28, Mrs Mubarak inaugurated an African conference on stopping genital mutilation.

The most authoritative Egyptian Muslim scholars continue to recommend genital mutilation.

It’s not the fall of the Berlin Wall.

HEY, LOW-SODIUM COOKING IS LABOR-INTENSIVE, I GUESS: Ever heard of too many cooks, Mayor? Bloomberg spends $245,000 of taxpayers’ dough employing THREE chefs at Gracie Mansion.

UPDATE: A reader who has dined with Bloomberg says he doesn’t spare the butter or salt on his own plate.

GOOD NEWS: I could outrun a Neanderthal. So I guess it’s safe for me to go back to that time-machine research now.

HE’S UNDOUBTEDLY RIGHT: The Hill: Harper touts Canadian oil imports as best for America’s security interest. Environmental groups, however, seem determined to stop this — as they seem determined to stop pretty much all other new sources of energy. With people freezing in the dark across a good-sized swath of the U.S. this week, even as oil breaks $100/barrel, their complaints may get a less sympathetic hearing than previously.

FASTER, PLEASE: Researchers “Grow” New Blood Vessels. “Synthetic blood vessels that can be made in advance and stored until surgery could help patients undergoing heart surgery, hemodialysis—cleansing of the blood in cases of kidney failure—and other procedures. Laura Niklason, an anesthesiologist and biomedical engineer at Yale University, and her collaborators have grown blood vessels using human cells and tested them in baboons, showing that they provoke no immune rejection and avoid common complications of synthetic vessels, such as clotting, bursting, or contracting over time. Researchers hope these studies will show that the vessels are safe enough to win permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials.”

AT AMAZON, a Valentine’s Day sale on cookware.