1962: The Dawn of Modern Pop Culture.

INTERSPECIES SEX: How Brown and Polar Bears Split Up, but Continued Coupling. “Dr. Lindqvist, said the DNA showed evidence of intermittent interbreeding between brown and polar bears from the time of the split until the present — most likely during periods of warming, when brown bears moved north and polar bears were forced onto land. In most brown bears the percentage of genetic material traceable to polar bears is 2 percent. But on the Alexander Archipelago, a 300-mile-long string of islands off the southeast coast of Alaska, the brown bears have 5 to 10 percent polar bear DNA, suggesting more frequent interbreeding.”

If they can breed together, though, is it really interspecies sex? Isn’t it more like ursine miscegenation? Not that there’s anything wrong with that . . . .

WATCH HIM WRIGGLE, WATCH HIM SQUIRM: Obama still trying to explain ‘you didn’t build that’ comment.

VIDEO: Ice-T Defends The Second Amendment.

PROF. JOSEPH CAMPBELL: ABC needs to explain how, why Brian Ross so badly erred.

Related: Jon Stewart: What Does It Take To Get Fired At ABC News?

A CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY IN MARYLAND: “Judge Legg has issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the requirement of needing a ‘good and substantial’ reason to obtain a permit to carry in Maryland. The injunction is to be effective in 14 days. Maryland Shall Issue talks about what this will mean for Maryland residents. In theory, this should render Maryland a shall-issue state, but in practice there are probably ways the Maryland State Police can stall.”

RICHARD EPSTEIN: Gun Control Is Not A Magic Bullet. “Enacting tougher gun laws will do little to prevent another Aurora. James Holmes had cleared all background checks when he purchased his weapon. The other problem with gun control is that it leaves society at large in a more vulnerable position. A prohibition on firearms will shift the ratio of guns held in lawful and unlawful hands to favor the latter. Potential criminals, knowing that they are less likely to meet armed resistance will, on average, be more willing to commit violent offenses.”

ALL THOSE “CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY CENTERS,” WHEN IT’S THE CAMPUS ITSELF THAT’S UNSUSTAINABLE: Higher Education Bubble Update: 33% of Colleges Are on ‘Unsustainable Financial Path.’

Related: The Ever-Expanding Campus Bureaucracy. “The modern administrative university is a business machine without a soul.”

Sounds familiar.

Also, from Peter Wood: “What is inflating the bubble still further is federal policy on grants, loans, and loan-forgiveness. But even as the bubble inflates, there is a growing collection of sharp objects—the jackknife of online education, the hatpin of tax increases, the razor of state budget cuts, and the dart of public disenchantment—that threaten the whole thing.”

More here. “An affluent family that suddenly has to tighten its belt is very likely to take another look at its commitment to Ov’r Priced College and their daughter’s exploration of Post-Colonial Identity Studies. . . . A college degree is metaphorically an ‘investment.’ It is much more plainly a consumer expense. Confusing consumption with investment is often what gets us into financial bubbles.”

HMM: U.S. Banks To Benefit From Euro Woes. “The more European banks are forced to bring their assets home, the more American banks stand to gain.”

IN GUN-CONTROLLED CHICAGO: Cops: 6 shot in 15-minute span, teen killed; More than a dozen wounded in the city since Monday night.

SOME THOUGHTS ON Amazon’s Embrace of Vocational Education.

SOLAR STORMS: The Risk To Companies, And How To Prepare.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Financial Times: We Have Entered The World of “Disaster Economics.”

PAUL HSIEH: Media Underplays Successful Defensive Gun Use. “On February 28, 2012, an angry 28-year-old gunman entered a medical office building in Colorado Springs and took three women hostage. After a three-hour standoff, the police shot him, and he died later that evening at a local hospital. The hostages were unharmed. Yet the two largest newspapers in the state took two very different approaches in reporting the heroic actions of one of the clinic physicians, Dr. Jeff Ferguson, a legally armed civilian.”

DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Someone At The White House Is Behind All These Intelligence Leaks.

FIRST SENSIBLE THING I’VE SEEN FROM THE U.N. IN A LONG TIME: U.N. Commission Calls for Legalizing Prostitution Worldwide.

FROM ACE OF SPADES, a list of bogus accusations aimed at the Tea Party.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Mortgaging your way to a college education – the burden of student debt and the impact on the starter home market. “Over two-thirds of past due debt is hitting with those 39 and younger. A good amount is hitting the under 30 crowd. Remember those co-signed loans? There is little doubt why the housing recovery has been so tepid nationwide. In California, home prices are still out of sync in many locations but just think about a more realistic nationwide scenario. A young graduate comes out with $50,000 in student debt and the starter homes they are looking at cost $150,000. This is very typical. How easily can they shoulder that new debt amount? Are they even willing to take this new loan on? Virtually every other debt segment has pulled back since the recession hit outside of student debt. Home ownership rates for younger Americans have fallen dramatically in the last decade and this burden of ‘other’ debt is becoming a big issue. It is also impacting baby boomers as kids boomerang back home. Another trillion dollar debt market with major issues. You don’t need a Ph.D. to know this is a big problem.”

THE PRESIDENT HATES BLACK PEOPLE: Obama has time to campaign at VFW convention, not NAACP.

BYRON YORK: Three Hurdles for Romney as Campaign Intensifies. “In the end, it’s hard to see how any or all of the three issues — business history, Romneycare, Mormonism — can outweigh the economy as a determining factor in the election. But if bad news economic news continues — and it appears it will — look for Democrats to push hard on all three fronts.”

WELL, THAT’S STUPID: Shooting prompts call to curb online ammo sales. But then it comes from Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) so that’s no big surprise.

I often buy ammo online. It’s more environmentally friendly to shop that way. Why does Carolyn McCarthy hate the planet?

ENERGY: The Hill: White House threatens to veto GOP drilling bill. “Republicans allege the White House is keeping too many promising regions off-limits to oil-and-gas drillers.”

ESPIONAGE: Syrian Immigrant Sentenced For Spying On Behalf of Syria. “Eighteen months for basically signing the death warrants of dozens of people in Syria? You can bet that the families in Syria of those dissidents suffered death or imprisonment at best at the hands of Assad’s thugs in the secret police. And it wouldn’t have surprised the Justice Department if Soueid had been allowed to continue his activities that he would have eventually gotten around to assassinating some of the leaders of dissident organizations in America. . . . There is no word on progress arresting Soueid’s accomplices so we must assume they, and others, are out there keeping tabs on Syrian dissidents in America while under control of the Syrian secret police.”

YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT: The Context Was Worse Than The Quote.