LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: The Law Graduate Debt Disaster Goes Critical.

Law graduate debt has been increasing by remarkable amounts on a yearly basis: going up at private law schools from $92,000 in 2009, to $106,000 in 2010, to $125,000 in 2011. Average debt for private law grads in 2012 will likely reach $135,000, and average debt for public law grads, which has also gone up rapidly, will likely exceed $80,000. Again, these figures do not count undergraduate debt and accrued interest.

One last piece of bad news: the upcoming JD graduating class of 2013 will be the largest ever, with the highest debt ever, flooding into a dismal job market.

Well, the classes of 2013, 2014, and 2015 will be much smaller.

NEW POPE: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina elected pope, takes name Pope Francis.

WHEN PROGRESS ISN’T PROGRESS: A Lack of Swordsmen May Lead Saudis to Abolish Beheadings.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Chip Heals Self After Blast From Frickin’ Laser.

AT AMAZON, 25% or more off on Men’s Clothing.

FIVE CONTROVERSIAL WAYS to enjoy the decline.

Kathy Shaidle ruminates on Aaron Clarey’s book of the same title.

THE DANGERS OF CONTACT SPORTS: Roller derby skaters trade bumps, bruises — and bacteria.

After a DNA analysis, the researchers found that teams had similar, distinct microbial communities. “For example, if we had picked a player out at random before they skated in the tournament, I probably could have told you what team she played on,” Meadow says. The samples for the D.C. team, for example, contained Brevibacterim, and the samples from the Oregon skaters were similar to the surface samples taken from their home track. But after the teams competed, the hour-long bout mixed up their microbes, leaving opposing teams with more similar-looking microbial communities, the analysis found. Specifically, six different kinds of bacteria – Strepococcus, Sphingomonas, Eubacterium, Porphyromonas, Aerococcus and Methylobacterium – were shared by competing teams after, but not before, the bout.

Hmm.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Yes, Justice Scalia, Section 5 Is A Racial Entitlement — DoJ Says So! “The left is apoplectic about Scalia’s observation. But yesterday’s DOJ Inspector General’s report makes plain that many inside the Justice Department view Section 5 as just that, a ‘racial entitlement.'”

STRATEGIES FOR WINNING at “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” “Before anyone laughs, there is absolutely skill in the sport. If you look at the field for past world championships (which regularly draw more than 500 competitors) the same individuals keep making the top percentile year after year—clearly demonstrating skill can have a major effect on result.”

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Shakeout Hits Law Schools.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: If Caffeine Can Boost The Memory Of Bees, Can It Help Us, Too?

TERESA NIELSEN HAYDEN: Dreadful Phrases.

MARK BLITZ: A concern for liberty does not have to come at the expense of excellence and beauty in the arts. No, but demanding excellence and beauty isn’t philistinism.

ANDY KESSLER: Want To Change The World? How About A Billion-Dollar Prize. “Sergey Brin is worth $23 billion and Mark Zuckerberg $13 billion. If they really want to have an impact on society—beyond the societal wealth already created by Google and Facebook—offer a billion-dollar BrinZuck prize to prevent or stop Alzheimer’s, or to regenerate spinal cords and organs, or to cure obesity. Instead of small-ball academic researchers vying for grants from the National Institutes of Health, you’d get entrepreneurs coming out of the woodwork trying innovative approaches to win a $1 billion jackpot. Or maybe the challenge could be to create personal jet packs. Or neuron downloads.”

MY DUE PROCESS WHEN EVERYTHING IS A CRIME PIECE is still charting at #1 on SSRN. It’s been accepted by the Columbia Law Review, and I’ll have an updated, slightly expanded version online on their site at some point.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Protesters tripped alarms like crazy, but Y-12’s security force didn’t respond.

REALITY SETS IN: Washington Post: Obama’s approval drops as Americans take a dimmer view of his economic policies. We need a distraction. Surely there’s someone left to demonize. . . .

UPDATE: An Ashley Judd connection?

GAIA LOVES FOSSIL FUELS!

Gaia seems to like fossil fuels much more than many of her followers. Earlier today, Japan announced that it successfully accessed ocean deposits of a new, relatively clean-burning, and hyper-abundant energy source: fire ice. More accurately called methane hydrate, fire ice exists under Arctic permafrost and deep underwater, primarily on seabeds along continental shelves. Up to this point it has seemed out of reach. Not anymore. . . .

Greens will already be familiar with this compound, as it plays a key role in many global warming nightmare scenarios. In the worst-case, this is how it would work: greenhouse gasses warm the earth, raising the temperature of the oceans. As the temperature rises, the “ice cages” trapping methane on our seabeds melts. The methane then makes its way into our atmosphere, further warming our earth, creating a positive feedback loop of destructive warming.

This is certainly enough to strike fear into the hearts of us all. Fortunately there’s a way around this problem. Methane is one of the world’s most powerful greenhouse gasses—about 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide—but when burned, it is cleaner than both coal and oil. By purposefully accessing these methane hydrates, we could potentially stave off this feedback loop and provide the world with a new energy source at the same time.

Read the whole thing.

WAS THE CANNIBAL COP convicted of a thought crime?

SORRY, I JUST DON’T BELIEVE THIS: Mark Kelly to CNN: Plan Was to Hand Over AR-15 All Along. I think he wanted to be able to protect his family, and was afraid it might be harder to buy one later, when he really needed it. You know, pretty much like all the other people who’ve been buying them lately.

SORRY — NO OPPORTUNITY FOR GRAFT OR POLITICAL POWER TRIPPING: How to Fix America’s Wealth Inequality: Teach Americans to Be Cheap. “Today, wealth equality is closely tied to income equality. But in the long run, it’s all about thrift, frugality, and saving — in other words, teaching a consumer nation a lesson in cheapness.”

We’d also need government policies that reward saving, instead of punishing it.

MARKDOWNS AND DEALS at the Amazon Easter Shop.

Also, today only: Up to 57% Off “The Woody Allen Collection, Sets 1-3” and More.

MORE PUBLIC SCHOOL INSANITY: Wisconsin Educrats Encourage Students To Wear “White Privilege” Wristbands. Hey, maybe we can get yellow stars for the Jews, too. Fun for everyone!

WORK? THAT’S FOR SUCKERS. White House attacks legislative push to shore up welfare work requirement. “President Obama policy aides attacked a Republican bill that would block the Department of Health and Human Services from waiving the work requirements associated with the 1996 welfare reform bill, even as the White House continued to deny that it had authorized such waivers.”