Current Affairs

It's only July, but regrettheerror.com already says this may be the favorite newspaper typo of the year:

The insprational Randy Pausch of "Last Lecture" fame has died:

Some might have expected me to write about the 70-cent minimum-wage increase that kicked in yesterday, since my rants in the past have been in line with this, from the Wall Street Journal:

I wonder if Edgar Mitchell's helmet had a leak in it on that moon walk:

I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real," Dr Mitchell said.

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

No study has yet shown a link between cell phone use and brain cancer, but the head of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center is warning his faculty and staff to limit their phone use because of the possible risk:

The news just gets grimmer and grimmer here in buggy whip land:

The New York Times Co. will increase the Monday-Saturday newsstand cost of its flagship paper by 25 cents to $1.50, the publisher said Wednesday.

I don't have any idea what this means, but I'm sure McCain and Obama will explain it all:

Over half of American voters (51%) now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, the highest figure recorded in nearly four years by Rasmussen Reports in a nationwide survey.

A "We're all going to die!" update on the BBC Web site, under the head "100 months to save the planet":

A "Green New Deal" is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance, a report argues.

A grand jury in San Fraqncisco is reporting that the city spends $186 million a year in city funds spent to finance homeless programs. As a result, 50 to 75 percent of the "street people" actually live in taxpayer-supported housing. Still, the pandhandling persists, and people seem baffled:

"We just warehouse addicts," said the grand jury's Stuart Smith. "Granted, it is a nicer place for them, but it doesn't address the problem."

A few years ago, I thought we might be headed for a cultural bottoming out when I read that Steven Speilberg really doesn't read -- all his movies were inspired by other movies. (I haven't been able to find the quote since, so maybe I dreamed it, or maybe it was George Lucas). I think the bottom is either here or very close. The top two opening weekends in movie history, and three of the top five, now belong to films inspired by comic books.