I don't quite understand the reasoning behind this:
Under a plan announced Wednesday by American Airlines, passengers already forced to pay extra for amenities like earphones, meals and even snacks will have to pay $15 to check a basic piece of baggage.
Way to go, kid:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Quick: Cochabamba is the third-largest conurbation in what country?
Your answer might be, "Huh?" But 11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal answered "Bolivia" to clinch the 20th annual National Geographic Bee on Wednesday.
A conurbation is a large, densely populated urban area — and Cochabamba is the third-largest one in the South American country.
Home-schooling gets another unintended boost:
In most math problems, zero would never be confused with 50, but a handful of schools nationwide have set off an emotional academic debate by giving minimum scores of 50 for students who fail.
Officials in schools from Las Vegas to Dallas to Port Byron, N.Y., have proposed or implemented versions of such a policy, with varying results.
Give thanks that freedom of speech is still valued on this side of the pond (at least outside college campuses):
A teenager is facing prosecution for using the word "cult" to describe the Church of Scientology.
The unnamed 15-year-old was served the summons by City of London police when he took part in a peaceful demonstration opposite the London headquarters of the controversial religion.
[. . .]
I know the mark of a civilized society is how much the majority is willing to slow down to help those who have trouble keeping up, but this is just silly::
The U.S. discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills' varying values, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
I eat too much or eat the wrong things or both, and the predictable results come about Naturally, it's the government's fault, not mine:
The problem at first was that the problem was ignored: For almost two decades, young people in the United States got fatter and fatter -- ate more, sat more -- and nobody seemed to notice. Not parents or schools, not medical groups or the government.
PARIS, May 19 (Reuters) - France is considering a ban on happy hours in bars and on the sale of bottles of vodka and other strong liquor in nightclubs as part of efforts to curb binge drinking among young people, an official said on Monday.
A lot of administration critics have complained that under George Bush, America has had too much of a "Get lost!" attitude about the rest of the world. I suspect that the rest of the world would be too much with us under an Obama administration. This snippet from an Obama speech has gotten a lot of comment:
Is there any real reason to celebrate your independence day if your country is run by a dictatorship? Not every Cuban thinks today is that big a deal:
Sadly, I didn't buy any "forever" stamps. I had 26 41-cent stamps left over from my roll of 100, so I had to swing by the Post Office yesterday for the 1-centers before mailing off the bills I did on Sunday. Not smart smart planning, and not exactly thinking of the future:
Do the math: In 1970, a first-class stamp cost only 6 cents. Since then, there have been 17 rate changes, amounting to a whopping 700 percent price increase.
