Today's "Well, duh" story:
First-year students whose roommates brought a video game player to college studied 40 minutes less each day on average, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Those 40 minutes of lost study time translated into first-semester grades that were 0.241 points lower on the 4.0 grade scale.
I hate to break it to you, but if you get lost in the desert, you won't get this kind of attention:
The search for missing millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett in the rugged and remote high Nevada desert was cut back on Monday.
The Civil Air Patrol, which had 20 planes and 60 searchers aloft over the weekend, suspended further flights and left two planes and a small team on standby at the airport here.
[. . .]
Getting there is none of the fun:
Drivers waste nearly an entire work week each year sitting in traffic on the way to and from their jobs, according to a national study released Tuesday. The nation's drivers languished in traffic delays for a total of 4.2 billion hours in 2005, up from 4 billion the year before, according to the Texas Traffic Institute's urban mobility report. That's about 38 hours per driver.
Does it rock your world that, while almost the entire public conversation in America is about how to get us out of the Mideast, the French Surrender Monkeys have a greater grasp of what the world situation is than we do?
PARIS (AFP) — The world should brace for a possible war over the Iranian nuclear crisis but seeking a solution through talks should take priority, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday.
Yikes -- more information than I want to know:
The gender gap has widened when it comes to hygiene, according to the latest stakeout by the "hand washing police."
One-third of men didn't bother to wash after using the bathroom, compared with 12 percent of women, said the researchers who spy on people in public restrooms. They reported their latest findings Monday at a meeting of infectious disease scientists.
Another incisive story from a Great American college newspaper:
The University's Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Affairs plans to pick a new name by the end of the semester in an effort to be more inclusive.
I've given it a great deal of thought, and I do not think I was put on this earth to be told by Prince Charles how to live:
He's dabbled in painting, written a children's book, worked in television and launched a range of biscuits.
With so many strings to his bow it is perhaps unsurprising that Prince Charles should graduate to starring in a Hollywood movie.
We must honor the wall of separation between church and state. We cannot tolerate the pollution of public spaces with religious expression. Of course, that's if you're a Christian, not, um, a Muslim:
Three times a day during their shifts at the Indianapolis International Airport, more than 100 Muslim cab drivers wash their feet.
We all know that standards have relaxed so much that we are more tolerant of sex and nudity in the popular culture. But this suggests we have taken a further step:
Two decades after a nude photo scandal helped cost a Miss America her title, Americans may be adopting a more ho-hum attitude toward people who bare it all for the cameras.
Yes, we are caught in the mortgage crisis when it comes to subprime loans and the rate of foreclosures. But there is this side to Indiana real estate, too:
Riding the housing boom that started in 1991, prices for all houses here and across the country have climbed from a time when a "luxury home" was in the $300,000 to $500,000 range, says Briscoe.
In 1990, the U.S. Census report for Indiana listed 5,961 homes valued at $300,000 or more.
