Hey, kids, better polish up those math skills, or at least dust off the calculators:
Purdue University's recent announcement that incoming Boilermakers will need a fourth year of high school math will raise the minimum bar for admission to the highest in the Big Ten conference.
[. . .]
Indiana University will also increase its math requirement for 2011 to the second highest in the Big Ten, behind Purdue.
So far, there is $7 million in Gov. Mitch Daniels' budget proposal for virtual charter schools. Given the state's financial problems, the money probably won't stay there this time around, which is understandable. But some of the rhetoric being used by the opponents of such schools shows why change is difficult:
Most of the stories I've seen about the Supreme Court at least temporarily holding up the Chrysler/Fiat deal treat Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock more than a little dismissively. How dare this little twerp threaten the deal woth billions that could save thousands of jobs just because a few pension funds might end up a few million short? This piece, headlined "Chrysler's Bankrupcty Hiccup," is typical:
Many state politicians have complained in the past about Indiana's relatively poor return on the money Washington takes from Hoosiers. But it turns out the state is not much better in returning money to the places that spend the most on the lottery: Because of the 1996 move to reduce auto excise fees by using state lottery money, the counties with the most assessed value of motor vehicles, which tend to be the better-off ones, get the most money back.
Americans continue to strongly support ending the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for gays in the military, but that's not the really interesting part:
The finding that majorities of weekly churchgoers (60%), conservatives (58%), and Republicans (58%) now favor what essentially equates to repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy implemented under President Clinton in 1993 is noteworthy for several reasons.
Good news -- the Guantanamo problem has been solved; Terre Haute will take all the prisoners:
When the location of Terre Haute's new Wal-Mart Supercenter came under debate three years ago, City Councilman Rich Dunkin received more than 300 phone calls about the issue.
I was afraid that while I was on vacation the entire Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy might fall apart, but I'm happy to see that such is not the case. I opened my Journal Gazette this morning and what did I find but this lament by columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., which some might dismiss as lefty paradnoid delusions, but which I took heart in:
Jack Murrah came to Fort Wayne to explain to local leaders how the foundation he headed helped turn Chattanooga's downtown around. He offered advice that may be a little too late (and which city leaders have heard before anyway and chosen to ignore):
Rupert Murdoch goes way out on a limb:
NEW YORK News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch believes that in 10 to 15 years, newspapers will be read mainly on digital devices.
[. . .]
The leader of the Indiana Senate says he's taking gambling issues off the table during the upcoming special session so lawmakers can focus on putting together a new state budget.
At least once a year, the nerds have their moment in the spotlight:
An intense, oddly compelling spectacle of smart kids, the Scripps National Spelling Bee pitted 293 fourth through eighth graders against one another in a tense three-day competition.
Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe won it all on Laodicean, which means halfhearted in respect to religion or politics.
Usually I try to catch a few minutes of "Good Morning America" before coming to work -- it's about the least annoying of the morning "news" shows. The downside is that the program frequently gets caught up in breathlessly reporting some gushy nonsense about people behaving strangely. Today was one of those shows.
Oh, for Pete's sake:
President Obama's energy adviser has suggested all the world's roofs should be painted white as part of efforts to slow global warming.
Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, said the unusual proposal would mean homes in hot countries would save energy and money on air conditioning by deflecting the sun's rays.
Now that the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign has moved its sign campaign ("You can be good without God," "In the beginning, man created God") to Chicago, Time magazine finds the issue worthy of comment, reporting that residents there have largely greeted the ads with "a quick, curious look and then a shrug." The piece closes with a non-believer saying that atheists are still "in the closet," afraid to "come out" to their families and "say they don't believe in God" and makes this observation:
I'm so old-fashioned that I like the occasional historical reference in news stories, even if it takes up a little of the wwwwwh nuts-and-bolts space. I thought I was going to get one when I saw the headline of this story -- "Caesars Palace declares victory: Pres. Obama sleeps there again" -- and read the first paragraph:
I'll be darned. I've known some mentally ill people in my time, but I never realized there were so many of them:
You know them. I know them. And, increasingly, psychiatrists know them. People who feel they have been wronged by someone and are so bitter they can barely function other than to ruminate about their circumstances.
I notice that I've failed lately to keep you abreast of exciting developments on the Saving the Planet front. I will attempt to make up for it by calling your attention to this blog, in which the author offers eight tips for being a good green citizen. Go paperless. Turn off unnecessary electricity when you're not home. Use cloth grocery bags. And, of course, my personal favorite: Recycle!
Would you call this a Hoosicer-centric point of view?
Those of us who have been trying to come up with excuses for not wanting to visit Hobart can stop searching:
An ordinance to ban overnight parking outside Wal-Mart and other local stores passed City Council on a first vote Wednesday.
The proposal was approved on a 5-2 vote and is aimed at truck drivers who in recent months have turned parking lots along U.S. 30 into de facto truck stops.
