Cathy Dee at Common Sensibilities calls The Journal Gazette on its lapse into headlinese:
I ran out the door this morning to grab the Journal-Gazette from the newspaper tube and scan the headlines. What a lame headline I had to scan: "Obama accepts party nod."
I mean, come on!? A historic occasion, a speech before 85,000 people, the first African-American president, and the strongest description the headline writer can come up includes the word "nod"?
The trucker who fell asleep at the wheel and killed five, including the two in the famous mixed-up identity case, could have gotten 24 years. He ended up serving two. What do you think? Was that enough?
The Indianapolis Museum of Art has a new "paper to paint" exhibit of my favorite artist, Edward Hopper, showing how many sketches he made before actually doing the final work:
Make a dumb joke, go directly to jail for three days:
HARLAN, Ky. — Politicians are known for lame jokes. But when Otis "Bullman" Hensley tried a generations-old Appalachian jest on a woman and two girls at the grocery store, the family thought it was downright criminal.
[. . .]
We should try to get as much out of Ivy Tech's uniqueness while we can. As soon as other states figure out what we're doing, they'll start imitating us:
Ivy Tech's plan to reinvent itself as more than a single-minded technical school is starting to pay off with big numbers.
Good lord, where does the time go? It was 45 years ago today that Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most memorable and famous speeches in modern history.
Is that sudden silence the disappearance of the stem-cell controversy?
Injecting a cocktail of proteins directly into the bodies of diabetic mice, researchers have converted normal pancreas cells into insulin-producing cells -- a genetic transformation that could pave the way for treating intractable diseases and injuries using a patient's own supply of healthy tissue.
Words from the not so wise:
Among the gems from this year's undergraduate exams are an economics student at City University in London student who attributed Northern Rock's downfall to the "laxative enforcement policies".
In literature, a student from Bath Spa University wrote of Margaret Atwood's book: "The Handmaid's Tale shows how patriarchy treats women as escape goats."
Nice to see that Raul is being so much more tolerant than Fidel was:
Cuba has ordered jailed punk rocker Gorki Aguila, an outspoken critic of Fidel Castro and the communist government, to stand trial on Friday for "social dangerousness," a charge that could carry up to four years in prison.
Just too strange for words:
An advertising world first has been launched in London - pitvertising.
The innovative new concept uses digital TV screens built into the armpits of shirts.
It was developed by deodorant manufacturer Right Guard as the ideal way to market its products.
And yes, there is -- yeech! -- a photo.
And the band kept playing "Nearer My God To Thee":
In a bombshell announcement in the world of sports journalism, star columnist Jay Mariotti has abruptly resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times.
Only after taping his last ESPN TV from the Sun-Times newsroom today did Mariotti open up.
Mariotti told CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker that he decided to quit after covering the Olympics in Beijing because newspapers are in serious trouble, and he did not want to go down with the ship.
Can't send those poor Democratic Hoosiers off to the Denver with nothing to say:
I wonder if whoever came up with the saying "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" could have been thinking of government. That condition so often seems the case way with state and federal bureaucrats. Under both the federal No Child Left Behind act and Indiana Public Law 221, schools that underperform for a certain amount of time can face severe penalties, up to and including being taken over by the state. But the state and federal laws set different standards, so it's not exactly clear when the state needs to step in.
I wonder if whoever came up with the saying "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" could have been thinking of government. That condition so often seems the case way with state and federal bureaucrats. Under both the federal No Child Left Behind act and Indiana Public Law 221, schools that underperform for a certain amount of time can face severe penalties, up to and including being taken over by the state. But the state and federal laws set different standards, so it's not exactly clear when the state needs to step in.
Harrison Square developers are having trouble selling their condominiums, so they're rolling out a new marketing plan. Indiana's NewsCenter went out looking for the kind of condos Fort Wayne folks do buy and, surprise, surprise, discovered a fondness for peace and quiet, woods, tennis courts and swimming pools. Then there is Harrison Square:
The price range on the Harrison Square condos is much higher, in the 175 to 350-thousand dollar amounts.
Technological advances just get more and more amazing:
HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum.
That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.
Nobody wants to live in Anderson, even Anderson government employees. So the city wants to require them to live in town, and even ask the General Assembly to remove the exemption for police and firefighters. But what about those pesky private companies?
Many Anderson private businesses also are not doing their part in making sure they hire locally, council members said.
OK, I take back the crack about the Clintons. This is what's really fun:
ANIMOSITY among MSNBC anchors has reached a mile-high peak at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, with on-air squabbling between such big egos as Joe Scarborough, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and David Shuster.
[. . .]
You only need to see the headline -- "She's happily married, dreaming of divorce" -- to know you're going to be treated to a wonderfully entertaining descent into self-indulgent whining:
That Jeffersonville sex offender is still trying to get into a park to watch his son play ball:
The American Civil Liberties Union argued in court Monday that an ordinance prohibiting sex offenders from entering public property owned by Jeffersonville is unconstitutional.
Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said it is not rational to ban someone from going to a park when he or she has not committed an offense there.
