The governor and his allies are still pushing lottery privatization, which -- given the election season and the still-lingering anger over leasing the toll road -- might not be the best idea in the world. Now, they're really pushing the idea that it's the a way to improve higher education in the state and stop "brain drain":
I've worked with some first-class prima donnas in my day, but this guy has them all beat:
One of Britain's leading restaurant critics has been left red faced after an obscene 1,000-word email rant he sent to his editors emerged on the internet.
Their crime? Changing a single word in one of his reviews.
Giles Coren, son of the humourist Alan Coren, was angry that his phrase “where to go for a nosh” had been replaced with “where to go for nosh”, with the penultimate word removed.
[. . .]
Cultural conservatives have long argued that the moral character of the country would be vastly improved if divorces were made much harder to obtain. Now they've gotten what they wanted!
Then, after two years of marriage, the 10-year relationship soured, and Chambers filed for divorce. That put the couple into a legal limbo that is becoming increasingly common as same-sex couples married in one state try to divorce in another.
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:
I was all set to enjoy a pleasant evening of blogging last night. One of my favorite old black-and-white movies, 1935's "G Men," with James Cagney and Margaret Lindsay, was playing on Turner Classic Movies. With my laptop set up in front of the TV, I could half pay attention to the movie (old favorites are comfortable background noise) while composing posts to thrill and astound my readers. But at 7:58 p.m., two minutes before the movie's start -- Zap! Comcast Cable went out. "This channel should be available shortly," the message said -- on every channel.
But if we count butterflies here, won't that cause floods in Brazil?
Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation will hold its 11th annual butterfly count from 1 to 3 p.m. Aug. 9 at the farm, 817 W. Dupont Road.
Participants will learn how to identify butterflies and will be given nets to catch whatever they can. Finally, participants will tally the species they find.
Just wondering. And they're going to actually catch them, too, so maybe we ought to start preparing for the Rapture.
Indiana Code 34-7-7 is intended to protect the free-speech rights of those commenting on "matters of public interest." Say someone accuses a cop of wrongdoing, and officials decide to investigate, and a newspaper reports the allegations and the investigation. The investigation finds the accusation was baseless, and the accuser is in turn charged with false reporting, and the newspaper reports that, too.
Sometimes we forget what monsters sexual predators are. This creep from Muncie makes it easy to remember:
Authorities said Dyer took his daughter and two of her friends, ages 15 and 12, to the Best Western motel, 3011 W. Bethel Ave., on March 27, 2006, purportedly so the girls could enjoy the facility's swimming pool.
This is cool:
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Two companies have announced plans to tap gas from a landfill's decomposing garbage and turn it into enough power to light more than 1,500 homes.
Veolia Environmental Services and Energy Systems Group, which is owned by Vectren Corp., said they had reached an agreement to develop a plant next to Blackfoot Landfill that would clean the landfill's gas and burn it to generate electricity.
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:
Not that I think these Democrats would be in favor of any immigration action that would result in any punishment for illegals, but they have a point here:
A judge in New Zealand has made a 9-year-old girl a ward of the court so that the embarrassing name her parents gave her -- "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii" -- can be changed:
In his ruling, Murfitt cited a list of the unfortunate names.
Registration officials blocked some names, including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, he said. But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter "and tragically, Violence," he said.
For the "surprised it didn't happen sooner" file:
The Massachusetts House of Representatives has given its initial approval to a bill that would require all future legislation be written in language that is gender neutral.
If you still haven't decided between McCain and Obama, here's just the thing that will probably tip it for you:
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:
In the latest NYT/WSJ poll, Barack Obama has a 47-41 percent advantage over John McCain, which is no great surprise. Fuurthermore:
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.
Newt, Newt, Newt. As one boring white guy to another, I wonder about this:
“What I'm afraid of is that if Sen. McCain picks one more relatively boring, normal, mainstream Republican white guy
