According to the March 6th, 2005 St. Pete Times, Florida ranked 47th among the 50 states in per pupil (education) spending.
Keeping that in mind, consider a story I heard on the local public radio station this morning. They were discussing higher education funding, and they mentioned an interesting fact about the local, state university (the University of South Florida in Tampa). Apparently, they…
Here’s my second favorite story gathered from the news today:
BBC News: Vertical farming in the big apple.
Here’s an excerpt:
Now though, scientists at Columbia University are proposing an alternative. Their vision of the future is one in which the skyline of New York and other cities include a new kind of skyscaper: the “vertical farm”.
The idea is simple enough. Imagine a…
If best intentions hold steady, I’ll be returning to work in some capacity in less than a week’s time. A week is an important psychological boundary for me. When I thought to myself, “I’ve still got a week before I need to go back,” I felt comfortable in knowing that no matter how tired I felt at the moment, I still had a significant amount of time to build up…
You knew I couldn’t resist, didn’t you?
I went outside this morning and my eyes teared up from the smoke. I spent five minutes or so looking around, and when I came back inside I had to change my clothes. I smelled like a camp fire.
The red dots in the satellite image below represent the fires burning in southern GA and northern FL. The image was taken on May 8th. As you may know…
A Senate committee approved a plan Tuesday to increase fuel efficiency standards to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 in a move closely watched by automakers and environmental groups.
Senate panel votes to boost fuel economy levels. By Ken Thomas, Associated Press
You know what I thought when I first saw this headline?
It’s about time.
You know what I thought after I read the…
The Pentagon survey found that less than half the troops in Iraq thought Iraqi civilians should be treated with dignity and respect. More than a third believed that torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier or if it helped get information about the insurgents. About 10% of those surveyed said they had actually mistreated Iraqi civilians by hitting or kicking them, or…
In only the second veto of his presidency, Bush rejected legislation pushed by Democratic leaders that would require the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later. “This is a prescription for chaos and confusion and we must not impose it on our troops,” Bush said in a nationally broadcast statement from the White House.
Bush…
U.S. aid official linked to call-girl ring resigns | Reuters
Everyone loves the story of a political hypocrite being outed. Randal Tobias worked for the Department of State under the Bush administration and was apparently an advocate for abstinence programs abroad. Now there’s news he has resigned, in light of his involvement with an infamous Washington escort service.
Ah… but maybe…
I don’t know why, but one of the more suprising conclusions drawn from the shootings in Virginia (to me) is that there aren’t enough guns. The thought is that if there were just a couple students packing heat in school, they could have fought back. This shouldn’t have been a suprise… it’s a natural extention from the NRA’s widely repeated assertion that if guns…