Year: 2007

  • CONTRADICTIONS DEPT.

    Safer Driving Rules For the Children

    Here’s a slightly annoying Chicago Tribune editorial about changes in the rules for teenage drivers here in Illinois. Basically, they’ve increased the restrictions teenagers face. The new rules include: – Night restrictions for drivers younger than 18 are moved back an hour. – Passenger limits on 16- and 17-year-old drivers are extended from six months… Read more

  • WARBLOGGING DEPT.

    Operation Support Our Troops – Illinois

    A friend of mine just reminded me of a great organization called Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois. Founded in 2003 by Debi Rickert, OSOTIL sends out care packages to our troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They follow Department of Defense security standards and guidelines. Most of the items they send are not available through the… Read more

  • ECONOMICS DEPT.

    Eternal Copyright

    In an op-ed entitled “A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn’t Its Copyright?” in last Sunday’s New York Times author Mark Helprin tries to make the case for eternal copyright. Once the state has dipped its enormous beak into the stream of your wealth and possessions they are allowed to flow from one generation to the… Read more

  • SCIENCE DEPT.

    Divine Sarah Meets the Wizard of Menlo Park

    I’m pretty comfortable with technology, complacent even, but every once in a while some commonplace thing about our modern world just amazes me. One day about 120 years ago, French actress Sarah Bernhardt left the Broadway theater where she was performing and set out on a journey that took her over the Hudson River into… Read more

  • CATBLOGGING DEPT.

    Friday Catblogging: Minky!

    Fans of this blog, or at least of this blog’s catblogging, may have noticed that most of the pictures are of sleeping cats. What can I say? I am surrounded by lazy kitties. However, I recently paid a visit to my friend Cindy to take pictures of her new kitten. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give… Read more