] He was asked, "Colleges should get rid of legacy?"
]
] Bush responded, "Well I think so, yes. I think it ought
] to be based upon merit."
]
] Under legacy programs, applicants are given an advantage
] if their parents or grandparents attended the school.
] Bush, a third-generation graduate of Yale University,
] joked about his own legacy.
]
] "Well, in my case, I had to knock on a lot of doors to
] follow the old man's footsteps," he said to laughter.

Legacy is one problem I am not too upset by. The recent practice of applying legacy-tracking to non-legacy "likely donor" candidates is more troubling. It was amazing how many people from Carleton that graduated with my sister were from parents who had graduated about the time as my father -- and I think in that environment, it was an asset. That's different than accepting people as if they were legacy because their family was wealthy and indicated high likelyhood of donating large sums and fundraising, as the WSJ reported places like Duke doing. And I'm not harping on this because my mom went to Duke but I was not legacy enough to go as well. I think I did better anyway, without legacies. And I think Bush is confident that what doesn't matter as much as legacy is power and prestige -- I don't believe he was legacy at HBS, but as the son of "Special Envoy to China"...

CNN.com - Bush opposes 'legacy' college admissions - Aug 6, 2004

] Feeling blue? Americans reported spending an average of
] three days a month feeling "sad, blue or depressed,"
] according to a government survey released Wednesday.

Wow. That's it? If this were a cumulative thing that you
could borrow against, any day now I'll live happily ever after.

] The survey also found that the more days a month people
] said they were sad, the more likely they were to take
] risks including not using seat belts or binge drinking

I take it back, Geoff.

Yahoo! News - Survey: Americans Sad About 3 Days a Month

] One of the 15 papers, The Anniston (Ala.) Star (Click for
] QuikCap), expressed public dismay with the vote yesterday
] -- saying the decision amounted to censorship. In an E&P
] interview after that article appeared, Star Executive
] Editor Troy Turner said: "Sure, 'Doonesbury' causes
] editors headaches from time to time, but there is a
] proven readership for it. Newspapers need to think of
] readers first, or they will continue to struggle."

Good for the Anniston Star! I'm sure Trudeau is not too concerned about losing 38 papers in light of the 1400 other papers that publish it, but still. I'm not a fan of a syndicator generating the comics page for a bunch of newspapers, but I guess that's how it works.

Continental: Complaints Led to Drop-'Doonesbury' Poll

] More than half of all U.S. consumers that have tried
] following diets that eschew carbs such as bread and sugar
] have given up, a survey released on Wednesday found, and
] interest in the popular regimens appears to have
] plateaued.

Been watching for it...

Yahoo! News - Americans Abandoning Low-Carb Diets -Survey

] David Ray Harris, whose false testimony put a man on
] death row for more than a decade in a case featured in
] the documentary "The Thin Blue Line," was executed in
] Texas on Wednesday for a 1985 murder.

This movie was amazing. It is amazing that death row works this slowly, because part of the film hinged on this prisoner already
being on death row in 1987. Errol Morris, prior to winning the Oscar for "Fog of War", made reference to this film when he said an Oscar was not important -- his films had saved a man's life.

Still not sure how I feel about involuntary capitol punishment, but it sounds like this man was aware of his actions and was prepared to die.

Yahoo! News - Texas Executes Key Figure in 'Thin Blue Line' Case

] "People ask me if I'm L, G, B or T," Bloomberg went on.
] "I tell them that I am 'S&M' - straight and mayor."

What a sense of humor, that Bloomberg.

New York Daily News - Daily Dish & Gossip - Rush & Molloy: Unkind cut for Colin Farrell in 'Home'

] The legislation argues that consumers own their vehicles
] in their entirety and should be able to access their
] onboard computers. Just how the codes would be released
] to car owners isn't addressed, but possibilities include
] publishing them on CDs or websites, or requiring
] carmakers to create indicator lights that would pinpoint
] problems instead of lumping them together under the
] generic Check Engine-type warnings

Neat. Although some of us have the option with our car to buy aftermarket computers that /are/ pretty accessible.

Wired News: Drivers Want Code to Their Cars

] The creation of the Theme Park ScienceFictionLand was
] also the Producer's plan for the funding the film, Lord
] of Light.
]
] Fortune 500 companies around the world had been contacted
] to act as sponsors. Internationally acclaimed scientists
] were intrigued and several had begun work on Research and
] Development. Even 3M had already expressed interest in
] building a 1/2 mile high Floating Heated Dome (based upon
] Buckminister Fuller's original designs for NYC) over the
] entire park. The film's financing was contingent upon the
] development of the themepark.

Quite a story. Novel concept for funding a film and foundation. And wow, 3M wanted to build the floating Dome.

CIA- Lord of Light

] America's inmate population grew by 2.9 percent last
] year, to almost 2.1 million people, with one of every 75
] men living in prison or jail.

Look to your right, look to your left. Now, look to that neighbor's other side. And that neighbor's side.... One of you may be in Prison. Wow. Think about, if this ratio were demographically uniform, which it is not, how many people from your elementary, or high school, or college class should be in prison at this time. Or your little league. Or whatever.

Yahoo! News - Report: 1 of Every 75 U.S. Men in Prison

] While it does not, in some ways, go nearly far enough,
] and is buried on Page A10, this low-key but scathing
] self-rebuke is nothing less than a primer on how not to
] do journalism, particularly if you are an enormously
] influential newspaper with a costly invasion of another
] nation at stake.

A strong follow-on attack of the Times apology I just blogged. The nice thing about the world of blogs is that it doesn't matter whether it was page A10 or Z173 -- if it is online, and /someone/ catches it, and it is important, we can all share in it.

But that doesn't mean it helps their case that their Jayson Blair apology was longer, and A1, while this (more important) bit is "buried".

] Today's critique is, in its own way, as devastating as last
] year's front-page corrective on Jayson Blair, though not nearly
] as long.

EditorandPublisher.com - Information Authority for the Newspaper Industry