BY HARRY RING
People are so paranoid -"Maryland: Aberdeen Proving
Ground - Construction begins this summer on a $500-million
plant to dispose of 1,500 tons of mustard gas, a chemical
weapon stockpile that has concerned neighbors of the Army
facility for years." - News item.
Nothing's perfect - For decades, a nuclear energy plant in northern England has been releasing plutonium into the Irish Sea. The rational was that the radioactive waste would be trapped in sediment at the bottom of the sea.
Now a study finds 36 percent is gone and scientists believe it may have been washed to Scotland and Scandinavia. The company said that over such a long period, a 36 percent loss is a good result.
Why? Because they got caught? - At San Diego State University, 25 students taking a course in business ethics were given "F's for cheating. Most of them were put on probation.
Regimentation always helps -Responding to the Colorado shooting, Portsmouth, New Hampshire schools banned trench coats and dark clothing associated with shock singer Marilyn Manson. AP reported the top school honcho as saying she hoped the new rules would help students feel "less separated from one another."
Right on - At Denver West High School students must now wear their ID cards around their necks at all times. Only the main entrance is open, the other 25 are locked. Backpacks are frequently checked and lockers checked for "probable cause." And, of course, no trench coats or capes. On May 2 some 50 students walked out in protest.
Two titans - Glayde Whitney, a psychology professor at Florida State University, and a non-closet racist, sparked protest by writing a foreword to a book by David Duke. Duke is the guy who formally withdrew from the Ku Klux Klan to win election to the state legislature. Whitney likens Duke to Socrates and Isaac Newton. Duke says the prof. is "one of the giants of his science."
A few more `bad apples' - In Akron, Ohio, officials assigned a team of experts to investigate why the city's cops become criminals and police morale is low. The probe seems to have been sparked by the conviction of a deputy chief for theft and a captain for murder.
Welcome to the millennium -New Hampshire was slated to repeal a statute that barred gays from adopting children or being foster parents.
The law also provided that heterosexuals who adopted children had to certify there were no gays in the household.
That damn spell cheque - The May 24 "Great Society" reported that each year more than a million people die from work "accents." The problem, of course is accidents, not accents.