BY HARRY RING
Hype and hustle winding down? - A 1998 "Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales" calendar, regularly $9.95, is available this week at the Los Angeles "99 cent Only" chain. No limit on number purchased.

38 years and still trying - Miami-based Cuban counterrevolutionaries sent boats to off-Cuba waters carrying lasers to beam "pro-democracy" messages onto Havana's night sky. Residents were called on to gather along the city's sea wall and bang pots and pans in support. The laser message was faint and intermittent, and the call for pot-bangers was ignored. The self-styled Democracy Movement declared its operation a success.

Buckle your belt - According to the International Air Transport Ass'n, 19 planes crashed worldwide last year and 1,189 passengers and 97 crew members perished. Air traffic is expected to double by 2010 and, at the present crash rate, would mean a disaster a week. Affiliated airlines were told they must tackle this problem and, also, the challenge of declining profits. The profit shrink came despite increased traffic and bigger loads.

More work, less service - British safety inspectors have reports that train drivers are nodding off in the cab because of long hours. Train drivers work at the controls six hours, take a half-hour break, and then drive four hours more.

Meanwhile, train services canceled or arriving late rose significantly since the they've been privatized.

`Color-blind' education system - California's two-year community college system, as of last year, had 1,396,400 students, with 30 percent studying full-time and 70 percent part-time; 46 percent were 24 or younger, 54 percent 25 to 40 or older. About 6 percent went on to four-year colleges. And, natch, 54.6 were nonwhite.

The march of science - "NEW ORLEANS - Seeking a glimpse of the neural machinery of the soul, scientists have discovered that the brain may be naturally attuned to words of prayer and religious experience." - Los Angeles Times, November 1.

Note - We did an earlier item on this, based on a brief L.A. Times account of a report by UC San Diego researchers to a gathering of neurologists. The item above is the opening of a full-sized article by a Times science writer. Interestingly, it appeared in the paper's Saturday religion page, not the Tuesday science page.

You think there's a double standard? - Robert Citron, who led Orange County into the country's biggest municipal bankruptcy so far, is free. His investment juggling cost the county $1.6 billion and he pleaded guilty to felony charges of fraud.

He did nine months in a county jail work release program - a five-day week clerical job, with nights home.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home