Another genius idea

Langford urges literacy effort to curtail crime

Larry Langford thinks that the answer to the Birmingham area's skyrocketing murder rate is a "literacy center". As a librarian, I have a certain appreciation for literacy efforts, and heck, it could mean jobs in the field, but I rather doubt that this is going to work as intended.

You have to have priorities

Water use high despite warnings

I mean, sure there's a water shortage and people need water to drink and bathe and cook and fight fires, but a man is judged by his lawn, is he not?

Stop looking at me!!!!

Rosy lipped batfish

I'm going to have nightmares about this fish now. Thanks, PZ.

Obviously, we need malpractice lawsuit reform

CNN.com - Medication errors injure more than 1.5 million yearly, study finds - Jul 20, 2006

I mean, we can't have 1.5 million people able to sue the people who screwed up every year, can we?

These are always fun

Todd's 59-vote victory awaits official results

Yep, there's going to be a challenge in this race, not least because there was apparently a counting problem with one box.

Thanks to what??!?!?!?

May leading in contributions

Mayor Ed May leads the pack in campaign contributions to candidates in Bessemer's mayoral race, thanks mostly to political action committees and out-of-state contributors.

Why would people out of state care about the mayor of Bessemer? I don't even care that much about the mayor of Bessemer, and I grew up there.

In other words...

City needs 6 inches of rain to make big dent in drought

A hurricane. South Alabama needs twelve inches, but luckily the hurricane would drop more there, so they're covered. Of course, there will be lots of devastation too.

Boom times for churches

Police, fire officials believe explosion was accidental

Somehow, a kid "wandered into a mechanical room" of a campus ministry, which caused the ministry to blow up. You may recall that during the reign of terror of the Three Duhmigos in February that a religious-supplies warehouse and a campus ministry in Tuscaloosa had accidental fires. Apparently, if you wait long enough you don't even have to set a church on fire, it'll go up on its own.

Strange Days

al.com: NewsFlash - AL Primary Highlights Box,2nd Ld Writethru

Probable supervillain Luther Strange beat Little George Wallace, pretty handily.

Final but unofficial results from District 54 have Patricia Todd narrowly winning, meaning she should be the state's first openly gay legislator. However, the margin is only 1173-1114, so a recount may happen.

It seems unlikely...

al.com: NewsFlash - Todd seeks to become possibly first openly gay state legislator

But if Patricia Todd wins the runoff in District 54 tonight, she should be in the legislature, because there's no Republican candidate. Frankly, just getting this far was a surprise, not just because she's gay but because she's white in a majority-black district.

Luckily it's a purely temporary problem

Water limits to hit home

I mean, it's not like we're going to have to deal with oppressive heat and drought on a regular basis from now on or anything.

Good for BSC

Burned churches will split $368,000

Birmingham-Southern College has gathered the donations for the churches burned by the three BSC students. It's only $36,800 per church, but it's a good start.

The S-word

Okay, let me get this straight... It's bad that the President said "shit" to Tony Blair. But it's good that CNN broadcast it. However, it would be bad for CNN to spell out "shit" on their website. And it is juvenile that bloggers say "shit" on their little Internet thingies. Is this correct?

The nests are gigantic, the yellow jackets normal size

Gigantic yellow jacket nests turning up in south Alabama

The largest filled a 1955 Chevy. It might be the result of -- guess what! -- a mild winter and drought conditions. This is the thing about climate change (theresnosuchthingasglobalwarming); there are all sorts of unintended consequences. Such as swarms of insects out of a Sci-Fi Channel movie. Nothing to be concerned about.

Oh, that thing

Beowulf & Grendel | The A.V. Club

I didn't know it had been released. I'm sure it sucks, though. To be fair, I was sure it sucked when it was announced.

Hire a convicted felon to mow your lawn!

Disgraced HealthSouth co-founder seeks redemption in the soil

I don't have time to read the whole thing right now (11 linked pages) but apparently HealthSouth cofounder and convicted CFO Mafioso Aaron Beam is now mowing lawns on a professional basis. He's making about $1200 a month. Also, he's trying to get a degree in "turf management".

I never wanted to live in the desert

Drought looming as one of worst

The NWS is predicting an "abnormally dry six to 12 months". But this has nothing to do with global warming, because there's no such thing. An NWS meteorologist says that the only relief would be from a tropical storm or hurricane, but right now there's nothing brewing, plus wishing for a hurricane to blast the coast and provide us with rain would be mean. Again, we basically have the climate of Bangladesh now.

I am confused

Why is The Road Warrior playing on The History Channel? Are they saying it's historical fiction?