Random

• The Bologna Process, an attempt to fix the incongruities in the European university system, may learn us Americans something. ~ Link

• Richard Towne "Dick" Sutcliffe, the creator of the Davey and Goliath series which I watched on TV every Sunday morning before my parents got up from bed, has died. ~ Link

• One way or the other you pay. American Airlines plans to start charging passengers $15 for the first checked bag in an attempt to recover fuel costs. People who do the carry-on thing are going to be happy that they've escaped the penalty (assuming that the new fee doesn't overload the carry-on bins) -- but even those people will at some point need to check something -- and they'll be annoyed. Psychologically it makes more sense to simply raise the price of the ticket $15 or the customer will feel like the airline is nickel and diming him to death. ~ Link

• The headline said "Department of Revenue and Taxation closed" -- making me wonder if they had run out of money. But it turns out they just ran out of air conditioning -- which is more important than money in their former-Costco warehouse. Life on Guam. ~ Link