You decide.

Either way it's pretty damn funny.

Fidelity National Financial, Inc., a title insurance company out of Jacksonville FL, is buying the Nashville-based O'Charley's chain of 342 casual dining restaurants for $221 million in cash.

The company, which has branched out into other services such as mortgage origination, home warranties, document imaging, software, etc., entered the restaurant business with the acquisition of American Blue Ribbon, a Denver-based restaurant chain with 283 stores including the Village Inn, Baker's Square, Max and Ermas' and Legendary Baking brands.

Restaurant News quotes Fidelity National Financial chairman William P. Foley II as saying the company was looking to invest in "a larger, scalable, strategic restaurant operating company to complement our successful investment in American Blue Ribbons Holdings LLC."

Fidelity National Financial and O'Charley's sound like strange bedfellows to me. What would a title company know about running a restaurant chain? I once worked for a CEO who said "stick to your knitting." That seemed like pretty good advice.

Here's the latest intrusion into your personal finances: Banks scan your online debit/credit card statements looking for purchases from participating merchants and include links to the company's coupons and special offers.

Creepy.

This has apparently been around for a while, but I guess I haven't heard about it because we rarely if ever use online statements or any other online banking services at all unless you count PayPal.

Yet another example of consumer data mining that also highlights the low barriers to entry for competitors of Groupon and other deal programs.

The Tennessee Dept. of Labor and Workforce Development has received notice of the following layoffs:

• Foamworks, Inc. of Cleveland closed and laid off 13 workers effective 2/3.

• Tennessee Health Management laid off 15 workers on 1/31. I believe this is a long term care facility in Parsons (Decatur Co.).

• The Food Lion store closings continue, with 339 layoffs in Hamilton, Bradley and McMinn counties, 1/27 through 2/15.

Interesting idea.

From News-Sentinel ...

The Scenic City is offering hard cash to “geeks” like programmers and network specialists who move to Chattanooga, provided they agree to stay awhile.

Computer developers could receive up to $11,250 in exchange for moving to one of Chattanooga’s historic downtown neighborhoods for five years, in a program modeled after the city’s ArtsMove program that drew two dozen artists to the Southside.

Article

I needed an eraser, so I went to my neighborhood Dollar General Store to buy one. They had them for $1, but in super-bright colors and made in China. OK, then ...

So I went to Jerry's Artarama, and, as expected, they had them too -- but made in Germany, for $1.09. I had to ask myself, if Germany can make and export erasers, why can't the US?

Just read it.

Listen to it here

Feed your inner Luddite:

"The media you use make no difference at all to learning," says Richard E. Clark, director of the Center for Cognitive Technology at USC. "Not one dang bit. And the evidence has been around for more than 50 years." [...]

Many would-be educational innovators treat technology as an end-all and be-all, making no effort to figure out how to integrate it into the classroom. "Computers, in and of themselves, do very little to aid learning," Gavriel Salomon of the University of Haifa and David Perkins of Harvard observed in 1996. Placing them in the classroom "does not automatically inspire teachers to rethink their teaching or students to adopt new modes of learning."

Commenting on the Komen reversal RE breast cancer screening at Planned Parenthood, Senator Campfield makes the claim that abortion causes breast cancer. He has a website link to prove it. "It's on the internet so my version of science is true" should be Campfield's slogan.

Dispensing medical information from such a high pulpit as State Senator, Campfield should rely on established authorities like the National Institute of Health or the National Cancer Institute, for instance. But he will not. Only dishonesty will serve his intentions.

The National Cancer Institute refutes Senator Campfield's claim unequivocably:

After responding via comment to Randy Neal's last post about the KTSC situation, I realized that my comment was more of a post of its own, so I'm publishing it here.

What I noted in my response to Randy was that with regard to the issues raised regarding KTSC in recent weeks, basically, our community has now been made aware - many of us for the first time - that we have had a very expensive, quasi- governmental agency providing an important service without any of the basic processes of oversight and accountability to which "real" government agencies and departments are subjected when money is spent. And because KTSC was disconnected from any meaningful oversight from, well, anyone, we ended up here.

However, I do not believe KTSC is the only contracted service provider to local government running amok due to lack of oversight once the contract is signed. It is my belief that we have a substantially similar situation in the the way that Knox County contracts with private vendor University Pathologists to provide Medical Examiner services to the tune of $970,000 annually.

Now that some documentation has been released (see WBIR archive) we know more about Gloria Ray's four year contract and subsequent extension.

The past few years have given rise to a number of candidates for whom people have taken pride in casting a vote. There are some genuinely good people capable of doing legitimate work in politics, but there is only so far we can advance as a species by changing the Who does What, especially with U.S. politics being one of the last places on earth that only offers a choice between Brand A and Brand B.

Al Jazeera's The Stream has a conversation with former Governor, former Congressman, and current presidential candidate Buddy Roemer about the How of politics.

"The how" being piles and piles of cash. Watch.

We finally watched "Moneyball" last night and it was pretty good. I had read the book by Michael Lewis (author of The Big Short and one of my favorite new to me writers) while on vacation, and it's even better. It's about baseball, but not really, and there's too much going on to fit in a movie.

Another excellent book I read while on vacation is "Last Train to Paradise" by Les Standiford. The Mrs. read it a while back and recommended it, and it was fitting given our location.

Small town with limited resources provides some nifty innovation.

From yahoo.com ...

The Tenna lift generates 90,000 kilowatts a year, or three times the juice needed to run the lift, and the extra power goes back into the grid, which makes money for the town, which can pay residents back.

Article

I have not heard much about TDEC since election, but based on the commissioner chosen, it looked like whatever eventually happened would not be good. Any comments from folks more "in the know?"

From News-Sentinel ...

The fired officials are Mike Apple, head of the department's solid waste management division, and Paul E. Davis, who was in charge of water pollution control. Meanwhile, Mike Carlton is retiring as director of Tennessee state parks.

...complaints about environmental regulations have been a recurring theme as the governor has met with business groups around the state, and Haslam has promised changes to make the department more business-friendly.

Article

Earlier Knoxviews entry on TDEC commissioner appointment ...
TDEC appointee

Why are they so popular? Can we just go ahead and outlaw them? Phew.

In response to better than expected job numbers this week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit it's highest mark in nearly three years and the tech-heavy NASDAQ index reached it's highest level in eleven years, signaling improved investor confidence in the economy.

AP: "In this economy, only one variable matters right now, and that variable is employment," said Lawrence Creatura, an equity portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

(Be on the lookout for a selloff Monday, though.)

I'm hearing that Susan Komen is reversing its stance on Planned Parenthood. If true, I am glad for the women that will continue to receive services across the country. However, my faith in Komen has been shaken. For activists regarding breast cancer, Breast Cancer Action is the one to donate to.

KTSC board accepted Gloria Ray's retirement today, effective in two weeks subject to negotiation of a separation agreement. If no agreement is reached at the end of two weeks, the board will vote to terminate, either with or without cause.

Following that action, interim chair Susan Brown resigned from the board, along with the rest of the executive committee.

Earlier posts after the jump...