The Scottish Play: Scottish voters rejected a resolution to become an independent country by a significant margin. The “no” vote was 55.3 percent while the “yes” for independence won 44.7 percent. Expressing relief, British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “As I said during the campaign, it would have broken my heart to see our United Kingdom come to an end.”

  The vote heads off great economic, political, and even military uncertainty that would have come with independence. But Scotland is likely to be granted greater self-rule as a result. In other Scottish news that shook the earth, but not quite so much, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews voted yesterday to admit women members. About three quarters of the club’s 2,400 members voted, with 85 percent of the votes cast in favor of women. The 260-year-old club is a bastion of the once male-dominated sport, but their members have always worn skirts so it’s not such a big deal.

Into the Fray: The Senate joined the House yesterday in approving military aid for Syrian rebels then left town for the fall political campaign season. The vote seems like a bold step, but the authorization to train the Syrian Free Army expires Dec. 11th, probably long before anyone gets any real military training. It will have to be renewed to be effective. Senators from both parties tried to position themselves on the winning side of the issue without knowing what that is. Senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio don’t want to hurt their chances to become president, and some Democratic senators are afraid of getting knocked off in the November elections.

Ebola: Researchers at Columbia University predict that the number of Ebola infections will reach nearly 16,000 by mid-October if efforts to fight the disease continue at their current rate of effectiveness, which isn’t very good. So far 5,000 cases have been reported with 2,600 deaths.

Bidniss: Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, a pioneer in computer programming, and one of the world’s richest people, announced he’s stepping down as chief executive of his company. An alpha male in every sense who’s married four times, races sailboats, and pilots his own plane, Ellison at age 70 is worth $46 billion. He also seems to have had a lot of plastic surgery on his face. >Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut, offered its stock on the open market this morning in the richest initial public offering in history, valuing the company at $168 billion. It’s a bet that the Chinese, who live under communist rule, will nonetheless become the biggest consumer society on earth tapping out their shopping orders on smartphones.

Nation: A Florida man killed his daughter and six grandchildren before killing himself, authorities say. It happened in Bell, about 30 miles from Gainesville. The children ranged from three months to 10 years. > California authorities have arrested a 37-year-old man suspected of starting the 73,000-acre King Fire.

Bar None: California lawyer Svitlana Sangary has been seen in photographs with the likes of President Obama, George Clooney, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore and Alec Baldwin. But then, she didn’t actually have the picture taken with all those people. She photoshopped herself into shots with the famous and powerful. The online legal publication The Recorder reports that the California Bar accused her of false advertising and recommended her suspension after she refused to take the photos off her website. In a rambling defense written to the Bar, Sangary wrote about herself in the third person saying, “Sangary’s American dream has come true. Sangary is a prominent donor and philanthropist, supporting important social causes, who had recently received the email from President Obama with the subject line ‘I need your help today,’ asking … for an additional donation.” Wow, Obama asked her for money.

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