Monday, April 29, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Does Light Rail Really Encourage People to Stop Driving? | The Atlantic Cities
More evidence that common sense really isn't all that common:
"...another reminder of the irrational love people have for their cars; getting city residents to give up driving often requires more than just offering them a ride."
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
15 Ways to Rethink the Federal Budget | The Hamilton Project
Interesting set of proposals:
"The Hamilton Project asked leading experts from a variety of backgrounds—the policy world, academia, and the private sector, and from both sides of the political aisle—to develop policy proposals which could form a partial menu of options to achieve responsible deficit reduction."
Friday, February 15, 2013
Suspected meth lab turns out to be sweet maple syrup | KFVS12
This is hilarious!
"The Benson's have been making their own maple syrup for the past five years. This was the first time they've been mistaken for a meth lab.
They even gave the agents a sample of their syrup to take home and enjoy."
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Friedman: India vs. China vs. Egypt | NYTimes.com
Another interesting column by Tom Friedman. Here is the premise:
"It’s hard to escape a visit to India without someone asking you to compare it to China. This visit was no exception, but I think it’s more revealing to widen the aperture and compare India, China and Egypt. India has a weak central government but a really strong civil society, bubbling with elections and associations at every level. China has a muscular central government but a weak civil society, yet one that is clearly straining to express itself more. Egypt, alas, has a weak government and a very weak civil society, one that was suppressed for 50 years, denied real elections and, therefore, is easy prey to have its revolution diverted by the one group that could organize, the Muslim Brotherhood, in the one free space, the mosque. But there is one thing all three have in common: gigantic youth bulges under the age of 30, increasingly connected by technology but very unevenly educated."Read the rest of Friedman's column. It is worth reading and thinking about because the impact over the next 10, 20, and 30 years will be bigger than people realize.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Viral Spiral 2012 | FactCheck.org
FactCheck.org gives the lowdown on the most common viral e-mails of 2012:
"...despite all good common sense, people do pass along these malicious attempts to deceive, often in the same amount of time it would take to check their tenuous hold on veracity. Our readers — some clearly trying to beat back the onslaught from friends — constantly ask us to put these viral claims to the truth test. In 2012, we found that:
- Dueling graphics on the debt both overstated and understated President Obama’s contribution to the debt.
- No, Obama didn’t give Alaskan islands to Russia, and his early records weren’t “sealed.”
- Over-the-top “death panel” claims about the Affordable Care Act included purely invented stories about elderly Americans being denied dialysis or brain surgery.
- Vote-rigging conspiracies claimed that Tagg Romney owned voting machines in Ohio (he doesn’t) and that uncounted military ballots swung the election for Obama (from a “faux news” site).
- In the tin-foil-hat category, one conspiracy said Obama was creating martial law and a “standing army of government youth.” The adult-aged FEMA Corps members help with natural disasters and can’t carry weapons.
- General Motors is still firmly based in the U.S., despite claims that it’s becoming “China Motors.”
- Old-but-still-kicking emails percolated, claiming that Medicare premiums were about to skyrocket, everyone’s home sales would be taxed, and the Obama administration wanted to ban weapons among U.S. citizens — none of which is true."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)