An image by Landsat, a government satellite system.
I've been loving The Morning News for some time now. It's like what would happen if Salon and McSweeney's had an internet love child... plus art. I've developed a real affection for Sarah Hepola, who wrote this charming piece called, "The Key to a Successful Freelance Career: A Diary" and a serial called "Celebrity Magazine." Their content isn't updated nearly frequently enough (weekly), but they do provide a non-stop stream of entertaining links, and mp3 and video digests. And it's been around since 1999. It's virtually an internet geezer.
Here's a thing I did about mass transit in the U.S. I think this was my favorite interview thus far, simply because the transportation expert was so admittedly cynical. He doesn't actually work with transportation in America, because "I only have one life and I don't want to waste it." He's the director of a program that put effective mass transportation in Mexico City and India, and he says the U.S. is almost completely hopeless. Not only do Americans really love their cars, and want to use them, but even if we were willing to ride buses it would be hard to set up a good system. There's a huge multitude of factors that go into this that don't really seem to fit together. We have "bedroom communities" where city workers have to commute 60 miles one way so they can own a large new house rather than rent a small place; the government is more than willing to subsidize gasoline and ethanol at a high cost; and cities create "boutique" subways that cost staggering amounts and no one uses. (A subway costs $1,000 an inch.) It all adds up to one thing: America discourages intelligent decisions.
And finally....an interesting piece on NPR news last week about the term "mental retardation." Sounds familiar.
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