July 2011
32 posts
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The Cycling Mentality →
Russell Shorto on how bicycling is hardwired into European cities and public attitudes. But of course there is nothing we can learn from Europe.
A different sort of parking…
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Obama Is The Wrong Leader For A Polarized America
One of my favorite political axioms comes from Margaret Thatcher, who said “First you win the argument and then you win the votes.”
President Obama’s fatal flaw as a President in these partisan, polarized times is that instead of trying to win the argument he always tries to split the difference between the arguments. And because there are such yawning differences between the...
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Why The Worsening Economy Shows That Stimulus... →
This is turning into Fact-Telling Friday. But facts (should) matter. So it (should) be worth pointing them out. I’m not holding my breath, though.
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Bikes (Change) The World →
Spectacular slideshow, chronicling the second (and more important) lives of donated bikes.
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In A World That Needs Heroes, I Give You Franz... →
Surprise ending: Gayl was railroaded, not rewarded. A comment on the times, unfortunately.
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5 Reasons The House GOP Is To Blame →
Channeling Krugman, James Fallows uses something called, um, “logic,” to explain why the Tea Party (and not both parties) is to blame for the debt and destruction to come. But this, of course, is the Age Of Distraction And Unreason.
Wherein A Nameless Computer Scientist Makes Me... →
My latest Sailing World blog, about a voyage I wish I had thought of.
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Undoing Humanity's Worst, One Piece Of Garbage At... →
The Rozalia Project is doing God’s work, scooping all sorts of crap out of the oceans. But what kind of God allows a human culture which throws it all there in the first place?
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“The problem with American politics right now is Republican extremism, and if...”
– Paul Krugman nails this one. And it follows years of cable news finding “balance” by pitting two equally polemical “analysts” against one another instead of giving us fact-based, objective analysis.
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Cycling Cities →
DC is listed in this Top Ten. But a true urban cycling culture is on my list of Top Ten Ways To Change Everything.
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Dept. Of Nose Vs. Face →
Leave aside the facts that US infrastructure needs trillions in investment, that super-low interest rates make now a great time to invest in repairing and upgrading said infrastructure, and, oh yeah, that investing in infrastructure would create jobs and boost a flagging economy. But how does it make sense to do nothing when doing nothing is in fact costing the US economy $129 billion a year?...
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Adventure Fix →
Latest edition: Shipwrecks, 2 Hilarious Plastic Bag Mockumentaries, and a Chimp Called Nim
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Hummer House →
I guess you could call this making a virtue out of an abomination.
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Bush Tax Cuts OR Debt Reduction →
James Fallows, with the help of a detailed chart, shows you can choose tax cuts or you can choose debt reduction, but you can’t choose both.
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Messing With Spotify →
Spotify is for people who are too lazy to go out and buy music or pirate it off the web. Playing around with it, I realize that I am also too lazy to pick my own tracks, which Pandora does so nicely for me. So the jury is out.
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Speaking With Progressive Radio Host David Sirota... →
This morning I spoke with radio host David Sirota about Blood In The Water, my latest deep dive into the world of marine parks and killer whale training. You can listen to the interview here.
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The Chesapeake Bay Is Dying →
Our devotion to large, suburban homes, cheap chicken and meat, and green, green lawns is creating ever-larger dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, the world’s most amazing estuary. Soon the dead zone will approximate the entire Bay itself. Our culture kills. Plain and simple.
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Dolphins Are Smart, Part 634 →
Dolphins in Shark Bay appear to use sponges as fishing tools. (And just like humans, the females appear both smarter and to do more work!)
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Fixing Our Politics →
The Good News: Former Rep. Mickey Edwards lays out a clear roadmap for creating a less partisan, more sensible, more sane political and legislative process.
The Bad News: all the people who moan about partisanship and failures of leadership, particularly the legislators themselves, will never do what it takes to make the changes.
Yep, I’m a skeptic.
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True Patriotism →
Read Union Major Sullivan Ballou’s extraordinary, inspiring, heartbreaking, letter to his wife, written a week before he died at the Battle Of Bull Run, and ask yourself: how many people do I know, how many politicians do I know, who would put country above all in the same way? Am I capable of similar sacrifice for ideals?
Pretty humbling.
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Time To Rethink Security? →
If these charts don’t convince you it is time to rethink our concept of security, and our strategy, then nothing will. We’re in the 2000s and budgeted for the 1960s. And we are not North Korea. What is more likely to screw up our lives and future: traditional military threats or climate change?
