May 2009
35 posts
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“The [Republicans] are desperate. The trio of Pillsbury doughboys now leading the...”
– Frank Rich in Who Is to Blame for the Next Attack? (N.Y. Times)
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Germany Imagines Suburbs Without Cars →
I would love to live in a place like this. (N.Y. Times)
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Reinventing America’s Cities →
Here are proposals to reinvent New Orleans, Los Angeles, The Bronx, and Buffalo. I like the one for L.A. the best; it really needs a city center. (N.Y. Times)
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Mac OS X Update Boosts Netbook Battery Life →
The latest version of Mac OS X boosts the battery life of netbook computers — which Apple doesn’t make. The funny thing is that it doesn’t do the same for Apple laptops. (Ars Technica)
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A Wide View of a Hellish World →
Wide-lens photos of Arkansas prisons in the mid-70’s. (N.Y. Times)
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Marks of Childhood or the Marks of Abuse? →
Diagnosing child abuse has become a board-certified pediatric specialty. This will make diagnoses more accurate and help convict abusers when they’re found. (N.Y. Times)
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Hey, Chicago! Want a Free Airport? →
The City of Chicago should annex the Gary/Chicago airport. (The Times of Munster, IN)
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I Love U.S. Cellular
I hate to gush about a company, but I’ve had such good service from U.S. Cellular, and that fact is even more amazing when compared to the horror stories I hear about the other wireless phone networks.
Besides the great call quality and almost never dropping a call, they give you free incoming calls and incoming texts — including photos.
Today, I learned that if your phone runs out...
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Fox Gives Wanda Sykes a Talk Show →
Wanda Sykes will be back on network TV for a weekly talk show Saturday nights on Fox. Yay! (N.Y. Times)
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Math and the City →
Math proves that cities have striking similarities to living organisms. (N.Y. Times)
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U.S. Arms May Be Leaking to Taliban →
The Taliban appears to be using some ammunition and guns diverted from the U.S. arsenal. WTF? (N.Y. Times)
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Survivors Shed Light on Dark Days of Khmer Rouge →
The immensity of the trauma of the Cambodian genocide is just unbelievable. When I visited Cambodia in 2002, the AP reporter who covered the genocide in the late 70’s just happened to be in Phnom Penh and I met him through friends. It was clear that the genocide had taken a toll on his life as well, and he was just a witness. I wish all the survivors some peace. Though I believe that the...
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The Lost Art of Reading Aloud →
This makes me want to invite my friends over for a reading. (N.Y. Times)
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“The costs of using the car for every type of trip are finally apparent, from...”
– Marc Schlossberg, an associate professor of planning, public policy and management at the University of Oregon and an associate director of the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium, as quoted in Car-Free in America? (N.Y. Times)
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An End to Abstinence Only →
The 2010 budget proposes that abstinence-only education, which is ineffective or even counter-productive, will be largely unfunded. Yay! In this economy, there is no reason to fund ineffective programs (if there ever was). (Politico via Think Progress)
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T-Mobile Provides iPhone Support Despite Not... →
Supporting a phone they don’t offer and awarding a service credit when there’s a problem? Well done, T-Mobile. (Consumerist via Unofficial Apple Weblog)
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“I realise that there is no electricity in the Wilderness Cabins, but there...”
– Ridiculous Vacation Complaints (Telegraph U.K.)
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At-Sign is @ Least 473 Years Old →
The at-sign has been delivering the mail for nearly half a millenium: A Florentine merchant used the @ symbol in a letter written 473 years ago yesterday on May 4, 1536. (N.Y. Times)
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Grieving a Miscarriage →
A lot of people have difficulty grieving any death, and pregnancy is already an emotional thing. Put the two together, and many don’t know what to do or say. (N.Y. Times)
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“People have a very weird perception of large numbers. If you have 2,000 cases of...”
– Dirk Brockmann, an engineering professor who leads the epidemic-modeling team at the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems in Predicting Flu With the Aid of (George) Washington (N.Y. Times)
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Michelle Obama’s Mother Finds Washington to Her... →
Rather than being president, I’m thinking that father to the president is much more appealing. (N.Y. Times)
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Tie Me Up And Pin Me Down! Summer's Hottest... →
Io9 pulls the best homoerotic bondagey moments, from this summer’s biggest movie trailers.
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“Americans are aghast at what happened to the country while the G.O.P. was in...”
– Bob Herbert in Out of Touch (N.Y. Times)
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Swine Flu: First, Sow No Panic →
This is the most rational story I’ve read on the swine flu outbreak. (N.Y. Times)
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“If a severe pandemic materializes, all of society could pay a heavy price for...”
– Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, as quoted in A Nation of Typhoid Marys. Americans live shorter lives than Greeks, our kids are twice as likely to die by age 5 as Portuguese children, and American...
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Rugby Player Jersey Swap →
Fun with half-naked kiwi rugby players. Try the slo-mo replay! (Adidas via Outsports)
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