November 2011
1 post
October 2011
7 posts
How to Stop the Drop in Home Values - NYTimes.com →
HOMES are the primary form of wealth for most Americans. Since the housing bubble burst in 2006, the wealth of American homeowners has fallen by some $9 trillion, or nearly 40 percent. In the 12 months ending in June, house values fell by more than $1 trillion, or 8 percent. That sharp fall in wealth means less consumer spending, leading to less business production and fewer jobs.
But for...
Global Warming Will Make Chocolate a Luxury Item →
The latest victim of climate change could well be something we all take for granted. It is delicious, ubiquitous, and most people cannot think of dessert without it. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) recently released a report that states that chocolate will soon become a luxury item that a few can afford.
Various reports in the past have been leading up to this same...
Smart Parking Tech Might be Paying Off in U.S.... →
A new survey from IBM has confirmed what city managers, travelers and commuters already know from everyday experience: finding a parking space in a big city can be a frustrating and sometimes futile chore. And the problem isn’t confined to the U.S. — it’s an issue around the world. More than half of drivers among 8,000 commuters in 20 cities worldwide said during the past year they gave up...
The Mortgage Interest Deduction Can Go →
“I would trade the mortgage interest deduction for a top tax rate of 25 percent,” said David G. Kittle of Investors Mortgage Asset Recovery Co. at the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing’s Policy Symposium. Panelists agreed on one result of the housing crisis: reduced public confidence in homeownership as a vehicle for building wealth.
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September 2011
12 posts
xkcd: Hotels →
A Burst of Pepper Spray Like a Punch In the Face -... →
A police official stepped up to Occupy Wall Street protesters in a corral, unleashed pepper spray, and just walked off.
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Freakonomics » Why The U.S. Needs More Minority... →
When it comes to achievement, does it matter if a student and a teacher are the same race? And if so, how much? That’s the essential question posed by a trio of economists in a new working paper, the first to test whether minority instructors have a positive effect on the academic achievement of minority students at the college level.
Their results indicate an emphatic yes, and may hold a...
Bummer - Reason Magazine →
Barack Obama turns out to be just another drug warrior.
It is not hard to see how critics of the war on drugs got the impression that Barack Obama was sympathetic to their cause. Throughout his public life as an author, law professor, and politician, Obama has said and done things that suggested he was not a run-of-the-mill drug warrior. In his 1995 memoir Dreams From My Father, the future...
Ex-Giant’s Case Is a Window on N.F.L. Aid -... →
“Ron is not adjusted well enough that he can handle people coming in and out,” Karen Johnson said. “Because he still feels that he is getting out of here.”
They had confirmed his condition to close friends, but for reasons personal and business-related had decided not to go public until now. The disclosure is certain to add to the growing concern about the violence of football at every...
The Richard Florida Theory of Reality TV -- New... →
There are reality shows set in foreign deserts and on the decks of Alaskan frigates and amid the industrial mixers of gourmet cupcakeries, but over time, the series have taken on a predominant backdrop. You can probably picture it: The identikit mini-manses and the vast living rooms and gleaming kitchens within. The multiple garages housing SUVs that carry our heroes on their strip-mall ...
August 2011
12 posts
Sorry Neocons, Adam Smith Was Not One of You - Hit... →
Defense hawks seem to be hitting Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations like sophomores cramming for an exam. In the last few days, three separate hawks have invoked Smith three separate times to excoriate the potential defense cuts in the phony debt deal.
John Bolton, the Bush-era neocon whose mustache makes everything he says more menacing, pulled a passage from the book that says that “the first...
What Carmageddon taught us about behavior | MNN -... →
It was supposed to be Carmageddon in L.A., but instead the two-day closure of the busiest freeway in Los Angeles reiterated a timeless lesson about cars: We lose less than we think when we make them a lower priority in our cities.
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"Berlanga no ha tenido el reconocimiento... →
Los actores José Sacristán y Amparo Soler Leal asentían con la cabeza al compás de las palabras que el historiador y guionista Román Gubern ha dedicado a la figura del cineasta Luis García Berlanga, fallecido en noviembre del año pasado, horas antes de que se celebre un homenaje al director de El verdugo en la Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo: “Berlanga no ha tenido el...
Data Visualization: Journalism's Voyage West |... →
This visualization plots over 140,000 newspapers published over three centuries in the United States. The data comes from the Library of Congress’ “Chronicling America” project, which maintains a regularly updated directory of newspapers.
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The Wire: A Streetview Tour | Welcome to... →
Shot on location during its five-year run on HBO, Baltimore was more than a backdrop and setting for The Wire. From its corners to its classrooms to the corridors of power, the city was the prism through which issues and themes were refracted.
Here follows some of The Wire‘s more iconic locations.
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xkcd: Mac/PC →
How Apple would solve the debt crisis - David... →
Spending is good. Borrowing is better. Washington is doing neither. It’s liquidating.
I’ve been covering Wall Street and corporate America for going on two decades, and if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that there are really only two kinds of companies: those growing and those shrinking.
The U.S. government today has officially become the latter.
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New fuel economy technologies to add cost,... →
TRVERSE CITY, Mich. — Automakers will have to use several new and developing technologies to meet stringent new fuel-economy standards, technologies that could add cost and complexity to future cars.
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Putting an Antebellum Myth About Slave Families to... →
WAS slavery an idyllic world of stable families headed by married parents? The recent controversy over “The Marriage Vow,” a document endorsed by the Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, might seem like just another example of how racial politics and historical ignorance are perennial features of the election cycle.
The vow, which included the assertion that “a...
Cory Maye To Be Released From Prison →
MONTICELLO, Miss. — After 10 years of incarceration, and seven years after a jury sentenced him to die, 30-year-old Cory Maye will soon be going home. Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Prentiss Harrell signed a plea agreement Friday morning in which Maye pled guilty to manslaughter for the 2001 death of Prentiss, Mississippi, police officer Ron Jones, Jr.
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July 2011
11 posts
The Impacts - 2011 Meat Eaters Guide | Meat... →
The chart shows the lifecycle total of greenhouse gas emissions for common protein foods and vegetables, expressed as kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per kg of consumed product. We compared our production emissions data for the main meat proteins to several mostly peer-reviewed or government-sponsored studies in the U.S. and Europe that assessed greenhouse gas emissions from...
How to Be a Patriot: Hire an Illegal Immigrant -... →
Laws against illegal immigration make little economic or moral sense. So why punish the brave citizens who break them?
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xkcd: Fight Club →
Car Clash: Europe vs. the U.S. - Room for Debate -... →
Europeans are doing all they can to discourage people from driving and parking their carsin and around cities. When European planners say that their aims are the opposite of American ones, it starts a vigorous debate.
Why has urban planning in the U.S. taken a different course? How should Americans view the anti-driving campaigns in Europe?(more)
The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - 20,000... →
Beneath the surface of American government lurks a system of social programs for the wealthy that is consuming the federal budget. It’s time for progressives to do battle with tax expenditures.
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Nancy Folbre: The Bicycle Dividend - NYTimes.com →
More Americans are biking or walking to work these days, in part because public-sector investment is improving the infrastructure they need to get there safely. Further public investments in bike paths and bike lanes are likely to offer a big social payoff.
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BBC News - Is the British roundabout conquering... →
A roundabout revolution is slowly sweeping the US. The land of the car, where the stop sign and traffic light have ruled for decades, has started to embrace the free-flowing British circular.
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June 2011
42 posts
La vieja Masía echa el cierre · ELPAÍS.com →
La Masía de Can Planes, el símbolo de la prolífica cantera del Barcelona, ha cerrado sus puertas. Los jóvenes futbolistas azulgranas ya no se formarán en el edificio, muy cercano al Camp Nou, que fue construido en 1702 como residencia payesa y que llevaba desde 1979 siendo la academia de las categorías inferiores del Barça. Las promesas del club se trasladan desde este mes de julio a una...
Ohio City and Gateway: A tale of two district... →
Two Cleveland neighborhoods—Ohio City and Gateway (downtown)—are drawing up plans to improve their walkability and their circulation between major destinations. The studies “Gateway District: Re-Imagining the Public Realm” (not available online) and “A Vision for the Market District” were funded by Transportation for Livable Communities, a planning grant program of NOACA.
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PolitiFact Ohio | Rep. Tim Ryan says Head Start... →
As part of Congress’ budget debates, Rep. Tim Ryan cautioned against major cuts while the economy is weak, and said he especially opposed cutting funds for Head Start.
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Ethanol Production Wastes Corn - By Steven Rattner →
FEELING the need for an example of government policy run amok? Look no further than the box of cornflakes on your kitchen shelf. In its myriad corn-related interventions, Washington has managed simultaneously to help drive up food prices and add tens of billions of dollars to the deficit, while arguably increasing energy use and harming the environment.
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Who Doesn't Pay Federal Income Taxes (Legally) -... →
Conservatives are fond of railing against those who are able to legally avoid paying federal income taxes. The Wall Street Journal routinely refers to them as “lucky duckies.”
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, recently asserted that it was appalling that about half of all those who file federal income tax returns pay nothing and said this was...
The Too-Big House : The New Yorker : By Susan... →
This week, we’re having a family reunion in Hilton Head, South Carolina. The house we’ve rented, like many of the houses on Hilton Head, is monstrously large, almost cartoony in its proportions. There are ten of us, so the house’s five bedrooms and four bathrooms are all being used, but most likely this house was built with a much smaller family in mind, or perhaps even just a retired...