Something Else to Ponder
Posted: May 18, 2012 Filed under: Transportation Leave a comment »When JFK was president: 50 pct #walked to #school. Now: 13 pct #walk or #bike wny.cc/IJ8FwW—
TransportationNation (@TransportNation) May 12, 2012
Something to Ponder
Posted: May 17, 2012 Filed under: Technology Leave a comment »70% of under 25-year-olds - a total of 1.9 billion – are not online yet. cot.ag/Kw290u—
World Bank (@WorldBank) May 17, 2012
The Staying Power of Music
Posted: May 16, 2012 Filed under: Deep, Listening Leave a comment »I’m not sure what inspired me to do this, but I downloaded Men at Work’s “Cargo” off of Google Play last night. I’m a little hazy here, but I am pretty sure I first bought this record on vinyl close to when it was released (in 1983). It was definitely in very heavy rotation on my record player for a while back then.
Prior to this morning, I don’t remember the last time I listened to “Cargo,” but I imagine it was sometime in the 1980s. Yet there was I was on the bus this afternoon, listening to “It’s a Mistake” for the first time in decades and easily humming along to every single note in the guitar solo of that song. I was astonished, not by my own memory but by music. What other art form has that kind of staying power?
Vicious Cycle in the World’s Prison Capital
Posted: May 15, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »The Huffington Post featured an interesting one today from the Times-Picayune. Interesting and depressing.
While Louisiana tops the prison rankings, it consistently vies with Mississippi — the state with the second-highest incarceration rate — for the worst schools, the most poverty, the highest infant mortality. One in three Louisiana prisoners reads below a fifth-grade level. The vast majority did not complete high school…More money spent on locking up an ever-growing number of prisoners means less money for the very institutions that could help young people stay out of trouble, giving rise to a vicious cycle. Louisiana spends about $663 million a year to feed, house, secure and provide medical care to 40,000 inmates.
Expensive Trash
Posted: May 14, 2012 Filed under: Books, Environment Leave a comment »Garbology is rapidly proving worth the 12 bucks or whatever I paid for it. From the introduction:
Trash is such a big part of daily life that American communities spend more on waste management than on fire protection, parks and recreation, libraries, or schoolbooks.
Downloaded: Garbology
Posted: May 13, 2012 Filed under: Books, Environment Leave a comment »NRDC tipped me off to a book about trash, which I’ve just downloaded.
Bonzo’s Birthday Bash
Posted: May 11, 2012 Filed under: Concerts Leave a comment »From something Mike Portnoy tweeted:
[Whitesnake drummer Brian Tichy] says, “‘Bonzo’s Birthday Bash’ is the equivalent of a gong on fire on top of an erupting volcano next to a wildebeest migration complete with lurking, starving crocodiles and a fireworks finale across the river that not even the Olympics can rival.” The show, held May 31, would have marked Bonham’s 64th birthday.
By Way of Comparison
Posted: May 10, 2012 Filed under: Videos Leave a comment »I’d say Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins stood in fairly well.
