Clark:
Apparently, lower-income folks would prefer to pay for roads with tolls, rather than taxes. And support for tolls increased substantially when some of the revenue would be used to improve transit.
Halfway from Portland to Tillamook: Idiotville, OR.
Eric H:
A fascinating look at individuals’ daily meals from around the world.
The folks at Fake Science have the solution to our fossil fuels crisis.
Alan:
Atlantic editor Ta-Nahesi Coates writes a thoughtful New York Times essay on historical amnesia about race, mutants, and the summer’s blockbuster X-Men movie, while Hebrew University professor David Shulman contributes a stunning essay on Gandhi, nonviolence, Arab Spring and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Harper’s (subscription required).
Economist Dean Baker lays out the very real chance that we’re going to be in the recession hole for years to come in The New Republic, and the Daily Telegraph ran this story (please let it be true!) about how MI6 hacked an Al Queda website and replaced bomb-making recipes with cupcake recipes.
Meanwhile, on lighter notes, here are two fun videos: Sightline’s Pam MacRae came across this charming little video about small-footprint housing. Sunken bath? Check. Sleeps three? Check. Green roof? Check. 68 sq. ft? Yep! An amazing tiny cottage tour from Seattle.
And this hilarious little number about a guy who gets ticketed for biking outside of the bike lane — and what he does next.
Eric dP:
I recommend reading Oregon congressman Earl Blumenauer’s new report “Freedom From Oil.” It’s not a collection of a politician’s platitudes; it’s a genuinely thoughtful, well-researched, and readable summary of the dozens of ways we can untangle ourselves from the grasp of expensive and polluting fuels. I (heart) Blumenauer.
Finally, there’s my all-time favorite piece of journalism. This is the article I would dream of writing if I were a reporter. It contains these sentences:
The victim asked, “Why are you carrying a weasel?” Police said the attacker answered, “It’s not a weasel, it’s a marten,” then punched him in the nose and fled.
But it’s the article’s last sentence that really clinches it.
EdP,
I think there’s some sort of allegory hiding in the weasel-marten story. I just haven’t figured it out yet.
It turns out, the marten was actually a mink!
Good to know, Eric. Species identification is an important part of police work.
Eric-
Google Maps is enjoying a joke it seems. Idiotville is a ghost town, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiotville,_Oregon, and you will see no sign of it on Highway 6. We do have a down called ‘Boring,’ but not Idiotville.