Latest Tweets:

Seth's Blog: When did we lose Congress?

A pretty scathing indictment of the Congress as a whole. Sad stuff, because it’s all true.

2013 Ford Fusion

Wow. Sometime in the last 2 years or so Ford woke up and learned how to make beautiful cars. The  new Fusion (next year’s model) looks amazing.

English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout - Wikimedia Foundation

Wikipedia is going to shut down for a day in protest of the internet-breaking SOPA and PIPA legislation currently being pushed through Congress. If you don’t want to see sites like Wikipedia censored by Congress, write your Congressman and tell him to keep his grubby hands off the internet!

"Finally today, we find ourselves in a situation where our cities develop piece-meal on a lot-by-lot basis. Because a zoning ordinance only regulates private property and does not–and legally cannot–provide for the public framework of cities, development is rendered essentially unplanned, unwalkable, and unsustainable. A reemergence of the American grid is warranted in order to restore much needed order to the places we call home."

The Great American Grid – A History of the American Grid in 4 Minutes

Mike Rowe testifies before US Senate about the skilled trades (by suenoir).

His argument illustrates what I think is the biggest problem with the public school system in the US: it’s myopic focus on convincing people to go to college, and convincing them that there is no meaningful life available for people who do not, creates a sad state of apathy for those who do not enjoy purely academic pursuits, or work that involves staring at a computer all day long. We need to acknowledge and respect the value of skilled labor again.

‘If Fred Got Two Beatings Per Day…’ Homework Asks - ABC News

Unbelievable. Whoever thought this was a good idea is clearly not qualified to be a teacher.

"the grid gives physical form to a certain democratic, melting-pot idea — not a new concept, and probably not exactly what the planners had in mind, but worth restating. In the same way that tourists who come to Manhattan can easily grasp the layout and, as such, feel they immediately possess the city, outsiders who move here become New Yorkers simply by saying so. By contrast, an American can live for half a century in Rome or Hamburg or Copenhagen or Tokyo but never become Italian or German or Danish or Japanese. Anybody can become a New Yorker. The city, like its grid, exists to be adopted and made one’s own."

Manhattan Street Grid at Museum of City of New York - NYTimes.com