Hell or New York City

A debate about the relative desirability of city and suburban living is spreading through the blogosphere at a surprising clip, given the timelessness of the topic.   It began, as best I can determine, by Duncan "Atrios" Black (a PhD economist) explaining that there are tradeoffs to having a big yard. [I]f everyone has a big yard the community ceases to be ...

Can’t Peddle 55

Megan McArdle argues that drivers who exceed the speed limit in their cars have no right to get angry at bikers who run stop signs and red lights, weave in and out of traffic, and otherwise ignore traffic laws.  Plus, because bikes are smaller and slower, they're not going to cause any harm: The reason cops don't ticket bikers when they ...

Google Walking Directions

Google Maps is beta testing a new "walking directions" feature, Alex Chitu reports.  Apparently, it's just being tested  out on a small number of randomly selected users. Since I wasn't among those selected, I was a bit dubious since I was unable to personally verify, let alone test, said service.  A quick search of another of Google's products, its ubiquitous ...

Blog Linking Less Important?

Louis Gray believes the importance of blog linkage is declining, noting that, "I've seen traffic from other blogs to be driving an ever-declining percentage of visits to my site, swamped by social media tools, aggregation sites, and of course, Google search." He offers three likely explanations: 1. People are relying on aggregators to find them new sources of information, including ...

McCain Shakes Up Campaign Staff. Again.

John McCain has reshuffled his top campaign staff for the second time is a less than a year, elevating Karl Rove protégé Steve Schmidt to the top post. Responding to Republican concerns that his candidacy was faltering, Mr. McCain put a veteran of President Bush’s 2004 campaign in charge of day-to-day operations and stepped away from a plan to have the ...

5 Reasons to Love $4 Gas

The gang at Foreign Policy wants you to know that, "Sure, it’s ruining the global economy and making everyone miserable, but there’s an underappreciated upside to the high price of oil." They'd have to be awfully good to offset ruining the economy and making everyone miserable, no? Well, here they are: Slightly more people may be taking mass transit. ...

Police Stage Deaths to Scare Teens About Drunk Driving

Some San Diego students got a harsh lesson about drunk driving recently. On a Monday morning last month, California Highway Patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend. Classmates wept. Some became hysterical. A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain ...

Friday 13th Safer Than Average Friday

Reuters: "Dutch statisticians have established that Friday 13th, a date regarded in many countries as inauspicious, is actually safer than an average Friday." They answer (sort of) the most obvious next question: "I find it hard to believe that it is because people are preventatively more careful or just stay home, but statistically speaking, driving is a little bit safer on ...

Is it Worth Drilling For More Domestic Oil?

Newt Gingrich's American Solutions group has mounted an online petition designed to persuade Congress to open up domestic sites that are currently closed to oil and natural gas exploration. That's certainly an understandable sentiment, given the skyrocketing increases in the price of oil over the past couple of years. But opening up for exploration is not going to ...

Jim Webb: Confederate Sympathizer?

Senator Jim Webb, touted by many as a vice presidential candidate who would help shore up Barack Obama with Southerners and those uncomfortable with his lack of national security experience, has an "affinity" for the Confederacy, Politico's David Mark reports breathlessly. He has suggested many times that while the Confederacy is a symbol to many of the racist legacy ...