March 2011
50 posts
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Regional Council of Mayors: a vacation from bitter... →
MinnPost’s Steve Berg on how Twin Cities metro mayors work together.
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New arts festival promises to be an all-nighter →
midtownmpls:
This intrigues me!
neighborhoodr-minneapolis:
A new outdoor arts festival will debut this summer, one that begins right after the sun has gone down and ends just before dawn.
Northern Spark, which will take place along the Mississippi River in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, is slated for the eight hours of darkness stretching from 8:55 p.m. on June 4 to 5:28 a.m. on June 5. ...
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That anti-transit bill passed the House. Every representative from Minneapolis and St. Paul voted against it. So did a lot of inner-ring suburbs, but not all of them. I guess Edina doesn’t want that light rail line.
Anyway, now it’s on to the Senate.
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The Dependent Clause: Infinite Winter →
I grew up Iowa, and I’ve lived in Chicago, Wisconsin, and now Minnesota. Ambassadors of these places will argue with each other about who has the coldest winter with an alarming degree of partisan conviction, but before we reach for almanacs in a fit of internecine Midwestern pique, let me propose that it doesn’t seem to matter much at this point. Let’s just agree that winter can be very cold...
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“George Mantor had an iris garden, which he improved every year by throwing out...”
– John Cage, Silence, p. 263
(via Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes This World)
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Strictly Kev and Paul Morley, “Raiding the...
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NiceRideMN: Big Spring Sale: 1-Year Subscriptions... →
freshmn:
I’m tempted, but I do actually own a bike which I have pledged to ride more. And not yet knowing where all the new stations are going to be…
It’s no guarantee, but the December 15 proposed location map can at least give you a general idea what they’ve been thinking about new locations.
I’m happy to see they’re planning a stop near my house, but when I’m at my house I will probably...
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25 Other Energy Disasters From the Last Year →
“We need to take nuclear safety concerns very seriously, but let’s not forget what the baseline for our energy system is.”
(via Barry, who adds, “I note a lack of deaths due to photovoltaic, tidal, and wind farms.”)
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Take Action: Twin Cities transit will be... →
“What’s more appealing to you: a $4 transit fare increase or a 45 percent reduction in bus service coupled with a 25 cent fare increase? That’s the choice being left to the Metropolitan Council under the House Transportation Finance bill (HF 1140), which will be heard by the full Minnesota House of Representatives on Monday.”
Contact your Representative.
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“Climate change is still spoken of here as something that if you care about your...”
– Naomi Klein, interviewed by Amy Goodman
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Pay Teachers More →
Nicholas Kristoff: “In 1970, in New York City, a newly minted teacher at a public school earned about $2,000 less in salary than a starting lawyer at a prominent law firm. These days the lawyer takes home, including bonus, $115,000 more than the teacher.”
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Fun Fact of the Day: Your Tax Dollars At Work →
Andrew Exum: “A Tomahawk Missile cost $569,000 in FY99, so if my calculations are correct, they cost a little over $736,000 today assuming they are the same make and model. The United States fired 110 missiles yesterday, which adds up to a cost of around $81 million. That’s twice the size of the annual budget of USIP, which the House of Representatives wants to de-fund, and is about 33...
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The quest for quiet in the National Parks →
Whole coastline of Namibia is designated a... →
As a park, it’s bigger than Portugal. (via NYT)
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Followup to my earlier post on Theatre de la Jeune Leune: Just last week, Dominique Serrand and Steve Epps (who respectively directed and played the author in The Little Prince) announced their new group, The Moving Company. Their first show is “an American oratorio” about the Mississippi River flood of 1927, and it opens May 12. What a coincidence!
Also: photos of that play I saw in...
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Don't help Japan →
… or, rather, don’t donate money to charities for earthquake and tsunami disaster relief in Japan, says GiveWell. Japan has requested limited aid “in the form of specialized relief teams, not cash.” This hasn’t stopped charities from soliciting donations in the name of the Japanese disaster.
Do donate money to organizations that have a record of helping with...
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I wish. →
extremely-moderate:
coalspeaker:
I strangely miss Charlie Sheen news. If he was still in the news, it would mean tragic disasters weren’t striking…. oh the irony.
Unfortunately, that’s not what it means. There are tragedies happening every day. The news just tends to ignore them whenever a celebrity does something wacky.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic, though, if Charlie Sheen had the...
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What’s Really Behind New York City’s Bike Lane... →
Aaron Naparstek: “What is it about a program to make New York a better city for transit, walking and biking that so inflames the city’s political class?
“To answer this question, one must look at how the political class gets around town. Politicians, press, police and other privileged members of the political class all very often have one thing in common: An official parking placard...
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NYC Dems Wishy-Washy on Cycling and Public Space →
Dana Goldstein: “[Although the majority of New York City residents do not own a car (we’re the only major American city where that is the case), three out of the five leading New York Democratic mayoral hopefuls are either wishy-washy on bike lanes or in outright opposition.”
Matt Yglesias has a theory.
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Quake Moves Japan Closer to U.S. and Alters... →
… although not by much. Also, Japan is “wider than it was before.”
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This Is What A Terrorist Looks Like →
In case you were wondering.
(via mnpublius)
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The Columbia River Valley has too much renewable energy.
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Freshmen in 112th Congress Exceedingly Wealthy... →
(from OpenSecrets.org, via todayinpolitics)
I was thinking yesterday about the February poll that indicated “the only income group that favors Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to roll back public employee bargaining rights are those who make over $90,000.” And about how politicians are less responsive to the will of the people in general than to the will of the people who...
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Unions polling well, Scott Walker polling poorly →
Ezra Klein: “A new PPP poll of Wisconsin shows that if the Badger State’s voters could do it over again, they’d elect Walker’s opponent as governor. The change in sentiment is almost entirely attributable to self-identified Republicans who are also union members. They voted for Walker in November, and now wish they hadn’t.”
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Scott Walker understands power →
Ezra Klein: “Thought Scott Walker’s effort to reshape the balance of power in Wisconsin began and ended with his initiative to yank collective-bargaining rights away from public-employee unions? Think again…. [H]e’s using the absence of the state’s Senate Democrats to pass a law requiring photo identification from voters. Such laws tend to exclude groups of voters who...
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Mayors’ night at Drinking Liberally! →
Mayors Coleman and Rybak will be at the 331 Club this Thursday to talk about city budgets, local government aid, and the current legislative session.
Update: But also, “Majora Carter, an internationally renowned leader in environment-centered urban renewal,” will be speaking at the U of M. (via Ed Kohler)
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Soaking Up the Sun to Squeeze Energy Use to Zero →
One of many details in this article about a super-efficient office building: There’s no conventional heating or air-conditioning, but speakers in the floor emit “low whirring air sounds” because people weren’t comfortable with silence.
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“People fought to give me — a millionaire — a tax cut this year. I didn’t need...”
– John Legend (via mnpublius)
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“One of the saddest things about the decline of this country is that we’ve...”
– Roy Edroso, “Punching Bags”
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Award-Winning Transit-Oriented Development May... →
“Before any transit was built at King Farm in Rockville, Maryland, it was already held up as an example of how to implement transit oriented development in an outer-ring suburb. High-density and mixed-use, it was supposed to be centered around a light-rail line about 20 miles outside of D.C. The project design was so promising it was given an award by the Congress for the New Urbanism and...
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Five reasons to bike in the snow →
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GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new... →
Buckle up.