apple juice

Offspring, anyone?

Segregated bike lanes the way of the future

“A main theme that emerged was the need for cities to create a network of separated bicycle lanes, said Jamie Stuckless, an active transportation planner who works with Green Communities Canada in Ottawa.

‘The first one that I heard repeated over and over again was the need to create a network of segregated bike lanes that actually get people where they want to go,’ Stuckless said.

Stuckless said she was surprised by the number of city officials from around the world who spoke to say that painted bike lanes are a thing of the past and they are no longer investing money in that type of infrastructure.“

Emphasis mine

(Via The Case for Separated Bike Lanes – Commute – The Atlantic Cities.)

I would argue that it’s all good, bike lanes and separated bikeways. It all adds raising the profile of the biker as part of the transportation mix of a city. Locally, the bike boulevard on Bryant ave is a step in the right direction, but the Midtown Greenway and Cedar Lake Trail are the gold standard. Imagine a network of Midtown Greenway-esque extending 10 miles out in downtown minneapolis in hub and spoke fashion. Would make it pretty nice to commute by bike without mixing it up with the cars. Closing Bryant ave. to all cars except local traffic might be interesting…

Maybe the RNC was just what Obama’s campaign needed…

There were a number of “are you kidding me?!?!?” moments during the republican convention. In particular for me was when Romney made a sanctimonious and sarcastic joke about the oceans rising. Just goes to show you exactly how some Republicans feel about the environment. (or at least, the people that Romney’s internal polling said would be most motivated by that statement)

Anyway, mocking a President for attempting to shepherd the country into a more environmentally-responsible future seems a little rich. Isn’t it a moral issue to treat the environment with respect?

Likewise, with health care. I’ve read a number of posts that basically make a moral case with regards to health care:

→ Bugged

“when we as a country have become so small and stingy and mean that we cheer the idea of ripping medical care away from fellow citizens, offering nothing in its place but sanctimony and self-rightenousness… What are we? We’re not a country. We’re not a community.”

(Via Marco.org.)

More people with health care is a good thing I wish people would stop acting like it is everything but.

You have to admit, it was weird…

Clint Eastwood, GOP convention: The Romney campaign sells out its surprise speaker. – Slate Magazine

“They screwed up the un-screwuppable. This was like having one of the featured guests at the State of the Union drop his trousers on camera. If you botch that, how are you going to execute the more complicated constitutional duties? Mitt Romney can’t handle Clint Eastwood trying to do him a favor, and he wants to take on unfriendly negotiations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Vladimir Putin?”

I suppose this is not going to change your opinion if you already think Obama is a socialist who believes big government is the solution, but it is worth a read…

It was a day late, but the Republicans’ parade of truth-twisting, distortions and plain falsehoods arrived on the podium of their national convention on Tuesday. Following in the footsteps of Mitt Romney’s campaign, rarely have so many convention speeches been based on such shaky foundations.

Ouch… “How the Republicans Built It“

A 20-Year Low in U.S. Carbon Emissions – NYTimes.com

“Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the United States from January through March were the lowest of any recorded for the first quarter of the year since 1992, the federal Energy Information Administration reports. The agency attributed the decline to a combination of three factors: a mild winter, reduced demand for gasoline and, most significantly, a drop in coal-fired electricity generation because of historically low natural gas prices. Whether emissions will continue to drop or begin to rise again, however, remains to be seen, experts said Friday.”

Great news, for what’s its worth, however…

Of course, wind and solar energy greatly outperform any fossil fuel when it comes to efficiency. But last year those sectors supplied less than 5 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2011.

Dr. Apt is among those who believes that government intervention would be needed to cut emissions to acceptable levels. “If we see more and more variability in the climate, not just droughts but also more storms, there may very well emerge a consensus that we need to finally do something to stop this very dangerous unprecedented experiment that we’re doing on the planet,” he said.

We’re way above the levels that scientists consider necessary to prevent further warming. For example, the glaciers of Glacier National Park have experienced rapid melting this year, and are expected to be gone altogether in 10 years.

We need government regulations at this point. The private sector will not steer us away from this. (Though it will be part of the solution, the innovations needed to solve this crisis will come from all sectors)

I want one of these little printers so bad, but after buying a nest and a pebble, I’m done with strange internet-connected gadgets for 2012.

Though, seriously, watch the video for the little printer. If you don’t think it is adorable, you’re not human.

This is super bad news. I would hate to see Hipstamatic disappear. This is the danger of the race to free in the app economy.

Hipstamatic Lays Off All but Core Employees, Including Designers and Engineers

Matthew Panzarino:

Toy camera app company Hipstamatic has fired all but 5 of its
core staff, including engineers and designers, The Next Web
has learned. The company had been staffed up and working on a
new release, but has only released one update in the last
several months.

(Via Daring Fireball.)