Yeah. A few quick links for you today. Maybe more later in the day, but maybe not.
- Soucheray’s column, Winter winds now bring the howl of cell phones, and the article Are Minnesotans becoming worse snow drivers? both look at yesterday morning’s snow. I didn’t think it was that bad at all. There was a little ice under the snow on sidewalks and such, but I thought the roads were pretty good even at 8am. I don’t think the problem is so much the snow as the fact that people are assholes. One near call I had yesterday was caused by a guy who didn’t even try to stop for a stop sign. I was watching the side of his car and both his front and rear wheels were rolling (rather than skidding) as he blew through a stop-sign right in front of me. But watching his wheels clued me that he was going to try and turn, so I could figure which way to dodge around him. [press-patch]
- The Daily wants parking meters in town to Accept our dimes, please. I run into this pretty often myself. I have a ton of change in my truck, but am often out of quarters because that’s all the meters take. Shrug. Sometimes I just take my chances. Sometimes I buy a roll of quarters at the bank. Maybe there needs to be a college course on planning ahead. Of course, they’d probably make it a 5000-level class with prerequisites you could never fulfill. [daily]
- Apparently folks are concerned about the Bunge, a grain elevator near me. But Project for Pride in Living thinks the Abandoned building holds promise, and is thinking about buying it, tearing down the grain-silos, and turning the tower (and the rest of the land) into condos. Seems like a cool plan, but I wonder how many more condos the neighborhood needs. [daily]
- The Proposed transit worries businesses along Washington Avenue in Stadium Village here in Minneapolis. They’re afraid that the construction will kill their businesses and the light-rail line will only help places next to stops (and will probably bring in a “bad element” but that goes unsaid). Yeah, that’s a concern, but when places like the Sporty can survive two years of construction on Como, plus a smoking ban, plus having to switch to 3.2 beer, I think most of the owners who are worrying on Washington need to calm down. Construction won’t stop students who are walking anyhow. If you’re running a business near the U and can’t keep people coming in, a proposed light-rail line isn’t your biggest problem. [daily]
- On the other hand, if you’ve got a problem with teenagers hanging around and want to chase them away, check out the mosquito; Teens don’t want to hear it. It’s like one of thoe ultra-sonic pest elimination thingies, scaring away vermin with high-pitched noise, except it actually works. Not sure what frequency they’re using, but it’s high enough that most folks can’t hear it after they’re 20-30 years old. [fark!]
- A site called Open Web Design would like to make the web a prettier place.
