With all the news of the NYPD "crackdown on cycling" in the city, I stupidly assumed that they would pair that with a stepping up of enforcement in regards to bike lanes. Silly silly me.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/03/15/hundreds-ask-nypd-to-cease-irratio...
http://gothamist.com/2011/01/07/nypds_brooklyn_bike_crackdown_to_la.php
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/cycling-advocates-combat-nypd-bike...

I was sure I was about to finally see a bike lane blocker get a ticket. There was the traffic cop, walking up the bike lane. She even stopped to look at the bike lane blocking car. Then to my dismay, she just kept walking.

When I caught up to her 2 blocks away the conversation went like this:

"Excuse me officer, but why did you make a decision to not write a ticket to that car parked in the bike lane" I gesture back to the car which is still there.

"Well, the city has asked for kinder gentler traffic enforcement, so when the driver yelled from the store that he would move immediately, my job was done"

"But, he did not move"

"What? Really" She finally looks up and sees the car is still there. "You just can't trust anyone can you?"

"No, you can't, especially if they are in uniform. So, are you going to go back there and write a ticket, or do you not care about the safety of bicycle riders?"

She starts to walk away.

"You do realize that I got a photo of your badge and will file a complaint, right?"

"whatever..."

I walked away as two other pedestrians started to harangue her for refusing to do her job.

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today's photo, another big hole.

Hopefully later this week, I'll get back to posting more than just links.

House Repubs Vote That Earth Is Not Warming
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=house-repubs-vo...
Congress has finally acted on global warming—by denying it exists. It’s in the grand lawmaking tradition of the Indiana state legislature’s 1897 attempt to redefine the value of pi.

... Rep. Ed Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts, had this to say:

"I rise in opposition to a bill that repeals the scientific finding that pollution is harming our people and our planet. However, I won’t rise physically, because I’m worried that Republicans will overturn the law of gravity, sending us floating."

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The NPR 'emergency'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the_npr_emergency/2011/03/18/ABcz...
House Republicans called an “emergency meeting” last week, suspending the usual procedures to rush an urgent piece of legislation to the floor.

Had the new majority finally come up with a job-creation bill? A compromise with Democrats to rein in the deficit?

Not quite. This particular emergency involved the lower end of the FM-radio dial. Republicans, in an urgent budget-cutting maneuver, were voting to cut off funding for National Public Radio. All $5 million of it — or one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of the federal budget.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office ran the numbers and calculated the impact this emergency measure would have on government spending: “No effect.”

Five minutes after acting on this budgetary emergency, House Republicans voted to continue the war in Afghanistan — which costs about $10 billion. Per month. They then flew home for a vacation.

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I've got a splitting headache so here's a few tabs and two slightly different edits of today's photo. good night.

Report: Pets and humans on Japan’s quirky 'cat island' safe

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110317/us_yblog_thelookout/re...
A small island that counts just 100 people as inhabitants, but is home to many more stray cats has reportedly survived the destruction from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami last Friday, according to a group that is trying to save animals after the disaster.

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War On The Poor: Minnesota Republicans Want To Bust Poor People Who Carry Cash
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/war-poor-minnesota-republicans-wa...
St. Paul, MN – Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all

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Twitter blackmails San Francisco: we'll move our offices unless you let us stop paying employment taxes.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F03%2F17%2F...
The popular tech company with 350 employees now pays $535,000 in city payroll tax. But its workforce is projected to balloon to 3,000 by 2013, boosting the annual payroll tax past $4 million, according to city officials.

If the exemption is approved, Twitter would not have to pay the tax on any of the newly created jobs. Despite the company's success, "we still have to watch our pennies as we work to build a sustainable company," Rowghani said. He added that if the payroll tax break is approved, the company would sign a lease to stay in the city for six years and "likely for a subsequent 10-year renewal term."

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2011/03/best-of-green-readers-choice...
Open Greenmap has been nominated by treehugger.com in the category of Best Eco App for Smart Phones

Right on comrades!

Vote for them, please.

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Just keep repeating the mantra "there's nothing to worry about..." and everything will be ok.

or not...

Tokyo Passengers Trigger U.S. Airport Detectors, N.Y. Post Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/tokyo-passengers-trigger-u-s-ai...

Radiation detectors at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports were triggered when passengers from flights that started in Tokyo passed through customs, the New York Post reported.

Tests at Dallas-Fort Worth indicated low radiation levels in travelers’ luggage and in the aircraft’s cabin filtration system; no passengers were quarantined, the newspaper said.

Details of the incident at O’Hare weren’t immediately clear, the Post said.
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