Sunday, April 08, 2012

[Good Links] Linkapalooza

Linkapalooza: Just some random links of personal interest to me and potential interest to you.

Toyota fights back. Toyota has had a helluva time. First there was the unintended acceleration hoax. Then the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. Then the flooding in Thailand that crushed their production. So when the ambulance chasers at CNN decided to gin up a hit piece they slapped back. Good on 'em. Goodwill has real value and having built up decades of it with people like me, it's now paying off in hard times.

UnVegas. This Vegas blog post hits all the low points and misconceptions about Vegas. Good reading for the uninitiated.

Founding Mea Culpa. Can the confessional tell-all craze that dominates modern biography and memoir be traced back to good ol' F. Scott? Three essays published at a low point in his life and four years before his death were a documentation of personal pain, and also a bit bitchy. Too bad he didn't live long enough to experience the rehab craze.

Death to Umwelt. Brilliant suggestions for seeing further (metaphorically) than you do now. This is not new age-y stuff, just common sense exercises for opening your mind.

Detroit becomes a ward of the State. -- Early in the month the WSJ outlined the problem. Now the State of Michigan has pretty much taken over the city, albeit agreeing somewhat vaguely to shell out anywhere from 50-200 million in assistance, depending on which estimates you believe. Bottom line: Detroit has been misgoverned for over five decades and they can't even pretend that they are capable looking after themselves anymore.

No privacy in public. It appears Facebook/Twitter/YouTube is killing Spring Break. Rule for life: Never do anything in public you wouldn't want to see on the Web. Funny, I would have guessed shame was an outdated concept.