Rediscovering Simplicity: The Cyclists of Italy (a photo diary)

by citisven

Whenever I travel to different countries and cities, one of the things I'm interested in is how locals move around in their daily lives. Call me a transportation glutton, but I'm a sucker for trains, boats, rickshaws, trams, buses, gondolas, back alleys, and sidewalks.

Then, of course, there's the most sublime transit invention of them all: the bicycle. It's so simple — even a non-techie like myself understands how it works — and yet so deliciously useful, relieving traffic, getting you anywhere quickly, reducing CO2, keeping you in shape, letting you see a place and interact with its people.    

One thing I noticed on my trip to Italy a few months ago was how much bikes were part of everyday life. With David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries as my companion I strolled through the streets of cities and towns, trying to capture the mundane beauty of cycling.

continued at Daily Kos....

You can't wipe that spill with a Kleenex®

by citisven

The disaster in the Gulf is many things. In fact, it is so many things that after seeing all that's been shown, reading all that's been written, and hearing all that's been said, perhaps one of the most fitting descriptions of it would be: It's very complicated. From BP's breathtaking incompetence/unpreparedness to our government's overwhelming helplessness, this is more than anyone can really chew. From epic efforts to plug the hole to gigabytes of advice, fault-finding and blame-assignments, this is so big it doesn't even fit in our big brains. From the vast and incomprehensible ecological damage to the yet unknown fates of the people depending on the health of the Gulf's ecosystem, words are too small to match the extent of the damage and heartbreak. And here we thought that all the fossil-fueled conveniences of our modern era were making life more simple...  

continued at Daily Kos....