Happy new year?

[conuly]

Crises beyond ‘Duck Dynasty’

http://wapo.st/JHUeyJ

2013 is the year that proved your ‘paranoid’ friend right

http://wapo.st/19sszZn

What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014?

Under the law that existed until 1978 . . . Works from 1957

http://bit.ly/1lwVKQr

The Madness of the Planets
Our home in the universe continues to rock out of control.

http://bit.ly/18XcSMH

Atoms Reach Record Temperature, Colder than Absolute Zero

http://bit.ly/1lAnlAe

Mass-transit commuters getting screwed by the taxman in 2014

This is especially galling when you consider that people without cars tend to have less money than people with cars. So why should they get a smaller deduction for their transportation costs when those costs haven't decreased?

http://bit.ly/18WpbuW

Root for the Postal Service to survive

You know, if the USPS didn't have to prepay employee pensions, something no other government agency has to do, they'd be in much better straits right now. And if other delivery companies like FedEx didn't get to ditch packages on USPS if they were too inconvenient to carry, or too expensive, then they wouldn't be doing as well as they are either.

I ought to write to my congress folk again.

http://cnn.it/Ke7JXf

US acceptance of evolution holds steady overall, drops among Republicans

http://bit.ly/19EBLdl

Comments

[conuly]

A monthly unlimited is $112, and doesn't cover express buses (which often operate within the city). You can get an unlimited metrocard for the express bus at the cost of $55 a week.

Right now, plenty of people are moving out of the city to where it is cheaper, and then commuting for work because if they had any money, they would have stayed in the city. So coming from further away, like if you need to take the MetroNorth or the LIRR or the PATH, doesn't necessarily mean it is because you have more money. I have no idea how expensive tolls and stuff are, though.

[siderea]

Right now, plenty of people are moving out of the city to where it is cheaper, and then commuting for work because if they had any money, they would have stayed in the city.

Rents are skyrocketing in greater Boston, driven by the competitive demand to... be close to public transit. The problem is that there's no place to go. You could move out to the surrounding impoverished cities, but then how would you get to work and how would you buy groceries? Most of those places have terrible-to-no public transit, and the commuter mass transit into Boston is very expensive. It's a pretty terrifying situation.

ETA: in any event, it does sound like this is going to hit poorer people in the NYC area pretty hard, in a way which isn't obvious perhaps to folks in other cities.

[conuly]

I just don't understand why we, as a country, aren't building more public transportation through cities and suburbs. The demand is there, it would definitely employ people to do so....

Sorry, you hit my rant spot there.

[conuly]

And you can travel by regular bus and train instead of express bus if you have to, but that generally requires more transfers and a lot more time. If you're used to using the express bus, all that time has to come from somewhere.