Weblog

Sinkholes under Lake Huron show glimpse of Earth's pre-oxygen past (AnnLee Newitz, io9)
The underwater cameras got some really trippy looking pictures of it all too.

Borders Books, R.I.P (Nathan Bomey, annarbor.com)
Once America's second largest bookstore the chain founded and still head-quartered in Ann Arbor, will cease operations immediately and its assets liquidated. A sad day for the remaining 10,700 employees who will be let go too.

How are Ann Arbor Art Fair attendance numbers derived? (David Stringer, Ann Arbor Observer)
BLUF: They "guesstimate" it. Sheesh.

An inventive inner-city entrepreneur battles hangers-on, hustlers and come-ons to earn an honest living (Detroit Blogger John, Detroit Metro-Times)
An amazing guy and a great story. Hope nobody kills him.

Weblog - Michigan edition

Redistricting could mean trouble for Michigan Democratic Rep.s Carl Levin, Gary Peters (Alec Jacobs, Daily Caller)
"Elections have consequences. Especially in a redistricting year. And Michigan Democrats are learning that the hard way." Too bad they can't get rid of John Conyers or John Dingell instead.

Ann Arbor voters need to decide what they want and what their willing to pay for (Tony Dearing, annarbor.com/)
A decent editorial as far as it goes. The thing is, times have changed. We can't afford as many cops, firefighters and high-end manager/bureaucrats at $100k or more plus benefits without a lot more tax dollars coming in. We can't even afford the ones we have now in fact, hence the layoffs. Just like with the industrial unions city employee's gains come at the expense of their jobs. Fewer but still gold-plated cops, firefighters and managers or more employees with less pay & benefits. That's what it comes down to in my opinion.

Quitting Borders: Staffers flee the bankrupt bookseller  (Eve Silberman, Ann Arbor Observer)
"The common sentiment ... was that 'if you weren't looking for another job, you were crazy.' Another refugee says the company is so short-staffed it recently called and asked him to come back (he refused)." Indeed. Why wait for the last life raft? Get out while the gettin's good.

Christian missionaries take on Muslims, Catholics at Arab International Festival in Dearborn (Niraj Warikoo, Det Free Press)
Hey folks, "infidels" (i.e., everybody but Muslims) have free speech rights too. Welcome to America.

Taking back the park (Dylan Lawrence, Det Metro-Times)
Local activists tear down developer's illegal fence at the foot of the Ambassador Bridge that cuts through a neighbor hood public park. A little direct action is good. More is better.

Weblog

EMU regent blasts firing of basketball coach
The university doesn't have the money to pay him off and hire someone else says Regent Jim Stapleton. Sheesh. Maybe EMU should just drop NCAA sports altogether.
Ypsilanti Township to put surveillance cameras in and around West Willow neighborhood
"The cameras start recording still images upon detecting motion in an area and transmit full color images back to a central computer, where they are stored for up to 45 days. The cameras would not provide a live stream and no one would regularly monitor the recordings."
Border's Books HQ leaving Ann Arbor
Sad to see it go but I don't see BB coming back from their bankruptcy.

weblog

Ann Arbor based-Borders Group bankruptcy filing "inevitable" says U of M biz prof - AnnArbor.com
I guess Borders Books isn't "too big to fail".

Jackson Cit-Pat columnist busted for bringing Mexican sea turtle skull into the to U.S. - MLive (Jackson)
Brad Flory must think he's living in a free country or something. Heh.

Low Sperm Count: Why Male Fertility is Falling - Daily Beast
"Last month, the European Science Foundation issued an ominous report warning that at least one in five men age 18 to 25 is "subfertile." The group of scientists asserted that sperm counts and sperm quality have been dropping consistently in the developed world for the last 50 years. Men just aren’t producing little swimmers like they used to."

The "global elites" are disconnected from today's world - The Atlantic (via iSteve)
"For the super-elite, a sense of meritocratic achievement can inspire high self-regard, and that self-regard—especially when compounded by their isolation among like-minded peers—can lead to obliviousness and indifference to the suffering of others." After all, as this oligarch pointedly observed " 'If a man is not an oligarch, something is not right with him,' ... 'Everyone had the same starting conditions, everyone could have done it.' ”
The best thing would be to have 'em all shot. And like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oligarch quoted above noted,  it's not like these guys are unique or indispensable, eh?

The American Conservative a magazine founded by Pat Buchanan sure does feature a lot of not-so-conservative writers. This may or may not be a good thing. Tom Engelhardt of Tomdispatch and the Nation Institute for example. Of course Ron Unz, considered by many to be a RINO, is the new owner/publisher of the magazine, so there's that.

Don Was on iTunes and the death of liner notes - Detroit Metro Times
"I’m at a loss to explain Apple’s ambivalence about upholding the quality and value of the product that has fueled the success of their hardware. For those of us who grew up in Detroit, this kind of corporate cockiness should have a certain ring of familiarity: It’s an early symptom of  the same shortsightedness that brought down the Big Three automakers and sent the city into an economic tailspin." Maybe it's a sign that we're becoming (have become?) a "post-literate" society?