“Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
* There’s less than a week until Election Day. And, yes, Michiganians, the ballot is a bit long. It would be wise for everyone to review the sample ballot — and publius.org offers a wonderful system in which you type in your name and all your voting info, including a sample ballot, pops up on the screen:
* Knight Foundation is pouring major dollars into Detroit to boost cultural attractions.
* The invaluable Michigan Campaign Finance Network reports on the flood of money in the state Supreme Court campaigns — and how most of it is secret money:
http://mcfn.org/press.php?prId=168
* It’s probably a good bet to wager against the national memory. It’s been, what, a decade since the Tech Bubble burst and all those stories about these clever Internet firms that didn’t actually make anything went bye-bye? Well, Amazon provides a service understandable to us over-40 types — it sells items and delivers them at low prices. Yet, as LOL favorite Matt Yglesias details here, Amazon’s Wall Street cred is not built on the firm’s ability to actually make profits:
* This story centers around a Kansas farmer who has decided that planting corn is not fruitful for him anymore due to shifts he’s seen in how hot and dry it is in around his farm. As noted in this story, the Agriculture Department has shifted its map of plant hardiness based on climate patterns it has seen:
* Now this is geeky: Math formulas measuring the compactness of congressional districts. The lower the number, the less compact — and, therefore, more politically manipulated — the district. Michigan appears to be in the middle on this summary. The Center for Michigan did its own analysis of redistricting in Michigan in early 2011.
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/gerrymandered-congressional-districts-compactness-by-state.html
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