GCrites

Overall, they are slightly less stringent than the U.S., but Europe is more stringent on some aspects of emissions where the U.S. including California is more lenient. California just has it out for diesel because of soot. Europe can get away with dirtier emissions standards because on average their cars use a lot less fuel than ours and spend less time on the road. They don't have to drive everywhere. They even still sell two stroke street bikes and have street legal quads.

yep. I played 'em a lot when I was a kid, so now I collect retro games. But I only play video games maybe two hours a week, sometimes not at all. Most every male I know plays video games a LOT, even people that aren't "gamers" and are just doing it to kill time or relax (video games do not relax me). A gamer on the other hand will get bent out of shape if he sees you doing something like reading a book or playing guitar especially if there's a game system hooked up in the room. Or if they see you doing something like tinkering with a motorcycle, you can just tell they're thinking "Look at all that work he has to put in just to ride that thing."

Marion and Portsmouth are somewhat alike despite their geographic and topographic differences.

Things are getting slower at Tri-County as well -- lots more vacancy than even two years ago. Haven't been to Northgate in a while.

And people are always telling them to "go digital" or improve their "digital life". Everything digital is fake! Everything! You can't convert something into 1s and 0s without it becoming fake. The physical world is going to be analog -- forever! You can't make food or shelter out of 1s and 0s. We're even seeing younger people take on digital qualities. They are becoming rigid, cold and losing empathy. On or off. Nothing in between.

The Generation that Couldn't Shut the F--- Up. Remember back in the '90s when cell phone users were portrayed as self-involved a-holes? The '90s were right! I've got a copy of Columbus Monthly from 1997 about "Dating in Columbus". One woman they interviewed said it was a huge turnoff if she saw that a guy had a cell phone unless he was a doctor.

Ask a cop. Most of them wound up there a lot before they tore it down and would probably know what's replacing it.

Sadly, I think these perceptions are mostly based on sports teams. '90s -- Indians don't suck anymore, Browns come back. '00s - Steelers win a lot, become media darlings (well, sorta). Cavs can't win championship with LeBron, Browns mediocre. Teens so far - Cavs lose LeBron. There is a large portion of the population that doesn't travel; when or if they travel they are only in a city for mere hours. Yet, they hear about the cities' sports teams every day if they watch cable sports shows.

Sure seems like work was a lot more fun back then!

And kitties with sparkles around them!

The confusion around retail being a "service" may revolve around the fact that there are goods exchanged. A pure service is one that exchanges labor and knowledge for money, goods or other services with little or no direct product input. I fix Playstation 2s at my store. Much of the time, I don't replace any parts. I disassemble it, clean the internals and laser lenses, sometimes grease the rods, adjust the voltage and tray and put it back together. My inputs are usually one Q-tip and perhaps one tenth of one cent's worth of rubbing alcohol. The rest of the output is my knowledge and labor. That is a pure service. Haircuts are the same way -- only a few cents of supplies are used. So ringing up someone for goods that the customer retrieved themselves is less of a pure service because much of the monetary input went toward the good itself. This ignores rent, advertising and upkeep related costs.

Cornholio is "Hispanic". He comes from Lake Titicaca! Titicaca!

There are some countries that have to import a lot of things and are comfortable with that. Greece for example, doesn't really produce a lot of goods fr export and probably won't anytime soon.

Harbor Freight is incredible for tools you use infrequently or ones that you use with a light touch. Americans have a tendency to overbuy quality or specialization becuase it's cool to do so. People don't buy trail motorcycles, they all buy motocross bikes. They buy carbon fiber race bicycles to do errands on. And they buy some bad ass drill to use twice a year. Harbor Freight is the antidote for that.

I must have been through this town more than I thought. I always remember hanging a left in front of the blue and white building in pic #7 because the turn is awkward.

I remember my stoller as a kid. It was like Urkel's car compared to the Peterbilts you see today.

Has that Blockbuster closed? I drove by Wednesday but didn't even look. Kroger still might have a say about what goes on with the rest of the center.

Summer to me has always meant heat and isolation. My friends always seem to be out of town and I usually end up working harder even though I have a much lower energy level during that time of year. I end up napping a lot. Especially when I was in school, fall meant socializing and being around others my own age finally and the heat blanket being removed.

^ hehehe "BJ table" You get south of I-70 and Paula Deen lookalike fatties are the norm!

On the NYC subway, are there certain times of day when bikes aren't allowed on the trains? D.C. Metro doesn't allow bikes during peak.

I think one reason they do front facing garages is so that the garage is plainly visible in single snapshots for listings.

Miami just seems so out of reach for a lot of young people. It's cool in a different way.

The "Stop Snitching" campaign has been around for a while.

Phoenix, Charlotte, the Florida cities and the big cities besides Austin in Texas aren't "cool" as described in the New Geography articles. They are just growing because there's lots of jobs in them.

Another thing to think about in "cool cities" is the fact that many more blacks now live in suburban-style areas these days. Suburban built environments are not "cool" amongst the white urban set, so any city with a large portion of suburban-style development is going to lose out.