Fan: Tra-La-La

To cap off this month's theme, my friend Gret's AMV 'Tra-La-La" featuring Akio from Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Repost requests

Last week, I posted a poll asking which of last week's posts you wanted me to repost on Dreamwidth and LiveJournal. Three posts tied for first with one vote each: Gas prices drop for a second week in Metro Detroit, Kroger in Royal Oak, the videos, and Transformation Detroit, when Business as Usual attempts sustainability. Since I'll be writing a weekly recap tomorrow along with a new poll on LJ, it's time for me to repost the requests.  Watch for them in the order above.

Gas prices drop for a second week in Metro Detroit

Meta note: I chose the following post to promote on Kunstler's blog this past Monday. There, I made the following editorial note.

I figured that you would write about President Obama, along with the rest of the International Energy Agency, releasing oil from their reserves. If I had written a Karnak predicts post, both of those topics would have been in it, but I didn't. However, I did write about that topic and predicted that you'd have something snarky to say about it, and I was right. Unfortunately, I buried the lede and made the title about falling gas prices in Detroit, when the story really was about Obama trying to stimulate the economy to help his re-election while at the same time kicking the oil companies and commodities speculators while the price goes down. So far, it's working.

It worked until yesterday, when the price for West Texas Intermediate went up $5/barrel. As a consequence, unleaded regular at the corner gas station from $3.49 to $3.58 as of yesterday. This morning, it rocketed up to $3.85. By this evening, it had dropped back to $3.79. Can you say overshoot? I knew you could.

Last week, I posted two entries about falling gas prices. From the second post.

If that price holds, AAA Michigan and the Detroit Free Press will have another price drop to report next week.

I'm sure they will, as the price of oil dropped 4% yesterday.

Not only did the price of gas drop this week, it will drop next week as well. On Monday, the price of North Sea oil (Brent Crude) fell because of worries about Greece (West Texas Intermediate had fallen earlier, but went up slightly). On Tuesday, the same two things happened, this time because of fears about Spain. West Texas Intermediate then fell on after-hours trading. As I keep repeating, a price drop like this is not entirely good news; it's a response to bad economic news elsewhere. This is true even for what happened yesterday.

( Oil dives to 4-month low as emergency stocks unleashed )

Kroger in Royal Oak, the videos

In the intro to part one of last week's sustainability news linkspam, I mentioned "a local sustainability issue that looks like just a zoning and development issue, but has turned into something else entirely" in passing. In the spirit of "a picture is worth 1000 words," I give you these videos from WXYZ-TV. Issues of sustainable local business and sustainable built environment pop up all through both videos, including a mention of Royal Oak's walkable neighborhoods and walkable downtown. Then, there's the accusations of corruption by a lobbyist for the convenience store competitors of the proposed Kroger. And you thought city council meetings were boring.

I have a lot more to write about this issue, including coverage from Royal Oak Patch that follows up on the meetings and the provides more detail and my personal opinion of this (it's a very local issue for me, as the site in question is within walking distance of where my wife and I live--she has an opinion, too), but I have to run an errand and go to work. Stay tuned!

Above originally posted to Crazy Eddie's Motie News here.

Transformation Detroit, when Business as Usual attempts sustainability

I know I promised more on the Kroger in Royal Oak, but there's another current news item about the sustainability of Detroit from a Business as Usual perspective going on right now--Transformation Detroit. What is it? As this article on MLive puts it:

This is the story Detroit wants the world to hear. Jonathan Oosting of MLive.com is one of more than 50 journalists participating in Transformation Detroit, a three-day media briefing facilitated by the Detroit Regional News Hub that aims to highlight innovative revitalization efforts in the city.

For a sampling of the stories Detroit wants the world to know, read the Detroit Regional News Hub's news blog, or you can watch these two videos from WXYZ on the event.

I'm glad the powers that be are interested in sustainability, but I much prefer Model D's perspective of "Optimism, but not Business as Usual."

Above post originally posted to Crazy Eddie's Motie News here.