Very quick—and potentially crazy—thought. A simple question, without getting into all the details and emotions of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson: Why is it that most (all?) police officers in the United States carry guns in the first place? The first time I realized that perhaps police officers didn't have to carry guns was on … Continue reading Why do police officers carry guns in the first place?
Blog
Why are there no recent posts on your blog?
I haven't been blogging recently, but I've been adding lots of new content elsewhere.
Very loud, very fast, and altogether
John Adams's description of the New Yorkers he encountered on his way to the First Continental Congress is just as apt today as it was in 1774.
Grand plans for D.C.’s grand station
Washington, D.C., has grand plans for its grand transportation hub, Union Station. But will they get past financial and political hurdles? The Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein examines the plans and the obstacles in an extensive online piece.
Can a book about maps really expand a geography junkie’s mind?
My latest on my other blog: my review of Simon Garfield’s On the Map.
The certificate I received for my 3rd-place finish in the North Carolina state level of the 1995 National Geography Bee. 
On the Map: A Mind-expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks
by Simon Garfield
Published by Gotham Books
New York, 2012
I have always been a geography junkie. Well, at least since 2nd grade, anyway. That’s when my Aunt Linda gave me a Fisher-Price “Discovery Map” of the United States. Each state had a small hole in it that displayed a picture, and on the left-hand side of the map that was a light-blue dial. As you turned the dial, the pictures displayed a different piece of info for each state, including its capital—which is how I learned the capitals of all 50 states by the age of 8.
That map was probably the foundation of the geography knowledge that led me to win my middle school’s geography bee…
View original post 924 more words
Why We Might Be Stuck With Passwords for a While
Foggy Vancouver
This time-lapse video of Vancouver, British Columbia, has some of the coolest imagery of fog that I've ever seen (seriously, you've never seen fog like this).
On Instagram, finally
You can now follow me on Instagram.
A major economic report—and my small role in its release
Last Friday, The United States Conference of Mayors issued a major economic report on the contributions of urban areas to the national economy—and I got to play a small but important role in its release.
This week’s reading
This week I've been reading articles on America and the death penalty, sprawl's Achilles heel, whether college is worth it, personal financial, and London's evolution.
Dustin Tyler Joyce 