Probably the best editorial I've read this political season about the cultural differences between the two candidates and their visions for the future. The beauty of hyperlinks offers some wonderful diversions including to a hilarious one to a second John McCain's campaign site selling "McCain Golf Gear."

Interesting piece about an attempt to create a green city from the ground up in the United Arab Emirates. The author does an excellent job sourcing the story interviewing the director of public development for the project, an author of "The Renewable City: A Comprehensive Guide To An Urban Revolution”, a professor of architecture at MIT, the creator of ZipCar and the director of an urban energy program at Columbia University among others all for a single page article.

The author is wrong that future textbooks will fail to mention the Obama's remarkable fund-raising ability. This will in fact be one of the major stories of the campaign--particularly if he wins. How could a rookie with few connections to established money defeat Hillary Clinton one of the most connected politicians in recent history? This article provides a fascinating look at how Obama with the understanding of the potential of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace connected with a number of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are adept at fund-raising and technology to create the first 21st century political campaign. In addition to helping Obama raise some 200 million dollars his campaign can also claim some other ... More »

New Orleans education system is a unique if unfortunate position to provide answers to questions about whether free market principles can improve public education. The article notes that more than half of all public school students now attend charter schools there. (Charters, as the article also points out are publicly funded and independently run). The article provides a balanced context of some of the debates surrounding charters and acknowledged that nationally they have done no better than traditional public schools. New Orleans will be an interesting case.