Roundabout Those Inconsistencies

Although the first modern roundabout appeared in New York City, circa 1904, most of us think of the British when the name inspires an idea. The traffic-calming initiative–or is it a traffic congestion initiative?– has reemerged as of late in the US, and its impact may be closer than you think. The Raleigh City Council, concerned for the safety of NC State students who liberally cross Hillsborough Street between classes, is looking to add a few of the cement pocks to the well-traveled road. The initiative may be safer for students crossing Hillsborough, but the addition of roundabouts has other deleterious effects. JLF program assistant, Jenna Ashley Robinson, provided an overview of the issues involved in the Raleigh News & Observer of her Regional Brief on the topic.  Traffic is not the only thing that goes (and comes) around. A relatively new idea to hit anthropological and biological studies is the meme. These cultural ideas that transfer through generations, analogous to DNA, are apparent in politics. Here’s an easy example.  Take Jon Ham’s only daughter, Mary Katharine, who seems to have developed her political philosophy through a combination of heredity and environment. The transfer of memes may not be a totally evolutionary development towards some greater end; some times, what’s transferred may be bogus.  Here we can look to John Edwards. His political shtick about America being a country of haves and have-nots doesn’t add up, especially when you monitor his own shopping preferences.  Our own Meck Deck blogger Jeff Taylor has it all on Reason.  He told the story to WBAL-AM in Baltimore and WBT-AM in Charlotte.