Hot off the Press: Pelting fascists with eggs edition

Cool article on using the "run-walk" method not only to train for a marathon, but to run a marathon: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/health/02well.html?_r=1. Run-walk is the method I used to build time and distance before running non-stop (I was running 7.3 miles every other day until March when blisters sidelined me), and I highly recommend it.

Awesome interactive feature from the LAT that lets readers try to balance the California budget: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-statebudget-fl,0,95571.htmlstory. It's hard has hell, but you know I'd tax the fucking shit out of the rich. (And what do you know: when I tried it I was running a $1.2 billion surplus; of course I axed some of the retired worker pension funds, too, which may be illegal.) One of the options in the education field is "Close community college system entirely," which would save the state $4.6 billion. Yowza. No matter what happens, really, this state is fucked.

Steve Lopez spent last Monday night at the Dodgers game in the right field bleachers. Known as the AM/PM All-You-Can-Eat Pavilion, it's where, you guessed it, for a more pricey ticket fans can gorge themselves to death on Dodger Dogs. I'm not kidding: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez3-2009jun03,0,6447736.column. I think he may have a good point on the universal health care thing. It's amazing to think how poorly people eat.

Cool Lens post about the "tank man" and the photographers who capture the image of him halting four tanks after the Tianamen Square massacre in 1989: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/behind-the-scenes-tank-man-of-tiananmen/?hp.

The only reason I'm adding this is because there are apparently people in Iowa City who have nothing better to do than argue on the Press-Citizen comment boards: http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090601/OPINION02/906010301. Pathetic.

To cut costs, Iowa State will not print sports media guides this year: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090603/SPORTS02/90603025.

Single, twenty- or thirty-something, and "funemployed": http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-funemployment4-2009jun04,0,7581684.story. This is what I'll be in a year. It's high time to write my novel, and being unemployed would be a great opportunity to do it.

"Medical bills play a role in 62% of bankruptcies, study says": http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-medical-bankruptcy4-2009jun04,0,4193398.story. At first I thought this was about corporate bankruptcy, but it's instead about personal claims.

California's budget woes are a prime opportunity to shift political power and revenue decisions from the state to local governments: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap4-2009jun04,0,660911.column. It seems to me like Prop 13 is the root of all evil here.

This little piece is both interesting and poorly written: http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/car-balk/. As most of the comments pointed out, there's no way he could hear the surf on the Oregon coast while driving Interstate 5. They're 50-60 miles apart.

More on the famous and unknown "tank man": Lens received an unpublished photo of the incident from another news photog, who did not know he had captured the event until later. Before now he only shared the photo with friends and family: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/behind-the-scenes-a-new-angle-on-history/?hp.

Iowa City has the lowest unemployment rate of 372 metro areas surveyed in April: 3.2 percent: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20090604/NEWS01/906040336/1079.

The mysterious black fiber optics cable of Washington, DC: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-black-wire7-2009jun07,0,7176956.story.

The UI helped derail regulation of coal ash disposal in Iowa: http://iowaindependent.com/15784/university-of-iowa-helped-derail-coal-ash-regulations.

I can't help but laugh at this shit. Trust-fund babies are being set adrift by parents who've been hit hard by the financial crisis: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/nyregion/08trustafarians.html?_r=1.

Happy birthday, Donald Duck!: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/donald-keeler-duck-2457227-meet-birthday.