i hate traffic! / maybe i should move to brazil?

while sitting in infernal LA traffic today, NPR had a story on success stories in south america. it seems that traffic congestion can be dealt with when you come up with creative solutions. i think NPR will put the story up tomorrow and i'll add that link as it's infinitely better than the US Dep't of Transportation link above. next in line is mexico city where the american ideal of "a car for every person" is going to be an impossibility for a city with such an enormous population. unlike others, i am not a car lover. it's a means to an end and i would love for nothing more than fast, effective and an appealing mass transit solution to my daily traffic nightmare. and it would be a god-send on my post call days!

Safari / yet another browser for OSX

if you're a friend of mine, you've heard me blab on endlessly about Mozilla and Chimera... my deep hatred of Internet Explorer on OSX led me to search for a replacement and Chimera fit the bill. i'm now trying out Apple's new open-source based browser... while I like the interface, i still think Chimera is faster... unfortunately, there's too many chefs over the Mozilla pot. the simplicity of Safari is rather refreshing... the latest beta weighs in at 2.8 mb. that's amazing.

zwan / mary star of the sea

billy c. is back and it's good to hear from him again. after dissolving one of my favorite bands, he recorded and toured with New Order and then went on to form this new band... Zwan. starting from where he left off with Smashing Pumpkins, the new bands borrows heavily from the latter SP works... a la Adore and Machina ... and in my opinion, that's not necessarily a bad thing. i know that some hard core fans will be craving harder songs but i really enjoyed their last few albums.