Daily Links From Glimpse From a Height

• Montgomery County DOT Thwarts BRT? @ggwash
  Seems so: Unfortunately, while publicly embracing this idea, the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is unwilling to do what must be done to make it succeed. Asked to find a few places where buses could be moved faster right now, MCDOT refused, saying that it had to do a study first, and then didn’t […]
• Why Does The Ailing West Aid Its #Islamist Enemies? @MelanieLatest
  We’re too steeped in reasonableness to recognize religious fanaticism when we see it: But the deeper reason is surely the Western belief that the world is basically governed by rationality. So all conflicts arise from grievances, and all parties can be persuaded to settle a quarrel in their own interests. Refracting everything in the world […]
• Foundation to Virginia Colleges: Stop Wasting Our Money @chronicle
  The Beazley Foundation has, for the time being, had enough: The release quotes Richard Bray, chairman of the Beazley Foundation of Portsmouth, Va., as saying that the suspension is a stand against “the departure of numerous institutions from the discipline of a core curriculum fundamental to education in the liberal arts,” and that the report […]
• Mozilla Questions Web Orthodoxies With Pancake @webmonkey
  Sounds like fun: Pancake, as the new project is known, will help Mozilla, “better understand what people do on the web, why and how they do those things, and how we can make those things easier and more efficient.” The goal of Pancake according to Mozilla’s new, awesomely titled Director of Pancake Stuart Parmenter, is […]
• #Romney and Kosher Nursing Home Food @alanagoodman
  Less there than meets the eye.  Good for Commentary for getting to the bottom of this.  Over-reacting to these sorts of reports doesn’t do anyone any good, especially Jewish groups.
• WTO Rules Against China on Rare Earths @engadget
  The WTO ruled that the export quotas and monopoly created an illegal two-tier pricing system.  If you’re going to have a free-trade system, then export quotas are a problem, but for a different reason.  China’s less interested in the cash (and the quotas aren’t really doing much for prices, anyway) than they are in forcing […]