Good news arrives via Express Post! #burningman
*I have a cat named Fred too!* #Eastvan artist Heidi Nagtegaal shows off her Fred shirts at @chinatownyvr, where Tin Can Studio is stationed and feng shui’d with Heidi’s happiness art and curios.
Rad! Hot Art Wet City gallery features an exhibit of painted bike seats til June 15! $100 a piece, with partial proceeds going to PEDAL, a community bike non-profit.
Editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz on New York Citys new bike-share program.
Huh?! Fox News, I mean, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz bashes NYC bikeshare and cyclists - going so far as to call Mayor Bloomberg “totalitarian” even though the public consult process for Citi Bike was extensive, to say the least.
It strikes me that she - just like all the rest of us - is a product of something much larger than what her own free will would suggest. And that she is merely demonstrating what happens when the beneficiaries of a dysfunctional, hierarchical system - whose entire existence has been built on, supported by and in service to power on the backs of everyone else - are confronted with change.
Flail away, madam. I’m going for a bike ride.

I love this story on the government of Finland’s maternity program “designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they’re from, an equal start in life.” For 75 years now, a maternity package has been provided to every newborn containing all the essentials, packed up into a cardboard box that can even be used as a crib. For real.
So the box provided mothers with what they needed to look after their baby, but it also helped steer pregnant women into the arms of the doctors and nurses of Finland’s nascent welfare state. …
And many attribute this crucial early connection with neonatal care as a key reason for the nation’s dramatic drop in infant mortality, reports the BBC.
Each box contains everything in the photo above, in a different colour palette each year, which is a neat visual way to tell the story of that child to all those who might see it in public.
“It’s easy to know what year babies were born in, because the clothing in the box changes a little every year. It’s nice to compare and think, ‘Ah that kid was born in the same year as mine’,” says Titta Vayrynen, a 35-year-old mother with two young boys.
Inside each box:
Mothers have the option of either taking the box or receiving cash, but most opt for the box, as its value is much higher.
I’d love to see other governments take Finland’s lead. There’s such a beautifully gracious quality to the program - conjuring images of wise men receiving a blessed child, the village who will collectively raise that child and the many years of birthday gifts to follow.