Following in the steps of Monty Python, the art collective Kreativiteket has set up a “silly walk” traffic sign in the village of Ørje, Sweden:

While a government grant wasn’t obtained to help them develop it, the crosswalk’s street sign–which features the outline of a man in a bowler hat walking all silly-like–makes it clear that crossing this street must be done in a silly manner. Residents seem to be fine with this, and so do the authorities–while a news report explains that the sign is technically illegal, the village’s mayor has a hard time not laughing when she insists that “This kind of fun should be allowed.” Even motorists stopping at the intersection for silly-walking pedestrians seem to be having a good time. Who can argue with anything that makes drivers feel generous toward slow-moving pedestrians?

Costa Rica,  Nauyaca – So simple and yet so amazingsource: Flickr

Yesterday, the UN Refugee Agency reported that the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon had passed the one million mark. A visualization of the news:

Keating comments on the sad milestone:

Lebanon already has significant populations of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, and agencies were warning as far back as 2012 that the country’s capacity to absorb more people from Syria, most of whom fled with little money or means to support themselves, was waning. The country has for some time now had the highest per capita refugee population in the world.

Unlike its neighbors, Lebanon has refused to build refugee camps—the camps built for Palestinians have essentially become permanent settlements—but informal tent communities have sprung up. The influx of Syrians may also alter the country’s delicate sectarian balance—currently roughly evenly divided among Sunnis, Shiites, and Christians.

A reader reports:

“Big win for Arne Duncan and Rick Snyder on Eli Broad’s EAA experiment in Detroit:

“Democratic lawmakers said the bill is an attempt to prop up Snyder’s struggling EAA, which has been dogged by declining enrollment, financial problems and teacher turnover during its two years of running schools formerly operated by Detroit Public Schools.

“This isn’t about helping schoolchildren. This is about a politically and ideologically driven agenda to destroy public education as we know it,” said House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills.”

“The EAA isn’t financially viable unless they keep packing in more kids. Now that they have 50 more Michigan (formerly) public schools, and the capacity to take over really as many as they want, they should be able to keep this failed experiment going for a while.

“Now it’s too big to fail, which of course was the point of expanding it.”

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140320/POLITICS02/303200131/Michigan-House-narrowly-passes-EAA-expansion-bill