Interesting history!

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/04/10/the-story-of-the-shopping-cart/

Without enormous carts, Big Box discounters and wholesale club stores couldn’t exist. You can’t carry a box of 50 packages of Ramen noodles, 36 rolls of toilet paper, a box of 3 gallons of milk, enough soup for the entire winter, and a DVD player you just found on sale around without a huge cart.

Tolls are a regressive fee, but until taxes become palatable…

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2015/04/06-tolls-highway-funding-kane-sabol-puentes

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/04/07/emily_calandrelli_why_america_needs_stem_literacy.html

It will be interesting to see where this goes…

http://hamptonroads.com/2015/04/nc-sunpower-fields-are-growing-strong

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/

10% of Americans own a smartphone but do not have broadband at home, and 15% own a smartphone but say that they have a limited number of options for going online other than their cell phone. Those with relatively low income and educational attainment levels, younger adults, and non-whites are especially likely to be “smartphone-dependent.”

Good commentary on following a buzzword.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-stem-wont-make-us-successful/2015/03/26/5f4604f2-d2a5-11e4-ab77-9646eea6a4c7_story.html?tid=sm_fb

The trend continues…

http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/03/24-people-jobs-distance-metropolitan-areas-kneebone-holmes

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/03/17/irish-dance-and-the-evolution-of-race/

Once the distinctions no longer mattered and the stigma of being Irish had faded, then Irish dance could be something anyone did and others would want to do. And, so, now anyone does.

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/03/14/chart-of-the-week-the-world-is-catching-up-to-the-american-middle-class/

http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2015/03/10-spending-crumbling-infrastructure-wessel

Infrastructure spending, highways in particular, used to be popular with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. But, as the flap over the Highway Trust Fund and the gasoline tax indicate, any infrastructure spending bill is trapped by partisan gridlock and distrust. That accounts for at least some of the increasing appetite at the state and local levels for public-private partnerships.