Well folks, it’s been thinky, it’s been stuff. It’s been thinkystuff. And now FIELDGUIDE is back and raring to go.

Maybe just like the monster on Sesame Street (where two heads are better than one), two blogs are better than one. But now you have the original, the adorable, the much-missed FieldGuide has returned.

I am now a bicyclist. So please when you’re driving, share the road nicely. I have been culprit to the occasional exasperated sigh as I’m stuck behind a line of traffic, not certain what the hold-up is, and then I realize it’s someone on a bike and instantaneously my frustration subsides. And I’ve generally seen other drivers being generally respectful of their alternatively-locomoting road-sharers, but I have also heard horror stories of being clipped by side-view mirrors and run over. Please don’t do it to me. Because you’ll live in infamy on Thinky Stuff if you do.

Sustainablog has the following suggestions for sharing the road with bikers, which I highly encourage you not only to read, but to pass along. Granted, number two is a moot point since Memphis does not have any dedicated bike lanes (although I’m seriously joining the onslaught of voices to acquire some, especially now that I’m biking). Amazing what a little buy-in will do for political motivation.

In my first afternoon biking, I was pleasantly surprised at the comraderie from fellow bikers, the clinkyclinky of bike bells, waving, hellos, shared love of the open road. It’s nice to get out of the box and breathe, pedal and see things at a slower pace.

How about living in Santa Barbara…sleeping in your car in a parking lot! When the working class of the Central Coast are feeling the squeeze, you know it’s desperate. I am so happy that corporations are getting bailed out while our fellow hardworking huddled masses are camping out like it’s the Great Depression again.

Can we just have a national conversation about spending and priorities? I can think of half a dozen things I’d rather spend my federal dime on than privatizing profits and nationalizing risks.

Is it just me or do we have a national obsession with saving big companies from utter ruin while we let the little(r) ones go to the wall? It seems to be a continuing trend of consolidation into mega-corporations while little ones get eaten up or allowed to fold. Could it be that monolithic institutions are not good for the economy, if not certainly unforavorable for market competition?

There’s always the fallback line that “if we let X, Y or Z fail, there would have been unimaginable consequences.” However, what about the less visible consequences of allowing the little guys to fail? What becomes of smaller corporations (I use small only in contrast to the megaliths) in this context?

Purist free marketeers should support letting them all fail, but they seem to be in short supply these days as ideologues seem to support whatever works best for them on that particular day.

Why do we continue to save the corporations who need saving the least? Personal accountability has become such a vacuous concept.

Alaska is near Russia, so Palin has sufficient international relations experience. (Nevermind the fact that last year – visiting Germany and Kuwait – was the first time she’s been off the continent, but not out of the country. But do Canada and Mexico really count as countries separate from the U.S., especially post-NAFTA?

I broke my collarbone once. Maybe I’m an osteopath…

I love that NPR continues to repeat the story rebutting Sarah Palin’s “thanks, but no thanks, Congress” line – not once, not twice, but over and over and over again. It’s the staple of their news commentary, getting even Rebublican strategists on board to attest to the fact that her version is not entirely (read: at all) accurate.

It’s as if NPR really gets the point about adult learning: repetition, repetition, repetition. Hearing the rebut once won’t do it. Keep it up, NPR. A few more weeks and the general public might just get it, too. I can’t wait for the VP debate.

It’s just so literal. And straightforward.

Racist A–Holes to Gather in Memphis for Convention

From the Memphis Flyer: On November 8th, white supremacists from around the globe will gather in Memphis for the Euro International Conference, hosted by David Duke.

Maybe the end of the world as we know it will happen this Wednesday. (And if it does, please let it be before my American Government class. I’d love an excuse for being late, or not at all as it might be.) And if the world does end, we’ll all be spared the election drama and the unthinkable potential that Obama might be upstaged by the evangelical upstart from our nether-regions.

I love that the Stata variable for whether or not 14-16 year-olds should be given birth control without their parents’ consent is called PILLOK.