A major announcement from Bloomberg on Earth Day includes a proposed fee for driving into Manhattan:

Saying that he would not spend his final term in office “pretending that all is fine,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a series of Earth Day proposals this afternoon to improve the environment of New York City, including charging a new congestion fee to drivers who come into parts of Manhattan during peak hours during weekdays.

The $8 congestion fee was one of 127 initiatives included in a sweeping plan by the mayor to help the city of currently 8.2 million people cope with an expected surge in population that he said is sure to put a strain on its transportation, housing and energy systems.

“Let’s face up to the fact that our population growth is putting our city on a collision course with the environment, which itself is growing more unstable and uncertain,” the mayor said. A key objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030, by which time the population is projected to grow by at least a million people, he said. … The mayor said congestion on the city’s streets is the source of many of the city’s health, environmental and economic problems.

A brilliant website by Miranda July to promote her new book of stories.

An image from Chris Jordan’s new project, An American Self-Portrait. Jet Trails, 2007 (60×96″) depicts 10,000 jet trails, equal to the number of domestic commercial passenger flights daily in the US.

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

hi from Switzerland.

The New York Times writes on the growing demand for treehouses:

Within a few years, elaborate treehouses, many costing upwards of $100,000, were becoming almost faddish.

“It’s accepted now that adults can have treehouses,” said Mr. Nelson, who published four of those books. A partner at TreeHouse Workshop, a building company in Seattle, Mr. Nelson has made up a mantra for some of his clients: “Of course we can have treehouses; we’re baby boomers, and we can have whatever we want, and we can have it now, and we have a lot of money.”

Mail Me Art put out a call for submissions:

Submissions can be envelopes or packages which have been drawn on, painted , dipped in acid, covered in paper mache (anything you want really) but they must look amazing and they must have travelled though the post

They even have prizes. While this type of project has been done before, there are already some great entries posted, including this one by Stephanie O’Hearne.

Deerhoof’s new album Friend Opportunity is outstanding. Also, Ann found a killer deerhoof video by Martha Colburn.

Mr Toledano Photographs everything from Hope & Fear, to Fashion, to Car Salesmen.

In one of its most important environmental decisions in years, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases in automobile emissions. The court further ruled that the agency could not sidestep its authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change unless it could provide a scientific basis for its refusal.

The 5-to-4 decision was a strong rebuke to the Bush administration, which has maintained that it does not have the right to regulate carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases under the Clean Air Act, and that even if it did, it would not use the authority. The ruling does not force the environmental agency to regulate auto emissions, but it would almost certainly face further legal action if it failed to do so.

— link

The impressive trailer for GTA IV seems to be directly inspired by the cinematography and time-lapse photography of Koyaanisqatsi. There’s even a derivative Phillip Glass soundtrack. Somehow the meaning of Koyaanisqatsi “life of moral corruption and turmoil, life out of balance” is oddly appropriate for Grand Theft Auto.