MSNBC touches on an under-reported side effect of the housing crisis — underdeveloped, abandoned communities.  Places (Philly area featured) where hopes were high, but prices higher.  All the gold has been mined, and what’s left is a ghost town.

Susan Jacoby of the Washington Post recently lamented on The Dumbing Of America. She claims that Americans are not only becoming more and more ignorant, but increasingly proud of that said ignorance. “Anti-Rationalism” and “Anti-Intellectualism” are part of the new American Way – do you agree?

Personally, I think it’s one of the defining characteristics of what I call The IM Generation. The people entering today’s workforce have been weened on insta-culture, and simply do not pay attention to the basics… like, oh, spelling simple words correctly. Take a look around… I’ve noticed far more misspellings and simple grammar mistakes in the news, on billboards, commercials, etc. in the past 5 years or so then I’ve ever seen. Signs, often literally, of the vanishing attention span of America.