Aunt Barbara and the Census

The New York Times has an article about Aunt Barbara's effort to get everyone in San Antonio counted in the census.

The Essential Engineer

Review of The Essential Engineer, by Henry Petroski. Review by Thomas Hayden, The Washington Post, Sunday, February 28, 2010.
From the review:

Petroski reminds us, quite rightly, that while scientists may ring the warning when it comes to potential disasters, "warnings are not solutions -- nor are they necessarily a death knell. It will be the optimistic engineers who hear the warnings not as doomsday scenarios but as calls to tackle significant problems."