Berto-Approved This Week

• My beloved and hated city of Revere is going to start buying abandoned properties, fix them up, and sell them to first-time home buyers. In essence, the city is tired out banks that foreclose on properties and then lets them rot like a tomato in the Sun. It's far better to use a non-profit agency to buy the depressed space, put a little money into it, and then sell it, hopefully at a modest profit. It's a smart move that addresses the housing and financial crisis all at the same time. I've said it before about Mayor Ambrosino, but it's nice to have a guy in office who actually cares about the city and not his own pocket.
  

• Boston's trying to set up a bike share program like the one they have in Paris. It's a great idea, and shouldn't cost the city any money. So of course, Brett, the Universal Hub crank, hates the idea, and gets spanked pretty hard in the comments. heh.
  

• There's this flower called Duckweed, and it apparently grows all over the world. It can survive in wastewater, and has five to six times the starch as corn. And scientists have figured out you can turn it into ethanol with the same process farms all across America use for corn ethanol. So, same process, same legacy costs, but five to six times the energy, which makes it way more cost effective! Hooray Duckweed!