Manic Monday
130,000 tourists evacuated from the Yucatan beaches in Mexico as Hurricane Emily arrives in Cancun for a giant body shot. Winds roaring to 135 m.p.h. Cozumel shaken at 155 m.p.h. Playa del Carmen - a lovely thatched hut of a place with grilled red snapper in garlic and lime - is in Emily's eye at the moment. Follow on the National Hurricane Center's site. The agency keeps a list of the last century's most dangerous hurricanes. "It's mayhem," reports the Miami Herald. One mom is worried. Need a storm blog? Get this guy a room. Found a room. Cheap!
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The Army Times has a story of a U.S. medic getting shot in the chest by a sniper in Iraq, popping back up (good body armor, presumably), then treating the insurgent who shot him. Short video shows the shooting.
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Dutch novelist Leon de Winter chronicles the collapse of Europe's tolerant people in a tough look at growing extremism in the Netherlands. It's not all pot cafes and long-haired cops. His essay in the New York Times traces the problem to the country's accommodating social-welfare net, which caught those who didn't care to work during the industrial boom. The found laborers in the Moroccan Rif Mountains. But those industrial jobs dried up as the economy turned high-tech. The unskilled workers, many of them illiterate, were allowed to stay and bring their families. But they never integrated into the liberal Dutch society. Instead, they grew angry in their suburban ghettos at what seemed to them to be a decadent society. After two murders shocked Dutch society - those of maverick politician Pim Fortuyn and filmmaker Theo van Gogh, Winter wonders what is next for his country. His solution is refreshingly Dutch:
Perhaps what this country needs most of all is another unconventional, outspoken gay politician.
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Sarcasmo links a sehr gut Berlin site that lets tourists see city street over several periods of its stories life. It's called a Timescope, and if tried in Philadelphia could take people back in time through this relatively old city's many layers.