There is no one out there on the internet that is better than the old linkbait list than the Daily Beast. Here we go falling for it again.

In their latest list, they poured over fatal accident data from the National Highway Safety Administration to determine what chunks of interstate roads were, statistically, the most dangerous.

Some roads are more dangerous than others—reckless or distracted drivers seem to congregate on certain highway corridors, while poor road maintenance is another common cause of collisions. We crunched the numbers for five years of accident data, courtesy of the NHSA, from nearly 250 stretches of interstate highways to find out which roads are the most deadly, mile-for-mile.

Out of the top 100, Missouri had four.

#85, I-55
In-state miles: 210.45
Fatal accidents: 108
Fatal accidents per mile: 0.51
Total fatalities: 124

#56, I-44
In-state miles: 290.49
Fatal accidents: 190
Fatal accidents per mile: 0.65
Total fatalities: 233

#42, I-70
In-state miles: 251.66
Fatal accidents: 201
Fatal accidents per mile: 0.80
Total fatalities: 226

# 17, I-64
In-state miles: 14.69
Fatal accidents: 16
Fatal accidents per mile: 1.07
Total fatalities: 17

Wait. Only 14.69 miles of Highway 64 is in Missouri? That doesn’t seem right. That would mean that Highway 64 ceases to exist west of 170, but according to Google Maps, 64 goes all the way out to O’Fallon, MO’s Highway K intersection, which would undoubtedly drop its deadly #17 ranking down a few pegs. Sure we could just believe The Daily Beast’s numbers but Google holds all our email for us, so we are siding with them.

Possible data errors aside, none of this surprises us. But that’s a given right? Every other state on this list right now has some blogger going off on how no one in their state can drive, but guess what? No one can drive all that well. It’s one of those lame-ass universal jokes, like that wobbly wheel on your shopping cart, the differences between men and women or how white people be trippin’. It’s lowest common denominator stuff and I’ll be damned if this site turns in to a Rob Schneider movie.

We’d much rather be a cheesy Lifetime movie staring pre-cocaine Yasmine Bleeth. …except replace the words “cheesy Lifetime movie” with “thong”.

via The Daily Beast

From the Globe Democrat:

Despite recent tensions between the U.S. and China, the governor warmly received China’s ambassador to the U.S. at a discussion of a trade partnership marked by little tangible progress.

The two officials are looking to make Lambert Airport in St. Louis the Midwestern hub of air cargo transport between China and the U.S., but did not provide specifics or expand upon previous announcements.

So you’re saying there’s a good chance I might be able to get a straight flight from St. Louis to China, but I have to make two layovers to get to New York?

If you are going on the MetroLink and are heading through Grand and Central West End prepare to spend an extra 20 minutes getting off the train, getting on a shuttle and then getting back on the train.  Also, that guy next to you that smells like piss and cocaine and for some reason has a change of clothes in a Schuncks bag, will be sitting right next to you on the shuttle.

Just remember, you paid $4 for that privilege.

MetroLink train passengers arriving at each station disembark and walk to a nearby bus, which drives them to the second station. Metro employees are on hand to direct them to waiting shuttle buses.

Sounds simple enough.  Metro can’t possibly screw that up can they…oh wait.  Crap.

The employees tell passengers that a train will be awaiting them at the next station. But some passengers said the train left just as their bus arrived. They said another train soon arrived, so they were outside in the cold only a few minutes.

There are so many things wrong with the MetroLink, we really should do a whole post on it.  For starters though: It’s late.  It shuts down for the night like an old man after Wheel of Fortune is over.  The officials seems only willing to pester actual paying customers while leaving the guy holding an assault riffle and using the train as an escape route from the cops alone.  …and now they can’t even get this right.

Sometimes I think if Spiderman saw a MetroLink train heading for a bridge taken out by Dr. Octopus, he’d just let it go, figuring that if he tried to help he would just get yelled at by the overweight “guard” on duty and then intimidated by overly aggressive poor people claiming the train as their turf.