Breakfast links: Water water everywhere

Metro migraines

Two Metro trains collided in a rail yard, mildly injuring three employees and damaging at least three $3 million cars beyond repair. Metro will pay $200,000 for accidentally discharging acid into a sewer in 2003. (Post) And Farragut North has some “major ceiling cracks.” (Examiner)

The Mall Map

In 1897, Senator Cannon proposed creating a 230-acre scale map of the United States in the area that’s now West Potomac Park and the Tidal Basin. (Nikolas Schiller, The Daily Render)

Two-driver car replaces driverless cars?

Two people drove a car into the Anacostia River, says the WUSA headline. It’s still unclear how that happened (following a GPS, maybe?), but they’re okay. After chuckling in amusement, note how the headline not only puts them in control of the car, but suggests that both of the people were “driving,” in contrast to all the “car hits pedestrian” driverless headlines.

I was wondering that too

After January 1, grocery checkout clerks will have to add 5 cents for each bag you use, but how will that work with self checkout stations? Safeway and Giant say they’re trying to figure that out. (City Paper)

Right hand, meet left hand’s billboard

Shaw residents and DCRA officials have been trying to get rid of four billboards at 4th and P, NW of uncertain legal status. In the meantime, the Department of Health advertised HIV testing on one of them. (Examiner)

Driving on the left in Missouri

Springfield, Missouri is trying an innovative freeway interchange, the “diverging diamond,” where traffic briefly switches to the left side of the road. At least it’s innovative here; France has used it for decades. Amid the gushing over moving cars, it’d be nice if the story at least explored whether it’s good for pedestrians and cyclists too; the interactive graphic notes that pedestrians will walk along the median but doesn’t mention cyclists. (NPR)

Not Rhombus Heights

BeyondDC challenges us to name the 8 Metro stations with shapes in their names, or for a tougher one, all the metro areas over 1M people.