Saturday, February 25, 2006

Hybrid Cars to Get High-Occupancy Waiver     - by Danny Hakim of the New York Times. Hybrid-power cars will be allowed to use high-occupancy-vehicle lanes on the Long Island Expressway starting on March 1, regardless of how few people are in the car, the Pataki administration said on Friday. The policy, which applies only to the highest-mileage hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the hybrid version of the Honda Civic, brings to New York an incentive used by several other states to promote fuel-efficient vehicles. Virginia, for example, is one of the top markets for hybrid vehicles because it has allowed them for several years in its H.O.V. lanes. California, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Georgia are among the states with similar laws. In New York, the expressway is the only highway that has H.O.V. lanes, which are meant to encourage carpooling. For hybrid-car owners, it will certainly be a welcome policy, in view of the expressway's reputation as "the world's biggest parking lot." My city, Phoenix, is facing increasing traffic problems, and even more increasing pollution problems, while our HOV lanes go largely unused. This would be a great energy inniative, Governor Napolitano! 11:02:45 PM    comment []

What controversy? by PZ Myers on Pharyngula Creationists have been chanting, "Teach the controversy" at us for some time, to which most biologists simply look puzzled and ask "What controversy?" There is no ongoing debate about the ideas peddled by the Discovery Institute within the scientific community, because, well, there have been no data presented to suggest that it would be a worthwhile and productive discussion. That's what I say, but I'm just one peon in the academic complex. But now Bob Camp has done a comprehensive survey to assess whether there actually is a controversy. He wrote to the department heads of a number of biology departments, and asked this simple yes/no question: Q: Regarding the issue of "Intelligent Design theory" vs. current biological consensus on the mechanisms of evolution - is there a difference of professional opinion within your department that you feel could be accurately described as a scientific controversy? 97% said no. Only one said yes, and that was from a theological medical university. That's a handy piece of information. When we're told to "teach the controversy" in the future, one good answer is to reply that there is no controversy to teach. 1:32:46 AM    comment []

Brilliant's Wish: Disease Alerts - by Kim Zetter from Wired The head of Google's new charitable foundation calls on the industry to build an internet-based early-warning system for public health threats that would warn communities of dangers without government interference. Click here for more. 12:49:51 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2006 John Giacobbe.