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Road Trains: Genius or guaranteed pile-up? – EU Infrastructure — What could possibly go wrong?
The European Union has financed a study to look at how grouping vehicles into ‘platoons’ or ‘road trains’ on the continent’s motorways could cut fuel consumption, journey times and congestion.
The quite-frankly bizarre idea sees groups of cars linked together via wireless sensors, with a lead vehicle (driven by a ‘professional driver’ – whatever that means) leading the train. The ‘lead driver’ would monitor the status of the road train, allowing those in the other vehicles to sit back, sleep or read a book whilst they travel along motorways.
The EU’s study will be entirely focused on the system working with wireless sensors and up to eight vehicles ranging from your everyday family cars to buses and trains. In theory, these vehicles could be mixed and matched in a ‘road train’, but I’m not sure I’d want to be in between a truck and a bus with no control.
The preliminary report picked up by the BBC says that ‘road trains’ could cut fuel levels by up to 20 percent presumably due to most vehicles being in the lead’s slipstream.
Here is the latest conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz…. new insights for anyone who invests in anything. This week we highlight a discussion about specific stocks to examine. Plus: Is there some weird scam going on?
click ► to listen:
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
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Tampa — The Rev. Alexios Marakis, visiting from Greece, had performed a blessing of a retired Greek priest in the West Shore area before accidentally exiting I-275 into downtown Monday evening, police said. Marakis followed cars into the Seaport Channelside Apartments on Twiggs Street and got out to ask for help.
Bruce, a reservist with a West Palm Beach unit since March, had his trunk open so he could get dry cleaning out, police said. Bruce, who lives in the apartment building, was not in uniform. He grabbed a tire iron from the trunk, hit Marakis four times over the head and chased him about three blocks before pinning the priest, police said…
When officers arrived, police say, Bruce told them he heard the man say “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is great.”
“That’s what they say before they blow you up,” Bruce said, according to police.
To their credit, Tampa coppers arrested Bruce – instead of the priest.
In Japan, being thin isn’t just the price you pay for fashion or social acceptance. It’s the law.
So before the fat police could throw her in pudgy purgatory, Miki Yabe, 39, a manager at a major transportation corporation, went on a crash diet last month. In the week before her company’s annual health check-up, Yabe ate 21 consecutive meals of vegetable soup and hit the gym for 30 minutes a day of running and swimming.
“It’s scary,” said Yabe, who is 5 feet 3 inches and 133 pounds. “I gained 2 kilos [4.5 pounds] this year.”
In Japan, already the slimmest industrialized nation, people are fighting fat to ward off dreaded metabolic syndrome and comply with a government-imposed waistline standard. Metabolic syndrome, known here simply as “metabo,” is a combination of health risks, including stomach flab, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, that can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Concerned about rising rates of both in a graying nation, Japanese lawmakers last year set a maximum waistline size for anyone age 40 and older: 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) for men and 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for women.
In the United States, the Senate and House health care reform bills have included the so-called “Safeway Amendment,” which would offer reductions in insurance premiums to people who lead fitter lives. The experience of the Japanese offers lessons in how complicated it is to legislate good health.
Perhaps this shows how low Palin’s sunk since she resigned in that even Fox isn’t willing to put up with her crap.
Tech Dirt – Nov. 10, 2009:
In other parts of the world, it’s become acceptable for governments to simply ignore drug patents in order to produce more of necessary drugs in times of health scares. However, the US has mostly
shied away from doing that, as the myth of patents as some great encouragement for innovation remains deeply rooted (and, oh yeah, pharmas are big campaign funders). However, with growing concern over the lack of supply for swine flu vaccines, there is some talk over whether or not the US will consider importing generic Tamiflu, even though the drug is still under patent in the US. There are approved generics, which are chemically identical, that are made elsewhere, such as India. However, importing it into the US, while it could save lives, is bound to be massively controversial. However, again, if we’re going to have a moral discussion about intellectual property, can someone please explain the moral argument for not being able to use generic drugs in this instance?
Of course someone will point out that the current flu scare is overblown and not many people are actually dying. Hence the purpose of my title: How many deaths are enough before we finally do something?
I’m going to trying something different with the comments.
In order to comment you have to give me a number. If you think the protection of patents outweighs human life, then put something like “everyone would have to die before we fix our patent system.” If you think life is more important, then put zero. Of course any number in between is welcome.
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Disgruntled Star Editor Takes Constructive Revenge – torontoist — Golly. Nothing like having your arse handed to you on a silver plate. Note my correct use of italics :).
Earlier this week the Toronto Star announced, among other changes, that it was planning to outsource some one hundred in-house, union editing jobs. In the press release issued by the union in the wake of the announcement, union chief Maureen Dawson explained that “Journalism is a collaborative effort, the product of a team of reporters, photographers and editors working in concert to produce the kind of activist agenda that has served Star readers and our community so well for so long…To remove a critical element of that work is to shortchange everyone who depends on it.”
Now, one (apparent) editor at the Star has decided to show us all the benefits of collaboration. An extensively marked-up copy of Publisher John Cruickshank’s internal memo announcing the changes was sent to Torontoist by a self-described “intermediary who was asked to send this for a friend who works at the Star” this morning; it’s, allegedly, “the work of a Star editor.”
Presented without comment…
- Yahoo, Microsoft and Google going to put out free Wi-Fi hotspots for Christmas. Google’s doing it right.
- New Snow Leopard screws over some users.
- Kindle for the PC released by Amazon.
- LinkedIn to Tweet.
- Facebook groups hijacked.
- New OS from Samsung called Bada.
- Yahoo banned. Welcome to the club.
- Droid phones not that hot.
Show brought to you by Squarespace.
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using the code TECH for a fat discount.
Check it out at www.squarespace.com
using the code TECH for a fat discount.
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(CNN) — Hundreds of Facebook groups have been hijacked in recent days by users pointing out what they say is a weakness in how the social-networking site handles the administration of its groups.
By Tuesday morning, 286 groups had apparently been renamed Control Your Info and had a new message posted to their walls.
“Hello, we hereby announce that we have officially hijacked your Facebook group,” the message reads. “This means we control a certain part of the information about you on Facebook. If we wanted we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image severly [sic].”
According to Control Your Info, when Facebook group administrators step down, anyone else can take over their duties — giving them access to members’ personal information, the ability to send messages to all members of the group and the authority to make changes to that group.
“For example we could rename your group and call it something very inappropriate and nasty like ‘I Support Pedophiles’ Rights,’ ” the message continued. “But have no fear. We won’t.”
Step 1. Join a religious organization (preferably an old fashioned one like Mormonism).
Step 2. Don’t get any health care plan.
Step 3. If you do get really sick, just buy any health insurance plan (they won’t be able to deny you), get the care you need, then opt out.
The best part is, you will not have to pay the additional 2,5% income tax, because Section 501 of H.R. 3962 exempts you:
Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) for any period if such individual has in effect an exemption which certifies that such individual is a member of a recognized religious sect or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an adherent of established tenets or teachings of such sect or division as described in such section.
I hope they don’t fix this giant loophole. (Note: I still have to figure out what this section 1402(g)(1) is.)
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