Posted on Tuesday July 21st by Jebediah Reed | 583
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- Officials at the Dept of Transportation were well aware that when drivers use a cell phone (of any sort) they are as dangerous as drunks. But they buried the facts to avoid “antagonizing” Congress and to preserve billions in agency funding. (NYT)
- From the dept. of “Wow!”: Obesity falls 10% for ever $1 increase in the price of gasoline. Then again, considering even a dime in new gas tax is judged to be “politically impossible” these days, maybe we’ll just stay fat. (Forbes)
- The Senate passes a $27 billion bill to bail out the Highway Trust Fund, which is set to run out of money later this summer. The measure includes $5 billion for transit program. What will the House do? Unclear, sayeth the 8 ball. (Streetsblog DC)
- China is planning to implement a national smart grid by 2020. And since the government owns 100% of the transmission capacity, it can just give the say so. Plus, this factoid: “China has a lot of electricity meters.” (Forbes)
- One of the planks Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin ran on four years ago was fixing the city’s wretched sewer system. Now, leaving office, she’s declared victory. It cost billions, but at least she got to take a field trip down into the sewer. (Fox)
- Internet data centers are weirdly opaque facilities. Companies like Google won’t even reveal how many they have. We do know, however, that Apple is spending $1 billion to build a big one in the tiny N.C. town of Maiden. (Hickory Record)
- The “dismal and ubiquitous” sidewalk sheds that announce construction projects are like NYC’s own downmarket version of street arcades. It’s nice that they save us from falling hammers — but why do they stay up for a decade or more? (WSJ)
- Think your commute was bad? Yesterday there was a 259 car pile-up on Germany’s A2 autobahn between Berlin and Hanover. A small army of emergency responders descended to attend to the dozens of injured motorists. Video after the jump. (ITN)
Photo: DPE
