Here are a few things that have been sitting in my dock waiting for comment.
Warning signs
Andrea Yates was in the news again this week, her conviction was overturned. I didn’t pay much attention to this case, but as we know, she was motivated by religion (read “mental illness”) to murder her children before they had a chance to become sinners. I just discovered that her children were named Noah, John, Paul, Luke, and Mary. I think that I would have become suspicious after John; perhaps her next child would have been named Deuteronomy.
The wrong reasons
I was kind of disappointed to read that the sudden proliferation of hybrid cars in Northern Virginia has created a problem with car pool lanes. In Virginia, hybrids are allowed in high-occupancy lanes.
A surge in the number of hybrid vehicles has left carpool lanes nearly as congested as the regular lanes they are intended to relieve, a Virginia transportation task force said yesterday.
A detailed study of carpool lanes on Interstate 95 found that the number of hybrids more than tripled between last spring and October. State transportation officials fear that the trend will continue as more hybrids enter the market and more commuters take advantage of an exemption allowing them to ride alone in such vehicles.
… According to the Electric Drive Transportation Association, the Washington area ranks with California as the country’s leading markets for hybrids.
Several car dealers in Northern Virginia said it’s because of the HOV exemption. “I’d say 95 percent of the people who buy a Prius say it’s to get into HOV,” said Jay Taye, sales manager at Ourisman Fairfax Toyota. “They talk about the tax break and the HOV, and once in a while they say they prefer it for the gas mileage as well.”
I bought my first hybrid in 2000, and the HOV exemption was way down on my list. It’s really sad to think that people are buying them for that reason rather than the reduced emissions or higher gas mileage — it’s evidence of the same kind of selfishness that made SUVs such a hit.
Meanwhile, as if proving that I am a true early adopter, there’s this astonishing statistic in the story:
… few drivers took advantage until hybrids were included in 2000. That year, there were 32 cars in all of Virginia with “clean fuel” tags — a designation necessary for solo commuters to use HOV lanes.
Wow — only 32? I don’t think I’ve ever been that early of an adopter before. I’m kind of impressed!
Check the dictionary under “monopoly”
Now, this is funny:
A user of Apple’s iTunes music service is suing the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an iPod to play songs.
He says Apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site.
Did someone force him to use iTunes instead of the dozen or so other music services? Was he too stupid to master the “burn” button that makes a non-protected audio CD of his purchases? And here’s another question: are there anti-competition laws? Wouldn’t those be laws against competition?
This ridiculous lawsuit can only be the product of desperate attempts by other companies to paint the iPod as a “failure” because it won’t play other DRMed music. Sad.
