Doubling taxes on SUVs? It's about time!

From the Boston Globe:

Brookline has earned a name as a government trendsetter, banning smoking in bars and restaurants as early in 1993 and outlawing spanking in 2005. At Town Meeting this evening, voters have a chance to enhance that reputation as they take aim at gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and cholesterol-boosting trans fats.

Read the rest here.

'Running the Numbers'

A new perspective on how many cans...bottles....cigarettes...cell phones....and more that Americans consume each day, month, year.
Click here to see them all, courtesy of Seattle artist Chris Jordan.

Tag, you're....the only one playing?

Is the game of 'Tag' dead? Do kids really not know how to play 7-up or marbles these days? This is pathetic and it makes me not want to have kids.
Read on:

Unbelievable

Turns out we get slammed even worse than we KNEW at the pump in the summer.
Just a tidbit of what the L.A. Times has to say:

Here's another way you're getting pinched at the pump: Paying for, say, five gallons of fuel doesn't mean you're getting a full five gallons.

Fuel expands when temperatures rise. And because gasoline station nozzles don't adjust for the change, motorists and truckers end up with less of the energy that keeps engines humming.

The overcharge is rampant, legal and hard for consumers to spot. But it's no secret. Oil companies acknowledge it and regulators allow it. One company developed a device to fix the disparity but shelved the product after dealers resisted.

The thinking person's booze

The New York Times evaluates the best martini-- and it doesn't include Vodka:

"Indeed, gin is more of a thinking person’s spirit. Vodka is neutral in aroma and flavor, which is also how gin begins life. But where vodka stays neutral, gin is infused with botanicals — a witch’s pantry of roots, berries, herbs, dried fruits and spices — dominated by the piney, breezy aroma of juniper berries."