Dropping Knowledge

Two interesting items I wanted to share, one from the here and now and one from the quite distant past:

• According to the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University (via Inhabitat), motorists wasted 3.9 billion gallons of fuel due to traffic in 2009.  It’s not a coincidence that Michael Douglas’ character in Falling Down flipped out while stuck in a traffic jam.  If this study is correct, the daily commute just got even more maddening. 


• Some food for thought for the New American Empire crowd, or whatever the hell Bill Kristol and his minions, cronies and financiers are calling themselves these days:  according to this study by a dozen scientists in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the US, climate variability “influenced the agricultural productivity, health risks and conflict levels in preindustrial societies.”  The study may provide new insights into the Fall of the Roman Empire; the authors note that “increased climate variability from ~AD 250 to 600 coincided with the demise of the Western Roman Empire and the turmoil of the Migration Period.”  I’m not optimistic, but if there’s anything that can get these Neanderthals to take climate change seriously, it’s probably the prospect of losing their already-mostly-lost empire. Fingers crossed.