What Price Fuel Efficiency? Farhad Manjoo writes about the political debate over increased fuel efficiency in Congress. Here’s the tally for the vote on the Levin amendment, which stripped the higher mileage requirements from the CAFE bill. (Somewhat confusingly, a Yea vote was a vote against higher fuel economy standards.)

AOL is testing Gecko (Mozilla’s rendering engine) in version 7.0 of their software. Maybe ESPN will fix their Web site in Mozilla soon …

Paul Krugman attacks reflexive anti-conservationism on the part of Republicans today in his NY Times column:

The real reason conservatives want to drill in ANWR is the same reason they want to keep snowmobiles roaring through Yellowstone: sheer symbolism. Forcing rangers to wear respirators won’t make much difference to snowmobile sales — but it makes the tree-huggers furious, and that’s what’s appealing about it. The same is true about Arctic drilling; as one very moderate environmentalist told me, the reason the Bush administration pursues high-profile anti-environmental policies is not that they please special interests but that they are “red meat for the right.” (The real special-interest payoffs come via less showy policies, like the way the administration is undermining enforcement of the Clean Air Act.)

Jonathan Krim summarizes the ongoing ICANN controversy in today’s Washington Post.

Update your maps: the name Yugoslavia has officially passed into the annals of history. I wonder if this means that Yugo cars are now collector’s items.

Judge Charles Pickering’s appeals court nomination has been rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee. President Bush, please don’t lecture us about bipartisanship and then nominate right wingers to the federal bench.

What kind of idiot would steal Hunter S Thompson’s unpublished material and published it themselves? Needless to say, the good doctor was righteously pissed when he discovered the theft. (Thanks, Jill.)

I just read on ResearchBuzz that Google has launched a news search. This is great news.

Today was the deadline for Arthur Andersen to plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges for shredding Enron documents. They refused, and they’ve been indicted. if they lose in court, they’ll be barred by the SEC from auditing public companies. If that happens, it’s all over for them. Just the fact that they’ve been in legal trouble has already cost them several big clients. Andersen was trying to find someone to buy them out, but couldn’t find any takers, which makes sense. Would you buy the company knowing that there’s a good chance you can just poach their best employees and clients as the company circles the drain?

Not much posting lately due to a rather heavy workload. I haven’t even been reading the papers. I wish I could link to stuff I hear on the radio, though, there have been a lot of interesting stories on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Marketplace lately.