Isegoria

From HOV Lanes Linked to Rise In Car Crashes:

Why might HOV lanes cause accidents? When the lanes are not separated by concrete barriers, drivers often illegally weave between the regular and HOV lanes, says Scott Cooner, a program manager for the Texas Transportation Institute, part of the Texas A&M University system. What is more, drivers stuck in gridlock tend to be resentful of the fast-moving HOV traffic and won’t let drivers merge from the high-speed lanes back onto the regular freeway, causing accidents.

Putting HOV lanes next to regular lanes violates a basic rule of traffic engineering: Don’t put cars moving at vastly different speeds next to each other.

“Cures” is a bit strong, but Experts Say Schizophrenia Drug Cures SARS:

A drug used to treat schizophrenia has been shown to prevent and treat severe acute respiratory syndrome, according to Chinese and European experts at a conference in China, the government said Sunday.

Cinanserin was found to inhibit the coronavirus that causes the deadly flu-like SARS, which first emerged in the country’s south in late 2002, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The finding was announced by experts attending a meeting of the Sino-European Project on SARS Diagnostics and Antivirals in the coastal city of Hangzhou.

The report said cinanserin was among 15 drugs that appeared effective in preventing SARS but that the other 14 had yet to undergo sufficient testing.

Wow. From Balls Out: How to throw a no-hitter on acid, and other lessons from the career of baseball legend Dock Ellis:

Thirty-five years ago, on June 12, 1970, Pittsburgh Pirate and future Texas Rangers pitcher Dock Ellis found himself in the Los Angeles home of a childhood friend named Al Rambo. Two days earlier, he’d flown with the Pirates to San Diego for a four-game series with the Padres. He immediately rented a car and drove to L.A. to see Rambo and his girlfriend Mitzi. The next 12 hours were a fog of conversation, screwdrivers, marijuana, and, for Ellis, amphetamines. He went to sleep in the early morning, woke up sometime after noon and immediately took a dose of Purple Haze acid. Ellis would frequently drop acid on off days and weekends; he had a room in his basement christened ‘The Dungeon,’ in which he’d lock himself and listen to Jimi Hendrix or Iron Butterfly ‘for days.’

A bit later, how long exactly he can’t recall, he came across Mitzi flipping through a newspaper. She scanned for a moment, then noticed something.

‘Dock,’ she said. ‘You’re supposed to pitch today.’

Ellis focused his mind. No. Friday. He wasn’t pitching until Friday. He was sure.

‘Baby,’ she replied. ‘It is Friday. You slept through Thursday.’

Ellis remained calm. The game would start late. Ample time for the acid to wear off. Then it struck him: doubleheader. The Pirates had a doubleheader. And he was pitching the first game. He had four hours to get to San Diego, warm up and pitch. If something didn’t happen in the interim, Dock Philip Ellis, age 25, was about to enter a 50,000-seat stadium and throw a very small ball, very hard, for a very long time, without the benefit of being able to, you know, feel the thing.

Which, it turns out, was one of the least crazy things that happened to him on that particular day.

From Hay fever not linked to kids’ immunizations:

The relatively few children that had not been vaccinated for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) had virtually the same hay fever risk as the large percentage that completed DTP vaccinations by their fifth month.

As for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) immunization, unvaccinated children had slightly lower chances of having hay fever than those vaccinated in month 14, although the difference was not statistically significant.

The investigators found that with both DPT and MMR vaccination, children that got their shots late had about a 40 percent reduced risk of hay fever. The team suggests that this ‘may be explained by a third factor causing both postponement and reduced risk, such as intercurrent febrile illness.’

Cook and colleagues also looked at anti-TB immunization with BCG vaccine, which is thought to protect against becoming allergic. However, that’s not what they found. ‘Immunization with BCG by age 2 was associated with an increased risk of hay fever,’ they report.

Virginia Postrel explains why even an overwhelming array of choices isn’t really a problem in Consumer Vertigo: A new wave of social critics claim that freedom’s just another word for way too much to choose. Here’s why they’re wrong.:

Outside the artificial constraints of a psychology experiment, people adapt pretty effectively to proliferating choices. We go back to our favorite restaurant and order the same dish because we know we’ll like it. We find a toothpaste that suits us and stick to it. We don’t always choose anew.

From Hornets Given the Eyes of an Eagle:

The call for F-18s to scan the ground below is all because of the new Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR). This $1.2 million device, which is considered about five times more effective than earlier models, can clearly see people on the ground from 40 kilometers away, and 6-7 kilometers up. Pilots can see people with guns hiding on roofs, or behind buildings, waiting to ambush approaching coalition or Iraqi troops or convoys. Magnification at night is 30 times, and 60 times during the day. But at night, the ATFLIR gets sharper images because it is sensing differences in heat below. Things cool off rapidly in Iraq after the sun goes down, everything except the few people running around at night.

I believe these Hornets are given the eyes of an owl.