The weekend avalanche that killed three skiers near Stevens Pass, Wash., was the single-deadliest such accident in three years, but it highlighted a safety device that likely saved the life of a fourth skier caught in the slide. Three skiers were buried alive in Sunday’s avalanche, which occurred outside the boundaries of the Stevens Pass ski resort. Skier Elyse Saugstad, however, had time to deploy her “avalanche airbag backpack” as the onrushing wall of snow struck.

Well, good.

Well, Starbucks should be rewarded for refusing to bow to bigots.

Cars equipped with telematics systems such as OnStar or Hyundai Blue Link have two-way links to service providers that relay GPS data. The operators of these services do, indeed, have the ability to see where you are, how fast you’re going, and what state your car is in mechanically. They can also track and remotely disable a stolen vehicle. The Nissan Leaf uses a similar two-way connection to regularly send data on usage and location to Nissan, which the company uses for future electric vehicle development. But these services aren’t supposed to work without driver permission. The car can initiate a call in an emergency situation, such as when an airbag is deployed, but otherwise the driver must authorize an external connection to the vehicle.

Companies have been caught snooping, though.

They’ll keep it up unless it’s too expensive.

UPDATE: Judith Curry on Gleick’s “Integrity.” “The end result of Gleick’s actions are to cede the high ground to Heartland, especially in light of the fact that Heartland had invited Gleick to a debate shortly before the theft of the documents occurred.”

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I’ve listened to the stats for over two years now. I am guessing there are quite a few guys like me. My household income is comfortably in the top 2% for the nation (hey, it’s Northern NJ. You need to make $250k just to own a house around here. Well, NOW you do…). I drive a 1998 Ford Explorer. The sport model. I’ve owned it since it was new and it’s got 160k miles on it. My wife has the “new” car, bought in 2008 when our first child was born. It’s a Toyota.

I’m a dirty finance guy, so I guess that means I should driving a BMW (Audi is the car of the last 5 years, actually). When your income is tied to the fortunes of the market and the country as a whole, current “riches” do not entice you to overspend. My house is also modest, and it makes me sad to see people who overextended themselves being given all sorts of second and third chances to stay in a house they never deserved in the first place.

Keep my name off it if you choose to comment me.

Punishing virtue and rewarding vice — that’s the policy these days.

That sounds like statist language, doesn’t it: “disrespect the privilege of owning a passport.”

Privilege? Tar and feathers, at least, is a right, not a privilege. What’s the name of the officious idiot behind this? Make it public.

UPDATE: Here’s the officious idiot.

Plus this: “After you have convinced people that you fervently believe your cause to be more important than telling the truth, you’ve lost the power to convince them of anything else.” Indeed.

Also, from John Hinderaker: “So, Peter Gleick: if I am wrong, sue me. If I am right, apologize for fabricating a document and attempting to perpetrate a hoax, and retire from public life.”

And Jonathan Adler observes: “This is just incredible (and not only because Gleick was chairing a working group on scientific integrity at the time of his actions). . . . Much of the clmate science community seems unable to condemn Gleick’s conduct (see, e.g. here), just as some environmentalist groups and climate activists have a hard time acknowledging the frequent exaggeration or ‘sexing up’ of climate studies to accentuate the threat posed by climate change. (And I say this as someone who believes climate change is a problem and supports appropriate policies to address the threat.)”

Also, today only: Panasonic DECT 6.0 PLUS Link-to-Cell via Bluetooth Cordless Phone, $54.99. I’ve got an earlier model — no bluetooth-to-cell connection — and it’s quite good.

UPDATE: Will Collier writes:

That Panasonic phone you’re linking today is very nice, and makes it easy to cut the landline cord. We have ours Bluetooth-linked to an old cell phone that we ported our old home number to, saving us a good $20/month on AT&T’s ridiculous landline charges. Works just like a “regular” phone line, and you can buy additional phones to put around the house if two aren’t enough. My only complaint is that the built-in answering machine doesn’t work for “cell-only” mode.

Interesting. And reader Colin Frazier writes:

Anyone who
1. has dropped home phone service in favor of using a mobile phone AND
2. has a larger-than-two-room home AND
3. has pants without pockets (that is, someone who is a woman :-)

will love the Link-to-Cell functionality. I got one for my parents. They use it with no land line and two cell phones. They drop their cell phones by the Panasonic base station when they walk in the house and they connect automatically. Inbound calls ring all their cordless ones. Likewise, they can make calls out through their cell phones from any cordless set. You can even easily transition to or from the cell phone to take a call on the road or to finish one at home.

That’s cool.

Perhaps one day soon the right to arms will be recognized as an international human right.

Related: Take a close look at the crisis manager that lil’ ol’ Peter Gleick has taken on: Chris Lehane, who worked for the Clinton White House during Whitewater and Monicagate.

Also: Meet the criminal defense attorney who’s representing lil’ ol’ Peter Gleick: John Keker, who defended Enron’s CFO Andrew Fastow.

Well, they’re both experienced with fraud and coverups.

Last week, ProPublica posted a big fancy chart about hydraulic fracturing on its website that purports to show that “government involvement with the drilling technique goes back decades.” (By “drilling technique” we assume they’re referring to hydraulic fracturing, even though, as a point of fact, hydraulic fracturing is not a drilling technique.) It’s a less-than-veiled attempt to provide cover for the claim that it was the federal government, not private industry, that facilitated the growth of shale development. But as we already know, that claim lacks merit. As Professor Michael Giberson of Texas Tech University has observed, the federal government’s role was “merely convenient to technological advancement and not necessary.” (emphasis added)

And, as it turns out, the chart is defined more by what it omits than what it includes. So, we decided to make our own timeline to provide everyone with a little more context (and facts) about the history of hydraulic fracturing, not to mention its incredible safety record.

More at the link.

When gas prices hit $4 a gallon in 2008, candidate Barack Obama said it was due to previous failed energy policies. Now that prices are heading still higher, President Obama calls it progress.

Already, pump prices are higher than they’ve been in previous years, suggesting they will top $4 soon and possibly reach an unprecedented $5 this summer.

President Obama is starting to notice the political implications. So he sent Robert Gibbs — now a top campaign adviser — out to tell the public not to worry.

Read the whole thing.

Well, when the President jokes about auditing his enemies, you can expect the worker-bees to pick up on the message. I warned at the time that the President’s thuggish “joke” would cause a loss of faith in the IRS.

Taranto continues:

Krugman and Alter were both born in the 1950s, which is to say that they are both baby boomers. Both were too young to be protesting on campus in 1968, but both are old enough that the triumph of contemporary feminism and the sexual revolution coincided with their formative years. That is to say, both presumably cast their lot with the cultural left in its moment of triumph and in the belief that by doing so, they were putting themselves on the side of progress.

That was an understandable thing for them to believe given the times and what one assumes were their predispositions. But while feminism and the sexual revolution have been great for high-status men like Krugman and Alter (full disclosure: and this columnist), and for those women who place a high value on professional careers, things have not worked out so well for those who are less privileged.

That is a truth so undeniable that it can even slip past the editorial filters at the New York Times.

That is big. On the other hand, there’s no love for Bill Bennett among the Pickup Artist community. Then again, that’s consistent with Taranto’s point, isn’t it?

(And I do like the way he uses the “full disclosure” trope as a way of quietly bragging that he’s big with the ladies . . . .)

UPDATE

Related: White House seeks to deflect blame over rising gas prices.

I’ve got an alternative syllabus.