Incentives for Drivers Who Avoid Traffic Jams

London, Singapore, Stockholm and a few other cities around the world battle heavy traffic with a “congestion charge,” a stiff fee for driving in crowded areas at peak hours. But drivers generally hate the idea, and efforts to impose it in this country have failed.

SENSOR Chinmoy Mandayam,

 a graduate student at Stanford, 

adjusted a solar-powered traffic scanner.

Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of computer science at Stanford University, thinks he has a better way.

A few years ago, trapped in an unending traffic jam in Bangalore, India, he reflected that there was more than one way to get drivers to change their behavior. Congestion charges are sticks; why not try a carrot?

So this spring, with a $3 million research grant from the federal Department of Transportation, Stanford deployed a new system designed by Dr. Prabhakar’s group. Called Capri, for Congestion and Parking Relief Incentives, it allows people driving to the notoriously traffic-clogged campus to enter a daily lottery, with a chance to win up to an extra $50 in their paycheck, just by shifting their commute to off-peak times.

The program has proved so popular that it is to be expanded soon to also cover parking.

Amaya Odiaga, the director of business operations for Stanford’s physical education department, now drives to campus a few minutes earlier and says she has won just $15. But a co-worker got $50 — creating a competitive atmosphere that makes the program fun, Ms. Odiaga said.

Better yet, Ms. Odiaga’s commute now takes as little as 7 minutes, down from 25 minutes at peak hours.

Dr. Prabhakar is a specialist in designing computer networks and has conducted a variety of experiments in using incentives to get people to change their behavior in driving, taking public transit, parking and even adopting a more active lifestyle. Unlike congestion pricing, which is mandatory for everyone and usually requires legislation, “incentives can be started incrementally and are voluntary,” he said.

Facebook Begins Ad Bidding System

In its quest to bolster the growth of its digital advertising, Facebook is slowly breaking down its walled garden for advertisers.

On Wednesday, the company announced it would begin testing a new advertising mechanism using a technology called real-time bidding, which allows advertisers to place bids on ad space at specific times.
For the new system, called Facebook Exchange, the company is working with a number of ad networks that will be able to use cookies in Web browsers to track users after they visit Facebook and show them ads based on their Web browsing habits – a process known as retargeting.
So a Facebook user who visits a travel Web site to buy airline tickets but does not complete the purchase may see an ad on Facebook that will allow them to do just that. Facebook is only displaying the traditional thumbnail ads that users see in the right hand column of the page and not other ads like sponsored stories or mobile ads.

Google Wants Love and 100 Other Things

Google wants love. But so do six other companies. They are after .love, actually, a new “top-level domain” that could catch on as .com, .org and .net did.

Love might not prevail, but chances are, at least one of the domains in 1,930 applications for new extensions will. The domains are the letters that follow the dot in Internet addresses, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as Icann, revealed the new requests on Wednesday.

Lance Armstrong

 

Lance Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France champion, was the king of cycling for most of the 2000s. Armstrong single-handedly made cycling, and the Tour de France in particular, a major spectator sport in America. In February 2011, at the age of 39, he announced that he had retired from his sport.
Armstrong said he was leaving to spend time with his family — he has five children — and that his age was catching up to him. At the 2010 Tour, he was nearly twice as old as some of his top adversaries.
Armstrong announced before that he was retiring, in 2005, the year he won his unprecedented seventh consecutive Tour. Long before that, though, he had transcended the sport by coming back to win at its highest level after surviving testicular cancer.
His previous break from cycling lasted just over three years. He returned in 2009 to try to win the Tour again, but finished third to his Astana teammate, Alberto Contador of Spain.

Armstrong Faces New Doping Charges

The United States Anti-Doping Agency is set to bring doping charges against Lance Armstrong that could lead to his being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

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Lance Armstrong will not face criminal charges but could be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and barred from competing in triathlon events.

Armstrong, 40, called the charges “a witch hunt,” the same words he has used in the past when fighting off doping accusations that have followed him for more than a decade, including a two-year federal investigation into doping-related crimes that was dropped four months ago. This time the accuser is the antidoping agency, which does not have the power to bring criminal charges but does have the power to strip him of the accolades that helped make him a famous athlete.

Johnny Tapia, Champion Boxer Amid Chaos, Dies at 45

Jake Schoellkopf/Associated Press

Johnny Tapia, left, in 2007 during one of his comebacks.

Johnny Tapia, a prizefighter who won world titles in three weight classes in a chaotic life that included jail, struggles with mental illness, suicide attempts and five times being declared clinically dead as a result of drug overdoses, was found dead at his home in Albuquerque on Sunday. He was 45

Why readers love their moustaches

21 May 2012 Last updated at 23:07 GMT Following the Magazine feature on how to grow a four-metre moustache, readers have been sending in pictures of their own follicly fertile upper lips.
Manly pride, a political statement or some fundraising fun.
No readers have gone to the lengths of India's Ram Singh Chauhan, but what their moustaches lack in substance, they more than gain in personal significance.
Here is a selection of their stories.

France's Hollande Delivers on Government Parity

French President François Hollande has made good on his campaign promise to deliver government parity with his recent appointments of ministers. However, most of the key posts were still given to men.
 Christiane Taubira, New France's Minister of Justice, Photo by Guillaume Paumier on Flickr, under Creative Commons 2.0New French President François Hollande made good on a campaign promise, reported BBC News, by appointing Wednesday as many women as men in the new French government: 17 of the 34 ministers are women.

N Korea launch site in 'upgrade'

23 May 2012 Last updated at 03:40 GMT North Korea is making 'rapid progress' on a major upgrade to its rocket launch site Satellite images show that a ''major upgrade'' is underway at North Korea's rocket launch site, says a United States institute.
Work at the Musudan-ri site showed "rapid progress" since mid-2011, the analysis said.
The report came as Pyongyang accused Washington of trying to ''incite confrontation'' over speculation it may carry out a third nuclear test.
North Korea ''never envisaged'' such an act, said a foreign ministry spokesman.
The remarks followed a US warning that a nuclear test would lead to a "swift and sure response" from the region.

Donna Summer track joins registry

23 May 2012 Last updated at 10:00 GMT Disco icon Donna Summer died of cancer last week aged 63 The Donna Summer classic I Feel Love has been named as one of 25 songs and other sounds to be inducted into the US National Recording Registry.
The hit joins The Grateful Dead's 1977 concert at Cornell University on the list of sounds of cultural signifiance.

Sardinian Town Bows to Italy's 'Pink-Street' Project

Italy has very few women's names on its signs for streets and plazas, according to female geographers. In an effort to end this "cultural invisibility," they are pushing for a 50-50 division in male-female signage.
ROME (WOMENSENEWS)--Street names in Italy are still being counted, but one village isn't waiting to add more women to their signs, as an advocacy group here began urging earlier this year.
On March 8, International Women's Day, Olmedo, a village among Sardinia's 377 councils, agreed to name 19 places after important women.

Call for convictions law change

23 May 2012 Last updated at 09:34 GMT England and Wales already have rules which allow previous convictions to be used as evidence Prosecutors should be able to use previous convictions as evidence in Scottish trials, according to the Scottish Law Commission.
In a report, the commission concluded that Scots law should be changed as evidence of this kind can be highly relevant to guilt or innocence.

Trent Bridge suits England - Stewart

By Alec Stewart Former England captain and BBC Radio 5 live summariser Venue: Trent BridgeDate: 25-29 MayStart: 11:00 BST dailyCoverage: Ball-by-ball commentary on Test Match Special (BBC 5 live sports extra, BBC Radio 4 LW and available worldwide via BBC Sport website); updates on BBC Radio 5 live; live text commentary on BBC Sport website
England made a good start to their international summer with a pretty convincing win over West Indies at Lord's, but there were a couple of hiccups along the way that they will want to rectify, starting at Trent Bridge on Friday.
In the first innings, they had an opportunity to bat West Indies out of the game by posting a score in excess of 450. However, they failed to fully build on the platform laid down by Andrew Strauss's fine century and if West Indies had batted in their first innings anything like they did in their second, the game could have been even closer than it was.

Guinea-Bissau army cedes control

23 May 2012 Last updated at 10:21 GMT More regional troops are expected in Guinea-Bissau over the coming days Guinea-Bissau's military junta says it has handed back power, six weeks after staging a coup that derailed presidential elections.
But correspondents say the army remains influential - and the transitional government includes as defence minister one of the coup leaders.
A regional peace force has started deploying to help bring stability.
No elected leader in nearly 40 years of independence has finished their time in office in the tiny West African state.

Nations need food security goals

23 May 2012 Last updated at 10:53 GMT By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News Researchers are calling for a concerted approach to agricultural policy, based on science The biggest environmental summit for a decade must make meaningful progress on global food security and sustainable agriculture, say researchers.
CGIAR, the world's largest publicly funded research body, has published a seven-point "call to action" plan.
Ahead of the Rio gathering, scientists are calling for an improved commitment to deliver nutrition security and lessen the need to aid.
Agriculture is estimated to provide jobs for 40% of the world's population.

Teen Blogger: Feminism's Future is Online

The Internet is a big boost to the feminist movement says teen blogger Julie Zeilinger in this excerpt from her new book, "A Little F'd Up: Why Feminism is Not a Dirty Word." How else would she meet a co-blogger from Jordan?
(WOMENSENEWS)-- One of the attitudes older feminists seem to have about my generation is, essentially, that we need to get our asses into gear.
After all, they petitioned door-to-door for the Equal Rights Amendment. They held conscious-raising sessions. Hell, they slammed their livid bodies against the doors of the Playboy Club to protest violent pornography. So when they watch us tapping away on our computers and calling it activism, it makes sense that they'd be like, "Um, no, I think you're confused. That's not activism, that's actually the ancient art of sitting on your ass."

Skydiver to jump without chute

23 May 2012 Last updated at 08:43 GMT Gary Connery's flight will take about 50 seconds A stuntman is to leap from a helicopter at a height of 2,400ft (730m) and land without using a parachute.
Gary Connery, from Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, will attempt the stunt at 13:00 BST on Wednesday wearing a specially developed wingsuit.
The 42-year-old will make the jump above Ridge Wood in Buckinghamshire and land in an area containing 18,600 cardboard boxes.

Michaela accused 'had confessed'

23 May 2012 Last updated at 11:09 GMT Avinash Treebhoowoon (left) and Sandip Moneea arrive for the second day of the trial One of two men accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey signed a confession, the trial jury has heard.
The daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte was found dead at the Legends Hotel in Mauritius during her honeymoon on 10 January 2011.
Prosecutors said Avinash Treebhoowoon admitted she "caught them red-handed" in her room and could identify them.

Scissor Sisters: 'Albums are a waste of songs'

23 May 2012 Last updated at 01:19 GMT "I think we've put our own notch in the wall. We occupy our own space, which was always the goal," says frontman Jake Shears (top of picture) Flamboyant New York pop group Scissor Sisters, famous for songs like Take Your Mama Out and Laura, are about to release their fourth album, Magic Hour. But, they tell the BBC, they're worried that some of the songs will never be heard.
"I just did The Voice with my fly unzipped!"
Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears is reliving the moment when, at the end of the band's performance on BBC One, he "looked down and noticed my trousers were wide open".
It was the one misstep in a week that saw the band's latest single, Only the Horses, enter the Top 10 and a fan propose to his girlfriend during the first of two sold-out shows at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire.
"We had no expectations for this campaign, so I'm thrilled," Shears says.
The singer is also looking forward to playing the Tower of London as part of the London 2012 Festival in July.

Fiat and Mazda in car alliance

23 May 2012 Last updated at 09:11 GMT An Alfa Romeo model will be produced in Mazda's Hiroshima plant from 2015 Fiat and Mazda have formed an alliance to develop two-seater sports cars.
The alliance will work on a car for Fiat's Alfa Romeo brand and a roadster with a different engine and styling for Mazda.