1. Chart of the Day (above). According to data released today by the Federal Highway Administration, Americans drove more in July than any previous month in US history. On a monthly basis, the total vehicle miles traveled on all US roads and streets in July was nearly 284 billion (not seasonally adjusted), the highest monthly travel volume ever recorded, and above July of last year by 4.2%. The moving 12-month total for travel on all US roads through July was 3.1 trillion miles, also a new record for that measure of traffic volume, and above the year-ago volume by 3.1% (see chart above). July’s record setting traffic volume (12-month moving total) was the 8th straight month starting in December 2014 that travel was above the pre-recession peak of about 3.04 trillion vehicle miles in late 2007. Lower gas prices this year ($2.80 per gallon average in July vs. $3.50 last year thanks to the fracking-led oil production surge) and a gradually recovering US economy are likely two important factors contributing to record US travel in July.
2. Business Trivia Quiz: What is Hewlett-Packard’s longest and best-selling product? Hint: It’s been in continual production since its introduction in 1981, and is probably one of the only consumer electronic products from the early 1980s that is still considered “state-of-the-art” and an industry standard. Find out here.
(Personally, I own four of these HP products – one for my DC office, one for my DC apartment, one for my Michigan office and one for my home in Michigan.)
3. Cartoon of the Day (above), another great one from Henry Payne of the Detroit News.
4. Who-d a-Thunk It I? Men and women might actually be different? The WSJ reports that “Men and Women Differ in How They Experience Disease, Respond to Treatment: Alzheimer’s, nicotine addiction and lung cancer are among the areas where big differences have been found.”
5. Who-d a-Thunk It II? Premiums are going up under Obamacare for individual policies? The Star Tribune reports that thousands of Minneostans who buy health insurance on their own could see their premiums go up by 20-50%.
6. Who-d a-Thunk It III? People are fleeing liberal blue states for conservative red states?
7. From Blue to Red, Exhibit A: Peer-to-peer ride-sharing startup Lyft informed 20 members of its San Francisco-based customer support team this week it will be relocating them to Nashville, Tennessee, where overhead such as rent and salaries are cheaper.
8. Markets in Everything. Tailgater Concierge will provide all the necessary components of a pregame tailgate party.
9. Quotation of the Day, from Michael Crichton’s 2003 essay “Aliens Cause Global Warming“:
I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today.Let me say at once that I have no desire to discourage anyone from believing in either extraterrestrials or global warming. That would be quite impossible to do. Rather, I want to discuss the history of several widely-publicized beliefs and to point to what I consider an emerging crisis in the whole enterprise of science—namely the increasingly uneasy relationship between hard science and public policy.
from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1LY8RqR
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