Gridlock talking, Head and Shoulders discovering, and Writers striking:

1. Congestion Pricing has been a cantankerous subject to deal with, because many people feel like they’re going to be screwed with the tolls. I dare you to read this proposed compromise plan over at Streetsblog and still keep any ill thoughts of the concept (execution by the politicians involved in implementing it)
2. Science marches forward, and your hair will be all the better for it. Yes, rsearcher’s have mapped out the genome for the microbe that causes dandruff.
3. Get ready for tons of reruns on the boob tube, because The Writers Guild of America is on strike. They’re trying to get a fairer share of DVD and internet sales revenues, of which they currently get a pittance and nothing, respectively. At least one good thing to come out of this is that the topic dragged Ze Frank out in front of the webcam again to comment on it.

Food for thought, tools for geeks, and I who’s posting what where:

1. This WWF (no, not wrestling — the World Wildlife Fund) video ad is quite well done: Money makes the world go round, you know.
2. Trying to get a remote connection working?  Check out YouGetSignal’s Open Ports Tool.  They also have this little Network Location Map.
3. Here’s a great mash-up map showing recent anonymous edits to Wikipedia entires, and where they’re being done.  Fun to see what pops up.

A veritable cornucopia of unrelated content, all for your consumption:

1. Former Price is Right host Bob Barker had his signature cause be controling the pet population.  Could new host Drew Carry’s cause be medical marijuana? [via Boing Boing]
2. What a great showing of Halloween spirit here.  Someone stuck a car horn in a jack-o-lantern to greet trick-or-treaters, and recorded the reactions for us to enjoy.
3. Someone went through great pains to assemble a collection of 40 CSS layouts to use.  Seeing as how I always seem to want to reinvent the wheel with every design I code out, this might be a handy link to keep around.

Another post from the future, because I was too busy running around getting my car fixed and emptying my bank account to actually read anything online today, much less write. So instead I just repeat this simple affirmation:

1. I’m good enough.
2. I’m smart enough.
3. Doggone it, people like me.

Something of a transportation-centric theme for today:

1. By car, by bus, by light rail, train or subway…it matters not.  Looks like New York commuters are in the grips of a perfect storm of fare and toll increases.  I’ll grumble a lot less if I see that extra money actually being put back into the systems for upgrades (some seriously overdue).
2. The brothers Magliozzi from NPR’s “Car Talk” wrote a five-page letter to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming telling them that Detroit can get to 35 mpg in 5 years, and not to be told otherwise.
3. DARPA’s next step in the quest for a self-driving vehicle is coming soon with its Urban Challenge.  Out of 35 entrants, 11 have been deemed competition worthy.  Hopefully Nova does another episode on this like they did for the Great Robot Race.