Opportunities gone, and not for good

The research at U.P.S. is paying off. Last year, it cut 28 million miles from truck routes — saving roughly three million gallons of fuel — in good part by mapping routes that minimize left turns. This year, U.P.S. began offering customers a self-service system for redirecting packages that are en route.

It's trite to say this anymore, but if we'd spent the trillion bucks we're spending in Iraq on reducing our need for oil instead made a lot more progress toward a secure and peaceful future for ourselves, and the world, than we've made - or will ever make - by dropping bombs.

Link: Still Brown, but Going High Tech - New York Times