Global warming dissenters few at U.S. weather meeting
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Joe D’Aleo was a rare voice of dissent this week at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in San Antonio.

A Coalition for Firm Limit on Emissions
Ten companies have banded with environmental groups to call for a nationwide cap on carbon dioxide emissions.

Wall Street Is Betting on the Farm
Wall Street commodity funds that have been investing heavily in energy futures are now loading up on agricultural commodities like corn and livestock futures.

Record biotech plantings in 2006
A biotechnology advocacy group reported Thursday that a record number of biotech crops were planted worldwide last year, but critics complained the gains were more of the same: aimed at making corn, soy and cotton crops resistant to weed killers and bugs.

A vending machine for iPods?
Old-school vending machines, bulky bastions of high-calorie snacks and sodas, meet your new-school challenger: chic upscale gadgets stocked with consumer electronics and pricey cosmetics. The new vending machines sell iPods, cellphones, USB drives, headphones, DVDs, and a host of other gadgets.

Investigators clear cell phone in pants fire
A fire that started in a man’s pants pocket, critically injuring him and destroying his hotel room, was not ignited by a cell phone as authorities suspected, phone technicians said.

At Home with Time Warner
The company’s “Home to the Future” exhibition might be more fairly be called the “Home of the Present,” as it features technologies and services available today from (mostly) Time Warner Cable and other divisions of the media giant. The exhibition/interactive advertisement, developed by ESI Design with contributions from nine other companies, includes the Time Warner Center’s central tower.

Daydreamers: Scientists Find Our Bored Baseline
Bored out of your skull is a reality. A new study of mind wandering shows that the mundane moments of life allow brains to shift into a default resting state that invites daydreaming. Some psychologists had suggested that mind wandering could be the brain’s baseline, a place of flitting thoughts from which a person must wrench away for challenging work. The new study agrees and looks deeply into the neural mechanics behind this common and sometimes happy affliction.

Women drivers? They re safer than men
That age-old stereotype about dangerous women drivers is shattered in a big new traffic analysis: Male drivers have a 77 percent higher risk of dying in a car accident than women, based on miles driven.