Gps

RE THE OP-ED by Joe Ashdale, head of the Philadelphia Parking Authority: As far as taxicabs are concerned, sure they're in better condition. But don't use this as an excuse to rape the industry. Fines and fees have skyrocketed under the PPA and continue to rise, primarily because there's no state oversight. There's no avenue for public input from the industry to show what a harmful impact these steep increases are causing. Recently, the Commonwealth Court ruled that the PPA Taxi Division's rules and regs are invalid and unenforceable.

Michael Lacy is no Geomuggle or novice, and he's determined to make sure a new generation of geocachers populates the Jersey Shore. Geocaching is something of a video-game update on the road-rally concept. In this case, people or groups hide things in "caches," often identifying the sites in coordinates that can be discovered by Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Inside each cache is usually some small prize, but the fun is primarily just finding the site of the cache and recording, on a scorecard within what is usually a small box, that you were there.

At Philadelphia International Airport's busy tower, air traffic controllers showed off new satellite technology Monday that will one day transform the nation's air traffic system from radar navigation to an Internet in the sky. Philadelphia is one of four airports to get the technology, which relies on global positioning satellites, like GPS in a car, to transmit a plane's location to radios on the ground, controllers in towers, and to other aircraft...

1. If your ultimate entertainment includes two-wheel touring, have we got a portable bike for you. Dahon's 18-speed Vitesse P18 folding bike can handle rural expanses or urban streets. The bike has powerful front and rear brakes, 20-inch wheels, high-traction tires with extra puncture protection, a well-padded saddle, and a pump stashed in the seat post. Weighing about 27 pounds, it folds to 31.2 inches by 25.7 inches by 11.3 inches deep, which will fit in the trunk or backseat of most cars.

1. If your ultimate entertainment includes two-wheel touring, have we got a portable bike for you. Dahon's 18-speed Vitesse P18 folding bike can handle rural expanses or urban streets. The bike has powerful front and rear brakes, 20-inch wheels, high-traction tires with extra puncture protection, a well-padded saddle, and a pump stashed in the seat post. Weighing about 27 pounds, it folds to 31.2 inches by 25.7 inches by 11.3 inches deep, which will fit in the trunk or backseat of most cars.

A Philadelphia man attracted lots of ambulance chasers yesterday - law enforcers, not lawyers - and they got an assist from technology. Police received a report about 8:30 a.m. that an ambulance had been stolen from a kidney dialysis center in the 5900 block of North Broad Street in North Philadelphia. Cory E. Chambers, 26, helped himself to a vehicle that was parked outside the facility with the engine running, police said. He then began a circuitous, rush-hour joyride around the city - but Philadelphia police were able to track his every move.

We thought we were savvy travelers when we moved up our road trip to Koziar's Christmas Village to get ahead of an approaching snowstorm (remember the two feet we got last month?). Instead, our 90-mile drive from Camden County to Bernville, Pa. (near Reading), turned into a Friday night odyssey. It started with the rush-hour traffic. As we inched along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, we realized that this drive was going to take much longer than two hours. So, we scrapped our plans to eat at a nice restaurant and pulled into a turnpike rest stop for Roy Rogers (gone are the days when you could "dine" on the turnpike)

They travel in packs, noses just inches away from GPS screens. Suddenly, "I found it!", one boy announces, grinning and peeling away from the group of a half dozen. The others intensify their focus. "Me too!", shouts another a moment later, until all six kids are crowded around a tree on Girard Avenue, pulling out from a knot a plastic screw-top bottle painted to resemble tree bark. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but everyone gathers around, eager to see what's inside. This is geocaching (JEE-oh-cash-ing)

I've never met Allan Borushek - "The Calorie King" - but he's usually with me wherever I go. His handy little book fits nicely in my purse, helping me decide when to resist tasty temptations and when to give in and chow down. If I'm stumped, I gaze at his wise eyes and mustard-yellow crown and ask, "What would The King do?" To make myself feel extra awful, I also consult Eat This, Not That , from Men's Health magazine's best-selling "food swap" series. (I got it from a friend who spent her teen years making me Butterfinger Blizzards - 105 percent of daily saturated fat!