You can add another state to the pile of those that forbid texting and driving. This time, it's Alaska--home of moose hunters and Mustang lovers, and that's just their Rachel-sporting governor Sarah Palin.

Starting on Monday, Alaska joined a smaller, less perfect union of five states that don't allow you to do what the idiot in this photo is doing. Other states in the clique include Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington, and our favorite, Louisiana, where it's ironically still legal to drive up to a bar at 7 a.m. and expect Purple Voodoo on tap.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) wanted you to know all this--plus, the fact that handheld cell phones are not allowed when driving in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Washington, and the District of Columbia. From those top-tier edicts, the use of phones becomes a hodgepodge of local rules and laws that would all be rendered moot if we just had a constitutional amendment banning any kind of driver distraction, including singing, DVD watching, and microwaving your coffee back to life.

Think that would get play during this election season? Tell us how long it's been since you were last texting and driving in a comment below--and let us know your favorite technique for avoiding getting caught.

PumpPredictor.com--the gas-pricing site with that certain Web 2.0 flair--says you'll be paying more this holiday weekend for fuel.

The latest data feeding into the site has prices moving up in cities across the country--no doubt due to a spike in oil as Hurricane Gustav lurches toward the Gulf of Mexico.

PumpPredictor claims to help drivers get in on cheap gas when it's available, using pricing-prediction methodology and email/text messages to alert users when gas is about to get more expensive. The big downer? It costs $3.99 a month, which could eat up your savings in one 30-day period or less if you're careless about heeding its advice. However, it also lets you peg 5 zip codes for pricing information, so you could find it useful if you road-trip a lot. Or, in theory, you could set up a network of friends nationwide, split the fee and hamstring this startup like all the Webvan users who made off with the fantastic plastic grocery bins they used. (Yes, totally guilty.)

Useful or loopy? Like a lot of sites built with similar technologies, it's easy to see the same features expanding across other verticals outside of gasoline. If you're a subscriber or user of PumpPredictor, tell us your experience on the site and if it's really the deal or not.

Ford's latest push for greener pastures is "eco-driving"--teaching car owners and users how to elicit the maximum fuel economy from their vehicle without any savvy mechanical tricks or upgrades.

It's as simple as re-learning how to drive, Ford says--and it's proving it by setting up some fleet drivers with professional drivers from Phoenix-based Pro Formance Group. After putting a group of 48 drivers through its courses, Ford found that ordinary drivers could boost fuel economy by 24 percent just by modifying the ways in which they drive.

Ford began the training in Europe in the 1990s, and says it will expand its program so that more drivers of Ford-made fleet vehicles can boost their fuel economy.

Even if you're not a pro, Ford says you can increase gas mileage by dropping speeds, keeping tires properly inflated, and eliminating long waits at idle. These 10 tips can help anyone become a better eco-driver, they say:

Slow down and watch speed – Drive 55 miles per hour instead of 65 to save fuel. EPA estimates a 10-15 percent improvement in fuel economy by following this tip. Also, aim for a constant speed. Pumping the accelerator sends more fuel into the engine. Using cruise control whenever possible on the highway helps maintain speeds and conserve fuel.

Accelerate and brake smoothly – Accelerating smoothly from a stop and braking softly conserves fuel. Fast starts, weaving in and out of traffic and hard braking wastes fuel and wears out some of the car components, such as brakes and tires, more quickly. Maintain a safe distance between vehicles and anticipate traffic conditions to allow for more time to brake and accelerate gradually.

No idling – Today's engines don't need a warm up. Start the car immediately and gently drive away. Don't leave your car idling. Prolonged idling increases emissions and wastes fuel. Turn the engine off in non-traffic situations, such as at bank and fast food drive-up windows, when idling more than 30 seconds.

Check your tires – Keep tires properly inflated to the recommended tire pressure. This alone can reduce the average amount of fuel use by 3-4 percent. Under-inflated tires increase rolling resistance and reduce fuel economy. They also wear more rapidly. Check the vehicle's door-post sticker for minimum cold tire inflation pressure.

Be kind to your vehicle – Maintain proper engine tune-up to keep vehicles running efficiently. Keep the wheels aligned. Wheels that are fighting each other waste fuel. Replace air filters as recommended. Use a fuel with good detergent additives to keep the vehicle engine clean and performing efficiently. Always consult the Owner's Manual for proper maintenance.

Travel light – Avoid piling a lot of luggage on the roof rack. The added frontal area reduces aerodynamics and will hurt fuel economy, reducing it by as much as 5 percent. Remove excess weight from the vehicle. Unnecessary weight, such as unneeded items in the trunk, makes the engine work harder and consumes more fuel.

Minimize use of heater and air conditioning – Use heating and air conditioning selectively to reduce the load on the engine. Decreasing your usage of the air conditioner when temperatures are above 80 degrees can help you save 10-15 percent of fuel. Use the vent setting as much as possible. Park in the shade to keep car cool and reduce the need for air conditioning.

Close windows at high speeds – Don't drive with the windows open unless your keep your speed under 50 mph. Driving with the windows open at highway speeds increases aerodynamic drag on the vehicle and lowers fuel economy.

Choose the right oil – Use good quality oils with the viscosity grade recommended in the owner guide. Ford recommends SAE 5W-20 oil for most cars and trucks to provide the best fuel economy. Only oils "certified for gasoline engines" by the American Petroleum Institute (API) with the starburst symbol should be used.

Consolidate trips – Plan ahead to consolidate your trips. This will enable you to bypass congested routes, lead to less idling

Incredible road-going convenience, or sign of the obesity Armageddon? It's both!

According to the KickingTires blog, which got it from Gizmodo, which passed it on via CNet, a British Web site is offering an in-car microwave for your culinary cross-country trips. Need a burrito piping-hot on the Tehachapi freeway? Or maybe some jambalaya while you're sitting in New Orleans traffic on I-10 at Clearview? This 12-volt nukecrowave is the ticket. "You no longer have to worry about searching for places to eat as the microwave ensures you can plan your day as you want to and eat when you''re hungry," they say confidently, obviously never having driven in America.

According to the site, it delivers up to 660 watts of cooking power, on par with dorm-room micros, when it's strapped right into the car battery, or 175 watts when run off the cigarette lighter. There's an LED screen to tap in your heat selections, and then it's a waiting game--more than five minutes to perk up a cup of coffee on the low-power configuration.

We're shocked that Ford didn't see this one coming and install it in the 2009 Flex, along with the second-row fridge. It might do well in Britain, where roadside conveniences are lacking, but on our roads it seems like nonsense. Nonetheless, we're wishing them well, and hoping that maybe the Chinese factory workers cranking these out got some free tickets to the Olympic badminton matches, in leg irons or not.

In-Car Microwave via KickingTires

More than 41,000 people died in car accidents on U.S. roads last year, the lowest number of fatalities in more than a decade.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 41,059 people died on the nation's roads, which is the lowest total since 1994 and a drop of more than 1,000 fatalities from 2006. The death rate of 1.37 deaths per 100 million miles driven is also the lowest on record, the NHTSA said in a release. The total of 2.49 million injuries is the lowest since the NHTSA started collecting that data in 1988.

The Associated Press reports California had the biggest drop in total fatalities, while North Carolina's rose the most.

The NHTSA says motorcycle deaths were up for the 10th year in a row, to 5,154 fatalities in 2007.