Women have passed men on the nation’s roads. More women than men now have driver’s licenses; a reversal of a longtime gender gap behind the wheel that researchers say is likely to have safety and economic implications. If current trends continue, the gap will only widen. The share of teens and young adults of both sexes with driver’s licenses is declining, but the decline is greater for young men, according to a study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. The study looked at gender trends in driver’s licenses between 1995 and 2010.

Superstorm Sandy may send as many as a quarter of amillion new and used vehicles to the scrap heap, a loss that could eventually lead to a spike in new auto sales. So far, automakers have reported that some 16,000 brand new vehicles will have to be scrapped due to the killer storm that flooded coastal areas in New Jersey and New York. Many of them were stored at the port of Newark when Sandy hit.

Maybe you talk of prepping for an earthquake, wildfire or rising waters. Perhaps you participated in the recent disaster-planning drills. But let's look at some insurance statistics, as one worrisome metric of California's collective readiness:

Giving your opinion on politics or complaining about the boss to your friends via Facebook is so commonplace and rampant that many people probably don’t stop to think about the consequences of their postings. Less thought is given to the magnitude of a Facebook user "liking" something like a photo, a status update, a fan page, etc. Yet, these actions can have very significant consequences for the person behind such activity.