America's Scariest Highways

To identify the nation's scariest highways we sought advice from Mark Sedenquist and Megan Edwards, who run RoadTrip America, as well as from Marree Forbes (no affiliation with Forbes Inc.), who runs the site American Driving Vacations, and Robert Dolezal, author of The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips.

Mark Sedenquist and Megan Edwards' California home was destroyed by a forest fire in 1993. Instead of rebuilding, the couple bought an RV and took to the open road, traveling across the U.S. and Canada for almost seven years.

The couple has since settled in Las Vegas, but they continue to take driving vacations and encourage others to do the same on their website, RoadTrip America, which they run through Flattop Productions, their small business. Sedenquist and Edwards estimate they've traveled over 650,000 miles.

Highway 1 (Florida)

Outside of Key West this roadway turns into a two-lane bridge that crosses an expansive body of shallow water that reflects blinding sunlight. On top of that, "it's really tough for the driver to stay focused because everything around you is so blue," Sedenquist says. This stretch of highway is also troublesome during hurricane warnings because it is the only way out and gets packed with evacuees.


Interstate 70 (Colorado)

I-70 through Denver has one of the highest passes on all the interstates, and its steep hills can be extremely slick in the winter. In bad weather "you just stay in your lane, don't touch your brakes, and hope you make it to the bottom," Sedenquist says.


Pacific Coast Highway (California)

Although it has beautiful views, this elevated, curvy roadway hangs over the water. But not everyone is sold on its scariness. Marree Forbes' clients always ask if this road is safe to drive, and she thinks "it's total, utter nonsense." The highway is "fabulous," she says.


Highway 1 (Alaska)

Because it is surrounded by beautiful scenery and mountains, this roadway is plagued with accidents. Driving along it can be terrifying "because people are sightseeing and they're not watching the road," Sedenquist says.




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Banner Image is the Guoliang Tunnel in China’s Taihang mountains.

40 Uses For Floppy Disks

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Floppy disks: headed for the museum, or treasured home for your data? When Sony said this week it was halting the production of floppy disks, the Magazine set out to discover who still buys and uses this anachronistic computer storage medium.

More than 1,000 readers e-mailed in response to the Magazine's request to explain their attachment to the once universally popular 3.5" diskettes. Many pointed out floppies are needed to access even newer computers' deepest innards - their Bios. (A surprising number also enjoyed pointing out the South African term for floppies - stiffies - though let's not dwell too long on that.)

Here are 40 explanations for why floppy disks are still needed:

1. I regularly buy floppy disks. I own a pub with a retro theme and I use them as beer mats.

Shaun Garrod, Ashby de la Soul

2. I am an artist from London and I use floppy disks to produce my paintings. I tile them up as canvases. The personal information on each disk is forever locked under the paint, but the labels are left as a clue. I use the circular hubs on the reverse for eyes!

Nick Gentry, London

3. In the aviation industry they are still used to update firmware on ticket printers.

Dre, Germany

4. Not as much a user as an owner of a great many floppies, I was planning to tile the roof of my shed with them (using the two existing corner holes to take the nails) until my wife forbade it.

Erik Ga Bean, Stevenage, England

5. I work for a national high-street based business. We still use floppies in many sites for back-ups. Believe it or not we are still running MS-DOS on most of our till systems. We get through hundreds if not into the thousands each year.

Matt Sparks, Birmingham

6. Have you seen the cost of clays for skeet shooting? Pull!

Paul Taylor, St.Helens England


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