What’s New: In Brief (December 10, 2008)

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has signed contracts with car rental companies to provide rentals at reduced prices to ICBC customers.
Savings with Hertz Canada and Ron Ridley Rentals are estimated at between Cdn$5.4 million and Cdn$5.9 million annually.
ICBC policyholders will be referred to Hertz Canada and Ron Ridley Rentals when their ICBC insurance includes the use of a rental car. In return, Hertz Canada and Ron Ridley Rentals will provide discounted prices, timely service and must maintain strict standards for vehicle maintenance.
The agreement will help keep insurance rates low and stable, while continuing to guarantee a high level of service, according to the ICBC.
The contracts will take effect on Jan. 2, 2009.

The Willis Research Network has combined the use of supercomputers and climate models in an effort to improve hurricane models for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) described the advances in his seminar, ‘Supercomputers, Climate Change and Catastrophe Modelling.’
Using the power of its ‘Bluefire supercomputer,’ NCAR has combined its models for weather and climate to “dramatically enhance research into changes in future location, frequency, wind severity and rainfall of hurricane tracks across key Atlantic regions,” a Willis press release says.
NCAR hopes eventually to make long-range predictions of changes in the characteristics of high-impact weather on decadal time scales.
The program is currently nearing the completion of a 50-year projection of variations in Atlantic hurricanes and western U.S. precipitation.