And it's not bad looking, either.

The entire car is made of carbon fiber to keep weight down, and obviously it's extremely streamlined to limit drag. Unfortunately this also makes it very expensive, but VW expected the price to come down to a level at which it makes sense to build the car by 2012. Thanks to sky high gas prices, they now think it makes sense to build starting two years from now, in 2010.

It uses an 8.5 horsepower diesel; the production model may have about twice that amount of power to satisfy consumer's desire for acceleration.

No word on what the acceleration will be but the car looks very cool and I think a lot of people will want it -- even at the anticipated prices of about $30-50k.

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Here's the best picture i got of today's fireworks in Monongahela, Pennsylvania.

How were your fireworks? Any pictures to share?

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Just like everything nowadays, fireworks are bad for you.

Explosions, strange chemical combinations, danger, all that sort of thing.

So what can we do about it, while retaining some semblance of Fourth of July fun?

This article tells all.

At the end, of course, it admits that fireworks are not that bad a pollution problem compared to all the others we already have ... but every little bit helps.

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It's that time of year again, and this guide should help keep you out of trouble -- or get into the trouble you always wanted to get into!

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The research began by asking whether certain promiscuous gay men were able to have sex with AIDS carriers without getting the disease themselves.

The AIDS virus, like other disease carriers, needs a foothold in the body in order to invade cell and do its destructive work. A certain gene pattern, carried by the aforementioned gay men, made this foothold possible.

By removing that gene pattern, scientists were able to run successful experiments on mice. When they were injected with HIV they did not get the disease.

Even people who already have AIDS may be helped. By injecting cells with the new gene pattern into the body, they may be able to overwhelm the existing AIDS-carrying cells and reduce the impacts of the disease.

Further research will, of course, be necessary but this is a very promising field of inquiry.

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Top Gear magazine of the UK pitted a BMW M3 against a Toyota Prius for fuel economy.

An easy win for the Toyota, right?

Turns not, no, not if the Toyota is driven as fast as possible. If you're trying to get the most performance out of your car, it's better to drive the performance car.

In their test, the Toyota got 17.2 miles per gallon and the BMW 19.4.

So if you want to drive fast, don't buy an economy car. You'll get just as bad economy and have less fun.

The hilarious video is at the link.

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Earlier, we mentioned technology that used microbes to convert biological junk like wood chips into an oil-like substance that was both non-polluting and usable in today's gas tanks.

Today we talk about invasive species like Kudzu, that grow like crazy and choke up native plants, and how they can be used as fuels.

Put this all together and tomorrow's fuels of the future look pretty exciting.

Now if we can just get through the present ...

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Well, if you have a big enough back yard, that is. Two electric motors propel the beast, and you can roll around your yard, creating the same vertiginous effects as a coaster.

The project is in development, and there's video at the link.

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One of the amazing things about Pixar is that they deliberately seem to seek a challenge. Who would want to see a film, however brilliant, about a fish looking for his son? A rat chef? Or, in their latest venture, a trash-collecting robot who can't even talk?

Well, I did, and the odds are you will too.

There are too many reviews of Wall*e out for me to detail the plot, but I'll mention a few things I think others have missed.

First, one of the few flaws of the plot is that I think I liked the dystopian world of the shiny BuyNLarge ship better than the dystopian, trash-strewn, worn out earth. Why would you want to leave the glittering ship for that?

Second, Andrew Stanton said the film wasn't meant to be political, even though it was about BuyNLarge Corporation taking over the world. I think his critique of our society is much more about lifestyle choices like getting fat and becoming a sedentary nation of TV watchers and computer users. The sequences where people on the ship were made to ignore the telescreen and see each other were great. "Hey, I didn't even realize this ship had a pool!" was a great line.

BuyNLarge is an obvioius Wal*Mart parody although I wonder if we would ever trust Wal*Mart to take over space exploration and public transport.

It's amusing that even though we have a dystopian future where things don't quite work out as planned, once we are in the ship all the technology works flawlessly.

No question, Pixar has created a brilliant, hilarious hit with heart, again. Go see it!

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Otherwise known as the giant, automated warehouse that looks like something out of a big-budget science fiction movie. It's complete with robots that move smoothly in the vast expanse of Lego.

Check out the video at the link for more.

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We covered this about a week ago, but this article has more detail on how environmentally friendly biofuels from genetically engineered bacteria will work.

"By swapping natural genes in yeast and bacteria for synthetic ones, scientists have tricked the microbes into producing hydrocarbons—creating, in essence, billions of tiny refineries to turn simple sugars into environmentally friendly diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and biocrude."

This looks like an exciting breakthrough - fuel that works just like gas or diesel in a car, but is non-polluting and based on renewable resources.

We do live in interesting times and sometimes, unlike the Chinese proverb, that's GOOD news.

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The latest uber-extravagance in Dubai, the most extravagant city on the planet, is a new rotating skyscraper which constantly changes views and the skyline.

Apartments range from a humble $3.6 million to a dazzling $36 million!

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Up today is a firmly tongue in cheek guide to all those strange organizations you hear about from the guys in the tinfoil hats.

What's Masonry? the Trilateral Commission? The Order of Skull and Bones? And more?

What's behind the vague names of all these meeting groups of the powerful?

Find out at the link.

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At this point, probably more people have heard of Snow Leopard as the name of Apple Inc's new operating system release than have heard of the animal itself.

So what's a Snow Leopard like? This beautiful set of photos from National Geographic Magazine, shows us the life of these magnificent animals, their endangered status, and their threatened future.

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The Corona, the outer edge of the sun's atmosphere, is hundreds of times hotter than the sun's surface.

Why?

NASA is determined to find out, with its new Solar Probe +, designed to withstand the intense heat and million mile an hour solar wind ...

What will it find and will it survive?

We'll have to wait until 2021 to find out ... in the mean time, check out the article for more.

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