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Plucky little Denmark has always been among the world’s most forward-thinking countries on wind energy—if not the most forward-thinking in the world. Now, the Danes have passed an important milestone: They make more wind power than the country needs.Says The Guardian:On an unusually windy day, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines yesterday evening. By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%....

Media Platforms Design TeamI own a Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and I like it a lot. But I bought it without the fancy satellite navigation system, a decision on my part that cost Toyota about $2000. The reason is that I wanted to buy a car that didn’t come with a built-in lawyer.The Toyota’s nav system, like those on many cars, displays a message every time it starts up. It reads: “CAUTION: Drive safely and obey traffic rules....

FabricMedia Platforms Design TeamPRO: Casual, comfortable, washable, easy to swap out.CON: Has a relatively short life span, could lead you to consider matching your watchband to your clothing.LeatherMedia Platforms Design TeamPRO: Classic, formal, elegant, safe. Smells nice.CON: If you are prone to perspiration, that nice smell can be replaced with a pretty terrible one.MetalMedia Platforms Design TeamPRO: Durable, formal, shiny, sometimes interesting from an engineering standpoint (see below).CON: Occasionally pulls out arm hairs....

Madame Tussauds’ main London branch has just the exhibit you’re looking for: 11 Star Wars sets populated with waxy figures of our favorite Jedis, Sith Lords, smugglers, princesses and droids. The show opens in May. Related StoryMadame Tussauds Star Wars Yoda galleryThe exhibit will span across the franchise, so, yes, the prequels are part of it. But maybe that’s worth it to see the Mos Eisley Cantina or Yoda’s Dagobah home recreated, including wax figures of their inhabitants....

Media Platforms Design TeamA handful of Wisconsinites emerged from the grocery store yesterday to find their vehicles smashed to pieces in the parking lot. It seems that Russell Kerr, 92, was trying to depart the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly in Mayville, WI, when he hit hit a car in his Chrysler Pacifica minivan and then panicked, bouncing around the lot and damaging nine other cars in total.No one was hurt, including Kerr....

Pick a Color, Any Color (As Long as It’s Grey)Q: I have a black car and it has a few rock chips in the hood. They show the primer which is a whitish grey. Why don’t auto makers use colored primers? This would make those chips less noticeable.A: Manufacturers use one color because all of their cars, regardless of what color they’re being painted, are dipped in the same vat of primer....

Media Platforms Design TeamOver the years, plenty of research has claimed that most people would rather go to the dentist than to the dealership. Yes, as much as we love cars and trucks, most of us find the act of actually dealing with a salesman to buy a new car downright painful. Those ill feelings are at the root of the J.D. Power and Associates’ Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study, this year’s version of which was released today....

View full post on InstagramThe reigning champ of smartphone narcissism, the selfie, has met the upstart challenger, Hyperlapse. With today’s update, Instagram’s Hyperlapse app gave users access to the forward-facing camera, giving birth to the #selfielapse.If you feel like time-lapse video is suddenly everywhere, you’re basically right. Last month, Microsoft demonstrated hyperlapse technology that would not only steady your shaky smartphone camera footage but also turn it into a cool time-lapse video....

View full post on VimeoAs Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk hinted in an interview yesterday during the D11 conference, the California-based EV automaker plans to expand its fast-charging “supercharger” network across the continental U.S. During today’s announcement, Musk said New York to Los Angeles trips would be viable as soon as this winter.“When you get in a car you have the ability to go almost anywhere,” Musk said. “That’s what the supercharger network will do....

Cmdr. Timothy RexrodeGroton, Conn.Age: 43Years on Job: 20 Today, Rexrode is the captain of one of the most advanced ships in the Navy, the USS Missouri (SSN-780). The differences are striking. “We used to use paper, pencils and rulers” for navigation, Rexrode says. “Now we’re all digital.” These days, the captain can monitor the ship with the click of a mouse and watch a live view from the photonics mast on a screen in his stateroom....

Media Platforms Design TeamDollhouse: Season One 4 DVD Set (2009)Media Platforms Design TeamDollhouse is Charlie’s Angels by way of The Matrix, but with a scrapped pilot episode and middling reviews, many felt that the latest addition to the “Whedon-verse” would suffer the same fate as Joss Whedon’s earlier Fox series, Firefly. However, due to overwhelming fan support and a batch of strong episodes in the latter half of the season, Dollhouse has been picked up for a second season with the addition of Reaper’s Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters to the writing staff....

Media Platforms Design Team2009 DETROIT AUTO SHOW PREVIEW:• GM: Direct-Injection Lineup Expanding• KIA: 2010 Kia Soul Concept• BMW: 2009 BMW Z4 RoadsterFord is reviewing strategic options for its Volvo division, but if this concept is any indication, perhaps it should hold onto a stake of the Swedish automaker. From this concept it’s clear that Volvo has adopted a more emotional design philosophy. The concept previews the all-new S60, which will bow in 2010....

The Tri-State Area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) is home to one of the largest concentrations of Volvo wagons on the planet. So what better venue than the New York auto show for the Volvo V70 and XC 70 wagons to make their North American debuts?Volvo V70Media Platforms Design Team The front-drive V70 gets the 3.2-liter inline-six from the flagship S80 sedan, replacing the old model’s inline-five. Expect a high-performance “R” model to come later, with all-wheel drive and a 4....

Media Platforms Design Team New Orleans—As retro motorcycles go, Triumph’s Bonneville has successfully captured the look and flavor of one of the world’s most iconic models. Its success has much to do with the restraint shown by the new Triumph ownership. You can almost hear the Triumph loyalists—“don’t mess with my Bonneville.” Although modern manufacturing principles were adopted at the new Hinckley factory, and the engine was reinvented as a larger capacity, double-overhead cam design, the resemblance to the classic old Meriden-built Bonnies is inescapable....

Media Platforms Design TeamNEW YORK CITY– Racing down the West Side highway in a torrential downpour, the $9950 Zero S indicates a silent 70 mph before the acceleration finally tapers off. This is the first full-size, highway-legal electric motorcycle to go into mass production. Yet its guilt-free low emissions are almost an afterthought. This thing is fast. Okay, so 70 mph is hardly the stuff of bar-stool boasting, but the S is a supermoto—a dirt bike prepped for road use with sticky street tires—and with about the same torque as a Suzuki GSX-R750, it excels in the cut and thrust of urban traffic at the expense of outright top speed....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe SpecsTo describe the Bentley Continental as svelte would be a stretch. But to create the Supersports, Bentley trimmed 245 pounds from the Continental GT Speed by nixing unnecessary equipment like, say, back seats. In their place is a simple carbon-fiber bar to keep your Coach luggage from flying forward and knocking your head against the finely crafted dashboard. On top of the weight savings, output from the 6....

As another lawn-mowing season comes to a close, now’s the time to winterize your lawn mower for the cold months ahead. That way, it’ll start right up with no trouble when the grass creeps back up again in the spring. 🔨 You love DIY projects. So do we. Let’s fix something together. We know it’s tempting to just store the mower away and worry about it next year, but procrastinating will only make it that much more difficult to get the mower up-and-running when the yard is ready for a trim....

One of the big worries about the rapid rise of commercial drones is simply tracking all of these tiny aircraft, and making sure they don’t interfere with other aircraft. This week, Lockheed Martin says it has successfully tested a way to integrate unmanned aircraft into the existing National Airspace System (NAS). The prototype system called Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) is meant to manage the movement of unmanned aircraft through low-altitude civilian airspace....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt was the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon. Gary Mann and his girlfriend Helen were watching the sun go down after a satisfying day clearing brush in the backyard of Mann’s home in Sutter Creek, Calif. A pile of branches and twigs was burning merrily, throwing shadows into the growing darkness as the couple’s three dogs–a 50-pound Shar-Pei named Tigger and a pair of Rottweiler mixes, Takota and Tenaya–played at their feet....

Media Platforms Design TeamAfter the Tohoku earthquake struck Japan at on March 11, 2011, there was a 30-minute lull before the devastating tsunami rushed ashore. Geophysicist Yehuda Bock from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography says that if his early warning system had been in place at the time, it could have used that lull to determine the magnitude of the earthquake and calculate the intensity of the subsequent tsunami, perhaps giving residents enough warning time to seek higher ground before the waves struck....