Hybrid batteries last a lot longer than 3-5 years. I don't know how well Honda does, but can talk about toyota's. There are 2001 Prius out there running on their original batteries without any problems. (ours is one). Things that shorten the pack's life include living in hot climates (Arizona for example) and…

Cynara. Italian artichoke liqueur. I believe its considered medicinal in its native land.

Actually this one has a real use. Otherwise your open sunroof at speed acts like you are blowing across the top of a bottle, with you inside the bottle.

Out of curiosity, does the canadian spec M5 have a towing rating? The US says "not designed to tow".

What is it with mazda and the number 5? They renamed the MPV to mazda5, now they have a CX-5, (and of course the MX-5 that the rest of the world calls the Miata). They aren't anything alike, nor do the share the same engine (which might be a reason to use the same -5 suffix)

Indeed we did. Have the TV footage to prove it. See [the-nerds.org] for details.

Any idea when this dates to? (did ours in July 2000). His has the advantage that it can be operated by just one person, but it appears to use liquid fuel, simplifying things.

Well this one was done by a bunch of self declared nerds, and has a name taken straight from the Hackers Dictionary, but I don't know if it fits the description. Coal fired steam engine conversion to a Brit 3 wheeler. [the-nerds.org]

Roadway damage goes up with the *fourth* power of vehicle weight. So the high toll is trying to track the actual cost of use. (something that other road use fee's doesn't do. We all subsidize, with our local property taxes, trucks use of the road).

Look for torrents of "Scrapheap Challenge", the name the show got in the rest of the world. They continued to make more shows for years after the US network gave up. They even had us back to do a special in 2006. (We turn a cement truck into a boat hull, its never been broadcast in the US).

If you are going for that, I vote for the original, one corner of a real working yard, in the Canning Town neighborhood of London. They didn't have the seismic rules that limited how high stuff could be stacked, and they had a real truck scale should the need arise. (where we discovered the landie that we wanted to…

This will get some laughs here, but I would like a Toyota Estima. A domestic market only minivan. (size of the old previa/moon cruiser, not the sienna), with a hybrid drive train.

Cab companies love the Crown Vic, because they can get them very cheap when cops are done with them. They get a well maintained, 2 year old car (good because many cities have an age limit of 3 years on cabs) with more than 100k on the clock which makes them unappealing to most used car buyers.

That sounds like a turbine spooling up not a piston engine. wonder how many degrees of twist those power runs put into the half shafts.

So what was the 1/4 mile time, and speed? Where was the big board with numbers on it?

Given the difference in amount of data, I find it "interesting" that most phone carriers charge more for a single text than they do for a minute of voice time (assume you are over your plan in both cases - my carrier charges $0.20 for a text, and about half that for a minute of air time).

You mean I won't have virtual screens built into my glasses? The point of a tablet is to have a big enough screen, the eyes aren't what they once were (bifocals are a fact of life).

Admittedly it was a motorcycle, but Honda used to race a 250cc straight 6 in the mid 60's. Sounded like a dental drill. And until they got regulated out of existence, there were multi-cylinder 50cc race bikes .

I vote for walls that go to the ceiling, and a door that closes, at least for anything that requires concentration. While I can tune out a continuous drone (so I can concentrate on a plane) anything that stops and starts (like one side of a phone conversation) will cause me to alert every time.

So what does this wonder cost? Looking at the promo page, its clear that it will be pricey, but just how unreachable is the price? (given that the control console comes with a pelican case, its clearly priced for those that sign purchase orders, not credit card slips)