2015 BMW i8: Sexy Plug-In Hybrid Sport Coupe Coming Later This Year

With awareness of the 2014 BMW i3 battery-electric car starting to rise--it will arrive at dealers in late April or early May--it's sometimes easy to forget that BMW has a second plug-in car following close behind. And unlike the i3, whose looks are controversial, there's very little debate over the design of the 2015 BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sport coupe.Pretty much everyone thinks it looks just...

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US Navy’s Arctic strategy forecasts ice-free shipping routes

    By 2030, the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route could be ice free and navigable for at least nine weeks each year, with a 10-week ‘shoulder season’, according to projections released today in the US Navy’s Arctic strategy. The Northwest Passage could be open for five weeks, with a six-week shoulder season; and the Bering Strait could be ice free for a whopping 27 weeks a year, with up to...

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Windows may kill up to 988 million birds a year in the United States

Between 365 million and 988 million birds die from crashing into windows in the United States each year, according to the latest estimate. That might equal 2 to 10 percent of the (admittedly uncertain) total bird population of the country.The biggest share of the deaths comes not from glass massacres at skyscrapers but from occasional collisions with the nation’s many small buildings, says...

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Nothing so sweet as a voice like your own Study finds

Have you ever noticed that your best friends speak the same way? A new University of British Columbia study finds we prefer voices that are similar to our own because they convey a soothing sense of community and social belongingness.While previous research has suggested that we prefer voices that sound like they are coming from smaller women or bigger men, the new study – published today in...

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New Mazda Hazumi Concept Is New Mazda 2, Next Toyota Yaris Too

With the new Mazda3, Mazda6 and CX-5 crossover launched over the last few years, you might have forgotten the smaller Mazda2 subcompact even exists.Mazda hasn't forgotten the 2 though, and will unveil a new subcompact concept car at the Geneva Motor Show to point the way to its replacement.Mazda calls it the Hazumi, which means "bound" or "spring up" in Japanese, a reference to a small car...

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Lend an ear to science

Pop music hit maker Clive Davis knows a catchy song when he hears one. Now an app aims to define that elusive quality more concretely.Designed by computer and cognitive scientists at the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Hooked! asks citizen scientists to help uncover the mystery ingredients of a hook — the most memorable part of a song. The results might illuminate how music taps into memories and emotions in the brain. First the app drops the needle somewhere in...

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GEAR AND GADGETS Tasty Tech Eye Candy Of The Week

This week in tech, we present amazing concepts from exceptionally creative minds. These ideas are so good, you'll wonder why no one invented them before. How about germ-proof clothing? Odors that can be sent via text message? A car that comes with its own drone and a fish that's able to drive an aquarium. Those are just a few. Read on.STRING JUNGLE GYM: Croatian-Austrian collective Numen/For Use...

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Pillow Nudges Sleepers To Stop Snoring

Trying to sleep next to a snorer is a nightmare, with not much middle ground for solution. At best, bed mates can look forward to a night of interrupted rest and nudging the other to turn over. Worst case scenario, the snorer is diagnosed with sleep apnea and forced to wear one of thosesleep apnea masks.However, with its snore-triggered nudging pillow, goofy gadget emporium Hammacher Schlemmer may have what it takes for a peaceful night of slumber. The pillow includes a microphone that...

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Hummingbirds May Change Their Tunes to Attract Females

   The male hummingbird is a dedicated suitor, returning to the same place every day for up to eight months a year to trumpet his availability–for as long as eight hours at a stretch. He’ll repeat his song two times per second, hoping for a female to heed his call.Hummingbirds’ songs are distinguished by more than just their duration; the birds are among a select group that...

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Fisker Assets Sold For $149 Million

The assets of bankrupt Fisker Automotive were sold to Wanxiang America at the close of an auction in Delaware bankruptcy court that lasted more than two days and lasted 19 rounds. Bloomberg reports that the Chinese company paid a total of $149.2 million for the company, or six times the price of $25 million first offered by unsuccessful bidder Hybrid Tech Holdings, whose opening bid was...

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Many Car Dealers Don't Want To Sell Electric Cars: Here's Why

The stories abound: A car buyer walks into a dealership, educated about the electric car she wants to buy...and the salesperson tries to convince her she doesn't want that car after all.She really wants a gasoline car, he argues.Hundreds of cases have been reported of customers walking into a Nissan or Chevy dealer to buy a Leaf or Volt, then being aggressively steered toward a Sentra or Cruze.Doom,...

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Honda Film: Controlling Air Pollution A 'Never-Ending Race'

The fight to improve air quality may not sound like fodder for a typical Hollywood blockbuster, but Honda has done its best to make the topic exciting. The latest short film in the company's Environmental Short Film series--this one titled "Never Ending Race"--depicts Honda's efforts to respond to the far stricter Federal and state environmental legislation in the 1970s that resulted from efforts...

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First-Ever Porsche Turns Out To Be An Electric Car

Here's a great piece of bar trivia: The first-ever Porsche was ... an electric car. While any ardent Porschephile knows that the first Porsche-branded vehicle was the 356 sports carof 1948, the first car designed by Ferdinand Porsche was actually the 1898 "Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model," or the P1 for short.The P1 was recently recovered from a warehouse...

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