BMW’s Vision Efficient Dynamics Concept probably has some impressive specs to go along with it, but — honestly? — I can’t be bothered. Just look at this thing! I think it’s the first concept that’s ever had me jazzed about lit-up grills.

If you’re still reading this and not sifting through the gallery (in which case: what’s wrong with you?), BMW bills the futuristic car as a three-cylinder turbodiesel hybrid electric 265 HP beauty. You can read all about it after the jump.

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The idea’s been proposed and kiboshed before, but a team of British scientists and engineers are taking a look at gravity as one way to protect the Earth from asteroids.

NASA’s Near Earth Object program currently has 145 potentially hazardous asteroids on its list out of 1,062 objects larger than one kilometer in diameter, and 6,292 total discovered objects. What’s all that mean? Well, that there’s a lot of stuff out there that could potentially impact our planet — some of it pretty big.

So instead of sending shuttle crews up at the last minute to blow an approaching asteroid up, British astronomers at the Astrophysics Research Centre are planning to build a 10-ton “gravity tractor” spacecraft that will influence the object’s trajectory. The process would take some time — a craft would have to be launched 15 years in advance to really have an effect — but, once the tractor arrives, it’d hover close by an asteroid and gently guide it along a different path.

Besides the inordinate amount of time it’d take, the “gravity tractor” program — still in its early stages — would cost so much and require so much in terms of personnel that it would take either the backing of a government or several to ever see it through.

Via BBC

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Stitch the 7 year old greyhound boy is looking for a retirement home without young children. He’s very friendly with people and good with other dogs. He’s previously lived with cats, but does still have the chase instinct.

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Jake is a friendly 9 year old Border Collie who has gone through a lot of change recently. He’s looking for a nice calm owner who can soothe away the stresses of his previous life. He’s good with other dogs and is great off-lead, so will make a wonderful companion on walks.

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Adorable Archie is looking for people who have had experience of owning Whippets and know what fantastic dogs they are. He is typical of the breed – gentle and loving and happy to live with other dogs and children. Archie’s special needs require people who can cope with his blindness in one eye and impaired sight in the other, possibly caused by a previous trauma. Please come forward if you can help this beautiful boy to feel secure, settled and loved…

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Skeptical of Bluetooth altogether, we just got schooled in what a portable Bluetooth speaker can do. The Spracht AURA BluNote Bluetooth Speaker is about the size of two palms next to each other, but sounds like it’s a whole lot bigger. You can hook it up to any cellphone or music player that supports the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), so we tested it on our iPhone 3GS.

Pairing was just as easy as pushing a button for a couple of seconds, and the BluNote instantly recognized our iPhone. From then on, it was smooth sailing, where the little speaker system deftly played songs wirelessly from the iPhone, sounding remarkably good for such a tiny package. There was even an impressive amount of bass coming out of the minuscule drivers.

Suddenly, a phone call came in. After the BluNote automatically lowered the music volume, we answered the call by pushing a button on top, and it quickly went into speakerphone mode. It works just as well as any good speakerphone, and as is typical, you need to be 2 to 3 feet away for it to sound good. But when you’re close enough, it really works. It also senses when you initiate a call on your iPhone, switching over to speakerphone mode. I made a phone call to a persnickety friend who didn’t even notice I was using a speakerphone. It’s that good.

AURA thought of everything when they were designing the BluNote, adorning it with gorgeous design, surprising sound, bass boost and stereo widening that doesn’t sound fake, and its thoughtful designers even included four AA batteries to complement its AC adapter. And if you want to avoid Bluetooth altogether, there’s a standard 3.5mm line input in the back, with a cable provided. Nice. It’s an excellent product that’s well worth its $99 price.

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Pretty little Sally is a special girl who lives life to the full in spite of being deaf. She responds very well to hand signal training and is a friendly, playful dog who would be happy to live with another dog and older children. She needs to find a home where she can feel secure and loved. Isn’t she just adorable?

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Looking to force yourself into doing some aerobic exercise? Just can’t find a way to get motivated? The Webcyle may be what you’re looking for.

Essentially, the Webcycle is a stationary bike hooked up to a laptop. The faster you pedal, the faster your Internet connection is. If you’re slow and lazy, loading a YouTube video will be painfully slow. Kick it into high gear and you’ll be streaming in no time. Finally, exercise equipment that motivates us with what we really care about.

Webcycle, via Book of Joe

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There are loads of little personal massagers out there, but I’d bet that 99.9% of them aren’t shaped like shrimp. This one? This is the exception to that rule. What else do you need to know? For a mere $6, I’m not sure why you haven’t bought one yet.

Meritline via NerdApproved

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These are supposedly pictures of the iriver Story, a new e-reader that looks suspiciously similar to the Amazon Kindle. iriver has been rumored to be working on such a device, though the news comes from a online e-reader forum, so take from that what you will.

Some specs and features, also from said forum: The Story will have a 6-inch screen and a QWERTY keyboard, just like the Kindle. Unlike Amazon’s model, it’ll have an SD card slot for expanding the memory and be able to view PDF files without conversion, plus it’ll come with a translucent ziplock cover. The battery is said to be good for 9,000 page turns.

The e-reader is expected to debut Sept. 16 in Korea, going for the equivalent of about $300. Considering none of this is official, whether or not the Story will continue in the U.S. is anyone’s guess.

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Last winter we kept the ears warm while enjoying our tunes with Stereo Toasters and their less-attractive rival, the Earmuff Headphones. When winter arrives just a few short months from now, the rest of my follicularly challenged head will stay toasty too with iHat, a skullcap with a couple of speakers embedded in just the right places.

Plug it into any standard headphone jack and you’re rocking and running in two seconds flat. We like its slightly severe, do-rag looks, too. If you’re up for coldy-walks, the timing might be right, making it a worthy way to spend $25 come December 14.

Just think, to keep your head warm, you don’t even have to wear a dorky, inexplicably-brimmed and knit Nike headphone hat. Or you could just reject all this headphone/hat-ness altogether and slip on your earbuds underneath your normal winter headgear.

Via 7 Gadgets

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Games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero are great, but they end up cluttering your house up with any number of cheap, plastic instruments. You’re an adult! You can’t have toys all over the place.

This retractable Rock Band/Guitar Hero controller from NEXiLUX looks perfect. Able to fold down to an absolute tiny size for easy storage/hiding, it provides you with all the buttons you need to shred, video game style. And it works with the Wii, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, making it extra-versatile. No word on price or release date.

YouTube, via Engadget

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Canon raised the stakes in the hot digital SLR market with its EOS 7D digital SLR, aimed at high-end amateur photographers and also touted as a second camera for pros. The company says the 7D’s 19-point autofocus system is “all-new,” and Canon’s packed its CMOS sensor even tighter with 18 megapixels. It features remarkably high ISO speed settings, going from 100-6400 with the ability to push that to 12,800. It can fire off stills at eight frames per second, giving you a total of 126 large frames at a time. There’s also a nice big 3-inch LCD viewscreen, three new lenses — including one with the world’s first hybrid image stabilization — and optional wireless file transmission via Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

The camera’s no slouch in the video derby, either, giving you a sophisticated 1080p camcorder on board that will let you select frame rates of 24p, 25p or 30p. Making it actually usable for pros is its full manual control, and the ability to use an external stereo microphone. Canon’s also added a dedicated Live View button for both video and stills, and you use that button to start and stop video recording. Hey, that’ll feel just like a camcorder.

Look for the 7D to go on sale at the end of this month (September ’09). The EOS 7D’s $1699 body-only price slightly undercuts Nikon’s entry into this market segment, the D300s announced a few weeks ago, but the 7D looks like it’s going to whip Nikon’s entry with features that go far beyond the capabilities of the D300s. Whoa. This all-new DSLR is bound to heat up an already hot market segment.

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We’ve all seen our share of crank-up flashlights and radios, but this latest offering takes the model one step further and adds a very cool, and useful solar panel to the device. The Sterling Multi PowerStation 5600 functions primarily as a disaster/emergency device by providing you with a hand-crank-powered LED light, AM/FM radio, 3 rechargeable AA batteries, and adapters capable of charging most cell phones and portable devices.

In addition to the now standard disaster device functions, the 5600 has a cool little flip-out solar panel that needs about three hours of sunlight to begin providing you with energy for your various electronics. If you pick this up (priced at around 6,000 yen, or $65), hopefully your disaster won’t involve a Mist-like Lovecraftian monstrosity that blots out the sun.

Via Nikkei

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Backdropped by Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space, the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is visible in Discovery’s payload bay, as is the shuttle’s vertical stabilizer, orbital maneuvering system pods, Orbiter Boom Sensor System and docking mechanism in this image shot from an aft flight deck window. For the STS-128 mission, Leonardo carried 7.5 tons of supplies to the station, including two research racks (the Fluid Integrated Rack and the Materials Science Research Rack), a new station crew quarters, the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI-2), the Air Revitalization System Rack and the COLBERT treadmill. Image Credit: NASA

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Like most homeowners, I had a Shop-Vac. Unfortunately, the last time I used it was to clean up a mess from an ailing Mastiff. Big mess. Needless to say, I never used it again after that. Who wants to clean out the vacuum canister after a real nasty clean-up job?

British manufacturer SpeedClean has come up with a very spiffy way to simplify cleaning. The BucketVac snaps onto the typical 5-gallon plastic containers most folks have sitting around their garage. It can be used with a filter for wet cleanups (see above mention of a 175-lb Mastiff with a tummy-ache.) When you’re done with the job, remove the BucketVac, snap on the bucket’s lid, and throw it out. No fuss, no muss. Big job? Just fill up multiple containers. Plus, the design lets you use the handle from the bucket to carry the whole kit and kaboodle around. My old Shop-Vac was bulky and awkward to move around.

The BucketVac will be available in late 2009. The Mastiff and I can’t wait.

SpeedClean via Coolest Gadgets

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While state-changing polymers have been around for a while, it’s now in a form that everyone can use — an iPhone case. d3o is a gel-like material that transforms into a more solid material upon impact, and Tech21 is using it in a protective, attractive skin. Cool.

According to the manufacturer, the molecules at rest move freely in a soft and flexible gel, but when impacted, the molecules “lock together to spread and absorb the force,” increasing protection up to 134% compared to other cases.

What do you think: should they make egg-cartons out of the same material?

Tech21 via Crunch Gear

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Scientists in Israel are working on a breathalyzer they believe is able to detect lung cancer as easily as your garden variety intoxication detector (pictured above). Similar tests are in the works but require a pretreatment of the breath, which adds time, cost and complexity to a procedure. The Israeli breathalyzer’s bypassing of such pretreatments is being attributed to advancements in nanotechnology.

In a study conducted by the team, 56 healthy volunteers and 40 people who were known to have lung cancer were tested by the breathalyzer without any pretreatment, using a sensor made up of nine gold nanoparticle chemiresistors. The results were promising: 33 distinct biomarkers set the people with lung cancer apart from those who had healthy lungs.

The only question now is how early on the breathalyzer can detect traces of cancer. The subjects tested were all advanced, and cancer treatment success relies heavily on early warnings.

Via Ars Technica

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