Declining frog populations are considered an indicator of environmental damage. But new research finds that frogs might be doing even worse than we thought. Because the volunteers who count frogs by their sounds may be overestimating.The North American…
15 years; a lot can happen in that time. Think back to 1995. What’s changed in your life since then? 9/11. Afghanistan. Iraq. $4 per gallon gas. Economy. Hell, I was just entering college. 15 years can allow for some pretty momentous change.
So it’s easy to see why a company would set lofty goals for itself over the course of 15 years, especially if that company saw the writing on the wall and realized that to compete in the future, something drastic needs to happen. Which is exactly why Hyundai’s president and CEO of North American operations, John Krafcik, said yesterday that his company has set a target of an average of 50 mpg for their entire fleet of cars by 2025.
A few days ago a story made the rounds on the Internet (as they usually do) that raised a few eyebrows regarding the Chevy Volt. GM’s much-ballyhooed plug-in hybrid, which can go 40 miles on electricity only, would apparently require premium gasoline to power its battery generator. Premium fuel carries a premium price, usually 20-30 cents more per gallon. So much for saving money on gas.
Turns out that yes, the Volt is calibrated to run on premium fuel, for reasons I will get into below. However, it is equipped with a knock sensor… which means the engine can “detune” itself to run on regular fuel.
Drag racing is the most basic form of motorsports, as well as one of the most exciting. Two cars line up against each other, and the first car across the finish line wins. There are different forms of drag racing for different cars, but, as they say, them’s the basics. Most drag strips are 1/4 mile long, short enough that many cars get across the finish line in just a few seconds. Anything done in 14 seconds or less is generally considered “fast”.
It is a sport dominated by high cost, high horsepower drag cars with professional teams attached. Yet the White Zombie, a little ‘72 Datsun converted to electric power, has been showing the world that you don’t need gas to go really fast.
The forthcoming Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf rely on lithium-ion battery packs, as do other contenders on the electric-car circuit. Yet perhaps mindful of a few highly publicized fires touched off by early lithium-ion power packs in laptops, are consumer…
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