Air-Powered Cars Coming Soon

"Green car" experts have talked about having low-cost, practical compressed air-powered autos for years. Now it looks like we'll finally get them. Peugeot Citroen has introduced a new "hybrid air" car that will be released within the next 3 years and will be cheap, light, and able to operate as a "zero emission vehicle" under the right circumstances.

The groundbreaking new technology involves using a powerful hydraulic pump to push compressed air against special fluids to move the wheels. Pressure is continually regenerated as the car moves and can propel the automobile, without using any gasoline, for up to 50 minutes in normal city conditions.

It's a hybrid vehicle so it will still contain a small, efficient internal combustion engine and burn some gas. But, depending on conditions, it will be able to run in "air only" mode as a functional zero emission vehicle. Just like with current gas/electric hybrid cars, special sensors will measure driving conditions and choose the best power source.

Peugeot expects the new Hybrid Air line of cars to achieve 115+ mpg by 2020.

Learn some mo': Peugeot Car That Runs On Air Will Be Available In 2016

Check out the concept car video:

Little Kid Provides Pep Talk of the Year

In a new viral video with nearly 3 million views in 5 days, a little kid (Kid President?) implores us to stop being boring, take the road less traveled in life (to "awesome"), keep going when things get tough, help make every day better for other people, be awesome, and make your own Space Jam.

We really like it. Check it out below:



Now get up, stop looking at the interwebs, and DO SOMETHING!!!

:)

Report: Google+ More Popular Than Twitter and YouTube

According to a new report, the once-struggling Google+ social network is now more popular than Twitter, but still very far behind industry-leader Facebook. The newly released "Global Web Index" from Trendstream showed that the relatively young Google network had approximately 343 million active users worldwide at the end of 2012, compared to just 288 million for Twitter and a whopping 693 million for Facebook.

As surprising (to us at least) as it is that Google's "ghost town" social network is more popular than Twitter, it's even more surprising that it has more active users than YouTube (another Google-owned property that's now considered to be a social network in its own right).

Not very surprising at all is that most of the other top 20 most popular social networks are Chinese sites most (non-Chinese) have never heard of. A billion and a half people need a lot more than just 2 or 3 places to share their favorite lolcat photos.

Learn some mo': Google+ outranks Twitter as no. 2 social network after Facebook

"PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013" Video Explodes on YouTube

A new viral video has taken the online world by storm and already has over 13 million views in 4 days. It's basically a compilation of other popular videos showing humans doing some extremely amazing things (including our favorite flying dodgeball player). We'd say it's the coolest video we've seen so far in 2013!

Check it out below:



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What do you think about this "amazing human highlights" video? Leave your questions and comments below!

New Oil Find Could Turn Australia Into Energy Powerhouse

New drilling and seismic exploration studies show that southern Australia may hold more than $20 trillion in untapped "shale" oil, enough to turn the oil-importing country into an exporter. Brisbane-based  Linc Energy estimates the oil reserves in "Arckaringa Basin" at as much as 233 billion barrels, a gigantic amount that could change the oil and gas energy industry worldwide.

According to Linc managing director Peter Bond:

"If it comes in the way the reports are suggesting, it could well and truly bring Australia back to (oil) self-sufficiency."

Linc says it will invest hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure the new studies are correct. Experts say the find could lead to a new "shale oil boom" like the one going on in the US and Canada.

We say: As long as it lowers gas prices, we're extremely happy!

Learn some mo': $20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia'

Las Vegas Home Prices to Rise in 2013

Real estate experts say that home values in the Las Vegas Valley will probably continue to rise in 2013, although at a much slower pace than they did during the previous year. Prices bottomed out last spring and have continued a steady rise ever since.

A new Zillow.com report predicts a 3.1% price increase by the end of 2013. The nearby small towns of Logandale and Mesquite are expected to see real estate value increases of 4.6% and 4.4% respectively.

After many years of being among the worst housing markets in the US, Las Vegas finally pulled itself out of its real estate tailspin in 2012. The Valley's median home value rose about 14 percent to nearly $130,000. Much of the increase was due to investors buying houses with cash and then looking to rent them out as a business.

We say: It's about time the Las Vegas real estate market had some good news! Let's hope the property value increases somehow turn into new jobs and a real economic stimulus for the local economy...

Learn some mo': Las Vegas Valley home prices likely to keep rising in 2013

Guys Makes Functional "Iron Man" Laser Glove

We don't think this actually does anything other than look cool... but it does look really cool:



UPDATE: OK, so it turns out the Iron Man laser glove does do something... kind of. Check it out: Functional Iron Man gauntlet zaps enemy balloons

They Finally Got a Giant Squid on Video!

We finally got one!

After many years of trying, marine biologists have gotten video of a real, live giant squid. A film crew made hundreds of attempts before finally "capturing" the notoriously shy and very mysterious marine animal on digital film. Using cutting-edge video technology, researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan and Florida's Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) were able to send a camera down over 3000 feet below the surface and record the adult giant squid in it's natural ocean habitat.

Pretty amazing stuff, whether you're a nature geek or not!

Check out the video:



The gold and silver colored cephalopod looked and acted pretty differently than what many experts expected. According to one researcher from ORCA:

"There'd been controversy about whether the giant squid was an active predator or whether it just floated around because of its neutral buoyancy... Clearly, from what we saw, it's an active predator. It's stunning footage."

Learn some mo': Remarkable New Giant Squid Footage Surprises Experts

Google Force-Feeding Users Google+ Pages?

Google really wants to catch up to Facebook in the social networking arena, and they appear to have a new tactic: forcing people to use their Google Plus service, whether they want to or not. Anyone who wishes to create a new Gmail, YouTube, Blogger, or other Google services account now automatically gets a public Google+ profile set up for them.

Despite some early success, the Google+ network really hasn't caught on in the mainstream. But the search engine giant realizes that they must compete with Facebook -- and prevent it from totally dominating the "social web" -- in order to not lose out on billions of dollars of advertising revenue. This new aggressive move, according to industry experts, is designed mainly to boost usage of their own social network.

Being able to closely track people, with profiles attached to their real names, will improve ad targeting and allow Google to earn more money from their primary advertising business. Also, the company says that requiring the use of real names when leaving online reviews improves the quality and honesty of the reviews.

According to Google Vice President Bradley Horowitz:

"Google+ is Google... The entry points to Google+ are many, and the integrations are more every day."

But many people -- including some Google employees -- aren't very happy with the pushy new policy. Many people aren't even aware that a public Google+ profile page -- which can contain quite a bit of information about online activity -- is being created when they sign up for free Google services. Some Google developers feel the strategy is the wrong way to try to save the Google Plus network and hurts the company's public image.

We say: This kind of stuff could end up hurting Google big time! We love Gmail, Blogger, Google Documents, YouTube and all the other wonderful free Google services. And we don't mind having ads served up to us constantly while we're using them. But forcing people to use a "ghost town" social networking platform could end up doing a lot more harm than good... and could even quicken the demise of Google+ as a whole!

Learn some mo': There's No Avoiding Google+

Study: Being a Little Fat May Help You Live Longer

A giant new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a surprising fact: being a little overweight may actually extend a person's life span. In fact, the people who live the longest, more often than not, aren't of "normal weight" according to the CDC researchers.

The study looked at over a hundred research papers related to mortality risk and body weight (measured as body mass index/BMI) in nearly 3 million participants all over the world. They found strong evidence showing that people who are overweight -- but not obese -- tend to live longer than people of clinically normal body weight.

Still, the new study confirmed one important thing: obese people -- and especially the extremely obese -- live much shorter lives on average.

According to CDC senior research scientist Katherine Flegal:

"We published an article in 2005 that showed, among other things, that overweight was associated with lower mortality — and we got an awful lot of negative feedback from that... I think there’s a lot of under reporting of this finding... and so people are sort of repeatedly surprised by it."

We say: What the so-called experts really need to be looking at is the whole BMI measurement and just how accurate it is (spoiler: it's not very accurate at all). Many bodybuilders and heavily-muscled athletes with single-digit body fat levels are considered "obese" under the BMI guidelines.

Learn some mo': Being Overweight Is Linked to Lower Risk of Mortality

Study Shows How Fructose Causes Overeating

If you want to lose weight and be healthier you should avoid eating or drinking a lot of fructose, a sugar that is found in high amounts in many processed foods. New research from Yale University shows that regularly eating the sweat chemical may actually cause serious changes in the brain.

After eating or drinking a high fructose food or beverage the brain doesn't "feel" full the way it does after consuming other types of sugar, such as pure glucose. So you get all the sugary calories and continue to eat because you're still hungry.

Special MRI scans showed that drinking a fructose-rich beverage didn't have the same effect on subjects' brains as drinking a simple glucose beverage. Specifically, it didn't suppress the activity of areas of the brain that control "reward" impulses, so the desire to eat wasn't turned off.

For many years now some health and nutrition experts have warned against the unique dangers of fructose, especially the high-fructose corn syrup found in thousands of modern packaged foods. This new study gives a very big boost to the accuracy of that advice.

Since Americans began consuming fructose is large amounts in the 60's and 70's the number of overweight and obese people in the US has exploded. About a third of American kids are now considered overweight or obese!

There are many types of sugar and every one is metabolized and processed differently in the human body. Eating too much of any sugar can hurt your health but this new research helps to explain why fructose may be especially bad for you.

Learn some mo': Brain Image Study: Fructose May Spur Overeating

Cool Google Zeitgeist Video Summarizes 2012

Google recently released a very cool "Zeitgeist" video showing a summary of the most important events that happened in 2012. For years now Google has compiled worldwide zeitgeist lists based on the biggest online search trends. Apparently they began creating these highlight videos a couple of years ago but this is the first one that has really gotten a lot of internet buzz.

As of this writing the vid has over 12 million views. Check it out below:



Learn some mo': Google Zeitgeist 2012 Video: Search Giant Releases Annual Year In Review On YouTube

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What do you think about the 2012 summary video from Google? Leave your comments below...