AP - When DaimlerChrysler announced in 2006 that it planned to bring the Smart Fortwo micro car to the United States after nearly a decade in Europe, gas prices had reached about $2.80 a gallon. Now, Americans are paying more than $4 a gallon at the pump, SUV sales are plummeting and consumers are hungry for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

The little Smart has been riding a wave of consumer interest, attracting thousands of shoppers willing to put down $99 and wait about nine months for the two-seater. So when I sat in the driver’s seat of a blue Smart Fortwo last week, turned, and touched the back window with my finger tips, I had to wonder: Do Americans really want to go this small?

Without question, the pint-sized, whimsical Smart makes a statement. Read more » »

The Rahals team owner Bobby and his racing son Graham — returning to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a lot like eating comfort food: familiar and satisfying.

The track is about 50 miles from the Rahal Letterman Racing shop in Hilliard, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, and not far from New Albany, where 19-year-old Graham grew up and still lives.

The younger Rahal, now an IndyCar Series rookie driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, spent a lot of time at the track, nestled in rich, rolling farmlands.

That was a decade ago, when his father, a three-time champion in the CART series, was still racing and Graham spent long summer hours playing with friends and the children of other drivers in the paddock. Read more » »

Fla. - Jaguars wide receiver Jerry Porter had surgery Friday to repair a torn hamstring tendon and will miss all the preseason.

It was a significant setback for a team with Super Bowl expectations.

Porter signed a six-year, $30 million contract with Jacksonville in February and was supposed to give the team its first go-to receiver since Jimmy Smith retired. But he missed most of minicamp and organized team activities with hamstring problems.

Team doctors thought it would heal during the layoff before training camp, but decided Friday that surgery would be the best option to ensure Porter would be healthy during the season.
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T-Mobile USA said Thursday it’s testing a new Internet telephony service in Dallas and Seattle that will replace consumers’ wireline home phone service.

Subscribers will be able to connect any regular home telephone to a T-Mobile router that will send calls over the Internet much the same way as services like Vonage operate. The service costs $10 a month plus taxes and fees for unlimited domestic local and long distance calls. But customers also have to be signed up for a T-Mobile wireless service costing at least $39.99 a month. The required router, which also provides access to the Internet, costs $50 after rebates. T-Mobile said existing phone numbers can be ported over to its service.

The company had been rumored to be working on a voice over IP wireless router since this summer when it was discovered that the company had filed plans for the device with the Federal Communications Commission. Read more » »

John Shannon, chairman of NASA’s Mission Management Team and the man responsible for the conduct of space shuttle missions, was named manager of the shuttle program today, replacing N. Wayne Hale, a veteran ascent-entry flight director who helped steer NASA’s recovery from the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Shannon, a former flight director known for his self-assured, no-nonsense management style, takes over at a critical time for NASA as the agency attempts to finish construction of the international space station and fly a final 12 shuttle missions before retiring the winged orbiters in 2010.

“John Shannon is completely ready to take the reins in NASA’s most critical program,” Hale said in a NASA statement. “His leadership skills are well established, and the shuttle program will do well under his care.”
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A coalition of Stanford scientists has released the most detailed road map yet of human diversity, offering insight into the emergence and restless migration of the world’s populations.

Using the Stanford Human Genome Center to study genetic variations in almost 1,000 individuals from 51 populations, the team has completed the largest analysis to date of human diversity. The data is published in today’s issue of the journal Science.

The scientists discerned some of the great sweeps of human movement, like the early exodus out of Africa. They also found evidence of more recent micro-migrations by groups like American Indians, Silk Route traders and the Mongol invasion led by Genghis Khan.

“This is the definitive study to show variation within populations,” said Marcus Feldman, professor of biological sciences and a member of the team. Read more » »

The new digital camera was so tiny it fitted into our shirt pocket but the user’s manual that came with it was bigger than Anna Karenina. I knew it would be like that. You cannot make the transition to high-tech equipment without pain, boredom, an instructional DVD and a tutorial or two.

The old camera had served us well over decades: point and press, and the chemist shop did the rest. But lest we appeared to be Neanderthals on a holiday to India, with its half-billion IT gurus, it was time to take the plunge. Into the hand luggage went the instruction manual, along with Anna Karenina - it was past time for reading Tolstoy, too.

You needed a flight to New Delhi to read the manual, and while I dipped into the novel, he who was once an electrical engineer, with gritted teeth and admirable diligence, applied himself to the other tome. There were, he told me as we landed, different settings for “night party”, “night landscape”, “dusk/dawn”, “beach/snow”, “portrait”, and so on. Oh, and there was a setting called “automatic”.
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