Micro Car Smart Fortwo Passion Cabriolet, DaimlerChrysler

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

Kuroda’s one-hitter is a sunny delight

The sunny view here amid the palm trees and rag tops has the Dodgers coming to understand Joe Torre and Torre getting them, the only explanation for a July that has seen six wins and 36 runs in seven games, because it couldn’t possibly be about back-to-back series against the Houston Astros and San Francisco Giants.

From eye level, however, the Dodgers are just another National League West team, no matter who’s getting to know each other in the clubhouse, no matter who can now differentiate between a professional at-bat and yet another wasted one.

Five teams, half-a-season in, the NL West has seen one winning month: April, in Arizona.

The rest has been bleak enough that the next few months promise to be a real pillow fight, stray feathers and all. Read more

Heads-up on technology for 2008

As the New Year rolls out one of the questions I frequently get asked is, “what’s going to happen this year in terms of new technology?”

Beats me — but here are a few guesses.

If you’re a Mac user the next two weeks will offer a definitive view of the direction Apple will be taking for 2008. The Macworld Conference and Expo, next week in San Francisco, showcases Mac products and Steve Jobs’ Keynote address gives us the first glimpse of new Apple products.

The rumour mill is buzzing with talk of a new line of super-thin laptops and even a flash-based laptop. A flash-based laptop would be super-fast in booting up and super-slim because it doesn’t require a hard drive. Read more

Donors Bring Big Telescope a Step Closer

A rendering of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which, when ready in 2014, promises to offer “the biggest movie ever.”

A project to build a digital camera of cosmic dimensions on a mountaintop in Chile has received a $30 million boost from a pair of software moguls and philanthropists.

Charles Simonyi, formerly of Microsoft and now chief executive of Intentional Software, said Thursday that he would contribute $20 million to the project, known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or L.S.S.T. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, agreed to give $10 million.
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Common vitamin may be fatal if taken in excessive amount

A new study has found that taking excessive doses of a common vitamin, niacin, in an attempt to defeat drug-screening tests may be fatal.

Niacin is easily available as an over-the-counter vitamin supplement. As a vitamin, the daily recommended intake is 15 milligrams, but niacin is used in much larger doses to treat vitamin deficiencies and other conditions.

The research was conducted by a team of researchers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The University of Pennsylvania. The lead researcher of the study is Manoj K. Mittal, M.D., a fellow in Emergency Medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Read more

Haircut, highlights and safe sex tips in Havana

Sex, cheating husbands, AIDS … That’s the talk at Havana’s Aphrodite Beauty Parlor and it’s enough to curl your hair.

The salon — located in Cerro, a dense urban district with the fourth-highest incidence of HIV infection on the island — is really a store-front health center in disguise.

Hairdresser Leticia Santa Cruz, 43, came up with the idea. She wanted a sure-fire way of reaching middle-aged married women, a vulnerable sector of Cuban society and a group frequently overlooked by AIDS educators.

Santa Cruz has cut hair in this neighborhood for 17 years and, after losing a dear friend to AIDS, began work as a community AIDS activist for almost the same stretch of time. “I’ve heard a million stories from my clients,” she said. Read more