A tiny Aston Martin for James Bond types – “Toyota has teamed up with British ultra-luxury carmaker Aston Martin to sell a version of the iQ city car, a car that is more than two feet shorter than a Mini Cooper…”

Bugatti Veyron races the McLaren F1:

Finally, a Universal Charger for Phones – “Wonderful news from Europe today, where micro-USB has been selected as the universal charger connector for wireless devices. Soon, the purchase of a new phone may no longer require purchasing new accessories or tossing old ones, just because the old and new devices use a different connector…” See also: Universal Chargers are a Good Start: 5 More Things That Need Conformity

Buzz Aldrin to NASA: U.S. Space Policy Is on the Wrong Track – “Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has a problem with NASA’s current manned space plan: Namely, the five-year gap between the shuttle’s scheduled retirement next year and the debut of the Ares I rocket and the Orion spacecraft, which will take us no further than the moon—a place we’ve already been. Aldrin thinks NASA can do better. His plan is to scrap Ares I, stretch out the remaining six shuttle flights and fast-track the Orion to fly on a Delta IV or Atlas V. Then, set our sites on colonizing Mars. Here, Buzz challenges NASA to take on his bolder mission…”

Metrorail Crash May Exemplify Automation Paradox – “The problem, said several experts who have studied such accidents, is that these investigations invariably focus our attention on discrete aspects of machine or human error, whereas the real problem often lies in the relationship between humans and their automated systems…”

Spooky computers closer to reality – “The computers of tomorrow could be quantum not classical, using the quantum world’s strange properties to vastly increase memory and speed up information processing. But making quantum computing parts from standard kit has proved difficult so far…”

FYI: Why Does My Voice Sound Different When I Hear it On a Recording? – “It sounds different because it is different…”

City Scale Climate Engineering: Expanding the Eden Project Concept into Houston and other City Domes – “Discovery Channel’s Mega-engineering discusses a proposal to place a dome over Houston if climate change threats fully materialized. The Houston dome would even be more economical even without addressing climate change but as a more efficient way to keep residents confortable than using air conditioning for cars and buildings…” See also:

Toyota Research Achieves Brain Control of Wheelchair – “Researchers in Japan have developed a brain-machine interface (BMI) system that allows for control of a wheelchair using thought…”

Mozilla sets Firefox 3.5 final release for Tuesday – “Mozilla will ship Firefox 3.5 on Tuesday, bringing the long-awaited upgrade in under its own deadline wire, the company announced last Friday…”

Australian scientists kill cancer cells with “trojan horse” – “Dozens of biotechnology companies are looking for ways to manipulate RNA to block genes that produce disease-causing proteins involved in cancer, blindness or AIDS…”

5 Reasons Skype Should Fear Google Voice – “Google late last week began sending out invitations for Google Voice, its new VoIP service built on technology it acquired through GrandCentral in 2007. Google Voice will be rolled out slowly, according to Google, but as of last Thursday, the service is now available to anyone who had requested to try the beta version…”

Priced to Sell – “Is free the future?”

Engineering Student Builds Real Transforming Robot Car – “Reader “kevmag 2000″ provided us with a video of a real transforming robot car…”

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