Controversy over New York Times road test of the Tesla Model S

The New York Times article, "Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?_r=0

Rebuttal by Elon Musk, Tesla Chairman, Product Architect & CEO, "A Most Peculiar Test Drive"
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

Green Car Reports list of discrepancies between Tesla & New York Times accounts
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1082296_teslas-elon-musk-ny-times-disturbing-discrepancies-on-model-s-range-reporting

Tesla Model S owners crowdsource trip to counter NY Times report
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1082366_tesla-model-s-owners-crowdsource-trip-to-counter-ny-times-report     / EV electric vehicle LiIon lithium ion battery charge recharge Tesla Model S  last Sunday critical New York Times road test set defiant Tesla Model S owners are setting out to prove Times reporter John Broder wrong replicate trip Maryland Connecticut fully recharging their electric luxury sport sedans show that the cars are quite capable of making the trip he couldn't Tesla Service Center in Rockville Maryland arrive at the Delaware SuperCharger site connect with three additional Model S drivers, setting off fully charged stop again Milford Connecticut SuperCharger recharge their cars to full three drivers will even stay at a hotel in Groton, Connecticut just as Broder did returning the next morning to the MIlford SuperCharger to recharge once again drivers will head home replicate the trip as closely as possible said driver Aaron Schildkraut but showing that with proper full charges even not plugging in overnight at the hotel that the trip can be made owners have asked Tesla Motors NSDQ TSLA for access to their cars' data logs afterward, to provide the same level of detail that Tesla offered in Musk's rebuttal post Twitter account TeslaRoadTrip been set up team members can post regular updates during the weekend Perhaps Tesla's tweet-happy CEO Elon Musk will RT some of their updates retweet re-tweet /

Why almost everyone in Russia has a dash cam (video)

How were so many videos of the Russian meteor taken by motorists? Does every Russian motorist have an in-car video camera?

Well, yes, almost.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/russian-dash-cams/     / a dozen different motorists around the Russian city Chelyabinsk capture video massive meteor flying through the sky almost everyone in Russia has a dash-mounted video camera in their car size of the country lax often corrupt law enforcement legal system rarely favors first-hand first hand accounts traffic collisions made dash cams requirement for motorists get into your car without your pants on, but never get into a car without a dash cam Aleksei Dozorov motorists’ motorist rights activist in Russia told Radio Free Europe last year search for Russia dash cam crash in YouTube Yandex.ru the county’s equivalent of Google thousands videos showing massive crashes close calls attempts insurance fraud both other drivers pedestrians Russian drivers are accident prone 35,972 road deaths in 2007 latest stats available from the World Health Organization Russia averages 25.2 traffic fatalities per 100,000 people U.S.A. U.S. USA US United States of America comparison had 13.9 road deaths per 100,000 people in the same year despite having six times more cars combination inexpensive cameras flash memory regulations passed Interior Ministry 2009 removed legal hurdles in-dash in dash cameras easy cheap drivers install equipment online phenomenon today when dash cams catch a once-in-a-lifetime meteor falling from the sky, from every possible angle something that couldn’t have happened just a few years ago /

Think one fewer browser means less work? Think again

Opera browser is swapping from its own Web rendering engine to the open source WebKit which is used in Chrome & Safari.

http://news.techworld.com/applications/3426051/opera-follows-chrome-and-safari-to-webkit-rendering-engine/

http://www.webmonkey.com/2013/02/think-one-less-browser-means-less-work-think-again/     / home-built more widely used open-source WebKit employed open source communities said Opera Chief Technology Officer Håkon Wium Lie plans to use portions of Google's Chromium experimental Web browser project layout engines component render the source code provided browser finished Web page. WebKit KDE Software's KHTML, the open-source rendering engine for the Konqueror browser and file manager Google Chrome Apple Safari /

Nissan Leaf: World's most popular electric car at 50,000 delivered

Credit: Nissan/ Green Car Reports

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1082350_nissan-leaf-worlds-most-popular-electric-car-at-50000-delivered

http://www.greencarreports.com/overview/nissan_leaf_2013     / company has now sold 50,000 examples of the Leaf sold across Japan Europe U.S. U.S.A. US USA United States of America Leaf owners have racked up over 161 million miles that figure probably even higher Nissan can only monitor those Leafs equipped with the Carwings telemetry system not every owner has registered higher than the 100 million electric miles covered by Chevy Volt drivers electric range is smaller but together, owners of the two cars have racked up significantly more than quarter of a billion electric miles Teslas Mitsubishi iMiev other plug-in hybrids and battery electric cars on sale today in the U.S. and elsewhere, and that figure could be over half a billion miles petrol gasoline gasolene gas saved tailpipe emissions Over 95 percent of Leaf drivers are satisfied with their cars topped several customer satisfaction surveys in its limited time on sale electric vehicles are comfortably matching the expectations of owners LiIon lithium ion EV electric vehicle battery charge recharge range /

Soak up CO2 with sponges, says CSIRO

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/13/csiro_carbon_capture_sponges/     / Australian science outfit CSIRO demonstrating material new approach carbon capture sponge  metal-organic framework absorbs gases point of release capturing flue gases in a power station, releases captured carbon dioxide exposure to sunlight storage facility somewhere else parasitic use as much as 30 percent of a generator’s capacity MOF eliminate parasitic energy load of adsorbent regeneration because they release the as much as 64 percent of the captured carbon immediately on exposure to ultraviolet light Monash University’s Richelle Lyndon CSIRO team Dr Matthew Hill lead author paper abstract Angewandte Chemie Impregnated light-responsive azobenzene molecules which react to UV light and trigger the release of CO2 reaction, material's ability to bend and flex, which makes the material we have created so unique she said surface area of a football field in one gram giving the material a high absorption capacity relative to its weight /

New Zealand court hands out second peppercorn downloading penalty

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/11/nz_second_file_sharing_case_handed_down/ / New Zealand’s Copyright Tribunal has handed down its second decision under controversial “SkyNet” anti-downloading legislation imposed fine considerably less than that sought by the country’s music industry lobby RIANZ the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand defendant  NZ$1,681 penalty fined the defendant NZ$557 defence BitTorrent downloaded by his children which seems plausible  two songs for which he was punished Coldplay’s Paradise Kesha’s We R Who We R, according to Stuff regime, RIANZ notifies an ISP  illegal downloading sends three notices customer no acceptable response received case is escalated to the Copyright Tribunal defendant claimed financial difficulties most of the fine was in the form of costs penalties fee of just $7.17 to pay for the actual songs RIANZ has also told NZ Radio it believes installing a BitTorrent client is proof that an individual is sharing files illegally /

Here's what would happen if a huge asteroid hit your city

Credit: Killer Asteroids/ The Atlantic

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2013/02/heres-what-would-happen-if-huge-asteroid-hit-your-city/4712/     / Asteroid 2012 DA14 Earth asteroid meteor meteorite planet astronauts International Space Station orbits geosynchronous weather satellites interplanetary asteroid-quakes quakes tug of Earth's gravity closest asteroid flyby science, 2012 DA14 wealth empirical data asteroid impacts ground-shaking fascinating simulator from the excellently named site Killer Asteroids tool estimates blast radius several sizes of asteroids data Google impact calculator from London's Imperial College Purdue University GoogleEarth plugin Firefox virtually decimate some cities estimated discus of damage space rock asteroid impacts Armageddon Deep Impact /

Apple’s Lightning chips contain manufacturer-specific serial numbers

"A cracked version of the authentication chip could be blocked via software."

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/02/apples-lightning-chips-contain-manufacturer-specific-serial-numbers/     / Lightning-compatible compatible accessories iPod iPad iPhone iOS 30-pin connector tightened up control MFi Program license use of its connectors third-party accessory makers Apple can see which accessories have been authorized and which ones haven't using unique serial numbers on their authentication chips battery pack maker Mophie manufacturer they must order a Lightning component directly from Apple serial numbers each accessory maker contain authentication chips that communicate with the phones block unauthorized accessories /

Even Obama knows patent trolls are extorting money

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/even-obama-knows-patent-trolls-are-extorting-money/

Skype calls now equivalent to one-third of global phone traffic

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/02/skype-calls-now-equivalent-to-one-third-of-global-phone-traffic/     / New research TeleGeography telecom market analysis firm worldwide Skype usage shows that international telephone traffic grew 5 percent in 2012, to 490 billion minutes cross-border Skype-to-Skype voice and video traffic grew 44 percent in 2012, to 167 billion minutes This increase of nearly 51 billion minutes is more than twice that achieved by all international carriers in the world, combined Traditional telcos International providers apps services Viber Whatsapp Google Voice putting pressure traditional telcos /