I remember the good old days when a Volkswagen Beetle was the standard, but now it's official -- get 16 people in a Smart Car and you may break the world record.
Here's a shot of the world's smallest car, which is street approved and goes about 40 mph. At 52 inches long, not much back seat action is going to happen in this car.
This tiny car is officially known as the Peel 50 (about 50 were built) and has two front wheels and one in back.
Have you ever seen a bicycle-built-for-two where the riders sit side-by-side? Me neither! And the fact that this one is ridden by Walt Disney and wife Lillian makes the whole scenario even more tantalizing.
Many of you may have heard of the Amphicar, the classic half boat, half car that did neither job well, but at least it looked good not doing its job. The same could not be said about the 2009 WaterCar Amphibious, however. Supposedly styled after the 2002 Camaro convertible, it looks more like someone welded the front half of a Dodge Ram truck to the back half of a Chevrolet Corvette, and then replaced the chassis with the bottom of a speedboat. The link contains several pictures of the vehicle on land as well as in the water.
I think this might be an advertisement for improvements in Finland's Railway System.
On the other hand, it could be the trailer for a new Tolkien-style fantasy involving petrified swamp cherubs, the skinnier younger brother of Colonel Sanders, stone giants that become the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the Joker's Mother.
My wife and I have recently caught the hypermiling craze. (For those who don't know, hypermiling basically means trying to stretch a tank of gas as far as possible.) For us, it's not just about saving money. It's also kind of fun to see how high we can get our MPG. The key is to keep a slow and steady speed, and to stop as infrequently as possible. (When you're stopped, you're getting 0 MPG.) Our record is 42 MPG in our Honda Civic.
Police say there's been an alarming rise in urine-filled plastic containers found along a three-mile stretch of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. A litter crew for the Oregon Department of Transportation picked up an estimated 200-300 urine filled plastic bottles, along the highway, about half of which were found in a short stretch dubbed "Three Mile Hill."
Police say that drivers - particularly commercial trucks - are typically driving very slowly through the area. Police think the price of fuel may be causing drivers to travel slower than normal to save fuel while at the same time passing rest areas or truck stops.
If you're thinking about learning how to hypermile, there's some books at Amazon about it. Just please keep your urine in the car.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.