Nissan reveals 88 pound 400 hp engine

Nissan and NISMO, which is its motor sport partner, have revealed a 1.5 liter 3-cylinder engine that puts out an incredible 400 horsepower and weighs just 88 pounds. They plan to use it in their 2014 ZEOD RC electrified race car, which will compete in the Garage 56 experimental entry in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. NISMO chief Shoichi Miyatani is shown in the above picture actually holding the engine! In addition to its 400-horsepower peak power rating, the engine, code-named the DIG-TR, also develops a maximum 280 pound-feet of torque - numbers that make it almost comparable with some of today's V-8 engines still on the market.

At a ratio of 4.5 horsepower per pound, the new engine even has a better power-to-weight ratio than the new turbocharged 1.6-liter V-6 engines to be used in Formula One this season. In the ZEOD RC, the engine will form part of an advanced plug-in hybrid drivetrain. Nissan says the driver will be able to switch between electric power and gasoline power, and the batteries will be charged via regenerative braking. Both the electric and gasoline powerplants run through the same five-speed gearbox that transfers power to the ground via Michelin tires. The ZEOD RC will undergo an extensive test program over the next four months prior to it making its race debut at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours on June 14-15. Importantly, lessons learned from the development of the revolutionary race car will be used in the development of Nissan’s planned entry into the top LMP1 category of the World Endurance Championship, which the automaker today has confirmed will take place in 2015. Of course, as you might imagine, some of the knowledge gained will probably also be seen in Nissan road cars of the future.

CBS poll: Majority favors marijuana legalization for first time!

For the first time since the CBS News Poll began asking the question, a majority of Americans (OK, I agree, it's just a "slight" majority, but dammit it's finally MORE than 50%) now favor the legalization of marijuana use! Fifty-one percent say they think the use of marijuana should be made legal, while 44 percent do not.

Public opinion on this issue has changed dramatically over the past few years:  in October 2011 a slight majority (51 percent) opposed making marijuana use legal, and as recently as April 2013 public opinion was divided on this issue (45 percent supported, 45 percent opposed). Interestingly, in July 1979, when CBS News first asked the question, 69 percent thought marijuana use should not be made legal and only 27 percent thought it should be made legal.

Massachusetts carjackers thwarted by manual transmission

You gotta love this.  A delivery driver in Springfield Mass. was robbed of a food order on on Tuesday night and would have lost his car as well, but none of the three robbers knew how to drive a manual transmission, police said.

The delivery driver told police he had stopped at about 10:15 p.m. to deliver an order on Dawes Street and called the number on the order to say he had arrived. Moments later, he was rushed by three men, one of whom had a knife.  They demanded the food and his car keys, said Sgt. John Delaney.  “The trio jumped into his car and attempted to steal it, but not one of them knew how to drive a stick-shift car,” he said.  Delaney said that after some arguing among themselves, they ran off down the street with the food.

The only description provided by police was very limited. The suspects were described as black men in dark clothing and baseball caps.  The incident remains under investigation.

Congress blocks light bulb efficiency standards

Just when you thought everything was settled and we thought we needed to hoard all those incandescent bulbs we've loved for ages because now they were ILLEGAL!!! comes word from Washington that you can FORGET IT! Incandescents have now gotten a reprieve as part of the new budget agreement.

Yes, as part of the new budget deal announced today, Congress has voted to eliminate standards for light bulb efficiency, standards that would see incandescent bulbs phased out in favor of technologies that convert far more electricity into light.

These ideas were first enacted during the Bush administration, via the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Incandescent bulbs were unable to meet the standards, so they would eventually be forced off the market in favor of LEDs and compact fluorescent bulbs. But Republicans have since soured on the bill, viewing it as an intrusion on the market and attempting to identify it with President Obama. Recent Congresses have tried many times to repeal the standards, but these have all been blocked.

However, US budgets are often used as a vehicle to get policies enacted that couldn't pass otherwise, since having an actual budget is considered too valuable to hold up over relatively minor disputes. The repeal of these standards got attached to the budget and will be passed into law with it.

Unfortunately, efficiency for small items is one case where the free market doesn't typically work. Individually, light bulbs draw very little power, and replacing one won't make any notable difference in a consumer's monthly bills. In addition, the replacement bulbs are more expensive up front and take years to pay off. As a result, there's unlikely to be rapid adoption of more efficient technology, leading to an extended period of wasted energy. By repealing the standards, Congress has ensured that the waste will go on even longer.

Amazing Scratch-Off Double Lottery Winner!

This happened last June but it's the first time I'd heard about it and it's so incredible that I wanted to share it with you - seems Cary Collings who lives in Washington State won $55,555 in a scratch off lottery back on June 13th.  He was pretty excited about it, so the next morning he drove off to the lottery office to pick up his winnings.  On the way, he decided to stop off at a local grocery store and buy a few scratch off tickets from another lottery.  And guess what?  Yup.  The first ticket he scratched off - turned out to be the winning grand prize ticket worth $200,000.  You gotta wonder.  There just has to be something out there that we don't understand that makes things like this happen.  What are the odds?

Chinese Parts in F-35?

US laws ban the use of parts produced outside the United States for use on U.S. weapons. But Lockheed Martin has been having some problems finding parts to build the $392 billion F-35 fighter, the U.S. military's next generation fighter, so they asked The Pentagon to waive the law so they could stick some parts made in China in it so the production line could keep running.

Apparently they didn't want any more people than necessary knowing about the deal, it was supposed to be pretty hush-hush, but it seems Reuters came across some notes about it the other day and spilled the beans. The Government Accountability Office, that's the investigative arm of Congress, is examining the case.

Donno who's going to get the shaft on this one, but you'll probably be hearing more about it in the next several weeks. Or maybe not?

U.S. Customs seizes, destroys musician's flutes 

This is pathetic. Moroccan-born musician Boujemaa Razgui, who plays a reed flute native to northern Africa, had his bag taken away after a trip from Madrid to Kennedy Airport on Dec. 22 because it was also carrying bamboo, which Customs will not allow into the U.S. via luggage. As a result, Razgui said he's been unable to make performances and has to fly back to the Middle East to locate more materials to craft replacement instruments.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," the anguished flutist told the New York Daily News. "The worst thing I was worried about was that someone would sit on (the case), that was the biggest mistake I could imagine."

Razgui, one of about 15 musicians in the U.S. who can play the nay, is a world-renowned flutist who has performed at Lincoln Center, and also collaborated with Beyonce and Shakira on their track, "Beautiful Liar."  The 55-year-old father, a resident of Plymouth, Mass., said he's bereft without his flutes and had to cancel several performances over the holidays.  "I make my living from this, this is how I feed my family," said Razgui, who grew up on the streets of Marrakesh playing the reed flute.  Razgui said he's checked his flutes on flights before and never had a problem clearing U.S. customs until now.