THE BLAZE -- Although it has been said the NSA’s programs collecting communication data is targeting foreigners to thwart potential terrorist activity, the Washington Post has an in-depth feature on a database that hits much closer to home for many Americans. In fact, many can look into their wallet and find the card that entered them into it in the first place — their state-issued photo ID.

The Post reports that 37 states use facial recognition in drivers license registrations. Twenty-six of these states also allow law enforcement — local, state and federal — to search or request searches of the database as photos could pertain to investigations.

Although some like Scott McCallum with the facial-recognition unit in Pinellas County, Florida, say the technology is meant to “benefit law enforcement...  (read more)

Science Daily -- June 17, 2013 — The vehicle looks like an electric scooter and zooms by almost without a sound. Its driver masters tight corners first and then safely brakes to a halt. He doesn't need to put his feet on the ground because the two rear wheels provide plenty of stability. Daniel Borrmann is satisfied with the first test drive of the Electromobile City Scooter. The new three-wheeled electric vehicle from the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart is designed to open up new possibilities for the urban transportation of tomorrow.

Although electric scooters offer many advantages, a lot of motorists either cannot or do not want to make the switch for trips into town. They simply lack the experience of traveling on two wheels," says Borrmann. This is exactly where the  (read more)

investing.com -- Investing.com - Oil futures nudged lower in Asian trading Wednesday following the release of weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute as traders turned their heads to the end of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting later Wednesday.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for August delivery inched down 0.01% to USD98.67 per barrel in Asian trading Wednesday after settling up 0.37% at USD98.40 a barrel on Tuesday in the U.S. Crude continues to flirt with its highest levels of 2013 as well as nine-month highs.

After the close of U.S. markets Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. oil inventories dropped by 4.3 million barrels for the week ended June 14. Analysts expected a decline of 1 million barrels.  (read more)

Rig Zone -- While the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will likely be unable to defend its position on both market share and prices in the wake of growing U.S. tight oil supply, growth in non-OPEC supply does not mean the United States will be immune from a disruption of Saudi Arabian oil exports, a policy expert told attendees at a June 12 forum at Rice University.

The U.S. shale boom changed the perception that Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) would dominate the global oil supply, shifting the center of the energy world back to America, said Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director for energy and sustainability at the University of California at Davis, at the Energy Market Globalization: Investment and Commodity Price Cycles and the Role of Geopolitic  (read more)

Financial Post -- In changes announced Tuesday, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said companies operating in the Atlantic would be on the hook for a maximum of $1-B in the event of a spill, up from $30-M previously

Arctic drillers, who face high costs and harsh operating conditions in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, would also be responsible for a $1-B limit, up from $40-M under existing rules

The changes come amid renewed interest from BP, Shell, Imperial Oil and Chevron in tapping offshore Atlantic and Arctic crude, and with new seismic work uncovering 3 large highly prospective oil fields in the Labrador Sea

There still will be unlimited liability in the event the operator is negligent or at fault, Oliver said, but we need to have a larger absolute amount so that there is no issue about responsibility  (read more)

Reuters -- Danish designer Henrik Fisker knows how to style a sexy car. Among his works is the BMW Z8, driven by James Bond in "The World Is Not Enough,"

The Dane's startup, Fisker Automotive, hasn't built a car in nearly a year. It fired most of its workforce, hired bankruptcy advisers and is seeking a buyer. Co-founder Henrik Fisker resigned in mid-March in a dispute with some of the directors. And despite raising $1.4 billion in private and public funds since its founding in 2007, the company is out of cash. For months, key investors have been footing the car maker's day-to-day expenses to keep it alive in diminished form.

An examination of the company's rise and fall reveals Fisker's finances started to unravel as early as June 2011, when the U.S. DOE cut off access to taxpayer-funded loans — a  (read more)

Science Daily -- Traveling alone in a large car can be as bad for the climate as flying, but driving with three in a small car could have an equally low impact as a train ride," says IIASA's Jens Borken-Kleefeld. A 1000 km trip alone in a big car could emit as much as 250 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2), the researchers calculate, while a train trip or carpooling in a small car could emit as little as 50 kg of CO2 for each traveler.

Air travel has by far the biggest impact on climate per distance traveled, because it can lead to contrails and formation of cirrus clouds that have a strong climate impact, as well as ozone. These mechanisms have a strong effect on the climate, but cause warming over much shorter periods of time than CO2.

The study focused on the short-lived greenhouse gases and aerosols emitted  (read more)

GasBuddy Blog -- In a journey that has lasted nearly half a century, spanned the globe and elicited awe from generations of car lovers, Long Island's Irv Gordon has a phenomenal achievement in his sight: driving 3,000,000 miles in the same car – a shiny, red 1966 Volvo P1800.

"It's not about getting to the three million miles; it's about the trips that got me to the three million miles," Gordon said. "I never had a goal to get to one million, to two million. I just enjoyed driving and experiencing life through my Volvo.

"The best way to explore America is by car," Gordon added. "I challenge everyone to go out and see as much as possible. Find your own journey and reason to believe because you only have one life to live. No matter how many...  (read more)

THE BLAZE -- A few months ago we showed you “13 Unreal Photos” of what boring a New York City subway tunnel looks like.

Well, it’s officially time for a photo update on the MTA’s work that is going on deep below the skyscrapers of the bustling city.

These latest photos of the East Side Access “megaproject” that will connect the Long Island Rail Road to a new concourse under Grand Central Terminal were taken this month.

The MTA also reached its “final mile marker” for the “legendary project” that is the Second Avenue Subway this month, according to President of MTA Capital Construction Michael Horodniceanu. The milestone was awarding a $208 million contract, the last of phase 1 for the $4.45 billion project expected to be complete December 2016.  (read more)

Bloomberg -- The U.S. oil boom is moving Congress closer than it has been in more than three decades to easing the ban on exporting crude imposed after the Arab embargo.

Advances such as hydraulic fracturing are leading to record production that may outstrip refinery capacity within 18 months to three years, said Benjamin Salisbury, a senior energy policy analyst at FBR Capital Markets Corp. in Arlington, Virginia. Net petroleum imports now account for about 40 percent of demand, down from 60 percent in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department research unit.  (read more)

Design News -- Vibration and movement are emerging as sources of interest, and a team of MIT students recently found an innovative way to use these sources to create an energy-harvesting shock absorber for heavy-load vehicles.

The students have taken their invention -- for which they filed a patent last year -- and formed a company to sell and market it called Levant Power. The idea behind the technology is that the shock absorber can harvest energy from small bumps in the road even as it smooths out the vehicle’s ride more effectively than typical shock absorbers.

 (read more)

The Motley Fool -- Reserve replacement costs can rise for two reasons. The most obvious one is that it becomes more difficult to find new resources, so the cost to find a new barrel of oil goes up. Most of the time, the cost of oil moves in tandem with reserve replacement costs. As prices for oil increase, companies are more willing to explore higher-cost, higher-risk regions, and they may not always find oil. One example is Royal Dutch Shell's (NYSE: RDS-A ) attempt to find oil offshore from Alaska. The company has spent $4.5 billion in the region but has yet to produce a barrel of oil from the region. The company can take such a chance on this region is because the price of oil gives it some flexibility.

The other reason reserve replacement costs might increase can make numbers go haywire.  (read more)

EDN -- As fuel efficiency has now made its way into a criteria for luxury and sports cars, advanced transmission technology has moved from the R&D stage to the production car. For the majority of the 1970s-2000s, the standard for normal (non-exotic) cars was a four-speed automatic and a five-speed manual transmission. This provided adequate performance for the normal under-65-mph driving conditions, and did not require a large amount of electronic overhead to manage - hence it was available even for low-priced & entry-level vehicles.
 (read more)

USA Today -- After ballyhooing ever-bigger V-8s for years, the auto industry is now jostling for the bragging rights when it comes to making engines as small as possible — and thus more fuel efficient.

Lately, the attention is going to those who are making the smallest engines of them all — a new breed of 1-liter, three-cylinder power plants.

Small enough for the block to fit in a suitcase, the 1-liter engine is about to launch on cars from Ford Motor. BMW is going to put three-cylinder engines in a new hybrid. General Motors has signaled it is going to make three-cylinder engines from 1 liter to 1.5 liters as well in the U.S. Even Daimler, parent of Mercedes-Benz, is showing interest.

The sudden focus on the smallest of engines reflects the marketing power of being able to advertise eye-popping mpg  (read more)

Metro West Daily News -- Lease or buy? This is a financial decision people probably are most used to making about cars and houses. Now a growing number of Massachusetts homeowners are making the same call on solar panels.

Judy Jackson researched the pros and cons after deciding to install photovoltaic panels on her Framingham home, carefully weighing which option made the most sense in her budget along with mortgage payments, a son in college and another still at home.

After her homework, she said the decision was a no-brainer: She and her husband purchased the two dozen panels now on their roof.

"I realized that in six years, we could generate a profit from them," said Jackson, who lives on Patony Road. "There was just no comparison."

Solar installers and industry representatives say the right decision is no  (read more)

The Street -- NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- If you've perceived a hint of desperation in anti-renewable energy arguments lately, there's a reason. ...

Supplies of renewable energy in the U.S. have quadrupled in the last five years, notes the Union of Concerned Scientists, and they're continuing to rise.

Just as important, the cheapest form of renewable energy, which is efficiency, is also increasing.  (read more)

Biofuels Digest -- In California, Chevron Corporation’s CEO, John Watson, predicts that refiners may increase gasoline exports as a way to circumvent the Renewable Fuels Standard’s (RFS) ethanol mandate, causing gasoline prices to rise. Refiners complain that E15 adds to their costs and can only be used by 5% of U.S. cars, citing a November 2012 AAA automobile club report.  (read more)

Motley Fool -- Crude-oil futures settled at a four-month high Friday, lifted by fears that U.S. intervention in Syria will stoke further conflict in the oil-rich Middle East.

Prices rose as the Obama administration moved to provide arms to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, after intelligence agencies concluded that Assad's forces have used chemical weapons against opposition fighters. The U.S. was also mulling a no-fly zone in Syria close to the country's border with Jordan, according to U.S. officials.

While Syria is not a major oil producer, investors fear that the two-year-old civil war could spill over to affect oil supplies in nearby countries.

Saudi Arabia, which officials believe is one of the main suppliers of arms to the rebels, is the world's largest oil producer. Traders  (read more)

Science Daily -- June 13, 2013 — Cheaper clean-energy technologies could be made possible thanks to a new discovery. Led by Raymond Schaak, a professor of chemistry at Penn State University, research team members have found that an important chemical reaction that generates hydrogen from water is effectively triggered -- or catalyzed -- by a nanoparticle composed of nickel and phosphorus, two inexpensive elements that are abundant on Earth.

Schaak explained that the purpose of the nickel phosphide nanoparticle is to help produce hydrogen from water, which is a process that is important for many energy-production technologies, including fuel cells and solar cells. "Water is an ideal fuel, because it is cheap and abundant, but we need to be able to extract hydrogen from it," Schaak said. Hydrogen has a high  (read more)

FORBES -- Despite the political fallout from the Fukushima crisis, the U.S. Department of Energy remains committed to commercializing small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) technologies.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defines “small reactors” as under 300 megawatts (MW).

Last week, the DOE signed a cooperative agreement with Babcock & Wilcox for about $150 million in funding to support development and licensing of B&W’s mPower technology over the next five years.

Unlike large-scale light-water reactors, small modular reactors (SMR) are designed to reduce the financial risks associated with full-scale nuclear power plants. It remains to be seen whether they will do so.

 (read more)

NBC Los Angeles -- A Southern California father is among the latest victims of an auto crime that’s baffling police across the country.

“Our jaws just dropped. We couldn’t believe it,” Steve Doi said.

Doi’s family was in Westminster for his daughter’s softball game when a burglar used a mysterious device to pop the locks and steal $3,000 worth of items. Among the pilfered possessions were his business iPad, daughter’s iTouch and his wife’s purse.

A photographer and video freelancer, Doi has a dashcam tucked under his rear-view mirror, constantly recording. That camera captured a man holding what looks like a cellphone in his right hand, rubbing it against his sweatshirt, possibly on a small device hidden in his left hand.

Video shows the man disappear from view before it sounds like the doors unlock. Mom  (read more)

Rig Zone -- U.S. crude oil production could reach approximately 10 million barrels per day (MMbopd) between 2020 and 2040, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Friday.

EIA projects in its Annual Energy Outlook 2013 report that U.S. oil production could range from 6 to 8 MMbopd over the next 30 years. However, EIA also developed a higher resource scenario, driven primarily by tight oil production, in which total U.S. liquids fuels production, including crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGL), refinery gains, biofuels and other liquid fuels, rise to over 18 MMbopd in 2040, up from 12 MMbopd in the study's reference case.

This increased domestic production would reduce net imports to 7 percent of less of total demand compared to 40 percent in 2012, EIA noted.

"This increased product  (read more)

Science Daily -- When petroleum companies abandon an oil well, more than half the reservoir's oil is usually left behind as too difficult to recover. Now, however, much of the residual oil can be recovered with the help of nanoparticles and a simple law of physics.

Oil to be recovered is confined in tiny pores within rock, often sandstone. Often the natural pressure in a reservoir is so high that the oil flows upwards when drilling reaches the rocks containing the oil

This forces the following water to take other paths through the rock's pores and passages -- and in some of these there is oil, which is forced out with the water flow. The result is more oil extracted from the production well and higher profits for the petroleum companies.  (read more)

AutoEvolution -- The nifty combination between two-wheeled transportation, electric propulsion and flight is one step closer to becoming a real vehicle we could enjoy on a daily basis. Witness the inaugural flight of a daring project put together by three Czech companies and Dassault Systemes.

Technodat, Duratech and Evektor teamed up with 3D experts Dassault and in 2012 announced they are about to release a flying electric bike. There has obviously been a little delay, but the prototype is ready and... it works!

The official revealing of the Flying Bike took place this week, inside a large hall, and the bike was demoed in its RC version.

The Flying Bike comes with 4 rotors, grouped 2 at each end of the machine and weighs in at around 100 kg (220 lbs). The initial project was able to reach speeds up  (read more)

GasBuddy Blog -- You drive into the city for dinner at one of your favorite restaurants but what if there's no place to park the car? Audi now solves the problem; they've got an app for that. It's called 'ParkMe'.

According to engadget.com, Audi is tapping Inrix's parking spot data so you can find a car-friendly space from within its dashboard navigation platform. After telling the car where you want to go, you'll have the option to see parking info at the journey's end, including the nearest locations, operating hours, prices and real-time space availability, depending on what data is available from each garage. The app will also direct you straight to the entrance of the lot, and for additional peace of mind, you can even see what the street entrance...  (read more)