10 apps that are the next best thing to being in space

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Most of us won't ever visit space. But space has been brought to us, in the form of images and data collected for years by spacecraft, satellites and telescopes. Here are the 10 best online, interactive apps that allow you to explore space from your computer. Grab your mouse, Ensign — you have the helm.

1) Eyes On The Solar System

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Flying from planet to planet, I pause to admire the view of Phobos passing across the face of Mars. (Whoa.) JPL's stunning 3D visualization—which requires you to download a free app—allows you to explore the solar system both in time and space. You can pick any date between 1949 and 2049, which is an especially useful feature if you choose to do a "ride along" with an historical spacecraft. When I select "Pioneer 10" from the destination menu and choose "Jupiter flyby," it's suddenly December 3, 1973 and I'm hovering next to a 3D model of the probe, 617,000 miles from its destination and closing.

2) The Lunar Northern Polar Mosaic

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Arizona State University, which developed the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Camera

(LROC), has assembled 10,581 images, collected over four years, to create this spectacular northern polar mosaic of the Moon's surface.

According to ASU, this is "likely one of the world's largest image mosaics in existence, or at least publicly available on the web, with over 680 gigapixels of valid image data covering a region of the Moon (0.98 million sq. miles) slightly larger than the combined area of Alaska and Texas — at a resolution of 2 meters per pixel!"

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That level of detail is apparent as you

click

and zoom your way around sites on the lunar surface. Every rock, groove and shadow is visible, such as this image (above) of the tracks made by a boulder rolling down the central peak of Hayn crater.

3) The Billion-Pixel View From Curiosity at Rocknest

I've seen quite a few interactive views of Mars, but in terms of detail my favorite is this one created by JPL. It's a scaled-down version of a full-circle view that combines nearly 900 images taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The view is centered toward the south, with north at both ends. It shows Curiosity at the "Rocknest" site where the rover scooped up samples of windblown dust and sand. Curiosity used three cameras to take the component images on several different days, between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012.

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One version of the panorama has been white-balanced to show what the scene would look like under Earth lighting conditions, which is helpful in distinguishing and recognizing materials in the rocks and soil. You can also opt for the "raw color" version, which shows illumination effects from variations in the time of day.

You can pan and zoom across either a cylindrical or panorama view. I recommend panorama, since it offers the option of seeing the breathtaking landscape in full-screen mode.

4) The First Men on the Moon

Among the many apps and websites that were created to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, this one is a standout. The First Men on the Moon recreates Eagle's descent, using spaceflight video footage, communication audio, mission control room conversations, text transcripts and telemetry data.

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The result is a meticulously synchronized audio-video presentation. It begins with hearing the words of Buzz Aldrin, while simultaneously viewing the moon through the lunar module window. Moments later, you hear capsule communicator Charlie Duke inform flight director Gene Kranz that the astronauts are on schedule to start the descent engine. Throughout the simulation you can jump to key moments in the timeline, including computer alerts, the "Go/No Go" polls in the control room and, finally, the landing itself. It's a front row seat to history… and it's a nailbiter.

5) Interactive ISS Photo Map

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I recently wrote about this visualization, but it's well worth a second mention. Dave MacClean, a faculty member at the Centre of Geographic Sciences in Nova Scotia, created an interactive world map of more than 650 pictures that the astronauts aboard the International Space Station have shared on

Twitter

.

Each locator pin is color-coded to indicate which astronaut took the photo. Just left-click on the pin to see the image and a link to the original tweet. And, as a bonus, the map shows you the location of the space station in real time (give or take a minute).

6) The Scale of the Universe

This interactive flash animation is a stunning, modern version of the classic video Powers of Ten. Moving the toggle takes you from the edge of the observable universe and through distant galaxies until you arrive at Earth, and continue your voyage through inner space to the sub-atomic level. Along the way, clicking on individual items brings up descriptive information.

7) Eyes on the Earth

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Another amazing 3D visualization that uses NASA's "Eyes On" app, this one allows you to view the space agency's fleet of Earth observation satellites in real time. Click on any satellite to go on a virtual fly along and learn more about its mission. A menu lets you see different versions of the Earth — carbon dioxide levels, global temperature, etc. — created from data collected by the instrumentation aboard the satellites.

8) Spacewalk

Spacewalk sticks you in a spacesuit to navigate and explore a richly detailed recreation of the International Space Station. Patience is a virtue here — thrusting too fast sent me spinning head over heels (does a spacesuit have heels?), until I collided with one of the modules.

There's a "multiplayer" option—though, honestly, I'm not sure what you would do with other players other than wave at them, or perhaps play an orbital version of bumper cars. Spacewalk has recently been optimized for use with Oculus Rift, but you can still download the original version. It's a wild ride.

9) Orbital Objects

It's getting awfully crowded up there. In addition to the more than 1,000 active satellites that are orbiting the Earth, more than 21,000 pieces of orbital debris larger than 10 cm are known to exist. These pieces of space junk collide with each other, generating additional debris in the form of high-velocity fragments that can travel as fast as 35,000 miles per hour.

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You can pay a virtual visit to our orbital junkyard, courtesy of this interactive, 3D visualization (image above) made by Alex Rasmussen. Points marked in green represent active satellites. Points marked in gray are inactive satellites that are still intact. Points marked as red are tracked pieces of space debris.

Orbital Objects is best viewed on Google Chrome. Use up and down arrows to zoom in and out, and the mouse to rotate.

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Another visualization currently under development by Satellite Spy uses the Google Earth plugin to map thousands of near-Earth objects (above). Click on each one to identify the piece of space debris and its source.

10) Eyes on Exoplanets

The most recent—and most astonishing—addition to NASA's "Eyes On" series takes you 1,000 light years away from Earth to explore the stars in our galactic neighborhood. The data used to create the simulation includes 1,061 stars with known exoplanets—1,743 exoplanets to be precise.

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Click on a star to zoom in. A menu of options includes a visualization of the star's habitable zone and an onscreen comparison with our own

solar

system. Remember that awesome "stellar cartography" room (above) aboard the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: Generations? You now have it on your desktop.extracted by io9.com All rights owned by them.

5 teens who will make you feel you haven't take real advantage of teen age.

Do you ever feel an overwhelming sense of contentment and well-being? Do you sometimes muse to yourself, “Hey, maybe it’s okay that I haven’t really done anything with my life yet. After all, I’m only in my twenties. Who’s ever accomplished anything by 22?” 

Here is a list that will cure you of such complacency and help you reach your full potential of quivering self-loathing and crippling self-doubt. I give you the list of teenagers who have already done more with their lives than you have (note: the antidote to this deadly list is to remember that even though these five kids exist, so does Lindsay Lohan. She peaked early and we all know how that turned out):

1.  Nick D’Aloisio

British-Australian Nick D’Aloisio is a 17-year-old entrepreneur and computer programmer with interesting hair. In addition to growing his own gravity-defying hair, D’Aloisio recently sold an app to Yahoo! for $30 million. As a teenager, I also sold apps, but they were usually about $7 a piece. They were more commonly referred to as, “appetizers,” and I was a waitress. The app, known as Summly, condenses news stories into 1,000, 500, or 140-character summaries, kind of like what I’m doing here, but with less snark. While Nick’s accomplishments might make you feel like an underachiever, at least you’re not the person who handed over $30 million to a 17-year-old, no matter how impressive his coiffure.

2. Akrit Jaswal

Now 19-years-old, Akrit Jaswal is considered a medical genius. Originally, from India, Jaswal became renowned locally for his intelligence early in life. Though not a doctor at the time, he performed his first surgery when he was seven, when a neighboring family too poor to afford the medical bills asked him to separate their daughter’s burnt, fused fingers. At 12, he began undergraduate courses in medicine. By 17, he had begun his masters in applied chemistry. He has vowed to dedicate his life to finding a cure for cancer. Also, one time, he was on Oprah. Just in case it makes anyone feel better about themselves, to be fair, you should know his Twitter is pretty underwhelming.

3.  Katie Ledecky

You may remember Katie Ledecky from last year’s summer Olympics. At 15, she won gold for the 800 meter freestyle. At 15, I was well known on the indoor track team for having a shockingly slow 800-meter time, given that I was in fact not dangerously obese. She is my personal favorite on the list, because she’s the same age as my youngest sister. Last summer this provided fodder for a lot of jokes of the, “Hey Mo, what are you doing with your summer vacation? What’s that? Watching all three seasons of Vampire Diaries? Well, Katie Ledecky won a gold medal,” variety. I’m ashamed to say, it made me feel a tiny bit better about being an unemployed recent college graduate living at home. 

4. Hailee Steinfeld

Nominated for an Oscar at the ripe-old age of 14 for her role as Mattie Ross in the Coen brothers' True Grit, Hailee Steinfeld has definitely accomplished more than you.  She’s slated to star as Juliet Capulet in this year’s film Romeo and Juliet, and her red carpet frocks are always lovely and age-appropriate, which indicate her immunity to the twin pitfalls of child stardom — descending into oblivion or spiraling into a schadenfreudian train wreck. She gets bonus points for knowing Matt Damon, another person who accomplished more in his teens and 20s than you have. 

5.  Alexandra Adornetto

Alexandra Adornetto is an author of children’s and young adults’ novels, including two series, The Strangest Adventures and the Halo trilogy. Adornetto is actually 20, but her Wikipedia page is peppered with such gems as, “She didn’t even consider writing a novel until she was 13.” When I was 13, the biggest challenge I considered undertaking was being subtler when picking my nose, so Alexandra gets a spot on the list. The online plot summaries of her books were a little too convoluted for this average-joe 20-something to grasp, except to say, they reminded me a bit of Twilight, but with angels, confirming my suspicions that a child could have written that series.

Teen pregnancy

Teen pregnancy can have serious consequences for girls and guys, including decreased chances of finishing school, a difficult financial 

future

, and health risks for both mother and child. If you are thinking about having sex, know that the effects can last a lifetime.

Fact: Three out of ten teenage girls in the United States get pregnant at least once before age 20—that amounts to 745,000 teen pregnancies each year.

Fact: The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world—twice as high as in England or Canada and eight times as high as in the Netherlands or Japan.

Fact: Two-thirds of teen pregnancies occur among 18- and 19-year-olds, but that doesn’t mean that you’re immune if you are under 18.

Fact: Almost 50 percent of teens have never considered how a pregnancy would affect their lives.

Fact: Parenthood is the leading reason why teen girls drop out of school. Less than half of teen mothers ever graduate from high school and fewer than two percent earn a college degree by age 30.

Fact: Children of teen mothers do worse in school than those born to older parents—they are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade, they are less likely to complete high school, and they do not perform as well on standardized tests.

Fact: Pregnant teens are far less likely to receive timely and consistent medical care than those who get pregnant at a later age. The children of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and at low birth weight, and they are two times more likely to suffer abuse and neglect compared to children of older mothers.

Fact: Teen mothers are more likely to smoke during pregnancy, they are often not at adequate weight before pregnancy—nor do they gain the appropriate amount of weight during pregnancy.

Fact: Two-thirds of families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor. More than half of all mothers on welfare had their first child as a teenager.

Fact: Teen mothers are likely to have a second birth relatively soon: about one-fourth have a second child within 24 months of the first birth. This can further impede their ability to finish school (or keep a job) and to escape poverty.

Fact: Eight out of ten fathers don’t marry the mother of their child. These absent fathers pay less than $800 annually for child support, often because they are poor themselves.

Fact: Children who live apart from their fathers are also five times more likely to be poor than children with both parents at home.

Fact: The daughters of young teen mothers are three times more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

Fact: The sons of teen mothers are twice as likely to end up in prison.

The facts are disturbing. What can you do? First of all, have a plan.

Read about having a plan to avoid pregnancy.

Digital game downloads are worse for the environment than Blu-ray discs

 

You would think that the world would be a less polluted place if everyone switched to digital downloads, lessening the number of physical objects — and factories to produce them — in the world. A recent study suggests that even though removing physical objects lowers the potential for future for garbage and factory pollution, going digital isn’t the best answer to cleaning up the planet — in fact, the carbon footprint of downloading

games

is actually higher than buying a physical copy.The study, published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, focuses on the carbon footprint of games distribution — specifically, an 8.8GB PlayStation 3 game — using the metrics of a typical UK production and distribution cycle. When measuring carbon emissions, there are more factors that go into the both the physical retail and digital cycles than it may seem. Aside from the obvious metric of factories creating the discs and packaging, other factors — such as the vehicles used to deliver the products, and the output created when eventually disposing of the items — contribute to the overall footprint. The same applies to digitally distributed games, like if televisions and monitors are powered on during a long download — something that doesn’t apply to purchasing a retail disc.
Surprisingly, it turned out that the carbon emissions of a retail disc — including the production, vehicle delivery, and so on — were actually lower than that of a downloaded game.
Carbon emissions for the 8.8GB PS3 disc were estimated to be around 20.82 kilograms, but an equivalent digital download reached 27.53 kilograms. Various factors contribute to the increased carbon footprint of a downloaded game, such as the electricity used by the downloader, the power used by data centers to deliver the content, and even the power used to created the digital file in the first place. The study does admit, though, that it had to make quite a few assumptions for one reason or another. As the study states, for instance, the type of software used, the purpose of a download, and the resources available to any given company are not totally available on an individual basis. However, there are available plausible averages that can be used.
The study does look to the future, but notes that it’s too early to tell to see if carbon emissions of digital games will remain the same or decrease. In theory, internet efficiency will increase in the future, thus lowering the carbon footprint of a downloaded title. However, games generally increase in file size, and it’s difficult to discern whether or not internet speeds will increase enough in order to lower download times despite the larger file sizes. Other factors that are just now becoming widespread, such as remote downloading while you’re commuting home from work or being able to use your console while a game downloads in the background, will also play important roles in

the game

industry’s carbon footprint.Read our featured story: I went all-digital with the PS4 and loved it – RIP physical media
If you’re (perhaps overly) environmentally conscientious and worried about the carbon footprint your gaming hobby will have on this planet, you might want to stick to physical retail purchases for now. If you’re all-in on the digital revolution but still feel guilty about (barely) negatively impacting the environment, you can purchase some carbon offsets from us here at ExtremeTech and we’ll stop downloading bad games when we’re bored.

The Top 10 Richest Teen Celebrities

Oh, to be young, beautiful and, most of all, rich. These teen celebrities, at such a young age, have already reached a tremendous level of fame and a huge amount of fortune. Now that the likes of Selena Gomez, Taylor Lautner, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift have graduated into their 20′s, we have some new names in the list of wealthy youngsters. Here now is a list of the top 10 richest teen celebrities.

10. Elle Fanning, 15 years old (April 9, 1998) – $1.5 million

Elle Fanning is only 15 years old but she has already had starring roles in movies like Phoebe in Wonderland, Somewhere and We Bought a Zoo.  The younger sister of equally successful teen actress Dakota Fanning, she had a breakthrough performance in the science fiction hit called Super 8 where she received a lot of praise from critics. Even if she has already become a millionaire in her own right, she still attends school at Campbell Hall School in North

Hollywood

in Los Angeles.

9. Willow Smith, 12 years old (October 31, 2000) – $4.4 million

Willow Smith is an actress and singer. She is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. She was first featured in the 2007 movie entitled I Am Legend. She was also in the film called Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. She is also a music artist, having signed with the label of Jay-Z called Roc Nation. She already has released several singles, including “Whip My Hair,” which has charted on the Billboard 100 and was nominated as the Video of the Year in 2011 at the BET Awards.

8. Jaden Smith, 15 years old (July 8, 1998) – $5.5 million

Jaden Smith is the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and the older brother of Willow Smith. He had his first big break in his father’s movie entitled The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006. He has also appeared in films like The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Karate Kid and After Earth.

7. Harry Styles, 19 years old (February 1, 1994) – $8 million

Harry Styles is one of the five members of the band called One Direction, which has been declared by the Sunday Times Rich List to be worth almost $40 million. He was once the lead singer of a band called White Eskimo that joined and won Battle of the Bands competitions. He considers The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Coldplay, Kings of Leon and Foster the People as his influences.

6. Liam Payne, 19 years old (August 29, 1993) – $8 million

Liam Payne is an English singer who is also part of One Direction. He first took part in the hit reality singing competition called The X Factor in 2008, but he was asked by Simon Cowell to come back in a couple of years as Payne was deemed as too young at that time. He had already experienced performing in front of a huge audience when he sang before 26,000 people at a football game of Wolverhampton Wanderers. He regards Justin Timberlake and Gary Barlow as his musical influences.

5. Niall Horan, 19 years old (September 13, 1993) – $8 million

Niall Horan is an Irish singer who is also part of the band called One Direction. He has always loved singing, becoming a member of the school choir when he was young and performing as a support act to Lloyd Daniels. Horan has mixed musical influences ranging from the big band swing sounds of Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to the rock beats of Bon Jovi, The Eagles and The Script.

4. Abigail Breslin, 17 years old (April 14, 1996) – $12 million

Remember that memorable sleeper hit of 2006 called Little Miss Sunshine? The movie that starred Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin and Steve Carell also headlined a then nine-year old Abigail Breslin, who garnered a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Oscars for her performance. Her first movie actually came out in 2002, a film called Signs. She has also appeared in No Reservations, Nim’s Island, Definitely, Maybe, My Sister’s Keeper, Zombieland, Rango and The Call.

3. Angus Jones, 19 years old (October 8, 1993) – $15 million

Angus Jones was one of the main characters of the hit television series called Two and a Half Men. His performance in the show has earned for him a couple of Young Artist Awards, as well as a TV Land Award. It also led to movie roles in See Spot Run, The Rookie, Bringing Down the House, George of the Jungle 2 and The Christmas Blessing. Just two years after becoming the highest paid child star on television, Jones made a surprising announcement when he labeled the show as filth that contradicted with his newfound religious views. Though he was retained on the show, his character has since been demoted to recurring status.

2. Dakota Fanning, 19 years old (February 23, 1994) – $16 million

Dakota Fanning first turned heads with her role in the 2001 I Am Sam. At just seven years old, the performance was enough to make her the youngest nominee in the history of the Screen Actors Guild. She then appeared in movies like Man on Fire and War of the Worlds. She then started doing more adult roles in films like Hounddog and The Secret Life of Bees. She also starred in Coraline and was part of the cast of The Runaways and The Twilight Saga.

1. Justin Bieber, 19 years old (March 1, 1994) – $110 million

Justin Bieber is a singer and songwriter from Canada. He was discovered after his mother posted his performances in YouTube. His debut record called “My World” reached platinum status in the United States and all seven songs charted on the Billboard charts. He had a monster smash hit in “Baby.” The American Music Awards named him Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2012. He is considered as one of the most powerful celebrities in the world.

How was Ferrari started?

No history of Ferrari is complete without mentioning that Enzo Ferrari worked for Alfa Romeo from 1920 to 1929 (he wanted to get a job at Fiat after WWI, but restrictions on civilian auto traffic in Italy meant the company wasn't hiring), and that he raced Alfas for another 10 years after that. From the time he was 12, according to Ferrari: The Man and His Machines, Enzo knew he wanted be a race driver. At Alfa, he achieved that dream, and adopted the cavallino, or prancing horse, insignia for his Alfa race car. In 1929, he left Alfa to start Scuderia Ferrari in Modena, his privately owned Alfa Romeo racing team.

The 1930s - Scuderia Ferrari:

In 1929, Enzo Ferrari left Alfa Romeo's employment to start his own racing stable (scuderia in Italian). Scuderia Ferrari did not race cars with the Ferrari name, though the Alfas they used on the track did sport the prancing horse. Race cars came to the scuderia from Alfa for tuning for almost a decade, and the Ferrari shop in Modena built its first car, the Alfa Romeo 158 Grand Prix racer, in 1937. In 1938, Alfa took its racing program in-house, and Enzo Ferrari went with it. After 10 years on his own, though, working for someone else proved difficult. He left Alfa (or was dismissed) for the last time in 1939.

The 1940s - Ferrari Survives the War:

When Enzo Ferrari left Alfa Romeo, he agreed to not use his name in connection with racing for four years. That wasn't so bad; WWII curtailed racing for most of those four years anyway. Ferrari moved from Modena to Maranello during the war, where it remains today. In 1945, Ferrari began work on the 12-cylinder engine the company would be famous for, and in 1947, Enzo Ferrari drove the first 125 S out of the factory gates. Post-war racing was Ferrari's finest hour on the track. Driver Luigi Chinetti was the first to import Ferrari cars to the U.S. in the late 1940s, including the first highway Ferrari, the 166 Inter.

The 1950s - Race- and Road-Ready:

During the 1950s, Ferrari had legendary engineers like

Lampredi and Jano on the payroll, and bodies designed by the legendary Pinin Farina. Every time a race car was improved, the road car was the beneficiary. In 1951, a Ferrari 375 brought the team its first victory -- over Alfa Romeo, no less. The 357 America hit the market in 1953, as did the first in the long line of 250 GTs. Production of all Ferrari cars grew from 70 or 80 a year in 1950 to more than 300 by 1960. Enzo suffered a personal tragedy in 1956, when his son Dino, who had helped develop Ferrari's V6 engine, died of muscular dystrophy at the age of 24.

The 1960s - Turbulent Times:

The '60s started out pretty good for Ferrari: Phil Hill won the Formula 1 championship in 1961 using a 1.5-liter V6 race car nicknamed "Dino." It was the era of the sexy, swooping 250 Testa Rossa. But things got rough for the Prancing Horse, like when Carroll Shelby brought his Cobra to European race tracks. After years of rivalry, the Texan beat the Italian in 1964. Ferrari was having financial troubles as well, but that was nothing new. There were talks with Ford about a buyout, but Enzo Ferrari instead walked out on that deal and sold part of the company to Fiat in 1969.

The 1970s - What Gas Crisis?:

The V6 engine made it to a production model in the Dino 246 of the early '70s. In 1972, the company built the Fiorano test circuit next to the factory. Ferra

ri introduced the Berlinetta Boxer flat-12 engine to the world at the 1971 Turin Motor Show in the 365 GT/4 Berlinetta Boxer, and the car hit showrooms in 1976. The next year, Carozzeria Scaglietti di Modena, Ferrari's design house, was officially incorporated into the company. Cars were churned out, by Ferrari standards, with some models being built in the thousands. But the '70s ended on an odd note with the introduction of the automatic--but still V12--400i.

The 1980s - Greed Is Good -- for Ferrari:

Let's skip to 1985, when one of the most iconic of all Ferraris appeared on posters across the world: the Testarossa (note that this time, the model name is one word, not two). The '80s also saw the convertible Mondial and the realization of Enzo Ferrari's dream, the F40. It was built to commemorate the company's 40th anniversary, with a carbon-fiber body, a giant wing, and Kevlar panels. Ferrari's brand recognition was at an all-time high, with a (replica) 1961 250 GT starring in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. But in 1988, Enzo Ferrari died, at the age of 90. Fiat's share of Ferrari rose to 90%, and son Piero became VP.

The 1990s to Current - A New Era:

In 1991, Luca di Montezemolo took the reins of the Prancing Horse. The supercar streak continued with the F50, but the '90s had a wider offering of smaller engines, like the V8 in the F355 series. There were still V12s to be had, of course, like the Testarossas that continued to be built through the mid-90s. In 2003, Enzo Ferrari got his due, with a 230-mph supercar named for the company's founder. On the track, the hot-blooded Ferrari cars met their match in the cool German driving of Michael Schumacher, who raced Ferraris to seven F1 championships between 1994 and 2004.

Bull-Headed: The art of naming Lamborghinis

With so many taking their names from powerful bulls, Lamborghinis are appropriately titled for the arduous task of locking horns with Ferrari. We take a look at the namesakes of the Miura, the Islero, and others of that ilk.

Breeding Bravado: Lamborghini Miura
Self-confident entrepreneur Ferruccio Lamborghini was born on 28 April 1916, which made him a Taurus: combative, stubborn (his relationship with Enzo Ferrari, for a start), and every bit a bull. If the latter had not already subliminally sown a seed in his mind, then it was visiting his friend Don Eduardo Miura’s cattle ranch which confirmed his choice of name for what is now often called the first supercar. The fascination with these belligerent beasts also led to the new company’s emblem being that of a charging bull.See car in the Classic Driver Marketplace >> Toro Grande: Lamborghini Islero
After a brief spell of christening models with numerical digits, Lamborghini began naming cars after individual bulls rather than species. In 1968, the Islero grand tourer was named after a particularly resilient Miura from 1947. Islero had killed star matador Manolete in 1947, but contrary to the tradition of sparing the bull in these cases, he was tragically put to the sword soon afterwards.See car in the Classic Driver Marketplace >> Horns of the Devil: Lamborghini Diablo
In 1990, an automotive devil arrived on the world stage – the Lamborghini Diablo. The diabolical road car bore the name of an equally legendary fighting bull bred by the Spanish nobleman, the Duke of Veragua, in 1867. The powerful bull became famous for lasting many hours in a ferocious fight with the matador ‘El Chicorro’.See car in the Classic Driver Marketplace >> Mythical Bull: Lamborghini Murciélago
There’s much disagreement over the truth of the story, but the Murciélago was named after a fighting bull that was said to have survived 24 sword strokes in a bullfight in Córdoba, Spain, in 1879. Such was the bull’s courage that the matador let it live – and, supposedly, it was later presented as a gift to Don Antonio Miura, a well-known breeder, hence it went on to father the famous Miura line of fighting bulls.

Jeep facts!

Fact 1

The vehicle was originally called the GP which stood for a military General Purpose vehicle. In the late 1940’s the cartoon character Popeye poked fun at it, calling it a Jeep and the same stuck.

Fact 2
The SUV Cherokee model was meant to depict the civility and the ruggedness of the Native American Cherokees.

Fact 3
The military GP’s (jeeps) were initially produced by three companies- Willys, Ford and Bantom.

Fact 4
In World War II all the Jeeps were manufactured collaboratively by Willys and Ford.

Fact 5
The word Jeep is used as a common term for any 4 Wheel drive vehicle in several countries across the world.

Fact 6
Bantom lost the Military GP contract because it was perceived that they would not be able to build the number of vehicles that Willys and Ford could.

Fact 7
The company reverted to the classic round headlights for the TJ after people raised an outcry against the square lights.

Fact 8
The fenders on the earliest Jeeps were flat and not rounded like the later ones were. That’s where the name “flatfender” originated from.

Fact 9
The Ford engineers designed the recessed round headlamps that were mounted on hinges. This was in order that the headlamps would pivot backwards and lend light to the engine bay.

Fact 10
An old battered Jeep survived two beach landings and ended up receiving a Purple Heart.

Another 10 cool car stories

The first automobile is generally considered to have been invented in 1886, making it just over 125 years old. And yet cars are among our most primal obsessions. Learning to drive is a profound rite of passage; sliding behind the wheel for the first time symbolic of freedom. Not surprisingly, the last 125 years have provided us with a great deal of awesome automobile trivia.

10 Mr. Rogers’ Stolen Car

Photo credit: Nandesuka

If you believe everything you see in movies, you might assume that beautiful sports cars are the vehicles most likely to be targeted by thieves. In reality, the most common cars are also the ones most frequently swiped—particularly Honda’s Accord and Civic models. For the most part, stolen cars are not sold intact, but are taken to “chop shops” where they are dismantled. Honda’s wide circulation and relatively expensive parts make their cars an attractive target.
Unless it was picked up for a quick joyride and then dumped, the chances of recovering a stolen car are slim to none. However, your odds supposedly increase precipitously if you are a beloved children’s television personality. According to a probably apocryphal urban legend, none other than Mr. Rogers once had his car stolen. After the theft was reported on the news, the thieves returned the vehicle with a message: “Sorry, we didn’t know it was yours.”

9 Driving Upside Down

The idea of a car driving upside down might seem preposterous, the kind of stunt seen in dumb action movies. However, science has assured us that it is indeed possible for a car to drive on the ceiling.
Race cars, specifically those used for Formula One racing, are designed with inverted wings. They work in the opposite fashion to aircraft wings—instead of generating lift, they generate downforce, which pushes the car down against the ground. While this might seem counterproductive in relation to achieving high speeds, the downforce has a practical use: It allows F1 cars to take corners at a velocity that would otherwise send them flying off the road.
All an F1 car would need to do to drive upside down is to generate a downforce equal to or greater than its own weight. But while the science is sound, there are some pretty big complications. Driving upside down would be extremely disorienting to the man behind the wheel. Moreover, the car’s engine and components are not currently designed to operate upside down.

8 Cuba

Movies set in Cuba often portray rows of pristine classic cars, chrome twinkling in the sunlight. You’d be forgiven for thinking Cubans have a love affair with vintage Detroit rolling iron, but the reality is a bit uglier. On October 19, 1960, the United States issued a trade embargo against Cuba. One of the embargo’s many effects was that new cars stopped rolling into the island nation. The Cuban government also cracked down on the purchase of cars; only those that were already on the island at the time of the embargo could be freely traded and sold amongst its citizens. All others who wished to buy a car had to secure special permission.
Beginning in early 2014, the Cuban government lifted the sanctions, allowing people to freely buy cars if they wished. While the United States continues to ban automobile exports to Cuba, manufacturers in other countries, such as France’s Peugeot, have no such restrictions. Unfortunately, the Cuban government has instituted staggering markups on the prices of these vehicles, to the point where a new car ranges from US$91,000 to $262,000. The average Cuban earns only about $240 a year, putting such expenditure so far out of reach as to be unimaginable.
And while there are some beautifully maintained 57 Chevys and the like rolling down the streets of Havana, the truth is that keeping almost 60-year-old cars in running order is a full time job. Most of Cuba’s vintage cars are dangerous (almost none have seat belts), oil-belching monstrosities held together with duct tape and prayers.

7 Most Expensive Production Car

Photo credit: Clément Bucco-Lechat

When we think of expensive cars, names like Bentley and Rolls Royce come to mind. But you could buy more than 20 Bentleys for the price of the world’s most expensive automobile. The Lamborghini Veneno (Italian for “venom”) is a limited edition supercar that boasts staggering power—its 740 horsepower engine can produce a top speed of 355 kph (220.5 mph). According to the manufacturer, this lowslung beast can accelerate to 100 kph (62 mph) in 2.9 seconds.
But as we mentioned earlier, the privilege of owning the Veneno comes with a shocking price tag—the roadster goes for an astonishing $4.5 million. Of course, the Veneno is more about making a splash than making a profit. Lamborghini is only producing nine of the cars, which are sure to be squabbled over by all manner of oil-rich sheiks and tycoons of industry, the only kind of folks with pockets deep enough to afford them.

6 Game Shows

One of the loftiest prizes available to game show contestants is a brand new car—usually given to the show as a form of advertisement by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, winning a “free” car can be both a blessing and a curse, since the winner is still required to pay sales tax. In the United States, this rate varies from state to state, but can get very expensive.
This issue was brought to the forefront by a memorable 2004 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, when the entire audience, 276 people, received a Pontiac G-6 worth $28,500. A little math reveals the final price tag for the giveaway as at least $7.9 million. Of course, the billionaire Oprah could easily have afforded such a generous gift, but it was actually funded from Pontiac’s marketing budget. Each prizewinner was left with a tax bill of approximately $6,000.
Should you luck into winning a thirsty, high-horsepower sports car that devours gas at a higher rate than normal, you’ll also get slammed with a “gas guzzler” tax. The less fuel efficient the vehicle is, the higher the tax will be.

5 The Lamborghini Story

During WWII, Ferruccio Lamborghini was a young mechanic in Italy’s Royal Air Force. Following the war, the enterprising young man capitalized on all the spare military equipment lying about, converting it into farm tractors. Business took off and Lamborghini was soon a rich man, able to pursue his love of sports cars. His collection included Maseratis, Aston Martins, and Ferraris.
This latter brand caused Lamorghini considerable annoyance. He loved his Ferraris, but they had several mechanical issues. Particularly troublesome was the tendency for the clutch to burn out. Examining the problem, Lamorghini found them to be the same clutches he used to operate his tractors. He aired his grievances to Enzo Ferrari himself, who dismissed him out of hand as a simple tractor builder. Insulted, Lamorghini decided to make his own cars.
Automobili Lamborghini was formed in 1963 and began producing cars by the mid 60s. Most of these elite supercars were named after bulls, as Ferruccio was obsessed with the sport of bullfighting. Business declined in the 1970s, and Lamborghini sold off his interest in the company after the calamity of the 1973 oil crisis. Today, the brand is owned by the Volkswagen Group.

4 Cozy Coupe

Photo credit: littletikes.co.uk

If you’re under 40, you or one of your pals likely had a Cozy Coupe. Manufactured by American toymaker Little Tikes, these plastic, red-and-yellow cars have proven enormously popular since their introduction in 1979. Described a cross between a “Volkswagen Beetle and a Fred Flinstone car,” the Coupe is powered by a toddler’s own feet. For many years, the Cozy Coupe was the bestselling car in America, outselling such perennially popular models as the Ford F-Series pickup and the Honda Accord. In 2008 alone, a year before the car’s 30th anniversary, 457,000 Cozy Coupes were sold.
In recent years, the Coupe’s aging design has been revamped into a slightly more modern look, including a set of cartoon eyes in the front. Little Tikes has also unveiled a line of other riding toys, including airplanes, tricycles, and pickup trucks.

3 Driverless Cars

Photo credit: Steve Jurvetson

Driverless cars are one of the mainstays of science fiction, featured in films like I, Robot and Minority Report—not to mention 1980s television classic Knight Rider. There are currently quite a few projects to develop a driverless car, but perhaps the most promising is helmed by search engine giant Google, which has retrofitted at least 10 different vehicles to pilot themselves. The Google project has proven an enormous success—after logging over 300,000 miles on active roads, there have only been two incidents, one where the vehicle was being manually controlled by a human, and another where the vehicle was struck by another motorist.
The implications of this technology are astonishing. Car accidents, which claim the lives of tens of thousands of people each year in the United States alone, would be virtually eliminated by factoring out human error. No longer would drunken, elderly, or youthfully reckless drivers cause deaths. Sending a text message from behind the wheel would not be a potential fatality. Those afflicted by blindness or paralysis would likely be able to drive. As things stand, the future looks bright for autonomous cars, with several automakers expecting to roll out driverless models by 2020.

2 Carjacking

Carjackings are often vicious, deadly crimes that certainly deserve no celebration. The term itself was first used in 1991 in The Detroit News, reporting on the death of 22-year-old Ruth Wahl, who was murdered on the streets of the Motor City for refusing to give up her Suzuki.
Detroit has more than its fair share of carjackings, but the world’s capital for the crime is South Africa, where the rate of carjackings is about 18 times that of the US. To address the problem, the South African police have special units to deal with the crime. Confrontations often end in shootouts.
Several devices have been invented to allow motorists to defend their cars, the most notorious of which was the Blaster. Introduced in 1998, the Blaster was a petroleum gas flamethrower affixed to the car, which would ignite anyone who came within a few feet of your vehicle. The inventor, Charl Fourie, claimed that it probably wouldn’t kill someone, but probably would permanently blind them. Somehow perfectly legal, the Blaster ceased production a few years later, as its price limited sales. There are, however, plenty of these devices still in circulation, a fact which carjackers in Johannesburg are likely to learn the hard way.

1 The Consequences Of 9/11

The terrorist attacks on 9/11 had far-reaching social, political, and financial implications that are still being felt today. Not surprisingly, the four horrifying plane crashes put a great many people off the idea of air travel. Those that did hazard public transportation were chilled by the presence of National Guardsmen clutching automatic weapons. Instead, many people chose to drive. At the time, gasoline could be had cheaply—the average price per gallon in the United States was about $1.50.
One axiom often bandied about is that flying is the safest way to travel. When a plane crashes, the loss of life is catastrophic, but millions of flights go off without a hitch. MIT statistics professor Arnold Barnett reports that in the last five years, the risk of dying on a flight in the United States was one in 45 million. In other words, statistically speaking, you can fly every day for 123,000 years before encountering a crash.
Driving, by contrast, is far more deadly. Your chance of being killed in a car accident in a given year is one in 7,000—flying is more than 6,000 times safer. It has been estimated that the increase in driving in the year following 9/11 resulted in an extra 1,595 traffic fatalities, more than half the death toll of the original attack.

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