Fried Gibson. I've always thought you were safe in a house from lightning storms as long as you were off the land-line or computer. A Mississippi man's Gibson Les Paul got positively roasted while sitting in his home, in its case, leaning against a wall. That's a powerful bolt. Lots of gory photos here and in the auction linked above including a nice shot of some of the parts that exploded off of the guitar, some shooting like bullets through the case. Awesome! And it still held quite a bit of its value. Via [more inside]
posted by JBennett on Jul 10, 2009 - 49 comments

Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road. Now it's Agassi's turn. He starts off uncharacteristically nervous, stammering a bit. He's got something different, he says. A new approach. He believes it just might be possible to get the entire world off oil. For good. Point by point, gaining speed as he goes, he shares for the first time in public the ideas that will change his future—and possibly the world's. [more inside]
posted by destrius on Aug 20, 2008 - 68 comments

Two takes on the immediate future of the electric car: we are either "Going Nowhere Fast" (if you ask a petrolhead from Top Gear magazine) or we are witnessing "The End of the Petrolhead" (if you ask The Economist). A bestiary of current and planned models includes TeslaMotors (now in production), Fisker Automotive (who are being sued by Teslamotors), the GM Volt (due 2010), The Lighting Car Company, the plug in Prius, the GWiz (now slightly less squishy apparently), the Corbin Sparrow, a few (vapory?) models from Zap! and the wondrous Sinclair C5.
posted by rongorongo on Jun 26, 2008 - 67 comments

He was called "the Telemaster", "the Humbler", and " the greatest unknown guitarist in the world". Danny Gatton, revered by guitarists great and small, never achieved popular acclaim. His refusal to stick to any particular genre of music, and his reluctance to travel had much to do with that. But to those of us lucky enough to enjoy the Washington, DC music scene of the eighties and nineties got to see arguably the most talented electric guitar player this country has produced.
posted by Benny Andajetz on Nov 27, 2007 - 26 comments

Sometimes you've got a song or a tune but something's missing : call Mike Stern, he could add some stuff.
posted by nicolin on Oct 24, 2007 - 9 comments

Barbie Doll Electric Chair Science Fair Project [more inside]
posted by patricio on Sep 18, 2007 - 21 comments

0 to 60 mph in less than a second. Drag strip record of 155 mph. And almost totally silent. Meet the battery-powered drag racer KillaCycle.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese on Jul 31, 2007 - 44 comments

Weather shock horror! Survivors live to tell the tale!
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jul 12, 2007 - 11 comments

The Easy-Glider is everything the Segway is, but cheaper. Electric engine, 16-25 kilometers (10-15 miles) on a charge. Looks like fun [8mb qt] for only less than EU1000 ($1300 US). (Currently not available in the US.)
posted by Dave Faris on Jun 14, 2007 - 42 comments

Zap! is releasing their next electric car and it looks g-r-e-a-t As an electric car enthusiast and a big fan of the Tesla Roadster, I was excited to see more companies entering the sort of mainstream electric car market, even though we don't know when these will come out or what their MSRP will be like, though I'm sure it'll be pretty comparable to the Tesla's beefy $90k tag.
posted by lesseffective on May 2, 2007 - 30 comments

Interview with 36-yo entrepreneur Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla Motors (22min, video or audio, Jan 3 2007).
posted by stbalbach on Jan 21, 2007 - 9 comments

Eclectic is a solar, wind, and plug-in electric-powered "vehicle" making it [theoretically] energy autonomous. While solar vehicles are not new, this pioneering consumer production model may find a niche market. June 2007, priced starting at 24,000€. Summary.
posted by stbalbach on Jan 16, 2007 - 15 comments

Nikola Tesla lends his name to an electric car that can reach 60pmh in 4 seconds and travel 250 miles between charges. Early witnesses include Arnie and Wired. An old Tesla rumour is that he made his own back in the 1930s.
posted by rongorongo on Aug 3, 2006 - 93 comments

Who killed the electric car? [flash] A documentary film (and flash website) about the mysterious demise of the electric car. The website contains a lot of information about the electric car and other alternative fuel cars in development. The film is coming to a theater near you, if you live in NY or LA. (Ok, actually a few other places.) Watch the trailer. [embedded qt]
posted by jlub on Jun 10, 2006 - 80 comments

Photos before the show starts Yakutat AK; Portland, OR; San Diego, CA; L.A; Cleveland, OH.
posted by efalk on Oct 30, 2005 - 15 comments

With gas prices rising, SUV sales (16-20 mpg city) have been declining. What are some alternatives for urban commuters? Prius (56 mpg) and other hybrid vehicles. SmartCar (50 mpg city; available in Canada, but not the US) and other microcars. Electric motor scooters and bicycles. Electric cars like the General Motors EV1 seem to be stalled, although people are working on a battery-powered SmartCar. What about hydrogen vehicles? In the medium term, MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment doesn't think they'll outperform hybrids (full report). A comparison of fuel-cell and battery electric vehicles gets into some of the details of how they work.
posted by russilwvong on Oct 11, 2005 - 83 comments

Cool Keys Radio. A true labor of electric piano love that will undoubtedly sate the taste of even the most ardent lover of the instrument.
posted by melissa may on May 29, 2005 - 6 comments

I never would have imagined we'd see silent, full-powered, electric motocross bikes, but they actually exist. Looks like they went for gas motor-like performance over range, but they'd probably be a blast if you had a small track near your house.
posted by mathowie on Aug 2, 2004 - 10 comments

Mike's Electric Stuff
Glass tubes and high voltages galore. Of particular interest, tesla coils, and how to build a clock using nixie tubes, the prettiest display devices ever invented. If you can't build your own, other people will do it for you.
posted by Mwongozi on Oct 26, 2003 - 7 comments

Move over Segway! Sir Clive Sinclair, who invented the first pocket calculator (retailing at only £79.95 + VAT in 1972), the ZX80, and the ZX81 with its massive 8K operating system, is promising an update to the Sinclair C5 that will compete with the Segway.
posted by Pericles on Aug 5, 2003 - 20 comments

FORD Pulling Plug on Electric Car... Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it was pulling the plug on its Think electric vehicle division due to poor customer demand and lack of government support for the environmentally friendly cars. "The bottom line is we don't believe that this is the future of environmental transport for the mass market."
posted by DailyBread on Aug 31, 2002 - 32 comments

Electric cars not good for the environment after all (well, not the immediate environment surrounding them)? Thanks to a glitch in the electrical system of a charging Chrysler Gem, supermodel Veronica Webb's home burnt down, taking her dog and almost her husband with it.
posted by mathowie on Jul 31, 2002 - 24 comments

Build your own electric VW Rabbit! It's easy, just order the VoltsRabbit kit and you can have your very own 90-mile range electric car. Bonus boints for converting a Rabbit Convertible to electric!
posted by laz-e-boy on Jul 19, 2002 - 3 comments

PG & E declaring bankruptcy. So if every website in the bay area goes down, it may not be due to the dotcom fallout. And remember kids, when the lights go off, you'll want to loot your local Fry's before anything else.
posted by mathowie on Apr 6, 2001 - 40 comments