Top Gear ’s ambitious Sipster project, in which an old Golf was customized to get 70mpg, was a success: With a probably overambitious goal of building a car that can achieve 70 mpg, scoot to 60 mph in less than 7 seconds and cost only $7K to build, Project Sipster was born. Lots of cuts, cussing and sleepless nights later, a Reagan-era Volkswagen Rabbit was transformed from a cute beater into an eco-friendly tire burner; a modern turbodiesel engine and aerodynamic modifications brought the heat to this Cold War relic. Through (too many) trials and (frequent) tribulation, Project Sipster took shape, but could we nail our targets? Find out below with exclusive Project Sipster videos, stories and photography. Catch up at their project page . [Top Gear]

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Top Gear squeezes 70mpg from a VW Rabbit of ancient and evil vintage

Precentral has made a delightful discovery: It looks like the WebOS-powered Palm Pre will have official emulation to run old PalmOS apps .

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Looks like the Palm Pre will run PalmOS apps, too

The 22nd Annual Rube Goldberg machine contest saw many fun attempts at comical inefficiency this year, including this Super Mario machine entry from engineers at Penn State. [via PopMech ]

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Real-life Super Mario Rube Goldberg Machine

Comedian Louis C.K. recently went to the Middle East to entertain the troops and brought along his camera : The gunners reached out into the open air and leveled their guns with a great slot and click sound. They trained them on the ground. I felt my hands tense up. I realized, for the first time, that both my hands were wrapped tightly around my Leica. Oh my god, my Leica! I have the greatest camera in the world in my fucking hands and I’m in the middle of this shit right here. In that moment, ALL FEAR was gone. I was right where I wanted to be in the whole world. I reached into my pocket, which was difficult with the armor, and took out my light meter. I got readings out the window, inside, the floor under my feet. I did quick averages of the readings in my head. Now all my thoughts were of film. “Okay I’m at about 5.6 outside if I’m at 250 which is a good speed from a moving helicopter. If I want to get stuff outside, I’ll squeeze the fstop down to about 8. If I want inside the bird I’ll open to 2.8, 4 if I want a bit of both.” I set all these functions on the camera and started firing away. The helicopter leaned forward and we tore off across Baghdad. [via MeFi ]

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Louis C.K. and his Leica in Iraq

Source [Ffffound via Giz]

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Japanese toilet manufacturer Inax has begun soft launching a toilet in shopping centers that will analyze stool for bacteria counts, blood, fat content, and more, then beam the results to the web with a unique URL for later viewing. If I’m parsing this correctly, you can also subscribe to an RSS feed for a particular toilet, making it possible to see how the neighbors are doing. [ Digital World Tokyo via CrunchGear ]

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Data Dump: Japanese toilet outputs statistics via RSS

Furniture maker Herman Miller has 1,600 different materials available for its chairs and such. Browse through each on its Materials Program Index . [via Core77 ]

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Herman Miller’s swatches

Rob and I are both under the weather today, so pardon if we’re not up to our usual military-grade precision. Swiss watches we are, of normal. But today our clockworks are busy churning up phlegm. Gross! Why am I… So anyway, what do you guys know about Royal Enfield motorcycles ? I have been toying with the idea of getting a motorcycle for a while, and I’ll probably just try to pick up an old Honda or BMW or Yamaha or Suzuki or whatever since I haven’t ridden since I was a kid on the farm, and even then not much. But then I saw this Bullet 500 and it’s a real looker, plus it’s MSRP is only $5,500, which may be about $4k more than I intended to spend, but it’s certainly not wildly expensive. And it’s apparently got a modern engine, too, and isn’t just a cast-for-cast recreation like those Russian BMW clones—Urals, right?—so you don’t have to deal with weird stuff like paper air filters and the like. [via Uncrate ] Probably a stupid idea. Parts are probably a bear to get. I really should just get an old Magna or something and call it a day.

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Royal Enfield Military 500 motorcycle

The Nyko Metal Pedal , an aftermarket upgrade for your Rock Band or Guitar Hero drums with metal plating and “hard rock design”, is now hitting stores for $20. I’ve finally upgraded fully to Rock Band 2 gear, but I’m more concerned with my drums sliding all around my hardwood floors than I am breaking the kick pedal. I think I need to add some rubber—and get a proper drum throne.

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Nyko Metal Pedal can handle your videogame rocking

Behold! Dell’s new Inspirons come in a range of colors, again reminding the world that its days of gray ‘n’ beige are slipping into history for good. But are they the right colors? To my eye, almost all of them are a shade too clever by far, reminding me of odd names seen on paint swatches at Home Depot . Dell at least gave them relatively plain names (Piano Black, Pure White, True Blue, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Spring Green, Plum Purple and Promise Pink), sparing us the likes of “cognac” and “palm frond.” I would have picked these for my summer correction: Dell’s press release, with specs, is after the jump. Dells new Inspiron desktop lets people express themselves through choices of color (eight options), size (slim or mini-tower) and configuration. Vivid color palette to express your personal style: Piano Black, Pure White, True Blue, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Spring Green, Plum Purple and Promise Pink. Dell becomes the only major consumer desktop manufacturer to offer color options for the entire front of the machine. Customizable options to meet individuals budget, lifestyle and usage needs. Ideal for common tasks including email, Internet, blogging, entertainment (movies, music and casual gaming) and productivity. Features available on the new Inspiron desktops include: o Intel Celeron, Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad options or AMD Sempron, Athlon X2 and Phenom X4 processor options o Integrated Intel or ATI Radeon graphics* on select systems with discrete graphics options available o Up to 8GB* memory on select systems o Up to 750GB* storage (slim tower) or up to 1TB* storage (mini-tower) o Optional 19-in-1 media card reader and optional HDMI connectivity o 6 USB ports (2 front, 4 back) o Dual optical options (mini-tower only) including Blu-ray Disc drive o Small form factor with its versatile horizontal or vertical placement is designed to easily fit into your home media center (slim tower only)

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Dell splashes color onto the Inspiron desktops