This projection, based on fuel efficiency standards that are currently on the books, shows that -- absent radical legislative action, or everyone in the U.S. suddenly coming over all French -- American cars' fuel economy is primed to suck out loud for the foreseeable future. Anyone complaining about overly stringent regulations can therefore bite it forever.

The New York magazine article we wrote about yesterday -- the one about how New Yorkers are getting all het up about bike lanes and how they are akin to 9/11 -- has prompted a response from the NYC mayor’s office, penned by deputy mayor Howard Wolfson. Apparently Wolfson is pro-terrorism, because he seems to think bike lanes are pretty nifty. Here are a few of the tasty, tasty facts in his memo, which bike lane opponents (judging by the article) are immediately going to wave off as lies and fabrications: Bike lanes improve safety. Though cycling in the city …

Easily Add 13 Terawatts to the Longevity of Your Energy Supply! Prolong Your Planet’s Pleasure! Get The Long Lasting Energy She Craves, Cheap! Power One Million Homes Harder, Longer, and Faster! Wait, don’t hit delete, this is good news. Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (nerdiest Law and Order spinoff EVER) has brought down the world’s largest spam network, Rustock. Killing this one network may decrease worldwide spam output by 39 percent -- and give us back 13 million terawatt hours of energy. Rustock’s matrix of churning computers had the capacity to send out 30 billion pieces of spam EVERY DAY. Now, …

Looking for a place to plug in your electric car? Now you can find it the same way you find everything else: Google Maps. The Goog has reached out its electronic tentacles and absorbed the Department of Energy's master list of U.S. electric vehicle charging stations (there are over 600, at least one for every Volt sold in the country this year).

The sound you just heard was my ovaries exploding. Ewan McGregor knows the cool way to get around town: On a bike, with an absurdly adorable dog, in a little tweed cap, being as hot as possible as fast as possible without stopping for any reason. Fashion bloggers Tom and Lorenzo are on to him: It's like Ewan McGregor got up yesterday and said to himself, "Self? What is the absolute cutest possible thing I can do today? Shall I hold a naked baby to my chest? Swim with the otters at the zoo? Sing a solo backed by a …

Photo: Kyle Gradinger"Share the Road" has one potential fatal flaw: It involves sharing, which a lot of purported adults haven't really mastered. Matthew Shaer's exhaustive history of the NYC bike lane struggle, in this week's New York magazine, shows just how much people have to mature before a community -- even Brooklyn -- can become truly bike-friendly. Step one: Stop calling bike lanes "homegrown terrorism." Basically, the pro side says that bike lanes have increased the number of people who bike to work, decreased bike accidents, and calmed down traffic. The con side says that safer streets are slower streets, …

Chart: Randall Munroe (Click to embiggen.) Hungry for some perspective on the nuclear situation? This mindblowing chart of relative radiation doses, made by XKCD's Randall Munroe, is basically a Total Perspective Vortex. It's got something for everyone: Proponents of nuclear power can point to the difference between living near a nuke plant and living near a coal plant -- or between living near a nuke plant and just living in Colorado. Opponents can point out just how devastating Chernobyl was, on a scale of one to super-dead. And people who are easily freaked out can use it as an excuse …

In the wake of a massive quake and a tragic, deadly tsunami, Japan is also dealing with a nuclear catastrophe. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has said that this should inspire us to "put the brakes on" nuclear development until further notice, and China and Germany are shutting down development and existing reactors. But what about safer options? Do they exist, and would they make a difference? The core of a molten salt reactor, some of which use thorium fuel.Thorium fuel. The radioactive element thorium has been floated as a safer alternative to uranium for nuclear power. Thorium waste doesn't stay …

Photo: Walnut StudioloYou may not rock a velocipede, but that's no reason why you shouldn't be tooling around town looking like Sherlock Holmes. Step one: handsome vintagey leather bike accessories. Step 2: tweed helmet hat. Grow, purchase, or rent a handlebar mustache and get ready to pretend the last 200 years never happened. Photo: bitchcakesny Read more: "Beautiful Leather Bike Accessories from Walnut Studiolo," Core77  

Plastic isn't the problem, you are, says science writer Susan Freinkel. Freinkel argues that plastic could actually help save the environment -- it takes less energy to produce than many other materials, it makes a lot of green tech possible, and it replaces materials that are "sustainable" only because they come from destroying animals or trees. We just have to start appreciating it and stop throwing it away. The problem is our disposable culture, not what we're disposing, says Freinkel. It's not plastic's fault that we compulsively toss out bags and bottles after a single use. That's dumb, wasteful behavior …