Am I going to have to be the first person to say it? In 2010 for crying out loud?

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that..."

Yeah, this is the country where everyone's tax records/earnings can be simply looked up without restriction on publicly available websites...

And they're worried about privacy. What a freakin' joke. FAIL Norway, FAIL HARD.

Geeze, that's pretty crap. The 'Think' e-cars we have in Norway can do better than that and they're not that wonderful. Real-world driving, 170 km on one battery charge (albeit that takes about 9 hours from whoa-to-go). That being said, they're still shite cars.

Either get the charging of these battery packs down to 20 or so minutes to 80% charge or something realistic, or vastly increase the range of them.

This is the 21st century - if we cant have our freakin' flying cars, at least give us something fully electric that's not complete pants.

Ta muchly.

Spot on, mate. Although getting disgusting human flesh-bags onto other planets (be it the moon or Mars) might be all romantic and sexy in the public imagination, it is horribly, *horribly* inefficient. Unmanned missions all over the place are a much cheaper, quicker and better proposition.

Over time while more experience and expertise with robotic missions is gained, technology will advance. At that stage when we have the proper technology and expertise to sustain human life (safely & easily) in those extreme environments, automate the construction of suitable transport and habitation.

Much better than flinging our pudgy, squidgy, delicate selves out beyond the protection of our planet in the short term. Think of all that payload weight that can be used for scientific packages, new experimental propulsion methods (etc) instead of being wasted on life-support and habitation. Humans may be able to do some things better than machines, but at what cost?

Funny because it's true. Even attractive young people who know nothing about electronics can have crap machines. Nice one, Simon :-)

Grenade for what happens to my sinuses every time I tried in the past to fix a friend/relative's computer and ended up inhaling glub only knows what sort of spores and crud from the orgy of horror inside the case.

Cast your mind back to the 80's when French secret service agents bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship 'Rainbow Warrior' while it was tied up at the Wharf in central Auckland (NZ), killing a crew-member onboard at the time.

Although the culprits were caught, they were later handed over by the NZ Govt to the French Govt who would ostensibly incarcerate them on their native soil. Instead they were released and given commendations (anecdotal I believe). The NZ Govt caved under immense pressure from the French Govt who threatened to blockade NZ agricultural exports into Europe, one of the bigger markets for NZ produce at the time.

As for France? Bulldoze the whole goddamned country and turn it into a bloody parking lot, I say. Bolshy workers, the Government, all of it.

PS: French wine blows goats.

TradeMe might not be an internationally recognised name, but it's NZ's biggest internet auction-site, that was bought out by some Ocker media conglomerate for a rather boggling (for NZ) sum of money a few years back.

It's doing very well for its buyer, also. Much easier to use/navigate than eBay.

Wake me when Carver come up with an electric version of their stunning Carver-One.

THE POWER OF CRUST COMPELS YOU! THE POWER OF CRUST COMPELS YOU!

SCIENCE!

Gah! Save us from the aircraft/engineering/physics geeks!

In many circles (don't ask) 'pre' is used as a shortened version of 'pre-cum'.

Not entirely sure that I would have been brave enough to try and name a product after something like that, but it'll be somewhat amusing to see men and women proudly showing other people their 'Prē'...

*snigger*

Boffin with safety glasses because getting that stuff in your eyes stings.

C'mon guys, you missed a prime opportunity here. Cost overruns etc? Surely the byline should be "Om nom nom nom NOMS"?

Thank you, thank you, you've been a great audience, I'll be here all night...

One soul for sale.

GIMME GIMME GIMME!! O_O Do want.

I don't care if you have to feed this thing kittens, puppy-dogs or babies to make it go...

"What if this had been a young child? Will no one think of the children?"

Anyone who uses phrases like this needs a good, swift kick in the bollocks. Just go die in a fire. There are too many people thinking of these bloody children as it is - YOU are the reason so many stupid and inane laws get put on the books in the first place.

Will no-one think of PERSONAL BLOODY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS?

Children shouldn't be playing on the roads. And they should be taught basic road safety. And if they are too young to be left unsupervised in the first place.

Will no-one think of PARENTS WHO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY?

So AC - Shut. The. Hell. Up.

Accidents happen you lot. It's unpleasant but it's life.

That is all.

Dude, at the velocity and force it will arrive at on your toast, you're worried about the *taste*?

Judging by that picture, no wonder he was shagging inflatable sex-toys. What real woman (or man, for that matter) would want to shag *that*?

All that exercise rubbish aside, FINALLY we have a sexy NIC* powered vehicle. Kudos on the design, but what's the bet if anything like that is put into production it will be altered to look like arse.

*Non Internal Combustion powerplant

Well, *some* vegetarians have no problem with it at all.

Here in Norge, most businesses that offer employee or customer parking in covered garages actually have reserved carparks with electrical outlets specifically for 'leccy powered vehicles.

Those vehicles are also allowed to use the bus/taxi lanes on the motorways.

So, the Norweegies are actually quite progressive in that respect. Who'd a thunk it?

Actually that design for a hybrid (etc) vehicle isn't as butt-awful as some of the other designs that various manufacturers have come up with. After all, you can always swap out those wheels for something less ugly.

Perhaps the Germans have a bit more design sense than some of their fruitier neighbours, go figure.

Spot on comment about the Gerry Anderson theme...

The 1970's called, they want their design back.

Joke icon, because whoever designed this is definitely pulling *someone's* leg.

While not overly attractive, and *not* something that I'd probably ever look at buying were it to become available, you have to give our Italian friends credit for designing something that doesn't look it was designed by an escapee from the 1950's on acid.

As so many others commentards have harped on about, why not design electric cars that are actually attractive. And if they can't be sexy, how about at least make them look somewhat ordinary.

Guys guys guys (and Gal, sorry Sarah)... you forgot to picture that shark being jumped over...

Mines the one with a remora clinging to it..

There's a... err... "technical" term for those. They're called 'sootikins'.

I hate to think about the girls you've known... gross.

It is frightening.. Frighteningly BAD.

Mine's the one with skidmarks in the undies...

...that man a huge box full of angry Katipo spiders. Or funnel-webs, or brown recluses, or something...

All criticisms at the price and availability of XP aside, this is actually one of the best looking netbooks of the lot I reckon... Question is, would it be relatively easy to 'upgrade' to one of those flash drive thingamies at a later date?

Screw bloody ebay. Bunch of feckin' pricks. trademe.co.nz for the win!

I couldn't imagine anything more frackin' boring. Are these people really that hard up for material?

Mate, nicely said. When visiting the US a few years back, I gave up trying to get any *real* news on the TV there. It was all either local (US only) stuff, or mindless fluff. But having said that, it's not just the US. It's happening in a lot of other Western countries as well, as they all feed off the same teet. Please don't think I am US-bashing here, either. Hell, I can even appreciate why some Americans are quite ignorant about international affairs, when it's not that easy for them to get access to unbiased international (or local!) news without a lot of effort and searching on their part.

Australia is probably one of the worst, but then I can see Oz becoming the 53rd (or whatever) US state, in my lifetime.

My favorite toy growing up. Not just limited to guns, either :-) Ah, trip down memory lane. Do they still make them?