It took about three years but Diebold has finally managed to get out of the election business.

The company announced Thursday that Premier Election Solutions, Diebold’s beleaguered voting machine division, has been acquired by Election Systems and Software (ES&S).

ES&S purchased the company for a mere $5 million in cash, plus 70 percent of any revenue collected on outstanding accounts through the end of August. According to Diebold’s announcement the sale was “consummated” Tuesday.

Diebold Unloads Beleaguered Voting Machine Division | Threat Level | Wired.com

Homebuilt EVs are damn-near mainstream these days, with backyard tinkerers throwing electric motors into small, light and — dare we say it — cute cars like the Porsche 914 and VW Rabbit with almost monotonous regularity. Tom Leitschuh went for something a lot cooler.

An El Camino.

DIY Electric El Camino Is All Kinds of Awesome | Autopia | Wired.com

As space policy experts mull over alternative strategies for astronaut exploration of the solar system, possibly including human flight to Mars, the recently-concluded fortieth anniversary celebrations of the Apollo 11 moon landing inspire one specific question: what’s taken so long?

The Space Review: Why is human Mars exploration so surprisingly hard?

It’s official. There’s nobody in the chat rooms but pedophiles and undercover police.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of an Indiana man whose online efforts to proposition underage girls led him to not one, not two, but three undercover cops, none of whom apparently knew about the others.

Luckless Predator Only Attracted to Undercover Cops | Threat Level | Wired.com

Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon— private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog.

ZOMG -- Teaser for the novel from the man himself!

YouTube - Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon - 9781594202247

Decius wrote:

Continental Airlines diverted a Twin-Cities-bound plane to Rochester due to a storm, and then locked the entire planeload of passengers in the plane overnight for nine hours.

The timing of this couldn't be better since congress is apparently
considering adding passenger-rights text to the FAA reauthorization bill.

RE: Continental imprisons 50 passengers overnight in grounded plane with no food, overflowing toilets - Boing Boing

A German designer cribbed from the slot cars we loved as kids to come with a cool idea for extending the range of electric cars. Instead of relying on an electric motor under the hood, Christian Förg suggests putting an electric motor under the road.

Magnetic Slot Cars Could Solve Our Transportation Woes | Autopia | Wired.com

While debate swirls over whether the United States should stick with plans for a base on the moon or head straight to Mars, members of a presidential panel assessing options for NASA's future have another idea: orbital gas stations.

Orbital Gas Station Puts Moon, Mars in Reach: Discovery News

Where to in space? A blue-ribbon panel charged by the Obama administration to review the United States’ human spaceflight program has narrowed the options to seven.

This is starting to heat up. The report is due at the end of the month. The writing on the wall is that Ares 1 is dead and DIRECT may actually have a chance.

NASA Narrows Options for Post-Shuttle Future - NYTimes.com

NASA's new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope's extraordinary scientific capabilities. The discovery will be published Friday, Aug. 7, in the journal Science.

NASA's Kepler Mission Spies Changing Phases in a Distant World | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference