depends

Amory Lovins: Cars need to go on a diet (video)

We Americans aren't the only ones who have gained weight. Over the past 25 years, our cars have gotten heavier too, says Amory Lovins.

Lovins, chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, says he believes that ultralight materials like carbon fiber composites can make cars simpler and cheaper to build. At the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco this week, Lovins talked about strategies to make oil-free automobiles.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Amory Lovins: Carbon fiber cars would cut oil dependency."

The 404 876: Where 92 percent of our hosts are fake (podcast)

Which would you rather give up for a week, your toothbrush or your iPhone? We welcome CNETer Kenley Bradstreet back on the show today to help us answer this hypothetical question and more.

Of course, Joey Kaminski is here, too, and we have a minefield of a story rundown to test his self-control, such as a nail polish inspired by bruises and bodily fluids, a world-record-breaking attempt going down tomorrow on the corner of Seaman and Dyckman Streets, and a report that 92-percent of Newt Gengrich's 1.3 million Twitter followers are actually robots.

The 404 Digest for Episode 876

Nail polish names inspired by bruises and blood. Report: 92 percent of Newt Gingrich's Twitter Followers Aren't Real. iPhone users would trade shoes, sex for phone. N.Y. lingerie shop to break world record for simultaneous breastfeeding. No lasers were harmed in the scanning of these cats.

Episode 876 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

How oil dependent is your state?

The effects that fluctuating oil prices have had on the average American vary widely by state, according to a report released Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"Fighting Oil Addiction: Ranking States' Oil Vulnerability and Solutions for Change," a report (PDF) prepared for the NRDC by David Gardiner & Associates, ranks U.S. states in two major ways. One list ranks U.S. states by their dependence on oil, taking in factors like gas prices. The other ranks states' efforts to reduce oil dependence, taking into account public transportation funding, state fleet efficiency, hybrid car purchasing incentives, … Read more

Rivets: Extreme cell phone security

We understand people's attachments to their cell phones--functionally and even emotionally--but literally?

The somewhat-distubingly named "Rivet Attachment System" aims to do everything in its power to keep you and your beloved handset from parting ways, short of surgery. Just as important, as Shiny Shiny points out, it does so in style.

But if you're truly serious about securing your digital loved one, we suggest the old-school method: handcuffs.

The first 'interactive water bottle'

How far the technology of physical fitness has come. We remember commercials touting the scientific principles of Gatorade and its revolutionary effects on the human hydration process. What Neanderthals.

Today, what's being touted as "the world first interactive water bottle" promises to calculate a person's specific hydration needs with its patented monitoring technology and dispense advice accordingly. According to a post on Trend Hunter, the "HydraCoach" supposedly "tracks every sip taken, monitors daily progress and motivates individuals to achieve and maintain proper hydration."

Now if it only had some kind of way … Read more