2013 Sentra Unveiled

Nissan has been lagging in the compact car game as its Sentra hasn't been aging gracefully, and the company is looking to rectify that with the redesigned 2013 Sentra. Looking very much like a smaller version of the 2013 Altima mid-size sedan, the next Sentra will be powered by a 1.8-liter four-cylinder that actually makes less power than the current car's 2.0-liter mill. With 130 horsepower and 128 lb-ft of torque, the 1.8 sacrifices 10 horsepower and 19 lb-ft of torque from the previous car.

Popsicles, Flavored Ice, and More: The Modern Cocktail

Until recently, the only attention paid to ice in the realm of cocktails was whether someone wanted it in there or not, and what shape/size to use if they did. Spherical ice cubes became popular, but even that isn't edgy enough anymore, as bartenders turn to flavored ices, shaped ice, popsicles, and even smoked ice (yes, that's a thing) to create artisanal cocktails.

Trending This Week: 08/25 –08/31

Lots of online reaction to Clint Eastwood’s strange appearance at the Republican National Convention, where he addressed an empty chair as if it were President Obama. Democraticunderground.com collected some of the best response tweets. For our money, the prize goes to @exavierpope who tweeted, “Clint Eastwood summed up the #RNC perfectly: An old crotchety rich white man fighting against an imaginary black threat.” Comedian Patton Oswalt chimed in with, “’If Clint Eastwood ever talks to a chair on national TV, people will need a way to reassure each other’—inventor of Twitter, March 2006.”

App Roundup: August 27-31, 2012

This week's most-downloaded apps have changed significantly this week, and we've also got some good ones that we found on our own that you might like or find useful. Without further ado, here's what made the ranks, from violent video games to IQ tests, which we can't help but think would deliver inaccurate results.

Kinky Friedman: Talkin' Politics for All the World to Hear

When songwriter, crime novelist, notorious wit, and inimitably American Kinky Friedman added gubernatorial candidate to his powerful wheelhouse, the 67-year-old progenitor of the infamous country and western ensemble, The Texas Jewboys endeared himself to supporters with slogans like- "How Hard Could It Be?”, “Why The Hell Not?”, “My Governor is a Jewish Cowboy” and “He Ain’t Kinky, He’s My Governor,” and stunned naysayers by placing fourth in the six-person 2006 race down in Texas.

2014 Mazda 6 Unveiled

We're not sure why, but Mazda chose the Moscow Motor Show as the venue for the unveil of its 2014 Mazda 6 mid-size sedan. And based on the photos we've seen, it's a looker. Mazda needs a hit with this one, the first-generation 6 was well-received for its sporty nature, but the current generation lost some of that verve, despite having a handsome exterior design.

Big Brother Is Watching (Animals)

Two recent studies illustrate the ways scientists employ technology to track the movements of animals in an effort to learn more about their wild animal ways. One study involved attaching small cameras to domestic cats to see what they got up to when they were let out, and the other involved attaching tiny radio receivers to hairy wood ants to learn more about how they communicate and travel between nests.

Top Ten Most-Shoplifted Items

The five-finger discount is the best sale you'll ever encounter—everything's 100 percent off! That said, there are some things that get stolen more often than others, and thanks to ABC News and the National Retail Federation, here's the top 10 most-stolen items.

Bitcoin: What Is It, and How Do You Use It?

Bitcoin—if you haven't heard of it, you're not alone, but you should start reading up on the latest in ways to spend your money. Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables you to send payments to anyone, anywhere in the world, for just about anything. In fact, until now, it's been linked to transactions of the underworld—that is, illegal drugs, porn, and poker. But now, MasterCard is allegedly close to launching a Bitcoin-funded debit card.

Kickstarter of the Week: SunVolt Power Station

These days, there's a heavy focus on eco-footprints and green technology, with companies dreaming up new ways to conserve resources all the time. This week's Kickstarter, SunVolt, is part of that, offering up 10- and 15-watt solar panels that are portable and small, to be used for charging multiple devices—think laptops, smartphones, tablets, mp3 players, and more.

Learning In Your Sleep

You may have heard about various products that promise to teach you a foreign language, help you study for an exam, or just improve your outlook on life, all while you sleep.The learn-while-you-sleep idea has been around for quite some time—it was a minor plot point in Aldus Huxley’s 1931 dystopian novel Brave New World, and perhaps more famously in an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer orders sleep-learning weight-loss tapes but is instead sent vocabulary-builder tapes. Experts have long considered sleep-learning to be a fantasy, but new studies suggest that some types of learning may be possible during sleep.

Taking It To The Track

When you get an invitation to drive exotic cars on a racetrack, you don't say no, even if the skies have opened up with so much rain that you start calculating the cost of building an ark. I recently got tapped to head to the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Ill., on the extreme fringes of Chicago's suburbs, to take part in the Xtreme Xperience. Simply put, the Xtreme Xperience is a touring road show that takes exotic cars (our event included the Porsche 911 Turbo, the Ferrari F430, the Audi R8 V-8, and the Lamborghini Gallardo) to a track and allows the general public to purchase three laps of track time, along with video of the driver's on-track exploits.

Rocking Out With the Stars

Perhaps the coolest nickname a hotel has ever received is "Riot House." That's the name that the hotel currently known as the Andaz West Hollywood (we also like "Riot Hyatt," since it rhymes, but according to a Google search, few people call it that) was once given, due to a history of hijinks that occurred in the 1960s and '70s as famous rock stars rolled through town.

Road Tunes: New Music Releases

Forty years ago today, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” was the number one song in the country. Why it was number one at the end of August, so close to the start of the school year, is unclear. The album was released in June of 1972, but it apparently took a few months for the song to catch on. Also on this day in 2009, Noel Gallagher quit Oasis. Somehow we all found the strength to move on. And even though there will be no new Oasis albums, other artists still release new music. Here’s this week’s batch.

Twitter Rolls Out New API, Revokes Access to Other Sites

The last time we checked to see which of our Twitter friends were on Tumblr and Instagram, we were met with a notice saying that due to Twitter's new API rules, we were no longer able to search through Twitter to find buddies. The new rules crack down on developer access, requiring more frequent authentication and a limit on requests—two things that are supposed to protect the value of Twitter's data. So what does this really mean, in non-tech terms?

We Drive Our Own

You can take my steering wheel when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Apologies to the late Charlton Heston and the NRA for that paraphrase, but with all this talk about the self-driving car, I've finally found the issue that might drive me to a shack in Montana. I'm far from a Luddite, and I generally embrace change that can better society. But like Car And Driver's Aaron Robinson, I don't want to surrender control of my car to Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or any other oddly-named search-engine giants anytime soon.

Museums of Anti-Science

If you want something that’s patently untrue to be seen as factual, all you need to do is build a museum, right? That must be the thinking behind the Creation Science Hall of Fame, which the people running the web site of the same name are planning to build, once they have the funding.

Samsung Loses Lawsuit Against Apple, Plans Appeal

Samsung and Apple's court battle came to a close on Friday with Samsung being ordered to pay $1 billion in damages to Apple. Ouch! A jury found the company guilty of infringing on Apple's patents—so far, Samsung has been found to be in violation of four patents, as well as found guilty of willful infringement for most of the patents in question, except for those regarding the Galaxy Tab.

Keep Your MTV: I Want My On Demand

It’s amazing how easily we become spoiled. We can live most of our lives without some modern convenience, but then once we have it, living without it seems unthinkable. If you’ve ever misplaced your TV’s remote control and had to get off the couch to change the channel by hand, you understand how this principle works. And this is what’s happened to me vis-a-vis TV on demand.

Grocery Stores Auction Off Old Food

Groceries are pretty expensive—it seems every week when we do our weekly shopping, we spend way more than we want to and don't get much in return. But now, some grocery stores are exploring a way to offer savings to their customers while at the same time saving themselves from losing money. How? Why, by auctioning off expired or damaged foods, of course.