Subaru's controversial aircraft-inspired grilles, as featured on the Impreza and Tribeca, will disappear from the radar. Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru's parent company), chose to use the "propeller" corporate face as a pointer to its aeronautical history. But Subaru spokesman David Rowley concedes the new face, introduced on the Tribeca has had mixed reviews. "It's fair to say the design will not appear on future Subarus,” he says.

The IROC Concept is a nod to the Scirocco, the sporty little VW that was sold in the Seventies, Eighties and even early Nineties and that will be resurrected as this vehicle (in production trim, of course). It's public debut will be at the 2006 Paris Motor Show in September and hit showrooms by late 2008. [autoblog]

Automobile Magazine has recently updated the 2008 & Beyond Sneak Preview - Future Cars section of it's site. The 08 Malibu, 09 Camaro and Z07 Corvette look like they may actually be an "American Revolution" and really change people's perceptions about Chevrolet. Aston Martin's Rapide has to be the sexiest four-door I have ever seen.

> Spy shot and video of the 2008 Malibu can be seen at Inside Line. The photos show a much improved design over the current version. Dare I say it looks stylish.

According to Automotive News a fastback coupe and Euro-styled crossover variants of the Cadillac CTS were shown to dealers. AWD is also a possibility as is a "third" yet to be described variant. Cadillac believes that the CTS has been a "credibility booster" and wants to leverage its standing into a full lineup of vehicles not unlike BMW and the 3 series. It all makes sense to me. The CTS has garnered a lot of attention from folks who would have otherwise never considered a Cadillac. [all cars all the time]

> Spy pics and video of the 2008 CTS can be seen at Inside Line. The photos show a much smoother design and a grill inspired by the 2003 Cadillac Sixteen Concept.

George W. Busg has been faulted in some quarters for taking an extended vacation while the Middle East festers. It doesn't much matter; the man running the country is Vice President Dick Cheney.

When historians look back on the multiple assaults on our constitutional system of government in this era, Cheney's unprecedented role will come in for overdue notice. Cheney's shotgun mishap, when he accidentally sprayed his host with birdshot, has gotten more media attention than has his control of the government.

Historically, the vice president's job was to ceremonially preside over the Senate, attend second-tier foreign funerals, and be prepared for the president to die. Students are taught that John Nance Garner, Franklin Roosevelt's first vice president, compared the job to a bucket of warm spit (and historians say spit was not the word the pungent Texan actually used).

Recent vice presidents Walter Mondale and Al Gore were given more authority than most, but there was no doubt that the president was in charge.

Cheney is in a class by himself. The administration's grand strategy and its implementation are the work of Cheney-- sometimes Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, sometimes Cheney and political director Karl Rove.

-- Continue reading this article on Boston.com

-- Also check out Bush's Final Gamble: Giving Iraq a Dictator? at Timesonline.co.uk.

Once upon a time there was a free story archive called the ASSGM Story Archive which eventually morphed into a pay site. Recently I stumbled upon the ASSGM (alt sex stories gay moderated) google group which is not only free but has a ton of seriously hot stories which can either be delivered to your email or read on the groups home page.

After reading the above post on 983 I decided to check out the group (a google account is required to join). Besides a ton of stories the group has 2 great function 1. it is searchable and 2. it has an RSS feed which means I can subscribe through Bloglines :) It isn't exactly the old ASSGM but it is a free alternative.

This has to be the strangest digital audio player I have ever seen -- It's a design concept for a wireless yo-yo powered MP3 player. The inventors estimate that between 10-12 tosses per hour are sufficient for continuous music play. A wireless headset allows the user to listen to music while yo-yoing. [ecogeek]

Are you an Apple user and want to be able to watch .WMVs without having to actually load Media Player onto your computer? Telestream makes Flip4Mac which allows you to do just that using Quicktime. Download Flip4Mac.

An art exhibit in a small Brazilian town showing Barbie in intimate poses with another female has draw the ire of toy maker Mattel. The company says if artist Karin Schwarz doesn't remove the exhibit it will go to court. The exhibit, called 'Amazing Girls', is on display at a bar in the town of Curitiba. A Brazilian spokesperson for Mattel said that "Barbie is a very proper lady and she is not happy about being portrayed as something that she isn't." [365gay.com]

XTube allows people (gay and straight) from anywhere (much like youtube but with a xxx twist) to publish their own adult content. Sign up for a free XTube account here. [983]

A blog I came across a few weeks ago and have been frequenting quite regularly has changed it's www address, http://nine83.blogspot.com. The blog has a ton of xxx rated net pics and stories and is worth a look if you have never been before. There is also a companion xxx-rated-group of the same name if you'd like to look at that too :) The group does require xxxratedgroup membership which is free. You can sign up here.

click Random Photos or NYC Photos to see a slide show of the pictures in each photo set.

I found this picture today and it makes an amazing desktop wallpaper... Try it out :)

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's cabinet has given its blessing to a bill allowing gay marriage, which would make it the first country in Africa to accord homosexual couples the same rights as their straight counterparts.

"Basically (the bill) will legalise same-sex marriage in compliance with the Constitutional Court ruling," said Maseko, who could not say when parliament would discuss the bill. See S Africa's cabinet gives nod to gay marriage

OKLAHOMA CITY - An openly gay Oklahoma man was turned away today when he tried to enlist in the US Army. Michael Cich walked into the recruiting station in northwest Oklahoma City and said he wanted to enlist but wouldn't hide the fact that he's openly gay. Cich was first told to wait for an Army public affairs officer then was told he would not be interviewed or allowed to fill out any form. [GayNewsBlog] ... full story at kten.com

Towleroad has more on this story here.

RANDOM LINKS: Wednesday
> CrackBerries
> Penis Pump mistaken for a bomb
> A true trailer park
> Introducing the Busty Mouse
> Twisted Studs launch their own site
> Oliver the "Humanzee"
> 57 Chevy on sale again
> 07 R8 in action
> Don't take apples from women
> Web surfing in public places
> Polarbear genitals are shrinking
> Gmail MP3 player
> Operation Acoustic Kitty
> When you see these pictures, you will
feel that day again.

NASA has named it's new manned space exploration craft ORION. The vehicle is being developed to take human space explorers back to the Moon and potentially then on to Mars. It is hoped the name Orion could eventually mean as much for manned space exploration as Apollo did in the 1960s and 1970s. Its first manned flight - to the International Space Station - will take place no later than 2014 and its first flight to the Moon no later than 2020. [BBC]

iCandy from proceed at your own risk :)

British buff mag CAR reports that the Chrysler Firepower concept car is looking more like a legitimate production possibility.

With speculation rampant that Dodge is going to give the Viper a serious power boost (think 650 HP) for 2008 -- an idea bolstered by sightings of Diamondback Viper test mules -- the thinking is that Viper's move upmarket opens up room for a new performance coupe to take its place in the battle against the likes of the Corvette.

The HEMI-driven Firepower would certainly fit the bill while also providing Chrysler dealers with a serious traffic magnet for their showrooms. If a production version retained the concept's blend of performance with luxurious interior appointments, it might make for a very interesting 'Vette alternative, indeed. [autoblog]

Hummer fans have been speculating on it since early this year, now Automotive News reports GM is considering a still-smaller Hummer model for the 2009 model year. The as-yet-platformless model would be the size of the Jeep Wrangler and likely be dubbed H4. The likely next target of hummerhumpers everywhere, the H4 would challenge Jeep's gazillion-year dominance of the small, squarish off-roader segment. AN also bids us to expect a V8-powered H3 for 2007 and a GMT-900 platform H2 by 2010.

When Scott Franklin designed the Wet Lamp, he threw sense out the window; specifically the logic that water and electricity shouldn't play with each other. The glass bowl is filled with water, and electrified, which lights up the lightbulb submerged inside. The silver rod that charges the water acts as a dimmer switch: plunge the rod into the liquid to turn up the lights. Comes in 3 sizes, with an average of $250. [gizmodo]

> NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian businessman born with two penises wants one of them removed surgically as he wants to marry and lead a normal sexual life, a newspaper report said Saturday.

The 24-year-old man from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh admitted himself to a New Delhi hospital this week with an extremely rare medical condition called penile duplication or diphallus, the Times of India said.

"Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary," the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying.

The surgery was expected to be challenging as both organs were well-formed and full blood supply to the retained penis had to be ensured to allow it to function normally, he added.

The newspaper did not disclose the identity of the man or the hospital to protect the patient's privacy.

There are about 100 such reported cases of diphallus around the world and it is known to occur among one in 5.5 million men, the newspaper said.

It is caused by the failure of the mesodermal bands in the embryo to fuse properly. The mesodermal bands are one of three primary layers of the embryo from which several body parts are formed.

Has anyone heard of here! the gay subscription channel?

here!, America's premium gay television network, was established in 2002 and is currently available to more than 50 million households nationwide. here! offers a wide variety of groundbreaking and acclaimed original movies and series plus the world's largest collection of gay and lesbian films appealing to the broad-based, diverse LGBT audience. here! is available nationwide on all major cable providers either as a 24/7 premium channel such as in New York City; a subscription video on demand (SVOD) service; and/or as a video on demand (VOD) service along with being available on major satellite providers. here! is also available to broadband homes via major Internet TV providers. here! Interactive Media, a new online division of here! Networks, has more than 3 million unique visitors a month through sites including Gaywired.com, GayMonkey.com, LesbiaNation.com and GaySports.com.

> 2008 Toyota Matrix?
> Don't ask, don't tell
> Hurry up and wait!
> iChat Mobile
> Porsche 997 GT2
> Radical media shift
> Toilet shaped phone charms
> 5 strange Japanese robots
> USB powered butt cooler
> Mel Gibson Schmuck t-shirt
> New species discovered on ebay
> The Conception Cap
> Jaguar's S-Type replacement
> Mirrored Glass Public Toilet
> Tiny animals on fingers photo gallery
> Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

I recently plunked down $100.00 and joined Apple’s .Mac (dotmac) service. For those of you out there that do not know what this service is click here for information. Anyway, all the services provided work great except one (1).

I created a .mac/group thinking it would be a great interactive way to showcase my new photos because an amazing slide show feature included in the group (which looks remarkably like the new slide show in Apple’s up-coming Leopard OS). After spending time creating and then uploading photos to the group I sent an invitation to a friends of mine to take a look.

Unfortunately he is not a member of .mac and was not able to access the group. For the life of me I can’t figure out why Apple would limit it’s .mac/groups to .mac members. A group much like what Yahoo provides is a way for people to interact, share information, pictures or whatever. Yahoo does limit it to people with member names, but it is a free service. Apple should come up with a way to allow people to create a username of sorts for those who don’t subscribe to .mac so they can access .mac/groups.

Other then this one gripe the service is great and I would recommend it to any Apple owner/user.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

"Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly listening to conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.

The government argued that the program is well within the president's authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.

The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush administration already had publicly revealed enough information about the program for Taylor to rule.

Since the April 10th groundbreaking ceremony, the City's team of contractors has made major advances on the High Line. The first phase of construction, removal of debris and nonstructural concrete, has been completed for Section 1, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. This phase included removal and storage of all the original rail tracks, which were tagged and mapped so that some can be integrated into the design of the new High Line landscape.

previous High Line posts on mikeydotcom: 3/29/06, 4/30/06, 8/11/06

random from the net :)

> VW resurrects the Scirocco.
> How to dance properly.
> A peak at the next Surbaru Forester.
> Bush's political survival depends on terror threats.
> Crumbling Taiwanese retro apartment thing.
> Crooks & Liars: is Bush an idiot?
> Top 5 strangest Apple concepts.
> Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now has a blog.
> New drug helps smokers quit.
> Wolverine piercings.

The results of Drubskin's 1000 words contest are in...

Circle Pit of Crusties - Grand Prize Winner!

Dog Pound - 2nd Place

Untitled Wank - 3rd Place

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 — The Defense Department discharged 726 service members last year for being gay, up about 10 percent from 2004, figures released by a gay rights group show.The group, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request. A spokeswoman for the Defense Department, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed that it had released the information. On Monday, the legal group released a breakdown of discharges by installation. A sharp increase occurred at Fort Campbell, Ky., where in 1999 a soldier was bludgeoned to death in his barracks by fellow soldiers who thought he was homosexual. In 2004, 19 service members from the base were discharged, a number that climbed to 49 last year. Fort Sill, Okla., had 27 dismissals last year, up from 8 in 2004. Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., had 60 dismissals, up from 40 in 2004, and the Marine base at Parris Island, S.C., discharged 22, up from 12. The Army, by far the largest branch of the military, discharged more gay personnel last year than the other branches with 386, the figures show, followed by the Navy with 177, the Air Force with 88 and the Marines, the smallest force, with 75. See Military's Discharges for Being Gay Rose in '05

Poster Boy: The Conservative Agenda now has a Gay Son. A new movie is coming out and looks to be a good one. Sex. Loyalty. Politics. Choices. Family Values. Scandal. Gay... all rolled into one movie. From the trailer it doesn't look to be one of those poorly produced queer movies. It hits a storyline that is all too familiar in the current climate of our "torn" society. Actors Matt Newton, Jack Noseworthy

Is DaimlerChrysler taking over McLaren?

Rumors surfaced in the German press Tuesday that minority shareholder DaimlerChrysler is close to buying the remaining 60 percent of McLaren F1 and McLaren Automotive that it does not yet own. DaimlerChrysler currently owns 40 percent, with the remaining 60 percent split equally between managing director Ron Dennis, and Saudi investor Mansour Ojjeh. The Mercedes stake in McLaren was valued at $400 million in 1999 when the automaker became part-owner.

If it happens, the deal would see DaimlerChrysler/Mercedes-Benz joining Renault, BMW, Honda, Toyota and Ferrari in having controlling interest in their respective Formula 1 teams.

The deal could also make sense if Mercedes plans to increase McLaren's road car production in future, whether for new versions of the SLR, or for a less expensive supercar to compete with the likes of the Ferrari F430.

Saturn's new small car, a version of the well-regarded Opel Astra, should be hitting the shores of North American sometime a bit beyond the middle of 2007. This will replace the not-so-well-regarded Ion, which is now scheduled to be produced through March of 2007 - three months longer than originally announced.

With Saturn doing whatever it can to bring a Euro flavor to its North American lineup, the brand is now looking towards a very European way to save fuel - the use of a modern diesel engine. Saturn boss Jill Lajdziak feels that clean diesel would be a "natural" fit for her products. She's also looking to grow the brand through "conquest sales" (new customers that come from outside the GM family), and with the limited number of diesel passenger-car options currently in the marketplace, this looks to be a very smart way to bring new faces into Saturn dealerships.

I just couldn't resist :)

I came across a cool NYC photo blog which has some interesting shots of the city.

BMW takes the wraps of the all new 2007 Mini Cooper.

Although visually similar to the last model (after all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it), every body panel on the new, larger MINI is different. Mechanically, the new model strives to retain the brand's go-kart handling while improving ride comfort. The new 1.6-liter engine with BMW's Valvetronic variable valve timing that develops 120 hp and 103 ft-lbs of torque has something for everyone, producing not only more power, but also improved fuel economy and reduced CO2 emissions.

More on the new Mini at TechEBlog.

7:25

SCISSORS NYC ON-SALE INFO: The Scissor Sisters October 21st show at the Manhattan Center Ballroom will go on sale TODAY at noon.

Friends of the High Line have some great photo montages posted on their site... check em out here.

Honda this week said it misprinted a toll-free auto-safety phone number in 1.2 million car manuals for the 2006 model year. Instead of an '888' prefix, Honda printed an '800.' And customers who attempted to use the phone number didn't get just any service. They were greeted by a phone sex line — "for live one-on-one talk with a hot fantasy girl." In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Honda said it would send postcards to owners and dealers with the correction. [leftlane news]

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden's gigantic "corpse flower" is in the middle of one of its rare bloomings.

Ford anounced the new MKS will be added to the Lincoln line up in 2008 as a 2009 model & it's "flagship sedan". You can check out the Concept MKS here.