Curses, foiled again

Two men, lacking masks when they broke into an apartment in Carroll, Iowa, used a Sharpie marker to draw them on. The Daily Times Herald reported that police, responding to a caller who saw two men with “painted faces” drive off, stopped a car after noticing Matthew McNelly, 23, and Joey Miller, 20, sporting the

Boom boxes on wheels

Fearing plug-in hybrid and electric automobiles could endanger pedestrians and children who can’t hear them coming, safety experts asked automakers to supply digitally amplified engine sound to warn walkers. A 2008 University of California Riverside study, financed by the National Federation of the Blind, found that a gas-powered car going 5 mph could be heard 28 feet away, whereas a hybrid in silent battery mode could be detected only seven feet away.

The upside, the New York Times reported, is that car owners will be able to customize the sound their vehicle emits, much like cell-phone ring tones. Several automakers are even working with Hollywood sound studios to customize engine noises. The most ambitious comes with the Fisker Karma, an $87,900 plug-in hybrid going on sale next year. Speakers in the bumpers will pump out a sound that company founder Henrik Fisker calls “a cross between a starship and a Formula One car.”

Irony illustrated

A wind-power company rejected a site in western Maine for its wind turbines because it’s too windy. The Sun-Journal of Lewiston reported that First Wind’s Matthew Kearns told a public meeting in Rumford that the company’s wind towers couldn’t handle the strong gusts on Black Mountain.

Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.