4 million kilometers is like the distance you'd travel if you ran around the world almost a hundred times (on the equator!), 5 round trips to the moon, 1,111 completions of Tour de France, and 114 Great Races from New York to Paris. That's also the distance Irv Gordon and his 1966 Volvo P1800 have travelled for the last 40 years. He began driving his Volvo in 1966 and haven't stopped to retire yet.

He broke the barrier this September as he was cruising his way down Lake Placid. Although he wished that it happened while he was in Italy or Australia, he still described his moment as a "metric milestone." He's also drove over different countries like the British Isles, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Germany.

His next trip will take him to Las Vegas, where he just might break the 2.5 million mile barrier. He's also planning to go farther by planning a trip to Italy, Greece, France, Belgium, and Hawaii. So will 5 million kilometers be far behind? We'll see in a few months if he does break it.

Since we began this article with some shocking statistics,we'll end it with another one. The numbers below will show how well he's taken care of his car despite the massive kms it's done so far. He's had: 710 oil changes, 100,000 plus miles per year since 1996, 0 false starts, 0 replaced engines, 1 new starter, $4,150. What the Volvo cost him then in 1966; 99 tune ups, 8,285 tanks of gas...and he's still running folks.

If you're a gadget freak with environmentalist tendencies and $5.5 Mil hanging around somewhere, you might want to look at this 6,500 sq. ft., five-bedroom house for sale. The House of Innovation in Alamo, California is scheduled to be put on the market for a generous buyer.

It's a unique house at best. It's got the leading edge devices and electronics installed for your pleasure. It also has its own mowing robot and iPod around the house. This house has all the possible gadgets that might come out five to twenty years from now. What's ironic about it is that it's also pro-earth.

Another nice thing about it is that it's built entirely without nails - imagine LEGO only on a bigger scale. Since the floors aren't made from solid timber, they're more sustainable. For those looking to save a couple more bucks, it uses natural gas and rooftop solar panels to charge your house all day long. It's also bundled with a natural gas-burning car. Undescore 'High-tech' and 'environment friendly' with one stroke.

The House is open for tourists up until Nov. 12. The following day, it'll be for sale to the highest bidder. If you're interested, it's time to save up. Will it become a museum of the future or will someone actually live in it? We'll know by November 13...

This classy pen you see above was featured recently in Stupid.com. But just because it's one of Mr. Stupid's stupid picks in a site that calls itself Stupid.com means it's absurd. Okay, well, maybe a bit weird.

It looks like a gag item but the site says it's for real! It's a pen that massages any part of your body. It's also being advertised as a real pen that can write well (it's not a pen if it doesn't write, right?). So what could you use it for exactly? Massage any part of your body that aches with the tiny vibrator on top. And you can bring it anywhere because the pen's very portable.

Oh, and the pen comes with a free battery.

So, you want to try this out? Be warned though; it wouldn't be in Mr. Stupid's Stupid Picks if it weren't, stup... er...weird.

"Big Brother is watching you," or in this case, he is smelling you. According to the Associated Press, repeat drunken drivers in 10 counties may be required to wear alcohol-detecting bracelets called the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (SCRAM), 24 hours a day.

Along with the bracelet are two gray, wallet-sized boxes that's attached to the band. It monitors skin vapor & tone, then sends it to a modem for database collection. It takes samples and sends it out any time of the day. No use switching because the bracelet is tamper proof. Breaking the seal or putting something between the skin and the detector won't help either; it'll send the info to the authorities. This bracelet will ensure previous offenders to remain sober throughout the day. 

It'll be part of the 24/7 Sobriety Project wherein the offenders will be tested twice daily in Minnehaha, Pennington, and Tripp counties. The Attorney General hopes that this will lead to lessening the number of people in jail who have committed alcohol-related crimes. He also plans to petition the Legislative state to make the program mandatory, statewide.

Let's think for a moment that your computer doesn't have a mouse, nor a touchpad. We'd all be typing in shortcuts, I guess. The mouse serves a purpose for now. We are addicted to the mouse. But in the future we may no longer need these little critters. Introducing: TrackIR, the Head Motion Tracker.

The TrackIR tracks the users head motions through 6 degrees of 3 dimensional movement. It supports 60 games (primarily flight and racing sims) like EVE Online, Colin McRae Rally, Flight Simulator X. An infrared cam sits on top of the monitor, capturing 120 images a second. It then processes this info to the computer via usb.

Naturally, you still need your other controller so to do the job. It's extremely easy to use, but it might take you around two days to tweak it to the way you want. Different strokes for different gamers, eh? There's a lot of ways you could customize the sensitivity of this add-on. It may offer a large advantage when participating in online dogfights, but hey it's a war out there. Try to get as much legal advantage as you can.

As for the future, they're planning to make it a bit more smaller and lighter. They're also finding out ways to use it in other genres like MMORPG, RTS, and puzzles. Sony's Eyetoy and the Xbox360 Vision Camera aren't really competitors as their gesture games aren't that advanced yet. So will you get this for your racing sim? If it makes gaming that more realistic, why not? The price? MSRP at $179.95, sold online now.

Spam used to appease the senses, specifically the gustatory one. It was a treat for us kids when we'd get spam for breakfast. The aroma and the taste really had us going in the morning commute to school. Now, Spam is something that needs to be crushed like the cockroach that it is. At least cockroaches do something for the world, the other just makes the inboxes full to the brim with useless information.

There are now programs out there that limits the spam's clutches. We can finally see the end of our inboxes again. Yet, like a bad movie, there seems to be a twist to this whole story. Remember those movies where in the end the villain seems to have been defeated but somehow you get a feeling this guy's not yet out for the count, example:all 'Friday the 13th' movies. Well, it looks like spam is doing a Jason as well. Photo Spam. It's here and it lives inside your inbox. The moment you open it, you never know what will happen.

According to a leading anti-virus software lab AV-Test in Germany, one third of spam today is image-based. It's where text is included in an image. Most spam filters today look out for text spams only. That can only mean only two things: you have less text spam, but a lot of photo spam.

So what can the emailers who just want to send their vacation pictures to their parents, not land in the spam folders do? Write information relative to the picture in the email. Most photo spams have just pictures in them, no text.

The receivers have more chances of filtering spam if they use online e-mail services, rather than buying a filtering software. Cheaper too. A cautionary advice: one must have at least one alias address. The "real" e-mail address should be reserved for family, friends, and known acquaintances.

Using a wheelchair to get around takes tremendous energy. This would be doubly hard if it wasn't an electric wheelchair. Charging electric wheelchairs can get pretty expensive overtime. What if there was an electric chair that runs on nothing but sunlight? Bob Triming just created one.

He modified his electric wheelchair to run on solar power. So how'd he do it? He installed a pair of 20 watt solar panels to deliver a 24 Volt charge needed to move his wheelchair. The extra power gives him more than 30 minutes of full power on a cloudless, sunny day. He also added some side and rear LED to ensure his safety. What if it rains? The panels serve as an umbrella of sorts. It can be detached if needed be.

He created the design, submitted it to a company for sponsorship and got the solar panels he needed. Just goes to show that if you have a great idea that can help millions around the world, people will help.

Now if this guy can only hook up with this professor who's doing a mind-controlled wheelchair...

If you were able to climb Mt. Everest, what cooker would you bring? Cookers are the main source of heat on your way up and down the slopes, so you better bring a reliable one. We read somewhere that gear-savvy outdoor guides were kissing a particular brand of cooker on a testing trip in the Grand Canyon. So we searched high & low and found out that it was the Jetboil Personal Cooking System.

Backpackers just love the ultra-efficient design where everything just fits into a single unit. It includes, a 1-liter insulated pot, wind-protected burner, and heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is the one integral part that makes the whole thing work. It captures 80% of a flame's heat, more than twice the other canister stoves. This isn't such a big deal in mild weather, but it's a godsend in the bitter cold. The stove is compatible with any standard threaded canister. The only downside is the plastic lid--it's hard to remove when hot.

So when camping out in the cold weather, bring a Jetboil to ensure a warm soup in the evening and hot coffee in the morning. Happy camping!

Just when you thought they thought of everything to connect to the iPod, last time it was a thunder-dome type robot, now it's an La-Z-Boy for techies. We introduce, the iRocker by Adonis Furniture.

When we first read this, we thought of a rocking chair. We'd see grandma listening to good 'ol Iron Maiden and Swing Out Sister. Then we see that it resembles more of something that you see on an airplane more than what you see in a home for the aged. It looks pretty comfy for a chair that rocks.

It comes in different colors--faux leather in black, bone, and saddle. Made of durable microfabric with 4 recline positions. Good for days where you just want to lie down and headbang to some Queen. Works with all iPod players. So if you still got that first gen iPod, no worries there, eh? Got audio inputs, a master volume dial with LED, a 15 watt amp and integrated Altek Vision speaker system that could relax you and rock your world whenever you please. It comes with a hefty price range of $100 to $600.

Remember  the Vacuum Cleaner Robot? Well, here's another possible Robot ancestor. Miuro, the music innovation based on utility robot technology.

So what does this music on "rollers" do? You basically attach your 3rd Gen iPod on it's head (just like a brain) and have it blast sonic waves (music, for the meantime) from its rolling arms. You control the robot by remote control. It also receives signals from the PC to play iTunes and other programs (safe programs, yes). As you can see above, it comes in 4 different colors. Additional accessories will include a camera and sensor so it can map your house and remember all your rooms.

The Creator, Shinichi Hara, designed it so that it would look gentle and become part of everyday life. He's hoping that 10,000 Miuros will be rolling inside houses by the first year. They remind me of those enemy fighters in Star Wars to tell you frankly. Will this change the way we listen to our music? Instead of carrying the iPod, it will plod on right behind you when you least expect it. Then it will blast you with sonic vibrations. But that's just us thinking.

Maybe the UBOT and Miuro can be molded into one. Imagine, it's going to make music and vacuum your floor! Multitasking robot. But putting too much power in one thing can be dangerous.

It's now available online.