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When we were kids, we were fed a variety of lies on a daily basis. For the girls, it was that we’d all find Prince Charming, despite the fact there’s only one of him and millions of us. For the boys, it was the diluted fantasy that they could become an astronaut; a dream quickly crushed by the fact that NASA has a weight limit and childhood obesity is on the rise.  But we were all promised three major landmarks by Hollywood: cities in space, flying cars, and a war with extraterrestrials.

At the turn of the century – when none of these wishes came true – we sort of stepped away from the cities in space and alien hostilities but clung to the flying cars, as they were the most likely of the three. It is now a decade later and we demand to have our childhood promises realized.

Fortunately for us, five MIT grads (typical) have developed the flying car with their company Terrafugia (“escape from land” in Latin). It’s not really what you think of when you hear “flying car” but it’s the most literal sense of the word. The reason being that it’s a car…with wings. Which makes sense, but not the dramatic technology we were hoping for.

Personally, I’d like to hover thousands of feet above the ground as opposed to taking off and escalating gradually. Then again, there’s a reason I didn’t go to MIT. Always limited by the laws of physics.

Apparently, this invention drives like a car, but flies like a plane. Much like Superman. And it takes standard gasoline, which would have been an incredible feat when we were kids and the price per gallon wasn’t so ridiculous, but hey, it’s convenient.

Over 80 of these innovative vehicles have been pre-ordered, which means there will already be traffic in the skies. There are rumors that the price is close to $200,000 per car, but the company’s website claims the “purchase price has not been set”. If you had a couple hundred thousand lying around, would you consider buying a flying car?

If you’d like to compare and contrast the real flying car with George Jetson’s ride to recognize the how confined we are by modern technology, below is the video of the Terrafugia car in action followed by our favorite futuristic family, the Jetsons:

Further proof that Craigslist is the most awesome invention known to man: the online listing service has allowed a California teenager to drive a better car than I do.  Correction: a better car than I will ever hope to have in the foreseeable future.

Steven Ortiz, who is barely of driving age, is now cruising down the freeway in a Porsche Boxster. And no, he’s not a trust fund baby or a lottery winner. He just knows how to fully utilize the online community that is Craigslist.

It all started with an old cell phone which was traded for an iPod which was traded for a dirt bike and so on until Ortiz finally ended up with the 2000 model year Porsche.

That last sentence begs a few questions. How do you justify trading an iPod for a used cell phone? Better yet, how do you justify trading a dirt bike for an iPod?

Maybe it’s just this crazy, throw-away culture that we live in. Or maybe this was all a serious case of CUI: Craigslisting Under the Influence.

For his part, Steven says that trading up to the Boxster was no easy feat. “It takes a lot of time. A lot of patience,” he told Fred Roggin of The Filter. Ortiz thinks that in a down economy, people still want the thrill of a new purchase but they don’t have the money to make it happen. So they instead resort to bartering old stuff that they aren’t using anymore.

Congrats to Steven on the new Porsche. You can see his entire story in the video below:

Kia’s animated hamsters are at it once again. This time they’re clad in Fubu and Ecko as they rap about the Kia Soul and play various instruments.  In a word… adorable.

I’m not really sure how this whole, “putting hamsters behind the wheel of a car,” thing started but it apparently wasn’t the one hit wonder most assumed it would be. The original video now has over one million views on YouTube and the second is closing in on 1.1 million.

That first video aired in early 2009 and replaced the cars on Los Angeles streets with hamsters running around in squeaky exercise wheels.  And just when you start to wonder why every hamster is driving the same thing, a brand new Soul rolls up at a traffic light to a chorus of gasps and surprised looks. The Soul is a new way to roll, the tag line explains.

The new commercial takes the same concept and turns it into a music video. Since the exercise wheel concept got exhausted in the first video, this new one features a few alternatives: toasters, cardboard boxes, and washing machines. If you look closely, you can still spot one or two late-model exercise wheels on “Hamsterdam Avenue.”

For the next one, I think they should go for Emo hamsters rocking their heads to Dashboard Confessional as they apply eyeliner in the rearview mirror. Just a thought.

What do you think of the Kia Soul hamster commercials? Are they worth the hype or are they just another squeaky wheel?

A couple of weeks ago, Mini challenged Porsche to a race at Road Atlanta between the 172-horsepower Mini Cooper S and the 385-horsepower Porsche 911 via Facebook campaign, full page ad in the New York Times, and a viral video.  Needless to say, Mini’s little car is super scrappy.

Despite the fact that Porsche was favored to win, the sports car maker initially declined the challenge with a buzzkilling letter to Mini chief, Jim McDowell, that stated, “Porsche doesn’t race for fame, stunts or publicity.”

In response, Mini (no doubt in an effort to be subtle) launched an air raid on Porsche’s headquarters and released, yet another, viral video.

And all this back and forth is nothing compared to Mini’s next move – a spoof on Rocky IV:

The German sports car maker finally caved in to the pressure and accepted Mini’s challenge.  Surprise, surprise: Porsche won the race.  David did not beat the 385-horsepower Goliath:

Despite all the sensational coverage, do you think that this race was a good move on Mini’s part?