Inhabitat's Week in Green: 310MPH Maglev train, full-color 3D printer and a car that boasts an astounding 1,300MPG

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.Lego just made an announcement that will have geeks around the world salivating: Beginning in September, the company will release a 1-foot-tall Star Wars Ewok Village, complete with tree houses, rope ladders and of course, our favorite furry friends. That's not all -- this week the toy maker also unveiled plans for a new Lego museum in Denmark that looks like a big pile of toy bricks. In other blocky building news, the world's first carbon-negative building brick was just unveiled in the UK, and Studio Liu Lubin created an awesome set of stackable Tetris-style micro houses in China. And in green transportation news, Tesla announced that it will add a fourth car -- a compact SUV -- to its electric vehicle lineup, and Japan just unveiled a new prototype of its ridiculously fast 310MPH maglev train.Filed under: Misc, Transportation, ScienceComments

Check Out The Extreme Racial Segregation In America's Biggest Cities

America is known as the Great Melting Pot. But a closer look at census data shows we're a lot closer to a dinner plate--with peas here, carrots there, potatoes here, and steak over there. In other words, we still have a very high level of racial segregation. This cool series of maps was produced by Eric Fischer, based on a map of Chicago from Bill Rankin's Radical Cartography. Red represents white people, blue is black, green is Asian, and orange is Hispanic, and each dot is 25 people.Click here to see the maps >Join the conversation about this story »

In Celebration Of Election Day...Here Are The 14 Craziest Things Tea Party Candidates Believe

Well, it's finally election day. Most tea party candidates are trailing in the polls, but there's always a chance that they'll sweep to victory.  So what do these newly popular folks actually stand for? You don't want to know.Click here to see what the wackiest things Tea Party candidates believe >Join the conversation about this story »

Amazon Is About To Buy Diapers.com For $540 Million (AMZN)

The diapers price war is officially over. Amazon has agreed to a $540 million acquisition of Quidsi, the parent of Diapers.com and Soap.com, according to Fortune. The deal, to be announced on Monday, will bring on Quidsi's co-founders in a multi-year employment contract. The price tag is $200 million over what Quidsi was valued at in its latest round of venture financing, according to Fortune's Dan Primack. As we reported yesterday, the price war that led to this acquisition included aggressive discounting on diapers and related products. Amazon, for example, sells a case of Pampers for $39.  Diapers was selling the same case for $45. It recently introduced Amazon Mom, which offers further discounts, cash back, and free shipping. Diapers.com had countered with price cuts and a cash-back program of its own, but wasn't able to compete. Now see why Amazon is one of 10 smartest web/tech companies >Join the conversation about this story »

The 18 Worst Companies In America (T, DTV, C, JPM, BAC, MCD, WLP, AMR, DAL, LCC, TWC, CMCSA, UAUA, CCMM)

Everything a company does comes down to customer satisfaction. Yet there are terrible, aggravating and disappointing companies that flourish and survive. Most of these companies benefit from near-monopolies -- such as the four airlines and four cable companies that make our list. This list is based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which surveys customers every month. "These are not terribly competitive industries, as the switching barriers for most of them are quite high," said David VanAmburg of ACSI. "In other industries, like the food or clothing sector, the competition is huge. They bend over backwards to make customers happy, because they have to." They also tend to be large companies: "When a company grows, there is a tendency to lose customer focus" VanAmburg said.Click here to see the worst companies >Join the conversation about this story »

Check Out The 2010 Tech Forecast From The First Arrest In The Insider Trading Scandal

What was Don Chu doing that got him busted for conspiracy to commit insider trading? What do expert networks do? Here is a recent presentation by Don Chu on the tech landscape in 2010. Although this document looks rather mundane, what differentiates it from other analyst reports is that it sources unmentioned industry insiders, rather than independent analysis. Don Chu would have been in correspondence with these experts -- which is legal only if he follows rigid compliance rules.Click here to see the presentation >Join the conversation about this story »

How Your Thanksgiving Turkey Gets Made

It's turkey time. Millions of Americans will dive into the big bird on Thursday, smothering it with gravy or cranberry sauce or both. Many will also face the scornful stare of their vegetarian cousin, silently asking, "do you know how that turkey got here?" We can assure you: You don't want to know. From conception to carcass, here's the short, hellish life-cycle of your industry-produced turkey.Click here to see how your turkey gets made >Join the conversation about this story »

15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

(This post was published last spring. We're running it again now, as inequality grows even more stark.) The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Cliché, sure, but it's more true than at any time since the Gilded Age. While politicians gloat about our "recovery," our poor are getting poorer, our average wages are still falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low.  But, yes, if you're in that top 1%, life in America is grand.Click here to see the charts >Join the conversation about this story »

Check Out Photos Of The Incredible Bombshelter Fortress Where The Wikileaks Archives Are Stored

Forget Amazon. Wikileaks has far better host for its secret information. The Wikileaks archive is now stored in a former bomb shelter in Sweden, according to the LA Times. The ultra-secure location in the Pionen White Mountains features solid-steel doors that could withstand a nuclear attack. Inside the high-tech facility looks like the Batcave. Joseph Lieberman won't be able to shut down this server down.Click here to see photos >Join the conversation about this story »

LIVE COVERAGE: Julian Assange Holds Online Chat

The man wanted by Swedish authorities and Interpol -- Julian Assange -- is holding a live chat right now at The Guardian. We are following it and will bring you anything newsworthy he says. Click here for updates.

  Assange is answering questions directly in the comments page. Comments include:

"In terms of the 'quality' (for want of a better word) of the cables are you planning to release the juicy bits first, or can we look forward to more of the same kind of revelations about the mendacity of the super-powerful as long as the documents keep coming?" "now your websites have had their DNS entries blocked and even the direct IP addresses are not responding which one can only assume is the result of a DDOS attack, are you tempted to release the password for the wikileaks insurance file?" And amusingly: "Dear Guardian, can you please have a better setup for Q&A's using the comments is quite unreadable and impractical when there are probably better solutions. Thanks" Join the conversation about this story »