A firm formed by Silicon Valley executives is trying to produce in commercial quantity genetically-modified bug waste that is similar to crude oil but cheaper, cleaner and renewable. LS9 Inc. is planning to build by 2011 demonstration-scale and commercial-scale plants that will produce the so-called Oil 2. 0, which is composed of excrement from altered industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli bacteria. So far, the company's laboratory can produce the biofuel in small amounts, enough to fill a beaker, but has yet to test a 264-gallon (1,000-liter) fermenting machine that can produce the equivalent of one barrel of the fuel per week.

Hundreds of bike riders shed their clothing and rode through the capital of Spain Saturday protesting the overuse of automobiles, and celebrating the simplicity of bicycles and the human body. According to the World Naked Bike Ride Website, the annual ride is held in cities all over the world "to celebrate cycling and the human body. The ride demonstrates the vulnerability of cyclists on the road and is a protest against oil dependency. "

Florida police are searching for four men who stole more than $4,000 worth of diesel from the Island Food Store gas station. According to the service station manager, the four parked their truck beside pump 4 and paid $20. The screen showed only $5 worth of diesel was pumped out, but actually 926 gallons were transferred. At $4. 50 per gallon, the fuel would have cost over $4,000.

California legislators are on an amendment and enactment mode, targeting principally the state's various driving laws. Among the measures under consideration are a prohibition on drivers carrying live animals on their laps while behind the wheel. Another proposal seeks to ban truants and high school dropouts from driving, while one bill urges a study on the danger silent electric cars hold for blind pedestrians.

Police in Jacksonville, Florida were called when a restaurant worker spotted a burglar who was trapped in an air vent while apparently trying to climb down. The suspect was found with his leg dangling from a slot directly above the restaurant's grill, which was smothered with hot oil. Upon seeing the hanging limb, Mandarin restaurant manager Richard Angers alerted the owner, Rana Escamilla, who called the authorities.