Etc...

Uh, oh, here come the cops

So serious is the speeding problem on Italy's Salerno- Reggio Calabria motorway that the police have equipped themselves with the one deterrent that just might work where all others have failed - a Lamborghini. But not any old Lamborghini. This one is a 2004 Gallardo (manufacturer's suggested retail price: $165,900). With the pedal to the metal, it'll do 185 m.p.h. - fast enough to overtake anything else on the road. And, yes, it has a flashing blue light on the roof.

Each year the National Trust for Historic Preservation sounds an alarm by compiling a list of America's most endangered historic places. They often run the gamut from individual buildings to, well, an entire state, as with Vermont, which was listed in 1993 and again faces development pressures from big-box retailers. This year's endangered places, with what they stand to lose if they're not protected:

State of Vermont Charming towns and villages
Columbus Circle (New York City) Iconic modernist design
Ridgewood Ranch (Willits, Calif.) Resting place of Seabiscuit
Bethlehem Steel Plant (Bethlehem, Pa.) Manufacturer of steel for landmark structures
Elkmont Historic District, Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee) Modernist wood structures
Gullah/Geechee Coast (South Carolina and Georgia) Home of slave descendants
Tobacco barns (Southern Maryland) Historic air-curing barns
Madison-Lenox Hotel (Detroit) Century-old hotel
Historic Cook County Hospital (Chicago) Neoclassical architecture
George Kraigher House (Brownsville, Texas) 1937 Richard Neutra house
Nine Mile Canyon (Carbon and Duchesne counties, Utah) Petroglyphs and pictographs