Kepler Motors showcased the Motion hybrid vehicle at the Dubai auto show last week.  The Dubai auto show theme was “sustainable mobility.” The Kepler Motors Motion has about 800 horsepower and drives 0-96 kilometers per hour in less than 2.5 seconds.

“There have been some orders and lots of interest in the Motion,” stated Kepler Motors spokesman Brian Towey. “I can’t talk about specifics, but there are orders for a couple of cars. The first, serial number 001, hasn’t been spoken for as yet, though.”

Kepler Motors was founded by Russ Wicks and is funded by Jonathan Lim, founder of the Romar Group in Singapore.  The Motion is made out of carbon fiber and is powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.5 liter Ford EcoBoost V-6.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is being sued by an in-the-closet lesbian mother for privacy invasion. The woman alleges that Netflix made it possible for her to be exposed when the company disclosed information about half a million of their customers as part of a $1 million recommendation engine contest.

The lawsuit (Doe v. Netflix) was filed in a federal California court. The lawsuit claims that Netflix violated fair-trade laws and federal privacy laws that protect video rental records. The lawsuit seeks $2,500 in damages for each of Netflix’s 2 million customers.

Contestants were given access to two major databases that included 100 million movies ratings, rating dates, movie information and unique ID numbers for each subscriber. There was about 50,000 Netflix contestants that used this information to come up with a recommendation algorithm. The contestants would be given a prize if they were able to improve the algorithm 10% better than the Netflix algorithm.

“Jane Doe” was the name filed on the lawsuit to protect the mother’s identity.  She believes that “were her sexual orientation public knowledge, it would negatively affect her ability to pursue her livelihood and support her family and would hinder her and her children’s ability to live peaceful lives.”

The Netflix contest ended this past summer when two teams got past the 10% improvement for the recommendation system.  The prize money was awarded to a couple of AT&T researchers.  A Netflix spokesman has not responded to the lawsuit yet.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has reported a 67% increase in sales for hybrid vehicles even though there was a decline of 11% in hybrid vehicles as a whole. Over the next 10 years Ford plans to manufacture 2 million all electric and gas electric vehicles. In the month of November, Ford sold 31,000 hybrid vehicles. This number is higher than what was sold in all of 2007.

The Ford Fusion Hybrid contributed to 45% of Ford’s hybrid vehicles sold in November. The Ford Fusion Hybrid can get about 41 miles per gallon on the highway and 36 miles per gallon on the highway. Ford plans to make their entire fleet electric by 2020. That means that Ford would have somewhere between 800,000 and 2 million electric vehicles.

“We’ve finally demonstrated the technology, the life, the durability, the safety (of hybrids)–all of that has reached a comfort zone to make it viable. Now it’s going to be affordability that will drive mass market adoption,” stated Ford’s Director of Global Electrification Nancy Gioia.

About a day ago, Susanna Maiolo grabbed Pope Benedict XVI at a Christmas Eve Mass, causing him to fall over. She attempted to reach the Pope last year at a Midnight Mass too. Susanna Maiolo supposedly had psychiatric problems according to Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi. The Vatican admitted that it is impossible to fully protect the Pope in such circumstances. French cardinal Roger Etchegaray injured his hip because of the incident.

“It seems that they intervened at the earliest possible moment in a situation in which zero risk cannot be achieved,” said Father Lombardi in an interview with the Associated Press. “People want to see him up close and he’s pleased to see them closely too. A zero risk doesn’t seem realistic in a situation in which there’s a direct rapport with the people.”

Maiolo said that she did not want to hurt the Pope. She supposedly wanted to greet him. Below is a video of the incident:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is rumored to be launching a tablet next month according to several sources. MacRumors did some more digging and found out that Apple registered a domain name that may be related to the tablet: www.islate.com. The domain name registration has been made private ever since.

Apple’s name was temporarily exposed as the owner of iSlate.com for several weeks back in late 2007. Below is a screenshot of the registration information as found by MacRumors. This means that iSlate could be the name of the future Apple tablet.

As a result of the tablet speculation, Apple’s stock price has skyrocketed. Apple is now trading at $209.09 (up 3.46% from the last closing price). Apple was trading at $191.86 as of December 17.

“I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet,” stated a source with the New York Times. The quote was supposedly from a senior employee at APple.

Russell Turnbull lost his eyesight in his right eye after getting sprayed about 15 years ago. After getting sprayed, he had Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency and needed therapeutic treatment.

Now Turnbull is one of the first recipients of a stem cell grafting procedure. Healthy tissue from his left eye was implanted into his right eye. And this restored his vision. This treatment is only available to those who have at least one healthy eye, but scientists are hoping that one day tissue from other body parts could be used to regenerate parts.

Even though General Motors made a deal with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding earlier this month, the Detroit based automotive company will shut down Saab, a Sweden based subsidiary. The decision was finalized even though Spyker made a renewed bid for Saab.

“Saab’s board had a short meeting yesterday. GM representatives were on the phone from the US. And the discussions were entirely about the shutting down Saab — not about the new bid,” stated Svenska Dagbladet (SVD). “The word (at the meeting) was to shut down Saab and that is what we have started working on.” Shutting down the brand could take several years. Sweden Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson said that they plan to help Saab’s employees by providing them with public funding of 542 million kronor ($72 million).

SCVNGR is a location-based game platform company that works with mobile devices. Google Ventures and Highland Capital have both invested $4 million into SCVNGR.  Google Ventures partner Rich Miner will be joining the SCVNGR board of directors.  SCVNGR will be cash-flow positive with over $1 million in revenue.

SCVNGR focuses on a niche gaming platform.  The niche is that they make location-based scavenger hunts for companies, schools, and organizations.  Many schools use the location-based gaming platform for campus orientation.  Major companies use it for team building.  SCVNGR has about 40 employees.  The company is led by 21 year old Seth Priebatsch.

Clients include Duke University, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, the city of Rochester in New York, Yale University, MetLife, and HSBC.  SCVNGR can be used using SMS on any phone, mobile web, or through free Android and iPhone applications.