Fw: How Much Would It Cost to Be Batman in Real Life?

How Much Would It Cost to Be Batman in Real Life?

It would cost $682 million for a real-life Batman to fund his world-saving lifestyle, thanks to the price of high-tech cars, gadgets, his mansion and training, a new infographic says.

The infographic, created by MoneySupermarket.com, looks at how much it would cost to run Batman's empire. The main conclusion? It's not easy on the wallet.

In fact, Batman's collection of vehicles alone cost about $80 million. His Tumbler/Batmobile alone has a price tag of $18 million due to its jet engine, front-mounted machine guns, remote-control system and GPS technology.

Meanwhile, it would cost about $37,000 each year to run Wayne Manor and the Bat Cave. His weapons cost about $10,000 — from a $50,000 TLPS Grappling Hook Launcher to a $15,000 thermal camera and a $5,000 night-vision monocular. Three Batarang Throwing Stars cost about $1,000.

Other pricey accessories include a memory cloth polymer cape ($40,000), ultrasonic bat attractor ($1,000), a retinal projection system featured in his mask ($10,000), forearm blades ($1,000) and custom boosts ($1,000).

Batman's training and education costs vary. Military pilot training would be $500,000, as would training for special firearms and several engineering degrees.

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Electric cars with in-wheel motors

Protean Electric looks to revolutionize electric cars with in-wheel motors

Protean Electric hasn't exactly reinvented the wheel, but what's inside of it is a different story.

The Michigan-based company is set to begin production of compact, in-wheel electric motors that could revolutionize the plug-in car business.

With an $84 million investment from Chinese investor GSR Partners, Protean is building a manufacturing center in the city of Liyang, China, that will have an initial capacity to build 50,000 motors per year and will begin pre-production in early 2013.

Unlike many existing systems that use large motors to drive either a transmission or axles to get power to the wheels, Protean's in-wheel motors are fully housed within the otherwise conventional wheels, which are bolted directly to them.

Versions of the motor measuring 18 inches in diameter weigh 68 pounds and provide 110 hp each, but they can be scaled up to 24 inches for higher power applications. Two or four are used on each vehicle.

Protean's innovative design packages the stationary, permanent magnet at the center of the device while the rotor is on the outside, making it easier for the wheel to be directly attached. Inverters and power electronics are housed between the two, rather than in a remote unit, further simplifying and reducing the weight of the complete system. Each motor is made up of between four and eight parallel submotors, so in the event that one fails the unit can continue to operate until it is serviced.

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Eat this, lose weight

Eat this, lose weight

Dieting doesn't have to mean a boiled chicken breast on undressed iceberg lettuce—really! Some of the most mouthwatering foods around can help you shed pounds and improve your health. Even better? You can fill your shopping cart with these tasty items and never break the bank.

Here are some treats dietitians love—not only because these picks offer amazing (and proven) health benefits but also because they taste great. Read on to learn the smart, delicious ways you can add them to your diet every day.

Monounsaturated fats

Almonds: One of these nuts contains just 7 calories and is crammed with protein and fat (the heart-healthy monounsaturated variety). This powerful combination prevents the blood-sugar fluctuations that can lead to overeating.

Eat them: Raw—whole as a snack or slivered atop salads.

Avocados: This fruit is a great source of slowly digested monounsaturated fat, which releases hormones that help you feel fuller longer. That might be why researchers found that people on reduced-calorie diets that included avocados were able to lose as much weight as those who reduced-calorie diets were avocado-free.

Eat them: Diced on baked potatoes.

Olive oil: It's filled with potent antioxidants that naturally nip inflammation, the cellular damage that contributes to the development of chronic disease. The condiment also is brimming with monounsaturated fat, which helps target belly flab.

Eat it: Mixed with vinegar, salt and pepper for a classic salad dressing.

Protein

Eggs: Two large eggs contain a whopping 12 grams of figure-friendly protein—more than a quarter of your daily needs. In fact, an International Journal of Obesity study found that women who had an egg-based breakfast every day lost more than twice as much weight as those who started their day with just a bagel.

Eat them: Poached over whole-grain toast or hard-boiled as a snack.

Greek yogurt: Not many foods can top this one when it comes to energy-boosting, diet-friendly protein. A 7-ounce serving of this tangy treat delivers about 20 grams of protein. (That's on par with half a chicken breast.)

Eat it: Drizzled with honey or used as a replacement for mayonnaise in tuna salad.

Quinoa: This crunchy grain is packed with protein—about 8 grams per cooked cup—making it especially satisfying. What's more, quinoa is a stellar source of magnesium, a mineral that has been shown to improve sleep.

Eat it: With any dish that you'd normally pair with pasta or rice.

Lean ground beef: Hamburger gets a bad rap, but if you choose a pack that's 85 to 95 percent lean, it can help you shed pounds. How? Its protein naturally preserves muscle mass, experts say, and the more muscle you have, the more efficiently your body burns calories. Australian researchers recently found that women who ate lean red meat six times per week lost about 25 percent more weight than those who skimped on it.

Eat it: In spaghetti sauce.

Pork: People who dined on pork reported filling more full afterward than those who ate other kinds of food, researchers at Purdue University in Indiana found. The reason: A 3-ounce serving of lean pork contains just 122 calories but 22 grams of satiating protein.

Eat it: Ground in meatballs or in chili.

Fiber

Apples: One medium apple is packed with more than 4 grams of filling fiber. No surprise, then, that Penn State University researchers discovered that people who ate an apple before a meal consumed 15 percent fewer calories than those who didn't. Bonus: Apples are a strong source of disease-fighting antioxidants.

Eat them: Whole or chopped, sprinkled with cinnamon and microwaved for a minute to make a low-calorie apple pie—like treat.

Oatmeal: Whether you choose instant or old-fashioned, oats have one of the highest satiety rankings of any breakfast option. This whole-grain food is digested more slowly than most other carbohydrates, keeping blood sugar even and staving off that "I'm so hungry I could eat the fridge" feeling. One cup contains 8 grams of fiber, about a third of your daily needs.

Eat it: Cooked and topped with fruit or added raw to meat-loaf mix.

Black beans: They're high in satisfying protein and provide a heaping dose of fiber and complex carbohydrates. Bonus: Fiber helps move food through your digestive system more efficiently—which can help prevent constipation.

Eat them: Atop a taco salad or mixed into fresh salsa.

Lentils: These legumes are a solid source of soluble fiber, which binds to bad cholesterol, helping to remove it from the body. Numerous studies show that such fiber is a powerful weight-loss aid that fills you up, curbs cravings and helps keep people from overeating. Also, a cup of lentils exceeds your required daily amount of folate— a B vitamin that might reduce the risk of breast cancer in some women.

Eat them: Cooked, as a side with grilled chicken or fish.

Vitamin C

Clementines: At 35 calories each, they're a smart way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Because they're rich in vitamin C, which improves skin tone, they boost beauty and help ward off colds.

Eat them: Solo as a snack.

Grapefruit: The famous diet food actually lives up to its hype. In addition to being low in calories (a half grapefruit contains 37), this morning staple may banish bloat and constipation. Grapefruit also has hefty stores of vitamin C, which has been shown to fight off free-radical damage, reducing the risk of heart disease.

Eat it: Cut into slices and mixed with other citrus for a tangy fruit cocktail.

Omega-3s

Salmon: This seafood superstar is one of the foods highest in omega-3 fatty acids. Best known for improving heart and brain health, omega-3s also have a slimming effect. Studies show they help the body build and maintain more lean muscle mass and thus shed fat faster.

Eat it: Canned (it's cheaper than fresh).

Sardines: Don't overlook these tiny canned fish. They're less expensive than fresh fish (think cod and tilapia), yet still high in protein (one can contains about half your daily requirement). Plus, they're packed with omega-3 essential fatty acids which, along with protein, can aid weight loss.

Eat them: On top of whole-grain crackers or tossed in a salad.

Leafy greens

Kale: At 34 calories per raw chopped cup, this dark leafy green will barely make a dent in your daily calorie count—but because it's full of antioxidants, it can make a big difference in your health. Plus, one study found that women who ate a diet filled with water-rich produce such as kale lost 23 percent more weight than those who didn't. Experts say those foods fill you up better than other picks, quashing the urge to nosh later.

Eat it: Sautéed in 1 teaspoon olive oil.

Spinach: Raw spinach contains a mere 7 calories per cup. Plus, a cup of fresh spinach contains almost 200 percent of the daily recommended vitamin K, which helps improve bone health.

Eat it: Added to sandwiches for extra crunch.

Antioxidants

Blueberries: There is less than one calorie in a blueberry, yet these tiny treats have the highest antioxidant level of any fruit, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture research.

Eat them: Alone or folded into pancake or muffin batter.

Green tea: This drink has been tied to everything from a reduced cancer risk to a longer life, and some studies show that its catechins— potent disease-fighting plant chemicals— give your metabolism a slight boost, helping your body burn calories.

Drink it:  Hot or cold with a drizzle of honey.

Pomegranates: The seeds and red pulp are loaded with folic acid and disease-fighting antioxidants. One large pomegranate has only about 235 calories, making it a good-for-you snack.

Eat them: Alone, or sprinkle the seeds on a salad for a crunchy kick.

Smart snacks

Popcorn: People who eat popcorn consume 250 percent more hunger-curbing whole grains than people who don't snack on it, suggest recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. One caveat: Skip move theater popcorn, which can pack up to 300 calories per cup thanks to the butter topping and the palm oil it's cooked in. Make your own air-popped corn instead (a cup is just 30 calories).

Eat it: Sprinkled with cinnamon for a sweet treat or with chili powder for a spicy one.

Parmesan: Women who eat a daily serving of whole-milk products, such as most cheese, tend to weigh less than those who always opt for fat-free dairy, studies show. Experts credit the conjugated linoleic acid in whole-milk dairy. Scientists say that CLA might help the body maintain more muscle mass, helping people burn more calories. Bonus: This cheese's sharp flavor means you don't need a lot of it to feel satisfied.

Eat it: Sprinkled over roasted vegetables.

Chili peppers: These spicy veggies contain capsaicin, a compound unique to chiles that has been shown to boost metabolism.

Eat them: Chopped and sautéed (cooked chiles tend to be gentler on the palate) and added to tacos, stews and salsas.

Dieting can be delicious! Choose these tasty foods and lose weight, without sacrificing flavor

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America's new high-tech $100 bill: 9 cool features

 

 

C

ome October, when you go to the ATM each morning to take out your daily stack of $100 bills (and really, who doesn't do this?), don't be alarmed if you don't recognize the crazy pieces of paper that come flying out.

Those will be the Fed's new $100 bills — a project Uncle Sam has been chipping away at since 2003. The new Benjamins were originally scheduled for circulation starting in February 2011, but the agency was forced to postpone that because of problems including "unwanted creases," reports the Los Angeles Times.

Well, it was worth the wait. The new currency is loaded with high-tech features that will make it "easier for the public to authenticate, but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate," says the Fed. And though the bill costs slightly more to produce than our current $100 note, it should save money in the long run — $100s are more frequently counterfeited than any other U.S. currency outside the United States. North Korea in particular is known for producing incredibly high-quality counterfeit $100s known as "supernotes," which are almost impossible to detect as fakes. This new bill should make "supernotes" extremely difficult to produce.

And don't worry about turning in the stack of old $100s under your bed. The billions of notes already in circulation will remain legal, but starting Oct. 8, they will be destroyed and replaced when they pass through the Fed. In the interest of preventing confusion at the cash machine, here's a quick look at the new $100:

New security features include:

1. A blue, three-dimensional security ribbon that's woven — not printed — into the note's fabric.

2. Another security strip to the left of Ben's face. It's only visible when held up to the light.

3. A faint image of Ben's face in the black space on the right, which can be seen on both sides of the bill.

4. Alternating images of bells and the number 100 that change as the viewing angle is tilted.

5. A liberty bell inside an inkwell that changes from copper to green when tilted.

6. A large "100" on the front that also changes color when tilted.

7. An even larger "100" vertically positioned on the back to help those with visual impairments identify the currency.

8. Raised "intaglio" printing throughout the bill to give the note its "distinctive texture."

9. Microprinting reading "The United States of America" on Ben's collar, "USA 100" on the watermark, and "ONE HUNDRED USA" along the golden quill.

How Humans Would Get to Mars

As the 40th-anniversary celebrations of the moon landing end, a human voyage to Mars remains a holy grail for NASA.

"We're still looking at human exploration of Mars as one of the goals of the future at the top level," said NASA researcher Bret Drake with Lunar and Mars Integration at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Having a human actually set foot on another planet would be one of the greatest adventures possible, one of the greatest monuments to history."

A crewed mission to the red planet is a daunting challenge that lies at the edge of current technological capabilities and possibly beyond. Still, NASA keeps a strategy to go there and constantly keeps up to date with new ideas.

"Mars is one of those targets of fascination that has been around a long time," Drake said.

How to get there
A voyage to Mars would take a crew about 180 days. So far NASA is exploring two options for propulsion there — a nuclear thermal rocket and a chemical engine.

A nuclear thermal rocket, would use a nuclear reactor to super-heat a gas and blast it out the nozzle to generate thrust. "It's a very high-performance vehicle, and we think it's very safe, not radioactive at launch, but it is a nuclear system," Drake said. "The idea for the chemical engine is similar to that used on the space shuttle, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. It's a fairly well-known technology, but it's not as efficient as nuclear thermal."

To reach the Martian surface, NASA envisions an aerodynamic lander that flies down with thrusters to help it descend. The ascent vehicle that takes the crew back into space for the six-month trip home will likely rely on a combination of methane and liquid oxygen. "Oxygen is present in the Martian atmosphere in the carbon dioxide, so you can use resources on Mars to make it," Drake said.

Before the crew even gets to Mars, the plan is to send as much cargo there ahead of time as possible. "That way we can know it's operating right before we ever commit the crew," Drake said. "A Mars mission is not like a lunar mission where you can come home at any time — once they're committed, a crew is out there for years."

The very habitat the crew stays at on the Martian surface would be sent ahead of time. "You can also do things like produce and store oxygen from resources at Mars beforehand for the crew and the ascent vehicle. You could generate water as well."

Big crew, long stay
NASA envisions a crew of six astronauts for a Mars mission. "That's about what's required for the skills needed — a commander, scientist, engineer, medical officer, things like that, as well as cross-training," Drake said. "They'll need expertise in a wide range of disciplines."

Currently NASA envisions a long stay for a crew at Mars, about 500 days.
"Crew autonomy is vital, because there's an up to 40 minute time delay in communication between Earth and the crew because of the distance," Drake said. "And the crew doesn't have a capability for re-supply — they'll just have what they send ahead or what they bring with them — so when things fail, they'll have to be able to repair them. They must be self-sufficient."

To survive the voyage, air and water need to be completely recycled regularly.
"We're learning a lot on the International Space Station right now on air revitalization and water recovery," Drake said. "What's nice about Mars is that there's carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so that can help get us oxygen and water for the crew. In terms of food, we're looking at smaller systems, 'salad machines,' to grow food for the crew. Fresh food is not only good for nutrition, but good for the mind as well. A fresh tomato can really boost psychology."

Mental and physical challenges
The long hardship of roughly two-and-a-half years in space with only a few people in a potentially lethal environment will undoubtedly challenge the psyches of Mars explorers.
"The Russians are conducting a test right now that hopefully will shed light on the behavioral sciences aspect of a Mars mission," Drake said. "Looking at other remote exploration endeavors is helpful as well — Antarctica, or submarines — all that feeds into the human behavioral aspects of crew selection."

A key concern for astronauts as well as during the stay on Mars is dangerous radiation in the form of storms of high-energy particles from the sun as well as cosmic rays from deep space. "The best radiation protection material is hydrogen, or water, which is rich in hydrogen," Drake said.
On the surface of Mars, NASA envisions that cargo deployed ahead of time can produce water before the crew arrives to use as a shield during the crew's stay there. On the way to and from Mars, the ship could be configured so that water and food surround areas where crew spend most of their time, but "a 'storm shelter' aboard the ship will be an integral part for short events of radiation that can be lethal," Drake said.

"It's humanity's next step to understanding and expanding our presence outward," Drake said. "We view human exploration of Mars as being an international endeavor, most likely not limited to just one country, but probably of global scale.

DNA seen through the eyes of a coder

DNA seen through the eyes of a coder or If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

http://ds9a.nl/amazing-dna/ Interesting article about DNA structures ...

If you like this article, try out the fiction The Judas Strain by James Rollins

Post Box City: Chelyabinsk-40 Part II

Part – II

A Secret Facility
A close study of Powers' account of the U-2 mission flight shows that one of the last targets he had overflown was the Chelyabinsk-40, a secret facility town that had not appeared on any official maps.

Mayak is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant between the towns of Kasli and Kyshtym 72 km northwest of Chelyabinsk in Russia. The plant is in the Ozersk central administrative territorial unit, formerly known as Chelyabinsk-40, later as Chelyabinsk-65, and part of the Chelyabinsk Oblast.

The Mayak plant was built in 1945-48, in a great hurry and in total secrecy, as part of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapon program. The plant's original mission was to make, refine, and machine plutonium for weapons. Five nuclear reactors were built for this purpose. Later the plant came to specialize in reprocessing plutonium from decommissioned weapons, and waste from nuclear reactors.

By photographing the facility, the heat rejection capacity of the reactors' cooling systems could be estimated, thus allowing a calculation of the power output of the reactors. This then allowed the amount of Plutonium being produced to be determined, thus allowing analysts to determine how many nuclear weapons the USSR was producing. Air defence missiles were positioned around Chelyabinsk-40 because of its extreme sensitivity.

In the early years of its operation, the Mayak plant released vast quantities of radioactively contaminated water into several small lakes near the plant, and into the Techa river, whose waters ultimately flow into the Ob River. The downstream consequences of this radiation pollution have yet to be determined.

Accidents

Working conditions at Mayak resulted in severe health hazards and many accidents, with a serious accident occurring in 1957. In the past 45 years, about half a million people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents, exposing some of them to more than 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl disaster victims.

The most notable accident occurred on 29 September 1957, when the failure of the cooling system for a tank storing tens of thousands of tons of dissolved nuclear waste resulted in a non-nuclear explosion having a force estimated at about 75 tons of TNT, which released some 20 MCi of radioactivity.

Subsequently, at least 200 people died of radiation sickness, 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes, and 470,000 people were exposed to radiation. People "grew hysterical with fear with the incidence of unknown 'mysterious' diseases breaking out. Victims were seen with skin 'sloughing off' their faces, hands and other exposed parts of their bodies." (Pollock 1978: 9) "Hundreds of square miles were left barren and unusable for decades and maybe centuries. Hundreds of people died, thousands were injured and surrounding areas were evacuated." (Zhores Medvedev, The Australian, 9.12.1976). This nuclear accident, the Soviet Union's worst before the Chernobyl disaster, is categorized as a level 6 "serious accident" on the 0-7 International Nuclear Events Scale.

Russians driving through the area in the 1960s and later found a deserted region where road signs ordered cars to close their windows and not stop for any reason (these directives may still be in force). Russians then relayed this information to Western contacts, and thus Western intelligence agencies came to know of this region. Rumours of a nuclear mishap somewhere in the vicinity of Chelyabinsk had long been circulating in the West. That there had been a serious nuclear accident west of the Urals was eventually inferred from research on the effects of radioactivity on plants, animals, and ecosystems, published by Professor Leo Tumerman, former head of the Biophysics Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, and associates.

CIA Involvement

According to Gyorgy (1979: 128), who invoked the Freedom of Information Act to open up the relevant CIA files, the CIA knew of the 1957 Mayak accident all along, but kept it secret to prevent adverse consequences for the fledgling USA nuclear industry. "Ralph Nader surmised that the information had not been released because of the reluctance of the CIA to highlight a nuclear accident in the USSR, that could cause concern among people living near nuclear facilities in the USA" (Pollock 1978: 9). Only in 1992, shortly after the fall of the USSR, did the Russians officially acknowledge the accident.

On 10 December 1968, the facility was experimenting with plutonium purification techniques. Two operators were decanting plutonium solutions into the wrong type of vessel. After most of the solution had been poured out, there was a flash of light, and heat.

After the complex had been evacuated, the shift supervisor and radiation control supervisor re-entered the building. The shift supervisor then deceived the radiation control supervisor and entered the room of the incident and possibly attempted to pour the solution down a floor drain, causing a large nuclear reaction that irradiated the shift supervisor with a fatal dose of radiation.

The Mayak plant is associated with two other major nuclear accidents. The first occurred as a result of heavy rains causing Lake Karachay polluted with radioactive waste to release radioactive material into surrounding waters, and the second occurred in 1967 when wind spread dust from the bottom of Lake Karachay, a dried-up radioactively polluted lake (used as a dumping basin for Mayak's radioactive waste since 1951), over parts of Ozersk; over 400,000 people were irradiated.

Present Situation
At present, some residents of Ozersk claim that living there now (2006) poses no risk, because of the decrease in the ambient radiation level over the past 50 years. They also report no problems with their health and the health of Mayak plant workers. These claims lack hard verification, and no one denies that many who worked at the plant in 1950s and '60s subsequently died of the effects of radiation. While the situation has since improved, the administration of the Mayak plant has been repeatedly criticized in recent years for environmentally unsound practices

Today the plant makes tritium and radioisotopes, but no plutonium. In recent years, proposals that the plant reprocess, for money, waste from foreign nuclear reactors have given rise to controversy.

Post Box City: Chelyabinsk-40

Part – I: Gary Powers

In July 1957, Pakistani Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was requested by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to establish a secret U.S. intelligence facility in Pakistan and permission for the U-2 Spy-plane to fly from Pakistan. A facility established in Badaber, 10 miles from Peshawar, was a cover for a major communications intercept operation, run by the American NSA. Badaber was an excellent choice because of its proximity to Soviet Central Asia. This enabled monitoring of missile test sites and other communications.

The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed Dragon Lady, is a single-engine, high-altitude aircraft, earlier flown by the Central Intelligence Agency. The U-2 Spy-plane could reach altitudes of 80,000 feet, essentially making it invulnerable to Soviet anti-aircraft weapons of the time. The U-2 was equipped with a state-of-the-art camera designed to snap high-resolution photos from the edge of the atmosphere over hostile countries that included the Soviet Union. These cameras systematically photographed military installations and other important intelligence targets.

U-2 "spy-in-the-sky" was allowed to use the Pakistan Air Force portion of the Peshawar airport to gain vital photo intelligence in an era before satellite observation.

The Incident

On 9 April 1960, the U-2 Spy-plane of the special CIA unit "10-10" crossed the South national boundary of Soviet Union in the area of Pamir Mountains and flew over four Soviet top secret military objects: the Semipalatinsk Test Site, the Tu-95 air base, the Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) test site of the Soviet Air Defence Forces near Saryshagan, and the Tyuratam missile range (future Baikonur Cosmodrome). The plane was detected by the Soviet Air Defense Forces at 4:47 when it flew away by more than 250 km from the Soviet national boundary and avoided several attempts of interception using MiG-19 and Su-9 during the flight. After U-2 left the Soviet air space at 11:32, it was clear that CIA successfully performed an extraordinary intelligence operation. In spite of the negative Soviet diplomatic reaction, the next flight of U-2 Spy-plane from the Badaber airbase was planned on the 1st May.

Gary Powers

Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot and a veteran of several covert aerial reconnaissance missions.

Powers was born in Jenkins, Kentucky, and raised in Pound, Virginia, on the Virginia-Kentucky border. After graduating from Milligan College in Eastern Tennessee, Frank was commissioned in the United States Air Force in 1950. Upon completing his training (52-H) he was assigned to the 468th Strategic Fighter Squadron at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia as an F-84 Thunderjet pilot.
Later in 1956 when he was with the rank of captain he was recruited by the CIA because of his outstanding record in single engine jet aircraft.

He carried out espionage missions using U-2 to snap high-resolution photos of military installations and other important intelligence targets from the edge of the atmosphere over the Soviet Union.

On May 1, 1960, thirteen days before the scheduled opening of an East–West summit conference in Paris, a U.S. Lockheed U-2 left US base in Badaber on a mission to over-fly the Soviet Union, photographing ICBM sites in and around Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk, then land at Bodø in Norway.

Soviet intelligence, including the KGB, had been well aware of U-2 missions since 1956, but lacked the technology to launch counter-measures until 1960. All units of the Soviet Air Defence Forces in the Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Ural and later in the U.S.S.R. European Region and Extreme North were on red alert, expecting the planned mission of U-2.

Powers’ U-2, departed from a military airbase Badaber on May 1, 1960. Soon after the plane was detected, Lieutenant General of the Air Force Yevgeniy Savitskiy ordered the air-unit commanders "to attack the violator by all alert flights located in the area of foreign plane's course, and to ram as necessary".

Due to the U-2's extreme operating altitude, Soviet attempts to intercept the plane using fighter aircrafts failed. Moreover, the U-2's course was out of range of several of the nearest SAM sites, and one SAM site even failed to engage the violator since it wasn't on duty that day.

Soviets had shadowed his plane from a lower altitude, then took him down as he crossed over Sverdlosk, which was deep in enemy territory.

According to the official version of the event the U-2 was eventually hit and brought down near Degtyarsk, Ural Region, by a salvo of fourteen SA-2 Guideline (S-75 Dvina) surface-to-air missiles. However, the plane's pilot, Gary Powers, successfully bailed out and parachuted to safety, although in doing so he violated his orders to destroy the aircraft were he to be shot down. To make matters worse, Powers was unable to activate the plane's self-destruct mechanism, as instructed, before he parachuted safely to the ground, right into the hands of the KGB.

Powers had been issued with a modified silver dollar which contained a lethal, shellfish-derived saxitoxin, although in the event he did not use it. In bailing out, he neglected to disconnect his oxygen hose and struggled with it until it broke, enabling him to separate from the aircraft. A subsequent missile salvo also hit the aircraft, further damaging it and would likely have killed Powers outright (he was captured soon afterward).

The SAM command center was unaware that the plane was actually destroyed for more than 30 minutes. One of the Soviet fighters pursuing Powers was also destroyed in the missile salvo.

When the U.S. government learned of Powers' disappearance over the Soviet Union, it issued a cover statement claiming that a "weather plane" had crashed down after its pilot had "difficulties with his oxygen equipment." What U.S. officials did not realize was that the plane landed almost fully intact, and the Soviets recovered its photography equipment, as well as Powers.

Four days after Powers disappeared, NASA issued a very detailed press release noting that an aircraft had "gone missing" north of Turkey. The press release speculated that the pilot might have fallen unconscious while the autopilot was still engaged, even falsely claiming that "the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties." To bolster this, a U-2 plane was quickly painted in NASA colors and shown to the media.

After learning of this, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced to the Supreme Soviet, and thus the world, that a "spyplane" had been shot down but intentionally made no reference to the pilot. As a result, the Eisenhower Administration, thinking the pilot had died in the crash, authorized the release of a cover story claiming that the plane was a "weather research aircraft" which had strayed into Soviet airspace after the pilot had radioed "difficulties with his oxygen equipment" while flying over Turkey. The Eisenhower White House gracefully acknowledged that this might be the same plane, but still proclaimed that "there was absolutely no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace and never has been", and attempted to continue the facade by grounding all U-2 aircraft to check for "oxygen problems."

On May 7, Khrushchev sprang his trap and announced:

“I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well… and now just look how many silly things the Americans have said”

Not only was Powers still alive, but his plane was also essentially intact. The Soviets managed to recover the surveillance camera and even developed some of the photographs. Powers’ survival pack, including 7500 rubles and jewellery for women, was also recovered.

Ultimately the whole incident set back the peace talks between Khrushchev and Eisenhower for years. The Paris Summit between president Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev collapsed, in large part because Eisenhower refused to accede to Khrushchev's demands that he apologize for the incident. Khrushchev left the talks on May 16.

They interrogated Powers extensively for months before he made a "voluntary confession" and public apology for his part in U.S. espionage. Powers plead guilty and was convicted of espionage on August 19 and sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment and 7 years of hard labor. He served one and three-quarter years of the sentence before being exchanged for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) February 10, 1962. The exchange occurred on the Glienicke Bridge connecting Potsdam, East Germany, to West Berlin.

Today a large part of the wreck as well as many items from the survival pack are on display at the Central Museum of Armed Forces in Moscow. A small piece of the plane was returned to the United States and is on display at the National Cryptologic Museum.

Another result of the crisis was that the U.S. Corona spy satellite project was accelerated, while the CIA accelerated the development of the A–12 OXCART supersonic spyplane that first flew in 1962 and began developing the Lockheed D-21/M-21 unmanned drone.

The incident severely compromised Pakistan security and worsened relations between the Soviet Union and Pakistan. As an attempt to put up a bold front, Pakistani General Khalid Mahmood Arif while commenting on the incident stated that, "Pakistan felt deceived because the US had kept her in the dark about such clandestine spy operations launched from Pakistan’s territory." The communications wing at Badaber was formally closed down on January 7, 1970.

Though Powers claimed he had not divulged details of the U-2 program, he received a cold reception upon his return to the United States. Initially, he was criticized for having failed to activate his aircraft’s self-destruct charge designed to destroy the camera, photographic film, and related classified parts of his aircraft before capture. In addition, others criticized him for deciding not to use an optional CIA-issued suicide pin to avoid pain and suffering in case of torture. After being debriefed extensively by the CIA, Lockheed, and the USAF, on March 6, 1962, he appeared before a Senate Armed Services Select Committee. During the proceeding it was determined that Powers followed orders, did not divulge any critical information to the Soviets, and conducted himself “as a fine young man under dangerous circumstances.”

Return to US

After his return, Powers worked for Lockheed as a test pilot, later he co-wrote a book called Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident , and then worked as an airborne traffic reporter for radio station KGIL in the San Fernando Valley. He was then hired by Los Angeles television station KNBC to pilot their new "telecopter", a helicopter equipped with externally mounted 360 degree cameras.

Powers died on August 1, 1977, when, upon his return from covering brush fires in Santa Barbara County, his helicopter ran out of fuel and crashed along with KNBC cameraman George Spears.

Many have wondered or speculated on how an experienced pilot such as Powers could have allowed the aircraft to run out of fuel. Allegedly Powers knew his helicopter had a fuel gauge error. When Powers fuel gauge indicator displayed "Empty", he actually had enough fuel for thirty minutes of flight time remaining. Apparently an aviation mechanic fixed the fuel gauge in the KNBC helicopter, but Powers was not told of the correction. When he was returning to Burbank from the brush fire coverage Powers fuel gauge displayed "Empty", but thinking he had thirty minutes of flight time remaining, he continued flying and subsequently crashed. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1998, information was declassified revealing that Powers’ fateful mission had actually been a joint USAF/CIA operation. In 2000, on the 40th anniversary of Powers being shot down, his family was finally presented with his posthumously awarded Prisoner of War Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross and National Defense Service Medal. In addition, then CIA Director George Tenet authorized Powers to posthumously receive the CIA "Director's Medal" for extreme fidelity and courage in the line of duty.

According to his son, when asked how high he was when flying on May 1, 1960, Powers would often reply, "not high enough".

End of Part I

Who Killed the Electric Car?

The steep increase in the current fuel prices raises a serious question of “What are we going to do now?” In fact the pressure is more on research areas of the alternative fuels for automobiles.

The GM-EV1
The EV1 was the first modern production electric vehicle from a major automaker and also the first purpose-built electric car produced by General Motors (GM) in the United States.

Introduced in 1996, The EV1 electric cars were available in California and Arizona as a lease only, and could be serviced at designated Saturn retailers. They were discontinued after 1999 and subsequently removed from the roads in 2003 by General Motors. The car's discontinuation was and remains a very controversial topic.

Controversy

On June 30, 2006, a documentary film debuted entitled “Who Killed the Electric Car?”. The subject of the film is the demise of the EV1. Much of the film accounts for GM's efforts to demonstrate to California, that there was no demand for their product and then to reclaim every last EV1 and dispose of them. A few vehicles were disabled and given to museums and universities, but almost all were found to have been crushed.

According to the film, many EV1 lessees offered to purchase their vehicles from GM at lease-end for the residual price. For instance, US$1.9 million was offered for the remaining 78 cars in a Burbank storage lot. Apparently GM did not entertain any of these offers. Subsequently, the film depicts nearly all of the EV1s being decommissioned by GM, crushed and recycled as scrap metal. These are some of the reasons why many analysts question GM's motives. Several weeks before the debut of the film, the Smithsonian Institution announced that its EV1 display was being permanently removed and the EV1 car put into storage. GM is a major financial contributor to the museum.

According to interviews from various government officials and consumers in the film "Who Killed the Electric Car", many consumers and government officials questioned General Motors' commitment to the EV1 program. Concerns over inadequate marketing and limited vehicle supply have led some to believe that GM intended the EV1 program to fail. One theory is that GM intended to demonstrate that electric vehicles were not commercially viable with 1990s technology, which would [or did] discourage what was at the time a growing public interest in electric vehicles. GM's stated position was to spend US$500 million to produce a workable electric vehicle that could compete and win "heads up" in the marketplace. The company said that if they could have recouped their investment by selling the vehicles commercially, they certainly would have done so. GM never responded to the lessees offer to pay the residual lease value.

The film explores some of the reasons that the auto and oil industries worked to kill off the electric car. Wally Rippel is shown explaining that the oil companies were afraid of losing out on trillions in potential profit from their transportation fuel monopoly over the coming decades, while the auto companies were afraid of losses over the next six months of EV production. Others explained the killing differently. GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss argued it was lack of consumer interest due to the maximum range of 80–100 miles per charge, and the relatively high price.

Ardent supporters of electric vehicles have been very vocal about the EV1 program's demise. Of particular interest is the leasing program which formally required the vehicles to be returned to GM at lease expiry. General Motors stated reason for the lease-only option was that, as the modern era's first ground-up electric vehicle, the EV1 could not be expected to maintain its performance level (or affordability in regard to maintenance) over the long run. GM also had significant concerns over long term liability issues relating to the vehicle. This was partly due to the relatively short R&D period the car was designed and produced under, and the high percentage of "invented on schedule" technology employed in the car as compared with a standard gasoline powered vehicle. While many lessees and prospective owners have complained about the lease-only availability of the EV1, it is important to note that each leased vehicle was in effect heavily subsidized by General Motors. The car was very popular with its lessees, but it was not known if anyone would have purchased a new electric vehicle at the time had it been offered for sale even at a "break even" price of US$35,000-40,000. A higher production volume would have been required for the production cost to be reduced.

The process of obtaining an EV1 was difficult when compared to the purchase of any other commuter car. The vehicle could not be purchased outright. Instead, General Motors offered a closed-end three year lease, with no renewal or residual purchase option. The EV1 was only available from Saturn dealerships (then less prevalent than they are today), and only in California and Arizona (for technical reasons).

Before reviewing lease options, a potential lessee would be taken through a 'pre-qualification' process in order to learn how the EV1 was different from other vehicles (a similar 'buyer familiarization process' was standard for all Saturn buyers). Following this, prospective lessees would be placed on a waiting list with no scheduled delivery date. After an average wait of between two and six months, the lessee would be allotted a vehicle. Installation of a home charger took one to two weeks and cost an additional US$2500 (on average).

An EV1 is still on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, in addition to the one in the Petersen Automotive Museum.


The Latest News

Chevrolet Volt
The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in series-hybrid electric vehicle by General Motors, with production expected to begin in 2010. The company has avoided the use of the term "hybrid," preferring to call it an electric vehicle with a "range extender" due to its design.

The vehicle is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 40 miles — a large enough distance to cover the daily commutes of most Americans, which is around 33 miles. With use of a small internal combustion engine driving a generator to re-supply the batteries, the vehicle's range is potentially increased to 360 miles (579 km) on the highway.

The Volt was targeted to cost around US$40,000 to US$48000 and that only government tax incentives could take the price tag nearer to US$30,000.

GM faces competition from Nissan Motors, which announced their own electric cars on May 13, 2008, Toyota, Mitsubishi Motors, as well as a number of startup auto manufacturers, some backed by Silicon Valley angel financing.

Opel Flextreme
The Opel Flextreme is a diesel plug-in hybrid concept car created by General Motors. It can travel 34 miles on its lithium-ion battery before a small diesel engine starts charging the battery (it is a series hybrid). The Flextreme uses the same platform and technology as the Chevrolet Volt. In order to expand on different ways of recharging the battery on the GM E-Flex platform, GM created the Cadillac Provoq to recharge itself using a hydrogen fuel cell, in addition to the onboard gasoline, E85, and diesel engines found in the other concepts.

The Hy-wire
The Hy-wire (Hydrogen drive-by-wire) is a concept car from General Motors originally introduced in January 2002. The car runs on hydrogen fuel cells and uses a drive-by-wire system, meaning that the car is controlled electronically.
The fuel cell is capable of producing 94 kilowatts of power continuously without refueling on a saltwater solution and up to 129 kilowatts for short periods. The fuel cell itself is supplied with hydrogen from 3 tanks of compressed hydrogen located in the skateboard holding 2 kg, but future models may hold larger capacities, yielding increased driving range. With its three-phase electric motor the ~1814 kg vehicle has a top speed of 100 mph. General Motors has stated that it is confident that it can produce a commercially viable model by 2010.

The Sequel
The Sequel is a hydrogen fuel cell-powered concept car and sport utility vehicle from General Motors, employing the latest generation of HydroGen3 technology developed by Opel. The Sequel uses a drive-by-wire system. It has a range of three hundred miles, and its only emission is water. It debuted at the 2005 North American International Auto Show.

This vehicle can accelerate from 0-60 mph in less than ten seconds. Additionally, it provides a high level of control on bumpy terrain, snow, and ice. 42 percent more torque and quicker deceleration when braking are additional benefits of some of the new technologies used in the Sequel.


Small Segment Electric Cars (NEV)

Listed here a few electric cars, small in size and ment for shorter drives, classified as neighbourhood electric vehicles.

The Dynasty IT is a Canadian battery electric vehicle in production that is built by Dynasty Electric Car Corporation. It is designed to qualify as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, primarily made for urban, recreational and light commercial markets.[1] It is available in five different variants including a sedan, mini pick-up, van and two open air versions. The North American version has a range of up to 30 miles (50 km) and does not exceed 25 mph (40 km/h). Most models have a curb weight of 1450 lb (653 kg).

Buddy is a Norwegian electric car, produced by Elbil Norge AS, at Økern in Oslo. The Buddy is delivered with advanced lead batteries, which offer the best price/yield ratio. Completely discharged batteries can be recharged in 6-8 hours. The batteries can be rapidly charged so that one hour's charging allows the vehicle to be driven about 10 km. Charging requires an ordinary, grounded outlet with a minimum circuit of 10 A. The life expectancy for the batteries is expected to be between two and five years, or about 20 000 km, depending upon depending on driving and charging habits. A complete battery set costs NOK 19 000 excluding value added tax.

The Kurrent was designed in Italy and is built in Michigan, USA. According to the manufacturer, a fully charged Kurrent can travel up to 40 miles before needing a recharge. A Kurrent is not a hybrid vehicle, so it needs to be plugged in to a 120 volt outlet; when its batteries are fully drained, a complete recharge takes 8 hours. Its power comes from 4.1 kW electrical motor and powered by four 12 volt lead-gel sealed batteries. ( Total 48 volt system). It also has a battery to power optional equipment.

ZENN (Zero Emission, No Noise) is a 2-seat battery electric vehicle currently in production and built by ZENN Motor Company. It has a range of up to 35 miles and does not exceed 25 mph. Electric power is stored in six 12V lead-acid gel batteries, which has a recharge cycle of 8 hours.

Also optional are a retractable fabric sunroof, air conditioning, audio entertainment center, and AC motor, stated to be better for hill climbing. The 2008 model has a standard AC motor.

REVA G-Wiz or simply REVA is an Indian electric car intended for use as a City car. More REVAs have been produced than any other currently selling electric car and sales are increasing. It is manufactured by the Reva Electric Car Co, in Bangalore, India, currently the world's leading electric car manufacturing company.

The Reva is a small 3-door hatchback measuring 2.6 metres long, 1.3 m wide and 1.5 m high. It weighs 745 kilograms. The car can accommodate two adults in the front and two children in the rear. The back seats can also fold down to increase cargo space. The maximum passenger and cargo weight is 270 kg.

Power comes from eight 6 V lead acid batteries wired in series to create 48 V. The batteries are located under the front seats. The latest model now uses AC rather than DC motors which increases the top speed by nearly 10 km/h to 70 km/h and gives 40% extra torque for improved acceleration and hill-climbing. The maximum range is approximately 80 km, but using the heater reduces the range by about a quarter. The REVA is intended for short city trips, particularly in areas of high congestion.

The car may be exported to the USA with a speed limiter for use as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV). The current price in the UK (where it is marketed as the G-Wiz) is approximately £9000 ($18,000) for the standard model. It qualifies for exemption from the London congestion charge due to being an electrically propelled vehicle.

Science Fiction

Laws of Robotics

In science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all (good) robots appearing in his fiction must obey. The Laws are:


1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Asimov once added a "Zeroth Law"—so named to continue the pattern of lower-numbered laws superseding in importance the higher-numbered laws—stating that a robot must not merely act in the interests of individual humans, but of all humanity.

In the novels Foundation and Earth and Prelude to Foundation, the Zeroth Law reads: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."

A condition stating that the Zeroth Law must not be broken was added to the original Laws.


Roger Clarke analyzed the complications in implementing these laws, in the event that systems were someday capable of employing them. He argued,

"Asimov's Laws of Robotics have been a very successful literary device. Perhaps ironically or perhaps because it was artistically appropriate, the sum of Asimov’s stories disproves the contention that he began with: It is not possible to reliably constrain the behavior of robots by devising and applying a set of rules."

On the other hand, Asimov's later novels (The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire, Foundation and Earth) imply that the robots inflicted their worst long-term harm by obeying the Laws perfectly well, thereby depriving humanity of inventive or risk-taking behavior.


Modern Laws

Modern roboticists and specialists in robotics agree that, as of 2006, Asimov's Laws are perfect for plotting stories, but useless in real life. Some have argued that, since the military is a major source of funding for robotic research, it is unlikely such laws would be built into the design. SF author Robert Sawyer generalizes this argument to cover other industries, stating:

The development of AI is a business, and businesses are notoriously uninterested in fundamental safeguards — especially philosophic ones. (Few examples: the tobacco industry, the automotive industry, the nuclear industry.

The military would want strong safeguards built into any robot where possible, so laws similar to Asimov's would be embedded if possible. David Langford [British author, editor and critic, for science fiction field] has suggested, tongue-in-cheek, that these laws might be the following:

1. A robot will not harm authorized Government personnel but will terminate intruders with extreme prejudice.
2. A robot will obey the orders of authorized personnel except where such orders conflict with the Third Law.
3. A robot will guard its own existence with lethal antipersonnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.


Singularity

Statistician I. J. Good wrote of an "intelligence explosion", suggesting that if machines could even slightly surpass human intellect, they could improve their own designs in ways unforeseen by their designers, and thus recursively augment themselves into far greater intelligences. The first such improvements might be small, but as the machine became more intelligent it would become better at becoming more intelligent, which could lead to an exponential and quite sudden growth in intelligence.

A theoretical point in the future of unprecedented technological progress, caused in part by the ability of machines to improve themselves using artificial intelligence – this is better known as Technological Singularity.

Good (1965) speculated on the consequences of machines smarter than humans:

“Let an ultra-intelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra-intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make. ”

Mathematician and author Vernor Vinge greatly popularized Good’s notion of an intelligence explosion in the 1980s,

Vernor Vinge (Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author) calling the creation of the first ultra-intelligent machine the Singularity, later called this event "the Singularity" as an analogy between the breakdown of modern physics near a gravitational singularity and the drastic change in society he argues would occur following an intelligence explosion.

Vinge continues by predicting that superhuman intelligences, however created, will be able to enhance their own minds faster than the humans that created them. “When greater-than-human intelligence drives progress,” Vinge writes, “that progress will be much more rapid.” This feedback loop of self-improving intelligence, he predicts, will cause large amounts of technological progress within a short period of time.

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are one of the earliest examples of proposed safety measures for AI. The laws are intended to prevent artificially intelligent robots from harming humans. In Asimov’s stories, any perceived problems with the laws tend to arise as a result of a misunderstanding on the part of some human operator; the robots themselves shut down in the case of a real conflict. On the other hand, in works such as the 2004 film I, Robot, which was based very loosely on Asimov's stories, a possibility is explored in which AI take complete control over humanity for the purpose of protecting humanity from itself. In 2004, the Singularity Institute launched an Internet campaign called 3 Laws Unsafe to raise awareness of AI safety issues and the inadequacy of Asimov’s laws in particular (Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence 2004).



Laws of Prediction

Arthur C. Clarke (a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey) formulated the following three "laws" of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.