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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
"To enjoy life we must touch much of it lightly." (Voltaire)
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
02:37PM
Unique Readers:
Primarily
Public Domain
Everything I've written here, except my copyrighted
essays, poetry, lyrics, and music is hereby placed in the public
domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the pictures
used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair
use. Thus the license here would best be described as:
Primarily Public
Domain.
Please ask permission if there is any question in
regards to public domain usage.
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| Sunday, June 22, 2003 |  |
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 22 Jun 2003 @ 00:52
Airline "Smart Seat" Can Detect Hijackers
Ananova
June 11, 2003
British scientists are working on an intelligent aircraft passenger seat that can help crews spot nervous terrorists or people at risk of deep vein thrombosis.
According to New Scientist the device is being developed by engineers at QinetiQ, formerly part of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, in Farnborough, Hampshire.
The seat contains pressure sensors linked to a computer to assess the occupant's behaviour.
It should be able to tell if a passenger has been sitting still for too long, raising the risk of DVT.
A warning could then be flashed to the crew urging them to advise the passenger to take a walk.
The seat may also reveal if a passenger is in a state of high anxiety. A display could then discreetly alert the cabin crew to watch out for an individual who might have a fear of flying, or potentially be a hijacker or get involved in an air rage incident.
Additional sensors and analytical software may one day be able to distinguish between the nervous flyer and terrorist.
The New Scientist said: "The sensing seats are part of a bigger project to make airline cabins more friendly."
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| Monday, June 16, 2003 | |
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 16 Jun 2003 @ 00:21
This has already had quite a bit of coverage, however, I thought some of you might not have read or seen it yet. I saw an interview with him on TechTV a couple of days ago.
Building A Cruise Missile In His Own Backyard
Reuters June 5, 2003
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand handyman with a passion for jet engines says he is building a cruise missile in his backyard using parts and technology freely available over the Internet.
Bruce Simpson, a 49-year-old Internet site developer, has a site entitled "A DIY Cruise Missile" on which he says he was prompted to build the missile because so many people had told him it could not easily be done.
"I decided to put my money where my mouth is and build a cruise missile in my garage, on a budget of just US$5,000," he said on his Web site.
"I like to think of this project as a military version of 'Junkyard Wars'," he says referring to a television program about teams building big machines from scrapyard materials.
He said he would publish step-by-step instructions on his Web site about how to make the jet-powered missile, which would be able to fly 100 km (60 miles) from his home, north of the main city of Auckland, in less than 15 minutes.
The missile could carry a small warhead weighing 10 kg (22 lb), would be hard to detect on radar, and would be impossible for the New Zealand Air Force to stop, Simpson said.
"Obviously the goal is not to provide terrorists or other nefarious types with plans for a working cruise missile but to prove the point that nations need to be prepared for this type of sophisticated attack from within their own borders."
The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported Simpson had imported a radio control transmitter, global positioning equipment, and a flight control system, among other things, without encountering problems from New Zealand customs.
"We are aware of the initiative," a Defense Force spokesman told Reuters, but declined any further comment.
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| Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | |
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 10 Jun 2003 @ 09:30
Gecko Tape Will Stick You To The Ceiling
By Will Knight
New Scientist
June 1, 2003
A new material covered with nanoscopic hairs that mimic those found on geckos' feet could allow people to walk up to sheer surfaces and across ceilings, say researchers.
Andre Geim and colleagues at the UK's Manchester University say covering a person's hand with the material would be enough to let them stick to the ceiling. The tape could be detached from the surface by simply peeling it slowly away from one side.
"Spiderman is science fiction and will remain in comics," Geim told New Scientist . "But hopefully 'gecko-man' will become less science fiction and more a reality in the near future."
Geckos can climb even the most slippery surface with ease and hang from glass using a single toe. The secret behind this extraordinary climbing skill lies with millions of tiny keratin hairs - called setae - on the surface of each foot. An intermolecular phenomenon known as van der Waals force is exerted by each of these hairs. Although the force is individually miniscule, the millions of hairs collectively produce a powerful adhesive effect.
Soft and flexible
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University recently announced that they had made synthetic setae that exert a similar force. But Geim's team has now gone further by demonstrating a material made of millions of such artificial hairs.
The researchers found that the synthetic hairs had to be soft and flexible enough to attach to uneven surfaces but not so weak that they would break easily or bunch together. The substrate that the hairs were mounted on also had to be sufficiently flexible for the material to work.
"Flexibility comes from the hairs themselves and the base material," Geim says. "This flexibility can compensate for unevenness or dust on contacted surfaces."
Each synthetic hair is made from a material called kapton and measures 2.0 microns in height and 0.2 microns in diameter - the same as gecko hairs. The hair-covered tape is made using a mould created by a lithographic process. A piece of tape one centimetre square holds around 100 million of these artificial setae and could support a weight of one kilogram.
The researchers believe the material could have many applications, from new types of vehicle tyre to robots that can climb up walls.
But Geim admits that the current fabrication method does not lend itself easily to mass production of the tape. And a more serious concern is how to make the artificial setae durable enough to be reapplied many times, he adds.
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| Monday, June 9, 2003 | |
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 9 Jun 2003 @ 08:39
Is Google Getting Too Powerful?
Is it time to set up Ofsearch, a regulator of search engines asks technology consultant Bill Thompson
Everyone's favourite search engine now owns the world's most popular blogging tool.
With its purchase of Pyra Labs, Google now runs Blogger and with it the weblogs of hundreds of thousands of opinionated net users.
The story of the buyout was, appropriately enough, broken on a weblog by journalist Dan Gillmor, shortly followed by an 'official' announcement on his personal blog from Prya Labs co-founder Evan Williams.
Then the blogs and technology news sites went wild, making this the net news story of the week, if not the month.
Not journalism
Often blogs are as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with unsubstantiated rumour, prejudice and gossip masquerading as informed opinion
Bill Thompson
We should not get carried away by all this.
Ridiculous comments, such as Dan Gillmor's claim that "with the advent of weblogging, the readers know more than the journalists" only stoke the fires of hyperbole and do not help us understand this new tool.
Blogging is not journalism.
Often it is as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with unsubstantiated rumour, prejudice and gossip masquerading as informed opinion.
Without editors to correct syntax, tidy up the story structure or check facts, it is generally impossible to rely on anything one finds in a blog without verifying it somewhere else - often the much-maligned mainstream media.
The much-praised reputation mechanism that is supposed to ensure that bloggers remain true, honest and factually-correct is, in fact, just the rule of the mob, where those who shout loudest and get the most links are taken more seriously.
It is the online equivalent of saying that The Sun newspaper always tells the truth because four million people read it, and The Guardian is intrinsically less trustworthy as it only sells half a million.
Google's plan
This is not to deny the significance of blogging, or the value that comes from having the unmediated opinions and experiences of millions of people available online.
Blogging left the geeks behind long ago, and the wide availability of easy to use tools like Blogger, Movable Type and Grey Matter has allowed anyone with an interest and some time to create their own online journal.
I just do not subscribe to the view that this challenges 'proper' journalism, even if it does mean that sloppy reporting and analysis based on incorrect assertions are more likely to be challenged by the online community.
What then of Blogger and Google?
Now that some of the dust has settled it is clear that nobody knows what is going to happen next.
Not even, it seems, Evan Williams himself since he admitted that just because he had negotiated the sale to Google "that doesn't mean I know much. For example, about the question: What happens now?"
Some think that Google was simply helping out a fellow innovator that had fallen on hard times. Others see it as the start of an attempt by this most successful of search engines to own the 'blogosphere', all the world's blogs.
Another theory has it that Google will use the content from the blogs it now owns to fine tune its news service by using the bloggers as an early warning system on breaking stories.
Internet entrepreneur and blogger Anil Dash believes it is Google's first mistake, the start of a strategy to turn the search engine into a portal which is doomed to failure.
And the paranoid fringe think that it is just another takeover from a secretive, hyper-competitive company with no respect for the personal privacy of its users.
I think this last group may actually have a point.
Tracking users
Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is
Bill Thompson
Google is a privately-owned US company that has a policy of collecting as much information as possible about everyone who uses its search tool.
It will store your computer's IP address, the time/date, your browser details and the item you search for.
It sets a tracking cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038.
This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years.
Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is.
It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes.
And the much-loved Google toolbar tells Google about every web page you look at.
Yet it so dominates the search engine market that no website can afford to ignore it, and it indexes so much of the web that few users think of using another.
The way it ranks pages is a commercial secret, outside any external supervision or control.
If Google decides it does not like you then you can be dropped from the index.
Continue... More >
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| Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | |
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3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
RFID Tags: Big Brother in Small Packages
By Declan McCullagh
January 13, 2003, 6:26 AM PT
Could we be constantly tracked through our clothes, shoes or even our cash in the future?
I'm not talking about having a microchip surgically implanted beneath your skin, which is what Applied Digital Systems of Palm Beach, Fla., would like to do. Nor am I talking about John Poindexter's creepy Total Information Awareness spy-veillance system, which I wrote about last week.
Instead, in the future, we could be tracked because we'll be wearing, eating and carrying objects that are carefully designed to do so.
The generic name for this technology is RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
You should become familiar with RFID technology because you'll be hearing much more about it soon. Retailers adore the concept, and CNET News.com's own Alorie Gilbert wrote last week about how Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based grocery chain Tesco are starting to install "smart shelves" with networked RFID readers. In what will become the largest test of the technology, consumer goods giant Gillette recently said it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, Calif.
Alien Technology won't reveal how it charges for each tag, but industry estimates hover around 25 cents. The company does predict that in quantities of 1 billion, RFID tags will approach 10 cents each, and in lots of 10 billion, the industry's holy grail of 5 cents a tag.
It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags, which typically include a 64-bit unique identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values. KSW-Microtec, a German company, has invented washable RFID tags designed to be sewn into clothing. And according to EE Times, the European central bank is considering embedding RFID tags into banknotes by 2005.
It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags.
That raises the disquieting possibility of being tracked though our personal possessions. Imagine: The Gap links your sweater's RFID tag with the credit card you used to buy it and recognizes you by name when you return. Grocery stores flash ads on wall-sized screens based on your spending patterns, just like in "Minority Report." Police gain a trendy method of constant, cradle-to-grave surveillance.
You can imagine nightmare legal scenarios that don't involve the cops. Future divorce cases could involve one party seeking a subpoena for RFID logs--to prove that a spouse was in a certain location at a certain time. Future burglars could canvass alleys with RFID detectors, looking for RFID tags on discarded packaging that indicates expensive electronic gear is nearby. In all of these scenarios, the ability to remain anonymous is eroded.
Don't get me wrong. RFID tags are, on the whole, a useful development and a compelling technology. They permit retailers to slim inventory levels and reduce theft, which one industry group estimates at $50 billion a year. With RFID tags providing economic efficiencies for businesses, consumers likely will end up with more choices and lower prices. Besides, wouldn't it be handy to grab a few items from store shelves and simply walk out, with the purchase automatically debited from your (hopefully secure) RFID'd credit card?
The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store. That's the scenario that should raise alarms--and currently the RFID industry seems to be giving mixed signals about whether the tags will be disabled or left enabled by default.
In an interview with News.com's Gilbert last week, Gillette Vice President Dick Cantwell said that its RFID tags would be disabled at the cash register only if the consumer chooses to "opt out" and asks for the tags to be turned off. "The protocol for the tag is that it has built in opt-out function for the retailer, manufacturer, consumer," Cantwell said.
Wal-Mart, on the other hand, says that's not the case. When asked if Wal-Mart will disable the RFID tags at checkout, company spokesman Bill Wertz told Gilbert: "My understanding is that we will."
Cantwell asserts that there's no reason to fret. "At this stage of the game, the tag is no good outside the store," he said. "At this point in time, the tag is useless beyond the store shelf. There is no value and no harm in the tag outside the distribution channel. There is no way it can be read or that (the) data would be at all meaningful to anyone." That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't address what might happen if RFID tags and readers become widespread.
If the tags stay active after they leave the store, the biggest privacy worries depend on the range of the RFID readers. There's a big difference between tags that can be read from an inch away compared to dozens or hundreds of feet away.
The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store.
For its part, Alien Technology says its RFID tags can be read up to 15 feet away. "When we talk about the range of these tags being 3 to 5 meters, that's a range in free space," said Tom Pounds, a company vice president. "That's optimally oriented in front of a reader in free space. In fact if you put a tag up against your body or on a metal Rolex watch in free space, the read range drops to zero."
But what about a more powerful RFID reader, created by criminals or police who don't mind violating FCC regulations? Eric Blossom, a veteran radio engineer, said it would not be difficult to build a beefier transmitter and a more sensitive receiver that would make the range far greater. "I don't see any problem building a sensitive receiver," Blossom said. "It's well-known technology, particularly if it's a specialty item where you're willing to spend five times as much."
Privacy worries also depend on the size of the tags. Matrics of Columbia, Md., said it has claimed the record for the smallest RFID tag, a flat square measuring 550 microns a side with an antenna that varies between half an inch long to four inches by four inches, depending on the application. Without an antenna, the RFID tag is about the size of a flake of pepper.
Matrics CEO Piyush Sodha said the RFID industry is still in a state of experimentation. "All of the customers are participating in a phase of extensive field trials," Sodha said. "Then adoption and use in true business practices will happen...Those pilots are only going to start early this year."
To the credit of the people in the nascent RFID industry, these trials are allowing them to think through the privacy concerns. An MIT-affiliated standards group called the Auto-ID Center said in an e-mailed statement to News.com that they have "designed a kill feature to be built into every (RFID) tag. If consumers are concerned, the tags can be easily destroyed with an inexpensive reader. How this will be executed i.e. in the home or at point of sale is still being defined, and will be tested in the third phase of the field test."
If you care about privacy, now's your chance to let the industry know how you feel. (And, no, I'm not calling for new laws or regulations.) Tell them that RFID tags are perfectly acceptable inside stores to track pallets and crates, but that if retailers wish to use them on consumer goods, they should follow four voluntary guidelines.
First, consumers should be notified--a notice on a checkout receipt would work--when RFID tags are present in what they're buying. Second, RFID tags should be disabled by default at the checkout counter. Third, RFID tags should be placed on the product's packaging instead of on the product when possible. Fourth, RFID tags should be readily visible and easily removable.
Given RFID's potential for tracking your every move, is that too much to ask? More >
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3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
Comments from a friend
let's see...
1) embed chips in the Euro.
2) tank the American economy (via shell-game economics using shill companies like Enron and MCI to grab pension funds, 401K funds, etc.)
3) brainwash/scare US citizens (and Mexican/Canadian citizens) into adopting a Pan-American currency - the Amero - while devaluating and eventually eliminating the dollar/canadian dollar/peso).
4) embed tracer chips in the colored money (new $20 bill is pink/orange tinted)
5) further develop the cashless society by developing more and more demand/requirements for ATM/debit/credit transactions
6) tank the amero and embed tracer chips in humans (vaccines anyone?) 7) mission accomplished
...oh my silly mind wanders
Radio ID Chips May Track Banknotes
By Winston Chai
Special to CNET News.com
May 22, 2003, 4:40 PM PT
Radio tags the size of a grain of sand could be embedded in the euro note if a reported deal between the European Central Bank (ECB) and Japanese electronics maker Hitachi is signed.
Japanese news agency Kyodo was reportedly told by Hitachi that the ECB has started talks with the company about the use of its radio chip in the banknote.
The ECB is deeply concerned about counterfeiting and money-laundering and is said to be looking at radio-tag technology.
Last year, Greek authorities were confronted with 2,411 counterfeiting cases and seized 4,776 counterfeit banknotes, while authorities in Poland nabbed a gang suspected of making more than a million fake euros and putting them into circulation.
To add to the problem, businesses also find it hard to judge a note's authenticity, as current equipment cannot tell between bogus currency and old notes with worn-out security marks. Among the security features in the current euro are threads visible under ultraviolet light.
"The main objective is to determine the authenticity of money and to stop counterfeits," Frost and Sullivan analyst Prianka Chopra said in a report published in March.
"RFID (radio frequency identification) tags also have the ability of recording information such as details of the transactions the paper note has been involved in. It would, therefore, also prevent money-laundering, make it possible to track illegal transactions and even prevent kidnappers demanding unmarked bills," Chopra said.
RFID tags are microchips half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
Besides acting as a digital watermark, the use of radio chips could speed up routine bank processes such as counting. With such tags, a stack of notes can be passed through a reader and the sum added in a split second, similar to how inventory is tracked in an RFID-based system.
The euro came into circulation on Jan.1 last year, with 12 countries adopting it as standard currency: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
If the ECB-Hitachi deal comes about, the project could involve the use of tiny radio tags, a feat that Hitachi claims to have already achieved.
In February, the Japanese firm said it had successfully operated the world's smallest noncontact chip, which measured only one-third of a millimeter across.
Hitachi said its "mu-chip" is capable of wirelessly transmitting a 128-bit number when radio signals are beamed at it.
In a euro note, the number could contain a serial code, as well as details such as place of origin and denomination.
Data can only be written on the chip's ROM during production, and not after it is out "in the wild," according to Hitachi.
The minuscule chip has been selected for use in admission tickets for Japan's international expo, which will be held in the country's Aichi Prefecture in 2005.
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| Sunday, June 1, 2003 | |
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 21:29
Smart Morph
Morph a friend's photo to make funny effects and have fun with it. Morphed pictures can be animated, resized, and cropped. The program works with BMP, WMF, EMF, JPG, PNG, and PCX images, and outputs animated pictures in AVI, BMP, JPG, PNG, and PCX formats. It supports scanners and printers. The help file is small, so those not familiar with graphic formats might have trouble figuring out the program. I created an animation without the help file, but did refer to it for two minor points. The help file shows how to add the animated file to a Web page. I'd show you what I did, but I corrupted the file when I tried an experiment.
Thomas Edison did say, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." More >
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| Wednesday, May 28, 2003 | |
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 28 May 2003 @ 12:53
Gas-Electric Hybrids: The New Breed
Increasingly, Americans are willing to give gas-electric hybrid vehicles a try, according to an automotive research firm.
In a study, J.D. Power and Associates said "desire" for the technology that mates a gasoline engine to an electric motor for a more fuel-efficient power plant rose from 20 percent to 29 percent in five years, ending in 2002.
By early in calendar 2003, as gasoline prices rose to record and near-record levels across the country, Honda's Civic Hybrid model posted record monthly sales in February and Toyota's Prius hybrid was at near-record sales levels.
"We're not surveying buyers, but our only guess is [Prius] sales are up because of gas price increases," said Toyota spokeswoman Holly Ferris.
Indeed, Power's research showed fuel efficiency was the No. 1 reason why buyers selected a hybrid. In an earlier study, Power found women a bit more interested in hybrids than were men.
Three Models Now
To be sure, even record sales of hybrid vehicles are small when compared with sales of more mainstream vehicles.
For example, the record Civic Hybrid sales totaled 2,274 in February 2003. Prius sales totaled a record 1,968 in February. In comparison, for every Civic Hybrid and Prius that were sold that month, more than six Ford Explorer SUVs were sold.
Currently, there are only three gas-electric hybrids are on the market and all come from Japan-based automakers.
The 2003 Honda Insight is the most frugal in its gasoline use, with a federal economy rating of 61 miles a gallon in city driving and 68 mpg on the highway, for a combined rating of 64 mpg. This is for a model with a manual transmission.
The 2003 Toyota Prius comes only with a continuously variable transmission and is rated at 52 mpg in the city and 45 mpg on the highway, for a combined rating of 48 mpg.
The 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission also has a combined rating of 48 mpg. Specifically, it's rated at 46 mpg in the city and 51 mpg in highway driving.
Each of the three has a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price just under $20,000.
New hybrid models are coming. Among them: a larger, updated Prius which promises more performance and "zip" as well as greater fuel efficiency when it goes on sale late in calendar 2003, according to a Toyota official. The Lexus luxury brand plans a hybrid version of its popular RX 330 sport utility in 2004, and Ford's Escape Hybrid SUV will be available for consumers that same year.
Easy to Drive
Each of the hybrid models is driven just like a regular car. Owners fill the fuel tank with gasoline, just as they would any other car, albeit a bit less often because of the good gas mileage.
Despite having an electric motor on board, a hybrid driver doesn't ever plug the car in. The electric motor powers itself using energy from regenerative braking and other sources.
In fact, the Honda Civic Hybrid, in particular, looks most like a "normal" car on the outside, because it uses the same four-door Civic sedan body that other gasoline-only Civics use.
How Hybrids Work
Note that hybrids aren't necessarily identical in their operation. But in simplistic terms, their systems are similar. An internal combustion engine provides the basic propulsion for hybrid vehicles, but is aided by an onboard electric motor.
However, how and when the electric motor assists can differ.
In Honda's front-wheel-drive Insight and Civic, the electric motor provides the torque for the front wheels right at the start of acceleration from a standstill. As the car picks up speed, the internal combustion engine kicks in, and at top highway speeds, the gas engine alone provides the power.
More Hybrids Due
Civic, which ranks as the No. 1 small car nameplate in the U.S., won't be the last to use a mainstream, existing vehicle body to house a hybrid powerplant. Ford officials have indicated the upcoming Escape hybrid will use the same body as the current Escape SUV.
Even though the current three hybrid models all use four-cylinder engines, larger engines can be hybridized, too. For example, the hybrid RX 330 will have a V6.
"My dream is that buyers never mention fuel economy," said Robert Bienenfeld, senior manager of automobile product planning and alternate fuel vehicle sales and marketing at American Honda Motor Co. Inc. "This is, really, just another powertrain option for people . . . You know, the technology truly is transparent because drivers don't have to learn how to drive this car."
Meanwhile, General Motors Corp. plans to offer a hybrid version of its full-size trucks, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, late this year. These hybrids will have engines that turn themselves off at traffic lights when the vehicles are stopped, thus saving on fuel.
GM's Saturn division also is promised a gas-electric hybrid version of its VUE sport-utility vehicle, likely in 2005. Other automaker hybrids are due in 2006 and after.
There is at least one catch, though. At the outset, these environmentally friendly models are likely to cost more than comparable vehicles with internal combustion engines only.
For example, the 2003 Civic Hybrid carries a starting MSRP of $19,550. This was for a model with five-speed manual transmission. The Civic Hybrid with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that operates like an automatic transmission is some $1,000 higher.
This compares with an MSRP of less than $16,000 for a 2003 Civic LX sedan that has many of the Hybrid's standard interior features, such as side airbags, cruise control, air conditioning and four-cylinder engine.
The reason for the higher prices? Automakers are seeking to recoup the costs of researching and developing the new technology.
Consumers seem to recognize the technology is likely to cost a bit more.
The J.D. Power study found that of the car buyers who said they'd consider a hybrid, nearly one-third said they'd buy one even if the savings from reduced fuel costs during their ownership period didn't offset the higher vehicle purchase price.
Improved Fuel Economy
Despite the differences, each hybrid reaps benefits over conventionally powered counterparts. Fuel economy is a top benefit.
The two-seat Insight hatchback has been the most fuel-efficient vehicle on America's roads since its debut in late calendar 1999, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Civic Hybrid's estimated 48 mpg rating for combined city and highway travel compares with a maximum 33 mpg in the city and 39 mpg on the highway for a regular Civic with 1.7-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine mated to a five-speed manual.
Driving Performance
Ford Motor Co. officials say their first hybrid, the Escape SUV, will pair a four-cylinder engine with an electric motor.
The result, they say, will be improved performance of the four-cylinder-powered vehicle, so much so it is expected to match the performance of a V6-powered Escape.
Yet they expect the Escape hybrid to have a fuel economy rating of 35 mpg to 40 mpg per gallon in city driving and 30 mpg on the highway. This compares with a four-cylinder base-level Escape rated at 23 mpg in city driving and 28 mpg on the highway.
Ann Job is an automotive journalist and writer for T&A Ink media group. More >
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| Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | |
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:13
My friend Greg Hurley sent me this email and article. His editorial is something to think about.
"Let's see...hmmmmm...GPS tracking, banking records, medical records, criminal records, tax records...i.e. mark of the beast? - 'if you don't pay your taxes we'll shut you off'. Is this SECURITY? Does it PROTECT YOU? - hell NO!"
"Sacring you into compliance so that all your privacy is owned (tracked/recorded/managed) in a central database - effectively like cattle"
"This company has already come under scrutiny for initially calling this chip the 'digital angel', so they later changed it to verichip."
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From the Boston Globe
Barcoding Humans
The era of implanting people with identity chips is up on us
By Angela Swafford
Globe Correspondent
5/20/2003
The painless procedure barely lasted 15 minutes. In his South Florida office, Dr. Harvey Kleiner applied a local anesthetic above the tricep of my right arm, then he inserted a thick needle deep under the skin.
''First we locate a prime spot,'' he said. ''The next thing is to release the button that triggers the injection mechanism, and that's it, the cargo's been delivered.''
The ''cargo'' was a half-inch-long microchip inside a glass and silicone cylinder that carries my permanent identification number. For an instant, I remembered the famous scene in the movie ''Fantastic Voyage'' in which a miniaturized Raquel Welch and her companions are inserted, submarine and all, into the vein of a patient. In my case, the tiny chip inside me can transmit personal information to anyone with a special handheld scanner.
Theoretically, this VeriChip will allow doctors to call up my medical records even if I'm too badly hurt to answer questions. It is also supposed to allow me to get money from an automatic teller machine by flashing my arm instead of punching in my PIN number. Or reassure airport security that I am a journalist, not a terrorist.
And, though the VeriChip strikes critics as Orwellian, its makers think the surgically implanted IDs could be the Social Security numbers of the future in a nervous world.
''I believe the day will come when most of us will have something similar to the VeriChip under our skin,'' said Scott Silverman, president of Florida-based Applied Digital Solutions. ''People will regard that its benefits -- in terms of financial, security, and health care -- far outweigh the possibility of loss of privacy.''
Right now, I am part of a very small club, the 18th person in the world -- and the first journalist -- to get ''chipped.'' Most of the others are ADS employees along with one Florida family who have been jokingly dubbed ''the Chipsons'' in a play on the old Jetsons cartoon.
The idea of a system that gives emergency workers and others immediate access to potentially lifesaving information is exactly what drew the Jacobs family of Boca Raton to the VeriChip. At the request of their 14-year-old son, Derek, the Jacobses got chipped last year.
''My husband has cancer and we've experienced the frustrating delays of trying to provide urgent medical history information every time he is rushed into the emergency room,'' says Leslie Jacobs.
Since the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, she continues, ''we know that our lives are increasingly vulnerable. If we want increased safety, security, and peace of mind, we need to take positive steps. We've decided that having a VeriChip is one way to do just that.''
But critics see surveillance technology like the VeriChip as a growing threat, giving potentially dangerous new power to businesses and government alike. In a report issued in January by the American Civil Liberties Union, Jay Stanley and Barry Steinhardt warned that an explosion of technology has already created a ''surveillance monster.''
''Scarcely a month goes by in which we don't read about some new high-tech way to invade people's privacy, from face recognition to implantable microchips, data mining, DNA chips, and even `brain wave fingerprinting,' '' they wrote. ''The fact is there are no longer any technical barriers to the Big Brother regime portrayed by George Orwell [in his novel `1984'].''
The VeriChip is similar to the more than 25 million chips already embedded in animals all over the world acting as ''pet passports,'' allowing customs officials to monitor those animals that do not need to go into quarantine, or to identify your stray dog.
But, at least for now, the VeriChip does much less: it's mainly for demonstration purposes, carrying only an identification number and the capacity for about three paragraphs of information. Only 10 hospitals and doctors in Florida have the scanner to read the chips. And the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the chips for use in health care, so they cannot be used to access medical records.
However, ADS officials say this is just the beginning. They want to build a chip that can store loads of information, or act as the key to a central database that stores information about the user. Ultimately, the company hopes to be able to track the movement of people with chips worldwide using global positioning satellites.
The company is field testing its Personal Locator Device, or PLD, which ADS says could help track lost children, sick elderly family members, mountain climbers who get lost, or kidnap victims. Company officials say they have been inundated with requests from private companies in Latin America, especially Mexico and Colombia.
The PLD is still years away from wide use, according to Keith Bolton, ADS's chief of technologies. The working prototype is rather large -- 2 1/2 inches in diameter -- and would require major surgery for implantation (though it appears some Israeli secret service agents already carry something similar). It is powered by a pacemaker battery, and, just like in a Tom Clancy book, it would let anyone with access to the PLD system follow the wearer anytime, anywhere in the world, at the click of a mouse.
''The PLD would also monitor the vital signs of the wearer, and the environmental conditions around that person, and it could be a great way to protect a family member with a disease such as Alzheimer's,'' says Bolton.
Businesses already use technology to track their products around the world, but we should stop and think about the implications before starting a human tracking system, cautions Mohan Tanniru, professor of information systems at the University of Arizona.
''I am not going to put a chip on my kid thinking that she could be kidnapped,'' he says, ''unless I know the chip will be activated only if I report that my kid is lost. But how do I know that the police are only going to activate it when I say so, and not when they feel like it? You can't just say that technology is bad just because it is there. So it is a matter of deciding what trusting agency should be given that responsibility.''
Tanniru actually thinks that human tracking might be welcome in certain cases, such as following criminals on probation or making sure foreign nationals don't overstay their visas. In fact, Pro Tech Monitoring of Tampa already makes an externally worn tracking device for parolees that alerts authorities if the wearer enters a forbidden area, such as a school zone.
For ADS's Silverman, both the VeriChip and its future GPS-based version are a matter of individual choice.
''No one is forcing you to have a VeriChip. If you want a chip in your right arm you are going to know it is there because you will see it injected. When you look at the events of 9/11 and the way people measure their own personal security today versus the way they did a few years ago, there is a much higher concern to make sure that family members are safe and sound, and some people now put that above privacy rights.''
So far, ADS's technology gamble has not translated into profits. In 2002, ADS lost $112 million on revenues of $96 million, though this loss is significantly lower that that of the previous year.
As far as I am concerned, having a chip with a code in it is not giving me the chills. I think it would be nice to use it to get cash or pay for gas, and I wouldn't mind paramedics having access to my health records in the blink of an eye. Besides, I know it would never get lost. I did, however, have a few questions about its health hazards. So I asked Dr. Kleiner.
''The VeriChip is extremely safe,'' he says. ''Pacemakers are hundreds of times larger and more complicated and nobody has problems with them. To prevent the chip from migrating to another part of the body there is a little polymer at one end of the capsule that will adhere to the skin and hold it in place.
At his office, my arm was like a barcoded product at a supermarket cash register: It beeped every time the scanner prodded the chip. It worked even through my clothes. Displayed on the screen was a long number with many zeroes. For good or bad, I thought, this chip may be quietly heralding a time when people will literally have technology under the skin. More >
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:03
Follow-up to human barcoding technology
Itsy Bitsy IC
Hitachi Ltd's prototype super-micro wireless automatic recognition IC chips, or "mu-chips", are shown on a fingertip in Tokyo.
The world's smallest class 0.4-mm IC chip, which can be incorporated into various materials -- even paper -- will make new business development possible in data management, authentication of luxury goods and currencies, and medical treatment, among other uses.
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 21 May 2003 @ 10:46
Google To "Fix" Blog Noise Problem
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 09/05/2003 at 01:04 GMT
Google is to create a search tool specifically for weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the self-publishing tools its own tab.
CEO Eric Schmidt made the announcement on Monday, at the JP Morgan Technology and Telecom conference. 'Soon the company will also offer a service for searching Web logs, known as "blogs,"' reported Reuters.
It isn't clear if weblogs will be removed from the main search results, but precedent suggests they will be. After Google acquired Usenet groups from Deja.com,it developed a unique user interface and a refined search engine, and removed the groups from the main index. After a sticky
start, Usenet veterans welcomed the new interface. Google recently acquired Blogger, and sources suggest this is the most likely option.
The Register, UK
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| Monday, May 19, 2003 | |
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 19 May 2003 @ 09:31
Howthe MacIntel Will Change the Market
By John C. Dvorak
April 7, 2003
My recent column in which I suggested that Apple may be contemplating a switch to the Intel architecture resulted in some interesting discussion. Much of it came from Mac mavens who seem to think that such a savvy move to an Intel platform is unlikely and ill-advised, since the new IBM-made PowerPC chip appears to be the front-runner for a future upgrade. But Apple must go with Intel or risk its future. I'll explain why. (Mac users should actually like this column, for a change.) I see an opportunity for Apple to take the entire market—away from Microsoft, that is. The window is open. Much of this initiative, I believe, will come from Intel.
The Microsoft/AMD connection. First of all, the recent comments about Microsoft's 64-bit operating system that are starting to crop up in blogs and the British press are not lost on Intel. Also, Microsoft's long-standing and cozy relationship with AMD—Intel's most hated enemy—cannot make the chip leviathan happy. Simply put, Intel would love to screw Microsoft. Even the possibility that Microsoft might eschew the Itanium processor for the Athlon 64 cannot sit well, and Intel has to do something to get the world back on the Intel/Itanium fast track. Enter Apple.
Apple must sense that despite user loyalty and software that's often superior, it's in a position of weakness based on simple market economics. And Adobe seemed to be promoting the Wintel platform recently, which surely didn't go down well at the home of the Mac. Apple must drool thinking about the other 95 percent of the market—the part it doesn't own.
None of these circumstances or their possible ramifications—like the possibility of Intel supporting Apple—are lost on Microsoft, which must put the stake in the heart of Apple now by any means possible. This means Apple has to act boldly—and soon.
Killer instinct. The die was cast when Microsoft bought Connectix, a company that is nowhere near Redmond's roadmap, but is part of the Apple scheme. Supposedly Microsoft made the buyout because Connectix virtualization software lets multiple versions of Windows run on individual systems. But ever since people began using the software to run Linux on Windows machines, it became a threat. The ability to run some sort of Intel-based Apple OS side by side with Windows would be worse and could be a disaster. Who needs such a comparison? Microsoft bought the company and now will disable the feature. The war has begun.
Scenario. So here's what I see unfolding.
Phase one. Late 2003/early 2004: Apple ports and optimizes the Unix-kernel OS X for the Itanium. The company rolls out the first Itanium desktop in conjunction with a PowerPC 970 machine for insurance. This generates a lot of buzz. Debate ensues. Pundits call the Itanium system the MacIntel. Intel is happy.
Phase two. 2004: Bragging about its success, Apple rolls out another version of the OS for the plain x86 family, selling that version directly to any OEM (Dell, HP, IBM, and others) for bundling. The company also offers the OS to the installed base as a shrink-wrapped product, allows dual booting to ease the transition for those switching from Windows to Mac, and gives away an office suite as an incentive. Apple reinaugurates the "Switch" ads that were always part of a multi-attack strategy. The company's 5 percent share continues, because at first the only machines are Itanium and older PowerPC systems selling to the same audience. The OS ploy is pure gravy.
Phase three. Late 2004 or sometime in 2005: Just as Apple's new OS begins to populate the x86 market, Apple rolls out its own x86 machine. This time the company is leery of who it licenses the OS to, setting up a tiered fee schedule to avoid lowballers by making them pay more (just the way Microsoft did with its NT licenses). The company phases out the PowerPC machines and introduces a competitively priced x86 computer made at the same Chinese factories that Dell, Gateway, and HP use to cut manufacturing costs. If sales of the Itanium line skyrocket, Apple could skip the x86 machine altogether, leaving it to licensees and end-users.
Unlike its competitors, Apple doesn't have to pay for the OS, and because of a long-term branding effort to make its systems seem a cut above low-cost PCs, the company can sell at a modest premium. Minimally, Apple should be able to double its overall share of the systems market to 10 percent. I would expect something like 25 percent eventually, which would make the company five times bigger than today and give it enormous software profits.
History not repeated. In the past, Apple's licensing scheme failed because the company could not pump a raw OS into the mainstream Intel world to act as a profit buffer and market-share grabber. Licensees were underselling Apple OS systems, and Apple had no other channel through which to distribute its OS. By switching to Intel before unrolling a scheme like the one I've described, the company could have a huge existing base of computers waiting for software.
There is no doubt that a MacIntel machine could supplant the Wintel platform. And most likely, the entire hungry Linux community could port all the x86 Linux code to the MacIntel OS within weeks, creating a huge flood of good products. Adobe and other Mac products already run x86 code. This whole ploy is not like starting from scratch. Everything is already geared for success. The ducks are in a row.
Right now, all things being equal, Apple should be able to grab half the market for operating systems. If it's as aggressive as Microsoft was with Netscape and essentially gives away the OS to the installed base, Apple could possibly knock Microsoft out of the box completely.
In fact, this scheme or something close to it is what all Mac users want and is possibly the only thing that will keep the company afloat in the long term. After all, who really cares what chip is inside? More >
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| Thursday, May 8, 2003 | |
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 8 May 2003 @ 23:30
Portable Toilets With Web Access
Thursday, May 8, 2003 Posted: 9:11 AM EDT (1311 GMT)
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Now on the way: "Surfing on the loo" with Internet access at portable toilets.
The iLoo being developed by the MSN division of Microsoft Corp. in Britain is a standard portable toilet -- a loo to the British -- with a wireless keyboard and extending, height-adjustable plasma screen in front of the seat.
There would also be a "Hotmail station" with waterproof keyboard and plasma screen on the outside for those waiting in line.
MSN officials say they're negotiating for the manufacture of toilet paper imprinted with Web addresses that users may not have tried.
"The Internet's so much a part of everyday life now that surfing on the loo was the next natural step," MSN marketing manager Tracy Blacher said. "People used to reach for a book or mag[azine] when they were on the loo, but now they'll be logging on."
The device is expected to be in use at festivals this summer in Britain, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday.
There's no word on if, or when, the iLoo will make its way across the pond.
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| Saturday, April 26, 2003 | |
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 26 Apr 2003 @ 17:20
DISCOVER
Vol. 24 No. 5 (May 2003)
Anything into Oil
Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light Texas crude each year
By Brad Lemley
Photography by Tony Law
In an industrial park in Philadelphia sits a new machine that can change almost anything into oil.
Really.
"This is a solution to three of the biggest problems facing mankind," says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of Changing World Technologies, the company that built this pilot plant and has just completed its first industrial-size installation in Missouri. "This process can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global warming."
Pardon me, says a reporter, shivering in the frigid dawn, but that sounds too good to be true.
"Everybody says that," says Appel. He is a tall, affable entrepreneur who has assembled a team of scientists, former government leaders, and deep-pocketed investors to develop and sell what he calls the thermal depolymerization process, or TDP. The process is designed to handle almost any waste product imaginable, including turkey offal, tires, plastic bottles, harbor-dredged muck, old computers, municipal garbage, cornstalks, paper-pulp effluent, infectious medical waste, oil-refinery residues, even biological weapons such as anthrax spores. According to Appel, waste goes in one end and comes out the other as three products, all valuable and environmentally benign: high-quality oil, clean-burning gas, and purified minerals that can be used as fuels, fertilizers, or specialty chemicals for manufacturing.
Unlike other solid-to-liquid-fuel processes such as cornstarch into ethanol, this one will accept almost any carbon-based feedstock. If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water. While no one plans to put people into a thermal depolymerization machine, an intimate human creation could become a prime feedstock. "There is no reason why we can't turn sewage, including human excrement, into a glorious oil," says engineer Terry Adams, a project consultant. So the city of Philadelphia is in discussion with Changing World Technologies to begin doing exactly that.
Full Story Here
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 26 Apr 2003 @ 16:32
Environmental News Network
25 April 2003
By Richard Middleton, Associated Press
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A filling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles, said to be the first in the world, opened Thursday in Iceland.
"In time, what is happening in Iceland will show to the rest of the world that hydrogen fuel is a real, commercial possibility that will lead to a cleaner, pollution-free environment," Industry Minister Valgerdir Sverrisdottir said at an opening ceremony on Iceland's official First Day of Summer.
He opened the station by filling up a hydrogen-powered Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, a prototype product of a European Union–backed program.
The major partners in the venture are Icelandic New Energy, DaimlerChrysler, Norsk Hydro, and Royal Dutch Shell. Iceland was chosen for the project because 90 percent of its electricity is generated geothermically or from hydropower.
The European Union contributed 2.8 million euros (US$3.1 million) of the 7 million euros ($7.7 million) cost of the project.
In August, three DaimlerChrysler hydrogen-powered buses will be introduced and tested for two years in Reykjavik. Each bus will have a range of about 200 kilometers (125 miles) before it needs refueling.
Another hydrogen station is to open in Hamburg, Germany, in May, and others will follow in major cities in the Netherlands, Spain, Britain, Belgium, and Sweden.
"It is an important stepping stone along the long road to a commercially viable hydrogen future," said Jeroen van der Veer, vice president of the committee of managing directors of Royal Dutch Shell. "We are confident that in time, hydrogen can make a significant contribution to the global energy mix. But none of us expect overnight success. Despite the years of hard work and the existence of hydrogen fuel cell technology for decades, we are in a real sense at the very beginning of the hydrogen economy story."
Norway's Norsk Hydro developed the hydrogen electrolyzers that use electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. When used in a fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen again combine, and water is the only exhaust product.
Professor Bragi Arnason, head of chemistry at the University of Iceland's Science Institute, said the nation's fishing fleet could be running on hydrogen within 25 years. "Using hydrogen, from renewable geothermal water in Iceland, is really only the first step towards a pollutant-free environment," Arnason said.
More >
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| Thursday, April 24, 2003 | |
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 24 Apr 2003 @ 23:52
MIT Invents Videos Of People Saying Things They Never Said
By Gareth Cook
Boston Globe Staff
CAMBRIDGE - Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created the first realistic videos of people saying things they never said - a scientific leap that raises unsettling questions about falsifying the moving image.
In one demonstration, the researchers taped a woman speaking into a camera, and then reprocessed the footage into a new video that showed her speaking entirely new sentences, and even mouthing words to a song in Japanese, a language she does not speak. The results were enough to fool viewers consistently, the researchers report.
The technique's inventors say it could be used in video games and movie special effects, perhaps reanimating Marilyn Monroe or other dead film stars with new lines. It could also improve dubbed movies, a lucrative global industry.
But scientists warn the technology will also provide a powerful new tool for fraud and propaganda - and will eventually cast doubt on everything from video surveillance to presidential addresses.
'This is really groundbreaking work,' said Demetri Terzopoulos, a leading specialist in facial animation who is a professor of computer science and mathematics at New York University. But 'we are on acollision course with ethics. If you can make people say things they didn't say, then potentially all hell breaks loose.'
The researchers have already begun testing the technology on video of Ted Koppel, anchor of ABC's ''Nightline,'' with the aim of dubbing a show in Spanish, according to Tony F. Ezzat, the graduate student who heads the MIT team. Yet as this and similar technology makes its way out of academic laboratories, even the scientists involved see ways it could be misused: to discredit political dissidents on television, to embarrass people with fabricated video posted on the Web, or to illegally use trusted figures to endorse products.
"There is a certain point at which you raise the level of distrust to where it is hard to communicate through the medium," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "There are people who still believe the moon landing was staged."
Currently, the MIT method is limited: It works only on video of a person facing a camera and not moving much, like a newscaster. The technique only generates new video, not new audio.
But it should not be difficult to extend the discovery to work on a moving head at any angle, according to Tomaso Poggio, a neuroscientist at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, who is on the MIT team and runs the lab where the work is being done...
...
WHY THE MEDIA IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED
[YOUR EDITOR thought there was something odd about those TV stories describing the removal of the Saddam statue. Why had this spontaneous crowd gathered only on one side of the statue? Why no long shots? And why were those people in the background going about their urban business as though nothing was happening? DC Indymedia has the answer.]
DC INDY MEDIA - The up-close action video of the statue being destroyed is broadcast around the world as proof of a massive uprising. Still photos grabbed off of Reuters show a long-shot view of Fardus Square... It's empty save for the U.S. Marines, the international press, and a small handful of Iraqis. There are no more than 200 people in the square at best. The Marines have the square sealed off and guarded by tanks. A U.S. mechanized vehicle is used to pull the statue of Saddam from it's base. The entire event is being hailed as an equivalent of the Berlin Wall falling... but even a quick glance of the long-shot photo shows something more akin to a carefully constructed media event tailored for the television cameras.
MORE EVIDENCE OF THE FOTO FRAUD?
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24 Apr 2003 @ 23:35
Solar cells become thinner and cheaper
(Apr 15)
Researchers in the US and Germany have created a new type of very thin solar cell that could provide a cheaper alternative to existing solar cells. The device, built by Rolf Koenenkamp at Portland State University in the US and colleagues at the Hahn Meitner Institute in Germany,consists of a light-absorbing layer placed on top of a "deep
microstructure" substrate. The advantage of the device is that it can be made from smaller quantities of lower quality semiconductor material.
(K Ernst et al. 2003 Semicond. Sci. Technol. 18 475). More >
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| Tuesday, April 22, 2003 | |
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 22 Apr 2003 @ 21:44
Boise, ID - April 21, 2003 - Genesis World Energy, the company behind a revolutionary energy generation technology introduced in December 2002, has announced an automotive and transportation application that creates an on-demand source of hydrogen fuel for internal combustion engines. The Genesis HICEF (Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine Fuel) Technology represents a stunning breakthrough in hydrogen-based automotive power systems through its on-board, on-demand generation of hydrogen gas derived from water — circumventing the need for either externally supplied sources of hydrogen or hydrogen generation based on chemicals or fossil fuel derivatives.
The Genesis HICEF Technology represents a dramatic departure from current hydrogen-based fuel cell research, which has focused primarily on the generation of power for electric vehicles. Rather than abandoning the internal combustion engine and the decades of progress made in its improvement, the Genesis technology will enable automobile makers to design power systems that run off hydrogen gas rather than fossil fuels - thus eliminating a major source of pollution.
Complete Article Here More >
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| Friday, April 11, 2003 | |
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 11 Apr 2003 @ 16:41
CNN.com/Technology
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 Posted: 9:40 AM EDT (1340 GMT)
SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- The celebrated ride of the car that spawned the nation's toughest emissions regulation ends at a parking lot in Southern California, where a growing fleet of General Motors electric cars awaits an uncertain fate.
Dozens of the green, metallic blue and bright red futuristic autos are lined up behind a chain-link fence at the edge of a freight rail line in Van Nuys, a sure sign the world's largest automaker has pulled the plug on a vehicle it heralded as recently as two years ago as "the car of the future."
As California retreats from its strict pollution regulation, GM is taking the cars off the road when leases expire because it can no longer supply parts to repair them, said GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss.
The automaker is shipping the cars to museums and universities for preservation, sending them to a research lab in New York, "cannibalizing" them for parts for the few still on the road, or scrapping them.
It's a long way from a program once touted as the company's clean air centerpiece, and it comes as fans in California fight to keep some electric cars on the road as the state rewrites its so-called zero emissions vehicle rule.
To the scores of drivers who embraced the technology, GM's effort to get the cars off the road is a heartbreaking prelude to the imminent death of the battery-powered vehicle as state air regulators continue to weaken rules that would have required 10 percent of cars for sale this year be nonpolluting.
"They've gone from being regulators to just asking politely, 'Gee, industry, would you do this?'" said Greg Hanssen, of the Production Electric Vehicle Drivers Coalition, which has lobbied for more battery-powered cars. "To us driving battery electric vehicles, we're saying, 'Hey, you've left us hanging out to dry.'"
New Plans
It was only after seeing the promise of the first GM electric car in the late 1980s that California launched its ambitious zero emission vehicle program in 1990 to help clean up America's smoggiest skies. New York and Massachusetts followed suit and other states are mulling similar regulations and watching to see how California's rule-making plays out.
Over the past decade, state regulators have caved to pressure as car makers vigorously fought at hearings and in court to halt the regulation. Major automakers have stopped production because the vehicles were limited to a range of about 100 miles, required lengthy recharges and their high cost made them unappealing to a wide group of drivers.
The California Air Resources Board is poised to make changes that reflect that the cars are a commercial failure and to promote more promising technologies that have emerged. The board's staff has suggested a new plan letting auto companies reach the 10 percent quota with a combination of low-polluting gas-powered vehicles, gas-electric hybrids and a couple hundred fuel cell cars down the road.
Automakers would also be able to apply credits for electric cars it once put on the road and electric golf-cart style vehicles that zip through neighborhoods, office parks and campuses.
Honda concluded that the limited popularity of the electric car wouldn't effectively contribute to cleaner air, said vice president Ben Knight.
"I think it is a small group that is very interested in that particular technology," Knight said. "Some of our customers would tell us that they did, it took a while, but they did understand why their friends and neighbors weren't leaning toward leasing a battery electric vehicle."
Honda is now focused on its hybrid models, natural gas-powered vehicles and fuel cell program. It plans to have five fuel cell models, which run on the electricity from a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen, in the Los Angeles city fleet by June. The fuel cell cars have already doubled the range of electric cars.
Supporters of battery-powered vehicles say the auto companies never seriously gave the cars a chance and didn't do enough to improve the technology or promote the cars to the public -- claims automakers dispute.
Staying On The Road?
S. David Freeman, chairman of the California Consumer Power and Financing Authority, said there were long waiting lists of people who wanted the cars when he ran the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Freeman has followed the technology since he was head of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the late 1970s and said automakers predicted the demise of the vehicle before it ever hit the road.
"They've been singing that tune while they built the dang things," Freeman said. "Back in 1990 when the Air Resources Board laid down the zero emission rule there were no electric cars, it was a dream. Now that the dream is a reality, they're prepared to abandon it."
Unlike GM, Honda extended leases for some drivers, and about 100 of its original 300 or more EV Plus cars are still on the road.
Of the more than 1,000 two-seater sporty EV1 cars built by GM, only about 375 are on the road. The plan is to have them off the road by the end of next year.
Hanssen's lease expired last month and he surrendered his EV1 to GM as the Air Resources Board was set to vote on restructured regulations that promote the development of the hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle.
There's a chance when the board meets later this month that the regulations will be rewritten to encourage electric vehicle production, and EV1 drivers are hoping GM -- which spent over $1 billion on its electric car program -- will be persuaded to extend leases or lease cars that were previously returned.
But drivers who embraced the technology are not counting on a new lease on the life of their aging electric car.
Hanssen refinanced his house and, like other drivers about to lose their EV1, bought an electric Toyota RAV4, which was sold instead of leased.
"There's a chance (the board) will come out with some juicy incentive to keep these cars on the road," Hanssen said. "It wouldn't be all too surprising if they just scrapped the vehicles."
Copyright 2003 {link:http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP|The Associated Press More >
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 11 Apr 2003 @ 16:31
File splitter
Split a large file into parts for archiving, sending via e-mail, or uploading to a Web server that has limitations such as the size of the file or the file type. The split files are executable, enabling the original file to be automatically recreated. Create custom messages to display when a file is going to be recreated, add a 64x64 picture, automatically unpack zip archives, and password-protect the files. The interface comes with helper menus and previews to guide you. When sending the pieces to someone, that person has to do nothing special to pull them back together, since the files are executables.
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Sounding Circle - Category: Technology
