Final Nod to Boeing Completes E-X Project at Last

Korea has averted another delay in its epically drawn-out attempt to acquire four airborne early warning system or AWACS planes by concluding tough final price negotiations with Boeing for the U.S. firm’s E-737 aircraft. The Defense Acquisition Program Agency announced the decision after a Defense Acquisition Committee meeting on the so-called E-X Project chaired by Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung on Wednesday. DAPA said it will sign a contract with the U.S. aerospace giant late this month to buy the four planes for some US$1.59 billion, one in 2011 and three in 2012.


A Defense Ministry official said the spy planes are essential for Korea’s independent combat operations after the country takes over wartime operational control of Korean troops from the U.S. Israel’s IAI Elta had been the sole other remaining bidder in the latest round but was dropped because it failed to win export permission for some key parts from the U.S. government by the deadline, DAPA said.


The airborne early warning aircraft E-737/ courtesy of Boeing


The Boeing aircraft has a radar to monitor the entire Korean Peninsula and the skies of neighboring countries within a 360-km radius. It can detect enemy planes flying up to 700 km away. It can track air and sea targets simultaneously with Northrop Grumman's Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar and has a device distinguishing between friend and foe. Its introduction here is expected to hugely enhance the Korean military’s independent intelligence and command capabilities.

The aircraft has six multi-purpose “mission consoles” with ultra-high resolution flat-panel tactical displays, and accommodates two pilots and six to 10 crew. It can fly at a speed of up to Mach 0.78 and at an operational ceiling of 12,400 m. Its flying range is 6,482 km. In regional comparison, Japan has 17 AWACS craft -- four E-767s and 13 E-2Cs -- and China is also developing several kinds of spy planes. A DAPA official said Korea won a more advantageous deal than Australia and Turkey, which purchased the same model in 2000 and 2001 for inflation-adjustable prices, while Korea will buy the aircraft at a fixed price with other benefits like technology transfer. Boeing initially asked for US$1.9 billion.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Samsung Develops First 16GB Multi-Chip Package

Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday that it had developed the world’s first 16-chip MCP (multi-chip package) technology by stacking 16 memory chips in one package. The new 16-chip MCP is created by staking 16 8Gb (gigabit) NAND flash chips, which has the highest density among products currently being produced, and allows up to a 16 gigabyte (GB) MCP solution, said the company. And the firm added that 16 stack is 30 percent smaller than a 10-chip MCP developed last year. Since the first development of technology with 6-chip MCP in 2003, the company has followed up with 8-chip MCPs in 2004, 10 in 2005, and this year 16-chip varieties, leading the MCP industry four straight years.

As mobile digital devices centered on cell phones are getting smaller and smaller while at the same time being equipped with an increasing array of features, the demand for MCP, which enables stacking several kinds of memory chips in a package, is growing. As the sole firm to possess the memory total solution technology that composes the MCP, Samsung Electronics topped the world MCP market for the first time in 2004, and is expected to maintain the top spot this year for the third straight year with market share of 35 percent. “With Samsung holding technology that is around two years ahead of the competition, who are mired in staking 8 chips, we anticipate the company’s leadership in the next generation package technology field will become even more pronounced,” the company said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Samsung Develops 1Gb 50-Nanometer DRAM

Samsung Electronics on Thursday said it has developed the world's first 1 GB 50-nanometer dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip. The world's largest memory chipmaker said the 50-nanometer process technology will see twice the productivity of the 80 nanometer process now used to produce DRAM chips. Samsung will start mass producing the minuscule memory chips commonly used in laptops from 2008. The company says it expects this year's sales of DRAM products to reach US$ 10 billion.

Arirang News

This lineup shows the 12 planets that were proposed last week, with a wedge of the sun at far left. Ceres, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313 are barely visible. Now Charon will continue to be considered Pluto's satellite, and the three other worlds will be dubbed "dwarf planets" rather than full-fledged planets. The planets are drawn to scale, but without correct relative distances.
View related photos

By Robert Roy Britt

Capping years of intense debate, astronomers resolved Thursday to demote Pluto in a wholesale redefinition of planethood that is being billed as a victory of scientific reasoning over historic and cultural influences. But the decision is already being hotly debated.

Officially, Pluto is no longer a planet.

"Pluto is dead," said Mike Brown, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology who spoke with reporters via a teleconference while monitoring the vote. The decision also means a Pluto-sized object that Brown discovered will not be called a planet.

"Pluto is not a planet," Brown said. "There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system."

The vote involved just 424 astronomers who remained for the last day of a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague.

"I'm embarrassed for astronomy. Less than 5 percent of the world's astronomers voted," said Alan Stern, leader of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute.

"This definition stinks, for technical reasons," Stern told Space.com. He expects the astronomy community to overturn the decision. Other astronomers criticized the definition as ambiguous.

The resolution
The decision establishes three main categories of objects in our solar system.

Planets: The eight worlds starting with Mercury and moving out to Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Dwarf planets: Pluto and any other round object that "has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite."
Small solar system bodies: All other objects orbiting the sun.
Pluto and its moon Charon, which would both have been planets under the initial definition proposed Aug. 16, now get demoted because they are part of a sea of other objects that occupy the same region of space. Earth and the other eight large planets have, on the other hand, cleared broad swaths of space of any other large objects.

"Pluto is a dwarf planet by the ... definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects," states the approved resolution.

Dwarf planets are not planets under the definition, however.

"There will be hundreds of dwarf planets," Brown predicted. He has already found dozens that fit the category.

Contentious logic
The vote came after eight days of contentious debate that involved four separate proposals at the group's meeting in Prague.

The initial proposal, hammered out by a group of seven astronomers, historians and authors, attempted to preserve Pluto as a planet but was widely criticized for diluting the meaning of the word. It would also have made planets out of the asteroid Ceres and Pluto's moon Charon. But not now.

"Ceres is a dwarf planet. it's the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt," Brown said. "Charon is a satellite."

The category of "dwarf planet" is expected to include dozens of round objects already discovered beyond Neptune. Ultimately, hundreds will probably be found, astronomers say.

The word "planet" originally described wanderers of the sky that moved against the relatively fixed background of star. Pluto, discovered in 1930, was at first thought to be larger than it is. It has an eccentric orbit that crosses the path of Neptune and also takes it well above and below the main plane of the solar system.

Recent discoveries of other round, icy object in Pluto's realm have led most astronomers to agree that the diminutive world should never have been termed a planet.

'A farce'
Stern, in charge of the robotic probe on its way to Pluto, said the language of the resolution is flawed. It requires that a planet "has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." But Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune all have asteroids as neighbors.

"It's patently clear that Earth's zone is not cleared," Stern told Space.com. "Jupiter has 50,000 Trojan asteroids," which orbit in lockstep with the planet.

Stern called it "absurd" that only 424 astronomers were allowed to vote, out of about 10,000 professional astronomers around the globe.

"It won't stand," he said. "It's a farce."

Stern said astronomers are already circulating a petition that would try to overturn the IAU decision.

Samsung Starts Making 8 GB Flash Memory Chips

Samsung Electronics has started mass producing 60 nanometer 8 GB NAND Flash memory chips, the company said Wednesday.
The 60 nanometer processing technology uses circuits the size of a hair sliced into 2,000 strands, the smallest circuits of any such product on the market. "The 60-nano technology is up to 25 percent more productive than the existing 70-nano, so we’ll be able to maintain our competitive price advantage,” a staffer with the world's no. 1 semiconductor maker said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Boeing Poised to Win Spy Plane Bid After All

The U.S. aerospace giant Boeing looks likely to win a W1.58 trillion contract to supply the nation's air force with four airborne warning and control systems (AWACS) planes by 2009. The bid in the epically delayed E-X project earlier looked set to make Korean defense procurement history when a non-U.S. bidder, IAI Elta of Israel, seemed likely to get the nod.

"After both the aircraft by Boeing and IAI Elta were found to meet the combat use requirements, four conditions had to be met,” a Defense Ministry official said. "IAI Elta was unable to meet some of them, so realistically it is likely to be excluded." If Elta, the sole other bidder, has been knocked out, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will sit down for more price negotiations with Boeing before making the final decision.

DAPA will convene a meeting on Thursday to select the equipment “that best meets the conditions of the military.”
(englishnews@chosun.com )

'Bloodless' Surgery Offers Hope for Cancer Patients

“Bloodless” operations, which remove affected tissue without invasive incisions, are making progress as hospitals compete with each other to introduce as it were cutting-edge surgical tools. From Gamma Knife to Haifu Knife, bloodless operations start with setting the three-dimensional coordinates of a lesion to be removed using advanced imaging equipment such as CT or MRI and are completed by concentrating thousands of beams of radiation from outside the body. Bloodless surgery is fast substituting traditional surgery with the scalpel as it is performed with negligible loss of blood and leaves barely a scar.

It started in the 1960s, when Gamma Knife radiosurgery was developed. The tool is considered the most accurate and safest among neurosurgical tools using radiation. “The Gamma Knife is far safer and more effective than operations that require incisions into the skull,” says Kim Dong-gyu, a professor of neurosurgery with Seoul National University Hospital. “What’s more, it’s more reliable than other recently introduced bloodless surgery tools because it’s been tried and tested for the past 40 years without problems.” But it has its drawbacks: it can be used only on the brain, and setting coordinates requires attaching a stereotactic frame to the patient’s head by drilling four holes into the skull.

The Cyber Knife, a successor to the Gamma Knife, is an advanced radiosurgical treatment, combining the latest robotic technologies with navigation technologies from NASA. As the focus of radiation beams moves along with patient’s movement, it works without the need for additional equipment to fix the patient’s body or anesthesia, unlike the Gamma Knife. The Cyber Knife can be used not only on the brain but also the pancreas, lung and other organs throughout the body and particularly on constantly moving organs such as stomach and colon. “Cyber Knife treatment is available for tumors as large as 5-6 cm and highly accurate as radiation beams are projected on the lesion from 1,248 different directions,” says Kim Moon-chan, the director of Gangnam St. Mary's Hospital’s Cyber Knife Center at Catholic University of Korea.

Tomotherapy is the latest radiation treatment equipment. It consists of a CT scanner that locates the targeted organs and a Linac or linear accelerator where radiation beams are projected. While the Gamma Knife and the Cyber Knife work on relatively small tumors, Tomotherapy can be used for any cancerous cells no matter how large they are. It has highly accurate by precisely controlling the intensity of radiation entering the patient’s body and is therefore very effective in treating multiple cancers, cancer of the esophagus, and lung cancer. The caveat is that it is not covered by insurance and patients pay more than W20 million (US $20,000) for the treatment.

The High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Therapeutic System or Haifu Knife projects ultrasound waves onto a lesion for 2-3 seconds so that the 65-90 degrees Celsius generated can burn out tumors. It is useful for breast cancer, osteosarcoma or bone cancer, pancreatic cancer and liver cancer. The pulsed Haifu, however, cannot penetrate air or solid tissue such as bones and cannot be used to treat colon or lung cancer. “The Haifu works on tumors regardless of their size as it doesn’t destroy healthy tissue, unlike other radiation treatment,” .(englishnews@chosun.com )

Engine Run By Water

The HHOS car he has invented is a hybrid that can also run separately on gasoline. Just flip a switch and the Aquygen kicks in. The result is up to a 50 percent jump in gas mileage. Klein's Ford Escort gets 344 on a tank of gas, and 576 miles with a little Aquygen mixed in. Klein sees a future totally Aquygen powered car you could drive 100 miles on 4 ounces of water. "You just drive it like a regular car, the infrastructure is already in place to get it serviced, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel."



Characteristics of Aquygen™ Gas (HHO)

* Aquygen™ Gas flame temperature itself is only between 259° F to 279° F when produced in ambient open air.

* Aquygen™ Gas produces NO toxic fumes when burned because it is pure water.

* Aquygen™ Gas develops a temperature differential ranging from 259° F to well over 10000° F depending on the material substrate being worked. This allows each material to be worked, using dissimilar materials together or separately, without changing the fuel or its setting.

* Aquygen™ Gas, when combusted, produces no ultra-violet radiation and does not require special protective eyewear or clothing when used.

* Aquygen™ Gas is generated on location, thus eliminating the need for gas tanks, bottles and large storage facilities that are inherently hazardous.

Sony Challenges Samsung in Mini PC Market

Leading PC manufacturers Samsung Electronics and Sony are bracing themselves for battle in the market for small portable computers. After Samsung Electronics introduced an “ultra-mobile” PC early this month, Sony has now unveiled an even more portable hand-sized PC.

Sony released the VAIO UX, a pocket PC with a 4.5 inch screen, in Korea on Monday. Equipped with Intel’s mobile CPU, it comes with a small keyboard and has two built-in cameras to allow users to make video phone calls online or record high-quality video clips.

The new VAIO is targeted at the same market as Samsung Electronics’ UMPC, experts say. Both of them offer improved portability to a niche market of mobile users. The Samsung UMPC garnered much attention as the product of cooperation between three giants in the field: Samsung, Intel and Microsoft.

The UMPC is sized halfway between a PDA and a laptop. Its screen measures 7 inches, and the whole device weighs around 700 g as against the VAIO UX’s 500 g. Samsung claims the device is “soaring” in popularity, with some 3,000 sold so far.

The two firms are also set to compete head-on in a putative market for mini laptops. Mini laptops will weigh around 1 kg, which makes them also easy to carry around, and they have found some favorable advance notice with news that they are almost the equal of their larger predecessors in terms of performance.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Wave Energy Parks Could be Coming To Oregon

Columbia, Oregon State University are in the thick of it again. Previously we noted they had help develop a soy based timber adhesive that was free of formaldehyde and were working with farmers to bring microtechnology to the production of biodiesel. Now they are dreaming up farms of a different sort. Wave farms. The idea is to plant direct drive, wave energy buoys off the coast of Oregon.

Unlike many of the other wave energy sources we’ve covered before, these work on a very different principle. In very basic terms a permanent neodymium-iron-born magnet is forced back and through an electric coil by the modulation of waves. The researchers suggest such buoys could power about 20% of Oregon’s electricity needs. This is US’s only university research program into ocean wave energy extraction funded from federal resources. Now that the prototypes buoys have demonstrated their potential, study is underway to consider impacts on sea birds and marine life from electromagnetic fields, construction, deployment, and servicing of undersea cable, etc.

Handheld Devices Progress by Leaps and Bounds

Black Label II

Handheld devices continue to develop at a rapid pace. Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and other companies are introducing ever slimmer devices with multimedia functions that allow users to watch shows aired by terrestrial networks and listen to MP3 music files. This moth alone, they will showcase them at expos in Seoul, Russia and China. Small and medium-sized companies, meanwhile, are entering new markets with a state-of-the-art display device users can wear like a pair of glasses to watch digital broadcasts.
Korean mobile phone makers are betting on making them slimmer. Samsung Electronics has just released its “ultra slim” phone, which is just 6.9 mm thick, at the Sviaz ExpoComm 2006, an information and communication technology show that started on Wednesday in Moscow. “The trickiest part of the technology is to make mobile phones as slim as possible and feature a camera function at the same time,” a Samsung executive says.

LG Electronics unveiled a new mobile phone to be released at the Expo Comm Wireless Korea 2006 this week. The new model, named “Black Label II”, is designed for simplicity with red keys on a black surface. It is only 16.5 mm thick and weighs 88 grams. Pantech is to introduce 32 cutting-edge mobile devices including a slim phone targeted at young office workers and a phone equipped with a touch wheel sensor at the Sviaz ExpoComm.

Phones are also getting smarter. Newly released handsets have multimedia functions enabling users to watch TV shows broadcast by terrestrial networks and play online games while listening to MP3 music files or download video clips.

Two women wear so-called ‘video glasses’ that enable users to enjoy high-definition video stored in their handheld devices during the Expo Comm Korea 2006 at COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul on Wednesday.

That means small and medium-sized firms have to develop original devices to compete with their bigger rivals. Kowon Technology, which produces microdisplay devices, has unveiled a pair of “video glasses.” With a built-in micro LCD panel measuring 4.8 mm by 4.2 mm, the device enables users to watch digital broadcasts when connected to digital multimedia broadcasting handsets. “The device gives users the same feeling as watching a 32-inch TV from a 2 m distance”, the company claims. The glasses bring the virtual reality of sci-fi movies a step closer to reality.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Korea has developed its own android capable of facial expressions on its humanoid face, the second such machine to be developed after one from Japan. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy invited some 60 children to the Kyoyuk Munhwa Hoekwan in Seoul to introduce Ever-1 to the public. The name combines the first human name found in the Bible, Eve, with the "r" in robot.
The Korean Institute for Industrial Technology (KITECH) said the android, which has the face and body of a woman in her 20s, is 160 cm tall and weighs 50 kg. Ever-1 can move its upper body and “express” happiness, anger, sadness and pleasure. But the robot is still incapable of moving its lower half. Ever-1's skin is made from a silicon jelly that feels similar to human skin. The face is a composite of two stars, and its torso on a singer.
The 15 monitors in the robotic face allow it to interpret the face of an interlocutor and look back at whoever stands near it. Ever-1 also recognizes 400 words and can hold a basic verbal exchange.
"The robot can serve to provide information in department stores and museums or read stories to children; it’s capable of both education and entertainment functions," said KITECH scientist Baeg Moon-hong, part of the team that created the robot. "The Ever-2, which will have improved vision and ability to express emotions and can sit or stand, will be debuted towards the end of the year."

(englishnews@chosun.com )

SKT Becomes First Korean Mobile Carrier in U.S.

Korea’s largest cell phone service provider SK Telecom has entered mobile telecom powerhouse the U.S.

SK Telecom on Tuesday said its U.S.-based joint venture Helio started offering mobile services throughout the U.S., the first time for Korean mobile service provider to foray into the world’s biggest market.

Helio was set up by SKT and Earthlink, the American Internet service provider, in January 2005 with each side owning 50 percent.

SKT expects Helio to sign up some 3.3 million subscribers there by 2009 and generate annual revenues of US$2.4 billion.


SKT’s entry into the U.S. market is also the first full-fledged commercial advance into an overseas market by a Korean carrier. SKT has made continuous attempts to go overseas since early 2000 but was only able to make limited advances into markets like Vietnam and Mongolia. Most nations consider fixed-line and wireless telecom services a key industry and a national asset they are loath to hand over to foreigners. SKT’s move thus represents an important milestone in its efforts to go global. If it is successful, it could help the company advance into emerging markets in Asia, where China and India are the biggest prize.

SKT plans to target Korean-Americans. Helio is headquartered in Los Angeles, where Koreans are concentrated, and will launch two bilingual Korean- English mobile phones. It initially charges only 10 cents per minute for calls from the U.S. to Korea. “We expect the 2 million Koreans living in the U.S. to play an important role in allowing Helio to spread throughout the country,” the company said.

SKT is pinning its hopes on its cutting-edge wireless Internet service, too. It plans to target young people by offering weather forecasts, traffic information, and sports and entertainment information to their phone and allowing them to search information on Yahoo and use its messenger service to send both video clips and text messages. It will also offer cell phone blog services free of charge no matter how much subscribers use them. That service too will be available in two languages.

But obstacles loom. The U.S. telecom market is saturated just like Korea’s and Americans are not nearly as enthusiastic about wireless Internet services on their phones as Koreans and Japanese. That explains why cheap, simple cell phones introduced by Nokia and Motorola, the world’s no 1 and no 2 makers, are hugely popular there.

“SKT’s strategy has been to minimize its investment risk by leasing telecom networks owned by existing providers in the U.S.,” says Kim Kyung-mo, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. “The company’s ultimate goal will be to enter emerging markets in Asia such as India.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Korean Firm Develops Smaller Projector Module

Korean manufacturer Iljin Display says it has developed technology that can be used to reduce a projector to the size of a cigarette packet, raising hopes that they can become part of mobile phones and other portable devices much like digital cameras.

Iljin Display said Thursday it developed the world’s first single LCD projector panels. The module, which enables projectors or projection TVs to produce images, is a core component in such appliances, which are becoming increasingly popular not only in the office but also for home theaters.

Existing modules use three LCD panels, one each for the red, green and blue components of the video signal, but Iljin’s new single panel can produce a full natural-color image, the firm says. It says the development reduces size as well as cost.

With a tiny single panel, mobile gadgets like handsets, MP3 players and game consoles can project images larger than 10 inches on walls or screen with a click of a button if they are equipped with it, said Iljin president Park Seung-gwon.

The company is working with a Taiwanese manufacturer to develop projectors using the module with the goal of releasing them at a price of around W500,000 (US$500), half of what they cost now, by September.

Iljin aims to achieve annual revenues of W530 billion in the projector LCD module business by 2010. Its revenues last year stood at W8.6 billion.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

‘Gospel of Judas’ offers contrarian view of Jesus

‘Gospel of Judas’ offers contrarian view of Jesus
Controversial manuscript authenticated as early Christian writing

WASHINGTON - An ancient manuscript rediscovered after 1,700 years takes a "contrarian" view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, the disciple who handed him over for crucifixion.

Instead of portraying Judas Iscariot as a traitor, as the canonical gospels of the New Testament do, this document — the Gospel of Judas — indicates that he acted at the request of Jesus to help him shed his earthly body.

“Let a vigorous debate on the significance of this fascinating ancient text begin,” the Rev. Donald Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, said Thursday. Senior expressed doubt that the new gospel will rival the New Testament, but allowed that opinions are likely to differ on it.

The text helps show the diversity of beliefs in early Christianity, added Marvin Meyer, professor of Bible studies at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University, commented that “the people who loved, circulated and wrote down these gospels did not think they were heretics.”

Found in the 1970s in Egypt
The papyrus manuscript was written around 300 A.D. in Coptic script, and is a copy of an earlier Greek text, said Terry Garcia of the National Geographic Society, which made the manuscript public.

Discovered in 1970, the papyrus was kept in a safety deposit box for several years and began to deteriorate before conservators restored it. More than 1,000 pieces had to be reassembled. The manuscript was authenticated through radiocarbon dating as well as ink analysis, multispectral imaging and an analysis of the content for linguistic style and handwriting style, National Geographic reported.

Garcia said the National Geographic Society has spent "north of a million [dollars] and south of $2 million" on the restoration so far, and "the bills are still coming in."

Scholars are still analyzing two other unorthodox scriptures that were included in the same set of papyrus sheets, he said. Those works are reportedly known as the Letter of Peter to Philip, and the Revelation of James.

Eventually, the material will be donated to the Coptic museum in Cairo, Egypt, so it can be available to all scholars, said Ted Waitt of the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery, which helped finance the restoration.

‘Contrarian’ view of Christian climax
Unlike the four gospels in the Bible, this text indicates that Judas betrayed Jesus at Jesus’ request. The manuscript thus represents "one of the most unusual and contrarian" views of New Testament events, said Bart Ehrman, a scriptural scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The newly translated document’s text begins: “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot.”

In a key passage Jesus tells Judas, “You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” This indicates that Judas would help liberate the spiritual self by helping Jesus get rid of his physical flesh, scholars said.

“Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom,” Jesus says to Judas, singling him out for special status. “Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star.”

The text ends with Judas turning Jesus over to the high priests and does not include any mention of the crucifixion or resurrection.

Long considered heresy
Experts said the author of the Gospel of Judas — most likely a Christian scribe in the 2nd century who drew upon even earlier oral tradition — believed that Judas Iscariot alone understood the true significance of Jesus' teachings.

"The Gospel of Judas turns Judas' act of betrayal into an act of obedience," Craig Evans, a New Testament scholar at Acadia Divinity College, said in a National Geographic statement on the find. "The sacrifice of Jesus' body of flesh in fact becomes saving. And so for that reason, Judas emerges as the champion and he ends up being envied and even cursed and resented by the other disciples."







Kenneth Garrett / National Geographic
Experts examine pages from Gospel of Judas manuscript. From left are Tim Jull, who oversaw the radiocarbon dating of the manuscript, and Coptologist Stephen Emmel, conservator Florence Darbre and chief translator Rodolphe Kasser.

Although this is the first time the actual text of the Gospel of Judas has surfaced in modern times, its existence has been well-known to scholars for centuries. The manuscript was first mentioned in a treatise around A.D. 180 by a bishop, Irenaeus of Lyon, in what is now France. The bishop denounced it as differing from mainstream Christianity and said it produced a fictitious and heretical story.

There were several gospels in circulation at the time in addition to the four in the Bible. When the heretical scriptures were denounced, those who held the manuscripts hid them away. Garcia said the newly authenticated manuscript was reportedly hidden for centuries inside a coffinlike box within an Egyptian cave.

Gnostic scriptures
The Gospel of Judas is linked to a group called the Gnostics, who believed that the way to salvation was through secret knowledge given by Jesus to his inner circle.

Gnostic texts include various manuscripts attributed to figures mentioned in the canonical gospels as well, such as Mary Magdalene and the apostle Thomas, as well as philosophical treatises with heavy Greek or Jewish influences. Scholars say the manuscripts were written by believers who gradually lost out as the early Christian church became institutionalized.

Echoing other scholars, the Catholic Theological Union's Senior said the Gospel of Judas "reveals the diversity and vitality of early Christianity."

"This diversity among various Christian groups was something taken for granted in the early centuries of the church, but may be a surprise to many people today," he told reporters.

Some of the claims from Gnostic texts — for example, the idea that Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most important disciples and perhaps even his mate — have been woven into the plot of the popular novel "The Da Vinci Code."

Senior said the Gospel of Judas will likely spark another wave of popular interest in the debates of the early church. "God only knows what will be said on Sunday after this," he remarked, half-jokingly. But in the long run, the text would have little impact on the main tenets of present-day Christianity, he said.

"At first there will be a lot of sensation, until people start reading the Gospel of Judas," Senior said, "and then I think the impact of this on ordinary lives of Christian believers is going to be somewhat minimal."

2006

Real Time with Bill Maher Episode 72

Premiering March 24, 2006
Guests: Actor Jason Alexander, author/theologian Reza Aslan, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), reporter Michael Ware

Every week, Bill Maher and the Real Time staff dig into the latest news stories.
Check out some of their sources on current hot topics our Real Time guests are likely to discuss.

Islamic Democracy?
Kabul Judge Rejects Calls to End Trial of Christian Convert
Note you may need to be a New York Times subscriber to read this article

Join debate on the Real Time community:
Islamic democracy, is democracy possible where there is not a clear separation of church and state?

Bush-Iraq Rhetoric
Bush Concedes Iraq War Erodes Political Status
Note you may need to be a New York Times subscriber to read this article

Saddam Trial
Q&A: Saddam on trial
from BBC News

U.S. Marines - Civilian Killing
US Troops Investigated Over Iraqi Massacres
from The Independent

U.S. Troops and Torture
In Secret Unit's 'Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse
Note you may need to be a New York Times subscriber to read this article

Hypersonic jet ready for launch

BBC News 03/23/2006 Author: Jonathan Fildes

A new jet engine design able to fly seven times the speed of sound is scheduled to launch over Australia on Friday.

The scramjet engine, known as Hyshot III, has been designed by British defence firm Qinetiq.

If successful, it could pave the way for ultrafast, intercontinental air travel, and substantially cut the cost of putting small payloads into space.

The engine will launch on a rocket owned by the University of Queensland.

It is the first of three test flights planned for this year by the international Hyshot consortium.

The first Hyshot engine was launched in 2001 but the test flight failed when the rocket carrying the engine flew off course.

Simple engines

A supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, is mechanically very simple. It has no moving parts and takes all of the oxygen it needs to burn hydrogen fuel from the air.

This makes it more efficient than conventional rocket engines as they do not need to carry their own oxygen supply, meaning that any vehicle could potentially carry a larger payload.

However scramjets do not begin to work until they reach five times the speed of sound.

At this speed the air passing through the engine is compressed and hot enough for ignition to occur. Rapid expansion of the exhaust gases creates the forward thrust.

To reach the critical speed, Hyshot III will be strapped to the front of a conventional rocket and blasted to an altitude of 330km before being allowed to plummet back to Earth.

On its descent the engine is expected to reach a top speed of Mach 7.6 or over 9,000km/ hour.

Making sure the flight happens correctly is incredibly difficult, according to Dr Allan Paull, project leader of the Hyshot programme at the University of Queensland.

"You are dealing with extremes of conditions. You're working out on the edge and with a lot of the stuff no one has ever tried [it] before," he told the BBC News website. "You've got to expect things to go wrong".

If everything goes to plan, the experiment will begin at a height of 35km. As the engine continues its downward path the fuel in the scramjet is expected to automatically ignite.

The scientists will then have just six seconds to monitor its performance before the £1m engine eventually crashes into the ground.

New design

The scramjet will not provide forward thrust during the flight, necessary if the engine is ever to power a vehicle. But the test will be enough to show that burning starts automatically and to verify trials already done in a wind tunnel.

"The wind tunnels operate for milliseconds," Dr Paull explained. "The difficulty is whether or not you can even see the supersonic combustion in this period of time."

Although the Qinetiq engine has never left the ground it is more realistic than previous Hyshot experiments.

It has a more efficient air intake on the front and can operate over a greater range of speeds. It also scoops air into the combustion chamber at a lower temperature, closer to that needed in a commercially useful engine.

If the test flight is successful, it will be followed four days later by the test flight of another Hyshot engine designed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa). This will be followed in June by the launch of an engine that will fly at Mach 10, designed by the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).

Commercial reality

The Hyshot tests will bring the idea of a commercial scramjet one step closer to reality.

In the first instance these would probably be used to launch satellites into low earth orbit but many have speculated that they could also allow passenger airlines to fly between London and Sydney in just 2 hours.

Although this vision maybe many years off, it was given a huge boost when Nasa successfully flew its X-43A plane over the Pacific Ocean in 2004. The unmanned aircraft flew at 10 times the speed of sound, a new world speed record.

The team at the University of Queensland is also currently designing a vehicle that can fly under its own power.

If the plane works, it could be flying over the Australian desert within the next two years.

Korean Air debuts Connexion TV

Korean Air announced Friday it is offering live global television as part of its in-flight Internet service powered by Connexion by Boeing. The airline said Connexion currently is on 18 of its airliners and that by the end of 2006 Connexion will be on about 50 airplanes.
The carrier expects that by 2007 Connexion will be available on all Korean Air Boeing 747s and 777s serving long-haul routes. The airline is offering Connexion service at a 45 percent discount until May 31.

LG Philips Develops World’s Biggest LCD Panel

LG Phillips LCD says it has developed the world’s largest liquid crystal display panel measuring 100 inches across.

The massive wide-screen panel has a screen ratio of 16:9 and measures 2.2 m by 1.2 m. The largest currently available LCD panel of 82 inches was developed by Samsung Electronics in March last year but has yet to become available in the shops.

Among commercially available panels, a 65-inch TV by Japan’s Sharp is the biggest. Plasma display panels retain a slight edge, with Japan’s Panasonic releasing a 103-inch panel early this year, and Samsung Electronics selling the world’s largest PDP TV measuring 80 inches since last year.
LG Philips says the development proves it is the global leader in large LCD technology because the industry has so far considered a 100-inch LDC panel impossible to make. The feat will also boost the competitiveness of LCD TVs vis-à-vis PDP TVs in the big-screen TV market, breaking a perception that only PDPs can deliver good quality in that size, it added.

Using the company’s own copper-based interconnect technology, the panel offers high-definition 6.22 megapixel picture quality without distorting video signals and supports a response speed below 5 ms with 1.07 million colors. It also boasts a maximum 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 92 percent color reproduction and a 180-degree viewing angle, LG Philips says.

“Technological advances for large LDC TVs, such as the 100-inch LCD, will act as a catalyst accelerating customer demand for high picture quality and large screens,” said LG Phillips LCD’s executive vice president for development Yeo Sang-deog.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Samsung Unveils 10 Megapixel Camera Phone at CeBIT

Samsung Electronics says it has developed the world’s first 10 megapixel camera phone, which provides almost the same picture quality as professional cameras. Lee Ki-tae, the head of Samsung Electronics' telecom business, unveiled the camera phone at the CeBIT 2006, the world’s largest trade show for information and telecommunications technology which started in Hanover, Germany on Thursday.

A picture taken with a 10 megapixel resolution remains sharp even when blown up to calendar size. At last year’s CeBIT, the company displayed an 8 megapixel camera phone. “Increasing our market share in Europe will be decisive in determining the survival of our mobile phone business,” Lee said and vowed to increase the company’s market share there from 12.7 percent to 14-15 percent this year. Nokia, the world’s No. 1, has a firm grip on 30 percent of the European market.

Lee also said the global WCDMA mobile phone market will grow from 40 million units last year to more than 80 million this year, and Samsung Electronics aims to sell more than 10 million of the third-generation phones alone. Lee reiterated the company’s commitment to expensive high-price gadgets. “What would be the point of increasing our market share if we sell products costing US$30 or $40 a unit?” he asked.

The executive said mobile TV phones and HSDPA phones were leading the trend at the CeBIT this year. HSDPA is a “3.5 generation” mobile technology enabling users to access the Internet at speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps. Commercial mobile TV services will be available in many parts of Europe ahead of the football World Cup in Germany in June.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

Real Time episode 69

Real Time episode 69

Premiering March 3, 2006
Guests: comedian DL Hughley, editor/journalist Graydon Carter, correspondent Dana Priest, fmr. Dir. of FEMA Michael Brown, fmr. CIA case officer/author Bob Baer, actor Harry Anderson

On the Oscars

"There's a movie about a gay cowboy. There's a movie about a gay writer. There's a movie about a transsexual. If these Oscars were any gayer, they'd be the Tonys." – Bill Maher

On Rebuilding New Orleans

"We need to raise money. We have to add two bucks to a pack of cigarettes. We have to add a quarter to a beer. We have to get some money going here and stop looking like a kid with a bowl that Sally Struthers is pitching." – Harry Anderson

On Bush

"He speaks to the audience as if they're idiots. I think the reason he does that is because that's the way these issues were explained to him." – Graydon Carter

"Bush didn't really win on his popularity last time. He won on scaring people that Kerry might do something stupid like, I don't know, sell the ports to the Arabs." – Bill Maher

On Iraq

"We need Saddam or somebody like Saddam back in that country. It's been held together with somebody like him for the last 300 years, and we're not going to do it by democracy." – Bob Baer, Former CIA officer

Loremo: The Ultra Efficient Car - 157MPG!

German Loremo AG will introduce their ultra Efficient Car at the Motor Show 2006 (site) in Geneva next week.

The car start-up developed a light-weight passenger car with outstanding aerodynamics. The Loremo LS is powered by a 2 cylinder Turbo Diesel engine with 20 hp and 160km/h top speed.

The amazing thing is that the Loremo only needs 1.5l per 100km. This is approx. 157MPG! The Toyota Prius hybrid has only 55MPG (combined city and highway). With one tank (20l) you could drive 1,300km.
Loremo AG plans to sell the Loremo LS for less than 11,000 Euros (~$13,000).

Real Time Episode 67

Premiering February 17, 2006
Guests: Sen. Russ Feingold, commentator Fred Barnes, actor Eddie Griffin, reporter Helen Thomas, and Iraq advisor Dan Senor.

On the Cheney Shooting

"To the Vice President's credit, he did own up to it. On Fox News, he said the fault is his. He can't blame anybody else. Boy, it's amazing. The only time you get accountability out of this administration is when they are actually holding 'a smoking gun.'" – Bill Maher

"So many things happened this week. This was a good week for Cheney to shoot somebody in the face, it covered up a whole lot of stuff. The congressional inquiry about Katrina came out this week. They released their findings. They said the White House ignored the warnings, they came in late, and then, of course, they did what any 'small government conservative' would do: they made it a big money grab and inundated the region with bucket-loads of cash." – Bill Maher

On the Press

"I think - I think your criticism is very valid. And that's why I think that it's a tragedy that we've become a country of one-newspaper towns, and newspapers are shrinking; TV gives you a sound bite - you're so right, they certainly don't go into depth. And in the case to the run-up to the Iraq war, my real criticism is that the press rolled over and played dead when they should have been asking questions." – Helen Thomas

On the Patriot Act

"Well, you know, I just decided to read the bill... Of course, you don't read all the bills. But this one, I thought, maybe in light of the fact that it was about a month after 9/11 and the government was claiming these enormous powers, we ought to check it." – Sen. Russ Feingold

On What Bush Rebels Aginst

"Rebelling against Washington. Rebelling against the conventional wisdom in politics. Rebelling against the foreign policy community. Rebelling against the political community in Washington. And rebelling against traditional conservatism. All those things." – Fred Barnes

On the Mohammad Cartoons

"I'm not for any censorship, but I am for some self-restraint, some taste, some sensitivity." – Helen Thomas

Bill Maher's New Rules February 17, 2006

No, let's go to New Rules. How about that? All right, ready? [slide of Olympic luger] New Rule: If you play a sport where most of the speed comes from gravity, you're not an athlete, you're a weight.

New Rule: You're not posing nude unless I can see your genitals. A peek at Scarlett Johansen's rump is not good enough, especially when I've had Jake Gyllenhaal's ass in my face twice this year. Which is weird, because I haven't seen "Jarhead" or "Brokeback Mountain."

New Rule: If churches don't have to pay taxes, they also can't call the fire department when they catch fire. Sorry, Reverend, that's one of those services that goes along with paying in. I'll use the fire department I pay for; you can pray for rain. Oh, I'm going to get letters on that one.

New Rule: The Olympics must stop putting on opening ceremonies that make me wonder if someone slipped acid into my drink. I tell you, you watch four hours of skaters with flaming torch helmets racing around interpretive dancers dressed in camouflage condoms, all while people in lederhosen play sixty-foot trombones, and suddenly that-[slide of luger]-starts to make sense.

New Rule: Let Britney be Britney. Darwin's survival of the fittest depends on hillbillies being left alone to do stupid hillbilly things. Like sticking forks in toasters and leaving babies in front seats, and going hunting with Dick Cheney. She's Britney Spears. Of course, she's going to drive with the baby on her lap. We're just lucky she didn't it mixed up with an empty and throw it out the window.

And finally, New Rule: Stop worrying that the government is listening in on your phone conversation. The person you called isn't even listening to your phone conversation. Any American in this day and age who thinks they're not being monitored is so naive and oblivious, I can't believe they're not working already for the Bush Administration.

Which...which is not to say it isn't creepy thinking of Karl Rove monitoring my emails. Which is why all of mine say the same thing: "Hey, did you hear freedom is on the march, and I quit smoking pot?" "Praise Jesus! - Bill."

But the organization that is conducting these wiretaps, the NSA, is a spy agency different from all the others, in that its only function is to listen. You know, like a husband. You know, like a husband!

And if they need to listen to keep a dirty bomb from going off in Long Beach, then I say, "Listen away." All I ask, NSA, is that you don't judge. And more importantly, if you could screen my calls. In fact, just tell everybody I'm not in. Oh, and if I say something funny during one of my phone conversations, write it down and hit me back with an email so I can use it in my next stand-up special.

So, yes, on the downside, our lives here in America are now an open book. But on the upside, Bush doesn't read books! And really, people, if you're so worried about the privacy of your cell phone calls, stop making them when you're in line at Starbucks!

Oh, please, Americans don't want privacy. They want attention! They'll put a camera in their shower and show it on the Internet! To get on television, they'll marry strangers and eat a cow's rectum, and ice dance with Todd Bridges. They're trying to get on a show called "Big Brother"!

We are a nation of exhibitionists from "me" to shining "me." And what we really fear isn't that someone's listening; it's that no one's listening. This whole country is one big desperate cry for somebody to listen to "listen to me, photograph me, Google me, read my blog!" "Read my diary; read my memoir. It's not interesting enough? I'll make shit up!"

You know that I could go on the Internet right now under my alternate screen name, "CherryXXX69," and get complete strangers to email me a picture of their scrotum. I tell you, this country gave the finger to privacy a long time ago.

In fact, I have reason to believe I'm being videotaped right now. Great to be back. Thank you very much. Terrific crowd, terrific panel. Very good. That's our show. I want to thank Eddie Griffin, Helen Thomas, Dan Senor, Fred Barnes and Senator Russ Feingold. Thank you, folks.

Peugeot & Citroen Develop Diesel-Electric Hybrid System

February, 2006 by Justin Couture - Canadian Auto Press

In terms of green, fuel-efficient automobiles, there are three schools of thought: gasoline-electric hybrids, modern direct-injection diesel and hydrogen (either fuel cell or internal combustion).
Though it’s nearly impossible to get a hold on any sort of hydrogen-powered automobile currently due to their high cost, extremely limited production and nearly non-existent refueling infrastructure, the other two are easy to access. Hybrid vehicles are sought after for their ability to provide zero emissions when running on pure electricity and improved fuel economy on the road, while diesels are chosen for their general thriftiness and plentiful torque; but what about the two together?

Following in the footsteps of Volkswagen’s diesel-electric Mk.IV Golf test bed vehicle, which the German automaker unveiled at last year’s Michelin Bibendum clean-energy challenge, France’s largest automaker has decided to have a go at playing with electricity. With over seven million of its world-famous HDi diesel engines under its belt, PSA-Peugeot-Citroën is considered the foremost authority on diesel technology, and has jumped onto the hybrid scene with two demonstrator vehicles powered by their new Hybride diesel-electric hybrid system, which they will be showing for the first time at this year’s Geneva Motor Show.

Like the VW Golf, the Honda Accord or the Ford Escape hybrids, the very French-sounding Hybride system has been integrated into vehicles currently in production; each brand will show its own version starting with the futuristic-looking Citroën C4 Hybride and the Peugeot 307 Hybride, both of which compete in the mainstream family-sized hatchback (Golf, Caliber, Civic etc.). Bar the vivid green Hybride vinyl sticker livery that each concept wears, both the C4 and 307 are plain, stock production vehicles that do not differ from their mass-produced counterparts. Not much is different on the inside either, but for the console-mounted LCD display which shows the car’s power flow, as with the Escape or Prius.

The Hybride system works much like any current gasoline-electric hybrid, pairing an internal combustion engine, in this case a 1.6-litre HDi common rail turbodiesel featuring a pollutant-capturing particulate filter system, with a 23 kW (31-hp) electric motor that can be used to generate or produce electric power. The diesel motor feature’s PSA’s Start and Stop system, which automatically turns the engine off when idling and restarts it instantly when the gas pedal is pressed - just like other hybrids. Electrical power is stored in a high-capacity lithium-ion battery pack. Because the Hybride system utilizes an electronically-controlled manual gearbox with sequential-shift, the car can be operated using any combination of diesel and/or electric power, making it a full hybrid, as opposed to a mild, ‘combination’ hybrid that merely assists the combustion engine.

By backpacking electricity to the already efficient HDi diesel powerplant, the Hybride system improves substantially upon the performance of current gasoline electric hybrids. For example, both the C4 and 307 Hybride are able to return a truly impressive 3.4 L/100 km (69 mpg) on a mix of city and highway driving, while returning a mere 90 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven. For comparison, a Peugeot 307 3-door HDi mated to a 5-speed manual, the same vehicle sans the Hybride system, is capable of 4.9 L/100 km (48 mpg) on the mixed cycle, and produces 129 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, yet is 35 percent more powerful due to the boost of the electric motor. PSA claims that the Hybride-equipped C4 and 307 are capable of besting an equivalently sized gasoline-electric hybrid by some 25 percent, meaning reductions of up to 1.0 L/100 km on the mixed cycle.

Like most manufacturers, the only thing that is stopping PSA from giving the Hybride system the green light at the show is the impact of the expensive electrical components on the price tag. While hybrid technology may be viable for high-end sedans, large SUVs and purpose-built ‘green machines’, the price gap between a Hybride-equipped 307 or C4 is twice as large as consumers would be willing to spend. PSA has pledged to lower the cost of technology in order to implement wide-spread hybrid availability to the masses, and expects to have a solution presented before 2010. In four year’s time, the world should have an instinctively different outlook, and by then, perhaps diesel-hybrid technology will be more widespread.

E85 Greener Fuel

E85 is an alcohol fuel mixture of 85% ethanol (ethyl alcohol, i.e., grain alcohol) and 15% gasoline (petrol) (proportioned by volume rather than mass) that can be used in flexible-fuel vehicles.

Availability

The fuel is widely used in Sweden and is becoming increasingly common in the United States, mainly in the Midwest where corn is a major crop and is the primary source material for ethanol fuel production. Minnesota has the largest number of E85 fuel pumps of any U.S. state, with 158 of the 580+ pumps in the country. As of July 2005, Illinois has the second-greatest number of E85 pumps (about 60); most other states have fewer than two dozen. Even in Minnesota, the ethanol pumps represent a tiny fraction of the fuel outlets—there are about 4,000 gas stations in the state, each with several individual pumps (however, all stations there are required to carry E10, a 10% mixture of ethanol and gasoline).

Concerns about rising gasoline prices and energy dependence have led to a resurgence of interest in E85 fuel; for example, Nebraska mandated the use of E85 in state vehicles whenever possible in May 2005. Similarly, whereas selling any fuel containing more than 10% ethanol is still currently illegal in some states, even this is rapidly changing. For example, Florida proposed changing state law to permit the sale of alternative fuels such as E85 at an October 7, 2005 meeting, and held public hearings on October 24th. The expected outcome of having held this hearing is the changing of Florida state law to permit the selling of alternative fuels such as E85 by the end of 2005 to the general public. (Currently, only county, state, and Federal fleet vehicles may purchase E85 in Florida, from only 3 pumps in the state.) Several other states have similar laws still on their books that prevent the sale of E85 to the general public. The expected general outcome, though, is the rapidly widening acceptance of E85 sales to the general public in all of the United States by the end of 2006.

US Federal fleet flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) are required to operate on alternative fuels 100% of the time upon the signing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law by President Bush on August 8, 2005. (See Section 701 for this requirement). Formerly, such FFVs were required to be operated by the end of 2005 on alternative fuels only 51% of the time (i.e., the majority of the time) by Executive Order 13149. (See Executive Order 13149 [1], dated April 21, 2000.) This means that the US Government's use of E85 is effectively doubled as of August 8, 2005 with the signing into law of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This jump in consumption had the unintended effect of limiting public availability of E85 coincident with shortages of gasoline due to impacts of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico during the 2005 hurricane season. Although the price of corn had not changed greatly, the usage of E85 nonetheless jumped, thereby creating a shortage of E85, and causing E85 prices to rise coincident with gasoline prices during the 2005 Hurricane Season.


Cost

As of 2005, E85 is frequently sold for up to 35% lower cost per quantity than gasoline. Much of this discount can be attributed to various government subsidies, and, at least in the United States, the elimination of state taxes that typically apply to gasoline and can amount to 47 cents, or more, per gallon of fuel. The US federal tax exemption that keeps ethanol economically competitive with petroleum fuel products is due to expire in 2007, but this exemption may be extended through legislative action. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the price of E85 rose to nearly on par with the cost of 87 octane gasoline in many states in the United States, and was for a short time the only fuel available when gasoline was sold out, but within four weeks of Katrina, the price of E85 had fallen once more to a 20% to 35% lower cost than 87 octane gasoline.

The price of E85 has risen quickly during 2005 also due to additional factors. With the signing into law of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, US Federal consumption of E85 jumped, causing shortages of E85, along with a rise in prices.

Unfortunately, because ethanol contains less energy than gasoline, fuel economy is reduced for most 2002 and earlier FFVs (flexible-fuel vehicles) that are currently on the road by about 30% (most after 2003 lose only 15-17%, or less) when operated on pure E85 (summer blend.) Some of the newest vehicles can lessen this reduction to only 5-15%. A few cars actually claim to provide better fuel economy on E85 than on gasoline; for example, one Saab turbocharged car actually claims better fuel economy on E85 than gasoline through using a higher compression ratio engine. Still, for almost all FFVs, more E85 is typically needed to do the same work as can be achieved with a lesser volume of gasoline. This difference is sometimes offset by the lower cost of the E85 fuel, depending on E85's current price discount relative to the current price of gasoline. As described earlier, the best thing for drivers to do is to record fuel usage with both fuels and calculate cost/distance for them. Only by doing that, can the end-user economy of the two fuels be compared.

For example, an existing pre-2003 model year FFV vehicle that normally achieves, say, 30 MPG on pure gasoline will typically achieve about 20 MPG, or slightly better, on E85 (summer blend.) When operated on E85 winter blend, which is actually E70 (70% ethanol, 30% gasoline), fuel economy will be even better than when operating on the summer blend. To achieve any short-term operational fuel cost savings, the price of E85 should therefore be 30% or more below the price of gasoline to equalize short term fuel costs for most older pre-2003 FFVs for both winter and summer blends of E85. Life-cycle costs over the life of the FFV engine are theoretically lower for E85, as ethanol is a cooler and cleaner burning fuel than gasoline. Provided that one takes a longterm life-cycle operating cost view, a continuous price discount of only 20% to 25% below the cost of gasoline is probably about the break-even point in terms of vehicle life-cycle operating costs for operating most FFVs on E85 exclusively (for summer, spring/fall, and winter blends.)

Fuel economy in fuel-injected non-FFVs operating on a mix of E85 and gasoline varies greatly depending on the engine and fuel mix. For a 60:40 blend of gasoline to E85 (summer blend), a typical fuel economy reduction of around 23.7% resulted in one controlled experiment with a 1998 Chevrolet S10 pickup with a 2.2L 4-cylinder engine, relative to the fuel economy achieved on pure gasoline. Similarly, for a 50:50 blend of gasoline to E85 (summer blend), a typical fuel economy reduction of around 25% resulted for the same vehicle. (Fuel economy performance numbers were measured on a fixed commute of approximately 110 miles roundtrip per day, on a predominantly freeway commute, running at a fixed speed (62 mph), with cruise control activated, air conditioning ON, at sea level, with flat terrain, traveling to/from Kennedy Space Center, FL.)


Use in Flexible-fuel engines

E85 is best used in engines modified to accept higher concentrations of ethanol. Such flexible-fuel engines are designed to run on any mixture of gasoline or ethanol with up to 85% ethanol by volume. The primary differences from non-FFVs is the elimination of bare magnesium, aluminium, and rubber parts in the fuel system, the use of fuel pumps capable of operating with electrically-conductive (alcohol) instead of non-conducting dielectric (gasoline) fuel, specially-coated wear-resistant engine parts, fuel injection control systems having a wider range of pulse widths (for injecting approximately 30% more fuel), the selection of stainless steel fuel lines (sometimes lined with plastic), the selection of stainless steel fuel tanks in place of terne fuel tanks, and, in some cases, the use of acid-neutralizing motor oil. For vehicles with fuel-tank mounted fuel pumps, additional differences to prevent arcing, as well as flame arrestors positioned in the tank's fill pipe, are also sometimes used.

Historically, the first widely-sold flexible-fuel vehicle in the United States was a variant of Henry Ford's Model T intended for use by self-reliant farmers who could make their own ethanol. Surprisingly, it is capable even to this day of running on E85, or gasoline, as it was designed to operate on either ethanol or gasoline, at the user's choice. Henry Ford's subsequent 1927 Model A likewise was an early flex fuel vehicle. It, however, eased the driver's method of accommodating various blends of alcohol and gasoline through a driver's control on the dash with a knob that was turned to control air fuel mixture and pulled to choke the single-barrel Zenith carburetor. This dash-mounted control provided easy control of all the major adjustments required for easily burning alcohol and gasoline in varying proportions, including enough range for burning today's E85 blend of alcohol and gasoline in any mix of E85 and gasoline.

Modern flexible-fuel vehicles have come a long way since the Model T and Model A, and now automatically adapt themselves to burning changing percentages of alcohol and gasoline without any user intervention required. So far, most flexible-fuel vehicles that have been built in the United States have been sport-utility vehicles and other members of the "light truck" vehicle class, with smaller numbers of sedans, station wagons, and the like.

Swedish automobile maker Saab has developed a turbocharged flexible-fuel engine called the BioPower which takes special advantage of the high-octane fuel. This engine allows the vehicle to accelerate faster and attain higher speeds when running on E85 than when running on straight gasoline.

General Motors subsidiary GM do Brazil adopted GM's Family II and Family 1 straight-4 engines with FlexPower technology that enables the use of ethanol, gasoline, or their mixture. The vehicles with FlexPower include the Chevrolet Corsa and the Chevrolet Astra.

Ford Updates Escape Hybrid with E85 Compatibility

February 17th, 2006 by Justin Couture - Canadian Auto Press



The only thing that could possibly be greener than the Ford Escape E85 Hybrid is the fuzzy green Muppet, Kermit the Frog, the Escape Hybrid’s new “spokesperson” who presented it together with Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson at its debut last week in Chicago. The Escape Hybrid has been in the limelight for quite some time now, being the first hybrid vehicle to be produced by a North American automaker as well as the first hybrid SUV, and it’s been bumped back into the headlines by being the world’s first production vehicle to mate the benefits of a hybrid-electric drivetrain and ethanol flexible fuel technology.

Where some automakers pursue ethanol for its performance-enhancing properties, such as Saab and its BioPower models and concept, the Escape turns to ethanol for a different reason. E85, a fuel comprised of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, is a much more environmentally friendly fuel than regular unleaded which is generally 10 percent ethanol by volume. The ethanol used in E85 is grown from corn and other crops, and is considered to be carbon-neutral as the crops used to grow it remove the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere as when it is burned.

On the surface, it seems as if the E85 Escape Hybrid isn’t any better than the standard Escape Hybrid. It operates just like the standard Escape Hybrid, with no difference in performance, noise, or fuel consumption. Instead, the difference lies in the E85’s tailpipe emissions rating, which is some 25 percent less caustic than an already relatively green gasoline-powered Escape Hybrid, making it the world’s cleanest and most fuel-efficient compact SUV. And in areas where E85 isn’t readily available, the Escape Hybrid E85 can run on any combination of gasoline and ethanol. It does not require a separate tank; the onboard computer automatically adjusts combustion to the fuel that is used.

On the other side of the globe, at the same time no less, Ford of Asia unveiled a facelift for its Escape at the Melbourne International Motor Show alongside its local-market Territory crossover SUV. The facelifted Escape (or Maverick in other markets) features Ford’s new three-bar chrome-plated grille, new twin-beam headlamps with wider lenses as well as a new hood. Also new are front and rear valances which feature painted skidplate protection, LED taillamps, recessed foglamps and mirror-mounted turn signal lamps.

Inside, Ford has made minor alterations to the cockpit, and while no official photos have been released, changes include a new steering wheel, new seat fabrics, a reworked instrument cluster and improved sound deadening materials for a quieter ride. Mechanical updates have also improved the efficiency of the V6-powered Escape, dropping its fuel consumption by 10.6 percent, enabling it to return 12.2 L/100 km in the city and 10.9 L/100 km on the highway. Equipment levels have also been boosted to include four-wheel discs with ABS on all models, as well as standard front and side airbags.

Incidentally, with the launch of a facelifted Escape for Asia, and a technologically-advanced E85 hybrid in America, Ford has shown its strengths as a global player with its Escape compact SUV. While it’s yet to be confirmed that the changes made to Escapes built at Ford’s Philippine and Vietnamese plants will be applied to North America-built Escapes, there’s a good chance that they’ll show up in the near future as they play an important role in strengthening Ford’s new global image in all of its markets.

Philips Develops Plastic RFID Tag

Scientists at Philips Research have created a fully functional 13.56 MHz RFID tag based entirely on plastic electronics. In contrast to conventional silicon-chip-based RFID tags, a plastic electronics RFID chip can be printed directly onto a plastic substrate along with an antenna without involving complex assembly steps. This could pave the way for the packaging industry to replace existing barcodes by a low-cost RFID tag that provides individual packages with a unique item-level identification code – something not feasible with current barcode technology.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, based on remotely retrieving information via radio waves from miniature electronic circuits called RFID tags. Philips has now realized the first plastic-electronics-based tag that is capable of transmitting multi-bit digital identification codes at 13.56 MHz – the dominant industry-standard radio frequency for RFID tag applications. As an additional demonstrator for the technology, scientists at Philips Research have also developed a 64-bit code generator, showing the practicality of building plastic electronic circuits with the complexity required for item-level tagging.

Performance results for these circuits will be presented at this year’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC, February 5-9, San Francisco, CA, USA) in a paper that will also be awarded the conference’s Beatrice Winner Award for Editorial Excellence.

Source: Linux Electrons.

History of the Light-Speed Debate

Upheaval in Physics:
History of the Light-Speed Debate
by Helen D. Setterfield

[Ed Note: We have been following Barry Setterfield's research on the speed of light since 1993.1 It is interesting that both evolutionists and creation scientists can be blinded by their own presuppositions...]

When we walk into a dark room, flip a switch and the light is instantly on, it seems that light has no speed but is somehow infinite - instantly there - and that was the majority opinion of scientists and philosophers until September 1676, when Danish astronomer Olaf Roemer announced to the Paris Academie des Sciences that the anomalous behavior of the eclipse times of Jupiter's inner moon, Io, could be accounted for by a finite speed of light. 2 His work and his report split the scientific community in half, involving strong opinions and discussions for the next fifty years. It was Bradley's independent confirmation of the finite speed of light, published January 1, 1729, which finally ended the opposition.3 The speed of light was finite-incredibly fast, but finite.

The following question was: "Is the speed of light constant?" Interestingly enough, every time it was measured over the next few hundred years, it seemed to be a little slower than before. This could be explained away, as the first measurements were unbelievably rough compared to the technical accuracy later. It was not that simple, though. When the same person did the same test using the same equipment at a later period in time, the speed was slower. Not much, but slower.

These results kicked off a series of lively debates in the scientific community during the first half of the 20th century. Raymond Birge, highly respected chairman of the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley, had, from 1929 on, established himself as an arbiter of the values of atomic constants.4 The speed of light is considered an atomic constant. However Birge's recommended values for the speed of light decreased steadily until 1940, when an article written by him, entitled "The General Physical Constants, as of August 1940 with details on the velocity of light only," appeared in Reports on Progress in Physics (Vol. 8, pp.90-100, 1941). Birge began the article saying: "This paper is being written on request - and at this time on request ... a belief in any significant variability of the constants of nature is fatal to the spirit of science, as science is now understood [emphasis his]." These words, from this man, for whatever reason he wrote them, shut down the debate on the speed of light. Birge had previously recognized, as had others, that if the speed of light was changing, it was quite necessary that some of the other "constants" were also changing. This was evidently not to be allowed, whether it was true or not, and so the values for the various constants were declared and that was that. Almost. In the October 1975 issue of Scientific American (p. 120), C.L. Strong questioned whether the speed of light might change with time "as science has failed to get a consistently accurate value." It was just a ripple, but the issue had not quite disappeared.

Partly in order to quell any further doubts about the constancy of the speed of light, in October 1983 the speed of light was declared a universal constant of nature, defined as 299,792.458 kilometers per second, which is often rounded off to the measurement we are more familiar with in the West as 186,000 miles per second.

Birge's paper was published in 1941. Just a year later, Barry Setterfield was born in Australia. In 1979 he was 37 years old. That year he received a book from a friend, a book on astronomical anomalies. It was a large book, and near the end of it there was a section on the speed of light, questioning its constancy. Barry was stunned. Nothing he had read or learned in physics or astronomy had even hinted that there was a question regarding the speed of light. It was a constant, wasn't it? As he read, he learned about the measurements that had been taken years before, and the arguments that had gone on in the scientific literature, and he was fascinated. He figured he could read up on it and wrap up the question in about two weeks; it didn't quite work out that way.

Within a couple of years, one of the creationist organizations had started publishing some of Barry's findings. They were still preliminary, but there was so much more to this than he had thought. In the following years his exploration continued, and he read all the literature he could find. His work caught the attention of a senior research physicist at Stanford Research Institute International (SRI), who then asked him to submit a paper regarding his research. It was to be a white paper, or one that was for the purposes of discussion within the Institute.

Barry teamed up with Trevor Norman of Flinders University in Adelaide, and in 1987 Flinders itself published their paper, "Atomic Constants, Light, and Time." Their math department had checked it and approved it and it was published with the Stanford Research Institute logo as well. What happened next was like something out of a badly written novel. Gerald Aardsma, a man at another creationist organization, got wind of the paper and got a copy of it. Having his own ax to grind on the subject of physics, he called the heads of both Flinders and SRI and asked them if they knew that Setterfield and Norman were [gasp] creationists! SRI was undergoing a massive staff change at the time and since the paper had been published by Flinders, they disavowed it and requested their logo be taken off. Flinders University threatened Trevor Norman with his job and informed Barry Setterfield that he was no longer welcome to use any resources there but the library. Aardsma then published a paper criticizing the Norman-Setterfield statistical use of the data. His paper went out under the auspices of a respected creation institution.

Under attack by both evolutionists and creationists for their work, Norman and Setterfield found themselves writing long articles of defense, which appeared in a number of issues of creation journals. In the meantime, Lambert Dolphin, the physicist at Stanford who had originally requested the paper, teamed up with professional statistician Alan Montgomery to take the proverbial fine-tooth comb through the Norman-Setterfield paper to check the statistics used. Their defense of the paper and the statistical use of the data was then published in a scientific journal,5 and Montgomery went on to present a public defense at the 1994 International Creation Conference. Neither defense has ever been refuted in any journal or conference. Interestingly enough, later in 1987, after the Norman-Setterfield paper was published, another paper on light speed appeared, written by a Russian, V. S. Troitskii.6 Troitskii not only postulated that the speed of light had not been constant, but that light speed had originally been about 1010 times faster than now.

Since then, a multitude of papers on cosmology and the speed of light have shown up in journals and on the web. The theories abound as to what is changing, and in relation to what, and what the possible effects are. There is one person who is continuing to work with the data, however. As the storm around the 1987 report settled down, Barry Setterfield got back to work, investigating the data rather than playing around with pure theory.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world from Australia, in Arizona, a respected astronomer named William Tifft was finding something strange going on with the redshift measurements of light from distant galaxies. It had been presumed that the shift toward the red end of the spectrum of light from these distant galaxies was due to a currently expanding universe, and the measurements should be seen as gradually but smoothly increasing as one went through space. That wasn't what Tifft was finding. The measurements weren't smooth. They jumped from one plateau to another. They were quantized, or came in quantities with distinct breaks in between them.

When Tifft published his findings,7 astronomers were incredulous and dismissive. In the early 1990s in Scotland, two other astronomers decided to prove him wrong once and for all. Guthrie and Napier collected their own data and studied it. They ended up deciding Tifft was right.8 What was going on? Barry Setterfield read the material and studied the data. The universe could not be expanding if the red shift measurements were quantized. Expansion would not occur in fits and starts. So what did the red shift mean? While most others were simply denying the Tifft findings, Barry took a closer look. And it all started to make sense. The data was showing where the truth of the matter was. While many articles continued to be published regarding theoretical cosmologies, with little regard for much of the data available, Barry was more interested in the data.

Yet, his work is not referenced by any of the others. The Stanford paper is just about forgotten, if it was ever known, by the folks in mainstream physics and astronomy. However, not only are the measurements still there, but the red shift data has added much more information, making it possible to calculate the speed of light back to the first moment of creation. So Barry wrote another paper and submitted it to a standard physics journal in 1999. They did not send it to peer review but returned it immediately, saying it was not a timely subject, was of no current interest, and was not substantial enough. (It was over fifty pages long with about a hundred and fifty references to standard physics papers and texts.) So Barry resubmitted it to an astronomy journal. They sent it out to peer review and the report came back that the paper was really interesting but that it really belonged in a physics journal. So, in 2000, he sent it off to another physics journal. They refused it because they did not like one of the references Barry used: a university text on physics. They also disagreed with the model of the atom that Barry used - the standard Bohr model. In August 2001, the paper was updated and submitted to a European peer-reviewed science journal. The editor has expressed interest. We will see what will happen. In the meantime everything continues: Barry Setterfield is giving presentations in different countries, the mainstream physicists and theorists are continuing to publish all manner of theoretical ideas, and the subject of the speed of light has erupted full force back into the scientific literature.

There is a reason that Barry's work is not being referenced by mainstream scientists - or even looked at by most. If Barry is right about what the data are indicating, we are living in a very young universe. This inevitable conclusion will never be accepted by standard science. Evolution requires billions of years.

And there is a reason why the major creation organizations are holding his work at an arm's length as well: they are sinking great amounts of money into trying to prove that radiometric dating procedures are fatally flawed. According to what Barry is seeing, however, they are not basically flawed at all: there is a very good reason why such old dates keep appearing in the test results. The rate of decay of radioactive elements is directly related to the speed of light. When the speed of light was higher, decay rates were faster, and the long ages would be expected to show up. As the speed of light slowed down, so the radioactive decay rates slowed down.

By assuming today's rate of decay has been uniform, the earth and universe look extremely old. Thus, the evolutionists are happy with the time that gives for evolution and the creationists are looking for flaws in the methods used for testing for dates. But if the rates of decay for the different elements have not been the same through time, then that throws both groups off! Here was an "atomic clock" which ran according to atomic processes and, possibly, a different "dynamical" clock, the one we use everyday, which is governed by gravity - the rotation and revolution rates of the earth and moon. Could it be that these two "clocks" were not measuring time the same way? A data analysis suggested this was indeed happening. Tom Van Flandern, with a Ph.D. from Yale in astronomy, specializing in celestial mechanics, and for twenty years (1963-1983) Research Astronomer and Chief of the Celestial Mechanics Branch at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., released the results of some tests showing that the rate of ticking of the atomic clock was measurably slowing down when compared with the "dynamical clock."9 (Tom Van Flandern was terminated from his work with that institution shortly thereafter, although his work carries a 1984 publication date.)

In recognizing this verified difference between the two different "clocks," it is important to realize that the entire dating system recognized by geology and science in general, saying that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old, and the universe somewhere around ten billion years older than that, might be thrown into total disarray. The standard science models cannot deal with that. The standard creation models cannot, at this point, deal with the fact that radiometric dating may be, for the most part, telling the truth on the atomic clock. And, meanwhile, the Hubble spacecraft keeps sending back data which keep slipping into Barry Setterfield's model as though they actually belonged there.

Single Electron Switches New Silicon Transistor

Single Electron Switches New Silicon Transistor

The latest issue of Applied Physics Letters carries news about a silicon transistor, designed by NTT Corp. (NTT) of Japan, that is switched on and off by the motion of an individual electron. The transistors have been tested at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the researchers say they will have application in low-power nano-electronics, particularly as next-generation integrated circuits for logic operations.

Until now, this type of transistor - called a "single-electron tunneling" (SET) device - was typically made with a metal "wire" interrupted by insulating barriers that provided a narrow range of control over electron flow. But silicon devices overcome this limitation by having barriers that are electrically "tunable" over a wider operating range, offering finer, more flexible control of the transistor's on/off function. Silicon-based devices also allow fabrication using standard semiconductor technology. The researchers say that this is the first reproducible and controllable silicon SET transistor design to have been reported.

The new devices are based on the principle that as device sizes shrink to the nanometer range, the amount of energy required to move a single electron increases significantly. It is then possible to control individual electron motion and current flow by manipulating the voltage applied to barriers, or "gates," in the electrical circuit. When the transistor is turned on, individual electrons file through the circuit, as opposed to thousands at a time in a conventional device.

NIST/NTT made five uniform, working silicon transistors with tunable barriers. Each device consists of a silicon channel 360 nanometers (nm) long and 30 nm wide, with three gates crossing the channel. The gates have two levels; the upper level turns the current on and off, while the lower level controls electron flow in small local areas. The team was able to tune gate conductance properties over a wide range, by more than three orders of magnitude.

Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology