Bill Clinton Democratic Convention Speech

Bill Clinton was greeted by an extended round of applause as he walked on stage to deliver his speech that lasted nearly three minutes. Watch as Clinton tries to calm down the enthusiastic crowd.

I am honored to be here tonight to support Barack Obama. And to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden, though as you'll soon see, he doesn't need any help from me. I love Joe Biden, and America will too.

What a year we Democrats have had. The primary began with an all-star line up and came down to two remarkable Americans locked in a hard fought contest to the very end. The campaign generated so much heat it increased global warming.

In the end, my candidate didn't win. But I'm very proud of the campaign she ran: she never quit on the people she stood up for, on the changes she pushed for, on the future she wants for all our children. And I'm grateful for the chance Chelsea and I had to tell Americans about the person we know and love.

I'm not so grateful for the chance to speak in the wake of her magnificent address last night. But I'll do my best.

Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she'll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama.

That makes two of us.

Actually that makes 18 million of us - because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.

Here's why.

Our nation is in trouble on two fronts: The American Dream is under siege at home, and America's leadership in the world has been weakened.

Middle class and low-income Americans are hurting, with incomes declining; job losses, poverty and inequality rising; mortgage foreclosures and credit card debt increasing; health care coverage disappearing; and a big spike in the cost of food, utilities, and gasoline.

Our position in the world has been weakened by too much unilateralism and too little cooperation; a perilous dependence on imported oil; a refusal to lead on global warming; a growing indebtedness and a dependence on foreign lenders; a severely burdened military; a backsliding on global non-proliferation and arms control agreements; and a failure to consistently use the power of diplomacy, from the Middle East to Africa to Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe.

Clearly, the job of the next President is to rebuild the American Dream and restore America's standing in the world.

Everything I learned in my eight years as President and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.

He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful President needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of our foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our leadership in an ever more interdependent world. The long, hard primary tested and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he hit it out of the park.

With Joe Biden's experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama's proven understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national security leadership we need.

Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States.

He will work for an America with more partners and fewer adversaries. He will rebuild our frayed alliances and revitalize the international institutions which help to share the costs of the world's problems and to leverage our power and influence. He will put us back in the forefront of the world's fight to reduce nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and to stop global warming. He will continue and enhance our nation's global leadership in an area in which I am deeply involved, the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria, including a renewal of the battle against HIV/AIDS here at home. He will choose diplomacy first and military force as a last resort. But in a world troubled by terror; by trafficking in weapons, drugs and people; by human rights abuses; by other threats to our security, our interests, and our values, when he cannot convert adversaries into partners, he will stand up to them.

Barack Obama also will not allow the world's problems to obscure its opportunities. Everywhere, in rich and poor countries alike, hardworking people need good jobs; secure, affordable healthcare, food, and energy; quality education for their children; and economically beneficial ways to fight global warming. These challenges cry out for American ideas and American innovation. When Barack Obama unleashes them, America will save lives, win new allies, open new markets, and create new jobs for our people.

Most important, Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.

Look at the example the Republicans have set: American workers have given us consistently rising productivity. They've worked harder and produced more. What did they get in return? Declining wages, less than ¼ as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s. American families by the millions are struggling with soaring health care costs and declining coverage. I will never forget the parents of children with autism and other severe conditions who told me on the campaign trail that they couldn't afford health care and couldn't qualify their kids for Medicaid unless they quit work or got a divorce. Are these the family values the Republicans are so proud of? What about the military families pushed to the breaking point by unprecedented multiple deployments? What about the assault on science and the defense of torture? What about the war on unions and the unlimited favors for the well connected? What about Katrina and cronyism?

America can do better than that. And Barack Obama will.

But first we have to elect him.

The choice is clear. The Republicans will nominate a good man who served our country heroically and suffered terribly in Vietnam. He loves our country every bit as much as we all do. As a Senator, he has shown his independence on several issues. But on the two great questions of this election, how to rebuild the American Dream and how to restore America's leadership in the world, he still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years, a philosophy we never had a real chance to see in action until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and Congress. Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades were implemented.

They took us from record surpluses to an exploding national debt; from over 22 million new jobs down to 5 million; from an increase in working family incomes of $7,500 to a decline of more than $2,000; from almost 8 million Americans moving out of poverty to more than 5 and a half million falling into poverty - and millions more losing their health insurance.

Now, in spite of all the evidence, their candidate is promising more of the same: More tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy. More band-aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families and increase the number of uninsured. More going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.

They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more. Let's send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks. In this case, the third time is not the charm.

My fellow Democrats, sixteen years ago, you gave me the profound honor to lead our party to victory and to lead our nation to a new era of peace and broadly shared prosperity.

Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief. Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.

His life is a 21st Century incarnation of the American Dream. His achievements are proof of our continuing progress toward the "more perfect union" of our founders' dreams. The values of freedom and equal opportunity which have given him his historic chance will drive him as president to give all Americans, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability, their chance to build a decent life, and to show our humanity, as well as our strength, to the world.

We see that humanity, that strength, and our future in Barack and Michelle Obama and their beautiful children. We see them reinforced by the partnership with Joe Biden, his wife Jill, a dedicated teacher, and their family.

Barack Obama will lead us away from division and fear of the last eight years back to unity and hope. If, like me, you still believe America must always be a place called Hope, then join Hillary, Chelsea and me in making Senator Barack Obama the next President of the United States.

The 7 Weirdest Super Mario Bros.Theme Song Performances

The main theme from Super Mario Bros. is iconic. Any gamer with an inkling of musical talent has learned to play the song on their instrument of choice. When the chosen instrument is completely bizarre, the results are the 7 Weirdest Mario Theme Performances.

click here for the videos | digg story

Going From one cell type to another without a stem cell

By Brandon Keim August 27, 2008 | 12:57:26 PMCategories: Stem Cell Research

In an unprecedented flourish of genetic alchemy, scientists used a virus to coax one type of cell to become another, without the intermediate stem cell step.

The research, conducted with cells from the pancreas, could soon be used to treat people with diabetes -- but its long-term impacts could be even greater.

"This represents a parallel approach for how to make cells in regenerative medicine," said Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "And now that it's shown that you can turn one of your cells into another, it makes you think of what other cells you'd like to convert."

Cell transformation has traditionally been accomplished by harvesting and reproducing stem cells. These are able to become other types of cells, raising the much-anticipated possibility of replacing disease-damaged and age-ravaged organs and tissues.

But stem cells are tricky. Using highly-versatile embryonic stem cells requires embryo destruction, a steady supply of human eggs and potentially dangerous hormone treatments for the women who produce those eggs. Adult stem cells, though ethically uncontroversial, are also hard to handle. Another technique, known as de-differentiation, can turn skin cells to stem cells -- but tends to introduce cancer-causing mutations.

Melton's team avoided stem cells, and their baggage, altogether by using a virus to tweak three developmental genes in pancreatic tissue cells in mice. Three days later, these became insulin-producing beta cells, and appear free from the complications that have frustrated stem cell researchers.

If the technique, described today in Nature, is replicated in humans, it could be used to treat insulin deficiencies in people with diabetes -- and that's just the start.

"Neurodegenerative diseases come to mind, as does cardiovascular disease," said Melton.

Arthur Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist who wasn't involved in the study, called the findings a "breakthrough" for both diabetes and the field of regenerative medicine.

"It's a system that's easier to manipulate than getting a new stem cell to turn into something you want," he said. "The kind of work done here has the promise to go into clinical practice in a relatively short time."

Caveats remain, the foremost being the replication of the work in human tissue. The team managed to cause the transformation inside the mice, but in humans the transformation will need to be done in a tissue culture, producing cells than can be injected into recipients. And though Melton's team used a safe and well-characterized virus to induce the changes, the long-term safety of the new cells isn't proven.

Melton must also coax the transformed cells into forming groups known as islets, which produce the insulin used in humans.

"We've made a cell type, but we haven't yet made a whole tissue," said Melton. "But we're reasonably confident."

Melton's team is also seeing whether the same kind of cell transformation can be achieved in liver cells, or triggered by drugs.

Other researchers, he said, will apply the technique to other diseases.

"If you've got extra cells of one type and need another, why go all the way back to a stem cell?" said Melton.

Peter K Austin's top 10 endangered languages

The linguistics professor and author shares a personal selection from the thousands of languages on the brink of disappearing

On the way out ... Khomani men visit ancestral burial grounds in South Africa. Photograph: Obed Zilwa/AP

Peter K Austin has published 11 books on minority and endangered languages, including 12 Australian Aboriginal languages, and holds the Märit Rausing Chair in field linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies where he is also director of the Endangered Languages Academic Programme. His most recent book is 1000 Languages: The Worldwide History of Living and Lost Tongues, which explores the state of languages around the world.

Buy 1000 Languages from the Guardian bookshop

There are more than 6,900 languages used around the world today, ranging in size from those with hundreds of millions of speakers to those with only one or two. Language experts now estimate that as many as half of the existing languages are endangered, and by the year 2050 they will be extinct. The major reason for this language loss is that communities are switching to larger politically and economically more powerful languages, like English, Spanish, Hindi or Swahili.

Each language expresses the history, culture, society and identity of the people who speak it, and each is a unique way of talking about the world. The loss of any language is a loss to both the community who use it in their daily lives, and to humankind in general. The songs, stories, words, expressions and grammatical structures of languages developed over countless generations are part of the intangible heritage of all humanity.

So how to choose a top 10 from more than 3,000 endangered languages? My selection is a personal one that tries to take into account four factors: (1) geographical coverage - if possible I wanted at least one language from each continent; (2) scientific interest - I wanted to include languages that linguists find interesting and important, because of their structural or historical significance; (3) cultural interest - if possible some information about interesting cultural and political aspects of endangered languages should be included; and (4) social impact - I wanted to include one or more situations showing why languages are endangered, as well as highlighting some of the ways communities are responding to the threat they currently face.

1. Jeru

Jeru (or Great Andamanese) is spoken by fewer than 20 people on the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. It is generally believed that Andamanese languages might be the last surviving languages whose history goes back to pre-Neolithic times in Southeast Asia and possibly the first settlement of the region by modern humans moving out of Africa. The languages of the Andamans cannot be shown to be related to any other languages spoken on earth.

2. N|u (also called Khomani)

This is a Khoisan language spoken by fewer than 10 elderly people whose traditional lands are located in the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa. The Khoisan languages are remarkable for having click sounds – the | symbol is pronounced like the English interjection tsk! tsk! used to express pity or shame.The closest relative of N|u is !Xóõ (also called Ta'a and spoken by about 4,000 people) which has the most sounds of any language on earth: 74 consonants, 31 vowels, and four tones (voice pitches).

3. Ainu

The Ainu language is spoken by a small number of old people on the island of Hokkaido in the far north of Japan. They are the original inhabitants of Japan, but were not recognised as a minority group by the Japanese government until this year. The language has very complicated verbs that incorporate a whole sentence's worth of meanings, and it is the vehicle of an extensive oral literature of folk stories and songs. Moves are underway to revive Ainu language and cultural practices.

4. Thao

Sun Moon Lake of central Taiwan is the home of the Thao language, now spoken by a handful of old people while the remainder of the community speaks Taiwanese Chinese (Minnan). Thao is an Austronesian language related to languages spoken in the Philippines, Indonesia and the Pacific, and represents one of the original communities of the Austronesians before they sailed south and east over 3,000 years ago.

5. Yuchi

Yuchi is spoken in Oklahoma, USA, by just five people all aged over 75. Yuchi is an isolate language (that is, it cannot be shown to be related to any other language spoken on earth). Their own name for themselves is Tsoyaha, meaning "Children of the Sun". Yuchi nouns have 10 genders, indicated by word endings: six for Yuchi people (depending on kinship relations to the person speaking), one for non-Yuchis and animals, and three for inanimate objects (horizontal, vertical, and round). Efforts are now under way to document the language with sound and video recordings, and to revitalise it by teaching it to children.

6. Oro Win

The Oro Win live in western Rondonia State, Brazil, and were first contacted by outsiders in 1963 on the headwaters of the Pacaas Novos River. The group was almost exterminated after two attacks by outsiders and today numbers just 50 people, only five of whom still speak the language. Oro Win is one of only five languages known to make regular use of a sound that linguists call "a voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate". In rather plainer language, this means it's produced with the tip of the tongue placed between the lips which are then vibrated (in a similar way to the brrr sound we make in English to signal that the weather is cold).

7. Kusunda

The Kusunda are a former group of hunter-gatherers from western Nepal who have intermarried with their settled neighbours. Until recently it was thought that the language was extinct but in 2004 scholars at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu located eight people who still speak the language. Another isolate, with no connections to other languages.

8. Ter Sami

This is the easternmost of the Saami group of languages (formerly called Lapp, a derogatory term), located on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. It is spoken by just 10 elderly people among approximately 100 ethnic Ter Sami who all now speak Russian as their daily language. Ter Sami is related to Finnish and other Uralic languages spoken in Russia and Siberia, and distantly to Hungarian.

9. Guugu Yimidhirr

Guugu Yimidhirr is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken at Hopevale near Cooktown in northern Queensland by around 200 people. A wordlist was collected by Captain James Cook in 1770 and it has given English (and the rest of the world's languages) the word kangaroo. Guugu Yimidhirr (like some other Aboriginal languages) is remarkable for having a special way of speaking to certain family members (like a man's father-in-law or brother-in-law) in which everyday words are replaced by completely different special vocabulary. For example, instead of saying bama dhaday for "the man is going" you must say yambaal bali when speaking to these relatives as a mark of respect and politeness.

10. Ket

Ket is the last surviving member of a family of languages spoken along the Yenesei River in eastern Siberia. Today there are around 600 speakers but no children are learning it since parents prefer to speak to them in Russian. Ket is the only Siberian language with a tone system where the pitch of the voice can give what sound like identical words quite different meanings. (Much like Chinese or Yoruba). To add to the difficulty for any westerner wishing to learn it, it also has extremely complicated word structure and grammar.

Revealed: The Internet's biggest security hole

Two security researchers have demonstrated a new technique to stealthily intercept internet traffic on a scale previously presumed to be unavailable to anyone outside of intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency.

The tactic exploits the internet routing protocol BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to let an attacker surreptitiously monitor unencrypted internet traffic anywhere in the world, and even modify it before it reaches its destination.

The demonstration is only the latest attack to highlight fundamental security weaknesses in some of the internet's core protocols. Those protocols were largely developed in the 1970s with the assumption that every node on the then-nascent network would be trustworthy. The world was reminded of the quaintness of that assumption in July, when researcher Dan Kaminsky disclosed a serious vulnerability in the DNS system. Experts say the new demonstration targets a potentially larger weakness.

"It's a huge issue. It's at least as big an issue as the DNS issue, if not bigger," said Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, noted computer security expert and former member of the L0pht hacking group, who testified to Congress in 1998 that he could bring down the internet in 30 minutes using a similar BGP attack, and disclosed privately to government agents how BGP could also be exploited to eavesdrop. "I went around screaming my head about this about ten or twelve years ago.... We described this to intelligence agencies and to the National Security Council, in detail."

The man-in-the-middle attack exploits BGP to fool routers into re-directing data to an eavesdropper's network.

Anyone with a BGP router (ISPs, large corporations or anyone with space at a carrier hotel) could intercept data headed to a target IP address or group of addresses. The attack intercepts only traffic headed to target addresses, not from them, and it can't always vacuum in traffic within a network -- say, from one AT&T customer to another.

The method conceivably could be used for corporate espionage, nation-state spying or even by intelligence agencies looking to mine internet data without needing the cooperation of ISPs.

BGP eavesdropping has long been a theoretical weakness, but no one is known to have publicly demonstrated it until Anton "Tony" Kapela, data center and network director at 5Nines Data, and Alex Pilosov, CEO of Pilosoft, showed their technique at the recent DefCon hacker conference. The pair successfully intercepted traffic bound for the conference network and redirected it to a system they controlled in New York before routing it back to DefCon in Las Vegas.

The technique, devised by Pilosov, doesn't exploit a bug or flaw in BGP. It simply exploits the natural way BGP works.

"We're not doing anything out of the ordinary," Kapela told Wired.com. "There's no vulnerabilities, no protocol errors, there are no software problems. The problem arises (from) the level of interconnectivity that's needed to maintain this mess, to keep it all working."

The issue exists because BGP's architecture is based on trust. To make it easy, say, for e-mail from Sprint customers in California to reach Telefonica customers in Spain, networks for these companies and others communicate through BGP routers to indicate when they're the quickest, most efficient route for the data to reach its destination. But BGP assumes that when a router says it's the best path, it's telling the truth. That gullibility makes it easy for eavesdroppers to fool routers into sending them traffic.

Here's how it works. When a user types a website name into his browser or clicks "send" to launch an e-mail, a Domain Name System server produces an IP address for the destination. A router belonging to the user's ISP then consults a BGP table for the best route. That table is built from announcements, or "advertisements," issued by ISPs and other networks -- also known as Autonomous Systems, or ASes -- declaring the range of IP addresses, or IP prefixes, to which they'll deliver traffic.

The routing table searches for the destination IP address among those prefixes. If two ASes deliver to the address, the one with the more specific prefix "wins" the traffic. For example, one AS may advertise that it delivers to a group of 90,000 IP addresses, while another delivers to a subset of 24,000 of those addresses. If the destination IP address falls within both announcements, BGP will send data to the narrower, more specific one.

To intercept data, an eavesdropper would advertise a range of IP addresses he wished to target that was narrower than the chunk advertised by other networks. The advertisement would take just minutes to propagate worldwide, before data headed to those addresses would begin arriving to his network.

The attack is called an IP hijack and, on its face, isn't new.

But in the past, known IP hijacks have created outages, which, because they were so obvious, were quickly noticed and fixed. That's what occurred earlier this year when Pakistan Telecom inadvertently hijacked YouTube traffic from around the world. The traffic hit a dead-end in Pakistan, so it was apparent to everyone trying to visit YouTube that something was amiss.

Pilosov's innovation is to forward the intercepted data silently to the actual destination, so that no outage occurs.

Ordinarily, this shouldn't work -- the data would boomerang back to the eavesdropper. But Pilosov and Kapela use a method called AS path prepending that causes a select number of BGP routers to reject their deceptive advertisement. They then use these ASes to forward the stolen data to its rightful recipients.

"Everyone ... has assumed until now that you have to break something for a hijack to be useful," Kapela said. "But what we showed here is that you don't have to break anything. And if nothing breaks, who notices?"

Stephen Kent, chief scientist for information security at BBN Technologies, who has been working on solutions to fix the issue, said he demonstrated a similar BGP interception privately for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security a few years ago.

Kapela said network engineers might notice an interception if they knew how to read BGP routing tables, but it would take expertise to interpret the data.

A handful of academic groups collect BGP routing information from cooperating ASes to monitor BGP updates that change traffic's path. But without context, it can be difficult to distinguish a legitimate change from a malicious hijacking. There are reasons traffic that ordinarily travels one path could suddenly switch to another -- say, if companies with separate ASes merged, or if a natural disaster put one network out of commission and another AS adopted its traffic. On good days, routing paths can remain fairly static. But "when the internet has a bad hair day," Kent said, "the rate of (BGP path) updates goes up by a factor of 200 to 400."

Kapela said eavesdropping could be thwarted if ISPs aggressively filtered to allow only authorized peers to draw traffic from their routers, and only for specific IP prefixes. But filtering is labor intensive, and if just one ISP declines to participate, it "breaks it for the rest of us," he said.

"Providers can prevent our attack absolutely 100 percent," Kapela said. "They simply don't because it takes work, and to do sufficient filtering to prevent these kinds of attacks on a global scale is cost prohibitive."

Filtering also requires ISPs to disclose the address space for all their customers, which is not information they want to hand competitors.

Filtering isn't the only solution, though. Kent and others are devising processes to authenticate ownership of IP blocks, and validate the advertisements that ASes send to routers so they don't just send traffic to whoever requests it.

Under the scheme, the five regional internet address registries would issue signed certificates to ISPs attesting to their address space and AS numbers. The ASes would then sign an authorization to initiate routes for their address space, which would be stored with the certificates in a repository accessible to all ISPs. If an AS advertised a new route for an IP prefix, it would be easy to verify if it had the right to do so.

The solution would authenticate only the first hop in a route to prevent unintentional hijacks, like Pakistan Telecom's, but wouldn't stop an eavesdropper from hijacking the second or third hop.

For this, Kent and BBN colleagues developed Secure BGP (SBGP), which would require BGP routers to digitally sign with a private key any prefix advertisement they propagated. An ISP would give peer routers certificates authorizing them to route its traffic; each peer on a route would sign a route advertisement and forward it to the next authorized hop.

"That means that nobody could put themselves into the chain, into the path, unless they had been authorized to do so by the preceding AS router in the path," Kent said.

The drawback to this solution is that current routers lack the memory and processing power to generate and validate signatures. And router vendors have resisted upgrading them because their clients, ISPs, haven't demanded it, due to the cost and man hours involved in swapping out routers.

Douglas Maughan, cybersecurity research program manager for the DHS's Science and Technology Directorate, has helped fund research at BBN and elsewhere to resolve the BGP issue. But he's had little luck convincing ISPs and router vendors to take steps to secure BGP.

"We haven't seen the attacks, and so a lot of times people don't start working on things and trying to fix them until they get attacked," Maughan said. "(But) the YouTube (case) is the perfect example of an attack where somebody could have done much worse than what they did."

ISPs, he said, have been holding their breath, "hoping that people don’t discover (this) and exploit it."

"The only thing that can force them (to fix BGP) is if their customers ... start to demand security solutions," Maughan said.

Hot Flat and Crowded- Friedman calls for Green Revolution

Thomas Friedman is about to dive into the green-tech fray. In his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, the multi-Pulitzer-winning journalist says everyone needs to accept that oil will never be cheap again and that wasteful, polluting technologies cannot be tolerated. The last big innovation in energy production, he observes, was nuclear power half a century ago; since then the field has stagnated. "Do you know any industry in this country whose last major breakthrough was in 1955?" Friedman asks. According to the book, US pet food companies spent more on R&D last year than US utilities did. "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stone," he says. Likewise, the climate-destroying fossil-fuel age will end only if we invent our way out of it.

But he's not suggesting a new Manhattan Project. "Twelve guys and gals going off to Los Alamos won't solve this problem," Friedman says. "We need 100,000 people in 100,000 garages trying 100,000 things — in the hope that five of them break through."

Our current efforts are not only inadequate, they're hopelessly haphazard and piecemeal. Friedman argues it'll take a coordinated, top-to-bottom approach, from the White House to corporations to consumers. "Without a systems approach, what do you end up with?" he asks. "Corn ethanol in Iowa."

The New York Times columnist, who keeps up a punishing travel schedule, is just back from the Middle East and London. "If you don't go, you don't know," he says. Such wanderings provided the material for his 2005 best seller, The World Is Flat. Now he has added two new terms to his diagnosis of global ills: the intertwined problems of climate change and population growth — "too many carbon copies," as he puts it.

In this new world, governments and companies that take the lead will find themselves with the single most valuable competitive advantage of our time.

To illustrate, Friedman tells the story of a Marine Corps general in Iraq who requested solar panels to power his bases. Asked why, he explained that he wanted to win his region by "out-greening al Qaeda." Instead of trucking in gas from Kuwait at $20 a gallon — money that fuels oppressive petro-dictatorships — in convoys that are vulnerable to roadside bombs, why not beat the insurgents by taking away their targets and their funding?

Coming out months before the presidential election, Crowded is sure to bigfoot its way into the campaign. "McCain and Obama come from the right side of this debate," Friedman says. "They have the right instincts, but neither is quite there yet. They haven't yet thought it through fully." The battle over "green," he believes, will define the early 21st century just as the battle over "red" (Communism) defined the last half of the 20th.

Ray Barbee - Poetry in Motion

This is one of my favorite skateboard clips of all time. This is from an old skate film called, Public Domain.

A Helping Hand for Surgery

Get a grip: The fingers of this metal-and-polymer gripping gadget curl around a tiny bead when the device senses a certain triggering chemical. The gripper could someday help doctors perform minimally invasive surgeries. Credit: Timothy Leong/JHU

A tiny handlike gripper that can grasp tissue or cell samples could make it easier for doctors to perform minimally invasive surgery, such as biopsies. The tiny device curls its "fingers" around an object when triggered chemically, and it can be moved around remotely with a magnet.

Minimally invasive, or "keyhole," surgery currently involves making several centimeter-size incisions and inserting surgical tools through hollow tubes placed in these incisions. Wires connect the tools to external controls that a surgeon uses to operate inside the body. This is less damaging than conventional surgery, but it limits a surgeon's ability to maneuver the instruments.

The new technology is a step toward surgical tools that move more freely inside the human body. "We want to make mobile surgical tools," says David Gracias, a biomolecular- and chemical-engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University, who led the development of the new gripper. "The ultimate goal is to have a machine that you can swallow, or [to] inject small structures that move and can do things [on their own]."

A gripper based on the current design could respond autonomously to chemical cues in the body. For example, it might react to the biochemicals released by infected tissue by closing around the tissue, so that pieces can be removed for analysis.

Gracias and his colleagues presented the microgripper at the American Chemical Society meeting earlier this month. To demonstrate the device, they used it to grasp and maneuver tiny beads and clumps of cells in a petri dish. They have also used the device in the laboratory to perform an in vitro biopsy on a cow's bladder. "This is the first micromachine that has been shown convincingly to do very useful things," Gracias says. "And it does not require electric power for operation."

he open gripper is 500 micrometers (0.05 centimeters) in diameter, and it is made of a film of copper and chromium covered with polymer. As long as the polymer stays rigid, the gripper remains open. But introducing a chemical trigger or lowering the temperature causes the polymer to soften, actuating the gripper's fingers so that they curl inward to form a ball that is 190 micrometers wide. Another chemical signal can be used to reopen the gripper. All of the chemicals used as triggers in experiments are harmless to the body.

Since the new technology does not need to be connected to controls outside the body, it could mean more dexterous microsurgery, says Chang-Jin Kim, a mechanical-engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "You don't have to have a physical connection, and that is pretty attractive," he says.

Microgrippers could also be important for lab-on-a-chip applications--for example, moving samples around a chip or cleaning away debris. But Kim says that using chemical triggers from the environment makes the Johns Hopkins device tricky to control. "If the environment changes, your performance changes," he adds.

Kim and his colleagues previously developed a four-fingered "microhand" that opens and closes when gas pressure is changed inside tiny polymer balloons at the finger joints. The microhand offers more precise control but must be tethered to a control unit. Nonetheless, Kim says that his device could have a wider range of uses--as a tool for remotely removing detonators from explosives, for example.

The new technology, meanwhile, is designed exclusively for surgery. Gracias hopes to shrink the gripper further--to about 10 micrometers wide--and to enable it to move in response to different chemical concentrations, like a bacteria moving toward higher concentrations of sugars.

Under the hood of the Tesla Roadster

Multimedia Watch the Roadster in action.

With its first prototype, the Roadster, introduced in 2006, Tesla Motors ignited interest in electric cars not only as a way to save gas but as a high-performance alternative to some of the fastest sports cars. This year, Tesla started delivering production ­vehicles, based on the test car shown here. The car sells for $109,000--but costs only a couple of cents per mile to power.

1 . Electric Motor
Most electric cars have used direct-current electric motors that rely on permanent magnets. The motor in Tesla's Roadster doesn't have any magnets; instead, it uses stacks of patterned metal plates and wires that generate electromagnetic fields. Such motors, called alternating-current induction motors, were first advocated in the late 19th century by Nikola Tesla, for whom the company is named. The company picked AC induction motors because they're simple, reliable, and efficient at a wide range of speeds.

2. Transmission
The first version of the Roadster featured a two-speed transmission, the first gear for quick starts (0 to 60 miles per hour in under four seconds) and the second gear for top speeds (over 120 miles per hour). But problems with that transmission delayed production. Thanks to a redesigned motor and higher-performance transistors that deliver more power, it has been replaced by a single-speed transmission.

3. Power Electronics Module
The motor does two things: it converts electricity from the battery into torque for acceleration, and it helps slow the car during braking, converting some of the car's kinetic energy into electricity that's stored in the battery. A computer chip called the digital motor controller regulates the shuttling of power between the motor and battery. It can deliver acceleration so fast it hurts: Tesla's engineers had to dial back the power to achieve a smoother start.

4. Battery Pack
Tesla's engineers have wired together 6,831 small, cylindrical lithium-ion battery cells to deliver the power that accounts for the car's impressive acceleration and the energy storage that enables a driving range of more than 200 miles. Lithium-ion cells store far more energy than the nickel-metal hydride batteries used in previous gas-­electric hybrids. But they can be tricky to work with: in extremely rare cases, manufacturing defects cause them to catch fire without warning. A liquid cooling system in the Roadster's battery pack removes heat so rapidly that the combustion of one bad cell can't set off the rest.

5. Body and Frame
An aluminum frame and carbon-composite body panels keep the car lightweight. That helps extend its range.

To read more about Tesla Motors and their technology, click here.

Show me the Honey- what could be behind Colony Collapse

Bee with flower: Photo by Arturo Mann

People generally know that substances that are harmless when taken separately in small doses can lead to disorientation, and perhaps uncharacteristic behavior, when mixed. Honey bees, apparently, do not. After all, dabbling is what honey bees do, and it's what we love them for. These little workers are responsible for billions of annual agricultural industry dollars, thanks to their pollination services. But bees haven't been staying on task. They've been acting a little weird lately--leaving their hives and not coming back--and attracting a lot of attention for it. Haagen-Dazs even created a flavor of ice cream in an effort to raise awareness about the phenomenon -- called Colony Collapse Disorder -- and funds for research on its causes at Penn State and UC Davis. The disorder is generally attributed to a variety of causes, including (depending on who you ask) parasites, viruses, mites, chemical exposure, and even radiation from cell phone towers.

While pesticides have consistently been acknowledged as a contributing factor within this problematic milieu, recent research at Penn State has revealed that pesticide levels in hives are much higher than researchers predicted. Beekeepers use some pesticides as an inexpensive way to combat varroa mites in their colonies. While the researchers were able to reduce the pesticide levels in beeswax foundation -- the wax that beekeepers use to create hive structures -- through irradiation, this only addresses part of the problem. The extraordinarily high levels of pesticides discovered in the bees, their honey, and their pollen, showed that pesticide exposure outside of the hives is contributing to the problem.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates agricultural pesticide use, but this regulation does not account for the interaction of these chemicals that inevitably takes place through the bees' pollination processes. Some of these combinations of pesticides have been found to have a synergistic effect hundreds of times more toxic than any of the pesticides individually, says James L. Frazier, professor of entomology at Penn State. Bees' exposure to these toxic chemical combinations both outside of, and within, the home -- er, hive -- may cause behavioral changes. These changes include immune system blocks and disorientation, which may help to explain the CCD crisis of late.

Last year, the American Beekeepers' Federation, in a letter to the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, encouraged Congress to pass the 2007 Farm Bill. The letter highlighted environmental regulation and enforcement as one of the beekeeping industry's priority issues, stating "the central role of bees in the environment and farm economy should be emphasized in environmental regulation and enforcement, including in the review and approval of new farm chemicals and treatments.... In the Farm Bill or otherwise, Congress should, among other things, mandate that sub-lethal effects on honey bees be considered in the regulatory process for new agricultural treatments."

Whether Congress follows through or not, organic farming and agricultural practices provide an approach to addressing the problem of pesticide toxicity in bees. The Institute of Science in Society stated in a recent press release that "organic farming practices that retain more natural habitats and avoid the use of chemical pesticides should provide environments that serve as honeybee sanctuaries from the ravages of CCD. There are scientific studies showing that agricultural landscapes with organic crops are far superior environments for both honey- and bumblebees. It would be prudent to create organic bee sanctuaries as widely and as soon as possible... There is every reason to eliminate the use of all pesticides that act synergistically with parasitic fungi, and all Bt crops should be banned for the same reason. Obviously, these problems will disappear with the widespread adoption of organic, non-GM farming."

Of course, organic agricultural practices are not the industry norm, and bees pollinate both organic and non-organic crops. This is why a “widespread adoption” of organic agricultural practices will indeed be necessary in addressing the pesticide problem.

In the meantime, Haagen-Dazs recommends that individuals plant flowers that attract and sustain local honeybee populations. Supporting organic agricultural practices, too, will help to keep the honeybees chemical-free, going to work for our agricultural economy, and returning to their rightful homes when the work is done.

What's Next For Outdoor Adventurers

Kick Axe: Photo by © Broudy/Donohue Photography

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Eco-friendly tent poles, retracting rudders, nano-fabrics, kinetic-core harnesses; PopSci takes a look at all the future tech you need to rough it. Check out the exclusive photo tour.

Economy Gets Big Stimulus Boost

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A revised reading on gross domestic product announced Thursday showed much better U.S. economic growth than previously reported for the second quarter.

GDP, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, stood at an annual rate of 3.3% in the quarter, adjusted for inflation, the Commerce Department said.

The revised results far surpassed the initial advanced estimate of 1.9% released late last month, which disappointed economists.

Many experts say the more than $90 billion in economic stimulus checks that reached taxpayers during the quarter helped boost GDP up from just 0.9% growth in the previous quarter.

Economists surveyed on Briefing.com expected the revised reading to show the economy grew at an annual rate of 2.7% in the second quarter.

The Chismillionaire Convertible

For one week in August, Pebble Beach, California, is the toughest destination in the country to arrive at with a sense of presence. A red Ferrari F430 turns transparent, inspiring rare demonstrations of rich-guy unity as they team up to form more intimidating packs of Ferraris, making Blue Angels-style formations on the local highway. Bentley Continentals may as well be Honda Civics as the world's wealthiest pour into town for the Concour d'Elegance. But as I watch the eyes of bystanders drift past a Gallardo Spyder, then stop and lock on to my hood ornament, I, the only broke guy on the Monterey Peninsula, am suddenly feeling the onset of my Cinderella moment. That's because I've arrived in a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe.

The Drophead defines presence, especially considering that few of this year's 200 examples have been delivered thus far in the States. Just think, a brand new car that's more exclusive than the Packards or V-16 Cadillacs fighting for Pebble's "Best of Show" award. Despite this Roller's two doors, it's only 1.6 inches shorter than a Suburban but loses out on trunk space to a Hyundai Elantra. By a lot. At 5776 pounds it also weighs the same as two of those little Koreans, yet it'll beat a Volkswagen GTI to 60 mph with over a second to spare. The Spirit of Ecstasy — the greatest name ever given to a car part — can be retracted at will, but even when left up it can sense just a few degrees of lateral pull and duck for cover beneath the brushed metal hood.

A Drophead's life begins at BMW's "Centre for Aluminum Competence" in Dingolfing, Germany,where a team of efficient workers in white coats precision-weld the aluminum spaceframe by hand. It's then checked by a computer to ensure all tolerances are within one tenth of a millimeter.

From there the process slows, with most of the 350 man-hours (not including engine assembly or tea breaks) invested in each car happening at Rolls-Royce's Goodwood factory in Jolly Old. Compared to a Phantom sedan, the Drophead uses larger individual pieces of leather, so even more care must be taken to not let imperfections show. And the 30-piece, J-class yacht-inspired teak deck that hides the withdrawn cloth roof is color- and grain-matched just as the interior wood pieces are — a process that can take as much as a month. Same goes for the brushed steel of the grille, hood, and A-pillars. All three are hand-polished together to achieve a uniform grain. The brushed-steel-and-teak deck, by the way, is a $17,550 option.

I start my day with the top up because I can't get over how romantically traditional it looks. Some critics have complained that the Drophead doesn't use a more 21st century-friendly retractable hard top, but I think that would've been a mistake for this company so in tune with its motoring heritage. Ian Cameron, the car's chief designer, explains it even better: "There's nothing more romantic than driving a convertible in the rain at night and hearing the drops hit the roof." Plus, this is the largest convertible top currently on the market. The logistics of cramming a stack of metal pancakes under the rear deck would've been a nightmare.

For being a soft top, ruffling wind noise is noticeably absent. Then again, what should we expect from a Rolls? The inside liner, made from a blend of cashmere, strengthens the car's case as a romantic getaway. That feeling is diminished only by the fact that everyone walking along the road beside me is squinting to catch a glimpse of the car's fortunate pilot.

The Drophead experience is completely different once the, er, head is dropped. Instead of a cloaked mobile getaway for the ultra-rich, it's more like a throne suspended on Goodyears. Its tires — 255/50R21 up front and 285/55R21 at the tail — tower vertically from the ground like something from the 1940s, only with more wheel and less rubber. A crease along the car's flank adds more visual height, as does the squared off fender, which still sits a few inches lower than the hood. The A-framed windshield surround forms the car's peak at 62.2 inches. And that's about where the average driver's head sits, too. You don't sit in this car as with most convertibles, but on it, able to govern the long expanses of the metal and wood kingdom stretching fore and aft. You're out there for everyone to see and for children to point at: "Look daddy, that man's driving a boat on the street. How silly!"

Acceleration from a stop might be described as boat-like, too. Get intimate with the right pedal and the car doesn't jump forward with the urgency you'd expect from 453 hp and, more importantly, 531 lb-ft of torque. Instead, the needle of the "Power Reserve" meter starts its trip counter-clockwise and the weight transfer sags the rear end slightly. The car creeps up on plane and charges forward before settling back into its near 50/50 weight balance. The faint V-12 murmur never changes much and gearshifts are almost imperceptible; the trip up to 60 mph in under six seconds is decidedly un-newsworthy, despite the fact that it'd beat many exotics from fifteen years ago.

At speed, driving the Drophead is rather paradoxical. It looks big, it feels big, and if something could smell or taste big, this Roller would bewilder those senses too. But it's surprisingly nimble and incredibly easy to maneuver down the narrow coastal roads of the Monterey Peninsula. Yes, it's soft, but in a sharp and composed way that one would expect from a car with BMW influence and an almost half-million-dollar price tag. It sails over rises and sinks in dips but there's never a feeling that the tires are operating independently from the body. The ultra-light steering feedback is projected through a wide-diameter, thin-rimmed steering wheel that's prohibitive of the traditional ten-and-two grasp. Instead, I'm wielding almost three tons of iron, tree, and cow with a delicate fingertip massage of the wheel. Everything about it feels right, other than my lack of a tobacco pipe.

Slower traffic heading back into Pebble Beach gives me an opportunity to really take in the old-world interior. What isn't real chrome is soft leather, and what isn't either is solid walnut. Any extraneous electronics — namely the iDrive screen and controller — tuck away out of site when not in use, that screen spinning away behind an analog clock as though Rolls-Royce has hired Q as an interior designer. Other hidden electronics also do magic tricks: a button in the glove box controls the hood ornament while another in the A-pillar quarter-window operates the power-closing suicide doors. At the end of my drive, I open and shut it a few more times just for fun, then pull the umbrella from the door jamb and swing it around like Gene Kelly, savoring my last moments of living on the finest fringe of society.

Then I walk away, thinking about my drive. Wait, was I driving? The Phantom Drophead Coupe makes such a non-event of covering long distances that I feel confused about the satisfaction it brought me. It wasn't involving like a sports car, but it wasn't a complete Camry–esque bore. It's like if some random stranger handed me a $100 bill and thanked me for my fine work. What the hell did I just do?

In that way, it's the perfect car for those with the means. Every time you get in, the Drophead congratulates you for your hard work, then says, "Sit back and rest. Let me take it from here." It makes sports cars seem so, well, childish. And for some reason, brandy sounds delicious for the first time ever. God, what's wrong with me?

Chrysler may sell of Viper brand

AUBURN HILLS, Michigan — In a stunning announcement, Chrysler on Wednesday confirmed it will "explore strategic options for the Dodge Viper business." The move signals a potential sale of the hand-built Viper, an iconic American sports car inspired by the legendary AC Cobra.

"We have been approached by third parties who are interested in exploring future possibilities for Viper," said Bob Nardelli, Chrysler chairman and CEO, in a statement. "As the company evaluates strategic options to maximize core operations and leverage its assets, we have agreed to listen to these parties.

"We will do so keeping in mind the best interests of those who have shown tremendous support for the vehicle — including employees, suppliers, dealers and a worldwide group of loyal Viper owners and enthusiasts."

Nardelli added: "Viper is an integral part of this company's heritage. While this is a strategic review, our intent would be to offer strong operational and financial support during any potential transaction, in order to ensure a future for the Viper business and perpetuate the legacy of this great vehicle."

Chrysler underscored that it has not set a timetable for completion of the Viper review and noted that no "final decision" has been made with regard to the Viper.

Getting rid of the Viper would allow the automaker to focus on its "core business," Chrysler said.

In January, Inside Line reported that with new owner Cerberus accounting for every penny, there was increasing pressure to do something about the Viper. Supplier sources told Inside Line that Chrysler is prepared to "make an instantaneous decision" to discontinue the Viper, especially if it "no longer can deliver the desired halo effect."

What this means to you: Uncertain times for Viper loyalists as Detroit gets ready to sell off yet another piece of its automotive heritage.

More detail on Chevy Volt from GMNext

DETROIT — The highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt, perhaps the most important car in General Motors history, will have such features as low-rolling-resistance tires and iPod connectivity. Those details emerged in a recent online chat with Bob Boniface, Chevrolet Volt director of design.

The transcript of the chat went up this week on GMnext.com. Perhaps the most tantalizing bit of dialogue was an exchange between Boniface and Omar Rana, the editor in chief at eGMCarTech.com.

"We keep hearing the [sic] GM will reveal the Volt sometime in September. Is that true?" asked Rana.

"We have not yet announced when the Volt will be revealed," replied Boniface. "It will be soon, but any specific dates are conjecture at this point."

The lengthy chat gave readers more insight into what to expect from GM's electric car. Boniface gushed that the "interior is fantastic! The material selection is innovative and compelling." In response to a query about whether GM will add "technological features like iPod connectivity, USB audio ports, Bluetooth and such" to the Volt, Boniface answered "yes, yes and yes."

He also noted that the Volt "will have a folding rear seat creating a flat cargo area" and come equipped with "low-rolling-resistance tires."

In an encouraging development, Boniface said that aerodynamic discoveries from the Volt may make their way into other GM vehicles. "We have learned efficient ways to treat the underbody, spoiler, side mirrors, etc., which can be adapted to other programs," he said.

What this means to you: Just a few more juicy tidbits to chew on as you try to put together the puzzle of the Chevrolet Volt.

Viper ACR slays ZR1 & GTR at the Ring- goes 7:22

By Ron Kiino

Photography by Charlie Magee

Watch the Viper's record-breaking lap HERE

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After Nissan announced in May of this year that its 480-horsepower, all-wheel-drive GT-R lapped Germany's infamous 20.8-km (12.9 miles) Nurburgring Nordschleife in a time of 7:29, Viper people became restless. Then, just a month later, following Chevrolet's declaration that its 638-horsepower supercharged Corvette ZR1 was the king of the hill, breaking the GT-R's record with a time of 7:26, Viper people became downright mad. Not the folks who work for Dodge, mind you, but the members of the Viper Club of America, a group of Viper fanatics that in fact stretches its arms well beyond America, as far as Japan and Germany. Sick and tired of hearing about other cars setting records at the Nordschleife, they wanted to see their pride and joy-namely, Dodge's new track-attacking 600-horsepower Viper ACR (American Club Racer)-take a shot at the record books. But what could they do about it?

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Well, they could (and did) bug Dodge-specifically, the Street & Racing Technology team-to the point that SRT said, What the heck, let's go for it. So SRT rented the Nordschleife for a half-day (at a cost of $2000 Euro per hour), shipped two ACRs over to Germany, hired a pro driver through Zakspeed (a race team that runs Vipers in the ADAC Zurich 24h Race at the Nrburgring), and hoped for good weather and, more important, a lap time quicker than 7:26. And, for posterity, the SRT team figured having a media outlet on-hand was a wise idea, so they invited Motor Trend, and yours truly was fortunate enough to get the call.

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Chasing the Record
On August 18, the day of the record attempt, the climate gods appear to be on Dodge's side-temps are in the 60s Fahrenheit and rainclouds have come and gone the day prior, so, save for two, slightly damp spots, the track is dry (a rarity at the Nordschleife, as precipitation is common in the Eifel region of Germany, often leaving the 'Ring damp, in parts or entirety). At 8 a.m., FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) driver Tom Coronel, who pilots a Leon TFSi for SEAT Team Holland, arrives at the track, ready to be debriefed and prepped for his 9 a.m. start time. In addition to his time in WTCC, Coronel, a Dutchman, has compiled extensive experience in Formula 3, Formula Nippon, and, most significant on this day, the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring. After donning his race suit and conversing with the SRT engineers, Coronel squeezes into the red-and-black ACR (a black-and-gray ACR was brought along as a back-up) and departs on his warm-up lap.

(A note on the two Viper ACRs: Except for a Racetech seat with a six-point harness, each ACR is factory stock and fitted with the Hard Core package, a no-cost option that cuts 40 pounds off the curb weight. About 10 percent of ACR customers order the HCP, which deletes the audio system, trunk carpet, rear cabin sound insulation, tire inflator kit, hood insulator, and steel battery cover.)

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If there were any skeptics regarding Coronel's ability to hustle a Viper around the 'Ring, his first two laps-a 7:42 and a 7:35, respectively-silence all of them. Informed of his times, Coronel seems somewhat pleased and then asks, "And what time are you trying to break?" After hearing that he's nearly 10 seconds behind the record, he shrugs and says, "I think that is possible." To address Coronel's complaints that the ACR is displaying light understeer in medium- to high-speed turns and its steering feels a little light, engineers stiffen the front dampers for both compression and rebound (up three clicks to position 11, out of 14 total) and the rear dampers for compression (again, up three clicks to 11). The adjustable rear wing, which offers seven hole positions with the seventh offering the most down force, remains in position three, while the front splitter stays at its initial setting (0) as does the ride height (0.5 inch lower than stock).

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Breaking the Record
Coronel's second and third stints, each with one hot lap, render the same record-breaking time of 7:24, evidence that the suspension alterations, along with fresh Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires, are cutting time. The team is happy but not overjoyed-the record is theirs but they know the car can do better. According to SRT engineer Mike Shinedling, computer simulations done back in Michigan showed the ACR capable of times well into the teens, so a sub-7:20 is the ultimate goal.

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On the fourth run, another single hot lap, Coronel puts down the best time of the day, a 7:22.1, slicing over four seconds from the ZR1's time. It's not a sub-7:20, but it'll more than do. Per Shinedling, "Had we shortened the gearing and had more than a day to develop the car for the Nordshcleife, we probably could have dipped below 7:20, but we're very happy with our time, nonetheless." So is Coronel, who suggests the team celebrate with a round of beer at the famous Pistenklause restaurant. Everyone obliges, as there is much to rejoice and, let's face it, likely little time to enjoy it-undoubtedly, the ZR1 will be back as will the GT-R (rumors abound that a V-Spec version has lapped a 7:25). But for now, the Viper ACR is the most lethal 'Ringer around.