Self Healing Auto Coatings

Heal thyself: Steel painted with a conventional coating (left) rusts where scratched after immersion in salt water. At right, scratched steel protected by a new self-healing coating shows no corrosion. Inset images from a scanning electron microscope show that the self-healing coating has filled in the scratch with a protective caulk. Credit: Paul Braun

When a car's underbody or a ship's hull begins to corrode, it usually ends up junked. New protective coatings developed at the University of Illinois heal over their own scratches with no external intervention, protecting the underlying metal. The self-healing elements, enclosed in microcapsules that rip open when the coating is scratched, are compatible with a wide range of paints and protective coatings. The coatings, being marketed by Autonomic Materials of Champaign, IL, may be on the market in as soon as four months.

The materials, described online this week in the journal Advanced Materials, were developed by Paul Braun and Scott White, both professors in the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The self-healing system consists of two kinds of microcapsules: one filled with polymer building blocks, the other with a catalyst. Because the capsules, made of polyurethane, keep the reactive chemicals inside isolated, they can be mixed into a wide range of coatings. When the coatings are scratched, the microcapsules are torn open and their contents flow into the crack and form siloxane, a polymer that Braun likens to bathroom caulk. Unlike other self-healing systems, the Illinois coatings don't require elevated temperatures or moisture to mend.

The Illinois researchers scratched steel plates, some coated with the material and some with a conventional coating, then immersed them in salt water for five days. The metal covered by the new coating was protected against rust, while scratches in the conventional coating allowed significant rusting. "They make a very compelling case that the system is working as advertised," says Christopher Bielawski, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Bielawski points to the practical aspects of the Illinois coatings, which are made up of cheap, readily available chemicals. And Braun says that the new additives could be used in a wide range of applications in coatings that are cured up to temperatures of about 150 °C. The group demonstrated the self-healing system in various coatings, including in a commercial military ship paint.

Most work on self-healing materials, including those developed by the Illinois group, has been aimed at incorporating them into various structures, restoring mechanical properties to walls so that they won't crumble or to airplane wings so that they won't fracture. The key to the coating technology, says Braun, was encapsulating the catalyst. If unprotected, the catalyst could degrade the coating itself; encapsulating it makes the system compatible with a wide range of paints and coatings.

These paints won't be suitable for places where aesthetics are important, like the top of a car, says Braun. The capsules are 10 to 100 micrometers in diameter, so thinner coatings incorporating them would be rough to the touch. Larry Evans, CEO of Autonomic Materials, says that the first target markets include industries in which performance is key, such as ships, oil rigs, and pipelines, where metals are exposed to harsh environments and taking systems offline for frequent repainting is costly. Evans says that the self-healing system is ready for commercialization and that the company has partnerships with major coating companies.

Housing Permits, Starts hit record Lows

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Housing permits and starts fell to record lows in November, the government said Tuesday, in the latest sign that the housing market is continuing its decline.

Housing permits fell more than 15% to an annual rate of 616,000 last month, the Commerce Department said, while starts slid nearly 19% to an annual rate of 625,000.

"[Housing permits and starts] are startlingly low and really underscore the degree to which builders are cutting back aggressively on construction," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst for the Weiss Group. "We still have too many homes for sale on the market."

The reports were much lower than expected.

The Commerce Department was expected to report an annual rate of 700,000 building permits for November, according to a consensus of opinion compiled by Briefing.com.

Permits, which can be a useful indicator to gauge the near future of the housing market, reached a 730,000 rate in October, the lowest level since March 1975.

Housing starts were expected to come in at an annual rate of 730,000 for November, according to economist consensus from Briefing.com.

That's down from 771,000 during the prior month. The new annual rate for starts was the lowest since the department began tracking the data in 1959, and was down about 50% from the 2005 peak.

Paul Kasriel, director of economic research at Northern Trust, said he expects the housing construction market to bottom out sometime next year, though he admitted that the declines have already exceeded his initial expectations.

"We still have an excess supply of houses, both existing and new," said Kasriel. "In all candor, I'm surprised - with all the excess supply - that we've been building any [new houses]."

While the declines in construction are painful for the economy, Larson of the Weiss Group said it is the only way to work through the excessive supply.

"Arguably, these dismal numbers are what we need to see to get housing inventories back in line with the reduced level of demand out there," said Larson.

Consumer Prices fall by record amount(1.7%) againin November

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Consumer prices dragged down by plunging energy costs fell by a staggering amount in November, the government reported Tuesday.

The decline marked the second straight month that prices fell by a record amount.

The Consumer Price Index, a key inflation reading, fell 1.7% last month, according to the Labor Department. That was much weaker than October's 1% drop and exceeded the 1.3% decline forecast by a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Prices fell by the greatest amount since the Department of Labor began publishing seasonally adjusted changes in February 1947.

Consumer prices have performed a virtual about-face in recent months. For most of the year, high energy prices have caused consumer prices to soar, reaching a 17-year high in July. But energy prices have fallen about 70% since then, as the credit crunch deepened.

Demand for consumer products has fallen precipitously in recent months, after the credit crunch exploded into a crisis in mid-September. Loans have been expensive and hard to come by for those who want to make purchases for big-ticket items, and consumer confidence remained near an all-time low in November, according to a recent Conference Board study.

Tuesday's report is just further indication that consumers have dramatically shifted their spending habits in the past few months, opting to save money or pay down debt rather than spend it. A separate report released by the Federal Reserve last week showed American household debt fell for the first time ever in the third quarter, as net worth dropped by the largest amount on record based on data going back to 1951.

Core inflation falls ahead of Fed decision

The closely watched core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was unchanged last month. Economists had expected a 0.1% rise after a 0.1% drop in November. Core CPI posted a 12-month change of 2%, down from a 2.2% rise on that basis from the month before.

Core inflation is now at its lowest point since September 2005 and at a level that central bankers are typically comfortable with. It's believed that the Federal Reserve wants the 12-month change in core inflation to remain between 1% and 2%.

Food prices actually continued to rise very slightly - increasing 0.2% in November - but energy prices fell by a record 17% in the month. Gasoline prices fell by 29.5% in the month, according to the report.

Economists say falling prices have given the Federal Reserve more wiggle room for lowering interest rates, since those cuts tend to be inflationary. The Fed is expected to cut its benchmark rate to an all-time low of 0.5% Tuesday afternoon in response to deterioration in global financial system.

On Friday, a separate Labor Department report showed wholesale prices also fell in November as energy costs continued to decline.

Netbooks to come with Cell Plans for Data Service

How's this for some technological wizardry? Take a $350 netbook and turn it into a $1,500 device without changing anything inside.

That's exactly what Acer, RadioShack and AT&T have done with their latest netbook offer. On Friday, the trio said they will offer a netbook for $100 upfront -- but with a $60 per month, two-year data contract on AT&T. Over the two years of the contract, that adds up to a total of $1,540, or more than four times the list price of the netbook alone.

With the move Acer became the first company to bring a netbook on contract to the U.S. The offer is modeled on how most cellphones are currently sold, and follows similar netbooks-on-contract offers overseas.

"It is interesting move," says Bob O'Donnell, a vice president with research firm IDC, "but it won't make a huge dent in the marketplace right away. "The price points they are available today are way too high for most people."

Netbooks are lightweight notebooks that have limited processor power but offer the promise of easy internet connectivity, portability and low prices (generally under $400). By tying them to contracts, netbook manufacturers hope to drive the purchase price even lower, perhaps even to zero. But will consumers take the bait?

Despite the questionable value in this case, industry watchers say the trend is here to stay as more companies are likely to start selling netbooks this way.

Over the next year, upstarts such as Asus, traditional PC giants such as HP and newer entrants such as peripherals maker ViewSonic are likely to start offering netbooks for almost nothing, along with one or two year sign-ons at major carriers. Ultimately even AT&T, Sprint or Verizon might offer their own branded netbooks.

Sean Maloney, senior vice president in charge of sales and marketing at Intel and the chief strategist for the company, told Wired recently that the popularity of bundled netbook deals in other countries makes it very likely that U.S. consumers will also hop on this train.

Almost-free netbooks bundled with a long term contracts have become popular in countries such as Japan and Germany. In September, Acer partnered with T-Mobile in Germany to offer its netbook for one Euro on a €35 per month two-year data contract.

Bigger PC manufacturers such as Lenovo are also dipping their toes into these waters. Lenovo inked its first netbook-on-contract deal with Bougyues, a popular Telecom in France, last month, says a company spokesperson. From Nov. 17 to Jan. 18, Lenovo is bundling its IdeaPad S10 netbook along with a mobile Internet package from Bougyues as part of a special offer.

"The bundle in France is just starting, so it's too soon to say," says the spokesperson. "But bundling is one of many things we're looking at going forward as evidenced by the relationship with Bougyues."

Until recently, netbooks in the U.S. have been sold like their larger cousins, notebooks. Their tiny size and online connectivity potential, though, puts netbooks closer to cellphones than laptops, say analysts. Not surprisingly, manufacturers and telecom carriers are following a more cellphone-like retailing strategy for these machines.

But the move has not been without initial mistakes. Acer's current netbook-on-contract deal is a pricing disaster.

A quick back-of-the-envelope math brings some shocking numbers. $60 for 24 months plus the $100 down payment comes up to a whopping $1,540 that you have to pay for a device that without the bundling would cost just about $350.

Clearly not many consumers are likely to bite this deal. "Why bother?" says O'Donnell. "There's a serious value question here."

Acer executives were not available for a comment.

HP is also exploring similar deals to launch a netbook on contract with a major carrier.

As telecom carriers discover their promise, these miniature PCs are also likely to find new advocates in the telecom companies.

"Netbooks bring in contract revenue and a lock-in period of two years for the carrier," says Ross Rubin, an analyst for The NPD Group. "And there's the promise that if customers have a good experience, they will likely turn to the same carrier for their voice needs."

Netbook subsidies are mostly likely to be borne by the telecom carrier that is offering the bundled service, says Rubin. AT&T' spokesperson Mark Siegel refused to comment on the subsidy.

Indeed, AT&T has been quick to dissociate itself from the deal that Asus and Radio Shack have just announced.

"This computer is not being sold by AT&T," says Siegel. "It's not like a device sold in our stores that we may or may not subsidize. This is a decision RadioShack has made."

But if the netbook bundles prove popular, it's unlikely that telecoms will remain standoffish for long, since netbooks could stimulate more wireless data usage.

Wireless data services are an important and lucrative source of revenue for telecom carriers. The US wireless data market grew 7.3 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, reaching $8.8 billion in data services revenue, according to mobile industry consultant Chetan Sharma.

Sharma predicts that the average revenue per user that telecom companies make from voice calls is likely fall by end of 2009 to be replaced by data revenue, which will become more dominant. That also indicates telecom companies could be exploring alternate data access devices and netbooks fit the bill.

Moves by big box electronic stores such as Best Buy to promote mobile devices could also help drive the netbooks on contracts trend, says NPD's Rubin. In October, Best Buy said it is launching stand-alone stores called Best Buy Mobile in malls to peddle mobile devices. The stores are targeted at women and young shoppers—the demographic that also dovetails with those buying a netbook.

"The point is people see this as an interesting new market opportunity," says O'Donnell. "Everyone's thinking if Acer and Asus can be big then why can't they?"

But getting consumers to spring for netbooks like they buy cellphones won't be easy. There are cheaper ways to get the kind of easy data connectivity that netbooks like Acer on AT&T promise.

Consumers could use Wi-Fi hotspots offered through carriers to stay connected using their laptops, says Rubin, and they could turn to their smartphones when Wi-Fi is unavailable.

Or they could just plunk down the $350 to buy a netbook off the shelf. All of that will be cheaper than the $1,500 they will pay for a netbook on contract.

For netbooks on contracts to take off like cellphones, the data plan pricing has to be better. Ultimately carriers will have to offer better pricing, like charging customers about $10 to $20 a month to add a netbook onto an existing data plan, says O'Donnell.

"We will certainly see more people do this," he says. "Many more carriers will be experimenting with it in 2009"

By Priya Ganapati December 15, 2008 | 3:58:08 PMCategories: Netbooks

Bacterial Behavior in Space Hints at Disease-Busting Hacks

Like a Kubrickian psychodrama retold at the microbial scale, zero-gravity physics seems to trigger salmonella's dark side, making the food-poisoning bug more virulent when cultured in space.

But there may be a happy ending: Depending on what salmonella itself is fed, it can become less virulent — a trait that hints at new ways of weakening Earthly disease.

"There's more to this than worrying about food poisoning in space," said Arizona State University microbiologist Cheryl Nickerson. "We're opening new doors to understanding how pathogens in general are causing disease."

Nickerson showed last year that salmonella became more contagious when cultured during a space shuttle voyage. Upon returning from a ride on the STS-115 space shuttle, unusually low doses were needed to infect mice: zero-gravity fluid dynamics seemed to trigger the same microbial attack mechanisms typically stimulated by the movement of fluid in our guts.

The salmonella used in that research were grown in a nutrient-rich medium. Well-fed salmonella shot into space for Nickerson's latest study, published recently in PLoS One also became extra-virulent. This time, however, she also included a low-nutrient salmonella culture — and those bacteria proved to be far less virulent than their well-fed counterparts.

In both cultures, many of the same gene families were triggered, suggesting some sort of common master regulator that determines the response of salmonella to its environment. If that function exists in other bacteria and can be manipulated by scientists, it could be tweaked to make them less able to cause disease.

"By identifying specific molecular mechanisms by which these organisms respond to stimuli in the space environment," said Michael Roberts, a NASA microbiologist who was not involved in the study, "the group has identified potential therapeutic targets for limiting the bacteria’s virulence inside our bodies."

Also included in the latest experiment, carried on the March 2008 space shuttle mission STS-123, was a hybrid solution rich in five nutrients suspected by Nickerson of altering virulence: phosphate, magnesium, sulfate, chloride and potassium.

Salmonella grown in this broth proved weak, and further testing in lab-simulated zero-gravity environments suggests that phosphate may be especially important for reducing virulence. That finding dovetails with another observation of Nickerson's: the master Hfq protein that controls dozens of other genes activated during the experiment is linked to phosphate uptake and may be a common response regulator to this environment.

"We don't have a complete mechanistic understanding of this process, but we have some exciting clues," she said. "There are lots of bits and pieces that allow us to start putting together the puzzle."

Roberts called the research "interesting and highly important." He noted that it could also be useful for protecting astronauts and future space explorers.

"As we leave Earth to explore space and establish a sustained human presence beyond low-earth orbit, our constant companions will not only be along for the ride but will be evolving during the journey," Roberts said.

By Brandon Keim December 15, 2008 | 6:34:41 PM

Sun Induces Strange 'Breathing' of Earth's atmosphere

SAN FRANCISCO, California — New satellite observations have revealed a previously unknown rhythmic expansion and contraction of Earth's atmosphere on a nine-day cycle.

This "breathing" corresponds to changes in the sun's magnetic fields as it completes rotations once every 27 days, NASA and University of Colorado, Boulder, scientists said Monday at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting.

The sun's coronal holes, seen as dark regions in the image above, direct plasma away from the sun and out into the solar system. When these particles get to the Earth, they heat the upper atmosphere, causing the outer atmosphere to expand and contract.

"What's going on in the solar side is indeed mysterious and challenges the solar physics understanding," said Stan Solomon, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who was not involved in the research.

The finding emphasizes the many ways that solar activity impacts the Earth — and its increasingly space-utilizing humans.

"From the Earth's perspective, we're in the sun's outer atmosphere," said Jeffrey Thayer, an aerospace engineer at UC-Boulder.

The new discovery could help scientists and engineers design better satellites that account for the changing conditions in the ionosphere. Eventually, it might be possible to predict the severity of ionospheric storms and protect the world's communication infrastructure.

The scientists used changes in the density of the Earth's atmosphere to pinpoint this previously unknown pattern. As the atmosphere contracts or expands, it also gets more or less dense, respectively. In response to the "hills and valleys of density," satellites subtly speed up or slow down, recording those motions with on-board accelerometers. And that's the data that allowed the scientists to back into the discovery of this new atmospheric cycle.

Solomon said that while the cycle on Earth is interesting, the really strange aspect of this work is what it says about our local star.

"What's going on in the sun that's causing all this?" Solomon said. "It's not entirely clear. That part of it is quite mysterious."

New mac Mini Rumored for MacWorld

Apple will launch an upgrade to its low-end desktop, the Mac Mini, at January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to an Apple corporate employee who contacted Wired.com.

The source, who wished to remain anonymous (to keep his job), could not disclose details about the Mac Mini other than its upcoming announcement at Macworld Expo, which begins Jan. 5. That's where CEO Steve Jobs traditionally launches major products during his famous keynotes (assuming he does indeed show up).

An upgrade to the Mac Mini is long overdue: The product hasn't seen a refresh since August 2007, and Apple computers normally have a life cycle of roughly six months. This long period of silence led many to speculate that Apple was going to drop the Mac Mini from its product line. However, Apple has shown no signs of discontinuing the product. It's also noteworthy that although Apple has been quiet about Mac Mini sales numbers, the diminutive desktop appears to be selling quite well. For example, the Mac Mini has been among the top 5 of Amazon's best selling desktops; it currently stands at No. 3.

Though our source confirms there will be a new Mac Mini announced January, it's unlikely this will be Apple's big product launch at the show. (Last year's major Macworld announcement was the MacBook Air; the year before that was the iPhone.) However, speculation about Apple's next major Macworld launch has been surprisingly quiet, so word about the Mac Mini is the most we have so far.

Here's what Wired.com believes will be in the next Mac Mini, based on trends seen in Apple's latest products:

• Similar to the MacBooks, the Mac Mini will sport a silver enclosure composed of a block of aluminum.
• Some internal parts will be PVC-free, and combined with its size and low power requirements, Apple will tout this as the "greenest Mac ever."
• For video output, the Mac Mini will use the DRM-crippled DisplayPort for connectivity, which Apple is offering to manufacturers for a no-fee license.
• It'll have a CD-DVD slot loader (i.e. Super Drive). There will be no Blu-ray player, because Steve Jobs believes the format is a "bag of hurt."
• It'll ship with 2 GB of RAM, expandable to 4 GB — up from the current 1 GB, expandable to 2 GB. (The aluminum case should make expanding RAM easier than in the original Mini.)
• It'll ship with at least a 160-GB hard drive.
• The Mac Mini will come in two options with different processor speeds: a 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo and a 2.3-GHz Core 2 Duo (up from 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz).
• Like the higher-end MacBook and MacBook Pro, the 2.3-GHz Mac Mini will ship with an Nvidia video card, making this higher-end model a decent gaming device.
• The 2.0-GHz Mac Mini will ship with an Intel video card, perhaps the GMA X3100 graphics card found in the low-end, white MacBook.
• The slower model will cost $500, and the faster model will cost $700 ($100 less than the current Mac Minis), in light of the recession.

That's as much as we're going to speculate right now. Have anything you'd like to add?

Photo: Apple

By Brian X. Chen December 15, 2008 | 7:42:43 PM

More than Skin Deep

Inside, Porsche's latest 911 is a whole new car

Porsche 911: Courtesy Porsche Cars North America (See it bigger!)

Look through the 2009 Carrera S's familiar skin, and you'll find the biggest redesign in years. The change starts with a dual-clutch transmission, taken straight from Porsche's racecars, that shifts gears in milliseconds. It's bolted to a redesigned six-cylinder engine that uses direct fuel injection (a first for Porsche) to churn out higher horsepower while actually getting more miles per gallon. In the cockpit, the company has finally added modern gadgetry such as Bluetooth, an iPod cable, and XM Satellite Radio with real-time traffic updates. What hasn't changed? The 911 is still one of the most powerful cars on the planet.

Lights

LEDs around the headlamps and tail lamps act as daytime running lights.

Suspension

Select "Sport" mode, and the shocks compress, bringing the car nearly an inch closer to the ground to provide more stability during high-speed turns.

Transmission

Like other double-clutch systems, Porsche's seven-speed gearbox essentially uses one transmission for the odd-numbered gears and one for the even-numbered. While one is in first gear, the other is already waiting in second. Switch from automatic to manual mode, and choose gears with either the shifter or the buttons on the steering wheel. On the track, we pulled off brutal shifts -- say, from sixth gear down to second at 60 mph -- instantaneously.

Engine

Direct fuel injection sends gasoline straight into the cylinders, increasing compression ratio and efficiency. That translates to a 0-to-60 time of 4.5 seconds, a top speed of 178 mph and a 15 percent cut in carbon-dioxide emissions.

By Seth Fletcher Posted 12.15.2008 at 3:16 pm 0 Comments

The Day the Earth Stood Still Science

Reviews may be mixed, but the remake of the iconic 50s film does indeed put the science in science-fiction

The Day The Earth Stood Still: 20th Century Fox

With the holiday season fast approaching, multiplexes have begun filling up with the Nazi-themed award magnets that always seem to flood the market at the end of the year. However, amidst the plethora of films filled with series English actors in sharp Teutonic uniforms a single high budget, special effects crammed movie squeezed into theaters on December 12th. The Day The Earth Stood Still, a remake of the canonical 1951 science-fiction film, switches out a widowed secretary for an astrobiologist played by Jennifer Connelly, and attempts to earn the science in science-fiction. So, does the science hold up?

The movie opens with Jennifer Connelly teaching a biology class on bacteria. Right off that bat, something seems out of place for a laboratory, and that something is Connelly. With her role as an astrobiologist, Connelly joins the likes of Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby and Denise Richards in The World Is Not Enough as a scientist way too attractive for her profession.

That small point aside, though, the science hits the mark.

Director Scott Derrickson took extreme lengths to ensure scientific accuracy on set. A senior astronomer from the SETI institute—Seth Shostak—was hired to work on the script for about a month and a half.

“The main character is a scientist," said Derrickson, explaining the importance of Shostak's role. "Having respect for the profession of the main character just seems paramount to me. It will have an effect on how Jennifer does the scene.”

Derrickson continued: “I think the audience can tell. Whether it's the way a soldier holds a gun or the way a scientist explains something scientific, the audience can just feel it.”

And indeed, Connelly’s opening lecture focusing on extremophiles—the class of bacteria that can survive in environments that would kill most life forms—feels (and is) completely accurate. If we do ever find alien life, it will probably be an extremophile, as they can live in the high acidity, radiation scorched, oxygen-deprived environments found on other planets.

The next big science scene comes when Klaatu, the alien messenger played by Keanu Reeves, goes to meet a Nobel Prize winning scientist played by John Cleese. Cleese had left some equations up on a chalkboard in his living room, and Reeves begins to make some corrects on the board. The equations are elements of relativity, and Klaatu gives mankind a hand by solving the equations, unifying quantum mechanics and relativity. Obviously, the math resolving quantum mechanics with relativity isn’t accurate, but the equations are actual relativity equations, provided by Marco Peloso, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota.

And part of Derrickson's reasoning for this level of accuracy comes down, simply, to: "respect for people's professions. My wife is a nurse, and I know how upset she gets when there are medical inaccuracies. She asks ‘how hard is it to take five minutes and get it right?’"

Of course, then there’s Gort, the 28-foot tall robot with the laser beam eye. Not a lot of science there, but hey, this isn’t an episode of NOVA, right?

By Stuart Fox Posted 12.15.2008 at 2:25 pm 1 Comment

Blue Light Special

Blue Tower: Necro154 GNU Free Documentation License

Also in today's links: wi-fi in the air, strange organs and more.

• The writer's opening metaphor left me scratching my head, but these pictures of the otolithic organs of fish are strange and fascinating.
• Researchers revisited an episode from 1966 where a failed vaccine led to the death of two toddlers -- and think they've figured out what went wrong.
• I seriously wondered if this was a very early April Fool's Day joke, but there's no sign that it is: In Japan, railroads are installing blue streetlights at train stations in hopes that they'll deter people bent on suicide.
• For all those business travelers who love to fly because of the temporary reprieve it offers from 24x7 online accessibility, don't book a flight on Delta: the airline plans to join Virgin, American, and JetBlue in offering wireless Internet access on some commuter flights.
• It's Monday. That was probably more thinking than your brain wanted to do. So here are some gorgeous pictures of dew-covered insects.

Deadly Gas, Cheap Power

Magma: A stream of magma from a nearby volcano flowed into Lake Kivu in 2002. Lava like this could cause the lake to release a huge cloud of toxic gas. J. naegelen/reuters/scanpix

To live on the banks of Africa’s Lake Kivu is to risk your life every day. Large amounts of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide gas are dissolved in various layers of the lake’s deep waters. Scientists warn that a disturbance such as a volcanic eruption or earthquake could cause a redistribution of the lake’s waters and the gases in them. This shuffling, known as an overturn, could unleash an invisible, suffocating cloud of these compounds—a rare event known as a limnic eruption—killing as many as two million people nearby. Now, rather than simply wait for disaster, scientists hope to put some of that gas to use, as cheap energy.

Lake Kivu, located on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is one of Africa’s largest lakes. It covers 1,040 square miles and is nearly 1,600 feet deep. The region is particularly volcanically active, and magma and groundwater feed gases and minerals into the lake.

Carbon dioxide dissolves best in high-pressure, low-temperature water like that at the bottom of the lake—and the CO₂ makes the water more dense, so it stays at the deepest levels. Dissolved methane, hydrogen sulfide and minerals also increase the water’s density. Organic materials, such as dead plants and fish, decompose on the lakebed, producing additional methane. As a result, the bottom of the lake contains layers of pressurized solutions of water and gas—a lot like a bottle of soda—while the less-dense layers of water on top act like a cap.

Over time, the deepest waters of the lake have accumulated about 60 cubic miles of CO₂ and about 14 cubic miles of methane. With these gases mostly trapped at the bottom, the lake’s dark depths are a time bomb.

Do Not Disturb

A disturbance of the lake could have the same explosive effect that occurs when you open the top of a soda bottle or pop a champagne cork—a bubbling over of liquid and gas. In the lake, the cause of the sudden release might be an earthquake or the immersion of hot lava that disturbs the layers of water in the lake. Large amounts of gas would bubble up and, just like it happens in the bottles, the contents of the lake would surge up and spill over.

The lake lies in the Great Rift Valley, where Africa is splitting apart as two tectonic plates move away from each other, making it an earthquake hot zone. Early this year, there were two serious quakes, which killed a total of 40 people.

There have also been volcanic incidents at Lake Kivu in the past. On January 17, 2002, a stream of lava from Mt. Nyiragongo, a volcano approximately 11 miles from the lake, burned its way through the lakeside city of Goma, forcing between 300,000 and 400,000 people to flee and destroying several nearby areas. When the lava hit the water, it created a huge cloud of steam, and some scientists worried that a deadly overturn would result. Luckily, the lava sank only about 300 feet into the lake—not deep enough to release a toxic cloud of CO₂ and methane.

Contract and Extract: An Israeli company, Ludan Energy Overseas, is one of the contractors working to set up a facility that can exploit the lake’s gas to produce electricity. giora shafir/Ludan engineering ltd.

Had the molten rock sank to a depth of 1,000 feet, it might have unleashed a catastrophe like the one that hit Lake Nyos in Cameroon in 1986. In the course of just a few hours, Lake Nyos released enough CO₂ to kill 1,700 people as far as 15 miles from the lake, suffocating them in a cloud of dense carbon dioxide. The event may have been triggered by a landslide, but the exact cause is unknown. And Lake Nyos wasn’t the first such disaster. In 1984, an overturn at Lake Monoun, also in Cameroon, killed 37 people.

Samples taken from the sediments on the bottom of Lake Kivu and from deposits on its rocks reveal that overturns like these have, in fact, occurred there within the past 5,000 years—and some scientists believe that another could strike within the next century unless something is done.

Putting Gas in the Machine

In Cameroon, the solution has been to install pumps that gradually pull gas from the bottom of Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun and release it at the water’s surface. Researchers now realize that a similar method could bring the methane gas in Lake Kivu up into a power plant onshore. The lake contains enough gas to deliver inexpensive, clean electricity to the region for many years. A preliminary project is now in operation, and the governments of the two countries that share the lake are hoping to produce large amounts of power as soon as 2020. Rwandan officials estimate that Lake Kivu could supply electricity to almost the whole of the country for more than 40 years, with some left over for the Congo.

Both countries have drafted an agreement to put Lake Kivu’s methane to good use, and a number of investors, including the World Bank and contractors such as COWI, a Danish consulting group, are working to get the project under way.

From a technical perspective, the process should be simple. A local brewery used methane from the lake bottom for many years to produce its energy, proving that the gas can be brought up from the lakebed and used to power businesses and homes in the area. In the 18 years before it closed, in 2004, the brewery relied almost exclusively on power produced by the lake’s gas.

Pumping Lake Nyos: corbis/scanpix

In principle, all that’s required is sinking a pipe deep enough to reach the floor of the lake and pumping up the lowest layer of water. As the water rises, its pressure falls, and it releases bubbles of methane, CO₂ and other gases. The bubbles increase the buoyancy of the water and force it upward and out of the pipe, creating a partial vacuum that pulls more bottom water up; eventually, the pump is no longer necessary. The methane can then be separated from the CO₂ and hydrogen sulfide and sent to a power plant, where it will be burned to provide energy for turbines.

Complicating matters, however, is the fact that the lake’s CO₂ is not useful, and releasing the greenhouse gas in the process would contribute to global warming. It’s the price that must be paid, say those involved, for avoiding a deadly disaster. “If we don’t do anything, there will be an eruption,” says Finn Hirslund, a senior engineer at COWI. “The question is how to avoid that the right way.” For now, the plan is to pump the CO₂ back into the upper levels of the lake water, from which it will slowly dissipate into the air.

A Bottomless Tank

Scientists and engineers estimate that there are almost 10 cubic miles of methane available for extraction in Lake Kivu, and in time they expect that installations will be built to pump gases up from several locations in the deepest parts of the lake.

The Rwandan and Congolese governments hope that by 2020 methane from the lake will provide 400 megawatts of electricity to be divided equally between the two countries. According to one company involved in the project, the resulting power will cost a fourth of the current price of electricity in Rwanda.

In the meantime, as organic material sinks to the bottom of Lake Kivu and decomposes, more methane will continue to be produced—about 3.2 billion cubic feet a year. But rather than threatening the lives of those who make their homes on its shores, the lake could, in fact, be a source of livelihood in the region.

Lake Nyos: In 1986, gas released from Lake Nyos in Cameroon killed more than 1,700 people and thousands of animals. corbis/scanpix

Africa’s Other Killer Lakes

Researchers know of three lakes in the world with the geological structure that make them capable of trapping and releasing deadly amounts of gas. All three lakes are in Africa, and in the past 25 years, two of them have demonstrated just how dangerous they are. The disasters at Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun in the 1980s were the first indications to scientists that the phenomenon was even possible. Pumps have been installed in both lakes to pull gas from their depths.

Lake Nyos is located in northwestern Cameroon. Under its waters lies a pocket of volcanic magma, out of which CO₂ seeps and dissolves into the lake’s water. On August 21, 1986, something—most likely a landslide, but possibly an earthquake or thunderstorm—triggered the release of a large amount of CO₂ from the lake. The gas spread up to 15 miles from the lake in a thick, suffocating cloud. Some people managed to escape, but 1,746 died, and thousands of animals were killed by a lack of oxygen. On the advice of scientists,
a pumping system was installed in the lake in 2001.
Lake Monoun is near Lake Nyos in Cameroon. On the night of August 15, 1984, people living near the lake heard a strange boom. It came from the lake, which released a CO₂ cloud that spread out and suffocated 37 people, including 10 people in a truck (according to published reports, two people sitting on the truck’s roof, above the CO₂ cloud, survived). What triggered the disturbance is still unknown. Pumps were installed in 2003 to avert a repeat disaster.

Why no Snow Lightning?

Light Show: Wintry conditions limit lightning strikes to an average of just six times a year across the country: Dan Farrall/Getty Images

Nearly every summer rainstorm comes with thunder and lightning. Yet during even the blusteriest blizzard, there's nary a spark in the air. It can occur (although snow lightning strikes just six times a year on average in the U.S.), but winter air doesn't make for prime lightning-forming conditions, says meteorologist Robin Tanamachi of the University of Oklahoma.

During the summer, the lower atmosphere is full of warm, humid air. Above that, it's cold and full of ice crystals. As the warm air rises, it carries water vapor with it, these molecules brush against the ice crystals, and this friction creates an electric field in the cloud -- like scuffing your feet across a carpet. The ice crystals gain a slight positive charge, and the updraft carries them to the top of the cloud, giving the cloud's bottom a net negative charge. Once the difference between the negatively charged cloud bottom and the positively charged ground becomes great enough, a bolt arcs between them.

But in snowy months, the atmosphere is cold and dry throughout, so there's no updraft to create friction within the clouds. Wind stirs the molecules and crystals some, but that action rarely generates a strong enough electric field to spark lightning.

Mercedes Split View LCD allows both passengers to view different things

A single LCD monitor on the dashboard lets a driver view the nav screen while a passenger catches a movie

By Mike Spinelli Posted 12.12.2008 at 10:46 am 0 Comments

Mercedes-Benz Splitview: Mercedes-Benz will offer its new Splitview, a dashboard-mounted display screen that allows driver and passenger to view two different images simultaneously, on its flagship S-Class sedan in mid-2009. Mercedes-Benz

Picture this: You're motoring down the highway, following route guidance on the navigation screen, when the guy in the passenger seat decides he wants to watch Raising Arizona on DVD. Mercedes-Benz and Bosch jointly devised a novel gizmo can satisfy both viewing requests, without a sword and the smarts of Solomon. It's a dual-view LCD monitor system called, elegantly enough, Splitview.

Splitview is a dashboard-mounted display screen that allows driver and passenger to view two different images simultaneously. Here's how it works: The eight-inch active matrix, backlit color monitor nests a second image feed on adjacent pixels. A masking filter divides the combined image such that, depending on seating position, only one set of the pixels can be seen.

With Splitview, the driver has access to information from Mercedes's control and display system, called COMAND, on the display, while the front passenger can use a remote control to watch DVDs, TV channels or music videos, though the car's speakers or via headphones. Mercedes-Benz says it will introduce Splitview in the company's flagship S-Class sedan in mid 2009.

Cancelling Cables

Two new ways to send HD video to your TV without wires

By Sean Captain Posted 12.11.2008 at 5:55 pm 0 Comments

Flat-panels were supposed to eliminate the hulking television cabinet. But they are tethered to boxes -- cable tuners, disc players, A/V receivers -- that fill a big piece of furniture. A wireless connection lets you at least stash those peripherals out of the way. We tried out the first two cable-free HD technologies: one that uses radio waves and another that piggybacks on your home's electrical wiring. We tested them by sending video 25 feet from both a Blu-ray disc player and a Sencore VP401, a machine that produces test patterns that break up conspicuously if there are any reception problems.

Through the Air

Sony Bravia Wireless Link
The Tech
Sony's Wireless Link uses a technology called WHDI to send data over a signal similar to Wi-Fi. WHDI favors data bits with a big effect on the picture -- say, ones that change the color of an object. It may sacrifice others, like bits that subtly affect hue.

The Results
WHDI certainly loses a lot of data. We saw that clearly with test patterns: Some finely detailed images stressed the system so severely that the screen went blank. But with a Blu-ray movie, video and audio seemed crisp and fluid. The errors in the signal were undetectable to a casual viewer.

EDITORS' RANK: 8/10

A dark scene from the No Country for Old Men Blu-ray disc over a standard HDMI connection:

Through the Walls

Acoustic Research HDP100 Powerlink

The same scene over the Acoustic Research HD Powerlink. Notice the blockiness in the dark background:

The Tech
HD Powerlink converts high-def video into a format called motion-JPEG and sends it over Ethernet signals through the power wires in your home's walls.

The Results
Running over modern home wiring, test patterns looked almost perfect, but actual video had minor problems. Dark areas onscreen, such as shadowy interiors, often appeared blocky, and colors overall were slightly faded. Both could be from errors in converting video to and from the M-JPEG format. We also heard a faint hum from the TV's speakers.

EDITORS' RANK: 6/10

Obama Clashes with Nasa Moon Program

The space agency's transition to an Obama presidency is not going smoothly, and the future of the moon program is uncertain

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin: NASA Kennedy Space Center

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is not playing nice with the Obama transition team, according to a post by Robert Block of the Orlando Sentinel. He reports that Griffin is resisting efforts by former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver, who heads Obama's space transition team, to "look under the hood" of the space program. Griffin has also reportedly instructed aerospace industry representatives to say only good things about NASA's plans for returning humans to the moon.

The current program calls for retiring the space shuttle in 2010 and sending the yet-to-be-built Ares I rocket and Orion capsule to the moon by 2020. But as Block reports elsewhere in the Sentinel, Ares is in serious trouble. It may not be powerful enough to boost Orion into orbit, and engineers are concerned that the rocket may crash into its support tower during liftoff.

Some engineers are recommending that Ares be canceled, and Garver's team has inquired about how much money could be saved by doing so. Even if the Obama administration chooses to stay the course on Ares, there is little doubt that change is coming to NASA.

By Dawn Stover Posted 12.11.2008 at 5:48 pm 6 Comments

Credit Card Crackdown coming soon to protect consumers

The Fed is set to vote Thursday on a number of key protections for credit-card customers.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Cash-strapped consumers might get some welcome news on Thursday when the Federal Reserve Board votes to rein in controversial credit card practices.

The proposed rules, which have received overwhelming consumer support, prohibit banks from practices like raising the interest rates on pre-existing credit card balances unless a payment is over 30 days late, and applying payments in a way that maximizes interest penalties.

The Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration, are all expected to approve the regulation. It's unclear when the rules would take effect.

"It will fundamentally change the relationship between cardholders and banks," said Peter Garuccio, a spokesman from the American Bankers Association.

If approved, the Fed's rules will mean an end to double-cycle billing, which averages out the balance from two previous bills. That means that consumers who carry a balance can get hit with retroactive interest on their previous month's bill - even if they've already paid that off.

Consumers would also be given a reasonable amount of time to make payments, and payments would be applied to higher-rate balances first to reduce interest penalties and fees.

Credit card statements would clearly list the time of day that a payment is due, and any changes to accounts would be in bold or listed separately.

And, finally, no more universal defaults, a policy which allows credit card issuers to increase the interest rate on one card if a customer misses a payment on another card.

Trouble keeping up

Consumer advocacy groups say credit-card reform couldn't come soon enough. Travis Plunkett, the legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America said new rules are "essential" at a time when "so many Americans falling behind on their loans."

In the midst of a credit crunch, Americans have about $976.3 billion in revolving credit and 4.9% of all credit cards were delinquent in the third quarter, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve.

"This industry has been mostly deregulated since the 1980s and we've seen the effects of that," said, Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com, a consumer advocacy group. "It hasn't worked."

Representatives from the banking industry argue that while many of the changes are consumer friendly, there might be a downside to increased regulation that should not go unnoted.

"By limiting the ability of issuers to use risk-based pricing, the result is likely to be higher prices and less available credit," explained Peter Garuccio, a spokesman from the American Bankers Association.

Not only would card companies have to impose higher interest rates across the board to offset losses, but low introductory offers and zero percent balance transfers are likely to be scaled back as well, he said.

Some consumer advocates argue alternatively that these reforms don't go far enough. Plunkett said he hopes Congress will pass more sweeping credit-card reforms next year that address a number of other "abusive practices" including "reckless lending to young people and high fees."

Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Carolyn Maloney have both proposed credit-card legislation that would impose even more constraints on issuers.

Madoff Mess is a real Black Eye for Banks

Chismillionaire says: "At least this collapse didn't steal from the average non sophisticated investor, rather the Palm Beach set and bankers who should have known better but who were too inept or careless to look after their own money.
People had been complaining to the SEC for almost a decade that the returns generated by Madoff were not possible with his holdings without front running or outright fraud. This was not a shock to some.

Charity begins at home. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is."

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The losses in the Madoff mess are still being tallied. But even if U.S. financial firms avoid a big hit, this episode won't exactly bolster their tattered reputation.

Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities collapsed Thursday, when Madoff, the founder of the big broker-dealer, was arrested on a charge that he ripped investors off to the tune of $50 billion in a long-running pyramid scheme. The failure of Madoff's firm may have cost thousands of investors their life savings.

So far, none of the big losers have come from the ranks of major U.S. commercial and investment banks. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) declined to comment on their possible exposure to Madoff, and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) didn't immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Investors may soon find out if Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) are on the hook for any potential Madoff-related losses when the New York-based investment firms report their fourth-quarter numbers. Goldman's results are due out this morning and Morgan reports its results on Wednesday.

Shares of these and many other banks tumbled again Monday, with JPMorgan falling nearly 8% following a downgrade from Merrill Lynch. Analyst Guy Moszkowski cited depressed capital markets in cutting JPMorgan to "underperform," essentially a sell.

It's clear that uncovering a massive fraud in the middle of the worst year for investors in decades hasn't helped sentiment. Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg noted "the hit to investor confidence from the Madoff affair" in his morning memo Monday.

The biggest losses to this point have been borne by the fund-of-hedge-fund firms that steered wealthy investors' dollars to Madoff's firm, and some big overseas banks.

HSBC (HBC), the big London-based bank, said Sunday it could lose "in the region of US$1 billion" from its financing of institutional clients who invested their funds with Madoff. Other foreign banks that face possible Madoff-related losses include BNP Paribas of France and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Those aren't the only institutions that will get a black eye in the collapse of the Madoff empire. Banco Santander, the Spanish bank that's the biggest financial institution in the euro zone, said it had invested $3 billion of client funds with Madoff through its Optimal Investment Services unit.

But if these sums aren't enough to threaten institutions with balance sheets running into the trillions of dollars, they certainly do nothing to shake the growing suspicion that the finance industry has failed spectacularly in its duty to guide its customers away from problematic investments.

"There has just been a lack of common sense," says Mark Sunshine, the president of middle-market lender First Capital in West Palm Beach, Fla. "No one has bothered to do the math."

The 'smart' money burned more than once

As audacious as the alleged Madoff scam was, Sunshine says it was no less breathtaking than another financial fleecing that was uncovered earlier this fall: the federal fraud case against Tom Petters, the Minneapolis entrepreneur who was arrested this month on charges he defrauded investors of as much as $3 billion over a more than decade-long span.

While Madoff's secretiveness and his years of unusually steady gains now appear to have been surefire marks of investment returns that were too good to be true, Sunshine says the claim behind the alleged Petters scam was even harder to believe.

An informant told federal authorities that Petters had, in one case, lured investors by promising outsize returns on name-brand electronics gear that the Petters group was buying for the purpose of selling to big-box retailers.

This, Sunshine says, should have raised red flags among investors because carrying out such a plan "would have required a warehouse the size of New Jersey."

"The whole thing was just beyond ludicrous," he says.

Yet according to an indictment filed Dec. 1 in Minnesota federal district court, Petters managed to keep his scheme going for 13 years. Along the way, he picked up stakes in well-known companies such as Polaroid and direct marketer Fingerhut.

Petters' companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. They have been sued by several investors including Ritchie Capital Management, which claims to have lost $220 million in the Petters case.

The losses in the Madoff and Petters cases show that when the market tides roll out -- stock indexes worldwide have lost between 40% and 50% of their value this year -- even supposedly astute investors are suddenly exposed.

And regulators' failure to probe the Madoff investment business, despite warnings filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as much as a decade ago, will do nothing to increase investors' confidence in the fairness of markets.

That's not likely to change until it's clear that Washington is ready to exert itself by vigorously enforcing current laws, let alone adopt new ones.

"The SEC looks out to lunch on this one," Sunshine says. "Investors can make their own stupid mistakes -- they don't need help from regulators not doing their jobs.

Goldman Sachs posts $2.1 Billion Loss

Venerated Wall Street firm slips into the red for the first time since going public in 1999; loss bigger than expected

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Goldman Sachs suffered its first loss as a publicly traded company Tuesday, serving as yet another reminder that no corner of Wall Street has escaped the ongoing financial crisis.

The once-revered investment bank said it lost $2.1 billion, or $4.97 a share during the fourth quarter, representing the company's first loss since it went public in 1999.

Few analysts were expecting the company to maintain its impressive run given the recent market turmoil across financial markets and the upheaval in the nation's financial services sector. Still, the results were worse than expected. Consensus estimates were for a loss of $1.63 billion, or $3.73 a share for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.

Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs' chairman and CEO, blamed tough market conditions for the loss.

"Our results for the fourth quarter reflect extraordinarily difficult operating conditions, including a sharp decline in values across virtually every asset class," he said in a statement.

Investors, however, were encouraged by the news. Shares of Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), which have lost 69% of their value so far this year, rose 5% in pre-market trading Tuesday.

Rival Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) is also expected to report a loss for the quarter when it delivers its results Wednesday.

Hussman Funds Weekly Market Comment- 12/15

Recognition, Fear and Revulsion

Stogie Guys Reviews: Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne Robusto

Monday, December 15th, 2008

You won’t find much information online about this relatively obscure cigar. Perdomo’s extensive website doesn’t even mention the blend, and my emails to the company have gone unanswered so far. All this is a shame, especially since I was pretty pleased with the three Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne Robustos that I smoked for this review.

Here’s what I do know: The line features a Cuban-seed binder and filler from Nicaragua and a triple-fermented Connecticut shade wrapper. As with many anniversary cigars, this one was created to celebrate Tabacalera Perdomo’s ten years in the business.

The five inch by 54 ring gauge Robusto looks like many Connecticut shade smokes, albeit save for the orange-yellow cellophane in which it is wrapped. The wrapper leaf is oily, light, and clean, and the stick is firm and tightly packed with an overall feel of quality. The unique band is as huge as it is ornate.

Now for those of you who consider yourselves too macho for Connecticut shade tobacco, don’t write off the Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne just yet—this unassuming stick packs a lot more flavor than you’d think. While the main profile of sweet hay and grass is predictable, it is partnered with heavier, more unexpected notes of pepper, smoky wood, and cereals.

I don’t want to give you the impression this Perdomo rivals a 601 Oscuro. It doesn’t. But it incorporates more complexity and flavor than many Connecticuts, even after the taste settles down after the midway point.

While the construction isn’t impeccable, it’s better than most cigars that sell for around $130 per box of 25. The white ash is a little too flakey as it layers gorgeously atop the fairly straight burn. The draw is deliberate but easy. Despite some reviews I’ve read, I had no trouble keeping my three samples lit.

My overall verdict is that this is a solid, multifaceted smoke with more taste than meets the eyes. Don’t pass up the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne Robusto as a delicious early evening cocktail smoke. I give it three and a half stogies out of five.

Beekman Bar and Books reopens in the NYC after 10 year hiatus

Remember Beekman Bar And Books? It's back. And you can smoke.

The swank Manhattan lounge opened in 1993, near the start of the cigar boom, and closed in 1999 as cigar sales cooled. The lounge is back, at its original location on First Avenue, between 49th and 50th streets, and thanks to clever work by its owners, cigars are welcome—with a twist.

The New York City smoking ban prohibits opening a new cigar bar, or expanding an old one, so Bar And Books owner Raju S. Mirchandani and Beekman's managing partner (and mixologist) Ben Scorah turned to their legal team to find a way to puff in peace in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's antismoking New York. They came up with a special cigar room, down a hallway from the bar and lounge proper, with a ventilation system that whisks the smoke from your corona to the very top of the building. They also will keep employees out of the lounge. To enjoy a drink with your cigar, you must order it from the bar, or a member of the waitstaff, and take it inside the smoking room.

"Smoking in New York is a privilege," said Scorah. The cigar room, decorated with ornate bottles of rum, Champagne and Cognac, has two tables, and four additional seats by a rail. The tables must be reserved in advance.

The bar and lounge, which had its grand reopening last night, is decorated with dark woods, leather-clad seats and small round tables, all of which are surrounded by a library of antique books, the Bar And Books trademark. The bar features an array of fine cocktails and cigars for sale, the latter ranging in price from $8 (for a Partagas Purito) to $69 (for a Zino Platinum Crown Series Scepter Chubby Tubo).

The Bar And Books chain consists of three New York City locations (there is also one on Lexington Avenue, in the 70s, and a downtown location in the meatpacking district called Hudson Bar And Books) as well as two venues in Prague, Czech Republic.

Posted: Thursday, December 11, 2008

By David Savona

Hawking Predicts Discovery of Alien Life: But Asks, Will It be Carbon Based?

On the 50th anniversary of NASA, Stephen Hawking, Newton's heir as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, answered the question, “Are we alone?”

His answer was short and simple; probably not!

Hawking presented three options. One, being that there is no life out there, and two – somewhat pessimistically, but subsequently, a little too realistic – being that when intelligent life gets smart enough to send signals in to space, it is also busying itself with making nuclear bombs.

Hawking, known not only for his sharp mind, but his sharp sense of humor, prefers option number three. "Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare," he quickly added: "Some would say it has yet to occur on earth."

Alien abductions, in Hawking’s view, are nothing more than claims made by “weirdos,” but we should be careful if we ever happen upon an alien. Because alien life may not have DNA like ours, Hawking warns "Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance."

Other prominent astrobiologists have warned that we humans may be blinded by our familiarity with carbon and Earth-like conditions. In other words, what we’re looking for may not even lie in our version of a “sweet spot”. After all, even here on Earth, one species “sweet spot” is another’s species worst nightmare. In any case, it is not beyond the realm of feasibility that our first encounter with extraterrestrial life will not be a solely carbon-based occasion.

Alternative biochemists speculate that there are several atoms and solvents that could potentially spawn life. Because carbon has worked for the conditions on Earth, we speculate that the same must be true throughout the universe. In reality, there are many elements that could potentially do the trick. Even counter-intuitive elements such as arsenic may be capable of supporting life under the right conditions. Even on Earth some marine algae incorporate arsenic into complex organic molecules such as arsenosugars and arsenobetaines. Several other small life forms use arsenic to generate energy and facilitate growth. Chlorine and sulfur are also possible elemental replacements for carbon. Sulfur is capably of forming long-chain molecules like carbon. Some terrestrial bacteria have already been discovered to survive on sulfur rather than oxygen, by reducing sulfur to hydrogen sulfide.

Nitrogen and phosphorus could also potentially form biochemical molecules. Phosphorus is similar to carbon in that it can form long chain molecules on its own, which would conceivably allow for formation of complex macromolecules. When combined with nitrogen, it can create quite a wide range of molecules, including rings.

So what about water? Isn’t at least water essential to life? Not necessarily. Ammonia, for example, has many of the same properties as water. An ammonia or ammonia-water mixture stays liquid at much colder temperatures than plain water. Such biochemistries may exist outside the conventional water-based "habitability zone". One example of such a location would be right here in our own solar system on Saturn's largest moon Titan.

Hydrogen fluoride methanol, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and formamide have all been suggested as suitable solvents that could theoretically support alternative biochemistry. All of these “water replacements” have pros and cons when considered in our terrestrial environment. What needs to be considered is that with a radically different environment, comes radically different reactions. Water and carbon might be the very last things capable of supporting life in some extreme planetary conditions.

Posted by Josh Hill with Rebecca Sato.

First-Ever Photo of Liquid on Extraterrestrial World

By Wired Science

The Huygens probe has captured an image of what may be the first drop of liquid ever observed on an extraterrestrial surface.

The photo is evidence that liquids may exist on the surface of other planets and moons, not just frozen lakes. And liquid is more likely habitat for extraterrestrial life.

Among the pictures snapped by the Huygens probe after landing on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005, one appears to show a dewdrop made of methane that briefly formed on the edge of the probe itself (indicated by arrow at bottom of image on right). Scientists think heat from the probe caused humid air to rise and condense on the cold edge of the craft.

Though Huygens may have helped produce it, the methane drop is still the first liquid directly detected at a surface anywhere beyond Earth.

Like Earth, Titan has clouds, lakes and river channels, and it may be the only other place in the solar system where liquid evaporates from the surface and returns as rain. "Aside from Earth, it's the most exciting world there is," said lead author Erich Karkoschka of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The Cassini space probe, which took data from above the moon after separating from the Huygens lander, detected what scientists believe are lakes of liquid methane on Titan's surface. Microbes that eat methane thrive on Earth, and scientists think pools of methane could be comfortable homes for similar organisms on Titan.

Because Titan's current atmosphere is a lot like the early Earth's, the lakes could be a lab for studying the origins and early evolution of life.

Astronomers have speculated since they found methane in the atmosphere in 1983 about whether the moon's methane rain falls in violent thunderstorms, light drizzles or some other form. So far, no one has caught it on camera.

The hundreds of images snapped by Huygens, from the time it hit the atmosphere until its power ran out an hour after it landed, revealed only faint, wispy clouds that looked nothing like rain clouds, Karkoschka said.

None of the images showed evidence that it had rained during the previous few years, according to an analysis to be published in the journal Icarus. And some images suggested that Titan’s lower atmosphere was full of small dust particles, which would have been cleared out by rain.

But the scientists noticed light splotches in some of the pictures that hadn't been there moments before. Some of them had spots that initially looked like raindrops because of their uniform size and smooth edges, but analysis showed they were most likely electronic imprints created by cosmic rays.

However, Karkoschka said, "One of those spots was so big that it really cannot be a cosmic ray." He concluded that it was a real, short-lived dewdrop, so close to the camera that it must have condensed on a cold metal shield designed to protect the camera lens from direct sunlight.

Robert West, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, thinks the dewdrop is "a cute observation," but he's more interested in the lack of rainfall. "There are reports in the literature that concluded there is a drizzle going on near the surface," he said. "The fact that Huygens didn’t find anything is significant."

— Lisa Grossman for Wired.com

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Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Jingle all the Way: Live at the Quick

MY VIDESO FROM: Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Live at the Quickcenter

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



Part 5



Part 6



Part 7



Part 8

For Bela Fleck, make it Quick

Bela Fleck says Fairfield University's Quick Center is the perfect venue for his Flecktones

By SEAN SPILLANE
Staff writer


When Bela Fleck and the Flecktones was plotting out its current two-month tour, an idea popped into Fleck's mind.

"I thought, 'Hey, let's go back to the Quick Center because we haven't been there since that show,' " Fleck recalled during a recent phone interview from San Francisco, where the band was doing a six-night residency at Yoshi's Jazz Club.

"That show" he was referring to was a night at Fairfield University's Quick Center in 2000 that was captured for a live CD and DVD, called Live at the Quick, which was released in 2002.

"That show has become a historic show for us," Fleck, a master of the banjo, said. "That DVD has ended up being very successful worldwide and we're constantly signing them and talking about it. It will be fun to come back."

So why, with all of the venues the band has played around the world, did it choose the Quick Center for the project?

"It's perfect," Fleck, 50, answered simply. "It was the right venue on the right tour at the right time. We knew we were going to film a show on that tour and we were looking at the schedule for where to film it and we kind of zeroed in on that room. We knew it would be a great place to do it.

"We had played there a couple of times and always thought it was a great room to play in and we've always played well there. And it looked good and it has a good vibe to it. Those are all good reasons."

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones will be performing two shows at the Quick Center Friday night at 7 and 9:30 on a tour promoting Jingle All the Way, a Christmas album that has been a long time coming, according to Fleck.

"We've wanted to do one since the very beginning," he said. "We've always talked about it as one of the things we've got to do. It just took a long time for it to be the right time for us to do it. This was clearly the right time because we were planning to be off the road for most of the year and just do a couple of months of touring at the end and we didn't want to not have new music to play.

"But if we made an album of original Flecktones music, it would be inappropriate to tour for just a few months. It would be just like throwing it away.

"Normally, we tour a new album for a couple of years. It sort of fit the bill in every way because we could tour for two months and when Christmas is over, it's done and we could go back to the other things that we're all developing right now."

Fleck knows the Christmas concerts will be a nice change from past tours with the Flecktones -- Victor Wooten (bass), Jeff Coffin (woodwinds) and Future Man (drumitar, percussion) -- and he appreciates the fact that it is different than a normal trek.

Anyone who has followed Fleck's career knows he is constantly searching for new sounds and works in many different genres -- country, jazz, bluegrass, world music. Fleck has won eight Grammy Awards and has been nominated 20 times, but most notably, he has been nominated in more categories than anyone in Grammy history.

"We make a lot of efforts to keep things fresh, from changing our set list every night to doing new material as often as possible, bringing in guests and playing with a lot of other people outside of the group," Fleck said. "All of those things help us to keep the thing exciting and spontaneous when we come together.

"You can get stale with anything if you do the same show every night and do the same songs. Trying to keep the creative energy flowing while on a tour where you're playing 25 days out of 30 is a challenge.

"You have to continue to throw things in there that force you to be aware and be alive and to respond in different ways than you did yesterday or you get stuck in a routine and it stops being fun."

Fleck has spent much of this year putting the finishing touches on a documentary he filmed with director Sascha Paladino in 2005, "Throw Down Your Heart," which found him performing with musicians in Africa, where the banjo was first created. As a banjo player, the filming hit close to home.

"Absolutely awesome," he said of the trip. "They're some of the greatest musical experiences I've ever had and luckily they're all on film. I'd like to share them and turn people on to some amazing music. If you know me and like what I like, come with me and I'll show you some awesome African acoustic music that's deep and wonderful.

"It's incredible, I have to say. It's one of the most ambitious things I've ever done."

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones performs Friday night at 7 and 9:30 at Fairfield University's Quick Center, 200 Barlow Road. For tickets ($45-$50), call 254-4010 or 1-877-278-7396 or visit www.quickcenter.com.