Archives for August 2004

Flying Cars Reportedly Still Decades Away

By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer

SEATTLE – It’s a frustrated commuter’s escapist fantasy: literally lifting your car out of a clogged highway and soaring through the skies, landing just in time to motor into your driveway.

Researchers stress that the ultimate dream — an affordable, easy-to-use vehicle that could allow regular people to fly 200 miles to a meeting and also drive 15 miles to the mall — is still probably decades away.

But engineers at NASA (news – web sites), Boeing Co. and elsewhere say the basis for a flying car is there. People have been building, or trying to build, such vehicles for decades.

The problem is, those ideas have generally required both a lot of money and the skills of a trained pilot. And melding cars and planes hasn’t always been very successful.

“When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that’s hard to use,” said Mark Moore, who heads the personal air vehicle division of the vehicle systems program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

The goal isn’t just to create a neat gizmo: These vehicles will become more appealing — and necessary — as highways and airport hubs grow more clogged, and commutes more distant.

At NASA, the first goal is to transform small airplane travel. Right now, really small airplanes are generally costly, uncomfortable and loud and require months of training and lots of money to operate; that makes flying to work impractical for most people.

Within five years, NASA researchers hope to develop technology for a small airplane that can fly out of regional airports, costs less than $100,000, is as quiet as a motorcycle and as simple to operate as a car. Although it wouldn’t have any road-driving capabilities, it would give regular people the ability to fly short distances.

To make flying simpler, NASA is working on technologies that would automate more pilot’s functions.

In 10 years, NASA hopes to have created technology for going door-to-door. These still wouldn’t be full-fledged flying cars — instead, they’d be small planes that can drive very short distances on side streets, after landing at a nearby airport.

In 15 years, they hope to have the technology for larger vehicles, seating as many as four passengers, and the ability to make vertical takeoffs.

It will probably take years after these technologies are developed before such vehicles are actually on the market. And Moore says it will take about 25 years to get to anything “remotely ‘Jetsons’-like,'” a reference to the futuristic cartoon that fed many flying car fantasies.

Researchers at Boeing in Seattle are already thinking that far ahead: They’ve created a miniature model of a sporty red helicopter/car hybrid that is helping the aerospace giant understand what it would take to make flying cars a reality.

Lynne Wenberg, senior manager on the project, said the goal is to make a flying car that costs the same as a luxury vehicle, is quiet and fuel-efficient and easy to fly and maintain.

Boeing is especially interested in the broader problem of figuring out how to police the airways — and prevent total pandemonium — if thousands of flying cars enter the skies. No one wants to be cut off, tailgated or buzzed a little too closely by a student driver at 1,000 feet.

“The neat, gee-whiz part (is) thinking about what would the vehicle itself look like, but we’re trying to think through all the ramifications of what would it take to deploy a fleet of these,” said Dick Paul, a vice president with Phantom Works, Boeing’s research arm.

Smaller companies are working on flying car technology as well. Davis, Calif.-based Moller International has already built a prototype of its Skycar. The streamlined vehicle — think sports car meets the hovercraft Luke Skywalker drove in “Star Wars” — is designed to make vertical takeoffs, fly around 700 miles and drive short distances.

Jack Allison, who retired as a vice president at Moller but still works there regularly, said Skycars are expected to start at around $1 million and require pilot’s training. It’s not yet clear when they’ll be available, but Allison says demand is already there: More than 100 people have put down a $5,000 deposit.

While researchers are already working on some level of automation to make flying small planes easier, the ultimate goal would be to have a vehicle that is considerably smarter than what’s available today.

Ken Goodrich, a senior research engineer at NASA, said one concept under discussion is technology that runs in “h” mode, which stands for “horse.” The idea is that a horse, unlike a car, is more likely to try to avoid other objects and may even know how to find its way home.

But Goodrich said he’s not sure that the fantasy of the flying car ever would or should become a reality. He questioned whether having flying/driving vehicles throughout the country might end up being too noisy, disruptive and impractical.

“You’d have to look at all aspects of it, how it would integrate in greater society and affect our quality of life,” he said.

Argentina 89, United States 81

By CHRIS SHERIDAN, AP Basketball Writer

August 27, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Bronze is the best the American men can do in basketball, and the reason is simple: A hastily assembled assortment of NBA stars couldn’t beat a better team — Argentina.

Manu Ginobili scored 29 points to lead his nation to another victory over the country that used to dominate the sport, an 89-81 win in the Olympic semifinals Friday night.

For the first time since 1988, the gold medal will not go to the Americans.

And for the first time since pro players were added for the original Dream Team in 1992, the United States will not be the Olympic champion.

“We fought as hard as we could. We couldn’t get it done for whatever reason. They were a better team than us,” Allen Iverson said.

Argentina, with almost the same roster that made history in 2002 by becoming the first team to defeat a U.S. squad of NBA players, will compete for the gold medal against the winner of Friday’s late game between Lithuania and Italy. The U.S. team will play the loser for third place.

The Argentines were better passers, shooters and defenders than the Americans. They confronted them with a mixture of man-to-man and zone defenses, and confounded them with an assortment of back picks and deft passes that turned the start of the second half into a layup drill.

Argentina’s players celebrated wildly when the game ended, and the crowd yelled “Ole!”

U.S. coach Larry Brown walked over and gave a handshake and hug to his Argentine counterpart, Ruben Magnano, who played for Argentina against the first Dream Team in Barcelona.

“Our rival today was extremely tough, but in the few hours that passed between yesterday’s game and today’s, we realized that nothing was impossible,” Magnano said. “We had to go out there and attack them on an equal footing, go for them. That’s what we did, and that’s why we won.”

NBA commissioner David Stern attended the third loss of the Athens Games for the Americans, who entered the tournament with a 109-2 Olympic record.

Their 19-point loss to Puerto Rico in the opener was shocking, and their second defeat, to Lithuania, finally hammered home a message to the team’s young players that the level of competition was a whole lot better than they had imagined.

The U.S. team’s best effort came Thursday in a victory over previously undefeated Spain.

But just a day later, they went back to missing 3-point shots, lost Tim Duncan to foul trouble, didn’t get a breakout performance from any of their players and couldn’t make a sustained comeback after they fell behind by a double-digit margin.

The Americans gave Argentina credit, but the fact remained that a big part of the U.S. team’s loss was its fundamental weaknesses: a lack of familiarity with each other, poor defense and abysmal outside shooting.

It showed that the quarterfinal victory over Spain was an aberration, not an awakening.

“I don’t know if we’d have beaten them if Timmy had played 40 minutes — though I’d have liked to have had that chance,” Brown said. “Basketball has been getting better around the world because of what the Dream Team did in ’92, and rather than knocking our guys we should give credit to the guys who won.”

The results might have been different if the Americans had fielded a team of their best players, but injuries, indifference and insecurities left many of the best Americans — including Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Jason Kidd — back in the United States.

“In 1992, the USA had the best players ever. Here they are great players, too, but they are young and they never played internationally, so with different rules it’s a whole different thing,” said Ginobili, who also plays for the San Antonio Spurs. “The rest of the world is getting better and the States isn’t bringing their best players.”

Argentina shot 54 percent overall and 11-for-22 from 3-point range, while the Americans finished just 32-for-77 (42 percent) and 3-for-11 on 3s. After scoring 31 points against Spain, Stephon Marbury led the U.S. team with 18, and Duncan had just 10 while being limited to 19 1/2 minutes.

“You can’t just show up at a basketball game and feel that because you have USA across your chest you’re going to win the game,” Iverson said. “It means a lot to other teams out here to get a medal as well.”

The first half ended with Argentina ahead 43-38 after its big men outplayed the Americans and showed themselves capable of as much flair as anyone.

The half’s prettiest play came on the 3-on-1 break when Hugo Sconochini, one of the team’s elder statesmen, tossed a nifty behind-the-back pass to Alejandro Montecchia for a high-arching layup over Richard Jefferson that gave Argentina a 42-33 lead.

The Americans shot just 36 percent in the first half and didn’t hit their first 3-pointer — missing their first five — until LeBron James made one 30 seconds before halftime.

The third quarter began with Ginobili hitting a wide-open 3-pointer, Duncan picking up his third foul, Luis Scola, Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto getting inside for layups, and Marbury clanging a driving shot off the side of the backboard.

Suddenly, the Americans were down 53-40 and on the verge of having the game get away from them.

It soon did. Duncan was whistled for his fourth foul with 7:41 left in the third quarter, causing Brown to jump out of his chair and scream “NO!”

Next came a wide-open 3 from the right corner by Ginobili, and the lead was up to 16.

The Americans quickly got their deficit down to six, but Montecchia and Ruben Wolkowyski knocked down 3s, and Ginobili added a rare four-point play — just like the one from Lithuania’s Sarunas Jasikevicius that doomed the Americans in their opening-round loss — to make it 70-57 after three quarters.

The Americans trailed 76-65 with five minutes left when Duncan fouled out for hitting Ginobili with a hip check. The U.S. team went to a trap and a full-court press in an effort to climb back, but Argentina handled it with aplomb and didn’t let the Americans get closer than eight.

“For us to get an Olympic gold would be amazing, and tomorrow our soccer team and us will be playing for gold,” Ginobili said. “That could be the happiest time ever for us.”

Updated on Friday, Aug 27, 2004 4:58 pm EDT

I don’t understand why so many Americans are so happy about this team losing. They played without attitudes, tried hard and presented a respectful front. I would have preferred the Gold, who wouldn’t. But this team was not constructed for International play and we simply did not offer the best we had.



The rest of the world is catching up in talent. They still cannot beat our best, but we cannot get by on aura or luck either. I have no doubt that if Shaq, Kobe, Garnett and company had gone it would have been different.



But in the international game there is a need for great shooters too, so we could have sent some “lesser known” players and probably improved things too.



2008 will be a new day and a new story. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Russia crashes: Traces of explosives found

Friday, August 27, 2004 Posted: 7:04 AM EDT (1104 GMT)

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) — Traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of one of the two Russian passenger jets which crashed Tuesday, killing 89 people aboard, Russia’s top intelligence agency says.

The two planes crashed within minutes of each other Tuesday night after departing Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, killing all aboard.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) said the explosive traces were found in the wreckage of the Siberia Airlines Tupelov 154 — the second plane that crashed.

A hijack alert on the aircraft had been activated before it crashed, killing all 46 on board, Siberia Airlines said on its Web site. The aircraft was bound for the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The FSB also said it had found data at the Siberia Airlines crash site that could enable them to identify suspects involved in the attack.

The FSB confirmed that a Chechen woman was on board the Siberia Airlines flight, and no friends or relatives had come forward. Her remains have not been found.

She is the only passenger on the flight that has not been inquired after.

According to Russian media reports quoting security sources and Chechnya’s interior minister, a Chechen woman also boarded the first plane that crashed, a Volga-Avia Express Tupolev 134.

The Grozny resident, born in 1977, was the last passenger to board the Tu-134 and had purchased her ticket an hour before the flight departed.

No friends or relatives have inquired about her remains, which have also not been located, according to the media reports. She is also the only passenger on that flight that no one has claimed.

Through a spokesman, Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has denied any involvement in the plane crashes.

The crashes took place ahead of a regional election in the rebellious southern territory of Chechnya, where Russian troops have battled separatist guerrillas for the past five years.

Chechen separatists have been blamed for numerous bombings and other attacks in Russia in recent years, including the seizure of hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater that ended with more than 100 hostages dead.

Russian media report the tentative analysis of the Siberia Airlines wreckage shows the presence of hexogen, an element used by Chechens in past attacks.

The Tu-134 was en route to Volgograd when disappeared from radar at 10:56 p.m. (2:56 p.m. ET) Tuesday. Its wreckage was found about 100 miles (160 km) south of Moscow near Tula, according to Russia’s Emergency Ministry.

The Siberia Airlines plane was about 100 miles (160 km) from Rostov-on-Don when it dropped off radar screens at 10:59 p.m., the state news agency Novosti reported. Russian officials said the crash site spread over a 25 mile (40 km) radius.

The two crash sites were about 450 miles (725 km) apart.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had been vacation in Sochi when the planes crashed. He returned to Moscow on Wednesday.

— CNN Correspondent Paula Hancocks and Producer Max Tkachenko in Moscow contributed to this report

Again, no surprises here to me. On a side note there is word that Osama and company are interested in recruiting Chechens because they do not look like Middle Easterners and can blonde and blue-eyed.

Sweet Revenge May Be a Hard-Wired Reward

By Amanda Gardner 08/27/04 9:41 AM PT

According to the study, cooperation among humans is both unique and essential to human societies. The question is, why have people been willing to engage in altruistic punishment even if it can be costly to them personally?

Scientists have discovered that the sweetness of revenge may have a neurological basis.

A Swiss brain imaging study shows that punishing people when they behave unfairly activates the same reward circuitry of the brain that is fired up when sniffing cocaine or seeing a beautiful face. The findings, which appear in the Aug. 27 issue of Science, may partly explain the phenomenon of “altruistic punishment,” which is exacting revenge on behalf of a stranger.

“A lot of theoretical work in evolutionary biology and our previous experimental work suggest that altruistic punishment has been crucial for the evolution of cooperation in human societies,” said Ernst Fehr, the senior author of the study who is director of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zurich. “Our previous experiments show that if altruistic punishment is possible, cooperation flourishes. If we rule out altruistic punishment, cooperation breaks down.” Added John Hibbing, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln: “It [the new study] fits with research that has been done in recent years on the importance of punishment, not just that we cooperate automatically. The notion that a bad guy is going to get it is really important to humans.”

Cooperation Among Humans

According to the study, cooperation among humans is both unique and essential to human societies. The question is, why have people been willing to engage in altruistic punishment even if it can be costly to them personally?

The study is one of the first to use brain imaging to investigate the phenomenon. As Fehr explained his research, the male participants were each given $10. Person A could either keep his $10 or give it to Person B. If he gave it to B, B would actually receive $40 for a total of $50. Person B could now either reciprocate by giving the money back to A, or giving back just half the amount.

If B acted selfishly by choosing not to reciprocate, then A could decide to punish him. Most players chose to impose punishment, even though it cost them some of their own money. Using Positron Emission Tomography (PET), the researchers scanned the brain activity of the volunteers while they were making the decision to punish or not.

Brain Regions for Satisfaction

As it turned out, the decision to punish activated the caudate nucleus, a region of the brain involved in experiencing pleasure or satisfaction, Fehr said. Although the study volunteers were engaging in “regular” revenge, the authors think the findings could be extrapolated to altruistic punishment.

There are a number of implications to the findings. One is a more constructive way of viewing revenge.

“The twist is a positive sense of punishing someone, as opposed to a negative sense of ‘I’ve been screwed.’ That’s new,” Hibbing said.

Proactive and Reactive Emotions

“Emotions are not just reactive. They can be proactive,” said Brian Knutson, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University, and author of an accompanying perspective piece in the journal. “They can actually focus and drive behavior. People don’t often think about emotions that way.” The very idea that emotions, not cold-calculated reason, are driving revenge is a novel one, Knutson said.

Finally, the anticipation of exacting revenge can be motivating. Just think about Dirty Harry, the screen cop made famous by Clint Eastwood.

“Go ahead, make my day,” Dirty Harry says to a hostage-taker in the 1983 film “Sudden Impact.” “Clint could walk out of there and be fine. He’s informing us that he will derive satisfaction from punishing them,” Knutson explained.

The guy drops his weapon. Dirty Harry is shipped out of town for playing too fast and too loose. But that’s another story.

People are so very interesting to me. I kind of enjoyed this.

If I ever have the chance I’d love to wear the rubber suit and stomp all over a minature Tokyo. Just think, I could be a star in a poorly dubbed B Movie. Better yet, I could be a star in some Kung-Fu flick.



And if you are really curious what the real story is, here is a little tease for you:



TOKYO – Japan’s capital has a 90 percent chance of being devastated by a major earthquake some time in the next 50 years, according to a study by a government panel.

The study, released earlier this week, marked the latest attempt by scientists to address one of this quake-prone country’s most pressing concerns: when the next “Big One” would level one of the world’s most densely populated cities.

Tokyo was last hit by a destructive quake in 1923 that toppled buildings, set the city aflame and killed at least 140,000 people — and experts warn it’s overdue for another.

Use the link above for the full story.

I wasn’t really sure what to title this post, primarily because it is really a stream of consciousness type piece. I am just kind of going with the flow of my mind and we’ll see where it takes me. Pretty scary stuff. 🙂

When I was younger, roughly in my teens I used to wonder what my parents were like before they had me. What kind of people were they? I tried to imagine them as children, teens and college students who didn’t have children. Without responsibilities were they at all like me? Were they as wild and crazy? Were they stiff and nerdy? Were they somewhere in between?

I heard the word “no” quite a bit. Not because they were overprotective, I don’t think of them at all like that. But because I was headstrong, defiant, impulsive and at times fearless. Ok, some of the readers who know me well are laughing because that still describes me.

But I couldn’t help wondering how much they hid. It always seemed to me that they kept a piece of themselves back. And as I have gotten older I have learned a few things here and there. There were family events that they didn’t tell us about or things that were stressful that they didn’t mention. And I appreciate it. They weren’t things that we needed to know and my parents tried hard to let us be children. Which is something I want for my children.

Which gets to the point of this. I wonder how my children will remember me. I wonder if they will have any sense of the boy/man that walked the Earth before they arrived. There are many stories from my past that they are not allowed to hear until they are somewhere around 25-30. I am not embarrassed by them, but they are things that are not appropriate for young children to hear. And certainly there are a host of “activities” that I don’t want them engaging in or considering just because they know that “dear old dad” got away with being stupid.

So I guess that I am wondering if they’ll think of me the way I think of my parents. I don’t know.

All I know is that I do the best I can for them and they have my promise that I will do that until I die. Which is another topic, some people are very afraid of death. I am not. I don’t want to die. I expect to live to about 130, maybe even 150. Good genes in my family and a refusal to die give me hope that it is possible.

But seriously, I look at the children and I know that there are things that I have already passed along. My son has my body, particularly my hands and feet. It is kind of weird to see compare, but I see his hands and remember what mine looked like as a child. No scars, no calluses, just a child’s hand. Yet when you compare our hands it is so easy to see that they appear to be almost identical.

Maybe my grandchildren will have my hands or feet. I don’t know.

My son’s speech pattern is already similar to mine, We use similar expressions and his mother tells me that when he and I get frustrated it is like looking at “mini-me.”

But he is also very different from me and that makes me glad. I want him to be a mensch. I want him to have character and integrity, but he should be his own person too. I wonder sometimes if my father/mother had as much joy in watching me play as I do when I watch him. Such joy cannot be bottled up. I warned him that when he is 15 I will still hug and kiss him in public.

And my daughter, well at 30+ days it is too hard to say much about my little princess other than she is a doll. I wonder what the years will bring for all of us.