ABOUT A.P.J ABDUL KALAM

          A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
    

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam  (born 15 October 1931) usually referred to as A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, is a renowned aerospace engineer, professor (of Aerospace engineering), and first Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram (IIST), who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. During his term as President, he was popularly known as the People's President. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor in 1997.

Before his term as India's president, he worked as an aerospace engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology. Kalam played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. Dr. Kalam has even been circled with various controversies as many scientific experts called him a man with no authority over "nuclear physics" and a man who just carried the works of Dr. Homi Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. 

He is currently the a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Chancellor of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai), a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Indore, and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.

In May 2011, Dr. Kalam launched his mission for the youth of the nation called the What Can I Give Movement.Dr. Kalam better known as a scientist, also has special interest in the field of arts like writing Tamil poems, and also playing the music instrument Veenai.

Early life and education
Kalam see the world without fear.He spent most of his childhood running into financial problems and started working at an early age to supplement his family's income.Kalam was brought up in a multi-religious, tolerant society, with Kalam strictly following his religious routine. Kalam, as a child, had a tough routine - he would start his day by getting up at 4:00 am; study and review his homework before going to school to attend the mathematics class as his first class of the day.After completing school, Kalam along with his cousin Samsuddin Kalam distributed papers in order to financially contribute to his father's income. In his school years, Kalam was described as a mediocre student who had average grades in his class, but a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn.[8] Kalam spent hours on his studies, especially in mathematics, and his teachers always regarded him as a student who made an effort in his studies.

After completing his school education, Kalam went onto to attend the Saint Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli where he graduated in Physics in 1954 but towards the end he was not enthusiastic about seeing himself as a physicist.Kalam soon discovered aerospace engineering at Madras, and he regretted the loss of the four years spent in physics.In 1955, Kalam moved to Madras and began taking courses on Aerospace engineering.While Kalam was working on a senior class project, the Dean of the Engineering came by to see Kalam's progress.The Dean was dissatisfied with Kalam's progress and said that his scholarship would be revoked if the project wasn't finished within the next two days. Kalam worked tirelessly on his project, and met the deadline. His tireless effort impressed the Dean who said, "It was a test, and under extreme stress, Kalam met a difficult deadline to complete the project".

In 1957, Kalam gained B.Sc. in Aerospace engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology.Kalam later obtained advanced master's and doctorate degree in his respected field from the same institution.

Career as scientist
After graduation from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT - Chennai) in 1960, Kalam joined Aeronautical Development Establishment of DRDO as a chief scientist. There, Kalam started his career by designing a small helicopter for the Indian Army, but remained unconvinced with the choice of his job.Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR commitee working under Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he was the project-director of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III). Joining ISRO was one of Kalam's biggest achievements in life and is said to have found himself when he started to work on the SLV project. However, Kalam first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965. In 1969, Kalam received the government's approval and expanded the program to many engineers. In 1979, the first maiden flight of this project was made and in 1980, country's first satellite Rohini was launched with this rocket.

From 1970s and 1990s, Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar SLV and SLV-III project which proved to be successful. In 1974, Kalam was shifted to the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL), a subsidiary of DRDO. Kalam was invited to witnessed the country's first nuclear test, Smiling Buddha as the representative of TBRL, even though he had not participated in developing or even taken part in the test site preparations or weapon designing. Kalam arrived at the test site on the invitation of Dr. Raja Ramanna. In 1970s, a landmark was passed when ISRO first launched into space the locally built Rohini-1, using the SLV rocket.In the 1970s, Kalam also directed the Project Devil and Project Valiant to developed the ballistic missiles from the technology of Kalam's successful SLV programme. Despite the disapproval of Union Cabinet, Premier Indira Gandhi allotted secret funds for these aerospace projects through her discretionary powers under Kalam's directorship. Kalam played an integral role convincing the Union Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects.

His research and educational leadership brought him great laurels and prestige in 1980s, which prompted the government to initiate an advanced missile program under his directorship. As Chief Executive of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P), he played a major part in developing many missiles in India including Agni and Prithvi although the entire project has been criticized for being overrun and mismanaged.He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defense Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999. The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period where he played an intensive political and technological role. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator, along with R. Chidambaram during the testing phase. Photos and snapshots of him taken by the Media elevated Kalam as the country's top nuclear scientist although Kalam was not directly involved with the nuclear program at the time.

Future India: 
2020In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a knowledge superpower and a developed nation by the year 2020. He regards his work on India's nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower.

It has been reported that there is a considerable demand in South Korea for translated versions of books authored by him.

Kalam continues to take an active interest in other developments in the field of science and technology. He has proposed a research program for developing bio-implants. He is a supporter of Open Source over proprietary solutions and believes that the use of free software on a large scale will bring the benefits of information technology to more people.

Kalam observes strict personal discipline, vegetarianism, teetotalism and celibacy. Kalam is a scholar of Thirukkural; in most of his speeches, he quotes at least one kural. Kalam has written several inspirational books, most notably his autobiography Wings of Fire, aimed at motivating Indian youth. Another of his books, Guiding Souls: Dialogues on the Purpose of Life reveals his spiritual side. He has written poems in Tamil as well. It has been reported that there is considerable demand in South Korea for translated versions of books authored by him.

Dr. Kalam received an honorary doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University.

With the death of R. Venkataraman on January 27, 2009, Kalam became the only surviving former President of India.

Ten Least Crowded Places in the World-->

Greenland:-

An indigenous walrus-hunting camp brings signs of life to sparse slopes in Greenland. The self-governing Danish island is among the least densely populated major areas on Earth, according to the United Nations-a stark contrast to the boom cities that reportedly helped to drive Earth's population to seven billion on Monday.

Three times the size of Texas, Greenland is mostly covered by Earth's second largest ice cap. Not surprisingly, its 58,000 inhabitants cluster in coastal communities. "It's not likely that population will expand dramatically until there is more trade and international exchange," said Patrick Gerland, a population expert with the UN.

Some tourists, however, are beginning to seek out the planet's less populated spots—including Greenland.

Falkland Islands:-

A wandering albatross has plenty of room to spread its wings in the Falkland Islands (map), a U.K. territory off South America that has housed a British naval garrison since 1833. With slightly less land than Connecticut, the archipelago is home to only about 3,000 people.

"Populations like the Falklands are in some ways artificial and sustained because of their relationships to a far away mainland," the UN's Gerlans said.

About ten times as many people visit the islands each year as live in the Falklands—a popular ecotourism stop, particularly for Antarctica-bound cruises, the Center for Sustainable Destinations' Tourtellot said. "It's a very interesting place, with wildlife and a beautiful landscape and a kind of odd little British society on an island that's so far away from everything else."

Mongolia:-

With roughly three million people living in a country nearly the size of Alaska,Mongolia averages fewer than two people per square kilometer (about half a square mile), according to UN statistics.

Most of that population is in urban areas, since development in Mongolia's vast deserts and grazing lands is hindered in part by drought and dust storms, leaving those parts of the country nearly as empty as they were in Genghis Khan's time.

"Mongolia, in a way, is hot as an adventure destination," Tourtellot said of a nation struggling to embrace tourism while developing other industries. "They are doing a lot of mining, so there is some concern about protecting what is otherwise a beautiful landscape and a place with some fantastic archaeological sites as well."

Western Sahara:-

Green fields such as these near Laayoune are a rarity in Africa's Western Sahara (map) region. Only 0.02 percent of the land is arable in this former Spanish territory, which has been disputed since the 1970s and remains split between the government of Morocco and the Polisario Front.

Similar in size to Colorado, the Western Sahara is home to only about half a million people, largely clustered on the coast.

"If you look at the geographic conditions there, it's mostly desert, and some of the people living there can [also] be found in neighboring countries like Algeria, because a substantial number are nomads," the UN's Gerland said.

Adventure travelers may enjoy 4x4 desert driving as well as windsurfing and kite surfing along the coast. But the area offers little in the way of mainstream tourist infrastructure. What's more, the bitter fruits of long conflict—including land mines and the threat of terrorism—have kept most travelers away, the Center for Sustainable Destinations' Tourtellot said.

French Guiana:-

Squirrel monkeys may be more numerous than people in French Guiana. The French overseas territory is about the size of South Carolina yet harbors fewer than 200,000 people—only about two and a half for every square kilometer, according to UN averages.

Communities along the South American country's northern coast house most of its people as well as some very modern infrastructure-including a European Space Agency rocket-launch site.

But French Guiana is "mostly tropical forests," the UN's Gerland said. "And there are still some native peoples living in remote locations. It's not easy to improve infrastructure in Guiana, because of this landscape."

Namibia:-

The desert is reclaiming buildings in Kolmanskop, a Namibian ghost town that was once home to a working diamond mine

Namibia is about the size of Texas and Louisiana combined and home to about 2.1 million people, but vast stretches of its arid landscape are extremely uncrowded.

"Namibia is primarily a desert country, and like many of those on this list, it has its environmental challenges," the UN's Gerland said.

Still, the country features an enlightened approach to natural resources and was the first in the world to mandate environmental protection in its constitution, the Center for Sustainable Destinations' Tourtellot said. "They have an excellent reputation in terms of sustainable tourism, or ecotourism, and cultural tourism"—with an emphasis on adventure, including safaris and indigenous experiences.

Iceland:-

With no ice in sight, swimmers enjoy the Mývatn Nature Baths, warmed byIceland's vast volcanic underground. The island country is about the size ofKentucky but home to roughly 300,000 people-in part because glaciers cover more land here than in all of mainland Europe.

Iceland is home to a relatively homogenous population with few significant recent migrations, the UN's Gerland said. "In recent decades it has also stood out in Europe as one of the places where people live to a very old age"—echoing a global trend toward graying populations, according to the UN.

Population densities here are only about three people per square kilometer, according to UN stats, but the Center for Sustainable Destinations' Tourtellot said the beautiful summer season is a bit busier.

"The center of Iceland is uninhabited, but in the summer you'll see a lot of hikers and people driving on four-wheel-drive tracks. A lot of Europeans enjoy adventure tourism in Iceland during the summer," he said. "It's a very wild and interesting place."

Suriname:-

Along a creek in South America's Suriname, otters have stripped the vegetation from this site to mark their territory—and humans are unlikely to trespass.

Giant otters are just part of the wild diversity of plants and animals found in the uninhabited tropical rain forest that covers most of this former Dutch colony, which is about the size of the U.S. state of Georgia and home to fewer than half a million people.

Suriname is trying to leverage its vast natural advantages for a growing rain forest ecotourism sector, Tourtellot said. But those same resources also fuel industries such as logging and mining in the interior.

"As you often find in rain forest areas, ecotourism versus deforestation has become a part of the dynamic," he said.

Australia:-

Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park in Tasmania is one of many Australian areas well-protected from human pressures.

Australia is almost the size of the U.S.'s lower 48 states, and there's certainly no shortage of people living in the country—almost 22 million to be exact. But most Australians live in the coastal communities that ring a massive and relatively empty interior.

"If you look at Australia in terms of where people are living, it's basically concentrated where you have water. And there just isn't as much of that resource available inland," the UN's Gerland said.

Still, the outback does offer outsized opportunities for tourists, the Center for Sustainable Destinations' Tourtellot said. "There're the sheep stations, the ranching culture, the desert ecology, and the aboriginal culture as well—which is getting much more involved in tourism."

Mauritania:-

Camels compete for a meal at a former oasis—now overtaken by desert—inMauritania. Also eager for water, most of the country's 3.2 million people live in cities or along the Senegal River, though there is a population of traditional desert nomads, said the UN's Gerland.

"Because of the environmental challenges many sparsely inhabited places have faced over the centuries, life was very, very tough until a generation or so ago," he added. "And it's still not easy in many of them, although there have been some modern improvements in terms of nutrition, health, and better access to resources."

Mauritania's tourist sites—including enormous sand seas, ancient cities, and empty coastlines—have taken a major hit in recent years due to safety concerns in the wake of terrorist attacks on travelers.

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"Gorgeous" Dinosaur Nest Found Full of Babies-->

"Breathtaking" Nest:-

A nest full of fossilized dinosaur babies has been discovered in Mongolia, and the find has paleontologists reexamining styles of parental care among the ancient reptiles.

The approximately 75-million-year-old nest shows 15 juvenile members ofProtoceratops andrewsi—a relative of Triceratops—entombed in ancient sand dune deposits. The nest was recently discovered by Mongolian paleontologist Pagmin Narmandakh in the region's Djadokhta formation.

The 2.3-foot-wide (0.7-meter-wide) nest is breathtaking, according to David Fastovsky, a co-author on a paper about the dinosaur nest published in the November edition of the Journal of Paleontology.

Unlike other dinosaur nests found with fossil eggs, the babies in this nest appear to have been about a year old when they died.

Protoceratops:-

Above, a reconstruction of a previously found Protoceratops andrewsi fossil shows the herbivore's distinctive head frill and beaklike mouth. Protoceratops is a primitive member of Ceratopsia, the dinosaur group that includes Triceratops.Adults could grow to around six feet (two meters) long.

Crowded Nest:-

The fossil dinosaurs huddle together in the ancient nest.

Scientists once believed that dinosaurs generally followed a crocodile-like model of child care—they would lay their eggs and leave their nests for good. This idea was replaced by the view that dinosaurs raised their young for a time after hatching, the way many birds do.

Now, Fastovsky explained, people understand that the ancient reptiles had parenting styles unlike those of any animals alive today.

Fifteen babies, as seen in the newfound fossil nest, is an unusually large number of offspring for any animal to nurture at once, Fastovsky said. Modern animals tend to have a few young, in which they invest heavily, like humans, or they have a "zillion babies" and show no parental care, like mosquitoes.

                                                       "So these [dinosaurs] seem to be something else."

Sandy Death:-

As seen above, all of the young Protoceratops in the newfound nest are facing the same direction, giving scientists a clue to how they died.

"Our scenario is that these things were pointed away from the wind as it was blowing during a sand storm, and then they were catastrophically buried by an encroaching dune,

"I think in this particular case, it really was dramatic—this fossil really records the last, bug-eyed, terrified minutes of their little lives."

Beaked Baby:-

As seen above, all of the young Protoceratops in the newfound nest are facing the same direction, giving scientists a clue to how they died.

"Our scenario is that these things were pointed away from the wind as it was blowing during a sand storm, and then they were catastrophically buried by an encroaching dune," Fastovsky said.

"I think in this particular case, it really was dramatic—this fossil really records the last, bug-eyed, terrified minutes of their little lives."

Last Looks:-

A side view shows the jumble of bones in the fossil dinosaur nest. Overall, the newfound nest is "an amazing, beautiful, gorgeous fossil," 

"I think there's room in the world for really amazing fossils [like this one] to really bring home to people the significance of ancient life on Earth."

worlds TOP 10 discoveries of 2011-->>

1. Area 51 Plane Crash Revealed:-

Suspended upside down, a titanium A-12 spy-plane prototype is prepped for radar testing at Area 51 in the late 1950s.

After a rash of declassifications, details of Cold War workings at the Nevada base, which to this day does not officially exist, are coming to light—including never before released images of an A-12 crash and its cover-up, National Geographic News reported in May.

Area 51 was created so that U.S. Cold Warriors with the highest security clearances could pursue cutting-edge aeronautical projects away from prying eyes. During the 1950s and '60s, Area 51's top-secret OXCART program developed the A-12 as the successor to the U-2 spy plane.

2. Rare "Cyclops" Shark Found:-

An extremely rare cyclops shark has been confirmed in Mexico, scientists announced in October.

The 22-inch-long (56-centimeter-long) fetus has a single, functioning eye at the front of its head. The eye is a hallmark of a congenital condition called cyclopia, which occurs in several animal species, including humans. (See "Cyclops Myth Spurred by 'One-Eyed' Fossils?")

Scientists have documented cyclops shark embryos a few times before, saidJim Gelsleichter, a shark biologist at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The fact that none have been caught outside the womb suggests cyclops sharks don't survive long in the wild.

3. Yellowstone's Supervolcano Bulged:-

Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano recently took a deep "breath," causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists reported in January.

The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years.

Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25-by-37-mile (40-by-60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago. 

4. Biggest Crocodile Caught? :-

Caught alive after a three-week hunt, a roughly 21-foot-long (6.4-meter-long)saltwater crocodile caught in the Philippines may be the largest crocodile yet captured, officials said in September.

The 2,369-pound (1,075-kilogram) crocodile is suspected of attacking several people and killing two. The animal, named Lolong, survived capture and was held in a temporary enclosure near Bunawan township (map).

Guinness World Records in September listed a 17.97-foot-long (5.48-meter-long), Australian-caught saltwater crocodile as the largest in captivity. According to zoologist Adam Britton, Guinness rules specify that Lolong will need to wait till at least March 2012 for a shot at the "official" record.

5. New Fungi Make "Zombie" Ants:-

A stalk of the newfound fungus species Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzanigrows out of a "zombie" ant's head in a Brazilian rain forest.

Originally thought to be a single species, called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the fungus is actually four distinct species—all of which can "mind control" ants—scientists announced in March.

The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.

6. Biggest Great White Shark Caught:-

Talk about a big fish: An expedition crew hauled up—and released—the biggestgreat white shark yet caught, a team said in May.

The 17.9-foot-long (5.5-meter-long) male behemoth was found off Mexico'sGuadalupe Island (map) in fall 2009.

The animal breaks the team's previous record of 16.8 feet (5.1 meters), set when they caught a female great white named Kimel. (Both records are unofficial and not maintained by a formal organization.)

7. Planet at Right Distance for Life:-

A possible Earth twin was confirmed orbiting a sunlike star 600 light-years away—and the new planet may be in just the right spot for supporting life, NASAannounced in December.

Discovered by the Kepler space mission, the new planet—dubbed Kepler-22b—is the first world smaller than Neptune mission scientists have found in the middle of its star's habitable zone.

Also called the Goldilocks zone, the habitable zone is the region around a star where a planet's surface is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water—and thus life as we know it—to exist.

8. Lost Maya City Revealed:-

Archaeologist Brigitte Kovacevich crouches near a looters' tunnel inside the pyramid at the Head of Stone, an ancient Maya city that's finally coming into focus.

Three-dimensional mapping "erased" centuries of Guatemalan jungle growth, revealing the rough contours of nearly a hundred buildings, according to research presented in April. (See National Geographic pictures of excavated Maya cities.)

Using GPS and electronic distance-measurement technology, the researchers plotted the locations and elevations of a seven-story-tall pyramid, an astronomical observatory, a ritual ball court, several stone residences, and other structures.

9. Blackbeard's Sword Uncovered? :-

Could this partly gilded hilt have held Blackbeard's sword? There's no way to know for sure, though it was found amid the North Carolina wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the infamous 18th-century pirate.

Since 1997, archaeologists have been excavating the Queen Anne's Revenge. The sword hilt—found in pieces but reassembled for this picture—was among the latest finds revealed to the public in January

10. Possible Earthlike Planet Spotted:-

A new planet found about 36 light-years away could be one of the most Earthlike worlds yet—if it has enough clouds. The rocky planet's discovery became the tenth most visited National Geographic News story of 2011.

The unpoetically named HD85512b was discovered orbiting in the habitable zone of an orange dwarf star in the constellation Vela, according to an August study.

Astronomers found the planet using the European Southern Observatory's High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, instrument in Chile.

Cars Capture Solar Energy in Chilean Desert-->

A Wedge in the Desert:-

Turning the energy of the sun into motion is an idea that long has captured the human imagination. Of course, the sails on boats capture the form of solar energy known as wind. But to make a car move on sunlight requires a wide, flat surface on which photovoltaic (PV) panels can work their magic. As a result, solar cars are as striking in appearance as the energy efficiency they can achiev.

A View of the Future:-

A driver peers over the solar-paneled hood of Antakari's car before the starting signal of stage two in Antofagasta. The team named its car Intikalpa, which translates roughly to "solar energy" in the Quechua language. Winners were identified based on average speed and distance traveled independently—without towing—in each of the race's three stages. The prize for first place was 15 million pesos (about $29,000 or 22,300 euros).

A second Chilean team, Los Andes Solar, took the top prize ($9,000 or about 6,700 euros) in the hybrid category with a model named Condor 1, which averaged 60 km/h (37 mph). 

The 11 teams from Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Chile qualified out of an initial pool of 30 teams. Two raced in the high-stakes all-solar category, while the rest participated in La Ruta Solar, a category for three-wheeled hybrids using solar power and pedal-based propulsion.

Four Wheels, Free Fuel:-

An entry in the hybrid category from Argentina races through Calama during the final stage of the three-day race. Called La Ruta Solar, the hybrid portion of the Atacama Solar Challenge limited spending to $7,000. 

Solar car competitions have been around for decades. Australia has hosted the 3,000-kilometer (1,864-mile) World Solar Challenge every two years since 1983. In October, the winning team from Japan's Tokai University completed the cross-continent course in less than 33 hours with an average speed of 91.54 km/h (56.9 mph).

On the other side of the globe, the race now known as the American Solar Challenge got its start in 1990 when the reigning World Solar champ, General Motors, organized an 11-day, 1,600-mile (2,575-kilometer) solar car competition from Disney World in Florida to GM's Technical Center outside Detroit. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory hosts the Junior Solar Sprint/Hydrogen Fuel Cell (JSS/HFC) Car Competition for middle school students.

And solar cars are among the entries in the annual Shell Eco-Marathon student competitions in the United States, Europe, and Asia, where the goal is to produce the most fuel-efficient vehicle possible. The results in that competition underscore the efficiency advantage of electric motors, especially coupled with fuel from the sun. The winning solar entry in the Shell competition in Houston last spring achieved mileage of 90 miles per kilowatt-hour. Because one gallon (3.79 liters) of gasoline has energy equivalent to 33.7 kilowatt-hours, that means the result was equivalent to fuel economy of 3,033 mpg (1,290 km/l).

Preparing for Take-Off:-

The jet-like profile of Universidad de Chile's Eolian 2 appears in Calama during the second stage of the Atacama Solar Challenge.

History is still in the making when it comes to solar powered cars, as teams design faster models capable of higher speeds. Indeed, several vehicles from the Atacama race look like space-age machines the Jetsons might drive. Others, rolling on bicycle tires sheltered under square roofs, resemble squashed surreys—with the addition of advanced photovoltaics to capture energy from the blazing sun in the driest place on earth.

In March, Fundacion Chile, a non-profit, government-backed technology incubator, held a competition for gear to help Chilean teams build cars for the race. The kits, awarded to four teams, included an electric motor, lithium ion batteries, and solar panels. 

Waiting for a Fill-Up:-

No need to worry about finding a gas station on these desolate roads. This car fuels up on sunshine while members of Universidad de Chile's team ready Eolian 2 for stage two of the Atacama Solar Challenge in Antofagasta.

The car's name references eolian processes, through which winds erode, transport, and deposit materials to shape the earth's surface—especially in arid environments.

The first version of the Eolian car competed in 2007 at the World Solar Challenge in Australia. At this year's edition of the race, the second-generation sleek design was the only entry from a Latin American country. Although Eolian 2 placed 22nd in a field of 37 in the Outback, the car finished second in the Atacama Desert.

Biting Into Fuel Demand:-

A three-wheeled model from Chile's Sol Invictus team competes in the final stage of the Atacama Solar Challenge driving a car named Barracuda. The car was named for its resemblance to the fearsome fish known for its toothy under bite.

Lightweight and Light-Powered:-

The froglike Sol Caribe model from Puerto Rico takes part in the Atacama Solar Challenge in Calama during the final stage of the tour. Built by undergraduate engineering students at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico within a $3,000 budget, the car weighed 150 kilograms (about 330 pounds) and won the award for best city car design.

According to the university, Sol Caribe's rooftop solar panels were designed to provide 80 percent of energy required to drive the car. The driver uses pedals and an 18-speed transmission to provide the remaining 20 percent. Together, human and solar power affords a top speed of 38 miles per hour.

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About " FLORIDA EVERGLADES "-->

The Everglades, also referred to as the “River of Grass,” stretches across some 7,800 square miles (20,100 square kilometers) of Florida—an area similar to the size of Massachusetts.

Home to gators, mangroves, and the Florida panther, the Everglades is one of the world’s great wetlands, but human hands have been heavy in draining and developing the region. Perhaps only 2 percent of the original ecosystem is completely intact. Up to 50 percent of the world’s wetlands have similarly disappeared.

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End of World in 2012? Maya "Doomsday" Calendar Explained-->

Monument text's "poetic flourish" confuses modern minds, experts say....

A painting of everyday life in a Maya village...

It's remotely possible the world will end in December 2012. But don't credit the ancient Maya calendar for predicting it, say experts on the Mesoamerican culture.

It's true that the so-called long-count calendar—which spans roughly 5,125 years starting in 3114 B.C.—reaches the end of a cycle on December 21, 2012.

That day brings to a close the 13th Bak'tun, an almost 400-year period in the Maya long-count calendar.

But rather than moving to the next Bak'tun, the calendar will reset at the end of the 13th cycle, akin to the way a 1960s automobile would click over at mile 99,999.9 and reset to zero.

"We, of course, know that really means a hundred thousand [miles] and not zero," said William Saturno, an expert on Maya archaeology at Boston University.

"So, is [the end of Bak'tun 13] a large period ending? Yes. Did the Maya like period endings? Yes," Saturno said.

"Would this have been a period ending they thought was wicked cool? You bet. The biggest period endings they experience are Bak'tun endings."

But "was it predicted to be the end the world? No. That's just us."

Instead, for the Maya, the end of the long count represents the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one, according to Emiliano Gallaga Murrieta, the Chiapas state division director of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.

"It is like for the Chinese, this is the Year of the [Rabbit], and the next year is going to the Year of the Dragon, and the next is going to be another animal in the calendar," Gallaga said.

Maya Prophecy for End of the World?

Written references to the end of Bak'tun 13 are few. In fact, most Maya scholars cite only one: a stone tablet on Monument 6 at the Tortuguero archaeological site in Mexico's Tabasco state. 

What exactly the tablet says, though, is a mystery, because the glyphs in question are partially damaged.

Nevertheless, scholars have taken several stabs at translations, the most prominent in 1996 by Brown University's Stephen Houston and the University of Texas at Austin's David Stuart.

Houston and Stuart's initial interpretation indicated that a god will descend at the end of Bak'tun 13. What would happen next is uncertain, although the scholars suggested this might have been a prophecy of some sort.

This 1996 analysis was picked up "on many New Age websites, associated forum discussions, and even a few book chapters" as evidence that the Maya calendar had predicted the end of the world, according to Stuart.

Houston and Stuart, however, independently revisited the glyphs recently and concluded that the inscription may actually contain no prophetic statements about 2012 at all.

Rather, the mention of the end of Bak'tun 13 is likely a forward-looking statement that refers back to the main subject of the inscription, which is the dedication of Monument 6.

In an October blog post about his conclusions, Stuart makes an analogy to a scribe wanting to immortalize the New York Yankees' 1950 sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies in that year's World Series.

If this writer were to use the Maya rhetorical device thought to be in Monument 6's inscription, the text might read:

"On October 7, 1950, the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series. It happened 29 years after the first Yankees victory in the World Series in 1921. And so 50 years before the year 2000 will occur, the Yankees won the World Series."

Written this way, Stuart notes, the text mentions a future time of historical importance—the 50-year anniversary of the victory—but it does so in reference to the event at hand, i.e., the 1950 game.

"This is precisely how many ancient Maya texts are structured, including Tortuguero's Monument 6," Stuart writes.

2012 Apocalypse Just Poetic Flourish

According to INAH's Gallaga, this structure of Maya texts is what has confused modern minds, given our penchant for literal, straightforward reading.

Even if the Monument 6 inscription refers to a god coming down at the end of Bak'tun 13, it isn't a statement about the end of the world, he said.

"They are writing in a more poetic sense, saying, Well, on the 21st of December 2012, the god is going to come down and start a new cycle and the old world is going to die and the new world is going to be reborn—just to make it more poetic."

Saturno, the Boston University archaeologist, agreed that the reference to a specific date is clear in Monument 6, but added that "there's no text that follows and says, Herein will be the end of the world, and the world will end in fire. ... That's not anywhere in the text."

Rather, Saturno said, the hype around 2012 stems from dissatisfied Westerners looking to the ancients for guidance, hoping that peoples such as the Maya knew something then that could help us through difficult times now.

In any case, even if the ancient inscriptions explicitly predicted the end of the world, Saturno wouldn't be worried, given the Maya track record with long-range prophecy.

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