The power of Fear in action - Gore and the IPCC receive a Nobel Peace Prize. It's far from clear that ANY intervention will reverse a several degrees rise in the Earth's temperature. So, Gore and IPCC are getting a prize for raising fear, and getting people worked up to spend trillions of dollars to do next to nothing useful.

Quoted: The scientists and Mr. Gore take quite different approaches to the climate changes. The committee has been a measured, peer-reviewed, government-approved statement focused on the most non-controversial findings, whereas Mr. Gore rails against a “planetary emergency.”
...
Both messages — however imperfect — play their part, scientists said on Friday. The Nobel Prize “is honoring the science and the publicity, and they’re necessarily different,” said Spencer A. Weart, a historian at the American Institute of Physics and author of The Discovery of Global Warming, a recent book.

Quoted: In their autobiographies, Nobel Laureates reveal their reading habits: how they got started, who spurred them to read on, and where they spent their time losing themselves between the pages of a book. Find out and compare with your own experience, or simply get inspired!

The official site of the $20 million Google-Lunar-X-Prize. The are currently videos from the official launch with Sergey Brin and Peter Diamandis.

Quoted: A $20 million Grand Prize will be awarded to the team that can soft land a craft on the Moon that roams for at least 500 meters and transmits a Mooncast back to Earth. The Grand Prize is $20M until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15M until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE

The Auto XPrize draft is out - they are asking for public comment (by end of May).

The original XPrize (Space) seemed simpler to describe: put a vehicle in space (100km), capable of carrying 3 people, twice within 2 weeks.

This prize's goals seem more complex and do not capture the imagination as simply:

- 100 MPGe (gasoline equivalent energy)
- 200 g/mi CO2 emissions, production cost limits, CO2 emission caps for production.
- Fixed timeline for awarding the prize. The Space X-Prize was not on a set schedule (though may have had an expiration date). The Auto Prize will be awarded in 2009 according to the current proposal.
- Requiring a business plan for production and sale of the vehicle.
- Two classes: mainstream (4 person, 4 wheels), and l alternative (2 person ... would a motorcycle qualify?) The alternative class receives 25% of the total prize money.

Seems to me that on-board solar may be a big component in this prize - as it can provide "free" energy (will not count against MPG, and will have zero emissions). Another alternative could be human power. If you're carrying 4 people, you might as well have them all peddling!

Note that any fuel source can be used (e.g., liquid hydrogen, compressed hydrogen, compressed air, batteries, etc.). But the contest will count the "energy inputs" into the vehicle and convert to gasoline-equivalent energy. If you use compressed air, the AXP will "charge" you for the amount of electricity used to power your air compressor. Any "exotic" fuel (like hydrogen) - will have the burden of making the case the the infrastructure will be available to deliver the fuel to the mass market.

The controversial Templeton Prize. I am praying for Richard Dawkins to be a recipient (it would be a miracle).

Quoted: new concepts of divinity, new organizations, new and effective ways of communicating God's wisdom and infinite love, creation of new schools of thought, creation of new structures of understanding the relationship of the Creator to his ongoing creation of the universe, to the physical sciences, and the life sciences, and the human sciences, the releasing of new and vital impulses into old religious structures and forms.