Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 15: Coming HomeIn this final chapter of "A World of Conflict," Kevin Sites returns home to the U.S., only to confirm what he suspected -- that in the year that he was gone little had changed.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 14: Israel-Hezbollah WarThe war between Israel and Hezbollah shook the landscape in the Middle East.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 13: Sri LankaKevin Sites covered Sri Lanka as violence erupted between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, pushing a nation with so much to lose back to the brink of all-out war. In rebel-held territory Sites interviewed Tiger fighters about their tactics and reported on the many effects of war still seen in the region.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 12: Nepal and KashmirKevin Sites covered Nepal during a time of sweeping political change that followed mass nationwide protests, forcing the autocratic King to cede power.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 11: Child BrideIn Afghanistan, Kevin Sites met a 12-year-old girl named Gulsoma, whose incredible story of resilience resonated with millions of people worldwide. She was only six years old when she was sold to a neighbor family in Kandahar as a child bride.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 10: AfghanistanReporting from Afghanistan in spring 2006, more than four years after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban, Kevin Sites found that war is not over in the country.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Nine: ChechnyaIn Chechnya during the winter of 2005-2006, Kevin Sites reported on a region still reeling from lingering conflict between Russia and Islamic separatists. The conflict engulfed Chechnya in the 1990s, and even now, half of the population is yet to return. Those that have eke out a living amid the rubble.
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Eight: Iran
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Seven: IsraelIn Israel, Kevin Sites interviewed Kinneret Boosany, a victim of a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv cafe in 2002.
OAKLAND, California -- At Pacific Coast Brewing here, brewer Donald Gortemiller is reworking his recipes and altering his brewing styles like never before.
Gortemiller isn't acting on a spurt of creativity. He's coping with a worldwide shortage of hops -- the spice of beer. The dry cones of a particular flowering vine, hops are what give your favorite brew its flavor and aroma. Prices of the commodity are skyrocketing as hop supplies have plummeted, forcing smaller brewmasters around the United States to begin quietly tweaking their recipes, in ways that are easily discerned by serious imbibers.
The shortage -- caused by a dwindling number of hop growers worldwide, and exacerbated by a Yakima, Washington, warehouse fire -- has forced Gortemiller to use fewer and different hops than before, changing the flavor of his beer. He's also resorted to beer hacks, like "dry hopping," in which the hops are added late to the mix, consuming fewer hops and yielding a more consistent flavor.
"When hops were $2 a pound, compared to $20 or $30 a pound now, it didn't matter. We'd throw them into the boil at various times," Gortemiller says. "That was an inaccurate way of doing things. We're modifying recipes and using about 20 percent less hops."
Brewer Chuey Munkanta at the 21st Amendment Brewery pulls the grain out of the wash tub.Photo Jim Merithew, Wired.com
The beer-brewing situation demonstrates how the global-commodity shortage is spilling over to affect diverse industries in unexpected ways. The hop shortage lives on the outer edges of a food crisis that's prompted riots across the planet, and last month led U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon to implore the world's governments to increase food production to stave off a 40 percent jump in the cost of staples.
While nobody in the craft-beer industry is going hungry, they are being forced to adapt. There's no replacement for hops in beer -- they give the brew its flavor. But other key ingredients are in short supply, as well. Malt, which comes from sprouted barley, produces the alcohol and body of beer -- its prices have doubled along with hops. The price of rice, used by industrial brewers, has charted a similar course.
The larger commercial brewers are better off. Most have long-term contracts for hops, barley and rice, and are doing whatever is necessary not to tinker with their brand names.
"Coors Banquet has been tweaked very little since it was introduced in the 1800s," says Molson Coors spokeswoman Jenny Volanakis. "We don't play around with our beers."
But even the big brewers aren't immune from the shortage, says industry analyst Jack Russo of Edward Jones in St. Louis. "Most everybody has raised prices in the 2-to-3-percent range," says Russo.
The small, craft brewers are taking the brunt of the beer crisis, though. "When I called my hop supplier," Gortemiller says, "they told me you're 250th on the list."
At the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, brewer Shaun O'Sullivan says he just increased the price of a pint 25 cents, to $5.50. Like Gortemiller, he's reducing the amount of hops used in some recipes. "We've backed off," O'Sullivan says. "We had to get smart. We could have easily limped along."
O'Sullivan is lucky. One of his most popular beers is Watermelon Wheat, which "has virtually no hops in it," he says.
Jesse Houck is head brewer at the 21st Amendment Brewery. Photo Jim Merithew, Wired.com
Ken Grossman, the head brewer at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California, says he's not tinkering with his brand-name recipes, such as his Pale Ale. He has long-term contracts in place to purchase his hops of choice.
He's paying more for barley, though -- the price has jumped because of a drought in Australia, flooding in Europe and a trend that has farmers worldwide switching to corn to produce biofuels.
"A lot of brewers got caught short on hops," says Grossman. Still, that hasn't stopped him from brewing a new, hop-laden beer called Torpedo Ale, produced with New Zealand hops. "We have been in a fortunate position," Grossman says.
But not everybody in the business is as beer savvy as is Grossman, one of the first to commercialize microbrewing.
Ian Ward, president of Brewers Supply Group in Shakopee, Minnesota -- the nation's largest craft brew supplier -- says things are only going to get worse. "That's the crisis that brewers are finding themselves in," Ward says. "They're having to review their recipes. The crisis really hasn't hit hard yet."
The hop shortage became noticeable around July, when a market glut and hop reserves stored in extract began dwindling.
The bulk of U.S.-grown hops are produced in the Yakima, Washington, area. Farmers weren't getting a profitable return and got out of the market, switched crops or went bankrupt. The same was happening in Germany, the world's No. 1 hop-growing country.
In the United States alone, there were an estimated 515 hop growers in 1950; 75 in 2000 and just 45 today, Ward says. In 2006, about 2 million pounds of hops were destroyed in an S.S. Steiner warehouse in Yakima, equaling about 4 percent of the U.S. hop crop.
All the while, beer sales are increasing worldwide by about 1 to 2 percent annually. The craft brewing industry is growing yearly by 12 percent. That economic reality is pushing hop growers back into the fields.
21st Amendment's Jesse Houck adds hops to the brew.Photo Jim Merithew, Wired.com
About 8,500 acres of hops were just planted in Yakima alone, and about 2,500 thousand acres in Germany, Ward says.
"The cure for high prices is high prices," he says.
But that isn't sitting well with Omar Ansari, the owner and brewer of Surly Brewing in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, who just signed a long-term hop deal
"My jaw hit the floor when I saw the price," Ansari says. And next year, he'll have to reformulate his brown ale Bender beer, a blend he described as a "flagship" flavor requiring the "Willamette" hop from the Pacific Northwest.
"We were informed by our supplier that next year we can't get that hop. It's just gone," Ansari said. "We're going to have to make changes."
"Everybody," he says, "is crossing their fingers there is going to be good hop crop."
Electric and alternative-fuel bikes are the future of individual transportation not because of their fuel efficiency but because they are extremely cool. That's right. Creators of eco-friendly motorcycles are pushing the limits of their designs to make them desirable to a biking community that sees little difference between their (relatively) efficient gas engines and the new-fuel wave of alternatives. Riding bikes is all about the cool factor, so the crazier and more technologically advanced they get, the more people will want to ride them, clean fuel or not.
Gaze upon the alt-fuel bikes most likely to break the mold of motorcycle design in the near future.
Left: The ENV Fuel Cell Bike
Intelligent Energy's ENV Bike is on track to become the first available hydrogen-powered motorcycle when it's released next year. The zero-cylinder ENV runs on a removable fuel cell (stored where a conventional gas tank would be) and runs peacefully quiet. The fuel cell uses a proton-exchange membrane that pushes a full 6 kilowatts of peak-load power, resulting in a nice high torque. And one hydrogen tank will last about four hours without a charge, or about 100 miles.
The ENV is also supposed to offer a fairly gentle ride, since power is distributed evenly through a single gear, avoiding the regular gear-induced kickback of a gas bike. But the best part is that instead of CO2, the bike emits water. Not so pure that you could bend backwards for a little midride drink, but better than adding to the global carbon load.
Technically, a tesseract is a four-dimensional analogue of a cube. To us, it's a bike design that looks just a like a Praying Mantis Predacon Transformer come to life.
Yamaha's Tesseract is a four-wheeled motorcycle powered with a liquid-cooled V-twin engine and an electric motor. It's designed with a dual-scythe suspension for slick turns, allowing the wheels to adapt individually to uneven, rocky terrain independently of one another.
Similarly to other new-wave, multiwheeled green bikes, the body is built up instead of out, so that the body width is more equivalent to regular-size bikes. That leads to above-average handling and stability. Add the thin-but-durable body frame and expect to ride this one fast. Just don't wait up for it -- it won't come out until after 2010.
This is a superhero's bike. Suzuki's slick Crosscage prototype uses a fuel-cell block developed by Intelligent Energy, which creates power from hydrogen gas. According to IE, its fuel designs are based on thin metallic bipolar plates and make the fuel block small, compact and cheaper to produce. To the lay reader, this means that it's more likely to come out sooner rather than later. With blue neon V-shaped flares on its rims -- and a look that the Silver Surfer would envy -- PEM fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries are just icing on the cake.
If you drain your wallet every week at the pump, the relief promised by Yamaha's FC-Dii fuel-cell prototype bike will be as refreshing as the water it runs on. Well, partially.
The FC-Dii, available for ogling at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, runs on a methanol-fuel-and-water build, with a new type of cell stack that promises the "highest levels of power density in the 1-kilowatt class." It also features a detachable lithium-ion battery for recharging, and a model 30 percent efficiency standard for a direct-methanol-fuel-cell system. Plus, you can look into the insides of the bike's cellblock, and that's just too future-cool for us.
The design of the Enertia electric motorcycle from Brammo smartly resembles the classic lines of the 1961 Triumph TR6 Trophy Bird from the movie The Great Escape. And what's more fantastic than the thrill of Steve McQueen racing away from the Nazis? Nothing.
The Enertia uses lithium-ion phosphate batteries with power settings that let the user trade off performance for range. At 12 to 25 horsepower (19 kilowatts) in its "performance" mode, it's on the same power level as the Kawasaki Ninja 250 gas bike (though its speed tops out at 50 mph).
Better still, the carbon-fiber chassis enables lightweight maneuverability, and its six lithium-phosphate batteries reduce its emissions footprint to close to zero. If you live in a small city, you won't find a more viable commuting vehicle. McQueen would have plugged it in himself.
The Killacycle is the fastest electric drag bike in the world. Unfortunately, its name almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy at Wired's NextFest conference last September. During the conference, owner Bill Dube crashed into a minivan while attempting a burnout on a narrow sidewalk.
The inventor had barely ridden the beast before but knew the massive stats: 0-to-60 in 0.97 seconds, 400 horsepower, and a top speed of 158 mph. The bike's 619 pounds (100 pounds more than regular bikes) make it difficult for a rookie rider to maneuver safely. Dube ended up in the hospital with a few body nicks. Afterwards, he came out with his head high and -- believe it -- promised to push his machine to even greater speeds. Currently, his team is working on a 1,000-horsepower drag bike that will attempt to break the land speed record on salt.
The VentureOne looks like a car and is legally classified as a three-wheel motorcycle, but -- copy Blue Leader! It looks just like a Tron Light Cycle come to life. Carver Europe's VentureOne superbike features an automatic balancing system that stabilizes the body and allows it to tilt into a turn like a motorcycle without fear of wipeout.
The bike is scheduled to come out in hybrid build (with a 350-mile range) and two all-electric propulsion models (up to 125 miles). It'll cost between $20,000 and $30,000 and will include GPS navigation and an entertainment system to provide as much distraction as possible.
We think this car-bike mashup could push out its identity crisis and make a name for itself, and we can't wait to (legally) race our Venture Ones out on the grid.
The Piaggio Vespa scooter is as intrinsically connected to the Italian experience as cannoli from Mozzicato's. Now, the Vespas are growing with the times by introducing the lithium-ion-battery-powered Vespa M3 Hybrid. With a 125-cc engine, the M3 will ride just like any other Vespa but will latch on tighter to the pavement with the addition of the third wheel. The added rubber won't extend the width of the scooter -- in fact, the wheelbase at the front is still narrow enough to maneuver tightly, just like the classic.
The M3 has four different performance modes at the flip of a switch: all-electric, low-charge hybrid, high-charge hybrid and standard hybrid. In its all-electric mode, the hybrid turns off the combustion and becomes beautifully silent. But this is sadly lame: At electric-only power, it's supposed to last only 12 miles. The other options push the scooter to a more city-friendly range of 25 to 50 miles on a full charge.
A hybrid motorcycle can't promise the same raw power and performance as a V-Twin Harley, can it? That would be like the Hell Angels going green and Al Gore becoming cool. Well, it's about to happen.
The Gen-Ryu Hybrid bike is the future eco-friendly Harley, with a lightweight 600-cc engine and a high-output, high-efficiency electric motor. And it has awesome features you will not find in a regular hog: noise-canceling system to reduce wind noise, voice-navigation function and hands-free music player and cellphone. Plus, it'll have our favorite feature from recent smart cars -- the rear-view monitoring camera to make sure you can fit in those ridiculously tight urban parking spots.
The prototype includes a cornering light system that makes it easy to see around curves at night. The balance will prevent you from popping a wheelie in the street, but the wide-ish tires will give you a comfortable, smooth ride -- perfect for the trip from the dusty fields into the nanotech-laced asphalt of the future San Angeles.
The Silence PT2 is another car-bike tweener. The electric-powered PT2 has a range of 125 to 250 miles and a high speed of 125 mph due to its smallish size at only 13 feet long, 6 feet wide and 900 pounds. That's about one-third of the 2008 Mini Cooper Clubman S, and 400 pounds lighter than the minimum weight of an F1.
As the wild child from the unholy union of a Go Kart-making company and another that built high-speed three-wheelers, there's a childlike sense of fun in this design. With a wide-open top frame, large front wheels sticking close to the ground, and an aerodynamic front screen to cut the wind, you could easily place it on the track next to Racer X, and it would feel at home. Just wear a helmet.
The Silence PT2 is scheduled to be available in early 2009 for close to $50,000.
Industrial designer Sam Jilbert hit upon a great concept while creating his final-year project at Britain's Northumbria University: Take a past success, tweak it for the present, and fill it with technology from the near future. Voilà! A new design for us to drool over.
The Honda Cub Concept updates the 50-year-old (and 50 million-selling) Honda Super Cub by adding a hydrogen-fuel-cell case. The resulting design resembles a giant LifeSaver mixed with a collapsible bike. Though Honda hasn't endorsed it, its concept has sparked many consumers' imaginations, which could eventually land it on city streets. Like other fuel cell-based bikes, expect to sacrifice a high torque for a slim riding range -- probably close to 50 miles at first.
The Vectrix is the first commercially available electric bike on the market designed like a mullet in reverse: all business in the back and party on the front. The nickel-metal hydrate, battery-charged engine sits in the back of the bike for controlled, efficient acceleration, and the front resembles the angular shape of a ravenous one-eyed wasp. That's hot.
It's expensive at $13,000, but it'll save you money on the back end: It takes three hours to charge the bike fully (at about 1 cent per mile), and has a 40-to-50-mile range at 25 mph. There's also no clutch and no transmission, forcing down the maintenance fees. But it's the ingenious regenerative breaking system that rounds it out: Twist the throttle in a radial backwards motion and the bike will slow down, while cooling and charging the engine at the same time.