Near silent human electric hybrid technology

4 KW (Peak) Sealed Floating Drivetrain with an integrated Rohloff 14 speed gearbox in parellel with a patented Smesh-Gear with fly by wire shifting.

Reaches a top speed of >70 km/h.

The bike has total payload of up to 160kg including the rider over tough terrain. The cargo rack has up to 40kg of payload.

Designed for military reconnaissance and surveillance operations since it delivers significant power via a stealthy electric drivetrain.

Ultimate manoeuvrability for both models. The URB version is optimized for agile city use, resulting in rapid cornering. The DRT version is designed specifically for powering over tough terrains.

WASHINGTON -- Stephen Colbert may not support the idea of super PACs, but fellow political satirist Bill Maher is buying into the system -- literally.

During a performance of his comedy special "CrazyStupidPolitics" Thursday night, Maher announced a gift of $1 million to Priorities USA Action, an Obama-supporting super PAC. While he mocked the group's clunky name, saying it was "named by Borat," his publicist said that Maher was deadly serious about the donation and believed a second term for Obama was “worth a million dollars."

Greetings, Morgantownians. I have traveled long and far from a place called Austin, and I bring gifts of breakfast tacos and irony. I came here in order to teach space robots how to see. I have a Ph.D. in molecular biology, I work in aerospace engineering, I moved here in January, and I'm about to turn thirty.

I found a lovely house in South Park, but the person who subleased it to me either (a) seems to have a very bad memory and a deep and creative fantasy life, or (b) is a compulsive liar. So I have to find a new place by May 10th, and roommate(s).

Here is a list of things about other things, because: Things! Ranked in order of importance, obviously.

* I have a deep and abiding apprehension about pterodactyls. I would prefer to live in a neighborhood free of flying dinosaurs (except birds, birds are mostly okay).

* I have excellent skills at giving punny names to animals. My six chickens still live in Austin, and they are named Captain Peckhard (pronounced 'Picard'), Cluck Norris, Hen Solo, Buffy Orpington the Vampire Slayer, Ernestine Heningway (who turned out to be a rooster and now lives happily ever after on a farm with a yurt), Eggenvector, T. Boone Peckens, and Gregory Peck. If you counted more than six it's because a family of raccoons carried off some of them. :,(

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Although electric bikes definitely are more eco-friendly than exhaust-spewing cars, some people quite rightly point out that the electricity used to charge their batteries typically comes from not-so-green sources such as coal-burning power plants. That's why Santa Cruz-based NTS Works created its NTS SunCycle pedelec cargo bike. Unveiled this Wednesday, it features an integrated photovoltaic panel that's reportedly capable of fully charging the bike's battery within eight hours.

The 60-watt panel is located on the lid of the cargo box, adding 2 lb (907 g) to the weight of the bike. It utilizes noncrystalline solar cells, and is said to be over 19 percent efficient.

While it's likely that many users won't be able to regularly leave their bike out in the sun for eight hours at a time, they also won't necessarily always be charging the battery from empty, nor will they require a full charge for all trips. In the event that they do require a faster charge, the battery can still be juiced up from a regular electrical outlet as well.

Like NTS' existing 2X4 Cargo Bike, this model has a 250-watt hub motor in its front wheel. This means that when the rider is pedaling and chooses to engage the electric assist, the bike has two-wheel drive – a handlebar-mounted display lets them choose the amount of assistance provided. The 36-volt, 14.3-Ah lithium-ion battery provides a claimed average range of 25 miles (40 km) per charge.

In conversation not too long ago, someone asked me when I felt I had “made it.” It’s a fair question; for a writer, there are a lot of milestones that could be the points at which one feels one has made it. Selling that first book is an obvious one (selling the second book, a less obvious but no less relevant one), as is the first time you are nominated for an award, or win one, or hit a bestseller list, or get a starred review in the trades. Getting a movie or TV option is a big one. Seeing someone you don’t know reading a book of yours out in the world. Any of these are perfectly good moments to stop and say, hey, I guess I’ve made it.

My moment isn’t any one of those. My moment came a couple of years ago, when I was driving out of town and noticed my gas tank was almost empty. So I stopped at the gas station, slid my credit card into the pump, filled up my gas tank, replaced the nozzle, got back into my car and drove away. And then realized a couple of miles down the road that at no point did I look to see how much the gas cost per gallon, or how much the whole tank of gas cost me. I didn’t look because I didn’t have to. No matter how much it cost, I knew I had it. I knew I could afford it.

That was my moment.

Some of you, I suspect, are looking a bit puzzled at this. So it’s here that I need to give you a bit of context.

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