The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. The Aioi Works of Japan's Diesel United, Ltd built the first engines and is where some of these pictures were taken.

It is available in 6 through 14 cylinder versions, all are inline engines. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships. Ship owners like a single engine/single propeller design and the new generation of larger container ships needed a bigger engine to propel them.

The cylinder bore is just under 38" and the stroke is just over 98". Each cylinder displaces 111,143 cubic inches (1820 liters) and produces 7780 horsepower. Total displacement comes out to 1,556,002 cubic inches (25,480 liters) for the fourteen cylinder version.

Some facts on the 14 cylinder version: Total engine weight: 2300 tons (The crankshaft alone weighs 300 tons.) Length: 89 feet Height: 44 feet Maximum power: 108,920 hp at 102 rpm Maximum torque: 5,608,312 lb/ft at 102rpm

Even at it's most efficient power setting, the big 14 consumes 1,660 gallons of heavy fuel oil per hour.

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The USS Reagan was commissioned today, penultimate of an illustrious line of Nimitz-class nuclear supercarriers.

Other than issuing the order to man the ship as part of the commissioning ceremony, Nancy Reagan, who turned 82 on Sunday, did not speak, though she drew a standing ovation from the crowd when she was introduced. This is the first time a carrier has been named after a living president, although Reagan will probably never understand it. Alzheimer's and all that.

Two years ago, when the ship was christened before final completion, she broke the traditional bottle of sparkling wine over the bow, as President Bush looked on.

The carrier, built by a division of Northrop Grumman in nearby Newport News, Virginia, will replace the USS Constellation, which is being decommissioned after returning from service in the Iraq war.

The ship is almost 1,100 feet long and rises 20 stories above the water, with a flight deck covering 4.5 acres. Design work on the ship began in 1995, and the keel was laid in 1998.

The USS Ronald Reagan is the ninth Nimitz class carrier built for the Navy since 1975. Cheney noted that four of those ships were built as part of Reagan's military buildup.

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Most researchers think of them as microscopic pinpricks, the remnants of stars that have collapsed under their own weight. But over the past couple of years, a number of mavericks have proposed that black holes are actually extended bodies, made up of an exotic state of matter that congeals, like a liquid turning to ice, during the collapse. The idea offers a provocative way of thinking about quantum gravity, which would unify Einstein's general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is exploring whether to pursue development of a hypersonic, reusable aircraft that could "skip" along the atmosphere and deliver military payloads anywhere in the world within about 2 hr.

LLNL's HyperSoar concept has attracted interest among USAF space officials.

The idea itself isn't new; aerospace engineers for years have harbored the notion that skipping along the atmosphere would be an efficient method to traverse great distances. But after years of mulling the concept, Darpa appears ready to take the concept off the drawing board toward a demonstrable capability, called HyperSoar.

Darpa Director Anthony J. Tether said the aircraft would travel at a speed of around 6,700 mph., or Mach 10, and operate primarily at altitudes of 115,000-200,000 ft. After climb-out, the aircraft would travel along a sine-wave flight path, with the propulsion system engaging when HyperSoar is at about 115,000 ft.--the skip altitude--to boost the aircraft back to 200,000 ft. before repeating the cycle. During a skip, the aircraft would be exposed to about 1.5g, Tether said, with a skip required about every 400 km.

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SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- For sale: what might be one of the Soviet Sputnik satellites that ushered in the Space Age and sparked a frenzied competition that soon led to the launch of the first man into orbit.

As with so many things Russian, the sale, offered online by Sovietski.com and eBay Inc. for a starting auction price of $25,000, presents a riddle wrapped in a mystery, for no one is able to say how many authentic Sputniks actually exist.

The Soviet Union launched the original Sputnik, a shiny metallic orb with four antennas streaking from the side, in 1957, setting off a panic in the United States, which feared it was falling behind its Cold War rival.

Amid the secrecy that prevailed at the time, Moscow made several back-up models, and since the fall of the Soviet Union, some of these have landed in the hands of their former adversary on very capitalist terms.

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MORIOKA, Iwate Pref. (Kyodo) Iwate Gov. Hiroya Masuda voiced displeasure Monday that a professional wrestler who was elected to the prefectural assembly plans to wear his mask during assembly proceedings.

The Great Sasuke

The Great Sasuke, a 33-year-old wrestler whose real name is Masanori Murakawa, topped the vote count in the Morioka district in Sunday's prefectural assembly election.

He vowed to continue wearing his mask while fulfilling his duties as a member of the assembly.

"This is my face," he declared. "I have no intention of taking the mask off."

Masuda was elected to his third term Sunday.

"I'm sure it's a matter of opinion, but I think he should take the mask off," Masuda said. "Politicians make painful decisions, and also express joy, and voters look at their faces and decide (whether they accept those actions). Voters should be allowed to see a politician's facial expressions."

Twelve people were vying for the 10 assembly seats allocated to the Morioka district.

A professional wrestler who fought his way to victory in local assembly elections under his ring name and wearing his trademark mask has vowed the mask will not leave his face even after he enters the staid halls of Japanese politics.

"This is my face," the wrestler -- known as "The Great Sasuke" -- was quoted by the Nikkan Sports newspaper as saying of his black and white full-face mask with bright scarlet streaks and golden wings by the eye holes.

"I won support from voters with this face, and to take it off would be breaking promises," the 33-year-old wrestler, whose real name is Masanori Murakawa, said of his victory in conservative Iwate prefecture, some 460 km (290 miles) north of Tokyo.

Catching opponents on the back foot to take one of 10 assembly seats, the wrestler said he now hopes to demonstrate his "superabundant power" outside of the ring as well as in it.

Sasuke's vow to go masked into the halls of power in Japan, where battles have been fought in the past over legislators refusing to don neckties, has authorities scratching their heads.

"There is no law specifically forbidding it," one Iwate prefectural official was quoted by Nikkan Sports as saying. "But now that he has won, we must look into the issue."

In a sign, perhaps, that the rough-and-tumble world of politics may prove more bruising than expected, Sasuke was forced to limp his way up to the polling box with one ankle in a cast.

He attributed the injury to stumbling over a curb during the election campaign.