.| UrbanNerd |.

So rapid is the rise of the US national debt, that the last four digits of a giant digital signboard counting the moving total near New York’s Times Square move in seemingly random increments as they struggle to keep pace.

The national debt clock, as it is known, is a big clock. A spot-check last week showed a readout of 8.3 trillion — or more precisely 8,310,200,545,702 — dollars … and counting.

But it’s not big enough.

Sometime in the next two years, the total amount of US government borrowing is going to break through the 10-trillion-dollar mark and, lacking space for the extra digit such a figure would require, the clock is in danger of running itself into obsolescence.

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Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp. recently decided to move its R&D and production of high-unit-price, under-150cc powered two-wheeler (PTW) products to Taiwan. This will make the island an important manufacturing base for Suzuki products exported to Japan, Europe, and the United States.

To accommodate its more important role in Suzuki’s global division of labor, the Tailing Motor Co., Suzuki’s local partner, has poured hundreds of millions of New Taiwan dollars into capacity expansion and equipment renewal. This project will boost the Taiwanese company’s annual PTW production capacity from 100,000 units now to 150,000 units by the end of the year.

The first 125cc scooter model to be exported to Japan, the Abbress V-125, will be loaded aboard ship soon. Suzuki plans to procure a total of about 80,000 PTWs from Taiwan this year, including 30,000 units to be shipped to Japan.

According to a senior Tailing official, Suzuki has realized that the quality of Taiwan-made products is equal to that of products made in Japan, while the island’s costs are much more competitive. The Tailing executive also claims that Taiwan has become the world’s technical leader in the production of scooters under 150cc.

Suzuki introduced the 125cc Abbress V-125 to the Japanese market early last year, where the new model quickly became a hot seller and helped Suzuki replace the Yamaha Motor Co. as the No. 2 PTW brand in Japan.

Tailing’s cooperation with Suzuki is not new. The Taiwanese official reports that his company once used The Japanese firm’s sales channels to export Taiwan-made scooters to Europe and the U.S., and that it recently won orders from Suzuki technical partners in Vietnam, Malaysia, the U.S. (where demand has been bolstered by the damage inflicted on New Orleans as well as the high price of gasoline), and South Korea for scooters over 100cc.

Tailing plans to introduce a new self-developed 100cc scooter in the middle of this year, and export it to a number of overseas markets. The company predicts that its exports of PTWs will double in 2006, to about 80,000 units.

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World of Warcraft is experiencing lengthy downtime, and blaming its service provider for the outages. The virtual world, which now has more than 6 million users, also announced emergency maintenance outages overnight on a large number of game servers (known as “realms”).

“We’d like to make all players aware that at this time our internet service provider is experiencing significant complications, and as a result the playability on a large portion of realms has been adversely affected,” said a message from Epifanio, Senior Game Master, on the WoW forums.. “Symptoms include but are not limited to lag, random disconnections and slow authentication. Our network technicians are doing everything in their power to work with our ISP so that this issue may be resolved as swiftly as possible.”

World of Warcraft is hosted by AT&T, which houses servers for the game at data centers in Los Angeles and Redwood City, Calif., and Ashburn, Va. The outages affected the worldofwarcraft.com web site as well as the game servers, as shown in our uptime chart:

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It’s like the rich old person’s version of a scooter:

The warm morning breeze wafts through her shoulder-length hair as Broward Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips scoots to work in a navy-blue, orange-striped buggy that barely purrs and doesn’t use a drop of gasoline.

Her colleague, Broward Circuit Judge Michael Orlando, catches the sun’s rays as he cruises to the courthouse each day in his green mini-cart with a throaty Model-T-type horn.

The judges are part of a growing national trend toward using modified, legal versions of golf carts for short commutes. While the fanciest versions — equipped with DVD players, custom paint jobs and flashy upholstery — are toys for the rich, for others they’re a practical way to get around town without emptying your pockets at the pump. ”When you leave for the day, you certainly leave your troubles behind when that wind hits you and you have a good ride home,” said Phillips, who admits it’s best to wear slacks while golf-carting to work.

Sometimes called ”neighborhood electric vehicles,” the miniature cars operate on batteries. They vary in appearance, but many look like a sleeker version of a golf cart or some space-age toy out of The Jetsons.

At Golf Car Depot in Pompano Beach, customers typically pay between $5,000 and $8,000 for a new cart. Some order custom paint jobs in tie-dye or taxi-cab designs. Though some look post-modern, shop owner Jeff Blitman sees the vehicles — which costs about two cents a mile to operate — as a throwback.

”It’s like the old days with horse and buggy where things were more friendly, everybody meets and greets in the street,” he said.

Phillips, who is married to Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, got the idea of using her cart to commute to work while visiting the Bahamas, where the vehicles are commonly used for transportation.

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HOUSTON – For the first time since 1972, the United States is planning to fly to the moon, but instead of a quick, Apollo-like visit, astronauts intend to build a permanent base and live there while they prepare what may be the most ambitious undertaking in history — putting human beings on Mars.

President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that. But with NASA focused on designing a new spaceship and spending about 40 percent of its budget on the troubled space shuttle and international space station programs, that timetable may suffer.

Still, NASA’s moon planners are closely following the spaceship initiative and, within six months, will outline what they need from the new vehicle to enable astronauts to explore the lunar surface.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. said on Monday it recently surpassed 4 million subscribers to its nationwide pay radio service.

Sirius, No. 2 in the nascent market to rival XM Satellite Radio Inc. , had previously said it ended 2005 with 3.3 million subscribers, an increase of 2.2 million, and expects to end 2006 with more than 6 million subscribers.

XM in February said it has more than 6 million subscribers and expects to reach 9 million by the end of the year.

Both services offer continuous sports, talk, and entertainment programming, including dozens of commercial-free music stations, all for about $13 a month.

Sirius’ news follows agreements it struck on Friday with several music companies to allow their songs to be played on a new radio unit that can store songs for future playback.

It has reached agreements with Warner Music Group Corp. and Vivendi Universal SA’s Universal Music Group.

As part of its agreement with Universal, Sirius said it was in “productive business discussions regarding the distribution of future products” with Universal Music Group.

On Monday, the company also said it has also reached a deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture of Sony Corp. <6758.T> and Bertelsmann AG .

Shares of Sirius closed on Monday up 22 cents, or 4.5 percent, at $5.11, while XM shares rose 73 cents, or 3.52 percent, to $21.47, both on the Nasdaq.

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(CBS4 News) MIAMI A 19 year old Northwest Miami-Dade teen was killed Saturday afternoon when he apparently lost control of a small motorcycle and slammed into a stopped US Mail truck. As horrified neighbors watched, the teen was trapped under the truck.

Miami-Dade paramedics were there within minutes but were unable to save 19 year old Derrick Clear, who had been driving a scooter owned by his uncle. Family members say he had just been handed the keys by his brother, and was familiar with how the scooter worked.

Witnesses say the teen may have been going faster than traffic, and was seen dipping in and out of traffic as he moved around slower moving vehicles. They say he apparently did not see the mail truck, which was stopped by the side of NW 95th street at 13th avenue.

Those witnesses say the dri8ver actually flew out of the seat into the back of the mail truck.

Police at the scene say the driver of the mail truck did not seem to have any fault in the accident.

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Many hundreds of times – everywhere, and everyplace I go – I’ve approached a stranger with the opening words, “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?”

MOST times the answer is ”A LEETLE.” Then, MOST times when I tell them that “I speak Hebrew A LEETLE” comes a great smile and then I ask my questions, and always I get welcome replies, with some suggestions and information.

These short chats are of great value to me.

I also manage to learn a few new words in Hebrew as well.

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A Mesa woman is facing manslaughter charges following a fatal Monday night crash. Police said Savannah Sutherland, 21, appeared to be impaired by alcohol when her 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier rear-ended a motorized scooter in the 7900 block of East Baseline Road at 10:21 p.m.

Genevieve Tepec-Juarez, 36, later died at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn hospital.
Sutherland was given a field evaluation, and police said her blood-alcohol content was 0.13. The legal limit is 0.08.

Mesa police Sgt. Chuck Trapani said Sutherland told police she had consumed four cans of beer.

Sutherland was treated for minor injuries at Banner Baywood Medical Center, then booked into a Mesa police holding facility.

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PORTLAND, Ore. – A woman was severely injured Wednesday when her Vespa scooter collided with a car near a construction zone near East Burnside Street and 14th Avenue in Portland.

Nearby witnesses say they tried to get the attention of the driver of the car before the accident, but were not successful.

The scooter impacted the passenger side of a red Subaru Outback Wagon, severely injuring the rider, identified as Kalaisha Watrous, 25, of Portland.

Watrous was wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet at the time of the accident, and her employer, who now has the helmet, says extensive damage to the protective device indicates it probably saved her life.

Two witnesses say a woman driving a red Subaru was going through a construction zone when they tried to alert her that a scooter was heading towards her, but she apparently did not see the warning.

Watrous then hit the car on the passenger-side door.

Police cited the driver of the car for failing to stop at a stop sign.

According to an email sent out by a Portland scooter club that Watrous is a member of, Watrous’ injuries include a broken left leg, shattered right knee cap, broken left arm, dislocated right elbow and several facial fractures.

Watrous underwent a 7-hour surgery on one leg and will have another surgery on her leg Friday.

Watrous is expected to recover from the injuries, but reportedly has no health insurance.

A spokesperson for the Portland scooter club Twist And Play says a fund to assist Watrous with her medical expenses has been set up at U.S. Bank and donations can be made at any branch.

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