"It will be years --not in my time-- before a woman will become Prime Minister."
--Margaret Thatcher, October 26th, 1969.

She became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom only 10 years after saying that, holding her chair from 1979 to 1990. But she wasn’t all that wrong since she is the only woman to have held this post. Maybe she should have added the word “again.”

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

It may sound ridiculous now, but the prediction was actually true for about ten years after it was made. Almost every forecaster would settle for a ten year limit on the testing of their forecasts. Of course, by the 1980s and the advent of the PC, such a statement looked plain daft.

“That virus [HIV] is a pussycat.”
--Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, 1988,

By 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization estimated that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
--Associates of Edwin L. Drake refusing his suggestion to drill for oil in 1859.

Only one hundred fifty years passed by since the first attempt to dig out oil from the ground met such contempt, and now the whole world is trying to look for unimaginable places to satiate the thirst for money that is propelled and sustained on this black gold.

“A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.”
--New York Times, 1936.

10 years later, in 1946, the first American-built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere was launched from White Sands, attaining 50 miles of altitude.

"Reagan doesn’t have that presidential look."
--United Artists Executive, rejecting Reagan as lead in 1964 film The Best Man

Before becoming the 40th President of the United States in 1981, Ronald Reagan pursued an acting career, but spent the majority of his Hollywood career in the "B film" division. In 1964 he was rejected for a part in a movie with presidential candidate theme due to "not having the presidential look".

"The singer [Mick Jagger] will have to go; the BBC won’t like him."
--- First Rolling Stones manager Eric Easton to his partner after watching them perform.

We can only wonder what Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, Golden Globe, Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, rock musician and occasional actor, has to say about it now.

“Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.”
--Dr Dionysys Larder (1793-1859)

It may sound impossible to Dr Larder, professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at the University College London back in the 1800, but in 1939 the first high speed train went from Milan to Florence at 165 km/h (102.5 mph). Thankfully no one died. Nowadays these trains go at 200 km/h (125 mph) and faster.

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
--Lord Kelvin, 1895.

This was said by Lord Kelvin (British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society) only eight years before brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright took their home-built flyer to the sandy dunes of Kitty Hawk, cranked up the engine, and took off into the history books.

"There will never be a bigger plane built."
--A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people.

What would this engineer say if he saw the current largest passenger plane on earth, the Airbus A380? The Airbus A380 has 50% more floor space than arch rival Boeing's 747 Jumbo, with room for duty-free shops, restaurants and even a sauna, and can provide site for up to 853 people.

"Taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard."
-- Tris Speaker, baseball hall of famer, talking about Babe Ruth, 1919.

Ruth has been named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings, and his home run hitting prowess made him a larger than life figure in the "Roaring Twenties". He became the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), a record which stood for 34 years until broken by Roger Maris in 1961. Ruth's lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record for 39 years, until broken by Hank Aaron in 1974.

"Ours has been the first [expedition], and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality."
---- Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

More than a century later, five million people annually visit this "profitless locality," by car, foot, air, and on the Colorado River itself.

"If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one."
--W.C. Heuper, National Cancer Institute, 1954.

In 1964 the United States Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health began suggesting the relationship between smoking and cancer, which confirmed its suggestions 20 years later in the 1980s. Nowadays, it’s well known that long-term exposure to tobacco smoke is the most common causes of lung cancer.

"You better get secretarial work or get married."
--Emmeline Snively, advising would-be model Marilyn Monroe in 1944.

In 1944, Marilyn Monroe was discovered by a photographer who encouraged her to apply to The Blue Book modeling agency. She was told by Snively, director of the Modelling Agency that she should became a secretary, besides they were looking for models with lighter hair. So Marilyn dyed her brunette hair to a golden blonde. She finally signed a contract with the agency. And of course, became Blue Book's most successful model.

"Read my lips: No new taxes."
--George Bush, 1988.

That pledge was the centerpiece of Bush's acceptance address, written by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, for his party's nomination at the 1988 Republican National Convention. It was a strong, decisive, bold statement, and you don't need a history degree to see where this is going. As presidents sometimes must, Bush raised taxes. His words were used against him by then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in a devastating attack ad during the 1992 presidential campaign.

U.S. stock futures are trading mixed this morning, pointing toward a somewhat positive open, despite weakness on the Nasdaq due to poorly received earnings from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). The leading PC and computer peripherals manufacturer reported a 13% plunge in first-quarter earnings after the close last night. Other companies in focus this morning include Whole Foods market (WFMI), which is 16% higher ahead of the open following solid quarterly results, and Sprint Nextel (S), which gained about 3% in pre-market activity due to a narrowed quarterly loss. Wall Street's mood could shift dramatically, however, as key economic data, including the January producer price index (PPI), are slated for release later this morning.

Checking in on currencies and commodities, the U.S. Dollar Index is taking a breather following a strong rally earlier this week. At last check, the index was off 0.92% at 87.19 in pre-market activity. Gold futures, meanwhile, have gained a mere $2.40 an ounce to trade at $980.60 in London, with traders closely watching the equity markets for signs of strength. Finally, crude oil futures are on the mend, with the March contract up 3.32% at $35.77 per barrel in electronic trading.

After the close last night, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: sentiment, chart, options) reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of $1.9 billion, or 75 cents per share, compared with a profit of $2.1 billion, or 80 cents per share, last year. Revenue rose 1% to $28.8 billion from $28.5 billion. Excluding 1-time items, HPQ earned 93 cents per share. Analysts were looking for earnings of 93 cents per share on $31.9 billion in sales. For its second quarter, the company expects earnings of 70 cents to 72 cents per share, or an adjusted 84 cents to 86 cents per share. Sales should fall 2% to 3% from a year earlier, which would equal $27.5 billion to $27.7 billion. The figures were well below the current consensus estimate for 89 cents per share on $30.95 billion in sales.

Whole Foods Market (WFMI: sentiment, chart, options) reported that net income fell 17% from the year-earlier quarter due to slowing store traffic and legal costs. Whole Foods posted a first-quarter profit of $32.3 million, or 20 cents per share, down from $39.1 million, or 28 cents per share, last year. However, earnings topped analyst expectations for 19 cents per share. Sales were flat at $2.5 billion. Comparable-store sales fell 4% compared with a 9% gain last year.

Finally, Sprint Nextel (S: sentiment, chart, options) said it lost $1.62 billion, or 57 cents per share, narrowing its loss from the same quarter last year of $29.31 billion, or $10.31 per share. Revenue for the quarter was $8.43 billion, compared to $9.85 billion. Analysts had expected sales of $8.55 billion. "In tough economic times, we're generating substantial cash and reducing costs to ensure we remain financially sound. We already have the cash on hand to be able to meet our debt service requirements at least through the end of 2010," said Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel chief executive.

Earnings Preview

Today, Apache (APA), CVS Caremark (CVS), Newmont Mining (NEM), and Crocs (CROX) are slated to step into the earnings confessional. Keep your browser at SchaeffersResearch.com throughout the day for more.

Economic Calendar

On the economic front, the Street must digest the January producer price index (PPI), the core PPI, January's leading economic indicators, the February Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index, and the weekly reports on U.S. petroleum supplies and jobless claims. We round out the week on Friday with the consumer price index (CPI) and the core CPI.

Market Statistics

Equity option activity on the CBOE saw 1,251,244 call contracts traded on Wednesday, compared to 1,098,962 put contracts. The resultant single-session put/call ratio slipped to 0.88, while the 21-day moving average held at 0.75.

**The volume data shown above is from the Nasdaq and NYSE exchanges only. It does not include regional volume activity, which means that other daily volume quotes you see may be higher.**

'Gears Of War' Creator On Gaming's Future

Mary Jane Irwin, 12.29.08, 03:40 PM EST

Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski chats about his inspirations and innovations.

A chainsaw revs. The heavily armored Marcus Fenix lumbers forward, ripping through a Locust soldier as if he were shredding turkey with an electric carving knife. The combination assault rifle and mechanized saw blade, known as a Lancer, is one of the most recognizable components of "Gears of War," the Xbox 360 shooter that asks players to save humanity from an alien horde.

The most recognizable man behind the franchise happens to be Cliff Bleszinski. The 33-year-old design director of Epic Games has cultivated a rock star aura, despite the videogame industry's general lack of celebrity. He started out in the business when he was 17. Now he is in charge of one of the largest franchises on Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) console. "Gears of War 2," his latest title, launched in early November and sold 2 million copies its opening weekend. The game is expected to be one of the best-selling games this holiday season. 

Bleszinski, who recently unleashed a new pack of multiplayer maps for "Gears 2" over Xbox Live, talked to Forbes.com about the impact downloadable content has on games, making hardcore shooters appeal to casual audiences and his love for "Super Mario Brothers."

Forbes.com: What game inspired you to make games?

Cliff Bleszinski: The first game I ever played was "Space Invaders" on the Atari 2600. I was instantly hooked by the idea of manipulating images on my television screen but wasn't quite old enough or aware that this could be a possible career. The title that inspired me the most would have to be the original "Super Mario Brothers" on the Nintendo Entertainment System. There was something about these cartoony worlds that unfolded before me that were filled with secrets that, at the time, I believed were not meant to be discovered by the designers.

What is the defining moment of your career, so far?

I'd have to say presenting the original "Gears of War" at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2006 to a crowd that was incredibly impressed is right at the top of the list. I hope that there are many more exciting moments like that in store.

For an eye-popping introduction to the future of lighting, walk into the lobby of Philips Color Kinetics' headquarters outside Boston. The reception area is bathed first in pink, then lavender, then pink again. Hallways on either side undulate with a tunnel of pulsing blue, then purple, lights. The surrounding walls display Philips' latest products as they have been installed in a rotating selection of buildings, including the CN Tower in Toronto and Harrah's casino in Atlantic City, N.J. All this lighting is done with light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.

The energy-hogging incandescent lightbulb as we know it got a death sentence when President Bush signed the Energy Independence Act in December 2007; most such bulbs will be phased out beginning in 2012. Europe is nixing incandescents beginning in 2009. The race is on to develop devices that do a better job of converting electricity to light. Compact fluorescent bulbs have become a popular alternative, but LEDs have the potential to be twice as efficient. They typically last 50,000 hours, compared with 10,000 for a compact fluorescent and 1,000 for an incandescent bulb.

The hurdle so far is price. LEDs, semiconductor diodes that light up when current runs through them, are 10 to 20 times as expensive as incandescents, too high for use at home. But the Department of Energy predicts that steady improvements in semiconductor manufacturing will bring the price of white LEDs below that of compact fluorescents in five years. Large consumers of electricity see a quicker payback. Wal-Mart Stores (nyse: WMT - news - people ) and Shaw's have begun putting LEDs in some freezer cases. Lansing, Mich. is testing LED street lights. "The consumer is the last to convert," says Charles Jerabek, chief executive of Osram Sylvania, Siemens (nyse: SI - news - people )' North American lighting division. LEDs account for only 12% of the unit's $2.5 billion in revenue, but it's the fastest-growing piece.

At Osram Sylvania labs in Danvers, Mass. researchers are experimenting with blankets woven with LEDs to treat babies with severe jaundice. They're also developing LEDs for use in endoscopic surgery to replace the xenon lights currently in use, which are bulky and don't last long. Another innovation: square tiles of light that could replace fluorescent office ceiling lighting.

Twenty miles away in the showroom at Philips Color Kinetics a "screen" made of 50 vertical tubes (each 2 inches wide and 4 feet tall and composed of 760 individual diodes) of programmable LEDs projects a parrot moving in a forest, then flames flickering in a fireplace. By feeding video input into a computer, Philips makes the LED tubes function as a low-resolution video screen. Since LED lights can be tuned to different wavelengths of color, Philips is also working with retailers of luxury goods and jewelry to choose the best color for showcasing each product. Diamonds look best under blue-tinged white light, while gold shows better in warmer tones.

ElectroniCast Consultants of Upper Lake, Calif. says the market for LEDs in lighting should grow to $1.4 billion in 2009. "As the price continues to drop and the performance continues to increase, we'll see more adoption," says Philips Color Kinetics' vice president of innovation Kevin Dowling. "We haven't scratched the surface of this technology."

"Let me show you the future."

Every entrepreneur believes that one day he or she will be able to make this statement. The goal of my new column, Head Coach, is to explain why this is so; what drives entrepreneurs to dream that particular dream; what psychological hurdles stand in the way; and, with any luck, how to clear them.

My fascination with entrepreneurs and what makes them tick began 20 years ago after reading a quote from Abraham Zalenik, a psychoanalyst and a former professor at Harvard Business School: "To understand the entrepreneur, you first have to understand the psychology of the juvenile delinquent."

Not long after, I began hosting forums for business groups like the Young President's Organization. Since then, I have consulted for and coached scores of entrepreneurs whose most compelling dream was to create a better future. My columns will draw upon these experiences, as well as the work spent building the course, "Entpreneurial Psychology," that I taught at UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

In Pictures: Are You Born To Be A Billionaire

In Pictures: Secrets Of The Self-Made 2008

Two decades later, I can tell you that Zalenik had it right--to a point. Entrepreneurs do often behave like "acting-out" youths. But whereas juvenile delinquents tend to have little capacity for empathy and altruism, entrepreneurs also tend to be hard-wired for philanthropy.

Ford chief executive Alan Mullaly, with a Fusion Hybrid, a car that could be pivotal in the company's future pl

Many members of Congress believe they know what the car company of the future should look like.

"A business model based on gas -- a gas-guzzling past -- is unacceptable," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said last week. "We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car."

But the car company Schumer and other lawmakers envision for the future could turn out to be a money-losing operation, not part of a "sustainable U.S. auto industry" that President-elect Barack Obama and most members of Congress say they want to create.

That's because car manufacturers still haven't figured out how to produce hybrid and plug-in vehicles cheaply enough to make money on them. After a decade of relative success with its hybrid Prius, Toyota has sold about a million of the cars and is still widely believed by analysts to be losing money on each one sold. General Motors has touted plans for a plug-in hybrid vehicle called the Volt, but the costly battery will prevent it from turning a profit on the vehicle for several years, at least.

"In 10 years are they [at GM] going to solve the technological problems with respect to the Volt? Sure," says Maryann Keller, an automotive analyst and author of a book on GM. "But are they going to be able to stake their survival, which is really more of a now to five-year proposition, on it? I'd say they can't. They have to stake their future on Malibus, the Chevy Cruze, and much more conventional technologies."

U.S. automakers faced a barrage of demands last week that they provide evidence and assurance that they would use federal bailout money to transform their companies to produce automobiles of the future, using advanced technologies and featuring hybrid or plug-in vehicles. And in his "60 Minutes" interview on Nov. 16, Obama said that before backing a big loan package he wanted to be sure "that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere."

But there's no guarantee that the new business model would be any more viable than the current one. Automobile experts estimate that the battery in a plug-in vehicle could add at least $8,000 to the cost of a car, maybe considerably more. Most Americans will be unwilling to pay the extra price, especially if gasoline prices languish around $2 a gallon.

That's why one of the mysteries about GM's plans to introduce the Volt in 2010 is how much it will cost to buy one. "What's the Volt going to cost? I would be happy to answer that if you can tell me the price of oil in 2010," said Robert A. Kruse, GM's executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries. "I can tell you to the penny what it will cost GM, but pricing is much more related to market conditions."

The hurdles ahead for the Volt and other cars with new technologies pose dilemmas for automakers trying to gauge a market that is still very young for cars that don't exist while trying to stay in business during a downturn.

"These are hard choices," said Toyota chief technology officer Bill Reinert, part of the Prius design team. "Do you bet on lighter, smaller, more fuel efficient but ultimately less profitable cars or do you hold back a little on technology development and look at new versions of existing cars."

Many experts say that gas guzzlers will not fade away as long as Congress fails to impose higher taxes on gasoline to steer people toward fuel-efficient cars.

"You'd think from reading the media that we have had a burial ceremony at Arlington cemetery for the last pickup truck," said James Womack, a management expert who has written about the automobile industry. "I can easily imagine three years from now when public is focused on a new set of priorities . . . that this whole thing would go poof."

(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama met with his former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton to see if she would be interested in a role in his administration, two sources told CNN Friday.

Obama also will meet with the man he defeated in the general election, Republican Sen. John McCain, on Monday, the Obama transition team announced Friday.

On Friday, Clinton responded to the latest rumors at a transit policy speech in Albany, New York.

"I'm very happy there is so much press attention and interest in transit," Clinton said to laughs.

"In the off chance that you're not here for this important issue and are here for some other reason, let me just say that I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect's incoming administration."

She added: "I'm going to respect his process and any inquiries should be directed to his transition team."

Clinton went to the meeting Thursday with Obama because "she knew Obama wanted to talk about whether she would have a role in the administration," one of the sources knowledgeable about the meeting said.

Obama and Clinton met in Chicago, Illinois, at the request of the president-elect, the sources told CNN.

The two sources said Clinton was surprised to hear rumors she was being considered for secretary of state position. The sources could not confirm that the she and Obama discussed the nation's top diplomatic position or that it was offered.

This is not the first time Clinton has been rumored to be under consideration for a position on Obama's team.

The New York senator was said to be on Obama's short list of possible vice presidential picks this summer, but Obama ended up picking Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

That source said Clinton thought the speculation that she would be tapped to be Obama's secretary of state was "silly" because of the earlier buzz about her becoming Obama's running mate. iReport.com: Who should Obama pick?

A spokesman for the former presidential candidate and first lady, Philippe Reines, said "any speculation about Cabinet or other administration appointments is really for President-elect Obama's transition team to address."

On Monday night, while walking into an awards ceremony in New York, Clinton was asked if she would consider taking a post in the Obama administration.

"I am happy being a senator from New York. I love this state and this city," she said. "I am looking at the long list of things I have to catch up on and do.

"But I want to be a good partner and I want to do everything I can to make sure his agenda is going to be successful." Watch whether Clinton would join Obama's team »

Other names that have been mentioned for the top diplomatic role include Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats presidential nominee in 2004, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and energy secretary in the Clinton administration.

Latino groups are championing Richardson for the top State Department slot. If picked, Richardson would be the nation's first Latino secretary of state.

A source close to transition team tells CNN that Obama is also trying to build a diverse Cabinet that includes women and minorities and that works as a team.

Obama's transition team is expected to announce some high-level staff positions on Friday.

Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs is widely expected to be named White House press secretary, and Obama chief strategist David Axelrod is expected to be picked as a White House senior adviser.

After Michelle Obama crossed the threshold of her new home yesterday to meet with its outgoing occupants, she was briefed on what would convey: certain pieces of furniture, the carpeting and the drapes -- if these met her tastes -- and, of course, a tremendous sense of history. Meeting privately with Laura Bush while her husband conferred with the president in the Oval Office, the incoming first lady was participating in a century-old Washington ritual that represents the softer side of the serious business of a presidential transition.

It's a tradition that may not rank with the passing of secret nuclear-launch codes, but the White House visit by Michelle and Barack Obama was no less freighted with significance. "They will literally become living symbols of the country to the world, for all of history," said Carl Sferrazza Anthony, who has written several books about first ladies. "It will redefine their identities."

Michelle Obama had already made clear that her first priority will be smoothly settling her daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, into this new life. She squeezed the White House visit in between trips to the private Georgetown Day School and Sidwell Friends School.

The transition team and staff at both schools in the District refused to discuss the visits. So it fell to a 10-year-old boy, Nicolo Pisoni, to offer on-the-record confirmation of her trip to Georgetown Day's campus on MacArthur Boulevard.
 

"I thought it was awesome because I saw the future first lady," the fourth-grader said. "I got really excited, but we weren't supposed to get excited. Not out loud. Our teachers told us not to get excited but to show Michelle it was a regular school day and that we aren't crazy kids. They didn't want us asking her for her autograph."

Isabel Dorval, a 10th-grader at Sidwell, said she was running on the field at the middle/upper school campus on Wisconsin Avenue a little after 4 p.m. when a convoy of cars arrived. About 45 minutes later, the motorcade drove off as Sidwell students waved. Michelle Obama rolled down the window and waved back: "It was cool," said 15-year-old Isabel.

Past presidents have sent their children to both public and private schools. But sources familiar with the process say they expect the Obamas to select a private school, where tuition for both girls would total more than $50,000 a year. The girls attend a private school now near their Chicago home, and Michelle is on the board of trustees.

As is customary during transitions, the outgoing first lady led her successor on a White House tour that focused primarily on the upstairs private residence, including three bedroom suites and three living areas. These areas, along with the Oval Office, are subject to redecoration, as opposed to the public rooms. A stop on the tour always of particular interest, Anthony said, is the first lady's sitting room, whose windows afford a direct view of the Oval Office below: "She can really keep an eye on who's coming and going, who's meeting with the president."

Michelle Obama and Laura Bush also spent time discussing "raising daughters in the White House," Stephanie Cutter, the Obama transition spokeswoman, said in a statement. "Mrs. Obama was honored to finally meet the First Lady, who was a gracious hostess." It was Michelle's second visit to the White House -- she was there once before with Malia and Sasha around the time of her husband's swearing-in to the Senate.

On MSNBC, Anita McBride, Laura Bush's chief of staff, said the first lady showed Michelle Obama where the Bush daughters, Jenna and Barbara, lived.

"She thought the rooms were beautiful and would be perfect for her two little girls and that they could decorate in a way that would be appropriate for young children," McBride said. "And it is a historic room. The Kennedy children lived there. The Johnson girls lived there, Chelsea Clinton as well . . . and Amy Carter."

ITHACA, New York (AP) -- The thought of a driverless, computer-guided car transporting people where they want to go on demand is a futuristic notion to some.

To Jacob Roberts, podcars -- or PRTs, for personal rapid transit -- represent an important component in the here-and-now of transportation.

"It's time we design cities for the human, not for the automobile," said Roberts, president of Connect Ithaca, a group of planning and building professionals, activists and students committed to making this upstate New York college town the first podcar community in the United States.

"In the podcar ... it creates the perfect blend between the privacy and autonomy of the automobile with the public transportation aspect and, of course, it uses clean energy," Roberts said.

With the oil crisis reaching a zenith and federal lawmakers ready to begin fashioning a new national transportation bill for 2010, Roberts and his colleagues think the future is now for podcars -- electric, automated, lightweight vehicles that ride on their own network separate from other traffic.

Unlike mass transit, podcars carry two to 10 passengers, giving travelers the freedom and privacy of their own car while reducing the use of fossil fuels, reducing traffic congestion and freeing up space now monopolized by parking.

At stations located every block or every half-mile, depending on the need, a rider enters a destination on a computerized pad, and a car would take the person nonstop to the location. Stations would have slanted pull-in bays so that some cars could stop for passengers, while others could continue unimpeded on the main course.

"It works almost like an elevator, but horizontally," said Roberts, adding podcar travel would be safer than automobile travel.

The podcar is not entirely new. A limited version with larger cars carrying up to 15 passengers was built in 1975 in Morgantown, West Virginia, and still transports West Virginia University students.

Next year, Heathrow Airport outside London will unveil a pilot podcar system to ferry air travelers on the ground. Companies in Sweden, Poland and Korea are already operating full-scale test tracks to demonstrate the feasibility. Designers are planning a podcar network for Masdar City, outside Abu Dhabi, which is being built as the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen cities in Sweden are planning podcar systems as part of the country's commitment to be fossil-fuel-free by 2020, said Hans Lindqvist, a councilman from Varmdo, Sweden, and chairman of Kompass, an association of groups and municipalities behind the Swedish initiative.

"Today's transportation system is reaching a dead end," said Lindqvist, a former member of the European parliament.

Cars have dominated the cityscape for nearly a century, taking up valuable space while polluting the air, said Magnus Hunhammar, chief executive officer of the Stockholm-based Institute for Sustainable Transportation, the world's leading center on podcar technology.

"Something has to change," he said. "We aren't talking about replacing the automobile entirely. We are adding something else into the transportation strategy."

Skeptics, however, question whether podcars can ever be more than a novelty mode of transportation, suitable only for limited-area operations, such as airports, colleges and corporate campuses. Detractors, mainly light-rail advocates, say a podcar system would be too complex and expensive.

"It is operationally and economically unfeasible," said Vukan Vuchic, a professor of transportation and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania who has written several books on urban transportation.

"In the city, if you have that much demand, you could build these guideways and afford the millions it would take, but you wouldn't have capacity. In the suburbs, you would have capacity, but the demand would be so thin you couldn't possibly pay for those guideways, elevated stations, control systems and everything else," Vuchic said.

Podcars typically run on an elevated guideway or rails, but they also can run at street level. As a starting point, pilot podcar networks can be built along existing infrastructure, supporters say.

Ithaca Mayor Carol Peterson said a podcar network could be part of her upstate city's long-range transportation plans and its mission of developing urban neighborhoods that are environmentally sustainable and pedestrian-friendly. Ithaca has a long history of progressive achievements -- this summer, it began the first community-wide car sharing program in upstate New York.

In Ithaca, a network could connect the downtown business district and main business boulevard with the campuses of Cornell University and Ithaca College, which sit on hillsides flanking the city. When the two colleges are in session, Ithaca's population balloons from about 30,000 to about 80,000, causing big-city congestion on the city's roads.

Santa Cruz, California, recently hired a contractor to design a small solar-powered podcar system that would loop through the city's downtown and along its beach front.

The Institute for Sustainable Transportation predicts a podcar system will be installed in an American city within the next five years, although it is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars. Because of the huge initial investment, funding would have to come from both public and private sectors, IST officials said.

The capital cost is about $25 million to $40 million per mile, which includes guideways, vehicles and stations, compared with $100 million to $300 million a mile for light-rail or subway systems, according to the IST.

Although the plan for Ithaca is only in the conceptual stages, Roberts sees the city as a logical place for the country's first community-wide podcar network, noting that construction of the Erie Canal across upstate New York in the early 1800s revolutionized commercial transportation in a young America.

"Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany are connected along a single line, the Erie Canal. Now, they are connected by the (New York State) Thruway. It would be easy to adapt. You could have a high-speed rail line, or even buses, deliver travelers to the podcar stations, and the podcars take them wherever they want to go in the city," he said.

But podcar developers say they have overcome most technological obstacles and now must overcome the political and cultural barriers that lie ahead, equating it to the mind-set revolution that occurred when Americans hitched up their horses for good to become a nation of motorists.

"We are introducing an alternative to the automobile for the first time in 100 years," said Christopher Perkins, chief executive officer of Unimodal Transport Solutions, a California company that builds podcars that operate on magnetic levitation instead of wheels.

"But if you look back 100 years, you saw that we made the transition from the horse to the car. I think we are ready to make another transition," he said.