14 DAY TRIAL // When you say Steve "Woz" Wozniak, you think of Apple, Mac, iPod. I'm not sure how many of you know that he's also a true philanthropist, or that he's training for the 2007 Nathan's Famous hotdog eating competition, or that he's a polo team member, or that in 1973 he started a Dial-a-Joke telephone line where he told Polish jokes from his home (he's a Polish-American).
Unlike other rich people that simply don't know what to do with all the money they have, so they're buying the biggest cars, houses, boats, jewelry and so on, he decided to participate in a challenge to highlight the fatal flaws of the current internal combustion engine, a competition of alternative fuel cars.
For that, he's using a Hummer H1 Alpha, the civilian version of the US military's high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV or Hum-Vee). I'm talking about the gas guzzling monster that usually does 8.5-12 miles per gallon (25-40 liters/100 km), because his modified Hummer is running on hydrogen fuel cells.
The race is called Zero South Expedition and will travel 1600km up the trans-Antarctic highway built by Americans for "road-trains", the huge tractors that deliver fuel and other supplies to their bases at the South Pole. The journey will take 10 days and Zero South has asked for permission to use the ice highway to the US National Science Foundation.
The expedition is also said to involve a couple more celebrities, like Buzz Aldrin, former astronaut who walked on the moon in 1969 and electric car enthusiast and film-maker Chris Paine.
They said that the long range driving expedition is meant to promote cross-border understanding and goodwill and to raise awareness over the highly pollutant gas and diesel internal combustion engines.
"This exhibition does not promote tourism," said one of the organizers. "Its purpose is to create enlightenment opportunities that will inspire a new generation of scientists, engineers and explorers."
Upon the completion of the journey, three of the vehicles used to make the journey will be exhibited in the United States to educate youth on global climate change, alternative fuels and the importance of the Earth's polar regions.