The Middle East Could Become Irrelevant

Wow, just wow -- that's all.
This is AWESOME!
I just saw a short piece on a documentary anthology [Beyond Tomorrow] on the Science Channel.

It seems a man has invented a new engine that runs on -- get this -- compressed air! So far, the engine is being used to power such things as forklifts. Well, except for the personal automobile of the inventor of the engine.
It was demonstrated that one of these forklifts can tow a full-sized pickup truck--with an engine that can be held in one hand. It weighs 12 kilos -- just under 26 1/2 pounds. And there's one on the drawing board that weighs in a SIX kilos! That's 13.2276 pounds.
It takes about 2 minutes to fill your tank and you will get about 2 hours of drive time. Compressed air isn't flammable -- so you can carry your fuel source with you. Start to run low, pull over and fill your tank wherever you are and just keep on truckin'. Then, every so often, stop at a filling station and refill your air tank.

Oh, and by the way -- I'm not sure of how it works but there's no transmission as we know it today. No gears, no cogs, no pistons. The air that fuels the engine also keeps all the moving parts from touching each other. So no oil for lubrication is needed.
The engine is much more efficient than internal combustion engines. In our cars today, much of the energy derived from the gasoline goes toward running the engine itself--so less is used to actually propel the wheels. The new engine doesn't work on these same principles. Almost all the fuel is used directly to propel the car forward and almost none is used to keep the engine, itself, running. It sounds suspiciously like a perpetual motion machine.

I'm not sure of his nationality but, not surprisingly, the man who invented the engine is some stripe of European. Also not surprisingly, there have been no news stories in this country about this engine that will take much less in the way of raw materials to manufacture, cost MUCH less than a standard engine to produce, will run on air and could save our species from itself almost single handedly.

I've been drooling over the Prius and vowing to buy one as soon as I could afford it. NO MORE. Now, I'm going to hold out for a car that needs no gasoline, no hydrogen, no batteries, just AIR!
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update:
I'm watching a show right now on the science channel.

it showed a battery made by nano-organisms-- viruses.
they're already on the market: lithium batteries. only, I learned by bitter experience: don't use em in conventional objects.
the batteries are advertised to last 7x as long as alkaline batteries 'in your digital camera.'
my bad. two of em only lasted 3 or 4 days in my sphygmomanometer. oops. ok -- I'll only use em in computer-related devices from now on.

and, someone is now developing similar batteries to use in cars. it will be a hybrid car that, so far, will use gasoline. and, you'll get 150 mi to the gallon.

these batteries, tho, are safer to dispose of than conventional batteries. so, ok, I spent 2ce as much on the batteries and burned 2 of em out quickly. but, at least I didn't pollute the environment when I threw em away after wasting em.