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The Space Colony ARK is a fictional space station in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games. The ARK was classified as the first Bernal sphere space colony (mistranslated to "Bernoulli spherical" in the English translation), and was used by the government for scientific testing and experimentation. From the underside, the ARK looks like the unmistakable face of Dr. Eggman, though judging by the time it was built, it was most likely based off his grandfather Gerald Robotnik, who had an equally impressive moustache. The ARK was inspired by the Death Egg used by Dr. Eggman in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which in turn appears to be inspired by the Death Star from Star Wars.

History
Beginning
It was aboard Space Colony ARK that Professor Gerald Robotnik worked on "Project Shadow" in an attempt to create the "Ultimate life form" as the first step towards discovering the secret of immortality (he did this in order to find a cure for his terminally ill granddaughter, Maria Robotnik). Thus, the ARK was the "birthplace" of both the Biolizard and Shadow the Hedgehog, two results of the project.

Also on the ARK, Gerald worked with the newly discovered Gizoid, an ancient robot. He started up "Project Gizoid" and established a "Link" with the Gizoid, but in order to buy more time to finish Project Shadow, he gave up the Gizoid to the government. The Gizoid ended up destroying a large portion of the ARK after absorbing a large amount of weaponry. The government decided that what was going on with Gerald in the ARK was completely dangerous and shut down Project Shadow.

When Project Shadow was shut down, Robotnik refused to end his work before he had found the cure he sought. Thus, GUN invaded the space station to end the program by force. Maria was killed during the raid, and the news of her death sent her grandfather into despair. He plotted revenge against the entire planet. The Biolizard remained aboard ARK, having nearly decimated the invaders, and Shadow the Hedgehog was shot down to Earth in a stasis tube.

After sealing the Biolizard, GUN killed or imprisoned everyone that knew about Project Shadow. They took everyone else down to Earth, explaining that there had been an accident aboard the ARK that had rendered it uninhabitable. They then apparently sealed the "face" part of the ARK with a rock-like half-sphere, making the colony look like an asteroid, possibly to conceal its existence for years to come, though the actual reason is not known.

Sonic Adventure 2
During Sonic Adventure 2, a reawakened Shadow the Hedgehog led Doctor Eggman (Gerald's grandson), and Rouge the Bat to the ARK as part of his own plans to get vengeance for the death of Maria. They planned to activate the Eclipse Cannon, a powerful weapon of mass destruction that, when powered by Chaos Emeralds, could destroy a planet. When six of the seven emeralds were connected to the power supply, Eggman demonstrated the power of the Cannon by blowing up half of the moon and threatened to do the same to Earth in 24 hours unless the people on the planet followed his demands.

When Sonic the Hedgehog (along with his friends Tails, Knuckles, and Amy) tried to intervene, Eggman stole the seventh Chaos Emerald from them. However, when he inserted the final Emerald, rather than activating the full power of the weapon, a recording made by Gerald Robotnik appeared on several monitors, and the ARK itself began hurtling towards Earth. This was Gerald's plan for revenge: should anyone attempt to bring the Eclipse Cannon to its full power with the Chaos Emeralds, a hidden program would transfer the Emeralds' power to the ship's propulsion systems. To stop it, Sonic and Knuckles made their way to the core. However, they were waylaid by the Biolizard, which had also been awoken when the seventh Emerald had been connected to the cannon. At the same time, Amy convinced Shadow that Maria's final wish was that he should protect mankind, not destroy it, and Shadow quickly went to help by distracting the Biolizard. This allowed Knuckles enough time to deactivate the power of the Chaos Emeralds by using the Master Emerald. The Biolizard, however, was deadset on following through with the program, and used Chaos Control to merge with the Colony itself, becoming the Finalhazard, and continued its descent to the planet.

Sonic and Shadow used the power of the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and Super Shadow respectively. The two fought and defeated the Finalhazard, then used Chaos Control to teleport the entire colony a safe distance from Earth again. However, this used the last of Shadow's strength, as he had already spent a large portion of it defeating the Biolizard the first time, and he fell to Earth, believed to have died. Later games revealed that he was in fact saved by one of Eggman's robots.

Shadow the Hedgehog
In Shadow the Hedgehog, it is revealed that the true (or at least the original) purpose of the Eclipse Cannon was not to destroy Earth; instead, it was intended to destroy the alien Black Arms' base of operations, the Black Comet, in order to save the planet from the evil intentions of its leader, Black Doom.

It is also revealed in Shadow the Hedgehog that the GUN Commander was also aboard the ARK fifty years ago, and shared a sibling-esque relationship with Maria. It is unclear how he survived the GUN raid of the ARK, but he holds a strong grudge against Shadow, blaming Shadow for the death of everyone, his family and Maria included, aboard the ARK.

Another important fact revealed was that the program that activated and set the ARK on its collision course with Earth in Sonic Adventure 2 was, like the Eclipse Cannon, also a defense mechanism. Robotnik installed it as a last resort maneuver, in case the Black Arms somehow got a hold of the Eclipse Cannon and all seven Chaos Emeralds and used them to conquer Earth. Hypothetically, the program would've activated, and the ARK would've impacted the conquered Earth, destroying it, the ARK, and the rest of the Black Arms. If the Black Arms tried to stop the collision, the Biolizard would've hindered them from doing so, as it did with Sonic and company.

Notably, the Eclipse Cannon is used against Earth in Shadow the Hedgehog. After following the Dark mission of the "The ARK" stage, Shadow and Black Doom took over the Eclipse Cannon and fired it at The President's residence in Central City. Since the cannon was only powered by five Chaos Emeralds at the point, the result was not world destruction, but an Independence Day-style explosion that devastated Central City. However, since Shadow is heroic in the true end of the game, it is very unlikely he followed the evil route, and as such Central City was most likely not destroyed. This also supported because in the true ending of the game Central City is seen to still exist, albeit in ruins because of the attacks by the Black Arms. In another of the game's endings, the Black Arms destroy the ARK; this is also not canon.

In the final story's ending, Shadow uses the Eclipse Cannon for its true purpose: destroying the Black Comet and the Black Arms with it, much to the happiness and relief of the GUN Commander and the President, who were watching from the control room of the GUN Fortress. They finally saw that Gerald did not make the Eclipse Cannon to destroy Earth but, aware of Black Doom's plot to enslave humanity, created it to destroy him and the Black Arms as a whole.

Other
It is unknown if the ARK will appear in future Sonic games, considering Shadow's story and past have now been fully resolved. It recently appeared as a collectable card in Sonic Rivals.

The Space Colony ARK also appeared in the Sonic X adaption of Sonic Adventure 2, along with the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book.

Mechanism and others
According to an eyecatcher information card from Sonic X, the ARK is 15 kilometers (9.32 miles) in diameter, and weighs 1.5 billion tons..

The ARK is crewed by robots and has six wings, three on each side (which were torn off when the ARK fell towards Earth at the end of Sonic Adventure 2, yet reappeared after Sonic and Shadow's Chaos Control). Their purpose is unknown, though they look vaguely like solar panels, which may act as the colony's power source. They are the "moustache" of the colony.It has numerous column-like buildings on its surface surrounding the Eclipse Cannon, which are likely living quarters, laboratories, and other rooms. There are also various platforms floating in space near the ARK, possibly meant for loading and unloading supplies.

The ARK is protected from intruders by a variety of GUN robots and , along with small mine-firing turrets, powerful homing missile cannons and floating green energy shields. Inside the station there are pools of strange, liquid-like green energy, and an abundance of mechanisms that control the artificial gravity.

Also, the ARK has looked slightly different each time it has been shown. In Sonic Adventure 2, the ARK had a nominally clear blue surface, the Eclipse Cannon fired a large blue beam (which was green in Shadow the Hedgehog) that had to be charged up like a super laser. There are also many large columns sticking out of the bottom, but strangely enough, when the ARK is shown in cinema scenes, these huge columns are never visible.

However, in Sonic X, the ARK is mainly a gray color and has small, round spots on it. The columns under the ARK are never visible, and the interior is drastically altered from SA2. The charging process is also drastically different, as a large collection of lightning goes to the tip of the Eclipse Cannon and creates a large, blue ball (different from the games). The Sonic X ARK also has small laser cannon turrets placed in the "eyes" of the station, which are never seen in any games.



Eclipse Cannon

The Eclipse Cannon was the ultimate weapon of mass destruction on Space Colony ARK, notably able to destroy entire planets and pierce stars. The Chaos Emeralds were the necessary energy source to activate its full power, as it needed large amounts of energy. The Eclipse Cannon has been seen to destroy a large city with five Emeralds, half a moon with six, and can supposedly destroy planets and pierce stars with all seven. (Strangely, Eggman was able to create a cannon with more potency without Emeralds in Sonic Battle, stating that several stars had been destroyed when he fired it.) In Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow claims that it was just one of the weapons created onboard the ARK.

The Eclipse Cannon is a long, slim energy cannon situated inside the "nose" of the ARK, which opens up when one is firing the cannon. When fired, the Eclipse Cannon charges up energy that moves from the four open "nose" parts to the cannon itself. After a few seconds of charging it reaches its peak, and fires a huge energy beam straight forward. The energy was light blue in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic X, but green in Shadow the Hedgehog. The Eclipse Cannon bares some resemblance to the main weapon on board the alien spacecrafts in the film "Independence Day."

The core of the Eclipse Cannon is designed as an exact replica of shrine of the Master Emerald on Angel Island. However, the shrine in the core is intact while the real one is in ruins. This was, according to Sonic, done to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds. The cannon itself has only been fired three times: at the moon, Central City, and at the Black Comet. In fact, the original intention of the Eclipse Cannon was to destroy the Black Comet when it returned.




pl:Kolonia kosmiczna ARK
pt:Space colony ARK

Bali Wangi Stadium is a future multi-use stadium in Gianyar, Indonesia. It will be used mostly for football matches and will be the new home stadium for Bali Persegi FC (if allowed). The stadium will have a capacity of 85,000 people or more. It will be the biggest stadium in Indonesia and one of the biggest in Asia.

Currently, the stadium construction progress is not more than ten percent. The model of the stadium is almost like City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. The government has it constructed quickly, so it will be done and it can be used in 2009. AFC has planned to use it as the final place of several football events in Asia in the future. FIFA also dreamt that the stadium will be used for World Cup in the future. It will be one of the most crowded stadium in Indonesia and in Asia.

The stadium will cost at least 438 trillion Rupiah to build, or approximately US$48.7 million. It will be the one of the expensive stadiums in Indonesia and in Asia.



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In 2004, the US Department of Energy (DoE) set up a panel of 18 scientists to review the status of cold fusion research. It was asked 3 questions: "is the evidence of cold fusion convincing?", "is the evidence convincing beyond doubt?", and "should research continue?". It was divided on the first one, mostly negative for the second one, and nearly unanimously positive for the third one.

History
In late 2003, a group of cold fusion researchers requested the DoE to review the new experimental data and supporting theory since the 1989 review. DoE accepted, and asked the requesters to prepare a review document that identified the most significant experimental observations and publications, and those areas where additional work would appear to be warranted. In July 2004, this document was submitted to the DoE by Professor Peter Hagelstein of MIT, Dr. Michael McKubre of SRI International, Professor David Nagel of George Washington University, Dr. Talbot Chubb of Research Systems Inc., and Mr. Randall Hekman of Hekman Industries.

The Basic Energy Sciences and Nuclear Physics Offices in the DOE Office of Science conducted a peer review of the submitted material in a manner typical for a DOE sponsored university or laboratory research program. The review had two components. First, the review document received by DOE was sent out for peer review by mail. Nine scientists with appropriate scientific backgrounds in experimental and theoretical nuclear physics, material science, and electrochemistry were identified by DOE, and were given approximately one month to review the report and supplementary material. The second part of the review consisted of a one-day review conducted on August 23, 2004. The reviewers consisted of nine additional scientists chosen by DOE for their expertise in relevant fields. The known reviewers are Allen Bard (University of Texas), W. Brown (Lehigh University), M.Y Chou (Georgia Tech), W. Coblenz (DARPA), G. Hale (LANL), K. Kempar (Florida State University), D. Klepner (MIT), D. Liebenberg (Clemson University), B. Mueller (Duke University), P. Paul (BNL), J. Smith (formerly DoE).

Anonymous comments from the mail peer review referred to above were provided to members of the reviewers prior to the presentations. Oral presentations were made to the reviewers by research scientists, chosen by the authors of the review document. Six research groups gave approximately one hour presentations on the work being performed in their laboratories: Peter Hagelstein (a MIT physicist), Graham Hubler (a Navy researcher) and four other scientists from Russia (Andrei Lipson), Italy (Vittorio Violante) and the United States (Steve Jones, Michael McKubre, Ed Storms). The meeting began with harsh questions, but at the end of the day, the mood had visibly lifted and the researchers and panelists shook hands. Individual comments from reviewers were requested following the presentations. The choice to collect individual conclusions rather than elicit a group recommendation allowed the DOE to close the meeting to the public under a loophole of federal law.

The organisation of the panel has been criticized both by cold fusion researchers and skeptics. Some skeptics complained that the names of the reviewers were not published, and that it circumvented the Federal Advisory Committee Act . CMNS researchers say that the DOE review was limited in scope, by request of the DOE. Thus nuclear transmutations and other topics were not reviewed. Furthermore, the reviewers were not active in the fields, did not know of its key experiments and were ignorant of its literature.. Their detailed responses showed lack of interest and had serious flaws in their justification.

Summary of the document presented by the researchers
In the document submitted to the DOE, the researchers did not address the entire body of research. Instead, they presented a subset of research from two areas: selected issues associated with excess heat production in deuterated metals, and a brief discussion of some aspects of nuclear emissions from deuterated metals.

Excess heat
Excess heat has been observed with a variety of calorimeters based on varying operating principles and by different groups in different labs, with the experiments detailed in this report reflecting similar results. The authors state that possibility of calorimetric errors has been carefully considered, studied, tested and ultimately rejected.

In 1989, Fleischann and Pons used an open cell from which energy was lost in a variety of ways, and the differential equation used to determine excess energy was awkward and subject to misunderstanding, and has an accuracy of 1% or less. Experiments at SRI International use a flow calorimeter around closed cells. The governing equations in the SRI experiment become trivial, and have accuracy of 0.5 % or better. Successful experiments show excess power well above the accuracy of measurement.

The excess heat effect has its origin within the metal deuteride, as shown by measurement of temperature gradients in the electrolyte. It is not yet clear whether the excess heat is a surface or bulk effect. The energy density relative to the total cathode volume is measured at 450 eV/atom and above, a value much greater than what might be expected from chemical effects.

The effect appears to increase approximately parabolically with the level of the D:Pd atomic ratio in the cathode, above a threshold of D:Pd of about 0.875. Below that threshold of loading, no effect is observed; above 0.95, all 49 experiments at SRI International in 1990 and 1991 manifested excess heat well above measurement uncertainty. Such high loading is accompanied by high internal pressure, and it is necessary for the cathode to be able to withstand it. Even in high loading conditions, the deuterons are further apart than in D₂, so that the pair-wise fusion rate cannot promote an excess heat effect.

The excess heat effect seems to be correlated with the surface chemical potential of deuterium, although inhomogeneous loading, important deuterium fluxes and contamination by other species such as lithium make its measurement imprecise. The excess heat effect also increases with temperature, resulting in a thermal positive feedback effect. The temperature dependence follows the Arrhenius equation, with an activation energy of about 15 Kcal/mol. This small activation energy is thought to be associated with creating the proper chemical environment and not associated directly with the nuclear process. Excess power also increases linearly with the electrochemical current density, above a threshold of about 265 mA / cm 2.

The excess heat effect is often observed to be stimulated by changes in the experimental conditions, such as the application of a heat pulse, changes in current density. Quantitative evidence indicates that deuterium flux plays an important role in triggering the excess heat effect.

Nuclear ashes
There are insufficient chemical reaction products to account for the excess heat by several orders of magnitude. The attention has been directed to the search for nuclear ashes in amounts commensurate with the energy produced. Searches for neutrons and other energetic emissions commensurate with excess heat have uniformly produced null results. Although there appears to be evidence of transmutations and isotope shifts near the cathode surface in some experiments, it is generally accepted that these anomalies are not the ash associated with the primary excess heat effect. The focus of attention has been on helium as the primary nuclear reaction product.

Three independent studies have shown that the rate of helium production measured in the gas stream varies linearly with excess power. Extensive precautions were taken to ensure that the samples were not contaminated by helium from the earth's atmosphere (5.2 ppm). Bursts of excess energy were time-correlated with bursts of 4He in the gas stream. However, the amount of helium in the gas stream was about half of what would be expected for a heat source of the type D + D -> 4He. It is thus believed that helium is partially retained in the cathode. A study conducted at SRI International used different methods to purge the helium out of the metal, and the energy released was shown to be consistent with D + D -> 4He (however the number of samples were few, and the largest value of 4He measured was less than 50% of that in air)

Other nuclear effects
Neutron emissions near 2.45 MeV consistent with deuteron-deuteron fusion have been first reported by Jones in 1989. Since that time, there have been numerous reports of neutron and charged particle emission. The level of energy associated with these low level emissions is not observable calorimetrically.

The correlation between these emissions and excess heat has been under discussion. An anticorrelation between excess heat and neutrons was reported by Okamoto and coworkers. Neutron emission is associated with low current densities (around 30 mA / cm2) while excess heat appears over 250 mA / cm2, suggesting that the different effects have different operating regimes. A study shows that cathodes producing the largest excess heat at high current densities also shows the largest neutron emission at low current density.

Other researchers have detected very energetic charged particles. The appearance of such signals provides additional information that may be helpful in understanding the underlying physical process responsible for the new effects.

Conclusions
The experimental data shows evidence of:
* the existence of a physical effect that produces heat in metal deuterides.
* the production of 4He in amounts commensurate with a D + D -> 4He reaction mechanism
* a physical effect that results in the emission of energetic particles
The underlying process that produce these results are not manifestly evident from experiment. The scientific questions posed by these experiments are both worthy and capable of resolution by a dedicated program of scientific research.

Main conclusions of the review by the panelists
The 18 reviewers were split approximately evenly on the issue "Is there compelling evidence for power that cannot be attributed to ordinary chemical or solid states sources". However, those who accepted evidence of such power did not believe that a nuclear reaction could explain it: two-thirds of the reviewers did not feel that the evidence was conclusive for low energy nuclear reaction. One found the evidence convincing, and the remainder indicated that they were somewhat convinced.

Many reviewers noted that poor experiment design, documentation, background control and other similar issues hampered the understanding and interpretation of the results presented.

The nearly unanimous opinion of the reviewers was that funding agencies should entertain individual, well-designed proposal for experiments in this field. To resolve the controversy, they favored further investigation of the properties of deuterated metals and of the particles that they reportedly emit, using modern tools and techniques.

Reviewer comments
Here are some quotes from the reviewers:
* Review 1. "The evidence does not demonstrate that a new phenomenon is occurring."
* Review 2. "... there appears to be rather convincing evidence for the production of excess heat and for the production of 4He in metal deuterides. ... There is no convincing evidence for the occurrence of nuclear reactions in condensed matter associated with the reports of excess heat production."
* Review 3. "... the evidence strongly suggests a nuclear origin for the excess heat observed in palladium rods highly loaded with deuterium."
* Review 4. "This set of articles make a significant case for phenomena in the deuterium/palladium system that is (I) markedly different from that of the hydrogen/palladium system, (ii) supportive of the claim that excess energy is generated in the deuterium/palladium system, and (iii) without a coherent theoretical explanation."
* Review 5. "My feeling is that there should be no funds set aside for support of CF research but, if the DOE receives a proposal in this area which suggests some definitive research which settle some of the issues, it should consider it for support as it would any other proposal."
* Review 6. "I find nothing in the articles that I've read that convinces me that the new anomalies reported are not experimental artifacts."
* Review 7. "I find in summary that, even after all of the work that has been done, the case is spotty for the existence of the cold fusion phenomenon. I am not convinced by the evidence that I have seen ..."
* Review 8. "If the bottom line is that experiments in which x > 0.95 in PdDx (at room temperature) give anomalous effects reliably (even if achieving that high x is very difficult and very dependent on the materials science of the Pd), while heat balance is attained for x < 0.9 in PdDx (or when using PdHx at all x), we've got the start of science."
* Review 9. "Evidence for excess heat in LENR experiments is compelling and well established. ... The body of work that has resulted from LENR investigations is formidable and worthy of attention of the broader scientific community. It is unfortunate that a few vocal individuals have manage to stigmatize this field and those working in it."
* Review 10. "In a general summary of the calorimetric results, the observation of sudden and prolonged temperature excursions ..., has been made a sufficient number of times that, even if not totally reproducible, still have not been explained in terms of conventional chemistry or electrochemistry ... At this stage, I think the evidence suggests the possibility of such events, cannot be considered conclusive beyond a reasonable doubt, for reasons alluded to above."
* Review 11. "the care in which the measurements are done for experiments that do show excess heat are convincing evidence of low energy nuclear reactions. ... There is strong evidence of nuclear reactions in palladium, and suggestions of reactions in the titanium foil experiments."
* Review 12. "There seem to be increasing evidence for the production of excess heat, even though the reason is totally unknown. ... Yes, it is likely that an unknown process (in materials physics or in nuclear physics) is responsible. However, the link to nuclear reaction is still not strong enough at the present time. ... The current evidence is not sufficiently conclusive to demonstrate that nuclear reactions occur in metal deuterides yet."
* Review 13. "... there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that very low energy nuclear reactions can occur in condensed matter at rates that are totally unexpected"
* Review 14. "I am not persuaded that such energy has been produced."
* Review 15. "As one of the reviewers stated, one can never disprove something and this is my feeling about "cold fusion"."
* Review 16. "My opinion is that none of the experimental evidence directly presented to us is conclusive that nuclear reactions are occurring in these environments, but some of the evidence is certainly suggestive that they are."
* Review 17. "Most "nuclear" measurements (particle emission) are not convincing in comparison with the state of the art in low energy nuclear physics."
* Review 18. "Although experiments have become more sophisticated there is no new convincing or even tantalizing evidence for LENR."