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May this happen in our lifetimes
A wonderful vision. Wait and see....
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U.S. shifting aid to upgrade Pakistan fighter jets
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States plans to shift about $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counterterrorism programs to upgrading the nation's aging F-16 fighter jets.
U.S. officials say the Pakistani army is a key ally in efforts to fight terrorism.
"We've shifted money to help the democratically elected government of Pakistan to fight a common foe, a common enemy that we have," said Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman.
Pakistan is the largest recipient of payments from the Coalition Support Funds, which gives money to 27 partner countries help combat terrorism.
Last year, Congress mandated that $300 million in aid to Pakistan go toward fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban, partly by beefing up law enforcement and developing tribal areas of the country that are hostile to the United States.
Skeptical lawmakers worry that the F-16 upgrades will divert funding from crucial counterterrorism programs and could be more about helping Pakistan competing with its rival, India, than fighting terror.
Nita Lowey, chairwoman of a House subcommittee on foreign operations, said the request from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reprogram the funding "raises serious concerns."
Lowey is asking for more information before signing off on the change.
"Congress provided these funds specifically for counterterrorism and law enforcement activities," Lowey said in a written statement.
"It is incumbent on the State Department and Pakistan to demonstrate clearly how these F-16s would be used to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to get congressional support."
It is not the first time U.S. aid to Pakistan has come under scrutiny. In June, the Government Accountability Office and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs released a report that said the United States has not accurately tracked about $6 billion it gave to help the Pakistani government fight terrorism since 2001.
The country, which the Department of Defense considers a key ally in the war on terrorism because of its proximity to large swaths of ungoverned tribal land, has received $5.56 billion of $6.88 billion given out since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
U.S. and Pakistani officials claim that the F-16s are used to fly missions over regions near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where the Taliban are operating and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
The upgrades, which will bring the old fleet in line with new F-16s Pakistan recently purchased from the United States, will allow Pakistan's F-16 fleet to operate day and night missions and "effectively employ ground operations," Gallegos said.
The funds will be diverted from upgrades on other airplanes used for fighting terrorism, Gallegos said. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States plans to shift about $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counterterrorism programs to upgrading... more -
US Army turns to toy company to develop new weapon
We're not quite sure how the pitch session went with this one, but it looks like the US Army was so impressed by toymaker Lund and Company's Hydrogen Fuel Rocket that it decided to recruit the company to build a decidedly more lethal version of it. The new system, dubbed the Variable Velocity Weapon System, will apparently be able to be switched between lethal and non-lethal modes, and be loaded with rubber bullets, actual bullets, or other projectiles, which are fired by mixing a liquid or gaseous fuel with air in a combustion chamber. What's more, the company says that the technology could be applied to any size weapon from a "handgun to a Howitzer," and it says a demonstration version could be ready in as little as six months, with full production possible within 18 months, pending approval. We're not quite sure how the pitch session went with this one, but it looks like the US Army was so impressed by toymaker Lund and Com... more
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Microsoft demos robotic receptionist
REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft's receptionist of the future is a robot.
Chief Research and Strategy officer Craig Mundie on Thursday demonstrated a software-based robot that uses a combination of visual and voice recognition as well as speech synthesis to handle basic tasks. Microsoft itself plans to use the software robot to handle shuttle requests in its own buildings, which typically have a pair of receptionists to handle visitors and shuttle requests.
In a video, two Microsoft employees approach the robot, who said (in a rather robotic voice) "Which building do you want to go to?"
After checking that she heard the visitors correctly, and double-checking both workers want to take the same shuttle, the robot declares: "It should be here in four minutes."
"This is what a natural user interface is all about and it won't be just a receptionist," Mundie said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
Microsoft has launched a robotics effort, though it is still in its early stages.
The demo came as part of Mundie's presentation at the company's Financial Analysts Meeting here. Mundie is one of two executives (Ray Ozzie is the other) tasked with filling the very large shoes left by Bill Gates, who stepped down from full-time work at Microsoft last month.
Ozzie also presented Thursday, promising the rest of Microsoft's cloud computing strategy will be revealed over the coming fiscal year (which runs through June), although he gave little in the way of new specifics.
"FY 09 will round out the story with some significant announcements," he said. Microsoft is widely expected to expand on its Live Mesh product and discuss its developer strategy at its Professional Developers Conference, which takes place in October in Los Angeles. REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft's receptionist of the future is a robot. ... more -
Obama's Global message?
What a fucking globalist scumbag.
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Federal minimum wage rises to $6.55 today
About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.
The increase, from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour, is the second of three annual increases required by a 2007 law. Next year's boost will bring the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour.The new minimum is less than the inflation-adjusted 1997 level of $7.02, and far below the inflation-adjusted level of $10.06 from 40 years ago, according to a Labor Department inflation calculator.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws making the minimum wage higher than the new federal requirement, a group covering 60 percent of U.S. workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank. About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices ar... more -
America's "brain-dead" politics
This an old clip (March) from Fareed Zakaria. His message is still relevant and fascinating concept on our politics.
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Jobless claims rise to 406,000
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest in almost four months, a sign the slowing economy is weakening the labor market.
Initial jobless claims increased by 34,000 to 406,000 in the week ended July 19, from a revised 372,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The filings exceeded economists' forecast and were the most since 406,000 in the week ended March 29.
U.S. employers are reducing workers as surging fuel costs, a three-year housing slump and a crisis in credit markets restrains demand. Rising joblessness reinforces concern that consumers will pull back on spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy.
``The underlying picture is one of a labor market that is weak,'' said David Sloan, senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, whose forecast of 410,000 was the closest to the actual number in a Bloomberg News survey of 44 economists. ``The economy is growing slowly so you tend to see job losses rising. The weakness could increase further in coming months.''
Treasuries were higher, pushing yields down. The benchmark 10-year note yielded 4.09 percent as of 8:50 a.m. in New York, down 3 basis points from yesterday.
Near 2005 High The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest in almost four months, a sign... more -
women at 100 could give birth with new fetility treatment.
In 30 years time women could conceive at any age and infertility could be eradicated, say scientists Woman will soon be able to give birth at the age of 100 due to advances in fertility treatment, scientists have predicted. Within three decades, women of any age - from children to pensioners - could successfully conceive as infertility is effectively eradicated, it is claimed.
Parents would then be able to choose a so-called 'designer' baby, selecting their perfect child based on characteristics such as hair colour and height to intelligence and disease-free genes.
The forecast, reported in Nature, were made by leading scientists who were asked to anticipate advances in reproduction by 2038 to mark the 30th birthday of Louise Brown, the world's first test-tube baby.Experts say advances in germ cell technology in which skin cells are used to create sperm and eggs and then combined to make human embryos will soon allow women to start a family at any time in their lives.
The technology is still to be developed, but biologists believe that treatments using cells from skin called induced pluripotent stem cells could replace IVF
In 30 years time women could conceive at any age and infertility could be eradicated, say scientists Woman will soon be able to give b... more -
A vision of your virtual assistant
Cisco, the world's biggest manufacturer of routers and switches that direct Internet traffic, illustrates the directions it sees technology veering.
A virtual assistant who performs an array of duties ranging from tracking stocks to explaining concepts like love, a 'mobile concierge' system designed to make bricks and mortar retail stores more dynamic and a new video buffer system that helps Internet Service Providers reduce digital dropout in high-definition video services are just a few ideas the U.S. based company is demonstrating at an "innovation day" at its UK headquarters. Cisco, the world's biggest manufacturer of routers and switches that direct Internet traffic, illustrates the directions it sees techn... more -
The Car of Tomorrow Has an Extension Cord
Forget hydrogen. The car of the future has an extension cord and a great big laptop battery.
The next evolution of the automobile will be plug-in hybrids that get their juice from a household electrical outlet. They'll start rolling into showrooms within in 18 months. Experts say plug-in hybrids could account for about 20 percent of vehicle sales within a decade -- and half of all sales by 2050.
"It all boils down to the three ways electricity is better than gasoline," says Felix Kramer of Cal Cars, a plug-in advocacy group. "It's cleaner, it's cheaper and it's domestic."
Advocates say plug-in hybrids are the best chance to address global warming and wean the nation from oil. Consumers remain unsure about electric vehicles. Ethanol's a shaky proposition because of the food-for-fuel debate. And it'll be decades before hydrogen is a viable option. That, advocates say, leaves plug-ins as the best option. They'll go up to 40 miles on a charge; but they'll also have a gas engine to keep you going beyond that at 80 to 100 mpg or more.
People have been converting conventional hybrids to plug-ins for years, but the auto industry has been slow to catch on. Now the big automakers and start-ups like Fisker Automotive are scrambling to build them despite questions about their cost and long-term reliability. Those are just two of the issues that automakers, battery manufacturers and utility companies will discuss next week at the international Plug-In 2008 conference in San Jose.
"The discussion is no longer one of 'if,' but of 'when' and 'how,'" says Chelesa Sexton, executive director of the advocacy group Plug-In America. "This has moved beyond the grass-roots level into the policy and business arenas."
It all starts in 2010. General Motors promises to have the Chevrolet Volt rolling into showrooms by then. Toyota says it will roll out a small fleet of plug-in Prius hybrids to see how they do. Volkswagen has similar plans for its plug-in Golf. And Fisker hopes to have a few dozen pricey Karma sedans in driveways within 18 months. Ford and others are moving more slowly, aiming for 2012 and beyond.
Automakers know plug-in hybrids are their best shot at meeting tightening federal fuel-economy regulations, and California's zero-emissions-vehicle mandate requires them to put nearly 60,000 of them on the road in six years. They're also responding to a seismic change in the market as record-high gas prices have consumers, fed-up with paying through the nose for gasoline, joining environmentalists to demand fuel-efficient cars. Forget hydrogen. The car of the future has an extension cord and a great big laptop battery. ... more -
The future - powered by Intel imaginations
The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network on Thursday launched the World Mural Project, which hosts an online mural encouraging children around the world to digitally illustrate their predictions of "what computers will empower us to do" in 40 years. Over 500 children in 21 countries and 14 U.S. states participated in the project.
Their contributions are endearing, if not hilarious: Wearable computers; health care improving our brain power; teleportation; and the best one -- flying cars that cure cancer (what?) The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network on Thursday launched the World Mural Project, which hosts an online mural encouraging children ar... more -
A Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy
WASHINGTON — Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day. WASHINGTON — Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mail... more
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Iran deems US threat to be 'serious'
Commander of IRGC's ground force Mohammad-Jafar Asadi has described recent US threats against the Islamic Republic as direct and serious. Commander of IRGC's ground force Mohammad-Jafar Asadi has described recent US threats against the Islamic Republic as direct and serio... more
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McCain-As-War-Hero Myth
NEW YORK — Every presidential candidacy relies on a myth. Reagan was a great communicator; Clinton felt your pain. Both storylines were ridiculous. But rarely are the constructs used to market a party nominee as transparent or as fictional as those we’re being asked to swallow in 2008.
NEW YORK — Every presidential candidacy relies on a myth. Reagan was a great communicator; Clinton felt your pain. Both storylines wer... more -
NASA Collects Gallons of Employee Urine
From the report: Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, as part of its work on the new Orion space capsule that eventually would take astronauts to the moon. From the report: Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Te... more
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Scientists: humans and machines will merge in as little as two decades
From the report: By the 2030s humans will become more non-biological than biological, capable of uploading our minds onto the Internet, living in various virtual worlds and even avoiding aging and evading death.
In the 2040s, [Scientist Ray] Kurzweil predicts non-biological intelligence will be billions of times better than the biological intelligence humans have today, possibly rendering our present brains as obsolete. From the report: By the 2030s humans will become more non-biological than biological, capable of uploading our minds onto the Interne... more -
Wholesale inflation is worst in 27 years
WASHINGTON (AP) - Soaring costs for gasoline and food pushed inflation at the wholesale level up by a larger-than-expected amount in June, leaving inflation rising over the past year at the fastest pace in more than a quarter-century. WASHINGTON (AP) - Soaring costs for gasoline and food pushed inflation at the wholesale level up by a larger-than-expected amount in J... more
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Where are we headed?
As we move into an increasingly multipolar world, what are the implications on our society and the balance of power? As more and more rising nations jostle for power and the strength of the dollar falls, could something else take its place? What would it be? YaleGlobal looks at the possibilities and implications of our emerging multipolar world. As we move into an increasingly multipolar world, what are the implications on our society and the balance of power? As more and more... more
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EU Parliament warns Italy over Gypsy fingerprinting
"The European Parliament on Thursday called the fingerprinting of Gypsies in Italy a clear act of racial discrimination and urged the authorities to stop it.
In a resolution, the EU assembly said the measure is not supported by EU human rights treaties and that EU citizens of Roma, or Gypsy, origin must not be treated differently from others in Italy, who are not required to submit their fingerprints.
The Italian government has begun the Gypsy fingerprinting as part of a wider crackdown on street crime. Italian newspapers have published photographs of gloved officials taking fingerprints from the ink-stained hands of Gypsies living in around Naples, and authorities are expected to move in on camps in other cities in the coming days.
Early examples of the papers filed in Naples showed local authorities also were identifying those fingerprinted according to their religion, ethnicity and education level..."
"The European Parliament on Thursday called the fingerprinting of Gypsies in Italy a clear act of racial discrimination and urged the ... more
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