Free Republic

Coming to America by: Jesse Masai, November 04, 2008 America’s global dominance has found its basis in economic supremacy and both could be ending in light of on-going domestic and international economic difficulties. Carnegie Mellon University professor of political economy and public policy and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Allan Meltzer presented a paper at a recent briefing at the Washington, D.C. think-tank. In the paper, entitled End of the American Century, he argued that major changes are needed in global institutions and that the period of U.S leadership may be coming to an end, and as...

If a Post-Gazette poll taken last week is any indication, a lot of you are really stressed about work. To the question, "Do you have nightmares about your job?", a full 77 percent of respondents -- 815 out of 1056 -- said "yes." Maybe you need to take a nap. At work. That's the idea behind Metronaps, the New York-based brainchild of Carnegie Mellon University grad Arshad Chowdhury. Metronaps offers businesses the opportunity to increase productivity by helping workers to take naps. The service includes an "energy assessment" that surveys workers to evaluate the impact of fatigue in the workplace...

A robotic car named Junior, programmed by Stanford computer scientists, finished slightly ahead of Boss, the robo-vehicle from Carnegie Mellon University, as half a dozen driverless vehicles made history by completing a 60-mile race over a city-like environment. But the real winner of this third and most difficult in a series of robo-races is probably the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which sponsored the first of these events in 2004 to spur development of unmanned military vehicles. In all, 11 robotic vehicles set out on the race course Saturday morning, and while five scrubbed out for various reasons, the fact...

It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-) Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message. To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc., carries a $500 cash prize. Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise...

Comparing life cycle CO2 emissions from plug-in hybrids, coal-to-liquids gasoline, and conventional gasoline. A study from the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center (CEIC) concludes that while enacting policies to subsidize the production of coal-to-liquids transportation fuel would enhance national security by lowering oil imports, encouraging plug-in hybrids powered by coal-generated electricity is a less costly policy that also reduces oil imports and does more to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CEIC produced the paper in the context of the current work by the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce on transportation energy legislation, the current draft of which includes...

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel is trying to see if millions of tiny robots can work together to create a coffee cup, or a model of a truck. Intel's lab in Pittsburgh, affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University, is showing off a technology concept at the Intel Developer Forum here this week called Dynamic Physical Rendering, which could ultimately lead to a shape-shifting fabric.Apply the right voltage and software program and the flat piece of fabric turns into a 3D model of a car. Change those parameters and it transforms into a cube. Dynamic Physical Rendering has grown out of the ongoing Claytronics project...

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop New Type of Mobile Robot That Balances and Moves on a Ball Instead of Legs or Wheels PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new type of mobile robot that balances on a ball instead of legs or wheels. "Ballbot" is a self-contained, battery-operated, omnidirectional robot that balances dynamically on a single urethane-coated metal sphere. It weighs 95 pounds and is the approximate height and width of a person. Because of its long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces, it has the potential to function better than current robots can in environments with...

Tracking DND's missing millions Court documents outline trio's alleged scheme to cash in on bogus contracts Glen McGregor and James Bagnall The Ottawa Citizen Saturday, February 04, 2006 Two Ottawa businessmen charged earlier this week with defrauding the Department of National Defence of more than $100 million fooled everyone for a time through an elaborate billing scheme, according to court documents filed by Hewlett Packard Canada, the company at the centre of the contracting scandal. In the statement of claim filed in a civil lawsuit by HP in December, the company describes how former DND contracts manager Paul Champagne...

"Stanford engineers steered the world toward a new era of driverless vehicles Saturday when their robotic Volkswagen SUV was the first to cross the finish line after a 132-mile race across the Nevada desert...The best showing last year was turned in by a Carnegie Mellon robo-Hummer nicknamed Sandstorm, which went just 7.4 miles in that 142-mile course before it strayed off the road and spun its wheels until the rubber burned. Yet even that ignoble finish fired the imaginations of inventors and hobbyists, who responded in even greater numbers to DARPA's 2005 challenge. In contrast to the 15 teams that...

Three driverless robotic vehicles led by Stanford University on Saturday crossed the finish line of a $2 million Pentagon-sponsored robot race across the rugged Mojave Desert. The race announcer did not immediately declare a winner because 22 out of the 23 robots left the starting line at staggered times at dawn, racing against the clock rather than each other. As Stanford's Volkswagen robot dubbed Stanley crossed the finish line, a group of Stanford students erupted into cheers and carried their team leader, Sebastian Thrun, on their shoulders. "The impossible has been achieved," said Thrun, throwing his cap into the crowd....

Call it the anti-Zionist trifecta. On March 14th Norman Finkelstein, DePaul University professor and author of such books as The Holocaust Industry and Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History spoke at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. Sponsored by the Pittsburgh Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Mr. Finkelstein was actually the second anti-Israeli speaker the PSC brought onto campus. On February 3, the PSC welcomed Ali Abuminah, founder of the so-called “Electronic Intifada,” a website dedicated to promulgating information on Israel’s “37-year-old occupation” of Palestine. “You have to question what Arab students see in common between someone like...

Carnegie Mellon University student Sen. Edward Ryan had two questions for Malik Zulu Shabazz, national chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. "First, do you hate me as a white person?" "I have been taught to respect all people," Shabazz replied. "But I have certain presumptions from what I know, and when I look at you, I do think you are a racist." Ryan then asked if Shabazz could put aside the color of his skin and shake his hand -- a request which Shabazz initially rejected. "I cannot put aside the color of my skin," he said....

An appearance by Malik Shabazz at Carnegie Mellon University last week has infuriated Jewish students, who say he not only devoted a university lecture to attacking them, but broke university rules and asked that Jewish students identify themselves as Jews before a hostile audience. A columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who managed to stay at the appearance when other journalists were forced to leave, wrote: "Shabazz travels with a retinue of young men and women in jackboots, arm patches and berets. One wandered about with a nightstick. Another snapped photos of white people in the audience.... Try to imagine Farrakhan...

PITTSBURGH The Carnegie Mellon University student newspaper defends its decision not to run a conservative group's ad focusing on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

<p>Carnegie Mellon University could reach an agreement next month to set up an undergraduate school in business and computer science in the Middle East. The move is part of the university's broad plan to establish a presence in key regions around the world. Officials in Qatar, a tiny sheikdom on the Persian Gulf, hope a pact with CMU will play a key role in building Education City, a modern version of ancient Alexandria, near its capital, Doha.</p>

Specter of war treads lightly on campuses Student bodies haven't been fully engaged by direct appeals to oppose Iraq attack Sunday, November 24, 2002By Bill Schackner, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Student activists who say their government is about to make an epic mistake gather every Friday around a table on the University of Pittsburgh campus and unfurl a sign with a simple message. "Disagree with a war in Iraq?" asks the poster in the William Pitt Union. "Do something." Pitt senior Lindsay Liprando signs a letter to Presidnet Bush, urging him to reconsider war with Iraq. Andrew Schrock and Caset Currin...