Free Republic

California government is in the midst of a major push into information-technology development that envisions 1,000 IT new hires over the next few years; more attention to larger, more complex contracts; and a dramatic ramping-up of the office that will ride herd on the state's computer systems. For the first time, those plans--already approved by the governor and described in his 2007-08 budget--include financing the office of the chief information officer. The budget's $7.9 million proposal includes up to four-dozen staff members, half of them to track and negotiate IT contracts, said state CIO J. Clark Kelso. Thus far, the...

The conversion of cornfields to subdivisions is a familiar phenomenon by now, as growth booms in ever-larger rings around Chicago. It means new housing for growing families, increased tax revenues for local government. But what does it mean for farmers? Will County is a good place to look for an answer. It is the second-fastest growing Illinois county, experiencing a 33 percent population increase from 2000 to 2006, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. So one might expect an outcry from the farming community over the loss of land. "When I started at Will County I thought I was going...

State might need new nickname Commercial development trend accelerates SUSAN GORDON; The News Tribune Published: April 1st, 2007 01:00 AM Hundreds of thousands of acres of Western Washington forests are being converted to home sites, hobby farms and commercial developments. The sell-off of commercial timberland is changing the regional landscape in ways residents and government officials never anticipated. The result is not only suburban sprawl but also what some decry as a permanent scar on the face of the Evergreen State. “We’re dismantling the forest, tearing it up, breaking it down into little parcels. It isn’t the forest it used...

The Secret Key to Everything by Reginald Firehammer The following enthusiastic remarks were recently posted to The Autonomist Forum: "Congratulations for your site, Im so glad to find this forum. People have the possibility of success, fulfillment, and greatness. The Landmark Education Forums and other programs by Landmark Education are specifically designed to bring about positive and permanent shifts in the quality of your life. Let's make the most out of our potentials." Everything about it is a scam, including the phony post implying the poster is just so happy to have found this site, which is nothing but a...

The ERC should give a sharper focus to European research Europe has a new flagship agency to fund the brightest ideas in science. The European Research Council (ERC) has been given a budget of 7.5bn euros (£5bn) to 2013, and will focus solely on fundamental, or "blue skies", study. It is hoped the initiative can find the breakthrough thinking - and eventually new products and services - to keep the EU's economy globally competitive. The ERC was formally inaugurated at a meeting in Berlin attended by the German Chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel. She said the Council would become "a...

NEW YORK (Fortune) --For the first time ever, India has posted four straight years of 8 percent growth; since it cracked open its economy in 1991, it has averaged growth of 6 percent- not in the same league as China, but twice the "Hindu rate of growth" that had marked the first 45 years of independence. India has gone nuclear, and even gotten the United States to accept that status. Its movies are crossing over to become international hits. No wonder the idea of India as the next superpower is fast becoming conventional wisdom. "Our Time is Now," asserts The...

NEW JERSEY FLOATS DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES ON CLEAN WATER FUNDS — Golf Courses, Transit Villages and Transferable Building Rights Are Eligible Projects Trenton —The State of New Jersey is using its Clean Water State Revolving Fund to subsidize an array of developer schemes, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) which is asking the federal government to intervene. At the same time, the state claims it has lacked the resources to enforce toxic landfill standards that would force cleanup of the most dangerous sites, according to correspondence released today by PEER. Although New Jersey faces more than $12 billion in...

The oil and natural-gas industry is increasingly looking to Canada as a home for big energy projects Americans don't want in their backyards. A patch of coniferous forest near here, on Canada's Atlantic coastline, represents both the promise and the challenges of that approach. The land, owned by closely held Canadian energy company Irving Oil, is earmarked for the possible construction of a 300,000-barrel-a-day crude-oil refinery that would cost $5 billion to $7 billion -- the first new refinery in the U.S. or Canada in more than 25 years. Irving hopes a refinery, if it chooses to build one, would...

Susan Powers, associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies at Clarkson's Coulter School of Engineering, was paying special attention today when Governor Pataki announced that $24 million was being awarded to two companies for the development and construction of the state's first cellulosic ethanol plants. That's because Powers and other environmental researchers and students at Clarkson will participate in the project with Mascoma Corporation, one of the companies receiving the state funding. Mascoma, with the help of a $14 million grant from the governor, will build a 500,000-gallon-a-year cellulosic ethanol pilot facility in Greece, near Rochester. In addition to Clarkson...

Evangelical Left All Shook Up About Affordable Housing Book Review: Making Housing Happen: Faith-Based Affordable Housing Models By Jill Suzanne Shook, editor and co-author Chalice Press, 2006 $34.99 Through her new book, Jill Shook, a housing activist in Pasadena, California, has become the de facto spokesperson of the Evangelical Left's new social movement to combat the so-called "affordable housing crisis", mostly focused on the U.S situation. The book jacket contains endorsements by many leaders of the Evangelical Left - Tony Campolo, Ronald J. Sider, and oddly has a preface by Dr. John Perkins, who doesn't fit the label. Given that...

Eritrea aims to become the first country in the world to turn its entire coast into an environmentally protected zone to ensure balanced and sustainable development, officials said Tuesday. The Red Sea state intends to protect all of its 1,350-kilometer (837-mile) coastline, along with another 1,950-kilometers (1,209-miles) of coast around its more than 350 islands, according to a draft coastal policy document. "Eritrea will be the first country in the world to declare its entire coastline a protected area," said Dr Michael Pearson, an environment management specialist working with a group that has pushed the proposal. He and the Eritrea...

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — In the dense humidity of northern Cambodia, where canoes are the common mode of transportation, a foreman from a Chinese construction company directs local laborers to haul stones to the ramp of a nearly completed bridge. [...] China’s generosity to Cambodia has caught Washington’s attention. The United States Navy is planning a port visit to Sihanoukville early next year, a first since the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975. In the Philippines, China is also making a big splash, offering an extraordinary package of $2 billion in loans each year for the next three years [...]...

While this new world of corporate governance/ lobbyists/ privatization of the commons etc; seems difficult to understand (disguised as it is with buzz words – and meaningless jibberish), it’s really not as complex as one might think. After you learn how to ignore the superficial banalities, and get to the meat (if there is any) of the message being given. Most times you’ll hear just fluff and nutter talk – sounds important but isn’t. While we naturally focus upon local issues and concerns such as community development, roads, tons of garbage, forest access, tourism, sportsmen’s rights, lack of snow, no...

"Freedom." It's the most used, most misunderstood, most misused word in the English language. Every movement, every revolution, every special-interest campaign uses the word Freedom to explain their motives and to draw us in to their cause. Everybody wants freedom. We fight under the banner of "Live Free or Die." But, no cause ever won a campaign or a war under the banner "be happy under tyranny." But "Freedom" is also a word that can be used to enslave us. The word "Freedom," in the wrong hands, with the wrong motives or agenda can be a butcher's knife. What do...

When recently asked what his top priorities were for his country's European Union presidency, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen had just three words to say: "Innovation, innovation, innovation." Finland's willingness to embrace change, shift priorities and make tough choices has created one of the world's most competitive economies, says Ann Mettler, executive director of the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank. Taking Finland as an example, the following key lessons can be drawn: ** Education, skills and lifelong learning must be at the center of an innovative economy; far from being a consistent top performer -- in the mid-1980s, secondary...

N.Korea, Iran, Pakistan Could‘Share Missile Technology’ North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile appears to be the same model as Iran's Shahab-5 missile, a report on North Korea's ballistic missile program by the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) under the Foreign Ministry says. The report states that Iran and China have a defense industry cooperation pact, hinting at a three-way relationship that also includes China’s long-term ally North Korea. "It cannot be ruled out that the very difficult turbo pump technology problem was solved with the help of China," it adds. The report also says North Korea's mid-range Rodong missile...

SALMON, Idaho — In a state where pine and fir outnumber residents, the loss of several privately owned spruces should hardly excite attention, let alone spark a crusade emblematic of a new trend to protect trees on private land. But in the ski community of Ketchum, Idaho, a seasonal home for the rich and famous and the last resting place of writer Ernest Hemingway, a developer's plan to cut down three towering conifers on his property spurred the city to issue an emergency order last month outlawing the felling of mature trees. Resident Lara Babalis wanted additional assurances. She spent...

California's growth patterns -- the migration to hot inland regions, construction of big new homes and paving of open space -- are contributing both to increasing temperatures and record demand for electricity. Experts say development choices can play a large role in making hot weather even hotter. "People usually talk of greenhouse gases. What's forgotten is what we've actually done to the surface of the planet,'' said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "I call it extreme makeover warming.'' The housing boom in places like the Central Valley causes growing electricity demand during heat waves,...

Coalition forces rebuild mosque, provide medical care to villagers. WASHINGTON, July 23, 2006 — Coalition forces continue to aid and develop Afghanistan, even as they fight back terrorist extremists who are determined to stop progress, U.S. military officials reported today. Aid and reconstruction efforts include a rebuilt mosque in the Paktya province and medical and humanitarian aid to hundreds of Afghan villagers in the Kandahar province, said Combined Forces Command spokesman Army Col. Thomas Collins. " Coalition forces are not now and will not ever be dissuaded from their mission of building a free, secure, and independent Afghanistan. " Maj....

The pattern of brain growth during development may figure more importantly than overall brain size when it comes to intelligence, according to a new study. Scientists have found that the smartest kids start off with a relatively thin cerebral cortex--the outer layer of the brain associated with thought and other higher order functions--which thickens rapidly by age 12 before undergoing the same general diminishment as that of their peers of average intelligence. "Brainy children are not cleverer solely by virtue of having more or less gray matter at any one age," says Judith Rapoport of the National Institute of Mental...

The world is fast approaching the point where the majority of the human population will be found in urban areas. Somewhere, sometime in 2007, someone migrating from their rural home to begin a new life in a town or city will tip the global rural/urban balance, the UN estimates. Throughout history, the world has experienced urbanisation but the huge rise in the number of people making their homes in towns and cities is a recent phenomenon. In 1950, less than one-in-three people lived in urban areas. The world had just two so-called "megacities" with populations in excess of 10 million:...

Jack Welch gives his reasons why a company should go to China... 1. China has a vast market 2. China has low-cost manufacturing 3. China has increasingly strong technical talent. 4. Companies that 'make it' in China leap into another competitive league, leaving their competitors behind. and why a company should not... 1. China is littered with companies that went to China...just to go to China. 2. The China-or-bust mantra was invoked on them in B-school. 3. Because everyone is going.... How about your company? Should it go to China? Why? Why not? What do you think?

/begin my translationThe Crashed Plane Was a Brand-new AWACS Plane China Developed A Chinese air force plane, which recently crashed in Anhui Province, killing all crews, turned out to be 'Gongjing-2000,' a brand-new AWACS plane China recently developed. According to June 6th report of Hong Kong's Dai-gong-bao, the crashed plane is 'Gongjing-2000,' which China developed using a Russian AWACS plane as its model, and the accident would be recorded as the worst disaster for Chinese air force.China produced four Gongjing-2000 AWACS planes, and assigned them to airforce unit under Nanjing Military District early this year. They were reportedly deployed at Wushi Air base in Jiang-su Province.The...

This just in! New study shows little kids watch lots of TV! Yeah, I know you’re “Shocked, shocked!” What may surprise you, though, is the extent to which these children are being exposed to television and why. Kids aren’t just gravitating to the tube; the one-eyed monster is being used as a babysitter by parents who think they’re too busy for them and by folks who see giving a child his own tube as a way of allowing them to gorge on TV. According to the latest Media Family report conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: * While...

Homewood Mountain Resort's ski area occupies the largest piece of developable property remaining in the Lake Tahoe basin. With elevations reaching 1,600 feet above the lake's famed blue waters, the views from its slopes are spectacular. The property includes two lakes and crosses three watersheds. And it's for sale. If owner Jeff Yurosek has his way, 1,086 acres will be sold to the U.S. Forest Service under a deal that will keep the struggling ski business open. The estimated $60 million to $65 million the property is likely to fetch will be used to build an expanded commercial center on...

IRAN has 40,000 trained suicide bombers ready to strike at US and British targets if the nation's nuclear sites are attacked by the West. In Iran, the main force of suicide bombers, named the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards, was first seen last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in olive-green uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high. Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said about 29 Western targets had been identified. "We are ready to attack American and British sensitive...

Smart growth. Low-impact construction. Sustainable development. Open-space ordinances. Greenway planning. These land-use buzz phrases are not new, but some environmentalists think they're also not used nearly enough by local planners, developers, contractors and even homeowners. Enter the Chicago Wilderness consortium, an alliance of 190 organizations in the Chicago metro region -- including several in Northwest Indiana -- eager to assist, educate and work hands-on with new developments. One development -- singled out by consortium members as a model development in the making -- is Portage's effort to recapture part of the Lake Michigan shoreline and create a beachfront park through...

4/14/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Unmanned aerial vehicles are successfully transforming the way the Air Force does business, and the service is committed to supporting and developing more of them. Innovative UAV tactics have transformed the battle space as witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Maj. Gen. Stanley Gorenc, Air Force deputy chief of staff for air and space operations, at testimony before the House Armed Services Committee subcommittee on tactical air and land forces April 6. "UAVs are transforming the way Air Force and the joint team fight, and are a critical component of the future joint force," the...

ANAHEIM, Calif.--While city officials have long micromanaged land-use decisions and appropriated private property for economic redevelopment, it was not until the Supreme Court's Kelo v. City of New London decision last summer that many Americans noticed the degree to which big government has set up shop on Main Street. Take Garden Grove, an aging working-class city of gaudy strip malls and tract houses 34 miles south of Los Angeles. In 2002, officials planned to bulldoze a large, decent neighborhood to make way for a theme park, issuing bond debt to finance subsidies to help its developer. The project failed amid...

Indiana Is Open for Business Mitch “the Blade” Daniels is putting the state on the free-market cutting edge. By Bret Swanson There’s about to be a building boom in Indiana, which is desperate good news for a state that has been severely challenged by the global manufacturing shift and years of ambivalent leadership. The chief architect of the boom is the state’s decisive Governor Mitch Daniels, President Bush’s former budget director. In Washington, Daniels drew scorn from congressional big spenders, acquiring the nickname “the blade” for his cost-cutting and privatizing ways. (The moniker could just as easily apply to his...

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2006 – Recognizing that children of servicemembers often face challenges that other children do not, the nonprofit child development organization "Zero To Three" launched a special project geared specifically toward military families. "Supporting military children is an essential element of supporting military families in general," Dorinda Williams, a Zero To Three training and consultation specialist, said in an interview. "Zero To Three recognizes that military parents often face extreme and emotionally draining circumstances, and we try to provide support through information and resources that translate into increased capacity to meet the emotional needs of babies and toddlers."...

A large-scale study of brain development pinpoints the anatomical changes that are linked to IQ.The brains of more intelligent children appear to develop in a characteristic way, growing quickly over an extended period between the ages of 5 and 12. These findings -- some of the most detailed research on brain development and IQ -- resulted from a 15-year study done by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH.) The study, which used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to gain a detailed picture of how the brains of children change over time, found that in kids who did better on standard...

WASHINGTON, March 27, 2006 – Over the past three years Iraq has witnessed a tremendous boom in reconstruction and economic development, the U.S. director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office said. "It's useful to remember where we were in 2003 with liberation," Ambassador Daniel Speckhard said during a press conference in Baghdad March 24. "In 2003, Iraq had the highest debt ... as a share of gross domestic product in the world. And today about two-thirds of that debt has been written off as a result of the support by the international community." Iraq's per capita income had fallen from...

If Paul Flessner and his SQL Server team have their way, traditional beta releases may soon be a thing of the past. And they aren't the only Softies who are pushing to overhaul the way Microsoft builds software to more closely emulate the open source process. Consider the beta. Beta testing has been the cornerstone of the software development process for Microsoft and most other commercial software makers for as long as they've been writing software. But if certain powers-that-be in Redmond have their way, betas may soon be a thing of the past for Microsoft, its partners and its...

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2006 – The National Guard Youth Foundation honored a U.S. senator, two governors' wives and the chief of the National Guard Bureau at the organization's first ChalleNGe Champions dinner held here last night. Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and Nancy Murkowski and Kim Henry, the wives of the governors of Alaska and Oklahoma, respectively, all received ChalleNGe Champion awards, while Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum was honored with a National Mentoring Partnership Award during ceremonies at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. During his remarks to dinner attendees, Blum noted that the foundation's National Guard...

I love the Beatles' music. My respect for individual members of the legendary band end there. Paul McCartney has spent a lifetime making incredible music while uttering pure gibberish on issues that matter. It seems that if he can’t put a rhyme and a tune to it, his brain turns to mush.

We in Ocean City, NJ have been fighting since 1998 to preserve a circa 1885 Historic Life-Saving Station from destruction. The property is located in our City's Historic District and is afforded specific levels of protection from development. The current property owner bought the property knowing those protections were in place, but used his political connections to get approvals to demolish the Life-Saving station and replace it with 6 condo units. Through various legal battles, we finally had Court affirmation that the developer had to follow our City's ordinances regarding Historic Preservation. Those ordinances define the requirement for maintaining his...

HA HA HA America   A translated harangue from China to the US that laughs at our missteps.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2006 – President Bush cited the Defense Department's development of the Internet during a speech yesterday as an example of the ingenuity he hopes to promote through his American Competitiveness Agenda to ensure the United States maintains its leadership role in the world. Speaking to workers at the 3M corporate headquarters in Maplewood, Minn., the president used DoD's investment in the research and development that ultimately led to the Internet as a model for the innovation he hopes to spark nationwide. "I don't know if people realize this, but the Internet began as a Defense Department project...

Town of Mukwonago - The Town Board has begun laying the groundwork for a likely referendum on whether farm land and open space should be preserved by using tax money to purchase development rights. Last week, the board hired a consultant to conduct a public education campaign to explain the goals of a purchase of development rights program, how it is paid for and how it works. Town Chairman David Dubey said much depends on the public response to the educational campaign, but that "a referendum is likely what we'll get to" either this November or the spring of 2007....

Public benefits EDITOR: The Jan. 20 Press Democrat editorial asks, how much is too much for a city council to ask of a developer? This is like asking how much Apple should charge for an iPod. The obvious answer in a free market context is, "Whatever the market will bear." City and county officials should approach a development proposal as a business proposition, taking all community costs and benefits into full consideration. If the community benefit of the project exceeds the costs, approve the project. Otherwise, deny it. The job of the city council is to look out for the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are short for their age may perform more poorly on tests of intelligence than their taller peers, a new study suggests. The findings, say researchers, imply that some environmental factors may negatively affect both early childhood height and mental development. What those factors are is uncertain, but a stressful home life is one possibility, according to Dr. Scott Montgomery of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, the study's lead author. "Childhood stress can slow growth significantly," he told Reuters Health, pointing to evidence that children's growth can be impaired when parents divorce or...

Ohio Supreme Court hears eminent domain arguments The Ohio Supreme Court last week heard arguments challenging a local government are right of eminent domain to acquire private property for the benefit of commercial development. The court is being asked to overturn rulings favoring the city of Norwood's acquisition of private property from unwilling sellers to be developed by private investors - not the city. Lawyers for the city argue the private development project would generate more tax revenue for the municipality. A divided U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled in favor of a government's right to eminent domain in such...

NAVAIR PATUXENT RIVER, Md., Jan. 9, 2006 – A new heavy lift helicopter is now officially in the pipeline for the Marine Corps following a Dec. 22, 2005 decision by the Honorable. Kenneth R. Krieg, under secretary of defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to authorize the Heavy Lift Replacement program here to begin a $4.4 billion development program for the aircraft. A "Cost Plus Award Fee" contract for the System Development and Demonstration phase, estimated to be approximately $2.9 billion, is expected to be signed with Sikorsky in March 2006. An Initial System Development and Demonstration contract worth $8.8...

Jan. 3, 2006 -- Currently 29% of U.S. manufacturing companies are outsourcing part of their new product development process, with 41% reporting that they are evaluating outsourcing options within the next 12-24 months. According to a recent survey by Boston, Ma.-based AMR Research Outlook authored by Lance Travis and David O'Brien, these outsourced services include not only the low-value activities that many would expect, but also encompass the complete spectrum of product engineering. Software-related activities are growing the fastest, but mechanical design and engineering analysis are also showing strong growth. One reason for the growth of these outsourcing activities is...

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russian Economy Minister German Gref said a final agreement on investment zones next year will help wean Russia, the world's largest energy producer, from its dependence on oil and gas for economic growth. President Vladimir Putin's government is working on the last details of a plan to create by 2007 special economic zones that will give companies lower tax bills and other incentives and encourage growth in sectors not related to energy, including the automotive, computer and appliance industries. Gref, 41, said disputes since 2000 have waned about how Russia can reduce the influence of oil...

AAMJIWNAANG FIRST NATION, Canada — Growing up with smokestacks on the horizon, Ada Lockridge never thought much about the pollution that came out of them. She never worried about the oil slicks in Talfourd Creek, the acrid odors that wafted in on the shifting winds or even the air-raid siren behind her house whose shrill wail meant "go inside and shut the windows." Now Lockridge worries all the time. A budding environmental activist, she recently made a simple but shocking discovery: There are two girls born in her small community for every boy. A sex ratio so out of whack,...

OLIVEHURST – Warm rains falling atop a heavy snowpack eight years ago swelled rivers tumbling out of the northern Sierra Nevada, turning pastureland north of Sacramento into a massive accidental lake. The flooding inundated hundreds of homes and left three dead. If ever there were a place housing developers would want to avoid, this would seem to be it. But memories of the New Year's flood in 1997 are short. In recent years, thousands of new houses have mushroomed on the land that was under water then, part of a wave of suburban development in California's vast Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley....

NASA and the Business of Space STATUS REPORT Date Released: Friday, November 18, 2005 Source: NASA HQ American Astronautical Society 52nd Annual Conference Michael D. Griffin NASA Administrator 15 November 2005 When President Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration in January 2004, he made many specific points, including one which has been little noted, but which we here all believe; that the pursuit of the Vision will enhance America's economic, scientific and security interests. He also made it clear that the first step in the plan was to use the Space Shuttle to complete the assembly of the International...

According to economic historian Angus Maddison, in 1500, China and India together accounted for 49.3 percent of world's gross domestic product. Each country took up about a quarter of world's output. But ever since then, European countries have gained world power, and the two countries began their long relative decline. For much of the 19th century, they were dominated by Western powers. By 1870, their combined GDP fell to 29.2% of world's total output. In the 20th century, their decline continued, and by 1973, China and India took up only 7.7 percent of global output. China accounted for 4.6 percent...