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Iraqi Soldiers from get ready to enter a suspected insurgent's home during a massive cordon and search operation. Official Department of Defense photo. WASHINGTON -- The commander of a U.S. Army brigade that partners with and trains Iraqi Soldiers and police in Iraq’s Diyala province today praised the recent actions of local security forces and civilians there. Terrorists in Diyala province continue to try to destabilize the democratic Iraqi government through the use of improvised explosive devices, snipers, kidnappings and threats to innocent Iraqis, Col. David Sutherland, commander, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite news conference...

By developing a low-cost method for making high-performance transparent transistors, researchers at Northwestern University have taken an important step toward creating sharp, bright displays that could be laminated to windshields, computer monitors, and televisions but would blend into the background when not in use. For years, researchers have attempted to make flexible electronics based on electrically conducting plastics that can be manufactured inexpensively. There has been some success in making ones are nearly transparent. But these organic materials have produced transistors with disappointing performance, falling well short of the capabilities of transistors made with inorganic materials such as silicon. The...

Zurich, Switzerland, (SPX) Aug 23, 2006 Scientists have unveiled a new technology that could lead to video displays that faithfully reproduce a fuller range of colors than current models, giving such a life-like viewing experience that it could be hard to go back to your old TV. The invention, based on fine-tuning light using microscopic artificial muscles, could turn into competitively priced consumer products in eight years, the scientists say. In ordinary displays such as TV tubes, flat-screen LCDs, or plasma screens, each pixel is composed of three light-emitting elements, one for each of the fundamental colors red, green, and...

N.Korea claims capture of U.S. submersible By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 36 minutes ago North Korea claimed it has captured an unmanned U.S. submersible and put it on display in Pyongyang, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Monday. The U.S. dismissed the report. The small vessel was captured during a reconnaissance mission in waters off North Korea's eastern city of Hamhung, said the Choson Sinbo newspaper, which is published by a pro-North Korean association linked to the Pyongyang government. The newspaper report on its Web site, which is monitored in Seoul, was accompanied by a picture...

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2006 – A new display commemorating the service of military chaplains was dedicated June 23 in a ceremony at the Pentagon. David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, speaks during an exhibit dedication ceremony to military chaplains at the Pentagon, June 23. The display is the first in the Pentagon to specifically honor chaplains. It consists of four backlit panels that highlight the accomplishments and service of military chaplains. It is located on the fifth floor of the building's A ring. Photo by Steven Donald Smith  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "This...

A vision system that helps soldiers plan a route through the chaos of the battlefield will undergo tests on both sides of the Atlantic. The system, called Primordial Soldier, will provide soldiers with a real-time picture of where troops are in relation to each other and a digital rendering of the route they should follow. It is about to undergo trials with US special forces and has been bought by the UK arm of MBDA Missiles. MBDA plans to carry out conceptual research on the system to learn how using such technology affects a soldier's decision-making capability in the field....

NEW YORK - It's usually easy to tell where a person stands in the culture wars, but whose side is someone on when his Christmas decor is a blood-spattered Santa Claus holding a severed head? Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll's head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets. No one answered the family's door to explain on Tuesday, but...

Printed TVs at your store soon? Q&A with Ian Chao of CDT Chris Hall, DigiTimes.com, Taipei [Tuesday 16 August 2005]The keenest competition in the global television market is the race for the next generation of flat-panel technology, and leading the charge is the UK-based Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), a pioneer of polymer-OLED (PLED) technology. A key benefit of PLED technology is the ability to deposit layers in the display using printing processes such as ink-jet printing. CDT is not alone. Last year, Seiko Epson demonstrated a 40-inch model based on printed PLED technology.If development continues at the heady pace of...

Vandals trashed a controversial church display. More than a thousand white crosses protest abortion in front of the Ascension Lutheran Church in Waterloo. But some didn't take the message lightly. Quietly...more than 1,500 white crosses stand in front of Ascension Lutheran Church. But the message is loud and clear. Pastor Tom Jahr says, "It's not a statement against anyone, it's a statement telling a story of the babies we'll never get to see." Each cross represents five babies who died from abortion each day in the U.S. Busy University Avenue is close by. The pastor thought it was the perfect...

JERUSALEM (AP) - The militant Islamic Jihad on Wednesday presented pictures of torn copies of the Islamic holy book, the Quran, claimed they were taken inside an Israeli prison and said soldiers were responsible for the desecration. Israel denied the charge and said the pictures were a fabrication. The Islamic Jihad transmitted the pictures by e-mail to a reporter in the West Bank. They show two Qurans with torn pages. The militants said prisoners took the pictures with cellular telephones sent them electronically to militant leaders. The militants said Wednesday that soldiers desecrated six or seven Qurans as they searched...

A crowd packed Ringgold City Hall on Feb. 14 to present impassioned arguments for and against the flying of the Con-federate battle flag at the historic Ringgold Depot. During renovations last year at the historic structure three flags were hoisted over the building — the Confederate battle flag, the current United States flag, and the U.S. flag of 1863. Lifelong Ringgold resident Paul Croft said the Confederate banner symbolizes hate and fear for him. Croft said the battle flag evokes memories of his childhood when his mother warned him to hide from the KKK, and he would peek out the...

In Bristol, England, a group of university students including myself put up a window display of pictures to show our support for Bush but are met with nothing but undemocractic resistance, including: Name calling when we leave the housePeople blocking our drivewayEgg throwingThreats of physical violence (which finally forced us to take it down) The lack of freedom of expression in this country is shocking.

Mayor Stephen P. Laffey will have carte blanche to decorate the City Hall lawn to his heart’s content; the City Council last week decided not to vote on a measure than would put the City Hall grounds under direct council control and restrict holiday decorations to strings of clear lights. The measure, sponsored by Councilor Paula B. McFarland, was introduced for discussion at last Thursday’s council ordinance committee meeting. McFarland did not attend the meeting because of scheduling conflicts, but she had previously said the mayor had no business covering the City Hall lawn with religious displays. Although she did...

We've discussed Jimmy Carter's legacy of friendship and warm support for the world's dictators many times already, notably on Venezuela, but a return to Carter's Cuba legacy may be an even worse experience, because of an unmistakable whiff of treason. Where do we start? Remember Jimmy Carter's cabinet appointments? People like Andrew Young, who hung out with the hate-America crowd over at the United Nations and denounced America and Israel with the gamiest dictators on earth? Carter had a lot of these rabid blame-America-firsters on his coattails, and some are more active than ever. One is named Wayne Smith, who...

Is anybody else going to fly the flag today? My devas will be flying, too. Happy days are here.

    THE U.S. FLAG IN TIMES OF MOURNING   Dear Flag Flyers, On 5 June 2004 the death of Ronald Reagan, former president of the United States, was announced. In accord with the Flag Code and with a proclamation issued by George W. Bush, the United States flag is to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from the date of death, i.e. through 4 July. In some situations it is not possible to half-staff a flag -- for example, when it is permanently fixed to a staff. In that case displaying black ribbons above a full-staffed flag is...

    THE U.S. FLAG IN TIMES OF MOURNING   Dear Flag Flyers, On 5 June 2004 the death of Ronald Reagan, former president of the United States, was announced. In accord with the Flag Code and with a proclamation issued by George W. Bush, the United States flag is to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from the date of death, i.e. through 4 July. In some situations it is not possible to half-staff a flag -- for example, when it is permanently fixed to a staff. In that case displaying black ribbons above a full-staffed flag is...

KEWL STUFF! CHECK IT OUT... Philips Electronics to produce roll up display screen. Dutch firm Philips Electronics said on January 26, 2004 it was preparing to mass-produce a slim, book-sized display panel onto which consumers could download newspapers and magazines -- then roll up and put away. The 5-inch display, which can show detailed images, can be rolled up into a pen-sized holder. If connected to a mobile phone, it can also be used to download web pages, a book or email. Examples of the display are shown. (Philips via Reuters)

KAKE News anonymously received a copy of an interoffice e-mail from the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer of the City of Wichita. The e-mail was sent nine months ago after an American flag was removed from a city break room. The e-mail was sent to city personnel department to explain why the flag was taken down. The e-mail reads, "Let's refrain from placing things in common areas that might appear to show a preference of one group over another… Shortly after 9/11, we had flags all over the place up front. In retrospect, that was probably not appropriate either." The e-mail...

PC Magazine is reporting that MIT researcher Chad Dyner has invented a process for projecting two-dimensional displays into thin air. IO2 Technology has developed a product called the Heliodisplay, which works like a touch-screen. The company claims that users sitting on opposite sides of the display can view and work with two totally different images. The Images and Specifications sections of their site are pretty interesting.