Free Republic

MOSSVILLE, Ill., Sept 21 (Reuters) - Mark Pflederer dreams of dancing bulldozers. Pflederer, the chief technology officer at heavy machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. (CAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), believes that, within a few years, his company's earthmovers will be able to operate without drivers, spinning around each other on worksites like dancers in a robotic ballet choreographed by onboard computers and satellite-based navigation systems. "Ten or 15 years down the road," he says, "it's not too much of a stretch to think that we could run multiple bulldozers, wheel loaders or trucks on a site and move the operators to a...

BAALBEK, Lebanon -- People in a village outside this Hezbollah stronghold used a front-end loader's scoop to carry away some of the dead Wednesday after a night of Israeli airstrikes and a commando raid inside Baalbek that residents said killed at least 15 civilians. It was the deepest thrust into Lebanon by Israeli troops since fighting broke out between Israel and Hezbollah on July 12. Israel said its soldiers killed at least 10 Hezbollah guerrillas and captured five. A crowd of about 50 people from the village of Al Jamaliyeh carried pictures of Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, during a...