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Seven foreigners from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore were arrested for trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir on Tuesday. The Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts is one of the country’s largest man-made water supplies. (VIDEO-AT-LINK) CBS Local reported, via Free Republic: Shortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir. State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates....

Video at link.

At a time of high unemployment and with a struggling economy, why on earth would Obama go out of his way to push to extend the H-1B Visas of foreign workers while millions of American engineers are without jobs? That is the question being asked by Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly...

At a time of high unemployment and with a struggling economy, why on earth would Obama go out of his way to push to extend the H-1B Visas of foreign workers while millions of American engineers are without jobs? That is the question being asked by Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly. According to Schlafly, when pressed on this issue, Obama feigns shock that any American engineer was out of work, saying that there’s such a high demand for engineers. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that, counting only U.S.-born individuals, there are 101,000 with an engineering degree who are unemployed, another...

AN IRANIAN nuclear facility has been hit by a huge explosion, the second such blast in a month, prompting speculation that Tehran's military and atomic sites are under attack. Satellite imagery seen by The Times confirmed that a blast that rocked the city of Isfahan on Monday struck the uranium enrichment facility there, despite denials by Tehran.

A Libyan colonel that defected to the rebel side last month has said that the regime has had to use soldiers from its elite special forces to command popular militias after suffering months of desertions. The officer escaped from a government town in the plains below the country's Western Mountains. Lying only 60 miles from Tripoli, the rebels have launched repeated offensives in the effort to reach the capital. Leaders of the elite fighting force belonging to Gaddafi's son Khamis had left their brigades to fight elsewhere and came to man this front line reported the Colonel. "The leaders are...

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) plans to offer an amendment this week protecting gun rights on land controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Currently, guns are prohibited on Corps land, even when gun possession is otherwise allowed by state law. Rep. Gosar’s legislation would simply remove federal restrictions and allow for the law of the states (in which such land is located) to govern firearms possession. The Gosar amendment, modeled after the Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act (H.R. 1865) introduced by pro-gun Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH), is similar to a 2009 law repealing the gun ban on National Park Service...

Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors, is the most famous also-ran in the auto business. In the course of his 47-year rampage through the industry, he's been within swiping range of the brass ring at Ford, BMW, Chrysler and, most recently, GM, but he's never landed the top gig. It's because he "made the cars too well," he says. It might also have something to do with the fact that Maximum Bob, who could double as a character on Mad Men, is less an éminence grise than a pithy self-promoter who has a tendency to go off...

DURHAM, N.C. — President Barack Obama promoted job creation in politically important North Carolina Monday, trying to assure Americans he's focused on their No. 1 concern — and his greatest political weakness — as his potential GOP presidential opponents prepared to target his economic policies in their first major debate. [snip] "I am optimistic about our future," the president said, even while acknowledging that "we can't be complacent." Obama announced details of a program to train 10,000 new American engineers every year, saying private companies will join the government to promote education in science, technology, engineering and math. They'll offer...

Well, having recruited a couple engineers I now need help in getting permission to go and help out, plus if anyone knows of any inexpensive inns in Japan, it would be a great help.

BEIJING – The 121-story Shanghai Tower is more than China's next record-setting building: It's an economic lifeline for the elite club of skyscraper builders. Financial gloom has derailed plans for new towers in Chicago, Moscow, Dubai and other cities. But in China, work on the 2,074-foot (632-meter) Shanghai Tower, due to be completed in 2014, and dozens of other tall buildings is rushing ahead, powered by a buoyant economy and providing a steady stream of work to architects and engineers. The U.S. high-rise market is "pretty much dead," said Dan Winey, a managing director for Gensler, the Shanghai Tower's San...

Finally! Another Cat Video! Cat Yodeling Tutorial with an introduction to Cat Polka. Cat Yodeling will soon take over the universe and you don't want to get left behind! "Aspect Ratio" sequence near the start is a spoof of a video called "Free Hugs." Ending music is "Can Can" by Offenbach.

BAGHDAD – Thirty-three Regional Guard Brigade Soldiers graduated from the Iraq Army Engineer School at Camp Taji Sept. 15. As part of an introduction to the Iraqi Army, the Peshmerga officers and enlisted soldiers became familiar with current tactics, techniques and procedures being used by Iraqi Army engineers. The 30-day course covered the most high-profile aspects of combat engineering, including route clearance and mine identification and detection. Students learned and conducted practical exercises on mounted and dismounted route clearance, mine-detecting robots and the capabilities of the Badger, an Iraqi Light Armored Vehicle. “Our knowledge of engineering has grown tremendously through...

An interesting paradox in the technology world is that there is both a shortage and a surplus of engineers in the United States. Talk to those working at any Silicon Valley company, and they will tell you how hard it is to find qualified talent. But listen to the heart-wrenching stories of unemployed engineers, and you will realize that there are tens of thousands who can’t get jobs. What gives? The harsh reality is that in the tech world, companies prefer to hire young, inexperienced, engineers.And engineering is an “up or out” profession: you either move up the ladder or...

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2010 – Engineers with NATO Training Mission Afghanistan and Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan are working with their Afghan partners to build infrastructure to support the growth of the Afghan national security forces, a senior officer involved in that effort said yesterday. During a “DoD Live” bloggers roundtable, Army Col. Mike Wehr, director of the Combined Joint Engineer Office for the training commands, said Afghanistan cannot sustain itself without the proper infrastructure in facilities and governance. Wehr’s office ensures adequate facilities are available, develops engineer leadership at the ministerial level and builds sustainable capacity and capability to...

The U.S. Coast Guard has complained that there is not enough plastic tubing in the United States to construct the booms needed to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. And neither BP, the Coast Guard, nor any other part of the U.S. government seems to understand how to effectively clean up the fouled Gulf. A technology that could effectively and actively remove oil from the surface of the ocean in all weather conditions would be a huge advance for the efforts going on in the Gulf right now. In fact, such a technology was designed and tested in the...

5/17/2010 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFNS) -- Members of the 200th Rapid Engineering Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer Squadron have arrived here to draw down the 557th Expeditionary RED HORSE Squadron from Iraq. As they complete the last construction and engineering projects and pack up their equipment and materials in the yard, they are part of the last RED HORSE rotation operating under Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2010. Several civil engineers currently at Ali Base were part of the original 2005 rotation charged with constructing the infrastructure necessary to conduct and sustain operations throughout Iraq, including Ali Base. In...

3/22/2010 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- As U.S. officials prepare to draw down troops in Iraq, efforts are being made to ensure the effect on the country's infrastructure is minimal. Joint Base Balad's civil engagement program maximizes the base's resources and abilities and helps more than 800,000 Iraqis in the Salah ad Din Province. The program is a joint effort between the U.S. Department of State, the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing and the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment based at JB Balad. "The program provides a communication channel between the three entities, which have different missions to support...

New college graduates may be entering the worst job market in decades, but there are still some majors that pay off—and all of them are in the applied sciences. A new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that eight of the top 10 best-paid majors are in engineering, with petroleum engineering topping off the list at $86,220. "Petroleum engineering has been at the top for the last three years," said Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at NACE. "The oil industry for the last couple of years has been a bit more active and...

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy. “In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students.