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WOLFSBURG, Germany—Two top Volkswagen engineers who found they couldn’t deliver as promised a clean diesel engine for the U.S. market are at the center of a company probe into the installation of engine software designed to fool regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. The two men, Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi ’s chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, developer of Porsche’s winning Formula One engines, were among the engineers suspended in the investigation of the emissions cheating scandal that sank the company’s market value by 43% since Sept. 18 and triggered a world-wide recall to refit the engines to meet clear-air...

While we constantly analyze short-term data, the industry has a longer-term problem. And it is not related to what lies below the ground. There is a retirement tidal wave that could wash over the oil and gas industry over the next few years. The seeds of this crisis were planted in the late 1980’s after the last major oil bust. Oil prices crashed after Saudi Arabia became fed up with losing market share, and beginning around 1986, it pumped flat out in order to force out other producers. The price of oil crashed and a lot of US drillers cut...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) -- More than 100 Fort Bragg soldiers will join the fight to keep the Ebola virus from spreading. Friday, the Pentagon announced that about 120 Fort Bragg troops will deploy to Africa on a humanitarian aid mission. The soldiers are engineers. They repair and replace roads and bridges, and build new structures. Military support personnel from the 44th Medical Brigade are also going, as well as a company of Military Police. A Pentagon spokesman says the troops will help support medical efforts and security in Africa. "We are not treating patients," said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear...

[SNIP] All of which brings us to the latest popular lament among pundits, politicians, and even some in the business world: the perceived lack of engineers and/or ‘STEM’ (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates. President Obama has said “We need more engineers,” so has Hillary Clinton, and then Lockheed Martin executive Stephanie Hill recently stated that “we’ll lose” if we don’t produce at least 1 million more ‘STEM’ grads. About all the handwringing, readers can relax. Indeed, there’s nothing to this story or alleged shortage. Price signals work. They always do, and they do because one of the underlying purposes...

Indian engineering education is draped in a cloth that needs a proper wash! While scanning the list of alumni of IIT recently, I came across a few names that have peppered the leaves of successful men’s list but their contributions are far away in foreign lands. While combing through the facts I found that most of these elite men do not reside in their own land, and a major chunk is holding high profiles in the Unites States of America.

Years ago I spotted someone walking out of a store who looked just like a Metalunan from "This Island Earth" of which the best known one was Exeter. He had the same high bulging forehead with white hair and thick bushy white eyebrows. I really wanted to yell out, "Hey, how ya' doin', Exeter?" but I decided to spare him the embarrassment. Okay, so what I want to know is this: Is there anybody who looks like one of the Engineers from the movie "Prometheus?" They would have to have shaved heads and really pale skin. Out of over...

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...