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Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives floated the idea on Wednesday of ending a partial government shutdown by giving President Donald Trump most or all of the money he seeks for border security with Mexico but for items other than a physical wall. Representative James Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat, told reporters that Democrats could fulfill Trump's request for $5.7 billion for border security with technological tools such as drones, X-rays and sensors, as well as more border patrol agents. Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat, also said Democrats would be discussing "substantial sums of additional...

Technology executives are telling Jim Cramer off camera that they support the Trump administration's hawkish approach to trade with China, the CNBC host says. The "Mad Money" host lists the pro-trade-war arguments he's hearing. "If we're ever going to do anything about China, this is the perfect time," he says. -- Technology executives are telling CNBC's Jim Cramer that they're willing to endure short-term pain from the U.S.-China trade war in favor of the long-term payoff. "When I went out to San Francisco last week, I heard the same thing from a surprising number of people in the tech industry...

A new unclassified report by the Defense Intelligence Agency is warning of technological gains against the U.S. military that include pulling ahead of the Pentagon in the development of key weapons systems, particularly China. “China is building a robust, lethal force with capabilities spanning the air, maritime, space and information domains which will enable China to impose its will in the region,” wrote DIA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, in a preface to the report. In a briefing to reporters at the Defense Department on Tuesday, a senior Pentagon official said that in terms of ballistic and cruise missile technology,”...

I left my home in China in 1949, nearly 70 years ago. I thought I would just be studying in the United States before returning to China. But events beyond my control – the Communist victory over the Nationalists soon after I arrived in the US, the escalation of the cold war, and the Korean war – kept me in the US. I quickly built a life in America, became an American citizen, and pursued my own version of the American dream. All the while, China was morphing into a country I would hardly recognise when I was first able...

youtube crashed, dang it.

The Border Patrol on Wednesday (19 Dec) unveiled a new mobile video surveillance system along the U.S.-Mexico border in California that can look into the mountains with infrared scopes in the day and at night. “It’s game-changer for them,” ...“One agent who goes on patrol can multiply his vision many many miles.” The camera systems are carried on Ford F-150 pickup trucks outfitted with surveillance towers. Five of the vehicles will be used by border agents along San Diego’s southern border beginning Friday (21 Dec).

The Worldwide Ferry Safety Association (WFSA) is pleased to announce that winners have been selected for its 2019 Ferry Design Competition. The awards will be presented at WFSA’s Ferry Safety and Technology Conference, which will be be held in Bangkok February 20?22, 2019. In the contest, student teams were tasked with designing a passenger ferry for the Pasig River, the locus of commercial and public activities in Manila. Dr. Roberta Weisbrod, executive director of WFSA, noted that navigational challenges included low bridges and waterborne vegetation and debris. The first prize of $5000 will be awarded to a team from the...

Technology is now evolving at such a rapid pace that annual predictions of trends can seem out-of-date before they even go live as a published blog post or article. As technology evolves, it enables even faster change and progress, causing the acceleration of the rate of change, until eventually it will become exponential. Technology-based careers don’t change at that same speed, but they do evolve, and the savvy IT professional recognizes that his or her role will not stay the same. The IT worker of the 21st century will constantly be learning, out of necessity if not desire. What...

I'm shopping for a new printer for my business; I'm hoping to buy it early next year. Any advice from tech-savvy Freepers who are business owners? Key features I need are: 1. I'm looking for a color laser printer 2. It has to last a long time (my HP 2100 black & white printer lasted more than ten years before I replaced it a few years ago). 3. Despite the long life, I don't use it a lot. I typically print less than 200 sheets in a month. 4. Printing sheets as large as 11"x17" would be a nice feature,...

When the Trump administration blocked the merger of Qualcomm and Broadcom it singled out the risk that the deal would give Huawei an advantage in developing 5G technology. Bloomberg quoted an analyst in China who sees the arrest as the result of the national security White House staff pushing back against the Wall Street-friendly China doves in the White House, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who pushed for the trade truce.

Heather Mac Donald has written and spoken extensively about how identity politics is hampering America’s ability to maintain its dominance in STEM fields. Our main competitors, most notably China, are focused on making sure the best scientists, mathematicians, and engineers are doing the work. They care nothing about gender. And they spend virtually every dollar related to STEM on hard research and analysis. The U.S., by contrast, is preoccupied with the gender and (to a lesser extent) the race and ethnicity of who is in the lab. And we pour money into promoting identity politics in STEM. Indeed, Elizabeth Harrington...

Mastercard, Microsoft to Advance Digital Identity Innovations https://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-microsoft-join-forces-to-advance-digital-identity-innovations/#__prclt=IarCgTyK Mastercard, Microsoft Join Forces to Advance Digital Identity Innovations PURCHASE, N.Y. and REDMOND, Wash. – December 3, 2018 – Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) today announced a strategic collaboration to improve how people manage and use their digital identity. Currently, verifying your identity online is still dependent on physical or digital proof managed by a central party, whether it’s your passport number, your proof of address, driver’s license, user credentials or other means. This dependence places a huge burden on individuals, who have to successfully remember hundreds of passwords...

Patents recently issued to Google provide a window into their development activities. While it’s no guarantee of a future product, it is a sure indication of what’s of interest to them. What we’ve given up in privacy to Google, Facebook, and others thus far is minuscule compared to what is coming if these companies get their way. These patents tell us that Google is developing smart-home products that are capable of eavesdropping on us throughout our home in order to learn more about us and better target us with advertising. It goes much further than the current Google Home speaker...

Highlights • Last year, Infosys had announced setting up of four such hubs and hiring about 10,000 locals in the US by 2019 • Infosys has hired over 6,200 American workers since May 2017...

DOVER, N.H. — An Amazon Echo device could play a role in a double-homicide case in Farmington. A judge has ordered Amazon to turn over recordings that might have been captured by an Echo smart speaker in the Farmington house where two women were stabbed to death in January 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAfiATTQufk

Brightly colored molecular models line two walls of Yet-Ming Chiang’s office at MIT. Chiang, a materials science professor and serial battery entrepreneur, has spent much of his career studying how slightly different arrangements of those sticks and spheres add up to radically different outcomes in energy storage. But he and his colleague, Venkat Viswanathan, are taking a different approach to reach their next goal, altering not the composition of the batteries but the alignment of the compounds within them. By applying magnetic forces to straighten the tortuous path that lithium ions navigate through the electrodes, the scientists believe, they could...

In 1973 OPEC countries imposed an oil embargo to retaliate for US support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Drivers endured soaring gasoline prices, blocks-long lines, hours wasted waiting to refuel vehicles, and restrictions on which days they could buy fuel. America was vulnerable to those blackmail sanctions because we imported “too much” oil – though it was just 30% of our crude.The fracking revolution (horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing) and other factors changed that dramatically. The United States now produces more crude oil than at any time since 1970.But now we face new, potentially far greater dangers –...

I am looking to shed all things Google, starting with my gmail account. I opened it in 2007 with the thought that I would have it for decades as Google was a behemoth of a company which would not disappear and which could be trusted. But alas, I now have not an ounce of trust in Google. So much is tied to my gmail account that I want to make a move to a company which will 1) stand the test of time and 2) can be trusted. I am quite sure I am not the only person thinking this...

The attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain, according to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources. There are two ways for spies to alter the guts of computer equipment. One, known as interdiction, consists of manipulating devices as they’re in transit from manufacturer to customer. This approach is favored by U.S. spy agencies, according to documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The other method involves seeding changes from the very beginning. One country in particular has an advantage executing this kind of attack:...