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On August 16, 2010 the U.S. Department of Defense released a congressionally mandated report entitled "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2010." The release of the report created worldwide headlines and has been taken seriously by serious military analysts. One of the best and most direct headlines was written in introducing a story by Washington Times National Security Reporter Bill Gertz, who described what the DOD Report said thus: "China targets U.S. troops with arms buildup -- Pentagon cites 'anti-access' missiles in report." "China is pursuing a variety of air, sea, undersea, space and counterspace, and...

Those who most loudly proclaim the need for qualified math and science teachers are literally being challenged on how much they value science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “Despite the fact that Washington’s Legislature and Governor last session passed a law (House Bill 2621) intending to accelerate the teaching and learning of math and science, the system is hardwired to do the opposite,” the Center for Reinventing Public Education found. “In a new analysis from the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), researchers demonstrate that the average pay for math and science teachers in Washington state lags behind...

Recent attempts to regulate the Internet by the Federal Communications Commission have prompted Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to introduce "The Freedom for Consumer Choice Act." Cosponsored by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the bill would require the FCC to prove that a clear need exists before asserting regulatory authority and would oblige the commission to provide analyses of potential costs such intervention might impose. "I am cosponsoring the FCC Act because I believe we need a safeguard to prevent unelected federal bureaucrats ...

Cairo is to synchronise the call to prayer across the city's 4,500 mosques using computers to put an end to out of tune and out of time muezzin.For more than a millennium, the competing calls to prayer intoned from Cairo's thousands of minarets have been one of the city's most distinctive features. The government this weekend begins a long-heralded project to synchronise the five daily calls to prayer across the city. Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, the ministry of religious endowments is linking all of the mosques in the city, the largest in the Arab world, to a central computerised feed. "Egyptians...

Many of you will still be alive in 50 years. It’s interesting to think about what life will be like in 50 years technologically and otherwise. Predictions are risky, especially when they’re about the future, but I believe we can make some pretty good guesses. To predict a predictable future, you need to look at the past. What was technological life like 50 years ago? 50 years ago was 1959. The world of 1959 is pretty much the same world we live in today technologically speaking. This is a vaguely horrifying fact which is little appreciated. In 1959, we had...

"There has to be a compelling reason these days for someone to decide to pick up a smelly book," says satirist Gary Shteyngart, the 38-year-old author whose novel "Super Sad True Love Story," a dystopian romance, has earned critical raves. By "smelly," Shteyngart is referring to the running gag of the plot — that books stink of dirty feet. Set in the near future — "oh, next Tuesday," Shteyngart jokes in a recent interview — the story details the development and collapse of a society that ridicules "printed bound media artifacts" and, in fact, anything that requires deep thinking. Instead,...

THE news of the day often includes an item about some development in artificial intelligence: a machine that smiles, a program that can predict human tastes in mates or music, a robot that teaches foreign languages to children. This constant stream of stories suggests that machines are becoming smart and autonomous, a new form of life, and that we should think of them as fellow creatures instead of as tools. But such conclusions aren’t just changing how we think about computers — they are reshaping the basic assumptions of our lives in misguided and ultimately damaging ways. [...] Some would...

Quote: 08 August 2010 OF BLACKBERRY BANS AND RELATED SECURITY ISSUES 1. Discussion at al-Faloja forum 2. Warning to jihadi brothers using Blackberries in Egypt (via at-Tahadi forum) Posted on 08 August 2010 @ 16:31

CORNING, N.Y. (AP) -- An ultra-strong glass that has been looking for a purpose since its invention in 1962 is poised to become a multibillion-dollar bonanza for Corning Inc. The 159-year-old glass pioneer is ramping up production of what it calls Gorilla glass, expecting it to be the hot new face of touch-screen tablets and high-end TVs. Gorilla showed early promise in the '60s, but failed to find a commercial use, so it's been biding its time in a hilltop research lab for almost a half-century. It picked up its first customer in 2008 and has quickly become a $170...

For proof that man can take any great idea and turn it to evil comes a story from Saudi Arabia, our "ally" in the Mideast. This story also shows that advanced electronic technology isn't always the panacea to life's troubles that we always imagine it to be. In fact, to women in the oppressive Kingdom of Saudi Arabia it is an Orwellian monstrosity. Courtesy of Benjamin Joffe-Walt from The Media Line we learn that the Saudi oppressors are using text messages to track the movement of the Kingdom's women, keeping tabs on them whenever they leave their homes. Women’s rights...

Intel announced today that it has created a breakthrough data-transfer technology in its labs, using a combination of silicon chips and lasers to transfer data over a fiber optic cable at a speed of 50 gigabits per second. That is far faster than the maximum possible today with copper wires, which hit their peak around 10 gigabits per second. The new Intel Silicon Photonics Link is fast enough to transfer a high definition movie from iTunes in one second, or to transfer 1,000 high-resolution digital photos in a second, or send 100 hours of music in a second, or to...

Michigan leaders who are enamored with building new light-rail passenger lines should look to Greece's experience with its railway system. The New York Times reports that Greece's Hellenic Railways is bleeding red ink at a rate of $3.8 million per day. The total debt of the Greek railway system has increased to $13 billion, or roughly 5 percent of Greece's gross domestic product. Greek government officials who are interested in selling a stake in the state railway system may have difficulty finding a buyer - the Greek rail system pays three times as much for interest payments on its debt...

The Department of Defense has sounded an alarm about our access to a strategically vital group of metals called the rare earth elements. A report on the problem prepared by the GAO is not pretty. It concludes the Chinese now control the production, processing and manufacture of final products of these vital metals and now own the patents for many of these processes. The worries of the DoD are well justified; missile guidance systems, smart bombs, night vision gear, unmanned aircraft and much more are dependent on the rare earth elements in some way. Without these metals, our weapons technology...

Moscow, Russia - Head of Russian space agency won't believe in NASA sending first man on the red planet (WAPA) - USA astronauts to an asteroid and to Mars no later than 2015, according to NASA. Sooner than predicted in April by US President Barack Obama: Mars in the mid-2030s. "It is unreal by 2015," said yesterday to press agency “Ria Novosti” Alexei Krasnov, Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos director to manned space programs. "Probably they won't be able to any sooner than 2023-2025. They do not have the necessary spacecraft, and we will be ready with the project by...

country's Far East, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced. The move is meant to ease the dependence on the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, built during the Soviet-era. The future cosmodrome will be built near the town of Uglegorsk in the Far Eastern Amur region, close to the border with China. It is planned to be mostly used for civilian launches and should be operational by 2015. "The government has made a decision to earmark 24.7 billion rubles ($809m) over the next three years for the start of the full-blown construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome," Mr Putin said. Vostochny means...

After getting frustrated out of the lemons his problems gave him, David Miller made his own corporate lemonade. Due to the frustration of always having to call technical support to solve his own frequent hardware problems, he started taking the initiative to educate himself.

IsIt Software Advises How To Win Israel Startup Weekend 2010 By Herb Brandon Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- July 15, 2010 .... Sitting at over two dozen tables at the new Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa Tel Aviv today are entrepreneurs from Israel and the Palestine territories. From Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa to Rahmallah, Nablus and Qalqilya they all share one dream. At Israel Startup Weekend 2010 they have been provided with a platform to suggest the most creative ideas in technology and Web 2.0 and a means to turn their dreams into reality. Israel Startup Weekend is...

Taking online college courses is, to many, like eating at McDonald's: convenient, fast and filling. You may not get filet mignon, but afterward you're just as full. Now the University of California wants to jump into online education for undergraduates, hoping to become the nation's first top-tier research institution to offer a bachelor's degree over the Internet comparable in quality to its prestigious campus program. "We want to do a highly selective, fully online, credit-bearing program on a large scale - and that has not been done," said UC Berkeley law school Dean Christopher Edley, who is leading the effort....

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- With most students now using cell phones, Indiana State University officials plan to remove telephone service from individual residence hall rooms. Campus residential life director Rex Kendall said usage of residence hall land lines has plummeted over the past few years as cell phone use has soared nationwide...