How does the U.S. stack up against other countries in high’speed internet? Not very well, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The inventory wouldn’t cover other countries, but a cursory look shows the U.S. lagging behind at least some of them. In South Korea, for instance, the average apartment can get an Internet connection that’s 15 times faster than a typical U.S. connection. In Paris, a “triple play” of TV, phone and broadband service costs less than half of what it does in the U.S.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - a 30-member club of nations - compiles the most often cited international comparison. It puts the U.S. at 15th place for broadband lines per person in 2006, down from No. 4 in 2001.

The article points out that the OECD is often vigorously attacked by anti-regulation think tanks. What the hell is an anti-regulation think tank anyway? How does one become a member of one of these? WHY would anyone want to? Do these people not have anything better to do with their time?

War, disease and poverty abounds. Thank God for the anti-regulation think tank!

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By JOHN MARKOFF
The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24 - A Chinese technology company has expressed interest in buying a maker of computer disk drives in the United States, raising concerns among American government officials about the risks to national security in transferring high technology to China.

William D. Watkins of Seagate Technology

The overture, which was disclosed by the chief executive of one of the two remaining drive makers in the United States, William D. Watkins of Seagate Technology, has resurrected the issues of economic competitiveness and national security raised three years ago when Lenovo, a Chinese computer maker, bought I.B.M.’s personal computer business.

Tensions have been increasing lately between the countries over China’s ambitions in developing its military abilities and advanced technologies for industrial and consumer uses.

Although disk drives do not fall under a list of export-controlled technologies, the attempted purchase of an American disk drive company would require a security review by the federal government, according to several government officials.

In recent years, modern disk drives, used to store vast quantities of digital information securely, have become complex computing systems, complete with hundreds of thousands of lines of software that are used to ensure the integrity of data and to offer data encryption.

That could raise the prospect of secret tampering with hardware or software to make it possible to pilfer information via computer networks, intelligence officials have warned.

read more HERE

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By Gordon Lubold
The Christian Science Monitor

Washington - In the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other individuals the military considers high-value targets, the US Air Force is pursuing a new program that could put a missile on a target in minutes instead of hours.

The Air Force is developing a “hypersonic” engine designed to fly bombs at Mach 6.5 speed, or more than 4,000 miles per hour, allowing commanders a chance to conduct long-range strikes on targets in a fraction of the time it takes now. The program, known as the X-51A scramjet, could be a valuable tool as a “manhunter” in fights such as those in Afghanistan or Iraq - or as a deterrent against more conventional enemies in industrialized nations, officials say. It all comes down to speed, and that could change the nature of the fight in the war on terrorism, military officials say.

“Faster is always better in air power,” says Brig. Gen. Jim Poss, the Air Force’s director of intelligence for its Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va. “What we’ve found from combat experience is that people realize very quickly you have to move to survive on the modern battlefield. And the best way to counter that is to get there with the appropriate weapon in the appropriate size very quickly.”

The program isn’t a weapons program per se, but a demonstration of an engine that can move a weapon really, really fast. Unlike a rocket, which requires its own oxygen stored in heavy tanks, a scramjet engine mixes the oxygen already in the air with fuel at such a high rate that it can propel itself faster than anything else that can fly long distances within the atmosphere. Strap on a warhead, and the United States has a unique new weapon, analysts and military officials say.

It sounds ideal from a military commander’s standpoint. There’s just one problem: The X-51A doesn’t quite exist just yet.

read more HERE

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Counter-terrorism experts have drawn up plans to develop an array of advanced technologies capable of spotting would-be terrorists in a crowd before they have time to strike.

Scientists and engineers have been asked to devise ways of analysing people’s behaviour and physiology from afar, in the hope they may reveal clues about their mental state and even their future intentions.

Under Project Hostile Intent, scientists will aim to build devices that can pick up tell-tale signs of hostile intent or deception from people’s heart rates, perspiration and tiny shifts in facial expressions.

The project was launched by the US department of homeland security with a call to security companies and government laboratories for assistance.

According to the timetable set out, the new devices are expected to be trialled at a handful of airports, borders and ports of entry by 2012.

The plans describe how systems based on video cameras, laserlight, infra-red, audio recordings and eye tracking technology are expected to scour crowds looking for unusual behaviour, with the aim of identifying people who should be approached and quizzed by security staff, New Scientist magazine reports.

The project hopes to advance a security system already employed by the US transportation security administration that monitors people for unintentional facial twitches, called “micro-expressions”, that can suggest someone is lying or trying to conceal information.

More at the Guardian

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By MONICA DAVEY and MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 8 - Investigators have found what may be a design flaw in the bridge that collapsed here a week ago, in the steel parts that connect girders, raising safety concerns for other bridges around the country, federal officials said on Wednesday.

Work continued on Wednesday in removing wreckage from the collapsed Minneapolis bridge.

The Federal Highway Administration swiftly responded by urging all states to take extra care with how much weight they place on bridges of any design when sending construction crews to work on them. Crews were doing work on the deck of the Interstate 35W bridge here when it gave way, hurling rush-hour traffic into the Mississippi River and killing at least five people.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation is months from completion, and officials in Washington said they were still working to confirm the design flaw in the so-called gusset plates and what, if any, role they had in the collapse.

Still, in making public their suspicion about a flaw, the investigators were signaling they considered it a potentially crucial discovery and also a safety concern for other bridges. Gusset plates are used in the construction of many bridges, not just those with a similar design to the one here.

read more HERE

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from the PEW RESEARCH CENTER

In a series of tracking surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, online Americans report that the internet has brought significant improvements to four areas of their lives: the ability to pursue hobbies and interests, shop, work, and obtain health-care information; some 33% say their ability to pursue hobbies and interests has greatly improved, 32% say so about their ability to shop, 35% say so about their ability to do their jobs, and 20% say the internet has greatly improved the way they get information about health care. In all four categories, the internet earns the highest marks among those who use it most frequently. Daily internet users are twice as likely to report that it improves their ability to do their job “a lot.” Similarly, 39% of daily internet users say it has improved their ability to pursue hobbies and interests “a lot,” while the proportion of weekly internet users who say so is about half as large.

read more HERE

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By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer

Lobbying Intense As Google Seeks To Open Market

The Federal Communications Commission will set the rules tomorrow governing the auction of $15 billion of public airwaves, a decision with stakes so high that the major U.S. cellular carriers and Google have spent millions of dollars on a lobbying campaign in an attempt to influence the outcome. The decision could dramatically alter the nation’s cellphone industry.

Google, the giant Internet search company, wants to extend its popular tools, which include e-mail and video, to the rapidly expanding mobile phone market. To do so, it may spend billions to build a new, open network it says will loosen the grip telecom operators have over how consumers use their cellphones.

Currently, the major U.S. wireless carriers, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless, largely decide which Web sites, music-download services and search engines their customers can access on their cellphones. This is accomplished by wireless companies determining which cellphones will receive their services: AT&T, for example, is the only carrier available to users of Apple’s iPhone.

Google wants to end that restriction and has urged the FCC to require the winner of the auction to build a network that will be open to all cellphones and services, so any consumer can have access to Google’s array of offerings.

read more HERE

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Ok, is it just me or is that headine really funny? If I was one of the award winners, I’d express that the least they could do is have someone with a brain give me the award. Not to mention the guy has no respect for science……..

From Boston.com

WASHINGTON –President Bush awarded 30 science and technology medals Friday for breakthroughs in such fields as astrophysics, laser technology, climatology and tissue engineering.
[tag]
The National Science Foundation[/tag] administers the Medal of Science, which was established by Congress in 1959. The Medal of Technology was established by Congress in 1980 and is administered by the Commerce Department.

“We have researchers who have drilled into glaciers, isolated the DNA of mobile genes and pioneered the distributed feedback laser,” Bush said before presenting the medals in the White House’s East Room. “In other words, we’ve got some smart people here. And we’re glad you’re Americans.”

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I’ve been waiting for this!

Farewell, wires? Power beamed through air

A-WiTricity- can light up lamps and laptops; system touted as safe, efficient
Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience

Wireless power is transmitted over a 7-foot distance from the coil on the left to the coil on the right, where it powers a 60-watt light bulb. The researchers are obstructing the direct line of sight between the coils. Front row: Peter Fisher and Robert Moffatt; second row: Marin Soljacic; third row: Andre Kurs, John Joannopoulos and Aristeidis Karalis.

Power cables and even batteries might become a thing of the past using a new technique that can transmit power wirelessly to cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, household robots and other electronics.

Scientists lit a 60-watt light bulb from a power source 7 feet (2 meters) away with their new technique, with no physical connection between the source and the appliance. The researchers have dubbed their concept “WiTricity,” as in “wireless electricity.”

MIT physicist Marin Soljacic began thinking years ago about how to transmit power wirelessly so his cell phone could recharge without ever being plugged in. Scientists have pursued wireless power transmission for years - notably, eccentric genius Nikola Tesla, who devoted much energy toward it roughly a century ago.

The problem with wireless power transmission is that broadcasting energy in all directions - say, as radio waves - can be tremendously wasteful, with a vast majority of power ending up squandered into free space. One could imagine focusing energy along just one or a few directions - say, using laser beams - but such approaches can readily prove dangerous and cumbersome, requiring an uninterrupted line of sight between the source and device as well as sophisticated tracking systems on the device if it is mobile. (Scientists have proposed beaming power from orbital solar power stations to Earth for years.)

Full article at MSNBC.com

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