Thousands of robots are already on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan, but what happens when you hand the robot a gun and turn it loose?
Some researchers fear that giving military robots autonomy as well as ammo is the first step toward a "Terminator"-style nightmare, while others suggest that in some scenarios, weapon-wielding robots could someday act more humanely than humans.
Music memories don't have to die
Vinyl and cassettes find new life in the digital age
Your guide to the total lunar eclipse
Americas and Western Europe have excellent seats for the show
China Photos / Getty Images file
Earth's shadow sweeps over the moon during a lunar eclipse on Aug. 28, as seen from China's Chongqing Municipality. Sunlight is refracted around Earth's edge, turning the moon's disk a dusky red. How red will the moon get during Wednesday's eclipse?
For the third time in the past year, the moon will become completely immersed in Earth's shadow on Wednesday night, resulting in a total lunar eclipse.
As is the case with all lunar eclipses, the region of visibility encompasses more than half of our planet. Nearly a billion people in the Western Hemisphere, more than 1.5 billion in Europe and Africa, and perhaps another half-billion in western Asia will be able to watch — weather permitting — as the brilliant midwinter full moon becomes a shadow of its former self and morphs into a glowing coppery ball.
Almost everyone in the Americas and Western Europe will have a beautiful view of this eclipse if bad weather doesn't spoil the show. The moon will be high in a dark evening sky as viewed from most of the United States and Canada, at a time when most people are still awake and about.
Your guide to the total lunar eclipse - Space.com- msnbc.com
Scientists hail past observations from space — and worry about the future
Slide show
Earth as art
Click through a collection of beautiful Earth imagery captured from orbit by the Landsat 7 satellte.
My cable came in the mail today. Now I can extend my desktop to the LCD HDTV. The quality is amazing at 1024x768. For some reason I haven't got anything above that yet. Since my video card, ATI Radeon HD2600 Pro has HDMI with DMI convertor it was a piece of cake to get the signal to the TV. Now I gotta get the Windows Media Center remote control. Here's a capture of my desktop.
By Lauren Gregory, Staff Writer
The Chattanooga Times Free Press
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Chattanooga, TN - Chattanooga police say shootings reported after two different events over the weekend call attention to an emerging public safety threat: events hosted by party-promotion companies.
Violence erupted at both the "Lovers & Friends" Valentine party at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre on Friday and a party at the National Guard Armory on Saturday, both of which involved independent agents renting the space from historically problem-free venues, said Chattanooga Police Sgt. Bobby Simpson.
Sgt. Simpson, head of the police department's civil enforcement unit, says similar occurrences are reported every few months in the city, either because well-intentioned promoters are ill-equipped to handle large crowds or because they have little incentive to keep someone else's facility safe.
Shootings follow events hosted by party-promotion companies - News- msnbc.com
02/06/2008 04:52:50 AM EST
TURKISH DAILY NEWS
About 150 guest workers from Nepal who seemingly vanished from apartments in Huntsville, Alabama allegedly taking furniture and appliances, left in search of better-paying jobs, said a resident who befriended the immigrants.
The Huntsville Times reported Monday that a letter from the agency that hired more than 200 Nepalese workers said they were free to leave at any time. There also was no sign of missing furniture or cookware at the apartments where they had been staying, as their landlord had alleged, the newspaper said.
Tilak Shrestha, a Nepalese scientist in Huntsville who befriended several of the workers, said they left the jobs at a local Cinram Inc. plant in search of better-paying employment.
"Why they are missing is their primary motivation is to work and earn money," Shrestha said. "There is not enough work and they went other places to find better work than the Cinram."
The Times said a form letter from their employer, Ambassador Personnel, was sent Nov. 29 saying their employment was "at-will" and adding: "Employees are free to relinquish their positions at any time, with or without cause."
Some of the workers, paid $8 (5.40 euros) an hour to label and pack DVDs at Cinrams Huntsville plant, have said they were not getting as many hours as hoped after the holidays.
The Times said a walk through the furnished apartments the Nepalese rented revealed plastic patio furniture, used sleeper couches, beds, small $150 (101 euros) TV sets and old cookware, as had been evident on a visit in November.
"None of these guys are going to run around with a plastic table and dirty pans," said Shrestha.
Mary Snopl, the landlord for the Nepalese workers, had told a television news station last week that about 150 of the guest workers had left the apartments and taken furniture, televisions and kitchenware with them.
Told by the Times that the furnishings did not appear to be missing, she said, "If that's the case, that's great."
Officials with Ambassador Personnel and Cinram said last week the workers returned to Nepal early out of homesickness. Federal immigration officials said the missing worker case is being checked out.
On Wednesday night, Feb. 20, for the third time in the past year, the moon will become completely immersed in the Earth's shadow, resulting in a total lunar eclipse.
As is the case with all lunar eclipses, the region of visibility will encompass more than half of our planet. Nearly a billion people in the Western Hemisphere, more than 1.5 billion in Europe and Africa, and perhaps another half-billion in western Asia will be able to watch — weather permitting — as the brilliant mid-winter full moon becomes a shadow of its former self and morphs into a glowing coppery ball.
Almost everyone in the Americas and Western Europe will have a beautiful view of this eclipse if bad weather doesn't spoil the show. The moon will be high in a dark evening sky as viewed from most of the United States and Canada while most people are still awake and about.
WASHINGTON - A frog the size of a bowling ball, with heavy armor and teeth, lived among dinosaurs millions of years ago — intimidating enough that scientists who unearthed its fossils dubbed the beast Beelzebufo, or Devil Toad.
But its size — 10 pounds and 16 inches long — isn't the only curiosity. Researchers discovered the creature's bones in Madagascar. Yet it seems to be a close relative of normal-sized frogs who today live half a world away in South America, challenging assumptions about ancient geography.
The discovery, led by paleontologist David Krause at New York's Stony Brook University, was published Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Microsoft won’t be turning Office 14 into a completely Web-ified productivity suite, a la Google Docs. But it’s practically a given that Microsoft will add more online collaboration/sharing capabilities to the individual point products that will comprise the client-based Office 14.
Microsoft execs are beginning to drop a few hints about the company’s plans to provide more document collaboration/sharing options for its PC-based desktop-productivity software.
Microsoft is beta testing an adjunct to Office (and non-Microsoft office suites) known as Office Live Workspace, which adds document collaboration/sharing capabilities to Word, Excel and PowerPoint (the XP, 2003 and 2007 releases). But Workspace doesn’t provide online/offline sync for Access, OneNote, Publisher or other more business-targeted members of the Office product family.
OakLeaf Systems blogger Roger Jennings noted that Microsoft is working on a way to make its Microsoft Access client database product more Web-friendly.As Jennings noted, Chairman Bill Gates, who spoke at this week’s Office System Developer Conference, made references to Microsoft’s plans to turn Microsoft Access, its desktop database product, into more of a Web-ified product. In a video interview, Gates said:
“Now [with Access] 2007, they did a great job where you could replicate from SharePoint down to Access lists back and forth, but that still didn’t let you run your logic up on the server. So the next step is to take that base of Access users and literally let them write things that connect directly up to SharePoint and so it’s server-based. So it’s a logical step for Access.”
Gates said the same way Excel moved to the server (via Excel Services) with the Office System 2007 release, so, too, will Microsoft Access.
“In no sense are we leaving the Access people behind,” Gates also said.
In addition to Excel Services, Microsoft already has InfoPath Services and Groove Services, which allow users to store and desktop data to/from Office SharePoint Server.
Microsoft hasn’t offered a timing update on Office 14 for some time. Latest I’ve heard is that the company is still aiming to roll out Office 14 in 2009.
Feds: Druglords launder cash via Miami airport - Americas- msnbc.com
$11 million seized at airport believed to be part of massive scheme
MIAMI - Every day, American Airlines Flight 914 takes off from Bogota, Colombia, at 8:20 a.m. and touches down at the Miami airport at noon. Among the items typically in the jet's cargo hold are bags and bags of euros that investigators say are part of a huge $1.4 billion cocaine money-laundering scheme.
Crime is happening right on schedule in Miami, almost every day, federal prosecutors say. But so far, despite nearly four years of investigation, they have apparently been unable to build a strong enough case to stop it.
Instead, they are attacking the problem piecemeal. The U.S. Justice Department this week went to federal court in Miami seeking forfeiture of nearly $11 million seized last June and July by federal agents, who used drug-sniffing dogs to find cocaine residue on some of the cash.
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Star Trek (2009) - Synopsis - MSN Movies
Mission Impossible III director and Alias creator J.J. Abrams resurrects the classic science fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry with this feature film that embraces the rich history of the influential television and film series while also exploring some uncharted territory. Heroes star Zachary Quinto assumes the role of the Federation Starfleet lieutenant and Vulcan made famous in the original series by Leonard Nimoy (who also appears in an older incarnation of his original role), with Anton Yelchin stepping into the role of U.S.S. Enterprise navigator Pavel Checkov, Zoe Saldana assuming the role of communications officer Uhura, Simon Pegg keeping the ship in top shape as chief engineer Montgomery Scott, and Erica Bana tormenting the benevolent space explorers as the villainous Nero. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle co-star John Cho also boards the Enterprise as staff psychiatrist Hikaru Sulu, with Chris Pine and Karl Urban assuming the legendary roles of Captain Kirk and Leonard "Bones" McCoy, respectively. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Oh shit! No more espresso! What the hell am I supposed to do now? Time to break out the french press, thank God for these samplers me & Hunter bought a few months ago.
I have discovered a new radio station. NPR in New York. Just heard The Shins then Amy Winehouse. WFUB
Here's the Winamp stream: http://wfuv.ic.llnwd.net/stream/wfuv_allmusic2
Banking records, music, emails, business contacts. All on your laptop. And all fair game for Customs agents, who can copy and keep whatever data is in there.
US customs agents can examine, copy data from searched laptops
David Edwards and Mike Sheehan | ||||
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Customs agents have the prerogative to examine and even copy data from travelling citizens' laptops they search, CNN's American Morning reports.
"A new alert for travellers: be careful what you store on your laptop or your BlackBerry when entering the United States," warns CNN's John Roberts. "Customs agents can examine your computer and even keep your private information."
CNN reporter Jeanne Meserve adds ominously, "Your banking records, your music choices, your emails, your business contacts -- all can be examined, copied and stored by the government when you enter the country, if they're in an electronic device."
One Pakistani-American IT consultant says that U.S. agents searched his computer on five occasions upon returning from overseas trips, even forcing him to give them access to confidential corporate information.
