Tuesday, November 22, 2005
' 'Ugly dog' Sam dies at 14'
CNN article here.
SANTA BARBARA, California (AP) -- Sam, the dog whose ugliness earned him TV appearances, limousine rides and even a meeting with millionaire Donald Trump, has died, the Santa Barbara News-Press reported Tuesday.
The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his knobby head died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, said his owner, Susie Lockheed.
'Principal resigns after shaming student'
CNN article here.
ELIZABETH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- An elementary school principal resigned after parents denounced her for parading an 8-year-old girl from class to class after a classmate falsely accused her of stealing $5.
...
After the classmate accused the girl of stealing the $5, Whitby took her from room to room, calling her a liar and thief. The other child later recanted the story.
'Pentagon to probe Iraq war architect'
CNN article here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Pentagon's inspector general has agreed to review the prewar intelligence activities of former U.S. defense undersecretary Douglas Feith, a main architect of the Iraq war, congressional officials said on Thursday.
' Ex-CIA chief: Cheney 'VP for torture''
CNN article here.
LONDON, England -- Former CIA director Stansfield Turner has labeled Dick Cheney a "vice president for torture."
In an interview with Britain's ITV news Thursday, Turner said the U.S. vice president was damaging America's reputation by overseeing torture policies of possible terrorist suspects, the UK's Press Association reported.
"I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture," Turner said, according to ITV's Web site. "He condones torture, what else is he?"
Turner said he did not believe U.S. President George W. Bush's statements that the United States does not use torture.
Turner ran the Central Intelligence Agency from 1977 to 1981 under former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
"We have crossed the line into dangerous territory," PA quoted Turner as saying. "I think it is just reprehensible."
'Timid Mice Made Daring by Removing One Gene'
article by BENEDICT CAREY here.
Scientists working with mice have found that by removing a single gene they can turn normally cautious animals into daring ones, mice that are more willing to explore unknown territory and less intimidated by sights and sounds that they have learned can be dangerous.
The surprising discovery, being reported today in the journal Cell, opens a new window on how fear works in the brain, experts said.
'Met Rarity: Barcarolle Simulated for a Movie'
article on next Kenneth Lonergan film by DANIEL J. WAKIN here.
'From Tapes, a Chilling Voice of Islamic Radicalism in Europe'
article by ELAINE SCIOLINO here.
MILAN - Playing an Internet video one evening last year, an Egyptian radical living in Milan reveled as the head of an American, Nicholas Berg, was sawed off by his Iraqi captors.
"Go to hell, enemy of God!" shouted the man, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, as Mr. Berg's screams were broadcast. "Kill him! Kill him! Yes, like that! Cut his throat properly. Cut his head off! If I had been there, I would have burned him to make him already feel what hell was like. Cut off his head! God is great! God is great!"
'American Faces Charge of Graft for Work in Iraq'
article by JAMES GLANZ here.
In what is expected to be the first of a series of criminal charges against officials and contractors overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq, an American has been charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to American occupation authorities and their spouses to obtain construction contracts, according to a complaint unsealed late yesterday.
'A Reminder of How Debate Over Prewar Intelligence Continues to Shadow Bush'
article by RICHARD W. STEVENSON and DOUGLAS JEHL here.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 - At a time when the Bush administration is furiously parrying a new round of accusations that it exaggerated the threat from Saddam Hussein in leading the nation to war, the imagery on Monday was startling.
There was Ahmad Chalabi, who as a leader of Iraqi exiles before the war funneled what proved to be inaccurate information about Mr. Hussein's weapons programs to the United States, being whisked into meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the most influential of the hawks in the administration when it came to Iraq.
'Lisa Loeb to look for mate on TV'
CNN article here.
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- E! Entertainment Television said Tuesday that it has greenlighted an unscripted series that will follow newly single singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb as she re-enters the dating world.
The eight-episode series, titled "#1 Single," will feature Loeb as she moves back to New York and starts dating again for the first time since college. The half-hour series is set to premiere in January.
...
"I decided to do this TV series because what I do as a musician and songwriter is connect to an audience, so why not take that to another level," Loeb said.
'Oh, Oprah, 20 Years of Talk, Causes and Self-Improvement'
article by ALESSANDRA STANLEY here.
It's not just that her rise to fame turned into a uniquely satisfying parable of the American dream, though hers is a remarkable story. Ms. Winfrey was born into poverty in Mississippi and refers to herself as a "former colored girl." Like another prominent African-American, Condoleezza Rice, Ms. Winfrey owes her distinctive first name to a spelling error: she was supposed to be named Orpah, after a figure in the Book of Ruth, but someone transposed the letters at the registry.
Most significantly, she presents her triumph over adversity, discrimination and child abuse in positive terms that allow Americans to feel better about themselves - a quid pro quo that she shamelessly exploits for good, goading viewers to improve themselves and also give something back. Ms. Winfrey, who speaks in slow, emphatic phrases, can be deadly earnest at times, but she also brought fun to philanthropy. Hers is a frilly pulpit: the self-made billionaire appears to spend as freely and gleefully on friends, strangers and the needy as herself.
Monday, November 14, 2005
'Pentagon's Fuel Deal Is Lesson in Risks of Graft-Prone Regions'
article by DAVID S. CLOUD here.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 - Soon after the American invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, the Pentagon opened an air base in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and made a deal to get jet fuel from the only two suppliers in the country. The companies just happened to be linked to relatives of the country's president.
Now the two businesses are under scrutiny by Kyrgyz prosecutors and F.B.I. agents who are looking into whether the president at the time, Askar Akayev, and his family pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars, partly from Pentagon fuel contracts, before he was ousted this year.
The family's involvement at the base, a critical site for refueling Air Force aircraft flying over Afghanistan, is a story of everyday cronyism in an impoverished country where the coming of the Americans was seen as a financial windfall for the well connected.
But the case also illustrates the risks of alliances with nations that are unstable and rife with corruption. Mr. Akayev's abrupt departure in March has put the Pentagon in an awkward bind. It needs continued access to the base, but the $207 million spent on fuel contracts has created resentment among the country's new leaders, some of whom contend that the United States knew where the proceeds were going.
'Riya eases pain of pile of pics'
article by KATHLEEN CRAIG here.
Riya has developed software that can automatically recognize who is in a picture and tag it with their names.
Currently in alpha testing, the software has proven sensitive enough to tell the difference between twins and recognize members of the same family. It can even read street signs for clues about a picture's location.
'Machinima Marches Toward Amusing'
article by JASON SILVERMAN here.
"As the difference in quality between machinima and 2-D and 3-D animation narrows, it will be easier for general audiences to accept it," he said. "Most people don't really care how their entertainment is made, as long as it is entertaining."
vertical axis wind turbine
description here.
Design creates pull on the back side, contributing to 40%+ wind conversion efficiencies; doesn't kill birds; runs more quietly; and doesn't need to be installed as high, blending better with landscape. Generating costs estimated at 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, surpassing conventional energy sources.
Therac-25
wikipedia entry here.
Therac-25 was a radiation therapy machine produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. It was involved with at least six known accidents between 1985 and 1987, in which patients were given massive overdoses of radiation, which were in some cases on the order of tens of thousands of rads. At least five patients died of the overdoses. These accidents highlighted the dangers of software control of safety-critical systems.
'The Trail of a Clicked-On Ad, Brought to You by Google'
article by BOB TEDESCHI here.
Google plans to introduce free analytical tools for online publishers and marketers today, a move that would help the company's clients get a better sense of Web site traffic patterns and advertising campaigns.
Online analytic tools help publishers determine how often people have viewed certain pages and clicked on certain links within those pages. The free services will be integrated into Google's lucrative AdWords program, in which marketers for, say, wrenches, pay to have their ads appear near search results whenever online users search for "automotive tools." Google Analytics will crunch numbers on behalf of users, telling them how often visitors who saw an ad associated with "automotive tools" clicked on the ad, versus those who searched for "hardware stores."
'Malaria Vaccine Proves Effective in Clinical Trial'
article by DAVID BIELLO here.
A new vaccine stimulated human immune cells to recognize and kill malaria parasites in a recent clinical trial. The vaccine proved effective in both infected human blood samples and mice whose immune systems had been modified to mimic that of humans.
'Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims'
article by WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER here.
In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.
The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting.
The documents, the Americans acknowledged from the start, do not prove that Iran has an atomic bomb. They presented them as the strongest evidence yet that, despite Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, the country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach Israel and other countries in the Middle East.
'Many in Jordan See Old Enemy in Attack: Israel'
article by MICHAEL SLACKMAN here.
While most Arabs have long viewed Israel as their enemy, the extent to which Israel weighs on the regional psyche and diverts attention away from social, political, religious and economic issues that cannot be ignored, many social and political analysts say. Blaming Israel is not just a knee jerk, they say; for many Arabs, it is their reality.
"People don't blame Israel out of a vacuum," said Rami Khoury, a Jordanian political commentator and writer based in Lebanon. "There is a very strong historical reason, because Israel has caused a lot of grief for Arab people one way or another."
But he added, "The consequence is that this became an easy way not to deal with our problems that are based in our own society."
The suspicion of some here over the hotel killings mirrors the unfounded rumor that thousands of Jews did not show up for work at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, because Israel was behind those attacks.
'Looking for the Burmese Junta? Sorry, It's Gone Into Hiding'
article by SETH MYDANS here.
BANGKOK, Nov. 13 - At precisely 6:37 a.m. last Sunday, according to one account - with a shout of "Let's go!" - a convoy of trucks began a huge, expensive and baffling transfer of the government of Myanmar from the capital to a secret mountain compound 200 miles to the north.
Diplomats and foreign analysts were left groping a week later for an explanation of the unannounced move. In a country as secretive and eccentric as Myanmar, it is a full-time job to try to tease the truth from the swirl of rumors and guesswork, relying on few facts and many theories. The leading theories now have to do with astrological predictions and fears of invasion by the United States. The relocation, which the government announced to reporters and foreign diplomats a day after it began, but not yet to the public through the state-controlled media, had been rumored for years.
'Libby Establishes a Fund to Help Pay Legal Bills'
article by RICHARD W. STEVENSON and ERIC LICHTBLAU here.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is establishing a fund to help pay for his legal defense in the C.I.A. leak case, and associates of Mr. Libby have begun soliciting money from his friends and Republican donors, lawyers and people who have been contacted about the fund said on Tuesday.
...
But in establishing the fund, Mr. Libby is opening himself to questions. Legal and campaign finance specialists said he could face scrutiny about whether any financial assistance he might receive from allies of President Bush and Mr. Cheney was going to finance a defense strategy intended in part to minimize harm to the administration.
'Kansas School Board Approves Controversial Science Standards'
article by JODI WILGOREN here.
TOPEKA, Kan., Nov. 8 - A fiercely split State Board of Education voted 6-4 today to adopt new science standards that are the most far-reaching in the nation in requiring that Darwin's theory of evolution be challenged in the classroom.
The new Kansas standards press beyond the broad mandate for critical analysis of evolution that four other states have established in recent years, by citing specific points of contention that doubters of evolution use to undermine its primacy in science education. Among the most controversial changes was a redefinition of science itself so that it is not explicitly limited to natural explanations.
'Internet Services Crucial, Microsoft Memos Say'
article by JOHN MARKOFF here.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8 - Microsoft must fundamentally alter its business or face being at a significant competitive disadvantage to a growing array of companies offering Internet services, according to memorandums written by two of the company's top executives.
Last week, Microsoft, the largest software maker, announced that it would offer two new Internet services - Windows Live and Office Live - in response to companies including Apple, Google, Salesforce.com and Yahoo that have created new businesses based on direct Internet connections with users.
In separate memos distributed internally to senior executives on Oct. 30, Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, and a chief technology officer, Ray Ozzie, warned that the new "Internet services" era could be significantly disruptive for the company.
'Internet Service to Put Classic TV on Home Computer'
article by SAUL HANSELL here.
Warner Brothers is preparing a major new Internet service that will let fans watch full episodes from more than 100 old television series. The service, called In2TV, will be free, supported by advertising, and will start early next year. More than 4,800 episodes will be made available online in the first year.
The move will give Warner a way to reap new advertising revenue from a huge trove of old programming that is not widely syndicated.
Programs on In2TV will have one to two minutes of commercials for each half-hour episode, compared with eight minutes in a standard broadcast. The Internet commercials cannot be skipped.
...
The company will offer a changing selection of several hundred episodes each month, rather than providing continuous access to all the episodes in a series, Mr. Frankel said, so as not to cannibalize potential DVD sales of old TV shows.
'In Study, Hormone Reduced Appetite in Mice'
article by DENISE GRADY here.
Today, researchers at Stanford University are reporting that they have found a previously unknown member of this chemical cascade, a hormone with a much coveted power: it sharply reduces the desire to eat.
The new substance, which the scientists named obestatin (OHB-statin), is made in the stomach and small intestine, and it seems to prompt the brain to send out a signal that says "eat less."
'Heavy Hand of the Secret Police Impeding Reform in Arab World'
article by NEIL MacFARQUHAR here.
In Jordan and across the region, those seeking democratic reform say the central role of each country's secret police force, with its stealthy, octopuslike reach, is one of the biggest impediments. In the decades since World War II, as military leaders and monarchs smothered democratic life, the security agencies have become a law unto themselves.
'F.D.A.'s Rejection of Contraceptive Is Questioned'
article by MARIA NEWMAN here.
The Food and Drug Administration did not follow its usual procedures in rejecting an application for over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B, the investigating arm of Congress found today.
The General Accounting Office also said in its 57-page report that there were questions about whether top officials of the F.D.A. made the decision to reject the application for over-the-counter sales of the drug, which is opposed by some religious conservatives, even before its own advisory committee had issued its recommendation on the matter.
...
The G.A.O. said in its report that "the Plan B decision was not typical of the other 67 proposed" changes from prescription to over-the-counter sales that the agency received from 1994 through 2004.
'Enlisting Cellphone Signals to Fight Road Gridlock'
article by MATT RICHTEL here.
Several state transportation agencies, including those in Maryland and Virginia, are starting to test technology that allows them to monitor traffic by tracking cellphone signals and mapping them against road grids.
The technology underlines how readily cellphones can become tracking devices for private companies, law enforcement and government agencies - a development that deeply troubles privacy advocates.
'Carriers Adopt Content Rating for Cellphones'
article by MATT RICHTEL here.
The nation's major cellular phone carriers said yesterday that they had adopted a content rating system for video, music, pictures and games that they sell to cellphone users - a development that could pave the way for them to begin selling pornography and sex-oriented content on mobile devices.
'Parents: Online newsgroup helped daughter commit suicide'
CNN article here.
(CNN) -- Suzanne Gonzales seemed to have everything going for her.
A bubbly 19-year-old with loving parents and good friends, she was also a strong student and earned a science scholarship for college.
But everything changed one spring day two years ago, when Suzanne's parents, Mike and Mary Gonzales, received the following e-mail.
"Dear Mom, Dad, and Jennifer, I will make this short as I know. It will be hard to deal with. If you haven't heard by now, I've passed away," the e-mail read.
' U.S. envoy shouts at Darfur official'
CNN article here.
SHEK EN NIL, Sudan (AP) -- A shouting match Thursday between a senior U.S. envoy and a Darfur government official illustrated the difficulties of peacemaking in the restive region of western Sudan.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick had listened to African Union military observers describe a recent outbreak of violence that had turned southern Darfur's Shek en Nil into a ghost village of burned out homes, and heard local leaders profess their commitment to peace.
Regional commissioner Sadiek Abdel Nabi followed as Zoellick stepped away for what was to have been a private additional AU briefing in the remnants of a village home. An angry Zoellick ordered Nabi out, saying: "I want to hear a straight story ... and I can't trust your government."
When Nabi refused, Zoellick said he would protest to President Omar el-Bashir.
"I am Bashir here!" Nabi, who had previously relied on an Arabic translator, shouted three times in English, standing inches (centimeters) from Zoellick.
' White House to 'hit back' at Democrats'
article by DANA BASH here.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top White House officials say they're developing a "campaign-style" strategy in response to increasing Democratic allegations that the Bush administration twisted intelligence to make its case for war.
'CIA slipped bugs to Soviets: Memoir recounts Cold War technological sabotage'
article by DAVID E. HOFFMAN here.
In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.
...
"The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space," he recalls, adding that U.S. satellites picked up the explosion. Reed said in an interview that the blast occurred in the summer of 1982.
' Caution over HIV 'cure' claims'
BBC article here.
Doctors say they want to investigate the case of a British man with HIV who apparently became clear of the virus.
Andrew Stimpson, 25, was diagnosed HIV-positive in 2002 but was found to be negative in October 2003 by Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust.
Mr Stimpson, from London, said he was "one of the luckiest people alive".
The trust said the tests were accurate but had been unable to confirm Scotsman Mr Stimpson's cure because he had declined to undergo further tests.
'Back at Work After Battle, Prepping the Next in Line'
article by ELISABETH BUMILLER here.
As the handful of people in Ms. Miers's West Wing office that Sunday night tell it, the president's beleaguered counsel brought a sardonic sense of humor to the proceedings. When Ed Gillespie, an adviser at the meeting, told Judge Alito that if he was going to wear his glasses for the announcement then he should also wear them to his confirmation hearings, Ms. Miers offered some advice of her own.
"But don't wear eyeliner," she told Judge Alito, according to participants, who say the meeting immediately broke into laughter.
'Are U.S. Innovators Losing Their Competitive Edge?'
article by TIMOTHY L. O’BRIEN here.
Mr. West stands firmly in this tradition - a tradition that he said may soon be upended. He fears that corporate and public nurturing of inventors and scientific research is faltering and that America will pay a serious economic and intellectual penalty for this lapse.
A larger pool of Mr. West's colleagues echoes his concerns. "The scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength," the National Academy of Sciences observed in a report released last month. "Although many people assume that the United States will always be a world leader in science and technology, this may not continue to be the case inasmuch as great minds and ideas exist throughout the world. We fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and technology can be lost - and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost, if indeed it can be regained at all."
' A Booster Shot for Medical Data-Sharing'
article by TIMOTHY MULLANEY here.
Four tech titans have won federal contracts to create interoperable regional networks -- a major step on the road to a national system by 2014
Saturday, November 12, 2005
'They're Soft, Cuddly and Lashed to the Front of a Truck. But Why?'
article by ANDY NEWMAN here.
All are soldiers in the tattered, scattered army of the stuffed: mostly discarded toys plucked from the trash and given new if punishing lives on the prows of large motor vehicles, their fluffy white guts flapping from burst seams and going gray in the soot-stream of a thousand exhaust pipes.
Grille-mounted stuffed animals form a compelling yet little-studied aspect of the urban streetscape, a traveling gallery of baldly transgressive public art.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
'Clinton's Rival, Seeking Cash, Sounds a Note of New Urgency'
article by RAYMOND HERNANDEZ here.
Jeanine F. Pirro, who is seeking to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, has opened a harsh attack on Bill Clinton, saying that the senator has learned "a thing or two from her husband on the art of political manipulation."
...
The Clinton camp responded by pointing to Ms. Pirro's previous statements in which she indicated that the background of her husband, Albert J. Pirro Jr., should not be an issue in the campaign. Mr. Pirro, who has been plagued by scandal, has largely kept out of view since his wife announced her candidacy.
"It's unfortunate that Ms. Pirro would choose to contradict herself and attack Senator Clinton's husband," said Howard Wolfson, one of Mrs. Clinton's chief advisers. "She may not appreciate the eight years of peace and prosperity he brought
Monday, November 07, 2005
'Peyote Won't Rot Your Brain'
article by RANDY DOTINGA here.
In the first study of its kind, researchers have found that peyote -- for now, the only legal hallucinogenic drug in the
While the findings don't directly indicate anything about the safety of psychedelic drugs like LSD and mushrooms, they do suggest that at least one hallucinogen is OK to use for months or even years.
'U.S. Should Repay Millions to Iraq, a U.N. Audit Finds'
article by JAMES GLANZ here.
An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended yesterday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary.
The work was paid for with Iraqi oil proceeds, but the board said it was either carried out at inflated prices or done poorly. The board did not, however, give examples of poor work.
Some of the work involved postwar fuel imports carried out by K.B.R. that previous audits had criticized as grossly overpriced. But this is the first time that an international auditing group has suggested that the
'Star Wars: Episodes I-VI: The greatest postmodern art film ever'
article by AIDAN WASLEY here.
With the release of Episode III Revenge of the Sith on DVD today, George Lucas' audience can finally see all six Star Wars films back-to-back, as a single text. This is how Lucas himself regards the series, often joking that, including his 1973 hit American Graffiti, he has made only three movies in his career. One of the surprises in store after a marathon viewing is how much of the young Lucas, the self-conscious avant-gardist of THX1138, is actually visible onscreen, peeking out from behind the endless sequences of digitally enhanced space battles and ritualized light-saber duels. Looking at these familiar films with fresh eyes, unfiltered by the lens of nostalgia and sentiment—and it was, admittedly, a resonant moment this summer to watch the final episode with my father, who had taken me to see the original film in 1977 when I was 8—we start to see just how deeply weird they really are. Three decades on, the kids who grew up playing with Luke Skywalker action figures and carrying Princess Leia lunchboxes may be startled to discover that Star Wars is really just one big elephantine postmodern art film.
'Speaking in the Third Person, Removed From Reality'
article by KEITH ABLOW, M.D. here.
Almost from the moment he walked into my office, something bothered me about my 18-year-old patient, Mark, sent to see me by his parents after they found marijuana and steroids in his bedroom.
He was tall and muscular, with tousled, dirty-blonde hair, outfitted in a faded T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Sunset Strip," distressed jeans made to look threadbare at midthigh and along the edges of the pockets and a 70's retro leather choker with a few clay beads on it.
...
I have treated several other teenagers this year who display a similar kind of profound detachment from self.
It is a kind of identity disorder I believe has its roots in a society that has drifted free from reality and is creating adolescents (and, I would venture, people of many ages) who are at most participant-observers in their own lives, with little genuine emotion - like actors playing themselves.
ALL POSSIBLE FUTURES: 'U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather '
article by LEONARD DAVID here.
The report on weather-altering ideas underscored the capacity to harness such power in the not too distant future.
"Assuming that in 2025 our national security strategy includes weather-modification, its use in our national military strategy will naturally follow. Besides the significant benefits an operational capability would provide, another motivation to pursue weather-modification is to deter and counter potential adversaries," the report stated. "The technology is there, waiting for us to pull it all together," the authors noted.
In 2025, the report summarized,
"Such a capability offers the war fighter tools to shape the battlespace in ways never before possible. It provides opportunities to impact operations across the full spectrum of conflict and is pertinent to all possible futures," the report concluded.
BARRY MUNITZ IS A SHITTY HUMAN: 'Rift Grows, Challenging Leadership at the Getty'
article by RANDY KENNEDY here.
He wanted it to be the perfect evening - the kind of courting of collectors the museum should do more often, he told the staff.
Barry Munitz, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, had invited his good friends Sherry Lansing, then the chairwoman of Paramount Pictures, and her husband, the director William Friedkin, to dinner last year in a house used for parties at the hilltop Getty complex in
Because the couple collect Dutch art, Mr. Munitz wanted to impress them by having two 17th-century drawings by the Dutch artist Herman van Swanevelt from the
Museum officials, who said they felt that the event was more about socializing than about wooing important collectors, protested. They argued that moving the drawings posed too many risks, and that the climate control in the house was inadequate for fragile works on paper.
The drawings were moved anyway.
For Mr. Munitz's critics, such anecdotes are a kind of shorthand for explaining a range of troubles that have engulfed the
'Researchers Look to Create a Synthesis of Art and Science for the 21st Century'
article JOHN MARKOFF here.
However, Mr. Dominguez and an eclectic group of computer musicians, computer game designers and nanotechnology artists are very much a part of the futuristic research "collaboratory" being assembled by the astrophysicist Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, or Calit2, a $400 million research consortium assembled over the last five years.
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