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POPSUSA Running out of Money to build roads/bridges
I realize economic issues don't have the drama of war but the way Wall Street & Congress has recently transferred TRILLIONS of dollars of debt to the government is astounding. Wall St. & Congress have risked as much taxpayers money that could have paid for 16 years of *@#$%-over Iraq. Now we can't pay to build or repair our own roads and bridges. Be sure to notice the clear statement: "Until Friday the White House has been hostile to it." (i.e. hostile to the approval of money for roads and bridges,) --- because already Bush is trying to blame it on the Democrats. For God's sake, could there be anything more basic to provide for a nation? Bridges are collapsing. New Orleans is still not rebuilt three years later. Joblessness hits a 5-year high. Wall St. transfers trillions of dollars of bad debt to the government, we're guilty of torture and other war crimes, we've murdered maybe half-a-million Iraqi who had nothing to do with 9/11 or WMD's. bin Laden is still alive an
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POPSWar Protesters Denied Free Speech: Hundreds Arrested 1,000 people marching in the streets. Thousands on the day before. Over 500 arrested in the week. Raids on homes before the convention. Another FBI informant agent provocateur turning in his room after encouraging his actions for months. Bad...bad, bad protesters, refusing to stay in the 'protester cattle pens," trying to walk down the street to get within a mile of the RNC convention center. Or...maybe bad...bad government that now prohibits legal protest that are, actually, allowed to line up across the street from any hotel or business, wave signs, chant , try to have their voices heard while for 8 years the media pretends they don't exist and the government wants to fence them in cattle pens.
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POPSPakistan's PM Gilani's motorcade attacked. "The prime minister was coming back from Lahore. The firing took place on the Islamabad highway. At this point, we believe the firing was from a small hill on the roadside." A statement issued by the prime minister's office said: "Of the multiple sniper shots fired on the prime minister's vehicle, two hit the window on the driver's side. "However, because of the robust and comprehensive security measures, the prime minister and all the members of his motorcade remained unharmed."
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POPSRussia's Bizarre & Horrifying Road Through Hell Yakutsk is the capital of the Yakutia Republic, part of the vast Russian region known as Siberia. The old joke is 'War is God's way of teaching us geography'. With that in mind, any kid who grew up playing the board game Risk remembers Yakutsk and neighboring Kamchatka as two territories with weird names located up at the top of Asia. As a kid, I had never heard of these places. Nor did it ever dawn on me people actually live there (if getting stuck in the mud is considered living... ) The road of mud isn't the only problem. It seems that people who live in Yakutsk were born to suffer. Yakutsk is considered the coldest city on earth, with January temperatures averaging -45 °F. The coldest temperatures ever recorded outside Antarctica occur in the basin of the Yana River just to the northeast. Yakutsk is the world's biggest city built on continuous permafrost. Most houses are built up on concrete piles to keep from sinking.
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POPSArtificial predictions The more, we will be able (emotionally and technically) to reduce human behaviours and decision processes to finer approximations, then better performing robots will appear.
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POPSUncaging my joy I decided last week that I would like to live more generously. I find that I clutch things (my money, my time, my love) too closely to my breast, and this is from fear. My fear cripples my joy. I am going to uncage my joy.
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POPSSkunk at the Party Convention Roll Call columnist Stan Collender plays skunk at the garden party by pointing to the immediate governing challenges that President Obama or McCain will face. In essence, with the Bush administration planning to punt on the 2010 budget, the incoming administration faces a scramble to get its budget in by early February 2009. We'd point out that there will be big-ticket bills to attend to as well, such as the highway bill, up for reauthorization in 2009 (for more, click here http://www.forbes.com/beltway/2008/05/21/washington-lobbying-transportation-biz-wash-cz_atg_0521beltway.html)
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POPSRobots Detect Behavioral Cues to Follow Humans
“As humans, we constantly incorporate other peoples' current actions as clues (cues) as to what they may do in the future,” Sanjay Joshi of the University of California, Davis, told PhysOrg.com. “For instance, we have a ‘sixth sense’ on the highway to know that a certain car will swerve into our lane soon, based on the driver's current driving patterns. Then, we may become more defensive in our own driving. In our work, we wanted to begin the process of allowing robots to use behavioral cues (of humans or other robots), to make the robot's mission more reliable and accurate. In social work environments populated by numerous people and robots, these types of cues should be abundant.” The researchers explained that behavioral cues that robots might use could include any action or signal that the leader exhibits that hints at a future action. These might be intended behaviors, such as pointing or waving. Other cues might be unconscious, such as behaviors that indicate stress or sadness,
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POPS"The tragic comedy of suburban sprawl" [podcast] Suburbia is a cartoon of country living in a cartoon of a house with a cartoon of a front lawn. It has all the worst aspects of being isolated out in the boonies, and none of the benefits of living in a city. It is a lifestyle that will come grinding to a halt once people realize that the cheap oil and fossil fuels that made the entire living arrangement possible are a thing of the past as The Long Emergency dawns on us.
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POPSReport From a Forgotten War: Second in a Series
Taliban leaders also provided a haven for Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda to launch the 9/11 attack. In November 2001, when they were deposed by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance, many of the Taliban fled south to Pakistan and east into Iran. This spring, they came back, intent on overthrowing the democratically elected government of President Hamid Karzi. That's when the Marines of TF 2/7 arrived "in country" to train and mentor Afghan Army and police forces. It's been a challenging assignment for the 1300 Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen of TF 2/7. The unit's Area of Operations (A/O) is more than 28,000 square kilometers — roughly the size of Vermont. There is only one paved highway. Overland transport to some of the fifteen forward bases and combat outposts where TF 2/7 operates often takes more than 24 hours of continuous day and night movement. Until this week — when four CH-53 transport helos and four Cobra gunships arrived, the task force had to rely on NATO aircraft...
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POPSRussian Journalist Watchs Russian Forces Move Toward Tbilisi pointing in the direction of Tbilisi. “Everyone went that way, both recognizance and the infantry. Now the equipment is tagging along behind.” The soldiers do not know why the army is moving forward after the signing of the ceasefire. They do not even know about the ceasefire. They find it unexpectedly upsetting when I tell them. “Medvedev betrayed us. There, in Ossetia, they mowed down 2000 of our guys, and he made peace. This is a political war,” a soldier said. That was all there was to say about politics. “So did we win a lot of gold at the Olympics?” “Some gold,” I answer. “But no one is talking about the Olympics now. You are in all the news.” The soldiers look around and laugh. When we try to catch up to the column of equipment, we find that it has already been spread out through the fields and hills along both sides of the road around Igoeti, about 36 km. from Tbilisi. Near the village, we are stopped by a soldier in full uniform.
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POPSRussians Defy Cease-Fire: Troops In Georgia Digging In Elsewhere in Georgia, it appeared very clear that Russian troops were staying put, building ramparts around tanks and posting sentries on a hill near Igoeti, a central Georgia town only 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tbilisi. Russian troops still effectively control the main artery running through the western half of Georgia because they surround the strategic central city of Gori and additionally the city and air base of Senaki in the west. Both cities are on the main east-west highway that slices through two Georgian mountain ranges. Russia also confirmed Sunday that it had taken over a major power plant in western Georgia. Rice noted that the text of the cease-fire, negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current leader of the European Union, outlined a very limited mandate for the soldiers that Russia calls peacekeepers who were in Georgia when hostilities escalated. She said these soldiers can go on limited patrols within the two separatist areas but in Georgia
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