NYTimes, “Olympic Torch Begins Its Journey in Beijing”
BEIJING — President Hu Jintao of China waved the Olympic torch at a ceremony in Tiananmen Square on Monday, smiling broadly as balloons, streamers and confetti rose into a mostly blue sky.
Then came the uncertain part. Mr. Hu sent the torch on a 130-day journey around the globe where protests and controversy likely await. First stop on what Beijing is calling a “Journey of Harmony” will be Lhasa, the Tibetan capital still simmering from violent anti-government protests.
Continue reading ‘Olympic Torch Begins Its Journey in Beijing’
MSN Money, “Bell Boeing wins $10.4B Osprey contract”
The Department of Defense has awarded Bell Helicopter and partner The Boeing Co. a five-year, $10.4 billion contract to make 167 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.
The contract includes 26 CV-22 aircraft for the Air Force Special Operations Command and 141 MV-22 aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps. The contract includes an option for additional aircraft.
The fuselage for the V-22 is built by Boeing Rotorcraft Systems in Philadelphia. Bell builds components for the aircraft in Fort Worth and completes final assembly at its Military Aircraft Assembly Center in Amarillo.
Continue reading ‘Bell Boeing to make 167 Ospreys’
Herald Tribune, “CIA enlists Google’s help for spy work”
Google has been recruited by US intelligence agencies to help them better process and share information they gather about suspects.
Agencies such as the National Security Agency have bought servers on which Google-supplied search technology is used to process information gathered by networks of spies around the world.
Google is also providing the search features for a Wikipedia-style site, called Intellipedia, on which agents post information about their targets that can be accessed and appended by colleagues, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Engadget, “South Korean police aiming to equip all new handsets with GPS?”
SEOUL, March 27 (Xinhua) — South Korean police are pushing a controversial plan to have all new mobile phones equipped with a chip that can locate the user through satellite-based positioning technology, the Chosun Ilbo reported on Thursday.
According to Song Kang-ho, chief of the investigation bureau of the National Police Agency, the government had already submitted a related bill to the National Assembly.
The new proposal is submitted in a bid to combat the increasing incidence of kidnapping and other crimes against women and children, the police said.
The measure will risk infringing on the privacy of mobile users and raise the prices of cell phones, the Chosun Ilbo said.
In addition, the system does not work well indoors, where satellite signals are blocked.
Some 20 percent of mobile phones in the country are currently equipped with a GPS device.
CNN, “Film critical of Islam dropped from Web site”
LONDON, England (CNN) — A London-based Web site has dropped a Dutch lawmaker’s film that features disturbing images of terrorist acts juxtaposed with verses from the Quran to paint Islam as a threat to Western society, citing threats to its staff.
LiveLeak.com said in a statement Friday that it decided to remove the film a day after it was posted “following threats to our staff of a very serious nature.”
Attempts to reach LiveLeak for further comment were unsuccessful. However, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkanende said the government was concerned that Geert Wilders’ film “Fitna” could provoke a violent backlash.
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Herald Tribune, “Spy drones in demand by U.S. police departments, but approval pending”
MIAMI: The Miami police could soon use cutting-edge flying drones to help fight crime.
A small pilotless vehicle manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and “staring” using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to be introduced soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades.
Continue reading ‘Spy drones requested by police to be used on US citizens’
Gizmodo, “Steve Jobs Apple Collage Looks Impressive”
Originally made in December 2007 and corrected in February 2008 to include the latest Apple products like MacBook Air, iPod nano pink etc.
Made with Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop and Apple QuickTime Pro with custom developed scripts and techniques.
Credit must go to Deanna Lowe @ Fortune magazine and the photographer of the original photo in which this mosaic is based.
(Best viewed large or printed).
Original photo copyrighted by Corbis.
All Apple Inc product imaged used courtesy by Apple Inc.
