The attacks in India will result in major changes in the way that India views international events and domestic security:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/EDIT_Its_War/articleshow/3766472.cms
People can get CRAZY during Black Friday. This poor Long Island WalMart worker was trampled to death by the crowd, and a 28-year-old women was sent to the hospital by the unruly crowd:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_dies_at_long_island_walmart_after.html
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m sending this via my Blackberry Storm!
Swiss executives gave back their $58.3 mil in bonuses after their bank struggled:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZnNNyR6k96M&refer=home
Cool video of the longest jet pack flight ever–1,500 feet over a Colorado canyon:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/video-jet-pack.html
Facebook spammer was hit with a $873 mil fine!
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=44180&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10&view=news
It is sad to read about what getting drunk at an Iowa football game has resulted in for this mother of three–fired from her job, arrested, publicly ridiculed…at least her husband is being supportive:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081126/NEWS/81126006
Afghanistan has produced so much opium this year that the Taliban is cutting back on poppy production and stockpiling raw opium in order to try to keep prices up. Insurgents apparently made $300 mil from opium last year:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/27/asia/opium.php
It is really, really sad to read about the coordinated terrorist attacks on Americans and Britons in India. This will also significantly hurt India’s tourism industry and economy:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/coordinated-car.html
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/first-hand-acco.html
The Pennsylvania National Guard will use the “flying beer keg” to monitor operations in Iraq:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/national-guard.html
DARPA is putting $22 mil into guided bullet technology:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/what-if-a-snipe.html
Senior US Commander says that al Qaeda’s focus is Pakistan, not Afghanistan or Iraq:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122766140111858667.html
The Pentagon has spent $14 bil so far to combat IEDs, but there are still around 1.750 IED attacks every month, with 1,400 of them in Iraq or Afghanistan:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7119
New math technique to describe invisibility cloaks could lead to simpler and more effective invisibility cloaks:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/36759
Summary of the outlook for the military when Obama takes over:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/lead-story/obama_military_outlooks_1126/index.html
A missile defense shield test failed near Hawaii:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/missile_test_fails_1126/index.html
Xilinx’s new Virtex 5 FXT FPGA can support 5 Gbps throughput with PCI Express:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/fpga_based_solution_1126/index.html
Here is the list of the round of pardons given by Bush before he leaves office. I’m sure that there are interesting back stories on how these people got on the list instead of so many other candidates. This list isn’t as bad as the pardon list by Clinton right before he left office, at least in my opinion:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081124/D94LJF9G0.html
Verizon stores will have extended hours now, primarily due to heavy interest in the Blackberry Storm:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081126/ny48647.html?.v=1&printer=1
I’m amazed at these Nielsen results. I always thought that teens and young adults were the heaviest users of the Internet. However the statistics show that the heaviest internet users are people 35-64 years old!
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/nielsens-charts.htm
Looks like the Blackberry Storm is in HIGH demand…orders online won’t ship until December 15! The salesperson said that I’d receive the Storm in Hawaii on Saturday or Monday…but it is Tuesday night and I still don’t have it! I’m worried that it won’t get to Hawaii before we leave! I talked with the Verizon store today and was told that ANY order made after 9am (the store doesn’t normally open until 10am!) on the first day wouldn’t be ready until after December 16…but somehow my salesperson had them get me in line in front of those people (even though we ordered it around 11:30am) since it was shipped via FedEx priority overnight shipping today and I should have it tomorrow!
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=168510
Gyroids can be used to create low-cost solar cells:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov08/gyroid.ws.html
The US State Department is using Facebook and MTV to get youth groups to help fight crime and terrorism:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hfM-Bj2Td7YLRFdPl67-sGlqZBnQ
They have finally figured out how Dolphins are able to swim faster than was thought to be physically possible…and they used that research to help US Olympic swimmers in the Beijing Olympics:
http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000101&ISSUE=0811&RELTYPE=SOFT&PRODCODE=00000000&PRODLETT=NV&CommonCount=0
Defense Secretary Gates has been asked to stay in his position after Obama takes over. This was what I was hearing at MILCOM and it has come to pass:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15986.html
Indian Admiral says that NATO is treating Somali pirates too well:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/another-day-ano.html
I never would have thought that the top text messaging market in the US would be El Paso!
Press release
What a surprise…problems with Windows 7 has forced Microsoft to fall behind schedule in released its first public beta version:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisedesktop/archives/2008/11/no_windows_7_be.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-25
The tough economy is forcing Apple to release a netbook soon:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/25/Apple_will_launch_netbook_competitor_in_09_says_analyst_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-25
One possible benefit of the recession…it might kill the banner ad industry!
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/digital-downloads/broadband/e3i65a69a3d75493447363deaa65a15fdd3
Man was arrested for stealing an ATM…he tried to throw it down a hill to crack it open to get the money, but he ended up falling down the hill with the ATM and he was found trapped inside the skid loader he used to steal the ATM:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27896230/
It is CRAZY to me that this teacher faced 40 years in prison because spyware on the school computer (not her personal computer, a school computer that lots of people had access to) popped up porn ads! Only the aid of some tech groups were able to show that the teacher was not at fault. Unfortunately for her, the state refuses to let her get her teaching credential back:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2008/11/schools_fools_a.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-24
Former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld now says that he was for the surge, even though his internal memos at the time were against it:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/rummy-re-writes.html
Shipping companies advocate either blockading Somalia pirates’ home bases or attacking Somalia:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/shipping-compan.html
The Army has created a video game unit and will invest $50 mil over 5 years on games and gaming systems designed to prepare soldiers for combat:
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59009
Pilot program at LAX allows for passengers to receive boarding passes on their cell phones or PDAs that can be scanned by TSA workers…no need for paper boarding passes!
http://www.tsa.dhs.gov/press/releases/2008/1120.shtm
The FDA is opening 3 offices in China:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/11/20081118a.html
The latest iPhone update (OS 2.2) doesn’t fix key flaws for business that gives the Blackberry Storm a chance to get into the Enterprise:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/23/48TC-iphone-2-2-update_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-24
Editorial about how smartphones may be the savior for mobile operators in this tough economy:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/are-smartphones-savior-floundering-economy/2008-11-24?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&cmp-id=EMC-NL-FW&dest=FW
I remember when HTC first estimated that they would sell 500,000 G1 phones in 2008. They then raised their estimate to 600,000 after strong pre-orders, and they now raised their estimate to 1 million G1 phones this year;
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/19426/20450/view.phtml
Verizon fired the workers who looked at Obama’s voice phone records. All of those workers were customer service employees and the phone they looked up was a voice-only line that was actually inactive:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/21/obama.cell.phone/
WiMAX is projected to have 103 million subscribers by 2013…but HSPA is projected to have more than 1 billion subscribers by then:
http://www.telecomredux.co.uk/content/view/5820/6/
South Carolina prison plans to jam celluar signals…but there is strong opposition to the plan:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122722803428046289.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
There are 11,585 mutual funds in the US…and 11,584 of them have lost money this year. One mutual fund is actually even this year:
http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/11/every_stock_mut.html
Arkansas man sues McDonald’s after he left his cell phone at a McDonald’s and nude photos on his phone he had of his wife and him showed up online:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27867839/
Woman had a tapeworm removed from her brain…sound like someone else who was infected didn’t wash their hands when preparing her food:
http://news.aol.com/health/article/worm-removed-from-womans-brain/258796
13-year-old student in Florida was arrested for farting in school:
http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2008/11/flagrant-fragra.html
Awesome breakthrough for a new source of green energy…a fungus actually can make fuel! This could potentially by the cleanest source of biofuel and the fungus could potentially be grown in factories and other places instead of just at farms:
http://www.physorg.com/news144958975.html
It is interesting to me that people earning over $250k would be taxed more under Obama’s plan than McCain’s plan, yet 52% of them voted for Obama!
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/how-did-rich-people-vote-and-why/
Man with NO ARMS stole a TV in broad daylight in Germany. Two accomplices clamped the TV to his body before they walked out of the store, and apparently nobody noticed anything!
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24634506-5012895,00.html
This study *really* seems to indicate that pregnant women really have to watch their caffeine intake. Drinking 100-199 milligrams of caffeine per day results in a 20% increased risk of having a baby with low birth weight, and drinking 200-299 milligrams of caffeine per day results in a 50% increased risk of having a baby with low birth weight. A single Starbucks grande coffee has 330 milligrams of caffeine! Underweight babies are more likely to have a wide range of healths problems later in life including heart problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure:
http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/pregnancy-childbirth-parenting/should-women-say-no-caffeine-during-pregnancy-2066.html
Even though the women in this study washed their hands more often, women had significantly more types of bacteria on their hands than men:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15104-the-feminine-touch-carries-more-germs.html
New study found that bullies actually like to watch suffering, unlike non-bullies whose brains did show that activity in the pleasure centers while watching others suffer:
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2008/11/07/2008-11-07_new_study_shows_bullies_like_to_watch_su.html
There were long lines yesterday at Verizon stores with people who wanted the Blackberry Storm. Instead of opening at 10am, the stores opened at 7am and people were lining up at 4 or 4:30am. I went to the Verizon store in Del Mar yesterday and found out that they were sold out of Blackberry Storms by 7:35am…so some who went before 7am didn’t get phones. I placed an order and had my Storm shipped to Hawaii (we’ll be there soon!)…and found out that they wouldn’t charge tax because they were shipping the phone out of state! Plus, they turned the $50 rebate into a $50 instant credit that added to my other $50 credit (every 2 years I get a credit), so I saved a TON of money–basically $150 with free FedEx shipping!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081122/news_1b22storm.html
Teen from Rancho Bernardo has had amazing success already…he won the National Spelling Bee 3 years ago (the first win from San Diego county) and now he won $75k for being the Teen Jeopardy champion!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081121-1934-bn21anurag.html
4,300-year-old pyramid discovered in Egypt!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_new_pyramid
Silverton, Oregon elected the US’s first transgender mayor:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6211839
For 10 years in a row, they have had the “Naked Pumpkin Run” at a Colorado Mall, where at 11pm people run around the Mall naked with a pumpkin on their head. This year the police caught 12 of the runners and arrested them, the first time they have made arrests, and the runners will have to register as sex offenders if they are convicted of indecent exposure!
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/nov/03/naked-runners-face-registering-sex-offenders/
8-year-old boy planned and carried out the murder of his father and someone who rented a room in their home. Other reports stated that each man was shot 4 times with a .22-caliber rifle:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27600105/
To get an indication of why Somali pirates aren’t being cracked down on by the government, here is a disturbing story. 13-year-old girl reported that she was raped by 3 men…and since the government followed Islamic law, they arrested her for adultery (none of the men she accused of rape were arrested!). They followed the punishment for adultery, which meant that they buried her in the ground and 50 men threw stones at her until she was dead. 1,000 people were at the soccer stadium watching this, A few people tried to intervene and militia members shot at them, killing an 8-year-old boy:
http://stop-stoning.org/node/433
US Special Forces are getting their first 10 stealth helicopters:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/special-forces.html
University of Maryland expert says that Somali pirates have been getting closer relationships to Islamic militants:
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/experts/hottopic.cfm?hotlist_id=147
There are a number of allegations about forced interrogation drug (“truth drug”) use on Gitmo detainees:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/interrogation-d.html
There are a growing list of companies that are calling for Congress to move on strong climate and energy legislation early in 2009 to spur the clean energy economy and reduce global warming:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2008/11/sun_joins_in_ca.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-21
Obama’s flip-phone account was accessed and viewed by Verizon employees without authorization…good thing he hadn’t used that account for months since he’s reliant on his Blackberry. Remember, security experts have already mentioned that they want Obama to give up his Blackberry once he becomes President due to concerns that his messages might not be secure…this incident pretty much should end Obama’s hopes to keep his Blackberry:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112004198.html?wpisrc=newsletter
WalMart will be selling the iPhone on December 28…and the rumor is that the iPhone will cost just $149 in January because Apple needs to drop its price due to heavy competition:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40286/145/
Taiwan research company has developed a folding display for smartphones that would allow the smartphone to have a 5 inch screen!
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/21/Folding_screen_for_mobile_phones_unveiled_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-21
Online ad spending is up (11% over last year) despite the weak economy:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/digital-downloads/metrics/e3i6158980e36306f73e265cbaf72aa3be9
Microsoft plans to release IE8 in the first half of next year:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/20/Microsoft_to_launch_IE8_in_09_RC_due_out_in_Q1_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-21
Louisiana man’s cell phone saved his life when a stray bullet that hit him in his chest was deflected by the cell phone he put in the chest pocket of his overalls:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27829109/?gt1=43001
The Mars Orbiter found large buried glaciers on Mars:
Article link
JPL successfully tested its first deep-space Internet:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/NASA-Tests-New-Deep-Space-Cyber-Net-65219.html?wlc=1227207169&wlc=1227223284
Preston Marshall said that the $500 WNAN radios from M/A-COM are ready to begin testing:
http://urgentcomm.com/mobile_voice/mag/affordable_cognitive_radio_1101/
Russia plans to spend millions on UAVs from Elbit because those UAVs worked so well for Georgia when Russia invaded Georgia:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037542.html
The UN appears to agree that the facility that Israel bombed in Syria was probably a nuclear reactor:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/19/AR2008111902312.html?hpid=moreheadlines
The Marines’ swimming tank program could be in danger of being cut unless it is improved quickly before Obama’s team takes control:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/marines-swimmin.html
BAE has a compact mortar-based launcher for small UAVs:
http://www.gizmag.com/compact-mortar-based-launcher-developed-for-small-uavs/10394/
Article on how Internet crime could cause a global catastrophe:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7090
Cellular subscriber numbers are increasing rapidly in India:
http://rfdesign.com/news/india_mobile_phone_demand_increases-1120/
Article about how NextWave’s heavy spending has gotten it into the mess it is in now:
Article link
China Mobile will prepare for 4G LTE before it even deploys 3G! This may be due to the fact that it is being forced to use TD-SCDMA for 3G…
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=168194
The DC animal shelters have been lobbying the Obama family to try to be the shelter that provides their dog. They are also offering free dog training at the White House:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/11/the_most_burning_question_in.html
Woman auctioned the right to change her name on eBay and got about $7400. She donated most of the money she received to a Children’s charity and is spending the rest on his kid’s Christmas presents:
http://www.totaltele.com/View.aspx?ID=103552&t=2
Google scanned in the photos from Life Magazine going all the way back to the 1750s! They are available now for free and something like 95% of these photos have never been online before:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life
It seems like a GREAT idea to recycle spent nuclear fuel instead of storing it! Not only would it remove the need to store and dispose of nuclear waste, but it would reduce the need to mine and process uranium:
http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000101&ISSUE=0811&RELTYPE=IDN&PRODCODE=00000000&PRODLETT=LA&CommonCount=0
Due to their major problems with worms and viruses, the DoD is banning all USB drives, CDs, flash media, and all other removable data storage devices from their networks…even though removable storage devices are relied on in the field:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/army-bans-usb-d.html
China denies it engaged in space espionage…even after physicist Shu pled guilty to illegally giving data on space launch vehicles to China:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7083
Scientists work on trying to better predict China’s earthquakes:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7084
Interesting that there is a movement to enable public safety organizations to jam cell phone signals to prevent remote triggering of explosives in the US. I don’t see the big objection being raised about jamming cell phone signals in prisons, especially if the effect can be contained to just that area:
http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/commentary/jamming-devices-1119/
India’s Navy destroyed a Somali pirate ship but other pirates have seized other ships. It appears that Saudi Arabian may negotiate and pay a ransom for the oil tanker…a bad precedent that would really encourage piracy and make them quite wealthy, enabling them to upgrade their equipment:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/indian-frigate.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AH4Q120081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
The US is sharing Predator (UAV) video with the militaries of Iraq and Afghanistan:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/in-a-presentati.html
China Mobile is planning to open their own Application Store to compete with the App Stores for Google and Apple:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/18/China_Mobile_to_vie_with_Apple_Google_apps_stores-IDGNS_1.html?source=NLC-MOBILEHARDWARE&cgd=2008-11-19
Sprint is considering outsourcing thousands of jobs:
http://sprintconnection.kansascity.com/?q=node/874
Gizmodo has a pretty detailed review of the Blackberry Storm:
http://gizmodo.com/5060378/blackberry-storm-first-hands-on
Engadget likes the Storm, but feels its music capabilities aren’t as nice as its competition. I love the dock where it can play movies or serve as an alarm clock!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/08/blackberry-storm-9500-hands-on/
After reading those two reviews I found this article that has excerpts from 10 reviews of the Storm. Interesting that the Storm is considered better than the G1 phone and the biggest competition so far to the iPhone:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/3358750/BlackBerry-Storm-hands-on-Review-of-reviews.html
The DTVPal DVR seems like a GREAT option for those who don’t want to pay for cable or satellite service after the analog over-the-air channels go away. DVR service with *no* fees, hard drive that can record 150 hours of standard TV and 30 hours of HD TV, did I mention it has NO fees?
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/154611-dish-introduces-dtvpal-dvr.html
Looks like IE8 is a good upgrade for Microsoft–the browser wars will continue and Internet users will be the beneficiary:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisewindows/archives/2008/11/internet_explor_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-11-19
Updates on Obama’s White House team. There was a LOT of talk at MILCOM about Obama’s transition team, especially with certain senior people having to change their plans to speak at MILCOM and either not getting to San Diego or suddenly flying from San Diego to DC because they were being added to Obama’s team…
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AI5OT20081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Article about why Hilary is undecided about whether or not she wants to become Secretary of State:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/11/why_clinton_cant_decide.html?nav=rss_blog
I’m surprised (but pleased) that the Democrats did not take away Joe Lieberman’s positions as chair on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and head of the Armed Services subcommittee that oversees air and land power issues. After he criticized Obama and campaigned for McCain, I see this as a good sign of reconciliation and moving away from strictly partisan politics:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111800231.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
Deputies tasered a pallbearer while he carried his father’s casket…couldn’t they have waited until he had finished loading the casket into the hearse?
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20081118/ARTICLES/811180276/1155?Title=Sheriff_s_deputies_tase_pallbearer_at_father_s_funeral
Former investigator in the Coroner’s Office stole a credit card at a morgue and used it at a strip club!
http://www.wtov9.com/news/18000668/detail.html
Apparently Hawaii is the only state in which attending a dogfight is legal:
http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/state_legislation/animal_fighting_laws_where_does_your_state_stand.html
This Chicago Tribune feature details what goes on in a dogfight:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-dog-fight-pit-bull-arrests,0,6883913.story
19-year-old man used a sandwich to assault his girlfriend:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/nov/18/man-accused-hitting-girlfriend-sandwich/
Thief in Buffalo tried to steal a *bathtub*…he didn’t get far before he was caught:
http://www.buffalonews.com/437/story/497389.html
Teacher let her Kindergarteners vote a student out of their class…she is suspended now:
http://www.local6.com/education/18013675/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news
Link Collection 