Rajab Safarev added in his interview with one of Russia’s state satellite TVs, “Russia can pave the path for Iran’s membership at Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the framework of its new level of ties with Iran.” He added, “If Iran would become a SCO member, the SCO would become the third most influential, most powerful international body after the United Nations and the European Union.” Safarev said, “I even believe the SCO would rank second, next to the UN, from competence point of the view, after Iran’s membership.” The Russian political analyst added, “The SCO would also get stronger following Iran’s membership, because its member states would be the owners of two thirds of the world’s energy sources which gives them a great financial power.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/16/darpa_gets_into_casimir_effect/
Casimir stickiness, at present, is so imperceptible and tiny that it can be detected only by the use of special microdetection apparatus featuring solid golden balls. Nonetheless it genuinely exists. Indeed some boffins have previously speculated that one might - by the use of a cunningly crafted sheet of nanofabbed "left-handed metamaterial" - reverse the effect, fashioning a Casimir repellor platform and so causing objects to levitate on "literally, nothing". This would be achieved using the fabled, perhaps infinite, potentially universe-imploding "zero point energy" which has been widely speculated upon.
But the possibly goldenballs-powered hover ship - or even the more realistic unbelievably-thin-bacofoil frictionless ice-rink solution - has remained in the realm of theoretical conceit thus far, for lack of backing.
Now, however, that has changed. Legendary US bonkers-boffinry bureau DARPA* has decided to fund research into manipulating or reversing the Casimir effect. It's possible to theorise that the DARPA chieftains' interest has been piqued by the implicit possibilities for levitating bakeware, which would be so useful for the agency's known nutritional requirements.
The DARPA of geospatial (NGA)
http://www.gcn.com/print/27_23/47149-1.htmlWhen you think of NURI, think of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency...but only for geospatial projects.
NURI stands for NGA University Research Initiatives. NGA, of course, is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a combat support agency at the Defense Department.
The NURI project has been operating since 1997 and has already awarded 103 grants to researchers at more than 60 universities to investigate topics related to geospatial intelligence. Each grant is for three years and generally amounts to $150,000 per year.
This year’s awards (GCN.com, Quickfind 1201) range from one for a research project on “Spaceborne Magnetic Gradiometry after Swarm: Novel Approaches to Mapping the Earth’s Magnetic Field Employing Nonlinear Magneto-Optical Rotation Sensors” to a project titled “Purpose- Aware Dynamic Graph Models for Representing and Reasoning about Networks.”
Seem like a long way from digital mapping? Actually, no: Geospatial intelligence involves a lot more than mapping. NGA has distilled its research road map into these six broad topic areas:
Acquire: Including sensor networks, detection of moving objects.
Identify: Spatiotemporal data mining.
Integrate: Image data fusion, reuse and preservation of data.
Analyze: Visualization, process automation vs. human cognition.
Disseminate: Multilevel security.
Preserve: Grid computing for geospatial data, reuse and preservation of data.
Burlington Participates in Pandemic Experiment http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=9020204
* I attended this press conference to ask if there were contingency plans for forced quarantines and vaccinations, and if so were any private military contractors involved in the planning.....
Burlington is one of nine test markets in the country taking part in a flu pandemic preparation exercise.
The experiment will focus on prevention-- like hand washing-- and what to do in case of an outbreak.
Health authorities say preparing is crucial because it's not a question of if we will have another major flu outbreak, but when.
"Knowing how often these things tend to cycle, we've had the three in the last century, and it's been long enough since the last one-- we are due. And I think the other thing that people have in mind is the avian influenza, or bird flu," said Dr. Wendy Davis, Vt. Health Commissioner.
http://www.getreadyforflu.org/newsite.htm
Driverless, Self-Guided Vehicle Successfully Spends 25 Minutes On The Road
The Department of Homeland Security is announcing the funding Tuesday as part of an experimental effort called Secure the Cities. The program aims to keep radiological material -- a key component for a so-called ``dirty bomb'' -- from getting into major population centers
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