In 2003, a whistle-blower forced San Diego to reveal that it had been shortchanging its city workers’ pension fund for years, setting off a wave of lawsuits, investigations and eventually criminal indictments. The mayor ended up resigning under a cloud. With the city’s books a shambles, San Diego remains barred from raising money by selling bonds. Cut off from a vital source of cash, it has fallen behind on its maintenance of streets, storm drains and public buildings. Potholes are proliferating and beaches are closed because of sewage spills. Retirees are still being paid, but a portion of their benefits is in doubt because of continuing legal challenges. And the city, which is scheduled to receive a report today on the causes of its current predicament, still has to figure out how to close the $1.4 billion shortfall in its pension fund. Maybe someone should be paying closer attention in New Jersey. And in Illinois. Not to mention Colorado and several other states and local governments. Across the nation, a number of states, counties and municipalities have engaged in many of the same maneuvers with their pension funds that San Diego did, but without the crippling […]
It’s not Jurassic Park, but scientists have reconstructed a 530-million-year-old gene by piecing together key portions of two modern genes descended from it. ‘We’ve shown some of the elements involved in the process of evolution by reversing this process and reconstructing a gene that later became two genes,’ said study team member Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah School of Medicine. The achievement, detailed in the Aug. 7 issue of the journal Developmental Cell, could lead to new types of gene therapy, in which a damaged gene could be restored by pairing parts of it with portions from a similar gene from another part of the body, the researcher say. Splitting up the job Genes are snippets of DNA that carry instructions for building a protein. The splitting of one gene into many genes has occurred many times throughout life’s history. With two identical genes, one can continue doing its normal job while the other is free to mutate. Most mutations are harmful and disappear, but every once in a while one proves beneficial to the organism and is passed on to future generations. The researchers reconstructed an ancient control gene, called ‘Hox,’ which […]
NISKAYUNA, New York — It sounds like something out of science fiction. Researchers at General Electric Co.’s sprawling research center, are creating new ‘smart video surveillance’ systems that can detect explosives by recognizing the electromagnetic waves given off by objects, even under clothing. Scientist Peter Tu and his team are also developing programs that can recognize faces, pinpoint distress in a crowd by honing in on erratic body movements and synthesize the views of several cameras into one bird’s eye view, as part of a growing effort to thwart terrorism. ‘We’re definitely on the cutting edge,’ said Tu, 39. ‘If you want to reduce risk, video is the way to do it. The threat is always evolving, so our video is always evolving.’ Scientists at the GE complex, a landscaped, gated campus of laboratories and offices spread out over 525 acres and home to 1,900 scientists and staff, and others in the industry hope to use various technologies to reduce false alarms, cut manpower used on mundane tasks and give first-responders better tools to assess threats. The country’s growing security needs also provide an opportunity to boost business. The United States and its allies now […]
They are immensely rich (hence the nickname) but they’re out to save the planet. Meet the new greens, with solar-panelled rucksacks, powerful friends and piles of cash. As Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger launched their new pact on global warming in Los Angeles last week, they were watched by a young man in a grey T-shirt with a solar-panelled rucksack at his feet. Instead of being collared by secret service agents as an eco-protester, he was invited on-stage for a photo-call. But then this was Sergey Brin, the Russian-born entrepreneur and co-founder of Google who has made $11bn (£5.8bn) from the internet search engine. The rucksack that powers his phone and MP3 player is just one of his latest investments. Brin, 32, is typical of the new breed of wealthy, powerful tycoons piling into environmental issues – including media moguls, nightclub owners, hoteliers and property barons. The dollars they have in vast quantities are known to Americans as greenbacks. That’s why the new rich greens are being called the Greenback Pack. Perhaps the most quietly influential member of this set is James Murdoch, 33, the son of the global media magnate Rupert Murdoch and the […]
NEW YORK — If you’re thinking of purchasing a hybrid car or SUV, which supplements a traditional internal combustion engine with an electric motor to boost fuel efficiency, you should be aware that you could qualify for a substantial credit on your federal income tax. But you may need to hurry. The Energy Policy Act, passed by Congress last year, replaced a tax deduction for buying a hybrid with a credit, which is better for the consumer since a credit subtracts directly from your total tax bill. The IRS Web site, www.irs.gov, lists the qualifying vehicles and the amount of tax credit for each, based on each model’s fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. For example, buying the ultra-efficient Toyota Prius will get you a maximum of $3,150 off your federal taxes. But that isn’t the whole story. Because of the way the law was set up, how much of that credit you can claim depends on how many hybrids the manufacturer has sold and when they sold them. Once a manufacturer has sold its 60,000th hybrid of any model, car buyers have until the end of the following calendar quarter to get the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
