WASHINGTON — State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a ‘horse racing operation’ and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker. The report said that the official, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, had repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit. The summary of the report, prepared by the State Department inspector general, said the United States attorney’s office here had been given the report and decided not to conduct a criminal inquiry. The summary said the Justice Department was pursuing a civil inquiry focusing on the contract for Mr. Tomlinson’s friend. Through his lawyer, James Hamilton, Mr. Tomlinson issued a statement denying that he had done anything improper. The office of the State Department inspector general presented the findings from its yearlong inquiry last week to the White House and on Monday to some members of Congress. Three Democratic lawmakers, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut […]
Since 2000, Americans have been getting poorer, and national rates of severe poverty have climbed sharply, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The researchers reported that the growth in the poverty rate is due largely to a rise in severe poverty and that ‘moderate’ poverty has grown little. The percentage of Americans living in severe poverty–earning less than half of the poverty threshold–grew by 20% between 2000 and 2004, and the proportion in higher income tiers fell. The researchers reported that the number of Americans living in severe poverty increased by 3.6 million between 2000 and 2004. ‘These trends have disturbing implications for society and public health,’ said Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, Professor of Family Medicine, Epidemiology and Community Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, and lead author of the study. The researchers found that the only category of Americans to increase in size were those whose earnings were at least $8,000 below the poverty threshold, who grew by approximately 50% between 2000 and 2004. All other income tiers decreased during these years. The poverty threshold in 2004 for a family of four was $19,307. ‘The rise in […]
SAN DIEGO — It would begin with a worldwide virus outbreak that had cities under quarantine, emergency workers overwhelmed and government agencies unable to cope. It would be compounded by cyberterror attacks that cut off power, phones and Internet access. Such was the simulated crisis that teams from the Pentagon, nongovernmental agencies and several dozen technology companies set out to handle in a five-day exercise this month that was meant to showcase and test a new set of digital tools for responding to disaster. The limitations of even the latest technology were made apparent in the simulation, when an effort to restore communications by setting up wireless networks resulted in a three-day data traffic jam. Yet the problems encountered in the training effort, named Strong Angel III, failed to discourage the participants, a diverse group of more than 800 ‘first responders,’ military officers and software and wireless network experts – some from rivals like Microsoft and Google, working side by side. ‘My view is that the value of Strong Angel is 70 percent in the social networks that will be created,’ said the organizer, Eric Rasmussen, a Navy surgeon and veteran of relief efforts on several […]
In lab rats, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ can now yield a surprising answer. Scientists have generated rats from mice that developed rat sperm. The breakthrough marks the first time researchers produced healthy offspring [Photo] from sperm cells fostered in a different species. The hope is this method could help generate sperm from endangered species or prize bulls. A decade ago, scientists successfully developed sperm in one animal that had come from cells in another. Researchers began by growing rat sperm in mice, and proceeded to foster sperm from hamsters, rabbits, pigs, bulls and humans in mice as well. However, until now it remained unknown whether any of these sperm were fertile. In several instances they developed abnormally in their foreign hosts. The breakthrough Reproductive biologist Takashi Shinohara at Kyoto University in Japan and his colleagues first began with rats genetically engineered to produce a green fluorescent protein. Their cells and progeny would thus prove easy to recognize. Shinohara and his colleagues then removed the stem cells that sperm arise from in the rats and implanted them into testicles of mice. The scientists collected fluorescent green rat sperm from the mice and injected them into rat […]
Sean McCarthy, DUBLIN, IRELAND — Steorn, a technology development company, has today announced a cut-off date for scientists to respond to its challenge to take part in a public validation of its free energy technology. The deadline has been set for 12 midnight, September 8th. Steorn placed an advertisement in the Economist on August 18th inviting ‘the most qualified and the most cynical’ scientists to step forward. More than 3,000 scientists have responded thus far. Steorn’s technology is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy. The company says the technology can be applied to virtually all devices requiring energy, from cellular phones to cars. From all the scientists who accept Steorn’s challenge, 12 will be invited to take part in a rigorous testing exercise to prove that Steorn’s technology creates free energy. The results will be published worldwide. Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, said: ‘We expected a good response to our advertisement because of its potential and its implications for the scientific world. Our technology goes far beyond scientific curiosity and addresses many urgent global needs including security of energy […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
