For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure. That’s the message directed at Fort Jackson soldiers, some of whom appear in photographs in government issued fatigues, holding rifles in one hand, and Bibles in their other hand. Frank Bussey, director of Military Ministry at Fort Jackson, has been telling soldiers at Fort Jackson that ‘government authorities, police and the military = God’s Ministers,’ Bussey’s teachings from the ‘God’s Basic Training’ Bible study guide he authored says US troops have ‘two primary responsibilities’: ‘to praise those who do right’ and ‘to punish those who do evil – ‘God’s servant, an angel of wrath.’ Bussey’s teachings directed at Fort Jackson soldiers were housed on the Military Ministry at Fort Jackson web site. Late Wednesday, the web site was taken down without explanation. Bussey did not return calls for comment. The web site text, however, can still be viewed in an archived format. Both sides try to benefit from religious ignorance. […]
Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices. The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers. ‘It’s not a small improvement,’ Cui said. ‘It’s a revolutionary development.’ The breakthrough is described in a paper, ‘High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires,’ published online Dec. 16 in Nature Nanotechnology, written by Cui, his graduate chemistry student Candace Chan and five others. The greatly expanded storage capacity could make Li-ion batteries attractive to electric car manufacturers. Cui suggested that they could also be used in homes or offices to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels. ‘Given the mature infrastructure behind silicon, this new technology can be pushed to real life quickly,’ Cui said. The electrical storage capacity of a Li-ion battery is limited by how much lithium can be held in […]
Saudi Arabia plans to establish a sovereign wealth fund that is expected to dwarf Abu Dhabi’s $900bn and become the largest in the world. The new fund will be a formidable rival for other government-owned investment funds in the Middle East and Asia, which are playing an increasingly active role in channelling capital to western companies, particularly financial companies hard hit by the US mortgage meltdown. News of the Saudi plan comes as Temasek of Singapore is in ‘preliminary’ talks with Merrill Lynch concerning a multibillion-dollar stake in the ailing investment bank, according to a person familiar with the matter. ‘Merrill and Temasek have been talking for a while about this, although there are no indications that a deal is imminent,’ the person said. Temasek was also approached as a possible investor in UBS and Morgan Stanley, although the investment banks later struck deals with Government of Singapore Investment Corp and China Investment Corp respectively, the person said. These stakes have avoided a serious political backlash but potential investments from the Saudis are likely to be subject to greater scrutiny. The effort is likely to be spearheaded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has […]
ZGORZELEC, Poland — In this corner of central Europe, you can cross from Germany to Poland and then into the Czech Republic in a matter of minutes. It is called the ‘three-country triangle’ and until now, waiting at border checks could make life quite complicated. Take the basketball fans from the Polish town of Zgorzelec, who regularly go to the Czech Republic for European league matches because the sports hall back home is too small. From now on, they have one more reason to cheer. From Friday, the Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel across participating European states, now embraces 24 nations in an arc from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic. ‘It’s going to be much easier for the players and the fans,’ says team manager Arkadiusz Krygier. ‘I feel European. I have no border in my head. So I really like it that we can have so many people from different countries in our team and in the audience.’ Local journalist Alexander Pitura also feels happy. Every day he crosses the border five or six times for his work. ‘I don’t need to wait any more so it makes a […]
WASHINGTON — Ending months of deadlock with the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday gave final bipartisan approval to legislation that would temporarily extend the state health insurance program that covers about 6.6 million poor children. The bill, approved by a 411-3 vote, extends the program until March 2009. It also delays a scheduled 10 percent pay cut for Medicare doctors for six months and provides a 0.5 percent increase instead. Lawmakers have struggled for years to replace what they see as a flawed Medicare physician payment policy but have instead settled for a series of short-term fixes like this one. The Senate on Tuesday approved the same bill and the White House has indicated that President George W. Bush will sign it. Lawmakers predicted that they would have to revisit Medicare payments early in 2008. Bush vetoed more ambitious earlier bills that would have expanded the health program to cover about 10 million children, even though they had bipartisan support. The president said they were too costly and would push more children into government-run health care instead of private plans. Bush also objected to raising tobacco taxes to pay for the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
