One year before Election Day 2008, most Americans are dismayed by the country’s direction, pessimistic about the Iraq war and anxious about the economy. Two of three disapprove of the job President Bush is doing. Nearly a year after Democrats took control of Congress, three of four Americans say it isn’t achieving much, either. In all, 72% of those surveyed in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Oct. 12-14 say they are dissatisfied with how things are going in the USA while just 26% are satisfied. Not since April have even one-third of Americans been happy with the country’s course, the longest national funk in 15 years. ‘Don’t get me wrong, America’s a great country,’ says Lori Jones, 46, a medical assistant in Phoenix. But she worries about her family’s finances and prospects for the next generation. ‘I think we’ve somehow lost our way.’ There’s plenty of time for attitudes to change before the election, of course, but the current landscape is the sort that in the past has prompted political upheaval and third-party candidacies. The last time the national mood was so gloomy was in 1992, when the first President Bush was ousted from the White House […]
New technology that can make tanks invisible has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence. In secret trials last week, the Army said it had made a vehicle completely disappear and predicted that an invisible tank would be ready for service by 2012. The new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank. Now you see it: How the tank might look with background images beamed onto the side The result is that anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it and not the tank itself. A soldier, who was at the trials, said: ‘This technology is incredible. If I hadn’t been present I wouldn’t have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees – but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun.’ How the technology works in a combat situation is very sensitive, but the MoD is believed to be testing a military jacket that works on the same principles. It is the type of innovation normally associated with James Bond, and the brains behind the latest technology is […]
WASHINGTON — Obesity is on course to overtake tobacco as the leading risk factor for cancer in America, according to a report issued today. Moreover, the risk for cancer increases even with modest weight gain, said Walter C. Willett, M.D., Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health. He said excess body fat increased the risk for cancers of the colon, kidney, and pancreas, adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and endometrium, and breast cancer in postmenopausal women. That was the major finding from a mega-analysis of more than 7,000 published studies conducted by a 21-member board assembled by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund International. The results of the analysis, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective, were released at a press conference here. Dr. Willett pointed out that obesity is now the second leading cause of cancer, just behind tobacco, because ‘obesity increases the risk of so many cancers and because two-thirds of Americans are overweight.’ He and his colleagues predicted that over the next decade ‘obesity will become the number one risk factor for cancer’ as obesity increases and the number of smokers […]
NAIROBI — Installation of solar panels in homes is on the rise following the recent rise in oil prices, which has led to an increase in the cost of electricity. Not only is electricity expensive due to a fuel surcharge, but there have also been numerous and unexplained power disconnections, particularly in Nairobi. This has caused a surge in demand for fuel-powered generators, and a growing interest in solar energy. Mr Prakash Wanzah, the marketing manager of Jua Moto Systems, who sell solar energy systems, says: ‘The uptake is very high, but there is lack of sensitisation, complete solution providers and service to the rural areas’. Another vendor, Mr Pavin Chukla of Solar Africa, is even more upbeat. ‘Demand is too much. We used to sell ten pieces of various sizes of solar panels per day. Today we are selling 30 pieces every day,’ he says. Products on offer range from solar power packs, solar home light systems, solar concentrating cookers, solar parabolic cookers, wind generators, solar lanterns, solar electric water pumping system, evacuate tube collector, solar water heating system, flat plate water heating systems and solar street lights among others. According to Mr Leornard […]
Can a fringe branch of mathematics forecast the future? A special adviser to the CIA, Fortune 500 companies, and the U.S. Department of Defense certainly thinks so. If you listen to Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, and a lot of people don’t, he’ll claim that mathematics can tell you the future. In fact, the professor says that a computer model he built and has perfected over the last 25 years can predict the outcome of virtually any international conflict, provided the basic input is accurate. What’s more, his predictions are alarmingly specific. His fans include at least one current presidential hopeful, a gaggle of Fortune 500 companies, the CIA, and the Department of Defense. Naturally, there is also no shortage of people less fond of his work. ‘Some people think Bruce is the most brilliant foreign policy analyst there is,’ says one colleague. ‘Others think he’s a quack.’ Today, on a rare sunny summer day in San Francisco, Bueno de Mesquita appears to be neither. He’s relaxing in his stately home, answering my questions with exceeding politesse. Sunlight streams through the tall windows, the melodic sound of a French horn echoing from somewhere upstairs; his daughter, a musician in […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
