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The "think tanks" generate many documents and plans, many of which never see daylight. This is part of the normal "what if" analysis or things that might happen and how to deal with them. It is no more suprising that they have a plan ready to drop in place after 9/11 than if they had a plan to drop in to place to quell riots or handle a gas shortage or any other scenario. Apart from disaster management, these plans also have political agendas.

One major political function of these plans is to have PR: look like you can command decisively and keep the population confident in your abilities. Another is to be able to turn these disasters into an opportunity to pass legislation/budget that the people would normally choke on. GWB played both these cards really well.

in u.s.

remember what happened to u.s. tourism after that patriot act shit was dropped in the congress ? u.s. tourism sector NEVER recovered from it.

excuse me but the rest of the world cant take that kind of shit from u.s. again. if that happens, we all will just create another internet, complete with its root dnses (possibly in brussels), and get done with it. and then u.s. broadband, backbone providers can shove the fibers they laid in those senators asses. because they will be good for only doing that afterwards.

It's amazing how people can be tricked by something that is on its surface so laughable that it should be dismissed outright!

After all, how could World War III possibly have started when World War II hasn't even ended yet?! Just because there's no obvious troop movements or visible battles doesn't mean that merged ghosts of Churchill and Roosevelt along with their dark ally Zombie Stalin don't yet wage war against the forces of Hitler's Head and the demon-animated armor of Hirohito! No, you can see the effects of this conflict every day in the fluctuations of the price of milk to the record of the Essex cricket team. So don't believe anything you read about some ludicrous World War III until you see the purple flag of the Undying Allies flying over the White House, indicating our inevitable triumph!

After that, though, it's fair game.

newtley writes "RIAA victim Tanya Andersen has filed her third amended complaint in what's becoming the seminal RIAA case.. Her lawyers are still waiting for their music industry opposite numbers to supply data which should have been provided long ago. To keep moving ahead with discovery in view of the court's instructions, Andersen has dropped several class action claims which depend on RIAA materials which are still missing. They can be re-entered once the RIAA material is available."
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/15663

Sir Holo writes "Superinsulation may sound like a marketing gimmick for a drafty attic or winter coat. But it is actually a newly discovered fundamental state of matter created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with several European institutions. This discovery opens new directions of inquiry in condensed matter physics and breaks ground for a new generation of microelectronics.

When they tried to pass a current through the material, the researchers noticed that its resistance suddenly increased by a factor of 100,000 once the temperature dropped below a certain threshold.

Superinsulators could eventually find their way into a number of products, including circuits, sensors and battery shields.

"
http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2008/MSD080404.html

DynaSoar writes "Arthur C. Clarke, scientific and science fiction visionary, has passed away at age 90 at his home in Sri Lanka http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4476240 . I remember reading a copy of his 1945 article in Radio and Electronics which described his original idea for global communications based on a set of geosynchronous satellites. I am putting this Ask Slashdot/Announcements section in order to make this announcement and to present the following: We've all heard about H.G. Wells' prophetic writings. I've read Paul (E.E. "Doc" Smith) Linebarger's "Psychological Warfare", which has been used to guide that field's progress for decades. Also, a dentist recently was sentenced to prison for stealing body parts for sale for use as replacement parts, a la Larry Niven's "organleggers". What other developments have actually come to pass that were presaged by those who wrote science fiction, either in that fiction or in non-fiction works? In the spirit of "saying before they die", I'd especially like to hear about those developments first suggested by writers still living."

MSNBC is carrying an AP article reviewing a book due out January 7, that claims to show definitive evidence that Bell stole the essential idea for telephony from Elisha Gray http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22400009/. Author Seth Shulman shows that Bell's notebooks contain false starts, and then after a 12 day gap during which he visited the US Patent Office, suddenly show an entirely different design, very similar to Gray's design for multiplexing Morse code signals. Shulman claims that Bell copied the design from Gray's patent application and was improperly given credit for earlier submission, with the help of a corrupt patent examiner and aggressive lawyers. Shulman also claims that fear of being found out is the reason Bell distanced himself from the company that carried his name. And if Gray Telephone doesn't seem to roll off the tongue, Shulman also noted that both of them were two decades behind the German inventor Johann Philipp Reis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Reis who produced the first working telephony system.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22400009/

That's according to a Flight International article by Will Whitehorn http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/12/07/220152/virgin-galactic-sets-out-year-of-the-spaceship.html Virgin Galactic intends to unveil White Knight 2 as well as Spaceship 2 during the next year, at this point planning for January. Burt Rutan, always reticent to comments on progress of any project, says nothing to support or contradict Virgin Galactic's announcement. However, the report states that Spaceship 2 is 50% complete and White Knight 2 is 60% complete. In addition, Virgin Galactic is considering using White Knight 2, or possible its successor White Knight 3, to put small satellites in orbit for a cost of US$3 million, less than half the current front runner in (projected) low cost orbital launches; SpaceX's Falcon at US$6.7 million. Tourism aside, this could be an extremely lucrative spin off of Virgin Galactic's original plans. If this turns out to be a profitable endeavor, the cost of tourism flights could drop significantly.
http://www.personalspaceflight.info/

DynaSoar writes "Brian May http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May, lead guitarist for Queen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(band) has successfully defended his astrophysics thesis at London's Imperial College http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20424659/. He still must resubmit his written thesis after making required corrections, but this is pro forma. He is to formally receive his doctorate in May 2008, nearly 40 years after turning from his studies to become a professional musician. The subject of his thesis, entitled "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud," is based on work he did in Tenerife in the 1960's. He has two prior scientific publications on this topic, in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (166, 429 — 448 (1974)), and in Nature (240, 401 — 402 (15 December 1972))."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20424659/

DynaSoar writes "From the Buckminster Fuller Institute: "On the occasion of Bucky's 112th birthday The Buckminster Fuller Institute announces the launch of the first annual BUCKMINSTER FULLER CHALLENGE. http://challenge.bfi.org/ Established to catalyze the vanguard of a global design science revolution, the Challenge will offer a single $100,000 prize annually to support the development and implementation of a solution with significant potential to solve the world's most pressing problems in the shortest possible time while enhancing the Earth's ecological integrity. Entries will be accepted beginning September 4th, 2007 ... After decades of tracking world resources, innovations in science and technology, and human needs, Fuller asserted that options exist to successfully surmount the crises of unprecedented scope and complexity facing humanity. He issued an urgent call for a design science revolution to make the world work for all. The Buckminster Fuller Challenge intends to further this urgent call." For inspiration, and to get an idea of Fuller's style and scope of thinking, one can read many of his books online for free at the BFI site."
http://www.bfi.org/

DynaSoar writes "According to Flight Global: "The US Air Force intends to certificate its entire aircraft fleet to run on synthetic jet-fuel blend by 2011, and began on 8 August when the Boeing B-52H became the first to be approved. The eight-engined bomber finished testing earlier this year with fuel produced from natural gas using the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process. "Each time the price of fuel goes up $10 a barrel, it costs the USAF $600 million", says air force secretary Michael Wynne. "It causes angst to know that we're faced with a commodity that some might use against us," he says, pointing to the potential of F-T to convert domestic coal and natural gas to jet fuel." The snag in a complete switch-over could be building a plant with the capacity needed for the USAF's needs. It would cost US$1 billion. However, Syntroleum and Tyson Foods have teamed up and claim they could build the plant for only US$100 million, using a simpler, cheaper and cleaner process than the F-T, starting with a major product of Tyson's: chicken fat. If this comes about, there may even be a chicken-burning car in your future."
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/08/13/216011/picture-us-air-force-to-use-synthetic-fuel-across-fleet-by-2011.html

DynaSoar writes ""In 2003, Room 641A of a large telecommunications building in downtown San Francisco was filled with powerful data-mining equipment for a "special job" by the National Security Agency, according to a former AT&T technician. It was fed by fiber-optic cables that siphoned copies of e-mails and other online traffic from one of the largest Internet hubs in the United States, the former employee says in court filings." The article elaborates on the nature of the system in San Francisco (and others elsewhere) and the whistleblower's part in things. The Justice Department wants the case dismissed because it claims it can't defend itself without revealing state secrets. It also claims that the real issue is whether this was done in accordance with the constitution. Sadly, that may be true."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20254078/

DynaSoar writes "Tired of being interrupted by useless, annoying and time wasting calls on your cell phone? Had your fill of having to be available for your job regardless of time or location for "emergency"? Ever been ready just to chuck the thing in a lake? You're not alone. In fact, you could do so as part of a competition, and even earn prizes. This year's mobile phone throwing world championship will be held on August 25, at Savonlinna, Finland (http://www.savonlinnafestivals.com/en_index.htm). "Mobile Phone Throwing became a hit when first arranged in year 2000 in Savonlinna. Organizer was a translation and interpretation company Fennolingua. It's multinational personnel and many carneval spirited athletics threw away their frustrations along with the mobile phones. Local recycling center was a partner and they collected all the toxic waste and people could also buy a new mobile phone at the Championships. The first prize was of course a new mobile phone. Throwers and international media were immediately very interested and every year the Championships gather a wide range of nationalities to Savonlinna to throw the mobile phones or to report from the Championships. There are officially two categories in the Mobile Phone Throwing. Traditional style ie. over the shoulder throw, where the length of the throw is crucial. In Freestyle the style is free and the contestant gets points for aesthetics and creative choreographics from 4 to 10. In both categories the contestant with the highest score wins.""

DynaSoar writes "Brian May (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May) is awaiting word from his thesis committee at Imperial College in London after turning in his PhD thesis, following a 30 year hiatus to serve as guitar player for Queen and his own band. One of his previous papers, "An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust Particles (Part I)" [PDF] (http://cdsads.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_q uery?bibcode=1974MNRAS.166..439H&data_type=PDF_HIG H&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf) has been long considered a major contribution to astronomy, and prompted the headline above by the Hearlad Sun in Australia (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22 061198-2902,00.html). Dr. May, as he has been called since receiving an honorary doctorate from University of Hertfordshire in 2002, is presently at the "first light" ceremony at the new 408 inch telescope in the Canary Islands, Gran Telescopio Canarias, which will be used to scan for exosolar planets. He has remained as active in astronomy as time allowed, co-authoring the book "Bang! — The Complete History of the Universe" with Patrick Moore and Chris Linott, as well as contributing to and appearing on Moore's TV show "The Sky At Night"."

DynaSoar writes "New Scientist reports http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12241-publ ic-to-join-search-for-cosmic-axis-of-evil.html that a group of scientists have started a new networked data processing project with a difference. This one based on your brain rather than a software client. People are being asked to classify galaxies from pictures to help determine if they fall into groups that represent very large scale structures, something they are calling a "galactic axis of evil". Users can sign up at Galaxy Zoo http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ take a brief tutorial about types of galaxies and how they appear (frequently too ambiguously for software to judge), and if they pass a test, begin assisting astronomers in classifying over 1 million galaxies. If you've got some time to spare, why not help some cosmologists find out if our present understanding of how the universe evolved is all wrong."