USC computer scientist makes geo-immersion maps, leaves other maps feeling inferior
July 13, 2011 No Comment
Google’s Maps and Earth services provide us with 3D maps , the means to track St. Nick , and even tools to help us train to wear the maillot jaune . Real-time views of the world are not among Street View’s many powers, however. That’s why the director of USC’s Integrated Media Systems Center, Cyrus Shahabi, has one-upped El Goog by rendering the real world virtually using the concept of geo-immersion — which integrates real-time information and videos with digital maps. In one application, users can see the energy usage and floor plans of university buildings along with the current location of campus transit buses. Another uses live video feeds from security cameras and facial recognition technology to track ne’er-do-wells in a three dimensional model of a city. Itching to see what happens when real and virtual worlds collide? Check out the cutting-edge cartography in action after the break. Continue reading USC computer scientist makes geo-immersion maps, leaves other maps feeling inferior USC computer scientist makes geo-immersion maps, leaves other maps feeling inferior originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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EU commissioner Michel Barnier takes on the big three credit ratings agencies: Standard & Poor, Moody’s and Fitch Ireland yesterday became the third eurozone country to have its credit rating downgraded to junk status as Europe slid into a war it may struggle to win with international credit ratings agencies. It followed a week in which the agencies partly forced a shift in the EU response to the Greek sovereign debt crisis. A week after slashing Portugal’s status, Moody’s cut Ireland’s credit rating to junk and warned that the country would be likely to require a second bailout. The Irish government, which wants to return to debt markets in 2013 when its current EU-IMF bailout runs out, said the development was completely at odds with the recent views of other ratings agencies. “We are doing all that we can to put our house in order and the progress that we are making is there for all to see,” the department of finance said in a statement. The commissioner in charge of the EU’s single market, French politician Michel Barnier, alternately sneered and threatened the three big agencies who dominate 90% of the ratings industry: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. His remarks followed a broadside on Monday from fellow commissioner Viviane Reding, who said the ratings agencies’ “cartel” should be “smashed up” as they were seeking to determine the fate of Europe and its single currency. “We were surprised that the agencies would downgrade a country without any warning,” Barnier said of last week’s verdict from Moody’s on Portugal, branding its debt junk and predicting the country was the new Greece. “You don’t rate a country the same way you rate a company or a product. That’s an issue. We’re examining that issue.” Barnier said he would announce “stiff measures” in November aimed at taming the power of the agencies. They would be forced to justify their decisions by revealing the details of their analyses and criteria. Whether they were properly registered in Europe would also be scrutinised. “I want to have transparency regarding their methods, especially when they are rating countries,” he said. S&P concluded last week that Greece would be found to be in a form of default on its sovereign debt if its private creditors were involved in a new EU bailout, as is planned. That verdict helped to trigger the rescue rethink announced over the past 48 hours in Brussels. Christine Lagarde, the new IMF chief, when French finance minister, suggested that the agencies be banned from delivering ratings decisions on the eurozone countries being bailed out: Greece, Portugal and Ireland. “It’s just an idea,” Barnier addedHe said he would ask the Poles on Monday, who are chairing the EU, to put a ban on the agenda of EU finance ministers. Jacek Rostowski, the British-born Polish finance minister and former Tory party member, will be chairing the meetings of EU finance ministers for the next six months. He looks an unlikely convert to the Barnier ban. Ratings agencies European monetary union Euro Currencies Europe European Union Financial sector Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
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Home Office ministers regard the squeeze on family migration as key in their drive to bring annual net migration to the UK down Family members from outside Europe who come to join close relatives settled in Britain are expected to be denied access to welfare benefits for up to five years under further plans to cut annual net migration to be detailed on Wednesday. The immigration minister, Damian Green, is to announce new measures the government hopes will ensure that those who come to the UK through the family migration route integrate more fully into British society. They are expected to include a tougher English language test for those applying to come to Britain on a family visa. Ministers also want to reform article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life and currently prevents deportation in some cases of close family members who have been living illegally in Britain. Home Office ministers regard the squeeze on family migration as a key part of their drive to bring annual net migration to the UK down to the “tens of thousands, instead of hundreds of thousands” by the time of the next election. So far ministers have tried to curb the flow of skilled workers from outside Europe, introduced measures to reduce the number of overseas student visas and to “break the link” between temporary migration and the right to apply to settle permanently in the UK. But the official figures show there is precious little scope for reducing annual net migration – which was running at 242,000 in the year to September 2010 – through the family migration route. The latest figures show 48,900 family migration visas were granted in 2010, of which 40,500 were spouses who were coming for marriage, civil or other partnership purposes, or spouses-to-be. The remaining 8,400 were dependents, including elderly relatives. Most are women from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Oxford University-based Migration Observatory estimates that changes to the family migration route are unlikely to reduce annual net migration by more than 8,000 at the most. Cutting welfare benefits for family members from overseas is likely to have only a limited impact. Relatives already have to wait for two years before they become eligible for welfare benefits, and it is thought that the change will not affect spouses who enter on spouses’ visas and choose to work and pay national insurance contributions. Ministers appear also to have drawn back from redefining the wider family eligible to come to the UK. The proposal to look at reworking the wording of “right to family life” is likely to prove difficult and open to human rights challenges. In advance of consultation, the Migration Observatory said the changes were limited in their impact because international human rights legislation restricts the government’s ability to prevent family unification. “Family migration has been a target for successive UK governments, to the extent that it is now largely limited to the nuclear family. The majority of family migrants are spouses,” says an Observatory briefing. “The government could attempt to increase the level of financial support that needs to be proved for a family member to be brought to the UK or demand higher levels of proof that the family member will integrate, but these policies could run into legal challenges. Equally, the government could prevent fiancées from being included as family members, but even this would only deliver limited change.” Immigration and asylum Welfare Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Off-duty officers hold ‘day of action’ in London in protest against 20% cut to police budgets More than 2,000 off-duty police officers from across England and Wales are to stage a mass rally in the heart of Westminster in protest at policing cuts. Wednesday’s “day of action” has been organised by the Police Federation to highlight the impact of a 20% cut in Whitehall grants to forces and fundamental reforms of police pay and pensions. The protest will be the first mass action by the police since January 2008, when more than 22,000 officers marched through Westminster in protest at the failure of the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith, to backdate a 2.5% pay rise. On that occasion, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said it was a disgrace that the then Labour government had “let the officers down”. The Police Federation expects several high-profile speakers to show their support, including the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper; the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz; the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde; and the general secretary of the TUC, Brendan Barber. Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “We have no doubt that a 20% cut to overall police budgets will lead to more crime. It simply won’t be possible to provide the same level of service to the public that we do now if we are losing officers, support staff, vehicles and stations. “We accept that cuts have to be made but we ask that the government acknowledges our unique status. Police officers do not have industrial rights, so it is vital that the home secretary honours the police pay negotiation process.” He said the federation was calling for a fair negotiation on pay and process and honesty over the impact of the cuts on policing. The home secretary, Theresa May, warned police earlier this year that the “extraordinary circumstances” meant they had to accept a two-year pay freeze and reforms to their terms and conditions to avoid losing thousands of frontline jobs. “No home secretary wants to cut police officers’ pay packages,” she said. “But with a record budget deficit, these are extraordinary circumstances.” Police Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …DiaForce film captures your virtuoso performance, could replace guitar pickups
July 13, 2011 No Comment
Do you shred it up on the guitar and wish there were a way to capture your one-of-a-kind technique — every bend, hammer and slide? Well then, get thee to the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering where a few musically-inclined scientists — closet Hendrix fans, we assume — have managed to translate every pluck of the string into a laptop-processed digital control signal. To do this the team layered guitar tailpieces (that part on the end with the knobs and strings) with a ten-micrometer piece of the powerfully named, piezoresistive DiaForce film and recorded string tension with absolute precision. The project, developed in conjunction with M3i Technologies and Thin Films IST, will eventually port its pressure-sensitive tech to other stringed instruments — once engineers can figure out how to mass produce the stuff, that is. Research is also underway to replace the clunky, old world pickup cramping your electric axe’s style with an extra-sensitive coating of this resistive film. While you wah-wah wait for this tech to make its way to a Guitar Center near you, make sure to check the full release after the break. Continue reading DiaForce film captures your virtuoso performance, could replace guitar pickups DiaForce film captures your virtuoso performance, could replace guitar pickups originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Vente villa 7 pièces, Châteauneuf-Grasse Vente appartement 5 pièces, Marcq-en-Baroeul Vente villa 5 pièces, Toulon Dizzlski says: RT @ggreenwald : America's creditor helpfully identifies its unspoken budget problem – bloated military spending: http://is.gd/b8nnNj
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Campaign supported by Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party movement fails to muster two-thirds majority needed A Republican campaign to defend America against a sweeping assault on personal freedoms – or energy-saving lightbulbs as they are more commonly known – went down in defeat on Tuesday night. The result is a rejection of one of the great causes of the conservative Tea Party movement: the repeal of a 2007 law promoting environmentally efficient lighting. Presidential contender Michele Bachmann and talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck had dismissed the legislation as an assault on personal freedom. In a speech in New Orleans last month Bachmann declared: “President Bachmann will allow you to buy any lightbulb you want.” But Tuesday night’s vote in the House of Representatives failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed under special rules invoked by Republicans to fasttrack the repeal. The bill did get a 233-193 majority in the House, however, and Joe Barton the Texan Republican behind the measure told US politics website Politico he would try again to get the legislation through – by any means. “We can put it on an appropriations bill”, he said. “We can back it under a rule. I can try and go to some of the Democrats who didn’t vote for it and figure out a way to get them to consider voting for it in a different format.” The Texan said he had originally counted on getting more than 300 votes for the measure including help from some Democrats. But the Republicans’ hopes of using the defence of old-fashioned 100 watt bulbs as a rallying cry for freedom had already begun to dim by Tuesday night. The party cast the 2007 measure, which was signed into law by George Bush, as an outright ban on the familiar 100 watt bulb, and even an affront to its inventor Thomas Edison. In their view encouraging the adoption of curly lightbulbs was yet another example of government overreach by Barack Obama. Saving the lightbulb was not a traditional Republican cause, however. The original 2007 bill had strong Republican support; it was even crafted in part by Fred Upton, now the chair of the House energy and commerce committee. Upton, anxious to reinforce his conservative credentials, has since recanted: he voted for the repeal of the measure. The defence of the 100 watt bulb seemed in the Republican mind to be a winner until the run-up to the vote, when lighting manufacturers such as Philips and General Electric joined the White House, Democrats, and environmental organisations in opposing the Republican campaign. Steven Chu, the energy secretary, told reporters last week the 2007 measure was actually aimed at raising efficiency standards for all new bulbs by more than 25% beginning in 2012. The companies pointed out, meanwhile, that they were already shifting to newer LED and compact fluorescent bulbs. It also became more difficult for Republicans to maintain the argument that the new energy-saving bulbs were a burden on consumers. Although energy-saving lightbulbs do cost more than the old-fashioned variety, environmental organisations argued that the new standards would save the average American household around $85 a year (£50) in electricity costs. Energy United States Energy efficiency Ethical and green living Republicans US politics Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Campaign supported by Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party movement fails to muster two-thirds majority needed A Republican campaign to defend America against a sweeping assault on personal freedoms – or energy-saving lightbulbs as they are more commonly known – went down in defeat on Tuesday night. The result is a rejection of one of the great causes of the conservative Tea Party movement: the repeal of a 2007 law promoting environmentally efficient lighting. Presidential contender Michele Bachmann and talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck had dismissed the legislation as an assault on personal freedom. In a speech in New Orleans last month Bachmann declared: “President Bachmann will allow you to buy any lightbulb you want.” But Tuesday night’s vote in the House of Representatives failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed under special rules invoked by Republicans to fasttrack the repeal. The bill did get a 233-193 majority in the House, however, and Joe Barton the Texan Republican behind the measure told US politics website Politico he would try again to get the legislation through – by any means. “We can put it on an appropriations bill”, he said. “We can back it under a rule. I can try and go to some of the Democrats who didn’t vote for it and figure out a way to get them to consider voting for it in a different format.” The Texan said he had originally counted on getting more than 300 votes for the measure including help from some Democrats. But the Republicans’ hopes of using the defence of old-fashioned 100 watt bulbs as a rallying cry for freedom had already begun to dim by Tuesday night. The party cast the 2007 measure, which was signed into law by George Bush, as an outright ban on the familiar 100 watt bulb, and even an affront to its inventor Thomas Edison. In their view encouraging the adoption of curly lightbulbs was yet another example of government overreach by Barack Obama. Saving the lightbulb was not a traditional Republican cause, however. The original 2007 bill had strong Republican support; it was even crafted in part by Fred Upton, now the chair of the House energy and commerce committee. Upton, anxious to reinforce his conservative credentials, has since recanted: he voted for the repeal of the measure. The defence of the 100 watt bulb seemed in the Republican mind to be a winner until the run-up to the vote, when lighting manufacturers such as Philips and General Electric joined the White House, Democrats, and environmental organisations in opposing the Republican campaign. Steven Chu, the energy secretary, told reporters last week the 2007 measure was actually aimed at raising efficiency standards for all new bulbs by more than 25% beginning in 2012. The companies pointed out, meanwhile, that they were already shifting to newer LED and compact fluorescent bulbs. It also became more difficult for Republicans to maintain the argument that the new energy-saving bulbs were a burden on consumers. Although energy-saving lightbulbs do cost more than the old-fashioned variety, environmental organisations argued that the new standards would save the average American household around $85 a year (£50) in electricity costs. Energy United States Energy efficiency Ethical and green living Republicans US politics Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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Brewers slugger Prince Fielder hit a three-run homer in Tuesday’s 5-1 All-Star game win, which gives the National League home field advantage in the World Series. Fielder was named game MVP. (July 13)
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