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High-speed police chases are nothing new to Americans these days. Local (and often times national) TV stations are quick to break into regular programming when a high speed chase occurs and will follow the incident to its completion. TV stations know that people are keen to tune in -- just as they are likely to slow down and rubberneck for an accident on the side of the highway. Criminals and TV stations alike may have something to fear in the future thanks to Eureka Aerospace. Eureka's contraption has nothing to do with the "PIT Maneuver" or spike strips -- instead, it uses microwaves to effectively zap a cars electrical system rendering it inoperable. The rooftop mounted device in its current version measures 5' x 3' by 1' and weighs roughly 200 pounds. The high-powered weapon operates at 300 MHz and is not harmful to humans.
Zbigniew Kosc - Special to Egypt Today
The problem, she explains, is that so many people paint “black pictures" of the community, often presenting pure fiction masquerading as fact. It's bad enough that every time she hears about a new book or newspaper story about her community, her first reaction is a kind of “Please, God, don't let it be another disaster." The last book to have gained her approval was Dr. Mohammed Abu El-Ghar's Yehud Misr: Min Al-Izdihar lil Shatat (The Jews of Egypt: From Prosperity to Dispersion, 2004), which she describes as “fairly good and informative." You get the same sinking feeling in your stomach heading into an interview with Weinstein as students have on exam mornings, but her soothing smile easily takes your mind off how you might write the story. That sweetness, though, comes packaged with an undeniable toughness.
Cell phones taking on many roles, transforming market, generation
Putting that (radio frequency identification) access into a phone to unlock your car and home is easy," Uldrich said. "The transition to digital cash will take longer." Eventually, the phone could replace personal information such as driver's licenses, he said. "Phones are going to get smarter and become real personal assistants," Uldrich said. "They're going to know the calls you want to take and the ones you want sent to voice mail. With GPS, they could know when your good buddy is a few blocks away and suggest you get together for lunch." Credit card companies and many retailers have high hopes for mobile commerce. Several pilot programs testing "near field communications" (NFC) are under way on the East Coast and in Northern California. Trials are expected to reach San Diego this year, though details have not been released.
Microchips everywhere: A future vision
Elliott Maxwell, a research fellow at Pennsylvania State University who serves as a policy adviser to EPCglobal, the industry's standard-setting group, says data broadcast by microchips can easily be intercepted, and misused, by high-tech thieves. As RFID goes mainstream and the range of readers increases, it will be "difficult to know who is gathering what data, who has access to it, what is being done with it, and who should be held responsible for it," Maxwell wrote in RFID Journal, an industry publication. The recent growth of the RFID industry has been staggering: From 1955 to 2005, cumulative sales of radio tags totaled 2.4 billion; last year alone, 2.24 billion tags were sold worldwide, and analysts project that by 2017 cumulative sales will top 1 trillion - generating more than $25 billion in annual revenues for the industry.
Council votes to put riverboat gambling on April ballot
Despite a loud public outcry from citizens who oppose gambling, the Jefferson City Council voted 6-4 Monday in favor of giving voters an opportunity to overturn the city's ban on riverboat casinos.
The citywide vote is scheduled for April.Two amendments were not successful. The first, offered by Second Ward Councilman Richard Koon, would have delayed the election until November, when a larger voter turnout is anticipated. The second would have limited where a new casino could be built.Six council members - Kevin Brown, Ken Ferguson, Mike Harvey, Dan Klindt, Ron Medin and Koon - favored the April public vote. Four others - Brian Crane, Cindy Layton, Jim Penfold and Jane Smith - did not.After the decision, opponents were deeply dismayed, even apoplectic.Jefferson City resident M.L.
Tech-savvy teens teach computer skills at library
When Sno-Isle Libraries opened a new Monroe Library in 2002, the staff hoped to reach out to the community with new services. One idea was to pair up tech-savvy teenagers with senior citizens who often either didn't have a computer or didn't know what to do with the one they'd just purchased. With a small grant from the Everett Community Foundation, the library created its Tech Teens program to connect seniors with access to computers, e-mail and the Internet. Five years later, almost 300 senior citizens in the Monroe area have gained computer literacy from local students whom librarians praise for their community service and surprising patience. "A lot of seniors will tell us that their kids or grandkids have tried to teach them how to use a computer, but they go too fast.
Toy firm debuts cuddly critter corpses
Look into any child's toy box and you'll usually find at least one stuffed animal that has seen better days — a teddy bear with an eye missing or an arm nearly torn off. Now a British company wants to give you that look right out of the box with its line of "roadkill" plush toys. The first to be launched is Twitch the Raccoon which comes with its own body bag, reports U.K newspaper Metro. Twitch also has an identity tag revealing it was "run over over by a milk [delivery truck] last Thursday." .
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