Photographing and Appraising Entire Cities
Zaio is in the process of photographing and appraising each and every property in cities across the country. That means every house, commercial building, industrial and institutional structure is being photographed and appraised property-by-property and street-by-street. We call this historic event “Photographing America.” The resulting database of images and valuations is called “GeoPic,” and is a useful resource for real estate, mortgage and insurance industries.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Fuel From Microbes
This seems to have real potential.
AP Heather Ishimaru
(1/29/07) - What if gasoline, diesel and jet fuel could be made without oil and made instead with sugar? An Emeryville-based company founded by U.C. Berkeley scientists is on its way to doing just that, with staggering environmental and economic implications.
This sugary solution could be what breaks America's addiction to oil.
Science has long understood how ethanol is made by adding sugar to yeast. But now using the same basic biological processes, scientists can re-program the microbes to make something closer to gasoline. It's cutting-edge technology commonly known as "synthetic biology" and it will change the way we fuel any vehicle that now relies on oil -- at least that's the hope at Emeryville-based Amyris Biotechnologies.
AP Heather Ishimaru
(1/29/07) - What if gasoline, diesel and jet fuel could be made without oil and made instead with sugar? An Emeryville-based company founded by U.C. Berkeley scientists is on its way to doing just that, with staggering environmental and economic implications.
This sugary solution could be what breaks America's addiction to oil.
Science has long understood how ethanol is made by adding sugar to yeast. But now using the same basic biological processes, scientists can re-program the microbes to make something closer to gasoline. It's cutting-edge technology commonly known as "synthetic biology" and it will change the way we fuel any vehicle that now relies on oil -- at least that's the hope at Emeryville-based Amyris Biotechnologies.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Maine Opts Out Of National ID
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Maine Says Will Opt-Out of De Facto National I.D. Law
Maine's legislature overwhelmingly passed a resolution refusing to implement the REAL ID Act which requires states to standardize their drivers licenses according to federal standards, saying the bill would cost the state $185 milllion, turns the state into an extension of the federal government, and would invade privacy. The resolution also calls on Congress to repeal the rule, which was slid into a defense spending bill in 2005. Though the final standards have yet to be announced, after May 11, 2008, federal agencies won't accept non-compliant identification cards, which if the law weren't changed and Maine opted out would mean that Maine residents would have a very difficult time flying and couldn't enter federal courthouses, among other things.
"This is the beginning of the end of Real ID," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project. "The Real ID national ID scheme is pointless if one or more states refuse to participate, because the whole premise of the program is the creation of a single uniform national identity document and database."
Since this is only a resolution, Maine has not officially opted out, but the ACLU says statutory language is likely to be passed soon. At the end of the last session of Congress, Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and John Sununu (R-NH) introduced a bill that would rollback many of the rules in the REAL ID Act, a warning shot to the Administration that the issue would be in play in the Democrat-controlled Congress in 2007. Legislators in other states including Georgia, New Hampshire and Montana have also introduced anti-REAL ID bills.
Maine Says Will Opt-Out of De Facto National I.D. Law
Maine's legislature overwhelmingly passed a resolution refusing to implement the REAL ID Act which requires states to standardize their drivers licenses according to federal standards, saying the bill would cost the state $185 milllion, turns the state into an extension of the federal government, and would invade privacy. The resolution also calls on Congress to repeal the rule, which was slid into a defense spending bill in 2005. Though the final standards have yet to be announced, after May 11, 2008, federal agencies won't accept non-compliant identification cards, which if the law weren't changed and Maine opted out would mean that Maine residents would have a very difficult time flying and couldn't enter federal courthouses, among other things.
"This is the beginning of the end of Real ID," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project. "The Real ID national ID scheme is pointless if one or more states refuse to participate, because the whole premise of the program is the creation of a single uniform national identity document and database."
Since this is only a resolution, Maine has not officially opted out, but the ACLU says statutory language is likely to be passed soon. At the end of the last session of Congress, Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and John Sununu (R-NH) introduced a bill that would rollback many of the rules in the REAL ID Act, a warning shot to the Administration that the issue would be in play in the Democrat-controlled Congress in 2007. Legislators in other states including Georgia, New Hampshire and Montana have also introduced anti-REAL ID bills.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon
Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon
By Craig Covault/Aviation Week & Space Technology
01/17/2007 07:45:59 PM
U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude Jan. 11 destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.
...
Neither the Office of the U. S. Secretary of Defense nor Air Force Space Command would comment on the attack, which followed by several months the alleged illumination of a U. S. military spacecraft by a Chinese ground based laser.
By Craig Covault/Aviation Week & Space Technology
01/17/2007 07:45:59 PM
U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude Jan. 11 destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.
...
Neither the Office of the U. S. Secretary of Defense nor Air Force Space Command would comment on the attack, which followed by several months the alleged illumination of a U. S. military spacecraft by a Chinese ground based laser.
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