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The crisis of U.S. infrastructure, III
The crisis of U.S. infrastructure is one of political will — the will, that is, to vote for money to maintain this elaborate infrastructure; the true political divide lie between Americans who are willing and able to pay up front for the nation’s needs — whether through taxes or tolls — and those who would rather skimp or burden their children
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Draft security publication looks at cell phones, PDAs
PDAs are offering more and more features, and more people now use them; NIST publishes a draft guidelines on security considerations for cell phones and PDAs
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The crisis of U.S. infrastructure, II
The U.S. infrastructure is elaborate — 4 million miles of roads, 600,000 bridges, 26,000 miles of commercially navigable waterways, 11,000 miles of transit lines, 500 train stations, 300 ports, 19,000 airports, 55,000 community drinking water systems, and 30,000 wastewater plants; maintaining this infrastructure costs money
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AMEC-led consortium to clean up Sellafield
Treating and cleaning nuclear waste is part and parcel of nuclear power generation; The U.K. government, a proponent of greater reliance on nuclear power, takes steps to deal with legacy waste problems
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GAO strongly criticizes DoE over Hanford clean-up
More than 210 million liters of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State; most are more than fifty years old; GAO says there now “serious questions about the tanks’ long-term viability”
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Smart-card manufacturers sues to suppress security flaw information
NXP Semiconductors is suing Radboud University Nijmegen to prevent university researchers from presenting a paper in an October conference on IT security; paper in question details serious security flaws in the company’s RFID chip
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Alternative fuels for the aviation industry
Rolls-Royce, British Airways collaborate on developing and testing alternative fuels for aviation; testing is expected to be complete by the end of March 2009, after which the results will be analyzed and reported
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French authorities ban water use following nuclear leak
Safety agencies in France are playing down the risk to public health from Tuesday’s uranium leak at the Tricastin nuclear plant, but water-usage bans have worried skeptical residents and environmental organizations
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Homeland security experts on priorities for next administration
Experts: The next administration’s top four homeland security priorities should be border security, emergency response, development of medical counter-measures to weapons of mass destruction, and port security
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Aussies review e-security
The Rudd government undertakes a wide review of e-security measures; review could lead to changes in funding committed to a number of agencies in 2007 by the Howard government in its four-year, $73.5 million e-security national agenda
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California unveils GIS initiative
Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) enhance the technology for environmental protection, natural resource management, traffic flow, emergency preparedness and response, land use planning, and health and human services; California wants to avail itself of the technology’s benefits
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Global warming will cause storms to intensify
Daniel Bernoulli’s eighteenth-century equation basically says that as wind speed increases, air pressure decreases; his equation leaves out variables that were considered difficult to deal with such as friction and energy sources; Wolverines researchers now include these additional variables and find that for every 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit that the Earth’s surface temperature warms, the intensity of storms could increase by at least a few percent
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Largest wind energy farm in France launched
EDF Energies Nouvelles to launch wind farm comprising 22 2.3 MW turbines supplied by German manufacturer Enercon; with a capacity to generate 50.6 MW, it will also be one of the largest in France
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Security flaw prompts major Web alert
Internet security specialist discovers major flaw in the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS); the flaw allows hackers to inject themselves into the URL-typing process, intercepting the name entered by the user and mapping it to a different Internet address than the one intended
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New method for generating enzymes will make biofuels cheaper
If we are going to use biofuels as a meaningful alternative to fossil fuels, then enzymes which can break down plant material into usable source of fuel are required in industrial quantities and at a low cost; Aggies researchers offer new method of generating such enzymes
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More headlines
The long view
Falling Space Debris: How High Is the Risk I'll Get Hit?
An International Space Station battery fell back to Earth and, luckily, splashed down harmlessly in the Atlantic. Should we have worried? Space debris reenters our atmosphere every week.
Using Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires
Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.
Strengthening the Grid’s ‘Backbone’ with Hydropower
Argonne-led studies investigate how hydropower could help add more clean energy to the grid, how it generates value as grids add more renewable energy, and how liner technology can improve hydropower efficiency.
LNG Exports Have Had No Impact on Domestic Energy Costs: Analysis
U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports have not had any sustained and significant direct impact on U.S. natural gas prices and have, in fact, spurred production and productivity gains, which contribute to downward pressure on domestic prices.