• 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • Rising sea level threatens U.K. coastal rail lines

    Andrew McNaughton, Network Rail’s chief engineer: “The effects of climate change, and in particular sea level rise, are likely to increase the severity of the wave, tidal and wind effects on coastal defenses”

  • Banks' PIN codes susceptible to hackers' theft

    Network of PIN codes’ thieves nets millions of dollars; hackers are targeting the ATM system’s infrastructure, which is increasingly built on Microsoft’s Windows operating system and allows machines to be remotely diagnosed and repaired over the Internet

  • Pentagon's IG resigns

    Claude Kicklighter, who took over as Pentagon inspector general in April 2007, has accepted a teaching position at George Mason University; he will be executive director of the university’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Project

  • Melting ice menaces Russia's critical infrastructure

    Russian scientists say that the hard permafrost covering the ground year-round across Russia’s far north will melt by 2030; government officials say that if this happens, critical infrastructure, including key airfields, oil storage facilities, and strategic oil reservoirs, could all be destroyed

  • U.K. critical infrastructure vulnerable

    New report says last summer’s flood showed infrastructure’s vulnerability; funding for flood defenses was not sufficient or secure, undermining industry confidence, and there were not enough skilled engineers to deliver the protection from flooding needed

  • Israeli government prepares for major earthquake in north

    In one three-month period this year, around 500 small tremors were recorded in northern Israel; Israeli government health officials urge hospitals, municipalities to prepare for worst

  • Oversight of fire protection at U.S. nuclear reactors could be strengthened

    GAO examined the oversight exercised by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over fire protection procedures at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants, and says this oversight could be strengthened