A Chinese vessel with e-tagged containers sailed on Monday from Shanghai to Savannah, United States, marking the opening of the world’s first international e-tagged container route.

The doorbell-sized e-tags installed on the latch of a twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) will record information about every procedure the container goes through in the whole transport process. It will record delivery and off-loading time, real-time TEU conditions and time and place of legal, or illegal, opening.

The information will be transmitted through a wireless regional Web network to a website for monitoring. If a container is illegally opened enroute, the e-tag will automatically record the “intrusion” and put out a red alarm signal on the Website.

The e-tag developed by Bao costs about 50 yuan (about 7 U.S. dollars) and can last 10 years.

We’re not talking about anything more complex than current systems tracking motor freight in the U.S..

Let me see if I understand: It’s our War On Terror-government that leads the world in whining about security – and China launches this simple device, first?

Yes, it’s apparently true. One of the classics of the silver screen is going to be remade. The horror… The horror…

All I can say is George Clooney better be in this one, too!

Haile Gebrselassie

The marathon world record-holder said yesterday that he was unlikely to compete at the Beijing Olympics because China’s air pollution would damage his health. The Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, 34, is a favourite for a gold medal this summer but is likely to focus instead on the 10,000 metres because he suffers from asthma. “The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42km in my current condition,” he said. “But I am not pulling out of the Olympics altogether.” Gebrselassie’s withdrawal would heighten concerns that Beijing’s notorious smog will not be cleared in time for the Games in August, when the weather in the city is at its most hot and humid.

A quarter of Britain’s top athletes suffer from exercise-induced asthma and some might wear face masks during training and competition. They include Paula Radcliffe, the marathon runner who succumbed to the heat before the finishing line in Athens four years ago. The mother of one has enlisted pollution experts in her campaign for her first Olympic medal. The International Olympic Committee has said that it will postpone or cancel endurance events if conditions pose a danger to athletes’ health.

The Chinese government has assured athletes they will be safer now that they have exterminated all the cats in the city.

But what if a non-homeless person wants to sit on a bench taken up by bench warmers? Does the warmer have to stand around, waiting for the ‘real’ person to leave? So many unanswered questions.

Of course, actually helping the homeless to, you know, not be homeless is apparently too much work for these folks.

She battles for the benches

Esther Viti isn’t about to stand by and watch transients take over public benches along the streets of her beloved La Jolla.

She’s prepared to sit on it. Literally.

Viti wants to recruit volunteers to sit on benches in La Jolla’s business district so the homeless will have to keep on walking.
[…]
Earlier this week, Viti e-mailed 45 community activists and members of the La Jolla Town Council asking for volunteers to sit on benches in three-hour shifts.

The e-mail suggested that bench warmers should bring something to occupy themselves, such as a book, knitting needles or a pen and stationery. No bathroom breaks allowed.

PicLens software exploring online images

I wonder if John Markoff was at the Apple iPhone SDK intro? Anyone who saw the demo of Super Monkey Ball learned how the built-in accelerometer facilitated using the iPhone as a game controller. 3D relative motion just like a Wii.

Last year…the arrival of the Wii and the iPhone began to break down the logjam in technological innovation for the way humans interact with computers.

Both devices extend the idea of directly controlling objects on the screen and blending that ability with visually compelling physics software that brings computer screens to life in new, immersive ways.

With a Wii, a wave of the hand can slam a tennis ball in cyberspace; with the iPhone, a flick of a finger can slide a photograph across the screen like paper on a table…

What is new is a convergence of more powerful and less expensive computer hardware and an inspired set of mostly younger software designers who came of age well past the advent of the original graphical user interface paradigm of the 1970s and ’80s…

The transition to more immersive displays is happening in part because of more powerful computer hardware, but also because of an explosion of more powerful programming tools. These tools offer visual effects that were once within the grasp of only the most skillful programmers to a wide audience with only basic skills…

Next wave of changes in computing look to be interesting in ways I hadn’t expected a few years ago.

Three meals a day, a bed, showers and TV. For a lot of people here in the US, that would be better than they have on the outside. As long as you don’t bend over in the shower.

Escaped inmate returns to prison

Feng Junqiang, who escaped from prison 22 years ago, surrendered to police and returned to his cell in Liuzhou, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, after learning that conditions in the prison had greatly improved.

Feng, who was sentenced to serve five years in prison, escaped in 1985 because he could not tolerate the hard life.

Now Feng is able to visit a supermarket, participate in recitation contests and play chess and basketball after finishing his work at the prison.

It was the first case of a prisoner willingly returning to jail in the city.

Scientists in Japan have discovered a new species of bacteria that can live in hairspray.

“Contamination of cosmetic products is rare but some products may be unable to suppress the growth of certain bacteria,” says Dr Bakir from the Japan Collection of Microorganisms, Saitama, Japan. “We discovered a new species of bacteria called Microbacterium hatanonis, which we found contaminates hairspray…”

Scientists now need to determine the clinical importance of the new species, as similar bacteria have been found to infect humans. “Further testing will establish whether the species is a threat to human health,” says Dr Bakir. “We hope our study will benefit the formulation of hairspray to prevent contamination in the future.”

Perhaps, Britney’s solution is the only way?

Yahoo! News

LANCASTER, Pa. – The family of a middle school student who was given detention for wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of a gun has filed a federal freedom of speech lawsuit against the school district. Donald Miller III, 14, went to Penn Manor High School in December wearing a T-shirt he said was intended to honor his uncle, a U.S. Army soldier fighting in Iraq.

The shirt bears the image of a military sidearm and on the front pocket says “Volunteer Homeland Security.” On the back, over another image of the weapon, are the words “Special issue Resident Lifetime License — United States Terrorist Hunting Permit — Permit No. 91101 — Gun Owner — No Bag Limit.”

Officials at the Millersville school told him to turn his shirt inside out. When Miller refused, he got two days of detention. His parents, Donald and Tina Miller of Holtwood, have accused the Penn Manor School District in a lawsuit of violating their son’s First Amendment rights with a “vague Orwellian policy” that stifles both patriotism and free speech.

But an attorney for the school district said school must create a safe environment for students in the post-Columbine era, and bringing even the image of a gun to school violates the district’s policy. “There’s a much higher level of sensitivity these days,” Penn Manor attorney Kevin French said. “But it’s based on reality.”

Lets just go back to school uniforms, and be done with it, OK? I went to parochial school, wore a uniform, and I am just as maladjusted as anyone else.

“Terrified cats crammed tightly into cages are hauled off to a meat market in Guangzhou”

What? Meat market? They’re going to eat “diseased” cats?

Daily Mail

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.

Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.

The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.

Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams.
[…]
But the crackdown on cats is seen by animal campaigners as just one of a number of extreme measures being taken by communist leaders to ensure that its capital appears clean, green and welcoming during the Olympics.

So who’s gonna keep the mouse and rat population under control now?

Thanks ECA.

Dork Ben Stein Narrates Creationist Movie at Center of Debate

 
 
Orlando Sentinel – Academic freedom, evolution and Ben Stein’s Expelled movie –the Florida House may consider them all — These guys keep trying different tweaks. This one is the next one in the bag of tricks. These guys will be making a mistake if they push this idea too far. There are weirder topics lurking that could push for more exposure under an academic freedom umbrella that is too wide open.

A local state lawmaker who is pushing Florida to adopt an “academic freedom” law — one that would protect teachers who are critical of evolution — has invited members of the Florida House to a private screening of the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

The controversial documentary, staring Ben Stein, is supported by the Discovery Institute, which advocates for Intelligent Design and has been pushing for academic freedom laws to protect those who share its views.

The invitation to see Expelled on Wednesday was sent to all members of the House by Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, according to his legislative aide.

Hayes

Harrah student suspended after toy gun shooting | — Exactly how firing a toy gun constitutes a “shooting” is beyond me. Does a rubber-band gun constitute a shooting too? Apparently he shot an annoying plastic pellet from this thing and it became a federal case. And how was it concealed if he had it out and was shooting it? Cripes.

The boy fired the toy gun from close range, hitting a classmate in the back of the head with a plastic pellet, Harrah Police Chief Eddie Holland said this morning. The victim was not injured.

The incident took place on a school bus Thursday morning, Holland said.

The 11-year-old was detained by police after the incident and later released to his mother. Harrah Schools Superintendent Dean Hughes said the length of the students suspension will not be determined until the school finishes its investigation. Holland said police will forward to juvenile court officials a complaint of possession of a concealed weapon on school property.

The police chief said its not illegal for a child to carry a toy gun, but it is illegal on school property.

related link:
Dallas bans toy guns

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

Mr. Spitzer, a first term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform an end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.

Federal authorities arrested four people last week on charges of running an online prostitution ring that serviced clients in New York, Paris and other cities and took in more than $1 million in profits over four years.

The ring, known as the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., had 50 prostitutes available for appointments in New York, Washington, Miami, London and Paris, according to a complaint unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The appointments, made by telephone or through an online booking service, cost $1,000 to $5,500 an hour and could be paid for with cash, credit card, wire transfers or money orders, the complaint said.

Turns out Spitzer wasn’t their lawyer. Just a client.

Note: The NY TIMES just broke this story. Their servers are overwhelmed. Links may take forever.