6:03 PM
The Washington Post has research a controversial online database that enables anyone to search for and find out which companies and how many people have been involved in classified US defense programs over the years:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/editors-note/
Article about the next generation of UAVs being developed that will fly faster and higher than current UAVs and will be somewhat stealthy also:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/killer-drones-get-stealthy
Raytheon demonstrated the first-ever laser shootdown of a UAV over open sea. The laser makes its remote pilot lose control and sets the UAV on fire, making it fall into the ocean:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19192-navy-laser-roasts-incoming-drones-in-midair.html
Department of Homeland Security only spends 18.3% of the total homeland security spending in the US. California's homeland security market is nearly as large as the entire US aviation security market:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/california-homeland-security-market-large-entire-us-aviation-security-market
Berkeley Labs released the results of a study that found that having light-colored rooftops and roads will help cities stay cooler and also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to *2 years* of worldwide CO2 emissions...the effect of getting 300 million cars off the road for 20 years! Black roofs not only heat the space below it, but it also heats up the wind that blows around in that city. US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a series of initiatives today that will broadly implement cool roof technologies on DOE facilities and buildings and he is encouraging all federal agencies to do the same thing:
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2010/07/19/cool-roofs-offset-carbon-dioxide-emissions/
Scientists have identified 2 compounds emitted by mosquito predators that make the mosquitoes not want to lay eggs in pools of water. This increases the chance that a female mosquito will die before she finds a pool to lay her eggs in, providing an environmentally-friendly way to control the mosquito population:
http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=1083
Law enforcement officials are worried about a militia with Neo-Naxi ties is patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border. The group is heavily armed and identifies with an organization that believes that only non-Jewish, white heterosexual people should be US citizens and that everyone who is not white should leave the country "peacefully or by force." Having that armed group patrol along the border is a little scary to me....
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/us/18militia.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=arizona&st=cse
The number of deaths among illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona desert from Mexico is reaching record numbers. 40 people died in the first half of this month and the record for a month is 68 (in July 2005):
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/soaring-immigrant-deaths-arizona-desert-july
Honda is planning to release a plug-in hybrid and an all-electric car by 2013. They are planning to have 5 or so hybrids by 2013 and may manufacture the Insight and 2 other hybrids in the US:
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-50243820100719
Study found that 73% of US wireless subscribers subscribe to voice plans while only 25% subscribe to data plans:
http://www.fiercetelecom.com/press_releases/amidst-wireless-data-hype-voice-dominates-revenue-more-3-1
Subaru is offering WiFi as an official accessory for its Outback crossover SUV. It costs $535 plus a monthly $29 subscription for the in-car WiFi:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/mobile/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225900058
Some enterprising person on etsy created these band-aid-like "Antenn-aid" stickers to fix the iPhone 4 antenna problem Instead of using duct tape like Consumer Reports suggested, people can pay $5 and get these Antenn-aids in 6 different colors. They were sold out earlier today but they are now back in stock:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/51772143/antenn-aid-for-iphone-4-6-pack
Google received their final shipment of Nexus One phones today and will no longer have them available from their online store once their inventory is gone. The online sales model with users not being locked into a carrier clearly didn't work for Google:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/here-lies-the-google-nexus-one-2010-2010-818
Campbell turned to Facebook to advertise its new V8 V-Fusion + Tea line. They plan to give away 1,000 free samples every week of that product, and all 1,000 samples for this week were claimed in the first 24 hours:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i4e5fe86c8a88e96bae0c2f687c163a3f
NASA TV became available in HD today:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/jul/10-169_NASA_TV_HD_Channel.html
Sarah Palin was unhappy with the criticism of her use of the word "refudiate" (not the first time she has used that term which is not actually a word) and compared herself to Shakespeare:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/07/palin-invents-word-compares-he.html
Oregon man filed a $146k lawsuit against a pest control company because he claims that he suffered hearing loss when a worker used explosives to remove rodents on his neighbor's property. The complaint says that the pest control worker did not warn neighbors and then disregarded the neighbor's warning to stop the blasts that were rattling his doors and windows:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/16/ap/strange/main6685236.shtml