Rio+20 Showdown with Richard Branson

By David Rothbard

Words flew as CFACT’s Craig Rucker and Sir Richard Branson squared off at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil. Surrounded by Greenpeace activists, Branson was leaving the Greenpeace press conference just as Rucker was entering for CFACT’s press event.

Rucker seized the opportunity to confront the globe-trotting, fossil-fuel-burning Branson about his unlikely position on global warming.

“Sir, do you support the European carbon tax on your own planes going from the United States to Europe?” Rucker asked. Clearly surprised, Branson responded that he would prefer that it be an “international tax, rather than just one area of the world.”

Such an idea is not unheard of. In fact, one of the items on the negotiating table here at Rio+20 is a tax — ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 percent — on international financial transactions, which would generate billions of dollars per year, and would be sent directly to the United Nations. It is unusual for the head of multinational corporations to support such radical policies.

Rucker then asked whether it would be wise for Branson to tax his clients, considering that “support for global-warming science is eroding worldwide.” Over one thousand climate scientists dispute the hypothesis that global warming is man-made, Rucker noted, and over 31,000 natural scientists have signed a statement saying there is no convincing evidence that humans are causing catastrophic global warming.

Nonetheless, Branson refused to concede the point, insisted that “even if we are mistaken about that [global warming], I think it is good — we’re running out of oil, so we need to move into clean fuels as soon as possible.”

He’s equally wrong about the world running out of oil. However, Rucker will have to take that up with him next time they cross paths, as Branson was quickly ushered away by his entourage.

10 countries for a United States of Europe

Ten EU foreign ministers participating in a “study group for the future of Europe” aim to exert pressure to transform the EU into a federation along the lines of the US. Together they have prepared what the front-page headline in Die Presse describes as a “Plan for transformation into a European state.” On 19 June, the ten ministers* presented an initial report to the EU officials who will likely benefit the most from the initiative: Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The “study group for the future” initiated by Germany's Guido Westerwelle, which does not currently include an official French representative, proposes to put an end to the dominance of national government leaders and give greater authority to the European Commission – in particular the European Commission president, who will be elected by universal suffrage and granted the right to form a “governmental team”, making him or her the most powerful politician in Europe.

The group also recommends replacing European councils of ministers and heads of state with a chamber “of states” in the European parliament. National competencies, most notably the management of borders, defence and public spending will be transferred to the federation, “making membership of the euro irreversible.”

Die Presse argues that it is not surprising to see diplomats from countries which have lost all of their influence since the Treaty of Nice, signed in 2001, and even more so since the outbreak of the crisis, make a bid to play a more important role. However, the daily concludes –

A clearly defined democratic system resembling a state would probably not be in accord with the mood of several sections of the population. But everyone who wants to safeguard the euro, the single market and political stability, while preventing a widening wealth gap between the North and the South and a reinforcement of nationalist trends will ultimately accept that it is the best way forward.


* Foreign ministers from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

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WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY OF THE END TIME BEAST: -
The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come. This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction. The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. …The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire (Revelation 17:3-16).

How Accurate Were Minority Report’s Technology Precogs?

By Wired StaffEmail Author

Released 10 years ago today, Minority Report served up a captivating and thoroughly convincing look at what the future might hold. But how well has the film's bold vision aged?

Wired took at look at 10 key technologies from the film — which built on concepts dreamed up during an "idea summit" of tech thinkers convened by director Steven Spielberg — to compare the decade-old science fiction to today's reality.

Above:

Iris Recognition

In Minority Report: Devices that scan the distinctive features in the iris — the colored portion of the eye — are everywhere in Minority Report. They're used in place of security badges and IDs, and they help billboards tailor ads directly at you as you pass by. Also, spiderbots shuffle around scanning irises in search of suspects.

The reality today: The ID system portrayed in the movie works because the government has every citizen's iris on file, and that is eminently plausible, says Patrick Grother of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency that oversees biometrics. India has already scanned the eyeballs of 150 million citizen enrollees, and border control agencies around the world use the technology. Preregistered travelers can move in and out of the United Kingdom, cross the US-Canadian border, and navigate the Middle East without a passport as long as their irises are approved. Recent advances — better compression algorithms that allow iris data to traverse networks faster, cameras that can scan irises from up to 9 feet away while people are in motion — will only expand the iris scanning's reach. —Amber Williams

Self-Driving Cars

In Minority Report: In the world of 2054, a symphony of self-driving cars zoom down the sides of sheer skyscrapers and onto horizontal highways and back. The vehicles form a system dubbed "individual mass transportation," where the wealthy can get from their deluxe penthouses to their destinations without brushing elbows with the lower classes living below. "The beauty is that your own vehicle is sort of an extension of your taste and the design of your apartment," says Harald Belker, the conceptual auto designer for the film. The vehicles are voice-activated and run using magnetic levitation, a technology that lets vehicles float inches above a surface.

The reality today: Maglev systems are already employed in a handful of railways across the globe, delivering speeds up to 361 mph. The self-driving part of Minority Report's vision is also practically here, as Wired's 20.02 cover feature detailed. Google's got its own roving band of driverless vehicles that navigate city streets, pedestrians and red-lights, and can hit up to 75 mph while merging between lanes on highways. BMW, VW and Toyota have their own robot-car projects as well. A wide-scale system like the one in the film would require huge outlays for infrastructure. "If there isn't any way to modernize the transportation system, we'll never make any progress," Belker says. —Christina Bonnington

Spiderbots

In Minority Report: A squadron of tiny, eight-legged bots scampers autonomously through a flophouse, using an array of on-board sensors — including, memorably, iris scanners — to identify residents and relay that information to the authorities.

The reality today: Say hello to your robotic insect overlords. The US military (with the help of British Aerospace) has been developing a fleet of insect robots made specifically for reconnaissance missions. The goal is to equip soldiers with an extra pair of eyes in urban environments and other potentially hostile areas. There are nonmilitary applications, too: A team of spiderbots was recently deployed inside of Mount St. Helens. Each was equipped with a seismometer for detecting earthquakes, an infrared sensor to detect heat from volcanic explosions, a sensor to detect ash and a global positioning system to sense the ground bulging and pinpoint the exact location of seismic activity. —Bryan Gardiner

Predictive Policing

In Minority Report: A trio of psychic precogs lie partially submerged in what looks like the world's least enjoyable hot tub, their brains hooked up to police computers that display their visions of crimes yet to happen. From there, the cops can race out and arrest the bad guys before they break the law. Or, as Tom Cruise's character puts it to one would-be wife-stabber, "Under the authority of the District of Columbia Pre-Crime Division, I'm placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marx."

The reality today: Predictive policing has become a buzzphrase in the last 10 years, and a handful of police departments have actually opened units and programs that aim to take a pre-emptive bite out of crime. In Los Angeles, police use an algorithm that analyzes seven years of data to predict where and when burglaries, auto thefts and car break-ins are most likely to occur. Officers on patrol then pay particular attention to those "hot spots." Not as cool as psychic-based murder prediction, sure, but in the first few months of this year, these crimes are already down by 22 percent, translating to about 153 property crimes prevented.

Predictive policing programs in Santa Cruz, Memphis and Chicago have seen similar results — and Chicago has even been able to predict more violent crimes, like shootings. Unlike the movie, though, it's not about slapping handcuffs on a would-be perpetrator before a crime has been committed. "It's just about disruption," says Captain Sean Malinowski of the LAPD. "You go out there and prevent a crime from happening through your presence. There's still the Constitution." —Elise Craig

3-D Holograms

In Minority Report: Tom Cruise converts cherished home videos into a 3-D hologram. His character is able to look at projected images of his wife and missing son. As he moves around, he sees them from different angles.

The reality today: Approximations of holograms have been around since the 19th century — in the form of images projected on glass. (The much-tweeted performance by the long-dead Tupac at Coachella in April was a high-tech example.) But the kind of 3-D tech depicted in Minority Report has what's called dimensionality — when viewed from different points of view, different aspects are visible. (Think Princess Leia's "Help me ObiWan, you're our only hope" projection in Star Wars.) That's called motion parallax, and no one has figured out how to create it. Minority Report brainstorming session participant Neil Gershenfeld, head of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, says we'll soon see more and more realistic onscreen 3-D, thanks to lenticular displays that eliminate the need for 3-D glasses, plus head-tracking systems that know exactly where our eyes are in relation to the image being generated. "It's relatively easy to make a holographic TV screen," he says. "The problem with Star Wars-style 3-D projected in mid-air is that the physics don't work." —Bryan Gardiner

Sick Sticks

In Minority Report: In 2054, police descend on uncooperative civilians wielding a special sort of baton called a sick stick, which had the almost magical ability to "make you lose control of your bowels and/or throw up," says brainstorm participant Shaun Jones, a technology consultant and former director of Darpa's Unconventional Countermeasures Program. Nothing like instantaneously expelling the contents of your digestive tract to tame rebellious impulses.

The reality today: Sick sticks don't exist yet, but nonlethal weapon development is in full swing, Jones says. At the Department of Defense, scientists are working on machines that can direct beams of sound that impair hearing and emit electromagnetic waves that generate uncomfortable heat. New nonlethal weapons are making their way into cities, too: Police departments in Southern California are testing a weapon that incapacitates its target with superbright lights that strobe at different wavelengths. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security and developed at Intelligent Optical Systems in Torrance, California, the LED Incapacitator 3 looks like a standard flashlight, but its light show causes temporary blindness and disorientation. One of its inventors, Vladimir Rubtsov, says it's a good substitute for the taser and can be used for riot control or against unruly drunks heading for their cars. —Amber Williams

Personalized Billboards/Ads

In Minority Report: Wherever he goes, Anderton is tracked by cameras and biometric sensors and bombarded with intrusive personalized ads. "The whole idea was that the ads would not only recognize you, but also your state of mind," says Jeff Boortz, a consultant on the film. Deducing that stressed-out Anderton needs a relaxing break, he is offered targeted products like an Amex card and a Guinness.

The reality today: Amazon and Google have long been reading our searches and helpfully suggesting products we might like to buy. DVRs know your taste in police procedurals and when you like to watch them. NEC is experimenting with dynamic ads that target specific shopper characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity and age. Using billboards equipped with a camera and facial-recognition software, the company is able to target a given message with a great degree of specificity. Not far over the horizon: facial recognition cameras in malls and other public places that can guess age and gender, then flash demographically targeted ads as you pass by. Can retina-recognition devices be far behind? —Bryan Gardiner

Gestural Interface

In Minority Report: Tom Cruise waves his gloved hands around to manipulate objects on a giant screen in front of him. Every gesture is registered, allowing him to rifle through files, expand and contract windows, and select onscreen objects. Finally: an alternative to the mouse and keyboard paradigm. "To build a genuinely new user interface, you have to build it from the ground up, like what the original Mac did in the early '80s," says John Underkoffler, chief scientist with Oblong and the designer of Minority Report's gestural interface.

The reality today: Gestural interfaces seem to be conquering the world. Most of us pinch and zoom on a daily basis now — but on touchscreens, not in mid-air. But there's also Microsoft's Kinect interface, which uses infrared-light and "Time of Flight" algorithms to pinpoint the position of a person's limbs, kind of like sonar. Microsoft has sold more than 20 million units — which don't even require the gloves used in Minority Report — and plans to build Kinect support into PC operating systems as well. New smart TVs from LG and Samsung use similar technology that lets you adjust the volume and change the channel without a remote. As camera and sensor technology becomes more refined over the next decade, we'll eventually be able to control personal computing devices with smaller, subtler movements at closer ranges. —Christina Bonnington

E-Newspapers

In Minority Report: News is delivered on flexible e-paper screens that update in real time and show video. And cheap screens take media beyond the news sphere: Cloying cartoon animals come to life on the sides of a cereal box, and they dance around with glee as Cruise gobbles the cereal in his bowl. (It looks as annoying as it sounds.)

The reality today: Newspapers, magazines and books are migrating to Kindle and iPad screens, but flexible e-paper remains mostly in the lab. Korean electronics giant LG has begun producing a flexible, plastic e-paper display that could hit the mainstream within the next five years. The current version is 6 inches wide and .7mm thick, but the company has dabbled in 19-inch, newspaper-size versions as well. Samsung is working on a similar flexible display using OLED technology. When flexible displays arrive in earnest — as early as 2015 — look for them to be wrapped around everything from building support columns to coffee mugs, delivering things like headlines, status updates, stock alerts and ads. —Christina Bonnington

Jetpacks

In Minority Report: Cops zip around the sky in personal propulsion systems complete with red and blue lights flashing.

The reality today: Spielberg insisted on including jetpacks in Minority Report because — just guessing here — they make for indelible cinema. But unlike the more plausible bits of futurism in the film, the jetpacks were closer to what was envisioned in Commando Cody serials than to the impractical devices that actually exist. —Amber Williams

Is that really just a fly? Swarms of cyborg insect drones are the future of military surveillance

By Daily Mail Reporter

The kinds of drones making the headlines daily are the heavily armed CIA and U.S. Army vehicles which routinely strike targets in Pakistan - killing terrorists and innocents alike.

But the real high-tech story of surveillance drones is going on at a much smaller level, as tiny remote controlled vehicles based on insects are already likely being deployed.

Over recent years a range of miniature drones, or micro air vehicles (MAVs), based on the same physics used by flying insects, have been presented to the public.

The fear kicked off in 2007 when reports of bizarre flying objects hovering above anti-war protests sparked accusations that the U.S. government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies.

Official denials and suggestions from entomologists that they were actually dragonflies failed to quell speculation, and Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert on unmanned aerial craft, told the Daily Telegraph at the time that 'America can be pretty sneaky.'

The following year, the US Air Force unveiled insect-sized spies 'as tiny as bumblebees' that could not be detected and would be able to fly into buildings to 'photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists.'

Around the same time the Air Force also unveiled what it called 'lethal mini-drones' based on Leonardo da Vinci's blueprints for his Ornithopter flying machine, and claimed they would be ready for roll out by 2015.

That announcement was five years ago and, since the U.S. military is usually pretty cagey about its technological capabilities, it raises the question as to what it is keeping under wraps.

The University of Pennsylvania GRASP Lab recently showed off drones that swarm, a network of 20 nano quadrotors flying in synchronized formations.

The SWARMS goal is to combine swarm technology with bio-inspired drones to operate 'with little or no direct human supervision' in 'dynamic, resource-constrained, adversarial environments.'

However, it is most likely the future of hard-to-detect drone surveillance will mimic nature.

Research suggests that the mechanics of insects can be reverse-engineered to design midget machines to scout battlefields and search for victims trapped in rubble.

Scientists have taken their inspiration from animals which have evolved over millennia to the perfect conditions for flight.

Nano-biomimicry MAV design has long been studied by DARPA, and in 2008 the U.S. government's military research agency conducted a symposium discussing 'bugs, bots, borgs and bio-weapons.'

Researchers have now developed bio-inspired drones with bug eyes, bat ears, bird wings, and even honeybee-like hairs to sense biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

And the U.S. isn't the only country to have poured money into spy drone miniaturisation. France has developed flapping wing bio-inspired microdrones.

The Netherlands BioMAV (Biologically Inspired A.I. for Micro Aerial Vehicles) developed a Parrot AR Drone last year - which is now available in the U.S. as a 'flying video game'.

Not so tiny but a good spy: A ShadowHawk drone with SWAT team members

Zoologist Richard Bomphrey, of Oxford University, has conducted research to generate new insight into how insect wings have evolved over the last 350 million years.

He said last year: 'Nature has solved the problem of how to design miniature flying machines.

'By learning those lessons, our findings will make it possible to aerodynamically engineer a new breed of surveillance vehicles that, because they are as small as insects and also fly like them, completely blend into their surroundings.'

The insect manoeuvrability which allows flies the ability to land precisely and fly off again at speed may one day prove a crucial tactical advantage in wars and could even save lives in disasters.

The military would like to develop tiny robots that can fly inside caves and barricaded rooms to send back real-time intelligence about the people and weapons inside.

Dr Bomphrey said: 'Scary spider robots were featured in Michael Crichton's 1980s film Runaway - but our robots will be much more scaled down and look more like the quidditch ball in the Harry Potter films, because of its ability to hover and flutter.

'The problem for scientists at the moment is that aircrafts can't hover and helicopters can't go fast. And it is impossible to make them very small.

'With insects you get a combination of both these assets in miniature. And when you consider we have been flying for just over a hundred years as opposed to 350 million years, I would say it is they who have got it right, and not us!'

Police Chaplains Told to Stop Invoking Jesus

By Todd Starnes

For the past seven years Pastor Terry Sartain has ministered to police officers and their families in Charlotte, N.C. Whenever the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept. invited him to deliver an invocation, he prayed in “the name of Jesus.”

But not anymore.

Volunteer chaplains in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept. will no longer be allowed to invoke the name of Jesus in prayers at public events held on government property.

Major John Diggs, who oversees the chaplain program, told television station WSOC that the policy is a “matter of respecting that people may have different faiths and that it is not aimed at any one religion or denomination.”

Sartain, the pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship, told Fox News Radio he was scheduled to give an invocation at a promotion ceremony. Before the event, he received a telephone call from his superior major.

“I was told chaplains can no longer invoke the name of Jesus on government property,” Sartain said. “(He said) if I could refrain from that during the invocation he would appreciate that.”

Sartain said he was surprised by the telephone call. The pastor said he’s prayed “consistently” in the name of Jesus at past police department events without any issues.

“I’m very sad about it,” he said. “I’m a pastor and Jesus is the only thing I have to offer to bless people – his life and his person.”

“It brings about a very real concern about where we are heading as a nation,” he said. “I serve a God who loves people unconditionally, who died for their sins on the cross, who wants to reconcile himself to them and love them where they are at – and now I’m told I can’t bless people as a result of that.”

The police department said he could still pray – just not to Jesus.

So to whom was the Christian minister supposed to pray?

“That was my question,” Sartain said. “If I’m going to pray – what should I pray?”

He said the police department wanted him to deliver a “secular prayer.”

“Even when I wasn’t a Christian – in my past – I didn’t even know what a secular prayer was,” he said. “Why even pray if it’s to the one who’s in the room? That could be anybody.”

Sartain said the new policy has put him in a difficult spot.

“You don’t want to compromise your faith,” he said. ‘At the same time you want to honor those who are in charge over you.”

So Sartain asked the police department to withdraw his name from consideration for future public prayers.

“I didn’t really need to do that as a chaplain,” he said of the public prayers. “I still wanted to have the influence with the police officers and their families.”

At least some people in the Charlotte area support the decision to remove the “Jesus-centric” prayers.

“It’s past time when they should’ve made a policy,” ACLU member Jim Gronquist told WSOC. “It’s improper to mix up religion with the function of state agents, and as long as they’re state agents, they should not be able to do that.”

Sartain said it’s apparent that “Christians for the most part are targeted in these days that we exist in.”

“As Christians in the United States of America – what we are saying as believers – is we want the same rights and privileges as everybody else,” he said. “Let the playing field remain level.”