Week of Sun, 2007-08-26 00:00 to Sat, 2007-09-01 23:59

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser (ABL) team has demonstrated the capability to accurately point and focus the elements of the Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) developed Beam Control/Fire Control system on an airborne target.

The ABL team successfully directed the beam generated by a surrogate High Energy Laser at a missile-shaped target on the side of an Air Force KC-135 Big Crow aircraft. To enable the surrogate beam to focus on the simulated target, the system first located and tracked the target, determined range to the target and then compensated for atmospheric turbulence. This significant milestone verifies the ability to maintain the focus of the laser beam while continuously tracking a target.

ROBERT P. MILLER, age 46, of New London, Connecticut, pleaded guilty, August 27, before United States District Judge Christopher F. Droney to one count of criminal copyright infringement.

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, on three occasions between June 2004 and April 2005, MILLER, who is the owner and operator of Sarge's Comics Store in New London, sold unauthorized or pirated DVDs to an undercover FBI agent.

When Tim Brom 07’ set out to build a budget supercomputer with Calvin computer science professor Joel Adams, he didn’t know the product of his efforts might end up in his checked baggage headed for England.

Brom, now a graduate student at the University of Kentucky continuing his studies in computer science, worked with Adams to build Microwulf, a machine that is among the smallest and least expensive supercomputers on the planet.

The Collision Warning with Auto Brake - a refined warning system that makes the car brake by itself if the driver doesn't act when a rear-end collision with a moving or stationary vehicle is imminent.

The new system will be available in the Volvo S80, V70 and XC70 at the end of 2007.

Rear impacts represent a third of all reported accidents - and in more than 50 percent of these accidents, the driver doesn't brake at all.

The DOE has selected 11 U.S. university-led grant recipient teams for cooperative research projects under DOE’s Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) for up to $30.7 million over three years (FY’07-’09). NERI is a DOE initiative focused on developing advanced nuclear energy systems and providing state-of-the-art research concerning nuclear science and technology. These grants further engage U.S. university professors and their students in advanced nuclear fuel cycle research and development (R&D), supporting President Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) and his American Competitiveness Initiative.

If you want to exploit the ability of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to absorb, fluoresce and scatter light, take the advice of a sandlot quarterback and “go long.”

In the Aug. 29, 2007, issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society,* researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) show that length has a significant impact on enhancing the optical properties (absorption, near-infrared fluorescence and resonant Raman scattering) of these tiny cylinders made up of single-sheet rolls of carbon atoms. Normally, material properties like refractive index are constants, but, say the NIST researchers, at the nanoscale sometimes size matters in unusual ways. The ability to manipulate these optical properties may one day lead to the development of SWCNTs as microscopic optical sensors, biological probes and highly-specific drug-delivery systems.

JOSEPH THOMAS DAVIDSON, 49, has been charged in U.S. District Court with wire fraud in connection with an eBay scheme in which he received approximately $77,000 for stolen goods sold on eBay. This indictment is announced today by U.S. Attorney Alice H. Martin and Carmen S. Adams, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

BAE Systems will design and develop a digitally enhanced night-vision goggle as part of the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle program. This next-generation goggle will use digital imagery to improve soldier mobility and situational awareness under all lighting conditions and in the presence of battlefield obscurants.

The helmet-mounted goggle will digitally combine video imagery from a low-light-level visible sensor and an uncooled long-wave infrared sensor on a single color display located in front of the soldier's eye. This digital technology will provide improved image quality and will enable imagery to be shared among soldiers, improving platoon effectiveness.

Two major scientific achievements in the field of nanotechnology that could one day lead to new kinds of devices and structures built from a few atoms or molecules, have been announced by IBM (NYSE: IBM).

Although still far from making their way into products, these breakthroughs will enable scientists at IBM and elsewhere to continue driving the field of nanotechnology, the exploration of building structures and devices out of ultra-tiny, atomic-scale components. Such devices might be used as future computer chips, storage devices, sensors and for applications nobody has imagined yet.

Spitzer Space Telescope has detected enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times inside the collapsing nest of a forming star system. Astronomers say the water vapor is pouring down from the system's natal cloud and smacking into a dusty disk where planets are thought to form.

The observations provide the first direct look at how water, an essential ingredient for life as we know it, begins to make its way into planets, possibly even rocky ones like our own.

Over the next 5 years, Linux is expected to be the fastest growing Smartphone OS with a compound annual growth rate in excess of 75%. A recent study from ABI Research forecasts the Linux-based OS to account for nearly 31% of all smart devices in the market by 2012 — representing more than 331 million cumulative shipments over the same period.

NASA has awarded a contract modification valued at $681
million to ATK Launch Systems of Brigham City, Utah, for continued delivery of space shuttle reusable solid rocket motors.

The modification reforms and extends the current contract to align production to new launch schedule requirements through Sept. 30, 2010. The modification reflects adjustments made in the shuttle manifest and makes deliveries consistent with the planned retirement of the space shuttle in September 2010.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) has introduced SSE5, a new extension of the x86 instruction set that is designed to allow software developers to simplify code and achieve greater efficiency for performance-hungry applications. By making the SSE5 specification available to developers, AMD expects to ease the adoption of the new instructions for tool providers and software vendors who develop performance-intense applications.

The Sugar Community Edition 5.0 Beta, from SugarCRM Inc., is available for download and testing by the Sugar Community. This edition is being released under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3), a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation.

The Sugar community is comprised of over 10,000 developers located in five continents who have already contributed more than 400 CRM extensions based on the core Sugar code on http://www.sugarforge.org. The adoption of GPLv3 has been welcomed by the Sugar community and will enable faster development cycles, more code contributions and additional beta testing feedback which ultimately increases the quality of CRM for businesses world-wide.

Microsoft Corp. agreed to acquire Chicago-based Parlano, maker of MindAlign. Microsoft expects to add Parlano’s group chat functionality as a new feature of Microsoft® Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator.

Founded in 2000, Parlano offers group chat technology that enables people to carry on topic-specific, multiparty instant messaging discussions that persist over time. Parlano’s software is used by companies in a variety of industries, including financial services, call centers and technology, to conduct ongoing business-critical conversations.

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) has developed a tour guide robot that will escort visitors around the various displays of Toyota Kaikan Exhibition Hall in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan from August 27.

The newly developed tour guide robot is equipped with autonomous movement capabilities for avoiding obstacles and with jointed fingers, allowing it to sign autographs. The robot is also able to interact with visitors through a combination of verbal communication and gestures.

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) released financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2007. For the quarter, Novell reported net revenue of $243 million, compared to net revenue of $236 million for the third fiscal quarter 2006. The loss from operations for the third fiscal quarter 2007 was $10 million, compared to a loss from operations of $40 million for the third fiscal quarter 2006. The loss available to common stockholders from continuing operations in the third fiscal quarter 2007 was $3 million, or $0.01 loss per common share. This compares to a loss available to common stockholders from continuing operations of $17 million, or $0.05 loss per common share, for the third fiscal quarter 2006. Foreign currency exchange rates favorably impacted total revenue by approximately $4 million and negatively impacted the loss from operations by $1 million year-over-year.

Computer scientists at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from the Netherlands, are using a novel peer-to-peer video sharing application to explore a next-generation model for safe and legal electronic commerce that uses Internet bandwidth as a global currency.

The application (available for free download at http://TV.seas.harvard.edu) is an enhanced version of a program called Tribler, originally created by scientists at the Delft University of Technology and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam to study video file sharing. The software exploits the power of peer-to-peer technology, which is based on forming networks among individual users.

Mobile television is being hailed as the next big thing for anyone with a GSM phone, letting them tune into their favourite program or catch a football match no matter where they are. Only currently available in a few cities in Europe, it could soon become a universal service thanks to a recently standardised technology. Clients and customers are lining up for it.

A team of test operators and mechanics gave members of the media and other visitors a firsthand look at the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP, which is currently being tested on its automotive quality and ability to protect servicemembers' lives.

The Marine Corps has awarded contracts for 6,415 MRAPs to date. The vehicles have raised, V-shaped underbellies, that deflect the force of improvised explosive devices and other blasts from below better than other vehicles in use. But before each armored vehicle transports troops in the field, it undergoes two phases of testing conducted here or at Yuma Proving Grounds in Yuma, Ariz., to gauge how well each MRAP model drives, steers and handles, and whether it can withstand explosions.

The first all hardware, no software desktop device, designed specifically for server-based desktop virtualization. Pano Logic™ has invented a purpose-built desktop virtualization architecture that surpasses today's desktop PC. The PanoTM device connects keyboard, mouse, display, audio and USB peripherals over an existing IP network to an instance of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows XP running on a virtualized server. Moving all software off the desktop to the server, the Pano device has no CPU, no memory, no operating system and no drivers. This reduces desktop TCO by 70 percent and eliminates the desktop as a security risk. Using functionality enabled by server virtualization, delivers not only a complete Microsoft Windows experience, including full USB support, but also a new set of high-value features not available with desktop PC and thin client architectures.

S-LCD Corporation has begun shipments of LCD panels produced from its 8th Generation Line. S-LCD’s 8th Generation Line is capable of processing the world’s largest motherglass substrates, measuring 2,200mm by 2,500mm.

“We have remained a step ahead of the competition in terms of production scale and timing,” said Won-kie Chang, CEO of S-LCD. “Our sights are now on LCD TVs in the 50-inch class and we aim to lead that segment. Our success with 7G line will continue with the new 8G line operation, and we will grow into the world’s largest LCD maker.”

NASA selected The Boeing Co., as the contractor to provide manufacturing support for design and construction of the upper stage of the Ares I rocket. Ares I will launch astronauts to the International Space Station and eventually help return humans to the moon.

Boeing will provide support to a NASA-led design team during the design phase and will be responsible for production of the Ares I upper stage. Boeing will manufacture a ground test article, three flight test units and six production flight units to support NASA's flight manifest through 2016. Final assembly of the upper stage will take place at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

The Ford Verve Concept hints at the new design direction for future compact cars and the company plans to closely gauge public reaction while their designers work behind the scenes creating Ford's next supermini generation.

The latest in a series of show stoppers, Ford Verve Concept follows in the footsteps of the Iosis and Iosis X, whose kinetic design philosophy inspired production models like the new Mondeo and S-MAX.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today released the following statement in response to claims by Microsoft regarding their obligations under the GNU GeneralPublic License version 3 (GPLv3).

Microsoft cannot declare itself exempt from the requirements of GPLv3

In its November 2006 deal with Novell, Microsoft attempted to use its patent portfolio to divide and conquer the free software community. It did so by extending narrow and discriminatory promises not to sue certain classes of Novell SUSE GNU/Linux customers for patent infringement, while leaving others vulnerable to attack, including noncommercial developers and users of other GNU/Linux distributions. Microsoft's ultimate aim in this scheme was the de facto proprietization of free software: it hoped that frightened users would be willing to pay one favored distributor just to be safe from lawsuits. Though the details and timing were a surprise, it was no isolated incident; Microsoft has engaged in anticompetitive conduct in the software industry for many years, and has sought to attack free software for almost as long.

On August 23 and August 24, a Beijing court ruled that a pair of DVD retail outlets, the Beijing Yongsheng Century International Cultural Co., Ltd. (Beijing Yongsheng Century) and its Century En Ze branch, were guilty of copyright infringement for selling pirated versions of Motion Picture Association (MPA) member company movies.

A national survey commissioned by the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner has found that technological developments have increased Australians' privacy concerns.

Among the findings are:

* ID THEFT: 9% of Australians claim to have been victims of ID theft and 60% are concerned about becoming a victim. 45% believe ID theft is likely to occur as a result of using the Internet.

Consumers with mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs) could gain the ability to interact directly with their bank’s automated teller machines (ATMs) in ways that could change where, when and how often they bank. New, recently patented technology developed by Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD), will allow it to happen.

The DOE announced a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that will make available up to $33.8 million to support the development of commercially viable enzymes - a key step to enabling bio-based production of clean, renewable biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol. As part of the President’s Twenty in Ten Plan, DOE is pursuing a long-term strategy to support increased availability and cost-effective use of renewable and alternative fuels. Twenty in Ten seeks to displace 20 percent of U.S. gasoline usage by 2017 through diversification of clean energy sources and increased vehicle efficiency.

Hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers have adopted social networking services as a tool to manage their social networks and express themselves. Spreading like wildfire, social networks have a stickiness among consumers that potentially make them prime real estate for advertising. However, a new report from IDC argues that sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube have not yet realized their full potential as advertising media.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging a bogus patent on Internet subdomains that has been used to threaten small businesses and innovators.

Ideaflood, a self-proclaimed "intellectual property holding company," used this illegitimate patent to demand payment from website hosting companies that offer virtual, personalized subdomains -- like "action.eff.org" for the parent domain "eff.org." But in a reexamination request filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) today, EFF and Rick Mc Leod of Klarquist Sparkman, LLP show that the method Ideaflood claims to have invented was well known before the patent was issued. In fact, website developers were having public discussions about how to create these virtual subdomains on an Apache developer mailing list for more than a year before Ideaflood made its patent claim.

The Civic Hybrid has been named Germany's most ecological car by the respected Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD: a major transport and environment organization in Germany) in its Environmental Car Ratings for 2007-2008.

As part of its rating process the VCD sought out the quietest vehicles with the lowest fuel consumption and the lowest level of emissions. The Civic Hybrid met all the organization’s requirements for environmental compatibility and comfortable driving, and it was highly rated for its outstanding quietness.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and its team tested a key element of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s revolutionary Multiple Kill Vehicle payload at Edwards Air Force Base’s National Hover Test Facility. An extended duration demonstration of the carrier vehicle’s divert and attitude control system, built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, met performance objectives established by the Agency.

During an engagement with the enemy, this high-performance propulsion system maneuvers the carrier vehicle and its cargo of kill vehicles into the threat complex to intercept the targets. With tracking data from the Ballistic Missile Defense System and its own heat detecting sensor, the carrier vehicle dispenses and guides the kill vehicles to destroy targets in the complex using their own individual maneuver rockets.

Is heading straight for a goal the quickest way there" If the name of the game is evolution, suggests new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the pace might speed up if the goals themselves change continuously.

Nadav Kashtan, Elad Noor and Prof. Uri Alon of the Institute�s Molecular Cell Biology and Physics of Complex Systems Departments create computer simulations that mimic natural evolution, allowing them to investigate processes that, in nature, take place over millions of years. In these simulations, a population of digital genomes evolves over time towards a given goal: to maximize fitness under certain conditions. Like living organisms, genomes that are better adapted to their environment may survive to the next generation or reproduce more prolifically. But such computer simulations, though sophisticated, don�t yet have all the answers. Achieving even simple goals may take thousands of generations, raising the question of whether the three-or-so billion years since life first appeared on the planet is long enough to evolve the diversity and complexity that exist today,

A remarkable new material that has shown promise in a variety of applications, ranging from lightning strike protection and electromagnetic-interference shielding to the design of next-generation aircraft and computer displays, is bringing international attention to its Florida State University developers.

Researchers with FSU’s High-Performance Materials Institute recently were recognized for their work with engineered carbon nanotube and nanofiber buckypapers, which were named one of the most innovative nanotechnologies of 2007 by the editors of R&D Magazine and the Micro/Nano Newsletter.

U.S. Strategic Command provides the national command authority, including the secretary of defense and the president, with information on nearly any global contingency. This information must be solid enough to enable often rapid decision-making and comprehensive enough to allow potential response actions to be formulated and directed.

Each of the services' operators needed access to data-gathering and processing capabilities. The problem was that equipping each with all the individual systems and software would be overwhelmingly expensive and cumbersome.

Researchers at Purdue University have further developed a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source for a range of potential applications, from golf carts to submarines and cars to emergency portable generators.

The technology produces hydrogen by adding water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium. When water is added to the alloy, the aluminum splits water by attracting oxygen, liberating hydrogen in the process. The Purdue researchers are developing a method to create particles of the alloy that could be placed in a tank to react with water and produce hydrogen on demand.

University of Arkansas researchers have found a simple, inexpensive way to create a nanowire coating on the surface of biocompatible titanium that can be used to create more effective surfaces for hip replacement, dental reconstruction and vascular stenting. Further, the material can easily be sterilized using ultraviolet light and water or using ethanol, making it useful in hospital settings and meat-processing plants

Telework ExchangeSM released the results of the “Remote Control – Federal CISOs Dish on Mobility, Telework, and Data Security” study. Underwritten by HP, the study dispels myths of telework and security incompatibility – 94 percent of Federal Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) do not consider official telework programs a security threat. Managing security in an increasingly mobile agency computing environment, 63 percent of Federal CISOs flag securing mobile devices as their number-one priority. Calling for a standards-based approach, some 83 percent of Federal CISOs express strong interest in a Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)-compliant mobile end-point certification.

SoundExchange has reached an agreement with several of the largest webcasters on SoundExchange’s proposed cap on the minimum fee charged against royalties for sound recordings played on Internet Radio. Recently-enacted regulations by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) require each webcasting service to pay a $500 minimum fee “per station or channel” regardless of the overall number of stations/channels they are streaming. Today’s agreement addresses the concerns of certain webcasters about their liability for per channel minimums by calling for a cap of $50,000 per service on the $500 per station advance against royalties.

Lockheed Martin Corporation [NYSE: LMT] has acquired 3Dsolve, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 3Dsolve is a privately held company that creates simulation-based learning solutions for government, military and corporate applications. The company’s innovative software tools assist clients with collaborative training utilizing interactive 3D graphics (aka, “serious games”). 3Dsolve’s core competencies include multi-media, software engineering, digital artwork, instructional design and project management for use in state-of-the-art simulation learning solutions.

In 2007, managed services revenue has increased noticeably — illustrating an elevated role for these services and validating forecasts presented in the recent ABI Research study, “Managed Services for Mobile Networks.” A large portion of future wireless hardware sales could well become a part of managed services agreements, as capacity management needs and other similar factors come into play.

The Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) launched a new website for the SystemC community. Featuring fresh technical content, a range of free downloads, links to the activities of worldwide SystemC user groups, and user-friendly navigation, the new site furthers the organization's goal of making the worldwide SystemC community more vibrant, connected, and well informed. Visit the new site at: www.systemc.org.

Extricom has formed the Uni-Fi Alliance™, the founding members of the Uni-Fi Alliance are AeroScout, AirTight Networks, Ascom, and Kineto Wireless.

Uni-Fi Alliance members span a wide range of devices, PBXs, location services, security appliances, and mobile-to-mobile convergence products. The alliance enables leading technology innovators to verify interoperability between products that contribute to a converged, multi-application WLAN.

The Nokia 500 Auto Navigation is Nokia's first handsfree dedicated personal navigation device for in-car navigation and communication. In addition to integrated GPS and in-car navigation features, the device also acts as a complete Bluetooth handsfree system for compatible mobile phones.

Equipped with high-sensitivity GPS and Nokia Maps navigation software, the Nokia 500 Auto Navigation gives clear spoken and visual directions (turn-by-turn, including street and city names). It comes with pre-installed regional maps, and detailed travel information, including points of interest such as hotels, petrol stations and tourist sites.

Using European and Japanese/NASA X-ray satellites, astronomers have seen Einstein’s predicted distortion of space-time around three neutron stars, and in doing so they have pioneered a groundbreaking technique for determining the properties of these ultradense objects.

Neutron stars contain the most dense observable matter in the universe. They cram more than a sun’s worth of material into a city-sized sphere, meaning a few cups of neutron-star stuff would outweigh Mount Everest. Astronomers use these collapsed stars as natural laboratories to study how tightly matter can be crammed under the most extreme pressures that nature can offer.

Crash-Activated Headrests

In autumn 2007 occupant safety in BMW cars is being optimised through the introduction of crash-activated headrests: All models in the BMW 6 and the BMW 5 Series, as well as the BMW X5 and BMW X3, now come as standard with these newly developed headrests significantly reducing the risk of cervical vertebra injury in the event of a collision from the rear. Masterminded by the car's safety electronics, these crash-activated headrests move up to 60 millimetres or 2.36" forward and up to 40 millimetres or 1.57" upward within fractions of a second in the event of a collision, reducing the gap between the headrests and the occupant's head before his head can be thrown back by the forces acting on the car. This enhances the stabilising safety function of the headrest and minimises the risk of injury or over-stretching the occupant's cervical vertebrae.

The DOE and Pinnacle Technologies have successfully demonstrated a new technology that will help optimize the output of natural gas from the often-grudging non-conventional reserves on which the U.S. will have to depend for half its domestic production in the future.

Non-conventional natural gas reserves found in tight sandstone formations, gas shales and coal seams are critical to maintaining the level of domestic production in the near term, according to the National Petroleum Council. Current projections of the Energy Information Administration see non-conventional production growing by 2.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), or 28 percent through 2030. Such production was 34 percent of domestic output, or 8 Tcf, in 2005 and is expected to be 50 percent, or 10.2 Tcf, in 2030.

Pvt. Elias Kvasnikoff is traveling down a dusty road through a small Iraqi village when suddenly his Humvee lurches, the windows shatter and the convoy comes to a screeching halt. He has taken a direct hit by an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade. If he's not dead, he's lucky.

He is lucky, because Kvasnikoff is only training for his deployment nearly halfway around the world from where he will soon deploy as part of a security force.

Intel® vPro™ processor technology with new innovations that add better protection against hacking, viruses and other threats.

Intel vPro processor technology packages a powerful new Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor, Intel® Q35 Express chipset and several technology innovations offering a host of security and management capabilities for desktop PCs, including some that were previously impossible, such as the ability to wake and repair a computer with an inoperative operating system or hard drive.

Acer Inc. (TWSE:2353) to acquire Gateway, Inc. (NYSE: GTW).

Gateway is the fourth largest PC company in the US and a leading retail PC provider. The combination will create a PC-company with over US$15 billion in revenues and shipments in excess of 20 million PC units per year.

Under the terms of the agreement, Acer will commence a cash tender offer to purchase all the outstanding shares of Gateway for $1.90 per share, which represents total equity value consideration of approximately $710 million. The acquisition has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Gateway and Acer and is subject to standard closing conditions, including approval under Hart Scott Rodino, Exon Florio and similar laws outside the U.S. The acquisition is expected to close by December 2007.

Scientist from the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen and from Harvard University have worked out a new theory which describe how the necessary transistors for the quantum computers of the future may be created. The research has just been published in the scientific journal Nature Physics.

Researchers dream of quantum computers. Incredibly fast super computers which can solve such extremely complicated tasks that it will revolutionise the application possibilities. But there are some serious difficulties. One of them is the transistors, which are the systems that process the signals.

IDC's new Worldwide Semiconductor Market Forecaster predicts that the 2007 revenue slowdown in the worldwide semiconductor market will make way to a healthier year in 2008. The worldwide semiconductor market will grow at a conservative rate of 4.8% in 2007, compared to 8.8% in 2006. IDC expects growth to resume at 8.1% in 2008 based on the current outlook. An even healthier outcome could be realized, should capacity expansion be more tempered in 2008 and growth in demand remain strong. Elsewhere, market trends point to ongoing mergers and acquisitions that will reshape the competitive landscape and bring traditional suppliers back to the forefront.

Spammers must stop sending unwanted and illegal e-mail messages about hoodia weight-loss products and human growth hormone anti-aging products the Federal Trade Commission alleges don’t work. At the FTC’s request, a district court judge ordered a halt to the e-mails and to product claims that the FTC charges are false and unsubstantiated.

After six weeks of hunkering down during raging dust storms that limited solar power, both of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have resumed driving.

Opportunity advanced 13.38 meters (44 feet) toward the edge of Victoria Crater on Aug. 21. Mission controllers were taking advantage of gradual clearing of dust from the sky while also taking precautions against buildup of dust settling onto the rover.

Vandenberg space technicians successfully launched a space launch vehicle, the Chimera, Aug. 23 from North Vandenberg. The Chimera is a modified Minuteman II booster vehicle with a simplified target payload.

The launch was part of an exercise involving the tracking of a long-range target missile by the Near Field Infrared Experiment, or NFIRE, research satellite.

BMW announced the launch of the Hydrogen 7 Pioneer Program as it handed over the keys of a BMW Hydrogen 7 - the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan - to Hollywood actor Will Ferrell. Through the Hydrogen 7 Pioneer Program, BMW will give industry leaders and prominent figures in entertainment, politics, business and more a BMW Hydrogen 7 for their daily use.