VIDEO: A 3-D printer that can replicate a working adjustable wrench a la Star Trek "replicator"

It bends the mind, what this machine does, so think of the concept in chunks.

First, it's a printer; it prints things. But instead of using paper, it uses powder and a binder, and "prints" by creating a succession of 2-D layers laid on top of each other.

As a result, the "thing printed" is a physically correct, accurate-to-40-microns representation in 3-D of the original, created in 2-D one layer at a time.

Finally, because each layer is accurate, parts of the "thing printed" that only touch (for example, interlocking rings), are rendered accurately at each layer, and only touch in the final version. Interlocking rings are interlocked, but loose.

Bottom line, you put in a working adjustable wrench, you get out a working adjustable wrench — or anything else you want, as the video shows.

Watch (h/t Chris Hayes):



Just ... wow. Star Trek indeed.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Obama tries to Sista Souljah HuffPo (a little), HuffPo gets even (kind of)

From HuffPost Hill:

OBAMA CAN'T STOP REFRESHING HUFFPOST, GETTING ANGRY - The Obama campaign released a video this weekend and the upshot is that the president thinks we're really, really mean to him. "If you read the Huffington Post," he tells a small group of students, "you'd think that I was some right-wing tool of Wall Street." And then a bit later: "Abraham Lincoln. Here's a guy who didn't believe in slavery, but his first priority was keeping the union. I've got a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in my office, and if you read through it, most of the document is those states and areas where emancipation doesn't apply because those folks are allied with the union so they can keep their slaves. Here's a wartime President making a compromise around the greatest moral issue that the country ever faced, because he understood that his job was to win the war and maintain the union. Can you imagine how the Huffington Post would have reported on that? It would have been blistering. 'Lincoln Sells Out Slaves.'"

We searched "Lincoln Sells Out Slaves" in HuffPost's archives and, in Obama's defense, turned up this piece from late 1862: [THE ACTUAL SCREEN GRAB]

LINCOLN SELLS OUT SLAVES - WASHINGTON -- President Abraham Lincoln intends to issue a proclamation emancipating slaves in states rebelling against the Union on Tuesday, senior administration officials tell the Huffington Post. The proclamation, said sources who'd been briefed on its contents, will not apply to slaves in certain states and counties that the president has determined are not in rebellion, a sop to pro-slavery interests at peace with the Union. Abolitionist congressional Republicans also took their party's president to task, questioning why Lincoln would free slaves in territories the Union does not control, but leave them enslaved in areas where Lincoln could, in fact, free them. "The president caved," a Senate Republican leadership aide told HuffPost.

OBAMA 2011: From Obama's lecture: "One of the challenges of this generation is, I think, to understand that the nature of our democracy and the nature of our politics is to marry principle to a political process. That means you don't get a 100% of what you want. You don't get it if you are the majority; you don't get it if you are in the minority."

OBAMA 2008: Remember this? "We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can." Or, maybe not!

They're referring to this.  I've written about this enough times that I don't want to beat a dead horse (too much).  But the President needs to realize that it's not just politically-illiterate country bumpkins (or Ivory Tower intellectuals) who are concerned about his negotiating skills. It's people with decades of experience getting things done in this town, people who actually know how the game is played first hand.  We aren't critical because we don't understand.  We're critical because we understand better than anybody how successful you can be in Washington if you're willing to get in someone's face. Read the rest of this post...

Murdochs have lost $1bn from stock free-fall due to scandal. British PM’s former communications director arrested.

Schadenfreude, via the Financial Times.

The value of the Murdoch family’s shareholding in News Corp has fallen by $1bn since the political firestorm erupted over the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World.

I hadn't realized that the British Prime Minister's former director of communications, Andy Coulson, had resigned over this affair, and was just arrested as a result of it.

Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.

He subsequently joined David Cameron's personnel as communications director, until announcing his departure on 21 January 2011 because of continued media coverage of the phone-hacking affair. He was replaced on 2 February 2011 by former BBC Global News Controller of English Craig Oliver. Coulson was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service on 8 July 2011 "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking".

Imagine the field day that Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch himself, would have had had Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's communications director, been arrested for his involvement in a scandal of this magnitude. Read the rest of this post...

Mitt Romney flip-flops on effects of carbon pollution

He's becoming a bit of a joke at this point. Read the rest of this post...

No debt deal yet in DC and that’s causing "anxiety" in financial markets

There's still no consensus in Washington on raising the debt ceiling to prevent the United States from defaulting. The Senate compromise is plodding along and the House is on a kamikaze mission. But, there is a consensus in the financial markets that not reaching a deal will have a serious impact. And, that's going to really suck for anyone with a 401-k.

WSJ:

Meanwhile, in the U.S., there were few signs of a breakthrough in Washington's debt negotiations, which weighed on sentiment. Even though most investors consider the chance of a government default to be small, the mere thought spurs anxiety.

"A U.S. default [is] an unthinkable event," said Anthony Conroy, head trader for equities at BNY ConvergEx. "It would make Lehman look like a very small event."

Lehman had a devastating impact on the markets. It wasn't small. On September 14, 2008, we found out Lehman was liquidating. The Dow dropped over 500 points on September 15, 2008 (that was also the day John McCain, who had taken the lead in a number of polls in early September, told us, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong.")

Perhaps, the knowledge that one's 401k will tank (again) might make this drama in DC seem real to people. Cause that's what's on the financial horizon for the rest of us if the debt ceiling isn't raised. Read the rest of this post...

The ultra consumers of Dubai vs. the guest workers fighting to just get by

NOTE FROM JOHN: My good friend Bicyclemark is on his way back to Afghanistan, and I've asked him to blog his experience, as best he can.  Here's his second installment, from Dubai, in transit to Kabul.
____________

"21 years ago, when I came to this country, there was nothing like this," the mild mannered Pakistani taxi driver explains. "All this construction, all these shopping malls. It was a different world."

Living in Dubai for over two decades must feel like living through some psychedelic metamorphosis. And never being allowed to have citizenship keeps you an outsider, a great advantage when trying to critically observe the world and society you live in.

I ask him about his family, has he brought them over?  "Oh no, it's impossible," he says.  "Even paying the rent for just myself in a small apartment in this city, almost unaffordable. A whole family, I cannot manage it on a taxi drivers salary." He goes on to explain the silver lining -- back in Peshawar, Pakistan, he is able to afford a good home for his family. He even has enough to own a second building which he rents out. Not bad for a guy who drives a cab in a city where his salary isn't worth much.

The names, accents, and personal details differ as I hop in different cars in Dubai, but the underlying story remains the same: This is not a place where you come to build a new life.  The best one can hope for is to get a decent job in the massive service or tourism industry, take the little earnings you make and send them home. The goal down the road is to make enough so that you can go home, or somehow set up something so you can earn enough to live back home with your loved ones.  Three years, 6 years, 21 years... every time I step into a cab I ask, "How long have you been here, sir?" and just like that the story begins again.

My last evening in town I'm searching for a piece of equipment that leads me to one of the many mega-malls of Dubai. As I say goodbye to yet another cab driver with stories of his wife and children back in India, I gaze upon a building that is more than a building. Spanning an untold number of city blocks, it seems this structure has no end to it. Inside, you would think you were in any mall anywhere in the world... except that here in Dubai there is this incredible noise. People, walking, talking, crowding onto escalators and into big brand name shops. Some women completely covered from head to toe, only with their eyes visible. Others wearing shorts and a tight t-shirt, like they're off to the beach. The languages are hard to decipher from one another, as are all the nationalities. Many push a baby stroller or one of those double seat baby strollers. The men are also as diverse in their wardrobe, leading their families with big shopping bags in either hands.  This is also Dubai.

Looking around and watching all this nonstop activity which goes on until late in the night, a question comes to mind. Will this still be here in 20 years? Is this lifestyle at all sustainable? Are these people now better off because such places exist? Many would point to it as a sign of progress... the good life. Maybe this is the Dubai dream.

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Krugman: Why aren’t we holding bankers accountable?

Paul Krugman:

The failure to seek real mortgage relief early in the Obama administration is one reason we still have 9 percent unemployment. And right now, the arguments that officials are reportedly making for a quick, bank-friendly settlement of the mortgage-abuse scandal don’t make sense.

The big drag on the economy now is the overhang of household debt, largely created by the $5.6 trillion in mortgage debt that households took on during the bubble years. Serious mortgage relief could make a dent in that problem; a $30 billion settlement from the banks, even if it proved more effective than the government’s modification program, would not.

So when officials tell you that we must rush to settle with the banks for the sake of the economy, don’t believe them. We should do this right, and hold bankers accountable for their actions.

Read the rest of this post...

Murdoch whistleblower found dead—not being treated as suspicious by police

The Guardian reports (h/t Marcy Wheeler and Keith Olbermann):

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.

Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.

Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: ... "The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."

We're obviously not in a novel — in most novels, justice is done. On the one hand, there are those "drink and drug problems." And on the other, well, you guess.

And on the third hand, if this really is foul play, it's the most inept timing of a murder in modern media history; guys, there is no "Monday morning news dump."

The whole story makes great reading. There's a nice run-down of Hoare's history with the Murdoch gang, and also as a whistle-blower. The writers also describe "pinging" — the "police technology" used to locate people using their mobile signals by triangulating with cell phone towers, in "exchange for payments to police officers."

Hoare gave further details about the use of "pinging" to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say 'right that's where they are.'"

He said: "You'd just go to the news desk and they'd just come back to you. You don't ask any questions. You'd consider it a job done. The chain of command is one of absolute discipline and that's why I never bought into it, like with Andy [Coulson] saying he wasn't aware of it and all that. That's bollocks."

Your national security state at work, folks. That's not snark. Once the apparatus is built, it's for sale. Good thing only a small number of people have most of the money; otherwise, the corruption of police surveillance would be too widespread.

We'll be watching this. It has potential, but so far, that's all.

UPDATE: More on "pinging" and police corruption from the New York Times (buried at the end of a related story):

A former show-business reporter for The News of the World, Sean Hoare, who was fired in 2005, said that when he worked there, pinging cost the paper nearly $500 on each occasion. He first found out how the practice worked, he said, when he was scrambling to find someone and was told that one of the news desk editors, Greg Miskiw, could help. Mr. Miskiw asked for the person’s cellphone number, and returned later with information showing the person’s precise location in Scotland, Mr. Hoare said. Mr. Miskiw, who faces questioning by police on a separate matter, did not return calls for comment.

A former Scotland Yard officer said the individual who provided the information could have been one of a small group entitled to authorize pinging requests, or a lower-level officer who duped his superiors into thinking that the request was related to a criminal case. Mr. Hoare said the fact that it was a police officer was clear from his exchange with Mr. Miskiw.

“I thought it was remarkable and asked him how he did it, and he said, ‘It’s the Old Bill, isn’t it?’ ” he recalled, noting that the term is common slang in Britain for the police. “At that point, you don’t ask questions,” he said.

I'm not sure what UK police have to live on these days, but $500 seems cheap to me. The Times goes on to say that Hoare's account of the practice was corroborated.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Scotland Yard covered up evidence of potentially 4,000 people hacked by Murdoch papers

The coziness between the Metropolitan police and News Corp raises a number of questions. The revolving door problem (as we have in the US) is also alive and well in the UK. Somehow the London police never manage to make it very long without a new scandal which suggests deep problems at the highest levels. Corruption is not just a Third World problem. NY Times:

For nearly four years they lay piled in a Scotland Yard evidence room, six overstuffed plastic bags gathering dust and little else.

Inside was a treasure-trove of evidence: 11,000 pages of handwritten notes listing nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims whose phones may have been hacked by The News of the World, a now defunct British tabloid newspaper.

Yet from August 2006, when the items were seized, until the autumn of 2010, no one at the Metropolitan Police Service, commonly referred to as Scotland Yard, bothered to sort through all the material and catalog every page, said former and current senior police officials.

How interesting that Murdoch's Wall Street Journal published an editorial today that is nothing less than sickening, and a wee bit hysterical (in both the funny way, and the "take a valium" way). It seems Murdoch's growing scandal at multiple papers (the WSJ tries to pretend it's only one) is hitting a bit too close to home for the shining jewel of Rupert Murdoch's faux news propaganda empire.

For the Wall Street Journal to pretend that this scandal is about freedom of the press only goes to show that our greatest fears, about Murdoch's yellow influence corrupting what was once a fine, albeit conservative, paper, were well-founded. Read the rest of this post...

Only 21% back GOP opposition to tax increases

The new poll is bad, all around, for the GOP. It's much better for the President, and also better for Democrats in congress (Congress typically fares worse in polls than presidents).  71% disapprove of how the GOP is handling the negotiations over the debt ceiling, but it's not clear how many of those are Republicans disapproving that the GOP isn't being firm enough with Obama.  Hopefully CBS, which conducted the poll, will have asked further questions in order to discern just where the discontent is coming from (the full poll won't be released until tonight). Read the rest of this post...

Murdoch family divided as UK opposition leader calls News Corp dismantling

These are tough times for News Corp and it's not going to get better any time soon. Some are suggesting that Rupert Murdoch's son James may be in serious legal trouble in the UK. In addition to that problem, his sister Elisabeth is said to be upset with James.

...But Elisabeth is known to have been dismayed by what is happening to her father's empire and it is understood there are tensions within the family.

Wolff, who stood by his claims on Saturday, said: "What we are seeing is an enormous amount of frustration. James absolutely cannot survive. Whether or not he is legally culpable, he certainly mishandled this entire situation and has done for a long period of time."

Wolff suggested the world was witnessing the end of the Murdochs' dynastic ambitions. "The Murdochs will be moved out of this company. James will go into some form of exile and Rupert will be put out to pasture and an outsider not named Murdoch will be put in charge."

On top of that, the leader of the British Labour Party Ed Miliband is now pushing for the company to be dismantled. Ouch.

Miliband says that the abandonment by News International of its bid for BSkyB, the resignation of its chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, and the closure of the News of the World are insufficient to restore trust and reassure the public.

The Labour leader argues that current media ownership rules are outdated, describing them as "analogue rules for a digital age" that do not take into account the advent of mass digital and satellite broadcasting.

"I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20% of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News," Miliband said. "I think it's unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation. If you want to minimise the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous."

Read the rest of this post...

Senate leaders pushing debt ceiling proposal. House GOPers hate it.

There's no White House debt ceiling meeting planned for today. There are no press conferences on the schedule (yet.) But, apparently, Senators on both sides of the aisle are concocting legislation to prevent a default:

The growing sentiment for raising the federal limit on U.S. borrowing sets the stage for a week of largely scripted actions on Capitol Hill, where leaders in both chambers are looking to build support for the plan being crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Republican leaders will first push forward in the House and the Senate with a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget. The measure is virtually certain to fail in the Senate, which will then take up the debt limit proposal by midweek.

If that clears the Senate, the House is expected to revise the measure, adding a proposal to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years — savings that will come through cuts to domestic programs but not new tax revenue. The plan would also create a new congressional panel that would, by the end of the year, seek to come up with a way of reducing the deficit potentially by trillions more through cuts in entitlements and other new tax revenue.

This is one the best parts. House Democrats are probably going to provide the margin of victory in the House:

While the debt-limit plan has broad support in the Senate, the prospects in the House are less clear and rely largely on whether House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) will bring the proposal up for a vote and how many House Democrats would support it since few Republicans are expected to get behind it.

I love the hypocrisy of GOPers who say they don't want to be blamed for ruining the nation's economy. How noble. In fact, the Republicans already ruined the economy and got us into this mess. They built up the massive debt while GOPers controlled the White House, the House and the Senate. Their economic policies led to the economic collapse in 2007-8, from which we still haven't recovered (although Wall Street is doing just fine.) Read the rest of this post...

WSJ Editorial: It’s everyone else’s fault that News Corp illegally hacked phones

There is certainly some pleasure in watching these weasels squirm. This editorial, while a fine exhibit of boot licking for the boss, shows how out of touch Murdoch's camp really is. They could get away with this before it was discovered that they were hacking into the phones of young murdered girls but those days are long gone. The Guardian:

In an angry unsigned editorial, the paper accuses the Guardian and the BBC of driving the phone hacking story for "commercial and ideological motives". It implies that the Guardian did not have the right to make "lectures about journalistic standards" because of this newspaper's involvement in publishing the WikiLeaks embassy cables.

At the end of a weekend in which Murdoch and top News Corporation executives have made a round of apologies for the illegal behaviour of News of the World, the Wall Street Journal's editorial takes a strikingly opposing posture. It adopts a peevish tone, noting "the irony of so much moral outrage devoted to a single media company, when British tabloids have been known for decades for buying scoops and digging up dirt on the famous."

The investigative website ProPublica's disclosure in the Guardian that some members of the Bancroft family now harboured regrets about selling the Journal to Murdoch is also attacked. The editorial writer ridicules ProPublica's reporting of the former owners' opinions an act of "righteous hindsight".

Read the rest of this post...

London police chief takes swipe at Cameron on way out

The resignation of the Metropolitan police commissioner did include an interesting shot across the bow of number 10. The close ties between David Cameron and the News Corp team should be a concern.

In a carefully-worded resignation speech that appeared aimed directly at Downing Street, Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said the prime minister risked being "compromised" by his closeness to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

Number 10 stressed that David Cameron had not been pressing in private for Stephenson to stand aside. But he was caught by surprise by the attack, which came just while the prime minister was on a plane en route to South Africa.

Stephenson denied that he was resigning over allegations that he accepted £12,000 worth of hospitality from Champney's health spa, focusing instead on his decision not to inform the prime minister that the Met had employed Coulson's former deputy Neil Wallis as a strategic adviser.

"Once Mr Wallis's name did become associated with Operation Weeting [into phone hacking], I did not want to compromise the prime minister in any way by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr Coulson," he said.

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