Check Out The Drudge Report's Take On Google's Newest Robot | ||
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The Drudge Report is stirring the pot on Google today. It's lead with a fantastic GIF for the story on Google's newest robot. The page also has a lot about Google's plans to take over a NASA airspace.
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Google Now Has Its Own Airfield — Complete With A Golf Course (GOOG) | ||
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Google has signed a deal with NASA that will see it take control of Moffett Federal Airfield in California. As TechCrunch reports, the tech giant has already been using the airfield as a base for the company's fleet of private jets. Now, Google will take over operations of the sprawling airfield, but it will continue to be owned by NASA. The lease will last for 60 years. It's not actually Google that will run the airfield, however, but its subsidiary company, Planetary Ventures LLC. Moffett Airfield is currently used by NASA, the National Guard, as well as the 7th Psychological Operations Group (that's the army division that flies helicopters with loudspeakers and leaflets). The base features three large hangars that can be used to store Zeppelin airships.
The NASA press release says that Google won't just park its company jets on the airfield. Instead, the company will use it for "research, development, assembly and testing in the areas of space exploration, aviation, rover/robotics and other emerging technologies." Google had already secured a lease for a different section of the airfield, where it plans to build a new Google campus to house the tech company's employees. Now it will control the three giant hangars, an airfield flight operations building, two runways, and even the airfield's golf course. Here's the golf course at Google's new airfield:
The airfield is famed for its historic "Hangar One." Google has agreed to reskin it as part of its lease of the property. Here's what it looks like currently, as seen from the golf course:
Google's new airfield has played host to some famous names in the past. President Obama landed there back in May:
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10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell (DIA, SPY, SPX, QQQ) | ||
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US-China Trade Breakthrough. "China and the United States have reached a breakthrough in talks on eliminating duties on information technology products, a deal that could pave the way for the first major tariff-cutting agreement at the World Trade Organisation in 17 years," Reuters' Michael Martina reported. "The breakthrough would allow the 'swift conclusion' on talks to expand the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) at the WTO in Geneva later this year, United States Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters on Tuesday. It would reduce global tariffs on such products as medical equipment, GPS devices, video games consoles, and next-generation semiconductors." Alibaba Posts Record Sales On Singles Day. On the world's largest online shopping day of the year, China's Alibaba shattered last year's full-day sales of $5.75 billion, pulling in $5.8 billion by the afternoon. Markets Are Passing Milestones. The US stock markets closed at a record high on Tuesday, and futures are pointing higer again. Dow futures are up 17 points, and S&P futures are up 2 points. US bond markets are closed for Veterans day. Oil Falls To A 4-Year Low. Crude prices continue to tumble amid elevated supply and deteriorating demand. Brent crude slumped to as low as $81.23 per barrel, the lowest level since October 2010. WTI crude got as low as $76.42. Will Japan's Abe Dissolve Parliament? "Japanese lawmakers began preparations for a potential snap election, the clearest sign yet that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering dissolving parliament before postponing a planned sales-tax increase," Bloomberg's Takashi Hirokawa reported. "Hiroyoshi Sasagawa, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, said in an interview today that preparations have begun, though only Abe can call a general election. Local LDP constituency offices are getting ready for a poll, according to three other people with knowledge of the matter." Japanese Yen Sinks To A 7-Year Low. "The yen depreciated 0.8 percent to 115.83 per dollar at 9:39 a.m. London time and touched 116.01, the weakest level since October 2007," Bloomberg's Lucy Meakin reported. "Japan’s currency slid 0.8 percent to 143.79 per euro. The 18-nation common currency was little changed at $1.2414." Juniper CEO Quits. "Juniper Networks Inc. Chief Executive Officer Shaygan Kheradpir stepped down after less than a year on the job, following a board review of his conduct related to a customer negotiation," Bloomberg's Dina Bass and Denni Hu reported. "The networking-gear maker said Kheradpir, 53, who became CEO in January, was resigning over the customer situation. Board members and Kheradpir have 'different perspectives regarding these matters,' the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a statement yesterday. Juniper didn’t identify the customer." Citi Warns Iron Ore Prices Are Going Down. "We expect iron ore prices to fall into the $50s — We have downgraded our price forecasts … briefly dipping into the $50s — with annual averages of $65 in 2015 and 2016," Citi Research analysts wrote. Like oil, supply is high and demand is deteriorating for the commodity, which is down by about 40% this year. Prices are at about $75 per ton Tuesday. Mondelez Is Expanding. Mondelez International, the maker of Nabisco biscuits and Cadbury chocolate, plans to pay $370 million for an 80% stake in Kinh Do, a Vietnamese snack business. "Our significant investment in Kinh Do and Vietnam is a perfect fit for our growth strategy in Asia Pacific, strengthening our core snacking categories in a high-growth dynamic market," Mondelez executive Tim Cofer said in a statement. Samsung Has Its Eyes On Vietnam. The electronics maker plans to invest $3 billion (£1.8 billion) to build a second smartphone plant in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi. "Vietnam is in a unique position," Lam Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City-based country director at International Data Corp., told Bloomberg. "You have a motivated workforce and in terms of labor costs, they are cheaper than China, cheaper than Thailand.” Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Good morning! Here's what you need to know: A D-Day Veteran Talks About His 4 Weeks In Combat For The First Time | ||
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At 89 years old, Scardino has agreed to share his story for the first time in an emotional interview with Business Insider. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, a 16-year-old Scardino was too young to enlist with the older boys in his neighborhood in Hoboken, New Jersey. “A couple of guys joined the Marines right away,” Scardino recalled. “We were happy for them. This was ’42, and in the latter part, at the end of the year, we got word that both got killed in Guadalcanal.” Their deaths made him more eager to join up, but his father refused to sign papers that would have allowed him to volunteer at 17 years old. A tailor by trade, he was desperate to keep his son home to help with his business. When Scardino was drafted at 18, his father convinced an optometrist to write a note to draft officials falsely claiming that Scardino, who wore glasses, was going blind. He gave Scardino the note in an envelope to deliver, but Scardino had other plans. “When I passed [the draft review] I came home to my sister and father. I said, ‘I’m 1A, I gotta go,’” Scardino recalled, referring to a classification term meaning that a draftee is available immediately for military service. “[My father said,] ‘What do you mean you’re 1A? Didn’t you show them the envelope? I said, ‘Yeah, but the officer said don’t worry about it, if he’s blind we’ll put him in the front.’ I made that up. I was gung ho. I wanted to go.” Assigned to the U.S. Army’s 90th Infantry Division, 359th Infantry Regiment, Scardino arrived in Britain on March 23, 1944, after a 22-day voyage across the Atlantic. For two months, his unit continued training with frequent marches and maneuvers — while wondering where and when they'd land in France to wrest the continent out of German hands.
D-DayOn June 1, 1944, the unit transferred to a ship that was oppressively hot and cramped. “We were in a goddamn sardine can,” he recalled. They were supposed to embark on their mission June 5, but bad weather prolonged the invasion until the following morning. By then, Scardino and his comrades were willing to do anything to get out of the close confines of the crowded ship they’d been stationed on for six days, even if it meant being thrown into battle. “We were really hopped up and glad to go,” he said. “There was no second thoughts.”
It was a five to seven-minute ride in the landing craft to Utah Beach, where the first waves of troops with the 4th Infantry Division had already landed. Scardino expected that some of the 42 soldiers in his landing craft would become casualties that morning. “No one talked, not a word, but you used your eyes,” Scardino explained of that short trip to the beach. “A couple times I stared at a guy and this is my thought as I’m looking: ‘Is it you or is it me?’” Scardino's first sergeant ordered the soldiers in his landing craft to run as fast as they could toward the top of a hill at the end of the beach. He urged them not to stop for any reason, not even to assist a fallen comrade. Their rifles were no match for the German machine gun emplacements firing down at the beach. “My first thought was, ‘Tommy, you’re not coming back, but you’re going to go down fighting,’” Scardino said. “I just didn’t want to show I was scared, but I was.” When the craft landed, Scardino ran through ankle-deep water onto the sand as fast as he could, dashing the 50-75 yards across the beach. He was scrawny and only 140 pounds, yet lugged an eight-pound rifle and 90 pounds of equipment on his back.
“I still have the smell in my nose," Scardino said. "Of death – the flesh, the blood.” One of the first soldiers to join Scardino was a paratrooper from the 101st Airborne Division, who jumped in the ditch from the inland direction after parachuting behind enemy lines hours earlier. Scardino's first sergeant also joined him there, in addition to his best friend since basic training, a street-smart 18-year-old from Chicago named Donald. They reorganized and then crossed a marshy area, where they saw more carnage. “The guys that went before us, there were Germans all over that goddamn creek, on the roads. They [the Americans] all were killed.”
HedgerowsAfter that, a “mixed bag” of infantry soldiers, paratroopers, and even armed farmers advanced across flooded fields and an endless succession of six-foot high hedgerows, lines of dense shrubs and trees dividing various farmers’ properties. Out of the 42 men in his outfit who had come ashore with him, 14 were killed or wounded by the afternoon of June 6th, according to Scardino. Because the hedgerows were sharp with thorns, the soldiers had to move single-file through small openings. "Now, if the Germans were on the other side, they would gun you down, but we used to send guys out to see if it was clear," Scardino recalled. "The scouts used to go out and say, 'That row is clear.' Okay, we moved up another hedgerow.” For roughly 15 days, the unit spent the majority of its time in hedgerows, guarding the perimeters in shifts at night while the others slept. Scardino stuck close to his friend Donald, who grew so frustrated from German shelling that he threw away his shovel rather than use it to dig foxholes. “He said, ‘I don’t need this. I’m not going to dig my grave,’” Scardino recalled.
“This is what was hurting: You didn’t stop for a minute," Scardino said. "You didn’t take a deep breath and say, 'OK.' You figured any minute you're going to get killed. That was our thought. Donny used to say, 'Keep going Scar, keep going.'” But Donald was killed 10 days after D-Day. “When I heard he got it I cried,” Scardino said. “Now I’m pissed off and then the only one that calmed me down was the first sergeant. He said, 'Yankee, you have to wipe it off. It was not your turn, it was his turn.' But I didn't believe that. I was mad.” Around June 22 the unit reached a village that was more stubbornly defended by the Germans than all the rest. "It was like a headquarters to them or something," Scardino said. The Americans became pinned down for so long that they were holding up the supply lines behind them and running low on ammunition. They finally cleared the town by fighting house-to-house. This part of his story Scardino will always keep to himself; he choked up immediately upon mentioning the battle and couldn't continue. “That hurts so bad when I think about it,” he said. “How do you kill a man you never knew?" Scardino declined to say anything more about this. “This is why I never told anybody or my kids," he added. "I keep seeing that guy, his whole face all the time. “I’ve never confessed that as long as I’ve lived, and I lived with it,” he finally said after a long pause, before agreeing to skip to later parts of his story.
St. LoScardino's unit had two men assigned to a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) light machine gun, one to operate it and another soldier to carry the ammunition. After the BAR gunner was killed in a firefight, the ammunition man, who had been separated from his own division since D-Day, didn’t pick up the BAR. Seeing the need for someone to give covering fire from a pile of stones where the BAR gunner had fallen, Scardino abandoned his rifle and took up the light machine gun himself. From then on, he served as the unit’s BAR gunner.
The Germans at St. Lo relied on a notoriously effective 88-millimeter artillery gun, a class of weapon called "eighty-eights" by the Americans who had gotten used to its distinct sounds since D-Day. "When that came, man you hit that ground fast,” Scardino said. “It was worse than D-Day,” he said of St. Lo. “I mean, on D-Day we were worrying about the big bunkers and all that stuff. Now you’re fighting tanks, you’re fighting artillery, the eighty-eights were coming in and they were deadly." Scardino remembers it as a rainy day, filled with the sound of the eighty-eights. “It's always raining in France,” Scardino recalled. He was running through the grass to get into position with his BAR when a German bullet struck his hand. A medic bandaged him up in a farmhouse alongside other wounded Americans. But after an enemy counterattack left the farmhouse behind enemy lines, a French civilian evacuated the walking wounded to another building, where Scardino and six other Americans crowded into a hiding space in a basement filled with cognac. From the hiding spot, Scardino could hear the distinctive sound of the German eighty-eights impacting nearby. The last thing he remembers is the house caving in from a direct hit and someone cutting away at his pants, which were then on fire.
Scardino doesn’t remember being conscious again until the following morning, when he woke up naked on a stretcher atop a jeep, with a blanket shielding him from the rain. Another wounded man lay on a stretcher next to him. The next thing he remembers is waking in a hospital with his right arm and right leg covered in a cast. Shrapnel from the German eighty-eight round had embedded in both limbs and shattered bone. “I said, ‘Okay, I know I’m going home,’” Scardino recalled of his first thoughts. “But the other part, the infuriating part, was the fact that I’m a cripple.”
HomeBut Scardino was wrong; he made a full recovery. Although his hopes of playing major league baseball were gone, doctors installed metal in his arm that allowed him to bend his elbow enough to become a professional bowler later in life.
When military officials learned that two of Fred's brothers had been killed in action and a third was a prisoner of war, they ordered him to return to England for a period of rest. After his arrival, they broke the news and told him he’d never go back to the front. Fred also had a sister named Flora, who he introduced to Scardino. The trio went to dances together, sparking a relationship that culminated in Scardino's marriage to Flora. After he was discharged from the army in January 1946, he went back to work as a tailor with his father. But he later regretted that he didn’t stay in the army. The Scardinos had six children and settled in Mineola, Long Island. He still doesn’t know the fate of the six Americans he hid with in St. Lo when the eighty-eight round struck. “Everything was so fast. It was 1, 2, 3,” he recalled of that moment 70 years ago. He never kept in touch with any of his comrades.
He stopped. I stopped. And I just walked over to him," Scardino said of that encounter. "I said, 'Is your name Murdott? He said, 'Yeah, are you the kid from New York? I said, 'Yeah.' I grabbed him. I thought he was dead. I thought they blew his head off at the beach. That morning when I was running up I turned my head, he was to my left. I saw the helmet fly off. Murdott explained that a bullet had indeed struck him at Utah Beach, but his helmet somehow saved his life. Nowadays, Scardino feels proud that he participated in D-Day. “I truthfully feel very honored to know that I was part of history,” he said. But when a local school principal recently introduced him as a war hero to a gathering of students, Scardino felt embarrassed. "This is their generation, that's it. This is their life. I don't know if they care or not." SEE ALSO: A young army officer copes with the brutal opening days of Iraq's insurgency Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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America's Oldest Veteran Drinks Whiskey And Smokes Cigars At Age 108 | ||
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Even at 108 years old, America's oldest living military veteran is enjoying the spotlight on his service and doesn't seem to be slowing down. Richard Overton, an Army veteran of World War II now living in Austin, Texas, still enjoys cigars and whiskey. From The Houston Chronicle in November 2013: "He drives and walks without a cane. During a television interview in March, he told a reporter that he doesn't take medicine, smokes cigars every day and takes whiskey in his morning coffee. The key to living to his age, he said, is simply "staying out of trouble." “I may drink a little in the evening too with some soda water, but that’s it,” Overton told Fox News. “Whiskey’s a good medicine. It keeps your muscles tender.” In addition to his somewhat unorthodox habits, Overton stays busy throughout the day — trimming trees, helping with horses, and never watches television, according to Fox. Born May 11, 1906, he's believed to be the oldest living veteran, although it's impossible to verify since not all veterans are registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He served in the South Pacific during the war before selling furniture in Austin after discharge and later working in the state Treasurer's Office, according to The Chronicle. "I've gotten so many letters and so many thank yous and I enjoy every bit of it, but I'm still going to enjoy some more," Overton, who is planning a visit with President Obama next week, told The Chronicle. Michael B. Kelley contributed to this report. NOW: How New York's Veterans Day Parade Became 'America's Parade' Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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America's Oldest Veteran Drinks Whiskey And Smokes Cigars Every Day | ||
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With Veterans Day coming up on Monday, America's oldest living military veteran is enjoying the spotlight on his service once more, but even at the age of 107 he doesn't seem to be slowing down. Richard Overton, an Army veteran of World War II now living in Austin, Texas, still enjoys cigars and whiskey every day. He drives and walks without a cane. During a television interview in March, he told a reporter that he doesn't take medicine, smokes cigars every day and takes whiskey in his morning coffee. The key to living to his age, he said, is simply "staying out of trouble." “I may drink a little in the evening too with some soda water, but that’s it,” Overton told Fox News. “Whiskey’s a good medicine. It keeps your muscles tender.” In addition to his somewhat unorthodox habits, Overton stays busy throughout the day — trimming trees, helping with horses, and never watches television, according to Fox. Born May 11, 1906, he's believed to be the oldest living veteran, although it's impossible to verify since not all veterans are registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He served in the South Pacific during the war before selling furniture in Austin after discharge and later working in the state Treasurer's Office, according to The Chronicle. "I've gotten so many letters and so many thank yous and I enjoy every bit of it, but I'm still going to enjoy some more," Overton, who is planning a visit with President Obama next week, told The Chronicle. NOW: How New York's Veterans Day Parade Became 'America's Parade' Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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A Tiny Island In The Irish Sea Might Be Home To The World's First 5G Network | ||
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The Isle of Man, a Celtic island and tourist hotspot nestled in the Irish Sea, might be the first place in the world to establish a 5G phone network. The island, which is home to around 81,000 people, plans to start testing the next generation mobile technology in 2016, International Business Times reports. The self-governing British Crown dependency is the ideal place to lead a 5G charge for many reasons. The island already has a good telecoms infrastructure in place and the network would be further supported by next year's opening of the International Centre for Technology, a university backed by the Manx Educational Foundation (MEF), HP, and Huawei. Huawei's CEO Ken Hu suggests 5G will be up to 100 times faster than 4G, the speediest network available at the moment. "With the 40-acre site, a body of innovative students looking at the potential of mobile, fairly open spectrum that the local regulator would actively encourage to be used for testing, and the involvement of Huawei, we do hope that we can create something of the Perfect Storm," MEF co-founder Kurt Roosen told the IBTimes.
The Isle of Man's Department of Economic Development is also fully backing the initiative and claims testing is on schedule. Remarkably, if the scheme goes ahead it means the Isle of Man would see 5G available years before the city of London. Mayor Boris Johnson has said in the past that the data network will arrive in England's capital by 2020. The island was already used as a 3G testing zone by Spanish wireless carrier O2, and was the second nation to go live with it. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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