USS AIRCRAFT CARRIER GETS REFUELED AT SEA

                                                             FROM:  U.S. NAVY
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and the Indian navy replenishment oiler INS Shakti (A57) conduct a refueling at sea exercise. Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are deployed participating in the Malabar Exercise with ships and aircraft from the Indian Navy. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Apprentice Andrew K. Haller

U.S. ANNOUNCES TEN YEAR VISA VALIDITY FOR COLOMBIANS

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Announcement of Ten-Year Visa Validity for Colombians Visiting the United States
Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
April 15, 2012
The State Department is pleased to announce an increase in the validity of visas for Colombians traveling on a temporary basis to the United States from five years to ten years. This means that most Colombian applicants who qualify for a B-category non-immigrant visa may be issued a 120-month, multiple-entry visa.

This extension of visa validity is supporting of the expanding partnership between the United States and Colombia on a broad array of issues, which has resulted in increased exchanges for tourism and business. The extension is also consistent with the passage of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, which can increase investment between our two countries. A growing Colombian economy will lead to a growth in travel for education and training, tourism, and economic activities.
Approximately 577,000 Colombians visit the United States annually, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Changes in visa reciprocity have no effect on visa eligibility or security screening procedures. Visa applicants will be subject to the same standards of eligibility for a U.S. visa as before the change in validity.

Benefits of the Visa Validity Extension:
Colombians qualified for a temporary visa to the United States will only need to apply to renew their visa once every ten years.
U.S. and Colombian businesses and service providers, including the tourist industry, will benefit from increased travel between the two countries.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL RASMUSSEN BELIEVES IN SUPPORTING AFGHANISTAN BEYOND 2014 PULL-OUT

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

NATO Conference Focuses on Post-2014 Afghanistan

By Karen Parrish

BRUSSELS, April 18, 2012 - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen today emphasized support to Afghanistan beyond 2014 in remarks opening a conference of the alliance's defense and foreign ministers here.

Rasmussen noted the NATO summit in Chicago is a month away. "We have important work to do today and tomorrow to help set the stage," he said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has been engaged in Afghanistan since 2001, and Rasmussen said the alliance will continue to support that nation beyond 2014.

Meetings of NATO defense and foreign ministers today and tomorrow will shape the decisions on Afghanistan that the alliance's heads of state and government will make in Chicago, Rasmussen said, including completing the transition to Afghan security lead by the end of 2014 and what form NATO's contributions in Afghanistan will take after that transfer.

Rasmussen noted Afghan security forces defeated coordinated enemy attacks April 15 in and around Afghanistan's capital of Kabul.

"This shows that the Afghan security forces can deal with dangers and difficulties, and they are getting stronger every day," the secretary general said.

He said his clear message to Afghanistan's enemies is that they can't just wait NATO out. "As we gradually draw down," he added, "a still stronger Afghan security force is taking charge to protect the Afghan people against brutality and inhumanity."

NATO will maintain a training mission and financial support to Afghan security forces beyond 2014, Rasmussen said. "We must make sure we maintain the gains made with so much investment in lives and resources," he added.

Even in tough financial times, the secretary general said, supporting the Afghan forces is "a good deal in financial and political terms."

NATO remains committed to its strategy and its long-term partnership with Afghanistan, Rasmussen said.

"This is our message to the people of Afghanistan, to the enemies of Afghanistan, and to the neighbors of Afghanistan," he said, "because it is in the interest of our own security."

Before a morning meeting of defense ministers this morning, Rasmussen said their discussion would center on alliance "smart defense" efforts to acquire capabilities jointly that the alliance will need to counter future threats. Smart defense, he said, "means setting the right priorities. We must specialize in what we do best and focus resources on what we need most. And we must work together to deliver capabilities that many nations cannot afford on [their] own."

At the Chicago summit next month, Rasmussen said, NATO will demonstrate its commitment "to continue to invest political, military and economic capital in a transatlantic alliance that is fully fit to deal with the security challenges of today and tomorrow."

In a news conference following the morning session, he announced ministers have prepared an interim missile defense plan for Europe, with details to be announced in Chicago.

NATO defense ministers also discussed a "connected forces" initiative to be finalized at the Chicago summit, he added. This agreement will strengthen member nations' coordinated education, training and technology efforts, the secretary general said.

Financial support to Afghan forces after 2014 is expected to cost $4 billion per year, Rasmussen added, though details of NATO nations' contributions to that total have not been finalized.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are both here for the NATO meetings, and are scheduled to hold a joint news conference later today.

U.S.DENIES SUNDAY'S TALIBAN ATTACKS WERE LIKE 1968 TET OFFENSIVE

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Official Dismisses Comparison of Kabul Attacks, Tet Offensive

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2012 - A few terrorist attacks does not make yesterday's combat in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul the "Taliban Tet Offensive," the Pentagon's top public affairs official said here today.

The Tet Offensive in 1968 involved tens of thousands of North Vietnamese regulars and thousands of Viet Cong irregulars. They attacked the length and breadth of South Vietnam from Hue in the north to the Mekong Delta to the American Embassy in Saigon.

Yesterday's attacks, by contrast, involved tens of terrorists armed with suicide vests and car bombs and some rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, George Little, acting assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters.

"Initial indications are that the Haqqani network was involved in the attacks in Kabul," Little said. "This was a well-coordinated set of attacks. I'm unaware of any U.S. casualties."

The Afghan national security forces responded to the attacks and handled matters by themselves, Little said. "They had the lead role in many instances and successfully repelled the enemy," he said.

The attacks mark the beginning of the "fighting season" in Afghanistan, when enemy fighters typically have become active after the harsh Afghanistan winter.

"We thought something like this could very well happen, and it did," Little said. "These were attacks that we believe show the Haqqanis and other insurgents are concerned about the progress being made in Afghanistan. And the fact that certain institutions of governance in Afghanistan were targeted ... suggests they feel the need to attack those institutions and what those institutions stand for: a brighter Afghanistan."

Little flatly rejected any analogy between yesterday's events in Afghanistan and the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. "This was a coordinated set of attacks," he said. "We are looking at suicide bombers, RPG, mortar fire etc. This was not a large-scale offensive sweeping into Kabul or other parts of the country."

The actions were multiple terrorist attacks, he noted. "I'm not minimizing the serious

ness of this, but this was in no way akin to the Tet Offensive or other enemy offensives that I'm aware of," he said.

While Little didn't speak directly to intelligence on the attacks, he did say chatter had indicated something like this might occur. "I don't believe this was an intelligence failure," he said. "We had some sense that something like this might happen. We know from past history that this is something they might do. This is the start of the spring fighting season, and the response was very effective.

"If we're going to be held to the standard that we have to know precisely when and where each insurgent attack is going to occur," he continued, "then that's an unfair standard."
 

NAVY GETS READY FOR HURRICANE SEASON

FROM:  U.S. NAVY
A landing craft air cushion from Assault Craft Unit (ACU) 4 enters the well deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) as part of HURREX 08-002. HURREX is a Commander, U.S. Second Fleet directed exercise designed to test the ship's ability to respond to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief needs during the 2008 hurricane season. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Matthew Bookwalter/Released)

From U.S. Fleet Forces Public Affairs
NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (USFF) and Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) are conducting a hurricane preparedness exercise, HURREX/Citadel Gale 12, April 16 through 27.

The purpose of this annual exercise is to prepare the Navy to respond to weather threats to U.S. coastal regions, and to maintain its ability to deploy naval forces even under the most adverse weather conditions.

HURREX/Citadel Gale 12 will involve two simulated storm systems developing and intensifying to hurricane strength, threatening the Caribbean Islands, East Coast and Gulf Coast regions.

All Navy commands with personnel in these regions will participate, to include reviewing and exercising heavy weather instructions and procedures and accounting for Sailors and Navy families in the affected regions through the Navy Family Accountability and Assessment System (NFAAS).

There is no U.S. Navy ship movement associated with HURREX/Citadel Gale 12.

Galaxy rising: With C-5M a 'super' culture, capability change are taking place

Galaxy rising: With C-5M a 'super' culture, capability change are taking place

ONLINE BROKER CHARGED BY SEC WITH NOT COMPLYING WITH STOCK DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS

FROM:  SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C., April 16, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged an online brokerage and clearing agency specializing in options and futures as well as four officials at the firm and a customer involved in an abusive naked short selling scheme.

The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Chicago-based optionsXpress failed to satisfy its close-out obligations under Regulation SHO by repeatedly engaging in a series of sham “reset” transactions designed to give the illusion that the firm had purchased securities of like kind and quantity. The firm and customer Jonathan I. Feldman engaged in these sham reset transactions in a number of securities, resulting in continuous failures to deliver. Regulation SHO requires the delivery of equity securities to a registered clearing agency when delivery is due, generally three days after the trade date (T+3). If no delivery is made by that time, the firm must purchase or borrow the securities to close out the failure-to-deliver position by no later than the beginning of regular trading hours on the next day (T+4).

The former chief financial officer at optionsXpress – Thomas E. Stern of Chicago – was named in the SEC’s administrative proceeding along with optionsXpress and Feldman. Three other optionsXpress officials – head of trading and customer service Peter J. Bottini and compliance officers Phillip J. Hoeh and Kevin E. Strine – were named in a separate administrative proceeding and settled the charges against them for their roles in the scheme.

“OptionsXpress used sham reset transactions to avoid, sometimes for months, its obligation to comply with Reg. SHO’s stock delivery requirements,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the Division of Enforcement. “Illegally extending its naked short positions put optionsXpress in plain violation of the law and undermined Reg. SHO’s intent to reduce fails to deliver.”

Daniel M. Hawke, Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Market Abuse Unit, added, “Reg. SHO compliance continues to be a high enforcement priority. Broker-dealers, their employees, and their customers must ensure that they comply with the close-out requirements of the short sale rules and regulations.”

According to the SEC’s order, the misconduct occurred from at least October 2008 to March 2010. In September 2011, optionsXpress became a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corporation.

The SEC’s Enforcement Division alleges that the sham reset transactions impacted the market for the issuers. For example, from Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 31, 2010, optionsXpress customers including Feldman accounted for an average of 47.9 percent of the daily trading volume in one of the securities. In 2009 alone, the optionsXpress customer accounts engaging in the activity purchased approximately $5.7 billion worth of securities and sold short approximately $4 billion of options. In 2009, Feldman himself purchased at least $2.9 billion of securities and sold short at least $1.7 billion of options through his account at optionsXpress.

According to the SEC’s order, by engaging in the alleged misconduct, optionsXpress violated Rules 204 and 204T of Regulation SHO; Feldman willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 10b-21 thereunder; optionsXpress and Stern caused and willfully aided and abetted Feldman’s violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rules 10b-5 and 10b-21 thereunder; and Stern caused and willfully aided and abetted optionsXpress’s violations of Rules 204 and 204T.

In the separate settled administrative proceeding, Bottini, Hoeh, and Strine consented to a cease-and-desist order finding that they caused optionsXpress’s violations of Rules 204 and 204T of Regulation SHO and ordering them to cease-and-desist from committing or causing violations of Rule 204. They neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Deborah Tarasevich, Jill Henderson, and Paul Kim. Market Surveillance Specialist Brian Shute, Market Abuse Unit Trading Specialist Ainsley Fuhr, and Financial Economist Michael P. Barnes provided assistance with the investigation. The litigation will be led by Frederick Block.

WIN MILLIONS DESIGNING A DISASTER ROBOT

                                                                                        Mars Rover Self-Portrait  Photo:  NASA    
FROM:  DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ARMED WITH SCIENCE
Written on APRIL 16, 2012 AT 7:40 AM by JTOZER
Wanted: Robot. Willing To Pay $2M
Written by Jessica L. Tozer
Hey you, robot enthusiast!
Do you want two million dollars?  Can you build amazing robots?  If so, have we got the most awesome contest FOR YOU!  No, seriously.  This isn’t the premise for a 1980's SciFi action flick.  This is for real, folks.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is offering millions to the person who creates a robot designed to handle disasters of epic proportion.  The kind humans can’t handle, no matter how noble or determined we are.  No, not the asteriod-hurling-to-Earth type (although truthfully that would currently fall into the things-we-can’t-handle-no-seriously-Bruce-Willis-isn’t-going-to-save-us category).

All epic movie montages aside, DARPA really is looking for robots that can handle things that are too dangerous for humans, like the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant last year.

This is more than just the work of a machine.  This robot has to go above and beyond the call of autonomous duty in order to handle the kind of crisis we’re talking about.  As awesome as that sounds, it’s not quite as unprecedented as you might think.

The truth is, the use of robots in serious situations is nothing new.
Robots are used by U.S. military forces as assistants for service members in diffusing improvised explosive devices.  That’s not to say that the current robot cavalcade can’t be improved upon, and I guess that concept is what brings us to this blog post today.

True innovation in robotics technology could result in much more effective robots that could better intervene in high-risk situations.  This could save human lives, and help contain the impact of natural and man-made disasters.  So, are we headed to a new age of human-robot coexistence?  The handy helper AIs who come at the touch of a button?  Possibly even reach new technological heights with our  new autonomous friends?
I immediately think “helpful robots in space” (Robby the Robot style), but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.

s iconic symbols of the future, robots rank high with flying cars and starships, but basic robots are already in use in emergency response, industry, defense, healthcare and education. DARPA plans to offer a $2 million prize to whomever can help push the state-of-the-art in robotics beyond today’s capabilities in support of the DoD’s disaster recovery mission.

DARPA’s Robotics Challenge will launch in October 2012.  Teams are sought to compete in challenges involving staged disaster-response scenarios in which robots will have to successfully navigate a series of physical tasks corresponding to anticipated, real-world disaster-response requirements.

The DARPA Robotics Challenge consists of both robotics hardware and software development tasks. It is DARPA’s position that achieving true innovation in robotics – and thus success in this challenge – will require contributions from communities beyond traditional robotics developers.
The DARPA Robotics Challenge supports the National Robotics Initiative launched by President Barack Obama in June 2011.

To answer questions regarding the Robotics Challenge and provide an opportunity for interested parties to connect, DARPA will hold a virtual Proposers’ Day workshop today, April 16, 2012.

This online workshop will introduce interested communities to the effort, explain the mechanics of this DARPA challenge, and encourage collaborative arrangements among potential performers from a wide range of backgrounds.  More information on the BAA and Proposers’ Day is available here.

So whether you’re just looking for a reason to build the world’s next greatest robot (and really, who isn’t?), or you just want to make the world a safer place for us humans, I’d check out this challenge.  I look forward to seeing the innovation and creativity that can come from this.\

I’d also like to be the first blogger to officially request an interview with the two million dollar robot.  The robot, not the winner (although I *suppose* the winner can come, too).  I want to get on his/her good side.  You never know when your AI connections are going to come in handy, and if he/she is going to be saving humanity someday, I’d like to be on a first name basis.

Robby The Robot was featured at 2006 San Diego Comic Con in honor of the 50th anniversary of Forbidden Planet and the remastering of the film on DVD. Photograph by Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions, San Diego, California. 

U.S. DC CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS BLOCKS REQUIRED POSTING OF EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

FROM:  NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
In light of conflicting decisions at the district court level, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily enjoined the NLRB’s rule requiring the posting of employee rights, which had been scheduled to take effect on April 30, 2012.

In view of the DC Circuit's order, and in light of the strong interest in the uniform implementation and administration of agency rules, regional offices will not implement the rule pending the resolution of the issues before the court.

In March, the D.C. District Court found that the agency had the authority to issue the rule. The NLRB supports that decision, but plans to appeal a separate part that raised questions about enforcement mechanisms. The agency disagrees with and will appeal last week’s decision by the South Carolina District Court, which found the NLRB lacked authority to promulgate the rule.

Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce said of the recent decisions, “We continue to believe that requiring employers to post this notice is well within the Board’s authority, and that it provides a genuine service to employees who may not otherwise know their rights under our law.”

AIRSTRIKE KILLS INSURGENTS IN AFGHAN OPERATIONS

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Airstrike Kills Insurgents in Afghanistan

American Forces Press Service

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 17, 2012 - A combined Afghan and coalition security force called in an airstrike that killed several insurgents in the Nerkh district of Afghanistan's Wardak province today, military officials reported.

Insurgents were observed setting up a heavy machine gun near a village while preparing to attack Afghan security forces, officials said.

In other Afghanistan operations today:

-- While searching for a Taliban leader, a combined force called in an airstrike that killed several insurgents in the Khakrez district of Kandahar province. The security force also detained a suspect and seized assault rifles and grenades.

-- A combined force captured a Taliban leader, detained two other insurgents and seized a pistol in the Zurmat district of Paktia province. The leader directed roadside bombings and other attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He also is suspected in supplying bombs for a suicide attack against an Afghan military commander.

In an April 16 operation, combined forces found and destroyed 12 anti-personnel mines, 90 mine detonators, 73 rocket-propelled grenades, 65 RPG fuses, 51 RPG fuel cells and about 9,500 7.62 mm rounds in the Tarin Kot district of Uruzgan province.

THE AIR FORCE MAD SCIENTIST

The Air Force Mad Scientist

Internet auf Mond, Mars und ISS

Internet auf Mond, Mars und ISS