Some updates:

Eight victims are dead in the series of terrorist attacks that struck southern Israel today, at least six of them civilians. Over a dozen more were injured.

Israel blamed an armed Palestinian group from neighboring Gaza. Israeli forces killed five of the gunmen along the border with Egypt, the military said, and later launched an airstrike inside Gaza that killed five other militants from the same group as well as a child.

The Israeli military said three of the dead men in Gaza had been involved in planning the attack.

Gunfire continued on both sides of the border late into the evening. After nightfall, Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-missile system intercepted a rocket fired by Gaza militants at the city of Ashkelon, the military said.

Details on the Israeli airstrike are here.

The blog Israel Matzav has information on the victims.

There are rampant rumors on Twitter that Israel has killed two Egyptian soldiers in an airstrike on the Egyptian side of the border, but the media hasn't reported it yet and there's no confirmation from Israeli or Egyptian forces. The Egyptian situation in Sinai is tense.

An Al Jazeera English producer who was very accurate during the Egyptian uprising tweets that two Egyptian conscripts are dead at the border, but that he can't get any confirmation that it was the Israelis that did the killing.

I'll update if there's more. Keep in mind this remains a developing situation, so initial reports may be revised substantially as information changes.

Update: Not Israel? Al Arabiya News tweets:

Gunmen shot dead two Egyptian border guards, leaving a third wounded, near the border with #Israel.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:25 PM | Comments (30)
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Since we're thinking about it lately (EPA farm dust rule, the regulatory stuff in day 3 of After America Blogging) here's a look at a booming sector of the economy.

If the federal government's regulatory operation were a business, it would be ...the third largest in terms of employees, with more people working for it than McDonald's, Ford, Disney and Boeing combined.

Regulatory agencies have seen their combined budgets grow a healthy 16% since 2008, ...

That's at a time when the overall economy grew a paltry 5%.

... employment at these agencies has climbed 13% since Obama took office ... while private-sector jobs shrank by 5.6%.

Meanwhile, in Bizarro World...

Not everyone in the Obama administration sees a problem. The EPA thinks new regulations can fuel the economy and hiring.

The EPA wrote in February that "in periods of high unemployment, an increase in labor demand due to regulation may have a stimulative effect that results in a net increase in overall employment."

It's not that excessive regulatory growth hasn't been a problem before Obama. It just that now, like so many other things, it's in turbo mode.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:53 PM | Comments (129)
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Vertical wind tunnel in Prague.

This looks like a lot of fun. WANT.

The dismount at the end is so casual and easy, it's almost surreal after all that zipping around.

more...

Posted by: LauraW at 12:26 PM | Comments (87)
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Hm.

They claim the chips' architecture is based on/inspired by the architecture of the human brain.

IBM has unveiled a new experimental computer chip that it says mimics the human brain in that it perceives, acts and even thinks.

It terms the machines built with these chips "cognitive computers", claiming that they are able to learn through experience, find patterns, generate ideas and understand the outcomes.

In building this new generation of chip, IBM combined principles of nanoscience, neuroscience and supercomputing.

It has been awarded $21m (£12.7m) of new funding by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the next phase of the project, which it terms "Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics" (SyNAPSE).

Someone gave himself a Self High Five when he came up with that acronym.

I know this is where everyone says, "Skynet became self-aware at 5:15 am on August 12, 1996" or whatever, but I think this may be more appropriate:

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:55 AM | Comments (222)
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Oh, he went there.

Where are the transcripts?

Hot Air highlights his line, "It's a good think I can't pack a gun on the Senate floor," but I don't think that's the one that will get all the press.

arlier, in Langley, Coburn partially deflected criticism of President Barack Obama - and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke - by blaming the country's financial woes on Congress. He described his colleagues as "a class of career elitists" and "cowards," and at one point, talking about his frustrations, said, "It's just a good thing I can't pack a gun on the Senate floor."

But Coburn also said most members of Congress are good people with good intentions.

Responding to a man in Langley who asked if Obama "wants to destroy America," Coburn said the president is "very bright" and loves his country but has a political philosophy that is "goofy and wrong."

Obama's "intent is not to destroy, his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him," he said.

"As an African-American male," Coburn said, Obama received "tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs."

It should be noted he's not necessarily talking about Affirmative Action, though of course the mind goes there quickly. He seems to be talking about so-called "anti-poverty" programs that create dependency, maybe.

Was Obama a beneficiary of such programs? I really don't know if he was poor enough for them.

Although the liberal screaming has begun -- how dare he! -- the seem to once again gloss over a foundational question:

Is it true?

For if it is true, it may be impolite to say, but it is... true.

So, is anyone going to check on that?

Second, it should be noted that there is ample precedent for this question -- asked by the left.

Clarence Thomas has been attacked by the left for supposedly (probably) benefiting from Affirmative Action programs, but opposing them.

Why should Obama be immune from a similar analysis? If Obama is personally compromised on the issue, by being emotionally invested in it -- hey, I benefited, can't "pull up the ladders now" as the left said of Clarence Thomas -- why is it forbidden to ask about this?

If it is fair game to speculate about Clarence Thomas' affirmative action history, why is it an outrage to speculate about Obama's?

The left alleged Clarence Thomas was too "mean" about Affirmative Action, pulling up "ladders" he had already climbed himself.

Okay. Well then, is Obama maybe too emotionally compromised on the issue, having climbed them as well?

I need it explained to me why one question is fair game and the other is horrific racism not seen since Bull Connor.

Where are the transcripts?

By the Way: Coburn goes way off conservative message in conceding that an "African American male" would be the "beneficiary" of such programs, as the standard conservative argument is that the negatives of such programs outweigh the positives.

But perhaps he means to concede that of course there are some benefits, too.

Posted by: Ace at 11:32 AM | Comments (195)
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Clever.

If they want to take money someone's earned to give it to someone else, why not go one step back in the chain and donate some of the high GPA that will lead to that "excess" money?

His fellow classmates aren't jumping at the opportunity to redistribute the grade wealth.

In a video posted on Exposingleftists.com, one student said, “If I do give GPA points to students that don’t deserve it, it isn’t fair, I work for what I have.”

Well, yeah.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (232)
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Pluses:

1. It was a neat-looking world.

2. The original was meh and still needs a story worthy of the look.

Minuses:

1. The original looked great because of the terrific model-work and innovative photographic effects. The new one will of course be almost all CGI.

2. The Seinfeld is Unfunny effect. Blade Runner has been so influential in terms of design and look of the future, it doesn't seem as original anymore. Since so many ripped off bits and pieces of it.

Eh. We'll see.

Why not. Can't be worse than most of the crap they're doing lately.

Three-time Oscar-nominated director Ridley Scott is set to helm a follow up to his own ground-breaking 1982 science fiction classic “Blade Runner” for Warner Bros-based financing and production company Alcon Entertainment (“The Blind Side,” “The Book of Eli”).

Alcon co-founders and co-Chief Executive Officers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove will produce with Bud Yorkin and Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, along with Ridley Scott. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEOÂ’s of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers.

The filmmakers have not yet revealed whether the theatrical project will be a prequel or sequel to the renowned original.

Posted by: Ace at 10:05 AM | Comments (144)
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I know the response is "We never left the last one," but, again, as a technical matter (as these things are strictly defined) we did, and, as a messaging matter, it's actually politically better for us if this is the Obama Recession, not a continuation of the Bush one.

At Hot Air: The Philly Fed's manufacturing index plummets.

Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly contracted in August by the most in more than two years as orders plunged and factories shed workers.

The Federal Reserve Bank of PhiladelphiaÂ’s general economic index plunged to minus 30.7 this month, the lowest since March 2009, from 3.2 in July. The August gauge exceeded the most pessimistic projection in a Bloomberg News survey in which the median estimate was 2. Readings less than zero signal contraction in the area covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

...

The report is “signaling a borderline recession,” said John Herrmann, senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston...

The Dow seems to confirm this, down 400.

Moody's says we're "dangerously close" to a recession in both the US and the EU.

Our revised forecasts show the US and the euro area hovering dangerously close to a recession — defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction — over the next 6-12 months," Joachim Fels, who co-heads Morgan Stanley's global economics team, said in a research note dated Wednesday.

Oddly, their official forecasts still show 3+% growth. Who knows what the hell is going on there. Maybe they want to reduce those forecasts slowly (and less embarrassingly) from the previous 4.5%.

European shares too fell the most since 2009.

Drudge runs this picture:

You know, I think someone else mentioned this, but maybe I realized it. When Obama was on this supposed non-political listening tour in swing states, he actually wasn't presenting a plan, of course.

He was promising he would have a plan.

That's odd, isn't it?

What kind of SCOAMF does that? Mounts a twenty car convoy in Darth Vader's heavy-metal band side-project tour bus when he has no actual news to report, nothing new? Just the promise that in ten days or so he might (fingers crossed!) have something to say?

Seems like a panic move. They're in panic, they once again figured that Obama's magical powers of oratory were just what the doctor ordered, and decided to just have the president promise a "plan" ten days hence, like a bad tenant who's late with the rent.

More: 11% of the public is satisfied with the state of the nation. In 2009, it was as low as 7%, but 11% ain't good.

And Romney is selling Magical Misery Tour t-shirts.

And I am tempted.

Posted by: Ace at 09:33 AM | Comments (233)
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As I said yesterday, this is pretty clever. In theory, he's "responding" to the President's criticisms of him, and so it's news, a remotely-conducted dialogue between two rivals.

In reality, he's not directly speaking to the subject matter in question, but instead offering up the messaging he wants in the guise of a "response."

After attempting to feminize the president by speaking of his hurt feelings, he goes after the other Big Theme, the president's incompetence.

“The rhetoric will probably get heated. I’m going to be outspoken, I’m going to be passionate, I’m going to be calling it like I see it,” Perry told the Herald in a one-on-one interview, as he shrugged off Obama’s recent scolding that he should be “more careful” about what he says.

“And if I hurt the president’s feelings, well, with all due respect, I love my country and I love future generations more than I care about his feelings,” the 61-year-old governor added.

Perry, who embraced the Tea Party even before GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann, also brushed off Democratic attempts to paint him as a marginal candidate.

“It’s the height of hypocrisy for this president to call anyone a marginal performer. If anyone is a marginal performer, it’s him. He has downgraded the good name and credit of this country,” Perry said. “Talk about someone who has marginalized America.”

At the link there is much more on whether QE3 is a good thing or not (not), but the impressive thing is that Perry just will not go off-message.

It's akin to yesterday where, in response to a dispute over whether the troops would respond more to a president who's worn the uniform, Perry launched into Obama's pitiful economic record and boosted his own.

He seems to have adopted the polite version of the campaign theme developed in the comments here.
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Posted by: Ace at 08:50 AM | Comments (440)
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A written statement.

The United States opposes the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Syria, and we support the universal rights of the Syrian people. We have imposed sanctions on President Assad and his government. The European Union has imposed sanctions as well. We helped lead an effort at the UN Security Council to condemn SyriaÂ’s actions. We have coordinated closely with allies and partners from the region and around the world. The Assad government has now been condemned by countries in all parts of the globe, and can look only to Iran for support for its brutal and unjust crackdown.

The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people. We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.

Like they did with Libya, the administration then sent out Hillary Clinton to say on camera what Obama was too disinterested or afraid to say himself.

Apparently we're not going to actually do anything to directly help the opposition.

As for Syrian opposition to Assad, Admin officials say the US will provide it with "strong moral support."

So Assad better get out or Obama will issue a strongly worded tweet!

It's amazing that President "Words Matter" refuses to actually say something in this type of case where we know the words of a President can actually matter.

This isn't easy stuff but Obama really has a knack for waiting to long to act and then doing the wrong thing. Turns out "Smart Power" isn't very smart or powerful.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:56 AM | Comments (188)
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