A compilation of brief news reports for Wednesday, September 3, 2008.
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The United States military has handed Anbar province, once the centre of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency, to Iraqi control at a ceremony in the provincial capital. For Iraqi politics, the Anbar handover is especially meaningful because the Shiite-dominated Iraq military will now provide security in a largely Sunni province. Anbar is the eleventh of 18 provinces that the coalition has returned to Iraqi control, but it is the first Sunni province. President George W. Bush said that “Today, Anbar is no longer lost to al-Qaeda, it is al-Qaeda that lost Anbar.”
Sources
- Patrick Cockburn. “US hands control of Anbar province to Iraqi military” — The Independent, September 2, 2008
- “Victory in Anbar” — The Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2008
- “US hands over key Iraq province” — BBC News Online, September 1, 2008
Stanford University has developed an artificial intelligence software that allows their model helicopters to learn complex aerial acrobatics simply by “watching” a human. The human controlled helicopter is monitored by a variety of sensors which funnel all the data into the AI software. Once the acrobatic trick has been repeated a few times, the computer analyzes the data. It is then capable of repeating, with greater accuracy than the human controller, the acrobatics. This system allows the helicopters to preform aerial maneuvers far more complicated than previously possible.
Sources
- “‘Autonomous’ Helicopters Teach Themselves To Fly” — Science Daily, September 2, 2008
- Dan Stober. “Stanford’s “autonomous” helicopters teach themselves to fly” — Stanford News Service, August 29, 2008
A Malaysian man, who was about to be engaged, attempted to use a nut to weigh down and elongate his penis. Once he got an erection, the nut became stuck and he was unable to remove it. He sought treatment at a local hospital where they were able to remove it. He is expected to be released from the hospital shortly.
Sources
- “Malaysian man gets nut stuck in delicate place” — China Daily, September 2, 2008
- AFP. “Malaysian man gets nut stuck in delicate place: report” — Yahoo! News, August 31, 2008
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