| MacPhail's rebuilding blocks
The Orioles traded shortstop Miguel Tejada in December partly because they believed their best hitter needed a change of scenery. Their trade of ace pitcher Erik Bedard yesterday was emblematic of an organization that has finally committed to a change of direction.
President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail made it clear that the Orioles are in a rebuilding mode for the first time in years, trading Bedard, the team's first legitimate ace since Mike Mussina, to the Seattle Mariners for five players, including promising young outfielder Adam Jones.
After several weeks of back-and-forth negotiations that sparked frustration on both sides, the two teams finally hammered out a deal that sends Jones, left-handed reliever George Sherrill and pitching prospects Chris Tillman, Tony Butler, and Kam Mickolio to Baltimore for Bedard, 28, who went 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA and set a franchise single-season record with 221 strikeouts in 2007.
Automated Killer Robots ‘Threat to Humanity’: Expert
They lie in wait for their victims and kill when their triggers say to. They may be a little less sophisticated than models shown in the article, but because they are so inexpensive to make and deploy, they are a favorite tool. Why would you think the world or the US would ban killer robots when they refuse to quit making mines? Oh, and by the way, these machines do not kill. They "function." By using this terminology, the engineers who design them and the factories that produce them can live with themselves. .
Free Speech Friday
However, I do wonder if more environmental activists wouldn't benefit from reading a column by Tom Friedman. “You try that approach on people without jobs who live in neighborhoods where they've got a lot better chance of getting killed by a passing shooter than a melting glacier, you're going to get nowhere." In no way am I criticizing WashPIRG's — nor any other environmental activists' — passion for the greener cause. I just believe, as does Friedman, that if they wish to really make people care — especially low-income folks, who, frankly, have better things to worry about than polar bears losing their habitat — then they need to really need to focus on the “So, why should I care?" crux of the issue. In his column, Friedman profiles nonprofit leader Van Jones, who works in Oakland to inform the predominantly black and low-income community about how they can specifically benefit from a greener United States. For example, Jones suggests that a greener United States could open the doorway to new solar industries, which could then lead to more jobs, which could help employ at-risk youth, which could bring the crime rate down, which could — well, you get the picture.
Airborne Bacteria Make It Rain, Researchers Find
The green dots indicate Pseudomonas syringae bacteria suspended in ice. Like other so-called biological ice nucleators, P. syringae gives water vapor a place to meet, join and form ice crystals that later fall to Earth. Brent Christner/Louisiana State University .
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