Cases of U.S. Technology Innovation That Stem from Federal Funding...

Information Technology

Google Search Engine
GPS
Supercomputers
Artificial Intelligence and Speech Recognition

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CASES OF U.S. TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION THAT STEM FROM FEDERAL FUNDING

Information Technology

Google Search Engine

Two graduate students working on the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project,
supported with $4.5 million in grants from NSF, came up with an idea for a new
algorithm. PageRank, the algorithm, was the basis for a search engine they called
BackRub. After first testing BackRub on equipment partially paid for by NSF, the
two students sought private financing and founded the now ubiquitous company
Google.


Two graduate students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, began work on
an Internet search engine dubbed BackRub in 1996, as part of their academic research.38
Two years later, after an infusion of $100,000 in venture capital funds, they renamed their
search engine Google and incorporated the company of the same name.39 Today Google is
a Fortune 100 company and the dominant force in internet search engines. As of January
23, 2014, Google’s market value stood at $387 billion.40

The National Science Foundation’s Digital Library Initiative supported Page and Brin’s
research. The $4.5 million Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project—supported by
NASA, DARPA, and several industrial partners, in addition to NSF—looked to reimagine
how information would be collected and made available as digital repositories replaced
traditional collections of books. Page and Erin created a new algorithm called PageRank to
search through information posted to the internet.41 There were other internet search
engines available, but the Stanford researchers thought they could do better. PageRank
computed how valuable a page was likely to be by considering how many other webpages
cited it, and the importance of each of those linking pages. PageRank rank helped BackRub
return results that were usually more relevant to the searchers> interests.42 Soon BackRub
transitioned from the academic world to the commercial world as Google, a name Page and
Erin chose to indicate their confidence that they could search the entire World Wide Web
(“Googol” is the very large number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeroes).

The company has branched out into advertising, social networking, email hosting, and
operating systems for the mobile device market, while continuing to improve upon its core
information search and retrieval, which still incorporates a version of PageRank. Google’s
search engine has also created a marketing industry based around search engine
optimization, which aims to raise a webpage’s ranking so it appears near the beginning of
related searches.   Meanwhile federal agencies continue to support research on computer
and information science and are actively exploring strategies for improving public access to
quality information on the web.
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Tea Party Republicans are all about Punk Talk and Political Vandalism. That is, saying and doing things which are offensive, irresponsible - and hopefully - shocking. They are devoid of ideas, are completely out of their depth in governing a country or - God help us - in formulating a foreign policy.   Not having half a notion of what to do about any of various issues we face, they opt to criticize the actions of those involved in pursuit of legitimate, constructive goals. Criticizing implies they have some comprehension of the issue and have a better idea of how to approach and solve the problem. But in actuality, TP-GOPers have no grasp of the issues they think they understand.

Believe it or not, when they do or say something shocking, they 'live' to get a reaction out of the 'straights' - those people involved in legitimate efforts to achieve constructive ends. If they get ANY KIND of a reaction out of the 'legit' people, they feel they've done something. Your reaction, whether it be one of approval or contempt doesn't matter a bit. Just getting a reaction, makes them feel they are real. That beats being a cipher. Note that, underneath all the 'show', phonies know their incompetent, that they are frauds. And this is what makes them feel, underneath it all, insecure (like they will be discovered, found out).
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JUDY WOODRUFF: What about that, Matthew Dowd, and Hillary Clinton’s explanation that this personal server that she and President Clinton have is secure and that what she did was above board, even if she, in retrospect, thinks maybe she should have done it a different way?

MATTHEW DOWD: "Well, the problem she has, which is there’s a whole part of the public that comes in with a lack of trust"

.... "I think, in the end, the problem she has in this — and it’s part of the candidacy, the problem with her candidacy for president if she runs, is that, is this a throwback to the ’90s? Are we going to back to the ’90s, where we have — constantly have to ask and re-ask questions and are we getting the information that we’re expected to get..."

"Part of the reason why she’s in this situation where people have a hair-trigger reaction to stuff like this is because there has been a tendency on the part of the Clintons to not always be transparent, to not always be open, to not always answer directly the questions, to not always reveal the information that people are asking for.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is setting higher goals for wind power, saying it could supply 35% of the nation's electricity by the year 2050.

Wind power currently generates 4.5% of electricity, but that number is expected to more than double to 10% by 2020, says a report obtained by USA TODAY that will be released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy.

"Wind energy continues to be one of America's best choices for low-cost, zero-pollution renewable energy, and in an increasing number of markets, may be the cheapest source of new energy available," says a summary of the report by the Obama administration.

The new report — titled "Wind Vision: A New Era of Wind Power in the United States" — replaces a 2008 document produced during the George W. Bush administration called "20% Wind Energy by 2030."
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Fact: Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail account when she was secretary of State was lawful. The law restricting such private accounts by public officials was changed in 2014.

Fact: The 2009 Archives Preservation Law was not violated. Secretary Clinton's e-mails were preserved on the server, regardless of whether it was located at home. More than 50,000 pages had already been turned over. On Wednesday, she asked the State Department to review and release them.

Fact: Thousands of State Department officials and others received e-mails from Secretary Clinton during her tenure, and all knew that she was using a private e-mail address. This flat out contradicts all the baseless innuendo that she was attempting to hide her use of a private e-mail address.

Fact: Secretary Clinton's use of a private e-mail account for both personal and official diplomatic communications was not unprecedented. Former secretary of State Colin Powell has said that his private e-mail account was used for both purposes, too.

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Fact: Former Florida governor Jeb Bush also used private e-mail for personal and official business. Despite a misleading statement from his spokesperson, Gov. Bush did not disclose all his e-mails. He selected which ones not to disclose.
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A new blood test can accurately identify atherosclerotic plaque that is vulnerable to rupture, and help to stave off fatal cardiac events. By pinpointing individuals who are in imminent danger of an ischemic (no blood flow) event, the innovative PLAC® blood test alerts physicians and patients to the urgent need to implement aggressive protective measures. As the PLAC® test becomes more widely utilized, it promises to dramatically reduce the risk of sudden heart attack and stroke.

When Tim Russert succumbed to a fatal heart attack in June of this year, the world was shocked not only by the loss of an iconic TV news personality, but also by the unexpected nature of his death. Tim Russert had coronary artery disease that was supposedly controlled with medication and exercise. A stress test in late April was unremarkable. The autopsy revealed that cholesterol plaque rupturing in a coronary artery choked off the blood supply through that artery, causing Tim Russert’s fatal heart attack.1

Detecting Vulnerable Plaque

An atherosclerotic plaque, also known as an atheroma, is a deposit of harmful fats, or lipids, on the blood vessel wall. When the plaque ruptures, globules resembling chunks of oatmeal break loose and suddenly clog a blood vessel, causing heart attack or stroke.

Cardiology experts noted the crucial difference between gradual narrowing of arteries, which had been controlled in Russert, versus the sudden, fatal blockage of a main coronary artery by ruptured atherosclerotic plaque on the vessel wall. Because about half of people who have a heart attack have no symptoms before the acute event,1 it is critical that they are recognized and treated before it is too late.
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