1) Power 6, the new IBM microprocessor that can carry out up to five billion instructions per second, has been declared the fastest chip on Earth (Tom Abate, "IBM chip is fastest on Earth," San Francisco Chronicle, 9 April 2008), beating out Intel's 3.73 gigahertz Pentium Extreme and Sun Microsystems' 2.4 gigahertz UltraSparc T2.

2) The US Department of Homeland Security's Secretary Michael Chertoff disclosed more details about a cybersecurity center President Bush created in January 2008, to "coordinate information on attacks against the government and the private sector" and likend the President's directive to the WWII Manhattan Project (Deborah Gage, "Details on US cybersecurity center," San Francisco Chronicle, 9 April 2008).

Long overdue, it is about time our government takes agency to effect protective measures for the security of our nation and its peoples - especially in light of all the bonehead decisions we continue to make...

3) As a brilliant measure to provide increased protective alerts to US citizens, Federal regulators approved a plan to create a nationwide emergency alert system via cellular text messaging (The Associated Press, "Text Alerts to Cellphones in Emergency Approved," 10 April 2008). As a result, three types of messages will be sent (projected by 2010):

a) a national alert from the President - most likely for a terrorist attack or natural disaster,
b) an imminent threats alert - most likely for natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or university shootings, and
c) an amber alert - for child abductions.

4) To help humanitarian operations and to raise the public's refugee awareness, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees teamed with Google Inc. to unveil "a new feature...for its popular mapping programs that shines the spotlight on the movement of refugees around the world" (The Associated Press, "Google and UN Put Refugees on the Map," 8 April 2008).

5) Commuters, dare to dream:
In an attempt to avoid traffic jams, Microsoft announced its plans for launching Clearflow - a "Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models" (John Markoff, "Microsoft Introduces Tool for Avoiding Traffic Jams," The New York Times, 10 April 2008). According to Microsoft, Clearflow will be available for 72 cities in the United States and will offer drivers "alternative route information that is more accurate and attuned to current traffic patterns on both freeways and side streets."

If anything, it might just help to reduce some of that road rage...

6) Not to be outdone, the clothing industry is striving for transparency in its processes by informing the potential buyers the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from its manufacturing process - just like a label that informs of the garment's type of material (Eric Wilson, "Where That Suit Has Been," The New York Times, 10 April 2008).