Hasta La Gadget!

The FCC is more often than not the last hurdle before a piece of consumer electronics device is rolled out to the market. Having said that, the Dell Venue 8 7000 Series tablet that runs on the Android mobile operating system alongside an Intel Atom Moorefield processor keeping things humming, has arrived at the FCC – which means it is about to embark on a market release.

What other kinds of hardware specifications can we expect from the Dell Venue 8 7000 Series tablet? We are looking at an 8.4” 2560 x 1600 pixel OLED display, an Intel RealSense Snapshot camera, as well as an extremely slim case. The tablet itself would measure all of just 6mm, which translates to approximately 0.24” thin. It is widely expected for Dell to sell the tablet for approximately $499 when it hits the market in a few weeks’ time.

As for the aforementioned RealSense Snapshot camera, it will enable one to shoot 3D images as well as apply 3D effects to pictures afterwards for that added pizzazz. A 21Wh battery will make use of a microUSB cable to charge, while a microSD memory card slot offers expansion purposes. It does look as though Dell intends to offer an LTE/HSPA+ model with a SIM card slot as well.

Dell Venue 8 7000 Series Arrives At The FCC , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Nearly thirty years ago, could someone have predicted the searing racial tension in the St. Louis area in 2014?

Perhaps, Tom Wolfe could have. His debut novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, explored the nuances of the racial and ethnic divide in New York City in the 1980s.

There is no question that St. Louis is not New York. That was true in the 1980s, as it is now.

Yet Wolfe’s prescience on racial matters was never limited exclusively to New York, nor to the 1980s.

Since Bonfire, he has turned his novelistic eye and ear to the racial and ethnic turmoil in other locales in this country, Atlanta in A Man in Full; a mythical, sports-crazed, elite college in I Am Charlotte Simmons; and Miami in Back to Blood.

Originally a reporter, Wolfe has never stopped investigating and never stopped probing the depths of race relations. It is still the most salient and paradoxical issue in our flawed nation, even with our first African-American president, Barack Obama, a former Constitutional Law professor.

How could it be otherwise given that slavery was essentially enshrined in our Constitution!

That the Constitution is viewed by many as a sacred document, as if it were etched on tablets by God, stuns me, since, among other failings, it originally deemed African Americans to be 3/5th of a human being.

Given all of these painful nuances, I am not surprised that Bonfire, written by Wolfe, one of our great social satirists, resonates nearly 30 years after it was published.

Like Bonfire, which deals with the tragic death of an African-American teen, who is touted as an “honors” student, Michael Brown, the victim in the August 9 shooting in Ferguson, Mo., was depicted early on by many outlets as a studious, college-bound student.

A closer look of course revealed that neither the African-American teen in Bonfire nor Brown was as clean cut, studious and guileless as suggested by some. Just as the teen in Bonfire is no angel, there is no disputing that Brown robbed a convenience store shortly before his fatal encounter with Darren Wilson, a white policeman.

As for Wilson, he does not really resemble Sherman McCoy, a civilian bond trader, a “Master of the Universe,” except for the fact that Wilson too got involved in a deadly altercation with an African-American youth.

While any reasonable person will agree that Brown should never have been killed, the facts in the Brown case, as in the case in Bonfire, remain murky.

We may never get a definitive answer on whether or not Brown “charged” Wilson. Witnesses differed in their testimony to the grand jury, but just as Brown was not an angel, neither was Wilson.

Earlier today, the story broke that Wilson referred to Brown, with whom he was allegedly struggling, as having the face of “a demon.” That does not necessarily sound like racial animus as much as it sounds like the fear of a policeman who was tangling at close quarters with a much larger man.

Yet one can understand why the Justice Department is still investigating the possibility of a federal civil rights violation under the “color of law,” a brutally ironic phrase given the circumstances.

Getting back to Bonfire, Wolfe showed his wisdom in portraying McCoy as a narcissistic, deeply flawed man, an adulterer, who preens over his status as a Wall Street honcho yet who cannot explain the nature of bond trading to his own daughter, because, at core, his job and his soul are hollow.

While the prosecutor in the Ferguson case decided to convene a grand jury, rather than try the case, McCoy, the protagonist in Bonfire, is arrested and tried before a jury.

In the end, no one is a saint in a Wolfe book. That is true in the Ferguson case too, as it is in life.

As I wrote earlier this year, on the 25th anniversary of the Bensonhurst hate crime in New York, each case must be assessed individually and on the facts. For every case like Bensonhurst, in which Yusuf Hawkins, an unarmed black youth, was gunned down by a mob of white punks, there were cases like Tawana Brawley, who lied about having been gang-raped by white men.

Yet as I pointed out in my earlier piece in August of this year, the fact that Tawana Brawley lied did not diminish the fact that African-Americans had been victimized by what seemed like a spate of hate crimes and acts of police brutality in the 1980s.

Michael Brown did not lie. Instead, he died far too young. The criminal justice system still has inherent flaws that lead it to target a disproportionate number of young black men and other minorities.

That does not mean that we have not made some progress on civil rights in this country. We have an African-American president, a New York mayor who is married to a black woman and numerous interracial couples in this nation now, something that was not true in the 1980s.

Yes, members of the black community in Ferguson and elsewhere have an understandable distrust for the criminal justice system, and, yes, minorities and so many of the rest of us are disheartened by the grand jury’s failure to indict Darren Wilson.

But acts of destruction, looting and vandalism, as occurred last night, are not the answer. They lead only to another bonfire in our country’s charred soul.

This article comes to us courtesy of Stateline, where it was originally published. Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.

The number of U.S. college students from overseas has skyrocketed in recent years, with more than 886,000 studying on American campuses this past academic year — an all-time high and more than double the number of foreign students 20 years ago.

At a time when many states have squeezed funding for higher education, international students are highly sought after because they pay higher tuition than U.S. students. In some states, as much as 10 percent of college students come from overseas. But other states have far fewer, leaving schools there at a financial and educational disadvantage in an increasingly global and competitive higher education field.

California, New York, Texas and Massachusetts top the list of states with the most international students. Alaska, Wyoming, Maine and Vermont have the least.

But in terms of percentage of total enrollment, a different picture emerges. Washington, D.C., Massachusetts and New York have the highest shares. But the next four are Delaware, Washington, Rhode Island and Indiana, each with 6 percent or more of their college students from abroad. On the other end, Maine, Mississippi, Alaska and West Virginia have the smallest shares at under 2 percent.

Amid the uneven growth, state policymakers and school administrators have gotten involved. In some cases, states now oversee international recruitment efforts. Some states are trying to tie state funding to efforts to boost in-state enrollment. In others, officials have questioned whether schools — especially large, public universities — are focusing on international students at the expense of in-state students.

The result of the competing interests and global trend is that higher education in the U.S. is no longer a domestic concern, but one that is playing on an international stage. Few see the trend subsiding soon. Many say colleges and universities will end up better for it.

“Higher education admissions are based on merit, and they’ve always been based on merit. Now the talent pool is just much wider,” said Peggy Blumenthal, senior counselor to the president of the Institute of International Education (IIE), which released a study on global higher education last week. “The fact is that the rest of the class is advantaged by having the smartest kids in the world.”

A Coordinated Effort 

There are many reasons states and universities have sought international students. But one is a simple matter of finances: Unlike in-state students who often pay a partially subsidized lower rate at public schools, or even out-of-state students who often qualify for financial aid, many international students pay the full cost of their education. In some cases, international students pay more than double the cost of instruction.

The difference in payment-per-student has become all the more important as states have cut overall higher education funding in recent years. In response, schools have turned abroad to make up the difference.

“Everybody first and foremost looks to the financial dimension,” said Mike Reilly, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “You see far more institutions getting in the enterprise of actively seeking international students.”

One unexpectedly strong performer in the campaign, experts say, has been Washington state, where higher education spending per student has been cut nearly 28 percent since fiscal year 2008, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).

The state lacks a globally renowned university like those in, say, California, New York or Massachusetts. But the University of Washington has become a destination, especially for students from Asia. Unlike in other states, Washington’s community colleges also are aggressively playing the international recruiting game, according to Reilly.

The result is that 7 percent of Washington’s overall college population comes from abroad, the fifth-highest share among the states and the District of Columbia.

About 10 percent of the college students in Massachusetts are international students, in large part attracted by world-renowned schools such as Harvard and MIT. But the University of Massachusetts Lowell is another heavy international recruiter. The state has seen its own share of higher education cuts as well: more than 36 percent since fiscal year 2008, according to CBPP.

Since 2011, the number of international undergraduates at the school has grown by 38 percent, while the number of international graduate students has grown 23 percent. Meanwhile, overall enrollment has increased 28 percent.

“Higher education is one of our main industries in our state,” said Kathryn Carter, the school’s vice provost for graduate and international affairs and strategy. “Our domestic students have to go out there and deal with a global population,” she added. “We’re trying to do everything that we can to give them a global experience as soon as possible.”

Making Up for Disadvantages 

Other states, though, don’t have the inherent advantages of Massachusetts, the District, New York or others when it comes to international students. To make up for that, they use a range of strategies to attract interest. Many send representatives to recruiting fairs abroad. Others establish relationships with schools and professors in other countries, offering a way for students elsewhere to be exposed to schools in the U.S. before they ever consider moving here.

Still, whether it’s a matter of economy, geography or institutional variations where schools in certain states are simply more attractive overseas than others, some states haven’t shared in the growth of international students.

West Virginia is one of them. Just 1.7 percent of its higher education students are international. While 14 states saw growth in international students increase by 10 percent or more from the 2012-2013 to 2013-2014 school years, according to IIE, West Virginia’s growth was just 1.9 percent.

About a year ago, West Virginia set out to change that trend. The state is one of the few to coordinate international outreach at the state level, combining efforts of all its public colleges to meet a goal of “internationalizing” its campuses, said Clark Egnor, the state’s Higher Education Policy Commission’s director of international programs, an office created last year.

“In a state that’s as homogenous as West Virginia, having international students on a campus is very visible,” said Egnor. “The campuses want that diversity, and they want that international diversity.”

The recruitment effort has filtered into other international outreach campaigns the state has undertaken as well, especially as state officials have taken an interest in growing international enrollment, Egnor said.

The state has a formal relationship with the largest coal-producing province in China, thanks to their shared interest in developing the fossil fuel. Just recently, West Virginia moved to expand that partnership to include educational exchange, something the state hopes will boost enrollment.

“These numbers are important,” he said. Boosting international profile and recruiting overseas is often seen as a way to improve the overall image of a state and its schools. “A lot of the political leaders, they want to look at this stuff,” Egnor said.

Pushback at Home 

But the increase in international students hasn’t met with universal acclaim.

The most common worry, education experts say, is that a focus by public colleges on international students will come at the expense of in-state students. That’s especially true when the concern is over the large, public universities that are some of the most attractive abroad, namely research destinations like the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, Arizona State University and Michigan State University, all of which are in the top 10 when it comes to the number of international students.

The issue has gotten particular attention in Iowa, where public university regents have pushed a plan to send more state funding to public colleges in the state that host more in-state students. Specifically, the Board of Regents adopted this year a funding plan that tied 60 percent of state funding to resident full-time enrollment. As a guideline, the board said, “the highest (though not necessarily the sole) priority for state appropriations is to fund the education of resident students.”

That move, some have worried, hurts the University of Iowa (where 47 percent of all students were nonresidents last fall), compared to the other two public colleges in the state, Iowa State University and Northern Iowa University, which had 40 percent and 11 percent nonresident students, respectively. The Iowa City Press-Citizen headlined a story on the change, “Game on: Competition for in-state students intensifies.”

The University of Iowa, for its part, has taken it in stride, and the full effect of the change might not be known for years.

“The University of Iowa has always been a global institution,” said Downing A. Thomas, associate provost and dean of international programs. “We actively recruit here in Iowa and in targeted areas around the world, and currently have over 4,000 students from over 100 countries.”

In his final moments of life, Michael Brown charged toward Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, shrugging off warnings to stop and seeming to ignore at least one bullet that wounded him, while reaching to his waistband as if to pull a weapon.

Or, he sank to his knees, raised his hands and shouted, “please don’t shoot me.”

Wilson shot and killed Brown on a suburban Missouri street on a Saturday afternoon. Nearly two dozen people said they saw the events unfold. Yet when asked to describe the last, crucial seconds before the fatal shots were fired, witnesses told investigators and a grand jury convened to investigate the death starkly different stories, a review of witness testimony reveals.

On Monday, the St. Louis County grand jury investigating the shooting declined to bring criminal charges against Wilson. In a news conference Monday night, the prosecutor said the witnesses who said Brown had tried to surrender just weren’t credible. The announcement sparked a night of angry protests in Ferguson and denunciations from civil rights leaders as well as Brown’s family.

Without conclusive forensic evidence, the decision not to bring criminal charges relied heavily on the testimony of people who watched the deadly events unfold. The above graphic charts these differing accounts, showing which witnesses claimed Brown ran toward Wilson before he was shot, and which witnesses said he stood still or got on his knees.

Witnesses generally agree on many important details before that final showdown: Wilson stopped Brown and a friend, who were walking in the middle of the street. Wilson and Brown tussled, with the teenager reaching inside the car, and at least one shot was fired, grazing Brown’s hand at close range (forensic reports appear to confirm that Brown was shot at close range). Brown ran away; Wilson got out of the car to follow on foot.

Five witnesses said Brown charged or moved toward Wilson immediately before the fatal shots. Ten witnesses said Brown was standing still or had sunk to his knees, and looked as if he was surrendering. Another six said they didn’t see the shooting, or weren’t clear in their description of what happened.

Several witnesses who described the showdown did not say one way or the other whether Brown rushed toward the police officer — a surprising omission from the record, given that this was the justification Wilson used to defend his fatal shooting of the teen.

Wilson himself said during his testimony that Brown stopped running, and instead of dropping to the ground as ordered, turned and charged. Wilson said he was afraid for his life. “At one point it looked like he was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I was shooting him,” he said.

Witness 34, a man driving in a car near the scene, agreed with this basic version of events. “All of a sudden the young man he turned around and started coming back towards the officer … then the officer shot him a couple of times,” he said.

Two other witnesses, one in a parked car and another working about 100 yards away, also said that Brown charged Wilson before dying in a hail of gunfire.

But many other witnesses told the grand jury that Brown had raised his hands, had stopped moving and had tried to surrender before being killed — or some combination of the three.

Two witnesses, a man and a woman watching from a third-floor apartment window, said that Brown sank to his knees and put his hands in the air before he was shot and killed.

A woman smoking a cigarette in a parking lot that was “very close” to the shooting said that Brown put his hands up, and did not charge. She said she “knows” she heard Brown say “I give up” before he died.

“The officer got out, kinda gave him a chase and that’s where I see Mr. Brown slow up and throw his hands up,” she said.

Another witness, driving in a car, wasn’t quite sure. The man said Brown either stumbled toward Wilson, or walked toward him, after he was ordered to stop. “Regardless of why they died or who it was that died, it just it could have been anyone, anyone,” the witness said. “I was a little distraught over seeing someone gunned down.”

Igor Bobic, Alana Horowitz, Samantha Lachman, Carolina Moreno, Kate Sheppard, Cavan Sieczkowski, Sam Stein and Hunter Stuart contributed reporting.

More On Ferguson From HuffPost:

Photographic Evidence Released | ‘First Year Law Student Could Have Done Better Job’ | 61 Arrested | Ferguson Smolders After Night Of Fires | Protest Locations | Americans Deeply Divided | Police Chief: ‘Worse Than The Worst Night We Had In August’ | What You Can Do | Darren Wilson Interview | Darren Wilson Could Still Face Consequences | Timeline | Students Protest | Photos Of Darren Wilson’s Injuries Released | Shooting Witness Admitted Racism In Journal | Peaceful Responses Show The U.S. At Its Best | Reactions To Ferguson Decision | Prosecutor Gives Bizarre Press Conference | Notable Black Figures React | Jury Witness: ‘By The Time I Saw His Hands In The Air, He Got Shot’ | Thousands Protest Nationwide |

The Cargo Pocket Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance program, known also as CP-ISR, is a new nano-drone concept dreamed up by the folks at the Army’s Natick Soldier Research Center. Where as most unmanned aircraft look to provide info as to what is going on over the next hill, or far over horizon, CP-ISR is all about looking around the next doorway or hedge.

Read more…