Category Archives: Technology

Forbes

Elderly And Disabled Assistive Technology Market To Surpass $26 Billion By 2024 Forbes The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. 70 million people need a wheelchair. Another 360 million people globally have moderate to profound hearing loss. Globally, more than 1 billion people ... and more »

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Elderly And Disabled Assistive Technology Market To Surpass $26 Billion By 2024 - Forbes

March 21, 2017 by George Aggidis, The Conversation Credit: Norsepower

Over 200 years after steamships first began crossing the ocean, wind power is finding its way back into seafaring. Global shipping firm Maersk is planning to fit spinning "rotor sails" to one of its oil tankers as a way of reducing its fuel costs and carbon emissions. The company behind the technology, Finnish firm Norsepower, says this is the first retrofit installation of a wind-powered energy system on a tanker.

Yet the idea of using these spinning cylinders on ships to generate thrust and drive them forward was first trialled in 1924 and shortly after disregarded. So why do Norsepower and Maersk (and the UK government, which is providing most of the 3.5m of funding), think this time the technology will be more of a success?

The rotor sail was invented by German engineer Anton Flettner. It is effectively a large, spinning metal cylinder that uses something called the Magnus effect to harness wind power and propel a ship.

How does it work?

When wind passes the spinning rotor sail, the air flow accelerates on one side and decelerates on the opposite side. This creates a thrust force that is perpendicular to the wind flow direction. Although it takes energy in the form of electricity to spin the sail, the thrust it produces means the engines can be significantly throttled back, so it reduces overall fuel use and emissions.

Flettner built two rotor vessels, one of which managed to sail across the Atlantic to New York in 1926. But this modern attempt to harness the wind for ocean travel failed to compete with diesel power. Rotor sails were too heavy and the costs too high for them to yield the expected fuel savings and become successful with shipping operators.

But technology improvements and the rise of environmental regulations have led to renewed interest in rotor sails. Wind power firm Enercon launched a new rotor ship in 2008, while in 2014 Norsepower added its first rotor sail to a cargo ship owned by sustainable shipping firm Bore. Promising lightweight and relatively cheap materials and designs, combined with higher oil prices and the need to reduce emissions, mean rotor sails could now take off.

The 240 metre-long Maersk tanker will be retrofitted with two modernised versions of the Flettner rotor that are 30 metres tall and five metres in diameter. In favourable wind conditions, each sail can produce the equivalent of 3MW of power using only 50kW of electricity. Norsepower expect to reduce average fuel consumption on typical global shipping routes by 7% to 10%, equivalent to about 1,000 tonnes of fuel a year.

The rotor sail project will be the first installation of wind-powered energy technology on this type of tanker. This will provide insights into fuel savings and operational experience and help to reduce their environmental impact. Each rotor sail is made using the latest intelligent lightweight composite sandwich materials, and offers a simple yet robust hi-tech solution, although they could still cost more than 1.5m to install. That is the equivalent of around 5.5% of the cost of a typical used ship of that size, but a significantly lower percentage for a new tanker.

Greener technologies

The rotor sails that Maersk will be testing might be its most promising technology yet, but it has also been exploring other efficiency measures. Shipping is entering a brave new era with accelerating advances in big data, artificial intelligence, smart ships, robotics and automation. Maersk is testing drones to deliver ship supplies instead of traditional barges, special paints on its hulls that would cut down on algae and other microorganisms that increase drag, solar-powered sails, kites that tow a vessel, batteries, and biofuels.

What will force more shipping firms to adopt these kind of measures are the new pollution rules that will come into effect at the end of the decade. From 2020, shipping companies will be required to reduce the sulphur content of their fuel, which could come at a significant cost. This potentially makes investment in technologies such as rotor sails much more worthwhile. Wind propulsion for commercial vessels appears to be gaining mainstream industry support and perhaps, in the not too distant future, might even become commonplace.

Explore further: Researchers are looking to wind power for the next generation of ships

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

In many ways, it's an obvious solution. For many centuries, world trade over the oceans was propelled by wind power alone. Now that we're seeking an alternative to the fossil fuel-burning vehicles that enable our modern standard ...

Siemens has created a special mechanism for mounting its 75-meter-long rotor blades for offshore wind farms. The lifting system makes assembly work safer and lets construction take place at higher wind speeds than was previously ...

Siemens has produced the world's longest rotor blades for wind turbines. Measuring 75 meters in length, the blades are almost as big as the wingspan of an Airbus A380. Beginning this fall, the B75 rotor blades will be installed ...

A Finnish invention, a vertical axis Savonius wind turbine, can be further improved, according to a new study from the University of Vaasa.

Advanced detection of wind anomalies could help prolong the lifespan of wind turbine components and reduce the cost of wind energy generation. In this context, European researchers have developed smart control software

The blue-hulled vessel would slip by unnoticed on most seas if not for the white kite, high above her prow, towing her to what its creators hope will be a bright, wind-efficient future.

Google wants to make it easier for you to find answers and recommendations on smartphones without having to think about what to ask its search engine.

A years-long crime spree by Chinese toilet paper thieves may have reached the end of its roll after park officials in southern Beijing installed facial recognition technology to flush out bathroom bandits.

Samsung announced Monday that a voice-powered digital assistant named "Bixby" will debut with a flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone set to be unveiled by the South Korean consumer electronics giant.

For eighth-grader Lakaysha Governor, her daily two-hour school bus commute had been spent catching up with friends and trying to tune out distractions from unruly preschoolers.

It has been known in biology for a long time that the excited oxygen molecule singlet oxygen is the main cause of ageing in cells. To counter this, nature uses an enzyme called superoxide dismutase to eliminate superoxide ...

Disney Research scientists have found innovative ways to enhance virtual experiences involving interactions with physical objects by showing how a person using a virtual reality system can use it to reliably catch a real ...

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Spinning sail technology is poised to bring back wind-powered ships - Phys.Org

Forbes

New Galaxy S8 Details From Samsung Highlight Ambitious Technology Forbes With just over a week to go until the official launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8, the South Korean company is building up speculation around the handset and continuing to position its ambitious technology and styling before it fully reveals the hardware. and more »

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New Galaxy S8 Details From Samsung Highlight Ambitious Technology - Forbes

The Morning Download: Shell Deploys Technology to Drive Down Costs of Deep Water Drilling Wall Street Journal (subscription) (blog) Good morning. Facing the economic pressure of a long-term decline in oil prices, energy giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC is relying on technology to help it drive down the cost of its deep-water drilling operations. Here on a hulking steel behemoth 130 ... and more »

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The Morning Download: Shell Deploys Technology to Drive Down Costs of Deep Water Drilling - Wall Street Journal (subscription) (blog)

They say never begin a post with a question. Who am I to listen to that kind of advice because most often I start my stock search with a question and today's question is what tech stock with growth potential can also pay me a dividend while I wait?

I am not going to write about Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) or Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) or even Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), as I have covered them as dividend machines. This week, I have been looking at other names and I found 2 worth writing about.

I looked at the holdings in the ETF managed by SPR that concentrates on technology that trades under the XLK symbol. Two stocks are of interest.

Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ:SWKS)

Skyworks states they empower the wireless networking revolution. I must tell you a personal story here about wireless networking. I use AT&T (NYSE:T) Uverse in more than one location. As I move between these locations, I can change my television service from the 450 channels to the basic channels to save money, but I can never get the internet cost to less than $40 a month in each location.

Verizon (NYSE:VZ) suggested I try their Ellipsis Jetpack. The device is cheap and the monthly fee is half of what Uverse charges, and I only need one device. It even works in the car. Believe me it is fast. But, there is always a but, if I cancel Uverse and use only the Verizon Jetpack, my computer and printer will not talk to each other. I spent hours with tech support at Microsoft and Verizon, and they assured me that it was not to be.

The moral of this personal story is wireless networking still needs a revolution and perhaps SWKS will pay me as we go.

SWKS Fundamentals

In the table below, you can see the fundamentals I use to evaluate a dividend stock applied to SWKS. Readers know that I require EPS (earnings per share) exceed dividend paid out. I like to see dividend growth over recent years exceed expected inflation, and I must see a good balance sheet. Revenue growth is good to see and covered call potential is definitely a positive. However, I do not fool myself into thinking that just covered call potential will make up for a plunge in the stock price, should some unexpected catalyst negatively affect my stock.

Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX) Fundamentals:

Xilinx symbol XLNX is the second stock that stood out. The fundamentals I used to evaluate XLNX are presented in the table below.

Compare SWKS And XLNX

In comparing the two stocks, it is not a perfect match. Xilinx is more involved in the chips end of technology rather than wireless networking. Xilinx delivers a better dividend, but less revenue growth. Both have good covered call potential, and you can see a dollar invested buys about the same amount of revenue, earnings and dividend.

I will probably buy both of these stocks and see how it works out. I get paid to wait. My usual technique is to buy enough that I can sell calls on part of my position. Xilinx works better since it trades at half of SWKS' price. You never want to put too much money into any one stock or any one sector.

These are two stocks to consider if you are a dividend investor interested in technology that goes beyond the usual Intels and Microsofts. Why look beyond Intel and Microsoft because Intel has slow growth and Microsoft is expensive.

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Can You Buy Technology With Dividend Income? - Seeking Alpha

Guest columnist: Deployed technology in our daily lives now, soon and future Tri-City Herald (blog) To realize this vision and increase awareness of PNNL as a world-class scientific research institution, PNNL's science and technology strategy centers on accomplishing national-level outcomes. Conducting research in these strategic areas often leads to ...

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Guest columnist: Deployed technology in our daily lives now, soon and future - Tri-City Herald (blog)

New Intel Technology Bridges Gap Between Speedy Conventional Memory, Longer-Term Storage Wall Street Journal (subscription) The new storage drives, which Intel is making widely available on Sunday, are based on technology called 3D XPoint. The company bills the technology, which it says it spent more than a decade developing, as a new memory category, bridging the gap. and more »

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New Intel Technology Bridges Gap Between Speedy Conventional Memory, Longer-Term Storage - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Forbes

Technology Is Going To Take Away Your Freedom To Put Other People At Risk Forbes The New York Times has an interesting story about how automakers are creating technology that will allow cars to tell when drivers are sleepy. The article reports that drowsiness detection software that monitors the movements of the car has existed for ...

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Technology Is Going To Take Away Your Freedom To Put Other People At Risk - Forbes

I attended the Experiential Technology Conference (XTech) in San Francisco this week to hear talks about creating virtual experiences that truly immerse you in another world. It showed me that virtual reality has only scratched the surface. I liked the event, curated by Zack Lynch of Jazz Venture Partners, because it reminded me of the long view of VR and how much of a role that research and development still has to play in it.

VR has made our eyes feel like weve gone to someplace else, but thats only one of our senses. We have 3D sound as well, but we need more than that to achieve real immersion, said Tal Blevins, head of media at UploadVR, in a panel at XTech.

Above: Adam Gazzaley of UCSF at XTech. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The illusions wont seem absolutely real until all of our senses are immersed in an artificial reality. Joe Michaels, chief revenue at AxonVR, a maker of touch technology for VR, and Tom Carter, chief technology officer of Ultrahaptics, said that touch will deliveran extra sense of realism.

One of the fundamental aspects of realism in VR is touch, said Michaels, whose company has spent four years developing that sense of touch. One of the things you feel when you come out of the womb into the world is touch.

David Edwards, cofounder of Onotes, is making digital scent technology that is like a speaker for your sense of smell.

Its not just visual and sound. Its a bit unfortunate. The last few years, VR has been about putting on a head-mounted display and looking around, Edwards said. It should include hitting all the senses that we can to make you feel immersed in that environment.

When your senses agree with what you are seeing, it completely transforms the experience, said Brent Bushnell, CEO of Two Bit Circus.

Carter of Ultrahaptics said that youll need other senses more than you realized when you are trying to grab something with your fingers.

Above: David Holz, founder of Leap Motion, shows off hand-tracking in VR. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

I saw that myself when I tried out Qualcomms new wireless stand-alone VR headset prototype at the Game Developers Conference a couple of weeks ago. The headset used sensors to detect my fingers, using software from Leap Motion. It was cool that I didnt have to use a touch controller. But as soon as I reached out the grab something in VR, it didnt feel real. That was because when my fingers closed around an object, I didnt feel anything. Theheadset didnt incorporate anytouch, or haptics, technology.

And thats the way it is going to be with VR. One improvement begs for another. As soon as we get wired VR headsets, we want wireless ones. As soon as we get touch controls, we want finger detection. As soon as we get finger detection, we want haptics. Thats why Edwards is working on smell.

Then it kind of hit me. This is an enormous undertaking. Its why long-term investors like Tipatat Chennavasin, cofounder of the Venture Reality Fund, say that its going to take decades before the full impact of VR, augmented reality, and mixed reality is realized.

It reminded me of a speech by Mike Abrash, chief scientist at Oculus, speaking last fall.

Everyone in this room has jumped in to make VR happen, and our reward is we are on the leading edgeof one of the most important technological revolutions of our lifetime, Abrash said. Thanks to all of our efforts, VR is going to leap ahead in the next five years.The reason we are all working on VR now is because of our vision of what VR will become.

Above: VR entertainment panelists: Margaret Wallace (left), Theresa Duringer, Noah Falstein, and Shiraz Akmal. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

And yet VR skeptics are worried about whats going to happen in 2017. We saw40 percent more VR startups created in 2016, but the headsets that debuted during the year only generated about 6.3 million units of sales, according to SuperData Research. Thats not going to produce enough software revenue to sustain many of those VR developers.

Theres going to be a reckoning, said Margaret Wallace, CEO of Playmatics, on my own panel on VR entertainment experiences.

And so we agreed that VR still needs patient investors, brand advocates, and passionate platform owners Oculus and Facebook, Intel, Qualcomm, Apple, Google, and Microsoft to sustain the investment in VR.

From what I have a sense of, theres still a lot of investment pouring in from the platform holders, said Shiraz Akmal, CEO of VR startup Spaces. Seven-figure deals are happening. But the difference, at least from my perspective, is that the early days were more of a spray-and-pray kind of situation.

He added, Now its more targeted. Hey, weve invested billions in this platform, and now we need a title that can help us sell the numbers that everyone was projecting a year ago.The competition for those dollars is more fierce. There are bigger stakes in the development community, especially those studios that have bet on VR. Consumer adoption is its adopting, but not as fast as wed all like.

Fortunately, other fields such as healthcare, enterprise, defense will help to drive it forward. Mike Wikan, creative director at Booz Allen Hamilton, said his company has 150 developers working on high-end VR experiences for those who will pay for it today: the military. The Department of Defense spends up to $7 billion a year on training, and if you can train people better in VR, that saves money.

Above: Adam Gazzaley of Akili and UCSF at the Experiential Technology Conference. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The XTech event was also impressive in showing off the breadth of research going on in the space.

Adam Gazzaley, showed some fascinating research about what he called a closed loop system. In it, we would play a game in VR, and it would produce an effect in our brain and cause us to react. Gazzaleys brainwave sensors would capture data on the part of the brain that was stimulated. Then that data would serve as feedback for the game developers, who could refine the game to produce a better effect. The game could also adjust itself on the fly to become more difficult, as needed, for the player.

Gazzaley, whose startup is Akili, is trying to use VR to help people with attention disorders. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, also showed a cool vest that produces tactile feedback on your torso. He showed how a deaf person could hear by feeling the haptic feedback on the torso. Eagleman spoke a word into a microphone, which produced touch sensations on the vest. Then the deaf person wearing the vest spelled out the word that was spoken.

The research talks also made me think of another talk by Abrash at Facebooks F8 event last year. He said the brain doesnt see the raw data of reality. Rather, it absorbs what comes in from our senses and processes it. It discards data that it doesnt need and presents something that we can grasp. In other words, our eyes and senses and brain are interpreting reality for us, not presenting it.

That suggests the solution for challenges of VR. We dont have to reproduce reality. We simply have to trick the brain into thinking its reality. That means we dont have to use as much computing power and other technology as we think to achieve the aim of immersion.

Think about it this way. Bad VR gives us motion sickness. Theres a mismatch between what our eyes see and what our other senses are telling us, Bushnell said.

VR is such a strong medium that it can produce a physiological reaction in our bodies. But if we trick our bodies and our brain, we can get a desired effect from VR. Thats why one of the XTech talks about magic, or misdirecting the brain, made a lot of sense. Stephen Macknick, professor of the department of neurology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, said that our brain cant focus on everything, so it focuses on what it thinks matters. And that gives illusions a chance to make an impression on us.

Everything is a function of your perception and perspective and the contrast with the world around you, Macknick said. You get to decide the way you want to see the world.

Macknicks talk made an impression onNoah Falstein, chief game designer at Google.

I love that he puts up a diagram showing how youre focused on something, and the neurons receiving that image have other neurons that suppress the input from other areas, saidFalstein. Its not only that your brain highlights the thing youre focused on, but its also turning off everything else. Thats why you dont see things happening around you when you concentrate on one thing very intently.

Above: Two Bit Circus VR app made you feel like you were on a window-washing platform on a skyscraper. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

If we trick the brain into thinking that what it is seeing is real, then we dont get sick. The illusion seems realistic and more engaging.

But what if we want to trick our body in a physiological way? One VR app, The Walk VR, makes you feel like you are walking on a tightrope between the Two Towers. When I did that walk, I felt like I was going to fall.

Two Bit Circus did something similar at the event. Its VR app and motion platform took you up the side of a skyscraper on a window-washing platform. You get a sense of vertigo as you look over the edge. The motion platform shakes, and you feel like you are falling. Your body gives a physiological response, and everyone around you laughs at the experience, Bushnell said. The guy in the picture above freaked out when his friend grabbed him and shook him on the platform.

Theresa Duringer, meanwhile, used VR to trigger the opposite kind of physiological response. She has a fear of flying, and she created a VR app, Ascension VR, as a distraction to use on the flight. She wanted to suppress a physiological reaction, the fear of flying, and used VR to try to do that.

Above: John Favreau (left) and Adam Gazzaley. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

All of the research and experimentation made me feel like VR is at the start ofa huge undertaking. John Favreau, a Hollywood director, actor, and VR enthusiast, reminded us that we have to find the humanity in the technology.

So much of the time people are reading about technologies, like theyre at a race track seeing what horse will win, he said. You have to realize its a one-way street. You dont know how the river is going to flow, but it is flowing in the direction. But if the only people who are involved with it are people who are unconcerned with the human impact of it, its going to shape the path. Whats the opportunity to humanize it?

And as Abrash pointed out in his talks, this is kind of like the Manhattan Project of our age. A lot of bright minds are working on it and debating the ramifications of this new technology, and the Brave New World that it will create.

This post by Dean Takahashi originally appeared on VentureBeat.

Tagged with: John Favreau, tal blevins, xtech

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Experiential Technology Event Shows How Far VR Has To Go - UploadVR

In a region largely shaped and driven for more than a century by federal spending on the military, President Donald Trumps first budget proposal last week triggered cheers from defense hawks and cries from researchers, academic leaders and others concerned about funding cuts to San Diego Countys scientific, medical and high-tech industries.

Economists agree that Trumps 2018 fiscal plan could buoy the regions defense sector, which has lagged for three years after budget tightening designed to trim the federal deficit. But theyre unsure whether those gains would outpace what could be deep downsizing of federal programs that support non-defense technology, biomedical and environmental exploration in an area that has long tried to diversify its economy yet still relies predominantly on the armed forces and a constellation of related companies.

Were not quite as boom or bust as we were before, but (the military-defense complex) is still a huge part of our economy, said economist Kelly Cunningham with the National University System Institute for Policy Research.

The one detail that the president is really planning on is a $54 billion increase in defense spending. Thats pretty key for San Diego. We still have the most military personnel based here in the nation and any increase there is going to help, as far as dollars flowing into San Diego.

In 2016, the federal government inked $8 billion in contracts with San Diego County businesses $14.9 billion less than in 2009. That was because of the sequestration legislation that Congress had passed in 2011 to cap most federal discretionary spending, especially for the military. The belt-tightening began to bite in 2013, triggering significant cuts to weapons procurement and maintenance projects across the region.

Even with the diminished spending, the county still brought in more than $23 billion in federal funding last year for wages, procurement projects and veterans benefits, according to an analysis overseen by Lynn Reaser, the chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene Universitys Fermanian Business & Economic Institute.

Federal defense outlays last year directly generated one out of every five local jobs and as the spending rippled through the region triggered $21.4 billion in additional economic activity, Reasers team found.

Military and otherwise, the federal government is the single largest employer in greater San Diego.

Reaser predicted that the bulk of Trumps proposed budget, if enacted, would help mend the militarys readiness problems created by nearly two decades of wars overseas and the sequestration cuts. That would initially mean more spending on equipment, parts, training, infrastructure improvements and extra troops to ease Navy and Marine Corps deployments overseas.

Trump also wants the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to get a $4.4 billion boost, which could trickle down to the roughly 230,000 former service members who live in the county, Cunningham and Reaser said.

Trumps budget blueprint may be telegraphing future splurging on Navy warships, aircraft and drones, which Reaser said could help local firms and workers in later years, too.

About 10,000 people toil in local shipyards, notably General Dynamics-NASSCO and BAE Systems. Meanwhile, San Diegos Northrop Grumman and General Atomics are leading makers of unmanned aircraft.

Christopher Thornberg, a founding partner of Los Angeles-based Beacon Economics, affirms the militarys leading role in San Diego County but wants residents to pay more attention to what he sees as Trumps assault on most non-defense agencies.

If youre looking at the defense spending and going rah-rah Trump when youre in San Diego, youre really missing the point, he said.

Thornberg pointed to $5.8 billion in proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health, Americas largest underwriter of biomedical research. The president also envisions hefty reductions for agencies that underwrite climate change science, some types of medical training and international relations all things with a notable footprint in this region.

In particular, San Diego Countys life-science and medical industries together employ tens of thousands of people. More than 20,000 work on the Torrey Pines Mesa in La Jolla alone. Dominated by UC San Diego, the mesa annually pulls in about $400 million in NIH funding.

At any one time, the university is conducting more than 100 drug trials. It frequently collaborates with nearby private biomedical centers such as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and The Scripps Research Institute.

The mesa also boasts research units from pharmaceutical giants, including GSK, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

In addition, Thornberg said Trumps budget proposal shouldnt be evaluated without scrutinizing his foreign policies.

Trump continues to threaten trade wars, tougher immigration restrictions and increased taxes on commercial shipments from Mexico, actions that Thornberg said could harm the San Diego and Tijuana economies.

Research in 2014 led by UC San Diego said the CaliBaja region Baja California and San Diego and Imperial counties generated $200 billion in annual economic activity and accounted for more than 70,000 northbound commercial and passenger crossings daily.

Economists have said it takes a sustained, multi-year pattern of major shifts in federal spending to make a lasting impact on a metropolitan region, even in a place like San Diego thats heavily reliant on one economic sector.

How did San Diego become such a defense hub?

It started in 1885, thanks to then-rival Los Angeles and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.

When they built the transcontinental railroad, it ended up going through L.A., said Cunningham at National University. L.A. and Long Beach developed a shipping industry because thats where you came to unload or load up the railroads. San Diego missed on all that. They tried, but partly the geography the mountains made it difficult. After they missed out, the forefathers of San Diego said, Well, what can we do?

Around the same time, a former bellhop moved from Minnesota and eventually came to San Diego. William Kettner took up the insurance and real estate trades, then ran for Congress in 1912. The pro-business Democrat was championed by Republicans who coined the campaign slogan, Why not Kettner? It was part of a bipartisan bid to remake a San Diego still agog over the visit of Americas Great White Fleet four years earlier.

When you look at it historically, that was a strategic decision San Diegos leaders made to depend on the economy of defense spending, Cunningham said.

Although he was a freshman lawmaker, Kettner outmaneuvered the San Francisco delegation to win a $249,000 appropriation from Congress to dredge San Diegos harbor, making it navigable for large ships. (The Great White Fleets warships hadnt been able to enter San Diego Bay because it was too shallow. They moored off Coronado, which wasnt lost on Kettner, who served as chair of the welcoming committee.)

Kettner also secured funding to finish the Armys coastal artillery defenses at Fort Rosecrans and the Navys Point Loma coaling station the first American stop for vessels steaming north from the new Panama Canal.

He curried favor with fellow Democrats like President Woodrow Wilson and a rising assistant secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who looked favorably on San Diegos warm-water port.

Back home, business leaders sweetened Kettners Capitol Hill deals by donating land and buildings for the Navy to use for training. They also piggybacked on the naval aviation experiments of flight pioneer Glenn Curtiss.

Federal defense spending in San Diego County spiked during World War I and continued as the Navy built a Pacific fleet. It surged again in World War II under Roosevelt, now the nations president, and rose yet again when troops went off to fight in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Cunninghams research.

cprine@sduniontribune.com

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Will defense gains offset budget cuts to science, technology in San Diego? - The San Diego Union-Tribune