Technology

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Darren K. Palitti appears from behind a wall dragging a long, dusty hose with a strange-looking nozzle that is equipped with a light. As the hose shoots a plume of white powder into the air, images of the movie "Ghostbusters" come to mind.But the equipment has nothing with do with ridding homes of the spirits of the dead. Instead, it's the latest technology in the stripping industry.Mr. Palitti operates Stripping Technologies Inc., and to explain what the young company is about, he displays an aluminum soft drink can and says, "Look at that.

Bel Air High School graduate Xuan Bui said she was really excited to learn she was selected as a recipient of a Jimmy Rane Foundation scholarship. It felt like her hard work of finding and completing scholarship applications had paid off, especially because the competition for scholarships has always seemed daunting to her. Biu plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology; however, she has yet to declare a major. She says that 10 years from now, she hopes to have a job related to math or science.

One of your readers recently wrote that "speed limits were developed before" power steering, anti-lock brakes, and other technological improvements in vehicles. The implication by that writer was that speed limits could be increased now, and that speed cameras were not needed. While it is true that, technologically, vehicles have had all kinds of safety improvements done by engineers and factories over the years, what remains in effect are the laws of physics. A 2-ton piece of metal traveling at 60 mph will still require a certain amount of minimum distance in order to come to a halt.

Men and women wearing hairnets, hard hats, safety glasses and bright-orange vests wended their way through Domino Sugars' Baltimore refinery Tuesday - there to look, not work. The manufacturing engineers and engineering students toured Domino as part of an international conference in town this week, a chance for boosters to get people thinking of Baltimore-area manufacturing in present and future tense rather than past. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers says new-wave manufacturing - 3-D printing, specifically - is one reason officials decided to meet in Baltimore this year.

Your editorial "Getting down to brass tags" (June 14) left out a few facts that might give your readers a clearer view of the value of adding microstamping technology to pistols as a way of tracing spent shell-casings found at crime scenes to a particular handgun. Independent studies by the National Academy of Science, by the University of California at Davis, and by George Krivosta of the American Society of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners concluded the technology is underdeveloped, producing inaccurate results that are easily circumvented, either on purpose or by simple use of the firearm within a few number of rounds fired.

Valedictorian: Ankur Vaidya Salutatorian: Boris Boiko Omar Abdelnaby, Tasnem Abukhdeir, Olalekan Adams, Jacob Adcock, Shirri Ade, Mabel Aina, Kathleen Ako, Gregory Alegbe, Tolulope Alegbeleye, Christina Allen, Jhane' Allen, Imari Alvarez, Mark Asefaw, Beverly Atueyi Sade Bagley, Jasmin Bailey, Mariah Bailey, Omar Ballesteros, Carly Barklow, Ciante Barr, Markus Beasley, Kabria Bennett, Siham Beshir, Darlene Bishop,...

I agree that distracted driving is a problem ("Pair propose way to stop distracted driving," March 10). However, making cellphones inoperable when they're in a moving car is problematic. Would this mean that in addition to the driver, no one else in the car could use their cell phone either? How would a device that made the driver's phone inoperable distinguish that phone from those carried by the vehicle's passengers? And when the software is part installed on the phone, how does it tell if the user is in a private vehicle or a passenger on a bus or Metro, where there's no reason people shouldn't be able to use their phones?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was an inspiring man who changed the we look at technology. Virtually every project he created was a world-class success. His 2007 iPod changed the way we listen to music; his iPhone put a computer in customers' hand. And his iPad notebook bids fair to make laptop computers obsolete. Mr. Jobs made the lives of millions of people easier. He will go down in history as one of the greatest technology innovators and product designers of our time. Jeffrey Lowe

It's getting harder for a public school teacher to reach excellence. By "excellence," I mean being responsible for helping each student significantly develop his or her knowledge or learning capacity. This increased difficulty is not the fault of teachers. Rather, teaching now requires mastering two seemingly opposite responsibilities: developing the best and the brightest to regain America's educational standing in the world, while ensuring that each student learns the basic competencies assessed by state and federal testing - and applying them to classes increasingly diverse in a host of educational factors.

The O'Malley administration is proposing a regulation that in most of the state would require builders of new homes using septic systems to install more costly models that reduce water pollution. The Maryland Department of the Environment acknowledges that the requirement could add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home. Maryland builders contend that the added cost is not justified by scientific findings. The proposal would accomplish by regulation a goal that environmental advocates tried to achieve in 2009 through legislation: to require use of the new technology virtually statewide.

Tara M.Adelberg, KiaraMichelle Alexander, April Ashley Allen, Antonio Dwayne Allender, Guy Alon, Josh C. Arinze, Maximilliam WildeAshley, Elizabeth Grace Astor, Ryan Michael AuCoin, Alexander Joseph Ayers Arielle Jennifer Baird, Aubrey Baird, Rachel Balenson, NicholasDavid Beall, Travis Dwayne Bednar, GraceAmeliaBerman, Gia Beverati, GracelynPaige Biamonte, J. Bradley Bowers, Thomas Brailsford, Kenneth D.Brantley, Keenon A'hmon Brice, Imani Brianna...

Harford County government's green star for the third quarter was awarded to Denise Carnaggio, deputy director of the Office of Economic Development, for reducing and rethinking with technology. Sometimes it's difficult to realize the effort that goes into managing a records repository. In addition to the careful attention to detail required for documents to be categorized and filed correctly, a lot of time and work goes into tracking down files, moving storage boxes, making photocopies and destroying documents whose retention period has expired.

On Wednesday, I was fortunate to have attended Medea Benjamin's talk on drone warfare at the Pratt Library. It's time Americans began to understand and speak out against the misuse of this technology. There is no basic problem with unmanned aerial vehicles, but their deployment and purpose needs far more oversight. How fortuitous President Barack Obama has begun the conversation ("Setting limits on drones," May 24). Mercifully, the CIA "fly-boys" are to be relieved of their drone duties.

Anne Arundel County firefighters didn't use a ladder to snatch a cat from a tree last week, but rather a thermal imaging device to rescue a kitten inside the wall of a Glen Burnie apartment. Fire department officials said members of Station 26, in South Glen Burnie, responded to the 8000 block of Nolpark Court in on May 24 after getting a call about the possibility of a cat stuck inside the wall of an apartment. Firefighters arrived and said they heard a faint noise sounding like a cat meowing.

These two programs will meet for the third time, but this will be their first matchup in the NCAA tournament. Stevenson has won the previous two contests in this series, including a 12-11 overtime victory on Feb. 12. The No. 4 Mustangs (21-2) have won 10 games in a row and have not dropped a game since April 9. They rank third in Division III in faceoff percentage (69.3 percent) courtesy of junior Brent Hiken and sophomore Sam Wyatt, who rank fourth (71.7) and seventh (67.7), respectively, in individual faceoff success.

Republicans and Democrats appear to agree on at least one thing: that the United States is facing a STEM (science, technology engineering and math) crisis. In his most recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama declared that he wants to "reward schools" that focus on STEM classes, for they are "the skills today's employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future. " And as far to the other end of the political spectrum as you can get, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas deemed May 6-12 to be the first ever "Celebration of STEM Education Week in Texas.

Tara M.Adelberg, KiaraMichelle Alexander, April Ashley Allen, Antonio Dwayne Allender, Guy Alon, Josh C. Arinze, Maximilliam WildeAshley, Elizabeth Grace Astor, Ryan Michael AuCoin, Alexander Joseph Ayers Arielle Jennifer Baird, Aubrey Baird, Rachel Balenson, NicholasDavid Beall, Travis Dwayne Bednar, GraceAmeliaBerman, Gia Beverati, GracelynPaige Biamonte, J. Bradley Bowers, Thomas Brailsford, Kenneth D.Brantley, Keenon A'hmon Brice, Imani Brianna...

I first want to commend The Sun's editorial board for their spot on assessment of expanding same-day voter registration to include change of party affiliation ("Voting early and easily," Jan. 22). As an independent voter and advocate of open primaries, this alternative is probably the closest compromise third party voters will get with a Democratic legislature. And please don't take my sincere compliment of this position lightly, as it comes rarely for the positions taken by this paper.

In less than a generation, mobile communications have evolved from a luxury item to an essential element of everyday life. With nearly 7 billion devices in use, mobile communications are nearly ubiquitous, impacting the way we work and live throughout the world every day. As the use of mobile cellular communications continues to expand rapidly, the federal government and Maryland must continue to keep pace with emerging technologies and enact policies...