The company plans to launch software called Latitude on Wednesday that lets mobile phone users share their location with close contacts. Google hopes it will help people find each other while out and about and to keep track of loved ones.

“Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.”

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Gary Thuerk, who at the time worked for Digital Equipment Corp., sent what is believed to be the first spam message, an invitation to an open house for a new DEC computer (a VAX 11/780?) that he sent to 400 of the 2,600 or so people who had email accounts on the ARPANET at the time.

Thuerk claims that his email generated about $12 million in new sales. However, many people who received his email also got highly irritated, complained to US Defense Department (which operated the net) which in turn told him never to do it again. Thuerk says he never did, either.

Thuerk also said in the story that “people have one of three reactions when they meet him: Some are excited to meet someone with an unusual claim to fame; some want to beat him up on the spot; and others just avoid him like the plague.”

There was an AP story last week on the Army’s “exoskeleton” robotic suit being developed by Sarcos Inc (now owned by Raytheon) that potentially will “multiply a person’s strength and endurance as many as 20 times.”

“Jack Obusek, a former colonel now with the Army’s Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in the Boston suburb of Natick, foresees robot-suited soldiers unloading heavy ammunition boxes from helicopters, lugging hundreds of pounds of gear over rough terrain or even relying on the suit to make repairs to tanks that break down in inconvenient locations,” according to the story.

The suit is still not practical: it is very expensive, and the suit’s battery life currently lasts only 30 minutes.

Need some extra cash this fall?  The FBI is looking for a good informant…

—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership

“This is all part of a larger government effort to quell political dissent,” says Jordan Kushner, an attorney who represented Ganley and other Critical Mass arrestees. “The Joint Terrorism Task Force is another example of using the buzzword ‘terrorism’ as a basis to clamp down on people’s freedoms and push forward a more authoritarian government.”

MN House members have approved a resolution urging Congress to normalize relations with Cuba. The debate featured pictures and recollections of Cuban trade missions and a greeting from former Minnesota Twins star Tony Oliva, who is from the Caribbean island.

Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, says the lifting of trade and travel restrictions could bring Cuban pineapples and coconuts to Minnesota and open a new market for soybeans, corn and even Spam. Cuba has been under a U.S. embargo since the 1960s.

Starting in 2009, the federal government will require all states to have a ‘REAL ID’ card. The REAL ID would form a standardized identification card for all 50 states, in an effort to protect against terrorism and fraud.

But Minnesota can choose not to accept the program. However, if the state doesn’t implement the REAL ID program, Minnesotans would not be able to use a state drivers license to board a commercial airliner.

“REAL ID is real in the sense that it’s happening — it’s required by federal law,” explained Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

One of the main problems that the Governor and the legislature are grappling with is the expense of the REAL ID program. It could cost Minnesota $11 billion over five years and U.S. Congress has only approved $40 million to help states pay for it. “We don’t need the federal government telling us that we need to put in place a card that meets their requirements at our people’s expenses,” said state Sen. Mee Moua.

Moua supports a U.S. Senate bill that states Minnesota would refuse to take part unless the federal government pays 95 percent of the cost. The state has until 2009 to decide whether to implement REAL ID.

They promise no airport jobs losses and that new, bigger Delta will live up to state commitmentsSteenland, the Northwest chief, said there would be “zero job loss” for Northwest at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a result of the deal. And for the handful of Delta flights at the Twin Cities airport, the ramp work already is outsourced, said Delta’s Anderson.

Northwest now employs about 11,500 in Minnesota, down more than 8,000 from 2000.

The Delta-Northwest merger still has many obstacles ahead, including an antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice, congressional hearings and integration of its pilots unions’ seniority lists.

The biggest issue facing the merging companies? Which brand of soft-drinks to serve – Northwest serves Pepsi, Delta serves Coke. My guess: there’s no way Delta will serve anything but Coke.

Stories via MPR’s Polinaut blog’s Daily Digest.

Related news: Wired has the scoop on Delta’s new passenger flight safety video and its starlet “Deltalina.”

Plus, Wired comments on a ridiculous, terrible, new, anti-hijacking product: electronic passenger bracelet that will allow the crew to zap would-be hijackers.