The 2012 presidential election will be won by the candidate who can convince voters that he has the vision to lift the nation out of the economic doldrums. The economy is the right topic, but the discussion neglects the true driver of the country's prosperity: scientific and technological enterprise. Half of the U.S. economic growth since World War II has come from advances in science and technology. To neglect that power—and the government's role in priming the pump—would be foolish.

The auto industry is a case in point. President Barack Obama makes much out of having rescued Detroit's carmakers from bankruptcy. This achievement won't hold up, however, unless the thousands of small auto-parts manufacturers down the supply chain stay globally competitive. One way to help them would be to foster initiatives like the National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium, which is providing independent manufacturers potent information technology at Purdue University and the Ohio Supercomputer Center. By harnessing this science and technology strength, we can generate a competitive advantage for small businesses.

President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney ought to be talking about how to use programs like this to bring about the kind of success that Germany has achieved. The German government encourages a close partnership between technical universities and industrial manufacturers; it supports centers where scientists and engineers pursue fundamental research in close proximity to industrial colleagues investigating more applied technologies. German battery makers, for instance, work with technical universities on nanotechnology, while textile makers contribute to research in carbon fibers for composite fabrics. Could there be a grander vision for harnessing U.S. research talent in this way? On this, both candidates have been silent.

The sovereign credit rating of the U.S. will be cut as “fiscal theater” plays out in the world’s biggest economy, according to Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the world’s largest bond fund.

“The U.S. will get downgraded, it’s a question of when,” Scott Mather, Pimco’s head of global portfolio management, said today in Wellington. “It depends on what the end of the year looks like, but it could be fairly soon after that.”

The Congressional Budget Office has warned the U.S. economy will fall into recession if $600 billion of government spending cuts and tax increases take place at the start of 2013. Financial markets are complacent about whether the White House and Congress will reach agreement on deferring the so-called fiscal drag on the economy until later next year, Mather said.

In a “base case” of President Barack Obama being re- elected and Congress becoming more Republican, there is a high likelihood an agreement “doesn’t happen in a nice way, and we have disruption in the marketplace,” he said.

After years of chatter, false starts and dashed hopes, it is now official: Ghostbusters 3 will start shooting. That’s right, folks: Starting next summer, Ivan Reitman will begin directing the likes of Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver. Noticeably absent, of course, is Bill Murray, who has zero interest in the project.

Aykroyd confirmed the sad news last August, saying, “Ghostbusters 3 can be a successful movie without Bill. My preference would be to have him involved but at this point he doesn’t seem to be coming and we have to move on. It’s time to make the third one.”

To soften the blow of a no-Murray Ghostbusters, cast members from the original 1984 flick, Annie Potts and Ernie Hudson, will join the aforementioned trio; Anna Faris and Eliza Dushku are also set to star. The new film will center around the founders of the ghost-catching agency teaching a new generation of wannabe heroes. It’s been 23 years since Ghostbusters 2 debuted.

When one female cosplayer decried her experience with sexual harassment last week at New York Comic Con, she met with dead silence on the con floor.

But 40,000 reblogs later, the applause from Tumblr is overwhelming.

“At Comic Con today, I went as Black Cat,” 23-year-old Mandy Caruso wrote Friday on her Tumblr, beautilation.

After speaking to what she describes as the usual but well-intentioned socially awkward encounters, she describes a disturbing incident of sexual harassment in front of an audience:

This group of men from some kind of Stan Lee fan club blah blah internet video channel blah blah asked to interview with them on camera about Comic Con. I said well okay, sure. Camera is rolling. The “host” is a middle aged, rotund dude. It’s an all-male crew and lots of people (mostly guys) were beginning to crowd around. The following is the interview as burned in my mind. Keep in mind that I expected this to be about Comic Con in general.

Erotic film icon Sylvia Kristen sadly passed away on Wednesday Oct. 17 after losing her battle with cancer — how sad.

Sylvia Kristen, who starred in the groundbreaking 1974 film Emmanuelle, died of cancer on Wednesday Oct. 17 at 60 years old.

Sylvia became one of the biggest movie start to emerge from the Netherlands, starring in over 50 international films including sequels to Emmanuelle.

Sylvia has love to thank for her career as “love dictated what I did,” she said in a 2005 interview.

While casting Emmanuelle, director Just Jaeckin noticed Sylvia’s stark beauty. (Can we all agree that Sylvia looks a lot like Kristen Stewart?)

“When I saw her face, I was thunderstruck,” he said. “I saw a quantity of very beautiful girls.” When he saw Kristel, he immediately knew ,”‘This is Emmanuelle.’”

Our thoughts are with Sylvia’s family and friends at this difficult time.

The new study, published online in the journal Addiction, explores the relationship between exposure to other people’s smoke and everyday memory problems.

The scientists compared a group of current smokers with two groups of non-smokers – those who were regularly exposed to second-hand smoke and those who were not.

Those exposed to second-hand smoke either lived with smokers or spent time with smokers, for example in a designated ‘smoking area,’ and reported being exposed to second-hand smoke for an average of 25 hours a week for an average of four and a half years.

The three groups were tested on time-based memory (remembering to carry out an activity after some time) and event-based memory (which refers to memory for future intentions and activities).

The team found that the non-smokers who had been exposed to second-hand smoke forgot almost 20 per cent more in the memory tests than those non-smokers not exposed. However, both groups out-performed the current smokers who forgot 30 per cent more than those who were not exposed to second-hand smoking.

“According to recent reports by the World Health Organization, exposure to second-hand smoke can have serious consequences on the health of people who have never smoked themselves, but who are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke,” said lead author Dr Tom Heffernan of the Northumbria University’s Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group.