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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Google Hauled in $10 Billion of Highly Relevant Money Last Quarter [Google]
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Feds Kill Megaupload (Updated) [Piracy]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/y-0mNyjiKaw/feds-kill-megaupload
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Air Force Launches New Military Communications Satellite Into Orbit (SPACE.com)
An unmanned rocket lit up the Florida night sky Thursday (Jan. 19) as it launched a vital new communications satellite into orbit for the U.S. military ? the first major American space launch of the year.
The Delta 4 rocket roared spaceward from a Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pad carrying the Wideband Global SATCOM 4 satellite, the latest addition to the military's highest capacity communications system in history. Liftoff occurred on time at 7:38 p.m. EST (0038 Jan. 20 GMT).
Built by Boeing, the $464 million WGS-4 satellite is the fourth in a growing constellation of high-capacity satellites that provide tactical communications to and between ground forces, as well as relay data and imagery from surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. The new satellites can provide more than 10 times the communications capacity of its predecessor system, Boeing officials said.
"It's a great feeling to see the launch of this fourth satellite, especially knowing how important the constellation is to our troops in the field," said Capt. Tim Trimailo, the Air Force's Wideband Global Satcom operations and sustainment lead. "WGS is a big upgrade for our nation." [Amazing Rocket Launch Photos]
The WGS system is the only U.S. military communications satellite network capable of providing simultaneous X and Ka band communications, and it offers point-to-point communication, broadcast and multicast services for troops, according to a mission description.
The 13,200-pound (5,987-kilogram) WGS-4 satellite is equipped with solar arrays to generate power and relies on a xenon ion drive for propulsion. It in will fly in a geosynchrounous orbit about 22,369 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth to provide communications services for troops in the Middle East.
Trimailo said there will be a series of tests and checkups to make sure the new satellite is functioning as designed before it gets to work.
"There are still a few months of hard work before we achieve full operations status," he said.
The first WGS satellite was launched in 2007, with two more following in 2009. With WGS-4 now in orbit, the next satellites in the constellation ? WGS-5 and WGS-6 ? are expected to launch by 2013, Boeing officials said.
The Air Force also ordered another satellite for the constellation, WGS-7, from Boeing in September 2011. On Wednesday (Jan. 18), Air Force officials also exercised options for yet two more satellites ? WGS-8 and WGS-9 ? in a deal worth $673 million.
"With these options exercised, we are able to expand the WGS constellation and provide communications resiliency for combatant commanders worldwide," said?Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems, in a statement. "This will give warfighters the ability to ensure that vital communication links are available at all times, even in the event that one or more critical nodes are disabled."
The WGS-9 satellite is funded through an international partnership between the U.S. Air Force, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and New Zealand.
Thursday night's launch was overseen by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that relies on the Atlas and Delta evolved expendable launch vehicle (EELV) families.
"WGS-4 will provide important capabilities to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines protecting our freedoms around the world," said Jim Sponnick, ULA's vice president of mission operations, in a statement. "This mission begins the most aggressive launch campaign in the history of the EELV program, with nine national security and two NASA launches scheduled this year."
Thursday's launch marked the third orbital launch of 2012 and followed two satellite launches by China last week. The next mission for United Launch Alliance will be on Feb. 16, when the company plans to launch an Atlas 5 rocket carrying the U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System 1 satellite.
Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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Cellular Radio Telephone Ad From the 80s Predicts "Cellular Revolution" [Video]
![Click here to read Cellular Radio Telephone Ad From the 80s Predicts "Cellular Revolution"](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uODyQZcNMI-UBNpSBqfJuazbCq_CGK2-40Pfq_SXJ5rs5nx6loRVNMqA675VFLngshAj68FTyI40Poe9LSnORnkmfqoslwm0aq8yq2Wq6Mz5ONdtZnBlAg4PTske3Ita2BxpovI9xxliSDqe6tcvP29Xq-4bV7bjGCbZzm7Q=s0-d "Click here to read Cellular Radio Telephone Ad From the 80s Predicts "Cellular Revolution"")
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Nigeria investigates massive fuel subsidy fraud (Reuters)
LAGOS (Reuters) ? Nigeria has discovered a huge discrepancy in the amount of the motor fuel it subsidizes and what people actually consume, a legislative committee said, supporting the idea that a government scheme to make petrol cheaper is wasteful and corrupt.
President Goodluck Jonathan's government abruptly removed the subsidy on January 1 but strikes and protests by trade unions and civil society forced him to reinstate some of it, although the pump price was increased by 50 percent.
"What we have here is that 59 million liters were discharged by vessels, but the daily consumption locally was 35 million liters," Farouk Lawan, chairman of a House of Representatives committee probing subsidies, told an Abuja sitting late on Wednesday, in comments broadcast on independent station Channels TV on Thursday.
The comments are likely to further stoke the debate over the fuel subsidy, which economists say benefits wealthy fuel importers and smugglers more than ordinary Nigerians.
"There is a gap of 24 million liters per day being funded by Nigerians as subsidy that was not utilized by them. This of course amounts to overpayment; or in other words, sharp practices," the legislator said.
Critics of the subsidy say fuel importers overcharge for fuel in corrupt accounting procedures and that much of the fuel bought for local consumption is anyway shipped over the border to Cameroon and Benin, where it can be sold for a huge profit by smugglers. Both views seem to be supported by Lawan's findings.
"Smuggling has been encouraged by the system ... if local consumption is 35 million liters per day and we are paying for 59 ... we're making available 24 million liters a day for importers to smuggle out," Lawan said.
Lawan's committee is one of several investigations now in place on Nigeria's energy sector that were spurred by the fuel subsidy row, including a Senate probe into subsidies, a probe by the corruption watchdog into the state oil company and price regulator, and an audit of the entire Oil Ministry.
BLAME GAME
Nigeria imports most of the fuel it consumes because its four refineries are decrepit, producing at only a quarter of their installed capacity. The government buys the fuel then sells it to the public at cheap, subsidized prices.
The committee heard the subsidy paid for 24 million liters per day imported by marketers but not consumed by Nigerians amounted to 669 billion naira ($4.14 billion).
Economists say the fuel subsidy encouraged corruption and the wasteful use of fuel. The government had estimated it would save 1 trillion naira ($6.2 billion) in 2012 by eliminating it.
But Nigerians have always fought against its removal because they consider cheap petrol their sole benefit from living in a major crude oil producer which loses billions of dollars to corruption.
Its removal had doubled petrol pump prices to around 150 naira ($0.93) per liter from 65 naira, but Jonathan on Monday partially reinstated the subsidy, pegging the price at 97 naira.
"Subsidy was paid based on what was discharged; that was the practice I met on the ground," Reginald Stanley, head of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, which is in charge of fuel imports, told the committee.
Stanley, who took charge of the agency in 2011, said he had changed the system and from January 1, subsidy would be paid only for fuel actually trucked out of the port for consumption.
Stung by accusations of fraud, Nigeria's fuel marketers took out newspaper advertisements on Thursday, saying changes brought into the Petroleum Support Fund scheme in 2007 were to blame for allowing firms without pump stations to claim the subsidy.
"This saw the emergence of 'briefcase' companies (with no asset base nor accountability) in the PSF scheme," the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria said.
($1 = 161.4300 naira)
(Editing by Tim Cocks)
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LightSquared claims government testing 'rigged' by GPS industry insiders
This is getting interesting. After the recent news that federal testing determined LightSquared's LTE network plans would never work without interfering with GPS (and a cease to any further testing) LightSquared has come back with guns blazing. In a statement, the company has accused the GPS industry of rigging the results by using antiquated equipment, shrouding the entire process in secrecy, and using unrealistic parameters for failure. Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s Executive Vice President of regulatory affairs and public policy, Geoff Stearn, LightSquared’s Vice President for spectrum development, and Edmond Thomas, former chief engineer at the FCC held a press conference and had the following to say:
Testing was shrouded in secrecy, no transparency. The GPS manufacturers cherry-picked the devices in secret without any independent oversight authority in place or input from LightSquared. The GPS manufacturers and the government end users put non-disclosure agreements in place for the PNT EXCOM’s tests, preventing any input by an independent authority or from LightSquared before the tests began. This secrecy made it impossible for independent experts to properly oversee or challenge the process and results, thereby leaving taxpayers who paid for the testing no option but to take the PNT EXCOM’s word for it.
The testing protocol deliberately focused on obsolete and niche market devices that were least able to withstand potential interference. When LightSquared finally obtained a list of the devices tested, after all testing in this first phase of tests had been completed, it was able to determine that the testing included many discontinued or niche market devices with poor filters or no filters. The units tested represent less than one percent of the contemporary universe of GPS devices. In fact, the only mass market device alleged to “fail” during this round of testing performed flawlessly during the Technical Working Group testing, which used best practice protocols agreed to by all parties, thus raising doubts about the integrity of PNT EXCOM’s process.
The testing standard does not reflect reality. To guarantee favorable results, the PNT EXCOM selected an extremely conservative definition of failure – one dB of interference. Independent experts agree that a one dB threshold can only be detected in laboratory settings and has no impact on GPS positional accuracy or user experience. In fact, GPS devices are designed with the ability to withstand eight dB or more of loss of sensitivity due to man-caused and natural interference. By setting the definition of interference at one dB, the testing was rigged to ensure that most receivers would fail. It should be noted that PNT EXCOM and others have justified the one dB threshold by citing an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard. However, that standard explicitly states that it does not apply to general purpose GPS receivers.
They go on to say other great quotables like asking reporters to enquire if it's "fair that taxpayers funded a testing regime they cannot review?" and speaking of violating "conflict of interest" laws. They are serious, and should be. Earlier this month, LightSquared was given just 30 days to get regulatory approval by Sprint, who is a heavy investor and has (had?) plans to use LightSquared's service for their nationwide LTE roll-out. Losing funding from Sprint would be a major financial blow to LightSquared. We're pretty certain Sprint will still be able to roll out their LTE network as planned, but they see an advantage in using LightSquared and would like to see everything resolved as well.
Were the testing procedures rigged? Will LightSquared get another shot with different testing procedures? Will Sprint continue to invest in the company? Join us next week for another episode of the Guiding LightSquared. See the press release after the break.
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/aCNxSLZrtS4/story01.htm
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The Libertarian State of the Union (Capitol Hill Briefing)
CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Noon (Lunch Included)
Featuring Michael Tanner, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; Mark Calabria, Director of Financial Regulation Studies, Cato Institute; Dan Mitchell, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; and Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute; moderated by Laura Odato, Manager of Government Affairs, Cato Institute.
B-338 Rayburn House Office Building
As Barack Obama begins the fourth year of his presidency, what is the real state of our union? The president's policies have left us with continued high unemployment, difficult fiscal realities, ongoing wars, concerns over civil liberties, and general economic malaise. But do Republicans offer any better ideas? Join us for a discussion with Cato experts on what can be done with entitlement, fiscal, legal, and financial policy to solve these problems and promote limited government and economic growth.
Cato events on Capitol Hill are free of charge and open to the public. To register for this event, please fill out the form below and click submit or email events@cato.org, fax (202) 371-0841, or call (202) 789-5229 by noon, Monday, January 23, 2012. News media inquiries only (no registrations), please call (202) 789-5200.
Feeds for Cato events: RSS ? iCal
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL CATO INSTITUTE EVENTS
To register or for more information, call (202) 789-5229, fax (202) 371-0841, or send email.
Due to the ongoing construction and expansion of the Cato Institute,
policy and book forums are NOT being held at our 1000 Massachusetts Ave, N.W. address. Please note the location of each event.Business attire is requested.
For more information about Cato events, please visit Event FAQs.
The Cato Institute is located on the southwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 10th Street. There is on-street, metered parking around the Institute, as well as a lot located on the corner of Eye and 10th Streets. We are approximately 5 blocks from Metro Center. Take the metro to Metro Center and use the 11th Street exit. Walk north so the lettered streets get higher (H, Eye, K, L, Massachusetts). Make a right on L Street, and walk about 1 block. (See map)
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL CATO INSTITUTE EVENTS
To register or for more information, call (202) 789-5229, fax (202) 371-0841, or send email.
Due to the ongoing construction and expansion of the Cato Institute,
policy and book forums are NOT being held at our 1000 Massachusetts Ave, N.W. address. Please note the location of each event.Business attire is requested.
For more information about Cato events, please visit Event FAQs.
The Cato Institute is located on the southwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 10th Street.
There is on-street, metered parking around the Institute, as well as a lot located on the corner
of Eye and 10th Streets. We are approximately 5 blocks from Metro Center. Take the metro to Metro
Center and use the 11th Street exit. Walk north so the lettered streets get higher (H, Eye, K, L,
Massachusetts). Make a right on L Street, and walk about 1 block. (See map)
CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Noon (Lunch Included)
Featuring Michael Tanner, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; Mark Calabria, Director of Financial Regulation Studies, Cato Institute; Dan Mitchell, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; and Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute; moderated by Laura Odato, Manager of Government Affairs, Cato Institute.
B-338 Rayburn House Office Building
As Barack Obama begins the fourth year of his presidency, what is the real state of our union? The president's policies have left us with continued high unemployment, difficult fiscal realities, ongoing wars, concerns over civil liberties, and general economic malaise. But do Republicans offer any better ideas? Join us for a discussion with Cato experts on what can be done with entitlement, fiscal, legal, and financial policy to solve these problems and promote limited government and economic growth.
Cato events on Capitol Hill are free of charge and open to the public. To register for this event, please fill out the form below and click submit or email events@cato.org, fax (202) 371-0841, or call (202) 789-5229 by noon, Monday, January 23, 2012. News media inquiries only (no registrations), please call (202) 789-5200.
Feeds for Cato events: RSS ? iCal
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL CATO INSTITUTE EVENTS
To register or for more information, call (202) 789-5229, fax (202) 371-0841, or send email.
Due to the ongoing construction and expansion of the Cato Institute,
policy and book forums are NOT being held at our 1000 Massachusetts Ave, N.W. address. Please note the location of each event.Business attire is requested.
For more information about Cato events, please visit Event FAQs.
The Cato Institute is located on the southwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 10th Street. There is on-street, metered parking around the Institute, as well as a lot located on the corner of Eye and 10th Streets. We are approximately 5 blocks from Metro Center. Take the metro to Metro Center and use the 11th Street exit. Walk north so the lettered streets get higher (H, Eye, K, L, Massachusetts). Make a right on L Street, and walk about 1 block. (See map)
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL CATO INSTITUTE EVENTS
To register or for more information, call (202) 789-5229, fax (202) 371-0841, or send email.
Due to the ongoing construction and expansion of the Cato Institute,
policy and book forums are NOT being held at our 1000 Massachusetts Ave, N.W. address. Please note the location of each event.Business attire is requested.
For more information about Cato events, please visit Event FAQs.
The Cato Institute is located on the southwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 10th Street.
There is on-street, metered parking around the Institute, as well as a lot located on the corner
of Eye and 10th Streets. We are approximately 5 blocks from Metro Center. Take the metro to Metro
Center and use the 11th Street exit. Walk north so the lettered streets get higher (H, Eye, K, L,
Massachusetts). Make a right on L Street, and walk about 1 block. (See map)
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CatoEvents/~3/eTeT7_DWs2U/event.php
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