Lighting Up the Night

SPACE WATCH
Tom Moler/NASA – Lights and space shuttle Discovery are reflected in the water as it rolls to the pad on its final planned mission to the International Space Station. more> http://tinyurl.com/2ddkekc

IBM characterizes single-atom DRAM

By R. Colin Johnson – The ultimate memory chips of the future will encode bits on individual atoms, a capability recently demonstrated for iron atoms by IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., which unveiled a new pulsed technique for scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs).

Pulsed-STMs yield nanosecond time-resolution, a requirement for designing the atomic-scale memory chips, solar panels and quantum computers of the future. Today’s DRAM cells must have their bits refreshed every 50 milliseconds or so, but by using its new pulsed-STM technique, IBM has now observed that single iron atoms will need to be refreshed about every 250 nanoseconds—about 200,000 times faster. more> http://tinyurl.com/23d2tev #ibmexperience

related>

• IBM technology

New FCC white space rules: inside the Satanic details

By Matthew Lasar – The FCC has released its Second Memorandum Opinion and Order, which ties the knot on about half a dozen sticky wicket issues related to the gizmos—most notably whether they should be required to use spectrum sensing devices as well as geo-location and databases to avoid interfering with TV stations.

Under the rules, TV bands devices have to check on analog broadcasting activity in their area every 60 seconds. But the Order also required an automatic sensing test for wireless microphones and other “low power auxiliary signals” streaming at a certain threshold every 30 seconds. If a device sensed one, it would have to stop transmitting on that channel in the proverbial two seconds flat. more> http://tinyurl.com/2wx5bcw

related>

• Federal Communications Commission Opens Up Unused Television Signals For Wireless Broadband, AP, CBS News http://tinyurl.com/25yx787

Elizabeth Warren: Why Credit Is Still Frozen

By John Tozzi – Wall Street banks cut back small business lending by 9 percent, more than double their 4 percent cutback in overall lending. Small business lending is expensive. It falls between consumer lending, which is driven almost entirely by numbers like credit scores or Zip Codes and pays off in volume, and large business lending, which is very much about relationships but pays off in very large fees per transaction. Small business lending has proportionally more expense associated with each loan. more> http://tinyurl.com/39df4lj

related>

• What We Don’t Know About Small Business Lending, John Tozzi, BusinessWeek http://tinyurl.com/2bmnf38
• IMF warns against currency war, US dollar lower
• With free money, BOJ enters last resort territory
• Bernanke flies with deficit hawks
• UBS, Credit Suisse May Need to Boost Capital to 19%
• The Future Is Now: A Balanced Plan to Stabilize Public Debt and Promote Economic Growth
• IMF Urges More Comprehensive Reform of the Global Financial System
• Money, Markets, and Sovereignty
• Lloyd’s Levene Says Excess Regulation Risks Competitiveness
• Banking sector still vulnerable, says ECB
• Two Myths About the U.S. Dollar
• Brazil claims “global currency war” has broken out, but we have an ‘arsenal’
• The Credit Meltdown and the Shadow Banking System
• Truth Deficit
• SEC wants tighter debt-disclosure rules for financial companies
• The Global Rebalancing Mirage
• Basel III — Tightening the Noose on Credit
• The Fed’s gold problem
• IMF fears ‘social explosion’ from world jobs crisis
• The Dirty Little Secret Of Basel III
• The Challenges of Growth, Employment, and Social Cohesion
• Financial markets are still ruled by instant gratification

Small-Businesses Bill Gets Final Approval in Congress

By Brian Faler – The House today passed 237-187 a measure offering tax cuts, loans and revived stimulus provisions to ease the flow of credit and show voters that Democrats are trying to boost the economy. The bill, approved by the Senate last week, goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Republicans objected to provisions creating a $30 billion program in which the Treasury Department would buy preferred shares in community banks, with participants paying the government dividends on a scale depending on how much they increase lending. more> http://tinyurl.com/2fotl4v