Daily Archives: May 3, 2011

Space Shuttle Update (6)


                                                                                                                                        
SPACE WATCH – NASA TV
Boeing: Slide show · Book (pdf)

STS-134/Endeavour
NASA – European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori, a member of the STS-134 crew, is pictured in the rear station of a NASA T-38 trainer jet at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center. During the 14-day mission, STS-134 will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-3, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS), a high-pressure gas tank and additional spare parts for the Dextre robotic helper to the International Space Station. The mission also will be the final spaceflight for Endeavour.

Prepping Endeavour
NASA – At NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A, a technician makes his way across a platform in space shuttle Endeavour’s aft section as work began to remove and replace the aft load control assembly-2. Located in the orbiter’s aft avionics bay 5, the assembly is believed to have caused heaters on a fuel line for Endeavour’s auxiliary power unit-1 to fail April 29, 2011, during the first launch attempt for the STS-134 mission.

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

The U.S. patent process should put innovation first


By Priti Radhakrishnan and Tahir Amin – The crux of the problem? The U.S. Patent Office has failed to uphold high standards for inventiveness, thus permitting drug companies and others to game the patent system to secure lengthy monopolistic protection (in the form of “bad patents”) when it is not justified.

Examples of bad patents abound. The most infamous is the U.S. patent on “crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

This year alone 10 “mega-drugs”—with combined annual sales of nearly $50 billion—will lose patent protection all at once, yet big firms have few novel drugs in their pipelines. Why? Because, rather than investing in path-breaking drug discovery, the industry wrung profits from older molecular compounds, by obtaining new patents on slight variations of the same drug, tweaking dosing levels, or combining two older ingredients into one “new” pill. The result? Minimal innovation, higher drug prices, fewer new treatments. more> http://is.gd/0jETlf

related>

Treasury Blocks Regulation Of Market That Sparked $5.4 Trillion Fed Bailout


By Zach Carter – Financial reform advocates argue that the FX derivatives Treasury wants to shield from regulation would have cratered if the Fed had not established emergency lending facilities with central banks in other countries. As foreign banks clamored for dollars in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Fed pumped $5.4 trillion into those programs, based on calculations by the financial reform group Better Markets, using data from the December Fed audit.

“Only massive, emergency and unlimited Fed intervention in the foreign exchange markets prevented a collapse,” wrote Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the financial reform group Better Markets, in a February letter to Miller. more> http://is.gd/PiL8t1

India helping other nations in conducting polls


electronic voting machinesPTI – “With India we have sought to highlight its excellence in administering elections,” Maria Otero, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs, said in a speech.

India, she said, mobilizes thousands of civil servants to help administer its domestic elections for over 730 million voters.

Early this year, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a telephonic conversation with External Affairs Minister, sought India’s expertise in conducting free and fair elections in Egypt. India has sent quite a number of electronic voting machines to Egypt. more> http://is.gd/CWRNEQ

THOMAS Top Ten – compiled on May 1 2011


CONGRESS WATCH
Congress watchLibrary of Congress -

  1. H.R. 1473 [112th]
    Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
  2. H.R. 1 [112th]
    Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
  3. H.R. 4173 [111th]
    Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
  4. H.R. 25 [112th]
    Fair Tax Act of 2011
  5. H.R. 1363 [112th]
    Department of Defense and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
  6. H.R. 1380 [112th]
    New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011
  7. H.R. 3590 [111th]
    Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
  8. H.R. 3 [112th]
    No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
  9. H.R. 4 [112th]
    Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011
  10. H.R. 1351 [112th]
    United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011