NASA – Apollo 15 lunar module pilot Jim Irwin loaded the lunar rover with tools and equipment in preparation for the first lunar spacewalk at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. The Lunar Module ‘Falcon’ appears on the left in this image. The undeployed Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector lies atop Falcon’s Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly.
Apollo 15 launched 40 years ago today on July 26, 1971, from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
Posted in Economic development, Economy, Nature, Net, SPACE WATCH, Technology, Transportation
Tagged Industrial economy, Manufacturing, Organization, Productivity, Space, Wireless
By Alister Bull – Republican and Democratic lawmakers, despite weeks of intense talks, are far apart on a deal to reduce the budget deficit, which would clear the way for Congress to lift the $14.3 trillion borrowing limit by an August 2 deadline, when the country runs out of cash to pays its bills.
Democrats, who hold sway in the Senate, want to shield cherished healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and say any spending cuts in these must be balanced by changes in the U.S. tax code that generate more revenue in the future.
But Republican lawmakers, who control the House, are adamant they will not vote for a deal that includes tax increases, reflecting the determination of Tea Party conservatives elected last year to shrink government. more> http://is.gd/GJJWbC
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Posted in Banking, CONGRESS WATCH, Economy, Healthcare, Leadership, Regulations
Tagged Capital, Credit, Currency, Debt, Deficit, Financial crisis, Government, Health, Jobs, Monetary policy, Organization, Social economy, Social networks, Super regions
By Jerry Brito and Tate Watkins – A re-engineered, more secure Internet is likely to be a very different Internet than the open, innovative network we know today. A government that controls information flows is a government that will attack anonymity and constrict free speech. After all, the ability to attribute malicious behavior to individuals would require users to identify themselves (or be identifiable to authorities) when logging on. And a capability to track and attribute malicious activities could just as easily be employed to track and control any other type of activity.
Probing and scanning networks are the digital equivalent of trying doorknobs to see if they are unlocked—a maneuver available to even the most unsophisticated would-be hackers. The number of times a computer network is probed is not evidence of a breach, an attack, or even a problem.
Only after disentangling the alleged threats can policy makers assess whether a market failure or systemic problem exists in each case. They can then estimate the costs and benefits of regulation and other alternatives, and determine what if anything Washington must do to address the appropriate issues. more> http://is.gd/pk9Wuv
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By Steve Wexler – A high-performance, shared disk/storage file management system for multipetabytes of data, the GPFS offers fast and reliable access to a common set of files typically found in business intelligence, financial analytics, digital media, big data and seismic data processing applications. The test stand consisted of 10 IBM 3650 M2 servers, each with a 12-MByte processor cache and 32 GBytes of DRAM, and four Violin Memory 3205 solid-state storage systems with an aggregate raw capacity of 10 TBytes and aggregate bandwidth of 5 Gbps.
While four disk drives would probably be sufficient to store the metadata for 10 billion files, they are not nearly fast enough to process it. Managing the metadata for 100 billion files would require about 2,000 disk drives and increase the space, power, and number of controllers needed. Clearly, there is a need for different medium, solid-state devices that have the performance characteristics necessary to solve these problems. more> http://is.gd/qCzvfm
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Posted in Media, Product, Technology
Tagged Electronics, Industrial economy, Organization, Product, Semiconductor, Test & certification
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