Space Shuttle Update (50)

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Space Shuttle Discovery Readied for Demate
NASA – NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with the space shuttle Discovery mated on top rolls into position for demating at Washington Dulles International Airport, Wednesday, April 18, 2012, in Sterling, VA. Discovery, the first orbiter retired from NASA’s shuttle fleet, completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles. NASA will transfer Discovery to the National Air and Space Museum to begin its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space and to educate and inspire future generations of explorers. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

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“Cybersecurity” bill endangers privacy rights

By Timothy B. Lee – CISPA’s defenders say the legislation will help the government and private companies to more effectively defend their networks by sharing information about impending security threats.

It’s unclear why new legislation is needed to allow this kind of uncontroversial information sharing to occur. Network administrators and security researchers at private firms have shared threat information with one another for decades. And the law also allows information sharing between private firms and the government in many circumstances. For example, a private company is already free to notify the FBI if it detects an attempt to hack into its network.

The “notwithstanding” approach to cybersecurity is fundamentally flawed because it’s almost impossible to predict which parts of US law might be effectively changed by the new law, or to prevent unintended consequences from unduly broad sharing. It would be far better for Congress to figure out which specific privacy laws (if any) prevent effective network security responses and explicitly reform those provisions. more> http://tinyurl.com/7ks9edv

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Fragile world, fractious leaders

By Stella Dawson – Growth in emerging economies is slowing and the recovery in the United States could be losing some momentum, worrisome developments when European leaders have yet to complete the repairs needed to shore up monetary union.

The situation forms a vulnerable backdrop for finance officials from the world’s leading economies, who gather in Washington this week for the Group of 20/International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings.

The managing director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, has offered this blunt description: “The risks remain high; the situation fragile.” more> http://tinyurl.com/6oqog6k

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Apple and the Revenge of the Phone Carriers

By Roben Farzad – Apple is the largest, most dominant and highly valued company on the planet. It’s measured against entire gross national products. Doubt it at your peril. And yet Apple does not control its own destiny.

“The iPhone,” says analyst Walter Piecyk of brokerage BTIG, “is squeezing margins at wireless operators.” He explains how the carriers’ subsidies, which average about $450 a pop, have fueled the huge success of Apple’s $600 iPhone since it launched five years ago. Originally, the wireless operators were happy to chip in; the iPhone was a boon to the data portion of subscribers’ average monthly bills. Those bills had been falling for decades, what with the advent of “nights & weekends” plans and cheapo prepaid carriers. more> http://tinyurl.com/7djqxj6

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Government Paranoia Leads to Jailing for Cartoon in India

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee attends a news conference in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata September 7, 2008.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Chandrahas Choudhury – States are granted the power to arrest or detain citizens. It follows that governments, which represent the state but are congregations of human actors, should exercise extreme self-restraint in depriving human beings of their liberty, and in particular never use the state’s power to settle personal scores.

All these foundational axioms of democratic civility and integrity were thrown to the wind last week by the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, and her party, the Trinamool Congress, when they swooped down upon and incarcerated a college professor for the earthshaking crime of circulating an e-mail that contained a cartoon mocking Banerjee and two members of her party. more> http://tinyurl.com/7syv4jw

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