Independence Day Solar Fireworks
NASA – This image, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the M5.3 class solar flare that peaked on July 4, 2012, at 5:55 AM EDT. The flare is shown in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength that is particularly good for capturing the radiation emitted from flares. The wavelength is typically colorized in teal as shown here. Image Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/Helioviewer
Posted in Nature, Science, SPACE WATCH, Technology
Tagged Earth, NASA, Solar Dynamic Observatory, Solar flare, Sun
By Roger Kimball – My friend Michael Walsh wrote a column called “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Except, of course, that we will.
Congress has power, including the power to tax. But, Madison says to the skeptics, those powers are enumerated. So not to worry.
“what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon?”
Got that? Not even a full stop separates the investiture of Congress with power from the qualification and limitation of those powers. Madison’s logic is irresistible: more> http://tinyurl.com/cb2tqmo
By Kate Knibbs – In the next few years, your home Internet bills may go up… and up… and up.
The days of unlimited high-speed Internet may be over, as broadband companies adopt metered plans similar to mobile carrier‘s usage-based billing plans.
The lack of competition among major broadband providers means they might be able to get away with it for a while, which suggests Internet users are in for a shock in the near future. more> http://tinyurl.com/crow4wr
Posted in Broadband, Net, telecom
Tagged Bandwidth cap, Broadband, Broadband Internet access, Internet, Internet service provider, United States
By Julia Kukiewicz – From early next year, internet service providers (ISPs) will be able to offer fibre to the home (FTTH) broadband capable of speeds up to 330Mbps at first installation. With a bit of tweaking down the line these ‘all fibre’ connections could deliver up to 1Gbps, about 140 times faster than the UK’s average broadband speed at the moment, in a few years.
Whether Cardiff will be much impressed is another matter.
Last year, BT Openreach complained that take up of their FTTC service in Cardiff was woeful. more> http://tinyurl.com/7lrtt85
Posted in Broadband, Economy, Net, telecom
Tagged Broadband, BT Openreach, Cardiff, Fiber to the x, FTTC, FTTH, Internet, Internet service provider, Openreach, Super regions
BOOK REVIEW
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Author: Alain de Botton.
By Steve Denning – Two hundred and thirty six years ago today (July 4), the Second Continental Congress adopted Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence and declared “the pursuit of Happiness” to be “an inalienable Right” of the people.
We are the heirs of the ambitious goal of Rousseau, Jefferson and Franklin: we dare to believe that we can both do work and experience deep satisfaction from doing it. It is now as impossible for us to think that we could do no work and be happy as it was impossible for Aristotle to think that we could be both employed and free. Finding meaning in work and at work has become part of what it means to be human.
Yet our management practices have not responded to the challenge. The hierarchical bureaucracies that are still pervasive in today’s large organizations are systematically making employees miserable. more> http://tinyurl.com/7q4lnxd
