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Today's Topics:
1. NPP Satellite Sensor Damaged in Testing (Dishnut)
2. Congress must keep broadband competition alive (George Antunes)
3. Emulating Hizballah, Hamas Launches Satellite TV Station
(George Antunes)
4. Fee talk creates some turbulence (Greg Williams)
5. Chicago's Daley: By 2016, cameras on 'almost every block'
(Greg Williams)
6. Tiny shooting stars to brighten the sky tonight (Greg Williams)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 02:48:17 -0700
From: Dishnut <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] NPP Satellite Sensor Damaged in Testing
To: Medianews <medianews@twiar.org>, Tom & Darryl Mail List
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
NPP Satellite Sensor Damaged in Testing
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 20 October 2006
2:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON -- A flight-demonstration sensor for the next-generation of
U.S. polar-orbiting weather satellites sustained damage during testing
Oct. 11, but program officials said the mission?s launch schedule should
not be affected.
The sensor, dubbed the Cross-track Infrared Sounder, was damaged during
acceptance testing at the Ft. Wayne, Ind., facilities of its builder,
ITT Corp. The sensor is part of the payload package aboard a precursor
satellite to the U.S. civil-military National Polar-orbiting Operational
Environmental Satellite System, or NPOESS.
The precursor mission, a multi-agency effort known as the NPOESS
Preparatory Project (NPP), is scheduled to launch in September 2009.
Government and industry program officials said the mishap, which
occurred during a vibration test meant to prove the instrument is tough
enough to survive launch, appeared unlikely to delay NPP?s liftoff.
U.S. Air Force Col. Dan Stockton, the NPOESS program director,
acknowledged Oct. 19 in a brief written statement that the Cross-track
Infrared Sounder had been damaged and vowed that it would be fixed.
?Any problem of this nature is serious. We have deployed resources of
the [Departments of Commerce and Defense] and NASA to work with the
contractor team to evaluate and fix the problem,? Stockton said.
NPOESS is a joint effort of the Air Force and National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, with NASA as the junior partner. NASA has
the lead in the NPP mission. Andrew Carson, the NASA program executive
for the NPP and NPOESS programs, told Space News in an Oct. 19 e-mail
that if the NPP mission does fall behind schedule, the setback with the
Cross-track Infrared Sounder probably would not be to blame. He said the
NPP?s current launch date, a full three years later than originally
planned, is driven primarily by how long it takes to complete one of the
spacecraft?s other instruments, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer
Suite.
?Delivery of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite is on the
critical path for the launch of NPP in September 2009,? Carson said in
his e-mail. The Cross-track Infrared Sounder ?vibration failure review
team is taking a cautious, methodical approach to determine the root
cause of the failure. It is too early in the investigation to say how
much redesign or rework will be necessary, however it is not expected
that the delivery of the? flight unit will slip beyond the delivery of?
the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite.
That instrument, being built by El Segundo, Calif.-based Raytheon Space
and Airborne Systems, has been widely labeled the driving factor behind
the NPOESS cost and schedule problems leading up to the decision to
restructure the program.
Sally Koris, a spokeswoman for NPOESS prime contractor Northrop Grumman
Space Technology of Redondo Beach, Calif., said in an Oct. 19 e-mail
that the test setback is expected to have minimal impact on completion
of the NPP spacecraft.
?Based on the information we have at this time, we believe there is
sufficient margin in the program?s schedule to accommodate analysis and
repair of the sensor prior to its required delivery date to NPP,? Koris
wrote. ?Meanwhile, a flight-like? engineering development unit will be
used to test and verify mechanical and electrical interfaces between the
sensor and the spacecraft.?
The NPP spacecraft is being built by Boulder, Colo.-based Ball Aerospace
and Technologies Corp. under contract to NASA. Northrop Grumman is
overseeing development of NPP?s instruments since subsequent models will
fly aboard the NPOESS satellites, which are slated to start launching in
2013.
Koris said in her e-mail that the Cross-track Infrared Sounder ?was
undergoing a planned series of acceptance tests when it sustained
structural damage in the instrument frame.? She said review boards made
up of government and industry personnel have been convened to
investigate the incident and ?determine if this is a manufacturing
problem, a test configuration or test fixture problem, operator error or
a design issue.?
Bernice Borrelli, a spokeswoman for Rochester, N.Y.-based ITT Space
Systems Division, said in an e-mail that the sensor development program
?will incur a schedule movement but it will not impact the NPP schedule.?
Ball Aerospace spokeswoman Roz Brown said Oct. 19 that prior to the
testing incident Ball expected to take delivery of the sounder Jan. 3
and begin integrating it with the NPP spacecraft bus around Jan. 10. She
said Ball Aerospace also does not expect the setback to impact NPP?s
launch schedule but was awaiting NASA?s assessment of the situation.
--
Dishnut-P
====================================================================
Operator of RadioFree Dishnuts - Producer of The Dishnut News
heard Saturdays at 10pm EST. on
RFD, W0KIE Satellite Radio Network IA-6 (T6) Transponder 1 / 6.2 & 6.8Mhz
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**In Loving Memory of Mom (Dishnut Gerry)**
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 10:18:18 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Congress must keep broadband competition alive
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed;
x-avg-checked=avg-ok-56ED659A
Congress must keep broadband competition alive
By Lawrence Lessig
Financial Times
Published: October 18 2006 18:51
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a27bdb16-5ecd-11db-afac-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=73adc504-2ffa-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8.html
The question of internet ?network neutrality? has been bounced around by
Washington policymakers for more than a year. Yet most still have no idea
what it means. Google?s gobbling of YouTube should make this critically
important policy issue quite clear. For the phenomenal success of YouTube
is testimony to the extraordinary value of a neutral internet.
YouTube is the internet?s latest marvel. Less than two years old, this
video-sharing site draws an audience that rivals major television networks.
Some videos are television shows or films a user thinks others would like
to see. But many are user-created video, either funny or very serious. The
internet pulses with the latest YouTube hits.
But YouTube is not the only video-sharing service. Indeed, Google Video,
launched just before YouTube, is one of its most prominent competitors.
Google Video was good but YouTube was better. Precisely why is hard to say.
YouTube aggressively deployed superior technology and no doubt many were
happier to share content on this upstart site than with a company seen as
The Establishment.
YouTube could beat Google because the internet provided a level playing
field. The owners of pipes delivering video content to users on the
internet did not prefer one service over the other. The owners of pipes
simply passed the packets of data to users as the users chose. No doubt
Google and YouTube worked to make that content flow as fast as possible by
buying caching servers and fast connections. But once it was on the
internet, the network owner showed no preference, serving each competitor
equally.
Network owners now want to change this by charging companies different
rates to get access to a ?premium? internet. YouTube, or blip.tv, would
have to pay a special fee for their content to flow efficiently to
customers. If they do not pay this special fee, their content would be
relegated to the ?public? internet ? a slower and less reliable network.
The network owners would begin to pick which content (and, in principle,
applications) would flow quickly and which would not.
If America lived in a world of real competition among broadband providers,
there would be little reason to worry about such deals. But it does not
live in that world. In the US, at least, broadband competition is dying.
There are fewer competitors offering consumers broadband connectivity today
than there were just six years ago. The median consumer has a choice
between just two broadband providers. Four companies account for a majority
of all consumer broadband; 10 account for 83 per cent of the market.
This absence of competition puts new applications and content on the
internet at risk. For if network owners are permitted to set up internet
toll booths, imposing a special tax on providers of content and
applications, then it will be the new innovators who bear the burden of
these taxes most heavily. The point is obvious when you think about the
history of YouTube. Had network owners been charging an access premium,
investors in an upstart like YouTube would have had good reason to think
twice. All taxes are a barrier, but this tax would be a particularly high
barrier to innovation. It would hinder newcomers such as YouTube by
favouring established companies such as Google and Yahoo.
Network owners say this is worth it as their tax will help fund the
development of a faster network for everyone. But will it? When you can
charge content providers a premium for access to a premium internet, what
incentive is there to improve the rest of the internet? If the regular
internet is fast and reliable, why would a Google or YouTube pay for the
premium? The better the ?public internet? is, the less valuable premium
service becomes. Bandwidth scarcity becomes a business model that conflicts
with the dream of a fast, ubiquitous network.
The answer is not a massive programme of regulation. It is instead a very
thin rule for broadband providers that forbids business models that favour
scarcity over abundance. That is the aim of the very best ?network
neutrality? legislation. Network owners would be free to compete in all the
ways that push deployment and drive down prices. They would be blocked from
models where more profit for them means less broadband for us.
The US is facing a competitive crisis in broadband deployment. Yet as it
continues to fall behind its competitors, the Federal Communications
Commission continues to live in denial. The more it has ?deregulated?
telecommunications, the worse (comparatively) broadband competition and
service have become. When it was 10th in the world George W.Bush, US
president, said that ?10th is 10 spots too low?. The nation is now 16th.
Broadband in the US is 12 times the price in Japan and six times the price
in France.
Network neutrality legislation alone will not solve those problems. But it
will make sure that the one bright spot in the internet economy ? the one
place where vigorous competition continues ? will be protected. Congress
needs to remove the incentive to keep broadband in its currently hobbled
state. A thin rule of network neutrality could help do just that.
--------------
Lawrence Lessig is fellow at the American Academy in Berlin and a professor
of law at Stanford Law School
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 10:30:54 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Emulating Hizballah, Hamas Launches Satellite TV
Station
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed;
x-avg-checked=avg-ok-56ED659A
Emulating Hizballah, Hamas Launches Satellite TV Station
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
October 20, 2006
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200610/INT20061020a.html
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Cash-strapped Hamas launched a satellite
television station this week that will broadcast throughout the Middle
East. Analysts say the move is an attempt to emulate Hizballah, which runs
an influential television station (Al-Manar) in Lebanon.
"The Light of Al-Aqsa" satellite station, which started broadcasting on
Sunday, will help Hamas "boost its capabilities in the battle for hearts
and minds," a report from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
said this week.
(The Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the third holiest
site in Islam and a rallying cry in the Palestinians' battle against Israel.)
"The satellite broadcasts will allow Hamas to disseminate its radical
messages not only among target audiences in the Palestinian Authority
administered territories, but also throughout the entire Arab world and
even among Arab/Muslim communities in South European countries, which fall
within the broadcasting range," the report said.
For now, the station is airing only archival footage of the Al-Aqsa Mosque
and religious songs, but the new channel gives Hamas a broadcasting
platform. Earlier this year, Hamas launched a private, local television
station in the Gaza Strip in the run-up to Palestinian elections with the
goal of expanding to satellite broadcasts.
At the time senior Hamas official Fathi Hammad was quoted as saying that
the television station was intended to spread Hamas' political and Islamic
ideology to challenge "the Western culture that has invaded our territory."
Hizballah duplication
"It isn't the first time a terrorist organization launches a television
station," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "They are
trying to duplicate Hizballah's pattern of behavior."
Hizballah's Al-Manar station has successfully spread Islamic propaganda,
even during the Israeli-Hizballah war this summer.
But according to Regev, Hamas' emulation of Hizballah doesn't stop with a
television station.
They are arming themselves with weaponry with the help of Hizballah's
allies Syria and Iran, who are "trying to get munitions and military
technology into the Gaza Strip [in order to] upgrade Hamas' war machine,"
said Regev.
Palestinian terrorists already have launched Syrian-made Grad rockets at
Israel from the Gaza Strip, Regev said.
Since Tuesday, the Israeli army has uncovered 15 tunnels that the army says
are used to smuggle weapons from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.
"We are very concerned about all the tunnels," said Regev. "There are very
real concerns on our side [that there is] a desire in Gaza to [develop] a
Hizballah-type military machine [with the help of] external supporters Iran
and Syria," he said.
Big bucks
The launch of the television station comes at a time when Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip are under extreme financial duress because of international
sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority when the Hamas government
came to power.
The Quartet - the U.S., European Union, Russia and the United Nations --
has said it will not remove the sanctions against the P.A. until Hamas -
which is sworn to the destruction of Israel - recognizes the Jewish State,
abandons terrorism and agrees to abide by previous agreements between
Israel and the Palestinians.
Quoting the Palestinian Maan News Agency, the Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center report says that the new channel signed a
$300,000-a-year operating contract with Arabsat.
It is not clear where the money is coming from to fund the new television
station. But according to the Council on Foreign Relations, historically
Hamas has received its funding from Palestinian expatriates, private donors
in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states as well as Iran and some
Muslim charities in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe.
On Thursday, the trial opened in Chicago of two Arab-Americans accused of
having funneled money to Hamas for years.
Arabsat is funded and operated by most members of the 22-nation Arab
League. According to Arabsat's website, Saudi Arabia is the biggest
contributor, financing more than 36 percent of Arabsat's capital.
Until 2003 when the U.S. threatened to boycott Saudi banks, Saudi Arabia
was one of the main supporters of Hamas.
Egypt and Jordan, which are involved in the Israeli-Palestinian process,
are also contributors to Arabsat.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:12:03 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Fee talk creates some turbulence
To: Media News <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/orl-nbaa1906oct19,0,2472299.story?coll=orl-business-headlines-tourism
Fee talk creates some turbulence
Arnold Palmer and other private fliers oppose a plan to pay for the
air-traffic control system.
A single conversation has dominated talk among the business jet set here
this week for an annual meeting -- a proposal by commercial airlines to
make private fliers pay user fees for the national air-traffic control
system.
The National Business Aviation Association has used its three-day show,
which ends today, to rally private aviation users to campaign against
the plan that would increase the cost of flying by as much as $100,000
per plane each year.
"Why in the world would we want to change a structure that works so
well?" asked golf legend and pilot Arnold Palmer, one of the group's
most high-profile champions.
Next year, the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to release
its plan to continue the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which pays for
the agency's operations such as the radar systems and air-traffic
controllers who police the skies.
Commercial airlines and private fliers support the fund through taxes,
with the airlines passing the cost along to passengers with a fee on
each ticket. The Air Transport Association, the lobby group that
represents commercial carriers, says its own share plus the current fuel
taxes that private jet owners pay will not be enough to maintain the
trust fund and afford needed technology upgrades.
"We have an air-traffic control system that is in crisis," said ATA
President James May. "We have an aging system that was originally
designed and built back in the '40s that's been stressed to its limits."
May said the average number of flights per day is expected to jump from
42,000 this year to 62,000 in the next decade.
Much of that growth is projected to come from business aircraft, which
have soared in number since 9-11 when security and scheduling hassles
turned many CEOs away from commercial flights and toward private jets.
"We don't need to subsidize corporate fat cats zooming around the
country in these planes at the expense of customers of the airline
industry," May said.
Officials of NBAA, whose board members include executives from PepsiCo,
Exxon Mobil, Anheuser-Busch Cos. and Target Corp., say the user-fee
proposal is not about making business fliers pay their fair share. It's
about commercial airlines wanting to pay less while they gain more
control of the air-traffic system, they said.
"The airlines have put a bull's-eye right in the middle of the back of
NBAA," said Tom Poberezny, president of the Experimental Aircraft
Association. "Do we pay our fair share? Absolutely."
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey has not said how user fees, if any, will
be included in the agency's budget proposal next year, but the agency
has indicated it may accept the idea in the past. On Tuesday, Blakey
addressed NBAA's opening session and called for big funding changes.
"We need a stable, cost-based revenue stream," she said. "The changing
face of aviation brings with it the need to modernize, and we can't do
that without fundamental reforms of the current financing system."
NBAA President Ed Bolen has called on the group's members to reach out
to Congress, which ultimately must approve the FAA's plan.
He even solicited the help of pundit duo James Carville, a longtime
Democratic strategist, and wife Mary Matalin, a GOP adviser, to clue
members into the political landscape heading into next month's midterm
Congressional elections.
"The airlines are coming after you," Carville told the group. "You've
got to get involved in your association."
Bob Showalter, chairman of Showalter Flying Services Inc. at Orlando
Executive Airport, said user fees would likely cause a dramatic dip in
business for operators such as his business because the cost of flying
could rise substantially.
Business aviation advocates said the proposal is, in part, an effort to
put them out of business as they've grown to become competitors to
commercial airlines.
May, president of the airline lobby, discounted the notion that
commercial carriers are threatened by business aviation and that
business flights would decrease with the addition of user fees. He said
the average increased cost per flight is estimated at less than $500.
"I somehow don't think the CEO of Coca-Cola or Anheuser-Busch or Arnold
Palmer cannot afford to pay a $400 fee for the use of a system that is
modern and safe and enables them to go when and where they please," he said.
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:13:31 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Chicago's Daley: By 2016, cameras on 'almost
every block'
To: Media News <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Daley: By 2016, cameras on 'almost every block'
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/92811,C...bside12.article
October 12, 2006
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Security and terrorism won't be an issue if Chicago wins the right to
host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games because, by that time, there'll be a
surveillance camera on every corner, Mayor Daley said Wednesday.
"By the time 2016 [rolls around], we'll have more cameras than
Washington, D.C. ... Our technology is more advanced than any other city
in the world -- even compared to London -- dealing with our cameras and
the sophistication of cameras and retro-fitting all the cameras downtown
in new buildings, doing the CTA cameras," Daley said.
"By 2016, I'll make you a bet. We'll have [cameras on] almost every block."
The mayor talked about the steady march toward a Big Brother city during
a free-wheeling exchange with the Sun-Times editorial board after
unveiling his proposed 2007 budget.
On development of a CTA superstation at Block 37 that offers premium
service to O'Hare and Midway Airports, Daley appeared to side with CTA
Board Chairwoman Carole Brown over CTA President Frank Kruesi.
He said it makes no sense to charge premium prices for airport service
unless the CTA can find a way to reduce travel times -- by allowing
airport-only trains to bypass regular Blue and Orange Line trains.
"They have to cut certain stations out where no one gets on or off. ...
You have to cut the [travel] time down to 35 minutes," Daley said.
The mayor also put in yet another plug for privatization of state assets
-- and government ownership of Illinois' nine riverboat casinos.
Under Daley's plan, private companies would run the casinos in exchange
for a management fee that amounts to roughly 10 percent of the profits.
The rest would go into a fund for education.
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:31:17 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Tiny shooting stars to brighten the sky tonight
To: Media News <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Tiny shooting stars to brighten the sky tonight
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/21/BAGMTLTH8I1.DTL
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Anyone willing to brave the cold to patiently watch the sky tonight and
perhaps for the next few nights will see the Orionid meteor shower, a
sprinkling of tiny shooting stars that come from the debris left over
from the passage of Halley's comet through the inner solar system.
Although the meteors appear to originate from the constellation Orion,
they will actually be streaking all over the sky at the rate of about 20
to 25 an hour and should be spotted everywhere, said Andrew Fraknoi,
chair of astronomy at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.
Fraknoi's advice: "Go with someone with whom you like to sit in the
dark; dress very warmly; remember that the shower will be at its best
well after midnight but before dawn.
"Don't use binoculars as they'll just limit your vision and prevent you
from watching the entire sky. Be very patient, and don't expect a George
Lucas spectacular."
Halley's comet flies through the inner solar system roughly every 76
years, and during each passage past the sun it sheds some of its dust,
which becomes a shower of meteoroids. The comet last was visible from
Earth in 1986 and won't be visible again until about 2062.
The meteors in the shower mark the brief and fiery flareup of the
meteoroids as they enter Earth's atmosphere. Whenever one survives the
journey and reaches the Earth's surface, it is known as a meteorite.
Tonight's meteor shower is named after Orion because, if all the meteors
were tracked back to their points of origin -- known as radiants -- it
would appear they started from somewhere in the center of the
constellation, near the bright star Betelgeuse.
The Bay Area forecast for tonight's weather: clear and chilly, with
temperatures in the 40s and 50s.
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
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