SpaceX Plans Worldwide Satellite Internet with Low Latency, Gigabit Speed
November 17th, 2016Anyone remember Teledesic?
Via: Ars Technica:
SpaceX has detailed ambitious plans to bring fast Internet access to the entire world with a new satellite system that offers greater speeds and lower latency than existing satellite networks.
The private spacecraft company founded by CEO Elon Musk filed an application Tuesday for satellite space station authorizations with the US Federal Communications Commission. SpaceX recently said that its satellite service’s commercial availability date has not yet been determined, but the application’s technical description mentioned 2019 as a possible time for launching satellites into orbit.
SpaceX wants to launch 4,425 satellites into low-Earth orbits, with altitudes ranging from 715 miles to 823 miles. By contrast, the existing HughesNet satellite network has an altitude of 22,000 miles.
SpaceX’s plan for low orbits would greatly reduce latency. As we’ve previously written, current satellite Internet systems suffer from high latency, meaning that data packets must travel great distances between Earth and satellites, resulting in noticeable delays for Internet users.
SpaceX expects its own latencies to be between 25 and 35ms, similar to the latencies measured for wired Internet services. Current satellite ISPs have latencies of 600ms or more, according to FCC measurements.
Citibank To Stop Accepting Cash At Some Branches
November 17th, 2016Via: ZeroHedge:
Less than a week after India’s surprise move to scrap its highest denomination cash notes, another front in the War on Cash has intensified down under in Australia.
Yesterday, banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia’s $100 and $50 bills would be “good for the economy and good for the banks.”
(How convenient that a bank would propose something that’s good for banks!)
This isn’t the first time that the financial establishment has pushed for a cashless society in Australia (or anywhere else).
In September 2015, Australian bank Westpac published its “Cash Free Report”, suggesting that the country would become cashless by 2022.
Titanpointe: The NSA’s Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight
November 17th, 2016Via: The Intercept:
Documents obtained by The Intercept from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden do not explicitly name 33 Thomas Street as a surveillance facility. However — taken together with architectural plans, public records, and interviews with former AT&T employees conducted for this article — they provide compelling evidence that 33 Thomas Street has served as an NSA surveillance site, code-named TITANPOINTE.
Inside 33 Thomas Street there is a major international “gateway switch,” according to a former AT&T engineer, which routes phone calls between the United States and countries across the world. A series of top-secret NSA memos suggest that the agency has tapped into these calls from a secure facility within the AT&T building. The Manhattan skyscraper appears to be a core location used for a controversial NSA surveillance program that has targeted the communications of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and at least 38 countries, including close U.S. allies such as Germany, Japan, and France.
It has long been known that AT&T has cooperated with the NSA on surveillance, but few details have emerged about the role of specific facilities in carrying out the top-secret programs. The Snowden documents provide new information about how NSA equipment has been integrated as part of AT&T’s network in New York City, revealing in unprecedented detail the methods and technology the agency uses to vacuum up communications from the company’s systems.
Oil Company Announces Installation of Solar Panels at 5,000 Gas Stations
November 16th, 2016Via: Electrek:
Total, the major French multinational oil and gas company, announced today a $300 million investment to install about 200 MW of solar capacity at 5,000 gas stations around the world. The investment is being presented as a way for Total’s operations to reduce its carbon footprint, but what if its the first step to convert the gas stations into electric vehicle charging stations?
…
Total didn’t specify where its new solar installations will be deployed other than at “5,000 of its service stations worldwide” including “800 in France” and they will be deployed over the next five years.
The panels will be supplied by Sunpower, which is owned by Total.
Mike Pence Orders Lobbyists Be Removed From Transition Team
November 16th, 2016Yep, make sure to drain one’s own swamp first…
Via: NBC:
Vice President-elect Mike Pence has ordered all lobbyists be removed from Donald Trump’s White House transition team, NBC News has learned. This would bring the transition more in line with Trump’s campaign-trail pledge to “drain the swamp” of veteran politicians and special interests in Washington.
That was the explanation given for the firing of at least one top foreign policy official, Matthew Freedman. A campaign official said Freedman was let go because he works as a lobbyist. But if Pence’s directive is fully implemented, it could result in the exit of at least nine current aides, and likely more, according to an organizational chart for the operation obtained by Politico.
CRISPR Gene-Editing Tested in a Person for the First Time
November 16th, 2016Via: Nature:
A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR–Cas9 technique.
On 28 October, a team led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu delivered the modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial at the West China Hospital, also in Chengdu.
The Post Virtual Reality Sadness
November 16th, 2016Via: Tobias van Schneider:
I think about it this way. I just spent a couple hours painting with fire or any material I want in a 3D space in Virtual Reality. I’m so confident & fluid using these VR tools, they feel almost native. I scale my environment up and down, rotate objects and teleport around my own dream world.
I feel like god for a couple hours, with magical and powerful tools right at my finger tips. I can do anything I want!
After leaving a world like this, the rest of the day in reality makes me kind of sad. I have no more super powers. I want to touch the sky, rotate the clouds, stretch them and paint on them. I feel deeply disturbed and often end up just sitting there, starring at a wall because I just don’t feel like doing anything else. I wouldn’t say I’m feeling depressed, but there is a lack of motivation and sad feeling in my chest.
AT&T And NASA To Build National Drone Tracking System
November 16th, 2016Via: Vocativ:
The largest telecommunications company in the world wants to serve as a watchdog for all drones in the United States — and in the process, play a major role in supervising the national airspace.
On Nov. 10, AT&T announced that it was collaborating with NASA to develop an Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management program to allow agencies to monitor drones. An AT&T release states this program will make it safer for drone operators to plan and monitor flight paths, navigate drones, and use drones for surveillance. The company stated that its main focus is to lower the risk of drone-related cyberattacks.
Cities Nationwide Enacting More Policies to Criminalize Homelessness
November 16th, 2016After eight years of Hope and Change…
Via: CBS:
A new report says cities nationwide are enacting more policies that criminalize homelessness.
The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty said Tuesday many cities have banned living in vehicles, camping in public areas and panhandling.
Nearly Half of Eligible Voters Didn’t Vote
November 14th, 2016Via: Daily Sheeple:
Nearly half of all eligible voters did not vote, according to The United States Election Project. Out of 231,556,622 in the Voting-Eligible Population (VEP), there were only 131,018,000 ballots counted.
When compared with the 2008 and 2012 elections, we see almost 9 million less people voting in 2016.
