LOTD for April 30

Baskin-Robbins is selling 31 cent ice cream cones tonight as part of a fundraiser for firefighters:
http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Promotion/31cent.aspx

Start-up company says that it will be able to solar power in about a year at prices that rival coal-fired electricity. Interesting idea to magnify sunlight up to 2,000 times before it hits the solar panels:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2008-04-28-solar-power-sunrgi_N.htm

Bio Solar makes materials based on renewable plant sources that reduce the cost of solar cells. They are getting pretty far along in their development and have shipped samples to manufacturers:
http://www.biosolar.com/view_news.php?id=26&PHPSESSID=54e6a7412a5aa5481c9881154289d06d

Greenhouse gas emissions were up significantly in 2007–CO2 up 19 billion tons and methane up 27 billion tons. Methane levels remained the same between 1998 and 2006, so the 27 billion ton increase last year is pretty disturbing:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080423_methane.html

Scientists in Israel said that they have developed a much cheaper solar cell that is as good or better than current photovoltaic cells. They say that the current cost of about $200 per square meter for a solar cell could be reduced to $1 per square meter!
EE Times article

Summit was held in DC yesterday to discuss how the decline in math and science education imperils the US and to see what can be done to improve the situation:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=6053

Scientists are trying to figure out why a Reno neighborhood keeps getting hit by more and more (and stronger and stronger) earthquakes. They now get 20+ aftershocks that are over 2.0, and recently the aftershocks started regularly going over 3.0:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZwv1JL5tke15_rVC9QKNSfQ7wSQD90BRQU00

NASA responded to the German 13-year-old who said that they were a factor of 100 off on the probability that the asteroid Apophis would hit the Earth:
Article link

The HomeGrid Forum is creating a standard for networking digital content over home wiring:
MSN article

Looks like the Prime Minister of Iraq started a confrontation in Sadr City without consulting with the US that has now forced the US military to get fully involved to try to settle things down:
Washington Post article

The Army Research Lab is giving BAE $38 mil to lead the development of a swarm of tiny robots:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/usually-our-dys.html

Private Equity Firm (Cerberus, who controls Chrysler) was in negotiations to buy Blackwater:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4756462&page=1

This guy developed a wrist-mounted flame thrower like those shown in comic books and his videos show how he made it:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/a-functional-wr.html

Researchers developed a technique that uses antibodies instead of DNA, which may be faster and cheaper for law enforcement and the military:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2008/04/new-human-id-te.html

School crossing guards in the UK are now equipped with video cameras to deter cars from endangering school kids, or prosecute the ones that drive recklessly around the kids:
Daily Mail article

Google has a new technology that it says will make searches for images simpler and more effective:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3833337.ece

Looks like AT&T will provide $200 subsidies to people who buy the 3G iPhone. Anyone buying them from the Apple Stores will be paying full price, which would seem to make going through AT&T a much better deal!
http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/04/29/att-to-cut-the-price-of-apples-new-iphone/

This blogger was able to display the pdf file of his boarding pass on his iPhone and it scanned properly so that he could board his plane. It worked with American Airlines but not Southwest:
http://gwhiz.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/aa-boarding-pass-iphone/

Interesting that Blu-ray won the next-gen DVD war over HD-DVD but Blu-ray movie sales are not picking up. 85% of Blu-ray players are in the PS3 and the PC and standalone Blu-ray players aren’t projected to catch up with the PS3 until 2013:
Telecom TV article

iTunes is increasing its dominance over the global music market:
Telecom TV article

It looks like there is a big problem with Grand Theft Auto IV crashing both PS3 and Xbox 360 systems:
Gamespot article

High School Lacrosse team was suspended after spelling out a prom invitation on their butts and mooning the crowd at a JV soccer match:
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/high_school_lacrosse_team_susp.html

Things seem to be getting even worse for Roger Clemens as more details of his affairs come out:
NY Daily News article

LOTD for April 29

Iran released photos of their advanced nuclear facility, providing significant information about their nuclear program:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/science/29nuke.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It looks like Israel is coming close to having a true robotic soldier…I can’t help but think of the Robocop movie:
Article link

BAE had an impressive demo with 2 UAVs and 2 unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) operating simultaneously while communicating with their controllers and each other:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=6044

The final satellite for Europe’s GPS-competitor system was launched on Sunday:
Article link

Looks like CBS or NBC will pay nearly $4 bil for the Weather Channel:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24371553/

Chinese officials are worried that hackers will strike during the Olympics. I didn’t realize that malware was such a problem in China and that 58% of the bot-controlled computers in the world are in China:
Infoworld article

Cray is switching from AMD chips to Intel chips–big win for Intel after Cray used AMD for 6 years:
http://www.physorg.com/news128611549.html

Rocket from India put a record 10 satellites into orbit during a single mission. India will be a major factor in the space industry:
http://www.physorg.com/news128579781.html

BP and Shell made a combined $17 bil in profit in the first quarter of this year, but like all of the other oil companies they say that they are not to blame for high gas prices:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080429/earns_oil.html?.v=2

Sprint users can now user Paypal’s mobile payment service:
http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=1754

Australia now has more cell phones than people:
SMH article

Graduates from the India Institute of Technology (IITians) are increasingly deciding to stay in India to work instead of to come to the US. The overwhelming majority feel that India will be the country with the best prospects for success, with the US and Europe much less promising in 10 years:
http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-199369.html

Looks like 3 women have been identified to have been with Roger Clemens…this is getting messy:
NY Post article

LOTD for April 28

Nevada has a series of earthquakes since February 28, with scientists warning residents near Reno to prepare for worse because the earthquakes started out small and are getting stronger. Reno had a 4.7 quake on Friday and have had over 150 aftershocks since then! Some residents have left Reno for now to get away from the earthquakes:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZwv1JL5tke15_rVC9QKNSfQ7wSQD90AFSV01

Two analysts are predicting that gas will hit $10 per gallon:
http://www2.nysun.com/article/75363

Interesting to read about the growing number of green neoconservatives:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2008/05/balance-of-power-the-hybrid.html

Interesting that conservative Republicans seem to be even more critical than the Democrats regarding the Bush Administration and North Korea. They suggest that the revelation of North Korea’s link with the alleged Syrian nuclear facility was an attempt to gain leverage with North Korea in their ongoing negotiations:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-intel28apr28,1,5830769.story

The story of how someone apparently stole iRobot’s plans for a battle bot for the Army and did so in such a blatant manner is amazing to me. This story is long but worth a read. I hadn’t read before how a large defense company had made a secret deal with the company that stole iRobot’s designs:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-05/mf_robotthief?currentPage=all

The use of IEDs against US and Iraqi forces has spiked up again:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-04-27-IED_N.htm?csp=34

It is really cool has technology allows for new parents to see their newborns despite being stationed in Iraq:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/kid-meet-your-o.html

The FCC raised the frequency spectrum cap from 70 MHz to 95 MHz per company after adding 700 MHz spectrum to the totals, then decided to suspend the spectrum limit before the 700 MHz auction. Consequently, Verizon and AT&T won the vast majority of the spectrum in the 700 MHz auction and now exceed the 95 MHz limit in 38 of the top 100 US markets. Remember before this the limit was 70 MHz per company and now AT&T has 124 MHz in the Dallas-Fort Worth market!
http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/SUB/236962331/1005

It is sad that New Orleans is losing their city-wide WiFI:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/muni/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207402189

Rumor is that June 9 will be the day that Apple unveils their 3G iPhone:
Information Week article

http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20080428PB202.html

Rumor is that Apple is making a lot of cosmetic changes to the new iPhone and adding GPS:
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9929375-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Rumor is that Apple is adding tactile feedback to the 3G iPhone:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9929793-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Mexican press aide was fired after he was caught taking up to 7 Blackberries that belonged to US government officials:
Infoworld article

Photos taken by Miley Cyrus that are (in my opinion) relatively tame may threaten a Disney franchise:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/media/28hannah.html?_r=2&oref=login&oref=slogin

Interesting to read about the new products coming out this year–Bud Light Lime, chicken biscuits from McDonalds, and how companies are spending less to advertise their products on network TV:
Media Week article

LOTD for April 25

Interesting that the earthquake in Illinois was from a new fault line–apparently there is a new fault line that is active in the midwest!
http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/11630.html

Interesting analysis of how coal is more dangerous than nuclear power:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/04/coal-is-more-deadly-and-dangerous-than.html

Interesting that buried (on page 387 of the document) in the Bush Administration’s fuel economy plan is an attempt to circumvent the Clean Air Act and prevent states (12 governors are protesting) from adopting more aggressive fuel economy or clean air standards:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/04/recent-dept-of-transportation-cafe.html

The drinking water in Chicago was found to have the bug repellent DEET in it:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/04/21/deet_found_in_drinking_water/6803/

BP is investing $1 bil in 2 ethanol refineries in Brazil:
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7043976

Technological breakthrough in the UK can lead to significant greenhouse gas reduction there by converting waste CO2 into cyclic carbonates:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/content.phtml?ref=1209034169

Cell phones apparently can cause allergic reactions from people due to the metals and materials used in manufacturing them:
http://www.i4u.com/article16694.html

Nice background info on Harris’ multiband multi-agency radio for public safety needs:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=6030

Blackwater is opening a training facility is San Diego. This one is much smaller one than the facility they planned to open, but opposition to that site led to this smaller location being selected:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080423-9999-1m23black.html

The American intelligence community video evidence of the North Korea-aided Syrian nuclear facility is now online:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/syrian-nuke-vid.html

Dish and Alcatel-Lucent are trialing DVB-SH (TV from satellite to cell phone):
Press release

The average Wii is only on a store shelf for an hour in the US! Amazingly, in Europe and Japan you can go into stores and just buy a Wii, but in the US there is a shortage…despite 40% of the 1.8 mil Wiis shipped each month going to the US. Each region’s market is quite different–for example, the Xbox 360 sells well in the US and Europe but has horrible sales in Japan:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/nintendo-averag.html

Nintendo is boosting production from 1.8 mil Wiis per month to 2.4 mil Wiis per month:
http://kotaku.com/383472/nintendo-to-increase-wii-production-to-24-million-a-month

Interesting article analyzing the doubts about Nintendo’s future:
Business Week article

It is sad that 2 kids (9 and 10 year old soccer teammates and best friends until this) are fighting over a David Beckham jersey and that the case is in court now:
Honolulu Advertiser article

This man was so upset with road rage that he shot *himself*! He then tried to escape police but crashed his car. He then tried to run away from police on foot, but they caught him. This sure was a bad case of road rage!:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/04/21/20080421road-rage0421-ON.html

LOTD for April 24

I’m guessing NextWave’s WiMAX trials didn’t go well in Vegas…they are selling ALL of their frequency spectrum in the US!
Article link

Sprint says that backhaul and billing problems are the reasons behind the delay of their WiMAX launch:
http://telephonyonline.com/wimax/news/sprint-xohm-backhaul-0422/

Looks like TowerStream will beat Sprint and be the first commercial 16e provider. the interesting is that they are upgrading from 16d (fixed WiMAX) to 16e (mobile WiMAX) but are NOT using 16e to enable mobile service. They are using 16e for fixed broadband:
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=151749

It looks like the way that the spectrum is being auctioned in the UK could prevent *any* WiMAX company from getting spectrum in the auction:
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=151697

Remember the Syrian facility that Israel bombed last summer? It turns out that Israel had a video from inside the facility showing that it was basically a copy of North Korea’s nuclear reactor with North Koreans inside the facility aiding the Syrians.
Washington Post article

Two months ago Department of Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff approved the “virtual fence” that Boeing delivered. However, the GAO objected and said that the prototype was inadequate. Now, the government is scrapping the $20 mil virtual fence:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jE_bOUpQb6MxrxSQno3N6gEdY-MAD907EN382

The US is selling Lockheed’s counter-IED jammer to the Iraq government:
http://www.military.com/news/article/us-sells-secret-anti-ied-tech-to-iraq.html

EPA scientists complain about political interference getting in the way of their work:
MSN article

PETA offers a $1 mil prize to the first person to find a way to make commercially viable fake meat. I do not see how a new food product could finish the research stage and complete the approval process during their time limit:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1734630,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-topics

Rumor is that Dell will be selling XP on professional systems until 2012:
Engadget article

LOTD for April 23

This is EXTREMELY disturbing. It appears that the FBI is investigating how the Chinese government or Chinese hackers have allegedly put back-doors into highly secure government and computer networks. It appears that 2nd- and 3rd-level subscontractors have been buying fake Cisco routers and switches (sold at 1/6 the price of the real products!) that have been installed in basically *every* government network that has had upgrades or bought new units over the past 18 months:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread350381/pg1

Lockheed created a wireless cyber security lab that allows defense and intelligence agencies to test and evaluate wireless systems like WiFi on a TS/SCI network:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2008/0418_GSS_CyberSecurityLab.html

Virginia Tech study looks at how much water is needed to produce various types of energy:
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2008&itemno=260

Northrop’s new UAV contract with the Navy may create 1700 new defense jobs in San Diego that will last for at least 6 years on this contract:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080423-9999-1b23bams.html

This article about the $1.16 bil Northrop deal mentions that Australia has already invested in the development of this UAV program and is expected to buy the UAVs also. So, the value of the deal goes well beyond the $1.16 bil mentioned so far:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5721664.html

The new Coast Guard cutter not only has communication system so faulty that it probably cannot be used for classified communications like it was supposed to be designed for, but when the Navy inspected it they found 2,816 problems and 8 serious deficiencies (not counting the communications problems!):
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/faulty-cutter-o.html

Interesting analysis of the impact on the promotion that Gen. Petraeus is being nominated for:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/petraeus-gets-p.html

Scientists say that the missile defense system currently being built is not worth the $277 bil or so that it will cost and that it will NOT be able to protect our country. They say that the DoD has misled the public on the capabilities of the missile defense system:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/scientists_challenge_program_0423/index.html

BAE is now selling their AJ system for GPS, both as a complete system and as an upgrade to current GPS systems:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/anti_jamming_feature_0423/index.html

The marines and Navy plan to buy ScanEagle UAVs:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/navy_bys_uavs_0423/index.html

General Dynamics just got an $140 mil JTRS contract:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/award_for_jtrs_0423/index.html

Video of how it wasn’t a good idea for this Afghan Army soldier to smoke pot before a firefight. There is also a video of how Canadian troops had to deal with a thick forest of pot plants that was 10-feet high:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/smoking-weed-ca.html

New tax rules in India will make is much more expensive for US companies that outsource work to India or those who have divisions in India:
Inforworld article

Apple just bought chip designing company P. A. Semi for $278 mil in cash. Apparently, they will use that company’s low power chips instead of Intel’s chips for future iPhone (and possiby iPod) systems:
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/23/apple-buys-pasemi-tech-ebiz-cz_eb_0422apple.html?feed=rss_popstories

Yahoo! says yesterday that it might accept Microsoft’s offer, though at the same time they revealed that they had already spent $14 mil in fees to advisers to help them fight off Microsoft:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article3799757.ece

The NY Supreme Court upheld the rule that bans students from having cell phones in public schools in New York:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120891669314537061.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news

Honda’s Nav systems in Japan include an optional overlay that shows the high crime areas on the GPS Navigation map, so people can navigate around them. The Nav system links to local police stations and provides crime ratings by location, giving a warning when an area is too dangerous:
http://www.technoride.com/2008/04/honda_adds_crime_maps_to_navig.php

http://gizmodo.com/382410/honda-gps-warns-drivers-of-high-crime-zones

Taser used by police on a man in Canada set off a fire in his pants!
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/356763

Prince William landed his UK military helicopter in his girlfriend’s family’s garden:
Reuters article

This analyst tends to be extremely negative, but it is notable that his prediction is that the housing slump now will exceed what happened during the Great Depression:
WSJ blog entry

LOTD for April 22

On Earth Day Infoworld released its Green 15 list, consisting of the top 15 organizations that have made significant energy-saving, waste-reducing initiatives:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/22/17FE-green-15-2008-index_1.html

CNN/Fortune have an interesting article about electric motorcycles:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/25/smbusiness/electric_motorcycles.fsb/

Electric motor scooter that has a max speed of 62 mph and a range of 35-55 miles:
http://www.vectrix.com/corporate/US/tech-specs.php

This is the first road-qualified electric motorcycle. It has a range of 35-45 mph and a top speed over 50 mph.
http://www.enertiabike.com/content/view/8/8/

This company is making 3-wheel, plug-in hybrid vehicles:
http://www.flytheroad.com/

Electric bikes and scooters are apparently already making a difference to China’s environment:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2007/08/electric-bicycles-and-scooters.html

Recruiting pressures have led to a significant increase in the military accepting recruits with felony convictions and drug offenses. Not surprisingly, the stats found that recruits that the military had to get a waiver to admit were much more likely to be kicked out of the military in their first 2 years of service. The Army and the Marines have had the biggest recruiting pressure and grant the most waivers, and both also are waiving the medical requirements (such as admitting overweight people) and the high school diploma requirement:
http://www.washingtonpost.com:80/ac2/wp-dyn?node=admin/registration/register&sub=AR–

Article on how Stanford professors are looking for new ways to design chips that would make computer systems use less energy. Amazing that computer servers and the infrastructure to cool them require more than 1% of the total electrical use in the US:
R&D Magazine article

BASF is working hard to try to get the European Commission to approve the first genetically modified potato:
http://www.physorg.com/news127925421.html

Samsung’s Chair resigned after his tax evasion charges, with included $4.5 bil of Samsung stock into accounts with “borrowed names”:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042200891.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Analyst report predicts that Linux (LiMo, Android) could get 20% market share of the high-end mobiles:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43026&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10&view=news

Interesting robot competition in Germany–robots compete to see who can find the most victims in a search-and-rescue mission, with an environment simulated as if it was after a natural disaster:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=5999

Interesting article (and awesome photos!) of sea forts in the UK:
Click here for the article/

Remember the article in the LOTD last week that wrote about how Russian President Putin was going to be marrying a former Olympic Champion gymnast? The newspaper that broke the story just got shut down:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3779901.ece

LOTD for April 21

By the way, if anyone getting these e-mails wants to search through old editions of the LOTD (formerly the AOTD v2), I set up an archival blog at: https://linkcollection.wordpress.com. Several people reading this were not getting it from the start, so I thought I should create a quick blog for them.

******

It is amazing to me that a new super-agency in Russia is requiring ALL devices with WiFi in Russia to be registered. Setting up a WiFi access point in a home would require a set of documents and technological certifications–similar paperwork that is required for a cellular tower!
http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?newsID=12029&pagtype=samechan

Interesting that 26.1% of hybrid cars sold in the US are bought in California:
MSN article

GM is releasing a hybrid car in China. Interesting that Prius sales have been so slow in China, which they attribute to the Chinese being unfamiliar with hybrid cars:
MSN article

Defense Secretary Gates states that the Air Force is not doing enough to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and should cut back on work that focuses on future threats to allocate more resources for the current wars. This could explain the cutbacks in the Air Force SBIR program and other decisions made by the Air Force lately:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmwtwo74QUWwjWtRY0O2xbB5gTJwD906BAK00

Travelers have different opinions on the airport security device that lets them see through clothing to search for concealed weapons:
http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/17933954.html

Proposal to offer 2.1 GHz spectrum to a company who will ofer free wireless broadband that reaches 95% of the US, though this Silicon Valley-area Representative defines “broadband” as 200 kbps:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9922319-7.html?tag=cd.blog

Looks like WiMAX is doing well in rural areas of France that do not have access to ADSL:
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=22697&email=html

12% of people surveyed in the US and UK say that they have used other people’s unsecured WiFi APs:
http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?newsID=12016&pagtype=samechan

Nintendo Wii sales beat Xbox 360 and the PS3 combined…driven by the release of Super Smash Brothers:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080419/tc_cmp/207400644

Viacom is making its own pay-movie channel and it looks like Showtime will be losing a lot of its movies to the new channel:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003791758

Gannett (largest newspaper publisher in the US) had earnings drop 9% this quarter:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003791760

The topics for the latest DoD SBIR round was released today. I’ve already read through all of this:
http://www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sbir082/index.htm

LOTD for April 18

The Pentagon is auctioning the old aircraft that had been sitting in the boneyard in Tuscon…they are selling them in pieces because of their value as scrap metal:
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=786e878f-fc4b-4a79-a8af-da5dd3b4b0df

It is pretty sad to read how the Air Force awarded this “competitive” contract:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041702248.html?sid=ST2008041704413

Interesting study by the Naval Postgraduate School found that flying UAVs is more fatiguing than flying regular aircraft, plus flying UAVs were bad for the pilot’s family life:
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2008/04/study-flying-predators-bad-for.html

Reports state that Russian President Vladimir Putin divorced his wife and that the 55-year-old Putin plans to marry a 24-year-old former Olympic champion gymnast:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1889958820080418

Looks like the Coast Guard is now admitting that their new cutter will not be ready for about 2 more years due to problems with the communications equipment:
http://warisboring.com/?p=1043

Northrop announced that they are taking a $350 mil or so charge to their earnings to account for the problems with the cabling (which is primarily for the communications equipment from what I gather):
http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=140116

Nice link to what reporters from the Midwest said about today’s 5.2 earthquake centered in Southern Illinois:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/quake.irpt/index.html?eref=rss_latest

LOTD for April 17

South Korea has a nationwide bird flu alert and have deployed troops and put firefighters on standby to try to contain its spread:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hsFxiCLm7EoPfeNJUFX6RsD1pV0w

The Army is destroying a batch of chemical weapons found in Hawaii from WWII days:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080415/NEWS08/804150360/1018/LOCALNEWSFRONT

The Army demonstrated its future combat technologies to Congress last week:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=5968

This blogger sharply criticized the people involved with the Littoral Combat Ship (calling their meeting this week a “mass gathering of incompetent people):
http://www.coltoncompany.com/newsandcomment/news/2008/04.htm#MORE_DELAY_ON_LCS_1

The Navy and Lockheed responded quickly to the blogger’s comment:
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3483421&c=AME&s=AIR

Purdue researchers identified the top 20 CO2 emitting counties in the US–some of the counties on the list surprised me. Some notables not on the list include San Diego, Austin, and Dallas:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2008a/080416T-GurneyCounties.html

Electric solar wind sail is getting closer to being used for space travel:
http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR~PUBCODE~014~ACCT~1400000100~ISSUE~0804~RELTYPE~MS~PRODCODE~0000000~PRODLETT~IH.html

India has been doing so well that they now have to outsource work to Egypt!
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43000&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10&view=news

The House had a hearing about the failed D block auction. They will auction that frequency soon, but they are trying to figure out how to best serve the public safety needs with that auction:
http://mrtmag.com/policy_and_law/news/house-d-block-0415/

Vodafone’s CEO says that Verizon will do LTE before Vodafone. Verizon did just win the 700 MHz spectrum so they have enough spectrum for LTE while Vodafone might need more spectrum before implementing LTE:
http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/apr2008/tc20080415_869466.htm

China Mobile is donating 15,000 3G phones based on TD-SCDMA to the Chinese Olympic Committee:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/30574.php

Drastic price cuts for the iPhone in Europe appear to show that the demand for the iPhone isn’t that high in Europe:
http://gigaom.com/2008/04/16/on-sale-the-iphone-well-in-europe-anyway/

The testing of Yahoo outsourcing ad search efforts to Google went really well and Yahoo apparently likes having Google Ads on Yahoo search pages. The Wall Street Journal reports that a deal between Yahoo and Google is increasingly likely, which would probably help Yahoo turn down Microsoft’s purchase offer.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920997-7.html?tag=nefd.top

Note: I can understand how Microsoft would be worried about how much it would cost to retain Yahoo’s employees. It is hard for me to believe that Microsoft paid $800 mil for Tellme networks and paid another $100 mil to retain Tellme employees. That comes out to $300k per Tellme employee!

Only 17% of US citizens pay off their credit cards each month!
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/04/moodys-credit-card-charge-offs.html

Call girls often are called to Danish nursing homes:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aVUcop17mg7s

This teach in Tampa was arrested *again*, the second time in a month she was arrested for sex with students at her Middle School!
http://www.abcactionnews.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=fd3667d5-c6d5-4c25-a6a3-a09bf8cf5355

North Carolina teacher resigned and was arrested due to having sex with a student. The twist on this arrest is that the student was also female. Even though the high school student had turned 18, North Carolina laws do not allows for ANY age of consent in a teacher-student encounter. I wonder if professors in North Carolina will have to worry now?
http://wral.com/news/local/story/2736041/

Thief steals a collection of rare coins…then 3 days later he takes the coins to a bank for safekeeping and deposits the coins with the person he stole the coins from!
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1519195220080415?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Amazing that every major league baseball team made money last year. Only 3 teams claimed an operating loss, but they aren’t counting the revenue from the cable channel that televises their games…that is one of their biggest revenue streams!
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/16/baseball-team-values-biz-sports-baseball08-cx_mo_kb_0416baseballintro.html

This used book swapping website looks to be doing quite well:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920774-7.html