“Seven years after its secretive launch, X is starting to spawn mind-blowing companies—and show us what an ever expanding Google means for the world.”
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/alphabet-google-x-innovation-loon-wing-graduation/
“SpaceX has said it will offer speeds of up to a gigabit per second, with latencies between 25ms and 35ms. Those latencies would make SpaceX’s service comparable to cable and fiber. Today’s satellite broadband services use satellites in much higher orbits and thus have latencies of 600ms or more, according to FCC measurements. OneWeb was the first company to seek FCC approval to enter the US broadband market with low-Earth orbit satellites and received approval in June 2017. OneWeb wants to offer service in Alaska as early as 2019. Boeing is also planning to offer satellite broadband.”
“It was funded by ‘black money,’ the term used for classified Pentagon programs. This explains why the project wasn’t public until this year, because a public debate on the Senate floor wasn’t required in order to fund it. This story sounds less like reality and more like an episode of The X-Files – the iconic 90s series which is currently airing its 11th and final season.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/the-pentagon-is-hunting-for-ufos-guess-how-much-it-costs/
“Earlier this week, an amateur radio astronomer named Scott Tilley decided to have a look for the presence of secret military satellites. Instead, he found an undead NASA mission. Given the relative costs of launching vs. maintaining contact with a satellite, if IMAGE can still provide useful data, Tilley just may have given NASA scientists a bargain.”
“The creators lauded the launch as establishing the first nation to have all of its territory in space, though no countries have acknowledged its statehood. For now, the primary benefit of ‘citizenship’ is being able to store data on Asgardia-1 while it’s in orbit. Only those who support the constitution will have the right to upload data to the satellite. Asgardia will have taxes, though only businesses will be forced to contribute. Individual taxes will apparently be voluntary. The website explains that ‘people can decide what amount of tax they would like to pay.’ The country will also have passports, IDs, a national bank, business regulations, and a cryptocurrency called SOLAR.”
Read more: http://theantimedia.org/new-space-nation-asgardia/
“CNN has won an interesting waiver regarding its commercial drone operating license with the FAA – an exemption that allows it to fly its Vantage Robotics Snap drone over open-air crowds of people at altitudes of up to 150 feet. This is a new precedent in this kind of waiver: Previous exemptions allowed flight of drones over people in closed set operations (like for filmmaking purposes) and only when tethered, with a max height of 21 feet. The new waiver granted to CNN, as secured through its legal counsel Hogan Lovells, allows for flight of the Vantage UAV (which is quite small and light) above crowds regardless of population density.”
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/18/cnn-gets-a-first-of-its-kind-waiver-to-fly-drones-over-crowds/
“The new measures will affect 105 countries hosting approximately 280 airports, 180 airlines, and about 2,100 daily flights carrying 325,000 US-bound passengers. DHS already has in place a policy that bars electronic devices larger than a cell phone from Turkey and several Middle Eastern airports. The UK has a similar policy, affecting airports in six countries.”
“A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a regulation requiring the public to register drones. The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the Federal Aviation Administration did not have the authority to regulate so-called ‘model aircraft.’ If it stands, the decision (PDF) means that the public does not have to abide by the FAA requirement established in 2015. To legally fly a drone, hobbyists are currently required to pay a $5 fee and dole out their name, home address, and e-mail address. Registration was required to be updated every three years. Maximum penalties for failing to comply included three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”
“Captain Todd Insler, chairman of the MEC, has written to Donald Trump to say the airline ‘will destroy our US airline industry and all of the jobs associated with it’, as, he claims, its business model ‘undercuts the marketplace, allowing NIA to steal US jobs’ to ‘Singapore and Thailand’. Norwegian denies this. Alpa is calling on Trump to revoke the permit granted to Norwegian last year. Its president Captain Tim Canoll said Trump had been vocal about protecting American jobs in his campaign.”
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/us-pilots-wage-war-against-norwegian-over-american-expansion/
“Economics professor Guido Menzio (yes, he’s Italian) was taken off the plane, questioned, cleared, and allowed to board with the rest of his passengers two hours later. This is a result of our stupid ‘see something, say something’ culture. As I repeatedly say: ‘If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn’t be surprised when you get amateur security.’ On the other hand, ‘Algebra, of course, does have Arabic origins plus math is used to make bombs.'”
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/05/economist_detai.html