Shuttle Discovery Docks with Space Station for the Final Time

Shuttle Discovery Docks With Space Station for Final Time

Shuttle Discovery Docks With Space Station for Final Time

NASA reported that the space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station successfully on Saturday. The docking was riddled with a series of problems and that has pushed the crew’s schedule.  The express logistic carrier now will be installed only on Sunday.

Hatches linking the shuttle to the station opened on Saturday at 4:16 pm and there was a welcome ceremony followed by a safety briefing. The shuttle Discovery is on a 11 day mission and will deliver a storage module, a rig and some spare parts to the six occupants of the space station.

The mission is headed by Steve Lindsey.

Interestingly the shuttle took off on Thursday afternoon from the Kennedy Space center, but not before the count down was forced to be stopped at five as there was a ‘computer problem’. The journey was not without problems. Four pieces of foam were noticed flying from the shuttle after it took off. NASA scientists didn’t foresee any problems from foams at that altitude. However, two astronauts aboard the shuttle have taken pictures of the thermal protection system for scanning for ruling out any damages.

The astronauts will move several items brought in the logistic career. A space walk is scheduled on Monday. During this, astronauts Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen will perform several operations including the installation of a power extension cable. The shuttle crew will attach a permanent module – Leonardo – to the space station.

The shuttle Discovery has so far carried crew members. It has circled the Earth 5,628 times spending 352 days in the orbit. It is sad that this will be its last mission.



Obama Pitches for Education and High-tech concepts

Despite the thrust on deficit reduction President Obama is keen on investment on research and technology. To forward his high-tech and education agenda he made quick tour of the West Coast. He toured a semiconductor plant at Oregon and before that dined with head honchos of the Silicon Valley.

While Republicans have asked for budget cuts, Obama has championed for more investment in education, high speed Internet, green technologies and other high tech concepts. He feels that investment on future cannot be sacrificed for anything. According to him, “If we want the next technological breakthrough that leads to the next Intel to happen here in the United States, not in China, not in Germany, then we have to invest in America’s research and technology, in the work of our scientists and engineers.”

A proof of Obama’s eagerness in this direction is the fact that his Democratic government now has extended research and development tax credit to tech firms. Intel and many tech companies benefit from this legislative move. Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini has reciprocated by announcing the setting up of a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Phoenix, a suburb of Chandler.

The highlight of this type effort is that on crucial matters Obama tries to rope in not only supporters but also those who disagree with him on other issues. Otellini of Intel funded Republican John McCain’s 2008 election campaign and has been a critic of many of Obama’s policies. But Obama managed to rope him in for his investment efforts in education and high technology agenda.

US, Russia to implement START Treaty

Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State finalizes deal with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister on Security Policy in Munich, Germany on Feb. 5.

The two nations will implement the new treaty– new Strategic arms reduction treaty (START)  to restrict the number of nuclear weapons they can possess.

Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov traded authorization documents with each other in Germany during a ceremony to enact the treaty.

Clinton stated that the treaty would serve as a “clear-eyed cooperation” for everybody’s interest. The Russian diplomat called it a mean to enhance global stability.

US president Barack Obama signed START treaty in last April with Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President substituting the older arms control pact. The earlier deal was signed during cold war in 1991.

The new deal states that both the nations signing the treaty would limit their nuclear warheads to 1550—reducing 30 percent from the level set in 2002.

Ban Ki-Moon, U.N. chief welcomed the United States and Russia for the step and appreciated the two leaders for taking lead on the issue of reduction of nuclear weapons. The new nuclear weapons reduction deal or START treaty had been approved by the United States Senate earlier in December. Russian Parliament too passed the bill to go ahead with the treaty in the previous month.

Verizon sets record in sales, stops taking orders

The iPhone 4 of Verizon has set new milestones of record sales last night-. The overwhelming response to the product is the most successful first day sale in company’s history so far. The counting was continued while morning press release was published and it did not mention the actual number of iPhone sales.

At the launch of iPhone 4 in June, Apple had announced that the company took 600,000 orders for the device on the first day.

The latest launch by Verizon before iPhone was Motorola Droid for which the company sold 250,000 units in the first week. It is a Android-based smartphone.

However, iPhone’s pre-orders are predicted to have reached in millions on the very first day. From Feb 10 both Apple and Verizon will start selling iPhones of Verizon flavor. You can opt for an online purchase for a quicker access as it will start on Feb 9 from 3:01 am.

The new price of  the 16-gigabyte model is $199.99  whereas for 32 GB model it is only $299.99 for the 32 GB model. However for those who have been the customers of Verizon for last 20 months can purchase the same models on a discounted price. There is no mention of such change in policies on the company website so far and this is creating lot of confusions among the customers.

Israel tested Stuxnet virus with consent of US administration

Israel tested the notorious computer virus Stuxnet authorized by the US administration reportedly. Israel used centrifuges to test out the computer worm  taking Teheran’s nuclear program as its target to destroy. Everything was executed in a planned way with the authority of Bush administration, the report revealed.

The virus was first tested in Dimona, reported English daily from the United States. The centrifuges used by Israel for testing Stuxnet were very similar to those used Iranian nuclear sites.

In 2008, Siemens allowed the Idaho National Laboratory, to rectify problems in its computer controllers. The same computer controllers were present in the Iranian nuclear plants. Idaho National Laboratory is part of the American Energy Department that provides nuclear equipment and weapons to the United States. Testing of Stuxnet was based on the problems in the computer controllers of nuclear programs found in 2008.

The virus destroyed control over the Iranian nuclear centrifuges and recorded all activities going at the nuclear plant. When checked by the operators, the virus showed a normal routine of the plant and this confused the operators.  They stayed unaware till all the centrifuges were destroyed.

The Stuxnet virus entered the nuclear plant’s computer network through some external drives or probably through the internet. The virus was partially successful as it delayed Iran’s nuclear development, however could not completely destroy their sites.

George W. Bush, former president of the United States had allowed dissemination of this worm in 2009 reportedly and Barack Obama too nodded to develop the virus further.

Google’s Android may lose customers as Verizon sells iPhone

Google Inc’s business may be affected as Verizon Wireless begins selling Apple Inc’s iPhone, given the customers a fresh option to smart phones operating on the Android Operating System.

Verizon Wireless is all set to make an announcement regarding the inclusion of iPhone to its network in New York on Tuesday, according to a familiar source. Dan Hays, partner at management consultant firm PRTM, said that Verizon is expected to replace 2 million Android iPhone shipments order in a year.

Thousand of Verizon customers will prefer to go for iPhone over Android phones, and even its own Android users may switch over, said Gene Munster, an analyst in Minneapolis.

Apple Inc is expected to ship around 9 million iPhones in 2011 in collaboration with Verizon; apart from 11 million units through AT&T, the analyst said.

Android has emerged as a top-seller in the United States and accounts for 26 percent of the smartphone market as compared to 25 percent of the iPhone. RIM’s Blackberry is leading the race with 33 percent of the market.

In the first half of the year, several Android-based LTE-compatible phones are expected to be launched in the market. However, an iPhone with LTE network will take some time to be available, according to analysts.

Analysts view that Apple may perform better than Google as far as attracting Verizon users toward smartphones for the first time.

Microsoft redesigns Table Computer, reduces price

Microsoft Surface that had a hefty base with a large touch screen has shrunk now into a smaller version.

The new redesigned version of  the Surface is less costly and more convenient to use, to access applications that are interactive in nature and can also be used in shopping malls, banks and hotels.

The very first sample of the new Surface computer  has been demonstrated by the company on Wednesday.

The earlier version of Surface computers cost around $15,000.  Vodafone and Hard Rock Café were some Microsoft’s long term clients that used Surface computers however; it did not generate much income for the company.

The newer version of same model has been designed with a thickness of 4 inches and is very similar to a simple table commonly available. It is less costly than the larger model by $7600 and thus is expected to attract more customers. Microsoft has also added extra features in the new Surface computer that has a high definition screen of 40 inches.

Surface Computer’s new touch screen is like a camera that can be used to recognize, bar or inform passengers at airports or help in recognizing customers that visit regularly or very often to a particular shopping store.

US calls on agencies to ensure scientific integrity

US President obama talking about scientific memo

Science and Technology advisor of US President Obama delivers a memorandum to federal science agencies so that they can guarantee integration among different research institutes and technology firms for national development.

Al Teich, the director of science policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) revealed that the memo carries instructions in this direction and offers guidance for different scientific agencies for their further actions.

This comes after the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren, sent out the guidelines basing on a March 2009 memo bearing intentions of Obama with regard to scientific policy. In the memo, Obama had emphasized on building people’s trust in science, which could be achieved through scientific integrity. He had stressed the need for basing his administration’s approach to science policy on scientific integrity.

Guidelines

The White House announced Friday that the new memo provides further guidance to the heads of federal scientific departments and research agencies. Holdren gave department heads 120 days to implement the memo recommendations.

Some of the important topics covered are:

Scientific integrity in government – Guidelines to keep communication open among federal scientists and the public and making data accessible online.

Public communications –The memo directs agencies to establish systems to resolve issues in connection with proceeding with or refusing media interviews.

Federal advisory committees (FAC) – The responsibility of providing scientific advice for policy decisions lies with the Federal Advisory Committees or FACs. The procedures of recruiting committee members should be transparent.

North Korea’s nuclear program more advanced than Iran: US

N Korea's nuclear program

Washington: The US intelligence department in an important revelation has said that North Korea has more advanced nuclear technology compared to Iran. North Korea’s new nuclear plant to enrich nuclear fuel technology is so much advanced that the countries working on this technology may take more than two decades to match the advancement.

According to intelligence officials. After assessing North Korea’s advancement on the nuclear front, US and South Korean officials have viewed that the new nuclear plant could not have been so enriched without sophisticated networking of certain factors and a full-fledged uranium enrichment plant, elsewhere in the country.

The nuclear capability of North Korea has come as a surprise to many since the country has been facing economic sanctions and a ban on sea and air shipments, executed in the Bush era and made stricter after the UN Security Council resolution passed last year in the aftermath of second nuclear test by North Korea.

The recent intelligence reports have been a cause of concern for the US administration especially when its officials are making an all-out effort to devise a common strategy with China and other Asian countries to contain North Korea’s nuclear advancements.

Gary Samore, chief nuclear adviser in the Obama administration, has conceded for the first time that North Korea’s nuclear program is much more ahead than Iran, which is currently struggling to make further advancement.

Amidst the talk of more sanctions on North Korea, Chinese officials have made a point in which they argued that further sanctions can be counterproductive as largely failed in the past.

Internet giant Yahoo mulls cutting 600 to 700 jobs

Carol Bartz, Yahoo CEO

San Francisco : Yahoo Inc, the struggling web portal, will cut 600 to 700 jobs in the latest shake-up amidst company’s unsatisfactory growth results.

Yahoo! has not made any formal announcement regarding the layoffs, but a source familiar to the company’s policies has revealed that the employees could be notified about the decision within couple of days.

If Yahoo! cuts jobs then it will be 5 percent of its total work force which stands on 14,100 employees. At the same time, it will be Yahoo’s fourth biggest jobs cut since 2007. It should be noted that the last two layoffs took place under Yahoo’s current CEO Carol Bartz, a Silicon Valley veteran.

Bartz was hired two years back despite having no background of internet and advertising, which happens to be Yahoo’s main source of revenue generation.  The planned job cuts are going to be implemented in the company’s US products group, which has been under revamping process since the arrival of Blake Irving, ex-Microsoft executive, to run the business last yearHowever, the decision may not be a shocker for many since the report on layoffs was published last month on some technology blogs.

The company’s fragile growth rate, sluggish stock prices, and internal organizational turmoil have raised a question over the company’s current CEO’s capability to manage the functions. Rumors are going around that Bartz might be forced to leave the organization even before her term expires as a CEO in January 2013.