09 May 2006
Delphi demands end to labour deal

They're right, you know. It's all the unions fault: there's no way Delphi can compete with Chinese prison labor while paying a living wage to it's workers.

Yeah, it's the unions fault, all right. In a pig's eye.

Troubled car parts firm Delphi urges a US court to end its labour deal with unions, warning that without change it may collapse.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

20:47 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

12-qubits reached in quantum information quest

Of all the little tidbits of tech news I've posted here in the past few years, this one is the one that I feel is most likely to be remembered as a milestone. A twelve bit system may not seem like much, but given the possibilities for massive parallelism in quantum systems it's really huge. For more on qubits see Wikipedia.

In the drive to understand and harness quantum effects as they relate to information processing, scientists in Waterloo and Massachusetts have benchmarked quantum control methods on a 12-Qubit system.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

15:30 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

UN elects new human rights body

Somebody needs to host a seminar for UN diplomats on "Building Credibility". It's pretty obvious they've not got a clue how to go about it ...

Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia are among states to be elected to the new UN Human Rights Council.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

15:25 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

'Happy Hour' Ends at Indy 500 Practice

It seems strange to post a sports story in the 'Politics' category, but here's an effect of Indiana going on DST I'll bet nobody in the Governor's office thought of before they pushed it so hard ... not to suggest that our politicians think much before pushing anything.

Racing is huge here, not just in tourism, but also as a native industry. And if DST slows down the speeds for the races, well, that's one more strike against it in the minds of Hoosiers.

AP - Goodbye, Happy Hour. Normally, the final hour of Indianapolis 500 practice each day is the busiest time on the track. With the sun beginning to fall behind the towering grandstands along the front straightaway, the track cooled slightly — and produced significantly faster speeds.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

15:24 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Small Cable Groups Seek To Break Net Neutrality

Why is net neutrality important? One word: monopoly. Cable companies and telecom giants are legal monopolies, obtaining their markets not through competitive activity but through franchise agreements with state and local governments. Ditto for the cellular and satellite companies, who lease the spectrum they use from the Federal government. Broadcasting is still a licensed activity.

When these companies are willing to give up those monopoly rights, I'll be willing to support surrendering on network neutrality. To do otherwise would be letting them have their cake and eat it, too.

CNet's News.com has a story on the first cable companies openly going against Net Neutrality. As usual, request for equal treatment is labeled as 'special favors', and Google is used as an example of company that should pay for a fast connection to the end user." From the article: "'I think what the phone industry's saying and what we're saying is we've made an investment, and I don't think the government should be coming and telling us how we can work that infrastructure, simple as that,' Commisso said during a panel discussion about issues faced by companies like his, adding, 'Why don't they go and tell the oil companies what they should charge for their damn gas?'

(link) [Slashdot]

13:31 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link