7:11 PM
The operations in Libya include the debut of the Navy's new jammer, which has been going after Libya's missiles and tanks. The Growler disrupted the missiles that Libya's forces were carrying (especially important to prevent the surface-to-air missiles from working!) and disrupted their tank operations. The Navy is speeding up production of its Next Generation Jammer that will not only block radars and communications transmissions, it will *insert viruses* into enemy command networks:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/in-combat-debut-navy-jammer-targets-libyan-tanks/
Interesting article about how the initial stages of taking out Libya's air defenses could cost between $400 mil and $800 mil, while maintaining a coastal no-fly-zone would cost up to $100 mil per week (a country-wide no-fly-zone would cost around $600 mil per week). With the military budget subject to the continuing resolutions until the budget is passed, those costs will have to come out of something in the future:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=47381&oref=todaysnews
This is a nice, comprehensive article about the shortage of oil in Japan and the shutdowns of 9 of their oil refineries, port shutdown (which prevents oil from being brought in), and the problems their power stations, metal-related industries, utilities, and natural gas and coal shutdowns:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/shortage-of-oil-in-japan.html
The nuclear crisis in Japan has prompted Germany to declare that they will end their nuclear power program. Part of this decision was political of course--80% of German voters are opposed to nuclear power and the Chancellor's party is in close regional elections in states where nuclear plants are located:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/germany-ends-nuclear-program
Three-year trial proves that a new treatment for peanut allergies is effective! They carefully increase the doses of chocolate containing peanut flour to children with severe peanut allergies and were able to get them to be able to eat peanuts without allergic reactions:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2011031803
Researchers are working on a vaccine that could completely cure asthma due to dust mite allergies. The vaccine could cure people of dust mite allergies in 2 or 3 doses, saving tens of thousands of lives each year and billions in medical costs. About 20 million Americans (including my wife) are allergic to dust mites and a single dust mite produces up to 200x its body weight in waste during its life. The annual economic cost of asthma is $19.7 bil, with the biggest expense being over $6 bil in prescription drugs:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/allergy-vaccine-against-dust-mites.html
Researchers made a breakthrough that could lead to new drugs to treat autism. One in 110 children in the US has an autism spectrum disorder, so this could be significant. They found that mutating a single gene can make mice show 2 of the most common traits of autism, and that the gene appears to produce autistic behavior by interfering with communication between brain cells:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/autistic-mouse-0321.html
Engineers invented the first single lens that enables microscopic objects to create a 3D image by itself:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/seestereo.htm
Interesting analysis that AT&T buying T-Mobile was more important for HSPA+ than LTE--T-Mobile covers 200 million pops with HSPA+ and AT&T has just 10 cities with the higher data speeds of HSPA available. AT&T will also gain cell sites equivalent to what it would have taken them an average 5 years to build, and T-Mobile has already gotten the backhaul solutions integrated on their HSPA+ sites:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/att-t-mobile-usa-merger-much-about-hspa-it-about-lte/2011-03-21
Interesting analysis of how the AT&T/T-Mobile deal affects Sprint, Clearwire LightSquared, and others. Sprint's stock dove more than 12% because they had been rumored to be in discussions to merge with T-Mobile--now, they have lost a merger partner and face stronger competition. After the deal, Sprint will be the only large carrier with no LTE plans and no 700 MHz and AWS spectrum to use for LTE...no wonder that Sprint is fighting this deal. Analysts point out that AT&T needed T-Mobile more than Verizon needs Sprint because Verizon has enough spectrum unlike AT&T.
Clearwire is *really* hurt by the deal because Clearwire had been hoping that T-Mobile would be a wholesale customer for them, and Clearwire was trying to get T-Mobile to pay billions to buy excess Clearwire spectrum, money the cash-poor Clearwire needs to operate. With Sprint moving away from Clearwire and its WiMAX network and the loss of T-Mobile as a customer to bail it out, the deal could not be worse for Clearwire.
LightSquared may benefit because the deal may push Sprint to partner with LightSquared to use LightSquared's LTE network. That would probably kill Clearwire off:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/what-happens-sprint-clearwire-and-lightsquared-att-t-mobile-usa-ramificatio/2011-03-21
Sprint announced a major new partnership with Google that will offer the Google Voice calling service at no extra charge. This is the first time that a wireless operator is letting some other company (Google here) take control of the call-management functions. International calling revenue will go to *Google*, not Sprint:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-support-google-voice-no-extra-charge-announces-nexus-s-4g/2011-03-21
Broadcom is buying microwave backhaul provider Provigent for $313 mil:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4214337/Broadcom-to-pay--313-million-for-Provigent
It is interesting that Broadcom was the model company that Provigent used to raise money from VCs. The VCs invested $55 mil total over the years in Provigent and they are sure to be happy with this deal:
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000632019&fid=1725
Broadcom valued Provigent so highly due to how the market for IP-based equipment for wireless data communications to network cores was $5.2 bil in 2010 and the market is projected to grow by 18% per year, much faster growth than the semiconductor industry as a whole is having:
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000632038&fid=4111
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/in-combat-debut-navy-jammer-targets-libyan-tanks/
Interesting article about how the initial stages of taking out Libya's air defenses could cost between $400 mil and $800 mil, while maintaining a coastal no-fly-zone would cost up to $100 mil per week (a country-wide no-fly-zone would cost around $600 mil per week). With the military budget subject to the continuing resolutions until the budget is passed, those costs will have to come out of something in the future:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=47381&oref=todaysnews
This is a nice, comprehensive article about the shortage of oil in Japan and the shutdowns of 9 of their oil refineries, port shutdown (which prevents oil from being brought in), and the problems their power stations, metal-related industries, utilities, and natural gas and coal shutdowns:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/shortage-of-oil-in-japan.html
The nuclear crisis in Japan has prompted Germany to declare that they will end their nuclear power program. Part of this decision was political of course--80% of German voters are opposed to nuclear power and the Chancellor's party is in close regional elections in states where nuclear plants are located:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/germany-ends-nuclear-program
Three-year trial proves that a new treatment for peanut allergies is effective! They carefully increase the doses of chocolate containing peanut flour to children with severe peanut allergies and were able to get them to be able to eat peanuts without allergic reactions:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2011031803
Researchers are working on a vaccine that could completely cure asthma due to dust mite allergies. The vaccine could cure people of dust mite allergies in 2 or 3 doses, saving tens of thousands of lives each year and billions in medical costs. About 20 million Americans (including my wife) are allergic to dust mites and a single dust mite produces up to 200x its body weight in waste during its life. The annual economic cost of asthma is $19.7 bil, with the biggest expense being over $6 bil in prescription drugs:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/allergy-vaccine-against-dust-mites.html
Researchers made a breakthrough that could lead to new drugs to treat autism. One in 110 children in the US has an autism spectrum disorder, so this could be significant. They found that mutating a single gene can make mice show 2 of the most common traits of autism, and that the gene appears to produce autistic behavior by interfering with communication between brain cells:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/autistic-mouse-0321.html
Engineers invented the first single lens that enables microscopic objects to create a 3D image by itself:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/seestereo.htm
Interesting analysis that AT&T buying T-Mobile was more important for HSPA+ than LTE--T-Mobile covers 200 million pops with HSPA+ and AT&T has just 10 cities with the higher data speeds of HSPA available. AT&T will also gain cell sites equivalent to what it would have taken them an average 5 years to build, and T-Mobile has already gotten the backhaul solutions integrated on their HSPA+ sites:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/att-t-mobile-usa-merger-much-about-hspa-it-about-lte/2011-03-21
Interesting analysis of how the AT&T/T-Mobile deal affects Sprint, Clearwire LightSquared, and others. Sprint's stock dove more than 12% because they had been rumored to be in discussions to merge with T-Mobile--now, they have lost a merger partner and face stronger competition. After the deal, Sprint will be the only large carrier with no LTE plans and no 700 MHz and AWS spectrum to use for LTE...no wonder that Sprint is fighting this deal. Analysts point out that AT&T needed T-Mobile more than Verizon needs Sprint because Verizon has enough spectrum unlike AT&T.
Clearwire is *really* hurt by the deal because Clearwire had been hoping that T-Mobile would be a wholesale customer for them, and Clearwire was trying to get T-Mobile to pay billions to buy excess Clearwire spectrum, money the cash-poor Clearwire needs to operate. With Sprint moving away from Clearwire and its WiMAX network and the loss of T-Mobile as a customer to bail it out, the deal could not be worse for Clearwire.
LightSquared may benefit because the deal may push Sprint to partner with LightSquared to use LightSquared's LTE network. That would probably kill Clearwire off:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/what-happens-sprint-clearwire-and-lightsquared-att-t-mobile-usa-ramificatio/2011-03-21
Sprint announced a major new partnership with Google that will offer the Google Voice calling service at no extra charge. This is the first time that a wireless operator is letting some other company (Google here) take control of the call-management functions. International calling revenue will go to *Google*, not Sprint:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-support-google-voice-no-extra-charge-announces-nexus-s-4g/2011-03-21
Broadcom is buying microwave backhaul provider Provigent for $313 mil:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4214337/Broadcom-to-pay--313-million-for-Provigent
It is interesting that Broadcom was the model company that Provigent used to raise money from VCs. The VCs invested $55 mil total over the years in Provigent and they are sure to be happy with this deal:
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000632019&fid=1725
Broadcom valued Provigent so highly due to how the market for IP-based equipment for wireless data communications to network cores was $5.2 bil in 2010 and the market is projected to grow by 18% per year, much faster growth than the semiconductor industry as a whole is having:
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000632038&fid=4111