SAN FRANCISCO — Skype might have to shut down because of a dispute over the core technology used to make the internet telephone system work. EBay, which paid $2.6 billion (£1.6 billion) for the voice-over-the-internet system in 2005, is facing a court battle with the original founders of the company who retained the rights to the technology at the heart of the system. EBay admitted in a regulatory filing that it might have to close down the company. It said it was trying to develop alternative software but if that did not work, or if eBay lost the right to the original software: ‘Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible.’ The dispute also threatens eBay’s plan to spin off Skype, scheduled for next year. Earlier this year, Skype filed a claim in London against Swedish company Joltid, which is controlled by Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Skype is seeking resolution on a dispute over a software licensing agreement between the parties that Joltid was seeking to terminate. ‘In particular, Joltid has alleged that Skype should not possess, use […]
Below are facts about wind power in the United States: * Cape Wind’s 130 planned turbines would generate 420 megawatts of power, enough to meet 75 percent of the demand on Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. * The United States currently has 28,206 megawatts of installed wind turbines, which represents about 1 percent of the nation’s electricity supply. All the utility-scale developments have been built on land, with the most capacity in Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota and Washington. * In the United States, wind power now produces enough electricity to prevent the emission of more than 29 million tons of carbon dioxide. It would take 17,000 square miles (44,000 sq km) of forest — an area larger than Massachusetts and Connecticut — to absorb that much of the greenhouse gas. * The U.S. offshore industry has focused on the East Coast rather than the West since the Pacific Ocean gets deeper more quickly, making construction a greater challenge. In Europe, where offshore wind farms have been in operation since the 1970s, most are located in 80 feet of water or less. * U.S. states are also hoping new investment in […]
Just a few years after scientists warned of impending ocean apocalypse, a handful of simple management tools have pulled some of Earth’s fisheries back from the edge of collapse, according to a review of global fish populations and catch data. But though the big picture is brighter than before, many of the details remain dark. Some scientists say certain populations may hit ‘tipping points beyond which recovery is practically impossible. ‘In most cases, when you reduce fishing pressure enough, the stock rebounds. But there’s a breaking point beyond which the system has changed so much that it may not recover, said Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Canada’s Dalhousie University. ‘The longer you wait to fix a situation, the harder it becomes. Three years ago, Worm said Earth’s ocean ecosystems were on the verge of collapse. Nearly one-third of fished species had already been critically depleted. The rest would follow by mid-century. In a paper published Thursday in Science, a Worm-led team of fisheries experts updated those findings, providing the most comprehensive analysis to date of global fisheries. The findings are mixed. In five of 10 well-studied regions - Iceland, Newfoundland-Labrador, the Northeast U.S., Southeast […]
The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed. The world’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. ‘The current downturn beginning in 2008 is more pronounced, Steven Landefeld, director of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, said in a press briefing this week. The revisions were in line with past experience in which initial figures tended to underestimate the severity of contractions during their early stages, he said. The updated statistics also showed that Americans earned more over the last 10 years and socked away a larger share of that cash in savings. The report signals the process of repairing tattered balance sheets following the biggest drop in household wealth on record may be further along than anticipated. Spending Slumps Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, decreased 1.8 percent in last year’s fourth quarter from the same period […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
