There's a reason why this spectrum is much cheaper than others, in that it's assigned to satellite communication.

The assumption being made is that if you license this spectrum, you need to make significant costs to actually put satellites into space, so the licensing is cheaper.

So they want both now (cake meme), cheap spectrum, but not put satellites into orbit (which their original proposal by the way *did* have), but instead use it as ground based spectrum (which is much more expensive to license)

Car analogy: I buy a classic old timer, so I don't have to pay road taxes (or much less anyway) and much less insurance. Now I put those license plates on a Hummer and still expect to not pay the road taxes and much less insurance...

Considering the book referenced is from something like 1966, when books were still quite useful, I'd imagine a lot of people have read it before they got taken over by computer and pads :)

And of course the Alien movies were quite a bit after that as well.

No. Wrong.

The simple fact is that as the captain of a ship, you are legally bound to making sure everyone's off before you get off yourself.

Depending on the jurisdiction you're in, there are actual criminal charges and associated prison time connected to not doing this.

Making sure everyone's safe *IS* the captain's job, it's part and parcel of what you do, and it not optional. Just like it isn't optional to do a pre-flight check if you're a pilot.

SCN is a number that gets increased *per transaction*, so is in a way related to time, but never in a 1-on-1 relation.

Funny how things like this make the news.

I recognized the name because Nome is/has been the end of the Iditarod dogsled race for quite a while.

Only way to get there is normally by plane (or dogsled, obviously), so this made me chuckle quite a bit.

http://www.iditarod.com/

One small problem with this is that in almost all European countries lobbying is illegal....

Although seeing the US is starting to become the garbage dump of western civilization anyway, they'll be posted to you soon!

(I think is was Ghandi: "Mr Ghandi, what do you think of western civilization" "Yes. That would be nice.")

How is this going to matter in any way, shape or form when Congressional Ratings have been about as low as they can get...

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_performance

Brings back the old 'joke': What's the opposite of progress? Right. Congress.

If you think they care a wit about the average American, you're hopelessly naive (in general, not as a response to the parent, although thinking they'll listen... Ah well :)

Probably interesting to most Slashdot readers, but I have most of my ebooks from a webstore called www.webscription.net

The publishers here include ones such as Baen, Del Rey, Tor, etc.

Fairly focused on SciFi/Fantasy, but almost all their books are in the $4-6 price range, a lot of them are older books, they have a quite extensive free library, and allow you to download in a number of formats, all DRM free.

Jim Baen alone has probably done more for the SF/Fantasy book world than any other publisher out there and I find the fact his publishing company stands behind this very promising.

And as a sidenote to all you US readers that think not a lot is done for disabled veterans: They give away everything for free if you're one..

You mean a new computer with lifetime support, right?

What's the use of yet another car...

No..

Someone going diving with a replica Rolex expecting it to function like a real one is a typical example of Darwinism in action.

If you do that, you deserve all the laughter aimed at your bloated, floating corpse as far as I'm concerned.