The Expansionary Times

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French President Sarkozy Says Nuclear Power Key To Economic Growth, Clean Environment

French President Sarkozy Says Nuclear Power Key To Economic Growth, Clean Environment

 

March 9, 20104:04 PM MST

Every truly effective leader possesses and is able to clearly articulate a vision of a desirable future. In Paris yesterday French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented just such a vision in his speech to the International Conference on Access to Nuclear Energy.

 

In his speech Sarkozy reiterated France’s support for the continued development of nuclear energy throughout the world. However, Sarkozy made an even more important pronouncement: aggressive development of technologies such as nuclear power is key to lifting the developing nations out of poverty and increasing the net wealth of the planet.

 

The French president quoted recent studies showing that the world’s energy needs will increase by the year 2030, with much of that increase taking place in non-OECD countries. He actively encouraged organizations such as The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and The World Bank to play a major role in funding the construction of new nuclear power plants in these regions. He also demanded that the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism specifically include nuclear energy projects among the “green” energy sources it recommends to non-OECD countries.

 

Mindful of the public’s apprehension about nuclear safety, President Sarkozy suggested that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) develop guidelines for reactor safety and a ratings system for reactor designs. He also mentioned that we must address the issue of the reprocessing


and recycling of recovered fuel materials. As mentioned in an earlier column, there are new reactors coming online which will run on recycled nuclear fuel. San Diego-basedGeneral Atomics’ planned new reactor, which will run on nuclear waste, will be functional within twelve years.

 

 

 

Of course, the French president’s own candidate for best new nuclear plant design is the one France’s own Areva has developed. Areva has designed the European Pressurized

 

Reactor (EPR), a third-generation reactor design that France considers the most advanced in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are signs that nuclear power development also plays a role in fostering more cooperative attitude among countries, even those that have a history of tensions. Israel recently proposed jointly building in the Negev desert a nuclear power plant in cooperation with neighboring Arab states. France would supervise and provide the technology for the project.

 

 

 

Sarkozy presented a powerful vision of technology as a catalyst for global economic progress. If the OECD countries truly care about improving the world’s economies, they must dedicate themselves to developing and implementing cutting-edge technologies in all fields, including agriculture, biotech, manufacturing, and communications. In the field of energy, Sarkozy stated, nuclear power is that technology.

 

 

 

TV Is Still Free (Part 2): Media Battles Like ABC-Cablevision Feud Could Spark FreeTV Renaissance

TV Is Still Free (Part 2): Media Battles Like ABC-Cablevision Feud Could Spark FreeTV Renaissance

 

March 16, 20103:05 PM MST

 

In Part One I described how the recent ABC-Cablevision feud that deprived three million New York Cablevision customers of ABC programming on March 7th revealed a surprising fact: The public and the media are largely unaware of the existence of free over-the-air (OTA) television alternatives to PayTV.

 

Although OTA television is the TV source for 11% of Americans and resides in the cultural memory of most citizens over 40, the vast majority of people seemingly have no idea they can receive programs such as American Idol and Lost via OTA-TV.

 

The question is “why?” It would seem that cable’s subscription costs alone would have driven a sizable proportion of its customers to explore cost-free alternatives such as OTA technologies.

 

Some argue that the transition to the HD antenna system confused many people and therefore discouraged them from adopting the free OTA technology. However, YouTube actually provides several tutorials on how to access OTA TV using the new HD technology. Some videos even explain how to hook up some of these new antennae to a computer and transform their laptops into a portable HD television. (Without the computer being connected to the Internet, no less!)

 

One instructional video, produced by two Canadian teens, provides insights into reasons behind the public’s lack of awareness of this technology. The video listed several outlandish beliefs about OTA TV. Evidently, some members of the public believe it is illegal to received free TV. Others think that OTA TV must somehow involve hacking into cable and satellite transmissions. Many assume that OTA had simply disappeared with the 2009 “changeover” to digital.

 

Recent discussions with several dozen intelligent and technologically-literate college-age and slightly older graduate students reveal how deeply these misconceptions permeate people’s consciousness. I asked them if they knew of any way to receive television without paying a monthly fee. Most responded that Internet websites such as HULA offered TV programs for free.


When I reminded them that access to high-speed Internet service costs at least $50 dollars a month, some sarcastically responded that you could try “borrowing” a neighbor’s Internet signal. Others suggested going to a friend’s house or a local bar to see your favorite shows for “free.”

 

They were surprised when I informed them that they could receive free TV transmissions by simply plugging a television set equipped with the appropriate antenna and in some cases a digital converter box. The mere mention of the word “converter” led the students to assume that the TV set owner would have to pay a monthly fee to someone. That fee, they told me, was around $12, a figure they lifted from the “basic cable” pricing scheme and magically transferred to the OTA system. I asked them who they imagined would be collecting that $12 fee: Could it be the electric company, the government, or perhaps the converter box manufacturer? Some students confided to me that they suspected that this entire OTA-TV scheme must somehow be illegal!

 

Most of the adults I spoke to, even those who grew up watching OTA on the old “rabbit ears” sets in the 1950s into the 1980s, were pretty sure that free OTA TV had disappeared altogether.

 

Such confusion about free OTA TV evaporates once a person experiences the technology first hand. It is for this reason that I agree with my local electronic store’s salesperson who contends that feuds like that between ABC and Cablevision will hurt cable companies in the long run. In the hours before the Academy Awards, several Cablevision subscribers, realizing that Cablevision had now blacked out ABC, bought out his store’s entire inventory of HD antennas and digital converter boxes. They attached the equipment to their TVs and proceeded to enjoy the Academy Awards that evening.

 

The store’s manager expected most of these customers to return the antennae for a refund in the days after their cable service began carrying ABC again. To his surprise, only 20% of the customers did so.

 

I am not surprised that they have decided to keep their antennas. They inadvertently have discovered that OTA-TV has several advantages over PayTV services. First, it’s free--no fees, no upgrade purchases! Second, barring an energy blackout, there are no service interruptions. Third, free TV ‘s high definition over-the-air picture is superior to the compressed HD signal transmitted over cable or satellite! Fourth, free OTA enables the viewer to receive CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC and all local over-the-air channels, as well as UHF channels. Moreover, with the advent of the new HD format, NBC and other broadcasters have added additional services. (Some customers in LA claim to get over 70 channels.)

 

And there is a fifth reason, a true advantage the free TV viewer has over the Cable or DirecTV subscriber. If you are in certain geographic areas, for instance between two major cities such as New York and Philadelphia, you can most likely pick up both cities’ over-the-air network stations. For instance, someone living in certain areas of New Jersey can pick up the NY Fox outlet (Channel 5) and the Philly Fox outlet (Channel 29). Sports fans love this last advantage. On a given Sunday, the NY outlet might be carrying a NY Jets game. The Philly outlet might be carrying another national game that a NY fan might find attractive but is not carried on the NY


network outlet. Therefore, on certain Sunday afternoons an NFL fanatic can have his or her choice of 4 to 6 NFL games to watch. Again, for free!

 

 

 

And there is a fifth reason, a true advantage the free TV viewer has over the Cable or DirecTV subscriber. If you are in certain geographic areas, for instance between two major cities such as New York and Philadelphia, you can most likely pick up both cities’ over-the-air network stations. For instance, someone living in certain areas of New Jersey can pick up the NY Fox outlet (Channel 5) and the Philly Fox outlet (Channel 29). Sports fans love this last advantage. On a given Sunday, the NY outlet might be carrying a NY Jets game. The Philly outlet might be carrying another national game that a NY fan might find attractive but is not carried on the NY network outlet. Therefore, on certain Sunday afternoons an NFL fanatic can have his or her choice of 4 to 6 NFL games to watch. Again, for free!

 

 

 

I suspect that over the next weeks and months some of my local electronics store’s customers who kept their antennae will discontinue their cable subscriptions, and from then on receive their programming via a combination of OTA and Internet-based online services that bring them HGTV and ESPN.

 

 

 

Their conversion to OTA-TV would never have happened but for the fact that the Cablevision- ABC battle forced them to search for an alternative to their Cable provider.

 

 

 

For many of the reasons cited above, magazines such as Variety, the entertainment industry’s bible, speculated that free over-the-air television might be positioned for a comeback. One of largest obstacle, it seems, is the public’s lack of awareness that this attractive alternative stil exists.

 

 

 

Lurking in the shadows is another obstacle to an OTA-TV resurgence: the government itself. Impending FCC regulations could force OTA broadcasters to relinquish a sizable portion of their bandwidth for use in broadband communications, leading to a reduction in the number of free OTA stations. In a “preemptive strike” The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in January unfurled an ad campaign to “Keep Antenna TV Free.” This column will examine this impending battle between the FCC as the parameters of the new FCC suggested guidelines are made public.

 

 

 

But for the time being, PayTV beware!

 

 

 

TV Is Still Free (Part 1): ABC-Cablevision Battle Shows Public, Media Unaware of Free Over Air TV

TV Is Still Free (Part 1): ABC-Cablevision Battle Shows Public, Media Unaware of Free Over Air TV

March 15, 20105:25 PM MST


HD over the air freeTV could make a comeback.

www.about.com

The public has always been able to receive over-the-air (OTA) television free of charge. This was true in the 1940s and 1950s when commercial TV first became popular, and it is equally true now. Any television set equipped with the appropriate antenna can access a variety of channels, including the local affiliates of the major networks such as ABC, NBC, and PBS, as well as local independent stations. In 2009, the traditional “rabbit ears” antenna was replaced by a new antenna designed to receive the new high definition transmission signals mandated by Congress.

 

Evidently the existence of Free-TV is news to the nearly 3 million Cablevision subscribers in the New York-Tri-state area. As a result of a feud over transmission fees, Cablevision stopped carrying the New York ABC broadcast early Sunday March 7th. This meant Cablevision would not be televising the Academy Awards program in NY. The complaints of Cablevision customers and their enablers in blogs, newspapers, and radio talk shows made it clear that most of the subscribers believed that their only access to ABC was via Cablevision.

 

Given the fact that free over-the-air TV is available to all, it is certainly a curiosity that most people share the Cablevision subscribers’ perception that the only TV is PayTV. I include in the PayTV category any entity that charges a fee for TV access: Cablevision, Comcast and DirecTV, as well alternate Internet providers such as iO and FIOS. (While HULA and other online television sites are nominally free, access to the Internet carrying these websites costs upwards of

$50 per month.)

 

This lack of awareness of the free OTA TV alternative was evidenced in the

very columns purportedly advising Cablevision customers on the various methods to get ABC and watch the impending Academy Awards program. One columnist suggested that readers switch to a satellite provider or turn to a variety of Internet-based video-streaming sources. He also advised they visit a local theater for a “cushy seat” at the Oscars for $150.

 

But the columnist, like most media gurus, failed to mention free over-the-air technology as the most obvious solution to cable blackouts of stations. One reader was so exasperated at the writer’s omission of the OTA alternative that he bluntly told the writer that “Your post makes you look foolish, you should apologize and excuse your ignorance.”

 

However another reader’s response to this comment demonstrates that the columnist was only reflecting the public’s confusion over available television technologies. The reader did indeed attach a new HD antenna to his television set, and was receiving all his free-TV channels except ABC! The reason his TV was not receiving ABC is quite simple—these newfangled antennae have to be correctly position to receive all the stations in broadcasting range. This reader did not realize he simply had to redirect his antenna properly to receive the ABC station’s signal.

 

The reader, obviously believing otherwise, wrote:


The antenna's not working. We can get all free channels BUT ABC. I believe they've dropped their signal out of the ENTIRE cablevision area, so even if you use an antenna, you still can't get the station.”

 

 

This person seems to believe that a TV station, operating with a valid FCC license, can suddenly stop transmitting whenever the mood strikes. In fact, the FCC requires Class A stations to “broadcast a minimum of 18 hours” per day. ABC’s New York Channel 7 was broadcasting its programs over the air as usual during the Cablevision blackout.

 

 

 

The question, of course, is how does an entire technology, one that is still used by 11% of the American people, and which is considered superior in many ways to cable and satellite broadcasts, literally disappear from public consciousness?

 

 

 

In Part 2 of this article, we will examine that question, and also consider the possibility that the recent ABC-Cablevision feud and other such media turf battles might be laying the groundwork for the resurgence of free over-the-air TV in the U.S.

 

 

 

unemployment, declining wages, and rise in home foreclosures plaguing the nation. Now, critics can and most certainly will link Obamacare to every new layoff, business failure and tax increase, as well as the growing US debt. Not surprisingly, a CBS poll

Branson's Virgin Galactic Successfully Launches VSS Enterprise

 

March 24, 201012:25 PM MST

Billionaire founder Richard Branson’s dream is to enable people to experience the thrills

of space travel within the next few years. His company, Virgin Galactic, just took the first baby steps in achieving that goal with the successful test launch of the VSS Enterprise, named after Star Trek’s famous fictional mother ship.

 

The VSS Enterprise was originally designed and built by Burt Rutan whose company, Scaled Composites, now a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. Rutan stated quite clearly “This is a momentous day.”

 

The craft soared 45,000 feet over California’s Mojave Desert for three hours. The crowd of workers and onlookers clapped and cheered when the VSS Enterprise touched down at the Mojave Air Base after its successful flight.

 

Richard Branson was justifiably enthusiastic about this achievement. "Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us.” Branson said. Mindful of the designer’s contribution to this breakthrough, Branson remarked that “watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time brings home what beautiful vehicles Burt and his team have developed."

 

Branson envisions the first generation of space tourists traveling as far as 60 miles above earth, where they will experience weightlessness and see the Earth’s curvature. This obviously will be the view of a lifetime. The Enterprise will be borne by its “carrier” vehicle, White Knight Two to a height of around 50,000 feet. At that point the Enterprise will separate and blast off to 60 miles above the Earth’s surface.

 

While the 2-hour trip’s $200,000 price might be considered a bit steep, it has not deterred 330 people from signing up to fly on the six-seat spacecraft. Another 80,000 people are on the waiting list.


This growing space tourism business will revitalize the public’s interest in space and space exploration. It will also spawn a host of ancillary industries, including the manufacture of rockets and rocket parts and supplies. The travel industry should also get a boost once other entrepreneurs recognize that there are substantial profits to be made from sub-orbital and orbital “leisure” flights as well as trips to the International Space Station and eventually the Moon and beyond.

 

 

 

DR. ZEY'S PRESENTATION TOPICS

The Superlongevity Effect
Intrepid Guidelines For Anticipating the Future
The Leader As Futurist