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Second Galileo Test Satellite Now in Orbit
Simon (S2) writes to mention that Europe's second Galileo navigation satellite reached orbit this past weekend. Galileo is promising to offer several technological advances in comparison to the US-based GPS system but no longer promises to be a guaranteed service. "The Galileo programme now seems certain to go ahead, after a prolonged and painful shift from partly-private financing of the construction to public funds taken from unspent EU farm subsidies. This money would normally have been returned to donor nations, with the UK, Germany and the Netherlands as the biggest three. London MPs have expressed doubt as to whether the UK will receive value for the money it will pay, but have acknowledged that the British government doesn't actually have any choice about Galileo under EU funding rules."
Wow! They are up to two satellites? Does this mean I can tell which hemisphere I'm on?
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Why London's MPs? What's so special about them?
There are 645 MPs in the UK, of which only 74 are in London. Quite why they should be supposed to have some special insight into Galileo or farming subsidies is beyond me.
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
Yes because GPS is owned and controlled by the most dangerous army in the world !
int main() { while(1) fork(); }
Simple: as far as English politics is concerned (and UK politics to a lesser extent), once you pass outside the M25 you enter a deserted wasteland which extends as far as the Channel, the North Sea and the Irish Sea (or possibly the Atlantic, but no Londoner has ever travelled that far to check).
On the other hand, I wouldn't tell them. Just keep quiet and maybe they won't interfere with your life too much.
Galileo is intended to provide more precise measurements to all users than available through GPS or GLONASS, better positioning services at high latitudes and an independent positioning system upon which European nations can rely even in times of war or political disagreement.
The last part is less of an issue now...
A reason given for Galileo as an independent system was that, though GPS is now widely used worldwide for civilian applications, it is a military system which as recently as 2000 had Selective Availability (SA) that could be enabled in particular areas of coverage during times of war, and therefore Galileo's proponents argue that civil infrastructure, including aeroplane navigation and landing, should not rely solely upon GPS. On May 1, 2000, the President of the United States signed an order disabling SA, and in late 2001, the entity managing GPS confirmed that the intent is to never re-enable selective availability.[14]. Though Selective Availability still exists, on September 19 2007, the US Department of Defense announced that they would not procure any more satellites capable of implementing Selective Availability.[15] This means the next wave of Block IIF satellites launching in 2009 will no longer support SA. As older satellites are deorbited and replaced, as part of the GPS Modernization program, SA will cease to exist. The modernization program also contains standardized features that allow GPS III and Galileo systems to inter-operate, allowing a new receiver to utilize both systems to improve accuracy.
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By that same token, I wonder if the EU Galileo satellite network will be as generously shared with the general public as the US GPS system is with the world.
:)
Now that I've got the nationalist pride bullshit out of the way, any system that can provide better and more accurate coverage is certainly welcome in my book. They could call the new satellite system "The Flying Turds" and I'd be ok if it let me get better than accurate to 12 feet.
More Twoson than Cupertino
I've heard that US (government) paying US farmers to grow food for Africans as opposed as Africans growing food for themselves didn't help either.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Great, in this case everyone should feel guilty for spending any money for technological advancement not directed to feeding people.
I think that is what you were trying to say, though I probably would have used the term powerful instead of "dangerous."
So, pretty soon we will have three "gps" major systems out there. But hey, China still does not have one - so #4, here we come...
Its so sad that it is necessary to have that many systems doing pretty much same thing. With each needing a few dozen birds - it's getting crowded up there...
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
Look who is talking....
The war on "terror" is estimated to cost:
$341.4 million per day http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
$720 Million Each Day http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102074.html
$100,000 per minute http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002780385_spending03.html
Cost of Terror War Hits 430 Billion http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34040
Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
And it while we're at it, lets give the great city of Bristol the power to take back the money for projects *they* don't think are a good idea.
Generally when having a overall budget you do not give the constituent parts the ability to pick and choose. The Galileo project is part of the overall EU budget, therefore the UK doesn't get to second guess the distribution. (never mind that the UK pays far to little into the budget anyway).
The original post was a mess. But subsidies in richer nations do lead to poverty and starvation elsewhere. By subsidizing grain production, prices have been artificially low for many years. This means poor farmers can't compete and stop producing as much. The added imports is a drain to those countries' economies. If there is any disruption to the supply of grain, either through famine, currency problems, or prices jumping on the imported grain, the local population suffers.
Had grain prices gone up slowly, it would have been a good thing. It was the sudden shift to ethanol plus crop problems in several world breadbaskets that pushed up prices. If sufficient grain had been grown locally, it wouldn't be as much a problem (maybe even a plus if they could export and get hard currency for it).
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
12 feet? European sattelites don't do Imperial ;-). But the freebie version will be <4 m horizontally and <8 m vertically. Whatever that means, I only looked it up on wikipedia.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Ehm, no, I think he meant 100% what he said. Personally, I consider the US dangerous too these days. I'm from Europe and I'm not alone in thinking that. The problem in itself isn't the military force, but the government behind it.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Galileo is a GPS. The US military system that everybody refers to incorrectly as "the GPS" is really called Navstar.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
Yes, gosh darn it, the UK should shake of the shackles of the EU bondage, re-appropriate their money and put it to good use by the people! ... like in Iraq or Afghanistan say, or wherever the US government thinks additional UK funds may be needed.
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Armies are like guns. They are not dangerous, until you (aim and) pull the trigger.
That being said, as a European, I'm not comfortable with a critical infrastructure like GPS in the hands of the US. The current administration has shown that it is incapable of handling the power and responsibilities that come with being a superpower. Former US presidents warned for the influence of the Military-Industrial complex, but that lesson seems to have been forgotten, resulting in "Bringing peace and democracy to the Middle East".
It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
Instead of starting a new system from scratch, they could have made it an extension to GPS. Imagine better altitude detection, less ionosphere interference. Good thing those farm subsidies went to good use.
But we are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
So if we have the most dangerous government in the world, it's because of the people behind that government.
Now Ma, go fetch me my gun so I can get this euroweanie off our front lawn!
They agreed initially to return any unspent money and didn't. no surprise there...
15TW = 15,000 Nuclear Reactors. (Approx. one accident a month.)
Sorry to say this, but you suck at comparisons. You are comparing the relations of a city in the UK to the UK govt., with that of a EU country to the EU central institutions. Well guess what, a EU country can freely decide not to be member of the EU. Not only that, but any country in the EU can decide whether or not to use the common currency, or their military association, their visa restrictions, or their foreign policy in general. These are just some examples, hopefully putting into some perspective the pointlessness of your comparison.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Yes, it will. In fact, while it is an EU-project, there are also international partners involved in the project, such as China, India, Israel, Ukraine, South Korea, etc.
More here: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/doc/galileo_coop_internat_final_en.pdf [PDF]
It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
Currently the GPS system is being upgraded to offer increased accuracy and additional features. This is known as GPS III and is scheduled to be fully operational by 2011 to 2013 (or roughly the same time as Galileo is supposed to be). According to some sources, it will enable accuracies down to 1m un-augmented.
We've got 3 elitist presidential candidates, corporate copyrights running roughshod over the people, and cities like Philadelphia that are run by the mob or union interests.
We're nothing of the sort.
The GPSIII contract is expected to be awarded sometime in the next week. I will also know whether or not I will be laid off in the same time frame...
Ehm, no, I think he meant 100% what he said. Personally, I consider the US dangerous too these days. I'm from Europe and I'm not alone in thinking that. The problem in itself isn't the military force, but the government behind it.
He said: Yes because GPS is owned and controlled by the most dangerous army in the world ! If that is EXACTLY what he meant, then he's an idiot. I believe space is controlled by the Air Force, not the Army.Besides, the Army trains every day to be dangerous. That is their job!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
the US Department of Defense announced that they would not procure any more satellites capable of implementing Selective Availability.
Selective availability is done through software. I have no doubt that every satellite in the GPS constellation is reprogrammable from the ground. So, even if new satellites dont't have the Selective Availibility option on launch, it's just a short upload away. Unless the US relinquishes control of the GPS satellite system to the UN where it belongs, SA activation is always going to be a option available to US.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
At least according to the German Wikipedia page on Galileo, it actually is compatible to GPS.
Biofuels may be a factor, but the main reason for the recent dramatic increases in food prices is market speculation:
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijCOI0Z2vYTwRJMmi_BIgz9kXXog
Does anyone know where I can find the technical specifications for this positioning system? It would be cool to build a receiver. (I realise it wouldn't be of much use until more satellites are up.)
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
I'll be dead by then.
Galileo, and the lack of dependence on a single country, is a fantastic idea. I suppose you think that the EU should give up control of it to the UN also. It's at least closer to an international effort.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
Biofuels may be a factor, but the main reason for the recent dramatic increases in food prices is market speculation
Actually the problem is that the market is too regulated.
It is difficult for speculators to drive up prices in open, competitive markets. Rice is neither, plenty of countries have import quotas, huge import tariffs, export quotas, and export taxes.
The main objection, AIUI, is that the money wasn't budgeted for Galileo. It was budgeted for CAP, but wasn't used. Conventionally if you find that you have a budget surplus somewhere, you congratulate yourself on lowering costs rather than looking to see where to spend it.
Okay, I'm owned because I equate military, navy and airforce. "Military" for me are any armed forces, but indeed if you make the difference... I'm wrong.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
While I agree with the other poster that the US people aren't master of their own government anymore.... I just want to say that indeed, a population that is apathetic to the world, want to be ignorant (see creationism), think that violence is an option and I'm skipping things, is quite indeed dangerous. So, yes, you're right.... Your government represents you and it's plain scary.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Market speculation can only have short-term effects. And in general speculation has a price-smoothing effect. It's part of the feedback system.
Speculators on commodities which do better than they predict (or worse depending on what direction the speculators are speculating on) lose money.
So.. it's possible for a short term blip in pricing due to speculation, (like a month worth of under-predicted oil futures) but it's a self-correcting system: the people who correctly predict the market conditions (3 months, 9 months, or whatever the term of the futures are) are rewarded, and the losers lose big sometimes.
A years-long steady rise in price can only be due to a few factors: production limitations, increased demand, and currency devaluation are the biggest causes, and have nothing to do with the futures market whatsoever.
There is also the development of monopolies or collusion, as per DeBeers' long-time hold on the "natural" diamond market. In the US that would be investigated and the offending companies broken up (depending on how politically..active..they were....), but this also doesn't have anything to do with market speculation.
And yes, I'm calling Banky Moon, and the rest of the empty suits at the UN morons for failing to comprehend the basics of the futures market (especially the agricultural futures market, in which a rise in futures prices will affect the amount of crops planted, with the consequence of downward pressure on crop pricing at harvest time) I mean, jeez, the producers of "trading places" demonstrated a better fundamental grasp of the futures market than supposed world leaders.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
About that sig, are you allowed to do that? Is Google breaking the law by possibly caching this comment? is slashdot breaking the law by archiving it? If so thats fantastic, I want to use that as my sig too? is your sig Copyrighted?
like phosphorescent desert buttons singing one familiar song
The hope is that the EU system will be so accurate, it will allow for motorists to pay their road tax using a pay-as-you-go system, where every half mile of road has its own toll price.
Personally, I don't see how this is going to work with complex freeway junctions, parking underneath motorway underpasses or driveways parallel to dual carriageways (but separated by a wall and some vegetation).
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
And Why I am supposed (as a non US citizen) to trust the US military that they will really do this again ? From a country which decided that they can ignore the international treaties they signed ? Sorry but in view of the last 6 years, all I can think is "Yeah. Right.".
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
No? Then I guess you or anyone else in Europe really has no room to criticize the US. When you compare the current US administration or any other, for that matter, to European ones, the US is small potatoes when it comes to mishandling power and responsibilities.
Sorry to have to point this out to you, but Fascism and Communism are truly European ideas that have cost the lives of hundreds of millions of civilian lives. Former US presidents warned for the influence of the Military-Industrial complex, but that lesson seems to have been forgotten, No, the US just learned better of it. You know... after needing such a Military-Industrial complex to free Europe of fascism and all, fighting two world wars there and finally keeping the entire continent from falling under the control of the OTHER great Military-Industrial complex led by the likes of Stalin... we figured that a Military-Industrial complex is just what was needed. Of course, we would have preferred free health care and a train system that runs on time, but we had to pay to destroy Fascism and keep the rest of the continent from falling under the control of Communism. Ask those in Eastern Europe how much fun they had under Soviet control. Be sure to ask them if they could speak freely or what it's like to vote in an election with only one candidates.
...resulting in "Bringing peace and democracy to the Middle East". Think of how many lives could have been saved if we (or YOU) had that attitude in 1935.Think of how many more lives would have been lost if we never had that attitude.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like Europe owes the US or anything. Only an mobster or other asshole would demand payment for a gift. However, don't knock that military-industrial complex that has saved your ass repeatedly for the better part of the last century.
Don't give me shit about how you don't trust the US to handle the GPS. Frankly, it appears that Europeans are the ones who have trouble handling power. Maybe we in the US should be nervous that you guys are building a system of your own. History has repeatedly shown what can happen when Europeans get too much power.
So until the US starts two world wars that kill tens of millions of soldiers AND civilians... Europeans need STFU!
Flamebait is not a substitute for an inability to handle the truth.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Did I say "give navstar to the UN" ? No. I did say that I don't trust the US military to really give up the possibility of degrading signal completely. I am suggesting that the last 6 years proved the US government is not to be trusted by its allies, because it certainly did not seem to respect the treaties it signed, and invaded countries of ground of really flimsy evidence (not to go in the controversy on liquid explosive, torture, or even gitmo). I am suggesting that whatever the US government or military says, 3.5 billion is certainly a cheap price to buy independence from them, how they act or whatever tell-tale they say. NOWHERE did I say I have right on navstar. You can still use your GPS if you want. Me on the other hand I wait impatiently for Galilleo to be set up, with more precision and independence from the US. To each his own. But don't tell I pretended I want to get the GPS/Navstar system out of the cold dead hand of the US, I did NOT.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I tried to be funny, didn't worked so well...
And can you explain what is the difference between "army" and "military force" ?
int main() { while(1) fork(); }
At this rate though the administration will have changed before the alternative systems are up. Also the installed civilian userbase is so huge (and in many cases wealthy) that the slim possibility of the system being changed to somehow block access to some seems quite ridiculous. And I mean that in the most literal sense as in I am making fun of you for even suggesting it.
>as "the GPS" is really called Navstar.
/. and the guys that fly it 24/7 - i'm gonna go with the guys in the green jammies. /sarcasm
Hang on a sec...
(/me gets up from my POS government Dell desktop, walks onto GPS Ops floor, asks the SrA at the SVO workstation what is he flying.)
(/me walks back to my POS dell and types this post)
well, not to be difficult with you, jeremyp, but the Senior Airman WHO IS ACTUALLY FLYING THE SATELLITES tells me he calls it "GPS". And since he, and the other folks over there (/me points at wall across from my cubicle) that are flying it already have a name for it, between some goof on
Seriously, though, no one has called it NAVSTAR in i don't know how long. I've been working GPS for almost a decade, and i've not one single time heard anyone use the word "NAVSTAR" at work without meaning it in a joking manner.
oh, and i think that we should, in all seriousness, give a big hand to those cute Euros for their cute little satellites. I'm sure that their pay-for-use, non-reliable system that is being paid for by stealing money from the much smarter European people will have no problems whatsoever, and since it will most likely LOSE more money per week than Concorde lost in its whole lifespan - and we saw their stick-to-it-aveness with Concorde, didn't we? - i bet everyone will be relying on Galileo for easily, 2, maybe 3 months before someone in France or Brussles or wherever they go to fight about things will pull the plug because its not green enough or not communist enough or something....
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
The thing is - since we know for a fact that this government has been lying consistently from the beginning, do we really have all that much basis for believing their promises now, all of a sudden? And even if we can actually trust them on this, there is no guarantee that a future administration will feel bound by the current government's promises. After all, we have seen how little even things like the convention of human rights and the constitution actually matter.
To me this simply looks like a feeble attempt at pulling the wool over people's eyes. And the people in question are the Americans - the US government knows full well that the rest of the world looks right through this. How long shall we tolerate this pseudo democracy, these hollow lies and the erosion of freedom?
"why are they so Europhobic?"
1. They're an island nation, and do not therefore feel any affinity with Europe at all.
2. Certain elements of the popular press have been blaming all Britain's ills on the EU for several decades.
3. The British government itself also has a habit of saying that any unpopular legislation is "required to comply with EU rules", while conveniently neglecting to mention the fact that (a) they proposed said rules, and (b) no other EU country has either implemented them, or announced an intention to do so.
4. Their history has taught them to see Europe as a place foreign invaders and would-be invaders come from, so they're predisposed to see the EU as yet another plot to take away their sovereignty and put them under European hegemony.
I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
SA was disabled in 2000 explicitly as a last attempt to cancel Europe's imminent decision to go ahead with Galileo. Funny how we forget things that were obvious at the time...
Herve S.
Yes, yes.
And we all trust the US administration on their word alone.
It's not as if they torture people, invade sovereign nations with false excuses or spy on their own citizens or something.
Well congratulations, the US isn't quite as bad a Nazi Germany was under the control of a crazed dictator. I guess you deserve an award for that ?
Anyway I don't think joining in at the end of a couple wars really gives you any right to comment on European matters so kindly STFU about what the Europeans choose to do with Galileo.
Galileo is intended to provide more precise measurements to all users than available through GPS or GLONASS, better positioning services at high latitudes...
It probably isn't obvious to Americans (continent, not just country) but I think this will be a good selling point in Europe provided the receivers are no more (or marginally) more expensive than GPS (something I think is unlikely because economies of scale won't kick in until there are lots of users and lots of people will be happy with GPS unless the extra logic can be added to GPS receivers for minimal extra cost)
Despite American (country) skyscraper image, the vast majority of America is open. Even in the middle of Manhattan the city is very open to the sky compared to the middle of London. Older GPS systems (I've got an old eTrex Summit) struggle to track a position at all in the City (I've never tried in Manhattan). I've got a newer Legend HCx which is better if it already has a position fix before you enter the City but not brilliant at acquiring a position fix if you turn it on in the middle of the city after moving it a significant distance while it is off. Also our roads are much narrower and closer together, and turnings tend to be much more complicated and not just right angles, making GPS inaccuracies more of an issue when navigating.
Europe is very much futher North that many people appreciate. Even Gibraltar, which is about as far south as you can get in Western Europe (Turkey goes a bit further South), is only about as far south as San Francisco. I think all of mainland Britain is North of the America-Canada border (49th parallel?). Anchorage is slightly further North than major cities like St Petersburg. The GPS satellite orbits are optimized to give a good position fix "close" to the equator (where close means south of the Canadian border).
Tim.
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = -@B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t," and there was light.
Since there has been a few incidents, like WW2, with fascists leaders wielding too much power over here, we europeans are a bit nervous when we start seeing the tools needed for this being handed to people in power.
We'd rather the US people did something about the powers they give their government before a real fascist gets into the white house.
The US have the worlds largest army, the US people are used to having it deployed outside US borders for whatever reason they're told and the US government get more power over and less accountability to their citizens all the time.
/.Mattsson - My native language is not English, so please don't whine over linguistic errors. (That's lame anyway...)
The reason GPS is 'shared' with the world is because Differential GPS made the 'Selective Availability' method of denial (it introduced an error into the signal that only authorised receiving units could correct) unusable - the addition of Differential GPS automatically corrected the SA error. So the US turned it off.
Anyway I don't think joining in at the end of a couple wars really gives you any right to comment on European matters so kindly STFU about what the Europeans choose to do with Galileo. Actually, we've been in Europe SINCE the 1940's, so I'd hardly claim that we just entered at the end of a conflict. And for a European to claim he's worried about the US abusing power is kinda hypocritical, don't you think?
The point was the GP stating he was nervous about the US being in control of the GPS and had nothing to do with Galileo. I don't give a frack what Europe does with Galileo. That wasn't the point of my post. I kindly pointed out that it was not the US he should be worried about as the US does not have a history of abusing power like the Europeans. The fact that I had to explain that to you shows the sad state of the European education system or that your are just too stupid to comprehend what you read.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
in general speculation has a price-smoothing effect
It can also cause bubble markets (cf tech bubble, property bubbles, etc).
A years-long steady rise in price can only be due to a few factors
Except we're not talking a steady long-term rise - we're talking about a rapid short-term rise.
Bubbles can easily last for a few years.
Well at least we agree that speculation is driving recent price rises.
-1 Troll
Worth every bit of it too. It's just nice to be able to hurl some crap toward my European friends now and then. Knock them off their high horse.
(Of course, us American will continue riding our pigs. So don't get me wrong. I fully admit and acknowledge that we are flawed.)
Or, the more likely option, that what I'm reading is incomprehensively stupid.
Since when has Germany been equated with the whole of Europe ? Most of the rest of Europe was busy fighting Hitler, with varying degrees of success, long before the US ever showed up so to claim that all of Europe are guilty of running aggressive dictatorships is, quite frankly, idiotic. Now the events you are talking about happened almost 70 years ago, 70 years before that the US was busy finishing off the ethnic cleansing of it's native American population but that is just as irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
More recently the US has shown its self to act totally in its own interests and it's not surprising that Europe doens't want to rely on the goodwill of US foreign policy for vital GPS services which isn't to say the US is doing anything wrong, it's perfectly entitled to act in its own interests, but is to say it's good to have an alternative.
I'm sure I remember discussions with you previously where you were sure the WMD were going to be turning up any day now, how are you getting on with that ?
IF (U.S.A. sends food to Africa){
AfricanFarmers = "Unemployed";
U.S.A. = "Evil";
LocalCorruptionFactor = 0.986
QuantityArrived = QuantitySent - (QuantitySent*LocalCorruptionFactor)
}
ELSE (U.S.A. !send food to Africa){
U.S.A. = "Evil";
}
IF (E.U send food to Africa || E.U. !send food to Africa){
E.U. = "Good";
}
America is damned if we do, damned if we don't in the eyes of Europe. But then again, we have little respect for peoples who wear Speedo's at the beach.
I think it'd have made more sense to collaborate on the GPS system. But maybe the U.S. gov was not to keen on such policies. I do not know.
That said, I am very tongue-in-cheek on this because we've been getting all this crap about corn used for ethanol. And that supposedly causing the price of grains to skyrocket.
What really is causing grain to skyrocket is that a decade ago we were paying about a $1/gallon in gas. Now, we're paying up to $4/gallon. Most of the cost in grain food production is fuel for farm machinery and transport.
Hence, increase in prices.
Subsidies usually allow a farms to grow food while the costs are down. When grain prices would not be able to keep the farm profitable, thus ensuring that all your farms do not move out of your country leaving you with no local food production.
It usually adds to the amount of grain available on the market. It can lower grain prices.
"How does tying the cost of grain to the cost of fuel (which is skyrocketing) NOT affect those who are exceptionally sensitive to price fluctuations"
Because, the main ingredient in the cost of grain, is not the cost of grain but the cost of fuel to plant, harvest and transport said grain. Therefore, providing affordable alternative fuel would reduce the price/gallon of fuel necessary for farm machinery and transportation. Thus significantly reducing the price of grain.
That the #1 issue causing starvation is terror. Warlords and corruption in Africa prevents aid from reaching the needy and prevents economic growth.
Erm, no, it's freely available because Reagan wanted it that way (IIRC after an airliner strayed into $evil_nation's airspace and was shot down - precise position information would have avoided that). If they wanted to block it it would be trivial, they'd just encrypt the signal like they still do for the more accurate L2 transmissions. If you can't decode the signals to extract the timing information they aren't much use. SA was introduced to make the intentionally freely available signal less accurate, so less useful for guiding enemy missiles and the like. Initially they turned SA off in the Gulf War because lots of US soldiers and allies had non-military GPS units and the Iraqis weren't really using it.
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
Well, I was trying to subtly point out that the GPS constellation is operated by the department of defense, which oversees all of the branches of the U.S. military, not just the army. I guess by substituting the term military force into the original statement would allow it to encompass the air force, marines, and navy (and others) since they are all part of the department of defense and have a vested interest in their GPS.
Worth noting is that while GPS is used both by civilians and the military, and the signals come from the same satellites, the civilian use GPS is a separate set of signals (S-code) than the military signals (P-code). So it's almost like there are two systems operating simultaneously with each other.
That is an entirely different kind of speculation that is not in any way mappable to the futures market. Further that money came back when all the bubble buyers got hit hard. Although the "bottom leveler's" probably knew there was nothing and got out in time to scam the "market gamblers."
In the commodities market, people buying up futures triggers more production. That production floods the market at harvest time (which, not coincidentally, coincides with the expiration date on the futures) and, if the demand is not there, depresses the price.
With stocks, there is no fixed expiration date, and no harvest time. Fortunately, the price of stocks doesn't directly affect the price of anything.
If the price is rising for a commodity over a long term (at least one harvest cycle, for corn it's been a few, I seem to recall stories of Mexicans complaining about tortilla prices as far back as 2005) then the only reason is that supply is not keeping up with demand. Whether or not we should try to fix it, and if so by trying to tweak demand or improve supply is a matter for debate, but the corn prices and probably even the oil prices aren't going to move downward without some fundamental changes.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
And this kind of attitude from across the water is exactly why it's a good idea for Europe to distance itself more from the US and go its own way. Just a pity about the UK's dogged attachment to the US, but Europe's diversity is its strength, so I suppose it at least does ensure Europe doesn't completely rail against the US.
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It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
For some reason, it's a common habit among some people to use the name of a nation's capital to refer to the government or part of the government of said country. Thus, you'll see "Washington has stepped up inspection of cargo" used instead of a more accurate yet clumsy "The US Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Boarder Protection has stepped up inspection of cargo."
The US GPS, much like the Internet was created by and for the US military. They has been released to the public around the world much as a gift. Such systems help better mankind, not just the US. To assume that the US is only looking out for its own interest is to be blind of the facts. However, I agree that Europe should release it's own navigational satellite system. Self sufficiency is a good thing! I'm sure I remember discussions with you previously where you were sure the WMD were going to be turning up any day now, how are you getting on with that ? First, WMD's and WMD programs have been found in Iraq, just not the stockpiles we were expecting.
Next, I have always maintained that the number one reason for liberating (or invading if you will) Iraq was for the people of Iraq and the region. We want to see the middle east become another Democratic region of the planet. We truly want to see the people there enjoying freedom and choosing how to live their lives, much like the good people of Europe. We would have preferred that the UN take on that job, as it is what the UN was created for, but after trying that for several years, we took matters into our own hands. It's a shame that more European nations do not share our vision and care so little about the freedoms of people outside their own borders.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
as a European, I'm not comfortable with a critical infrastructure like GPS in the hands of the US.
If you don't like it then you should launch your own damn satellites and... oh wait never mind.
And you're gonna need a lot more than just two! Better steal some more money from the farmers...
I don't even like the guy and never thought we should have actually attacked in the first place. It doesn't make countries expending enormous sums of money on redundant services out of spite any less humorous though.
The European satellites are not a threat to you. There is no need to get all worked up about them. Relax.
As for that pathetic fact-checking mission of yours: Who the hell cares what insiders call it. They always have their own informal names for things, as do everyone else. It has no bearing on what is or is not the "real name" of anything.
But if your GPS is run by people like you these days, thank God an alternative is in the making.
sudo ergo sum
Not exactly the "conventional" approach in pretty much any government budget.
Always good to see people getting personal. Means you're doing something right :)
That's a very nice list of differences between the EU/nation and Nation/city relationships. Unfortunately they all have nothing to do with how the budget is decided. In that regard my comparison stands up fine. Also I could have chosen any other administrative subdivision. How about Scotland deciding it doesn't want to pay for trident? The point is that there are rules and structures in place and apart from actually leaving the appropriate political structure (EU,UK) you have to abide by them. While countries can decide whether or not to take part in EU policy areas (though for the most part only the UK and Denmark do so on a wide basis), once they sign up they are obliged to play by the rules or leave the club.