February 25, 2011
Airbus will no doubt protest but if they really expect to displace Boeing for the US Air Force tankers they are living in a dream world. They should have seen the writing on the wall when the whole contract was re-tendered even after they had won the order for 179 aircraft in 2008. There is no US politician who would have the courage to place such an order outside of the US.
Bloomberg reports:
Boeing Co., the sole supplier of aerial refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force since 1948, beat European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. for a $35 billion program to build 179 new tankers, the Pentagon said yesterday.
It was the Chicago-based company’s third try at the contract since Congress and the Air Force first proposed the tanker replacement program in late 2001 — a contest in which Boeing was viewed as an underdog, said an analyst.
“Boeing’s victory was a major upset, and not at all what the industry was expecting,” Richard Aboulafia, a military aircraft analyst with the Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal Group, said in an e-mail.
Boeing will manufacture basic 767-model aircraft in Everett, Washington, and convert them into tankers in Wichita, Kansas, during the first stage of a three-part Air Force program stretching decades to replace its tanker fleet.
The initial contract for the development phase was valued at $3.5 billion. The entire first phase covers 13 production lots through 2027. The Pratt & Whitney unit of United Technologies Corp. will provide the engines. Boeing says the win will create and sustain 50,000 jobs among 800 suppliers in 40 states.
Related:
$35 billion US tanker decision imminent: Boeing and Airbus prepare to protest a loss
Tags: Airbus, Boeing, EADS, Tanker Order, United States Air Force
Posted in Aviation, Behaviour, Defense, Technology, US | Comments Off on Surprise! Boeing wins $35 billion tanker order
February 24, 2011
After the success of the on-line analysis of Guttenberg’s PhD thesis from Bayreuth University which proved that more than two-thirds of the pages had plagiarised content, the suspect thesis of Gadaffi Jr. from the LSE is also being examined on line here.
It would probably be a good idea for LSE to apply some plagiarism software and get ahead of the curve.
From Wikipedia:
Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics in 2008. Through the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, Saif subsequently pledged a donation of £1.5 million to support the work of the LSE’s Centre for the Study of Global Governance on civil society organizations in North Africa. Following the political uprising in Libya in February 2011, the LSE has issued a statement indicating that it will cut all financial ties with the country and will accept no further money from the Foundation, having already received and spent the first £300,000 installment of the donation.
Saif’s Ph.D. thesis has been made available online and commentators have already identified several passages which appear to have been copied from other sources without attribution. There is speculation that the thesis was plagiarized and/or ghostwritten by another individual.
Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi
Analysis of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi’s LSE Thesis:
“THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS”
(PDF)
In the Guttenberg case, Bayreuth University has now rescinded his PhD in an investigation which lasted less than a week. As Professor Debora Weber-Wulff points out this must be the fastest ever decision by a German University in over 400 years!!
Well, this has to be a record. I believe this is the shortest university decision process in the last 400 years or so. Last Tuesday evening the story broke, just over a week later the university commission for good scientific work at the University of Bayreuth reached a decision. They are rescinding his doctorate.
They didn’t go into details, and most important, didn’t decide if he plagiarized on purpose. He says he didn’t, the documentation found on the GuttenPlagWiki screams a different story. Since he has announced that he wanted to withdraw his doctorate anyway, he won’t contest it, so they don’t have to do the normal detailed analysis.
Tags: Bayreuth University, Libya, LSE, Plagiarism, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, Scientific misconduct, zu Googleberg, zu Guttenberg
Posted in Corruption, Education, Fraud, Germany, Libya, scientific misconduct | 1 Comment »
February 24, 2011
The world’s first full-length marathon for two-legged robots kicked off in Japan on Thursday, with the toy-sized humanoids were due to run 42.195 kilometres (26 miles) over four days.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-robot-marathon.html
Five robots are competing. Results will be reported in 4 days.
A humanoid robot named "Robovie-PC" (R) leads in a race against other robots during the world's first full-length marathon for two-legged robots, in Osaka. image:physorg.com
Tags: Osaka, Robot, Robot marathon, robotics, Robovie-PC
Posted in Engineering, Japan, Technology | Comments Off on Robot Marathon underway
February 24, 2011
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz: Image via Wikipedia
That the King of Bahrain owes a sort of feudal allegiance to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is a reality on the ground. That the Saudis are most concerned about growing Iranian and Shi-ite ifluence is also apparent. That Bahrain is “giving in” to demonstrators and – thereby – empowering the Shia majority is not a development that the Saudis like. That Bahrain may move from being an absolute monarchy towards a constitutional monarchy -or even worse- a parliamentary democracy is anathema in Saudi Arabia.
It is significant that the King of Bahrain, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, has rushed of to meet King Abdullah who has just returned after a long period abroad on medical grounds and can only be in response to a summons from his feudal lord. But Sheikh Hamad has a fine balancing act to perform. He must assuage the Saudi fears sufficiently to prevent an influx of a Saudi military presence into Bahrain while at the same time continuing the relaxation of his regulations to pacify his people. Saudi Arabia has instead decided to bribe its people rather than make any structural or political concessions and has announced $37 billion of financial benefits.
King Hamad-Bin-Isa-Al-Khalifa: image from Wikipedia
From the Washington Post:
MANAMA, BAHRAIN – On Wednesday morning, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa boarded a plane to pay his respects to King Abdullah of neighboring Saudi Arabia, who had returned home after months abroad for medical treatments.
It was a trip that underscored the extent of Saudi Arabia’s sway over the teardrop-shaped island off its eastern shore, as well the prospect that the turbulence still whirling in tiny Bahrain could have outsize repercussions in its giant neighbor.
A day after tens of thousands of demonstrators turned out in Bahrain’s capital, the king is still under pressure from demonstrators who are demanding that he make democratic concessions or step aside. The Shiite-led protesters in Bahrain are demanding that the Sunni royal family grant them equal rights and an equal voice, and Saudi Arabia, home to Sunni Islam’s holiest sites, is worried that their campaign might give ideas to its own large Shiite minority. ……
……. “Saudi Arabia fears a constitutional monarchy in Bahrain,” said Kristin Smith Diwan, an assistant professor at American University who studies Islamic movements in the Persian Gulf region. “It’s about empowerment of the Shia and what that might mean for Shia in the eastern province” of Saudi Arabia, she said, in addition to fears about Iran’s influence, which she deemed largely unjustified.
“In this current crisis, none of the solutions look good for Saudi Arabia,” Diwan said. “A crackdown in Bahrain would be destabilizing. A reform itself would be destabilizing, unless Saudi Arabia was willing to make some reforms.”
Tags: Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa, Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Shia Islam, Sunni Islam
Posted in Bahrain, Behaviour, Saudi Arabia | Comments Off on Saudi King Abdullah summons Bahraini King to receive his orders
February 24, 2011
The much awaited winner of the order for 179 tanker aircraft for the US Air Force worth about $35 billion will be announced after markets close this evening (Thursday 24th February) reports Reuters (via the NYT):
KC-767-200ER/300ER is a credible replacement for the KC-135R: image ausairpower.net
The decision, expected after U.S. financial markets close, marks another pivotal point in the Air Force’s nearly decade-long struggle to begin replacing its 50-year-old KC-135 Stratotankers, which refuel fighter planes and other aircraft in mid-flight to extend the range of military operations.
But analysts say there is no guarantee an epic industry battle will end there. The losing bidder is likely to file a protest that could delay — or overturn — the contract.
The competition to supply 179 air-to-air tankers has sparked sporadic transatlantic tensions and clashes in Congress among lawmakers eager to bring jobs to their states. …. Now, the Pentagon is close to giving its decision on the third attempt to replace aging Eisenhower-era tanker planes and senior defense officials say the choice between Boeing and EADS could come on Thursday.
A330 MRTT tanker (EADS)
Both Boeing and EADS, through its North American subsidiary, are offering specially adapted versions of existing twin-engined wide-body passenger jets: the Boeing 767 and the Airbus A330.
Analysts widely expect the losing side to file a protest against the decision with the Government Accountability Office, the arm of Congress which rules on federal contract disputes.
The Air Force has been trying since 2001 to begin replacing its Boeing-built KC-135 tankers.
An initial $23.5 billion plan to lease and then buy 100 modified Boeing 767s as tankers, fell apart in 2004. …. EADS, partnered with Northrop Grumman Corp, won a 179-plane deal in February 2008, only to have it canceled after government auditors upheld parts of a protest by Boeing.
Northrop subsequently pulled out, leaving the European aerospace and defense company to bid alone.
Tags: A 330 MRTT tanker, Boeing, Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, Boeing KC-767, EADS, tanker aircraft, United States Air Force
Posted in Aviation, Defense, US | 2 Comments »
February 23, 2011
The Local reports: (Original Swedish report in Expressen is here)
Photo: Scanpix (file)
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi ordered the 1988 terror attack that downed a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland, the Libyan leader’s former justice minister told a Swedish reporter on Wednesday.
“I have evidence that Qaddafi gave the orders for Lockerbie,” Mustafa Abdel-Jalil told a reporter for Swedish tabloid Expressen who is currently stationed in Libya.
Until Monday, Abdel-Jalil served as minister of justice to Qaddafi, but resigned in protest “over the excessive use of violence against government protesters” he is quoted as telling the privately-owned Quryna newspaper.
According to Abdel-Jalil, his former boss gave the orders to carry out the Lockerbie bombing, which claimed the lives of 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103 as well 11 people in the Scottish village below.
Among those killed in the bombing was Swedish diplomat Bernt Carlsson, who was serving in the United Nations at the time.
Following a lengthy probe involving Scotland Yard and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as other agencies, investigators concluded that the bomb had been placed on the plane by two Libyan nationals working for the country’s intelligence services.
In 1991, charges were filed against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), as well as Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, a Malta-based LAA station manager.
Following lengthy negotiations, Qaddafi agreed to hand over the two suspects to Scottish police in 1999 so they could stand trial in the Netherlands.
See also: Lockerbie bomber release orchestrated by Tony Blair’s gov’t in exchange for trade deals
Tags: Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, Gadadafi ordered Lockerbie, Libya, Lockerbie, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Pan Am Flight 103
Posted in Behaviour, Corruption, Libya | Comments Off on Gaddafi ordered Lockerbie strike says his former Justice Minister
February 23, 2011
Between 500 and 700 PhD degrees awarded in Germany every year are illegitimate. The days when Ph.D. degrees were mainly awarded to scientists and scholars in Germany are long gone. The title is in high demand among managers, lawyers and politicians – many with little time for the required research writes Deutsche Welle.
The zu Googleberg affaire has focused the spotlight on Germany’s new PhD consultantcy industry. New cases of corrupt practices are being found regularly.
One former law professor from Hanover, for example, is currently serving three years in prison after he was found guilty of issuing doctoral titles in exchange for bribes and sexual favors in 2009. It seems the prestige and the higher salary an academic title confers is a temptation some career-minded Germans find difficult to pass up.
Guttenberg is hardly alone when it comes to ambitious people with high goals battling time restraints. In German corporate circles, where a Ph.D. means more status and a higher salary, busy managers have little time to study. While the defense minister stands accused of failing to provide the proper attribution for certain passages of his thesis, others have been known to turn to a relatively small industry of so-called “doctorate consultants.”
The consultants demand anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 euros to help aspiring doctorate holders with all the formalities and contacts needed to be accepted into a Ph.D. program – and more. It’s the “more” that can cause problems, however. Doctorate consultants specialize in providing assistance in labor-intensive areas such as research and writing – tasks Ph.D. aspirants are normally expected to master on their own.
“We’re aware of the criticism of our line of business but we aren’t doing anything criminal,” said Thomas Nemet from ACAD Write, a company that employs around 250 staff and serves a customer base of 1,500.
“Our clients are mostly managers, lawyers and others in the medical profession, who have little time. We help them optimize their time to earn a Ph.D. But let me make one point very clear, we don’t sell doctorate degrees.” Some of his rivals in the doctorate consulting branch, like the “Institut für Wissenschaftsberatung” in Bergisch Gladbach, have been accused of doing exactly that, however, by paying large bribes to corrupt professors. …..
Manuel Rene Theisen, an economics professor at the Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich, estimates that between two and three percent of the Ph.D. degrees awarded in Germany are illegitimate. So that’s between 500 and 700 degrees annually.
Time Magazine reported in 2009:
…. German prosecutors revealed that they are investigating around 100 academics at some of the country’s top universities on the suspicion that they granted doctorates to dozens of unqualified students after taking bribes from a consultancy firm. The investigation follows a raid on an academic consultancy called the Institute for Scientific Counselling in the western town of Bergisch Gladbach in March 2008. .. Prosecutors in the city of Cologne say the institute helped doctoral candidates find a supervisor and paid lecturers to take on Ph.D. students. “Some Ph.D. students paid up to $30,000 to get their doctor titles,” Günther Feld, a senior prosecutor in Cologne tells TIME. “Many people had received mediocre results in exams and they weren’t eligible to do a Ph.D. in the first place.”
Leibnitz Universität Hannover
…. One former director of the Bergisch Gladbach consultancy was convicted on bribery charges in July 2008 and sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He was found guilty of illegally helping more than 60 students get their doctor titles. A law professor at the University of Hanover who received money from the consultancy for accepting doctoral candidates was given a three-year jail sentence. ….. “We recently stripped nine Ph.D. holders of their titles,” Henning Radtke, Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Hanover. Those students are now appealing the decision.
“The investigation in Cologne is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Manuel René Theisen, professor of business administration at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. “Around a dozen academic consultancies have been on the market for years offering Ph.D.s for money.” Theisen says he estimates that of the 25,000 doctorates awarded each year in Germany, up to 1,000 are obtained through illicit means. “The consultancies advertise in trade magazines and they pretend to offer coaching for would-be Ph.D. students, but it’s a fairy tale,” he says. “People know when they read the adverts they can get their Ph.D. for money and not for their [academic] work.”
The Googleberg affaire might accelerate the decline of the reputation of German PhD’s. On the other hand if it leads to more rigorous award processes it could help in restoring some of the shine that a German PhD once conferred — but that is by no means certain.
Tags: Corrupt PHD, Education, German PhD fraud, Guttenberg fraud, Purchase PhD, zu Googleberg
Posted in Corruption, Education, Fraud, Germany, scientific misconduct | Comments Off on Price of a PhD in Germany: €10,000 – €30,000
February 22, 2011
As Gaddafi threatens more bloodshed and seems to be increasingly removed from reality, the eastern part of Libya including Benghazi is clearly no longer under his control. He does not seem to be on his way to Venezuela but is looking to his special relationship with Berlusconi.
ABC News reports that bunga bunga Berlusconi is now providing further support to his friend Gaddafi by telephone:
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has spoken by telephone with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi amid a bloody crackdown by Libyan forces on anti-government protesters.
A one-sentence statement from Berlusconi’s office late Tuesday said the phone call took place in the afternoon. It gave no details.
Berlusconi has called Gadhafi his “friend” and has entertained the Libyan leader several times in Rome.
With Italy’s Eni, the main foreign operator in Libya taking home a full one-third of the north African nation’s oil production, it is no surprise that a succession of Italian governments have sought a cozy relationship with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi — none less than the extravagant embrace by current Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Tags: Berlusconi, Eni, Gaddafi, Italy, Libya
Posted in Behaviour, Corruption, Italy, Libya | 1 Comment »
February 22, 2011
University of Bayreuth’s President Rüdiger Bormann sees “zu Googleberg’s” letter to the University requesting that his doctorate be withdrawn as an admission of guilt says Welt Online. Whether the plagiarist could retain his academic title or not, was not his decision, but solely the responsibility of the Examination Board. “The request to withdraw his doctorate, does not relieve the Commission from making an assessment of the incident.”
In addition to the thousands of jokes now circulating about Guttenberg, the University of Bayreuth is also getting its share of criticism and ridicule. “The University with a special mailbox where inadvertently or unfairly acquired doctorates can be resubmitted anonymously. “
Bayreuth’s commission of self-regulation for science currently consists of Professors Stephan Rixen, Nuri Aksel, Wiebke Putz-Osterloh and Paul Rösch. “Cases like this have never happened”. Never during his term of office has the examination committee had to meet, protested President Bormann. Bormann was only appointed in 2009 but the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics, Markus Möstl also asserted “In Bayreuth university circles, no one can recall the denial of a doctoral degree”.
However, Borman admits that in the Law School theses have not always been checked for plagiarism. Computer programs to detect plagiarism would be used only for “suspicious” cases.
But there are many students at the University who are irritated and depressed. They are now questioning how such a set piece of work could have been awarded a “Summa cum laude” stamp. Students were concerned about the reputation of their degrees, accuses the student chairman Benjamin Horn. They fear, that as Bayreuth students they will be disadvantaged in their search for jobs.
And the University is obviously very sensitive to being accused of giving undue favours. They declared that the management had immediately checked and that the University had not received any donations from the Guttenberg family.
The University cannot escape some ridicule and loss of reputation. But as with all such cases where the actual award is less rigorous than the process to be proposed for an award of a degree, his supervisor for his doctorate bears a large part of the blame and cannot be immune to criticism.
Tags: Bayreuth University, Guttenberg fraud, loss of reputation, Plagiarism, zu Googleberg
Posted in Corruption, Education, Ethics, Germany, scientific misconduct | Comments Off on Googleberg affaire: Loss of reputation could hit Bayreuth students
February 22, 2011
Solar effects are much more profound than many so-called climate scientists like to admit. It seems entirely plausible to me that earthquakes and volcanism are connected to solar events. This paper by Zhang from 1998 also associates increased Earthquakes with general increases in solar proton events.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/buvw2tq081013210/fulltext.pdf?page=1
Relationship between global seismicity and solar activities
Gui-Qing ZHANG
Vol. 11 No.4 (495~500) ACTA SEISMOLOGICA SINICA July, 1998
Beijing Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Abstract :
The relations between sunspot numbers and earthquakes (M>6), solar 10.7cm radio flux and earthquakes, solar proton events and earthquakes have been analyzed in this paper. It has been found that:
- Earthquakes occur frequently around the minimum years of solar activity. Generally, the earthquake activities are relatively less during the peak value years of solar activity, some say, a round the period when magnetic polarity in the solar polar regions is reversed.
- The earthquake frequency in the minimum period of solar activity is closely related to the maximum annual means of sunspot numbers, the maximum annual means of solar 10.7 cm radio flux and solar proton events of a whole solar cycle, and the relation between earthquake and solar proton events is closer than others.
- As judged by above interrelationship, the period from 1995 to 1997 will be the years while earthquake activities are frequent. In the paper, the simple physical discussion has been carried out.
Piers Corbyn at WeatherAction comments:
“We now think that it is not just general solar proton event levels which point towards more earthquakes but that individual solar proton events exacerbate immediate earthquake (and associated volcanism) risk either directly or due to consequent storm activity and related surface pressure changes such as caused by our solar triggered and predicted Tropical Cyclone Atu which is currently centred North of New Zealand and heading closer.
There are also additional lunar effects on storm development and earthquakes & volcanism and for solar drivers it appears that the odd-even minima, particularly the later part i.e. the rising phase of even solar cycles – WHICH IS WHERE WE ARE NOW (early Solar Cycle 24) – are the most dangerous.
Prediction of individual Earthquakes is very hard but we are very confident of a continuing period of significantly enhanced earthquake and volcanic activity as well as extreme weather events for the coming one or two years, probably exceeding the levels of the most active extended periods in at least the last 100 years.”
Tags: Earthquake, Piers Corbyn, solar cycle, solar events and earthquakes, Solar variation
Posted in Climate, Geosciences, Lunar science, Solar science, Weather | 7 Comments »
