Split (1)

train · 2.6M rows

text stringlengths 9 72.5k
Royal Canadian Air Force Colonel Travis Morehen, NORAD and USNORTHCOM Command Center Director, discussing the center's advanced capabilities.
A view of air traffic over Washington, D.C.
A look at every flight above the U.S. at that moment.
"Most Americans are surprised at how involved Canada is in defending the U.S."
A simulation of a missile strike — essentially what command operators would see if a true situation was happening.
Office humor. So yes, there are aliens in the mountain. This is one of a few, we're told.
A look down the tunnel leading to the blast doors. It's about 3/10's of a mile long. The blast doors aren't directly at its end, but offset to mitigate blast pressure and force.
Just another day at work under the mountain for some people.
NORAD celebrates its 60th — a look inside "America's Fortress"
Nortel Networks Corp. has asked Avici Systems Inc. to be its dance partner again in the IP core router ball. These two broke off a courtship almost five years ago when Nortel married router and Ethernet switch siren Bay Networks.
Since then, Nortel has bungled two attempts to build its own core router and saw paramour Juniper Networks Inc. sleep around with rivals Lucent Technologies Inc., Siemens AG and Ericsson Inc.
This week, Nortel rushed back into the arms of Avici with a three-year agreement in which it will integrate, sell and support Avici's core routers as the "preferred partner" of Nortel for building converged, multiservice optical IP networks. The reunited couple will also engage in joint marketing activities, development and technology collaboration.
These activities will initially focus on the service management and operations integration. The newlyweds said they will immediately begin integrating Avici products under Nortel's Preside Management system for basic operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning support.
As a dowry, Avici has granted Nortel a warrant to purchase 800,000 shares of Avici common stock at a formula exercise price of about US$8 per share. The warrant is exercisable after seven years (a "seven-year itch"?) but the right to exercise the warrant may be accelerated if Nortel achieves certain performance milestones.
Nortel chose to remarry a core router maiden because the service provider core router market is expected to grow from US$1.2 billion in 2003 to US$2.6 billion in 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 21 research, according to Synergy Research. Also, Nortel just won a significant VoIP contract with Verizon Communications Inc. that ultimately requires a converged packet core.
Nortel chose Avici -- again -- after a deep packet inspection on several candidates, incumbents and start-ups alike.
"Avici met our requirements and they have product today," says Sue Spradley, president of Wireline Networks at Nortel. "We know we made the right strategic choice."
As for Juniper, Spradley says Nortel only marketed its routers for edge applications even though the companies clearly stated at the time of their partnership announcement that they were targeting the core.
Avici comes with some warts, however. It is a distant third to Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper in market share -- 5 percent in the third quarter vs. 65.6 percent and 28.4 percent for Cisco and Juniper, respectively, according to Dell'Oro Group Inc. -- and it has been challenged in growing its customer base significantly beyond AT&T Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., WilTel Communications Group Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Indeed, AT&T was the only customer to contribute 10 percent or more to Avici's third quarter revenue.
The company has yet to turn a profit even though third quarter revenue was up 44 percent year-over-year and 7 percent sequentially.
Natalie Massenet is, in fact, that visionary. She saw a world where people would pay $2,000 for a pair of jeans, a world where you can buy what you covet, where the magazine pages meet the FedEx man. You want it? You can have it. Click here. She launched Net-a-porter.com, a luxury-goods website, in 2000. Her vision was so clear and sparkling, she managed to persuade labels such as Marc Jacobs, Chloe and Jimmy Choo to sell their lines through an unproven business model. Sound obvious? It does now. Only because she did it first. The worlds of fashion and commerce have changed dramatically in the past 10 years, in part because of a woman who likens herself to a lazy rock.
I’m buying stock in rocks.
TOKYO — While the American automakers have made drastic comebacks since the recession, no car company has had a bigger revival than Toyota.
After enduring huge recalls, a tsunami in Japan and a steep drop in sales because of slowing demand, Toyota on Tuesday hit a milestone in its comeback, saying it was on pace to earn its biggest-ever annual profit in its fiscal year that ends in March.
The Japanese company projected that it would earn net income of 1.9 trillion yen for the year, or about $18.8 billion. That figure would surpass the profit of ¥1.7 trillion it reported six years ago, before the global financial crisis.
The annual profit will also easily exceed the combined earnings in 2013 for General Motors, Ford and the Chrysler division of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and will help bankroll Toyota’s continued expansion.
It is a rapid turnaround for a company that nearly lost its reputation for quality when millions of its cars were recalled for problems with unintended acceleration.
Under its chief executive, Akio Toyoda, the company has hastened cost cuts, streamlined its global organization chart and increased its emphasis on newer models, flashy designs and fuel economy. The company has also continued to resolve lawsuits stemming from the recalls.
“They went through a lot over the past four years and they have learned from it,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst at the auto research firm Kelley Blue Book.
Still, the mood on Tuesday at Toyota’s offices here was less than joyous, with executives expressing caution about the global markets’ recent jitters.
The company has faced difficulties, starting with the financial crisis in 2008 that crippled sales volumes in North America and Europe.
In 2009 and 2010, it recalled over 10 million vehicles for a variety of problems tied to unintended acceleration of several of its models. And in 2011, it lost significant production after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Last year, Toyota was the best-selling automaker in the world for a second consecutive year, beating out G.M. and Volkswagen of Germany.
Toyota sold 9.98 million new vehicles in 2013. This year, it could become the first automaker to sell more than 10 million new cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles, if it meets its targets.
The company’s turnaround has benefited from several factors, including a weaker yen, which is inflating the value of its earnings overseas. Toyota has also moved more manufacturing production out of high-cost Japan, and invested heavily in new products.
In the United States, sales of its bread-and-butter Toyota brand vehicles rose 6.7 percent in 2013, which lagged the overall market increase of 7.6 percent.
But its higher-priced Lexus luxury division reported an increase of 12.2 percent, which fueled growth in its overall profit margins.
Newer models like the Toyota Avalon sedan and RAV-4 sport utility vehicle were particularly big sellers. And its revamped Lexus ES sedan strengthened what was already a competitive luxury lineup.
Net profit soared in the company’s most recent quarter that ended in December. For the period, Toyota earned ¥525.4 billion, about $5.2 billion, up from ¥99.9 billion in the similar period the previous year. Revenue for the quarter climbed 24 percent to ¥6.59 trillion.
Company officials on Tuesday played down pressure from investors to use the company’s cash holdings to increase its stock dividend or build new factories in major markets like the United States and China.
Instead, Toyota executives vowed not to repeat its overheated expansion strategy of the mid-2000s, which left the company vulnerable to sinking sales during the recession.
A year after its previous record profit in 2008, Toyota plunged to its biggest loss in history.
Despite the surge in profits, Toyota faces challenges to increase its share in the most competitive markets.
In the United States, for example, its market share was basically unchanged at 14.3 percent last year. And while it has several refreshed models on the way in coming years, so do its big rivals like G.M. and Ford.
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Tokyo and Bill Vlasic from Detroit.
In principle, most people around the world, and especially in the United States, support freedom of expression. But there is a fine line between general support for freedom of speech and support for specific forms of expression.
A new survey of people in 38 countries finds that for many provocative forms of speech, such as sexually explicit statements or calls for violent protests, most people draw a line between protected speech and speech that goes too far. And compared with the rest of the world, Americans generally are more accepting of free speech of any kind.
Criticizing government policies is the most accepted form of speech from our global poll, among the five statements that we tested. A median of eight-in-ten people across 38 countries say people should be able to express dissatisfaction with the government publicly. And about half or more in every country surveyed say this is acceptable. In many countries, people with a higher level of education are more likely than those with less education to support being able to criticize government policies in public.
But on most of the other statements tested, including speech that calls for violent protests, more oppose free public expression than those who support. Majorities in almost all the countries surveyed say the government should be able to prevent calls for violent protests. In the U.S., 44% support this kind of speech, while 51% support government restrictions on calls for protest. Support for this type of speech is highest in Poland (60%), possibly as a result of past protests against Soviet-controlled governments during the Cold War, although the Solidarity protests of the 1980s were largely peaceful.
Support for speech that is sexually explicit is also less accepted around the world. Majorities in most countries think the government should be able to restrict this type of speech. Only in Spain (70%), the U.S. (52%) and Poland (50%) do half or more support being able to say these things in public. However, young people are generally more accepting of this type of speech. In 16 of the 38 countries, 18- to 29-year-olds are more likely than those ages 50 and older to say that people should be able to make sexually explicit statements in public.
On other matters, such as saying things that are offensive to religion, there is also less support around the world. A median of only 35% across the nations surveyed say making public statements that might be offensive to their religion or beliefs is acceptable. And fewer than half in 24 countries say statements that are offensive to minority groups should be allowed publicly.
On the latter two questions, the U.S. stands out as one of the few pro-free speech exceptions, with two-thirds or more saying statements that are offensive to the respondent’s religion (77%) and minority groups (67%) are OK. But there is a racial divide, with nonwhite Americans (57%), including Hispanics, much less likely to agree that people should be able to say offensive things about minorities in public compared with white Americans (72%).
For more information on support for free speech around the world, see our detailed sortable table.
Dionna Givens is a multimedia intern at Pew Research Center.
Johannesburg - Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says South Africans are only likely to experience stage 1 load shedding until August, but this plan will only be implemented as a last resort.
Gordhan, Eskom CEO Phakamani Hadebe and board chairman Jabu Mabuza briefed the media on Wednesday on the progress of the power grids stability.
Gordhan said the challenges facing Eskom are better understood.
Mabuza said coal supply issues and the quality have been improved.
According to Gordhan, the plan for the next five months of winter, until August, is to avoid load-shedding through improving the energy availability factor. The other plans are to execute proper maintenance to reduce plant breakdowns, energy-saving initiatives and regular communication with stakeholders.
South Africans have survived about two weeks without a threat of load-shedding following two weeks of stage 4 load-shedding and stage 2 load-shedding at night.
Hadebe said Eskom was able to avoid power cuts because of the increased power supply.
He said the power utility planned to avoid loadshedding until December or limit it to stage 1 loadshedding through maintenance plans.
The Eskom board has approved about R49 billion for maintenance over the next 10 years and about R4 billion will be spent on fixing issues at Medupi and Khusile power stations.
Network Appliance added automated datacentre management capabilities to its technology set with the purchase of privately held Onaro lastThursday for an undisclosed sum.
NetApp expects to retain most of Onaro's 65 employees and plans to add the operation to its storage management and application integration business unit, noted NetApp's chief marketing officer, Jay Kidd.
For now, NetApp intends to maintain and sell Onaro's product line as is -- but renamed under its own brand. Kidd refused to provide any details of future cross-product or technology integration between the two organisations.
Onaro develops software that accumulates real-time information about IT architecture components such as servers, storage arrays, switches and host bus adapters. The company's seven product SANscreen family automates several datacentre functions.
NetApp plans to use Onaro's datacentre infrastructure modelling and predictive tool set to manage storage-area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) devices on physical and virtual server deployments, remarked Kidd. Because NetApp currently features over 3000 customers running VMware, he said that is a logical target for Onaro's software repertoire.
"The main thing Onaro brings is software that allows you to manage storage as a service and that becomes much more important in a virtualized server environment," Kidd said. "You really can't automate what you can't manage, and you can't manage what you can't measure -- the fact that Onaro can serve the needs of [SAN and NAS on virtualised infrastructure] was really important to us."
Kidd said Onaro's capability to perform capacity planning and reduce system errors when any changes are made should go a long way toward alleviating user concerns about supporting a broader range of applications and modular storage devices in large-scale SAN and NAS datacentre environments.
Nigeria will hold its first oil exploration bidding round in the last five years by the end of this year.
The licence renewal talks with Shell and Chevron on existing onshore fields are in their final stages, the Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said yesterday.
The country’s light, low sulphur crude oil is popular with United States and Asian buyers, but oil majors say uncertainty over changes in regulation in a proposed oil bill and insecurity in the onshore Niger Delta are holding back new investment.
“We expect within the next couple of months a marginal bid round will be announced. We hope a major bid round will follow before the end of the year,” Diezani Alison-Madueke told Reuters in an interview.
Some industry experts have questioned why licences are being renewed before parliament has passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which will adjust terms on these types of contracts. “It would have become slightly cumbersome to keep waiting on the PIB before the renewals,” Alison-Madueke said in reply.
Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell cannot yet say when a force majeure on two grades of Nigerian crude oil will be lifted, after production stoppages caused by theft and flooding cut up to 20 percent of exports from Africa’s top supplier.
Shell said its Nigerian venture had declared force majeure on exports of the Bonny and Forcados crudes on Friday, citing damage caused by thieves and flooding affecting a third-party supplier it did not identify.
“Shell cannot yet say at this time when the force majeure will be lifted,” Shell spokesman Precious Okolobo said by telephone on Tuesday, declining to give further details. Shell is Nigeria’s biggest oil operator. Nigeria’s oil is exported to the United States, Asia and Europe and supply disruptions can affect world prices because it is priced against the Brent oil benchmark. Brent fell by $1.70 a barrel to below $108 on Tuesday, a smaller decline than the U.S. crude benchmark.
Separately, French oil company Total on Tuesday told Reuters it had stopped oil and gas production from its onshore OML 58 block due to flooding. The block, in which Total has a 40 percent stake, normally produces the equivalent of 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.
Stena Line Belfast Giants forward Hunter Bishop has announced his retirement from hockey.
Bishop will return to the USA immediately to focus on the Junior Head Coach/General Manager position at the Charleston Colonials that he will take up next season in his home city of Charleston, South Carolina.
The 2018/19 season was Bishop’s first in Belfast, arriving from the EBEL’s HC Innsbruck where he had played since 2015/16. The 31 year old’s totals with the Giants are five goals and 17 assists, good for 22 points in 38 games. The forward leaves Belfast having helped the organisation to it’s first ever European medal following the IIHF Continental Cup Silver the team won in January after winning the semi-final group in November.
The Giants would like to thank Hunter for his service to the Giants organisation, and wish him, Tara and Brodi well as they move back to the USA.
Bishop said: “After a few discussions with my family and Coach Keefe I’ve made a very tough decision to retire from hockey so that I can return home to focus on the Junior Head Coach/GM position I have accepted.
“It’s far harder than I ever imagined knowing that i’m done playing the game that I have loved my entire life, however I am excited about transitioning to the other side as a coach to help other young men achieve their dreams in the game that has given me so much.
“I have nothing but great things to say about the Giants Organisation and the city of Belfast. Everything is done very professionally, and I’m thankful for our time here in beautiful Northern Ireland.
“I’d like to thank my teammates for being understanding with my decision, the Giants off ice team behind the scenes who made me and my family feel welcomed the moment we arrived.
He’s been the most maligned man in Michigan the past few years.
You hate him because he can’t decide on a consistent lineup.
You question him because he doesn’t bunt or steal enough.
You wonder why he plays some players who can’t bat their IQ.
Jim Leyland, it seems, can’t please anyone.
Gov. Rick Snyder aside, the Detroit Tigers’ skipper might be the most despised, second-guessed, disrespected man in Michigan. Really, in many ways, he’s the new Matt Millen — a Detroit sports villain. Someone to beat up. Someone to blame. Someone to kick around. Someone to vent your anger at.
Except in this case, Leyland is a winner.
And that’s what’s so puzzling. Leyland just can’t please Tigers’ fans. It’s almost impossible.
Do you want Buddy Bell back as manager? Alan Trammell? Phil Garner? Larry Parrish? Luis Pujols? Those are the managers since 1995 after Sparky Anderson stepped down.
Guess how many of those guys managed the Tigers to a winning season? Here’s a tip — it’s the number that comes before one. That’s right — Zero.
In Leyland’s first year, 2006, he led the Tigers to a record of 95-67, and a trip to the World Series.
But to hear his critics, Leyland just graduated from T-ball coaching, and was shaky at that.
I haven’t run into one person in Midland who likes Leyland as the manager. The Tigers can do better, they say. Go get Kirk Gibson. Go find out if Joe Torre wants to come out of retirement. Go get .... SOMEONE to replace this guy.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.