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Category: government – Page 73

Defense company Raytheon has clinched a US Navy contract to provide engineering and technical services for the Evolved Seasparrow Missile and NATO Seasparrow Missile programs, the Pentagon has said.

A press release by the Department of Defense on December 30 stated, “Raytheon Company [of] Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $55,121,826 modification to a previously awarded contract for engineering and technical services in support of the Evolved Seasparrow Missile and NATO Seasparrow Missile Systems programs.”

The contract combines purchases for the US government (99%); and those of Japan and the United Arab Emirates (1%) under the Foreign Military Sales program.

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In 2011, Scotland set a target of reaching 100% clean electricity consumption in 2020. And last year, the country almost reached its target – 98.6% of gross electricity consumption came from renewable sources, according to the Scottish government’s December energy statement.

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Scotland, which is working to achieve net zero by 2045 – a legally binding target – has one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world.

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Trivergence is starting to affect every industry. In financial services, the wallet has become a smart app that can collect data and learn. On a blockchain, users can exchange, save, borrow, invest and protect this digital money peer-to-peer without the intermediation of banks. In manufacturing, 3D printers are manufacturing aircraft parts in a Boeing facility with a blockchain network facilitating all the patented files, contracting and payments peer-to-peer. Telecommunications companies are no longer negotiating complex, costly and ever-changing roaming agreements, but using blockchain-based smart contracts among providers to automate the web of payments and settlement globally.

Over time, the Trivergence will usher in a next-generation internet where nearly every animate and inanimate object on Earth generates data, a distributed ledger records and secures this data and AI analyzes the data, communicates with the objects, alerts their owners and continuously adjusts and improves the efficiency of the economy and the sustainability of its effects on the environment.

New business models enabled by this Trivergence are beginning to disrupt many industries and provide platforms for innovation in the economy for decades ahead. This second era has weighty implications for every business, government and individual, as well as technology strategy, architecture and leadership. If we can overcome the dark side — and that’s a big “if” — this Trivergence helps us reclaim our digital identities, effectively fight climate change and help solve some of the world’s most intractable problems.

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Earlier this month, Airtable announced it’s now worth $11 billion after its latest funding round. The company’s “code-for-everyone-else approach allows professionals who aren’t fluent in coding languages such as Java or Python, and don’t have their desk buried deep within the stack, to play a part in rethinking and remaking the consumer and client digital experience,” reports Riley de León of CNBC. “The low-code movement has attracted an even higher level of attention as a result of the pandemic, during which organizations from hospitals to government entities and corporations have had to develop online offerings at a faster pace than ever expected and for new use cases.”

This movement is part of an increasing democratization of programming — borne of extreme necessity. At a time when digital transformation is everywhere, “relying on IT departments and professional programmers is unsustainable,” an O’Reilly report states. “We need to enable people who aren’t programmers to develop the software they need. We need to enable people to solve their own computational problems.”

The Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ukrainian Space Agency. The parties signed the MoU for cooperation in space and the peaceful use of outer space for various purposes. The primary goal is to activate mechanisms for cooperation in space activities, research and exploration for peaceful purposes. The MoU also encourages exchanging knowledge and experience between the two countries and leveraging available human resources and techniques.

The Egyptian Space Agency and the Ukrainian Space Agency signed the MoU through Dr Mohammed Al-Qussi, the Egyptian Space Agency CEO and Mr Volodymyr Tavatai, Head of the Ukrainian State Space Agency. Furthermore, the signature was in the presence of Dr Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, and His Excellency Yulia Sveredenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. The signature also came during the eighth session of the Egyptian-Ukrainian Government Committee.

Another aim the MoU intends to realise is enhancing and facilitating the exchange of visits and bilateral meetings and workshops in various research activities. It also seeks to promote the provision of training and raise the efficiency of Egyptian specialists. The MoU will also help EgSA build capacity in space project management, develop advanced manufacturing techniques for space applications, and other priority hubs for both sides.

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The Thai government is starting a new trial in Bangkok that will see electric scooters replace their gas counterparts for motorcycle taxis in the city.

The trial run could have big implications not just for Bangkok, but for scooter and motorcycle-laden cities across much of Asia.

If you’ve ever visited Thailand, you’ll surely have seen two of their most popular forms of public transportation that we don’t offer here in the West: rickshaws (tuk-tuks) and motorcycle taxis.

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Any discussion on UBI eventually boils down to a question of belief in the nature of humans and the role of government. Most analysis further add wood to the fire by fueling these discussions instead of proposing valid alternatives which addresses these differences. It usually boils down to the classic question of handouts, who should pay for it, and why should we pay for it. Yet the answer lies right before our very eyes. The most valuable commodity today is data not oil or gold. Data wealth is a direct outcome of data diversity, data representation and data scale (i wrote a post on that recently which expands on that, if you’re interested). So, Instead of giving away our data for free to trickle-down techno believers (who may or may not give some of it back), pay me for it. I’ll fund my own income, thank you very much. Every human is unique. Therefore we are all data billionaires. This comment is a charitable contribution to the new data economy by the Marc O Principle; Things are not always as complex as they seem.

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Just two weeks after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, NASA

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It’s vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.”

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If anything, the development is yet another indication of the threat actor’s capacity to continually “innovate and identify new techniques and tradecraft to maintain persistent access to victim environments, hinder detection, and confuse attribution efforts,” while also highlighting the “effectiveness of leveraging third parties and trusted vendor relationships to carry out nefarious operations.”

Microsoft had previously dubbed Nobelium as “skillful and methodic operators who follow operations security (OpSec) best practices.”

Ever since the SolarWinds incident came to light, the APT group has been connected to a string of attacks aimed at think tanks, businesses, and government entities around the globe, even as an ever-expanding malware toolbox has been put to use with the goal of establishing a foothold in the attacked system and downloading other malicious components.

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