A lot of people are having a conniption about a supposed deal between Google and Verizon that will start us down the slippery slope of tiered service and end ‘Net neutrality. The reporting on this is in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, former home of Judith Miller.

OK, now who would benefit from this report?

On the one hand you have Google, which is rolling cash, but is willing to lose money if they get jerked around [Google.cn], and on the other you have a highly leveraged telco looking to maximize profits so it can service its debt and pay its executive obscene amounts of money. Who feels the pressure on the publication of this story? Who would leak it to the WSJ and the NYT?

Why would Google go alone with a tiered system, having put so much time and effort backing neutrality?

Google developed the Android operating system that is used on Motorola cell phones on the Verizon network, so there are existing channels open between the two companies, and they may well discuss ‘Net neutrality, but an agreement on a tiered system only benefits Verizon. Unless Verizon is ready to dump the Android phones, I see no way they can dump Google.

If I were suspicious by nature, I would start looking at Verizon stock prices.

Kimberly Quillen of The Times-Picayune writes that BP working to cure, dry cement it pumped into Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico

National Incident Commander Thad Allen, in a press briefing this morning, said the company put a layer of fluid on top of the cement and then pumped more mud on top to add pressure to help cure the cement. BP is waiting for the cement job to cure before resuming work on the relief well it is drilling nearby.

“We are unequivocally committed to completing the relief wells,” said Allen. “There is no indication at all that we completed this with the static kill from the top.”

The work at the top of the well is inside the casing, and there is no way they can be sure that oil isn’t in the space between the casing and the well bore. One of the main things they are going to do with the relief well is to pour cement into that space to know that it is sealed.

From Weather Underground

Cinco Bayou – Pocahontas Dr., Fort Walton Beach, Florida (PWS)
Updated: 1:33 PM CDT on August 06, 2010
Scattered Clouds
82.6 °F [28.1 °C]
Humidity: 89%
Dew Point: 79 °F
Wind: Calm
Wind Gust: 1.0 mph
Pressure: 29.91 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 93 °F [33.9 °C]
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 10 out of 16
Pollen: 4.30 out of 12
Pollen Forecast new!
Clouds:
Few 2000 ft
Scattered Clouds 19000 ft
Scattered Clouds 21000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 16 ft

Finally, we are nearer to normal!!!

Things Happen:

• 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
• 1777 – Revolutionary War: Battle of Oriskany.
• 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
• 1909 – Alice Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
• 1923 – Henry Sullivan swims the English Channel.
• 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim across the English Channel.
• 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, “Little Boy”, is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 90,000 people were killed instantly.
• 1960 – Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
• 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.
• 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.
• 2001 – White House briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” delivered to George W. Bush. This document foreshadowed the September 11, 2001 attacks.

People Are Born:

• 1809 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
• 1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)
• 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
• 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1955)
• 1881 – Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (d. 1972)
• 1891 – William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
• 1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
• 1902 – Dutch Schultz, American bootlegger (d. 1935)
• 1908 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
• 1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
• 1934 – Piers Anthony, English writer
• 1943 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (d. 1998)

In Later Years Others Are Born:

• Steve Bates
• NTodd

Position: 29.1N 66.5W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North [010°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 115 miles [185 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1009 mb.

It is about 245 miles [ 390 km] South-Southwest of Bermuda.

Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Bermuda.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

It’s Hot!!

You’re sure cats don’t swim?

[Editor: Even Pita had to calm down and take a break after this week’s heat indexes.]

Friday Ark