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."

London MPs?

[MythMoth]

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.

Re:I find this so laughable...

[pembo13]

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.

Re:When is China coming to play?

[contrapunctus]

It's probably because the current GPS system has one owner who can shut if off at will?

Re:Wow, time for some EU dissolution...

[Anspen]

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).

Re:I find this so laughable...

[jbeaupre]

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).

Re:When is China coming to play?

[Em Ellel]

It's probably because the current GPS system has one owner who can shut if off at will?

I know why, but its still sad.

What if it was GPS augmentation

[heroine]

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.

Re:When is China coming to play?

[Kristoph]

By the same token ... 'it is so sad that it is necessary to have that may [operating system kernels] pretty much doing the same thing'.

Personally I think diversity is good! No single organization or country should control a critical piece of technology.

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Re:Galileo?

[w3woody]

The problem in itself isn't the military force, but the government behind it.

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!

Re:When is China coming to play?

[w3woody]

... And Europe is pissed that the on-off switch is in Washington D.C. rather than in Brussels ...

Re:Two?!!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice going mods, making a completely anti-Mexican and virulently racist comment +4 Funny.

Re:Two?!!?

[moosesocks]

Honestly, I'm beginning to grow tired of the amount of US-bashing that goes on.

I'm none too proud of the actions of my country over the past decade, although the ongoing tirade of jokes about fat, ignorant Americans is beginning to wear on me, and could very well be construed as outright racist.

Keep it up, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (to the point where students often make jokes about their own ignorance of world issues).

Stop making jokes, and start trying to clean up the mess.

Re:Two?!!?

[Nursie]

Hey, from my experience of the internets, you guys have stereotyped put-downs for any given nationality, so suck it up for once.

Re:Two?!!?

[Nursie]

Perhaps so. But not if you said the British have bad teeth and worse food or that the French are cheese-eating communist cowards that smell bad.

There are many stereotypes, most of them undeserved, and they get thrown around all the time.

Re:Two?!!?

[Loke the Dog]

Yeah, building on an insult of the Europeans gps-program, which spawned insults about Americans lack of geography skills, which led to insults about Canadas insignicans as a neighbour of the US.

After all that, you notice the insults towards Mexicans and their relative poverty? I wonder who's being the disrespectful racist here... Don't you think Mexicans can take it like everyone else?