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Nobel Laureates, former astronauts urge House to fund commercial space flight

A distinguished list of researchers, former NASA officials and scientists, including 14 Nobel laureates and Bill Nye "The Science Guy," wrote to House leadership on Tuesday urging them to increase the funds set aside for research, robotics and human space flight in the NASA authorization currently under consideration. The letter praises aspects of President Obama's plan for NASA, which includes increased funding for the commercial space industry in order to lessen reliance on Russia for transport to the International Space Station. The officials also emphasize that boosting funding for one year is not enough, arguing a sustained investment is necessary to continue America's leadership in space.

Jobs may unveil new iPod and services at iTunes event

All eyes will be on Steve Jobs on Wednesday morning at 1 p.m., when he is expected to unveil the latest upgrades to Apple's wildly popular iPod multimedia devices, as well as an expansion of the online media store iTunes to include TV show rentals from ABC networks. There are also rumors of a new version of Apple TV with the ability to stream movies from the rental service Netflix. Only Mac users will be able to stream the event live using their Apple laptops, desktops, iPads or iPods.

CAN'T-MISS NEWS

Executive Notes

Garfield: Net-neutrality talks have made 'significant progress.' Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield released a statement Tuesday saying stakeholders negotiating a net-neutrality proposal have made "significant progress" in their discussion. He said the group is working toward reaching a "final consensus." Any "recommendations will ultimately be judged by Congress, the FCC and the millions of people who rely on the Internet as an essential part of their lives," he added. The talks include Skype, Verizon, NCTA, Microsoft, AT&T and others. http://bit.ly/a5DItg

Free Press accuses AT&T of moving the paid prioritization goal posts. Free Press responded to an AT&T letter to the Federal Communications Commission, which had argued that the practice of "paid prioritization" is commonplace. Free Press said the letter uses a faulty definition of "paid prioritization" because it conflates the term with standard network management practices and the purchase of dedicated-access lines by businesses. "This is a far cry from the harmful practice of paid prioritization that [an FCC proposal for net neutrality] would bar," Free Press said. http://bit.ly/bSHLPX

FCC filing shows who attended Comcast-NBCU meeting last week. Tech Daily Dose reports on who was at the meeting of economists, convened by the FCC, to discuss the merger between Comcast and NBC Universal: Northwestern University economics professor William Rogerson, who represented the American Cable Association; Bloomberg representative Leslie Marx, a Duke University economics professor; Navigant Economics managing director Hal Singer, who represented the Communications Workers of America; and University of Southern California economic professor Simon Wilkie, who was there for Earthlink and the satellite programming provider DISH Network. http://bit.ly/blGxk3

Industry Notes

HP will pay government $55 million to settle kickback lawsuit. The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that Hewlett-Packard will pay the government $55 million as part of a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2004 under the False Claims Act. The government alleges HP paid systems integrators to recommend its products to federal agencies and also failed to fully disclose its commercial pricing practices during negotiations with the General Services Administration. The settlement does not include any admission of illegal conduct by HP. http://bit.ly/djRYCZ

Sprint faces 4G dilemma. Sprint has to decide whether to finish building Clearwire's nationwide network or allow T-Mobile to invest in Clearwire as well. "Sprint Nextel has bet its future on offering speedy data services to mobile devices over a new high-speed, '4G' network and has joined with upstart Clearwire to build it," The Wall Street Journal reports. But now the board has to decide whether to fund the project on its own or let a competitor like T-Mobile provide some funding. http://bit.ly/dBOLxu

Amazon mulling online subscription movie/TV service. "Amazon.com has approached media companies including Time Warner with plans to start an online video subscription service to rival Netflix, said three people with knowledge of the talks," Bloomberg reports. http://bit.ly/d8Pa7F

SAID

"Right now, somewhere there is a child who dreams of becoming a forensic scientist. Sadly, that child’s high school does not offer courses in this specific field of study. Digital learning solves this problem. An online course can be accessed from anywhere, anytime, with a computer and internet access."

—Jeb Bush, former Republican governor of Florida, on how technology can benefit education in a National Journal forum exploring the intersection. http://bit.ly/dk9QZh

WATERCOOLER

HISTORY — A Twitter account operated by the JFK Library presents the status updates of President Kennedy as he goes through the year 1960. http://bit.ly/dp4fs