Today’s Links: October 5, 2011

OPINION

KONSTANTIN KAKAES: “Some Crazy (And Not So Crazy) Ideas For Sending a Spacesehip to Another Solar System”
“Space is about to be opened up to private industry in a fundamentally new way. If industry lives up to the hopes of those assembled in Orlando, maybe the fastest human beings in history will soon be traveling toward something instead of back to Earth, like the Apollo 10 crew.”

WASHINGTON IDEAS FORUM: The Atlantic (Livestream and Archive)

NEWS

COPYRIGHT – Scotus Lets Stand Ruling That Downloads Are Not Performances
“The Supreme Court left in place a ruling by a New York federal appeals court, which determined that song downloads are not “public performances” under copyright law. The ruling represents a victory for Yahoo! and RealNetworks, which have been locked in litigation with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for several years over royalty payments. And it has potentially far-reaching implications for the digital music industry.”

BUSINESS – The Best Countries for Business
“Canada ranks No. 1 in our annual look at the Best Countries for Business. While the U.S. is paralyzed by fears of a double-dip recession and Europe struggles with sovereign debt issues, Canada’s economy has held up better than most. The $1.6 trillion economy is the ninth biggest in the world and grew 3.1% last year. It is expected to expand 2.4% in 2011, according to the Royal Bank of Canada. […] Canada is the only country that ranks in the top 20 in 10 metrics that we considered to determine the Best Countries for Business (we factored in 11 overall). It ranks in the top five for both investor protection as well as lack of red tape, which measures how easy it is to start a business.”

JOBS – Service Sector Growth Slows, Employment Mixed
“Growth in the U.S. service sector was steady in September and private hiring picked up, suggesting the economy was not yet slipping into recession. Optimism over Wednesday’s data, however, was soured somewhat by news that employers last month planned to lay off the most workers in more than two years. The bulk of the intended cutbacks, however, are in the U.S. military and at Bank of America and are not directly related to recent weakness in the economy.”