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In a statement last week, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Abbott?s claim that consumers would pay three times more for broadband under the NBN was ?just wrong?. ?Prices for NBN plans released to date are cheaper than, or equivalent to, existing ADSL plans, but with much improved quality of service,? Conroy added. ?For example, Skymesh is offering NBN services from $29.95 per month. Exetel?s entry-level plan costs $35.00 per month. A number of other retail providers, including Optus, offer NBN services starting from $39.95 and $49.95 per month. Thanks to the NBN, competition between retail providers is increasing.?



?Tony Abbott should check his facts before delivering a national address in the Australian Parliament.?



Another aspect of Abbott?s speech may also be incorrect; his statement that the funds being ploughed into rolling out the NBN could be invested instead in building transport infrastructure such as roads, whilst still leaving ?$10 billion? to invest in broadband as well.



Abbott made this same claim in February. However, at the time, analysis showed that the NBN is not an expense in terms of the Federal Government?s annual budget, and cutting the project would not free up money to be spent in other areas. This is because the project is an investment expected to make a return for the government ? a long-term profit. That return is currently projected to be between $1.93 billion to $3.92 billion.

Diablo 3 comes out in a couple weeks. I'm giving it the coveted award for "Biggest Comeback In System Design." Diablo 2's ability system was so bad that it's almost unbelievable, while the way Diablo 3 handles ability customization is one of the very best systems I've seen.

The European Space Agency is preparing a mission to explore Jupiter and its moons. JUICE will launch in 2022 in search of liquid water that could contain life.

Europe is to mount a 1 billion-euro mission to Jupiter and its icy moons, moving ahead with an ambitious plan deemed too expensive by the United States.

After more than eight years of review, the European Space Agency (ESA) has given the green light to a space program to explore the giant gas plant and several of its moons - in search of liquid oceans that may harbor life.

This is as much about a human future in space as it is about scraping some gold out of an asteroid. The fuel and resource depots developed for the mining project could serve as a jumping-off point for both robotic and manned missions to the outer Solar System. Planetary Resources is run by people that love science and technology, and want to see humans continue advancing.



Planetary Resources Chief Engineer Chris Lewicki has been making the rounds online talking about the technical side of the initiative, and he indicates that there is still another advantage to the mining project. When we?re not scooping out their insides, asteroids sometimes make suicide runs at Earth. Numerous mass extinctions have been caused by large impact events.