Imagine how hard it would be to stick to a budget in a store with no prices. Well, that's pretty much how we buy electricity today. Your utility company sends you a bill at the end of the month with very few details. Most people don't know how much electricity their appliances use, where in the house they are wasting electricity, or how much the bill might go up during different seasons. But in a world where everyone had a detailed understanding of their home energy use, we could find all sorts of ways to save energy and lower electricity bills. In fact, studies show that access to home energy information results in savings between 5-15% on monthly electricity bills. It may not sound like much, but if half of America's households cut their energy demand by 10 percent, it would be the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road.
Google’s mission is to "organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful," and we believe consumers have a right to detailed information about their home electricity use. We're tackling the challenge on several fronts, from policy advocacy to developing consumer tools, and even investing in smart grid companies. We've been participating in the dialogue in Washington, DC and with public agencies in the U.S. and other parts of the world to advocate for investment in the building of a "smart grid," to bring our 1950s-era electricity grid into the digital age. Specifically, to provide both consumers and utilities with real-time energy information, homes must be equipped with advanced energy meters called "smart meters." There are currently about 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, with plans to add another 100 million in the next few years.
But deploying smart meters alone isn't enough. This needs to be coupled with a strategy to provide customers with easy access to energy information. That's why we believe that open protocols and standards should serve as the cornerstone of smart grid projects, to spur innovation, drive competition, and bring more information to consumers as the smart grid evolves. We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use belongs to you, and should be available in an open standard, non-proprietary format. You should control who gets to see your data, and you should be free to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand it and benefit from it. For more details on our policy suggestions, check out the comments we filed yesterday with the California Public Utility Commission.
In addition to policy advocacy, we're building consumer tools, too. Over the last several months, our engineers have developed a software tool called Google PowerMeter, which will show consumers their home energy information almost in real time, right on their computer. Google PowerMeter is not yet available to the public since we're testing it out with Googlers first. But we're building partnerships with utilities and independent device manufacturers to gradually roll this out in pilot programs. Once we've had a chance to kick the tires, we'll make the tool more widely available.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to providing consumers with detailed energy information. And it will take the combined efforts of federal and state governments, utilities, device manufacturers, and software engineers to empower consumers to use electricity more wisely by giving them access to energy information.
Contact: Media Relations
media@whoi.edu
508-289-3340
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Eddies found to be deep, powerful modes of ocean transport
Study finds connection between atmospheric events and the deep ocean
Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their colleagues have discovered that massive, swirling ocean eddies—known to be up to 500 kilometers across at the surface—can reach all the way to the ocean bottom at mid-ocean ridges, some 2,500 meters deep, transporting tiny sea creatures, chemicals, and heat from hydrothermal vents over large distances.
The previously unknown deep-sea phenomenon, reported in the April 28 issue of the journal Science, helps explain how some larvae travel huge distances from one vent area to another, said Diane K. Adams, lead author at WHOI and now at the National Institutes of Health.
"We knew these eddies existed," said Adams, a biologist. "But nobody realized they can affect processes on the bottom of the ocean. Previous studies had looked at the upper ocean."
Using deep-sea moorings, current meters and sediment traps over a six-month period, along with computer models, Adams and her colleagues studied the eddies at the underwater mountain range known as the East Pacific Rise. That site experienced a well-documented eruption in 2006 that led to a discovery reported last year that larvae from as far away as 350 km somehow traveled that distance to settle in the aftermath of the eruption.
The newly discovered depth of the powerful eddies helps explain that phenomenon but also opens up a host of other scientific possibilities in oceans around the world. "This atmospherically generated mechanism is affecting the deep sea and how larvae, chemical and heat are transported over large distances," Adams said.
The eddies are generated at the surface by atmospheric events, such as wind jets, which can be strengthened during an El Niño, and "are known to have a strong influence on surface ocean dynamics and production," say Adams and Dennis J. McGillicuddy from WHOI, along with colleagues from Florida State University, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, and the University of Brest in France. But this "atmospheric forcing…is typically not considered in studies of the deep sea," they report.
Moreover, the eddies appear to form seasonally, suggesting repeated interactions with undersea ridges such as the Eastern Pacific Rise. The models "predict a train of eddies across the ocean," Adams said. "There may be two to three eddies per year at this location," Adams said. Each one, she says, "could connect the site of the eruption to other sites hundreds of miles away." Elsewhere, she adds, "there are numerous places around the globe where they could be interacting with the deep sea."
In her 2010 report on larvae traveling great distances to settle at the eruption site, WHOI Senior Scientist Lauren S. Mullineaux , along with Adams and others, suggested the larvae traveled along something like an undersea superhighway, ocean-bottom "jets" travelling up to 10 centimeters a second. But conceding that even those would not be enough to carry the larvae all that distance in such a short time, the researchers speculated that large eddies may be propelling the migrating larvae even faster.
Adams's current work follows up on that possibility. "The mechanism we found helps explain what we saw in the first paper," Adams said.
It is the larger picture, over longer periods of time, however, that Adams and her colleagues find particularly intriguing. "Transport [of ocean products] could occur wherever…eddies interact with ridges—including the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Southwest Indian Ridge, and the East Scotia Ridge—and the surrounding deep ocean," the researchers say.
And because the eddies appear to form repeatedly, the high-speed, long-distance transport can last for months. "Although the deep sea and hydrothermal vents in particular are often naively thought of as being isolated from the surface ocean and atmosphere, the interaction of the surface-generated eddies with the deep sea offers a conduit for seasonality and longer-period atmospheric phenomena to influence the 'seasonless' deep sea," Adams and her colleagues write.
"Thus, although hydrothermal sources of heat, chemical and larval fluxes do not exhibit seasonality there is potential for long-distance transport and dispersal to have seasonal to interannual variability."
###
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, WHOI, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent organization in Falmouth, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment.
Michael Posner,et al@State_DRL Washington, DC Promoting democracy, protecting human rights and international religious freedom and advancing labor rights globally http://www.state.gov/g/drl/.
.
Developed by a Franco-Israeli partnership, this new solar power technology introduces a new paradigm in energy production.
The project is the result of collaboration between Solaris Synergy from Israel and the EDF Group from France. Eureka provided the supporting platform that allowed to enhance the companies’ partnership. After receiving the Eureka label, the project, called “Aquasun,” also found support from the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. “We are very pleased with the collaborative dimension of the project,” says Dr. Elyakim Kassel, coordinator of the Aquasun project and business development manager at Solaris Synergy.
Soon after the design phase was over, at the end of March 2010, the fabrication of a prototype began and the team is aiming to launch the implementation phase in September 2011. The tests will take place at Cadarache in Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, France. The site has a privileged position on the French electric grid and is close to a local hydro-electric facility providing the water surface to be used to install the system. It will operate on-site for a period of nine months, while assessing the system’s performance and productivity through seasonal changes and various water levels. The research team members believe that by June 2012 they will have all the information they need to bring the technology to market.
The project team identified the almost untouched potential of solar installations on industrial water basins already in use for other purposes. This ensures that the new solar plants will not have a negative impact on natural landscapes.
After solving the question of space, the team took on the problem of cost. The developers were able to reduce the costs linked to the implementation of the technology in two ways:
• First, they reduced the quantity of solar cells used, thanks to optical mirrors that concentrate the sun, while keeping steady the amount of power produced.
• Second, the team implemented a creative cooling system using the water on which the solar panels are floating.
Thanks to this efficient cooling method, the PV system can use silicon solar cells, which tend to experience overheating problems and need to be cooled in order to allow the system to work correctly. The particular type of solar cell used also allows a higher efficiency than usual, achieving both reliability and cost-reduction.
Still for the purpose of making the technology efficient and ready to market, the system is designed in such way that it is possible to assemble as many identical modules on a solar platform as needed for the power rating desired. Each module produces a standard amount of 200 kilowatts (kW) of electricity, and more power can be achieved by simply adding more modules.
The team also worked on the environmental impact of the technology. The floating panels work as a breathing surface through which oxygen can penetrate to the water. This feature ensures that sufficient oxygen will maintain the underwater life of plants and animals. Dr. Kassel adds, “One of the implementation phase’s goals is to closely monitor the possible effects of this new technology on the environment with the help of specialists [and] a preliminary check shows no detrimental environmental impact on water quality, flora or fauna. Our choices of materials were always made with this [environmental] concern in mind.”
The project was featured at the 4th International Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Conference last week on 22-24 February 2011 in Eilat, Israel, giving the public the opportunity to observe how the floating concentrated PV system functioned. According to Yossi Fisher, Solaris Synergy’s chief executive officer, the installation in Eilat was a milestone.
Dr. Kassel sees a final benefit to his project: “Today, each country must consider the best resources it has … to produce clean energy. For example, hydroelectric power is good where there are waterfalls, geothermic is productive for countries with thermal springs and solar power is very efficient where there is sun. Our system could be of great use in places that are exposed to sun, but [don't] necessarily have sufficient natural water. Even dry countries, such as Israel or the North African countries, have industrial waters that are not rain-dependent. This fact makes the floating solar power plant a reliable [way] for them to produce renewable energy.” Written by Jane Morrill, Special Projects Editor
Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny” do you?) People, usually guys, often ex-Marines, wanted to be CEO of a big company. The Fortune 500 is where people went to make… a fortune.
There was a good reason for this. Value was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came from a huge sales force.
Of course, it’s not just big organizations that added value. Big planes were better than small ones, because they were faster and more efficient. Big buildings were better than small ones because they facilitated communications and used downtown land quite efficiently. Bigger computers could handle more simultaneous users, as well.
Get Big Fast was the motto for startups, because big companies can go public and get more access to capital and use that capital to get even bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big law firms were the place to find the right lawyer, because big law firms were a one-stop shop.
And then small happened.
Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear it. American Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think small). Boing Boing (four people) has a readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people).
Big computers are silly. They use lots of power and are not nearly as efficient as properly networked Dell boxes (at least that’s the way it works at Yahoo and Google). Big boom boxes are replaced by tiny ipod shuffles. (Yeah, I know big-screen tvs are the big thing. Can’t be right all the time).
I’m writing this on a laptop at a skateboard park… that added wifi for parents. Because they wanted to. It took them a few minutes and $50. No big meetings, corporate policies or feasibility studies. They just did it.
Today, little companies often make more money than big companies. Little churches grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to door) than big ones.
Today, Craigslist (18 employees) is the fourth most visited site according to some measures. They are partly owned by eBay (more than 4,000 employees) which hopes to stay in the same league, traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as fast.
Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.
Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.
Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.
Small means that you can answer email from your customers.
Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.
A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.
A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies with good (big) ideas.
A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.
Is it better to be the head of Craigslist or the head of UPS?
Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.
Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.
[this post is now the title essay of my new book.]
Unemployment, as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.[2] The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labour force.
There remains considerable theoretical debate regarding the causes, consequences and solutions for unemployment. Classical, neoclassical and the Austrian School of economics focus on market mechanisms and rely on the invisible hand of the market to resolve unemployment.[citation needed]These theories argue against interventions imposed on the labour market from the outside, such as unionization, minimum wage laws, taxes, and other regulations that they claim discourage the hiring of workers. Keynesian economics emphasizes the cyclical nature of unemployment and potential interventions to reduce unemployment during recessions. These arguments focus on recurrent supply shocks that suddenly reduce aggregate demand for goods and services and thus reduce demand for workers. Keynesian models recommend government interventions designed to increase demand for workers; these can include financial stimuli, job creation, and expansionist monetary policies. Marxism focuses on the relations between the controlling owners and the subordinated proletariat whom the owners pit against one another in a constant struggle for jobs and higher wages. This struggle and the unemployment it produces benefit the system by reducing wage costs for the owners. For Marxists the causes of and solutions to unemployment require abolishing capitalism and shifting to socialism or communism.
In addition to these three comprehensive theories of unemployment, there are a few types of unemployment that are used to more precisely model the effects of unemployment within the economic system. The main types of unemployment include structural unemployment which focuses on structural problems in the economy and inefficiencies inherent in labour markets including a mismatch between the supply and demand of laborers with necessary skill sets. Structural arguments emphasize causes and solutions related to disruptive technologies and globalization. Discussions of frictional unemployment focus on voluntary decisions to work based on each individuals' valuation of their own work and how that compares to current wage rates plus the time and effort required to find a job. Causes and solutions for frictional unemployment often address barriers to entry and wage rates. Behavioral economists highlight individual biases in decision making and often involve problems and solutions concerning sticky wages and efficiency wages.
The world population is the total population of humans on the planet Earth . An automatically updated daily calculation by the United States Census Bureau[1]estimates the current figure to be approximately 6,902,100,000. The world population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Bubonic Plague around the year 1400.[2]The highest rates of growth—increases above 1.8% per year—were seen briefly during the 1950s, for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s; the growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, and declined to 1.1% by 2009. Annual births have reduced to 140 million since their peak at 173 million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant, while deaths number 57 million per year and are expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040. Current projections show a continued increase of population (but a steady decline in the population growth rate) with the population expected to reach between 7.5 and 10.5 billion in the year 2050.[3][4][5]
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 99, NO. C6, PP. 12,319-12,341, 1994
doi:10.1029/94JC00530 The production of North Atlantic Deep Water: Sources, rates, and pathways
Robert R. Dickson
Fisheries Laboratory, Directorate of Fisheries Research, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, Lowestoft, Suffolk, England
Juan Brown
Fisheries Laboratory, Directorate of Fisheries Research, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, Lowestoft, Suffolk, England
Updating an earlier account by Dickson et al., (1990), this paper reviews the initial development phase of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) production from the points where the dense inflows from Nordic seas cross the Greenland-Scotland Ridge to the point off south Greenland where the buildup of new production appears almost complete. In particular, three long-term current meter arrays totaling 91 instruments and set at ∼160 km intervals south from the Denmark Strait sill are used to validate earlier short-term arrays by others and, in combination with these earlier arrays, to describe the downstream evolution of mean speed, depth and entrainment, the variability of the overflow current in space and time, and the likely contribution of the other three main constituents of NADW production at densities greater than σθ = 27.8. From the points of overflow (5.6 Sv) the transport within this range increases by entrainment and confluence with other contributory streams to around 13.3 Sat Cape Farewell. While recirculating elements prevent us from determining the net southgoing transport, a NADW transport of this order appears consistent with recent estimates of net abyssal flow passing south through the North and South Atlantic. Received 2 December 1992; accepted 19 July 1993; .
Citation: Dickson, R. R., and J. Brown (1994), The production of North Atlantic Deep Water: Sources, rates, and pathways, J. Geophys. Res., 99(C6), 12,319–12,341, doi:10.1029/94JC00530.
======================================
3). Sustainable economic structure
GUIDELINES FOR PROSPERITY,
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
content
3 | Preamble
3 | guiding principles
1. Legal framework .......................................................3
2. Property ownership and employment ...........................3
3. Competition as the basis ............................................4
4. Application of the principle of liability ...........................4
5. Stability of the economic environment .........................4
6. Provision of public goods by the state ..........................4
7. Solidarity and social security .......................................4 8. Incentive compatibility ...............................................4
9. Sustainability ............................................................4
10. Open markets ...........................................................45 | Conditions of success for a global social and market-oriented economic order
Overcoming the global financial and economic crisis calls for international rules. The social market economy is a model providing an appropriate framework of orientation. Its value in the national context has been proven. The countries of the European Union have undertaken in the Treaty of Lisbon to work towards a “competitive social market economy”. The institutions of the European Union, notably the European Parliament, have demonstrated, especially in the last few months, that they are responding to this mission. Now those principles need to be placed on an international footing. Leading representatives of the political and academic communities in the European Union formulate what is at stake in the following Guidelines.
Preamble
Increased economic and political interconnectedness has led to greater growth and competition in many countries around the world. It has improved education opportunities, strengthened the social infrastructure and reduced poverty. And yet, peace, freedom and justice are all under threat. The unequal distribution of global prosperity is a contributing factor for increasing political and social tensions. The only way to overcome the current financial and economic crisis is to have international rules for the financial markets. This requires a shared commitment to sustainable economic activity. We need an international consensus to enable prosperity, social justice and sustainable economic activity based on shared principles and values. Even at times of crisis, the positive effects of globalisation must not be put at risk by national or regional protectionism. Taking into account variations between cultures and societies, an orientation to the common good, democratic legitimacy and the inviolability of human dignity are the foundations upon which such a consensus shall be built.
Guiding principles
The guiding principles are solidarity and subsidiarity. Solidarity ensures that the market economy is continually legitimised by its orientation to the common good, while subsidiarity creates and guarantees the space for individual responsibility and initiative.
1. Legal framework
Afunctioning, reliable and democratically legitimate legal system is the basis for efficient and sustainable economic activity. It creates the preconditions for a strong economy, an efficient and citizen-friendly state administration, and compliance with the principles of good governance. Regulating elements and consistent supervision ensure that rules are adhered to and violations penalised. This is not an end in itself. Regulation is the appropriate and correct approach to shape incentives in a competitive economy in such a way that decentralised competitive activity benefits society.
2. Property ownership and employment
An efficient economic structure geared to sustainability must be based on a system of private property ownership that places the power of disposal over goods in the hands of private enterprises and households. Private ownership provides the critical incentive for generating income through work and is the basis of innovative entrepreneurship. Only an economic system that is based on private property can safeguard employment on a sustainable basis. This is the basis upon which individual responsibility and initiative can develop, without which an effective use of one’s own potential and of education, innovation, growth and prosperity is unimaginable. Private ownership characterises a competitive system in which a multitude of owners of small and medium-sized enterprises are liable for their economic activity through their personal property. Ownership entails social obligations. Making use of it must serve the common good. This ensures careful and sustainable business activity and protects against a one-sided concentration on short-term profit-seeking.
3. Competition as the basis
Aglobal competitive system based on the free determination of prices optimises the allocation of scarce resources. Fully functional competition is the engine that drives sustained economic activity. It fosters efficiency and progress, reinforces responsible behaviour and prevents the establishment of one-sided market power. A competitive system requires open markets, both nationally and internationally, and control of market power as well as concentration by the state and the international community. Competition is rooted in performance and equality of opportunity. 4. Application of the principle of liability
Freedom of competition requires the application of the principle of liability by which competitive performance is tied to the responsible conduct of each participating player. The prospects for profits stimulate competition, while personal liability in the event of losses curbs irresponsible and excessively risky behaviour. 5. Stability of the economic environment
Amarket economy needs a long-term economic policy and the greatest possible macroeconomic stability. This applies particularly to national and international financial markets. Confidence in a stable economic framework is a prerequi‑ site for investments and long-term consumption decisions. Such confidence also requires the rejection of protectionist measures and of a monetary policy geared only to short-term national economic and growth targets. 6. Provision of public goods by the state
In a market economy, the state must ensure the provision of public goods if the market is unable to provide these goods or can only do so inadequately. An efficient infrastructure, fundamental educational opportunities, and access to comprehensive healthcare provision are all areas that the state must be involved in shaping. The need for state invol-vement is particularly great where there is social disadvantage. However, there should be a limit to state intervention. 7. Solidarity and social security
Economic growth facilitates poverty reduction. The market economy cannot, however, prevent the development of income disparities and the disadvantaging of certain sections of the population. Therefore a market economy needs effective, broad-based social security systems functioning in line with market conditions, mechanisms for regional redistribu-tion and a performance-oriented system of taxation in order to safeguard social peace and to enable appropriate levels of participation by broad sections of the population in the development of the economy and society. 8. Incentive compatibility
Amarket economy requires an incentive-oriented system of levies to finance state tasks. These taxes must be designed in such a way that they neither minimise performance incentives nor lead to allocative distortions. 9. Sustainability
Every economic system must be judged also by its long-term results. In ecological, social and fiscal terms, sustai-nability is one of the most important criteria for success and an expression of intergenerational justice. A legal system based on responsibility and liability facilitates sustainability. In particular, an active climate protection policy is an economic and moral obligation towards safeguarding the natural basis of existence for future generations. 10. Open markets
Going it alone does not represent a cure for individual countries in the current crisis. On the contrary, it can exacerbate the global impacts of the economic crisis. What is crucial is a coordinated policy of open markets and respect for the rules of fair play. The relevant international institutions must be further strengthened to counter protectionism and economic nationalism.
President Barack Obama welcomed the peaceful transition of power in Egypt with the resignation of longtime President Hosni Mubarak. 'The people of Egypt have spoken. Their voices have been heard. And Egypt will never be the same,' he declared. (Feb. 11)
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down Friday and handed over power to the military -- three decades of his iron-clad rule ended by an 18-day revolution that could ripple across the Arab world.
In a somber one-minute announcement on state television, Vice President Omar Suleiman said Mubarak had resigned and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will "run the affairs of the country."
Tens of thousands of emotional Egyptians exploded in deafening cheers on the streets of Cairo, electric with excitement. It was a moment they had anticipated throughout long days of relentless demonstrations -- sometimes violent -- that demanded Mubarak's departure.
It was also a moment that had been to many unimaginable in the Arab world's powerhouse nation.
"Egypt is free!" and "God is Great!" they chanted in the honeymoon of their success. They waved Egyptian flags, honked horns and set off fireworks as they savored the scene that just days ago had seemed unimaginable.
Two major bridges over the Nile River resembled congested parking lots, and Cairo neighborhoods that had been empty hours before became scenes of festive street parties.The state-run Middle East News Agency said some people had passed out from joy and others had even suffered heart attacks.
"It was a sense of liberation for me, for every Egyptian," said opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei.
"For the first time, Egypt has a chance to be democratic, to be free, to have a sense of dignity, of freedom. So it's amazing. It's just like something we never experienced in our lifetime."
A source with close connections to Persian Gulf government leaders told CNN that Mubarak, 82, had fled to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, his presidency finished as abruptly and surprisingly as it had started when he ascended to power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981.
The Swiss government moved quickly Friday to freeze all assets belonging to Mubarak and his family, said Norbert Baerlocher, a spokesman for the Swiss Embassy in Washington.
The banks do not as yet have a clear picture of Mubarak's holdings but protesters on the streets had expressed concerns that the strongman would attempt to flee the country with looted money.
In a televised speech Thursday night, Mubarak had indicated he was delegating authority to Suleiman but refused to resign, as had been expected. Deeply disappointed crowds calling for his ouster kept swelling throughout the day in Cairo and in other major cities.
Friday night, the protesters got what they wanted all along.
But amid the euphoria, ElBaradei sounded words of caution. He urged Egyptians to stay united beyond the moment.
"We have challenges ahead of us," said the Nobel laureate whom many believe could emerge as Egypt's next leader. "I think we need to not worry about retribution. Mubarak needs to go and we need to look forward."
Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian activist who became a reluctant hero of the revolution said only one word would be used to describe Mubarak in history books: "dictator."
"I want to say: 'Welcome back Egypt," he told CNN.
Ghonim -- a Google executive who is on leave from his job and whose Facebook page is credited with triggering the popular uprising -- was seized by security forces and released Monday. His words and tears in a television interview galvanized the protesters in Tahrir Square.
He said he knew Mubarak would be forced out after a revolt in Tunisia forced its leader out in January, and he said he believed the military can be trusted to respect the demands of the protesters.
Many of the anti-government protesters had been calling for Egypt's powerful army, well-respected within the country, to take over as interim caretakers. Friday night, they voiced optimism that the military would pave the way for free and fair elections.
All through the uprising, the military has both responded to the protesters but defended Mubarak's regime. It showed signs that it was assuming a greater role when the supreme council met Thursday without Mubarak, then still the supreme commander of the armed forces.
Friday, it issued a second communique stating that Egypt's state of emergency laws, used by Mubarak to rule with an iron hand, would be lifted but only after conditions allowed.
After Mubarak stepped down, a military spokesman tiptoed through neutral territory on state television as he expressed appreciation to the former president on one hand, and also saluted the "martyrs," an apparent reference to all those who died in the protests.
Human Rights Watch documented 300 deaths since the uprising began January 25. Many of the pitched battles between security forces and Mubarak's foes unfolded in the same places that were scenes of utter jubilation Friday night.
But it's uncertain what will come next in the most populous nation of the Arab world, and how Egypt's revolution, which succeeded on the 32nd anniversary of Iran's, will reverberate throughout the region.
U.S. President Barack Obama was notified of Mubarak's decision Friday morning, said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, and was closely watching the extraordinary developments unfold in Egypt, a key U.S. ally.
He will make a statement Friday afternoon, the White House said.
Mubarak's decision to step down is "obviously a welcome step," said a U.S. official involved in the Egypt discussions. Now comes "an unpredictable next chapter," the official added. It is "a sign the military chose society."
Amre Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, said Egyptians were excited about a different future.
"What I want to assure you is that all of us here in Egypt, old and young, north and south, women and men, everybody, is looking forward to a better future," he said.
A high-ranking Egyptian military official said the army's command was discussing whether to dismiss Mubarak's government and parliament and also when the next election would be held. An announcement was expected later Friday.
But some analysts were already sounding the alarm over the takeover by the military, which has suddenly become accountable for the nation.
"Suleiman's statement is the clearest indication thus far that the military has carried out a coup led by Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi," analysts with the Stratfor global intelligence company said in a statement.
"Egypt is returning to the 1952 model of ruling the state via a council of army officers. The question now is to what extent the military elite will share power with its civilian counterparts," the statement said.
Amnesty International, whose staffers had been among human rights workers and journalists detained by Egyptian authorities during the uprising, congratulated Egyptians for "their extraordinary courage and commitment to achieve fundamental change."
But it warned that the departure of one man did not mean an end to a police state.
"The repressive system that Egyptians have suffered under for three decades has not gone away and the state of emergency remains in place," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general.
"Those in power must grasp this opportunity to consign the systematic abuses of the past to history. Human rights reform must begin now," Shetty said.
CNN's Amir Ahmed, Nic Robertson and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.
But deploying smart meters alone isn't enough. This needs to be coupled with a strategy to provide customers with easy access to energy information. That's why we believe that open protocols and standards should serve as the cornerstone of smart grid projects, to spur innovation, drive competition, and bring more information to consumers as the smart grid evolves. We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use belongs to you, and should be available in an open standard, non-proprietary format. You should control who gets to see your data, and you should be free to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand it and benefit from it. For more details on our policy suggestions, check out the comments we filed yesterday with the California Public Utility Commission.
© 2011 Cable News Network.