Note that the subsidiary that developed the Kindle e-Reader, Lab 126, is based in Silicon Valley but Amazon did not collect sales tax in California until September 2012.

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Like ARPA-E, EERE is now cooperatively negotiating research milestones into its funding opportunities with its National Lab, industry, and University research partners so that its investments are geared toward technology outcomes (e.g. cheap solar panels, high performance vehicle batteries, etc.).

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Now, that curtain has risen slightly: Users can again send e-mail and access the Web, according to Ron Deibert, director at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab and an investigator at the OpenNet Initiative.

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