Archive for February, 2015
Prisoner in South Carolina Sentenced to 37 Years in Isolation for Using Facebook
February 18th, 2015Via: EFF: In the South Carolina prison system, accessing Facebook is an offense on par with murder, rape, rioting, escape and hostage-taking. Back in 2012, the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) made “Creating and/or Assisting With A Social Networking Site” a Level 1 offense [PDF], a category reserved for the most violent violations of […]
“The Equation Group”: NSA Has Been Able to Exploit Most Hard Drive Firmware for Years, Wiping Drives Does Nothing
February 17th, 2015Via: Kaspersky (.pdf): 10. What is the most sophisticated thing about the EQUATION group? Although the implementation of their malware systems is incredibly complex, surpassing even Regin in sophistication, there is one aspect of the EQUATION group’s attack technologies that exceeds anything we have ever seen before. This is the ability to infect the hard […]
LG Chem to Build Battery Storage Systems Worth $272 Million for Japanese Solar Plants
February 16th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. I’m doing a solar power deal for a guy who wants a normal grid tie rig for his house, but he also wants to charge his electric farm vehicle with solar. “Would that work?” he asked me. Oh yes. We’re going to set up his hot […]
4000 U.S. Troops Deploying to Kuwait
February 16th, 2015Via: Colorado Springs Gazette: As Congress mulls America’s war with the Islamic State terror group, more than 4,000 Fort Carson soldiers prepared Thursday to leave for Kuwait, where they will take over as America’s largest ground force in the troubled region. … The unit is Fort Carson’s heaviest force, armed with tanks and Bradley Fighting […]
Rutgers Professor Concerned About Weather Weapons
February 15th, 2015Via: Independent: A senior American climate scientist has spoken of the fear he experienced when US intelligence services apparently asked him about the possibility of weaponising the weather as a major report on geo-engineering is to be published this week. Professor Alan Robock stated that three years ago, two men claiming to be from the […]
FAA Commercial Drone Rules: Line of Sight Operation Will Be Allowed, Autonomous Flight Beyond Line of Sight, Deliveries Banned for Foreseeable Future
February 15th, 2015Via: Guardian: Commercial drone operators will be banned from letting unmanned aircraft out of their sight, under new US proposals that come as a major blow to companies like Amazon that were hoping to use the unmanned aircraft to make aerial home deliveries. Amazon said the proposed new Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) rules, which were […]
Wall Street Journal: Apple Is Working on an Electric Car
February 14th, 2015Via: The Verge: The rumors have been getting stronger all week, and now they’ve come to a head: WSJ is reporting that Apple is indeed working on a car. “Project Titan,” as it’s known internally, is an all-electric vehicle that apparently “resembles a minivan” in its current iteration and has a team of several hundred […]
Tesla Plans Battery for Household Energy-Storage Market
February 12th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: Bloomberg: Tesla Motors Inc., best known for making the all-electric Model S sedan, is using its lithium-ion battery technology to position itself as a frontrunner in the emerging energy-storage market that supplements and may ultimately threaten the traditional electric grid. “We are going to unveil […]
Brazilians Hoard Water, Prepare for Possible Drastic Rationing
February 11th, 2015Via: Reuters: Brazilians are hoarding water in their apartments, drilling homemade wells and taking other emergency measures to prepare for forced rationing that appears likely and could leave taps dry for up to five days a week because of a drought. In São Paulo, the country’s largest city with a metropolitan area of 20 million […]
Apple Makes Huge Solar Power Investment
February 11th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. And I’m holding one almost worthless February 27th put option on Apple. — Huge? Huge, in terms of the solar industry? Yes. Huge. But is it huge in terms of Apple? This story is being reported all over the place, but consider that $850 million represents […]
