Archive for March, 2017
Musk on South Australia Grid Crisis: Tesla Will Install 100 MWh of Powerpacks Within 100 Days of Contract Signature or It’s Free
March 10th, 2017“That serious enough for you?” Via: Reuters: Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk on Friday offered to save Australia’s most renewable-energy dependent state from blackouts by installing $25 million worth of battery storage within 100 days, and offering it for free if he missed the target. The offer follows a string of power outages in the […]
‘Crime-Fighting Robots Aid Police’
March 10th, 2017Via: Star Telegram: Maybe someday it will menacingly order citizens to drop their weapons — or else, a la Robocop. But for now, the Knightscope crime-fighting robots, demonstrated for the University of Texas at Arlington Police Department and the media on Thursday, are limited to less aggressive tasks like scanning license plates for unauthorized vehicles […]
Aquion Energy Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
March 9th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Bummer. That’s the battery I wanted, albeit for less than half the price of what they were asking. *chortle* Maybe the chemistry will survive with whichever entity picks over the carcass… I doubt it’s a coincidence that this happened just as the Tesla Powerwall 2 […]
Hawaii: Another Large Tesla Powerpack Build
March 9th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — One of my off grid solar power customers just had her system installed yesterday. She and her husband built their small home 16 years ago and dreamed of someday having a solar power system. (It would cost about $100,000 to bring grid power to the […]
U.S. Crude Oil Slumps Below $50 After Stocks Build
March 9th, 2017Via: Reuters: Oil prices fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, extending the biggest falls this year as record U.S. crude inventories kept sentiment weak, pointing to a global glut despite supply cuts. Crude oil stocks in the United States, the world’s top oil consumer, surged last week to 528.4 million barrels, an all-time high […]
Meet Flippy, a Burger-Grilling Robot
March 9th, 2017Via: Tech Crunch: Flipping burgers is a hot and greasy job. Slips, trips, burns and cuts are common hazards associated with the work. But global demand for burgers is tremendous. Top burger chains racked up more than $75.5 billion in annual sales in 2016. To help keep human cooks out of harm’s way while fulfilling […]
Brain Activity 10 Minutes After Death?
March 8th, 2017Via: ScienceAlert: Doctors in a Canadian intensive care unit have stumbled on a very strange case – when life support was turned off for four terminal patients, one of them showed persistent brain activity even after they were declared clinically dead. For more than 10 minutes after doctors confirmed death through a range of observations, […]
Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed
March 7th, 2017If you have an active U.S. Government security clearance, you probably shouldn’t click on this. Via: Wikileaks: Today, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named “Vault 7” by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency. The first full […]
Who Controls Your Computer? (And How to Make Sure It’s You)
March 7th, 2017Good luck with that. My paranoia doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this thing. Keep going, keep pushing through, and the next thing you know, you’re falling through fractals of fuckedness that endlessly reveal more fuckedness the deeper you descend. Via: François-René Rideau: At least in theory, we therefore know how to build […]
German Institute Successfully Tests Underwater Energy Storage Sphere
March 7th, 2017Viable anytime soon? No. Cool idea anyway? Yep. Via: Ars Technica: A German research institute has spent years trying to tailor pumped storage to ocean environments. Recently, the institute completed a successful four-week pilot test using a hollow concrete sphere that it placed on the bottom of Lake Constance, a body of water at the […]
