New Zealand: Electricity Cartel Might Double Transmission Costs for Far North, West Coast
June 16th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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“Changes could come in by early 2018.”
That’s nice.
I wonder if the Tesla Powerwall will be on the second or third version by then.
Via: Stuff:
The prospect of power bills jumping 10 per cent in Northland and the West Coast and almost 5 per cent in Auckland is “shocking”, according to energy campaigner Molly Melhuish.
Under one of the options being considered by the Electricity Authority for power grid transmission prices, some households in the Far North and West Coast could see yearly power bills rise by $200 to $250 a year.
Auckland prices could rise about $100 a year.
But in some areas including Wellington, power bills could fall about 2 per cent.
And for the Tiwai smelter, transmission costs could fall $50m a year which analysts said would mean the smelter was more likely to stay open, but Melhuish called it more “corporate welfare”.
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One option is “Application A” which would essentially double the transmission costs part of the bill for households on the West Coast and in the Far North.
There would be a smaller, 4.5 per cent lift for Auckland for customers of the Vector lines network and for other areas including the Kapiti Coast (Electra) and Marlborough Lines.
The Electricity Authority put its options paper out for consultation with interested groups on Tuesday, with a final proposal expected next year. Changes could come in by early 2018.
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“People will use less power, there will be more disease and more people will end up in hospital, (from cold homes),” Melhuish said.
There was also the risk that the industry would try to get rid of low fixed daily lines charges, which may rise from 33c a day to $2 a day, she said. Those charges were “coming under discussion” and such a move would mean an unavoidable cost that looked like a “tax”.
“You pay it, whatever”
But eventually people were likely to revolt from higher prices, and move off the national grid by using solar power panels and even batteries because they resented high power prices.
“They just want to get out,” she said.
Gunmen Attack Dallas Police Headquarters in Texas
June 13th, 2015Suspect Shot Dead by Police Sniper
Via: USA Today:
The gunman who riddled Dallas police headquarters with gunfire early Saturday and planted pipe bombs is believed to be dead after being shot by a sniper.
After leading officers on a 10-mile chase in an armored van, the sniper opened fire through a windshield after parking near a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in the town of Hutchins, located about 12 miles south of Dallas, Police Chief David Brown said.
Brown said police feared the gunman, who had fired repeatedly at officers, would try again and could hit a nearby neighborhood. Negotiations deteriorated into “rants” from the gunman — who became “increasingly angry and threatening” — over a child custody issue before talks broke off altogether, police said.
“He expressed that he had C-4 (military grade explosives) on the van,” Brown said. “That’s our biggest concern. We don’t want to call his bluff.”
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Jade Helm, is that you?
Via: Stuff:
Multiple gunmen toting automatic weapons opened fire on officers outside Dallas Police headquarters early Saturday morning, before one man fled the scene being chased by police in what witnesses described as an armoured van.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown told reporters that witnesses said as many as four suspects were involved in the incident, which began around 12.30 am (local time) when the suspects parked in front of the building located south of downtown and began firing.
He said at least one of the suspects fled the scene in a van that rammed a police cruiser before leading police on a chase that ended in an ongoing standoff at parking lot in Hutchins, where additional gunfire was exchanged.
As Currency Dies, Zimbabweans Will Get $5 for 175 Quadrillion Zimbucks
June 12th, 2015Via: Reuters:
Zimbabweans will start exchanging ‘quadrillions’ of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe’s government discards its virtually worthless national currency, the central bank said on Thursday.
The southern African country started using foreign currencies like the U.S. dollar and South African rand in 2009 after the Zimbabwean dollar was ruined by hyper-inflation, which hit 500 billion percent in 2008.
At the height of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis in 2008, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with bank notes to buy basic goods like bread and milk. Prices were rising at least twice a day.
From Monday, customers who held Zimbabwean dollar accounts before March 2009 can approach their banks to convert their Zimbabwean dollar balance into dollars, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya said in a statement.
The process will legally end the local currency. Zimbabweans have until September to turn in their old bank notes, which some people sell as souvenirs to tourists.
Bank accounts with balances of up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars will be paid $5. Those with balances above 175 quadrillion dollars will be paid at an exchange rate of $1 to 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.
The highest – and last – bank note to be printed by the RBZ in 2008 was 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollars. It was not enough to ride a public bus to work for a week.
More U.S. Troops to Iraq
June 11th, 2015Via: CNN:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said Thursday that the U.S. military strategy in Iraq could require opening multiple outposts at Iraqi bases near the front lines of battle, which would mean sending hundreds of additional troops to the region to help fight ISIS.
Dempsey told reporters aboard a plane with him in Italy that the plan the White House announced earlier this week to establish a base at Taqaddam could be replicated in other parts of Iraq. He said they are considering bases that he described as “lily pads” near the front lines that would support Iraqi troops.
The White House announced Wednesday plans to deploy up to 450 additional U.S. forces to Iraq, largely to train Sunni tribes’ fighters, as well as plans to send weapons to Sunni tribes and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to help them combat ISIS. Officials are considering sending up to 1,000 troops to the area, according to the Associated Press.
Texas Kids Told ‘It’s Illegal’ to Sell Lemonade Without a Permit
June 11th, 2015Kafkaesque
adjective Kaf·ka·esque \?käf-k?-?esk, ?kaf-\
Definition of KAFKAESQUE
: of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality
Via: ABC:
Two young sisters with an “entrepreneurial spirit” set up a lemonade stand in Overton, Texas, to raise money for their dad’s Father’s day gift, their mom said.
But Andria and Zoey Green’s business closed abruptly Monday after police came by to tell them their stand was illegal without a city Peddler’s Permit, according to Overton Police Department Chief Clyde Carter.
“It’s illegal to sell lemonade without a permit,” Carter told ABC News today. “But we didn’t tell them to shut down, we just asked them to get a permit.”
The girls’ mother, Sandi Evans, said they went to try to get a Peddler’s Permit at City Hall, but found out they’d have to get licensed by the Rusk County Health Department before being allowed a Peddler’s Permit.
The Rusk County Health Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for additional information including specific details about the process for getting a permit to sell lemonade.
Hackers Have Personnel Data on Every U.S. Government Employee
June 11th, 2015Via: AP:
Hackers stole personnel data and identity numbers for every federal employee, a government worker union said Thursday, saying that the cyber theft of U.S. employee information was more damaging than the Obama administration has acknowledged.
One Nation, Under Sedation: Medicare Paid for Nearly 40 Million Tranquilizer Prescriptions in 2013
June 11th, 2015Via: Propublica:
In 2012, Medicare’s massive prescription drug program didn’t spend a penny on popular tranquilizers such as Valium, Xanax and Ativan.
The following year, it doled out more than $377 million for the drugs.
Surgical Anesthesia in Young Children Linked to Effects on IQ, Brain Structure
June 11th, 2015Via: Science Daily:
Children who received general anesthesia for surgery before age 4 had diminished language comprehension, lower IQ and decreased gray matter density in posterior regions of their brain, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics.
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Loepke and his research colleagues have published previous studies showing widespread cell death, permanent deletion of neurons and neurocognitive impairment in laboratory rats and mice after exposure to general anesthesia. Those studies have raised concerns about similar effects in young children during a particularly sensitive neurodevelopmental period in early life, which researchers say could interfere with the refinement of neuronal networks and lead to long-term functional abnormalities.
For their current retrospective study, the authors compared the scores of 53 healthy participants of a language development study (ages 5 to 18 years with no history of surgery) with the scores of 53 children in the same age range who had undergone surgery before the age of 4.
The authors stress that average test scores for all 106 children in the study were within population norms, regardless of surgical history. Still, compared with children who had not undergone surgery, children exposed to anesthesia scored significantly lower in listening comprehension and performance IQ. Researchers also report that decreased language and IQ scores were associated with lower gray matter density in the occipital cortex and cerebellum of the brain.
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Extending their study a step beyond the medical data, the research team also considered the potential societal impact of their findings. Earlier research from 2008 had estimated the loss of 1 IQ point to decrease a person’s lifetime earnings potential by $18,000. Factoring in the potential loss of 5 or 6 IQ points found in their current study, the researchers report that, based on the estimated 6 million children who undergo surgery in the United States each year the lifetime potential earnings loss could total $540 billion.
Obama Lawyers Asked Secret Court to Ignore Public Court’s Decision on Spying
June 11th, 2015Via: Guardian:
The Obama administration has asked a secret surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months.
The legal request, filed nearly four hours after Barack Obama vowed to sign a new law banning precisely the bulk collection he asks the secret court to approve, also suggests that the administration may not necessarily comply with any potential court order demanding that the collection stop.
Manufacturing of Asus Graphics Cards Now 100% Automated
June 11th, 2015Via: Geek:
According to Asus, every single graphics card in use today has been manufactured with the help of one or more human workers. But that is no longer the case. Asus has figured out how to make graphics cards in a completely automated process, with the first human to interact with a card being the person fitting it inside a PC.
