BASF Doubles Nickel-Metal Hydride Energy Storage
February 19th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review:
Almost every automaker interested in producing electric cars is betting on improvements to lithium-ion batteries to make the cars cheaper and extend their driving range.
But scientists at BASF are exploring the possibilities of an older type of battery, nickel-metal hydride, now used in hybrids. They recently doubled the amount of energy that these batteries can store, making them comparable to lithium-ion batteries. And they have a plan to improve them far more, potentially increasing energy storage by an additional eight times.
Buffett Dumped Entire $4 Billion Position in Exxon
February 18th, 2015Disclosure: I’m long one oil exploration and production company.
Via: Yahoo Finance:
The Warren watch is on. Warren Buffett revealed in a SEC filing yesterday that he sold his entire stake in Exxon Mobil (XOM) – roughly four billion dollars worth last quarter.
Investors like to pay attention to what the Oracle of Omaha is doing, given his success rate. Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task says it’s a big deal that Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold its entire stake. “I think he’s sending either a lack of confidence in Exxon’s management or no confidence that oil prices are going to rise very soon.”
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 prison conduct policies. It’s one of the most common Level 1 offense charges brought against inmates, many of whom, like most social network users, want to remain in contact with friends and family in the outside world and keep up on current events. Some inmates ask their families to access their online accounts for them, while many access the Internet themselves through a contraband cell phone (possession of which is yet another Level 1 offense).
Through a request under South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act, EFF found that, over the last three years, prison officials have brought more than 400 disciplinary cases for “social networking”—almost always for using Facebook. The offenses come with heavy penalties, such as years in solitary confinement and deprivation of virtually all privileges, including visitation and telephone access. In 16 cases, inmates were sentenced to more than a decade in what’s called disciplinary detention, with at least one inmate receiving more than 37 years in isolation.
The sentences are so long because SCDC issues a separate Level 1 violation for each day that an inmate accesses a social network. An inmate who posts five status updates over five days, would receive five separate Level 1 violations, while an inmate who posted 100 updates in one day would receive only one.
In other words, if a South Carolina inmate caused a riot, took three hostages, murdered them, stole their clothes, and then escaped, he could still wind up with fewer Level 1 offenses than an inmate who updated Facebook every day for two weeks.
Research Credit: alvinroast
“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 drive firmware.
We were able to recover two HDD firmware reprogramming modules from the EQUATIONDRUG and GRAYFISH platforms. The EQUATIONDRUG HDD firmware reprogramming module has version 3.0.1 while the GRAYFISH reprogramming module has version 4.2.0. These were compiled in 2010 and 2013, respectively,
if we are to trust the PE timestamps.
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The EQUATION group HDD firmware reprogramming plugin has the internal ID 80AA, which is a unique number in the groups’ plugin ID table. This allows other plugins to identify and use it as required. Both 32- and 64-bit versions of the plugin were found. The plugin supports two main functions: reprogramming the HDD firmware with a custom payload from the EQUATION group, and providing an API into a set of hidden sectors (or data storage) of the hard drive.
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The EQUATION group’s HDD firmware reprogramming module is extremely rare. During our research, we’ve only identified a few victims who were targeted by this module. This indicates that it is probably only kept for the most valuable victims or for some very unusual circumstances.
More: Equation: The Death Star of Malware Galaxy
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 water cylinder to turn on first and then he can use a cheap lamp timer to turn the charger on for his farm buggy around midday. He doesn’t use it every day so this will work out fine. Most of the time, his hot water cylinder will be fully topped up (and powered off) before the buggy starts charging.
Stagger loads, pull less from the grid = Win.
Via: KoreaBizWire:
South Korea’s LG Chem Inc. said it will supply energy storage systems (ESS) for four solar plants under construction in Japan in a deal worth over 300 billion won (US$272.7 million).
The nation’s largest battery maker said it won a contract to supply the storage systems with a daily capacity of 31 megawatts each to the Green Power Development Corporation (GPD) of Japan by 2017.
Japan has been building the world’s largest storage battery system in Hokkaido for stable power supply as it pursues a mix of renewable energy in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.
The ESS system will store electricity when weather conditions are favorable and dispense it during rainy or cloudy days, the firm said.
Related: Japan Has More Car Chargers Than Gas Stations
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.
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The unit is Fort Carson’s heaviest force, armed with tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Many of its soldiers are veterans of one or more of the brigade’s four combat tours in Iraq.
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 CIA had called him to ask whether experts would be able to tell if hostile forces had begun manipulating the US’s weather, though he suspected the purpose of the call was to find out if American forces could meddle with other countries’ climates instead.
During a debate on the use of geo-engineering to combat climate change, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose, California, Prof Robock said: “I got a phone call from two men who said we work as consultants for the CIA and we’d like to know if some other country was controlling our climate, would we know about it?
”I told them, after thinking a little bit, that we probably would because if you put enough material in the atmosphere to reflect sunlight we would be able to detect it and see the equipment that was putting it up there.
“At the same time I thought they were probably also interested in if we could control somebody else’s climate, could they detect it?”
Professor Robock, who has investigated the potential risks and benefits of using stratospheric particles to simulate the climate-changing effects of volcanic eruptions, said he felt “scared” when the approach was made.
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 outlined in a conference call with reporters on Sunday morning, would prevent it from operating such a service in the US and could force it to develop the technology overseas instead.
“The FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers,” Paul Misener, Amazon vice-president of gobal public policy, said in a statement to the Guardian. “We are committed to realising our vision for Prime Air and are prepared to deploy where we have the regulatory support we need.”
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The rule also prohibits any item being dropped from a drone or carrying cargo for a third party.
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 people working on it.
That’s not to say that there’ll ever be an Apple car on the road, necessarily. WSJ hedges its report, noting that it’d be several years at least before Titan could be ready for production, and that’s assuming Cook and company decide to go through with the project.
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 the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for use in people’s houses or businesses fairly soon,” Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said during an earnings conference call with analysts Wednesday.
Combining solar panels with large, efficient batteries could allow some homeowners to avoid buying electricity from utilities. Morgan Stanley said last year that Tesla’s energy-storage product could be “disruptive” in the U.S. and in Europe as customers seek to avoid utility fees by going “off-grid.” Musk said the product unveiling would occur within the next month or two.
“We have the design done, and it should start going into production in about six months or so,” Musk said. “It’s really great.”
