Nocera’s Artificial Leaf Not Viable for Now
May 24th, 2012Via: Nature:
Not all prototypes make it out of the laboratory, but the ‘artificial leaf’ is so elegant that its design seems to beg for commercial production. Described in Science last year1 by a team led by Dan Nocera at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the catalyst-coated wafer is a silicon version of a photosynthesizing leaf: it turns sunlight into storable fuel by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.
But Sun Catalytix, the company founded in Cambridge off the back of Nocera’s work, says that it won’t be scaling up the prototype for field tests. The device offers few savings over other ways to make hydrogen from sunlight, the company says.
“We have to be focused on what will be durably better than conventional ways to make renewable hydrogen,” explains chief technology officer Tom Jarvi. Hydrogen from a solar panel and electrolysis unit can currently be made for about US$7 per kilogram, the firm estimates; the artificial leaf would come in at $6.50. (It costs just $1–2 to make a kilogram of hydrogen from fossil fuels).
With the prices of solar cells dropping all the time, the firm is not going to make a heavy investment that’s unlikely to pay off. Instead, it is looking at cheaper designs — but these require yet-to-be-invented semiconductor materials. So for the moment, “the artificial leaf is in the fridge”, Sun Catalytix chemist Joep Pijpers says.
FBI Quietly Forms Secretive Net-Surveillance Unit
May 24th, 2012My guess is that this headline should read, “Sheepdipped NSA Sources and Methods Now Used for Domestic Law Enforcement.”
Via: Cnet:
CNET has learned that the FBI has formed a Domestic Communications Assistance Center, which is tasked with developing new electronic surveillance technologies, including intercepting Internet, wireless, and VoIP communications.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
H.R. 4133: The United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012
May 24th, 2012Via: Antiwar.com:
Go to Google and type in “H.R. 4133.” You will discover that, apart from a handful of blogs and alternative news sites, not a single mainstream medium has reported the story of a congressional bill that might well have major impact on the conduct of United States foreign policy. H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, was introduced into the House of Representatives of the 112th Congress on March 5 “to express the sense of Congress regarding the United States-Israel strategic relationship, to direct the president to submit to Congress reports on United States actions to enhance this relationship and to assist in the defense of Israel, and for other purposes.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) reportedly helped draft the bill, and its co-sponsors include Republicans Eric Cantor and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrats Howard Berman and Steny Hoyer. Hoyer is the Democratic whip in the House of Representatives, where Cantor is majority leader. Ros-Lehtinen heads the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The House bill basically provides Israel with a blank check drawn on the U.S. taxpayer to maintain its “qualitative military edge” over all of its neighbors combined. It requires the White House to prepare an annual report on how that superiority is being maintained. The resolution passed on May 9 by a vote of 411–2 on a “suspension of the rules,” which is intended for non-controversial legislation requiring little debate and a quick vote.
Research Credit: anchoviesmegma
Former J.P. Morgan Lobbyist Manages Banking Committee Expected To Investigate J.P. Morgan’s Trading Loss
May 24th, 2012Via: Republic Report:
The Senate Banking Committee is responding to outrage over the news that J.P. Morgan lost some $3 billion in customer money because of a risky trading strategy. The committee is preparing for two hearings with regulators, and Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), chair of the committee, is hoping that Jamie Dimon will testify in the near future. “Our due diligence has made it clear that the Banking Committee should hear directly from JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon,” Johnson said in a statement last week.
Luckily for Dimon, the professional staff in charge of managing the banking committee will be quite familiar to him and his team of lobbyists. That’s because the staff director for the Senate Banking Committee is none other than a former J.P. Morgan lobbyist, Dwight Fettig.
In 2009, Fettig was a registered lobbyist for J.P. Morgan. His disclosures show that he was hired to work on “financial services regulatory reform” and the “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2009? on behalf of the investment bank. Now, as staff director for the Senate Banking Committee, he will be overseeing the hearings on J.P. Morgan’s risky proprietary trading.
Research Credit: anchoviesmegma
DOD and CIA Records Detailing Meetings with bin Laden Raid Filmmakers
May 24th, 2012Via: Judicial Watch:
Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) regarding meetings and communications between government agencies and Kathryn Bigelow, Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker, and screenwriter Mark Boal. According to the records, the Obama Defense Department granted Bigelow and Boal access to a “planner, Operator and Commander of SEAL Team Six,” which was responsible for the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, to assist Bigelow prepare her upcoming feature film.
Related: ‘The Pentagon has a manual. Basically, it will only provide full cooperation to propaganda pieces.’
Facebook Banks Said to Make $100 Million on ‘Stabilizing’ Stock
May 24th, 2012*chortle*
Here’s one for your Invisible-Hand-with-Corporate-Logos file folder.
Via: Bloomberg:
Facebook Inc. (FB)’s underwriters for its initial public offering made gains of about $100 million through their work to stabilize the shares in public trading, said a person familiar with the matter.
Related: Facebook IPO
Disclosure: I’m Long Dell
May 24th, 2012Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
I bought some Dell (symbol: DELL) late in the session.
Arming Police Drones with Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas
May 23rd, 2012Via: CBS:
With the use of domestic drones increasing, concern has not just come up over privacy issues, but also over the potential use of lethal force by the unmanned aircraft.
Drones have been used overseas to target and kill high-level terror leaders and are also being used along the U.S.-Mexico border in the battle against illegal immigration. But now, these drones are starting to be used domestically at an increasing rate.
The Federal Aviation Administration has allowed several police departments to use drones across the U.S. They are controlled from a remote location and use infrared sensors and high-resolution cameras.
Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Texas told The Daily that his department is considering using rubber bullets and tear gas on its drone.
“Those are things that law enforcement utilizes day in and day out and in certain situations it might be advantageous to have this type of system on the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle),” McDaniel told The Daily.
New York Legislation Would Ban Anonymous Online Speech
May 23rd, 2012It’s time for some comedy.
Via: Wired:
Did you hear the one about the New York state lawmakers who forgot about the First Amendment in the name of combating cyberbullying and “baseless political attacks”?
Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to “remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.”
No votes on the measures have been taken. But unless the First Amendment is repealed, they stand no chance of surviving any constitutional scrutiny even if they were approved.
Republican Assemblyman Jim Conte said the legislation would cut down on “mean-spirited and baseless political attacks” and “turns the spotlight on cyberbullies by forcing them to reveal their identity.”
Had the internet been around in the late 1700s, perhaps the anonymously written Federalist Papers would have to be taken down unless Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay revealed themselves.
“This statute would essentially destroy the ability to speak anonymously online on sites in New York,” said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney with the Center for Democracy and Technology. He added that the legislation provides a “heckler’s veto to anybody who disagrees with or doesn’t like what an anonymous poster said.”
Sen. Thomas O’Mara, a Republican who is also sponsoring the measure, said it would “help lend some accountability to the internet age.”
NSA Running College Programs for Cyber Operators
May 23rd, 2012Via: Reuters:
The National Security Agency is trying to expand U.S. cyber expertise needed for secret intelligence operations against adversaries on computer networks through a new cyber-ops program at selected universities.
The cyber-ops curriculum is geared to providing the basic education for jobs in intelligence, military and law enforcement that are so secret they will only be revealed to some students and faculty, who need to pass security clearance requirements, during special summer seminars offered by NSA.
