Using Tesla Cybertruck to Power Off-Grid Tiny House
December 5th, 2019I love it, although a lot of that math is meaningless because we don’t have any solid Cybertruck battery or inverter specs.
Anyway, shine on you crazy diamond.
Via: Electric Bike:
This article is about how I plan to power my off-grid Tiny House using nothing but the CyberTruck (hopefully with the solar panel option) and how you can do the same. It also has a section about how to power your entire house off the Cybertruck in emergencies or scheduled blackouts which seem to be getting more and more common in California.
Carmakers Shed 80,000 Jobs as Electric Shift Upends Industry
December 4th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
It’s turning out to be one of the worst years ever for auto workers across the globe amid shrinking demand and a tectonic shift in vehicle technology, with Daimler AG and Audi announcing almost 20,000 job cuts in just the past week.
All told, carmakers are eliminating more than 80,000 jobs during the coming years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Although the cuts are concentrated in Germany, the U.S. and the U.K., faster-growing economies haven’t been immune and are seeing automakers scale back operations there.
Merck’s Insurers Treat Ransomware Takedown as Act of War
December 4th, 2019Schadenfreude?
Maybe a little.
Ok, a lot.
Via: Bloomberg:
Merck did what any of us would do when facing a disaster: It turned to its insurers. After all, through its property policies, the company was covered—after a $150 million deductible—to the tune of $1.75 billion for catastrophic risks including the destruction of computer data, coding, and software. So it was stunned when most of its 30 insurers and reinsurers denied coverage under those policies. Why? Because Merck’s property policies specifically excluded another class of risk: an act of war.
Merck went to court, suing its insurers, including such industry titans as Allianz SE and American International Group Inc., for breach of contract, ultimately claiming $1.3 billion in losses.
In a world where a hacker can cause more damage than a gunship, the dispute playing out in a New Jersey courtroom will have far-reaching consequences for victims of cyberattacks and the insurance companies that will or will not protect them. Until recently, the big worry associated with cyberattacks was data loss. The NotPetya strike shows how a few hundred lines of malicious code can bring a company to its knees.
U.S. Navy Buying 9 New Nuclear Submarines for $22 Billion, Largest Warship Building Deal Ever
December 4th, 2019So it goes…
Via: Popular Mechanics:
The U.S. Navy has just signed the largest warship building deal ever. The service will pay more than 20 billion dollars for nine new Virginia-class attack submarines. The submarines will replace Cold War-era Los Angeles-class boats in America’s submarine fleet, adding new technology and greater firepower. Many of the new submarines will include a long-awaited capability to launch swarms of cruise missiles.
The deal, announced on December 2, awards $22 billion to a shipbuilding team consisting of General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries. The submarines, The Diplomat reports, will begin construction this year, with deliveries taking place from 2025 to 2029. One of the submarines will be of the Virginia classes’ Block IV configuration, with the remaining eight of the new Block V configuration.
Thomas Bowers: Epstein Connection to Dead Trump Banker [???]
December 3rd, 2019Related: “Deutsche Bank Executive Who Signed Off On Trump Loans Kills Himself At Age 55”
Via: TruePundit:
Bowers headed the private wealth banking division for Deutsche Bank and signed off on millions in loans to Epstein. Bowers, prior to taking over the private banking arm at Deutsche Bank, served in the same top position at Citibank, as the head of the bank’s private wealth arm. Citigroup also made massive loans to Epstein, according to records and banking sources who spoke to True Pundit.
True Pundit founder Mike “Thomas Paine” Moore previously headed anti-money laundering for a major Citigroup division during the time frame Citi commenced large loans to Epstein.
“The loans to Epstein were personal and commercial,” Paine confirmed. “The Citi loans I can confirm were for more than $25 million. Some were secured, some were not.”
Did Citi bend its lending rules for Epstein? Paine said that appears “quite likely,” with Bowers and other Citi executives he later recruited to work for him at Deutsche all working to secure the approvals regardless of compliance-related red flags.
And sources said Citi loaned Epstein much more money, eclipsing $100 million and also allowed Epstein to use the bank to send thousands of wire transfers from his accounts. Bowers, who turned up dead just days ago, brokered the loans for Epstein, sources said.
Bowers was the chief of Deutsche Bank’s Private Wealth Management division and worked from the bank’s Park Avenue offices in New York City. At Citi, Bowers served as the chief of the The Citi Private Bank and previously ran Citigroup’s Global Markets and Wealth Management businesses.
And when Bowers left Citi for Deutsche Bank, Epstein followed.
Meanwhile, Epstein stopped making payments on his millions in outstanding Citi loans. But that mattered little because Bowers approved new high-risk loans and credit lines from Deutsche Bank, sources said.
And that relationship with Epstein continued until Bowers left Deutsche Bank in 2015. By that time, Epstein had chalked up untold millions in loans with the help of Bowers who recruited many of his top private wealth top bankers from Citi to Deutsche Bank.
FDA Bowed to Industry for Decades as Alarms Were Sounded Over Talc
December 3rd, 2019Via: Reuters:
Over the past 50 years, the FDA has relied upon–and often deferred to–industry even as outside experts and consumers repeatedly raised serious health concerns about talc powders and cosmetics, a Reuters investigation found.
Again and again since at least the 1970s, the agency has downplayed the risk of asbestos contamination and declined to issue warnings or impose safety standards, according to documents produced in court proceedings and in response to public records requests.
Astronomers Are About to Detect the Light from the Very First Stars in the Universe
December 3rd, 2019Via: Universe Today:
A team of scientists working with the Murchison Widefield Array (WMA) radio telescope are trying to find the signal from the Universe’s first stars. Those first stars formed after the Universe’s Dark Ages. To find their first light, the researchers are looking for the signal from neutral hydrogen, the gas that dominated the Universe after the Dark Ages.
Ontario RAT Folding Pocket Knives
December 3rd, 2019My youngest son, Reed, chose an Ontario RAT-1 for his first knife six months ago. I’m definitely no expert on knives or EDC gear, but I’ve been so astonished by the quality, durability and low price of the Ontario RAT-1 knife, I wanted to tell you about it.
Reed is extremely hard on his tools in general and his RAT-1 gets the same treatment as everything else. He carries the knife on him every day, all day. He is constantly cutting, carving and whittling wood. He strips bark. He cuts rope. Despite my warning to him that he’s probably going to ruin the liner lock on the knife, he batons wood with it. Prying stuff with the tip, risking blade bends or breaks? Check.
Despite all of this, he is able to maintain the blade’s sharpness to such a degree that he uses it as a sort of quazi Exacto blade for his art work.
Here’s the knife after six months:
Earlier today, I sat down with Reed and we took the knife completely apart to clean and oil it and see how it’s holding up. It had a bit or dirt and sand between the handles and the scales. There was a small amount of surface rust on the tang near the pivot. We were able to remove the rust with a couple of drops of 3-in-One oil on a rag. Other than that, a bit of the black finish had rubbed off the clip and the little logo that was on the blade had also worn off. Despite batonning, the liner lock was perfect. With a hint of 3-in-One on all the metal parts, we reassembled the knife and it was ready to go again.
Before we took it apart and after reassembly, there was no play/slop in the blade at all when locked open. With a bit of adjustment on the pivot screws, we got the blade to line up perfectly centered between the scales again when closed, just like it came from the factory.
Come to think of it, that tiny bit of rust we encountered on the tang was probably due to Reed attacking some banana trees (which are full of water) with the knife. Some of the gunk around the pivot was probably old banana tree pulp.
I noticed that all the screws were set with blue Loctite from the factory. I didn’t have any Loctite so we didn’t replace it. I don’t know how necessary it is, but Reed had switched the clip configuration on the knife when he got it and, despite not replacing the Loctite then, those screws have not backed out at all after constant use for six months. (I wonder if to-Loctite or not-Loctite debates fester in weird backwaters of the Internet… I’m seeing a miasma of grey beards, suspenders and Pall Mall cigarette smoke.)
The Ontario RAT folding knives come in different sizes, colors, handle materials and blade steels. The RAT-1 is the big RAT, the RAT-2 is much smaller. I bought a RAT-2/AUS-8 for myself (black knife on the left in the picture below). I hardly notice it for EDC around our farm. I paid $25 for that knife, which is an unbelievable value in my opinion.
I thought AUS-8 was the way to go for the steel selection due to ease of sharpening and I have not been disappointed. Reed is able to maintain the edge sharpness very easily. D2 steel will hold an edge longer (apparently), but it will also be more difficult to sharpen and more prone to rust.
In summary, you can’t go wrong with the Ontario RAT knives.
Google Has 10,000 Employees Censoring YouTube Videos, Some of Them Starting to Believe Conspiracy Theories
December 3rd, 2019Via: RealClearPolitics:
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki tells Lesley Stahl what the video platform is doing about hate speech in an interview Sunday on the CBS newsmagazine program ’60 Minutes.’
Wojcicki told ’60 Minutes’ that Google employs 10,000 people to focus on “controversial content.” She described their schedule, which includes time for therapy. Stahl also said there are reports that the “monitors” are “beginning to buy the conspiracy theories.”
“What we really had to do was tighten our enforcement of that to make sure we were catching everything and we use a combination of people and machines,” Wojcicki explained. “So Google as a whole has about 10,000 people that are focused on controversial content.”
Lesley Stahl: I’m told that it is very stressful to be looking at these questionable videos all the time. And that there’s actually counselors to make sure that there aren’t mental problems with the people who are doing this work. Is that true?
Susan Wojcicki: It’s a very important area for us. We try to do everything we can to make sure that this is a good work environment. Our reviewers work five hours of the eight hours reviewing videos. They have the opportunity to take a break whenever they want.
Lesley Stahl: I also heard that these monitors, reviewers, sometimes, they’re beginning to buy the conspiracy theories.
Susan Wojcicki: I’ve definitely heard about that. And we work really hard with all of our reviewers to make sure that, you know, we’re providing the right services for them.
More: 60 Minutes: How does YouTube handle the site’s misinformation, conspiracy theories and hate?
Homeland Security Proposes Face Scans for All U.S. Citizens Entering or Exiting Country
December 2nd, 2019Via: Reuters:
The Trump administration intends to propose a regulation next year that would require all travelers – including U.S. citizens – to be photographed when entering or leaving the United States, according to the administration’s regulatory agenda.
The proposed regulation, slated to be issued in July by the Homeland Security Department, would be part of a broader system to track travelers as they enter and exit the United States.
The plan has already drawn opposition from some privacy advocates. Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, blasted the idea in a written statement on Monday.
“Travelers, including U.S. citizens, should not have to submit to invasive biometric scans simply as a condition of exercising their constitutional right to travel,” he said.
