The $3 Billion Plan to Turn Hoover Dam Into a Giant Battery
July 29th, 2018Via: New York Times:
Hoover Dam helped transform the American West, harnessing the force of the Colorado River — along with millions of cubic feet of concrete and tens of millions of pounds of steel — to power millions of homes and businesses. It was one of the great engineering feats of the 20th century.
Now it is the focus of a distinctly 21st-century challenge: turning the dam into a vast reservoir of excess electricity, fed by the solar farms and wind turbines that represent the power sources of the future.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, an original operator of the dam when it was erected in the 1930s, wants to equip it with a $3 billion pipeline and a pump station powered by solar and wind energy. The pump station, downstream, would help regulate the water flow through the dam’s generators, sending water back to the top to help manage electricity at times of peak demand.
The net result would be a kind of energy storage — performing much the same function as the giant lithium-ion batteries being developed to absorb and release power.
Ford Starts Up $4B Autonomous Vehicle Unit
July 29th, 2018Via: Oilprice.com:
While Ford has been emphasizing trucks and SUVs over passenger cars, that may soon be changing over to a new business model.
On Tuesday, the Detroit automaker launched Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC to accelerate the growth of its autonomous vehicle business and to capitalize on market opportunities. The new subsidiary will receive a $4 billion investment to oversee all its AV research and the self-driving car network the automaker plans to launch in 2021.
In April, Ford’s new CEO, Jim Hackett, announced the company would be focusing on big sellers like the Ford F-Series pickups and would pretty much be abandoning the car business. Low gasoline prices and strong sales of trucks and SUVs helped drive the decision.
Now the global automaker is adding another move — to become a leader in electrified, autonomous ride services targeted to become its own profitable business. The company aims to be competitive in the newly emerging mobility industry, which is expected to dominate the auto industry in decades to come.
George H.W. Bush’s Former Doctor Possibly Murdered by Trained Killer
July 29th, 2018Via: Live5 News:
It’s been a week since the fatal bicycle-to-bicycle drive-by shooting of Dr. Mark Hausknecht, a renowned cardiologist who treated former President George H.W. Bush.
The Houston Police chief says his death was likely a targeted murder.
The shooting happened near a Houston construction site; a worker there said crews had been using nail guns on the day of the shooting, which someone with sinister plans may have used to their advantage.
“They used gunpowder in a shell to fire the nails into steel, so that sound itself would sound like a gun firing. Is it coincidental? I don’t know,” said Dennis Franks, a private investigator and retired FBI agent.
Then there’s the precision of the shooting. Hausknecht was shot in the torso, the upper left extremity and the head while riding his bicycle, according to the Harris County medical examiner.
The shooter was also reportedly riding a bicycle while committing the murder.
It suggests to Franks that the suspect had training.
“When the target is moving also, that takes skill,” Franks said. “It could be that just the shooter has a certain amount of training, but that’s typically a tactical training. That’s tactical, either law enforcement or military training. Two shots to the chest, one to the head. That’s usually the training when you come out – ‘boom boom’ to the chest; ‘boom,’ one to the head, in that order.”
Federal Air Marshals Wasting Time and Resources Monitoring Passengers Almost at Random
July 29th, 2018Obviously, the chances of this stopping a terrorist incident are somewhere between slim and none. So, if it’s not going to stop an incident, what is it going to do?
Is the purpose of this to facilitate a “terrorist” incident, by distracting personnel away from actual threats?
Hmm.
Via: Boston Globe:
Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.
The previously undisclosed program, called “Quiet Skies,” specifically targets travelers who “are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base,” according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.
The internal bulletin describes the program’s goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft “posed by unknown or partially known terrorists,” and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.
…
Several air marshals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, told the Globe the program wastes taxpayer dollars and makes the country less safe because attention and resources are diverted away from legitimate, potential threats.
Quantum Computing: With Just Over 2000 Qubits, “You Can Crack Bitcoin”
July 28th, 2018Disclosure: I am long Quantum Resistant Ledger.
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Via: IEEE Spectrum:
In response to an audience question about the future of Bitcoin in the quantum computing era, Troyer pointed out that his group calculated that once a quantum computer can be built with just over 2000 qubits, “you can crack Bitcoin.”
“We joke that then we can fund all of our programming” with Bitcoin, he said.
“If you have a secret today,” Troyer warned the audience, “don’t encrypt it with RSA if you believe quantum computing is coming.”
Trump, Tesla and the X-Technology Secret
July 28th, 2018Trump’s uncle and Nikola Tesla.
Guy Banister… UFO investigator?!
Nixon and Trump.
JFK and UFOs.
Masons. Lots of Masons.
Via: Dark Journalist:
Disney Buys Most of Fox
July 27th, 2018Via: Los Angeles Times:
Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox Inc. shareholders on Friday overwhelmingly approved Disney’s proposed $71.3-billion takeover of much of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox — a milestone in a merger that is expected to dramatically reshape the entertainment industry.
Nicaragua in ‘Undeclared State of Siege’ as Hooded Gunmen Rule the Streets
July 26th, 2018Via: McClatchy:
They ride in the back of Toyota double-cabin pickup trucks, assault rifles slung over their shoulders. No one knows their identities. They always wear black ski masks or hoods.
The gunmen — between 1,000 and 1,500 of them, according to some estimates — are part of a recently formed paramilitary force protecting the continued rule of President Daniel Ortega against a three-month-old civilian uprising. Their main tactic is terror. They conduct roundups, fire at protesters, carry out dark-of-night raids and menace the population.
The Pro-Human Rights Association of Nicaragua said Thursday that paramilitary forces have conducted 595 “kidnappings” and disappearances of citizens since the uprising began April 18. The group said it has tallied 97 killings since July 11.
“Today in Nicaragua, there exists an undeclared state of siege,” Alvaro Leiva, executive director of the rights group, said at a news conference.
Facebook Down 20%
July 26th, 2018Via: BBC:
Facebook shares opened sharply lower on Thursday, after the social media network warned investors of slowing revenue gains and increased spending.
The firm’s shares opened down nearly 20%, a drop that wiped more than $100bn (£76bn) off Facebook’s market value.
The fall also dragged down the tech-rich Nasdaq share index, which was almost 1% lower.
Facebook’s forecast came as the firm faces a backlash over its handling of fake news and user data.
The company said it expected to boost spending by 50% or more, as it tries to improve the way it monitors content, tracks advertisers and treats user data – areas where it has faced regulator scrutiny.
The firm also warned investors that revenue growth would be hurt as people make use of new options to limit advertising and less profitable overseas markets drive growth.
Liquid Water ‘Lake’ Revealed on Mars
July 25th, 2018Via: BBC:
Researchers have found evidence of an existing body of liquid water on Mars.
What they believe to be a lake sits under the planet’s south polar ice cap, and is about 20km (12 miles) across.
Previous research found possible signs of intermittent liquid water flowing on the martian surface, but this is the first sign of a persistent body of water on the planet in the present day.
Lake beds like those explored by Nasa’s Curiosity rover show water was present on the surface of Mars in the past.
However, the planet’s climate has since cooled due to its thin atmosphere, leaving most of its water locked up in ice.
The result is exciting because scientists have long searched for signs of present-day liquid water on Mars, but these have come up empty or yielded ambiguous findings. It will also interest those studying the possibilities for life beyond Earth – though it does not yet raise the stakes in the search for biology.
The discovery was made using Marsis, a radar instrument on board the European Space Agency’s (Esa) Mars Express orbiter.
