Solar Has Overtaken Gas and Wind as Biggest Source of New U.S. Power
June 12th, 2018Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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Via: Bloomberg:
Despite tariffs that President Trump imposed on imported panels, the U.S. installed more solar energy than any other source of electricity in the first quarter.
Developers installed 2.5 gigawatts of solar in the first quarter, up 13 percent from a year earlier, according to a report Tuesday from the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research. That accounted for 55 percent of all new generation, with solar panels beating new wind and natural gas turbines for a second straight quarter.
Two Quantum Computing Bills Are Coming to Congress
June 12th, 2018Disclosure: I am long Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL).
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Via: Gizmodo:
Quantum computing has made it to the United States Congress. If this field of quantum information is the new space race, the US doesn’t want to fall behind.
After all, China has funded a National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences, set to open in 2020, and has launched a satellite meant to test long-distance quantum secure information.
Two new bills, one of which is still a draft, are meant to establish the US as a leader in the field.
“Quantum computing is the next technological frontier that will change the world, and we cannot afford to fall behind,” said Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) in a statement passed to Gizmodo. “We must act now to address the challenges we face in the development of this technology — our future depends on it.”
The bill introduced by Harris in the Senate focuses on defence, calling for the creation of a consortium of researchers selected by the Chief of Naval Research and the Director of the Army Research Laboratory. The consortium would award grants, assist with research, and facilitate partnerships between the members.
Another, yet-to-be-introduced bill, seen in draft form by Gizmodo, calls for a 10-year National Quantum Initiative Program to set goals and priorities for quantum computing in the US; invest in the technology; and partner with academia and industry.
Sweden Tries to Halt Its March to Total Cashlessness
June 12th, 2018Via: Bloomberg:
A key committee of Swedish lawmakers wants to force the country’s biggest banks to handle cash in an effort to halt the nation’s march toward complete cashlessness.
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The move is a response to Sweden’s rapid transformation as it becomes one of the most cashless societies in the world. That’s led to concerns that some people are finding it increasingly difficult to cope without access to mobile phones or bank cards. There are also fears around what would happen if the digital payments systems suddenly crashed.
Police Dogs Trained to Find Hidden Electronic Storage Devices
June 12th, 2018Via: cnet:
Only one out of every 50 dogs tested qualifies to become an electronic storage detection, or ESD, dog, says Kerry Halligan, a K-9 instructor with the Connecticut State Police. That’s because it’s a lot harder to detect the telltale chemical in electronics than it is to sniff out narcotics, bombs, fire accelerants or people, she says.
Vote to End Fractional Reserve Banking in Switzerland
June 10th, 2018Via: Reuters:
A radical plan to transform Switzerland’s financial landscape by barring commercial banks from creating money when they lend looked set to fail, according to initial projections on Sunday.
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The vote, called under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy after gathering more than 100,000 signatures, wanted to make the Swiss National Bank (SNB) the only body authorized to create money in the country.
Contrary to common belief, most money in the world is not produced by central banks but is instead created by commercial lenders when they lend beyond the deposits they hold for savers.
This arrangement, underpinned by the belief that most debts will be repaid, has been a cornerstone of the global capitalist system but opponents say it is unstable because the new money created exceeds economic growth.
Homeland Security’s Massive New Database Will Include Face Recognition, DNA, and Peoples’ “Non-Obvious Relationships”
June 10th, 2018Via: EFF:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly building what will likely become the largest database of biometric and biographic data on citizens and foreigners in the United States. The agency’s new Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) database will include multiple forms of biometrics—from face recognition to DNA, data from questionable sources, and highly personal data on innocent people. It will be shared with federal agencies outside of DHS as well as state and local law enforcement and foreign governments. And yet, we still know very little about it.
The records DHS plans to include in HART will chill and deter people from exercising their First Amendment protected rights to speak, assemble, and associate. Data like face recognition makes it possible to identify and track people in real time, including at lawful political protests and other gatherings. Other data DHS is planning to collect—including information about people’s “relationship patterns” and from officer “encounters” with the public—can be used to identify political affiliations, religious activities, and familial and friendly relationships. These data points are also frequently colored by conjecture and bias.
“Those People Who Dug the Big Hole Under Switzerland Looking for the Higgs Boson Particle” Bought New Zealand Dairy Farm
June 9th, 2018Everyone knows about the billionaires buying up rural land in New Zealand.
They’re not the only ones.
CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research) is getting in on the act too.
Obviously, I expect to receive many nothing-to-see-here emails, but CERN is very strange.
Also, I wish Bruce Cathie was still alive.
Via: Stuff:
The shareholders in the latest farm purchase of Craigmore Dairy 11 LP include the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (58.8 per cent), Aurum Agrar GmbH of Germany (23.5 per cent), Stefan Jentzsch, UK (7.6 per cent), Golien, Hong Kong (4.2 per cent), Forbes Herbert Elworthy, New Zealand (2.7 per cent), with the balance held by smaller investors.
Related: Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa
Research Credit: Pookie
Inside Tesla’s Model 3 Factory
June 9th, 2018There are some interesting photos of the Model 3 assembly line in this piece.
Via: Bloomberg:
On the Model 3 body line on a Tuesday afternoon in early June, everything is still. Tesla Inc. is just coming off a week of downtime during which workers added a new production line, improved ventilation after a fire in the paint shop, and overhauled machines across the factory. But even after the changes, there are kinks to work out.
Suddenly, dozens of robots snap into frenzied action, picking up door panels, welding window pillars, taking measurements, and on and on. This robotic dance is a visceral representation of what Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has dubbed “Alien Dreadnought,” a code name for the factory that evokes an early 20th century warship, but with extraterrestrials.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for Tesla, which is sprinting to produce the Model 3 in quantities great enough to turn a profit. But so far, the plant’s choreography has been choppy. The flow at the factory in Fremont, California, is constantly interrupted while robots and humans are trained, retrained, or swapped out. If Tesla can’t make this dance work, it will be remembered as a lesson in the dangers of irrational exuberance for automation. Success, on the other hand, could transform the car industry.
Netherlands: 3D Printed Houses
June 9th, 2018Five.
It would be much more interesting if the number was 5,000 or 50,000.
Well, it’s early days.
This reminds me…
I recently read an interesting sci-fi/cyberpunk/dystopia novel called Voidstar by Zachary Mason.
In the near future, the sprawling favelas that exist between San Francisco and Los Angeles have been 3D printed by autonomous machines.
“The favelas were always rising, like hard clouds of grey stone billowing up…”
Check out the picture at the link.
Via: Quartz:
What do you do when there are too few skilled bricklayers to meet national housing demands? Figure out a workaround—like 3D-printed houses.
That’s the solution the Dutch construction company Van Wijnen and researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands came up with. The city of Eindhoven soon hopes to boast the world’s first commercially-developed 3D-printed homes, an endeavor known as Project Milestone.
Construction on the first home begins this year and five houses will be on the rental market by 2019, project organizers say.
A Mall in China Put in a Traffic Lane Just for People Staring at Their Phones
June 9th, 2018Reader DF sent in this video a few days ago.
Via: FastCompany:
According to the New York Times, the new lane of traffic was intended to address the needs of the so-called “heads down tribe,” people who find the world around them so dull that they can’t bear to look up from their phones, even when crossing the street. Their distracted walking is part of a growing number of traffic-related deaths with the World Health Organization estimating that around 68,000 pedestrians are killed every year in China. While there are undoubtedly large-scale solutions to the problem (education campaigns, fines, etc.) the easiest solution might be the one used at the mall: Pedestrian lanes specifically for cellphone users.
