Hockey Stick: U.S. Residential Energy Storage Deployments Q1 2018
June 7th, 2018Via: GTM:
Ever since GTM Research began tracking storage deployments in 2013, residential batteries appeared as the faintest of slivers on the industrywide bar graph, nonzero but totally insubstantial.
Now, for the first time, the smattering of a few kilowatts here and there has nearly overtaken the giants of grid-scale mega-projects. That’s a result both of the mega-projects not showing up this quarter and the micro-projects swarming into action.
Dialing into the numbers, it’s clear that California and Hawaii drove this newfound strength with state-level growth that merits no less than the technical designation: “bonkers.”
California’s resi sector rose 3,833 percent year-over-year in terms of megawatts, 4,324 percent in terms of megawatt-hours. The fact that energy capacity grew more reflects that these systems are sizing up to hold more duration.
Grave Robbers Steal Bones from Miami’s Historic Cemeteries
June 6th, 2018Via: Miami Herald:
Kennedy, who lives in the small office at the center of the 10-acre Lincoln property in Brownsville, nightly chases away drug addicts, homeless people, prostitutes, vandals, bone burglars and Santeria worshippers who deposit offerings of slain chickens, fruit, candy, cigars and coins.
“I got shot once. Guy pulled a gun on me when I told him to get out,” said Kennedy, rolling up his shorts to show a scar on his thigh. “I might pick up 18 chickens in one day. I’ve picked up a boar’s head, a dead monkey, dead rabbits, apples, a birthday cake. We got some serious voodoo and hocus pocus out here.”
Microsoft Sinks Data Centre Off Orkney
June 6th, 2018I don’t really buy the explanations given in the article. This is way too much hassle for cooling efficiencies.
EMP-proof data repositories? The water would fully attenuate the effects of an EMP attack.
Hmm…
Also, don’t forget: Bill Gates and the “Doomsday Seed Vault”.
It’s all very Ernst Blofeld.
Via: BBC:
Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea off Orkney to investigate whether it can boost energy efficiency.
The data centre, a white cylinder containing computers, could sit on the sea floor for up to five years.
An undersea cable brings the data centre power and takes its data to the shore and the wider internet – but if the computers onboard break, they cannot be repaired.
Orkney was chosen because it is a major centre for renewable energy research.
The theory is that the cost of cooling the computers will be cut by placing them underwater.
“We think we actually get much better cooling underwater than on land,” says Ben Cutler, who is in charge of what Microsoft has dubbed Project Natick.
“Additionally because there are no people, we can take all the oxygen and most of the water vapour out of the atmosphere which reduces corrosion, which is a significant problem in data centres.”
Deep in the Pentagon, a Secret AI Program to Anticipate the Launch of Nuclear Missiles
June 5th, 2018First, we take some W.O.P.R.
Next, we stir in a pinch of SkyNet
And then…
Via: Reuters:
The U.S. military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere.
The effort has gone largely unreported, and the few publicly available details about it are buried under a layer of near impenetrable jargon in the latest Pentagon budget. But U.S. officials familiar with the research told Reuters there are multiple classified programs now under way to explore how to develop AI-driven systems to better protect the United States against a potential nuclear missile strike.
If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to think for themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery, with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look for signs of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half a dozen sources. The sources included U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the research is classified.
Forewarned, the U.S. government would be able to pursue diplomatic options or, in the case of an imminent attack, the military would have more time to try to destroy the missiles before they were launched, or try to intercept them.
Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers
June 5th, 2018Via: Bloomberg Government:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”
It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.
The data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.
Amazon Using Over 100,000 Warehouse Robots
June 4th, 2018Warehouse robots to the horizon…
Via: MIT Technology Review:
Amazon’s fleet of automated warehouse robots, now more than 100,000 machines strong, is working alongside human employees to help meet the e-commerce giant’s massive fulfillment demand.
The company’s robots carry inventory around massive warehouse floors, compiling all the items for a customer’s order and reducing the need for human interaction with the products. But the chief technologist of Amazon Robotics, Tye Brady, insists that these robots are enhancing human efficiencies rather than eliminating warehouse jobs.
Amazon has been going full steam ahead when it comes to hiring and now employs over 500,000 people. Brady views the robots as necessary to this growth. “When there are tens of thousands of orders going on simultaneously, you are getting beyond what a human can do,” he told the audience at MIT Technology Review’s first EmTech Next conference today.
Bayer to Retire Monsanto Name
June 4th, 2018Via: Reuters:
Germany’s Bayer will wrap up the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto on Thursday and also retire the U.S. seeds maker’s 117 year-old name.
The German drugmaker had received all required approvals from regulatory authorities, it said in a statement on Monday.
“Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio,” it said.
McDonald’s to Add Self-Order Kiosks to 1,000 Stores Each Quarter
June 4th, 2018Via: CNBC:
As McDonald’s seeks to modernize its business, the company is placing a big bet on mobile and other tech platforms.
McDonald’s has been systematically adding self-service ordering kiosks and table service to stores as it works to “build a better McDonald’s.”
“What we’re finding is when people dwell more, they select more,” CEO Steve Easterbrook told CNBC on “Squawk on the Street” Monday. “There’s a little bit of an average check boost.”
In fact, the company plans to upgrade 1,000 stores with this technology every quarter for the next eight to nine quarters.
…
International markets like Canada, Australia and the U.K. are already fully integrated with kiosk service and mobile ordering. Locations in France and Germany, too, are almost completely transformed with this new technology.
“The U.S. is a little bit behind,” Easterbrook said.
Secret to Longevity May Lie in the Microbiome and the Gut
June 4th, 2018Via: Nature:
You are what you eat. Or so the saying goes. Science now tells us that we are what the bacteria living in our intestinal tract eat and this could have an influence on how well we age. Building on this, McGill University scientists fed fruit flies with a combination of probiotics and an herbal supplement called Triphala that was able to prolong the flies’ longevity by 60 % and protect them against chronic diseases associated with aging.
…
The fruit fly is remarkably similar to mammals with about 70 % similarity in terms of their biochemical pathways, making it a good indicator of what would happen in humans, adds Prakash.
“The effects in humans would likely not be as dramatic, but our results definitely suggest that a diet specifically incorporating Triphala along with these probiotics will promote a long and healthy life.”
The Singapore Hotel Where Top Brass, Weapons Manufacturers and Spies Rub Shoulders
June 3rd, 2018Via: Reuters:
For the region’s military officers, diplomats, weapons manufacturers and spies, there are few livelier places than the lobby of Singapore’s Shangri-La hotel around mid-year.
Here, beneath pillared ceilings and chandeliers, they gather for an annual informal bash – called the Shangri-La Dialogue – organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
