SoftBank Agrees to Buy Robot Maker Boston Dynamics
June 8th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
SoftBank Group Corp. is taking over Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s robot dreams, buying Boston Dynamics to pursue a future when more machines intermingle with humans.
As part of the transaction with Alphabet, SoftBank also agreed to buy Japanese bipedal robotics company Schaft. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
SpaceX Wins Contract to Launch Secret Air Force Space Plane
June 7th, 2017Via: CNN:
A major shift in power is underway in the commercial space industry.
SpaceX has won an Air Force contract to launch a secretive, unmanned X-37B space plane later this year. The upstart rocket outfit edged out United Launch Alliance — a joint venture between Boeing (BA) and Lockheed Martin (LMT) — that until recently had a monopoly on United States military launches.
But SpaceX has been on a roll with military contracts. Its latest win is the deal announced Wednesday for SpaceX to handle the launch for the fifth X-37B mission, slated for later this year. The most recent X-37B mission was launched by ULA and ended about a month ago, after it spent nearly two years in space.
Because the X-37B program is largely a confidential military endeavor, the financial terms of the SpaceX deal were not revealed, and the company declined to comment.
SpaceX had to fight for the chance to break up United Launch Alliance’s monopoly and land lucrative military contracts. That started in 2014, when SpaceX sued the government, saying the Air Force wasn’t giving SpaceX fair consideration when it awarded contracts.
The suit was eventually settled, and SpaceX completed its first mission for the Air Force in 2015. The company also signed an $82.7 million military contract last April to send two Air Force GPS satellites into orbit in 2018.
Tesla’s Vice President of Solar Products: Competitors Are, “Kind of Fucked”
June 7th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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The quote in the title is referring to Tesla’s new solar roofing products, but as someone who sells more conventional solar products, the same can be said about the storage sector. I recently wrote:
The storage industry needs to deal with the Tesla reality and drop prices or die.
I only sell high end panels from tier 1 manufacturers and leading inverters, but I wish I had a dollar for every time I lost a deal to some cowboy selling tier 3 panels paired with a JFY (Shenzhen JingFuYuan) inverter. I call those inverters Junk For You, or Lucky Dragons. You know, you might get lucky and get one that works for a while before it lets out the white smoke.
While Musk is selling to rich people and producing premium products, I live in the poorest part of New Zealand and most people here have very limited funds. The people with the least money face the highest electricity prices in New Zealand, so while there is a huge interest in solar power here, virtually nobody is able to afford solar power, never mind any product made by Tesla.
In other words, the people with the least ability to fight back are being victimized by the electricity cartel the most. I spoke at a public presentation on solar power in the town where I live. More than 150 people turned out on a Saturday night to attend this thing. Despite all the hand shakes, business cards and brochures that went out, the number of sales that resulted from this meeting were:
Zero.
All of the big New Zealand installers were invited, but only one other local guy and I showed up. Those other big companies know that the Far North isn’t worth the time. Sadly, that’s pretty much true if you’re selling systems that start at around NZ$6000. They might as well cost NZ$60 million up here.
I’m trying to sell a Mercedes to a customer who can only afford a used moped.
New Zealand runs a pretty good PR campaign about happy kiwis running around a green paradise, but it doesn’t change the reality on the ground where I live. I am seeing increasing poverty in my part of New Zealand and more people living in sheds, shipping containers and vehicles. I’m hearing from people who have no electricity at all, unless it comes from a cheap inverter that plugs into the cigarette lighter in their vehicle.
A friend of ours recently got divorced and she’s living in a shed in a very remote area without any electricity. She actually likes it, but she was having a hard time finding quality portable lighting equipment. Only the worst (but expensive) junk is available in town. I recommended the Fenix CL30R lantern. This unit is very interesting. Not only is it the best portable lantern that money can buy, but it can also be charged with a small solar panel and provide power to USB devices. A person could potentially charge the unit with the solar panel during the day and then get light and power for mobile devices at night. The lantern takes up to three 18650 batteries which are removable. One could keep a backup set of charged 18650s handy for cloudy days. Needless to say, our friend was thrilled with this thing.
We have another friend with even less money living in similar circumstances who is homeschooling two small children. It’s headlamps and candles over there.
About one Km from me is a family of four living in two shipping containers.
On and on…
So, let Tesla take over the universe of solar powered wealthy people. If you’re trying to sell the solar power equivalent of an iPhone to rich people, yep, Tesla is probably going to clean your clock. However, there are plenty of people who will never be Tesla customers, but desperately want and need solar power.
Check this out from 2013:
You could use a drop-in replacement 12v lithium ion battery now for not too much more.
The beauty of solar is that it easily scales up or down. There is a genuine free market in terms of equipment. It is decentralized and relatively immune to robbery from the state. Best of all, it’s getting cheaper and better everyday.
Via: Electrek:
Tesla’s solar roof tiles are not the first attempt at integrating solar cells into roofing products. Several companies have tried in the past and even delivered some products, even big companies like Dow Chemical, but they ended up discontinuing the product.
Now Tesla thinks that it has a winning formula and its new Vice President of Solar Products went as far as saying that other solar companies looking to compete in the segment are “kind of fucked”.
Life Inside the ‘Coffin Cubicles’ of Hong Kong
June 7th, 2017EG emailed, “I finally found a future retirement home for teachers like me as well as other cogs in the machine!”
Via: Guardian:
Photographer Benny Lam has documented the suffocating living conditions in Hong Kong’s subdivided flats, recording the lives of these hidden communities.
Research Credit: EG
Cost to Keep Each Prisoner Locked Up in California Per Year: $75,560
June 6th, 2017Madness.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Jerry Brown’s spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes a record $11.4 billion for the corrections department while also predicting that there will be 11,500 fewer inmates in four years because voters in November approved earlier releases for many inmates.
The price for each inmate has doubled since 2005, even as court orders related to overcrowding have reduced the population by about one-quarter. Salaries and benefits for prison guards and medical providers drove much of the increase.
The result is a per-inmate cost that is the nation’s highest — and $2,000 above tuition, fees, room and board, and other expenses to attend Harvard.
Since 2015, California’s per-inmate costs have surged nearly $10,000, or about 13%. New York is a distant second in overall costs at about $69,000.
Critics say with fewer inmates, the costs should be falling.
Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election
June 6th, 2017Via: The Intercept:
Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.
The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.
While the document provides a rare window into the NSA’s understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying “raw” intelligence on which the analysis is based. A U.S. intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.
Related: NSA Contractor Reality Winner Accused of Leaking File on Russia Election Hacking
London Bridge Terrorist Attack
June 4th, 2017Update: Brother On Police Payroll
Via: Daily Mail:
The brother of the man behind the brutal massacre of seven people in the London Bridge terror attack had actually been paid by police to fight extremism, despite it going on within his own home.
Saad Butt, 29, brother of murderer Khuram, 27, was involved in the Government’s ‘Prevent’ programme set up to counter extremist groups.
His actions are a far cry from his younger brother, who led the three-man death squad who went on a bloodthirsty stabbing frenzy in Borough Market on Saturday night, injuring a further 48 people.
The news has prompted further questions as to how authorities missed Khuram’s bloodthirsty plans when they worked so closely with one of his blood relatives.
He was even being investigated by anti-terror forces in 2015 but was deemed a ‘low priority’ with police saying there was ‘no evidence he was planning an attack’.
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Update: London Terrorist Had Twice Been Referred to Police Over Extremist Views
Via: Telegraph:
One of the three jihadists who murdered revellers in central London on Saturday had been reported to the anti-terror police on at least two occasions, it has been claimed.
A former friend of the terrorist, who was shot dead by police along with two accomplices, claimed he had been radicalised while watching YouTube videos and said he contacted the authorities after becoming concerned over his friend’s extremist views.
A neighbour also claimed she had contacted police in Barking, east London, after the suspect tried to convert her children to Islam and radicalise them. The man is not being named at the request of the police.
The former friend claimed he contacted police after comments the man made about other previous attacks. But he said the authorities had failed to act and take action despite evidence of increasingly extremist views.
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Via: Daily Mail:
Three Jihadi terrorists were shot dead by armed police after killing seven people and injuring 48 others in a horrific van and knife rampage in central London last night.
The men, described as being ‘of Mediterranean origin’, mowed down up to 20 revellers as they careered across London Bridge in an ‘S shape’ at 50mph before they began ‘randomly stabbing’ people in nearby Borough Market.
Attackers used 12-inch hunting knives to attack revellers at busy bars and restaurants in the market, sending dozens of others fleeing for their lives.
Witnesses said the gang, who were wearing hoax suicide vests, smashed pub windows and reportedly cut the throats of drinkers. A ‘dark-skinned’ man in a red tracksuit ‘calmly’ stabbed a man three times. Another victim was reportedly stabbed five times in the chest.
Armed police rushed to the scene and authorities urged panicked Londoners on Twitter to ‘run, hide, tell’ if they were caught in the ‘utter chaos’.
The male suspects were shot and killed by armed police in Borough Market within eight minutes of the first call. A photo taken at the scene shows one of the suspects wearing an Arsenal football shirt.
Today police remain at the scene and a ‘full investigation’ is underway. One witness reported seeing armed police storming an apartment complex in Barking, south London, this morning.
The tragedy comes just 12 days after the Manchester terror attack and 10 weeks after the Westminster atrocity. Britain’s terror threat level remains at severe after it was raised to critical in the week after the Manchester attack.
SpaceX Successfully Launches Used Dragon Cargo Ship, Then Lands First-Stage Booster
June 3rd, 2017Via: space.com:
For the first time in the history of commercial spaceflight, a used spacecraft has blasted off on a mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
After lightning strikes delayed the launch on Thursday (June 1), lingering storm clouds parted just enough for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to safely lift off from NASA’s historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (June 3).
The Falcon 9 rocket, topped with SpaceX’s first refurbished Dragon cargo craft, took to the skies at 5:07 p.m. EDT (2107 GMT). About 8 minutes after liftoff, the first-stage rocket booster returned to Earth to stick a landing at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Almost Half of Americans Die Nearly Broke
June 3rd, 2017Via: USA Today:
Americans aren’t known for being great savers.
In a recent GoBankingRates study, 69% of adults admitted to having less than $1,000 in the bank, while 34% said they actually don’t have any savings at all. But apparently, this collective lack of savings doesn’t get all that much better with age. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found not so long ago that almost half of Americans die nearly broke. Of the general population, 46% of retirees die with savings of $10,000 or less. But that number climbs to 57% among retirees who are single.
Now when we take other assets, like homes, into account, the picture gets a bit less bleak. Still, 57% of single-adult households and 50% of widowed households had no housing equity to show for when they died.
The problem is that dying nearly broke isn’t just a matter of denying one’s beneficiaries an inheritance. Rather, it points to a frightening degree of financial vulnerability during retirement. If seniors are passing without much in the way of assets, it means that in the years leading up to their death, they’re ill equipped to handle a major unexpected expense, such as a significant medical bill. In fact, in that same GoBankingRates survey, only 37% of seniors 65 and older claimed to have $1,000 or more in the bank.
Is the U.S. Education System Producing a Society of “Smart Fools”?
June 2nd, 2017Via: Scientific American:
Tests like the SAT, ACT, the GRE—what I call the alphabet tests—are reasonably good measures of academic kinds of knowledge, plus general intelligence and related skills. They are highly correlated with IQ tests and they predict a lot of things in life: academic performance to some extent, salary, level of job you will reach to a minor extent—but they are very limited. What I suggested in my talk today is that they may actually be hurting us. Our overemphasis on narrow academic skills—the kinds that get you high grades in school—can be a bad thing for several reasons. You end up with people who are good at taking tests and fiddling with phones and computers, and those are good skills but they are not tantamount to the skills we need to make the world a better place.
