U.S. Military and Intelligence Agencies Involved in Over 1,800 Movies and TV Shows
July 5th, 2017A few of you might remember, The American Culture Bomb from just over a decade ago…
Via: Medium:
We have recently acquired 4,000 new pages of documents from the Pentagon and CIA through the Freedom of Information Act. For us, these documents were the final nail in the coffin.
These documents for the first time demonstrate that the US government has worked behind the scenes on over 800 major movies and more than 1,000 TV titles.
The previous best estimate, in a dry academic book way back in 2005, was that the Pentagon had worked on less than 600 films and an unspecified handful of television shows.
Vatican Police Raid Drug-Fuelled Gay Orgy at Cardinal’s Apartment
July 5th, 2017Via: New Zealand Herald:
Vatican police have raided a cardinal’s apartment where a drug-fuelled homosexual orgy was taking place.
Police entered an apartment at the former palace of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (or Holy Office) last month not far from the Vatican City.
The occupant of the apartment is alleged to be a priest who serves as a secretary to cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, the head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative texts and a personal adviser to the Pope.
Volvo: All Vehicle Models After 2019 Will Be Electric of Hybrids
July 5th, 2017Via: Reuters:
All Volvo car models launched after 2019 will be electric or hybrids, the Chinese-owned company said on Wednesday, making it the first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.
The Sweden-based company will continue to produce pure combustion-engine Volvos from models launched before that date, but its move signals the eventual end of nearly a century of Volvos powered solely that way.
While electric and hybrid vehicles are still only a small fraction of new cars sales, they are gaining ground at the premium end of the market, where Volvo operates and where Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors has been a pure-play battery carmaker from day one. As technology improves and prices fall, many in the industry expect mass-market adoption to follow.
“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson said.
Tesla Powerwall 2 User Discussion Thread
July 3rd, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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There is very little concrete information publicly available about the Powerwall 2’s actual capabilities. I think that the reason for Tesla’s coyness is that they are still heavily iterating on the systems that have been sold to customers. Tesla does this with cars that people are driving around on public roads, so no surprise here with the Powerwall 2 situation.
As a potential Powerwall 2 customer, I’m not willing to see if my requirements will be met with some future app or firmware update, so I’m waiting and reading about the experiences other people are having. I’m very interested in backup and offgrid capabilities, but those are the the most nebulous details to try to nail down right now. Tesla has consistently promoted the Powerwall 2 as being suitable for off grid applications, while providing no technical details about how that would work.
As of now, this text appears on Tesla’s New Zealand Powerwall page:
Reliable Power Day and Night
Powerwall provides backup power during utility outages, natural disasters and even the Zombie Apocalypse (you know it’s coming). Compact, stackable and with a built-in inverter, Powerwall also comes ready to integrate seamlessly with solar, enabling you to self-power your home and even go off-grid, if you like.
I’ve been reading through a thread where end users are left to try to figure out the details, and I think bkp_duke summed it up pretty well:
Typical Tesla . . . we are all glorified Alpha / Beta testers.
It’s astonishing that a product that seems to be in an advanced beta stage of development (at best) has everyone in the industry standing around, bug eyed and in awe. Although I’m dazzled, I’m keeping my wallet shut for now.
That said, if anyone with access to Powerwall 2 installer manuals would like to send copies my way, I’d really appreciate it. Most of all, I’d like to see wiring diagrams, technical specifications, operating manuals and/or installation manuals related to the “Backup Gateway.” This seems to be the secret sauce. The Powerwall 2 is fully AC coupled (the DC version is definitely cancelled outside the U.S.), so it’s using your inverted PV generation or grid supplied AC to charge. From what I can gather, there is no additional generator input, DC or AC.
So how is thing suitable for off grid without a backup mechanism for charging? Or, if there is a backup mechanism for charging (besides the grid and solar), what is it?
Anyway, my hat is off to the early adopters/pioneers who are paying to beta test this thing! Thank you.
1,800 Tons of Radioactive Waste Has an Ocean View and Nowhere to Go
July 2nd, 2017Via: Los Angeles Times:
The massive, 150-ton turbines have stopped spinning. The mile-long cooling pipes that extend into the Pacific will likely become undersea relics. High voltage that once energized the homes of more than a million Californians is down to zero.
But the San Onofre nuclear power plant will loom for a long time as a landmark, its 1,800 tons of lethal radioactive waste stored on the edge of the Pacific and within sight of the busy 5 Freeway.
Across the site, deep pools of water and massive concrete casks confine high-power gamma radiation and other forms of radioactivity emitted by 890,000 spent fuel rods that nobody wants there.
And like the other 79,000 tons of spent fuel spread across the nation, San Onofre’s nuclear waste has nowhere to go.
The nation’s inability to find a permanent home for the dangerous byproduct of its 50-year-adventure in nuclear energy represents one of the biggest and longest running policy failures in federal government history.
10 Battery Gigafactories Are Now in the Works, and Elon Musk May Add 4 More
June 30th, 2017Via: Green Tech Media:
Overall, Bloomberg reports that global battery-making capacity is set to more than double by 2021, topping 278 gigawatt-hours a year compared to 103 gigawatt-hours at present.
The massive planned increase in battery production feels similar to the Chinese manufacturing boom that radically altered the PV landscape around a decade ago, by creating oversupply that ultimately led to the demise of dozens of solar firms.
Could the same phenomenon be underway in battery manufacturing?
Probably not, say storage experts. The pricing declines won’t be nearly as dramatic due to supply chain differences.
“Unlike PV, battery raw materials are rare metals that have to be mined and processed, so they will have constant supply-demand push-pull, minimizing risk of supply glut,” said Ravi Manghani, director of GTM Research’s storage practice.
“The industry is in the middle of a huge cost declines phase as manufacturers continue to bring large gigafactories on-line. While some individual vendors may see massive cost step-downs as facilities are activated or new generation products with superior density are launched, on a macro level, the declines are going to be much more gradual,” said Manghani.
Related: China Is About to Bury Elon Musk in Batteries
Dutch Startup to Produce Electric Car with Integrated Solar Charging
June 29th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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I can’t see how a sedan is going to have enough surface area to make this work. Why not try it on something like a Nissan E-NV200? Nontrivial levels of PV generation would be possible from that.
Oh boy, I want a used E-NV200 so bad. I’ve been keeping my eye on them for a couple of years. There’s a 7 seater out now. It’s almost enough to make me want to get a “real” job for a while. *gasp* There are devices that allow people with home solar power systems to charge their electric vehicles only when there is sufficient PV generation. In other words, once the loads in your house are covered, you charge your car instead of getting paid next to nothing for exporting your solar power to the grid.
That’s going to make much more sense than placing the PV cells directly on the car, at least for the next several years.
But I salute these freaks anyway and wish them the best of luck.
Via: Inhabitat:
The solar-powered Lightyear One can travel up to 500 miles on a single charge. Other automakers have unveiled electric cars with solar panels on the roof, but none of them have been able to propel a car as far as Lightyear’s new vehicle.
The integrated solar cells on the roof of the Lightyear One will generate enough energy to recharge the battery during the day, rendering charging virtually unnecessary. In sunny climates, the car can drive for months without charging, but if you need to travel further, you can also charge it using a standard power socket.
Plastic Bottle Apocalypse
June 28th, 2017Via: Guardian:
New figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the surge in usage of plastic bottles, more than half a trillion of which will be sold annually by the end of the decade.
The demand, equivalent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised “on the go” culture to China and the Asia Pacific region.
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Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year.
American Pravda: CNN
June 27th, 2017Via: Project Veritas:
Project Veritas has released a video of CNN Producer John Bonifield who was caught on hidden-camera admitting that there is no proof to CNN’s Russia narrative.
“I mean, it’s mostly bullshit right now,” Bonifield says. “Like, we don’t have any giant proof.”
He confirms that the driving factor at CNN is ratings:
“It’s a business, people are like the media has an ethical phssssss… All the nice cutesy little ethics that used to get talked about in journalism school you’re just like, that’s adorable. That’s adorable. This is a business.”
According to the CNN Producer, business is booming. “Trump is good for business right now,” he concluded.
California: Glyphosate Will Be Added to List of Chemicals Known to Cause Cancer
June 27th, 2017Via: Reuters:
Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co’s (MON.N) popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Monday.
Monsanto vowed to continue its legal fight against the designation, required under a state law known as Proposition 65, and called the decision “unwarranted on the basis of science and the law.”
The listing is the latest legal setback for the seeds and chemicals company, which has faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said that it is “probably carcinogenic” in a controversial ruling in 2015.
Dicamba, a weed killer designed for use with Monsanto’s next generation of biotech crops, is under scrutiny in Arkansas after the state’s plant board voted last week to ban the chemical.
OEHHA said the designation of glyphosate under Proposition 65 will proceed following an unsuccessful attempt by Monsanto to block the listing in trial court and after requests for stay were denied by a state appellate court and the California’s Supreme Court.
Monsanto’s appeal of the trial court’s ruling is pending.
