Australia: Tesla Powerpack Trial on Transgrid Network
June 17th, 2017Via: Electrek:
Now we learn that Tesla has won the latest contract with Transgrid, the company operating the NSW transmission grid, in order to deploy Powerpack stations at several sites across New South Wales.
They announced this week that the first installation will be a relatively small 250kW/500KWh Powerpack station at the City of Sydney’s Alexandra Canal Works depot. It should be completed in the coming months.
Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion
June 16th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
Amazon.com Inc. will acquire Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.7 billion, a bombshell of a deal that catapults the e-commerce giant into the supermarket business with hundreds of stores across the U.S.
Amazon agreed to pay $42 a share in cash for the organic-food chain, including debt, a roughly 27 percent premium to the stock price at Thursday’s close. John Mackey, Whole Foods’ outspoken co-founder, will continue to run the business — providing a lifeline to the embattled executive after a fight with activist investor Jana Partners.
The deal sends a shockwave across both the online and brick-and-mortar industries, uniting two brands that weren’t seen as obvious partners.
Advanced CIA Firmware Has Been Infecting Wi-Fi Routers for Years
June 15th, 2017Via: Ars Technica:
Home routers from 10 manufacturers, including Linksys, DLink, and Belkin, can be turned into covert listening posts that allow the Central Intelligence Agency to monitor and manipulate incoming and outgoing traffic and infect connected devices. That’s according to secret documents posted Thursday by WikiLeaks.
CherryBlossom, as the implant is code-named, can be especially effective against targets using some D-Link-made DIR-130 and Linksys-manufactured WRT300N models because they can be remotely infected even when they use a strong administrative password. An exploit code-named Tomato can extract their passwords as long as a default feature known as universal plug and play remains on. Routers that are protected by a default or easily-guessed administrative password are, of course, trivial to infect. In all, documents say CherryBlossom runs on 25 router models, although it’s likely modifications would allow the implant to run on at least 100 more.
Booz Allen Hamilton: Federal Civil and Criminal Probe in Connection with Its Finances
June 15th, 2017Via: NBC:
Shares of Booz Allen Hamilton sank as much as 13 percent in after-hours trading after the government services firm revealed in a regulatory filing it was the subject of a federal civil and criminal probe in connection with its finances.
Last year, the company derived 97 percent of its revenue from U.S. government business. One of its major customers is the Pentagon, including all four branches of the military, as well as national intelligence agencies. The IRS also is a customer of Booz Allen.
In its Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Thursday, Booz Allen said it was informed June 7 by the U.S. Department of Justice that it was the subject of a probe “relating to certain elements of the company’s cost accounting and indirect cost charging practices with the U.S. government.”
According to the company’s 8-K filing, “To date, our internal and external audit processes have not identified any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, or identified any significant erroneous cost charging.”
Booz Allen added that it was “cooperating with the government in these matters and expects to bring them to an appropriate resolution.”
The company declined to comment beyond the filing.
Japan Passes Controversial Bill Boosting Surveillance Powers
June 15th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government passed controversial legislation that gives prosecutors the power to monitor and arrest people in the planning stages of crimes.
As dawn broke in Tokyo on Thursday, bleary-eyed lawmakers voted to pass the so-called anti-conspiracy bill, which the government says is needed to bolster counter-terrorism precautions ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Opposition lawmakers pulled out an array of political tricks to delay the vote until morning.
Under the bill, terrorist groups or criminal organizations could be punished for the planning of 277 crimes, which range from arson to copyright violation. Critics say the legislation is vague and could lead to the suppression of civil liberties and excessive state surveillance.
Taiwan’s Foxconn, Assembler of iPhones, Considering Wisconsin Plant
June 14th, 2017I wonder if they’ll use the suicide prevention nets on the buildings?
Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.
On a more serious note, my guess is that the plant will be centered around robotic manufacturing and the thousands of workers thing is being thrown out there for political fodder to secure corporate welfare from the state.
Cynical?
Foxconn Plans to Replace Almost Every Human Worker with Robots
Foxconn Replaces 60,000 Factory Workers with Robots
Foxconn to Speed Up ‘Robot Army’ Deployment
Via: CBS:
A Taiwanese company that assembles Apple’s iPhones and other electronics is considering building a plant in Wisconsin that could employ thousands of people and give Gov. Scott Walker a huge political boost as he prepares to run for re-election.
A person with direct knowledge of the negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the state is in talks with Foxconn. At least one other upper Midwest state, Michigan, is also pursuing the plant.
President Donald Trump alluded to negotiations with an unspecified company during a visit to Milwaukee on Tuesday, saying Walker might get “a very happy surprise very soon.” Trump said “we were negotiating with a major, major incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions.”
Foxconn assembles smartphones and other devices for Apple, Sony, Blackberry and other brands — mostly in China, where its plants employ about 1 million people. It has been the subject of complaints for years about its labor practices and worker suicides at plants in China that manufacture Apple products.
U.S.-Led Coalition Has Used White Phosphorus In Fight For Mosul, General Says
June 14th, 2017Via: NPR:
In Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition has admitted — for the first time — to using white phosphorous during operations in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
“We have utilized white phosphorous to screen areas within west Mosul to get civilians out safely,” New Zealand Brig. Gen. Hugh McAslan tells NPR. He estimates that around 28,000 civilians have managed to make the dangerous crossing out of Islamic State territory in the past few days alone.
…
Human rights organizations have warned that the use of white phosphorus to produce obfuscating smoke screens carries deadly risks in an urban setting. Amnesty International says the substance can cause “horrific injuries, burning deep into the muscle and bone.” The incendiary substance can reignite weeks after being deployed, causing potential harm to those fleeing or returning.
Amnesty made those warnings in a report documenting the use of white phosphorus east of Mosul in 2016. At the time, it said that the use of the substance in the vicinity of population centers “constitutes an indiscriminate attack and can be a war crime.”
White phosphorus, which bursts into flame when it hits oxygen, is not banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, but its legality is linked to its use. In 2005, the CWC spokesman Peter Kaiser told the BBC that white phosphorus is permitted in war if used to camouflage movement, but not if it is employed as a weapon.
The U.S. military has admitted using white phosphorous in the 2004 battle for Fallujah in Iraq, and in Afghanistan in 2009. Israel used it in the 2008 Gaza war, but said in 2013 that it would stop.
Gunman Shoots Congressman, Police at Virginia Baseball Practice
June 14th, 2017Via: Reuters:
A gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress during a baseball practice near Washington early on Wednesday, wounding several people including House of Representatives Majority Whip Steve Scalise before being taken into custody, police and media reports said.
The shooter appeared to be a white male, “a little bit on the chubby side,” Representative Mo Brooks told CNN, adding that he only saw the man for second.
Brooks said he heard 10 to 20 rounds from the gunman’s rifle before the security detail returned fire. He said there were 20 to 25 members of team at the practice in Alexandria, Virginia, when the gunfire erupted.
The Machine of Tomorrow Today: Quantum Computing on the Verge
June 14th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
These are early days, to be sure. As of late May, the number of quantum computers in the world that clearly, unequivocally do something faster or better than a classical computer remains zero, according to Scott Aaronson, a professor of computer science and director of the Quantum Information Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Such a signal event would establish “quantum supremacy.” In Aaronson’s words: “That we don’t have yet.”
Yet someone may accomplish the feat as soon as this year. Most insiders say one clear favorite is a group at Google Inc. led by John Martinis, a physics professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. According to Martinis, the group’s goal is to achieve supremacy with a 49-qubit chip. As of late May, he says, the team was testing a 22-qubit processor as an intermediate step toward a showdown with a classical supercomputer. “We are optimistic about this, since prior chips have worked well,” he said in an email.
Spectacular Drop in Renewable Energy Costs Leads to Record Global Boost
June 13th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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From Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Paris Climate Agreement:
Petrofascism is alive and well in the U.S., but it’s too late to stop solar and wind.
Trump’s energy policy is going up against the mathematical certainty that the costs associated with solar and wind energy will continue to decrease.
Good luck with that.
Via: Guardian:
Renewable energy capacity around the world was boosted by a record amount in 2016 and delivered at a markedly lower cost, according to new global data – although the total financial investment in renewables actually fell.
The greater “bang-for-buck” resulted from plummeting prices for solar and wind power and led to new power deals in countries including Denmark, Egypt, India, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates all being priced well below fossil fuel or nuclear options.
Analysts warned that the US’s withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement, announced last week by Donald Trump, risked the US being left behind in the fast-moving transition to a low-carbon economy.
Related: Global Demand for Coal Falls in 2016 for Second Year in a Row
