Putin Puts Troops on Full Alert in Snap Western Russia Drills
March 16th, 2015Via: Bloomberg:
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops placed on full combat readiness in snap drills in western Russia, as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned the country was facing new threats to its security.
Some 38,000 troops, 41 warships, 15 submarines and 110 aircraft are involved in the exercises, Shoigu said on Monday, according to a Russian Defense Ministry statement. “New challenges and threats to military security demand a further increase in the military capabilities of the armed forces,” Shoigu said, the Interfax news service reported.
Flashback: “Oil Industry Helps Solve Radioactive Waste Problem”
March 16th, 2015Via: Truthstream Media:
Truthstream uncovered several published newspaper accounts from the Spring of 1964 concerning a then-newly disclosed plan to dump nuclear waste produced by the atomic energy industry into hydraulic fracturing (fracking) wells using a cement slurry technique developed by Halliburton & Co. The top two fracking companies in the nation at the time were Halliburton and Dowell, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.
IBM LOOKING AT ADOPTING BITCOIN TECHNOLOGY FOR MAJOR CURRENCIES
March 16th, 2015😯
Via: Reuters:
International Business Machines Corp is considering adopting the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as the “blockchain,” to create a digital cash and payment system for major currencies, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The objective is to allow people to transfer cash or make payments instantaneously using this technology without a bank or clearing party involved, saving on transaction costs, the person said. The transactions would be in an open ledger of a specific country’s currency such as the dollar or euro, said the source, who declined to be identified because of a lack of authorization to discuss the project in public.
The blockchain – a ledger, or list, of all of a digital currency’s transactions – is viewed as bitcoin’s main technological innovation, allowing users to make payments anonymously, instantly, and without government regulation.
Rather than stored on a separate server and controlled by an individual, company, or bank, the ledger is open and accessible to all participants in the bitcoin network.
The proposed digital currency system would work in a similar way.
“When somebody wants to transact in the system, instead of you trying to acquire a bitcoin, you simply say, here are some U.S. dollars,” the source said. “It’s sort of a bitcoin but without the bitcoin.”
France to Keep 10,000 Troops on Streets
March 16th, 2015Via: Russia Today:
As the threat of attacks by Islamist extremists remains high in France, President Francois Hollande has decided to continue the deployment of 10,000 troops on the streets across the country.
“The threat of terrorist attack against our country remains high. The head of state has decided to maintain the level of the army on the national territory at 10,000 troops in support of security forces from the Interior Ministry,” Hollande’s office said in a statement after a meeting of senior ministers, AFP reported.
A total of 7,000 troops will be monitoring and protecting religious buildings that are “particularly threatened,” the statement added.
Among other sites that are being patrolled by the troops are stations, media buildings and various other possible targets for terrorists.
Egypt Unveils Plans to Build New Capital East of Cairo [???]
March 14th, 2015Via: BBC:
The Egyptian government has announced plans to build a new capital to the east of the present one, Cairo.
Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the project would cost $45bn (£30bn) and take five to seven years to complete.
He said the aim was to ease congestion and overpopulation in Cairo over the next 40 years.
The announcement was made at an investment conference that aims to revive the Egyptian economy.
Cyclone Pam
March 14th, 2015Cyclone Pam is coming through, so we’re almost certainly going to have our power cut. Hopefully, the transceiver that provides Internet access to our valley won’t be damaged. Our ISP just emailed and they’re saying that this storm is definitely packing winds strong enough to damage their transceivers.
The worst of it for us will hit tonight and tomorrow. As usual, no updates means some sort of storm related outage.
Via: New Zealand Herald:
Gisborne will see the first effects of Cyclone Pam – one of the Pacific’s worst storms ever – early this afternoon, with galeforce winds and huge swells expected to lash the east coast from midday today.
The storm is thought to have claimed up to 44 lives as it hit Vanuatu, destroying buildings and tossing trees and debris across the capital. Eight were confirmed dead last night. There were unconfirmed reports last night of damage in other islands including Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.
Swells up to 9m are expected in the Gisborne region, and emergency manager Richard Steele said winds of up to 150kmh had been predicted. “[These] will cause damage especially in areas exposed to the southeast.”
Momma, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Programmers: “A System Tends Toward a Giant Ball of Mud Given Enough Time”
March 13th, 2015I’m one of the early backers of Star Citizen, easily the most ambitious video game project of all time. Never mind that I don’t own hardware that’s minimally powerful enough to play the initial alpha release modules, or an internet connection with datacap large enough to download the final client (which could top 100GB) once it ships. Details. Details.
Regardless, I still follow development progress. One of the features of their Around the Verse show that I especially enjoy is Bug Smashers with gameplay programmer Mark Abent.
I don’t expect “normal” Cryptogon readers to subject themselves to this, but I’ve queued up Mark’s Bug Smashers segment from the latest Around the Verse for those of you with one or more propellers in your beanie. Click through and watch that.
Now, check this out.
Via: Medium:
This is insanity. The way we build software right now is completely fucked.
Why Hacking a Tesla Battery May Foreshadow an Energy Revolution
March 13th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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Guys are recovering the battery packs from wrecked electric cars and using them for off-grid solar systems.
In the spirit of Quake 3, I salute you:
Via: Bloomberg:
Afoot is an unprecedented worldwide effort — equivalent to a kind of a tech-age version of the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb — to amp up, transform and reinvent the humble battery into an element that could profoundly change the global energy paradigm.
Related: Do It Yourself LiFePO4 Energy Storage System
New Barbie Doll Sends Speech from Children to Mattel Over Internet
March 12th, 2015Via: Washington Post:
At a recent New York toy fair, a Mattel representative introduced the newest version of Barbie by saying: “Welcome to New York, Barbie.”
The doll, named Hello Barbie, responded: “I love New York! Don’t you? Tell me, what’s your favorite part about the city? The food, fashion or the sights?”
To revive the sinking sales of its flagship brand, Mattel is bringing Barbie to life with voice-recognition software that will allow the doll to “listen” to children speak and give chatty responses. It will learn over time, remembering your dog’s name and adjusting to new topics.
This WiFi-connected Barbie may soon be a hit among children used to tinkering with iPads, but children’s privacy advocates are crying foul. Hello Barbie may be more accurately called “eavesdropping” Barbie, says one advocacy group. Another popular description? Creepy.
Hello Barbie works by recording a child’s voice with an embedded microphone that is triggered by pressing a button on the doll. As the doll “listens,” audio recordings travel over the Web to a server where the snippets of speech are recognized and processed. That information is used to help form Hello Barbie’s responses.
800,000 Microinverters Remotely Retrofitted on Oahu—in One Day
March 11th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand that include Enphase products and services.
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Enphase systems are now helping stabilize the grid in Hawaii.
Via: IEEE:
Utilities are asking more of the rooftop solar systems that increasingly are popping up throughout their distribition grids. As we profile in this month’s Spectrum, leading utilities are deputizing solar system’s inverters to function as junior grid regulators to help stabilize the grid. Hawaiian Electric Company and inverter manufacturer Enphase Energy just showed how swiftly such upgrades can happen.
In a single day Enphase and HECO remotely reprogrammed some 800,000 microinverters attached to individual photovoltaic panels on Oahu, accounting for roughly 60 percent of the island’s distributed solar capacity according to Ameet Konkar, Enphase Energy’s senior director for strategic initiatives. Those systems deliver up to 140 megawatts, nearly as much power as the state’s largest conventional power plant, says Konkar.
Oahu needs higher-functioning solar systems because it leads the U.S. in per capita solar penetration, with 12 percent of residential customers operating rooftop systems. Island grids are more susceptible to even small perturbations, such as occurs when trees fall on wires and lightning strikes. The solar upgrade will help HECO’s grid ride through the resulting power glitches.
Whereas standards required solar systems to shut down at the first sign of substandard AC voltage and frequency, HECO and Enphase’s upgrade instructs the PV microinverters to ride through such irregularities. Like the momentum in a conventional power plant’s spinning turbines, the solar systems’ enduring power generation should help restabilize the grid’s AC signal.
