Federal Judge Rules U.S. No-Fly List Violates Constitution
June 25th, 2014Via: Reuters:
The U.S. government’s no-fly list banning people accused of links to terrorism from commercial flights violates their constitutional rights because it gives them no meaningful way to contest that decision, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Anna Brown, ruling on a lawsuit filed in federal court in Oregon by 13 Muslim Americans who were branded with the no-fly status, ordered the government to come up with new procedures that allow people on the no-fly list to challenge that designation.
“The court concludes international travel is not a mere convenience or luxury in this modern world. Indeed, for many international travel is a necessary aspect of liberties sacred to members of a free society,” Brown wrote in her 65-page ruling.
“Accordingly, on this record the court concludes plaintiffs inclusion on the no-fly list constitutes a significant deprivation of their liberty interests in international travel,” Brown said.
The decision hands a major victory to the 13 plaintiffs – four of them veterans of the U.S. military – who deny they have links to terrorism and say they only learned of their no-fly status when they arrived at an airport and were blocked from boarding a flight.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought suit against the policy in 2010, argues that secrecy surrounding the list and lack of any reasonable opportunity for plaintiffs to fight their placement on it violates their clients’ constitutional rights to due process.
FAA Bans Use of Drones to Deliver Packages
June 24th, 2014Via: Ars Technica:
The Federal Aviation Administration has said that online shopping powerhouse Amazon may not employ drones to deliver packages, at least not anytime soon.
…
In Monday’s announcement, published in the Federal Register, the FAA named Amazon’s December proposal as an example of what is barred under regulations that allow the use of drones for hobby and recreational purposes. The agency did not mention Amazon Prime Air by name, but it didn’t have to.
Under a graphic that says what is barred, the FAA mentioned the “Delivering of packages to people for a fee.” A footnote added, “If an individual offers free shipping in association with a purchase or other offer, FAA would construe the shipping to be in furtherance of a business purpose, and thus, the operation would not fall within the statutory requirement of recreation or hobby purpose.”
Australia: Genetically Modified Grass for Dairy Cows Sparks Concern
June 24th, 2014The issue with GM crops polluting neighboring farms in Australia is particularly grim.
See: Steve Marsh:
The future of organic and non GM food in Australia is uncertain after a WA farmer today lost his legal battle with a neighbouring farmer.
Steve Marsh lost organic certification on his Kojonup farm – and most of his livelihood – when his farm was contaminated by GM canola. He sued his neighbour in the WA Supreme Court for his losses, and to protect his farm into the future.
Via: The Age:
A plan to feed Australian dairy cows genetically modified rye grass designed to boost milk production has sparked concerns from both organic and non-organic farmers.
Opponents of the scheme fear that GM grasses could contaminate neighbouring properties and that existing labelling requirements would not allow consumers to identify products made from cows fed on the modified rye.
Greg Paynter, of the Organic Federation of Australia, said the role of GM grasses in the food chain was “a sleeping giant”.
“We’ll have humans consuming milk from cows that have been consuming genetically modified material. We just don’t know what effects we might have to deal with in the future.
“They’re talking about scientific testing but the natural processes and ecosystems have been tested over 3 billion years.”
Ben Copeman, general manager of the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia, said while organic producers had to follow strict labelling requirements, the same rules did not apply to products with GM crops in their food chain, potentially leaving consumers unaware. Mr Copeman also said many of Australia’s important grain customers, such as Japan, China and Korea, did not want GM in their food chains and had zero tolerance to GM contamination.
New Zealand: Peria School’s New Solar Power System
June 24th, 2014Update: The Story Was Finally Broadcast on Television Show Seven Sharp
This finally aired on a show called Seven Sharp on 27 June 2014. Fast forward to about the 15 minute mark.
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Here’s a little slice of life from rural Northland New Zealand, for anyone who’s interested.
Yesterday, I went along to Peria School with my family and my neighbors for the activation of a brand new 10KW solar power system. I recently wrote about how the power companies treat us, and it’s nothing personal—they put it to that little rural school just as badly as the rest of us up here.
Concerned school staff and parents settled on Solar King to help the school build a solar system that will drastically cut their electricity bills, saving them thousands of dollars per year. With the savings, the school wants to create a music program and work out a way to heat the pool. Other projects will follow.
Becky and I are homeschoolers, but we have ties to Peria School. We go to Playcentre there and take our boys to swimming lessons at the school’s pool. The boys have friends from Playcentre who went on to go to the school. The principal, Jason Tane, is an absolutely great guy who would do anything for his students and school. I forgot to mention in my other post that one of the reasons we went with Solar King was that they would take NZ$500 off the cost of Peria School’s system for each system they built in the community. Becky and I were happy and proud that our deal with Solar King would help the school get their system going for less.
Now, this event yesterday was one of the most positive things I’ve ever seen up here. There had to be a hundred adults present, which might not sound like a lot, but for such a small and remote school, it was a very big turnout. Also, Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman was there to flick the switch on the system, so-to-speak. I met him as he was checking out the inverters and Jon King from Solar King mentioned how much Becky and I are paying for electricity. (Jon installed the inverter at our house so he knew the story.) Mr. Norman was genuinely taken aback by the cost of electricity here.
Anyway, the reason I’m posting this is because I’m surprised (but not that surprised) by how little coverage this story got in the media. Peria School is the first school in Northland to go solar and the only coverage that I’ve been able to find is this little piece on Radio New Zealand:
A small primary school in the Far North school has become the first in the region to switch to solar power.
Peria School, a decile 2 primary with 31 pupils, officially launched its new solar power system on Monday with a community lunch and a ribbon-cutting by the Green Party co-leader Russell Norman.
Principal Jason Tane said the school had been [paying?] power bills of $800 a month to Contact Energy.
Mr Tane said the school was looking for a cheaper rate and a more environmentally-friendly power company but could not get a significantly better deal from any of Contact’s competitors.
After researching alternatives, and getting Ministry of Education approval, the school signed up with a company called Solar King, he said.
Here’s the audio.
* First school in the region to go solar
* After being absolutely screwed by the power companies
* Fights back and wins!
That’s big news, right? I think so.
There was a professional photographer present from one of the Fairfax owned local papers and a television crew, although I didn’t notice which channel.
What happened to this story? No TV or newspaper coverage, even after the reporters were there?
*sigh*
Principal Jason Tane talks about Peria School’s new solar power system
Every new solar power system needs a haka
Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman and students from Peria School cut the ribbon
Jon King from Solar King shows Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman Peria School’s new inverters
New Handheld X-Ray Scanner
June 23rd, 2014Via: DefenseOne:
Superman had X-ray vision. Now, so does the United States military, in the form of an X-ray gun that can see through fabric, rubber and aluminum to find drugs, money, explosive liquids and even people. The recently released X-ray gun is the first device of its kind that a soldier or would-be superhero can hold in her hands. It’s about the size of a breadbox and works with the press of a button, allowing the user to actually see the outline of organic material buried behind cloth, leather or even aluminum by running the X-ray gun over the material and zapping it with low-level X-rays.
At a recent demonstration, the device could see through boxes, bags, car seats and airplane wings to reveal various organic compounds — everything from bricks of simulated cocaine to paper, ammonia and other potentially explosive materials. Even a handful of grapes. (Defense One supplied some of the material to ensure the accuracy of the test.)
Representatives from American Science and Engineering, or AS&E would run the X-ray scanner, called the MINI Z, over the item and the image would show up on a Windows powered tablet PC. Organic compounds appeared bright white and distinct from the dark inorganic material.
The same company makes the large, toll-booth like backscatter X-rays scanners you walk through at airports – the ones that have given rise to recent controversy because of the embarrassing amount of detail they reveal about a person’s body.
Syrian Jihadists Now Using American Made Humvees Seized in Iraq
June 23rd, 2014Via: AFP:
Jihadists fighting in Syria’s war put to use for the first time on Sunday American-made Humvees that they seized during a lightning offensive in Iraq this month, a monitor said.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, used the armoured vehicles to capture the villages of Eksar and Maalal in Aleppo province, which borders Turkey, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It came after heavy fighting against the Islamic Front and its Al-Qaeda-affiliated ally, the Al-Nusra Front, said the Observatory, a Britain-based group that gets its information from a network of sources on the ground.
The two villages are located near the town of Azaz, which ISIL militiamen abandoned at the end of February under attack from rebels fighting to oust Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
ISIL, which espouses a radical interpretation of Islam and aims to set up a state stretching across the Syria-Iraq border, is now expected to launch a bid to retake Azaz.
ISIL seized the Humvees and sent them to Syria after Iraqi soldiers abandoned them during a surprise Sunni jihadist offensive that claimed Iraq’s second city of Mosul and swathes of other territory in mid-June.
Iraq Loses Control of Syrian, Jordanian Borders
June 23rd, 2014Via: Reuters:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Iraq’s prime minister in Baghdad on Monday to push for more inclusive leadership, as Nuri al-Maliki’s forces abandoned the border with Jordan, leaving the entire Western frontier beyond government control.
Sunni tribes took the Turaibil desert border crossing, the only legal crossing point between Iraq and Jordan, after Iraqi security forces fled, Iraqi and Jordanian security sources said.
Tribal leaders were negotiating to hand the post to Sunni Islamists from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who took two main crossings with Syria in recent days and have pushed the Shi’ite-led government’s forces back toward Baghdad.
Ethnic Kurdish forces control a third border post with Syria in the north, leaving government troops with no presence along the entire 800-km (500-mile) western frontier which includes some of the most important trade routes in the Middle East.
For the insurgents, capturing the frontier is a dramatic step towards the goal of erasing the modern border altogether and building a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
5KW Grid-Tie Solar Power System
June 23rd, 2014Update and Correction, 30 June 2014
The Q-Cells and SMA special mentioned in this post is now over. All of those systems have sold out. Also, Solar King operates in the North Island and the top of the South Island (Nelson).
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We pay NZ$47.7 cents (including GST) per kilowatt hour for electricity. That’s robbery. Year after year, it just keeps going higher. This isn’t to say that electricity is a bargain anywhere in NZ, it’s just unbelievably expensive in the Far North.
It’s a pretty good scam when companies can keep raising prices for electricity while demand remains flat.
As winter closed in this year, Becky and I decided that we weren’t going to take it anymore. After doing a lot of research, we called up SolarKing and had them install a 5KW grid-tie system for us. We went for twenty 250watt Trina Honey panels and the outstanding SMA Sunny Boy 5000 TL inverter.
Although we spent a large chunk of our savings on the system, we’re looking at recovering the cost in about five years, which is incredible. In other parts of NZ, system payoff times will be longer, but still much shorter than just a couple of years ago because panel prices have dropped sharply. If you have money sitting in a savings account, you probably realize that after tax and inflation, that situation isn’t looking so hot. Additionally, we were going to be spending the money on the electricity whether we got the solar system or not—might as well get the solar system.
I’ve wanted a solar energy system for about three decades (since I was a kid, in other words). Yes, I used to pester my parents to install solar panels. It just never made economic sense with system payback times measured in decades. So, move to the rural Far North of New Zealand and feel the boot of that electricity bill on your neck, and it’s amazing how solar power becomes a no brainer!
Here’s what our house looks like now (click for bigger images):
5KW Solar System
5KW Solar System
I was so impressed with what SolarKing did for us that I became a sales representative with them. I was planning on waiting until I collected more performance data from our system to announce all of this, but there has been a time sensitive development.
Yes, readers in NZ, I want to sell you a solar power system.
SolarKing is currently offering 3KW Q-Cells and SMA system packages for NZ$9,995, including GST and installation.
German panels.
German inverter.
NZ$2000 off the normal price.
SolarKing made ten of those available a couple of weeks ago, and they are down to four. That’s why I’m posting this now, so you guys in NZ could consider this deal in case you’ve been looking to get into solar. Want a bigger system? Let’s discuss it.
SolarKing handles everything. You don’t have to mess around with applications to the power companies to get the grid-tie consents. I just paid the administrative fee and the system application was approved. (The fees vary by region and aren’t included in the system price. Mine was NZ$200.)
If you are in New Zealand and have any questions about solar, send me an email. If you do a deal for a SolarKing system through me, I’ll make 6% on it. My manager said that he’ll pay me on any systems I sell around New Zealand. I’m supposed to come out to your house and measure your roof pitch and roof orientation, check for shading issues, take pictures of your breaker panel, your meters, your roof and get copies of your electricity bill etc. etc. If you’re cool with helping me get that info, SolarKing will pay me the commission on your system.
Ok, to sum up my pitch: German panels, German inverter, save thousands, support Cryptogon, lower your power bill. Win!
Finally, I’d just like to say thank you to those of you who have ever supported us over the years. That system wouldn’t be on our house if it wasn’t for you.
Prison Inmates Offer Captive Market for Gadget Makers
June 23rd, 2014Via: NBC:
Even in the cooler, Americans are hot for tech.
U.S. inmates are increasingly buying gizmos from prison commissaries, including MP3 players and flat-screen televisions — spending about $750 million annually on their gadget habits as several companies quietly seize this massive, captive audience and take niche marketing to an entirely different place.
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Appliances built for purchase at most prisons do, however, carry one (literally) clear distinction: They are encased in transparent plastic, allowing guards to routinely inspect them for drugs, weapons or other contraband.
“There are 2 million-plus inmates incarcerated in America at this time. We haven’t tapped every one of them. But we’ve seen more sales every year,” said Ed Michael, general manager of Swintec, a New Jersey company that has, since 2003, offered electronic typewriters to inmates.
Swintec has boosted its manufacturing numbers to as many as 5,000 machines per year and now does business with prisons in 46 states, including Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York, U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth in Kansas, and San Quentin Prison in California, Michael said. The company’s highest-end typewriters contain enough memory to store 50 pages of text, turning them into functioning word processors –- without the Internet access. Prices range from $192 to $748.
“We don’t foresee an end to this,” Michael said.
New Leaks Show Germany’s Collusion with NSA
June 22nd, 2014Via: Deutsche Welle:
This week German news magazine Der Spiegel published the largest single set of files leaked by whistleblower and former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The roughly 50 documents show the depth of the German intelligence agencies’ collusion with the NSA.
They suggest that the German Intelligence Agency (BND), the country’s foreign spy agency, and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the German domestic spy agency, worked more closely with the NSA than they have admitted – and more than many observers thought.
The documents as published by Der Spiegel offer glimpses, but not a comprehensive view of what is essentially a transatlantic spy alliance. An NSA document from January 2013 shows the spirit of cooperation that existed between the NSA and first the BND and then the BfV, as well as the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The documents also show that the BND has been “eager” for closer ties with the NSA on an analytical and operational level since 1962.
