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Phoenix666 writes:

Solar energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a new report released by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Driven by lower installed costs, improved project performance, and a race to build projects ahead of a reduction in a key federal incentive, utility-scale solar project developers have been negotiating power sales agreements with utilities at prices averaging just 5¢/kWh. These prices reflect receipt of the 30% federal investment tax credit, which is scheduled to decline to 10% after 2016, and would be higher if not for that incentive. By comparison, average wholesale electricity prices across the United States ranged from 3 to 6 cents/kWh in 2014, depending on the region.

More key findings and detail in the article. The full report in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and Excel spreadsheet can be downloaded at utilityscalesolar.lbl.gov/.

By comparison, Berkely Lab released a report on August 10, 2015 revealed Study finds price of wind energy in US at an all-time low, averaging under 2.5 cent/kWh.

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frojack writes:

ArsTechnica has a mammoth review of Android Marshmallow, the latest version just hitting devices.

Probably no summary will do it justice, so I'm not even going to try. The linked page above contains a table of contents that lets you choose those areas most interesting to you.

Key things that I've been waiting for are:
User Control of Permissions, so you can deny apps the ability to mine your contacts.
EXT4 for MicroSD cards which shuts off one of Microsoft's patent claims, and allows the SD (Secure Digital) card to be used as system storage.

But that's just me. There are many other things in this review, its massive. While it praises the new permissions control scheme, it also offers this word of warning:

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Phoenix666 writes:

[translation mine] A group of activists has flown a drone over a US base.

Instead of bombs the aircraft dropped leaflets — with the appeal to the soldiers and spies to quit the Service. The paper-stuffed mini-drone was launched over the "Dagger Complex" at Darmstadt by the Berlin-based Peng Collective last Friday. It was the highest point so far in the "Intelexit" campaign, wherein the activists want to motivate spies to resign.

The huge military base in the Darmstadt suburb Griesheim was chosen because the "Dagger Complex" is the largest and most important branch of the US spy agency NSA in Europe. Among other things, the "European Cryptologic Center" is housed there. "Germany is watching these activities without doing anything and is avoiding responsibility," said Peng representative Sascha Fugel. "We know that some of the participants at the US base are wrestling with their consciences."

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My fellow Soylentiliens,

I have been beating my head against a wall for the last week, trying to find a Windows Server VPS provider that is affordable, reliable, secure, has options of Europe based servers ideally, and also unlikely to disappear overnight. A wish list.

Currently we have have one VPS on CentOS through a large provider, and a Windows server in the office itself. I would prefer to bring all the servers in-house but there are issues with unreliable and slow internet connections with the occasional power cut. The investment necessary to resolve these issues is too high currently.

Linux VPS providers are not much of an issue, the intention is to migrate the current VPS over to a new provider, most likely Linode, or perhaps Gandi. SoylentNews itself is hosted by Linode.

We have a couple of business critical systems that are Windows only solutions, in time that may change, but for now that is the reality. These services are not very demanding on resources, it is not for public facing services, but for a couple of employees (myself included) working in the field to access company infrastructure through a VPN.

There are obviously several options for VPS hosts, and the most cost effective and suitable that I have seen is Leaseweb's 'M' Cloud VPS (Win2k12 R2, 2 core, 2GB RAM, 60GB Disk, 6TB traffic). This comes out at around $30 a month, but Leaseweb does not have a great reputation it seems. 1&1 offers a similar solution but on Win2k8 R2. Also has a less than great reputation, and I do have experience with them, so I'm not all that excited to go back to them.

I hope you can share with me your experiences with existing providers, and point me in the right direction of a suitable one, a Windows VPS host that doesn't suck completely or cost a small fortune.

HughPickens.com writes:

Many news organizations, facing competition from digital outlets, have sharply reduced the size of their newsrooms and their investment in news gathering but less than four-and-a-half years after launching its pay model, The New York Times has increased coverage as it announced that The New York Times has passed one million digital-only subscribers, giving them far more than any other news organization in the world. The New York Times still employs as many reporters as it did 15 years ago — and its ranks now also include graphics editors, developers, video journalists and other digital innovators. "It's a tribute to the hard work and innovation of our marketing, product and technology teams and the continued excellence of our journalism," says CEO Mark Thompson.

According to Ken Doctor, the takeaway from The New York Times' success is that readers reward elite global journalism. The Wall Street Journal is close behind The New York Times, at 900,000, while the Financial Times' digital subscription number stands at 520,000. "These solid numbers form bedrock for the future. For news companies, being national now means being global, and being global means enjoying unprecedented reach," says Doctor. "These audiences of a half-million and more portend more reader revenue to come."

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Phoenix666 writes:

Separately, a wide-ranging group of librarians, technology companies, and policymakers have also raised questions about the library's stewardship of the US Copyright Office – which currently stores most of its valuable records in rows of paper volumes.
...
The debate over the Library's relationship with technology has long been viewed as fraught. In the 1990s, the Library was seen as an early adopter of the Internet, bringing troves of Congressional records online in 1995 with the service Thomas.gov.

But since then, questions about the library's own technological struggles – including reports that it did not know how many computers it owned, lacked a dedicated person in charge of technology and did not have full control over the Copyright Office it was tasked with overseeing – have fueled questions about Billington's leadership. Unlike almost every high-level government position except the Supreme Court, the Librarian of Congress is a lifetime appointment, leading some critics to suggest that Billington, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, has possibly overstayed his welcome.

"It used to be the king of all libraries," Suzanne Thorin, dean emerita of Syracuse University and Billington's former chief of staff, told The Washington Post in March, following the release of two scathing reports by the Government Accountability Office pointing to the library's lack of management over its own IT infrastructure. "Maybe it's benign neglect, but I don't see it at the center anymore."

Previously: What Do We Want From the Next Librarian of Congress?

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Phoenix666 writes:

Scientists have found evidence of an unprecedented "megatsunami" off the Cape Verde Islands that occurred some 70,000 years ago.

Caused by sudden volcanic collapse, the 800-foot [270-meter] wave would have engulfed what is now Santiago Island, some thirty miles away. That estimate, which was published today in Science Advances, could prompt [the] scientific community to re-evaluate the threat of catastrophic collapses near coastal communities.

When volcanoes collapse, the resulting landslides can cause tsunamis of varying severity. Previous research proposed a gradual model for volcanic breakdown, which would result in multiple smaller waves.

See also: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/259779378_Evidence_for_a_mega-tsunami_generated_by_giant_flank_collapse_of_Fogo_Volcano_Cape_Verde

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Phoenix666 writes:

Think of the Nobel prizes and you think of groundbreaking research bettering mankind, but the awards have also honoured some quite unhumanitarian inventions such as chemical weapons, DDT and lobotomies.

Numerous Nobel prize controversies have erupted over the years: authors who were overlooked, scientists who claimed their discovery came first, or peace prizes that divided public opinion.

But some of the science prizes appear in hindsight to be embarrassing choices by the committees.

When the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize went to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, it was perhaps a way of making up for the Nobel "war prize" it awarded to German chemist Fritz Haber in 1918.

Haber was honoured with the chemistry prize for his work on the synthesis of ammonia, which was crucial for developing fertilizers for food production.

But Haber, known as the "father of chemical warfare", also developed poisonous gases used in trench warfare in World War I at the Battle of Ypres which he supervised himself.

Alfred Nobel himself invented dynamite, so perhaps such things are woven into the DNA of the prize.

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Phoenix666 writes:

As soon as Ramar Larkin Jones got wind that lawyers from The Pokémon Company objected to the Pokemon-themed party he had planned in August, he shut it down.

But that's far from the end of it. Pokémon's lawyers aren't letting go—they refused to dismiss the case against Jones unless he coughs up $4,000 by mid-November. Jones, who described his plight to Geekwire, says he just hasn't got the money.

"I work in a cafe and I literally don't have $4000," Jones wrote on a fundraising page he set up to try to satisfy Pokémon's demands for cash. "I wish they would have just sent a cease and desist because I had no problem dropping the party but I just don't have $4000 to pay in the next 45 days."

Jones even offered to pay the full $4,000 over the course of a year, but Pokémon's lawyers from the firm of Davis Wright Tremaine wouldn't budge on the deadline.

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basstard writes:

Removing humans from what is now the exclusion zone around the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor has allowed wildlife to return.

This is according to a long-term census of mammals in the area, which researchers say has shown that wildlife numbers are likely to be "much higher than they were before the accident". Professor Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth led the study. He stressed that this "does not mean that radiation is good for wildlife". "It's just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting, farming, and forestry, are a lot worse," Prof Smith said. The census findings are published in the journal Current Biology. With the help of with colleagues from the Polesky State Radioecological Reserve in Belarus, the researchers examined data from aerial surveys that counted large mammals including roe deer, elk, wild boar and wolves.

They also carried out tracking studies in the winter - using footprints in snow to calculate the numbers of different mammal species. And measuring the levels of radioactive contamination in those tracks. "The numbers of animals we see in Chernobyl is similar to the populations in uncontaminated nature reserves," Prof Smith said.

The number of wolves was particularly striking - up to seven times higher than in nearby nature reserves of a comparable size. Prof Smith attributed this to the lack of hunting in the exclusion zone. A 30km exclusion zone now surrounds the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant. And Prof Smith says the picture from this study reveals what happens in terms of wildlife conservation "when you take humans out of the picture". But, he said, the study did not look at the health effects of radiation on individual animals.

That is something that Prof Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, has spent many years trying to unpick in his studies of wildlife - particularly bird populations - in the exclusion zone. Prof Mousseau said the study was a "very positive move forward in conducting research concerning the potential health and environmental impacts of nuclear accidents". "Much more research on this is desperately needed," he added.

But Prof Mousseau is also troubled by "the characterisation that Chernobyl and the surrounding area is teeming with wildlife". "This study only applies to large mammals under hunting pressure, rather than the vast majority of animals - most birds, small mammals, and insects - that are not directly influenced by human habitation," he told BBC News. In their study of mammal tracks, however, Prof Smith and his colleagues did compare the abundance of animals in different areas of the exclusion zone. They found that more contaminated areas had just as many animals as less contaminated sites. Prof Mousseau said that the study simply showed that, "if left unchecked, some populations of animals will grow exponentially and eventually overpopulate a region". "There is no evidence that the animals of Chernobyl are achieving the levels of population growth that are frequently seen in other regions where they are protected from predation or hunting," he added.

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Phoenix666 writes:

A Stanford undergraduate has contributed to a discovery that confounds the conventional wisdom in lithium-ion battery design, pointing the way toward storage devices with more power, greater capacity, and faster charge and discharge capabilities.

The undergraduate was part of a 10-person research team led by William Chueh, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering. In an article published in the journal Advanced Materials, the team explained how a material previously considered secondary in importance was actually critical to overall battery performance, and also devised new design rules for better batteries.

Graduate student Yiyang Li and undergraduate Sophie Meyer led the collaborative effort to design experiments that disproved an assumption shared by battery designers for more than 20 years: While lithium-ion batteries needed a substance called carbon black in order to function, the precise amount of that material had not been considered crucial to overall performance.

"Our research demonstrated that isn't true," said Meyer, who started the experiments when she was a sophomore with no prior experience in materials science.
...
Li said that by upping the percentage of carbon black – as high as 20 percent in some experiments – they found that the cathode particles charged more quickly because they had more uniform carbon connectivity.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region have reached a deal on the Pacific trade pact that is intended to cut trade barriers and establish common standards for 12 countries, This is the largest trade pact in 20 years and has been a long-term goal of the Obama administration.

The bloc is headed by the US and includes Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement covers 40 percent of the world's economy. Negotiations have been going on for five years.

The US visible exports to TPP countries totaled $698 billion in 2013, which is 44 percent America's exported goods, says the organization website.

Maybe now the citizens will be allowed to see the details of what their leaders have agreed to?

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frojack writes:

ArsTechnica has an extensive review of the BlackPhone version 2.

You may remember that the first Blackphone was a creation of Phil Zimmerman's secure communications service Silent Circle and the Spanish specialty phone manufacturer Geeksphone. It underwhelmed many in performance and device quality.

Pay special attention to the "This is a secure line" topic in the review to gain an understanding of what the Blackphone and Silent Circle can do, and what it can't do.

Silent Phone, offers the encrypted, SIP-based voice and videoconferencing application, and Silent Text, the Jabber-based encrypted "ephemeral" text and file sharing tool.

Ars did limited testing on the Silent Circle calling to other Blackphone Users:

Obviously calls to other services, or land lines, are not secure once they are bridged to the normal telephone networks.

Clearly this phone is designed for corporate or government users, as the cost is rather high, and requires a Silent Circle subscription in addition to your Carrier account. You will need a healthy data plan because so much of the communications are pushed through SIP and Jabber.

Without anyone to talk (securly) to among your circle of friends, this phone will have little appeal to even a security conscious private user. Companies, Journalists, Government workers, on the other hand might be willing to standardize on this phone for sensitive calls.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Wyoming lawmakers adopted legislation making it illegal to gather data on open space—such as performing water quality tests or taking photographs—for the purpose of reporting to the government harmful farming practices, environmental degradation, or other ills.

The two-part legislative package, signed by Gov. Matt Mead earlier this year, is the subject of a constitutional legal challenge from environmentalists, animal rights advocates, and the media.

The legislation is so onerous that it disallows regulators from even acting upon evidence of wrongdoing if the data was gathered without a landowners' permission, even if the data was gathered on public land. And it gives private landowners fodder to sue for trespassing. The legislation was crafted after the Western Watersheds Project collected data that revealed water pollution and federal grazing violations. Those revelations prompted Wyoming regulators to include three streams on a list of water bodies violating state environmental quality standards.

The Wyoming federal court challenge comes two months after Idaho's pro-agribusiness law that barred the secret recording of livestock was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge who ruled that the so-called "ag gag" law violated the First Amendment.

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HughPickens.com writes:

Johana Bhuiyan has an interesting article at Buzzfeed about how the Las Vegas taxi industry used every political maneuver in its arsenal to keep Uber and Lyft off the strip. Vegas is one of the most lucrative transportation markets in the country, with some 41.1 million visitors passing through it annually and the city's taxi industry raking in a whopping $290 million this year to date [Link Unreliable].

What made Vegas unique — what made it Uber's biggest challenge yet — was the extent to which local governments were willing to protect the incumbents. According to Bhuiyan in Las Vegas, Uber and its pugnacious CEO Travis Kalanick really did run into the corrupt taxi cartel bogeymen that they had long claimed to be saving us from and this cartel would prove to be their most formidable opponent. But when push came to shove and the fight turned ugly, the world's fastest-growing company ran right over its entrenched opposition.

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