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Submission + - This Is What Happens When A State Seriously Invests In Clean Energy (huffingtonpost.com) 2

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: "Solar farms are blooming across California’s deserts, wind turbines are climbing the Sierra, photovoltaic roofs are shimmering over suburbs, and Teslas are the Silicon Valley elite’s new ride. A clean energy rush is transforming the Golden State so quickly that nearly a quarter of its electricity now comes from renewable sources, and new facilities, especially solar, are coming online at a rapid rate. Last year, California became the first state to get more than 5 percent of its electricity from the sun."
This is a big turnaround:
"It’s difficult to remember that just 15 years earlier the state was experiencing an energy meltdown. Electricity prices skyrocketed, supply crashed and blackouts rolled, due mainly to a disastrous deregulation attempt and unscrupulous market manipulation. "

Submission + - Will Google buy ESRI

Submitted by plopez
plopez writes: A blogger has presented the hypothesis that Google has bought ESRI. Previously Google has announced they were discontinuing their map engine effectively conceding to ESRI, a much smaller company. If this is true then this could be huge game changer; just add the number of applications in areas such as robotic vehicles, data analytics, resource management, Agriculture (which is driving toward robotics), IoT, commercial drones, and other buzz wordy things. Google would own a slice of each of these and be free to levy a "Google tax". ESRI is a much smaller company but has a mature API, an extensive developer network, and extensive background in all things GIS. If this not true is it plausible some other company would buy them soon? Go on, discuss.....

Submission + - Hackable IV Infusion Pump Workaround

Submitted by swimforit
swimforit writes: In a press release out today at http://www.whattolern.com/hack... , an Albuquerque inventor annouced a patented fix for vulnerability of IV infusion drug pumps. It's basically a mechanical pump that can be set to administer a constant calibrated dose throughout the dispensing process. Recent FDA warnings http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevi... about Hospira pumps make a strong argument for separating the pump from elecronic media altogether. It would make good safety sense to supply the user with the drug dosing library via a separate CD, with the pump operating inepndently.

Submission + - Monsanto Develops First Genetically Modified Strain of Marijuana (wisconsinagconnection.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Monsanto has announced it has patented the first genetically modified strain of marijuana. Global AgInvesting reports that the news has been welcomed by scientists and leaders of the agriculture business alike as a move forward towards the industrial use of marijuana and hemp products could bring a major shift towards marijuana policies in the U.S.A. and ultimately, to the world.

Under present U.S. federal law, it is illegal to possess, use, buy, sell, or cultivate marijuana, since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, although it has been decriminalized to some extent in certain states, Monsanto's interest in the field has been interpreted by experts as the precursor to "a major shift in marijuana policy in the U.S." as it is believed the company would not have invested so much time and energy if it had not had "previous knowledge" of the Federal government's "openness" towards the future legalization of marijuana.

Submission + - AskSlashdot: Company name snipers... What should I do? 1

Submitted by PurdueThumbs
PurdueThumbs writes: So... I decided to start my own business, "ArborLink." Somebody already had arborlink.com, so I grabbed arborlinkllc.com. Submitted my paperwork to the county to do business as "ArborLink" and checked state filings and registered for an EIN, all clear. Turns out the day I booked the domain in the TLD, somebody filed for the LLC the same day. The filings can be viewed here: (http://www2.dleg.state.mi.us/CORPORATIONS/htmldb/f?p=210:3:2782490864223865::NO:::). The ArborLink LLC filings are the other guy. I have had a website and e-mail presence up and have been conducting business as at the time there was no state registration. The registration itself from them was very bland, ie "we comply with llc" vs mine which is "Technology services and products". Any advise on how to stand my ground?

Submission + - SpaceX Is Officially Building Elon Musk's Hyperloop

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: SpaceX is building a hyperloop, Elon Musk's fantastical, futuristic transport tube capable of moving people and freight at speeds of 760 miles per hour.
The company is building a one- to three-mile-long hyperloop test track outside its Hawthorne, California headquarters with plans to test the technology within a year. It's the first time that Musk, who conceived of the hyperloop, has been involved with any concrete plans to actually build it.

Submission + - Cuba's Answer to the Internet Fits in Your Pocket and Moves by Bus

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Susan Crawford reports on "El Paquete" (the package), Cuba's answer to the internet, an informal but extraordinarily lucrative distribution chain where anyone in Cuba who can pay can watch telenovelas, first-run Hollywood movies, brand-new episodes of Game of Thrones, and even search for a romantic partner. The so-called "weekly package," which is normally distributed from house to house contains the latest foreign films a week, shows, TV series, documentaries, games, information, music, and more. The thumb drives make their way across the island from hand to hand, by bus, and by 1957 Chevy, their contents copied and the drive handed on. "El Paquete plays to Cuban strengths and needs," writes Crawford because Cubans are great at sharing. "And being paid to be part of the thumb-drive supply chain is a respectable job in an economy that is desperately short on employment opportunities." Sunday the "weekly package" of 1 terabyte is priced at $ 10, then $2 on Monday or Tuesday and $1 for the rest of the week.

The sneakernet is still in use today in other parts of the world including Bhutan where a sneakernet distributes offline educational resources, including Kiwix and Khan Academy on a Stick to hundreds of schools and other educational institutions. Google once used a sneaknet to transport 120 TB of data from the Hubble Space Telescope. "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magnetic tapes hurtling down the highway".

Submission + - Philae's lost seven months were completely unnecessary

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: This past weekend, the Philae lander reawakened after seven dormant months, the best outcome that mission scientists could've hoped for with the way the mission unfolded. But the first probe to softly land on a comet ever would never have needed to hibernate at all if we had simply built it with the nuclear power capabilities it should've had. The seven months of lost data were completely unnecessary, and resulted solely from the world's nuclear fears.

Submission + - YouTube Launching Gaming Hub This Summer to take down Twitch (mainbored.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a statement released Friday, Google-owned YouTube announced it has plans to launch a gaming hub this summer so users can follow their favorite games as well as stream their own virtual content.

Submission + - Trade Bill Fails in the House (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: President Obama suffered a major defeat to his Pacific Rim free trade initiative Friday as House Democrats helped derail a key presidential priority despite his last-minute, personal plea on Capitol Hill.

The House voted 302 to 126 to sink a measure to grant financial aid to displaced workers, fracturing hopes at the White House that Congress would grant Obama fast-track trade authority to complete an accord with 11 other Pacific Rim nations.

This was after silicon valley heavyweights made a last minute push to pass the bill and the white house got personal with many Democratic lawmakers.

Submission + - US Teen Pleads Guilty To Teaching ISIS About Bitcoin Via Twitter

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Ali Shukri Amin, a 17-year-old from Virginia, has pled guilty to charges that he aided ISIS by giving the group advice about using bitcoin. An odd and potentially troubling aspect of the charges is that this all took place in public — he Tweeted out links to an article on his blog about bitcoin and Darknet could help jihadi groups, making it difficult to say whether he was publishing information protected under free speech or was directly advising the terrorist organization.

Submission + - Missing files cause A400M deadly crash. (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Think you had a bad day when your software drivers go missing? Rejoice, you get to live!
A fatal A400M crash was linked to data-wipe mistake during an engine software update. A military plane crash in Spain was probably caused by computer files being accidentally wiped from three of its engines, according to investigators. Plane-maker Airbus discovered anomalies in the A400M's data logs after the crash, suggesting a software fault.And it has now emerged that Spanish investigators suspect files needed to interpret its engine readings had been deleted by mistake.This would have caused the affected propellers to spin too slowly causing loss of power and eventually, a crash.

Submission + - PHP at 20: From Pet Project to Powerhouse

Submitted by snydeq
snydeq writes: Ben Ramsey provides a look at the rise of PHP, the one-time ‘silly little project’ that has transformed into a Web powerhouse, thanks to flexibility, pragmatism, and a vibrant community of Web devs. 'Those early days speak volumes about PHP’s impact on Web development. Back then, our options were limited when it came to server-side processing for Web apps. PHP stepped in to fill our need for a tool that would enable us to do dynamic things on the Web. That practical flexibility captured our imaginations, and PHP has since grown up with the Web. Now powering more than 80 percent of the Web, PHP has matured into a scripting language that is especially suited to solve the Web problem. Its unique pedigree tells a story of pragmatism over theory and problem solving over purity.'

Submission + - Solar Power Capacity Installs Surpass Wind and Coal for Second Year 1

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Residential rooftop solar installations hit a historical high in the first quarter of 2015, garnering an 11% increase over the previous quarter and a 76% increase over the Q1, 2014. New installations of solar power capacity surpassed those of wind and coal for the second year in a row, accounting for 32% of all new electrical capacity, according to a new report by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association. Residential solar installation costs dropped to $3.46 per watt of installed capacity this quarter, which represents a 2.2% reduction over last quarter and a 10% reduction over the first quarter of 2014.

Submission + - Nuclear blasts shed light on how animals recover from annihilation (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: In the late 1960s and early 1970s, France detonated four nuclear bombs on the Fangataufa atoll—a ring-shaped island of coral in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The detonations—the largest, a hundred times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki—destroyed just about all life in the region, setting up an “unthinkable” ecological experiment: If life had to start fresh, would it develop the same way again? A new study of the aftermath of the blasts suggests it would not.

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