Australia will build a solar power plant to meet the government’s energy needs

Why it matters to you

This sprawling solar thermal power plant will meet the entire local government’s energy needs and more.

Earlier in 2017, China completed the world’s largest floating solar power plant to meet its growing energy demands and it looks like another country is looking to diversify its domestic energy production with a massive clean energy initiative. Australia recently announced plans to construct a massive solar power plant to fuel the entire South Australian state government’s power needs and then some.

Australian State Premier Jay Weatherill confirmed a contract for the Aurora Solar Energy Project, 150-megawatt solar thermal plant, to be built in South Australia. Global solar power developer, SolarReserve, will begin construction on the $650 million facility in 2018 and plans to have the plant ready by 2020.

Currently, the maximum government power consumption is about 125MW (far less than the plant’s projected 150MW output). This means the plant should have enough production capacity to fulfill the government’s energy needs and send excess power to the local grid. When completed, the Aurora Solar Energy Project will produce 495-gigawatt hours of power annually (representing roughly five percent of South Australia’s yearly energy consumption). Once the system goes online, the emission-free plant will be the largest of its kind.

SolarReserve is no stranger to massive solar efforts by any means. The company was in charge of a similar enormous solar farm, the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, covering more than 1,600 acres of Nevada desert and has also announced a 450MW plant to be built in Chile. Unlike traditional solar panel-based facilities, solar thermal power plants use a series of mirrors to heat molten salt contained within a central tower and this subsequent heat is used to activate a steam turbine.

In 2017, the federal government committed $110 million of equity to constructing a solar thermal power facility. The SolarReserve contract will last for 20 years and create about 700 jobs (including 650 construction jobs and 50 “ongoing positions” in the region). However, some experts worry about the long-term limitations of solar thermal technology.

“One of the big challenges for solar thermal as a storage tool is that it can only store heat. If there is an excess of electricity in the system because the wind is blowing strong, it cannot efficiently use it to store electrical power to shift the energy to times of shortage, unlike batteries and pumped hydro,” Dr. Matthew Stocks, a research fellow at the Australian National University, told The Guardian.

Nonetheless, Weatherill hopes that this project alongside other clean energy initiatives will make the energy grid more secure moving forward.

DOJ demands info on 1.3M visitors to protest-organizing website

A month ago, the Department of Justice served a warrant (PDF) to Dreamhost regarding one of its clients. This is routine for law enforcement to make such requests, the website hosting service said in a blog post — except the page in question, disruptj20.org, had helped organize protests of Trump’s inauguration. And the DOJ is demanding personal info and 1.3 million IP addresses of visitors to the site.

According to Dreamhost, that personal info includes “contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people.” That could easily lead the DOJ to identify anyone who used the site in service of exercising their Constitutionally-protected rights of free speech, the website host pointed out.

After questioning the warrant’s extreme volume of info requested, the DOJ fired back with a motion (PDF) asking the DC Superior Court to compel the host to comply. Dreamhost’s counsel filed legal arguments in opposition (PDF), and will attend a court hearing about the matter in Washington, DC on August 18th.

It’s not the first time authorities have tried to pry information from internet companies on users that attended anti-Trump protests. DC law enforcement requested information from Facebook on a subscriber who attended an inauguration day protest — and they wanted that person’s addresses, phone numbers and online session details. Moreover, a gag order prevented the social titan from informing up to three users who had been so targeted, but Facebook has been appealing that decision in court.

Source: Dreamhost

Target buys same-day delivery company to battle Amazon

A couple of months ago, Target took on Amazon’s Prime Pantry services with its own version: Restock. The retailer’s new service undercut Amazon by a dollar for a 45-pound box full of goodies, and even offered next-day service to beat out Amazon’s four-business-day deliveries. According to Bloomberg, Target is taking the next step in its competition by agreeing to purchase Grand Junction, a startup that manages local and same-day deliveries. The San Francisco-based business already handles same-day delivery for Target’s Tribeca store in Manhattan.

According to Bloomberg, the move is part of larger logistics and operations changes at Target, which has only seen a 22 percent increase in online sales this past quarter. That’s good, but still much less than Walmart’s reported 63 percent growth online.

While the terms of Target’s acquisition of Grand Junction were not disclosed, Bloomberg reports that the 13 employees will move to Target’s San Francisco offices to start helping the retailer get products to its customers faster. “Speed matters,” Target’s Arthur Valdez told Bloomberg. “Grand Junction’s platform, along with our 1,800 stores, allows for speed to the guest that can be very competitive.”

Amazon Prime same-day delivery is the service to beat, however, with coverage for almost 30 metropolitan areas across the US as of last year alone. Amazon has been doing this for much longer, too, with Prime Now’s debut as far back as 2014.

Source: Bloomberg

Google hires a legendary Apple engineer to tackle AI

Legendary programmer Chris Lattner has had a roller coaster of a year. He left Apple (where he developed the Swift programming language) to help build Tesla’s Autopilot technology, only to leave months later after realizing that he wasn’t a good fit. However, Lattner might be settling down. He just announced that he’s joining Google (namely, the Brain team) to make AI “accessible to everyone.” While Lattner doesn’t specify exactly what he’ll be doing, Bloomberg sources say he’ll be working on the TensorFlow language Google uses to simplify AI programming.

The hire won’t necessarily change the state of affairs for Apple, which has had to make do without Lattner for months, but it’s a definite coup for Google. Lattner earned praise for Swift because it was fast, thoroughly modern, and (most importanty) accessible — everyone from first-timers to seasoned programmers stands to benefit from it. Google could put that know-how to work making TensorFlow easier to use, or lowering the hardware demands so that AI runs more smoothly on phones and computers. There’s no guarantee that he’ll repeat his previous feats at Google, but the potential is certainly there.

Via: Bloomberg

Source: Chris Lattner (Twitter)

Ditch the glasses and hit CNN for a safe, 360-degree total solar eclipse stream

Why it matters to you

Here is a good way to watch the total solar eclipse next week without relying on questionable, possibly faulty viewing glasses.

CNN recently teamed up with Volvo to provide a live, safe way to watch the total solar eclipse moving across North America on August 21. Right now, CNN provides a map that shows a blue path stretching west to east indicating areas that will see a perfect solar eclipse. This line starts on the shores of Oregon at 9:06 a.m. Pacific Time, and ends on the shores of South Carolina at 4:06 p.m. Eastern Time, spanning 14 states in total.

Of course, if you are living toward the top and bottom of the United States, you will only see a partial crescent-shaped solar eclipse. But CNN and Volvo have your back, as those residents can jump on CNN’s website or use one of CNN’s apps to see the sun fully blocked from coast to coast. CNN will have seven points established along the blue line using 360-degree cameras.

A solar eclipse is a result of the moon passing between the Earth and the sun. Not everyone can see a perfect total eclipse, hence CNN’s live coverage. The further you move away from the line, the more “crescent” the eclipse will appear. By contrast, a lunar eclipse is when the Earth sits perfectly between the sun and the moon, casting its shadow on the orbiting satellite.

But unlike a lunar eclipse, you cannot look directly at a solar eclipse. That is due to the intensely bright rays reaching around the moon’s circular form, and the invisible radiation that these fiery tentacles create. Looking at this focused light for just a few seconds could fry your retinas, causing possible blindness. And because retinas have no nerves regarding pain, the damage will not be immediately noticeable.

According to NASA, spectators should not look directly at any solar eclipse, whether it is full or partial. Spectators also must not use sunglasses to view the solar eclipse. Instead, rely on special viewing glasses or handheld solar viewers that meet specific requirements:

• Listed ISO 12312-2 international standard certification
• Manufacturer’s name and address printed on product
• Does not rely on homemade filters
• Is not older than three years old
• Does not have scratched or wrinkled lenses

That said, keep a sharp eye on what you buy for this rare event. Amazon is currently dishing out refunds on protective solar eclipse glasses despite their supposed 12312-2 certification due to the inability to verify the safety of many versions sold by its sellers. The move to refund customers, according to Amazon, is out of “caution.”

This will be the first total solar eclipse seen by the entire contiguous United States (sans Alaska, Hawaii, etc.) since June 1918. It is also the first solar eclipse exclusively experienced in the upper western hemisphere since February 1979, which only passed through the northwestern United States, a portion of Canada, and Greenland. The next solar eclipse won’t take place in North America until April 2024.

CNN’s streaming event will start at 10 a.m. (PT) and conclude at noon. NASA will have a show too.

The machine may be on the rise, but Lyft still has a place for humans

Why it matters to you

Many of us may be worried about robots and machines taking over our jobs, but Lyft wants to assuage some of those fears.

Despite the burgeoning interest in driverless cars and autonomous technology, there will always be a place in this world (and in cars) for humans. That, at least, is the stance that Lyft is taking according to its interview with Recode. In a recent episode of the publication’s podcast, the company’s director of product, Taggart Matthiesen, noted that while Lyft is certainly focusing on self-driving automobiles, their human counterparts will not be forgotten in the face of technological progress.

“Drivers have always been part of our family, they have been core to our service,” Matthiesen said. “As far as I’m concerned, they will continue to be that. Over time, technology will give us the opportunity to provide additional services on our platform, whether that is a concierge service, whether that is an in-vehicle experience … these are all things that we will slowly evolve and work with our drivers on.”

This certainly comes as encouragement and reassurance to those who fear that their jobs may soon be obviated by the rise of the machine. After all, robots have previously been estimated to have the capacity to replace some 5 million jobs in the next three years. However, given that most of these jobs will likely be lower level, administrative roles, this replacement could also herald the dawn of a more creative and innovative era in the human workforce.

In any case, Lyft is making clear that it has no intentions of completely turning to robots and machines when it comes to its own driving fleet. Already, Matthiesen said, the company has formed an “advisory council” tasked with “proactively reaching out about the future of human workers in self-driving cars.” And ultimately, the director noted, Lyft might “never be 100 percent” autonomous. Why? Because when push comes to shove, there are some scenarios in which human empathy and understanding are necessary.

“If I need to go to the doctor’s office and my leg is in a cast, and I can’t drive, we have a service for that,” Matthiesen said. “If you get into the world of autonomous, we may need someone in that vehicle to help that person. There are things we’re doing beyond getting a passenger from point A to point B, additional services that we as a company can look at.”

AI draws parallels between fields you never knew were connected

Why it matters to you

Teaching AI to understand analogies could help solve problems in new and innovative ways.

Analogies are the comparison of one thing with another, most commonly with the goal of explaining or clarifying a certain concept. Like a well-chosen metaphor, a good analogy can be a great tool for people such as writers. However, it can also be crucial for problem-solving, since comparing separate problems or methods in this way can be used to highlight underlying — often times useful — similarities. For instance, a few years ago a car mechanic was watching a YouTube video showing how to extract a cork from a wine bottle when he struck upon using the same approximate method for helping babies stuck in the birth canal.

Unfortunately, analogies are not the most straightforward idea for a computer to understand. As we turn to artificial intelligence to solve more and more of our problems, the need for software that can understand analogies, therefore, becomes more important. That is where a new deep-learning project from Carnegie Mellon University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem comes into play. AI researchers there have created a means by which smart agents can analyze databases of patents, inventions, and research papers, and identify ideas which could be useful for solving new problems or creating innovative products.

“Finding useful analogies automatically is very hard for computers,” Dafna Shahaf, a CMU alumnus and a computer scientist at Hebrew University, told Digital Trends. “Previous work relies heavily on hand-created databases, taking thousands of person-hours to create. Instead, we decided to try the data-driven approach. There are lots of idea repositories online, with millions of problems and solutions. We took advantage of recent advances in deep learning and AI, and found a lightweight way to learn, given a product description, a representation for what the product does, and how it does it. This allows us to ask questions such as ‘find me another product in the dataset that solves a similar problem in a completely different way’ and ‘find me another use for this product.’”

This is not necessarily about handing over yet another sphere of human endeavor, though. In a test of the work, Shahaf said that human participants were tasked with problems in need of solving — such as extending the battery of a cell phone. “[The] people who were exposed to inspirations from our algorithm came up with significantly more creative ideas,” she said. “We could even see in some cases how the algorithm helped people explore more diverse parts of the design space — things they would not have thought of on their own.”

The researchers will present their work this week at KDD 2017, the Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

AI draws parallels between fields you never knew were connected

Why it matters to you

Teaching AI to understand analogies could help solve problems in new and innovative ways.

Analogies are the comparison of one thing with another, most commonly with the goal of explaining or clarifying a certain concept. Like a well-chosen metaphor, a good analogy can be a great tool for people such as writers. However, it can also be crucial for problem-solving, since comparing separate problems or methods in this way can be used to highlight underlying — often times useful — similarities. For instance, a few years ago a car mechanic was watching a YouTube video showing how to extract a cork from a wine bottle when he struck upon using the same approximate method for helping babies stuck in the birth canal.

Unfortunately, analogies are not the most straightforward idea for a computer to understand. As we turn to artificial intelligence to solve more and more of our problems, the need for software that can understand analogies, therefore, becomes more important. That is where a new deep-learning project from Carnegie Mellon University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem comes into play. AI researchers there have created a means by which smart agents can analyze databases of patents, inventions, and research papers, and identify ideas which could be useful for solving new problems or creating innovative products.

“Finding useful analogies automatically is very hard for computers,” Dafna Shahaf, a CMU alumnus and a computer scientist at Hebrew University, told Digital Trends. “Previous work relies heavily on hand-created databases, taking thousands of person-hours to create. Instead, we decided to try the data-driven approach. There are lots of idea repositories online, with millions of problems and solutions. We took advantage of recent advances in deep learning and AI, and found a lightweight way to learn, given a product description, a representation for what the product does, and how it does it. This allows us to ask questions such as ‘find me another product in the dataset that solves a similar problem in a completely different way’ and ‘find me another use for this product.’”

This is not necessarily about handing over yet another sphere of human endeavor, though. In a test of the work, Shahaf said that human participants were tasked with problems in need of solving — such as extending the battery of a cell phone. “[The] people who were exposed to inspirations from our algorithm came up with significantly more creative ideas,” she said. “We could even see in some cases how the algorithm helped people explore more diverse parts of the design space — things they would not have thought of on their own.”

The researchers will present their work this week at KDD 2017, the Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Sprint’s 1Million Project connects 180,000 students to a free device and service

Why it matters to you

The 1Million Project is providing students across the country with technological resources to help pave their way for a successful future.

In October, Sprint announced the 1Million Project — an initiative to provide smartphones, laptops, and tablets to students in low-income families. Starting out as a pilot project in January, the program will roll out nationally on Tuesday. The Sprint Foundation — with support from Sprint — will connect more than 180,000 high school students across 32 states with a free device and free wireless service in the first year of the program.

While more than 70 percent of the country’s high school teachers assign homework that requires the internet, 5 million families with children in school do not have internet connectivity at home to complete it. The 1Million Project sets out to eliminate this issue — also known as the “homework gap” — by providing students with the correct technological resources to pave the way for a successful future.

To start, Sprint pieced together research from school districts and other experts in the field in order to learn more about what students are lacking as well as what they need to succeed academically, Doug Michelman, president of the 1Million Project told Digital Trends. As for connectivity, the company also worked with its IT department to execute an efficient plan where the network identifies a new device being activated by a 1Million Project student in particular.

To find participants, Michelman explained that schools and school districts were instructed to apply for the program. In terms of criteria, a population of students who could be served by the need for internet and devices at home was essential. They also had to show a strong commitment to the project, along with devoted manpower to activate and execute the program in their school. Lastly, whether or not the Sprint network would provide a great experience from wherever the school may be was also taken highly into consideration.

The finalized list of participating schools includes some of the country’s largest school districts such as New York, Florida, and California, among others. Each student receives either a free smartphone, tablet or hotspot device, along with 3GB of high-speed LTE data per month, for up to four years while they are still attending a participating high school. Unlimited data is available at 2G speeds if the usage goes beyond 3GB per month, and those who receive a smartphone can also use it as a hotspot.

“The approach in our community school strategy is to remove barriers for learning. We know that students in low-income neighborhoods [or] students that are suffering [from] effects of poverty, have [less] access to resources and learning opportunities. One of the big divides there is the digital divide, and so we really saw this partnership with Sprint as a way to overcome that,” Chris Caruso, executive director of New York City Community Schools, told Digital Trends.

Sprint is donating more than $2 billion in wireless service, technical support, and staff, to manage the 1Million Project for the next five years. Most of the devices have been donated to the Sprint Foundation by vendors including LG Electronics, Motorola, TCL-owned Alcatel, and more.

Bad reviews could help battle drug dealers on the darknet

Why it matters to you

Law enforcement can’t always move fast enough to fight wrongdoers on the darknet. But bad reviews could help keep them at bay.

Some parts of the darknet operate like an eBay or Amazon for illegal goods or services, ranging from the illicit to the abhorrent. And while law enforcement is proactively engaged with the problem, criminal investigations can take a long time to pursue, which is why experts are helping to come up with new ways to pour cold water on the darknet marketplace. One such researcher is Scott Duxbury, a sociology doctoral student at Ohio State University. Duxbury’s idea for cracking down on darknet drug sales is strikingly simple: leave bad reviews.

“There’s been a surge in darknet market purchasing over the past few years, some of the larger markets are bringing in over $500,000 per month,” Duxbury told Digital Trends. “We wanted to figure out how these markets behave, instead of just documenting the extent of trafficking. We wanted to examine the market as a complex system. So, how does it grow, where is it vulnerable, [and] what purchasing patterns sustain the market? We found that the biggest factor in market growth is trust. Contrary to what we’d expect, pricing has very little influence in how people decide to purchase drugs from the darknet. In another related study that we just presented at the American Sociological Association, we also found that the darknet drug market is more resilient to disruption attempts than real-world drug distribution rings.”

As part of Duxbury’s research, he analyzed transactions between 57 sellers and 706 buyers in opioid-related darknet transactions. He concluded that 82 percent of users during the period valued trustworthiness over cost. His idea, therefore, is to flood sellers’ pages with negative reviews, thereby rendering buyers unsure of who they can trust.

“Our evidence suggests that reviews count for more than on Clearnet markets or services, mainly because drug purchasing is high risk,” he continued. “Even without the threat of violence, drugs can be misidentified or contaminated with other substances, buyers have little recourse for fraud, and if a seller isn’t subtle in how they package drugs, buyers could be at risk for being identified by law enforcement.”

Duxbury and his colleagues have received a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to extend their study. Currently they are in the process of collecting additional data to see how the market grows and responds to interventions or external shocks. If all goes according to plan, maybe it won’t be too long before a team of FBI agents — or maybe some smart bots — begin busting illegal drug rings.

A research paper was published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.