Shame on USA:Rooftop solar power is making coal obsolete in Australia

Rooftop solar panels are becoming such a powerful factor in the energy market that they now can push the price of electricity to negative territory in the sunniest regions of the world. This is possible because powering down fossil fuel energy generators during peak solar power periods would be more expensive than paying customers to use the electricity.

The negative energy price barrier was breached in Queensland, Australia, where low demand and high rooftop solar power generation pushed the wholesale electricity price to AUD -$100 per megawatt-hour on Wednesday afternoon, July 2. This is mid-winter in Australia, so daily temperatures are mild. Household appliance usage dips in the early afternoon and peaks in mornings and afternoons, so an early afternoon during a sunny Australian winter is the period when solar power is at its zenith.

Queensland is a special case due to local overbuilding of coal power plants and bad policy decisions. This is an example of how the rapid growth of solar energy is catching governments off guard. More than a million Australians have already installed rooftop panels, causing demand for electricity supplied by traditional utilities to plunge. According to analysis from UBS, demand for electricity in Australia has dropped by 13% over the past four years. 75% of Australia’s residential buildings and up to 90% of commercial buildings may be equipped by rooftop solar panels within 1o years.

Apple recently announced plans to expand its massive North Carolina solar power farm substantially. China’s solar power panel production is expected to double by 2017 as the country focuses on creating massive economies of scale to help drive down panel pricing. Various American tech companies are trying to compete against China’s raw government subsidy policies by introducing advances in materials, such as thin-film photovoltaic technology.

This dramatic rivalry between American and Chinese solar panel industries is likely to yield substantial reduction in solar power costs over the next five years. By the end of the decade, the idea of homes and companies getting close to self-sustaining regarding energy production and consumption may become the norm in the sunnier American states.

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Confirmed: Voyager 1 in Interstellar Space

By by Mike Wall, Senior Writer3 hours ago

New data collected by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft have helped scientists confirm that the far-flung probe is indeed cruising through interstellar space, the researchers say.

Voyager 1 made headlines around the world last year when mission scientists announced that the probe had apparently left the heliosphere — the huge bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields surrounding the sun — in August 2012.

They came to this conclusion after analyzing measurements Voyager 1 made in the wake of a powerful solar eruption known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The shock wave from this CME caused the particles around Voyager 1 to vibrate substantially, allowing mission scientists to calculate the density of the probe's surroundings (because denser plasma oscillates faster.) [Photo Timeline: Voyager 1's Trek to Interstellar Space]

This density was much higher than that observed in the outer layers of the heliosphere, allowing team members to conclude that Voyager 1 had entered a new cosmic realm. (Instellar space is emptier than areas near Earth, but the solar system thins out dramatically near the heliosphere's edge.)

The CME in question erupted in March 2012, and its shock wave reached Voyager 1 in April 2013. After these data came in, the team dug up another, much smaller CME-shock event from late 2012 that had initially gone unnoticed. By combining these separate measurements with knowledge of Voyager 1's cruising speed, the researchers were able to trace the probe's entry into interstellar space to August 2012.

And now mission scientists have confirmation, in the form of data from a third CME shock, which Voyager 1 observed in March of this year, NASA officials announced Monday (July 7).

"We're excited to analyze these new data," Don Gurnett of the University of Iowa, the principal investigator of Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument, said in a statement. "So far, we can say that it confirms we are in interstellar space."

Interstellar space begins where the heliosphere ends. But by some measures, Voyager 1 remains inside the solar system, which is surrounded by a shell of comets known as the Oort Cloud.

While it's unclear exactly how far away from Earth the Oort Cloud lies, Voyager 1 won't get there for quite a while. NASA scientists have estimated that Voyager 1 will emerge from the Oort Cloud in 14,000 to 28,000 years.

The craft launched in September 1977, about two weeks after its twin, Voyager 2. The probes embarked upon a "grand tour" of the outer solar system, giving the world some its first good looks atJupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the moons of these planets.

Like Voyager 1, Voyager 2 is still active and operational. It took a different route through the solar system and is expected to follow its twin into interstellar space a few years from now

http://news.yahoo.com/confirmed-voyager-1-interstellar-space-171605357.html

Soon Everyone Will Be Using UltraViolet To Watch Movies On-The-Go

Kirsten Acuna
If you've purchased a DVD in the past few months, you've probably noticed a small sticker in the lower right hand corner of the film box telling you to try out Ultraviolet (UV).  

Inside, you'll see a single sheet of purple and yellow paper with a confirmation code pointing you toward an UltraViolet site. 

Here's what it's all about.  

UltraViolet service allows you to take your film collection with you on the go. It's an authentication system that verifies film purchases and enables you to watch your movies across any mobile device from any location.  

We spoke with the mind behind UltraViolet, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) president and chief digital strategy officer at Sony Pictures, Mitch Singer, to find out more about the creation of UV and why this is the next frontier for movie viewing. 

"The motion picture industry has basically decided, given the technological advances, that it doesn't make any sense in a digital world to force consumers to buy the same movie over and over again," Singer tells Business Insider.

"We know we're in a cloud environment, so, if we could create an environment where no matter where you are in the world, you just put in your credentials, the device or service you happen to be on looks in the cloud, sees what movies you have in your collection, populates the screen for you, and now you can watch any movie you want." 

Kirsten Acuna, Business Insider

Here's what an UltraViolet redemption code sheet looks like, found inside a specially-marked film box.

The service isn't new at all; Ultraviolet's been around since late 2011. However, it's been picking up steam in the past few months. 

As of Super Bowl weekend, the service has reached 10 million registered users. 

UV began rolling out in late 2011 with both Warner Bros. and Flixster, and Sony joined soon afterward. 

In October 2011, "Horrible Bosses" and "Hangover 2" were the first two films available to view across mobile devices through UltraViolet. 

Since then, UV branched out to incorporate every big movie studio except Disney. (Instead, the Mouse House has its own cloud-based service called Keychest.) 

Currently 8,700 titles are available to date, to view through the authentication service with the majority of those titles — about 3,500 — from Warner Bros.  

While the catalog mostly contains movies, eventually the service will roll out a slew of television shows as well. Warner Bros. has started to offer a few hit TV shows including "Big Bang Theory." 

After a year and a half, UltraViolet has launched in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K, and will soon be launching in New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland. By the end of 2013, Singer says UV plans to launch in Germany and France. 

Where you watch the movies: 

While movie purchases are registered with the UltraViolet platform, you need an UltraViolet service to view the films.  

Sound confusing?  

Users can't watch their films directly on UltraViolet. UV itself just acts as a program to confirm you have rights to watch a particular film. Instead, you need to download an UltraViolet service to view your purchases. 

On a mobile device, such as a tablet or phone, this is as simple as downloading an app.  

"The motion picture industry has basically decided, given the technological advances, that it doesn't make any sense in a digital world to force consumers to buy the same movie over and over again," — DECE president, Mitch Singe 

In the U.S., eight distributors are currently available to play digital collections:

Best Buy's CinemaNow, Wal-Mart's Vudu, Flixster, M-GO, Sony Pictures, Barnes & Noble's Nook, Paramount Movies, and Universal. A ninth, Cineplex, is available in Canada. 

This isn't as overwhelming as it sounds. Users simply pick which distributor they want to use from those available and run that on their tablet, computer, or mobile device. 

Why so many ways to watch? One reason is that every studio wants you to view all of your films on its individual player.  

Another reason is that you can't access all of the players on every type of device. Vudu is available on Xbox while Flixster will be there soon, but you'll use Barnes & Noble's program on its Nook e-reader. 

Singer says it's also to deliver choice. 

"Ultimately, I'm going to migrate to the service that provides me the best service," says Singer. "Competition, I believe, is a really good thing, and there [are] services who just may do a better job on search or services that do a better job at building recommendation services, or knows how to display the content in a way that's easy for me to understand." 

Here's a look at what your movie collection inside Flixster would look like:

Flixster screencap

In the past, this was a deterrent for UV. The process of signing up for multiple services was confusing and exhausting to some, but after we took a run at it, it's not that difficult to use at all. And the payoff, once you have a good majority of your film collection available as easily as your music on an mP3 player, is well worth it. 

According to Singer, most people with UltraViolet accounts use Vudu or Flixster, the first services to launch through UV. 

For the most part, there's no incentive to using any one service over the other, though Singer says there's potentially one future advantage of having a CinemaNow account. 

"If you have a Best Buy Rewards account, they know every single movie you've ever bought from Best Buy," says Singer. "And, they could, if they wanted to, say 'The moment you link your CinemaNow account with UltraViolet, we're able to go back and look at what you purchased in the past from us and just immediately convert those into UltraViolet.'" 

Singer says no distributor has launched such a model yet, but he expects we'll see one roll out this year. 

How to Buy a film on UltraViolet:

Right now, the ways you can get a UV film include: 

• Using the UV code provided with a DVD.
• Directly buying films online through one of UV's distributors.
• You can also convert a DVD / Blu-ray title for $2 by bringing it to Wal-Mart. If you want an HD conversion, that will cost $4. 

In the end, this may prove more frustrating since the film or show needs to be one of UV's nearly 9,000 registered titles in order to work at the moment. And, if it's not a Warner Bros. title, you may be out of luck. 

Soon, this process will become a bit easier as consumers will be able to convert their own DVDs from the comfort of their homes. 

Much like converting VHS tapes to DVDs with converters and storing songs on mp3 players, CinemaNow, Vudu, and Flixster are testing out a service where users will be able to convert disc to digital without heading to stores.  

Right now, Singer says most people are being introduced to UV through Blu-Ray discs.   

Promotional campaigns are helping draw more users to UV as well. At the end of last December, Vudu offered ten free UV movies when signing up for an account and linking it to UltraViolet. 

Vudu screencap

The other thing UltraViolet will do is help shape and change the way we watch and share films. 

When signing up for UltraViolet, a user can register up to five people on one account to share their movie collection.  

Users are then able to run up to three streaming sessions simultaneously through one UltraViolet account.  

In theory, one person could be viewing one film on their laptop, while another is viewing a separate film on a tablet, while a third watches on mobile all at the same time. 

Though UV will signal for a giant push of movie storage on the Cloud, Singer shares this will not be the end of DVDs altogether.  

"If we still have CDs, 13 years after MP3, then we're going to have DVDs and Blu-Ray for a long time," says Singer. "UltraViolet allows this natural transition to happen in a way that's very consumer friendly. It allows consumers who want to buy Blu-Ray, but [also] share with family and have access across all their multiple screens."

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Tourette's Syndrome - Life With Tourette's

TOURETTE'S
To the outside world, it can appear something of a joke, but Tourette's is no laughing matter for those living with the syndrome. Sufferers' lives are forever marred by the constant, uncontrollable urge to shout, swear and tic inappropriately. In this remarkable story, we meet Jess, who finds it impossible to control the urge to say the word 'biscuit'. She says it hundreds, if not thousands of times every single day, often while punching herself in the chest. Jess invites Sunday Night into her life to experience what it's like to live with Tourette's. It is heartbreaking television. Rahni Sadler also meets an amazing young jazz singer who swears and tics uncontrollably off stage, but transforms into a composed and talented songstress on stage. This story will forever change the way you think about Tourette's.