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quietus writes:"Remind me that the most fertile lands were built by the fires of volcanoes." -- Andrea Gibson, The Madness Vase.Ninety-two (92) percent of Kenya's electricity comes from renewable resources. About 50 percent of all that is covered by the 5 geothermal power stations at Olkaria, near Hell's Gate National Park.That park is just a tiny part of the thousands of miles long East African Rift System, where the Indian, Arabian and African continental plates meet.The big advantage of geothermal power is that it produces a steady base load of electricity -- currently 5GW at Olkaria, with an estimated total 10GW potential.That has aroused the interest of the German government, co-investors and providers of technical expertise for the project. The potential for geothermal power in Germany, through deep (miles deep) drilling is estimated at a quarter of the country's heating needs: before 2030, at least 100 geothermal power projects should be in place.Geothermal energy projects, however, are capital intensive -- the Olkaria project actually started getting steam in the 90s, mainly supported by the Japanese government and the United Nations Development Programme; Germany has been coinvesting for the last 20 years, alongside with the European Investment Bank. Besides, utility-scale solar and onshore wind is hovering at around $35 per MWh, while geothermal currently is slotted around $70 per MWh.However, solar and wind are intermittent sources of energy: if you want to buy reliability, nuclear or coal- and gas-fired plants are your comparison. In an April 2023 comparison, investment bank Lazard comes to an estimated cost, unsubsidized, between $68 and $166 per MWh for coal, $141 and $221 for nuclear, and $61 to $102 per MWh for geothermal energy. Only gas-combined-cycle power generation could potentially be cheaper ($39 to $101 per MWh), for providing base load (see page 2 in the pdf).Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

upstart writes:Introducing OURphone—an open-source DIY smartphone made with our favorite SBC:

upstart writes:The decades-old Sullivan's conjecture, about the best way to minimize the surface area of a bubble cluster, was thought to be out of reach for three bubbles and up:

hubie writes:Monkeys are Smarter Than We Thought:

upstart writes:A coalition of more than 50 European consumer and digitals rights groups, smaller ISPs and broadcasters are urging EU policymakers and Member States to reject a controversial network fee proposal being lobbied for by major telcos in the region:

upstart writes:Run your whole system from your GPU:

upstart writes:A sneak peek at Earth's eventual fate:

upstart writes:Boring Company Gets Approval to Expand Las Vegas Tunnels to 65-Mile Network:

upstart writes:Meta's ad business slapped with interim measures in France over suspected antitrust abuse:

upstart writes:As big as a football field and heavier than 200 elephants, de-orbiting the International Space Station represents a monumental challenge:

upstart writes:New process significantly speeds up 2D transistor production:

canopic jug writes:Entertainer Ed Sheeran has been found not guilty of infringing on four chords used in both his song and in Marvin Gaye's hit, "Let's Get It On". The same four-chord sequence is used in a lot of songs and at a key point in the trial a musicologist testified that the same four-chord sequence has been used in popular songs many times prior to Gaye's 1973 hit. The trial took place in Manhattan in New York and the jury took only three hours to reach a unanimous decision. The two songs featured at the trial also have very different lyrics and melodies as well as different use of the common four chords.While the decision does not form a legal precedent, it is likely to affect similar cases in the future.

hubie writes:Researchers show the positive impacts of musical activities to counteract brain ageing:

upstart writes:Always Be Closing – deals to grab that sweet, sweet renminbi:

canopic jug writes:Multiple sites have been reporting that former Audi CEO, Rupert Stadler, will plead guilty for his role in the 2015 emissions scandal where Audi and VW software was modified to evade emissions testing. The proprietary software embedded in the cars was modified to detect when the cars were being operated in testing conditions and modified the vehicle's operation to reduce emissions enough to pass the inspection. However, during normal operation, they polluted like crazy, up to 40x the NOx shown during testing conditions. The plea deal he has been offered to him in this trial which started 2020 is expected to be a €1.1 million fine and serve a suspended sentence of up to two years. Stadler has spent several months in pre-trial detention to prevent him from interfering with witnesses further.

upstart writes:Google will remove secure website indicators in Chrome 117:

upstart writes:The bid includes large players such as Airbus Defence and Space, Eutelsat, and SES:

fliptop writes:The agency continues its post-quantum cryptography push as it looks to create guidance for all sectors:

DannyB writes:My wife just SMS'd me this, since I've never had one of those Tweeter things . . .From JMS on Twitter . . .

fliptop writes:Photonic circuits are a very promising technology for neural networks because they make it possible to build energy-efficient computing units. For years, the Politecnico di Milano has been working on developing programmable photonic processors integrated on silicon microchips only a few mm2 in size for use in the field of data transmission and processing, and now these devices are being used to build photonic neural networks:

upstart writes:A baby girl who developed a life-threatening brain condition was successfully treated before she was born:

upstart writes:The notorious Monopoly Market site has been seized and 288 suspects have been arrested:

upstart writes:Hydrated dunes suggest water can persist on some parts of the Martian surface, according to data from China's troubled Zhurong rover:

upstart writes:Samsung to pay out $303M for memory patent infringement:

upstart writes:Yet another piece of hardware becomes junkAmazon Halo is dead, and it's a bigger deal than you think:

upstart writes:Neither war nor bad sensors nor a nautical journey will keep this probe from building a 3D map of space:

owl writes:https://www.righto.com/2022/11/a-bug-fix-in-8086-microprocessor.html

TSMC May Charge 30 Percent More for Chips Made at its Arizona Fabsupstart writes:The chipmaker is looking for $15 billion in subsidies from the US government:

upstart writes:Netflix Loses A Million Subscribers In Spain After Greedy Password Sharing Crackdown:

SpaceX Completes First Fully Expendable Falcon Heavy MissionSpaceX Completes First Fully Expendable Falcon Heavy Mission:

An Anonymous Coward writes:

IBM to Stop Hiring for Jobs That AI Could Doupstart writes:Routine tasks like transferring employees between departments are likely to be fully automated:

upstart writes:It looks like Microsoft is gearing up for a long and difficult fight with regulators for its $68.7 billion deal:

upstart writes:A new system was able to capture exact words and phrases from the brain activity of someone listening to podcasts:

upstart writes:Software vendors and the EU weren’t interested, so giving it away became the best option:

upstart writes:Pornhub protests Utah age verification law by blocking the state's access:

The Morning After: the Godfather of AI Leaves Google Amid Ethical Concernsupstart writes:The Morning After: The Godfather of AI leaves Google amid ethical concerns:

Cops Raid Swedish VPN Provider Only to Find Out There's No 'There' Thereupstart writes:Cops Raid Swedish VPN Provider Only To Find Out There's No 'There' There:

upstart writes:Improvements to future versions of Python are set to speed it up, slim it down, and pave the way toward even better things:

upstart writes:The European Union is writing legislation that would hold accountable companies that create generative AI platforms:

upstart writes:Musk explained it exploded after a 40-second delay:I think that many people had already reached this conclusion but it is nice to have confirmation about the time delay.

upstart writes:UK chip giant Arm files for blockbuster US share listing:

upstart writes:The Kingdom Of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin For Years:

looorg writes:https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218380120

upstart writes:World's encyclopedia warns draft law could boot it offline in UK:

SunTzuWarmaster writes:Hospital and university clinics have historically helped people post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias using virtual reality to immerse them in simulations that help them reckon with the problem. It was the foundation of a US Army program called BraveMind ( https://medvr.ict.usc.edu/projects/bravemind.html ). It is a virtual version of the longstanding technique called exposure therapy, in which people confront memories or fears, such as fear of flying or confined spaces - done actively with a therapist. However, a limited number of virtual-reality scenarios are available, and many patients must go to a specialized clinic for such care. Last week in the Wall Street Journal, they covered that researchers are aiming to make immersive VR-based therapy more personal and bring it into people's homes.Full Story: https://www.wsj.com/articles/confronting-your-fears-in-virtual-reality-therapy-1b4200dThe future of this technology will certainly almost certainly involve home care, large language models, and generative content scaled to the users' appropriate level...Related: Inmates are Using VR to Learn Real-world SkillsOriginal SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

upstart writes:Meta says about 10% of its global ad revenue at risk from EU data flows order:

upstart writes:The space agency is hoping that future astronauts can use this technology for longterm habitation on the Moon:

upstart writes:Snapdragon giant and others insist alleged data gathering is overblown:

fliptop writes:Dropbox announced Thursday it has laid off 500 employees, approximately 16% of its workforce, with company leaders seeing emerging challenges to its business model: