Clearing The Desktop

In fact, in Ubuntu Linux 12.04 with the Gnome 3 shell, the default desktop is completely clear, and many of us keep it that way in the interest of sanity. So I'm speaking only metaphorically...

• Tesla Announces New Product To ‘Fundamentally Change The Way The World Uses Energy’ (H/T ellroon. The new product is a battery.)
  
  
• Judge Halts Work On Maryland Pipeline Due To Environmental Concerns (Don't get your hopes up; the ruling is by a Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge, and I don't doubt the pipeline company has an appeals court judge securely in its pocket somewhere up the line.)
  
  
• Hawaii Will Soon Get All Of Its Electricity From Renewable Sources (Give me a few minutes to pack my bags, and a few more to earn another $1m or so to live on in Hawaii for a couple of years...)
  
  
• NSA Phone Data Collection Program Revealed By Edward Snowden Ruled Illegal (What a surprise! [/irony])
  
  
• French Lawmakers Approve Sweeping Expansion Of Spying Programs (Following in America's footsteps, despite all typical wisdom of the French...)
  
  
• Can Bernie Sanders Break Through the Status Quo?
  He may have already done it, with his unapologetic defense of social democracy and assaults on the “billionaire class.”
  
  

Tesla Gigafactory In Nevada Aims To Be A Game‑Changer In EV Market

Here's a very short excerpt from Juan Cole's article on Tesla's announcement of a new factory in Nevada:

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Clean Technica points out that the battery-making factory is on track to reduce battery prices by 30% by 2017, making EVs indisputably cheaper than fossil fuel-driven internal combustion, at less than $100 per kilowatt hour. (Of course, if externalities are taken into account, like the cost of environmental disruption caused by global warming, EVs are already far, far cheaper than gasoline engines. Moreover, if coupled with rooftop solar panels, i.e. with free fuel, their pay-off time is even quicker and households can cut tons of CO2 emissions each year). [Bolds mine. - SB]

Not only will the gigafactory lead to cheaper auto batteries, it will also lead to better battery storage for home solar panels so you can store solar power and use it at night.

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Roadster (source: Wikipedia)

This is a companion to some steps Tesla has already taken, such as releasing their patents open-source fashion for "good faith" use. Needless to say, any activist environmentalist would love to switch to driving a Tesla exclusively with no delay and no annoying considerations like high price standing in the way of doing so: technologies available, open-source, to other makers and batteries actually capable of use in a practical EV combine to raise the rate at which the transition can happen considerably.

The thought of living long enough to replace my late father's 20-year-old (!!) Chevy with a practical EV at a cost I can manage is a very appealing notion. Elon Musk seems to change the level of the whole game not less often than once a year or so. Watch this space!