Month: September 2017

(credit: Matt Hintsa)

Today, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry directed the nation’s federal grid regulator to create rules favoring coal, hydroelectric, and nuclear generators. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) (PDF) stated that the Federal Energy Regulatory Council (FERC) must order grid operators to increase how they value “reliability and resilience attributes” in energy generation.

Although no specific electricity sources were mentioned as beneficiaries of the rule, generating units that can hold a 90-day supply of fuel on site would be favored. Coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric power plants fit the bill, and variably-generating renewable resources like wind and solar would be left out of whatever compensation scheme comes out of FERC's rulemaking process.

Promoting coal has been a primary goal for the new Trump Administration, echoed fervently by Perry, a former Texas governor with ties to the fossil fuel industry. Although burning coal is one of the most polluting sources of electricity used in the US, and the shale boom has made cheap and cleaner-burning natural gas a popular alternative, the shift away from coal has been resisted by political forces. Trump himself has called climate change a “hoax,” and although Perry has been somewhat more deliberate in choosing his words since taking the secretary's office, he's also called into question the anthropogenic nature of climate change despite exhaustive evidence to support human-caused warming.

(credit: Bethesda)

What's stopped you from playing the original 1997 version of Fallout in recent years? Can't find your old install CD? Too busy playing other games? Afraid to once again run into a deathclaw?

Bethesda wants to fix that with a 20th anniversary gift: a free copy of the very first Fallout game. The giveaway is a Steam exclusive, so you can't head to shops like GOG or Humble to claim a copy, but it's otherwise as simple as logging in and choosing "install game" from its Steam store listing. As of right now, you have a little over 24 hours to claim the freebie, which expires at midnight Pacific time on Saturday, September 30. (That was the game's exact release date in 1997, if you're keeping score.)

Sadly, no other games in the series have received a discount to honor the game's birthday, and Bethesda has not timed any other new game or content releases to honor the date. You'll have to wait until December 12 for the next big one: Fallout 4 VR, which will launch exclusively for the HTC Vive headset on that date for $59.99. (That price will likely only include that game's core content, as opposed to Fallout 4's "game of the year" edition that includes its extra DLC for free.)

Enlarge / Former US Heath and Human Services Secretary Tom Price (credit: Getty | Chip Somodevilla)

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned today amid a scandal over his use of private planes.

An announcement from the White House revealed that Price handed in his resignation on Friday and President Donald Trump accepted it.

Price is leaving amid an investigation into his use of private jets for business trips. Politico has estimated that Price has spent more than $1 million in taxpayer money on travel since May.

Enlarge / A 2003 Ford F-150 (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Losing your car to thieves sucks. A Greeley, Colorado man had his Ford F-150 truck stolen in 2015 and two years later was still without his main set of wheels. Now, thanks to Facebook, he has his truck back and a suspect is in custody.

Greeley resident Marvin Trevizo filed a police report in 2015 after he went outside to find that his 2003 Ford F-150 wasn’t where he left it. Fast forward to 2017, and it still hadn't been recovered. A couple weeks ago however, Trevizo was browsing Facebook and a photo caught his attention. It was a very familiar-looking truck that he was seeing because the picture had been “liked” by a sister of one of his Facebook friends. Not only did the truck on Facebook have the same dent as his and the same set of custom wheels, it showed a man by the name of Gustavo Almanza-Pena standing next to it.

Chatting with his Facebook friend, Trevizo discovered that Almanza-Pena occasionally lived at a condo complex in Windsor, Colorado, so he headed over to the complex and saw his stolen truck parked outside. He then went to the Windsor Police Department to inform them of his discovery. Police officers drove to the parking lot, spotted the truck, and noticed a dodgy-looking temporary license plate with an incorrect VIN. Once Trevizo produced the keys to his truck and unlocked it remotely, officers had the truck towed.

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LG has launched a new smartphone, the LG K7i, that the company says will repel mosquitoes using ultrasonic waves. The company claims the device addresses a real concern in the phone's target market—India—but many scientists say the underlying tech does not, in fact, repel mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes are a nuisance in parts of India, and in some cases they carry diseases like dengue fever and the chikungunya virus, which have become common in urban centers. Malaria is also a risk in India. LG is selling consumer electronics devices in India, and it has been marketing a technology called "Mosquito Away," which claims to repel the mosquitos. The tech has previously appeared in air conditioners and other LG products, and now it's a key part of the LG K7i's marketing. LG says its tests of the LG K7i repelled "on average 72 percent of disease-spreading mosquitoes," according to CNN.

However, the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) and other groups say it won't work. Texas A&M University entomology professor Dr. Roger Gold spent years running studies that have debunked ultrasonic bug repellant as well. According to the AMCA: "At least 10 studies in the past 15 years have unanimously denounced ultrasonic devices as having no repellency value whatsoever." The organization goes on to say that nevertheless, the tech has proven to be an "exceedingly effective marketing tool for the repeller manufacturers."