Author: Megan Geuss

On Thursday, Wall Street’s bookkeeper announced that it had successfully tested blockchain technology to manage single-name credit default swaps (CDS) among four big banks: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan.

In a credit default swap, one bank buys the debt owed to another bank with the understanding that if the debt holder defaults on their loan, the buyer bank will be compensated by the selling bank. In the years leading up to the 2008 recession, the buying and selling of credit default swaps was not watched by regulators at all, and as an NPR explainer described it in October 2008, "If bad mortgages got the financial system sick, credit default swaps helped spread the illness worldwide."

The need for more transparency is where blockchain comes in. The concept of the blockchain ledger was developed and popularized by virtual currency Bitcoin, and on a blockchain ledger peer-to-peer transactions can be monitored by every entity that’s party to the ledger, theoretically resulting in more transparency. And recently Silicon Valley has pushed the finance world to appropriate the blockchain concept to make more traditional transactions more efficient, as well: if transactions are seamlessly recorded on a shared ledger, using a middleman to clear the transactions is no longer necessary.

(credit: Florival fr )

Tesla has "no current plans to open a factory in Europe,” a spokesperson for the company told Ars. But that hasn’t stopped French Energy and Environment Minister Ségolène Royal from saying that her best idea for repurposing an old nuclear power plant in northeastern France is to try to convince Tesla to build a factory there for its electric vehicles.

The Fessenheim plant, which sits on the France/Germany border, went into operation in 1978 and is currently operated by French energy company EDF. Today, it’s the oldest working nuclear power plant in France, but after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, the French government decided to close the facility by 2017 in the interest of safety. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported earlier this week that in 2014, a water leak was discovered coming from one of the reactors, but jammed control rods forced EDF to shut the reactor down using unconventional methods. Deutsche Welle says that the incident was played down by EDF in 2014.

Still, many people oppose the closure of the power plant, with Royal noting in previous interviews that the nuclear plant supports some 2,000 jobs. France currently relies on nuclear power to supply 75 percent of its electricity nationwide, but the French government has said it wants to reduce this share to 50 percent by 2025, according to Deutsche Welle.

(credit: Jeremy Buckingham)

Southern California Gas recently told California’s air regulator that it wants to fix the damage done by one of its leaking natural gas storage wells, which ultimately released tens of thousands of tons of methane into the atmosphere. That is, as long as making things right doesn’t cost too much.

In a proposal sent to SoCal Gas earlier this month (PDF), the California Air Resources Board (CARB) outlined sustainability projects that the utility could undertake to compensate for the pollution caused by the massive leak. Some of the projects that CARB suggested included reducing methane emissions from agriculture facilities like dairies and waste treatment plants, which are notorious for how much methane they belch; promoting sustainable energy initiatives by replacing old water heaters or subsidizing zero-emissions vehicles; and addressing “orphan” environmental issues that no company bears a responsibility for, like cleaning up abandoned oil wells.

Two weeks later, the gas company responded (PDF), saying that it would prefer to count its methane emissions using a more relaxed standard than the one CARB used in its proposal.

The rear window. (credit: Megan Geuss)

When Elon Musk took the stage Thursday night at his Hawthorne design facility, the CEO of Tesla revealed a pre-production prototype of the Model 3, the company’s highly anticipated $35,000 car. The presentation was short and included a summary of Tesla’s history, a status update on the Gigafactory, and a look at how Tesla plans to expand its supercharger stations.

Actual details about the Model 3's specifications were slim. We learned that it will come with top-rated safety features and supercharging, even for the basic version of the car. We learned that all the Model 3s will come with the hardware necessary for autopilot features. (Although certain autonomous functions will require the customer to buy an upgrade.) And we learned the car will go 215 miles on a single charge at a minimum, and it will get from zero to 60 in “less than six seconds.”

Before the event, Musk called Thursday night’s event "Part 1" of the Model 3's debut, later adding that “Part 2 is super next level, but that’s for later…” The Model 3 isn’t due out of production until the end of 2017.

Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage

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Back in January, a production group called CineConcerts launched a commemoration to science fiction’s greatest 50-year-old franchise, Star Trek. CineConcerts has been around for a while, pairing visual media from film and TV with a live symphony orchestra to allow concert goers to experience well-known scenes from their favorite shows with a more music-forward approach. With the Star Trek franchise, CineConcerts will play some of the series’ best-known musical themes. And the group will project montages from well-known parts of Star Trek movies and TV shows or individual scenes from the TV shows on a big-screen timed precisely to specific musical cues.

The tour has a little over a month left in its run and a couple dozen more cities to hit, including Los Angeles, Rapid City, South Dakota, and Paris, France. Before the commemoration draws to a close, Ars caught up with Brady Beaubien, a producer and writer for the Star Trek concert tour (called "The Ultimate Voyage"). Beaubien is also a co-founder of the CineConcerts group, which has produced similar live symphony orchestra concerts focusing on films like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Gladiator, The Godfather, It’s A Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Dream.

Beaubien said he was attracted to the Star Trek project because he grew up watching The Next Generation. "I’ve always been a huge Star Trek fan. It’s had a profound affect on my intellectual development and enhanced my traditional education,” he told Ars. “When we started talking to Paramount about creating a special experience [to celebrate Star Trek’s 50^th anniversary], this seemed like a wonderful way to give people a new way to experience it. It seemed like the model that we had developed with CineConcerts was uniquely suited [to the franchise].”

HAWTHORNE, CA—Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk took the stage at the Tesla Design Studio to reveal the Tesla Model 3. "It's very important to accelerate the transition to sustainable transport," Musk said. "The last time there was this level of carbon concentration in the atmosphere was 11 million years ago."

"Beyond global warming there are 53,000 deaths per year from auto emissions,"Musk added.

Tonight, Musk released the first official details on the company’s most important car to date, the Tesla Model 3. The base version of the all-electric vehicle will have a range of 215 miles, a continuous pane of glass on the rear roof, and front and rear trunks. Musk added that the car could comfortably fit a 7ft surfboard.

British auto show Top Gear will return in May to BBC Two and BBC America, and the network just released a trailer to give UK and US audiences a taste of what’s to come. The show will be different from previous seasons without longtime former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. Those three have since signed a three-year deal with Amazon to create another car show.

Instead, the new season of Top Gear features former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc, who had previously appeared on Top Gear as the fastest “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.” LeBlanc’s presence will probably help the show gain broader appeal in the US, and the actor is a noted Formula 1 fan. He likely won’t be out of place.

Other presenters will include Chris Evans, Sabine Schmitz, Formula 1 commentator Eddie Jordan, and Rory Reid. In the trailer, we see racing driver Jenson Button behind the wheel of a lime green McLaren 675LT, Chris Harris in a yellow Ferrari F12, and LeBlanc in what appears to be an Ariel Nomad.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Volkswagen Group of America (VGoA) on Tuesday, alleging that VGoA deceived American consumers with its “Clean Diesel” ad campaign. The FTC charged that "Super Bowl ads, online social media campaigns, and print advertising,” targeted environmentally conscious consumers, when in reality, Volkswagen’s Jettas, Passats, Golfs, and other diesel vehicles were the opposite of environmentally conscious.

Volkswagen Group was charged with a Notice of Violation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September, alleging that the automaker had installed so-called defeat devices, or illegal software, on its 2009-2015 diesel cars that made them emit up to 40 times the amount of nitrogen oxide (NO_x) as is legally allowed under normal driving conditions. The cars had been certified by the EPA because during EPA lab tests, VW’s software would sense that the car was being tested in a lab and let the emissions control system work properly under those conditions.

Volkswagen later admitted that up to 11 million diesel vehicles were equipped with the software, prompting investigations in the US and Europe. The Department of Justice sued VW Group in January, and the company has been in ongoing negotiations with the EPA and California’s air regulator to find a fix for the cars that would put them in compliance with the Clean Air Act.

Right now, VW only has a single electric vehicle, the e-Golf. Expect that to change. (credit: Volkswagen)

Volkswagen will recall the 5,561 e-Golf electric vehicles that it’s sold in the US since November 2014 due to a battery software problem, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA) said today. Customers will have to bring their cars to dealerships to get a software update.

According to an NTHSA report (PDF), the e-Golf's battery management software is at risk of stalling the car if the system detects a power surge. Specifically, the administration writes, "Oversensitive diagnostics for the high-voltage battery management system may falsely detect an electrical surge resulting in the vehicle's electric drive motor shutting down unexpectedly.” The NTHSA report noted that power steering, anti-lock brakes, lights, and airbags on the e-Golf were unaffected by the high-voltage battery glitch because they’re powered by a separate 12V battery system.

The recall was initiated by Volkswagen, rather than a US regulator, and the fix for the problem involves a software update made at a Volkswagen dealer. Mark Gillies, Volkswagen spokesperson, confirmed to Ars that “the software reflash is very simple to enact at the dealership.”

On Wednesday night there was a break in at Comics Plus, a comic book shop in Macon, GA. According to WMAZ, a local news outlet, the bandit or bandits used a crowbar to pry open the door and then disabled the alarm system by cutting out the wires and ripping it off the wall.

While the robbers made off with a safe containing $2,200 in cash, the more valuable pilfered items were the first eight issues of Justice League of America as well as the first 20 issues of X-Men. The owner of the store, Will Peavy, said that the early 1960’s issues were graded, meaning they had been authenticated and given a score based on their condition.

Peavy said the Justice League set was worth $100,000, and he told WMAZ that the X-Men set also had a “six-figure value.”