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(credit: Brightsource Energy)

This week, some misaligned mirrors at the nation's biggest solar thermal energy plant caused an electrical fire that took out one of the plant's three boiler towers. The fire comes as the plant has been under pressure from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for failing to meet its productions targets in the two years since the plant opened.

The solar thermal plant, called the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, is distinct from photovoltaic solar plants in that it doesn't use solar panels. Instead, it relies on an array of 78-square-foot mirrors, known as heliostats, to direct the hot desert sun to one of three 459-foot-high boiler towers. The heat creates steam in the boiler towers, which powers generators to create energy, which is then sold to PG&E and Southern California Edison.

On Thursday morning around 9:30 am, according to the Associated Press, some poorly-aimed heliostats focused the sun's energy about two-thirds of the way up the tower instead of at the boiler at the top of the tower. This caused electrical cables to catch fire, melting and scorching steam ducts and water pipes on the tower. Even though the plant reported that its personnel put the fire out within 20 minutes, NRG Energy told the Associated Press that it did not know when the tower would be back online. A second tower is also down for maintenance, leaving only one boiler tower producing energy for Ivanpah.

July 29 confrontation between Rohnert Park officer David Rodriguez and resident Don McComas. (credit: YouTube)

It's been months since Ars reported about a Northern California police officer who unholstered his gun and looked ready to shoot a man whose crime appeared to be nothing more than filming that officer scouring the neighborhood.

Officer David Rodriguez was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by officials from Rohnert Park, a city about 50 miles north of San Francisco. But his job was restored after the police department said the law enforcement official did nothing wrong. The video of the incident went viral and has been seen nearly half a million times on YouTube alone. The incident, in which Rohnert Park resident Don McComas and the officer were both filming each other, underscores that we are indeed living in a YouTube society—one in which there is distrust between the public and citizenry and one where footage speaks louder than words.

McComas is now suing the officer and the city of Rohnert Park for unspecified damages over the July 29 incident, among other things claiming a breach of his constitutional right of assembly and speech. McComas claims he was in front of his own residence putting a trailer to his vehicle when Rodriguez, who the department said was searching for parking scofflaws, drove up. McComas began filming with a mobile phone.

NASA/IMAX Corporation

A sunrise showcases the Earth's thin, thin atmosphere.

10 more images in gallery

The movie A Beautiful Planet lives up to its name. Earth is a planet, it is beautiful, and arguably it has never looked this good before. To capture imagery for this IMAX movie, NASA delivered 4K cameras to the space station in 2014, marking the first time 4K resolution cameras have been used to make a commercial film in orbit. Nevertheless, if you’re remotely interested in space, you’ve probably seen images and videos like these before.

That’s because astronauts have been taking amazing photos of planet Earth, with increasingly sophisticated cameras, during the 15 years the International Space Station has given them a semi-permanent platform to do so. Two years ago, NASA even activated several commercial HD video cameras on the exterior of the station to provide around-the-clock views of the planet in high definition. Earth—our pale blue dot, the cradle of humanity, an oasis of life in a cold, dark universe—has become an easy story to tell.

What has proven far more difficult for NASA and journalists to capture is the immensity and scope of the International Space Station. Even though it flies only a few hundred miles above Earth, the station still advances human spaceflight. Yet the station remains an abstract concept when compared to something as concrete as a rocket launch or a space shuttle. Is the station a tin can? Is it cramped? Just what is it like to live aboard?

Car Seat Headrest's Teens of Denial, released yesterday on Matador Records, sounds like 2002. To these ears at least, it brings to mind the debut album from turn-of-the-century alternative hero Ben Kweller (Sha, Sha). While being perfect soundtracks for a windows-down spring drive, these records also make you think. Thoughtful yet obtuse lyrics cause you to ponder a track long after it ends, and the compositions seem to offer new musical ideas every listen as they eschew typical song formats and instrumentations.

But Teens of Denial couldn't possibly exist 15 years ago—least of all because songwriter Will Toledo hadn't yet turned 10 years old. Toledo instead stands as a "new" voice among a younger generation of musicians (ala Chance The Rapper, age 23, or Torres, age 25) who grew up alongside our current digital music ecosystem. As such, Car Seat Headrest's first original album for a label represents a culmination of many changes the industry has gone through in the past decade-plus: instant accessibility to vast catalogues; the democratization of recording and releasing; the need to share it all immediately.

And if Teens of Denial stands as a sign of the times, things have turned out all right for us fans.