Good news from BYD electric bus
BYD electric buses got big order from China. (1,200 units!). The latest batch of good news comes from Copenhagen, Denmark, where BYD says an ebus has managed to drive over 200 miles on a single charge. The official number was 325 kilometers (202 miles), and the bus managed it with eight percent of the charge in the battery pack remaining. The bus was in real-world use by City-Trafik and went on a 133.6-mile highway route after running the Route 12 path (68.4 miles) where it carried an average of 40 passengers. This beats the previous record of 310 km (192 miles) and is well beyond the official stated range of 155 miles.
Duke Energy Cited for Dumping 61 Million Gallons of Toxic Waste
Environmental regulators in North Carolina have cited Duke Energy for intentionally dumping 61 million gallons of toxic coal ash waste into a canal that feeds a river which supplies drinking water. Duke is already under federal investigation for a coal ash spill in February that coated the bottom of another river with 70 miles of toxic sludge. North Carolina regulators have faced accusations of guarding Duke from litigation over coal ash. Governor Pat McCrory worked at Duke for 28 years.
NSA Exploited “Heartbleed” Bug; Obama Issues Exemption on Computer Safety
The National Security Agency has reportedly known of the massive new Internet bug “Heartbleed” for several years — and even adopted it for its own use. Bloomberg News reports the NSA was made aware of Heartbleed in early 2012. The bug leaves private web information open to theft by hackers, including passwords and browsing history. Instead of reporting Heartbleed to repair its flaws, the NSA reportedly started using it as a means to steal passwords. The NSA has denied the report, saying it wasn’t aware of the Heartbleed vulnerability until it became public this month. If confirmed, the use of Heartbleed would apparently fall under a newly revealed exemption for the NSA’s handling of Internet security flaws. According to The New York Times, President Obama has exempted the NSA from disclosing major Internet bugs in cases where “a clear national security or law enforcement need” would justify keeping it secret.