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Variety Jones, Alleged Silk Road Mentor, Arrested In Thailand








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Microsoft Server Service NetpwPathCanonicalize Overflow

This Metasploit module exploits a stack overflow in the NetApi32 CanonicalizePathName() function using the NetpwPathCanonicalize RPC call in the Server Service. It is likely that other RPC calls could be used to exploit this service. This exploit will result in a denial of service on on Windows XP SP2 or Windows 2003 SP1. A failed exploit attempt will likely result in a complete reboot on Windows 2000 and the termination of all SMB-related services on Windows XP. The default target for this exploit should succeed on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 SP0-SP4+, Windows XP SP0-SP1 and Windows 2003 SP0.




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Windows NT/2K/XP/2K3/VISTA/2K8/7 NtVdmControl()-

Microsoft Windows NT/2K/XP/2K3/VISTA/2K8/7 NtVdmControl()->KiTrap0d local ring0 exploit. Google flags this as malware so only use this if you know what you are doing. The password to unarchive this zip is the word "infected".




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Expect $1.6 Trillion in Clean Energy Investments Through 2020, Says IEA

Investments in new clean-energy capacity will total $1.61 trillion through 2020 even as the expansion of renewables is expected to slow, the International Energy Agency said.




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Divesting from Fossil Fuels: Last One Out Loses

A new report written by Nathaniel Bullard at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) highlights the difficulties large institutional investors would have divesting from fossil fuels. What it does not specifically discuss is that these difficulties could lead to large financial losses for investors who see the difficulty of divesting as a reason to delay.




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Eco Wave to Raise $5 Million to Accelerate Ocean Energy Plans

Eco Wave Power, based in Israel, plans to raise $5 million by the end of the year to further develop its technology and projects that harness the power of the ocean to generate electricity.




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Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2014: September Update and Thoughts on the Finavera Deal

Clean energy stocks and the market in general rebounded strongly in August. My broad market benchmark of small cap stocks, IWM, rose 4.5 percent, returning to positive territory up 1.7 percent for the year. My clean energy benchmark PBW also jumped back into the black with an 11.1 percent gain for the month and 10.8 percent for the year to date.





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Exploring Finance Options: Yield-cos Don’t Fit the Bill for Many Renewable Energy Companies

Yield-cos have been grabbing headlines lately. Typically, large utilities spin off their high-yield alternative energy operations into separate smaller companies called yield-cos. These new companies are then taken public to attract individual and institutional investors.




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UN Climate Summit Heats Up Discussion on Global Warming, Carbon Emissions

More than 100 world leaders converged upon New York City today to discuss international efforts to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. The list of speakers at the UN Climate Summit included U.S. President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, French President François Hollande, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.




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RGGI Chair Says States Won’t Leave Emissions Trading Market for California, Quebec

California and Quebec, which together created the largest carbon market in North America this year, may come away empty-handed as they woo northeastern U.S. states to join their system.




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Scotland Rejects Independence, But Concerns Linger for a Renewables Future

Scotland’s decision to vote no to independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has elicited a collective sigh of relief from energy sector players. Those companies with significant investments in Scottish renewable energy assets had understandably been anxious over the uncertainty that an independent Scotland would engender, for example potentially changing the rules on support measures for renewable energy investment north of the border.




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Microgrid Economics: It Takes a Village, a University, and a Ship

As a businessman exploring investments, I need simple answers, however complicated the problem. I wish to know: Are microgrids economical? How much investment is needed and for what? What are the factors that principally affect profitability, within the system and in the environment? If microgrids are not profitable at the present, when will they be? I recognize that understanding microgrids as a system requires complicated mathematics and modeling. I’m sympathetic to and respect those who do that.




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Listen Up: Cap and Trade's Impact on Fuel Prices

Over 95 percent of climate scientists have concluded that CO2 is the primary cause of global warming. Solving the problem requires a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions. Some people are altruistic, but almost all businesses are bottom line oriented and will not reduce their CO2 emissions unless they have an economic incentive to do so. There are two realistic incentives: taxing CO2 emissions or setting up a cap and trade program for CO2. Since increasing taxes is politically unfeasible, the most practical approach is with a cap and trade program.




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EU Seeks Faster Renewable Energy Integration Amid Crisis in Ukraine

The European Union is seeking to speed up the creation of a common energy market to help its shift to a low-carbon economy and boost security of energy supplies amid a natural-gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine.





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Electrifying Keyna: How One African Country is Approaching Renewable Energy Development

Kenya’s renewable energy ambitions have attracted growing attention in recent months. There has been a strong uptick in interest in the country’s wind energy potential in particular. Last year, Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum said in an investment prospectus for 2013-2016 that it plans to boost wind power generation by 630 MW as part of its target to increase electricity levels by 5,000 MW by 2016. In March, the Kenyan government also signed a financing document for the largest private investment in Kenya.




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EU Nations Mull Funds to Aid Clean Energy in 2030 Climate Deal

European Union governments are considering the use of carbon-permit funds to help finance clean technologies and spur poorer nations toward a low-carbon economy under a planned deal on 2030 climate and energy policies.




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UK Green Bank Set to Draw Offshore Wind Investors to $1.6 Billion Fund

The U.K. Green Investment Bank is set to tie up the first investments in a $1.6 billion fund by the end of March, part of Britain’s push to cement its dominance in offshore wind power.




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The Next Revolution: Discarding Dangerous Fossil Fuel Accounting Practices

The green revolution and, in particular, renewable energy products such as solar power, wind turbines, geothermal and algae-based fuels are not waiting for viable technology — it already exists in many forms. What they are waiting for is a massive sea change in our antiquated financial accounting systems.





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Are Environmental Regulations Causing US Utility Bills to Surge?

U.S. electricity markets face years of higher prices as clean-air regulations shut more coal-fired power plants than earlier forecast, cutting supply and forcing producers to rely more on natural gas.




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US Midyear Elections Offer Opportunities and Challenges for Renewable Energy

Every time the U.S. holds midyear elections, the country almost always goes against the incumbent President’s party, which is always sobering to whomever holds The White House. And this week’s elections were no exception.




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Fossil Fuels Reap $550 Billion in Subsidies, Hindering Renewables Investment

Fossil fuels are reaping $550 billion a year in subsidies and holding back investment in cleaner forms of energy, the International Energy Agency said.




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Carbon Breakthrough: US, China Make Milestone Agreement to Fight Climate Change

President Barack Obama pledged deeper U.S. cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions and China will for the first time set a target for capping carbon emissions under an agreement between the world’s two biggest economies.




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IEA World Forecast: Stresses on Energy System Must Not Be Ignored

The world’s decision-makers must not let current events distract them from recognizing and addressing the longer-term signs of stress that are emerging in the global energy system, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned today at the launch of its annual World Energy Outlook 2014 report in London.




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Marine Energy Making Waves on Both Sides of the Pond

In recent months, a number of initiatives aimed at speeding up the development of the wave energy sector have been launched in the U.S. and Europe. As part of the ongoing work to establish a viable United States wave energy industry, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SANDIA) are working on the creation of a sophisticated open-source modeling tool known as WEC-Sim — and the U.S. Department of Energy is also enlisting the coding community to help in its development. Meanwhile, the European WavePOD project is an industry-wide initiative that aims to solve the problem of converting captured wave energy into electricity by creating a "standardised self-contained offshore electricity generator for the wave industry."




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Obama to Pledge $3 Billion for Climate Change Fund

President Barack Obama will pledge $3 billion to a United Nations climate-change fund that’s intended to help poor nations boost renewable energy and counter the ill effects of global warming.




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Shining a Light on Women Leaders in the Power Industry

In early 2013, a group of women, dubbed the Women in Power committee, assembled in Orlando, Florida to figure out how to honor women who have dedicated their careers to the power industry. The industry is male-dominated with men making up more than 75 percent of the workforce, according to estimates.




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EPA's Plan to Curb Carbon Pollution Can Save Billions

The news about the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants just got even better: the proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) can save the power industry and its customers — us — as much as $2 to $4 billion in 2020 and $6 to 9 billion in 2030, while cleaning our air and modernizing the electricity sector.




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Japan Should Continue Its Road Towards Renewables

The power sector crisis in Japan has entered a new stage. The recent refusal of Japanese utilities to grant grid access to new renewable energy projects should not be seen as a failure of Japan’s renewable energy policy, but as a consequential and necessary phase to extend Japan’s technological leadership into the power sector.




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Gas and Coal To Replace Hydropower in Brazil, Pollution to Follow

The Brazilian government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.




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German Utility EON To Ditch Fossil Fuel Arm, Focus on Renewables

EON SE’s plan to spin off its fossil fuel plants marks a watershed moment in Germany’s renewables effort that will likely bolster the country’s already leading position in clean energy.




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German Fossil Fuel Giant Jumps on Renewables Bandwagon

Germany’s biggest utility E.ON — long a pillar of the country’s fossil fuel and nuclear industry — dropped a bombshell on Europe’s business world with the announcement that the multinational was exiting the conventional energy market in favor of a new business model based on renewables, intelligent grid systems, energy management and other services. Indeed, the company seems finally to have drawn the logical consequences from the Energiewende, Germany’s renewable energy transition, after years of resisting the ambitious transformation of the nation’s energy supply.




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Leaked Internal Presentation Details the Oil Industry's Campaign to Stop Clean Energy

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) — whose members include Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP, and others — was caught red-handed late last month when a leaked internal presentation revealed a coordinated campaign to stomp out climate and clean energy progress in California, Oregon and Washington by propping up over 15 front groups that purport to represent the views of concerned citizens and the broader business community.




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Sage Advice is the Highlight of the Women in Power Luncheon

The advice that Pennwell’s 2014 Woman of the Year, Mary Powell, gave to women in the power industry during Tuesday’s Women in Power Luncheon might come as a surprise to some. It was this: Stop undercutting each other. Powell said the most difficult obstacles she has encountered in her various leadership roles have not come from men, but rather from other women. Small comments like “I don’t know how you do it [being a mom and holding a high-level job]”, serve to bring doubt and uncertainty to high achieving women in any industry, and ultimately can lead to women exiting their careers in order to fit what they perceive is the societal norm.




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India Plans Renewables Splurge, But Will Not Commit to Carbon Plan

India, the world’s third-largest polluter, will spend at least $100 billion on climate-related projects but isn’t ready to follow China and the U.S., the top two emitters, in promising to limit its fossil-fuel emissions.




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Japan's Prime Minister Re-Election Risks Undercutting Clean Energy Push

Shinzo Abe’s re-election as prime minister risks undercutting Japan’s commitment to clean energy at a time when incentives are under review and the nation’s utilities say they can’t accommodate capacity already planned.




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Renewable Energy Is Driving the Energy Transformation: REWNA Recap Video

Renewable energy stakeholders are well aware that clean energy is slowly but steadily transforming the energy landscape and that message couldn’t have been more clear at the recently concluded Power-Gen International, the largest show for the traditional power generation industry. Since all forms of power generation are represented at the show through the four co-located conferences, PennWell calls the second week in December "Power Generation Week."




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Solar Tariffs: Throttling America's Biggest Job Creation Machine

The U.S. Department of Commerce just announced that it will add high tariffs for solar modules imported from China. The Canadian government is also investigating the adoption of similar measures, following recent complaints filed by Ontario-based solar manufacturers. With the solar industry in hypergrowth, it’s not a surprise that these governments are interested in boosting new jobs, protecting their economies, and fostering the solar sector. The problem is that tariffs are a short-sighted approach that actually attack the future of North American solar on its home soil, and likely destroy more jobs than they create.





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Busting the Myth of “Job-Killing EPA Regulations”

Earlier this month, when EPA proposed a new health-protective air quality standard for the pollutants that form “ozone,” some critics predictably pounced on it as another example of a long string of “job-killing EPA regulations.” Yet last week, we learned that the U.S. economy created about 320,000 new jobs in November, and average wages are starting to rise as the labor market tightens.






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We Should be Looking to CEOs, Not Politicians, for Climate Change Action

In May of 2014, Speaker of the House John Boehner responded to a climate change question with, “listen, I’m not qualified to debate the science over climate change. I am astute to understand that every proposal that has come out of this administration to deal with climate change involves hurting our economy and killing American jobs. That can’t be the prescription for dealing with changes to our climate.” Speaker Boehner is not the only one reluctant to enter into the debate on climate change. In a March interview Mitch McConnell responded to a climate change remark with, “For everybody who thinks it's warming, I can find somebody who thinks it isn't…”