Demand for electricity around the world is growing. Renewables, along with nuclear power, have met most of the growth in demand. However, production from coal- and gas-fired power plants increased significantly, driving up the sector’s CO2 emissions by 2.5%.

If you are concerned about the source of the electricity you consume and don’t want to use energy from fossil or nuclear power plants, you can choose power company by yourself. Some of these companies, for example, get their energy only from clean hydropower or solar panels. Others, on the other hand, have several wind farms.

Electricity, the weight of renewables

Global demand for electricity increased to 900 TWh, almost twice as fast as overall energy demand and the fastest since 2010, when the global economy recovered from the financial crisis. Most of this increase in electricity demand was met by renewables.

Reliance on bioenergy pays off for Europe

Solar, hydro and wind each account for 30 percent of the growth in global renewable electricity generation, while bioenergy accounts for most of the remaining renewable share.

Solar Energy & Photovoltaics

The sun sends gigantic amounts of energy to the earth – enough energy in one hour to theoretically supply the entire earth with electricity for a year. Photovoltaic modules, which can be found on building roofs and open spaces around the world, are correspondingly tempting. They work with semiconductors made of silicon that convert sunlight into electricity. Alternatively, sunlight can be used to generate heat. In this case, solar thermal collectors use sunlight to heat oil or water. The warm water is then used for heating.

Hydropower

Flowing water also generates energy. Hydroelectric power plants use turbines located in a river or in the wall of a dam. The flow of the river moves the turbine wheels. The wheels in turn drive electricity generators.

Wind Energy

Wind energy is energy obtained from wind turbines that generate electrical energy by harnessing the natural power of the wind. The principle works like a windmill: The wind drives an electrical generator. This converts the movement of the windmill blades into electrical energy.

As a part of renewable energy, wind power is considered one of the most environmentally friendly methods of generating electricity.

Sources of Bioenergy

Other sources of electricity include plant and animal waste. When this biomass is burned in a boiler, the process releases heat that subsequently causes water to boil. The resulting steam drives turbines that generate electricity via generators – similar to a traditional coal-fired power plant.

Biomass power plants achieve optimum efficiency when they simultaneously use the waste heat for heating.

Bioenergy makes an important contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to the sustainable management of forests, while allowing the achievement of the objectives of the European green economy.

Bioenergy accounts for 57% of the renewable energy consumed in Europe.

Bioenergy, we recall, means all types of energy derived from the conversion of natural and biological sources (called biomass) available on a renewable basis.

Today these energy sources represent 57% of the renewable energies consumed in Europe. 70% is used for domestic heating (66 million European citizens use them in their homes), 15% for electricity production, 15% as biofuel for transport.

Bioenergy for the climate

On the fight against climate change and the reduction of emissions, in particular CO2, it must be said that when the biomass comes from forests where carbon stocks are stable or increasing, the emissions of bioenergy, at the time of combustion, are offset by the growth of the forests where the fuel was produced.

In fact, the CO2 emitted with the combustion of biomass is equal to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed in the growth phase.

Innovation and the growth of the green economy

Thanks then to new technological solutions of appliances such as stoves, boilers or district heating networks, able to significantly reduce emissions, air quality can be improved.

It should also be considered the weight for local economies, because bioenergy allows rural and mountain areas to exploit the energy heritage inherent in their territories, helping to preserve the European energy autonomy.

Phone surveillance apps can monitor incoming and outgoing phone calls, intercept messaging (WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Snapchat, Espiar Instagram, etc.) and SMS, listen to what’s going on in the room with a microphone, locate and capture images from phone cameras. These applications are hidden and undetectable by the user.

What is spyware?

Spyware is a special application that allows the user to monitor some activity on another user’s device (calls, texts, searches, etc.). Such software is relatively legal and popular with certain users.

Parameters to consider when choosing spyware:

• Types of data and activity being tracked;
• The quality and efficiency of tracking – most programs do not have such high levels and you will not get access to all of the data anyway;
• The degree of secrecy of the application’s actions on the tracked device;
• Stability of information transfer;
• Convenience of configuring and managing the spyware application, adequacy of the interface;
• Additional functionality.

Commercial spyware

Commercial spyware has been the subject of public discussion and criticism on several occasions, but its status in most countries remains uncertain. Some vendors position their programs as parental controls. However, despite some overlap in functionality, these programs should not be confused with these kinds of applications and programs designed to help users find a lost phone. First, commercial surveillance programs are distributed through their own sites, which is a violation of Google’s security guidelines. Second, the capabilities of these programs allow them to violate a user’s privacy without their knowledge – the application icon can be hidden in the application menu while the program is running in the background, with some of the application’s functions performing surveillance (e.g. recording the victim’s voice). Some programs even remove traces of their presence on the phone, and remove installed security solutions after the attacker grants the app root rights.

Are phone spyware programs legal?

Yes, if your underage children are involved.

Can I install phone spying apps remotely?

The installation requires physical access to the device or access using a remote access program.

Can I send surveillance apps via email?

Yes, if you have written permission from the owner of the device to install such software.

Conclusion

There is no need to prove that stalkerware applications have negative consequences – already their original concept is absolutely unethical. However, there are many other threats to which the user who installs them is exposed. Such apps violate app store rules, damage device security, and expose data collected from victims to the risk of leakage through hacking. Subsequently, the stolen data can be used for all kinds of malicious activities, from extortion to digital identity theft.

Just a few short years ago it would have been impossible to to find out who owns a phone number but this is not the case any longer. Doing a “reverse telephone lookup” as it’s often called, can be as simple as clicking a few buttons on a web site. You can even do it from your smartphone and check someone out as soon as you meet them. Back in the days of printed telephone directories this would have seemed like science fiction but today it’s very much fact and a part of everyday life.

Why would you want to do a reverse phone check?

If you have never needed to look someone up by their phone number then it might not be obvious to you where and when it might be beneficial to do so. Here are a few reasons why you might consider using a reverse phone directory.

1. Did you get a strange call?

Did you ever get a call from someone that you didn’t know? Perhaps you missed the call and you are curious about the number that you don’t recognize. Should you call them back to find out who it was or do you go online and get some details about the owner of the number first?

2. Do you have a new friend?

Have you just met someone new but you aren’t sure that they are being honest with you? Why not check out the phone number he gave you. You can make sure that it is his number and find out some background information on him at the same time. It would be nice to know if he has a criminal record for instance wouldn’t it?

3. Learn more about the sender of that email

Have you received an email from someone that you don’t know? If there is a phone number in the signature then you can look to see who it’s registered to.

4. Is your partner being honest with you?

Have you found a piece of paper with a number on it around the house? It could have fallen out of the laundry for instance. Do a reverse check on the number to make sure that your partner isn’t hiding anything from you.

How to do a reverse telephone lookup

Finding out who owns a telephone number could not be easier than it is today. All you have to do is visit a reverse telephone directory web site, enter the number you are interested in and pay a small fee. Not only will this give you access to details and background information about the owner it will also allow you to look up as many numbers as you want to.

Checking out a phone number is quick, efficient and very affordable so go and do it.

Risks of prosecution that arise from the actions of the entrepreneur, the actions of his partners and employees are internal risks that can and should be managed.

Businessmen already do this by controlling management, personnel, and accounting records. But there are internal risks which entrepreneurs forget about or do not see as dangerous. Let’s break them down in more detail.

Conflicts with co-owners

It often happens that yesterday the partners were friends and made joint plans for business development, and today they have become sworn enemies. The most common cause is the redistribution of power or money. If the co-owners fail to agree, it can lead to business bankruptcy and subsidiary liability for debts, when these debts have to be paid with personal property.

For example, he reports violations to the tax authorities, which can lead to a criminal case and a real sentence. The most frustrating thing is that all the compromising information is passed on to the controlling authorities by the former friend, because he has all the accounting data, documents on dividend payments, personnel and other documents of the company.

How to reduce the risk

• Check the incorporation documents. An ill-conceived charter often provokes problems and impedes decision making. If it is often impossible to come to a compromise with the partners, it is worth consulting a lawyer. He will advise what changes to the articles of association can be made to reduce the risks for all partners. For example, co-owners are constantly in conflict over the distribution of profits. One meets with suppliers, looking for new clients, repairing premises, and the other only comes to general meetings. According to the law, profits are distributed proportionally between the owners, but these proportions can be changed in the charter – entrepreneurs must agree on this immediately, so that no disputes arise in the future.

• Sign a corporate agreement, which sets out the procedure for resolving conflicts. The law provides quite a few ways to protect the rights of participants with small shares. For example, one participant owns 70% of the shares and three of them have 10% each. To prevent the first participant from pushing his opinion, instead of voting on the size of the shares, you can fix in the contract decision-making on the principle of “one participant – one vote”. It is not always possible to figure out the current problem or to see possible non-obvious points on your own – lawyers can help.

Conflicts with employees

The perpetrator of a criminal case may be an employee who feels offended – for example, that he was not given a promised promotion or was deprived of a bonus. In a fit of revenge, he complains to the labor inspectorate, the tax office, or the prosecutor’s office, often inventing the employer’s faults. Supervisory agencies are obliged to respond to the complaint and come to the company for an unscheduled inspection.

For example, an entrepreneur has divided one large store into several smaller departments. Employees of the firm register as entrepreneurs, get their area for rent, enter into a contract of guarantee and sell the goods. All these contracts the offended employee can hand over to law enforcement with a description of the scheme of tax evasion by splitting the business.

How to reduce the risk

• Limit employee access to information. Each employee should have access only to those documents that are necessary for his work. The fewer employees have access to classified documents, the safer for the business will be the audit initiated by the employee.
• Develop rules for storing information that needs to be protected. This includes information that constitutes trade secrets and personal data. Employees responsible for the production, storage and exchange of such documents should be made aware of the rules. For example, one may enter the room where confidential information is stored only in the presence of the manager or chief accountant.

Yes absolutely free investigations are a myth but you can do some very useful background checking for very reasonable prices. In fact if you do it right then investigating someone online can cost you less than a cup of good coffee.

Nothing is ever truly free

Everything comes with a price whether it’s your money, someone else’s money or the investment of your time and effort. Doing background checks on someone is no exception. You either have to pay for someone’s services to investigate and discover the secrets in someone’s life or you have to do that work yourself. There is another way though. It may not be as thorough and accurate as hiring an expensive private investigator. Neither is it completely free but looking up someone’s details with a public records web site can not only be effective but it can also work out to be very inexpensive.

Public records web sites are a relatively new option that has been made possible by the incredible advances in Internet technology in recent years. Businesses have seen the need to make public information available to everyone and they have made it their mission to provide you with that very information. Now you can have access to it whenever you meet or do business with people or even when you are simply curious about them.

Background checks the long, hard and inexpensive way

If you know what you are doing then it is often possible to find out a lot of stuff about someone by trawling the Internet using search engines like Google and by physically visiting places where records are kept.

I must declare that I am certainly no expert when it comes to tracking down people in this way but I do know that it will involve you in an awful lot of time consuming searching, traveling and visiting places like court houses and other records offices.

Some of this will also cost you money to transport yourself about and to pay any administrative fees there might be to access the information that you are looking for. Suddenly even this method doesn’t look as inexpensive as you might think it is. In any case I would rather pay a private investigator who knows what they are doing than attempt to do this myself.

Background checks the expensive way

I was going to say that hiring a private investigator is the most expensive way to get some background information on someone but this may not be the case at all. A private eye can be very efficient at what they do. It’s their job. It could be that a good P.I. can find out more information for less money than you can by doing it yourself. Especially if you’ve never done this sort of investigative work before.

Hiring a specialist certainly isn’t going to be a cheap way of digging up secrets on someone but it is probably the most efficient way to find out the maximum amount of information. It is also likely to yield the most reliable data too. These people know what they are doing and that’s what you pay them for.

Investigating professionals generally charge by the hour and the time it takes to do a background check will depend on what information you are interested in and how much of it you want the guy to find for you.

I’m guessing that you may be able to find someone willing to do some basic routine checks for you and only charge the equivalent of perhaps an hour of their time. If you want a more in depth report then you could be paying for as long as it takes which could be a great deal of time.

Background checks the social way

Everyone uses Facebook don’t they? Make sure that you can “friend” him or her and take a look at the stuff they post. Take the time to find out who some of his Facebook friends are. See if you can find any tagged images with him in to give you an idea of the sort of things he gets up to. Mind you that is becoming a sure fire way to find some incriminating images of just about anyone because we have very little control over what other people post on the Internet. Is your own online presence squeaky clean?

The real benefit of getting interested in someone’s online social presence is to find out how they behave. For some reason most people seem to be a lot less inhibited about what they upload to the Internet than they would ever be in the offline world. Don’t they know that anything that they say on line is there forever? Privacy online seems to have been lost along the wayside somewhere.

Get to know his or her friends and try to meet up with some of their online friends out here in the real world. By interacting with their buddies you often get to see a different side of someone. A side of their personality that you would not normally see. This kind of information can potentially be worth far more to you than any background check could be.

Background checks the quick, easy and affordable way

I promised that I would give you a good cheap alternative way to do background checks and here it is. There are web sites on the Internet that strive to fill the gap that obviously exists when it comes to finding out information about people. You want something that is quick and easy to carry out and does not cost more than you can afford.

These public records web sites may not be as accurate or thorough as a good private investigator might be nor will they give you the same insight into someone’s character that you might get from socializing with their friends.

What you can do is use these public records databases to find at least something out about most people who you do a search on. Even if it’s just an address it could be useful information. Especially if the guy gave you a different one. The best part is that these web sites are quick to search and very cheap. In fact if you do it right then you can do unlimited background checks on as many people as you want and it doesn’t have to cost you more than the price of a coffee.

Now you may or not know that it is possible to look up just about anyone in the US of A by using commercial public records databases.

This particular site can be used for finding people and investigating their background but it isn’t free. It is inexpensive however and you can do a lot with the low cost trial that they offer. I love how easy it is to use this site but I wanted to see if it was possible to locate people on the Internet absolutely free. I did have some success as you will see.

Finding People with the Google search engine

The first thing that I tried was to type in the persons first and last name straight into the Google search box. This simple technique can sometimes be surprisingly effective if the name you are looking for isn’t very common or the subject is famous for something. However if you are looking for someone with a common name like “John Smith” then be prepared to receive floods of irrelevant search results. Don’t give up yet though because there are ways of refining your search query to give you a better chance of finding what you are looking for.

Refining your search

The first thing to do is make sure that you are signed out of any Google services. Google have a nasty habit of modifying your search results to give you what it thinks you want based on your previous Internet activity. This is unlikely to be very helpful when you are trying to find someone who you have not searched for before. So sign out so that Google doesn’t know who you are.

The Google search engine can be very powerful in the right hands and most people have no clue about the many useful features that it offers. If you can master just a few of these search tools then you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Search by region

The first thing that you might want to do is limit the geographical area where you want your search to apply. If you know that the person you are searching for has always lived in the US then there is probably little point in searching the rest of the world for them.

To limit your search results to the US go to the Advanced Search page. There should be a link labeled “Advanced Search” at the bottom of your search results. You may need to do a simple search first before this link appears. Click on it to get to the advanced settings.

The Advanced page allows you to set various filters including “region” Select the “United States” region from the drop down menu, enter the person’s name in the “all these words” box at the top then click the “Advanced Search” button at the bottom.

The region filter isn’t 100% effective at keeping the rest of the world out but it tries it’s best for you.

Search for the exact phrase using quotation marks

If you simply type the words “John” and “Smith” into the Google box without the quotes then the results that you get will consist of pages that contain both words anywhere on the page in any order. This means that you are likely to find pages mentioning “John Doe” and “Jane Smith” and thousands of other pages like it, equally irrelevant to what you are searching for.

You can easily fix this problem by enclosing your search query in quotation marks e.g. “John Smith” including the quotes. Google will now only show you pages that have those 2 words together and in that order. This tiny modification to your search query can make a huge difference to the quality of your results. You can enclose as many words as you want in quote marks so you might want to try adding a middle name. This is worth trying but might not be very effective because most people rarely use their middle names.

Still too many results

So you have limited your search to a single region or country and you are searching for the person’s name in quotes for an exact match but you are still not getting the results that you were hoping for. What next?

Adding another word

When you type words or phrases in quotes into the search box you will get results that contain all of those words or phrases. So you can improve your search by finding a word or phrase that applies to your person but not to everyone by that name. For instance if you know where they live then you might search for [“John Smith” Alabama] or [“John Smith” Orlando]. I’m using the square brackets here to enclose everything that is typed into the Google box. This time you will get only web pages that mention the name and area you entered.

I have had some luck with this method as it tends to deliver results from address and phone directories. Most of these directories require payment before you can see all the information but often the free information is enough to confirm an address or phone number.

What is your subject known for?

Is there anything about the person that you are looking for that might make them stand out from the crowd? Is she a pilot for instance? Does she keep a pet? do you know their profession? Here are some examples of search queries that you could try: [“Jane Smith” pilot], [“John Smith” tiddles], [“John Smith” carpenter] etc. Any one of these queries could dig up gold for you when you find the right person from a social media page, professional networking site or even their own website or blog.

Searching for businesses

Finding a business online is usually a very simple task using Google, Yahoo, Bing or even one of the lesser known search engines. Generally speaking, businesses want to be found online so they make efforts to ensure that they can be found easily. Try entering the name of the business and the location into the Google box and more often or not, you will find what you are after.

What else can you do with a Google Search?

You can do all sorts of things with a Google query. For instance you can use “OR” between words when you want to find pages with either or all of your search words. An example of this might be if you were looking for recipes that were either [Vegetarian OR Vegan].

If you put a “-” in front of a word then you are looking for pages that do not include that word e.g. [salsa -dance] meaning that you are interested in the sauce and not the dance.

Another powerful query operator is called a tilde “~”. Place this squiggle character in front of a word to find pages with words that are similar to the one you entered. So the query [~pet] will find pages with any of the words “pet”, “dog”, “cat, “Fish”, “animal” etc.

If you are thinking of adopting a child or you are required to disclose any criminal record you might have to get a job then you might need to make a request for your criminal history record. Of course you are more likely to want to do an FBI criminal background check to prove that you have not got a record.

You can request a copy of your identification record on the FBI web site at fbi.gov. You will find all the instructions that you need to complete the forms, make the request and get it processed.

As always there is a fee payable. You never get anything for free these days. You must include the fee with your application. At the time of writing there is a nominal fee to cover administrative costs.

Perhaps the hardest part of the application form is the fact that you need to send in a full set of your fingerprints to prove that you are who you say you are. In this instance, a drivers license and a utility bill just will not be enough.

Fingerprints have to be taken carefully so that they are clean prints and you must fill in a fresh fingerprint card too. There is a lot that can go wrong if you do this yourself so I suggest that you go down to your local law enforcement office and find an expert fingerprint technician to do it for you. This should avoid any possible problems with the process.

Can you get an FBI criminal background check on someone else?

You can not get a criminal background check done on someone else through the FBI. The application must be done in person and if you are trying to get one done for someone else then you would need to get a full, yes all 10, set of fingerprints. You need to be pretty determined just to get your own rap sheet, it would be close to impossible to get one for someone else without their knowledge.

Free criminal background checks

Nothing is ever absolutely free I know and you are not going to get as complete and accurate criminal background check on yourself as you will direct from the FBI itself. But you can look up criminal and arrest records, arrest warrants and a lot more information by doing your searches using public records, online. You can do it really quickly too.

It can be a very affordable alternative and it can potentially provide you with a lot of diverse information that you might not get from the FBI. This could be bankruptcies, civil judgements, email addresses, property records and other interesting stuff. In addition you can do criminal background checks on anyone you want using public records, not just yourself.

You may be wondering at this point why you would want to sign up for a monthly membership when you only want to do a background check on one person or to see if you have any arrest warrants. This is exactly what I thought before I logged in to the Inteligator site to research for this review and I can tell you that I’m totally hooked on it.

How do I find an old friend?

I wanted to do a background search on someone that I hadn’t seen for some time. Well my first search was a waste because I spelled his name wrong but I found the information that I was looking for on my second try. I found his address which is what I was after but that’s not all that I found.

I found his phone number and some names of relatives and neighbors. I could see that he is married and that he owns his own home. There is a lot more in the report but the best part was the link to a Google map where I could even find pictures of his house on Google Street.

I did try using the Birth records search a couple of times but this only gives you a list of names and ages with few details. I found that it’s best to use the Background Check search instead. This gives you the same list of people but also gives you access to the background detail which is much more useful.

Search for arrest warrants and criminal records

Now that I had found him I decided to do a criminal records search and an arrest warrant search on him too. Thankfully I didn’t find any but just to make sure that the system was working I looked up someone who I knew would have a warrant and sure enough the search found him.

Don’t stop there – check out relatives and neighbors too

By this time I was having great fun and I decided to look up his relatives and his neighbors to see if they had and criminal records or arrest warrants. They didn’t but the results from background checks on his relatives turned up the name of someone else I used to know a long time ago.

This is a web site that I’m going to be using more and more for a long time and it was easy to see how it can save you money. If you had used a site that charged you for every search you did then doing what I did to find one old friend would have cost you many months worth of unlimited searches at Inteligator.

Public Records Searches available in the members area:

• Arrest Warrant Search
• Arrest Records Search
• Background Check
• State Criminal Records Search
• National Criminal Records Search
• Sex Offender Search
• Inmate Search
• People Search by Name
• People Search by Address
• People Search by Phone
• Reverse Phone Search
• Business Search
• Relative Search
• Neighborhood Check
• Birth Records Search
• Marriage Records Search
• Divorce Records Search
• Death Records Search
• Reverse IP Search
• Inteligator is easy to use

The Inteligator web site is easy to navigate and remarkably fast considering that there is over a billion records in it’s various databases. You can comfortably look up background checks, arrest warrants and other stuff on several people in less than 10 minutes. The best part is that you can do as many searches as you want for free on as many people as you want as often as you want. It won’t cost you a cent more than your monthly membership fee.

You can’t afford not to have Ineligator working for you

If you are dating then you need to make sure that your dates are telling you the truth and are not criminals. If you hire people to do work for you or invite them into your house then you want to do a background check on them first. If you use babysitters or nannies then you must check them out before leaving them with your child. You might just want to locate people that you haven’t seen in a long time. Inteligator is perfect for doing all of these things and more. Can you afford to be without it? Give it a try. It comes with a very good guarantee which means that you aren’t taking any kind of risk but I think that you will want to keep your membership for a long time to come.

Have you tried to get an absolutely free background check done on someone but could’t find a totally cost free public records source? Yes I’ve tried and failed too. There are plenty of web sites that offer background checks and some of them even claim to be free. When it comes down to it though, you find that you have to pay something to get any useful information about people. I settled for a solution that provides great value for money and this is how you can do it too.

Most of the web sites that offer background checks on people ask you to pay for every search that you perform. The way that they typically work is that you pay a fee to register on the site. The fee that you pay can then be used towards the records searches that the site offers. The amount that you paid determines how many searches that you can do and when it’s all gone you have to pay more.

The problem with using pay-as-you-go search public records web sites

Once you discover how powerful a public records database web site can be you will be in danger of getting hooked on doing background checks on people. It’s fun looking up information on people and once you start it’s difficult to stop. I found this when I looked up my old friend. To start with I used the wrong name. I was looking for Phil when his name was Philip but the searches were quick and I found him in no time. I did a background check then a criminal records check then an arrest warrant check and a prison inmate check just to be on the safe side.

I was having so much fun – I started to check out his relatives and neighbors from information found in my friends background check records. You don’t have to stop there though. Why not do checks on your friends and neighbors and your hired help and your dates of course.

When you are having fun you can do an awful lot of searches in no time at all so you want to avoid using web sites that charge you for each search that you do. Instead use a web site that allows unlimited public records searches for no extra charge and have as much fun as you want to.

How to have fun looking up background information on people

When you join a public records membership site you get to do an unlimited amount of absolutely free background checks. You can check out anyone you want, anytime you want and as often as you want. You can find your old friends, check out all your neighbors. Make sure that your hired help don’t have criminal records, make sure that your date isn’t married and much more. This is a weapon that you can’t afford to be without.