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BuzzFeed and Vice reportedly miss revenue goals for the year | Digital publishers Buzzfeed and Vice Media are both set to miss their revenue targets for the year, according to reports. Buzzfeed had been aiming for revenue of $350m in 2017, but is now expected to fall short by as much as $70m. The disappointing performance makes it unlikely that the company will go public in the near future. Meanwhile, Vice will miss its $800m target, though it's not known by how much. Other digital publishers are also struggling, with Mashable recently being sold for $50m, a fifth of its valuation in 2016. | https://digiday.com/media/pivot-reality-digital-media/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171120 | 2017-11-20 16:13:44.283000 | Forget the pivot to video; the pivot to reality is in full swing in digital media.
The culprits are well-known. Google and Facebook have an iron grip on digital ad revenue. Publishers are trying to save themselves by making wholesale shifts in their business models, but they can’t transition fast enough. Last week brought an avalanche of the results: BuzzFeed and Vice reportedly missed revenue goals for the year; Mashable was sold for a fifth of its one-time valuation; and Oath, the Verizon unit containing Yahoo, AOL and HuffPost, laid off more than 500. The list goes on.
There are a number of things going on. At a high level, digital publishing has failed to diversify, having put all its eggs in the advertising basket. Then, the platforms came for advertising. Most digital ad spending today is going to a handful of tech companies, leaving just a few scraps for publishers to fight over. Facebook has hurt in other ways, cutting back the referral traffic it sends publishers, and has only started to help publishers monetize their content there. Publishers that took a distributed approach, thinking the revenue would follow, have found otherwise.
But it’s too simplistic to say this is simply a story of the big, bad platforms. What’s happening now is more of a correction than an upheaval. Just a year ago, Mashable took a round of venture capital at a $250 million valuation. Selling for a fifth of that price a mere 12 months later says more about the expectations venture-funded digital media eagerly embraced when capital was cheap and plentiful.
“It’s a story about runaway valuations for content startups,” said Todd Sawicki, CEO of Zemanta, a programmatic native ad platform. “If a startup had been valued based on more traditional methods and multiples, many of these valuations would never have happened.”
When it came time to build a sustainable business, many of the publishers that were adroit at spinning rosy growth scenarios on paper were less successful. The now-lampooned pivot to video is a case in point. It’s easy to talk about audiences moving to mobile, expertise in “snackable” content and distributed media strategies built around millennials. It’s quite another to execute those strategies profitably.
Take video. Too often, publishers create the video but don’t design their sites with it in mind, cramming pages with other ads that compete for attention and bandwidth, said Brian Rifkin, co-founder of digital video player company JW Player. Then, there are all the things to get right on the sales and ad operations side, such as matching the right video format to the right device and making sure the ad meets the advertisers’ specs for viewability. Success in digital media is about nailing the details, not getting the headlines.
“A lot of it is the grind-it-out execution,” Rifkin said. “We’ve been through a lot of advertising executions, and this one is the most difficult. How many times have you gone to a website and clicked ‘play’ and bailed out? The business is there. Publishers need to create good content, make sure there’s intent to watch, focus on the user experience.”
Many digital media companies with sky-high valuations based on a bad set of assumptions also hungrily eyed TV deals, where the real money supposedly is. This looks increasingly like a Hail Mary strategy. In most cases, the production costs for doing TV shows are pretty equal to licensing costs, and unless you have a syndication deal, the profit is fairly low, said Bernard Gershon, president of GershonMedia, a publishing consulting firm. There are also lots of studios already quite good at making TV programming. The only thing digital media companies would bring unique to the table is strong brands, but even there, much of digital media has outsourced its connection to its audience to platforms.
Rich Antoniello, CEO and founder of Complex Media, looks at the current pivots to video as rushed and reactive. The men’s lifestyle publisher took its time introducing video, starting in 2012 and getting to 65 percent video over five years and emphasizing long-form shows that are better at building a brand than short clips that blur by in people’s newsfeed. “You have to condition your audience and the advertising community,” he said. “You can’t just say, ‘Hey, we’re in video now.’”
It’s not just startups that are sweating it out. Even publishers with strong brands and diverse revenue streams find themselves struggling in a rough market — and this is when the economy is going great. “This is not my favorite year,” grumbled one publisher in the former camp.
If there’s one overarching truism, it may be that just about everything about publishing is going to be a slow grind. Publishers won’t necessarily give up on video, but 2018 will see a fine-tuning of their approaches and a recognition that they can’t live on advertising alone.
“Mobile video will be a great business opportunity one day, but that day has not fully arrived,” said Bryan Goldberg, founder of Bustle. “This is a marathon. Digital media companies need to pace themselves.”
Goldberg said Bustle limited video to about 10 percent of total head count, up from about 5 percent in 2016, recognizing that mobile video doesn’t easily monetize. (Compare that to Mic, where almost everyone touches video in some way.) Bustle also focused on formats it could more immediately monetize, like Instagram Stories, and on taking ad dollars away from legacy magazine publishers. “For a digital media startup to challenge TV in the year 2017 is premature. That is a battle for 2020 and beyond, but magazines are sitting ducks right now,” Goldberg said.
The business model pivot has already started. BuzzFeed is pushing hard into commerce content, with a staff of 19 people cranking out posts designed to drive people to purchase. Vox Media gave in to selling ads programmatically. Publishers like The Atlantic and The New York Times that already have established subscription businesses are pushing even harder into those areas.
“While we are still optimistic in our ability to continue to grow advertising revenue next year, we are also seeing success in some of our paid content experiments of late, like The Atlantic’s [membership program] Masthead and Quartz’s Global Economy book,” said Michael Finnegan, president of Atlantic Media. “I think this squares with the increasing willingness of consumers to pay for content today.”
“We’re already seeing a pivot away from pure advertising-supported businesses that have multiple revenue streams, including subscriptions,” Gershon said. “They’re going to have to double and triple down on truly high quality video. People are not going to pay to watch people sitting around a table talking about the news. There’s going to be a pivot to real business models.” |
Twitter cracks down on hate speech 'on and off the platform' | Twitter is set to close a loophole that enables users affiliated with hate groups to be active on its site by monitoring behaviour "both on and off the platform", according to a company statement. The clampdown, which also covers images and usernames, comes into effect on 18 December, a delay brought about by European Union regulations which require companies to give a month's notice before implementing changes. Free speech advocates have criticised the move, calling it a "scary precedent". Twitter also recently revoked the verification badges of Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler, and banned prominent troll Tim Gionet.
| http://mashable.com/2017/11/17/twitter-hate-speech-symbols-december-18/#yonDVVX47Oq5 | 2017-11-20 15:59:38.297000 | Twitter is cracking down on hate speech and not just by looking at its own site.
In what amounts to a major shift in Twitter policy, the company announced on Friday that it will be monitoring user's behavior "on and off the platform" and will suspend a user's account if they affiliate with violent organizations, according to an update to Twitter's Help Center(opens in a new tab) on Friday.
"You also may not affiliate with organizations that — whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform — use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes," the update reads.
Twitter isn't taking action immediately. Rather, it's given users until December 18, 2017 when it will then begin enforcing the rule. The month-long wait is due to regulations in the European Union that require companies to inform users of a new policy change 30 days prior to enforcement.
The Dec. 18 deadline also applies to using "hateful images or symbols" in profile images or profile headers. Twitter will also monitor for hate speech in usernames, display names, and profile bios.
This new rule closes a loophole that Twitter's critics had long pointed out: That known white supremacists and others affiliated with hate groups could still use the platform to send a sanitized version of their message and use their followers to bolster their overall profile.
It's unclear how exactly Twitter will prioritize taking action and how much will come from user reports versus its own monitoring.
"The updates to the rules today will be enforced starting December 18. We'll also have more details on these policies to share that day," a Twitter spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
These changes comes amid aggressive moves by Twitter to curb abuse and harassment on the site after more than a decade of essentially letting the abusers operate freely.
Over the last week, Twitter has taken action against the accounts of white supremacists. Twitter permanently banned Tim "Treadstone" Gionet, a prominent alt-right troll more widely known as Baked Alaska, earlier this week. It also removed the verification badges of Jason Kessler, one of the organizers of the racist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and of alt-right activist Richard Spencer.
Twitter's decision to monitor users off site sparked concern from free speech advocates such as Andrew Torba, founder of social network Gab. "This is a scary precedent to set," he wrote in an email to Mashable. "Rules like this will only force dissidents and those who are speaking truth to power to silence themselves or risk being silenced by Twitter." |
Facebook algorithm hinders advertisers by removing content | Facebook's algorithm is frustrating advertisers by removing content it deems has violated the social media site's rules, according to Danielle Wiley, CEO of influencer marketing agency Sway Group. "It has been my firm’s experience that while non-ad content can be posted without review, it will indeed get automatically pulled if it flags the algorithm", she said. Facebook said all ads were reviewed before posting, and content was only pulled following that process. The restrictions "impact the creativity of our influencers’ content", said Wiley.
| https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/18/facebook-needs-to-tame-its-overactive-algorithm/ | 2017-11-20 15:25:41.463000 | Join top executives in San Francisco on July 11-12, to hear how leaders are integrating and optimizing AI investments for success. Learn More
There are a number of disturbing elements to the Russian election hacking scandal — most notably the fact that a foreign entity was somehow able to use Facebook and other social networks to influence an already stressful U.S. election.
But what has baffled me most about the hacking scandal is that the Russians were able to proceed with their agenda with such ease, while my influencer marketing agency (which has no interest in nefarious global domination) struggles on a daily basis to do even the most basic tasks on the platform.
As the Wall Street Journal noted recently, “Relying on AI can lead to false positives, as when [a] company pulls down legitimate content that its algorithms think might be offensive.”
My firm does a high volume of work on Facebook to amplify our influencers’ content. Brands often hire us to create programs with quick turnarounds and tight deadlines, such as a one-day event or a short-term giveaway. Having that (legitimate) content pulled down because an algorithm suspects it is offensive can throw an entire program off the rails.
We have had to develop an entire document to detail the various “watch-outs” we need to keep in mind in order to take advantage of Facebook’s reach without raising the ire of its finicky and overly critical computer algorithms. These trigger-happy software programs can be incredibly problematic. It has been our experience that Facebook’s software doesn’t hesitate to remove content first and ask questions later.
VentureBeat reached out to Facebook on this, and Facebook maintains that it’s not the case that it will remove content before properly reviewing it. It said it reviews all advertisements before they go live, as per the ad review process posted on its site and that, for other content, it will only pull something down if violates Facebook policies.”
It has been my firm’s experience that while non-ad content can be posted without review, it will indeed get automatically pulled if it flags the algorithm. It will then often be re-posted following an appeal. We’ve seen the same thing on Facebook-owned Instagram. An influencer we work with once had her entire Instagram account shut down following the posting of a piece of sponsored content. It was reinstated after a couple of weeks of desperate emails and phone calls to Instagram headquarters.
You can find the full list of Facebook’s prohibited content here. While the vast majority of these restrictions are understandable — certainly we don’t want people posting ads that promote illegal activities, discrimination, or weapons — many are not that clear cut. The machinations our team goes through in order to get clients’ brands boosted on Facebook are borderline overwhelming. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
1. The tricky word “you”
Facebook prohibits the use of personal attributes within a boosted post. This can be really tricky when promoting a product intended to relieve an ailment. Here are excerpts from two posts that we were looking to boost in one of our programs:
Post A: Do you suffer from dandruff? It’s a common problem….
Post B: Laura is preventing dandruff now and during the colder months…
Given the strict algorithm, we were only allowed to boost Post B. Post A would almost certainly be pulled down because of the word “you.”
Facebook’s spokesperson said that while the company does allow ads for services that treat medical conditions, they don’t allow ads to imply the reader suffers from those medical conditions (that falls under the company’s “Personal Attributes” policy). Facebook noted that our Post A example wouldn’t make the cut because it implies the reader has dandruff, which is a medical condition.
What frustrates my team in this situation is that our content wasn’t implying anything. It was simply asking the question. If an influencer with thousands of followers poses a question, how is that an implication of anything? These restrictions impact the creativity of our influencers’ content.
2. Medical conditions
The Facebook algorithm is also triggered by mentions of specific medical conditions. Understandably, Facebook prohibits the paid promotion of pharmaceutical products. Unfortunately, this can cause the algorithm to mistakenly flag a post that is related to a medical condition but not related to pharmaceuticals. We recently did a program for a medication-free treatment for depression. The post below, promoting this new treatment, would surely be flagged due to the mention of depression (with bonus flagging for the use of the word “you”):
“Let’s talk about depression. If you deal with depression, you are not alone. It is a very real condition that affects people in all stages of life, myself included.”
Facebook told VentureBeat the above post was not allowed because the statement “you are not alone” implies the reader has depression. Our firm feels that the use of the qualifier “if” should make this okay. We do see how the text is off-limits given Facebook’s guidelines, but it still feels like we’re running into roadblocks left and right when trying to do our job — and it’s not as if we’re hacking an election, promoting guns, or selling drugs.
Though the post was honest and authentic, and written by one of our influencers, we couldn’t take the risk of a flag, so instead we had our influencer post the following (less engaging, highly sanitized) statement:
“My commitment to wellness has me focusing on happiness this month. One thing that helps is reading inspirational stories about other people who are living their best life.”
3. Pictures with words
Images that contain words have also become problematic. Facebook’s spokesperson said it limits words in images in order to create the best possible user experience and that research shows too much text in images damages the experience. While that’s helpful insight, we have seen a marked lack of consistency on the amount of text that works. Additionally, even if the algorithm doesn’t pull down one of our images, too many words can also impact the performance of the post. As Facebook details here, it has “recently implemented a new solution that allows ads with greater than 20 percent text to run, but with less or no delivery.” Certainly this is not any kind of solution for our clients, all of whom expect better performance than “less or no delivery.”
We are all big fans of Facebook at my firm, for both personal use and for its tremendous ability to get the word out on behalf of our clients. But we can’t help but feel frustrated when we repeatedly run into roadblocks as a result of an overactive algorithm.
Facebook serves as a vital piece of our marketing mix. We just wish it would become a bit more reliable. What do the Russians know that we don’t?
Danielle Wiley is CEO of Sway Group, an influencer marketing agency. |
Sizmek to close Rocket Fuel brand and disclose media buying fees | Independent buy-side advertising platform Sizmek has shut down the Rocket Fuel brand, after purchasing the business for $145m in July. As part of the move, Sizmek plans to disclose its media buying fees in hopes of providing greater advertising transparency, and to challenge Facebook and Google's market dominance, though the Financial Times' accusations that Rocket Fuel placed ads on fraudulent websites have hindered its progress. It is hoped that Sizmek's rebrand towards "radical transparency" and AI capabilities will attract advertisers.
| http://www.adweek.com/digital/sizmek-is-shutting-down-the-rocket-fuel-brand-to-focus-on-ad-transparency/ | 2017-11-20 15:16:00.067000 | After acquiring ad-tech company Rocket Fuel for $145 million in July, Sizmek is folding Rocket Fuel’s brand and said it will start disclosing the fees included in media buying to instill more trust and transparency for advertisers about how they purchase digital ads. |
Confido website disappears days after raising $420,000 in ICO | A tech start-up that claimed to offer a new payment and goods tracking service has deleted its website days after raising $420,000 from investors through an initial coin offering (ICO). Confido had earlier posted an announcement on the site referring to "legal trouble" as a result of a contract they had signed, but provided no further details. The statement from founder Joost van Doorn also contained an apology for the financial damage the announcement would cause. The cryptocurrency lost 80% of its value on exchanges after the announcement.
| http://www.trustnodes.com/2017/11/20/confido-ico-vanishes-days-raising-nearly-half-million-dollars | 2017-11-20 14:53:46.663000 | A little known project that raised half a million to develop a new goods tracking service so that you pay through a smart contract only after delivery, has today closed shop.
“We are in a tight spot, as we are having legal trouble caused by a contract we signed,” Joost van Doorn, the project founder and a former eBay employee says before adding: |
Tiny cheap satellites to shake-up everything from ships to spies | A new generation of small, cheap satellites is set to have a major influence on the maritime, aerospace, agricultural and environmental sectors as well as those that depend on accurate weather data, according to CBinsights. The off-the-shelf nanosatellites, which are as small as 10 cubic cms, could also help plug gaps in global internet coverage and eavesdrop on foreign countries, CBinsights said. Companies including start-up Open Cosmos and Spaceflight offer design-to-launch packages for as little as $295,000.
| https://www.cbinsights.com/research/industries-disrupted-satellites/?utm_source=CB+Insights+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c2bbc1d7ca-MonNL_11_20_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dc0513989-c2bbc1d7ca-88486269 | 2017-11-20 14:51:48.103000 | Hundreds of tiny, inexpensive satellites are being sent into orbit every year. Here’s how they’ll change our relationship with the world around us.
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Nanosatellites – tiny satellites you can hold in your hand – are being launched into space at unprecedented rates.
As the pace of technological development speeds up, making it less and less expensive to send a “nanosat” into orbit, these machines could provide a value to society that extends far beyond space exploration.
In the future, nanosatellites will transform a variety of industries that utilize space information – from more accurate weather and climate predictions to better monitoring (and safety) of air and sea traffic to smarter forecasting of crop yields and commodities.
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What are nanosatellites?
The International Space Station, currently the largest satellite in orbit around the earth, measures ~356 feet by ~240 feet.
Nanosatellites, on the other hand, are small satellites with a mass between 1 kg and 10 kg, or just 2.2 lbs to 22 lbs. Some nanosatellites are as small as just ten cubic centimeters. Yet they possess many of the same antennas, sensors, and control systems that make larger satellites so useful for space exploration and monitoring.
Nanosats that take a 10×10×10-unit cubic structure are known as CubeSats. A single-unit (or 1U) CubeSat has a mass no greater than 1.33 kg (2.93 lbs), but can be stacked with others to create 2U, 3U, or 6U rectangular models.
Until a few years ago, it cost at least $2M to build a functional satellite, regardless of size. Now, students and scientists can create nanosats using DIY kits and off-the-shelf components – allowing the machines to be made with budgets in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Launching a nanosat is also far cheaper than sending a normal satellite to space, which can cost many millions of dollars. These tiny “sats” can be launched en masse via ride-sharing on rockets, though the costs vary drastically based on satellite mass, distance into space, and nature or “payload” of the space mission.
Startup Open Cosmos, for example, provides “enabling services” for taking customers’ satellite plans from design to launch (in under 10 months) at prices starting around $630,000. Their one-stop-shop offering includes things like mission simulation, testing, and insurance.
Spaceflight, on the other hand, offers straightforward commercial pricing for ride-shares that can be booked within weeks of a pre-scheduled rocket launch – making it possible to send a 3U CubeSat to “low earth orbit” (LEO) for as little as $295,000.
As more and more nanosatellites are sent to space by universities, tech companies, government entities, and private citizens alike, they’ll provide comprehensive “coverage” of earth at an incredibly low cost – leading to game-changing transformations across each of the sectors discussed below.
Education, Research & Academia
Just as the decreasing costs of computers have rapidly changed the way we learn about our world, the growing volume of small satellites circling the planet (and sending data back to earth) will change the way we learn about our universe.
Nanosatellites affixed with cameras have already sent never-before-seen images down to earth: Russian cosmonauts, for example, recently gave us the world’s first panoramic, 360-view video shot in open space.
But the educational value extends much further than replacing textbooks (or PBS documentaries) with live-streams from space. Researchers will also benefit from sending lab projects into orbit.
Conducting research in space is important for many scientific objectives – which is partly why the International Space Station (ISS) has served as a full-time low-gravity research lab for years.
Since fluids can be almost completely combined in microgravity, for example, nanosatellite experiments can help scientists understand fluids that do not mix well on Earth.
In addition, gravity can diminish the conductivity of certain materials, so scientists looking to create “superconductive” synthetics also use low-gravity environments to understand materials interactions at the molecular level.
Biologists are already using nanosatellites to understand how gravity impacts biological processes: The SporeSat project, for example, which was sent to space through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), studied the effect of gravity on the reproductive spores of the fern.
Weather Forecasting
Space weather – which is concerned with things like solar or cosmic radiation, and interactions among magnetic fields in the atmosphere – has historically been onerous and costly to measure with traditional satellites.
A 2016 European Geosciences Union General Assembly report called nanosatellites “a paradigm change for space weather studies.”
For now, organizations like the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have less-than-perfect space weather information, which limits their ability to predict our weather here on Earth.
With thousands of sensor-equipped nanosatellites in orbit, however, detailed space weather data can be used to help us better predict hurricanes, flooding, and heavy precipitation from tropical or non-tropical storms.
To help us reach a more weather-smart future, the NOAA granted a 2016 contract to Spire, another startup in the nanosat space. Spire currently operates at least 40 “multi-sensor nanosatellites” that collect global GPS-RO weather data, which measures certain atmospheric properties that are increasingly seen as crucial to understanding storm-related weather patterns.
Air/Sea Monitoring & Insurance
The NOAA granted the GPS-RO contract to Spire as part of the agency’s objective of reducing “average track and intensity errors” by 50% in 10 years. Predicting the trajectory and intensity of storms is crucial to mitigating the impact of future natural disasters.
Weather forecasting has a particularly big impact on marine and aerospace safety. With better information from nanosatellites on atmospheric conditions, aero- and marine-industry stakeholders and insurers will be able to conduct better risk analyses around hurricanes and storms – ultimately minimizing liabilities (and insurance premiums) and disruptions.
Improved safety will also reduce transport costs by minimizing weather-related losses. Nanosats can also help minimize collisions in our skies and seas, since they can provide views of air or ocean traffic straight from the atmosphere.
And as the maritime industry, in particular, embraces automation, nanosats will be able to monitor the Earth’s seas to minimize piracy risks.
For now, Spire and other startups are using their satellites to offer monitoring data to maritime stakeholders.
Agriculture & Commodities Trading
Nanosats will provide value in commercial activities on land, as well. With better weather and climate intelligence, environmental conditions will become more measurable, predictable, and data-driven.
Agriculture will be one of the first areas transformed.
The Farmer’s Almanac will get a major upgrade with nanosat-secured data: Better predictive data on weather patterns and natural disasters will translate into more accurate forecasts of impact on crops – ultimately informing decisions on what we grow, where we grow it, how, and when.
Startups like Satellogic are already offering satellite-based insights to the agriculture sector, among others. Satellogic’s machines are what’s known as “spectroscopic satellites,” which pick up signals from light to understand the health of environmental organisms at the molecular level.
With better intelligence on space weather and its impact on agriculture, market observers will also better understand anticipated global production yields of crops and other commodities – potentially offering new insights to traders and analysts.
Environmental Monitoring & Protection
According to a New York Times report, researchers have long warned that the US’ climate monitoring capabilities – which include satellites as well as air- and surface-based measuring instruments – are less than adequate, subject to data collection gaps or discrepancies.
Data scientist Dr. Zeke Hausfather, who published satellite-based research in the Journal of Climate in June, commented that in our global satellite temperature record, “only a few satellites are measuring temperatures at any given point of time.”
Some of those large satellites also have “fairly large orbital drifts,” according to Hausfather, which limits their ability to fly over the same spot on Earth at the same time every day, which is a precondition to accurately estimating changes in temperatures over time.
With thousands of tiny satellites tracking changes in much smaller areas of the atmosphere, scientists will unlock new data on climate fluctuations. That information will be crucial to practically all efforts related to environmental preservation — from predicting future temperature changes to pinpointing at-risk habitats and organisms.
Climate visualization using data from NASA satellites. CREDIT: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Telecommunications
Satellites of all sizes have played a role in our global communications infrastructure ever since the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, took flight equipped with a radio transmitter in 1957. Our reliance on satellite communication (aka “satcom”) has grown exponentially ever since: By 1990, 2 out of every 3 intercontinental phone calls were transmitted by communication satellites.
Communication satellites are used to relay and amplify radio signals that transmit information. They essentially create communication channels between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. NASA calls these Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, or TDRS (rendering below).
Even as the internet improves in remote regions, satellites remain crucial to information sharing: Most news agencies still use satellites to distribute text, audio, and video to their affiliates.
Without satellites, many citizens in less developed countries would lack access to news and other information. And even today, huge swathes of our planet still lack telecommunications infrastructure.
Tech-sector stakeholders are already at work using nanosatellites to plug internet coverage caps. Australian company Sky and Space (SAS), for example, is planning to provide telecommunications coverage to millions of people living in a band around the equator – stretching from Darwin to Hong Kong – by 2020. SAS’ first step will be launching up to 200 nano-satellites into space, beginning in 2018, in partnership with Virgin Galactic.
Defense
As our access to space (and space data) continues to accelerate, there will be risks, as well as opportunities.
Private companies are gearing up to use satellites for potential defense contracts. Nanosats could be used to spy on other countries’ satellites, for example, or to collect intelligence on enemy spacecraft.
In addition, nanosatellites will be prime targets for rogue hackers or bad actors working on behalf of hostile governments. These attackers could try to disable telecommunications channels via nanosatellites or disrupt the servicing of other larger satellites by nanosatellites, among many other potenial nefarious applications.
Mindful of potential threats, Lockheed Martin invested in nanosat startup Terran Orbital in summer 2017; Terran and its child company, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, use satellite-secured surveillance data for military/defense intelligence applications.
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Big Property Data runs huge datasets to speed up conveyancing | A software company is offering an automated system for creating property reports to speed up the conveyancing process. Big Property Data, based in Manchester, is using data from 15 major organisations including the Land Registry, the British Geological Survey and Ordnance Survey to run the service. Using a total of 150 datasets, the system will generate reports in an average of 60 seconds, instead of the day or more usually taken to compile the searches manually.
| https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/11/another-tech-company-claims-to-be-speeding-up-conveyancing | 2017-11-20 14:40:42.597000 | A search company called Big Property Data says it is working with 15 major institutions to provide automated property reports aimed at speeding up conveyancing.
The organisations include the Land Registry, the National Land Information Service, the British Geological Survey and Ordnance Survey.
BPD claims to have amassed over 150 different datasets, containing more than three hundred million points of information which are accessible in 60 seconds on average, dropping the resulting reports directly into a client's account or email inbox. |
Shortlist Media decides against moving to first-price auctions | UK publisher Shortlist Media has mothballed its plan to introduce first-price auctions after only two of its top 30 ad buyers gave the notion the green light, according to programmatic director David Hayter. Instead, the company is looking to find a middle ground between first and second auctions, in which first-price options are pushed into the wrapper, and bids close on the second price. "It’ll be a bit of a leap of faith from exchanges to pass their first prices through, and they’ll have to trust each other to close the auction fairly", said Hayter.
| https://digiday.com/media/shortlist-media-holding-off-first-price-auctions/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171120 | 2017-11-20 14:30:44.143000 | Shortlist Media, which publishes weekly, free city magazines Stylist and ShortList, has gone cold on the idea of moving to first-price auctions after talking at length to the buy side of the market.
The publisher planned to introduce first-price auction capabilities to its ad tech stack, which it started rebuilding about four months ago. The publisher approached its top 30 ad agency buyers to ask if they were interested in moving to first-price auction-based bidding. But of those 30, only two were willing to bid in first-price auctions, according to David Hayter, programmatic director of Shortlist Media. Reasons for buyer reluctance: the operational headache of having to switch from the second-price method that’s been used for years. Changing to first-price would mean they’d need to reassess overall campaign strategy.
“Some buyers were telling us that when they came across first auction, they were just turning those publishers and exchanges off,” he said.
Instead, Shortlist Media is betting on a different method, which is more of a middle ground between first- and second-price auctions. This model would involve exchanges pushing their first-price options into the wrapper where the auction occurs, then allowing the bid to close on the second price. For example, if two separate exchanges passed first-price bids of £8.50 ($11.22) and £10 ($13.20) into the wrapper, the winning bid would then close at £8.51 ($11.23). But the initial bids would have been higher than if all were done off second-price.
Shortlist Media is talking to its tech partners about being able to implement this method. Hayter said they predict that using this method will help them gain yield increases of up to 12 percent.
“It’ll be a bit of a leap of faith from exchanges to pass their first prices through, and they’ll have to trust each other to close the auction fairly,” said Hayter. “But it’s more likely than buyers adopting first prices at the moment.”
Hayter said the promise of revenue spikes from the shift to first-price auctions is oversold. In fact, he believes the only reason for a short-term lift would be if buyers aren’t aware they’re bidding in a first-price auction. Once they realize it is not a second-price bidding scenario, they’ll redirect their spend elsewhere, he added.
“You’ll get people who will continue to test it blindly, without talking to the buy side,” said Hayter. “But the legs will fall out of it once someone fully adopts it. They’ll find most of their budgets will be optimized away from them.” |
UK budget to make room for driverless testing and EVs: Report | UK Chancellor Philip Hammond is expected to announce measures promoting the development of driverless and electric vehicles in this week's budget statement to the House of Commons. The measures are likely to include rule changes allowing manufacturers to test autonomous vehicles on public roads without a backup human driver. £100m ($132m) will be set aside for incentives to buy electric vehicles, while a £400m ($529m) fund will support new charging stations.
| https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/19/uk-budget-will-change-rules-for-self-driving-cars/ | 2017-11-20 14:20:20.237000 | The UK doesn't want to sit by the wayside while the US, Japan and other countries streamline the adoption of self-driving cars. The country's finance ministry has revealed that its upcoming budget (due on November 22nd) will include measures intended to spurt the adoption of self-driving and electric cars. There will be rule changes that let automakers test vehicles on public roads without an operator on standby, and a £400 million (about $529 million) fund to help companies establish charging station networks. Officials will also offer £100 million ($132 million) in incentives to lower the cost of buying an EV.
There are a few other tech-related budget measures, such as £160 million ($211 million) for 5G networks, £100 million for computer science teachers, £76 million ($100 million) for skill development and £75 million ($99 million) for the UK's budding AI industry.
The budget contributions may be necessary given the UK's ambitious goals. Finance minister Philip Hammond wants self-driving cars to roam British streets in 3 years -- that's not a lot of lead time when companies like Nissan only recently started conducting public tests. And while EV funding isn't new (that was present in the Spring Budget, for instance), but the additional money could help create the infrastructure needed to keep autonomous vehicles running. There's no guarantee that any of these measures will put the UK ahead of the curve on driverless tech, but it should at least keep the nation from falling behind. |
Sweden's World Food Building combines offices with vertical farm | Foodtech company Plantagon is building its first "plantscraper" in the southern Swedish city of Linköping. The $40m World Food Building is an office tower that also contains a large automated indoor farm. The building will grow vegetables hydroponically in a nutrient-rich, water-based solution and is set to open by early 2020. It will produce 550 tons of vegetables a year. Two-thirds of the building will be offices with the farm occupying the rest of the tower.
| http://uk.businessinsider.com/swedens-world-food-building-farm-offices-plantscraper-2017-11?r=US&IR=T/#the-world-food-building-will-produce-approximately-550-tons-of-vegetables-annually-enough-to-feed-around-5500-people-each-year-1 | 2017-11-20 13:59:11.657000 | By 2050, the world's population is expected to swell to 9.6 billion, with around 66% living in urban areas. This projection is leaving many cities wondering how they will feed all those people.
A Swedish food-tech company called Plantagon is proposing that cities consider building what it calls "plantscrapers" — office towers that contain giant indoor farms. Plantagon is constructing its first plantscraper in Linköping, Sweden.
Called The World Food Building, the tower will operate hydroponically, meaning vegetables (mostly greens) will grow without soil in a nutrient-rich, water-based solution. The farm will largely be automated, Plantagon CEO Hans Hassle told Business Insider.
Construction of the $40 million building began in 2012, and it's set to open by early 2020.
Check out the plans below. |
AI diagnoses pneumonia with similar accuracy to radiologists | Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to detect pneumonia with the same level of accuracy as trained radiologists, according to new research. A paper by scientists at Stanford University detailed the results of a test in which 100,000 x-ray images were analysed by an AI system. It found that of the 14 diseases it was trained to identify, its results showed fewer false positives than the equivalent human diagnoses in each case. One of the paper's co-authors is Google Brain founder Andrew Ng, who predicts AI will play a bigger role in healthcare in future. | https://qz.com/1130687/stanford-trained-ai-to-diagnose-pneumonia-better-than-a-radiologist-in-just-two-months/ | 2017-11-20 12:59:21.380000 | There’s a clear trend that having more data makes it easier to train artificial intelligence. Bigger datasets, like ImageNet, originally showed that AI could be useful for tasks like image recognition, leading to a race among everyone from large technology companies to academics to compile new datasets to stretch the limits of AI.
Now, a new paper from Stanford University shows just how fast a new dataset could be used to train artificial intelligence algorithms to the point of near-human accuracy. Using 100,000 x-ray images released by the National Institutes of Health on Sept. 27, the research published Nov. 14 (without peer review) on the website ArXiv claims its AI can detect pneumonia from x-rays with similar accuracy to four trained radiologists.
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That’s not all—the AI was trained to analyze x-rays for 14 diseases NIH included in the dataset, including fibrosis, hernias, and cell masses. The AI’s results for each of the 14 diseases had fewer false positives and false negatives than the benchmark research from the NIH team that was released with the data.
The paper includes Google Brain founder Andrew Ng as a co-author, who also served as chief scientist at Baidu and recently founded Deeplearning.ai. He’s often been publicly bullish on AI’s use in healthcare.
“I think health care 10 years from now will use a lot more AI and will look very different than it does today,” he told MIT Tech Review earlier this year.
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These algorithms will undoubtedly get better—accuracy on the ImageNet challenge rose from 75% to 95% in just five years—but this research shows the speed at which these systems are built is increasing as well. |
Union Investment buys a 13% stake in Berlin proptech Architrave | German fund manager Union Investment Real Estate has acquired a 13% stake in Berlin proptech firm Architrave for an undisclosed sum. The investment will help Architrave develop its artificial intelligence technology to establish an industry standard for collating real estate data on an open platform. Union Investment has been a Architrave partner since September and has already added more than 400 properties to the platform. It is the first time the fund manager has invested in a proptech company. Architrave is aiming to offer its platform across Europe, serving property owners, asset managers and facility managers.
| https://www.refire-online.com/features/investment/union-investment-acquires-stake-in-proptech-firm-achitrave/ | 2017-11-20 12:53:07.803000 | × Expand Union Investment Jens Wilhelm - Union Investment ‘The investment in Architrave is our first advance into the PropTech sector,’ said Jens Wilhelm, managing director in charge of real estate, portfolio management and IT infrastructure at Union Investment. ‘The strategic partnership is a core element of our strategy of driving forward the process of digitisation in the real estate industry."
German fund manager Union Investment Real Estate has acquired a 13% stake in Berlin-based PropTech Architrave for an undisclosed sum, both firms told REFIRE at EXPO REAL earlier this month, marking Union Investment’s first investment in a PropTech company.
Architrave specializes in intelligent real estate data management solutions. Union Investment has been a partner of Architrave since September and has added more than 400 of its properties to Architrave’s platform. The German fund manager will help Architrave to develop its AI component with a view to establishing an industry standard for collating real estate data in an open, digital platform. This will benefit property owners, asset managers, property managers and facility managers in equal measure, as they will gain access to a systematic and standardised database for each of their properties without any issues with interfaces or problems with information.
‘The investment in Architrave is our first advance into the PropTech sector,’ said Jens Wilhelm, managing director in charge of real estate, portfolio management and IT infrastructure at Union Investment. ‘The strategic partnership is a core element of our strategy of driving forward the process of digitisation in the real estate industry. With its established customer base and continuous expansion, Architrave is an ideal partner to realise our common vision of an industry-wide asset management data platform.’
Semantics – which can include hundreds of thousands of terms and definitions to facilitate closer data matches – has been a buzzword in the online space for a while but algorithms such as the ones used by Architrave are part of the new generation of machine-learning services.
Over time, the aim is to build a pan-European platform, Maurice Grassau, CEO and founder of Architrave, told REFIRE: ‘For now, we are focusing on Germany, although a lot of non-German assets are managed on our platform, which is in English, German and French. Our training docs mark in the relevant data from the start, which is then classified – extraction has a different algorithm because the machine learns rules by reading the data itself. Our aim is to get all properties in Germany digitalized as more companies come on board.’
The advantage of complete digitalization would be that real estate data is always accessible, which would speed up transactions. According to Grassau, Architrave’s data platform is hosted in highly secure German computer centres with maximum safeguards against unauthorised access and misuse. When a property is sold, Architrave transfers the real estate data to the new owner within the platform environment.
‘This marks a milestone in process efficiency for integrating acquired properties into investors’ portfolios,’ Grassau said.
In May 2017, Architrave took second place at Union Investment’s inaugural international PropTech Innovation Award, which attracted interest from 200 companies. Architrave has generated triple-digit revenue growth for the past five years in succession. This year, it is expected to generate revenue of around €2m, a figure that it hopes to double next year. |
Scientist makes 3D-printed human skin to help end animal testing | Young Brazilian scientist Carolina Catarino has been awarded one of eight young researcher prizes of £10,000 ($13,250) by the Lush cosmetics company for her work on lab-grown human skin models. The skin models are made with 3D printing techniques and it is hoped they will make animal testing unnecessary. In future research, Catarino aims to increase the number of molecules in the skin models, add proteins for skin maintenance and introduce blood vessels for regenerative medicine testing and skin grafts. She is also working towards adding hair follicles, which would help show how substances can enter the body.
| https://www.treehugger.com/organic-beauty/3d-printed-human-skin-models-may-put-end-animal-testing.html | 2017-11-20 12:45:52.210000 | 'Build Beyond Zero' Changes the Way One Thinks About Buildings |
Company boards should set 40% women quota: EU | The European Commission is proposing a 40% quota of women on company boards, in order to combat gender inequality at senior levels of publicly listed firms. The plans would require companies whose non-executive directors are over 60% male to prioritise women if candidates of equal merit apply for posts. Previous efforts by the European Union (EU) to establish a 40% target for women in senior roles at listed firms have failed. The proportion of women on the boards of such firms in the EU has increased from 10% in 2005 to 22% in 2015.
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/20/eu-to-push-for-40-quota-for-women-on-company-boards | 2017-11-20 12:44:14.557000 | The European commission is to push for a quota for women on company boards to address the slow progress to gender equality in the senior ranks of publicly listed businesses.
Under the proposals, companies whose non-executive directors are more than 60% male would be required to prioritise women when candidates of equal merit were being considered for a post.
Previous attempts by the EU’s executive to set a 40% goal for women in the top ranks of listed companies have been blocked by Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden overs fears that Brussels was overreaching into domestic affairs. Hungary and Poland have opposed the move on ideological grounds.
The result of the impasse has been slow progress to greater diversity at the top of companies. Women made up 29% of recruits to UK boards in 2016, down from 32.1% in 2014 and 31.6% in 2012, according to research by the recruiter Egon Zehnder.
The proportion of women on the boards of the largest listed companies across the EU has more than doubled, from 10% in 2005 to 22% in 2015. However, women account for only 7% of board chairs and presidents and 6% of chief executives in the largest companies.
On Monday, the commissioner for justice and gender equality, Vĕra Jourová, will publish proposals to redress the gender pay gap.
Speaking to the Guardian before the launch, Jourová said: “We have so much evidence that it is good for business to have diversity, to have women and men on boards. Women [make up] 65% of university graduates, so why don’t we use that talent and the investment?
“Women have a very good talent for long-term, sensible spending [and] for crisis-solving because they can come up with proposals for negotiation and compromise. It is a necessary balance to the approach of men: attack and escape.”
A quota for boards will be one of a series of legislative proposals aimed at tightening the law to improve diversity and pay practices in work.
The pay gap in the EU, quantifying the difference in average hourly pay for male and female workers, remains resolutely large.
According to figures released in October, Britain registered the biggest increase in the EU’s gender pay gap in 2015. The UK’s gender pay gap jumped from 19.7% in 2014 to 20.8% in 2015, the largest annual rise among Europe’s main economies. The gap in the UK now outstrips the EU’s average of 16.3%.
Jourová, the Czech Republic’s representative in the commission, said: “In each country there are special reasons for this. I think that in most member states, maybe all, the main problem is segregated jobs. Females’ jobs, nurses, social services, teachers are underpaid. And is it because women are working in these roles? Maybe. I would guess this is also the case with the UK and [it is] something they should think about.
“We are addressing the member states with a strong call to look into it and change their renumeration policy in the public sector. The gender pay gap is also partly caused because women have more duties at home and take part-time jobs. And are paid less. It is a trap.”
Across the EU there is a full-time equivalent employment rate of 40% for women and 56% for men.
Jourová said she believes discrimination is still a major factor, and that current EU legislation is ineffective because it is not strongly enforced. Jourová has also suggested legislation to force listed companies to publish gender-specific statistics on pay.
“There are no teeth [to current laws],” she said. “According to our estimates, discrimination accounts for 8-10% of the gap. There is not enough enforcement. It must be done by labour inspectorates, and it should be captured in collective bargaining by the trade unions.” |
San Leon San Leon Energy to fight winding-up order | Oisin Fanning may be forced to sell his beleaguered oil and gas exploration firm, San Leon Energy, after it was hit with a winding-up order petition in Dublin's High Court. CEO Fanning has steered the company through several crises, but faces more uncertainty thanks to the dispute with Dutch enterprise Avobone, which is set to return to court next month. San Leon is in acquisition talks with China Great United and is also in early-stage merger discussions with partner company Midwestern.
| https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/san-leon-on-the-brink-after-stormy-times-36332197.html | 2017-11-20 11:39:04.167000 | Executive chairman Oisin Fanning is battling to keep his oil and gas explorer afloat after a cash row led to a winding-up petition, writes Gavin McLoughlin
Oisin Fanning faces the wrath of British hedge fund manager Martin Hughes, nicknamed ‘The Rottweiler’, as San Leon Energy fights a winding-up order following a wrangle with Dutch partner Avobone over a loan to cover a share of drilling. Stock image
Investing in oil and gas explorers isn't for the faint-hearted. Good results can deliver big rewards - bad results can mean you lose all your money.
British hedge fund manager Martin Hughes is certainly not in the faint-hearted category - his nickname in the City is 'The Rottweiler'.
Hughes's Toscafund is the majority shareholder in San Leon Energy, the oil and gas explorer run by Irish businessman Oisin Fanning.
San Leon is on the brink - with a creditor having just filed a petition in Dublin's High Court seeking to have it wound up. Toscafund's investment is small fry in the overall scheme of the funds it manages (over $4bn) - but the Rottweiler is probably snarling at the situation San Leon finds itself in.
The proximate cause of the difficulty is a long-running financial dispute with Avobone - a Dutch company which had partnered with San Leon on an asset in Poland. The main problem was a loan Avobone gave San Leon to meet Avobone's share of drilling. San Leon said the loan should only have been repayable "had Avobone exited after the field had generated sufficient cashflow to repay the loan".
"As of the timing of Avobone's exit in early 2013, the field had yet to generate cashflow."
Oisin Fanning. Pic: Courtpix
The row made its way through various arbitration and court hearings before ultimately being settled this time last year. San Leon agreed to pay €23.3m plus interest to Avobone.
It wasn't as simple as all that, however, and a few months later, the companies agreed a revised payment schedule as San Leon had had trouble generating the cash. Another revised schedule was agreed at the beginning of this month.
Then came the bombshell news on Friday that Avobone was seeking a winding-up order. San Leon said its rival was looking to change the terms of the latest agreement, looking for further security for the sums owed.
"These additional requested terms are totally unacceptable ... [San Leon] has already provided security of payment and shall robustly defend the application," the company added. "San Leon can see no reason for Avobone's actions given the imminent payment expected to Avobone of all outstanding sums."
The matter is due back before the courts next month and it may spell the end for a business that just last year was boasting about a "transformational" deal that would see it take a stake in a producing field in Nigeria. The stake was acquired via a complex arrangement that saw San Leon become the beneficial owner of around $175m of loan notes.
But cash flow from that project has been slow - as of April 1 2017, it was due $58m but had only received $5m.
The project also contributed to problems in filing accounts. San Leon missed the stock-market-imposed deadline - and said this was due to the complexity of the Nigerian venture.
"The delay in publication of the accounts has been for procedural reasons," San Leon said, adding that it needed to incorporate "the consolidated financial statements" of a particular entity related to the Nigerian asset using the equity method of accounting - a process for dealing with the financial effects of an investee company in which the core company has a significant influence.
"The consolidation process involves several jurisdictions, and has taken longer than expected for what is the first such consolidation and equity accounted investment in Nigeria for San Leon. When this process is completed, it will be followed by a number of normal audit confirmatory and technical review matters, which when completed will then put the company in a position to finalise and publish its financial statements."
Eventually, the accounts were published three months late, and contained a note of warning from the company's auditors that there were "material uncertainties which may cast significant doubt" about the company's ability to continue. There was, the company recognised, a need for further funding.
Ultimately, the way out for Fanning might be to sell the business.
San Leon told the market in the summer that a Chinese company has been sniffing around and even made an indicative takeover offer valuing the company at 67-76p a share. That was a substantial premium to the share price at the time (around 30p). A formal offer was contingent on the completion of due diligence - with the Chinese expecting to be able to make a their move within 45 days according to San Leon. That period of time elapsed and no offer was forthcoming.
San Leon then said it was still in dialogue with the company, China Great United, which had said the reason for the delay in due diligence was that it was now talking to a potential partner who could add value to the Nigerian project.
Another option that has been mooted is a merger with Midwestern - a partner in the Nigerian project. "San Leon remains in discussions with Midwestern, which are at a very early stage and broad-ranging, regarding a potential corporate transaction, which could include an offer by Midwestern for San Leon or an offer by San Leon for certain assets of Midwestern," the company said on foot of media speculation. Shares are now suspended from trading on foot of this.
If a deal can be pulled off it would represent a great escape by Fanning who has been through some rough times in business before.
He was a founder of collapsed stockbroking firm MMI Stockbrokers, and chief executive from 1993 before stepping down in 1998, the year the company got into serious difficulty. He also founded Smart Telecom which went into examinership three years after Fanning's departure as chief executive in 2006.
Life at San Leon has been eventful too. Leaving aside the current imbroglio with Avobone and the various takeover possibilities, the company last year found itself making headlines when it was excluded from the Norwegian state pension fund's 'investment universe' over its activities in the Western Sahara, a sparsely populated disputed territory.
The dispute is between Morocco and a group of the region's indigenous population.
The fund's ethics council said San Leon "contributes to serious violations of fundamental ethical norms through its onshore hydrocarbon exploration in Western Sahara on behalf of Moroccan authorities".
An activist in the region told the Sunday Independent at the time: "Morocco has no right to explore for oil in Western Sahara without the consent of the people of Western Sahara and if the people of Western Sahara are not to benefit from it. Morocco has no right to look for the oil; San Leon is doing it, so therefore they're kicked out [of the investment fund]."
In response, San Leon said that it had satisfied local interests following dialogue with local elected representatives and that it was in the company's own interest - and that of Morocco - that any revenue from oil or gas would benefit the local community.
San Leon has had interests in the Irish offshore too but sold many of them to John McKeon's Ardilaun Energy which has recently been seeking to raise money from investors. Lamborghini enthusiast McKeon set up Circle Oil which went bust early this year. McKeon had left the board in 2008.
San Leon retains a 4.5pc net profit interest on the Barryroe prospect, majority owned by Providence Resources. Barryroe is Providence's flagship asset and is due to be drilled next year, Finding a heavyweight partner to help get oil out of the ground on a commercial basis has been a long-running saga. Though the upcoming drilling campaign might help, Barryroe isn't going to help San Leon anytime soon.
Fanning is well remunerated. In 2016, his package including share-based compensation came to more than €1.7m, according to San Leon's last annual report. In 2015, his package was almost €1.3m.
On the company's website, his strengths are listed. "Oisin is both visionary and deeply practical in pursuing business goals on behalf of stakeholders. He recognises the importance of finding and developing talented people to achieve a clear set of objectives". If San Leon makes it through the court case, and payments from Nigeria remain slow, he'll need to draw on all his strengths to get the business on track. |
Sharing-economy insurer Zego raises £6m in funding | Zego, a UK-based insurtech focusing on providing coverage to workers in the "gig" economy, has raised £6m ($7.9m) in funding. Balderton Capital led the round. The firm provides insurance coverage for sharing-economy workers, such as Uber drivers, who often don't have coverage provided by their employers. The insurtech was founded by a group of former Deliveroo managers. | http://tech.eu/brief/zego-series-a-funding/ | 2017-11-20 10:51:00.303000 | Zego, a pay-as-you-go insurance provider for gig economy workers, has announced a Series A funding round of £6 million led by Balderton Capital with participation from LocalGlobe and a number of angel investors.
The Series A round follows the company’s last funding round of £1.2 million in July.
London-based Zego was founded by a group of former Deliveroo managers to provide insurance coverage to gig economy workers, who are typically not considered employees by the services they work for, leaving them with little or no protection. Uber most notoriously has been challenged in the UK courts over the status of its drivers.
The fresh capital will be used to grow its engineering team ahead of the launch of new insurance products for the self-employed and it is currently developing a tracking feature to ensure safer drivers pay less.
The startup, which employs 33, intends to internationalise in the next six months.
“Zego provides hardworking drivers with the tools to make gig economy jobs work for them,” said Harry Franks, CEO. “Before we came along drivers who wanted to work flexibly and part-time were ill-served by the insurance industry and were forced to pay for insurance cover they did not use.”
“ are in a new and fast evolving market that traditional insurers find it hard to adapt to,” added Rob Moffat, partner at Balderton. |
More big earthquakes expected in 2018 due to Earth speed changes | The world should expect many more devastating earthquakes in 2018 due to variations in the Earth's rotational speed, according to a report from the Geological Society of America. Heavily populated tropical areas may be the worst hit, according to the report. This latest news follows the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that hit Iran and Iraq a few days ago, killing over 400 people. Insurance companies worldwide are already concerned about the future due to the rising number of natural disasters, which could push insurance premiums to unaffordable levels for households and companies. | http://www.india.com/news/india/scientists-warn-of-devastating-earthquakes-in-2018-as-earths-rotation-slows-2652179/ | 2017-11-20 10:48:23.677000 | Home
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Scientists Warn of Devastating Earthquakes in 2018 as Earth’s Rotation Slows
Scientists Warn of Devastating Earthquakes in 2018 as Earth’s Rotation Slows
Scientists say the fluctuation in Earth's rotational speed could trigger intense seismic activity. The heavily populated tropical regions could be the worst hit, says a research paper.
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New Delhi, Nov 20: While the NASA may have debunked the theory that a planet called Nibiru (or Planet X) is about to destroy the Earth soon, scientists have predicted a far more scary and believable scenario. The number of big earthquakes could increase in 2018 due to variations in the speed of Earth. Scientists say the fluctuation in Earth’s rotational speed could trigger intense seismic activities across the planet. The heavily populated tropical regions could be the worst hit, says a research paper tabled at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.
Highlights Big earthquakes could hit the earth in 2018, warn experts.
Scientists say Earth's rotation has slowed down which could have catastrophic impact.
The heavily populated tropical regions could be the worst hit, they warned.
“The correlation between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year,” Roger Bilham of University of Colorado, who presented the research paper along with Rebecca Bendick of the University of Montana, said.
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What The Research Paper Revealed
“The Earth is offering us a five-year heads-up on future earthquakes,” Guardian quoted Roger Bilham, as saying. The experts studied the relationship between periods of major earthquakes and other factors and discovered that whenever Earth’s rotation had slowed down in the past, the period witnessed a substantial increase in seismic activities across the world.
“Next year we should see a significant increase in numbers of severe earthquakes. We have had it easy this year. So far we have only had about six severe earthquakes. We could easily have 20 a year starting in 2018,” Bilham said.
Bilham’s warning comes a few days after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake rattled Iran and Iraq killing over 400 people.
Warning for India
Scientists of Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) had recently warned that a big tremor could hit the region sooner than expect. Scientists explained the Indian Plate is moving towards the Eurasian Plate at the speed of 45 mm/year causing immense pressure under the earth surface in the region.
The energy created beneath the Earth surface triggered the April 2015 quake and experts said there is high probability of more such high intensity tremors in coming years. Prior to the 2015 quake, the Himalayan region has experienced three big earthquakes during the past century – Nepal-Bihar (1934), upper Assam (in 1950) and Kangra, Himachal Pradesh (1905).
On April 25, 2015, a magnitude 7.9 quake wreaked havoc in the Himalayan country of Nepal. Nearly 9,000 people were killed and over 20,000 injured. Tremors were felt as far as New Delhi and other parts of northern and eastern India. The massive earthquake sent Nepal’s economy and infrastructure back by a few years. The Northern Himalayan region is considered to be one of the most active seismic region in the world. Scientists have repeatedly warned of possibility of catastrophic earthquakes in the region. According to a latest research, the world could witness severe quakes in 2018.
Timeline of Major Earthquakes in India, Asia:
April 25, 2015: An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale strikes Lamjung district in Nepal.
November 23, 2014: A 6.3 magnitude quake hits China, killing at least two people.
November 23, 2014: Over 50 people were injured and about 10 houses collapsed after a 6.7-magnitude quake hit Japan.
May 5, 2014: An earthquake of 6.0 magnitude occurred in the Bay of Bengal and tremors were felt across India.
September 25, 2013: A 7.7-magnitude quake hit Pakistan’s remote south-west province of Balochistan killed over 300 people.
April 20, 2013: A quake of 6.6 magnitude hit a remote mountainous area of southwestern China’s Sichuan province, killing around 150 people and injuring several people.
September 20, 2011: At least 68 people died and over 300 were injured in a quake of 6.8 magnitude that struck Sikkim.
September 22, 2009: A high-magnitude earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale killed at least 10 people in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and left dozens more injured.
October 8, 2005: The magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed at least 86,000 people, injured more than 69,000 and caused extensive damage in northern Pakistan.
December 26, 2004: A quake of powerful 9.3 magnitude on the Richter Scale triggered a massive Tsunami hitting countries in the Asia Pacific region, killing over 2 lakh people.
January 26, 2001: A massive earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the town of Bhuj in Gujarat, killing over 10,000 people.
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Aegon seeking fintech partnerships in India | Life insurer Aegon Life is seeking partners involved in fintech in India. The firm reportedly ranks 22 out of 23 among premiums collected by Indian private life insurers. The push for partnerships is aimed at giving the firm a greater platform to sell policies online. The firm already has an arrangement with online insurance marketplace PolicyBazaar. It also earns roughly a third of its premiums via digital channels at present. | http://www.india.com/news/agencies/in-digital-drive-aegon-life-looking-for-fintech-partnerships-2649211/ | 2017-11-20 10:43:46.280000 | Home
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In digital drive, Aegon Life looking for fintech partnerships
In digital drive, Aegon Life looking for fintech partnerships
New Delhi, Nov 19 (PTI) Aegon Life Insurance is exploring partnerships with fintech firms to expand customer base through a digital push of selling policies online, a top company official said.Among 2
New Delhi, Nov 19 (PTI) Aegon Life Insurance is exploring partnerships with fintech firms to expand customer base through a digital push of selling policies online, a top company official said.
Among 23 private life insurers, Aegon is ahead of only Sahara Life on new premium collection.
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The LIC, the only state-owned life insurer, holds the top rank in the life insurance space.
“While market share is important, at this point of time, the focus is to build the business more towards direct-to- customer and more digital with an omni-channel kind of a concept,” Saibal Ghosh, Chief Investment Officer, Aegon Life Insurance, told PTI during an interaction.
“Our focus will be largely digital as we believe that digital is going to be big. We are also looking out for digital partners, we will also be looking at some of the financial services companies with a digital focus,” Ghosh added.
In terms of premium collection, the company earns around one-third or 30-35 per cent of the business through digital means like mobile application or Internet-based online channels.
The rest of the polices are sold through the direct channel of the company’s own sales personnel.
The overall objective, Ghosh said, is to push the online business as much as possible.
Asked to name the probable fintech firms with whom Aegon Life may tie up, he said it is a “work in progress”.
The company already has a tie-up with policybazaar.com, an online platform to compare insurance polices.
Aegon Life new premium collection more than doubled to Rs 9.37 crore in October 2017, from Rs 4.35 crore in the same month a year ago, according to data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).
During April-October 2017-18, the new premium grew by 74.4 per cent to Rs 58.85 crore, from the earlier Rs 33.74 crore.
In 2016-17, the insurer’s overall new premium collection, however, slipped 33 per cent to Rs 91.42 crore, from Rs 136.33 crore in 2015-16, according to the Irdai data.
Aegon life sells term and health insurance, unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs), savings and retirement plans, child, rural and group insurance schemes.
This is published unedited from the PTI feed.
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Brokers mull AI use for interaction with insurers | Insurance brokers are mulling the adoption of chatbots to interact with insurers. Chatbots are frequently used in a customer-service application, but could now be deployed to facilitate discussions between underwriters and brokers. Artificial intelligence-powered bots could be used, for example, to understand an insurer's compliance policies, allowing conversations between brokers and insurers to focus on details surrounding the nuances of clients and their desired coverage. | https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/insurance/can-help-brokers-deal-carriers-1004123895/ | 2017-11-20 10:42:57.883000 | Brokers are excited about the potential of artificial intelligence (A.I.) to help streamline interactions—not just between brokers and consumers, but also between brokerages and insurance companies.
Chatbots are often cited as an A.I. tool to help brokerages automate and streamline their online interactions with clients. But chatbots can also act as “advisors” internally at brokerages, helping brokers to figure out the different insurance company manuals, data collection rules and processes.
“We have lots of companies with different rules,” says Amanda Ketelaars, operations manager at Mitchell & Whale Insurance Brokers Ltd., which has already started using a chatbot to streamline interactions with consumers.
“We think there is lots of learning A.I. and chatbots can do around managing the different [company] rules and helping us to straighten those things out. That makes it easier [for the broker] to find a lot of [company] information that we now have to enter manually. I think it can be an internal advisor as much as an external advisor.”
Rick Orr, owner of Orr Insurance & Investment, believes A.I. will save insurers “a fortune,” by automating processes between brokerages and insurers.
“I think you’ll just use A.I. to load the [company] manual into the system and let the brokers chat [with the insurers] and get an answer back,” he says. “You will end up with way fewer, higher-level underwriters dealing with true exceptions to what the book says, the way it should be.”
For now, much of the hype around A.I. is the possibility of improving broker relationships with clients. The Insurance Institute of Canada recently released a trends paper on A.I. in the Canadian p&c industry, in which sources talk about increasingly sophisticated chatbots becoming “robo-advisors” in the future.
For example, PwC predicts robo-advisors will soon offer broker clients more ‘recommender’ systems and ‘someone like you’ statistical matching, the paper says. “When fully mature, robo-advisors will understand individual and household balance sheets and income statements [and they] will be able to recommend, monitor and change financial goals and portfolios for their p&c policyholders.”
The genesis for robo-advisors already exists today in the form of chatbots. But the current experience with chatbots suggests regulatory hurdles to achieving the utopian vision of robo-advisors.
“There are restrictions around licensing and what [a chatbot] can tell [consumers] and what it can’t,” Ketelaars says of the Mitchell & Whale’s chatbot experience.
“But it can automate simple tasks, answering repetitive or straightforward questions like, ‘Where do I find your office? Where would I get a quote?’ or ‘I need to speak to a broker about this.’ It can collect all the information before it gets to the broker. The chatbot can do quoting, until we get to a bind stage and then the person can speak to a broker at the end of that phase.”
The Insurance Institute paper notes some barriers to A.I. use among brokers in Canada. “Barriers to AI use in Canada include high investment costs, which could be prohibitive to small insurers and brokerages, as well as a general lack of trust in allowing machines to handle personal interactions with humans.”
But Ketelaars thinks brokers can defray their costs by working with partner insurance companies and insurtechs already working in the A.I. space. Mitchell & Whale, for example, partnered with ProNav Technologies, an Ontario-based insurance tech company, to develop its chatbot.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this story paraphrased Rick Orr as saying that brokers could save a fortune with A.I. Rick Orr intended to say insurers could save a fortune. CU regrets the error. |
RBS launches low-cost robo-adviser service | Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has introduced a robo-advice platform with a minimum investment of £500 ($663). The platform will reportedly be rolled out via RBS's NatWest brand. The move came after RBS did away with a large number of wealth advice positions earlier this year. It's estimated more than five million customers will have access to the new platform.
| https://www.financemagnates.com/fintech/news/rbs-launches-low-cost-robo-adviser-service-minimum-500-threshold/ | 2017-11-20 10:35:57.050000 | Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has officially applied the latest artificial intelligence-led technology to its wealth-management operations, as the state-backed lender is trying to gain an edge over rivals in the UK banking sector.
RBS will run the newly launched robo-adviser service under its NatWest brand, the bank it bought more than 15 years ago.
For retail investors, the investment threshold for the new service has been set at £500 ($660), which is a low amount compared to the product limits of traditional banking wealth management.
Starting Monday, NatWest branches will begin offering the automated online investment advice to over 5 million customers, RBS said on Friday. The product offers a cheaper option for this basic segment, and actually helps them trim charges for in-depth financial advice around topics such as tax and inheritance planning.
RBS has already tested the waters in using robo advisers in a bid to improve the bank's financial results after having posted its longest streak of annual losses, which remains a blow to UK government plans to sell off the 70 percent public-owned bank.
Additionally, earlier this year the bank cut tens of investment advice positions and scaled back its service to clients that can invest at least $330,000, more than double the previous $130,000 threshold.
With banks in the UK still largely playing catch-up in embracing this digital technology, RBS is claiming to be the first among the nation’s big lenders to unlock the potential of the robo-advisers, which are being adopted rapidly by the wealth management industry worldwide.
Paolo Galvani, co-founder and CEO of Moneyfarm, a robo-advisor provider and one of Europe's biggest digital wealth managers, commented on the news: “The recent surge of online offerings from traditional wealth managers demonstrates the rise of robo-advisers, which the industry can no longer ignore. However, it’s crucial that digital solutions continue to be complemented by professional and human advice, which is not often the case. Moneyfarm provides all clients with over-the-phone access to Investment Consultants who can provide practical advice on the product and in-depth information on an individual’s investment.” |
AI may add $1.2tn to global financial services by 2035: Accenture | The adoption of artificial intelligence could add $1.2tn to the global financial services industry by 2035, according to a report from Accenture. The report also notes that financial services, as a sector, is the third largest beneficiary of AI developments. Media and telecommunications, as well as manufacturing, are the top sectors benefiting from increased AI adoption. Developments in AI are likely to be a boon for financial service firms' customer service capabilities, while providing products such as micro-insurance is said to be an impossibility without an increased usage of the tech.
| http://www.scmp.com/business/article/2120424/finance-firms-near-moment-truth-truly-embrace-ai | 2017-11-20 10:34:52.940000 | According to Accenture research, the financial services industry is now the third most impacted by productivity gains achieved with the implementation of AI, behind only the media and telecoms, and manufacturing sectors |
American Century latest active manager to license ActiveShare ETF structure | American Century has become the latest active manager to license an exchange-traded fund structure developed by Precidian Investments. The structure, dubbed ActiveShares, is said to be "semi-transparent", meaning managers don't have to disclose holdings on a daily basis, as is the case with active ETFs currently in the market. Precidian is yet to receive regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for ActiveShares. American Century follows the likes of JPMorgan, BlackRock and Legg Mason in signing up to license the active ETF structure.
| https://www.etfstrategy.co.uk/american-century-licenses-precidians-activeshares-etf-structure-65447/ | 2017-11-20 10:32:46.370000 | Factor Investing Strategy Briefing - Thursday 29th June 2023 - The Connaught, Mayfair. Please join us for our annual smart beta and factor investing event, featuring Goldman Sachs Asset Management, FlexShares, First Trust, MSCI and WisdomTree. Please register now if you would like to attend.
American Century Investments has entered into an agreement with Precidian Investments to license the firm’s ActiveShares methodology in support of the potential launch of actively-managed, semi-transparent ETFs. The Precidian model allows ETF issuers to deliver actively-managed investment strategies in an ETF vehicle without disclosing holdings on a daily basis.
While most passive and active ETFs today require daily portfolio disclosure, which exposes active managers’ investment ideas to other investors, the ActiveShares approach masks an ETF’s holdings by inserting a blind trust, known as a ‘confidential account’, between the fund and its authorized participants.
Normally, authorized participants are entitled to purchase and redeem large blocks of ETF shares from an ETF in exchange for baskets of securities and cash that are acceptable to the fund managers. All other market participants trade ETF shares on a secondary basis. As with an ordinary ETF, the current valuation of the underlying portfolio would be disseminated to the market, and arbitrageurs would be able to compare this indicative value, which is to be updated each second and verified by a second pricing vendor, to the quoted price of the ETF shares.
ActiveShares differs, however, in that authorized participants would not be able to calculate their own indicative value, since the creation basket will only be disclosed to a representative (a custodial bank) that will manage the confidential account. To create ActiveShares for an authorized participant, the custodian would accept the required consideration and assemble a creation basket, which it would contribute to the fund for new ETF shares in the confidential account. It would then distribute the ETFs to the authorized participant.
American Century is the latest asset manager to express interest in the structure – other interested parties include JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, Capital Research, Nationwide, as well as Legg Mason affiliates ClearBridge and Royce. Precidian is still seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow for the use of ActiveShares by asset managers.
American Century has been laying the foundation for its entry into the ETF marketplace, and is reportedly considering other avenues of entry other than ActiveShares. In October, the firm filed registration statements for two transparent ETFs: an index-based value ETF and an actively-managed diversified corporate bond ETF. The firm anticipates a mid-January effective date for both funds, subject to SEC approval.
Edward Rosenberg, senior vice president and head of ETFs for American Century, commented: “As we build out American Century’s ETF product suite, our long-term plan is to leverage our established active-management capabilities to bring clients our investment strategies in an ETF format, which aligns with certain investors’ preferences. While waiting for SEC approval of the ActiveShares methodology, we are proceeding with plans to launch other transparent ETFs that are informed by decades of experience and apply our unique insights to solve common investment problems and help investors achieve their goals.” |
Fintech Intrinio partners with Nasdaq for data offering | Data-focused fintech Intrinio has partnered with Nasdaq to condense the exchange's data into a feed which corporations and individuals can purchase. Intrinio says its clients range from investors, algorithmic traders and banks. Clients use the data feeds for a variety of reasons, including tracking individual companies and feeding automated trading systems. Individuals can gain access to Intrinio's data feeds for $75 a month.
| https://www.americanbanker.com/news/fintech-seeks-to-democratize-data-with-nasdaqs-help | 2017-11-20 10:26:56.777000 | The fintech startup Intrinio has partnered with Nasdaq to include the exchange’s real-time data feeds in its financial data marketplace.
It’s the latest step in an evolution for Intrinio, which aims to “democratize all types of data,” CEO and co-founder Rachel Carpenter said.
Intrinio currently offers application programming interfaces for 150 different types of financial data, including S&P Dow Jones index data, U.S. public company financials and feeds from other stock exchanges.
Clients — investors, algorithmic traders, hedge funds and banks — can select which data feeds they want in order to track companies, to supply their algorithmic trading programs or to do other things.
“Tens of thousands of users now are coming to us because we have the most affordable a la carte data feeds on the market,” Carpenter said. Several customers asked for the Nasdaq feed.
The original idea behind Intrinio was to bring Warren Buffett’s investment ideas to life in software. Carpenter’s co-founder, Joey French, whom she met in college, was a big fan of Buffett.
“We felt that valuation was an industry ripe for disruption,” Carpenter said. “It costs a lot of money to run a valuation when it could be automated.”
They taught themselves how to program and developed an app for the valuation industry. It ended up being highly data intensive, screen-scraping stock prices and fundamentals data from 10,000 sites including Yahoo Finance and company web pages.
“When we had it all built, we said, we can’t sell this thing without legitimately purchasing the data,” Carpenter said. “We were very naive at that point in time. We called all the big data vendors, and we got quoted more than $50,000 for the data we needed. We were just fintech entrepreneurs — imagine how discouraged we were. Discouraged doesn’t cut it. We were angry.”
It was too early in the company’s life to raise money, so they set about solving their own problem.
“We found financial data to be reserved for the elite, for the big institutional investors, and not available to the masses,” Carpenter said.
They built machine learning technology for a data marketplace and found partners from whom they could obtain data streams for a reasonable price.
Under the latest agreement with Nasdaq, the exchange streams raw, unfiltered data to Quodd, another partner. Quodd normalizes the data and built a WebSocket infrastructure that allows communication over a single transmission control protocol connection to serve up the data.
“We believe WebSockets are the way of the future, a simple way to have two-way communications,” Carpenter said. “They’re easy to get up and running which, true to our mission, will help put this data in more hands faster. With just three lines of code, you can access the data.”
Individuals can consume any data on Intrinio’s marketplace for $75 a month; companies pay a varying rate.
Although her media relations person embraces the term “Bloomberg killer” to describe the company, Carpenter does not.
“We have clients that leverage our data to build apps that may be similar to what you have on a Bloomberg [terminal],” she said. “But our mission is just to make raw data feeds available.” |
Two Sigma to turn to outside fundraising for PE fund | After previously only investing partners' money, Two Sigma is turning to external clients to raise investment for its private equity offering. The move is part of the firm's spinning out of its private equity business, which will go by the name Sightway Capital. The firm's quantitative focus within its hedge fund strategies has seen it grow its assets significantly, now ranking among the largest quant hedge funds globally. The firm has also been expanding into the insurance space, providing coverage for small and medium-sized businesses through a partnership with AIG.
| https://www.dowjones.com/scoops/two-sigma-planning-raise-outside-money-private-equity-investments/ | 2017-11-20 10:20:57.673000 | Two Sigma Planning to Raise Outside Money for Private-Equity Investments
By Juliet Chung
Two Sigma Investments LP is preparing to raise outside money for its private-equity strategy, which has for years invested only partners’ money, according to people familiar with the matter.
The New York quantitative hedge-fund firm is spinning off its Two Sigma Private Investments into a business called Sightway Capital and hopes to register it with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear how much money the unit currently manages and how much outside money it plans to raise.
Sightway will continue to focus on illiquid investments, said a person familiar with the venture, including in credit, special situations, real estate and natural resources. A website for Sightway showcases video of an oil rig, farming equipment, a train, a plane and medical equipment. Wray Thorn will continue to lead the business.
“While a wide and growing number of markets and asset classes globally lend themselves to algorithmic and systematic approaches, a number of primarily illiquid investment in private assets still require a different approach,” wrote Sightway’s new chief of strategy and capital development, Susan Soh, in an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Sightway’s approach, she wrote, “focuses on partnering with experienced industry operators and strategic partners to build business platforms in targeted industries, helping these businesses as they seek to grow over time.”
Two Sigma was founded in 2001 by a computer scientist, David Siegel, and a mathematician, John Overdeck, who had both worked at hedge funds including the D.E. Shaw Group. The firm reached $50 billion in assets under management in October.
The Sightway effort marks a continued expansion of its business from quantitative investing. Last year Two Sigma joined with American International Group Inc. and Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd. to provide an automated, online analytical system to issue policies in minutes to smaller businesses like beauty parlors and medical offices. Early this year, a Two Sigma affiliate agreed to work with AIG on an insurance platform. The firm also has a venture arm that invests internal money.
A person familiar with Two Sigma said the firm continues to be focused on its hedge funds.
Leslie Scism contributed to this article.
Write to Juliet Chung at [email protected] |
UK minister lobbied on behalf of BP, Premier Oil and Shell | A UK trade minister successfully lobbied for BP, Premier Oil and Shell in order to address the companies’ concerns about environmental regulation, taxation and rules governing use of local firms in Brazil, according to a diplomatic telegram obtained by Greenpeace. Greg Hands travelled to Brazil in March to support efforts by UK firms to win business in the South American country. Hands “directly” raised the firms' concerns with Brazil’s deputy minister for mines and energy, Paulo Pedrosa. Greenpeace has accused the UK Department for International Trade of operating as a “lobbying arm of the fossil fuel industry”.
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/19/uk-trade-minister-lobbied-brazil-on-behalf-of-oil-giants | 2017-11-19 00:00:00 | Britain successfully lobbied Brazil on behalf of BP and Shell to address the oil giants’ concerns over Brazilian taxation, environmental regulation and rules on using local firms, government documents reveal.
The UK’s trade minister travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo in March for a visit with a “heavy focus” on hydrocarbons, to help British energy, mining and water companies win business in Brazil.
Greg Hands met with Paulo Pedrosa, Brazilian deputy minister for mines and energy, and “directly” raised the concerns of UK-based oil firms Shell, BP and Premier Oil over “taxation and environmental licensing”.
Pedrosa said he was pressing his counterparts in the Brazilian government on the issues, according to a British diplomatic telegram obtained by Greenpeace.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) initially released an unredacted version of the telegram under freedom of information rules to Greenpeace’s investigative unit, Unearthed, with sensitive passages highlighted. Shortly after, the department issued a second version of the document, with the same passages redacted.
Greenpeace accused the department of acting as a “lobbying arm of the fossil fuel industry”.
The UK government denies it was lobbying to weaken the environmental licensing regime, although the lobbying drive appears to have borne fruit. In August, Brazil proposed a multibillion-dollar tax relief plan for offshore drilling, and in October BP and Shell won the bulk of deep-water drilling licenses in a government auction.
Rebecca Newsom, senior political adviser at Greenpeace, said: “This is a double embarrassment for the UK government. Liam Fox’s trade minister has been lobbying the Brazilian government over a huge oil project that would undermine the climate efforts Britain made at the UN summit in Bonn.
“If that wasn’t bad enough, Fox’s department tried to cover it up and hide its actions from the public, but failed comically.”
The document also reveals that the UK pressured Brazil to relax its requirements for oil and gas operators to use a certain amount of Brazilian staff and supply chain companies.
British diplomats described the weakening of the so-called local content requirements as a “principal objective” because BP, Shell and Premier Oil would be “direct British beneficiaries” of the changes.
The UK’s drive to soften the requirements continued on the day after the meeting between Hands and Pedrosa, with a senior DIT official leading a seminar on the subject at the headquarters of Brazil’s oil and gas regulator.
The UK government has come under fire in the past for providing hundreds of millions of pounds of support for Brazil’s scandal-hit state oil firm Petrobras via the UK’s credit export agency.
The UK’s continued oil lobbying efforts in Brazil emerged days after British ministers were touting the UK’s leadership on cutting carbon emissions at international climate talks in Bonn.
Claire Perry, the climate change minister, told the summit: “we are taking our commitments under the Paris agreement very seriously and we are taking action.”
A DIT spokesman said: “DIT is responsible for encouraging international investment opportunities for UK businesses, whilst respecting fully local and international environmental standards. The UK oil and gas industry and supply chain supports thousands of jobs and provides £19bn in goods exports alone.
“However, it is absolutely not true that our ministers lobbied to loosen environmental restrictions in Brazil – the meeting was about improving the environmental licensing process, ensuring a level playing field for both domestic and foreign companies, and in particular helping to speed up the licensing process and make it more transparent, which in turn will protect environmental standards.” |
UK could introduce single-use plastic tax | A “call for evidence” on the environmental impact of taxes and charges on single-use plastics will be announced in the UK’s budget on Wednesday, according to a statement from the country’s Treasury. Approximately 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the world’s oceans each year, causing over a million birds and 100,000 sea mammals and turtles to die. The call for evidence will start in early 2018. It will consider findings from a separate consultation by the environment department on measures including deposit return schemes aimed at reducing waste from disposable drinks containers such as coffee cups. | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/18/uk-considers-tax-on-single-use-plastics-to-tackle-ocean-pollution | 2017-11-18 00:00:00 | The chancellor, Philip Hammond, will announce in next week’s budget a “call for evidence” on how taxes or other charges on single-use plastics such as takeaway cartons and packaging could reduce the impact of discarded waste on marine and bird life, the Treasury has said.
The commitment was welcomed by environmental and wildlife groups, though they stressed that any eventual measures would need to be ambitious and coordinated.
An estimated 12m tonnes of plastic enters the oceans each year, and residues are routinely found in fish, sea birds and marine mammals. This week it emerged that plastics had been discovered even in creatures living seven miles beneath the sea. The introduction just over two years ago of a 5p charge on single-use plastic bags led to an 85% reduction in their use inside six months.
Separately, the environment department is seeking evidence on how to reduce the dumping of takeaway drinks containers such as coffee cups through measures such as a deposit return scheme.
Announcing the move on plastics, the Treasury cited statistics saying more than a million birds and 100,000 sea mammals and turtles die each year from eating or getting tangled in plastic waste.
The BBC series Blue Planet II has highlighted the scale of plastic debris in the oceans. In the episode to be broadcast this Sunday, albatrosses try to feed plastic to their young, and a pilot whale carries her dead calf with her for days in mourning. Scientists working with the programme believed the mother’s milk was made poisonous by pollution.
The call for evidence will begin in the new year and will take into account the findings of the consultation on drinks containers.
Tisha Brown, an oceans campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said the decades-long use of almost indestructible materials to make single-use products “was bound to lead to problems, and we’re starting to discover how big those problems are”.
She said: “Ocean plastic pollution is a global emergency, it is everywhere from the Arctic Ocean at top of the world to the Marianas trench at the bottom of the Pacific. It’s in whales, turtles and 90% of sea birds, and it’s been found in our salt, our tap water and even our beer.
“The Treasury’s announcement is only a statement of intent, but it recognises the significance of the problem and the urgent need for a solution. There is a long way to go, but hopefully this is the beginning of the end for single-use plastic.”
Jeff Knott, head of nature policy for the RSPB, noted how Blue Planet was “seeing attention turned to the manmade threats the marine world faces”.
He said: “Sadly our marine life is in trouble. Through the mismanagement of our waters with fishing, pollution and littering we are seeing declines in many important marine species as well as those that depend on them.
“A tax on single-use plastics is a welcome move, but we must also recognise more needs to be done to tackle the often less visible threats.”
After the Brexit vote, Knott said, the UK had “a strong interest in demonstrating global leadership in tackling this international problem that impacts not just on our shores and our overseas territories but every coastline around the world. However, this must be part of a bigger package of measures that also looks at overfishing, lack of protection, climate change and pollution.”
Mike Barrett, director of science and policy for the wildlife charity WWF, said: “Too often birds, fish, turtles and whales are found dead having eaten plastic. Plastic is suffocating our seas.
“Any action to tackle single-use plastic is a good thing, but we must ensure any action is truly ambitious if we want to make the real difference needed to help save the planet.” |
Apple Watch uses AI to predict high blood pressure, sleep apnea | Health start-up Cardiogram has partnered with the University of California San Francisco on a study that demonstrated that, in concert with the right algorithms, an Apple Watch can predict hypertension and sleep apnea with 80% and 90% accuracy, respectively. To develop the DeepHeart system, Cardiogram adapted artificial neural networks normally used to process speech into text to analyse heart-rate and step data from more than 6,000 Apple Watch users. Cardiogram’s heart-rate app is currently free, but the company said revenues could come from shipping home tests or offering post-diagnosis support.
| https://www.wired.com/story/ai-can-help-apple-watch-predict-high-blood-pressure-sleep-apnea/ | 2017-11-17 16:40:07.623000 | The world’s most valuable company crammed a lot into the tablespoon-sized volume of an Apple Watch. There’s GPS, a heart-rate sensor, cellular connectivity, and computing resources that not long ago would have filled a desk-dwelling beige box. The wonder gadget doesn’t have a sphygmomanometer for measuring blood pressure or polysomnographic equipment found in a sleep lab---but thanks to machine learning, it might be able to help with their work.
Research presented at the American Heart Association meeting in Anaheim Monday claims that, when paired with the right machine-learning algorithms, the Apple Watch’s heart-rate sensor and step counter can make a fair prediction of whether a person has high blood pressure or sleep apnea, in which breathing stops and starts repeatedly through the night. Both are common---and commonly undiagnosed---conditions associated with life-threatening problems, including stroke and heart attack.
The new study adds to evidence that the right algorithms might transform the Apple Watch from personal trainer to personal physician. Apple said in September that it is working on a study with Stanford that will test whether the gadget can detect atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, which can lead to stroke or heart failure. A study independent of Apple presented in May has already suggested the answer is yes. And health insurer Aetna said last week that it is partnering with Apple to give Apple Watches to members to try to reduce health costs.
The Apple Watch’s potential to predict high blood pressure and sleep apnea was revealed by a collaboration between University of California San Francisco and a startup called Cardiogram. The company offers an app for organizing heart-rate data from an Apple Watch, and other devices with heart-rate sensors. UCSF provided data from more than 6,000 Apple Watch users enrolled in a study on mobile health. Cardiogram’s founders drew on their previous experience as Google employees, working on speech recognition for Android phones and the Google Assistant.
Cardiogram’s engineers took the kind of artificial neural networks that Google and others use to turn our speech into text and adapted them to interpret heart-rate and step count data. (Like speech, they are signals that vary over time.) The system, dubbed DeepHeart, is given strings of heart-rate and step data from multiple people, and information about their health conditions. In May, the company and UCSF released results showing that DeepHeart could figure out how to predict atrial fibrillation from a person's Apple Watch data. The study presented Monday shows that with one week of data on a wearer, the algorithms can predict hypertension with roughly 80 percent accuracy, and sleep apnea with about 90 percent accuracy.
Doctors don’t---and probably couldn’t---diagnose high blood pressure or sleep apnea just by eyeballing a week’s worth of data from your smartwatch. They diagnose hypertension by putting that familiar cuff on your arm. Sleep apnea requires a visit to a sleep clinic, or use of home monitoring equipment. So how do Cardiogram’s algorithms make good guesses without directly measuring a person's blood pressure or breathing? We only sort of know.
Breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure are all connected to our autonomic nervous system, which regulates the unconscious bodily functions that keep us alive. Past research has shown how hypertension and sleep apnea alter the dynamics of heart rate. For example, heart rate variability is lower in people with sleep apnea. But Brandon Ballinger, a Cardiogram cofounder, admits that he doesn’t know all the patterns in a person's heart rate that his algorithms use to make predictions. “They’re kind of a foreign form of intelligence,” says Ballinger.
Ballinger says that, with the right testing, that doesn't prevent his alien intelligence from having business potential. Cardiogram’s app for Apple Watch and other devices is free today. But the startup’s business plan is to one day add features that advise a user to be checked for atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure, or sleep apnea. To stay on the right side of the FDA, the app would have to advise a person to get tested, and not suggest the person has a particular condition. Cardiogram would make money by offering to ship the necessary equipment for a home test, and billing a person's health insurer. The app could also provide advice after a diagnosis, or link people to medical practitioners or health coaches, Ballinger says. He predicts some of these features will appear within months. |
Speechmatics' AI learns a new language in one week | Cambridge company Speechmatics has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) capable of learning a new language in seven days. The software uses fundamental sounds and grammatical structures to understand a language, and can learn the basics in less than a day. The software is currently used for closed captions on TV, while future uses could include recording calls to demonstrate compliance within financial institutions. CEO Benedikt von Thüngen said the current adoption of voice-activated devices was the start of a wider trend toward "much more conversational interfaces".
| http://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/education/technology-2-25341/cambridge-ai-company-speechmatics-can-learn-a-new-language-in-a-week-1-5275810 | 2017-11-17 16:36:48.057000 | Benedikt von Thngen, CEO at Speechmatics in Cambridge . Picture: Keith Heppell
We talk to CEO Benedikt von Thüngen as firm unveils machine learning technology called Automatic Linguist.
How Speechmatics has added more languages to its portfolio
It hopes one day to master all 7,000 languages in the world.
And Speechmatics is off to a good start, having deployed its artificial intelligence technology on 28 so far, enabling accurate speech-to-text transcription for a host of purposes.
Yesterday, the Cambridge company officially launched Automatic Linguist (AL), its machine learning platform that enables it to tackle a new language in as little as a week.
Purpose-built from the ground up using technology developed at the University of Cambridge, the platform recognises patterns in language and applies them to each new build.
Dr Tony Robinson at Speechmatics. Picture: Keith Heppell
Challenged by a major corporate client with learning Hindi in two weeks, Speechmatics delivered a production-ready system that, according to its test, makes 23 per cent fewer errors than the market leader.
Benedikt von Thüngen, CEO at Speechmatics, told the Cambridge Independent: “Hindi was surprisingly easy. We discovered it is very similar to English in pronunciation, so we were able to use a process called adaptation. It learned from the different data sets we have.
“Each language has interesting aspects. If you take Korean, Turkish, Finnish or German, they use agglutination – where words are added together to form new words. That was a fun challenge to solve…
“You have tonal languages, like Vietnamese and Mandarin and its variations, which was another fun challenge. But it’s a matter of teaching the system to deal with it and that opens up a new swathe of languages.”
Speechmatics was joint winner in the Artificial Intelligence scale-up category with Audio Analytic at the Cambridge Independents Entrepreneurial Science and Technology Awards. Picture: Keith Heppell
The traditional route for enabling speech recognition of a language involved laborious, expensive manual processes, in which vast amounts of data was collated and cleansed by experts, creating a one-off system. It meant it was economical to cover only the most widely-spoken languages.
But using decades of research in neural networks, developed from Cambridge PhD work by Dr Tony Robinson, who is now CTO at the company, Speechmatics can learn the initial base of a language in less than a day from relatively little data by recognising fundamental sounds and grammatical structures.
One major use of the software is providing accurate real-time closed captioning for TV, and it is adding a custom dictionary to cater for specialist languages – football players’ names, for example.
Meetings and recordings can be transcribed with the platform and Benedikt said financial institutions can use the technology for call recording to demonstrate compliance or to audit for PPI mis-selling.
He predicted: “Voice will very quickly become the main mechanism to interact with devices. We are seeing the really early adoption of that with Amazon Alexa, Siri and Google Voice, which is phenomenal but it’s still very one-dimensional.
“We’ll move more into an intuitive world and we are going to get to much more conversational interfaces.”
Benedikt says: “Our USPs are accuracy, operational performance – memory footprint and speed – the breadth of language coverage and speed with which we offer a new language, and the speed at which we can add new features.”
A white paper from the firm says: “Our eventual aim is to have a language pack for all the world’s languages. This is an ambitious aim – it is estimated there are around 7,000 living languages at present, and we hope to cover them all one day.”
Benedikt conceded that was a tall order, given that most of those are barely documented, but said Speechmatics would look first to get to the milestone of 100 and then 1,000.
Little wonder the Kirkwood Road-based company, which jointly won the AI scale-up category of the Cambridge Independent’s Entrepreneurial Science and Technology Awards in September, is looking to double its staff of 39 over the next 12 months. |
AI start-up Bytedance buys social music app Musical.ly for $800m | Chinese start-up Bytedance is set to acquire social music app maker Musical.ly in a deal thought to be worth more than $800m. The purchase will see Bytedance integrate its artificial intelligence (AI) technology and use its presence in Chinese and Asian markets to help with Musical.ly's expansion. The target company will continue to operate as an independent business, with co-founders Louis Yang and Alex Zhu at the helm. The deal is set to close before the end of the month.
| https://www.mobileworldlive.com/apps/news-apps/musical-ly-acquired-by-chinese-ai-platform/ | 2017-11-17 16:34:28.527000 | Bytedance, an AI-enhanced content platform, is acquiring Musical.ly, maker of a social music app, in a deal that has been estimated at more than $800 million.
“Upon closing of the transaction, Musical.ly will continue to operate as an independent platform, integrating Bytedance’s global leading AI technology and leveraging its reach in China and key markets across Asia to enhance Musical.ly’s offering to users, creators, and partners,” the acquirer said.
The transaction is expected to close before the end of November. Musical.ly’s co-founders Louis Yang and Alex Zhu and their team will join Bytedance and continue to run the app.
Yiming Zhang, founder and CEO of Bytedance, said: “We see immediate and exciting opportunities to build on the obvious synergy with our business. By integrating Musical.ly’s global reach with Bytedance’s massive user base in China and key Asian markets we are creating a significant global platform for our content creators and brands to engage with new markets. At the same time, our global-leading AI technology will help Musical.ly to accelerate their incredible pace of innovation in mobile video creation.”
Musical.ly was launched in October 2014, and has a “strong reach” across the US, Europe, South America and India.
Bytedance was founded in 2012. In 2016, it established an AI Lab which builds on the company’s datasets to develop innovations in AI.
Bytedance said its flagship product, Toutiao, is the largest AI-powered content platform in China, with more than 120 million daily active users.
Musical.ly did not specify how many users it has, but said “every day, millions of people use Musical.ly to express themselves”, and that the app has hit number one in the iOS app store for free apps in more than 20 countries.
According to Billboard, Musical.ly has 200 million users.
The report said ByteDance is considered one of China’s “hottest startups” and so far has kept its independence from the country’s three tech giants: Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba. |
Eni to construct 20 MW solar facility in Ghana | Italian energy company Eni is to build a 20 MW solar facility in Ghana. The photovoltaic (PV) project will be constructed in Tamale, the capital city of the country's Northern region. Eni is also carrying out a feasibility study on a possible floating solar park on the Volta basin. Both projects will contribute to Ghana's target of a 10% renewables share by 2020. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/italys-eni-to-build-20-mw-solar-park-in-ghana-591225/ | 2017-11-17 16:18:14.733000 | Italian oil and gas major Eni SpA (BIT:ENI) earlier this month unveiled plans for the construction of a 20-MW solar park in Ghana’s Northern Region.
The company announced its intentions during a meeting between the president of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi that aimed to discuss Eni's activities in the West African country. According to a company statement, the photovoltaic (PV) facility will be situated in the region’s capital city of Tamale.
Meanwhile, Eni is also conducting a feasibility study on a project for a floating solar park in the Volta basin, details of which are not available. The Italian group said the two PV schemes will be implemented in line of Ghana’s goal of achieving a 10% renewables share by 2020 and Eni’s vision to add more renewables to its traditional energy business.
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Indian solar companies raise $4.2bn through September of 2017 | Indian solar firms raised $4.2bn between January and September this year, according to consultancy Mercom Capital Group. The corporate funding was equivalent to almost 34% of the worldwide total thanks to "robust" financing activity, it said. The investment included venture capital, private equity, public market and debt financing and was more than double the $2bn raised during the same period in 2016. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/solar-corp-funding-in-india-grows-to-usd-42bn-in-jan-sep-2017-590731/ | 2017-11-17 16:12:19.363000 | Indian solar companies managed to raise USD 4.2 billion (EUR 3.6bn) in financing in the first three quarters of 2017, including venture capital/private equity (VC/PE), debt financing, and public market financing.
The total was calculated by consultancy Mercom Capital Group and compares to USD 2 billion raised in the same period of 2016. The nine-month corporate funding secured by solar firms in India was equal to almost 34% of the global total on the back of “robust” financing activity. Meanwhile, Indian companies contributed 60% of the global VC and PE funding in the solar sector.
The top VC deal was a USD-100-million capital injection secured by Indian rooftop solar developer CleanMax Solar from New York-based buyout firm Warburg Pincus. The list of the biggest deals in the past months is available at https://mercomindia.com/financing-activity-indian-solar-sector/.
Mercom said there was nearly 7 GW of solar power capacity in India as of the end of September.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.857)
(INR 10 = USD 0.153/EUR 0.131)
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Enel to bid in Mexico's power auction following massive fundraise | The preliminary results of Mexico's third long-term power auction saw an average price of $20.57 per MWh, including clean energy certificates, more than 38% lower than the last auction just over a year ago. Solar photovoltaic took up more than 55% of power supply contracts, compared to 44.65% of wind, while total capacity was 2,562 MW. This round also saw external buyers participate in tenders for the first time, as Iberdrola and Menkent went up against the state-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad, while Enel was among the provisional winners. | https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/mexico-auction-bids-lowest-solar-wind-price-on-the-planet#gs.hox_8Hk | 2017-11-17 15:31:00.240000 | UPDATE: The official results are in, and revealed Enel's low-cost bid was for wind -- not solar. Preliminary results did not specify technologies. Regrettably, there are errors in the story below as a result. We've retained this story in the interest of transparency. GTM reported on the final results of Mexico's latest energy auction here.
Preliminary results from Mexico’s latest energy auction have broken the lower boundary for solar costs, following a trend seen in other auctions around the world.
The Mexican government this month announced the average price achieved in its third long-term auction of 2017 was $20.57 per megawatt-hour, which it said is “one of the lowest prices achieved internationally.”
A breakdown of the winning bids, published by Electrek, shows Italian developer Enel pitching two solar lots at $17.70 per megawatt-hour, or just 1.77 cents per kilowatt-hour -- the lowest bid achieved anywhere in the world so far. Two years ago, the U.S. solar sector was cheering projects priced below 4 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The record-low rate comes hot on the heels of an auction in Chile that saw Enel bidding $21.48 per megawatt-hour of solar power on one sub-block of capacity.
It was the lowest price for solar in the whole of Latin America, but not quite as cheap as bids achieved in the Middle East not long before.
In October, a tender for 300 megawatts of solar power in Saudi Arabia saw Abu Dhabi developer Masdar offering a price of $17.86 per megawatt-hour, the lowest cost on the planet up until Mexico’s results this month.
Wind power also hit an eye-poppingly low price point in Mexico, coming in at $22 per megawatt-hour for a 118-megawatt project proposed by Engie Wind. “Wind energy’s race to the bottom may have just ended in Mexico,” observed MAKE Consulting partner Dan Shreve in a blog post.
The price was almost half of the lowest bid for wind energy in Mexico last year, belonging to Enel, which MAKE attributed to a combination of low project internal rates of return, a low landed cost of turbines, and extremely low operational expenses.
To make this year’s wind costs work, said Shreve, Engie would need to gain access to new turbine technology at a favorable price and expect to be able to run it for at least 25 or 30 years instead of the more typical 20. This leaves Engie exposed to significant risks, however.
First, there is no guarantee that newer turbines will be able to last longer.
Second, the power-purchase agreements (PPAs) on offer are only for a term of 15 years, although Shreve noted that a transition to higher-priced wholesale markets might actually help project economics after the PPAs run out.
Despite this, Engie will probably be looking at a project internal rate of return of around 5 percent, compared to the 7.5 percent that Enel might have been able to make from its market-leading pitch last year.
“It means only the biggest players stand a chance in these new auction systems,” Shreve concluded. “In order to take on both market and technical risks, the company must have substantial capital and credit.”
GTM Research Americas solar analyst Manan Parikh confirmed the same pattern for solar. “Most of the developers that are in there are major developers,” he said. “We’ve seen them before, either in Mexico or in the broader region. I don’t think there are any surprises in who is winning.”
Mexico’s National Energy Control Center (Centro Nacional de Control de Energía) is due to confirm the auction results this week. For now, the government is claiming the exercise will attract almost $2.4 billion in investment.
Mexico auctioned off 5.49 million megawatt-hours of energy, 593 megawatts a year of power capacity, and 5.95 million clean energy certificates. Solar was the big winner, taking 55.4 percent of the energy and 58.3 percent of the certificates on offer.
Solar and wind also took around 2 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of the power capacity being auctioned, with the rest going to gas.
The average energy pricing represents an almost 66 percent savings on the maximum price of $60 per megawatt-hour set by the three offtakers in the auction: the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión Federal de Electricidad or CFE), Iberdrola and Cemex.
“The clean energy acquired in this auction is equal to approximately 1.78 percent of the annual electricity generation in Mexico,” said the government. “This result is an important addition toward meeting the aim of generating 35 percent of electrical energy in Mexico from clean sources by the year 2024.
***
Join GTM February 13-14 in Mexico City for an in-depth look at the country's rapidly expanding solar market. Solar Summit Mexico will leverage GTM Research’s expertise in Mexico to ensure your company is uniquely positioned to capture specific opportunities while appropriately managing regulatory, political and market risks. Find out more here.
An earlier version of this article used the incorrect monetary term for Enel's solar bid. The bid came in at 1.77 cents per kilowatt-hour, not $1.77 per kilowatt-hour. We regret the error. |
Mexican solar set to be cheapest electricity in the world | The Centro Nacional de Control de Energía of Mexico has accepted 15 bids following its third Long Term Auction, with eight wind and solar power firms being selected. The list includes Engie, Mitsui, Canadian Solar and Enel Green Power. The bids were for 3 TWh of solar electricity, with a record global low price of 1.77 cent/kWh from Enel. The overall average bid price was 2.05 cent/kWh, with the average price for two auctions last year being 4.49 ¢/kWh and 3.17 cent/kWh respectively. The projects are due to generate power for the grid by 2020. | https://electrek.co/2017/11/16/cheapest-electricity-on-the-planet-mexican-solar-power/ | 2017-11-17 15:26:32.407000 | I’ve made a mistake – I’m sorry. In my haste and excitement to see show off solar power – I’ve given it undue credit. Wind Power got these bids and I initially misinterpreted a piece of ambiguous information. While solar power did amazingly get a bid at 1.97¢ – it did not break below the recently set Saudi Record. Anything written in this article hereafter has been updated.
Per a press release from the Centro Nacional de Control de Energía (Cenace) of Mexico, the department received bids for 3TWh of solar wind electricity, with the lowest bids being 1.77¢/kWh coming from Italian multinational ENEL Green Power.
This record low price of green electricity on earth, just beats out the 1.79¢/kWh from Saudi Arabia, and is part of a pattern marching toward 1¢/kWh bids that are coming in 2019 (or sooner).
Mexico’s Department of Energy along with Cenace announced the results of the country’s ‘Third Long Term Auction.’ Fifteen bids were accepted from eight wind and solar power companies. ENGIE bid as Solar and Wind companies, Mitsui alongside Trina, ENEL and Canadian Solar were some of the better known names.
ENEL won bids on four projects total with tariffs of 1.77¢, 1.77¢, 1.94¢ and 1.80¢/kWh. The projects were sized 167MW, 122MW, 277MW and 116MW, respectively – totaling 682MW total. These four bids are the two lowest, and 4th/5th lowest bids ever for solar power projects.
The average bid price of all 5.5TWh of power of wind and solar, totalling 2.3GW of capacity, was 2.05¢/kWh.
These projects are due to deliver power to the grid by 2020. The last two auctions, held last year, received average prices of 4.49¢/kWh and 3.17¢/kWh. More details on the bids will be released November 22nd.
The world has seen solar power fall from a record price of 8.3¢/kWh in 2013 in the USA, to 5.84¢/kWh in 2014 in the UAE, then 4.97¢/kWh in Saudi Arabia in 2015 before settling at 2.42¢/kWh in 2016. So far in 2017 we’ve seen seven bids below 2016’s record price. 2016 and prior data for this chart came from this CleanTechnica research.
Electrek’s Take
Solar power (and wind) is fulfilling the potential that the dreamers of the world of the past foretold of.
When the bids of 2.42¢/kWh hit last summer in 2016, much of the world suggested this was a bottom that was unique and couldn’t be passed without financial loss by the owners. When Saudi Arabia hit 1.79¢/kWh just a few weeks back – the narrative was that these prices were impossible elsewhere in the world because nowhere else in the world has Saudi Arabian oil money, sunlight, and control of all levels of government.
Mexico’s economic rating, like Chile’s, is less than perfect. The S&P just increased Mexico to ‘stable.’ Moody’s Investors Service rates Mexico’s debt at A3 – one level above S&P’s assessment – with a negative outlook. These ratings affect the rates that developers can borrow money at. These groups are definitely not getting the same interest rates that the Saudis give each other (if the Saudi’s give any interest rates internally at all – look up Islamic Finance).
I predict that in 2019 we’re going to see 1¢/kWh from a solar power project – and this low price will be primarily driven by increasing solar panel efficiencies. I am bullish that efficiency will drive an additional 0.7¢/kWh out of solar power because right now we’re seeing laboratory efficiencies increase from a current standard of 16-17% solar panel efficiency toward a leading edge solar cell at 23.45% by JinkoSolar. Depending on how that cell efficiency translates to a panel, that’s an increase of up to 40% more efficiency based upon 16.5% solar panels. That means 40% less racking, 40% less labor laying our wiring and solar panels, 40% less maintenance and cleaning, 40% less land, etc.
This efficiency gain is in addition to other technological advances. Drones are lowering long-term costs, international finance has more trust in solar, inverters are getting smarter and cheaper, re-powering is extending plant lives and companies are learning how to manage their projects better.
Soon we’re going to have to confront new questions as solar power costs less than anything seriously considered before, and will offer new opportunities never thought of before. What will we do with all of this cheap energy? How do we move from fossil systems toward solar sources without destroying the social fabric of those dependent on revenue from gas and coal? How will our post scarcity society continue to advance? It’s going to be more difficult to live up to the potentials of solar and ‘free energy’ than we think.
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Enel begins output from 300 MW wind facility in Missouri | Italy's Enel has said that its 300 MW Rock Creek wind power plant in Missouri is operational, beating its construction deadline by two months. The $500m plant is the firm's first scheme in the US state, and is set to generate 1,250 GWh annually, while Kansas City Power & Light and KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations have signed up for long-term power purchase agreements. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/enel-brings-online-300-mw-wind-farm-in-missouri-591013/ | 2017-11-17 15:21:10.020000 | Italian utility Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL) said today it has started operations at the 300-MW Rock Creek wind farm in the US state of Missouri.
The USD-500-million (EUR 425m) wind power plant, located in Atchison County, was completed almost two months ahead of schedule, Enel said. Expected to produce about 1,250 GWh per year, the facility is selling its power and renewable energy credits under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) and KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations Co (GMO).
Rock Creek is the Italian company's first project in Missouri and brings the state's operating wind capacity to almost 1 GW, according to the announcement.
Enel announced the start of construction of the wind park in October last year. In May this year it inked a USD-365-million tax equity deal for the project with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM).
The wind farm is owned by Rock Creek Wind Project LLC, a subsidiary of Enel's US-based renewables unit Enel Green Power North America Inc.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.851)
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Enel buys Rattlesnake Creek 320 MW wind farm to power Facebook | Italian energy company Enel has begun construction work on the $430m, 320 MW Rattlesnake Creek wind project, set to power Facebook's data centre in Papillion, Nebraska. The site was purchased from long-term strategic development partner Tradewind Energy, while a bundled, long-term power purchase agreement will see Facebook buy 200 MW of the project's power and renewable energy credits. When fully operational, Rattlesnake Creek will generate 1.3 TWh per of power per year. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/enel-acquires-320-mw-nebraska-wind-project-to-power-facebook-591028/ | 2017-11-17 15:19:14.123000 | Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL) has acquired the 320-MW Rattlesnake Creek wind project in the US state of Nebraska and has started construction of the facility, the Italian utility said today.
The project was acquired from Kansas-based Tradewind Energy, which is a long-term strategic development partner of Enel. It was announced in October that the wind farm will power Facebook Inc's (NASDAQ:FB) data centre in Papillion, Nebraska. The social media company will buy a 200-MW portion of the power and renewable energy credits from the project under a bundled, long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).
Enel said it is financing the wind farm, which will cost USD 430 million (EUR 366m) to build, through its own resources. Once operational, the park will produce some 1.3 TWh per of clean power year.
The company owns the project through a subsidiary of its US renewable energy company Enel Green Power North America Inc.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.851)
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redT installs largest vanadium redox flow battery in the UK | redT Energy, a UK-based energy storage firm, has begun its trial of a 1 MWh energy storage facility in Cornwall. The pilot project will be the biggest containerised vanadium redox flow machine system in operation in the UK. The £19m ($25m) installation forms part of a Local Energy Market trial from energy firm Centrica, testing how flexible energy generation and storage can reduce grid pressure. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/redt-energy-storage-project-goes-live-in-cornwall-as-part-of-trial-590820/ | 2017-11-17 15:12:26.237000 | UK energy storage company redT energy plc (LON:RED) said today its 1-MWh energy storage project in Cornwall is now grid connected and fully operational.
The project, described as the largest operating containerised vanadium redox flow machine system in the UK, is located at The Olde House, a working farm and holiday retreat. It has gone live as part of a trial by energy company Centrica PLC (LON:CNA). The GBP-19-million (USD 25m/EUR 21m) Local Energy Market (LEM) trial is aimed at demonstrating the role of flexible generation and storage in reducing pressure on the grid. The Olde House and redT are the first participants in the trial, Centrica said.
The redT machines will help The Olde House use more of its onsite solar power and generate revenues through the provision of grid services. "The Olde House is a perfect example of how UK businesses can now utilise more of their renewable generation and make money supporting the electricity grid," commented redT chief executive Scott McGregor.
(GBP 1 = USD 1.309/EUR 1.123)
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Abu Dhabi looks to buy KKR's shares in Acciona Global Renewables | United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is among the potential buyers for New York investment firm KKR's one-third stake in Acciona Global Renewables, according to Spanish newspaper Expansion. KKR purchased the stake three years ago for €397m ($466.5m), and is now looking to sell for at least €600m. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/abu-dhabi-fund-targets-kkrs-stake-in-acciona-global-renewables-report-591027/ | 2017-11-17 15:10:49.770000 | The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is among the parties negotiating the acquisition of KKR’s (NYSE:KKR) 33.3% stake in Acciona Global Renewables, Spanish newspaper Expansion reports.
Acciona Global Renewables, previously known as Acciona Energia International (AEI), holds the international renewable energy generation business of Acciona Energia. KKR acquired a one-third stake in AEI three years ago for EUR 397 million (USD 466.5m). At the time, the business had 2.3 GW of wind farms, with a small number of solar photovoltaic and thermal power plants, in 14 countries.
According to sources quoted by the daily, KKR now wants to sell its interest in the firm for at least EUR 600 million. El Economista reported last month that KKR had engaged investment bank Lazard to prepare the sale.
Expansion’s own sources have now said that the UAE-based sovereign wealth fund is well-positioned to buy the one-third interest. Insiders have also told the daily that ADIA had shown interest in AEI even before KKR bought the stake.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.175)
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China’s Xinjiang Goldwind joins 4 MW wind turbine club | Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology will launch a medium-speed smart wind turbine, developed with a 4 MW to 4.2 MW capacity. The GW4S, a permanent magnet direct-drive machine, will extend the business' existing 3S platform. The device will have a rotor diameter of up to 136 metres and will be available for class IIA wind farms. A prototype turbine will likely be installed by Q2 2018, with commercial sales due by Q1 2019. Goldwind plans to target markets in North America, South America, Australia and Turkey with the new model. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/to-the-point-goldwind-releases-4-mw-smart-wind-turbine-591061/ | 2017-11-17 15:10:41.353000 | China’s Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology (HKG:2208) on Tuesday announced the release of a medium-speed smart wind turbine with a rated capacity of 4 MW-4.2 MW.
The permanent magnet direct-drive (PMDD) machine, named GW4S, expands the company’s 3S platform and will be available with rotor diametres of up to 136 metres (446.2 ft). It is suitable for class IIA wind sites, the wind turbine maker said.
Goldwind intends to install a prototype of the new turbine in China in the second quarter of next year and start selling the product commercially in the first quarter of 2019. Target markets for the 4S turbine will include North America, Australia, South America and Turkey, CEO Tony Pan noted.
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Solar and wind transactions totalled more than 6 GW in Oct 2017 | The US, UK and Mexico were the main drivers behind 6 GW of solar and wind deals transacted last month, up from 1.59 GW in September, according to Green Dealflow. The US and Mexico were the biggest players in the solar market, where capacity rose almost six-fold, even as transactions rose only modestly. In the wind market, the UK and Mexico took the lead, with 19 transactions in October compared to five the previous month, and capacity leaped from 900 MW in September to 2.4 GW. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/overview-solar-wind-transaction-activity-tops-6-gw-in-october-2017-591187/ | 2017-11-17 15:08:48 | Solar and wind deals topped 6 GW in the month of October, Green Dealflow says in its monthly transaction activity report.
In comparison, only 1,590 MW of solar and wind power assets changed owners in September.
Green Dealflow, an online marketplace for wind and solar projects, maintains a transaction database tracking equity transactions of solar and wind projects around the globe and below is a short overview of the activity in October.
SOLAR
In the solar industry, the report records 23 transactions amounting to approximately 4.1 gigawatts. While the number of transactions has not increased significantly compared to September, the amount of capacity transacted has increased almost six times. The largest contributor is the United States with major transactions such as ABP’s acquisition of the Moapa solar farm or NextEra Energy Partners’ acquisition of the Desert Sunlight solar project. Regarding capacity transacted, the United States is followed by Mexico’s almost 1 gigawatt of capacity transacted chiefly the result of Caisse depot et placement du Québec and CKD Infraestructura México’s acquisition of numerous projects from Enel Green Power. Regarding numbers of transacted, the transactions are well-balanced among different phases; however, construction-stage assets dominate regarding capacity transacted.
WIND
The wind industry has seen significant transaction activity during October, although much less than has the solar industry. October saw 19 transactions, up from just 7 in September. Moreover, capacity transacted has increased from approximately 900 megawatts in September to approximately 2.4 gigawatts in October. The United Kingdom dominates wind transactions regarding capacity, followed by Mexico. Mexico’s large amount of transaction activity in the wind industry is due to the same transaction by Caisse depot et placement du Québec and CKD Infraestructura México who together has acquired numerous wind and solar projects from Enel Green Power. Those assets transacted are predominantly operation-stage assets.
The full report can be accessed here.
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ReNew Power to acquire three wind power parks in India | Indian firm ReNew Power Ventures will expand its existing 1,500 MW wind power portfolio by more than 100 MW after it acquires three wind parks in Andhra Pradesh from KC Thapar Group, according to ReNew Power CFO Kailash Vaswani. Although he gave no financial details, anonymous insiders believe the deal to be worth around INR10bn ($153m). The wind parks are all operational, and are selling power to local discoms at INR4.80 per kWh under 25-year contracts. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/renew-power-to-buy-103-mw-wind-farm-portfolio-in-india-report-591239/ | 2017-11-17 15:04:34.230000 | Indian independent power producer ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd will acquire three fully operational wind parks in Andhra Pradesh totalling 103 MW from the KC Thapar Group, The Economic Times (ET) reports.
Kailash Vaswani, deputy chief financial officer at ReNew Power, unveiled the purchase for the newspaper, but gave no financial details regarding the transaction. Unnamed sources, though, told ET that the acquired assets are valued at about INR 10 billion (USD 153m/EUR 130m).
The transaction includes 79 MW at Molagavalli in Kurnool district and 24 MW at Borampalli in Ananthapur district. The wind farms are selling power to local discoms at INR 4.80 per kWh under 25-year contracts, according to ET’s sources.
The sale process for the plants was initiated four months ago and attracted a dozen strategic and financial investors, Kotak Investment Banking, which advised the KCT Group, told the newspaper.
With this acquisition, ReNew Power will expand its portfolio of commissioned wind farms to 1,600 MW from about 1,500 MW.
(INR 10 = USD 0.153/EUR 0.130)
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Phase II of Oman's 1 GW of solar thermal project expected in 2019 | The first stage of the 1,021 MWp Miraah solar thermal park installation from Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) should be complete in 2018, with the second phase due in 2019. The thermal park is currently being constructed by GlassPoint Solar, with the installation due to generate 6,000 tonnes of steam daily for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The first of nine modules of four glasshouse blocks are due to be complete by the end of the year, with two more due to be finished by the beginning of 2019. The project, worth $600m, is being completed with Chinese aluminium, though it may require material from Oman in future. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/oman-expects-phase-ii-of-1-gw-solar-thermal-project-in-2019-report-591356/ | 2017-11-17 15:03:38.067000 | Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) expects to complete the first phase of its 1,021-MWp Miraah solar thermal park project in Oman next year and to proceed with phase two in 2019, an official told The National.
GlassPoint Solar Inc is currently building the complex for PDO, whose plans for the site is to produce 6,000 tonnes of steam per day for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Just recently, the partners announced that the first out of 36 standard glasshouse blocks housing parabolic trough collectors was completed safely on schedule and on budget.
The first of nine modules, each including four glasshouse blocks, should be completed by the end of 2017, Abdul-Amir Al Ajmi, PDO’s External Affairs and Value Creation Director, told the newspaper. By the start of 2019, a further two modules should be finalised so that the project could enter phase two, according to the director.
The companies are currently using aluminium made in China to build mirrors for the USD-600-million (EUR 509m) project, but in phase three they anticipate to produce the aluminium in Oman.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.849)
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Power and utilities deals reach more than double to $74.3bn in Q3 | Global power and utilities deals rose 141% QoQ to a two-year high of $74.3bn in Q3, helped by a nine-fold increase in activity in the Americas to $53bn, according to EY. In Europe, power and utilities deals increased 60% to $16.9bn, while in Asia they fell 68% to $4.3bn. The EY Power and Utilities Capital Confidence Barometer predicts continued strong performance in the sector and said more than half of executives were preparing to "actively pursue" acquisitions in the next year. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/global-power-utilities-deals-jump-to-usd-743bn-in-q3-ey-591309/ | 2017-11-17 15:01:44.727000 | Power and utilities (P&U) deals globally reached USD 74.3 billion (EUR 63m) in the third quarter of 2017, which is a two-year high and a surge of 141% from the second quarter, consultancy firm EY calculates.
The Americas accounted for 71% of the total, or USD 53 billion, shows EY’s Power transactions and trends Q3 2017 report. The quarter-on-quarter increase of 798% was due to five megadeals, representing 96% of the deal value in the Americas. Renewables deals, however, fell by 94% from the second quarter to just USD 180 million. Most were conducted by corporate investors.
P&U deals in Europe also jumped, by 60% to USD 16.9 billion, amid better-than-expected economic activity. There were 35 renewable energy deals for a total of USD 3.2 billion. In the quarter under review, deals in wind energy assets surpassed those in solar. There were 15 wind deals, including one in combination with solar, with a total value of USD 2.8 billion.
In the Asia-Pacific there was a 68% quarterly drop in deal value to USD 4.3 billion. At USD 3.3 billion, deals in renewables accounted for 77% of the region’s total. M&A in geothermal energy led the list with USD 1.3 billion in value, while solar and wind farm deals together contributed USD 1.4 billion.
According to the biannual EY Power and Utilities Capital Confidence Barometer (CCB), strong activity is set to continue. The consultancy said that 79% of executives are expecting the global economy to improve in the next 12 months, with 51% preparing to actively pursue acquisitions.
The US and Germany are the most attractive P&U investment destinations and Brazil, Australia and China complete the top five.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.85)
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Engie and Heliatek install world's largest organic PV rooftop | French energy firm Engie and solar equipment provider Heliatek have completed the world's biggest building-integrated organic photovoltaic (BiOPV) installation, on the rooftop of the Pierre Mendes France school in La Rochelle. The school's rooftop has been equipped with 500 sq metres of solar film, and has a capacity of 22.5 kWp. The installation should generate approximately 23.8 MWh annually for the school, providing 15% to 20% of its total energy needs. The pilot will help to develop further larger-scale installations for the technology, which provides a lighter alternative to solar panels. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/engie-heliatek-install-pilot-organic-pv-roof-project-591324/ | 2017-11-17 15:00:05.767000 | French energy group Engie (EPA:ENGI) and Heliatek GmbH on Wednesday announced the inauguration of what is described as the world's largest building integrated organic photovoltaic (BiOPV) installation on a roof.
The roof of the Pierre Mendes France middle school in La Rochelle, France was covered with 500 sq m (5,382 sq ft) of Heliatek's solar films. The project was carried out in response to a call for tenders by the Charente-Maritime Department, Engie, which has been an investor in Heliatek since 2016, explained.
With a capacity of 22.5 kWp, the system will produce about 23.8 MWh per year, which will be used directly by the school, covering 15%-20% of its electricity demand.
The aim of the pilot project is to open the way in the longer term to large-scale development of the technology, Engie said. OPV films are suitable for lightweight roofs, which can not support conventional solar panels. Their advantages include fast installation, no need for piercing the roof and being easy to recycle.
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IRENA and ADFD announce $50m funding for developing countries | Businesses behind renewable energy projects in developing countries are being invited to apply for a share of $50m in concessional loans offered by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD). It is the sixth round led by the $350m IRENA/ADFD Project Facility, which has already backed 19 renewable energy schemes to the tune of $189m, creating more than 100 MW of capacity across Africa, Asia and smaller emerging nations. The deadline for round six applicants is February 2018, while the projects selected from round five will be revealed the month before. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/adfd-irena-open-usd-50m-funding-round-for-renewables-in-developing-countries-591314/ | 2017-11-17 14:57:02.783000 | The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) today said a funding round of USD 50 million (EUR 42m) in concessional loans for renewable energy projects in developing countries is now open for applications.
This is the sixth funding round under the USD-350-million IRENA/ADFD Project Facility, which is funded by the ADFD.
The first four rounds provided USD 189 million to 19 renewable energy ventures, which will create over 100 MW of renewable energy capacity and improve the energy access for over a million people. Located in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Small Island Developing States, the projects include wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass technologies and use different systems such as hybrid, off-grid, mini-grid and on-grid including back-up storage.
The deadline for applications is February 15, 2018. The successful projects in the fifth round will be announced in January 2018.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.850)
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Carnegie increases flagship wave device capacity by 0.5 MW | Australian firm Carnegie Clean Energy has completed a redesign of its CETO 6 wave energy system, raising its capacity from 1 MW to 1.5 MW. The company has gained a US patent for the technology, which will encompass more than one mooring to increase the level of power that can be absorbed. The firm's foundations can now be shared as part of a new network arrangement between wind farms. The device is due to be installed off the coast of Albany during the summer of 2019 to 2020. Carnegie is hoping to provide the new version of the device as a cost-effective competitor to rival technology. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/carngie-increases-capacity-of-flagship-wave-device-to-15-mw-590806/ | 2017-11-17 14:55:26.380000 | Australia's Carnegie Clean Energy Ltd (ASX:CCE) said today it has redesigned its CETO 6 wave energy device, increasing its nominal capacity to 1.5 MW from 1 MW previously.
The company announced in a statement that it had won a US patent on November 6 that confirms the additional features of the new design as state of the art.
The redesigned CETO 6 will incorporate multiple moorings instead of just one in order to boost the amount of power that can be absorbed by the wave energy device. This means that multiple foundations will be required for each unit. The firm noted it has developed a networked arrangement for foundations for large-scale wave farms that allows foundation sharing.
Carnegie expects the upgraded and more cost competitive device to be able to compete with other mainstream renewable energy technologies, once it is manufactured in high volumes and deployed as part of large projects.
“Carnegie Clean Energy is determined to make our mark on the global renewable energy market with our CETO 6 wave energy technology,” said CEO and managing director, Michael Ottaviano.
The company intends to install the CETO 6 off Albany during the 2019-2020 summer weather window. It said last week it has deployed a wave buoy at the specific offshore site to measure metocean conditions.
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Stina looks to buy vanadium electrolyte R&D firm Pure Vanadium | Canadian firm Stina Resources has moved a step closer to becoming North America's first vertically integrated producer of vanadium electrolyte, with the purchase of Pure Vanadium Corporation. The deal, which follows the signing of a letter of intent in July, will see Stina acquire all outstanding share capital via the issuance of 17,000,000 common shares to Pure Vanadium shareholders. In addition, $196,000 will be set aside for R&D and continued testing of Pure's technology. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/stina-to-acquire-vanadium-electrolyte-firm-pure-vanadium-591496/ | 2017-11-17 14:53:04.097000 | Stina Resources Ltd (CNSX:SQA) of Canada in acquiring compatriot research and development (R&D) company Pure Vanadium Corp as part of efforts to become the first vertically integrated producer in North America of vanadium electrolyte for the energy storage industry.
Stina, which has vanadium reserves and resources in Nevada, on Thursday announced a definitive agreement for the purchase of Pure Vanadium, a developer of vanadium electrolyte for grid-scale vanadium redox flow batteries. The deal follows the signing of a Letter of Intent (LoT) in July a review of the company's technology.
"The development of battery technology is progressing rapidly throughout the world with vanadium redox flow batteries being one of the main new technologies for grid-scale energy storage," said Stina president and chief executive Brian Stecyk. "The combination of our vanadium resources in Nevada and new applications for vanadium in battery technology will progress Stina towards its goal of being a leading vertically integrated producer of vanadium electrolyte," Stecyk added.
Stina will acquire Pure Vanadium through the issuance of 17 million Stina common shares to Pure Vanadium shareholders. The buyer will also provide CAD 250,000 (USD 196,000/EUR 166,000) to continue development and testing of Pure Vanadium's technology.
(CAD 1 = USD 0.784/EUR 0.665)
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Iberdrola sells €1bn hybrid green bond to refinance UK renewables | Iberdrola has become the first Spanish utility to issue green hybrid bonds after selling €1bn ($1.18bn) of half-debt and half-capital securities with a fixed coupon of 1.875%. Barclays, Credit Agricole, HSBCand JPMorgan were among the institutions participating in the oversubscribed issue, while the funds raised will be used to refinance investment in UK renewable energy projects. The bond follows the launch of Iberdrola's €500m green loan deal in February. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/eur-1bn-green-bond-by-iberdrola-to-refinance-uk-renewables-591410/ | 2017-11-17 14:45:24.177000 | Iberdrola (BME:IBE) has issued EUR 1 billion (USD 1.18bn) worth of green hybrid bonds, seeking funds to refinance investment in renewable energy projects in the UK.
Bearing a fixed coupon of 1.875%, the bond was 3.3 times oversubscribed. It was issued on the Euromarket. According to the Spanish utility’s press statement on Tuesday, Iberdrola is the first Spanish company that issues a green hybrid bond and the second internationally.
The banks that assisted the issuance are Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Barclays plc (LON:BARC), BNP Paribas (EPA:BNP), Credit Agricole CIB, HSBC (LON:HSBA), ING Bank NV, JP Morgan (NYSE:JP), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Banco Santander (BME:SAN) and Unicredit Bank AG.
Iberdrola will have the rights to buy back the new bond at the offered rate within five and a half years. The hybrid bonds will be half-debt and half-capital, it said.
As part of its strategy to ensure that a large portion of its liabilities have “a green format”, in February Iberdrola announced a “green loan” deal amounting to EUR 500 million, the proceeds of which were allocated mainly for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.181)
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WSE aims to produce wave energy in Tasmania for $76/MWh | Australian energy firm Wave Swell Energy plans to install a 200 kW wave energy system on the east of King Island in Tasmania before deploying a full-size 1 MW device on the west side. The initial installation is due to be completed by the end of 2018 and to start pre-commercial testing. The project will determine if the technology can generate power for less than AUD100/MWh ($76/MWh) when the 1 MW project is completed. | https://renewablesnow.com/news/aussie-firm-wse-to-install-200-kw-wave-energy-unit-in-tasmania-591249/ | 2017-11-17 14:45:12.793000 | Australian company Wave Swell Energy Ltd (WSE) plans to install a 200-kW wave energy device on the eastern side of King Island in Tasmania, where the wave climate is “more benign”.
The move is part of preparations for the deployment of a full-sized, 1-MW version of the device on the west coast of the island.
The firm said on its website that it expects to install the 200-kW unit by the end of next year to bridge the gap between the tank testing and commercial phases of the technology's development. It will use the data from the smaller project to validate whether the technology is able to generate power for under AUD 100 (USD 76/EUR 64.4) per MWh when 1 MW of units are installed as part of a multi-device wave farm.
The project also gives WSE the chance to fine-tune the operation of the device in an easily accessible location, it said.
(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.760/EUR 0.644)
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India mulls tender for 20 GW of solar capacity | India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is pondering inviting bids to build as much as 20 GW of photovoltaic solar power, according to anonymous government officials. It's hoped the project, to be tendered piecemeal, will substantially reduce tariff prices and boost manufacturing. However, officials said issues over land and power transmission were proving problematic. India aims to have 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/india-mulls-tendering-20-gw-of-solar-capacity-report-590882/ | 2017-11-17 14:42:31.163000 | India intends to launch a tender for up to 20 GW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity, seeking to promote domestic manufacturing and lower the tariffs for solar power, Mint reports.
According to a government official who preferred to remain anonymous, consultations for the ambitions plan have already started but the authorities are facing some problems related to land and power transmission. The idea for such “mega” auction may lead to a “substantial reduction” of solar tariffs in the country, he added, as cited by the newspaper.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is still working on conceptualizing the plan that will see developers install the awarded capacity in phases, a second person aware of the development informed Mint.
The government of India has set a target for the country to reach 175 GW of renewable power capacity by 2022. The goal for solar is 100 GW.
The lowest bid for solar power in India so far stands at INR 2.44 (USD 0.037/EUR 0.032) per kWh, received in May in a 500-MW tender in Bhadla, Rajasthan.
(INR 10 = USD 0.153/EUR 0.131)
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Australian state invites bids to build 650 MW of renewables | Firms with existing planning permission are being invited to bid for up to 650 MW of large-scale renewable energy capacity by the Australian state of Victoria. The capacity will be split into 550 MW of mixed renewable energy projects and 100 MW of exclusively large-scale solar. The tender, which features 15-year support agreements, is part of the state's ambition to reduce electricity prices and create investment certainty in the sector. The deadline to submit proposals is 14 February, with a 2020 deadline for commercial operations to begin.
| https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/victoria-opens-reverse-renewables-auction-of-up-to-650-mw-591069/ | 2017-11-17 14:37:50.487000 | The Australian state of Victoria on Tuesday opened a reverse tender for the addition of up to 650 MW of large-scale renewable energy capacity that is seen to attract up to AUD 1.3 billion (USD 985m/EUR 834m) in investment.
The formal tender documents were published on Victoria government’s website, inviting companies with an existing planning permission to take part in a competitive bidding process for winning 15-year support agreements with the state, which are seen to ensure revenue certainty. Under these agreements, successful proponents will be paid through a Hybrid payment mechanism, including a combination of a fixed-price payment and a variable contract-for-difference (CfD) payment.
The 650 MW of capacity targeted in the auction will be split into two categories -- one seeking up to 550 MW of large-scale renewable energy projects, including wind, solar and other energy technologies, and another one, of up to 100 MW, for large-scale solar projects. The deadline for submitting proposals is February 14, while developers are required to launch commercial operations of their plants by 2020.
Those projects are expected to create some 1,250 construction jobs over two years plus 90 ongoing jobs, according to the official statement.
The auction, initially unveiled in August, is part of the Victorian government’s efforts to create investment certainty, enhance investment and lower electricity prices. “Renewable energy is key to Victoria’s future and we’re not wasting a minute – to drive new investment, create jobs and cut electricity prices,” said Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio.
Last month, the Legislative Council in Victoria passed the Renewable Energy (Jobs and Investment) Bill 2017 under which the state will aim to reach a 25% renewable energy share by 2020 and 40% by 2025.
(AUD 1.0 = USD0.758/EUR 0.642)
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Eelpower brings 10 MW Leverton energy storage facility online | Hampshire-based renewable energy firm Eelpower has brought its first UK battery storage facility online. The 10 MW standalone energy barn, near Lincoln, will supply frequency balancing services to the National Grid, using lithium-ion technology supplied by China's BYD, and is the first of a series of battery projects Eelpower aims to build and operate in the coming three years. The company signed a frequency response contract in October this year, as well as a 15-year T-4 Capacity Market contract which begins in October 2020.
| https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/eelpower-commissions-10-mw-battery-storage-in-england-591158/ | 2017-11-17 14:36:13.010000 | UK firm Eelpower Ltd said today it has brought online its 10-MW Leverton battery storage facility near Lincoln, England.
The system, a stand-alone energy barn using lithium-ion technology from China's BYD Co Ltd (HKG:1211), will provide frequency response balancing services to National Grid (LON:NG) from the start of 2018. The company said it secured a firm frequency response contract in October 2017 and had already signed a 15-year T-4 Capacity Market contract beginning in October 2020.
This is Eelpower's first storage project to be commissioned in the UK. Chief executive Mark Simon said it is the first of a pipeline of battery projects that the company plans to build and operate over the next three years.
The facility was built in 18 weeks by contractor Anesco.
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Qualcomm, ZTE and China Mobile partner on 5G network testing | China Mobile, Qualcomm Technologies and ZTE have tested the world's first end-to-end 5G NR interoperable data connection, based on the 3GPP R15 standard. The test came ahead of next year's standard compliant trials and predicted commercial network launches in 2019. The 5G system aims to offer multi-gigabit-per-second peak data rates with much lower latency than 4G, enabling the streaming of high-definition video and virtual and augmented reality experiences. In addition, a 5G network would also provide a more efficient service for autonomous cars and drones.
| https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/16/qualcomm-teams-up-with-zte-and-china-mobile-on-5g-networks/ | 2017-11-17 13:22:03.300000 | Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.
Qualcomm Technologies, ZTE, and China Mobile have created a data testing system for 5G networking, which promises to provide wireless data at multiple gigabits per second.
It’s one more step in a years-long process to get us all faster mobile broadband and more reliable calls. The companies created an end-to-end 5G NR test system that demonstrates a data connection based on the 3GPP R15 standard. That means that the companies are making progress trying to test the quality of transmission of data on 5G networks, which could replace the existing 4G LTE networks for mobile calls and data.
The 3GPP standard is important as it is a global 5G radio technology, and this is the first time that a compliant data connection has been made across multiple vendors. Multi-vendor interoperability is a milestone on a path to standard-compliant trials in 2018 and commercial network launches in 2019.
The demo took place at China Mobile’s 5G Joint Innovation Center and used ZTE’s 5G NR pre-commercial base station and Qualcomm’s 5G NR sub-6 GHz prototype chip (which would go in a future mobile device). The system operates in the 3.5 GHz spectrum and supports 100 MHz bandwidth.
“Achieving the world’s first end-to-end 5G NR interoperable data connection is true testament to our 5G leadership, driving toward the timely launch of standard-compliant commercial networks,” said Cristiano Amon, executive vice president at Qualcomm Technologies, in a statement. “Qualcomm Technologies is committed to the
continued success of China’s wireless industry and we are excited to collaborate with ZTE and China Mobile to accelerate the path to 5G in China.”
Image Credit: Qualcomm
The system is designed to efficiently achieve multi-gigabit per second peak data rates at significantly lower air interface latency than 4G networks. Once put in place over the next few years, 5G networks will be able to handle mobile broadband tasks such as streaming high-definition video and immersive virtual reality and augmented reality experiences, as well as provide reliable services for autonomous cars, drones, and industrial controls.
“China Mobile has been committed to promoting the unified global 5G standard with industry partners,” said Li Zhengmao, vice president of China Mobile Communications, in a statement. “The achievement of end-to-end 5G NR interoperable connection testing, compliant with the 3GPP 5G NR standard, is an important milestone of 5G to productization and pre-commercialization from standard. China Mobile is willing to cooperate with partners including Qualcomm and ZTE to promote that the 5G products continue to mature and the 5G industry marches to success.” |
Driving simulator teaches autonomous cars to drive properly | An open-source driving simulator has been launched that automakers can use to test their autonomous vehicle technology in realistic environments. CARLA (Car Learning to Act) repeatedly retests vehicles against certain criteria, increasing the performance of the technology by forcing it to evaluate scenarios in different ways. Researchers at Intel Labs have collaborated with the Toyota Research Institute and the Computer Vision Center in Spain to create the technology.
| https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609503/the-open-source-driving-simulator-that-trains-autonomous-vehicles/ | 2017-11-17 12:51:07.833000 | In each of these circumstances, a self-driving car must make good decisions, even though the likelihood of coming across them is small. And that raises an important question: how can carmakers train and test their vehicles when these events are so rare?
Today, we get an answer of sorts thanks to the work of Alexey Dosovitskiy at Intel Labs and a few pals at the Toyota Research Institute and the Computer Vision Center in Barcelona, Spain. They’ve created an open-source driving simulator that carmakers can use to test self-driving technologies under realistic driving conditions.
The system, called CARLA (Car Learning to Act), simulates a wide range of driving conditions and repeats dangerous situations endlessly to help learning. The team has already used it to evaluate the performance of several different approaches to autonomous driving.
Driving simulators are not new. There are numerous realistic driving and racing simulators, many designed for gaming. Various autonomous driving groups have used them to test their technologies.
But none of these simulators provide the kind of feedback that autonomous driving systems need to train effectively. Neither do these systems allow significant control over driving conditions or the actions of other agents.
Racing simulators do not usually have crossing traffic or pedestrians. And city simulators such as Grand Theft Auto do not give control over the weather, the position of the sun, the behavior of other cars, traffic signals and pedestrians, cyclists, and so on.
And these proprietary systems do not give the kind of technical feedback that autonomous driving systems need to learn. |
China Everbright taps German firm to offer robo-advice | Chinese financial conglomerate China Everbight has teamed with German robo-adviser Ginmon. Ginmon, which has now opened an office in China, generally provides customers on its robo-advice platform access to model portfolios constructed using exchange-traded funds. Asset allocation and portfolio construction is automated for users of the platform. While a number of Chinese banks have introduced robo-advice capabilities, there are still regulatory hurdles and scaling obstacles to overcome for new entrants to the marketplace.
| https://fundselectorasia.com/china-everbright-partners-with-german-robo-advisor/ | 2017-11-17 12:44:47.007000 | Neither firm has provided details of products or services they plan to offer to Chinese clients.
Ginmon is a fintech company based in Frankfurt, Germany. Its robo-advisory technology automates asset allocation and construction of portfolios using ETFs. The company stresses on its website that it invests only in physical-replication ETFs. It has previously worked with DAB BNP Paribas Bank in Munich.
The company opened a Shanghai office in order to target Chinese business.
Beijing-based China Everbright chose Ginmon as the partner for their investment solutions based on “high level of investor protection and attractive investment solutions”, said Lingwu Xia, director of internet finance at China Everbright, in a statement. The two institutions will cooperate “through various channels”.
China Everbright Group is a financial conglomerate offering banking service, asset management, and securities trading. It owns an investment arm, China Everbright Limited in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong unit, listed on the local bourse, provides asset and wealth management services. As of the end of 2016, China Everbright Limited managed HK$10.8bn ($1.4bn) of assets.
By entering China’s robo-advisory space, China Everbright will face several incumbents. China Merchants Bank, launched a robo-advisor service in December 2016 called Machinegene Investment, or Mojie. The lender’s app has gathered RMB3bn of assets in a few months’ time.
In May 2016, Creditease launched its service Tuomi RA. Another firm, robo-advisor Xuanji, plans to go global with a foreign partnership and expansion beyond Asia.
Although the robo-advisory discussions have became more active, difficulties remain in the region due to regulatory fragmentation, lack of scale and investors’ preference for human contact. Nonetheless, China’s domestic retail investor base presents an enormous opportunity for robo-advisory services. |
Amazon's Echo Show now shipping in the UK | Amazon's Echo Show is now available in the UK. Echo Show's display is designed to complement Alexa's voice responses with visible information users can see from across the room. The screen has multiple uses, including playing TV shows and films from Amazon Video, a kitchen timer countdown, and flash briefings from news providers. Echo Show also features an eight-microphone array on the top of the device, noise cancellation, and beam-forming technology, meaning it can hear a user from any direction.
| https://www.avforums.com/news/amazon-echo-show-now-shipping-in-uk.14240 | 2017-11-17 12:31:40.987000 | Amazon has today (16/11/2017) announced that Echo Show, the first Echo to include a display, is now shipping in the UK.
Echo Show is available now for £199.99 from Amazon and pre-orders are arriving with UK customers as of today.Echo Show’s display is designed to add to Alexa’s voice responses with useful, glanceable information you can see from across the room. The display combines with an all-new 8 microphone array along the top of the device, Amazon’s beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, so Echo Show can hear you from any direction–even while music is playing. Powered by Dolby, Echo Show’s speakers are fine-tuned to deliver crisp vocals with dynamic bass response and immersive sound, says the release. And, with multi-room music, you can play music across multiple Echo devices simultaneously.With the addition of the screen, Alexa can obviously now show you things. Flash briefings now include video content from news providers like BBC News, The Telegraph, MTV and more. You can start a kitchen timer and see it count down, easily see and manage your family’s calendar, or ask to see your to-do and shopping lists. Ask Alexa to show you photos, movie show times, and movies and TV shows from Amazon Video. Plus, as you listen to music from Amazon Music, you’ll also see song lyrics and album art. Customers can also use Echo Show to see a live camera feed from the nursery or your front door, or to control smart home devices from brands like Ring, Arlo, Philips Hue, Hive, TP-Link, Netatmo, WeMo, Smart Things, and Tado.Echo Show also features Alexa calling and messaging. Just ask Alexa to call mum, for instance, and you’ll be connected via video to her Echo Show or Alexa app. You can also enable a feature called Drop In for when you want to quickly connect with your closest family and friends or other Echo devices in your home. For example, you can drop in to ask what time dinner will be ready, see the family room, or check in with a close relative.Alexa – the brain behind Echo Show – is built in the cloud, so she (it?) is always getting smarter. Alexa connects through the cloud automatically and is continually learning, adding new functionality and skills. Like Echo and Echo Dot, customers using Echo Show can access thousands of Alexa skills, with new skills from OpenTable, Just Eat, National Rail, Mercedes, BBC News, The Telegraph, Evening Standard, LBC, MTV, 7Digital, Recipedia, Mail Recipes, Sky Sports Super 6, Liverpool FC, Arlo, Ring, and more – all optimised for the display.Echo Show is available in black or white for £199.99. Customers can also choose a 2-pack—buy 2, save £100.00.More information is available at www.amazon.co.uk/echoshow . Echo Show is also available at retailers including Argos, Dixons, John Lewis and Tesco. |
Ireland could face snap election after motion of no confidence | Ireland could be on the brink of a general election after Fianna Fáil tabled a vote of no confidence in the deputy prime minister, Frances Fitzgerald. The motion is scheduled for a vote on 28 November. Fianna Fáil supports Fine Gael's minority government and without that support a new election would be likely. The controversy concerns Fitzgerald's knowledge of emails exchanged in 2015, when she was minister of justice, about the legal strategy deployed against garda Maurice McCabe. A general election would come at a critical time in Brexit negotiations.
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/24/ireland-faces-snap-election-over-future-of-deputy-pm | 2017-11-17 12:31:40.987000 | Ireland is on the verge of a snap election after the party that props up the country’s minority coalition government threatened to pull down the administration over a police whistleblower scandal.
The prime minister, Leo Varadkar, faces the prospect of going to the polls as early as next month, in the middle of a crucial summit on the EU, Britain and Brexit at which the stakes are high for the Irish Republic.
The prospect of an election emerged over the last 24 hours following a row about emails from the deputy prime minister, Frances Fitzgerald, into how police deal with a whistleblower alleging corruption and malpractice.
Fianna Fáil submitted a no confidence measure in Fitzgerald on Friday, which will be voted on next Tuesday.
Timeline Ireland's police scandals Show An Garda Síochána, Ireland's national police service, has faced a series of scandals in recent years that have led to the resignations of two Garda commissioners, played a key part in former prime minister Enda Kenny stepping down, and now threaten to bring down the Irish government. November 2012 Police whistleblowers allege misconduct Then justice minister Alan Shatter receives an interim Garda report on allegations that drivers' penalty points were being cleared, with no reasons given. Two officers described as whistleblowers - former Garda John Wilson and Sgt Maurice McCabe – had raised the issue, alleging misconduct and corruption within the force. September 2013 Report supports some allegations A report from the Comptroller & Auditor General supports some of the whistleblowers' allegations, finding "operational weaknesses" in the fines system, and saying the Garda had lost significant revenue from irregularities. 25 March 2014 Garda commissioner resigns Martin Callinan, then Garda commissioner, announces his retirement amid calls for his resignation, after he said he found the whistleblowers' allegations "quite disgusting". 7 May 2014 Justice minister resigns Alan Shatter, who had also criticised the whistleblowers, steps down after receiving a critical report into how his department handled McCabe's allegations. The government launches an inquiry into the scandal, led by the former high court judge, Kevin O'Higgins. 10 May 2016 O'Higgins report released The 362-page report identifies serious flaws and failures but finds no evidence of Garda criminality or corruption. It upholds many of McCabe's complaints, but also says some of his claims were overstated. The report also finds Shatter "did his work well". October 2016 Another whistleblower emerges Supt David Taylor, former head of the Garda press office, says he was directed by senior officers including Callinan and his replacement Nóirín O'Sullivan to discredit McCabe. Commissioner O'Sullivan denies any involvement in the alleged smear campaign. 24 February 2017 The Disclosures Tribunal The first public investigation into the alleged smear campaign against McCabe begins, chaired by Supreme Court judge Peter Charleton. It is ongoing. 23 March 2017 More allegations of police misconduct Senior Garda officers reveal that almost one million drink-driving tests recorded by the police did not take place, and a separate error caused almost 15,000 wrongful traffic convictions. The Gardaí apologise, but the mistake could cost Irish taxpayers millions. 18 May 2017 Prime minister resigns Enda Kenny resigns after party pressure over his failure to secure a majority government in the general election in 2016 and his handling of the crises in the Irish police. 10 September 2017 Second police commissioner steps down Nóirín O’Sullivan announces her retirement, saying she had faced an “unending cycle” of investigations into the Garda Síochána. New Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, says her decision ensures the police can now focus on reforms. 24 November 2017 Fianna Fáil threatens snap election The party propping up Ireland’s minority coalition government submits a no confidence motion against deputy prime minister, Frances Fitzgerald, over her handling of the police whistleblower scandal. It threatens to pulls its support for the government, unless she resigns. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
Varadkar, leader of the Fine Gael party that heads the minority government, has ruled out the resignation of his deputy Frances Fitzgerald. But opposition Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin said Fitzgerald “should step aside in our view and that would avoid a general election”.
Varadkar met Martin in Dublin on Friday evening and agreed to further contact over the weekend to try and defuse the crisis.
The focus is on an email from May 2015, which outlined how legal teams for Nóirín O’Sullivan, then the police commissioner, and Maurice McCabe, a police officer and whistleblower, clashed at an inquiry into the latter’s allegations of police malpractice. The email related to a strategy Sgt McCabe’s supporters claim was drawn up by the police high command to discredit him.
Sinn Fein’s deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald, accused the deputy prime minister of having “clearly failed in her duties” when she learned about a strategy via the email that was “so utterly malicious and designed...to ruin Sgt McCabe’s life.”
Fitzgerald had claimed that she did not remember the email, and that, in any event, she could not have legally intervened. Her defenders in Fine Gael party have said there is a judicial inquiry into the handling of the way Sgt McCabe was treated and that should be allowed to run its course.
The Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, on Friday said the last thing Ireland needs is a general election in the middle of crucial Brexit negotiations.
Fine Gael relies on Fianna Fáil’s support through a confidence and supply arrangement under which the opposition props up the minority government in key votes required to keep it in power. Senior sources in Fianna Fáil said the deal was “dead in the water” if Fine Gael continued to insist Fitzgerald remain in office.
Quick Guide Ireland's political parties Show Fine Gael Forged in the Irish civil war as the side that accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, Fine Gael has a centre-right, pro-market and pro-European outlook. The party has two distinctive wings: a socially liberal, urban and professional base, and a rural grassroots following with strong links to the farming community. Fianna Fáil Initially comprising opponents of the Anglo-Irish treaty, Fianna Fáil is also seen as centre right. It dominated Irish politics for much of the 20th century and used to enjoy a predominantly working-class membership. An archetypal pragmatic political force, the party now has strong links to builders and property investors. Sinn Féin Once umbilically linked to the Provisional IRA, Sinn Féin has benefited enormously from the Irish peace process, with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness becoming internationally renowned political figures. The party takes a populist and pragmatic approach to economic issues. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
“There is no longer any trust. Leo Varadkar could have averted this much earlier if he had called Michael Martin in earlier this week to discuss our concerns over the leaked email. It’s 50-50 if Fitzgerald goes, only that will save us from a Christmas election,” one told the Guardian.
“But if she does fall on her sword this weekend this arrangement is only going to last a few months to let Leo negotiate Brexit in Brussels in December. There will be an election in February or March if we get through this weekend.”
Varadkar’s predecessor, Enda Kenny, resigned in May this year after coming under growing internal party pressure over his failure to secure a majority government in the general election in 2016 and his handling of the crises in the Irish police.
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Suzuki and Toyota to sell electric cars in India by 2020 | Car manufacturers Toyota and Suzuki have agreed a memorandum of understanding to make and sell electric vehicles in India by 2020, according to a joint statement. In the deal Toyota will offer technical knowledge, Suzuki will manufacture the cars, while Indian suppliers will provide batteries, electric motors and major components. The agreement also covers charging infrastructure and developing systems for the appropriate treatment of end-of-life batteries. The partnership is set to give a boost to the Indian government's ambition of moving to full electrification on the roads by 2030.
| https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/auto/news/toyota-suzuki-to-introduce-electric-vehicles-in-india-in-2020/articleshow/61687544.cms | 2017-11-17 12:21:33.750000 | NEW DELHI: Japanese automakers Suzuki Motor and Toyota Motor finalised an agreement to manufacture and sell electric vehicles in India by the turn of the decade.The move, particularly the involvement of Suzuki that sells one in every two passenger vehicles in India through local unit Maruti, gives further credence to the government’s vision of switching to full electric mobility from 2030 and boosts its ‘Make in India’ initiative.According to the memorandum of understanding signed on Friday, Toyota will provide technical knowhow for the project while Suzuki will manufacture the vehicles for the Indian market and also supply some to Toyota.“The MoU concluded is part of the overall agreement being firmed up between Suzuki and Toyota. Since this (India’s EV push with a 2030 deadline) was a more urgent issue, it has been addressed first,” Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava told ET. “It will surely prove beneficial for all involved. We have to make sure that not only the cost, but the performance of the vehicle is such that it meets customer expectations.”Toyota, the No. 2 automaker in the world, and Suzuki, the thirdlargest in Japan on local sales, have been holding talks since February to forge a partnership in shared procurement, green vehicles, IT and safety technologies.India, one of the fastest-growing automobile markets, was a key target market and manufacturing hub of those discussions, as the companies sought to leverage Suzuki’s large low-cost manufacturing capability and supplier base here as well as the government’s push to electric mobility.Friday’s announcement underlines their India focus. It didn’t mention any global plans, which they are expected to unveil at a later stage.The companies will launch activities to promote widespread acceptance and use of electric vehicles in India. These will include setting up of charging infrastructure, human resource development including training for after-sales service technicians and systems for appropriate treatment of end-of-life batteries, they said in a joint press statement. “Toyota Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation have concluded a memorandum of understanding on moving forward in considering a cooperative structure for introducing electric vehicles in the Indian market in around 2020,” the statement said.In line with the agreement, batteries, electric motors and major components for manufacturing electric vehicles will all be procured locally, “helping the Indian government fulfil its ‘Make in India’ initiative, even in the field of EVs”, the press statement said.LEVERAGING INDIAIn September, Suzuki chairman Osamu Suzuki announced that the automaker, along with Japanese partners Toshiba and Denso, would invest about Rs 1,150 crore to set up India’s first lithiumion battery manufacturing facility at Hansalpur in Gujarat. Suzuki at the time said their joint venture would leverage India as a base for manufacturing these batteries, which would be mounted on hybrid vehicles and shipped to markets overseas.VG Ramakrishnan, managing partner at consultancy firm Avanteum Partners, views the new partnership as a win-win for both companies. “On its own Suzuki does not have the resources to invest in development of alternative fuel technologies. The partnership with Toyota enables Suzuki to be future-ready.” |
Irish PM will block Brexit talks unless hard border is ruled out | Leo Varadkar, Ireland's Prime Minister, has demanded a formal written guarantee that there will be no hard border in Ireland following Brexit. He suggested he will stop the talks progressing until the matter has been formally addressed and "written down in practical terms". He also criticised politicians who fought for Brexit, saying the have simply not "thought all this through".
| https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/17/irish-pm-brexit-backing-politicians-did-not-think-things-through | 2017-11-17 12:08:21.097000 | Ireland has issued a stark warning that it will block progress of the Brexit negotiations in December unless the UK gives a formal written guarantee that there will be no hard border with Northern Ireland.
In sharp remarks before a breakfast meeting with Theresa May, the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said Brexit-backing politicians had not “thought all this through” in the years they had been pushing for the UK to leave the EU.
His comments marked the start of a testing day for May that included a meeting with the European council president, Donald Tusk, which Downing Street said showed “there is more work to be done”.
Outside the Gothenburg social summit in Sweden, Varadkar suggested he would block any progress to negotiations about the future relationship with the EU unless the UK was prepared to take a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, in any form, off the table.
“We’ve been given assurances that there will be no hard border in Ireland, that there won’t be any physical infrastructure, that we won’t go back to the borders of the past,” Varadkar said. “We want that written down in practical terms in the conclusions of phase one.”
The taoiseach was scathing about UK politicians who he said had backed Brexit without real thought to the consequences of leaving. “It’s 18 months since the referendum. It’s 10 years since people who wanted a referendum started agitating for one,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t seem like they have thought all this through.
Q&A Why is Dublin opposed to the idea of a hard border? Show Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has been much more sceptical than the UK about the potential for avoiding border posts via virtual checks on importers. Whilst agreeing with British ministers and EU negotiators that it is inconceivable for there to be a return to a hard border with the north, Dublin argues that the best way for the UK to achieve this would be by permanently remaining in a customs union with the EU and seeking single market membership like Norway through the European Economic Area. The UK has conceded that some of this will be necessary in its interim phase after Brexit, but hopes clever technological solutions can allow it have looser economic links in the long run. Varadkar is not alone in being sceptical about whether such a cake-and-eat-it customs and trade strategy is viable. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
“Britain, having unilaterally taken the customs union and single market off the table, before we move to phase two talks on trade we want taken off the table any suggestion that there will be a physical border, a hard border, new barriers to trade on the island of Ireland.”
Varadkar said it was still possible that EU leaders would agree that sufficient progress had been made on issues such as the Irish border by December to allow talks to move on to trade, but took a sceptical tone about May and other ministers’ approach.
“I think it’s certainly possible that we can come to conclusions in December allowing phase two talks to begin, but if we have to wait until the new year, if we have to wait for further concessions, so be it,” he said. “But I think it would be in all of our interests that we proceed to phase two if we can in December.”
A UK government source said it had been “clear from the outset there will be no hard border” but admitted there was more work to be done on the issue before the two countries would see eye to eye. Sources pointed to several official documents released by the UK government already that made commitments on the Irish border.
After the pair met for breakfast, an Irish government source told RTÉ that May had told Varadkar they were “almost there” on the Irish border with all sides on the same page, which the taoiseach rebuffed, with the source describing the prime minister’s words as “wishful thinking”.
A Downing Street spokesman said there had been “constructive discussions on Brexit” between May and Varadkar at the breakfast meeting. “On Northern Ireland, the PM was clear that the Belfast agreement must be at the heart of our approach and that Northern Ireland’s unique circumstances demand specific solutions.
“The PM said it was important to protect progress made in Northern Ireland over recent years. Both leaders agreed to work together to find solutions which ensure there is no return to the borders of the past.”
Theresa May (centre) sits behind the Hungarian PM, Viktor Orbán, and the Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaitė, in Gothenburg. Photograph: Szilard Koszticsak/EPA
Earlier on Friday, the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, met the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, for talks in Dublin. Coveney said: “We all want to move on to phase two of the Brexit negotiations, but we are not in a place right now that allows us to do it.”
Johnson, on his first visit to Ireland as foreign secretary, insisted the reintroduction of a hard border between the two countries was “the last thing the UK government wants” and that it had “absolutely no interest in such an outcome”.
May met Tusk on the sidelines of the summit, as well as the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Italian prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni.
Downing Street hinted May and Tusk had discussed progress on the financial settlement. “The two leaders spoke about the progress which had been made so far in the negotiations on citizens’ rights, Northern Ireland and the financial settlement,” a spokesman said.
The pair agreed there was “more work to be done and discussed how to take further steps forward together in advance of the European council in December”.
In a statement after their meeting, Downing Street said May and Macron had also discussed the need for further progress before the December council meeting.
France’s European affairs minister, Natalie Loiseau, said a no-deal Brexit had become a possibility but stressed unity among the EU27 was “rock solid” and deadlock in the talks was due to Britain’s failure to provide sufficient clarity.
“A British departure without an agreement with the EU cannot be excluded,” she told the French newspaper La Croix. “That would be bad news for Europe, and above all, without doubt, bad news for the UK.”
The Dutch parliament’s European affairs committee on Thursday warned the Netherlands to make contingency plans for a “chaotic no-deal” Brexit, blaming a lack of preparation and “unrealistic expectations” on the part of some British politicians.
Loiseau said the bloc was united on the necessity of settling all divorce issues before beginning discussions about the future trading relationship.
“The EU27 must now be firm, particularly since the negotiations are stalled because the British have failed to provide specific answers on a number of points,” she said, adding that the financial settlement remained the main stumbling block.
Entering the summit on Friday morning, May repeated her pledge that the UK would “honour our commitments”. It is understood she is preparing to offer an additional £20bn to settle the divorce bill in the first week of December before the talks.
“I was clear in my speech in Florence that we will honour our commitments,” she said. “But of course we want to move forward together, talking about the trade issues and trade partnership for the future.
“I have set out a vision for that economic partnership. I look forward to the European Union responding positively to that so we can move forward together and ensure that we can get the best possible arrangements for the future that will be good for people in the United Kingdom and across the remaining EU27.”
EU leaders must agree that “sufficient progress” has been made on three key areas before talks can move on to a future trade deal. The three areas are the so-called divorce bill, which is the financial settlement with the EU; the rights of EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in Europe; and the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
If sufficient progress is not agreed to have been made at the summit on 14-15 December, it may mean no progress is guaranteed until the next scheduled European council meeting in March. |
Facebook releases dynamic and lead ads for auto brands | Facebook is seeking a greater share of automotive advertising by launching dynamic and lead adverts for the sector. The facility is available on both Facebook and Instagram in the US, and allows brands to generate bespoke adverts for different vehicles and have them automatically targeted using Facebook's demographic data. Users clicking on the ads can then be redirected to mobile lead ads, which are automatically filled out using the user's contact information. The push by Facebook reflects surveys showing more than half of those intending to buy a car conduct research on a mobile device.
| https://adexchanger.com/mobile/facebook-launches-dynamic-ads-auto-mobile-starts-replace-showroom/ | 2017-11-17 12:03:56.167000 | Facebook is gearing up to grab automotive advertising budget with dynamic and lead ads for auto brands, both released on Thursday.
Dynamic ads for auto, like Facebook’s other dynamic ad products for ecommerce and travel, allow advertisers –auto manufacturers and car dealerships, in this case – to retarget auto intenders and create lookalike audiences for targeting.
The ads, which were developed over the past several months, are available through Facebook and Instagram with plans to bring them to Audience Network in the near term, although there’s no set timeline.
It works like this: Brands upload their vehicle catalog, including details for make, model and year, and the ad creative is automatically generated and targeted based on user intent and a mix of psychographic and demographic data that Facebook pulls from its pixel on an advertiser’s website.
After the click, the ads redirect to vehicle info pages or mobile lead ads, which advertisers can use to collect user data and consumers can use to request more information or to take an action, like locating the nearest dealership or scheduling a test drive.
The lead ads are integrated with Canvas, Facebook’s full-screen mobile ad unit, and pre-populated with the user’s contact information, including email address.
For the moment, advertisers can set KPIs based on cost per lead or click-throughs on the dynamic unit.
What they can’t do, however, at least not yet, is tie dynamic ads or lead ads to dealership visits. That’s on the agenda.
Today, some auto advertisers use Facebook’s store visits tool, which tracks offline purchases, to get a sense of how many people visit a dealership after seeing an ad. But the store visits objective isn’t directly integrated with dynamic ads, which means advertisers can’t actually close the loop on a specific car purchase.
Facebook’s road map includes full attribution for auto dynamic ads.
But even without closed-loop attribution, auto brands still need to insert themselves into the research process as early as possible.
Because consumers only buy a new vehicle every seven years or so, it’s important for advertisers to clearly understand the car buyer’s journey, which increasingly takes place on a mobile device.
Mobile is starting to “replace the showroom,” said Stephanie Latham, Facebook’s auto industry lead. It’s where product research increasingly occurs, and auto brands need to be there, she said.
“The average car shopper today visits two dealerships per car sold and, in some cases, they visit zero dealerships,” Latham said. “And when they do show up at a dealership, they’re already well-prepared because they’ve done the research online.”
In fact, 56% of auto intenders conduct research on a mobile device, according to Cox Automotive – and one in every five minutes spent on a mobile phone in the US is spent on either Facebook or Instagram.
These interactions give automotive companies another chance to be part of the car buyer’s consideration, Latham said.
“It’s essential for manufacturers and dealers to make sure that they’re discoverable, even if the customer is not searching,” she said. “The biggest takeaway is that they need to reach the customer early in the process with more relevant and personalized content. If they do that, they can have influence before the customer makes their decision.” |
Vast majority of insurtech investments a waste: Guidewire chief | As much as 95% of cash poured into insurtech could be a waste, according to Guidewire CEO Marcus Ryu. Noting that there's been a rush for investors to put money to work in insurtech firms, Ryu added that he's seen several scenarios where investors have been initially impressed by technology, but later came to realise their money was wasted after being deployed in a hasty fashion. Ryu suggested investments in data processing for insurance could be worthwhile, but warned trying to change the distribution model of the industry via technology could be futile.
| https://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/95-of-investment-in-insurtech-distribution-will-be-wasted-guidewire-chief-exec/1425572.article | 2017-11-17 11:58:26.970000 | 95% of investment in new insurtech distribution models will be wasted, claims Guidewire chief executive Marcus Ryu.
Addressing the press at Guidewire Connections 2017, Ryu said that recent investments in insurtech amount to a bubble and it had all happened “too fast”.
“We’ve seen this movie a hundred times before. It happens in every time in technology. You have a huge surge of early stage investment. Most of it gets wasted. It’s like a law of nature. It just always happens and that’s what’s happening here,” Ryu explained.
$3.5bn has been invested in insurtech over the past few years. It is not possible to spend that money productively, Ryu warned.
Ryu identified sensible areas of insurtech spending as satellite and commercial sensor data aggregation and photo based estimating, because they are useful and insurance relevant.
He was less confident that attempts to change insurance distribution models will be a disruptive force and worth the amount of money that has been funnelled into it. Two thirds of insurtech investment has gone towards companies with new distribution models.
“My personal view is 95-9% of that is going to be wasted. These are companies that utterly underestimate what it takes to be an insurance company,” Ryu continued.
Ryu gave the example of a lead investor in one of the better known insurtech companies – he did not specify which – using the metric of customer acquisition to show progress. While this is a good way for Snapchat and consumer internet firms to measure progress, it does not lead to a tangible benefit for an insurer.
“If you’re an insurance company it’s very easy to get customer acquisition. Any insurance company can acquire all the customers they want and lose money on every one of them. The fact that they were thinking in terms of consumer internet attitude [is telling], you have to spend a lot take lot of losses, but acquire a lot of customers and then figure out how to make money on them later. It does not work.”
Ryu said that interesting things were being seen in smaller volume markets, with companies like Slice, but success is likely because they tackle such a small segment of the overall market with niche products, lacking a wider reach that would threaten the industry as it stands.
He also discussed peer to peer (P2P) insurance risk sharing models, but said that they are also tiny and not consequential yet. Ryu said they should be viewed as experiments and they are all currently “significantly loss making”.
“The jury is out”, Ryu said, on whether one of these good ideas can become a strong player, though he would like to see it happen. |
Jaguar Land Rover begins testing autonomous cars on British roads | Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors European Technical Centre have begun testing autonomous vehicles on the streets of Coventry. The vehicles have human drivers supervising them and follow previous trials on private tracks. Jaguar and Tata are also involved in a consortium with Ford called UK Autodrive, which has been testing "connected car" technology to improve road safety. More tests of both types of technology have been scheduled for next year in Coventry and Milton Keynes, including a fleet of new pavement-based self-driving "pod" vehicles. | https://www.theengineer.co.uk/connected-autonomous-vehicles/ | 2017-11-17 11:37:27.797000 | The birthplace of Britain’s automotive industry today hosted another four-wheeled first with a trial of connected and autonomous vehicle technology on its streets.
UK Autodrive has taken its vehicles from test track to the streets of Coventry to trial a number of technologies that will help define vehicles that communicate with each other and their surroundings to improve safety and efficiency.
Project partners Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) have begun tests on a number of connected car features, with Jaguar Land Rover and TMETC separately trialling autonomous vehicle research technologies.
The connected car trials are exploring seven different concepts, including connected traffic lights, emergency vehicle warnings, and emergency braking alerts.
The Jaguar Land Rover and TMETC autonomous vehicle research technology trials are being used to develop self-driving vehicle technology in a real-world setting, but with test operators supervising the cars at all times.
Further trials are scheduled to take place in Coventry and Milton Keynes early next year followed by a final series of open road demonstration events in both cities during the second half of 2018.
“The fundamental purpose of UK Autodrive is to get connected and autonomous vehicle technology out onto UK roads, so the start of trialling on the streets of Coventry is clearly a major landmark both for the project and for the UK as a whole,” said Tim Armitage, Arup’s UK Autodrive project director. “Our previous private test track trials showed that the technology works but it is only on real roads that we will start to see the scale of the benefits that it can bring to the general public.”
“Autonomous and connected cars will be a reality in the near future and I am confident they will help to boost safety, reduce congestion and improve air quality.” Coventry City councillor Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs and regeneration. “Along with battery technology they will also help to create thousands of new jobs in the automotive sector and its supply chain.”
As well as the on-road testing of connected and autonomous cars in Milton Keynes and Coventry, UK Autodrive is also trialling a fleet of up to 40 self-driving pavement-based ‘pod’ vehicles in Milton Keynes, with both types of vehicle due to take part in the project’s final technology demonstrations next year.
Coventry's connected car features: Emergency Vehicle Warning (EVW) – Sends a signal directly from the emergency vehicle (e.g. ambulance, fire engine, police vehicle) to nearby connected cars. Driver is informed that the emergency vehicle is approaching and advised to make way for it Intersection Collision Warning (ICW) – Warns the driver when it is unsafe to enter an intersection, due to a high probability of collision with other vehicles In-Vehicle Signage (IVS) – Sends information about road conditions, congestion or other incidents directly to the in-car display, rather than having to rely on expensive gantry systems Electronic Emergency Brake Light (EEBL) – Alerts the driver when a vehicle in front suddenly brakes, providing advanced warning, especially when the driver is unable to see the lights of the braking vehicle due to weather conditions, road layout or other vehicles in between Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA) – Sends traffic light information to the connected car which is able to calculate the optimal speed for approaching the lights, potentially minimising the number of red light stops, improving traffic flow and reducing emission levels from idling vehicles Intersection Priority Management (IPM) – Assigns priority when two or more connected vehicles come to an intersection without priority signs or traffic lights Collaborative Parking – Provides real-time information about free parking spaces either in the vicinity or close to the driver’s final destination.
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Warner Bros considers IoT to be part of future content strategy | Warner Bros is exploring how the internet of things (IoT) could offer a personalised entertainment experience, according to Bryan Barber, its vice-president of digital innovation. His comments followed the launch of the Intelligent IoT Integrator (I3) Consortium, of which Warner Bros is a founding member. Barber said the IoT could create "millions and millions of internet consumer touch points" and added Warner Bros wanted to "start trying things and learning, and I3 is going to give us the innovation platform that allows us to do that".
| http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/warner-bros-internet-of-things-iot-1202616968/ | 2017-11-17 11:31:40.987000 | Warner Bros. is exploring how to further sell ways to enjoy its entertainment content across multiple platforms in the new frontier known as the Internet of Things, or IoT.
The University of Southern California hosted its Intelligent IoT Integrator (I3) Consortium on Thursday at the Galen Center in Los Angeles to gather its founding members and officially launch the consortium. IoT is a concept that envisions the internet as more than just a way for people to communicate and share information, allowing for objects to interconnect via built-in sensors, camera and actuators.
“I3 is looking at this notion that the internet is more than just people, it’s about people becoming more aware of their surroundings,” said Bhaskar Krishnamachari, professor at the Viterbi school of engineering co-founder of I3. “The consortium is helping to make the conversation around IoT go beyond just one application and trying to allow third-party application developers to connect to data that’s coming from their communities and build a large number of useful applications for IoT.”
Warner Bros. is one of the founding members of I3, which was founded at USC with the support of the City of Los Angeles. In the new landscape of the Internet of Things, Warner Bros. is interested in developing ways for consumers to digitally purchase and personalize their entertainment experiences then integrate them into their daily lives via their digital devices.
“What we sell can be sold as as a digital right, the right to watch ‘Wonder Woman’ on your television, the right to walk into a theater to watch ‘Justice League,’ the right to play Injustice on your game console,” said Bryan Barber, VP of digital innovation at Warner Bros. “The Internet of Things is a development that can create millions and millions of internet consumer touch points. The devices you encounter could light up or respond in ways that are uniquely tailored to you as a fan of DC Comics, Harry Potter, or their own fandom.”
“There’s a natural intersection between the entertainment industry and the Internet of Things. Warner Bros. is supporting the development of IoT and has joined and supported I3 because we’re excited by this organization and its ability to create an innovation platform,” he continued. “This is a new frontier and we don’t yet know all the possibilities for Warner Bros. in the Internet of Things. What we’re really want to do is to start trying things and start learning and is going to give us the innovation platform that allows us to do that.”
The I3 Consortium is was created as a collaboration between the USC Marshall School of Business and the Viterbi School of Engineering, although Krishnamachari said he hopes to one day expand the initiative to include the School of Cinematic Arts and the Rossier School of Education. Other presenters at the consortium included the City of Los Angeles and Tech Mahindra, an information technology company, that introduced the new Community Action Platform for Engagement (“CAPE,”) a new community-based digital platform that will help to build smarter, more sustainable and energy-efficient cities. |
Researchers develop paper-thin, flexible motion sensors | Researchers from Florida's FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and scientists from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France have developed a scalable, low-cost, flexible motion sensor. According to an article in Materials and Design, the team created sensors from wafer-thin, flexible sheets of nanotubes, known as buckypaper, which then had silver electrodes printed on them, using an everyday inkjet machine. The team said the motion sensors had many applications, from sleep-monitoring bed linen to monitoring workouts to the internet of things.
| https://www.socialnews.xyz/2017/11/19/researchers-develop-novel-motion-sensors/ | 2017-11-17 11:31:40.987000 | New York, Nov 19 (IANS) Researchers have developed new motion sensors that could herald a near future of ubiquitous, fully integrated and affordable wearable technology.
"For sensor technology, you need it to be flexible, you need it to be affordable and you need it to be scalable," said Richard Liang, director of the High-Performance Materials Institute and professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in the US.
"This new technology is versatile and the sensors are affordable to print. It's a big innovation that presents many possibilities down the road."
In a paper, published in the journal Materials and Design, engineers from FSU's High-Performance Materials Institute, in collaboration with scientists from Institut National des Sciences Appliqu?es in Lyon, France, detail the properties and cost-effective manufacturing process of an advanced series of motion sensors made using buckypaper -- razor thin, flexible sheets of pure, durable carbon nanotubes.
The low-profile design could be integrated into bedsheets to monitor quality of sleep, shoes to track step count and posture or workout clothes to measure intensity of exercise.
Researchers also foresee potential applications beyond the realm of wearable technology. In the field of soft robotics, the material could facilitate advances in the production of responsive, self-correcting artificial muscles, the researchers said.
Moreover, the scalable sensors represent another step toward the long-predicted future of an "internet of things," where virtually all of an individual's computers, devices, garments, furniture and appliances are digitally connected to freely exchange information in the cloud.
"Most projects don't have this many possible applications. This material could be used in structural health monitoring, wearable technology and everything in between. I'm excited because this is something that can affect a lot of people in their everyday lives," said the lead author of the study Joshua DeGraff.
The novel sensor structure combines a strip of seven micron-thin buckypaper with silver ink electrodes printed from a common, commercially available ink-jet printer.
While the technology might not be ready for prime time quite yet, researchers are energised by its promising future.
These new buckypaper sensors represent a marked improvement on current industry standards, with most sensors being either too crude or too inflexible to reliably monitor complex structures like the human body, the researchers added.
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
About VDC Doraiah Chowdary Vundavally is a Software engineer at VTech . He is the news editor of SocialNews.XYZ and Freelance writer-contributes Telugu and English Columns on Films, Politics, and Gossips. He is the primary contributor for South Cinema Section of SocialNews.XYZ. His mission is to help to develop SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgement towards any. |
TalkTalk TalkTalk plans major overhaul of bloated IT infrastructure | Telecoms company TalkTalk is planning to streamline its IT operations, removing nearly half of its computer infrastructure in the process. The company has around 84 million lines of code across 3,000 servers, and estimates about 60% of this is unnecessary. It intends to address the "tech debt" over the next 12 to 18 months, and hopes that doing so will improve the company's performance. Implementing new automation software from CA Technologies is expected to lead to efficiency gains of up to 80%. TalkTalk reported a £75m ($99m) pre-tax loss for the first half of this year.
| http://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/29974/talktalk-plans-to-gut-50-of-its-it-estate | 2017-11-17 11:21:25.973000 | Embattled UK phone and broadband provider TalkTalk is planning to rip out around half of its IT in order to streamline its bloated infrastructure, IT Pro can reveal. The cull is intended to precede the adoption of modern technologies like microservices and containerisation.
"We've got quite a large amount of 'tech debt' in our estate, and it's really holding us back from being more efficient," TalkTalk tooling and environments manager, Gareth Watson, told IT Pro. "So in the next 12-18 months, we're going on quite a radical drive of simplification. We're looking to rip out almost 50% of our estate."
When TalkTalk performed a full audit of its estate earlier this year, the company discovered it's suffering from massive inefficiencies due to a gargantuan sprawl of applications and hardware, Watson revealed.
"We discovered that we have 84 million lines of code spread across 600 applications, across 3,000 servers, with 5,000 interdependencies," he said. "Some of it we've turned off already, because it's not being used - it's just on there doing nothing. It's ridiculous."
By Watson's estimation, around 60% of TalkTalk's codebase is unnecessary. "We've got twice as much [code] as the Large Hadron Collider. It's maybe a smidge more than we need, you know?"
Increased efficiency is something that the telco is currently in dire need of; it reported a 75 million pre-tax loss for the first half of this financial year earlier this week, thanks in part to a 31 million charge to write off assets in its mobile business, and a 59 million charge for an organisational restructure.
The company also suffered a catastrophic data breach in 2015 that compromised 150,000 customers' details.
But by streamlining its IT systems, TalkTalk hopes to transition to a much leaner and more agile approach, Watson told IT Pro. The company has already started using CA Technologies' release and testing automation tools to speed up internal testing, and has already condensed the number of development processes that can be used by its developers from 32 down to three.
TalkTalk is expecting efficiency gains of around 80% from deploying CA's automation software, derived from speeding up the way in which its engineers test and deploy code.
"It takes them 2.4 days to take an application from their development environment, through all the test environments and into production," Watson said. "Using CA's release automation, we're looking to reduce that down to half a day."
He added that while "2.4 days per application doesn't feel like a lot, we do 50 application deployments per release and eight releases a year - that's nearly 1,000 days a year, just wasted on people getting files moved between servers and things like that. By using CA's tools, we'll take that down to roughly 200 a year". |
Insurtech At-Bay uses heuristics to asses cyber risk | Insurtech At-Bay is using heuristics - the ability to adjust data-points in real time - to determine levels of cyber risk. The start-up assesses risk based on future predictions, a departure from the traditional method of determining cyber risk exposure, which usually makes use of analysing past incidents of security breaches. The firm has now raised $6m from a group of investors led by LightSpeed Venture Partner. The insurtech is able to bring insurance policies to market due to its primary backer being Munich Re’s Hartford Steam Boiler.
| https://www.carriermanagement.com/news/2017/11/16/173153.htm | 2017-11-17 11:08:06.087000 | At-Bay, a new insurance company startup focused on cyber insurance and related risk management, came out of stealth mode on Nov. 17 with news of $6 million in seed venture funding.
LightSpeed Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Shlomo Kramer and LocalGlobe. Munich Re’s Hartford Steam Boiler is a primary backer of the startup, and the two have partnered to bring a cyber risk insurance product to market.
David Mercier, senior vice president for HSB, said that his company is “very excited about working with At-Bay.”
“At-Bay’s data- and knowledge-driven business model aligns with HSB’s own system of managing and underwriting cyber risk,” Mercier said in prepared remarks. “Their offering truly leverages the strengths of both companies.”
At-Bay describes its model as a new way of measuring risk by using in-depth risk research blended with an ability to adjust risk models in real time based on future expectations (known as heuristics). This goes beyond traditional methods of legacy insurance carriers, which use historical data to predict future risk. At-Bay said it also monitors risk continuously. The startup asserts that its methodology helps give clients an updated and future-forward assessment of risk.
“We match deep insights on a company’s IT security with financial exposure that cyber attack vectors create to enable insurance brokers and risk managers to more clearly and accurately assess and manage cyber risk,” At-Bay CEO and founder Rotem Iram said in prepared remarks. “Our insurance products and supporting risk management services provide organizations with the confidence that they can take on the challenges of tomorrow.”
California-based At-Bay also has a component for brokers, a digital platform that the startup says is intuitive and combines its insurance product with risk insights. This means that brokers are able to have more insightful discussions with clients about issues including security and financial exposure, case studies, and benchmark data, At-Bay said. The idea here, according to the company, is that “fast, digital and collaborative applications make for a low-friction sales process.”
Before At-Bay, Iram was chief operating officer for K2 Intelligence, a cybersecurity practice based in Israel. He also has prior experience as a consultant with McKinsey & Co., as a software engineer with RAD Data Communication and as head of the Techno-Intelligence Group for the Israel Defense Forces, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Source: At-Bay |
Facebook overtakes LinkedIn as B2B's most-used social channel | Facebook is now the most used business-to-business social channel, with LinkedIn coming second, according to an annual study by Social Media Examiner. The study took in responses from 5,700 B2B marketers and found 43% regarded Facebook as their most important social channel, compared with 37% for LinkedIn and 12% for Twitter. The survey also found 39% have increased their Facebook posts in the past 12 months, while almost 70% planned to do so in the coming year. In Q3 2017, the social media giant posted ad revenues of $10.1bn, an increase of 49% on the same period last year. | http://www.ana.net/magazines/show/id/btob-2017-11-facebook-woos-btob-marketers | 2017-11-17 10:50:37.890000 | This Is an ANA Member Exclusive
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Vertical video ads lack appeal to UK publishers and agencies | Smaller UK publishers have been slow to adopt vertical videos, in what has been called “a chicken-and-egg situation” by Chris Mumford, trading director at M&C Saatchi Mobile. He said: "Smaller publishers will need to see ad dollars pushing into vertical video formats to justify making the technical changes on their side, and advertisers are always looking for scale." Deborah King, head of paid social at Essence, said she had seen little evidence that vertical video had a positive impact on sales or brand uplift relative to horizontal video. Nonetheless, Facebook, Snapchat and others have added vertical video capability.
| https://digiday.com/media/vertical-video-ads-slow-take-off-uk/ | 2017-11-17 10:49:06.437000 | Vertical video is often lauded as the future, but it’s stubbornly not so present in the U.K.
On the surface, there’s a lot of action, as publishers like News UK, Hearst and the BBC — not to mention big platforms like Facebook and Snapchat — have added vertical video capabilities. But many publishers have not, and agencies have been slow to create vertical ad campaigns, according to both publishers and agencies.
“It’s a chicken-and-egg situation,” said Chris Mumford, trading director at M&C Saatchi Mobile. “Smaller publishers will need to see ad dollars pushing into vertical video formats to justify making the technical changes on their side, and advertisers are always looking for scale. More content is needed to give advertisers space and scale to play. Low scale obviously drives up the cost of finite inventory. It’s a self-perpetuating mess.”
For now, most nonsocial vertical video inventory is bought directly from publishers and in private marketplaces, and self-serve through platforms. When inventory becomes available on exchanges and the process is less manual for agencies, there will be a shift, said Mumford.
“I believe we’ll get to a place where we just call it ‘video’ and ‘horizontal video’ in the next few months,” said Fariya Faiyaz, account director at Dentsu Aegis mobile agency Fetch, adding that the number of vertical videos brands see in social platforms will drive this.
There are signs of promise, however. The BBC, which rolled out vertical video in its app in November 2016, said the format drives visitors to watch more, with a 20 percent increase in video views per visit. Fetch is producing about 40 vertical video campaigns for clients, whereas a year ago, vertical video campaigns were in the experimental phase. Faiyaz sees promise now there are more format types within vertical video, like 360-degree video, dynamic creative or multiple videos within one unit.
The challenge, as with all campaigns, is in proving vertical video drives business results incremental to other video formats. Platforms need to try harder at this; otherwise, agencies won’t be able to justify the added costs, according to Deborah King, head of paid social at Essence.
“I haven’t seen specific case studies, apart from in the film entertainment sector, that validates vertical video drives X amount of sales or this much brand uplift versus horizontal video,” she said. The film entertainment sector has led the charge with vertical video ad campaigns, partly because it has a wealth of video content and expertise. The lack of clear proof of campaign effectiveness is pushing Essence to run A/B tests with clients to see which format delivers brand uplift. “If the user experience isn’t detrimentally impacted, there will always be slower adoption,” she added.
Advertisers under pressure to cut costs and keep to strict ROIs for clients will not have investment into new creative executions at the top of their priority lists. But rather than cost, the barrier to wider adoption for vertical video is time, said Mark Holden, global strategy director at Starcom. While agencies need to create upward of a dozen variations of different assets for formats and environments, the top three will almost always be TV broadcast, video-on-demand broadcast and Facebook and YouTube for scale.
“The intentions are there,” said Holden. “From a video-delivery point of view, nonvertical is good enough. It’s not ticking the box for investment versus impact yet.” |
Ørsted issues €1.25bn of green capital securities and bonds | Danish renewable-energy company Ørsted (previously Dong Energy) is issuing €1.25bn ($1.47bn) in green capital securities and bonds, allowing it to refinance securities issued in 2013. The offering is split between €500m of green hybrid capital securities, to be listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange, and green senior bonds listed on the London Stock Exchange. The settlement is 24 November. | https://renewablesnow.com/news/rsted-issues-eur-125bn-in-green-bonds-securities-591408/ | 2017-11-17 10:40:29.180000 | Danish offshore wind developer Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED), formerly known as Dong Energy, is issuing EUR 500 million (USD 589m) in green hybrid capital securities and EUR 750 million in green senior bonds.
The settlement date for both issues, which have been heavily oversubscribed, is November 24, the company said Thursday.
The issuances will help extend the duration of Ørsted’s senior debt maturity profile and will allow it to refinance EUR 500 million in 4.875% hybrid capital securities issued in 2013. Earlier on Thursday the company said its new Green Bond Framework has received a second opinion with "a Dark Green shading" from CICERO.
Details on the issuances are available in the table.
Details green hybrid security green senior bond Nominal amount EUR 500 million EUR 750 million Maturity date November 24, 3017 November 26, 2029 Coupon 2.25% - fixed till 1st par call date Nov 24, 2024 1.5% - fixed until maturity Price 99.203% of nominal amount 98.840% of nominal amount Oversubscribed more than 5x more than 2.3x Listing Luxembourg Stock Exchange (official list) and inscribe on the Luxembourg Green Exchange Platform (LGX) London Stock Exchange
Ørsted noted that these transaction do not change its financial guidance for 2017 or the announced expected investment level for the year.
(EUR 1 = USD 1.18)
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Bluegogo's troubles suggest China's bike-sharing boom is over | China's third biggest bike-sharing company, Bluegogo, is understood to be in financial difficulties, with users reporting an inability to get their deposits returned. The company's offices are locked and empty, and its founder, Li Gang, has said another bike-sharing start-up will be taking over its operations. At least three other bike-sharing companies have gone bust in China recently, which suggests a period of consolidation in the sector is beginning.
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/17/anger-as-chinese-bike-sharing-firm-shuts-up-office-with-riders-deposits | 2017-11-17 09:30:58.397000 | China’s third largest bike sharing company has reportedly run into financial trouble, amid a wave of busts and consolidations in an industry that took the country by storm this year.
Bluegogo burned through 600m yuan (£68m) in investor funding in the year since it was founded by its youthful CEO Li Gang, deploying 700,000 bikes across cities in China.
Commonly hailed as the “Uber for bikes”, cycle sharing companies saturated Chinese streets with a technicolour of orange, yellow and blue cycles, frequently crowding out pedestrians. Infamous scenes of derelict bicycles piled in mangled heaps have become common sights.
The companies let customers rent bike using their smartphone, and bicycles could be dropped off anywhere. Users pay a deposit fee of 99 to 299 yuan (£11.30 to £34.10) depending on the company and then are charged a fee for every 30 minutes of use.
But as reports emerged Bluegogo was in trouble, Chinese social media erupted with users complaining they were unable to get their deposits back, and rumours that Li had fled the country.
Bluegogo claimed it had 20m users across China at its height in an open letter written by Li this week. That would mean the company at one point had at least 1.98bn yuan (£226m) in deposits, although it is unclear how much the company is currently holding.
Rumors have also spread on Chinese social media saying Li had left China, prompting him to post on his profile: “I have always been in the country, fighting on the front lines for redemption”.
The company’s operations will be taken over by another bike sharing startup, Li said in the letter. Visits by Chinese journalists to Bluegogo’s offices found the doors locked and office space abandoned.
Bluegogo did not respond to e-mails and text messages seeking comment.
In the open letter, Li said the company’s problems began in June, “first with an advertising accident that affected a large investment and possible acquisition”.
The ad campaign ran over 4 June replaced the icons for some bikes with tanks, with users encouraged to take those bike to win prizes. The promotion coincided with the 28th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese soldiers killed thousands in an effort to suppress democracy protests, and tanks rolled through the streets of Beijing.
A company that supplies bikes to Bluegogo is reportedly still owed 10m yuan, saying Bluegogo suspended orders in April, citing financial problems.
At least three other bike sharing companies have also gone bust in recent months, although Bluegogo is by far the largest. The wave of consolidations may mean China’s bike sharing industry will soon be dominated by just one or two companies.
Bluegogo tried to expand into San Francisco earlier this year but was met by stiff resistance from local politicians. Less than four months later, the company suspended its US experiment. The company also supplied bicycles for an Australia-based bike sharing firm Reddy Go, although it is an separate entity. |
Firms make it easy to rent a friend, father of social media buddy | A company in Japan hires out actors to replace real people in situations as varied as large family weddings and even dates. Family Romance was founded eight years ago by Ishii Yuichi, and now calls on about 800 thespians to play a range of roles. Some clients have hired actors to replace their partner or act as a parent to their children on a long-term basis. American website Rentafriend, founded in 2009, provides fake friends for social media photos.
| https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/paying-for-fake-friends-and-family/545060/?single_page=true&utm_source=CB+Insights+Newsletter&utm_campaign=620fb1ac90-MonNL_11_13_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dc0513989-620fb1ac90-87071009 | 2017-11-17 09:28:33.943000 | In Japan, you can pay an actor to impersonate your relative, spouse, coworker, or any kind of acquaintance.
Money may not be able to buy love, but here in Japan, it can certainly buy the appearance of love—and appearance, as the dapper Ishii Yuichi insists, is everything. As a man whose business involves becoming other people, Yuichi would know. The handsome and charming 36-year-old is on call to be your best friend, your husband, your father, or even a mourner at your funeral.
His 8-year-old company, Family Romance, provides professional actors to fill any role in the personal lives of clients. With a burgeoning staff of 800 or so actors, ranging from infants to the elderly, the organization prides itself on being able to provide a surrogate for almost any conceivable situation.
Yuichi believes that Family Romance helps people cope with unbearable absences or perceived deficiencies in their lives. In an increasingly isolated and entitled society, the CEO predicts the exponential growth of his business and others like it, as à la carte human interaction becomes the new norm.
I sat down recently with Yuichi in a café on the outskirts of Tokyo, to discuss his business and what it means to be, in the words of his company motto, “more than real.”
Roc Morin: Just to be perfectly clear, you’ve come as yourself today, haven’t you?
Ishii Yuichi: Yes, at this moment I am only myself.
Morin: What was your very first role?
Yuichi: I had a single-mother friend, and she had a son. He was trying to enter a private school, but they denied him solely because he had no father. I wanted to challenge the unfairness of Japanese society, so I posed as his father.
Morin: Were you successful?
Yuichi: Not in that situation. But, it inspired the idea for this business.
Morin: When was your first success?
Yuichi: I played a father for a 12-year-old with a single mother. The girl was bullied because she didn’t have a dad, so the mother rented me. I’ve acted as the girl’s father ever since. I am the only real father that she knows.
“I always ask every client, ‘Are you prepared to sustain this lie?’”
Morin: And this is ongoing?
Yuichi: Yes, I’ve been seeing her for eight years. She just graduated high school.
Morin: Does she understand that you’re not her real father?
Yuichi: No, the mother hasn’t told her.
Morin: How do you think she would feel if she discovered the truth?
Yuichi: I think she would be shocked. If the client never reveals the truth, I must continue the role indefinitely. If the daughter gets married, I have to act as a father in that wedding, and then I have to be the grandfather. So, I always ask every client, “Are you prepared to sustain this lie?” It’s the most significant problem our company has.
Morin: So, you could be involved with her for the rest of your life?
Yuichi: It’s risky that she might discover the truth someday. In this company, one person can only have five families at a time. That’s the rule. It’s not only about secrecy. The client always asks for the ideal husband, the ideal father. That’s a very difficult role to maintain.
Ishii Yuichi (Roc Morin)
Morin: How do you determine what the ideal husband or father is?
Yuichi: There’s an order form where every possible preference is listed: hairstyle, glasses, beard, fashion sense ... Do you like classy or casual? Is he affectionate or stern? When he arrives, should he be talkative or tired from a long day at work?
Morin: What did the mother you mentioned earlier request on her form?
Yuichi: She wanted the father to be kind, very kind. He would never yell. She wanted the kind of father that would be able to deliver wise advice.
Morin: How did you create that persona?
Yuichi: I’m not married in real life. I have no kids. At first, I couldn’t really find in myself the kind of father that she wanted me to be. So, I watched a lot of movies about fathers, and I cultivated my persona through the movies.
Morin: Can you describe the sessions with your fake daughter?
Yuichi: Sometimes we dine together. We’ve been to theme parks, like Disneyland. We go shopping in Harajuku once a month. The mother pays about 20,000 yen per four hours, plus expenses. That’s about $200.
“It’s agonizing to be alone and just think, ‘Is this really me, right now?’”
Morin: What’s your cover story?
Yuichi: I told her I have my own family now, and that’s why I can’t see her often.
Morin: What happened to the real father?
Yuichi: Even the mother doesn’t know. There was a lot of physical violence. They divorced, and that was the end of it.
Morin: Did you take his name?
Yuichi: Yes, I use the father’s name—first and last.
Morin: How do you handle it when the daughter gets angry or sad?
Yuichi: I never yell, no matter what. That was in the order-form description. The girl was bullied also, if you remember, so her feelings can be very unsettling. There was also a rebellious time, in her teens. She was having difficulties with her mother. When she’s with me, though, she always asks, “Why do you have to leave now?” It’s unpleasant, but it is a reasonable emotion.
Morin: Does she love you?
Yuichi: She does. It’s easy to feel her love. She talks about her relationship with her mother, she shares sensitive feelings, she opens up to me.
Morin: Does any aspect of your real self seep in?
Yuichi: I don’t allow it to, otherwise I would become self-conscious.
Morin: Do you feel like you have a responsibility to the daughter, because of your connection to her now?
Yuichi: Depending on the situation, it’s different. The heaviness is different, but everywhere I go, I feel it—the responsibility.
Morin: When you’re working, is it purely acting, or do the feelings ever become real?
Yuichi: It’s a business. I’m not going to be her father for 24 hours. It’s a set time. When I am acting with her, I don't really feel that I love her, but when the session is over and I have to go, I do feel a little sad. The kids cry sometimes. They say, “Why do you have to leave?” In those instances, I feel very sorry that I’m faking it—very guilty. There are times, when I’m done with the work and I come back home, where I sit and watch TV. I find myself wondering, “Is this, now, the real me, or the actor?”
Morin: How do you answer that question?
Yuichi: I don’t think I have an answer. The person that used to be me—is he me now? I know that it’s common for actors to feel that way. If you’re a really good actor—if you’re in it all the time—it feels very unsettling.
“There’s no conflict, no jealousy, no bad habits. Everything is perfect.”
Morin: When do you feel the most like yourself?
Yuichi: When I’m with my family, my real family. It’s agonizing to be alone and just think, “Is this really me, right now?” The inner monologues are tough.
Morin: How do you know that your family hasn’t been hired?
Yuichi: That’s a good question! No one knows.
Morin: I have a project collecting dreams, and often work is a common theme. Do you dream about your work?
Yuichi: I dream about my client—when she cries because I have to leave. It’s a very emotional situation.
Morin: How is the dream different from reality?
Yuichi: Sometimes, in the dream, I tell her the truth.
Morin: What do you say?
Yuichi: I say, “I’m very sorry. I’m a member of the Family Romance corporation. I’m not your true father.” Right before she can respond—just as she opens her mouth to speak, I wake up. I am terrified of the answer, so I just wake up.
Morin: Are you ever someone else in your dreams?
Yuichi: In Japanese business culture, there is a situation where you have to visit a company and say I’m deeply sorry for what I did and just bow and bow. Occasionally, I dream about that.
Morin: How does that work when you’re hired to do that in real life?
Yuichi: Usually, I accompany a salaryman who made a mistake. I take the identity of the salaryman myself, then I apologize profusely for his mistake. Have you seen the way we say sorry? You go have to down on your hands and knees on the floor. Your hands have to tremble. So, my client is there standing off to the side—the one who actually made the mistake—and I’m prostrate on the floor writhing around, and the boss is there red-faced as he hurls down abuse from above. Sometimes, I wonder to myself, “Am I actually doing this?”
Morin: What do you feel?
Yuichi: I feel extremely uncomfortable. I’m just thinking, “I’m innocent!” I want to point at the actual culprit and shout, “He did it!”
Morin: Are you ever hired to apologize in other situations?
Yuichi: Yes, sometimes in relationships. Imagine there’s a married couple, and the wife cheats on the husband. When that happens, the husband often demands a confrontation with the other man. Naturally, this can be difficult to arrange, because the man usually runs away. In that case, they bring me instead.
Morin: What happens then?
Yuichi: There’s a manual for everything in this company. We use psychology to determine the optimal outcome. In this case, the standard tactic is to make me look like a yakuza [gangster]. Typically, I arrive with the wife, and the husband is there, and suddenly I will just bow then deeply apologize. Usually, the husband will berate me, but because I appear to be a yakuza, he won’t pursue the matter further.
Morin: I understand you work as a boyfriend too. Can you describe that experience?
Yuichi: Those clients are usually older ladies. It used to be primarily women in their 50s, but now there are even more women in their 30s.
Morin: Is this sexual or just platonic?
Yuichi: It’s a dating situation. It’s not about having sexual relations, although some women have expected that. Generally, the women just want to have fun with a younger man. They want to feel young again.
Morin: Why do you think these women hire you?
Yuichi: The women typically say that in a real relationship, you’re slowly building trust. It takes years to create a strong connection. For them, it’s a lot of hassle and disappointment. Imagine investing five years with someone and then they break up with you. It’s just easier to schedule two hours per week to interact with an ideal boyfriend. There’s no conflict, no jealousy, no bad habits. Everything is perfect.
Morin: You’ve been on so many fake dates—what is it like for you, in your own personal life, to go on an actual date?
Yuichi: I don’t have a real girlfriend right now. Real dating feels like work. It feels like work to care for a real person.
Morin: Do you plan on having a family someday?
Yuichi: Honestly, I’m full. I’m full of family, and I feel like it’s a lot to manage. Sometimes, a client asks me to be there in the room when she gives birth. One time, the client was a pregnant woman, and rather than ask her parents, she wanted me to be there. So, I went. Some women propose to me, and I say no, but it’s very hard for me to say no.
Morin: Why?
Yuichi: Many women say, “I want to marry you.” I say, “You’re in love with an order form. It’s not me—it’s the acting that you love.” If I married her, I’d have to keep acting. And, there are certain women who are wonderful, but the soul I have with them is not my real soul. So, I cannot and I would not.
Morin: Do you ever prefer playing a role to being yourself?
Yuichi: I like playing the caring father. I play with the kids, even when I’m tired. It’s very tough when you're exhausted, but you still show up, and you try to create happiness. That’s the kind of father I admire, even when it’s me.
Morin: What is your favorite role?
Yuichi: It doesn’t happen often, but there are cases when I have to be a groom. There are situations where parents pressure a daughter to marry—if she’s a lesbian, for example. So, they have an entire wedding, and it’s a fake wedding, except for the client’s family. The friends, and everyone else are fake. My side is all fake. Fifty fake people all pretending it’s real. The cost is 2 million yen, for everyone.
“One man paid a huge sum just to fly with five employees to Las Vegas and take pictures for Facebook.”
Morin: How many times have you been married?
Yuichi: Three times.
Morin: And the brides—they never see you again?
Yuichi: We never meet again.
Morin: Do the brides get emotional—having to marry a stranger?
Yuichi: The women usually don’t like showing emotion to me, but sometimes I feel emotional. Everyone on my side is a coworker, and they’re all celebrating me. So, there is a moment when it does seem very real.
Morin: Why do you think this kind of business thrives in Japan specifically?
Yuichi: The Japanese are not expressive people. There is a communication deficit. In conversation, we do not express ourselves, our opinions, our emotions. Others come first, before our own desires. The family size is diminishing too. Families used to be larger. Now, you eat alone.
Morin: What do you predict for the future of your business?
Yuichi: The demand is increasing. More people, for example, want help to appear popular on social media. We had one man recently who paid a huge sum just to fly with five employees to Las Vegas and take pictures for Facebook.
Morin: Have you or any of your employees hired other actors for your own lives?
Yuichi: It happens. For instance, some employees hire actors to praise them in the presence of people they want to impress. Personally, when I throw speaking seminars, I often bring extras to bolster the crowd.
Morin: Is everyone in the world replaceable?
Yuichi: That’s a very good question. I’m not sure. There was one case of a man in his 60s. His wife died, and he wanted to order another copy of her. We provided that.
Morin: And he called the new woman by his wife’s old name?
Yuichi: Yes, the same name, and he wanted her to call him what his wife had. She called him Otōsan—it means father. In Japan, it’s pretty common to say father, even if you’re the wife.
Morin: Did she have the same memories as the wife?
Yuichi: There are certain memories, yes. There’s a blank sheet, and the client writes the memories that he wants the wife to remember.
Morin: When your employees mimic a strong emotional connection like that—is it ever a problem that they become too emotionally attached to their clients?
Yuichi: Attachment is a problem. So, there are rules. They cannot share personal contact information. If it’s a boyfriend or girlfriend scenario, they cannot be alone in a room. They can hold hands, but they cannot hug. No kissing. No sex.
“I believe the term ‘real’ is misguided.”
Morin: What makes your company different from competitors?
Yuichi: We have a huge variation of employees and the dedication to create an experience that surpasses reality. That’s why our motto is “more than real.” We had a case recently where a dying man wanted to see his grandchild, but it would not have been born in time. His daughter was able to rent an infant for the day.
Morin: What does it mean to be “more than real”?
Yuichi: There are less concerns. There is less misunderstanding and conflict. Our clients can expect better results.
Morin: You’re offering a more perfect form of reality?
Yuichi: More ideal. More clean.
Morin: Are there any requests that you’ve rejected?
Yuichi: Unless it’s a crime, we will accept any request. Some people with anorexia, for example, want to see people who are willing to eat in front of them. They just find relief in watching a person who eats a lot. We will even do that.
Morin: What does the word “real” mean to you?
Yuichi: I believe the term “real” is misguided. Take Facebook, for example. Is that real? Even if the people in the pictures haven’t been paid, everything is curated to such an extent that it hardly matters.
Morin: Do you believe that the concept of “realness” has become invalid?
Yuichi: I believe that the world is always unfair, and my business exists because of that unfairness.
Morin: So, you are correcting injustice?
Yuichi: A woman with a boyfriend doesn’t need to hire a boyfriend. A man with a father doesn’t need to hire a father. It's about bringing balance to society.
Morin: Is it possible to avoid the truth forever?
Yuichi: The truth does have to come out eventually. The happiness is not endless, but that doesn’t mean that it’s without value. The child had a father when she needed him most. It might have been a brief period, and she might know the truth now, but she had a meaningful experience at that time.
Morin: In your own personal life, what do you want that you don't have?
Yuichi: There is nothing more that I want. I've met so many clients. I've played so many roles with them. By doing my job, their dreams come true. In that way, my dreams come true as well. I feel fulfilled, just being needed. |
China suspected of having a hand in Mugabe's fall | Zimbabwe's General Constantino Chiwenga's visit to Beijing on 10 November has led to suspicions that China had a hand in the military plot to try to oust President Mugabe from power. If that is the case, it marks the first known instance of a covert coup d'etat backed by the new world superpower. China has invested extensively in Zimbabwe's mining, energy, agriculture and construction sectors and is Zimbabwe's top trade partner. China has had political ties with the country since the 1970s when it armed Mugabe's pro-independence forces. | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/17/zimbabwe-was-mugabes-fall-a-result-of-china-flexing-its-muscle | 2017-11-17 09:20:55.987000 | A visit to Beijing last Friday by Zimbabwe’s military chief, General Constantino Chiwenga, has fuelled suspicions that China may have given the green light to this week’s army takeover in Harare.
If so, the world may just have witnessed the first example of a covert coup d’etat of the kind once favoured by the CIA and Britain’s MI6, but conceived and executed with the tacit support of the 21st century’s new global superpower.
Timeline Zimbabwe timeline: the week that led to Mugabe's detention Show 6 November 2017 Mugabe fires vice president Robert Mugabe fires his powerful vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, clearing the way for his wife, Grace, to succeed him as leader of Zimbabwe. Grace had accused 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief, of being the “root cause of factionalism” in the ruling Zanu-PF party. 8 November 2017 Mnangagwa defiant Mnangagwa reportedly flees to South Africa, but vows to return to Zimbabwe to lead party members. The party "is not personal property for you and your wife to do as you please," Mnangagwa tells Mugabe in an angry five-page statement. 13 November 2017 Army chief issues warning Zimbabwe’s army chief demands a halt to the purge in Zanu-PF, and warns that the military could intervene. “We must remind those behind the current treacherous shenanigans that when it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in,” General Constantino Chiwenga told a media conference attended by about 90 senior army officers. 14 November 2017 Army denies coup A convoy of tanks is seen moving on the outskirts of the Zimbabwean capital but the military denies a coup. In an overnight declaration on state television, they say Mugabe is safe and they are "only targeting criminals around him". 15 November 2017 Mugabe detained Military vehicles take control of the streets of Harare in the early hours. South Africa says Mugabe has told its president, Jacob Zuma, by telephone that he is under house arrest but is "fine". Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
China, Africa’s biggest foreign investor, has more at stake in Zimbabwe, and more political influence, than any other state. This is largely due to its extensive investments in the mining, agriculture, energy and construction sectors. China was Zimbabwe’s top trade partner in 2015, buying 28% of its exports. But the Chinese connection is about more than money.
The pre-independence guerrilla force led to victory by Robert Mugabe, the 93-year-old Zimbabwean president detained by the military on Tuesday night, was financed and armed by the Chinese in the 1970s. Close ties have continued to the present day.
When the US and EU imposed sanctions after Zimbabwe’s 2002 elections, China stepped in, investing in over 100 projects. Beijing also blocked UN security council moves to impose an arms embargo and restrictions on regime figures.
Xi Jinping, China’s president, visited Zimbabwe in December 2015 and has since promised a massive $5bn (£3.8bn) in additional direct aid and investment. He described China as Zimbabwe’s “all-weather friend”.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, shakes hands with his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, in Harare in 2015. Photograph: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
Xi’s personal support extended to providing $46m towards building a new parliament in Harare. The Mugabe family is reported to have savings and property assets squirrelled away in Hong Kong, a favourite shopping destination for Mugabe’s wife, Grace.
Aware of criticism from Mugabe’s opponents that Beijing is propping up a despotic regime, China has used soft power tools to win over public opinion. This included a $100m medical loan facility in 2011 and the construction of a new hospital in rural Zimbabwe. In 2015, state-owned Power Construction Corporation of China signed a $1.2bn deal to expand Zimbabwe’s largest thermal power plant. Chinese investors have also bought into farms seized from their former white owners and given to Mugabe cronies who subsequently neglected them.
China’s big bet on Zimbabwe is not all staked on Mugabe and his faction in the ruling Zanu-PF party. Military-to-military cooperation has continued since independence in 1980. China financed and built Zimbabwe’s National Defence College and the People’s Liberation Army has helped train the Zimbabwean army.
Gen Chiwenga, the armed forces chief, has had regular contacts with Chinese counterparts, most recently with a military delegation that visited in December. China’s defence minister, Chang Wanquan, who met with Chiwenga in Beijing last Friday, visited Harare in 2015. Reports suggest Chiwenga’s backing was instrumental in this week’s military intervention.
The takeover came shortly after Mugabe backers accused him of acting treasonably in warning of negative consequences arising from Mugabe’s decision to sack the vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. China’s foreign ministry said Chiwenga’s meeting with Chang was a “normal military exchange”. But Beijing has not explicitly denied foreknowledge of the Harare coup. More significantly, perhaps, it has not condemned, or made any other comment, on Mugabe’s apparent removal from power.
Profile Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa? Show Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as president of Zimbabwe on 24 November, capping a dramatic few weeks that began when he was sacked as vice-president by Robert Mugabe on 6 November. Mnangagwa, a 75-year-old former intelligence chief, had been locked in a battle with the first lady, Grace Mugabe, to succeed her husband as president. His sacking – an attempt to clear Grace's path to power - was a tactical error that triggered a military takeover, Mugabe's impeachment by parliament, and his resignation. Mnangagwa has strong support within the security establishment and among veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s guerrilla war, when he earned the nickname “the crocodile”.
Despite allegations about his role in atrocities in the 1980s, much of the international community had long seen him as being the most likely figure in Zimbabwe to guarantee a stable transition and implement economic reforms. Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
Mnangagwa, widely believed to be behind the plot to oust Mugabe and his most likely successor as president, is another long-time friend and collaborator with the Chinese. A former freedom-fighter, he received ideological and military training in Beijing and Nanjing in the 1960s.
According to Professor Wang Xinsong, a specialist in international development at Beijing Normal University school of social development and public policy, China has been monitoring infighting within the Mugabe regime and the country’s faltering economy for some time – and carefully weighing its options.
Beijing was particularly alarmed by an “indigenisation” law effectively seizing majority control of foreign-owned businesses and companies, many of them Chinese. “China’s political and economic stake in Zimbabwe is high enough to demand a close watch on developments,” Wang wrote in a prescient commentary in December last year.
Wang predicted Beijing would stick with Zanu-PF rather than switch support to opposition groups – but would not tolerate political and economic instability indefinitely. “Letting G40 [the faction around Grace Mugabe] and Mnangagwa fight each other in a post-Mugabe scenario would be too risky. Rather, through negotiation and economic leverage, China may try to ensure a peaceful power transition while the ageing president is still active enough to make such an important decision.”
Whether this is what is happening now, as talks about a transition continued in Harare on Thursday, remains unclear. Much depends on whether Mugabe accepts forced retirement and gives his blessing to his successor, or tries to resist instead. But one thing is certain. Whichever path Zimbabwe chooses next, it will be heavily influenced by its “all-weather” friends in Beijing. |
Tesla unveils electric lorry and roadster | After a number of delays, Tesla has unveiled its first electric articulated lorry, challenging one of the last bastions of hydrocarbon fuel on the roads. The Tesla Semi will have a range of 500 miles on a single charge and will go into production in 2019. CEO Elon Musk also unexpectedly revealed a new Roadster, which he said would be "the fastest production car ever" made, with a range of almost 1,000 km (620 miles) and acceleration of 0-100 mph in 4.2 seconds. The new Roadster will be available from 2020. | https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-truck-revealed/ | 2017-11-17 08:47:11.977000 | Elon Musk has always dreamed big, and tonight he showed off his biggest reverie yet: the fully electric Tesla Semi. Powered by a massive battery and capable of hauling 80,000 pounds, it can ramble 500 miles between charges. It’ll even drive itself—on the highway, at least.1
And Musk promises production will start in 2019.
The big rig, which Musk unveiled at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California headquarters Thursday night, is just the latest step in his mission to make humanity forget about planet-killing fossil fuels and embrace the gospel of electric power.
That is, of course, if he can convince the trucking industry it’s time for a new way of moving stuff around—and if he can actually make the thing.
The Truck for the Job
Musk believes that going after the big boys is the best way to have a real impact on climate change. In the five years since Tesla started producing its Model S sedan, it has sold about 200,000 cars. The US has more than 250 million passenger cars on the road, making the impact of this, roughly, zero. Even if Tesla scales up production of its “affordable” Model 3 sedan, it will still be a very long time before the Silicon Valley automaker can change the way humanity moves about enough for any dip in emissions to register as more than a blip.
Trucks offer a more effective way to do that, because they are particularly toxic. “Heavy-duty vehicles make up a small fraction of the vehicles on the road, but a large fraction of their emissions,” says Jimmy O’Dea, who studies clean vehicles at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In California, that category (which includes buses as well as trucks) accounts for 7 percent of total vehicles, but produces 20 percent of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions and a third of all NOx emissions (those are the ones linked to asthma attacks and respiratory illnesses).
Every truck you move with electricity instead of diesel has an outsize effect on the health of the planet and everything living on it. Eighteen-wheelers are the ultimate force multiplier.
Musk has done the math. And while lots of players are moving into electric trucking space, none have the star power of Tesla, the kind of clout that makes the whole country pay attention.
Tesla
From the outside, the carbon fiber cab is all smooth lines. Aerodynamics are a real big deal when it comes to fuel economy and making every electron count, and Tesla promises the Semi will cut through the wind more efficiently than some sports cars.
Look inside the cab of the Semi, and there’s no doubt Tesla knows how to (re) design a vehicle. Like the famed McLaren F1 sports car (Musk owned one until he crashed it while driving around with Peter Thiel), the driver’s seat is now in the middle of the cab. (There’s a jump seat behind it, to the right.) Because it didn’t need to build around a bulky diesel engine, Tesla made the nose of the cab a vertical slab, and the main seat is so far forward, you can see the ground just in front of the vehicle. In a design touch that recognizes that truckers are human beings, there are overhead bins for storing stuff, and at least four cup holders. |
Chinese video game includes teachings of President Xi Jinping | A Chinese video game is now including the teachings of President Xi Jinping and slogans on socialist values. Players can take in his exhortations during on-screen shooting rampages in a recent update of the popular Wildness Action. Game maker NetEase has included red banners with slogans proclaiming China's "core socialist values" on everything from bridges to buildings and shipping containers. This marks a further example of the Communist Party's efforts to increase control over the tech sector and internet. | https://qz.com/1131079/chinese-copycats-of-video-game-playerunknowns-battlegrounds-pubg-adopted-xi-jinpings-core-socialist-values/?mc_cid=4b5c3e95c7&mc_eid=a37072368a | 2017-11-17 08:12:53.357000 | You’ve logged onto your favorite game, and you’re ready to shoot and kill your enemies. Before being parachuted into the battleground, you see a banner hanging over your head that reads: “Never forget why you started, and you can accomplish your mission.”
It’s Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s newest catchphrase, taken from his work report presented at a recently concluded Communist Party congress.
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Survival-shooter game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is the hottest videogame of the year, selling over 13 million copies globally, and Chinese companies are racing against one another to create their own copycats of it. Chief among them is a mobile version titled Wildness Action, which recently took the top spot in China’s iOS store.
In the latest update of the game, released by gaming company NetEase this week, red banners with slogans reflecting China’s “core socialist values” are emblazoned everywhere from buildings to bridges to containers. Another slogan, “Safeguard national security, safeguard world peace,” can also be seen in the game.
It’s a vivid example of the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to both expand and control the country’s tech sector and internet. As Xi noted in his work report, “East, west, north, or south, the Party leads everything.”
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NetEase added the slogans as part of its overhaul of the game’s narrative. Previously the game was about fighting to be the last survivor on a deserted island; now, it is presented as a military drill for soldiers who’ll be recruited for China’s peacekeeping operations. That said, the key elements of the play mode remain the same, and are still uncannily similar to that of PUBG.
The changes came after China’s media watchdogs took aim at PUBG and similar survival games, saying they are unlikely to get a license to officially launch in China because they contain too much blood and gore. The violent, competitive spirit behind such games is “against our country’s core socialist values… and bad for teenagers’ physical and mental health,” according to a notice from China’s official video copyright association in October.
In response, NetEase published a notice (link in Chinese) saying that the company would comply with official instructions to modify its own survival games, ensuring that they convey core socialist values.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi—which also operates a PUBG-esque mobile game titled Xiaomi Gunfight—released a statement this week (link in Chinese) saying that it would work with censors to modify the game. “Our main theme is to safeguard world peace and defend the motherland,” the company said.
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Xiaomi Gunfight didn’t include slogans with socialist values in the game, but also changed the story to depict a military drill. In the latest version, players who are shot in head don’t die; they simply get “eliminated” from the training.
NetEase and Xiaomi didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment. In response to the Chinese regulator’s October notice, Chang Han Kim, CEO of PUGB Corp, a subsidiary of PUGB’s South Korean developer, said: “We respect the decisions of all review boards, and we look forward to working with them to bring PUBG to as many fans as possible around the world.”
Chinese social-media and gaming giant Tencent is also launching its PUBG-like mobile game this month—Glorious Mission: Mission Action has already garnered more than 4 million pre-registrations on its official site. |
Silicon Valley beats Detroit in the autonomous cars patents race | Silicon Valley is filing far more patents relating to autonomous cars than traditional auto makers are, according to consultancy firm LEK. Alphabet division Waymo has filed more than 2,118 patents since 2007, against General Motors' 1,160 and Ford's 944. Two broad strategies have emerged among companies in the sector. Ford, GM and Tesla are taking an iPhone-type approach whereby one company makes all the hardware and software for a self-driving car. In contrast, Waymo and Apple are following an Android-type strategy by developing an operating system that can be installed on a variety of manufacturers' vehicles.
| https://qz.com/1129708/the-clearest-sign-yet-that-silicon-valley-is-way-ahead-of-detroit-in-the-self-driving-car-race/?mc_cid=4b5c3e95c7&mc_eid=a37072368a | 2017-11-17 07:50:41.477000 | The autonomous car race is heating up. After years in which auto innovation meant mostly new exterior trim, companies are vying to transform the nature of the vehicle itself. It’s not just parts manufacturers and automakers (although at least 64 have set up shop in Silicon Valley). It’s tech giants like Alphabet, Apple, and Uber.
The prize is a massive share of an evolving multi-trillion dollar market for mobility, much of it autonomous, electric and shared. To gauge this competition, patents are one of the easier things to track. Consulting firm L.E.K. examined US Patent and Trademark Office data on filings for autonomous vehicle technology. It has catalogued an enormous spike in the number of patents filed by major carmakers for autonomous technology since 2007. The majority are for Lidar (laser sensors), image processing, computer vision, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and advanced driver-assistance systems.
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The attention, L.E.K. argues (pdf), is the result of two competing strategies to develop self-driving vehicles. One is the “iPhone” strategy: vertical integration of the entire ecosystem. Apple manufactures (or tightly controls) every dimension of the physical product and the software that runs on the iPhone. The alternate strategy is Google’s “Android” model, which promotes a ubiquitous, open-source operating system that manufacturers can install on any product.
Both have merits, and it’s not apparent which, if either, will dominate. Ford, GM, and Tesla are going the Apple route by choosing to make and tightly integrate the entire product. Alphabet’s Waymo and (ironically) Apple are taking the Android path by investing primarily in the operating systems and datasets for autonomous vehicles, according to L.E.K., citing Waymo’s, decision to scrap its own custom vehicles last year (it has partnered with Fiat-Chrysler), Tim Cook’s overhaul of Apple’s Project Titan (paywall) away from an Apple-branded autonomous vehicle, and Baidu’s choice to open-source its self-driving software platform.
But there’s one problem, says L.E.K. “In smartphones and PCs, there was only room for one successful integrated player: Apple. In autonomous vehicles, there are a number of players vying to be the dominant alternative to the Android model. Not all can succeed.”
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The lead, at least in terms of patents, clearly belongs to a tech company. Waymo has filed at least 2,118 patents since 2007, compared to about half that for its nearest rivals, GM and Ford. Automakers accustomed to more genteel, incremental innovation over decades, rather than the breakneck pace of digital technology, may find it hard to adapt.
Of course, patents don’t necessarily ensure innovation, says Rob Haslehurst, managing director at L.E.K. by email. They are a strong indication of interest in a technology amid a brewing battle of big companies defending their market territory. Those that fail to invest run the risk of losing out completely.
But some companies are skipping traditional patent protections for speed and agility. Take electric vehicle (EV) technology. Nearly 800 patents for EV charging were filed between 2014 and 2017, many of them by Qualcomm, Hyundai, Ford, and Mitsubishi, reports Netscribes. Tesla has open-sourced all its electric vehicle patents in 2014 to focus on what it calls its competitive advantage from hiring the best people that can improve its processes and operations. “Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers,” wrote Musk on the company’s website in 2014. |
Keystone pipeline spills 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota | The Keystone pipeline has spilled 210,000 gallons of oil (5,000 barrels) in South Dakota, the largest spill in the area, according to TransCanada, the company that operates the pipeline. This comes just days before a decision over whether the proposed Keystone XL pipeline can proceed. It is unknown yet whether the spill is affecting rivers, water systems or wildlife. The pipeline runs more than 2,600 miles from Canada to Texas. | http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/16/us/keystone-pipeline-leak/index.html | 2017-11-17 07:42:34.863000 | Story highlights Nebraska officials will announce decision on Keystone XL Pipeline TransCanada says there are no threats to public safety
CNN —
A total of 210,000 gallons of oil leaked Thursday from the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota, the pipeline’s operator, TransCanada, said.
Crews shut down the pipeline Thursday morning, and officials are investigating the cause of the leak, which occurred about three miles southeast of the town of Amherst, said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
This is the largest Keystone oil spill to date in South Dakota, Walsh said. The leak comes just days before Nebraska officials announce a decision on whether the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, a sister project, can move forward.
In April 2016, there was a 400-barrel release – or 16,800 gallons – with the majority of the oil cleanup completed in two months, Walsh said. About 5,000 barrels of oil spilled Thursday.
“It is a below-ground pipeline, but some oil has surfaced above ground to the grass,” Walsh said. “It will be a few days until they can excavate and get in borings to see if there is groundwater contamination.”
There were no initial reports of the oil spill affecting waterways, water systems or wildlife, he said.
The pipeline was shut down “within minutes” of the company discovering an irregularity, TransCanada said Friday. The spill has been controlled, the company said, with no further environmental impacts observed and no threat to public safety.
TransCanada said it was working with state and federal agencies.
Image of Amherst incident taken earlier today by aerial patrol as part of our initial response. For more updates, visit https://t.co/8yWI1Oq2EM pic.twitter.com/uRNtYUdVjL — TC Energy (@TCEnergy) November 16, 2017
“The safety of the public and environment are our top priorities and we will continue to provide updates as they become available,” the company said.
The Environmental Protection Agency is monitoring the situation and will provide resources and assistance if needed, a spokesman said.
“EPA is aware of the spill and is receiving periodic updates from the state of South Dakota, which is overseeing response activity at the spill site,” he said.
Concerns about the spill
The Keystone Pipeline system stretches more than 2,600 miles, from Hardisty, Alberta, east into Manitoba and then south to Texas, according to TransCanada. The pipeline transports crude oil from Canada.
The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would stretch from Hardisty to Steele City, Nebraska, would complete the proposed system by cutting through Montana and South Dakota.
The sections of pipeline affected stretch from Hardisty to Cushing, Oklahoma, and to Wood River, Illinois, the company said.
The spill occurred in the same county as part of the Lake Traverse Reservation. The leak location is not on Sioux property, but it is adjacent to it and has historical value, said Dave Flute, tribal chairman for Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe.
“We want to know how long is it going to take to dig this plume of contaminated soil and how can we be reassured, without a doubt, that it has not and will not seep into the aquifer,” he said.
Flute, along with the tribal emergency management director and the manager of the tribal office of environmental protection, arrived Friday morning at the staging area of the leak site to meet with representatives from TransCanada. Flute said he was out there to offer assistance and to understand the cause of the leak and the environmental impacts it might pose.
“We want to find out, was there a crack in the pipe? We don’t know. We want to get that information,” Flute said. “More importantly, and to stay positive, they did clean up the site, they did contain it.”
Environmental activist group Greenpeace said the spill shows the new pipeline in Nebraska should not be approved.
“The Nebraska Public Service Commission needs to take a close look at this spill,” said Rachel Rye Butler of Greenpeace. “A permit approval allowing Canadian oil company TransCanada to build Keystone XL is a thumbs-up to likely spills in the future.”
New Keystone XL
In March, President Donald Trump’s administration officially issued a permit that approved construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The approval followed years of intense debate over the pipeline amid hefty opposition from environmental groups, who argued the pipeline supports the extraction of crude oil from oil sands, which pumps about 17% more greenhouse gases than standard crude oil extraction. Environmentalists also opposed the pipeline because it would cut across the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world’s largest underground deposits of fresh water.
Tar sands oil is much thicker and stickier than traditional oil, significantly complicating cleanup efforts. The fact it’s thicker also means it needs to be combined with other hazardous materials to allow it to be transported in pipelines.
Native American groups have argued the pipeline would cut across their sovereign lands.
Trump said the new pipeline will be a big win for American workers, but critics say it won’t be, because most of the jobs would be temporary.
Dakota Access Pipeline
TransCanada said Thursday that the section of the Keystone Pipeline that was leaking was isolated within 15 minutes after a drop in pressure was detected.
According to the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ website, this is the third pipeline spill in the state this year. Another came in April when about 84 gallons of crude oil leaked from the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in Spink County.
That pipeline, which runs through both Dakotas and two other states, drew fierce resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota, the tribe’s allies and environmentalists.
Opposition to the pipeline sparked monthslong protests, with as many as 10,000 people participating during the peak of the demonstrations. Clashes with police at the protests turned violent at times, with one woman nearly losing her arm after an explosion last November. |
Pop-up stores to feature in shopping centres | The largest mall operator in the US, the Simon Property Group, is set to unveil a permanent "pop-up shop" platform in one of its Long Island properties for smaller retailers. The platform, called "The Edit@Roosevelt Field", will initially feature brands such as Vitaly, Raden Smart Luggage and Uprise Art. Simon partnered with Appear Here, which has already worked with some of the biggest retail landlords in the UK and recently raised $12 million in a series B funding round, to make the platform a reality.
| https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/16/pop-up-shops-find-a-permanent-home-at-the-mall.html | 2017-11-16 17:52:03.347000 | Imagine a permanent house for pop-up shops.
That's what Simon Property Group , the largest mall operator in the U.S., is preparing to unveil next month at one of its properties on Long Island, New York.
The platform, known as "The Edit@Roosevelt Field," offers retailers early on in their businesses the opportunity to set up shop, typically on a quarterly basis, in spaces that span 20 to 200 square feet. All spaces will be enclosed in a dedicated portion of the mall.
"We needed to create a new product category to allow brands to come earlier on in their life cycle to physical retail," Zach Beloff, national director of business development at Simon, told CNBC. "Brands are looking for the ability to scale, and to scale quickly, and Simon is looking for ways to partner with brands to facilitate that ability to scale."
At Roosevelt Field, some of the first brands to be featured via Simon will include Raden Smart Luggage, menswear brand Vitaly, athletic apparel retailer Rhone, beauty brand Winky Lux, dessert company JARS by Dani, and contemporary art gallery Uprise Art.
In bringing the idea to fruition, Simon also partnered with Appear Here, a global marketplace for helping tenants find short-term retail space.
Just earlier this year, Appear Here announced it had raised $12 million in Series B funding — a round led by Octopus Ventures and including participation from Simon Venture Group.
"We see Simon on the forefront of this space, building a community and experiences," said Elizabeth Layne, Appear Here's chief marketing officer. "Malls present a really interesting opportunity, with a high density of people."
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Fifth Wall Ventures, which is backed by big real estate names such as CBRE Group and Macerich , has made a "significant" investment in Appear Here, according to Brendan Wallace, Fifth Wall's managing partner.
Appear Here has already successfully worked with some of the biggest retail landlords in the United Kingdom, only just tapping into the New York market earlier this year. One of the company's key initiatives is to make it as easy as possible for incoming tenants to sign short-term leases, using a credit card online and without a broker.
More than 100,000 brands, including Coca-Cola , Spotify, Kanye West and Moleskine, have used Appear Here to find real estate.
Simon has made a significant investment in the Edit platform — something that's been under development for years, Beloff said. Shoppers visiting The Edit are expected to boost the entire mall "ecosystem" and drive sales to other stores, he added.
In an unorthodox way, the pop-up concept is beginning to find permanent homes and not only at Simon's malls.
Washington Prime Group , another U.S. mall landlord, is finalizing plans to launch a marketplace called Tangible.
"We take six to eight e-commerce purveyors, some may never want a permanent space, or it may just be a beta test for the next Lululemon ," WPG Chief Executive Lou Conforti told CNBC.
Every 45 to 60 days, he said, those retailers will rotate throughout the Tangible marketplace at a WPG property.
"In an interesting way, this is why TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack and Saks Off Fifth generally do quite well," Conforti said. "There's a treasure hunt aspect."
As many of America's biggest department store anchors struggle to grow sales, modular spaces with rotating up-and-coming retailers offer one solution to fill the gaps. With Appear Here now growing rapidly in the U.S., the future of retail looks to include more pop-ups. |
Full-page ad in WSJ warns about dangers of bitcoin short selling | The chairman of Interactive Brokers LLC, Thomas Petterffy, has issued a warning about the market destabilisation potential of bitcoin in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, in particular, pointing to the difficulty of "determining the margin requirement" for short sellers. Petterffy wrote: "Unless the risk of clearing cryptocurrency is isolated and segregated from other products, a catastrophe in the cryptocurrency market that destabilizes a clearing organization will destabilize the real economy." Peterffy advocates isolating bitcoin clearing or trading in an exchange that clears only cryptocurrency transactions to mitigate possible systemic risk. | https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-pioneer-takes-out-ad-in-wsj-to-warn-of-bitcoin-trading-perils-2017-11-15 | 2017-11-16 17:31:41.297000 | Thomas Peterffy, one of the world’s most successful derivatives traders, reiterated concerns Wednesday that bitcoin could lead to a financial crisis.
In an ad in the Wall Street Journal’s Nov. 15 issue, the Hungarian-born entrepreneur, who is the chairman of Interactive Brokers LLC, outlined his worries about an impending plan to launch a futures exchange tied to bitcoin in the coming weeks. The advertisement was an enlarged version of Peterffy’s open letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo dated Nov. 14, and took up a full page in the WSJ’s print edition.
“Margining such a product in a reasonable manner is impossible,” Peterffy’s letter reads, referring to the use of leverage to augment returns in an investment. “While the buyer (the long side) of a cryptocurrency futures contract or a call option could be required to put up 100% of the value to ensure safety, determining the margin requirement for the seller (the short seller) is impossible,” he wrote.
Peterffy fears that exchanges will offer low margins to entice buyers to do business on their platforms, but the wild trading swings that bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.27% is known for could imperil both the trading platform and the investor who is shorting, or betting that they can profit from borrowing an asset whose value is expected to decrease in value.
So-called short sellers hope to return assets borrowed on margin, or on loan, at a lower value and then pocket the difference between where it was borrowed and its new price. However, the prospective losses in such a scenario, if an asset suddenly skyrockets, can be limitless and brutal.
And that is the deepest worry for the trader.
The CME Group CME, -3.44% kicked off a product to reference bitcoin prices a year ago, and announced a plan to launch futures contracts pegged to bitcoin as early as the second week of December, according to CME CEO Terry Duffy in an interview on CNBC on Monday.
Duffy said CME may institute trading halts at 20% swings in the value of bitcoin to smooth out some of its volatility. Peterffy, however, argues that that might not be sufficient to protect against severe moves within, which aren’t infrequent occurrences in bitcoin trade.
In an interview with Barron’s, Peterffy expressed similar misgivings. “The weaker clearing members charge the least. They don’t have much money to lose anyway. For this reason, most bitcoin interest will accumulate on the books of weaker clearing members who will all fail in a large move,” Peterffy said.
Peterffy advocates for isolating bitcoin clearing or trading in an exchange that only clears cryptocurrency transactions to mitigate possible systemic risk.
“Unless the risk of clearing cryptocurrency is isolated and segregated from other products, a catastrophe in the cryptocurrency market that destabilizes a clearing organization will destabilize the real economy, a critical equity index and commodity markets cleared in the same clearing organization become infected,” Peterffy wrote in the open letter Wednesday.
Bitcoin was up 9% late Wednesday in New York at around $7,220, while bitcoin rival ether tokens, trading on the Ethereum blockchain, were down about 2% at $331. Both assets have seen stratospheric moves in 2017. Bitcoin is up about 650% year to date, while ether tokens are up more than 4,000% so far this year. |
Wall Street Blockchain Alliance adds KPMG as member-director | Financial services non-profit trade association Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA) has added KPMG as a member and director. Eamonn Maguire, global leader for KPMG’s digital ledger services said: "Blockchain is maturing toward the production phase and it is clear that it has the potential to dramatically impact financial services."
| https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/71599/kpmg-joins-wall-street-blockchain-alliance | 2017-11-16 17:12:30.753000 | Source: Wall Street Blockchain Alliance
The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA), an industry leading non-profit trade association, is proud to announce that KPMG LLP has joined as a corporate member.
Along with this membership, KPMG will also assume a seat on the board of directors.
“Blockchain is maturing toward the production phase and it is clear that it has the potential to dramatically impact financial services by improving outcomes critical to the industry such as cost of operations, capital consumption, customer experience and in some cases new business models and revenues,” said Eamonn Maguire, global leader for KPMG’s Digital Ledger Services.
“We are thrilled to be joining the WSBA and to have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the leading blockchain experts in the industry.” Ron Quaranta, Chairman of the WSBA states: “We are truly grateful to have KPMG join the WSBA family as a corporate member. As one of the world’s leading professional services companies, KPMG sits at the cutting edge of blockchain innovation across multiple segments of the global economy. We look forward to collaborating with them, as our global members and indeed the world, begin to implement blockchain innovations across financial markets and beyond.” |
Fault in Amazon Key's camera allows couriers to re-enter houses | Security researchers have identified a weakness in Amazon's new "Key" service that allows a third party to disable the camera from any computer within Wi-Fi range, potentially allowing rogue couriers to break into customers’ homes. An Amazon spokesperson said: "we currently notify customers if the camera is offline for an extended period. Later this week we will deploy an update to more quickly provide notifications if the camera goes offline during delivery. The service will not unlock the door if the Wi-Fi is disabled and the camera is not online”.
| https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/16/16665064/amazon-key-camera-disable | 2017-11-16 17:09:00.750000 | Last month, the world was introduced to Amazon Key, a new service from the online shopping juggernaut that allows couriers to unlock your front door to deliver packages. One of the main concerns of the service is the central question of whether Prime customers trust Amazon enough to let the company monitor their homes and determine when it’s okay to unlock the door for someone who is, essentially, a stranger. The service relies on Cloud Cam and a compatible smart lock, and only grants permission for a courier to enter after they scan a barcode, which is checked against information in the cloud. A camera also monitors and records the drop-off so customers can check that nothing suspect happened.
Now security researchers have found that the camera can be disabled and frozen from a program run from any computer within Wi-Fi range, reports Wired. That means a customer watching a delivery will only see a closed door, even if someone opens the door and goes inside — a vulnerability that may allow rogue couriers to rob customers’ homes.
once the disabling program is run, the app shows the door remaining closed
"The camera is very much something Amazon is relying on in pitching the security of this as a safe solution," Ben Caudill, the founder of Rhino Security Labs told Wired. Researchers from the security firm uncovered the Amazon Key attack and replicated it. "Disabling that camera on command is a pretty powerful capability when you’re talking about environments where you’re relying heavily on that being a critical safety mechanism.”
The video demonstration of the attack shows a man dropping off a parcel inside a house. The Amazon Key app shows the delivery goes as normal and indicates the door is locked as the courier leaves. But once the disabling program is run, and the courier reenters the apartment, the app just shows the door remaining closed.
The demonstration is a proof-of-concept and a deauthorization technique. If the camera is turned off, even manually by the user, you do get a push notification a few minutes later saying it’s offline. Someone wanting to break into a home could follow an Amazon courier and wait for them to make a delivery. They could trigger a deauthorization command as the courier is leaving and cause Amazon Key to go offline, which would stop the door from locking.
But Amazon does have a process in place that’s meant to avoid these scenarios from happening; the courier has to unlock the door, leave, then manually relock, and the customer will get a notification when they do so. If a courier left and the door was not quickly locked again, the customer would know something is off, although an attack like this would prevent them from seeing exactly what happened. The courier also can’t move on to their next delivery, according to Amazon’s procedures, until the door has been locked and that step has been confirmed the cloud.
UPDATE November 16th, 12:41pm ET: A spokesperson from Amazon says: “Safety and security are built into every aspect of the service. Every delivery driver passes a comprehensive background check that is verified by Amazon before they can make in-home deliveries, every delivery is connected to a specific driver, and before we unlock the door for a delivery, Amazon verifies that the correct driver is at the right address, at the intended time. We currently notify customers if the camera is offline for an extended period. Later this week we will deploy an update to more quickly provide notifications if the camera goes offline during delivery. The service will not unlock the door if the Wi-Fi is disabled and the camera is not online.” |
Vertical farms could be next step for Amazon after Whole Foods | Amazon may be looking at taking over vertical farming start-ups, following its acquisition of US grocery brand Whole Foods. Start-ups including Bowery, AeroFarms and Plenty offer year-round crop production in environments that require 95% less water than traditional farms and experience few weather-related problems. Owning the farms that produced the groceries it sold in Whole Foods could provide Amazon with new efficiencies, especially if coupled with its extensive supply chain capabilities.
| https://planetsave.com/2017/11/13/amazon-and-the-future-of-food/ | 2017-11-16 17:06:54.677000 | A few months ago, Amazon (AMZN) bought Whole Foods at a whopping $13.4 billion, with a promise to bring cheap, organic, nutritious, low carbon*, and pesticide-free food to the masses. Soon after the acquisition, Whole Foods cut prices by as much as 43%, bringing prices of organic food at or below non-organic food.
Currently, Amazon is well established in 13 countries. With this new acquisition, Amazon gained access to 460 Whole Foods stores scattered across the US, Britain, and Canada. A plan to extend further to be within 30 to 60 minutes away from as many people as possible is underway according to Mikey Vu, a partner at the consultancy Bain & Company who is focused on retail, as quoted by the New York Times.
What’s next for Amazon? Well, acquisition of vertical farm startups, drone delivery, and more. Let me explain.
It is no secret that Amazon got the logistics of warehouses and distribution down to a science, and I would argue that, after the Whole Foods acquisition, a natural next step for Amazon in order to have a complete ecosystem of organic food production, distribution, and sales would be to acquire local and/or international vertical farm startups, which are popping up all over the world at an ever-increasing rate.
Vertical farm startups like Plenty, AeroFarms, and Bowery recently received between $20 million to $200 million in investments from venture capitalists, including Jeff Bezos — more proof that vertical farming is on Bezos’ radar.
For those who are not familiar with vertical farming, here are some advantages:
Consumes 95% less water that traditional farming methods, by some estimates
Eliminates the need for pesticides
Year-round crop production
Eliminates agricultural runoff
High yield/acre
Reduces use of fossil fuels from farm machinery and transport of food
No weather-related crop failures
Creates new urban employment opportunities
Reduces the risk of infection from agents transmitted at the agricultural interface
Returns farmland to nature, helping to restore ecosystem functions and services
As to why Amazon would venture into vertical farming? First, as mentioned above, to close the cycle and have a complete ecosystem. Moreover, vertical farming is high tech and involves storage and logistics, which fits well with Amazon’s top-notch expertise in these domains.
Soon, you will be able to order a fresh salad, or any organic food, from your phone on Amazon, perhaps even automatically schedule delivery every day at a desired time and have it delivered by a drone or small robot directly to your door within 30 minutes. What an exciting time to be alive!
What are your thoughts on vertical farming and the future of food?
*Low carbon: Vertical farming is quite energy intensive. However, assuming that energy is coming from a renewable source, it will be low carbon.
Core reference: Vertical Farm |
IOT-automated cricket farms will help solve world hunger: Cisco | Cisco CEO John Chambers has expressed hope that a combination of automation, the internet of things (IoT) and cricket farming will help to solve future world hunger. Speaking at the Techonomy conference, Chambers outlined his own investment in the Aspire Food Group, which claims to run the world's first automated cricket farm. “The primary source of protein you'll be having within 20 years will be insects,” he said. Chambers argues that IoT, robotic farming and cloud data capability are all key to growing insect farming “faster and safer than we have done before”.
| https://mytechdecisions.com/compliance/according-cisco-ec-insects-internet-things-will-solve-world-hunger/ | 2017-11-16 17:01:43.033000 | As the world population rises alongside mortality rates, we’ve reached a point where there are more humans alive on Earth at one time than ever before. Unfortunately, resources have remained relatively constant, meaning more people are vying for the same basic needs. Clean water, energy, medicine… and, of course, food.
There are plenty of companies that are trying to combat world hunger in various ways. Many investors are excited about the opportunity to grow meat in labs rather than taking it from cattle. Vertical farming could allow for us to grow far more crops with less resources, taking up less space. Organizations from The Hunger Project to Action Against Hunger and more are working on ways to combat starvation.
John Chambers, Executive Chairman of Cisco, has a different idea for how we will solve world hunger. Insects and the Internet of Things. According to a report from The Register:
As such [Chambers] has invested in the Aspire Food Group, based in Texas, which claims to run the world’s first automated cricket farm. He said: “The primary source of protein you will be having within your life, definitely within 20 years and maybe within 15, will be insects,” adding, “they’re the cleanest form you can produce at least challenge to the environment.” He reckons the tasty morsels will be consumed by everyone, and will be served in high end restaurants as will be used to solve world hunger. But wait, there is also a tech angle. Chambers believes that the move to transition to an orthopteran diet is tied up in the Internet of Things, robotic farming, and capturing the cloud data capability “to grow this faster and safer than we have done before.”
That’s quite the future to wrap your head around. While insects have been a source of protein for humans for thousands of years, as of late the practice has fallen off. Especially in Western societies, if it crawls we don’t eat it.
The Internet of Things, in my mind, has a much stronger case for solving world hunger. Here I can get behind Chambers. Robotic farmers can automate the process of growing crops (or meats) at a larger scale than local farmers. That isn’t to say local farmers should be cut out – we’ll need their centuries of insight passed down from generation to generation if we’re ever going to curtail hunger globally. But for the hard, long, necessary work inherent in farming, robots will be able to aide these farmers at a cheaper price while producing more yield.
Not to mention sensors. Internet of Things devices will be able to measure soil, water, and the amount of sunlight we use to grow crops in real time. If a problem arises, we’ll be alerted immediately. We can distribute the exact amount of nutrients at the precise time to generate the best return, and measure plants on a minute-by-minute basis to ensure they are receiving what they need.
I’m not sure if insects will be the future of fine cuisine. You’ll need a hell of a marketing department to convince Americans to munch on a thorax for lunch instead of a burger and fries. But whether it’s insects, crops, or lab-grown meat, Internet of Things has huge potential for the future of farming and food.
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'Nation' of Asgardia launched into space, elections to be held | A milk-carton sized "satellite nation", with over 300,000 "citizens", has been launched into space. The main privilege of citizenship in "The Space Kingdom of Asgardia" is currently the right to upload data to the satellite, called Asgardia-1, for safekeeping in orbit. However, the long-term vision for Asgardia includes human settlements in space, on the moon and perhaps even more distant colonies. For now, Asgardia's statehood is not officially recognised by the UN, since it's impossible for a human to physically live in Asgardia.
| https://www.cnet.com/news/asgardia-1-space-kingdom-nasa-orbital-atk-launch-nation/ | 2017-11-16 16:43:55.073000 | An odd but intriguing experiment in technology, diplomacy, governance and space exploration, among other things, has officially begun its journey.
After being delayed one day, an Orbital ATK Antares rocket carrying a cubesat named Asgardia-1 launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia early Sunday. The milk carton-sized satellite makes up the entirety of territory of the self-proclaimed "Space Kingdom" of Asgardia.
"Asgardia space kingdom has now established its sovereign territory in space," read an online statement.
Over 300,000 people signed up online to become "citizens" of the nation over the last year. The main privilege of citizenship so far involves the right to upload data to Asgardia-1 for safekeeping in orbit, seemingly far away from the pesky governments and laws of Earth-bound countries.
But if you really dig down into Asgardia's terms and conditions, you'll find that those privileges are still subject to earthly copyright laws -- they're set up under the laws of Austria.
As of now, Asgardia's statehood isn't acknowledged by any other actual countries or the United Nations, and it doesn't really even fit the definition of a nation since it's not possible for a human to physically live in Asgardia.
Not yet, at least. The long-term vision for Asgardia includes human settlements in space, on the moon and perhaps even more distant colonies.
For now, though, Asgardia is a tiny satellite inside a Cygnus spacecraft set to dock with the International Space Station Tuesday morning. There, Asgardia-1 will patiently wait while Orbital ATK completes its primary mission to resupply the ISS.
After about a month, the Cygnus will detach and climb to a higher altitude where the nation-in-a-box will be deployed into orbit.
We'll see if the activation of Asgardia-1 heralds the beginning of a new era of extra-planetary citizenship, or if it slowly fades into obscurity with each trip around our planet and its nearly 200 more conventional nations.
Crowd Control: A crowdsourced science fiction novel written by CNET readers.
Solving for XX: The tech industry seeks to overcome outdated ideas about "women in tech." |
NBC to live-stream daily Winter Olympics events for first time | US broadcaster NBC will live-stream more than 1,800 hours of next year's Winter Olympics through its sports app, providing daily feeds for the first time at any winter games. All events and medal competitions across the 15 disciplines will be covered at the Pyeongchang, South Korea, games in February. That builds on the 1,000 hours net-cast from the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. NBC Sports said Olympics online audience figures are growing. At the Rio 2016 summer games NBC live-streamed 4,500 hours and notched up an average 100 million unique views, up 28% on London 2012.
| https://digiday.com/media/nbc-sports-winter-olympics-streaming/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=daily&utm_content=171116 | 2017-11-16 16:39:41.390000 | NBC Sports plans to livestream more than 1,800 hours of Winter Olympics coverage in February from Pyeongchang, South Korea — the most NBC Sports has ever done for the Winter Olympics.
The 1,800 hours will include all competitions across 15 sports and 102 medal events. During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, NBC Sports aired 1,000 hours worth of livestreams. Two years ago during the Summer Olympics, NBC Sports livestreamed 4,500 hours from Rio — but the Summer Games are bigger, encompassing more than 35 sports.
For the first time at the Winter Olympics, NBC’s broadcast feed will be live streamed every day. This will be the second time after the Rio Olympics that the NBC broadcast network feed will be included among the livestreams and simulcasts. NBC’s total coverage spans five networks, including NBC, NBCSN, USA, CNBC and the Olympic Channel.
“In this day and age, all content should be available to consumers across the board,” said Rick Cordella, evp and gm of digital media for NBC Sports Group. “The media landscape is shifting, and people are comfortable consuming on all these different devices — we’re now going to be on connected TV devices, whereas in the past we were not [for the Winter Olympics].”
Users will need to verify their cable, satellite or other pay-TV subscriptions to watch most of the livestreams. That said, NBC Sports offers a temporary free-viewing window, where users visiting an NBC Sports digital platform for the first time will be able to stream coverage for up to 30 minutes before having to sign in with their credentials. On later visits, these same users will be able to access an unauthenticated livestream for five minutes before they are required to log in.
“We stream more than 20,000 hours of content every year on the NBC Sports app, and it’s all authenticated, so this is nothing out of the ordinary,” said Cordella. “Now, in 2018, if you stream TV on the internet, you know what TV Everywhere is; you know what your credentials are.”
In 2014, NBCUniversal agreed to pay nearly $7.8 billion for the exclusive U.S. broadcast and digital rights to the Summer and Winter Olympics from 2022 through 2032.
Even at that price, the Olympics remain a profitable venture for NBCU, with the Rio Olympics bringing in more than $1.2 billion in ad sales, according to NBC Sports execs at the time. (About 10 percent of the company’s Olympics ad sales were for streamed content, and the company expects that number to grow.) This came despite the Rio Olympics bringing in a smaller linear TV audience, with the average prime-time audience dropping 18 percent to 24.9 million viewers when compared to the 2012 London Games.
NBC Sports said the total audience for the Olympics continues to grow, with the Rio Games averaging 100 million unique viewers, up 28 percent from 2012, and viewers streaming a total 3.5 billion minutes during the Games.
Connected TVs were a huge part of consumption during Rio, accounting for 40 percent of streaming that occurred during prime time, according to NBCU. It’s why Pyeongchang will also be the first Winter Olympics — and the second Olympics overall — to let users watch live coverage on connected TV devices.
NBC Sports is confident that the Pyeongchang Games will exceed total viewership for the 2014 Sochi Games, Cordella said. “We are bullish on what we think can happen based on what we saw in Rio,” he said.
All of NBC Sports’ Olympics coverage will be available on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. In addition to the live competitions, NBC Sports will offer a library of on-demand clips, including highlights, news recaps, athlete profiles and other features, along with full-event replays. About 300 employees will be involved in NBC Sports’ digital coverage plans.
NBC Sports will also produce three digital shows and a social video series as part of its coverage. “Gold Zone” will offer a daily two-hour recap of the day’s competitions, “Olympic Ice” will review all of the figure skating news and highlights of the day, and “Off the Post” will be a live hockey studio show airing after each day’s final game. The social video series “Ever Wonder?” will explore interesting aspects of the Winter Games sports.
Previously, NBC Sports announced a partnership with BuzzFeed to again produce a limited-run daily Snapchat Discover channel, which will focus on the stories beyond the competitions.
Livestreaming coverage will begin Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern time and will run through the following 19 days. |
UK ocean litter more than doubled in 2016 | An average of 358 litter items were found per sq km of seabed around the UK in 2016, a 158% rise on the previous year, according to the data published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Almost 78% of the litter was plastic, 6.3% rubber and 2.7% metal. The amount of seabed litter has been in decline since peaking at 1,300 items per sq km in 2003, and this year's rise - the first in three years - may have been a result of weather changes. A 25-year plan to protect the UK environment was scheduled to be published in the summer of 2016, but has repeatedly been delayed.
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/03/dramatic-rise-in-plastic-seabed-litter-around-uk | 2017-11-16 16:16:52.220000 | There has been a dramatic rise in the amount of litter found on the seabed around Britain, according to new government data.
An average of 358 litter items were found per square kilometre of seabed in 2016, a 158% rise on the previous year, and 222% higher than the average for 1992-94.
Almost 78% of the litter is plastic, 6.3% rubber and 2.7% metal, according to the data published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
The amount of seabed litter has fluctuated over the years, but has been in long-term decline since a peak of 1,300 items per square kilometre in 2003. Statisticians link the fluctuations to weather changes, but the rise in 2016 was the first after three years of reductions.
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem spokesman on the environment, said: “It is particularly worrying to see such a sharp rise in plastic litter polluting our seas. Unless we take action, in a few years Blue Planet will have to be renamed Plastic Planet.
“The government needs to get its act together and take urgent action to clean up our seas and countryside. The long promised 25-year plan to protect our environment needs to be published now, not simply kicked into the long grass.”
The publication of Defra’s 25-year plan was originally scheduled for the summer of 2016 but has repeatedly been delayed.
Hugo Tagholm, the chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, said the increase in seabed plastic reflected what tens of thousands of volunteers were finding along the UK coastline.
“They are seeing more and more plastic in the tideline, particularly single-use plastic, which has grown exponentially in the last two decades,” he said.
Tagholm called for taxes and policy changes to increase recycling and reduce business and supermarket use of single-use plastics. He said Defra’s current consultation on deposit-return systems for plastic bottles was crucial.
“The upstream thinking is what’s vital to protect the seabed, the water column and our beaches,” he said. “Without weaning the public off their plastic addiction we’re not going to stop this increase. We really are at a crisis point, but unlike climate change we’re at the early stages. We can stop this and reverse this trend.”
Natalie Fee, the founder of the City to Sea campaign group, said: “This is sadly yet more evidence that the tide has yet to turn against plastic pollution and all the more of an incentive to really get the solutions embedded in mainstream culture.
“Joining the Refill movement and carrying a reusable water bottle or coffee cup in public, carrying a metal straw in your bag, switching to reusable menstrual products – these things spread a powerful message, we can choose to reuse.
“We don’t have to rely on supermarkets or government to make these simple choices for us, although it would help if they were more proactive in tackling this environmental disaster.”
The production of plastics is forecast to double in the next 20 years. A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, and 38.5 million are used every day in the UK. Only half are recycled.
Sewage plants also contribute to plastic pollution in the oceans, because they use plastic pellets known as Bio-Beads in wastewater treatment that spill into the UK’s coastal waters.
Academic studies have estimated that the damage to fishing equipment caused by anthropogenic sea litter costs UK fisheries £10m each year.
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NASA plans mission to explore why planets lose their atmosphere | Scientists at NASA have proposed a mission to examine how plasma from Earth escapes the magnetosphere – the protective layer blocking radiation from the Sun. The team at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland are developing the Mechanisms of Energetic Mass Ejection-Explorer (MEME-X) project, which uses two miniaturised spacecraft that are equipped with advanced tools to measure plasma ejections from the Earth into space, aiming to explore how they affect space weather.
| https://phys.org/news/2017-11-nasa-mission-concept-aimed-planets.html | 2017-11-16 16:05:16.810000 | This artist's rendition shows MEME-X's dual spacecraft as they observe the aurora from an altitude like that of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
A team of NASA scientists want to use Earth as a laboratory to understand how planets lose their atmospheres and has proposed a mission that the agency recently selected as one of five for further consideration as a possible NASA Explorer mission.
In the proposed mission that some believe is a potential keystone in the study of the Sun and its effects on planetary atmospheres, the team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is advancing a dual-satellite, polar-orbiting mission to study the universal processes that control atmospheric erosion and its interaction with stellar winds, the continuously flowing stream of charged particles released from the Sun's corona.
Called Mechanisms of Energetic Mass Ejection-Explorer, or MEME-X, the mission was one of five proposals that received Phase-A funding under NASA's Small Explorer Program. NASA also selected another Goddard mission, Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager [link to story]. Of the five, NASA is expected to select one or two for development and implementation.
Cross-Disciplinary Mission
"MEME-X has strong cross threads across NASA's scientific disciplines—planetary, heliophysics, astrophysics, and Earth science," said Thomas Moore, a Goddard scientist and the MEME-X principal investigator. In addition to providing details about the loss of mass in Earth's upper atmospheric layers, the mission could enhance scientists' understanding of the role that solar wind played in transforming Mars from a warm and wet environment that might have supported surface life on Mars to the cold, arid planet of today, he said.
To that end, MEME-X will focus on one principal question: How do particles escape from Earth's upper atmosphere into the magnetosphere—the protective bubble that shields the planet from incoming radiation from the Sun—and then further, out into space. "Atmospheric escape is a fundamental process with wide-reaching consequences across space and planetary sciences," Moore said.
Plasma, the dominant material in space, consists of negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions; that is, atoms that have lost their electrons. It is a fourth state of matter—not a gas, liquid, or solid—which conducts electricity and is affected by magnetic fields. On an astronomical scale, plasma is common. It's found in the Sun, in the constant stream of material that flows from the Sun—the solar wind—and throughout space. However, on Earth's surface, it's rare, found mostly in fires and in fluorescent and neon lights.
MEME-X's two spacecraft would fly in a polar orbit to find out how plasma escapes from Earth's ionosphere, which lies 50 to 620 miles above the surface, into the protective magnetosphere that shields the planet from potentially harmful solar wind and other space weather, and then out into space. Credit: NASA
For heliophysics, understanding the outflow of plasma from near-Earth space is particularly crucial, Moore added. The upflow of plasma from the high-latitude polar cap and auroral regions appears to affect the magnetosphere's response to variations in the solar wind and in turn influences space weather, which adds to the challenge of predicting space weather.
"For 40 years, we've had a long-standing mystery about how a portion of the atmosphere is heated by a factor of a hundred or more and ejected into space, where it dramatically modifies the near-Earth environment," said Doug Rowland, MEME-X deputy principal investigator and a heliophysicist at Goddard. "MEME-X, with its pair of miniaturized spacecraft and advanced instrumentation, will finally give us the tools we need to solve this problem."
Equipped with plasma analyzers, which will be mounted on short booms extending along the spacecraft's spin axes, and other instruments developed in part with research-and-development funding, MEME-X would provide the first multipoint measurements of plasma to determine if the matter is being ejected by pressure, as in a geyser, or vacuumed away from Earth, as in a waterspout.
Atmospheric Evolution and Habitability
In addition to revealing the plasma outflow's effect on space weather, the mission could help answer important questions regarding the evolution of planetary atmospheres and planet habitability, Moore said.
A case in point is Mars. Once wetter and warmer, and possibly congenial for life, the planet now looks dead. It's a desert world, with a sparse atmosphere and virtually no protective magnetic field. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, recently discovered that most of the planet's atmosphere has been lost to space, violently scraped from the planet by solar wind.
The question scientists want to answer is the role of the magnetosphere in atmospheric loss, particularly as it relates to solar wind. "This is a quest to discover and characterize fundamental processes that occur within the heliosphere and throughout the universe," Moore said. "We want to use the Earth's atmosphere as a laboratory." |
Indian recruitment start-up uses AI to research job candidates | A Bengaluru recruitment start-up, Belong, has created an AI solution that its founder describes as "Google for humans". The technology is designed to simplify and streamline hiring processes by scheduling interviews, assessing CVs but also scouting the internet for appropriate talent. The AI tool tracks down information on candidates by scanning their Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles and more. “A resume was just like a balance sheet – what you declare about yourself at a given time,” explained Belong co-founder Rishabh Kaul, “Now, you have a rich stream of constant data.” Belong's clients include Amazon, Ola and Uber.
| https://qz.com/1122249/belong-an-indian-recruitment-startup-is-using-artificial-intelligence-to-become-a-google-for-people/ | 2017-11-16 15:51:07.773000 | Belong, a Bengaluru-based startup, is creating a “Google for people,” as co-founder Rishabh Kaul describes it.
The three-year-old recruitment firm is part of a new crop of companies using technology to simplify hiring processes, from sorting resumés to scheduling interviews. Belong, however, goes well beyond all that.
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It scours the internet to unearth publicly available information on any and all possible candidates, including scanning their Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles, and more. ”Earlier, a resume was just like a balance sheet—what you declare about yourself at a given point of time,” explained Kaul. “Now, you have a rich stream of constant data.”
After gathering copious amounts of information, the platform ranks potential hires according to their suitability for a role at a particular company—much like how Google tailors search results for each user’s query.
Belong stands out also because it seems to have cracked the code by selling its product to an impressive clientele. This list spans e-commerce behemoths Amazon and Flipkart, telecom provider Airtel, ride-hailing services Ola and Uber, and online grocer BigBasket, among others.
Talent hunt
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Founded by Kaul, Vijay Sharma, Saiteja Veera, and Sudheendra Chilappagari, Belong’s basic proposition is simple: using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to curate data from social media activity, and from niche platforms such as GitHub, ResearchGate, and Muckrack. “The technology acts like a magnet, finding different pieces of data on every white-collar person,” said Kaul.
The system scans all profiles with uniform precision to match every candidate to a company’s search requirements and previous hiring patterns. Where there is no precedent—say, if the company is setting up a centre for a new technology like the Internet of Things (IoT), or is expanding into an unexplored geographical region—Belong works with the employer to manually feed in ideal candidate profiles.
As companies approve and reject suggestions, the machine learning algorithm learns from the choices and fine-tunes the results further. However, Belong’s system does not eliminate candidates, it only re-orders them. So, while the grunt work is done by technology, the decision-making still lies with the human resources (HR) managers. “We want to make them (the managers) into Ironmen and Ironwomen, so we are being the Jarvis,” said Kaul.
The main cash cow for Belong, which has raised $15 million so far, is annual contracts. Kaul did not reveal how much it charges but said, “typically we need (companies) to hire at least 30 to 40 lateral people in a year for it to make return-on-investment sense.”
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Between June 2015 and March 2016, Belong posted revenue of Rs83.2 lakh ($127,000), according to regulatory filings sourced by data platform Tofler. Overall, the company recorded a net loss of Rs6.41 crore ($979,000) during the same period.
Bigger and better
This technology-led process casts a wider net for talent and covers more volume in lesser time than humans can. Besides, it targets not just active jobseekers but even passive talent—those who haven’t even thought of quitting their jobs yet. And connecting with them is merely a matter of clicking a button.
AI can save recruiters between 15-20 hours of work each week
“Can a recruiter write a great email to a candidate to excite them? Yes,” said Kaul. “Can they do it for 500 people or send 3,000 emails? I don’t think so.” AI, though, can tailor messages for a multitude of applicants, saving recruiters between 15 hours and 20 hours of work each week while keeping things personal, Belong claims. The platform also tracks the right time to approach someone based on factors like appraisal cycles at their current company and how often they change jobs.
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“We have made offers for highly complex roles in about 10-14 days on the platform,” Abhinav Asthana, CEO and co-founder of tech company Postman, which has recruited via Belong for over a year, told YourStory. At health-tech firm Practo, Belong improved the offer acceptance rate by 65% while Tavant Technologies reported a 55% hike in candidate responses.
As AI becomes smarter, it could even conduct first-round interviews virtually, ensuring “better utilisation of a recruiter’s time and resources,” N Shivakumar, business head of recruitment process outsourcing at Teamlease Services, told Quartz. Overall, it’d help shorten hiring timelines.
Automation also helps curb biases, Kris Lakshmikanth, founder of HeadHunters India, told Quartz. Belong removes political affiliations, religious views, sexual orientation, and other extraneous factors. (The company includes gender so recruiters can exclusively search for women to up diversity. No company can search for only men, though.)
While the algorithm struggles at times—if a person’s Twitter name differs from the real name or if multiple social media pages appear for someone—Belong’s intelligent filtering mostly improves efficiency and saves time. It, however, falls short with personable traits.
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Cookie-cutter categories like college degree and technical skills are easy to track but AI is no match for experienced human managers with seasoned instincts when judging if a candidate will fit into the office culture or if they are a team player, HeadHunters’ Lakshmikanth added.
Still, Belong has made attempts to quantify ambiguous descriptors. “(To) make the word entrepreneurial into something mathematical that you can search for…the platform looks for people who’ve scaled something small into something big or people who’ve been with a company since founding,” Kaul explained.
Similarly, someone may be classified an early adopter based on when they joined Twitter. ”In 2007, being on Twitter was a big deal. No one knew about it,” said Kaul, “This person would have been on the lookout (for new technologies) rather than someone who joined in 2013, by which time even Amitabh Bachchan had joined.”
And just like human HR managers get better over time, Belong is betting that the machines will too. |
NASA goes to Arctic to develop a flying drone for Mars | At NASA’s Haughton Mars Project facility on Devon Island in the Arctic, work is underway on an airborne drone designed for use on Mars. NASA is partnering with the Mars Institute, the SETI Institute and FYBR Solutions to develop a drone design that can function in Mars's thin atmosphere. Currently, the leading proposal is to develop an extremely lightweight helicopter that would be deployed in tandem with the Mars 2020 rover, carrying a simple camera and instrument package, as a “scout drone” for the rover. | https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/259088-nasa-plans-develop-mars-drone-arctic-research-base | 2017-11-16 15:43:44.450000 | All robotic missions on Mars have been limited to the actual surface -- rovers like Curiosity are reliable, but their range is limited. While Curiosity has driven more than 10 miles on the Martian surface, it took more than five years. A flying drone aircraft could cover much more distance, but developing a Mars drone is no easy feat. NASA has partnered with several private organizations and nonprofits to test some flying machines in the most Martian landscape on Earth: a desolate island in the Canadian Arctic.
The new project is spinning up at NASA's Haughton Mars Project facility on Devon Island, which is the largest uninhabited island on Earth. It's uninhabited because of the harsh conditions -- it's what's known as a polar desert. The growing season is only a few weeks long, and the rest of the year it gets dangerously cold with temperatures as low as -58 degrees Fahrenheit. NASA set up a Mars test facility on Devon Island in the 1990s because of how similar the terrain is to the red planet. The site is located in the Haughton impact crater, a 14-mile depression that was created about 39 million years ago.
Joining NASA in this endeavor are the Mars Institute, the SETI Institute, and FYBR Solutions Inc. By sharing the workload with its partners, NASA hopes it will be able to develop a drone design on Earth that also works reliably on Mars. The surface of the Haughton impact crater is perfect for this testing, but it's still on Earth. Mars has a much thinner atmosphere that complicates unmanned missions. There's enough of an atmosphere that landers need protection from the heat of entry, but not enough to use parachutes or standard wing configurations.
One of the leading proposals right now is to develop an extremely lightweight helicopter that would carry a simply camera and instrument package as a "scout drone" for the Mars 2020 rover. It would need to have huge propellers in relation to its size, though. The drone could map terrain surrounding the rover to identify obstacles so operators can move the rover greater distances with each set of instructions. It could also help spot the interesting areas where the rover might be used to take samples and conduct research.
The 2020 rover is expected to be based on Curiosity, but it'll have more cameras . If the research at the Haughton Mars Project site pays off, it may even have its own little drone. |
Maps show how warm sea water is melting Greenland from below | More than half of Greenland's ice sheet may be under threat of melting from warm sea water, according to a mapping project reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The paper includes some of the most detailed data yet on the depths of the canyons around the Greenland coast, which carry water from the sea to the glaciers. Out of 139 ocean-touching ice sheets, 67 rest in waters 200 metres or more below sea level, where warm water is typically found. The study also found that the Greenland ice sheet may have the potential to raise sea levels by 2.75 inches more than previously thought, for a total of 24.3 ft if it were to melt completely.
| https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-maps-show-how-greenland-rsquo-s-ice-sheet-is-melting-from-the-bottom-up/ | 2017-11-16 15:42:26.397000 | Significantly more ice in Greenland's glaciers may be exposed to warming ocean waters than previously thought, new research suggests. Indeed, more than half the ice sheet may be subject to the melting influence of the sea.
These are the latest conclusions of a detailed mapping project exploring the topography of the seafloor and bedrock around and beneath Greenland's glaciers.
Published in their final form last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the maps draw on a variety of data sources, including satellite radar and aerial imagery, as well as special sonar data collected on ship expeditions to the front of the ice sheet. (An earlier, although nearly identical, version of the paper was published online in September.)
Included in the new paper are some of the most detailed data yet on the depths of the canyons and fjords scarring the Greenland coast, which carry water in from the sea to lap against the ice. The results suggest that the western and northern regions of Greenland are most exposed to the influence of ocean water. Out of 139 ocean-touching glaciers the team identified, they also found that 67 rest in waters 200 meters (about 650 feet) or more below sea level, where warm water is typically found—at least twice as many as previously thought.
And, worryingly, the research suggests that as these glaciers melt and retreat backward, the shape of the seabed will continue to expose many of them to warm ocean water for hundreds of miles as the ice moves inland.
"The primary uncertainty in sea level rise is what are the ice sheets going to do over the coming century," said Mathieu Morlighem, an expert in ice sheet modeling at the University of California, Irvine, who led the paper along with dozens of other contributors from institutions around the world. "We know that there could potentially be catastrophic collapse of the ice sheets—we know it has happened in the past—but we don't know how likely it is to happen over our time scale. So we've been doing a lot of progress in terms of better understanding how the ice is flowing."
The study also finds that the Greenland ice sheet may contain more ice, with a greater potential to raise global sea levels, than previous research has suggested—about 2.75 inches more, to be exact. Altogether, the new study suggests that the ice sheet has the potential to raise global sea levels by about 24.3 feet, should it melt entirely.
But the new information about the interaction between ocean and ice along the Greenland coast may be the maps' most important contribution.
"A lot of research has shown that intrusions of warm water are responsible for melting ice along the polar coastlines and that these intrusions are steered by the shape of the seafloor," said Jamin Greenbaum, an oceanography and geology expert at the University of Texas, Austin, who was not involved with the new study, in an email.
It's mainly in the last few years that the ocean's melting influence on glaciers has come to the forefront of scientific attention, but scientists now recognize it as a major—if not the primary—contributor to ice loss in both Greenland and parts of Antarctica.
There are many factors driving what scientists believe to be an increase in the amount of warm water (as opposed to colder water) that many glaciers are exposed to. Some of it is as simple as the fact that climate change is causing the oceans to warm, in addition to the outside air, and some of it may also involve the complex ways climate change is believed to be affecting atmospheric patterns, winds and the ocean currents that carry warm water around the world.
And scientists now know that the underwater topography—the hills, slopes and crevices at the bottom of the ocean, where the ice meets the sea—is a critical influence on just how much ice actually touches the water. So mapping projects like this one are critical for helping scientists figure out how much of the ice sheet is actually threatened.
And they can also significantly inform scientists' understanding of how glaciers will behave, and how quickly they'll lose ice, as they melt. This has to do with the physical processes that affect the way ice in a glacier moves and flows out to sea.
Glaciers that back up to the ocean tend to have similar physical structures. The ice is firmly grounded to the bedrock, up to a point known as the "grounding line." At this point, the ice becomes disconnected from the ground and turns into a kind of floating ledge, known as an ice shelf, that juts out into the ocean from the front of the glacier. These ice shelves are responsible for stabilizing the glacier and hold back the flood of ice behind them.
If they begin to melt, however—particularly as they're exposed to warmer ocean water—the shelves become thinner and the grounding line begins to retreat backward, causing the glacier to become less stable and making the ice shelf more likely to break. But the manner in which this retreat happens depends largely on the shape and contour of the bedrock beneath it, Morlighem noted. A downward slope, for instance, might cause the glacier to retreat more quickly, while ridges or other topographical features might help to slow or halt the backward motion.
"The bed topography controls how far the retreat is going to be and how fast also depending on the slope," Morlighem said. "The bed topography is a crucial data set for ice sheet modelers. Even today, the modeling community would tell you that it's the No. 1 data set that we need."
Growing interest in the connections between ice, ocean and bedrock has helped launch multiple research programs aimed at creating more detailed maps of the world's ice sheets. One of these is NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland, or "OMG," mission, which is collecting both aerial and ship-based observations of ocean temperatures and the shape of the seafloor. Data from the OMG mission helped inform the maps Morlighem and his colleagues have just published.
But scientists aren't only interested in Greenland. They believe similar processes are at play in Antarctica—in fact, "a lot of the big changes in Antarctica all seem to be ocean-driven," said Martin Truffer, an expert in glacier physics at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. And many researchers are trying to improve maps of the Antarctic ice sheet, as well. Greenbaum, for instance, has conducted some of his own mapping research in Antarctica, and his work, published in Nature Geoscience in March 2015, has helped reveal that East Antarctica's biggest glacier—the Totten Glacier, sometimes referred to as the region's "sleeping giant"—is vulnerable to the intrusion of warm ocean water.
Meanwhile, the increasingly unstable glaciers in West Antarctica remain some of scientists' biggest concerns about future sea-evel rise. Over the last few years, research has increasingly suggested that ice loss in this region is heavily driven by the influence of the warming ocean. And just last year, the United States and the United Kingdom announced an in-depth coordinated research project focused on one of West Antarctica's largest and most vulnerable glaciers, the Thwaites Glacier, which will focus in large part on the interaction of the ocean and the ice front.
Truffer noted that mapping in Antarctica tends to be more challenging than in Greenland because the Antarctic ice sheet is so much larger and so much more remote. But these projects are no less important.
Morlighem and his colleagues are currently working on some similar efforts to map the Antarctic coast while continuing to update and improve their Greenland maps, as well. Ultimately, Morlighem says, all of the data will inform model projections of how the ice sheets will behave under future climate change and how much they may raise global sea levels over the next few centuries—the real question all this research is aimed at answering.
But he noted, "We can't understand how it works if we don't have a good description of the bed topography first."
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net. |
Ireland rated worst European country for combating climate change | A new study by Germanwatch and the New Climate Institute (NCI) has found that Ireland is struggling to manage rising greenhouse gas emissions. The nation is “nowhere close to being on track”, according to the report's co-author Dr Jan Burck. The 2018 Climate Change Performance Index saw Ireland fall 28 places to 49th out of the 56 countries gauged. | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/ireland-ranks-worst-in-europe-on-climate-change-index-1.3292686 | 2017-11-16 15:36:55.300000 | Greenpeace activists protest on the river Rhine during the UN climate change conference COP23 in Bonn, Germany: Ireland has fallen 28 places to 49th out of 56 countries ranked in the 2018 Climate Change Performance Index. Photograph: Sascha Steinbach/EPA
Ireland is the worst performing country in Europe when it comes to taking action to combat climate change, a new study has revealed. The State has fallen 28 places to 49th out of 56 countries ranked in the 2018 Climate Change Performance Index, which focuses on the world’s worst countries for emissions.
The report, produced by Germanwatch and the New Climate Institute (NCI), says “greater efforts have been made globally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” and highlights positive developments on switching to renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.
However, it says “no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous greenhouse gas emissions”.
Progress on this front was was still not in line with the commitments contained in the Paris Agreement on climate change and all countries must deliver much stronger policies to reduce polluting emissions, the report adds.
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In light of steps taken by the Trump Administration, the US is placed 56th on the index but the report points to positive actions being taken by individual US states, cities and companies in reducing CO2 emissions.
The index ranks the 56 countries whose combined emissions account for 90 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases. The analysis is based on evaluating emissions; adoption of renewable energy; energy use; and climate policy.
Report co-author Dr Jan Burck told The Irish Times that rising emissions were Ireland's difficulty, even though performance on this front had improved in the past five years.
The State was “nowhere close to being on track” in its commitments to keep global temperatures to within 2 degrees” currently and up to 2030. However, he did note “a very positive trend in the development of renewable energy”.
The report, which comes as delegates from 200 nations gather in Bonn to discuss climate action at COP23, places Sweden at the top of the index in fourth position – the first three positions were left empty as “no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change”, the report states.
Agricultural emissions
While agricultural emissions were less significant in total emissions globally, where they were high in countries such as Ireland, there was difficulty in reducing them, but dietary changes in livestock and more efficient fertiliser use could play their part, added Prof Niklas Höhne of NCI.
Jerry Mac Evilly, policy co-ordinator for the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, said the report “lays bare the continuing and disturbing contradiction between Government rhetoric on climate change and the sad reality of policy implementation in Ireland”.
Ireland’s polluting emissions are rising and the State is failing to meet EU obligations, he added.
“The Government is not supporting greater EU ambition and, despite some positive noises, there is little indication that this situation is likely to change any time soon. This hypocrisy on climate change not only has significant reputational damage for Ireland but brings with it extremely negative impacts for our economy, our local environment and our health.”
Dr Cara Augustenborg of Friends of the Earth Ireland said the Citizens' Assembly put forward 13 concrete recommendations for climate action to allow Ireland to catch up with our European neighbours "and end nearly a decade of dithering and delay".
“Yet at national level, we’ve seen a new climate action plan which does not guarantee any immediate reductions in pollution. And at EU level, we’ve seen repeated Government efforts to have loopholes inserted into EU legislation currently under negotiation which would hinder greater climate action.” |
Leaked EU document dismisses possibilty of bespoke deal for UK | The UK's insistence on autonomy from EU regulations and the ECJ make it ineligible as a partner, according to an EU document leaked to Politico. The UK would have to be satisfied with a standard Free Trade Agreement, similar to the Canada-US deal of 1988. The document said: "If they want access to single market they will have to comply with EU laws.”
| https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/16/leaked-eu-paper-dents-mays-hopes-for-bespoke-brexit-trade-deal | 2017-11-16 15:36:33.287000 | Theresa May’s hopes of negotiating a “deep and special” trading relationship with the EU have been dealt a fresh blow by leaked documents which emphasise that only a basic free trade deal similar to that struck with Canada will be offered.
An internal discussion paper prepared by the European commission spells out how the British government’s rejection of membership of the single market and the customs union leaves the member states with little wriggle room in trade talks.
The document, leaked to the Politico website, was put together by the EU’s negotiating team to aid a “preparatory discussion” on the “framework for the future relationship”.
The paper states that “single market arrangements in certain areas” or the “evolution of our regulatory frameworks” could not be managed within the EU body of law as it stands and therefore the UK would have to be satisfied with a “standard FTA”.
The publication of the leaked document comes ahead of a bilateral meeting between May and the president of the European council, Donald Tusk, on the margins of an EU leaders’ summit in Gothenburg on Friday. Tusk will ask the prime minister to explain how the British government intends to move the negotiations forward, to allow the widening of the talks at the European council summit in a month’s time.
He will warn the prime minister that she cannot take for granted that the other 27 member states will rule that there has been “sufficient progress” on citizens rights, the Irish border and the divorce bill, at the European council meeting on 14 and 15 December.
The Guardian has further learned that the 27 member states have sought a legal opinion from the European commission on a possible extension of the two years allowed for talks under article 50 of the Lisbon treaty.
The member states do not envision a lengthy extension of the two years, however. One EU diplomat said: “We all have our own domestic political situations to deal with and so I can’t imagine us having unanimity on extending article 50. And this extension would only be if we are near striking a deal and need a few extra weeks or months.”
Senior diplomats attached to the member states said they had not yet seen the leaked paper produced by Barnier’s team but confirmed that the terms set out chimed with their understanding of the EU’s position that the red lines set out by May for a future deal also rule out special arrangements in particular sectors, including in financial services.
The documents explain that the UK’s insistence on “regulatory autonomy” and its intention to remove itself from the jurisdiction of the European court of justice mean it is “not compatible” as a partner within the EU framework.
Such a model would provide “no direct branching in sectors like financial services” and the documents add that there are only “limited EU commitments to allow cross-border provision of services”.
The paper will come as a blow to the UK, although the position has been voiced publicly by Barnier in the past.
In her Florence speech in September, May had insisted that the EU and the UK should raise their ambitions and that such a deal, similar to that struck with Canada, would not be good enough.
“Compared with what exists between Britain and the EU today, [a Canada-style arrangement] would nevertheless represent such a restriction on our mutual market access that it would benefit neither of our economies,” May said.
The EU-Canada deal slashes tariffs but trade in food is restricted by quotas and phytosanitary controls. There is also no additional access to the single market for financial services based in Canada.
One senior EU official said the British cabinet was still in “cuckoo land” if it believed the EU would offer anything more.
The EU is still waiting on an improved offer from Britain on its financial settlement, without which direct talks between the EU and the UK on a future deal will not begin.
A senior EU official warned on Thursday that it was up to the British government to move on the divorce issues in order to progress to the next stage of Brexit negotiations.
“We cannot be more clear than we have been,” the official said, adding that it was up to the UK to provide more information on how it intended to settle its EU budget obligations. Brexit negotiations would continue until the UK passed the EU’s sufficient progress test, the official said. “We would also like to see sufficient progress in December ... There is no back-up plan. The back-up plan if needed, is to go on negotiating.”
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Brazil, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia receive Android Pay | Google is extending its Android Pay mobile payments service, to users in four new countries as part of its global deployment: Brazil, Ukraine, Slovakia and the Czach Republic. Brazil is the first Latin American country to receive Android Pay, with Google announcing partnerships with local merchants, such as Ipiranga and Casa do Pão de Queijo, to promote the system. Earlier in 2017, Google launched Android Pay in Spain, as well as in Taiwan, Canada, and Russia.
| https://9to5google.com/2017/11/14/android-pay-arrives-in-ukraine-czech-republic-brazil-and-slovakia/ | 2017-11-16 13:58:23.420000 | Google announced today that Android Pay has arrived and will arrive soon in four new countries around the world: Ukraine, Czech Republic, Brazil, and Slovakia.
Ukraine got the payments service a few weeks ago, the Czech Republic and Brazil (you can find Google’s local announcements here and here, respectively) are getting it starting today, and Google says it’s soon coming to Slovakia as well.
Google says Ukraine’s Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk was the first to try the service when it launched earlier this month:
And in a region full of Android fans, we’re excited to see it’s already taking off! Ukraine’s Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk was the country’s first person to try Android Pay when we launched on November 1, demonstrating how it works on the Kiev Metro.
And Brazil is the first country in Latin American to get support for Android Pay:
On the other side of the globe in Brazil, contactless payments are just picking up speed. So we partnered with merchants like Ipiranga and Casa do Pão de Queijo to help us merge new experiences (like paying with your phone) with familiar ones (like buying groceries or Brigadeiros).
Finally, as will seemingly be the case until Google has launched Android Pay everywhere, the company teases that it will be “bringing Android Pay to even more places soon.”
Earlier this year, Google also launched Android Pay in Spain as well as Taiwan, Canada, and Russia.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: |
Pavegen teams up with Google for Pixel launch installation | Design firm Lucid Illusions and tech company Pavagen have joined forces with Google to create a Festival of Light installation in Berlin, celebrating the launch of Google's latest Pixel phone. A path equipped with Pavegen's "intelligent" pressure-sensitive tiles, connected to 176 LED cubes in a light wall designed by Lucid, allows visitors to interact with the installation by walking and dancing. Programmatic development was required to facilitate communication between the tiles and the cubes.
| http://standoutmagazine.co.uk/lucid-pavegen-interactive-installation/ | 2017-11-16 13:56:43.400000 | Lucid Illusions and Pavegen create an interactive installation for Google | In In Supplier News | By By Caroline Clift
To coincide with the launch of Google’s new Pixel phones, Lucid Illusions partnered with Pavegen to design and create a harvest walkway at Berlin’s Festival of Light.
As visitors walked, skipped and jumped along the path, their footsteps triggered the 176 LED cubes in Lucid’s light wall to react according to pressure, speed and location. Their journey was captured as a gif via Google’s newest pixel phone, housed in a photo pod, custom built by Lucid.
In addition to design and fabrication, Lucid worked closely with Pavegen to develop programming, which could talk to the intelligent tiles and produce a truly unique interactive brand experience.
Chris Carr, founder and director of Lucid Illusions, commented: “The Berlin project marks a key moment for Lucid following the delivery of a series of significant installations for clients including Google, Samsung and Adidas. We see this as a step to further designing and creating increasingly groundbreaking experiences.”
Lucid Illusions are known for producing creative event and experience builds, and the Google project follows a year working on boundary-pushing projects including Samsung’s 12 metre high Hypercube structure.
Carr added: “Working hand in hand with producers, agencies and brands, we’re designing and building highly immersive events and installations with which people can interact and experience on a multitude of levels. With a growing core team, 2018 is shaping up to be Lucid’s most exciting year to date with a range of exciting projects to share with you as they come to fruition over the next couple of months.” |
Financial Times makes good progress in stopping domain spoofing | The Financial Times claims tests of its domain spoofing screening methods have successfully caught out tech vendors offering counterfeit inventory. Testing 25 ad exchanges that were misrepresenting its inventory access, the publisher purchased $500 in counterfeit inventory supposedly from the Financial Times to test which vendors were still offering FT impressions. The publisher believes that fraudulent inventory could be costing $1.3m per month, highlighting the need for countering domain spoofing. The FT's focus on dismissing fraudulent impressions is to prevent results loss for advertisers and to maintain transparency. | https://digiday.com/media/financial-times-got-24-ad-exchanges-stop-spoofing-site/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171116 | 2017-11-16 13:52:05.373000 | The Financial Times’ fight against domain spoofing is paying off.
After catching 25 ad exchanges misrepresenting access to its inventory in September, the business news publisher took its fraud-fighting test a step further by purchasing counterfeit inventory that purported to be the FT’s to see which vendors were still selling fake FT impressions. Over few days at the end of October, the FT spent $500 on inventory that claimed to be FT.com.
The publisher found that 24 of the 25 exchanges had stopped spoofing the FT’s domain since the publisher called out the tech vendors that were selling the mislabeled inventory, said Jessica Barrett, global head of programmatic at the Financial Times. She wouldn’t say which vendor continues to misrepresent access to FT inventory.
“I was pleasantly surprised by how many exchanges were willing to work with us to fix this issue,” Barrett said, addressing the Digiday Programmatic Media Summit in New Orleans. “It was much less worse than I originally anticipated.”
In September, the FT ran a test to see which exchanges claimed to have access to its inventory and found that 10 display exchanges and 15 video exchanges falsely claimed to sell its video inventory. The FT estimated the value of the fraudulent inventory to be $1.3 million a month. The publisher demanded that several ad tech vendors, including Oath, SpotX and FreeWheel, stop representing access to its inventory.
Domain spoofing — where unscrupulous publishers and vendors obscure the nature of their traffic to resemble legitimate websites — most obviously hurts ad buyers since it leads them to waste money on junk. It also hurts publishers. The FT’s concern is that fraudulent impressions won’t drive results for advertisers, and if advertisers mistakenly think they’re getting FT inventory, they’ll blame the FT for getting a low return on investment.
The ad industry’s push for transparency likely nudged the vendors to clean up their act once the FT surfaced the amount of domain spoofing occurring in their platforms, Barrett said. With initiatives like the IAB Tech Lab protocol ads.txt — a text file that publishers host on their web servers that lists all the companies authorized to sell their inventory — taking off, vendors have incentive to hop on the clean inventory bandwagon to avoid becoming a pariah.
But just because the vast majority of exchanges stopped selling fake FT impressions once the publisher brought it to their attention doesn’t mean masked URLs claiming to be the FT won’t resurface again on their platforms.
“It’s easy to spot domain spoofing, but it is hard to put the kibosh on it,” Barrett said. |
Microsoft previews online payments via Skype for businesses | Microsoft is previewing the new Skype Professional Account, which merges features from third-party online payment platforms and Outlook. The Professional Account enables users to accept online payments, take bookings, make notes and search for businesses that they would like to work with. The preview is available in the US and will be free initially, with no indication yet provided by Microsoft of the final product pricing. The service is aimed at small businesses and those who provide services via Skype, such as language teachers.
| https://www.crn.com.au/news/microsoft-brings-online-payments-to-skype-professional-account-477598 | 2017-11-16 13:49:44.723000 | Microsoft has opened up previews for a new type of Skype account that allows users to accept online payments and take notes from a single desktop client.
Skype Professional Account is aimed at small business owners and who conduct lessons over the video communication platform, such as tutors, instructors and consultants.
The new service merges features from third-party online payment platforms and Outlook, allowing users to accept payments, take bookings and record notes within Skype.
Skype users will also be able to search for businesses they would like to work with within Skype. The platform features dedicated profile pages for small businesses to include information like pricing and business hours.
Microsoft said Skype Professional account would be free during the preview period, but did not provide any indication of pricing after that. Users can sign up for the preview on the Skype website, though the preview is only available in the US.
In September, Microsoft announced plans to shift cloud customers using Skype for Business into Teams, its new collaboration suite.
The company also announced Microsoft 365, a software bundle including Windows 10 and Microsoft's most popular productivity tools into a single subscription package aimed at SMBs and enterprise users, both of which are available in Australia now. |
Miniature robot swims with, learns and can influence other fish | Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Laussane’s (EPFL) Robotic Systems Laboratory have a developed a robot that looks like a fish and can seamlessly swim with other fish, eventually leading their direction. The trial used zebrafish and was successful in a range of aquariums with differing criteria. The robotic fish successfully integrated into a community, copying “appearance, movement and vibration”.
| https://actu.epfl.ch/news/a-robotic-spy-among-the-fish/?mc_cid=4a5f2a3ecc&mc_eid=34c4551471 | 2017-11-16 13:41:46.740000 | Researchers at EPFL’s Robotic Systems Laboratory (LSRO), which is headed by Professor Francesco Mondada, have developed a miniature robot that can integrate perfectly into schools of zebrafish. Their work was carried out as part of an EU research program among six partner institutions,* and the findings were recently published in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
“We created a kind of ‘secret agent’ that can infiltrate these schools of small fish,” says Frank Bonnet with a smile. Bonnet is a post-doc researcher at the LSRO and one of the study’s authors. The robot is seven centimeters long – longer than the fish it’s modeled after but with the same shape and proportions. It is equipped with magnets that link it to a tiny engine installed under the aquarium to propel it through the water. The researchers chose zebrafish, or Danio rerio, for their study because it’s a robust species whose schools tend to switch direction and move about very quickly.
There are two aspects to the research program. The first deals with biology, studying the social interactions between individual fish. Here the robot helps scientists generate targeted stimuli and test the fish’s response. The second aspect deals with robotics, and this is where the EPFL researchers focused their work.
Finding the right criteria
First, the team determined the key criteria that would allow the robot to integrate into schools of zebrafish and subsequently influence their behavior. These included the fish’s physical characteristics, like shape, color, stripes, etc. Their behavioral characteristics were also taken into account, such as linear velocity, acceleration speed, the distance between individual fish, the size of the schools, their vibrations and motion, and the rhythm at which they move their tails.
The researchers also wanted to develop a closed-loop system in which the robot is able to not only influence the fish’s behavior, but also adapt its own behavior by learning how to communicate and move like they do. As a result, the robot’s swimming mechanism – initially designed with the help of biologists – gradually improved as the robot spent more time with the fish.
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The team tested their robot in different aquariums, some of which had delineated areas like little rooms and corridors. The tests involved ten schools of four zebrafish each that interacted with the robot. For each test, the researchers recorded the position and movement of individual fish, the movement of the school as a whole and the robot’s propensity to integrate into the school. They then compared their results with observations made on schools of five zebrafish swimming under the same conditions, but without the robot. And their findings were unequivocal. “The fish accepted the robot into their schools without any problem,” says Bonnet. “And the robot was also able to mimic the fish’s behavior, prompting them to change direction or swim from one room to another.”
Similar studies had already been carried out at the LSRO, but on cockroaches. “Fish are much more complicated animals. To integrate into an insect community, a robot simply has to emit certain kinds of pheromones. But integrating into a community of vertebrates seems to involve many more criteria, in terms of such things as appearance, movement and vibration,” says Bonnet.
*Université Paris Diderot– LIED,University of Graz – Artificial Life Lab, Cybertronica research, University of Zagreb – LARICS, FCiências.ID – Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências, EPFL - LSRO. |
Singapore offers $20m funding for AI and data fintech projects | Singapore is offering S$27m ($20m) in grant funding for AI and data analytics initiatives in the financial services market, according to the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Ravi Menon. Banks may receive up to 50% reimbursement for projects that focus on machine learning, natural language processing, neural networks, text analytics and predictive and prescriptive analytics. Recipients will be expected to consider their projects' effects on the banking workforce and its training needs. Research teams can gain up to 70% reimbursement for "local knowledge transfer and industry sharing" for projects aimed at the financial sector.
| https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/31337/singapore-offers-20m-grant-for-banks-ai-and-data-projects | 2017-11-16 13:39:23.317000 | Singapore has stepped up its fintech ambitions with the offer of a S$27m ($19.91m) grant to promote the further use of artificial intelligence and data analytics in the financial services market.
The scheme was officially presented by Ravi Menon, managing director of The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) at the Singapore FinTech Festival, a state-sponsored event that purports to be the world's biggest fintech gathering with over 25,000 visitors expected over the course of the week.
According to the MAS, the Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics Grant is reserved for Singapore-based financial institutions and research firms. For banks it can provide as much as a 50% reimbursement projects which "leverage artificial intelligence and data analytics techniques to generate insights, formulate strategy and assist in their decision making".
These techniques may include machine learning, natural language processing or text analytics, deep learning or neural networks, predictive and prescriptive analytics.
A key consideration however will be the impact of the projects on the bank's workforce and the plans for appropriate training programs.
For research firms, up to 70% reimbursement is on offer for those that can demonstrate "local knowledge transfer and industry sharing" and a "clear application to financial services," stated the MAS.
The launch of the grant scheme comes a day after the MAS and Singapore's Association of Banks decided to release the source-codes of three successful blockchain prototypes for interbank payments in order to encourage more banks to experiment with the technology.
The MAS has also signed an agreemet with its Polish counterpart the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) which lays out a fintech framework for co-operation and referrals between the two regulators as it continues to use the FinTech Festival to publicise a stream of initiatives.
With the event due to run until Saturday 18th, more announcements could be imminent.
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UK Visa card will allow cryptocurrency payments in shops | The London Block Exchange is to launch the Dragoncard, a Visa debit card that will allow UK users to spend bitcoin. Due to launch in the next few weeks, the card will enable the instant conversion of bitcoin, ether, ripple, monero and litecoin into sterling. The financial protections are the same as those offered by UK banks, and the Dragoncard has gained provisional approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. The card will charge a 0.5% fee for conversion at point of sale and offers a low fee for cashpoint withdrawals. There is a one-off £20 charge for the card.
| https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/15/london-block-exchange-bitcoin-dragoncard-uk/ | 2017-11-16 13:29:26.410000 | New UK Visa card lets you spend Bitcoin like normal money Is it as good as it says it is? We'll have to find out.
With Bitcoin trading at all time high, investors are working out whether it's best to sit on their stockpile or make the most of it while they can. For those wishing to utilise their investment, opportunities can be limited, with only a small number of big companies currently supporting cryptocurrency transactions. London Block Exchange (LBX) wants to change that. It's launching a new Visa debit card that will let users spend their Bitcoin (and other digital currencies) anywhere across the UK.
LBX claims that the Dragoncard, which launches in the coming weeks, is the first to let investors instantly convert their Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and Monero currency into sterling. The platform and accompanying smartphone app are secured by the same systems that underpin the UK banking system and have provisionally been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
When used on the High Street, customers will be charged a 0.5% fee for converting their cryptocurrency holdings into pounds at the till. The Dragoncard also comes with a one-off £20 charge and will charge a small fee for ATM withdrawals. Public pre-registrations are already open, but institutional investors will only be accepted via invitation.
Bitcoin transactions, by default, aren't typically fast. They take several minutes to complete, which has led experts to deem it unsuitable as method of payment. LBX handles the conversion itself, rather than at the point of sale, allowing it to potentially remove that headache for users altogether. |
Off-the-shelf underwater drones touted to revolutionise research | Scientists are exploring the Great Barrier Reef at depths of up to 150 metres, thanks to a new off-the-shelf remotely operated underwater drone. The Blueye Pioneer drone will "revolutionise the way we understand what happens beneath the waves", and provide access to deeper coral reefs, to see how they survived recent mass bleaching events, according to Dr Dean Miller, director of science and media at the Great Barrier Reef Legacy. The Pioneer drone is made to "withstand the forces of the ocean" and has two hours of battery life, said CEO of Blueye Robotics, Erik Dyrkoren.
| http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/scientists-explore-new-areas-of-great-barrier-reef-thanks-to-underwater-drone-20171109-gzigrv.html | 2017-11-16 13:27:27.077000 | "We have no idea what we might find," Dr Dean Miller, director of science and media at the Great Barrier Reef Legacy tells me.
"As scuba-divers we can get down to around 30 to 40 metres safely but with this ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) we are allowed to go to 150, so this really turns into exploration in its purist form."
Blueye's Pioneer drone is less expensive and more user friendly than previous gear. Credit: Blueye Robotics AS
Dr Miller is the first to use the brand new Blueye Pioneer underwater drone, embarking on a 21-day expedition to explore the Great Barrier Reef's most remote, unexplored reaches, and assess the region's declining coral reef corridor.
"I don't think there is anyone out there who didn't dream as a kid of being able to see what is down in the deeper regions of our oceans," Dr Miller enthuses. |
Rising sea levels threaten 42 million Indonesian homes | Almost 42 million homes in the coastal regions of Indonesia are under threat by sea levels that are rising as fast as 8 millimetres a year. Many of those affected rely on the sea for their livelihoods, so cannot move away. In Bahagia village, half the population have left, and the shrimp ponds where residents worked have been destroyed.
| http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/indonesia-rising-sea-levels-threaten-villages-171110120816882.html | 2017-11-16 13:22:45.083000 | Almost 42 million homes in Indonesia’s coastal areas are under threat by rising sea levels.
Almost 42 million homes in the coastal regions of Indonesia are under threat by rising sea levels.
Water levels are rising at the rate of eight millimetres a year in many places.
Most of the affected rely on the sea for their livelihoods, so they cannot move away.
In Bahagia village (“Happy” village), half the population has had to move away, and the shrimp ponds where residents worked have been destroyed.
The people of Bahagia fear that unless the government intervenes to build a dam, the entire village will be washed away.
Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reports from Bekasi, West Java. |
Flood maps out of date as sea levels rise | Many US flood maps are out of date because they don't account for sea-level rise projections, according to Frank Mansell, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in California. Flood maps are costly and take three to five years to create, he said. Although some parts of the maps have “phenomenal” accuracy, some may be out of date because flood zones change constantly with new construction and environmental changes. “Sometimes they’re out of date by the time you finish revising,” he said.
| http://capitolweekly.net/sea-level-rise-flooding-california/ | 2017-11-16 13:18:56.923000 | News
As officials in Washington try to repair the nation’s flood insurance program, scientists in California are grappling with a looming threat that will complicate flooding hazards in the state: sea-level rise.
Creeping ocean waters are already flooding coastal areas more frequently and eroding sea cliffs more rapidly. They’re also worsening damage from extreme weather events like high tides and torrential rains.
Flooding issues will worsen as sea levels rise, Griggs said, both in coastal regions and inland areas.
Scientists can’t predict exactly how much sea levels will rise over time because there are too many unknown factors, particularly how much more climate-warming greenhouse gas humans will produce, said Gary Griggs, a geologist at UC Santa Cruz who studies the coast.
Some parts of the coast will experience greater sea level rise than others. Ocean levels don’t change uniformly along the entire California coast due to geographical variation, but the whole coastline will be affected as sea levels rise.
Griggs and a team of other scientists published a report on California sea-level rise in April. In the most extreme scenario they considered, they projected sea levels could rise over 10 feet by the end of the century.
Flooding issues will worsen as sea levels rise, Griggs said, both in coastal regions and inland areas where water systems will also be impacted by rising ocean levels.
Congress faces a December deadline to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides flood coverage to millions of Americans. The program relies on floodplain maps many criticize as out-of-date. The program is billions of dollars in debt, and congressional leaders have said they plan to overhaul it as part of the reauthorization process.
“Mother Nature doesn’t read flood maps.” — Frank Mansell
When studying flood risk in parts of California, Griggs said he has found some federal maps of flood zones to be “way off” and not reflective of flood risks from sea-level rise.
Flood maps are costly and take three to five years to create, said Frank Mansell, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in California. Although some parts of the maps have “phenomenal” accuracy, some may be out of date because flood zones change constantly with new construction and environmental changes.
“Sometimes they’re out of date by the time you finish revising,” he said, adding that, even when they’re accurate, “mother nature doesn’t read flood maps.”
The maps don’t account for sea-level rise projections because they reflect only current conditions, Mansell said.
At the state level, California lawmakers have had numerous discussions about sea-level rise, but have done little in the way of actual policy.
Opponents say Stone’s bill infringes on Californians’ right to protect their property from ocean rise by building sea walls.
“The Legislature hasn’t really done that much other than worry about it a little bit,” said Assemblyman Mark Stone, a Democrat whose coastal district includes Santa Cruz and Monterey. “It’s going to have a dramatic impact on homeowners along the coast.”
This year, Stone introduced a bill he says is the first major piece of state legislation to adapt the coast to sea-level rise. His bill, AB1129, would give the state more power over sea walls, which can protect properties from ocean rise but can shrink beaches and shift problems to other coastal areas.
The effort has proven to be a “struggle” because changing local land use rules is politically unpopular, Stone said. The bill didn’t make it out of the Assembly, the house where it originated. Stone said he will continue to try to pass the bill next year. It must clear both houses of the Legislature and secure approval from the governor to become law.
Opponents say Stone’s bill infringes on Californians’ right to protect their property from ocean rise by building sea walls.
“We think that it’s unfair to property owners to have the government approve developments, allow people to move in and then turn around and not allow for the protection of those properties from erosion,” a representative from the California Association of Realtors said at a committee hearing on the bill earlier this year. “AB1129 works against communities and property owners trying to protect themselves against rising sea levels”
Moving forward, Stone says the Legislature needs to give resources to local communities to help them address sea-level rise.
Rising ocean levels also threaten major public infrastructure, particularly structures intentionally built at sea level near the coast, such as power plants and sewage treatment facilities. The airports in San Francisco and Oakland that are built on landfill also face catastrophic damage from sea-level rise.
Griggs said he is aware of only a handful of projects to move infrastructure away from the coast. The structures being moved are mostly roads and parking lots in areas with space nearby to relocate them. He described the projects as positive, but “low hanging fruit.” More substantial changes will require greater political will.
“It’s a lot easier to talk about it than it is to take that first step,” Griggs said. “It keeps creeping up on us.” |