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EU jobseekers still prefer UK even as Brexit vote damps allure | The job-search patterns of European Union nationals on job site Indeed have shown that the UK remains their preferred country for overseas work. However, since 2015 - before the Brexit referendum - the proportion of jobseekers looking for work in the UK has fallen to 31.8% from 37.3%. The 14.7% contraction compares with a 19.3% surge in those preferring Germany and 33.6% for Ireland. | http://www.onrec.com/news/statistics-and-trends/uk-retains-its-crown-as-top-destination-for-european-jobseekers | 2017-12-11 14:06:58.853000 | The UK remains the most popular country among Europeans looking to work abroad, but its lead is eroding fast, according to new analysis by the world’s largest job site Indeed.
However, Britain’s lead is shrinking as Germany and Ireland storm up the league table of most popular countries for European workers
Britons remain the least likely to look for work in another EU country, but Brexit has driven a 15% increase in the number with itchy feet
Indeed research comes as official statistics confirm an exodus of EU citizens from the UK in the 12 months following the Brexit referendum
The UK remains the most popular country among Europeans looking to work abroad, but its lead is eroding fast, according to new analysis by the world’s largest job site Indeed.
Researchers analysed the online search patterns of millions of jobseekers across the EU15, and found that among those looking for work in another country, the UK remains by far the most popular choice – attracting nearly a third of all interest in the first nine months of the year.
But for all Britain’s dominance, its star has waned substantially in the wake of the 2016 Brexit vote. The UK’s 31.8% share of EU15 cross-border job searches in the first nine months of 2017 is 14.7% lower than it was during the same period in 2015.
Table: Ranking of the most popular countries for EU15 jobseekers (based on each country’s share of cross-border job searches).
The analysis also suggests Britain’s loss could be its rivals’ gain. Germany, the second most popular country, saw its share of searches rise by a fifth (19.3%), while Ireland’s rose by a third (33.6%) and Luxembourg’s by a dizzying 56%.
Indeed’s data mirrors the UK’s latest official migration statistics, which show that the number of EU citizens moving to Britain fell by 19% in the 12 months following the Brexit referendum. During the same period, the number of EU citizens leaving Britain rose by 29% to 123,000.
The analysis, which highlights where people would like to work and gives a flavour of trends to come, also reveals many British-based workers are busy planning to move elsewhere in the EU.
While British job seekers considering a move abroad have traditionally been drawn mostly to English-speaking countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, between 2015 and 2017 Indeed tracked a 15.4% increase in the proportion looking for work in the EU.
Meanwhile on the other side of the coin, Ireland’s booming jobs market – and the waning appeal of Britain’s – prompted a 16.5% fall in the proportion of Irish job seekers hoping to move to Britain.
It’s a similar picture in Poland, a country which already has one million of its citizens living in the UK. Indeed’s researchers found that between 2015 and 2017 the proportion of job seekers in Poland looking for work in Britain fell by 11.4%.
Mariano Mamertino, EMEA economist at Indeed, commented: “For much of the past decade, Britain’s dynamic labour market has made it a poster boy for ambitious Europeans keen to progress their careers.
“Last year’s Brexit vote hasn’t stopped that attractiveness in its tracks, but it is clearly giving many European jobseekers pause for thought.
“So while the UK is still the most popular destination among Europeans looking to work abroad, its lead is shrinking fast. Britain’s loss could be its rivals’ gain – and Germany, France and Ireland are all attracting a greater share of the interest from upwardly mobile EU citizens.
“One more surprising aspect of the Brexit effect is the apparent outbreak of itchy feet among British jobseekers. Britain remains a net importer of talent from the EU, but the surge of interest in European roles among UK-based job seekers suggests the cross-Channel traffic is no longer just a one-way street.” |
Cedar develops personalised patient billing platform | New York start-up Cedar aims to improve the consumer experience with its medical payment platform. Aimed at health systems, hospitals and medical groups, it incorporates data from across a patient's medical billing history, enabling providers to offer a personalised service. According to Cedar, which recently raised $13m in series A funding, implementation of the platform resulted in customer satisfaction rates of more than 90%, while collections rose by 22% and self-serve payments were up by 62%.
| http://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/cedars-intelligent-patient-billing-platform-draws-13m-series-round | 2017-12-11 13:40:07.940000 | New York City-based Cedar, a startup offering patient-personalized medical billing, has raised $13 million in Series A funding. Participants in the round include Founders Fund, Thrive Captial, Martin Ventures and SV Angel.
Cedar promises a smart billing system that incorporates data points collected across the overall patient payment process. Its platform uses these to inform the method of communication, messaging, and payment option that it surfaces for patients, while optimizing its selections via machine learning in pursuit of improved patient responses.
“At Cedar, we study everything from a patient’s billing history, to their level of engagement with previous communications and general payer and demographic information," Florian Otto, cofounder and CEO of Cedar, said in a statement. "Putting all of these signals together, our platform provides data-driven recommendations for providers to optimize all interactions with patients...We are excited to work with innovative, consumer-centric healthcare providers that see patient billing as an opportunity to vastly improve the patient experience and their own operations.”
Cedar’s platform is designed for hospitals, health systems, and medical groups. With it, providers are able to consolidate billing information across multiple caregivers while allowing a provider billing team to oversee these activities through a dashboard interface.
The platform can be implemented within 10 weeks and integrates with any EHR or practice management system, according to Cedar. Early tests of the system have demonstrated, on average, a 22 percent increase in collections, a 33 percent reduction in accounts receivable days, a 62 percent increase in self-serve payments, and a customer satisfaction rate of more than 90 percent.
“The consumer experience in healthcare lags behind nearly every other industry — this is painfully obvious when you look at the current patient billing process," Kareem Zaki, an investor at Thrive Capital, said in a statement. "We see Cedar doing much more than providing a Band-Aid solution to this problem. They're approaching the patient billing experience from a completely different viewpoint than other vendors, and creating a new standard for revenue cycle operations.” |
Apprentice bringing AR to biopharma labs | New Jersey-based company Apprentice aims to bring augmented reality to laboratory and manufacturing environments through its Tandem, Manuals and Gauge tools. All three tools require smart glasses. Tandem enables a remote expert to experience what a producer or employee on the factory floor sees, while Manuals offers hands-free access to operating procedures, and Gauge facilitates the collection of lab and manufacturing data. Apprentice recently raised $2.5m in seed funding from Silverton Partners, which will be used to improve core products, invest in R&D and expand the firm's work area, according to CEO Angelo Stracquatanio.
| https://medcitynews.com/2017/12/apprentice/?rf=1 | 2017-12-11 13:34:16.747000 | Jersey City, New Jersey-based Apprentice is bringing augmented reality to the realm of pharma and biotech manufacturing.
The startup recently raised $2.5 million to help it pursue its goal. The lead investor was Silverton Partners, and Hemi Ventures also participated.
In a phone interview, Apprentice cofounder and CEO Angelo Stracquatanio said the funding is the company’s seed round.
“We see it as a positive sign that the industry is moving in the direction we’d always hoped it would move in,” he said. “AR is being adopted at a commercial scale.”
Stracquatanio noted that the money will be used to expand the company’s development area, work on R&D and improve its core product.
Apprentice’s solution has three main modules, all of which run on smart glasses like Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens.
The first, called Tandem, is geared toward collaboration. When an employee needs assistance from a subject matter expert, Tandem makes it possible for the pair to communicate, even if they are in different locations. Using the tool, the remote expert can see what the employee on the manufacturing floor sees and coach him or her through the issue.
Another part of the solution, Manuals, serves as the startup’s process and workflow aid. It enables users to have hands-free access to operating procedures and other tasks.
Gauge is the third piece of the puzzle and is centered on data collection and safety in the workplace. Rather than spending exorbitant amounts of time recording information, operators can use the module to gather lab and manufacturing data while performing another task.
The ultimate goal is to leverage augmented reality to improve efficiency and safety in laboratory and manufacturing environments.
“We were so inspired by Apprentice’s passion for utilizing the latest technology to offer real solutions for labs and complex manufacturers,” Mike Dodd, partner at Silverton Partners, said in a statement. “They are market leaders in using augmented reality to provide direct client benefits as a result of the users’ enhanced operational experience.”
Stracquatanio said Apprentice’s revenue model has two phases.
The first is a pilot phase, during which the company provides everything from the software to the smart glasses to a client. The Jersey City startup also offers the client with training and support throughout the lifetime of the pilot, which typically lasts between one and three months.
“If you set it and forget it, that’s not fruitful for them or us,” Stracquatanio said. “We treat it as a collaborative effort.”
After the initial phase, Apprentice utilizes a software-as-a-service model based on a per device or per user basis.
Photo: abluecup, Getty Images |
Wales 2nd, England 18th in global recycling table | Wales is the second-best country in the world for recycling household waste, surpassed only by Germany, according to research by environmental analysts Eunomia. The report analysed recycling rates for municipal solid waste, including household plastic and packaging. New policies from the Welsh government, a zero waste target for 2050 and recycling rates of 63.8% mean that the country is likely to top the poll next year. England, with rates of 42.8%, ranks 18th globally, behind countries including Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan.
| http://www.eunomia.co.uk/countries-reporting-highest-recycling-rates-challenged-by-new-research/ | 2017-12-11 13:13:39.477000 | A new Eunomia report prepared jointly with the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) reveals that the world’s leading recycling nations may be overstating the level of real recycling they are achieving.
Recycling – Who Really Leads the World? (Issue 2) is an update to the Eunomia publication (launched in March 2017) that ranked countries by reported recycling rates and then, using publicly available waste data, calculated adjusted recycling rates for the top 10 on a like-for-like basis to provide truly comparable recycling rate figures.
Although recycling rates reported by each country establishes a top three of Germany (66%), Wales (64%) and Singapore (61%) our updated report goes further to look in more detail at what is included in these reported recycling rates, and uses new research to create a revised recycling rate league table. After adjusting for differences in how different countries measure recycling rates, for example whether construction or commercial waste is included or excluded, or how ash from incineration is accounted for, a more comparable set of recycling rates can be derived. Using these adjusted rates, the top three countries are: Germany (56%), Austria (54%) and South Korea (54%) with Wales dropping into fourth place (52%).
Our in-depth knowledge of waste management practices and measurement methods in Europe has recently been used to support the development of the European Commission’s new Circular Economy Package.
Rob Gillies, Eunomia Managing Consultant and report author said:
“What’s interesting is that when ranked based on reported recycling rates, the winners are clear, whereas after making adjustments for different measurement methods the top recyclers are much closer together, so the top spot is all to play for if countries want to be ambitious.”
“It’s important to note this research has been carried out so we can identify who the real leaders in recycling are, to share best practice by shining a spotlight on what these countries are doing. We also hope that this will help progress the debate on how best to measure ‘real’ recycling, in line with the principles of the waste hierarchy, in a way that is as consistent as possible within Europe and further afield.”
Stéphane Arditi, Policy Manager on Circular Economy, Products and Waste for EEB said:
“This kind of ground-breaking research tells us what EU countries really need to do to achieve higher recycling rates, which require proper collection and recycling of biowaste. It also tells in a truly circular economy there can be no room for incineration of valuable resources that could instead be actually recycled. The fact that some countries have increased recycling rates by 35 percentage points in under 15 years shows that all member states can achieve the new EU recycling targets.” |
Wales 2nd, England 18th in global recycling table | Wales is the second-best country in the world for recycling household waste, surpassed only by Germany, according to research by environmental analysts Eunomia. The report analysed recycling rates for municipal solid waste, including household plastic and packaging. New policies from the Welsh government, a zero waste target for 2050 and recycling rates of 63.8% mean that the country is likely to top the poll next year. England, with rates of 42.8%, ranks 18th globally, behind countries including Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan.
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/11/wales-household-waste-recycling-england | 2017-12-11 13:13:39.477000 | Wales ranks second in the world for recycling household waste but England lags far behind other European countries, according to new research.
Policies brought in by the Welsh government and a target to be zero waste by 2050 have driven the country up the league table to come in just under Germany. With recycling rates of 63.8% for municipal solid waste, which includes household plastic and other packaging, Wales is set to become the world leader for recycling by next year, according to a report from the environmental analysts Eunomia.
But in England, where recycling rates have been flatlining, Michael Gove, the environment secretary, will be under pressure over rates of just 42.8%. England ranks 18th in the world, behind South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy, among others.
The report examined reported recycling rates of municipal solid waste, which is made up of everyday items that are disposed of by the public at home or on the go.
Dominic Hogg, chairman of Eunomia, said: “It’s great to see the ambition of the Welsh bearing fruit, with their recycling rates close to the top of the table. It’s embarrassing for England, which ... is standing still in terms of performance and dropping in the rankings as others continue to progress. We know that the public is concerned about the growing problem of waste, especially the way plastics are dealt with.”
Countries that made it into the top 10 had recycling rates of more than 50%. There were key themes and policies shared by those countries doing well on recycling.
These include:
Mandatory separate collection of key dry recyclable materials.Mandatory separate collection of bio waste.
Statutory targets for rates of recycling or the reduction of unrecycled waste.Pay-as-you-throw charges.Producer responsibility schemes, where producers fund the collection of key recyclables.Taxes on landfill.Deposit refund systems.
England only has two of these in place: a tax on landfill and separate collection of dry recyclable materials.
A Welsh government spokesperson said: “In the 20 years since devolution, Wales’s recycling rate has increased from just under 5% to 64%. We are well on track to meet our 70% target by 2025.
“Our success has been achieved through a comprehensive package of measures. These include statutory targets, funding, principled, progressive leadership and a firm commitment from local authorities and the Welsh public to reducing, reusing and recycling.
“We are always looking at how we can continue to improve. Earlier this year, Cabinet secretary Lesley Griffiths announced her plans to halve food waste by 2025. We are confident this is achievable thanks to the enthusiasm that exists in Wales to recycling.”
Gove has said a bottle deposit scheme is a great idea and called for views on setting one up.
But experts are concerned that with local council budgets facing further cuts and no sign of central government investment in improving recycling rates, England will continue to fail to raise levels of recycling.
The Recycling Association last week called for more responsibility throughout the supply chain to make recycling easier for the public.
Simon Ellin of the Recycling Association said: “Central government needs to put money into the system to make it work. Local authorities have been cut, they can’t afford to do a lot of the work around recycling, they aren’t doing the communicating with the public or the advertising. All that impacts on recycling rates.
“If the government is serious about waste recycling they need a coherent plan and they need to put the investment in.”
The report comes as local authorities face more challenges from an imminent ban by the Chinese government on importing household waste.
Experts say the higher cost of recycling could see some local authorities reducing collections and not collecting some plastics. |
Online learning continues to expand in Arab world | Online education is booming in the Arab-speaking world, with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) playing a key role for both youngsters and adults. Edraak, which reaches 1.4 million students worldwide, has partnered with Google to launch a platform aimed at helping the 13 million refugee children across the Middle East and North Africa. Meanwhile, companies including Saudi Arabian platform Rwaq, as well as rivals Nadrus and Dawrat, are offering MOOCs which allow companies to further develop their employees and fill gaps in education or skills training.
| https://www.wamda.com/2017/12/rise-moocs-education | 2017-12-11 13:05:06.853000 | In the past 10 years alone, tech invaded classrooms and played a crucial role in disrupting the way knowledge is consumed worldwide.
Benchmarking this with what’s happening in the edtech scene regionally, Arab innovators and educators are not standing still one bit. Success stories like online educational platform Rwaq, which has 1.9 million enrolments in 300 courses since it started four years ago, or big initiatives like The One Million Arab Coders launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum to train one million young Arabs on coding, reveal that the MENA region is well on its way to becoming an edtech leader.
The education industry started evolving much quicker following the era of the 3 Ws and online access to education got much easier. The launch of Khan Academy in 2006 was a leap towards a new way for consuming educational content called Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This online platform for educational tools offered people the chance to learn about different subjects outside of the typical classroom. Perhaps, this idea was an evolution of the 1953-televised courses that were introduced by the University of Houston.
It was from then onwards that many platforms started to find a safe ground to launch and flourish and even pivot.
In 2002, MIT started its OpenCourseWare project, which offered online course materials from its undergraduate curriculums for free to everyone.
In 2010, the first iPad was introduced to the market and adopted in a number of schools in the UK.
Global online courses platforms like Udacity and Coursera (2012) were launched to bridge the knowledge gap. The first raised $105 million in 2015, with a $1 billion valuation making it a unicorn company. Coursera, on the other hand, raised $64 million in June 2017, at an $800 million valuation.
Bill Gates visiting Khan Academy's offices. (Image via Khan Academy)
While we are yet to see such MOOC valuations in the Arab region, a number of initiatives are playing a leading role in educating people, in Arabic.
In 2014, Queen Rania Foundation for education development launched Edraak in Jordan, a MOOC platform that offers a variety of courses in Arabic.
Today, the platform has 1,400 new registered learners a day and is reaching over 1.4 million Arabic speaking learners from all over the world, and over two million fans on social media channels, according to Shireen Yacoub, CEO of Edraak. The platform features over 76 different courses in various topics. Edraak joined forces with Google.org to create an online educational platform for Arabic open educational resources (OERs), targeting K-12 students and their educators across the Middle East and North Africa region, said Yacoub.
“Today, an estimated 13 million MENA children, equivalent to 40 percent of the school age population, are missing out on education because of conflict and displacement. The refugee crisis has also strained existing education systems in host countries, like Jordan and Lebanon that have taken in large numbers of refugee students, compromising the quality of education offered to both local and refugee children,” she explained.
The content of the new platform will include videos, automated assessment tools, mini-games, and reading material.
Saudi Arabia’s Rwaq is one of the largest MOOC platforms in the Arab region. With 1.9 million enrolments in 300 courses since it started four years ago, Rwaq has been focusing on providing high quality Arabic content. “By far, technology courses are the most demanded. We had 50,000 enrolments in Java courses taught by Dr. Mohath Alkhalaf,” said cofounder Fouad Alfarhan. “It’s becoming clearer that nanodegrees/specialization programs are the most promising model. The initial model where student could take MOOC course and convert it into university hours is not working that well,” he commented on the evolution of MOOC usages, hinting at its role in building employees capacities. “The collaboration between MOOC platforms and corporates to create online educational programs is working well. Corporates might find MOOC platforms the best place to prepare their future employees or current ones.”
Perhaps this move is what the region needs, when over 22 percent of companies already use MOOCs to develop employees, added Yacoub pointing at the knowledge gaps currently seen across the MENA.
In order to roll out nanodegree programs, Alfarhan told Wamda that he is in the process of signing a sponsorship deal with an international organization and hoping the program will officially launch in December 2017.
Under the same goal, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in Saudi Arabia launched Doroob, in partnership with MOOC provider edX, to offer entrepreneurs the necessary tools to build sustainable businesses.
Nadrus and Dawrat are other MOOC examples from the Gulf. Dawrat offers movable educational workshops in different locations in Kuwait. The last one was at 360 Mall. “People would sign up online or even on the spot,” explained Dawrat cofounder Mohammad Al-Suraye. “Each room accommodated around 20 people. We had 15 workshops over three days and over 400 people overall.”
One of Dawrat's movable workshops at 360 mall. (Image via Dawrat)
Nadrus as a platform has served more than 600,000 learners over the past four years, with more than 200 Arabic courses (public and private) and serves over 100,000 registered users, according to cofounder and CEO Ahmad Fahad Al-Shagra.
When asked about the future vision of MOOC, Al-Shagra spoke about ‘Intajy’, their white-labeled cloud training engine, which includes personalized learning through artificial intelligence. He said that now they have colossal sums of data to teach their algorithms, and that they will be launching their gamified mobile application in Q1 2018. “SaaS is the best way ahead with Intajy leading the path in the region to empower Arabic skills training,” he added. They are working closely with ministries across the GCC region to scale their impact. “Emirates Driving Institute [...] uses Intajy.com as its official e-learning platform to deliver thousands of hours of training every month to their customers in Arabic, English, and Urdu.”
The DIY era
New tools and inventions are being put into practice to elevate the education process into a more enjoyable experience. The do-it-yourself approach started to gain traction as pocket-sized computer Raspberry Pi was launched in 2012. It included a wifi and a bluetooth connectivity, a MicroSD Card, a hard drive, and cables among other things.This kit taught the basics of computers and is used in robotics.
Award-winning startup littleBits was launched in 2011 by Lebanese-Canadian Ayah Bdeir. It is an open source library of electronic modules that snap together through magnets. It provides different types of kits, such as Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit, which topped the holiday toy list this year.
“Designers make tables and chairs, and now they’re designing DVD players and coffee makers and Nests. So they need to prototype with electronics; littleBits was a tool for prototyping. It was never really meant for kids,” explained Ayah Bdeir in an interview on how her startup changed its marketing strategy to target kids.
Serving the same purpose, The Little Engineer debuted in Beirut, Lebanon in 2009, and is now available in India, Singapore, Kenya, Nigeria and soon in the Gulf. This startup started by offering courses, kits, and workshops in science, technology, engineering, and maths to kids at their offices. Now, the startup is working with private schools in Lebanon by giving them the tools and curriculums, and is also training teachers on how to use them. This year, founder Rana El Chmaitelly started working with few public schools after getting the permission of the Ministry of Education.
“We work with a network of schools that has 20, 40, and 50 schools,” said El Chmaitelly in a chat with Wamda. Her plan is to expand within Lebanon, starting within Beirut and going to Bekaa, the Shouf and the North. “I can invest in a competition in China but that’s not my goal. I want to invest in my own country despite all the challenges. I prefer to use the money to equip a public or private school here,” she said.
Getting funds to buy the expensive material to build robots and get corporates to support education in the country are two key challenges she is currently facing. She believes the local education system is about to expire and needs to become more technologically advanced. Currently operating in the UAE, Jordan, Lebanon and soon in Kuwait, The Cosmic Dome is another example of a startup working in the edtech field. It installs domes of different sizes indoors or outdoors, to project educational subjects during events, marathons, or any national competition or activity. “The use of calculators in schools resulted in revising the math instruction methods in the 70s. I believe that the next trend will go for the immersive experiences, VR, and 3D printing,” said Mohamad Abbas, CEO of The Cosmic Dome. “The immersive experiences like the ones simulated inside a planetarium [a domed-building in which different types of data is visualized] allow learners to be immersed in the projected environment. As for the VR, I believe no student will have to physically go to school in the future as all classes would be delivered through a VR interface and it would virtually place them in an almost real classroom environment. Perhaps the most important advantage of using VR in the future would be saving the time learners take to travel to and from their schools and investing it in actual learning,” he explained.
Abbas is already working on installing his project in different schools and training teachers to use them. “Each school must have a small to average sized planetarium to fit an average of one class. The planetarium can be visited by science classes, art classes, music classes, and others.”Initiatives on a larger scale
When governments and big companies get more engaged in contributing to a better educational system, things move much quicker.
Smart Learning initiative, a program launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has an ongoing partnership with Microsoft Gulf. It includes equipping over 145 schools, 3,500 teachers, and 24,000 students with Windows-enabled devices that have built-in educational apps, according to Ahmed Ameen Ashour, head of education sector at Microsoft Gulf. The latter also signed an MoU with Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) to deploy Office 365 in schools, enabling around 150,000 students and 13,000 teachers to collaborate and innovate. It will also bring Bett MEA to Abu Dhabi for the second year, to gather education leaders and stakeholders and share case studies and best practices.
Ashour believes there are three main pillars for edtech. The first being immersive learning, “with VR advancements permeating industries across the world. VR can be implemented in gamified solutions, stimulating visualizations for picture storytelling, for performing lab experiments in physics, medical, astronomy, and biology. Wearing headsets, students would be able to clearly see how a chemical reaction takes place and form a new concentrated solution or the way rats breathe and perform the respiratory activities,” he clarified. He also has high hopes in gamification methods and cloud computing, which provides students with “a digital library and relief from heavy textbooks. Quality content is yet another milestone that has ignited a new trend in the edtech industry,” Ashour added.
HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has also launched The One Million Arab Coders initiative, to train one million young Arabs on coding.
“We expect an increase in e-learning and online training initiatives across the region simply because with online training the results are easily measurable, cheaper, and consistent from a quality perspective,” commented Al-shagra on the initiative launch. “We have seen some impressive breakthroughs in Arabic Speech Recognition from relatively small players in Jordan. Mobile learning and gamification with spaced repetition are becoming more reliable across the region.”
Her Excellency Dr. Sahar Nasr, the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation in Egypt and Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdul-Ghaffar, have recently signed a cooperation protocol to support university students studying entrepreneurship. It is part of an initiative called Fekretak Sherketak (‘Your Idea is Your Company’), which was launched in September 2017. It aims at connecting entrepreneurs with government entities and offering consultancy services and trainings. The agreement will allow university students to work in startups and receive technical training and financing.
A trip back in time
The introduction of education technology (edtech) goes back to the early twenties. The first teaching machine was patented in 1928 by Sidney Pressly. It had multiple-choice questions and moved when the student picked the right choice. In the early 1930s, IBM released an 805 test scoring machine, which was intended to read pencil marks left by students on exam papers and grade them.
In 1960, PLATO (programmed-logic for automatic teaching operations) was designed and built by the University of Illinois. It came with a television set and offered courses for students and certain local schools.
Between 1961 and 1968, a new program called The Flying Classroom started broadcasting on Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction as part of an educational program given to schools back then. Speak & Spell, a small electronic device with a visual display, came to life in 1978. It was the first of three-educational toys series: Speak & Read and Speak & Math. The toy helped kids aged up to seven years to learn spelling and pronouncing over 200 common misspelled words.
Also in 1978, Apple, which was already two years old, supplied Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium organization with 500 Apple Computers II in order to distribute them to schools. In 1981, BBC Microcomputer Systems was released. It consisted of a series of microcomputers mainly focusing on education, and was adopted by many schools in the UK. Ten years after, in 1991, the worldwide web era began on a global scale, and also spread to become a primary education tool.
It will take years for schools and universities to be entirely disrupted by technology, because digital transformation drastically changes the way they operate. It also touches upon the mindset of teachers and people in charge and how they are able to change kids’ mindset through technology. This means installing computers at schools would not be enough if students did not focus on the required skill sets. Yet, emerging countries regard this transformation as a competitive edge. We might not get rid of all school subjects any time soon, like Finland intends to do, but we’re making small steady steps towards that goal. |
Cancers in human tissue detected using electric currents | Researchers have discovered using scanning electrochemical microscopy can help in distinguishing cancerous tissue from healthy organs, according to a study in Angewandte Chemie. The paper revealed that brushing microelectrodes gently over thick tissue enabled the team to measure the electric currents produced by chemicals in the tissue, giving an idea of its structure. Study author Hubert Girault said it was possible to kill cancer cells using electrochemistry in a petri dish, but "doing so in thick tissue is another story".
| https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/08/researchers-electric-currents-detect-cancer-human/ | 2017-12-11 12:59:48.487000 | In a study published recently in Angewandte Chemie, researchers demonstrated that an imaging technique called scanning electrochemical microscopy could become a very useful medical tool. Rather than having to use additional chemicals like dyes or fluorescent markers to get a good look at tissue, this method uses electrochemical probes to detect natural biomolecules around the tissue.
In this study, the researchers used soft microelectrodes that were brushed gently across tissue samples. While it moved across them, it measured the electrical current produced by certain chemicals in the tissues to get an idea of the physical structure of that tissue as well as its composition. The team provided three separate demonstrations of this technique's use. In the first, it scanned mouse livers to show that a certain type of nanoribbon that's being studied as a potential drug delivery mechanism can be distributed throughout the liver. In the second, the probes measured hemoglobin proteins to get a full image of a mouse heart (the right side of the image above). And in another experiment, the researchers used the technique to show that it can accurately differentiate healthy human tissue from cancerous tissue.
In the future, the researchers would like to use this method to not only detect cancerous cells but also destroy them. "We are perfectly capable of using electrochemistry to kill cancer cells on microscope slides and in petri dishes," Hubert Girault, an author of the study, said in a statement, "but doing so in thick tissue is another story." |
Meat tax ‘inevitable’ within a decade says $4tn investor network | “Sin taxes” to limit the impact of meat consumption on climate change and human health are likely to be introduced within the next 10 years, according to analysis for the Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return Initiative, whose investors manage over $4tn in assets. The livestock sector, which is seeing meat consumption increase worldwide, causes 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Excessive meat consumption also contributes to issues such as water pollution and antibiotic resistance. Denmark, Germany and Sweden have already considered meat taxes, while China’s government decreased its recommended meat consumption by 45% last year. | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/11/meat-tax-inevitable-to-beat-climate-and-health-crises-says-report | 2017-12-11 12:42:08.440000 | “Sin taxes” on meat to reduce its huge impact on climate change and human health look inevitable, according to analysts for investors managing more than $4tn of assets.
The global livestock industry causes 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and meat consumption is rising around the world, but dangerous climate change cannot be avoided unless this is radically curbed. Furthermore, many people already eat far too much meat, seriously damaging their health and incurring huge costs. Livestock also drive other problems, such as water pollution and antibiotic resistance.
A new analysis from the investor network Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (Fairr) Initiative argues that meat is therefore now following the same path as tobacco, carbon emissions and sugar towards a sin tax, a levy on harmful products to cut consumption. Meat taxes have already been discussed in parliaments in Germany, Denmark and Sweden, the analysis points out, and China’s government has cut its recommended maximum meat consumption by 45% in 2016.
“If policymakers are to cover the true cost of human epidemics like obesity, diabetes and cancer, and livestock epidemics like avian flu, while also tackling the twin challenges of climate change and antibiotic resistance, then a shift from subsidisation to taxation of the meat industry looks inevitable,” said Jeremy Coller, the founder of Fairr and the chief investment officer at the private equity firm Coller Capital. “Far-sighted investors should plan ahead for this day.”
Maria Lettini, director of Fairr, said: “As implementation of the Paris climate agreement progresses we’re highly likely to see government action to reduce the environmental impact of the global livestock sector. On the current pathway we may well see some form of meat tax emerge within five to 10 years.”
Nations begin to implement sin taxes as consensus forms over the harm caused by the product, the analysis notes, and today more than 180 jurisdictions tax tobacco, more than 60 tax carbon emissions, and at least 25 tax sugar.
The first global analysis of meat taxes done in 2016 found levies of 40% on beef, 20% on dairy products and 8.5% on chicken would save half a million lives a year and slash climate warming emissions. Proposals in Denmark suggested a tax of $2.70 per kilogram of meat.
Meat taxes are often seen as politically impossible but research by Chatham House in 2015 found they are far less unpalatable to consumers than governments think. It showed people expect governments to lead action on issues that are for the global good, but that awareness of the damage caused by the livestock industry is low. Using meat tax revenues to subsidise healthy foods is one idea touted to reduce opposition.
“It’s only a matter of time before agriculture becomes the focus of serious climate policy,” said Rob Bailey at Chatham House. “The public health case will likely strengthen government resolve, as we have seen with coal and diesel. It’s hard to imagine concerted action to tax meat today, but over the course of the next 10 to 20 years, I would expect to see meat taxes accumulate.”
Marco Springmann, at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food at the University of Oxford, said: “Current levels of meat consumption are not healthy or sustainable. The costs associated with each of those impacts could approach the trillions in the future. Taxing meat could be a first and important step.”
The need for a high meat tax could be reduced if breakthrough technologies emerge to drastically cut the emissions from livestock, said Lettini, but none exist today. Another, more promising option is the nascent but fast-growing industry in plant-based meat alternatives, such as the meat-free Impossible burger. Bill Gates has invested, and major meat and dairy companies are now piling in with investments and acquisitions.
“There are huge opportunities in the market,” said Lettini. “If we can start replacing meat protein with plant-based protein that has the same look, taste and feel as meat, where real red-blooded meat eaters are happy to dig into a burger that is plant-based, we are changing the world.” |
Apple R&D chief reports on progress with self-driving car tech | In an uncharacteristically open move, Apple has outlined its progress regarding self-driving car technology. At a recent presentation, AI research director Ruslan Salakhutdinov discussed onboard cameras that estimate the position of pedestrians hidden behind parked cars, as well as car sensors that constantly develop detailed 3D maps, providing direction to cars through simultaneous localisation and mapping. Apple's secrecy has contributed to its recent difficulties in attracting top AI researchers, who are accustomed to the industry recognition they would gain at companies such as Facebook and Google. This move towards a more open approach is perhaps a recognition of this fact.
| https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/10/apple-ai-chief-offers-glimpse-at-self-driving-car-progress/ | 2017-12-11 12:16:42.003000 | After remaining tight-lipped for years, Apple is now more than eager to share how much progress it's making on self-driving car technology. AI research director Ruslan Salakhutdinov made a presentation this week that revealed more of what the company's autonomous driving team has been up to. Some of the talk was familiar, but there were a few new examples of how far the fledgling project had come.
To start, Apple has crafted a system that uses onboard cameras to identify objects even in tricky situations, such as when raindrops cover the lens. It can estimate the position of a pedestrian even if they're hidden by a parked car. Other additions included giving cars direction through simultaneous localization and mapping, creating detailed 3D maps using car sensors and decision-making in urgent situations (say, a wayward pedestrian).
It's still not certain if or how Apple will commercialize its self-driving know-how. At the moment, its next goal is to produce driverless employee shuttles. The company isn't currently expected to sell its own cars, but licensing its work to others would be unusual when Apple is well-known for preferring to develop everything in-house.
The talk in itself is notable. Apple has been slowly opening the kimono on its AI research, but it hasn't been clear on just how much it was willing to discuss. Salakhutdinov's chat shows that it's willing to offer at least some kind of consistent openness rather than maintaining its legendary secrecy. Not that it has much of a choice. Apple has struggled to attract AI talent in part because its secretive approach has been unappealing for researchers used to receiving academic and industry recognition. Presentations like this could keep Apple's AI team in the spotlight and reel in scientists who'd otherwise go to Facebook, Google or tech giants. |
San Francisco imposes strict rules on use of delivery robots | Authorities in San Francisco have approved new regulations for the use of autonomous delivery robots within the city. Under the rules, delivery robots will be restricted to travelling at 3 mph, their travel routes will be limited to sparsely-populated industrial areas and they will need to be accompanied by a human supervisor. While more permissive than the initially proposed outright ban, the Association for Advancing Automation Association's Bob Doyle argued the regulations are far too restrictive, saying they "drastically slow down the process of testing and the potential for these being put into [use before] the general public". | https://futurism.com/san-francisco-approves-tight-regulations-delivery-robots/ | 2017-12-11 11:58:52.477000 | Express Delivery
Delivery robots are still a rare sight in the U.S., but that might not be the case for much longer. In order to get ahead of the game, authorities in San Francisco have passed new regulations that will control their usage.
Companies will be limited to three robots each, only nine of which will be allowed to traverse the whole city. These limits were put in place by new rules enacted by San Francisco's board of supervisors. Furthermore, the activity of these robots will be limited to industrial areas where there aren't many people around.
The regulations also state that the machines are not permitted to travel at more than three miles per hour, and must be accompanied by a human supervisor at all times. Bob Doyle, a spokesman for the Association for Advancing Automation Association, compared these restrictions to the early days of automotive vehicles where cars had to be preceded by a person carrying a flag.
“To put such a strict limit on these types of autonomous delivery vehicles drastically slows down the process of testing and the potential for these being put into (use before) the general public,” Doyle told the San Francisco Chronicle.
If delivery robots are ever to enter widespread use, it's vitally important that they have been tested at length, and in similar conditions to those that they'll ultimately be working in. It's being argued that these restrictions are short-sighted, as they could prevent companies from perfecting these machines through that kind of rigorous, real-world testing.
The original proposal submitted by supervisor Norman Yee set out to ban the robots outright. The ban was proposed to prevent the robots from overcrowding sidewalks, similar to previously proposed bans pertaining to Segways and bicycles.
Machines Among Us
Automation and artificial intelligence give various industries new opportunities when it comes to their workforce. This will change the job market for humans, but it's also set to have a wider impact on society.
For instance, if a delivery robot causes an accident, who is to blame? Responsibility would likely fall to the company that owns it, but there isn't the direct culpability that would apply to an individual. Without the proper means of compelling the owners of these robots to prioritize public safety, putting limitations on their usage might be the best idea.
San Francisco is something of an outlier when it comes to its restrictions of delivery robots. Elsewhere in California, including the Bay Area, Redwood City, San Carlos, Sunnyvale, and Concord, pilot programs have been approved. While further afield, other states, including Idaho, Wisconsin, Virginia, Florida, and Ohio, have all given their blessing for robots traversing city streets, too.
Integrating robots and other automated workers into our society will offer up all kinds of moral and ethical dilemmas. This technology stands to contribute a wide range of benefits to our society, but we'll need to carefully plan the unleashing of robots in our cities if we want to walk peacefully beside them on the sidewalk. |
Redrow Droitwich Tennis Club gains more young members with Redrow sponsorship | Droitwich Tennis Club has seen a 27% uptake in children taking up tennis in the 18 months since a sponsorship deal with Redrow begun. The club now works with around 200 children across eight local schools, with almost 50 children taking up a tennis course through after-school clubs. Redrow sales director (Midlands) Pauline Turnbull said they were delighted at the increased turnout, saying "it’s organisations like Droitwich Tennis Club that help create a sense of community and make the neighbourhood somewhere people really want to live”.
| https://droitwichstandard.co.uk/news/redrow-sponsorship-deal-for-droitwich-tennis-club-sees-27-per-cent-rise-in-youngsters-taking-up-the-sport/ | 2017-12-11 11:54:59.777000 | A PARTNERSHIP between Droitwich Tennis Club and Redrow Homes has led to a large increase in the number of youngsters playing tennis in the town.
The two-year sponsorship deal for the club is now in its second year and has helped coaches promote the sport among young people with 27 per cent more youngsters taking up tennis in the last 18 months.
Droitwich Tennis Club now works with around 200 children aged five to 18 across eight schools, including dedicated sessions to encourage teenage girls to be active.
The club was recently shortlisted by the Hereford and Worcester Sports Partnership for the Community Club of The Year Award.
Club chairman Neil Bates said the sponsorship deal worked really well as the funding allowed the club to plan courses months in advance and enabled schools to add sessions into their timetables.
“This in turn gives school reassurance that we are around and encouraging their pupils to take part.”
He added some schools had paid for extra sessions to keep training going throughout the whole school year and almost 50 children had also taken up the course through after school clubs.
The last six-week course encouraging teenage girls to play tennis attracted 21 participants.
Pauline Turnbull, Redrow Homes (Midlands) sales director, said: “It’s organisations like Droitwich Tennis Club that help create a sense of community and make the neighbourhood somewhere people really want to live.”
She added the results were testament to the hard work and dedication of all involved and it was great the company’s sponsorship had helped make a difference.
Email [email protected] or visit www.droitwichtennis.co.uk for more on Droitwich Tennis Club. |
Lemonade's third-party partners don't need insurance licences | Adopters of insurtech Lemonade's API will most likely not require an insurance licence to adopt the firm's offerings as an add-on service. The US-based firm says a few state regulators have raised issues surrounding licencing, and confirmed it has processes in place to make sure commissions are not paid to unlicensed parties. The firm received enormous interest in its API when it launched, with more than 400 applicants in the first 24 hours. It now says it is using an automated system to whittle down the list. | https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2017/12/11/473629.htm | 2017-12-11 11:43:11.287000 | Digital insurer Lemonade says companies that integrate its insurance sales platform, or API, into their own apps and web sites “generally speaking do not have to be licensed as insurance agents or brokers.”
At the same time, the insurer said it recognizes that rules may vary by state and it knows it may have to vary its program in some cases as it expands around the country.
“We have a carefully developed a thorough program of compliance that is designed to ensure that we do not pay commissions to unlicensed persons and to forbid those who integrate with our APIs from selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance,” the company said in response to questioning by Insurance Journal. “A few key state regulators have raised these issues with us but after we reveal the factual details of our program, they have been satisfied,”
The question of whether firms that use the insurer’s API need to be licensed arose after Lemonade reported it had launched a public API (application programming interface), allowing other businesses and organizations to offer its renters and home insurance policies through their apps or web sites.
A few weeks later, Lemonade reported that more than 400 businesses had applied within the first 24 hours of it offering to make its sales platform widely available. More than 40 percent were firms related to real estate and another 28 percent were in financial services.
The company told Insurance Journal that it is rolling out the API program slowly, using an automated system to distinguish among applicants. It is using various criteria to determine which businesses to work with including the target markets of the businesses applying, whether they are in the seven states where Lemonade currently sells insurance and whether offering renters and home insurance is compatible with their focus.
Questions Raised
Insurance Journal editors received several inquiries and several readers posted online comments on the issue of licensing. A number of responders maintained that if the API adopters are selling or being paid, they must be licensed. Lemonade says it is taking measures to assure the adopters are not selling insurance and that they are not receiving commissions if they are unlicensed.
Insurance departments in New York, Texas and California told Insurance Journal they are aware of Lemonade’s plan and are looking into the details.
State agent association leaders are in a similar position of awaiting more details. One executive said he thought that if there is no payment for the referrals or clicks, no license is needed. Another likened it to simply advertising on the site. One said it would even be alright for Lemonade to pay a referral fee for every lead but that it can’t offer a fee only for referrals that result in a purchase.
Lemonade said the documentation on its developer web site provides rules and guidance in keeping with its approach of not paying commissions.
New York-based Lemonade is a licensed carrier that is currently offering renters, condo and homeowners insurance in New York, California, New Jersey, and Nevada; renters and condo insurance in Texas and Rhode Island; and renters insurance in Illinois and Ohio.
Under the API program, real estate brokers and landlords can deploy the Lemonade API to offer renters insurance to their customers after they select the apartment they want to rent.
Lemonade also sells coverage for what it calls “stuff”—cameras, bikes and other items. In these cases, if someone buys a bike, the Lemonade message to buy insurance for the new wheels would pop up on the buyer’s screen at the time of purchase.
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Cyber insurance could spur on ransomware attackers | An increased adoption of cyber insurance could be encouraging hackers employing ransomware to target victims, security company WatchGuard has argued. The security firm argues hackers may intentionally select victims with cyber protection in place, knowing insurance policies often pay out fees to redeem data stolen during a ransomware attack. WatchGuard also questions whether some insurers will start tightening policy requirements or necessitate clients are audited before coverage is put in place. | https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2017/12/11/cyber-insurance-fuelling-ransomware/ | 2017-12-11 11:41:39.167000 | Researchers at security company WatchGuard have warned that cyber insurance risks fuelling an increase in ransomware. The researchers highlight mandatory breach disclosure as one of the drivers for increased cyber insurance. Companies are increasingly aware of the damage a breach notification can do to their business. As such, they are rightly taking out cyber insurance policies. Those policies not only offer recompense when an incident occurs but also offer to pay for the recovery of data.
According to Corey Nachreiner, CTO at WatchGuard Technologies: “We find it concerning that insurers sometimes pay ransoms to recover their customers’ data. While we understand the business decision, insurers currently have no long-term actuarial data for cyber incidents and ransomware. It is possible that paying ransoms will encourage this criminal business model and increase the number of incidents insurers have to handle or the cost of ransoms.”
What’s wrong with insurers paying out?
Insurers have long provided cover for the recovery of goods and people. Kidnap and ransom policies are common place and cover kidnap, extortion, wrongful detention and hijacking. Some insurers even have their own teams or use specialist, often ex-military contractors to do the recovery before they pay. There is no evidence that K&R insurance has led to any real increase in incidents.
WatchGuard is taking a different view when those services are extended to ransomware. They believe that savvy cybercriminals will seek to exploit those companies with cyber insurance. They will become priority targets as the cybercriminals will be sure of a payday.
Very few cyber insurance policies require an organisation to be audited before the policy is agreed. ET looked at 7 different cyber insurance policies. There was no need to provide any list of security software or policies in force. Nor was there a process that would have led to agents for the insurance companies vetting IT security. This means that there is a significant risk of smaller organisations relying on cyber insurance rather than tightening their security.
The question that this raises is “will insurance companies tighten up their policy requirements?”
Nachreiner continued: “We expect SMBs to continue to adopt extortion insurance in 2018 but cyber insurance should not replace security controls and best practices. We predict that insurance providers will start to implement guidelines that require companies to have strong security controls in place as a prerequisite. When combined with other layers of security, cyber insurance is a great addition to your cyber security strategy.”
What does this mean?
Business are required to hold a number of different types of insurance by law. Adding cyber insurance cover makes sense given how dependent businesses are on technology. SMEs are in a cost crunch. They cannot afford to compete for good quality cybersecurity staff. Many struggle to recruit and retain skilled IT staff. This means that their cybersecurity stance poses a limited challenge for experienced hackers.
With GDPR on the way and greater breach disclosure requirements across all businesses, many know they need a solution. Paying for a cyber insurance policy makes sense. One of the drivers for SMEs moving to the cloud is to get someone else to do their cybersecurity. Paying an insurance company to recovery both their data and their reputation also makes sense. After all, why pay £30K plus for an internal IT security person when a smaller payment to the insurer will make the whole thing go away.
The problem here is that neither moving to the cloud or buying cyber insurance relieves a company of its legal duty. It will be interesting to see if an increase in pay-outs occurs during 2018 and how the insurance industry, especially post GDPR, responds. |
ZhongAn establishes offshore arm with eye on global expansion | China's largest online-only insurer ZhongAn has sown a seed to expand internationally, establishing an offshore arm.The offshore venture, which is being established in partnership with Hong Kong-based Sinolink Worldwide Holdings, has been established to allow for greater investments in global financial and insurance technology. The move is reportedly in response to China's “Belt and Road Initiative” which encourages Chinese companies to expand globally.
| http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2123718/zhongan-forms-offshore-arm-sinolink-bets-fintech-insurtech | 2017-12-11 11:38:38.520000 | China’s biggest online-only insurer says the establishment of its new offshore arm is a response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative |
Redrow Redrow releases final phase of homes in Leicestershire | The final phase of homes in Redrow's Park View development in Leicestershire have been released, along with a selection of three and four-bed properties in the popular Coventry Park development in Hinckley. The final phase at View Point has been eagerly anticipated, as the cost-saving benefits of the properties' built-in solar panels have particularly helped the development become a hit with buyers. Sales director for Redrow (Midlands) Pauline Turnbull notes that, with up to 8 homes in any one month being sold, "It is no exaggeration to say we expect these homes to fly".
| https://www.easier.com/137654-redrow-on-the-home-straight-in-hinckley.html | 2017-12-11 11:11:00.890000 | Redrow on the home straight in Hinckley
Homebuilder Redrow has released the final phase of its Park View development in Leicestershire.
A selection of three and four-bedroom properties has been launched to complete the popular Coventry Road development in Hinckley.
Park View has been a particular hit with eco-focused home buyers because of each one of its homes having been built with photovoltaic solar panels included to help owners save money and energy.
And, with up to eight homes sold in any one month, Pauline Turnbull, sales director for Redrow Homes (Midlands) says the remaining homes are expected to sell out soon.
“All of Redrow’s homes are energy efficient but, with the solar panels at Park View, these properties are even more so – which is especially noticeable at this time of year when the cold weather sets in and we all start turning the thermostat up on the central heating,” says Pauline.
“But it’s not just their energy efficiency that makes them appealing. Park View’s properties are all from our Heritage Collection with charming, traditional exteriors combined with stylish and modern interiors – so they’re not only attractive to the pocket but the eye too.”
Bearing in mind their popularity already and their many plus-points, the final phase has been eagerly awaited and Pauline admits: “It is no exaggeration to say we expect these homes to fly.
“It is the final instalment of a sought-after development on which we have seen rapid sales. The fact that this will be people’s last opportunity to join what is becoming a great community means they are likely to sell quicker than ever.”
Homes are priced from £249,995, and among them is the stylish Shrewsbury detached property. A substantial family home, the Shrewsbury boasts a layout that’s as fabulous as it’s functional with a kitchen and dining area at the rear of the home, complemented by a utility and cloakroom, and a separate lounge and integral garage.
Upstairs are four good-sized bedrooms – the master of which has an en-suite – and a family bathroom.
House hunters wishing to view a Shrewsbury can visit Redrow’s Amington Garden Village in nearby Tamworth, where there is one as a show home, fully furnished and expertly decorated to demonstrate its full potential.
Close to Clarendon Park, the new homes at Park View are within walking distance of Hinckley town centre and the local train station, offering commuter links to Leicester, Birmingham, Coventry and, even, London.
For more information, visit the show homes, open Thursday to Monday inclusive from 10am to 5.30pm. For the latest availability and pricing log onto redrow.co.uk/parkview. |
Man Group introduces first onshore Chinese fund | Man Group has launched its first onshore fund in China, aimed at accredited Chinese investors. The hedge fund has introduced the fund via its wholly owned Chinese subsidiary, Man Investment Management, based in Shanghai. The fund will tap into the expertise of Man's quantitative team, Man AHL. The offering aims to follow a systematic trend-following strategy and seeks to be uncorrelated to traditional assets. The fund will focus on liquid onshore markets, in particular, listed futures relating to agricultural and industrial commodities, bonds, metals, energy and stock indices.
| https://www.hedgeweek.com/2017/12/11/259178/man-group-launches-first-onshore-investment-strategy-china | 2017-12-11 11:01:13.670000 | Man Group has launched its first onshore investment strategy for qualified investors in China. The new investment strategy will leverage the experience of Man AHL, Man Group’s diversified quantitative investment management business, to harness market trends across a range of liquid markets in China.
The new investment strategy is systematic trend following in its approach, and aims to be uncorrelated with traditional portfolios. Managed by Man AHL’s Shanghai-based investment professionals, the strategy seeks to identify and capture market trends across diverse liquid onshore markets, focusing initially on listed futures including agricultural commodities, industrial commodities, bonds, metals, energy and stock indices. Founded in 1987, Man AHL is a pioneer in systematic investment management, trading over 600 markets and managing assets for institutional and private clients globally.
Man Group’s first onshore investment strategy is launched by Man Investment Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) incorporated by Man Group in Huangpu District, Shanghai, following successful registration with the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) as a private securities investment fund manager (PFM) in September 2017. ICBC will act as custodian to the fund, with Guotai Junan Securities providing administration and brokerage services.
Yifei Li, Chair of Man Group China, says: “As China’s fund management industry continues to go from strength to strength, we are pleased to launch our first onshore investment strategy for qualified local investors. The strategy leverages Man AHL’s 30 years of quantitative investing expertise, combining this with our local investment capabilities to serve the needs of Chinese investors.”
Tim Wong, Chair of Man Group Asia, says: “We are truly excited about the rapid pace of the development of China’s financial markets and the investment opportunities they represent. I am delighted that we are bringing our first onshore quantitative strategy to the market, which taps into the strength of our research and investment capabilities. We aim to deliver other innovative solutions to serve our clients’ investment needs in the future.” |
Third autonomous shipping test bed opens in Norway | International technology group Kongsberg has established a new test bed for autonomous shipping in Norway, the third facility of its kind to open in the country. The new area, off the coast near Horten, has been specially designated for autonomous trials involving Norwegian and international organisations by the Norwegian Maritime Administration and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. Egil Haugsdal, Kongsberg Maritime president, said that now the autonomous technology had been proven, the industry was looking toward regulation. | http://www.scandoil.com/moxie-bm2/news/spot_news/new-norwegian-autonomous-shipping-test-bed-opens.shtml | 2017-12-11 10:20:27.667000 | Edit page New page Hide edit links
The ODIN USV and a working scale model of the YARA Birkeland all-electric, autonomous container vessel were on the water for the opening event (photo: Kongsberg Maritime)
An official autonomous shipping test-bed has been opened in Horten, on the coast of Norway. Established to support the growth in development of new solutions for autonomous maritime operations, the new area is open to both Norwegian and international organisations, and is designed to be a convenient, safe, non-congested space to trial new technology and vessels.
The area is specially designated for autonomous trials by the Norwegian Maritime Administration and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. Maritime autonomy pioneer KONGSBERG has worked closely with the town of Horten, DNV GL, FFI (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment) and the University College of South East Norway, to establish the new test-bed, which is situated adjacent to Kongsberg Maritime’s Horten facility.
Building on Norway’s position within the burgeoning autonomous shipping segment, the test-bed is the third of its kind in the country and only the fourth such approved area in the world. Its introduction follows the opening of the world’s first autonomous shipping test-bed in September 2016, which was supported by KONGSBERG and located on the Trondheimsfjord in Norway.
The test-beds in Trondheim and Horten are an important resource for KONGSBERG’s on-going development of technology for ground-breaking projects such as the YARA Birkeland all electric, autonomous container ship, the Hrönn, autonomous offshore support vessel and marine robotics technology. These and other autonomous vessel projects are set to transform many aspects of shipping and offshore operations, by introducing safer, more environmentally friendly and cost-effective modes of transport and working at sea.
KONGSBERG’s use of the fjord at Horten for safe autonomous vessel testing during 2017 has been integral to the area receiving its official status as a test-bed. In August, KONGSBERG and FFI demonstrated high-speed autonomous obstacle avoidance using the ODIN Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) fitted with the cutting-edge K-Mate autonomy controller solution. In November, the GEBCO-NF Alumni Team’s entry to the USD 7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE underwent Technology Readiness Tests in the area. The team’s unique SEA-KIT USV/AUV concept uses the K-Mate solution for surface navigation and tracking of a KONGSBERG HUGIN AUV.
“With critical developments in maritime autonomy technology and software taking place at Kongsberg Maritime in Horten, the location of the new test-bed will support a number of ground-breaking technology projects,” says Egil Haugsdal, President, Kongsberg Maritime. “The move towards greater autonomy at sea has the potential to transform maritime operations and while the technology has now been proven, we look towards the regulations. Establishment of these test-beds are an important step, as it shows close co-operation between the people making the technology and vessels and the organisations developing the rules that will allow them to operate.” |
Robots must disrupt more jobs if they are to benefit economies | New technology needs to cause more disruption to jobs if the economy is to benefit, according to two US researchers. Robert Atkinson and John Wu of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation used US labour market statistics to show that the current jobs market is very stable compared with the 1950s, which saw a highly disruptive period as a result of increased automation in the manufacturing sector. A lack of similarly revolutionary technologies in recent years has damaged productivity, the researchers argue. | https://qz.com/1146747/robots-arent-killing-jobs-fast-enough-and-we-should-be-worried/?mc_cid=8ad9f8c6cf&mc_eid=222ba8be72 | 2017-12-11 10:16:42.447000 | Never has there been more discussion of the disruption of work and, by some measures, never has there been less disruption.
It could be the calm before the AI-aided storm. It could also be a sign of a stagnating American economy.
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“Take a deep breath and calm down,” write the authors of a recent study on how technology will impact jobs. Futurists and Silicon Valley-types worried about robots and artificial intelligence taking over for humans are overly alarmed, they say, adding that it is misleading when people like the World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab say that “the speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent.”
In fact, data show that the US labor market is the calmest it has been in more than 160 years. The problem is there is not enough disruption. If anything, we need more jobs destroyed.
That argument, made by Robert Atkinson and John Wu of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank promoting policies that spur innovation, is against the grain.
They make a compelling case
Their belief that we are in an age of stagnation, not disruption, is based on a decade-by-decade analysis of how quickly occupations have been appearing and disappearing since 1850. The methodology involves summing up the share of percentage increase or decrease in the number of jobs in every occupation category, as defined by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, to find the total percentage of jobs created and destroyed. By this method, the 1950s was an extremely disruptive period, with a job-churn rate at a 20th-century high of 37%.
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While the types of jobs people did changed drastically from 1950 to 1970, very little changed from 2000 to 2015. The rate in the 2000s was an all-time low of 14%, and thus far, the 2010s are even lower, at 6%.
Job disruption in late 19th and 20th centuries was mostly attributable to the introduction of agricultural technologies that reduced the need for farm workers. The number of household workers also declined as low-cost appliances like washing machines and vacuum cleaners replaced domestic help. Jobs in manufacturing and the service sector replaced these jobs.
Today, the composition of jobs is relatively stagnant. Atkinson and Wu say this is because true innovation is at an ebb. New digital technologies are impressive, the authors say, but not nearly as revolutionary as the changes that arose from widely available electricity and steel in the 1890s, and the electromechanical technologies that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s that greatly increased manufacturing efficiency. The lack of new technology has hurt labor productivity, the researchers argue, and it is one of the reasons wages have risen so little since 1980. We need policies to promote disruptive new technologies like those used by Uber and Amazon.
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It may still be worth preparing for the worst
Andrew Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union, says Atkinson and Wu’s argument is thought provoking, yet it is no reason to stop being worried about the future. “There are an enormous number of academics and people creating the future who think this could be a big problem,” Stern told Quartz.
We should take those people seriously, he believes, and at the very least “plan for the scenario” where the job apocalypse arises. Stern also points out that the study does not take into account the falling number of working-age people who have jobs, the falling share of US GDP that goes to workers, and the rising number of jobs that are insecure—most of the job growth since 2005 has been in temporary positions or independent contracting.
Ethan Pollack, an economist at the Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative, shares Stern’s belief that it is worth preparing for the worst. Pollack says there is evidence that certain technologies, like AI, could take off and have a massive effects on jobs. The US is not good at helping workers get back on their feet, so this kind of job destruction would have devastating effects.
“It’s been decades since the waves of automation and outsourcing hit the manufacturing communities in the Rust Belt,” Pollack told Quartz. “And we’re still dealing with the fallout from that.” |
ExxonMobil reduces energy required for production of ethylene | Scientists at ExxonMobil and Spain's Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica have developed a new material capable of separating ethylene from ethane - known as cryogenic distillation - at room temperature, potentially reducing the energy required for the process by a quarter. The researchers used ITQ-55, a silica zeolite with a heart-shaped structure, which acted like a chemical sieve, for the ethylene molecules. The teams said more work is needed to fully understand the potential of the zeolite material. | https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/petrochemicals/11122017/exxonmobil-and-itq-make-ethylene-breakthrough/ | 2017-12-11 10:16:18.537000 | Scientists from ExxonMobil and the Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica (ITQ) in Valencia, Spain, have discovered a new material that could significantly reduce the amount of energy and emissions associated with the production of ethylene. Depending on the application, use of the new material in conjunction with other novel separation processes could result in up to a 25% reduction in both the energy needed for ethylene separation, as well as associated carbon dioxide emissions.
Ethylene is a critical component in producing chemicals and plastics. Finding alternative, low-energy technologies to separate ethylene from ethane has been a longstanding challenge due to their similar properties. While chemical manufacturers have evaluated a number of alternatives to cryogenic distillation, including new adsorbents and separation processes, many of these technologies are hindered by low selectivity and an inability to regenerate when exposed to contaminants.
The researchers found that the new material, composed of a uniquely-structured silica zeolite, can be used in gas separation processes (such as the recovery of ethylene from ethane) with an unprecedented degree of selectivity at ambient temperature. The material could provide insights into the design of additional materials to be used as adsorbents or membranes in a variety of gas separation applications associated with chemical manufacturing. Zeolites are porous materials frequently used as adsorbents and catalysts in chemical processes.
The patented material, ITQ-55, is able to selectively adsorb ethylene over ethane as a result of its flexible pore structure. Built from heart-shaped cages interconnected by flexible elongated pore openings, the material allows the diffusion of the flatter ethylene molecules as opposed to the more cylindrical-shaped ethane molecules. The new material acts as a flexible molecular sieve.
Additional research must be conducted before the material can be considered for larger-scale demonstration and commercialisation. Fundamental research will continue focusing on incorporating the material into a membrane and developing additional novel materials for gas separation.
“Our ultimate goal of actually replacing cryogenic distillation is a long-term challenge that will require many more years of research and testing, in and out of the lab,” said Gary Casty, section head for catalysis at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co. “Our next steps will focus on better understanding the full potential of this new zeolite material.”
Chemical plants account for about 8% of global energy demand and about 15% of the projected growth in demand to 2040. As global populations and living standards continue to rise, demand for auto parts, housing materials, electronics and other products made from plastics and other petrochemicals will continue to grow. Improving industrial efficiency is part of ExxonMobil’s mission to meet the world’s growing need for energy while minimising environmental impacts. |
Proptech Compass wins $450m Softbank investment | The SoftBank Vision Fund has invested $450m into proptech Compass. The investment brings Compass's total capital raised to $775m, with other investors in the business including the LeFrak Organisation, Goldman Sachs and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Commenting on the investment, Compass CEO and co-founder Robert Reffkin said: "Compass is on the path to be the largest owner of real estate data globally and the number one real estate technology company in the world."
| https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/07/softbank-invests-450-million-in-real-estate-tech-company-compass.html | 2017-12-11 10:07:10.017000 | Real estate technology firm Compass announced on Thursday it's getting an investment of $450 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund.
The infusion from the $93 billion venture vehicle — whose backers include the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund — brings Compass' total capital raise to $775 million.
Other Compass investors include Goldman Sachs , outgoing American Express CEO Ken Chenault, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and major property developer The LeFrak Organization, run by billionaire Richard LeFrak.
Robert Reffkin, co-founder and CEO at Compass, told CNBC shortly after the announcement that the company is much more than a real estate company because it's "powering the best of technology."
"Compass is on the path to be the largest owner of real estate data, globally, and the No. 1 real estate technology company in the world," Reffkin said on "Squawk Box."
"We have our own in-house technology team that's building an end-to-end platform for agents to run and manage every part of their business," he said. "Is Amazon a store? Is Tesla a car? I think that distinction is getting a little fuzzier."
Reffkin was chief of staff to Gary Cohn when Cohn was the No. 2 executive at Goldman. Cohn is currently a top economic advisor to President Donald Trump as director of the National Economic Council. |
VetWare uses genomics to boost milk yields for Indian farmers | Indian veterinary technology firm VetWare hopes to help Indian farmers increase their milk yields by integrating genetic data into dairy farming processes. VetWare has developed a mobile app called Herdman, which combines intelligent tracking with genomics big data to enable farmers to capture cattle data on weight, health and milk yields. It's hoped that such low-cost data solutions will help India close the gap with countries such as the USA, which has long used genetics data to improve breeding programmes and raise milk productivity. VetWare aims to apply the QR-based Herdman to one million cattle within two years.
| https://factordaily.com/connected-cow-india-dairy-genomics-big-data/ | 2017-12-11 09:58:03.037000 | Around 200 milk farmers from Indapur village, some 140 km southeast of Pune in Maharashtra, and surrounding areas are sitting under a pink-and-white shamiana on a sunny, winter afternoon in November. It is an awareness workshop for what data tracking and genomics can do for milk farming but the buzz is more around when dairies will raise milk procurement prices.
As veteran veterinarian Abdul Samad strides to the stage to address the gathering, some in the crowd are expecting a political speech. Dr Samad doesn’t disappoint. He starts with stagnant milk prices but quickly segues into a solution within the reach of farmers: “Stop agitating about milk prices and start focusing on improving productivity and profits. Have you ever cared for where the bull semen is coming from when you do artificial insemination for your cattle?”
The switch from politics to semen quality is a hard swerve and there are amused murmurs in the audience.
But, reality stares them in the face.
Milk prices in India rose three times in the decade to 2015 but have plateaued since. This has led to Indian diaries and the farmers they procure milk from looking for solutions to rein in costs and at the same time raise milk output from their bovines. For a country that produces some 155 million tonnes of milk a year, the big question is how to increase the productivity of the Indian cow from the current average of 1,200 litres a year to averages in countries such as the US and Israel: around 3,500 litres annually. (One litre of milk is approximately 1 kg; it takes 1,000 milk litres to weigh a tonne.)
“Even a small shop owner keeps all the records, data. Where is your cattle data,” asks Dr Samad, who retired as dean of Bombay Veterinary College in 2010.
With more than four decades of work behind him, the vet knows what he’s talking about. In 2002, Samad, along with a software engineer Prashant Murdeshwar, co-founded a company called VetWare. It now offers a mobile-based and easy-to-use app, called Herdman, for farmers to capture cattle data using QR codes on the front end. That data is used to produce insights about cattle health, matching bulls to bring about genetic improvement, and even milk production forecasting. These insights are delivered in the local language to milk farmers and the vets looking after their herds.
The potential of the software and genomics is immense in the fragmented India milk farming sector, where some 120 million farming families are engaged in cow and buffalo rearing, according to the Indian Agricultural Census. If they can double milk yield, it will have large implications for nutrition in India, milk and milk product exports, and generation of new national income that is better distributed among the country’s 700 million farmers.
The repository of information that Herdman covers includes feed data, days to puberty and calving, weight, health and disease tracking, milk yields, quality of milk etc. for each of some 240,000 cows and buffaloes on the software across India. Chitale Dairy from Sangli and Hatsun Agro in Salem are the pioneers of adopting techniques wrapped into Herdman.
Hatsun wants to deploy the solution over one million cattle in two years time. Larger dairy operations such as Amul have their own tagging and data collection solutions; more on that later.
Connected cow
Many in the crowd at Indapur are clueless but curious about how tracking cattle data using mobile phones can help them double milk productivity. “How long can we remain cry babies hoping the politicians will help address the pricing issue?” asks Sudhakar Mane, who has a dozen cows in Indapur. “This doctor is saying we can even correct the problems in our current cattle by getting semen from bulls who can ensure the next generations are far more productive.”
“But how? Hope this isn’t some kind of a gimmick,” asks Ganesh from a nearby village. He goes only by his first name.
The answer, according to Dr Samad, 64, lies in genomics apart from using software tools to ensure farmers do not make blind decisions and mistakes in managing the health of their herds.
“If you look at right from 1952 until today, we have hardly made any difference as far as the national average is concerned. We must talk of the national average, not some isolated examples of animals giving 20-30 litres of milk every day,” says Dr Samad.
Herdman combines intelligent tracking of animals with genomics big data to help milk farmers make informed decisions about breeding their cattle with the right bull.
“Breeding is about selecting good animals and leaving out bad animals. Unless you have records and the data, how would you know where the good animals are,” asks Dr Samad.
ABS Global, a US cattle genomics company, is tapping into the cattle big data by relying on Herdman, apart from its own software algorithms that do intelligent matchmaking between cows and buffaloes with bulls to give birth to high, milk-producing female calves.
“Software such as Herdman help keep the data accessible. For instance, when a farmer is evaluating a cow to buy, he can scan the QR code tag and read all the historic data to make a more informed buying decision,” says Arvind Gautam, the head of ABS’ India operations. To be sure, ABS is not the only player in this space – its rival Sexing Technologies is also active in India, as are World Wide Sires and Genex, also from the US, and Semex of Canada.
Larger Indian dairies such as Hatsun are designing breeding program for its over 300,000 cows and buffaloes by figuring out dry periods for each of them. This information, too, comes from Herdman.
“If for instance, Hatsun gets to know that March is when most of its cattle will be in dry period, it can redesign the breeding program in a way that there’s a healthy mix between lactation periods to ensure milk productivity doesn’t suffer,” says Gautam.
The “black box” problem
A foreign animal husbandry expert working with an Indian dairy sums it up best when he talks about Indian dairies “black box” problem. “Every day we know exactly how many farmers poured milk and the quantities they poured…. but we have absolutely no idea how many cows it took to produce that milk,” he says, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with media.
As a result, generic and vague recommendations were made to farmers and animal health services were “totally reactive, rather than being proactive to assist farmers to avoid animal health problems,” says the expert on an email.
His dairy has seen benefits accrued for not just its animal husbandry team, but also for the milk procurement team and, above all, the farmers, he adds, summarising the benefits below.
By tagging and recording animals in a Herdman database the animal husbandry team has now the ability to:
identify the issues constraining milk production, quality and reproductive performance and act on them
predict calving and address calving-related health issues
compare best-performing animals by age, parity and breed
Much of the information can now be reviewed in a unified manner and messages can be sent to farmers by SMS or other electronic methods.
The milk procurement team has the ability to:
predict milk flows up to six months in advance based on cows’ calving pattern. With time, volume, as well as components should be accurately predicted, enabling planning to be more precise
determine whether changes in farmers milk output is explained by animal information (calving or a cow drying off)
in conjunction with the animal husbandry team, profile farms’ milk production based on the number of cows, breed and lactation status
For the farmer, the benefits are:
receive relevant advice directly in a timely manner
have animal production, reproduction and health history data easily available, which will provide a better estimate of cow value and risk of disease and mortality, which, in turn, should lead to lower cow insurance premiums and possibly lower interest rates on loans.
Experts such as Marcia I. Endres, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s animal science department, say the key is to ensure that smaller farms in India get data at a low cost, which can then be used to improve operations. Endres has studied Dr Samad’s software.
“An old adage says “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” and the software collects information that the farmers and their veterinarians did not have before,” says Endres.
Once an animal is registered on Herdman, current health and any historical data available are captured. From thereon, each event including heat period, artificial insemination date, pregnancy, calving, vaccinations, treatment of any diseases occurred and, finally, the milk yield across different lactation cycles is recorded.
For every animal registered on the system, farmers have to pay Rs 50 annually or use it free but be served local ads.
Big data meets cattle genomics
After Dr Samad’s session in Indapur, the farmers move to a hall on the first floor of a building nearby. The room is full and farmers such as Mane are now prepared to get the final tips.
“How can India double milk production by 2026,” ABS’s Gautam asks the audience.
Maintaining records of cattle health and their family history or parental matching is only the starting point. It takes years before results start showing from genomics-based breeding.
ABS’s genetic mating software matches cows with bulls using dozens of parameters and based on expectations of a farmer from the next generation calf. Depending on the cow they have and the problems they want to rectify, farmers can demand anything from more fat content in the milk to better rudder placement, or even set a target of 20 or 30 litres milk daily.
After these requirements are captured, the software algorithm runs search queries in its database to find an appropriate set of bulls and displays the result by ranking them according to their effectiveness. This matching process, which involves running hundreds of potential combinations, takes less than 30 seconds.
Gathering all the genetic data on bulls and cows is such a massive effort that Genus ABS India, a joint venture between ABS Global and Chitale Dairy which started groundwork in 2010 in Bhilwadi, Sangli, has selected only a few breeds to start with: Murrah, the buffalo breed, and Gir and Sahiwal for sire.
“The more data we feed into the system, the better it gets. As data grows, its reliability too will improve,” says Gautam. Companies such Sexing Technologies and ABS have been described as the Monsantos of the dairy world for the genetic-level potential they hold for the $350 billion global dairy industry.
What Dr Samad’s Herdman software does is solving only one tiny piece of the grand puzzle. For India’s milk productivity to double by 2026 for instance, it will need to combine all genetic big data of cattle with a scientific breeding program.
Like dairy farmers in the US did. “The high productivity per cow in the USA has a lot to do with improvements in genetics and management that could only happen because we had records on how the cows are producing every day or at least once a month from testing, allowing producers to select the best animals and improve management practices by being able to measure the results,” says Endres, the US professor.
India lags countries such as Brazil too.
“Until 1985, they (Brazil) were doing cross-breeding like we are doing mostly today,” says Dr Samad. “Then they realised cross-breeding is not the answer for tropical countries like theirs.” Recording data was followed by identifying genetically superior animals.
Slowly, the results started showing. Brazil has two kinds of herd system: one is where the cows are free-grazed and the other where they are stall-fed. For the grazed ones, the average yield today is 4,000 litres to 4,500 litres of milk annually. The ones that are fed specific nutrients along with feed in stalls, yield 8,000 litres and more, according to Dr Samad.
Not just that. Cows with breeds of Indian origin dominate the Brazilian market. The top nine breeds of bulls, including Ongole from Andhra Pradesh, account for nearly 80% of milk production in Brazil were taken from India, and improved upon genetically. According to agricultural economist Devinder Sharma, a descendant of Gir breed of cows from Gujarat has recorded 60 litres of milk a day in Brazil.
The US has raced even further ahead — the “connected cow” is enabled by everything from real-time sensors to robotic milking.
“More recently we have seen growth in the use of technologies such as individual cow sensors (for rumination, activity, feeding and resting time, temperature, etc) and automation (robotic milking and automated milk feeders) which provide even larger amounts of individual animal data to be used for health, reproduction and performance improvement,” says Endres.
A Bahubali in Bhilwadi
ABS’s efforts have led to creating a league table of India’s top performing bulls. “Bahubali, the bull, is more popular in our community than the movie,” says Vikas Dandelkar, a farmer in Bhilwadi, tells FactorDaily at the local milk collection centre.
The semen of Bahubali, a cross-breed Murrah buffalo bull in Sangli, is much sought after — each of its semen doses costs Rs 150 versus Rs 30 for a normal bull insemination dose. Placed No. 2 on India’s league table for bulls by semen quality, it has exceptionally high dam yield of 5,586 kg per lactation with well over 7% fat.
“Since there is no genomics in buffaloes or indigenous cattle breeds, selection of bull is as per mother’s milk data – higher the better,” says Gautam of ABS. There are 96 other bulls on the league table including Holstein breed Stryker and Brute, Jersey breed Preet and Tyson, and two other Murrah buffaloes Redhu and Maharaja. They are all based on a farm in Bhilwadi at Genus ABS lab.
Chitale Dairy has seen its milk productivity improve since when the genomics lab was first set up in 2010. From around 350,000 litres a day three years ago, Chitale now procures over 750,000 litres daily in Bhilwadi, Sangli. And, the improvement has come by keeping the number of cows and buffaloes, around 100,000, mostly unchanged.
“To achieve this level of improvement, having big data is a must,” says Vishwas Chitale, director, Chitale Dairy. “[Results with] genomic selection is only possible with recording.” Some of the improvement in yields at Chitale Dairy are due to other interventions such as feeds.
Herdman is not the only software being used by milk dairies and farmers in India. From National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)’s own software solution developed in-house to products from newer technology startups such as Stellapps, there are enough options.
NDDB has been actively using software in data capture, genomics and even to ensure a balanced diet for some 2.7 million bovines.
“The country’s breeding programme depends on this,” Niraj Prakash Garg, a deputy general manager at NDDB’s IT division told FactorDaily at Anand, Gujarat, in December last year. He was referring to NDDB’s Ration Balancing Programme aimed to ensure balanced, personalised fodder for nearly 2.7 million cows and buffaloes across 40,000 Indian villages.
In March this year, NDDB also launched a new Android app for tracking and managing genetic improvement of cattle using artificial insemination. The plan is also aimed at capturing big data on millions of bovines and over 15 million milk producers. “The key output is you’re able to identify which bull is good,” says Garg. Extra emphasis is given on the ration program, which helps farmers optimise feed for their cattle, personalised for each animal. By December 2016, over 2 million cattle were already part of the diet program with each of the milk farmers saving Rs 30 every day per animal because of the software, according to Garg.
NDDB’s scale of operations dwarfs all other dairies. During 2015-2016 for instance, the cooperatives registered under the NDDB collected around 15.58 million tonnes of milk from cows and buffaloes under its ration programme. “It’s not a pilot or an experiment, but a full, mainstream program with demonstrated benefits,” says Garg.
Software limited
For Dr Samad and ABS, Bhilwadi’s Chitale Dairy has been a sandbox to experiment with software to genomics. With those experiments maturing, Samad’s Herdman software is now evolving with bigger dairies such as Hatsun in Chennai, which has some 220,000 cows on the software. Hatsun Agro Products, a listed company, runs India’s largest private dairy operation.
“If you are able to manage the data, you can easily increase the milk yield without doing anything else by 20-25%, only because you are preventing management losses. Otherwise, you don’t do pregnancy tests, you come to know after six months and by then you, as a farmer, have lost half the year of precious time,” says Dr Samad.
By combining the operational data about cattle with genomics on the other end, the benefits could be far more.
“It keeps on calculating and tracking performance indices of health, fertility and milk production of each animal and keeps flagging the problems and prompting for appropriate interventions,” says Dr Samad. “We find that 90% of the time, it is not the infection but it’s the management (or lack of it) which is causing the problem.”
Still, both Gautam and Dr Samad agree that the real benefits of genomics will take at least a decade to start showing on a sizeable scale.
There are issues of broken economics to deal with – how to cover additional expenses such as the cost of fortified feed and that of sexed semen (Rs 150 for a dose but an insemination may take multiple attempts) while milk prices remain stagnant. Pradeep Balhara, the owner of 1,000-cattle Balhara Dairy in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, says, “You can’t talk vitamins and other nutrients if the basic, staple food is missing.”
Among the early users of Herdman – Balhara’s been using it for over a decade – the biggest benefit for him, he says, has been the ability to plan the breeding cycles of different animals. “It means a lot for a dairy like us, we can avoid the dry seasons,” he says.
It’s moving the needle for small farmers, too. Mahesh Dhondiram Yesugade, a milk farmer in Sangli with one cow, started using Herdman two years ago and followed its advisories. He says his income increased by Rs 200 a month in the first year and in the latest month by Rs 1,000 — an increase of some 50% from the Rs 2,000 he used to make earlier. “I now plan to buy another cow and plan breeding in a way that there’s no dry season,” he says.
Farmers like Balhara and Yesugade are critical to the success of the Second White Revolution, as the nationwide dairying programme of the 1970s and 1980s is referred to. The benefits of data- and genomics-driven dairying will need showing, not telling, says Endres, the University of Minnesota professor. “We need to have the early adopters, otherwise a technology will not be successful. Cultivating those early leaders is important.” |
UK anticipates China tourism surge after increasing flights 50% | The UK government is to allow 50% more flights from China as it further taps the lucrative Chinese tourism market. Chinese visits to the UK surged 47% in the first half of 2017 after inbound flights were more than doubled last October. The move boosted spending 54%. "These agreements are an important part of preparing Britain for a post-Brexit world and making sure we have access to key markets in the Far East," said Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. The number of flights from China will increase to 150 a week from 100. | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-5165587/Britain-woo-Chinese-tourists-preparation-post-Brexit-world.html | 2017-12-11 09:56:27.563000 | Thousands more Chinese tourists are set to visit the UK under Government plans to increase the number of flights from the country by 50%.
The maximum of 100 passenger flights per week that can operate between Britain and China, is set to increase to 150.
A landmark new agreement will see a big increase in flights between the UK and China. Up to 150 flights a week could open up opportunities for new business and tourism across the country https://t.co/Q4xK2RVFPX pic.twitter.com/DPpATfpS45 — Department for Transport (@transportgovuk) December 10, 2017
Chinese tourists are some of the highest spenders in Britain, staying longer and travelling more than visitors from other countries, according to the Department for Transport.
Britain has boosted the number of flights from China in preparation for Brexit (Steve Parsons/PA)
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: “These agreements are an important part of preparing Britain for a post-Brexit world and making sure we have access to key markets in the Far East, and they come at a time when our exports are growing and we continue to attract international investment.
“It just underlines that Britain will do well regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.
“The whole Government is working to secure the best possible future relationship with the EU, and great progress has been made his week, but no one should believe that Britain’s future success depends on decisions taken in Brussels.”
The number of Chinese tourists who visited the UK rocketed during the first half of this year, after the flight limit was increased from 40 per week to 100 in October 2016, the Department for Transport said.
Between January and June, 115,000 visits were made from China to the UK, a rise of 47% on the same period last year.
Spending also increased to £231 million, up 54%, according to figures. |
Chinese private funds rise 28% in 10 months to $1.63tn | China's private fund industry is rocketing, rising 28% over the first 10 months of this year to CNY10.77tn ($1.63tn), according to the Asset Management Association of China. The surge is due to growing numbers of wealthy individuals who are increasingly turning to money managers. Those with at least $1.5m to invest have multiplied by over eight times within the past 10 years to 1.6 million.
| https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/06/chinese-private-fund-assets-hit-a-staggering-1-point-63-trillion.html | 2017-12-11 09:43:06.540000 | Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
China's private fund industry is growing rapidly as the country's wealthy increasingly turn toward money managers. Assets under management of Chinese private funds rose 28 percent over the first 10 months of the year, to 10.77 trillion yuan ($1.63 trillion), according to a Nov. 10 report, the latest, from the Asset Management Association of China. The funds target high-net-worth individuals, a group that has grown rapidly in China. The number of Chinese with at least 10 million yuan (roughly $1.5 million) in investible assets has multiplied more than eight times within a decade, to 1.6 million in 2016, according to Bain's report on China Private Wealth, released in August.
"Collectively, China's HNWIs have about RMB 49 trillion (about $7 trillion) in investable assets, and they have grown more discerning about how, and with whom, they invest that money," the report said. The first generation to benefit from China's capitalist turn have tended to manage their money independently. In contrast, "newer HNWIs — who often include the sons and daughters of first-generation company founders — are more willing to seek professional advice." As investors recover from the shock of China's 2015 market crash, the number of private Chinese funds has grown nearly 20 percent this year, to 21,628, according to the Asset Management Association of China. About 8,000 of those fall into the "hedge fund" category of investing in securities, according to local consultancy Z-Ben Advisors. "There is increased interest, increased opportunity," said Chantal Grinderslev, senior advisor and director of operations at Z-Ben Advisors. "If anything it's the secret blessing of the block on outflows. It's really spurring interest onshore from investments onshore. " When it comes to the kinds of funds China's wealthy are pursuing, private equity and venture capital funds have seen much of the growth in the last year, Grinderslev said. According to Z-Ben, assets under management for securities-focused Chinese private funds has fallen from nearly $400 billion at the end of last year to $340 billion this fall. China's hedge fund industry also remains small by global standards. Global hedge fund research firm Preqin only tracks 117 "pure hedge funds" based in China.
watch now |
EDF to provide PG&E with 40 MWh of behind-the-meter storage | Pacific Gas & Electric has selected EDF Renewable Energy Partners to provide 40 MWh of "behind the meter" energy storage to commercial and industrial customers across the northern California and San Francisco Bay areas. Behind-the-meter storage enables users to efficiently manage their energy usage by avoiding demand charges, balancing between low and peak-rate times and earning income by sending any unused power back to the grid. Senior director at PG&E, Martin Wyspianski said the EDF contracts are "an important milestone" toward meeting California's renewable energy and storage goal of 1,325 MW by 2020. | https://cleantechnica.com/2017/12/07/edf-renewable-energy-partners-pge-40-mwh-behind-meter-storage/ | 2017-12-11 08:30:45.880000 | EDF Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of EDF Group, has been chosen by Pacific Gas & Electric, the primary utility company serving the northern California community and the San Francisco Bay Area, to provide 40 megawatt-hours of “behind the meter” energy storage for its commercial and industrial customers.
Electricity is like compressed air. It has to be used right away or it is wasted. A conventional electrical grid has little ability to store energy or adjust for increases in demand. Utility companies have to make more electricity than they need in order to have enough. The excess is lost, which equates to lost revenue.
Grid-scale storage is expensive, but so is generating electricity that never gets used. Bringing so-called peaker plants online to supply more electricity when demand is high is also expensive. Storage options help balance the flow of electricity across the grid and soak up excess capacity that can be used later, turning power that would otherwise be wasted into more revenue.
Behind-the-meter storage allows customers to better manage their own energy usage. They can charge their batteries during times when rates are low and use the stored energy later when rates are high, avoiding demand charges that can double or triple the usual cost of electricity. In most cases, they can also continue to operate even if the main utility grid is down. And when appropriate, they can send power back to the grid and earn some income to offset the cost of the storage system. EDF’s proprietary PEGASE Energy Management System works seamlessly in the background to manage the behind-the-meter storage system and maximize the benefits available to customers.
Martin Wyspianski, PG&E senior director for energy portfolio procurement and policy, is happy with the progress his company has made toward meeting California’s renewable energy and storage goal of 1325 megawatts by 2020. “As our clean energy portfolio grows, so does the importance of storage technology. These contracts and the storage capacity they represent will help us better integrate our growing renewable generation sources, and bring increased reliability to the grid. They are an important milestone in our progress toward a clean energy future,” he tells The Financial Times.
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Enel divests 80% stake in US wind farms for $233m | Enel has announced the signing of a cash equity agreement that will see its 80% stake in the 250 MW Caney River and 150 MW Rocky Ridge wind farms sold to the Gulf Pacific Power investment fund. The deal, which is worth about $233m, will mean that Enel continues to maintain and operate the assets. Enel expects the transaction to be completed by the end of the year. | https://www.power-technology.com/news/enel-divest-majority-stake-two-windfarms-233m/ | 2017-12-11 08:28:54.157000 | Enel has signed a cash equity agreement through its US renewables division Enel Green Power North America (EGPNA).
The deal will divest an 80% stake in the Caney River and Rocky Ridge windfarms to investment fund Gulf Pacific Power for around $233m.
EGPNA intends to continue managing, operating, and maintaining both farms, while deconsolidating a $140m debt.
Located in Kansas, the 200MW Caney River windfarm generates around 765GWh per year, while the 150MW Rocky Ridge farm in Oklahoma is able to generate approximately 600GWh annually.
“The 200MW Caney River windfarm generates around 765GWh per year, while the 150MW Rocky Ridge farm in Oklahoma is able to generate approximately 600GWh annually.”
Under long-term power purchase agreements (PPA), Caney River sells electricity output to the Tennessee Valley Authority, while Rocky Ridge provides output to the Western Farmers Electric Cooperative.
Enel Green Power head Antonio Cammisecra said: “Today’s agreement with a new investment partner reinforces the success and confirms the appeal of our continued industrial growth strategy throughout the build, sell, and operate model to support new growth opportunities both in North America and other markets around the world.
“This strategy allows us to be more financially agile as we continue to invest in more renewable energy projects in the five continents.”
With presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, Enel Green Power develops and operates renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower.
The firm expects to complete the transaction by the end of this year. |
Eni hedges bets on bioplastics over decline of oil | Italy's second-largest energy company Eni is among the bidders for the Italian arm of bioplastics outfit Mossi Ghisolfi, according to unnamed sources. The potential acquisition, said to be worth "hundreds of millions of euros", is part of Eni's drive to invest more in its downstream businesses to hedge against volatile energy prices. The Mossi Ghisolfi unit uses agricultural waste to make plastics. | http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/12/eni-targets-plastics-purchase-in-strategy-shift | 2017-12-11 08:18:17.897000 | Eni targets plastics purchase in strategy shift
MILAN (Reuters) — Energy firm Eni aims to express an interest in bidding for an Italian bioplastics business in a move that underlines a longer-term desire to hedge its exposure to oil and gas, financial sources said.
Eni wants to revive its chemicals, retail and refining businesses to offset volatility in oil prices and regain favour with investors after its shares underperformed those of industry rivals in the past three years, the sources said.
The state-controlled major is looking at the Italian assets of bioplastics multinational Mossi Ghisolfi, which has been put under creditor protection, two banking sources said.
"Non-binding bids are due in the next few days and Eni is there," one of the sources said, adding that the deal was worth "hundreds of millions of euros".
There has been media speculation about Eni being interested in Mossi Ghisolfi, but this is the first time it has emerged the group would submit bid interest in the assets.
Eni did not comment.
The potential acquisition, although small for Eni, flags an ongoing strategy shift for CEO Claudio Descalzi, who has spent four years creating a lean exploration business, racking up big discoveries in places like Mozambique and Egypt.
While keeping a firm focus on exploration, the 62-yr-old reservoir engineer now wants to rejig the business model to bolster and create greener midstream and downstream businesses like marketing and refining as a hedge against oil price swings.
An acquisition of Mossi Ghisolfi's Italian unit, which uses agricultural waste to make plastics, would fit such a profile.
The move comes at a time when the boom in renewable energy and the prospect of a world powered by electric vehicles is creating a challenge for the oil industry.
BALANCED PORTFOLIO
Eni has been sounding out investors on why its shares have underperformed and feedback suggested more downstream protection is needed, said two fund managers contacted by the group.
Its heavy presence in high-risk areas such as Libya and Nigeria was another reason for concern, they said.
"It makes sense to build a more balanced portfolio less exposed to oil price swings ... It will help boost multiples and support the stock," said Mediobanca oil analyst Alessandro Pozzi.
Since oil prices plunged from above $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016, Eni shares have fallen more than 20% while France’s Total has risen 7% and Royal Dutch Shell 9%.
Total and Shell have fared better because they have greater exposure to downstream businesses such as refining and petrochemicals, where demand is lifted by economic growth fueled by lower crude prices.
ExxonMobil Corp said last week it was revamping its refining and chemical operations to boost profits.
Eni, whose exploration and production (E&P) arm generated more than 80% of operating income over 2015 and 2016, has been the industry's best discoverer in recent years. But its downstream business has struggled.
A year or so ago, it toyed with the idea of selling its chemicals and retail operations but pulled both deals, opting instead to streamline operations and make them more profitable. That strategy has led it to consider acquisitions, sources said.
CEO Descalzi has said the group could float its retail arm with an initial public offering (IPO) within 2 yr to 3 yr.
A banker familiar with the matter said Eni wanted to strengthen its retail business, adding this could involve acquisitions.
Eni is seeking to reduce its carbon emissions, making new investments in solar plants and converting refineries to biofuels. Last month, it signed a deal with carmaker Fiat Chrysler to work on new carbon-low fuels for cars.
It also plans to expand its LNG business.
"It used to be all about E&P. Now at its roadshows Eni dedicates almost half the time to downstream," the banker said.
Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Edmund Blair
Related News
From the Archive |
Engie acquires South African energy companies | French utility Engie is set to acquire affiliated South African energy services firms Ampair and Thermaire Investments, as part of a strategy to expand its presence in the country. The companies' activities range from power plants, commercial buildings, shopping malls and data centres. The purchase will see the two firms become one of South Africa's largest heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors, as well as part of Engie's platform offering regional energy services to the domestic, commercial and industrial sectors.
| http://www.africanreview.com/energy-a-power/power-generation/engie-to-develop-south-africa-s-energy-services | 2017-12-11 07:32:39.507000 | Engie to develop South Africa’s energy services
Engie has signed agreements with two South African energy services companies, Thermaire Investments Ltd and Ampair Ltd, to acquire 100 per cent of their respective shares
Engie develops a number of solar projects in South Africa. (Image source: Kimco Realty/Flickr)
The company said that completion of the transaction is conditional on approvals of the relevant regulatory bodies.
Engie further added that with Thermaire and Ampair, it aims to develop a regional platform to offer energy services to the public, industrial and commercial building sectors.
Jointly, the acquired companies will form one of the largest South African HVAC contractors to export its skills cross-border and into the greater Southern African region.
Mohamed Hoosen, CEO of Engie Southern Africa, said that as a global energy company and expert operator in renewable and energy storage, lighting, heating and cooling systems, as well as energy management and controls, Engie is embarking on an acquisition strategy to grow its presence in the African market.
Commenting on the partnership, JP Hargovan, CEO of Thermaire Investments, added, “As one of the oldest established HVAC businesses in Southern Africa, we are thrilled at the prospect of developing and growing our business in line with the greater Engie strategy.”
Thermaire Investments and Ampair are affiliated companies which provide client supply, installation and maintenance services within the HVAC industry. Their activities range from power plants, commercial buildings, shopping malls and data centres. Together, both companies employ more than 500 people across South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.
Engie’s activities in South Africa include commissioning of the 670MW Avon Peaking Power, 335MW Dedisa Peaking Power, 94MW Aurora Wind Power and the combined 21MW Aurora-Rietvlei Solar Power and Vredendal Solar Power Park (Photovoltaics). The company also involves in an ongoing construction of the 100MW Kathu Solar Park in the Northern Cape of South Africa. |
Microsoft pledges further $50m for AI for Earth climate scheme | Microsoft is to offer a further $50m to organizations combating climate change via its AI for Earth programme. The initiative, which was launched in June, provides cloud-based tools and AI services to groups working on climate change-related problems. The additional funds are part of an “expanded strategic plan” which seeks to “put artificial intelligence technology in the hands of individuals and organizations around the world who are working to protect our planet”.
| https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/11/microsoft-commits-50-million-more-to-its-ai-for-earth-program-to-save-the-planet/ | 2017-12-11 00:00:00 | Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.
Microsoft has announced an expansion to its AI for Earth program, committing an additional $50 million to organizations that are working to solve the climate change crisis.
The tech giant first announced AI for Earth back in June, and the initiative promised to provide a bunch of cloud-based tools and AI services to organizations looking to tackle problems relating to climate change. At the time, Microsoft said it was putting $2 million into the program, in addition to other add-ons, such as providing training on the use of AI. Today, the company announced an “expanded strategic plan” and a further $50 million over the next five years to “put artificial intelligence technology in the hands of individuals and organizations around the world who are working to protect our planet,” according to Microsoft president and chief legal officer, Brad Smith.
Paris agreement
The news comes on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement, which was adopted by nearly 200 countries around the world in December, 2015. World leaders are reconvening in Paris tomorrow at the One Planet Summit to take stock and support the goals set out in the original agreement.
AI is already being used across many industries, from grocery picking / packing to online image searches, and tackling climate change should really be no different.
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“At Microsoft, we believe artificial intelligence is a game changer,” said Smith. “Our approach as a company is focused on democratizing AI so its features and capabilities can be put to use by individuals and organizations around the world to improve real-world outcomes. There are few societal areas where AI can be more impactful than in helping address the urgent work needed to monitor, model, and manage the Earth’s natural systems.”
Managing and processing vast swathes of data is one key area where AI could help with climate change. For example, ground sensors or weather stations can capture myriad environmental data points, while AI can be trained to automatically classify the raw data that’s captured for human interpretation.
“Fundamentally, AI can accelerate our ability to observe environmental systems and how they are changing at a global scale, convert the data into useful information, and apply that information to take concrete steps to better manage our natural resources,” added Smith.
It’s worth noting here that Microsoft’s moves aren’t entirely altruistic. The company is keen to push its cloud and AI technologies into more environments, so to speak. Microsoft claimed that in the past six months it has awarded more than 35 grants globally for access to its Azure platform and AI technology as part of the AI for Earth program.
As for its “expanded strategic plan,” well, Microsoft said that it aims to grow its seed grants for creating and testing new AI applications across four key areas: climate, water, agriculture, and biodiversity. The company said it will provide more “advanced training” to universities and NGOs leveraging AI in their projects. Further down the line, Microsoft said that it will pick out the ones that show the most promise and make more substantial investments to help them scale. As part of this effort, the company is setting up a new “multi-disciplinary team” of AI and sustainability experts who will work with the latter-stage projects.
The company also hinted at its own plans for any technology that emerges from its investments, saying that it could be integrated into its own platform for use by others.
“As these projects advance, we’ll identify and pursue opportunities to incorporate new AI advances into platform-level services so that others can use them for their own sustainability initiatives,” said Smith. “Some of this will involve platform services that will be offered by others. In other instances, these may be incorporated into Microsoft’s own platform services.” |
SEC preempts securities fraud, shuts down ICO | Food reviewing service Munchee cancelled its first initial coin offering (ICO) after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) raised registration concerns. Munchee was seeking to raise $15m to better its existing restaurant review app by selling tokens. In a statement, the SEC noted since Munchee was telling investors they should expect the value of tokens acquired in the ICO to increase. Additionally, the firm said it would aim to establish a secondary market for tokens. With these factors in mind the SEC said the ICO constituted selling securities to the public without the required exemption or registration. | https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-227 | 2017-12-11 00:00:00 | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2017-227
A California-based company selling digital tokens to investors to raise capital for its blockchain-based food review service halted its initial coin offering (ICO) after being contacted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and agreed to an order in which the Commission found that its conduct constituted unregistered securities offers and sales.
According to the SEC’s order, before any tokens were delivered to investors, Munchee Inc. refunded investor proceeds after the SEC intervened. Munchee was seeking $15 million in capital to improve an existing iPhone app centered on restaurant meal reviews and create an “ecosystem” in which Munchee and others would buy and sell goods and services using the tokens. The company communicated through its website, a white paper, and other means that it would use the proceeds to create the ecosystem, including eventually paying users in tokens for writing food reviews and selling both advertising to restaurants and “in-app” purchases to app users in exchange for tokens.
According to the order, in the course of the offering, the company and other promoters emphasized that investors could expect that efforts by the company and others would lead to an increase in value of the tokens. The company also emphasized it would take steps to create and support a secondary market for the tokens. Because of these and other company activities, investors would have had a reasonable belief that their investment in tokens could generate a return on their investment. As the SEC has said in the DAO Report of Investigation, a token can be a security based on the long-standing facts and circumstances test that includes assessing whether investors’ profits are to be derived from the managerial and entrepreneurial efforts of others.
“We will continue to scrutinize the market vigilantly for improper offerings that seek to sell securities to the general public without the required registration or exemption,” said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “In deciding not to impose a penalty, the Commission recognized that the company stopped the ICO quickly, immediately returned the proceeds before issuing tokens, and cooperated with the investigation.”
“Our primary focus remains investor protection and making sure that investors are being offered investment opportunities with all the information and disclosures required under the federal securities laws,” said Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.
Munchee consented to the SEC’s cease-and-desist order without admitting or denying the findings.
The SEC’s new Cyber Unit is focused on misconduct involving distributed ledger technology and initial coin offerings, the spread of false information through electronic and social media, brokerage account takeovers, hacking to obtain nonpublic information, and threats to trading platforms. The SEC also has a Distributed Ledger Technology Working Group that focuses on various emerging applications of distributed ledger technology in the financial industry.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by the Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit and Complex Financial Instruments Unit, including Jeff Leasure, Brent Mitchell and James Murtha. The case was supervised by Robert Cohen, Reid Muoio, and Valerie Szczepanik.
The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Bulletin in July 2017 to make investors aware of the potential risks of participating in initial coin offerings. |
Shareholder fraud lawsuit revived against Alibaba in the US | A lawsuit against Alibaba has been revived in the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. The Chinese conglomerate has been accused by shareholders of hiding regulatory warnings - regarding counterfeiters - that it has received before going public. This is not the first time that Alibaba has been hit by accusations that its websites are rife with counterfeiters.
| https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/12/07/alibaba-must-face-renewed-lawsuit-over-ipo/ | 2017-12-10 14:20:32.273000 | NEW YORK: A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit accusing Alibaba Group Holding Ltd of defrauding shareholders by concealing a regulatory warning about counterfeiters that the Chinese online retailer had received shortly before going public.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled 3-0 that a lower court judge erred in dismissing claims by holders of Alibaba's American Depositary Shares and ADS call options against Alibaba, Executive Chairman Jack Ma and others.
Alibaba said it was disappointed by the decision but that the ruling did not determine that Alibaba had violated U.S. securities law.
"We believe our behavior was entirely appropriate, and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously as this litigation progresses," it said in a statement.
The appeals court in the Tuesday opinion said the plaintiffs adequately alleged that Alibaba intended to defraud them but did not rule on the merits of the case.
Alibaba has long faced accusations that its websites are a haven for counterfeiters, including of luxury goods.
Shareholders accused Alibaba of concealing a meeting on July 16, 2014, two months before its $25 billion initial public offering, in which China's powerful State Administration for Industry and Commerce threatened huge fines if Alibaba failed to suppress counterfeiting.
The price of Alibaba's ADS fell 12.8 percent on Jan. 28 and 29, 2015 after the SAIC revealed its concerns about products that were banned, fake or substandard, or infringed trademarks.
In June 2016, Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan dismissed the nationwide lawsuit, saying Alibaba had flagged the regulatory risks in its IPO materials.
The appeals court called the SAIC threat "highly material" to investors because it "required Alibaba to choose between giving up an important source of its revenue or risking enormous fines," either of which could hurt results or the IPO's success.
"Given the eventual market reaction to revelation of the information that was concealed at the time of the IPO, its revelation would likely have had a multi-billion dollar negative effect," the appeals court said.
The lawsuit was returned to McMahon for further proceedings.
Robert Kry, a partner at MoloLamken representing the plaintiffs, said: "We're pleased with the decision, and look forward to proving our claims."
The case is Christine Asia Co et al v Ma et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-2519. - Reuters |
Sri Lanka formally leases its main southern port to China | Sri Lanka has formally handed over the running of its primary southern port, Hambantota, to China Merchants Port Holdings on a 99-year lease. Hambantota is expected to play a significant role in the Beijing government's "One Belt One Road" initiative, being situated near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe. The US, Indian and Japanese governments have voiced concerns that China may use the port as a naval base. China is investing heavily in overseas ports to increase its maritime power and open up new shipping routes. | http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2123658/sri-lanka-hands-over-major-port-chinese-company | 2017-12-10 14:04:47.330000 | Sri Lanka's government handed over the running of Hambantota port to a Chinese company on Saturday. Photo: AFP |
Tesla confirms it's working on own AI chip for self-driving cars | Tesla is working on its own artificial intelligence (AI) chip with microprocessor designer Jim Keller, the car maker has confirmed. CEO Elon told the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems the effort will lead to the development of the "best custom AI hardware in the world". Keller has held a number of important roles in chip design, including at Apple.
| https://electrek.co/2017/12/08/elon-musk-tesla-new-ai-chip-jim-keller/ | 2017-12-08 18:04:23.603000 | There have been rumors that Tesla is developing its own chip optimized for self-driving applications ever since we reported on the automaker quietly hiring legendary chip architect Jim Keller from AMD last year.
Now CEO Elon Musk finally confirmed the rumor – specifying that Tesla is working on its own new AI chip and that the effort is led by Keller.
At the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) yesterday, Musk held a fireside chat with Tesla’s new Director of AI and Autopilot Vision, Andrej Karpathy, Jim Keller, Tesla’s Vice-President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering, and Shivon Zilis, a partner at Bloomberg Beta and a project director for Musk’s office.
According to people at the event, the discussion revolved around Tesla’s artificial intelligence work and it was seemingly a recruiting effort for the company.
But Musk also made a few interesting comments, including a confirmation that Tesla is working on its own AI chip to enable self-driving technology.
The CEO confirmed that Keller is behind the effort, which he believes will result in “the best custom AI hardware in the world.”
Keller has an important reputation in the hardware world after having been a key player in the creation of several architectures, like Athlon K7 and K8 at AMD, before developing Apple’s A4 and A5 processors, which powered most of Apple’s mobile devices from 2010 to 2012. He later came back to AMD and led the design of the company’s latest chip architecture.
After quietly joining Tesla in late 2015, we reported that the automaker poached a team of chip architects and executives from AMD following Keller’s hire.
That’s when the speculation that Tesla is working on its own chip, presumably for self-driving, started. It was also in the middle of Tesla changing hardware from Mobileye to Nvidia for its Autopilot program.
Tesla is now up to its Autopilot ‘2.5’ hardware suite with more computing power for autonomous driving based on Nvidia’s Drive PX platform.
Musk previously said that he expects Tesla’s 2.0 and 2.5 Autopilot hardware suites to enable “fully self-driving”, but if it doesn’t, Tesla will replace the computers in those vehicles for free.
And now we know that Tesla is working on computers with its own AI chips.
When asked about potential improvements at the event yesterday, Keller said that there are opportunities to remove overheads between components for specialized hardware, which Musk says could result in 10 times the current power for a fraction of the cost.
Computing power inside vehicles is becoming increasingly important and like several other generally outsourced vehicle components, Tesla seems dead serious about bringing it in-house. |
Investec invests in Africa off-grid solar installer Mobisol | A consortium led by Investec Asset Management has invested in off-grid solar installer Mobisol. Berlin-based Mobisol has installed over 100,000 photovoltaic home systems in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. The investment, alongside debt-financing deals, takes the company's newly-secured capital to over €20m ($25m), which it will use to help meet its target of providing affordable solar energy solutions to 20 million people by 2023. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/investec-led-group-invests-more-in-mobisol-593208/ | 2017-12-08 16:29:04.893000 | UK-registered Investec Asset Management announced last week that alongside its consortium partners it has made a new growth equity investment in Berlin-based, Africa-focused off-grid solar home systems installer Mobisol GmbH.
The investment group, which also includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Dutch development bank FMO, first backed Mobisol in October 2016. Investec said in a statement that the follow-on growth equity investment, coupled with recently concluded debt-financing deals, brings Mobisol's newly-secured capital to above USD 25 million (EUR 21m). This sum was obtained over the past six months, according to the announcement.
Mobisol offers solar systems that allow homeowners to charge mobile phones and power lighting, radios and stereos, TVs and other appliances. Since its inception, the company has installed more than 100,000 systems in Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya.
“Mobisol’s partnership with the Investec consortium allows us to further grow and to set the stage for providing reliable and affordable solar energy solutions to 20 million people by 2023,” said Thomas Gottschalk, founder and CEO of Mobisol.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.843)
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Eight TV takes aim at Google, Facebook with mobile video reviews | Eight TV is betting it can harness the pulling power of homemade product review videos to challenge Google and Facebook. While YouTube posters use elaborate set-ups to record content, Eight TV app users can create video reviews using just their smartphones. The app then links the review to a shopping website where the reviewed item is sold, drawing from more than 100 million products in Amazon's database. Eight TV has 50,000 monthly active users, mostly teenage girls, and aims to create a new type of online smartphone-only shopping entertainment.
| http://mashable.com/2017/12/07/eight-tv-launch-product-reviews-shopping-youtube/#kwYhkmNRpmqS | 2017-12-08 16:28:15.287000 | Two of the biggest tech companies, Google and Facebook, have been competing as the internet's biggest destinations for video. And yet, a small startup is betting it has a shot of nabbing their views by narrowing in on one of YouTube's most popular styles.
Eight TV(opens in a new tab) is an app focused on product reviews -- by anyone and for anyone (anyone who carries a smartphone and probably likes Snapchat, that is). Shows can be created in minutes, often shot with selfie cameras. All videos are linked to a webpage to buy the item. The app pulls from the more than 100 million products in Amazon's database.
For the creators of Eight TV, the hope is that anyone can be a star, and consumers can access authentic and personable reviews. Unlike on YouTube where creators use elaborate setups and tech to record and to edit review videos, Eight TV users simply use their smartphones.
"We’re focused on regular people where they can pick up the phone and say what they think," said Leon Crutchley, cofounder of Eight TV. "We live in this world where every day there’s a new direct-to-consumer makeup or mattress brand. A lot of teenagers are asking what matters."
Some of these teenagers may get makeup advice from Kylie Jenner or YouTuber Bethany Mota. Eight TV would hope they listen to "Sophia Makeups":
Eight TV is vying to create a new class of creators and new form of shopping that also acts as entertainment, all optimized for smartphones. Of course, building a new social app isn't easy in a world where Facebook and Google dominate. Snapchat's user growth has stagnated as Instagram copycats many of its features. Musical.ly recently got acquired by a tech company in China as it tries to compete among the social giants. While Eight TV may focus on vertical and mobile, Google is also doing more with that format with celebrities in search and with YouTube Reels.
So far, Eight TV has 50,000 monthly active users, the majority of whom are teenage girls. That demographic dominated the early years of Snapchat so its no surprise that Lightspeed Ventures, one of the first investors in Snapchat, decided to invest in Eight TV during Apple's Shark Tank knock-off Planet of the Apps. Both Snapchat and Eight TV are focused on vertical video and mobile, as well.
"At Lightspeed, we like to invest in an inherent consumer behavior with a technology layer over it. The insight here…the analog version is watching QVC and HSN. And the mobile-first version for shopping similar items is Eight TV," Nicole Quinn, investor at Lightspeed, wrote(opens in a new tab) on Medium.
"Snapchat ... got people comfortable with the front-facing camera."
Eight TV is also a part of Snap Accelerate(opens in a new tab), an exclusive group of companies that have access to some free ads and other integrations. An employee at Snap reached out to Eight TV after one product reviewer started sharing her videos to Snapchat and was referring hundreds of people a day to the app.
"What Snapchat has done is got people comfortable with the front-facing camera. That’s what surprised us most with starting this platform, that people didn't want to use the back-facing camera to point at the product," Crutchley said.
The app is also taking a page from another buzzing startup, HQ. This week, Eight TV formally launched a live show called "The Daily Drop" that gifts users with free or discounted products every day at 8 p.m. ET. A host is available live for questions and responds with video replies that are viewable by anyone. It's similar to HQ drawing people into its app twice a weekday for live trivia with a cash prize.
"We’ve been watching those guys since day one. Their show is really cool, and I think a really powerful thing about it is that every single day there’s something to look forward to," Crutchley said.
But a concern for HQ and for Eight TV is: How long will the excitement last?
HQ has been promoting more hosts and is releasing an Android app later this year. Eight TV's next steps include launching an Android app along with making all of their videos available on the web and adding personalization in the app. For example, not every Eight TV user may like makeup and therefore the app should probably not show those users makeup videos first.
Asked if he had anything else to share, Crutchley described his team's headquarters. Eight TV is based in San Mateo, California, apparently right next to YouTube's first office.
"One of the first ever videos on YouTube was the founders sitting there in this pizza restaurant," Crutchley said, which he said his team has visited too. What remains to be seen is where they'll go next. |
Boston company cancels 468 MW Cape Wind project | Energy Management has ended its 468 MW Cape Wind offshore project. The Boston-based firm told the US Department of the Interior (DOI) that it will no longer be using its lease, which was issued in 2010. The 130-turbine scheme in the Nantucket Sound has been under development since 2001. It was delayed by several lawsuits, which led to the cancellation of power purchase agreements with NStar and National Grid two years ago. In 2016, the Massachusetts Facilities Siting Board turned down the developer's request to extend permits for transmission lines, a decision that was upheld on appeal. | https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/cape-wind-developer-officially-backs-away-from-offshore-project-593389/ | 2017-12-08 16:27:58.200000 | Boston-based Energy Management Inc has cancelled the offshore wind development lease for its 468-MW Cape Wind project off Massachusetts, according to a statement quoted by the media.
The company has informed the US Department of the Interior (DOI) that it will no longer be using its permit for the project. The lease was issued in 2010.
The 130-turbine Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound has been under development since 2001 and was expected to be the country’s first offshore wind farm. Multiple lawsuits delayed the project significantly, leading to the termination of power purchase agreements with NStar and National Grid (LON:NG) in early 2015.
In April 2016, the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board denied the project developer's request to extend to May 1, 2017 the permits for subsea and onshore transmission lines. Later that year, the company dropped its appeal to the state's Supreme Judicial Court for a reversal of the rejection.
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Naval Energies cuts staff in shift to priority projects | Naval Energies is to axe about 100 jobs as it focuses its resources on key projects in tidal energy, floating wind and ocean thermal energy conversion. The job cuts will take place in the first half of next year and be evenly split between France, where some staff have already returned to owner Naval Group, and Ireland, where its subsidiary OpenHydro is based. The company said its most advanced product is a tidal turbine.
| https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/update-naval-energies-to-cut-jobs-focus-on-high-priority-projects-593631/ | 2017-12-08 16:25:52.813000 | Naval Energies, a subsidiary of France's Naval Group, has confirmed it plans to reduce its headcount by about 100 jobs as it aims to focus resources on the highest-priority projects in tidal energy, floating wind and ocean thermal energy conversion.
The staff reduction will be implemented in the first half of 2018 and is expected to be evenly split between France and Ireland. In France some employees have already returned to Naval Group, the company said. Naval Energies' subsidiary OpenHydro, a tidal energy specialist, is based in Ireland.
The refocusing of resources comes as the marine renewable energy market is progressing more slowly than originally foreseen, the company explains and adds that this delay "is also linked to a lack of visibility of the political will of certain states, including France."
In an e-mailed statement, Naval Energies further said that its most advanced product is the tidal turbine. "Today, our priority is to ensure the success of our demonstration projects in Canada and Japan, and prepare the ramping up of the Normandie Hydro project in the Raz Blanchard," it says. According to the company, these projects will allow it to validate both its technology and economic model.
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Snapchat claims they can command $1m a day for 3D branded AR images | Snapchat can reportedly charge advertisers $1m a day for one of its augmented reality (AR) lenses -- digital images placed within its real-time videos. While one ad buyer said a branded 3D lens costs between $500,000 and $1m a day, Snapchat said its base price was $300,000. Final prices are dependent on factors such as whether the image is targeted at a specific audience, how long it runs and the nature of the impression. Advertisers can justify the cost because engagement with the lenses is high, according to a New York-based ad buyer.
| https://digiday.com/marketing/ar-next-internet-snapchat-gets-1-mil-day-branded-lenses/ | 2017-12-08 16:24:17.477000 | Snapchat’s 3-D augmented reality lenses are the newest marketing ploy that allows people to put virtual avatars or Bitmojis in a real-life setting. Brands like Budweiser, BMW and this month, McDonald’s have tested this AR development.
The AR lenses are not cheap — and Snapchat seems to be aggressively selling them to holding group agencies, claiming its AR technology is among the best, according to conversations with six ad buyers. How media agencies buy 3-D lenses and what they pay for them varies widely because pricing depends on factors like targeting criteria and when an AR lens goes live: One ad buyer from a major media shop said an AR lens typically costs between $500,000 and $1 million per day. This executive’s team recently paid over $700,000 for a branded 3-D lens for one day.
“Since the AR lens is a premium product, we typically support that with other types of ads on Snapchat,” said this person. “Snapchat has a rate card, but there are a million ways that advertisers can negotiate the price.”
The New York-based executive added that in the sales pitch, Snapchat’s senior leadership believes “AR is the next internet,” so a brand of the future needs to have an AR presence. “Snapchat highlights that it has superior AR tech in its sales pitch,” said this person. “Snapchat positions AR lenses as a standalone media buy — they are Snapchat’s most expensive [ad] product at the moment.”
Another holding group agency executive has a different experience. This executive said Snapchat didn’t pitch 3-D lenses as a standalone ad offering in its sales pitch — instead, Snapchat added them to a holistic media-buying plan. “We usually take an audience-first approach instead of one ad unit planning,” said this person.
While James Douglas, svp and executive director of social media for IPG Mediabrands-owned Society, said his clients typically make a big media commitment with Snapchat — some sign an annual media contract — with Snapchat Ads at the core and stickers and lenses as value-add placements.
It’s all about media negotiations, he said. For instance, if an insurance company that usually doesn’t think about Snapchat wants to get 20-year-olds to consider their 401(k) in one Snapchat campaign, Snapchat may charge $300,000 a day for a 3-D lens because the brand is unlikely to be a long-term client, according to Douglas.
“If it’s a well-known consumer packaged goods company, Snapchat may quote $200,000 for an AR lens, but not on a premium day,” he said. “Snapchat is very flexible to negotiate media investments with agencies, and I like that.”
A Snapchat spokesperson said $300,000 is the base price for a 3-D lens that can run for up to 12 months. But the final price an advertiser would pay depends on if it’s a national takeover on a premium day or if it’s a targeted audience lens priced on impressions.
“If a brand paid $750,000 for a day, it has been a holiday nationwide takeover where advertisers can reach up to 30 million unique people and 65 million impressions,” said the spokesperson. “On average, [effective] CPM for [3-D] lenses is between $8 and $20. This is lower than almost all premium video content on large platforms.”
For now, AR lenses — like standard lenses — are mostly manual ad buys, with agencies giving Snapchat ad assets and Snapchat doing the engineering. The entire lens development process can take up to six weeks, ad buyers said. But as Snap CEO Evan Spiegel mentioned in the company’s earnings call in November, Snapchat is testing a self-serve toolkit called Lens Studio with select brands. The New York-based executive’s team is in the pilot program, and this person said with the self-serve platform, advertisers can upload creative assets online and create an AR lens on their own in about an hour.
“Snapchat only offers the AR toolkit to a small number of top advertisers at the moment,” said this executive. “Snapchat plans to roll it out free of charge in the near future.”
Douglas said conversations with his Snapchat reps suggest the platform has worked aggressively on moving ad inventory to programmatic buying, with Snapchat Ads — a vertical video ad format — being the fundamental ad placement.
“In addition to Snapchat Ads, the platform is also moving filters, stickers and AR lenses into an actionable bidding environment,” said Douglas. “Those ad offerings need to grow and expand.”
Although Snapchat AR lenses are not cheap, advertisers interviewed for this story believe engagement with the lenses is high, and Snapchat offers brand lift studies to quantify brand awareness.
“We justify our ad spend [on 3-D lenses] because we see millions of people often use the lens and share it with their friends. People are 100 percent engaged with the brand — that type of engagement is valuable,” said the New York-based executive. “But most clients haven’t bought into the idea that everyone needs an AR lens yet. After all, those lenses don’t drive sales.” |
Brazil pledges $154m to Amazon solar projects | Brazil has pledged BRL500m ($154m) towards residential solar projects in the Amazon basin next year. Development agency Superintendência do Desenvolvimento da Amazônia (SUDAM) and the Ministry of National Integration of Brazil said that loans will be granted to individuals who want to build solar energy projects in the nine states of the so-called Amazônia Legal. These will be backed by local banks Banco da Amazônia, Bank of Brazil and Banco de Nordeste. Helder Barbalho, minister of national integration, said the scheme should have "extraordinary social impact". | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/06/brazil-launches-154-million-fund-for-residential-pv-in-the-amazon-basin/ | 2017-12-08 16:23:56.457000 | The Brazilian development agency for the Amazonas Basin, the Superintendência do Desenvolvimento da Amazônia (SUDAM), and the Ministry of National Integration of Brazil, to which the agency is linked, have announced that the funds, Fundos Constitucionais do Norte (FNO) and Fundo de Desenvolvimento da Amazônia (FDA) will grant loans to private individuals who want to carry out solar energy projects.
According to SUDAM’s statement, the funds will be used to finance residential solar projects under net metering in the nine states of the Amazon Basin. A total of 500 million BRL (US$154.3 million) will be available in 2018 to finance these projects, according to the local portal Veja, which also reveals that the loans will be granted by the local banks Banco da Amazônia, Banco do Nordeste and Bank of Brazil.
The Minister of National Integration, Helder Barbalho, described the measure as “a fundamental achievement of an extraordinary social impact.”
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The current coverage area of the Legal Amazon, which accounts for approximately 59% of Brazil's total area, covers the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins and part of the states of Mato Grosso, Maranhão and Goiás. Around 55% of the indigenous population of the country reside in these states. |
JinkoSolar to start 2018 as world's largest PV module supplier | China's JinkoSolar will head into 2018 as the market leader in photovoltaic (PV) modules after it posted strong Q3 results. While QoQ revenue contracted 19% as module shipments declined, YoY revenues increased by 20.4% as module shipments surged by 47.8%. Gross margin rose from 10.5% in Q2 to 12% in Q3. JinkoSolar is ramping up its half-cut cell production series, and is investing heavily in developing bifacial n-type cells and optimising its mono wafer costs via diamond wire manufacturing techniques, it said. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/07/jinkosolar-eyes-tech-progress-as-firm-cements-module-leadership-position-for-q3/ | 2017-12-08 16:22:37.090000 | JinkoSolar shipped 2,374 MW of modules in Q3, cementing the firm's market leadership position as it prepares for 2018.
The third quarter (Q3) financial results from JinkoSolar were largely unsurprising, confirming that the Chinese Tier-1 solar firm will head – as expected – into 2018 as the largest supplier of modules globally.
Rather than dwell on a 19% sequential contraction of revenues (down to $964.8 million in Q3) due to a 17.7% drop in module shipments (which fell from 2,884 MW in Q2 to 2,374 MW in Q3), JinkoSolar’s CEO Kangping Chen was instead eager to talk about the firm’s technological progress.
As stressed earlier this year in an interview with pv magazine, JinkoSolar is ramping up its half-cut cell production series, and is also pouring vast amounts of investment and energy into developing bifacial n-type cells and optimizing its mono wafer costs via diamond wire manufacturing techniques.
“We will continue to allocate resources towards innovating new and exciting solar technologies to strengthen our leading position in the market,” Chen said, hinting that JinkoSolar’s devotion to developing new technology will take priority over market expansion in the short term.
Despite the expected quarter-over-quarter contraction, this year’s Q3 figures were vastly healthier than last year’s. Revenue was 20.4% higher and module shipments 47.8% higher. The company was also able to increase its gross margin slightly – from 10.5% in Q2 to 12% in Q3 – having scaled back its use of OEM manufacturers and initiated a series of cost-cutting measures.
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Gross profit, however, was a little skinnier for the quarter, down to $116.1 million on the back of tumbling module average selling prices (ASPs) – balanced out by a fall in shipping costs.
On the market front, the CEO said that JinkoSolar will continue to monitor events in the U.S. closely, stressing that whatever the outcome of the Section 201 case the company “strongly believes in the U.S. market’s long-term growth trajectory”. Effusive words also came the way of India, Europe, Latin America and the MENA region.
On the capacity front, JinkoSolar ended the quarter with production capacities of 7 GW, 4.5 GW and 8 GW for wafer, cells and modules respectively. In Q4, the company is forecasting module shipments of between 2.3 GW to 2.5 GW, and is poised to end the year having shipped between 9.6 GW and 9.8 GW – approximately 10% of the global market share. |
Indian rooftop solar capacity surges 82% in 2017 to 1.9 GW | India had installed a total 1,861 GW in rooftop solar power capacity by September, according to market analyst Bridge to India, with 2017 additions rising 82% YoY to 840 MW. Commercial and industrial buyers accounted for 63% after expanding 66% in the year to September, while the residential market grew 45%, the India Solar Rooftop Map report stated. The public sector fell short of expectations, adding 173 MW of solar power compared with Bridge to India's forecast of 200 MW. Installations are expected to grow an annual 77% over the next four years. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/04/india-installs-1861-mw-rooftop-pv-maharashtra-leads-the-market/ | 2017-12-08 16:15:38.707000 | As of September 2017, India's total PV rooftop capacity stood at 1,861 MW, according to Bridge to India. The analyst company has estimated that India will install 10.8 GW rooftop by 2021.
Indian solar market analyst Bridge to India has released the latest edition of its infographic report, ‘India Solar Rooftop Map’. As per the report, India added new rooftop solar capacity of 840 MW in the last 12 months ending September 2017, at y-o-y growth of 82%. The company has estimated growth with Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 77% for the next four years. As things stand, the total installed capacity as of September 2017 stood at 1,861 MW.
The rooftop PV report has highlighted that commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers remain the biggest consumer segment, accounting for 63% of total capacity and 66% of new capacity added in the last 12 months. Capacity additions in this segment grew 86% in the last 12 months.
The residential market, in contrast, grew at a more sedate pace of 45%. However, the major disappointment comes from the low uptake in the public sector, which added just 173 MW in the last 12 months against Bridge to India’s estimate of 200 MW.
Speaking at the launch of the infograph, Vinay Rustagi, MD of Bridge to India, said: “Rooftop solar has been growing robustly. Debt and equity financing is also flowing more freely now, but it is still abundantly clear that the 40 GW target for March 2022 is highly unrealistic. The government would be particularly disappointed by the slow pace of capacity additions in the public-sector segment despite providing a strong mandate and 25% capital subsidy. Net metering progress also remains patchy at best.”
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According to Bridge to India research, OPEX market share has increased to 30% (10% increase from last year). Among the power developers, CleanMax (Mumbai-headquartered, 15.8%), Cleantech Solar (Singapore-based, 15%) and Amplus Solar (Gurugram-based, 9.5%) are the clear leaders in OPEX project development category.
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Delta (Taiwan-headquartered) and SMA (Germany-headquartered) have maintained their dominance in the inverter market covering 50% of the share, followed by KACO (Germany), which covers 6.5% market. One of India’s biggest solar companies, Tata Power Solar remains the biggest EPC contractor in rooftop solar with 6.2% market coverage.
According to the report, Maharashtra, the western state of India, has overtaken Tamil Nadu state in the south to become the largest solar rooftop state in India. As of September 2017, Maharashtra has installed 237 MW compared to 191 MW in Tamil Nadu. The two states are followed by Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Gujarat, which have rooftop PV capacities of 129 MW, 125MW and 103 MW installation respectively.
Bridge to India’s revised estimate for expected capacity additions in 2017 is 887 MW, 28% lower than its previous estimation. Following the slower growth, the research and consultancy firm has revised downwards its projections for the next five years, with total estimated capacity additions of 10.8 GW by 2021 (down 18% over consultancy’s previous estimate, that is, 13.2 GW) expected. The estimation is 73% short of India's 40 GW rooftop PV target. |
France reduces grid fees for small renewable energy generators | France is lowering its grid fees for solar power projects of 5 MW or below, giving a boost to residential and commercial instalments. The grid fee for solar installations under 100 kVA has dropped by 40%, while schemes producing from 100 kVA to 5 MW will be lowered between 0% and 40%, depending on project size. The fee reductions will be applied to all solar schemes, including those under self-consumption and projects chosen in government tenders. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/06/france-reduces-grid-fees-for-residential-and-commercial-pv/ | 2017-12-08 16:13:35.150000 | France’s Ministry Of Ecological and Solidary Transition (MTES) has issued a new decree that introduces a significant reduction of the grid fees for renewable energy power generators with a capacity of up to 5 MW.
According to the new provisions, which came into effect on December 4, the grid fee for PV installations not exceeding 100 kVa will be lowered by 40%, while those for solar power generators ranging in size from 100 kVa to 5 MW will be lowered between zero to 40% depending on the project size. The fee reduction will be applied to all PV projects, including installations under self-consumption and projects selected in the government’s tenders, Samy Engelstein of French renewable energy association SER told pv magazine.
“This,” Engelstein stressed, “makes projects under 5 MW more attractive, as there will be a significant improvement of their economic balance. In certain cases, it can be a key point to make the project profitable.”
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France is currently supporting residential and commercial PV through regulation for self-consumption and a three-year tender for rooftop PV installations above 100 kW in size. In the first two rounds of the tender, approximately 300 MW of PV capacity was allocated. The government expects developers to install 1,45 GW of PV through the three-year tender, which is open to rooftop PV systems installed on buildings, greenhouses, agricultural facilities and carports. |
Switzerland to replace solar feed-in tariffs with rebate scheme | Switzerland is to replace feed-in tariffs (FIT) for solar projects with a rebate system. From 2018, FITs for commercial and residential solar energy will only be paid out to projects registered before mid-2012. All other schemes will receive funding through the rebate programme, which guarantees up to 30% of investment costs, Swissolar said. The changes mean the number of funded photovoltaic projects could rise considerably. Up to now, the subsidy had only covered projects not exceeding 30 kW. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/06/switzerland-to-replace-fits-with-solar-rebates-in-2018/ | 2017-12-08 16:10:12.373000 | Switzerland’s regulatory framework for the promotion of PV will change starting in 2018. According to the Swiss Photovoltaic Association Swissolar, the current FIT scheme (KEV) for residential and commercial PV will be replaced with a rebate scheme (EIV).
From 2018, FITs will be paid only to projects that were registered for a FIT contract before mid-2012. All other PV systems will be funded through the EIV, which will guarantee a maximum of 30% of the investment costs, according to Swissolar.
With these new provisions, the number of supported projects could considerably increase. So far, the investment subsidy has been paid only for PV systems not exceeding 30 kW in size.
In recent years, a huge waiting list has been set up under the FIT scheme in the Alpine Republic. According to Swissolar, it contains around 38,000 PV projects, which are now being treated preferentially in the payment of the EIV. New applicants would, therefore, have to be patient, with projects up to 100 kW having to wait about 2.5 years.
However, these systems could already be installed without the commitment of the funding agency, according to Swissolar. For PV systems over 100 kW, the waiting period may be of more than six years. According to the association, there is no financial risk for the investors in both cases, as the payment of contributions is guaranteed by law.
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In addition, the new regulations will in the future allow collective projects for self-consumption. The simplified scheme also allows higher self-consumption rates, which makes these models more economically interesting for multi-family houses and commercial real estate, said Swissolar.
The calculation for the remuneration of surplus solar power, which continues to be fed into the grid despite optimized self-consumption, is newly regulated in the law. In many distribution areas, an increase in these “return rates” is to be expected.
In Switzerland, power providers set these tariffs for their areas independently, which is why they have differed widely regionally so far. According to reports from the Swiss Association of Independent Energy Producers (VESE), this year's average was 0.09 CHF (US€0.0855) per kWh. However, tariffs ranged from 0.04 CHF to 0.14 CHF per kWh. |
US 9-month solar output rose 47% in 2017: DOE | US solar output has risen 47% this year through September, according to the Department of Energy. Every state increased its solar output, including South Dakota – the only state to generate less than 1,000 MWh over the period – and photovoltaic giant California, which produced 24,877,000 MWh. Overall, solar made up 1.9% of total US energy production between January and September, up from 1.3% over the same period in 2016, the report showed. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/07/eia-us-solar-output-increases-47-in-2017/ | 2017-12-08 16:08:16.037000 | The EIA’s Monthly Energy Review for December 2017 shows coal generation falling 1.5% in the first nine months of the year versus the first nine months of 2016.
By Mark Burger
The latest Electric Power Monthly by the U.S. Energy Information Agency shows solar PV continuing its impressive growth, generating 47% more electricity from January through September 2017 than the same time period in 2016.
Every state in the U.S. increased its output from solar, from South Dakota, the only remaining state that did not generate more than 1,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) or one gigawatt-hour (GWh) in the nine month period, to perennial PV giant California.
California, with its 24,877,000 MWh, more than laps the field over next place Arizona, with 4,593,000 MWh. However, as PV output growth across the U.S. accelerates, the Golden State’s share of PV generation, shrank from 48% in 2016 to 43% in 2017. Rounding out the top 10 generators are North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, Georgia, Utah and Colorado.
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Of those top 10 states, Georgia had the highest year to year percentage growth, increasing 186% from 2016 to 2017, followed by Texas with 165% and Utah with 123%. Other states that made impressive percentage and quantity growth gains in the same time period are Minnesota, Idaho, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi.
In market segment terms, utility scale growth was twice as high, increasing 58% from 2016 to 2017, as small scale at 29%. The residential sector increased by 32% year-over-year, while the smaller sectors, commercial and industrial each grew 23%. Overall, PV continues its climb of market share of total electricity generated, going from 1.3% from January through September 2016 to 1.9% in the same time period in 2017. |
Ystrategies launches wind-turbine energy optimiser WindWISDEM | US venture capital firm Ystrategies has launched WindWISDEM, a start-up that uses algorithms to calculate how to optimise energy output from wind turbines under different weather conditions. The cloud-based platform also helps reduce risks to turbines. Ystrategies made an initial investment of $350,000 in the start-up and expects to roll out a first-phase version to customers next year.
| https://www.renewablesnow.com/news/vc-firm-ystrategies-launches-wind-farm-optimisation-startup-593509/ | 2017-12-08 15:40:46.947000 | US venture capital firm Ystrategies Corp (OTCMKTS:YSTR) announced today it has launched a startup that offers a cloud computing platform for wind farm performance optimisation.
The new company, called WindWISDEM Corp, is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is an expert in identifying cooperative action among multiple wind turbines by applying physics-based algorithms against unpredictable wind data. The advantages include reducing risk while increasing power production.
The team behind the startup is focused on the development, deployment and integration of advanced, proprietary cloud computing software systems and their application to wind farms, the venture capital firm noted.
Ystrategies has made an initial investment of USD 350,000 (EUR 296,000) in WindWISDEM to jump-start its commercialisation. The latter expects to introduce a Phase 1 system with customers in the second quarter of 2018.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.846)
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Silfab Solar, Morgan to develop cheap low-silicon PV modules | Canadian companies Silfab Solar and Morgan Solar JV are to develop low-cost photovoltaic (PV) modules for North American commercial users. The pair plan to integrate low-concentration optic technology into standard solar PV modules. The technique is expected to reduce the amount of silicon needed by as much as 80% and cut costs by about 30%. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/05/silfab-morgan-solar-jv-targets-30-module-cost-reductions/ | 2017-12-08 15:35:29.853000 | High-efficiency PV module manufacturer and distributer, Silfab Solar, a subsidiary of Italy’s Silfab S.r.l., has partnered with Morgan Solar Inc. to develop and mass produce solar PV modules for large commercial and utility-scale projects in the North American market.
The integration of advanced low concentration optics into standard PV modules, using standard manufacturing processes, is said to use “significantly less” silicon, while electrical output remains at a similar level.
In the new modules, which are currently being manufactured for test projects expected to be rolled out next year, 62% less silicon is being used, John Paul Morgan, CTO of Morgan Solar tells pv magazine in an interview. This could go up to 80%, he says.
Performance will be slightly reduced, he adds, but will pale in comparison to the cost savings. “Reduced cells and silicon use per-module can reduce overall module costs by as much as 30 percent,” said the two companies in a statement released earlier.
Current global average module prices for utility-scale are around $0.31 to $0.32/W, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s Jenny Chase recently told pv magazine. With limited movement on polysilicon prices in H1 2018, market leaders will see H1 prices of around $0.33/W (Based on 10% gross margin), and $0.30/W by mid-year.
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Around 10 MW of modules will be produced at Silfab’s Mississauga facility, located just outside of Toronto, for test projects in 2018. However, by 2019, “hundreds of megawatts” are expected to be manufactured, with this ramping up in 2020, if broader market acceptance occurs.
Currently Silfab’s production capacity is around 350 MW, with the company having ramped up from 180 MW in 2015. Morgan says this is being almost fully utilized, with the production of smart module technology, glass on glass solutions and bifacial modules.
To accommodate the expansion, therefore, Morgan says Silfab is currently investing in a “fairly significant” production facility expansion. He declined to go into specifics, and Silfab Solar could not be reached for comment.
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Morgan goes on to explain that the technology has been specifically designed to require the “bare minimum” in terms of modifications to standard solar module production lines.
A slicing step has been added, as the slices of cells are narrower – a ¼ cell or smaller is used, although the technology is also compatible with half-cut cells, explains Morgan – and, on the back of this narrower cell, the stringer needs to be modified.
As such, says Morgan, an investment in the hundreds of thousands would be needed to ramp up existing facilities for a large production volume of the new modules.
Morgan Solar is the developer of the SimbaX CPV module and Savanna dual-axis PV tracker. The company recently received CA$3.7 million investment from the Canadian government through the Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) for development of both the SimbaX panel and its the translucent SPOTlight panel.
To date, says Morgan, tens of millions have been invested in the technology.
He adds the partnership arose after Morgan Solar made the decision two years that if it was to develop a low cost solar technology that could compete with silicon PV, it would need to use existing manufacturing facilities, as opposed to building its own.
Morgan says there is a “natural fit” between Silfab and Morgan Solar, which have worked together in the past on tracker projects.
The article was modified on December 5 to include comment by Morgan Solar; and on December 6 to remove information relating to the ongoing U.S. trade case, as a final decision is still to be made.
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First Solar debuts large-format modules for mass production | First Solar has debuted large-format Series 6 modules that are expected to be made available at 420-445 W, with efficiencies of more than 17%. The company hopes to start full-scale commercial production of the two-metre units at its Ohio plant next year. First Solar also announced that it plans to double its production capacity at its two Vietnamese sites. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/06/first-solar-produces-first-s6-module-seals-800-mw-of-deals/ | 2017-12-08 15:29:10.563000 | First Solar marked a major milestone in its re-tooling towards producing large-format modules today, with the production of its first Series 6 module on new production lines at the company’s factory in Ohio.
The 1.2 x 2 meter modules are expected to become commercially available at 420-445 watts with efficiencies of over 17%, which is a testament to the thin film solar maker’s remarkable progress with cadmium telluride PV.
The retooling in Perrysburg began a year ago and has represented roughly $177 million in investment; when the retooling at First Solar’s much larger factory in Malaysia is complete the cost will be around $1.4 billion dollars.
First Solar expects to begin full-scale commercial production of Series 6 in Ohio in 2018, and to reach 600 MW-DC annually at this factory.
Concurrent with this milestone, First Solar has announced that it will not only be expanding its facilities in Vietnam to double the originally planned production capacity to 2.4 GW-DC annually. The twin factories in Vietnam are expected to begin production in late 2018 and early 2019.
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Altogether, this means that with both its current Series 4 and the new Series 6, First Solar expects to have around 3 GW of annual capacity in 2018, 5 GW in 2019 and 5.7 GW in 2020.
And there is no shortage of demand for the new product, especially given the exemption for thin-film PV under the Section 201 case. First Solar announced two deals, a 595 MW supply arrangement for a combination of its smaller-format Series 4 and Series 6 with Origis Energy and a 200 MW Series 6 deal with D.E. Shaw.
The Origis deal will run from this month through 2020, and First Solar will supply Series 6 to D.E. Shaw in 2019. All are destined for projects in the United States.
Update: This article was updated at 1:03 pm EST on 12/05/17 to put the retooling of First Solar’s Malaysia factory at a more precise $1.4 billion. |
China's Longi Solar claims PERC cell energy efficiency record | Chinese solar panel maker Longi Solar said it has set a record for the efficiency of a bifacial solar cell. Test results on its product, called a bifacial passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) cell, were backed by China’s National Center of Supervision and Inspection on Solar Photovoltaic Products Quality. Longi said the rear side of its bifacial module achieved 82.15% of the front side, compared with an industry standard of about 75%. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/08/longi-claims-82-15-bifaciality-record-for-its-perc-solar-cell/ | 2017-12-08 15:25:10.927000 | Chinese solar manufacturer Longi Solar announced it has achieved an 82.15% bifaciality world record for its bifacial PERC monocrystalline cell, dubbed Hi-MO2. The company said the result was confirmed by China’s National Center of Supervision and Inspection on Solar Photovoltaic Products Quality (CPVT).
Bifaciality is commonly defined as the ratio of the output measured from the rearside of a cell over the output measured from its front side. According to Longi, the bifaciality of standard bifacial PERC solar in the market is currently around 75%.
Longi further said its bifacial PERC cell, in mass production, has a conversion efficiency of around 21.2%. “If the backside power yield increases the overall module efficiency by 10%, the power of bifacial PERC module can reach 330 watts for 60-cell module (300 watts from the front side), and 396 watts for 72-cell module (360 watts from the front side),” the company asserted in a statement released.
The company also claims that it offers more resistance to PID thanks to its double glass lamination, and that its average annual degradation is below 0.45% for 30 years and under 2% in the first year of its lifetime.
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In late October, Longi announced a 22.71% efficiency for its monocrystalline passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) solar cells. The company will start manufacturing its 22.0% PERC cells by the end 2017.
It expects its module power rating to be between 340 W and 345 W for a 60-cell panel format, and its PERC cell to surpass a conversion efficiency of 23.0% at some point in the “near future.” |
Redrow Redrow third in this year’s NextGeneration Sustainability Benchmark | Redrow has come third in the 2017 NextGeneration Sustainability Benchmark, which evaluates sustainable development among the top 25 UK housebuilders. The report evaluates the yearly progress the sector has made in sustainable development and also highlights best-in-class performance. This year, Redrow invested £163m ($218m) in community development and built 50% of its homes on brownfield land. The vast majority (97%) of its sites were built within 500 metres of public transport. Meanwhile, more than 90% of materials and subcontractors were sourced and employed locally to respective developments.
| http://www.buildingconstructiondesign.co.uk/news/redrows-sustainability-strategy-sees-housebuilder-soar-to-third-place-in-nextgeneration-industry-benchmark/ | 2017-12-08 15:20:39.483000 | Redrow, the leading UK housebuilder, has risen to third in this year’s NextGeneration Sustainability Benchmark – an independent, industry-specific initiative which benchmarks the sustainability performance of the UK’s top 25 housebuilders.
The 2017 NextGeneration Benchmark report rigorously evaluates the annual progress the homebuilding sector has made in delivering sustainable development, while highlighting best-in-class performance within the industry. Having received a Gold Award last year, Redrow’s move up the league table of housebuilders, from fourth place to third, shows the business’ sustainability strategy is delivering real social and environmental value.
Redrow’s ethos is based on creating thriving communities by building responsibly and valuing people. The housebuilder utilises its placemaking design principles to ensure social, environmental and economic aspects are incorporated into its developments. This includes communities, such as Colindale Gardens in North London, that will offer a wide range of local amenities for residents, including nine acres of dedicated open space, a new school and improved transport facilities.
In 2017 alone, the housebuilder invested £163million into community development, planted over 5,600 trees and 50% of its homes were built on brownfield land. In addition, 97% of Redrow developments are built within 500 metres of public transport.
Robert Macdiarmid, Group Sustainability Director at Redrow, said:
“We work hard to ensure that our developments are thriving communities with space and facilities to enable residents to connect with one another and the wider community. We also recognise the importance of designing places where people can play, get active and spend time in green space and nature, helping them to live happier, healthier lifestyles. We are proud of the work the business has done to rise to third place in this year’s NextGeneration Sustainability Benchmark. However, we are not going to rest on our laurels. Next year we will work even harder to become recognised as the UK’s leading sustainable housebuilder.”
Redrow places a premium on building sustainably. Over 90% of materials and subcontractors are sourced and employed locally to development, 99.9% of the timber in Redrow’s homes is responsibly sourced and the business works tirelessly to ensure that as little construction waste as possible ends up in landfill – in 2017 95% was recycled or diverted for other uses. The business is also actively nurturing the next generation of construction industry employees and 15% of its workforce are classed as trainees. |
South African wind, solar strategy 10% cheaper than coal, nuclear | A mix of solar and wind power combined with battery storage would be at least 10% cheaper than a combination of coal and nuclear power plants in South Africa, according to a study by the Goethe-University Frankfurt. It added weight to a study last year by South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which suggested renewable energy would be between 10% and 20% more cost-effective than what had been laid out in a 2016 Integrated Resource Plan. That proposal had come under fire for imposing caps on the building of solar and wind plants. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/12/04/south-africas-energy-mix-will-be-much-cheaper-with-renewables-study-says/ | 2017-12-08 15:17:03.547000 | A least-cost electricity mix based on renewables may be between 10% and 30% cheaper than business-as-usual with new coal and new nuclear. This is the main conclusion of a new study conducted by Jonas Hörsch, a researcher from Germany’s Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies at the Goethe-University Frankfurt.
In the study, Hörsch has compared the total system cost for different electricity mixes in the South African electricity system for various input assumptions for the future cost of wind, solar PV and batteries, and has compared these costs with those included in the projections of the 2016 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) Draft, the expansion plan for the South African power system until 2050, which was released in November.
When it was unveiled, the IRP was criticized for the new annual build-limits for solar PV and wind imposed by the South African government. At the time, the local solar association claimed that the capping of solar and wind development was artificial and cost-ineffective, and did not reflect the real potential that solar technology can play. At the time, South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had also stressed how cost reductions of wind and solar technologies combined with the large wind and solar resources in the country made it uneconomical to build any further coal or nuclear power generators.
CSIR experts claimed that the power-system reliability of South Africa could be achieved on the back of wind, solar PV and flexible power generators at 10-20% costs lower than in the base case sketched by the Department of Energy in the IRP.
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According to Hörsch, the findings of the CSIR model, which did not take into account the influence of the additional wind and solar PV generators on the transmission network, can be confirmed even when grid investments are taken into account. “Even in the worst case,” Hörsch stressed, “assuming that the cost of renewables and batteries will not further reduce from today until 2050 at all, the wind and solar PV mix is still 10% cheaper than business-as-usual.”
If built, Hörsch went on to say, new coal and nuclear power plants will increase the total power system costs, and “would hence have to be cross-subsidized by the rest of the power system or by the taxpayers”.
South Africa’s PV capacity reached 1,474 MW at the end of December 2016, while wind power generation capacity topped 1,460 MW, according to a report released by the CSIR. |
Sirin Labs signs Lionel Messi as blockchain ambassador | Sirin Labs has signed Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi as a brand ambassador to boost blockchain awareness. Sirin Labs's line of blockchain-based products, including the ultra-secure Solarin mobile phone, is targeted at the existing cryptocurrency community. The company is hoping Messi, one of the most valuable athletes on social media whose posts have an estimated value of $500,000 each, will help it tap the large market opportunity of people who have not yet heard of blockchain.
| https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/blockchain-start-sirin-labs-signs-leo-messi-brand-ambassador-%E2%80%8E/ | 2017-12-08 15:15:29.837000 | SIRIN LABS, developer of the SOLARIN ultra-secure mobile phone, announced today that it has signed Barcelona star Lionel Messi as its brand ambassador. The company seeks to raise awareness of Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tampe Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tampe Read this Term technology through an affiliation with the soccer legend.
SIRIN LABS has recently revealed an all-in-one PC for the blockchain generation and the crypto crowd. The company's line of blockchain-based products and services is mainly aimed at the existing cryptocurrency community. As such, the team is betting heavily on the market opportunity offered by Messi's legions of fans, although many of them may not have heard of the blockchain revolution.
Trailing just behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo "the Flea" Messi's posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are worth an estimated $500,000 each, giving him one the most valuable profiles of any athlete.
While some, out of curiosity, are speculating how much the deal cost SIRIN LABS, the firm has not revealed an exact figure. Others may wonder at the rationale behind spending big money to sign the Argentinian footballer, who is widely considered the world’s best.
Messi is joining the blockchain revolution as @SIRINLABS ambassador! Crazy fun times Big honor for us to partner up with him pic.twitter.com/vrp4AzGTuj — Moshe Hogeg (@moshehogeg) ٧ ديسمبر، ٢٠١٧
Moshe Hogeg, founder and CEO of SIRIN LABS, indicated that his firm wants to secure a long-term partnership with the world’s top-rated footballer.
In turn, Leo Messi wrote on his Facebook page that he is happy to join the SIRIN LABS project as an ambassador to "make blockchain more accessible through its next operating system for smartphones!"
He added in a promotional post: "I am usually busy trying to decentralize defenses and after digging deeper into Blockchain and decentralized systems, I'm excited to join SIRIN LABS as an ambassador to make blockchain more friendly with their upcoming operating system for smartphones!"
SIRIN LABS was in the news this year when it released its crowdsale event to support the development of FINNEY, an open source, secure smartphone and all-in-one PC, that runs on a fee-less blockchain.
The FINNEY devices will run on a SIRIN LABS operating system that will be designed to support crypto-related applications, such as wallets, secure Exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term access, encrypted communications, and a P2P resource sharing ecosystem for payment and apps, all supported by the SRN token. The SRN token will be the network’s default currency and only SRN token holders will be able to purchase FINNEY devices.
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All the devices will form an independent blockchain network, a distributed ledger that is scalable and lightweight, powered by IOTA’s Tangle technology. According to the developers, it will be free of centralized backbones or mining centers, and capable of providing fast, fee-less and secure transactions |
Ford's autonomous vehicle will be 'commercial grade' | Ford's next autonomous car will be built with ride-sharing in mind, and will be "commercial grade", according to Ford executive vice president Jim Farley. The company anticipates that production will begin in 2021. The new vehicle is expected to be capable of higher mileage than normal passenger vehicles, and will have the capacity to signal its next movements to pedestrians.
| http://www.thedrive.com/tech/16777/fords-upcoming-self-driving-car-will-be-commercial-grade | 2017-12-08 14:52:47.607000 | Ford revealed more details about the design of its upcoming self-driving car, which is expected to enter production in 2021 (but don't be surprised if it doesn't). The automaker previously said the car would use a dedicated platform and hybrid powertrain, and would be built with ride-sharing in mind. But it now appears the car will be very heavily focused on fleet use.
In a Medium post, Ford executive vice president Jim Farley said the company's first self-driving car will be "commercial grade." Similar to a police car, the autonomous vehicle will have certain components like the brakes upgraded to handle more strenuous duty cycles and higher mileage than comparable passenger-car components, Farley said.
That makes sense for a car used in ride-sharing services, since that work puts it under basically the same stress as a taxi. But this car won't necessarily be just a robotic Crown Victoria. Farley hinted that fleet use could involve jobs besides carrying passengers, referencing a test of autonomous pizza delivery vehicles conducted with Domino's as an area the Blue Oval wants to investigate further.
Farley also discussed the need for self-driving cars to communicate with human beings. Ford got a lot of attention when it dressed a man up as a car seat to test different ways for self-driving cars to signal pedestrians, and customers received voice instructions from the autonomous Domino's delivery vehicles in order to get their pizzas. Farley emphasized the need for systems like these, so it's possible that future Ford self-driving cars will "talk" to people.
As previously discussed by Ford, the self-driving car will feature a hybrid powertrain. This not only reduces emissions but also provides the necessary electrical power for the array of sensors and computers that make autonomous driving possible. Ford currently uses a fleet of Fusion Hybrids as autonomous test mules. |
Half of EU coal plants are not profitable | Over 50% of the 619 coal-fired power stations within the European Union are losing money, according to research by Carbon Tracker. The sector, described as being in a “death spiral,” will suffer €22bn ($26bn) in losses by 2030 if the bloc meets its climate change commitments. Higher carbon prices and tighter regulation against air pollution are likely to mean that even more plants become unprofitable, with 97% being loss-making by 2030. The falling cost of renewables is also expected to make it cheaper to construct new wind and solar farms than to run existing coal plants by the mid-2020s.
| https://www.carbontracker.org/54-eu-coal-power-loss-making/ | 2017-12-08 14:13:38.310000 | Coal phase-out by 2030 could cut utility losses by €22 billion
LONDON, December 8 – More than half of all coal plants in the EU are loss-making, rising to 97% by 2030, finds a Carbon Tracker report launched today. It warns investors that utilities currently only plan to close 27% of capacity by then and that a complete phase-out of coal by 2030 could stem utility losses by €22 billion ($26bn).
Forthcoming air quality standards and carbon prices are pushing up coal operating costs while clean technology costs continue to fall. The report finds that building new onshore wind and solar PV projects will be cheaper than operating existing coal plants by 2024 and 2027 respectively.
“The changing economics of renewables, as well as air pollution policy and rising carbon prices, has put EU coal power in a death spiral. Utilities can’t do much to stop this other than drop coal or lobby governments and hope they will bail them out.” Matt Gray, Carbon Tracker analyst and co-author of the report
Carbon Tracker analysed the profitability of every coal unit in the EU to look at the financial implications of a coal phase-out in Europe consistent with the goal of the Paris Agreement.
German utilities RWE and Uniper could avoid losses of €5.3bn and €1.7bn respectively by closing plants by 2030. This strategy would cut losses for all of Europe’s 15 largest coal plant operators, except Italy’s Enel and Romania’s CE Oltenia.
Germany is home to the largest number of unprofitable coal plants, with potential losses avoided by early closure totalling €12 billion. In Poland savings could amount to €2.7 billion, while the Czech Republic, Spain and the UK could save €2.2 billion, €1.8 billion, and €1.7 billion respectively.
“Our asset-level model outlines a phase-out of coal-fired power consistent with the Paris Agreement. 54% of Europe’s coal plants are already running at a loss, and by 2030 virtually all of them will be.” Laurence Watson, Carbon Tracker data scientist and co-author of the report
Seven countries have already set a date for ending coal power by 2030 or earlier – Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and the UK – reflecting its growing unprofitability and incompatibility with emissions targets. “Coincidentally, by phasing out coal the UK is not only acting in the best interests of their citizens through improved air quality, but also the financial interests of utility shareholders,” the report states.
Lignite of the Living Dead notes that utilities may keep coal plants running at a loss for many reasons, including: hopes that governments will make capacity payments for guaranteed power supply or payments to retire plants; expectations that competitors will close plants, pushing power prices up; the clean-up costs associated with retiring plants; and opposition to closures from governments for political reasons.
However, stricter EU air quality standards will focus utilities to decide between investing in already unprofitable plants or cutting their losses. Coal plants will have to meet these standards by 2021, which will require 70% of existing capacity to install expensive new technologies. Rising carbon prices could also increase costs. The European Commission has proposed banning coal from receiving capacity market payments by 2025, undermining the chances of new support from member states.
Carbon Tracker analysed the gross profitability of 619 coal units in the 28 EU countries. It compared coal owners’ business as usual plans and member state phase-out policies with the International Energy Agency’s Beyond 2°C Scenario (IEA B2DS), which phases out all coal power in the EU by 2030 and gives a 50% chance of limiting global warming to 1.75°C.
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Half of EU coal plants are not profitable | Over 50% of the 619 coal-fired power stations within the European Union are losing money, according to research by Carbon Tracker. The sector, described as being in a “death spiral,” will suffer €22bn ($26bn) in losses by 2030 if the bloc meets its climate change commitments. Higher carbon prices and tighter regulation against air pollution are likely to mean that even more plants become unprofitable, with 97% being loss-making by 2030. The falling cost of renewables is also expected to make it cheaper to construct new wind and solar farms than to run existing coal plants by the mid-2020s.
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/08/death-spiral-half-of-europes-coal-plants-are-losing-money | 2017-12-08 14:13:38.310000 | More than half of the European Union’s 619 coal-fired power stations are losing money, according to a new report. As a result, the industry’s slow plans for shutdowns will lead to €22bn in losses by 2030 if the EU fulfils its pledge to tackle climate change, the report warns.
Stricter air pollution rules and higher carbon prices are set to push even more plants into unprofitability, according to the analysts Carbon Tracker, with 97% of the plants losing money by 2030. Furthermore, rapidly falling renewables costs are on track to make building new wind and solar farms cheaper than continuing to run existing coal plants by the mid 2020s.
Utility companies continue to run lossmaking plants in the hope that competitors will close their plants first or that governments will provide subsidies in return for guaranteed power, though the European commission wants to ban such payments. In Spain, the government has banned Iberdrola from closing its last coal plants, claiming it is concerned over energy security despite the country’s overcapacity in electricity.
Coal in Europe is in a “death spiral”, according to Carbon Tracker, with seven nations including the UK already having announced the end of coal power by 2030 or earlier. At the UN climate change summit in November, the launch of a new alliance of 19 nations committed to phasing out coal rapidly was greeted as a political watershed. “The time of coal has passed,” said the UK’s climate minister Claire Perry.
Until recently European utilities were strong performers, beating Europe’s Stoxx 600 index by 60% between 2000 and 2010. But since then, the utilities have plunged 20% in value as the rise of renewable energy and government policies radically reshaped the market.
Carbon Tracker analysed the revenues and operating costs of all the EU’s coal plants and found 54% are already loss making today. All coal power must be phased out if the EU is to meet the goals of the global Paris climate change agreement, but the current business plans of the utilities would see just a quarter of plants closed.
The new report estimates that closing all the plants by 2030 will avoid losses of €22bn for the plant’s owners, either shareholders or governments. Germany hosts the largest number of unprofitable coal plants and the losses avoided by early closure there total €12bn, with both RWE and Uniper highly exposed. Plans put forward to close German plants have been delayed by the failure of talks to form a new coalition government.
“The changing economics of renewables, as well as air pollution policy and rising carbon prices, has put EU coal power in a death spiral,” said Matt Gray, co-author of the Carbon Tracker report. “Utilities can’t do much to stop this other than drop coal or lobby governments and hope they will bail them out.”
Gray said coal-fired electricity capacity could be replaced by cheaper renewables, with building new onshore wind and solar PV projects projected to be less expensive than operating existing coal plants by 2024 and 2027 respectively. “That is a striking finding, something that would have been unimaginable five years ago,” he said. “The energy consumer deserves the lower cost options.”
However, Brian Ricketts, secretary-general at the industry group Euracoal, said coal was needed to keep the lights on in Europe because renewable energy is unreliable and said “price gouging” could be expected from gas operators without competition from coal.
Ricketts said government subsidies for clean energy now dominate the market: “Traditional economics, based on supply, demand and market equilibrium, has all but disappeared. Our preference would be to see decarbonisation take place under the economically efficient EU emissions trading system.”
Supporters of renewables reject the charge that renewables are unreliable, pointing out the lack of blackouts despite the fast rising proportions of green energy on grids and plunging coal use, and also the dropping cost of battery storage. The UK, where coal use will end by 2025, has gone from 40% of coal-fired electricity to 2% since 2012. The EU’s emission trading scheme has been criticised for providing far too many carbon permits, meaning the carbon price is low.
The expected coal use across the globe in coming decades, particularly in Asia, has fallen sharply recently. In 2013, the International Energy Agency expected world-wide coal-burning to grow by 40% by 2040 – it now anticipates just 1% growth. |
Gene therapy treatment benefits haemophiliacs | Gene therapy could be used to treat patients suffering from blood clotting disorder haemophilia B, a clinical trial has shown. A study at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) showed that a one-time blood vessel infusion of the treatment enabled adult patients to safely produce sustained levels of clotting factor to prevent debilitating bleeding. Reporting the findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, lead investigator Lindsey A George said 10 patients gained a sustained clinical benefit after one successful infusion.
| https://www.news-medical.net/news/20171208/Gene-therapy-shows-promising-effect-against-blood-clots-study-states.aspx | 2017-12-08 13:51:14.327000 | A new study conducted in the Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia (CHOP) reported positive results in a phase 1/2 clinical trial for the inherited bleeding disorder hemophilia B.
Credit: Sebastian Kaulitzki/ Shutterstock.com
A single blood vessel infusion of a novel bio-engineered gene therapy treatment allowed the adult participants safely produce sustained levels of clotting factor that avoided debilitating bleeding episodes. Participants were able to end the prophylactic treatments, a fusion gene therapy that eliminated their need for intravenous infusions of artificial clotting factor.
Lindsey A. George, MD, a lead investigator and hematologist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) stated that the one-time therapy was sufficient to prevent bleeding without any medical interventions for hemophilia patients. A set of 10 patients safely experienced and sustained clinical benefit after one successful infusion, he added.
The research team published their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. Previously, they had reported preliminary reports from the trial at the comprehensive session of the American Society of Hematology annual meeting.
George is a member of CHOP's Division of Hematology and of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, which is a part of CHOP's Roberts Collaborative for Genetics and Individualized Medicine.
Katherine High, MD, a gene therapy pioneer, the study's senior author, president and head of Research and Development at Spark Therapeutics included 10 adult male participants in the phase 1/2 clinical session.
People who live with hemophilia face a lifelong need for vigilant monitoring and recurrent factor concentrate infusions to prevent spontaneous, potentially life-threatening bleeds and to protect their joints," Katherine High, Spark Therapeutics
"The discipline required to execute the usual prophylactic regimen can exact a heavy toll on quality of life that most people take for granted, and those regimens result in significant costs to patients, families and the health care system."
The team used a naturally occurring clotting factor that works 8- to 10-fold stronger than the normal factor. It was named the “Factor IX-Padua (FIX-Padua),” and was discovered in 2009 by a scientific team that included Valder R. Arruda co-author of the study, MD, PhD, at CHOP.
The team used an adeno-associated viral vector in the study to deliver the bioengineered payload of the gene that codes for FIX-Padua. Participants in the trial safely expressed that protein.
Participants with hemophilia have an inherited gene mutation that impairs them from producing the usual blood clotting factor, resulting in life-threatening or disabled bleeding, due to trauma.
Hemophilia B is a disease with low levels of clotting factor IX (FIX), which for more than two decades has been utilized to develop the gene therapy research. The actual strategy is to bring out a corrective gene in the participants by expressing the therapeutic levels of the developed blood clotting factor.
The experiments for hemophilia on animal models turned out to be successful, but in human trials the results were frustrating, as the immune response was defeated by sustained expression of FIX.
By taking advantage of FIX-Padua's attributes, the current research team aimed to attain clinical benefits by using the lowest dosage, as the higher doses of vector used previously stimulated a limiting immune response.
Participants maintained the factors levels of 33%, which is more than enough to reduce the severity of the disease and hardly eliminates bleeding. This condition aids them to avoid painful and disabling joint bleeds that occur in traditional treatments that utilize a regular dosage of blood clotting factor. The clinical benefits were maintained for 78 weeks of regular follow-ups.
After vector fusion effect, 8 out of the 10 did not require any external doses, 9 out of 10 participants experienced no bleeds, and none of the 10 participants had serious adverse effects due to gene therapy.
Only 1 participant among 10 had administered the factor previously due to baseline joint damage. But on the whole, nearly 91% of the patients used fewer factors than before the treatment.
George stated that they were looking forward to continuing the evolution of this therapy in a Phase 3 trial. “I am optimistic, this study is just the beginning of a true paradigm shift in the treatment of hemophilia" he added.
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UK van fleet cuts insurance rate thanks to telematic device use | Downwell Group, a UK-based van fleet, has been able to cut its insurance rate by 20% this year due to its use of smart cameras which monitor how vehicles are driven. The firm also says it's seen a reduced number of accidents through using the technology. The insurance reduction is being granted since the use of the smart cameras allowed the fleet manager to show who the culpable party was in the event of collisions or accidents on the road.
| https://fleetworld.co.uk/fleet-slashes-insurance-premiums-by-20-with-3g-cameras/ | 2017-12-08 12:32:05.103000 | Downwell Group has reduced its annual insurance premiums by 20% and cut the number of accidents on its mixed fleet thanks to connected vehicle cameras.
The company provides demolition and other pre-construction services in the Essex area and installed the SureCam 3G forwarding-facing solution from Intelligent Telematics earlier this year across its fleet, replacing a previous tracking solution.
The 3G camera technology enabled an additional premium reduction with the company’s insurance partner due to its ability to show immediately identify the fault party in an accident.
Downwell Group is also using the connected vehicle camera to analyse driver behaviour and encourage improved driving practices by supporting targeted training, better engaging with drivers and implementing an incentive scheme. Moving forward, this will not only improve safety and ultimately save lives, but also contribute to reduced wear and tear on vehicles and lower fuel consumption.
For more of the latest industry news, click here. |
Wrisk, Etherisc and Sherpa chosen for FCA sandbox | The Financial Conduct Authority has selected three insurtech firms, Wrisk, Etherisc and Sherpa, to make use of the agency's sandbox. The sandbox will allow the start-ups to test their products in a live market without fear of regulatory backlash. A total of 18 start-ups have been selected. Wrisk provides users with usage-based contents insurance while also providing customers with a score assessing their insurability. Etherisc uses smart contracts to reimburse policyholders in the event their flights are cancelled. Sherpa creates a digital risk profile for customers and suggests products based on uploaded data.
| https://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/three-insurance-firms-in-latest-fca-sandbox-cohort/1425762.article | 2017-12-08 11:42:27.580000 | FCA selects three insurance start-ups to join its third regulatory sandbox
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has selected 18 firms to join its third regulatory sandbox cohort, including three companies – Wrisk, Etherisc and Sherpa – working in insurance.
The Sandbox will enable firms to test their products in a “live market” environment, says the FCA. It hopes that its sandbox underlines its commitment to financial services innovation.
It received 61 applications in total and under a third (18) of them were chosen to take part. Those involved cover a range of sectors.
Two fifths (40%) of firms selected were based outside of London, compared to just a quarter (25%) in the first cohort and a slightly over a third (35%) in the second cohort. |
Swiss insurer Helvetia buys into Estonian insurtech | Swiss insurer Helvetia has taken a stake in Estonian insurtech Inzmo. The insurtech uses technology to speed up the process of buying insurance, while also allowing policyholders to make claims via an online platform. The two firms are now working together to sell coverage protecting bicycles, electronic gear, glasses and watches.
| https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/29881-helvetia-inzmo-insurance-online-insurtech | 2017-12-08 11:12:44.603000 | Swiss insurer Helvetia has bought a stake in an insurtech company based in Estonia. The solution provided by the firm enables customers to get comprehensive coverage online.
Helvetia acquired a stake in Inzmo via its Venture Fund, the Swiss company said in a statement today. Inzmo developed a fully digital B2B2C insurance procedure covering all steps required – from contract to administration of policies and claims, Helvetia added.
Helvetia has been gaining experience with the Inzmo solution since June. The insurer paid less than 10 million francs for the stake.
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The technology allows users to buy coverage within minutes and to administer their policies. They can also file claims online, using the application.
Helvetia and Inzmo are active in selling insurance policies covering bicycles, electronic gear, glasses and watches. Inzmo will use the money Helvetia invested to develop the application further. |
Passive funds increasingly vote against companies: Morningstar | Passive funds are increasingly voting against proposals made by their portfolio companies, according to a report from Morningstar. Among funds mentioned in the report, Deutsche Asset Management and Nomura Asset Management were found to be the most aggressive in voting against companies' boards. The two firms voted against board proposals 23% and 22% of the time respectively. Morningstar noted US-based managers were historically less likely to vote against boards than their European counterparts. There is evidence, however, this is changing with US managers becoming more willing to vote for change.
| https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b15y0pgy6tbyb7/deutsche-nomura-push-back-most-against-corporate-boards-morningstar-finds | 2017-12-08 09:42:40.277000 | The asset management units of Deutsche Bank and Nomura Holdings are increasingly aggressive in voting against company boards, signs of the rise in active stewardship among passive funds, according to Morningstar.
Nomura Asset Management had the biggest jump in votes against companies’ proposals in the last three years: The firm voted against boards 22 percent of the time last year, up from 18 percent in 2015 and 13 percent in 2014, Morningstar said in a report Wednesday. Deutsche Asset Management voted against companies’ plans 23 percent of the time last year, rising from 21 percent in 2015 and 17 percent in 2014, the report shows.
Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at Deutsche Asset Management, said in an email that the fund manager takes corporate governance “very seriously.” The German firm cast the largest percentage of votes against companies’ proposals last year, according to Morningstar, which tracked the voting records of 12 passive fund managers globally.
“Whether it’s an index or active investment, we have the same rules,” Huber said in the email. “This has given us the advantage of having a very clear position on what is important to us. Our voting policy is very clear and precise and strives to reduce room for interpretation.”
The other passive fund managers in Morningstar’s report include Amundi, BlackRock, Geode Capital Management, LGIM, Lyxor Asset Management, Nikko Asset Management, State Street Corp., Charles Schwab Corp., UBS Group’s asset management unit and Vanguard Group.
While the report shows Deutsche and Nomura being the most aggressive in their voting against corporate boards, Vanguard’s track record was starkly different. The firm cast votes against companies’ proposals just 6 percent of the time in the year through June 30, according to Morningstar.
In an interview, Simon Jones, a senior investment consultant and head of responsible investment at Hymans Robertson, said the difference in voting patterns can be explained in part by the engagement policies of individual fund firms.
“Certain companies will vote quite explicitly against directors if they are not getting the engagement or the change they are seeking,” he said. “You will have managers that only vote against resolutions where channels of engagement have been unsuccessful, whereas others will use voting.”
[II Deep Dive: Meet the New Activists]
In a statement accompanying its report, Morningstar said that U.S. asset managers have traditionally been more unlikely to challenge companies through voting, compared to their European competitors, particularly in relation to environmental and social issues. But there are signs that this is changing, the firm said.
LGIM declined to comment. Amundi, BlackRock, Nikko, State Street, Charles Schwab and UBS and Vanguard didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
In an August interview with Institutional Investor, Glen Booraem, global head of corporate governance at Vanguard, said the firm believes it has a shareholder obligation to “advocate for actions” at companies, where necessary, to “enhance the long-term value.” |
Alibaba and Ford partner to tackle sustainable mobility issue | Alibaba Group and Ford Motors have announced a partnership that will aim to explore solutions for sustainable mobility. The partnership will initially focus on digital solutions for retail that will cater to various stages of the car ownership cycle, and will include focuses on cloud computing, mobility services, connectivity and artificial intelligence. “Our data-driven technology and platform will expand the definition of car ownership beyond just having a mode of transportation and into a new medium for smart lifestyle”, said Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang.
| http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/12/07/alibaba-and-ford-form-technology-based-alliance | 2017-12-07 14:29:57.630000 | Alibaba Group has formed a strategic alliance with Ford Motors to enhance consumer retail experiences and explore solutions for sustainable mobility.
As part of the three-year partnership, Ford will work with Alibaba’s four business units namely AliOS, Alibaba Cloud, Alimama and Tmall and jointly explore mobility services, connectivity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital marketing.
Ford and Alibaba will initially focus on digital solutions for new retail opportunities at various stages of the automotive ownership cycle. Alibaba will also further leverage Ford's experience in selling vehicles globally.
Jim Hackett, Ford’s president and chief executive officer said: “China is one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets, thriving on innovation with customers’ online and offline experiences converging rapidly. Collaborating with leading technology players builds on our vision for smart vehicles in a smart world to reimagine and revolutionize consumers’ mobility experiences,’’
Alibaba Group chief executive officer Daniel Zhang said: “Alibaba is excited to redefine the consumer journey and user experience for automobiles together with Ford Motor Company. Our data-driven technology and platform will expand the definition of car ownership beyond just having a mode of transportation and into a new medium for smart lifestyle.” |
Publishers using code to crack down on mobile page redirects | Publishers are usually blamed for mobile website redirects, but they're mostly unaware it happens on their sites. To tackle the problem of readers being taken to pages they didn't expect, publishers have set up a Charles Proxy, which monitors the code a device exchanges with the internet. Some are also raising charges to price the spammers responsible out of the market.
| https://digiday.com/media/every-vendor-problem-website-redirects-keep-plaguing-publishers/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171207 | 2017-12-07 14:28:47.610000 | This is the third article in an occasional series on ad fraud. Other posts examined the state of video ad fraud and why old fraud tactics won’t die.
In a publishing environment that often resembles a house of horrors, the mobile redirect is one of the most infuriating — to both users and publishers. A person clicks a link they think will take them to a story on a reputable news publisher only to suddenly end up in the app store to download a random mobile game. Most users would end up hating the publisher for such an underhanded move, only the publisher more often than not has no idea the redirect is taking place.
“Every vendor has this problem,” said a programmatic specialist at a news publisher, requesting anonymity to avoid drawing attention to the crappy ads being served on his company’s website. “I’ve tested turning off everyone but Google AdX, and I still have issues. I can’t just keep these exchanges turned off because there is too much money on the line with them. That’d be like cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
The security of 0.5 percent of all ad impressions sold programmatically is compromised, and the main culprit of these attacks is site redirects, according to tech firm Confiant, which specializes in blocking bad ads from publishers’ webpages. While low-tier ad networks that resell inventory without the publisher’s authorization are part of the problem, even the ad industry’s most prominent buy-side and sell-side platforms are hooking publishers up with spammy ads that lead to redirects.
While 0.5 percent sounds like a low number, remember that webpages can be crammed with dozens of ads and that users see thousands of impressions in a single day. If a user spends much of their time online on sites that sell their inventory through programmatic exchanges, it’s likely the user will regularly get hit with redirects.
The website redirects that publishers complain about are familiar for anyone who spends a lot of time browsing the internet. They occur on both desktop and mobile, but they function slightly differently in each environment.
For example, on desktop a user opening up an article will get forced onto a new browser tab where a suspicious advertiser claims to be giving away Amazon gift cards in exchange for the user’s email address. On mobile, the redirects are more likely to be geared toward getting the user to download an app to their device.
This can be done by ripping users away from the article they’re reading and forcing them into the app store where an install for a malicious app begins. Mobile redirects can also send users to new webpages that beg them to download their app. As seen in the photo below, one tactic is to tell users that their device is damaged by a virus that can be quickly eradicated if users download the shady advertiser’s app, which claims to be a cybersecurity product.
These publishers’ observations were all anecdotal. Because the people behind the site redirects take a lot of precautions to obfuscate where their ad calls will lead users, publishers could not quantify how often redirects happen on their sites.
It takes some technical know-how just to catch and monitor a single ad that forces readers to another website. To do this, publishers have to set up a Charles Proxy, a server that allows web developers to monitor all of the code that a device exchanges with the internet. The bad actors forcing the redirects are careful to not ruin user experience too often, said Louis-David Mangin, CEO of Confiant.
“There is a fine balance to making something profitable for the bad guys but not painful enough that it prompts the industry to crack down on it completely,” he said.
Publishers were quick to blame supply-side platforms for their redirect issues. And that makes sense since SSPs are the vendors that publishers have direct relationships with. But SSPs are just one stop in the ad supply chain that is responsible for the problem, said Justin Kennedy, COO of Sonobi, a programmatic platform that operates on both the buy and sell sides.
Many demand-side platforms allow buyers to self-declare the type of creative they’re serving, and there is often little human oversight to check whether the advertisers submitting the creative are telling the truth, Kennedy said. The sales structure at many DSPs is also incentivized to bring as many advertisers into the platform as possible, which means lots of ad creatives get passed through without much vetting.
In November, Google announced it was working on an update to its Chrome browser that would block unwanted site redirects. Chrome controls about 60 percent of the internet-browsing market, according to NetMarketShare, so this could help publishers mitigate the problem. But publishers that spoke to Digiday for this story are only cautiously optimistic about getting help from Google. They also fear the ad blocker coming to Chrome could hurt their businesses.
Raising price floors is another tool publishers can use to lessen redirects since spammy advertisers tend to buy remnant inventory. However, of the two publishers that told Digiday they raised price floors to reduce redirects, only one said they’ve seen a decline in how often users contact their site to complain about redirects.
One source from a gaming publisher quipped: “It’s why we can’t wait to get away from the open exchange.” |
Agencies use NDAs to cover up sexual harassment charges | A pattern is emerging among advertising agencies involving the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to keep sexual harassment cases from going public, as women begin speaking out about their experiences. Multiple cases cite HR departments using NDAs, large severance packages or relocation offers whenever instances of sexual harassment are reported, particularly when a senior staff member is implicated. Kenneth Katz, an employment lawyer who advises on harassment cases, believes that recent events will change HR behaviours.
| https://digiday.com/marketing/agencies-use-ndas-hide-sexual-harassment-claims/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171207 | 2017-12-07 14:19:44.150000 | Ad agencies are using nondisclosure agreements to hide sexual harassment claims.
Digiday spoke with 15 women for this story. All of them had not only signed some kind of confidentiality agreement stemming from a case of harassment — both sexual and nonsexual — but also knew of at least one other case of an NDA being signed at the company they worked for at the time.
What has emerged is a pattern of using confidentiality agreements to stop harassment charges from becoming public. This in turn has protected the harassers, according to these women. In every case, the women Digiday spoke to had nondisclosure agreements built into a severance package, while the harassers kept their jobs.
“My point of view is that big agencies and lawyers put so much pressure on an already difficult emotional situation that they basically bully the employee, eventually wearing them down to settle,” said one New York-based woman who worked at multiple agencies and tried to bring a wrongful termination suit. “Do I wish I never signed an NDA? Yes. I wish I took my agency all the way to court.”
Ever since The New York Times published a report detailing sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct allegations against filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, women across industries have come out to share their stories, and there has been more of a spotlight on how a culture of shaming and secrecy has helped protect harassers. Some of it is because women themselves choose to keep quiet and move on. But much of it is shielded because of high-powered, well-funded companies with attorneys who can push confidentiality agreements that prevent women from pursuing claims or lawsuits in perpetuity, in exchange for a settlement package.
One industry veteran who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years said she knew at least three cases where NDAs were signed. (“If I knew three, that meant there were probably 10,” she speculated.) In one, it was a senior male agency executive who settled with someone. Five years later, the same executive was again accused of harassment. That’s when he “retired,” taking on a consulting role that meant he still worked with clients and collected a paycheck, but had less day-to-day hands-on responsibility with staff.
The process is eerily similar across accounts: One woman who signed an NDA after being sexually harassed by a male colleague brought up the issue twice, once to her boss and another time to human resources. She then talked to a lawyer. The agency — which, like most holding-company owned agencies, has publicly proclaimed that it “never settles” — responded by negotiating a settlement package that included an NDA. The woman chose to take that option and not file a lawsuit. The man stayed in his job.
“What it felt like was it was taken out of the leadership’s hands, including that of my boss, and lawyers are the ones who drove this,” the woman said.
The industry veteran said women “don’t make a big deal out of it because they don’t want their names getting out there as someone who is hard to work with.” This woman said that in her experience, it’s an “unwritten rule.”
A ‘poisonous’ woman
“When things become personal, change happens,” theorizes Kim (not her real name), who signed an NDA as part of a harassment claim and went on to work in recruiting and coaching.
Kim was at the vp level at a major company. She said she’s experienced multiple forms of harassment. She internalized some of them: “I don’t know how to say this, so I just will: I’m tall; I’m slim; I like to dress myself well, and I am in shape. That has served me well in my professional career.”
Kim said she was good at her job, but often felt like people were told to take her to meetings or use the way she looked to close a deal or sale. “I was great at my job, but it didn’t dawn on me until later that I was being treated as a sexual object as being a good-looking woman,” she said. “I performed well, and I was compensated handsomely for it.”
Kim said she was one of the many women Digiday has spoken to who have been placed in an alcohol-heavy marketing atmosphere and felt she had to be doubly careful to avoid any miscommunication. “I was the boring one. I had men tell me that because I wouldn’t have the extra drink or go out late when we were on trips,” she said.
There were other things: At one point, Kim found out a rumor (untrue) was circulating that she was having an affair with a male colleague. “That hurt,” she said. Another was a culture in which people would joke that with certain executives, wearing a low-cut dress was the way to get a project approved.
When Kim got a new male boss, she was rated and ranked highly in performance reviews. Kim said the new boss harassed her with passive-aggressive comments, rumors about her work and leadership and other forms of harassment that she said undermined her. She went to HR. They suggested mediation or a relocation to an Asian office. She hired a lawyer. The company, she said, termed her “litigious” and “poisonous.” They gave her a package with an NDA and a year’s extra pay.
The deal was that she wouldn’t talk about the terms of her exit package. It didn’t name the perpetrator, but included that she wouldn’t talk to former colleagues or anyone else. Her lawyer told her it was standard legalese.
Kim ended up moving to a new city and got a new job. She said she wouldn’t have gotten it if she’d gone public. She went through therapy. “It was so raw. It was a lot,” she said, adding that she was depressed. Now, four years later, she said she wishes she’d stood up for herself more.
“With what’s happening today, it feels like women can get their power back and bring this out into the light,” she said. “It’s less shameful.”
Others agree. Two women mentioned they feel like agencies, scared of what could come out, will try harder today to remove known harassers from their jobs. That means there may be more NDAs, but with harassers having to sign them.
Another New York-based agency woman said NDAs are usually marked by a telltale departure, or sometimes, a normally high-performing woman is bundled into a round of layoffs. Sometimes, it’s built into the actual employment contract that the employee will resolve all personnel matters “privately.” That means confidentiality agreements before harassment even happens, if it ever does. There are “payouts,” she said. When an older married colleague sexually harassed her, she said she didn’t report it because she felt she’d be silenced. Or, people would “think I asked for that to happen and I was flirting back.” She said NDAs are a “Band-Aid.” “Brushing things under the rug seems like a fine short-term solution, but it’s unsustainable,” she added. “I’ve seen when harassment happens and it’s silenced, it enables other bad behavior, including what feels like a sanctioning of bad behavior.”
‘Time for heads to roll’
Kenneth Katz, an employment lawyer who has advised employees on harassment cases in many industries, said it’s still a gray area whether a judge will enforce a contract used to conceal a harassment offense. Sometimes they do: Companies can mandate that the employee who signed the NDA pay back the money, plus lawyer’s fees, or even damages. They can put in an injunction against a lawsuit if one is filed. But action on the part of the company rarely happens. “It’s kind of a scare tactic or something put in place so the employee can feel like there was a contract.” In Katz’s experience, it becomes a finality for the woman — “it’s usually a woman” — and they move on and stop talking about it. (There is a legal debate following the Weinstein case about whether NDAs should even be enforceable in harassment cases.)
Katz said companies often worry about copycats: If one NDA is signed, others come forward expecting similar terms, especially in cases of serial harassers. Katz said he expects that because of the so-called Weinstein effect, companies will be more willing to settle. The difference might be that harassers are quietly kicked out of agencies with no explanation. “[Harassment] is becoming a bigger story,” he said.
One top head of talent at an agency said she’s changed her mind about NDAs. “I used to think the NDA wasn’t a bad idea — people who want to keep their money and career prospects intact,” she said. “But now? This really bad behavior has to be stopped, and we can’t keep doing that. We won’t move anywhere as a society. It’s time for heads to roll.”
There haven’t been a string of high-profile departures. However, a recent report in AdAge said that according to anonymous sources, the recent exit of Joe Alexander, chief creative at IPG-owned the Martin Agency, was because of an investigation.
The woman who tried to bring a wrongful termination suit and signed an NDA said she’s proud she at least started the process. She bought herself jewelry — diamond earrings — with the money she ended up with after she paid taxes and lawyers. “They were quarter carats,” she said, “if that tells you anything.” |
Stoke-on-Trent offers homes for £1 in regeneration scheme | Stoke-on-Trent is selling 25 homes for just £1 ($1.34) to help revive deprived areas and boost housing supply. The local council is selling the homes, mainly two-bedroom Victorian terraces, to applicants who promise to renovate and live in them. Potential residents must meet strict criteria, including having a local link and earning no more than £27,000 per annum as a single person, or up to £60,000 if a family with children. The scheme also includes a loan of up to £60,000, repayable over 15 years, to fund renovations made by the council before the new owners move in. | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/communities-rejuvenation-selling-houses-1-residential-property-terracing-neighbourhoods-councils-a8094526.html | 2017-12-07 14:07:21.733000 | Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the
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In the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England, the council is offering 25 homes for sale for just £1 each. The houses are mainly two-bedroom Victorian terraces, in a deprived area of the city where there are a large number of empty properties, and which has a reputation locally for high levels of disorder and antisocial behaviour. Clearly, the city council hopes the “Reviving Communities Scheme” will do just that.
This doesn’t mean that Christmas has come early for private landlords or property developers in Stoke. These properties must be renovated and lived in, rather than demolished or rented out, and there are strict criteria which applicants need to meet.
Would-be £1 home owners must have a local connection and earn no more than £27,000 each year if they’re a single person (up to £60,000 if they’ve got a family with children). This scheme includes a loan of up to £60,000 – repayable over 15 years – which funds renovations carried out by the council before new owners move in. This way, new owners can avoid the stressful process of organising the renovations themselves.
The big issues
Faced with ongoing austerity measures, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has had to make £172m in savings since 2010 and will need to find a further £34m by 2020. So one might wonder why the council doesn’t simply renovate the properties to rent them out and generate much-needed income in the process. The answer is that – rather than being a money-maker – this scheme sets out to address some of the deepest social issues facing Britain today.
It is estimated that there are more than 589,000 empty homes in England and Wales – more than 200,000 of which have been empty for six months or more. Against the backdrop of severe housing shortages across the UK – and an anticipated need to build over 210,000 homes per year – the £1 scheme can put disused homes back into use, providing short-term relief from some of the pressure on the housing market and freeing up extra rental spaces in the city.
The scheme has been introduced at a time when many young people are struggling to buy a home. Incomes are stagnating and, on average, house prices are 7.6 times the average UK salary, up from 3.6 times earnings in 1997. The Council of Mortgage Lenders recently revealed that less than 50% of people under 35 believe they are likely to buy a home within 10 years.
While there have been calls for young people to spend less and save for a deposit, the reality is often that young people – who are far more likely to live in private or social rented housing – routinely pay more in rent than they would for a mortgage.
The uncertainties of living in rented housing – exacerbated by short-term lets – have recently spread to council tenants and other social renters. The £1 homes scheme offers residents, and especially younger people, an affordable way to buy their own homes and escape these uncertainties.
Small but successful
Schemes like this have been tried before – in Stoke back in 2014, and in cities as far afield as Liverpool in the UK, Roubaix in France and Abruzzo in Italy. The previous scheme in Stoke proved remarkably popular, attracting hundreds of applications for just 35 homes.
There is evidence that they work, too – Stoke’s first £1 homes scheme led to reductions in disorder and anti-social behaviour, as well as improvements in local health outcomes and housing conditions in the local area. Meanwhile, The Portland Inn Project has encouraged local organisations to work together to turn the former Portland Inn into a community centre. In working to breathe new life into the former pub, they have helped local residents develop a stake in the community.
Schemes such as this can work in tandem with other initiatives to deliver real benefits for local people. For example, Stoke has been shortlisted for the UK City of Culture 2021 contest. The ambition to revive declining communities and support local cultural and heritage industries formed a key part of the bid.
In this sense, the £1 scheme can be seen as part of the broader plan to encourage and sustain the city’s long-term cultural revival. It has given the council a means to encourage and maintain stable inner-city communities, while delivering benefits for residents by creating a sense of safety, belonging and ownership. It can also encourage younger residents to make a long-term commitment to the local area, helping places to become communities that survive and thrive long into the future.
On their own, small projects such as £1 houses won’t give all residents a chance to own their own home – nor can they alleviate the insecurities of renting or make up for the nation’s housing shortages. Only the national government has the power to solve problems of this scale. But they do give local authorities the means to encourage a sense of ownership in their local communities. And for Stoke – and many other post-industrial centres across the UK and Europe – that commitment from residents is what helps cities thrive.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. |
Purdue University develops agricultural IoT network with HPE | Purdue University's College of Agriculture has partnered with Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) company, to develop an IT infrastructure for agriculture that uses IoT sensors and devices to encourage more efficient plant growth and food production processes. The initiative uses innovations such as solar-powered mobile Wi-Fi hotspots and a semi-automated vehicle that captures real-time data using plant-based sensors. The IoT infrastructure allows for much quicker decision-making as plot data can be reported, analysed and fed back to the farmer for efficiency adjustments. The Indiana university began testing in late 2016, with scaling to production level expected early next year.
| http://www.baselinemag.com/enterprise-apps/purdue-uses-iot-to-reinvent-farming-boost-output.html | 2017-12-07 13:25:25.660000 | The goal is as lofty as they come: to feed the world. Agricultural output will need to double by 2050, when the global population will hit an estimated 9 billion people. High tech — in the form of the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless and mobile technologies, and automated data collection and analysis — is leading the charge.
Purdue University’s College of Agriculture has developed an agriculture-centric IT infrastructure including advanced IoT sensors and devices that will allow researchers to study and improve plant growth and food production processes. “Every process from farm to table and in between has potential for improvement,” stresses Pat Smoker, director of Purdue Agriculture IT, in West Lafayette, Indiana. “Technology will play a big role in helping us achieve that.”
The digital agriculture initiative kicked off about three years ago. Recognizing the need for a partner in innovation, Purdue sought proposals from a number of its IT partners. The university decided that Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) company, was most closely aligned with its goals.
“Their proposal nailed the challenges and opportunities we were facing, recognized our strengths and had a vision on how to use them to grow the agricultural technology economy,” Smoker says. “They had infrastructure solutions that enabled the very things we wanted to focus on.”
Another plus: HPE’s wireless management started not with the core but with the end devices, what Smoker calls “the adaptive stuff that happens at the edges.” He adds, “They had the hardened equipment we needed in a demanding environment — a wet, dirty field with many varieties of animal and insect cohabitants.”
Purdue established a partnership with HPE blending research, innovations and disruptive technologies such as IoT to revolutionize farming research with digital agriculture. In fall 2016, the university began installing an IoT network on its 1,408-acre research farm, the Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE). The system is now being built out to production levels and should be complete by Q1 2018.
The system captures terabytes of data daily from sensors, cameras and human inputs. To gather, aggregate, process and transmit such volumes of data back to Purdue’s HPE supercomputer, the university is leveraging a combination of wireless and edge computing technologies. ACRE researchers can enter data into a mobile device onsite and transmit it via the Aruba wireless network, first to the HPE Edgeline systems and then to an HPC data center for analysis.
Innovations include solar-powered mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, an adaptive weather tower that provides high-speed connectivity across the entire ACRE facility and the PhenoRover, a semi-automated mobile vehicle that roams throughout ACRE research plots capturing real-time data from plant-based sensors. Pilot projects include an Unmanned Aerial Systems (also called drones) program to advance the effectiveness of plant-growth data collection.
The digital process is a huge timesaver. “Previously, our faculty had to design data handling protocol,” Smoker explains. “They had to figure out how to get data off the sensors and back to the lab, develop analytics and get someone to write the code. We need to take all that off their plate so they can focus on the science and don’t need to think so much about the mechanism.”
It also increases the speed and accuracy of research. For example, researchers using mobile devices in the field can transmit information about seed growth back to central labs to analyze the impact of water levels, fertilizer quantities and soil types. In turn, the labs can communicate their analysis back to the field to allow quick adjustments.
The potential is enormous. Digital agriculture could enable “precision farming,” in which fertilizer levels or irrigation requirements are adjusted for sections or individual plants, and automated equipment can apply the ideal treatment for specific weeds, a boon for sustainability. “At some point, could the plants themselves report the presence of disease or insect infestation for the farmer to act on?” he asks.
Initially, the College of Agriculture will be the only one using the Big Data pipeline. But that’s just the beginning. “This college is one of 11 at the university,” Smoker says. “At some point, the next-generation infrastructure we are creating will become mainstream and eventually provided to the research community at large. Then we’ll be off doing the next new thing at the edge.”
Eileen McCooey, a New York-based consultant and Baseline contributor, has extensive experience covering a wide range of business and consumer topics, including digital technologies and consumer electronics of all kinds. |
HM Treasury offers £2m to fintechs to build rent payment tracker | The UK government has called on developers to come up with an innovative solution that would enable tenants' rental data to be recorded and shared, with a £2m ($2.7m) purse on offer. The Rent Recognition Challenge will offer grant funding to the six most promising solutions, with expert judges from the fintech sector whittling the number down further, with additional funding available at this stage.
| https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/31422/uk-treasury-looks-to-fintech-to-revive-the-mortgage-market | 2017-12-07 13:17:21.033000 | HM Treasury is offering £2 million to budding entrepreneurs who can develop an application that will enable Britain’s 11 million renters to record and share their rent payment data, helping to improve their credit scores and their chances of getting a mortgage.
Winning bids to the Rent Recognition Challenge will be selected by a panel of "leading figures" from the fintech sector, says the Treasury.
The economic secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Barclay, says: "People’s monthly rent is often their biggest expense, so it makes sense for it to be recognised when applying for a mortgage. Without a good credit score, getting a mortgage can be a real struggle.
Most lenders and Credit Reference Agencies are unable to take rental data into account, because they don’t have access to it. The Rent Recognition Challenge will challenge firms to develop an innovative solution to this problem."
The competition will provide an initial round of grant funding to six promising proposals to help to turn the ideas into a workable product. The expert judges will then whittle the six down to just a handful of teams who will receive further funding and support to bring their ideas to market.
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UK government earmarks £25m for Planning Delivery Fund | The UK government is inviting applications from local councils and other organisations for its £25m ($33m) Planning Delivery Fund, aimed at boosting innovation in housing developments and offering design support to local authorities. It is part of a package of measures, including the allocation of £3m for an existing garden village initiative, and the consultation on plans to speed up the development of new garden towns. The government aims to build 300,000 homes per year by 2020 to help ease the current crisis.
| https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-unlocks-25-million-to-deliver-more-homes | 2017-12-07 13:04:35.100000 | Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma today (4 December 2017) announced that the Planning Delivery Fund is now open for bids and will support ambitious local authorities and third sector organisations in areas of high housing need to plan for new homes and infrastructure.
Initially opening up £11 million of the fund, councils will be able to apply to help gain the skills or capacity they need to deliver high quality housing growth at scale, pace and implement wider planning reforms. The fund is aimed at encouraging more innovation in the design quality of new housing developments, as well as provide design advice and support to local authorities.
As part of the government’s plans to raise housing supply to 300,000 per year on average by the mid-2020s, a package of measure has been announced to boost local authority planning capacity, support councils to take a proactive role in planning and encourage ambition and leadership in the delivery of new communities.
Others measures announced along with the £25 million Planning Delivery Fund include:
a further £3 million funding to support the delivery of the 14 garden villages that are part of the government’s existing programme
publishing a consultation on plans to allow the creation of locally led New Town Development Corporations, and help speed up the delivery of new garden towns.
Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma said:
Locally-led developments have enormous potential to deliver the scale and quality of housing growth that we need. By supporting our local authorities, we will be able to unlock more homes where people want to live. These measures including the £25 million of government support which will help develop new communities that will not only help deliver high-quality well-designed homes, but will also bring new jobs and facilities and a boost to local economies.
Across England, the government is currently supporting 24 locally-led garden cities, towns and villages, which have the potential to deliver around 220,000 homes.
Backed by £16 million funding, a further £3 million has been allocated to 14 garden villages in the programme to fund dedicated staff and studies and assessments that are vital to the delivery of garden villages that are key to successful delivery.
The government’s housing white paper in February 2017 committed to the creation of New Town Development Corporations, which would be overseen by the local authority or authorities covering the area proposed for a new garden community, rather than by Whitehall. Government is now seeking views on this proposal.
Further information
The first part of Planning Delivery Fund allocation of £11 million will be open to bids for the financial years 2017-18 to 2018-19.
A garden town is a development of more than 10,000 homes. Garden villages are smaller settlements of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes.
The 14 garden villages are: Long Marston, Oxfordshire Cotswold, Tresham, Culm, Welborne, West Carclaze, Dunton Hills, Spitalgate Heath, Halsnead, Longcross, Bailrigg, Infinity Garden Village, St Cuthberts and Handforth.
Garden Village Capacity funding allocation Welborne, Fareham BC £275,000 Tresham, East Northants DC £275,000 West Carclaze,Cornwall Council £275,000 Long Marston, Stratford-upon-Avon DC £230,000 St Cuthbert’s, Carlisle City Council £275,000 Culm, Mid Devon DC £230,000 Halsnead, Knowsley MBC £230,000 Handforth, East Cheshire DC £188,000 Spitalgate Heath, South Kesteven DC £230,000 Dunton Hills, Brentwood DC £230,000 Longcross, Runnymede DC £230,000 Bailrigg,Lancaster City Council £130,000 Infinity, Derby City Council & South Derbyshire DC £101,000 Oxon Cotswold, West Oxfordshire DC £101,000
Measures apply to England only.
Read the full written ministerial statement. |
UK plastic recycling could be undermined by Chinese ban | The UK’s attempts to increase plastic recycling could be undermined by a Chinese ban on imports of solid waste from January 2018. China is currently the world’s largest market for household waste, and the ban will affect millions of tonnes of discarded plastic. Research from Greenpeace shows UK firms have shipped two-thirds of the country’s total waste plastic exports, or over 2.7m tonnes, to China and Hong Kong since 2012. Figures show that the government needs to increase support for the sector to avoid environmental pollution and increased costs.
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/07/chinese-ban-on-plastic-waste-imports-could-see-uk-pollution-rise | 2017-12-07 12:42:30.167000 | A ban on imports of millions of tonnes of plastic waste by the Chinese government from January could see an end to collection of some plastic in the UK and increase the risk of environmental pollution, according to key figures in the industry.
Recycling companies say the imminent restrictions by China – the world’s biggest market for household waste – will pose big challenges to the UK’s efforts to recycle more plastic.
Analysis of customs data by Greenpeace reveals British companies have shipped more than 2.7m tonnes of plastic waste to China and Hong Kong since 2012 – two-thirds of the UK’s total waste plastic exports.
Pressure is growing on Thérèse Coffey, the environment minister, to take urgent action to support and build the UK recycling industry to meet the challenges created by the China ban. But when asked recently, Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said: “I don’t know what impact it will have. It is ... something to which – I will be completely honest – I have not given it sufficient thought.”
Stuart Foster from Recoup, said there were indications in 2008 and 2012 that the Chinese market might be restricted in future but no action was taken in the UK. He said the restrictions on the export market should be an opportunity for the UK to develop its own infrastructure and create a circular economy in plastics.
But there was no robust plan in place to cope with the impact of the closure of the biggest market for waste in the world and the restrictions would lead to stockpiling of plastic waste, more incineration and the risk of more landfill.
“Whatever happens we need to maintain control of the material because the bigger worry is about leakage of plastic into the environment,” said Foster.
China’s dominance in manufacturing means that for years it has been the world’s largest importer of recyclable materials. In 2016, China imported 7.3m tonnes of waste plastics from developed countries including the UK, the US and Japan.
Q&A Why does the UK export its waste to China? Show China's dominant position in manufacturing means that for many years it has been the largest global importer of many types of recyclable materials which it uses in its manufacturing industry. Countries like the UK have relied on China as a market for its waste, partly because until recently the Chinese had lower standards than other markets. Exporting to China was a way of meeting higher recycling targets and reducing landfill without having to improve the collections and quality of our recyclable waste material. But China, in a campaign against "foreign garbage", is simultaneously banning the importation of 24 types of material, including plastic and mixed paper waste. The Chinese government has indicated it will in future only accept recyclable material with a maximum contamination level of 0.3%. The current situation could be an opportunity for the UK to increase the proportion of recycled plastic in its own products, improve the quality of recovered materials and to use recycled material in new ways. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
But this summer the Chinese announced they intended to stop the importation of 24 kinds of solid waste by the end of this year, including polyethylene terephthalate (Pet) drinks bottles, other plastic bottles and containers, and all mixed paper, in a campaign against yang laji or “foreign garbage”.
The Chinese have also increased quality controls for all other waste including cardboard, something other markets are likely to follow, which will also put the British recycling industry under huge pressure. The impact could see local authorities reducing collections because they are not economically viable.
Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, said the government was asleep on the job and the situation was a shambles. “If the government is serious about waste and recycling, they need to invest and come up with a coherent plan for the recycling industry,” he said.
Ray Georgeson, head of the Resource Association, an advocacy body for the recycling industry, said the lower-grade materials would have nowhere to go.
“Can you imagine the press coverage if local authority recycling rates drop by 5 or 10% because the plastics have no market to go to?” he said.
Lee Marshall, chief executive of Larac, which advises local authorities on recycling, told Greenpeace the fee at sorting plants may increase for councils because the sorting would have to be done to a better standard for new markets, or the price they get for any materials may decrease.
This could lead some councils to stop collecting some types of plastic, such as meat trays and yoghurt pots, for recycling. “While councils don’t like turning materials off … if the economics are such that it does cause them a problem, that’s a decision they’ll have to make,” he said.
Marcus Gover, chief executive of Wrap, said the restrictions posed “substantial challenges” and urgent action was needed to secure a thriving recycling supply chain for plastics and paper to benefit the UK economically and environmentally. The quality of UK recycling has to improve to meet higher standards put in place by China and other markets, he said
Many believe the restriction of the Chinese market should be opportunity for the UK to develop its recycling infrastructure and forge a link with the UK manufacturing industry to utilise more recycled plastic.
But many experts said the government was not taking action.
Foster said: “If you could get the link in place with UK manufacturers making plastic products, so that it makes business and environmental sense to use the recycled content and at the same time build up the recycling infrastructure in the UK, this is a real opportunity.
“We need the right policy put in place. But unfortunately because of Brexit ... we have other priorities.”
Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said: “This ban could mean a double whammy for council tax payers if the price of our exported waste falls and the cost of UK disposal rises. The government should show leadership and invest in more reprocessing facilities at home to reuse these valuable materials, create green jobs and prevent plastic and paper pollution.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “We are continuing to work with the waste industry and the Environment Agency to understand the impact across the sector of the Chinese government’s proposed restrictions on waste imports.
“We are also looking at ways to process more of our recycling at home as part of our resources and waste strategy.” |
Lyft launches autonomous-vehicle pilot trips in Boston | US ride-sharing service Lyft has begun its first commercial pilot of autonomous vehicle technology on public roads. The company is using self-driving cars to pick up passengers from the Seaport district of Boston, a growing technology hub in the city. The service uses cars from local firm NuTonomy, which was founded as a spin-off from MIT university in 2013 and has been testing the vehicles since January. While the cars will have human safety drivers to take over in an emergency, the aim of the test is to allow customers to experience autonomous vehicles in a real-life situation.
| https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/6/16742924/lyft-nutonomy-boston-self-driving-car | 2017-12-07 12:25:28.347000 | Lyft’s first self-driving car pilot is officially underway. The company is sending autonomous vehicles — developed by the startup NuTonomy — to pick up passengers in Boston’s Seaport district, which is a growing tech hub. The cars are not completely driverless, as human safety drivers will remain behind the wheel, ready to take control when needed. But it’s a big moment for Lyft, which has seen its star rise this year as its main rival Uber was beset by numerous self-inflicted scandals.
Here’s how it works: riders will randomly be paired with one of NuTonomy’s self-driving cars when they use the Lyft app in the Seaport area. NuTonomy, which spun out of MIT in 2013 and was recently purchased by automotive supplier Delphi, has been operating self-driving cars in Boston since January. The company has been testing in Boston’s Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, a small industrial zone that doesn’t fully represent the kinds of environments a driver would encounter around the city.
“let members of the public experience driverless vehicles firsthand.”
“Our partnership with Lyft has two goals,” NuTonomy says in a blog post. “First, we want to let members of the public experience driverless vehicles firsthand, so they can better understand the impact this new technology will have on their lives. Second, based on feedback from pilot participants, NuTonomy’s engineers will adapt and improve our system, so that we can deliver an autonomous transportation experience that is extremely safe, efficient, and comfortable.”
NuTonomy isn’t the only self-driving company to team up with Lyft. The ride-hail company is working with Drive.ai to deploy autonomous taxis in San Francisco, and also has agreements with Ford and Alphabet’s Waymo.
Lyft is trying to catch up to the self-driving efforts of rival Uber, which is operating its own autonomous taxis in Pittsburgh and Phoenix. While Uber may be ahead, it is also mired in exponentially more problems than Lyft. The company is being sued by Waymo, which alleges the theft of many of its self-driving car secrets. And Uber’s vehicles have been involved in numerous accidents and traffic infractions, raising questions about their safety. |
Medlinker social network for doctors in China raises $60m | Chinese firm Medlinhealker is set to expand its app-based platform, which offers a social network for doctors, following a $60m series C funding round led by China Electronics Corporation Data. Medlinker's iOS and Android-compatible app and cloud service allows clinicians to share medical records and hold discussions, while patients can use the service to book appointments and have their medical questions answered. Investors in Medlinker also include Tencent and Sequoia Capital China.
| http://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/chinese-social-network-physicians-medlinker-pulls-60m | 2017-12-07 12:22:39.217000 | China-based Medlinker, a social networking platform for doctors, has raised approximately $60 million (400 million yuan) in Series C funding, Chinese investment publications report. The round was led by China Electronics Corporation Data (CEC Data), part of a state-owned conglomerate, with additional participation from China Renaissance, Sequoia Capital China, and Tencent Holdings.
According to its website and Apple Store page, Medlinker’s platform hosts more than 430,000 verified doctors. Its iOS and Android mobile app and cloud service allows doctors to connect with peers, facilitate referrals, and share medical records. Along with hosting discussions, news stories, and medicine-themed games, the service also allows patients to book medical appointments and submit questions for the medical community to answer.
“Within three years, Medlinker has built a platform to connect doctors online and offline and develop deep cooperation up and down the supply chain,” Zhou Liang, a private equity director at investor China Renaissance, said in China Money Network. “CEC Data’s involvement as a strategic investor will help Medlinker to expand its ecosystem and gain a competitive edge to grow into a leading company.”
According to Deal Street Asia, CEC Data’s partnership with Medlinker is a strategic move to not only expand the platform’s ecosystem, but to begin new projects that will better connect patients with physicians and insurers.
Medlinker was founded in 2014. Prior to this latest funding, it received $40 million from Tencent Holdings and Yunfeng Capital in a 2015 Series B round. In addition, Deal Street Asia noted that Medlinker also received Series A funding from Sequoia Capital China, Ce Yuan Ventures, and PreAngel during the same year.
Physician social networks outside of China include Doximity network and Figure 1 platforms (which is described by some as an Instagram for doctors). The former recently announced an integration with Haiku, Epic’s mobile platform for EHRs, that would allow doctors to easily make calls while viewing patient’s medical records. The latter announced $10 million in funding this June for its clinical image-based platform. |
Regus Dynamic Workplace Recovery wins Business Continuity Institute award | Flexible office provider Regus has won the Business Continuity Institute's Hall of Fame Award for its Dynamic Workplace Recovery service. The offering enables companies to plan for the impact of major disasters on their business by giving them access to a range of flexible staff-relocation options.
| https://www.personneltoday.com/pr/2017/12/regus-wins-bci-global-hall-of-fame-award-for-continuity-and-resilience-innovation/ | 2017-12-07 12:13:34.263000 | Employers are keen to show their support for diversity and inclusion. But how employees and customers respond to D&I messaging can undermine some of the good work they're doing behind the scenes. |
Blockchain payments platform BitPay raises $30m in series B | US bitcoin payments service provider BitPay has raised $30m in a series B funding round, led by Aquiline Technology Growth. BitPay, which uses blockchain technology to facilitate secure payment acceptance, as well as savings and spending, has been growing strongly, with merchant payment processing nearing $2bn in annualised payment volumes. BitPay's open source wallet offers a pre-paid debit card that allows bitcoin to be converted into major fiat currencies.
| https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2017/12/125548-blockchain-payments-platform-bitpay-secures-30-million-series-b-funding-round-led-aquiline-technology-growth/ | 2017-12-07 11:58:36.417000 | Blockchain payments technology platform BitPay announced on Wednesday it has secured $30 million during its Series B funding round, which was led by Aquiline Technology Growth, a fund managed by Aquiline Capital Partners that invests in early- and growth-stage financial technology companies.
BitPay stated its platform gives businesses and individuals powerful tools for secure blockchain payment acceptance, savings, and spending. During the past year, BitPay has notably achieved a record year for merchant payment processing on the bitcoin blockchain, now approaching $2 billion in annualized payment volumes.
The open source wallet platform has also seen growing consumer adoption, recently reaching the milestone of $3B in monthly user payments. BitPay’s prepaid Visa debit card, which lets bitcoin users turn bitcoin into dollars, pounds, or Euros for use with Visa merchants, has also seen significant year over year growth. While sharing more details about the platform’s growth, BitPay CEO, Stephen Pair, stated:
“We’re proud of our team’s work to grow BitPay’s impact and revenues to this point. We’ve been able to solve some of our customers’ biggest payment problems, from multimillion dollar B2B payments to day to day expenses. Continually improving our customers’ experience with BitPay is a priority for us as we plan our next steps for product development.”
Max Chee, Head of Aquiline Technology Growth, also commented:
“BitPay plays an important role in the crypto-currency ecosystem by helping consumers, businesses and other financial institutions seamlessly accept and transfer Bitcoin for goods and services in the real world. We have been very impressed with BitPay’s financial performance, including 700% top-line growth, and look forward to supporting its ambitious plans in the sector.”
BitPay added that it plans to use the funds from the Series B for strategic steps toward solving the problems of the world’s most difficult and valuable payments. |
Time names those speaking out about abuse as Person of the Year | People who have spoken out about sexual harassment have been named as Time magazine’s “Person of the Year”. The magazine has been recognising the person who “has done the most to influence the events of the year" since 1927, when it awarded the title “Man of the Year”. Time’s editor-in-chief, Edward Felsenthal, said that “the Silence Breakers” have been responsible for “the fastest-moving social change we've seen in decades”. The #MeToo campaign, which emerged in response to allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, is identified as part of the wider movement towards openness about abuse.
| http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/?xid=homepage | 2017-12-07 11:47:24.580000 | Movie stars are supposedly nothing like you and me. They're svelte, glamorous, self-possessed. They wear dresses we can't afford and live in houses we can only dream of. Yet it turns out that—in the most painful and personal ways—movie stars are more like you and me than we ever knew.
In 1997, just before Ashley Judd's career took off, she was invited to a meeting with Harvey Weinstein, head of the starmaking studio Miramax, at a Beverly Hills hotel. Astounded and offended by Weinstein's attempt to coerce her into bed, Judd managed to escape. But instead of keeping quiet about the kind of encounter that could easily shame a woman into silence, she began spreading the word.
"I started talking about Harvey the minute that it happened," Judd says in an interview with TIME. "Literally, I exited that hotel room at the Peninsula Hotel in 1997 and came straight downstairs to the lobby, where my dad was waiting for me, because he happened to be in Los Angeles from Kentucky, visiting me on the set. And he could tell by my face—to use his words—that something devastating had happened to me. I told him. I told everyone."
TIME
She recalls one screenwriter friend telling her that Weinstein's behavior was an open secret passed around on the whisper network that had been furrowing through Hollywood for years. It allowed for people to warn others to some degree, but there was no route to stop the abuse. "Were we supposed to call some fantasy attorney general of moviedom?" Judd asks. "There wasn't a place for us to report these experiences."
Finally, in October—when Judd went on the record about Weinstein's behavior in the New York Times , the first star to do so—the world listened. (Weinstein said he "never laid a glove" on Judd and denies having had nonconsensual sex with other accusers.)
When movie stars don't know where to go, what hope is there for the rest of us? What hope is there for the janitor who's being harassed by a co-worker but remains silent out of fear she'll lose the job she needs to support her children? For the administrative assistant who repeatedly fends off a superior who won't take no for an answer? For the hotel housekeeper who never knows, as she goes about replacing towels and cleaning toilets, if a guest is going to corner her in a room she can't escape?
Like the "problem that has no name," the disquieting malaise of frustration and repression among postwar wives and homemakers identified by Betty Friedan more than 50 years ago, this moment is born of a very real and potent sense of unrest. Yet it doesn't have a leader, or a single, unifying tenet. The hashtag #MeToo (swiftly adapted into #BalanceTonPorc, #YoTambien, #Ana_kaman and many others), which to date has provided an umbrella of solidarity for millions of people to come forward with their stories, is part of the picture, but not all of it.
This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries exist. They've had it with the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can't afford to lose. They've had it with the code of going along to get along. They've had it with men who use their power to take what they want from women. These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought.
Emboldened by Judd, Rose McGowan and a host of other prominent accusers, women everywhere have begun to speak out about the inappropriate, abusive and in some cases illegal behavior they've faced. When multiple harassment claims bring down a charmer like former Today show host Matt Lauer, women who thought they had no recourse see a new, wide-open door. When a movie star says #MeToo, it becomes easier to believe the cook who's been quietly enduring for years.
'WERE WE SUPPOSED TO CALL SOME FANTASY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MOVIEDOM?' Ashley Judd 49 Actor More Judd says she was sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein when she was 29 years old. ‘ We need to formalize the whisper network. It's an ingenious way that we've tried to keep ourselves safe. All those voices can be amplified. That's my advice to women. That and if something feels wrong, it is wrong—and it's wrong by my definition and not necessarily someone else's. ’ Weinstein said in a statement he 'never laid a glove' on Judd.
The women and men who have broken their silence span all races, all income classes, all occupations and virtually all corners of the globe. They might labor in California fields, or behind the front desk at New York City's regal Plaza Hotel, or in the European Parliament. They're part of a movement that has no formal name. But now they have a voice.
II
In a windowless room at a two-story soundstage in San Francisco's Mission District, a group of women from different worlds met for the first time. Judd, every bit the movie star in towering heels, leaned in to shake hands with Isabel Pascual, a woman from Mexico who works picking strawberries and asked to use a pseudonym to protect her family. Beside her, Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer, eight months pregnant, spoke softly with Adama Iwu, a corporate lobbyist in Sacramento. A young hospital worker who had flown in from Texas completed the circle. She too is a victim of sexual harassment but was there anonymously, she said, as an act of solidarity to represent all those who could not speak out.
From a distance, these women could not have looked more different. Their ages, their families, their religions and their ethnicities were all a world apart. Their incomes differed not by degree but by universe: Iwu pays more in rent each month than Pascual makes in two months.
But on that November morning, what separated them was less important than what brought them together: a shared experience. Over the course of six weeks, TIME interviewed dozens of people representing at least as many industries, all of whom had summoned extraordinary personal courage to speak out about sexual harassment at their jobs. They often had eerily similar stories to share.
In almost every case, they described not only the vulgarity of the harassment itself—years of lewd comments, forced kisses, opportunistic gropes—but also the emotional and psychological fallout from those advances. Almost everybody described wrestling with a palpable sense of shame. Had she somehow asked for it? Could she have deflected it? Was she making a big deal out of nothing?
"I thought, What just happened? Why didn't I react?" says the anonymous hospital worker who fears for her family's livelihood should her story come out in her small community. "I kept thinking, Did I do something, did I say something, did I look a certain way to make him think that was O.K.?" It's a poisonous, useless thought, she adds, but how do you avoid it? She remembers the shirt she was wearing that day. She can still feel the heat of her harasser's hands on her body.
Alyssa Milano 44 Actor More Millions of people responded with the hashtag #MeToo when Milano urged them to post their experiences on Twitter. ‘ It's affected me on a cellular level to hear all these stories. I don't know if I'll ever be the same. I have not stopped crying. I look at my daughter and think, Please, let this be worth it. Please, let it be that my daughter never has to go through anything like this. ’ Tarana Burke 44 Activist More Burke, founder of a nonprofit that helps survivors of sexual violence, created the Me Too movement in 2006 to encourage young women to show solidarity with one another. It went viral this year after actor Alyssa Milano used the hashtag #MeToo. ‘ Sexual harassment does bring shame. And I think it's really powerful that this transfer is happening, that these women are able not just to share their shame but to put the shame where it belongs: on the perpetrator. ’
Nearly all of the people TIME interviewed about their experiences expressed a crushing fear of what would happen to them personally, to their families or to their jobs if they spoke up.
For some, the fear was born of a threat of physical violence. Pascual felt trapped and terrified when her harasser began to stalk her at home, but felt she was powerless to stop him. If she told anyone, the abuser warned her, he would come after her or her children.
Those who are often most vulnerable in society—immigrants, people of color, people with disabilities, low-income workers and LGBTQ people—described many types of dread. If they raised their voices, would they be fired? Would their communities turn against them? Would they be killed? According to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 47% of transgender people report being sexually assaulted at some point in their lives, both in and out of the workplace.
'HE SAID IF I EVER WRONGED HIM, HE WOULD HAVE ME KIDNAPPED, HAVE MY EYES GOUGED OUT WITH A BIC PEN AND THROW ME INTO THE HUDSON RIVER.' Selma Blair 45 Actor More After director James Toback denied accusations by dozens of women that he had sexually assaulted them, Blair spoke out about her encounter with him. ‘ I decided to go on the record when I saw his denial. He called the women liars. But their stories were so similar to mine, and they were such credible women. There was no agenda other than they wanted to share this story, be free of this story. And in a magazine interview, he called the people who said this about him 'c-nts' and 'c-cksuckers.' That was just wrong. And I wanted to give a face to these now more than 300 women who have come out. ’ Toback has denied all allegations of harassment.
Juana Melara, who has worked as a hotel housekeeper for decades, says she and her fellow housekeepers didn't complain about guests who exposed themselves or masturbated in front of them for fear of losing the paycheck they needed to support their families. Melara recalls "feeling the pressure of someone's eyes" on her as she cleaned a guest's room. When she turned around, she remembers, a man was standing in the doorway, blocked by the cleaning cart, with his erect penis exposed. She yelled at the top of her lungs and scared him into leaving, then locked the door behind him. "Nothing happened to me that time, thank God," she recalls.
While guests come and go, some employees must continue to work side by side with their harassers. Crystal Washington was thrilled when she was hired as a hospitality coordinator at the Plaza, a storied hotel whose allure is as strong for people who want to work there as it is for those who can afford a suite. "Walking in, it's breathtaking," she says.
But then, she says, a co-worker began making crude remarks to her like "I can tell you had sex last night" and groping her. One of those encounters was even caught on camera, but the management did not properly respond, her lawyers say.
Plaza Hotel Plaintiffs More From left: Veronica Owusu, Gabrielle Eubank, Crystal Washington, Dana Lewis, Paige Rodriguez, Sergeline Bernadeau and Kristina Antonova filed a suit against New York City's Plaza Hotel for 'normalizing and trivializing sexual assault' among employees there. ‘ 'I am a single mother. I have an 11-year-old daughter, and she's depending on me,' says Lewis, who still works at the hotel to make ends meet. 'My entire life revolves around her. I wasn't really left with the option of leaving. I'm not left with the option of giving up. I want to show her that it's O.K. to stand up for yourself. If you keep fighting, eventually you'll see the sun on the other side.' ’ Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which owns the Plaza, said it takes remedial action against harassment when warranted.
Washington has joined with six other female employees to file a sexual-harassment suit against the hotel. But she cannot afford to leave the job and says she must force herself out of bed every day to face the man she's accused. "It's a dream to be an employee there," Washington says. "And then you find out what it really is, and it's a nightmare." (Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which owns the Plaza, said in a statement to TIME that it takes remedial action against harassment when warranted.)
Other women, like the actor Selma Blair, weathered excruciating threats. Blair says she arrived at a hotel restaurant for a meeting with the independent film director James Toback in 1999 only to be told that he would like to see her in his room. There, she says, Toback told her that she had to learn to be more vulnerable in her craft and asked her to strip down. She took her top off. She says he then propositioned her for sex, and when she refused, he blocked the door and forced her to watch him masturbate against her leg. Afterward, she recalls him telling her that if she said anything, he would stab her eyes out with a Bic pen and throw her in the Hudson River.
Blair says Toback lorded the encounter over her for decades. "I had heard from others that he was slandering me, saying these sexual things about me, and it just made me even more afraid of him," Blair says in an interview with TIME. "I genuinely thought for almost 20 years, He's going to kill me." ( Toback has denied the allegations, saying he never met his accusers or doesn't remember them.)
Many of the people who have come forward also mentioned a different fear, one less visceral but no less real, as a reason for not speaking out: if you do, your complaint becomes your identity. "'Susan Fowler, the famous victim of sexual harassment,'" says the woman whose blog post ultimately led Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to resign and the multibillion-dollar startup to oust at least 20 other employees. "Nobody wants to be the buzzkill," adds Lindsey Reynolds, one of the women who blew the whistle on a culture of harassment at the restaurant group run by the celebrity chef John Besh. (The Besh Group says it is implementing new policies to create a culture of respect. Besh apologized for "unacceptable behavior" and "moral failings," and resigned from the company. )
Iwu, the lobbyist, says she considered the same risks after she was groped in front of several colleagues at an event. She was shocked when none of her male co-workers stepped in to stop the assault. The next week, she organized 147 women to sign an open letter exposing harassment in California government. When she told people about the campaign, she says they were wary. "Are you sure you want to do this?" they warned her. "Remember Anita Hill."
Sara Gelser 43 State Senator More After the Oregon state senator accused her fellow legislator Jeff Kruse of sexual harassment, the statehouse launched an investigation and stripped him of his committee assignments. ‘ We can't pick and choose based on whose political beliefs we believe in. And that means we have to be willing to speak out when it's a member of our own party. ’ Kruse said in a statement that he never touched Gelser inappropriately. Anonymous 28 Hospital worker More The mother of two told the HR department at the hospital where she worked that an executive there repeatedly came on to her. ‘ I thought, What just happened? Why didn't I react? Why couldn't I force words out of my mouth? When I got home, I crumbled. I kept thinking, Did I do something, did I say something, did I look a certain way to make him think that was O.K.? ’
Taylor Swift says she was made to feel bad about the consequences that her harasser faced. After she complained about a Denver radio DJ named David Mueller, who reached under her skirt and grabbed her rear end, Mueller was fired. He sued Swift for millions in damages. She countersued for a symbolic $1 and then testified about the incident in August. Mueller's lawyer asked her, on the witness stand, whether she felt bad that she'd gotten him fired.
"I'm not going to let you or your client make me feel in any way that this is my fault," she told the lawyer. "I'm being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are a product of his decisions. Not mine." (Mueller said he would appeal.)
In an interview with TIME , Swift says that moment on the stand fueled her indignation. "I figured that if he would be brazen enough to assault me under these risky circumstances," she says, "imagine what he might do to a vulnerable, young artist if given the chance." Like the five women gathered at that echoing soundstage in San Francisco, and like all of the dozens, then hundreds, then millions of women who came forward with their own stories of harassment, she was done feeling intimidated. Actors and writers and journalists and dishwashers and fruit pickers alike: they'd had enough. What had manifested as shame exploded into outrage. Fear became fury.
'WHEN I TESTIFIED, I HAD ALREADY HAD TO WATCH THIS MAN'S ATTORNEY BULLY, BADGER AND HARASS MY TEAM, INCLUDING MY MOTHER ... I WAS ANGRY.' Taylor Swift 27 Singer-Songwriter More Radio DJ David Mueller groped Swift during a photo op in 2013. She reported him to his radio station, KYGO, and he was terminated. He said her accusations were false and sued Swift. She countersued for $1 and won. ‘ In that moment, I decided to forgo any courtroom formalities and just answer the questions the way it happened. This man hadn't considered any formalities when he assaulted me ... Why should I be polite? ’ Mueller's lawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
This was the great unleashing that turned the #MeToo hashtag into a rallying cry. The phrase was first used more than a decade ago by social activist Tarana Burke as part of her work building solidarity among young survivors of harassment and assault. A friend of the actor Alyssa Milano sent her a screenshot of the phrase, and Milano, almost on a whim, tweeted it out on Oct. 15. "If you've been sexually harassed or assaulted write 'me too' as a reply to this tweet," she wrote, and then went to sleep. She woke up the next day to find that more than 30,000 people had used #MeToo. Milano burst into tears.
At first, those speaking out were mostly from the worlds of media and entertainment, but the hashtag quickly spread. "We have to keep our focus on people of different class and race and gender," says Burke, who has developed a friendship with Milano via text messages. By November, California farmworkers, Pascual among them, were marching on the streets of Hollywood to express their solidarity with the stars.
Women were no longer alone. "There's something really empowering about standing up for what's right," says Fowler, who has grown comfortable with her new reputation as a whistle-blower. "It's a badge of honor."
Sandra Pezqueda 37 Former Dishwasher More Pezqueda filed a suit alleging that her supervisor at the Terranea Resort, a luxury retreat in South California, pursued her for months. When she rebuffed him, he changed her schedule and cut her hours. ‘ Someone who is in the limelight is able to speak out more easily than people who are poor. The reality of being a woman is the same—the difference is the risk each woman must take. ’ Attorneys for the staffing company that employed Pezqueda deny her allegations. Terranea Resort declined to comment except to say that the suit involves an outside agency. Blaise Godbe Lipman 28 Director More Lipman accused a former agent, Tyler Grasham, of sexually assaulting him when he was 18. Grasham has since been dismissed by his agency and is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department. ‘ I experienced a little bit of victim blaming, victim shaming—people digging into my Instagram and pulling up sexy photos, as if that discredited me from speaking out against sexual violence. And gay men are often highly sexualized in the media, so coming out with a story of sexual assault, especially one that also involved alcohol and maybe drugs, there is an idea that 'Well, did you want it?.' ’ Grasham could not be reached for comment. Correction: The original version of this caption incorrectly said Tyler Grasham was Lipman’s agent. Grasham never represented Lipman.
III
Discussions of sexual harassment in polite company tend to rely on euphemisms: harassment becomes "inappropriate behavior," assault becomes "misconduct," rape becomes "abuse." We're accustomed to hearing those softened words, which downplay the pain of the experience. That's one of the reasons why the Access Hollywood tape that surfaced in October 2016 was such a jolt. The language used by the man who would become America's 45th President, captured on a 2005 recording, was, by any standard, vulgar. He didn't just say that he'd made a pass; he "moved on her like a bitch." He didn't just talk about fondling women; he bragged that he could "grab 'em by the pussy."
That Donald Trump could express himself that way and still be elected President is part of what stoked the rage that fueled the Women's March the day after his Inauguration. It's why women seized on that crude word as the emblem of the protest that dwarfed Trump's Inauguration crowd size. "All social movements have highly visible precipitating factors," says Aldon Morris, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University. "In this case, you had Harvey Weinstein, and before that you had Trump."
Megyn Kelly, the NBC anchor who revealed in October that she had complained to Fox News executives about Bill O'Reilly's treatment of women, and who was a target of Trump's ire during the campaign, says the tape as well as the tenor of the election turned the political into the personal. "I have real doubts about whether we'd be going through this if Hillary Clinton had won, because I think that President Trump's election in many ways was a setback for women," says Kelly, who noted that not all women at the march were Clinton supporters. "But the overall message to us was that we don't really matter."
'WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. I DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY NICE.' Rose McGowan 44 Artist and Activist More McGowan reached a settlement with producer Harvey Weinstein in 1997 after accusing him of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room. McGowan's decision to speak to the press this year helped expose Weinstein as a serial harasser. ‘ The number of people sharing their stories with me is so intense, especially since all of this is incredibly triggering for me as well. People forget a lot that there's a human behind this, someone who is very hurt. But that's O.K. It fuels my fire. They really f-cked with the wrong person. ’ Weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
So it was not entirely surprising that 2017 began with women donning "pussy hats" and marching on the nation's capital in a show of unity and fury. What was startling was the size of the protest. It was one of the largest in U.S. history and spawned satellite marches in all 50 states and more than 50 other countries.
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice , was one of roughly 20 women to accuse the President of sexual harassment. She filed a defamation suit against Trump days before his Inauguration after he disputed her claims by calling her a liar. A New York judge is expected to decide soon if the President is immune to civil suits while in office. No matter the outcome, the allegations added fuel to a growing fire.
By February, the movement had made its way to the billionaire dream factories of Silicon Valley, when Fowler spoke out about her "weird year" as an engineer at Uber. "I remember feeling powerless and like there was no one looking out for us because we had an admitted harasser in the White House," Fowler says. "I felt like I had to take action."
Barely two months later, Fox News cut ties with O'Reilly after the New York Times reported that he and the company had spent $13 million to settle claims against him from five women. In October, the Times revealed a sixth settlement, bringing that total to more than $45 million. Wendy Walsh, a psychologist and former guest on the network, was one of the first women to share her story about the star anchor—but she was initially reluctant to go on the record. "I was afraid for my kids, I was afraid of the retaliation," she says. "I know what men can do when they're angry."
Eventually she allowed her name to be used. "I felt it was my duty," Walsh says, "as a mother of daughters, as an act of love for women everywhere and the women who are silenced, to be brave."
The downfall of O'Reilly, who has denied all allegations of harassment, would prove to be just the beginning of the reckoning in media and entertainment. In June, Bill Cosby was brought to trial on charges that he had drugged and sexually assaulted a woman named Andrea Constand, one of nearly 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault over several decades. Although the case ended in a mistrial—it is scheduled to be retried in April—the fact that it happened at all signaled a shift in the culture, a willingness to hold even beloved and powerful men accountable for past misdeeds.
Wendy Walsh 55 Former Fox News Contributor More After Walsh and other women accused Bill O'Reilly of sexual harassment, Fox News fired him. ‘ In the early '90s, as a news anchor, I wore buttoned-up suits, skirts to my knees, sensible shoes. I dipped out of the industry. When I came back, I was put in a sausage dress. The hair got blonder and the cleavage got deeper and the heels higher. Fox had created a sort of Snapchat filter: any woman, even a woman with advanced degrees, would be turned into what looked like an office sex toy. Part of what happened to the women at Fox News started in the makeup room. ’ O'Reilly has denied harassing colleagues. Lindsey Reynolds 32 Food-Blog Editor More When she quit her job as social-media manager at the restaurant group of celebrity chef John Besh, Reynolds sent an email to her bosses complaining about the company's culture of sexism. She later filed a complaint with the EEOC. Besh has since stepped down. ‘ After I sent that email, I burst into tears and felt sick to my stomach and was shaking. I was nobody. I'm just a person from a small town in Texas. I have no money, no power, no social standing. And they have more power and money than I will ever have. I felt extremely vulnerable and scared. Then I heard from women I had never met—they worked as line cooks while I worked in corporate—who had experienced the same toxic culture. ’ The company said it is working to enact policies to create a culture of safety and respect. Besh has apologized for 'unacceptable' behavior and 'moral failings,' and resigned.
Complaints at the University of Rochester helped expose harassment in academia. The chief executive of SoFi, the $4 billion lending firm, resigned following a lawsuit over claims of sexual harassment. Then, in early October, the dam finally broke.
On Oct. 5, the New York Times published the first story to expose Weinstein, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood and a leading Democratic political fundraiser, as a serial sexual predator. The revelation was quickly followed by New Yorker investigations that widened Weinstein's list of accusers and showed the incredible lengths he went to cover his tracks. Weinstein denied the allegations, but the levers that he had long pulled to exert his influence suddenly were jammed. Fellow chieftains refused to defend him. Politicians who once courted him gave away his donations. His company's board fired him.
Within days, the head of Amazon Studios, an influential art publisher and employees at the financial-services firm Fidelity had all left their jobs over harassment claims. By the end of the month, the list of the accused had grown to include political analyst Mark Halperin, a former TIME employee; opinion-shaping literary critic Leon Wieseltier; and numerous politicians and journalists. The Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey was scrubbed from a completed movie.
'IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY CRITICIZE ME. I CAN SUPPORT OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING THROUGH THE SAME THING.' Isabel Pascual 42 Strawberry picker More In the wake of the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, Pascual spoke out at a march in L.A. about being stalked and harassed in order to give voice to her fellow agricultural workers. ‘ I was afraid. When the man was harassing me, he threatened to harm my children and me—that's why I kept quiet. I felt desperate. I cried and cried. But, thank God, my friends in the fields support me. So I said, Enough. I lost the fear. It doesn't matter if they criticize me. I can support other people who are going through the same thing. ’ *Pascual's name was changed to protect her family.
The response to the Weinstein allegations has shaped the way people view women who come forward. In a TIME/SurveyMonkey online poll of American adults conducted Nov. 28–30, 82% of respondents said women are more likely to speak out about harassment since the Weinstein allegations. Meanwhile, 85% say they believe the women making allegations of sexual harassment.
The movement—and fallout—quickly spread around the world. Michael Fallon, Britain's Defense Secretary, quit the Cabinet after journalist Jane Merrick revealed that he had "lunged" at her in 2003, when she was a 29-year-old reporter. In France, women took to the streets chanting not only "Me too" but also "Balance ton porc ," which translates roughly to "Expose your pig," a hashtag conceived by French journalist Sandra Muller. In the week after #MeToo first surfaced, versions of it swept through 85 countries, from India, where the struggle against harassment and assault had already become a national debate in recent years, to the Middle East, Asia and parts in between.
Lindsay Meyer 31 Entrepreneur More Meyer says that Justin Caldbeck, a venture capitalist who invested in her first company, harassed her. After six other women reported harassment by Caldbeck, he resigned from his firm. ‘ I wanted it to stop. I wanted to be able to get back to running my company and not have the daily distraction of being constantly emailed, called, text-messaged. That took a lot of energy to deal with and to process and to try to bury—because I didn't want it to be a big deal. For so long, I went around harboring this ridiculous belief that because I was a nonwhite woman in my 20s that somehow it was expected that I would have to be treated this way. And now I see that that is so silly. I am a person with dignity. ’ Caldbeck apologized in a statement to the women he 'made uncomfortable.' Juana Melara 52 Housekeeper More Hotel guests have propositioned and exposed themselves to Melara while she was working. ‘ One time when I was cleaning, a guest asked me if I knew how to massage. I said, 'No, I don't even do it to my husband.' The way he was looking at me wasn't friendly. I rushed to finish the room as fast as I could and get out of there. It's crazy that people think that if they pay for the room, they are paying for sexual service. ’ The hotel declined to comment.
"Suddenly," says Terry Reintke, a German member of the European Parliament, who discussed her own harassment in a speech on Oct. 25, "friends from primary school or women that I know from completely different surroundings that would never call themselves feminists were starting to share their stories."
By November, the spotlight was back on American politicians. A woman named Leigh Corfman told the Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Alabama Republican nominee for the Senate, abused her when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. Nine women have come forward to describe inappropriate encounters with Roy Moore, including several who say he pursued them when they were teenagers. Moore has called the allegations "false" and "malicious." "Specifically, I do not know any of these women nor have I ever engaged in sexual misconduct with any woman," he said in late November.
'I'M SURE THE ROAD WILL BE LONG AND DIFFICULT, BUT IT WILL BE POSITIVE IN THE END.' Sandra Muller 46 Journalist More In France, Muller started the Twitter hashtag #BalanceTonPorc (Expose Your Pig), which helped inspire women to march in the streets to protest sexual harassment. ‘ France is a country of love, but there is love and love, you know? There are ways to approach a woman, and if it's done with respect, it's O.K. Without respect, it's not good. Now if men want your love, they have to ask themselves how to be, how to approach a woman. They are scared. We must restart all relationships from the beginning. We have to cleanse society to find a better way. I'm sure the road will be long and difficult, but it will be positive in the end. ’
The following week, radio host Leeann Tweeden wrote that Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken groped her on a USO tour in 2006, before he was in office. Several other women have since come forward with similar harassment allegations against Franken, who has called on the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate his own behavior. On Dec. 5, Michigan Democratic Representative John Conyers resigned amid allegations that he had made sexual advances toward the women on his staff. He has said that the allegations "are not accurate; they are not true."
Texas Republican Representative Blake Farenthold has also found himself in the crosshairs after media reports that he used $84,000 in taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual-harassment lawsuit with a former aide in 2014. Farenthold denies that he engaged in any wrongdoing and has vowed to repay the settlement.
'WHEN TRUMP WON THE ELECTION, I FELT A CRUSHING SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS. AND THEN I REALIZED THAT I HAD TO DO SOMETHING.' Susan Fowler 26 Former Uber Engineer More Fowler's February blog post about the harassment she experienced as an engineer at Uber went viral. Uber then launched an investigation that led to the ousting of its CEO Travis Kalanick and more than 20 other employees. ‘ When other women spoke out, they were retaliated against. So there were certain things that I thought I could avoid: 'I'm not going to sue, because they'll make me sign a nondisclosure agreement. I'm not going to do press right afterward, because they'll say I'm doing it for attention. I can't have any emotion in my blog. I have to be very, very detached.' And I had to make sure that every single thing that I included in there had extensive physical documentation, so it couldn't be 'he said, she said.' And that's what I did. ’
The accused were both Democrats and Republicans, but the consequences thus far have been limited—and often filtered through a partisan lens. In politics, at least, what constitutes disqualifying behavior seemed to depend not on your actions but on the allegiance of your tribe. In the 1990s, feminists stood up for accused abuser Bill Clinton instead of his accusers—a move many are belatedly regretting as the national conversation prompts a re-evaluation of the claims against the former President. And despite the allegations against Moore, both President Trump and the Republican National Committee support him.
That political divide was revealed in the TIME/SurveyMonkey poll, which found that Republicans were significantly more likely to excuse sexual misdeeds in their own party. The survey found that while a majority of Republicans and Democrats agree that a Democratic Congressman accused of sexual harassment should resign (71% and 74% respectively), when the accused offender was in the GOP, only 54% of Republicans would demand a resignation (compared to 82% of Democrats).
'WHY ARE YOU QUESTIONING THE VICTIM HERE? LET'S FLIP IT. LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT THE PREDATOR IS DOING.' Terry Crews 49 Actor More Crews is suing agent Adam Venit and William Morris Endeavor for sexual assault. Crews says Venit groped him in front of his wife at an industry event. Venit was briefly suspended from the agency. ‘ People were saying, 'You should have beaten him up.' I'm like, Why is nobody questioning him? Nobody questions the predator. You know why? Because they just expect it. And I expect it. And I just said, 'No more.' Why are you questioning the victim here? Let's flip it. Let's talk about what the predator is doing. ’ The agency said it had suspended and demoted Venit, who declined to comment.
As another election cycle approaches, Americans find themselves trying to weigh one ugly act against another in a painful calculus of transgression. Is a grope caught on camera more disqualifying than a years-ago assault that was credibly reported? What are we willing to forgive or ignore or deny if the violator shares our politics?
IV
It wasn't so long ago that the boss chasing his secretary around the desk was a comic trope, a staple from vaudeville to prime-time sitcoms. There wasn't even a name for sexual harassment until just over 40 years ago; the term was coined in 1975 by a group of women at Cornell University after an employee there, Carmita Wood, filed for unemployment benefits after she had resigned because a supervisor touched her. The university denied her claim, arguing that she left the job for "personal reasons."
University Professors More University of Rochester professors Celeste Kidd (right) and Jessica Cantlon (left), along with six current and former members of the brain and cognitive sciences department, filed complaints with the university and the EEOC, alleging harassment and retaliation. ‘ 'If they couldn't stop us from talking, they were going to stop everybody from listening,' says Cantlon. 'The administration went into our emails to try to find pieces of material that they could use to embarrass us or try to make other faculty members angry with us. But eight of us linked arms and continued to pursue the complaint. I think working together was powerful. It was hard to silence all of us.' ’ The university has launched an investigation led by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.
Wood, joined by activists from the university's human-affairs program, formed a group called Working Women United that hosted an event for workers from various fields, from mail-room clerks and servers to factory workers and administrative assistants, to talk about their own harassment experiences.
It was a proto-version of the social-media explosion we're seeing today, encouraging unity and reminding women that they were not alone. But even as public awareness about the problem of sexual harassment began to grow, legal and policy protections were almost nonexistent. In the 1970s, most businesses and institutions had no policies on sexual harassment whatsoever, and even egregious complaints were regularly dismissed.
'I ALWAYS THOUGHT MAYBE THINGS COULD CHANGE FOR MY DAUGHTER. I NEVER THOUGHT THINGS COULD CHANGE FOR ME.' Megyn Kelly 47 Journalist More The host of NBC's Megyn Kelly Today and former Fox News anchor called out Bill O'Reilly for claiming that nobody at Fox News had complained about his behavior. She had. In 2016, Kelly revealed that she'd been sexually harassed by former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. ‘ I always thought maybe things could change for my daughter. I never thought things could change for me. Never. I believed the system was stacked against women, and the smart ones would understand how to navigate it ... I'm starting to see it so differently. What if we did complain? What if we didn't whine, but insisted that those around us did better? ’ Ailes denied Kelly's claims of harassment before he died in May. O'Reilly said he didn't know of any complaint by Kelly.
In 1980 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency tasked with enforcing civil rights laws in the workplace, issued guidelines declaring sexual harassment a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It was a victory, but with caveats: even after sexual harassment became explicitly illegal, it remained difficult to lodge a complaint that stuck—in part because acts of harassment are often difficult to define. What separates an illegal act of sexual harassment from a merely annoying interaction between a boss and his subordinate? When does a boss stop just being a jerk and become a criminal? Because the Civil Rights Act offered no solid legal definition, interpretation has evolved slowly, shaped by judges and the EEOC over the past 37 years.
In 1991, Anita Hill testified before the Senate committee confirming Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, accusing him of sexual harassment and bringing national attention to the issue. But, she says, "The conversation was not about the problems in the workplace. It was about the fallout in politics."
More From left: Jane Merrick, journalist; Zelda Perkins, producer; Terry Reintke, Parliament member; Bex Bailey, charity worker. ‘ Britain's Defense Secretary Michael Fallon quit his Cabinet position after Merrick said he 'lunged' at her when she was a young reporter: 'I think we're all part of this movement. On Twitter, there aren't any country borders, because it's such a powerful thing. There are millions of women who have experienced harassment and assault in every country.” ’ Fallon said in a statement that he's 'behaved inappropriately in the past.' Kate Peters for TIME
Even now, the contours of what constitutes sexual harassment remain murky. Some of the recent stories clearly cross the line, like a boss exposing himself to a subordinate or requiring that his researcher sit on his lap. But others feel more ambiguous. Under what circumstances can you ask a colleague about their marriage? When is an invite to drinks alone a bridge too far?
Jonathan Segal, a partner at the Philadelphia law firm Duane Morris, who specializes in workplace training, says he hears that confusion in the conversations men are now having among themselves. "It's more like, 'I wonder if I should tell someone they look nice, I wonder when it's O.K. to give a hug, I wonder when I should be alone with someone in a room,'" he says.
Amanda Schmitt 30 Art curator More A publisher of Artforum, Knight Landesman, stepped down after Schmitt sued him for sexual harassment. ‘ The harassment started when I was at the beginning of my career and had just moved to New York City. I was trying to figure out my place in the art world, my place in the city, my place as an adult in the workplace. The harassment began so early, and it was so accepted in the industry. When I finally spoke out publicly, I wondered why I hadn't sooner. I was afraid that I didn't have the strength to make it stop. I don't feel that fear anymore. ’ Artforum's other publishers say they took swift action to support Schmitt. Landesman could not be reached for comment. Adama Iwu 40 Lobbyist More Iwu organized an open letter signed by 147 women calling out harassment in California's capital, which launched a state-senate investigation. ‘ Young women told me about the same men who harassed me years ago. And all I did was participate in the whisper network: 'Here's what you can wear,' 'Here's where you can go,' 'Here's who to avoid.' But you have to address it head on and as a group. It's hard to call 147 women liars. We can't all be crazy. We can't all be sluts. ’
This uncertainty can be corrosive. While everyone wants to smoke out the serial predators and rapists, there is a risk that the net may be cast too far. What happens when someone who makes a sexist joke winds up lumped into the same bucket as a boss who gropes an employee? Neither should be encouraged, but nor should they be equated.
Companies, meanwhile, are scrambling to keep up. Most large U.S.-based corporations now have fairly complete policies on sexual harassment, and many have anti–sexual harassment training programs and claim to be "zero-tolerance workplaces." A 2016 EEOC report found that a company's willingness to protect so-called rainmakers—high-performing men like Kalanick, Weinstein and O'Reilly—to be one of the most pernicious reasons C-suites and corporate boards overlooked harassment. It doesn't matter how good a company's policy is if its systems are ignored or don't work. "So much harassment training is like an episode of The Office ," says Victoria Lipnic, the acting chair of the EEOC.
In some instances, sexual-harassment training has even been shown to backfire. In a 2001 study, Lisa Scherer, an associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, found that while training increased knowledge about what constituted sexual harassment, it also sometimes had a corrosive effect on workplace culture. "What was disturbing was that the males who had gone through training showed a backlash effect," she says. "They said they were less willing to report sexual harassment than the males who had not gone through the training."
Employers are also girding for future allegations and lawsuits. The insurance company Nationwide reported a 15% increase in sales of employment practices liability insurances between 2016 and 2017. And Advisen, which tracks insurance trends, says that EPLI insurance price has increased 30% since 2011, which indicates that more companies are reporting losses.
Corporate boards, wary of alienating female employees and customers and of drawing bad press, have been among the quickest to make changes. Uber, for example, which built its reputation on a willingness to flout norms, used to be a guiding light for small startups. Now nobody is pitching their company as the next Uber, says Fowler. "There's a shift to, 'We're not disrupting anymore. We're trying to build something that's good for consumers and treats employees fairly.'" It's a start.
State and local governments have also taken some concrete steps. In October, the Chicago city council passed an ordinance requiring hotels to provide panic buttons to employees who work alone in hotel rooms. In Springfield, Ill., lawmakers passed a measure that will allow an investigation into a backlog of sexual-harassment complaints in the statehouse. In Arizona, pending legislation would void nondisclosure agreements signed by victims of harassment to keep them silent.
'I STAYED ANONYMOUS BECAUSE I LIVE IN A VERY SMALL COMMUNITY. AND THEY JUST THINK USUALLY THAT WE'RE LYING AND COMPLAINERS.' Anonymous 22 Former office assistant More After a co-worker allegedly began kissing and pressing himself on her, this young Native American woman says she felt trapped. Her office had no HR department. She didn't feel her colleagues or family on her small, conservative reservation would believe her. So she quit her job. ‘ On the reservation, we keep to ourselves and don't really put too much out there. I thought of all the other people that had no voice. They're scared to do something like this because their parents say, 'You're not supposed to do that. You're not supposed to speak up.' ’
At the federal level, the House and Senate have passed new rules requiring members of Congress and their staff to complete mandatory sexual-harassment training. A handful of Senators have also introduced legislation to rein in what are known as mandatory arbitration agreements—legal clauses that can appear in employee contracts that prevent workers from suing their employers in court for any reason, including sexual harassment. Some 60 million American workers are currently bound by them.
V
We're still at the bomb-throwing point of this revolution, a reactive stage at which nuance can go into hiding. But while anger can start a revolution, in its most raw and feral form it can't negotiate the more delicate dance steps needed for true social change. Private conversations, which can't be legislated or enforced, are essential.
Norms evolve, and it's long past time for any culture to view harassment as acceptable. But there's a great deal at stake in how we assess these new boundaries—for women and men together. We can and should police criminal acts and discourage inappropriate, destructive behavior.
At least we've started asking the right questions. Ones that seem alarmingly basic in hindsight: "What if we did complain?" proposes Megyn Kelly. "What if we didn't whine, but we spoke our truth in our strongest voices and insisted that those around us did better? What if that worked to change reality right now?" Kelly acknowledges that this still feels more like a promise than a certainty. But for the moment, the world is listening.
—With reporting by Charlotte Alter and Susanna Schrobsdorff/New York, Sam Lansky/Los Angeles, Kate Samuelson/London, Maya Rhodan/Washington and Katy Steinmetz/San Francisco
Correction : The original version of this story misstated when the claims settled by Bill O’Reilly and Fox News were first disclosed. The New York Times reported in April that Fox and O’Reilly had settled five claims against him. O’Reilly left the network later that month. |
Iter nuclear fusion project reaches halfway point | The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) in the South of France has reached its halfway point, said Bernard Bigot, the director-general of the project. Power could be produced from the experimental facility from 2025, using nuclear fusion, a process that has been pursued since nuclear energy was conceived. By creating a scenario similar to that which occurs in the sun, scientists hope to find an energy source that could harness more energy than the entirety of humanity requires. | https://phys.org/news/2017-12-nuclear-fusion-hails-halfway-milestone.html | 2017-12-07 10:43:15.007000 | In this Sept. 15, 2016 file photo, cranes stand at the construction site of the ITER ( the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in Cadarache, southern France. A vast international experiment designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable source of clean and cheap energy is halfway toward completion. The organization behind the ITER announced the milestone Wednesday Dec. 6, 2017 and confirmed it's aiming to conduct a first test run in 2025. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)
A vast international experiment designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable source of energy is halfway toward completion, the organization behind the project said Wednesday.
Construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, in southern France has been dogged by delays and a surge in costs to about 20 billion euros ($23.7 billion).
ITER's director-general, Bernard Bigot, said the project is on track to begin superheating hydrogen atoms in 2025, a milestone known as "first plasma."
"We have no contingency plan," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Paris.
Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe and clean electricity. Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, there's no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion and it doesn't produce long-lived radioactive waste.
A joint project to explore the technology was first proposed at a summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, with the aim of "utilizing controlled thermonuclear fusion for peaceful purposes ... for the benefit for all mankind."
It took more than two decades for work to begin at the site in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Marseille. The project's members—China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States—settled on a design that uses a doughnut-shaped device called a tokamak to trap hydrogen that's been heated to 150 million degrees Celsius (270 million Fahrenheit) for long enough to allow atoms to fuse together.
The process results in the release of large amounts of heat. While ITER won't generate electricity, scientists hope it will demonstrate that such a fusion reactor can produce more energy than it consumes.
There are other fusion experiments, but ITER's design is widely considered the most advanced and practical. Scientists won't know until 2035, following a decade of testing and upgrades, whether the device actually works as intended.
Still, fusion experts said Wednesday's milestone was noteworthy.
In this Sept. 15, 2016 file photo, cranes stand at the construction site of the ITER ( the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in Cadarache, southern France. A vast international experiment designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable source of clean and cheap energy is halfway toward completion. The organization behind the ITER announced the milestone Wednesday Dec. 6, 2017 and confirmed it's aiming to conduct a first test run in 2025. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)
"The glass is half full, rather than half empty," said Tony Donne of EUROfusion, a consortium of European research organizations and universities that provide scientific advice for ITER.
Donne said the appointment of Bigot had helped the project overcome what he called a "very difficult period" during which political considerations had hampered construction of what some consider the most complicated machine ever built.
Cost remains an issue, though, and Bigot was visiting Washington on Wednesday to drum up support from the United States, which contributes about 9 percent of the budget. Much of the funding goes to suppliers in the member states—in the case of the U.S. that includes General Atomics, which is building the central solenoid, an 18-meter (59-foot) electromagnet that's powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier.
Bigot said most other members, including the European Union which pays 45 percent of the budget, had pledged their financial support for years to come and he was hopeful the Trump administration would see the benefits of staying on board.
"All countries including the United States know that their energy supply is not sustainable beyond this century," said Bigot, who was previously France's nuclear energy chief.
Should Washington cut its funding, the project won't collapse, he said. "It's too important for the other members. But there would be some delay."
Gerald Navratil, a professor of applied physics at Columbia University, said fusion could help solve the problem of how to reliably produce large amounts of electricity without emitting greenhouse gases, noting ITER's current cost is comparable to that of developing a large passenger aircraft.
"Energy is such an important part of our technological society that expenditure of 20 billion to develop a new energy source is really not out of line," he said.
© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
Iter nuclear fusion project reaches halfway point | The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) in the South of France has reached its halfway point, said Bernard Bigot, the director-general of the project. Power could be produced from the experimental facility from 2025, using nuclear fusion, a process that has been pursued since nuclear energy was conceived. By creating a scenario similar to that which occurs in the sun, scientists hope to find an energy source that could harness more energy than the entirety of humanity requires. | https://www.theengineer.co.uk/fusion-iter/ | 2017-12-07 10:43:15.007000 | Assembling the world's largest nuclear fusion experiment is now an engineering problem. But it may be the most daunting challenge that has ever been posed, as Stuart Nathan explains.
My last visit to the site of Iter, the international project to develop and build the world’s largest ever nuclear fusion reactor and a model for the powerplant of prospective fusion power stations, was three years ago. Then, there was comparatively little to see on-site, as the foundations that will support the enormous weight of the fusion machine were still under construction, and the concrete had yet to be poured. The situation now is very different.
The theoretical and design aspects of the Iter ‘fusion machine’ — as it is known within the organisation — have largely been finalised, and the contracts for construction of its components farmed out among its member states. The remaining task, to piece all 10 million components together, is essentially a programme of mechanical, electrical and process engineering; but what a programme.
It will be the most complex machine ever built — an accolade that’s been held at various times in past decades by the Boeing 747, the Apollo command module, The US nuclear missile submarines, and the Large Hadron Collider. Because of the level of instrumentation and the need to comply with existing nuclear regulations, Iter is currently seen as likely to be the most complex fusion reactor ever built.
Returning to Cadarache, near Marseilles, a few weeks ago, progress was obvious from the first glance.
Buildings on the ground
The parched, sun-drenched landscape is the same, but whereas previously, only the bones of a few buildings were projecting from the rocky man-made plateau that forms the Iter site, the full complex is now visibly taking shape.
The most obvious progress is on the tokomak complex. Forming a T-shape, with the assembly hall to the south and the still-unbuilt diagnostics building and tritium plant flanking the tokomak hall itself to the east and west, the assembly hall is complete and the walls of the square tokomak hall are now rising above the pit where the machine will sit, descending two stories below ground. In the coming months the hall will completely enclose a squat circular concrete tower rising from the pit floor, pierced with rectangular and oval holes. Reminiscent of medieval fortifications, this is the bioshield that will keep Iter’s operators safe from the lethal neutron flux that the fusion reaction will produce in operation.
The tokamak pit in front of the assembly hall, on the left of this picture. The building with the red stripe is the poloidal coil workshop; to its left is the cryostat workshop, and in front is the cryoplant
The concrete of the floor, hall walls and bioshield is regularly studded with rectangular steel slabs onto which the fusion machine will be welded to hold it safely in place, in compliance with French nuclear regulations.
More concrete supporting structures radiate from the bioshield into the spaces that will be occupied by the equipment that will heat the hydrogen plasma confined by mighty magnets within the tokomak’s toroidal vacuum chamber; to the north will be radiofrequency generators, which will blast in microwave energy, and equipment to replenish the plasma by blowing pellets of frozen hydrogen into it; and to the south — squeezed in between the tokomak itself and the assembly hall, which will then be redundant (and according to jocular staff, the location for dance parties) — will be neutral beam injectors, huge devices that accelerate beams of hydrogen, render them electrically neutral and then fling them into the plasma (more on these below).
Keeping cool; the cryoplant
Nearby on the site is the cryoplant that will supply and manage liquid helium, the crucial ingredient for chilling the tokomak’s magnets to near-absolute zero (the precise temperature is -269°C), keeping their superconducting electrical coils in a state of zero resistance. This makes it possible to maintain the titanic magnetic fields that both keep the plasma squeezed tightly, and accelerate its component particles (nuclei of the heavy hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium) to enormous speeds (corresponding to temperatures of 150x106°C, ten times hotter than the centre of the sun).
Temperature and confinement are the two most crucial conditions necessary to force the particles, which all carry identical positive electrical charges, to overcome electrostatic repulsion and collide with each other with enough momentum for them to fuse together into helium nuclei, releasing the energy that is the raison d’être of the project.
The cryoplant, the world’s largest, includes three identical refrigerators which will liquefy some 25 tonnes of helium gas to supply the magnets and the vacuum pumps. Capable of a liquefaction rate of 1,230 litres per hour, these refrigeration units are fed by 18 compressors. Another refrigeration plant containing two units will produce liquid nitrogen from the air, which will act as a pre-cooler in the helium plant and will also chill the tokomak’s thermal shield, reducing the load on the superconducting cooling system.
Coils and cryostat; on-site manufacturing
Perhaps most exciting of all for visitors are two buildings where manufacture of real components is under way. In one, contractors from Indian engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro are welding huge steel components together into the tokomak cryostat.
Already giving the impression of being Colosseum-scale, this will be the biggest vacuum vessel ever built, 30m in width and height, weighing a total of 3850 tonnes, and enclosing a volume of 16,000m3. It will maintain the thermal shield, and will also keep its interior at a pressure of 10-4Pa. The biggest contribution of India to the Iter project, the cryostat components will be the first and last pieces of the fusion machine assembly to be installed in the tokomak pit.
Checking the welding on the cryostat base
The installation of the cryostat will be a staggered process, and its assembly is too. The sections of stainless steel are being welded together into four very large components. The first to be installed is the base, whose lower plate, shaped like a wide, flat dish with an upturned rim, is complete. On top of this will go the pedestal, a shallow cylinder topped with a flat rim; the 25,000 tonne combined weight of the tokomak itself and the rest of the cryostat will bear directly onto this component.
The thickest metal in the cryostat is found in the pedestal — 200mm — which is now undergoing final welding and is being finished directly above the baseplate, onto which it will be welded before the whole base assembly is lifted into the pit. The base is the heaviest single component of the fusion machine, weighing 1250 tonnes.
A rendering of the cryostat, showing the four components
On top of the base will sit two cylindrical tiers with an internal diameter of 28m. Both tiers have holes matching those of the bioshields, which will be connected to instrumentation and equipment by leak-tight bellows. On the lower of these, the first welding pass to link the pieces together is completed; the second welding pass will complete the joints to ensure leak-tightness. The parts of the upper tier are currently arriving from India. The final component, the lid, will be last to be assembled and the last piece of the fusion machine to be put in place.
Winding poloidal field double-pancakes. A reel of superconducting cable is surrounded by red scaffolding on the left
Not far away from the cryostat hall is a facility that was cavernous and intimidatingly empty on my last visit. Here, the poloidal field coils of Iter are being wound. Iter will have three sets of magnets: the central solenoid, a pillar that will sit in the middle of the torus and is important for driving a current around the plasma.
Toroidal coils, which occupy the position of lines of longitude on a globe and are the main method for squeezing the plasma; and poloidal coils, which occupy the lines of latitude will help to stabilise and shape the plasma. The six poloidal coils are among the largest and heaviest components of the whole assembly, and apart from the top and bottom coils are too big to be transported to the site from an external manufacturer, so the four middle coils, with diameters of 24 and 17m, must be wound on-site with only their component parts — a cable formed from strands of superconducting niobium-titanium alloy, bundled and packed into hefty stainless steel conduits through which liquid helium coolant will circulate.
Though the steel is some millimetres thick, this cable arrives at the site wound onto huge 20 tonne reels; it is then laboriously unwound, cleaned, straightened, and forced into a more gentle curve to form the flat hoops of the poloidal coils.
Like many of the operations that will form Iter, this is a sequential process. The coils will be deployed not singly but in winding packs, each pack consisting of multiple ‘double-pancakes’ of two identical coils; and building these packs is complicated.
While being wound, the coils are wrapped in glass fibre insulating tape in an automated process where the winding speed and tension are carefully controlled. The completed double pancake, the largest of which now weighs 37 tonnes, is then lifted with the magnet assembly building’s overhead crane into a mould, where it is impregnated with epoxy resin under pressure.
The number of double-pancakes in each magnet pack is determined by position, from the bottom of the machine magnet packs. 1, 3, 4 and 5 have eight double pancakes, while pack two has six and pack 6 has nine.
To form the packs, solid double-pancakes must be stacked together, undergo an additional vacuum resin impregnation step, and have additional components such as clamps, protective covers and liquid inlet and outlet pipes added.
Progress on on-site magnet production is now at a stage where the first vacuum impregnation processes can begin. Off-site, pack 1 (the smallest and upper-most poloidal coil) is now halfway through production at the Srednenevsky Shipbuilding Plant in St Petersburg, with its fifth double-pancake being wound and the first two having now completed vacuum impregnation. The third double-pancake was being impregnated as this article was being written.
Putting it together; the assembly schedule
The building sequence that will lead up to the completion of the fusion machine is now clear, but it won’t be quick. First, the remaining construction of the tokomak building itself must be completed, so that the rails of the crane in the assembly hall can be extended over the tokomak pit. Completion is expected by the end of 2018. Then the wall between the assembly hall and tokomak hall (currently towering over the tokomak pit and adorned with a huge poster showing a cutaway diagram of the fusion machine) will be demolished, and the neutral beam equipment installed. The base of the cryostat will then be lowered into place early in 2019, followed by the first two poloidal field coils.
Assembly of the tokomak vacuum vessel itself can then start. The first stages of this part of the assembly process have already begun in the assembly hall. The floor of the hall is being prepared for the arrival of two vacuum vessel sector sub-assembly tools, which are being built by Taekyung Heavy Industries in South Korea. The ground-level supporting components of the tools are now grouted into position, and the components of the tools themselves are now arriving at Cadarache.
One of the vacuum vessel sector assembly tools, assembled for testing in Korea; the dark grey components are test masses
These tools will themselves be mammoth components, 22m tall, weighing 800 tonnes and with two hinged hydraulic ‘wings’ that can open to a width of 20m. The role of each tool is to suspend a 40° slice of the toroidal vacuum vessel (seven are being forged in Italy; the other two in Korea) in a precise position, while the wings will suspend two toroidal field coils and thermal shield components, sliding them around the outside of the vacuum vessel sector where they will be fixed into position, along with associated thermal shielding.
Assembling the sectors is a task requiring extraordinary precision, and the assembly tools will be heavily equipped with sensors to measure the relative positions of the components as they are hoisted into position, manoeuvred and welded into place. It will take both of the assembly hall’s overhead cranes working in concert to lift and move the assembled sectors, which will weigh 1200 tonnes each.
Once the nine sectors of the tokomak - each a vacuum vessel/toroidal field coil/thermal shield assembly - are in place and welded together, the remaining four poloidal coils will be hoisted into position, followed by the upper and lower tiers of the cryostat. The central solenoid, being made in the US, will then be craned in and installed (the ceilings of the tokomak and assembly halls are twice the height of the fusion machine to allow clearance for this component, which runs the full height of the vacuum vessel). Then it’s time for the final component, the cryostat lid, to be installed.
A vacuum vessel sector component ready for machining
In-vessel assembly can then begin, carried out by hand and by an array of robotic equipment, installing equipment to put the tokomak in its initial configuration for first plasma in 2025.
Once the first plasma campaign is complete, the configuration of the tokomak interior will be altered, with further equipment installed, including the diverter (a water-cooled structure, made moistly of titanium, at the base of the torus where the plasma touches the wall and most of its energy is expended), ready for deuterium-tritium plasma operation, where actual fusion will take place, from 2035. This will also include testing of breeder blanket modules, where collisions between neutrons and lithium atoms will generate tritium. Commercial fusion plants, if feasible, will need to generate their own tritium; it is radioactive and currently produced only in small quantities in specialised nuclear reactors
Power up: the neutral beam injectors
In order to produce a burning plasma — a state of self-supporting nuclear fusion in the hot soup of charged particles circulating inside the vacuum chamber, which has never before been achieved — the plasma must be heated. There are three ways of doing this. The first is to induce a current around the plasma, which is achieved using the magnet systems (mainly the central solenoid); and two external methods: microwave — or radiofrequency — heating, of which Iter will use two types; and neutral beam injection.
Rendering of a neutral beam injector; the D-shaped object is a toroidal field coil shown inside the cryostat
Neutral beams are jets of electrically-neutral hydrogen atoms, accelerated at high speed into the plasma, where they give up their energy by colliding with the particles of the plasma. They have to be uncharged, or they would be deflected out of the plasma by the magnetic fields. But to be accelerated at all, they have to be charged, so neutral beam injectors work by stripping an electron away from hydrogen atoms, accelerating them with linear magnetic fields to a high velocity, passing them through a gas chamber where they reacquire their lost electron without losing momentum, then sending them into the tokomak.
This is proven technology — most tokomaks use it, including the Joint European Torus in the UK, but Iter’s system will have to accelerate atoms three to four timers faster than any previous injectors, for them to penetrate deeply enough into the plasma to be effective. The faster positive ions are travelling, the harder they are to neutralise; so Iter will use injectors which make and accelerate negatively-charged ions — the first time this method has been used. Negative hydrogen ions are less stable than positive ones, so easier to neutralise but harder to handle.
Iter will have three injectors; two for heating and one for diagnostics. Each of the two heating injectors will be able to supply 16.5MW of power at 1MeV of energy, in pulses up to an hour long. The hardware is being developed art a facility in Italy called PRIMA, which houses two test beds: SPIDER, for the development and characterisation of the negative ion source, and MITICA, a full-scale prototype of an injector. Europe, Japan and India are all contributing to this effort, and the last components for the Japanese contribution to MITICA — parts of the power supply — were delivered in November.
PRIMA provides an example of the scale of companies contributing to Iter. OCEM, a Bologna-based electrical equipment specialist more commonly involved in providing airfield lighting, is developing and providing components for the power supply of SPIDER. “We are an SME, but Iter has helped us think big,” says OCEM power division md Guiseppe Taddia. “It has helped us increase our technical skills and skills in project and contract management, as well as helping us motivate our staff.”
At the other end of the industrial spectrum, Siemens and Hitachi are collaborating on developing an ultra-high voltage deck and bushing for the injectors. Operating at 1MV DC, weighing 100tonnes and requiring seismic qualification, it is well in excess of anything used in industry.
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Concern as UK's Westminster School plans branches in China | The UK's posh Westminster School, which has educated British political leaders, will soon be teaching pupils to love the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) when it opens classrooms at six sites in China. The new branches will teach the local national curriculum, which stresses pupils must be firmly guided to support the CCP leadership. The expansion plans are hoped to raise bursary funds for the London school. But the move has raised questions as China's authoritarian leader Xi Jinping cracks down on what's taught in the country's classrooms, resulting in some academics going into exile and critics being jailed. | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/dec/07/westminster-school-to-set-up-branches-in-china-to-teach-chinese-curriculum | 2017-12-07 10:12:58 | One of Britain’s top public schools is set to open six offshoots in China teaching the Chinese national curriculum at a time when the country’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, is pushing to tighten the Communist party’s grip on the classroom.
According to the Financial Times, Westminster School will on Thursday unveil plans to create branches in six major Chinese cities in partnership with a Hong Kong education group called HKMETG. The first will open in Chengdu, capital of the south-western province of Sichuan, in 2020.
Westminster, whose alumni include politicians such as Tony Benn and Nick Clegg as well as Martin Amis, Helena Bonham Carter and Louis Theroux, described the move as a “soft power” initiative that would help fund a bursary scheme in the UK.
“The reason for opening the schools is that we’re quite excited about being able to influence education of Chinese pupils in China,” a spokeswoman said.
Westminster, which was founded in 1179 by Benedictine monks, is the latest in a series of British schools to head east. Dulwich College, Harrow and Wellington all operate spin-offs for international students in Shanghai, with Dulwich also boasting campuses in Beijing and Suzhou and a franchise in the southern city of Zhuhai.
Unusually, however, the Westminster schools will reportedly teach China’s national curriculum to 6- to 15-year-olds.
Xiong Bingqi, an education specialist from Shanghai’s Jiaotong University, told the Guardian that was the only way Chinese authorities would allow a foreign school to offer Chinese students compulsory education.
However, as a result teachers are likely to skirt over politically sensitive topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, in which Chinese troops gunned down an unknown number of civilians, and Mao’s Great Famine, in which tens of millions died.
Westminster said students aged 16-18 would be able to study the English national curriculum.
Chinese textbooks have grown increasingly pro-party since Xi took power in 2012 and set in motion a severe political chill that has seen academics forced into exile and critics jailed.
In August, China’s assistant education minister, Zheng Fuzhi, unveiled a new generation of party-sanctioned textbooks designed to push Xi’s so-called “core socialist values” and reinforce Beijing’s claims over places such as Tibet, Taiwan and the South China Sea.
One recent command to schools pronounced that pupils should be “guided to firmly support the CPC [Chinese Communist party] leadership”.
Last December Xi said universities should be strongholds of party rule and teachers “engineers of the human soul” whose “sacred mission” was to help students improve their ideological quality.
Steve Tsang, the head of the School of Oriental and African Studies’ (SOAS) China Institute, told the Financial Times he believed Westminster was making a mistake.
“I think they have no idea what they’re dealing with … If you set up a school in China, they will have a party secretary superintending the whole school and the party secretary will be responsible for political education.”
Xiong said it was normal for Beijing to require a foreign school to operate under Chinese rules: “Even if you are running a school in the US, you need to obey local education laws and regulations.”
He said there would be greater flexibility outside the period of compulsory education, although not when it came to ideologically or historically sensitive topics. “Teaching anything in history class that is different from what is in Chinese textbooks, that’s impossible.”
Westminster is likely to have to modify its motto, as well as its teaching materials, before opening in one-party China, an officially atheist country. The school’s motto is currently: “Dat deus incrementum” or ‘God gives bounteously”.
Before it opened in China, Dulwich College had to replace its original motto - “Detur gloria soli deo” (“Let glory be given to God alone”) - with ‘Detur pons mundo” (“Building bridges to the world”).
Additional reporting by Wang Zhen
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No deal 'worst possible outcome' for economy, security and nuclear: Lords | The UK's House of Lords European Union committee has condemned the possibility of a 'no deal' Brexit option, and said it was: "difficult, if not impossible, to envisage a worse outcome for the UK". The comments were part of a report which highlighted the lack of time available to reach agreement on key issues, and suggested it could inadvertently lead to a no deal outcome. The cross-party committee called on the government to consider extending the UK's EU membership or transition period. | https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/07/no-deal-brexit-would-be-worst-outcome-possible-for-uk-lords-warn | 2017-12-07 09:49:08.883000 | It is impossible to imagine a worse outcome for Britain than failing to agree a Brexit deal, the House of Lords will warn on Thursday, in a last-ditch warning to ministers under increasing pressure to walk away from stalled talks with the EU.
In a 60-page report that predicts legal and economic chaos without an exit agreement, the cross-party committee of peers cautions that a government strategy of brinkmanship with Brussels “risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy”.
“‘No deal’ would mean the abrupt cessation of over 40 years of economic, political and legal partnership,” they conclude. “It is difficult, if not impossible, to envisage a worse outcome for the United Kingdom.”
The government was accused of failing to prepare for the future on Wednesday after the chancellor, Philip Hammond, revealed there had been no cabinet discussion on Britain’s ultimate relationship with Europe, and the Brexit secretary, David Davis, said no assessment of the likely impact on different business sectors had been carried out.
Theresa May is also facing a backlash from hardliners in the cabinet after it emerged that the only way to salvage a stricken first-phase agreement over Northern Ireland might be to extend EU regulatory alignment to the whole of the UK – a soft Brexit option many regard as the worst of all worlds.
Now the Lords report warns that the alternative of walking away from the talks entirely and relying on existing WTO trade rules would have catastrophic implications, ranging from a 20% rise in food prices and grounded airline flights, to the loss of 75,000 jobs in the City and £8-10bn in tax revenues.
“A complete ‘no-deal’ outcome would ... bring UK-EU cooperation on matters vital to the national interest, such as counter-terrorism, police, justice and security matters, nuclear safeguards, data exchange and aviation, to a sudden halt,” said the report, after taking evidence from more than 50 expert witnesses.
“It would place the status of UK nationals in the EU, and EU nationals in the UK, in jeopardy, and would necessarily lead to the imposition of controls at the Irish land border.
“The short-term impact on trade in goods would also be grave,” the peers added. “The UK’s ports would be overwhelmed by the requirement for customs and other checks. There is simply not enough time to provide the necessary capacity, IT systems, human resource and expertise to deal with such an outcome.”
The Lords warning came as business leaders also accused the Tory party of “gross irresponsibility” for considering a no-deal route out of the Brexit impasse. “To those politicians suggesting we walk away from the negotiating table, I have a simple message: careless talk will cost jobs,” the CBI president, Paul Drechsler, told an audience in the City on Wednesday night. “Businesses will press snooze for as long as they can – but the alarm will go off,” he added.
British business leaders have long warned that failure to move on from phase one talks by next week could force them to take painful contingency measures to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, but the Lords report sets out in unprecedented detail why it fears such a scenario could come about by accident.
“The key factor adding to the risk of ‘no deal’ is the lack of time,” the peers write. “While we reiterate our support for the government’s goal of securing a comprehensive agreement by October 2018, the uncertainty over the feasibility of that aim means that the overriding UK and EU interest is now to secure an orderly and legally certain transition, as early as possible.”
The committee also dismissed testimony provided by David Davis in which he claimed there could still be a “bare bones” deal with the EU if the main exit negotiations broke down. The peers argued that a disorderly breakup would be more likely to lead to a widespread breakdown in trust between the two sides.
Lord Jay, acting committee chairman and a former ambassador to France, said: “The overwhelming weight of evidence suggests that ‘no-deal’ would be the worst possible outcome for the UK, in terms of the economy, security, the environment and citizens’ rights.”
Campaigners against a hard Brexit claimed the report provided damning evidence against the theory that Britain could be prepared to walk away. “For months we have have heard bluster from Brexiteers about how no deal is better than a bad deal,” said Eloise Todd, of Best For Britain. “What this report finally tells us is that no deal is a bad deal... [it] is a brutal character assassination carried out on the whole, shambolic government.”
The government argues that it has to maintain the ‘no-deal’ option to prevent Brussels from dictating all the terms of the exit. Responding to criticism of the government’s strategy during prime minister’s questions, Theresa May claimed “very good progress” had been made in the talks.
“We’re leaving the European Union, we’re leaving the single market and the customs union but we will do what is right in the interests of the whole United Kingdom,” she said. “And nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” |
Water risk is an overlooked global threat for investors | Water risk is a growing operational and strategic threat investors may be overlooking. Climate change, pollution, rising global population, power generation, food production and competition for supply by cities are already impacting the worldwide water supply. Water security risks can impact a company overnight. Recent examples include competition for water in India forcing Coca-Cola to shut plants and halt expansion plans. Additionally, Newmont had to delay its $5bn mining project in Peru over water fears while BHP and Vale are facing a $48bn fine due to compensation claims over water.
| https://www.environmental-finance.com/content/analysis/why-investors-need-to-be-alert-to-water-risk.html | 2017-12-07 09:09:10.837000 | If investors are not aware of water risks, now is the time to get up to speed, argues Monika Freyman
Water, like carbon, is a growing operational and strategic risk that investors must look out for. But unlike the threats of higher carbon prices or regulatory changes due to climate change that continue to build, today's water threats can lead to immediate and significant, or even total, value destruction.
Water resources, already at risk in a more climate volatile world, are also under growing threat from pollution, a rising global population, and skyrocketing water competition from growing cities, power generation and food production needs.
Floods. Shortages. Spills. Community backlash. Every day, we're seeing how water security translates into water risk overnight.
Newmont delayed a $5 billion mining project in Peru after community protests over water concerns. Competition with farmers for groundwater in India forced Coca-Cola to close plants and abandon some expansion plans. BHP and Vale face a $48 billion fine stemming from compensation claims. These are just a few proof points.
So what can investors do? Do what investors do best — research the risks and manage them.
That's where Ceres' new Investor Water Toolkit comes in. Created for investors by investors, the "Toolkit" is the first ever investor-designed, comprehensive resource to help investors better understand and evaluate water risks throughout every step of the decision-making process — from creating institutional priorities and goals, conducting portfolio attribution analysis, to buy/sell decision-making and much in between.
The Toolkit was produced in partnership with over 40 members of Ceres' Investor Water Hub, collectively managing $6 trillion in assets. It provides resources and tools on analysing water risk along with real-life case studies from pension funds, endowments and asset managers. The Toolkit offers different levels of analysis, meeting investors wherever they are on their journey of integrating water risks into portfolio decision-making. These range from understanding and evaluating risks to providing recommendations for advanced methods of scenario analysis.
It also showcases that a broad spectrum of industries have exposure to potential water risks. A new water footprint analysis Ceres released alongside the Toolkit reveals that the majority of stocks in the MSCI World, MSCI Emerging Markets, S&P 500 and Russell 3000 are in industries with medium to high water risk.
That's why serious analysis of these risks is more important than ever. Water risk footprinting, also known as water risk heat-mapping, is one of many important investor water research methods.
And in fact, some investors are already leading the way. For instance, ACTIAM, a Netherlands-based firm managing €54.6 billion in assets, is measuring the footprint of its portfolio as part of its 2030 goal to limit the water use and impacts of its portfolio — the first ever public commitment by a large institutional investor.
In the US, the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) analysed the water risks of its $15 billion passive investment portfolio, using water risk scores to create a heat map. The map visually represents the financial exposure of Florida SBA's investments in companies with varying degrees of water risk exposure.
Many investors are also beginning to see the value of scenario analysis and stress testing not only to assess the impact of climate change but also to more fully understand water risk exposure. This mirrors the call for scenario analysis by the G20's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure.
Investor water risk exposure can be very different from corporate water risk exposure, because investors need to evaluate the risks throughout their portfolios, including their aggregate exposure to high-risk industries or geographic regions. And given that investment firms may own hundreds, if not thousands, of companies or securities, investors also need to prioritise which entities to research and engage further on water risks. The Toolkit has a number of recommendations for just how to do this, using the size of holdings, ability to influence change, and geographic exposure analysis as key considerations.
The online Ceres Investor Water Toolkit is designed to fill a critical gap for investors who have been looking for ways to integrate water and other sustainability considerations into investment decision-making. While there are many other resources in the marketplace to help companies model their water risks, there are few that specifically target investors.
Water risks are increasingly material. Climate change and other drivers are turning water into a scarce commodity, increasing competition for available resources and making protection of water quality more vital than ever. These risks have to become an integral part of investor research and risk management processes and daily financial decisions. Otherwise, investors will be blind to a risk that is only continuing to grow.
Monika Freyman, CFA is Director of Investor Engagement, Water at Ceres, a sustainability non-profit organisation working with the most influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. |
Mounting financial risks threaten to derail Chinese economy: IMF | China's financial system is under threat from risky bank debt, risky lending and excessive risk-taking, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned as the nation moves towards a consumer-driven economy. "The system's increasing complexity has sown financial stability risks," the IMF said in the report of a two-year study into the world's second-largest economy. The Chinese central bank said it disagrees with the assessment, particularly the assertion that many lenders would be unable to absorb shocks.
| https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/06/imf-financial-sector-stability-assessment-report-on-china-banking-system.html | 2017-12-07 08:52:59.657000 | "The system's increasing complexity has sown financial stability risks," the fund said in the 2017 China Financial Sector Stability Assessment report released on Thursday morning Asia hours.
Those tensions emerged as China moves away from its role as the world's factory to a more modern, consumer-driven economy, the IMF said. The financial sector is critical in facilitating that transition, but in the process it evolved into a more complicated and debt-laden system.
An almost two-year long study of the Chinese financial system by the International Monetary Fund found three major tensions that could derail the world's second-largest economy.
The report was a culmination of the fund's several visits to China between October 2015 and September 2017. The assessment is intended to identify key sources of systemic risk in the financial sector so that policies can be implemented to enhance resilience to shocks and problems that could spread across the globe.
The first tension in China's financial system, according to the IMF, is the rapid build-up in risky credit that was partly due to the strong political pressures banks face to keep non-viable companies open, rather than letting them fail. Such struggling firms have, in recent years, taken on more debt to achieve growth targets set by the authorities.
The overall debt-to-GDP ratio in the Asian economic giant grew from around 180 percent in 2011 to 255.9 percent by the second quarter of 2017, data by the Bank for International Settlements showed. The rise coincided with a slowdown in productivity growth and pressures on asset quality in the banking system — increasing the risks faced by the Chinese economy.
The second tension identified by the IMF is that risky lending has moved away from banks to the less-regulated parts of the financial system, commonly known as the "shadow banking" sector. That adds to the complexity of the financial sector and makes it more difficult for authorities to supervise activities in the system, the IMF said.
And the third issue identified by the international organization is that there's been a rash of "moral hazard and excessive risk-taking" because of the mindset that the government will bail out troubled state-owned enterprises and local government financing vehicles. An example is the "implicit guarantees" that financial institutions offer when selling products to retail investors. That is a situation where the financial product sold are not guaranteed, but banks almost always compensate investors for principal losses by dipping into their own capital.
The People's Bank of China, in response to the IMF assessment, said in a statement on its website that it disagrees with some points in the report but the fund's recommendations are "highly relevant in the context of deepening financial reforms" in the country.
One of the points the Chinese central bank said it disagrees with is the conclusion that many banks lack the ability to withstand shocks. The IMF's stress tests found that 27 out of 33 banks studied were under-capitalized. But the PBOC said the Chinese financial system is resilient. |
Irish government to ban most zero-hour contracts | The Irish Government is to ban most zero-hours contracts, while also improving rights for workers in insecure and variable employment. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the new legislation, published last Thursday, demonstrated progress, but needed to be amended. Employers’ group Ibec claimed that the legislation would deprive both companies and workers of the ability to establish flexible working arrangements.
| https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/government-to-ban-zero-hour-contracts-in-most-cases-1.3318870 | 2017-12-07 00:00:00 | The Minister for Employment and Social Protection Regina Doherty said the new legislation would significantly improve the employment protections for people in less secure arrangements. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill / The Irish Times
The Government is to ban zero-hours contracts in most circumstances and strengthen rights for workers on insecure contracts and those working variable hours.
The Minister for Employment and Social Protection Regina Doherty said the new legislation,published on Thursday, would significantly improve the employment protections for people who were in less secure arrangements, not by choice, and may not know from week to week what hours they will be working.
She said the vast majority of employers treated their employees well and they should have nothing to fear from the new Bill.
“On the contrary, the Bill is aimed at tackling exploitative employment arrangements and those unscrupulous employers who do not respect even the most basic rights of employees.”
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The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) Patricia King said the new legislation was by no means perfect and required some amendments but it did represent progress.
“The Ictu will lobby hard to achieve amendments to this Bill to meet the demands of the workers who are affected by insecure and precarious work. It appears from the provisions of the Bill that the prohibition of zero-hour contracts excludes casual workers. It is our view that all workers should be covered by this prohibition.”
‘If and when’
However the employers’ group Ibec argued the legislation as drafted would have significant adverse consequences.
“It will deprive employees and employers of the ability to make their own flexible working arrangements and to adapt to change collaboratively.”
Labour Party senator Ged Nash said the Bill was silent on "a new and dubious form of precarious work" known as "if and when" contracts.
He said the Bill would apply only to employees who had worked under contract for at least 18 months.
“This of itself is a major improvement to the status quo and is a very welcome development. But the new legislation entirely dodges the question of ‘if and when’ contracts and how such workers are to be treated. It seems that, for most workers trapped in the ‘if and when’ spiral, work of that nature will continue to be treated as a casual form of work. ”
The new legislation will prohibit zero hours contracts in all circumstances except in “cases of genuine casual work or where they are essential to allow employers to provide cover in emergency situations or to cover short-term absences”.
Substitute workers
The Department of Employment and Social Protection said such flexibility would be required in residential care settings, for example, where a member of staff must accompany a resident in the care facility to hospital at short notice and an appropriately qualified substitute worker needed to be called in to cover the absence.
Ms Doherty said: “While we understand that zero-hour contracts are not prevalent in this jurisdiction, we want to ensure that that remains the position.”
Under the new legislation five key terms of employment must be provided to workers within five days of commencing work for their employer. These are:
– The full name of the employer and employee
– The address of the employer
– The expected duration of the contract (where the contract is temporary or fixed-term)
– The rate or method of calculating pay
– What the employer reasonably expects the normal length of the employee’s working day and week will be. |
Google launches gender diversity gaming initiative | Google has launched a diversity initiative designed to create a dialogue about female gamers. The Change the Game programme will use an “anthem video” to demonstrate the diversity of women who play games, while Google Play will highlight games featuring female protagonists. The company has also joined with creative agency Ideas United to establish a development programme for new designers to create games designed to appeal to underrepresented groups. Google is also partnering with the Girls Make Games and Made with Code groups, which encourage girls to learn programming and game design.
| https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/07/google-launches-change-the-game-diversity-initiative-for-women-in-mobile-games/ | 2017-12-07 00:00:00 | Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.
Google is launching its Change the Game program, a diversity initiative for starting a dialogue about women who play and make mobile games. It also partnered with market researcher Newzoo on a study about people’s behaviors when they play games on their phones.
Change the Game will focus on women who are playing mobile games as well as to jumpstart more careers for them in the game industry. To the former point, it has released a trailer that it’s calling an “anthem video” to showcase the diverse range of women who play games. Google Play is also spotlighting a collection of games starring women protagonists, such as State of Play Games and Noodlecake Studios’s Lumino City and Camouflaj’s République.
According to the Newzoo study, 65 percent of women between the ages of 10 and 65 play mobile games. These stats are out of the 3,000 people who participated in the study, 2,000 of whom identified as women and 1,000 as men. Though a high percentage of women play games, Google product marketing manager Mathilde Cohen Solal said a disconnect exists between how men and women approach their experiences.
“For example, women are less likely to explore a variety of genres. While men usually play games from three or more genres, women tend to play two genres or less,” said Solal in a phone call with GamesBeat. “They’re less likely to talk about games among their friends and communities. They’re less likely to identify as gamers.”
The study also says that most of the women thought only 30 percent of mobile games are made “for them,” though it’s not entirely clear what that means exactly. The study isn’t conclusive, and Solal is cautious about assigning cause or correlation to its findings. Change the Game intends to continue doing more research to look at different behaviors, demographics, and geographic regions.
“What we’ve realized is that everything is interrelated,” said Solal. “It’s very hard to find one cause of the behavior, of something that’s happening. What I would say is something that—a hypothesis we’ve talked about with a lot of experts is there’s a kind of chicken and egg relationship.”
Image Credit: State of Play Games / Noodlecake Studios
The underlying implication is that women may feel that mobile gaming isn’t welcoming or inclusive. Change the Game is trying to ease player perception with its anthem videos and collections, but it’s also approaching the developer side as well.
“To support the creation of more inclusive games and storylines, we’ve partnered with Ideas United to launch a development program for emerging game designers,” said Google’s product marketing manager Kate Brennan. “We asked them to pitch us a mobile game concept that would resonate with underrepresented audiences and we’re spending the next few months bringing those games to life.”
Google is also working with Girls Make Games and Made With Code, both organizations that help girls learn programming and game design skills. It’s the last piece to complete its pipeline of getting more girls involved with games, more women to join the industry, and folks to feel more welcome to play.
“For right now, we’re looking at initially getting people excited about and involved with the process of game-making, that initial first step,” said Brennan. “Retention is definitely something we’re thinking about, but haven’t explicitly looked at right now. I think both of the programs do a good job of showing an entry-level overview of the games industry as a whole. Something we like to highlight is it’s not just coding. It’s also music direction, art design, a whole plethora of jobs within the gaming industry that young girls can get excited about.”
The Change the Game initiative is still new, so it hasn’t revealed many of its future projects. However, Brennan says that it’s incredibly necessary.
“Right now, knowing that only 27.8 percent of the industry identifies as women or trans or marked ‘other,’ that’s really important,” said Brennan. “Increasing that will lead to more inclusive work environments, and also more games that are telling stories that appeal to many different people. Ultimately we do believe that gaming has the ability to move people, to tell fantastic stories, to get people involved, to build empathy.”
“Basically, we found in our research that the great thing about mobile games today is that they’re way more diverse than ever before,” said Solal. “There are a lot of new people playing. But the industry as a whole – and we are part of that industry – still isn’t keeping up with that.” |
Tradesman visas urged as construction industry faces Brexit hit | The Home Builders Federation has called for a post-Brexit work permit system as it revealed one in six construction workers come from European Union nations. A survey of 37,000 housebuilding workers across the UK showed that 17.7% were from Europe, more than half of which were Romanian. In London, EU workers made up more than 70% of carpenters and 61% of general labourers, the study found.
| https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/05/housebuilders-issue-brexit-plea-as-poll-reveals-uk-reliance-on-eu-workers | 2017-12-06 17:14:39.500000 | More than one in six people working on housebuilding sites across Britain come from other EU countries, rising to half of site workers in London, according to a new report.
A survey of 37,000 housebuilding workers across Britain shows 17.7% are from the EU. More than half of those come from Romania, with 12% from Poland and almost 10% from Ireland.
In London, where housing demand is at its most acute, some building skills are dominated by EU workers, with more than 70% of carpenters, 63% of demolition and groundworks workers, 61% of general labourers, 54% of plasterers, painters and decorators, 44% of bricklayers and nearly 40% of roofers hailing from other EU countries.
Nationwide, 15% of bricklayers , 25% of general labourers and almost 18% of finishing trades, which include plasterers, painters and decorators, come from the EU.
The survey by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) on more than 1,000 housebuilding sites, underlines the extent of UK sites’ reliance on overseas workers. The federation said its report was the first extensive survey of the sector and showed that builders would need continued access to skilled EU workers following Brexit to deliver the government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year.
The federation is lobbying the government for a special permit system (similar to the mooted barista visas) that would allow housebuilders to recruit workers from abroad after 2019 to ramp up construction from the 217,00 homes built last year.
In the capital, 56% of workers in the housebuilding sector are from outside the UK and 49.5% are EU nationals. Of those, half come from Romania, 8.5% from Bulgaria, and 6.4% from Poland.
The federation said that although tens of thousands of UK-born workers have been recruited and trained in recent years, training took time and would not be enough to meet demand. It said that with an ageing UK workforce, the reliance on EU nationals was likely to grow. About 70% of overseas workers are in their 20s or 30s compared with just over 50% of their UK colleagues.
Federation spokesman Steve Turner said: “We needed evidence that demonstrates housebuilding should be treated as a special case; hopefully this quite clearly demonstrates that it is a special case and heavily reliant on EU labour.”
However, the survey shows that most EU housebuilding site workers intend to stay in Britain. Fewer than 7% of EU nationals surveyed said they were not intending to stay in the UK industry.
Stewart Baseley, the federation’s executive chairman, said: “The results of this census clearly demonstrate the reliance the industry currently has on non-UK workers. Output is up a massive 74% in recent years but achieving the very challenging targets set by government will require further big increases in workforce capacity.
“While the industry is investing heavily in recruiting and training young people leaving our schools, colleges and universities, continued access to overseas workers is absolutely essential.”
More than 217,000 new homes were built across the UK last year – 15% more than in the previous year but still well short of the government’s target of 300,000 homes a year. In London, 39,600 homes were built, the highest number since the 1930s.
The new London plan published last week set a target for 65,000 new homes a year although the government has indicated the figure should be 72,000 to meet housing needs. |
DHS accuses Chinese drone maker DJI of spying on US | Chinese drone manufacturer DJI has been accused of spying on the US by the Department of Homeland Security, in a memo released to the public this week. DJI is accused of “providing critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government" and "selectively targeting government and privately-owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive data". DJI has a 50% total share of the US drone market, rising to nearly 70% for drones priced between $1,000 and $4,000.
| https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2017-12-05/dhs-flags-chinese-drones-security-risk | 2017-12-06 15:24:24.463000 | An unclassified memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleges that Chinese UAS maker DJI is “providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government …[and] is selectively targeting government and private owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive data.” DHS also alleged that DJI was leveraging its lower manufacturing costs “combined with illegal dumping tactics” to give it monopoly power in the U.S. “As a result, U.S. companies have fewer options and are more likely to purchase DJI UAS.”
The memo was drafted this past summer but widely released only last week. DJI—Dà-Jiāng Innovations Science and Technology, headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong—is one of the the largest manufacturers of recreational and commercial drones worldwide. Its models include the Phantom and Mavic Pro. It holds an estimated 50 percent share of the overall North American market and nearly 70 percent of the North American market for UASs priced between $1,000 and $4,000. It also has technology partnerships with powerhouses including Sony, owns a majority interest in Swedish camera maker Hasselblad and offers its units for sale in Apple stores. Competitors have alleged that the company engages in dumping and other unfair trade practices.
In late November, DJI issued a strong statement rebutting the DHS memo. “The bulletin is based on clearly false and misleading claims from an unidentified source” and shows “a fundamental lack of understanding of DJI, its technology and the drone market.” DJI’s statement also refuted claims of dumping, “DJI does not sell products at a loss or cheaper in the United States than in China.” It also disputed charges that its drones are equipped with facial recognition software or that it widely shared data with the Chinese government.
Limited Data Sharing
To the extent data is shared with the Chinese government, the company said, it has done so to comply with “location-specific rules and policies within China” related to registration and no-fly zones. “In compliance with Chinese regulation, DJI utilizes the user's IP address, GPS location, and MCC (mobile country code) ID to determine if a drone is being operated in China. If so, DJI provides the customer with features necessary to comply with Chinese regulations and policies. Otherwise, DJI provides no information about or data collected by the drone to the Chinese government.”
However, the company did say that its advanced new products have “Active Track” algorithms that “can track the movement of the shape of the face or the shape of the person to facilitate control of the drone or movement of the camera.” It also acknowledged several actual or potential recent security breaches including compromise of its secure web certificate and the DJI website, receiving a report that its Amazon Web Services server repository was accessible by unauthorized parties. In both cases, DJI said, it promptly fixed the problems. The company also noted that it maintains a “Bug Bounty Program” that pays security researchers to identify potential vulnerabilities in DJI's technology.
Nevertheless, the DHS memo notes that the U.S. Army has stopped using DJI products due to “an increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities associated” with them. Earlier this year the U.S. Navy issued its own memo on “operational risks” associated with operating DJI vehicles.
Despite the U.S. military's misgivings, DJI is establishing a foothold with U.S. law enforcement and contractors and companies with critical security and infrastructure links. DHS pointed out that a DJI Inspire UAS is currently used by the Los Angeles County Sheriff and on site by a contractor currently building DHS's own National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas.
It also noted that DJI's current U.S. infrastructure customers include American Water, Union Pacific Railroad and American Electric Power. The company is also targeting water utilities in Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and New York; and railway companies in Omaha, Los Angeles, and Dallas. DHS asserted that DJI's target client list “appears to focus on the account holder's ability to disrupt critical infrastructure. " The DHS also alleged that the Chinese government could use DJI data to “disrupt and degrade” the U.S. food supply and to surreptitiously evaluate assets planned for purchase.
The DHS concluded that data gleaned from DJI systems could be used by the Chinese government to conduct physical or cyber attacks against the U.S. or shared with terrorist organizations or other parties to strike the U.S. |
Lithuania speeds up licensing regime to lure fintechs post-Brexit | Since the Brexit decision, Lithuania has been positioning itself as a fintech hub by speeding up the processes by which foreign firms can enter the country and receive online payment permits. The Lithuanian central bank has streamlined its licence approval processes so that online payment permits can be secured by prospective foreign fintechs in three months and full banking licences in just six months, making the process several times quicker than in rival nations. Lithuania has reportedly granted 18 operating licences to foreign fintechs in 2017 alone, including one to UK-based Revolut, with an additional 16 under review.
| http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/fintech-firms-choose-lithuania-after-brexit/article/509216 | 2017-12-06 15:04:09.897000 | Tech & Science
The sector was already victim to 10.7 percent of attacks globally in 2022 and it is expected to increase even more in 2023. |
Earny, the refunds-focused fintech, secures $9m funding | Earny, which uses retailer and credit card price protection policies to claim refunds on users' purchases, has raised $9m. Earny said the money will be used to diversify into the travel industry, including payment protection for hotel bookings. Early already has partnerships with Amazon, Bloomingdale's and Wal-Mart, among others. The COO and co-founder of the Santa Monica-based firm, Dori Yona, said: "We want to focus on brand awareness … these funds will let us make a big marketing push into TV, print [and] advertising." The series A funding was led by Mayfield Fund and takes Earny's total backing to $11.5m.
| https://bankinnovation.net/2017/12/payment-protection-fintech-earny-raises-9-million/ | 2017-12-06 14:59:52.707000 | EXCLUSIVE – The payment protection app Earny announced today it has raised $9 million and wants to use the funds to diversify into the travel vertical.
Based in Santa Monica, Calif., Earny automatically monitors for and claims refunds on past purchases through retailer and credit card price protection policies.
With its new funding, Dori Yona, COO and co-founder of Earny, told Bank Innovation that the company will expand in the travel field. It will start by providing payment protection to hotel bookings early next year and then will gradually diversify in other aspects of the vertical, he said.
The series A funding was led by Mayfield Fund, an early investor in ride-share app Lyft and social-market platform Poshmark. Other investors include Comcast Ventures and Science Inc. This new round brings the company’s total funds to $11.5 million.
“We are very excited about Mayfield because they have a huge history and have built massive companies that changed consumer behavior,” Yona said.
The funds will be also be used to double Earny’s employees to 35 people and to start a major marketing campaign.
“We want to focus on brand awareness,” he said. “These funds will also let us make a big marketing push – TV, print, advertising, and the whole gamut.”
As a part of the deal, Mayfield managing director, Rishi Garg, will join Earny’s board.
So far, Earny has partnered with major retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Costco, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart. It also works with the typical 90-day price protection policies for credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, US Bank, Capital One, Barclays and First Premier Bank.
The app, which is free to download on both Android and Apple, monitors and automatically files for a claim on behalf of its user.
Typically, Earny can secure more than 90% of its claims, he said. Earny shoppers approximately get back 5% of what they spend online on average, Yona said. Some Earny shoppers have gotten back more than $1,600 back in a year, he said.
The company was launched in 2016 after winning Mastercard’s Masters of Code Hackathon. Last May, it raised $1.2 million in seed funding from investors that include Mastercard, Sweet Capital and Science Inc.
To learn more about the latest developments in mobile payments, join us on March 5-6, 2018 at the Parc 55 in San Francisco for Bank Innovation 2018. Click here to register. |
FabRx launches Kickstarter campaign for 3D printed medicine | A UK-based biotech start-up is seeking crowdfunding to support the launch of a new 3D printing platform for children's medicine. FabRx, based in Kent, has been working for five years at the 3D printing laboratory at University College London developing ways of adapting the technology to produce medicines. It has now launched a bid to raise £50,000 on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to support its plan to adapt an existing 3D printer produced by the Magic Candy Factory, a company that produces bespoke sweets. FabRx aims to make medicines more appealing to children and achieve greater precision in dosages.
| https://www.tctmagazine.com/3d-printing-news/fabrx-kickstarter-3d-print-medicine-children/ | 2017-12-06 14:55:54.283000 | FabRx FabRx Printlets. 3D printed formulations with different shapes, colours, and flavours.
FabRx, a biotech company looking to transform the manufacture of medicines using 3D printing, is to launch a Kickstarter campaign for its own 3D printing platform.
The machine will be an adapted version of The Magic Candy Factory's and will enable the preparation of medicines that are ideal for children. With a goal of £50,000, FabRx’s Kickstarter campaign will get underway on Wednesday 6th December.
Based in Kent, with a laboratory in London, FabRx is looking to not only make medicines more appealing for children, but also achieve more precision in the dosage, combine more than one drug per medicine, and prepare medicines on-demand in hospitals and pharmacies. The company will also look to produce several forms of medicine, including tablets, capsules, and chewable formulations, all appropriate for children – the tablets the printer produces are called Printlets. Printlets can be made to contain a certain does, be easy to swallow, and prepared in the child’s desired flavour, colour and shape. FabRx has also managed to combine up to four drugs in one medicine, each represented by a different coloured layer.
Winner of the TCT Show Start-Up Award 2017, FabRx has been working at the advanced 3D printing laboratory at UCL for more than five years conducting research around 3D printed medicines. It has entered into a partnership with The Magic Candy Factory, to adapt their printer which has already been successful in the 3D printing of sweets. The design will be altered, so as to avoid contamination from the environment, and FabRx will also ensure pharmaceutically approved materials will be supported.
Meanwhile, the software will allow the user to select key dosage form parameters, and can already enable the printing of any shape and flavour. Upgrades will be implemented so the user can accurately prepare the dose prescribed by the doctor. Since the dose of the tablet depends on weight, the software will be designed so it can transform the selected dose to an object in the selected shape with the right weight.
On the back of this Kickstarter campaign, FabRx plans to start studies with hospital patients in mid-2018, using the standard printer and beta-version of its modified software. The company plans to develop the first prototype of the printer and the modified software after feedback is garnered from the clinicians and patients in summer 2018. |
Chinese English language tutor ALO7 raises $37.5m in series D | China's ALO7 has raised $37.5m in series D funding for its English language learning products. ALO7, formerly known as Saybot, offers an online learning platform, which includes artificial intelligence-driven interactive materials and adaptive testing based on big data, as well as digital courseware and textbooks for schools. It will use the money to hire a large number of technical engineers to expedite an upgrade of its products and services. The investment was led by Legend Capital, with involvement from Qualcomm.
| http://www.finsmes.com/2017/11/alo7-receives-37-5m-in-series-d-financing.html | 2017-12-06 14:53:22.153000 | ALO7 (Formerly known as Saybot), a China-based English language learning product and services provider, receives $37.5 million in Series D financing round.
The round was led by Legend Capital with participation from GuoHe Capital and UG Investment and C-round investors Qualcomm, New Oriental, and Vickers Venture Partners.
This financing will be used to hire a large number of highly-skilled technical engineers to accelerate a dual upgrade of the company’s products and services.
Led by CEO Pengkai Pan, EVP Andrew Shewbart, ALO7 provides English language learning product and services which leverages technology that manages online and offline interactions between students, teachers, parents, and school administrators. Using smartphones, tablets, and PCs, users can access AI-driven interactive materials, in-depth reports on student progress, an online learning platform, and adaptive testing based on big data.
The company provides a primary-school digital courseware and textbook series, Genius English, and recently introduced Wise English, a program for middle schools, at the conference.
ALO7 was founded in the United States in 2004 by MIT PhD Pengkai Pan and his mentor, digital-media guru Nicholas Negroponte. In 2010, ALO7 joined the K12 English education market, focused on providing high-quality teaching products and services to schools.
FinSMEs
29/11/2017 |
Researchers at IIT Hyderabad develop way to recycle polystyrene | A new process can dissolve the polystyrene foam thermocol almost instantly without the need for heat, say scientists at IIT Hyderabad. Using orange peel extract, the researchers, led by Professor Chandra Shekhar Sharma from the Department of Chemical Engineering, found that the citrus extract could almost instantly dissolve the thermocol, which was then drawn into fibres. Thermocol usually takes centuries to dissolve; however, the scientists said the new method was a way to extend the lifecycle of thermocol rather than to make it biodegradable. | http://biofuelsdigest.com/nuudigest/2017/12/05/indian-researchers-report-polystyrene-recycling-breakthrough/ | 2017-12-06 14:13:06.767000 | In India, researchers at IIT Hyderabad have discovered a way to recycle the common polystyrene foam thermocol using citrus extract from orange peels.
Citrus extract was found to dissolve thermocol—which otherwise takes hundreds of years to biodegrade—almost instantly without added heat. The dissolved polystyrene is then drawn into fibers via wet-solution spinning.
The project is being led by Professor Chandra Shekhar Sharma from the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad and has received financial support from the Technology Development Board, Department of Science and Technology.
“Using the orange peel extract to dissolve polystyrene will not change the chemical composition, and so will not make polystyrene into a biodegradable product. What this process does is to extend the use and life cycle of polystyrene waste material,” says Professor Sharma tells The Hindu.
Only 12% of polystyrene waste gets recycled currently, and citrus peel waste is plentiful. A pilot-scale machine to demonstrate the process is currently being built.
More on the story. |
Burger King tests ways to hyper-localise outdoor advertising | Fast-food chain Burger King is analysing how outdoor ads that change dynamically to achieve the biggest sales impact have affected foot traffic at its London restaurants. Burger King used Wi-Fi engagement data in its stores to track customer numbers at particular times, and found dynamic ads promoting breakfast and midmorning products delivered increased visitor numbers during those periods. Speaking at Ad:tech London, vice-president of marketing Renato Rossi admitted the relationship between foot traffic data and restaurant sales wasn't yet clear, but said Burger King would be developing the test next year.
| https://digiday.com/marketing/burger-king-testing-dynamic-outdoor-ads-drive-store-visits/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171206 | 2017-12-06 13:48:32.210000 | Burger King is testing how its outdoor ads can be changed on the go to have the biggest sales impact.
The fast-food restaurant is wading through analytics for 30 different ads created by 360i and bought by Vizeum that ran on 100 billboards over the course of a week in October. Each billboard was near one of 13 Burger King restaurants across London, and the creative changed dynamically in response to time of day, proximity to a local event and the weather to push people to their nearest Burger King during quieter sales periods such as breakfast, snacking and late night.
Until recently, outdoor advertising hasn’t been able to quantify the audiences it has delivered. Over the last year, however, outdoor media owners such as JCDecaux, which worked with Burger King on the campaign, have started letting brands plan and buy more contextually to a targeted audience.
Burger King measured pre-, during- and post-campaign foot traffic using beacons installed in its restaurants to isolate the campaign’s impact on each location’s foot traffic. The beacons tracked the number of Wi-Fi engagements with Burger King diners as they entered stores, recording a cumulative number of increased visits tied to devices rather than personal information. For example, a series of ads promoted the restaurant’s breakfast and midmorning products and consequently delivered an increase in visitors to Burger King locations during those periods.
Burger King would not share further details about the test so soon after it had concluded. But Renato Rossi, Burger King’s vp of marketing in the U.K., told attendees at Ad:tech London earlier this month that the initial metrics had proven “streets can be a lot more connected to our digital environment.” Speaking to Digiday at the event, he admitted the mix of data on foot traffic and sales might not be the clearest attribution model but said it was a start to understanding the path to purchase from its outdoor ads. The business will evolve the model in 2018, he said.
“We’re not going to suddenly stop buying static ads. If we get the current [outdoor advertising] investment we do today and translate 100 percent of it in [digital-enabled outdoor ads], we would lose too much coverage, which we can’t afford,” Rossi added. “This isn’t yet a full migration from static to digital. Both will coexist for the coming years.”
At the start of 2017, just 2.5 percent of all digital out-of-home campaigns with JCDecaux ran dynamic ads, but by the end of the year, that percentage will have quadrupled, according to the media owner. In fact, 2017 will be the first year where revenue derived from digital will overtake static, traditional media at JCDecaux.
Rossi’s pragmatism aside, the marketer believes outdoor media can prompt direct action from people and become more accountable in the process. He and his team are considering buying impressions for dynamic billboards upfront that they can allocate over the course of the year to specific locations they want to try and increase sales to. Traditionally, a business like Burger King would have campaigns on a certain number of static panels per restaurant live all year, but there would be limited flexibility in how the media buy is matched to the specific needs of that location.
Outdoor media is Burger King’s second-biggest media outlay after TV, yet it’s one of the most restrictive channels, Rossi revealed. He added that having a static message on a billboard that can’t change for two weeks means those ads have reverted to “lowest common denominator” product promotions that are “attractive to the majority but not relevant to anyone.”
Image courtesy of Burger King. |
Time Out develops a conversational app for Google Assistant | City guide Time Out has developed a conversational assistant app for Google Assistant, which can be used on Android phones, iOS and Google Home devices. The app is built on Google's Dialogflow and enables users to find out what's happening in their city by asking questions such as, “what’s happening in London tonight?”. Time Out's assistant will also incorporate e-commerce deals with selected partners when it makes recommendations. Product development director Sanjay Vakil spoke of how Time Out wanted the assistant to "sound like your best friend in the city who knows what’s going on”.
| https://digiday.com/media/time-plans-use-google-home-grow-e-commerce-business/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171206 | 2017-12-06 13:33:50.473000 | City guide Time Out has developed a conversational app for Google Assistant, used in Android phones, iOS and Google Home devices, through which people can ask up to 100 questions about what to do in their city. People can ask questions like, “What’s a good bar to go to tomorrow?” “What’s happening in London tonight?” or “Where’s a good place to go for cocktails with the girls this weekend?” Time Out’s assistant responds with three suggestions chosen by the publisher’s editors.
In time, Time Out will incorporate e-commerce deals into the assistant. For instance, people could hear three different theater show options, one of which could have a discount available as part of a partnership with the publisher. Time Out’s app for Google Assistant went live last week and is only available in London for now.
“This is highly applicable to what we already do with local businesses,” said Christine Petersen, CEO of Time Out Digital. “We already have a pretty broad offering with local shops and restaurants. Audio will play into this; it will be a really important part of the ad toolkit that we offer.”
Aware of the limits of a business reliant solely on advertising, Time Out began focusing on growing e-commerce and affiliate relationships in 2016. In the first half of 2017, revenue from e-commerce was up by 51 percent from the same period in 2016, according to the company. ESI Media’s London news brand, London Evening Standard, is another publisher looking to incorporate offers from local business like theater ticket sales into its Amazon Echo Show skill.
As voice-activated platforms grow, publishers and brands are spending more time thinking about what their brand sounds like. The female British voice of Time Out’s assistant is one of Google’s rather than one the publisher recorded. After each suggestion, the assistant asks, “Are you keen?” a slightly more British way of asking questions, according to the company. The assistant understands and responds to a few other playful questions. For instance, if the user asks, “Where are you from?” the assistant responds with the opening rap from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
In early July, Time Out released an Amazon Alexa skill that delivers the top three things to do in a city, chosen by editors, but Time Out wanted to offer a skill that goes beyond the simple call-and-response model commonly found on the Echo and Google Home devices.
“We wanted this to be a human-focused project. We spent a lot of time in a room watching people ask questions to their phone,” said Sanjay Vakil, Time Out’s director of product development. “The rallying cry from our team was for it to sound like your best friend in the city who knows what’s going on, rather than a dumb robot.”
Vakil said Time Out’s app for Google Assistant took roughly three months of development work from a primary team of three people spending half their workday on the project, as well as input from dozens of editorial staffers to perfect the conversational tone. It was built on Google’s Dialogflow, which uses natural language processing to understand voice input.
While developing the assistant, the team worried about people asking it certain types of questions, including questions it would have no way of knowing, like the cost of tea in China. In this situation, the assistant provides a generic response. Another concern was when it doesn’t know the answer to what the user believes is a reasonable question, like, “What train will get me to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park?” In this instance, the assistant offers help, like sending directions or a map to the user’s phone. When the assistant doesn’t trust its answer because something has broken technically, it offers a humorous reply, like, “Sorry, I don’t have any ideas for that. I’m still new at this whole assistant thing. What else do you want to do?”
According to Vakil, the data Time Out gets from Google is limited to reams of text and anonymized information about the questions asked. But in time, Time Out will be able to infer information on what people are interested in knowing and when. For instance, the assistant could offer the top three local kebab shops late on a Saturday night.
“Voice is a channel that will grow, and we want to grow with it,” said Vakil. “We felt we were on the cutting edge because we weren’t asking questions like, ‘When is my flight due?’” |
Dutch designers 'bake' plastic from algae for 3D printers | Plastic made from plant material for use in 3D printers could replace oil-based materials, say Dutch designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dros. They created biopolymers using organic raw materials such as algae, fungi and potato starch. The pair want to see local biopolymer 3D print stores, or "3D bakeries", creating everything from furniture to water bottles. | https://www.dezeen.com/2017/12/04/dutch-designers-eric-klarenbeek-maartje-dros-convert-algae-biopolymer-3d-printing-good-design-bad-world/ | 2017-12-06 13:26:20.770000 | Dutch designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dros have developed a bioplastic made from algae, which they believe could completely replace fossil-derived plastics over time.
Working at Atelier Luma in France, Klarenbeek and Dros have cultivated aquatic algae, which they then dry and process into a material that can be used to 3D print objects.
The designers believe that the algae polymer could be used to make everything from shampoo bottles to tableware or rubbish bins, eventually entirely replacing plastics made from fossil fuels like oil.
They are among a host of designers using algae to create products that are more environmentally friendly than their synthetic counterparts, from fabric dyes and water bottles to chairs and even entire building facades.
As well as algae, Klarenbeek and Dros have created biopolymers from other organic raw materials such as mycelium, potato starch and cocoa bean shells, which they use to 3D print objects.
The studio's ultimate goal is to establish a local network of biopolymer 3D printers, called the 3D Bakery.
"Our idea is that in the future there will be a shop on every street corner where you can 'bake' organic raw materials, just like fresh bread," said Klarenbeek.
"You won't have to go to remote industrial estates to buy furniture and products from multinational chains. 3D printing will be the new craft and decentralised economy."
Both Design Academy Eindhoven graduates, Klarenbeek and Dros' research follows on from Klarenbeek's work with mycelium, which began six years ago and led to him developing the world's first 3D-printed chair using living fungus.
Since then, together with American company Ecovative, the studio has developed a commercial line of mycelium products called Krown. The DIY kits allow consumers to grow their own lamps, tables or biodegradable picnic items.
The designers believe their project offers a solution to the vast consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere when burnt to create materials like plastic. Scientists attribute rising CO2 levels to global warming.
"All around the world in recent decades, enormous amounts of fossil fuels – materials that lay buried in the ground for millions of years – have been extracted," said the designers.
"In this relatively brief period, a vast amount of carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere, with damaging consequences. It is therefore important that we clean the CO2 from the atmosphere as quickly as possible and this can be done by binding the carbon to biomass."
As a type of plant, algae absorbs carbon dioxide during the process known as photosynthesis, which it uses to create energy. Therefore, the designers are advocating the growth of algae to be used as a production material to help reduce global CO2 levels and prevent climate change.
"Everything that surrounds us – our products, houses and cars – can be a form of CO2 binding," they said. "If we think in these terms, makers can bring about a revolution. It's about thinking beyond the carbon footprint: instead of zero emissions we need 'negative' emissions."
After three years of research into algae with Wageningen University, Salga Seaweeds, Avans Biobased Lab in Breda and other institutions, Klarenbeek and Dros were invited to establish an open research and algae production lab at Atelier Luma in Arles.
"Algae is equally interesting for making biomass because it can quickly filter CO2 from the sea and the atmosphere," said the duo.
"The algae grow by absorbing the carbon and producing a starch that can be used as a raw material for bioplastics or binding agents. The waste product is oxygen, clean air."
Since February 2017, the pair has been splitting their time between their home and studio in a former paint factory on the River Zaan in Zaandam, the Netherlands, and the AlgaeLab at Atelier Luma in Arles, France.
In the lab, the duo cultivate the living algae, which they then dry and process into a material that can be used to 3D print objects.
The designers believe that the local algae polymer could be used to make everything from shampoo bottles to tableware or rubbish bins, eventually replacing fossil oil-based plastics entirely.
"Our ambition is to provide all restaurants and catered events in the city with tableware from the AlgaeLab," they said.
"We are currently using our 3D printers to produce the same design in Arles and in Zaandam, one from French algae and the other from Dutch seaweed."
"Both have exactly the same form, but they are made from local materials," the studio continued. "This is the change we believe in; designing products that are distributed via the internet but made locally."
"We don't want to grow into a large centralised organisation," added Klarenbeek, who believes that the 3D Bakery could be a reality within 10 years. "We want to change the system so that people grow raw materials locally that they can use to produce things that comply with their needs."
The duo's research is currently on show at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam as part of an exhibition called Change the System, curated by Annemartine van Kesteren.
For the duration of the exhibition, which runs until 14 January 2018, Klarenbeek and Dros are working on a new algae glass made from algae grown in the museums' pond. When enough algae is produced, it will be "harvested" and dried into a 3D printable material, which will then be used to produce a replica of a glass object from the museum's collection.
Van Kesteren presented this project as part of Dezeen's Good Design For A Bad World talks series at Dutch Design Week, which aimed to question whether designers can offer solutions to global issues.
The curator sees Klarenbeek and Dros' work as an important example of how a small project could be scaled up, to make a real difference to the world.
"According to Eric, if we dream big we need to find the solutions on a microscale," said Van Kesteren. "Algae are a miracle in his approach."
Photography is by Antoine Raab unless stated otherwise. |
NASA expects commercial space flights to meet safety standards | NASA has set stringent safety standards for the companies currently developing spacecrafts under its commercial crew vehicle programme. Boeing and SpaceX are both planning crewed and uncrewed test flights during 2018 as they work towards delivering operational vehicles for future NASA missions. The US space agency is requiring them to meet a 'loss of crew' standard based on the odds of an accident resulting in death or serious injury to the crew being no more than one in 270 flights for a 210-day mission. The standard is seen as challenging and requires additional progress before it is met.
| http://spacenews.com/nasa-expects-commercial-crew-providers-to-achieve-safety-requirements/ | 2017-12-06 12:47:19.577000 | WASHINGTON — As the two companies developing commercial crew vehicles prepare for test flights in the next 12 months, a NASA official said the agency expects those companies to be able to meet, or come close to, stringent safety requirements for those spacecraft.
At a Nov. 29 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee, Lisa Colloredo, deputy program manager for NASA’s commercial crew program, said Boeing and SpaceX were making good progress towards achieving a “loss of crew”, or LOC, requirement established by NASA at the beginning of the program.
The LOC requirement states that the odds of an accident killing or causing serious injury to a crewmember be no more than 1 in 270 flights for a 210-day mission at the International Space Station. That covers all aspects of the mission, including launch and reentry.
“We have a very difficult LOC requirement to meet, and we knew that when we going in,” Colloredo said. The 1-in-270 LOC requirement for commercial crew is more stringent than the 1-in-90 value at the end of the shuttle program. “I would say that we’ve made a lot of progress, and the providers have both done a lot of redesign work to improve their LOC numbers.”
Those changes, she said, include “more robustness” to the thermal protection systems on the spacecraft and additional parachute testing. “It’s served its purpose of getting the right look at the top drivers for LOC,” she said, including making design changes to improve those values.
Colloredo said she expected that both companies would meet the 1-in-270 LOC requirement, or come close enough that NASA would be willing to accept the vehicles as safe enough for its astronauts. “It’s pretty likely in the end that SpaceX and Boeing will come in with their evidence that they meet the requirement or close to it,” she said. Ultimately, she said, it will require NASA due diligence to either confirm they meet the requirement or be willing to accept a variance from the requirement in a specific area.
Another NASA committee has also monitored the ability of Boeing and SpaceX to meet the LOC requirement. At the October meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), committee members discussed the progress both companies were making on addressing key risk issues for their systems.
“The ASAP believes that NASA is judiciously continuing to address the risk drivers with the providers for the most serious scenarios through continued analysis, modeling, testing, and design development. It remains challenging,” the panel noted in the minutes from that meeting. “Nevertheless, the focus on worst case scenarios has driven positive design decisions for both providers, as well as other aspects such as increases in systems testing for some of the systems that carry notable risks.”
The biggest challenge, ASAP reported, was meeting micrometeoroid and orbital debris protection requirements. NASA was working to improve the modeling of the risks posed to those spacecraft from micrometeoroids and orbital debris through experiments mounted on the station as well as on Dragon cargo spacecraft.
At the NASA Advisory Council committee meeting, Colloredo said the LOC requirement was the biggest programmatic issue facing the overall program, but not the only one. She said NASA was assessing if it had included all the costs of various government-provided services for commercial crew missions. It was also working to ensure that search and rescue training for Air Force personnel supporting commercial crew launches would be ready in time for the first missions.
Both companies are working to schedules that call for both uncrewed and crewed test flights in 2018, although later in the year than previously planned. SpaceX is planning an uncrewed test of its Crew Dragon in April, previously scheduled for February. The crewed test flight is now planned for August, instead of June. Between the two flights will be an in-flight abort test.
Boeing’s uncrewed test flight of its CST-100 Starliner is now scheduled for August, two months later than previously planned. The crewed test flight has shifted from August to November, although the company said earlier this fall that the crewed test flight might slip into early 2019.
“We’re making a lot of progress with the providers,” Colloredo said. “We’re getting prepared for flight and we acknowledge that we have a lot of work ahead of us.” |
Mondelez to review media assignment after $200m spend | Food company Mondelez International, which spent $200m on measured media in the US last year, is reviewing its North American agency roster. The move follows reports the firm plans to make savings of $3bn in 2018. Mondelez's media portfolio -- which includes brands Cadbury, Ritz and Oreo -- is split between Carat, which handles Europe and Asia-Pacific, and Publicis Groupe's SMG.
| https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/311160/mondelez-launches-review-of-its-200-million-na-me.html | 2017-12-06 12:45:57.717000 | by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 5, 2017
Food and snack giant Mondelez International is conducting a review of its North American media agency assignment, the company has confirmed.
The company spent more than $200 million on measured media in the U.S. last year, according to Kantar Media.
Carat, part of Dentsu Aegis Network, has been the media agency incumbent for the company’s North America region since 2015, when Mondelez conducted a global review.
The firm then split the account between Carat and Publicis Groupe’s SMG. In addition to adding North America duties, Carat retained its Europe and Asia-Pacific assignments.
A Mondelez spokesperson confirmed “we are doing a review of our NA media roster, and Carat has been invited to participate in that process.”
The spokesperson emphasized the review is focused on North America media and noted “Carat continues to be a valued media partner to Mondelez International, supporting our business across a number of geographies around the world.”
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The firm had said earlier that it intends to cut some $3 billion in costs out of its budget by 2018.
I wonder how that will impact fees for whichever agency wins the review? Think maybe Mondelez will be paying a little less for NA media agency services going forward? Thaat would be my guess. Still, it's a huge account with iconic brands like Oreo, Cadbury and Ritz and most agencies would jump at the opportunity to handle it. |
Facebook suffers malware attacks as advertisers turn to Amazon | Dozens of politically charged ads containing malware have been found on Facebook by news organisation ProPublica, despite Facebook's attempts to prevent them. Once clicked, the malware infects users' computers and attempts to extract money through extortion or by selling false products. Meanwhile, Amazon's rich customer intent data and gigantic audience is helping the brand to be perceived as a strong contender to both Facebook and Google as an ad partner. Advertising giants Publicis and Omnicom are set to increase their Amazon ad spend by $800m in 2018, while WPP is pushing $200m of client spending towards Amazon next year.
| https://adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/malware-surfaces-facebook-ads-holding-companies-prepare-spend-big-amazon/ | 2017-12-06 12:41:11.377000 | Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Malware Blues
ProPublica found dozens of politically charged ads on Facebook that inject malware into consumers’ computers. The ads come with provocative headlines about hot-button political issues and targeted Facebook users likely to click based on political ideologies. Some ads caused computers to freeze with a warning and a phone number users could call to get it fixed for a price. Other ads linked to spoofed domains peddling free products that rope consumers into automatic credit card charges. All the ads, which have been removed from the platform, violated Facebook’s guidelines for advertising, clickbait, fraud and spam. “There is no tolerable amount of malware on the site,” Facebook ads VP Rob Goldman tells ProPublica. “The tolerance is zero, but unfortunately that’s not the same as zero occurrence.” More.
Enter The Triopoly
Google and Facebook, watch out: Holding companies are gearing up to spend big on Amazon in 2018. Publicis and Omnicom will increase their ad spend with the ecommerce giant to upward of $800 million next year, while WPP will direct $200 million of client spend to the platform, reports WSJ’s Alex Bruell. “We are absolutely leaning into Amazon as an ad partner and think there are big advantages to our clients,” said Kelly Clark, CEO of WPP’s GroupM. More. Agencies see Amazon’s huge audience and rich intent data as an opportunity to reach consumers with better-targeted ads. And there’s a fringe benefit in that Amazon’s rise may help check Facebook’s and Google’s power.
Dish CEO Charlie Ergen has stepped down from his role to focus on the company’s wireless business, Variety reports. President and COO Eric Carlson will take his place. Dish’s ambitions in wireless are big: The company has paid more than $11 billion to acquire wireless licenses and assets and invested an additional $10 billion worth of minority stakes in wireless companies. Ergen’s shift comes among a major shake-up of Dish’s senior management team, including former EVP of marketing, programmatic and media sales Warren Schlichting moving over to head Sling TV, Dish’s OTT network. More.
But Wait, There’s More!
You’re Hired! |
Tri Delta Transit switches to Neste MY Renewable Diesel | Tri Delta Transit, a County Transit Authority in California has retrofitted its entire fleet of buses to run exclusively on Neste MY Renewable Diesel. Produced from 100% renewable and sustainable raw materials, the renewable diesel cuts emissions by 80%. | http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/12/tri-delta-transit-to-use-neste-biodiesel | 2017-12-06 12:35:27.197000 | Tri Delta transit to use Neste biodiesel
Tri Delta Transit, an Eastern Contra Costa County Transit Authority in California, has switched their entire fleet of transit buses from operating on petroleum diesel to using only Neste MY Renewable Diesel.
Neste MY Renewable Diesel is a low-carbon fuel, produced from 100% renewable and sustainable raw materials. This innovative fuel cuts greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% and significantly reduces tailpipe emissions, all while enhancing fleet performance. Neste MY Renewable Diesel is a drop-in alternative to petroleum diesel and is distributed via the same fuel infrastructure.
Tri Delta Transit provides more than 3,000,000 trips each year to a population of more than 250,000 residents in the 225 square mi of Eastern Contra Costa County.
They operate 14 local bus routes Monday–Friday, four local bus routes on weekends, door-to-door bus service for senior citizens and people with disabilities, and shuttle services to community events.
Related News
From the Archive |
ISS study to examine whether space is a cultural wasteland | Canadian scientists are researching the way astronauts interact with each other on the international space station (ISS) to see if a shared "space culture" is emerging. The study is being led by Dr Phyllis Johnson of the University of British Columbia, and is the first psychosocial study of the subject. Participating astronauts give their views before, during and after their missions, during which they are also encouraged to take photographs to illustrate their daily lives. The research could help understand the challenges that will face space travellers on future long missions away from Earth.
| http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/first-ever-study-analyzing-space-culture-underway-1.4425000 | 2017-12-06 12:27:54.137000 | In space, no one can hear you scream — unless you're cheering for your favourite hockey team.
Life on the International Space Station (ISS) bears a lot of similarities to life on Earth. There's Wi-Fi, cable, and even Halloween costume parties. It's all meant to help astronauts feel at home while they're floating 400 kilometres above sea level.
But for the first time, Canadian researchers are examining how rocket men and women adapt to life in the cosmos during long-term space missions — and it could have wider implications for space travel beyond the moon.
"We're looking at how astronauts from a variety of cultures and nationalities live together on the space station and possibly create a shared culture," said Dr. Phyllis Johnson, a UBC-based researcher and principal investigator of the study.
"A space culture might develop."
Welcome to the spookiest space station. Spiderman has no problem scaling the walls in space. Happy Halloween <a href="https://t.co/V7JXKsbjxl">pic.twitter.com/V7JXKsbjxl</a> —@Space_Station
At Home in Space
The project is called At Home in Space, and it's billed as the first ever psychosocial study of astronauts on the International Space Station.
Researchers aim to figure out how astronauts make themselves feel at home while aboard the space station, and uncover the cultural norms that emerge within the confines of an isolated spacecraft.
"We're also interested in seeing how living in space has changed their particular lives," said Johnson.
Astronauts complete a series of questionnaires before, during and after their months-long stay in the great beyond, and are also encouraged to take photos that accurately depict 'life in space'.
.<a href="https://twitter.com/astro_paolo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Astro_Paolo</a> ‘s “Spidey-sense” is definitely tingling as he perches on the ceiling of the <a href="https://twitter.com/Space_Station?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Space_Station</a> Russian segment Service Module. <a href="https://t.co/SGm5iDyfvS">pic.twitter.com/SGm5iDyfvS</a> —@AstroKomrade
Space culture
Johnson expects that a unique 'space culture' might exist on the space station — a way of life that many astronauts come to identify with during their time in orbit.
"Maybe there are things like space traditions that are important to them," said Johnson.
Johnson points to Yuri Gagarin Day, an annual celebration held on the ISS every April 12 that honours the first manned trip to outer space, as a notable cultural event that's unique to astronauts.
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel into space, hits the headline of the US paper "The Huntsville Times" on April 12, 1961 after oribiting Earth aboard the Vostok I spaceship. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read /AFP/Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)
"They could have space traditions that they celebrate. Do they mount mission patches? Change of command ceremonies? Those would be certain kinds of things that would relate to space — but we don't know how important they are to them."
Long-term implications
Johnson says understanding how astronauts adjust to the new living environment could be the key to planning for longer-term manned missions like the seemingly inevitable voyage to Mars.
"How are they adjusting to this new environment? How do people cope with potential isolation? How do they make it interesting in their lives? How do they keep carrying out their work, and enjoying their work?"
NASA currently plans on sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. The journey would take years for travellers, with very limited contact to the outside world.
Johnson hopes the results of her study could enhance travel conditions for those voyagers.
"If you're going to to go somewhere and be somewhere for a long period of time, and not have as much contact with your normal experiences on Earth, then we need to know how people do it, and what makes it a good experience for them."
Researchers hope to complete the study by 2020. |
Ads.txt seen defeating domain fraud but exposing new problems | The near-universal adoption of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Ads.txt may have tackled the issue of domain spoofing, but other problems have emerged, Ian Hewetson, VP of client services at Eyereturn Marketing wrote. Hewetson pointed to examples of mishandled implementation and ID errors that had exposed a host of new issues. Demand-side verification and good-old-fashioned communication had been required in the cases to avoid similar problems, he said.
| https://adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/tales-ads-txt-trenches/ | 2017-12-06 12:12:13.263000 | “ The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.
Today’s column is written by Ian Hewetson, vice president of client services at Eyereturn Marketing.
Forget this summer’s solar eclipse. We’re witnessing something far more unusual right now: the universal endorsement of a single system in the ad tech world, the adoption of Ads.txt.
Ads.txt truly is an elegantly simple, universally accessible solution to a problem that’s bedeviled the industry for far too long. But in the rollout excitement, a few subtle issues are emerging that may have outsize effects on buyers and sellers without the right level of oversight.
Ads.txt solves a single problem: domain spoofing. This is where someone creates a fraudulent site and passes the false domain to the supply-side platform (SSP), which sends the false domain to a demand-side platform (DSP), which bids on it.
Advertisers suffer because they’re not buying New York Times inventory. The New York Times suffers because the fake NYT inventory undercuts its pricing. And the reputation of ad tech suffers for allowing this to continue.
On the surface, Ads.txt is very simple. Publishers place a text file on their site, which only they can do. The text file states which sellers represent that site. DSPs create databases matching buyers and sellers. When a DSP sees an impression being offered by a seller not listed on the site’s Ads.txt file, it can reject that bid. If DSPs only buy Ads.txt inventory, they’re inoculating themselves against buying spoofed domains.
Though this is simple, the devil can be in the details. In the course of an Ads.txt rollout, it became clear that a lack of communication between publishers and SSPs could break the system. Critically, the only party that can really identify these breakdowns is the DSP.
For example, we saw one instance where a publisher had implemented its Ads.txt file for two major sellers. It contacted both sellers to ensure that it was done correctly so that its inventory would be surfaced by those sellers as Ads.txt-verified. Both sellers confirmed that all was good, which the publisher took at face value.
Except all was not good. In both cases, the publisher’s inventory was not being seen by buyers as Ads.txt-compliant.
For the first seller, the Ads.txt protocol was outside the general standard. This seller uses multiple legitimate paths to sale, and the Ads.txt setup is rather convoluted, requiring distinct domains for different types of inventory. Strike 1: The publisher failed to interpret the specs correctly and implemented Ads.txt incorrectly. Strike 2: The seller looked at the implementation and declared it to be valid when it was not.
In the case of the second seller, the Ads.txt setup was very straightforward, and the publisher implemented it correctly. But it appears the seller was not passing the publisher ID on the bid request, resulting in a mismatch, which stops any bidding on this inventory. In this case too, the publisher reached out to the seller, but the last I heard, the issue was still unresolved.
Both issues only came to light during Ads.txt testing of my company’s DSP when we checked Ads.txt compliance on our top 1,000 domains. Having a relationship with this publisher and not seeing its inventory as approved, we contacted it and helped with the investigation.
When we first raised the flag, the publisher initially assured us that its implementation was golden because both of its sellers had verified that it was. It took some actual investigation and collaboration to figure out the issue.
What we’ve taken away from the experience is that Ads.txt is a great solution to the problem of spoofed domains. What we’ve also discovered is that it’s subject to a wide variety of missteps on the implementation side, and these missteps can slip through multiple hands unless verification is done on the demand side.
If you’re a publisher reading this and you’ve noticed any decline in demand since implementing Ads.txt, you should check with your DSP to make sure your implementation is correct. And if you’re on the demand side and not seeing specific inventory sources, give those publishers a call.
We’re all in this together, and while it’s a programmatic world, sometimes it takes some real-world collaboration to get the job done right.
Follow Eyereturn (@EyereturnMktg) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter. |
Google moon-shot competitors seek funding to stay in contention | Two teams competing in the Google Lunar X Prize moon-shot challenge face the prospect of pulling the plug on their projects due to a lack of funding. Israeli non-profit SpaceIL, which is developing a lunar lander, has already raised $55m but needs $30m more to complete the project. Indian outfit Team Indus, whose lander supports a Japanese entrant's rover, is said to require $35m, half its mission's total costs, and plans to start crowdfunding in the coming weeks.
| http://spacenews.com/google-lunar-x-prize-teams-make-last-ditch-fundraising-appeals/ | 2017-12-06 11:40:52.820000 | WASHINGTON — With less than four months remaining in the competition, two of the remaining teams in the Google Lunar X Prize are seeking to raise tens of millions of dollars to complete their spacecraft.
In a Nov. 29 statement, Israeli team SpaceIL said it needed to raise $20 million by the end of the year, from both the public as well as the Israeli government, or else it would be forced to cancel the entire mission.
“We are at a critical turning point in the project’s life cycle. Within approximately two weeks we will complete the construction of the spacecraft and will be able to proceed to the testing phase,” Eran Privman, chief executive of SpaceIL, said in a statement. “Regretfully, if we fail to raise $20 million immediately, we will be unable to continue, and seven years of pioneering Israeli development and much hard work will be wasted.”
The total SpaceIL needs to raise is $30 million, Privman said in the statement. Morris Kahn, a former chairman of the board of SpaceIL who has previously contributed $18 million to the project, said he will provide $10 million if the team can raise the other $20 million.
SpaceIL, a non-profit organization, has relied on a philanthropic model to fund its entry into the competition. SpaceIL has raised $55 million to date, including contributions by Kahn as well as the Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Foundation. The organization has sought to develop a lunar lander as part of an educational outreach effort to encourage the country’s students to pursue careers in science and engineering.
The lander is being built and tested by Israel Aerospace Industries. SpaceIL has a launch contract through Spaceflight Industries to fly the lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission, which SpaceIL said in its statement “is expected in the coming year.”
However, SpaceIL and the four other finalists in the Google Lunar X Prize competition have only a few months left to send their spacecraft to the moon in order to win the $20 million grand prize. The competition has set a deadline of March 31, 2018, for teams to complete their missions, which includes landing on the moon, traveling at least 500 meters across its surface, and returning high-resolution video and other data.
SpaceIL is not the only team making a last-ditch fundraising effort. An Indian team, Team Indus, is reportedly seeking to raise $35 million — half the mission’s total cost — to cover its final development and launch costs. A team official told the Indian newspaper The Hindu Dec. 4 that it would start a crowdfunding effort “in the next couple of weeks,” along with sponsorship and other efforts, to raise that funding.
Team Indus plans to launch its lander, which will carry a rover for another team, Japan’s Team Hakuto, on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. That rocket’s return to flight from an August launch failure has been delayed until early January, and the team has not specified where in the queue of missions they are after that launch. Complicating matters are plans by India’s space agency, ISRO, to launch its own lunar orbiter and lander mission, Chandrayaan-2, in March 2018 on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.
Team Hakuto, run by Japanese space resources company ispace, has completed its rover and does not require additional funding. Moon Express, a U.S. company that is also a finalist, said earlier this year a $20 million funding round gave the company enough money to complete and launch its entry in the competition. Moon Express has not announced a launch date for that lander, which will fly on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. That rocket will make a second test flight as soon as Dec. 7 from the company’s New Zealand launch site, and if successful will be ready to enter commercial service.
Moon Express, which plans a series of commercial lunar landers in the next several years, has more recently downplayed the importance of winning the prize. The company states on its website that on its first mission “we will attempt to win the $20M Google Lunar XPRIZE, if available,” but only after completing operations for paying customers on that mission.
The fifth finalist in the competition, Synergy Moon, has released few details about the status of its funding efforts, development of its lander or the untried launch vehicle it intends to use to launch the mission. |
Ad industry groups passing buck on data protection responsibility | Smaller companies within the advertising industry face collapse as ad agencies, publishers and tech vendors try to pass the buck on compliance with forthcoming data-protection laws. Anonymous insiders have warned the bigger firms with more clout will be able to impose their indemnification demands, but smaller outlets may struggle if they're slapped with stiff fines under the General Data Protection Regulation. That could lead to consolidation within the industry. Todd Ruback, chief privacy officer at Evidon, said: "Indemnification and liability is becoming the hot potato, getting passed from company to company." | https://digiday.com/media/gdpr-will-lead-scramble-pass-off-liability-others/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=171206 | 2017-12-06 11:35:04.343000 | When it comes to the General Data Protection Regulation, it’s a dog-eat-dog world.
For many in digital media, that will mean a giant game of hot potato, as clients want agencies to assume risks, while agencies insist publishers assume them, and publishers then do the same to tech vendors. It’s hard to blame everyone from running away from responsibility: Maximum fines of €20 million ($24 million) or 4 percent of annual revenue are at stake.
In an effort to dodge the GDPR-fine hot potato, agency groups are tweaking contracts to ensure any risk gets passed back down the supply chain to the data source, putting ad tech vendors and publishers closer to the line of fire. Publishers themselves aren’t standing still either, calling their biggest ad tech suppliers and demanding they agree to compensate them if the publisher is fined for something that happens on the ad tech vendor’s watch.
Under the GDPR, businesses that are defined as “data controllers” are most liable for fines, as they are the source of the consumer data. That means publishers in particular are in the line of fire, as are advertisers that operate websites with first-party customer data. Ad tech vendors can be a mix of data controllers and data processors, but either way, they’ll also be expected to gain consumer consent for using both publishers’ and advertisers’ data.
Publishers on either side of the Atlantic are renegotiating contracts with ad tech vendors that guarantee the publisher will get compensation should it be fined for something the vendor has caused, while also demanding the vendor prove they’re GDPR-ready. They’d be crazy not to. “Ad tech vendors can’t hide in the herd anymore but must get their houses in GDPR order fast,” said Todd Ruback, chief privacy officer and vp of legal affairs at marketing analytics company Evidon.
But the buck doesn’t stop there. The biggest ad tech vendors are in turn pushing their own GDPR-specific contracts further downstream to their own subcontractors. “Indemnification and liability is becoming the hot potato, getting passed from company to company,” Ruback said. “It’s getting very complex.” Smaller ad tech vendors won’t necessarily have the funds to cope with paying compensation to publishers should they be found in breach, which will lead to consolidation in the ad tech market, he added.
Meanwhile, agency groups are also trying to cover their backs, updating contracts to push the liability back to the data source, which ultimately is the publisher. Sequential liability has long been a standard part of agency-client contracts. It’s there as a backstop for agencies, so if a client fails to pay up, the agency can then refuse to pay the media owner that supplied the inventory. It’s only recently that they’ve started writing in GDPR sequential liability — an approach that’s angered some in the market, who believe agencies should take more responsibility for isolating how and where data is shared in their own supply chain in preparation for the GDPR, not just push back on the publishers. Others believe agencies will try to bury the new terms in 2018 trading deals with publishers.
“This is just another example of the buy side raping and pillaging the sell side,” said an ad tech exec who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The smart publishers will be savvy to it, but most will be resigned to it because agencies have the buying power, and publishers need the money.”
While agencies with the most leverage and buying power can more easily dictate GDPR contractual terms with publishers, publishers with the most clout will be able to make indemnification demands of vendors, and the biggest vendors will be able to do the same with smaller vendors. When it comes to GDPR readiness, size will likely matter a lot.
But the skirting of liability from either end of the supply chain can’t last. “There is a collision happening. But the market will eventually right itself,” Ruback said. “If agencies want to do business with publishers and publishers want to do business with agencies, they’ll have to come to some kind of middle ground about liability.” |
Super-telescope ESPRESSO begins search for new stellar bodies | The first observations have been made using a groundbreaking new telescope that's hoped to detect the tiniest of distant planets. The Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) lens, installed on the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile will, for the first time, enable scientists to study the light detected by multiple observatories. It can measure velocities of light up to the precision of a few centimetres per second, making it easier to search for new stellar bodies. ESPRESSO will also be able to test whether nature's physical constants have changed.
| http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1739/?lang | 2017-12-06 11:30:10.863000 | eso1739 — Organisation Release
First Light for ESPRESSO — the Next Generation Planet Hunter
The Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) has successfully made its first observations. Installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, ESPRESSO will search for exoplanets with unprecedented precision by looking at the minuscule changes in the light of their host stars. For the first time ever, an instrument will be able to sum up the light from all four VLT telescopes and achieve the light collecting power of a 16-metre telescope.
ESPRESSO has achieved first light on ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile [1]. This new, third-generation echelle spectrograph is the successor to ESO’s hugely successful HARPS instrument at the La Silla Observatory. HARPS can attain a precision of around one metre per second in velocity measurements, whereas ESPRESSO aims to achieve a precision of just a few centimetres per second, due to advances in technology and its placement on a much bigger telescope.
The lead scientist for ESPRESSO, Francesco Pepe from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, explains its significance: “This success is the result of the work of many people over 10 years. ESPRESSO isn’t just the evolution of our previous instruments like HARPS, but it will be transformational, with its higher resolution and higher precision. And unlike earlier instruments it can exploit the VLT’s full collecting power — it can be used with all four of the VLT Unit Telescopes at the same time to simulate a 16-metre telescope. ESPRESSO will be unsurpassed for at least a decade — now I am just impatient to find our first rocky planet!”
ESPRESSO can detect tiny changes in the spectra of stars as a planet orbits. This radial velocity method works because a planet’s gravitational pull influences its host star, causing it to “wobble” slightly. The less massive the planet, the smaller the wobble, and so for rocky and possibly life-bearing exoplanets to be detected, an instrument with very high precision is required. With this method, ESPRESSO will be able to detect some of the lightest planets ever found [2].
The test observations included observations of stars and known planetary systems. Comparisons with existing HARPS data showed that ESPRESSO can obtain similar quality data with dramatically less exposure time.
Instrument scientist Gaspare Lo Curto (ESO) is delighted: “Bringing ESPRESSO this far has been a great accomplishment, with contributions from an international consortium as well as many different groups within ESO: engineers, astronomers and administration. They had to not just install the spectrograph itself, but also the very complex optics that bring the light together from the four VLT Unit Telescopes.”
Although the main goal of ESPRESSO is to push planet hunting to the next level, finding and characterising less massive planets and their atmospheres, it also has many other applications. ESPRESSO will also be the world’s most powerful tool to test whether the physical constants of nature have changed since the Universe was young. Such tiny changes are predicted by some theories of fundamental physics, but have never been convincingly observed.
When ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope comes on line, the instrument HIRES, which is currently under conceptual design, will enable the detection and characterisation of even smaller and lighter exoplanets, down to Earth-like planets, as well as the study of exoplanet atmospheres with the prospect of the detection of signatures of life on rocky planets.
Notes
[1] ESPRESSO was designed and built by a consortium consisting of: the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Geneva and University of Bern, Switzerland; INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste and INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy; Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain; Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto and Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal; and ESO. The co-principal investigators are Francesco Pepe (University of Geneva, Switzerland), Stefano Cristiani (INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Italy), Rafael Rebolo (IAC, Tenerife, Spain) and Nuno Santos (Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco, Universidade do Porto, Portugal).
[2] The radial velocity method allows astronomers to measure the mass and orbit of the planet. Combined with other methods such as the transit method, more information can be inferred — for example, the size and density of the exoplanet. The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory hunts for exoplanets in this way.
More information
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and by Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.
Links
Contacts
Francesco Pepe
University of Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
Email: [email protected]
Stefano Cristiani
INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
Trieste, Italy
Email: [email protected]
Nuno Santos
Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço and Universidade do Porto
Porto, Portugal
Email: [email protected]
Rafael Rebolo
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Tenerife, Spain
Email: [email protected]
Gaspare Lo Curto
ESO
Garching, Germany
Email: [email protected]
Richard Hook
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: [email protected]
Connect with ESO on social media |
Relativity Space uses 3D printing to manufacture launch vehicles | A small California-based start-up plans to use 3D printing techniques to manufacture space launch vehicles. Relativity Space believes its Stargate 3D printer, which it claims is the world's largest, will facilitate a production cycle that would go from raw materials to flight-ready rocket within 60 days. The first will be the Terran 1, a two-stage rocket capable of placing up to 1,250 kg into low Earth orbit, launching tentatively in 2021. Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis notes that printing an entire rocket makes sense long term as “the inevitable conclusion of that technology". | http://spacenews.com/relativity-space-aims-to-3d-print-entire-launch-vehicles/ | 2017-12-06 11:25:56.547000 | This article originally appeared as “A relativistic shift in launch vehicle manufacturing” in the Nov. 20 issue of SpaceNews Magazine
There’s no question that additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, has become an important technology in the aerospace industry. A growing number of companies are using the technology to make components for satellites and launch vehicles that are lighter or less expensive than if they were made with conventional techniques, if they could be made at all.
One company is taking that technology to an extreme — or, in its view, to a logical conclusion. Relativity Space, a startup based in Los Angeles that only recently emerged from stealth mode, plans to use 3D printing to produce entire launch vehicles, an approach it claims can be more cost effective than traditional manufacturing techniques.
For Tim Ellis, the mid-20s chief executive and co-founder of the company, printing an entire rocket simply makes sense. “It was really just looking at what was the inevitable conclusion of that technology,” he said in a recent interview. “Looking further into the future, it became obvious to us. We view it as autonomous manufacturing.”
By being able to manufacture a rocket with 3D printing, vehicles can be built faster and less expensively because far less human labor is needed. It also allows the company to revise vehicle designs quickly, without sunk costs in tooling tied to certain designs.
That requires advances in 3D-printing technology. Relativity has developed Stargate, which it claims is the largest 3D printer in the world that uses metals, in this case a proprietary alloy. “We have to develop this new process ourselves from scratch,” he said. “We have to make the technology itself. But, we believe that once it actually exists, it will be much faster to scale up and produce rockets at scale.” The company’s goal is to go from raw material to a rocket ready for flight within 60 days.
In other fields, 3D printing enables the creation of parts that would be difficult, if not impossible, to manufacture with ordinary techniques. The same will be true with launch vehicles, Relativity believes.
“The launch vehicle that we’re going to be flying is going to look totally different from those that are traditionally manufactured,” Ellis claimed. “You get much more organic structures than you normally get. The shapes and forms of what comes out of the printer, and what the launch vehicles look like, will be significantly different.”
Relativity’s 3D-printed Aeon 1 engine, shown on the test stand at NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, is designed to produce 15,000 pounds of thrust. (Relativity Space)
He gave few specifics about how that would work, but did give one example. “A far fewer part count is a real advantage,” he said. “You get more highly integrated components that look very, very complex, but there are fewer of them. The complexity is driven by software, so you end up with these more organic-looking shapes that are more efficient.”
While the company has been developing technologies to 3D print launch vehicles, it has also been working on an engine for it. The Aeon 1 engine, powered by methane and liquid oxygen and producing more than 15,000 pounds-force of thrust, has undergone tests at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The Space Act Agreement between NASA and Relativity for those tests was one of the few hints of the company’s activities while the company was in stealth.
“It simplifies a lot of the vehicle architecture,” Ellis said of the choice of propellants. That combination allows for what’s known as “autogenous” pressurization, where the propellants in effect self-pressurize, eliminating the need for helium bottles and plumbing to pressurize the tanks.
The company plans to initially put those technologies together into a rocket called Terran 1. The two-stage rocket will have nine Aeon 1 engines in its first stage and one in its second. It will be capable of placing up to 1,250 kilograms into low Earth orbit.
That payload capacity falls into a gap in the market. It’s much larger than the crop of small launch vehicles under development designed for payloads of no more than a few hundred kilograms, such as Rocket Lab’s Electron or Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne. But it’s far smaller than the large vehicles in development or operation by companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.
Ellis said he sees Terran 1 as well suited to support the small satellite constellations under development. “We’ve had a lot of private conversations with potential customers who are showing a lot of interest in this payload class,” he said, not naming any specific companies. “We see that payload class being a sweet spot for constellation launch, whether it’s deployment or resupply of them.”
He added that, with the flexibility 3D printing provides to change designs, the company can resize the vehicle to meet market demands better than other vehicles. “Their plans change,” he said of constellation developers, “so we want to be a good partner with them while they’re defining their plans.”
Terran 1 is still several years away from its first flight. Relativity’s current schedule calls for a first launch in early 2021. That timeline, significantly longer than many other vehicles under development, is driven by the new technology needed to make the rocket, Ellis said.
Relativity is still a small, young company. It currently has 14 employees, many of whom are veterans of larger NewSpace companies including Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin, where Ellis worked before starting Relativity. The company is starting to hire more engineers — it expects to have 40 to 50 employees by the end of 2018 — which was one of the reasons why it decided now to open up about its technology and its plans.
That hiring is a mix of both aerospace engineers and those with 3D printing backgrounds, said Jordan Noone, Relativity’s chief technology officer and its other co-founder. “Aerospace engineers are some of the best cross-talent engineers out there,” he said, in terms of the broad range of issues they deal with.
The company has raised a little more than $10 million to date. That includes a seed round from Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley business incubator, and billionaire Mark Cuban. It later raised a Series A round led by venture capital firm Social Capital.
Ellis acknowledged the company will need to raise more money to fund both its technology development as well as the introduction of the Terran 1 rocket. “We’re always interested in talking with investors and partners to help with the financing,” he said, but wouldn’t say how much the company will need in the coming years.
Will all the emphasis on 3D printing technologies, though, it raises the question: is Relativity a space company using 3D printing as an enabling technology, or a 3D printing company that sees launch vehicles is the first of many markets?
“There’s no question that if you can fully automate and print a rocket, it’s applicable to a lot of the aerospace industry,” he said. The company is looking into other uses of those printers, although Ellis declined to discuss any specific examples. “But yes,” he said, “the technology is generalizable.”
However, Ellis made clear that Relativity is interested in 3D printing as a means to an end that involves a familiar destination for space enthusiasts. “We have a long-term vision of 3D printing a rocket on Mars,” he said. “That’s been part of the company since day one. It was actually the headline of our Y Combinator application.”
He said there was just one other company he knew of that had a core mission of going to Mars. He didn’t mention it by name, but SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk, have long emphasized the goal of establishing a human presence on Mars. “We’re the second company saying this is want we want to go do this,” he said. “We’re building a part of the colonization process that no one else is really focusing on as their core technology.”
Could that mean rockets built — or, rather, printed — by Relativity will one day be launching people to Mars? “Not yet,” Ellis said. “How that ends up happening we’ll talk about later. |
Space Debris Sensor studies impact of small objects in low orbit | NASA scientists are set to learn more about the damage caused to the International Space Station by microdebris in Earth's low orbit with the deployment of the Space Debris Sensor (SDS). The one-metre-square device will measure the speed and density of particles between 1mm and 10cm, as well as the effects of their impact. Should the SDS perform well, scientists could extend their field of study to areas where there is even more debris.
| http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/nasa-sensor-study-space-junk-too-small-be-seen-earth | 2017-12-06 11:13:15.553000 | The film Gravity dramatized the risks of space junk. But although flyaway wrenches and broken-off rocket parts may pose the deadliest threat to spacecraft, most orbital debris is actually much smaller—think flecks of paint and the splinters of shattered satellites. Now, NASA hopes to learn more about the dust-size microdebris orbiting Earth with the Space Debris Sensor (SDS), set to be attached to the International Space Station (ISS) following a 4 December cargo launch by SpaceX.
Using ground-based radars, the U.S. Air Force keeps track of about 23,000 objects larger than a baseball, so satellite operators can avoid collisions by maneuvering out of the way. But much less is known about smaller debris, says Brian Weeden, director of program planning for Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit focused on space sustainability, in Washington, D.C. The SDS will study objects smaller than a millimeter—and at high speeds they can still cause real damage, Weeden says. "If a satellite is in orbit for 10 or 15 years, those little abrasions can have an impact by degrading sensors or degrading materials on the satellite," he says.
NASA previously studied microdebris by inspecting the windows and radiators of space shuttles, which returned to Earth pockmarked with tiny impacts. "A detailed ground inspection could estimate what sizes the objects were that impacted it, but there's limited information you can get out of that," says Joseph Hamilton, an orbital debris scientist and SDS principal investigator at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
After it's mounted to the ISS, the new sensor will offer a better handle on the true microdebris population. The 1-square-meter detector on the SDS contains layers of thin sensors embedded within a mesh of fine wires. When debris strikes the surface of the SDS, it will break a number of these wires, which correlate to the particle's size. Damage to layers beneath gives a sense of particle speeds and trajectories. The back plate will measure the intensity of the impact, helping scientists estimate the object's density.
With these data, scientists can determine the particles' orbits, which provide clues to their origins. An elliptical orbit, for instance, suggests that a particle is a natural micrometeoroid, whereas a circular orbit implies that it probably sloughed off a satellite. And by getting a more accurate estimate of the microdebris population, scientists can extrapolate and better predict the populations of objects larger than 1 millimeter, but smaller than 10 centimeters. These objects can cause more significant damage to spacecraft, but are still too small to be tracked by radar, Hamilton says.
The SDS, which will orbit at the ISS's altitude of about 400 kilometers, is considered a technology demonstration. If successful, future missions could study microdebris at altitudes in the 700- 1000–kilometer range, a more congested area of space where even less is known. The findings could help satellite designers develop better shielding, whereas improved models of the microdebris population could help them find an orbit where space dust is less of a problem.
Some companies have sensed opportunities in studying space junk. Astroscale, a private satellite services company based in Singapore, developed a 22-kilogram microsatellite called IDEA OSG 1 that was to study debris at these higher altitudes between 600 and 800 kilometers. On 28 November, it was one of many satellites launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket that failed to reach its target orbit, and is presumed to be lost. Before the launch, Astroscale Chief Operating Officer Chris Blackerby, based in Tokyo, said the company was seeking opportunities to share the data collected by the satellite through agreements with government agencies or private organizations. Astroscale did not respond to requests for comment about the Russian rocket failure. |