New Zealand visit indicated live sheep, fresh water

Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal’s rapid reversal of fortune in recent months is conclusive proof that money cannot buy you friends and most definitely not influential ones.

From Bill Gates through to such media honchos as Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg, the prince’s pals and associates have been characterised by their silence on the prince’s undeniably serious plight.

Not a peep either from former New Zealand prime minister John Key who we picture meeting the prince in Riyadh officially to push the New Zealand cause.

Jan 23, 2018  -  A $45 million new food spray dryer is being planned for Food Waikato at Waikato Innovation Park, to cope with an increase in demand from the sheep milk industry.  The existing open access development spray dryer, which came online just five years ago, is already at capacity, says Waikato Innovation Park CEO Stuart Gordon.

Jan 22, 2018  -  Some of the girls wear hijabs, others are barefoot and the sandy pitch is marked out in charcoal. But the 14 players could be Ghana's rugby stars of the future.  One of them, Maimuna Dawda, used to watch matches on television before she got the chance to hold the oval ball for herself in 2016. Now, the 14-year-old plays three games of short-format seven-a-side every week at the Kanda Cluster of Schools that she attends in the capital, Accra.

Jan 22, 2018  - Innovative New Zealand ISP Wireless Nation is launching an asset locating tracker whichcould save thousands of dollars for many businesses and individuals.  The Fox Tracker is a small device which connects to the global Sigfox network being rolled out throughout New Zealand.  The network is specifically designed to enable Internet of Things devices because it draws far less energy from connected devices than traditional networks.

Jan 20, 2018  -  The concrete contains a fungus that produces calcium carbonate when exposed to water and oxygen.  If cracks in concrete can be fixed when they're still tiny, then they can't become large cracks that ultimately cause structures such as bridges to collapse. It is with this in mind that various experimental types of self-healing concrete have been developed in recent years. One of the latest utilizes a type of fungus to do the healing.

Inspired by the human body's ability to heal itself, the concrete was created by Congrui Jin, Guangwen Zhou and David Davies from New York's Binghamton University, along with Ning Zhang from Rutgers University. It incorporates spores of the fungus Trichoderma reesei, along with nutrients, that are placed within the concrete matrix as it's being mixed.

Once the concrete has hardened, the spores remain dormant until the first micro-cracks appear. When they do, water and oxygen find their way in. This causes the spores to germinate, grow, and precipitate calcium carbonate, which in turn seals the cracks.

"When the cracks are completely filled and ultimately no more water or oxygen can enter inside, the fungi will again form spores," says assistant professor Jin. "As the environmental conditions become favorable in later stages, the spores could be wakened again."

The research is still in the early stages, however, so don't go looking for the fungi concrete in a structure near you anytime soon. In the meantime, however, scientists from both Newcastle University and the University of Bath have been developing self-healing concrete that incorporates calcium carbonate-producing bacteria.

A paper on the Binghamton research was recently published in the journal Construction and Building Materials.

Source: Binghamton University  and New Atlas    ||  January 20, 2019   |||

 MP intercepted University takeover of trade and craft training with re-vamped real economy scheme.

Parliamentarian Jim Anderton’s enduring legacy was the official restoration of trade apprenticeships in the form of Modern Apprentices. These were introduced during his tour of duty as minister of economic development with the Helen Clark-led Labour government.

Jan 19, 2018  -  International road safety charity, Brake, is calling on fleet operators to crack down on driver distraction, due to the results of its annual Fleet Safety Survey.  According to Brake, more than a third of its survey respondents say they do not monitor distraction, and three in ten organisations admit they do not have any policies in place aimed at preventing distraction.

Jan 19, 2018  -  33 Customhouse Quay in Wellington has been accredited by the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) with a 6 star NABERSNZ rating for energy performance – the first New Zealand building to achieve the top 6 star rating.

Restored Funds Seen as Catalyst of new Saudi Financial Services Economy

Dec 11, 2017  -  The detention of Saudi princes along with a big slice of the rest of the tycoon class in a simultaneous round up has rather greater consequences for Australasia than was originally imagined.  This is because the tentacles of the detainees reach deeply into commercial life in Australasia.

Jan 15, 2018  -  The Eugene-based distributor of an imported electric motorcycle is counting on the street-legal version of the vehicle to boost sales in 2018.  Ubco Bikes US LLC is the exclusive United States distributor of an all-­electric motorcycle from New Zealand-­based Ubco Ltd. The Eugene company was started by Bob and Ethan Ralston, father and son, respectively, who formerly owned Feeney Wireless in Eugene.  Since last summer, the Ralstons’ new firm has been distributing off-road Ubco motorbikes to dealers in Oregon, California and six other states.