Dec 20, 2017  -  Virgin Hyperloop One has set a new speed record at its DevLoop test center outside of Las Vegas. During its third test phase, which was completed on December 15, an unmanned test pod reached a speed of nearly 387 km/h (240 mph) while running through an evacuated cylinder depressurized to 0.0002 atmospheres (0.003 lb/in²), or the equivalent air pressure of an altitude of 200,000 feet (37 mi, 61 km) above sea level.

According to Virgin Hyperloop One, the December tests not only saw a record speed run that broke the company's previous best of 310 km/hr (193 mph), but included trials of a new airlock system to allow the pods to move between the 500 m (1,600 ft) evacuated tube and normal air pressure, as well as the electric motor, controls and power electronics, magnetic levitation and guidance, and pod suspension systems. The end goal is to develop a transportation system capable of carrying passengers and freight through a system of tubes at airline speeds across continental distances.The prototype travel pod being loaded into the test cylinder

In addition to the speed record, the company confirmed the rumors that Sir Richard Branson had been named non-executive Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One. The founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard's Chairmanship comes on the heels of the Group's investment in the company and his joining Hyperloop One's board of directors in October 2017. Since then, the company has rebranded itself as Virgin Hyperloop One.

In further revelations, Virgin Hyperloop One announced that Caspian Venture Capital and DP World have invested an additional US$50 million in the enterprise.

"I am excited by the latest developments at Virgin Hyperloop One and delighted to be its new Chairman" says Sir Richard. "The recent investment by our partners Caspian Venture Capital and DP World sets up the company to pursue opportunities in key markets in the Middle East, Europe, and Russia as it develops game changing and innovative passenger and cargo ground transport systems."

Check out video of the record-breaking run via the source link below.

Source: Virgin Hyperloop One  || December 20, 2017   |||

Dec 19, 2017 -  A new bioplastic made from algae could replace oil-based plastic completely according to its inventors, potentially turning the manufacturing industry from a source of CO2 into a destroyer of the greenhouse gas writes Jesus Diaz for Fast Company. The designers behind the material imagine a world in which shops can locally produce all kinds of objects on demand, from plates to furniture, using 3D printers and the bioplastic. To demonstrate their material’s qualities, they’re producing it in small batches and using it to print designer products.

The Dutch designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dros spent three years creating their biopolymer, trying to find a solution to the problems of synthetic plastic. The latter contributes heavily to global warming and, worse, it depends on a limited, non-renewable resource as its raw material. In addition to that, plastic products get ferried from large factories all over the world into distribution centers and, eventually, retail shops, further increasing their carbon footprint.

So Klarenbeek and Dros asked themselves: What if we could invent a material using locally-grown raw materials–and use it to enable a manufacturing and distribution process that remained local from start to finish?

Algae are highly effective biomass generators. They’re also easy to grow and they’re great CO2 processing machines–they take this gas out of the atmosphere and the sea and turn carbon molecules into starch through photosynthesis, releasing oxygen molecules into the atmosphere as a byproduct.

Continue here to read the full article  ||  December 19, 2017   |||

Dec 18, 2017  - New Zealanders’ wealth rose at its fastest pace in a decade, mainly driven by rising property values, Stats NZ said today.  New Zealanders’ net worth rose $136 billion to $1.5 trillion in the year to 31 March 2016. The total net worth is equal to about $330,000 per person, mainly reflecting the value of property ownership.

“Net worth is the balance of what New Zealanders own over what they owe, and this is the biggest increase experienced in the last 10 years,” national accounts senior manager Gary Dunnet said.

Data used in this release comes from a range of sources, some of which is only available up to 2016. Therefore, the integrated data presented is up to the March 2016 year.

Household net worth increased 11 percent (or $134 billion). This was largely driven by rises of $84 billion in property values and $14 billion in currency and deposits, offset somewhat by additional loans of $12 billion.

Households own property worth $680 billion, about 45 percent of total household assets of $1,495 billion. The other main household assets are shares and other equity (38 percent), currency and deposits (10 percent), and insurance and pension funds (nearly 6 percent of total household assets).

From March 2015 to 2016, household deposits increased 10 percent to $154 billion, and provided an increased share of banking funding.

Financial assets, including bank deposits and shares, held by New Zealanders rose from $1,780 billion in 2007 to $2,575 billion in 2016 (up 45 percent). Most financial assets are held in equity ($1,045 billion) and loans ($769 billion).

Similarly, non-financial assets, including property, are $1,697 billion at March 2016, up 44 percent from $1,182 billion in 2007.

Dec 18, 2017  -  A major report released today shows that New Zealand has a significant and growing digital skills shortage, primarily due to the speed and scale of the increase in demand for tech skills.  The report, commissioned by the New Zealand Digital Skills Forum, should sound a warning bell to industry, government and the education sector, the Forum’s chair Victoria MacLennan says. More than 120,000 people were employed in the tech sector last year and about 14,000 new jobs were created. However, only 5,090 tech students graduated in 2015, and 5,500 tech visas were granted in same period, demonstrating a shortfall. At the same time, New Zealand is facing an 11 per cent annual increase in demand for software programmer jobs, the report says. We also face a diversity challenge – in 2016, 36 per cent of tech students were female and only eight per cent were Māori “The growing skills shortage in New Zealand’s IT industry and broader economy is very real. Industry, government, and the education sector need to continue working closely together to accelerate plans and activities to address it, otherwise the future prosperity of New Zealand will suffer greatly,” MacLennan says. “However, it’s important to note the digital skills challenges our economy faces are not new and are certainly not limited to New Zealand. “This report represents a great opportunity. Technology is such an important part of day-to-day life for all New Zealanders, meaning that just about everyone has a stake in our success as we respond to the challenges of our changing digital world. “We need to continue working together to help nurture and develop local talent, and at the same time make sure that we fill any gaps from the best talent we can find worldwide. If we do this well then we have the opportunity to make New Zealand a technology powerhouse on the world stage. “The findings in this report show that the supply of people with advanced digital skills doesn’t meet demand and this gap is growing. Through the Digital Skills Forum, a collaborative group of leading tech industry and government agencies, we’re working together to address digital skills shortages. But more must be done. “There has never been a better time than now for action. Our school education sector has this year been reformed to give every Kiwi child a digital education. Through targeted reviews and industry recognition, our tertiary sector is better positioned than ever before to deliver the quality graduates needed. There are also more alternative pathways into digital roles than ever before. “As a country, we must help younger New Zealanders discover a prosperous future working in the technology roles where the median salary is $82,000, almost twice the average median salary. “Together, we need to remove barriers for our graduates finding their first job, make it easier for those seeking a career change, and improve the gender and cultural diversity in digital roles. None of us can do this on our own. “As a result of this report, we now have tangible and concrete data on the size, scale and nature of the digital skills shortage in our sector and across the New Zealand economy. This report identifies both a challenge and a massive opportunity, but it will take all of us to realise it. The New Zealand Digital Skills Forum includes NZRise, NZTech and IT Professionals NZ from the tech sector, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Ministry of Education, the Department of Internal Affairs and the Tertiary Education Commission from government.

| A MakeLeomonade release  ||  Dec 18, 2017   |||

Meguerditch Bouldoukian is considered in the West the leading Arabic-language authority on banking in the Middle East. He now takes our Five Questions on the pending flotation of Aramco and the economic circumstances in which it will take place……

The Saudis appear to have valued Aramco at US$2 trillion. Western commentators have claimed that it is over valued?

The issue of valuation of a company in investment banking criteria has more than six methods. We can say here though that if the two or more sides agree on a method to value ARAMCO then we can wish them good luck. From a conservative approach to the most liberal, its market capitalization is reported to extend from $1.5 trillion to $10 trillion.

Dec 15, 2017  -  When six Wintec Māori and Pasifika engineering students volunteered for work experience at Longveld recently, they got to work on a very special project. Together they have made the framework for Hamilton’s Matariki Interactive Waka sculpture.

The work undertaken by the students on the waka ‘skeleton’ complemented their trade training as it required them to weld and assist with cutting steel while experiencing a real-world workplace.

Longveld directors Pam and Les Roa launched their business with little more than a toolbox, a welder and some great trade skills in the early 90s. They celebrate innovation and believe very strongly in culture and wellbeing. Their adoption of mātauranga Māori principles added a welcoming, cultural dimension to the students’ experience.

“We’re no strangers to interesting projects, in fact at Longveld we relish the challenge. To work with students who are embarking on a career in engineering, and at the same time help to create something that is so culturally significant for our community, is really inspiring for our team,” says Pam.

The students have been mentored by Longveld engineer Jemoal Lassey who says he has a new respect for teaching and learning.

“Upskilling these students, who I hope will become part of a new generation of engineers, was a reminder of how important it is to get the basics right, learn by doing and to ask questions along the way and challenge better ways of doing things,” says Jemoal.

Wintec tutor and PhD candidate Joe Citizen is behind the multidisciplinary Matariki Interactive Waka project which to date has involved Wintec students studying trades, engineering, early childhood education and media arts working with industry partners and Wintec’s Māori Achievement team.

“I can’t say enough how awesome it is that Longveld are involved and through this project they are mentoring our students. It was just wonderful to walk in there and see how they’re getting top-level mentorship in making a prototype that informs the cladding process,” says Joe.

“It’s real hands-on stuff. What’s particularly cool is the way I’m learning from the students, as they could tell me what the hard parts were and what they think needs to be done next.

“The next part will be working on the illuminated access hatches, which need to be integrated into the cladding design.”

Looking ahead, there are exciting plans for the Matariki Interactive Waka project as the sculpture nears completion in time for a June 2018 installation at Hamilton’s Ferrybank. Wintec media arts, business and IT students will work together to create an app with the sensor data from the waka project. Sustainable energy options have been researched by Wintec electrical engineering students and next year will see their implementation, using solar and wind solutions.

BackgroundThe multidisciplinary Matariki Interactive Waka project was developed by Wintec tutor and PhD candidate Joe Citizen. Joe envisaged this project as a public art installation that encompassed many of the disciplines and values related to his research.

The seven metre tall interactive sculpture is being built with a stainless-steel skeleton and clad in 3mm corten plate, and will utilise an interactive design that engages with the seven stars of Matariki through LED lighting and ambient soundtracks. The interactive sculpture will be activated by movement and its environmental sensor network will operate at dawn and dusk.

The sculpture will be situated at Hamilton’s Ferrybank, having gained unanimous consent from the Hamilton City Council at both its concept and siting stages. It is a collaborative, consultative, multidisciplinary partnership with Wintec’s researchers, Media Arts, IT and Māori Achievement teams, guided by Wintec kaumātua Tame Pokaia.

Current industry partnerships include Longveld, ACLX, and Taranaki-based MechEng. More than $100,000 of funding has been secured so far, with donations, grants, and in-kind support received from Perry Group, Trust Waikato, WEL Trust, Longveld and Wintec.

Follow the Matariki Interactive Waka Project on Facebook.

Homepage image: Artist's impression, the Matariki Interactive Waka sculpture at Ferrybank, Julian Smith.

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 December17 Edition Click here to open

Dec 13, 2017  - When pulling up to a traffic light, most drivers get pretty close to the car in front of them, leaving just several feet of space between their bumper and the next.  The practice of packing tightly at traffic lights is widely accepted. Traditional thinking says the closer a car is to a traffic light, the more likely that car will be to pass through the intersection before the light turns red again.

Thanks to new research by Virginia Tech College of Engineering professors and students, drivers now have a good reason to dismiss this faulty line of roadway intuition. The results could be useful in Ethiopia, where traffic management is a serious engineering project.

The study, published this month in the New Journal of Physics, used video cameras attached to drone helicopters to capture footage of cars accelerating through a traffic light on the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute's Smart Road. By systematically controlling the packing density of the cars, the researchers discovered that any decrease in distance to the light was completely offset by the time it took for cars to regain a comfortable spacing before drivers could accelerate.

Drivers who pack tightly at intersections do not increase their chances of making it through the light, and tailgating at traffic lights can also lead to more rear-end collisions.

"We varied the bumper-to-bumper spacing between cars by a factor of 20 and saw virtually no change in how much time it took for the cars to pass through the intersection when the light turned green," said Jonathan Boreyko, assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering and mechanics. "The results mean there's no point in getting closer to the car in front of you when traffic comes to a stop," he said.

The inspiration for the research first came to Boreyko when he was sitting in traffic one day. Noticing that cars had to wait for the car in front of them to regain a safe spacing before they could start moving again, he hypothesized that, contrary to popular opinion, it might actually be better for cars to stop farther apart from each other when idling at a traffic light.

He teamed up with Farzad Ahmadi, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Virginia Tech's engineering mechanics program and the study's lead author, to investigate.Using 10 volunteer drivers in identical vehicles, the researchers staged a series of experiments at the traffic light on the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute's Smart Road. Drivers systematically lined up at the light in a set of distances ranging from 1.25 to 50 feet, and a drone helicopter hovering overhead captured controlled bird's-eye-view footage of the traffic as drivers accelerated through the light.

Analysis showed that the time required for all cars to pass through remained relatively fixed, give or take about one second, for spacing distances up to 25 feet.

The two researchers used the thermodynamic concept of latent heat, the energy that a system loses during melting or evaporation, to describe what happens to cars stopped at a traffic light. Vehicles are jammed into a "solid phase" at a light and must waste energy "melting" back into a "liquid phase" before they can actually move through the intersection.

Boreyko and Ahmadi wondered if latent heat would have such a dramatic effect on other systems, such as slow-moving pedestrian traffic. Should people waiting in lines space themselves closer together or farther apart in order to move through more quickly?

The researchers set up a second round of experiments in The Cube at Virginia Tech's Moss Arts Center, a highly adaptable theater and laboratory equipped with synchronized cameras. Undergraduate students added a few conditions to their senior design experiments on human crowds to test Boreyko and Ahmadi's hypothesis.

"Latent heat had almost no effect for a line of pedestrians," said Boreyko. "The closer people got to each other, the faster they could empty the line. We realized that people move very slowly, but can accelerate very quickly, which minimizes the lag effect we saw with the cars at the traffic light."

The study's findings suggest that both pedestrians and drivers alike could see considerable benefits when taking a mindful approach to packing density in lines.

"Pedestrians waiting in a line should get as close to each other as possible if it's important for the line to empty quickly," said Boreyko. "But when you encounter a traffic jam or stop at a light, keep a safe and comfortable distance. You can just maintain whatever spacing you had when you were driving at full speed. You won't lose any time, but you'll reduce the odds of an accidental rear-end collision."Ahmadi agreed with Boryeko's conclusion.

"When my father was teaching me how to drive, he told me that to prevent an accident, you should stop so you can easily see the rear bumper of the car in front of you at a traffic light," said Ahmadi. "I've never done that until I analyzed the data of this experiment."

For more traffic management, find out how these machine learning techniques aim to reduce traffic.

| An engineering.com release  ||  December 13, 2017   |||

Dec  13, 2017  -  Earlier this year, we committed to placing 55 billion XRP in a cryptographically-secured escrow account to create certainty of XRP supply at any given time. As promised, today we completed the lockup.  By securing the lion’s share of XRP in escrow, people can now mathematically verify the maximum supply that can enter the market. While Ripple has proved to be a responsible steward of XRP supply for almost five years – and has clearly demonstrated a tremendous track record of investing in and supporting the XRP ecosystem – this lockup eliminates any concern that Ripple could flood the market, which we’ve pointed out before is a scenario that would be bad for Ripple!

This move underscores Ripple’s commitment to building XRP liquidity and a healthy and trusted market. Long term, the value of digital assets will be determined by their utility. XRP has emerged as the only digital asset with a clear institutional use case designed to solve a multi-trillion dollar problem – the global payment and liquidity challenges that banks, payment providers and corporates face.

Unlike other digital assets purely driven by unexplained speculation, real institutional customers are already using and finding value in XRP, and governments, regulators and central banks are increasingly recognizing the role it could play in the global system.

XRP goes beyond what Bitcoin does well — a store of value — and delivers transaction speed and throughput that is orders of magnitude faster than BTC or ETH. While other digital assets continue to bump against their transaction limits, XRP remains the fastest, most efficient and most scalable digital asset in the world – making it the best digital asset for payments. It’s no surprise that institutions are looking to XRP to provide much-needed on-demand liquidity for cross-border payments.

Game changer for $XRP! 55 billion XRP now in escrow Tweet This

Here’s how the escrow works:

The Escrow feature in the XRP Ledger allows parties to secure XRP for an allotted amount of time or until specific conditions are met. For example, Escrow allows a sender of XRP to put conditions on exactly when a payment can be completed, so the payment remains cryptographically locked until the due date.

We use Escrow to establish 55 contracts of 1 billion XRP each that will expire on the first day of every month from months 0 to 54. As each contract expires, the XRP will become available for Ripple’s use. You can expect us to continue to use XRP for incentives to market makers who offer tighter spreads for payments and selling XRP to institutional investors.

We’ll then return whatever is unused at the end of each month to the back of the escrow rotation. For example, if 500M XRP remain unspent at the end of the first month, those 500M XRP will be placed into a new escrow account set to expire in month 55. For comparison, Ripple has sold on average 300M XRP per month for the past 18 months.

Ripple’s vision remains the same – to enable the Internet of Value in which money moves like information moves today – and XRP is at the heart.

To learn more, please visit ripple.com/xrp.

| A Ripple release  ||  December 7, 2017   |||

Dec 13, 2017 - The national surgical bus, possibly the only one of its type in the world, is looking for a significant change next year to keep up with demands and with high technology.  Mobile Health chief executive Mark Eager says they are assessing cutting-edge new technologies with portable and modular healthcare facilities to help district health boards cope when they are under pressure and to assist in smaller towns and rural areas. “We are making substantial bright new changes next year but also continuing with our mobile surgical bus all over New Zealand,” Eager says. “We will be introducing an online interactive learning system and we will also be helping a nationwide stocktake of telehealth and all the facilities for the benefit of all Kiwis. “We are probably the only mobile surgical bus in the world. There are others that are on the road for months at a time. There is one container truck that looks like a food delivery truck in Ecuador which works for a few months a year. “But ours it unique in the way that we operate. It is an amazing concept and a great way of sharing an expensive resource. What we do saves $2 million a year in each town on capital costs, if they had to build a similar facility from scratch. “The bus is getting a new look over Christmas. So, we are excited for Kiwis who need the service next year. Mobile Health will also be working with health organisations to bring another Health Hub to Fieldays 2018. “Our annual rural nurses meeting will be staged in May. This is a great opportunity for rural nurses to expand their knowledge and catch up with one another. “This year we had our first education session via video conferencing with nurses on the Chatham Islands. We will continue to look at remote locations to bring to help our rural health development.” New Zealand’s mobile surgical bus marked its 15-year anniversary earlier this year after more than 21,300 operations in 24 towns. The mobile operating theatre marked its first day of surgery at Te Puia Springs, 100km north of Gisborne back on March 8, 2002. An independent health consultants report has found up to 300 patients annually would probably miss out on surgery if was not for the mobile surgical unit, with its state-of-the-art surgical operating theatre. The bus receives $4 million annually from the Ministry of Health. The bus runs on a five-week rotation system around New Zealand, carrying out operations at Kaikohe, Dargaville, Warkworth, Pukekohe, Te Puia, Wairoa, Taumarunui, Waipukurau, Taihape, Hawera, Levin, Dannevirke, Kapiti, Featherston, Takaka, Motueka, Buller, Waikari, Rangiora, Oamaru, Clyde, Queenstown, Balclutha and Gore. “The reason why the bus exists is to deliver care closer to home which is in line with the government policy. It also helps with recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural towns. We provide low risk day surgery in rural communities that don’t have local access to full operating theatres. “Patients are referred by their doctor to their district health board which places them on the surgical bus operating list. The bus delivers surgeries such as general surgery, children’s general anaesthetic dental, gynaecology, colonoscopy and minor orthopaedic operations. “The clinical team is made up of five teams, with a charge nurse, an anaesthetic tech and a driver on a five-week schedule. Each day they’re joined by an anaesthetist, surgeon and four nursing staff from the local town.”

| A Mobile Health release  ||  December 13, 2017   |||