Tag: Election
Too little, too late? A decade of transit investment in the U.S.
Filecoin Review: Decentralised Blockchain Based Storage Network
Top 10 Expectations for Spatial Computing in 2020
Lion ‘hologram’ display not a true hologram, experts say
Argentinian sports club Estudiantes de la Plata celebrated its first match in the Estudiantes stadium since 2005 with an impressive show featuring a gigantic flaming lion prowling around the stadium in hologram-like form. Coverage of the event by BBC Sports described the display as a "giant lion hologram”.
Following the broadcast, some social media users expressed discontent with the accuracy of the coverage, explaining that the display is not a true hologram.
They just played an 'augmented reality' video on the screens in the stadium, nobody actually saw sod all! Bit rubbish. https://t.co/QKSS5aCBXr
— FreakGlitcha (@FreakGlitcha) November 12, 2019
An art director and graphic artist familiar with manipulating images told E&T that: “The crucial thing here is that [the BBC] shouldn't be taking press release waffle at face value. You'd think, particularly after wreathgate yesterday [in which the BBC replaced footage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrongly placing a remembrance wreath with similar footage from 2016 during its BBC Breakfast coverage of the ceremony] and during an election they'd go to great lengths to fact check these things. It's laughable to have just reproduced such journalism.”
Speaking to E&T via email, Professor Robert Stone, director of the University of Birmingham's human interface technologies team, commented that the display is “absolutely NOT a hologram - at best it's a - not very well done - AR implementation”. He suggested that the display could have been generated in similar fashion to the image below, which was animated using PROmax3D.
Stone said that this could be combined “with readily available online animated fire assets”.
“At worst - and I suspect this to be the case, given the very fake-looking stadium and audience - it's a not very well done VR/basic CGI sequence using similar cheaply available asserts. Too many folks [are] quick to call these things holograms.”
Stone's scathing assessment could raise questions about why the BBC producers were unable to distinguish the display from a true hologram.
University of Westminster computer science expert Dr Li Jin told E&T that the designers may have used '7D Hologram Technology' to achieve the flaming lion display; a method for capturing high-quality holograms using seven parameters, including 2D angle, light properties, and time: “The latest technology has been popular in Japan and Dubai and for instance in Dubai Malls, in cinemas and other public places such as theatre stages and so on,” she told E&T via email.
Modernised versions of the Victorian “Pepper's Ghost” illusion, which uses an angled sheet of glass to create the appearance of a ghostly figure, have frequently - but inaccurately - been characterised as holograms.
I learnt how to develop android app in my First year – Emeka Samuel, first runner up, VoguePay/NACOSS Software Hackathon 2019
Kickstarter’s Opposition To Union Puts Progressive Users In A Bind: ‘It’s Toxic Now’
Kickstarter’s Union Opposition Puts Users In A Bind: ‘It’s Toxic Now’
The core concepts of DTube’s new blockchain
What Have The Tariffs Taught us About Supply Chain?
First, this topic has been talked about for a long time and it goes under the banner of "supply chain disruption". We have always thought of these disruptions as either "natural disasters" (think hurricanes and earthquakes) or "man-made" disasters such as wars. In either case the recommendations have been for supply chain professionals to stay very close to the impact of these and how long a company could survive should one hit. Perhaps this tariff war is a way for us to practice before something we really cannot control occurs.
In 2011 both the hard drive industry and the auto industry were hit hard and interrupted significantly by flooding in Thailand. Closer in time, the graph below from EPS news shows the types and number of disruptions just in the 2017 / 2018 timeframe:
- Plan, Plan, Plan - scenario planning and conducting FMEA's are a must in this environment. You should not have to make it up as you go along when a disruption hits.
- Think about your supply chain as a portfolio. You likely would not invest your entire life savings in one stock would you? Why would you do it with your company's supply chain? Diversity is critical to mitigating risk
- Develop early warning indicators - each with a plan of action if it appears it is happening. As you develop your FMEA you will likely identify a bunch of interruption scenarios along with probability and severity ratings. You will then want to work diligently on the scenarios with the highest likelihood with very severe outcomes. But, it is not good enough to just know them. You then have to determine what the indicators you will begin to look at to determine if something is going to happen. How can you monitor the global situation and determine the likelihood of an event?
For example, on tariffs, this was a topic of the election and the US is doing pretty much what it said it would do during the election. This was a red flag. While you would never have known for certain what you did know is the "likelihood" of supply chain disruptions due to tariffs increased dramatically on January 20, 2017. Was it enough to change everything that day? Probably not. Was it a good time to pull out your disruption FMEA's off the shelf and update them? Absolutely.
Blockchain Innovation is used to solve Long-Standing faced by Enterprises
Thailand Uses Blockchain-Supported Electronic Voting System in Primaries #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi
Windlab
The Case for Windlab
. | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
Revenue | $ 24,515,379 | $ 18,101,100 | $ 10,012,006 |
Expenses | -$ 10,098,372 | -$ 13,023,113 | -$ 8,524,804 |
Profit before income tax | $ 14,417,007 | $ 5,077,987 | $ 1,487,202 |
Income tax | -$ 4,912,534 | -$ 1,779,491 | $ 14,687 |
Profit | $ 9,504,473 | $ 3,298,496 | $ 1,501,889 |
Equity at the start of the year | $ 13,404,230 | $ 9,207,680 | $ 7,699,065 |
ROE | 71% | 36% | 20% |
Average | 42% | ||
The company is able to achieve this sort of ROE as windfarm developments are sold once all approvals and agreements signed but before construction begins, meaning developing multi-million dollar projects does not require significant capital. For example, take the site of the Coonooer bridge wind farm, a 19.8 megawatt wind farm in North Western Victoria with a total development cost of $48.6 million. After identifying the site with Windscape, Windlab spent only $300,000 in acquiring the land, then spent $2.2 million or research and planning applications for a total investment of only $2.5 million. Windlab then sold 96.5% of the equity in the Coonoer Bridge to Eurus Energy for just over $4.7 million who then funded the construction of the site with help from grants from the state government. In total, Windlab walked away from this transaction with over $4.7 million in cash and a remaining 3.5% stake in the project, a return of over 111% on the initial investment.
Valuation
- 640 megawatts of approved potential capacity across multiple projects in South Africa. (While South African Renewable Energy projects have been on hiatus, it does seem the projects are about to get up and running again after a recent change of government
- 250 megawatt project in Northern Queensland that Windlab is intending to submit a development application for in 2019
- 230 megawatt project in Vedigre USA that Windlab no longer has control over, but is eligible for up to $4.6 million in success payments if the project reaches financial close.
Project | Value |
Lakeland | $ 10,200,000.00 |
East African projects | $ 42,300,000.00 |
Greenwich | $ 2,800,000.00 |
Other projects | $ 15,000,000.00 |
Total | $ 70,300,000.00 |
Book value | $ 9,690,000.00 |
three years of annual costs | $ 19,200,000.00 |
tax on projected profit | $ 12,423,000.00 |
Value after tax | $ 38,677,000.00 |
Area | Value |
Development Projects | $ 38,677,000.00 |
Operating wind farms | $ 52,770,000.00 |
Asset Management business | $ 8,500,000.00 |
Windscape software | $ 10,000,000.00 |
Cash | $ 14,622,414.00 |
Liabilities | -$ 10,755,130.00 |
Total | $ 113,814,284.00 |
Shares outstanding (diluted) | 73848070 |
Price | $ 1.54 |