Amazon Starts Testing ‘Scout’ Delivery Robots Near Seattle
January 24th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
Amazon.com Inc. will use robots to deliver packages in the suburbs north of Seattle, its latest experiment to automate the last-mile of delivery that’s a labor-intensive and costly component of buying products online.
The e-commerce giant on Wednesday announced a trial of “Amazon Scout,” autonomous delivery devices the size of a cooler that roll along sidewalks at a walking pace. It will use six robots, which are designed to navigate around obstacles such as people and pets, to deliver packages in Snohomish County. The robots will be used to make deliveries Monday through Friday during daylight hours.
Using robots to make deliveries outside on city streets will be much more challenging than most current common uses, such as moving items around in warehouses, hospitals and hotels that are well-lit and have level floors, said Dan Kara, vice president of robotics at WTWH Media. Outside, robots encounter extreme weather conditions, steep inclines, curbs and other problems that present significant engineering challenges.
“These might work in a brand new neighborhood that is well lit and has new sidewalks, but most of the world isn’t like that and neither is most of the United States,” Kara said. “Congratulations for experimenting, but in terms of full implementation, I don’t see that any time soon.”
South Koreans Pamper Pets Instead of Having Kids
January 23rd, 2019Via: Reuters:
Kang Sung-il buys Sancho, his Pomeranian, a toy every business trip and this Lunar New Year holiday will dress him up in a new $50 suit to visit ‘grandma’, Kang’s mother.
Kang and his wife say children are too expensive and bring too much pressure. Instead they have opted to shower Sancho with love and gifts.
They are not alone. South Korea’s pet industry is booming, fueled by the same factors that have made the country’s birth rate, at 1.05 births per woman, the lowest in the world: the high cost of education and housing as well as extremely long working days.
Possible U.S. Backed Coup Underway in Venezuela
January 23rd, 2019Via: Reuters:
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president on Wednesday, winning the backing of Washington and many Latin American nations and prompting socialist Nicolas Maduro, who has led the oil-rich nation since 2013, to break relations with the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump formally recognized Guaido shortly after his announcement and praised his plan to hold elections. That was swiftly followed by similar statements from Canada and a slew of right-leaning Latin American governments, including Venezuela’s neighbors Brazil and Colombia.
Google Will Limit Ad Blockers on Chrome
January 23rd, 2019For safety.
*snort*
Via: Register:
Google engineers have proposed changes to the open-source Chromium browser that will break content-blocking extensions, including various ad blockers.
Adblock Plus will most likely not be affected, though similar third-party plugins will, for reasons we will explain. The drafted changes will also limit the capabilities available to extension developers, ostensibly for the sake of speed and safety. Chromium forms the central core of Google Chrome, and, soon, Microsoft Edge.
In a note posted Tuesday to the Chromium bug tracker, Raymond Hill, the developer behind uBlock Origin and uMatrix, said the changes contemplated by the Manifest v3 proposal will ruin his ad and content blocking extensions, and take control of content away from users.
John McAfee Plans to Run for President ‘In Exile’ on His Boat
January 23rd, 2019
Via: Cnet:
The crypto-enthusiast has donned a wig, jumped on a boat and is now on the run from the IRS. But that won’t stop his 2020 presidential campaign.
Prescription Eyewear Scam
January 22nd, 2019Via: Los Angeles Times:
Prescription eyewear represents perhaps the single biggest mass-market consumer ripoff to be found.
Calls for Congress to Reopen Assassination Probes
January 22nd, 2019Via: Who What Why:
After five decades, the mysteries behind the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X may finally get the scrutiny they deserve.
A group consisting of relatives of the Kennedy and King families, as well as their confidantes and other prominent voices, is calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Committee to get to the bottom of these tragic murders.
Over the decades, those in power, whether in government, media, or academia, have contended that all of these murders were simply the result of lone-wolf actors: There was “no collusion,” and please don’t mention that other “C” word — conspiracy.
$1.2 Trillion in Risky Corporate Debt Ready to Blow
January 22nd, 2019Via: Los Angeles Times:
Indebted borrowers increasingly take out high-interest, adjustable-rate loans that are packaged into securities and sold to investors eager for a better rate of return.
Everything’s fine while the economy is growing. But when it slows, those borrowers could default, causing problems to cascade through the financial system.
If this all sounds like the subprime housing market in the boom years before the 2008 financial crisis, you’re right. And that’s what increasingly has regulators, lawmakers, ratings agencies and some market watchers worried.
This time, however, the borrowers in this credit bubble aren’t homeowners taking out mortgages. They’re hundreds of U.S. companies with weaker credit ratings, many of them well-known like Uber and Burger King, taking out so-called leveraged loans.
…
The risks aren’t nearly as widespread as they were during the housing bubble, when the percentage of all mortgages that were subprime jumped to about 20%. Leveraged loans, while growing rapidly, account for less than 5% of the more than $42-trillion U.S. fixed income debt market, which also includes corporate and municipal bonds.
Toyota and Panasonic to Build Electric Car Batteries Together
January 22nd, 2019Via: Nikkei:
Toyota Motor and Panasonic plan to set up a joint venture in 2020 to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, joining forces to compete more effectively on cost and scale with rising Chinese players in a key area for the future of the auto industry, Nikkei has learned.
The venture, in which Toyota is to hold a 51% stake with Panasonic owning the rest, will be announced as soon as this week. Panasonic will shift five automotive battery production facilities in Japan and China to the new company, though the U.S. plant it operates under a partnership with American automaker Tesla will not be included.
In the early 2020s, Toyota and Panasonic will look to launch mass production of batteries with 50 times the capacity of those now used in hybrid vehicles, aiming to bring down production costs through higher volume.
Petro Canada Starts Deploying Its Own Electric Vehicle Chargers at Gas Stations
January 22nd, 2019Via: Electrek:
Petro Canada, formerly a state-owned oil company in Canada but now part of Suncor, becomes the latest oil company to get involved in electric vehicle charging.
…
Shell is arguably leading the charge through its involvement in the new Ionity charging network in Europe. The company is building its own chargers at its own gas stations, and recently acquired a charging network with over 30,000 chargers.
But there are several others, like BP and Total, who have made similar investments.
Now Suncor is also getting involved and they have deployed their first ‘Petro Canada-branded’ EV chargers at a gas station in Milton, Ontario.
