Showing posts with label solar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar. Show all posts

2018-05-28

Saildrones: The Robots Roaming the High Seas (video)

The Robots Roaming the High Seas

Bloomberg.com video published May 15, 2018: Intelligent, indestructible and with no humans on board, these sailboats are plotting their own course through the waters of San Francisco Bay. If  Founder & CEO Richard Jenkins gets his way, soon there’ll be hundreds of them – trawling the oceans for data. Video by Victoria Blackburne-Daniell, David Nicholson.

Saildrone Inc.--"Ocean data redefined"--Saildrone designs and manufactures wind and solar powered autonomous surface vehicles called Saildrones, which make cost-effective ocean data collection possible at scale, building the world's largest high resolution ocean datasets, working with governments and private companies around the globe. Headquarters: Alameda, CA USA. Richard Jenkins, Founder & CEO.

Domain: saildrone.com


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2018-05-19

Tech Review | Tesla $TSLA May Need A Takeover, Will Apple $AAPL Bite?

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2018-05-19)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion, separating signal from the noise: Features • 1)Tesla $TSLA May Need A Takeover, Will Apple $AAPL Bite? 2) America's IT Strongholds 2018, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1)  Tesla May Need A Takeover (tesla.com) $TSLA, Will Apple Bite? (apple.com) $AAPL
Tesla $TSLA May Need A Takeover, Will Apple $AAPL Bite?  ©2018 DomainMondo.com (graphic)
Editor's note: If you think about it, for many consumers there's a synergy in having a premium-priced innovative smartphone matched with a premium-priced innovative "smartcar"--increasingly into the future, together, they may be the essence of having the "best" in mobile devices.

Tesla 2018 (video published by Tesla on May 9, 2018): 

Apple cannot outcompete Android/Google/Waymo, or Asia, for the future mass market smartphone or "smartcar," but it can produce, at a handsome profit, with Tim Cook's supply chain expertise, an aspirational and innovative, premium-priced, Jony Ive-designed, Elon Musk-engineered, auto-mobile. A Tesla takeover also provides Apple additional opportunities in solar energy and battery innovations, for a global market crying for clean energy and distributed electrical grid solutions. Steve Jobs always thought of Apple as an innovative engineering company producing technology devices exhibiting superlative design. Tesla could be the next step in Apple's evolution.

Tesla Powerpacks Balancing the Grid in Terhills, Belgium (published by Tesla on May 14, 2018):

Apple has the cash and cachet to make this happen, both as an attractive deal for long-term Apple shareholders as well as $TSLA stockholders and bondholders. A Tesla deal with Apple is far better than a Tesla chapter 11 any way you look at it. Musk appears to have a persistent, unsolved "execution problem" at Tesla (Model 3 reservations reportedly exceed 450,000), and talented engineers and managers have been heading for the exits. He needs to remember that Steve Jobs was fired by Apple (only years later did Jobs return to reinvent Apple via iPod, iPhone, and iPad). Another option would be for Apple to opt-in via convertible preferred shares or bonds. Time will tell, but as the lawyers say, "Time is of the essence." See also: Apple buying Tesla doesn't sound like a crazy idea anymore — here's why | BusinessInsider.com 27 January 2018: "Tesla needs to be saved from its delusional idea about the company's future growth — and Apple needs to be saved from the disaster of its car project."

Related:

2) America's IT Strongholds 2018 | Statista.com:
"Computing workforce" includes developers, software engineers, systems managers and teachers.

See also: Miami’s growing tech scene tries to level up | Curbed.com: "... Last year, area startups received $1.3 billion in venture capital funding, placing Miami eighth on the list of U.S. cities in terms of VC activity."

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite -0.66% | S&P 500 Index -0.54% | DJIA -0.47%
"Going forward, we expect US large cap tech to outperform & #FixedIncome to be under more duress."--DataTrekResearch.com 16 May 2018
Wall Street's Charging Bull
graphic of Charging Bull | DomainMondo.com
Investing Notes:

a. US: Don’t Poke The (Volatility) Bear | DatatrekResearch.com: "... we see outsized moves in the S&P particularly to the downside as an opportunity to buy the market at more attractive entry points if your investment mandate allows for it."

b. Europe:
c. Emerging Markets: Who’s Most Afraid of a Latin American Debt Crisis (Apart from Latin America)? | WolfStreet.com.

d. Global Growth? "Forget the noise, the outlook is better than you think, but mind complexity. 'Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Geniuses remove it.'"--Blain's Morning Porridge May 17, 2018.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
a. NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) Q1 FY2019 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com: NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang: "Okay. We had another great quarter, record revenue, record margins, record earnings, growth across every platform. Datacenter achieved another record with strong demand for Volta and AI inference. Gaming was strong. We are delighted to see prices normalizing and we can better serve pent-up gamer demand. At the heart of our opportunity is the incredible growth of computing demand of AI just as traditional computing has slowed. The GPU computing approach that we've pioneered is ideal for filling this vacuum. And our invention of the Tensor Core GPU has further enhanced our strong position to power the AI era. I look forward to giving you another update next quarter. Thank you."

b. Why women are more likely to get funded on Kickstarter | moneyish.com


d.  Zuckerberg agrees to face EU Parliament over Facebook data use | sky.com: "as early as next week" and with GDPR imminent, investigation finds Facebook lacks privacy controls for information inferred about users, including sensitive details used in ad targeting--TheGuardian.com. Also: China is Facebook's second-largest source of ad revenue, after the U.S.--qz.com

e. Supreme Court allows states to legalize sports betting, opening floodgates for online gambling profits | TechCrunch.com: DraftKings.com and FanDuel.com may be early winners, but there’s a market for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and perhaps major networks that hold sports broadcasting rights to open up new sources of revenue. See also British bookmakers odds on to unlock U.S. sports after legal ruling | Reuters.com: GVC already has state licenses in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware; and European online gaming firm Paddy Power Betfair says it's in talks to buy FanDuel, reportedly for $600M-700M, day after SCOTUS killed U.S. ban on sports gambling--Axios.com.


g. Online Advertising vs TV--ad revenue report (pdf) by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)--internet advertising revenues in the US rose 21.4% in 2017 from the year earlier to a record of $88 billion, while TV ad revenues declined 2.6% to $70.1 billion. See also: Why Traditional TV Is in Trouble | The New York Times | NYTimes.com.

h. Amazon Stops Buying Prized Shopping Ads on Google | Bloomberg.com: "Abrupt drop in activity hints at Amazon’s own ad ambitions ... Two tech giants are increasingly competing on multiple fronts ..."  

i. Amazon AWS: Amazon is moving into blockchain with a new partnership | CNBC.com: AWS partnering with start-up Kaleido--"Introducing Kaleido to AWS customers is going to help customers move faster and not worry about managing blockchain themselves"--Amazon Web Services (AWS). Register now for the seventh annual AWS re:Invent conference Nov 26-30, 2018, Las Vegas--"deeper technical content, more hands-on learning opportunities, keynote announcements, expanded Expo hours, exciting after-hours events, and the best party in technology."

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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2017-10-17

Technology To Disrupt Fossil Fuels: Solar, Wind, Batteries, Electric Vehicles

Chinese Solar Cell Maker to Join Electric Vehicle Race

Video above published September 14, 2017: An energy conglomerate and solar cell maker in China is seeking opportunities in electric vehicles (EV) eight months after announcing plans to make batteries for zero-emission cars. In this Bloomberg.com interview, Golden Concord Group President Kou Bingen says the company plans to team up with a car maker in China to join the EV market.

The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change Forever

Video above published Sep 13, 2017: The age of batteries is just getting started. In the latest episode of our animated series, Sooner Than You Think, Bloomberg,com’s Tom Randall does the math on when solar plus batteries might start wiping fossil fuels off the grid. See also: US Celebrates Record 29% Drop In Utility-Scale Solar Costs — But Tariff Cloud Looms | cleantechnica.com.

US shale oil and gas investors are on a 'road to ruin,' warned renowned short-seller Jim Chanos, saying Wall Street is overly focused on certain valuation metrics, which hide problems with the fundamental business model in the American oil patch. Investors are taking for granted accounting methods that will create problems for drillers in the future, Chanos said.--cnbc.com. See also Jim Chanos: ‘We are short’ Continental Resources | cnbc.com 12 Sep 2017: "People have been looking at the [shale] industry with rose colored glasses. This is a problem with the North American shale business," Chanos said at the Delivering Alpha Conference in New York last week.

No More Free Lunch Is the Big Change Under Way in the Oil Market | Bloomberg.com Oct 9, 2017:  Investors "funded loss-making energy producers and explorers through a generous mix of loans, bonds and equity. That may be changing ..."

Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE: CLR) is an American oil and natural gas exploration and production company based in Oklahoma City.
NYSE: CLR chart graphic

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2016-12-26

MacroView: Trump Team Power Players & 2017 Global Economy (video)

MacroView |  ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly review of  macro economic and investing news:

MacroView Feature •  President-elect Donald J. Trump's 2017 Great Again Team Cabinet-level Power Players:

The Electoral College vote on December 19, 2016, sealed Trump's Presidential victory. Congress will certify the results on January 6th, and Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. However, Hillary Clinton and some of her supporters and 'friends' in the media are still whining about the 2016 Presidential election outcome. Meanwhile, most rational people have moved on and are preparing for the incoming Trump administration: "The Founding Fathers got it right, and California is proof."--MarketWatch.com.  For those still looking in the rearview mirror, Vice President Joe Biden said this week that Hillary Clinton never really figured out why she was running, while others have concluded the desire for change was bigger than any worries Clinton was able to raise about Trump. For those still living in a state of denial, reality is about to give them a slap in the face:
"Senate Democrats are about to get rolled on Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. They [Democrats] could spend years in the minority ... instead of the GOP collapse that many expected on Nov. 8, it’s now Democrats [who are] soul-searching about what went wrong."--POLITICO.com.
Background: In November 2013, Democrats controlled the U.S. Senate and used the so-called nuclear option to eliminate filibusters on executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments other than those to the Supreme Court. As a result, in 2017, Trump's Cabinet picks will only need a simple majority of 51 votes for Senate confirmation (Republicans will have a 52-seat majority in the 100-seat U.S. Senate in 2017).

Digital Trump: Horizontal View | ©2016 John Poole | DomainMondo.com
Digital Trump: Horizontal View | ©2016 John Poole | DomainMondo.com
Trump's Cabinet-level picks requiring Senate confirmation:
  • Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson
  • Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
  • Defense Secretary James N. Mattis
  • Attorney General Jeff Sessions
  • Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
  • Agriculture Secretary TBA
  • Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
  • Labor Secretary Andrew F. Puzder
  • H.H.S. Secretary Tom Price
  • HUD Secretary Ben Carson
  • Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao
  • Energy Secretary Rick Perry
  • Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
  • V.A. Secretary TBA
  • Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly
  • U.N. Ambassador Nikki R. Haley
  • C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo
  • Director of National Intelligence TBA
  • U.S. Trade Representative TBA
  • Administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda McMahon
  • E.P.A. Administrator Scott Pruitt
  • Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney
Do not require Senate confirmation:
Not mentioned above, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who some expect to be very influential within the Trump administration, just as he was in the Trump campaign. It is also clear that Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel will have substantial influence in the new administration. See also on Domain Mondo: Home Depot Co-Founder Ken Langone: 'I’m excited about Trump’s Cabinet' (video).

MacroView Feature •  Martin Wolf on the global economy in 2017:

Video above published Dec 23, 2016: FT.com editor Lionel Barber speaks to Martin Wolf about the biggest risks and bright spots in the 2017 global economy, major events of 2016, and Trumponomics. 

Other MacroView News:

•  Trump Effect: Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Up 8.73% since November 8th:
DJIA (source: google.com)
•  Companies Face Delays Getting Cash Out of China | WSJ.com: "French construction-materials company Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, is finding it harder to take its money out of China. The conglomerate—like all multinationals operating there—faces new delays in recent weeks as Chinese regulators impose tougher restrictions on the movement of capital out of the country to slow the yuan’s decline ..."

•  Venture capital is harder to come by, interest rates are low, and founders prefer no dilution--voilĂ  venture debt-- U.S. Startups Are Piling on Debt | Bloomberg.com: "With fewer companies getting funded these days, many startups are opting to borrow money instead. Some have already been forced to shutter after missing payments."

•  Italy Banking Crisis is Also a Huge Crime Scene | WolfStreet.com: "Toxic loans as a result of corruption, political kickbacks, fraud, and abuse."

•  World Energy Tipping Point: Solar Is Now Cheaper Than Wind: "Emerging markets are leapfrogging the developed world thanks to cheap panels."--Bloomberg.com

• IMF's Lagarde keeps job, escapes penalty after negligence conviction in France | Reuters.com

•  Fallibility, Reflexivity, Adaptability: “My conceptual framework is built on two relatively simple propositions. The first is that in situations that have thinking participants, the participants’ views of the world never perfectly correspond to the actual state of affairs. People can gain knowledge of individual facts, but when it comes to formulating theories or forming an overall view, their perspective is bound to be either biased or inconsistent or both. That is the principle of fallibility .... The second proposition is that these imperfect views can influence the situation to which they relate through the actions of the participants. For example, if investors believe that markets are efficient then that belief will change the way they invest, which in turn will change the nature of the markets in which they are participating (though not necessarily making them more efficient). That is the principle of reflexivity.”--George Soros. See Soros, Fallibility, Reflexivity, and the Importance of Adapting | blogs.cfainstitute.org

•  Much ado about nothing--Data Shows Fake News Sites Have Tiny Audience | DailyCaller.com--anyone surprised? (other than the 'sore losers' of the Clinton campaign, the anti-free speech liberal-left Dems, and MSM). 

•  The Hacking Evidence Against Russia Is [Still] Extremely Weak | WashingtonsBlog.com: "I don’t know what the DNC paid “Crowdstrike” for their narrative but they got a very poor return for their effort indeed. That the New York Times promotes it as any kind of evidence is a truly damning indictment of the mainstream media."

•  One More Thing: In Aleppo's historic St. Elias Cathedral, priests prayed for peace at the first Christmas Eve Mass in five years, attended by dozens of worshippers and some Russian officers. Many among the 400,000 Syrian Christians who comprise 10% of Syria's population, support Assad's Syrian government forces, not the Sunni Muslim rebel fighters supported by the Obama administration--sources. See also Journalist Eva Bartlett Destroys Mainstream News Journalists' Credibility Over Syria, Aleppo | washingtonsblog.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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