Thinking Beyond Flesh and Bones with AI – Ghana Latest Football News, Live Scores, Results – Ghanasoccernet.com

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The best way to predict the future is to invent it goes the quote. If you are someone who is interested in discovering and inventing things, then "Artificial Intelligence" is the right domain for you. It will not only make your life interesting, but you would be able to make other lives simple and easy!

What does thinking beyond bones and flesh mean? Artificial intelligence is not just about inventing robots and replacing humans, but also about every hard activity of replacing the slog. For example, AI can be used in different areas in the medical field, civil engineering, military services, machine learning, and other fields. To simply portray, artificial intelligence enables computers or software to think wisely about how a person behaves. As a result, the field is vast and you can have your hands on whichever lane seems alluring to you.

The ultimate goal of AI is to achieve human goals through computer programming! AI is about mimicking human intelligence, but with a computer program and with a little help from data. The way they think, act and respond to problems just like a human mind.

One of the most significant features of AI is the new invention of Israeli military soldier robots, which are used as soldiers to replace men and women. This, in turn, is not only effective, but it also reduces the loss of life caused by each war. Its design also minimizes the damage to the robot. How sensitive, but a knowledgeable and useful invention! Therefore, the future of the world depends on how easy it is to obtain any work, and our future is nothing more than Artificial Intelligence!

Now, let us see how many types of AI are there!

Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)

The concept of ANI generally means the flow of designing a computer or machine to perform a single task with high intelligence. It understands the individual tasks that must be performed efficiently. It is considered the most rudimentary concept of AI.

E.g.:

Artificial superintelligence is an aspect where intelligence is more powerful and sophisticated than human intelligence. While human intelligence is considered to be the most capable and developmental, superintelligence can suppress human intelligence.

It will be able to perform abstractions that are impossible for human minds to even think. The human brain is constrained to some billion neurons.

Artificial intelligence has the ability to mimic human thought. The ASI goes a step beyond and acquires a cognitive ability that is superior to humans.

As the name suggests, it is designed for general purpose. Its smartness could be applied to a variety of tasks as well as to learn and improve itself. It is as intelligent as a human brain. Unlike ANI it can improve the performance of itself.

E.g.: AlphaGo, it is currently used only to play the game Go, but its intelligence can be used in various levels and fields.

Scope of AI

The global demand for experts with relevant AI knowledge has doubled in the past three years and will continue to increase in the future. There are many more options for voice recognition, expert system, AI-enabled equipment, and more.

Artificial intelligence is the end of the future. So, why is no one willing to contribute to the future of the planet? Actually, in recent years, AI jobs have increased by almost 129%. In the United States alone, the demand for AI-related job is as high as 4,000!

Well, to catch the lightning opportunity present in AI, you need a bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, information science, math, etc. Now, if you are an undergraduate, then you can easily get a job in the AI domain with a reputed online certification course on AI. Doing this, you can earn anywhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 in India! In the United States, you can get US$50,000 - US$100,000.

In this smart world, it's easy to find any online certification courses. Some online courses may only focus on the simple foundations of AI, while others offer professional courses, etc. All you have to do is choose the lane you want to follow and start your route.

You would be glad to know that Intellipaat offers an industry-wide best AI course program that has been meticulously designed as per the industry standard and conducted by SMEs. This will not only enhance your knowledge but also help you bring a share of the knowledge gained in the field.

You need to master certain necessary skills to shine in this field such as Programming, Robotics, autonomous cars, space research, etc., You will also be required to gain special skills in Mathematics, statistics, analytics, and engineering skills. A good communication skill is always appreciated if you are aspiring to be in the business field in order to explain and get the right thing to the people out there.

Learners fascinated in the profession of artificial intelligence should discover numerous options in the field. Up-and-coming careers in AI can be accomplished in a variety of environments, such as finance, government, private agencies, healthcare, arts, research, agriculture, and more. The range of jobs and opportunities in AI is very high.

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Herring River project will revive long-afflicted estuary ecosystem – Cape Cod Times

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TuesdayFeb18,2020at3:01AM

My Wellfleet neighborhood abuts the Herring River, which was degraded in 1909 after a dike restricted tidal flow to the once-healthy estuary. Because tidal flow was blocked, water quality deteriorated, resulting in the death of fish and other sea life.

Currently, a dedicated group of people has spent over a decade working to restore this precious natural resource. Benefits include protecting and enhancing shellfishing and restoring once-abundant river herring and eels. Diamondback terrapins, winter flounder and striped bass should return to spawn, as well. Birds and other wildlife also will benefit from a healthy coastal environment.

A healthy tidal marsh will buffer storm surges resulting from climate change. Carbon stored by coastal wetlands reduces global warming. Free-flowing tides will help distribute sediment, allowing the marsh to gain elevation to help mitigate the effects of rising seas. There also will be a reduction in biting mosquitoes, which breed in stagnant waters.

I ask all to join me in supporting this project. Once restored, a healthy Herring River Estuary will provide recreational opportunities and seafood to be enjoyed by residents and visitors for generations.

Mary Ellen Manning, Wellfleet

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Herring River project will revive long-afflicted estuary ecosystem - Cape Cod Times

Strategic Analysis of Electric Vehicle Ecosystem in the United Kingdom, 2018-2025 – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Strategic Analysis of Electric Vehicle (EV) Ecosystem in the United Kingdom, 2018 - 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The automotive industry is rapidly evolving in terms of technology, as well as tackling environmental issues. Electric vehicles (EVs) have been introduced as a clean energy initiative, as they have low or zero emissions and have come a long way to becoming an integral part of OEMs' business strategies. Automakers are creating separate EV business units to be prepared for the expected EV boom in the short term. However, the surge in demand will create a need for huge charging infrastructure and safety regulations and standards.

The United Kingdom is a country that is aggressively pushing the country towards electrification, especially in the automotive and transportation sector. Stringent emission regulations, liberal incentives/subsidies for consumers and manufacturers, high level of localisation, concrete safety standards, and an established technology roadmap are some of the key steps taken by the government to ensure the success of electric vehicles in the near future.

Major OEMs such as Tata-JLR, Volkswagen, and Daimler have announced ambitious sales targets, and are expected to launch a large number of new and constructive electric vehicle models (from city-suited to long-range and powerful ones). Charging infrastructure, which is one of the major factors driving electric vehicle adoption, is also picking up pace, with many new companies entering the market. It has opened up new business models, enabling companies to position themselves either as manufacturers or operators or as a payment gateway.

The study gives a detailed analysis of the current and future prospects of electric vehicle sales in the United Kingdom - by model, by OEM, and by type of vehicle, until 2025. It provides insights into how charging stations have evolved over time and how companies have designed their strategies to establish a profitable supply chain. It also lists the various kinds of investments made in the electric vehicle space, promoting adoption.

Key Issues Addressed

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Research Scope, Objectives, and Methodology

3. EV Market Scenario

4. Government Efforts

5. Charging Station Infrastructure

6. Growth Opportunities and Companies to Action

7. Key Conclusions

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vnbo36

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Explained: Mobile App Architecture – The Basis of App Ecosystem – Appinventiv

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What Do We Mean by App Architecture?

The technical definition: It is a combination of structural elements and their individual set of interfaces using which a system is composed in addition to the framework behavior of all the structural elements.

In laymans terms: Mobile application architecture is a set of techniques and model/design that are supposed to be followed for building a structured mobile app. It can also be denoted as an apps skeleton upon which the working and quality is based.

So, everything that defines an app how the data would move, the UI/UX, the choice of platform, the tech stack, etc. is a part of Mobile app architecture patterns.

Selecting the right architecture must be a default primary step in the planning and designing phase of a software development project. However, most often than not, the stage is ignored simply on the grounds of making the development process slower and thus more extensive. While ironically, the lack of it is a major reason behind a mobile application failure.

The lack of an enterprise application architecture, though, introduces a number of issues in the software:

The glaring issues attached with the lack of an architecture or of it being deemed unimportant gives birth to the need to build a mobile application architecture that is right and accounts to all the necessary considerations.

At this stage, you will have to keep the device type into consideration. This would need you to study the screen size, resolution, CPU characteristics, memory, and storage space, plus the availability of the development tool environment.

The app features would have dependency on the software or hardware, which is why it is important to have the details of devices on which the app would run.

Throughout its lifecycle, your application will face several events where the internet connectivity will either be dwindling or there would be none at all. Your app architecture will have to be built noting the worst network conditions. You will have to design the data access mechanism, caching, and state management according to the worst case scenarios.

The importance of UI/UX within an application is unquestionable. Ensuring that your UI is devised to keep users engaged and give them an uncluttered experience is an important part of your mobile app infrastructure One that would define how well it is designed.

While majorly accounted for the app architecture designing front, the element would call for an expertise in both backend and frontend. On the basis of your understanding of who the customers are and what are their app requirements, you should analyze which one of these would be good for your app:

Knowing the elements will only take you halfway when dissecting what is mobile app architecture to its entirety.

All the mobile app architectures are divided into three layers. Understanding what these three layers are, helps mobile app development companies understand what architectures are made of.

The aim of this layer is to look into how to present the application to end users. When designing this layer, the mobile app developers must identify the correct client type for intended infrastructure. Additionally, the clients deployment restrictions must also be kept in mind. Another necessity is selecting the correct data format and using robust data validation mechanisms for protecting the apps from invalid entry.

This layer looks into elements on the business front. In layman words, it looks into the way businesses are presented to the end users. This consists of business components, workflow, and the entities under two sub-layer hood: Domain model and Service.

The service layer looks into the definition of common application function set that are available to the end users. While the domain model layer looks into the knowledge and expertise linked to specific problem areas.

The data access layer must meet the application requirements and should help in offering efficient and secure data transactions. Mobile app developers should also consider the maintenance side of the data while ensuring that the data layer can be modified easily with the changing business requirements.

This layer consists of the data specific components such as access components, utilities, helpers, and the service agents.

The three elements are placed under two subheads: Persistence Layer and Network Layer. The former offers simplified data access which is stored in the backend, the latter is needed for making networking calls.

The intent of everything you have read till now is to not just understand what is mobile app architecture but What is a Good Mobile App Architecture. Now, what makes an architecture a good architecture is the principle set it is based on.

Question: What are the foundations of a good mobile app architecture?

Answer: A good app architecture (both Android mobile app architecture and iOS application architecture) is the one which enforces good programming patterns and assumptions.

Meeting all these different conditions enables you to speed up the development process while making maintenance much easier. Additionally, a well devised architecture in addition to platform centric technology is best used for solving complicated business issues in an effective manner for app projects.

Establishing an architecture as good is an event that calls for it to follow different principles. These principles also hold the answer to how to choose the right architecture for your mobile app.

It is the systems ability to react to the changing environment. In the case of mobile apps, the environment changes maybe a lot more frequent noting the market and technological changes. A good mobile app architecture ensures that the system is portable enough to answer to the changes keeping the impact of those changes at the minimum.

Noting the requirement changes happening due to the environment changes should be modified to correct the faults, better the performance, etc. In such a scenario, there is always a need for constant app maintenance. A good mobile architecture and programming must ensure high maintainability while reducing the efforts needed to keep the system up and running.

A good mobile app architecture must understand that for a faster mobile app development process it is important that components and protocols can be reused during updations or at redesign. Noting this, it is important that the architecture has the space for add reusability in the structured development approach.

Data security is the most major non-functional need of an application. The architecture must be robust enough for securing the data which is consumed by the app. It should also be in sync with the organizations security ecosystem, while all the data which is stored on device must be properly encrypted.

Users expect applications to be quick and issues free. If the app takes a lot of time to fetch the details, the probability of users abandoning the application increases by manifold. A good mobile app architecture should be such that every single one of the users expectations are met to its entirety.

This is the stage which would set the basis of your deep diving further into the types of app architecture and having a conversation with the engineering team.

Sudeep Srivastav

CEO, Appinventiv

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Explained: Mobile App Architecture - The Basis of App Ecosystem - Appinventiv

Balance Your Own Ecosystem in the Great Board Game Ecosystem – Paste Magazine

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Science games are trendy right now, with Wingspan, my #1 game of last year, building on real characteristics of over 100 species of North American birds to create a richly textured game that gets the science right. Genius Games is a small publisher that focuses specifically on games with science or math themes, including Periodic (played on the periodic table) and Cytosis (a game of cell division, endorsed by the Journal of Cell Science). One of their latest titles, Ecosystem, asks players to build tableaux of cards that score enough points to win yet are balanced like a real ecosystem so the player doesnt lose points for a lack of biodiversity.

Ecosystem is a very straightforward game to playall the complexity is in the scoring. The game itself is a card-drafting tableau builder, and if you know what those two terms mean, you have a pretty good idea of how the game works. Youll build your ecosystem in a grid of four rows of five cards each, and you place those cards over two rounds, starting each round with ten cards. Youll place a card, pass your remaining hand to the player to your left or right, place another card, and so on until all players have placed 10 cards in the round. The only restrictions on card placement are that you must place each card orthogonally adjacent to a card youve already placed, and you cant go beyond the limits of four rows by five columns.

The deck includes 130 cards in total, so no matter your player count you wont use all the cards in any game (the maximum is 120, or 20 cards each with six players). The most common cards are meadows and streams, of which there are 20 apiece, while the remainder of the deck includes eight to 12 each of nine different types of animals, birds, fish, or insects, each of which has a unique function in the game.

Two card types, streams and wolves, score competitivelythe player with the most gets the most points, the player with the next-most gets a smaller point total, and so on. Most cards score based on whats nearby, either immediately adjacent or within two cards, including trout, bear, dragonflies, and bees, as well as foxes, which score only if there are no bears or wolves adjacent to them. Meadows score in clustersyou have to have at least two meadow cards adjacent to each other to score at all. One card, rabbits, scores just a single point each (up from nothing in the original edition), but when played gives you the only opportunity to move cards youve already played, either switching two in your tableau or replacing one with the rabbit and relocating the new one.

Most of these scoring rules at least mimic something from the real world. Dragonflies score (in a slightly convoluted way) if theyre next to streams, as do trout. Bears score if theyre next to trout and bees. Bees score if theyre next to meadows. Eagles score if theyre within twoyou know, because they flycards of trout or rabbits. Deer are the most solitary animal in the scoring, gaining two points for each row with a deer and two points for each column, so you can score 18 points for deer if you place one in each column and one in each row.

The game does reward you for building your ecosystem with sufficient biodiversity. If you have at least six categories in which you didnt score any points, you lose five points; if you have four or fewer categories with zeroes, however, you get a bonus. In my various plays with player counts from four to six, I dont think anyone has actually taken the penalty; youd have to actively be trying to focus on a few categories to the exclusion of others for that to happen.

Ecosystem plays two to six, but its definitely best with at least four so you get more cards in play and so the effects of the card-drafting mechanic are more pronounced. With two players, the rules include a neutral player that takes 10 cards in each round and randomly takes one card whenever a hand is passed to its position; the neutral player also counts in the stream and wolf scoring. Its much better with more players, though, and still moves quickly because of the simultaneous play; even with five players, two of them new to the game, it only took us about 35-40 minutes, and I think itd be under a half an hour if wed played again with the same group.

The scoring is not that intuitive, and youll probably check your player reference card frequently even after a few plays, but when I introduce people to the game, they get caught up in the tableau-building part and learn the scoring as we goprobably the best way to learn most games. Its a great lightweight game and, at $15, a great value for a highly portable title.

Keith Law is the author of Smart Baseball and a senior baseball writer for The Athletic. His latest book, The Inside Game, is due out in April 2020. You can find his personal blog the dish, covering games, literature, and more, at meadowparty.com/blog.

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Governor’s grizzly council makes tracks to Libby City Hall this month – The Western News

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The Western News - Front Page Slider, Governors grizzly council makes tracks to Libby City Hall this month '); $(this).addClass('expanded'); $(this).animate({ height: imgHeight + 'px' }); } } }); }); function closeExpand(element) { $(element).parent('.expand-ad').animate({ height: '30px' }, function () { $(element).parent('.expand-ad').removeClass('expanded'); $(element).remove(); }); } function runExpandableAd() { setTimeout(function() { $('.expand-ad').animate({ height: $('.expand-ad img').height() + 'px' }); }, 2000); setTimeout(function() { $('.expand-ad').animate({ height: '30px' }); }, 4000); } function customPencilSize(size) { var ratio = 960/size; var screenWidth = $('body').width(); if (screenWidth > 960) screenWidth = 960; $('.expand-ad__holder').parent('.ad').css('padding-bottom', (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px'); $('.expand-ad__holder').css({ height: (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px' }); $('.expand-ad').css({ height: (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px' }); $('.expand-ad img').css('height', 'auto'); $('.expand-ad embed').css('height', 'auto'); $('.expand-ad embed').css('width', '100%'); $('.expand-ad embed').css('max-width', '960px'); } function customSize(size, id) { var element = jQuery('script#' + id).siblings('a').children('img'); if (element.length 960) screenWidth = 960; element.css('height', (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px'); } (function () { window.addEventListener('message', function (event) { $(document).ready(function() { var expand = event.data.expand; if (expand == 'false') { $('.expand-ad__holder').removeClass('expand-ad__holder'); $('.expand-ad').removeClass('expand-ad'); } }); }, false); function loadIframe(size, id) { $('.ad').each(function () { var iframeId = $(this).children('ins').children('iframe').attr('name'); var element = $(this).children('ins').children('iframe'); if (element.length > 0) { var ratio = 960 / size; var screenWidth = $('body').width(); if (screenWidth > 960) screenWidth = 960; element.css('height', (screenWidth / ratio) + 'px'); } }); } })();

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What are Bhutan’s sacred forests worth? – Forests News, Center for International Forestry Research

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There are many ways to assess mountain ecosystem services, but because of these challenges the researchers decided to study the mountain communities social perceptions to put together an initial picture of Bhutans ecosystem services.

We felt this perception study would be a good way to kickstart our understanding of the forests ecosystem services, said Jigme Wangchuk, a researcher at UWICER. Its a quick and affordable method and it helps the communities better understand the connection between ecosystem services and their livelihood.

The researchers used participatory research methods, including focus group discussions, interviews and household surveys and focused on three forest types, namely high-altitude oak forests, forest management units and community plantations.

Like most studies on ecosystem services, the CIFOR and UWICER study divided services into four categories: provisioning services, which are products obtained from the ecosystem, such as fresh water or food; regulating services, which are benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes such as climate regulation or avalanche mitigation; habitat services, which highlight the importance of ecosystems to provide habitat for migratory species and to maintain the viability of gene-pools; and cultural services, which are non-material benefits that people obtain from ecosystems such as spiritual enrichment, or recreation.

The idea was to learn what components and services of the forest are important to the local people so down the line the government and other potential buyers know which services are worth paying to preserve. The end goal, Baral said, was for Bhutan to explore the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme, where whoever preserves or maintains an ecosystem service should be paid for doing so. An example of this is when companies buy carbon offset credits and the payment goes to communities taking care of a forest that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere.

For this to work in Bhutan, two things need to be clear. First, the buyer needs to know what they are paying for, and second, the seller needs to know what they are providing to the buyer, Baral said. For this reason, its important and critical to determine what services Bhutans forests are providing to whom. And identifying and quantifying these services is the primary step.

After interviews and discussions with 396 villagers in villages spread out across 17 forests in Bhutan, the researchers reported 17 ecosystem services perceived overall as important to the communities.

The villagers recognized fresh water, timber, fuel wood, non-wood forest products, fodder and leaf litter as the forests provisioning services, with fresh water and timber as the most important. For regulating services, they thought ground water recharge, fresh air, carbon sequestration and soil erosion protection equally ranked as the top services.

They named soil productivity, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, pollination as supporting services, with soil productivity and biodiversity as most important. And for cultural services, they chose recreation and aesthetic services as most important, followed closely by cultural spiritual sites.

The researchers compared this list to ecosystem services identified by forestry experts and found common priorities, namely the provisioning services of fresh water, non-wood forest products, fodder, food, fuel wood, and grazing; and the regulating services of soil erosion protection, natural hazard reduction, and water purification.

Researchers noted priority services chosen by residents in the three different study areas. Among the ecosystem services identified by communities in the oak forest, water regulation, provision of fodder and fuel wood were the priorities. Access to timber was the priority for communities in the planted forest, and those in the forest management units named land productivity, freshwater, timber, and fresh air as the top ecosystem services.

Overall, the interviews and discussions revealed that villagers ascribe their good health to a healthy forest. And the researchers are happy they now have baseline knowledge of the forests. But the study also uncovered a perception that there is a general decline in the provision of ecosystem services, particularly from forest management units. Villagers attributed the decline to a country-wide increase in the demand for timber, which they have linked to socio-economic development.

The researchers plan on validating these findings through scientific field measurements and similar studies in other forest management regimes.

Baral, Sears, Wangchuk and Choden noted that among the best things to have come out of the project was a synergy between the communities and the researchers, and between the international researchers and the local scientists.

Researchers learned about how communities value the forest and learned to appreciate local knowledge, and villagers learned about the ecosystem service conceptual framework. Prior to the study, we thought the local people were aware of ecosystem services obtained from their forest but not all of the regulating and supporting services, Choden said. After the study we learned that people are aware and value their ecosystem services beyond provisioning services.

My sense is that the local people would like to know more about their forest. And if they have a different narrative about the relationship between trees and water, I think they wouldnt mind hearing about the scientific narrative, Sears said. At the same time, we scientists recognized local people as the experts. They have been living near these forests for generations. We learn from them.

UWICER researchers feel that the training they received in research design and social science methods as part of the project will go a long way. It substantially enhanced our capacity in project planning, implementation in the field, interpretation of results and publication of results, Wangchuk said. Many local researchers got to author or co-author studies, a big opportunity that enhanced our scientific paper writing skills and presentation.

Our Bhutanese colleagues, they took the initiative once the team defined what the three projects would be, Sears said. They took it and ran with it.

What enhances these new capacities is that local researchers now have a stronger link to the local knowledge that farmers and villagers have used to care for their forests for hundreds of years. Its a whole other knowledge system, Sears said. It now informs future research and empowers the Bhutanese people in decision making. That has great value.

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Ecosystem Services Assessment of the Prins Hendrik Zanddijk – Dredging Today

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The International Association of Dredging Companies (IADC) latest edition of their Terra et Aqua magazine featured a very interesting article named Ecosystem services assessment of the Prins Hendrik Zanddijk.

This study examines which and, if possible, how much more ecosystem services are provided by the most recent nature inspired coastal protection project Prins Hendrik Zanddijk, in comparison with a traditional concrete and asphalt construction.

During the last decade, reclamation of a sandbody as a coastal protection measure has evolved into a viable and attractive alternative to handbook-engineering using concrete and asphalt.

The latter, considered traditional coastal protection methods, offers the reassurance of multiple generations of engineering experience and reliability.

Nature based solutions (NBS) are defined as solutions that are inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously providing environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience (European Commission 2019).

NBS such as sandbody designs must cope with dynamic behaviour and variability of the building material as well as with uncertainty of maintenance costs. The quantification of the cost-effective part of this definition remains a difficult task.

Authors

Jan Fordeyn (Jan De Nul Group) | Katrien Van der Biest (University of Antwerp) | Emile Lemey (Jan De Nul Group) | Annelies Boerema (University of Antwerp) | Patrick Meire (University of Antwerp)

Posted on February 13, 2020 with tags IADC, Prins Hendrik, Terra et Aqua.

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ConsenSys Grants funds third cohort of projects to benefit the Ethereum ecosystem – CryptoNinjas

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Initially announced at Devcon 4 in 2018, Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and the founder of ConsenSys, one of the worlds largest blockchain companies, building the tools, infrastructure, and apps that power the Ethereum network created a $550,000 grant fund to be distributed to projects building out the Ethereum ecosystem.

ConsenSys Grants funds open-source projects that benefit the greater Ethereum ecosystem. Projects supported include critical areas such as core infrastructure, improved developer tooling and UX, security, and access to knowledge for developers, users, and social impact projects.

Since 2019, the ConsenSys Grantsprogram has funded 25 projects in total.

Infrastructure:

Ecosystem Growth:

Usability + Dev Tooling:

Security

Infrastructure

Usability + dev tooling

Social Impact

Education + technical knowledge

Sigma Prime is extremely grateful for the support received from ConsenSys. This grant helped us scale the Lighthouse development team, allowing us to hire and retain amazing talents. Were proud of all the progress achieved over the past few months, with Lighthouse becoming a leading Eth2 implementation. The funding received from ConsenSys is instrumental to reaching our goals. Mehdi Zerouali, Director, Sigma Prime

ConsenSys Grants is more than the money; it helped the team understand its on the right track, and gave community validation. A great tool for showing community that this is a step in the right direction. Yoav Weiss, CTO, TabooKey (Gas Station Network)

Girls are coming out of the program so well-rounded, educated, and being able to compete in the blockchain space. They are telling their story through the communities that they serve. It has been awesome. And provided them a platform to be invited to the blockchain ecosystem. Ewurabena Ashun, Curriculum Management & Development , Black Girls Code

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ConsenSys Grants funds third cohort of projects to benefit the Ethereum ecosystem - CryptoNinjas

OIF Members to Showcase Innovation and Interoperability Solutions for the Industrys Most Critical Challenges at OFC 2020 – Yahoo Finance

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Interoperability demos on 400ZR, CEI-112G, FlexE and IC-TROSA; OIF experts to lead panel discussions and OIF to Host "Cu (see you) Beyond 112 Gbps" Workshop

OIF will host one of the largest interoperability demos in its history reflecting the ongoing significance of OIFs work in addressing global network challenges. Twenty industry-leading system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors will demonstrate critical insight into how key technologies 400ZR, Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-112G, Flex Ethernet (FlexE) and Integrated Coherent Transmit-Receive Optical Sub Assembly (IC-TROSA) interoperate within the industrys ecosystem at OFC 2020 in San Diego, March 10-12, 2020 (booth #6221).

Participating companies include Acacia Communications, Amphenol, Arista Networks, Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Credo Semiconductor (HK) LTD, Fujitsu Optical Components, II-VI, Inphi Corporation, Juniper Networks, Keysight Technologies, Marvell, Microchip, Molex, NeoPhotonics, Samtec, Inc., Spirent Communications, TE Connectivity, VIAVI Solutions and Yamaichi Electronics.

"The participation level by 20 companies in this years interoperability demos for 400ZR, CEI-112G, FlexE and IC-TROSA, is a true reflection of our enduring leadership and evidence that these technologies continue to be the preeminent focus areas for our member companies," explained Steve Sekel of Keysight and OIFs Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Interoperability Working Group (WG) Chair. "We are eager to showcase the advancements that these technologies and our work have made over the past year."

400ZR Demo

OIF has defined the 400ZR interface that provides interoperability of coherent optical interfaces for data center interconnect applications. The demo will show first time ever operation of 400ZR equipment from multiple system and module vendors and in multiple pluggable form factors.

CEI-112G Demo

The CEI-112G demo will feature interoperating channels, components and silicon that demonstrate the CEI-112G-XSR, CEI-112G-VSR, CEI-112G-MR and CEI-112G-LR draft implementation agreements. Demonstrating interoperability for extra short reach channels is important to support the co-packaging developments that are expected to be discussed throughout the week at OFC. Interoperable very short reach, medium reach and long reach channels and silicon are also critical to support the developing 112 Gbps equipment that is expected to come to market soon. These updated demos surpass what OIF has demonstrated in the past with additional member contributions and continue to build on the developing ecosystem of products coming to market to support CEI-112G.

FlexE Demo

The FlexE demo that will be on display incorporates FlexE silicon operating with multiple test equipment and interoperating over a 400 Gbps fiber network that will be deployed on the show floor between the Ethernet Alliance booth and the OIF booth. This reflects further developments that are taking place in the FlexE market since the previous OIF FlexE demos.

IC-TROSA Demo

The IC-TROSA features all the optical building blocks for a coherent module in a single package. This demo will highlight important aspects of IC-TROSA integration as well as real-time EVM measurements with the updated script for 400ZR.

An additional point of interest will be a static display of coherent optical components which will emphasize the role of OIF in the coherent optical marketplace over the past 10 years.

OIF @ OFC 2020 Activities

OIF experts will participate in two panels at OFC 2020 that feature the latest updates on critical technologies that work to enable a more efficient and reliable network.

"400ZR Specification Update" Tuesday, 10 March, 13:30 14:30, Theater III

Moderator: Karl Gass, OIF PLL WG Vice Chair Optical

Speakers include: Josef Berger, Inphi Corporation; Masahiro Mogi, Fujitsu Optical Components; Gert Sarlet, II-VI; Marc Stiller, NeoPhotonics and Markus Weber, Acacia Communications

Industry experts from OIF will lead a panel discussion of representatives from the DSP, optics, equipment and end user communities on the conflicting demands for a near-term, high-volume, interoperable, moderate reach, coherent 400G optical link. The session will also include an update on OIFs project to define a 400ZR link specification.

Story continues

"112 Gbps Electrical Interfaces An OIF update on CEI-112G" Wednesday, 11 March, 16:15 17:00, Theater II

Moderator: Nathan Tracy, OIF President, TE Connectivity

Speakers include: Ed Frlan, OIF Technical Committee Chair, Semtech, Corp.; Mike Li, OIF Board, Intel; Cathy Liu, OIF Board, Broadcom, Inc.; Gary Nicholl, OIF Board, Cisco; Steve Sekel, OIF PLL Interoperability WG Chair, Keysight Technologies

OIF experts will lead a panel discussion on the ongoing CEI-112G electrical interface development projects, and the new architectures they will enable including chiplet packaging, co-packaged optics and internal cable-based solutions. The panel will provide an update on the multiple interfaces being defined by OIF including CEI-112G MCM, XSR, VSR, MR and LR for 112 Gbps applications of die-to-die, chip-to-module, chip-to-chip and long reach over backplane and cables.

"Cu (see you) Beyond 112 Gbps" Workshop Thursday, 12 March, 12:00-17:30, Hilton San Diego Gaslamp, 401 K St (across from the SD Convention Center), San Diego, Ca.

OIF will hold a half-day workshop "Cu (see you) Beyond 112 Gbps" featuring experts from Arista, Broadcom, Inc., Cisco, Facebook, Google, Innovium, Intel, MACOM and TE Connectivity discussing the needs and challenges for electrical interfaces beyond 112 Gbps. Registration required:

Check the status of OIFs current work here.

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industrys interoperability work gets done. Building on 20 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 100+ industry leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors collaborating to develop interoperable electrical, optical and control solutions that directly impact the industrys ecosystem and facilitate global connectivity in the open network world. Connect with OIF at @OIForum, on LinkedIn and at http://www.oiforum.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200218005625/en/

Contacts

Leah WilkinsonWilkinson + Associates for OIFEmail: leah@wilkinson.associates Office: 703-907-0010

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OIF Members to Showcase Innovation and Interoperability Solutions for the Industrys Most Critical Challenges at OFC 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Regenerative farming: how farmers can make the transition – The Poultry Site

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The FAI Farm Gate podcast is interviewing Claire Hill, farm manager at FAI Farms and Caroline Grindrod, regenerative farmer and consultant from Roots of Nature, to discuss their experiences with regenerative agriculture and its potential to make farming an environmental and economic boon in the coming decades.

Though FAI Farm in Oxford is already an organic livestock farm, they recently decided to transition their breeder/finisher operation to regenerative farming. Hill and her team made the decision after reviewing existing evidence on grazing practices and environmental sustainability. When thinking of her business strategy, She felt that developing the market and supply chain for regeneratively raised animals could counteract the current narrative of agricultures role in the climate crisis.

She began transitioning her ruminants off grain and onto FAIs pastureland to get more savvy with grazing and soil management. She also wanted to improve her water infrastructure to make it more sustainable. Hill refers to the moves as an, evolution. These changes, and the growing salience of climate change, led her to embrace regenerative farming instead of remaining an organic operation.

According to Grindrod, there isnt a single definition of regenerative farming. However, she stresses that the term shouldnt be diluted or green-washed as it gains traction. When explaining regenerative agriculture to Costain, she cited the summary published on Wikipedia. That definition lists the priorities of regenerative agriculture: increasing biodiversity, improving soil quality, restoring watersheds and enhancing the ecosystem of the farm.

When explaining how she advises her clients, she says that a healthy ecosystem will also be a productive one. Regenerative farming requires the farmer to completely rethink their role in the ecosystem. Instead of the farmer acting as a manager, she tells farmers that they are in the ecosystem with their animals. By viewing the farm and surrounding ecology holistically, farmers will be better placed to sequester carbon, replenish the watershed and foster biodiversity.

Regenerative farming also takes a different view of daily farming practices. Instead of focusing on inputs and extracting profitable outputs, regenerative agriculture is more focused on fostering complexity in the surrounding environment. It isnt about damaging things less while farming Grindrod wants her clients to be at the right end of ecosystem management.

Holistic management the framework Grindrod uses when transitioning farms to regenerative methods involves looking at the farm context and surrounding environment. The goal for the farmer is to do the best they can with the farm they have. To begin, Grindrod evaluates the physical landscape of the farm and the ecosystem processes. This includes the water and mineral cycles. It also focuses on more nuanced indicators like community dynamics and energy flow.

Community dynamics is a way of indicating the level of complexity in the farms ecosystem. After initially evaluating the surrounding environment, Grindrod might consider introducing functional species to counteract issues that are emerging on farm. This could mean introducing pest-eating insects to reduce a farms reliance on pesticides or adding methanotrophs to the farm system to ensure wastes are broken down quickly.

Energy flow focuses on ways farmers can create or store energy on-farm. Grindrod might think of ways for farmers to sequester carbon in plant biomass or where to place solar panels to capture the most energy.

The holistic framework means that any regenerative steps are highly individualised and focused on long-term farm goals like improving soil quality or eliminating pesticide use. Theres also an emphasis on identifying root causes for using conventional farm inputs that can harm the environment like fertiliser or medical treatments. The idea is that the decisions made within the framework will evaluate the welfare and health consequences of the animals, input costs, ecosystem costs and make sure solutions are economically feasible.

Both Grindrod and Hill concede that changing farmers mindsets was one of the biggest obstacles to implementing regenerative agriculture. Farmers tend to be risk-averse and know the land very well meaning that new methods can be met with resistance. Since regenerative solutions are farm-specific and not universal, Hill and Grindrod have had farmers immediately say, you cant do that on this farm to many of their proposals.

As Hill was explaining her own transition from organic production to regenerative agriculture, she said that it requires the mentality of, how can we do that on this farm? as opposed to, you cant do that on this farm.

Hill emphasised that her move wasnt a formula that could easily adopted by all farms the transition to regenerative agriculture is difficult to replicate on a wide scale. In addition, many of Hills steps didnt work immediately out of the gate. It took time and investment to see the solutions work.

Another component of farmers mindsets that had to change was the perception that adopting regenerative techniques would lead to drops in yield or profitability. In Hills experience, this perception isnt borne out by the facts. When discussing FAI Farms transition with Costain, she predicts that her profit margins will increase because she isnt spending as much money on inputs and is saving time on her daily tasks.

Since making the transition, Hill isnt spending as much on straw or silage and she doesnt have to do as much tractor work (so less is spent on diesel). She is also saving money on overall running costs since she is using fewer machines. Treatment costs for the animals are down as well meaning that fewer chemicals are being released in the ecosystem. For her farm, these benefits have made the regenerative investments worthwhile; shes hoping to make further investments in the future.

Though FAI Farm is early in their regenerative journey, Grindrod is confident that it will become more successful over time. Her consultancy, Roots of Nature, has shown that regenerative farms can have high productivity measures while regenerating soil quality and the ecosystem. In her view, regeneration could be the key strategy for the agricultural sector to remain sustainable and resilient for the future.

Listen to the full Farm Gate podcast here.

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Regenerative farming: how farmers can make the transition - The Poultry Site

JPMorgan Dipping its Toes into the Ethereum Ecosystem Could Be Bullish for ETH – newsBTC

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Banking giant JPMorgan has offered mixed signals when it comes to their thoughts on cryptocurrencies, with the banks CEO frequently bashing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, despite offering their own intra-bank digital asset dubbed JPM Coin that is built upon the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

Now, it appears the JPMorgan could be dipping its toes into the Ethereum ecosystem, as news recently broke that the financial institution is looking to merge its blockchain unit with ConsenSys.

Analysts believe that this potential merger would be highly bullish for Ethereums price action.

The upcoming merger, which was announced in a recent report from Reuters, is expected to be formally announced in the next six months, and all the details surrounding this event still remain foggy.

It is important to note that JPMorgans blockchain unit called Quorum is built upon the Ethereum network, which makes ConsenSys which is led by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin an obvious merger target due to its heavy involvement within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Ethereum is currently trading up just under 2% at its current price of $226, although its intraday climb likely has less to do with investors excitement surrounding this possibility, and more to do with Bitcoins rise to $10,000.

If this partnership does materialize, however, it will likely generate some buzz surrounding Ethereum, and possibly lead retail investors to fomo into fresh positions.

Although it is unlikely that the cryptocurrencys current price action will be influenced by this news due to the lack of details surrounding it, analysts do believe it is firmly bullish for ETH in the long-term.

Satoshi Flipper, a prominent cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that this merger could be JPMorgans attempt to increase its presence within the enterprise blockchain arena prior to the launch of ETH 2.0.

So why is this so bullish for #Ethereum? Because cash is king and JPMorgan has much of it. With the pending release of 2.0, JPMorgan could desire an increased presence in the enterprise blockchain arena. And #Ethereum is a quick ticket to get there, he explained while referencing the news report.

Because it could be another six months before theres a formal announcement regarding this partnership, there is still a lot of time for things to change, which is likely leading Ethereum investors to express some caution when it comes to trading this news.

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JPMorgan Dipping its Toes into the Ethereum Ecosystem Could Be Bullish for ETH - newsBTC

Announced the Addition of New Statistical Data Titled as Embedded Computing Ecosystem Market 2020 by Growth, Demand & Opportunities & Forecast…

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Global Embedded Computing Ecosystem market reports provide an in-depth and detailed analysis to thoroughly analyze the details you need. This report provides an extensive overview of market-based factors that are expected to have a substantial and decisive impact on the markets growth prospects over the forecast period.

Demand for the global Embedded Computing Ecosystem market is growing significantly, driving a larger market with a better-quality experience. The rapid increase in technological progress is expected to be practical in the next few years.

Avail Sample Report @https://www.researchnreports.com/request_sample.php?id=222794

Top Key players:

AMD, ANalog Devices, ARM, Apple, Broadcom, Cypress, Fujitsu, IBM, Infineon, Microchip/Atmel, Microsoft, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Renesas, STMicroelectronics, Samsung, Texas Instruments

Geographically, regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East, and Africa and Latin America can be classified into the global Embedded Computing Ecosystem market. After four years, the presence of a large distribution network is dominant and is expected to reach the highest CAGR by the end of a given forecast period.

In summary, the report includes business and finance, company profile, and recent growth. The challenges faced by each company and the business strategy implemented by him in order to generate and generate high profits in the market were also presented.

The report can answer the following questions:

Objective of Studies:

Get maximum discount: https://www.researchnreports.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=222794

Table of Content:

Chapter 1 Global Embedded Computing Ecosystem Industry Overview

Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry

Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2014-2020)

Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2014-2020)

Chapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type

Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application

Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers

Continue for TOC

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Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer-driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices, where relying on a soundboard firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cutthroat global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer to consult as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently, we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.

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Announced the Addition of New Statistical Data Titled as Embedded Computing Ecosystem Market 2020 by Growth, Demand & Opportunities & Forecast...

On Apple’s revenue warningJim Cramer and others weigh in – CNBC

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Here's what five experts say investors should watch regarding Apple's expectations of a financial hit because of the coronavirus outbreak in China.

A day after the announcement, Apple stock was down 3% at midday Tuesday.

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money," says long-term believers of Apple's bull case should buy in here.

"I am surprised it's not down more because it's not just supply. It's demand. Demand has to come down because they don't do much shopping in China and with supply, it's not them. It's supply chain and some of the companies that need to give them the supplies, they can switch their six or seven plants in that Hubei area that are halted. I think there's just not a lot of people that want to sell anything. I think a lot of people thought this would happen and we're just waiting for that shoe to fall. I can't come up with a reason short term to buy it. I do think that if you believe the coronavirus is going to get better, you buy it right here."

Mike Volpi, general partner at Index Ventures, says a stock reaction is to be expected as Apple gets squeezed on the supply and demand side.

"Not entirely surprising. If you look at what's happening in China right now, there's over 150 million people that have some kind of a restriction can't leave their home, can't travel. That's over 10% of the population and Apple faces a bit of a double whammy in that when people can't travel and leave their homes, they can't buy phones, they can't buy iPads and so forth and at the same time, all of their production is in China, so you get hit on the supply side and on the demand side. So in some sense, not totally surprising."

Daniel Flax, senior research analyst at Neuberger Berman, says overall demand still remains healthy.

"I think what's important here is that people are demanding the devices which are innovative, the ecosystem remains healthy, newer growth drivers like wearables are doing very, very well for the company and so this is of course tragic for China and the people globally that are being impacted, but we see it largely as supply related and of course a little bit of demand impacted in China for the company."

William Power, senior research analyst at Robert W. Baird, says demand outside of China should offset the impact.

"This has been an ecosystem story for some time. We think that remains very much intact. You still got a services business that's growing mid-teens, you got a wearables business the grew north of 30%. I think one of the key comments out of the release last night was that they're still seeing very strong demand outside of China. Expectations are still in line on that front. So this really hasn't extended beyond China obviously a terrible human toll and we think ultimately is more of a temporary impact."

Gene Munster, founder of Loup Ventures, says this stock reaction is less than other warnings in the past.

"I think it's important to point out in the context this is the second time in six quarters that Apple's missed numbers. China was part of it back in December of 2018. At that point, if you look at the stock, that was a well-telegraphed miss but the trajectory downward was 35%. And so we're talking about one-10th of the reaction versus six quarters ago. I think that context is important because, on large, investors are viewing this as something that is transitional, this black swan type of event, and we'll move through it."

Disclaimer

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On Apple's revenue warningJim Cramer and others weigh in - CNBC

Here’s how a visiting venture capitalist explores Houston’s startup ecosystem for the first time – InnovationMap

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When Houston Exponential established the HX Venture Fund, the goal was to bring out-of-town capital and investors into the city of Houston. The fund of funds invests in a portfolio of venture capital funds with the hope that those funds find a way back into the Houston startup ecosystem.

After a little over a year, HXVF has invested in five funds: Boston-based .406 Ventures, Austin-based Next Coast Ventures, Boston-based OpenView Venture Partners, Washington D.C.-based Updata Partners, and Austin-based LiveOak Venture Partners.

The fund of funds is also regularly hosting those five funds as well as a mix of potential portfolio fund members in Houston for what the HXVF calls "immersion days" where the venture capitalists can meet local startups, innovation leaders, and even fellow investors that they could eventually co-invest with.

"The goals of these days are to have venture capitalists travel to Houston, meet with our entrepreneurs (and the startup development organizations like Station, Cannon and WeWork that support them), and provide both capital and expertise in company building to the tech companies," says Sandy Guitar Wallis, managing partner at HXVF. "The venture capitalists also meet with HX Venture Fund corporate LPs, who can be customers or acquirers of their portfolio companies."

Just this month alone, HXVF is hosting four funds two from their portfolio and two that they haven't yet invested in. San Antonio-based Active Capital, which has raised a $21 million fund, is among the visiting VCs this month. The fund's founder, Pat Matthews, an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, has shared his busiest day February 5 as well as his perspective on Houston innovation with InnovationMap.

After waking up at the Hotel Derek, Matthews starts his second day in Houston by taking a Lyft to the Greater Houston Partnership for what he believes to be a breakfast meeting with Wallis and Guillermo Borda of HXVF, but the group has too much to discuss that a meal falls by the wayside.

Before this trip, Matthews hasn't visited Houston in a professional capacity. While Active Capital is based just down I10 in San Antonio, the firm's investments are split almost in half by deals done in Texas versus the rest of the world. Active Capital focuses on B2B SaaS investments usually leading in seed or series A rounds.

Matthews has called Texas home for around a decade. He founded an email marketing startup in Virginia, which was acquired by San Antonio-based Rackspace. He relocated to join Rackspace and worked on growing the organization for six years before creating Active Capital.

Following the meeting still unfed, Matthews meets up with Serafina Lalany from Houston Exponential to carpool to The Cannon on the west side of town.

Matthews forgoes his usual carb aversion to eat slices of Domino's pizza at The Cannon before beginning his first of three fireside chats with Houston innovators. Patrick Schneidau, CEO of Truss, leads the conversation at The Cannon. (Schneidau is a board member of InnovationMap's.) After the chat, Matthews has a meeting with a startup before heading back into town.

With one fireside chat down, Matthews heads into his second one of the day at Station Houston with Joe Alapat, founder of Liongard. Matthews observes that each of the entrepreneurs who interviewed him had great questions, and seemed to be far along with their companies. Meanwhile, any of the people he met before or after the chat seemed to be at a much earlier stage in their startup journey.

The last fireside chat was hosted by Rakesh Agrawal of Snapstream at WeWork's Jones Building location. Matthews and Agrawal attempted to set up a Facebook livestream for the conversation, but an issue with the technology wouldn't allow for the stream.

With meetings and fireside chats done, Matthews heads straight to a dinner with Blair Garrou, founder and managing director of Mercury Fund. The two venture capitalists dine at Eunice and split several appetizers and a bottle of wine while discussing their own recent investments and interests. Matthews, who met Garrou in 2014, thinks of him as a great mentor in venture capital.

Matthews headed back to the hotel after dinner and crashes hard after the long day. He would head back to San Antonio on a Vonlane bus he gets a lot of work done on his trips the next day.

Matthews says he left Houston with an overall positive opinion of the city, and says it's similar to other Texas cities, aside from Austin, in its startup presence and capacity. While he assumed he'd meet energy and space startups, he realized Houston had a lot more going on than that.

"It definitely seemed like there was a lot of passion and a lot of hustle," Matthews says. "And it seems like the city is really working to support and cultivate that and keep it in Houston. I was inspired."

Throughout the visit, Matthews handed out his business card and some conversations have developed from those connections, he says. Another representative from Active Capital who is focused on sourcing deals with startups will visit next, and Matthews says he also thinks that he'll return to Houston to continue conversations he's been having, including some with other investors.

"I could definitely see doing deals in Houston," Matthews tells InnovationMap.

The rest is here:

Here's how a visiting venture capitalist explores Houston's startup ecosystem for the first time - InnovationMap

Floating Farms May Help Reinvent the World’s Food Ecosystems – WIRED

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Karma, Courage, and Sustainabetty are special heifers. They have uninterrupted views of Rotterdam harbor, poop on a poop deck, and walk that gangplank to a pasture. They and 31 other Meuse-Rhine-Issel cows clomped aboard the world's first floating dairy farm last May.

It's the best milk in the world, says Peter van Wingerden, founder of the Dutch property development company Beladon, which built the barge. In 2012, hearing that floods from Hurricane Sandy had crippled New York City's food distribution system, he imagined that waterborne urban farms could boost food security. Why Rotterdam? A quarter of the Netherlands is below sea level. Why 1,500-pound bovines? If we could put big animals inside the city on a floating barge, we could do anything.

Getting a green light required years of answering questions from local officials: Crucially, do cows get seasick? On a steady platform, their research concluded, heifers likely won't spew their cud. The 4,843-square-foot stable floats on concrete pontoons anchored by two steel beams driven 65 feet into the seabed. The structure rises and falls with the 8-foot tides and never tilts more than 11 inches, even in winds topping 70 mph or if the herd crowds the stern to watch passing crustaceans.

Each day aboard this largely self-sustaining ecosystem, cows eat potato peels and grass clippings, then set free 5,700-plus pounds of dung, which a Roomba-like robot sucks up and dumps down a shaft to a deck below. There it's turned into fertilizer for the soccer fields and parks that grow the grass feed. A milking robot pulls around 5 gallons from each heifer, which is bottled or made into yogurt and then trucked to local grocery stores.

Van Wingerden has talked to food companies and developers seeking to bring buoyant dairies to Singapore, Dubai, and New York. Alas, experts say large-scale floating farms would be prohibitively expensive and rely on too many resources to remain sustainable. But van Wingerden hopes the sight of cows grazing on a boat sparks creative thinking for future food production. Humans must produce 56 percent more food to feed a global population of 9.8 billion by 2050. Sure, seems like that'll happen when pigs fly. Or, when cows float.

Laura Mallonee (@LauraMallonee) writes about photography for WIRED.

This article appears in the March issue. Subscribe now.

More Great WIRED Stories

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Floating Farms May Help Reinvent the World's Food Ecosystems - WIRED

Italian carmaker Maserati to invest USD 1.29 billion to build an electric ecosystem – The New Indian Express

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By Express News Service

Italian luxury automaker Maserati has revealed details about its global product strategy. As part of the new plan, the company will shift focus on its electrification push with pure electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid vehicles along with expanding its product line-up with an all-new SUV.

The company said its models will be 100 per cent developed, engineered and built in Italy. Its electrification programme starts this year, and the first hybrid car to be built will be the new Maserati Ghibli. Production of the new Maserati GranTurismo and GranCabrio, the brands first cars to adopt 100 per cent electric solutionsm, will commence in 2021, it said.

Maserati has also decided to build the GranTurismo and GranCabrio at the Mirafiori production hub, with an investment of 800 million Euros ($1.29 billion).The latest generation of the GranTurismo and GranCabrio, two iconic cars for the Trident Brand, have totalled more than 40,000 units sold from 2007 to 2019.

During 2020, Mirafiori will be strengthening its position as a world hub dedicated to the electrification and mobility of the future, with a large proportion of its capacity allocated to the production of the brands new electrified cars, Maserati said in a statement. It added that its heart is still in Modena (Italy), where it has its headquarters. In 2020, the first of the new Modena-built Maserati models will be the super sports car. The company informed that major modernisation work is in progress on the production line at the Modena plant, partly to accommodate the electric version of the new super sports car. The carmaker is also coming up with a utility vehicle, which will be built at Cassino and intended to play a leading role for the brand.

About 800 million Euros will be invested in construction of the new production line, scheduled to begin at the end of the first quarter of 2020. The first pre-production cars are expected to come off the line by 2021, the carmaker said. In concluding remark, Maserati said as one of the brands recent claims puts it, the music is changing, and this will be even more apparent in May this year, when past and future will meet to place Maserati firmly on the world stage for the future of mobility. In December, it launched the V6 petrol variants of Ghibli, Quattroporte and Levante for the very first time in the Indian market, as part of its 2020 range.

Maseratis 2020 planAs part of its 2020 range, Maserati had launched the V6 petrol variants of Ghibli, Quattroporte and Levante for the very first time in the Indian market in December. The petrol variants will be available with both the twin-turbo V6 engines, of 350 hp and 430 hp.

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Italian carmaker Maserati to invest USD 1.29 billion to build an electric ecosystem - The New Indian Express

NATO – NATO Vacancies

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Job Field

AllAuditBuilding & Facility ManagementConference ManagementDefenceEngineeringExecutive ManagementGraduateInformation & Document ManagementInformation Communication TechnologyInternLinguistic ServicesManagement and Operations SupportOperationsPolitical AffairsPublic RelationsResearchSecurityAll

AllAuditBuilding & Facility ManagementConference ManagementDefenceEngineeringExecutive ManagementGraduateInformation & Document ManagementInformation Communication TechnologyInternLinguistic ServicesManagement and Operations SupportOperationsPolitical AffairsPublic RelationsResearchSecurityAll

AllAuditBuilding & Facility ManagementConference ManagementDefenceEngineeringExecutive ManagementGraduateInformation & Document ManagementInformation Communication TechnologyInternLinguistic ServicesManagement and Operations SupportOperationsPolitical AffairsPublic RelationsResearchSecurityAll

AllAfghanistanAfghanistan (RS)AustriaBelgiumBosnia and HerzegovinaDenmarkFranceGeorgiaGermanyGreeceHungaryIraqIraq (NMI)ItalyKazakhstanKosovoKuwaitLuxembourgNetherlandsNorwayPolandPortugalRussiaSpainTurkeyUkraineUnited KingdomUnited States of AmericaUzbekistanAll

AllAfghanistanAfghanistan (RS)AustriaBelgiumBosnia and HerzegovinaDenmarkFranceGeorgiaGermanyGreeceHungaryIraqIraq (NMI)ItalyKazakhstanKosovoKuwaitLuxembourgNetherlandsNorwayPolandPortugalRussiaSpainTurkeyUkraineUnited KingdomUnited States of AmericaUzbekistanAll

AllAfghanistanAfghanistan (RS)AustriaBelgiumBosnia and HerzegovinaDenmarkFranceGeorgiaGermanyGreeceHungaryIraqIraq (NMI)ItalyKazakhstanKosovoKuwaitLuxembourgNetherlandsNorwayPolandPortugalRussiaSpainTurkeyUkraineUnited KingdomUnited States of AmericaUzbekistanAll

AllAllied Command TransformationCentre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE)Collaboration Support Office (CSO)Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander TransformationHQ AIRCOMHQ MARCOMHQ NAEW & C Force GeilenkirchenHQ SarajevoInternational Military StaffJoint Analysis and Lessons Learned CentreJoint Force Command Brunssum NLDJoint Force Command NaplesJoint Force Training CentreJoint Warfare CentreLand Command HQNAGSMANATO CIS GroupNATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency)NATO Defense CollegeNATO International Staff (NATO IS)NATO Mission in IraqNATO STANDARDIZATION OFFICEResolute SupportSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION (STO)Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

AllAllied Command TransformationCentre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE)Collaboration Support Office (CSO)Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander TransformationHQ AIRCOMHQ MARCOMHQ NAEW & C Force GeilenkirchenHQ SarajevoInternational Military StaffJoint Analysis and Lessons Learned CentreJoint Force Command Brunssum NLDJoint Force Command NaplesJoint Force Training CentreJoint Warfare CentreLand Command HQNAGSMANATO CIS GroupNATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency)NATO Defense CollegeNATO International Staff (NATO IS)NATO Mission in IraqNATO STANDARDIZATION OFFICEResolute SupportSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION (STO)Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

AllAllied Command TransformationCentre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE)Collaboration Support Office (CSO)Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander TransformationHQ AIRCOMHQ MARCOMHQ NAEW & C Force GeilenkirchenHQ SarajevoInternational Military StaffJoint Analysis and Lessons Learned CentreJoint Force Command Brunssum NLDJoint Force Command NaplesJoint Force Training CentreJoint Warfare CentreLand Command HQNAGSMANATO CIS GroupNATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency)NATO Defense CollegeNATO International Staff (NATO IS)NATO Mission in IraqNATO STANDARDIZATION OFFICEResolute SupportSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION (STO)Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

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Iraq: Washington to strengthen presence of NATO to disengage militarily from Baghdad – Middle East Monitor

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The approval of the US allies to strengthen the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) mission in Iraq, indicates Washingtons intention to disengage militarily from Baghdad. However, those allies have asked the US administration to maintain its military engagement in the region to combat Daesh.

A European diplomat stated that: The transfer of responsibilities to NATO has always been a precursor to the US military disengagement, citing two examples: the Kosovo Force(KFOR) and the ResoluteSupport Mission (RSM) in Afghanistan.

The diplomat stressed that: This will only work if the NATO mission includes a strong US component. The US troops currently account for half of the 16,000 soldiers affiliated with the RSM.

He indicated that the US request to hand some training activities designated to the Iraqi forces, over to NATO on behalf of the international coalitionto defeat Daesh, falls within this context.

US president, Donald Trump, announced his intention to reduce his countrys military presence worldwide and withdraw from many areas of operations, especially in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, to focus his efforts on Asia, in the context of confronting China.

However, the situation changed with the escalation of tension with Iran, as the US attempted to deploy more troops and sent aircrafts to the Gulf region.

Read: NATO willing to expand Iraqi training mission to meet Trump demand

In the wake of the death of General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, in early January in a US raid near Baghdad, anger against the US in Iraq escalated, forcing Washington to suspend the operations of the international coalition and seek to limit its presence there.

The solution to achieve this was to strengthen the role of the small NATO mission deployed in Iraq since 2018.

During their meeting on Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels, the defence ministers of the NATO countries approved the transfer of some coalition activities to the NATO mission, with the mission being strengthened by troops from the alliances member states.

After the Iraqi government agreed on Wednesday night to transfer some training activities to NATO, the mission is expected to be strengthened rapidly.

NATO secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, announced on Thursday that the number of troops to be transferred from the coalition to the NATO force, and the details of training activities to be resumed by the mission, will be discussed during a meeting of the international coalition on Friday in Munich, on the sidelines of the security conference.

On Thursday, Spain confirmed to NATO the transfer of a portion of its units to the NATO mission. However, Spanish defence minister, Margarita Robles, confirmed that: It is out of the question to take over combat activities.

Read: US forces to start withdrawing from 15 bases in Iraq

Stoltenberg stated repeatedly that NATO must train the Iraqi forces to be able to fight Daesh and prevent it from reorganising its ranks, intensifying its activities in Iraq.

The US troops will remain in Iraq to fight Daesh. However, Washington is determined to continue strengthening NATOs presence in Iraq, while transferring defensive missions to it, and asking other allies to assume more responsibilities, allowing them to disengage militarily from Iraq, US defence secretary, Mark Esper, explained during the meeting in Brussels.

French defence minister, Florence Barley, warned of the US approach during a visit to Washington at the end of January, stating that Trumps NATO-Middle East policy should not turn into a NATO without the US policy. She also expressed the same concerns during the NATO meeting.

German defence minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, was more frank while discussing the situation, stressing that it was out of the question for Germany to increase participation to replace US forces in Iraq.

Read: Iraq parliament passes resolution to expel US troops

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Iraq: Washington to strengthen presence of NATO to disengage militarily from Baghdad - Middle East Monitor

US needs Europe to tackle the rise of China, NATO chief says – CNBC

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNBC that if the U.S. is concerned about the rise of China then it was "even more important to maintain NATO to keep your friends and allies close."

The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was responding to U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper's speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, in which he called China a rising threat to the world order.

Stoltenberg acknowledged that the global balance of power was shifting with the rise of China, pointing out that it now has the second-largest defense budget in the world and that it's "investing heavily in new military capabilities."

The alliance put the issue of China on its agenda for the very first time at an event in London in December. At the time, Stoltenberg told CNBC that the rise of the Asian powerhouse provided some "obvious opportunities but also some obvious challenges."

In March 2019, China set its 2019 defense spending 7.5% higher than a year ago, raising it to 1.19 trillion yuan ($177.61 billion), according to known figures (some believe the actual figure could be higher). This still lags behind U.S. spending, however, with its Defense Department having asked Congress for $718 billion in its fiscal 2020 budget.

Stoltenberg said Saturday that the "important message" for the U.S. was that if it was concerned about China then it needed its allies. "Together with Europe and Canada we represent 50% of the world's military might and 50% of the world economy. Together we are strong," he told CNBC's Hadley Gamble.

Jens Stoltenberg, 13th Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is talks to the media at the NATO headquarter on February 11, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium.

Thierry Monasse/ Getty Images

Meanwhile, Stoltenberg suggested he was not concerned by recent data showing weaker economic growth in Germany and the possible impact that would have on its defense spending as part of NATO. He said Germany had already started to increase its defense spending and that it planned to increase this by 80% over a decade.

The secretary general said that European allies and Canada will add $400 billion to their defense spending by 2024. "When it comes to defense spending, we're already moving in the right direction," he added.

On the Middle East, the NATO chief said the alliance would look to reduce its troops in Afghanistan, from the 16,000 currently based in the country, "if Taliban believers are ready to reduce the violence."

He said that the only way to create lasting peace in Afghanistan was to talk to the Taliban and that the purpose of truce talks currently taking place was also to "initiate inter-Afghan negotiations."

Stoltenberg said NATO's role was to support Afghans to take ownership of the peace process, "sending a message to the Taliban that they will never win on the battlefield, they have to sit at the negotiating table and (make) real compromises and reduce violence."

CNBC's Holly Ellyatt contributed to this article.

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US needs Europe to tackle the rise of China, NATO chief says - CNBC