New analysis shows growing fossil reserves with a shrinking carbon budget

New analysis by Oil Change International shows that global fossil fuel reserves continue to expand while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other scientific and industry analysts repeatedly show that our remaining budget for burning fossil fuels has shrunk to less than one third of existing reserves.

The Oil Change analysis shows that fossil fuel companies gained access to more than twice as much in fossil fuels as they produced between 2007 and 2011. They replaced the 377 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) consumed and added another 415 billion BOE on top of that.

“The first rule of holes is simple: when you’re in one, stop digging. We are in a huge hole when it comes to the climate and yet we continue digging our way to climate catastrophe,” said Stephen Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International. “There is no logical reason to continue expanding our fossil fuel reserves; doing so only continues to line the pockets of Big Oil, Gas and Coal executives while putting our communities and planet in peril.”

Oil and gas companies in particular continue to spend billions to explore for new reserves, bolstered by massive subsidies from governments. Recent estimates of subsidies for fossil fuel production range from the hundreds of millions to many billions per year.

“Our governments continue to use massive amounts of taxpayer dollars to incentivize exploration for new oil and gas at a time when science is telling us we already have far too much to burn,” said Kretzmann. “It’s time our leaders put an end to fossil fuel subsidies, starting immediately by ending subsidies that encourage the expansion of fossil fuel reserves.”

Source: PriceofOilOrganization

New Wave Energy wants to put power plants in the sky

Harvesting power from the wind and the sun is nothing new. We've seen flying winds turbines and solar power plants that aim to provide clean renewable energy. UK-based New Wave Energy has a bolder idea in the works. The company plans to build the first high altitude aerial power plant, using networks of unmanned drones that can harvest energy from multiple sources and transmit it wirelessly to receiving stations on the ground.

The patent-pending technology aims to have drone networks hover in the sky harvesting both solar and wind power, while moving about at low speeds to keep track of the sun. The drones will operate at high altitudes where the winds are more stable and there's minimal chance of weather patterns or aircraft interfering with them.

"At 50,000 ft (15,000 m) there is very little air traffic and biodiversity, unless you go over the Himalayas," company director Michael Burdett tells Gizmag. "Implementing a system in these conditions will not obstruct any existing systems."

Each 20 x 20 m (65 x 65 ft) drone will have four rotors, multiple wind turbines and a flat base for generating solar power. It'll be able to power itself with the harvested energy and generate an additional 50 kW that can be transmitted wirelessly to the ground. Rectenna arrays installed inland or on offshore installations would receive the electromagnetic waves and convert them into usable power.

Burdett estimates that an aerial power plant containing thousands of drones could produce around 400 MW of power, enough to power over 205,000 homes annually. Designed to be easy to update, the drone networks can be outfitted with more efficient generators as they become available. A drone power plant capable of delivering so much power, the company says, would be pretty large, around twice the size of an offshore wind farm such as the Robin Rigg farm in the Solway Firth, Scotland.

The company states that it will be able to handle energy output within a drone network as efficiently as managing data in an information network. An aerial power plant also makes it easier to provide power to remote locations with long range transmissions, or help out immediately in the event of an emergency or a natural disaster.

Aside of the obvious advantage of requiring little or no land space, the drone networks would be invisible to the naked eye making it realistic for them to be installed anywhere. The company aims to make use of the unpopulated airspace over the Atlantic, Indian or Pacific Ocean first. Burdett states that New Wave Energy will be able to deliver energy around the clock to many different parts of the world using solar, wind, thermoelectrics, infrared and visible spectrum rectennas.

It took around two years for New Wave Energy UK to develop the technology. The company plans to start a Kickstarter campaign to raise around £300,000 (US$500,000) and expects to have a working prototype within 6 months of receiving funding.

Source: New Wave Energy UK,Gizmag.

Transforming shipping containers into studio apartments

Shipping containers from China are getting a high-tech transformation to become en-suite studio apartments. A youth organization in London has won permission to create two small communities of converted shipping containers. Our reporter Catherine Drew took a look at these new converted homes. 

It doesn’t look much for the outside, painted shipping containers stacked on top of each other. But these are the product of three years of research and testing, a simple but high-tech home for 1 person. They are the brainchild of one man. 

"The price of accommodation in this part of London means you can’t afford it if you’re on minimum wage. And there isn’t anything between. And so it was trying to find something that would bridge that gap, that would be a stepping stone between living in a hostel and getting into the private rented sector. " said Christopher Pain, Ymca Walthamstow Forest. 

550 young people come through the doors of the YMCA in Walthamstow each year, needing help, support and accommodation. But once ready to start work, their experience finding accommodation to rent can be a shock. 

Private rentals in the capital are soaring, up almost 5% year on year -and now stand at an average 1800 dollars a month. 

The mYpads have been designed with low energy costs and are to be rented out at around 100 US dollars a week. Young people being helped by the YMCA are impressed with the mYpads. 

"I think it’s amazing, it’s got everything you needing here, it’s warm, its comfortable, you’ve got a TV, you’ve got a cooker you’ve got a fridge, you’ve got your shower room, you’ve got everything really. So I think they’re amazing. Maybe from the outside you may think yeah, it’s a shipping container but when you’re inside you just feel like you’re in a nice hotel room. there’s a TV, a shower room, fridge, it’s amazing. When inside you feel like it’s a nice hotel room, or a nice living quarters, you wouldn’t think it was a shipping container." said Louise Stephenson, Former Ymca Resident. 

But not everyone is so welcoming. The council which has approved plans for two developments consisting of 10 and 20 mYpads is wary of the scheme. 

The council says it will watch the progress of the mypad developments with interest but has expressed caution. 1 official told me the council did not see the use of shipping crates as the answer for the 21 thousand people needing accommodation in this London borough. 

"I fully accept that shipping containers like these are not the long-term solution, but we face a crisis at the moment that’s on a parallel with after the Second World War." said Christopher Pain, Ymca Walthamstow Forest. 

And it’s a solution that is prompting great interest not only from London’s other boroughs which face similar housing needs, but internationally, raising the prospect that this experiment in east London, could one day be seen further afield.

Source: Xinhua

China, Europe boost cooperation amid economic globalization

 Relations between China and European countries are becoming closer in face of economic globalization, with exchange of high-level visits increasing, economic and trade cooperation broadening, and people-to-people exchanges continually making headway.

Last Thursday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and leaders of the European Union (EU) kicked off the 16th China-EU summit in Beijing to work out a blueprint for bilateral ties in the coming years.

Five days later, Li will attend a China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) leaders' meeting in the Romanian capital of Bucharest to enhance mutual understanding and cooperation.

The two summits, held within a week, showed that China and European countries continue to broaden and deepen their relations.

During a meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso prior to the summit in Beijing, President Xi Jinping said China and the EU are two major forces in maintaining world peace, two important markets to promote common development, and two civilizations to advance the cause of human progress.

China and the EU need to bear in mind the trend of changes in the global situation, grasp opportunities, accurately position the comprehensive strategic partnership amid a multipolar world and economic globalization, and blaze new trails for the development of China-EU cooperation amid global changes in industry so as to benefit the peoples of both sides and the world, said the Chinese president.

Europe, especially developed nations in the west of the continent, is an important partner of economic cooperation for China due to high economic complementarity between them and China. Moreover, China could also learn from Europe's experiences during its course of comprehensively deepening reforms.

Statistics showed that two-way trade between China and the EU exceeded 546 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, with the EU becoming the largest trade partner of China and China the second largest of the 28-member bloc.

Despite the debt crisis in some so-called "peripheral countries" in Europe, European nations are still an important export market and source of investment and technology for China.

While establishing the comprehensive strategic partnership with Western European nations, China is also promoting cooperation with CEE countries, which are called "New Europe" by Western media and analysts.

CEE countries, mainly emerging economies that have similar GDP per capita with China, are also at a crucial stage of transition to market economy, and their social and economic development is in urgent need for advanced technology and funds.

As China and those countries share broad interests, they have enjoyed good prospects for mutually-beneficial and win-win cooperation in such fields as infrastructure, finance and green economy.

Out of concerns about geopolitical and security issues and a possible impact on European integration, Western European countries, or the so-called "Old Europe," may be worried about cooperation between China and "New Europe."

However, it should be noted that pragmatic cooperation between China and CEE nations in the economic field is not only transparent, but also inclusive.

China and Western European countries have given play to their respective advantages and coordinated with each other in pushing forward CEE nations's development.

Just as international analysts put it, broadening cooperation between China and CEE nations will help boost cooperation between the Asian country and the whole continent and accelerate all-around, balanced development of China-Europe ties.

China has always supported European integration, and a powerful, united Europe is in the interests of not only the continent, but also the Asian nation.
Source: Xinhua

Defying China, U.S. bombers fly into East China Sea zone

Two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers on a training mission flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, defying China's declaration of a new airspace defence zone in the region.

The Pentagon said the flight on Monday night did not prompt a response from China, and the White House urged Beijing to resolve its dispute with Japan over the islands diplomatically, without resorting to "threats or inflammatory language."

"These are the kinds of differences that should not be addressed with threats or inflammatory language, but rather can and should be resolved diplomatically," he said.

Two U.S. B-52 bombers carried out the flight, part of a long-planned exercise, on Monday night EST, a U.S. military official said.

The lumbering bombers appeared to send a message that the United States was not trying to hide its intentions and showed that China, so far at least, was unable or unwilling to defend the zone.

The B-52s, which have been part of the Air Force fleet for more than half a century, are relatively slow compared with today's more advanced fighter jets and far easier to spot than stealth aircraft.

The Pentagon said the training exercise "involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam." Warren said the U.S. military aircraft were neither observed nor contacted by Chinese aircraft.

China's Defense Ministry said on Monday it had lodged protests with the U.S. and Japanese embassies in Beijing over the criticism from Washington and Tokyo of the zone.

Source: Reuters

New FX Leader in Asia

Singapore has overtaken Japan as Asia's biggest Fx centre for the first time, and risen to the third place
globally(behind London and New York) in the latest survey by the Bank for International Settlements.
Average daily FX turnover volume in Singapore grew 44% to US$383 billion in April 2013, compared
with US$266 billion in April 2010.
Global turnover growth in the same period was 35%.
Average daily interest rate derivatives turnover volume in Singapore also grew 6% to US$ 37 billion
in April 2013,the second largest in Asia,behind Japan.
  Jaquelin Loh deputy managing director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore,said the ranking positions Singapore's financial centre to better serve the investment and risk management needs of financial institutions and corporates throughout Asia.

Source ABCHINA Edition

Now valued at $1.6 billion, Flipkart finally launches its iPhone app

Leading Indian e-store Flipkart has been around for years, but only this week did it get round to launching an iOS app. Yes, e-shoppers in the country can finally browse and buy products on their iPhones without having to fiddle with the browser.

This new release comes two months after Flipkart rolled out an Android app.

Interestingly, the Flipkart iPhone app supports a host of non-Indian languages such as Chinese, Spanish, and Russian.

Flipkart’s last funding round was worth $360 million,the biggest ever for an Indian website business, so the company definitely has the funds to devote to some new apps.

In other Flipkart news today, a new financial report from South Africa’s Naspers reveals that the major Flipkart investor’s 8.1 percent stake in the firm (diluted from 10 percent by newer investments) effectively values Flipkart at $1.6 billion. Earlier this year a similar calculation valued the e-store at $1 billion.

The chat app battle is no battle, it’s just more toys for adults

Today there are over a dozen messaging apps on app stores across the world. Many of them have more than a million registered users and are consistently reporting strong growth numbers. It’s a battle that is closely watched by us at Tech In Asia and tech-interested folks across Asia.

But is it really anything to huff and puff about? I don’t think chat apps are the battle that we think they are.

Tech In Asia has plenty of articles on the chat app battle. From KakaoTalk entering the Phillipines

to the peculiarities of the walled gardens that chat apps create, to the potentials of m-commerce we’ve covered the gamut.

The underlying thesis of these articles and what is perpetuated by press releases by companies like Line, KakaoTalk, WeChat, and their competitors is that this a battle with a winner. We assume that this battle will be like Facebook trouncing Friendster and MySpace in the social media battle or Google thumping Yahoo and Altavista in search. But the nature of chat apps is profoundly different from search and social media.

Most kids born in the 90s probably don’t even remember a day when Google was not the dominant platform. Back then the field was littered with competitors, including Yahoo, AskJeeves, and Altavista. Google came at just the right time, the number of websites on the internet was becoming increasingly overwhelming for users, and internet users in the mid–90’s were desperate for a way to organize all the content exploding on the internet. In 1998, Google blindsided everyone with a user interface that was simple, neat, and super fast. In 2000, it launched AdWords, becoming the cash cow that continues to power the search giant’s investments in self-driving cars, Google Glass, and Android.Google won the battle for the most efficient reorganization of the internet and the quickest avenue to relevant information. 

 In other words, it was a race to who could get the results fastest and best. This battle had a clear winner.

Facebook had to build a place that was easy enough for new users to get into and friends to connect with each other. There had to be a clear winner since multiples of friends had to be in one central place to start groups and connect with each other. It’s the basic principle of network effects at work – Facebook is more relevant and more useful with more users together. That’s an imperative for them to survive.

Chat apps do not work that way and should not be treated like Facebook nor Google. Chat apps do not depend on multiple groups of users to know each other to work. In fact, two users is enough. With chat apps, there won’t be a clear winner.

Google and Facebook, both came out of an era that was dominated by the web browser.This is exactly why these two companies focused on dominating the browser.

Apps are totally different. The key reason for this is the nature of mobile. With mobile you’ve got badge app icons, notifications, notification center, the ability to have multiple apps, and mobility. Browser tabs just do not have this level of influence over the overall user experience of your computer. Ironically, with notifications, this allows users to have multiple apps running on one mobile.

In other words, these aren’t winners. They can co-exist. Users have multiple apps on their mobiles. Granted, there are going to be some dominant platforms across nations

Sourece: TECHINASIA

US Consumer Confidence before Black Friday

The temporary agreement to end the standoff in Washington did nothing to boost consumer confidence which fell further in November, to 70.4 vs October's revised 72.4. Confidence took a big hit in October, falling from September's 80.2 amid the government shutdown and budget standoff.

The weakness continues to be centered in the expectations component where wide swings are common. Expectations fell to 69.3 vs 72.2 in October and against 84.7 in September before all the Washington trouble started. Consumers are showing less confidence in their income prospects and especially on the outlook for the jobs market.

 Steady readings for this component point to steady rates of monthly change for the economy as a whole. As for the jobs market specifically, today's report points to a little bit of improvement this month as fewer consumers, at 34.0 percent, describe jobs as currently hard to get which is down from 34.9 percent in October.

Other readings include a drop in inflation expectations, down 3 tenths to 5.2 percent and reflecting the decline in pump prices.
The economic shock from the government shutdown proved very limited, not affecting jobs or manufacturing but badly shaking up consumer confidence. Shaky confidence going into Black Friday won't be much to celebrate for the nation's retailers.

Source: Bloomberg

More chinese cities have taken measures to cool surging prices

More Chinese cities have rolled out measures to cool surging home prices, joining growing efforts nationwide as authorities come under pressure to rein in a red-hot housing market.

The eastern city of Nanjing, the southern city of Xiamen, Nanchang in central China and Shenyang in the northeast unveiled a number of measures on Monday, according to city government websites, including raising minimum down payments for second home purchases and making more land available.

Wuhan, the capital city of central Hubei province, announced similar rules last Friday.

Source: Reuters

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne asks BoE to consider extra powers to curb banks

Chancellor George Osborne has asked the Bank of England to decide whether it needs more powers to control banks' risk-taking.

His intervention is the latest sign that Britain is going beyond international banking rules to curb its financial sector after taxpayers paid billions of pounds to rescue several banks during the 2007-09 financial crisis.

The Bank's Financial Policy Committee can already shape the regulation of Britain's financial system. It has powers to force banks to hold more capital but has no direct say over a separate tool for reining in big banks' balance sheets, a so-called leverage ratio.

Global regulators, keen to make banks safer after the financial crisis, are focussing on this leverage ratio as a way to curb risk.

Osborne's action accelerates a review of possible FPC leverage ratio powers that had been anticipated at a later date.

The review would also have to show that implementing the leverage ratio faster or higher than the Basel accord would help UK financial stability, Osborne said.

Source:  Reuters

NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION IN OCTOBER 2013

NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION IN OCTOBER 2013
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential
construction statistics for October 2013:
BUILDING PERMITS
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,034,000. This
is 6.2 percent (±0.8%) above the September rate of 974,000 and is 13.9 percent (±1.1%) above the October 2012 estimate of 908,000.
Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 620,000; this is 0.8 percent (±0.9%)* above the September figure of 615,000.
Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 387,000 in October.
HOUSING STARTS and HOUSING COMPLETIONS
The lapse in federal funding affected the data collection schedule for the Survey of Construction, the source of data on new housing
units started and completed. Accurate data collection for September and October could not be completed in time for this release. Data
on housing units started and completed in September, October, and November 2013 will be released on December 18, 2013.

Amazon sees new pillar in video market in Japan

With the nation's major TV stations and movie industry on board, U.S. online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. is seeking to be a major player in the video distribution market in Japan, as it prepares to begin offering content as early as this week, according to sources.

Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc. (TBS), TV Asahi Corp. and all other major commercial TV stations in Tokyo, as well as film makers, are expected to provide Amazon.com with programs and movies.Amazon.com is currently expected to begin service by offering several tens of thousands of programs, including TV Asahi's drama "Doctor-X," TBS's drama "Zutto Anataga Sukidatta" (I've always loved you), a love story featuring a mama's boy, and "Thermae Romae," a film made by Fuji Television Network Inc. and others.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China, Hungary, Serbia reach agreement on railway project

 Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Monday that his country has reached an agreement with Hungary and Serbia to jointly build a railway between the latter two countries.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Hungarian and Serbian counterparts, Viktor Orban and Ivica Dacic, Li hailed the project as a landmark in cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

The three sides, added the Chinese premier, will set up working groups immediately and advance the project with high quality as rapidly as possible for the benefit of passengers and cargo transporters.

"China has made rapid progress in railway construction since its reform and opening-up," said Li, noting that the country now has the world's second-largest railway network with the longest mileage of high-speed railway.

The needs of CEE countries for modern transportation and the technological, equipment, financial and other advantages of China in the area indicate that the project will surely benefit all parties involved, Li said.

The Chinese premier highlighted Chinese equipment as a new global trend due to its high quality with low prices.

In its cooperation with emerging markets in particular, the Chinese premier said, Chinese equipment will not only improve their infrastructure, but also reduce its own over-capacity and improve product and services quality.

Such win-win cooperation will benefit the concerned sides as well as the European Union and the world, Li said.

Li arrived here Monday for an official visit to Romania and a summit with leaders of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Source:Xinhua

Nissan tests automatic car on public road

Nissan tests automatic car on public road in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo.

The car is capable of running automatically without steering or braking by a driver. The company is aiming to have the vehicle on the market by 2020.

The test run was conducted along a 3-kilometer stretch of a highway called Sagami Jukan Road on Monday. Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa was a passenger in the car, and representatives of the media were there to watch.

After passing through a toll booth, the vehicle used cameras and laser sensors to determine its surroundings.

It then automatically entered a freeway.

The car detected a slow-moving vehicle ahead, activated on a turn signal, changed lanes and passed the vehicle -- all done without human intervention.

Source:NewsOnJapan