or the companies could use the highly sensitive data on harvests to trade on the commodity markets,
The Office of Naval Research will award $7. 5 million in grant money over five years to university researchers from Tufts, Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, Brown,
the price of commercial solar power is now equal to retail electricity rates. And wind power reached record output levels last year producing a massive 25.2 GW
and accounting for 39 percent of the electricity supply on a single day in December The unprecedented growth of solar PV in particular has been fueled in large part by policies that incentivize clean energy.
iant German firms enjoy Germany low and falling wholesale electricity prices, getting the benefit of renewablesnear-zero operating cost
he FIT surcharge raised householdsretail price of electricity seven percent but renewables lowered big industrieswholesale price 18 percent.
the past few yearssharply lower wholesale prices could finally reach retail customers and start sending householdstotal electricity prices back down.
What more, n Germany you have the option of earning back your payments, and far more, by investing as little as $600 in renewable energy yourself, Lovins writes. itizens, cooperatives,
and communities own more than half of German renewable capacity, vs. two percent in the U s. Challenges aside,
though executives declined to name its price. Lithium ion batteries have continued to drop in price and Tesla says it reducing the cost by 30 percent with its planned battery factory.
Finally, an all-carbon battery could be recycled more easily at the end of life than a lithium ion battery because it doesn contain rare earth materials and metals.
but are hoping to raise funding to help them begin moving into early production later this year.
potentially, a lot of money. But big corporations that are interested in ultimately owning or licensing advanced battery tech might still be interested in providing early funding.
Power Japan Plus says it is less capital-intensive than other battery companies because its battery can be manufactured on existing battery production lines.
The central premise was that a change in technology can completely transform the basic economics of an business.
when he looked at accounting software for small business. Unlike consumer technology, which was quickly moving to a web-based approach,
So he went to his friend and accountant Hamish Edwards, and together they decided to build a software company that centered on the relationship between small businesses and their accountants.
Rather than just transferring files every quarter or so, their product would allow accountants to act as real-time advisors.
In 2006, they launched Xero, which has been revolutionizing how small business operate ever since. It goes far beyond just keeping the books,
Xero currently has a market capitalization of over $3 billion and is still growing fast. Low-end Disruptions To get an idea of why companies like Xero are so disruptive
you had to either buy a product that was compatible with your accounting software or basically run two sets of books.
and prices are falling while features are expanding. But what makes the cloud so disruptive is that it compels legacy players to change their business models
including pricing strategies, sales channels and even basic technology. The winners will prevail not by dominating the value chain,
But for Japan, a burgeoning economy without large oil and coal reserves, after the Fukushima disaster occurred,
and dirigibles until his funding was canceled by J p morgan. In 1960 William C Brown, the inventor of the cross-field amplifier, used a remote control helicopter to demonstrate his breakthroughs using wireless microwave power on the Walter Cronkite 6: 00 pm news. Citing Tesla same logic,
payments and investment management companies no longer able to bamboozle consumers with jargon, hidden costs and arcane language.
New online financial lending communities, from Lending Club and Ondeck in the US to Zopa and Funding Circle in the UK, are sprouting up as traditional banksare less willing to take risk
Transferwise is shaking up the sleepy world of sending money overseas through high street banks. They are helping consumers all around the world exchange money with each other safely and transparently, through their peer to peer model.
Customers send more than a million pounds euros from Manchester to Spain or pounds from Stockholm to the UK through Transferwise every day.
hidden fees and inferior exchange rates, you get market rates and low costs. There is a focus on transparency, with best price guarantees.
Plus, rather than the archaic, lengthy practice of queuing in shops, there is an easy-to-use app or web-based money transfer service.
Here in the UK, our challenger bank Virgin Money are disrupting that idea with stunning free lounges,
where people can relax, share ideas and enjoy themselves instead of simply complete transactions in a sterile environment.
In the very traditional payments Market square is enabling plumbers, window cleaners and street market vendors to grow their business
Elsewhere, regulatory changes around crowd funding and peer-to-peer lending are creating great opportunities for people to turn dreams into reality.
While there are great opportunities to make investments and build profitable businesses these sectors also allow businesspersons to use their entrepreneurial skills to help create a better word.
#Airhelp gets you money back for canceled or delayed flights It can be hard to a book flight on an airline website,
Meet Airhelp, the startup that will save you all the hassle and claim money for you.
you can claim money for that. But how much exactly can you claim? For a delayed, canceled
That why airlines will fight you very hard not to give you your money back.
but it will also generate some substantial revenue at the same time. And this is Airhelp secret sauce every time the company goes through the compensation process
It can take a few weeks to get your money back. Finally, the startup will ask for your bank information to transfer the money.
But even though this sounds like a cumbersome process, 90 to 95 percent of it is automated.
or two. ee been making revenue since day one, Michaelsen said g
#Top 15 emerging agriculture technologies that will change the world Below are 15 emerging technologies related to agricultural and natural manufacturing under four key areas of accelerating change:
Engineering involves technologies that extend the reach of agriculture to new means, new places and new areas of the economy.
The Kickstarter launched Tuesday morning with several funding levels: a fully operational SCIO starts at $149,
an economist with the Economic policy Institute in Washington. t another part of the long-term scarring process of the Great Recession that has been hidden partly.
which could be another indication of an improving economy. The figures are volatile from year to year,
Concierge medicine could also be a potential new revenue stream for the Mayo Clinic. Fast Company has covered previously New york-based medical concierge service Sherpaa and Oscar, a new health insurer which tailors its products for web and mobile use.
his new company was launched with $5 million from venture capital fund The Social+Capital Partnership and the Mayo Clinic itself.
the public reaction suggested that defenders of the status quo had fallen out of step with students, their parents, and taxpayers.
More important, the $10, 000 degree programs that reduced the price charged to the student but not the cost incurred by the school did not employ the means Perry specified online learning and competency-based exams.
Attempting to pay for these historic price increases, students and their parents have taken on historic student-loan debt.
First, federal taxpayers have been asked to pay more through subsidizing student loans so that students can borrow more to pay inflated tuitions.
Second, state taxpayers have been asked to pay more in order to increase state subsidies for education. But today, with the $10, 000 degree, universities themselves are beginning to lower the tuition
and fees they charge students, parents, and taxpayers. Finally, the ground is beginning to shift.
electric car prices have dropped also, meaning that there are now several electric cars with price tags around $30, 000.
and fluctuations in price. t a huge milestone for us, said Vice Adm. Philip Cullom. e are in very challenging times where we really do have to think in pretty innovative ways to look at how we create energy,
#Europe to abolish roaming charges by December 2015 The first move was to slash pricing of mobile phone roaming costs across Europe.
and General electric wants to lead the way A 20-year-old Indonesian student has helped General electric save considerable sums of money in development
and other businesses the firm has investments in. Furstoss said by 2020, the company aims to print more than 100,000 parts for aviation.
Taxpayer-funded schools aren supposed to be the ones writing big checks for unproven products. But that logic is increasingly being put to the test in California
Gamified mobile apps, all manner of e-books and classroom analytics tools are just a few of the business models attracting venture capital dollars in the $5. 4 billion K-12
A new education gold rush Judging by venture capital dollars and press write-ups, it might seem like higher education is ground zero for startup activity in the multibillion-dollar education technology industry.
but reliable revenue streams have been hard to come by for ed tech entrepreneurs. K-12 schools, on the other hand, are notorious for strong teachers unions
which investor GSV Advisors projects will be worth $13. 4 billion by 2017is the prominence of nonprofit providers that have a head start over new for-profit entrants.
because they want to get their money worth. Educator obstacles There is one constant at demo events featuring K-12 education startups in Silicon valley:
Along with that effort, he is pushing schools to consider funding mechanisms for new technology investments. e have to go 1-to-1 with one device per child,
Santander, Spain The EU has provided#6m funding for experimental facilities and applications in the northern Spanish city of Santander, aimed at testing typical applications and services of a smart city.
Here in the UK, the government has announced over £150m of funding into smart city research and this runs alongside investment in intelligent transport systems
energy and public safety services can improve both the local economy and the quality of life for the city citizens.
saying cities will move quickly from research and evaluation to investment in pilots. What are thoughts your on how we can develop intelligent infrastructure and the smart cities of the future s
#Bitcoin: How the digital currency is changing everything Bitcoin Today, the single most prominent, and telling, feature of bitcoin is its massive controversy in the media.
Not a single day goes by without an article or televised mention about its dangers, risks,
and dubious mainstream appeal.####Many in the mainstream seem set in their beliefs that bitcoin is a fad,
or even worse a ponzi scheme, and is destined to fail. Yet when was the last time a ponzi scheme attracted global attention and prominent venture capital investment?
Since when has incited a fad the simultaneous and largely hostile reactions of governments across the globe?
Why did other payment technologies like Paypal or Western union apparently fail to meet the requirements to be discussed in virtually every central bank on the planet,
yet cryptocurrency is being so#thoroughly scrutinised? Ironically enough, the ongoing debate about whether or not bitcoin is truly a valuable disruptive technology,
is all the evidence you need that it is. This is because bitcoin as a technology isn t just challenging business models,
or even an entire industry. Plenty of innovative outfits do that with much less flare.
Bitcoin is challenging the financial infrastructure of the whole global economy, and even more, it is challenging entire generations of established political
and economic theory that that infrastructure is built on. Bitcoin s exponential growth flouts all of the traditional monetary theory that is the mainstream ideology amongst academics and politicians today.
Its very existence and growing success cannot be accounted for within these old paradigms. It challenges not only the basis and underlying assumptions of the modern financial system,
Bitcoin the currency As a currency, bitcoin is in many ways the antithesis of modern fiat currencies.
and is still taking time to sink in amidst the denials that bitcoin is here to stay.
Bitcoin is not the only example of a homogenousgood being adopted by a population as a currency,
Cryptocurrency is following the same path as precious metals in ancient civilization. Where gold was valued for its color, easy malleability, purity and its anti-corrosive properties,
bitcoin is valued for it s speed, decentralization, anonymity and ultra low transaction costs. Gold was discovered by practically every world civilization
For the vast majority of civilization, money was gold or silver, and both originated not as centrally issued currency that,
Bitcoin is fast becoming the first commodity since gold to become a widely accepted means of exchange without the need of a central authority backing it.
However unlike gold, Bitcoin is completely#out of the reach of governments #and can t be regulated,
and replaced with inflationary fiat money. For all its durability and timeless lustre, gold my pale to the longevity of a cryptocurrency system.
Reacting to Big data However Bitcoin is not just a currency that promises to eventually end the trend of patchwork national currencies that exist for the almost sole purpose of allowing governments to endlessly fund their own deficit spending.
When the Internet was growing in the 90s it promised a future in which everyone everywhere had access to all the knowledge in the world,
Cryptocurrency is the first major technological advancement that, intentionally or not, is a massive reaction to the trend of Big data.
and it is these key features within the Bitcoin protocol itself that may be the key to weakening the hold of massive data collecting service companies like Google.
all payments with Bitcoin are anonymous, which could allow users to opt out of advertising with anonymous#micropayments.
Yet many#other cryptocurrencies#such as#Namecoin#are attempting to take the protocol that enables this
businesses will hopefully creatively utilize the open source design of Bitcoin to provide entirely secure and anonymous end-to-end experiences.
the $1m sponsor of the#Austin Bitcoin Hackathon#put it: Decentralized applications have the potential to become self-sustaining
because they empower their stakeholders to invest in the development of the DA. Because of that, it is conceivable that DAS for payments, social networking,
and cloud computing may one day surpass the valuation of multinational corporations like Western union, Visa, Facebook, Google,
At the very least, the ever-growing success of bitcoin thus far candidly illustrates that there is indeed a massive demand for anonymity online,
It s far too tempting to compare bitcoin to PCS the Internet, or even to gold 5, 000 years ago.
bitcoin is it s own phenomena. PCS may have had a huge amount of industry leaders shrugging it off
or denouncing it entirely like bitcoin does now, but it never had whole governments attempting to shut down
whereas the usage of cryptocurrencies has exploded in just a few short years. While bitcoin may have many old conceptual roots,
it is altogether new and powerful. It is ushering in a new paradigm in various aspects of society,
Bitcoin is changing everything, and if you aren t on board, then you re already a dinosaur.
if the transition plan is not complete. e look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan,
and advance the current multi-stakeholder model of global Internet governance. But former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)tweeted:
and win the trust of crucial stakeholders around the world. An international meeting to discuss the future of Internet is scheduled to start on March 23 in Singapore.
whose fees provide the vast majority of ICANN revenue. The U s. government contract was a modest check against such abuses
successful transition in the stewardship of these important functions to the global multi-stakeholder community would be a timely and positive step in the evolution of Internet governance.
pumping far more fee revenue into ICANN. Major corporations have complained, however, that con artists already swarm the Internet with phony Web sites designed to look like the authentic offerings of respected brands. o set ICANN so-called free is a very major step that should done with careful oversight,
the interactions of their two algorithms resulted in prices in the millions of dollars. Competing robot armies could destroy cities as their algorithms exponentially escalated,
and death over human beings. nce youe put in billions of dollars of investment, youe got to use these things,
and Bitcoin, these millennials, defined as those born between 1981 and 2000, overwhelmingly believed that the way they access money
and pay for things will be completely different in five years. s consumers, millennials have been slow to accumulate wealth.
and three-quarters said they would be excited more in financial services provided by Google, Amazon, Apple, Paypal,
and will help lower the overall price of lithium ion batteries globally. ust the threat of (Tesla CEO) Elon musk building this huge factory will lower prices,
Tesla and solar financier and installer Solarcity (Musk other energy company) have been quietly selling small volumes of Tesla batteries as energy storage paired with Solarcity solar projects.
Batteries for the grid at current prices are largely too expensive for most projects. There a handful of companies that are trying to innovate around using batteries for grid storage
It might not be able to get to that price with battery cost reductions alone, but it gets Tesla a whole lot closer t
#Bitcoin is not only digital currency, it s Napster for finance Bitcoin will start its transformation from a mere currency into an entire open-source.
Bitcoin s valuation didn t just skyrocket in 2013, but its infrastructure, services, and adoption exploded as well,
culminating in recent#announcements that major online retailer Overstock. com and NBA team the Sacramento kings would accept the digital currency as payment.##
##Some still doubt#bitcoin s usefulness and durability, but 2014 may leave skeptics even further behind developers and entrepreneurs are already hard at work building features on top of the Bitcoin protocol that will allow for the decentralized execution of financial services, from currency hedging to loans to stock
issuance to rental and purchase contracts. These new services rely on the same innovative proof-of-work model of distributed security
and record-keeping that has kept the bitcoin currency secure as its value ballooned well past $10 billion.
In the long term, peer-to-peer finance threatens to weaken banks and other financial agents just as peer-to-peer file sharing did the music industry
#and some of the architects of this financial Napster seem gleeful about the possibility. The Bitcoin protocol (crucially distinct from bitcoin, the currency it underlies) was built from the ground up to support far more complex transactions and relationships than simple value transfers.
Example: Send five bitcoins to Steve.)Some of the kinds of transactions that Bitcoin can support include so-called M of N transactions,
which require agreement between a certain subset of a group, and can be used for escrow, mediation,
time-locked transactions, in which bitcoins are distributed on a strict schedule, useful for trusts or wills;
and even data-conditional transactions, in which a script uses a data input such as a regular Google search to monitor real-world events that would automatically trigger disbursements or other actions.
with contracts enforced by digital locks interacting with the Bitcoin blockchain to manage real-world leases, mortgages, and purchase contracts.
with their transactional integrity guaranteed by the Bitcoin blockchain, constantly vetted by the vast network ofminers rewarded for their maintenance work with a stream of bitcoin.
In fact the comparison to Napster is somewhat inaccurate, since Napster used centralized servers to track music sharing,
while Bitcoin is distributed entirely. That means loans without banks, contracts without lawyers, and stocks without brokers, executed
and recorded across hundreds of servers at all corners of the earth. Consultant Andreas M. Antonopoulos, echoing a 2012 white paper by software developer J. R. Willett,
says that the Bitcoin protocol is distributed to finance what Internet Protocol has been distributed to information. The blockchain is IP.
the Bitcoin protocol and its miners can support a variety of financial functions. Alternately, Antonopoulos suggests thinking of thebitcoin blockchain as#having an API#(application programming interface) that makes its data usable by third parties,
Efforts to make complex financial functions a part of Bitcoin have been bubbling through 2013, but 2014 will see them come to fruition.
Mastercoin, based on Willett s white paper and programming, is projected to add many functions to the Bitcoin blockchain.
and businesslike, doesn t fit the stereotype of woolly young bitcoin developers. But he slyly describes himself asnot quite an anarchist
and executed with assets already represented in the Bitcoin blockchain, Middleton says they eliminate counterparty risk
while also subtracting conventional banking and brokerage fees. The most immediate function Middleton envisions for his system is for hedging bitcoin against existing national currencies.
With bitcoin s valuation still showing huge volatility Middleton claims the availability of distributed hedging will both ensure the value of bitcoin for individuals holding the asset
and provide systemic stability. Given persistent skepticism, there should be plenty of takers to short bitcoin against the dollar.
And the entire system relies on decentralization for its security and integrity: My contracts are peer-to-peer,
says Middleton. If you hack my servers, there s nothing to get. Somebody call#Target#(TGT.
Bitcoin makes microtransactions ranging down to fractions of a cent viable, but Middleton says thatright now,
the volatility of bitcoin can really take you out. Because of the low cost of Middleton s swaps,
The most speculative and long-range potential functions of peer-to-peer finance and smart contracts are forms of what s known assmart Property.
and former George washington University law professor Nick Szabo (who has come under occasional suspicion of being pseudonymous bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto).
But combining telecommunications with the Bitcoin blockchain presents more intriguing possibilities for example, cars able to read the blockchain could disable themselves
if a loan payment wasn made t on time. Mike Hearn, one of the main developers of the Bitcoin architecture alongside the mysterious Nakamoto, has said that any implementation of the concept is at least a decade away because of the need for hardware upgrades on physical goods. The functions that advocates say could be automated through the Bitcoin network
seem nearly endless including peer-to-peer investment funds, Kickstarter-like crowdfunding, binding arbitrations, and even nonfinancial transactions such as naming rights management and encrypted communication.
And all could be executed without a cut for intermediaries.##Bitcoin partisans, from developers down to rank-and-file users, often seem to revel in the idea that they are threatening the control and profits of Wall street institutions,
who they see as rent-seeking fat cats. If it were limited to the loss of fees on payments and transfers,
bitcoin s threat to existing financial institutions would still be substantial. But with a full array of commission-free financial services on the horizon, there is even more reason to take heed.
Middleton sounds a bit like an 18th-century pirate striking back against the Empire when he declares thatwhat
excitement over value fluctuations in the bitcoin currency is missing the point: It s not a threat as people sit there
and ponder whether bitcoin is a bubble or not. But if people go through the protocol and use their imagination,
it is still difficult to exchange bitcoin for national currencies in a quick, reliable manner.
It s unclear how Middleton s automated dollar-bitcoin hedging will work without a lightning-quick and reliable dollar-bitcoin exchange platform.
the trueautomation of bitcoin functions that integrate with the economy as a whole may require a reconciliation with existing trading platforms.
Citing studies on disruptive innovation by the likes of 20th-century economist Joseph Shumpeter, he makes an analogy with the energy industry.
If I m an investment firm, do I see peer-to-peer finance as an opportunity, and adopt it,
because it s##more efficient? Or do I not make the investment, and in 10 or 20 years I become irrelevant?
So, all bankers and stockbrokers might not go the way of the coal miner, telephone operator, or record store clerk.
But the hard lessons of other upturned industries may now be relevant to the financial sector in ways they never were before.
as well as expenses. The special eyewear has yet to be named but it has already been used during surgery at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of medicine.
Investments in autonomous vehicles accelerating SOUTHFIELD, Mich. Google and various automakers have increased their activity and investment toward the goal of self-driving vehicles,
with Google now focusing on fully driverless vehicles for the future, according to a report by IHS Automotive.
Pointwise director of applied research. hat we are releasing today for production use is the result of a multi-year research effort Pointwise conducted with funding from the U s. Air force Arnold Engineering Development Complex,
The price paid for that flexibility is need the to ensure a sufficient degree of overlap so the CFD solver can accurately share data between the component grids.
In segments such as Oil and Gas Computer Aided Engineering and Computational Science many organizations have made substantial investments in Openmp to create scalable workloads.
Connectx-4 adapters provide the means to increase data center return on investment while reducing IT costs. Connectx-4 has already been selected to power CORAL (Collaboration of Oak ridge,
The goal of reference architectures is to achieve high performance at a cost-effective price for rapid deployment.
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