Weaker currency could encourage foriegn investment post-Brexit
▻https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-04-weaker-currency-could-encourage-foriegn-investment-post-br
Tencent Europe’s senior manager Li Ma also says Brexit will be damaging, but Britain will bounce back
’We need more data-sharing and visibility in e-commerce air freight supply chains’ - The Loadstar
▻https://theloadstar.co.uk/need-data-sharing-visibility-e-commerce-air-freight-supply-chains
Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics arm, has called on the air cargo industry to support data-sharing and visibility across its e-commerce supply chain network.
Roger Su, head of global network planning and operations for the company, told delegates at the World Cargo Symposium in Dallas yesterday it needed better visibility across its ecosystem of handlers, carriers, truckers and forwarders.
[…]
Chinese company #Alibaba has pledges to deliver within 24 hours in China and 72 hours globally, and is investing $15.2bn in logistics over the next four years, much of which will go into technology, said Mr Su.
“We need infrastructure investment and to get physical process points closer together to consolidate. And we are looking at how we can use technology to innovate and exchange data and streamline processes.”
World Customs Organisation (WCO) director of compliance and facilitation Ana Hinojosa said that, today, Customs was not quite ready for Alibaba’s plans.
“The maturity and development of countries around the world varies greatly, but over the last two years we have focused heavily on e-commerce.
“There has been a tsunami of small packages – for many countries, the volume has been exponential.”
Several players in the air cargo industry have already stepped up to the challenge. Swiss World Cargo, which as a capacity-limited belly carrier has an interest in small packages, is set to offer an e-commerce product.
It has been piloting a proof of concept in two lanes, between London and Hong Kong, and London and Spain, which, according to Silvia Chacon Ramos, senior manager for postal services and e-commerce, has been very successful.
“The concept is integrating virtually with last-mile delivery partners,” she told The Loadstar. “That includes Customs clearance. We won’t do the delivery ourselves, but we have created a platform that can link and connect all the partners from origin to destination, starting from the etailer.
“It’s a #blockchain-based platform, visible regardless of where you are in the chain. It allows the final consumer to see every point of touch.”
One of the upcoming challenges for the e-commerce industry is new EU regulations which state that, from 2021, online marketplaces must collect VAT on their platforms and that the current VAT exemption for small consignments will be shelved.
The story behind the #Rosetta ‘claymation’
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/10/27/the-story-behind-the-rosetta-claymation
Earlier this month, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, UK, released a wonderful educational #video about the #rosetta Mission using ‘claymation’ – animated clay figures. It was a big hit with the Rosetta team and so we caught up with Elizabeth Avery, senior manager of Astronomy Education at the ROG and one of the minds behind the video, to learn more about how it was put together. The same team at the ROG has also since released a complementary video called Space Rocks, about asteroids, #Comets, meteors, and meteorites. You can watch both videos as part of this post. What made you choose to focus on the Rosetta mission for this video? We have a very long list of things we would love to make videos about, so it is always a huge challenge to choose just one topic. When we were first thinking of (...)
#Fun_stuff #Landing #Philae #Science ##CometLanding #comet #philae #science
Senior manager at Akkuyu nuclear project resigns, says Turkey shouldn’t work with Russian company
▻http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/senior-manager-at-akkuyu-nuclear-project-resigns-says-turkey-shou
A senior manager at Turkey’s first nuclear power plant in the Mediterranean province of Mersin has resigned from his post, claiming that even though Turkey needs nuclear technology, it should not be done with contracted Russian company Rosatom.
Faruk Uzel, who worked as the Public Diplomacy and Government Relations Manager for the Akkuyu Nuclear Joint Stock Company for four years, resigned from the company, saying the project should not proceed with Russian state-owned Rosatom, as they were unprofessional.
“This project needs to be done but not with these people,” said Uzel to a group of journalists at a press conference he organized at the Association of Journalists’ Mersin branch on Sept. 3.
“They [the state] should give up this project which is amateur, novice and full of technical faults. They should conduct it with more professional partners,” Uzel added.
Speaking at the conference, Uzel asked how a company, which could not isolate underground water from an information center built one-meter below ground level, could build a nuclear power plant 12-meters below ground level and near the sea.
Uzel asked if it was true that Rosatom did not think to consider the shore edge line while placing reactors and thus placed one below the shore line. He added that because of this fault, the company could not continue the project and is currently waiting for a change in law to proceed.
Commenting on why the Russian company did not want to be transparent about radiation tracking and measurement, Uzel asked why they had rejected the requests of Mersin University and the representatives of the Mersin citizens about the issue.
Uzel said he decided to resign because he voiced the great risks of the project built by the Russian company held.
“I declare that, while supporting my country’s efforts to construct a nuclear power plant and possess this technology, I have resigned from the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant Project as a result of mentioning the observation that the nuclear power plant, which the Russian company’s activities and mentality will construct, is a great risk to my country and nation,” read the message Uzel sent journalists on Sept. 1.
Mapping Africa | Dissident Voice
▻http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/03/mapping-africa
In February the World Bank announced an ambitious plan to initiate a $1 billion fund to finance an effort to map the mineral resources of the African continent. Their plan is to use advanced satellite and surveillance technology to, in the words of a World Bank senior manager, “identify the areas with more profitability.”
NunatsiaqOnline 2014-03-20: NEWS: Fednav introduces its latest Arctic ship: MV Nunavik
▻http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674fednav_introduces_its_latest_arctic_ship_mv_nunavik
Named after the region it will serve, at least for the first part of its life, Fednav’s latest ice-class cargo ship, the MV Nunavik, will soon be on its way to Deception Bay to pick up mineral concentrates bound for markets in Europe.
The Nunavik is in Halifax at the moment, said Tim Keane, senior manager of Arctic operations and projects, but within a week, it will make its maiden voyage laden with supplies for the Canadian Royalties-owned Nunavik Nickel mine just east of Salluit on the Hudson Strait coastline of Nunavik.
UN anti-cholera plan in Haiti ’failing’ - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22703387
“There have been grand plans - a 10-year $2.2bn project,” Duncan McClean, a senior manager for MSF, told the BBC.
But the UN plan had not been implemented, he added.
“I travel regularly to Haiti; the impact on the ground today is almost non-existent.”