For most of us, temperature is a very easy variable to overlook.
Our vehicles and indoor spaces are climate controlled, fridges keep our food consistently chilled, and with a small twist of the tap, we get water that’s the optimal temperature. Of course, as Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley notes, our concept of what’s hot or cold is actually very narrow in the grand scheme of things.
Even the stark contrast between the wind-swept glaciers of Antarctica and the blistering sands of our deserts is a mere blip on the universe’s full temperature range. Today’s graphic, produced by the IIB Studio, looks at the hottest and coldest temperatures in our universe.
But First: What is Temperature Anyway?
Before looking at this top-to-bottom view of extreme temperatures, it helps to remember what temperature is actually measuring – kinetic energy, or the movement of atoms.
Hypothetically, atoms would simply stop moving as they reach absolute zero. As matter heats up, it begins to “vibrate” more vigorously, changing states from solid to gas. Eventually, plasma forms as electrons wander away from the nuclei.
With that quick primer, let’s dig into some of the hottest insights in this cool data visualization.
Highs and Lows on Planet Earth
Earth’s lowest air temperature, -135ºF (-93ºC), was recorded in Antarctica in 2010. Since then, scientists have discovered that surface ice temperatures can dip as low as -144ºF (-98ºC).
The conditions need to be just right: clear skies and dry air must persist for several days during the polar winter. In surroundings this cold, human lungs would actually hemorrhage within just a few breaths.
On the other end of the spectrum of extreme temperatures, the hottest surface reading on Earth of 160ºF (71ºC) occurred in Iran’s Lut Desert in 2005. In fact, the Lut Desert clocked the highest surface temperature in 5 out of 7 years during a 2003-2009 study, making it the world’s hottest location. The desert’s dark pebbles, dry soil, and lack of vegetation create the perfect conditions for blistering heat.
There are very few organisms that can withstand such temperatures, but one fascinating phylum makes the cut.
The Amazing Tardigrade
Commonly known as a “moss pig” or “water bear”, the one-millimeter long tardigrade is extremely resilient. While most organisms need water to survive, the tardigrade gets around this by entering a “tun” state, in which metabolism slows to just 0.01% of its normal rate.
When water is scarce, the creature curls up and synthesizes molecules that lock sensitive cell components in place until re-hydration occurs. Beyond dry conditions, the tardigrade can also survive both freezing and boiling temperatures, high radiation environments, and even the vacuum of space.
This video courtesy of TEDEd explains more about the hardy critter:
Testing the Limits
For better or worse, humans have pushed the limits of temperature here on Earth.
At MIT, scientists cooled a sodium gas to half-a-billionth of a degree above absolute zero. In the words of the Nobel Laureate Wolfgang Ketterle, who co-led the team: “To go below one nanokelvin (one-billionth of a degree) is a little like running a mile under four minutes for the first time.”
Not all experiments are conducted out of simple curiosity. Conventional bombs already explode at around 9,000ºF (5,000ºC), but nuclear explosions take things much further. For a split second, temperatures inside a nuclear fireball can reach a mind-bending 18,000,000ºF (10,000,000ºC).
The highest man-made temperature ever recorded is 9,900,000,000,000ºF (5,500,000,000,000ºC), created in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. It was achieved by accelerating heavy lead ions to 99% the speed of light and smashing them together.
Highs and Lows of the Universe
While humans have been able to manufacture extremely hot and cold temperatures, the universe has created these extremes naturally.
Undoubtedly, the creation of the universe is made of the hottest stuff of all. The temperature of the universe at 10⁻³⁵ seconds old was a whopping 1 octillion ºC. Moments later, it “cooled down” to 1,800,000,000ºF (1 billion ºC) when the universe was less than two minutes old.
On the other end of the spectrum, the coolest natural place currently known in the universe is the Boomerang Nebula at -457.6ºF (-272ºC). It’s found 5,000 light years away from us in the constellation Centaurus, and it is currently in a transitional phase as a dying star.
As space exploration goes further than ever, these extreme temperatures may one day reach even hotter or colder heights than we can imagine.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Lk13e7 Tyler Durden
In other words, forget everything about the free exchange of ideas: the UN feels that its ‘values’ are being threatened and those who criticize those values must therefore be shut down.
Naturally, the UN assures everyone that, “Addressing hate speech does not mean limiting or prohibiting freedom of speech. It means keeping hate speech from escalating into something more dangerous, particularly incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence, which is prohibited under international law”.
Except the UN most definitely seeks to prohibit freedom of speech, especially the kind that challenges the UN’s agendas. This was evident with regard to the UN Global Compact on Migration, in which it was explicitly stated that public funding to “media outlets that systematically promote intolerance, xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination towards migrants” should be stopped.
In contrast to the UN Global Migration compact, the UN’s action plan against hate speech does contain a definition of what the UN considers to be “hate” and it happens to be the broadest and vaguest of definitions possible: “Any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor”. With a definition as broad as this, all speech could be labelled “hate”.
The new action plan plays straight into the OIC’s decades-long attempts to ban criticism of Islam as ‘hate speech’. In the wake of the launch of Guterres’ action plan, Pakistan has already presented a six-point plan “to address the new manifestations of racism and faith-based hatred, especially Islamophobia” at the United Nations headquarters. The presentation was organized by Pakistan along with Turkey, the Holy See and the UN.
In January, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, tasked his Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, to “present a global plan of action against hate speech and hate crimes on a fast-track basis”. Speaking at a press conference about the UN’s challenges for 2019, Guterres maintained, “The biggest challenge that governments and institutions face today is to show that we care — and to mobilize solutions that respond to people’s fears and anxieties with answers…“
Pictured: Antonio Guterres. (Image source: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
One of those answers, Guterres appeared to suggest, is shutting down free speech.
“We need to enlist every segment of society in the battle for values that our world faces today – and, in particular, to tackle the rise of hate speech, xenophobia and intolerance. We hear troubling, hateful echoes of eras long past” Guterres said, “Poisonous views are penetrating political debates and polluting the mainstream. Let’s never forget the lessons of the 1930s. Hate speech and hate crimes are direct threats to human rights…”
Guterres added, “Words are not enough. We need to be effective in both asserting our universal values and in addressing the root causes of fear, mistrust, anxiety and anger. That is the key to bring people along in defence of those values that are under such grave threat today”.
In other words, forget everything about the free exchange of ideas: the UN feels that its ‘values’ are being threatened and those who criticize those values must therefore be shut down. Not only that, but — disingenuously — the UN is comparing dissent from its agendas with the rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1930s.
“Hate speech is…an attack on tolerance, inclusion, diversity and the very essence of our human rights norms and principles,” Guterres said. He also wrote in an article on the subject, “To those who insist on using fear to divide communities, we must say: diversity is a richness, never a threat…We must never forget, after all, that each of us is an “other” to someone, somewhere”.
According to the action plan, “Hate is moving into the mainstream – in liberal democracies and authoritarian systems alike. And with each broken norm, the pillars of our common humanity are weakened”. The UN sees for itself a crucial role: “As a matter of principle, the United Nations must confront hate speech at every turn. Silence can signal indifference to bigotry and intolerance…”.
Naturally, the UN assures everyone that, “Addressing hate speech does not mean limiting or prohibiting freedom of speech. It means keeping hate speech from escalating into something more dangerous, particularly incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence, which is prohibited under international law”.
Except the UN most definitely seeks to limit freedom of speech, especially the kind that challenges the UN’s agendas. This was evident with regard to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in which it was explicitly statedthat public funding to “media outlets that systematically promote intolerance, xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination towards migrants” should be stopped.
Whatever constitutes intolerance, xenophobia, racism or discrimination was naturally left undefined, making the provision a convenient catchall for governments who wish to defund media that dissent from current political orthodoxy on migration.
In contrast to the UN Global Migration compact, the UN’s action plan against hate speech does contain a definition of what the UN considers to be “hate” and it happens to be the broadest and vaguest of definitions possible:
“Any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor”. With a definition as broad as this, all speech could be labelled “hate”.
The action plan, “aims to give to the United Nations the room and the resources to address hate speech, which poses a threat to United Nations principles, values and programmes. Measures taken will be in line with international human rights norms and standards, in particular the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The objectives are twofold: Enhance UN efforts to address root causes and drivers of hate speech [and] enable effective UN responses to the impact of hate speech on societies”.
The UN makes it clear in the plan that it “will implement actions at global and country level, as well as enhance internal cooperation among relevant UN entities” to fight hate speech. It considers that “Tackling hate speech is the responsibility of all – governments, societies, the private sector” and it envisages “a new generation of digital citizens, empowered to recognize, reject and stand up to hate speech”. What a brave new world.
In the plan, the UN sets up a number of areas of priority. Initially, the UN will “need to know more to act effectively” and it will therefore let “relevant UN entities… recognize, monitor, collect data and analyze hate speech trends”. It will also seek to “adopt a common understanding of the root causes and drivers of hate speech in order to take relevant action to best address and/or mitigate its impact”. In addition, the UN will “identify and support actors who challenge hate speech”.
UN entities will also “implement human rights-centred measures which aim at countering retaliatory hate speech and escalation of violence” and “promote measures to ensure that the rights of victims are upheld, and their needs addressed, including through advocacy for remedies, access to justice and psychological counselling”.
Disturbingly, the UN plans to put pressure directly on media and influence children through education:
“The UN system should establish and strengthen partnerships with new and traditional media to address hate speech narratives and promote the values of tolerance, non-discrimination, pluralism, and freedom of opinion and expression” and “take action in formal and informal education to … promote the values and skills of Global Citizenship Education, and enhance Media and Information Literacy”.
The UN is acutely aware that it needs to leverage strategic partnerships with an array of global and local, governmental and private actors in order to reach its goal. “The UN should establish/strengthen partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including those working in the tech industry. Most of the meaningful action against hate speech will not be taken by the UN alone, but by governments, regional and multilateral organizations, private companies, media, religious and other civil society actors” the action plan notes. “UN entities,” it adds, “should also engage private sector actors, including social media companies, on steps they can take to support UN principles and action to address and counter hate speech, encouraging partnerships between government, industry and civil society”. The UN also says that, “upon request” it will “provide support to Member States in the field of capacity building and policy development to address hate speech.”
The action plan also reveals that the first concrete initiative is already planned. It is an “international conference on Education for Prevention with focus on addressing and countering Hate Speech which would involve Ministers of Education”.
The new action plan plays straight into the decades-long attempts of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to ban criticism of Islam. In the wake of the launch of Guterres’ action plan, Pakistan has already presented a six-point plan “to address the new manifestations of racism and faith-based hatred, especially Islamophobia” at the United Nations headquarters. The presentation was organized by Pakistan along with Turkey, the Holy See and the UN.
According to news reports, the plan was proposed by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi at a session titled “Countering terrorism and other acts of violence based on religion or belief”.
“A particularly alarming development is the rise of Islamophobia which represents the recent manifestation of the age-old hatred that spawned anti-Semitism, racism, apartheid and many other forms of discrimination,” the ambassador saidin her speech. She added, “My Prime Minister Imran Khan has recently again called for urgent action to counter Islamophobia, which is today the most prevalent expression of racism and hatred against ‘the other'”.
“We are fully committed to support the UN’s strategy on hate speech,” said the Pakistani ambassador, “This is a moment for all of us to come together to reverse the tide of hate and bigotry that threatens to undermine social solidarity and peaceful co-existence.”
In 2017, Facebook’s Vice President of Public Policy, Joel Kaplan, reportedly agreed to requests from Pakistan’s Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, to “remove fake accounts and explicit, hateful and provocative material that incites violence and terrorism” because “the entire Muslim Ummah was greatly disturbed and has serious concerns over the misuse of social media platforms to propagate blasphemous content”.
At the UN, Pakistan’s Ambassador Lodhi called for government interventions to fight hate speech, including national legislation, and reportedly “called for framing a more focused strategy to deal with the various expressions of Islamophobia. A ‘whole of government’ and a ‘whole of society’ approach was needed. In this regard, the Pakistani envoy urged the secretary-general to engage with a wide range of actors, including governments, civil society and social media companies to take action and stop social media users being funneled into online sources of radicalization”.
The UN’s all-out war on free speech is on.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2JuwAId Tyler Durden
Ridesharing company Car2Go experienced a significant theft of its high end cars, including dozens of Mercedes CLA sedans and GLA sport utility vehicles, on what should have otherwise been a dull Monday in April in Chicago, according to Bloomberg.
Demand for Car2Go’s high end vehicles mysteriously spiked one Monday and, instead of these Benz’ being returned, they wound up congregated together on several blocks in West Chicago. When the company’s employees went to retrieve the vehicles, they found a group of thieves had claimed them as their own. Some blocked the vehicles in to prevent repossession while others threatened the company’s employees.
And while Car2Go has the ability to remotely disable vehicles, the situation made it difficult for them to figure out which ones to disable. After the theft, Facebook videos begin showing up of Mercedes’ around Chicago being joyridden, totaled and stripped of parts. Kendell Kelton, a Car2Go spokeswoman said:
“This was a unicorn incident for us as a company. We’ve never seen this type of fraudulent activity at this scale ever, ever.”
Once Car2Go was unable to retrieve the cars on their own, they asked the Chicago Police Department for help. By the middle of the week, the company had suspended service in Chicago altogether, tacitly acknowledging that they couldn’t figure out the difference between legitimate customers from theives. A total of 75 cars were compromised and all were eventually recovered, despite the fact that some of them have been destroyed.
Although rare, this incident highlights one of the major risks inherent to shared internet-connected vehicles. As scooter sharing services are also finding out, lending out a bunch of luxury vehicles to almost anybody that wants them is a great way to wind up with them vandalized or stolen.
Ride sharing networks have struggled in general of late, especially with the rise of Uber and Lyft. Car2Go recently merged with BMWs car sharing network, ReachNow, in hopes of strengthening their operations and broadening their appeal. Together, they operate in a total of nine cities. Car2Go had traditionally subjected all of its users to background checks conducted by humans, but quicker sign ups became a “must have” for ride sharing companies that wanted to bring on more new members faster.
“You see Uber or Lyft, or Airbnb, or all the scooters—they all have instant verification,” Kelton said.
The executive team in Europe, where fraud is much less prevalent, was also eager to lower barriers to entry. So in April, the company stopped conducting manual background checks in favor of automated ones – and almost immediately, about 20 people orchestrated the Mercedes theft by setting up 80 phony accounts using fake or stolen credit cards as payment methods. It’s still unclear whether the theft was a direct result of the policy change or not.
And oddly, the thieves didn’t seem to have much more than joyriding in mind. Many of the vehicles still had their Car2Go stickers on them, functional GPS trackers and license plates. Officers patrolling the area had little trouble spotting the vehicles, because nothing had been modified on them. On one day, police arrested almost 2 dozen joyriders. Only one person was charged with a felony: a 19-year-old who was found with a pocket full of fake credit cards.
This type of attack was unprecedented, but there has been an ongoing stream of smaller incidents in years past. Enterprise, for instance, stopped operating its car sharing service in Chicago in 2017 due to high rates of fraud and vandalism. ReachNow had to wrap up service in Brooklyn in 2018 after many vehicles begin disappearing after the company implemented an automated approval process.
Also, for Car2Go, it hasn’t been unusual for people to sublease vehicles after they order them from the service. The practice is in violation of Car2Go’s rules and has been an issue in Chicago since the company started operating there. Car2Go has since reverted back to manually reviewing new accounts in Chicago and says it hasn’t had any serious issues since then.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2NQaOD8 Tyler Durden
The extent of Israeli spying directed against the United States is a huge story that is only rarely addressed in the mainstream media.
The Jewish state regularly tops the list for ostensibly friendly countries that aggressively conduct espionage against the U.S. and Jewish American Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned in 1987 for spying for Israel, is now regarded as the most damaging spy in the history of the United States.
Last week I wrote about how Israeli spies operating more-or-less freely in the U.S. are rarely interfered with, much less arrested and prosecuted, because there is an unwillingness on the part of upper echelons of government to do so. I cited the case of Arnon Milchan, a billionaire Hollywood movie producer who had a secret life that included stealing restricted technology in the United States to enable development of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, something that was very much against U.S. interests. Milchan was involved in a number of other thefts as well as arms sales on behalf of the Jewish state, so much so that his work as a movie producer was actually reported to be less lucrative than his work as a spy and black-market arms merchant, for which he operated on a commission basis.
That Milchan has never been arrested by the United States government or even questioned about his illegal activity, which was well known to the authorities, is just one more manifestation of the effectiveness of Jewish power in Washington, but a far more compelling case involving possible espionage with major political manifestations has just re-surfaced.
I am referring to Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire Wall Street “financier” who has been arrested and charged with operating a “vast” network of underage girls for sex, operating out of his mansions in New York City and Florida as well as his private island in the Caribbean, referred to by visitors as “Orgy Island.” Among other high-value associates, it is claimed that Epstein was particularly close to Bill Clinton, who flew dozens of times on Epstein’s private 727.
*(Alex Acosta (L) Jeffrey Epstein (R))
Epstein was arrested on July 8th after indictment by a federal grand jury in New York. It was more than a decade after Alexander Acosta, the top federal prosecutor in Miami, who is now President Trump’s secretary of labor, accepted a plea bargain involving similar allegations regarding pedophilia that was not shared with the accusers prior to being finalized in court. There were reportedly hundreds of victims, some 35 of whom were identified, but Acosta deliberately denied the two actual plaintiffs their day in court to testify before sentencing.
Acosta’s intervention meant that Epstein avoided both a public trial and a possible federal prison sentence, instead serving only 13 months of an 18-month sentence in the almost-no-security Palm Beach County Jail on charges of soliciting prostitution in Florida. While in custody, he was permitted to leave jail for sixteen hours six days a week to work in his office.
Epstein’s crimes were carried out in his $56 million Manhattan mansion and in his oceanside villa in Palm Beach Florida. Both residences were equipped with hidden cameras and microphones in the bedrooms, which Epstein reportedly used to record sexual encounters between his high-profile guests and his underage girls, many of whom came from poor backgrounds, who were recruited by procurers to engage in what was euphemistically described as “massages” for money. Epstein apparently hardly made any effort to conceal what he was up to: his airplane was called the “Lolita Express.”
The Democrats are calling for an investigation of the Epstein affair, as well as the resignation of Acosta, but they might well wind up regretting their demands. Trump, the real target of the Acosta fury, apparently did not know about the details of the plea bargain that ended the Epstein court case. Bill and Hillary Clinton were, however, very close associates of Epstein. Bill, who flew on the “Lolita Express” at least 26 times, could plausibly be implicated in the pedophilia given his track record and relative lack of conventional morals. On many of the trips, Bill refused Secret Service escorts, who would have been witnesses of any misbehavior. On one lengthy trip to Africa in 2002, Bill and Jeffrey were accompanied by accused pedophile actor Kevin Spacey and a number of young girls, scantily clad “employees” identified only as “massage.” Epstein was also a major contributor to the Clinton Foundation and was present at the wedding of Chelsea Clinton in 2010.
With an election year coming up, the Democrats would hardly want the public to be reminded of Bill’s exploits, but one has to wonder where and how deep the investigation might go. There is also a possible Donald Trump angle. Though Donald may not have been a frequent flyer on the “Lolita Express,” he certainly moved in the same circles as the Clintons and Epstein in New York and Palm Beach, plus he is by his own words roughly as amoral as Bill Clinton. In June 2016, one Katie Johnson filed lawsuit in New York claiming she had been repeatedly raped by Trump at an Epstein gathering in 1993 when she was 13 years old. In a 2002 New York Magazineinterview Trump said “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy… he’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Selective inquiries into wrongdoing to include intense finger pointing are the name of the game in Washington, and the affaire Epstein also has all the hallmarks of a major espionage case, possibly tied to Israel. Unless Epstein is an extremely sick pedophile who enjoys watching films of other men screwing twelve-year-old girls the whole filming procedure smacks of a sophisticated intelligence service compiling material to blackmail prominent politicians and other public figures. Those blackmailed would undoubtedly in most cases cooperate with the foreign government involved to avoid a major scandal. It is called recruiting “agents of influence.” That is how intelligence agencies work and it is what they do.
That Epstein was perceived as being intelligence-linked was made clear in Acosta’s commentswhen being cleared by the Trump transition team. He was asked “Is the Epstein case going to cause a problem [for confirmation hearings]?” … “Acosta had explained, breezily, apparently, that back in the day he’d had just one meeting on the Epstein case. He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had ‘been told’ to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. ‘I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone.’”
Questions about Epstein’s wealth also suggest a connection with a secretive government agency with deep pockets. The New York Timesreports that “Exactly what his money management operation did was cloaked in secrecy, as were most of the names of whomever he did it for. He claimed to work for a number of billionaires, but the only known major client was Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of several retail chains, including The Limited.”
But whose intelligence service? CIA and the Russian FSB services are obvious candidates, but they would have no particular motive to acquire an agent like Epstein. That leaves Israel, which would have been eager to have a stable of high-level agents of influence in Europe and the United States. Epstein’s contact with the Israeli intelligence service may have plausibly come through his associations with Ghislaine Maxwell, who allegedly served as his key procurer of young girls. Ghislaine is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, who died or possibly was assassinated in mysterious circumstances in 1991. Maxwell was an Anglo-Jewish businessman, very cosmopolitan in profile, like Epstein, a multi-millionaire who was very controversial with what were regarded as ongoing ties to Mossad. After his death, he was given a state funeral by Israel in which six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence listened while Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir eulogized: “He has done more for Israel than can today be said”
*(Trump (left) with Robert Maxwell (right) at an event.)
Epstein kept a black book identifying many of his social contacts, which is now in the hands of investigators. It included fourteen personal phone numbers belonging to Donald Trump, including ex-wife Ivana, daughter Ivanka and current wife Melania. It also included Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, Tony Blair, Jon Huntsman, Senator Ted Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, David Koch, Ehud Barak, Alan Dershowitz, John Kerry, George Mitchell, David Rockefeller, Richard Branson, Michael Bloomfield, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Elizabeth, Saudi King Salman and Edward de Rothschild.
Mossad would have exploited Epstein’s contacts, arranging their cooperation by having Epstein wining and dining them while flying them off to exotic locations, providing them with women and entertainment. If they refused to cooperate, it would be time for blackmail, photos and videos of the sex with underage women.
It will be very interesting to see just how far and how deep the investigation into Epstein and his activities goes. One can expect that efforts will be made to protect top politicians like Clinton and Trump and to avoid any examination of a possible Israeli role. That is the normal practice, witness the 9/11 Report and the Mueller investigation, both of which eschewed any inquiry into what Israel might have been up to. But this time, if it was indeed an Israeli operation, it might prove difficult to cover up the story since the pedophile aspect of it has unleashed considerable public anger from all across the political spectrum.
Senator Chuck Schumer, self-described as Israel’s “protector” in the Senate, is loudly calling for the resignation of Acosta. He just might change his tune if it turns out that Israel is a major part of the story.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Ljgy64 Tyler Durden
The CEO of Volvo warns that the company is considering moving its headquarters out of Sweden in the future, partly due to a rise in violent crime.
Håkan Samuelsson told a conference that the car maker was losing its appeal to foreign experts and engineers and further explained his concerns during an interview with SVD Näringsliv.
“We are building cars, we cannot solve the other problems, someone else must do that,” the CEO said, adding that it is becoming more difficult to attract workers due to Sweden’s worsening reputation.
“It’s definitely not helping when people read about shootings in Gothenburg and wonder if they really dare to move to Gothenburg,” said Samuelsson.
If the situation does not improve, the CEO warned that the company may even have to consider leaving Sweden in the future.
“Often people believe that decisions like these are taken by senior management or in China. But the fact is that we will only place our headquarters in a country where things work. At the moment, we are not close to such a discussion. But yes, it is something that might happen in the future,” said Samuelsson.
However, Chief of Police in Gothenburg County Erik Nord denied there was a problem, accusing Samuelsson of getting misinformation from social media.
As we have previously highlighted, surveys show that migrants are vastly overrepresented in violent crime and rapes in Sweden, but the government stopped gathering official statistics back in 2005.
This was long before the problem was exacerbated by the arrival of over 150,000 new “refugees” mainly from Islamic countries from 2015 onwards.
Swedish author Björn Ranelid recently warned that the level of crime and violence the previously sedate country is experiencing amounts to a “small scale war”.
The word “retirement” used to describe the well-deserved free time that one earned after a long and productive work life. Not anymore. Today, 23 percent of Americans say they will never retiredespite the grim realities of aging, according to a new poll from the Associated Press – NORC Center from Public Affairs Research.
The poll, conducted among 1,423 adults using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population, shows a disconnect between individuals’ retirement plans and the realities of aging in the workforce, suggesting that 23 percent of workers, including nearly two in ten of those over 50, don’t expect to stop working.
(Click to enlarge)
Source: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
Money was the primary reason for the delayed retirement; the poll shows that only 14 percent of Americans under the age of 50 and 29% over 50 say they feel extremely or very prepared. Also, 56 percent of younger adults say they don’t feel prepared for retirement.
Of those who had already retired, 38 percent said they felt they had been very or extremely prepared when they retired, while 25 percent said they had felt not very or not at all prepared.
“The average retirement age that we see in the data has gone up a little bit, but it hasn’t gone up that much,” says Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
“So people have to live in retirement much longer, and they may not have enough assets to support themselves in retirement.”
A survey from Northwestern Mutual shows similar figures. Nearly half of Americans say they expect to work past age 65 and 18 percent of baby boomers and generation X say they plan to work until age 75 and beyond. The background of these figures once again shows that Americans are short on savings–56 percent of the respondents don’t even know how much money they should be saving, the Northwestern Mutual survey found.
Those who still think they know how much they should be saving, according to Charles Schwab survey, believe they need $1.7 million on average to retire, but most of them are still not even close to that number.
“That’s a pretty good number if you average out age and median salary across the U.S.,” said Nathan Voris, a managing director at Schwab Retirement Plan Services.
However, “the bulk of folks do not get there,” he said.
The estimate for 2016 from the U.S. Government Accountability Office released this March shows that 48 percent of those 55 and older had nothing put away in a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan or an individual retirement account, which is an improvement from the 52 percent without retirement money in 2013.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute found that Americans from households headed by someone age 35 to 64 face a combined retirement deficit of $3.83 trillion. EBRI estimates that 41 percent of these Americans are likely to run out of money in retirement, which is down 1.7 percentage points since 2014.
But what is really the average retirement age in the U.S.?
Using microdata on labor force participation from the U.S. Census Bureau, Smartasset data from 2017 found that national retirement age hasn’t changed and that by age 63 nearly half of the population is no longer working.
Many retirements are unexpected due to unforeseen circumstances such as health problems, disability or layoffs. Rare are those who are able to retire early because of an inheritance or diligent saving.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Ga5FQ9 Tyler Durden
According to a report by Channel News Asia (CNA), a new robot chef can prepare 80 bowls of laksa in an hour, therefore eliminating the need for human cooks, an ominous sign that robots will displace foodservice jobs in the next decade.
Last Friday, the Singapore catering group Neo Group unveiled the robot chef, called Sophie, at a catering event held at the Singapore Management University School of Law.
CNA published a video of the event, shows guest selecting their noodles and toppings, such as vegetables and seafood. Sophie then fries the noddles, adds shrimp, and at the end, pours in the laksa sauce. The entire cooking process takes about 45 seconds.
Sophie is available for corporate events. However, Neo Group didn’t provide any pricing details to CNA. The catering group will add more dishes and recipes for the robot chef station, could even integrate more robots for complicated dishes.
“The noodle station is generally the most popular live-station for hire at our catering events, therefore we have decided to develop and create an automatic noodle-cooking station. The station ensures consistency in the delivery of our recipe, and management of food waste as customers can decide their preferred portion,” said Sally Liew, Neo Group’s executive director.
“Of course, this is also an innovative launch. We believe that live cooking automatic stations stand to be the future of Singapore’s catering industry due to our labor-intensive nature and that this is just the beginning.”
Out of the kitchen and onto the front of a restaurant, less-dexterous robots are currently being used as hotel attendants escorting guests to their rooms, as robot carts shuttle food to tables and even deliver food to a customer’s doorstep.
These robots could significantly lower the operating costs for the foodservice industry, would result in the displacement of millions of jobs. For example, chefs, preppers, waiters, and waitresses in a restaurant could be eliminated.
Mark our words, by the mid-2020s – there will be completely automated restaurants.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2JFSIhA Tyler Durden
Around 5 pm Thur. afternoon, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a new hurricane warning for parts of Louisiana coast ahead of Tropical Storm Barry’s expected landfall this weekend.
Barry transformed into a tropical storm earlier in the day on Thursday, is currently gaining momentum in the Gulf of Mexico about 85-90 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with sustained wind above 40 mph late Thursday evening. Hurricane models expected the tropical storm to traverse the northern Gulf of Mexico towards the Louisiana coast where it could make a direct hit as a Category 1 hurricane Friday night or Saturday between New Iberia and New Orleans.
“Barry formed in the northern Gulf of Mexico Thursday and will continue to slowly move toward the central Gulf Coast into the weekend. Excessive wind shear has kept the system ragged and weak so far, but as atmospheric conditions improve into the weekend, the storm may take advantage of anomalously warm ocean waters and strengthen before making landfall in Louisiana. Rainfall and flooding will be the biggest risk with this system, with some data suggesting up to two feet of rain locally in southeastern Louisiana through the weekend,” said Ed Vallee, meteorologist and owner of Empire Weather LLC.
The storm is moving to the west at 5 mph and has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph – will make a hard right hook towards landfall in the next 12 to 18 hours. The minimum central pressure is now 1003 MB…29.62 inches.
“Winds can be strong near where the system makes landfall which continues to be uncertain – most data suggests a landfall point along the central Louisiana coast, continuing northward into the Mississippi Delta. Wind speeds will depend on how much the storm can strengthen before landfall, but a strong tropical storm or category one hurricane with sustained wind of 70-80mph are possible. This can lead to damage to structures, downed limbs, and power outages,” Vallee said.
Vallee said weather models indicate the tropical storm could make landfall Saturday on the southeastern coast of Louisiana. He noted that Barry lacks the classic hurricane structure, but as it hooks right towards land on Friday – the storm could develop the traditional spin of a cyclonic storm.
WOFL Orlando meteorologist Jayme King – said “Barry is going to produce a tremendous amount of rain. So, there’s a lot of concern about flooding in New Orleans,” King added, “The French quarter is notorious for having awful drainage. The city is already saturated, and the Mississippi River is already high… We’re hoping they get through this okay.”
Biblical rains could undoubtedly be the biggest story of the weekend with total rain accumulations of 10 to 15 inches near and inland of the central Gulf Coast through the weekend.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell told the Sun Sentinal that the upcoming storm would be an enormous test for the flood-control infrastructure built in New Orleans since 2005′s Hurricane Katrina. Local officials are concerned about the tropical storm making landfall with dangerously high water levels on the Mississippi River.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Y0kMWf Tyler Durden
If so, I have a quick question I was hoping I might run by you. (Your answer might well be, “I don’t know, but you can talk to this coworker of mine,” which would be just fine by me.) If you’re willing to chat, please e-mail me at volokh at law.ucla.edu.
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Back in March, I wrote about the City of Baltimore’s lawsuit attempting to use eminent domain to take the Preakness Stakes Triple Crown horse race, in order to prevent the owners from moving it to a different location. As explained in the previous post, the case raised several important legal issues. This post is a brief update on developments since then.
In mid-June, the City dropped its lawsuit, apparently as part of an agreement with the owners to continue negotiating on possible ways to ensure that the race will stay in its current location in Baltimore, instead of moving elsewhere in Maryland (as the owners previously hoped to do). Later that same month, the owners and the City entered into a “new phase of negotiations” intended to keep the race at the deteriorating Pimlico Race Course, which is badly in need of repair.
At least for the moment, the City is no longer trying to condemn either the Pimlico Race Course, or the Preakness Stakes horse race. The legal community may therefore miss out on a case that raises multiple thorny issues, such as whether the intellectual property and trade marks associated with the race are within Baltimore’s jurisdiction, and whether condemning a horse race to keep it from moving to a new location violates the Dormant Commerce Clause. Had the lawsuit gone forward, it would have been a virtual full-employment act for eminent domain experts!
However, the dismissal of the case of was “without prejudice.” That means the city could potential refile it, if negotiations go badly. Moreover, it is hard to say to what extent the threat of condemnation might have been a factor in forcing the owners to reconsider their apparent plan to move. If the business community is left with the impression that the owners gave in under the threat of eminent domain, it could incentivize other enterprises to flee before they suffer the same fate.
The (for now) abortive effort to condemn the Preakness Stakes is just part of a long history of Maryland efforts to try to keep businesses from leaving by threatening them with the use of eminent domain. I summarized it in my earlier post about this case:
Hopefully, the city and state governments have finally figured out that the better way to grow their economies is to create an environment where people will want to locate of their own free will. The threat of eminent domain might force some businesses to stay when they might otherwise have left. But such shenanigans are also likely to scare away other entrepreneurs and investors, who are not likely to do business in the state if doing so risks having their property condemned if things go badly.
While these kinds of cases are a bonanza for takings lawyers, Baltimore is unlikely to succeed in condemning its way to prosperity.When it comes to using eminent domain to keep horse races and other enterprises from moving, I remain a “neighsayer.”
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