A wind investment deep in the heart of Texas: Google

Gloogle Blog, January 9, 2013

In late December, while most of us were busy wrapping presents, our Treasury team was tying a bow on our most recent renewable energy deal: an approximately $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in west Texas that generates enough energy to power more than 60,000 average U.S. homes.

Spinning Spur Wind Project is located in Oldham County, a wide open, windy section of the Texas Panhandle located about 35 miles from Amarillo. The 161 megawatt facility was built by renewable energy developer EDF Renewable Energy, a veteran in the industry that has overseen more than 50 other clean energy projects. Spinning Spur’s 70 2.3 MW Siemens turbines started spinning full time just before the end of the year, and the energy they create has been contracted to SPS, a utility that primarily serves Texas and New Mexico.

We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets. We’re also proud to be the first investor in an EDF Renewable Energy project that is not a financial institution, as we believe that corporations can be an important new source of capital for the renewable energy sector.

Spinning Spur joins 10 other renewable energy investments we’ve made since 2010, several of which hit significant milestones in the past year:

• The Atlantic Wind Connection received permission to begin permitting, an important step in advancing the construction of the United States’ first offshore backbone electric transmission system (more in this new video).
• Shepherds Flat, one of the world’s largest wind farms with a capacity of 845 MW, became fully operational in October.
• The Ivanpah project, which is more than 75 percent complete and employs 2,000+ people, recently installed its 100,000th heliostat, a kind of mirror (more in this new video).
• Just yesterday (PDF), the fourth and final phase of Recurrent Energy's 88MW solar installation in Sacramento County, Calif., reached commercial operation.

Altogether, the renewable energy projects we’ve invested in are capable of generating 2 gigawatts of power. To give a better sense of what that really means, we came up with some comparisons :

Here’s to a clean, renewable 2013!

Posted by Kojo Ako-Asare, Senior Manager, Corporate Finance

CES 2013: Booth babe debate returns

BBC News, 9 January 2013

Some visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas are angry that the so-called 'booth babes' are back despite much criticism at last year's event.

A year after the BBC first highlighted the issue scantily clad women are still a staple of electronics and technology shows around the world, but some females in the industry feel the tactic has been taken too far.

While models have been banned from technology and gaming expos in China, the US is seeing a steady growth in their use in marketing. Critics say their presence is degrading to women and contributes to the fact that so few women want to take up careers in engineering.

Video Journalist: Matt Danzico

US is main source of EU credit card fraud - Europol

BBC News, 8 January 2013

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Europol says cross-border specialised
teams are needed to tackle card fraud

Data breaches in the US account for most of the credit card fraud affecting the EU, a new police report says.

Criminal gangs are making about 1.5bn euros (£1.2bn; $2bn) annually from such fraud, the EU police agency Europol says, regretting that compliance with new security features remains patchy.

In 2011 nearly all fraud involving EU cards took place outside the EU. Chip-and-PIN security used in the EU is not yet global, Europol notes.

Such fraud cases overseas have risen.

Besides the US, the fraud networks are also very active in Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Russia, Europol says.

"So far most of the credit card numbers misused in the EU have come from data breaches in the US," Europol says, adding that most illegal face-to-face card transactions with EU-issued cards also happened in the US.

In 2011 alone nearly 727m payment cards were issued in the EU.

Fraudulent "card-not-present" transactions, where personal data is stolen on the internet, account for about 60% of the losses from credit card fraud, according to Europol.

The agency is launching a new Cybercrime Centre in The Hague this week, dedicated to fighting such crimes.

Europol notes a range of problems in tackling credit card fraud:

• Proper regulations for reporting data breaches to police are lacking
• Criminals operate in complex international networks, exploiting gaps in police and justice co-operation
• Often the crimes take place online in several countries, with numerous people involved
• Data thefts on the internet usually involve huge quantities of personal data, which criminals then sell on the internet.

Samsung to log record profits on Galaxy sales

Deutsche Welle, 8 January 2013

Samsung is expecting record profits in the final quarter of 2012 on the back of sales of about 500 mobile phones a minute. Versatility has kept the electronics leader in the top slot over rival Apple.

Samsung's fourth-quarter operating profit was expected to soar to $8.3 billion (6.3 billion euros), which was a staggering 89 percent more from a year ago and 8.6 percent higher than its previous record set in the third quarter, the South Korean technology firm said in an earning guidance released Tuesday.

Revenues in the quarter were predicted to rise to $52 billion – up 18 percent from the same period a year ago.

Samsung also said that sales of its flagship Galaxy S III mobile phone - currently the world's best-selling smartphone - slipped to around 15 million in the final quarter of 2012 from 18 million between July and September. However, sales of about 8 million so-called Galaxy Note phablet models fully compensated for the drop, pushing overall smartphone deliveries to some 63 million.

In addition, the electronics manufacturer said it would stand to profit from rising prices for its computer chips and flat screens, setting the company well on track for record earnings for the whole year.

Market analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics research group told Reuters news agency that he expected Samsung to increase notably its smartphone sales to 290 million units in 2013 from a projected 215 million in 2012.

Samsung is scheduled to roll out its new Galaxy S IV model in March or April.

uhe/kms (Reuters, dpa)

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Post-smartphone era coming, CES told

Yahoo – AFP, 7 January 2013

A New Year text message is pictured on a smartphone on December 31,
 2012 in Paris. The era of the smartphone is rapidly becoming a post-
smartphone  era, a key tech industry analyst said ahead of the opening
of the world's biggest technology show

The era of the smartphone is rapidly becoming a post-smartphone era, a key tech industry analyst said ahead of the opening of the world's biggest technology show.

Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at the Consumer Electronics Association, told a gathering that the smartphone has become so successful it is become a hub for people's digital lives, and less of a communications device.

"I think we are entering a post-smartphone era," he told journalists ahead of Tuesday's opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

He said 65 percent of time spend on smartphones now is is "non communication activities" such as apps for health, entertainment or other activities.

"We have moved away not only from telephony but from communications being the primary part of these devices," he said.

"So it is not just a communications devices, it is a hardware hub around which people build services... the smartphone is becoming the viewfinder for your digital life."

DuBravac said this is among the key trends being watched as tens of thousands gather to show off the latest wares in global trillion-dollar technology sector.

Another trend is the high-density screens which are being developed for smartphones, tablets, computers and bigger devices such as televisions.

"This has implications for the Web generally," he said.

Because people have higher-quality screens, "We are going to demand high resolution images, and that will have an impact on a variety of Internet services.

"We see it happening at the smartphone level. But this is a shift that is happening across all screens."

Still, DuBravac said the so-called ultra-HD televisions touted by some makers has been slow to catch on because of high costs.

Only around 1.5 million of these TVs are expected to be sold annually by 2016, he said.

"We are not expecting this to be a technology that ramps very quickly," he noted.

Anger online as Saudi in his 90s marries 15-year-old

BBC News, 7 January 2013

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The case has drawn a sharp reaction
from Saudis on social networks

The case of a Saudi man in his 90s who has married a girl of 15 has drawn widespread criticism on Twitter and other social media in the country.

Some Saudis have been asking whether the case amounts to trafficking or child abuse.

Local media reports say the man paid a dowry of $17,000 (£10,500) in order to get married to the girl.

A series of similar cases in recent years has drawn attention to the issue of child marriage in the kingdom.

The girl in the latest case was so frightened that on the wedding night she locked her husband outside the bedroom and eventually escaped back to her parents, local media reports say.

The husband is reported to be considering legal action to get either her or his dowry back.

The case reflects how online social networks have become a vital forum for public discussion in what has long been an opaque, even closed society, with Saudis now taking to Twitter faster than anywhere else in the world, the BBC's Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher reports.

Thousands of girls under 14 are reported to have been married off to richer, much older men, he adds.

There appears to be widespread support in Saudi society for a minimum age for marriage, which the authorities say they are working towards.

However, some of the most conservative religious scholars are still resisting the idea, while insisting that girls must have reached puberty before marriage.

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Ahmadinejad slams pressure to impose Islamic values


Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

“… No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give. …”


"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

Kuwait Jails Opposition Tweeter for Insulting Emir

Jakarta Globe, AFP, January 06, 2013

A Kuwaiti court sentenced an opposition youth to two years in jail for writing
tweets deemed offensive to the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state. (JG Photo)

              

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A Kuwaiti court on Sunday sentenced an opposition youth to two years in jail for writing tweets deemed offensive to the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights activist said.

Rashed al-Enezi, who was in the courtroom to hear the sentence, was immediately arrested by police and taken to jail, the head of the independent Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, told AFP.

Enezi is the first to be sentenced among dozens of tweeters, activists and former opposition lawmakers who face similar charges since the government began a clampdown on the opposition in the lead-up to elections held on Dec. 1 last year.

The opposition has been staging regular demonstrations in protest at an amendment of the electoral law and the holding of the the parliamentary vote on the basis of the amended legislation.

It has announced plans to stage a demonstration later on Sunday to demand that parliament be dissolved and the amendment to the electoral law scrapped.

Humaidi said that more than 200 opposition activists, including former lawmakers, face trial on a variety of charges, mainly criticizing the emir who is protected against criticism in the constitution.

Among those are around 25 young tweeters who were arrested, interrogated and then freed on bail on charges of insulting the emir.

"The charges were not based on solid accusations but on wrong interpretation of the tweets by authorities. Most of the charges are fabricated," Humaidi said.

The same court is slated to issue verdicts on Monday on another youth tweeter and a member of the scrapped parliament on similar charges.

Agence France-Presse

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Google's Eric Schmidt to make humanitarian visit to North Korea

Executive chairman to travel to the country on a private mission led by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press in Seoul, Thursday 3 January 2013

Eric Schmidt: North Korean trip would be the first by a top executive
from US -based Google, the world’s largest internet search provider.
Photograph: Lee Jin-Man/AP

Google's executive chairman is preparing to travel to one of the last frontiers of cyberspace: North Korea.

Eric Schmidt will travel to the country on a private, humanitarian mission led by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson as early as this month.

The trip would be the first by a top executive from US-based Google, the world's largest internet search provider, to a country considered to have the most restrictive internet policies in the world.

North Korea is in the midst of what leader Kim Jong-un called a modern-day industrial revolution in a New Year's Day speech.

He is pushing science and technology as a path to economic development for the impoverished country, aiming for computers in every school and digitised machinery in every factory.

However, giving citizens open access to the internet has not been part of North Korea's strategy. While some North Koreans can access a domestic intranet service, very few have clearance to freely surf the web.

It remains highly unlikely Google will push to launch a business venture in the country, according to Victor Cha, a former senior Asia specialist in the Bush administration.

"Perhaps the most intriguing part of this trip is simply the idea of it," said Cha, an analyst with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies thinktank in Washington. Kim Jong-un "clearly has a penchant for the modern accoutrements of life", he said.

"If Google is the first small step in piercing the information bubble in Pyongyang, it could be a very interesting development."

It was not immediately clear whom Schmidt and Richardson expect to meet in North Korea, a country that does not have diplomatic relations with the US.

North Korea has almost no business with companies in the US, which has banned the import of North Korean-made goods.

Schmidt, however, has been a vocal advocate of providing people around the world with internet access and technology.

Kim Jong-un said 2013 would be a year of creations

and changes

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Online competition forcing traditional retailers in China to play catch-up

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-01-01

The customer service department of an e-commerce firm in Guangzhou.
(File photo/Xinhua)

Online retailers in China racked up massive sales in 2012, seriously threatening the operations of many bricks-and-mortar stores.

On Nov. 11, celebrated as the unofficial holiday as Singles Day by hundreds of millions of young people in China, two of the country's leading e-commerce businesses, Taobao and Tmall—both owned by Alibaba Group—collectively recorded 19 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in sales, equivalent to 30% of total national retail sales on the day. "The 30% share is absolutely a miracle," remarked Zhang Yong, CEO of Tmall.

Online shopping, as pioneered by Taobao, has enjoyed rapid growth in recent years. In 2011, Taobao accounted for 3.44% of China's total retail sales, up from 2.55% in 2010, 1.57% in 2009, and 0.87% in 2008.

Liu Jie, a professor at Fudan University's School of Management, told Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald, "The skyrocketing growth of online shopping has greatly impacted the traditional retail industry. Traditional enterprises should open their mind and learn from Google and Apple, selling not only products but also services to cope with the change."

As of Nov. 30, total transactions for the year at Taobao and Tmall topped 1 trillion yuan (US$160 billion). Zeng Ming, chief strategic officer at Alibaba, attributes this phenomenal development to fundamental changes in society.

Zeng Ming says that with hitting the 1 trillion yuan milestone, Alibaba will switch its development focus from single business mode and market expansion to the construction of e-commerce ecosystem, as Amazon, Google and Apple, among others, have done.

As the growth in online shopping has been impossible to ignore, many traditional retailers have ventured online. Yet a number of difficulties are commonly encountered. "You have to embrace the spirit of the internet in combining new and old retail businesses, utilizing the web to integrate the offline experience rather than mechanically moving the offline mode to the online business," comments Zeng.

For traditional retailers, the biggest initial challenge to moving some business online is getting the logistics right. "In the future, businesses will match buying and selling of stock according to the customer needs, rather than stockpile goods beforehand," remarks Li Shujun, president of GXG, an apparel firm which has moved into online shopping.

Internet whistleblowers named CCTV's 'People of the Year'

Want China Times, Chang Kai-sheng and Staff Reporter 2013-01-01

Zhou Xiaoyun wears a face mask but makes his identity known when
he unmasks wrongdoing. (Internet photo)

Online whistleblowers have been named the "People of the Year" by China's state broadcaster CCTV due to the many scandals exposed on the internet by netizens over the course of 2012.

CCTV's News Weekly program said the scandals posted online, usually on Sina Weibo, China's leading equivalent of Twitter, stunned the whole country with their revelations of everything from corruption, sex scandals, the mismanagement of corporations and toxic food.

An example would be that of a local official in Guangzhou who was shown by an internet user to own 20 apartments, commercial offices and mansions, way beyond what he could afford on his official salary.

The user's post, accompanied by photos of the houses owned by the official, drew widespread public attention as soon as it went up, with tens of thousands of internet users commenting, forwarding the post and dubbing the official "Uncle House."

Two days later, the Communist Party in Guangzhou announced on its official website that it was checking up on the allegations. Two weeks later, it said the official had been removed.

Most Chinese internet users choose to believe the accusations made by whistleblowers, although they don't know them and have no way of verifying their allegations — a sign of the pervasive cynicism among a population that knows their government rarely tells the truth unless it has to.

Wang Xixin, dean of law at Peking University, said most such whistleblowers are supported by internet users since their allegations allow the general public to vent their feelings of displeasure at the injustices prevalent in society.

He said whistleblowers are people who are concerned about the general public's welfare and win their admiration because they identify with people's desire for a better standard of living.

Kuang Wenpo, a professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said it is hard to determine whether whistleblowing is a practice worth encouraging, because not all the allegations they leveled were necessarily true.

Although many online whistleblowers prefer to make their allegations anonymously, Zhou Xiaoyun, who brought to light the fact that state petroleum company Sinopec had bought expensive liquor in contravention of existing regulations on official luxury consumption earlier this year, used his own name when he leaked the news on the internet. "I used my name while revealing scandals to show I stand by my stories, which are backed by ironclad evidence," said Zhou.

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