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[foureverdrivingschool-blog]

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2018 Kia Soul Review

Used car dealership Omaha

Intro

" But he's got a great personality!" When it comes to arranged dates, this is the default description for somebody who may be doing not have in the looks department.

The Kia Soul, a compact multi-purpose lorry type thing that's not quite a subcompact crossover because of its absence of four-wheel drive, and not rather a hatchback since of its towering height, is not only a car with character brimming from every crevice, however likewise has looks covering the range from cute to dreadful, depending upon whom you ask. And simply in 2015, Kia gave the Soul a lot more wit by slapping a turbocharger on the engine to make it much more personable.

What Owners Say

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last change, offered solely in the leading trim level, fixed a significant complaint with this spunky little automobile. For that reason, for this evaluation, J.D. Power examined a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim geared up with optional floor mats. The price came to $23,820, consisting of the $895 location charge.

Before we talk about the results of our examination of the Kia Soul, it is useful to understand who purchases this automobile, and what they like most and least about their Souls.

More ladies than males own Kia Souls, with 52% of Soul owners recognizing as female. Compared to the Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle section, 46% of owners are ladies.

Soul owners are about the exact same age as compact MPV owners (60 years vs. 61 years for the segment), however they enjoy considerably lower median annual home income at $59,286 (vs. $78,682). This drastic difference might be discussed by the automobiles in the competitive set, which include the Ford C-Max and Toyota Prius v, devoted hybrids that might attract more upscale buyers.

Approximately the same variety of Soul owners and compact MPV owners identify as Price Buyers, appearing to verify that lower mean annual household earnings among Kia buyers is not, within the section, dictating their choice in an automobile. Compact MPV owners are more worried about fuel economy and environmentally friendly cars than Soul owners are, reflecting the existence of dedicated hybrid designs in the competitive set.

In other respects, Soul owners and compact MPV owners are aligned with 2 exceptions. Soul owners are most likely to agree that they like a vehicle that stands apart from the crowd (72% vs. 60%) and that they like a vehicle that uses responsive handling and powerful acceleration (82% vs. 76%).

Owners report that their favorite features of the Soul are (in descending order) the exterior styling, interior decoration, driving dynamics, seats, and storage and space. Owners suggest that their least preferred features of the Soul are (in descending order) exposure and safety, the infotainment system, the climate system, the engine/transmission, and fuel economy.

What Our Expert Says

In the areas that follow, our specialist supplies her own perceptions about how the Kia Soul determines up in each of the 10 classifications that comprise the 2017 APEAL Study.

Outside

The Soul is a lorry of cartoonish proportions, all created to set it apart from its rivals. It's boxy from the beltline up and a little lumpy down, with the wheel arches and the front headlamps adding blobby aspects to an otherwise squared-off lorry. The front grille (which isn't one, actually) looks too little and the lower air intake looks too huge.

Kia jazzes up the Soul Exclaim's currently extroverted exterior with red accent lines to denote the engine's additional boost and bigger 18-inch wheels to provide it a more assertive position. The Soul is one of those automobiles that you either like or dislike, but even haters might grow keen on it after driving it for a while.

Interior

Consider the base Soul. It has a tiny beginning rate of $16,995 (with $895 location), however it features a much better interior than you 'd think a vehicle of that rate may include. The quality level easily makes sense in my more expensive test car, or even a vehicle priced closer to $30,000.

When compared to compact crossovers like the Chevrolet Trax or the Toyota C-HR, which have lots of inexpensive products, the Soul's interior quality stands apart even more. The cabin is made up of appealing soft-touch materials and durable, nicely finished plastics, and collectively they provide the vehicle a surprising quantity of refinement.

The Exclaim's unique cloth seats with leather boosts and red contrast stitching are also mighty trendy.

Seats

For motorists, the Kia Soul is rather comfy, and I always value it when small, low-cost vehicles include a center console armrest, like many versions of the Soul do. Seriously, who does not require an armrest? Nobody keeps his/her hands on the wheel at all times.

For guests, comfort is fine other than that the front right chair is mounted too low and is not geared up with a seat height adjustment unless you choose the package that consists of power change. Without this upgrade, the guest is dealt with to the equivalent of a dunce chair for a small time out. This, combined with an absence of thigh assistance, means pain.

Rear-seat travelers fare better, since the seat is mounted higher. Foot room is plentiful, however tough plastic front seatback panels might show uncomfortable for taller individuals. Shoulder area is great for 2, however three will find it tight.

Climate Control System

The climate control system is fairly basic, however in the Exclaim trim it is a single-zone automated system. A single knob changes temperature, and due to the fact that the vehicle does not have a temperature display you merely make it hotter or cooler than you are when you dial in change.

Remarkably, however, the Soul has a Clean Air ionizer, which supposedly cleans up the cabin's air and keeps the interior smelling great. If it's working with my grade-school-age daughters in the automobile, it's simply hard to inform.

Infotainment System

I was a little bummed to see that my test vehicle did not include the Technology Package, that includes speaker that pulse with light to the thumping beat of what's playing on the audio system. They're extremely entertaining, and along with all the other goodies that it features, like a navigation system and heating for the seats and steering wheel, the Technology Package is a bargain.

However, the Soul Exclaim's basic infotainment system includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone forecast, so it was simple to get directions to locations.

In addition to smartphone forecast, Kia offers Soul owners open door to UVO eServices telematics functions for the duration of ownership. This includes services such as automated collision notice; speed, curfew and geographical boundary alerts for teenaged drivers; an app that keeps an eye on where you last parked the Soul; and a lot more.

Storage and Space

The Soul's rectangular shape provides itself to bring a lot more than you would think for such a little automobile, and storage is among things that Soul owners like about their Kias. This is not unexpected, due to the fact that in the cabin, storage space is plentiful. There is a big glove box, thoughtful little bins and trays around the transmission shifter, and big door panel bins to make arranging your things easier.

Behind the rear seats, an 18.8 cu.-ft. trunk avails itself to you. That measurement consists of a covered, separated tray under the freight floor that organizes your things. Take that out and get rid of the freight floor, and this little automobile materials access to 24.2 cu.-ft. of area.

Without rear guests, you can fold the seats to produce 49.5 cu.-ft. These numbers extend beyond subcompact crossover SUV area and into the realm of bigger compacts, but just if you take the difficulty of getting rid of the useful tray.

Exposure and Safety

Motorists enjoy excellent forward exposure, but the view to the rear quarters is pretty abysmal due to the shape of the car and the width of the rearmost roof pillars. Thankfully, large side mirrors and a standard reversing cam do their finest to alleviate this problem.

While Kia makes a blind spot caution system with rear cross-traffic alert offered in both of the Soul's higher trim levels, the turbocharged Exclaim can't be geared up with functions like adaptive cruise control, forward crash warning, automated emergency situation braking, or lane departure warning. That's a disappointment.

The Soul does a great job of safeguarding occupants in a collision. The NHTSA awards the Soul a 5-star general rating for crashworthiness, while the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety offers it "Good" rankings all around.

Engine/Transmission

Soul owners point out the powertrain as one of their least preferred elements of the cars and truck. Hopefully, they'll give the turbocharged Soul Exclaim a try, as it alters the character of the car, and for the much better.

With 201 horses on tap from the 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine, the Soul Exclaim is not exactly a rocket, but it's much livelier than it used to be. Enthusiast publications claim it will accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in about 7.6 seconds, which suffices to instill your commute with some additional zip. Power shipment is fairly linear, although there is some turbo lag straight off the line.

Charged with sending out the power to the front wheels, a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission shifts correctly however gracelessly. A little more smoothness and improvement would be great, as would a manual transmission that, undoubtedly, almost no one would choose. Likewise missing is any sort of all-wheel-drive system, which would secure the Soul's membership in the popular crossover SUV sector.

Fuel Economy

The EPA estimates that you must get 28 mpg in combined driving (26 city/31 highway mpg) with a Soul Exclaim. My testing produced a return of 25.5 mpg, which isn't remarkable. The turbocharged Soul, despite making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the automobile, is actually a little bit more fuel effective than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus trim.

Driving Dynamics

To assist make the most of driving enjoyment, Kia somewhat changes the Exclaim's suspension tuning, sets up larger front brakes, and includes bigger tires and wheels.

While the Soul still preferred knocking about in the city, with its diminutive footprint, active handling, and ability to absorb the ruts and bumps of disregarded public roads, it nonetheless held its own on twisty back roadways threading through local mountain ranges. The steering had a fair amount of heft to it, specifically in Sport mode, however I wanted a bit more feel, feedback and accuracy to make the vehicle more enjoyable to drive. The brakes successfully withstood fade throughout aggressive driving, too, and managed everyday driving tasks without grabbing or bringing the vehicle to a jostling stop.

No, the Kia Soul Exclaim will not be completing in autocross rallies with the Volkswagen GTI or Mazda 3 anytime soon. Its happy-go-lucky character and newfound virility makes it a lot more pleasurable to drive than the tiny crossover lorries versus which it will most likely be cross-shopped.

Last Impressions

By now, everyone needs to recognize with Kia's generous warranty that covers the whole automobile for 5 years or 60,000 miles, while the powertrain is protected for 10 years or 100,000 miles, along with complimentary roadside support for 5 years with no mileage limitation. That interest the rational side of your brain, along with the quality awards that both this cars and truck and Kia have actually received from J.D. Power recently.

What's more, the Kia Soul has a personality. Yes, it's a little strange. And now, with its available turbocharged engine, it is more appealing than ever previously.

There are a lot of people who drive the same thing everyone else does. With a Kia Soul parked in your driveway, you can proudly be one of the others.

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last modification, used entirely in the leading trim level, solved a major grievance with this spunky little cars and truck. For this review, J.D. Power evaluated a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim equipped with optional flooring mats. For drivers, the Kia Soul is quite comfortable, and I constantly value it when little, low-cost vehicles include a center console armrest, like the majority of versions of the Soul do. The Soul's rectangle-shaped shape provides itself to carrying a lot more than you would think for such a little car, and storage is one of things that Soul owners like about their Kias. The turbocharged Soul, in spite of making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the car, is really a little bit more fuel effective than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus trim.

[srvrishabh]

Fintech solutions to problems of Savings

“The key to success is making a habit of doing things you fear”– Derek Colfer, Visa

What is Fintech?

Fintech stands for the use of technology in providing financial services and products to customers; areas this applies to are finance-related areas such as banking, insurance, and investing. The combination of the words ‘financial’ and ‘technology’= Fintech, a technology-enabled economic invention, which is altering how financial institutions provide services to consumers and businesses and how customers and businesses manage their financial matters.

Fintech is a reasonably new term but not a new concept. In fact, the idea of Fintech has existed for a long time and coming up with new innovative ideas has always been crucial in the financial sector, but the speed and impact of change have changed. Because of this, the Bank of England was inspired to launch the ‘Future of Finance’, which delves into potential changes the financial system may have in the next ten years and how this could affect society’s priorities both in the present and in future. Technology has reshaped the financial sector and with widespread internet access with devices such as smartphones and laptops, this has added to the speed of transformation which has increased rapidly in more recent years.

What is the objective of Fintech?

Fintech firm’s objective is to come up with new innovative ideas, to create a more positive outlook towards saving and to provide consumers with the incentive to attain their personal savings goals, whatever it could be. There has been an encouraging increase in consumers motivation to try new providers for their financial requirements, contributing to expansion in the market. According to CASS statistics, Digital opponents, including Monzo and Starling, have progressively taken current account customers away from traditional banks for a few years.

How is Fintech already shaping the world of Finance?

In the UK, a large part of the population has a weak relationship with their money. According to the Money Charity, 46% (12.6 million) of UK households do not have any savings or have less than £1,500 in savings. People may find it challenging to save because of low-interest rates and the uncertainty on what product to go for which has also affected consumers’ ability to save and set money aside. Another reason why our ability to save may be impacted is because of the offerings that the market has presented for quite a while which often fail to meet the saver’s main saving requirements.

Fintech has reshaped the financial realm in several ways; for instance, customers can now open a bank account online without visiting a branch. And accounts can be linked to smartphones and be used to keep an eye on transactions. In addition, technology has come such a long way that your smartphone can be turned into a “digital wallet” and can be used in place of a bank card to pay for things using the funds in your bank account.

Furthermore, Fintech has also changed the insurance and investment industries at an accelerated rate; for instance, car insurance providers sell “telematics-based” insurance which collects data through your smartphone or a “black box” which is installed in the driver’s car. The data can be used to access factors such as the speed of your driving, your braking habits, and how you deal with corners. The data collected is used to access the amount you must pay for your insurance policy. The advancements in technology have also led to customers being able to make investments on the internet on an “execution-only” basis (central bank of Ireland).

How the Fintech `Intellisaving’ is aiming to solve the problems of Cash Savings?

Intellisaving is a savings platform which that helps savers in managing multiple saving and interest-bearing accounts straightforward. IntelliSaving’s smart money-saving app is jam-packed with saving features advantageous to various savers’ requirements regardless of the saving or ISA account. Features include a personalised portfolio for every user that displays information on types of accounts, balances, and withdrawals. A watchlist that is handy for when you want to add an account that has piqued your interest. Intellisaving also displays the best saving rates and best ISA interest rates for you to compare.

Fintech innovations have also been advantageous to companies such as Intellisaving as through Fintech innovations, it is possible to link mobile phones to financial apps such as Intellisaving. Moreover, the combination of Fintech and open banking is revolutionising the banking industry as well as other sectors by making it possible to access many different accounts from one login. Intellisaving uses open banking to facilitate the integration of multiple accounts.

Banks have been around for a long time but are primarily human-focused, and because of their traditional approach, they have found it difficult to adjust to the changes in the financial industry in an increasingly technology-reliant world. As a result, some banks have closed because of the cost to keep them open. This has presented Fintech with the perfect opportunity to impact consumer choices and financial services significantly. Going digital with many of our banking needs has facilitated things for many consumers as many have busy lifestyles and find it easier to manage their financial needs online.

Furthermore, the Fintech industry has continued to change the way financial services are provided to consumers and they well generally benefit from fintech from both a user experience and convenience viewpoint and access to cost savings (Palgrave, Macmillan). Other benefits of Fintech are that there is more financial inclusion. Globally there are more than 2 billion people without a bank account to their name as some don’t have access to a bank account and cannot borrow money for education, and for others who do save money in poorer countries, saving money constitutes as hiding it under their mattress. This is the unjust cycle of extreme poverty. However, the positive side is that it is now possible to give them access to financial services.

Despite the challenges, individuals face in saving, innovations such as Fintech increase the ability to save through more financial inclusion and more digital alternatives than traditional banking. There is no better time to start saving than now, as saving could make all the difference if one day a financial downpour appears on your doorstep. Fintech will continue to heavily influence both the financial sector and how consumers manage their financial services. But how Fintech will progress in future and what new advancements will arise well we will have to wait and see.

Stay tuned for all the fintech related topics on our website and social media!

[encephalonfatigue]

a history of radical ideas behind hancock’s meadowvale and ‘new towns’ like it

this started as a reflection on a short Chomsky book, but it provoked a long excursion into the town planning ideas that informed the design of Meadowvale, a suburb i have spent almost my entire life in. i hilariously had to rewrite this entire essay from memory after having accidentally deleted it upon pasting in my last cited passage into my Notes app, which promptly proceeded to crash after i tried to undo the paste. i have permanently pledged to do all future writing in a proper word processor. requiem for a Notes app nightmare.

Requiem for the American Dream is largely composed of fragments of interviews with Chomsky conducted for a documentary of the same name. Consequently its tone is very conversational and it’s pretty conducive to the audiobook format. (Someone’s uploaded it onto YouTube if you’re in the mood for such listening.)

The book opens with Chomsky comparing the present situation to the Great Depression as he recalls it. He talks about how even though things were bad then – much worse than now – there was still a sense that things would get better. Chomsky says that sense of hope has vanished. People no longer have a sense of upward mobility being possible. The bubble has burst and the American Dream has collapsed.

The American Dream commonly elicits images of white-picket fences and other stock imagery of the American suburbs. I grew up in the suburbs, and though this was in Canada, my parents as immigrants bought into this ‘dream’. As I reflect on our experiences, I see Chomsky’s words ringing true. My dad’s income has not only failed to increase for over the past decade but has in fact fallen. My mom has worked longer and longer hours over the years, even working through vacation days, because work has to be done and she feels terrified of not being able to meet the unreasonable expectations of her bosses.

Chomsky makes a very fascinating point citing something Alan Greenspan said about why his tenure as chair of the Federal Reserve was so successful. Greenspan said in his testimony before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in 1997:

“[A] typical restraint on compensation increases has been evident for a few years now and appears to be mainly the consequence of greater worker insecurity. In 1991, at the bottom of the recession, a survey of workers at large firms by International Survey Research Corporation indicated that 25 percent feared being laid off. In 1996 . . . the same survey organization found that 46 percent were fearful of a job layoff. The reluctance of workers to leave their jobs to seek other employment as the labor market tightened has provided further evidence of such concern, as has the tendency toward longer labor union contracts. …The low level of work stoppages of recent years also attests to concern about job security. Thus, the willingness of workers in recent years to trade off smaller increases in wages for greater job security seems to be reasonably well documented.”

Marx refers to this as the reserve army of labour – the unemployed and underemployed, more destitute than you, willing to take your job for less compensation and worse working conditions. That’s the sort of circumstance very conducive to capitalist production. The highly productive economy relies on the fear of losing one’s job. I see that daily as my mom works enormous amounts of unpaid overtime because she is absolutely terrified of losing her job.

And to make it worse, how much of this labour is focused on bettering humanity as a whole, and how much of it is focused on meeting the desires and interests of the wealthy few? I’m glad Chomsky offers a term to describe this sort of economy. He actually references a term used by Citi Group: “plutonomy” – an economy that is driven by the demand of the wealthy few. Basically labour structured around the whims of the rich – a type of neo-feudalism. This is also visible in the suburbs, but only certain parts of it. The wealthier suburbs. You see an army of gig workers mowing people’s lawns, landscaping gardens, cleaning people’s houses, delivering food and Amazon orders, making people’s food, caring for people’s aging parents, raising people’s kids. There are long commodity chains around the material inputs for each of these jobs too. But it is bourgeois consumption that drives the economy. Canada is categorized as a plutonomy by Citi Group. This is only amplified by orders of magnitude for the extremely wealthy.

What if the economy was structured very differently, where instead of wealthy people directing where labour should be focused according to their interests, we came to decisions more democratically for the wider interest of the public at large. Chomsky mentions a very interesting case regarding transportation and the way alienation has eroded our ability to collectively organize:

“After the housing bubble and the financial crash, as you remember, the government pretty much took over the auto industry. It was virtually nationalized and in government hands. That means popular hands. That meant there were choices that the public could’ve made. If there had been an organized, active public, there would have been choices that people like us could’ve made about what to do with the auto industry. Well, unfortunately, there wasn’t that active mobilization and organization, so what was done was the natural thing that benefits the powerful. The industry was pretty much a taxpayer expense, and returned to essentially the same owners—some different faces, but the same banks, the same institutions, and so on—and it went on producing what it had been producing: automobiles.

There was another possibility. The industry could have been handed over to the workforce and the communities, and they could have made a democratic decision about what to do. And maybe their decision—I would at least hope that their decision—would have been to produce what the country desperately needs, which is not more cars on the street, but efficient mass transportation for our own benefit, and for the benefit of our grandchildren. If they’re gonna have a world to survive in, it’s not gonna be through automobiles—it’s gonna be through efficient forms of transportation. Retooling it wouldn’t have been that expensive, and it would be beneficial to them, beneficial to us, beneficial to the future. That was a possibility. And things like that are happening all the time, constantly.

This is one of the few countries, certainly one of the few developed societies, that doesn’t have high-speed transportation. You can take a high-speed train from Beijing to Kazakhstan, but not from New York to Boston. In Boston, where I live, many people literally spend three or four hours a day just commuting. That’s crazy wasted time. All of this could be overcome by a rational mass transportation system, which would also contribute significantly to solving the major problem we face—namely, environmental destruction. So that’s one kind of thing that could be done, but there are many others, large and small.

So, there’s no reason why production in the United States can’t be for the benefit of people, of the workforce in the United States, the consumers in the United States, and the future of the world. It can be done.”

When I look at Meadowvale, the suburban neighbourhood I live in, I ponder these early proposals for its development where mass transit was the central focus. One fascinating nugget of local Meadowvale history is that Moshe Safdie’s McGill thesis, conducted under Daniel van Ginkel, was a proposal for the development of the Meadowvale ‘new town’, and while this proposal remained ultimately unrealized, it became the basis of his landmark work Habitat 67.

The Carleton professor Inderbir Singh Riar, in his doctoral dissertation at Columbia, describes this van Ginkel project that Safdie worked on as drawing from the Marxist-inflected Metabolist movement of the architects Kenzo Tange and Fumihiko Maki:

“The van Ginkels elsewhere admitted admiring Tange’s 1960 Tokyo Bay proposal and their work had absorbed aspects of its heroic planning: an unrealised 1961 master plan for the new town of Meadowvale, Ontario, found massive pyramidal “clusters” of civic buildings, industrial sectors, and housing complexes attached to a transport spine facilitating “as complete as possible a separation between automobile and pedestrian” (fig. 3.6).78 Partially in the spirit of Man in the City, Meadowvale at its most heroic reflected concerns being concurrently advanced by the Japanese Metabolists for whom Tange served as éminence grise. Drawing on biological connotations of “growth”, Fumihiko Maki’s influential concept of “collective form”, which acknowledged debts to Team 10 ideas, aimed to represent “groups of buildings and quasi-buildings… not a collection of unrelated, separate buildings, but of buildings that have reasons to be together” by systems of “linkage”.”

More sketches of Safdie’s Meadowvale plan.

Rair also explored this fascinating development from Safdie’s Meadowvale ‘new town’ proposal into the great Montreal landmark of Habitat 67, and one can see in this description that these ‘linkages’ were not solely thematic, as to make the development more aesthetically cohesive, but also about establishing a system of mass transit. He writes about Safdie’s formative project in this way:

“The suggestion came from Moshe Safdie, who, upon graduating from McGill University in 1961, had worked for the van Ginkels on the Meadowvale new town and was, by early September 1963, among their young Expo 67 staff architects. Safdie had contributed some of the more heroic elaborations of Meadowvale in massive pyramidal housing, commercial, and industrial sectors set along a transportation system: each “productive unit depends on others just as they depend on it”; “Rapid transit unites the centre city”; the “key point is TRANSPORTATION”.”

It’s fascinating to see here that early hopes for Meadowvale actually matched the sort of sensible focus on mass transit that Chomsky mentions would be more possible under a more democratic economy. The issue is how these visions are often radically watered down under the dictates of capital. While Safdie’s vision did not come to fruition, the town planner that did come to shape Meadowvale was Macklin Hancock, a graduate of Harvard, greatly influenced there by the principles of Bauhaus, the ‘new town’ movement and its ‘garden city’ precedent. While many of these architectural and planning movements were infused with the radical politics of socialists, their design principles under capitalist development all but shed their radical roots. Hancock, unlike his more radical professors at Harvard, did not see these design principles as requiring the socialist politics behind them, but rather saw them as design projects that could be profitable under a ‘free-enterprise’ economy. Hancock writes:

“What is essential is to develop principles and techniques, within our free enterprise socio-economic framework, to link effectively the handling of traffic with the design of communities.”

While Hancock did enact some very important principles from the ‘new town’ movement – e.g. focusing on making the community more walkable, by segregating car traffic and pedestrian walkways and ensuring the connectivity of these walkways through tunnels and bridges avoiding traffic intersections, and granted I have benefited often from these ideas during bike-rides to the Meadowvale library and community centre. I cannot emphasize how valuable a tunnel or bridge crossing a road is, rather than traffic light crosswalks. Especially crosswalks across wide vehicle roads which remain fairly dangerous in my experience as people try to negotiate tightly timed turns at red lights, or try rushing through amber lights, or for that matter, when crosswalk buttons stop functioning, and one has to cross while that red hand remains illuminated.

All this being said, I still find the mass transit available in Meadowvale less than satisfying. Hancock was often styled as a type of conservationist and environmentalist and recognized early on the severe consequences of an underfunded or non-existent mass transit system, both environmentally and from the perspective of economic productivity. He writes in a 1963 article for Traffic Quarterly:

“Those nations with cities built around a compact principle employing mass transit as the basic element of transportation have an opportunity to provide production at less cost than we, with a corresponding benefit to the economy and amenity of the family unit.”

Hancock in a more recent interview with Streeter recognized the awful state of mass transit in the GTA, caused by the chronic underfunding of the TTC:

"They don’t seem to understand how to create and maintain a transportation system… These are the communication systems of a city, the Romans knew this. Know why there is so much gridlock coming into the city? Because they’ve ignored the TTC for the past 20 years and there are more and more people coming into the city to work every day."

Hancock goes on to suggest that they should have TTC extensions out to places outside the city like Meadowvale. And I agree with Hancock. While the GO train into downtown from Meadowvale is likely the most successful aspect of public transit available in the neighbourhood, Meadowvale still deserves better, and every trip for me to anywhere downtown requires a stop through Union Station before I can proceed to any other destination in the city. 

Meadowvale GO Station

Additionally anywhere else in the GTA takes a prohibitively long duration to reach, as most of it is based on public buses that travel on the same congested highways as all the other private cars, though this is beginning to change for more central regions in Mississauga, where there is now a corridor for public buses alone (and potentially a path for future LRT development). What I do know is that I’m one of those people who Chomsky describes, commuting for four hours a day (in fact often it’s closer to 4.5 to 5 hours).

My main point is that however visionary the architects and planners we bring to the table may be, they can only go so far as capitalist development dictates, and often times that severely limits the radical vision on offer. What I want to do here is trace through some of these radical thinkers that influenced Macklin Hancock as a way of seeing the radical history of certain suburban plans before they were co-opted by the needs of capital over ordinary residents. Before I go into that though, I think it’s worth looking at Moshe Safdie himself, who had offered a fascinating proposal for Meadowvale that eventually took shape in Montreal instead.

Inderbir Singh Riar wrote of this blurring of ‘town and country’ (which is a theme at the centre of the ‘new town’ movement I will get into later):

“Still early in his career, Safdie – who had, under Daniel van Ginkel, designed a modular housing system as his McGill thesis project that would become the basis of Habitat 67 – saw the future city in terms of regional planning. His Meadowvale scheme, which brooked little distinction between town and country, recalled the linear city originating in the Spanish planner Arturo Soria y Mata’s ciudad lineal of 1882, with its sections of infrastructure – water, gas, electricity, and sewage – extending an optimal line to which components of the city would simply attach.”

This notion of the “linear city” became successfully realized in various Frankfurt developments by the Ernst May, and exported into Soviet planning schemes. In fact Soviet planners subscribing to “linear city” principles became the primary faction allied with “garden city” planners in the Soviet Union forming the ‘disurbanist’ camp against the ‘urbanist’ camp, which I will also get into later. What’s fascinating is that all these schemes were of great interest to leftist intellectuals. Rair traces Safdie’s ideas for Meadowvale and eventually Montreal’s Habitat 67 to the utopian socialist, Charles Fourier’s Phalanstère and the New Babylon proposed by the Situationist Constant Nieuwenhuys:

“Constant believed as much and thought New Babylon heir to the nineteenth-century utopian socialist Charles Fourier’s phalanstère, a building based on a desire for “architecture unitaire” – the Situationists called for a “unitary urbanism” – and designed for a self-contained community governed by “passional attractions”. (Debord sought “lived ambiances and their transformation into a superior passionnal quality”.) Walter Benjamin had described the phalanstère – in the context of related ferro-vitreous enviroments of the nineteenth century that he took from Giedion – in terms of the capacity of advanced building systems to change radically the processes of everyday life:

‘Its highly complicated organisation is like a piece of machinery. The meshing of passions, the intricate interaction of the passions mécanistes with the passion cabaliste, are primitive analogies to machinery in the material of psychology. This human machinery produces the land of milk of honey, the primeval wish symbol that Fourier’s utopia filled with new life.’”

What’s fascinating I think is that Safdie in the past has identified with socialism and contends that it still informs his work:

“Absolutely I feel the ideological base I grew up with is still the foundation of my beliefs. The socialism of early Israel has an enormous influence on my practice… It’s very basic and constant in my ideas. I’m more focused on society as a whole.”

Like Chomsky his young experiences on a kibbutz became deeply formative to Safdie’s anarcho-socialist impulses, and in his book “Beyond Habitat” Safdie elaborated more on his relationship to leftist politics:

"This is not bureaucratic socialism; it's a much more humane interpretation of Marxism. I think the kibbutz is an open-ended, civilized interpretation, respectful of man in contrast with the Russian misinterpretation. The kibbutz members actually live by the rule, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." There is no private property, only communal property. Everything is owned by the community, not the state, and that is a big difference."

It is fascinating that “communal property” was actually a central concept to early ‘garden city’ and ‘new town’ proposals, which would eventually take a far less radical form in the work of Macklin Hancock’s new town projects of Don Mills, Meadowvale, and Erin Mills.

If you’ve ever seen the cover of the 1992 documentary “Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media”, it is Chomsky’s face plastered across a large screen. A snapshot from one of the documentary’s opening scenes. I actually spent many moments of my childhood under that screen playing mini-golf, eating cake and other sugary goods, and taking unbearable photographs with Santa Claus. 

Erin Mills today

This is the four-way screen that used to sit under the postmodern ‘town tower’ of Erin Mills Town Centre, also developed by Macklin Hancock. That tower is gone now, replaced by a strange glass globe, but the screen under that tower is forever emblazoned within that Chomsky documentary, and this piece of trivia is sometimes even featured in real-estate postings for the Erin Mills area. 

The glass globe of Erin Mills today.

Following a quote by John Milton, the Chomsky documentary actually opens with overhead snapshots of Erin Mills Town Centre, before focusing in on the multimedia screen.

Opening screenshots from the documentary “Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media”

Instead of collectively owned approaches to development, Macklin Hancock’s first ‘new town’ project (Don MIlls) was executed under the finance of a subsidiary owned by the arch-capitalist E. P. Taylor who also had his finger in every other industry of vice: alcohol, gambling, tar & chemicals, mining, gated communities, off-shore tax havens, and sugary soda drinks for children. Curiously, his brother Fred Taylor was an artist and a communist, constantly criticizing his brother, and who E. P. Taylor was perpetually embarrassed by.

A painting of Chabolley Square, Montreal (1955) by the communist Fred Taylor (brother of arch-capitalist E. P. Taylor).

Hancock’s first job as a town planner came while he was still a graduate student at Harvard. His father-in-law worked for a company owned by E. P. Taylor and got Hancock to design a plan for what would become Don Mills. Hancock actually tried to convince his professors to allow him to undertake the project as extra credit towards his degree, but they declined, thinking he had bitten off more than he could chew. While on the project, he tried to convince one of his Harvard professors, Walter Gropius, to design the commercial heart of Don Mills ‘new town’, but Gropius “gently refused” as Dave LeBlanc put it in The Globe & Mail. Instead Gropius suggested another recent graduate of Harvard, John Parkin, who accepted the offer. Parkin would leave behind traces of Bauhaus design all over Toronto, and especially in the Don Mills area with buildings like Don Mills Collegiate and the Janssen Building.

Parkin was also involved in designing the Simpson’s building at Yorkdale Shopping Centre (now The Bay) together with Victor Gruen – the committed socialist often considered the ‘inventor’ of the shopping mall. Certainly shopping centres did not turn out to be the centres of civic community that Gruen initially envisioned. The young architect most responsible for the Simpson’s section of Yorkdale was actually John Andrews, who designed the CN Tower along with great brutalist landmarks like the University of Toronto Scarborough campus and the University of Guelph South Residence buildings. Andrews’ first job after graduating from Harvard was in the Parkin firm working on Don Mills. Afterwards, while working on the Simpson’s building at Yorkdale, he experimented in the vernacular of New Formalism, and I admittedly have a soft spot for those types of minimalist lines and the white vaulted ceilings that still adorn the exterior of The Bay. It’s probably my favourite decorative feature to Yorkdale. Andrews was actually drawing on the work of Minoru Yamasaki who was also working with the New Formalist vernacular at the time. Yamasaki is maybe most famous for designing the World Trade Towers, but he is also the architect behind the Pruitt-Igoe social housing complex. Catherine Liu, in a video interview with Jacobin, commented on how the destruction of Pruitt-Igoe and its condemnation by postmodernists (as a failure of top-down modernist ambition and idealistic design out of tune with the reality of the ‘gang violence’ that it would breed), was ultimately a mischaracterization of what amounted to a racist project by the white business class of defunding social housing primarily used by racialized communities.

Social housing was actually a central idea in the ‘new towns’ movement, but by the time it was taken up by Macklin Hancock around Toronto this was no longer a central focus. In fact one of the criticisms of Don Mills was its lack of non-profit housing. Anyway, after executing Don Mills rather ‘successfully’, to a fair degree of acclaim, he went back to Harvard to finish his degree. He would later go on to take these ‘new town’ ideas westward into Mississauga to develop both Meadowvale and Erin Mills along ‘new town’ principles. In fact, E. P. Taylor was one of the early speculators buying up land around the Missinihe (Credit River), which would eventually constitute part of the neighbourhood of Erin Mills. 

The name Erin Mills itself was a sort of franchised extension of the success at Don Mills. The name was simply taken from nearby Erindale – ‘Erin’ being a mythic name for Ireland (since many of the early European settlers in the area hailed from Ireland), and dale was just another poetic name for valley (in this case, carved out by the Missinihe). There never was a historic mill site called ‘Erin Mills’ along the Missinihe as I had initially assumed. It’s actually quite interesting to see how settler colonialism is infused within the names developers gave to these ‘new suburban utopias’. It really begs the question ‘utopia’ for whom?

Thirteen years after purchasing all that land around the Missinihe, E. P. Taylor’s subsidiary Don Mills Development Corp announced a plan to build a New Town  in four phases, and Macklin Hancock would be called back to the drawing table. Jan Dean tells the story along with the developer Larry Robbins in the Mississauga News:

“As Robbins tells it, the whole Erin Mills development – all four phases with all those thousands of homes and commercial and industrial buildings – started as a gleam in the eye of iconic Canadian entrepreneur E.P. Taylor.  After the huge success of his Don Mills project Taylor dreamed of a similar project in the Credit River watershed.  He started buying up parcels of land in the area, getting friends and colleagues to purchase it in their names to keep the prices down.  And by 1954 Taylor’s company, Canadian Equity and Development Ltd. (CEDL) which also owned Don Mills Development Ltd. (DMD), owned 10,000 pristine acres of the watershed. It was a plot of land that Robbins describes as “a developer's dream where five creeks all flow into the Credit River in a south-easterly direction.” One third of the land was in Oakville, the other two-thirds in Toronto Township – what would become the City of Mississauga. “The land sold for $1,000 an acre,” says Robbins.  “Now it would be worth more than $1-million an acre for raw land.””

The four quadrants of Don Mills and the same quadrant structure of Erin Mills Town Centre, to me, has certain thematic resonances with four rivers of the biblical Eden, and so the utopian allusion is certainly there, as I see it. But as I mentioned before, whose utopia was it? It is interesting that the nostalgic utopia this late capitalist development alludes to, that of ‘bucolic’ mills along the pastoral fields by the Credit River, was at the same time signifying a process that dispossessed the Anishinaabe who lived along the Missinihe. I did an audio piece on how the deforestation projects and decimation of salmon populations these mills perpetrated led to the exodus of the Anishinaabe as their livelihoods became endangered from the collapse of their resource base.

Lake Wabukayne

One interesting little body of water that I sometimes access along the network of walkways that Macklin Hancock designed in Meadowvale is known as Lake Wabukayne. It used to be a cattle pond on the Cook Farm, and became a flood control reservoir developed and financed by Cadillac Fairview for preventing surges of water, which could affect Erin Mills downstream of Wabukayne Creek. 

An image of Wabukayne Creek (above) flowing nearby Erin Mills Town Centre, behind Quenippenon Meadows Community Park, named after another Anishinaabeg chief. His name is often rendered Kineubenae, Quinipeno, or Quenebenaw. He witnessed first hand British colonial deceit in the wake of signing Treaty 13A.

Concrete storm water management structure at Lake Wabukayne farther upstream in Meadowvale.

A note about the name of the creek and the reservoir: Chief Wabukayne was an Anishinaabeg leader murdered by a white man in Toronto who was trying to solicit sex from Wabuayne’s sister. And after this white man (a murderer of an Anishinaabeg Chief) was acquitted by the court, there was almost a full-scale indigenous insurrection resulting from the unjust ruling.

Erin Mills Town Centre today is owned by the Ontario Pension Board, but was previously owned and operated by Cadillac Fairview, which is in turn owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund. David Harvey has pointed out the strange entanglements of capitalism, such that its less about which individual is a capitalist and who is proletariat, and more about the different roles people now play in different circumstances. Pensioners are capitalists, but I think there is some nuance here worth flushing out here.

The management consultant and business professor Peter Drucker in his 1972 book “The Unseen Revolution: How Pension Fund Socialism Came to America” opens his book by writing:

“If "socialism" is defined as "ownership of the means of production by the workers"—and this is both the orthodox and the only rigorous definition—then the United States is the first truly "Socialist" country.

Through their pension funds, employees of American business today own at least 25 percent of its equity capital, which is more than enough for control. The pension funds of the self-employed, of the public employees, and of school and college teachers own at least another 10 per- cent, giving the workers of America ownership of more than one-third of the equity capital of American business. Within another ten years the pension funds will inevitably increase their holdings, and by 1985 (probably sooner), they will own at least 50—if not 60—percent of equity capital. Ten years later, or well before the turn of the century, their holding should exceed around two-thirds of the equity capital (that is, the common shares) plus a major portion—perhaps 40 percent—of the debt capital (bonds, debentures, and notes) of the American economy. Inflation can only speed up this process.

Even more important especially for Socialist theory, the largest employee pension funds, those of the 1,000-1,300 biggest companies plus the 35 industry-wide funds (those of the college teachers and the teamsters for instance) already own control* of practically every single one of the

1,000 largest industrial corporations in America. This includes control of companies with sales well below $100 million, by today's standards at best fair-sized companies, if not actually small; the pension funds also control the fifty largest companies in each of the "non-industrial" groups, that is, in banking, insurance, retail, communications, and transportation.t These are what Socialist theory calls the "command positions" of the economy; whoever controls them is in command of the rest.

Indeed, aside from farming, a larger sector of the American economy is owned today by the American worker through his investment agent, the pension fund, than Allende in Chile had brought under government ownership to make Chile a "Socialist country," than Castro's Cuba has actually nationalized, or than had been nationalized in Hungary or Poland at the height of Stalinism.”

While this was in 1972, business elites still accept Drucker’s premise. For example, Roger L. Martin (former dean of Rotman School of Management) in a 2014 Harvard Business Review article agreed with Drucker:

“Workers, he predicted, would own the means of production — but not through the violent overthrow of capitalism in the way Marx had suggested. Rather they the ownership would come through the stocks held by their pension funds. Drucker was right, especially if you lump traditional pension funds along with their sovereign wealth fund cousins. The top 350 pension and sovereign wealth funds control just under $20 trillion of assets. They are the largest holders of securities in for-profit organizations competing in democratic capitalist environments.”

However, it’s worth considering how the ownership of these assets is not the same as democratic control over them. While this ‘pension fund socialism’ is hardly a threat to capitalism, and Drucker saw it as a saving grace of capitalism, Martin laments that these giant pension funds are monopolistic in nature and undermine capitalist competition. I am less interested in its undermining of capitalist competition (which I don’t perceive as a necessarily good thing), and more interested in how these monopolistic tendencies concentrate power. The Egyptian Marxist Samir Amin writes:

“The logic of accumulation lies in the growing concentration and centralization of control over capital. Formal ownership can be spread out (as in the “owners” of shares in pension plans), whereas the management of this property is controlled by financial capital.”

I think this is an important point, because I often ponder the difficult struggle over divesting university pension funds and similar types of investments out of fossil fuels. What degree of democratic control exists in the allocation of capital? Samir Amin believes that ultimately a de-financialisation of economic management is required, and elaborates on how abolishing pension funds is a necessary step towards this goal:

“The de-financialisation of economic management would also require two sets of legislation. The first concerns the authority of a sovereign state to ban speculative fund (hedge funds) operations in its territory. The second concerns pension funds, which are now major operators in the financialisation of the economic system. These funds were designed - first in the US of course - to transfer to employees the risks normally incurred by capital, and which are the reasons invoked to justify capital‟s remuneration! So this is a scandalous arrangement, in clear contradiction even with the ideological defense of capitalism! But this “invention” is an ideal instrument for the strategies of accumulation dominated by monopolies. The abolition of pension funds is necessary for the benefit of distributive pension systems, which, by their very nature, require and allow democratic debate to determine the amounts and periods of assessment and the relationship between the amounts of pensions and remuneration paid. In a democracy that respects social rights, these pension systems are universally available to all workers. However, at a pinch, and so as not to prohibit what a group of individuals might desire to put in place, supplementary pensions funds could be allowed. All measures of de-financialisation suggested here lead to an obvious conclusion: A world without Wall Street, to borrow the title of the book by François Morin, is possible and desirable.”

I think Peter Frase also provides a really interesting critique of this sort of ‘market socialism’ framing, even mentioning Peter Drucker explicitly. Frase first cites something Matt Yglesias writes in reference to the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund:

“[T]he right thing to do is to just directly think about the issue of how best to ensure that everyone obtains the financial benefits of equity investments. And the answer, I think, is sovereign wealth funds. That’s how they do it in Singapore and conceptually it’s the right way to do it. An American version of Singapore’s Central Provident Fund would be much too large for any market to absorb, but the US share of world GDP should shrink over time and it’s conceivable that there would be some way to work this out on the state level to create smaller units. A fund like that would render the public listing issue irrelevant, since it would clearly have the scale to get in on the private equity game. This would, needless to say, entail injecting a hefty element of socialism into American public policy but I’m always hearing from smart conservatives how much they admire Singapore.”

After citing this remark by Yglesias, Frase lists out all the problems that still remain with this sort of ‘market socialism’:

“you would still have profit-seeking companies competing with each other, and they would still be subject to the same kind of discipline they are now--the shareholders, which is to say the sovereign wealth funds, would demand the highest possible return on their investment… the important point about capitalism without capitalists is that in many ways it isn't any better than capitalism with capitalists. You still have to sell your labor power and submit to a boss in order to survive, so alienation persists. Since firms are still competing to deliver the highest returns to their shareholders, there will still be pressure to exploit employees more intensely and to prevent them from organizing for their rights. Exploitation goes on as before, and it will be all the more robust insofar as it is now a kind of collective self-exploitation. And on top of all of this, the system will still be prone to the booms and busts and problems of overaccumulation that occur in today's capitalism. It was, after all, public and union pension funds that bought many of the toxic mortgage-backed securities during the housing bubble.

…now each person is simultaneously a capitalist and a worker, in some degree or for some part of their life. Thinking through the inadequacy of such an arrangement is, for me, a more accessible way of thinking through the arguments of people like André Gorz and Moishe Postone. They argued that the point isn't to get rid of the capitalist class and have the workers take over: the point is to get rid of capital and wage labor.”

I started this long tangent on pension funds remarking that it was Cadillac Fairview that owned and operated Erin Mills Town Centre and even a lot of the surrounding infrastructure (like the flood-control reservoir of Lake Wabukayne in Meadowvale). I found it a very curious thing that it was the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan who owned Cadillac Fairview. My mom works in finance, and many of the people in the corporation she works for come from OTPP, because they are totally woven into the fabric of Canadian high finance just as any other capitalist financial corporation. It’s remarkable that Cadillac Fairview actually owns the entire TD Centre out of which the Toronto Dominion bank operates out from. This is maybe the most significant Bauhaus architectural landmark in the downtown core of Toronto designed none other than Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe.

I swear there is a better photo I took of this building, but this is the only one I could find for now. The Mies TD Centre building is the black one on the far right.

This is a shot of it I snagged from google maps.

Mies Van der Rohe is possibly one of the most well known of the Bauhaus architects, and the last director of the Bauhaus school, an institution with a stormy connection with the left. In 1926, Mies Van der Rohe had designed a memorial to the communist ‘martyrs’ of the German revolution, Spartacist League leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, commissioned by the then president of the German Communist Party, Eduard Fuchs. This memorial, with its hammer and sickle and all, had been later destroyed by the Nazis, whom Mies Van der Rohe had capitulated to in strides and bounds, trying to keep the doors of the Bauhaus school open, but eventually failed. Mies had gone so far as to make submissions for Third Reich buildings like their Reichsbank competition and their pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, complete with sketches of swastika flags and a stone eagle. By 1937, the Bauhaus school had shuttered and Mies left for the US. This trajectory was what led Mies to design some of the most famous modernist skyscrapers plastered with the names of large corporations and banks – exactly as one sees with the TD Centre at the heart of the Toronto financial district. The architectural critic Tom Dykhoff writes:

“…his future patron would be no government, no political system, but the economic system that was emerging triumphant in the US. Modernism…would succeed as the landscape not of communism, bolshevism or nazism, but of international capitalism.”

The Bauhaus school before Mies Van der Rohe had a reputation, especially among the Nazis for being infiltrated by all sorts of leftist elements, particularly communists. It might be worth taking a moment here to describe what was the Bauhaus movement in fact was and a bit about its founder – Walter Gropius, the Harvard professor who had greatly influenced Macklin Hancock during his time in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Irish communist Jenny Farrell wrote a great introduction to Bauhaus for People’s World:

“The Bauhaus began in Weimar in 1919 as a state school for art and architecture. The guiding principles in the Bauhaus Manifesto were community, unity of art, practical education, cooperation between craft and industry, and a sense of belonging to the people. All artistic disciplines were to be reunited under the leadership of a new architectural art.

The name Bauhaus plays on the German word Bauhütte (construction/building hut)—the workshop where the builders of the great medieval cathedrals worked together: quarrymen, plasterers, mortar-makers, stone-cutters, masons, and others. Here there were no strict dividing lines between artists and craftsmen, and the builders were both in one. This was an important concept for the Bauhaus school. As the word Hütte means hut, the term was modernized to Haus (house). In this way, the term Bauhaus refers to a workshop, the sense of community and the equality of art and craft under the guidance of architecture, as cultivated in medieval cathedral workshops.”

The medievalist impulses of Morris’s Arts & Crafts movement deeply informed the early Bauhaus before its direction towards more futurist and urban aesthetics. J. Dakota Brown in a Jacobin article writes:

“The cover of the Bauhaus’s founding manifesto carried Lyonel Feininger’s woodcut of a cathedral rising into a turbulent sky, beset by shafts of light. In the writings of Arts and Crafts theorists like John Ruskin and William Morris, the Gothic cathedral had represented the integration of art, labor, and life in the pre-capitalist world. Bauhaus pedagogy reimagined the structure of the medieval guilds: “apprentices” worked under a “master of form” (normally a painter) and a “master of craft” (a skilled artisan). Students who passed the initial coursework became “journeymen” eligible for waged work in the workshops. Many later became “young masters” — junior teachers — themselves. The Bauhaus Manifesto promised to “raze the arrogant wall between artist and artisan” through a dual education that would form a new type of producer.”

An Arts & Crafts Movement display at the Royal Ontario Museum.

This medievalism of the Bauhaus school in fact did find its way into the work of Macklin Hancock in Don Mills, although Hancock’s other influence of ‘new towns’ were also deeply informed by the work of William Morris. The president of Don Mills Residents Inc., Tony West, explains:

"Most European towns start with a castle and then outside you had people with dwellings and the fields where people work.”

In the case of Don Mills it is the shopping centre that serves the role of the medieval castle, which ironically seems a fitting way to frame the feudalistic nature of capitalist consumerism. Around this castle are the four quadrants of Don Mills, each with a school, church and housing – all of which connected by a network of walkways (as I see in Meadowvale also). The Donway then is often framed as the ‘medieval wall’ wrapping around the Don Mills ‘new town’.

However, Bauhaus’s coalescence of building and architectural design was ultimately rejected by many of the architects and planners around Macklin Hancock, as they saw the architect as an importantly neutral mediator between the developer and the builder – again willing to forsake core design principles for the sake of maintaining the terms of capital. I am not sure about Hancock’s take on Gropius, but it is interesting some of the remarks made in an issue of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (Serial No 341, Vol. 31, No. 1) that featured an article by Macklin Hancock and his colleague Douglas Lee called “Don Mills New Town”. It opens with an editorial by the President saying:

“The very fact that imagination has been freed and traditional restraints removed is making us more soberly thoughtful, more critical of new forms of expression, less apt to mistake novelty for beauty, less willing to accept the philosophies of contemporary prophets without fully understanding them… It is suggested sometimes that the architect should abandon his professional status and take part commercially in the building operation. This we must not do. The professional function of the architect is vital to the orderly operation of the business of building.”

Later in the issue, from Alberta, the architect Maxwell Bates writes:

“In the United States, Dr Gropius recently said that the architect will have to become part builder to survive… At first glance, the combination may seem healthy and natural, but I think consideration shows it to be extremely dangerous. Although the position of the architect, internationally speaking, has suffered some modification in our century, it has gradually evolved, without great basic changes, for hundreds of years. His position has depended on a relative independence as between owner and builder on the one hand, and a general acknowledgement of architecture as an art, even as the mother of the arts, on the other hand. The architect is the only side of the owner, architect, builder triangle able to make impartial judgments. On this impartiality, which corresponds in a way with the independence of the judiciary from party politics, depends the respect with which he has been generally regarded by the building trades. Much of his authority on the job is traditional. To become party to a building contract is to lose all eminence due to his professional, impartial standing. So the English architect foresees the architect becoming less of an artist; and the famous architect, Dr Gropius, foresees the necessity of relinquishing his other traditional support, his independence as mediator between contracting parties.”

I wonder what Hancock thought of this, and I wonder if these remarks were specifically targeted at Hancock, and consequently published together with his Don Mills article. Certainly, whatever their concerns, Hancock still fit very well into the capitalist arrangement (’mediating between contracting parties’) as he wrote with Lee in his article on Don Mills New Town:

“It is the aim of the Development Company to create, under the free enterprise system, an integrated new town which will satisfy the requirements of private investment, and which will also be in accordance with the best principles of town planning.”

It’s clear Hancock thought he could pull off both. I think it’s interesting now to take a closer look at Walter Gropius who so influenced Hancock, and the sort of leftist currents that he was moved by. I think this is why Hancock is always being found to emphasize terms like “free enterprise” and “private investment” as people like Gropius were often seen as socialists, and for good reason. Jenny Farrell talks about the ‘Cathedral of Socialism’ that was featured on the front page of the Bauhaus founding manifesto:

“With this commonality of craft and art in medieval cathedral construction in mind, the “Cathedral of Socialism” was understood as a utopian building and embodiment of a future social structure, intended to overcome the consequences of alienation, the causes of which were seen more in the division of labor than in wage labor.

Walter Gropius added this woodcut by Lyonel Feininger to the founding manifesto of the Bauhaus in 1919 as the title page. A triad surrounds the cathedral spire: the three arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, their rays flowing into each other. The choice of cathedral references the Bauhütte and underlines the centrality of architecture. The old-fashioned woodcutting technique combines with a futuristic cubist design.”

Lyonel Feininger‘s “Cathedral of Socialism”

It’s actually worth seeing the way Tom Wolfe, the arch-reactionary journalist, talks about Gropius and the Bauhaus movement in general. I actually bought one of his books “From Bauhaus to Our House” from a used bookstore during my first year in Kingston. I did not really know who Tom Wolfe was at the time, but I was somewhat interested in the Bauhaus movement. Little did I know the book would be a weird anti-socialist tirade. It’s fascinating the way Wolfe yearns with nostalgia for a time when rich aristocratic families with taste commissioned classical re-renderings all over the city, but now, corporate bodies have to accept modernist architecture as a slap across the mouth:

“…after 1945 our plutocrats, bureaucrats, board chairmen, CEOs, commissioners, and college presidents undergo an inexplicable change. They become diffident and reticent. All at once they are willing to accept that glass of ice water in the face, that bracing slap across the mouth, that reprimand for the fat on one’s bourgeois soul, known as modern architecture.”

Wolfe then quotes a manifesto of the Novembergruppe, of which Gropius was chairman, which states:

“Painters, Architects, Sculptors, you whom the bourgeoisie pays with high rewards for your work—out of vanity, snobbery, and boredom—Hear! To this money there clings the sweat and blood and nervous energy of thousands of poor hounded human beings—Hear! It is an unclean profit …we must be true socialists—we must kindle the highest socialist virtue: the brotherhood of man.”

Wolfe next quotes Gropius speaking on the class commitments of the Novermbergruppe’s Workers’ Council for Art (i.e. ‘Soviet’ for Art):

“The intellectual bourgeois … has proved himself unfit to be the bearer of a German culture… New, intellectually undeveloped levels of our people are rising from the depths. They are our chief hope.”

Jenny Farrell includes this Gropius quote in her People’s World article for the centenary of the Bauhaus school’s founding:

“In Gropius’s words: ‘the more their class pride grows, the more the people will despise imitating the rich and independently invent their own style of living. This understanding by the people is the fertile ground for the art to come.’”

Yet Gropius would actually turn out to be a moderating force in the Bauhaus school who would curtail the more radical communist direction that Hannes Meyer brought the Bauhaus school towards after he was appointed director of the school after Gropius. J. Dakota Brown gives a fascinating account of this story:

“Years of political wrangling had delayed many of Gropius’s plans, but the institution seemed to be on secure footing when he abruptly announced his departure in 1928. Gropius offered the directorship to Hannes Meyer, hired the previous year to head the architecture department… The Bauhaus would now be oriented toward “necessities” rather than “luxuries,” centering the needs of the proletariat. Design problems would take their cues less from formal exercises directed by painters, and more from current research in the natural and social sciences.

Departing from the official position that the Bauhaus was engaged in “objective, entirely non-political cultural work,” Meyer was open in his communist sympathies. He rearranged the class schedule to more closely approximate an industrial workday and happily reported that increased cohesion and cooperation during his directorship signaled “an undeniable degree of proletarianization.” Under Meyer, a growing body of communist students came to understand the Marxist worldview as the only consistent outcome of a Bauhaus education.

Trade union facilities and workers’ housing completed under Meyer, after all, had clear precedents in projects initiated by Gropius — who once defended his own generous master’s quarters by saying, “what we today consider luxury will tomorrow be the norm!” In the background, however, Gropius, Kandinsky, and Josef Albers were already plotting Meyer’s dismissal.

Meyer’s political sympathies naturally attracted controversy. Bauhaus students were overheard singing communist songs at a 1930 party, which produced a feeding frenzy in the right-wing press. Later, it came to light that Meyer and a Bauhaus student group had each donated money to a Communist-led miner’s strike.

Attempting to stem the formation of a fully-fledged “communist cell” at the Bauhaus, the masters dismissed twenty students in a move that made Meyer himself a target of student anger. Nonetheless, the liberal mayor of Dessau — encouraged by Gropius and the old masters (with the exception of Klee) — demanded his resignation.

A few months later, Meyer boarded a train to Moscow with several of his closest students. Stalinist policy on design and architecture, however, would prove hostile to Meyer, who rounded out the rest of his career as a city planner in Mexico. Over the next decades, Gropius and the remaining masters would construct a canonical version of the Bauhaus that erased Meyer’s contributions altogether.”

After Meyer was removed from the Bauhaus directorship, Mies van der Rohe took leadership, and there was a significant political shift that accommodated the fascist pressure of the Nazis.

It’s remarkable to see how entangled leftist politics was in both the work of Gropius and the Bauhaus school in general, and to think it was a major influence on Macklin Hancock’s plan for Meadowvale, the sleepy Mississauga suburb where I live that exists on the very fringes of the city, only minutes from farm land that still covers many land plots in Milton.

Yet even more than Gropius and the Bauhaus movement, the other professor at Harvard that had a great influence on Macklin Hancock was William Holford, who spent much of his career spreading the ideas of the ‘new town’ movement. Macklin Hancock ultimately called Don Mills, Erin Mills, and Meadowvale ‘new towns’ because those were the design principles he was principally informed by. There is less information on Holford out there than Gropius, but I actually find Holford even more interesting. However, before going into Holford, it might be worth tracing out what the ‘new town’ movement was.

Charley cartoon commissioned by post-war Labour government to promote their New Town plan. The film was created at the behest of Stafford Cripps (UK’s ambassador to the Soviet Union and once leading spokesman for the Popular Front with the Communist Party which got him expelled from the Labour Party).

Professor Georgia Wrighton, on a Monocle episode on ‘new towns’ provides an excellent introduction sketching out the post-war history of this movement in the UK, locating its origin in the ‘garden city’ movement which tried to combine ‘town’ and ‘country’, in a way that brought the imagined healthiness of the ‘countryside’ into the town’ for an elevated quality of life. Wrighton specifically mentions the “radical new Labour government under Atlee” planning ten satellite towns around London to deal with the housing crises after WW2 and house “bombed out Londoners” in such a way that dealt with the earlier problems of development under the industrial revolution – namely disorganized and unplanned development, overcrowding, and pollution. The early policies of these ‘new towns’ involved affordable rentals for the working class, as well as mixed-class housing to prevent class stratification and segregation. One of the most important features was that the increased value of the land from the ongoing building of the new towns was to go back into the ‘new town’ for maintenance and renewal. Wrighton describes an early feeling of a “socialist utopia being built in the brave new world of the 1945-era”, but by the late fifties, the invisible hand of the private market began creeping into these developments, such that the early model of land value uplift going into ‘new town’ refurbishment was abandoned as the privatization model of the late fifties involved selling off the land into private hands. All that remained was the council housing which had to find alternative revenue streams.

This model that Wrighton discusses is explicitly spelled out in the ‘garden city’ principles of Ebenezer Howard, who often rubbed shoulders with other anarchists and socialists. This model though was actually a Georgist one. Henry George had formulated a similar idea where the rising value of land would be reabsorbed by the public through a land value tax, that prevented people from profiting of the mere possession of land and recapture the collective’s common inheritance. Though Howard had drawn on people even more radical than George. In 1889, Edward Bellamy the socialist novelist had his book “Looking Backward” first published (serially) in the journal Brotherhood edited by J. Bruce Wallace. There’s a fascinating connection between Wallace and the Bolsheviks that I will get into soon. But Bellamy’s novel would make a significant impression on Howard after his first reading of it, although he became more sceptical about it in later readings. Like William Morris, he was mainly concerned with the idea of the state becoming one large capitalist corporation that replaced all other capitalists and all the centralized bureaucracy that would entail (although this is not actually that far from the process Engels describes in “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific” and which is more recently explored in books like “The People’s Republic of Walmart”, and this gets back to Drucker’s ‘pension fund socialism’ I was discussing earlier). However, other aspects of Bellamy’s novel would persist in its influence on Howard.

In addition to the obvious influence of William Morris, another interesting figure that left traces in Howard’s work was Kropotkin. Howard briefly cites Kropotkin’s book “Fields, Factories and Workshops” in the second edition of his seminal work “To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform” – though what Howard was interested in was not the revolutionary aspects of Kropotkin, but those of local initiative and self-government.

The first planner to put Howard’s principles into practice was Raymond Unwin who planned Letchworth, often called the first garden city. Unwin was both an engineer and a town planner who spent much of his life trying to improve working class housing. He was friends with the socialist Edward Carpenter, interested in John Ruskin, and deeply committed to the Marxism of William Morris – even moving to Manchester to become secretary of Morris’s Socialist League and editing its newspaper. He was also very involved in the Labour Church, which was one of the primary forces of Christian socialism at the time.

Letchworth became the site of Britain’s first roundabout. The Yale professor James C. Scott, interprets “traffic circles” as a sort of anarchist assemblage that replaces the centralized control of traffic lights, with a self-managed traffic junction that has proven to actually be more efficient and safer in a number of contexts. In his book “Two Cheers for Anarchism”, Scott briefly discusses various “red light removal” campaigns in Europe and some impressive results of their implementation .

Letchworth, and ‘garden cities’ more broadly, would become a deeply influential in the town planning of both Cold War super powers. I personally find the influence of ‘garden cities’ on Soviet planning to be particularly interesting. Rosemary Wakefield, in her fascinating book on ‘new towns’ called “Practicing Utopia” writes:

“The garden city concept was introduced into Russia by 1908, and social reformers in Saint Petersburg published a Russian translation of Howard’s text in 1911. A small party of Russians made the pilgrimage to Letchworth in 1909 with German garden city enthusiasts, and again in 1911 with a Danish and German delegation. The infl uential Russian architectural journal Gorodskoe Delo eagerly promoted garden city ventures, while architect Vladimir Semionov worked with architect and urban reformer Raymond Unwin in England and wrote extensively on garden city ideals. Based on Semionov’s design, the Moscow- Kazan Railway Company began construction of Russia’s first model garden city at the Prozorovskaia Station, forty kilometers east of Moscow. It was such a success that the Russian Ministry of Transport began building similar settlements for railway employees. Garden city– style projects popped up in Siberia, where an All- Russian Garden Cities Society was founded.”

The Soviet planner Semionov that Wakefield mentions actually ended up planning major Soviet cities like Kharkov and Stalingrad, drawing on Howard’s ‘garden city’ principles. Wakefield describes a fascinating debate that unfolded within Soviet planning circles between urbanists and disurbanists (which included enthusiasts of ‘garden city’ principles that influenced Macklin Hancock, as well as ‘linear city’  principles which influenced Moshe Safdie’s unrealized Meadowvale proposal). Wakefield on the debate:

“A passionate debate ensued on the nature of the sotsgorod, or socialist city, as the Soviet Union hurtled into urban and industrial transformation. The battle was initially drawn between two camps: the disurbanists, who argued for decentralization mostly following the garden city ideal, and urbanists, who demanded an increased scale of urbanization and industrialization.

Linear industrial towns were proposed by El Lissitzky and by Nikolai Miliutin, especially the latter as outlined in his seminal publication The Problem of Building Socialist Cities (1930).19 The linear city had political appeal, because it seemed to abolish the division between city and country according to the principles outlined by Karl Marx. Miliutin produced such plans for the new industrial towns of Magnitogorsk in the Urals, Stalingrad on the Volga River, and Avtozavod, where an automobile plant was taking shape under the direction of Ford Motor Company. Parallel industrial and residential strips were separated by greenbelts and highways. The towns would be nodes along transportation routes in one continuous band of development. Miliutin’s groundbreaking concepts were published in Ernst May’s Das Neue Frankfurt and were featured in the Proletarian Building Display in Berlin in 1931.20 The linear city ideal survived as one of the most viable alternatives to the concentric pattern of garden and satellite cities.”

Another fascinating Soviet connection involves a rumour (an urban myth, or rather a ‘garden city’ myth) that Lenin actually visited Letchworth during his time in London in 1907 for the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, attended also by other Russian revolutionaries like Rosa Luxemburg, Trotsky, Stalin, and Maxim Gorky. The congress was hosted in Hackney at a Tolstoyan socialist church called the Brotherhood Church, founded by J. Bruce Wallace, a resident of Unwin’s Letchworth garden city. Wallace was actually the first to publish Bellamy’s novel in serialized form in his journal of the same name – Brotherhood. Gorky described the Brotherhood Church thus:

“I can still see vividly before me those bare wooden walls unadorned to the point of absurdity, the lancet windows looking down on a small, narrow hall which might have been a classroom in a poor school.”

Part of the Lenin in Letchworth rumour involves Wallace possibly hosting Lenin for a night in Letchworth, where Lenin also allegedly gave a talk. There is a fascinating BBC Radio 4 episode on this idea of Lenin visiting Letchworth. In Robert Beevers' book "The Garden City Utopia", there is an interesting endnote that he includes: 

“[the] Letchworth branch of the Social Democratic Federation was in touch with the R.S.D.L.P. Congress, as is indicated by the fact that it passed a resolution protesting at the harassment of its delegates by the police, vide The Citizen, 20 July 1907.”

Russian revolutionaries garbed in funny-looking disguises and set on overthrowing the tyrannical Czar, gathered in Wallace’s Brotherhood Church, for three weeks, and were subject to jeering protestors as well as curious onlookers. The BBC programme on Lenin in Letchworth has a fascinating excerpt written by Kruspskaya (Lenin’s wife) from an earlier visit to London with Lenin in 1902-1903 describing their visits to various socialist churches. She writes of Lenin:

“He visited eating houses and churches. In English churches the service is usually followed by a short lecture and a debate. Ilyich was particularly fond of those debates, because ordinary workers took part in them. He scanned the newspapers for notices of working-class meetings in some out-of-the-way district, where there were only rank-and-file workers from the bench – as we say now – without any pomp and leaders. These meetings were usually devoted to the discussion of some question or project, such as a garden-city scheme. Ilyich would listen attentively, and afterwards say joyfully: "They are just bursting with socialism! If a speaker starts talking rot a worker gets up right away and takes the bull by the horns, shows up the very essence of capitalism." It was the rank and-file British worker who had preserved his class instinct in face of everything, that Ilyich always relied upon. Visitors to Britain usually saw only the labour aristocracy, corrupted by the bourgeoisie and itself bourgeoisified. Naturally Ilyich studied that upper stratum, too, and the concrete forms which this bourgeois influence took, without for a moment forgetting the significance of that fact. But he also tried to discover the motive forces of the future revolution in England.

There was hardly a meeting anywhere we did not go to. Once we wandered into a socialist church. There are such churches in England. The socialist in charge was droning through the Bible, and then delivered a sermon to the effect that the exodus of the Jews from Egypt symbolized the exodus of the workers from the kingdom of capitalism into the kingdom of socialism. Everyone stood up and sang from a socialist hymn-book: "Lead us, O Lord, from the Kingdom of Capitalism into the Kingdom of Socialism." We went to that church again afterwards – it was the Seven Sisters Church – to hear a talk for young people. A young man spoke about municipal socialism and tried to prove that no revolution was needed, while the socialist who had officiated as clergyman during our first visit declared that he had been a member of the party for twelve years and for twelve years he had been fighting opportunism – and that was what municipal socialism was – opportunism pure and simple.”

The BBC programme also shares an excerpt from Orwell’s classic “The Road to Wigan Pier” (a book I’ve even seen Marxist-Leninists approve of), that offers up a brutally derisive account of Letchworth:

“One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England. One day this summer I was riding through Letchworth when the bus stopped and two dreadful-looking old men got on to it. They were both about sixty, both very short, pink, and chubby, and both hatless. One of them was obscenely bald, the other had long grey hair bobbed in the Lloyd George style. They were dressed in pistachio-coloured shirts and khaki shorts into which their huge bottoms were crammed so tightly that you could study every dimple. Their appearance created a mild stir of horror on top of the bus. The man next to me, a commercial traveller I should say, glanced at me, at them, and back again at me, and murmured ‘Socialists’, as who should say, ‘Red Indians’. He was probably right—the I.L.P. were holding their summer school at Letchworth. But the point is that to him, as an ordinary man, a crank meant a Socialist and a Socialist meant a crank. Any Socialist, he probably felt, could be counted on to have something eccentric about him. And some such notion seems to exist even among Socialists themselves. For instance, I have here a prospectus from another summer school which states its terms per week and then asks me to say ‘whether my diet is ordinary or vegetarian’. They take it for granted, you see, that it is necessary to ask this question. This kind of thing is by itself sufficient to alienate plenty of decent people. And their instinct is perfectly sound, for the food-crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in hopes of adding five years on to the life of his carcase; that is, a person but of touch with common humanity.”

Orwell can truly be so insufferable sometimes. As Orwell famously spent much of his youth as a colonial police officer in Burma, I think it’s rather rich to hear him criticize other people in the fashion he does. While on the topic of Southeast Asia, it’s worth making a small detour regarding the influence of ‘garden city’ principles in one ‘non-aligned’ country before proceeding onto its influence in America.

As most of my extended family lives in Singapore, and I have visited them a handful of times, I’m quite aware of the way Singapore often refers to itself as The Garden City – a branding inaugurated under the young Lee Kuan Yew, at that time a Fabian socialist from his time in Cambridge throughout the early decades of his political career. Architectural critics have made much of Le Corbusier’s influence on early Singapore development and planning. Le Corbusier was of course rather taken with Howard’s “garden city” ideas and many of his design plans show that greening influence. 

WOHA building behind Hong Lim Park (where expressions of dissent are contained) in Singapore.

I’m less interested in Le Corbusier, a notorious anti-Semite and as far as I’m concerned – a fascist. However, I am interested in the rationale behind Lee Kuan Yew’s insistence on making Singapore into a ‘garden city’. Part of it was making life more pleasant for the people who lived on this tiny Southeast Asian island, but it seems the central focus was attracting foreign investment and tourists. So the ‘magnet’ Ebenezer Howard wrote of, was maybe less about attracting people (unless they were tourists) and more about making the island more conducive to capital, which is not wholly distant from the sort of ideas prevalent throughout a lot of Fabian reformist socialism. I have not been able to locate any explicit references to Ebenezer Howard in early Singaporean state planning policy, but would be fascinated if anything on that were to come up in the future. 

It is worth commenting that Moshe Safdie (who worked on the proposal for Meadowvale as his thesis project) was the architect behind Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands building, the second most expensive building at the time of its completion. The irony that a socialist would not only build such an extravagant building but that it was also a casino resort has not been lost on me. Utopian socialist design can almost never succeed in progressing its core political principles under capitalism.

As for the influence of ‘garden cities’ in the US, the beating heart of capital, I will turn to Rosemary Wakefield to explain how Unwin and Howard worked together with Clarence Stein, a progressive planner that would become influential on American suburban design, and greatly influence Macklin Hancock:

“The American interpretation of garden cities is equally illustrative of the fusion of influences comprising both the new town birthright and the regional vision that framed it. In 1923, Clarence Stein and Henry Wright sailed for England to meet with Ebenezer Howard and Raymond Unwin and make the pilgrimage to Letchworth, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and the newly established Welwyn Garden City. The experience was clearly the inspiration for the “city planning atelier” that Stein organized to discuss how the garden city could fi t the needs of America. He and Wright persuaded Unwin to help shape the group’s theoretical framework, with the result that Unwin became actively involved in the American planning scene.”

Stein’s Radburn was an explicit influence for Hancock. While Stein offered some interesting ideas that kept with the ‘garden city’ tradition – like reducing the size of private yards to produce greater public spaces, facing house fronts onto these green public spaces and placing garages at the back of hosues where they would lead directly into house kitchens, as well as important greenbelting measures – despite all this, Stein did not retain the same socialist impulses as Howard or Unwin, and never did claim the label of socialist as such. Even still, he was very critical of capitalism believing:

“(a) the revolution was at hand, and (b) capitalism could not and perhaps should not survive. He expressed his political views quite openly in these letters.” (in the words of Tridib Banerjee)

Prudence Anne Phillimore described Stein’s relationship to capitalism in this way:

“He also appealed to people to reject the waste and extravagance that had become an integral part of life in a capitalist society. Although Stein did not venture as far into socialism, he was vitally concerned to find a means of eliminating the unnecessary waste which comes from our system of competitive production and distribution, " and to remove 22 staples, like housing, from the competitive market. Both the economical use of land and the control of unearned increment on land (through single ownership) and the aesthetics of city planning became focal points In Stein’s work.”

Despite holding onto this Georgist idea from the ‘garden city’ movement Stein was disturbingly accommodating to segregationist policies. Andreas Panagidis in a case study on Radburn writes:

“as the planners were trying to comprehensively design the neighbourhood, they were also posing segregationist questions such as “what should be the policy in relation to the admission of negroes and other people of other races than white?” (Stein cited in Birch, 1980), and by the eventual racial discrimination by the realtors of both Jews and African-Americans (Schafer, 1983). The residents' educational and religious backgrounds would end up being “more or less the same” (Stein, 1949).”

Another influence of Hancock, this time concerning the placement of a shopping mall as the ‘town centre’ of a ‘new town’, was the planner and mortgage banker James Rouse, another ‘new town’ planner, but one far less anxious about capitalism. He was a philanthropist and advocate for ‘free enterprise’ economies. Freedom for whom? People with money, to do what they want with their money. While Rouse spoke the rhetoric of racial equality saying:

"The ultimate purpose, it seems to me, must be the improvement of mankind," he wrote. "There really can be no other end purpose of planning except to develop better people….An inspired, concerned and loving society will dignify man; will find the ways to develop his talent; will put the fruits of his labor and intellect to effective use; will achieve brotherhood; eliminate bigotry and intolerance; will care for the indigent, the delinquent, the sick, the aged; seek the truth and communicate it; respect differences among man."

Paige Glotzer in her book “How the Suburbs Were Segregated” gives a more sobering account of Rouse’s involvement in networks of segregationist developers:

“In Baltimore, one of the most prominent developers to gain power in the 1960s was James Rouse. Rouse was a self-described liberal whose politics and development priorities seemed, on the surface at least, to constitute a considerable break with predominant exclusionary patterns. However, Rouse’s rise is precisely why a longer history of suburban power is necessary to understand the persistence of housing segregation. Indeed, Rouse was a part of the Roland Park Company network. Before he became famous as a developer in the 1960s, Rouse began his career in the Baltimore office of the FHA and worked closely with Roland Park Company officials in business endeavors and government consulting. By the 1950s, Rouse and Mowbray together were in charge of spearheading federal urban renewal policy based on their work in Baltimore. This policy ultimately wreaked devastation on communities throughout the country. In Baltimore alone, urban renewal displaced over ten thousand households. As was the case around the country, the majority of those who lost their homes were African American.

Often lauded both for his malls and for the racially integrated planned suburb of Columbia, Maryland, well outside Baltimore, Rouse’s early and midcareer work consisted of fortifying the very socioeconomic and racial borders that the Roland Park Company had created. Nowhere was this clearer than in Cross Keys in the early 1960s, where Rouse developed a gated planned community next to Roland Park called the Village of Cross Keys after urban renewal destroyed the long-standing African American community of the same name.”

Glotzer’s work on redlining is important for underscoring how planning communities under a capitalist economy, despite the radical ideas you bring to the table will inevitably devolve to accommodate the dictates of capital – if developers consider the uplift of property value a paramount consideration, than segregation becomes a justifiable means of achieving it. While suburbs in the US have become symbols where white families escape to from inner cities to live lives segregated from other racialized families – suburbs around Toronto have become havens for immigrant communities. Peel Region, where both Meadowvale and Erin Mills are located in, has the highest percentage of ‘visible minorities’ in the GTA (at 62.3%). In fact, 50.8% of Peel’s population is of South Asian ancestry, making the term ‘visible minority’ a clumsy one at best. Yet racial diversity is not a barometer for a just economy. In fact, in many ways, more affluent white millennials are able to afford living in the downtown core of Toronto, where the suburbs outside the city became unfashionable or less desirable places to live, at best merely signifiers for adventurous eaters who read the Globe & Mail and visit ‘ethnic’ hole-in-the-wall eateries run by immigrants.

Some papers I’ve read saw ‘new town’ developments of Hancock as opportunities for corporate consolidation. Stephen Bocking writes about this process in the case of Don Mills:

“Most significant, however, was the extent to which Don Mills reflected the shared influence of the planning profession and corporate interests. Professional ideas about neighborhoods, ample green spaces, and lower density had ample opportunity for expression: Don Mills was described by Architectural Forum as “a planner’s dream coming true.” This dream came true largely because it was consistent with private interests and with the capacity of a single large developer, E. P. Taylor, to assemble a large land area; to install water, sewer, and other services (the cost of these was then transferred to the buyers); and to manage and market the entire project. Carver had argued in Houses for Canadians that effective professional planning of neighborhoods required close contact between planners and developers: “If urban development is to take the form of planned neighbourhoods it will be necessary to achieve a much closer coordination between the technical staffs of planning boards and the actual developers of suburban property.” As Don Mills demonstrated, such coordination, and hence the practical expression of planning ideas, would be easier with fewer and larger developers that would have the resources to hire professional planners and that could impose a single vision on an entire community. Thus, the application of planning expertise to new communities was inseparable from the consolidation of the home-building industry. Both planners and developers benefited from their association: the former, through new professional opportunities; and the latter, through the opportunity to present their planned communities as distinct from the older areas of the city and as ideal sites for families pursuing the suburban ideal.

After beginning Don Mills, Taylor bought 6,000 acres on the western out- skirts of Toronto, where he eventually built during the 1970s and 1980s another huge development, Erin Mills, which would house about 170,000 people. As an integrated community with a variety of housing types and forms of employment, it also represented a combination of professional planning expertise and corporate agendas.”

For me, the concern is less about a single planner’s imposition of will on an entire community (which I think is a false way of framing what planners do) nor is my issue with the large scale of community building – I think scale provides many advantages to ensuring a well-functioning and cohesive community. My issue is when something of this scale is done under a capitalist economy, and it is the wealthy capitalist investors like E. P. Taylor who benefit and reap the unfair profits off such an enterprise, yet externalize the future costs of renewal. Even in the case of a private developer like Cadillac Fairview doing the development, while being owned by a public workers’ pension fund, the issue remains of profit and rate of return being the ultimate goal of the endeavour. And in such a case you see issues of chronically underfunded mass transit and the increasing unaffordability of housing creeping up on ‘new towns’ like Erin Mills and Meadowvale. Owen Hatherley, the historian of communist architecture saw this problem of ‘new towns’ running back to their earliest days, even in their most radical iterations:

“…Morris’ age of rest arrives, as the first part of the book describes, after a violent proletarian revolution. Many years after it, London has depopulated, the Houses of Parliament are used to store dung, iron bridges have been rebuilt in stone, and most of the population lives long, quiet, fulfilled lives in cottages among greenery, something which curiously does not seem to have produced a suburban mentality. No phalanxes, collectives, or communes feature in this vision of communism.

Morris, then a member of the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and a correspondent of Engels, was conspicuous both for the radicalism of his vision of class struggle and the conservatism of his vision of the city. His disciples would lose the first trait, but cling to the second.

The architect and planner Raymond Unwin, a fellow SDF member, would return to the idea, ridiculed by Marx and Engels, of building the socialist society in fragments under capitalism, drawing on the self-organized but otherwise deeply Fabian “common-sense socialism” of Ebenezer Howard’s “Garden City of To-morrow.” Between 1903 and 1913, Unwin designed the garden city of Letchworth just outside of London, the Hampstead Garden Suburb, and the massive suburb of Wythenshawe to the south of Manchester.

The first two were funded by philanthropists, and aimed to mix, to the point where it would no longer be obvious which was which, cottages for workers and cottages for the middle class. It was the latter that soon dominated.”

Marx and Engels were right that the “building the socialist society in fragments under capitalism” would never produce the utopia envisioned at the outset, because capitalism has a logic of its own. 

I sometimes wonder what Macklin Hancock thought of it all, as his father, Leslie Hancock, was actually a socialist politician of Tommy Douglas’s CCF party (forerunner to the NDP) who represented Wellington South in Ontario’s Legislative Assembly. 

Curiously Macklin Hancock was born in China, where his father was a horticulturalist at Nanking University, but their family left amidst the Nationalist revolutionary turmoil erupting in 1927. I presume this exodus was precipitated during the ‘Nanking incident’ in March, where both Nationalists and Communists raided foreign consulates – seizing millions of dollars worth of British concessions. At that time the Kuomintang (KMT) government was backed by the Soviet Union, and led by Chiang Kai-shek, who blamed the incident on instigation by the Communist Party of China and Soviet advisors. I believe this event was somewhat of a turning point where the KMT broke their alliance with the Communists and dismissed Soviet advisors. Many communists were arrested and executed in what has become known as the Shanghai Massacre. By July of 1927, Mikhail Borodin, the once Soviet advisor to Sun Yat-sen, was ordered out of the country, accompanied by Soong Ching-ling (Sun Yat-sen’s widow) on the train ride out of Wuhan. Macklin Hancock’s father-in-law William Macklin (whom Hancock was named after) was also in China at the time with Leslie Hancock and left around the same time. Macklin had established a hospital in Nanjing, and was known to the locals there as Ma Lin. He even counted the revolutionary Sun Yat-sen among friends according to a Globe & Mail article by Tenille Bonoguore.

An exhibit display of Sun Yat Sen’s revolutionary comrades throughout British Malaya, at the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in Singapore. Tan Kah Kee can be seen in the top left, a supporter of the revolutionary overthrow of the Qing government as well as a supporter of the communists in China, which got him expelled from Singapore by the British colonial government. He remained in China serving in various positions in the Chinese Communist Party.

One of the great though vastly underappreciated ‘new town’ planners of the left – Macklin Hancock’s Harvard professor William Holford – shortly after these revolutionary events in China, took a trip to the Soviet Union. The Chinese architect Chen Zhanxiang’s memories of Holford are recounted in a book by Jun Wang called “Beijing Record: A Physical and Political History of Planning Modern Beijing”:

“Holford visited the Soviet Union in the 1930s and back home, he published a book entitled God’s Plan, describing the socialist country as a “planners’ paradise.” Chen Zhanxiang never read that book but heard about it from his teacher on many occasions. For him, the most unforgettable thing about the Soviet Union was that under socialism, the state ownership of land and the overriding power of the state ensured implementation of all plans. For this reason, Chen Zhanxiang, like many other students, had good opinions of socialism.”

I would love to read this book, but have been completely unsuccessful in tracking it down. What an incredible name for a book on Soviet planning, haha: God’s Plan. These religious allusions are part of what makes me so fascinated by Holford. There’s a fascinating thing he wrote about his experience in the Soviet Union that alludes to these Edenic utopian resonances that I think colour Holford’s own planning work. Gordon E. Cherry and Leith Penny in their book on Holford write:

“The appeal of the Soviet Union, however, was of a different order. For Holford, as for so many of his generation, a romantic notion of Soviet society provided a focus for a whole range of personal and social idealisms, a new Jerusalem in which it could be supposed the individual was liberated from the constraining hypocracies and injustices of life in England.”

They then quote something Holford wrote about the anxious excitement he felt about the Soviet Union, though totally conscious of the fact it could all end as a total and disturbing failure:

“It seems to me now that there could be illusions which one ought not only to let alone, but even to defend against disillusionment. We go merrily pricking the bubbles in the course of what we call education. Things and people I believed in years ago I only have sympathy for now-which is a poor thing. There remain the big illusions–love, friends, work, the big ideal of the socialist state. They go further than I can see, and because they are bigger than myself, there is something in me that makes me follow. But my ever-curious intelligence soon uncovers a danger, like a hole in a tooth. If I go on probing for proofs and experiences will I end up by pricking another bubble? Will it be the old myth of the Garden of Eden over again? I don’t know. The old serpent intellect replies, ‘you will never know unless you find out for yourself. And the outcome of it all is that I refuse to try and answer riddles, and so I say ‘Let it all come! I’ll hang on to what I have until I can’t hang on any longer’.”

And then maybe the most fascinating remark I’ve found of his on communism in general is his excitement at reading Lenin but his hilarious exercise in self-criticism – some old Christian self-flagellation – regarding his unworthiness to consider himself a worker, but rather a bourgeois intellectual. This is a letter Holford wrote to Gordon Stephenson in 1933 (Stephenson being another architect in the habit of mingling with English socialists and communists, and who would also visit the Soviet Union, twice):

“I get all worked up reading Lenin, or about Lenin or publications by the friends of the Soviet, URSS publications etc., kidding myself I’m a WORKER. Conversely, when I read ultra capitalist stuff, newspapers that make me vomit, platitudes of Dictators, or luxury nonsense, then I want to bust things up, start a clean fresh order of life, do something. The thing that worries me is that it is all in the head—not in the bones. I was bred as bourgeois as anybody and when my head and my sympathies move very far along the communistic line I become nothing more than a ‘bourgeois intellectual’. And that may mean a lot or it may mean nothing. The change to a real live communist cannot come about only through the head, and there people like Bernard Shaw utterly fail. I don’t mean he isn’t useful. He gingers people up, particularly the jolly old bourgeoisie, but his great mission never gets beyond the itching powder stage. He is Britain’s Great Irritant—useful but uninspiring.

...Conviction! that’s all it is. The old Christians used to pray for conviction, and now I suppose the only thing to do is to work for it. Just occasionally I feel holes in the armour.”

I think Holford’s dig at Shaw is hilarious, although curiously Lenin was rather sympathetic to Shaw calling him “a good man fallen among Fabians.” Gorky said he was “one of the bravest thinkers of Europe”. There’s a fairly fascinating letter Lenin wrote Gorky on December of 1921 after the Russian Civil War while the country was descending into famine:

“I am very sorry to write in haste. I am terribly tired. I’ve got insomnia. I am going away for treatment. I have been requested to write to you: would you write to Bernard Shaw asking him to go to America, and to Wells who is said to be in America now, to get them both to help us in collecting aid to the starving? It would be a good thing if you wrote them. The starving will then get a bit more. The famine is very bad. Make sure to have a good rest and better treatment.”

Lenin would end up begging the wealthier Western countries for aid, asking for “bread and medicine”, in light of the crop failure, and ended up negotiating with President Hoover, who sent aid asking they depart with some of their gold holdings to defray the costs. Some estimates have the famine’s death toll at 1-2 million. A Soviet estimate was at 5 million. Gorky ended up writing to H. G. Wells, the other Fabian they were in contact with, who quoted parts of Gorky’s letter in an article.

Shaw was actually very sympathetic to the Soviet Union, and in 1931, years after Lenin’s death had this to say about him:

“We should not think that the importance of Lenin is a matter of the past, because Lenin died. We should think of the future, of the importance of Lenin for the future, and his importance for the future is such that, should the experiment Lenin undertook — the experiment of socialism — fail, then modern civilization will perish, like many civilizations have already perished in the past.”

Shaw remained an ardent supporter of the Soviet Union for the rest of his life, even having a framed portrait of Stalin displayed on his mantel. This was not uncommon for socialists of the time though. Even Frida Kahlo, secret lover of Trotsky, had Stalin’s portrait pinned to her headboard above her bed, among other revolutionaries including Mao.

As for Shaw, his sympathies extended in other weird and disturbing directions, expressing disturbingly affirmative comments towards Hitler and Mussolini. It really does make you worry about the ‘fascist creep’ of red-brown alliances sometimes. Shaw was also a eugenicist, though this was common among socialists of his sort at the time. Even Tommy Douglas was a eugenicist, and certainly Lee Kuan Yew’s Fabian years were also formative to the eugenicist impulses that coloured his views for the rest of his life, long after he had abandoned a commitment to socialism.

A statue of Shaw at Niagara-on-the-Lake (home of the Shaw Festival).

As for Shaw’s relationship to ‘garden cities’, he regularly gave talks at places like Letchworth, as he was in the same Fabian orbit as Unwin and Howard. In fact Shaw was one of Ebenezer Howard’s investors calling him:

“... one of those heroic simpletons who do big things whilst our prominent worldings are explaining why they are Utopian and impossible. And of course it is they who will make money out of his work.”

But what of this legacy of Letchworth. What utopia did it birth or whom did it make a lot of money for? Owen Hatherley sees Letchworth as not particularly radical, especially in what it turned out to be:

“In all of these, you can get the sense that the hope and the reality never quite met, as Letchworth became just another affluent Hertfordshire commuter town. As the planner and writer Adrian Jones puts it, "Letchworth is a comfortable place in an increasingly uncomfortable country, and that is why people like it". That isn't to be sniffed at, but it would have disappointed the radicals of the 1910s…

With little state support, the original garden city became reliant on an uneasy mix of private finance and local enthusiasm; the main employer in a town where women who didn't want to wear corsets could feel comfortable became the Spirella Corset Factory.

The British government likes to talk about building new garden cities, but never about building new new towns, which are still associated with unfashionable concepts like modernity, public ownership, and equality. It's this, rather than a love for alternative lifestyles or Arts and Crafts architecture, that has inflated the reputation of the garden cities.

At the railway station is an advertisement for Le Jardin, Luxury Retirement Living, a "stunning collection" of one- and two-bedroom retirement apartments. Its architecture is a debased version of Parker and Unwin's asymmetrical, pitched-roof style, with none of the space or grace. That's where utopia ends, here.”

Yet is there anything radical to reclaim from the surprisingly radical roots of many of these ‘new towns’ and ‘garden cities’? The suburbs are often scoffed at, yet what radical potentials lie in their midst? Hatherley doesn’t believe these ‘new towns’ are anything to scorn, and in a London Review of Books piece, defends them from the types of attacks Jane Jacobs once subjected them to throughout her career:

“There’s a problem, too, with the way her scorn for new towns and suburbs extended to those who chose to live in them. It seemed to baffle her that anyone could ever choose Levittown over the West Village, or Harlow over Stepney. Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities – which would become official policy in Britain, with the building of new towns after the Second World War – were ‘really very nice ... if you were docile and had no plans of your own’. This is nothing but a reflex on her part. Raphael Samuel recalls in The Lost World of British Communism that Wythenshawe, an interwar council suburb in Manchester, a project and a Radiant Garden City Beautiful if ever there were one, was a prime recruiting ground for radical politics, because it was inhabited by workers who had the self-sacrifice and drive to move out of the slums, even if it meant paying more rent. The postwar new towns attracted people who had plans; they wanted to get out of what they considered hopeless, dead-end places and bring up their children somewhere fresh and modern. Many early suburbs and new towns weren’t places for the passive, for ‘children’, yet this is just how Jacobs saw them.”

Raymond Unwin was involved with the development of Wythenshawe, and it became a hotbed of radical politics as Hatherley points out. I think about Meadowvale and what, if any, radical potential lies within its network of pedestrian pathways and the library and community centre at the heart of its town centre, and if there is any future possibility of a more socialized model of housing. There are new plans beginning to be proposed for Meadowvale’s renewal, and I think one of the most important abandoned ideas from the “garden city” and “new town” movements was some type of mechanism for collective ownership. 

Lake Aquitaine a ‘constructed reservoir’ designed by Macklin Hancock.

We have public spaces like Lake Aquitaine, some green-belted areas, greened pedestrian networks, the community centre, and library – but the increasing unaffordability of housing is the elephant in the room. 

I’ve often attended a book club at Eden United Church, which sits directly across the road from Meadowvale Town Centre. One of the members also serves at the food bank that’s operated out of the church building, and she describes this gentleman she knows, an immigrant who has spent the past three or so years of his life sleeping on a couch, sharing a small space with a few other people. The large majority of his income, often unstable, goes to rent – sometimes, after paying rent and other basic necessities (but mostly rent), he has as little as $10 to stretch out for the entire month to support himself, and comes to the food bank to be able to make ends meet. He finally was able to secure a subsidized unit and came to tell her because he was so incredibly happy. She mentioned to us that listening to his story broke her heart and she wanted to cry, because there are people in immense desperation. Another person I met, who often attends the church is disabled, surviving on ODSP, and mentions that there are very long wait-lists for subsidized housing units in the Meadowvale area, and has been trying to get politicians in the area to do something about it. I think it is time we start revisiting some of the collectivized mechanisms of the early ‘garden city’ plans, whether it be old Georgist mechanisms, or new proposals put forward by people like Hatherley, who often emphasizes this aspect of ‘garden cities’:

“A key concept of the original garden cities was collective ownership, with them owned and managed by some sort of community trust for the benefit of residents, rather than in the hands – and for the benefit of – developers such as Persimmon and Barratt. This was mostly honoured in the breach in the first generation such as Letchworth or Welwyn. But today, a garden city could be run as a Community Land Trust, a form of ownership that contains clauses against speculation, stopping cities becoming middle-class commuter towns and ensuring their original intention – places without hierarchies, slums, “luxury living” colonies or class distinctions.

However, co-operative or community ownership is usually elective, favouring enthusiasts and those with time on their hands. The new city should aim for the universality that council housing once provided, through a system of housing allocation that would make housing accessible to anyone that wants it. The best model for this is still renting through the local authority.”

Holly Firmin in the New Socialist puts forward some interesting ideas for new new towns that I think would be worth considering for Meadowvale’s renewal:

“New New Towns would also provide the opportunity to enact emerging ideas around community wealth building. What better way to develop strong anchor institutions and create a locally rooted economy, based on new forms of worker ownership, than to design a New Town on these principles from the ground-up? Rather than exploiting the workers that build New Towns, they could instead belong to unionised, local co-operative construction companies. Original New Towns were themselves committed to a kind of proto-community wealth building policy of ‘self-containment’, which encouraged residents to work, rest and play within the boundary of the town.”

Can you imagine if Meadowvale’s renewal project provided jobs to local residents for maintenance, repair, and new building projects, and secured housing for everyone who needed it? Current plans for Mississauga are trying to reach a target 35% of units as ‘affordable’ housing (I guess they want the majority of its housing then to be unaffordable), but they intend these units to be acquired by way of market rental or ‘affordable’ ownership schemes. Under these schemes housing remains a commodity, subject to the market, which even Clarence Stein (not a socialist) believed should not be so. 

2018 list of Mississauga neighbourhoods by affordability, Meadowvale Village listed at third highest cost, Meadowvale (new town) at twelfth (out of nineteen)

Hatherley provides some interesting examples in Seoul that focus rather on de-commodification and ‘regeneration without gentrification’, and I think these need to be options kept on the table:

“A more radical model still is in schemes that both renovate and de-commodify. Recent examples include the renovation of the Seewon Sangga development in Seoul, which in its mix of housing, industry, markets and self-proclaimed ‘regeneration without gentrification’’, presents a model of redevelopment far more intelligent than anything we have dared in the UK. Similarly unusual is the renovation of the Tour Bois-le-Prêtre in Paris by the architects Lacaton and Vassal, which took a 1960s tower, slated to be demolished, and renovated it for the existing residents, giving them new winter gardens and adding wings of new social housing to the existing structure with no evictions and no changes in ownership. Notably, both of these were proven to be far cheaper than demolition and building anew, and neither has been precious about making major changes to the existing building fabric.”

I get a little nervous reading about re-development and renewal plans for Meadowvale. How much will focus on making the neighbourhood more inclusive, and how much will result in it displacing the vibrant immigrant and working-class communities that have made Meadowvale what it is today. I’m able to chat with public transit bus drivers and artists at my neighbourhood church, but the strain of housing is hard on many people. It is sad that one of the only non-profit housing options available in Meadowvale is an elderly residence that was built and operated by the United Church. We cannot rely on the private charity and generosity to make housing affordable for everyone. It has to be central and systemic to the entire fabric of our neighbourhood.

I think about Gordon Stephenson, whom Holford often wrote letters to. Stephenson was considered a man of the left in many ways like Holford. He designed Stevenage, the first of Labour’s post-war British ‘new towns’ – located between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. The pedestrian spaces and design were referred to as “Festival Style”, and Clarence Stein was consulted, with many parts of Radburn becoming features in Stevenage. Monica Felton, feminist, town planner, peace activist and Labour Party member was chair of the Stevenage Development Corporation in 1949 but was dismissed from her job, unofficially because of her status as a fellow traveller, going on Soviet-organized trips to North Korea and participating in Soviet propaganda broadcasts – even winning the Stalin Prize in 1952.

Concerning questions of the ‘renewal’ of Meadowvale, Macklin Hancock’s ‘new town’: the question will always persist: whose utopia are we creating, uncreating, recreating when we engage in these processes of ‘renewal’? Stephenson, though considered a progressive, was also responsible for his 1957 plan to redevelop the entire downtown core of Halifax, which involved the forceful eviction of Africville (which he described as a “little-frequented part of the City… an encampment, or a shack town”). This ultimately led to the forced removal of a poor but vibrant Black community in Nova Scotia.

The story of Africville has its origins in the Underground Railroad. Some slave escapees settled in the area around the 1830s or 1840s – though the Black community in Nova Scotia existed since at least the 18th century, particularly after the American Revolution, when Black ‘Loyalists’ came to settle around Halifax. (As J. Sakai explains in Settlers, liberating slaves for participating in imperial military operations is hardly liberatory, both on the side of the British and the United States, and consequently the same oppressive structures from slavery will persist since they have not been properly addressed through real liberation.) Africville were a largely self-sufficient community, though one that had to resist perpetual attempts of removal and environmental racism.

Since the Halifax explosion of December 1917, when four residents of Africville died, the city had been trying to find a way to rid itself of the settlement. 1917 was the same year Trotsky was detained at the Halifax harbor on British MI5 intelligence. In March of 1917, Trotsky was making his way from New York back to Russia to join the revolution that was breaking out there. On April 3, he was detained by British officers and sent to the Amherst concentration camp, all of which he described in in a chapter of his book “My Life”. 

By April 29th, Trotsky was told to pack his bags and he and his family were released – but not without stirring up some trouble in the concentration camp during his stay, where he spent time organizing the prisoners, setting up translation teams, political discussion groups, and proselytizing on behalf of the revolution. Captain F. C. Whiteman, second-in-command at the camp commented that if Trotsky had stayed in the camp any longer, he’d have turned all the German prisoners into communists. By the time of the Halifax explosion on December 6, Trotsky was already back in Russia, the Winter Palace had been seized by the Bolsheviks, and a Constituent Assembly had been elected – only to be closed down by Lenin in January.

Back in Halifax, the targeting of Africville was intensified by the city. Despite paying taxes, Africville did not receive most services from the city – no sewage or water, no roads, no health services, no electricity. A open-pit dump site was built in Africville in the 1950s, leading up to its classification as a ‘slum’ and its ultimate demise.

Stephenson had accepted a position at the University of Toronto in 1955, after initially planning to accept a position at MIT, but being denied permanent residency in the US. While in Toronto he worked on an ‘urban renewal’ project for Regent Park, while also helping with the design of the Kingston waterfront and the Eaton’s Centre. While Stephenson saw the poor conditions of Africville and said that it “stands as an indictment of society and not of its inhabitants”, many of the justifications for the ‘slum clearance’ efforts and forced relocation at Africville involved business interests, such that commercial development could expand into the area. Despite Stephenson’s socialist leanings, his most remembered legacy in Canada was the razing of Africville – roundly condemned now not only by all manner leftist political parties throughout Turtle Island, but even by liberals. This is the way Stephenson described Africville in his 1957 Halifax redevelopment report:

“There is a little frequented part of the City, overlooking Bedford Basin, which presents an unusual problem for any community to face. In what may be described as an encampment, or shack town, there live about seventy negro families. They are descendants of early settlers, and it is probable that Africville originated with a few shacks well over a century ago. Title to some of the land will be difficult to ascertain. Some of the hutted homes are on railway land, some on City land, some on private land. There will be families with squatters rights, and others with clear title to land which is now appreciating considerably in value. The Citizens of Africville live a life apart. On a sunny, summer day, the small children roam at will in a spacious area and swim in what amounts to their private lagoon. In winter, life is far from idyllic. In terms of the physical condition of buildings and sanitation, the story is deplorable. Shallow wells and cesspools, in close proximity, are scattered about the slopes between the shacks. There are no accurate records of conditions in Africville. There are only two things to be said. The families will have to be rehoused in the near future. The land which they now occupy will be required for the further development of the City. A solution which is satisfactory, socially as well as economically, will be difficult to achieve. Africville stands as an indictment of society and not of its inhabitants. They are old Canadians who have never had the opportunities enjoyed by their more fortunate fellows.”

While Stephenson’s plan was framed as a progressive way to provide public housing to improve the material livelihoods of the residents of Africville, it was more fundamentally about clearing the land to make it more attractive to capital. Stephenson commented that after clearance, “It may now redevelop the land for highest potential its use.” And while his plan was initially accepted as a viable liberal welfare reform, radical Black activism in Halifax began raising more awareness about the actual nature of the relocation process. Visits to Halifax by the Black Panthers and Kwame Ture (born Stokely Carmichael) helped establish a Black Panther Halifax chapter in 1969 and the Black United Front, lead by organizers such as Rocky Jones, Joan Jones, and Yvonne Atwell. The displacement of Africville, and the role of capitalist investors as well as ongoing racism came into clearer view and the true nature of Halifax’s ‘urban renewal’ process came into larger provincial and national discourses on racism. 

However, these visits by radical Black Power activists put the local Black community on the radar of the RCMP who conducted surveillance projects on them for years to come. Rocky Jones would be tracked by the RCMP for over a decade. Jenifer Nelson’s book “Razing Africville” details some of the measures the RCMP took including tapping phones, intercepting mail, stakeouts outside homes, undercover incursions and informant operations into Black community meetings and nightclubs.

This is part of Stephenson’s legacy in Canada. While it is useful to see the radical roots of certain ‘garden city’ principles had on the ‘new town’ movement, advocated by progressives like Stephenson and Holford, and their eventual affect in Macklin Hancock’s Meadowvale, it is maybe more important to look to radical racialized groups like the Black United Front in Halifax to more closely examine the real effects these ‘new town’ planners had in practice. Whose utopia were they creating? Whose utopia were they renewing under racial capitalism?

William Holford called Hancock’s Don Mills ‘new town’ “probably the most attractive natural town site that I have ever seen.” High praise from a very distinguished planner of the left, yet for whom was Don Mills attractive under the ‘free-enterprise’ economy Hancock always made accommodation for. Whose freedom was prioritized in this ‘free market’? Attractive to capital or to ordinary working people? And now decades later, with GTA house prices unimaginably high, who can afford to be attracted to a place with scanty non-profit offerings.

Macklin Hancock grew up many of his years on his family plot in Cooksville, Mississauga, where he lived next to the nursery run by his father Leslie Hancock. The nursery was said to have hired a number of Japanese Canadians during WW2, so as to help them avoid the internment camps setup by the Canadian government. This plot is also very close to the home Duchess Olga lived in at the end of her life – she was a Romanov, youngest child of the Czar Alexander III, who fled the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The Hancock plot of land has recently been acquired by the City of Mississauga as parkland, and the woodlot on this plot has some of the oldest white pine trees in the area. Much of Mississauga used to be covered in these tall white pines, before they were processed in 19th century sawmills on the Credit River, like those around Meadowvale Village, and sold to the Royal British Navy for their imperial projects abroad and to construct roads that would become the backbone of Canadian settler capitalism. The attendant deforestation and destruction of the Credit River and its salmon populations would displace the Anishinaabe. Meadowvale ‘new town’ was in many ways named after this ‘bucolic’ old utopian village on the Credit River, a good distance east of what would become the New Town’s core. These nostalgic allusions to some utopia of White settlers was at the same time an indirect allusion to the destruction of indigenous communities who had treasured and lived off this land for centuries. This is the complicated history that Meadowvale will have to come to terms with as it looks for new ways forward.

[market-insider]

Petroleum Resins Market Analysis By Product, Application End-use, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

The global petroleum resins market is expected to reach USD 4.1 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2017 to 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The rising demand for petroleum resins in EVA-based adhesives, contact adhesives for footwear, printing inks, sealants, paints, specialty tapes, repositionable tapes, packaging tapes, and permanent labels is expected to increase the market size.

Increasing demand for hydrocarbon resins in adhesives owing to properties such as good adhesion, improved adhesive bond strength, acid resistance, alkali resistance, and water resistance is expected to the drive industry expansion over the forecast period.The development of various petrochemical complex and catalytic polymerization to increase the output of resins is likely to augment the market size over the next eight years.

Automotive was the prominent segment and accounted 23.9% of the overall revenue share in 2016. The segment is expected to register substantial gains owing to the increasing production of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, and heavy commercial vehicles in countries such as India, Thailand, and China.

For PDF Copy or More Details please visit link @: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/petroleum-resins-market

Moreover, the Chinese auto sector policies and measures such as Automotive Readjustment and Revitalization Plan, Energy-Saving and New-Energy Auto Industry Plan, and Foreign Direct Investment opportunities are augmenting vehicle production, which in turn is expected to propel the market growth.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

·         Hydrogenated petroleum resins is expected to register high volume gains at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2017 to 2025. The rising consumption of the products in EVA/ APAO-based hot melt adhesives and pressure sensitive adhesives as they offer good heat stability, water resistance and compatibility is expected to drive the industry growth.

·         The printing ink segment was valued at USD 214.9 million in 2016 and is anticipated to witness high gains on account of the rising usage in commercial printing, publications, packaging, and corrugated cardboards applications

·         Europe accounted for 23.4% of the overall volume share in 2016 and is anticipated to witness steady growth due to the presence of major automotive manufacturers including Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Volkswagen, Volvo, Fiat, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche

·         The global petroleum resins market showcases immense competition with the presence of various large and small-scale participants in Japan, the U.S., and China. Key players include Eastman Chemical Company; ExxonMobil; Zeon Chemicals; Lesco Chemical Limited; Kolon; Neville; Puyang Tiancheng Chemical Co., Ltd.; and The Dow Chemical Company.

·         In December 2016, Saudi-based Rufayah Chemicals Company (RCC) signed a deal with Sadara Chemical Company for setting up one of the largest hydrocarbon resin plants with an investment of approximately USD 500 million in the PlasChem Park to produce hydrocarbon resin, pure DCPD, isoprene, aromatic solvents, and premium wash oils

·         Zeon Chemicals offers Quintac and Quintone manufactured by using proprietary Isoprene and Piperylene technology having excellent tack, cohesive strength, and holding power

To request a Research report sample copy please visit @: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/petroleum-resins-market/request/rs1

Grand View Research has segmented the global petroleum resins market on the basis of product, application, end use, and region:

Product Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025)

·         C5 resins

·         C9 resins

·         C5/C9 resins

·         Hydrogenated resins

Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025)

·         Paints

·         Adhesives

·         Printing inks

·         Rubber & tires

·         Tapes & labels

·         Others

End-use Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025)

·         Automotive

·         Construction

·         Packaging

·         Consumer goods

·         Personal hygiene

·         Others 

Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025)

·         North America

o    U.S.

·         Europe

o    Germany

·         Asia Pacific

o    China

·         Central & South America

o    Brazil

·         Middle East & Africa

For Inquire before buying please visit @: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/inquiry/4740/ibb

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. This U.S.-based market research and consulting company is registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco. Comprising over 425 analysts and consultants, the company adds 1200+ market research reports to its extensive database each year. Supported by an interactive market intelligence platform, the team at Grand View Research guides Fortune 500 companies and prominent academic institutes in comprehending the global and regional business environment and carefully identifying future opportunities.

[polixy]

Renewable energy is growing fast in the U.S., but fossil fuels still dominate

Renewable energy is growing fast in the U.S., but fossil fuels still dominate;

A row of solar panels at a family-owned farm in Grafton, Massachusetts, that feeds electricity to nearby homes and small businesses. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

Most Americans (77%) say it’s more important for the United States to develop alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power, than to produce more coal, oil and other fossil fuels, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Which raises the question: How does the U.S. meet its vast energy needs, and how, if at all, has that changed?

The answer, as one might expect, is complicated. Solar and wind power use has grown at a rapid rate over the past decade or so, but as of 2018 those sources accounted for less than 4% of all the energy used in the U.S. (That’s the most recent full year for which data is available.) As far back as we have data, most of the energy used in the U.S. has come from coal, oil and natural gas. In 2018, those “fossil fuels” fed about 80% of the nation’s energy demand, down slightly from 84% a decade earlier. Although coal use has declined in recent years, natural gas use has soared, while oil’s share of the nation’s energy tab has fluctuated between 35% and 40%.

The total amount of energy used in the U.S. – everything from lighting and heating homes to cooking meals, fueling factories, driving cars and powering smartphones – hit 101.2 quadrillion Btu in 2018, the highest level since data collection began in 1949, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA).

(Short for British thermal unit, Btu is often used in the energy industry – not to mention the home-appliance business – as a common yardstick to measure and compare different types of energy. One Btu is the amount of energy needed to heat 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit at sea level. It’s equivalent to about 1,055 joules in the metric system, or the heat released by burning a common wooden kitchen match.)

How we did this

The United States uses a lot of energy – trailing only China, by one estimate. As public concern about climate change continues to grow and energy policy becomes a key issue in this year’s political campaigns, we wanted reliable, baseline information on how the U.S. gets and uses energy, and how those trends have been changing recently.

This report is based primarily on data compiled by the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy. We also refer to a Pew Research Center survey of Americans’ views on climate and energy policy. That survey interviewed 3,627 members of the Center’s American Trends Panel, an online survey panel that is recruited though national, random sampling of residential addresses, in October 2019. Here are the questions asked in that survey, along with responses, and here is the survey’s methodology.

About 38% of all those Btu flowed into the electric power industry (electric utilities and independent power producers), which converted them into electricity and sent them back out into the rest of the economy. Transportation accounted for about 28% of total energy use, followed by the industrial sector (23%), households (7%) and commercial establishments (less than 5%).

Per capita energy use in the U.S. had been trending lower since the turn of the 21st century but ticked up in 2018. On average, each American in 2000 used about 349.8 million Btu. By 2017 that had fallen to 300.5 million Btu, the lowest level in five decades. In 2018, though, per capita energy use rose to 309.3 million Btu. (Per capita energy use peaked in 1979 at 359 million Btu.)

Looked at a different way, the U.S. economy has become steadily less energy-intensive since the end of World War II. In 1949, it took 15,175 Btu to generate each dollar of real gross domestic product. By 2018, it took 5,450, a 64% decrease. But there’s still plenty of inefficiency in the system: The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory calculated that in 2018, about two-thirds of all the energy used was wasted (as with heat exhaust from vehicles and furnaces). And only 34.5% of the energy used by the electric power industry reaches end users as electricity – the rest is lost in the process of generating, transmitting and distributing the power.

Oil and natural gas production up, coal down

Today, the United States meets nearly all its energy needs through domestic production. Net imports, mainly petroleum, accounted for less than 4% of the total U.S. energy supply in 2018, versus 26% a decade earlier.

In the first 10 months of 2019, the U.S. pumped nearly 3.7 billion barrels of crude oil, more than 2 billion more than in the same period in 2009, according to EIA data. For the full year 2018, crude accounted for nearly a quarter of all U.S. energy production. Natural gas, which accounted for about a third of total energy production in 2018, has also soared – from 21.7 trillion cubic feet in the first nine months of 2009 to 33.6 trillion cubic feet in the same period in 2019.

Those dramatic increases in domestic oil and gas production have been driven by new technologies, most notably fracking and horizontal drilling, which enable companies to access underground deposits that previously were too expensive to tap. As a consequence, the U.S. was the world’s biggest producer of both oil and gas in 2018 – ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia, respectively.

Coal, on the other hand, has declined precipitously since its 2008 peak, when nearly 1.2 billion tons were mined. Nearly all U.S. coal (about 93% in 2018, according to EIA data) is used to generate electricity. But as a Brookings Institution report notes, U.S. electricity demand has been stagnant, the price of natural gas has fallen as production has soared, and government policy has until recently favored other energy sources such as wind and solar. In 2018, coal accounted for just 16% of total domestic energy production, less than half its share a decade earlier. The amount mined in the first nine months of 2019, 540 million tons, was about a third lower than in the same period in 2009.

Over the past decade, solar power has experienced the largest percentage growth of any U.S. energy source. Solar generated just over 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2008. A decade later, it generated more than 93 billion kilowatt-hours, an almost 46-fold increase. Solar’s growth is occurring on both the large scale (electric power plants) and the small scale (rooftop solar panels). Overall, about two-thirds of all solar energy was produced by electric utilities, with solar setups on homes and commercial buildings accounting for most of the rest.

Still, solar accounted for only 1% of the nation’s total energy production in 2018. The biggest renewable energy source remained hydropower (2.8% of total production), followed by wind, wood and biofuels.

; Blog – Pew Research Center; https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/15/renewable-energy-is-growing-fast-in-the-u-s-but-fossil-fuels-still-dominate/; https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/FT-19.12.16_EnergyPrimer_featured.jpg; January 15, 2020 at 01:28PM

[brajeshupadhyay]

Coronavirus Updates: Delhi reports 11 deaths today, lowest in over a month; 1,076 test positive in past 24 hrs

23:40 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in West Bengal Latest Updates

2,816 new COVID-19 cases in West Bengal today

2,816 new COVID19 cases, 2,078 discharged and 61 deaths reported in West Bengal today. Total number of cases in the state is now at 83,800, including 58,962 discharged, 22,992 active cases and 1,846 deaths, the state health department said.

22:46 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Delhi Latest Updates

Delhi committee suggests early recognition, transfer of patients to ICU to cut COVID-19 fatality

Four death monitoring committees constituted by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to analyse the high mortality rate in ten COVID-19 hospitals on Wednesday submitted reports suggesting measures like early recognition and transfer of patients to ICU, and use of plasma at the initial stage.

In a statement, the government said that the chief minister, who held a meeting with representatives of these committees set up on July 31, said that all steps should be taken to bring deaths to zero in the city.

— PTI

21:42 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Delhi Latest Updates

Delhi reports lowest death count in over a month

Delhi reported 1,076 COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths on Wednesday, the lowest daily fatality count in more than a month, authorities said, adding the city's caseload has surpassed 1.4 lakh and death toll has risen to 4,044.

The active cases tally on Wednesday rose to 10,072, from 9,897 on Tuesday. The daily cases count had dipped to 674 and 12 deaths were recorded on Tuesday. As per Wednesday bulletin, the positive rate stood at 6.4 percent while the recovery rate was nearly 90 percent.

— PTI

20:29 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Gujarat Latest Updates

Gujarat reports 2,557 new cases, 23 deaths; tally rise to 66,777

According to the state health department, Gujarat's COVID-19 tally reached 66,777 with 1,073 patients testing positive on Wednesday while 23 patients died from the virus, taking the overall toll to 2,557, PTI reported.

Of the total cases, Ahmedabad reported 161 infections takings its overall tally to 27,283. 

Five people died in the city on Wednesday taking the toll from the virus to 1,617, the state health department bulletin added.

20:16 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Maharashtra Latest Updates

Over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in Maharashtra

The state of Maharashtra reported 10,309 new coronavirus cases today while 334 people succumbed to COVID-19.  Total number of cases in the state is now at 4,68,265, including 1,45,961 active cases, 3,05,521 recovered & 16,476 deaths, the state's health department said. 

20:10 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Jammu and Kashmir Latest Updates

J&K records 559 new COVID-19 cases, tally rises to 22,955

 Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday recorded 559 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infected people to 22,955, even as 9 COVID-19 patients died during the last 24 hours in the union territory, officials said. "Nine people, who were COVID-19 positive, have died over the past 24 hours in Jammu and Kashmir," the officials said.  

They said while one death took place in Jammu region, eight were reported from the Kashmir Valley. The coronavirus death toll in the union territory has now risen to 426 of which 395 are from the valley and 31 from Jammu region

19:46 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in India Latest Updates

Passenger transport operator bodies say sector on verge of collapse, seek govt help

The Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI) and the Delhi Contract Bus Association on Wednesday sought government intervention to "save" contract carriage and all-India tourist permit bus operators saying the sector is on the verge of a collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic. The two bodies said transporters in Delhi alone have suffered a financial loss of Rs 65,000 crore in the past two months and the business has no money to continue operations in the coming months.

    They demanded relief measures from the government, including waiver of road and passenger taxes for the next three quarters, deferment of tax payments and extension of vehicle insurance validity, among others, according to a joint statement. The passenger transport operators also sought deferment of EMI payments for the next 6-12 months and waiver of interest component for the deferred period; discount of 10-25 percent on toll taxes; and extension of validity of documents like fitness certificate, permits, driving licence and registrations, till March 2021.

19:36 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Uttar Pradesh Latest Updates

UP reports over 4,000 cases, 40 deaths in 24 hours

Uttar Pradesh reported 4,078 COVID-19 cases and 40 new fatalities on Wednesday, bringing the infection tally to over 1.04 lakh and death toll from the disease to 1,857. However, the state government said 4,154 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infected people to 1,04,388. There are 41,973 active cases in the state while 60,558 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection, the statement said.

19:18 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Kerala Latest Updates

Kerala reports 1,195 new cases in 24 hrs; tally crosses 29,000

Kerala reported 1,195 cases in the last 24 hours taking the overall tally across 29,000. The state's toll has reached 94. Of the positive cases, 971 were infected through contact and the source of infection of 79 people is not known, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. Sixty six of those who tested positive have come from foreign countries and 125 from other states. Thirteen health workers are among those infected,he told reporters.

18:17 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Goa Latest Updates

Goa govt issues new guidelines for passengers arriving in state

The Goa government said that all passengers arriving in the state are "required to go for 14 days of home quarantine or they can opt for 14 days of paid institutional quarantine."

All passengers arriving in Goa are required to go for 14 days of home quarantine or they can opt for 14 days of paid institutional quarantine. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/R7YR8OMj6T

— ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2020

17:50 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Assam Latest Updates

Tinsukia, Makum to be under total lockdown from today

The Assam government will enforce a "total" lockdown in areas under the Tinsukia and Makum Municipal boards from 6 pm on Wednesday till 6 pm on 12 August, reports said.

17:33 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Maharashtra Latest Updates

One new COVID-19 case reported in Dharavi

The BMC on Wednesday said that one new coronavirus case was reported in Mumbai's Dharavi area, taking the total number of cases to 2,589, including 77 active cases and 2,254 discharges.

17:00 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Karnataka Latest Updates

Karnataka govt inaugurates mobile COVID-19 testing lab

Karnataka medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar on Wednesday inaugurated the state's first Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-approved mobile COVID-19 testing labs.

Karnataka: State Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar inaugurates state's first Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved mobile #COVID19 testing labs. pic.twitter.com/ITgEMMJTiV

— ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2020

16:35 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in India Latest Updates

India's fatality rate drops to 2.09%, says Centre

The COVID-19 fatality rate has further dropped to 2.09 per cent, the Union health ministry said. The recoveries have surged to 12,82,215 and are more than twice the active cases of the coronavirus infection, it added.

Coordinated implementation of the strategy by the Union and state and Union Territories governments has also ensured that the COVID-19 case fatality rate has been low when compared to the global scenario. "It has been progressively falling and stands at 2.09 per cent as on date," the ministry said.

15:54 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Goa Latest Updates

In-charge of hospital in Goa's Margoa suspended for 'negligence'

The official in charge of a COVID-19 facility in Goa's Margoa was on Wednesday suspended for 'negligence', The Indian Express reported.

"The State Health department has transferred Dr Ira Almeida, who was heading the facility, after it was found that conditions at the hospital were not up to the mark. Almeida has been replaced by a senior doctor from the Goa Medical College, Dr Uday Kakodkar. Goa has reported around 7,000 cases of Covid-19 so far," the report said.

15:27 (IST)

Coronavirus in Andaman and Nicobar LATEST Updates

8-yr-old boy dies of COVID-19 in Andaman; 98 new cases reported

Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported the first death of a child due to COVID-19 as an eight-year-old boy succumbed to the infection on Wednesday, reports PTI.

The boy, who was a resident of Junglighat area of Port Blair, was suffering from diabetes. He died of COVID-19 at the G B Pant Hospital here, the official said, adding the fresh fatality has pushed the coronavirus death toll in the islands to 12.

15:16 (IST)

Coronavirus in Singapore LATEST Updates

Singapore reports 908 new cases today

Singapore on Wednesday reported 908 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily figure recorded since May, with the Ministry of Health (MOH) attributing the high number of infections to the ongoing clearance of dormitories housing foreign workers.

The new cases raised the total number of COVID-19 infections in the country to 54,254, the MOH said.

15:01 (IST)

Coronavirus in Puducherry LATEST Updates

Puducherry reports 286 new cases, 7 deaths

According to the Puducherry health department, 286 new COVID19 positive cases and 7 deaths were reported in the Union Territory. The total number of cases now at 4,432 including 1,721 active cases, 2,646 recovered cases and 65 deaths.

14:52 (IST)

Coronavirus in Karnataka LATEST Updates

Siddaramaiah's vitals are stable, says Bengaluru hospital

According to ANI reports, former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has no fever and his vital parameters are stable. "He has been started on appropriate treatment and is being closely monitored by our experts. His symptoms have improved since admission and is comfortable at present," Manipal Hospital told the news agency.

14:41 (IST)

Coronavirus in US LATEST Updates

Trump says America’s attitude towards China ‘changed greatly’ since COVID-19 hit US

America’s attitude towards China has “changed greatly” since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country, US President Donald Trump has said, asserting that the Chinese government should have stopped the deadly contagion in Wuhan.

Trump, who has in the past upped the ante against Beijing over its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the coronavirus should not have hit the world.

14:17 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

Singer SP Balasubrahmanyam tests postivie for COVID-19

Popular playback singer SP Balasubrahmanyam has tested positive for the coronavirus. Despite doctors advising home quarantine, the singer chose to admit himself to the hospital.

The singer shared his diagnosis in a Facebook videoearlier today. He said that he had tested positive a few days back but it was a mild case of the virus.

Read full report here

13:33 (IST)

Coronavirus in Tripura LATEST Updates

Tripura's COVID-19 caseload rises to 5,646; toll mounts to 30

Tripura's COVID-19 caseload increased to 5,646 on Wednesday with the detection of 125 fresh infections, while two more fatalities pushed its coronavirus toll to 30, reports PTI.

13:24 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra LATEST Updates

10,026 Maharashtra cops contract COVID-19, toll reaches 107

Over 10,000 Maharashtra Police personnel have so far tested positive for coronavirus and 107 of them have died due to the viral infection, reports PTI.

The police personnel who tested positive for the disease included 1,035 officers, he said. "So far, 10,026 personnel have tested positive for COVID-19. Of them, 107 personnel, including 10 officers, have died," the official said, adding that more than 50 percent of the casualties were reported from the Mumbai Police force.

13:14 (IST)

Coronavirus in Pakistan LATEST Updates

Pakistan's toll due to coronavirus crosses 6,000

Pakistan has reported 15 more deaths due to coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking its death toll to 6,014 while the total number of infections in the country stands at 281,136, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The Ministry of National Health Services said a total of 675 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the country. The total number of infected cases reached 281,136 after 675 new cases were detected while the death toll due to the infection has surged to 6,014, the ministry said in a statement.

13:00 (IST)

Coronavirus in Odisha LATEST Updates

Odisha's COVID-19 total crosses 39,000-mark

Odisha's COVID-19 caseload crossed the 39,000-mark with the detection of 1,337 fresh infections, while nine more fatalities pushed its coronavirus toll to 225 on Wednesday, reports PTI. The fresh infections reported in 28 districts took the state's tally to 39,018.

12:52 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

Zydus Cadila to commence phase II clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine from 6 Aug

Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Wednesday said the phase I clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, ZyCoV-D, has been completed and it will commence phase II clinical trials from 6 August.

"ZyCoV-D was found to be safe and well tolerated in the phase I clinical trial. The company will now commence phase II clinical trials from the 6th of August, 2020.

12:27 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

Lupin Ltd launches COVID-19 drug Favipiravir in India

Drug major Lupin on Wednesday announced the launch of its Favipiravir drug under the brand name 'Covihalt' for the treatment patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms at Rs 49 per tablet in India.

Favipiravir has received authorisation from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use, Lupin said in a regulatory filing.

12:16 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

COVID vaccine likely by mid 2021: WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan

Stating that a realistic timeline to start receiving first million doses of COVID vaccine is mid-2021, World Health Organization’s Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan cautioned that it might take longer "as we did not understand the virus completely".

11:38 (IST)

Coronavirus in Rajasthan LATEST Updates

593 fresh COVID-19 cases in Rajasthan 

With 593 fresh COVID-19 infections in Rajasthan, the overall count in the state climbed to 47,272 on Wednesday, ANI reported. The COVID-19 toll has reached 742 after 10 more patients succumbed to the viral infection.

The state recorded 32,900 COVID-19 recoveries so far, according to the Rajasthan government.

11:23 (IST)

Coronavirus in Arunachal Pradesh LATEST Updates

Arunachal Pradesh reports 32 new coronavirus cases

Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday reported 32 fresh COVID-19 infections including 13 security personnel, taking the northeastern state's overall count to 1,790, a senior health official said.

Of the 32 new cases, eight were reported from Lohit district, Lower Siang (7), East Siang (4), West Kameng and Capital Complex three each, Changlang, Tirap and Papumpare reported two cases each and one from East Kameng district, State Surveillance Officer Dr L Jampa said.

10:47 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

India has nearly 5.8 lakh active COVID-19 cases

Of 18.55 lakh total confirmed COVID-19 cases, nearly 5.8 lakh patients are being treated for coronavirus in different parts of the country, as per the Union Health Ministry. 

10:45 (IST)

Coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh LATEST Updates

Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister tests COVID-19 positive

Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Brajesh Pathak on Wednesday said he has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and asked people who came in contact with him recently to get themselves tested as per norms.

"After symptoms of coronavirus, I got tested on advice of doctors. I have tested positive for COVID-19. Those who came in contact with me in past few days are requested to follow government guidelines and quarantine themselves and get themselves tested," said Pathak. 

10:40 (IST)

Coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh LATEST Updates

Shivraj Singh Chouhan discharged after recovering from COVID-19

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivrah Singh Chouhan has been discharged from Bhopal's Chirayu Hospital on Wednesday after recovering from COVID-19, reported ANI.

Reports of him contracting the viral infection came on 25 July. The hospital advised him to quarantine himself at home and monitor his health for further seven days.

10:07 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

India's COVID-19 recovery rate at 67.19%

Of the total 19,08,255 confirmed coronavirus cases, there are 5,86,244 active cases, according to the latest data by the health ministry. 

So far, 12,82,216 COVID-19 patients have been cured, taking India's recovery rate to 67.19 percent. 

09:58 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

India's COVID-19 cases over 19 lakh 

India registered over 19 lakh COVID-19 infections on Wednesday after 52,509 more individuals tested positive for the novel coronavirus. With 857 more deaths in the past 24 hours, the COVID-19 toll climbed to 39,795, according to the health ministry.

09:33 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

India's COVID-19 testing rate lower than other nations: WHO chief scientist 

Noting that lockdown was a temporary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, a senior official of the World Health Organisation on Tuesday said India has a low testing rate when compared to some of the countries that are successfully trying to curb it.

"India as a whole, the testing rates are much lower compared to some of the countries, who have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan. Even the United States is testing a huge number of people. So we need to have some benchmark and every public health department needs to have benchmarks on what is the rate of testing per lakh or per million, what is the test positivity rate," said Soumya Swaminathan, the Chief Scientist of WHO.

09:15 (IST)

Coronavirus in Odisha LATEST Updates

Naveen Patnaik calls for silent prayer in memory of COVID Warriors

In a bid to boost the morale of the thousands of people engaged in the fight against COVID-19 in the state, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged people to observe a silent prayer on Wednesday and take an oath to follow guidelines to avoid infection.

"I will lead a silent prayer in the memory of COVID Warriors. I appeal to my 4.5 crore sisters and brothers of Odisha to join this silent prayer at 6 pm tomorrow (5 August)," Patnaik said. 

08:54 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

India’s COVID-19 testing rate lower than other countries: WHO chief scientist

Noting that lockdown was a temporary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, a senior official of the World Health Organisation on Tuesday said India has a low testing rate when compared to some of the countries that are successfully trying to curb it.

The Chief Scientist of WHO, Soumya Swaminathan, in an interactive session through video conference said,as of now about 28 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are under clinical trial, of which five are entering Phase-II and over 150 candidates are in pre-clinical trials across the globe.

"India as a whole, the testing rates are much lower compared to some of the countries, who have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan.

08:14 (IST)

Coronavirus LATEST Updates

Global toll rose to 6.9 lakh as US reports 1,302 new deaths 

The global toll rose to 6,99,134 on Wednesday with the United States adding 1,302 more fatalities to the tally, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The global coronavirus count crossed 1.84 crore. As many as 1.10 crore people have recovered.

08:11 (IST)

Coronavirus LATEST Updates

Novavax Covid-19 vaccine induces immune response in early study

Novavax Inc said on Tuesday its experimental Covid-19 vaccine produced high levels of antibodies against the novel coronavirus, according to initial data from a small, early-stage clinical trial, sending the company’s shares up 10%, reports Reuters.

The company said it could start a large pivotal Phase III trial as soon as late September, and on a conference call added that it could produce 1 billion to 2 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.

08:09 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi LATEST Updates

Delhi’s active cases fall below 10,000-mark, toll at 4,033

The number of active cases in Delhi went below the 10,000-mark. The Capital’s coronavirus tally stood at 1,39,156, including 1,25,226 recoveries and 4,033 deaths.

Maharashtra’s case count rose to 4,57,956 after 7,760 new infections, and the toll went up by 300 to 16,142. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu has 2,68,285 cases and the toll stood at 4,349.

08:01 (IST)

Coronavirus in Assam LATEST Updates

Assam reports highest spike in cases yesterday

Assam on Tuesday reported its highest single-day spike of 2,886 new COVID-19 cases, taking the state's tally to 48,161, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. Six more patients died in the state, following which the toll rose to 115.

📌Alert ~ 2886 COVID cases detected out of 5⃣9⃣0⃣6⃣4⃣ tests in last 24 hrs~ maximum in a day so far. Positivity Rate- 4.86% Kamrup (M)- 550, Kamrup (R)- 294, Nagaon- 213, D'garh- 201 ↗️Total cases 48161 ↗️Recovered 33428 ↗️Active cases 14615 ↗️Deaths 115 9:40 PM, Aug 04 pic.twitter.com/5mXtNS10XI

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) August 4, 2020

07:55 (IST)

Coronavirus in US LATEST Updates

'Too many are selfish': US nears 5 million virus cases

Fourth of July gatherings, graduation parties, no-mask weddings, crowded bars there are reasons the US has racked up more than 155,000 coronavirus deaths, by far the most of any country, and is fast approaching an off-the-charts 5 million confirmed infections, easily the highest in the world, reports AP.

Many Americans have resisted wearing masks and social distancing, calling such precautions an overreaction or an infringement on their liberty.

Public health experts say the problem has been compounded by confusing and inconsistent guidance from politicians and a patchwork quilt of approaches to containing the scourge by county, state and federal governments.

07:52 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra LATEST Updates

2,098 new COVID-19 cases reported in Pune yesterday

Pune district reported 2098 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking its COVID-19 count to 94,978 on Tuesday, a health department official said. He said the death toll rose to 2,185 with 56 more patients succumbing to the infection during the same period in the western Maharashtra district, reports PTI.

07:52 (IST)

Coronavirus in Meghalaya LATEST Updates

Meghalaya reports highest single-day spike in cases yesterday

Meghalaya on Tuesday recorded the highest single-day recovery of 66 COVID-19 patients, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said. Fifteen more people also tested positive for coronavirus, increasing the state's tally to 917.

While 330 patients have recovered from the disease so far in the state, five have died due to the virus.

07:42 (IST)

Coronavirus in India LATEST Updates

Rapid Antigen tests comprise about 25-30% of total Covid-19 tests, says ICMR

Rapid antigen tests comprise nearly 25-30 per cent of the total daily tests conducted for the detection of COVID-19 in the country at present, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said on Tuesday.

A record 6,61,892 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of tests conducted so far in the country to 2,08,64,750 and the Tests per Million (TPM) to 15,119.

Of the total 2.08 crore tests conducted so far, around 26.5 lakh are antigen tests, an ICMR official said.

Coronavirus LATEST Updates:  Delhi reported 1,076 COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths on Wednesday, the lowest daily fatality count in more than a month, authorities said, adding the city's caseload has surpassed 1.4 lakh and death toll has risen to 4,044.

The active cases tally on Wednesday rose to 10,072, from 9,897 on Tuesday. The daily cases count had dipped to 674 and 12 deaths were recorded on Tuesday.

The state of Maharashtra reported 10,309 new coronavirus cases today while 334 people succumbed to COVID-19. Total number of cases in the state is now at 4,68,265, including 1,45,961 active cases, 3,05,521 recovered & 16,476 deaths, the state's health department said.

While Mumbai reported 1,125 cases on Wednesday, the Pune Municipal Corporation reported a rise of 1,282 cases, taking the total number of cases to 65,136, a state bulletin said

Gujarat's COVID-19 tally reached 66,777 with 1,073 patients testing positive on Wednesday while 23 patients died from the virus, taking the overall toll to 2,557, a state health department bulletin said.

Of the total cases, Ahmedabad reported 161 infectiosns takings its overall tally to 27,283.

Five people died in the city on Wednesday taking the toll from the virus to 1,617, the bulletin added.

Uttar Pradesh reported 4,078 COVID-19 cases and 40 new fatalities on Wednesday, bringing the infection tally to over 1.04 lakh and death toll from the disease to 1,857.

Of the positive cases, 971 were infected through contact and the source of infection of 79 people is not known, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. Sixty six of those who tested positive have come from

Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported the first death of a child due to COVID-19 as an eight-year-old boy succumbed to the infection on Wednesday, reports PTI.

The boy, who was a resident of Junglighat area of Port Blair, was suffering from diabetes. He died of COVID-19 at the G B Pant Hospital here, the official said, adding the fresh fatality has pushed the coronavirus death toll in the islands to 12.

10,026 personnel have tested positive for COVID-19. Of them, 107 personnel, including 10 officers, have died, an official said, adding that more than 50% of the deaths were reported from the Mumbai Police.

Pharma major Lupin Limited today announced the launch of its Favipiravir in India under the brand name Covihalt for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19.

India registered over 19 lakh COVID-19 infections on Wednesday after 52,509 more individuals tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The global toll rose to 6,99,134 on Wednesday with the United States adding 1,302 more fatalities to the tally, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The global count crossed 1.84 crores.

India's COVID-19 tally rose by over 50,000 for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday, taking the total cases to 18,55,745. In the past 24 hours, 52,050 new cases were reported. Meanwhile, the recoveries crossed the 12-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.

The toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 38,938 with 803 new fatalities being reported in 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A total of 12,30,509 people have recovered, while there are 5,86,298 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country presently.

The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has risen to 66.31 percent, while the fatality rate has further dropped to 2.10 percent, the data stated.

The health ministry also said that the number of recovered patients is now double than the number of active cases.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,08,64,750 samples have been tested up to 2 August with 6,61,892 samples being tested on Monday, the highest done in a day so far, scientist and media coordinator at ICMR, Dr Lokesh Sharma, said.

"A total of 1,05,32,074 tests for detection of coronavirus infection have been performed with per day average of 3,39,744 tests in July, the highest number of tests conducted in a month so far," Sharma said.

There are 917 labs in the government sector and 439 labs in the private sector for conducting COVID-19 tests.

Dharmenda Pradhan, Siddaramaiah tests COVID-19 positive

Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan informed that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Taking to Twitter, Pradhan said that he has been hospitalised as per doctor's advice and is in a healthy condition.

"I decided to get myself tested after noticing some symptoms of COVID-19 and my report came back positive. As per the doctor's advice, I have admitted myself in a hospital and I am in healthy condition," his tweet read.

Union Minister Amit Shah also tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

Other politicians testing positive for COVID-19 include Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa.

Earlier on Tuesday, former Karnataka chief minister and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Siddaramaiah said that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted himself to a hospital.

"I have been tested positive for COVID-19 and also been admitted to the hospital on the advice of doctors as a precaution. I request all those who had come in contact with me to check out for symptoms and to quarantine themselves," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

Centre says 68% men, 32% women make up COVID-19 casualties

The Union Health Ministry said that of the people who died due to coronavirus in the country, 68 percent are men and 32 percent are women.

Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan gave mortality analysis for COVID-19 — gender and age-wise respectively.

"These are cumulative figures. If you see the mortality analysis i.e. the deaths caused by the coronavirus, you will find that 68 percent deaths are reported among male patients. And 32 percent of deaths are among female patients. This is broadly in line with the global scenario also, although the percentages may differ," he said.

"If you look at age-wise mortality analysis, 50 percent of deaths were reported in patients above 60 years and above; 37 percent deaths were seen in among patients with the age group of 45 to 60 years. This means that on one side — we have to save lives of our senior citizens, they should not go out unnecessary — and, on the other hand, we have to see that people between 45 to 60 years age group are also vulnerable too. Most importantly, those who are co-morbid should follow guidelines and everyone should wear mask, maintain distance and hand hygiene," Bhushan said.

According to the health ministry, about 11 percent mortality was seen in patients with 26 to 44 years of age. Only one percent fatality was observed in patients in the age group between 18 to 25 years and below 17 years of age.

Centre says 96% of 60,000 ventilators being procured are indigenous

In a briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, the Union health ministry on Tuesday said that 96 percent of the 60,000 ventilators being procured by the government are indigenous and most of them have been sponsored by the PM-CARES fund.

Health Ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 60,000 ventilators are being procured and 18,000 have already been supplied to states and union territories.

"Of the 60,000 ventilators, 50,000 are being funded by PM-CARES fund which comes to about Rs 2,000 crore in monetary terms," Bhushan said during the briefing.

He further said all the ventilators that are being procured under PM-CARES and those by the budgetary allocation of the Health Ministry have GPS chips embedded that can be tracked.

"The 'Make in India' (indigenous) ventilators have a share of more than 96 percent by volume and more than 90 percent by value," he said.

Delhi's LNJP records 'zero deaths' on two days in a week

The LNJP Hospital, the Delhi government's biggest COVID-19 treatment facility, did not report any death due to the disease on two days in a week, signalling improvement in the pandemic situation.

The 2,000-bed hospital's medical director Suresh Kumar said on Tuesday the number of people on ventilator at the facility has come down by nearly 25 percent, compared to the figure a month ago.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on 28 July that LNJP Hospital had not reported any death on 27 July, a feat, doctors said, recorded for the first time in the last couple of months.

"After that day, on two more days, our hospital saw no death from COVID-19.... It is definitely a good sign for all of us who are fighting this situation," Kumar told PTI.

WHO chief scientist says India's COVID-19 testing rate is low

Noting that lockdown was a temporary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, a senior official of the World Health Organisation on Tuesday said India has a low testing rate when compared to some of the countries that are successfully trying to curb it.

WHO chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, in an interactive session through video conference said, as of now about 28 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are under clinical trial, of which five are entering Phase-II and over 150 candidates are in pre-clinical trials across the globe.

"(In) India as a whole, the testing rates are much lower compared to some of the countries, who have done well like Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan. Even the United States is testing a huge number of people. So we need to have some benchmark and every public health department needs to have benchmarks on what is the rate of testing per lakh or per million, what is the test positivity rate," she said.

Without adequate number of tests, fighting the virus is like "fighting fire blindfolded," she pointed out. According to Swaminathan, the number of tests being conducted is not adequate if the COVID-19 test positivity rate is above five percent.

State-wise cases and deaths

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it has a total of 1,47,324 active cases and 15,842 deaths. A total of 4,50,196 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the state up to Monday, according to Union Ministry of Health.

Tamil Nadu reported 5,063 COVID-19 cases, 6,501 discharged and 108 deaths on Tuesday. Total number of cases in the state is now at 2,68,285, including 2,08,784 discharged, 55,152 active cases and 4,349 deaths.

Delhi reported 674 COVID-19 cases, 972 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 12 death. The total positive cases here rises to 1,39,156 including 1,25,226 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 4033 deaths.

4,108 RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests and 5,187 Rapid antigen tests conducted.

As many as 390 cases, 824 recovered and 10 deaths were reported in Jammu and Kashmir, taking the total number of cases in the Union Territory to 22,396, including 7,123 active cases, 14,856 recovered and 417 deaths.

Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday reported 9,747 new COVID-19 cases with 67 deaths. The state government said that the total count of cases has gone up to 1,76,333 with 79,104 are active cases, 95,625 recovered patients and 1,604 deaths due to the disease.

A total of 1,124 new COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths were reported from Rajasthan till 8.30 pm on Tuesday.

State Health Department said the count of cases in the state stands at 46,679 including 13,115 active cases and 732 deaths. A total of 32,832 persons have recovered from the viral infection in the state so far.

Gujarat reported 1,020 new COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the state health department on Tuesday.

"With this, state tally has risen to 65,704 including 14,811 active cases, 48,359 cured/discharges and 2,534 deaths," the State Health Department said.

With inputs from agencies

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[larebomrglobal]

Automotive Sensors Market Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2019-2025

Orion Market Research (OMR) recently published a market research report on Global Automotive Sensor Market. The market is estimated to show a considerable growth due to rising demand of comfort and safety in the vehicle globally. The global automotive sensor market is segmented into by sensor type, by sensors in driverless cars and by vehicle type. The report provides detailed and insightful chapters which include market overview, key findings, strategic recommendations, market estimations, market determinants, key company analysis, market insights, company profiling, market segmentation, geographical analysis, analyst insights and predictive analysis of the market.

Full report of Global Automotive Sensors Market is available at: https://www.omrglobal.com/industry-reports/automotive-sensor-market/

A system that can measure any physical, temperature and chemical change in an automobile and sends the signal to a further processing unit (Actuator or ECU) is known as automobile sensors. An automotive sensor optimizes the performance of fuel, exhaust gases, and vehicle component, which further enhance on to ride experience. Factors which are augmenting the automotive sensor market are significant growth in automobile sector especially in luxury car segment, rising need of curb road accidents, increasing consumer demand for safety and comfort, favorable government policies towards automobile sensors, and growing automation in the automobile sector. Additionally, huge investment in the autonomous car market is also driving the market growth.

To know more information, please request a free report sample https://www.omrglobal.com/request-sample/automotive-sensor-market

High number of road accident is one of the major reasons for the introduction of new technology in the vehicles such as self-driving vehicle, additionally a number of technologies are used to curb the damage due to road accident known as active and passive safety system. Active safety systems are used to dodge road accidents which includes Head-Up Display (HUD), Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) and so on. The passive safety system is utilized to control the damage after a collision/ accident. The active safety system includes airbag, seat belt, child safety system, pedestrian safety system and so on. Apart from this much measures, automotive accidents have a significant share of overall mortalities globally.

According to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Highway Loss Data Institute in the US, around 35,100 people died in 2015 in road accident 32,150 crashes involving 48,950 vehicle and mortalities were 7% higher as compared to 2014. Out of this, about 64% of the death were passenger vehicle occupants, 15% were pedestrian, and 13% were motorcyclist. A similar trend can be observed in Canada. As per Transport Canada, the injury rate of Canada is 450 per 100,000 people whereas mortality rate is 5.2 per 100,000 in 2015. The number of fatalities in 2015 was 1,670. About 50% of the total fatalities were faced by the drivers and 20% by the passenger. As per Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India, in 2016, about 480,000 road accidents were reported in the country. It caused mortalities to 150,000 people and about 500,000 people reported an injury. Around 46% of the total mortalities were in the age range of 18-35 years. Rising number of road accident, a trend toward safety can be expected which will lead to the adoption of new technologies in active and passive safety and their electronic system. It will boost the automotive sensor market during the forecast period globally.

Market Segmentation

By Sensor Type

Throttle Position Sensor

Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor

Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor

Mass Air Flow Sensor

Crankshaft Position Sensor

Detonation Sensor

Oxygen Sensor

Airbags Sensors

Intake Air Temperature Sensor

ECR Position Sensor

Parking Sensor

Automobile Image Sensor

Speedometer

Others

By Vehicle Type

Compact and Entry Level

Mid-Size

Commercial Vehicle

Luxury Vehicle

Electric Vehicle

Driverless Car

Visit here to know more about Automotive Sensors Market

AutomotiveSensors Market – Segment by Region

North America          

US

Canada

Europe

Germany

UK

France

Spain

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific    

China

Japan

India

Rest of Asia-Pacific

Rest of the World

Middle East & Africa

Latin America

Company Profile

ALLEGRO MICROSYSTEMS, LLC

ANALOG DEVICES INC.

AUTOLIV, INC.

BOSCH

BOURNS INC.

CONTINENTAL

DELPHI AUTOMOTIVE PLC

DENSO

ELMOS SEMICONDUCTOR AG

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO.

HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.

INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES INC.

NXP SEMICONDUCTORS NV

PHANTOM INTELLIGENCE

QUANERGY SYSTEMS INC.

SENSATA TECHNOLOGIES

STMICROELECTRONICS N.V

STONERIDGE INC.

TAKATA CORPORATION

TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

VELODYNE LIDAR

About Orion Market Research

OMR provide global and regional market reports of various domains such as healthcare, energy, IT, chemicals, and automobiles. OMR provide a 360-degree view of the market with parametric analysis, key market insights, key findings, statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, extensive segmentation, key trends, strategic recommendations and detailed company profiles.

For More Information, Visit Orion Market Research

Media Contact:

Company Name: Orion Market Research

Contact Person: Mr. Anurag Tiwari

Email: info@omrglobal.com

Contact no: +1 646-755-7667, +91 7803040404

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 9/12/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Monday, December 9th, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

PM MOTTLEY EYES OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC – Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is looking to Africa and the Pacific for new growth prospects for artists and designers from Barbados and the rest of the region. She made her intentions known on Saturday night while attending a fashion show in Nairobi, Kenya where young fashion designers got the opportunity to show off their creations for delegates from the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of nations. Asked by the organisers to speak to the audience, Mottley said: “For a very long time we have seen the benefits of cooperation with the ACP and UE for our designers and creatives, and indeed, Caribbean Export has been doing an excellent job in creating that platform for our artists and designers. “We hope that we can now create the logistical framework that will allow the trading to take place, so that we don’t only marvel at the beauty of the designs, but that we can ensure that the economics that will support the sale of the designs can make the businesses sustainable. “This is part and parcel of what this expression and the showing of the work of the designers is about, but we need now to popularise it and ensure that access to working capital is always there for our artists.” Mottley explained further: “The fact is that most of our artists don’t have the collateral to go and access funding from the bank in order to be able to expand production. So we have to have showings such as this to ensure that we have other investors come on board, but also create the markets… “Our own people from Barbados are excited about it and I know we are also excited to see what else we can take from Africa into the Caribbean because there is a strong sense of African awareness — African style, African music, African food, African designs. “The truth is, we are now only coming home to each other and discovering each other in ways that matter and we need to be able to give our people choice. I hope that the ACP partnership can create that platform.” (BT)

UWP REJECTS RESULTS AND SKERRIT GOVT –Dominicans are today fearful of more political strife and possible violence following the opposition United Workers’ Party’s (UWP) rejection of last Friday’s general election results and condemnation of the observer missions’ findings that the poll was free and fair. In a near 16-minute Facebook broadcast on Saturday night, UWP leader Lennox Linton said that “unfortunately, the people of Dominica had their hopes set aside, dashed, by yet another stolen election”. He called on his countrymen to “rise up and stand up to ensure that those who have done wrong to Dominica” pay for their deeds. “We need now to demand fresh elections because as far as we are concerned, this illegitimate result renders the election null and void, and it renders the government null and void. We will not recognise this government because it is as a result of a stolen election. That’s where we stand,” said Linton.  (DN)

QEH EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OUTLINES PLANS TO TRANSFORM HOSPITAL – Executive Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland has outlined a ten-point plan to transform the institution into a more patient-focused and customer friendly facility. As she delivered remarks at the QEH’s 2019 RESPECT Awards at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre last night, Bynoe-Sutherland also served notice that staff would benefit from the coming improvements. The QEH executive said the hospital was indebted to Barbadians for the Health Levy, which has yielded BDS$40, 196, 938 to date and advised her team that to whom much was given much was expected. Bynoe-Sutherland reported that efforts to improve the hospital’s finances had started and it had also managed to clear its debt. “We strengthened financial management, reporting and internal auditing, completed a comprehensive stock count and engaged auditors to 2021 so external audits outstanding since 2011 can be brought up-to-date to this financial year. We have cleared the outstanding debt to our local and overseas supplies through the BERT programme,” she said. Bynoe-Sutherland further noted that the QEH was focused on completing the costing of the hospital services and improving financial management by placing greater emphasis on value for money and evidence-based treatment. She added that the hospital would be launching a major philanthropy push in association with We Gathering 2020. Detailing aspects of her plan, Bynoe-Sutherland disclosed that an organization-wide campaign on delivering good service would be rolled out through the use of ongoing patient surveys, giving snap awards for exceptional service, and expanding employee recognition and reward systems to highlight great service along with holding poor providers accountable if they fail to meet the high standards. The QEH boss signalled that the hospital would be implementing new bed management policies, standards and protocols since the shortage of beds remains a major concern at the state-owned institution. Additionally, new posts, including bed managers and case managers who would focus on ensuring patients benefit from diagnostics tests and procedures in an efficient manner would also be introduced. Bynoe-Sutherland also outlined that the institution’s waiting list for public patients would be addressed through partnerships with the private sector. Turning her attention to staff, the QEH executive chairman noted that despite challenging times, which necessitated some cuts, the hospital had not laid off permanent staff, but rather increased temporary contracts from one year to two years to give those workers more security of tenure. “We know it has been hard, as we have had to reduce or eliminate overtime in some areas and decreased the number of relief staff. But we do this all so we can maintain our permanent staff and we thank everyone for their commitment and sacrifices, “ she said. She stressed that providing growth opportunities for staff members was also in the works, assuring that particular attention would be paid to boosting morale and ensuring their safety and security. “Our staff safety is important to us. We are going to strengthen our security to keep staff safe and prevent the loss of equipment and supplies. We will also be launching a zero-tolerance to staff abuse campaign as the amount of aggression, vilification and violence faced by staff is intolerable.  (BT)

GARBAGE ISSUES BEHIND RAT SIGHTING – Purity Bakeries says a rodent problem it is experiencing is nothing new, and is blaming it on the sporadic collection of garbage. This is according to the company in response to two videos making the rounds on social media showing a rat between baking pans in Lower Collymore Rock, St Michael facility. “Purity Bakeries, like every other food business, has experienced challenges in relation to the rodent population around our facility. The national issues related to garbage collection have compounded these challenges,” said Purity in a statement on its Facebook page yesterday afternoon after the DAILY NATION had earlier contacted general manager Ralph Holder for a comment. (DN)

PLASTIC BAN PUSHED BACK –The ban on petroleum-based, single-use plastic bags has been put back. It will now take effect from April 1, 2020 – three months after the originally proposed date. Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, speaking at Ocean Fisheries’ 30th Anniversary Awards Dinner Saturday night, said the move would give manufacturers the time they had requested to produce an organic-based bag (DN)

CHRIST CHURCH MAN FOUND HANGING - Police are investigating the unnatural death of Shamar Stevenson Rojoe Bascombe, 25, of Hannay’s Valley ,Windsor, Christ Church. Acting public relations officer Inspector Rodney Inniss said at around 9:40 a.m., some people came to District B police station and reported the death. Bascombe was discovered hanging from a rafter in a bedroom by his dad. (DN)

MOTORCYCLIST SUFFERS HEAD INJURIES IN COLLISION WITH CAR – A motorcyclist suffered serious head injuries in a collision at the intersection of Drax Hall Road and Greens Road, St George around 3:20 p.m. Police have identified the motorcyclist as Rommell Stowe, 32, of Baird Village, St George. He was involved in an accident with Lester Brathwaite, 46 of #6 Parton Apartments, Newbury, St George. Parton was driving a white Mercedez Benz. Police said Stowe was transported by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for medical attention. He was said to be in a serious but stable condition when he departed the scene. (BT)

SIZZLING SIMMONS – Veteran opener Lendl Simmons stroked his first half-century in nearly four years while Nicholas Pooran made an instant impact in his first match back from a ball-tampering ban, as West Indies brushed aside powerhouses India by eight wickets to level the three-match series 1-1 yesterday. Needing a victory to keep the Twenty20 International series alive, West Indies comfortably chased down 171 at the Greenfield International Stadium to break a seven-game losing streak to the Indians and turn Wednesday’s third game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai into the series decider. The 34-year-old Simmons, playing only his third T20 International in two and a half years, emerged from a stuttering start to top-score with an unbeaten 67 off 45 deliveries while Pooran arrived late to lash an imperious unbeaten 38 from just 18 balls. (DN)

ST. CATHERINE DIG DEEP FOR CHAMPIONSHIP – CRANE RESORT St Catherine, with their last pair at the crease, stubbornly defended the last eight overs in a tension-filled final half hour against first-time Cupid Cavaliers to become the Barbados Cricket Association’s (BCA) Second Division champions yesterday. St. Catherine’s captain Derwin Thompson rolled back the years while using all his experience and batting expertise to make a defiant 25 not out off 75 balls in 82 minutes to ensure an exciting draw at Queen’s Park in the three-day final. Thompson, a former stand out Police player, got dogged support from Chief Town Planner George Browne, who played out 16 deliveries while gathering two runs in a tense half-hour as by virtue of gaining a 67-run first innings lead, St Catherine recaptured the title they first won at the same venue in their maiden season of BCA cricket in 1972. (DN)

FREDERICK SMITH HOSTING ANTI-VIOLENCE RALLY – The Frederick Smith Secondary School will host a National Rally Against Violence on Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The rally will be preceded by a march, which will start at 10 a.m. and will conclude at Queen’s Park via Lower Broad Street, Broad Street, High Street, Roebuck Street, and Crumpton Street. Students will assemble at Jubilee Gardens, The City, from 8:30 a.m. There will be a number of speeches and musical presentations during the rally. All schools are invited to participate. (BGIS)

There are 22 days left in the year Shalom!  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

[dallasrecklessandrelentless]

2018 Kia Soul Review

Omaha, Nebraska used car dealership

Introduction

" But he's got an excellent character!" When it pertains to blind dates, this is the default description for someone who might be lacking in the appearances department.

The Kia Soul, a compact multi-purpose lorry type thing that's not quite a subcompact crossover because of its absence of four-wheel drive, and not rather a hatchback since of its towering height, is not only a car with character brimming from every crevice, however also has looks covering the variety from lovable to terrible, depending on whom you ask. And simply last year, Kia gave the Soul much more wit by slapping a turbocharger on the engine to make it much more personalized.

What Owners Say

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last change, provided solely in the top trim level, resolved a major grievance with this spunky little vehicle. Therefore, for this evaluation, J.D. Power assessed a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim equipped with optional floor mats. The price concerned $23,820, consisting of the $895 destination charge.

Prior to we discuss the outcomes of our assessment of the Kia Soul, it is useful to comprehend who buys this automobile, and what they like most and least about their Souls.

More ladies than guys own Kia Souls, with 52% of Soul owners identifying as woman. Compared to the Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle sector, 46% of owners are women.

Soul owners have to do with the same age as compact MPV owners (60 years vs. 61 years for the section), but they take pleasure in considerably lower average annual household earnings at $59,286 (vs. $78,682). This extreme difference might be explained by the lorries in the competitive set, which consist of the Ford C-Max and Toyota Prius v, committed hybrids that might interest more upscale buyers.

Approximately the exact same variety of Soul owners and compact MPV owners identify as Price Buyers, appearing to validate that lower mean yearly household earnings among Kia purchasers is not, within the sector, determining their option in a lorry. Compact MPV owners are more concerned about fuel economy and ecologically friendly automobiles than Soul owners are, reflecting the presence of devoted hybrid designs in the competitive set.

In other aspects, Soul owners and compact MPV owners are aligned with 2 exceptions. Soul owners are most likely to agree that they like an automobile that stands apart from the crowd (72% vs. 60%) which they like a car that offers responsive handling and effective acceleration (82% vs. 76%).

Owners report that their favorite aspects of the Soul are (in coming down order) the outside styling, interior design, driving characteristics, seats, and storage and space. Owners indicate that their least favorite aspects of the Soul are (in descending order) presence and security, the infotainment system, the climate system, the engine/transmission, and fuel economy.

What Our Expert Says

In the areas that follow, our professional provides her own perceptions about how the Kia Soul determines up in each of the 10 classifications that consist of the 2017 APEAL Study.

Exterior

The Soul is a vehicle of cartoonish percentages, all created to set it apart from its competitors. It's boxy from the beltline up and a little lumpy down, with the wheel arches and the front headlamps including blobby elements to an otherwise squared-off lorry. The front grille (which isn't one, really) looks too small and the lower air consumption looks too huge.

Kia jazzes up the Soul Exclaim's already extroverted outside with red accent lines to denote the engine's extra boost and larger 18-inch wheels to provide it a more assertive stance. The Soul is one of those cars that you either like or dislike, however even haters might grow fond of it after driving it for a while.

Interior

Consider the base Soul. It has a tiny starting rate of $16,995 (with $895 destination), however it includes a much nicer interior than you 'd believe a vehicle of that price may include. In truth, the quality level easily makes sense in my more expensive test vehicle, or perhaps a vehicle priced closer to $30,000.

When compared to compact crossovers like the Chevrolet Trax or the Toyota C-HR, which have plenty of cheap products, the Soul's interior quality sticks out much more. The cabin is comprised of appealing soft-touch materials and tough, well finished plastics, and collectively they provide the car an unexpected quantity of refinement.

The Exclaim's exclusive cloth seats with leather bolsters and red contrast stitching are also magnificent stylish.

Seats

For chauffeurs, the Kia Soul is quite comfy, and I constantly appreciate it when small, low-cost vehicles consist of a center console armrest, like the majority of versions of the Soul do. Seriously, who does not need an armrest? Nobody keeps his/her hands on the wheel at all times.

For guests, convenience is fine except that the front right chair is installed too low and is not equipped with a seat height adjustment unless you decide for the package that includes power modification. Without this upgrade, the passenger is dealt with to the equivalent of a dunce chair for a small time out. This, combined with a lack of thigh support, implies pain.

Rear-seat guests fare much better, because the seat is mounted greater. Foot room is abundant, however hard plastic front seatback panels could prove unpleasant for taller individuals. Shoulder space is great for 2, however three will discover it tight.

Environment Control System

The environment control system is relatively fundamental, but in the Exclaim cut it is a single-zone automatic system. A single knob adjusts temperature, and since the automobile lacks a temperature display you simply make it hotter or cooler than you are when you dial in change.

Impressively, however, the Soul has a Clean Air ionizer, which supposedly cleans the cabin's air and keeps the interior smelling good. If it's working with my grade-school-age children in the vehicle, it's simply hard to tell.

Infotainment System

I was a little bummed to see that my test car did not consist of the Technology Package, that includes speaker that pulse with light to the thumping beat of what's playing on the audio system. They're extremely entertaining, and along with all the other goodies that it includes, like a navigation system and heating for the seats and steering wheel, the Technology Package is a good buy.

Luckily, though, the Soul Exclaim's standard infotainment system consists of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smart device forecast, so it was simple to get directions to destinations.

In addition to smart device projection, Kia gives Soul owners complimentary access to UVO eServices telematics functions for the duration of ownership. This includes services such as automatic crash alert; speed, curfew and geographical boundary informs for teenaged motorists; an app that keeps an eye on where you last parked the Soul; and much more.

Storage and Space

The Soul's rectangle-shaped shape lends itself to carrying a lot more than you would believe for such a little vehicle, and storage is one of things that Soul owners like about their Kias. This is not surprising, because in the cabin, storage area is plentiful. There is a big glove box, thoughtful little bins and trays around the transmission shifter, and huge door panel bins to make arranging your things easier.

Behind the rear seats, an 18.8 cu.-ft. trunk gets itself to you. That measurement includes a covered, compartmentalized tray under the cargo floor that organizes your things. Take that out and get rid of the freight floor, and this little cars and truck products access to 24.2 cu.-ft. of area.

Without rear travelers, you can fold the seats to develop 49.5 cu.-ft. of stowage, with a maximum of 61.3 cu.-ft. opening up with the rear storage tray removed. These numbers extend beyond subcompact crossover SUV territory and into the realm of bigger compacts, but only if you take the difficulty of getting rid of the beneficial tray.

Visibility and Safety

Chauffeurs enjoy exceptional forward presence, but the view to the rear quarters is pretty abysmal due to the shape of the vehicle and the width of the rearmost roof pillars. Thankfully, big side mirrors and a standard reversing camera do their finest to relieve this issue.

While Kia makes a blind spot caution system with rear cross-traffic alert offered in both of the Soul's higher trim levels, the turbocharged Exclaim can't be geared up with features like adaptive cruise control, forward crash caution, automated emergency braking, or lane departure caution. That's a disappointment.

The Soul does a good task of protecting occupants in an accident. The NHTSA awards the Soul a 5-star overall rating for crashworthiness, while the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gives it "Good" scores all around.

Engine/Transmission

Soul owners cite the powertrain as one of their least favorite aspects of the car. Hopefully, they'll offer the turbocharged Soul Exclaim a try, as it alters the character of the automobile, and for the much better.

With 201 horses on tap from the 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine, the Soul Exclaim is not exactly a rocket, but it's much livelier than it used to be. Enthusiast publications declare it will accelerate from absolutely no to 60 mph in about 7.6 seconds, which suffices to infuse your commute with some additional zip. Power delivery is relatively direct, although there is some turbo lag right off the line.

Tasked with sending the power to the front wheels, a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission shifts correctly but gracelessly. A little more smoothness and refinement would be great, as would a manual transmission that, undoubtedly, nearly nobody would choose. Likewise missing is any sort of all-wheel-drive system, which would protect the Soul's membership in the popular crossover SUV segment.

Fuel Economy

The EPA approximates that you ought to get 28 mpg in combined driving (26 city/31 highway mpg) with a Soul Exclaim. My testing produced a return of 25.5 mpg, which isn't outstanding. The turbocharged Soul, in spite of making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the car, is actually a bit more fuel efficient than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus cut.

Driving Dynamics

To help take full advantage of driving satisfaction, Kia slightly adjusts the Exclaim's suspension tuning, sets up larger front brakes, and includes bigger wheels and tires.

While the Soul still preferred knocking about in the city, with its diminutive footprint, active handling, and capability to absorb the ruts and bumps of ignored public roadways, it nevertheless held its own on twisty back roadways threading through regional range of mountains. The steering had a fair amount of heft to it, especially in Sport mode, but I wanted a bit more feel, feedback and accuracy to make the car more satisfying to drive. The brakes successfully withstood fade throughout aggressive driving, too, and dealt with daily driving jobs without getting or bringing the car to a scrambling stop.

No, the Kia Soul Exclaim will not be competing in autocross rallies with the Volkswagen GTI or Mazda 3 anytime soon. But its happy-go-lucky character and newfound virility makes it a lot more satisfying to drive than the tiny crossover lorries versus which it will most likely be cross-shopped.

Final Impressions

By now, everyone should be familiar with Kia's generous warranty that covers the entire lorry for five years or 60,000 miles, while the powertrain is secured for 10 years or 100,000 miles, together with totally free roadside help for five years without any mileage limitation. That appeals to the sensible side of your brain, in addition to the quality awards that both this vehicle and Kia have gotten from J.D. Power over the last few years.

What's more, the Kia Soul has a character. Yes, it's a little strange. And now, with its offered turbocharged engine, it is more attractive than ever previously.

There are lots of people who drive the exact same thing everyone else does. With a Kia Soul parked in your driveway, you can proudly be one of the others.

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last change, used exclusively in the leading trim level, dealt with a significant complaint with this spunky little car. For this review, J.D. Power evaluated a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim equipped with optional flooring mats. For drivers, the Kia Soul is quite comfy, and I constantly value it when little, economical vehicles consist of a center console armrest, like most variations of the Soul do. The Soul's rectangular shape provides itself to carrying a lot more than you would believe for such a small lorry, and storage is one of things that Soul owners like about their Kias. The turbocharged Soul, despite making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the car, is in fact a little more fuel efficient than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus trim.

[emmastevensposts]

Machine to Machine (M2M) Connections Market Size, Growth, Trends, Top Players & Future Outlook In Near Years

Machine-to-machine (M2M) technology refers to any technology that enables direct communication between network devices with the help of wired and wireless communication channel by exchanging information, interpreting data, and making decisions individually without human assistance.

 Download PDF To explore detail study @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/1239

 Machine to machine connections are usually used in warehouse management, supply chain management, and remote monitoring. For instance, machine to machine connections enables a retailing machine to directly communicate with the distributor regarding any particular product stock whenever it is running low by sending him a message. Hence, it is very important for warehouse and retail sector. Moreover, it and be utilized for traffic control, telemedicine, and fleet management.

 Major factors driving the growth of machine to machine market connections is increasing penetration of internet. Moreover, advancement in technologies and increasing adoption of 2G, 3G, and 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular networks are favorable for global M2M market growth. For instance, according to Internet World Stats, in June 2017, total internet users count was around 3.89 billion, which is about 51.7% of the global population. Furthermore, substantial penetration of short range wireless technologies, which includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee are further expanding the role of machine to machine connections globally. These wireless connectivity technologies enables real time communication. They have applications in healthcare for patient monitoring devices, car infotainment systems, and smart appliances.

 Mobile, other connected devices including wearables, and social media are key factors responsible for the evolution of machine to machine connections and have also accelerated overall growth of the market. These enables a new way of real time communication in cost effective way. For instance, according to Coherent Market Insights’ analysis, in 2016, over 68% of global population was already using mobile phones and the count of M2M connections were around 192 million in 2014 as compared to over 70 million in 2010. Machine to machine connections transmit data between mobile devices and the cellular network.

 Browse More About the Market Study @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/machine-to-machine-connections-market-1239

 However, lack of standardization in connectivity protocols is the major restraining factor for the growth of the M2M connections market.

 Machine to Machine Connections Market: Regional Insights

 The global machine to machine connections market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The market for machine to machine connection in Asia Pacific region accounted for largest share of the global machine to machine connections market in 2016. This growth is attributed to explosion of smart devices. China manufactures inexpensive sensors, which are responsible for increased penetration of smart devices such as wearable devices and smart home appliances. These smart devices collects data and zap is wirelessly connected to the internet, owing to increased number of smartphones utilization, which is propelling the demand for regional machine to machine connections. According to the State of Social Media and Messaging in Asia Pacific: Trends and Statistics published by RVC, a state fund of funds and the development institute of the Russian Federation, in 2016, around 3.42 billion internet users were representing around 46% of global population, 2.31 billion social media users were there delivering 31% of global penetration, and 1.97 billion mobile social media users were there equaling 27% of global penetration in Asia Pacific region.

 Machine to Machine Connections Market: Competitive Background

 Major players operating in the global machine to machine connection market include AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Texas Instruments Incorporated, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Intel Corporation, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Gemalto N.V., Vodafone Group PLC, U-Blox Holding AG, Commsolid GmbH, and Fanstel Corporation.

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[thegloober]

69 Facts and Statistics About Fast Fashion That Will Inspire You To Become An Ethical Fashion Advocate

If you’ve landed on this page, we assume you already know the definition of fast fashion, but for those of you who don’t, fast fashion is a term to describe the speed at which fashion designs move from design concept to fashion product available for purchase. It is usually characterised by high volume, low margin, fast-paced, cheap and disposable items.

Over the last couple of decades the production process has accelerated, fuelled by globalisation, industry competition, technology and customers’ obsession with instant gratification.

It’s not unusual now for people to buy fashion designs direct from the catwalks and runways via social media and other shopping apps. The cost barriers have also been removed, with factories producing cheaper designer imitations that flood the market within days of the collections being launched at major fashion shows.

Furthermore, given the speed at which designs are being produced, no longer are fashion collections limited to four seasons; new fashion collections are introduced each week, with some mainstream retail stores receiving fresh products daily.

But this need to stay ‘on trend’ is having an impact on the environment and society at large. We’ve covered the issues around fast fashion in great detail over the years. Our post “Ethical Fashion 101: The Top 5 Ethical Issues in the Fashion Industry” is well worth reading if you want more info on the topic.

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Anyway, enough about that, let’s get on with delivering you some cold hard facts. We’ve broken them down into subcategories for your reading pleasure.

So whether you’re writing a report on the global fashion industry, completing a fashion-related assignment for school or just interested to learn more about fast fashion, here are 69 facts and statistics about fast fashion that will shock you… and hopefully inspire you towards ethical shopping and sustainable fashion consumption.

Shopping habits and fashion consumption

Sales of clothing have almost doubled from one trillion dollars in 2002 to 1.8 trillion dollars in 2015. (Greenpeace 2017)

2. Fashion consumption is expected to grow, with sales of clothing projected to rise to $2.1 trillion by 2025. (Greenpeace 2017)

3. Apparel consumption is expected to rise by 63%  from 62 million tons today to 102 million tons in 2030. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

4. The average person buys 60% more items of clothing and keeps them for about half as long as 15 years ago.(Greenpeace 2017)

5. On average a person consumes 11.4kg of apparel each year. (Quantis 2018)

6. 30% of clothing in the average UK wardrobe has not been worn in the past year or so. This equates to around 1.7 billion items of clothing not been worn for at least a year. (WRAP 2011)

7. The average Australian consumer spends $2,288 on clothing and footwear per year. (Choice 2014)

8. Australia is the second-largest consumers of new textiles, each person buying an average of 27kg of new textiles. (Textile Beat 2016)

9. North Americans is the largest consumers of new textiles, consuming 37kgs each.(Textile Beat 2016)

10. Western Europeans consumer 22kg of new textiles each. (Textile Beat 2016)

11. The average UK household spends £1,700 on purchasing clothing annually. (WRAP 2011)

12. The contents of the average UK household wardrobe are worth £4,000 or more. (WRAP 2011)

13. The carbon emissions generated by the clothing of the average UK household is equivalent to driving an average modern car 6,000 miles. (WRAP 2011)

14. On average, the global water footprint of a UK household’s clothing exceeds 200,000 litres per year – enough to fill over 1,000 bathtubs. (WRAP 2011)

15. In the UK, the estimated average lifetime for a garment of clothing is 2.2 years, or just under two years and three months. (WRAP 2011)

16. Americans consume nearly 20 billion garments a year, equivalent to 62 garments each. (Elizabeth Cline, ‘Overdressed’ 2012)

17. Global average consumption of new textiles is 13kg per person. (Textile Beat 2016)

18. In the past 15 years, the average number of times a garment is worn before it ceases to be used has decreased by 36%. (Elle MacArthur Foundation 2017).

Production of clothing, shoes and accessories

19. Clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014. (McKinsey 2016)

20. The global apparel and footwear industry accounts for 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions releasing  four metric gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.(Quantis 2018)

21. More than 50% of the emissions from clothing production comes from three phases: dyeing and finishing (36%), yarn preparation (28%) and fibre production (15%). (Quantis 2018)

22. If the industry doesn’t change, and it’s fashion business as usual, the apparel industry’s climate impact is expected to increase 49% by 2030.

23. The fashion industry’s CO2 emissions are projected to increase to nearly 2.8 billion tons per year by 2030— equivalent to the emissions of 230 million passenger vehicles driven for a year. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

24. In Australia, 92% of clothes sold in Australia are imported. (Choice 2014)

25. The clothing produced each year equates to 14 items of clothing for every person on earth. (McKinsey 2016)

26. The number of garments produced globally exceeded 100 billion for the first time in 2014.(McKinsey 2016)

27. One kilogram of clothing over its entire life cycle creates 11 kilograms of greenhouse gases. (McKinsey 2016)

28. Polyester production emitted about 706 billion kg (1.5 trillion pounds) of greenhouse gases in 2015 equivalent of the annual emissions of 185 coal-fired power plants. (World Resources Institute 2017).

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Working conditions, wages and child labour

29. 4% of what Australians spend on clothing goes to the wages of workers in garment factories across the globe.(Oxfam 2017)

30. Over 50% of workers within the fashion industry are not paid the minimum wage in countries like India and the Philippines. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

31. In Pakistan’s garment sector, 87% of women are paid less than the minimum wage. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

32. In Australia, some garment outworkers earn as little as $7 an hour and, in some cases, as little as $4 well which is below the minimum wage of $17.49 per hour. (Choice 2014)

Textile fibres and fabrics

33. 63% of textile fibres are derived from petrochemicals. (Lenzing 2017)

34. Approximately 8,000 synthetic chemicals are used throughout the world to turn raw materials into textiles. (Alternatives Journal 2015)

35. Polyester and cotton dominate the global textiles and fibre market, 51% and 24% respectively (Lenzing, 2017)

36. Approximately 300 million people who produce cotton are still living in poverty. (Fairtrade 2017)

37. Making one kilogram of fabric generates an average of 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases. (McKinsey 2016)

38 Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new textiles and fibres. (Elle MacArthur Foundation 2017)

39. Water-thirsty plant cotton linked to water depletion, accounts for 30% of all textile fibre consumption. (McKinsey 2016)

40. Although the cultivation area of cotton covers only 3% of the planet’s agricultural land, its production consumes an estimated 16% of all insecticides and 7% of all herbicides. (Greenpeace 2017)

41. By 2030, it is predicted that the fashion industry will use 35% more land for cotton, forest for cellulose fibres, and grassland for livestock. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

Water consumption

42. It takes about 2,720 litres of water to produce just one cotton shirt – a number equivalent to what an average person drinks over three years. (EJF)

43. It takes about 10,000 litres of water to produce enough cotton for a pair of jeans. (WRAP 2011)

44. The volume of water consumed by the global fashion industry is 79 billion cubic meters equivalent to 32 million Olympic-size swimming pools. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

45. Researchers anticipate the industry’s water consumption will increase by 50% by 2030 as cotton producers are located in countries suffering water stress, such as China and India. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

46. It takes about 170,000 litres of water to grow a kilogram of wool. (Julian Cribb ‘The Coming Famine‘ 2010)

47. Each year 1.3 trillion gallons of water is used for fabric dyeing alone. (World Resources Institute 2017).

Pollution and microfibres

48. Garment manufacturing accounts for 20% of global industrial water pollution. (World Resources Institute 2017).

49. About 1,900 synthetic plastic microfibers per garment are released when washed and due to its tiny sizes and shapes, aren’t caught in waste water treatment and enter our oceans. (Browne et al. 2011a)

50. 1.4 quadrillion microfibres are estimated to be in the ocean as a result of laundering clothes. (Elle MacArthur Foundation 2017).

51. Of the 2,400 substances used in clothing manufacturing, researchers found that approximately 30% of the identified substances posed a risk to human health. (Elle MacArthur Foundation 2017).

Clothing and textile waste

52. Nearly three-fifths or 60% of all clothing produced ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year of being made. (McKinsey 2016)

53. Of the total fibre input used for clothing, 87% is landfilled or incinerated costing $100 billion annually. (Elle MacArthur Foundation 2017).

54. The total level of fashion waste is expected to be 148 million tons by 2030—equivalent to annual waste of 17.5 kg per capita across the planet. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)

55. Americans throw away a total of 14 million tonnes of textiles each year. (EPA)

56. The average Canadian throws 32 kilograms of textiles into landfills each year. (Alternatives Journal 2015)

57. Australians dispose of 500,000 tonnes of leather and textile waste. (ABS)

58. UK disposes of 350,000 tonnes (£140 million worth) of clothing in landfills every year. (Greenpeace 2017)

59. Nearly half of UK adults put tossed some clothing in the bin in the last 12 months. (WRAP 2011)

60. Australians throw out 6 tonnes or 6,000 kgs of clothing textiles every 10 minutes (War On Waste 2017)

61. 75% of Australians have thrown clothes away at some point in the past year. (YouGov 2017)

62. 30% of Australians have thrown away more than ten items of clothing in the past year. (YouGov 2017)

63. In the past year, 24% of Australians have thrown away an item of clothing after wearing it just once. (YouGov 2017)

64. 21% of Australians estimate that they own over 100 garments (excluding underwear or accessories). (YouGov 2017)

65. One in six millennials (16%) aged between 16-34 say they generally keep their clothes for under two years before throwing them away. (YouGov 2017)

66. 57% of Australians dispose of clothes because they no longer fit.(YouGov 2017)

67. 24% of Australians aged 16-34 throw away clothes because they are ‘bored’ of wearing them. (YouGov 2017)

68. 41% of Australian have thrown unwanted clothes straight in the bin. (YouGov 2017)

69. UK disposes of 350,000 tonnes of clothing in landfills every year. (Greenpeace 2017)

Inspired to shop responsibly? Keen to vote with your dollars? Check out our member resources page for a comprehensive list of ethical and sustainable brands.

Disclosure: The curated list is based on the writer’s research and all data and stats are current at time of publishing. All images courtesy of Unsplash. This list also contains affiliate links. For more information, click here.

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Source: https://bloghyped.com/69-facts-and-statistics-about-fast-fashion-that-will-inspire-you-to-become-an-ethical-fashion-advocate/

[theconservativebrief]

Carbon taxes are in the news these days. In recent months, not one but two conservative national carbon tax proposals have emerged, disrupting the usual partisan dynamic on climate policy.

First there was the proposal from the Climate Leadership Council, a group of (mostly older, retired) Republicans and centrists, which was released last year but recently gained the backing of a new big-money conservative PAC. And next week, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), co-chair of the House Climate Solutions Caucus, plans to release a carbon-tax proposal of his own.

Neither proposal has a snowflake’s chance in hell of passage any time soon. And on Thursday, the House passed a resolution trying to squash even the possibility of a carbon tax. But the existence of these proposals does indicate a heightened level of awareness of and interest in carbon taxes. So now seems like a good opportunity to review some of the basics.

Luckily, the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University (in conjunction with several other research organizations) has just issued a series of four research papers covering those basics. The research didn’t turn up anything particularly shocking; it mostly confirmed what policy wonks have long understood about the dynamics of carbon taxes.

But those dynamics aren’t necessarily well understood by the public. With the (slim but growing!) chance that a federal carbon tax could be the subject of serious national debate, it’s a good time for everyone to get up to speed.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL). Alex Wong/Getty Images

A carbon tax is just what it sounds like — a per-ton tax on the carbon dioxide emissions embedded in fuels or other products. (Other greenhouse gases, like methane, are translated into their carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e, for easier comparison.)

Here are the top five questions advocates, policymakers, and informed citizens should be asking about a carbon tax:

Can it reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

What economic sectors will it hit hardest?

What overall effect will it have on the US economy?

Will it be fair and equitable?

Will it be enough to address climate change?

Let’s walk through what the research shows, one answer at a time.

The CGEP research pivots around a few shared scenarios. Researchers modeled three different carbon taxes — starting at a per-ton rate of $14 (rising 3 percent a year), $50 (rising 2 percent a year), and $73 (rising 1.5 percent a year) respectively — with a range of fairly conservative assumptions about energy prices and technology development. The $50 tax served as the central case.

In all cases, the tax would be charged “upstream,” where carbon enters the economy, at the wellhead, mine shaft, or import terminal. The tax would ultimately cover more than 80 percent of the economy’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The research consultancy Rhodium Group, which analyzed the energy and emission effects of a tax for CGEP, found that, sure enough, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the $50/ton scenario, emissions fall 39 to 46 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, putting the US well ahead of its pledged Paris goal of 26 to 28 percent by 2025. (Current policy, as Rhodium’s previous research has shown, is not enough to hit that goal.)

RHG

However, none of the taxes considered are likely to achieve the long-term US emission goal of 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 (a target we now realize is woefully insufficient) “absent complementary GHG policies, significant improvements in technologies that can act as direct substitutes for fossil fuels, and/or significantly faster electrification of the transportation, buildings, and industrial sectors than we considered in this analysis.”

As the low-hanging fruit is consumed, emission reductions start getting more expensive. To get to 80 percent (or more appropriately, 100 percent) reductions, carbon prices would likely need to exceed $100/ton by mid-century.

A carbon tax can reduce emissions quickly, but in the early years, reductions come overwhelmingly from a single industry: electricity.

The most striking result of the Rhodium research is that more than 80 percent of the emission reductions achieved by a carbon tax through 2030 would come from the electricity sector. More specifically, they would come from the accelerated decline of coal.

RHG

The same is not true for other sectors of the economy.

“Due to nonprice barriers, stock turnover constraints, higher capital cost to operating cost ratios, and a smaller set of abatement opportunities,” Rhodium writes, “end-use sector emissions see modest declines in emissions.”

In particular, transportation appears stubbornly resistant to carbon prices. Through 2030, a $50 carbon tax would reduce emissions from the transportation sector all of … 2 percent.

RHG

Why the stark difference?

First, there aren’t easily available short-term substitutes in transportation like there are in electricity. In the electricity sector, operators can easily ramp down coal plants and ramp up natural gas plants. But in transportation, without commercially available liquid-fuel alternatives, the only way to reduce emissions quickly is to drive less, and driving behavior has proven resistant to price pressure.

Second, carbon taxes put more pressure on operating costs than on capital costs. The electricity sector is weighted toward operating costs (the power plants are mostly already built), while the transportation sector is weighted toward capital costs, i.e., the cost of buying the vehicle. A carbon tax affects the cost of running a power plant much more than it affects the cost of buying a car.

The results are not quite as stark for the industrial and building sectors, but they are pretty close. Those sectors are somewhat more amenable to price-driven carbon reductions than transportation, but not nearly as amenable as electricity (though the researchers note that uncertainty is higher in those sectors, since reporting and data are not as consistent).

Republicans’ favorite attack on a carbon tax (or any clean air, water, or energy policy) is that it will raise costs and slow economic growth — that it will be, in the words of the anti-carbon-tax resolution the House just passed, “detrimental to the United States economy.” (By the way, 39 of the 43 Republicans in Curbelo’s House Climate Solutions Caucus voted for that resolution.)

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who sponsored the anti-carbon-tax resolution. Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Is it true?

The Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University did the research on a carbon tax’s macroeconomic effects. In a nutshell, the macroeconomic effect of a carbon tax varies depending on what the government does with the revenue.

The key point, though, is that in every scenario, the macroeconomic effect is small — well under 1 percent of GDP in either direction. The fact is, even a relatively large carbon tax won’t dramatically affect a $20 trillion economy. In practice, the macroeconomic effects of any carbon tax are likely to be lost amid larger demographic and economic trends.

The research examined three uses of the revenue through 2030:

Using it to reduce payroll taxes would result in a net increase in GDP (of around 0.5 percent), along with boosts in “total investment, consumption, and labor supply,” because payroll taxes are distortionary and reducing them leads to more optimal economic performance;

Using it for per-capita dividends results in a modest decrease in both GDP (0.4 percent) and consumption (0.6 percent), because “the carbon tax-induced increases in consumer prices that lead to reductions in real wages are not offset by the recycling of carbon tax revenues”;

Using it to reduce the national debt boosts GDP 0.3 percent but reduces consumption by 0.4 percent.

As I said, all of these effects are relatively small, which suggests to me that macroeconomic effect should not be the deciding factor in how to design a carbon tax. It may be that a small marginal decline in the rate of GDP growth is a small price to pay for more justice, or emission reductions, or political durability.

One other note here: It is irksome that the only scenarios modeled are revenue-neutral. All the revenue is returned, none left for government spending.

As I’ve written before, that is an essentially conservative restriction on carbon-tax design. There’s no reason climate hawks should go along with it. The US is nowhere near overtaxed and we have lots of big spending needs if we’re going to address climate change (like, say, a Green New Deal).

So why not rebate (or reduce payroll taxes) enough to protect low- and middle-income Americans and then use the rest for clean energy infrastructure and transition assistance for vulnerable communities?

A good target for some government spending in Puerto Rico. Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images

I asked Noah Kaufman, who directs the carbon tax research effort at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, about this. He said it was less about researchers’ preferences than “modeling limitations.”

“Economic models in this space are typically not designed to do revenue positive scenarios,” he told me, “and in my experience, modelers are uncomfortable with the idea of projecting the economic impacts of additional government spending.” He hopes, as do I, that modelers get a little more adventurous in this respect. Of all the reasons to make a carbon tax revenue-neutral, “difficulty modeling anything else” is among the worst.

A carbon tax is, in and of itself, somewhat regressive. It hits the poor harder than the rich because the poor spend a larger percentage of their income on energy services. However, it also generates a lot of revenue — between $740 billion (in the $14/ton scenario) and $3 trillion (in the $73/ton scenario) over 10 years — which can be used to offset the regressivity.

So the distributional effects of the tax depend on how the revenue is used. We can design a progressive carbon tax if we want one.

The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center did the research on the “Distributional Implications of a Carbon Tax.” The researchers modeled four possible uses of the revenue: “reducing the federal deficit, reducing payroll taxes, reducing the corporate income tax, and providing per capita household rebates.”

Here’s how they summarize the results:

When revenue is used to reduce the deficit, a carbon tax is moderately regressive—that is, it increases taxes by a larger percentage of income for lower-income households than for higher-income households. Using revenue to reduce the corporate income tax (beyond the corporate tax cut in the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) would result in higher taxes for low-income families and disproportionate benefits for higher-income taxpayers. Using revenue to provide lump-sum rebates would more than offset the carbon tax burden for low- and middle-income taxpayers but leave high-income families with a net tax increase. Using carbon tax revenues to reduce employee payroll taxes would result in a net benefit for upper middle-income taxpayers, while increasing tax burdens modestly for low-income and the highest-income households.

Here’s a chart that sums it all up:

TPC

So if you’re aiming for the most net-progressive tax, you use the revenue for rebates — helps the low-income, raises taxes on the high-income. If you’re aiming to appeal to the middle class, you use the revenue for payroll tax reductions — helps the middle, increases taxes on either end.

If you’re looking to be a soulless plutocrat, you use the revenue to (even further) reduce corporate taxes, thus helping your wealthy buddies and screwing everyone else. And if you’re a daft “centrist” gripped by baseless fears about the deficit, you use the revenue to pay down the debt and pat yourself on the back even as everyone is worse off. Ahem.

It’s pretty clear that anyone concerned about the welfare of low- and middle-income Americans is obligated to support a carbon tax design that sends at least some of the revenue back to them — at least enough so that they suffer no net harm to their pre-tax income.

But, again, I’m irritated by the background assumption that all the revenue must be automatically returned, that the tax must be revenue-neutral. I’d like some modeling that reveals exactly how much of the revenue must be returned to hold low- and middle-income Americans whole. I suspect there would be quite a bit left over to spend on clean energy.

Here we depart from the Columbia research and I add one answer of my own.

The economic theory behind carbon prices is that, if carbon is priced correctly — i.e., at the true “social cost of carbon” — then the economy will respond with the optimal level of carbon reduction.

There are all kinds of difficulties with this theory, not least determining the social cost of carbon, which is as much art and ethics as it is science.

But the main problem is less theoretical than practical: Political resistance has kept carbon prices well below any reasonable social cost of carbon pretty much everywhere carbon prices have been implemented. Nowhere in the US, certainly not in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or the Western Climate Initiative, or even the carbon tax in BC, has carbon prices close to $50/ton, which is the central case in the Columbia research. (Prices in the EU’s carbon trading system are just over $19/ton.)

And some researchers believe that the true social cost of carbon may be much higher than today’s estimates, as high as $250/ton.

Theoretically, carbon taxes can achieve any level of emission reduction. Just crank the price up — change the model inputs until you get the outputs you need. But politically, carbon prices have been constrained far below optimal levels. Nowhere, in practice, are they doing enough on their own.

To me, all of the above suggests a simple conclusion: Carbon taxes are good policy, an important part of the portfolio, but unlikely ever to be sufficient on their own. It’s worth getting a price on carbon anywhere it can be gotten, but climate hawks should not believe, and definitely shouldn’t be saying in public, that a carbon price is enough, that it’s worth trading anything and everything for, that when we implement it, we are done.

For one thing, it’s unlikely to be high enough. For another, it strikes me as unwise to leave other sectors unreformed for a decade or two while we clean up electricity. If that happens, we could reach 2030 or 2040, run out of coal to retire, and find ourselves needing very rapid, very large reductions from those other sectors, for which we will be ill-prepared.

I asked Kaufman, the director of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, about this as well. He noted that “it’s a feature rather than a bug of a carbon tax policy that its near-term effects are concentrated in one industry.” That should serve to reduce political opposition from oil and gas.

But he also added, “if I were developing an optimal climate policy portfolio, I’d absolutely include a host of other policies, like funding clean transportation infrastructure, efficiency standards, and a boatload of support for innovation.”

John Larsen, director of the Rhodium research, told me that the sectoral analysis of carbon tax effects can show policymakers “where to focus additional policy action.”

“A very reasonable case can be made from our results,” he said, “that more action across the economy is required if the US is going to do its fair share in tackling climate change.”

Carbon pricing, whatever form it comes in, will almost certainly need to be supplemented with technology research, development, and demonstration policies; pollution regulations; and spending on infrastructure, adaptation, and transition assistance. A carbon price supports, funds, and accelerates the effects of those other policies (which is great!), but it is not a substitute.

The proper target for advocacy is action sufficient to reduce emissions to net-zero carbon as fast as practicably possible. What limits that effort is not ultimately the choice of policy instruments, but the constraints of political attention, organization, funding, and intensity. Loosen those constraints and everything, including a carbon tax, gets easier.

Original Source -> The 5 most important questions about carbon taxes, answered

via The Conservative Brief

[newmarketresearch1]

Machine to Machine Connections Market -  Global Industry Insights, Trends, 2017 – 2025

Machine-to-machine technology refers to any technology that enables direct communication between network devices with the help of wired and wireless communication channel by exchanging information, interpreting data, and making decisions individually without human assistance.

To get holistic SAMPLE of the report including Table of Contents:

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1239

Machine to machine connections are usually used in warehouse management, supply chain management, and remote monitoring. For instance, machine to machine connections enables a retailing machine to directly communicate with the distributor regarding any particular product stock whenever it is running low by sending him a message. Hence, it is very important for warehouse and retail sector. Moreover, it and be utilized for traffic control, telemedicine, and fleet management.

Major factors driving the growth of machine to machine market connections is increasing penetration of internet. Moreover, advancement in technologies and increasing adoption of 2G, 3G, and 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular networks are favorable for global M2M market growth. For instance, according to Internet World Stats, in June 2017, total internet users count was around 3.89 billion, which is about 51.7% of the global population. Furthermore, substantial penetration of short range wireless technologies, which includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee are further expanding the role of machine to machine connections globally. These wireless connectivity technologies enables real time communication. They have applications in healthcare for patient monitoring devices, car infotainment systems, and smart appliances.

Mobile, other connected devices including wearables, and social media are key factors responsible for the evolution of machine to machine connections and have also accelerated overall growth of the market. These enables a new way of real time communication in cost effective way. For instance, according to Coherent Market Insights’ analysis, in 2016, over 68% of global population was already using mobile phones and the count of M2M connections were around 192 million in 2014 as compared to over 70 million in 2010. Machine to machine connections transmit data between mobile devices and the cellular network.

However, lack of standardization in connectivity protocols is the major restraining factor for the growth of the M2M connections market.

Machine to Machine (M2M) Connections Market Taxonomy:

On the basis of technology, the global machine to machine connection market is segmented into:

Wireless Technology

Cellular Network

4G/LTE

3G

2G

Short Range Network

Wi-Fi

Bluetooth

Zigbee

Wired Technology

Ethernet

Industrial

To get detailed table of content (ToC) :

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/toc/1239

On the basis of end user industry, the global machine to machine connection market is segmented into:

Healthcare

Automotive & Transportation

Consumer Electronics

Utilities

Retail

Security & Surveillance

Others

Machine to Machine Connections Market: Regional Insights

The global machine to machine connections market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The market for machine to machine connection in Asia Pacific region accounted for largest share of the global machine to machine connections market in 2016. This growth is attributed to explosion of smart devices. China manufactures inexpensive sensors, which are responsible for increased penetration of smart devices such as wearable devices and smart home appliances. These smart devices collects data and zap is wirelessly connected to the internet, owing to increased number of smartphones utilization, which is propelling the demand for regional machine to machine connections. According to the State of Social Media and Messaging in Asia Pacific: Trends and Statistics published by RVC, a state fund of funds and the development institute of the Russian Federation, in 2016, around 3.42 billion internet users were representing around 46% of global population, 2.31 billion social media users were there delivering 31% of global penetration, and 1.97 billion mobile social media users were there equaling 27% of global penetration in Asia Pacific region.

Machine to Machine Connections Market: Competitive Background

Major players operating in the global machine to machine connection market include AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Texas Instruments Incorporated, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Intel Corporation, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Gemalto N.V., Vodafone Group PLC, U-Blox Holding AG, Commsolid GmbH, and Fanstel Corporation.

To understand Research Methodology:

http://www.egypt-business.com/Ticker/details/1805-Machine-Learning-Market--Global-Industry-InsightsAnalysis-2017-2025/213703

About Coherent Market Insights:

Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.

Contact Us:

Mr. Shah Coherent Market Insights 1001 4th Ave, #3200 Seattle, WA 98154 Tel: +1-206-701-6702 Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com

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Catch us at 3rd International Conference on Separation + Drying Technologies for Milk & Whey at Cologne, March 19 and 20, 2018

[thedeadshotnetwork]

The Road to Making America Great Again Runs Through Asia

The Road to Making America Great Again Runs Through Asia

The secret to putting America First may lie in the continent’s rising middle class.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang stand for the U.S. national anthem at the top of a state banquet in Trump's honor at the International Convention Center in Hanoi, Vietnam November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

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Back when Donald Trump was busy firing people on The Apprentice, corporate brands across America were busy “hiring” his show to advertise their wares. The list included Pepsi, McDonald’s, Cheetos, KFC, Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats, Wendy’s, Yoplait, Subway, Visa, and Ford, to name just a few. Many of the companies that own those same brands, like PepsiCo (also owner of Cheetos) and Yum! Brands (owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell), have surely been watching President Trump’s ongoing trip to Asia with interest, because they understand a fundamental truth undergirding the global economy: Asia will drive future growth, anchored by a rising middle class hungry for consumer goods. American brands positioned to capitalize on that growth will survive and thrive.

Amid now-President Trump’s talk of winners and losers in the global economy and his pledges to make America great again by “winning” on trade and paring back the massive China trade deficit, one factor is often discounted. The rise of the East could, in fact, benefit the companies and peoples of the West. When President Barack Obama introduced his rebalance to Asia (aka, the “Asia Pivot”), he based the idea on the understanding that the world’s political and economic center of gravity was shifting east. Too often, however, even in the Obama era, the Asia pivot was seen as a policy of containment of China, or a welcome respite from a fractious Middle East.

Multinational companies, however, see the rise of Asia for what it is—a massive opportunity. Companies ranging from Unilever and Nestle, to Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson, are experiencing their fastest growth in emerging markets, particularly among middle-class consumers. The vast majority of those consumers reside in the Asia-Pacific: some 1.5 billion today, and a projected 3.5 billion by 2030, according to Homi Kharas, a scholar at Brookings who focuses on the global economy. The Kellogg Company seemed to speak for everyone in its 2016 annual report: “Our success in emerging markets is critical to our growth strategy.” If it fails, the company noted, its results will be “materially and adversely affected.” To make Kellogg, well, great again, it needs to ride the emerging-markets wave.

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Most American multinationals understand the necessity of tapping new areas of consumption growth around the world, and, as the S&P notes, it’s in the emerging markets. And there is no more important part of that story than Asia’s growing middle classes. As Kharas noted, of the next billion entrants into the middle class worldwide, 88 percent of them will be Asian. Asian consumers will account for the overwhelming majority of new middle-class spending through 2030, to the tune of some $29 trillion. Ford, for instance, sold its millionth car in the Asia-Pacific last year.

As the potential of Asian markets expands, American companies are seeing a decline at home. Companies like Pepsi, Subway, and Ford, are seeing their sales in North America flat line. As American millennials increasingly shun big name, older brands of the sort that advertised on The Apprentice in favor of smaller, local, or organic brands, it’s no wonder that the Kellogg Company wants to build its emerging-markets portfolio.

The Asian expansion is in full force. McDonald’s will storm China with some 2,000 new restaurants by 2021, bringing its total there to 4,500. China is well on its way to becoming the number two global market for the Golden Arches, according to the company’s CEO, Steve Easterbrook. If McDonald’s hits its goals, it will be within striking distance of KFC, which already has more than 5,000 restaurants in China. Yum! Brands, the Kentucky-based parent company of KFC as well as Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, earned about half of its global revenues from China last year. Starbucks is also chasing the Chinese middle class, aiming to double its number of locations there from 2,500 to 5,000 by 2021. That’s almost two branches launching every single day for the next four years.

The larger point: U.S. companies that create jobs and drive growth in Americans’ stock portfolios are finding their most rapid growth in Asia. Apple is on pace to generate some $45 billion in revenue from what it calls greater China (including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan) in fiscal year 2017. “We are very bullish on China,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a recent earnings call. “We continue to see a middle class that’s booming there.” Apple also reported strong quarterly earnings this month on the back of China growth.

This is the part of the story that Trump missed with his “America First” economic nationalist speech at a Pacific Rim summit in Vietnam on Friday. “We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore,” he said. “I am always going to put America first.” This idea—that the world is running circles around America—can hardly be reconciled with the story of corporate America: the biggest, richest, most global, innovative, and dynamic private sector in the world, its products found in every corner of the planet. There are only two countries in the world where the Coca-Cola Company does not do business: North Korea and Cuba. Coca-Cola-stan spans the globe. If Facebook were a country, its user base would make it the largest country in the world. Some of America’s top companies, from Apple to Walmart, have market capitalizations putting them on par with entire nations.

With numbers like these, corporate America can hardly cry foul. Yes, there are areas where tariffs and bans need lifting. But to dismiss the global trading system as one big “globalist” con job as top Trump ally Steve Bannon does and Trump regularly implies fails to take into account the more than 20 million jobs in the United States attributable to exports and foreign investment, according to Commerce Department figures. Last year, China invested $46 billion in the United States, a record-shattering year, according to the Rhodium Group, a New York-based consultancy. Rhodium also noted that China’s investments help fuel economic growth and create jobs.

Of course, every president will need to negotiate the best deals. One area where jaw-boning has worked is beef exports. The Trump administration has resumed U.S. beef exports to China after a nearly decade-and-a-half ban due to a bogus Mad Cow disease claim by China. America’s “Beef Belt,” stretching from Texas to Montana, hailed the China opening. During Trump’s Asia tour, a major Chinese online retailer announced plans to buy up to $1.2 billion of beef and pork from the United States.

Say what you will about the Middle Kingdom, but when Americans go to sleep at night, they better hope they don’t wake up to an economic implosion in China. China today is the world’s largest consumer of energy, metals, movies, most commodities, and even beer. When its economy slows, it brings down the wider Asia-Pacific region and has ripple effects felt from Argentina to Angola to, yes, the United States. China has become systemically important to the global economy—too big to fail.

The same goes for Asia writ large. Consider the S&P 500, the bellwether index of corporate America. Some 8.5 percent of all sales among S&P companies go to Asia, more than Europe. Asia is also the world’s largest importing region, accounting for 36 percent of all global imports. The United States and European Union, combined, account for 31 percent of imports. By 2020, there will be more smartphone users in Southeast Asia than in the United States. And in South Asia, dizzying change is afoot. Every second, three Indians log onto the internet for the first time, and Pakistan has become a hot growth market for U.S. companies.

In a world where more than half of global GDP hails from emerging markets, America’s fortunes are increasingly tied to the rest of the world, especially Asia. Indeed, of the 10.7 million American jobs supported by exports, nearly a third of them are supported by exports to the Asia-Pacific region, larger than Europe or North America.

President Trump may not realize it, but Asia may be a vital anchor for the “Make America Great Again” economic renaissance he promised. Asia’s rising middle-class consumption could, ironically, become an important piece in the rebuilding of America’s own faltering middle class. The “woe-is-us” story of America getting exploited by the world is wearing thin.

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About the Author

Afshin Molavi is co-director of the emerge85 Lab and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Tags: November 12, 2017 at 10:21AM Open in Evernote

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July 2017 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures

http://bit.ly/2vVNauB

July 2017 was a big month for robotics-related company funding. Four raised $588 million and 19 others raised $370.6 million for a monthly total of $958.6 million. Acquisitions also continued to be significant with ST Engineering acquiring Aethon for $36 million, iRobot buying its European distributor for $141 million, and SoftBank purchasing 5% of iRobot shares for around $120 million.

Fundings

Plenty, a San Francisco vertical farm startup, raised $200 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank and included Bezos Expeditions, Data Collective, DCM Ventures, Finistere Ventures, Innovation Endeavors and Louis Bacon. Plenty plans to use the funds to expand to Japan and add strawberries and cucumbers to the leafy greens they already produce. Plenty makes an internet-connected system which delivers specific types of light, air composition, humidity and nutrition, depending on which crop is being grown, and is designing and adding robotics and automation as it can, particularly with their recent acquisition of Bright Agrotech (see below). Plenty says it can yield up to 350 times more produce in a given area than conventional farms — with 1 percent of the water.

Sanjeev Krishnan of S2G Ventures said: “This investment shows the potential of the sector. Indoor agriculture is a real toolkit for the produce industry. There is no winner takes all potential here. I could even see some traditional, outdoor growers do indoor ag as a way to manage some of the fundamental issues of the produce industry: agronomy, logistics costs, shrinkage, freshness, seasonality and manage inventory cycles better. There are many different models that could work and we are excited about the platforms being built in the market.”

Nauto, a Silicon Valley self-driving device and AI startup, raised $159 million in a Series B funding round led by SoftBank and Greylock Partners and also included previous investors BMW iVentures, General Motors Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Allianz Group, Playground Global and Draper Nexus.

SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said, “While building an increasingly intelligent telematics business, Nauto is also generating a highly valuable dataset for autonomous driving, at massive scale. This data will help accelerate the development and adoption of safe, effective self-driving technology.”

Desktop Metal, the MIT spin-off and Massachusetts-based 3D metal printing technology startup, raised another $115 million in a Series D round which included New Enterprise Associates, GV (Google Ventures), GE Ventures, Future Fund and Techtronic Industries which owns Hoover U.S. and Dirt Devil.

According to CEO Ric Fulop, “You don’t need tooling. You can make short runs of production with basically no tooling costs. You can change your design and iterate very fast. You can make shapes you couldn’t make any other way, so now you can lightweight a part and work with alloys that are very, very hard, with very extreme properties. One of the benefits for this technology for robotics is that you’re able to do lots of turns. Unless you’re iRobot with the Roomba, you’re making a lot of one-off changes to your product.”

Brain Corp, a San Diego AI company developing self-driving technology, got $114 million in a Series C funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. Qualcomm Ventures was the only other investor. The funds will be used to develop technology that enables robots to navigate in complex physical spaces. Last October, Brain Corp. rolled out its first commercial product —a self-driving commercial floor scrubber for use in grocery stores and big box retailers.

Beijing Geekplus Technology (Geek+), a Chinese startup developing a goods-to-man warehousing system of robots and software very similar to Kiva System’s products, raised $60 million in a B round led by Warburg Pincus and joined by existing shareholders and Volcanics Venture. The company claims to have delivered the largest numbers of logistics robots among its peers in China, delivering nearly 1,000 units of robots in warehouses for over 20 customers that include Tmall, VIPShop and Suning.

Yong Zheng, Founder and CEO of Geek+, said, “This round of financing will help us upgrade our business in three aspects. Firstly, we will accelerate the upgrading of our logistics robotics products and expand product offerings to cover more applications.” “Secondly, we will accelerate our geographical expansion and industry coverage to provide our one-stop intelligent logistics system and operation solutions to more customers. Thirdly, we will start exploring overseas markets through multiple channels.”

Vicarious, a Union City, California-based artificial intelligence company using computational neuroscience to build better machine learning models that help robots quickly address a wide variety of tasks, raised $50 million funding led by Khosla Ventures.

Momenta.ai, a Beijing autonomous driving startup that is developing digital maps, driving decision solutions and machine vision technology to detect traffic signs, pedestrians and track other cars, raised $46 million in a Series B funding round led by NIO Capital. Sequoia Capital China and Hillhouse Capital along with Daimler AG, Shunwei Capital, Sinovation Ventures and Unity Ventures also participated.

Autotalk, an Israeli chip maker of vehicle to vehicle communications, raised $40 million from Toyota, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and other investors. The funding will allow Autotalks to prepare and expand its operations for the upcoming start of mass productions as well as continue to develop communication solutions for both connected and autonomous cars.

Flashhold (also named Shanghai Express Warehouse Intelligent Technology and Quicktron) raised $29 million in a Series B round led by Alibaba Group's Cainiao Network and SB China Venture Capital (SBCVC). Flashhold is a Shanghai-based logistic robotics company with robotic products, shelving and software very similar to Amazon's Kiva Systems.

Slamtec,  a Chinese company developing a solid state LiDAR laser sensor for robots in auto localization and navigation, raised $22 million from Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings, ChinaEquity Group Inc. and Shenzhen Guozhong Venture Capital Management Co.

6 River Systems, the Boston, MA startup providing alternative fulfillment solutions for e-commerce distribution centers, raised $15 million in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from  Eclipse Ventures and other existing investors.

Prospera, an Israeli ag startup, raised $15 million in a Series B round for its end-to-end internet of things platform for indoor and outdoor farms. The round was led Qualcomm Ventures  and fellow telecom heavyweight Cisco. Propsera uses computer vision, machine learning, and data science to detect and identify diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and other types of crop stress on farms with the hope of improving crop yields and saving farmer costs.

“Receiving funding from these major tech companies is a clear signal that tech industry heavy-hitters understand that agriculture is ripe for digitalization. It means that such companies, which are already involved in digitizing other traditional industries, see a significant opportunity in agtech,” said Prospera CEO Daniel Koppel.

Embark, a Belmont, California-based self-driving trucking startup, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Data Collective and was joined by YC Continuity, Maven Ventures and SV Angel. Embark has teamed up with Peterbilt and plans to hire for their engineering team and add more trucks to expand their test fleet across the U.S.

Xometry, a Maryland startup with an Uber-like system for parts manufacture, raised $15 million in funding led by BMW Groups’ VC arm and GE.

Intuition Robotics, an Israeli startup developing social companion technologies for seniors, raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Toyota Research Institute plus OurCrowd and iRobot as well as existing seed investors Maniv Mobility, Terra Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta and private investors.

Dr. Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota Research Institute said: “We are impressed with Intuition Robotics’ thought leadership of a multi-disciplinary approach towards a compelling product offering for older adults including: Human-Robot-Interaction, cloud robotics, machine learning, and design. Specifically, we believe Intuition Robotics’ technology, in the field of cognitive computing, has strong potential to positively impact the world’s aging population with a proactive, truly autonomous agent that’s deployed in their social robot, ElliQ.”

SkySafe, a San Diego, California-based radio-wave anti-drone device manufacturer, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding, according to TechCrunch. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. SkySafe recently secured DoD contracts to provide counter-drone tech for Navy Seals.

Kuaile Zhihui, a Beijing educational robot startup, has raised around $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Qiming Venture Partners and included GGV Capital and China Capital.

Atlas Dynamics, a Latvian UAS startup, raised $8 million from unnamed institutional and individual investors. Funds will be used to advance the development of its Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone-based data solutions, and to build its presence in key markets, including North America.

Reach Robotics, a gaming robots developer, raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Korea Investment Partners and IGlobe. Reach has produced and sold an initial run of 500 of its four-legged, crab-like, MekaMon bots. MekaMon fits into an emerging category of smartphone-enabled augmented reality toys like Anki.

UVeye, a New York-based startup that develops automatic vehicle inspection systems, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Ahaka Capital. Israeli angel investors group SeedIL Investment Club also participated. Funds will be used to launch its products and expand to international markets, including China.

Miso Robotics, the Pasadena-based developer of a burger-flipping robot, raised $3.1 million in a funding round led by Acacia Research. Interestingly, Acacia is an agency that licenses patents and also enforces patented technologies.

Metamoto, the Redwood City autonomous driving simulation startup, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Motus Ventures and UL, a strategic investor.

Fastbrick, an Australian brick-laying startup, raised $2 million from Caterpillar with an option to invest a further $8 million subject to shareholder approval. Both companies signed an agreement to collaborate on the development, manufacture, selling and servicing of Fastbrick’s technology mounted on Caterpillar equipment.

Acquisitions

Robopolis SAS, the France-based distributor of iRobot products in Europe, is being acquired by iRobot for $141 million. Last year iRobot, in a similar move to bring their distribution network inhouse, acquired Demand Corp, their distributor for Japan.

Bright Agrotech, a Wyoming provider of vertical farming products, technology and systems, was acquired by Plenty, a vertical farm startup in San Francisco. No financial terms were disclosed. Bright has partnered with small farmers to start and grow indoor farms, providing high-tech growing systems and controls, workflow design, education and software.

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) has acquired robotics firm Aethon Inc through Vision Technologies Land Systems, Inc. (VTLS), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, VT Robotics, Inc for $36 million. This acquisition will be carried out by way of a merger with VT Robotics, a special purpose vehicle newly incorporated for the proposed transaction. The merger will see Aethon as the surviving entity that will operate as a subsidiary of VTLS, and will be part of the Group’s Land Systems sector.

On the Move Systems, a Canadian penny stock trucking systems provider, is merging with California-based RAD (Robotic Assistance Devices), an integrator of mobile robots for security applications. The merger involves RAD receiving 3.5 million shares of OMVS (around $250k).

IPOs and stock transactions

iRobot, the 27-year-old Massachusetts-based maker of the Roomba, has seen its stock soar from news of a purchase of an undisclosed amount of iRobot stock by SoftBank (or the SoftBank Vision Fund). The purchase is reported to be over $100 million and less than $120 million (5% of the market value).

Failures

Pearl Automation