#is avoidable in some cases by establishing as much infrastructure as possible to integrate their more common needs smoothly

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

having a lot of thoughts about how people use 'normalize' when they mean 'destigmatize' or 'make the nature of into common knowledge,' and how they conflate 'the perception of this thing as normal' with the thing actually being a normal occurrence, and how it is in fact incredibly harmful to try to convince people that an ideal situation is normal when that does not map onto their lived reality or the dangers they need to be aware of to avoid. it is 3:33am though so writing up an actual poast about it will have to wait for later

[antoine-roquentin]

A boycott by bureaucrats is undermining the coup in Myanmar 

For almost two weeks, tens of thousands of Burmese, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, have taken to the streets to protest against the coup. But it is a subtler form of protest that is causing the generals the most grief. Thousands of public-sector workers, from at least 245 districts and 21 ministries, are on strike, according to Kim Jolliffe, an analyst. Government offices are deserted. So too are classrooms. Many public hospitals have in effect shut. Those that have not are so understaffed they are turning new patients away. “Operations at many government departments all but halted this week,” reported the Irrawaddy, a news website, on February 16th.

The banking system is also seizing up. Online banking remains possible, at least when the army allows the internet to operate, but most branches are closed. Reports suggest lending has dried up and most administrative work has stopped. “A dysfunctional financial sector would definitely hurt the regime,” says Ko Ko (not his real name), a manager at a branch of AYA bank in Yangon. He and almost all his colleagues have been on strike since last week.

The government pays bills and salaries and disburses pensions via Myanma Economic Bank (MEB). But so many of its employees are on strike that it is at a “near standstill”, says Mr Jolliffe, who is studying the civil-disobedience movement. With many tax collectors on strike, too, the coup leaders may end up with neither the infrastructure nor the money to pay staff. “This is a real pressure point and is something the military probably did not include in their game plan,” says Mr Jolliffe.

Why Myanmar’s military will win in the end 

“This is no bunch of knuckle-dragging old men,” notes the Yangon lawyer. “They may be ruthless, but they are smart and have built a loyal corps of officers whose wellbeing is tied to their ascent in the army.”

That much has been apparent in its campaigns against ethnic pocket armies around the nation’s remote borderlands. In bitter wars with ethnic rebels in northeastern Shan and western Rakhine states, the Tatmadaw has turned to increasingly well-integrated combined-arms campaigns integrating operations between infantry, artillery and air power underpinned by information technology and supported by drones.

Even if still rudimentary by the standards of advanced militaries, these evolving tactics have marked a significant advance for an army traditionally centered on infantrymen supported, if lucky, by some artillery and logistically reliant on human porters.

A similar capacity for innovation, coordination and willingness to learn on the job is being displayed on today’s battlefields in downtown Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyidaw and a score of other urban centers.

Tatmadaw leadership has almost certainly been blindsided by the sheer scale and scope of popular protest which has brought scores of thousands of people from all walks of life onto the streets in a massive campaign of protest and civil disobedience reinforced by an international outcry.

Strikingly, though, the military’s nerve, discipline and cohesion have all so far held, and in a sharp break from the reflex violence of 1988 and 2007 top command has opted for a strategy of slow attrition aimed at waiting out the storm and restoring a degree of normality and economic stability as soon as possible.

At the most basic level, one statistic illustrates the strategy and arguably highlights its prospects for success: over two weeks of tumultuous confrontation at a watershed juncture in the nation’s political trajectory there have been only two critical casualties – a young woman shot in the head in Mandalay last week and a policeman the junta has reported was killed.

Three key factors have underpinned the war of attrition. At street level, the protest movement’s insistence on non-violence has been central. Articulated by National League for Democracy (NLD) party leaders and observed by demonstrators with remarkable discipline, non-violence has secured the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) the moral high ground.

Equally, however, it has played to the military’s objective of waiting out the crowds without spilling blood, setting up a contest that turns on time and resolve to decide which side can outlast the other.

Military restraint has also turned on a second factor, the absence of which would almost certainly already have demanded swift and brutal crowd dispersal: peace in the borderlands.

The critical importance of avoiding war on two fronts and balancing conflict with the array of ethnic armies ranged around Myanmar’s frontiers has been an enduring element of Tatmadaw strategic thinking for decades.

It was most famously demonstrated in the series of ceasefire pacts thrown together between 1989 and 1991 as the military struggled to deal with the fallout from its crushing of the 1988 uprising in central Myanmar.

The same mindset was on display in the run-up to the military’s latest power-grab.

In retrospect, there can be little doubt the Tatmadaw’s surprise decision last November to agree to an ad hoc ceasefire with the Arakan Army (AA) in western Rakhine state pointed to contingency planning for a possible coup to remove the NLD government after the crushing electoral defeat inflicted on the military’s interests and long-term agenda.

Setting aside already well-advanced preparations for a dry season offensive that would normally open in December, the post-election ceasefire secured peace in a theater of operations that since 2019 has tied down nearly half of the army’s mobile reserves, allowing thousands of troops to be redeployed between January and early February to the country’s heartland.

The importance of peace in the borderlands was further underscored in one of the coup regime’s opening statements that pointedly stressed its interest in pursuing the stumbling peace process within the context of the National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

And, to date at least, neither the bloc of NCA-signatories nor, far more importantly, the powerful alliance in northern Myanmar led by the Chinese-leaning United Wa State Army (UWSA), has shown any inclination to distract the military from its focus on containing the challenge of democratic forces in the ethnic Bamar heartland.

Finally, beyond the borders of Myanmar, even the Tatmadaw — renowned for deep (and invariably misguided) paranoia over external threats – can have been broadly confident of a permissive international stage on which to launch a coup.

Boilerplate support at the United Nations from Russia and China, a characteristically flaccid reaction from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Western agonizing over a response that balances moral outrage with apprehensions over pushing Myanmar into the arms of China have all combined to shape a favorable international environment for a blatant seizure of power.

Against this strategic backdrop, the Tatmadaw’s tactical response at street level has centered on rules of engagement (ROEs) mandating minimum use of force. Even in the case of often inadequately trained and overstretched police, manning the frontlines for the first two weeks of the crisis, these ROEs have been observed for the most part with striking discipline.

Minimum force has translated into a range of less than lethal measures and systems used only sparingly. These have included water cannons, tear gas and non-lethal baton rounds typically fired from shotguns.

On the streets of Mandalay, troops have also been spotted armed with air guns with telescopic sights, apparently intended to target – if necessary – protest leaders. As one military expert explained: “These are not enough to punch a hole in someone but certainly enough to make them stop whatever they are doing.”

Beginning overnight on February 14 and 15, the deployment of military units in key cities reinforced but did not significantly change the dynamic established by the police. A new and important tactic though was introduced with night-time internet shutdowns between 1 a.m. and 9 a.m.

Without unduly inconveniencing daytime commercial activity, the shutdowns have permitted army troops – mostly mechanized infantry units from the Tatmadaw reserve of Light Infantry Divisions (LIDs) — to deploy under cover of an information blackout and, in coordination with police, to step up arrests of protest leaders with over 500 now detained according to UN sources.  

The military has also turned to drones, already used extensively in rural counterinsurgency campaigns for surveillance of the urban battlespace and movement of large crowds. Likely to follow in the coming days will be the invisible imposition of a security grid and a tightening squeeze on areas of population density.

“What you’ll probably see is a division of urban areas into sectors and districts with operational responsibility assigned to different battalions, companies and platoons,” noted the Western military analyst who was briefed on similar operations by the Thai military in Bangkok in 2010.

“Over 10 or 15 days they’re going to be identifying protest organizations, groups and leaders. Then at night-time they’ll clean it up, making arrests, intimidating, beating people up,” he said.

“So, first the Civil Disobedience Movement faces a loss of leaders at the mass level. Then it’ll come down to the tactical street level. And once leaders have disappeared, either detained or gone into hiding, there’ll be a real personal impact on individuals in different organizations.”

[integraventures-21]

Growing need for Efficiently Planned Healthcare Building

Evolution of Hospitals:

Hospitals in earlier times served quite different purposes from those of today. They were founded to shelter older adults, the dying and to protect and treat the inhabitants of a community from contagious diseases. There is a paradigm shift in the role of Hospitals in the present-day scenario. The approach of Hospitals has been more broadened crossing the limits of Curative Health to Health care including Education, research, and training.

Technological advancement both in diagnostic as well as therapeutic areas, changing economic landscape, patient preferences are few other factors that have led to change in size, shape, and function of the Hospitals.

Role of Planning in modern Hospitals

Hospital Planning has evolved as an imperative tool for bringing in overall efficiencies in a Healthcare facility. Good Hospital design integrates functional requirements with the human needs and safety aspects of its varied users. Following are few attributes of a functionally planned Healthcare facility:

a. Need-based Development of Hospital: It is imperative to understand the healthcare needs of a place before establishing a Hospital. A detailed market research forms the basis on which the Hospital can be planned. The medical program is developed following the market assessment which entails the Specialty mix, Diagnostic facilities, Support services, and Bed mix in the Hospital. The Medical Program also gives an indication of the utilization trend of services and facilities in the proposed Healthcare facility thereby determining the level of infrastructure required.

b. Controlled Circulation: A hospital is a complex system of interrelated functions requiring constant movement of people and goods. Much of this circulation should be controlled thereby minimizing the crisscrossing of various traffic movements (staff, patients, attendants & visitors) across the facility. This requires optimal functional adjacencies of various departments within the Hospital. These adjacencies should be based on a detailed functional program that describes the hospital’s intended operations from the standpoint of patients, staff, and supplies.

c. Minimized cross-infection: Efficient Hospital Planning also ensures that the Hospitals are designed to incorporate infection control strategies to minimize the risk of infection transmission. This requires zoning of critical areas like Surgical suite, ICUs, Catheterization Laboratory, CSSD, etc. Zoning helps in ensuring an infection-free environment by separating the sterile areas from the general public access areas.

One of the other important requirements is to segregate critical areas like OT, ICU from general traffic and avoidance of air movement from areas like laboratories and infectious diseases wards towards critical areas. Provisioning of isolation rooms in ICUs & wards, dirty utility spaces, ante-rooms before entering critical areas, adequate washbasins are few other planning principles to keep in mind to ensure infection control.

d. Patient and Attendant friendly experience: Hospital patients are often fearful and confused and these feelings may impede recovery. If a Hospital is designed well, it can give the patient a much better healing experience. Every effort should be made to make the hospital stay as comfortable and stress-free as possible. The design of Hospitals should take patient’s psychological needs into account, such as ensuring adequate ventilation and natural light, inspiring views, relaxing gardens or courtyards, lots of art, pleasant color schemes, and “wayfinding”, to ease a patient’s hospital stay.

Nowadays, provision for accommodating attendants in adjunct to their ailing near ones is being promoted which is believed to improve the treatment outcome of the patients. This also reduces the attendant’s anxiety level and provides them with a comfortable hospital experience.

e. Improved staff satisfaction: Hospital is a 24 hours functional unit where staff needs to be dedicatedly working round the clock towards patient care. It is very imperative to consider the comfort level of the staff and provide them with the required functional spaces within the Hospital. Staff lounges, restrooms for resident doctors, counseling rooms, dining area, adequate number of toilets, change rooms, etc. are non-negotiable space considerations while planning a staff-friendly Hospital. Effective Hospital planning promotes staff efficiency by minimizing the distance of necessary travel between frequently used spaces

f. Environmentally responsible building: According to the World Health Organization, close to one-fourth of the diseases experienced by the world’s population can be attributed to environmental exposures. The healthcare industry is one of the largest consumers of energy. Hospital waste and energy consumption affect the health of the environment and, consequently, the health of each human being within the environment. While hospitals have the responsibility to treat the sick within their walls, they are also responsible to promote the health of clients, staff, and the environment. The duty of maintaining an environmentally friendly hospital is shared among numerous stakeholders within the organization. Following are some considerations one should make while planning a green Hospital:

Protect trees and topsoil during site work.

Prioritize parks, greenways, and bikeways throughout the new hospital area.

Consider (re)use of existing buildings, including structure, shell, etc. (in case of renovation or up-gradation projects)

Orient building to take advantage of solar energy for heating and daylighting and to encourage natural ventilation and passive cooling

Consider collecting stormwater runoff for other purposes (irrigation) on the site.

Ensure adequate space for storage of hazardous waste (e.g., biomedical, chemical, radioactive, etc.)

Use high-performance windows (double-glazed, argon, etc.)

Healthy environments can result in better patient outcomes, healthier staff and allow the facility to promote itself as a positive, healthy contributor to its community.

g. Future proofing through Modular Construction: Since medical needs and modes of treatment will continue to change, hospitals should follow modular concepts of space planning and layout. The use of modular construction is directly influenced by the client’s requirements for speed of construction, the addition of new departments, least disturbance to existing facilities, quality, and added benefits of economy of scale as well as single point procurement.

Planning has to be open-ended, with well-planned directions for future expansion; for instance positioning “soft spaces” such as administrative departments, adjacent to “hard spaces” such as clinical laboratories.

Conclusion

Appreciation of Hospital Planning elements has started taking precedence in modern-day Hospitals. The country is in a state of Healthcare transition where both Government and Private players are intensively investing in the sector. There is also an immediate need to upgrade old public sector Hospitals which have been growing sporadically over the years. It has created greater inefficiencies in the healthcare facilities thereby compromising patient care aspects. Here, Hospital Consultants have a big role to play in developing efficient and responsible healthcare facilities. Hospital Planners/Administrators need to work in sync with Architects with inputs from the promoters to establish facilities that are in line with the promoters’ vision, local needs, and comfort & security concerns of patients, staff, and other stakeholders.

Author: Dr. Jyoti Rama Das (Co-Founder & Managing Partner — Integra Ventures)

[janice763-blog]

Casino Reinvestment and Expansion

The Proper Care & Feeding of the Golden Goose

Under the new paradigm of declining economic conditions across a broad spectrum of consumer spending, casinos face a unique challenge in addressing how they both maintain profitability while also remaining competitive. These factors are further complicated within the commercial gaming sector with increasing tax rates, and within the Indian gaming sector by self imposed contributions to tribal general funds, and/or per capita distributions, in addition to a growing trend in state imposed fees.

Determining how much to "render unto Caesar," while reserving the requisite funds to maintain market share, grow market penetration and improve profitability, is a daunting task that must be well planned and executed.

It is within this context and the author's perspective that includes time and grade hands-on experience in the development and management of these types of investments, that this article relates ways in which to plan and prioritize a casino reinvestment strategy.

Cooked Goose

Although it would seem axiomatic not to cook the goose that lays the golden eggs, it is amazing how little thought is oft times given to its on-going proper care and feeding. With the advent of a new casino, developers/tribal councils, investors & financiers are rightfully anxious to reap the rewards and there is a tendency not to allocate a sufficient amount of the profits towards asset maintenance & enhancement. Thereby begging the question of just how much of the profits should be allocated to reinvestment, and towards what goals.

Inasmuch as each project has its own particular set of circumstances, there are no hard and fast rules. For the most part, many of the major commercial casino operators do not distribute net profits as dividends to their stockholders, but rather reinvest them in improvements to their existing venues while also seeking new locations. Some of these programs are also funded through additional debt instruments and/or equity stock offerings. The lowered tax rates on corporate dividends will likely shift the emphasis of these financing methods, while still maintaining the core business prudence of on-going reinvestment.

Profit Allocation

As a group, and prior to the current economic conditions, the publicly held companies had a net profit ratio (earnings before income taxes & depreciation) that averages 25% of income after deduction of the gross revenue taxes and interest payments. On average, almost two thirds of the remaining profits are utilized for reinvestment and asset replacement.

Casino operations in low gross gaming tax rate jurisdictions are more readily able to reinvest in their properties, thereby further enhancing revenues that will eventually benefit the tax base. New Jersey is a good example, as it mandates certain reinvestment allocations, as a revenue stimulant. Other states, such as Illinois and Indiana with higher effective rates, run the risk of reducing reinvestment that may eventually erode the ability of the casinos to grow market demand penetrations, especially as neighboring states become more competitive. Moreover, effective management can generate higher available profit for reinvestment, stemming from both efficient operations and favorable borrowing & equity offerings.

How a casino enterprise decides to allocate its casino profits is a critical element in determining its long-term viability, and should be an integral aspect of the initial development strategy. While short term loan amortization/debt prepayment programs may at first seem desirable so as to quickly come out from under the obligation, they can also sharply reduce the ability to reinvest/expand on a timely basis. This is also true for any profit distribution, whether to investors or in the case of Indian gaming projects, distributions to a tribe's general fund for infrastructure/per capita payments.

Moreover, many lenders make the mistake of requiring excessive debt service reserves and place restrictions on reinvestment or further leverage which can seriously limit a given project's ability to maintain its competitiveness and/or meet available opportunities.

Whereas we are not advocating that all profits be plowed-back into the operation, we are encouraging the consideration of an allocation program that takes into account the "real" costs of maintaining the asset and maximizing its impact.

Establishing Priorities

There are three essential areas of capital allocation that should be considered, as shown below and in order of priority.

1. Maintenance and Replacement 2. Cost Savings 3. Revenue Enhancement/Growth

The first two priorities are easy enough to appreciate, in that they have a direct affect on maintaining market positioning and improving profitability, whereas, the third is somewhat problematical in that it has more of an indirect affect that requires an understanding of the market dynamics and greater investment risk. All aspects that are herewith further discussed.

Maintenance & Replacement

Maintenance & Replacement provisions should be a regular function of the casino's annual budget, which represents a fixed reserve based on the projected replacement costs of furniture, fixture, equipment, building, systems and landscaping. Too often however we see annual wish lists that bear no relationship to the actual wear & tear of these items. It is therefore important to actually schedule the replacement cycle, allocating funds that do not necessarily have to actually be incurred in the year of accrual. During a start-up period it may not seem necessary to spend any money on replacement of brand new assets, however by accruing amounts to be reserved for their eventual recycling will avoid having to scurry for the funds when they are most needed.

One area of special consideration is slot machines, whose replacement cycle has been shortening of late, as newer games & technologies are developing at a much higher rate, and as the competition dictates.

Cost Savings

Investment in cost savings programs & systems are, by their very nature and if adequately researched a less risky use of profit allocation funding then almost any other investment. These items can often take the form of new energy saving systems, labor saving products, more efficient purchasing intermediation, and interest reductions.

These items have their caveats, one of which is to thoroughly analyze their touted savings against your own particular application, as often times the product claims are exaggerated. Lease buy-outs and long term debt prepayments can sometimes be advantageous, especially when the obligations were entered into during the development stage when equity funds may have been limited. In these cases it is important to look at this strategy's net effect on the bottom line, in comparison with alternative uses of the monies for revenue enhancing/growth investments.

One recent trend is the growing popularity of cash-less slot systems, which not only provide labor savings for fills, counts and hand-pays, but also serve as an aid to patrons who do not like to lug around those cumbersome coin buckets, while also encouraging multiple game usage. Revenue Enhancing & Growth

Leveraging is the key catalyst of any revenue enhancing/growth related investment. It includes the following:

o Patronage Base o Available Funds o Lands o Marketing Clout o Management Experience

The principal is to leverage the use of the available asset towards achieving higher revenues & profitability. Typical examples include increasing average patronage base spending and widening the effective trading radius, by offering additional products/services, such as retail stores, entertainment alternatives, recreational/leisure amenities, overnight accommodations, more restaurant choices, and of course, expanded gaming.

Master Planning

Anticipation of potential growth and expansion should be fully integrated into the project's initial master planning so as it assure cohesive integration of the possible elements in a phased-in program, while also allowing for the least amount of operational interruption. Unfortunately, it's not always possible to anticipate market changes, so expansion alternatives must be carefully considered.

The Big Picture

Before embarking on any type of expansion and/or enhancement program we strongly recommend first stepping back and assessing the property's present positioning relative to the market and competitive environment. As we have observed in numerous gaming jurisdictions around the country, often casino ventures that have been operating "fat and happy" for a few years, find themselves in a zero-growth period. Sometimes this is due to competition stemming from either/both new local area casinos or regional venues that have the affect of reducing patronage from peripheral area markets. Additionally, the current customer base may become bored with their experience and are seeking greener pastures. The historical growth of the Las Vegas strip is testament to the success of continually "reinventing" oneself.

Our approach to these market studies is initially focused on determining the degree to which the current facility is penetrating the potential market and in relationship to any competitive market shares. Typically, this represents an analysis of the current patronage base in terms of information gleaned from the player tracking data base, and mailing lists, coupled with day-part, daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal revenue trends.

This data is then interfaced with an assessment of the overall market potential to indicate the extent to which certain market segments are utilizing the facility and the needs it is fulfilling. More importantly however, is that this type of analysis will indicate those market segments that are not utilizing the facility more fully, and why.

Occasion Segmentation

As our proprietary studies have indicated, casino markets are segmented by various characteristics of occasioned-use that also include typical spending & visitation patterns. The traditional methods of market measurements, including gravity models, usually only weigh the demographic characteristics of a given population, based on revenues achieved in similar markets. However, an occasion segmentation market analysis reveals more detailed information as to the reasons precipitating a casino visit, how they relate to the benefits being sought, and the degree to which the occasion determines average spending and visitation frequency. This type of data mining is far more helpful than gravity modeling, in that it can help determine the type of facilities and positioning strategies necessary to attract each market segment, by measuring their relative contribution to the aggregate potential. The process has been successfully employed in the restaurant business and other leisure time service industries, especially amid a widening supply/demand marketplace.

Perhaps even more importantly, looking at the market from an occasioned-use perspective, reveals the extent and characteristics of the underling competition, that, in many cases not only include other casinos, but also alternative entertainment and leisure time activities, such as restaurants, clubs, theaters, and the like.

Demand Density

Another important aspect of occasion segmentation is in measuring overall market characteristics by day-parts, which is revenue density by time of day, day per week, weekly, monthly, and seasonally. This is especially important data when casino venues are seeking to lessen any higher than normal fluctuations that may be occurring between a slow Monday morning and a packed Saturday night; or that experience severe seasonal variations.

By segmenting markets by their demand patterns, a better understanding can be gained of which amenities may help bolster the weak demand periods, and those that may only add to the already maximized peaks.

Many expansion programs often make the mistake of configuring additional amenities such as high-end restaurants and lodging elements based on the peak demand periods. As a result, the net effect of costs & expenses for these investments can negate any contribution they may make to increased gaming revenues. Rather, "fill-in" markets are the most efficient means to increase overall revenues, as they utilize existing capacities. Las Vegas has achieved great success in creating strong mid-week activity through promotion of its extensive conference/convention facilities.

Amenity Driven Markets

Another benefit of utilizing occasion-segmentation is its ability to also indicate the potential impact certain amenities have on "impelling" visitation. While gravity models examine the casino related spending characteristics of a given market area, the formulas cannot measure the relative impact of any non-gaming driven activities that could nonetheless generate casino traffic.

Important data relating to the population's occasioned-use of restaurant, entertainment, and weekend getaways can often form the basis on which to focus amenities designed to cater to these markets; and by so doing, increase visitation. Whereas many of these patrons may or may not utilize the casino, their exposure to the opportunity may hasten their use, while also creating an additional profit center.

Again, looking to the Las Vegas paradigm, more and more of the strip properties are now generating as much, if not more, non-gaming revenues than gaming revenues; as their hotels and restaurants are less & less subsidized, and along with their growing retail elements, represent strong contributors to the bottom line.

Program Development

Once equipped with a basic understanding of the market dynamics, both in terms of the existing facility's current market shares/penetration rates in relationship to the competitive mix, and the overall occasioned-use of the market, a matrix can be created that sets the demand against the supply. This function seeks to identify areas of un-met demand opportunities and/or over supply, that forms the spring-board to the creation of relevant amenities, expansion and upgrade criteria & strategies.

Impact Criteria

Essentially there are two types of expansion/upgrade strategies: subsidized and profit-centers. Subsidized elements may include adding and/or improving amenities that will further widen current gaming market penetration/shares, thusly having a direct impact on growing casino revenues; while profit centers are designed to further leverage current patronage patterns with additional spending opportunities, and having an in-direct effect on gaming activity. Although many of the more traditional amenities, such as restaurants, hotels, retail shops, entertainment venues and recreational facilities can fall into one or both of these categories, its important to make the distinction, so as to clearly establish the design/development criteria.

Upgrading/Expansion

As has been previously discussed, Las Vegas continually seeks to reinvent itself as a means to increase repeat visitation, that in itself creates a snowballing affect as each venue must keep-up with its neighbor. To some extent upgrading programs, that may include creating a new and fresher look, is a lot like an insurance policy against slipping revenues, and do not necessarily relate to any incremental growth per se. Not to be mistaken for replacement programs of worn carpeting and slot machine recycling, an upgrade program should seek to create new excitement about the facility in terms of ambiance, quality of finishes, layouts, and overall décor.

Expansion of existing capacity is less a function of market analysis and more a function of "making hay while the sun shines," based on a thorough understanding of the visitation pattern densities. Patron back-ups for gaming positions and restaurant tables can be both good and bad, depending on when they occur and how often. High per position per day net win averages are not always a sign of a prospering casino, as they could also mean lost opportunity because of an insufficient number of games. Conversely, additional positions are not always going to generate the same averages.

When initially configuring capacities for a new facility, it is important to fully evaluate the demand patterns into their respective day-part components that will maximize penetration during the peak periods while minimizing inefficiency - the point where the costs associated with additional capacity is exceeded by its net income potential.

Food & Beverage Amenities

Within most casino venues, restaurant amenities are "loss leaders," designed to retain & attract casino patrons with low prices and great value; yet they have the ability to both widen occasioned-use of the casino, while also representing potential profit centers.

In Nevada, which is the only state where detailed historical F&B departmental operating results are available for casinos, properties with gaming revenues averaging between $20M to $200M showed food operations having a net departmental loss of 1.5% of sales in 2001, versus almost a 14% loss in 1995.

Much of this major turnaround is due to the growth in the number of food outlets, especially more upscale/specialty restaurants, which has spurred sales from 20% of gaming revenue in 1995 to almost 27% in 2001. Moreover, food costs have been reduced sharply from 45% in 1995 to 35% in '01.

As the previous discussion on occasion-segmentation revealed, a consumer's choice of a casino visit can sometimes compete with other entertainment/leisure time activities, including dining out. Having a market relevant restaurant facility within the casino can serve to attract the dining-out destination market, with the casino benefiting from its proximity. Therefore when market conditions indicate changes in a casino's restaurant configuration, the questions to be addressed are how can they be designed to satisfy the current patronage base, widen occasioned-use, and improve profitability.

Lodging Elements

With turnkey hotel development costs ranging between $75K to $350K per available room, a market positioning strategy had better be well studied. Yet we see many such projects undertaken with little understanding of the market dynamics and economic impact.

Nationwide, according to our most recent survey, there are 724 casinos around the country; comprised of 442 commercial operations, about half of which are located in Nevada, and 282 Indian gaming venues, of which 209 offer most, if not all, of Las Vegas type (Class III) games. Roundly 58% of casinos in the commercial gaming sector have co-located hotels, compared with 37% of Class III Indian gaming venues, despite their containing a similar average number of games.

The high preponderance of hotels within the commercial sector owes to some gaming jurisdictions requiring them; including Nevada (for an unrestricted license) and New Jersey. Moreover, much of the Nevada market demand stems from beyond a daytrip radius, making overnight accommodations necessary in order to gain market share. When extrapolating these states from the total, the percentage of all commercial casinos with hotels drops to 50%, with an average of 312 rooms & 1,183 games.

The obvious advantages of casino lodging units is their ability to attract gaming markets from beyond the typical day trip radius, while also having a somewhat "captured" market (Casinos with Hotels). Moreover, guest rooms can be another perk-use for player club points. Hotels also widen a casino's occasioned-use by offering non-gaming leisure activities & amenities, augmented by the ready availability of gaming, while also representing another profit center (Hotels with Casinos). Additionally, within a traditional lodging setting, a casino/hotel has a competitive advantage by virtue of its added entertainment features.

Among the major Las Vegas properties there are more hotel rooms than games, as the city transits from a gaming destination to more of a resort & convention destination. In so doing these properties increased their hotel profitability and investment returns by not having to offer low rates to attract gamers. Whereas, some areas such as Laughlin and Reno, which do not enjoy the critical mass of a Las Vegas, still find it necessary to supplement their hotel investment with casino revenue, due to low room rates and large seasonal visitation fluctuations

In configuring a casino hotel development it is therefore important to understand the market and financial dynamics and their impact on overall gaming revenue and profits. Within the free-standing (non-casino) hotel industry, financing terms are usually over a 15 to 20 year amortization schedule with a ten year balloon/refinance, and have a break even point that approaches 65% to 70% occupancy. Typical casino based lodging elements enjoy high occupancy levels on the weekends, but low levels weekday. It is therefore incumbent not to "build a church for Easter Sunday," keeping in mind the overall efficient use of the asset.

Moreover, if the intent is to attract additional casino patronage from a wider market radius, it is important to evaluate the cost of any hotel subsidy versus the potential increase in gaming profits. A new 200 room hotel at a casino already generating 20,000 weekend visitors, may only be adding 2% to 4% more players, while exposing itself to higher costs. In regards to occasioned-use, especially among tourists and weekenders, casino hotels may also be competing with alternative resorts in the region.

Ideally, these types of facilities, when not situated in markets with insufficient local/day-trip markets (e.g. Laughlin), should be configured on the basis of their non-gaming related and off-peak period support so as to maintain relevant room rates and adequate levels of profitability. They should also include those amenities these markets are seeking, including, where applicable: conference and convention facilities, and indoor/outdoor recreational elements.

Albeit more of a niche market, RV Park facilities are a less intensive investment in overnight lodging facilities that can nonetheless offer some of the same benefits. According to the latest data, there are more than 9 million households in the United States that own RVs, and represent one of every ten vehicle owning households. Many of these households include the 55 & over age groups, who have a higher than average gaming propensity and annual income.

RV Park development costs are well below those for hotels, but usually have a high seasonal use, peaking during the summer months in temperate resort environs and in the winter months in the "snowbird" areas.

Retail/Outlet Shops

Retail/Outlet shopping is gaining a major foothold at casino venues across the country. First represented by casino logo shops and a few high-roller/jackpot-winner positioned boutiques, these stores have now grown into major malls and entertainment centers. The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas enjoys the highest per square foot sales of all retail malls in the U.S., and the growth in retail sales in the city is significantly outpacing that of gaming revenue. The presence of these shops serves as both an activity to the area's 35 million annual visitors, who are now spending less than 4 hours per day actually gaming, as well as a major profit center that leverages the visitation base.

In less resort destination type markets, outlet malls are strong traffic generators from which a casino facility can draw patronage. On a smaller scale, casinos can widen their occasioned-use by offering unique and indigenous shopping that is especially positioned to attract the "adjunctive" daytripper market. The extent and characteristics of these stores should be scaled to the potential market, current visitation trends, and any local ambiance.

Entertainment

Although entertainment is a mainstay in casino environments, stemming from the Rat Pack days in Las Vegas, to today's imposing concert/arena venues and specialty shows; their market dynamics are much misunderstood. They are at once, diversions, attractions, profit centers, and public relation tools. They can however, also generate major losses, and therefore should be well studied to determine their appropriate configuration.

With most major entertainment events occurring during the weekend periods the attracted audiences may not have any significant impact on a likely already busy period. Therefore it in incumbent that the specific event be structured so as to at least break even or turn a small profit. While this is somewhat self evident, the more central issue is the entertainment venue's ability to also amortize its initial development cost investment. Outdoor facilities can sharply reduce construction costs, but also are prone to weather vagaries and seasonal use. Moreover, party tents and temporary structures usually do not have the cache of a fixed venue that is an integral part of the casino facility.

Recreational Facilities

There is a lot of attention these days being given to the development of recreational facilities at casino venues, especially those associated with resort projects. Golf courses are a common adjunct to many resorts, and many Indian communities enjoy the advantage of having access to the ample land areas and water rights these types of undertakings require.

As with all of the other revenue enhancing reinvestment alternatives discussed herein, recreational facility development should be considered within the context of its ability to generate additional casino patrons and/or serve as a profit center. Whereas golfers traditionally have a high gaming proclivity the association of golf with a casino is not exactly in sync, given the length of time required for a typical round. Moreover, even under the highest utilization rates, a typical 18 hole golf course will only accommodate about 140 players per day, while the national average in year round environments is about 100 rounds per day. This is not a lot of additional players for the casino, even if all of them gambled, and especially considering the cost of an average course, excluding land, ranging between $5M to $15M.

However, golf course development as part of a resort package and/or to fill a local market demand can have many non-gaming related benefits. From a resort development standpoint, a golf course as well as other recreational elements can add to the facility's competitive positioning, to the point where its development/operating costs can be recaptured through higher room rates/green fees. Many traditional golf courses also "pencil-out" when incorporating fairway home sites, which have a particularly higher value than non-golf course sites. Given the trust status of Indian lands, this may be somewhat problematical on reservation lands, unless some sort of long term land leases could be negotiated for the home owners. Planning/Financing & Implementation

Once all of the salient market factors have been considered and weighted against their cost vs. benefits, a comprehensive reinvestment & expansion program can begin to take shape. A design & construction team should be assembled that can help further interpret the program in terms of creative and value engineering input, while also maintaining its established market positioning and financial strategies 우리카지노.

Importantly, the program should illustrate how each element will be coordinated into the overall facility fabric and the manner in which it will be financed. Some funding can stem from reserved profit allocations, while others independently funded with additional debt, whose amortization has been factored into the overall project's feasibility analysis.

[blockchain-council001]

What is the influence of blockchain on the human resource industry? What are some of the applications it can be used for?

In the field of human resources, blockchain has a huge possibility to establish itself. Discover how blockchain technology can be used in the sector of human resources.

The Blockchain platform understands its importance in safeguarding bitcoin infrastructure. Financial transactions can also be carried out without the use of a bank or an intermediary.

The technology, on the other hand, is getting ready to land in the field of human resources. This will change how HR professionals deal with massive amounts of sensitive employee data. In addition, carry out a slew of HR-related tasks.

Blockchain platforms have become more widely accepted and accessible. From recruiters to senior management, everyone in the HR department. Disruptions in their everyday operations are more likely to be noticed.

They're hiring, retaining top people, doing background checks, verifying job history, and integrating contract workers with payment systems.

Automate real-time currency rates and other jurisdictional features to make cross-border payments easier. This has ramifications for organisations who hire and operate globally.

One of the first issues that HR professionals face is blockchain developers' foundations. A blockchain course is a decentralised digital public ledger that stores information. "Block" is a slang term for "record."

At its most fundamental level, a blockchain course online is nothing more than a collection of records. The blockchain on a distributed ledger is the reason behind this. A document chain that spans a large network of separate computers. They're also distinguishing it from other record-keeping systems. By decentralising and encrypting the data, it is secured and decentralised.

The HR business entails managing massive amounts of sensitive data about a company. Because of its high level of security, its personnel are a good fit for blockchain technology.

Despite the fact that blockchain courses on the internet have the potential to disrupt human resource management. There's no need for HR experts to be alarmed. There's still time to prepare for the blockchain revolution, and the technology has a track record in the sectors where it's already been implemented.

Banks, for example, may save 30% on infrastructure expenses by implementing blockchain technology. This works by encrypting millions of storage locations with no full name or account number.

Use cases for blockchain in HR

The healthcare industry has been designated as one of the top industries by a disruptive blockchain developer. For commercial deployment, blockchain will be used by 55% of healthcare apps.

HR departments will have to keep up with the ever-changing healthcare landscape. The implementation of blockchain technology. The go-to site for healthcare and wellness plans. Blockchain, on the other hand, will be more than a notion that HR professionals should be aware with for the sake of collaborating.

Because the HR department has so much data that is critical to employees' lives and the operations of a company, blockchain technology is integrated directly into the HR function through numerous use cases, bringing transparency and trust to the HR function.

Enhance data security for personal and financial information that is sensitive.

Some of the organization's are managed by HR departments. Most high-volume financial processes and sensitive personnel data are also affected. Although, among other things, pay, insurance, finance, banking, attendance records, evaluation procedures, expenditure compensation, and so forth.

All of the data in the HR department is at risk of being abused. Businesses are dealing with more data breaches than ever before, and they need to put safeguards in place to avoid fraud and maintain security. Blockchain technology is hailed as a solution to the rise of cybercrime.

Recruiting processes, verification of employment qualifications, and background checks should all be improved.

We all know that what you see on a CV isn't always what you get. It's referred to as "lying, exaggerating, or twisting the facts" when it comes to employment history. 75 percent of HR managers have detected a CV deceit, according to surveys. With over 20% of hiring managers claiming they spend less than 30 minutes looking at a CV, it's difficult to say how many CV fabrications go unreported.

Perhaps the most important feature of blockchain is the assurance of its data's veracity.

In today's recruitment procedures, determining the accuracy of a potential employee's employment and educational background is difficult. Furthermore, even the most seasoned recruiters may be fooled by the faked employment and educational qualifications.

Conclusion

Blockchain technology, which has its roots in the cryptocurrency industry, is making inroads into the world of employment. Blockchain technology has a wide range of possible uses.

It also affects recruiting, payroll, taxation, compensation and benefits, data storage, and a variety of other areas. Despite present pricing and scalability concerns, the case for blockchain HR is strong.

Openness and trust in company operations must be a top priority for HR personnel. In a competitive hiring climate, they manage human capital.

Blockchain technology's design requirements, as well as its ability to encrypt data and provide razor-sharp accuracy, are unquestionably astounding. The effectiveness of instilling confidence—as well as accountability—into an organization's operations will ultimately determine the success of blockchain technology.

[nishiagrawal]

FinTech Business Models: The Elixir Of Modern Finance Industry

What Is FinTech?

Fintech stands for financial technology and it depicts new inventions that are aimed at improving the delivery of financial services. In most cases, Fintech solutions are provided by developing and interpreting complex algorithms, cloud computing, and software integration.

FinTech solutions can be aimed at both the private customers and established businesses ranging from banks over insurances up to regular business such as clothing stores, eCommerce stores, or cafes.

Fintech conglomerates have become an integral part of our daily lives. There is an increase in the numbers of traditional financial providers and these have decided to partner up with the newly established technology solutions. From opening accounts to insurance underwriting and credit profiling, FinTech startups are transforming various services of traditional banks and flipping the conventional business models in the financial industry. Several FinTech Business models are depending on the way they are fused into the banking activities and core operations. Let’s dive right into the top 14 innovative Fintech Business Models

Top 14 FinTech Business Models

There are several Fintech business models that are disrupting the financial industry.Let’s look at 14 innovative FinTech business models that are leading the path of disruption.

Alternative Credit Scoring

There is a huge rise in the number of self-employed individuals who have a steady income. These individuals do not pass the conventional bank loan screenings due to the strict and outdated credit scoring criteria. Alternative Credit Scoring is implementing a new approach by considering alternative data points such as percentile scoring and signals amongst similar borrower groups. These qualitative factors combined with self-learning algorithms and machine learning can lead to better decisions over time. Alternative credit scoring can determine negative profiles based on social presence before the loan disbursement to avoid loan recovery issues.

Alternative Insurance Underwriting

In today’s world, individuals are given the same life insurance premium. Individuals are completely different with different health habits with different risk premiums. This leads to faulty premium calculations due to averaging out as the risk premiums do not account for the factors that are not quantifiable.

With alternative insurance underwriting, the Fintech companies are creating dynamic risk premium computing mechanisms with alternative data points such as social signals, lifestyle, and medical history. Just like the alternative credit scoring approach, this approach helps the FinTech companies in determining whether or not to offer insurance and other alternative payment options.

Transaction Delivery

Data is the new life force and managing it can give better insights and information into the needs and wants of the customers. FinTech companies are creating free products in the wake of transaction delivery. These companies stretch their business pillars to manage the expense gaps. To achieve this, the companies collect the data and share the same with the rest of the group to map the potential of the customers. This is done to pay premiums, buy mutual funds and invest in real estate.

Peer-to-peer Lending

P2P or Peer-to-peer lending is another Fintech Business Model. P2P lending deals with an individual borrowing an amount of money from another. Similarly, P2B is a situation when a business borrows money from one or multiple individuals. These lending models make it easier for investors to get better returns than those offered in debt markets by giving their money to pre-approved and vetted borrowers.

Small Ticket Loans

Different lenders and banks do not underwrite smaller ticket loans due to the low margins and high investment costs involved in setting and recovering the loans. FinTech companies in the market deliver great impulses by purchasing the ‘buy now and pay later’ mechanisms and one-click buttons on the eCommerce websites. This enables the customers to buy quickly without having to enter any credit card authentication form. By sharing the customers’ data with the algorithms determined the customers’ demographics and this effectively assists the marketing efforts.

Payment Gateways

Payment gateways are unique platforms that enable online shoppers to pay for a product on the merchant’s website through a secure portal. Typically the traditional banks charge a hefty fee to handle the transactions from all these methods. FinTech companies are integrating all these payment methods into convenient applications that the online merchants can easily afford and integrate on their websites.

Digital Wallets

Digital Wallets are the perfect combination between a bank account and a payment gateway. With this FinTech business model, customers can get a certain amount of virtual money in their digital wallets and can use this virtual amount to make online or offline purchases with merchants who accept digital payments. It typically helps the customers by making payments for a small fee which is charged to the businesses in the form of a discount rate.

This business model offers convenience to the users in making payments for a small fee that is charged to businesses in the form of a merchant discount rate. The typical end-users of wallets are businesses that sell either their physical products or services in the stores to the end-users.

Asset Management

The new FinTech companies are enabling investors to trade for free in exchange for their data. They forward this data to the high-ticket traders who can influence the price of the asset. Even though the investor might pay a slightly heavy price for their assets, the difference between the amount they save from trading fees.

Digital banking

Some banks offer no-frills individual and bank accounts through a complete digital infrastructure. This business model is almost identical to that of a bank with no physical branches. This results in the elimination of overheads, savings in manpower, and real estate so that the customers can greatly benefit from the reduced rates.

Digital insurance

The FinTech companies are operating in the insurance industry and are taking their traditional services to the digital world. These companies offer life and health insurance with the best underwriting practices. Their premiums can be available at variable prices and rates depending on the customer and offer inexpensive coverage as compared to the traditional insurance companies. Such insurances can create business possibilities when mixed with proper marketing strategies.

NeoBanking

NeoBanking is a unique FinTech model that creates digital platforms. These banks are faster, efficient, cost-effective, and adaptable to market scenarios. Different banks have different purposes. Some can manage online bank accounts and others can use top-notch tools to save budgets. Some Neo-Banks deal with accounting operations to automate finance and credit operations.

Wealth tech

Wealth tech companies are transferring the small retail investors into dominant wealth management to reach out to the mass segment with the small value systematic investment plans. Wealth-tech implements technologies such as gamification of processes, technology-driven wealth management, robotic-advisory, portfolio management tools, and sentiment analysis.

API-based Bank-as-a-service Platform

The API-based Bank-as-a-service platform is a back-end operation that hosts independent Fintech startups and integrates them with any traditional banks. With the help of such platforms, financial institutions can effectively start their products and bring them to different and new markets. This allows the non-banking institutions to easily launch additional financial products and scale the market.

PoS or POP

The PoS or PoP (Point Of Purchase) is the time and place for completing a retail transaction in real-time. A digital retail PoS system includes a POS terminal that can process credit cards and implement payments through a swipe. The companies that have a Point Of Sale Fin Tech model are service providers that maintain both PoS hardware and software solutions.

How do the tech companies implement FinTech Business Models? How exactly do these companies do it?

FinTech startups have always focused on growth instead of profit. This was a big move to grow as much as possible and effectively scale the market. But after some years, these startups started to focus on profits. Now, these FinTech conglomerates own a huge market segment, biggest customer base and this has made it easy to multifold the profits.

How Are The Tech Companies Using FinTech Business Models?

With the advent in the market and adoption of cashless payments, eCommerce giants have rolled out different FinTech business models. With advancements, the customers are offered ‘buy now and pay later’ options. Many eCommerce portals have introduced insurance on mobile phones under its complete Mobile Protection program. Apart from this, these eCommerce conglomerates have also come up with digital wallet compliance.

What has caused this disruption?

Modern businesses need modern and resilient solutions and the FinTech Business models are making things easy for the challenger banks and FinTech startups.

Advantages Of FinTech Business Models

Various FinTech Business Models have different approaches and shapes. Therefore the different Fintech Models can have different advantages in terms of company and the customers buying into it. Below are some advantages of FinTech Business Models.

Huge & Loyal Customer Base

Customers trust their banks for keeping their assets and finances safe, borrowing money for life-changing events such as huge purchases, or how to invest in the existing mutual funds. While customer acquisition is not easy, banks spend billions every year on marketing efforts and activities, customers tend to grow loyal to their banks over the course of time and membership of their accounts.

Financially Profitable

The financial industry is one of the evergreen industries in the world. This industry offers several great opportunities to generate significant amounts of revenue. Startups in the financial space are nicely funded and highest valued. This profitability is changing the fate of FinTech Business and the companies that are adapting to the constantly evolving market.

Speed & Resilience

Many traditional banks are built on outdated legacy systems. This outdated system makes it extremely difficult for them to respond to the changing customer requirements in a fast-paced environment. The NeoBanks are using it to their advantage and are snatching away customers from well-established traditional banks. The incumbents have also joined hands with the challenger banks and rendering their expertise in banking license and regulatory practices.

The Future Of FinTech Business Models: Banking Redefined

The FinTech companies have been able to show resilience and evolve at a rapid pace as these are not bound by IT legacy or any type of governance. This flexibility to evolve freely has allowed them to churn out new products and services at an increased rate. FinTech is getting more popular and showing customer acquisition at a rapid pace, but one cannot unsee the fact that regulatory crackdowns are inevitable as cybercrime is evolving too and this covets customers’ sensitive data.

The FinTech market heavily relies on applications that can access the users’ financial profiles and information to perform a variety of transactions in real-time. Banks need to ensure that a robust application security infrastructure is deployed to protect the users’ valuable data. This must include a web application that is firewalled with the current threat intelligence to identify the patch vulnerabilities and mitigate the unknown issues.

Most of the data on the cloud is protected differently than in traditional data centers. Blockchain is getting popular in the financial industry as the number of FinTech companies is increasing every day. This secure technology implements point solutions and amplify the data movement with decreased visibility across distributed environments. Apart from detection and prevention, this security is dynamically adaptable and can effectively grow alongside Cloud infrastructures. The ability to evolve, adapt to changing environments, and deploy multiple layer security enables the FinTech companies and challenger banks to have a huge scope of growth in the future.

[sciencespies]

Op-ed | Are we there yet? A journey to more clearly see the changing planet

https://sciencespies.com/space/op-ed-are-we-there-yet-a-journey-to-more-clearly-see-the-changing-planet/

Op-ed | Are we there yet? A journey to more clearly see the changing planet

We’ve all been there. Either as a child, in the back of your parents’ car, probably squashed between two obnoxious siblings or, as a parent of a restless toddler, 15 minutes into a four-hour road trip, the question always arises, “Are we there yet?”

Those of us in the Earth observations field, have a special affinity for this question as we have had to ask it many times on the long journey of launching satellites, collecting data, analyzing Earth’s changes, and predicting future trends. Are we there yet, at that moment when disparate data systems across the federal agencies are integrated easily? Are we there yet, when a potential user of Earth observations can easily discover and apply data and information that they need? Are we there yet, when services for climate, land cover change, oceans, and ecosystems are elevated to the operational level of weather services?

The introduction of the Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan with its estimated $2 trillion infrastructure investment, raises hope that finally arriving at some of these visionary destinations could be in reach. With the plan intended to create jobs and rebuild infrastructure, the climate crises and competition with China emerge as two key drivers. That is where the vital link to U.S. Earth observations and environmental information exists. It is imperative to recognize that without federally supported, long-term Earth observations, science and applications, climate insights would not be possible and our global leadership and positioning in respect to China minimized. Therefore, the work of NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Science Foundation (NSF) and others must be recognized as critical to the success of the American Jobs Plan.

Three important intersections for the Earth and environmental information sector as it relates to re-imagining and rebuilding a new economy include ensuring that a “whole of government” approach translates to “whole of Earth,” engaging and supporting business, and realizing a national Earth predictive capability to win the future.

A “WHOLE OF EARTH” APPROACH

In the case of re-imagining or rebuilding a new post-pandemic economy, it is essential that the “whole of government” response translates into a “whole of Earth” approach. No one Federal agency holds the knowledge products needed to clearly identify the best path forward. NASA, NOAA, USGS, NSF, and other agencies, along with the research community they support, all make unique and valuable contributions to our understanding of the changing planet. Assets such as satellites, drones, ships, uncrewed marine vehicles, and data collected by citizen scientists are as diverse as the agencies that comprise the federal Earth observations and information sector.

Through efforts such as the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) which produces the quadrennial National Climate Assessment, and the U.S. Group on Earth Observations (USGEO), much progress has been made in interagency coordination to provide the nation with comprehensive assessments and products as well as a unified strategy for international cooperation.

However, just as the American Jobs Plan addresses building new roads and bridges, the question arises as to whether these coordination entities — the USGCRP, USGEO, and others — that were established in 1989 and 2005, respectively, are positioned to meet the challenge accelerating impacts of climate, biodiversity loss, or emerging pandemic risk. After all, NOAA reported that their global carbon measurement recorded a new high April 3, topping 421 parts per million (PPM). Measurements tell us one thing, but translating measurements to solutions and action for preparing and protecting the nation will require much more.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine address this point in a new report that calls on the USGCRP to “shift its focus to providing insights that help society prepare for and avoid the worst potential consequences of climate change, while protecting the most vulnerable.”

And as if anyone still needed any convincing, February’s events in Texas show the critical importance of observations and environmental information in dealing with climate risk. In his op-ed, Texas cold snap was not ‘unprecedented,’ and it was inexcusable to be unprepared, former NOAA chief operating officer David Titley states, “This event was the latest instance in which millions of dollars in adaptation would have prevented billions of dollars of damage, saved lives and greatly reduced the suffering of Texans.”

So, how should the United States “build back better” beginning with the federal Earth and environmental information in support of informing this vital infrastructure initiative?

Experts such as Justin Kenney, senior adviser to the United Nations Foundation, believes ocean research — which historically has been underfunded in the past — must be elevated with an expanded role for NOAA. “The ocean-climate link is the strongest it has ever been,” he stated in a recent interview. Citing the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate and the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, Kenney argues that ocean-based solutions for climate change such as the decarbonization of marine transportation, offshore wind energy, role of conservation all support increased investment in ocean observations and services that should be elevated similarly to the level of the nation’s weather services.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESS

Others see a tremendous opportunity to engage business as technical solutions providers and environmental information consumers.

Over the past decade, the field of satellite Earth observations has seen dramatic growth primarily driven by private sector capital developing disruptive technologies, fueling innovation and leading to new applications that are no longer theoretical, but in fact are driving business decisions on a daily basis. The nascent nanosatellite market alone is estimated at $1.64 billion and is expected to grow 21.8% annually over the next five years, according to a Research and Markets report.

The commercial entrants in spaced-based Earth observations have without exception required government customers as their anchor tenant to be viable, allowing them to raise capital against predictable revenue streams. This has allowed these firms to also invest in tools and applications targeted at commercial customers thereby diversifying and growing their business.

The western United States is currently experiencing moderate to severe drought, and it is expected to worsen in the upcoming months. Credit: NASA

Consider ocean observations as an example for growth. While it is well known that the oceans play an outsized role in climate and weather, our ability to collect observations and analyze that information into tangible actions has lagged seriously behind the terrestrial satellite observation community. A robust commercial industry is needed with new business models, technologies and solutions that dramatically improve our access to ocean observations while also improving our understanding of the global processes driving climate change.

One can envision an ecosystem of marine based in-situ Earth observation and analytics companies akin to those now present in the space-based Earth observations market. There is no shortage of established and startup companies focused on bringing these capabilities to market. What they need is a sign from the U.S. government that there is a desire to work together at scale in public private partnerships to create an environmental information infrastructure that generates solutions to protect Earth’s natural systems and citizens.

In fact, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the former Rhode Island governor, has an immediate opportunity to turn the tide by facilitating the development of this ecosystem, with its potential to grow the economy, create jobs, protect lives and property, and position American leadership.

EARTH PREDICTIVE CAPABILITY

Finally, a major step forward for the nation would be to establish an Earth predictive capability. To win the future, the U.S. should establish a robust, operational, multidisciplinary, user-focused centralized effort serving civil and national security environmental information needs. This idea should leverage and build upon the tremendous data and information assets that are produced daily and spread across the federal agencies. Its mission should be clear: To monitor, predict, and communicate the future of the planet. After all, as much as climate change may occupy most of our attention today, an earthquake, volcanic eruption, or new pandemic could quickly capture our attention tomorrow.

Two important considerations are needed to support the national Earth predictive capability. The first is science communication. Such an effort could play a major role in combating the assault on science by engaging citizens and helping them understand the Earth system, how it works, and how it can be managed. The second is positioning the capability to support the U.S. economy. This will involve providing foundational products and services that can be enhanced and distributed by industry, strengthening academic research and engagement, and preparing the current and future workforce.

It’s time to arrive at this new destination. We’re almost there!

Nancy Colleton is the president of the Arlington, Virginia-based Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and studies Earth observations applications for business and conservation.

Anne Hale Miglarese is an independent consultant focused on the acquisition of environmental observations for solutions development. She has worked in this field for 35 years in both state and federal government, the nonprofit sector as well as numerous executive positions in private industry.

This article originally appeared in the April 19, 2021 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

#Space

[fortunesoft-it-innovations]

Introduction

The potential of Blockchain technology has caught attention worldwide. It has a huge crowd around it that are looking for opportunities to adopt and leverage the benefits of this disruptive technology in their business.

The BFSI sector is taking the lead for adopting this technology for gaining the benefits in the near future. The main focus of setting up banks was to create connected groups of people together and allow transparent and secure communication between them through trade and commerce. Blockchain is a tool that helps to accomplish these things on a global scale.

Facts and Figures

The Blockchain market is forecasted to grow at 62.73% CAGR through 2026 reaching $52.5 billion

By 2026,  the largest North American Blockchain tech will be the Hybrid blockchain worth $6.7 billion.

The largest revenue will be derived from Blockchain-as-a-Service, Cloud computing, and System Integrations.

These figures clearly portray that the blockchain market is envisioned to have a higher revenue by 2026 and the growth in banking and finance will continue to grow. Though now we know that Blockchain technology is responsible for bringing in major transformation in the BFSI sector, you must be aware of the areas where the technology will streamline the process. Let’s dive into the use cases of blockchain technology in the banking sector.

1. Payments

One of the areas where Blockchain penetration is fastest is payments in banking. Payments are crucial as people primarily use their bank accounts for transactions.

Banks have been on the bandwagon of digital transformation for quite a long time that motivated them to adopt disruptive technologies for seamless payments and issuing their own digital currencies.

With Blockchain, banks will leverage benefits such as:

High-level of security while transferring money

Quick and safe transfers

Operating in real-time

Ability to serve round the clock instead of being time-specific

Feasible and faster cross-border payments

Some popular examples include Australia’s Westpac and Estonia’s LHV banks that have successfully integrated blockchain technology into their processes.  

2. P2P transfers

The concept of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) payments is simple where it involves a transaction between two parties. The money is sent from someone’s bank account to the receiver’s account using net or mobile banking.

But P2P payments have some major concerns such as:

No international money exchanges

Refunds are difficult to initiate or are non-existent in most cases

Prone to human errors such as sending the money in a wrong account

Fraud and security

Adopting blockchain technology for P2P payments brought a promising transformation by replacing cash, credit cards, vouchers, checks, and gift cards with digital wallets that offered:

Instant transactions globally

Inexpensive money exchanges

Elimination of fees and chargebacks

High-level security by preventing frauds and data alteration

Offers both cryptocurrency and fiat transfers through Blockchain

Mobile app developers are looking to embrace the potentials of blockchain technology in building robust and exceptionally secure P2P mobile apps as:

P2P networks are faster and reliable

It has a little chance of downtime

P2P networks are simple and cost-effective

Easy to establish and maintain

Highly secure

One of the popular examples of P2P apps that uses Blockchain technology is Bitwala that focuses on facilitating seamless money transfers mostly on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

3. Clearance & settlement

Currently, as per the traditional financial infrastructure, a bank transfer takes a couple of days for the settlement. With the decentralized blockchain technology, banks could settle directly and keep track of the transactions in a much better way than the existing protocols such as SWIFT.

One of the logistical challenges that numerous banks face is moving the money globally. A bank transfer has to undergo various complex processes and bypass intermediaries such as custodial services before it reaches its destination. It is mandatory for the banks to reconcile their bank balances across the global financial systems that involves a wide array of funds, asset managers, traders, and more.

The SWIFT protocol has the role to only process payment orders. The actual process has to bypass intermediaries that come with associated costs and time.

With Blockchain technology, banks can track all the transactions transparently and publicly. Blockchain enables banks to simply settle the transactions directly on a public blockchain. They don’t need to rely on any kind of custodial services and regulatory bodies such as SWIFT.

4. KYC and Identity Verification

Every bank account holder wants their money to be safe from cybercriminals and fraudsters. But, the authentication and the authorization process is so typical that banks suffer a lot on the efficiency front.

Blockchain technology adoption is paving a way for the banks to remove these tedious steps by registering once with the blockchain and avoiding repeated verification for other services if they too are using this decentralized hyperledger.

KYC is benefited with this adoption. The typical onboarding process of the customers is quite expensive and consumes a lot of time. KYC includes a lot of verification right from financial background to other personal data. With Blockchain, customer databases are automatically updated with relevant information and facilitates sharing between loan officers and banks in a secure manner.

Leading Fintech development companies can help banks with their world-class fintech services to employ better and cost-effective solutions that serve their client purposes and relieve them from spending hundreds of millions of dollars on KYC procedures.

5. Fundraising

Today the current scenario of fundraising through venture capital is quite complicated.

The typical fundraising process has the following steps:

Business owners put decks together

They carry out a lot of meetings with their partners

They get into negotiations over valuation and equity

Waiting for the results

Blockchain accelerates fundraising process by providing several alternatives such as:

Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs)

Equity Token Offerings (ETO)

Security Token Offerings (STOs)

For fundraising, STO is the most popular model and is legally protected. It needs to pass a due diligence process. To get a robust, legalized, and secure crowdfunding platform, it is recommended to consult a leading crowdfunding platform development company.

Examples:

The pioneers of STOs are Switzerland and Malta and leading companies are Scerri and Concise offering such services.

Neufund is a popular ETO trading platform.

6. Trading

In the finance domain, most of the trading activities are still practiced on papers such as credits, bills, invoices, and more. Though there is an online order management system available, the process consumes a lot of time for accomplishing the tasks.

With blockchain, this traditional trading process will be digitized and results in less time consumption in a manual process, bureaucracy, and paperwork.

The adoption of Blockchain technology in trading brings in:

Transparent pricing

Alternative markets

Faster and seamless payments

Immutable transaction recordkeeping

Real-time updating

Seamless integration of users through a consensus

Accessibility

7. Hedge Funds

Hedge fund comprises a group of investors and a fund manager with limited partners. These people in Hedge funds involved are usually traders instead of ordinary investors.

Hedge funds focus on increasing investor returns and reducing the possibilities of losses.

From the past couple of years, hedge fundraising has doubled due to cryptocurrencies. A decentralized hedge fund offers an open platform for investors and fundraisers that is more transparent. This blockchain-based hedge fund is based on crypto.

The reason to adopt blockchain-based hedge fund model is:

Sovereignty of fund managers over money

Enable fund managers to work within single entity

In a nutshell

Undoubtedly, blockchain has the potential to bring in a major digital transformation and technology shift in the banking and finance sector to disrupt their traditional financial processes.

Today, the market is witnessing blockchain wallets that are seamlessly and securely carrying out money transfers digitally and there is more to come in the coming years. Blockchain wallets will be leveraged by large enterprises, SMEs, and startups to offer the potentials of blockchain to customers globally.

Blockchain has become the  most significant trend in the banking sector and is expected to offer digital experiences with ease, making it one of the top desired tech to adopt by banks and fintech for money transferring and purchasing.

To start with Blockchain, you need to know where this tech can be embraced in your process. You can consult a leading Blockchain development company and start with Blockchain today!

[skellytan17]

Mobile Media (Kelly Tan)

In this reading, the authors did a study to understand how portable devices construct and support an individual’s identity and activities, mediating relationships with people, places, and institutions. The authors talked about how most studies were focused on the mobile phone and that there are many other digital artefacts that were involved in mediating social communication and transactions in their urban environment. They then decided to go beyond mobile phones and adopt an analytic view through different sets of social negotiations such as the different ways of understanding the relationship between mobile media, place, and time. By examining how portable technologies are part of our embodied presence in specific locations of interaction, it helps to understand new technosocial configurations that couple devices, locations, infrastructures, and behavior into recognizable genres of social practice: Cocooning, Camping and Footprinting.

Cocooning talks about how people are mobilizing private media infrastructures within public infrastructures to momentarily claim them for personal space.

They see their relationship to environments that they pass through as temporary and limited which specific temporal features to “fill” or “kill” in-between time. The norm of cocooning is highlighted when mobile phone talk has continued to be a site of social tension because it fails to adhere to the norm of cocooning of personal media which is to maintain a boundary between personal audio and the ambient environment.

Camping is the process of constructing personal workspace by bringing portable media to public places of choice where they feel some affinity. They put down roots that have temporal limits, but are more extended than commuters who are simply passing through

Unlike cocooning, people saw value in residing for a period of time in a desirable location and are able to enjoy having both rich personal media and workspaces as well as the benefits of an ambient public or service-oriented space.

Footprinting is the process of integrating an individual’s trajectory into the transactional history of a particular establishment. Customer foot- printing is a process that is largely driven by the particular location-based establishment rather than by the individual. With the move towards franchising and chain stores, reward schemes are increasingly delocalized as well as depersonalized

Looking at these concepts, I was pretty amazed by how these phenomena actually had their own definitions and how relatable they are as it is something that occurs on a daily basis. I agree with the point on how “generational identity, class identity, and profession may be factors that are as important as national context in determining variability in how people mobilize different genres of presence in urban space”. From my point of view, cocooning is a very common practice such that I do witness people from different generations doing it on public transport. The reading stated how “the combination of a music player, headphones, and reading material creates a cocoon which enables effective escape from involvement in the physical setting in a way respectful to others in the vicinity”. However, as much as it might be considered a norm to “maintain a boundary between personal audio and the ambient environment”, some people might become too absorbed in their mobile phones or music players. When one becomes detached from reality, they are not aware of their surroundings. This brings me to the issues that sparked due to teenagers not giving up their seats to the elderly as they are either too immersed in their video games or in certain cases, some teenagers were reported to have ignored and avoided eye contact with those who need the seat. In this situation, I believe this act would not be seen as respectful instead. This shows a stark difference in the perceived attitudes of mobile media usage by different generations and one way to explain this would possibly be the difference in the amount of exposure and interaction with this form of technology which the elderly might not be used to and may not understand. That being said, there are people of the older generation who are apt in technology and would also act according to this social norm.

Another point I want to highlight is “the evolution of urban infrastructures and services with informational devices and infrastructures due to the increasing convergence of information devices with mobile media technology”. I believe that most of the infrastructure and services now incorporates the ease of mobile media in the forms of transactions as well as for customer membership. Applications such Paylah or Grabpay have become new modes of payment instead of cash or cards and these are even seen in hawker centres. There are even places which only accept these forms of methods which thus, require customers to adapt. When I first entered NUS, I did not have Paylah and mostly used cash. Most of my friends were shocked but in my opinion, I felt that using those forms of payment would become too addictive such that its convenience and ease of use would cause me to spend more. Even though I told myself that I would be disciplined, after a few weeks, I realise these digitalised form of payment was already embedded in many parts of NUS and at the same time, there were not many ATMs around. Thus, I ended up having to install the application. This makes me ponder whether we have to constantly adapt to the changes in technology especially since it has interwoven with our immediate environment and the places we cross in our lives or whether resisting them would allow us to continue with our social and impersonal interactions.

[mokosmart]

LoRaWAN Solutions VS. 5g Network

LoRaWAN solutions have the greatest quantity and variety of sensors today. On top of that, it emerged ahead of the 5G ecosystem and is the most reliable end-to-end solution available today. LoRaWAN solutions have deployments in more than 140 countries worldwide. Additionally, IoT experts and analysts are predicting that LoRaWAN solutions will constitute more than 80% of the LPWAN market in the next decade. In this article, we will try to explore whether LoRaWAN will show a dominant trend or will it co-exist with the 5G.

Development of LoRaWAN Solutions

LoRaWAN is very effective for long-range, wireless, and low-power radio networking. It operates in unlicensed frequency bands. Therefore, we can deploy it without any difficulty. Hence, it is easier and more convenient for devices with small footprints to communicate with other frameworks and devices on large scales.

LoRaWAN solutions are fairly simple to understand. The communication of star networks is analogous to the conversation in a classroom. The gateway is capable of communicating with the nodes and nodes are free to do the same.

Let’s suppose that your LoRaWAN solution has one node and four gateways. In such a case, the nodes will randomly transmit into the radio spectrum. The gate which can hear the transmission will catch it and forward it to the cloud. It is quite a possibility that all of the gateways will listen in on the message and forward it to the cloud. This eliminates the risk for loss of data due to weak communication links or interference of any sort.

Once your message reaches the cloud, the system will generate an acknowledgment receipt. However, this process is not automatic. In order for this to work, the nodes in LoRaWAN solutions will have to request acknowledgment receipts. If a node requests for an acknowledgment then the cloud chooses one gateway for responding after a fixed interval. This adds another layer of quality assurance. Almost all LPWAN systems have multiple receiving channels and LoRaWAN is no exception. LoRaWAN solutions are capable of receiving up to 8 messages at the same time across different frequency channels.

Challenges in Development of 5G

Like any emerging technology, 5G also faces some challenges during its development. We will take a look at some of these challenges in this section.

Manufacturing Costs and Retail Prices

It is expensive to build a 5G network as it requires sophisticated resources. 5G plans will incur high initial costs as it is not as simple as building another layer on top of an existing network. This is because 5G is a completely different technology altogether. According to market analysts, the total spending on 5G will reach $88 billion before a viable solution comes to market. Therefore, its high manufacturing costs are a big hurdle.

Restricted Frequency bands

Current LTEs operate on frequency bands below 6GHz. However, 5G requires frequency bands of up to 3000 GHz. Although, these bands have a greater capacity and promise faster speeds but their licensing is a big challenge. Licensing of these bands will most likely involve bidding before rolling out of respective 5G solutions. In the US alone, bidding of the 28 GHz band reached $690 million by the end of 2018.

Lack of Device Support

Many talks are going on for the manufacturing of smartphones and other devices that support 5g. However, their availability is tied to how quickly 5G becomes viable and how much is their manufacturing cost. Therefore, it is certain that we won’t see many devices with 5G support for some years to come.

Coverage and Deployment

5G offers a significant increase in bandwidth and speed. However, it has a limited range. Therefore, it will require further infrastructure before widespread deployments. Higher frequencies mean that the radio waves are highly directional as well. Therefore, it is easier to target them. This practice is called beamforming and has a threat for exploitation.

Another challenge is that the 5G antennas are able to handle more data but they have short-range coverage. The base stations and antennas are getting smaller but we have to install them on homes or buildings. Smart cities will have to install extra repeaters to allow spreading out of the waves over longer ranges.  Hence, it will maintain consistent transmission speeds in densely populated areas. So, it is quite clear that the 5G network will take some time for maturing.

We intend to replace the Wi-Fi routers and modems in the future with 5G small cells. Therefore, we can bring 5G connections to our homes and small businesses. Hence, we will replace the conventional wired internet connections. So, it is a great challenge to spread the access of 5G to rural areas.

Privacy and Security

Ensuring security and privacy is a great challenge with any data-driven technology. However, 5G will have to ensure measures against sophisticated as well as standard cyber threats. Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) is a system for establishing trust between networks and 5G falls under it. This will allow for tracking people nearby through the location of their smart devices. It will even allow them to eavesdrop on your ongoing phone calls.

Hence, it is the responsibility of 5G developers to ensure the digital safety of their customers and protect their privacy. The connectivity will surely increase as the data speeds get faster than current levels. Therefore, data virtualization services and cloud servers must ensure airtight security and protect the privacy and personal data of their users. However, their users must ensure that they are more vigilant and careful in sharing their sensitive data.

Pros of LoRaWAN Solutions over the 5G

Here are some of the pros of LoRaWAN over the 5G,

Cost-effective and Economical

LoRaWAN deployments are very economical and cost-effective. This is because they consume very little power and have a long battery span. On top of that, they are very small in size. Hence, installment and maintenance costs tend to reduce significantly.

Unlicensed Frequency Bands

LoRaWAN operates on unlicensed frequency bands. Therefore, it is easier and more convenient to deploy because no licensing fees are involved. Additionally, it allows for better inter-platform support and improved accessibility.

Widespread Support

LoRaWAN provides widespread support across sensors and devices of various types. It requires simple nodes to operate hence there is no need for any sophisticated frameworks. Therefore, we can use it for mass deployments and vast IoT implementations.

Long-Range Coverage

LoRaWAN supports long-range communications on its own. However, we can further increase its effective range by integrating a cloud service. This allows LoRaWAN to effectively communicate over the long-range as well as the short-range. The nodes in LoRaWAN networks communicate by first transmitting to the nearest gateways and then that gateway further transfers the data to the cloud server. The LoRaWAN gateways are efficient at picking up data packets so the chances of interference or noise are very low. On top of that, we can add additional layers of security in the form of acknowledgment receipts. These receipts allow us to ensure that the data packets are smoothly transmitting.

Privacy

LoRaWAN allows us to make hybrid public-private networks. This allows us to control user access to classified data and information. We can devise filters and implement screening mechanisms to avoid malicious attempts. Therefore, LoRaWAN allows us to have broad control over the degree of privacy we want our network to have.

Current and Future Trends of LoRaWAN and 5G

The depth and complexity of the 5G use cases mean that the sophistication of 5G is “too much” for certain networks. This will lead to a need for a “right-size technology” for supporting the existing applications in the market. IoT experts argue that 5G LTE provides better performance but it does so at the expense of certain key parameters. And these key parameters are well covered by the LoRaWAN solutions. Experts predict that LoRaWAN will exploit this limitation of 5G and try to capitalize on it. Analysts foresee that 5G might narrow the technology gap to a certain extent. However, there is always room for highly targeted and specialized solutions like LoRaWAN.

How LoRaWAN Solutions May Prevail?

Industry experts go as far as to claim that LoRaWAN will remain a De facto unlicensed standard even in the 5G era. They suggest that LoRaWAN is more convenient for mass adoption as it offers low battery consumption and enables hybrid public-private networks. The developments in 5G up till now are focused on critical communications and broadband services. Therefore, we can’t effectively use them for a large IoT deployment. Hence, we can clearly conclude that LoRaWAN will surely play its role in future IoT frameworks due to its optimal properties and promising traits.

If you are thinking about implementing LoRaWAN for your IoT implementation then you are in the right place. MOKO Smart can help by providing you the necessary LoRaWAN modules which you can deploy as per your requirements. Feel free to reach out to us if you want to know more about our products and services. We are hoping to hear from you soon.

[englishchinesetranslations]

Thoughts on the success & decline of civilisations, colonialism & civil conflict: USA/Europe, China & Africa

This is not so much a coherent article, but more of a collection of ideas and criticisms of past policies across world history.

I've always stood by the idea that the strengths of Western civilisation that brought its success between 1500-1900 has proven to be its weaknesses since that period in today's political climates.

Altruism, entrepreneurship, individualism incorporated within communitarianism, innovation, courage and creativity are just a few virtues that made Western civilization great, but has also become something that is now hurting USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. The West has hit its peak and is now in its age of decadence and decline.

On the topic of colonialism, UK, Portugal, Spain & France spread their influence on a massive global scale. Whilst Italy & Germany did colonize with lesser success, it's safe to say the third world still looks towards the West for ideas and innovation in 2019.

I will admit I'm not an expert on European civilisations' relationship with Jews (apart from expelling said tribe hundreds of times), but somewhere down the line it seems Europeans (and possibly Jews) failed to foresee the future birth rates of non-white populations such as Hispanics, Arabs, Black Africans & Indians, which have been skyrocketing since 1900. Meanwhile white European & east Asian birth rates have slowed down massively since the 1990s, due to the success of peace treaties, industrial success, improving standards of living and the comfort of first world standards. With infant mortality at an extremely low level in the first world, that urge for women to produce endless numbers of children in the western/east Asian world has plummeted to below replacement levels of 2.4 babies per woman- in some nations such as Germany, just 1.2 babies.

A mistake made by western colonialists pre-1900 was to try to integrate the New World (Americas), tribal Africa & aboriginal Australia into the western way of living. The white male troops should have been banned from breeding children with the local women; instead, the native populations should have been isolated and cordoned off into their own living lands. In addition, the use of slave labour by the colonialists should've been restricted. The colonialists should have then captured the lands which possessed minerals, natural resources and living land area in Africa. This land area should have then been populated with white Europeans- in particular, western colonialists should have focused on capturing land areas in southern Africa, where countries such as modern South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola & Mozambique exist today. These lands should have been established and divided as white-only nation-states, with any blacks attempting to enter these provinces expelled as illegal aliens breaching borders (or killed on sight if necessary). Likewise the indigenous populations of the Americas and Australia should have isolated and left to their own living areas; again, any of them trying to enter white-only areas should have been dealt with immediate expulsion.

As for the importation of Black African slave labour, the numbers of slaves brought to the USA should been much fewer in number (i.e. 25% of the original total). Therefore it would've been much easier to return the black slaves to Africa during the early 19th century, when the decreasing profit margins gained from slave labour was making this practice moribund. This would have avoided the unnecessary American Civil War of 1861-1865, which facilitated the early foundations of today's Federal Reserve. (In addition, European colonialists could've expelled black slaves located in the Caribbean during this time to place more white people here.)

Instead, the European colonialists should have instigated a mass breeding program for white people during 1500-1900 in order to facilitate a mass white population re-distribution of southern Africa, the modern Arab states of Asia & Africa, Canada, USA, Mexico Australia & South America. In the topic of the Arab world, had the whites succeeded in invading modern Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya & Algeria, there would be a huge white populous in northern Africa. This would mean the Muslim Arabs would be probably now be living on the border areas of Mali, Niger, Chad & Sudan, with blacks pushed further south to the central Africa.

As for the mainly British colonialism of south Asia (such as India & Hong Kong), there's not much for me to say. As there was little land space for the Brits to move the Indians around, it was always going to the case that the British colonised India for economic purposes mostly. It's tempting to think the British could've sterilised the Indians, but frankly that would've seen a civil war between the British colonizers and the native population, with the Brits expelled en masse. As for Hong Kong, the region's economic and political freedoms post-1949 (when the Communists took over and created "Peoples' Republic of China") allowed ethnic Han Chinese to immigrate to that region in large numbers to escape the Cultural Revolution. For those who think Hong Kong is nothing but a British paper tiger, Hong Kong survived the invasion of the Japanese during WW2 and escaped with its traditional infrastructure unscathed.

On the topic of China, I believe the presence of warlords constantly fighting each other throughout this nation-empire's history to be a major mistake. The 1700s saw the Qing dynasty rise to become the richest "nation/empire" in the world, so the end result was a population that never felt like they needed to improve their lot in life. The ideas of Transatlantic exploration was non-existent, leaving imperial China vulnerable to colonialist invasions by the British & the Portuguese, plus the French & the Germans temporarily colonized parts of southern and northern China's seaport towns (France had some power over parts of Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan & Guangdong, whilst Germany captured Qingdao- hence why Tsingtao beer exists!) during the 19th century.

A huge mistake of Chinese emperors & warlords was to continually fight each other for land, possessions and ultimate ruling control within modern China's land area. Had any of the many Chinese tribes within the area had at least attempted to depart China in order to explore the New World, Africa & Australia pre-1900, the decline of imperial China's hegemony within the world would have not proved as problematic for its citizenry as it eventually became in the 20th century. Instead, China could have split up into 5 to 15 separate nations, with each region's languages and customs (Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka etc.) being preserved, with Mandarin (only 400 years old, having originated from the Manchus) taking a far less of a dominant presence in today's Sinosphere.

What's more, the Han Chinese should have left the Tibetans and the Uyghurs alone to their own land areas and focused instead on conquering lands outside of Asia. Had the Han Chinese succeeded in doing this, there might've been nation-states in the Americas, Africa & perhaps parts of Australia which would have a majority Chinese population today. Instead, just like the Europeans, the Chinese are on the precipice of witnessing their ethnic populations decline massively in the 21st century and becoming dominated by other ethnic groups.

In conclusion, it was a mistake by European colonialists in failing to attempt some sort of birth-rate restriction on the indigenous populations in the new world, Africa & Australia. Had the colonialists succeeded in pushing down the numbers of Hispanics, Arabs & Africans (and possibly the Indians) right into the late 20th century at least, the impending demographic apocalypse of whites (& possibly East Asians) would not be so severe in this coming 21st century. Not only was it clearly a mistake for Europeans & Americans to accept centralised banking during the late 19th/early 20th century and to become involved in two world wars, but they should've practiced isolationism with the third world. Essentially, the Europeans & Americans should've focused on fighting the instigators of Communist takeover in Russia, which would have restricted the amount of influence that the banking cartels & Jews have on today's socio-economic-political landscape.

On the subject of PRC China's "economic colonialism" in modern Africa, the issues lie within how much longer can the Chinese communist party continue to plough money and resources into Africa, only to receive little return. As the local Africans cannot afford to pay debts for new railways, utilities and other buildings, the Chinese will start to run low on manpower. Although the Chinese have built new facilities in Africa & Pacific island nations, they've done so with their own ethnic Chinese workers, but refused to give many employment opportunities to the local populous within these regions. As China's birthrate continues to plummet, China is now becoming a victim of its own success (just like the West)- as the current Chinese citizens will now increasingly demand better jobs, living conditions and political rights.

Now when I've talked about the world we live in now being one that demands social and economic equality, I never stated it was a good thing as some believed. I merely stated it was part of the new world order despite myself being aware that equality is a lie. I believe there will be a socio-political backlash from Africa & the Pacific in coming years against China's "economic colonialism", whilst China's own slowing growth will see internal issues within its nation and the Communist party struggling to hold onto power.

The only real solutions I can see for nationalists within Europe and western nations is for a huge percentage of the population to start protesting the political and economic institutions en masse immediately. Make them abandon their jobs, live off the grid, collect rainwater & develop their own independent technology. Civil unrest can also be an option, but I'm not entirely sure whether the West could be resurrected from the ruins of a massively expensive civil and intercontinental war.

However, options such as secession of states from the USA should be kept on the table. Encourage a re-distribution of various ethnic groups to divide themselves into certain areas of the States, so that dividing the USA into separate ethnic enclaves can be done as peacefully as possible.

As for China, only a major economic collapse can make its citizens rise up against the criminal Communist party, but also for the populous to agree upon splitting up the nation for every region's benefits and needs. In addition, this will restore trust, peace and security to neighbouring nations such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam & the Philippines.

As for Europe: end the European Union.

As for Australia, Canada & New Zealand: wake up to the threat of Chinese buying up property and start learning Cantonese (not Mandarin) to irritate the Han Mandarin supremacists from mainland China.

So I would everyone on Pocketnet to think deeply about the past, the present & the future of the West, but to respect differing opinions here. Thank you.

[designmeblogss]

Casino Reinvestment and Expansion

The Proper Care & Feeding of the Golden Goose

Under the new paradigm of declining economic conditions across a broad spectrum of consumer spending, casinos face a unique challenge in addressing how they both maintain profitability while also remaining competitive Bitcoin Casino List. These factors are further complicated within the commercial gaming sector with increasing tax rates, and within the Indian gaming sector by self imposed contributions to tribal general funds, and/or per capita distributions, in addition to a growing trend in state imposed fees.

Determining how much to "render unto Caesar," while reserving the requisite funds to maintain market share, grow market penetration and improve profitability, is a daunting task that must be well planned and executed.

It is within this context and the author's perspective that includes time and grade hands-on experience in the development and management of these types of investments, that this article relates ways in which to plan and prioritize a casino reinvestment strategy.

Cooked Goose

Although it would seem axiomatic not to cook the goose that lays the golden eggs, it is amazing how little thought is oft times given to its on-going proper care and feeding. With the advent of a new casino, developers/tribal councils, investors & financiers are rightfully anxious to reap the rewards and there is a tendency not to allocate a sufficient amount of the profits towards asset maintenance & enhancement. Thereby begging the question of just how much of the profits should be allocated to reinvestment, and towards what goals.

Inasmuch as each project has its own particular set of circumstances, there are no hard and fast rules. For the most part, many of the major commercial casino operators do not distribute net profits as dividends to their stockholders, but rather reinvest them in improvements to their existing venues while also seeking new locations. Some of these programs are also funded through additional debt instruments and/or equity stock offerings. The lowered tax rates on corporate dividends will likely shift the emphasis of these financing methods, while still maintaining the core business prudence of on-going reinvestment. Profit Allocation

As a group, and prior to the current economic conditions, the publicly held companies had a net profit ratio (earnings before income taxes & depreciation) that averages 25% of income after deduction of the gross revenue taxes and interest payments. On average, almost two thirds of the remaining profits are utilized for reinvestment and asset replacement.

Casino operations in low gross gaming tax rate jurisdictions are more readily able to reinvest in their properties, thereby further enhancing revenues that will eventually benefit the tax base. New Jersey is a good example, as it mandates certain reinvestment allocations, as a revenue stimulant. Other states, such as Illinois and Indiana with higher effective rates, run the risk of reducing reinvestment that may eventually erode the ability of the casinos to grow market demand penetrations, especially as neighboring states become more competitive. Moreover, effective management can generate higher available profit for reinvestment, stemming from both efficient operations and favorable borrowing & equity offerings.

How a casino enterprise decides to allocate its casino profits is a critical element in determining its long-term viability, and should be an integral aspect of the initial development strategy. While short term loan amortization/debt prepayment programs may at first seem desirable so as to quickly come out from under the obligation, they can also sharply reduce the ability to reinvest/expand on a timely basis. This is also true for any profit distribution, whether to investors or in the case of Indian gaming projects, distributions to a tribe's general fund for infrastructure/per capita payments.

Moreover, many lenders make the mistake of requiring excessive debt service reserves and place restrictions on reinvestment or further leverage which can seriously limit a given project's ability to maintain its competitiveness and/or meet available opportunities.

Whereas we are not advocating that all profits be plowed-back into the operation, we are encouraging the consideration of an allocation program that takes into account the "real" costs of maintaining the asset and maximizing its impact.

Establishing Priorities

There are three essential areas of capital allocation that should be considered, as shown below and in order of priority.

1. Maintenance and Replacement 2. Cost Savings 3. Revenue Enhancement/Growth

The first two priorities are easy enough to appreciate, in that they have a direct affect on maintaining market positioning and improving profitability, whereas, the third is somewhat problematical in that it has more of an indirect affect that requires an understanding of the market dynamics and greater investment risk. All aspects that are herewith further discussed.

Maintenance & Replacement

Maintenance & Replacement provisions should be a regular function of the casino's annual budget, which represents a fixed reserve based on the projected replacement costs of furniture, fixture, equipment, building, systems and landscaping. Too often however we see annual wish lists that bear no relationship to the actual wear & tear of these items. It is therefore important to actually schedule the replacement cycle, allocating funds that do not necessarily have to actually be incurred in the year of accrual. During a start-up period it may not seem necessary to spend any money on replacement of brand new assets, however by accruing amounts to be reserved for their eventual recycling will avoid having to scurry for the funds when they are most needed.

One area of special consideration is slot machines, whose replacement cycle has been shortening of late, as newer games & technologies are developing at a much higher rate, and as the competition dictates.

Cost Savings

Investment in cost savings programs & systems are, by their very nature and if adequately researched a less risky use of profit allocation funding then almost any other investment. These items can often take the form of new energy saving systems, labor saving products, more efficient purchasing intermediation, and interest reductions.

These items have their caveats, one of which is to thoroughly analyze their touted savings against your own particular application, as often times the product claims are exaggerated. Lease buy-outs and long term debt prepayments can sometimes be advantageous, especially when the obligations were entered into during the development stage when equity funds may have been limited. In these cases it is important to look at this strategy's net effect on the bottom line, in comparison with alternative uses of the monies for revenue enhancing/growth investments.

One recent trend is the growing popularity of cash-less slot systems, which not only provide labor savings for fills, counts and hand-pays, but also serve as an aid to patrons who do not like to lug around those cumbersome coin buckets, while also encouraging multiple game usage. Revenue Enhancing & Growth

Leveraging is the key catalyst of any revenue enhancing/growth related investment. It includes the following:

o Patronage Base o Available Funds o Lands o Marketing Clout o Management Experience

The principal is to leverage the use of the available asset towards achieving higher revenues & profitability. Typical examples include increasing average patronage base spending and widening the effective trading radius, by offering additional products/services, such as retail stores, entertainment alternatives, recreational/leisure amenities, overnight accommodations, more restaurant choices, and of course, expanded gaming.

Master Planning

Anticipation of potential growth and expansion should be fully integrated into the project's initial master planning so as it assure cohesive integration of the possible elements in a phased-in program, while also allowing for the least amount of operational interruption. Unfortunately, it's not always possible to anticipate market changes, so expansion alternatives must be carefully considered.

The Big Picture

Before embarking on any type of expansion and/or enhancement program we strongly recommend first stepping back and assessing the property's present positioning relative to the market and competitive environment. As we have observed in numerous gaming jurisdictions around the country, often casino ventures that have been operating "fat and happy" for a few years, find themselves in a zero-growth period. Sometimes this is due to competition stemming from either/both new local area casinos or regional venues that have the affect of reducing patronage from peripheral area markets. Additionally, the current customer base may become bored with their experience and are seeking greener pastures. The historical growth of the Las Vegas strip is testament to the success of continually "reinventing" oneself.

Our approach to these market studies is initially focused on determining the degree to which the current facility is penetrating the potential market and in relationship to any competitive market shares. Typically, this represents an analysis of the current patronage base in terms of information gleaned from the player tracking data base, and mailing lists, coupled with day-part, daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal revenue trends.

This data is then interfaced with an assessment of the overall market potential to indicate the extent to which certain market segments are utilizing the facility and the needs it is fulfilling. More importantly however, is that this type of analysis will indicate those market segments that are not utilizing the facility more fully, and why.

Occasion Segmentation

As our proprietary studies have indicated, casino markets are segmented by various characteristics of occasioned-use that also include typical spending & visitation patterns. The traditional methods of market measurements, including gravity models, usually only weigh the demographic characteristics of a given population, based on revenues achieved in similar markets. However, an occasion segmentation market analysis reveals more detailed information as to the reasons precipitating a casino visit, how they relate to the benefits being sought, and the degree to which the occasion determines average spending and visitation frequency. This type of data mining is far more helpful than gravity modeling, in that it can help determine the type of facilities and positioning strategies necessary to attract each market segment, by measuring their relative contribution to the aggregate potential. The process has been successfully employed in the restaurant business and other leisure time service industries, especially amid a widening supply/demand marketplace.

Perhaps even more importantly, looking at the market from an occasioned-use perspective, reveals the extent and characteristics of the underling competition, that, in many cases not only include other casinos, but also alternative entertainment and leisure time activities, such as restaurants, clubs, theaters, and the like.

Demand Density

Another important aspect of occasion segmentation is in measuring overall market characteristics by day-parts, which is revenue density by time of day, day per week, weekly, monthly, and seasonally. This is especially important data when casino venues are seeking to lessen any higher than normal fluctuations that may be occurring between a slow Monday morning and a packed Saturday night; or that experience severe seasonal variations.

By segmenting markets by their demand patterns, a better understanding can be gained of which amenities may help bolster the weak demand periods, and those that may only add to the already maximized peaks.

Many expansion programs often make the mistake of configuring additional amenities such as high-end restaurants and lodging elements based on the peak demand periods. As a result, the net effect of costs & expenses for these investments can negate any contribution they may make to increased gaming revenues. Rather, "fill-in" markets are the most efficient means to increase overall revenues, as they utilize existing capacities. Las Vegas has achieved great success in creating strong mid-week activity through promotion of its extensive conference/convention facilities.

Amenity Driven Markets

Another benefit of utilizing occasion-segmentation is its ability to also indicate the potential impact certain amenities have on "impelling" visitation. While gravity models examine the casino related spending characteristics of a given market area, the formulas cannot measure the relative impact of any non-gaming driven activities that could nonetheless generate casino traffic.

Important data relating to the population's occasioned-use of restaurant, entertainment, and weekend getaways can often form the basis on which to focus amenities designed to cater to these markets; and by so doing, increase visitation. Whereas many of these patrons may or may not utilize the casino, their exposure to the opportunity may hasten their use, while also creating an additional profit center.

Again, looking to the Las Vegas paradigm, more and more of the strip properties are now generating as much, if not more, non-gaming revenues than gaming revenues; as their hotels and restaurants are less & less subsidized, and along with their growing retail elements, represent strong contributors to the bottom line.

Program Development

Once equipped with a basic understanding of the market dynamics, both in terms of the existing facility's current market shares/penetration rates in relationship to the competitive mix, and the overall occasioned-use of the market, a matrix can be created that sets the demand against the supply. This function seeks to identify areas of un-met demand opportunities and/or over supply, that forms the spring-board to the creation of relevant amenities, expansion and upgrade criteria & strategies.

Impact Criteria

Essentially there are two types of expansion/upgrade strategies: subsidized and profit-centers. Subsidized elements may include adding and/or improving amenities that will further widen current gaming market penetration/shares, thusly having a direct impact on growing casino revenues; while profit centers are designed to further leverage current patronage patterns with additional spending opportunities, and having an in-direct effect on gaming activity. Although many of the more traditional amenities, such as restaurants, hotels, retail shops, entertainment venues and recreational facilities can fall into one or both of these categories, its important to make the distinction, so as to clearly establish the design/development criteria.

Upgrading/Expansion

As has been previously discussed, Las Vegas continually seeks to reinvent itself as a means to increase repeat visitation, that in itself creates a snowballing affect as each venue must keep-up with its neighbor. To some extent upgrading programs, that may include creating a new and fresher look, is a lot like an insurance policy against slipping revenues, and do not necessarily relate to any incremental growth per se. Not to be mistaken for replacement programs of worn carpeting and slot machine recycling, an upgrade program should seek to create new excitement about the facility in terms of ambiance, quality of finishes, layouts, and overall décor.

Expansion of existing capacity is less a function of market analysis and more a function of "making hay while the sun shines," based on a thorough understanding of the visitation pattern densities. Patron back-ups for gaming positions and restaurant tables can be both good and bad, depending on when they occur and how often. High per position per day net win averages are not always a sign of a prospering casino, as they could also mean lost opportunity because of an insufficient number of games. Conversely, additional positions are not always going to generate the same averages.

When initially configuring capacities for a new facility, it is important to fully evaluate the demand patterns into their respective day-part components that will maximize penetration during the peak periods while minimizing inefficiency - the point where the costs associated with additional capacity is exceeded by its net income potential.

Food & Beverage Amenities

Within most casino venues, restaurant amenities are "loss leaders," designed to retain & attract casino patrons with low prices and great value; yet they have the ability to both widen occasioned-use of the casino, while also representing potential profit centers.

In Nevada, which is the only state where detailed historical F&B departmental operating results are available for casinos, properties with gaming revenues averaging between $20M to $200M showed food operations having a net departmental loss of 1.5% of sales in 2001, versus almost a 14% loss in 1995.

Much of this major turnaround is due to the growth in the number of food outlets, especially more upscale/specialty restaurants, which has spurred sales from 20% of gaming revenue in 1995 to almost 27% in 2001. Moreover, food costs have been reduced sharply from 45% in 1995 to 35% in '01.

As the previous discussion on occasion-segmentation revealed, a consumer's choice of a casino visit can sometimes compete with other entertainment/leisure time activities, including dining out. Having a market relevant restaurant facility within the casino can serve to attract the dining-out destination market, with the casino benefiting from its proximity. Therefore when market conditions indicate changes in a casino's restaurant configuration, the questions to be addressed are how can they be designed to satisfy the current patronage base, widen occasioned-use, and improve profitability.

Lodging Elements

With turnkey hotel development costs ranging between $75K to $350K per available room, a market positioning strategy had better be well studied. Yet we see many such projects undertaken with little understanding of the market dynamics and economic impact.

Nationwide, according to our most recent survey, there are 724 casinos around the country; comprised of 442 commercial operations, about half of which are located in Nevada, and 282 Indian gaming venues, of which 209 offer most, if not all, of Las Vegas type (Class III) games. Roundly 58% of casinos in the commercial gaming sector have co-located hotels, compared with 37% of Class III Indian gaming venues, despite their containing a similar average number of games.

The high preponderance of hotels within the commercial sector owes to some gaming jurisdictions requiring them; including Nevada (for an unrestricted license) and New Jersey. Moreover, much of the Nevada market demand stems from beyond a daytrip radius, making overnight accommodations necessary in order to gain market share. When extrapolating these states from the total, the percentage of all commercial casinos with hotels drops to 50%, with an average of 312 rooms & 1,183 games.

The obvious advantages of casino lodging units is their ability to attract gaming markets from beyond the typical day trip radius, while also having a somewhat "captured" market (Casinos with Hotels). Moreover, guest rooms can be another perk-use for player club points. Hotels also widen a casino's occasioned-use by offering non-gaming leisure activities & amenities, augmented by the ready availability of gaming, while also representing another profit center (Hotels with Casinos). Additionally, within a traditional lodging setting, a casino/hotel has a competitive advantage by virtue of its added entertainment features.

Among the major Las Vegas properties there are more hotel rooms than games, as the city transits from a gaming destination to more of a resort & convention destination. In so doing these properties increased their hotel profitability and investment returns by not having to offer low rates to attract gamers. Whereas, some areas such as Laughlin and Reno, which do not enjoy the critical mass of a Las Vegas, still find it necessary to supplement their hotel investment with casino revenue, due to low room rates and large seasonal visitation fluctuations

In configuring a casino hotel development it is therefore important to understand the market and financial dynamics and their impact on overall gaming revenue and profits. Within the free-standing (non-casino) hotel industry, financing terms are usually over a 15 to 20 year amortization schedule with a ten year balloon/refinance, and have a break even point that approaches 65% to 70% occupancy. Typical casino based lodging elements enjoy high occupancy levels on the weekends, but low levels weekday. It is therefore incumbent not to "build a church for Easter Sunday," keeping in mind the overall efficient use of the asset.

Moreover, if the intent is to attract additional casino patronage from a wider market radius, it is important to evaluate the cost of any hotel subsidy versus the potential increase in gaming profits. A new 200 room hotel at a casino already generating 20,000 weekend visitors, may only be adding 2% to 4% more players, while exposing itself to higher costs. In regards to occasioned-use, especially among tourists and weekenders, casino hotels may also be competing with alternative resorts in the region.

Ideally, these types of facilities, when not situated in markets with insufficient local/day-trip markets (e.g. Laughlin), should be configured on the basis of their non-gaming related and off-peak period support so as to maintain relevant room rates and adequate levels of profitability. They should also include those amenities these markets are seeking, including, where applicable: conference and convention facilities, and indoor/outdoor recreational elements.

Albeit more of a niche market, RV Park facilities are a less intensive investment in overnight lodging facilities that can nonetheless offer some of the same benefits. According to the latest data, there are more than 9 million households in the United States that own RVs, and represent one of every ten vehicle owning households. Many of these households include the 55 & over age groups, who have a higher than average gaming propensity and annual income.

RV Park development costs are well below those for hotels, but usually have a high seasonal use, peaking during the summer months in temperate resort environs and in the winter months in the "snowbird" areas.

Retail/Outlet Shops

Retail/Outlet shopping is gaining a major foothold at casino venues across the country. First represented by casino logo shops and a few high-roller/jackpot-winner positioned boutiques, these stores have now grown into major malls and entertainment centers. The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas enjoys the highest per square foot sales of all retail malls in the U.S., and the growth in retail sales in the city is significantly outpacing that of gaming revenue. The presence of these shops serves as both an activity to the area's 35 million annual visitors, who are now spending less than 4 hours per day actually gaming, as well as a major profit center that leverages the visitation base.

In less resort destination type markets, outlet malls are strong traffic generators from which a casino facility can draw patronage. On a smaller scale, casinos can widen their occasioned-use by offering unique and indigenous shopping that is especially positioned to attract the "adjunctive" daytripper market. The extent and characteristics of these stores should be scaled to the potential market, current visitation trends, and any local ambiance.

Entertainment

Although entertainment is a mainstay in casino environments, stemming from the Rat Pack days in Las Vegas, to today's imposing concert/arena venues and specialty shows; their market dynamics are much misunderstood. They are at once, diversions, attractions, profit centers, and public relation tools. They can however, also generate major losses, and therefore should be well studied to determine their appropriate configuration.

With most major entertainment events occurring during the weekend periods the attracted audiences may not have any significant impact on a likely already busy period. Therefore it in incumbent that the specific event be structured so as to at least break even or turn a small profit. While this is somewhat self evident, the more central issue is the entertainment venue's ability to also amortize its initial development cost investment. Outdoor facilities can sharply reduce construction costs, but also are prone to weather vagaries and seasonal use. Moreover, party tents and temporary structures usually do not have the cache of a fixed venue that is an integral part of the casino facility.

Recreational Facilities

There is a lot of attention these days being given to the development of recreational facilities at casino venues, especially those associated with resort projects. Golf courses are a common adjunct to many resorts, and many Indian communities enjoy the advantage of having access to the ample land areas and water rights these types of undertakings require.

As with all of the other revenue enhancing reinvestment alternatives discussed herein, recreational facility development should be considered within the context of its ability to generate additional casino patrons and/or serve as a profit center. Whereas golfers traditionally have a high gaming proclivity the association of golf with a casino is not exactly in sync, given the length of time required for a typical round. Moreover, even under the highest utilization rates, a typical 18 hole golf course will only accommodate about 140 players per day, while the national average in year round environments is about 100 rounds per day. This is not a lot of additional players for the casino, even if all of them gambled, and especially considering the cost of an average course, excluding land, ranging between $5M to $15M.

However, golf course development as part of a resort package and/or to fill a local market demand can have many non-gaming related benefits. From a resort development standpoint, a golf course as well as other recreational elements can add to the facility's competitive positioning, to the point where its development/operating costs can be recaptured through higher room rates/green fees. Many traditional golf courses also "pencil-out" when incorporating fairway home sites, which have a particularly higher value than non-golf course sites. Given the trust status of Indian lands, this may be somewhat problematical on reservation lands, unless some sort of long term land leases could be negotiated for the home owners. Planning/Financing & Implementation

Once all of the salient market factors have been considered and weighted against their cost vs. benefits, a comprehensive reinvestment & expansion program can begin to take shape. A design & construction team should be assembled that can help further interpret the program in terms of creative and value engineering input, while also maintaining its established market positioning and financial strategies.

Importantly, the program should illustrate how each element will be coordinated into the overall facility fabric and the manner in which it will be financed. Some funding can stem from reserved profit allocations, while others independently funded with additional debt, whose amortization has been factored into the overall project's feasibility analysis.

[privateplates4u]

8 Frankfurt Show Tech Highlights

Every recent auto show has had some sort of “mobility” conference attached to it, and Frankfurt is no exception—the upstairs of Halle 3 rounded up all the usual suspects. But several other upstairs and downstairs booths mounted what looked like Germany’s version of the SAE World Congress. We’ve got the worn-out shoe leather to prove that we covered both the new cars and the new tech present at this far-flung show. Herewith, our tech-highlights reel. GKN eTwinsterX We know and love GKN’s torque-vectoring Twinster differential in applications such as the Ford Focus RS. We also admire the seamless functionality of the two-speed electric front axle in BMW’s i8. GKN supplies both, and now the company is offering the best of both in an even better e-axle solution known as eTwinsterX. The i8’s e-axle locates the motor “off axis” from the differential, but in this new one the electric motor is concentric with the axle, with one half-shaft running back through the middle of it. This greatly reduces the package size and trims a bit of weight, as well. Not all of the gearing packages on the axle centerline—there is a planetary gearset that takes power off the motor output shaft, returning it to the input of the Twinster differential (which uses clutch packs to engage each wheel, negating the need for spider gears). The ratio change also happens with a twin-clutch-type handoff that suffers no torque interruption (the i8’s e-axle interrupts torque, but you never feel it because the combustion engine fills in with rear-axle torque). The unit on display was rated to deliver 161 hp and up to 2,581 lb-ft of torque (after multiplication), with the ability to shift as much as 1,475 lb-ft to an outside wheel. The system can deliver torque at vehicle speeds of up to 155 mph, with the first-second gear shift typically taking place between 40 and 60 mph. The eTwinsterX system can function as an EV’s front and/or rear powertrain or as an add-on e-axle providing all-wheel drive and propulsion assist to a combustion or hybrid drivetrain on another axle. It has completed its initial design phase and is ready for integration and production, but as it made its world debut at the Frankfurt show, no companies have signed on as yet. IBM Cognitive Configurator Imagine for a moment that you were NOT a car person and that you viewed choosing a new car as a major annoyance. Believe it or not, much of the population feels this way, and so IBM is trying to leverage its Watson artificial intelligence to help folks narrow down the vast array of choices. For now it’s envisioned as a feature that would be offered within a manufacturer’s car configurator tool, but enterprising sites—such as maybe perhaps this one (are you reading me, boss?)—could potentially apply it to the entire industry or whole segments of the car landscape. Users would be asked to log in using their Facebook or Twitter accounts. Watson then takes a quick look at these accounts to classify you in five categories, establishing a sense of your own personal likes, dislikes, hobbies, tastes, etc. It then asks a few questions, ranging from the obvious (“what is your budget?”) to the esoteric (“Which of these three pictures do you like best?”). Then it cogitates and suggests a car, launching the configurator function. I love movies and the Netflix AI assistant has never selected something I like, so I have little hope of this system working for me. But car haters? Have fun! Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X Chipset Just days before the Frankfurt show opened, Qualcomm pulled the wraps off its latest development in the vehicle-to-everything connected-car space. You might not know the name Qualcomm, but like Intel it’s “inside” your smart phone. Qualcomm computer chips specialize in “directing traffic” inside a smart phone, assessing the workload and assigning tasks to the various bits of silicon that can most efficiently handle them so that your phone can survive an entire day on its tiny battery. Millions of car owners have been enjoying Qualcomm chips for many years—the company enabled the original OnStar communications in 2003 and has powered OnStar and many other telematics systems ever since. This latest cellular C-V2X technology rolls out next year and will enable direct communication between cars, cell phones, and infrastructure transponder nodes. It will also handle communications over the traditional cellular networks. It’s that direct component that promises vastly faster delivery of safety-critical information. These signals will travel over the globally harmonized 5.9 GHz ITS communications band established for V2X without the need for a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, cellular subscription, or network assistance. Just having a powered device connects the person, car, or transponder. Network communications via 4G and the coming 5G technology provides the traditional infotainment streams. This technology is seen as a key building block in the quest for improved safety and productivity (traffic jam avoidance), as well as a major enabler of autonomy. Ford, Audi, France’s PSA, and China’s SAIC all expressed intent to utilize this technology at the time of its launch. IBM Blockchain If the word blockchain rings any bells, it’s probably from an online banking or bitcoin perspective. The official definition is “a digital ledger in which transactions made in cryptocurrencies are recorded chronologically and publicly.” No hanky-panky. IBM is bringing this tech to the car biz primarily to help with the seemingly ever-increasing number of safety and other recalls. Today, all too often, when a problem with some component is revealed, an entire model line gets recalled so dealers can look to see if your car is part is one of the bad ones. Blockchain technology tracks these individual parts. The first link in the chain is a subcomponent’s creation. The next might note its assembly into a subsystem. The next might be that subsystem’s shipment to a Tier 1 supplier for assembly into a bigger component. By now many of these chains are interlocking, and they eventually lead to the point where it’s assembled into a car and that car’s VIN gets recorded to the chain. That VIN can now be cross-reference with zillions of component parts, each with their own little part numbers. So now when a supplier discovers that a nest of rats peed all over this one box of parts, possibly compromising their functionality, the automaker can strategically contact just the owners of cars with the peed-on parts. This recall also goes into the block chain, as does every communication about it and the eventual repair. Now NHTSA can openly see what parts have been problematic, what’s been done to contact owners, and how many owners have made the repairs. It also means that if you wander in for an oil change, and your dealer punches in your VIN, he can see that there’s a recall on and fix it—perhaps before you even know it needs fixing. Isn’t the connected world gonna be great? Röchling Seralite German supplier Röchling specializes in aerodynamic aids, including clever underbody paneling to smooth airflow beneath a vehicle. Seralite looks like aluminum, but it’s a composite made from aluminum and lightweight thermoplastics reinforced with fiberglass. It ends up being lighter and cheaper than aluminum, it’s nonflammable, and it won’t absorb oil or other flammable liquids—a bonus when looking to shroud the area under drippy parts such as the engine and transmission. Seralite also boasts good acoustic absorption characteristics. Introduced last year, Seralite is now in production on the Peugeot 3008 crossover. And Three Tech-Savvy Tire Concepts from Continental ContiAdapt This tire and wheel combo features microcompressors that can adjust the tire pressure, inflating and deflating it as necessary, and hydraulics to change the width of the rim so the tire can be fatter with less pressure for improved grip on a slippery road and then can be narrower with higher pressure for a smaller footprint and less rolling resistance for optimal fuel economy on a dry highway.  The technology is still five to 10 years from production. A little closer to production is ContiSense, which adds sensors and a layer of electrically conductive rubber to the inside wall of the tire that can detect when a metal object punctures it. Likewise, a tread depth sensor can tell when you need new tires. In either case, the tire will send a warning to an app on your phone. The app can then locate the nearest outlet and ensure the tires are in stock and the coffee is hot for while you wait for the old tires to be swapped for new. The feature would be ideal for fleet managers managing the health of their trucks constantly on the road. Another sensor acts as a tire health monitor to measure the temperature of the tire and warn when the truck should switch driving modes to change the tire pressure or if the truck should stop to cool down. The assorted ContiSense features are all in development and should be available in the next five years, said Nikolai Setzer, executive board member and head of the Tire Division. Taraxa Gum. Meanwhile, Continental is entering the next phase of its experimentation with dandelions as a replacement for natural rubber. A lab project in Germany has proven promising enough that Continental is building a research facility and will harvest huge fields of Russian dandelions to assess whether easy-to-grow dandelions can be a viable solution. Dandelions can be grown near tire factories, eliminating the need to import rubber from Southeast Asia. Rubber is currently cheap, so there is not a big financial incentive, but that could change.The post 8 Frankfurt Show Tech Highlights appeared first on Motor Trend.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/8-frankfurt-show-tech-highlights/

[fapangel]

Seeing that war is going to happen, but I am betting on that the U.S. mainland ISN'T going to be nuked. But still, what would likely be the backlash effect we would be hit by it? economic instability/collapse? Fuel shortages? Marshal Law? What do you think will happen once we cross the Rubicon?

I think you’re drastically over-estimating the effects of this possible war. 

For starters, none of those terrifying things you mentioned hit the US Homeland, even during the Second World War itself. Save fuel shortages, and that was due to deliberate rationing. And even that wouldn’t be so bad - we actually maintain a strategic oil reserve with a 727 million barrel capacity just to ensure our ability to operate our military in times of war - they’ve actually sold off some oil from it at times to alleviate high gas prices some years back when gas prices were stupidly high.  That greatly insulates both our military and our civilian market against any short-term disruption (a closing of the Hormuz Strait by Iran, for instance,) and given that even WWII didn’t produce any serious damage to American domestic infrastructure, it’s highly unlikely any modern conflict (which will be much smaller scale) will manage to do what the 20th century’s greatest conflict could not. We will probably suffer more domestic infrastructure damage from cyberattacks alone - Chinese military hackers were caught red-handed targeting US domestic infrastructure. They tend to play with the settings to verify that they’ve achieved control of the system, then they quietly log out - they’re almost certainly building a catalog of vulnerable and pre-compromised systems that can then be re-visited - and configured with settings that will ensure physical destruction of the industrial hardware - at a later date, in time of war. This isn’t academic; Russian military hackers damaged a Ukrainian power plant recently.

With that said, however, the total impact of these attacks are highly unlikely to be devastating or even seriously problematic - the nation is simply too large, and the destruction such attacks can wreak, though serious in many cases, can’t compare to hitting a power plant with a cruise missile or a bomb. Their advantage will be primarily psychological; the threat that “we can reach out and touch you,” but historically that has never worked. England bombed Berlin to “break the will of the German people,” and Germany bombed London to return the favor, but neither side broke, did they? Attacks on the homeland make a war personal, giving previously disinterested citizens (”Vietnam has nothing to do with us, why are we over there,”) a personal emotional stake in it. For all their mastery of propaganda and misinformation, Russia and China use it first and foremost to control their own people, which leaves them with some inevitable blind spots when they target Americans. Habit and established procedure is hard to break, after all - much less their innately different view of how people think and are best governed (i.e. controlled.) 

There’s more vectors available for direct kinetic attack of the American homeland than there were in WWII, of course - such as cruise missiles launched from submarines - but that would be a serious and very dangerous escalation akin to running up to a dragon and kicking it in the balls. The United States would probably avoid escalating to domestic targets itself - the war, like so many Cold War proxy conflicts before it, would be fought in the “crossing ground” of the Baltics and the South China Sea - unless our foes escalated against our own soil first. Given that America has a vastly superior ability to project power against their domestic territory than they can against ours, this is not a game they want to play. 

Wider global knock-on effects are hard to consider - especially since I’m no economist, or anything - but any short term disruption would likely be a wash. We’d suffer from losing trade with China, but at the same time, we’d also gain substantially. In fact, with how automated manufacturing of any sort is these days, China would probably come out far worse than us, because while automation would mitigate our economic gains (not as much people put back to work at US Steel, for instance,) the Chinese, who powered their economic rise by tapping their vast domestic market of cheap labor, would lose a lot of jobs, in both absolute and comparative terms. iPhones would be even more expensive without FoxConn’s slave labor force in China, though I hear they’ve located a new source of desperately poor unemployed people to exploit. There’d be a short-term loop-de-loop in the stock market and many international companies supply chains no matter how you look at it, but long-term would look better - companies have been souring on China for a while now due to their state-backed policy of “fleece the round-eyes for everything you can get, and once you’ve stolen their technology wholesale, kick them out of the country penniless while you make bank on their product.” For that reason a lot of companies are turning to India, which has many of the same problems (local/municipal corruption, etc.,) but is actively trying to rectify them, rather than making it state policy to fuck everyone not Chinese for the benefit of China. I think the long-term economic shifts are the most significant thing to look at because the war itself won’t last too long - it’s going to be fast, violent and decisive. China and Russia both need a quick knockout victory - I highly doubt this “hybrid war” shit is going to fly on NATO clay, not with Trump and Mattis there to drop the fucking hammer on them. Even if NATO doesn’t invoke article 5 (extremely unlikely,) the invaded nation will be screaming bloody blue murder for help, which is all the excuse we’ll need to roll in alone - and we can roll in alone, need be. China’s situation is self-explanatory - much like Japan in 1941, the best they can hope for is establishing MY HEMISPHERE ANGOLOS GET OUT REEEEE and even if they manage that, they just don’t have the assets needed to repel a full-scale push by the US once we muster our strength, especially after inevitable losses taken while defeating our local forces (7th fleet.) 

Disruption to international oil supply is the biggest threat, because of economic disruption to Europe that will then affect us downstream - not because of any domestic threat. America imports 40% of our oil from Canada, 11% from Saudi Arabia, 9% from Venezuela, 8% from Mexico and 4% from Colombia... and in 2015, we only imported 24% of our total oil consumption. 75% of our oil we produce our own damn selves - we’re the third largest producer in the world - and over half of that remaining quarter is imported from nations close to us - or at least, not in the Middle East. And that Middle Eastern nation, Saudi Arabia, is one of our favored allies, with a formidable military that uses a lot of our nicest toys. The two biggest reasons we’re allied with the Saudis, despite them being well-known bastards, is that they give us extensive regional bases (with which we can protect the Strait of Hormuz and generally come down hard on anyone kicking up shit in the Middle East’s oil-producing regions,) and because the Saudis have a very vested interest in not rocking the OPEC boat themselves, and would be very likely to use their military to defend the stability of the world’s oil supply, given that they’re extremely dependent on that. The Suez Canal is the other major chokepoint in that area, and it’s controlled by Egypt, which has the biggest army in the region, and likely the most competent of all Arab armies in the Middle East. 

The only thing that can really change any of this is the use of tac-nukes, as that could inflict horrific infrastructure damage to these crucial regions that would seriously damage the international economy for decades to come. However, I think it highly unlikely that those will get tossed around - for the simple fact that the United States has plenty to play with, too. If you’re wondering why those B-61 freefall bombs haven’t been removed from Incirlik yet, despite the questionable wisdom of keeping nukes inside an increasingly hostile and Russian-aligned Turkey, look no further than Russia’s recent penchant for rattling their tac-nuke saber to compensate for their weak conventional forces. They’ve gone so far as to suggest “de-escalating” a conventional conflict by striking with tac-nukes first. They’re full of shit, but it doesn’t matter if you believe them or not - what matters is that they believe us when we say that trying to nuke us, even with tac-nukes, will be met with nukes in return. Our tac-nuke arsenal is old - non-stealthy air-launched cruise missiles and B-61 freefall bombs - but even if the war kicks off before the B-61 is retrofitted with a GPS guidance kit and integrated with the F-35 for short-range, high-speed stealth strikes, the fact remains that we’ve got the ability to ensure air superiority - if not outright air supremacy - needed to employ even our current weapons with relative impunity. An F-15E performing a delayed lay-down delivery on the deck will do just fine. Once the Russians cross the nuclear threshold, we’re obligated to respond in kind, because failure to do so would encourage many more attacks of that sort. Demonstrating an unwillingness to retaliate leaves them with everything to gain and nothing to lose by nuking us. 

Worse, Russia’s saber-rattling might just backfire. They’ve been helicopter-dicking since last year about moving Iskander-M tactical ballistic missiles to Kalingrad, and helicopter-dicking harder because this missile is technically nuclear-capable. TBMs like the Iskander are key to Russia’s modern A2/AD strategy, same as they are for China - they allow them to attack sites a good 150 or even 200 miles deep in enemy territory, just like a cruise missile - but a ballistic missile not only arrives much faster, but is also much, much harder to shoot down by air defenses, making these weapons extremely useful for Russia and China, who don’t have nearly as many fighters, airborne jammers or other support equipment to back up their cruise missile strikes with. 

Unfortunately, after hurfblurfing for years about how they’ll tac-nuke us at the drop of a hat, the instant those warheads are detected in-flight, they’re likely to trigger an American response that assumes they’re nuclear, not conventional. And that could land Russia’s ass in much hotter water than they might want. If all the incoming warheads are destroyed - or even only some of them - by our ABM defenses, it’ll still leave open the question of some of the destroyed ones were nuclear, and the remainder conventional, or simply decoys to aid the nuclear weapons penetration. Because of the seriousness of it, we’d have to assume the worst, and that means that NATO forces would be standing there on a nuclear hair trigger. All this constrains Russia’s ability to use one of their best asymmetric weapons against us by significantly increasing the political and strategic risk of using them - either a a first salvo or a later follow-up, they equate a much bigger escalation than they would without the potential nuclear angle. 

So, no, anon, I don’t think the very possible future wars with Russia and China are going to lead to the kind of nightmare scenarios you’re describing. They’re not going to be fun, but simply put, neither Russia nor China really has the strength to scrap with us for long, and there’s a lot of things mitigating against the conflict suffering snowball-style escalation into a more damaging limited nuclear exchange. 

[thescalers-blog]

The Most Common Mistakes When Building Offshore Development Teams

When technology companies want to scale their software development, it's good practice to explore different options. However, for this post we're going to focus our attention on the most popular one: offshoring.

When companies decide to go offshore and build a team of talented engineers in another country (usually a developing tech nation like India), it's far from certain that they know how to do it. Or at least how to do it well.

And that can cause problems, potentially derailing the whole project before it gets off the ground!

If you're interested in **offshore software development** but have some hesitation over the how to move forward, we've got you covered. Let's take a look at the main mistakes companies commit when offshoring, as well as actionable advice for avoiding them and suggestions for a better strategy!

1. Underestimating the importance of an offshore partner

It's easy to research offshore development and be confident you can do it all on your own. After all, it's just hiring a few cheap developers and renting an office space - right? It's like selling your house: you could sell it yourself, but an experienced real estate agent will get a better price, more quickly, and with considerably less hassle.

When taking your software development offshore, it's crucial to work with an offshoring partner; the guys who know the industry, know the culture, and have seen it all before.

Why?

Two reasons. One, because you're only one person and there's only so much that you can do. Juggling the recruitment process, setting up an office, and all the extra administrative duties is a lot of work.

The other is that extending a company into another country, with a totally different social and work culture, takes expertise. Our founder Emilien worked in India for years before truly understanding how to bridge Western and Eastern work forces.

So, what can you do?

You can work with an offshore software development company to help guide and control your expansion. We've even put together some advice for choosing the best offshoring partner, to help simplify the process.

2. Offshoring to the wrong location

If you're taking development offshore, it's probably because recruiting locally isn't working out. Knowing where to look for your engineers is always the first hurdle!

The first instinct of many companies is to look nearby. We're irrationally prone to valuing proximity over talent, cost, or broader infrastructure. For instance, A German company might first look to Ukraine, since they share a similar time zone and are only a short flight away.

But as soon as your development leaves Germany, is there really any difference between going 1,000 miles and going 10,000 miles?

Where should you go?

India.

India produces roughly 1.5 million engineers every year, a number that is unmatched across the globe. India is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world today, and a real goldmine for tech companies.

With an effective recruitment process, you can access the largest, most talented tool of English-speaking software engineers on the planet. Cities like Bangalore are hubs for IT innovation and are home to some of the world's biggest tech companies.

And the number of engineers is just one advantage. Another is their attitude: they're generally committed, results-driven, and loyal to the business. And of course there's the attractive cost: with salaries falling roughly between $30-50 an hour for highly-experienced software developers, you can set up your ideal team for a fraction of the at-home cost.

Other expenses like recruiter fees, office space, and employee benefits are almost negligible compared to major cities like Paris or San Francisco. When it comes to offshoring, distance shouldn't be the deciding factor - quality should be.

3. Focusing too heavily on costs

One way or another, every business decision that you make eventually comes down to cost. If you've done your research, then you know that offshore software developers can get equivalent results at a much lower cost than at home.

But the key is to focus on cost-effectiveness, not just cost. If you're looking to scale up your software team, your focus should be on value, not raw numbers.

So where do you draw the line?

The key here is to do your research and figure out what the 'average' fees are from different offshoring companies. Ideally, you'd be able to discuss specific case studies and real numbers.

For instance, company X might charge 50% more than company Y. But if company X can also demonstrate a series of positive client results (i.e. positive ROI and product improvements) and company Y cannot, then the more expensive option is almost certainly your best bet.

And remember, this cost will still be cheap compared to what you're seeing at home. Lower cost is great, but lowest cost should give you pause.

4. Failing to establish long-term goals

While any offshore team will have goals or deliverables to meet from day one, it's crucial to understand that offshoring is not a 'quick fix': it's about the long-term.

Offshore development centres are about integrating full-time, permanent engineers into your existing workforce. Offshoring, unlike outsourcing, does not end with one project.

So, what should you do?

Since typical contracts run for a minimum of a few years, you should sit down with your offshoring partner and create a detailed road-map; a strategical course of action for the next two to five years. In fact, if your offshoring partner doesn't suggest this course of action straight out the gate, you should be concerned!

This will primarily focus on the size of the team, future projects, and any other changes that you would like to make in the foreseeable future. By doing this exercise, you formulate an action-plan for the business, going forward. This means you can hire the most-suitable engineers who are best-aligned with your company's goals.

In the long run, it means you'll be as successful as possible.

5. Not setting up the right tools

Let's say you've manage to build a dedicated team of world-class developers, at the right cost, and you're ready to transform the company. Without the right tools to manage that team, you're going to face significant challenges.

What tools do you need?

Communications

Geographical distance used to be a nightmare for remote teams - that's why we neve really had them in the past. Thankfully it's 2019 and global communication has become easy and straightforward. Without these tools in place, your business could meet with bottlenecks, sour relationships, and a whole lot of confusion.

For day-to-day communication, you've got instant messengers like Slack and Skype. You can silo users into specific 'rooms', or have one-on-one conversations through text or audio/video calling. Slack is also a great medium for sharing images and files which is transformative for more complicated projects!

Screen-sharing, cloud storage, and multi-access platforms like Google Docs are all essentials for working with a remote team.

Project management

When working with an in-house team, it's easy to keep track of each team member, their tasks and upcoming deadlines. Naturally, this is a bit harder with a team 6,000 miles and several time zones away.

That's why implementing task-tracking systems is crucial. The best way to do this is to set up a productivity tracker where each team member notes down their tasks, progress, and delays. This will help you see exactly how your team is getting along with their duties and responsibilities.

Along with regular meetings to review progress (using those communications tools), you can keep everything tightly under control.

It's important that you are as invested in the development process as your offshore team is. Even though you've partnered with an offshore development company that will guide you every step of the way, the actual team is still yours and you decide how it's run.

We've spent the last few years building a lot of successful, profit-generating development teams for our clients. If you'd like to learn more about how it works, or what you do to help guarantee success, we'd love to hear from you.

[mokosmart]

Guide on LoRa Network

LoRa Network Paves The Way To A Smart City

LoRa is a radio technology based on the LoRaWAN protocol, which in addition to 5G is suitable for the development of cities towards smart cities. In some applications, LoRa network is even more suitable than the often-mentioned new mobile radio standard.

Many with the goal of developing into a smart city. The idea of ​​an “intelligent city” (Smart City) is not new. The aim of implementing smart city technologies is to improve the quality of life for residents, create efficiency, shorten waiting times, meet the need for services and use the city’s resources and thus tax money more efficiently. A recent study shows that smart cities can save $ 5 trillion in costs by 2022.

The Internet of Things, IoT for short, plays an important part in this. It penetrates almost all areas of life and changes practically every company and every branch. In view of the possibilities of the next generation of 5G mobile communications, the question arises whether this technology is not the natural solution to existing smart city problems? But there are other technologies that may make more sense for certain applications in smart cities – such as reducing energy consumption through intelligent lighting, meters, etc. One of them is LoRa.

What is LoRa Network?

The quick answer: Long Range Radio. The LoRa technology for long-range wireless (radio) data communication is made possible by semiconductor ICs that use very little power. Depending on the function and functionality of such a radio transmitter, a battery can supply it with electricity for years. This should make it possible to run for 10 to 20 years without changing the battery. This enormously reduces the maintenance effort.

In contrast to 4G or 5G, LoRa network operate in an unlicensed spectrum. This enables bidirectional communication without the regulatory and auction costs required to build a network on state-licensed spectra. Specifically, LoRaWAN uses regionally different frequency ranges in the ISM band and SRD band. In Europe, the ISM band region 1 from 433.05 MHz to 434.79 MHz and the SRD band Europe from 863 MHz to 870 MHz. In North America, on the other hand, data transmission takes place on the ISM band region 2 from 902 MHz to 928 MHz.

Working together on an open, uniform protocol is intended to create added value and increase coverage.

LoRa Network in urban use

LoRa technology offers technical and economic advantages for smart city applications. LoRa and LoRaWAN provide intelligent monitoring and control infrastructure. This enables Städt to efficiently collect and analyze data from thousands of networked devices and systems. With this information, for example, they should be able to better decide which services are suitable for their plans.

For densely populated metropolitan areas, it is advantageous that LoRaWAN signals penetrate relatively deeply into urban areas. Smart city technology is changing the way cities, authorities and citizens interact.

Street lights in Boston

The example of Boston in Massachusetts shows what is possible with LoRa. The city has more than 67,000 street lamps. They illuminate busy streets, historical sights, and main streets. With over 1,600 switch boxes and 32,000 manhole covers, maintaining this infrastructure is a considerable communal effort – especially when the lamps are under heavy use in the winter months.

LoRa sensors and gateways

So how does smart lighting work in a city like Boston? With LoRa network, sensors can be integrated into any street lighting system that controls lighting and collects usage data. And the LoRa technology collects the data of all the nearby street lights through LoRa alliance. The gateway then sends the information to a public or private cloud server, which analyzes the data, eventually controls the lighting and automatically generates warnings about lights out and other failures if necessary. Warnings about burned-out lamps and other malfunctions if necessary.

Users can even add over-the-air (OTA) updates to switch between public and private networks if necessary. The bidirectional communication of the LoRa technology makes this possible. The range of applications for LoRa technology in smart cities is extremely diverse and does not end with lighting. The technology can be used in different ways:

Parking: Intelligent parking lot monitoring displays city parking lots to reduce traffic congestion when drivers are looking for a parking space. Studies show that drivers spend 17 hours a year looking for a parking space.

Traffic flow: Helicopters for traffic monitoring could one day be a thing of the past. Traffic congestion is a major challenge and disturbing for city dwellers. Intelligent traffic systems that monitor both vehicle and pedestrian traffic can guide cars and pedestrians much better. This is done using intelligent traffic lights that record traffic and coordinate the light phases. In the future, intelligent traffic systems could even include communication between traffic light signals and sensors in vehicles.

Maintenance of traffic lights: The monitoring of traffic lights enables city / municipal administrations to react quickly to burnt-out lamps, defective light poles (due to an accident) or to faulty signaling systems. This helps with traffic jams, possible accidents and other dangerous situations.

Predictive maintenance: Smart building systems can provide data that uses a predictive maintenance system to ensure that facilities are properly maintained. These systems can monitor vibrations and other physical conditions in buildings, bridges and historical monuments, so that the administration can take action before major repairs are required.

Waste disposal: The collection of waste is an essential area of ​​responsibility for the city administration. Too often, however, unnecessary resources are wasted, e.g. to empty half or little-filled waste bins. It is even worse if waste containers are overcrowded due to the lack of tracking options. Intelligent waste management systems can help identify waste levels in containers to optimize waste collection routes to improve efficiency, costs, and cleanliness.

Noise and air pollution: as more and more people move to cities, noise and air pollution are becoming an even bigger challenge. Smart noise and air pollution monitoring can provide data to improve the well-being of citizens and show the links between systemic health problems.

LoRa and LEDs: A case study with port cities

In 2017, Tallinn’s marina on the west coast of the Kopli Gulf on the Kakumäe peninsula (Estonia) tested LoRa technology. The port has extensive facilities, including pontoon docks, a floating hotel, administration buildings, dining facilities and a sailing school for children, making it a modern maritime center in this Baltic Sea region. In order to keep up to date with the latest port technology, the lighting must be modernized in addition to the infrastructure.

The LoRa installation is tested in all lamps in the port that can be remotely controlled via a LoRaWAN network. The lamp controller is connected to the LoRaWAN gateway through a radio system belonging to the port. Other gateways nearby also support this connection. The secure IoT hub platform visualizes encrypted data from the terminal nodes through the LoRaWAN backend.

LoRa network lighting system

The networking of lamps via LoRa enables autonomous operation with preconfigured lighting profiles so that the port records lower power consumption and has a cost-effective solution for the lighting system. Although the port is still testing the solution, the controller operated through LoRa has shown improved real-time control and lighting uniformity. The ability to monitor light intensity, operating mode and movement means that unnecessarily operated lamps can be avoided and thus unnecessary costs can be avoided.

With the implementation of this new lighting system, the port is setting the course for what future ports could look like. The security is not endangered. In addition to the transmission of data via the completely secure platform, In addition to transmitting data over a fully secure platform, access control systems enable more flexibility and real-time notifications as well as warnings about possible unauthorized activities. To address security concerns, Semtech’s technology ensures that no one has access to the root key, that the system cannot be copied, and that only the actual user has access to the sensor data.

The technology can also run on private networks, giving the provider more control, visibility, and security over the data. The technology can also be operated in a private network to give providers more control, visibility and security over the data. The implementation of intelligent systems that automate and simplify infrastructure processes (e.g. lighting) is one of the first steps towards smarter and more reliable processes in ports.

Less maintenance due to high energy efficiency

LoRa network is particularly advantageous if the added value of an application is increased and the investments in infrastructure and maintenance are to be reduced. The flexible, energy-saving LoRa technology supports the establishment of public or private networks over long distances. Imagine thousands of sensors installed in street lamps and you would have to replace the batteries in these sensors several times a year. Due to the extremely low power consumption of LoRa, batteries in sensors can enable years of operation, which significantly reduces the time, cost and personnel expenditure for maintenance.

In addition, the flexible and scalable architecture of LoRa, which is based on a non-licensed spectrum, enables a public or private network with a long-range to be set up quickly and easily – from ports to cities to parking garages. Sensors can even be installed on existing cell towers. This reduces the investment required to set up a network infrastructure that is to support IoT applications.

Together with sensors that offer a long-range (up to 50 km in rural areas) or over kilometers in densely populated urban areas or indoor areas, the advantage of LoRa is immediately apparent. Smart city technologies can offer new solutions for smarter and improved urban applications. Building a scalable, flexible, and secure long-range IoT network can make some infrastructure investments unnecessary and reduce maintenance costs. LoRa and the LoRaWAN specification are a suitable basis for successful smart city solutions.

This article is from https://www.mokosmart.com/lora-network/

If you are looking for LoRa network solution, MOKOSmart is your best choice!