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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Goof Week: Sports Goofy in SoccerMania: GoofTales Woo-oo! (Paid For for WeirdKev27)

Gorsh all you happy people and welcome back to Goof Week, my Weeklong Celebration of everyone’s favorite goofus.

And today we have a special treat, something nice and obscure but something that still has a vital place in Disney History. Welcome folks to Sports Goof in Soccermania!

So yesterday in my Goof Troop review I wished there had been another DuckTales episode with Goofy, you know maybe find out what happened to Peg, see Max and Roxanne again that sort of thing. Whelp SOMEONE must’ve hid a Monkey’s Paw around here somewhere because I got this special instead on comision. This is a VERY intresting little artifact as it came out only 4 months before DuckTales, was produced around the same time, and was written by Tad Stones, who would both go on to work on DuckTales and even more importantly create Darkwing Duck.

Not only that but it has some odd things attached to it: it’s the first major production starting Scrooge, as he had an educational short about him, the first animated appearance of the Beagle Boys and most important the FIRST time Russi Taylor would voice Huey, Dewey and Louie, something she’d do till her passing a few years ago. At the time of this article she has not been recast, though I personally vote for Cristina Valenzuela, who took over the role of Young Donald and frankly does such a good job with that voice I didn’t know if Russi had already recorded lines for Season 3 before her passing.

So what IS Sports Goofy in Soccermania you ask? It was a TV Special from 1987, again four months before DuckTales, that was later sold on VHS. My guess is Disney intended for this to become a regular thing like the Charlie Brown or Garfield specials, but my honest guess is with DuckTales MASSIVE success they wanted to put all the TV Animation resources into making more shows to go with it. The fact the special is essentailly a Scrooge story with Goofy in it and Scrooge and the Boys were now tied up in DuckTales probably helped the decision. So we only got one of these and i’m proud to share it for Goof Week. So join me under the cut to see what a Sports Goof is, what Scrooge sounds like without Alan Young or David Tennant andto see me refrence the film UHF because I likes it.

So we open with the titles which are neat and then open at the Money bin, we even get a great sign gag that looks like something Carl Barks would write.

So Scrooge greets his nephews the way he greets everybody.. with a canon to the face... though he backs of firing once he realizes it’s them. The boys ALL wear red this special so .. I guess Huey won and now rules all three bodies with an iron fist? So the Huey Hive Mind asks Scrooge for a donation, a standard Scrooge setup, ask the rich asshole for money, as their trying to help the local soccer program and they need a buck fiddy for a trophy.

Scrooge’s voice here.. is terrible. I do not like to bash voice actors, they are hard working talented people who do a lot of great stuff, often for less pay than they deserve, and this blog ALWAYS makes that painfully clear. And Will Ryan is not without talent: While he hasn’t done much i’m familiar with he did play Petrie in Land Before Time and was great in it. So while I don’t dislike him as a person.. he did an utterly DREADFUL Scrooge. He dosen’t really attempt to do a scottish accent despite the character still saying cannae at one point, and as for what accent he is going for...

His Scrooge just sounds like someone trying to do a “foreign” accent and failing. It just sounds weird and makes every bit of his dialouge aside from one a chore to sit through. And the dialouge isn’t bad dialouge, it’s a well written and animated Scrooge even with the lower budget than Ducktales, but the voice just ruins it for me. Even without Young and Tennant to compare it to this just blows and the fact it’s paired up with the iconic Russi Taylor voice for the triplets.

This being Scrooge he instead fishes a Trophy out of the bin that’s all banged up and dinky and shoos them out. So in natural Barksian fashion the trophy turns out to be worth a million dollars. So we get some reaction shots.. INCLUDING GRANDMA DUCK!

For DuckTales fans joining us who have ZERO idea who that is, since she sadly did not make it into the reboot and Frank did have ideas, Grandma Duck is Donald, Della and Gladstone’s grandma. She’s a sweet old country woman who lives on a farm and is in fact the one who sold him Kilmotor HIll, with her husband renaming it from Killmule hill. I like her a lot since she reminds me of my own grandma and like her she still works when she can. Donald’s cousin Gus loafs around and eats as her farmhand. As you can tell I like her a lot, agani because she reminds me of one of my grandmas so this was nice even if she was only around for 20 seconds of screentime.

This ends up in the paper and sends Scrooge through the roof, literally when he finds out.

Two notes before we move on: The bin has a unique really cool design , though I get why other productions haven’t used it: besides this one’s obscurity while cool it just looks a bit TOO nice for Scrooge. Even in 2017 while still damn cool looking it still looks practicle. This .. is not that.

This looks like MC Hammer built this. It still looks awesome bu tit’s just not Scrooge sadly.

The other is that his Butler is named Jeeves here, but looks almost exactly like Duckworth. Just feels weird is all.

Naturally the Beagle Boys happen upon the paper too and their leader, no name given has a plan: Enter legitmately and win the cup all legal like, which dosen’t sound like it lives up to the beagle code of no hones twork.... until he brings up theri going ot cheat their asses off.

Meanwhile Scrooge tries bribing the boys with a giant trophy at their house... with Donald oddly absent despite Anselmo having taken over for Nash by this point. I know he was still a bit rough at the roll, but come on. It’s just.. weird especailly for reasons i’ll get into soon.

So Scrooge agrees to sponsor the boys teams so he can get the trophy back square, and is forced to buy a knew ball and here we FINALLY get Goofy. I say finally because this special is 20 mintues long and it takes almost a fourth of it for him to arrive. It’s just weird for him to not be in it for so long. I mean I don’t want THIS

Flashbeagle didn’t take a fourth of the special to get to Flashbeagle. It did take longer than that to get to the title track but when your sitting on THIS

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You gotta use it JUST right. Goofy here is not played by Bill Farmer, which IS odd as he did start playing him that year, but my guess is they weren’t sure if they were going with Farmer or the actor who played him in this special, Tony Pope, so they were trying out both as whoever DID get the role would have it for life. Disney takes the casting of the sensational 7 VERY seriously, as evidenced by the fact most cast changes are caused by death and unlike with Tony and Donald it’s clear Colvig hadn’t picked a succesor. I can also see why it’s a hard choice: while farmer IS excellent and was the right man for the job, Pope is still excellent in the role, bringing the warmth and energy you’d expect from Goofy and having excellent comedic timing that’s vital to getting the dog man right. I can see why this was such a hard choice, even if I also see they went with Farmer: Farmer just has slightly more energy to the roll. It’s a small diffrence and something that dosen’t effect the special, but it is a KEY diffrence and the reason Bill’s THE goofy to me even over his original voice actor Pinto Colvig.

Also I may of mispoke there... see it’s not Goofy in this special it’s SPORTS Goofy. No really every bit of dialogue refers to him as Sports Goofy. It’d be like if they refered to then CEO Micheal Eisner as Won’t Think Through Eurodisneyland Micheal Eisner.

So Sports Goofy helps them get a ball in an honestly awesome way and shows despite his clumsy manner, he’s damn cordinated, easily putting everything up and showing some real skill with the ball. So Moneygrubbing Scrooge decides Sports Goofy is his ticket to get the trophy back and recuits goofy as coach and star player for the boys team.

So Asshole Scrooge meets his team the Greenbacks.. which are a bunch of random animal characters with no real personality. They are a hippo, a goat, expresso the ostrich, a navy (blue) seal, an elephant in a beanie, a killaroo and a cheetah or leopard. But I have one question, really simple really easy one...

You need 11 players for a soccer team, thank you google. So they DID get that accurate. With Goofy and the Triplets you only need 7 more. THIS is why Donald’s absence is glaring: he’s just oddly not there when they needed 7 other characters but Elephant in a Beanie gets in there. And it’s not hard ot fill either: Donald , Daisy (Because duh), Gyro and Grandma Duck (Because both cameoed but I only mentioned Grandma Duck, though this is ALSO Gyro’s first apperance), Gladstone (who as it turns out had a cameo storyboarded that didn’t make it into the final product), Gus (Since grandma duck) and Scrooge’s butler since he was in an earlier scene anyway so why waste the character model. They could still play the same roll as easily steamrolled underdogs and it’d make more sense. It just baffles me that with such a deep bench to play from, they don’t use ANY OF IT in favor of the cast of Animal Soccer World.

The Greenbacks can’t play for greenjack, which worries Scrooge.. but Goofy is able to carry them to the finals, while the Beagle Boys make their way there too. We find this out.. via newspaper transition. We get a bunch of headlines telling us what happened instead of you know a montage because that costs money and they already spent 1.50 making this special.. they only have 50 cents left.

So the Beagles recognizing Sport Goofy is the only thing in their way plots a kidnappin. We get a gut busting scene of the beagles all hiding in Sports Goofy’s house with him being oblvious only to spring on him.

The next day with Sports Goofy a no show the team is bummed, even mor ewhen they find a kidnapping note from Don’tGetNotToLeaveEvidence Beagle Boys. Seriously give that to the officals.

So Asshole Scrooge tries to give a rousing speech... and it is a sight to behold and the one highlight of pope as scrooge... it’s why I picked it as the article image. That glitching isn’t me by the way: it REALLY does that. Coupled with the yellow eyes i’ts just fantastic. So the team decides to morosely play the game and Hivemind Huey boos scrooge for not having faith in him. Instead of again you know telling the officials. Maybe assimilating the other made Huey dumber. I

So the game begins and the Cheating Beagles cream the Give Up To Easily Green Backs, while Sports Goofy watches from the other Crime Beagles hideout. It honestly reminds me of UHF: a dumb well meaning guy whose vital to something succeding is kidnapped.. it dosen’t involve Weird Al dressing up as rambo but still. It also makes me want UHF but with the disney cast. Fethry as weird al, Donald as his best friend, Fethry’s girlfriend for the comcis as weird al’s girlfriend, Gyro as philo, Goofy as Stanley, and Pete of course is Stacey Keach. I could go on but you get the point. Someone draw this. Sport Goofy is a clever bastard and escapes by working one of his shoes off, taking a nearbye knife and cutting himself free.. and almost stabbing a beagle boy in the face but that would just make two. Sport Goofy escapes and the lunkheaded beagle boys chase after him IN THEIR CAR WHILE GOOFY RUNS AHEAD OF IT. Goofy, he can really move! Goofy, he’s got attitude! Goofy HE’S THE FASTEST THING ALLIIIIVEEEEEE. Sport Goofy makes it in time fo rhalf time, rallies the troops and it goes how you’d expect: They overcome the beagles blatant cheating, win the cup, the beagles attempt to cheat with a rigged ball backfires and they all get arrested. It’s by the numbers stuff. We end with Scrooge deciding to dontate the trophy instead (though in a great bit asking if it was tax deductible), and posing for a team shot> We get some awesome credits music and we’re out

Final Thoughts:

This special is mediocre: There are only a handful of great jokes, it’s your standard “teamwork makes the dreamwork plot” that dosen’t work because our underdogs really CAN’T play without their star, and Scrooge’s voice hurts to listen to. Pope and Taylor are great and while Will Ryan is an awful Scrooge, he is a good Beagle Boy or five.

It IS worth a watch though. It’s riffable enough with the sometimes sloppy unfinished animatoin in the last part and Scrooge’s terrible voice, and it is still is a neat oddity for 90′s kids like myself to not only see Russi’s first thing as Huey Dewey and Louie, but to also see Scrooge and Goofy with vastly diffrent voice actors, as well as Gyro and the Beagle Boys first animated apperances. The fact this came just months before Ducktales makes it all the more intresting. So if your looking for a legit good Disney product.. this is shoddy at best if well meaning. But as a bit of disney history, especially only clocking in at 20 minutes so it’ sa brisk watch, it’s worth a look if your into that.

Next On Goof Week: We come on in To The House of Mouse where goofy becomes faster than a speeding punchline, more powerful than pete when his family has to wrestle him to the ground to take him to the doctor and able to make tall leaps of logic in a single bound. it’s SUPER GOOF!

So thank you for reading and if you liked this review give it a like and consider joining my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. As a patron you’d get access to exclusive reviews, the patreon’s discord and to pick a short each time I do one of these shortstaculars. Donald’s comnig next month and the deadline is in only a few days to join up for said month so the clock is ticking. Even a dollar a month helps me reach my stretch goals so please i fyou can sign up today and if not, I understand and i’ll see you at the next rainbow

#sports goof #soccermania #goofy goof #goof #scrooge mcduck #ducktales #huey duck #the beagle boys #gyro gearloose #grandma duck #animation #disney #soccer #football

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adalidda · 3 years ago

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Illustration Photo: Application of fertilizer and herbicide mix to a field east of Genoa, Illinois, USA (credits: Bill Meier / Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0))

Optimisation of Nutrient budget in Agriculture

Sustainable agricultural production systems not only deliver nutritious food and other raw materials, they are also key drivers of economic growth in rural areas. Roughly 25% of the annually produced terrestrial agricultural biomass is used by humans, about 70% [1](mostly from grassland, by-products, and inedible crop residues) converted through animals into food and manure, and the remainder goes into biofuel. Unsustainable agricultural systems can cause a variety of adverse environmental effects, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and air and water pollution due to poor management of nutrients.

When possible, the holistic consideration of plant and animal nutrition within the agricultural production systems could contribute to more sustainability of the food chain by promoting the minimization of nutrients leakage and improved nutritional values of fertilisers, feed and food. This approach could cover the basic nutritional elements (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen), the macro elements (phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sulphur) but also the trace elements (zinc, copper, iron, iodine, selenium, manganese). In line with the European Green Deal, the development of a nutrient budgeting approach could focus on the fluxes of carbon (C).

However, there are substantial knowledge gaps regarding the measurement and understanding of the impacts of nutrients flow in different farming practices (conventional, agro-ecological and organic systems, specialised and mix farming systems) at various scales, from local to global, and the capacity to model those impacts.

Proposals should build on existing and new knowledge, data, models (including in situ calibration measurement), artificial intelligence and tools to:

Optimise and harmonise nutrient and water flow models, indicators and data for quantification and assessment to prevent or reduce environmental pollution caused by nutrients, across sectors, for different types of agricultural practices (conventional, organic and agro-ecological agriculture), and scales – farm, local, regional and river basin. Explore and assess safe alternative nutrient sources and pathways (e.g. organic vs inorganic), enhance management and recycling of organic wastes and explore nutrient recovery opportunities (e.g. by using treated sewage sludge or wastewater) as well as nutrient mobilisation through microorganisms; Build upon available results from previous EU projects funded under the Horizon 2020 topic CE-RUR-08-2018-2019-2020: Closing nutrient cycles. Enhance nutrient use efficiency at different levels. Analyse climate change effects of certain nutrient flows, including interactions between nutrient, water and carbon cycles. Develop biological models for nutrients flows remote sensing tools, in agricultural systems: for physical, chemical and biological parameters, using smart sensors and AI technologies. Develop digital platforms to allow precision nutrient management at farm scale and landscape scale. Proposals must implement the 'multi-actor approach’ and ensure adequate involvement of the farming sector and, as relevant, bio-based industry active in rural areas.

Expected Outcome

In line with the zero pollution action plan and the farm to fork strategy, the successful proposal will support to limit and reduce pollution due to the excess of nutrients and nutrient losses (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) in the environment, stemming from excess use in agriculture. It will contribute with new and enhance knowledge to the development of integrated nutrient management plan.

Project results are expected to contribute to all following expected outcomes:

Improve nutrient budget and flows by identification of optimal combinations of nutrients in different farming systems (conventional, agro-ecological and organic systems) following, when possible, a holistic approach of the plant and animal productions system. New approaches and methods supported with sound indicators to monitor and measure nutrients flows and practices with the greatest climate change mitigation potential and water and nutrient leakages, and biodiversity preservation while ensuring economic farm viability. Identification and targeted implementation of individual or combined region-specific agricultural practices that help balance nutrient cycles and Nature Based Solutions for plant and animal nutrition and health optimizing the use of external inputs and implementation of regulated deficit strategies. Quantification of the potential to save particularly N and P emissions from the implementation of relevant individual or combined agriculture practices, e.g. organic agriculture, agro-ecology, conservation agriculture, improve organic and mineral fertilization management, etc., that enhance soils health and combat eutrophication and water pollution. Improved nutrient budget at different scales, by sound quantification of the inputs and outputs of water and nutrients in different agricultural systems including quantitative environmental and economic indicators for farms, regions and/or products. Enhanced models to identify contamination and pollution hotspots locally, to extrapolate to regional, national and global solutions. Strengthened transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and integrated scientific support for relevant EU policies and priorities (common agricultural policy (CAP), Green Deal, the zero pollution action plan, the farm to fork, etc.).

Application Deadline: 6 October 2021 17:00:00 Brussels time

Check more https://adalidda.com/posts/BYSYLdedqi2r9wz6i/optimisation-of-nutrient-budget-in-agriculture

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sagarbiswas · 3 years ago

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#MAR #MAKAUT #lockdownactivities #MandatoryAdditionalRequirements Name of Activity: Review a Movie Name of the Movie: Interstellar

My Review: To infinity and beyond goes “Interstellar,” an exhilarating slalom through the wormholes of Christopher Nolan’s vast imagination that is at once a science-geek fever dream and a formidable consideration of what makes us human. As visually and conceptually audacious as anything Nolan has yet done, the director’s ninth feature also proves more emotionally accessible than his coolly cerebral thrillers and Batman movies, touching on such eternal themes as the sacrifices parents make for their children (and vice versa) and the world we will leave for the next generation to inherit. An enormous undertaking that, like all the director’s best work, manages to feel handcrafted and intensely personal, “Interstellar” reaffirms Nolan as the premier big-canvas storyteller of his generation, more than earning its place alongside “The Wizard of Oz,” “2001,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Gravity” in the canon of Hollywood’s visionary sci-fi head trips. Global box office returns should prove suitably rocket-powered.

We begin somewhere in the American farm belt, which Nolan evokes for its full mythic grandeur — blazing sunlight, towering corn stalks, whirring combines. But it soon becomes clear that this would-be field of dreams is something closer to a nightmare. The date is an unspecified point shortly, close enough to look and feel like tomorrow, yet far enough for several radical changes to have taken hold in society. A decade on from a period of widespread famine, the world’s armies have been disbanded and the cutting-edge technocracies of the early 21st century have regressed into more utilitarian, farm-based economies.

“We’re a caretaker generation,” notes one such homesteader (John Lithgow) to his widower son-in-law, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former NASA test pilot who hasn’t stopped dreaming of flight, for himself and for his children: 15-year-old son Tom (Timothee Chalamet) and 10-year-old daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), the latter a precocious tot was first seen getting suspended from school for daring to suggest that the Apollo space missions actually happened. “We used to look up in the sky and wonder about our place in the stars,” Cooper muses. “Now we just look down and wonder about our place in the dirt.”

And oh, what dirt! As “Interstellar” opens, the world — or at least Cooper’s Steinbeckian corner of it — sits on the cusp of a second Dust Bowl, ravaged by an epidemic of crop blight, a silt-like haze hanging permanently in the air. (Some of this scene-setting is accomplished via pseudo-documentary interviews with the elderly residents of some more distant future reflecting on their hardscrabble childhoods, which Nolan films like the “witness” segments from Warren Beatty’s “Reds.”) And as the crops die, so the Earth’s atmosphere becomes richer in nitrogen and poorer in oxygen, until the time when global starvation will give way to global asphyxiation.

But all hope is not lost. NASA (whose massive real-life budget cuts lend the movie added immediacy) still exists in this agrarian dystopia, but it’s gone off the grid, far from the microscope of public opinion. There, the brilliant physicist Professor Brand (Michael Caine, forever the face of avuncular wisdom in Nolan’s films) and his dedicated team have devised two scenarios for saving mankind. Both plans involve abandoning Earth and starting over on a new, life-sustaining planet, but only one includes taking Earth’s current 6-billion-plus population along for the ride. Doing the latter, it seems, depends on Brand’s ability to solve an epic math problem that would explain how such a large-capacity vessel could surmount Earth’s gravitational forces. (Never discussed in this egalitarian society: a scenario in which only the privileged few could escape, a la the decadent bourgeoisie of Neill Blomkamp’s “Elysium.”)

Many years earlier, Brand informs, a mysterious space-time rift (or wormhole) appeared in the vicinity of Saturn, seemingly placed there, like the monoliths of “2001,” by some higher intelligence. On the other side: another galaxy containing a dozen planets that might be fit for human habitation. In the wake of the food wars, a team of intrepid NASA scientists traveled there in search of solutions. Now, a decade later (in Earth years, that is), Brand has organized another mission to check up on the three planets that seem the most promising for human settlement. And to pilot the ship, he needs Cooper, an instinctive flight jockey in the Chuck Yeager mode, much as McConaughey’s laconic, effortlessly self-assured performance recalls Sam Shepards as Yeager in “The Right Stuff” (another obvious “Interstellar” touchstone).

Already by this point — and we have not yet left the Earth’s surface — “Interstellar” (which Nolan co-wrote with his brother and frequent collaborator, Jonathan) has hurled a fair amount of theoretical physics at the audience, including discussions of black holes, gravitational singularities and the possibility of extra-dimensional space. And, as with the twisty chronologies and unreliable narrators of his earlier films, Nolan trusts in the audience’s ability to get the gist and follow along, even if it doesn’t glean every last nuance on first viewing. It’s hard to think of a mainstream Hollywood film that has so successfully translated complex mathematical and scientific ideas to a lay audience (though Shane Carruth’s ingenious 2004 Sundance winner “Primer” — another movie concerned with overcoming the problem of gravity — tried something similar on a micro-budget indie scale), or done so in more vivid, immediate human terms. (Some credit for this is doubtless owed to the veteran CalTech physicist Kip Thorne, who consulted with the Nolans on the script and receives an executive producer credit.)

The mission itself is a relatively intimate affair, comprised of Cooper, Brand’s own scientist daughter (Anne Hathaway), two other researchers (Wes Bentley and the excellent David Gyasi), and a chatty, sarcastic, ex-military security robot called TARS (brilliantly voiced by Bill Irwin in a sly nod to Douglas Rain’s iconic HAL 9000), which looks like a walking easel but proves surprisingly agile when the going gets tough. And from there, “Interstellar” has so many wonderful surprises in store — from casting choices to narrative twists and reversals — that the less said about it the better. (Indeed, if you really don’t want to know anything more, read no further.)

It gives nothing away, however, to say that Nolan maps his infinite celestial landscape as majestically as he did the continent-hopping earthbound ones of “The Prestige” and “Batman Begins,” or the multi-tiered memory maze of “Inception.” The imagery, modeled by Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema on Imax documentaries like “Space Station” and “Hubble 3D,” suggests a boundless inky blackness punctuated by ravishing bursts of light, the tiny spaceship Endurance gleaming like a diamond against Saturn’s great, gaseous rings, then ricocheting like a pinball through the wormhole’s shimmering plasmic vortex.

With each stop the Endurance makes, Nolan envisions yet another new world: one planet a watery expanse with waves that make Waimea Bay look like a giant bathtub; another an ice climber’s playground of frozen tundra and sheer-faced descents. Moreover, outer space allows Nolan to bend and twist his favorite subject — time — into remarkable new permutations. Where most prior Nolan protagonists were forever grasping at an irretrievable past, the crew of the Endurance races against a ticking clock that happens to tick differently depending on your particular vantage. New worlds mean new gravitational forces, so that for every hour spent on a given planet’s surface, years or even entire decades may be passing back on Earth. (Time as a flat circle, indeed.)

This leads to an extraordinary mid-film emotional climax in which Cooper and Brand return from one such expedition to discover that 23 earth years have passed in the blink of an eye, represented by two decades’ worth of stockpiled video messages from loved ones, including the now-adult Tom (a bearded, brooding Casey Affleck) and Murphy (Jessica Chastain in dogged, persistent “Zero Dark Thirty” mode). It’s a scene Nolan stages mostly in closeup on McConaughey, and the actor plays it beautifully, his face a quicksilver mask of joy, regret, and unbearable grief.

That moment signals a shift in “Interstellar” itself from the relatively euphoric, adventurous tone of the first half toward darker, more ambiguous terrain — the human shadow areas, if you will, that are as difficult to fully glimpse as the inside of a black hole. Nolan, who has always excelled at the slow reveal, catches even the attentive viewer off guard more than once here, but never in a way that feels cheap or compromises the complex motivations of the characters.

On the one hand, the movie marvels at the brave men and women throughout history who have dedicated themselves, often at great peril, to the greater good of mankind. On the other, because Nolan is a psychological realist, he’s acutely aware of the toil such lives may take on those who choose to lead them, and that even “the best of us” (as one character is repeatedly described) might not be immune from cowardice and moral compromise. Some people lie to themselves and to their closest confidants in “Interstellar,” and Nolan understands that everyone has his reasons. Others compensate by making the most selfless of sacrifices. Perhaps the only thing trickier than quantum physics, the movie argues, is the nature of human emotion.

Nolan stages one thrilling set piece after another, including several hairsbreadth escapes and a dazzling space-docking sequence in which the entire theater seems to become one large centrifuge; the nearly three-hour running time passes unnoticed. Even more thrilling is the movie’s ultimate vision of a universe in which the face of extraterrestrial life bears a surprisingly familiar countenance. “Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” harks the good Professor Brand at the start of the Endurance’s journey, quoting the melancholic Welshman Dylan Thomas. And yet “Interstellar” is finally a film suffused with light and boundless possibilities — those of the universe itself, of the wonder in a child’s twinkling eyes, and of movies to translate all that into spectacular picture shows like this one.

It’s hardly surprising that “Interstellar” reps the very best big-budget Hollywood craftsmanship at every level, from veteran Nolan collaborators like production designer Nathan Crowley (who built the film’s lyrical vision of the big-sky American heartland on location in Alberta) and sound designer/editor Richard King, who makes wonderfully dissonant contrasts between the movie’s interior spaces and the airless silence of space itself. VFX supervisor Paul Franklin (an Oscar winner for his work on “Inception”) again brings a vivid tactility to all of the film’s effects, especially the robotic TARS, who seamlessly inhabits the same physical spaces as the human actors. Hans Zimmer contributes one of his most richly imagined and inventive scores, which ranges from a gentle electronic keyboard melody to brassy, Strauss-ian crescendos. Shot and post-produced by Nolan entirely on celluloid (in a mix of 35mm and 70mm stocks), “Interstellar” begs to be seen on the large-format Imax screen, where its dense, inimitably filmic textures and multiple aspect ratios can be experienced to their fullest effect.

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Oil Giants Prepare to Put Carbon Back in the Ground During more than three decades in the oil and gas business, Andy Lane has managed the construction of enormous facilities for extracting and transporting natural gas, in places like Trinidad and Indonesia. Now he is working in his native England, taking on a complex and expensive venture that essentially aims to reverse what he has spent much of his career doing. Mr. Lane’s newest assignment is designed to collect carbon pollution from a group of chemical plants in northeast England and send it to a reservoir deep under the North Sea. The multibillion-dollar project could be a breakthrough for a technology known as carbon capture and storage, a concept that has been around for at least a quarter-century to reduce the climate-damaging emissions from factories. The idea sounds deceptively simple: Divert pollutants before they can escape into the air, and bury them deep in the ground where they can do no harm. But the technology has proved to be hugely expensive, and it has not caught on as rapidly as some advocates hoped. Still, lots of attention is being paid to carbon capture as a way to meet the targets in the 2016 Paris climate agreement. As a candidate, President Biden promoted carbon capture’s promise; last month, Exxon Mobil announced a $3 billion investment in low-carbon efforts, including carbon capture; and a week later, Elon Musk promised to put up $100 million for a contest seeking the best carbon-capture technology. The project in England, in an area called Teesside along the River Tees, is led by the oil giant BP and expects to have size on its side: The area is home to one of the country’s largest clusters of polluting factories and refineries. By linking them together — collecting all their emissions by pipeline, and charging them a fee — BP hopes to achieve sufficient scale to make a profitable business of tackling their pollution. Teesside “has quite a lot of the big industrial emissions sources in the U.K., and that is why this project makes sense,” Mr. Lane said. It is also fast becoming a focal point of attention in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, which is eager to cement support in the onetime Labour stronghold. The area’s turn toward Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party helped it win big in the 2019 national election. On Wednesday, Teesside was designated one of eight “freeports” in England, an economic zone with lower taxes and other business incentives. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the Exchequer, also gave it an extended shout-out in his budget presentation in Parliament that day, citing the carbon capture effort as he called Teesside “the future economy of this country.” Mr. Lane and the area’s influential Conservative mayor, Ben Houchen — described by Mr. Sunak as “an inspiring local leader” — portray carbon capture as the means to rejuvenating run-down industrial regions like Teesside. “It puts the region on the map and attracts additional investment,” Mr. Houchen said. Their plans would certainly turn Teesside into a vast construction site, potentially employing 2,000 workers. BP and its partners propose to build a very large electric power station fueled by natural gas near a shuttered steel mill at the mouth of the river. The plant would help replace Britain’s aging fossil-fuel-burning power stations and provide essential backup electricity when the country’s growing fleet of offshore wind farms are becalmed. Equipment would remove the carbon dioxide from the power station’s exhaust. Pipes would run through the area rounding up more carbon dioxide from a fertilizer plant and a factory that makes hydrogen, which is winning favor as a low-carbon fuel. BP also expects to connect other plants in the area. Pipes would take the carbon dioxide 90 miles out under the North Sea, where it would be pumped below the seabed into porous rocks. Four other oil giants — Royal Dutch Shell, Norway’s Equinor, France’s Total and Italy’s Eni — are also investors in the plan, although the final go-ahead awaits a financial commitment from the British government. The price for the initial stage could approach $5 billion. About two dozen carbon capture projects are operating globally, but the technology has struggled to overcome high costs and worries about liability if the carbon dioxide somehow escaped. Some also see it as a lifeline — albeit an expensive one — for polluters. “Carbon capture is being used as a Trojan horse by the fossil fuels industry to keep demand for fossil fuels alive,” said Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth in Britain. He added that it would be better to create processes that didn’t “create pollution in the first place.” Carbon capture has had its share of false starts in Britain. David Hopkins, managing director for Britain of CF Fertilisers, a major emitter and a likely customer for BP, said he had been discussing versions of the Teesside project “for at least 10 years.” But increasingly ambitious climate change goals help make the case for technologies like carbon capture. While Britain and other countries have made strides reducing emissions from electric power generation, carbon capture will be needed to deal with large-scale polluters like steel, cement and chemical plants, experts say. Many governments and corporations increasingly appreciate that carbon capture “will be needed as part of the portfolio of technologies to reach net zero” for carbon emissions, said Samantha McCulloch, an analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris. She said investment in the technology was accelerating. Oil companies are also under growing pressure to reduce the carbon content of the energy products they sell. They are investing in wind and solar power, which have proved to work, as well as in technologies, like carbon capture, that fit with their expertise and may not pay off until well into the next decade, if ever. What’s distinctive about the Teesside scheme is that it tries to make a virtue of emissions. Mr. Lane and Mr. Houchen, the mayor of the Tees Valley, said it could help preserve 5,500 jobs at chemical plants in the area and attract new investors who want their exhaust fumes cleaned up. Unemployment among Mr. Houchen’s 675,000 constituents is about one-third higher than the British average. Big polluters say the BP plan could keep them in business. They already pay about $45 a ton to emit harmful gases under an emissions trading system, and that amount is expected to increase. Mr. Hopkins of CF Fertilisers, which employs 200 people in Teesside making fertilizer products using hydrogen derived from natural gas, said the facility might eventually put 700,000 tons a year of carbon dioxide into BP’s pipes. If pumped into the atmosphere, that amount would cost more than $30 million a year in carbon taxes at current prices. Hooked up to the carbon capture system, users like CF are expected to pay fees negotiated with the government that would be competitive with or cheaper than the carbon trading tax. Without a carbon capture plan, Mr. Hopkins said, the plant might need to close because of pressure from cheaper, imported fertilizers made producing higher levels of pollutants. Carbon capture “has a massive role to play” in meeting climate goals, said Oswald Clint, an analyst at Bernstein, a market research group. If the major oil companies “can make a business out of it by collecting emissions from industrial players, then even better,” he added. Mr. Lane already has about 45 engineers and others working out the details of Teesside. Louise Duffy, a senior geologist at BP, has spent two years scoping out the realm beneath the North Sea for a safe place to park the emissions. She and her colleagues have settled on a stretch of sandstone about 15 miles long and five miles wide, which could hold as much as 500 million tons of carbon dioxide. BP would begin by injecting about three million tons of carbon dioxide a year, ultimately reaching as much as 20 million tons a year if another proposed carbon capture project, led by Equinor south of Teesside near Hull, is connected. At BP, which is cutting some 10,000 jobs as it slowly exits the fossil fuel business, “it is good to have new areas for geologists to move into,” Ms. Duffy said. The British government is considering underwriting the scheme and others by providing, among other things, a guaranteed price for the electricity from the new power plant. This kind of subsidy, designed to attract investors, helped kick-start the country’s thriving offshore wind-turbine industry. Late last year, Mr. Johnson’s government also said it would seed carbon capture investments with a fund of up to £1 billion. The government has proposed two carbon capture “clusters” like Teesside by the mid-2020s and two more by 2030. All the candidates are northern industrial areas, the region that helped assure the Conservative Party’s victory last election. The investments would bolster Mr. Johnson’s pledge that Britain’s carbon emissions will reach net zero by 2050. The Climate Change Committee, Britain’s environmental watchdog, said in a recent study that carbon capture would be “essential to achieving” that goal at lowest cost. If BP can put together a package including government support that provides sufficient profits for the company, the power plant could begin operating in around five years. Mr. Lane’s goal, he said, is to create a regulatory and technology model that can be used many times, cutting costs like the wind and solar power industries. “These things can be done, and they can be done repeatedly in many parts of the world,” he said. “But you have to start.” Source link Orbem News #Carbon #Giants #ground #oil #Prepare #put

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designbygrace2019 · 5 years ago

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WK5: Secondary Research

I have completed a wide range of secondary research in order to give some context to my qualitative interviews. This helps me to understand what is happening in the world with sustainability, current trends and discourse and the scale of the problem. I also took this opportunity to further delve into the psychology behind behaviour and what can lead to sustainable behaviour change.

New Zealand Situation

Major sustainability/environmental issues in New Zealand

Climate change and Dairy

Climate change as well as plastic pollution are the issues that get the most media attention. In NZ we are in particular facing the challenge of emissions and environmental damage caused by dairy farming, the backbone of our economy. This issue demonstrates the complexity of sustainability which involves both economic and social issues as well as environmental. Other big emitters include transport, in Auckland alone it makes up 40% of our emissions. The Government have responded to climate change with the zero carbon bill as well as signing the Paris agreement and the council with the climate action framework. The Zero carbon bill will hold the government to account around emissions especially the target of carbon neutral by 2050. The Paris agreement was created by the United Nations also a creator of the sustainable development goal. Nations who have signed it have agreed to limit warming to below 1.5 degrees below pre - industrial levels. (Wright, 2017)

Soil Erosion

Another less talked about environmental issue within sustainability. It is basically when land erodes away and is caused by nature such as land slides, thunder storms, scree and steam banks. human actions such as deforestation, and land clearing for farming which left soil vulnerable to rain, frost and wind. Introduction of new species such as possums and stoats which trample and eat plants also speeds up soil erosion. The displaced soil shifts to flatter land or gets into waterways and the ocean causing more environmental damage. Because the nz economy is so reliant on agriculture and food is integral to life and survival soil erosion is a massive issue and very much relevant to sustainability. (Gregg, 2008)

Other relevant issues include the ecological/biodiversity crisis and over population.

Key figures and organisations in Sustainability in NZ include:

Politically:

Green Party Mp’s, in particular co-convenor James Shaw, Minister for Climate Change and Eugenie Sage -

Ministry for the Environment asos min for the environment.

Jacinda Ardern has also said that climate change will be her generations “nuclear free” moment. And released the wellbeing budget ain 2019. Which indicates a shift in thinking from being solely economy focused to include social and environmental considerations.

Business:

Sustainable Business Network

Carbon Coalition

Academic:

AUT has the Vice Chancellors Sustainability Task force (Which I am a part of as a student representative)

Community:

Many community groups have sprung up to address a wide range of sustainability issues including:

For the Love of Bees

Sustainable Coastlines

School Strike for Climate

Eco Matters

Green washing and token actions

This term describes organisations and companies who make false claims about the “environmental friendliness” of their products to increase sales. This i a threat to genuine sustainability as it lulls people into thinking they are making a difference or gives them license to consume more. It also create sceptics of organisations and companies who are genuinely sustainable. Token actions such as banning plastic bags whilst a positive step and important can also prevent further more meaningful action. Some people believe that by switching from plastic straws to metal, is all they need to do to be more sustainable. This can limit people from understanding sustainability at a depth and truly shifting their behaviour, lifestyle and ultimately worldview.

Overall this section of my research makes it very clear how important it is for the public to engage in these issues in order to force change.

Behaviour change

Trans theoretical model: includes six stages an individual must go through to change a particular behaviour - especially used for harmful behaviours and addictions. Stages are: 1. Pre-contemplation, 2. Contemplation, 3. Preparation, 4. Action, 5. Maintenance, 6. Termination. A approximate time is given to each stage 6 months i required to maintain the action before it becomes habitual and the individual is no longer tempted to regress into bad habits. Theory highlighted the need for time to think and mental processes before making big shifts in life style.

Behaviour Interventions: My research from design research last semester was all about how behaviour can be manipulated by the design of products. And sustainable sue of a product can be subtly prompted through design. For example a fridge can be designed so that it is easier for the user to organise and remember where things are kept. This prevents them from keeping the fridge door open and shuffling items when trying to locate something, reducing energy usage.

Motivating Sustainable Behaviours: This was an interesting report I read last semester, and have gone over again about the psychology of sustainable behaviour. Drivers of behaviour were discussed. I learnt that new ideas in psychology include that decision making comes from two separate systems one is rational, deliberate and rules based the other is associative unconscious, sensory driven and impulsive. Sustainable behaviours do no generally appeal to the associative system, but strategies can be employed to make it so, or to drive the rules-based system to reject the associative systems gut/initial rejection of a sustainable behaviour.

Including:

Social proofing - when an individual believes that something is being done by those around them they are much more likely to engage in that behaviour too.

Breaking down Bystander Confusion or the inertia caused by confronting an overwhelming problem,

Emphasising intrinsic value or other benefits such as personal health etc.

Make information visible and accessible.

Encourage mindfulness/critical thinking.

Focus on making small changes and steps rather than being perfect.

(Manning, 2009)

References:

Gregg, P. (2008, November 24). Soil Erosiion and Conservation. Retrieved from teara: https://teara.govt.nz/en/soil-erosion-and-conservationWright, J. (2017).

Manning, C. (2009). Psychology of Sustainable Behaviours. Minnesota: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.Climate change and agriculture:

Understanding the biological greenhouse gases. Wellington: Parliament Commissioner For The Environment.

WK 5: Comparing Semester One Primary Research

Recap of most recent Insight Statements:

The future of my children and/or the next generation motivate me to do more

Sustainability is a broad and complex problem that can be difficult to comprehend and then difficult to act upon

Strong leadership from government and big organisations is required to make change

Busy lifestyle where I am trying to “get ahead” or keep up with the jones’s prevents me from taking positive action

sometimes I am sceptical of environmentally beneficial actions and this prevents me from acting

Communicating Sustainability in certain ways can make me feel either empowered or guilty”

Insight Statements from Semester one:

“role models in my life can encourage me and inform me to make sustainable choices”

“lack of time, money, and infrastructure or facilities that support sustainability are barriers to me taking sustainable actions.”

If I believe that government and business have greater responsibility for championing sustainable change than individuals I am less likely to engage in environmental/sustainability programs/volunteer events

a) Those that said government and businesses were most responsible for championing sustainable change reasoned that this was because these groups were the biggest polluters and/or had the most capacity to have impact on this issue. (4//8) Of the four that said govt was responsible ¾ were from the non community group. All of those that said businesses were responsible were from thee non-community group. b) Those that said the individuals were most responsible for championing sustainable change cited these reasons: (5/8) Out of this 5, 4 were from the community group.

“even if I am not aware of green washing, I will be conscious of the fact that not all “green” marketed or accredited businesses are necessarily authentic, truthful or accurate”

“If I cannot see the tangible benefit of what I am doing for the environment it makes the action less gratifying”

“some respondents located a particular area in sustainability that they were most interested in such as recycling, energy sources, community and wellbeing etc. and repeatedly made reference to these areas with their question answers”

many respondents identified frustration as a feeling they had towards sustainability in general. And said the lack of action from others was a reason for this.

Reflection

Consistencies between both groups included an awareness of green washing, the idea of leadership/role models. Lack of time and money being a barrier interestingly the more recent lot of interviewees who were older also mentioned lack of energy as a barrier to action. More acknowledgement that sustainability is a broad and complex problem came from the older group as well. Future of children as a reason to be more sustainable was emphasised more in the older group.

#i #E

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agritecture · 7 years ago

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Agritecture Design Workshop Fosters Community Revitalization in Baltimore via EcoFarm Model

Hello Fellow Agritecture Readers,

It is Team one's pleasure to share the experience our team had during the two-day Baltimore Agritecture Design Workshop. On day one of workshop, we were introduced to our respective interdisciplinary teams. Team one had a variety of professionals including a design architect, a landscaper, an engineer, a community organizer, and multiple entrepreneurs and students.workshop, we were introduced to our respective interdisciplinary teams. Team one had a variety of professionals including a design architect, a landscaper, an engineer, a community organizer, and multiple entrepreneurs and students.

After some light networking, the three teams engaged in a crash course of knowledge sharing on different topics related to vertical and urban farming. This session was primarily lead by experts at Blue Planet Consulting and by sponsors Hord Coplan Macht, Urban Pastoral, and Natural Concerns. included topics such as: the need of urban agriculture in current conditions, a crash course on the economics, and even a talk on the local Church's efforts to realize East Baltimore’s revitalization.of urban agriculture in current conditions, a crash course on the economics, and even a talk on the local Church's efforts to realize East Baltimore’s revitalization.as: the need of urban agriculture in current conditions, a crash course on the economics, and even a talk on the local Church's efforts to realize East Baltimore’s revitalization.

VIEW DRONE FOOTAGE OF THE WORKSHOP CANVAS DESIGN SITE HERE

These talks were co-organized by Agritecture and by the event’s gold-level sponsor, BMoreAg. BMore Ag is a Baltimore based benefit LLC that is working to realize a community urban agriculture center in Baltimore. The teams were energized to know that our efforts and ideas at the workshop would contribute to actual plans that have been set in motion.

Yet at the same time, day one was a humbling experience to process so many well-rounded lessons on vertical farming techniques. We were feeling a bit overwhelmed about how we were going to use these insights on the fly for our workshop project.We brainstormed few ideas on how to design our project which is community centric, self sustain, bring Jobs to community and a model to be replicated for other community projects.

Below are Team one Participants:

Lisa Ferretto - Architect & Sustainability Director Esther Kim - Landscape Architecture Student Dan Feingold - Landscape Foreman Martha Brown - Grower Kevin Stanley - Grower Julie Buisson - Entrepreneur/Horticuturalist Abdul Samad K - Software Engineer Eyal Li - Student Crystal Forman - City Government & Urban Agriculture Community Organizer Bobby Cunningham - Urban Agriculture Lobbyist

Day Two:

During breakfast on the 2nd day we had one final short educational presentation on the +farm project, which is DIY project for anyone who wants to try on vertical farming techniques. After that wrapped up it was time to apply what we learned on day one during the workshop’s deep design dive.

Necessary facilities were allocated to each team to kick start their work. With Lisa from the architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht leading team one, we divided ourselves into groups to work on different sprints of project deliverables as part of our final presentation.

We first worked on values, our project should be centered and build upon:

1. Healthy food and well-being 2. Education 3. Employment 4. Sustainability 5. Community connection.

Once we finalized our team values, we started analyzing site map provided by organizing our team. Some of our team focused on how to use existing facilities, structures, onsite farm to its full potential before proposing new structures while other groups focusing on what crops to grow, marketing the concept, and formulating the project budget.

As the morning passed, our team’s enthusiasm grew. Our vision was coming together to transform the site into a space where the community can learn, grow and depend on healthy food and better lives. By the end of the allocated time, we had put together all the pieces for final presentation and preparing ourselves for tough competition with other teams.

With all respective dignitaries and judges seated, the teams were ready to pitch in their presentations. The long day of hustling to prepare the best plan to revitalize and build community in West Baltimore was completed. It was now time for each team to present their pitch with different ideas on how to utilize site space efficiently, which crops to grow and how to make space self-sustain.

Team one presentation was started by Lisa Ferretto explaining site architecture:

Site Design

The “Perlman Place” site design focuses around a center gathering space upon which all other elements radiate out. Pedestrian connections draw people into this center from Sinclair Lane, E. North Avenue, N. Collington Avenue, and N. Patterson Park Avenue. Vehicular traffic travels one way north on Perlman Place with on street parking and traffic calming measures at the center. From this center “square,” one will encounter the Welcome Center- the existing house on the site that has been renovated to include an entry lobby, retail grocer, sharing center, tool library, offices, and support spaces such as storage and restrooms. The southern wall of this building will have a large mural that brands this new Perlman Place Community Ag Center and will be integrated with a new entry, windows and garage doors opening to an exterior gathering space off of the square with a covered pergola, picnic tables with an outdoor grill.

The new hydroponic farms consist of 2 buildings and total 25,000 square feet. Photovoltaic (PV) Panels are on the roof and rainwater is collected on the south ends for irrigation of all the farms. The west hydroponic farm is connected to the renovated house or Welcome Center, while the east hydroponic farm is connected to the new Learning Center. The Learning Center consists of 2 classrooms, one of which opens to an interior teaching kitchen, as well as support spaces include one office, restrooms, and storage. This new classroom building will be net zero energy and water and the southern wall will have garage doors opening to an outdoor classroom area with an outdoor teaching kitchen.

A Memorial Garden (already in conception on the existing site) is to the east of the “Perlman Place” center and a Playground Garden is to the west – both with relocated fig trees to act as a buffer to the existing alley. To the southeast of the center, are the Research Farms - 2 trailers that will demonstrate additional alternate farming techniques. Community Gardens are in their existing location, but enhanced with collected rainwater irrigation and other support services.

The majority of the existing farms of Civic Works Real Food Farms are intended to stay and to be operated in collaboration with the new Perlman Place Community Ag Center. A geothermal well field under these existing farms can efficiently heat and cool the new Hydroponic Farm buildings and potentially the new infill houses in the surrounding blocks. The block along N. Collington Avenue is planned to stay residential with renovation of the existing houses as needed and new infill construction is planned to fill in the vacant gaps. Pedestrian connections are planned through the N. Collington Avenue residential block as well as the N. Patterson Park Avenue Real Food Farms block to tie back to the “Perlman Place” center.

Sustainability Considerations

Water – Rainwater Collection, filtration.

Energy – Solar energy, Geo Thermal.

Circulation – People

Other team members explained different methods proposed to grow different crops, budget necessary to complete project,federal and state tax credits available.

Fresh organic produce grown year-round.

80% of produce is marketed to local markets and restaurants for profit.

20% is distributed to local consumers at a not-for-profit rate through churches, markets, and schools.

Campus education initiatives - green building and alternative farming practices.

Interactive learning activities in farming and cooking, specialized for children. Additional classrooms and outdoor space for community activities.

Long term work opportunities in technical positions

After answering few questions from Judges, we prepare to hear final decision which team presentation was selected, to our surprise Team one collaborative effort was selected for Cities West Baltimore Revitalization Project. We were thrilled and humbled to win the judges nod, but in reality, every participant was a winner. The experience was informative, productive and insightful, cheers to Baltimore.

Giving Back

The final highlight of the event was a very special moment, when a $1,500 check was donated to the Mary Harvin Transformation Center courtesy of M&T Bank. The Mary Harvin Transformation Center is a local community development corporation in Baltimore that supports youth and families with the goal of assisting them in their quest to move towards quality living. It was absolutely delightful to be a part of an Agritecture Workshop that connected, educated, and gave back to the city.

About the Authors:

Abdul Samad K, B.Tech Information Technology,MBA Systems is a Payments and solutions Consultant at Capgemini USA. He has 10 Years of experience in developing Complex software legacy systems.Volunteer in New York CoderDojo Chapter.

LISA M. FERRETTO, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP is a Sustainability Director, Senior Associate, and Architect at Hord Coplan Macht. She has over 21 years’ experience and has worked on a variety of project types throughout her career including community planning, housing, and education. She is a frequent lecturer, has volunteered with AIA COTE, the City Repair Project, and Green Building Task Forces. Lisa is a Climate and Green School Leader; SEED and Eco-Charrette Accredited; a MD Green Building Council member, founder of GREEN events | Baltimore, and was recognized as one of Maryland’s 2016 Top 100 Women.

Learn more about Agritecture Design Workshops: http://agritecture.com/workshop

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marymosley · 5 years ago

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Highlights of Union Budget 2020-21

Presenting the first Union Budget of the third decade of 21st century, Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, today unveiled a series of far-reaching reforms, aimed at energizing the Indian economy through a combination of short-term, medium-term, and long-term measures.

The Key Highlights of Union Budget 2020-21 are as follows:

Three prominent themes of the Budget

Aspirational India – better standards of living with access to health, education and better jobs for all sections of the society

Economic Development for all – “Sabka Saath , Sabka Vikas , Sabka Vishwas”.

Caring Society – both humane and compassionate; Antyodaya as an article of faith.

Three broad themes are held together by:

Corruption free, policy-driven Good Governance.

Clean and sound financial sector.

Ease of Living underlined by the three themes of Union Budget 2020-21.

Three components of Aspirational India

Agriculture, Irrigation, and Rural Development

Wellness, Water, and Sanitation

Education and Skills

Sixteen Action Points for Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development

Rs. 2.83 lakh crore to be allocated for the following 16 Action Points:

Rs. 1.60 lakh crore for Agriculture, Irrigation & allied activities.

Rs. 1.23 lakh crore for Rural development & Panchayati Raj. –

Agriculture credit:

Rs. 15 lakh crore target set for the year 2020-21.

PM-KISAN beneficiaries to be covered under the KCC scheme.

NABARD Re-finance Scheme to be further expanded.

Comprehensive measures for 100 water-stressed districts proposed.

Blue Economy:

Rs. 1 lakh crore fisheries’ exports to be achieved by 2024-25.

200 lakh tonnes fish production targeted by 2022-23.

3477 Sagar Mitras and 500 Fish Farmer Producer Organisations to involve youth in fisheries extension.

Growing of algae, sea-weed and cage culture to be promoted.

Framework for development, management and conservation of marine fishery resources.

Kisan Rail to be setup by Indian Railways through PPP:

To build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables (milk, meat, fish, etc.

Express and Freight trains to have refrigerated coaches.

Krishi Udaan to be launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation:

Both international and national routes to be covered.

North-East and tribal districts to realize Improved value of agri-products.

One-Product One-District for better marketing and export in the Horticulture sector.

Balanced use of all kinds of fertilizers – traditional organic and innovative fertilizers.

Measures for organic, natural, and integrated farming:

Jaivik Kheti Portal – online national organic products market to be strengthened.

Zero-Budget Natural Farming (mentioned in July 2019 Budget) to be included.

o Integrated Farming Systems in rain-fed areas to be expanded.

o Multi-tier cropping, bee-keeping, solar pumps, solar energy production in non-cropping season to be added.

PM-KUSUM to be expanded:

20 lakh farmers to be provided for setting up stand-alone solar pumps.

Another 15 lakh farmers to be helped to solarise their grid-connected pump sets.

Scheme to enable farmers to set up solar power generation capacity on their fallow/barren lands and to sell it to the grid.

Village Storage Scheme:

To be run by the SHGs to provide farmers a good holding capacity and reduce their logistics cost.

Women, SHGs to regain their position as Dhaanya Lakshmi.

NABARD to map and geo-tag agri-warehouses, cold storages, reefer van facilities, etc.

Warehousing in line with Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) norms:

Viability Gap Funding for setting up such efficient warehouses at the block/taluk level.

Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to undertake such warehouse building.

Financing on Negotiable Warehousing Receipts (e-NWR) to be integrated with e-NAM.

State governments who undertake implementation of model laws (issued by the Central government) to be encouraged.

Livestock:

Doubling of milk processing capacity to 108 million MT from 53.5 million MT by 2025.

Artificial insemination to be increased to 70% from the present 30%.

MNREGS to be dovetailed to develop fodder farms.

Foot and Mouth Disease, Brucellosis in cattle and Peste Des Petits ruminants (PPR) in sheep and goat to be eliminated by 2025.

Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – 0.5 crore households mobilized with 58 lakh SHGs for poverty alleviation.

Wellness, Water and Sanitation

Rs. 69,000 crore allocated for overall Healthcare sector.

Rs. 6400 crore (out of Rs. 69,000 crore) for PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY):

More than 20,000 hospitals already empanelled under PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).

Viability Gap Funding window proposed for setting up hospitals in the PPP mode.

Aspirational Districts with no Ayushman empanelled hospitals to be covered in the first phase.

Targeting diseases with an appropriately designed preventive regime using Machine Learning and AI.

Jan Aushadhi Kendra Scheme to offer 2000 medicines and 300 surgicals in all districts by 2024.

TB Harega Desh Jeetega campaign launched – commitment to end Tuberculosis by 2025.

Rs. 3.60 lakh crore approved for Jal Jeevan Mission:

Rs. 11,500 crore for the year 2020-21.

Augmenting local water sources, recharging existing sources, and promoting water harvesting and de-salination.

Cities with million-plus population to be encouraged to achieve the objective during the current year itself.

Rs.12, 300 crore allocation for Swachh Bharat Mission in 2020-21:

Committment to ODF-Plus in order to sustain ODF behaviour.

Emphasis on liquid and grey water management.

o Focus also on Solid-waste collection, source segregation, and processing.

Education and Skills

Rs. 99,300 crore for education sector and Rs. 3000 crore for skill development in 2020-21.

New Education Policy to be announced soon.

National Police University and National Forensic Science University proposed for policing science, forensic science, and cyber-forensics.

Degree level full-fledged online education program by Top-100 institutions in the National Institutional Ranking Framework.

Up to 1-year internship to fresh engineers to be provided by Urban Local Bodies.

Budget proposes to attach a medical college to an existing district hospital in PPP mode.

Special bridge courses to be designed by the Ministries of Health, and Skill Development:

To fulfill the demand for teachers, nurses, para-medical staff and care-givers abroad.

To bring in equivalence in the skill sets of the workforce and employers’ standards.

150 higher educational institutions to start apprenticeship embedded degree/diploma courses by March 2021.

External Commercial Borrowings and FDI to be enabled for education sector.

Ind-SAT proposed for Asian and African countries as a part of Study in India program.

Economic Development

Industry, Commerce and Investment

Rs. 27,300 crore allocated for 2020-21 for development and promotion of Industry and Commerce.

Investment Clearance Cell proposed to be set up:

o To provide “end to end” facilitation and support.

o To work through a portal.

Five new smart cities proposed to be developed.

Scheme to encourage manufacture of mobile phones, electronic equipment and semi-conductor packaging proposed.

National Technical Textiles Mission to be set up:

o With four-year implementation period from 2020-21 to 2023-24.

o At an estimated outlay of Rs 1480 crore.

o To position India as a global leader in Technical Textiles.

New scheme NIRVIK to be launched to achieve higher export credit disbursement, which provides for:

o Higher insurance coverage

o Reduction in premium for small exporters

o Simplified procedure for claim settlements.

Turnover of Government e-Marketplace (GeM) proposed to be taken to Rs 3 lakh crore.

Scheme for Revision of duties and taxes on exported products to be launched.

o Exporters to be digitally refunded duties and taxes levied at the Central, State and local levels, which are otherwise not exempted or refunded.

All Ministries to issue quality standard orders as per PM’s vision of “Zero Defect-Zero Effect” manufacturing.

Infrastructure

Rs.100 lakh crore to be invested on infrastructure over the next 5 years.

National Infrastructure Pipeline:

o Rs. 103 lakh crore worth projects; launched on 31st December 2019.

o More than 6500 projects across sectors, to be classified as per their size and stage of development.

A National Logistics Policy to be released soon:

o To clarify roles of the Union Government, State Governments and key regulators.

o A single window e-logistics market to be created

o Focus to be on generation of employment, skills and making MSMEs competitive.

National Skill Development Agency to give special thrust to infrastructure-focused skill development opportunities.

Project preparation facility for infrastructure projects proposed.

o To actively involve young engineers, management graduates and economists from Universities.

Infrastructure agencies of the government to involve youth-power in start-ups.

Rs.1.7 lakh crore proposed for transport infrastructure in 2020-21.

Highways:

Accelerated development of highways to be undertaken, including:

o 2500 Km access control highways.

o 9000 Km of economic corridors.

o 2000 Km of coastal and land port roads.

o 2000 Km of strategic highways.

Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and two other packages to be completed by 2023.

Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway to be started.

Proposed to monetise at least 12 lots of highway bundles of over 6000 Km before 2024.

Indian Railways:

Five measures:

o Large solar power capacity to be set up alongside rail tracks, on land owned by railways.

o Four station re-development projects and operation of 150 passenger trains through PPP.

o More Tejas type trains to connect iconic tourist destinations.

o High speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to be actively pursued.

o 148 km long Bengaluru Suburban transport project at a cost of Rs 18600 crore, to have fares on metro model. Central Government to provide 20% of equity and facilitate external assistance up to 60% of the project cost.

Indian Railways’ achievements:

o 550 Wi-fi facilities commissioned in as many stations.

o Zero unmanned crossings.

o 27000 Km of tracks to be electrified.

Ports & Water-ways:

Corporatizing at least one major port and its listing on stock exchanges to be considered.

Governance framework keeping with global benchmarks needed for more efficient sea-ports.

Economic activity along river banks to be energised as per Prime Minister’s Arth Ganga concept.

Airports:

100 more airports to be developed by 2024 to support Udaan scheme.

Air fleet number expected to go up from present 600 to 1200 during this time.

Electricity:

“Smart” metering to be promoted.

More measures to reform DISCOMs to be taken.

Power:

Rs.22, 000 crore proposed for power and renewable energy sector in 2020-21.

Expansion of national gas grid from the present 16200 km to 27000 km proposed.

Further reforms to facilitate transparent price discovery and ease of transactions.

New Economy

To take advantage of new technologies:

o Policy to enable private sector to build Data Centre parks throughout the country to be brought out soon.

o Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connections through Bharatnet to link 100,000 gram panchayats this year.

o Rs.6000 crore proposed for Bharatnet programme in 2020-21.

Measures proposed to benefit Start-ups:

o A digital platform to be promoted to facilitate seamless application and capture of IPRs.

o Knowledge Translation Clusters to be set up across different technology sectors including new and emerging areas.

o For designing, fabrication and validation of proof of concept, and further scaling up Technology Clusters, harbouring test beds and small scale manufacturing facilities to be established.

o Mapping of India’s genetic landscape- Two new national level Science Schemes to be initiated to create a comprehensive database.

o Early life funding proposed, including a seed fund to support ideation and development of early stage Start-ups.

Rs.8000 crore proposed over five years for National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications.

Caring Society

Focus on:

o Women & child,

o Social Welfare;

o Culture and Tourism

Allocation of Rs. 35,600 crore for nutrition-related programmes proposed for the FY2020-21.

Rs.28, 600 crore proposed for women specific programs.

Issue about age of a girl entering motherhood – proposed to appoint a task force to present its recommendations in six months’ time.

Financial support for wider acceptance of technologies, identified by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to ensure no manual cleaning of sewer systems or septic tanks, to be provided.

Rs. 85, 000 crore proposed for 2020-21 for welfare of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes.

Rs. 53, 700 crore provided to further development and welfare of Scheduled Tribes.

Enhanced allocation of Rs. 9,500 crore provided for 2020-21 for senior citizens and Divyang.

Culture & Tourism

Allocation of Rs. 2500 crore for 2020-21 for tourism promotion.

Rs.3150 crore proposed for Ministry of Culture for 2020-21.

An Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation under Ministry of Culture proposed; with the status of a deemed University.

5 archaeological sites to be developed as iconic sites with on-site Museums:

o Rakhigarhi (Haryana)

o Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh)

o Shivsagar (Assam)

o Dholavira (Gujarat)

o Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu)

Re-curation of the Indian Museum in Kolkata, announced by Prime Minister in January 2020.

Museum on Numismatics and Trade to be located in the historic Old Mint building in Kolkata.

4 more museums from across the country to be taken up for renovation and re-curation.

Support for setting up of a Tribal Museum in Ranchi (Jharkhand).

Maritime museum to be set up at Lothal- the Harrapan age maritime site near Ahmedabad, by Ministry of Shipping.

State governments expected to develop a roadmap for certain identified destinations and formulate financial plans during 2021 against which specified grants to be made available to the States in 2020-21.

Environment & Climate Change

Allocation for this purpose to be Rs.4400 crore for 2020-21.

Proposed to advise the utilities to close the running old thermal power plants with carbon emission above the pre-set norms.

States that are formulating and implementing plans for ensuring cleaner air in cities above one million to be encouraged.

PM launched Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) with Secretariat in Delhi. Second such international initiative after International Solar Alliance.

Governance

Clean, corruption-free, policy driven, good in intent and most importantly trusting in faith.

Taxpayer Charter to be enshrined in the Statute will bring fairness and efficiency in tax administration.

Companies Act to be amended to build into statues, criminal liability for certain acts that are civil in nature.

Other laws with such provisions are to be corrected after examination.

Major reforms in recruitment to Non-Gazetted posts in Government and Public sector banks:

An independent, professional and specialist National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for conducting a computer-based online Common Eligibility Test for recruitment.

A test-centre in every district, particularly in the Aspirational Districts.

A robust mechanism to be evolved for appointment including direct recruitment to various Tribunals and specialised bodies to attract best talents and professional experts.

Contract Act to be strengthened.

New National Policy on Official Statistics to:

Promote use of latest technologies including AI.

Lay down a road-map towards modernised data collection, integrated information portal and timely dissemination of information.

A sum of Rs. 100 crore allocated to begin the preparations for G20 presidency to be hosted in India in the year 2022.

Development of North East region:

Improved flow of funds using online portal by the Government.

Greater access to financial assistance of Multilateral and Bilateral funding agencies.

Development of Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh:

An amount of Rs. 30,757 crore provided for the financial year 2020-21.

o The Union Territory of Ladakh has been provided with Rs. 5,958.

Financial Sector

Reforms accomplished in PSBs :

10 banks consolidated into 4.

Rs. 3,50,000 crore capital infused.

Governance reforms to be carried out to bring in transparency and greater professionalism in PSBs.

Few PSBs to be encouraged to approach the capital market to raise additional capital

Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) permitted to increase Deposit Insurance Coverage to Rs. 5 lakh from Rs.1 lakh per depositor.

Scheduled Commercial Bank’s health under monitoring through a robust mechanism, keeping depositors’ money safe.

Cooperative Banks to be strengthen by amending Banking Regulation Act for:

Increasing professionalism.

Enabling access to capital.

Improving governance and oversight for sound banking through the RBI.

NBFCs eligibility limit for debt recovery reduced from:

Rs. 500 crore to Rs 100 crore asset size.

Rs 1 crore to Rs 50 lakh loan size.

Private capital in Banking system:

Government to sell its balance holding in IDBI Bank to private, retail and institutional investors through the stock exchange.

Easier mobility in jobs:

Auto-enrolment in Universal Pension coverage.

Inter-operability mechanism to safeguard the accumulated corpus.

Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority of India Act to be amended to:

Strengthen regulating role of PFRDAI.

Facilitate separation of NPS trust for government employees from PFRDAI.

Enable establishment of a Pension Trust by the employees other than Government.

Factor Regulation Act 2011 to be amended to:

Enable NBFCs to extend invoice financing to the MSMEs through TReDS

New scheme to provide subordinate debt for entrepreneurs of MSMEs by the banks

Would be counted as quasi-equity.

Would be fully guaranteed through the Credit Guarantee Trust for Medium and Small Entrepreneurs (CGTMSE).

The corpus of the CGTMSE would accordingly be augmented by the government.

Window for MSME’s debt restructuring by RBI to be extended by one year till March 31, 2021.

More than five lakh MSMEs have already been benefitted.

An app-based invoice financing loans product for MSMEs to be launched.

To prevent the problem of delayed payments and consequential cash flows mismatches.

Export promotion of MSMEs:

For selected sector such as pharmaceuticals, auto components and others.

An Rs 1000 crore scheme anchored by EXIM Bank together with SIDBI.

o Hand holding support for technology upgradations, R&D, business strategy etc.

Financial Market

Deepening Bond Market.

Certain specified categories of Government securities to be opened fully for non -resident investors also.

FPI limit in corporate bonds increased to 15% from 9% of its outstanding stock.

New legislation to be formulated for laying down a mechanism for netting of financial contracts.

Scope of credit default swaps to expand.

Debt Based Exchange Traded Fund expanded by a new Debt-ETF consisting primarily of Government Securities.

To give attractive access to retail investors, pension funds and long-term investors.

A Partial Credit Guarantee scheme for the NBFCs formulated post the Union budget 2019-20 to address their liquidity constraints.

New mechanism to be devised to further this.

o Government support to securities so floated.

Infrastructure Financing

Rs.103 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline projects earlier announced.

Rs 22,000 crore to cater to the equity support to Infrastructure Finance Companies such as IIFCL and a subsidiary of NIIF.

IFSC, GIFT city: full of potential to become a centre of international finance as well as a centre for high end data processing:

o An International Bullion exchange(s) to be set up as an additional option for trade by global market participants with the approval of regulator.

Disinvestment

Government to sell a part of its holding in LIC by way of Initial Public Offer (IPO).

Fiscal Management

XV Finance Commission (FC):

o XV Finance Commission has given its first report for FY2020-21

o Recommendations accepted in substantial measure

o Its final report for five years beginning 2021-22 to be submitted during the latter part of the year.

GST Compensation Fund:

o Balances due out of collection of the years 2016-17 and 2017-18 to be transferred to the Fund, in two instalments.

o Hereinafter, transfers to the fund to be limited only to collection by way of GST compensation cess.

Overhaul of Centrally Sponsored Schemes and Central Sector Schemes necessary:

o To align them with emerging social and economic needs of tomorrow

o To ensure that scarce public resources are spent optimally

On the recent debate over transparency and credibility of projected fiscal numbers, it is assured that procedure adopted is compliant with the FRBM Act.

For the FY 2019-20:

o Revised Estimates of Expenditure: at Rs.26.99 lakh crore

o Revised Estimates of Receipts: estimated at Rs.19.32 lakh crore.

For year 2020-21:

o Nominal growth of GDP estimated at 10%.

o Receipts: estimated at Rs.22.46 lakh cr

o Expenditure: at Rs.30.42 lakh cr.

Significant tax reforms for boosting investments recently undertaken. However, expected tax buoyancy expected to take time.

Fiscal deficit of 3.8% estimated in RE 2019-20 and 3.5% for BE 2020-21. It comprises two ingredients;

o 3.3% for year 2019-20 and 3% for the 2020-21 budget estimate.

o Deviation of 0.5%, consistent with Section 4(3) of FRBM Act, both for RE 2019-20 and BE 2020-21. (Section 4 (2) of the FRBM Act provides for a trigger mechanism for a deviation from the estimated fiscal deficit on account of structural reforms in the economy with unanticipated fiscal implications.)

o Return path, committing to fiscal consolidation without compromising needs of investment out of public funds, is laid in Medium Term Fiscal Policy cum Strategy Statement.

o Market borrowings: Net market borrowings: Rs.4.99 lakh crore for 2019-20 and Rs.5.36 lakh crore for 2020-21.

A good part of the borrowings for the financial year 2020-21 to go towards Capital expenditure that has been scaled up by more than 21%.

Direct Tax

Direct Tax Proposals – To stimulate growth, simplify tax structure, bring ease of compliance, and reduce litigations.

Personal Income Tax:

Significant relief to middle class taxpayers.

New and simplified personal income tax regime proposed:

Taxable Income Slab (Rs.) Existing tax rates New tax rates 0-2.5 Lakh Exempt Exempt 2.5-5 Lakh 5% 5% 5-7.5 Lakh 20% 10% 7.5-10 Lakh 20% 15% 10-12.5 Lakh 30% 20% 12.5-15 Lakh 30% 25% Above 15 Lakh 30% 30%

Around 70 of the existing exemptions and deductions (more than 100) to be removed in the new simplified regime.

Remaining exemptions and deductions to be reviewed and rationalised in coming years.

New tax regime to be optional – an individual may continue to pay tax as per the old regime and avail deductions and exemptions.

Measures to pre-fill the income tax return initiated so that an individual who opts for the new regime gets pre-filled income tax returns and would need no assistance from an expert to pay income tax.

New regime to entail estimated revenue forgone of Rs. 40,000 crore per year.

Corporate Tax:

Tax rate of 15% extended to new electricity generation companies.

Indian corporate tax rates now amongst the lowest in the world.

Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT):

DDT removed making India a more attractive investment destination.

Deduction to be allowed for dividend received by holding company from its subsidiary.

Rs. 25,000 crore estimated annual revenue forgone.

Start-ups:

Start-ups with turnover up to Rs. 100 crore to enjoy 100% deduction for 3 consecutive assessment years out of 10 years.

Tax payment on ESOPs deferred.

MSMEs to boost less-cash economy:

Turnover threshold for audit increased to Rs. 5 crore from Rs. 1 crore for businesses carrying out less than 5% business transactions in cash.

Cooperatives:

Parity brought between cooperatives and corporate sector.

Option to cooperative societies to be taxed at 22% + 10% surcharge and 4% cess with no exemption/deductions.

Cooperative societies exempted from Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) just like Companies are exempted from the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT).

Tax concession for foreign investments:

100% tax exemption to the interest, dividend and capital gains income on investment made in infrastructure and priority sectors before 31st March, 2024 with a minimum lock-in period of 3 years by the Sovereign Wealth Fund of foreign governments.

Affordable housing:

Additional deduction up to Rs. 1.5 lakhs for interest paid on loans taken for an affordable house extended till 31st March, 2021.

Date of approval of affordable housing projects for availing tax holiday on profits earned by developers extended till 31st March, 2021.

Tax Facilitation Measures

Instant PAN to be allotted online through Aadhaar.

‘Vivad Se Vishwas’ scheme, with a deadline of 30th June, 2020, to reduce litigations in direct taxes:

Waiver of interest and penalty – only disputed taxes to be paid for payments till 31st March, 2020.

Additional amount to be paid if availed after 31st March, 2020.

Benefits to taxpayers in whose cases appeals are pending at any level.

Faceless appeals to be enabled by amending the Income Tax Act.

For charity institutions:

Pre-filling in return through information of donations furnished by the done.

Process of registration to be made completely electronic.

Unique registration number (URN) to be issued to all new and existing charity institutions.

Provisional registration to be allowed for new charity institutions for three years.

CBDT to adopt a Taxpayers’ Charter.

Losses of merged banks:

Amendments proposed to the Income-tax Act to ensure that entities benefit from unabsorbed losses and depreciation of the amalgamating entities.

Indirect Tax

GST:

Cash reward system envisaged to incentivise customers to seek invoice.

Simplified return with features like SMS based filing for nil return and improved input tax credit flow to be implemented from 1st April, 2020 as a pilot run.

Dynamic QR-code capturing GST parameters proposed for consumer invoices.

Electronic invoice to capture critical information in a centralized system to be implemented in a phased manner.

Aadhaar based verification of taxpayers being introduced to weed out dummy or non-existent units.

GST rate structure being deliberated to address inverted duty structure.

Customs Duties:

Customs duty raised on footwear to 35% from 25% and on furniture goods to 25% from 20%.

Basic customs duty on imports of news print and light-weight coated paper reduced from 10% to 5%.

Customs duty rates revised on electric vehicles and parts of mobiles.

5% health cess to be imposed on the imports of medical devices, except those exempt from BCD.

Lower customs duty on certain inputs and raw materials like fuse, chemicals, and plastics.

Higher customs duty on certain goods like auto-parts, chemicals, etc. which are also being made domestically.

Trade Policy Measures

Customs Act being amended to enable proper checks of imports under FTAs.

Rules of Origin requirements to be reviewed for certain sensitive items.

Provisions relating to safeguard duties to be strengthened to enable regulating such surge in imports in a systematic way.

Provisions for checking dumping of goods and imports of subsidized goods being strengthened.

Suggestions for reviews of exemptions from customs duty to be crowd-sourced.

Excise duty proposed to be raised on Cigarettes and other tobacco products, no change made in the duty rates of bidis.

Anti-dumping duty on PTA abolished to benefit the textile sector.

Unprecedented Milestones and Achievements of Indian Economy

India now the fifth largest economy of the world.

7.4% average growth clocked during 2014-19 with inflation averaging around 4.5%.

271 million people raised out of poverty during 2006-16.

India’s Foreign Direct Investment elevated to US$ 284 billion during 2014-19 from US$ 190 billion during 2009-14.

Central Government debt reduced to 48.7% of GDP (March 2019) from 52.2% (March 2014).

Two cross-cutting developments:

Proliferation of technologies (Analytics, Machine Learning, robotics, Bio-informatics and Artificial Intelligence).

Highest ever number of people in the productive age group (15-65 years) in India.

GST removed many bottlenecks in the system.

Future Aim for sustaining India’s unique global leadership, driven by Digital Revolution

Seamless delivery of services through Digital Governance.

Improvement in physical quality of life through National Infrastructure Pipeline.

Risk mitigation through Disaster Resilience.

Social security through Pension and Insurance penetration.

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businessliveme · 5 years ago

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How Our Travel Adventures Will Change in 2020

(Bloomberg) –The 2010s were the decade when travel became easier. The arrival of short-term lodging services, the embrace of “second cities,” and the rapid growth of budget airlines both shrunk our globe and made it more intriguing. And the siren song of social media sent us to far-flung corners in search of “authentic,” “local,” and “undiscovered” places, or (contrarily) to recreate influencers’ brilliant snaps.

But if travel became something of a competitive sport in the last 10 years, it’s starting to loosen up. As it turns out, trying to visit every country in the world before turning age 40—or simply checking off three bucket-list cities in a weeklong trip—is exhausting. The overwhelming number of booking channels and sources of inspiration has left travelers confused, too, struggling to figure out how to maximize every minute of their precious vacation days.

That’s why “slow travel,” which lets you get under the skin of a place by simply staying put there for a little longer, is gaining traction. The idea doesn’t just make for more restful time off, it’s also more environmentally sustainable and fulfilling. It underscores the majority of the trends that will reshape the way we think about our adventures in 2020 and beyond.

Enjoy Zero-Footprint Travel

We’ve already told you about carbon offsets and how it’s getting easier to properly offset your flights. But in 2020 that trend will go much further.

Cool Effect, the company we like best for carbon offsets, will release tools to help you offset the carbon footprints of your cruise vacations. Several airlines, including EasyJet, are setting goals to offset their entire fleets’ emissions. And tour operators are getting in on the act, making sure that our footprint on the ground nets out, too. Leading the pack is Natural Habitats, which in 2019 began offering zero-footprint itineraries. Now the company is one-upping that idea by offsetting travelers’ entire lives for a full year if they book one of its Climate Change & Our Wild World trips. (The offset calculations are based on home size, electricity bills, monthly expenses, and air and driving miles.) Led by experts from the World Wildlife Foundation, travelers can venture to see such spectacles as the whale migration in Cabo, the Amazon rainforest, or polar bears in the Arctic.

Other companies that are offsetting trips in 2020 include Metropolitan Touring (which runs wonderful tours and hotels in Colombia and Ecuador) and MSC Cruises. There’s also Intrepid Travel, which is aiming to be carbon negative in the year ahead rather than simply carbon neutral.

Gardens Are the Hot New Hotel Amenity

There isn’t a lot of idyll in our hyperdrive lives, and maybe that’s why gardens are becoming an increasingly popular hotel feature. It sounds quaint, almost boring—and yet that’s the whole point. You can already commune with nature this way in places like Gleneagles, the iconic Scottish estate which just redid its grounds to highlight more authentic local plants and flora rather than imported flowers. At the 300-year-old Dromoland Castle in Ireland, also fresh off a big renovation, you can go on official garden tours with the property’s head gardener, Dorothy Madden.

But rambling grounds are expected in that part of the world. Better proof of the trend lies in the Hamptons, where the new Shou Sugi Ban house puts a spotlight not on the ocean but on meditative Japanese gardens designed by landscape architect Lily Kwong. Or in Marrakesh, where the rambling Royal Mansour includes 3.7 acres by Luis Vallego, who’s been honored with the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan for his work with bonsais. To better highlight its Andalucian-inspired jardin, the hotel is expanding its grounds to include a “nest” where guests can have a private dinner surrounded by palms, vines, and aromatic plants.

The most spectacular example will be just outside Paris, where the new Airelles Château de Versailles will let guests sleep in the palace so beloved for its almost 2,000-acre gardens. Much of the experience will be oriented toward the epic green space—even the Alain Ducasse restaurant on-site will be housed in a glassed-in orangery that trains your eye constantly outdoors.

Your Vacation Will Start Before You Leave Home

If you book a villa at Rosewood’s Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos next year, and if you live in select cities including Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, your stay will begin before you head to the airport: The property is arranging for butlers to greet you at your front door, drive you to your departure hub, and treat you to all sorts of personalized goodies along the way. It’ll also offer the service on the way home to prolong the joy of being on vacation as long as possible.

Similarly, Hawaii’s new Mauna Lani will offer a “pre-arrival experience” when it opens in January, such as sending guests a customized, special-edition Arlo Skye suitcase enclosed with invitations for guided, stand-up paddleboard classes.

Will either of these services deliver something that wealthy travelers need? That’s not so clear. But the race has begun to extend the hotel experience far beyond the limits of the physical property.

All-Inclusive Will No Longer be a Four-Letter Word

Several of the biggest hotel openings for 2019 were of an unusual variety: all-inclusive luxury resorts. But they weren’t exactly branded as such.

Blackberry Mountain opened in February with rates that include everything from meals to hand-thrown pottery and aerial yoga classes. That’s in contrast to its older sibling, the hyperluxurious Blackberry Farm, which charges $175 for a tree-climbing session, $250 for stand-up paddleboarding, and $250 for a seven-course dinner with wine pairings. (Interestingly, even with its built-in activities, the newer, less formal property is far less expensive.)

In Chile, the wine-focused, $1,200-a-night Puro Vik is also new and all-inclusive—you won’t be charged a penny no matter how much of their cabernet sauvignon you drink or how much Andean horseback riding you want to do. And when the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa on Fiji’s Yanuca Island reopened in April, it became all-inclusive, too, recognizing that most guests who visit are happily confined to its offerings.

Even Marriott International is getting in on the act. It acquired the all-inclusive brand Elegant Hotels in October and is renovating all seven of its Caribbean hotels. Says Marriott President Arne Sorenson, “There is a strong and growing consumer demand for premium and luxury properties in the all-inclusive category.”

If you’ve ever spent $32 for the cheapest glass of wine at your hotel in the Maldives, you know all this is a welcome relief. Sure, some all-inclusive models are meant to guarantee that you’ll spend all your vacation budget in one spot. But by definition, they liberate consumers from attaching dollar amounts to each of their desires—and that, really, is priceless.

Travel Clubs Are Cool Again …

Travel clubs might make you think of old-fashioned agencies and AAA programs selling discount trips through generic brochures, but these days they’re turning into something else entirely. They might be one of the most sophisticated ways to book travel.

Take Inspirato Pass, a subscription that acts like an all-you-can-travel buffet. It starts at $2,500 per month, which includes as many nights as you wish in the company’s partner hotels, luxury homes, or even on cruise ships. Certain exclusive experiences, like VIP access to marquee sporting events, are also included. (If you want to book more than one trip at a time, or travel with more than your partner or spouse, the cost gets incrementally higher.)

Third Home, a mansion-sharing platform for people with extraordinary vacation homes, offers its Reserve club that is, well, reserved for those with the most extravagant digs. Members are invited to rent one another’s properties (minimum value: $5 million) at a steep discount.

And then there’s Prior, a membership club for the culturally curious. In its second year, the company is continuing to expand its “Nomadic Clubhouse” events, similar to intimate, members-only parties in spectacular settings. One will celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi at the invitation of the Maharaja of Jaipur; another will spend a long weekend in Uruguay eating fire-cooked meals prepared by the legendary chef Francis Mallmann.

… And So Are Hotel Clubs

For years, hotels emphasized the importance of getting locals in their doors—both to drive ancillary revenues at restaurants and to infuse them with an “authentic” vibe. Now that hotels are legitimate hangouts, the best of them are offering their most alluring spaces only to those who pay up.

See Aman Resorts, whose Manhattan property opens this year with $50 million condos and its first members club. Those who sign up will have exclusive access, along with guests and residents, to the hotel’s three-story spa. Other properties are making similar moves, including the Six Senses (also in New York), the Dorchester Dubai, Auberge’s Commodore Perry Estate in Austin, Texas, and the Almanac Vienna, all opening with membership clubs in the coming year. In some cases, they’re focused on spa and wellness offerings; in others, it’s more about access to frequent events programming and dedicated “living-room-style” areas. Think of them as Soho Houses—with a dash less attitude yet more exclusivity.

Spas Will Become Extremely High Tech

Somadomes, Bod Pods, virtual reality wellness—if you have no idea what these things mean, you will soon. The latter has just debuted at the Four Seasons Resort Oahu, where a spaceship-like device called Sensync claims to “reset” spagoers’ brains by manipulating all five senses. During the 20- to 80-minute journey, a virtual reality headset “takes” guests to deep space, ocean coves, or zen gardens, while the machine pumps out related sounds and smells, simulates things like wind and temperature, and uses real-time data about your respiration and heart rate to guarantee that you’re calming down. The Somadome at Ojai Valley Inn is similar—it’s also a self-contained pod—but focuses instead on meditation and light therapy.

Other spa offerings will be more medical in nature. Gstaad Palace has joined with Cellgym to help clients adjust to Alpine altitudes before their first ski day; treatments involve breathing oxygen-reduced air through a mask, as submarine crews and top athletes sometimes do while training. At the Dolder Grand in Zurich and Four Seasons New York Downtown, aestheticians use confocal miscroscopes to learn about the pigmentation and elasticity of your skin, then send data to a dedicated research center to create a “prescription” of products customized to your needs. (The process takes three months to complete after your initial consultation, which rules out the ensuing, made-to-measure facial for many casual visitors.) And if all this sounds more stressful than relaxing, don’t worry—you can still get a regular, 90-minute massage at all these spots.

Cruises Are Getting Smaller, Greener—and a Whole Lot Cooler

When the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection launches next summer on its maiden voyage, it will be one of several new companies trying to overhaul the way we think about cruising. Across the world, small ships, designed more like boutique residences than floating chunks of Vegas, will make it easier and sexier to see remote coastal places. And no, we’re not talking about 200-passenger vessels already in use by all manner of luxury cruising outfits. These are largely independent, such as the “floating ryokan” Guntu in Japan, which offers contemplative views of the Seto Inland Sea from its sushi bar and 19 suites. There’s also HMS Gåssten, a former Swedish minesweeper (bookable through Red Savannah) that’s been restored and turned into a luxe base for skiing and biking trips in Norway’s Sunmore Alps. Add new standards that require cruise lines to cut their emissions across-the-board, and suddenly this mode of travel seems all that more interesting.

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urbanagricultureatlas · 5 years ago

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https://brooklynrail.org/2018/11/field-notes/Beyond-the-Green-New-Deal

It is not even remotely a coincidence that the land-based technics which one finds in the latest IPCC report are not such indigenous technologies. Catastrophic bio-fuels figure heavily. Top-down developmentalism reigns. Consultation with rural smallholders—who produce at least half the world’s food, and most of whom are women—is non-existent. And the blind spot when it comes to the countryside endures.

Here we might begin by listening to the victims of the visions of modernizers in sketching a popular response to climate change. The peasant international Via Campesina has been raising its voice for years about the capacity of smallholders to cool and feed the planet. Zero Budget Natural Farming in southern India, enfolding hundreds of thousands of farmers, shows it is possible to scale up those techniques using a popular mobilization model.9 Cuban agriculture shows the use of state scaffolding in such a project. On the other side of the socio-ecological coin, we know such ways of farming can seriously absorb, mitigate, and reduce CO2 emissions. The Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance (CLARA), in its report Missing Pathways to 1.5° Celsius, notes technologies and institutions like restoring resilient natural ecosystems, a full-scale shift to agro-ecology, streamlining food storage, shifting away from the over-processed foods that the wealthy avoid if they can, eating less dairy and meat in certain regions of the world alongside adaptive multi-paddock grazing, dropping input-intensive farming, and so many other ways of doing things can reduce agriculture-based emissions by two-thirds by 2050, and swing land-use-based emissions from 5 Gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent to -10 Gigatons.

Is this large-scale socio-ecological engineering? Sure, if we accept that planning is not the issue. The issue is that planning be democratic, sustainable, and responsive as opposed to the fruit of technocratic fiat. As CLARA adds, “This holistic, nature-centred approach is no less a complete vision of our future than that implied, but never explicitly stated, in models suggesting the need for planetary geoengineering and devoting large areas of land to bioenergy cropping.”10 If it is engineering, it is of the kind where every woman and man is an engineer and every engineering project is open-source, collaborative, and democratic. It welds a political vision to a substantively democratic reworking of the food and land systems. Such a solution means not authorizing rural peoples’ destruction through the hemlock of modernization. It means not converting lands to bio-fuels cultivation or REDD, REDD+, or any of the alphabet-soup of carbon-emission-evasions which spot and blot climate change politics. It means complementing calls for an overhaul of our energy system with calls for a bottom-up overhaul of our agricultural systems, and certainly finding a way to respect the calls for sovereignty which emanate both from First Peoples in these lands and the peoples of other lands.

Finally, then, maybe I ought to end with where I ought to have begun and note that one of the issues is not so much producing solutions as it is one of institutionalizing the capacity to listen and learn from those who already have good solutions, but whose solutions are almost always ignored. It is time to start listening. Not before it is too late. But precisely because it is already very late. We cannot know if it is too late until it is. That simply makes it ever-more-imperative to begin to get it right, right now.

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bitcoinminershasrate · 3 years ago

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Sparkpool Review: 2021 Registering, Setting Up Farms

China can be called a cryptocurrency superpower. Most of the mining pools are concentrated in the Middle Kingdom. First of all, this concerns the mining of Bitcoin, but also in the Ethereum blockchain 40% of the network capacity is controlled by services from the PRC, not to mention the younger promising platforms. True, this year the country's authorities adopted a number of legislative acts that forced large data centers to leave China. This, to some extent, influenced the depreciation of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Perhaps, over time, China will cease to be the center of crypto mining, which is quite natural. If the state itself decided to issue a cryptocurrency, then it does not need competitors. But all Chinese pools are still working and the most powerful in the ETH and BEAM ecosystems is Sparkpool, a resource open to cooperation with miners around the globe. Pool interface and registration Pool interface and registration Official site - https://www.sparkpool.com The design of the main page is quite simple, only two interface languages are supported: Chinese and English. To go to the registration page, click Login , then Register and the Create an account window will appear on the display . Sparkpool Review - Select the international code for your country. - Enter your phone number - Create and confirm a password. - Solve the captcha. - Click Send to receive a verification code. - Enter the verification code from sms. - Accept the terms of the user agreement and click the orange Register button. Instead of a phone number, you can use email. Upon completion of registration, you need to create a sub-account and connect two-factor authentication. In 2021, you can work at Sparkpool without registration. The service has two modes of operation: anonymous mode and accounts mode. Registration is not required, if you use anonymous mining, coins will be automatically transferred to your wallet when you collect a sufficient amount. The only difference between these two modes is that registered users can hold coins in the balance to automatically receive interest (2.3% per annum). At least that's what the Sparkpool Ethereum Mining Setup Guide says https://sparkpool.kf5.com/hc/kb/article/1413416/?lang=en . True, it is unlikely that any of the miners will leave their coins for a long time in the pool wallet, especially at such a low percentage. To withdraw funds, you need to link both a phone number and an email address, as well as enable 2FA. Sparkpool Review: Main coins available for mining At the time of writing, Sparkpool is mining coins Sparkpool Review Main coins available for mining - Ethereum; - CKB; - BEAM. Sparkpool Grin coin mining no longer supports How to set up hardware on Sparkpool To start mining, you need to set up a batch file of the mining program. Mining ETH on Sparkpool instructions for beginners: In the summer of 2021, mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency brings a high profit on any model of GPUs with a video memory of 6 GB or more. Previously, to mine Ether on RX 570/580 series cards, you had to install a modified BIOS . The eight-gig versions of these cards are still relevant now, but it is not necessary to flash the BIOS. Most popular mining utilities can now change timings on the fly. You just need to compose a batch file correctly, add a special parameter to activate the "straps" and adjust the overclocking parameters in MSI Afterburner or AMD driver settings. Optimum acceleration values for Rx 570 / 580 - Power Limit +30 - Core Clock 1150 - Memory Clock 2050 Nvidia RTX 30 series graphics adapters have proven themselves well in Ethereum mining. Manufacturers even began to install a software hashrate limiter on the most budget model of this RTX 3060 line. However, the developers of mining software were able to partially solve this problem. The green cards of the 16th series, especially the GTX 1660Super , as well as the AMD RX 5600 / 5700XT video cards, have also proven themselves quite well. The settings for each model are different; they largely depend on the manufacturer of the memory chips. For example, if you have a GTX 1660S video card with Samsung memory, you can overclock the memory up to 1100/1200 , for a micron you need a smaller overclocking, somewhere around +800 . But if Hynix video memory is installed on these cards, then the memory clock parameter, in general, is reduced to a minus, to -1004 . You need to choose the optimal overclocking for each card of your rig yourself, and if that doesn't work out, ask more experienced miners on one of the thematic forums. There are also articles on our site dedicated to different models of video cards. After setting the overclocking, proceed to the software settings - Create an Ethereum wallet. - Download Phoenix Miner or another program that supports Ethereum mining. - Select a server from the list on the Help Center / Introduction of mining ETH page. - Create a bat file An example of a batch file Sparkpool Ethereum for Phoenix Miner: PhoenixMiner.exe -pool eu.sparkpool.com:3333 -wal WALLET ADDRESS Farm name -pass x pause Important!!! Instead of " WALLET ADDRESS ", specify your wallet address, do not forget to put a full stop and add the name of the rig (for example, Rig1), save the file with the bat extension and start mining from the miner folder. To monitor production, enter the wallet number in the " Wallet address " field on the main page. Statistics appear after the miner sends 8-10 valid shares ( share accepted ) to the pool . Sparkpool Review wallet address The Phoenix Miner program is recommended as a universal option for working with any video card, but there are many alternative options. TeamRedMiner and LolMiner are suitable for AMD cards , and for Nvidia T-rex and Nbminer . Ethereum coin is also mined on Innosilicon ASIKs with a built-in memory of 5 GB or more. Lolminer settings for Sparkpool Beam: lolMiner.exe --coin BEAM --pool beam-eu.sparkpool.com:2222 --user WALLET ADRESS pause The Beam coin is more beneficial for AMD GPUs, and the CKB cryptocurrency is mined only on ASICs. Payment of remuneration and commission At all pools of the spark pool, earnings for miners are calculated according to the PPS + system, that is, each accepted share is paid. The pool commission is 1%. In principle, this is not much, but not so little either. Its closest competitor Ethermine takes 1% from the miners, and F2pool, which is one notch below the rating, takes 2% in general. But there is a Hiveon pool with zero commission and the same payout system. At eth.binance pool , miners are paid money every day, regardless of the amount of earnings, and the commission is only 0.5%. Withdraw funds If you mine Ethereum cryptocurrency on Sparkpool, the withdrawal occurs automatically every day at 15:30 (Chinese time). The ETH withdrawal amount is set at 0.1 coins.Important!!! Beam Sparkpool withdrawal starts at 10:00 (UTC + 8) for all miners with one coin on their balance. Submit a withdrawal request and keep the wallet turned on until you receive your money. Sparkpool Review: Conclusion Sparkpool Review Conclusion Sparkpool has consistently ranked second in the Miningpoolstats, second only to Ezermine in terms of power. But, it is more suitable for large data centers and owners of large mining farms , because the amount of 0.1 ETH for a rig with a capacity of 120 MH / s will be mined for about 30 days. Compared to its closest competitors, there is a very weak selection of coins here. When Ether goes to PoS, only two mountain pools will remain on this server, and if Beam drops in price, then GPU miners will leave it. In the meantime, the service is quite popular, although not the way it used to be. However, at the time of this writing, the European ETH sparkpool server is available for connection and statistics are displayed. The PPS payment system, combined with the low pool commission, is beneficial for miners. If the minimum withdrawal size of 0.1 ETH is not a problem for you. Well, for those who want to mine BEAM cryptocurrency, Sparkpool is one of the best options. Set up rigs and successful mining! Read the full article

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tenwithken · 5 years ago

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Radical Ideas: RADIUS @ SFU

This week, Ken gets a “taste” of social innovation at Simon Fraser University’s RADIUS incubator, speaking with co-director Shawn Smith and social entrepreneur Dylan Jones about their work. We learn how innovation requires bureaucratic flexibility, and Ken winds up at a loss for words with his mouth full of crickets!

For decades now, higher education has embraced the entrepreneurial incubator to promote the commercialization of software developers and research breakthroughs in engineering, chemistry and medicine. (10K covered the movement broadly in this episode on “Campus Incubators and Accelerators” https://youtu.be/kwMooswS_C8, and visited the University of Waterloo’s “Velocity Garage” https://youtu.be/lj1AnCfYRMk). But in recent years, a wave of incubators has begun appearing to support social enterprises, launched by a new generation of altruistic entrepreneurs and “changemakers,” focused on the so-called “triple bottom line.”

SFU’s Beedie School of Business established the RADIUS social innovation hub in 2013. (The name is an acronym for “Radical Ideas Useful to Society.”) Every year, RADIUS Fellows hosts emerging leaders in the social economy, and RADIUS ChangeLabs deliver extracurricular activities to SFU students. RADIUS’s Local Economic Development Lab (LEDlab) is working in Vancouver’s downtown eastside to build a more dynamic and inclusive economy (www.LEDLab.ca). They helped turn an informal group of wastepickers and recyclers into The Binners Project, with its own brand, marketing, and business model for R&D, cartsharing, and event services. (Learn more at www.binnersproject.org).

RADIUS Ventures delivers incubation support to startups at the business model validation stage, and acceleration support to growth-ready companies ready to attract venture capital. These social-purpose companies have potentially profitable business models, but also aim to improve society by addressing environmental sustainability, homelessness, and other social challenges. RADIUS “co-entrepreneurs” with the ventures, going deep and ensuring they provide a meaningful change in trajectory for the entrepreneur and the company.

One RADIUS venture was Zero Waste Market, Canada’s first package-free, zero-waste grocery store. (They changed their name literally days after this episode was completed, to Nada Grocery. Learn more at www.nadagrocery.com).

Another great example of a social enterprise incubated at RADIUS is Coast Protein, a sustainable energy bar and protein powder company (see www.coastprotein.com). Their products are all-natural, with no artificial sweeteners or preservatives, and very few ingredients – primarily Canadian-farmed cricket flour. Cricket protein is far more sustainable and nutritious than beef or chicken, explains CEO Ryan Jones: per pound of protein, cows take 13x more land, produce 100x more greenhouse gases, and require 2,000x more water. And instead of 30% protein by volume, crickets are 65% protein, while also being high in iron, calcium, and B12 – an essential vitamin often missing in vegetarian diets. It’s still “the wild west of crickets right now,” Ryan explains, and most of Coast Protein’s marketing budget goes to consumer education. People don’t realize that the insect protein market is already about $200 million annually in North America, and expected to grow to about $1.5 billion by 2023. Or that crickets taste like “burnt roasted almonds with a hint of roasted mushroom.”

Shawn observes that innovation can sometimes be challenging within a bureaucratic environment like a major public university. Entrepreneurs need to respect boundaries and structures, while remaining adaptive and responsive in an emergent space. RADIUS functions like a “skunkworks” at SFU, where risks can be taken, failures go quietly, and lessons can be learned. Academic innovators need their “pockets of innovation” to be protected from needless bureaucracy, and depend on “bridging innovators” in a wide range of departments, particularly in finance, to make their innovation work possible. Shawn emphasizes that SFU has a lot of these people, but that “they don’t always get the recognition they deserve.”

On the upside, though, a university setting provides a wealth of expertise and cutting-edge researchers in a wide range of disciplines, and an endless supply of enthusiastic students who deeply care about social issues and want to make the world a better place. Social incubators like RADIUS need to bring people together from disparate perspectives, to “bite off problems that people haven’t quite figured out yet,” and universities are an ideal setting in which to do that.

Shawn Smith is Director of Social Innovation at Simon Fraser University, co-founder and co-director of RADIUS, and an adjunct professor in the Beedie School of Business. He earned an MBA in social entrepreneurship from the University of Oxford in 2010, and has spent 12 years working in social impact organizations, including Impacto Quito, Global Agents for Change, and Education Generation.

Special thanks to Shawn Smith, Dylan Jones, and the SFU videographers who made this episode possible.

For more information about SFU’s RADIUS, please visit www.RadiusSFU.com.

Next week, Ken sits down with Bonnie Schmidt, founder of Let’s Talk Science, about how we can improve science education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. To be sure you don’t miss it, take a moment to subscribe at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/

And if you would like to host 10K at your campus, more information is available at http://eduvation.ca/twk/site-visits/

Check out this episode of Ten with Ken!

#cdnpse #@kensteele #college #university

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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AP FACT CHECK: Prosecutors’ filings do not exonerate Trump

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is in denial when it comes to the Russia investigation and other scandals besieging him.

The president insists he’s been fully vindicated by court filings released Friday that lay out the level of co-operation from two of his former top advisers, whom prosecutors have accused of lying to federal investigators or Congress. In fact, Trump’s Justice Department puts him in even greater legal jeopardy by directly implicating him in an illegal scheme involving hush money payments to a porn actress and a former Playboy model.

In comments over the weekend, Trump cites the filings in the cases involving his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as proof that no collusion had been found in the special counsel’s investigation. That’s also not true. That probe into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election is still ongoing, so the filings do not yet render a judgment on collusion.

The statements capped a week in which Trump also claimed without evidence that Paris protesters were chanting support for him, made questionable assertions about China trade and tariffs and derided U.S. weapons spending as crazy, despite earlier boasts about increasing the military budget.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez skimmed over the facts when she suggested the Pentagon has a hidden pot of $21 trillion that could help pay for “Medicare for All.”

A look at the claims and the reality:

COHEN

TRUMP: “Totally clears the President. Thank you!” — tweet Friday.

THE FACTS: The court filings Friday are the first time that federal prosecutors directly connect Trump to a crime.

The violations stemmed from payments Cohen made to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during the 2016 presidential campaign. Both women alleged they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which the White House denies.

Prosecutors in New York, where Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance crimes in connection with those payments, said the lawyer “acted in co-ordination and at the direction” of Trump. Though Cohen had previously implicated Trump in the payments, the Justice Department is now linking Trump to the scheme and backing up Cohen’s allegations.

It’s unclear whether Trump will actually be charged with illegal activity, because Justice Department legal memos from 1973 and 2000 have suggested that a sitting president is immune from indictment and that criminal charges would undermine the commander in chief’s ability to do the job. But it is possible Congress could use prosecutors’ findings to start impeachment proceedings. There also would presumably be no bar against charging a president after he leaves the White House.

Federal law requires that any payments made “for the purposes of influencing” an election must be reported in campaign finance disclosures. Friday’s filings make clear the payments were made to benefit Trump politically.

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RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

TRUMP: “On the Mueller situation, we’re very happy with what we are reading because there was no collusion whatsoever. There never has been.” — remarks to reporters Saturday.

TRUMP: “NO COLLUSION!” — tweet Saturday.

THE FACTS: Trump’s incorrect to suggest the filings clear him of collusion. Part of an ongoing investigation, they do not yet draw a conclusion and instead lay out evidence of previously undisclosed contacts between Trump associates and Russian intermediaries.

In one of the filings, special counsel Robert Mueller details how Cohen spoke to a Russian in 2015 who “claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level.”‘ The person repeatedly dangled a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying such a meeting could have a “phenomenal” impact “in a business dimension as well.”

That was a reference to a proposed Moscow real estate deal that prosecutors say could have netted Trump’s business hundreds of millions of dollars and would likely require assistance of the Russian government. Cohen admitted this month to lying to Congress by saying discussions about a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016 when in fact they stretched into that June, well into the presidential campaign.

Cohen said he never followed up on the proposed meeting, because he was working with a “different individual” with connections to the Russian government.

Cohen also told prosecutors he and Trump discussed a potential meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September 2015, shortly after Trump announced his candidacy for president.

In another filing Friday, prosecutors said Manafort lied about his contacts with Russia and Trump administration officials, including in 2018. Mueller’s team cited Manafort’s interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate who prosecutors say has ties to Russian intelligence. Mueller’s team said they would be able to offer additional information at a hearing, such as the nature of Manafort’s contacts with the Trump administration in 2018, to prove Manafort was lying.

Trump’s attorneys last month turned over the president’s written answers to Mueller’s questions about his knowledge of any ties between his campaign and Russia. Mueller hasn’t said when he will complete any report of his findings.

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TRUMP: “The last thing I want is help from Russia on a campaign.” — remarks Saturday.

THE FACTS: Actually, Trump did request Russia’s help during the 2016 campaign.

In a July 27, 2016, speech, then-candidate Trump called on Russian hackers to find emails from Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the presidential campaign.

“Russia, if you’re listening,” Trump said, “I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

Hours later, the Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow appeared to heed the call — targeting Clinton’s personal office and hitting more than 70 other Clinton campaign accounts. That’s according to a grand jury indictment in July charging 12 Russian military intelligence officers with hacking into the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party as part of a sweeping conspiracy by the Kremlin to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election.

That indictment by Mueller says July 27 was the first time Clinton’s personal office was targeted.

The attempt to penetrate Clinton’s campaign began March 10, 2016, and hit a significant success on March 19 when the Russian intelligence officers busted open the email account of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, an AP investigation last year found.

They “phished” intensively and repetitively. Throughout at least March and April there were repeated efforts to break into about 120 Democratic National Committee, Clinton and left-leaning activists’ accounts across the country.

Then they brought Clinton’s personal office into their scope, the indictment says — the very evening Trump appeared to beckon Russians to do just that.

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PARIS

TRUMP: “The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment. Chanting ‘We Want Trump! Love France.” — tweet Saturday.

THE FACTS: Neither Associated Press journalists covering protests in the city nor any French television networks have shown evidence that supporters were chanting any slogans in support of Trump. The protests that began as a revolt against a gas tax increase have turned increasingly violent and France imposed exceptional security measures Saturday to prevent a repeat of rioting a week ago.

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JERUSALEM

TRUMP: “We quickly moved the American embassy to Jerusalem and we got it built.”– remarks Thursday at Hanukkah event.

THE FACTS: Nothing’s been built yet. The Trump administration designated an existing U.S. consular facility in Jerusalem for the U.S. Embassy, retrofitting some offices and holding a big dedication ceremony in May. The U.S. has yet to identify a permanent site for the new embassy, a process that is expected to take years. The State Department has estimated that constructing a new embassy would cost more than $500 million.

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TARIFFS

TRUMP: “China has agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into China from the U.S. Currently the tariff is 40%.” — tweet on Dec. 2.

THE FACTS: A week later, it’s still not clear if this will happen. When asked about the matter, Kudlow would only say that he hoped China would remove its tariffs on U.S. autos. “We don’t yet have a specific agreement on that, but I will just tell you, as an involved participant, we expect those tariffs to go to zero,” he told reporters last Monday. Pressed again Tuesday, Kudlow told “Fox and Friends” that he expected China to move quickly on removing the tariffs “if they’re serious about this.”

“I think it’s coming, OK?” he said. “It hasn’t been signed and sealed and delivered yet.”

The White House’s confusing and conflicting words have left Wall Street skeptical.

“It doesn’t seem like anything was actually agreed to at the dinner and White House officials are contorting themselves into pretzels to reconcile Trump’s tweets (which seem if not completely fabricated then grossly exaggerated) with reality,” JPMorgan told investors in a trading note.

On Thursday, a Chinese official said that China will “immediately implement the consensus reached by the two sides on farm products, cars and energy,” but did not address the auto tariffs specifically or provide any additional details.

Trump has cast doubt on whether a firm agreement had been reached, tweeting that his administration will determine “whether or not a REAL deal with China is actually possible.”

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TRUMP: “I am a Tariff Man. When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. It will always be the best way to max out our economic power. We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN.” — tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Trump seems to be claiming that tariffs are some kind of a membership fee for foreign companies to trade in the U.S. economy.

They’re not. Tariffs are a tax, per Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

The costs of this tax are borne by U.S. consumers and businesses, often in the form of higher prices. Foreign companies may end up selling fewer goods and services if the United States imposes high tariffs. So they pay a price, too.

In some cases, the tariffs exist to protect industries that are vital for national security. Or, the tariffs exist to retaliate against the trade practices of other countries. Or, they might protect politically connected companies.

In the past, White House aides have insisted that Trump’s tariffs are a negotiating ploy. Yet the president offered no such qualifications on Tuesday.

Tariffs are not seen as some easy way of generating massive wealth for an economically developed nation. After Trump announced steel and aluminum tariffs earlier this year, the University of Chicago asked leading academic economists in March whether Americans would be better off because of import taxes. Not a single economist surveyed said the country would be wealthier.

Nor do the budget numbers suggest they can come anywhere close to covering the costs of the federal government.

Trump is correct that tariffs did generate $41.3 billion in tax revenues last budget year, according to the Treasury Department. But to put that in perspective, the federal budget exceeds $4.1 trillion.

The taxes collected on imports were equal to about 1 per cent of all federal spending.

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MEDICARE

OCASIO-CORTEZ: “$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions ‘could not be traced, documented, or explained.’ $21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs (tilde)$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that’s before our premiums.” — tweet Dec. 2.

THE FACTS: Ocasio-Cortez is generally correct to suggest that one way of paying for the huge cost of “Medicare for All” would be to cut spending elsewhere. But she is wrong to suggest that there’s a pot of misspent defence dollars that could cover the health care expenses. The New York Democrat also misrepresents the findings of an academic study that found the $21 trillion in Pentagon errors to be accounting “adjustments,” not a tally of actual money wasted.

The study by Mark Skidmore, an economist at Michigan State University and Catherine Austin Fitts, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, did find $21 trillion in Pentagon transactions from 1998 to 2015 that could not be verified. Their study is a cited in a Nation article retweeted in part by Ocasio-Cortez, even though that article makes clear that not “all of this $21 trillion was secret or misused funding … the plugs are found on both the positive and the negative sides of the ledger, thus potentially netting each other out.”

Total defence spending from 1998 to 2015 was $9 trillion. That means defunding the military entirely would only cover a small portion of the estimated $32 trillion cost over 10 years for the “Medicare for All” legislation by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Ocasio-Cortez wrongly suggests that fixing Pentagon accounting errors would net 66 per cent of costs.

“What she was referencing was the total number of transactions that happened with DoD — there’s a lot of double and triple counting as money gets moved around in the department,” said Todd Harrison, director of defence budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “All of that basically means is that those transactions don’t have a full trail,” akin to an employee who submits an expense report without providing all the receipts.

“Just because you don’t have the proper audit trail for transactions doesn’t mean that those transactions are fraudulent,” Harrison said.

David Norquist, the Pentagon’s comptroller, has attributed the accounting errors to the department’s older bookkeeping “systems that do not automatically pass data from one to the other.” He said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee in January that the errors do not amount to a pot of lost money. “I wouldn’t want the taxpayer to confuse that with the loss of something like a trillion dollars, it’s not. That wouldn’t be accurate,” Norquist said.

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MILITARY SPENDING

TRUMP: “I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race. The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!” — tweet Dec. 3.

THE FACTS: His criticism of U.S. weapons spending as “crazy” vastly overstates the amount spent on the arms race. It also is a sudden change of tone from his previous boasts about increased military spending.

Trump’s statement appeared to confuse the total Defence Department budget with America’s investment in the missile defence systems and strategic nuclear weapons usually associated with the arms race. The Pentagon’s budget for 2019 totals about $716 billion, but that includes everything from health care and pay for service members to the costs of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The arms race is just a fraction of that amount, totalling about $10 billion this year for a wide range of missile defence and nuclear weapons programs.

Until recently, Trump has bragged about his increase in military spending, railing about what he claims is previous administrations’ neglect of America’s armed forces. He said his administration is “rebuilding our military.” He has occasionally complained about specific programs such as Air Force One and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but his criticism was levelled at the defence contractors and focused on demanding savings.

He has been far more supportive of the broader defence increases, and specifically has endorsed hikes for missile defence in line with a U.S. defence strategy that targets China and Russia as key adversaries.

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IMMIGRATION

TRUMP: “Could somebody please explain to the Democrats (we need their votes) that our Country losses (sic) 250 Billion Dollars a year on illegal immigration, not including the terrible drug flow. Top Border Security, including a Wall, is $25 Billion. Pays for itself in two months. Get it done!” — tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: He’s inflating the cost of illegal immigration. Trump’s numbers left even those sympathetic to the president’s position scratching their heads.

“I’m not sure where the president got his numbers,” said Dave Ray, a spokesman for the non-profit group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for lower immigration numbers.

Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to questions about where the $250 billion estimate had come from.

The Heritage Foundation, for instance, estimated in 2013 that households headed by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally impose a net fiscal burden of around $54.5 billion per year.

Even Trump himself has contradicted the figure. During his 2016 campaign, Trump claimed that illegal immigration cost the country more than $113 billion a year — less than half the number he tweeted Tuesday.

That estimate appeared based on a paper by FAIR, which released an updated report in 2017 that claimed taxpayers “shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens” at the federal, state and local levels, with “a tax burden of approximately $8,075 per illegal alien family member and a total of $115,894,597,664.”

The $116 million figure included services such as health care and education, as well as spending on agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, minus the $19 billon the group concluded those who are living in the country illegally pay in taxes. But it also included costs associated with the children of those immigrants in its tally, even when they are U.S. citizens. The estimate was criticized for making broad generalizations and other major methodological flaws.

——

Associated Press writers Chad Day, Christopher Rugaber, Josh Boak, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Jill Colvin and Lolita Baldor in Washington and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.

——

Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Follow https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2Pyiplu via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

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