Apple inks multi-billion-dollar deal with Broadcom for U.S.-made chips
(Reuters) -Apple Inc on Tuesday said it has entered a multi-billion-dollar deal with chipmaker Broadcom Inc to use chips made in the United States.
Under the multi-year deal, Broadcom will develop 5G radio frequency components with Apple that will be designed and built in several U.S. facilities, including Fort Collins, Colorado, where Broadcom has a major factory, Apple said.
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Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wireless, storage, and industrial markets. Broadcom shares were up 4.3% in premarket trading after the announcement. The chipmaker is already a major supplier of wireless components to Apple.
Apple said it will tap Broadcom for what are known as film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) chips. The FBAR chips are part of a radio-frequency system that helps iPhones and other Apple devices connected to mobile data networks.
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At the same time, Apple is fighting a big battle over back taxes. EU competition regulators appealed to the bloc's highest court on Tuesday to override a lower tribunal and make Apple (AAPL.O) pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in Irish back taxes.
Basically, The European Commission is saying that Apple paid taxes in Ireland on a US rate, when Apple Computer should have been paying taxes in Ireland at an Irish tax rate.
My question is, when it comes to the new Broadcom deal, was this in response to the economy? Just a budget cutting deal? Or was is a more nationalistic move, in response to increasing hostility from China, who owns such a large share of all the imports America uses from Chinese sweatshops?
“All of Apple’s products depend on technology engineered and built here in the United States, and we’ll continue to deepen our investments in the U.S. economy because we have an unshakable belief in America’s future," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
Apple said it currently supports more than 1,100 jobs in Broadcom’s Fort Collins FBAR filter manufacturing facility.
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Whether you're mad reacting about the influx of people moving here or you're glad about the booming job market, one thing's for certain.
Large companies are moving to Austin, Texas - and lots of 'em. If you've picked up on the not-so-subtle signs of this city's growth (for sale signs in every yard, bidding wars for houses, and expensive cups of joe), you may be wondering what the big idea is.
Well, you can thank these companies, to start. So whether you love 'em or you hate 'em, here are the large companies moving to and expanding in Austin.
Tesla
"Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the Tesla manufacturing plant being built near Austin will hire more than 10,000 people through 2022. Construction is proceeding rapidly on the company's newest manufacturing facility, which Musk first announced in July." Tesla also recently announced that their headquarters will move here as well. Google "Google has announced it plans to invest $50 million in Texas this year in office space and data center sites, the company confirmed to KVUE. The investment comes as part of an overall plan to spend $7 billion and create 10,000 new full-time jobs throughout the U.S. in 2021." Amazon "The world's largest online retailer also announced a swath of jobs for the Austin metro this year. Amazon.com Inc. in July confirmed plans to construct a 3.8 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Pflugerville that will bring 1,000 jobs to the region."
SpaceX
"The company SpaceX is breaking ground on a “new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility” in Austin. The company's founder Elon Musk has increasingly moved his business ventures and his personal life, to the Lone Star State."
Apple
"Apple says employees will move to its $1 billion campus in north Austin next year. In a news release Monday, the tech giant said it's investing $430 billion across the country and adding 20,000 jobs nationwide over the next five years." Facebook
"Facebook Inc. is planning to expand even further in Central Texas, according to a report from the Austin Business Journal. Multiple sources told the Austin Business Journal that Facebook is in the market for 1 million square feet, on top of the numerous offices the company already has in Austin." Canva "Canva, an Australian startup with online design tools, said it has raised $60 million at a $6 billion valuation, and it's opening its first U.S. office here in Austin. The company, founded in 2013, provides 60,000-plus free templates and has millions of images for use in creative design environments." Oracle "On December 11, 2020, Oracle, the world's largest database company, announced it was moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin. The announcement, coupled with major expansions underway by Apple, Facebook, Tesla, and others, is a feather in the cap of local business boosters." If you've followed local news in Austin, Prop B that recently passed was about selling off a 9-acre Central Maintenance Facility located off Townlake at 2525 Lakeshore Blvd. In exchange, the city would receive a 48-acre parcel of "waterfront land contiguous to an existing city park," on top of funding or construction of a replacement facility and the removal of an existing maintenance building at Festival Beach. The Grow Austin Parks PAC received a $250,000 contribution from Oracle. This proposition takes away the last potential parkland access to Townlake and views of Townlake from IH 35 to Pleasant Valley Rd, from southeast Austin. That is if Oracle succeeds in privatizing all roads to Townlake.
The city has made east Austinites believe that this is the only way it can afford the parkland they want, ignoring the Parkland Reserve Fund (2018 bonds) that this May and June spent $6 million for additions to Barton Creek Habitat Preserve and to Bull Creek Greenbelt.
Oracle and other private interests have already privatized most streets to Lakeshore Drive and with this last acquisition, they will be cutting off public access to the southeastern shores.
So, not all change is good change if Oracle restricts access to Townlake to the public with the passage of Prop B.
Austin, Texas continues to be the #1 destination to move to, both residents and businesses continue in massive influxes to come to ATX.
What do you think about these big companies moving to Austin? Comment below. -Trevor
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Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Inc. signage stands at the entrance of the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, California, U.S., on Monday, May 22, 2016. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
HP - Hewlett-Packard began in 1938, like Apple's origins the computer company started in a garage when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard rented a garage in Palo Alto, California.
HPE broadcast this move on Tuesday. Right now Houston is Hewlett-Packard Enterprises' biggest US employment hub, and the business is building a new campus in Houston.
The move by the tech giant will mean thousands of jobs for the area when it opens in the city of Spring in 2022.
The company is in the middle of consolidating a portion of its Bay Area sites to its San Jose hub. HPE says they do not play on laying off any employees during the move.
Texas is known to be friendly towards businesses and it isn't surprising HPE is coming here.
It's the biggest company moving to Texas but plenty of other companies like SignEasy and QuestionPro have come to Texas as well as resident tech companies Microsoft and Apple having established campuses here.
I've worked at Apple Computer in Austin, Texas as well as helping Microsoft launch the Xbox 360 when X-Box Live first appeared.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla threatened in May to relocate Tesla's HQ from Fremont, California to Texas or Nevada, because of Elon was upset California's stay-at-home covid lockdown orders.
California right now is crashing its own economy so it makes sense for more and more businesses to come to Texas.
Elon Musk announced in July 2020 that he is building Tesla's new auto plant in a suburb of Austin, Texas called Del Valle. It's about 40 minutes north of my townhome.
I can't wait to run into Elon Musk at Whole Foods and start up a conversation. Due to local and national government's handling (and mishandling) of lock down orders, many industries are rethinking office space and location and shifting toward remote work.
Dell's headquarters is in Round Rock, Texas, near Austin, and a lot of other tech companies are also considering moving to Texas for tax reasons.
Texas politicians may gerrymander but they make many accomodations for businesses. It's a stark contrast to other countries as well as other states.
One of my clients in Austria told me when they start an LLC, the government assigns one number to the business owner for life and you can't start another business just one. It's pretty harsh there.
We are so innovative towards tech here, Austin has even been nicknamed "Silicon Hills."
I have enjoyed working in the tech field, from Xbox to Facebook and our tech bubble here has kept us safe from economic hardships that hit the rest of the nation hard during 2008's subprime mortgage crash.
HP's good fortune in Palo Alto is actually what kickstarted the Nor Cal's tech scene, which is what led it to be dubbed: "Silicon Valley."
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If you're living in America you're going to see a big change for renewable energy.
For his entire presidency, President Donald Trump denied that humans affect the environment in any way while boosting the production of fossil fuels. Trump repeatedly tweeted and announced that climate change is a "hoax." If that wasn't good enough, he went on to make fake claims that wind turbines cause cancer.
Many environmental protections were taken apart, and a lobbyist for coal was appointed at the head of the EPA. The new president-elect Joe Biden, conversely, takes a completely opposite stance. Biden is committing to quickly concentrate on pressing climate issues before they become a larger crisis.
He was promised to spend up to $2 trillion on sustainable energy, in addition to getting America joining back with the Paris climate accord.
Regardless of what your stance is on fossil fuels versus renewable energy - renewable energy is a business that produces significant contributions to the GDP as well as job creation.
The green economy generates $1.3 trillion in annual sales revenue in the United States, while creating 9.5 million full-time jobs, climatologist Mark Maslin and researcher Lucien Georgeson said in their study published in the online journal Palgrave Communications.
Heads of industry in the sustainable energy field are now feeling relieved about Washington's change of attitude.
The President-Elect is going to appoint more environmentally-centered officials to lead the EPA, as well as the Energy Department and related organizations.
“Following Biden’s win, the US will re-join the Paris negotiations and other nations will be compelled to join the net-zero club and, in 30 years time, we may just get there.”
Said Professor of climate physics and director Prof Piers Forster.
SunPower, based in San Jose, California (SPWR) is now valued at $3.3 billion with a share price is spiking up 270% in record highs.
Their competitor, SunRUN (RUN) has risen in the upwards of more than 300% in 2020. Giving the solar company a market valuation of $11 billion.
That's not to say that there won't be obstacles for green energy still with the Whitehouse divided, Republicans who tend to favor big oil, dominating the Senate, and Democrats who lean towards renewable energy expected to hold the House.
Biden has a climate taskforce who aspires to install eight million solar rooftops through fast-tracking permits and deregulating the process.
Covid 19 changes to urban life are spurning more focus on renewable energy right now as well.
Data centers are installing more and more solar panels, and the exodus out of cities is fueling a housing boom.
The rapid uptick of remote work due to Covid 19 closing down office space is a huge driver for solar energy as well. This is because you can't work if you don't have power.
Many west coast techs and more who work from home are installing more solar panels to side-step power outages in California.
Another stark contrast in political maneuvers between Biden and Trump have to do with tariffs.
Back in January 2018, Trump forced a 30% tariff on silicon solar cells made overseas, which are scheduled to expire in February 2022.
The federal Energy Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is due to expire in 2022 as well. President-Elect Biden has a tax plan which requires Congress to widen the ITC. This is going to give businesses and home owners a much greater motivation to insall solar panels on rooftops everywhere.
What other changes do you expect to see with a Biden presidency? Comment below!
New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations
After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant. I'm a Facebook ad policy specialist and can audit your funnel, and share what to say that Facebook wants to see instead - but just isn't telling you.
Want to book a call to talk to Facebook and get results? Get solid answers directly from the source instead of guessing, googling and playing roulette? Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.
You'll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled. My clients have included social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker and Dean Graziosi. I'm featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith's Marketing Essentials Course.
Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? My calendar is here.
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Google’s Hummingbird Update: How It Changed Search
Google just released a slew of brand new updates for their search algorithm which you'll need to stay on top of if you're using SEO and PPC ads on Google's platform (check out Real Estate price drops in the last blog)
The concept behind this move is to allow consumers to find more accurate data that isn't just what major brands have paid to alter search paths for. There are implications for social media marketers here as well.
Google Hummingbird
1. Hum to Search Audio Algorithms
This is pretty neat as I'm sure you've had a tune in your mind, know the melody but not the name of the song. Now you can just hum or whistle into the search app to find your song.
Google goes into detail here on what their thoughts are on this new feature:
"Starting today, you can hum, whistle or sing a melody to Google to solve your earworm. On your mobile device, open the latest version of the Google app, tap the mic icon and say “what's this song?” or click the “Search a song” button. Then start humming for 10-15 seconds. On Google Assistant, it’s just as simple. Say “Hey Google, what’s this song?” and then hum the tune."
You may not be able to to harness this tool for SEO as much, unless you're running a music podcast, or are creating a catchy tune that has humming as part of the chorus for a new song release.
Hummingbird Defined
2. Spell Check Enhanced
Just like typing in Gmail you'll get suggestions for finishing the rest of your sentence through AI learning, the new spelling suggestions are improved to give you better results.
This is definitely a reason to make sure your website is free of spelling and grammar errors.
A Complete Rewrite Of The Core Algorithm
3. Index Individual Passages of Text
The search algorithm update Google made here is aimed at being able to find detailed information more related to consumer Google searches, by identifying passages of text on web site pages.
This is a trend Google has been following for quite some time, where featured snippets of specific text and parts of videos are highlighted within Google searches.
Google says:
"By better understanding the relevancy of specific passages, not just the overall page, we can find that needle-in-a-haystack information you’re looking for. This technology will improve 7% of search queries across all languages as we roll it out globally."
This will affect page ranks in search queries, as well as a company's performance stats - so be sure to answer in FAQs the most frequent questions customers ask about your business.
Hummingbird Affected 90% Of Searches
4. YouTube Video Segments - Key Moments
To better serve searchers, one of Google's projects has been to index specific sections of YouTube videos and expand this to be included in more search results.
Hummingbird And Natural Language Search
Google says: "Using a new AI-driven approach, we’re now able to understand the deep semantics of a video and automatically identify key moments. This lets us tag those moments in the video, so you can navigate them like chapters in a book."
"Whether you’re looking for that one step in a recipe tutorial, or the game-winning home run in a highlights reel, you can easily find those moments. We’ve started testing this technology this year, and by the end of 2020 we expect that 10% of searches on Google will use this new technology."
This also matches up with YouTube's video chapters where YouTubers can add descriptions per video segment, using the timestamps to allow Google more contextual data for the content contained in each segment.
Now, Google is implementing AI for these video sections to add more data to search results. Make sure to include tags for your video segments.
Does The Hummingbird Update Do New Things?
5. New Subtopics for Greater Diversity of Content.
It's a bit fuzzy on how this is going to be applied but Google is using neural nets to give consumers more clickable subtopics.
Google states:
"We’ve applied neural nets to understand subtopics around an interest, which helps deliver a greater diversity of content when you search for something broad."
Hummingbird Did Not Initially Affect SEO
As an example, if you search for “home exercise equipment,” we can now understand relevant subtopics, such as budget equipment, premium picks, or small space ideas, and show a wider range of content for you on the search results page. We’ll start rolling this out by the end of this year."
This helps you pair your listings to more relevant categories, stemming from the most frequently used filters and search terms which is worth considering when implementing SEO.
For the full deets on Google's Search Algorithm Updates 2020 navigate here.
What's your favorite new search feature and how will you use it? Comment below!
New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations
After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant. I'm a Facebook ad policy specialist and can audit your funnel, and share what to say that Facebook wants to see instead - but just isn't telling you.
Want to book a call to talk to Facebook and get results? Get solid answers directly from the source instead of guessing, googling and playing roulette? Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.
You'll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled. My clients have included social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker and Dean Graziosi. I'm featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith's Marketing Essentials Course.
Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? My calendar is here.
I get 100s of emails a week from businesses and advertisers asking for help when their facebook ad account keeps getting disabled, so my calendar gets booked fast. But if you want to get to the front, you can pre-pay for a consulting session here: Book a call
If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure an expert-level Facebook consulting call from someone at Facebook. Book a call with me now! If you're ok with waiting a bit longer, and entering the waitlist to see if you're eligible - Schedule a call or contact me via email.
Today privacy is a major concern due to the stolen data debacles of Cambridge Analytica.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) just launched the Global Privacy Standard to help protect consumer privacy rights across the entire internet.
The ISO is an international standard-setting body made of representatives from various national standards organizations and it's headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
Founded in the 1920s, the ISO has 164 national members from all over the globe, as this map of voting members of the ISO depicts:
There are many precedents for why taking a more active stance on protecting user data is taking center stage now. Violating consumer privacy rights has legal and financial consequences.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook a stunning $5 billion in the same week that it fined Equifax $575 million due to these companies deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.
If you've ever run Facebook ads targeting consumers in England you've encountered warnings and had to agree to new terms.
As discussed in my blog about the Limited Data Use policy (LDU) for advertising in California, new laws have been passed in the US and the UK govern when and how companies can use your data.
Many businesses have started integrating privacy into their unique selling propositions like search engine provider DuckDuckGo.
Facebook still has to submit quarterly certifications that the company is in compliance with the privacy program mandated by the FTC’s new 20-year settlement order.
Social media companies are under a new level of scrutiny for how they capture data from users and use it in retargeting ad campaigns.
That's not to say social media marketing is going away anytime soon.
(Check out the last blog about top tips for how to use Instagram Reels for your business).
A coalition of tech companies, activist groups and publishers, which include Mozilla, DuckDuckGo and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are supporting a new standard to allow internet users set their privacy settings for the entire web.
The Global Privacy Control, gives users a single setting in their browsers or through browser extensions instructing every website they visit not to sell or share their data.
This privacy control is already supported by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Financial Times. It's also backed by Automattic, which manages the blogging sites of Tumblr and wordpress.com.
While it's going to take some time to implement on this level,Peter Dolanjski, director of product at DuckDuckGo and other supporters of the privacy control think that this may offer legal protection for consumers whose data was sold without their permission going forward.
This is because using the Global Privacy Control, under the California Consumer Privacy Act, can potentially let users send a legally binding request to website owners to not sell their data.
Additionally, the privacy control setting may also be enforceable under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.
The ISO backers of the standard are making plans to communicate with European privacy regulators on the exact details of how that would work, according to Dolanjski.
Back in the day, Do Not Track offered a false sense of hope to consumers that they wouldn't be tracked across the web after clicking on one ad.
Do Not Track was a browser setting that was created after the FTC's 2003 Do Not Call registry launched.
But in reality Do Not Track may help ad networks “fingerprint” a browser, a technique used by tracking systems to kill ad blockers by identifying unique characteristics in a user’s browser configuration.
The Global Privacy Standard shows more promise for consumers to have a sweeping internet-wide protection of privacy and possibly with legally enforced support.
What's never mentioned in public forums, Senate meetings with heads of big tech, and publicized discussions about consumer privacy, is the impact of these new regulations on advertising companies.
While it is important to protect consumer privacy, the power of retargeting to sell products is huge. When it's done accurately, I don't mind being retargeted with ads that match my interests.
Marketers have families too. They support their families through running successful ad campaigns.
Being a marketer or owning a company with a social media marketing team doesn't automatically equal bad business ethics or stealing data.
Not every ad campaign that's run is based off of an illicit thieving of personal data. A lot of the hostile encounters between consumers and ad companies come from a simple lack of understanding for how ads work.
If you have any doubt of that, simply look at Mark Zuckerberg explaining the internet to Congress:
It isn't widely known what cookies are, how they are used, and how you can opt out of being tracked.
Simply using an internet browser you don't log into social media with or your email with for google searches can help you filter which ads you're retargeted with.
I know many marketers whether they run Chat bot marketing firms, or social media agencies or train people how to become a marketer who have a heart of gold.
When I took a course by Amy Porterfield I was surprised at her kindness and human approach. Some of the best people I know are heart-based marketers that also want to impact the world in a positive way.
At the same time, there are plenty of 'used-car-salesmen' vibe sales people who really don't care how they affect the world and use unethical methods of getting consumer data and targeting them with ads.
Overall, I still think it's worth asking:
"How do these new regulations, and settings affect the ad industry negatively? To what extent?"
"How many people who are now forced to move online due to covid regulations are going to have trouble making their rent or paying their bills due to more restrictions on advertising?"
These are valid questions to ask when an existing industry is turned on its head due to the mistakes of major players like Facebook, for not protecting massive amounts of users' privacy.
If we look at the last presidential election in 2016, and consider the impact of the Russian hackers with fake Facebook profiles, disinformation that influenced the election results, hate mongering to destabilize America and pit people of different races against each other - it's clear there needs to be oversight here.
There needs to be assurances and triple checks on not just consumer data, but the security of social media sites with large echo chambers of influence.
One of the biggest causes of some of the negative aspects of today’s internet experience is from filter bubbles and misinformation to discrimination based on people’s behavior and perceived demographics.
Which, just to say it plainly, is social media sites' algorithms saying essentially, "Oh you seem like you're saying some racist things, here are more racists who agree with you we'll show you on the News Feed to keep you more engaged and spend a longer amount of time on our website."
The draw back of this is that people just get a confirmation bias on steroids without being exposed to equally valid opposing views on the same topic.
“It’s all traced back to the same behavioral data profiles,” says Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo.
On one hand, we definitely need to re-tool how everyday people are fed the same type of info on social media and definitely not steal data from consumers who have opted out.
On the other hand, we also would benefit from taking into account where the balance is for restrictions on advertising and keeping the industry from suffering the same sort of economic depression that hit so many businesses after covid regulations went into play.
What is your opinion about consumer privacy rights? Do you think we should also consider the ability of advertisers to make a living when creating new restrictions on running ads?
. . .
New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations
After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant. I'm a Facebook ad policy specialist and can audit your funnel, and share what to say that Facebook wants to see instead - but just isn't telling you.
Want to book a call to talk to Facebook and get results? Get solid answers directly from the source instead of guessing, googling and playing roulette? Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.
You'll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled. My clients have included social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker and Dean Graziosi. I'm featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith's Marketing Essentials Course.
Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? My calendar is here.
I get 100s of emails a week from businesses and advertisers asking for help when their facebook ad account keeps getting disabled, so my calendar gets booked fast. But if you want to get to the front, you can pre-pay for a consulting session here: Book a call
If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure an expert-level Facebook consulting call from someone at Facebook. Book a call with me now! If you're ok with waiting a bit longer, and entering the waitlist to see if you're eligible - Schedule a call or contact me via email.
Are we about to have a new Cold War with China and/or decouple shared technology? It's a pressing question on many businesses' minds as international relationships deteriorate and sanctions are put into place. The partnership of think tanks and franchiser is well established between the two countries. Look on the back of any MacBook: designed in Silicon Valley, manufactured in China. Never conflict-free Sino-U.S. relations took a more confrontational turn under Xi Jinping, the Chinese politician served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) since 2012, and President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013.
Yet, the US isn't the only one wanting to decouple this tech partnership; nations who are newly industrializing are a larger export market for China than America (source Gavekal Dragonomics).
Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa and the Middle East, using trade-based diplomacy combined with the rise of the digital renminbi, are offering new markets for China to switch to if a trade-war gets to the point where China withholds exports to the US. If we look into past actions China has taken, we can see a pattern of restricting foreign investment across the board.
Whether that's biological security, information security, food security or just blocking non-China websites like Facebook it's clear the Chinese government wants to control the flow of information to their citizens.
Massive protests in Hong Kong, started in June against plans to allow extradition to mainland China and to allow a full democracy.
The protests combined with antagonism at US and Chinese embassiesand Trump banning Chinese-owned TikTok from the US unless purchased by a US company have created a fire storm whose final conclusions we await like an MJ popcorn meme.
With the many co-dependent economies the US has on foreign exports, maintaining diplomacy between companies would be to our mutual benefit.
Because unlike China, the US hasn't reduced their dependency on potentially hostile foreign actors who export many household items we view as a given.
Both countries seem to mirror each other in increasing national security scrutiny of data flows, expansion of export controls, and attempts to shore up supply chain security for information and communications technology products and services.
Continued tariff disputes beginning in 2018 resulted in supply chain decoupling from China already on many levels.
The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated this pattern and the tech sector is now ground zero for these patterns.
China has already dedicated an incredible $1.4 trillion dollars on a digital infrastructure public spending program meant to keep more of tech in house and increase their ability to compete with global markets on a new level.
Going forward, companies are going to have to accept an “in-China-for-China” business model in order to gain access the Chinese market.
Techno-nationalism when you break it down is, in essence, a mercantilist behavior which links a nation’s tech abilities and enterprise with issues regarding national security, economic profitability, and social stability.
According to The Diplomat, techno-nationalism will affect the academic and innovation landscape in three ways:
1.The impacted institutions are going to decouple from blacklisted Chinese universities and academic programs.
2. An spreading web of export controls and restrictions are going to put more pressure on institutions to fall in line with more exacting regulations.
3. New rule frameworks and good governance indicators are going to emerge throughout global academia and the innovation landscape.
This is a required response to the many decades of Beijing’s innovation-mercantilism, and the role that China’s state apparatus has played in the methodical targeting of strategic IP, technology, and human capital at the world’s top universities.
In June 2020, America blacklisted many of China’s top universities, including the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), which is often called the “MIT of China.”
Many U.S. businesses have put their hopes on a potential end of the Trump presidency following the November 2020 elections while big tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are moving their manufacturing plants to countries outside of China like Vietnam and Thailand.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) along with presidential candidate Biden's staff have been ordered to delete TikTok off their phones due to security risks of TikTok accessing their clipboard for saved passwords to many high level campaign websites.
What does this ultimately mean going forward? It means globalization is going to get a little smaller, just like our social communities have after covid lockdowns in March 2020 this year.
Whether we like it nor, it appears many of the self-sufficient city planning ideas of Patrick Geddes may express themselves economically out of survival needs going forward. Many companies will choose to create vertical integration systems like Elon Musk's rocket launch and production factories of SpaceX rather than jump through an addition 20 hoops to partner with China.
How do you see this playing out going forward? Comment below!
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"A long-standing goal of human-computer interaction has been to enable people to have a natural conversation with computers, as they would with each other."
- Yaniv Leviathan, Principal Engineer at Google
Google's Duplex is an AI machine that can interact in real time conversations to take care of things like ordering from a restaurant or booking a hair appointment:
Engineers at Google describe the use of neural networks and speech recognition to achieve the flow of conversation between machines and humans:
"At the core of Duplex is a recurrent neural network (RNN)...built using TensorFlow Extended (TFX). To obtain its high precision, we trained Duplex’s RNN on a corpus of anonymized phone conversation data."
For those who haven't run across the term before, a neural network is a network or circuit of neurons. It's an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes.
A neural network can be a biological neural network, made up of real biological neurons, or an artificial neural network, for solving artificial intelligence (AI) problems.
These artificial networks are used in predictive modeling, adaptive control and applications where they are trained through a dataset.
Self-learning resulting from an experience or series of events can occur within networks, which can understand and make conclusions from a complex and seemingly unrelated set of information.
Google's engineers are combining several pieces of tech to create a learning model for AI, to facilitate real time machine and man convos:
"The network uses the output of Google’s automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, as well as features from the audio, the history of the conversation, the parameters of the conversation (e.g. the desired service for an appointment, or the current time of day) and more."
The idea is to be able to automation many of the functions that are rote or routine for us, with machines.
"We trained our understanding model separately for each task, but leveraged the shared corpus across tasks. Finally, we used hyperparameter optimization from TFX to further improve the model."
This is all combined in the Google Assistant, piece of software that is your robot helper which has the ability to multitask if you wanted to ask what the weather was like in New York City and Austin.
Here's a model of what a day would look like using the Google Assistant Snapshot powered by Google Duplex, to schedule picking up your groceries from curbside delivery, or notify you when your package has arrived:
Perhaps the Duplex's biggest limitation at this beta stage is that you can't hear the recording of the Google Duplex calls that’s made on your behalf afterward, or get a written transcript. There’s no word yet if Google will allow Duplex users to have that info going forward.
Another draw back is businesses that screen their calls due to the insane amount of spam calls by robo-dialers that are out of control - many businesses won't pick up a call from Duplex / Google Assistant because the caller ID says "Google" instead of a person's name.
Many servers at restaurants that have received calls from Google Duplex describe it as "Creepy but polite."
A lot of Duplex’s work isn’t actually call-based. When you make a request with Google Assistant for a restaurant booking, it searches for vacancies via third-party booking platforms such as OpenTable, Resy, or Yelp.
If Google Duplex can, it will confirm the time with you and book it, or Duplex will say that time is unavailable and it can't complete the task. The Duplex calling feature only happens for restaurants that aren’t on those sites and who opted into getting calls from Google Assistant on their Google business page.
Gabriel Murphy told The Verge he'd tried the AI out on his staff, monitoring the call in his office. They didn't believe they were talking to a machine.
“None of the staff seemed to have any issue with it, [but] there were plenty of jokes about Skynet and machines taking over,” Murphy says.
Skynet is a fictional artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that is the bad guy in the Terminator movie series.
When Skynet gained self-awareness, humans tried to deactivate it, prompting it to retaliate with a nuclear attack, an event known as Judgment Day.
Are we getting closer to that happening in reality? I hope not.
In the New York Times article that the gif above comes from, reporters found out that 25 % of the supposed AI-driven calls was actually placed by humans at a Google call center.
The reason why is that Google Duplex just doesn't have enough data yet to operate at 100% machine level. The nature of AI-based-learning in neural networks is you need a lot of data for the machines to parse together accurate responses.
Whether or not we are headed for the Rise of the Machines, as a real threat to human survival, my concerns lie in the cognitive development and social implications that follow when any tech is used to replace human interactions.
Most of the articles we read about new technology that will make our lives easier and automate more of our tasks leave out the affects on social development and the risks of cognitive deficiencies that come with the territory when humans seldom use or stop using a certain function of our brains like empathy and critical thinking that help balance decision making skills.
What does a future look like when everyone is so used to using AI assistants to take care of daily tasks and there's a glitch, or a computer crash, and now everyone is helpless to do basic routine task-management because we're so used to outsourcing daily scheduling to a machine?
Will this take away jobs from personal assistants? Or on the other hand, will this help reduce stress for service workers because they won't get yelled at on the phone if a reservation had to be re-scheduled or canceled?
As always, the bigger picture of how we develop successful interdependent relationships with each other, our friends and family, and the world remains left out of the narrative of bright new shiny technology but still worth pondering as we move forward into a bigger future.
What are your thoughts on machines taking over more of the tasks humans do? Would you use Google Duplex?
. . .
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While the hype has been all about Microsoft purchasing TikTok, TikTok rejected Microsoft's bid just this past Sunday and agreed to partner with Trump supporter company Oracle. IG didn't want to be left out either.
Reels has the editing tools like a timer, countdown clock, and camera effects. This includes the library of licensed music as well as user-recorded audio tracks.
An upcoming article will dive into Reels, for now let's talk about Oracle partnering with TikTok and the US government's stance.
Regarding the sale of TikTok, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC:
“From our standpoint, we’ll need to make sure that the code is, one, secure, Americans’ data is secure, that the phones are secure and we’ll be looking to have discussions with Oracle over the next few days with our technical teams.”
The data and security issues would be key to the federal government’s review & is crucial to determining whether or not to ban TikTok from America completely.
President Trump issued an executive order in August 2020 demanding that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to destroy all data connected to the app’s U.S. users, and then “certify in writing” to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States “that such destruction of data is complete.”
TikTok has also sued the Trump administration over one of the orders, calling it "heavily politicized." China isn't happy with mergers between US companies and Chinese companies in tech either.
Last month China revised rules that regulate the sale of certain kinds of tech to foreign buyers. The updated list includes data processing, speech and text recognition — the kind of tech that used by TikTok.
While those notices did not call out TikTok or ByteDance directly, experts point out that this rule change would likely require ByteDance to get government permission before it could sell TikTok to a foreign company. Enter Oracle from stage left.
TikTok now agreeing to partner with Oracle raises eyebrows, Microsoft is face-planting...but who is Oracle exactly?
Larry Ellison is the executive chairman and CTO of Oracle and a big Trump supporter, did that play into TikTok's decision to choose Oracle in the bidding war, as a "trusted technological partner"?
What does that even mean? No one is answering that question, Oracle & Tiktok remain silent on what their partnership actually is. Oracle's owner has ties with the president which makes things even weirder.
Larry Ellison is one of the tech industry's most well-known Trump supporters. In February 2020, he hosted a fundraising event for the president that made some of Oracle's workers to stage a walkout in protest. That wasn't the only thing Oracle has done that was called into question.
Larry Ellison Credit: Wikipedia
Oracle has had it's fair share of controversy. Trashgate is one that caught the headlines when Oracle hired an East Coast detective agency to investigate groups that supported rival Microsoft Corporation during its antitrust trial.
The investigation revealed Oracle made a $1,200 offer to janitors at the Association for Competitive Technology to look through Microsoft's trash.
And in 2011 Oracle was under investigation by the US Department of Justice, the SEC and the FBI for bribery in West and Central Africa.
West African countries such as Cote d'Ivoire are economically vulnerable and create a vortex of social pressure for anyone doing business there.
Under conditions of weak local enforcement and weak internal controls, companies can equally be pressured to succumb to bribing which is normal there.
What's more concerning is how fragile Oracle's own security is especially given the context of Trump's executive order and TikTok's current law suits against them for stealing data and selling it to private buyers.
In 2002, Oracle Corporation marketed many of its products using the slogan "Can't break it, can't break in", or "Unbreakable."
Where does that leave TikTok if their 'technology partner' is known for having weak security?
Chinese State-Owned media on Monday pointedly reported that ByteDance wouldn't sell TikTok's US operations to Microsoft or Oracle.
State broadcaster CGTN also commented ByteDance won't "give the source code" to any US buyers. Another question is how can Tiktok or rivals continue to be profitable?
Let's talk market viability, ByteDance stated the AI-powered algorithm behind TikTok -- arguably the app's greatest asset -- isn't going to be part of the deal, according to the South China Morning Post.
That begs the question as well, does Tiktok have a lock on their type of social media?
Does Instagram Reels have a chance to fill in the vacuum here?
With Oracle's purchase of TikTok my next big question is how janky will the transition be and will it interrupt the market power TikTok has commandeered so far to make rival companies, like Instagram with their billion size user base, have a chance with Reels?
Reels provides all the trappings of TikTok, built directly into the Instagram camera but doesn't have the same AI.
I think the success of Reels depends also on the marketability of being able to get discovered using it versus the hashtag battle ground of being seen if you aren't already a big time influencer.
Have you used Reels yet? I'm going to try it out this week. What are your thoughts about the 'partnership' between Oracle and TikTok?
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Augmented Reality (AR) is the next big thing in new tech and there's a reason for it: new developments are happening at rapid fire pace that is creating an amazing experience.
AR adds layers of virtual objects to the real environment. In contrast to Virtual Reality (VR), AR is an interactive experience of a real world environment where the objects in the real world are enhanced by computer generated perceptual information.
AR combines the real and virtual world, a real time interaction and accurate 3D registration of real and virtual objects across multiple senses.
The overlaid sensory info can be destructive where the natural environment can be masked to show virtual items, constructive or additive to the natural environment.
VR on the other hand replaces reality completely with a virtual reality.
The 1st AR technology was developed in 1968 in Harvard when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland created an AR head mounted system but it didn’t really take off until 2016 when Pokemon Go launched.
In addition to video games that allow you to fight epic battles in your living room, with systems like Lenovo Mirage (smartphone powered AR) there are applications for space exploration as well.
Here's Seismic Games debut teaser trailer for Blade Runner: Revelations, on the Lenovo Mirage Solo Google Daydream headset:
Nasa has stated they plan on using AR to keep track of astronaut’s health while they are in space.
Using a customized, 3D virtual reality (VR) simulation that animated the speed and direction of 4 million stars in the local Milky Way neighborhood, astronomer Marc Kuchner & researcher Susan Higashio obtained a new perspective on the stars’ motions, improving our understanding of star groupings.
Nasa scientists, using VR animated star clusters, found stars that may have been classified into the wrong groups as well as star groups that could belong to larger groupings.
Medical training, education, manufacturing, military, are all industries that are planning on using AR for virtual floating touch screen objects that hang in mid air.
Some really cool camera-based AR apps out right now include on the simplest level, iPhone’s free measure app that lets you measure the size of someone’s height in real time or tables length and width.
Ikea created an app called Ikea Place that lets you virtually place true to scale 3D models of Ikea furniture in your living room.
You’ll select an item from their digital catalogue, then using your smartphone camera you take a picture of your place. Then you can put the furniture anywhere in your house to see how it would look in real life.
The fashion industry isn’t getting left out of the loop for AR either. Many clothing brands let you try on clothes virtually so you can see what you’d look like in new threads without physically having to be there.
One of the the neatest AR apps out there that’s free is called Jig Space. This app lets you explore 3D objects in space, history, inside the planet Earth, how-to, machines and more.
One of the biggest issues with AR is that data has to be real time rendered right as an end user makes a decision without images and info lagging. 5G phones may help with this.
Real time content and AR content sometimes aren’t able to respond to each other fast enough to create a smooth experience.
MR or mixed reality hopes to fix this issue by using occlusion to remove the boundaries between real and virtual interactions.
MR merges real and virtual worlds together to create new environments and visualizations. Where physical and digital items coexist and interact with each other in real time.
MR doesn’t take place in exclusively the physical or virtual world, but is a hybrid reality where both come together.
While MR is similar to Augmented Reality one of the main distinctions between the two is that Mixed Reality allows a virtual overlay of graphics to interact with the real world. If you're dealing with Zoom fatigue you'll have a lot more options now,
Last year in February (2019) Microsoft came out with a new product called Hololens 2. These are Mixed Reality Smart Glasses. Their product demo was pretty impressive, using an application created with the unreal engine.
A few months later, the Hololens 2 Emulator was released to developers to allow them to create applications for the Hololens 2.
The Hololens 2 features include:
A diagonal field of view of 52 degrees, a resolution of 47 pixels per degree, accelerated work loads such as eye tracking, spacial audio, fully articulated hand tracking, semantic labeling and more.
The price tag is a bit heft at $3500 dollars.
AR, VR and MR is at the forefront of new business ventures predicted to create windfalls for both investors and creators, especially given current occupation limits, social distancing and stay at home orders which are intense in countries like Australia.
With everyone at home so often these days, Augmented Reality shows promise of sky rocketing in demand and sales as does VR and MR.
AR, Virtual Reality (VR), and MR are under the umbrella of XR or Extended Reality.
We’ve gone from hunters and gatherers to 3D printing hamburger patties grown from stem cells without harming animals or cutting down rain forests for cattle grazing lands.
While much of this new tech that can solve resource deficits has yet to be deployed at a level prevalent enough to have a global impact - we have the tools now to solve major issues like world hunger and starvation at a lower cost.
I hope this is something that becomes sponsored as a world-wide initiative to help end the nutrition issues in developing countries, food deserts in the United States of America and problematic issues for starving military families that are denied benefits.
But that’s more on the 3D printing and stem cell grown food topic, going back to AR, VR and MR, you’d think there would be once device that harnesses all three in XR.
And there is.
May 2020 Qualcomm who makes the chip for the Oculus Quest VR headset announced they are colloborating with 15 world operators to create XR viewers.
These operators are planning on making XR part of their 5G offerings for both businesses and consumers, debuting next year in 2021.
These XR viewers will be a pair of light weight glasses with 8K 360 degree video capabilities.
They’ll connect to a smartphone powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 or 865 mobile platform. These will be tethered via UBC cable to the 5G smartphones for an immersive XR experience with high bandwidth and low latency.
This will allow everyday experiences like doing planks for your morning workouts can become Augmented Reality experiences right before your eyes.
In the business world, these XR glasses can facilitate workplace meetings with holographic telepresence using virtual collaboration platforms.
It’s predicted that XR Viewers will become wireless and 5G tethered glasses will become available.
NVIDIA is another tech company vying for a place in XR tech wave maker history. Nvidia is known for designing GPUs. Their Cloud XR is their foundation platform for streaming Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality content from any open VR or XR application on a remote server.
Another contender is Nreal light glasses, which look pretty badass and are priced at around $586).
Nreal previously shipped a $1,199 developer kit that included a controller and a dedicated mini-computer.
The Nreal Light is a light sunglasses-style headset that tethers to a separate computing device — in this case, the Galaxy Note 20. It uses spatial tracking & projected images to overlay apps onto the real world, and Nreal sells it as a more spacious alternative to a smartphone for watching videos, playing games, or reading websites.
Sensors track the eyes' movements as well as 3D-mapping the view in front of them, so that digital characters and objects can be seen to interact with the environment.
Microphones and speakers are also built into the frames. And users control objects in view via what looks like a curved laser pointer.
It’s promising to support Chrome, Facebook, and Instagram, among other apps, at launch.
That’s a huge advancement as a way to enhance viewing YouTube videos right? Personally, I'm not a big VR person, after watching the Matrix so many times I'd rather not get sucked into an addiction to a non-real environment - although clearly there are benefits like Nasa's applications to astronomy and more.
But AR? Please, I want my Nreal glasses today! It makes what was once fantasy for tactile overlays you see in movies about the future, actually a reality.
I can see so much potential for designing tech, new clothes, innovative solutions to issues facing the world, I can't wait until economies of scale make AR tech part of everyday life.
What about you? What's your favorite thing discussed in today's blog on AR, VR and XR? Comment below!
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While the incredible developments in Cellular Architecture are paving the way for the future of biotech, another company is tackling deforestation on a whole new level.
Dendra, formerly known as Biocarbon Engineering, has developed a system of drones that replant trees. They received 2.5 million in funding with some promising projects on the way.
But first, let's examine why cutting down millions of trees everyday is worth investigating solutions to. What are the real effects of clear cutting forests?
Deforestation has side effects that many are not aware of, and it is a rampant issue today that is degrading the biome we rely on to survive.
It's not good for business when your business is located on a river delta that's getting deforested and your mangrove trees aren't there to break the wind and rain if a hurricane or cyclone hits.
More drought means more massive migrations from coastal cities into inner urban areas, which means higher rents, less capacity and options for when you want to pick out your new house and a huge strain on basic resources for every city that coastal city refugees flee to.
This may mean increased profits for the real estate sector but everyone else will have to also deal with artificially inflated mortgage rates and scarcity.
Deforestation releases more CO2 than cars which average 14% of all carbon emissions, while deforestation contributes to 15% of carbon emissions. This is because when trees are cut down they release the CO2 they were storing back into the air.
Drought, increased green house gasses, erosion, less protection against cyclones and flooding (trees stop floods from over taking a field) - clearly the cons outweigh the pros.
But there is some nice innovation in drone technology that will help remedy the loss of trees.Let's dive into what Dendra is doing with drones and deforestation.
The Dendra system uses satellite and drone-collected data to find out the best location to plant a tree. The planting drones then fire a biodegradable seedpod into the ground with pressurized air at each predetermined spots.
The speed these are fired is around 120 seedpods per minute. The seedpods are filled with a germinated seed, nutrients, and other vital components.
These penetrate the ground, and, activated by moisture, will grow into healthy trees.
What kind of numbers are we talking about for the amount of trees that can be planted?
Two drone pilots, piloting 10 drones can plant 400,000 trees per day. If this was expanded to 400 teams then planting 10 billion trees each year would be feasible.
There is more than one company out there making waves in this field, Droneseed is another one also using Drone tech to 10X tree planting abilities.
Flash Forest as Newsweek reports, is also using drones to replant forests and combat the increased carbon in our atmosphere due to deforestation. Their drones shoot vessels into the dirt.
Each vessel contains three germinated seeds as well as other species which support the area, a fungus called mycorrhizae which helps plants to develop, fertilizers, and other "secret" ingredients.
Are you an Angel Investor? Perhaps you may want to invest in one of these companies on the cutting edge of reforestation. Here's Flash Forest's kickstarter page.
What other promising companies helping with deforestation have you heard of?
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As medical tech is rapidly advancing (re: Microbots blog), the world desperately needs businesses to step up and solve the energy crisis, global warming, deforestation and water problems. Fortunately, in our rapidly advancing world of interconnected geniuses there are solutions coming to some of these planet-wide issues that affect everyone.
Something as simple as a turkey sandwich has a high water cost, but not for all ingredients.
A loaf of bread takes about 240 gallons of water to produce, while one pound of cheese takes about 382 gallons. A simple cheese sandwich adds up to about 56 gallons of water. Add some sliced turkey, and the water footprint jumps to 148 gallons.
Meat production worldwide, accounts for between 14.5 percent and 18 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions as well.
Additionally, cattle farming is destroying the largest producer of oxygen for the planet, the Amazon rainforest. According to the business section of the Washington Post:
From 2010 to 2017, beef exports climbed 25 percent, to 1.5 million tons, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. To accommodate that growth, cattle ranchers have been pushing their herds into the Amazon, clear-cutting and burning the forest as they go.
You don't have to be a tie dye Woodstock-Whole Foods hippie to crunch the data and see the viability of a business model that relies on depleting oxygen supplies for hamburgers - isn't viable.
Poorly planned resource management strategies mean there will be less hamburgers not more if there isn't a smarter approach to meat production - because when all the land is farmed & water is used up, what then?
The Toll on Biodiversity
The principal drivers of biodiversity loss include habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, pollution and climate change.
Livestock farming isn't by itself 100% detrimental to the environment and biodiversity. In fact, past pastoralism practices helped create high value cultural and natural areas we have today because of the grassland ecosystems that grazing creates.
However, the problem is that many ecosystems created by traditional farming practices have all but disappeared due to increasing agricultural intensification, especially in developed countries.
It comes down to supply and demand. When the demand is greater than the supply, suppliers can be motivated to cut corners or try methods of production that have long lasting damage in peripheral areas. Hong Kong is the biggest global importer of Brazilian beef products, bringing in about $1.5 billion worth in 2017, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. China is second, at nearly $1 billion, followed by Iran, Egypt and Russia. The United States, which imported $295 million in beef, came in sixth.
The increased demand for meat has resulted in attempts to increase the level of production, where to increase farming outputs, farmers and big corps owning farms have moved livestock out of pastures and into barns so that agricultural areas can be harvested more intensively.
Agricultural intensification has been widely regarded as a driving force of biodiversity loss and whereas traditional farms provided important habitats for biodiversity, many of these important habitats are either declining or have been lost already.
So what's the solution? The whole world has to go vegetarian? Or vegan? While that would solve a ton of problems for reduced water supplies and loss of biodiversity it isn't realistic to expect the entire planet to get on board with changing their diet.
Luckily, there is another way to solve these problems and it begins with a $300,000 dollar burger.
Stem Cell Grown Meat Offers Hope Cultured stem cell grown meat on the other hand uses 99% less land, and 82 to 96 % less water, as well as producing 78-96% less greenhouse gasses.
The first lab grown hamburger patty cost $300,000 dollars to make. It was made in a Dutch lab at Maastricht University. The material was made from stem cells extracted from a cow's neck. By contrast, now Aleph Farms' small piece of steak costs $50 to produce. Cellular agriculture is a brand new industry and there are a lot of opportunities for start ups to gain a foot hold here and make it big, just like there is in autonomous surgeon robots of microscopic size in the biotech field. The Promising New Field Of Cellular Agriculture
San Francisco, California–based Memphis Meats has beef, duck, and chicken under development—with investment from (conventional) meat giant Tyson Foods. JUST, also based in San Francisco, has a chicken product based on cells originally isolated from the feather of a chicken (named Ian).
In 2018, the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association in Washington, D.C., petitioned USDA to restrict the use of the words “beef” & “meat” on product labels to only products taken from animals who “have been born, raised, and harvested in the traditional manner.”
So there is bound to be contention from rivaling industries of traditional farming. The dairy and meat industry are heavily subsidized by the FDA with powerful lobbyists backed by millions of dollars.
Just how will this come to a head when stem cell grown meat becomes a major threat to the meat market? Will big farms stock go down?
Will they try a smear campaign or bribe politicians like the auto industrial complex did for the electric car (before Elon Musk wiped the floor with the more aesthetic-driven Tesla)?
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially amidst the new covid-altered world. But there is also one more thing to consider:
Just what is the USDA’s responsibilities when it comes to lab-grown meat? That isn't clear at all here's why:
In order to inspect the lab grown meat, the USDA will need people they don't have right now, with higher qualifications in the type of science needed to even understand what they are regulating.
As of right now, the proposal to have USDA regulate cellular agriculture doesn’t have unanimous support, even in the agriculture subcommittee that advanced the bill to the full Appropriations Committee.
Representative Rosa DeLauro (D–CT) argued that the decision is premature. “Presently, I don’t believe we know enough about the strengths and weaknesses of this type of food production,” she says. “We should allow experts to weigh in before taking on this major policy implication.” In March, DeLauro wrote to the U.S. Government Accountability Office to request a review of the regulatory framework for cellular agriculture.
What is clear is that this is one of the new industries that has risen to the call for helping us regulate resource management better so that many can enjoy eating meat without depleting our supplies.
In addition to saving animals from whole sale slaughter in the billions every year, stem cell grown cultured meat requires less energy, takes up less land, and releases less methane and other greenhouse gases than traditional meat production does.
Would you eat a lab grown hamburger?
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Entrepreneurs are at it again with an incredible new development: The Soft Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR). It's a robot that sutures soft tissue with built in dexterity and AI learning abilities. Just the size of a small vitamin capsule, a robotic cylinder is hooked onto the end of a catheter. It's inserted at the base of the heart and using a motorized drive system this microbot cruises to a patient's leaking heart valve.
The robotic cylinder moves along side the ventricular wall, locating the damaged valve near the top of the ventricle using both touch sensors and vision.
After that the microbot gets into position by the leaking valve while a surgeon launches the minuscule stopper from this tiny robot which stops the leak.
If Elon Musk wants to take us to Mars, we'll need innovative solutions like robotic surgeons for the journey through space in case of injuries.
Right now there is more of a proliferation of cobots - robots that work with surgeons instead of replace them - but eventually much of these operations will be done by autonomous robots that work faster and learn quicker than humans.
Entrepreneurs aren't the only ones who see the huge potential of the microbot industry; Google's parent company Alphabet partnered with Johnson & Johnson to create surgical robots.
This partnership is called Verb Surgical, and their robotic surgeons hit the market this year with the goal to democratize surgery.
One of the side affects of mass production, when larger companies get involved, is the price is driven down making this one day a quite affordable procedure cheaper than the insanely expensive hospital bills Americans have to pay for routine medical work.
Bionaut's Microscopic Robot Surgeon
Ever heard of Bionaut? I haven't either yet this Israeli startup is making waves right now in the bio tech world. Their robot is nearly microscopic in size and speeds through tissue at 60 centimeters per hour.
Credit: https://www.bionautlabs.com
Bionaut's microbot is precise and uses magnetic fields to guide its path through the body. It's remote controlled to deliver cancer treating drugs at the precise location cancerous cells spring up.
This offers a huge advantage to traditional system-wide treatment of chemotherapy which kills off so much of healthy immune system defenses, because the robotic surgeon targets only where the cancer pops up.
Credit: https://www.bionautlabs.com/
While my stance on self-driving cars won't change (we deserve our own autonomy for where we go and when, giving this up is tantamount to a civil liberty - altho public transit or having it an option for Lyft or Uber is great) it does seem like a great idea to automate surgery when possible. According to the scientific journal Nature, mistakes by clinicians lead to more than 200,000 US deaths each year. I've had my experience with doctors making mistakes in hospitals too. Luckily not with any surgeries, still it's a powerful argument for supervised microbot surgeries to be in our future some day.
A 10 Year Plan Autonomous surgery would also help rural areas that also suffer from food deserts and lack of access to surgeons.
Realistically, it's going to take another 10 years to get to the point of full autonomy because where robots fail and humans are more efficient is when something unexpected happens. Whether a blood vessel is located in a place it wasn't supposed to be, or a new reaction during surgery happens, robots can't adapt yet as well as human surgeons who have more contextual knowledge and experience.
The DaVinci surgical system has already been using robotic arms to assist with minimally invasive surgeries with 3D high definition views of the surgical area since 1995.
Being able to stack new tools onto an existing system like the DaVinci one, will make the transition smoother, since it's already a stable platform with over a decade of proven results.
Would you trust a robot surgeon to operate on you?
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AI is huge right now, it's at the forefront of redefining business and how we live our lives. Last blog's article on Direct Mail still holds true for it being a great marketing technique with little competition but let's fast forward. It's January 2028 and you're walking in downtown New York City, the vaccine has been released and life has returned to normal. You hail an autonomous Lyft car, driven by robots and GPS sensors and step in.
As you head towards the pizza place you're meeting your friend for lunch at, he's a fellow startup founder, you realize you forgot your blazer.
It's cold in New York City right now plus you like dressing up when you go out. Shortly after realizing you forgot your blazer you find a leather jacket online you really like.
The leather comes from stem cell grown fabric, so no animal cruelty was involved and no rain forest was cut down to provide grazing fields for the cows that in 2020 would have been killed and skinned for your leather jack. Super.
You add the leather jacket to your shopping cart and redirect your thoughts towards the meeting with your fellow business owner friend. The clothing store's AI connects with your iPhone, Samsung or Android's AI and reroutes the autonomous self driving Lyft car.
You now arrive at the clothing store, pulling up right in front of the front doors. You get out and go to a terminal like an ATM but bigger just to the left of the front doors.
Opening an app on your phone you hold the screen facing scanners on a digital display and check in. Within 2 minutes a sales rep comes out with your new leather jacket.
It fits perfectly as the store has an online profile for you with all your sizes 3D body scanned with a Wii sensor from your phone. Your shoes also have weight sensors that adjust as you gain or lose weight.
There was no line at the store and the cost of the jacket was automatically deducted from your bank account as soon as the sales rep handed it to you, because sensors tracked the process from online to storefront coordinated with your payment profile with the store and Lyft.
Additionally, running on an automation, the store's marketing department already knows this is your first purchase and by the time you get home from lunch there's a coupon QR code emailed to you for 20% off your next purchase.
The store's inventory automatically updates, as there are also sensors built into the clothes rack your jacket hun on and sends an order fulfillment email based on existing supply and demand for this product.
Back up inventory is already on the way from the warehouse as this jacket has been trending this year.
The Internet of Things
As much as that may sound futuristic, it isn't that far off from where we are right now due to advances in AI and the increased prevalence and efficiency of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Smart toasters, smart NEST Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats (who once tried to recruit me to work for them) and fitness collars for dogs are just a few examples of IoTs
If you're not familiar, here's Wired's explanation of what the Internet of Things is and does:
"In the broadest sense, the term IoT encompasses everything connected to the internet, but it is increasingly being used to define objects that "talk" to each other. "Simply, the Internet of Things is made up of devices – from simple sensors to smartphones and wearables – connected together," Matthew Evans, the IoT program head at techUK, says."
"By combining these connected devices with automated systems, it is possible to "gather information, analyse it and create an action" to help someone with a particular task, or learn from a process. In reality, this ranges from smart mirrors to beacons in shops and beyond."
Smart Checkouts The vast majority of people are not aware of some of the newest tech that has arrived and automatic checkouts have already been created.
January 2018 Amazon released the first Amazon Go store in Seattle, Washington. In 2019, they released 7 more stores and plan for 3,000 Go stores by 2021.
Credit: Wikipedia
So how does it work? Essentially, you walk in, get what you want and are automatically charged for it - no cashier, no self-check out of scanning things yourself. Just stroll in, grab what you need and peace out.
From the Wiki on Amazon Go: The Amazon Go app for iOS and Android links to their Amazon account and is the primary method of paying for items at the store, alongside cash at certain locations. The app is required to enter the store, which has turnstiles that scan a QR code generated on the app.
The app allows users to add others to their Amazon account, so a family's purchases can be charged to the same bill. The ceiling of the store has multiple cameras and store shelves have weight sensors, to detect which item(s) a customer took.
Credit: Wikipedia
If a customer takes an item off the shelf, it will be added to the customer's virtual cart. Similarly, if a customer places an item back on the shelf, it is removed from the customer's virtual cart. What Are the Implications of Automated Checkout? Retailers will save billions on employee wages they have to shell out, as well as benefits, training managers and more.
There will be less space needed without cashier stations as well so that adds to store's real estate to stock more products in the same amount of space. But Business.org reports a few drawbacks. At the same time, if a UPC doesn't scan correctly or an item isn't provided that was there last week or you just can't find something - customer service will take a hit.
There may be a way to jerry rig the system to increase theft as well through burner phones or if a thief stole your phone and you didn't have a screen lock on it.
The lack of one-on-one interaction is probably the biggest loss in my opinion. I enjoy interacting with cashiers, waitresses, baristas and more - it's a good way to break the covid cabin fever now and even in normal times humanizes the buying process and adds some social spark to the day.
What do you think?
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Direct Mail is making a comeback! When was the last time you got a hand written letter from a friend or family member? Probably a while. But you still get those oil change coupons right?
US Postal Service reports that around 77 billion pieces of mail are made and sent each year. The result? 28 percent higher sales for companies who send mailers like catalogs and offers.
Ever get an Ikea catalogue in the mail with colorful pictures and designs? Even I can't resist looking through it.
USPS held another study which surprisingly found that while mobile marketers are spending $247 billion by the end of 2020, direct mail marketing offers a higher return for a much much smaller investment.
What are the numbers?
Well, direct mail campaigns expect on average $2,095 in sales for every $167 spent. For those not great at math, that's a return of 1,300 %!!
That's a bit more than just, "Will this ad double my ROI?"
There are some important deets to consider here. One is that direct mail isn't just about emotions, although that’s an important element of branding.
It's about taking action, reaching your audience, directly in a way that convinces them to act. Really, when you consider the big picture, direct mail is just another aspect of content marketing.
Online ads often get skipped over, it's much harder to ignore physical mail.People open mail faster - as soon as they get it often - than other mediums so there's that benefit.
The Millennial factor - as a Millennial I can speak to this as well, we love the 90s, and much of that old school feel. There is something about direct mail that inspires nostalgia.
With COVID city wide shut downs globally, people are just at home more anyways. And they are looking for new things to do. Direct mail is making old new again.
These days there is a lot more customization so using cookie data and more, direct mail campaigns can be segmented just like you would an ad on Facebook, and offer a more personalized experience to convert even higher.
Also there are very few advertisers using this method to reach customers - it isn't at all saturated, so there's that as well.
What was the last letter you remember receiving? Or mailed ad that you liked? How will you use this strategy for your business?
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Did the Chinese create TikTok just for mining data? Is it any worse than what Facebook already does? TikTok (formerly known as Musical.ly,)is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance. Most use the app for creating short music, lip-sync, dance,comedy and talent videos around 3 to 15 seconds long as well as short looping videos 3 to 60 seconds song. Friends of mine encouraged me to get TikTok when it first came out but I didn't and I'm glad now that I didn't.
A college student from Palo Alto California, Misty Hong, is suing ByteDance for breaking federal computer fraud law, the California Constitution's right to privacy law and more.
TikTok uses close up videos of faces from their user base to collect biometric data, the lawsuit claims. After you shoot a video and click on the next button, these videos are transferred to many other websites without your knowledge.
This occurs before you even post the video or save it, Hong's lawsuit states. According to CNET:
"Hong downloaded TikTok in March or April 2019 but never created an account, according to the lawsuit. Months later, she discovered TikTok made one for her. She created five or six videos using the app but never saved or published the videos. Still, TikTok secretly took the videos and her data without her knowledge and sent the information to servers in China, according to the lawsuit."
Well..um..that's a bit of a buzz kill from your singing dancing videos. Super glad to have dodged that bullet. TikTok has been pulled from the App Store and Play Store in India, its largest market, and has seen similar protests from users in other major markets around the world, including the U.S. The hacker group, Anonymous has posted on Twitter encouraging everyone to get off of TikTok:
Source: Twitter.com
Lawsuits aside, diving into the secrets to how TikTok works on the back end is quite revealing. A software engineer reverse engineered TikTok and found some alarming details he shared on Reddit:
I promise you, this isn't a smear campaign on TikTok as I'm objective towards the app having never used it or having an interest really for or against it. But researching TikTok bring up a lot of questionable data.
Not to mention theFTC is fining the company$5.7 million for mining data from children under 13 years old like email addresses, location, names, and age.
Instead of face privacy concerns head-on, TikTok and ByteDance continually attempt dodge them with convoluted location-based developer restrictionsand subterfuge aboutwhere, exactly, the company is headquartered. That alone should raise some suspicions. While there is, unfortunately, a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment in America right now, there are also real concerns about privacy being violated for those using the TikTok app.
With all the back doors that can be built into an app to remote filter data to servers in other countries, it would always be suspect. And in essence, it's Microsoft buying your data if you use TikTok, from China, to use for Microsoft products to finally compete with Facebook.
That doesn't exactly allay legitimate concerns about protection of our data. So yes, there are rumbles beneath the surface right now about all of this.
I believe it is a good time to assess priorities for what kids are exposed to. I'd like to opt out of this real life version of a Black Mirror episode we seem to be living in right now. We can do this by choosing what we expose ourselves to and our families.
Cognitive development of teens isn't exactly part of this business blog's focus, but it is something to keep in mind when making parental choices.
The news about TikTok's massive (intentional) data breaches is a good reminder that, even despite being in lockdown due to covid, we don't all have to keep staring at screens.
Do you use TikTok? Do your kids? What are some alternatives to staring at screens you enjoy? Comment below!
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While you're jamming to great music working from home, ever get cabin fever? Airbnb is the go-to choice to escape the confines of your home/office/sometimes-prison.
Isn't it struggling like other businesses right now due to covid?
Yes & No.
Airbnb was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia then later, Nathan Blecharczy. They had the zany idea of just putting an air mattress in their living room in San Francisco and marketing that as a Bed and Breakfast. Yet now, Airbnb is a household name.
The founders are all billionaires at this point. The company was planning on going public this year, until the Corona Virus pandemic bottomed out many markets world wide.
Now, Airbnb bookings have tanked like Jurassic Park sequels.
According to AirDNA bookings in Europe collapsed in March, dropping 80% compared to the prior week in the week starting March 9, and another 10% on top of that for the week of March 16.
Today Sydney’s Opera House, Bangkok’s night markets, the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Colosseum in Rome are empty of those annoying tourists whose money generated significant income for cities, above & beyond just the gig economy.
Airbnb honored cancellations by all the guests despite how much this pissed off hosts. Founder Brian Chesky explained, in a letter to Airbnb Hosts,
"If we allowed guests to cancel and receive a refund, we knew it could have significant consequences on your livelihood. But, we couldn’t have guests and hosts feel pressured to put themselves into unsafe situations and create an additional public health hazard."
"We determined that we had to allow your guests to cancel and receive a full refund—including all our fees. Please know this decision was not a business decision, but based on protecting public health."
"However, while I believe we did the right thing in prioritizing health and safety, I’m sorry that we communicated this decision to guests without consulting you—like partners should. We have heard from you and we know we could have been better partners." Airbnb intends to give a $250 million payout for the Airbnb hosts who lost income as guests canceled their stays due to the C-19 pandemic. The founders are also creating a $10 million Superhost Relief Fund designed for Superhosts who rent out their own home and need help paying their rent or mortgage.
Not everyone views the economy crashing as a bad thing, for this particular industry. Critics bring up valid points on how Airbnb causes housing shortages as Short Term Rentals (STRs) are empty saved for Airbnbers while local residents can't find a place to call home.
"Paris has 100,000 empty homes and 100,000 second homes, according to the mayor’s office, fueling a sense of social injustice. One study of Airbnb in a Lisbon neighborhood between 2015 and 2017 found it looked less like a sharing economy and more like a buy-to-let craze, with 99% of short-term rentals marketed all year round."
I went to Paris for the first time last year and stayed in a charming chateaux, complete with a hookah and Pink Floyd on vinyl. But, like most tourists, I didn't consider locals may be put out by not having a place to rent.
Definitely food for thought. Laurent continues his comments here:
“Short-term rentals have had a disastrous impact on cities’ rental markets,” McGill University’s David Wachsmuth told The Intelligencer...Will a post-Covid-19 society really want that back?"
This is a good question, Laurent makes great points. Honestly, I think given the C-19 occupation limits and social distancing, Airbnb is a marriage of convenience that wins out over social justice concerns however justified.
It's more than just ease of use, staying at a vacation rental is now about safety and Airbnb offers a contactless check in & out system unlike most hotels.
While many things seem bleak, and doom scrolling frames things in a negative light ("It's sunny outside honey" "Yes but it must be part of a plot!") - there is an upside. We aren't losing Airbnb yet.
Airbnb's Windfall
For Airbnb hosts who have places in rural settings the market is booming thanks to cabin fever. Many want an escape and this is the perfect way to do so.
Rural hosts earned over $200 million dollars in just June 2020 alone, in the USA, according to Airbnb's newspage.
Trisha Mixer lost over $40,000 worth of bookings for her two properties outside Austin, Texas, when Covid-19 hit. But once the state started reopening in May, she said, she was “barraged” with requests. “You could tell people were desperate,” Mixer said.
Mixer’s two properties, a lake house and a cottage, are 30 and 90 minutes away from Austin, respectively, and the majority of her recent customers are other Texans — even people from Austin who just want to get away.
Summer weekends have always been popular, but this year she hasn’t had to do extra to fill up weekdays too. Mixer even raised prices a little to try to slow down the pace of bookings, but it didn’t work.
Her properties are filled through the summer, and weekend business looks steady through the end of October. On these getaways, just some space and, if possible, a swimming pool might be enough.
At Kathryn Langer’s property in Lake Travis, Texas, which sleeps nine people and does have the coveted pool, it is the “busiest and craziest” time in her four years of hosting on Airbnb. People are “stir crazy,” she said, adding that she had a guest who booked in May and then rebooked for August without having visited the first time yet.
Part of this is because of how scared people are of traveling now due to the added risks of catching the Corona Virus. It's much easier to find an Airbnb out in the country a few miles away from your city than it is to book a flight, wade through a crowd of strangers to and from your vacay destination.
In fact, I think I am going to have to check out some of the nearby lake view Airbnbs. This sounds like a safe easy get-away compared to braving an airport right now.
What about you? Willing to brave flying to an exotic destination, or stay in your state and hit up a rural Airbnb?
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Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer
Wednesday, July 29th, the 4 companies that make up Big Tech, Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook faced off with Congress on allegations that their business's monopolistic practices stifle competition unfairly, breaking antitrust laws.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Apple’s Tim Cook testified (remotely) on the anti-competitive behavior of their companies.
The House Judiciary Committee began this investigation over a year ago and collected over 1.3 million documents about these business practices.
Big Tech CEOs appeared virtually before Congress for 5 hours facing relentless criticism of their business practices. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos' opening statement was:
“Just like the world needs small companies, it also needs large ones,”
The Committee Chairman Rep. David Cicilline likened the CEOs to kings and said Congress wasn’t going to bow down to them.
Graeme Jennings | Credit: AP
‘Your ability to dictate terms, call the shots, upend entire sectors, inspire FEAR resemble the powers of a private government. Our founders would not bow before a king, nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”
Then the lawmakers cited details on the executives emails and internal documents they’d acquired, and pressuring Big Tech CEOs to explain how they got their market dollars.
Amazon’s antitrust investigation was considered less in depth as questions asked of Google and Facebook but there were some pointed questions asked.
These included how Amazon treats and handles 3rd party sellers on its website to whether or not the company properly regulates knock offs and counterfeit products.
“Why isn’t Amazon responsible for keeping all counterfeit products off of its platform?”
Jeff Bezos replied:
“We do a lot to prevent counterfeiting. We have uh, a team of more than a thousand people that does this.”
Lawmakers cited a Wall Street Journal report from April this year that stated Amazon.com Inc. employees have used data about independent sellers on Amazon to develop competing products, at odds with their own stated policies.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked:
“Does Amazon ever access and use 3rd party seller data when making business decisions? And a yes or no will suffice sir.”
Amazon CEO Bezos replied:
“I can’t answer that question ‘yes’ or ‘no’ what I can tell you is we have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private label business but I can’t guarantee you that that policy hasn’t been violated.”
Which essentially means, yes, Amazon has data mined independent sellers’ data to compete against them but, will assign blame later to a scape goat. Maybe a few contract employees will get fired.
When your company gets big, it's good to remember why we do this, so humanity doesn't get lost just crunching numbers.
What do consumers in America actually feel about Big Tech’s dominance of the market?
72% of U.S. adults believe big tech companies have too much “power and influence” in politics, per a Pew Research survey conducted in June, while an Accountable Tech/GQR Research poll in July found 85% of respondents believe they have too much power in general. [Source: Forbes] Google was playing for higher stakes because of how advanced the anti trust investigation is against them. The other 3 companies aren’t facing as serious of a monopoly charge as Google is facing.
It’s highly likely there will be a new law suit filed against Google in the coming months.
Congress asked questions relevant to their ongoing investigation against Google. One of which was how often does Google tailor search results to keep people on Google instead objective data, and info other websites provide?
Committee chairman Rep. David Cicilline asked:
“Did Google ever use its surveillance over web traffic to identify competitive threats?”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded:
“Congressman, just like other businesses, we try to understand trends from uh you know data we can see.We use it to improve products for our users,”
Almost the entire rest of Google’s time at the hearing was defending itself against charges that its search results don’t favor republicans.
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook didn’t get as many questions.
Most of the questions Apple got related to the App Store, and whether when a consumer is searching for apps if the search results favor apps Apple engineers over competitor apps.
Rep. Hank Johnson asked:
“Does Apple not treat all app developers equally?”
Cook replied,
“Sir we treat every developer the same. We have open uhhhh and transparent rules. It’s a rigorous process. Because we care so deeply about privacy, security and quality, we do look at every app before it goes on…”
Cook said that Apple acts fairly, pointing to the diversity of apps on the app store, as well as the benefits to consumers in having a wide selection instead of just Apple-made apps.
Facebook’s CEO Zuckerberg got many questions on misinformation and perceived political bias on the many social media companies they own.
Zuck replied:
“We do not want to become the arbiters of truth. I think that would be a bad position for us to be in.”
Speaking to the charges of monopolizing social media sectors, there were questions about social media companies Facebook has bought such as Instagram.
Ant-trust investigations into this exposed internal Facebook emails Mark Zuckerberg sent around the time of these acquisitions.
Rep. Joe Neguse said:
“Facebook also tried to buy other competitive startups…in fact you did tell one of Facebook’s senior engineers in 2012 that you can quote:
‘Likely just buy any competitive startup but it will be a while before we can buy Google.’
Do you recall writing that email?”
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg replied:
“Uh Congressman, I don’t specifically but it sounds like a joke.”
Zuckerberg pointed out that his acquisition of Instagram was approved at the time by regulators.
A key takeaway is that Congress did their research this time to actually understand more of how these Big Tech companies work and had better questions.
Top down view shows that these companies will continue to be under the microscope from both sides of the aisle.
The House antitrust subcommittee is going to release a report in the aftermath of this hearing with recommendations on changes to antitrust laws - in regards to Big Tech’s monopoly. Federal Trade Commission investigations in the states are going to use some of the information revealed in this hearing to further their cases. What's concerning is that if Google is filtering results from your Google searches to reveal less than the truth - this manipulates your perception of reality. If Google search results only cater to their advertisers and things that support their platform - this is literally creating life choices for billions of people who view the same data as objective.
It wouldn't be an issue if there was a real space for other search engines to compete, but Bing is dead, Duck Duck Go is used by only a small minority and Yahoo search is a joke.
With Google being used by everybody...this is where being a monopoly causes issues:
How do you think antitrust laws should change in regards to Big Tech?
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2020 is a year unlike any other with more rapid changes to business and the world as we know it. The biggest shopping events of the year will take on a new tone now, as crowds are prohibited from gathering due to the rapid spread of the Corona Virus with over 16 million new cases globally.
Giant retailers are encouraging consumers to shop earlier online for the holidays and promise to start sales earlier as well, according to Target's blog.
Context is everything right now, this 2019 seemingly normal picture of what life was like shopping pre-C19 now, will trigger many emotionally, seeing people without masks at the checkout:
The year is flying by at super sonic speeds despite the feeling that time is dragging by extra slow, stuck at home and feeling cabin feverish.
The speed of major events that keep happening is making it hard to feel like we have had enough time to savor the moments, as each day can bring new challenges when adapting to life on lockdown.
This coming Monday U.S. Senate Republicans are expected to reveal a new $1 trillion coronavirus aid package. This could add more economic stimulus and perhaps even indicate a bull market trend for big oil who has been suffering losses due to reduced travel during the pandemic.
Per Reuters: Brent crude LCOc1 lost 81 cents, or 1.9%, to $42.53 a barrel by 11:13 a.m. EDT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 fell 65 cents, or 1.6%, to $40.64 a barrel.
Following the closures of consulates in Houston and Chendu, investors worried about relations between China and the United States and have retreated to safe havens, such as gold and bonds.
Is big oil partially responsible for Americans getting stimulus checks? This is a good question, as the oil industry hasn't shirked donating millions to politicians in exchange for political favors in the past. This is part of what killed the electric car before Elon Musk brought it back through better brand definition and audience targeting.
The more money consumers have, the more likely they'll use that money to break the monotony of staying at home all the time and splurge on trips, drive more and oil companies benefit from this.
The oil industry is doing everything they can to find a way to survive right now as the margins for refined oil products have dropped into negative areas:
To be fair, trading divisions can make money even when prices dip by exploiting choppy market moves.
Is it possible that these fossil fuel companies, out of self interest, are pulling the strings they have to pull to nudge politicians towards printing more Monopoly money out?
When the Terminator can become the governor of California and someone who is illiterate, unable to read at all can become president in 2016 - who is to say what's possible these days...
There is still the larger question of where we go from here, for a long term plan. There are greater things at stake micro and macro level.
I haven't been able to see my son for a long time, since Christmas in 2019 as the pandemic hit and the fear that either one of us is asymptomatic keeps his mother from allowing visitation. Will I ever see him again?
Many families are experiencing strife due to how things are panning out, unable to go back to work because daycares aren't open and schools are closed to only virtual classes.
Oil based capitalism is literally the backbone of much of America's economy. When the bottom drops out as the flow of petrodollars halts there are new problems: where do we put all this oil?
Three quarters of the world's storage capacity have already been reached and the limits were tapped back in May 2020 this year as The Petroleum Economist reports.
Another side effect is that Exxon, Shell, BP, and a handful of others — who are much better positioned to survive this crisis than smaller producers — are using the crisis to try to roll back environmental regulations.
So perhaps not quite the benevolent saviors their PR agents would have us believe they are. While it's easy to say things like, just go green with wind, solar and hydroelectric energy sources this ignores how entrenched oil as a commodity is in the stability of existing markets for the global economy.
One of the newest coping mechanisms of fossil fuelers is Russia may agree to a three-way arrangement with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to limit output to halt the downward slide of oil product prices.
Previously, Putin was resisting any concessions in a stand-off with Saudi Arabia since Moscow pulled out of a supply-limit agreement with OPEC over demands for deeper cuts in output.
But the reality is this industry has to prepare for challenging times, low oil prices, and learn how to adapt like the rest of us to the rapidly evolving situation with the corona virus.
There is no doubt that political alignments are being reworked, and arrangements are being made to consolidate in the interests of the most powerful forces at work in the world.
I'd like to see the same desperate winner take all driving unstoppable force the fossil fuel industry has right now, also coming from renewable energy providers.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, there will be new winners and losers. I would like to see a more sustainable business model from green energy that creates new markets for both investors and consumers.
What changes would you like to see after C19? Comment below!
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In my last blog we discussed the beautiful art of Guerrilla Marketing (really interesting read), but today let's shift to customer service. Specifically customer service with gender and racial equality in mind. "Woah. Deep topic bro. You sure about that?"
2020 has seen a pandemic make businesses lose trillions of dollars, black lives matters protest take over cities across the nation and we have a presidential election while on lock down.
Yes, it matters right now, more than ever. Many businesses use outdated language and terms and conditions, not to mention how managers are trained as well as customer service reps.
Did you know in certain leases, it still says you can't sell a house to a black person or a Jewish person? True fact as CNN reports here.
But your business doesn't have to be real estate to lose business because you're using outdated terms that may be prejudiced. You could be in any industry that hasn't keep tabs on how society has changed.
It always starts with the top down - the CEO and/or founder of the company sets the rules and regs in place that has a trickle down effect for how company morale is shaped.
As discussed in the break down of management strategies blog management philosophy in business hasn't changed since the 1800s - yet the world has changed dramatically.
While affirmative action and diversity hires are huge topics deserving of their own articles, it is telling us that there were huge gaps in how business and education operated and how we really live today. How important is having customer service that considers gender and racial equality to your business?
As entrepreneurs, our ability to pivot and adapt to changing situations is how we continue to not just survive, but thrive, even in uncertain times. While doing market research for a new eCom business I'm launching, I came across Marshall's Facebook Page and it appears their customer service could use some tweaks.
I don't know how you can mess up more blatantly than this for customer service. By Americanizing an Arabic name into "Vicki" (when it was even spelled out right above Marshall's response) it was clear that customer service wasn't a priority.
Or even basic awareness. Most likely it was a response done by an underpaid employee who didn't have much motivation to even pay attention because he or she wasn't making enough money and didn't have training worth a salt.
As businesses move into digital and online storefronts only due to the pandemic, more sensitivity training is needed. Or just less bullshit. We have to realize just like texting, words don't convey tone.
This means for customer service, chatbots, live human chats, social media, websites, email outreach and more businesses will benefit from analyzing how their tone comes across to multiple perceptions.
Companies need to be aware if the public's perception of their business doesn't support racial and gender equality.
Regardless of your personal view points (which I hope allow everyone the same level of humanity), it is also about profit margins. Your business will lose money if you're still in the 1800s and the rest of the world has left you behind with 3D printers, air touch technology and social emotional awareness.
Are there any changes or focuses you are making with your business that are new in light of what's been happening in 2020? Comment below!
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Sometimes a business losing out is a good thing for the global impact. Not every business is well adapted to current times and sometimes the market needs certain business models to die out to make way for something better.
As retail businesses learn to adapt so they don't close, the oil industry which is responsible for millions of deaths, wars, and occupation, is struggling as well.
You may have forgotten with the huge headlines coming and going in rapid succession, from Black Lives Matter protests to covid craziness, that the Dakota Pipeline threatened the livelihood of thousands native to the planned development site. Dakota Access Pipeline TLDR History Informational hearings for landowners took place between August 2014 and January 2015. Dakota Access, LLC, controlled by Energy Transfer Partners, started constructing the pipeline in June 2016 and cost $3.78 billion dollars.
Protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline occurred at several places because of concerns about the pipeline's impact on the environment and to sites sacred to American Indians. Indigenous nations around the country opposed the pipeline, along with the Sioux tribal nations.
The Obama Administration spoke out for the need to analyze environmental impacts more, then later President Trump did his best to fast track the pipeline into operation. Trump signed a presidential memorandum to advance approval of pipeline construction.
Then the Cheyenne River Sioux sued this decision, citing an 1851 treaty and interference with the religious practices of the tribe. The pipeline goes underneath Lake Oahe, a water supply source for the Sioux Native Americans. The pipeline became active May 2017, despite almost 15,000 people from around the world protesting, staging sit-ins for months near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
The pipeline commercial operations started without oil spill response plan for the Missouri River crossing and without emergency response cleanup equipment stored nearby. Jesse Jackson called the move to put the pipeline closer to the reservation, "environmental racism," as ABC News reported. But the plot thickens like a cup of day old coffee - why would Trump be so eager to support the pipeline?
Trump's 2016 federal disclosure forms show he owned between $15,000 & $50,000 in stock in Energy Transfer Partners - the company in charge of constructing the pipeline - per Al Jazeera.
Surprised? There's more. Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren gave $103,000 to the Trump campaign, as Reuters reports. Despite how crazy this sounds already it gets even crazier with Russian hackers.
Russian government's Internet Research Agency Troll farm spread misinformation on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by creating a fake Facebook Page to enrage people with posts about the pipeline, same sex marriages, and racial issues.
As far as a business model, the oil industry is definitely anachronistic, as surveying your customers for what they like and giving it to them is one of the fundamental ways to grow your brand.
This isn't exactly a strategy being used here. But, there seems to be a positive turn of events. Well, not positive for the oil industry, but positive for the people it affects.
According to the ruling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it granted an easement to Energy Transfer LP (ET.N) to construct and operate a segment of the oil pipeline beneath Lake Oahe in South Dakota, because they failed to produce an adequate Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The court ordered Energy Transfer to shut and empty the 570,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) line within 30 days, closing off the biggest artery transporting crude oil out of North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin to Midwest and Gulf Coast regions. My Take It is a complicated issue, at least the shutting down part is. While most people not either getting bribes from the oil industry as Trump was blatantly benefiting from or working for the oil corps, would agree that it's not good to endanger the water supplies of local residents, closing down the operations faces additional complications.
First, many jobs will be lost for those working the pipeline, which will cause a loss of economic stimulus from those workers spending their money in the local economy as well as their own struggle to survive.
Second, there will be a question of retaliation from the oil industry. This could take the form of people they hire to sue, or get elected and pass laws hurting Native Americans or other black hat tactics.
Third, it's going to be complicated trying to get the oil in the pipeline now, out of it, and transported elsewhere. It's likely the unused oil will be transported via rail cars to the west and east coasts.
So hey if you own a rail car company - there is some money to be made with this shut down. Many environmental and locals to the area are super relieved and happy to hear this news.
But, there are other elements at play that while working against the oil industry, in a way, soften the blow to their business, in that, oil consumption nationally is already at an all time low. This is because of covid, people are staying home more, going out less, and using their cars a whole lot less. In addition to individuals, large events people drive to are canceled. Those high school and college graduations that were canceled also mean thousands if not tens of thousands of relatives of graduates, especially in college, who live out of town, aren't driving to their family's graduation ceremony. There are many other examples of where and how both individual car use and public transit and cross country bus transit are down. Now, in the aftermath of the Dakota Pipeline shutting down, there will be less oil consumption, yet, we already weren't using as much oil as pre February 2020 this year. So..does it matter that much anyways? Ideally, society as a whole would have shifted before now to more renewable sources of energy due to countless studies on the global impact of fossil fuels. It's just hard to convince established industries, with deep pockets and large contributions to politicians who pass the laws regulating oil to switch to going green. Perhaps this is the push we needed to ramp up infrastructure around sustainable energy? I don't know. But I do know thousands of Native Americans are happy their water supply and burial grounds aren't threatened anymore. This just brings up the important point to think about: if your business model involves harm to other people and the environment, it is time to rethink how you're strategizing for the long term. Certain businesses should be allowed to die.
Operating a business that has longevity means your marketing plan and long term strategy is just as responsive as site optimized for mobile viewers and social media presence.
The values that your company publicly demonstrates is the most attractive value proposition or unique mechanism think tanks can come up with. After all, like attracts like.
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Twitter has started labeling questionable tweets the president has made with a little “i” and a warning.
Due to the shut downs implemented by national & local governments, responding to COVID19, many states are considering mail-in voting ballots as the most viable option to avoid long lines and crowds. Trump tweeted that mail-in voting would lead to voting fraud and stated sensationally, that: “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.” Twitter responded with a warning that implied this was all fiction:
When interviewed by media sources like TechCrunch,Twitter stated Trumps tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.” But the intrigue doesn’t stop there. A few days later afterthe fact-checking label Twitter labeled another one of Trump’stweets with a “Public Interest Notice.” This label states thathe broke Twitter’s rules about promoting violence on the platform. Trump reposted this on Facebook and Instagram before Twitter came down on his post for glorifying violence. CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, while defending Facebook’s policy to notfact-check politicians has stated there are limitations to what is allowed on Facebook. “Even for politicians we don't allow content that incites violence or risks imminent harm — and of course we don't allow voter suppression,”
- Mark Zuckerberg Trump threatening to send in the national guard was in referenceto the situation in Minneapolis where there are tons of riots inresponse to a white police officer killing a black man whoposed no threat to the police. The man’s name was George Floyd. A shop keeper had called the cops because he suspected Floyd was using counterfeit money.
Floyd was being led away, peacefully in hand cuffs, but moments later the police had him on the ground. George Floydwas filmed dying with a cop's knee on his neck as hebegged for mercy saying,
"I can't breath!"
"I'm about to die." Floyd died, without cause, or justifiable reason for being killed. It is thought to be a racially motivated killing by the police as there has been a history of police killing blacks without just cause in in Minneapolis and America as a whole (just like Eric Garner died in New York for selling loose cigarettes).
The public's response to the blatant killing, on camera, of Floyd, without cause, by the Minneapolis PD is rioting in multiple cities and states.
Trump said, in response to the protesters of Floyd's death:
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,”
This statement being an outright threat of violence and murder against American citizens, unhappy with theway George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police. The policy that this tweet violates is listed in Twitter’s policies, visible to anyonein the public that takes the time to read them: You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people.” Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) are all private websites,and many forget that they agree to bide by the rules of the website by using it. Trump has been at war with tech companies for years, and it looks like for the first time,we are seeing the policies being universally enforced even against the president. I think what’s hard to define in an issue like this, is the fact that free speech is guaranteed as part of the first amendment in the constitution but not in every environment.
Free speech is limited if you’re trying to: Incite violence Falsify statements of fact Promote harm to children Violate intellectual property rights Talk sh*% at work or school Basically it’s like, you can have free speech in public but if you’re at school you have to follow their rules. If you’re at work your free speech rights don’t include jumping on a table and inciting a riot. The same applies with personal property - if you’re trespassing your free speech rights don’t supersede other rights. The gray area is while Twitter, IG, FB and other social media sites own the digital real estate of their private websites & make following their policies a requirement to use their websites - there are billions
of people on their websites. You have in essence entire countries all on a single website, so the public’s perception of what they can or can’t say is like, “I have a RIGHT to say ANYTHING I want online,” without considering, this isn’t a school. It isn’t a plaza where peaceful assembly is allowed. It’s (in the case of Facebook) one man’s website you are a guest on. It’s a hard pill to swallow, and there are many upset and indignant Facebook users whose content violated the community standards or advertising policies but feel owed and entitled to be allowed to break the rules, as if a private website has to guarantee their rules of use, terms of service if you will, are broken at anyone’s random impulse. Similar to being a guest at someone’s house, upsetting the home owner by being disrespectful, being asked to leave, but refusing to, stating, “I have a RIGHT to be here,” when, technically, you don’t unless you own the house.
When you are on IG, Twitter or Facebook you are a guest at their house, and to stay there, you need to follow the rules of the house or be kicked out. However we are in new territory just due to the sheer massive amount of people on these platforms and the ability of social media sites to influence elections, get hacked by Russians and have bots on Twitter manipulate people into chaos and socially engineer political opinions. These types of hacks and social manipulation affect the world at large. They can lead to real physical harm and changes in society that aren’t beneficial. Would Trump have been elected if there was no Facebook? How would life be different, politically? Would Bernie Sanders or Hilary be president instead?
We don't live in that reality so it's impossible to say. But it gives context as to why social media companies are under scrutiny for what they allow on their platforms and what they don't.
Trump’s response to being somewhat censored (Twitter left the tweetup just made people have to click through a warning to see it) is to try to use his executive powers to limit the legal protections social media companies have.
However, many legal experts have stated they doubt this executive order would have any real effect on the tech giants. Trump’s vindictive executive order targets the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 of the legislation gives a wide range of immunity to websites who moderate their own platforms. It’s been called "the 26 words that created the internet." Facebook and Google replied to the executive order saying that if passed, it poses a real harm to the internet and digital economy. "Undermining Section 230 in this way would hurt America's economy and its global leadership on internet freedom,”
said Google spokeswoman Riva Sciuto. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said that by putting the liability of what anyonesays on their platform, back on Facebook and other social media companies, thiswould only lead to censoring billions of people. The idea is that it’s practically impossible to neveroffend anyone all the time. Twitter responded to the proposed executive order by tweeting: "#Section230 protects American innovation and freedom of expression, and it's underpinned by democratic values."
Twitter also tweeted:
"Attempts to unilaterally erode it threaten the future of online speech and Internet freedoms."
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The economy's crashed, hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost and now as society begins to rebuild and open up again it's time to rethink how jobs are structured. Recently, when moving 4 filing cabinets out of my living room, in order to build an at-home library I spoke with the manager at U-Haul. There were 7 people waiting, with an average wait time of 40 minutes just to check in a rented truck or U-Haul van.
When I asked the manager, a man named Christopher, if it was possible to hire one or two other employees to help manage the customer load he replied,
"I can't get people to work here. They all want to stay home and collect unemployment benefits due to COVID."
I was shocked that the economy is hurting not just because of COVID fear making local governments close down brick & mortar shops but also due to people not wanting to come to work to mooch off of unemployment.
This hurts retailers but also local cities and their economies because when and if local businesses reopen, if they are understaffed, with long lines, it's just going to push consumers to order on Amazon instead of shop there. Obviously some businesses like U-Haul you can't order online..though drones are doing some amazing things these days.
Low Quality Jobs = Low Quality Work Aside from the rather unique moocher situation with some staying home to college a paycheck and not working remote but living on tax-dollar funded government benefits...
- There is a lot to be said about flipping burgers or working a register or answering phones and being treated poorly by management.
The Trickle-Down Effect of Incompetence When the number one concern of employers is not investing in employees to create a high quality work environment, but how can we cut costs, outsource labor to 3rd world countries, lower the hiring wage, reduce worker hours and spread them out over more employees and reduce benefits - well is that motivating people to do a good job? The question answers itself. If an employee is given a half-ass training (because the manager is also underpaid and under trained), and they are disrespected and made to feel like:
"You are easily replaced so appreciate this shitty job,"
Then it's the trickle down effect of incompetence. On the other hand, if employers approached training employees as an investment, with professional development included to help employees not only gain competence but additional skill sets to make them more of an asset to the company and their growth opportunities - this changes the ripple effect in workforce management. Investing in both higher wages and professional training, with work culture more evolved than mashing buttons to get minimum wage then employees will find their own reasons for working harder to do better. This creates a better quality product or service for the end user that the company serves, which then increases customer retention, loyalty and lifetime value.
Brand loyalty is something that shouldn't just be customer-centric. Brand loyalty cultivated in both the customers and the employees, when increased also increases profits and productivity.
Strikes at Whole Foods and Amazon
If decision makers at the CEO level can't read the room or doubt the logic in the above paragraphs just look at the strikes by Whole Foods workers and Amazon employees who continued to toil on in unsafe working conditions.
When you aren't given a lot benefits-wise, as a bargaining chip from your employer, you don't have a lot to lose if you get fired for striking.
This loses time, money, convenience, customer satisfaction scores drop and just as employees leave for a job that pays $1-3 dollars more an hour so will customers when there are delays due to poor work ethics and project management skills by hiring managers and those who structure employee business models.
Businesses Have to Adapt to Survive COVID19 Instead of making excuses about how an existing system can't change, employers should wake up and smell the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee: with the lack of foot traffic now is the perfect time to retool the business model
Sam's Club, Costco and HEB grocery store have all taken the lead here and raised wages for their employees as well as invested in their safety.
As mentioned in management philosophy blogs, research has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that when intrinsically motivated individuals apply their efforts to a task they are 10 times more productive and successful than people who are only money-motivated.
This means it isn't just about the money - don't treat your employees like dirt anymore and they will reciprocate. So few jobs actually invest any sincere time in building new skill sets in their employees but every time a company does this, the employee becomes an unofficial brand ambassador.
Feeling respected and appreciated is the cornerstone for every social interaction that's successful, from family, to relationships, to friends to business both B2C and B2B.
Creating this feeling in employees with concrete specific investments in improving their abilities, you now have a spokesperson for how great your company is. Many of these employees are like micro influencers with their own social networks sometimes rather large.
More employee loyalty creates more profits because you get better work done, word of mouth organically spreads to their friends, families, and facebook and twitter accounts without a single ad dollar needing to be spent.
In a large company multiply this by 100 or 1000 - it's pretty damn clear it's stupid to treat employees as disposable to-go containers or warm bodies to fill a space when there is a much higher return from professional development in the workspace. Where We Go from Here Matters
Ecommerce is booming, many jobs and even schools may utilize more remote work than in person attendance now. Businesses will have to adapt to a post-COVID world in order to survive. This means the old guard has to change.
Instead of hyper focusing on reducing labor cost - putting some real thinking and research behind it to create a 2020 strategy that involves treating and paying employees better, will only benefit everyone better and rebuild the economy. Mic drop.
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Recently Facebook purchased Giphy for $400 million dollars, and while the two companies had been in talks about this prior to the COVID19 crisis, it may have played a role in speeding up Facebook's new acquisition.
Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in 2014. Considering all of these acquisitions, according to Axios, Facebook buying Giphy has the risk of sparking anti-trust scrutiny by regulators and state lawmakers for antitrust violations. Can FB Use GIPHY to Spy on the Competition? With Facebook's problems with privacy (eg SDK bug, Cambridge), it's possible competitor platforms that use GIPHY like Twitter, may not want to use GIPHY due to potential data collection efforts. FB can see emerging trends if a GIF starts trending & reverse engineer it for Facebook owned sites. What this would look like is if say a GIF happened to be popular on Twitter, Facebook could simply remake this GIF, commission a few graphic designers and customize it for Facebook owned platforms like IG and WhatsApp.
Facebook has already been under fire for duplicating many features from Snapchat so it's not out of the realm of possibility.
Privacy Apps Like Signal May Ban GIPHY
This new merger also raises the question that if apps like Signal, whose main USP is that they are private will continue to allow use of Giphy. Many people are starting to see the value of their privacy amidst the hoards of data mining and cookie thieving going on.
Per The Verge, the Giphy API can be proxied to hide user information, so realistically, Facebook wouldn't have access to individual user stats. But, who knows, with technology for data mining continuing to evolve every year.
If the privacy of Signal is compromised by using Giphy, then it seems likely Giphy would not be very compatible with Signal and other privacy-centered apps.
Congress Aiming for Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act Congress wants to pass a Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act that would impose a moratorium on large mergers until the FTC decides the we're not dealing with covid-related economic downturns.
The Act, introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY- 14) states:
"The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic triggered an economic crisis that has hit small businesses especially hard, making them potential targets of large corporations seeking to increase their power through predatory mergers.
Reports suggest that private equity is planning to jump at the cheap opportunities; big tech has moved to snatch up struggling start-ups; and Rite Aid is looking to scoop up smaller pharmacies and PBMs.
Although antitrust agencies are tasked with defending open and fair markets by stopping anti-competitive mergers, their inability to aggressively take on concentration before the crisis began has further limited the federal government’s ability to respond effectively to the pandemic." The Plot Thickens
It's clear that this new acquisition is multilayered affecting privacy, the economy, the free market, legislation, anti-trust laws and a society struggling with the effects of COVID19.
What are your thoughts on Facebook buying Giphy?
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