By Leika
Kihara , Kaori Kaneko
TOKYO
(Reuters) - Japan’s economic growth likely moderated in October-December after
rebounding from its worst postwar recession earlier in 2020, a Reuters poll
showed, a sign households and companies have yet to recover from the coronavirus
pandemic’s huge hit.
A state of emergency rolled out in
January has inflicted further pain on consumption, stoking fears of another
economic slump that could push Japan back into deflation.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect
the economy to have marked a quarter-on-quarter expansion of 2.3% in
October-December, as improving exports made up for some of the weakness in
consumption.
However, that would be much slower
than a 5.3% jump in the third quarter, when the lifting of the previous state
of emergency helped the economy emerge from its worst postwar slump in the
April-June quarter.
“Consumption, especially service
spending, will continue to decline while restrictions apply on economic
activity,” said Masato Koike, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.
“A slump in January-March
consumption is unavoidable.”
Underscoring the heavy toll the
pandemic took on the fragile economy, the central bank’s estimates in January
show the economy likely shrank 5.6% in the year ending March.
Japan’s October-December gross
domestic product (GDP) data, set for release at 8:50 a.m. on Feb. 15 (2350 GMT,
Feb. 14), will likely highlight the challenges policymakers face in supporting
the economy while preventing the spread of the virus.
On an annualised basis, the economy
likely expanded 9.5% in October-December after a 22.9% gain in the previous
quarter, the poll showed.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-gdp/japans-economic-recovery-from-pandemic-likely-stalled-in-fourth-quarter-reuters-poll-idUSKBN2A804A
In other news, EVs v
hydrogen and natural gas. Either way, it’s a government driven fad, there’s
little demand for the change from a very sceptical public.
Exclusive: Amazon orders hundreds
of trucks that run on natural gas February
5, 2021 9:07 PM Updated February 6, 2021
(Reuters)
- Amazon.com Inc has ordered hundreds of trucks that run on compressed natural
gas as it tests ways to shift its U.S. fleet away from heavier polluting
trucks, the company told Reuters on Friday.
The coronavirus pandemic caused
delivery activity to surge in 2020, with truck volumes exceeding 2019 levels on
average while passenger car traffic fell. But that increase in road activity
means more pollution, as heavier-duty trucks emit higher levels of greenhouse
gases than passenger vehicles.
Transportation companies are
building their stable of electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. Much of
the nation’s freight is delivered via medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which
account for more than 20% of the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions even
though they make up less than 5% of the road fleet, according to U.S. federal
data.
“Amazon is excited about introducing
new sustainable solutions for freight transportation and is working on testing
a number of new vehicle types including electric, CNG and others,” the company
said in a statement.
Amazon has ordered more than 700
compressed natural gas class 6 and class 8 trucks so far, according to the
company.
The online retailer’s sales rose 38%
in 2020; it plans to run a carbon neutral business by 2040.
The engines, supplied by a joint
venture between Cummins Inc and Vancouver-based Westport Fuel Systems Inc, are
to be used for Amazon’s heavy duty trucks that run from warehouses to
distribution centers. More than 1,000 engines that can operate on both
renewable and non-renewable natural gas have been ordered by the supplier,
according to a source familiar with the situation.
Natural gas emits approximately 27%
less carbon dioxide when burned compared with diesel fuel, according to the
U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Electric-powered motors are
considered less viable for heavy-duty trucks than for the average passenger
vehicle.
In
2019, Amazon ordered 100,000 electric vans from startup Rivian Automotive LLC.
The first of those vans, to be used for last-mile delivery to customers, are to
be delivered this year. The company also ordered 1,800 electric vans from
Mercedes-Benz for its European delivery fleet.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-engines-natural-gas-exclusive/exclusive-amazon-orders-hundreds-of-trucks-that-run-on-natural-gas-idUSKBN2A52ML
The $2.1
Billion Case for Building a Federal EV Fleet The U.S. government’s garage is full of
tired, old gas guzzlers costing $1 per mile, mostly in fuel and maintenance. Kyle Stock
If President Joe Biden’s administration is going to
replace the entire federal vehicle fleet with fully electric vehicles, as promised
An analysis of Uncle Sam’s garage found an aging, expensive
crush of big rigs — some 645,000 vehicles in all, almost
two-thirds of which are trucks. Another 9% of the fleet is vans and buses. If
U.S. automakers want to cash in on a federal fleet overhaul, they would be wise
to accelerate efforts to electrify their largest models; none of these large
models has been electrified — at least not at scale.
Truck Heavy Only 27% of the federal fleet is comprised of standard
sedans and SUVS; the rest is bigger rigs.
Source: General Service Administration
The U.S. Postal Service accounts for slightly more than
one in three federal vehicles and almost all of its rigs are trucks. The
government solicited bids for a new mail-hauling machine six years ago
and has yet to name a winner. If the Biden administration wants to make quick
progress on its blanket electric vehicle policy goal, a plug-in postal
truck seems like a must.
---- Not only are the government’s rigs big and thirsty,
they are tired. The average fed-mobile is almost 15 years old, three years more
senior than the typical car or truck on U.S. roads (the mail trucks are
particularly creaky; nearly 22 years old, on average). What’s more,
taxpayers are paying about $1 per mile for these machines. Of the
$4.4 billion the government spends on vehicles each year, nearly half of that
goes to fuel and maintenance.
For Biden’s policy team, the line
items add up to a compelling case for a mass EV swap. Although the initial
outlays would be steep, a fleet of electric mail trucks, police cruisers
and border patrol pickups — to name a few use-cases — would be
cheaper to top off and wouldn’t require oil changes, spark plugs, oxygen
sensors or many of the costly items required to keep running an
engine driven by small explosions.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-05/president-biden-s-2-1-billion-case-for-a-federal-ev-fleet
Hyundai, Kia say Apple car deal
is off, puncturing investor dream
February
8, 2021 12:22 AM By Heekyong
Yang , Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co said on
Monday it is not now in talks with Apple Inc on autonomous electric cars, just
a month after it confirmed early-stage talks with the tech giant, sending the
automaker’s shares skidding.
Wiping $2.4 billion off its market
value, Hyundai stock slumped 4.3% by 0428 GMT. Shares in its affiliate Kia
Corp, which had been tipped in local media reports as the likely operational
partner for Apple, tumbled 12.8% - a $4.7 bilion hit.
The announcement brings the curtain
down on weeks of internal divisions at Hyundai Motor Co Group - parent to both
automakers - about the potential tieup, with some executives raising concerns
about becoming a contract manufacturer for the U.S. tech giant in a tieup
reminiscent of electronics firm Foxconn’s role in making device for Apple like
the iPhone.
“We are receiving requests for
cooperation in joint development of autonomous electric vehicles from various
companies, but they are at early stage and nothing has been decided,” the
automakers said on Monday, in compliance with stock market rules requiring
regular updates to investors regarding market rumours.
“We are not having talks with Apple
on developing autonomous vehicles.”
Kia shares had jumped 61% since
Hyundai initially confirmed a local media report early in January that Apple
and Hyundai were in discussions to develop self-driving electric vehicles by
2027 and develop batteries at U.S. factories operated by either Hyundai or Kia.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-tech-apple-hyundai-motor/hyundai-kia-say-apple-car-deal-is-off-puncturing-investor-dream-idUSKBN2A800T
' Crisis?
What crisis ?'
Prime
Minister “”Sunny Jim” Callaghan. 1979.
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
How Much Do You Know About
Covid-19 Vaccines? Life-saving shots are coming to end the pandemic. Take our
quiz to find out how prepared you are.
By John Lauerman and Thomas Mulier 8 February 2021, 05:00
Covid-19 vaccines have arrived and are spreading out across
the world, with more than 128 million administered globally as of Feb. 6,
according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker variety of types side effects step up
1
of 12
Coronavirus vaccines were developed in record time -- about
11 months. Before this, what was the shortest period in which a vaccine was
developed and cleared by regulators?
Some of the fastest-moving
coronavirus vaccines were developed with techniques that have never, or rarely,
been used in approved vaccines before. Which of these experimental vaccines was
influential in developing the new Covid-19 inoculations?
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-coronavirus-vaccine-quiz/?sref=E9HdhEsW?srnd=premium-europe
Britain's top regulator says data
show COVID-19 vaccines are very safe Feb. 5, 2021 / 10:08 AM
Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Britain's top drug
regulator said Friday that the coronavirus vaccines being distributed now are
very safe and have so far produced only mild side effects.
The Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency announced its findings after studying tens of
thousands of people who have received the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and
AstraZeneca-Oxford University.
The MHRA said more than 10 million doses of the vaccines
have been given in Britain so far and just three in 1,000 recipients have
experienced side effects.
"The safety of these vaccines remains as high as
expected," the regulator said in a statement.
"The safety profile of the vaccines remains positive
and the benefits continue to far outweigh any known side effects."
Friday's assessment doesn't include data for Moderna's
vaccine, which has also been approved for use in Britain.
The MHRA said that almost all of the side effects were mild
and included sore arms and flu-type illness.
"The data we have collected provides further
reassurance that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and continue to meet the rigorous
regulatory standards required for all vaccines," said MHRA CEO Dr. June
Raine.
"Our priority is to ensure the public have safe and
effective vaccines and we will continue to analyze, monitor and review all the
safety data for these vaccines."
AstraZeneca and Oxford said this week that late-stage clinical tests showed their
vaccine is about 76% effective overall, and 100% effective in preventing severe
cases of COVID-19. Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine is 95% effective in
blocking the virus.
Most experts have said that available evidence so far shows
that the existing vaccines will also be effective against variant strains of
the coronavirus.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/02/05/Britains-top-regulator-says-data-show-COVID-19-vaccines-are-very-safe/4581612533818/
As Vaccines
Raise Hope, Cold Reality Dawns: Covid-19 Is Likely Here to Stay Ease of transmission, new strains, limits of vaccination
programs all mean Covid-19 will be around for years—and a big business Feb. 7, 2021 5:30 am ET
Vaccination drives hold out the promise of curbing
Covid-19, but governments and businesses are increasingly accepting what
epidemiologists have long warned: The pathogen will circulate for years, or
even decades, leaving society to coexist with Covid-19 much as it does with
other endemic diseases like flu, measles, and HIV.
The ease with which the coronavirus
spreads, the
emergence of new strains poor
access to vaccines
“Going through the five phases of
grief, we need to come to the acceptance phase that our lives are not going to
be the same,” said Thomas Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. “I don’t think the world has really absorbed
the fact that these are long-term changes.”
Endemic Covid-19 doesn’t necessarily
mean continuing coronavirus restrictions, infectious-disease experts said,
largely because vaccines are so effective at preventing severe disease and
slashing hospitalizations and deaths. Hospitalizations have already fallen 30%
in Israel after it vaccinated a third of its population. Deaths there are
expected to plummet in weeks ahead.
But some organizations are planning
for a long-term future in which prevention methods such as masking, good
ventilation and testing
continue in some form
More
https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-vaccines-raise-hope-cold-reality-dawns-covid-19-is-likely-here-to-stay-11612693803?mod=mhp
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on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported.
New way to power up nanomaterials
for electronic applications Date: February 5, 2021
Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Summary: Materials scientists have discovered that
perovskites, a class of promising materials that could be used for low-cost,
high-performance solar cells and LEDs, have a previously unutilized molecular
component that can further tune the electronic property of perovskites.
UCLA materials scientists and
colleagues have discovered that perovskites, a class of promising materials
that could be used for low-cost, high-performance solar cells and LEDs, have a
previously unutilized molecular component that can further tune the electronic
property of perovskites.
Named after Russian mineralogist Lev
Perovski, perovskite materials have a crystal-lattice structure of inorganic
molecules like that of ceramics, along with organic molecules that are
interlaced throughout. Up to now, these organic molecules appeared to only
serve a structural function and could not directly contribute to perovskites'
electronic performance.
Led by UCLA, a new study shows that
when the organic molecules are designed properly, they not only can maintain
the crystal lattice structure, but also contribute to the materials' electronic
properties. This discovery opens up new possibilities to improve the design of
materials that will lead to better solar cells and LEDs. The study detailing
the research was recently published in Science .
"This is like finding an old
dog that can play new tricks," said Yang Yang, the Carol and Lawrence E.
Tannas Jr. Professor of Engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering,
who is the principal investigator on the research. "In materials science,
we look all the way down to the atomic structure of a material for efficient
performance. Our postdocs and graduate students didn't take anything for
granted and dug deeper to find a new pathway."
In order to make a better-performing
perovskite material, the researchers incorporated a specially designed organic molecule,
a pyrene-containing organic ammonium. On its exterior, the positively charged
ammonium molecule connected to molecules of pyrene -- a quadruple ring of
carbon atoms. This molecular design offered additional electronic tunability of
perovskites.
"The unique property of
perovskites is that they have the advantage of high-performance inorganic
semiconductors, as well as easy and low-cost processability of polymers,"
said study co-lead author Rui Wang, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in materials science
and engineering. "This newly enhanced perovskite material now offers
opportunities for improved design concepts with better efficiency."
To
demonstrate perovskites' added effectiveness, the team built a photovoltaic
(PV) cell prototype with the materials, and then tested it under continuous
light for 2,000 hours. The new cell continued to convert light to energy at 85%
of its original efficiency. This contrasts with a PV cell made of the same
materials, but without the added altered organic molecule, which retained only
60% of its original efficiency.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210205150126.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
19 November 1967: Harold Wilson’s
‘pound in your pocket’ little white lie On
this day in 1967, Harold Wilson went on television to reassure viewers that the
“pound in the pocket” would be unaffected by the devaluation of sterling. by: Chris Carter 19 Nov 2020
In 1967, Britain suffered a balance
of payments crisis, spending (importing) more than it was earning (exporting).
That made it crucial to keep the pound strong. The hitch was that supporting
the pound was fast becoming unaffordable: the Bank of England burned through
£200m in gold and foreign currency reserves in just one day alone. And so in
November, -----sterling was devalued by14.3% against the dollar.
It was a personal defeat for Prime
Minister Harold Wilson. But on 19 November, he went on radio and television to
reassure consumers that devaluation "does not mean, of course, that the
pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse, or in your bank, has been
devalued". It didn't take an economist, however, to tell you that that was
nonsense.
"That
broadcast will long be remembered for that sentence", crowed Conservative
MP and future prime minister Ted Heath in Parliament. "It will be
remembered as the most dishonest statement ever made." Wilson had
fibbed. The pound in your pocket is, of course, the same pound that is
used to import food and other things from abroad. Prices were going to have to
rise.
More
https://moneyweek.com/415830/19-november-1967-harold-wilsons-pound-in-your-pocket-fib
A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
H. L. Mencken
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