April
20, 2021 3:50 AM By Reuters Staff
TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - Japanese shares
fell sharply on Tuesday, weighed down by worries that possible reintroduction
of COVID-19 emergency measures in the country’s biggest cities would slow the
economic recovery.
Selling was seen across almost all sectors,
with only one of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 industry sub-indexes trading
higher and just a more than dozen stocks up on the benchmark Nikkei share
average.
The Nikkei fell 1.80% to 29,151.00 by 0141
GMT in its worst intraday drop in almost four weeks, while the broader Topix
dropped 1.28% to 1,931.41 in its biggest slide in two weeks.
“It’s just like the decline is bringing
another sell-off today,” said Shoichi Arisawa, general manager of the
investment research department at IwaiCosmo Securities.
“There is a concern about virus resurgence
not only in Japan but also in other countries. Investors are becoming cautious
about an economic reopening, particularly since many Japanese companies are
sensitive to the global economy.”
Tokyo
and Osaka may slide back into states of emergency due to a resurgence in
COVID-19 cases. Japan this month put these prefectures as well as others under
“quasi-states of emergency” but those measures have done little to reverse the
trend so far.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-stocks-midday/japanese-shares-slump-as-virus-surge-stokes-slowdown-worries-idUSL4N2MD0PT
Up next, showing off in
Shanghai. The Shanghai Motor Show.
VW, Ford unveil SUVs at China
auto show under virus controls April 19, 2021
SHANGHAI (AP) — Volkswagen, Ford and Chinese
brands unveiled new SUVs for China on Monday at the Shanghai auto show, the
industry’s biggest marketing event in a year overshadowed by the coronavirus
pandemic.
Automakers are looking to China, the biggest
auto market by sales volume and the first major economy to rebound from the
pandemic, to propel a revival in demand and reverse multibillion-dollar losses.
Auto Shanghai 2021 takes place under anti-virus
controls that included holding some news conferences by video link. Few
executives from abroad are attending. Reporters were required to undergo virus
tests.
The latest models reflect accelerating momentum
toward electrification and designing models for Chinese tastes. Automakers rely
increasingly on research and design centers in China to create models for
global sale.
Volkswagen AG said its all-electric ID.6,
available in six- and seven-seat models, aims to create a “lounge on wheels”
with semi-automated driving and other technology. The German auto giant’s Audi
unit displayed a concept version of its A6 e-tron sedan, the first of a family
of electric cars due out next year.
Toyota Motor Co. introduced its bZ4X Concept
battery-electric SUV, one of 70 electrified vehicles the automaker says it will
release globally by 2025.
The show also highlights the growing technology
and design skills of China’s young but ambitious domestic brands.
Geely Auto, part of the Geely Holding group of
brands that includes Sweden’s Volvo Cars, debuted a new flagship SUV, the
Xingyue L. The company says self-driving technology enables the Xingyue L to
park itself and return to pick up its driver.
General Motors Co. debuted the Envision Plus
midsize SUV and the Verano Sedan, among 13 new and refreshed models planned
this year in China. Earlier this month, GM’s Wuling joint venture released the
electric Macaron, part of its fast-selling, lower-priced Hong Guang line.
----China’s first-quarter sales of SUVs, sedans
and minivans in China jumped 75.6% over a year earlier, when the ruling
Communist Party shut down the economy to fight the virus, according to the
China Association of Auto Manufacturers. By contrast, Edmunds.com Inc. forecasts
quarterly U.S. sales should rise 8.9% over a year earlier but would be off 8.6%
from the final quarter of 2020.
Sales of electric vehicles in China, which
accounts for about half of global purchases of the technology, nearly tripled
in the first three months of 2021 over a year earlier to 515,000 units,
according to CAAC.
More
https://apnews.com/article/shanghai-china-coronavirus-pandemic-3d33c2c562eb9d80f5d7b961efa21fb7
Sticking with motors,
when will this 21st century game of Russian roulette end? According
to the not entirely reliable UK Daily Mail, it took 32,000 gallons of water to
put out the fire.
Two die in Tesla car crash in
Texas with ‘no one’ in driver’s seat, police say Car ran off road and hit a tree north of Houston, before
bursting into flames, local media says
Mon 19 Apr 2021
01.10 BST
Two men died after a Tesla vehicle, which
was believed to be operating without anyone in the driver’s seat, crashed into
a tree north of Houston, authorities said.
“There was no one in the driver’s seat,” Sgt Cinthya
Umanzor of the Harris County Constable Precinct 4 said of the crash on Saturday
night.
The 2019 Tesla Model S was traveling at high speed when it
failed to negotiate a curve and went off the roadway, crashing to a tree and
bursting into flames, local television station KHOU-TV said.
After the fire was extinguished, authorities located two
passengers, with one in the front passenger seat while the other was in the
back seat of the Tesla, the report said, citing Harris County Precinct 4 police
officer Mark Herman.
Tesla and the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The accident came amid growing scrutiny over Tesla’s semi-automated
driving system following recent accidents and as it is preparing to launch its
updated “full self-driving” software to more customers.
The US auto safety agency said in March it has opened 27
investigations into crashes of Tesla vehicles. At least three of the
crashes occurred recently.
The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, said in January that he expects
huge profits from its full self-driving software, saying he is “highly
confident the car will be able to drive itself with reliability in excess of
human this year”.
The self-driving technology must overcome safety and
regulatory hurdles to achieve commercial success.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/19/two-die-in-tesla-crash-no-one-in-drivers-seat-police
Texas police to demand Tesla
crash data as Musk denies Autopilot use April 20,
20214:56 AM BST
Texas police will serve search warrants on Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) on
Tuesday to secure data from a fatal vehicle crash, a senior officer told
Reuters on Monday, after CEO Elon Musk said company checks showed the car’s
Autopilot driver assistance system was not engaged.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-probes-fatal-tesla-crash-believed-be-driverless-2021-04-19/
Finally, in
cryptocurrencies, “Dogecoin Day” arrives, Tuesday April 20, 2021. Yet more
sign of too much newly created Magic Money Tree money not acting as the central
bankers planned.
Dogecoin, Once a
Joke, Moves Mainstream Traders
on online forums are whipping the meme cryptocurrency’s price higher following
a meteoric 8,000% rally so far this year Updated April 19, 2021 6:59 pm ET
Dogecoin’s rise from a quirky meme into a widely traded
asset worth about $50 billion—more than Marriott International Inc. or Ford
Motor Co. —is the latest act of financial alchemy by rapidly moving individual
investors who have used access to no-fee trading platforms and a wave of
government stimulus money to transform markets over the past year.
The cryptocurrency’s rise is reminiscent of GameStop
Corp.’s stunning advance earlier this year, an episode in which traders
congregating on Reddit and other social-media platforms made a past-prime mall
retailer into a stock-market superpower.
This time, dogecoin’s buyers have gone a step further,
turning what was meant as a parody into a real asset, providing some traders
who piled in early with unimaginable gains. The latest stage of the frenzy
centers on Tuesday having been deemed “Doge Day” in online forums, a loosely
organized bid to push the price of the cryptocurrency to $1, from a 5 p.m. ET
closing price of nearly 39 cents on Monday and less than a penny in January.
More
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dogecoin-traders-whip-up-doge-day-frenzy-in-push-toward-1-11618842535
A
man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.
H.
L. Mencken.
Global Inflation Watch. Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our
spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Asking prices for UK houses hit
new high after tax cut extended - Rightmove April
19, 2021 1:20 AM By Reuters Staff
LONDON
(Reuters) - Advertised prices for homes in Britain hit a record high after
finance minister Rishi Sunak stoked the market again by extending a tax cut for
home-buyers last month, property website Rightmove said on Monday.
Asking prices jumped by 2.1% in the
five weeks to April 10, only the second time in five years that prices have
risen by more than 2% from one month to the next, Rightmove said.
The rise took the average price of
property coming to market to an all-time high of 327,797 pounds ($451,737) and
homes were selling in record-fast time, it said.
On March 3 Sunak said he would
extend a temporary tax break for buyers and he also announced a new mortgage
guarantee scheme for first-time buyers who cannot afford large deposits.
The tax break was rushed out in 2020
to counter the economic hit from coronavirus. It helped to fuel a mini-boom in
the housing market which was already seeing strong demand from people seeking
more space after their first lockdown.
Other measures of British house
prices have also shown a rise since Sunak’s announcement.
Rightmove said its measure of
available properties was at a record low.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-economy-houseprices/asking-prices-for-uk-houses-hit-new-high-after-tax-cut-extended-rightmove-idUSKBN2C600F
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Why the Indian COVID mutation
should worry Israelis - analysis The Indian
variant is a “double mutation.” One aspect of it appears to make the virus more
infectious. By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN APRIL 18, 2021 08:59
Should
the seven cases of the Indian variant identified
at Ben-Gurion Airport worry Israel?
On
Sunday, citizens removed their
masks in outdoor settings, but in other countries, even
where vaccination campaigns have reached similar levels, cases are surging –
driven in part by new hyper-infectious variants.
Chile
is leading the Western Hemisphere in vaccinations per capita with more than
seven and a half million people who have had at least one dose, among them five
million who are fully vaccinated. Yet, daily cases are hitting as high as 8,000
– beating the country’s own previous peaks.
In
India, where more than three million people are getting the jab each day, cases
have topped 200,000 a day.
“In
the US, as in many parts of the world where there are ongoing vaccination
efforts, we are continuing to see increasing cases and hospitalizations caused
by the relaxation of prevention protocols, the rise in COVID-19 variants and
the increasing burden on health-care systems,” Anne Schuchat, principal deputy
director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Bloomberg.
“We
are not done with the corona yet, because it can come back,” Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
Health
officials believe that a core cause of the latest outbreak in India is tied to
a new “double mutation,” the same one brought into the country by seven people,
the Health Ministry said over the weekend.
Variants, of course, are not uncommon.
“If you deal with viruses and study viruses and
mutations, you should not be surprised about mutations,” said Tel Aviv
University Prof. Noam Shomron. “Viruses change and mutate all the time.”
But just because something is usual does not mean we
shouldn't be concerned about it, he warned.
“It is concerning because this has a direct effect on
the global pandemic,” Shomron said – and it could also cause an escalation in
Israel.
THERE ARE three reasons why health officials
pay attention to variants. First, because they could be more infectious, like
the British variant. Second, they could cause a more severe case of the
disease. And third, they could break through the existing immunity that has
been developed through infection or vaccination.
More
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/why-the-indian-mutation-should-worry-israel-analysis-665534
Evidence of COVID-19 airborne
transmission “overwhelming” say experts By Rich Haridy April 18, 2021
A
new review article published in The Lancet has presented 10 key
scientific reasons why SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is
predominantly spread though the air. The research adds to a growing chorus of
experts saying the evidence for airborne transmission is “overwhelming” and the
sooner global health authorities admit this, the sooner more effective measures
to better protect the public can be implemented.
Perhaps
one of the most vociferous debates over the past 12 months has been over
exactly how most people catch COVID-19. As the pandemic spread across the globe
in early 2020 the general perspective from most public health experts was that
SARS-CoV-2 primarily spread by droplet transmission.
This belief hinged on a traditional
binary between droplet and aerosol viral transmission. Aerosol particles have
classically been defined as smaller than 5 micrometres (µm). They can remain
suspended in the air for extended periods of time and can travel significant
distances from a source.
Respiratory droplets, on the other
hand, are larger particles, often propelled from a source by coughing or
sneezing. These particles fall to the ground in seconds and typically don’t
travel further than six feet (1.8 m) from a source.
The general presumption from early
last year was that SARS-CoV-2 primarily spreads via respiratory droplets, and
this led to public health advice recommending basic measures such as social
distancing, hand washing and frequent cleaning of surfaces. However, as 2020
progressed, more and more case studies presented scenarios whereby large
numbers of people were infected in superspreading events despite being
significant distances away from a viral source.
A new review published in The
Lancet , led by Trish Greenhalgh from the University of Oxford, is arguing
there is consistent and strong evidence to suggest SARS-CoV-2 is predominantly
transmitted through airborne routes. The researchers lay out 10 streams of
evidence from the past year that overwhelmingly support this hypothesis. The
review also claims respiratory droplet transmission of this novel virus is
based on flawed and outdated models of viral transmission.
The assessment references a large
volume of evidence from the past 12 months, including numerous cases studies
documenting long-range transmission of the virus between people in adjacent
hotel rooms and superspreading events in indoor venues that cannot be explained
by droplet transmission. The researchers argue particles as large as 100 µm are
known to remain suspended in the air for extended periods of time and the old
fixed definition of aerosol particles as less than 5 µm has led to
misunderstandings of how SARS-CoV-2 is spread.
“The
flawed assumption that transmission through close proximity implies large
respiratory droplets or fomites was historically used for decades to deny the
airborne transmission of tuberculosis and measles,” the researchers write in
the study. “This became medical dogma, ignoring direct measurements of aerosols
and droplets which reveal flaws such as the overwhelming number of aerosols
produced in respiratory activities and the arbitrary boundary in particle size
of 5 μm between aerosols and droplets, instead of the correct boundary of 100
μm.”
More
The new study was published in The Lancet .
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/covid19-sars-cov-2-airborne-transmission-aerosol-evidence-study/
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/
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.
Opportunities and Challenges for
Electrochemical Energy Storage on the Electricity Grid By Kent Griffith
April 13, 2021 |
Lithium-ion batteries have proven to be the leading energy storage technology
for portable devices and electric vehicles. Grid-scale storage, on the other
hand, is an evolving sector with no clear technology winner moving forward. A
variety of presentations at the 2021 International Battery Seminar and Exhibit
highlighted opportunities and challenges for batteries on the electricity grid.
We must start with a better understanding of what
grid-scale storage means in practice. Different battery applications have
competing needs and trade-offs, which explains the diversity of battery
chemistries, cells form factors, and power vs. energy cells. This is
particularly true at the grid level where, in principle, there are demands
ranging from the millisecond timescale all the way to weeks and months. Dr.
Raymond Byrne, an electrical engineer from Sandia National Laboratories,
differentiated energy applications such as arbitrage, renewable energy time
shifts, time-of-use charge reduction, transmission and distribution upgrade
deferral, and grid resiliency from power applications such as frequency
regulation, voltage support, small signal stability, and renewable capacity
firming.
In his presentation, Byrne collated five years of recent
data from the California grid and modeled the financial case for a solar +
storage system with 1 MW of photovoltaic (PV) generation combined with a 1 MW
(power rating), 4 MWh (energy rating) battery. Based on a system cost of $2
million, the best-case scenario in the hour-ahead market was an 11-year payback
time, but the median scenario was closer to 20 years. The financial situation
is even more challenging in the day-ahead market where modeled revenue is
limited to $10–15k per year. Thus, Byrne’s talk highlighted the challenges of
battery energy storage systems for energy applications on the grid. However, he
ended by noting that this does not account for green energy subsidies or other
revenue streams such as the higher-valued power applications.
Naturally, most of the grid-focused scenarios for batteries
are looking toward more profitable applications. Dr. Dipti Kamath of Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, formerly Michigan State University, looked at both sides
of the meter as she described the cost and carbon footprint implications of
using second-life electric vehicle batteries for residential storage, PV
firming, and peak shaving in a collaboration with Ford. Installing disused EV
batteries on the grid in a second-life application could be an attractive
option from cost and environmental perspectives, but the second-life is
expected to be shorter than the first due to aging and degradation so the
prospective benefits are not foregone conclusions.
After modeling the relevant parameters and comparing PV
without storage, new batteries, and second-life batteries, she concluded that
second-life batteries do indeed have the lowest levelized cost of electricity
and the global warming potential for residential storage and PV firming, but
that the benefits
for peak shaving depend strongly on the electricity source ( e.g. , coal, nuclear, hydro) and
will thus vary regionally. Dr. Holger Hasse of the Technical University of
Munich went a step further and looked at more complex algorithms for profit
optimization of grid batteries involving dynamic stacking with switching
between behind-the-meter and in-front-of-the-meter applications (see figure
from Englberger
et al . reference 4, reproduced under CC-BY license). Hasse noted that
technical and regulatory constraints need to be considered for dynamic stacking
but that it could yield more profit for an energy storage system, maximizing
power and energy value. For those interested, his team has made open-source modeling tools available to the
community.
More
https://www.batterypoweronline.com/news/opportunities-and-challenges-for-electrochemical-energy-storage-on-the-electricity-grid/
Democracy
is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it
good and hard.
H.
L. Mencken
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