Abu Dhabi’s government merged two of its top investment funds on Saturday to strengthen their financial clout in an era of low oil prices, creating a company with assets totalling about $125 billion. The new fund, Mubadala Investment Co, was formed by merging Mubadala Development Co and International Petroleum Investment Co, which own corporate stakes in the energy industry and other sectors across the world. The new […]
By Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japanese companies believe that neither U.S. President Donald Trump nor Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe want to see the yen weaken significantly, a Reuters poll showed, a development they worry could spark an unwelcome political backlash. The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted Jan. 4-17, also found that Japanese firms want Abe to push Trump hard on trade issues, while nearly a third […]
Sorry, Faraday Future fans. Tesla Motors has officially ended Faraday Future‘s celebration, and the FF91’s dream of racing past the Model S isn’t happening. The Model S P100D’s Ludicrous+ Easter Egg was included in the vehicle’s Over-the-Air software update on Jan. 12. Tech Times reported that some owners and speed enthusiasts have powered up with the Ludicrous+ Easter Egg. YouTube user Tesla Racing Channel has just validated the possibility that […]
Kuwait is well positioned to mitigate the impact of lower oil prices on the economy despite a deterioration in the country’s fiscal position, according to the International Monetary Fund. It said in a new report that Kuwait’s nonhydrocarbon growth has moderated from 5 percent in 2014 to about 3.25 percent last year as a result of the drop in oil prices. However, large financial buffers and low […]
Solar cells convert light into electricity. While the sun is one source of light, the burning of natural resources like oil and natural gas can also be harnessed. (via WSJ)
“I’m sorry,” said Ms. Najjar, 26, wiping her eyes. Hisham, who is shy and has large dark brown eyes, left the room to play with balloons. “It’s just that I almost lost him, not to violence or to war, but to diabetes.” A few birds singing in their cages brighten the grim space where Hisham’s family lives. But they also remind the family of what it left […]
Bringing mobility into Germany’s transition to a new energy economy is a complex undertaking. While carmakers are developing more economical combustion engines and alternative drive systems, research establishments and companies are working on making more efficient use of vehicles. A new data logger simultaneously collects data from vehicles with combustion engines, electric drives, external sensors, and location data, and permits the development of new hybrid and electric […]
A strong tornado killed at least four people in southern Mississippi and left many others trapped in their homes after touching down in the hours before sunrise on Saturday, local and state officials said. The tornado, which touched down at about 3:45 a.m. Central time (0945 GMT), reduced some buildings to splinters, downed power lines and was strong enough to flip over cars, according to photographs shared […]
Alcoholism, like smoking, is considered a stepping stone to many diseases. A new study is now talking about the damaging effects of alcohol consumption on adolescents. It says heavy use of alcohol during adolescence will change the electrical activity in the brain. Precisely, those changes affect cortical excitability and functional connectivity of the brain, according to the study by researchers at University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University […]
There is no doubt that 2016 was a milestone year for utility-scale solar in the Middle East. The UAE set – and then reset – the benchmark for low-cost solar electricity; Saudi Arabia made its highest level commitment to investing in solar; and Jordan commissioned its largest utility-scale solar power plant and announced plans to tender a new round of projects. In fact, these three countries alone […]
After years of excess supply the global aluminium market may be turning a corner, as China seeks to cut capacity and the incoming Donald Trump administration ratchets up trade threats against the world’s largest producer of the lightweight metal. A glut of aluminium in recent years has decimated the US aluminium industry, where smelters were forced to shut down as Chinese imports rose. Now, after tackling excess […]
The intrinsic ability of graphene to superconduct (or carry an electrical current with no resistance) has been activated for the first time. This further widens the potential of graphene as a material that could be used in fields such as energy storage, high-speed computing, and molecular electronics. (via WSJ)
A driver sits in an Uber self-driving car in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 13, 2016 Evangelists for driverless cars see a bright future coming down the road: thousands of lives saved, countless driving hours freed up, cityscapes transformed with traffic jams vanquished. But the new technology also threatens millions of jobs and raises a slew of ethical dilemmas—prospects that were on the minds of business chiefs and […]
Donald Trump is to be sworn in as president in Washington on Friday, taking over from Barack Obama. Highlights of the day: SWEARING-IN Donald Trump is to be sworn in at middday (1700 GMT), setting the country on an uncertain path at home and abroad. PROTESTERS AND SUPPORTERS Protesters scuffle with police as liberal activists attempt to block thousands of supporters at the inauguration. Trump supporters dance […]
Dubai, UAE, 20 January 2017 Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has issued on 15 January 2017 a Request for Proposal (RFP) to all qualified bidders for a 200MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Power Plant, the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. This supports the wise vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the […]
By Yashaswini Swamynathan U.S. stock index futures treaded water on Friday ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th U.S. President. * Futures also got a lift after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen backed her stance for gradual interest rate increases on Thursday. * Trump, a New York businessman and former reality TV star, is scheduled to be sworn in around midday by Supreme Court Chief Justice […]
DUBAI/BEIRUT: Iran’s government and entities close to the elite Revolutionary Guards have signed major economic contracts with Syria, reaping what appear to be lucrative rewards for helping President Bashar Assad regain control of parts of his country from rebels.An opposition group condemned the telecommunications and mining deals signed with Iran, Damascus’s main regional ally, as “looting” of the Syrian people and the country’s wealth by the “Iranian […]
19 January 2017 Leading global publisher The Business Year (TBY) recently met with HE Essam Abdul Mohsen Al-Marzouq, the newly appointed Minister of Oil and the Minister of Electricity and Water of Kuwait. The Minister spoke extensively about privatization plans in the electricity sector and elaborated on his intentions to move the Ministry of Electricity and Water away from being a producer in order to become more […]
An extraordinary moment has arrived in the evolution of the internet. For all the transformation that has occurred over the 20+ years since the arrival of the World Wide Web and for the billions of people whose economic, civic and social circumstances have been improved, most people remain without internet connections. Residing in every country, these unconnected billions still wait for affordable meaningful access to this essential […]
Samsung and LG will utilize thermal pipes for their respective flagship devices, which are due for release this year, a new report says. This technology will allow the devices not to overheat, which is a situation Samsung is attempting to avoid, lest it springs up a brand-new debacle. LG had already confirmed that it’ll outfit the LG G6 with heat pipes to prevent undesirable and possibly life-threatening incidents where […]
By Ian Simpson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Washington turned into a virtual fortress on Thursday ahead of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, with police ready to step in to separate protesters from Trump supporters at any sign of unrest. Some 900,000 people, both Trump backers and opponents, are expected to flood Washington for Friday’s inauguration ceremony, according to organizers’ estimates. Events include the swearing-in ceremony on the steps of […]
A new system called Data Civilizer automatically finds connections among many different data tables and allows users to perform database-style queries across all of them. The results of the queries can then be saved as new, orderly data sets that may draw information from dozens or even thousands of different tables. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology The age of big data has seen a host of new […]
An example question from the Raven’s Progressive Matrices standardized test. The test taker should choose answer D because the relationships between it and the other elements in the bottom row are most similar to the relationships between the elements of the top rows. Credit: Ken Forbus A Northwestern University team developed a new computational model that performs at human levels on a standard intelligence test. This work […]
Scientists show nanoscale modifications to the edge region of nanocontacts to nanowires can be used to engineer the electrical function of the interfaces. (via WSJ)
