It will go down as one of the most famous results in any Rugby World Cup Brave Blossoms beat the 'Box
This is one of the most incredible moments in the history of rugby Japan:.. With your discipline and hard work you have achieved a dream. #Highlanders #MongolianFans, take their hats off to you today The guts, the Skills the Belief to Finish. Determination, teamwork, heart, passion.where are the words.. Go #Brave Blossoms!! Go Japan Congratulations!
On a scale of one to 10 in sporting upsets, the Brave Blossoms' victory over the Springboks is a comfortable 11. Jones has achieved the impossible, the World Cup win at Brighton assuring him of a place in sports history. More
Brave Blossoms Beat The Springbox Go you Beauties. Go Nippon
Richie McCaw 's take on the matter. This is no jaunt
#Richie McCaw #AllBlack Captain leading the way at Tower Bridge
"As a player you don't want to talk too much about the World Cup until you actually get the ticket. I know the excitement has been building but to actually get on the plane a day ago now it's what it's all about," he said. "Watching highlights of previously tournaments there heightens anticipation and expectations. It's awesome to finally be here and we're looking forward to getting started."
"The pleasantries won't last long. This is no jaunt."
Fans at The Tower of London
The Tower of London, situated in the central city on the north bank of the River Thames, played host to their official arrival.
The historic and beautiful castle, the former royal residence once home to oppression and execution and now the crown jewels, emphasised the scale and significance the eighth World Cup promises to bring throughout the next seven weeks.
Dan Carter, left, and Beauden Barrett, right, stroll through the grounds of the Tower of London following the All Blacks' official Rugby World Cup welcome in the English capital on Friday (Saturday NZ time).
Rookie wing #Waisake Naholo snapped pictures of guards and marvelled at the venue's grandeur as the team walked to have their photo taken. He wasn't alone in soaking up the occasion.
Official World Cup caps and participation medals for all 31 players weren't the only gifts, either. One week out from the tournament opener, #Richie McCaw, and his men also received a small sample of the hype and hysteria that will track their every move.
Half a day on the ground and their popularity is already clear. Even London Mayor Alan Yarrow said in his address they were icons of the sport.
Steve Hansen makes a statement
"We'll do a little bit for England, too, because I know they're just staying here in London," #Hansen said in reference to the #All Blacks, playing pool matches in London, Newcastle and Cardiff. "Those of you who are worried about that, we'll look after them."
"World Cups are special events, the pinnacle for a rugby player no matter which country they come from. It's about winning on one hand and on the other connecting with the country that you're in and making it special."
"We know we're guaranteed to be here for four weeks. We're hoping it's a little longer than that but we'll wait and see if we're good enough to do that."
Danny Shapiro is the Senior Director of Automotive for NVIDIA. He talks with John McElroy about the company’s supercomputer “brain” for autonomous cars, which accepts all of the automobile’s sensory inputs and makes sense of them. Shapiro demonstrates how NVIDIA’s hardware can tell the difference between trucks, cars, police vehicles, ambulances and so forth. He also makes his prediction for when we’ll see the first autonomous cars ready for primetime.
This really highlights the realization that electric cars are really only iPads on wheels.
Growth in sales of electric cars is going exponential and we are fast approaching the mile-stone with one million EVs sold sometime in September of this year. We need more and better electric cars and, finally, they are coming. Tesla Model S is entertaining all tech crowd with its Ludicrous Mode, Tesla Model X will start breaking hearts of Range Rover squad. Apple Electric iCar will bring us all The iPod moment with electric cars taking off into the mass market stage overnight.
Expect The iPod moment with Electric Cars
New catalyst will come with GM Bolt in production next year, Tesla Model S being unveiled in March in Geneva and new Nissan Leaf with 500 km range. Noise from Audi about Electric SUV with 500 km range in 2018 and Electric Aston Martin with 200 miles range is helping the general feeling of Lithium Rush in the air.
Warren Buffett’s BYD is making solid progress in sales and China promises to become the top workld market for EVs if not this year than next for sure. Tesla has got the best selling EV title in June and BYD has made it to the top three best selling EVs in the same month. BMW, Mercedes, Renault all are pumping up production of EVs and Europe has taken number one EV Sales spot with China growing very fast. China is the separate story and “War on Pollution” has produced numerous contestants for the government cash including Internet TV and E-Commerce giants moving into the space. Read on
Setsubun is a traditional event in Japan and it celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring. People take part in a traditional mame-maki ceremony. People throw roasted soybeans (mame) and shout ‘‘Oni wa Soto Fuku wa Uti’’ (Get out Ogre! Come in Happiness!) or,
Out with the devil in with the good luck.
There have been and still are, many dark winters, times of evil practices which initially are part of life, a given, cultural norms but there comes a time when we realize they are wrong, we see them for what they are. We understand the consequences, and make changes for the better. The worst of these practices of course was slavery, crudely put, the ownership of human energy.
Oil, black gold to some, is the current devil, which we seem to be enslaved to.
We know the detrimental consequences of both the extraction and use of oil, its effect on the health of our planet, the flora and fauna that inhabit it.
We also know the big oils, like the slave owners of the past, will fight for their cash cow. Through fair means or foul they will milk, they will squeeze, the last drop from our Mother Earth and, in dollar terms from you, me, all of us unless collectively we call for and take ownership of change.
“God Parity” gives us the opportunity to take ownership
“Spring” is here, it is a reality.
We know that through innovation and technical advances we no longer need to be enslaved to oil.
You have heard of “grid parity”?
It’s the term used to describe the point when electricity generated from rooftop solar panels is cheaper than power purchased from the grid.
Grid parity is seen to be highly disruptive because of the changes it causes to the energy industry, and the sudden empowerment of customers who are no longer just consumers, but pro-sumers. They don’t just have parity with the grid, but increasingly parity with the power companies themselves.
“God Parity” is when the cost of the network (transmission and distribution) is higher than the cost of rooftop solar generation.
In other words it means that even if the cost of coal-fired, gas-fired or hydro generation (or, for that matter, utility-scale solar or wind) were free, it would be too expensive to compete with rooftop solar.
“Overwhelming evidence points in one clear direction: the industrial age of energy and transportation will be over by 2030. Maybe before. Exponentially improving technologies such as solar, electric vehicles, and autonomous (self-driving) cars will disrupt and sweep away the energy and transportation industries as we know it. This disruption is inevitable and it will be swift.
This is the Clean Disruption of Energy
This is the Clean Disruption of Public and Private Transportation
This is a MUST WATCHAfter watching please like this Page and Share(scroll >>)
That time has arrived. Spring is nigh!
Yet we hold back, we don’t seek change, why?
Are we so weak minded that we are duped by propaganda? Are those with economic or political interests persuading us that the status quo is well?
Or is it our own attitudes; better the Devil we know than the Devil we don’t know, or is it a Devil-may-care attitude?
No, it’s just a matter of being informed? Understanding the issues the choices and their consequences? And making the right decissions, not based on the past, but on current and future technologies. Then we will welcome God Parity and recognize that spring has indeed arrived.
Take time to view the few videos, info-graphs and links below. Even take time to explore further.
Share this blog, join the subscribers to receive further blogs, click like and make comments add to the discussion.
Then may we all become pro active and confidently shout.
Oni wa Soto, Fuku wa Uti’’
Out with the devil, in with the good luck
in with the happiness.
PS: The Clean Disruption of Public and Private Transportation - Auckland speach can be seen here. It is almost the same presentation but a little difficult to hear. Try it if you like
Out with the devil in with God Parity
I'm going on an adventure!
Forbes on Exponential Rate of Change
Can You Handle an Exponential Rate of Change? John Kotter discusses...
"Anyone in the business world – even casual observers of it – knows that it’s currently experiencing a rapid rate of change. New companies spring up seemingly overnight. Products and services that were revolutionary two years ago are rendered obsolete if they don’t adapt to market changes fast enough.
Most leaders have some level of recognition that they can’t keep doing things the same way if they want to prosper in this environment. But many have learned a method of approaching change (change management) that simply doesn’t work when the changes get too big and the environment moves too fast. In the video below, I talk about how the rate of change will go up even more in the near future, and what leaders must learn to ensure their organizations aren’t left behind."
John Kotter is the chief innovation officer at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. He is also the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. Click to view video
"Rate of change in the world today is going up. It’s going up fast, and it’s affecting organizations in a huge way."..
Why Tesla’s Powerwall Battery is amazing
Key Points – The BIG picture
• All of humanity just won • Before the Powerwall (battery storage) there was no way to store the energy cleanly or efficiently • The lowest capacity model will cost just $3000 (US). • This is but the first generation of the product • This is game-changing. More and more people will go completely off-grid • The Tesla battery is smart • It’s basically going to make each individual building its own power station for your HOME and CAR
Now a New Set of EV Wheels (A $35,000 Tesla Model III is Coming In 2017)
At Shopping Basket or Golf Buggy price
Three Trends That Make Obama’s Clean Power Plan a Good Bet on the Future
Rocky Mountain Institute
Earlier today, the Obama administration issued its Clean Power Plan setting out a clear direction for greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the U.S. power sector. The plan, long under way and the subject of the most extensive consultations the EPA has ever undertaken, is a bold step to overcome congressional inaction to address climate change. In my view, although a federal cap and trade or carbon tax combined with strong efficiency regulations and measures to support renewables would have been preferable, the Clean Power Plan is a huge and important step in the right direction.
However, not everyone shares the arguments supporting the urgent need for this plan. Republicans, the fossil fuel industry, and coal-producing states argue that the plan will lead to a massive increase in electricity prices, that it will put the reliability of our electricity grid at risk, and that it will costs jobs and hurt the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Nothing is further from the truth. This plan will help the U.S. embark on an energy transformation putting it on the path towards a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future.
The pace of change in our energy system is rapidly accelerating. Three major trends are driving that change:
1) rapidly falling costs for renewables, 2) vehicle electrification, and 3) the explosion in big data and information technology (IT).
RAPIDLY FALLING COSTS FOR RENEWABLES
Over the past five years, we have seen a boom in solar resulting from the rapidly falling costs of PV modules. Solar photovoltaics have a learning curve of 24 percent, meaning that their costs come down by 24 percent every time installed capacity doubles. But solar is not the only clean energy technology that shows a pattern of such dramatic cost improvements. For onshore wind the rate is 14 percent, and for battery storage more recently the cost reduction trend appears to be above 20 percent. We often struggle to imagine the long-term impact of consistent compounding. With compounding reductions in costs, renewable technologies become cheaper year after year after year, and as a result their competitiveness vis-a-vis fossil fuels in the very near future is no longer in doubt.
VEHICLE ELECTRIFICATION TAKING HOLD
A second major trend is only just emerging but doing so rapidly. Electric cars are quickly becoming sexy and soon they will be cheap as well. Tesla’s next model—the forthcoming Model 3—promises to be as fast as a Porsche 911, with a range of 300 miles, and a cost of $35,000 but with very little in fuel and maintenance costs. And the trend is not just towards electrification. In fact, the breakthroughs under way in autonomous (self-driving) cars, integrated mobility-as-a-service concepts, and new business models in the shared economy are likely to have an even bigger impact on the automotive sector, moving us quickly away from gasoline-powered internal combustion engines.
AN IT-ENABLED ENERGY SYSTEM
The last trend may well be even more key. For a very long time, RMI has argued that our most-cost-effective energy resource is in fact energy efficiency. Efficiency is now being combined with big data and IT to make our energy demand not just leaner but also smarter. As we deploy IT to manage our energy demand, we will see massive opportunities to integrate renewables, smart appliances, and electricity-based HVAC technologies into intelligent and responsive electrical grids. This newly efficient and responsive demand system will be able to match to supply when it is available and if need be store energy when required.
A CLEAN ENERGY REVOLUTION
Together these three trends are setting off a profound energy revolution. When solar-generated electrons become ubiquitous, abundant, and cheap; are stored more easily; are driving a new mobility world; and are matched by smarter on-demand energy use, then economic competitiveness is no longer based on simply burning cheap fossil fuels, but rather on innovation, on the integration of the IT and energy arenas, and on the faster deployment of new integrated solutions at scale. This is in fact the energy future that the Clean Power Plan helps to bring about.
Loud protests that accelerating the transition to the energy technologies of the future will increase electricity bills will soon be recognized as a fallacy of the past. In fact, not only has the EPA estimated that the average household will spend $80 less under its plan, there are now two independent studies (from Georgia Tech and Synapse Energy Economics) that point in the same direction. Their findings are in line with RMI’s analysis in Reinventing Fire, which found that a clean energy future could yield a $5 trillion net present value savings.
Now of course, if your bottom line, your current job, or your PAC contributions depend on carrying on with the fossil-fuel-based technologies of the past, then this is not an appealing outlook. In fact, you can see why some would want to oppose the shift to a better, cleaner, and more-cost-effective energy future. But what that perspective ignores is the long-term impact on competitiveness of sticking too long with outdated industries. In fact, Europe has made a massive bet that over the long run an energy-efficient, renewables-based future will be the winner.
And China is investing massively in positioning itself to be the leader of the solar, wind, and efficiency technologies of the future.
So we have a choice. We could extend the life expectancy of a fossil-based energy system that is rapidly loosing momentum, or we can bet on the future of a smart, efficient, and renewable future. The Clean Power Plan will undoubtedly turn out to be a crucial legacy when it comes to climate change. But equally important, one day we will also recognize the wisdom and courage of the Clean Power Plan for America’s economic competitiveness.
Jiang Mianheng addresses Thorium Energy Conference 2012
An informative discussion on China's aspirations to bring about change for the sake of Health of its people Energy Security and what is required to urbanise 400,000,000 people. Since this 2012 conference greater numbers (Dollars and personal) have been allocated to this Government lead project. The Thorium Energy Conference 2015 will be held in November 14 in Mumbai, India.
Published on Nov 24, 2012
Jiang Mianheng was one of the first to address Thorium Energy Conference 2012 [ThEC12] in Shanghai, opening with the question "Why Nuclear Power in China?" and covering how rapidly China's energy needs are expected to grow in the near future.
Waisake Naholo Highlander All Black in the running
#MongolianHighlandersFans previosly blogged about #WaisakeNaholo attitude and how it contributed to him becoming an #AllBlack (see here). Now the same positive attitude could reap benefits again as he seems likely to get the nod to join the world cups squad.
"All Blacks coach Steve Hansen is understood to be leaning towards the shock inclusion of Highlanders wing sensation Waisake Naholo in his World Cup squad of 31 to be announced on Sunday.
Naholo suffered a fine fracture to his fibula during a promising test debut for the All Blacks against Argentina in Christchurch in July.
At the time the injury was given a three-month recovery timetable and Naholo was presumed to be unavailable for selection for the World Cup squad.
But the situation has changed dramatically in recent weeks with the 24-year-old, who scored a record-breaking 13 tries for the Highlanders in 2015, said to have made significant progress on the back of "alternative" treatment undertaken in his homeland of Fiji." more...
One of his #AllBlack team mates will obviously miss out if #WaisakeNaholo gets that call and we can feel for that fellow. Yet, when it comes down to close calls Steve Hansen could well be wanting to blood players into world cup experience with an eye on #JapanRugbyWorldCup2019.
The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences
The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things You don't have infinite money.
Spend it on stuff that research says makes you happy.
"Most people are in the pursuit of happiness. There are economists who think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. We know that money can make you happier, though after your basic needs are met, it doesn't make you that much happier. But one of the biggest questions is how to allocate our money, which is (for most of us) a limited resource.
There's a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong". Want to find out more?
#JusttheTicketHighlandersMongolianFanClub are just rapt with the new Air New Zealand saftey video made inconjuction with the #AllBlacks featuring a number of the team.
“We’re used to seeing them demolish all before them on the rugby pitch but this new video shows the All Blacks as you’ve never seen them before!
The brilliant promotional film, released overnight by New Zealand’s chief sponsors #AirNewZealand, features #AllBlacks stars such as #DanCarter and #RichieMcCaw taking on the roles of characters from the hit movie franchise Men In Black.
The big budget flight safety video, entitled ‘Men in Black Safety Defenders’ is set to #WillSmith’s iconic tune that accompanied the hit films and sees the likes of #MartinJohnson and #DavidCampese making cameos alongside Frank the pug and Agent Zed from the big screen hit”.
It has been watched by more than 220,000 people in less than 24 hours and has received rave reviews. It’s certainly a far cry from the normally mundane aeroplane safety videos passengers are required to sit through before every flight.
Coach #SteveHansen, rapping full-back #IsraelDagg, #KieranRead, #SamWhitelock and #KevinMealamu are other top All Black players to star in the internet hit alongside New Zealand recording artist #StanWalker.”
#IsraelDagg played a leading rap role. We are wondering if this little bit of off the field action has of late been effecting his on field play?
McCaw's fiercest rivals and good mates praise record breaking occasion
Richie McCaw "From boy to icon "
Mike Thorpe looks at the story of the All Blacks captain ahead of his world record breaking 142 test cap. Source: Seven Sharp
His 142nd Test match for the All Blacks will see him pass Irishman Brian O'Driscoll's record for the most caps by an international player. As he prepares for the historic match against Australia, his fiercest rivals and mates have sent him messages of support and recall his career, which dates back to his debut in 2001. "I can still remember seeing you play for the first time in 2001 at the under-21 World Cup in Australia, and already then I thought you were showed all the talent and attributes to be a world class player," Springboks captain Jean De Villiers said.
"I'm so proud of you to be the most capped rugby player in the history of the game" - George Gregan
So are the Mongolian Highlanders Fans. It's not only what Richie McCaw does on the field, but off it. He is such an achiever in so many fields. His passion for gliding, flying, as well as his business interests but not forgetting his fans from all over; local, provincial national and international, he has always had time to give.
We are looking forward to the big match, the return Bledisloe Cup winner takes all. It's going to be all on the at Eden Park tonight. Go the #AllBlacks.
Drive engagement, productivity, and innovation by teaching employees to more effectively manage their energy.
This is the theme from "the Energy Project" and it's introduction to it's People Fuel Curriculum.
An outcome from the project states; “There’s no question that this investment we’ve made in our employees by bringing in The Energy Project has energized and motivated them and has helped us as a company to stay strong in the midst of very tough times in our industry.”
The old addage " a change is as good as a holiday" springs to mind. Is this incorporated into the program? An investment in Travelers Rest offers such change in an exciting innovative environment. That in itself is enough to stimulate a new burst of energyy via new experiences, personal growth and fulfillment through opportunities to contribute to the neighbourhood and community.
Even so, I'm impressed with the Energy Project and what it's endevouring to do. It has merrit and could well be considered on an individual as well as corporate scale.
