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Category: Lu Jin
Tuesday June 20 2017, Daily News Digest
News Comments Today's main news: US lenders gang up on SoFi for banking play. RealtyShares closes largest commercial debt transaction to date. RateSetter launching IFISA. BlackRock invests in European robo. DCB Bank launches biometric ATM in India. Today's main analysis: SoFi, Upstart, Lending Club and their sponsored deals. Today's thought-provoking articles: 10 real estate investing fintech startups. Victoria making a […]
Today's main news: US lenders gang up on SoFi for banking play. RealtyShares closes largest commercial debt transaction to date. RateSetter launching IFISA. BlackRock invests in European robo. DCB Bank launches biometric ATM in India.
Today's main analysis: SoFi, Upstart, Lending Club and their sponsored deals.
Today's thought-provoking articles: 10 real estate investing fintech startups. Victoria making a play to be Australia's fintech capital (podcast). Startup offers out for poor Filipino farmers reliant on predatory lending. ID Finance wins microfinance award in Kazakhstan.
US lenders oppose SoFi banking move. GP: "This push from the banks to reject SoFi's bank application says a lot of good things for Sofi. First, the banks feel threatened and worried. They are paying attention and are using every arrow in the quiver against SoFi. Second, this means that SoFi is likely to succeed, otherwise the banks wouldn't worry about their process. And third, this means that once SoFi does hopefully get their banking license, the banks will then probably start on the normal path of buy/rent/build to compete more seriously with SoFi. I look forward to this natural market evolution." AT: "It was bound to happen. Legacy institutions don't like competition from new players, and it's quite typical to petition the government to do their dirty work."
SoFi bank, Upstart, and Lending Club's inaugural sponsored deals. GP:"More outstanding info on ABS securitization, pricing and comparison. "AT: "A must-read from PeerIQ."
RealtyShares closes largest commercial debt transaction to date. GP:"At $11.9 million. Crowd Funded real estate is a great market as long as the underlying type of real estate they work with makes sense."
Will Amazon become a force in fintech? GP:"Given the Whole Foods deal last week if they want to become a force they should buy an SME lender like OnDeck or Kabbage. "AT: "I'd say it already has, but speculating on what that might mean beyond payments and lending to their own business partners is nothing more than speculation."
Why Amazon's growth in small business lending threatens the banking system. AT: "Amazon has suddenly become the hot topic of discussion in fintech. Because they've made a bold play in lending, to their own small business sellers (Amazon is a sort-of P2P marketplace for merchandise), the talking heads have decided they will likely become the world's largest online bank (forgive the hyperbole). I can see some of the points, and they're well taken, but I don't know how it would benefit Amazon to move away from its core competency. To own a bank, now that would be a different story."
Amazon and the future of fintech. AT: "I generally like Seeking Alpha's analyses, but this smacks of nothing more than keyword targeting for a search engine ranking. Frankly, I think we're talking about this too much."
Blankfein talks up Goldman Sachs' consumer lending business. GP:"If the CEO of GS is talking like this I expect GS to use this same model (deposits/debt) in other markets and soon. If I were them I would look into life insurance and SME lending or mortgages."
KBRA assigns preliminary ratings to Marlette Funding Trust 2017-2.
MPL spigot on full blast with latest Marlette deal.
Yirendai beats investor suit. GP:"Every time anything major happens public companies get hit with securities fraud lawsuits. It's part of the experience. In this case it was due to the Chinese regulator imposing P2P rules that lead to Yirendai's stock falling and the suit."
Samsung, Diebold Nixdorf partners on biometrics ATM tech.
Examining fintechs' new approach to growth. GP : "Online lenders have transitioned from acquiring customers at any and all costs to focusing very intently on unit-level profitability. This is a natural transition in any new markets."
Origin Investments leads the way in RECF.
Money360 secures 8 top talent hires.
OCC Office of Innovation schedules open office hours. GP:"A great innitiative. The office of the OCC continues to be the main agency innovating in fintech as we saw with the proposed Fintech charter."
RateSetter to launch IFISA. GP:"Shortly after Zopa launched it to in house investors last week."
Ranger Direct Lending fund updates on loan write-off.
WeSwap launches partnership API.
Nuance says biometrics have come of age.
RateSetter, Al Rayan CEOs named in Queen's honor list. GP:"Congratulations! The US has no Queen or King unfortuantely for the US startups. They have to rely on the president only, we suppose."
Ping An Group Yao Bo promotes Lu Jin.
BlackRock invests in Scalable Capital.
Wealth managers' alternatives exposure reaches record high.
10 real estate investing fintech startups. AT: "A good list. I hadn't heard of some of these. And I like that the focus is not on U.S. companies entirely."
Most valuable venture-backed fintech unicorns.
Victoria making a play for capital of fintech.
DCB Bank launches biometric ATM. AT: "It's interesting that certain technologies, biometrics being one of them, are taking off in Southeast Asia more than in the U.S. Some of the most exciting news comes out of India and Singapore."
How Alibaba is taking over the Indian market. AT: "Alibaba is into way more than payments, as this article shows."
Wodehouse Capital Advisors launches exclusive investment network.
Sedania expects earnings boost with 2H17.
Poor Filipino farmers get alternative to predatory lending with Cropital. AT: "I wonder how many other countries could benefit from this kind of platform? Kiva has had a good run with helping small businesses in a lot of small third-world countries get the funding they need to expand and grow. With farming such a big part of the economy in a lot of these countries, there is much room for other Cropital-like platforms, some of which could go cross-border."
TechPreneur Africa signs MOU with Abu Dhabi Global Market.
Africa's payments and remittances getting too crowded.
ID Finance awarded Microfinance Company status from National Bank of Kazakhstan.
US lenders rally to oppose SoFi banking move (Financial Times), Rated: AAA
SoFi Bank, Upstart and Lending Club's Inaugural Sponsored Deals (PeerIQ), Rated: AAA
RealtyShares Closes Largest Commercial Debt Transaction to Date (BusinessWire), Rated: AAA
Will Amazon become a force in fintech? (TechCrunch), Rated: A
Why Amazon's Growth in Small Business Lending Threatens the Banking System (Inc.), Rated: A
Amazon And The Future Of FinTech (Seeking Alpha), Rated: A
Blankfein talks up Goldman Sachs' consumer lending business (Financial Times), Rated: A
Kroll Bond Rating Agency Assigns Preliminary Ratings to Marlette Funding Trust 2017-2 (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: A
MPL spigot on full blast with latest Marlette deal (Global Capital), Rated: A
Chinese P2P Lender Yirendai Beats Investor Suit, For Now (Law360), Rated: AAA
Samsung and Diebold Nixdorf in biometric ATM tie-up (Telecompaper), Rated: A
Specialty Finance: Examining Fintechs' New Approach to Growth (ABL Advisor), Rated: A
This $ 130 Million Fund Is Leading The Way In Real Estate Crowdfunding (Forbes), Rated: A
Money360 Secures Top Talent to Support Company Growth (Marketwired), Rated: B
OCC Office of Innovation Schedules Open Office Hours for Fintech & Traditional Finance Firms (Crowdfund Insider), Rated: B
UK P2P Lending Platform to Launch Innovative Finance ISA (National law Review), Rated: AAA
Ranger Direct Lending fund updates on loan write-off (AltFi), Rated: AAA
Currency exchange fintech launches partnership API (AltFi), Rated: A
Nuance says that biometrics have reached their "coming of age" (SC Magazine), Rated: A
RateSetter and Al Rayan CEOs named in Queen's honours list (Financial Reporter), Rated: B
Ping An Group Yao Bo: is actively promoting the listing of Lu Jin (01caijing), Rated: A
BlackRock gets into European 'robo advice (Business Insider), Rated: AAA
Wealth managers' alternatives exposure reaches record high in 2017 (AltFi), Rated: A
10 Real Estate Investing Fintech Startups (Nanalyze), Rated: AAA
Most valuable venture-backed fintech unicorns (Reuters), Rated: A
Victoria making a play to be Australia's FinTech capital (Omny.fm), Rated: AAA
DCB Bank launches first biometric ATM (India Info Online), Rated: AAA
How this #1 Global Conglomerate Is Engulfing Indian Market (Entrepreneur.com), Rated: A
Wodehouse Capital Advisors launches exclusive investment network (Forbes India), Rated: A
Sedania expects earnings boost with Islamic FinTech platform from 2H17 (The Edge Markets), Rated: A
For Poor Filipino Farmers Reliant On Predatory Lending, This Startup Offers An Alternative (Forbes), Rated: AAA
TechPrenuer Africa signs fintech MoU with Abu Dhabi Global Market (Finextra), Rated: AAA
Africa's payments and remittances space becoming crowded (How We Made It In Africa), Rated: A
ID Finance awarded Microfinance Company status from the National Bank of Kazakhstan (ID Finance Email), Rated: AAA
A powerful lobby group for US banks is circling the wagons against SoFi, the biggest of a new breed of online lenders, urging the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to reject its application to launch a banking unit.
But the move should be resisted, said Chris Cole, senior regulatory counsel at the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group representing about 6,000 small banks holding almost $5tn in assets. He argued that SoFi is trying to take advantage of a "loophole" that would allow it access to the federal safety net, but without having to comply with all the laws a regular bank faces.
"We want these fintech companies to be subject to the same kind of regulations as banks are," said Mr Cole of the ICBA.
Last year the student-loans specialist generated just over $8bn of loans, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, more than any other online lender in America.
The past week was a seminal one for SoFi, Lending Club, and Upstart.
SoFi filed for an ILC bank charter in the state of Utah. The application indicates SoFi seeks to offer deposits and a credit card product. SoFi Bank, led by Arkadi Kuhlman, would be capitalized with $166 Mn in equity. Kuhlman was the Former CEO of ING Direct (and money transfer service Zenbanx). ING Direct pioneered online deposit-banking and may provide a glimpse into SoFi's mobile banking aspirations. SoFi's focus on community, a credit card offering, and a rewards program reminds us of another highly successful mass affluent brand–American Express.
Collateral Comparison Benchmarks
Source: PeerIQ; Kroll Bond Ratings Agency
We find that:
Lending Club's CLUB 2017-NP1 has among the highest excess spread among its peer group – indicating an exceptional return for whole loan investors in the seven party multi-seller group under the base case scenario.
Lending Club's closest comp may be OneMain's OMFIT 2016-3. Both deals have comparable credit scores, loan balances, and collateral interest rate.
OMFIT has approximately 50% of loss estimate as compared to CLUB 2017-NP1. This is driven primarily by channel effects (e.g., retail branch vs. online origination), other forms of security attached to the loan, and potentially a conservative ratings approach in evaluating CLUB 2017-NP1.
Upstart has the lowest loss range estimate across the cohort of marketplace lenders, and the lowest coupons. Upstart also has a greater mix of longer-term loans. Upstart's closest comp is Prosper's PMIT 2017-1.
PMIT 2017-1 has a comparable loss-range as UPST 2017-1 but picks up two points in excess spread due to higher WAC.
Capital Structure and Pricing
CLUB 2017-NP1 and UPST 2017-1 both secured an A- rating on the senior class.
However, CLUB 2017-NP1 has one notch higher ratings on its Class B and Class C tranches, at BB and BBB respectively, despite a 7% higher loss estimate as compared to UPST 2017-1.
Pricing Tighter
In a notable milestone, the Class A tranche of CLUB 2017-NP1 priced at L+110 bps – the tightest pricing of any consumer loan securitization tracked by PeerIQ's Securitization Tracker. From a funding cost perspective, the rate is competitive with term CD rates offered by GS Bank.
Source: PeerIQ
Trigger Talk
Although the equity tranche investors in CLUB 2017-NP1 are providing greater subordination to bond investors, they benefit from a less restrictive CNL trigger. CLUB 2017-NP1 has the highest starting CNL profile (MOB=1) vs. its peer group, starting at 7% and peaking at 29%.
By contrast, UPST 2017-1, structured and led by Goldman Sachs, has the lowest loss estimate amongst its peers, has a tighter initial trigger at 4% and peaks at 18% (a similar CNL profile to its closest comp PMIT 2017-1). UPST also benefits from somewhat higher structural leverage for equity tranche participants.
RealtyShares, a leading online marketplace for real estate investing, today announced the close of the company's largest commercial real estate debt transaction to date. The deal was innovatively structured to include capital sourced from RealtyShares' institutional investor network as well as its real estate crowdfunding marketplace.
A total of $11.9 million was sourced via RealtyShares for the acquisition and partial recapitalization of a 10-property portfolio of student housing in Seattle, WA. The properties are located within 1.5 miles of the University of Washington, a campus of 54,000 students. Entirely within the city of Seattle, this student housing portfolio is attractively located in one of the highest growth housing markets in the United States.
Amazon is the tech giant most likely to become a dominant player in fintech, predicted James Lloyd, Ernst & Young's fintech leader, when speaking on stage at TechCrunch and TechNode's event in Shenzhen, China on Monday.
Lloyd told TechCrunch that he expects Amazon to expand further into payments, lending and credit scoring.
Meanwhile, Amazon also recently announced that it had surpassed $1 billion in small-business loans to more than 20,000 merchants involved in its Amazon Marketplace in the U.S. UK, and Japan during the past year. In fact, since Amazon Lending began in 2011, it has surpassed $3 billion in loans to small businesses. The company is making money from both the sales of products via its online platform and by charging interest on the loans.
Amazon could disrupt small business finance in the same manner that it forever changed retail.
Currently, the company only offers short-term business loans ranging from $1,000 to $750,000 for up to 12 months to micro, small and medium businesses that sell on Amazon. It has the potential to expand into retail banking. Amazon could begin setting up deposit accounts or lending to small business borrowers outside of its own network. This could help Amazon grow its core business of online sales as well as establish the company as one of the leading online lenders to small companies. Eventually, Amazon could expand such operations to the other countries across the globe where it operates marketplaces. Think about the potential of moving into markets such as India and China.
Banks and other lenders should be nervous.
Can you imagine people that are accustomed to this kind of retail shopping are going to be comfortable with commercial banking, with financial institutions, as we know them now?
Furthermore, Amazon has already been in serious discussions with PayPal.
Here the essence of the banking system is not holding money for customers, but transferring funds from one place to another place. That is, the banking system of the future will work through the payments system.
And, this payments system will not necessarily be tied into where you hold your assets, just how your assets might be connected to the payments system.
The experimenting of Mr. Bezos is bringing him over the edge into the realm of the banking industry. The payments system is crucial. There is no telling how his experimentation might change the whole banking industry.
Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of the Wall Street bank, took to CNBC on Monday evening to talk about Marcus, the consumer lending business that the bank launched with some fanfare last October.
Quizzed by Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, Mr Blankfein said that the venture had so far been a big success, crashing through $1bn in loans originated and on course to hit $2bn by the end of this year. People had responded well to Goldman's promise to save them "three, four, five hundred basis points" on the interest rates they were paying on credit card balances, Mr Blankfein said, while charging no fees of any description – ever.
Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) announced on Monday it has assigned preliminary ratings to three classes of notes issued by Marlette Funding Trust 2017-2. This is a $322.7 million consumer loan ABS transaction that is expected to close on June 29th.
Marketplace loan originator Marlette Funding is marketing its latest securitization following the pricing of breakout deals from Lending Club and Upstart last week.
The Marlette offering marks the second time the lender has tapped the securitization this year. The deal is structured as a club style offering similar to last week's Lending Club securitization, which was the first time the lender issued a club deal. Marlette originates loans through Cross River.
A California federal judge on Monday dismissed a securities fraud suit brought against Chinese peer-to-peer lending company Yirendai Ltd., giving leave to amend while warning the investors to tell him if "you've taken your best shot."
At the onset of Monday's hearing, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald issued a tentative ruling granting Yirendai's motion to dismiss, but giving permission for a revised suit to be submitted to the court.
Samsung SDS America has teamed up with US payment technology specialist Diebold Nixdorf to develop a mobile-based biometric authentication system for cardless ATM transactions. The system allows customers to stage a withdrawal via their mobile banking app prior to arrival at the ATM. They then need to simply tap their mobile device to the near field communications (NFC) reader on the ATM, confirm their transaction and instantly receive a prompt to complete authentication via facial recognition on their mobile device.
In this year's keynote address at the Lendit USA conference, held during the first week of March in New York City, OnDeck's Noah Breslow highlighted the four phases that tend to characterize the evolution of any new market. He also observed that the marketplace lending industry has already progressed past the first three phases – growing awareness, initial skepticism, and the ensuing stampede among new customers and providers. Today, Breslow emphasized, lenders are now adjusting to the fourth phase, which he predicted will see the strongest players thrive amid a still-rationalizing peer set.
To be sure, marketplace lending has grown rapidly over the past three years. To wit, originations of unsecured online loans jumped from $5.57 billion in 2014 to $11.99 billion in 2015, according to Orchard Market Data. After peaking in the fourth quarter of 2015, however, originations have since receded, pulling back roughly 18% last year. At the same time, Orchard documented that the 2014- and 2015-vintage loans experienced higher and faster charge-off rates than previous years, attributable at least in part to a higher proportion of subprime originations during those two years.
As a result, online lenders have transitioned from acquiring customers at any and all costs to focusing very intently on unit-level profitability. Gone are the days when a new, tech-enabled lender would look to prove out their business model by quickly accumulating customers with little or no regard to the bottom line.
While investments in the segment hit a peak in 2015, when there were 132 new investments in the space worth a combined $5.2 billion, according to PitchBook Data, new capital has continued to pour into the market.
The real estate crowdfunding industry is projected to be valued at more than $300 billion by 2025. The global crowdfunding industry has gone from $880 million in 2010 to $34.4 billion.
In real estate, especially, this has allowed companies like Origin Investments, a private equity real estate company, to raise more than $130 million for a fund — its third fund, to be exact. To date, this is the largest fund raised by a single U.S. real estate crowdfunding platform, ranking it alongside the backing that tends to launch hot tech startups into the limelight.
In fact, their expertise in asset management is what allowed them to raise $10 million in the first week of opening their third fund.
Money360, the leading commercial real estate marketplace lending platform, recently announced the addition of eight new hires to support the company's rapid expansion. The hires include five seasoned commercial real estate executives and three industry specialists, who were brought on to support the increased deal flow and expanding base of borrowers and capital partners in the U.S. and around the world.
The new hires include:
Paul Cleary, Chief Operating Officer: Cleary was Executive Vice President of Cherrywood Commercial Lending, LLC, where he helped found the company and oversaw loan production and marketing. Prior to that, he was the First Vice President of the Business Services division at Kinecta Federal Credit Union. He earned his MBA from University of California, Irvine, his JD from the University of San Diego School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Santa Barbara.
John Calder, Director of Credit Administration: Calder has worked as a commercial real estate operator and executor for more than 20 years at companies including SABAL Financial Group, Mir, Mitchell & Company, LLP and Sterling Bank & Trust. He earned his bachelor's degree in business at University of Colorado, Boulder.
Stratos Athanassiades, Regional Director – Midwest Region: With more than 20 years of experience, Athanassiades has held a number of managerial roles for Alliant Credit Union, Business Partners, LLC, MetLife and Wachovia Securities. He earned his bachelor's degree in political science and international relations from Northwestern University.
Nick Jans, Regional Director – Southwest Region: Jans has originated and produced more than $2.1 billion in commercial real estate financings. His background includes positions as principal at Willow Bend Commercial Capital, Vice President at New York Life Investment Management and Investment Director at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Saint Louis University in Missouri.
Craig Brown, CRE Loan Underwriter: With nearly 30 years of experience, Brown has held a number of executive and managerial positions at real estate consulting companies, mortgage firms and major banks. His wide range of experience includes positions at Security Pacific Bank, CORE Realty Holdings, LLC and Wells Fargo Bank. Brown earned his Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University and his JD from Western State University.
In addition to the new executives, the new hires also include three support specialists: Jared Wright, CRE Loan Analyst; Annie Chantaduly, CRE Loan Expeditor; and Joel McRae, CRE Customer Service specialist.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is opening up its doors at its Office of Innovation. Announced today, the OCC will host office hours for its Office of Innovation at the OCC's district office in New York City. The OCC is welcoming national banks, federal savings associations and Fintech companies to stop by and visit from July 24 to 26.
If you are interested, you may contact the OCC and request a slot through July 5.
You may schedule time for the Office of Innovation here.
RateSetter, a UK P2P lending platform, has raised £13 million in its latest round of fundraising as it prepares to launch its "innovative finance" ISA (IF-ISA). The IF-ISA allows investors, or lenders, to earn interest free of income tax. Before a P2P platform can offer its own ISA, it must be fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Investors in the £250m Ranger Direct Lending investment trust have had a bumpy 2017 after a stellar run in 2016 where the portfolio outperformed nearly all its rivals as well as the broader marketplace, as shown in the graph below.
Source: AltFi
Peer-to-peer money exchange firm WeSwap has launched a new service called "WeSwap Connect". The B2B platform is designed to allow other firms to offer WeSwap's travel money services alongside their own, via a "one-click" API integration.
WeSwap has named peer-to-peer lender Zopa as one of 18 new partners to sign up to the new service in the last 12 months, alongside such firms as SIXT, Perkbox and Secret Escapes.
WeSwap allows holidaymakers to swap currency with people travelling in the opposite direction. That currency is then loaded onto a Mastercard capable of holding 18 currencies simultaneously. WeSwap Connect allows partner firms to offer their customers a co-branded version of that Mastercard to take on holiday.
Biometrics firm Nuance has said that biometrics have reached their "coming of age" in terms of usefulness to enterprises in mitigating fraud.
The company recognises biometrics' inherent flaws: struggling to identify people in noisy environments who are using voice recognition, or failing to authenticate someone using a finger scanner thanks to dirt in the device, when used as a stack of defences, can be used as a case to dismiss biometrics.
There are a few examples of the media misrepresenting biometrics too. Prime example: the BBC using twin brothers to evade detection of HSBCs "my voice is my password" voice recognition system.
What further exacerbates the problem is that there are numerous examples of where a failure to authenticate might lead to 'cart abandonment' in the e-commerce space, for example, and consequently lead to lost revenue for the company.
For context, the UK's Annual Fraud Indicator says the cost per year of fraud to the UK is stood at £193 billion. An extra 21 percent would push that figure up to £233.53 billion.
This is where Nuance says biometrics could help. Internal research from the company claims 74 percent of tier-one financial institutions and 76 percent of telcos still exclusively use knowledge-based authentication to secure transactions in contact centres.
More than 1,500 cases of fraud totalling almost £4 million were stopped in just the first eight months of voice biometrics being deployed.
Al Rayan Bank CEO, Sultan Choudhury, and RateSetter founder and CEO, Rhydian Lewis, have both received an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
Lewis was named in the list as a 'Peer to Peer and Financial Inclusion Innovator' and was honoured for services to Financial Services.
Choudhury was honoured in recognition of his services to the UK Market for Islamic Finance.
On the afternoon of June 16, at the shareholders' meeting of Ping An Group, Yao Bo, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ping An Group, said that in addition to the listing of the land, the shareholders also mentioned the listing of Ping An Securities, Is: if you can enhance the overall value, will be actively considered.
BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, made its first push into Europe's "robo-advice" market on Tuesday after taking a stake in Anglo-German digital investment manager Scalable Capital.
BlackRock, which manages $5.4 trillion across a range of actively managed and index-tracking funds, led a €30 million (£26.2 million, $33.6 million) funding round for Scalable alongside its two existing German venture capital backers, a joint statement said.
The funding will help Scalable expand its robo-advice business — which uses low-cost exchange-based funds and online distribution — with financial institutions and corporates to help grow assets past the €250 million raised in the 16 months since launch from more than 6,000 retail clients.
Patrick Olson, BlackRock's chief operating officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and who will join Scalable's supervisory board, said the decision to invest came as investors increasingly wanted to access their holdings using technology.
Seven Investment Management (7IM) has increased its exposure to alternative strategies to the firm's highest ever levels as it seeks defensive returns away from traditional fixed income and equities.
This has prompted its investment management team to look to new strategies, for example, the £1.6bn 7IM AAP Balanced fund has seen alternative strategies exposure increase from 2.5 per cent at the start of 2016, moving to 5.5 per cent a year ago, and up to 8 per cent in May 2017.
The previous peak was 7 per cent in October 2011 during the Eurozone crisis and US debt ceiling crisis.
One asset class that's just begging to be reinvented these days is that of realty. What's the matter with realty and why does it need to be reinvented? A few problems:
The traditional way to invest in property is to buy a single house which offers zero diversification to the buyer
Commercial property is not very accessible for retail investors due to higher price points
Real estate has very, very low liquidity. You can't buy or sell it very fast.
Founded in 2014, New York startup Cadre has taken in $133 million in funding so far from investors that include some big names like Alibaba's Jack Ma, Goldman Sachs, Khosla Ventures, and Peter Thiel's Founders fund to name a few. Just last week, Cadre closed their Series C round of $65 million led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Over the past 9 years, LendInvest has lent $1.28 billion in loans to developers that have bought, built, or renovated 3,000 properties across the UK.
Founded in 2012, Los Angeles startup RealtyMogul.com has taken in $45 million in funding so far to develop an "online market for real estate investing". More than 120,000 investors are using the platform to invest $270 million into commercial real estate deals.
Founded in 2013, San Francisco startup RealtyShares is a crowdfunding platform for both commercial and residential real estate financing which has taken in $35.7 million in funding so far (think Lending Club for real estate).
New York startup Knock has taken in $34.5 million in funding to solve the problem of poor liquidity in residential real estate. Their online home selling platform provides a guaranteed way to sell their home in six weeks. The fees are 6% which also includes a 3% commission to the agent representing the buyer. Why we still need "agents" in this day and age is mind boggling.
Oakland California startup Roofstock has taken in $33.25 million in funding to develop an online marketplace that lets you invest in leased single-family rental homes. Essentially, you can become a landlord by purchasing homes that already have tenants.
London England startup Property Partner has taken in $32.26 million in funding so far to develop a platform that offers residential real estate crowdfunding with a secondary exchange for investors to trade holdings on.
Arizona startup Offerpad has taken in $30 million in funding so far to offer solutions that make the online buying and selling of homes more efficient. In the case of Offerpad, that offer to buy can close in as little as 5 days and up to 90 days.
Los Angeles startup Peerstreet has taken in $21.1 million in funding so far to develop a crowdfunding platform for investors to easily access high yielding loans, collateralized with real estate.
Hamburg startup Exporo has taken in $18.03 million in funding so far to build a real estate crowdfunding platform specifically for zee Germans.
Victoria is creating a FinTech hub and will host the first FinTech festival in Australia. The Victorian Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade, Philip Dalidakis chats to Trevor Long and Nick Bennett on Talking Technology about making a play to be Australia's FinTech capital and the joys of dial-up internet.
Edging over competitors, DCB Bank launched first of its kind ATM, that will not require a debit card to dispense cash as the machine will instead verify the customer's Aadhar card details including the iris and the fingerprint of the customer.
However, the ATM will also accept debit cards swipes for the purpose of cash withdrawal.
The high-tech ATM was installed in the capital of Telangana, said a press release issued by the bank.
China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has already made a foothold in India with its ticketing operations, cloud computing and news agency.
The company has also invested in digital wallet Paytm for the launch of Paytm Mall, a mobile shopping app which offers a mixed experience of a mall and bazaar to Indian customers.
In September 2015, Alibaba Group and Ant Financial invested about $680 million in the online payment platform.
Alibaba-Paytm Deal
In March 2015, Paytm received a $575 million investment from Alibaba Group after Ant Financial Services Group, an Alibaba Group affiliate, bought a 25% stake in One97(the parent company of Paytm), as part of a strategic agreement. Ant Financial Services Group, which operates Alipay the biggest online payment platform, will help Paytm improve user experience and continue doing good in competitive digital wallet space.
Wodehouse Capital Advisors, a multi-family office and mid-market focussed investment bank has launched an investment network for high net worth individuals (HNIs).
The platform also seeks to be an "impartial peer-to-peer networking forum". According to Manmohan Tiwana, managing director and CEO, Wodehouse Capital Advisors, "WIN is a great way to invest, as it allows you to do so in a social environment and also earns you profits at the same time." Aside from offering investment opportunities, WIN will offer its members "various luxuries and lifestyle-related products" such as access to high-end event and conferences organised by Wodehouse Capital Advisors.
Technology empowerment company Sedania Innovator Bhd expects income to start coming from recently acquired Islamic FinTech platform provider Sedania As-Salam Capital (SASC) as early as the second half of financial year ending Dec 31, 2017 (FY17).
According to the independent market research report, the personal financing market under the Islamic banking system in Malaysia was valued at RM28.8 billion in 2016, amounting to 41.7% of the total personal financing market, it said.
For Cropital cofounder Rachel de Villa, her company's mission is rooted in personal experience. After seeing her grandmother lose her pineapple farm, she became determined to prevent other farmers from losing their livelihoods due to financial hardship.
To date, Cropital has facilitated loans for 600 farmers in six provinces throughout the Philippines. The team vets potential borrowers based on the types of crops they're growing (or livestock they're raising) and suitability to the region. Once a farmer successfully repays a loan, he or she can recommend other local farmers to the platform, who will also go through the vetting process.
Investments begin at 5,000 Philippine pesos (about $100 USD) and increase by increments of the same. Cropital built a custom virtual wallet for its platform, and users must transfer money through that system.
TechPreneur Africa, a social impact firm focused on harnessing innovation and entrepreneurship to achieve real economic impact across Africa has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre in Abu Dhabi, to foster and support the growth and activities of FinTech in the Middle East and African regions.
ADGM is the first in the MEA region to have a FinTech regulatory laboratory (RegLab) regime to foster innovation in financial services.
Techpreneur Africa who officially launched operations in the African Market in 2015, are delighted at the potential the opportunity presents to African Fintech entrepreneurs, firms and the financial services industry in its drive towards 30% financial inclusion growth by 2020.
We asked Tom Jackson, co-founder of Disrupt Africa, about the report's major takeaways. We asked Tom Jackson, co-founder of Disrupt Africa, about the report's major takeaways.
According to Disrupt Africa's recent report, there are over 300 fintech start-ups active in the continent. I assume some of them are high-potential, fast-growing enterprises, while others are struggling for survival?
The extent to which Africans are lacking access to formal financial services means there is an innate potential in fintech on the continent, as evidenced by the fact there are more than 300 companies working in the space. However, there is a danger of saturation, especially in segments such as payments and remittances, and we would hope to see some consolidation over the coming years as there is not room for so many individual companies to all scale and succeed.
What, according to you, have been some of the more noteworthy fintech investments over the past year?
Zoona's $15m round last August was major, with Nomanini also raising [funding]. In the payments space, Nigeria's Flutterwave raised a sizeable round. It has also been interesting to see so many blockchain start-ups raising funding – notably BitPesa, Custos Media, The Sun Exchange and BitFinance. In fact, our data suggests that blockchain start-ups stand a greater chance of securing investment than any other type, with almost 40% of African blockchain start-ups backed so far.
According to your report, the payments and remittances market is the most popular sub-category within the fintech space. Why do you think that is?
Moving money between African countries, and in and out of Africa, is an expensive business – with transaction fees charged by banks and traditional remittance firms, such as Western Union, starting as high as 10%. Tech-enabled payments and remittances start-ups can bring these prices right down – often to around 2% or 3% – and open up new economic opportunities for Africans.
Author Allen TaylorPosted on June 20, 2017 Categories 2H17, Al Rayan, Alibaba, alternative lending, Amazon, biometrics, BlackRock, Daily News Digest, DCB Bank, Featured, fintech, Goldman Sachs, ID Finance, IFISA, KBRA, lawsuits, lendingclub, Lu Jin, Marcus, marketplace lending, Marlette Funding, microfinance, Money360, News, Nuance, OCC, ondeck, Online Lending, Origin Investments, payments, Ping An, predatory lending, Ranger Direct Lending, RateSetter, real estate investing, RealtyShares, RECF, robo-advice, Scalable Capital, Sedania, small business lending, SoFi, specialty finance, startups, TechPreneur Africa, Unicorns, Upstart, wealth management, WeSwap, Wodehouse Capital Advisors, Yao Bo, Yirendai


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Thinking Of Raiding Your 401K? Thinking of raiding your 401k to pay this month's bills? Our personal finance contributor examines the pros and cons of taking money out of one's retirement account to cover living costs.
Thinking Of Raiding Your 401K?
< Thinking Of Raiding Your 401K?
September 16, 20081:00 PM ET
ALEX COHEN, host:
With the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a lot of people on Wall Street are now out of work. They join the ranks of plenty of other Americans who are struggling with hard times.
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
Your credit card bills are looming, your car loan is overdue, you're behind on your mortgage, you have no emergency fund. Aargh! What to do? Well, increasingly, people are tapping into their tax-deferred retirement funds, or 401Ks, to help bail themselves out of a financial jam. Is this a good idea? Here to talk about this trend is Day to Day's personal finance contributor, Michelle Singletary. Hi, Michelle.
MICHELLE SINGLETARY: Hi.
BRAND: Well, I know you're going to say yes to this question, is raiding your 401K a bad idea? But what if people have no other option?
SINGLETARY: Well, you know, I would say don't do it if you absolutely can tap some other sources. But, honestly, I've actually helped people recently to do this because there just was nothing left anywhere, and they were about to be evicted. There's no food. They've got to make a car payment. Because what happens is more and more Americans are relying on their retirement fund for retirement, and even a withdrawal of 5,000 dollars can erode your retirement plan significantly.
BRAND: What if you're faced with this choice, borrow more on your credit card or tap into your 401K?
SINGLETARY: That's an interesting way to put it. I would say do neither.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SINGLETARY: I mean, honestly, you know, think about some other ways than borrow funds or taking it from your 401K. And I have to add, there are strict rules in terms of when you can tap your 401K. There's hardship withdrawal, and that would include eviction, to pay medical bills, and then you can also take a loan out on your 401K. If you don't want to do your credit card and you're between a hardship withdrawal and a loan from your 401K, and you think your job is fairly secure, go for the loan because at least you're paying back into your own account.
And please be mindful, many people do not realize this, under hardship withdrawal, you still have to pay taxes on that money, and you still have to pay a penalty. So let's say you're going to take out five or 10 thousand dollars, thinking that's going to help get you out of the hole. You're not going to actually realize that full amount of money because you've got to pay anywhere from 35 to 45 percent when you count in federal taxes, state and local taxes, and the 10 percent penalty.
BRAND: And if you take out that money or take out a substantial portion of your 401K, do you lose all the interest that you've accrued?
SINGLETARY: You don't lose the interest you've accrued, but you certainly lose the potential interest had you let that money stay in there and the compounding effect.
BRAND: Now, Michelle, I know you're not an investment expert, nor do you give investment advice, but what about people who aren't faced with such dire circumstances and are thinking, maybe I shouldn't invest as much these days, right now, into my 401K?
SINGLETARY: I would say don't do that. You should invest, sort of, without listening to all the craziness that's going on right now because it will scare you. But look at it as a sale. There are a lot of good buys now in the stock market, so you would be buying it at less. And if you invest every month, you're not spending as much money when things are high, and you get a bargain when things are low, like now. You should have an overall investment plan, and then invest according to that, not what you hear in the market. If you consistently invest and save, that's the other part, you will be OK.
BRAND: All right, ending on an up note. And if you have a personal finance question for Michelle Singletary, you can write to her at our website. Go to npr.org/daytoday, click on the Contact Us link, and put Michelle in the subject line. She writes The Color of Money column for the Washington Post, and she is Day to Day's personal finance contributor. Thanks, Michelle.
SINGLETARY: You're welcome.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Innov'ATM, young startup company specializing in solutions to optimize air traffic management, completes a new fundraiser of 1 million euros to support the diversification of its activities in the promising field of UAV traffic management (UTM) and to continue developing its growing branch of airport systems.
Since its beginnings in 2014, the innovative air traffic management solutions developed by the young company have experienced great success in the Air Traffic Management (ATM) industry, a domain which englobes the different systems used by air traffic controllers, enabling planes to land, take off, taxi and progress through the airspace securely. UTM is a system that completes ATM, which has become necessity due to the increase of drones on the market and their impact on the management of air traffic, it combines the different systems to safeguard, protect and manage permissions for the use of drones. The system brings together the activities of air traffic controllers, local authorities, airports and sensitive sites, as well as professionals, amateurs and all other concerned parties.
Accompanied by BPI and its historical investor IRDI SORIDEC Gestion with its seed fund IRDInov, Innov'ATM has already charmed the Swiss air navigation service provider (skyguide), the French civil aviation (DGAC) and the Groupe Aéroport de Paris (ADP). With the success of ATM and UTM projects at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, Innov'ATM was able to demonstrate the efficiency of its solutions, allowing Groupe ADP to reap the benefits on its airport hubs.
It is within this context that Groupe ADP wanted to support the business development of the growing company, in its international expansion and its quest towards optimizing the airspace further, to answer to the future challenges of congestion.
IRDInov renews its faith and joins Groupe ADP with a new investment, two years after its entry into capital. Since 2016, IRDInov saw the small team expand, grow and confront new challenges in France and mostly, internationally.
This investment will enable Innov'ATM to accentuate, not only its research activities to improve the use of the airspace, but also its conquest of emerging opportunities in ATM and UTM on an international scale.
This fund raiser will allow us to consolidate and diversify our innovative solutions based on the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the changing air traffic management services. Until recently, the primary objective of air traffic management was to ensure security, we are now able to maintain the same level of security and offer tools oriented towards optimization and efficiency.
The entry of Groupe ADP into our capital is for us, the embodiment of a successful new collaboration on innovative products. This major actor in airport management will allow us to reinforce our collaboration and open doors to new markets worldwide.
Inov'ATM is a young startup company created in 2014, specializing in the development of innovative air traffic management and airport resources solutions. These enable to optimize air traffic management (ATM) and to facilitate and secure the insertion of drones in the airspace (UTM). By introducing artificial intelligence and agility in the ATM industry, the growing startup company offers innovative solutions with the suite of software SkyKeeper®.
IRDI SORIDEC Gestion supports, with equity capital, companies located in the large south west quarter of France in all stages of their development (seed capital, risk capital, development / buyout capital). Based in Toulouse, Montpellier and Bordeaux, it manages over 300 M€ through several funds including IRDInov, a seed fund for technology, supported by the Fonds National d'Amorçage (FNA) – managed by Bpifrance Investissement – with which it has invested in Innov'ATM.


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We are providing Philips customer care number here. The toll-free numbers provided by http://jioexpert.com/ are verified from official websites. A user who is looking for customer care numbers of different companies will highly benefit us. This post contains all Philips customer care toll-free helpline numbers.
Philips is the leader of Consumer electronics in the fast-growing Indian market. Philips was founded on 15 May 1891 by Gerard Philips and Frederik Philips. Philips is a private company, In this Year Philips has achieved tremendous success Philips now has over Home appliances, Lighting, Medical equipment, Audio equipment. Philips has over 114,188 employees, Philips focuses on Consumer electronics. Consumers can access the site online and through an app on their mobile phones. In 1987, Philips acquired the websites http://www.philips.com/. Philips net worth is estimated to be €1.448 billion.
The next best way to talk to their customer support team, according to other Philips customers, is by calling their 1800 102 2929 phone number for their Customer Service department.
The next favorite option for customers looking for help is via 1800 102 2929 for Customer Service.
The Philips customer care number will provide you with all information on its products and services.


Our SEPTEMBER Social Generosity Offering will to Embrace Race, a multiracial community of parents, teachers, experts, and other caring adults who support each other to meet the challenges that race poses to our children, families, and communities.
Embrace Race is part of a larger movement for racial and social justice. As US racial divisions and inequities grow sharper and more painful, they believe that reversing the trend must begin in our homes, schools, and communities with our children's hearts and minds. They create and share resources designed to nurture resilience in children of color; nurture inclusive, empathetic children; raise kids who think critically about racial inequity; and support a movement of kid and adult racial justice advocates for all children.


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You are at:Home»News»Market Performance»UK construction equipment sales 70% above 2020 levels in first half of year
UK construction equipment sales 70% above 2020 levels in first half of year
By Saul Wordsworth on	 27th July 2021 Market Performance
Retail sales of construction and earthmoving equipment showed further strong growth in June, and were 75% ahead of the levels seen in the same month last year, when sales were still recovering from the impact of the first lockdown. As a result, sales in Q2 were more than double the levels seen last year, and reached over 10,000 units during the quarter. For the first half of the year, sales were over 18,000 units, and are 73% ahead of the levels seen in the first half of last year.
Comparisons with sales in earlier years indicate how buoyant the market has been in 2021, with sales are ahead of both 2018 (by 4%) and 2019 (+7%) in the first half of the year. Like many other industries, the sector is still experiencing supply chain shortages and price rises for many products and materials. High levels of equipment sales in the face of this demonstrate the underlying strength of current demand in the construction market.
The pattern of sales for the major equipment types in the first half of the year is shown in chart 2. This shows that the strongest growth in sales has been experienced by Telehandlers (for the construction industry), with sales more than double last year's levels in the first six months. This is a welcome bounce back after showing the weakest performance amongst the major equipment types in 2020, when sales were over 40% below 2019 levels. Mini/midi excavators (up to 10 tonnes) have had the opposite experience, after being the strongest performing product last year. Sales in the first six months of this year have shown 58% growth compared with last year, and lag behind all the other major equipment types in % growth terms. However, Mini/midi excavators remain the most popular equipment type by a significant margin.
The construction equipment statistics exchange covers sales on a regional basis in the UK and N Ireland. The map shows the percentage differences for sales in the main regions in the first half of 2021 compared with the same period last year. This shows that sales have been strongest in the North West of England and in Scotland, where sales have been more than double the levels seen in the first half of 2020. In contrast, weaker sales have been experienced in the West Midlands and Wales, where sales have been less than 35% above last year's levels.
Sales in the Republic of Ireland are also recorded in the statistics scheme, and like the UK, showed further strong growth in June. As a result, sales in Q2 were more than double last year's levels, and in the first half of the year are 56% above sales in the same period last year.
Record result for Bonfiglioli in 2021
Long-term forecast of forklift market in 2028 raised by 40%
Wacker Neuson records third successful quarter


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Beyonce rubbishes rumours of relationship with Senior captain Colm Byrne
By Niveked..........
Pop sensation Beyonce has rubbished reports of a relationship with Edenderry senior football captain Colm Byrne.
Many of Ireland's national tabloids ran the story on Monday after the pair were spotted leaving O'Donoghue's pub, or Damo's as it's known locally, in the early hours of Sunday morning. The pair were photographed together boarding Johnny Crosbie's taxi but the 'Crazy in Love' singer insists the pair are just good friends.
"Colm is a nice little fella but we are not seeing each other. Right now I just want to focus on my kids, my music and my marriage" the Texas native said of the pint sized footballer.
Beyonce first became aware of Colm after he helped Edenderry to win the Dowling cup in 2011 while playing at number 5 but it was in 2015 after he starred at centre back for Edenderry as they lifted their 11th county title that they became close and were first romantically linked.
Speaking to the Edenderry Topic back in October 2015 Beyonce said "In fairness I have to say I was always one for having a big strong centre back, a Sean Grennan type player you know, a big hardy c**t, but Colm completely changed my perspective. Now it's all about being mobile and fitting into a system and by God Colm done that to a tee". She knows her football does the bowld Beyonce!
The Edenderry captain was unavailable for comment but his personal assistant Mr Quinlan released this brief statement earlier today.
"Colm is fully focused on recovering from injury at the moment. He is in the gym seven days a week doing his best to have a better six pack than Keith McGuinness".
Head groundsman Pat 'Ago' Cullen advised while it's great to hear that Colm is back in the gym after his injury he can "stay off the jasus pitch he'll ruin the fecking thing".
(Edenderry captain Colm Byrne)


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JFF condemns killing of player Jedine Carr
The Jamaica Football Federation is saddened after receiving news that Jedine Carr's life was taken by the bullet of a gunman on Friday while she travelled to football training.
Jedine was a member of the Jamaica Under-15 team that traveled to China to participate in the Chinese Football Development Exchange Programme in 2018.
She was called to the Under 17 National Training squad, played Under 15 football for St. Thomas and was a member of the Yallahs High team which participated in the aborted ISSA School Girls Competition in 2020. Her most recent games were played with the Proven Girls Academy in the ISSA Construction 2022 Reinas Cup.
"I call upon Jamaicans to stand up to this bulging monster called crime and fight against what now seems to be a passive acceptance of it," said Michael Ricketts, President of the JFF.
"We are losing so many young and industrious people to gun violence. Jedine did everything right and was making big strides to brighten her future when her life was snuffed out. Profound condolences to her family, friends, teammates and the St Thomas Football Association. Please stay strong in these challenging times," Ricketts added.
jamaica under 15
jamaica u17
jedine carr
« 'Talk the same talk you did last season' - Bailey vows to silence critics ahead of new EPL campaign Reggae Boyz to play in four-team tournament in Austria in August »
Liverpool 'nowhere near good enough this season', says Robertson after FA Cup exit
Liverpool wanted a fresh start in 2023 but Andrew Robertson says the Reds have been "nowhere near good enough" this season and played "worse" since the World Cup.
The Scotland international captained Jurgen Klopp's side at Brighton and Hove Albion as Kauro Mitoma's last-minute strike dumped the FA Cup holders out in the fourth round.
Liverpool had taken the lead through Harvey Elliot before Lewis Dunk's fortuitous first-half equaliser paved the way for Mitoma's deserved late winner in Sunday's 2-1 triumph.
Klopp's men are out of both domestic cups and sit only ninth in the Premier League, having won just eight of their opening 19 top-flight games.
Having lost nine times already in 31 outings across all competitions this campaign, Robertson bemoaned Liverpool's abject performances that have continued after the World Cup break.
"This season has been nowhere near good enough," Robertson told ITV Sport.
"At the start of the year, we wanted a fresh start, but that hasn't happened – we've been worse. In the league, we haven't been good enough and now we're out of both cups."
The Reds' downfall may have appeared somewhat of a surprise after falling narrowly short of an unprecedented quadruple last term.
Liverpool missed out in the Champions League final to Real Madrid and saw Manchester City secure the Premier League title on the last day of the season, though they lifted the FA Cup and EFL Cup.
Sadio Mane's sale to Bayern Munich and Roberto Firmino's diminishing role should be factored in, while Mohamed Salah has failed to hit his usual lofty heights after scoring just nine goals in 19 league games.
Luis Diaz has been out injured after a promising first campaign at Anfield and signings Darwin Nunez and Cody Gapko are still settling in, yet Robertson struggled to explain why Liverpool continue to falter.
The left-back added: "It's really disappointing. You can't put your finger on one thing that's gone wrong. It's more than that. It's about trying to put a performance together where all these things click and that's proving difficult right now.
"You can tell we're not as confident in front of goal, and defensively we're still a wee bit open in certain areas.
"We were on the back of two clean sheets, which was positive, but today, two disappointing goals and they had a couple of big chances as well.
"We need to try and get the confidence back. It's easier said than done but that's the only way we can pick up results. You have to be able to score goals and you have to be able to keep clean sheets.
"We're not managing that just now and we need to do it. We keep saying that and it doesn't help the fans. I feel sorry for them, the way we're putting on a show for them just now.
"We let them down again and we're obviously disappointed to be falling out of the cup."
Galtier not worried by PSG's mid-season blip
Christophe Galtier insisted he was not worried with Paris Saint-Germain's poor form since the return to action after the World Cup.
Folarin Balogun's last-gasp equaliser for Reims at the Parc des Princes on Sunday left the defending champions with just one win from their past four Ligue 1 matches.
PSG's lead at the summit has been reduced to just three points as a result, a gap that could have been even less had Lens and Marseille not also been held to a draw on Saturday.
Galtier's side have a quick turnaround before Wednesday's trip to Montpellier and he is pushing for a response from his squad.
"Worried no, disappointed yes. We are not going to hide behind the post-World Cup calendar," he said after the match.
"It's been a few weeks since our performances were not at the same level as in the first part of the season. We must work, we must find solutions, and reconnect.
"A crisis of confidence? I don't think so. Maybe a crisis of complacency, all the demands we had.
"It went haywire for different reasons. It's hard to restart. I have high-level players who cannot accept to be at this level since the beginning of 2023."
With just a few days remaining until the mid-season transfer window slams shut, Galtier confirmed the club intend to be active in order to bolster the squad.
"There are 48 hours left. The club is working on the arrival of at least one player. There are significant constraints with financial fair play," he added.
"We want reinforcement. Will it happen? I don't know. We cannot hide behind the absence of a player. We have quality players in the squad. Everyone must find their level very quickly."
Jose Mourinho claimed Roma suffered an "unfair" defeat to runaway Serie A leaders Napoli as he saluted both his team and the rival side he is convinced will win the Scudetto.
Head coach Mourinho could not get the better of opposite number Luciano Spalletti, whose Napoli players sit 13 points clear at the top of the table after 20 games.
Sixth-placed Roma would have moved level on points with Inter, who sit second, had they got the win at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Victor Osimhen converted Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's cross in stunning style to give Napoli a 17th-minute lead, but Roma levelled up in the 75th minute through Stephan El Shaarawy.
Yet Mourinho's visitors could not hang on for a point, with Giovanni Simeone firing an 86th-minute winner when he took on a short pass from Piotr Zielinski and was allowed to turn inside the penalty area before firing powerfully into the right corner.
Mourinho said: "From the first minute we played well. The team were always in control, we pressed very hard, we defended well.
"Napoli suffered, we are the team that scared them most. The stadium seemed empty, and beyond the negative result I leave here more confident.
"Sometimes football is unfair, the team that deserves more loses. Sometimes we won without deserving it, tonight they [Roma] deserved to win. I told the boys that we must be sad for the defeat, but calmly see you on Wednesday at the Olimpico."
Roma face Cremonese in midweek in a Coppa Italia quarter-final.
"Today we saw that Napoli are very good and have the champion's star," Mourinho told DAZN. "I have won eight championships, I know what it means to have the star that lights up for you. The championship will definitely be theirs."
Mourinho saw plenty to admire about Napoli striker Osimhen, but warned the Nigerian striker would have to change his game if he ever goes to the Premier League.
"Osimhen is very strong, he's difficult to mark, he's a top player, but if he goes to England he has to change because they'll kill him," Mourinho said. "Certain attitudes are accepted in Italy."
Napoli boss Spalletti said determination was key to his team's success.
"They're delicate matches and those who have played have done so with the right attitude," Spalletti said.
His team's lead is the largest by any team at this stage of a Serie A season since 1994-95, when the three points for a win era began.
Osimhen's opener was a special strike, with the striker controlling the ball on his chest, then taking a touch with his knee, before rifling an unstoppable shot into the top-right corner.
"There is technical quality, there is personality," Spalletti told DAZN. "He is a physically strong player and it becomes difficult to get at him."


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Q: Arrange plots that have subplots called from functions on grid in matplotlib I am looking for something similar to arrangeGrob in R:
I have a function (say, function FUN1) that creates a plot with subplots. The number of subplots FUN1 creates may vary and the plot itself is quite complex. I have two other functions FUN2 and FUN3 which also create plots of varying structure.
Is there a simple way to define/arrange an overall GRID, for example a simple 3 rows 1 column style and simply pass
FUN1 --> GRID(row 1, col 1)
FUN2 --> GRID(row 2, col 1)
FUN3 --> GRID(row 3, col 1)

afterwards such that the complicated plot generated by FUN1 gets plotted in in row 1, the plot generated by FUN2 in row 2 and so on, without specifying the subplot criteria in the FUNs before?

A: The usual way to create plots with matplotlib would be to create some axes first and then plot to those axes. The axes can be set up on a grid using plt.subplots, figure.add_subplot, plt.subplot2grid or more sophisticated, using GridSpec.
Once those axes are created, they can be given to functions, which plot content to the axes. The following would be an example where 6 axes are created and 3 different functions are used to plot to them.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
import numpy as np

def func1(ax, bx, cx):
    x = np.arange(3)
    x2 = np.linspace(-3,3)
    y1 = [1,2,4]
    y2 = [3,2.5,3.4]
    f = lambda x: np.exp(-x**2)
    ax.bar(x-0.5, y1, width=0.4)
    ax.bar(x, y2, width=0.4)
    bx.plot(x,y1, label="lab1")
    bx.scatter(x,y2, label="lab2")
    bx.legend()
    cx.fill_between(x2, f(x2))

def func2(ax, bx):
    x = np.arange(1,18)/1.9
    y = np.arange(1,6)/1.4
    z = np.outer(np.sin(x), -np.sqrt(y)).T
    ax.imshow(z, aspect="auto", cmap="Purples_r")
    X, Y = np.meshgrid(np.linspace(-3,3),np.linspace(-3,3))
    U = -1-X**2+Y
    V = 1+X-Y**2
    bx.streamplot(X, Y, U, V, color=U, linewidth=2, cmap="autumn")

def func3(ax):
    data = [sorted(np.random.normal(0, s, 100)) for s in range(2,5)]
    ax.violinplot(data)

gs = gridspec.GridSpec(3, 4,
                width_ratios=[1,1.5,0.75,1],  height_ratios=[3,2,2] )

ax1 = plt.subplot(gs[0:2,0])
ax2 = plt.subplot(gs[2,0:2])
ax3 = plt.subplot(gs[0,1:3])
ax4 = plt.subplot(gs[1,1])
ax5 = plt.subplot(gs[0,3])
ax6 = plt.subplot(gs[1:,2:])

func1(ax1, ax3, ax5)
func3(ax2)
func2(ax4, ax6)

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home News Music News Japanese Breakfast Performed 'Be Sweet,' From Her GRAMMY-Nominated Album, 'Jubilee', On Ellen
Japanese Breakfast Performed 'Be Sweet,' From Her GRAMMY-Nominated Album, 'Jubilee', On Ellen
Myki Angeline
Japanese Breakfast, the musical project of multi-hyphenate Michelle Zauner, performed "Be Sweet," the hit single from her GRAMMY-nominated album, Jubilee, on Ellen.
Earlier this week Japanese Breakfast released a cover of Yoko Ono's "Nobody Sees Me Like You Do" for the upcoming Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono compilation. Of the cover, NPR said "where Ono's voice quavered with fragility, Zauner is assured, almost confrontational – in its examination of commitment."
Jubilee was released by Dead Oceans last June and quickly became one of the most praised albums of 2021, landing on Best Of lists from Rolling Stone, People Magazine, Pitchfork, Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, NPR, Wallstreet Journal, The Ringer, SPIN, Esquire, Vulture, The AV Club, Paste, Cosmopolitan, UPROXX, Consequence of Sound, Slant and Hypebeast, amongst others. The album was also voted the #1 album of the year on NPR's Listeners' Poll, #1 on UPROXX's Critics' Poll, and its lead single "Be Sweet" was voted the #1 song of the year on Pitchfork's Readers' Poll.
In addition to Jubilee, 2021 saw Zauner release her widely lauded, New York Times Best Seller, "Crying in H Mart", which she's currently adapting for the screen for MGM's Orion Pictures. "Crying in H Mart" is an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. The book has been on the New York Times Best Sellers' list for 27 weeks. Zauner and "Crying in H Mart" are also featured in an episode of Take Out with Lisa Ling streaming now on Hulu.
She also released the original soundtrack to the anticipated video game Sable, which Entertainment Weekly compared to David Bowie's 1977 masterwork Low and Pitchfork said is "a streamlined glimpse into her versatility as a narrative artist."
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Michelle Zauner. Photo Credit: Peter Ash Lee.
Michelle Zauner
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Astronomers have made a new detection of gravitational waves, named GW170814, after the day it was detected, that occurred nearly 2 billion years ago, and for the first time have been able to trace the shape of spacetime ripples sent when black holes collide. The announcement, made at a meeting of the G7 science ministers in Turin, Italy marks the fourth discovery of cataclysmic black-hole merger, and the first to have also been picked up by the Virgo detector, located near Pisa, Italy, reveals a new layer of detail on the three dimensional pattern of warping that occurs during the violent collisions of black holes.
The Virgo team has been hunting for ripples in the fabric of space-time since 2007. But it was being upgraded at the time of the historic first detection of gravitational waves by the twin laboratories of Virgo's US cousin, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and was also out of action for two subsequent sightings, according to Nature.com.
Virgo rejoined the hunt this year on 1 August, following a 5-year, €23-million (US$27-million) upgrade. And on 14 August, both it and LIGO picked up the gravitational vibrations emanating from a pair of rotating black holes, with masses of 31 and 25 times that of the Sun, as they merged together, physicists announced on 27 September at a press conference in Turin, Italy. The collision happened around 540 million parsecs (1.8 billion light years) away in the direction of the constellation Eridanus.
The wave arrived first at LIGO's station in Livingston, Louisiana, as a ripple in space-time that subtly shifted the relative lengths of two arms of the detector as it passed. Just eight milliseconds afterward, the same wave swept past LIGO's second detector in Hanford, Washington, before arriving at the Virgo detector six milliseconds later.
"It is tantalising to see this new story of how black holes formed and evolved through history of the cosmos," Sheila Rowan of Glasgow University told BBC News. "This information is almost within our grasp but we are not quite there yet."
The latest detection was the first to include the VIRGO detector and so the first for which astronomers could swing their telescopes into a more focused search zone. Giovanni Losurdo, who led the VIRGO project to completion, describing the inclusion of the Italian based-detector as a "milestone," said "The whole enterprise was based, since its start, on a visionary goal: the creation of a network capable of localising the sources in the sky and to start the era of investigation of the Universe. And finally, after decades, we are there."
The new data appears to strongly favor Einstein's predictions of how spacetime is expected to be stretched and squeezed. Combining results from three detectors has also allowed scientists to more accurately triangulate the area of sky from which the waves are emanating. In future, this could allow scientists to swing ground-based telescopes to the target locations to see whether there is any visible trace of the collision itself.
Having three detectors, according to Nature.com, enables researchers to make a rough measurement of the wave's polarization — a property that describes how the wave propagates through space in three dimensions. This meant physicists could test a prediction made by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which, besides predicting gravitational waves, also implies that such waves should stretch and contract space in planes that lie at right angles to each other.
The data from GW170814 seem to support this, Frédérique Marion, a physicist at the Laboratory of Particle Physics in Annecy-Le-Vieux, France and member of the Virgo Collaboration, told journalists at the press conference. "This was the first opportunity to check this fundamental property of gravitational waves," she said.
"This is just the beginning of observations with the network enabled by Virgo and LIGO working together. With the next observing run planned for late 2018, we can expect such detections weekly or even more often," says David Shoemaker, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and spokesperson for the LIGO collaboration.


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Airdrieonians vs Edinburgh City
Airdrie return to Betfred Cup action with a first competitive match against Edinburgh City on Wednesday night, and Josh Kerr wants more of the same after a superb weekend.
The Diamonds were rampant in their 5-0 demolition of Clyde at the Penny Cars Stadium on Saturday, and defender Kerr says it was no surprise to the Airdrie squad.
"I think a result like that has been coming for a while, it was just a day where everything we tried came off.
"In-house we know we're capable of that, it's just a case of implementing it in attack and avoiding conceding silly goals, which in the past has given us an uphill task. We didn't allow that on Saturday, we started sharp which is important in this league."
Kerr joined the club in June 2019, having learned his trade as a central defender with Celtic and Brighton.
Now thriving in a holding midfield berth, the 22-year-old is enjoying the change in responsibilities.
"It's something the gaffer and Stuart spoke to me about last season and it picked up pace over the summer. I like to get the ball down and pick a pass, and I think in midfield that can be more effective.
"You need to be fit in there, so that side of my game can shine - but the gaffer has also played in that position so it's good to pick his brains about the role!"
As well as breaking up play and displaying an impressive range of passing, Kerr has also been seen joining the attack on occasion, going close with a number of free-kicks and long-range strikes.
"It's only a matter of time before one of them goes in the top corner… it's something I am capable of, as the boys will tell you from training!
"Goals from outside the box are something we maybe have been lacking, so if I can be the one to provide that it will obviously help the team."
While he will be hoping for the chance to break his duck against Edinburgh City, who visit on Betfred Cup duties on Wednesday evening, Josh doesn't expect an easy ride against James McDonaugh's side.
"It's going to be a tough game and we can't take it lightly, but it's one we need to win to give us any chance of qualifying from the group.
"They'll be a busy side with nothing to lose, and teams from the league below tend to raise their game in matches like this.
"We can only take care of ourselves. If we carry the momentum from Saturday and focus on ourselves, we're capable of getting a result no matter the opposition or the competition."
Manager Ian Murray is pleased to have another game so soon after the weekend's victory.
"They're a good League Two side and it'll be another hard match.
"Saturday gave us a good platform to build from, so we'll be looking to continue where we left off and we're all looking forward to it."
The Diamonds boss admitted that striker Calum Gallagher is a doubt for the game after his precautionary withdrawal on Saturday. Ally Roy (wrist) remains sidelined.
Wednesday November 11, 2020
Penny Cars Stadium, Airdrie
Kevin Graham
Stuart Stevenson, Filippo Mazzoni


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Microsoft Looking into Accidental Halo 4 Bans
By 8bitjay
Microsoft is looking into accidental Halo 4 bans. If you found yourself banned from Halo 4 this weekend, it may have something to do with the recent map pack.
In case you found yourself banned from Halo 4 this weekend, it may have something to do with the recent map pack.
Microsoft is looking into accidental Halo 4 bans. Players who downloaded the free Crimson Map Pack are no longer allowed to access certain online parts of the game. Now Halo 4 owners are who downloaded the DLC are voicing their frustration on the game's official forums.
As website Kotaku notes, this is not an account ban, it's only locking players out of portions of online gameplay. Regardless, it's a major annoyance for fans of the series. It's not clear why, but Microsoft has announced that it's investigating the issue. Following, is a response from the company posted in the official Halo 4 forums' ban thread:
We are not permanently banning players for previewing or purchasing the Crimson Map Pack. We are currently investigating the recent reports of permanent matchmaking bans.
We will provide further updates tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.
The good news? The ban is just a goof. The bad news? Microsoft doesn't seem to know what's wrong and will be looking into it. At least you you can always get back to that single-player campaign you may have forgotten about while caught up in the online portions and take solace in the fact that you didn't do anything wrong and you aren't really banned.
Steve Krause
Ouch… looks like a bad If Then statement :)
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(12/P150) TRENTON - The initial results of a five-year Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy (CBBMP) initiated by the Department of Environmental Protection in 2010, offering a mix of education, research and trash management, combined with an annual bear hunt, shows a reduction in the number of black bears living in "bear country'' in Northern New Jersey and a major decline in bear-human incidents, Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.
A conservative estimate places the number of black bears living in the northwestern portion of New Jersey at a range of about 2,800 to 3,000, which is down from an estimated 3,400 when the CBBMP was approved by the state Fish and Game Council in 2010.
Meanwhile, reported bear sightings are down 34 percent this year, black bear damage and nuisance complaints are down 26 percent, and Category One calls (dangerous bear incidents) are down 43 percent through the end of October, compared to the same time period in 2011.
The majority of black bears in New Jersey live in a 1,000 square-mile hunting area north of Interstate 78 and west of Interstate 287, with the population highest in the northwest corner of the state, which has one of the highest black bear densities in the nation. There also are a much smaller but growing and uncounted number of bears in the rest of New Jersey's 21 counties, with more reports of bear sightings in recent years in central and southern portions of the state.
"We are working to stabilize and reduce the state's black bear population, to eventually be maintained at a density that minimizes human/bear conflicts, provides for a sustainable population within suitable bear habitat, and minimizes movement of bears to unsuitable habitat in suburban and urban areas,'' said Dave Chanda, Director of the DEP's Division of Fish and Wildlife.
Towards that end, the CBBMP offers a common sense mix of bear management tools, including education, research, bear habitat analysis and protection, non-lethal bear management techniques, a bear feeding ban, and enhanced efforts to keep human food sources, especially household trash, away from bears to limit bear-human encounters.
It also includes an annual hunt, an integral part of the CBBMP, and which is the only effective means known to reduce the black bear population to manageable levels -- a tool successfully employed by neighboring states.
The bear hunt will run this year starting Monday, Dec. 3 through Saturday, Dec. 8, to be held concurrently with the state's six-day firearm deer hunting season. Bear hunting zones include large sections of Morris, Sussex, Warren, and northern Passaic counties, plus smaller areas of Hunterdon, Somerset and Bergen counties. Licensed hunters with a black bear permit are limited to taking one bear during the six-day season.
More than 6,500 bear hunting permits have been issued so far in 2012. DEP biologists predict a hunt result similar to 2011, when more than 9,000 permits were issued and 469 bears were harvested. About 20 percent of harvested bears in 2011 were considered nuisance bears that had caused property damage and/or were involved in bear-human incidents, generating many of the public complaints.
Information: Fish and Wildlife's Office of Information and Education distributed 13,000 Know the Bear Facts brochures, 12,000 Know the Bear Facts Kids Activity Guides, 8,000 Bear Facts camper cards, 1,050 DVD copies of the "Living with NJ Black Bears'' documentary film, and 86 "Understanding Black Bears'' K-8 teacher classroom curriculum kits. A "WILD About Bears'' teacher workshop was developed to expose educators to content that is available in the curriculum kit.
Education: Fish and Wildlife continues an aggressive bear education outreach program, targeting police agencies, towns, schools, libraries, nature centers, and campgrounds. So far in 2012, DEP wildlife biologists have offered 94 black bear education programs and exhibits that were attended by 10,140 residents and officials in 15 counties.
Trash Management: Printed materials, school curriculums, community education programs, the DEP web site, and DEP field agents are being employed to try to ensure that human food sources, especially garbage, do not unintentionally become a food source for bears. Efforts are being made to encourage retailers to sell bear-resistant trash containers and to educate trash haulers on this issue. The Division of Fish and Wildlife has posted manufacturers of certified bear-resistant containers on its website.
Research: Fish and Wildlife biologists captured, tagged and scientifically examined more than 300 bears in 2012; initiated a research project using GPS radio-telemetry collars on bears captured in urban situations to provide insight into habitat use and movements of bears in marginal habitats; continued a project to identify black bear habitat by using GPS collars to document habitat use, movements and travel corridors of black bears in New Jersey; gathered extensive data on 469 bears harvested in the 2011 bear hunt; monitored winter denned female bears to examine reproduction rates; and is working with East Stroudsburg University and Fordham University on a tick borne disease project looking into transmission of illnesses from black bears to humans.
Local Partnerships: 42 law enforcement officers enrolled in DEP's black bear response training program in 2012, bringing the total of trained officers statewide to 1,080.


In this lecture, A/Prof Ross Gordon looks at the use of narrative within social marketing and social change. He discusses the use of social marketing within the Energy+ Illawarra project.
ENERGY+ILLAWARRA is a program developed with the community, for the community. It aims to support energy efficiency in the home, without sacrificing comfort or well-being. The Energy+Illawarra program features a range of activities that will help bust myths and misconceptions about energy use, and provide you with facts and various forms of support to use energy efficiently in the home.


Overview: The EFA Global Monitoring Report for 2011 focuses on education in emergencies and recognises the importance of psycho-social interventions in addressing the negative effects of conflict, including depression, trauma, shame and withdrawal, that have devastating consequences for learning. However, there is little evidence regarding the impact of activities on their education. Very few studies show a direct improvement in education outcomes after a psycho-social intervention, whether school or community based. However, an increasing (yet still small) number of studies of school-based psycho-social interventions demonstrate improvements that could impact on educational outcomes indirectly, through, for example reduced anxiety, a sense of structure and meaning in the individual's life, improved self esteem and improved relationship with teachers. This literature review examines the question: What is the evidence that psycho-social activities in education in emergency contexts help children in their education?


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Rush's Morning Update: Christmas Contrast December 16, 2010
Rush's Morning Update: Christmas Contrast
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A student at New Hampshire's Bedford High School objected to an assigned book critical of America's economic system. In "Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By In America," Barbara Ehrenreich documents her attempt to live on a minimum-wage salary. But what the student found disturbing, aside from the book's multiple profanities, was a religious reference. The author describes Jesus Christ as a "wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist."
Dennis Taylor, the student's father, said skrool officials were either careless in approving the book –or were "intentionally agreeing with Ehrenreich and taking the position that Jesus was a drunken bum." After Taylor and his wife complained, the school district formed a committee composed of administrators, a teacher, and two parents to review the book. They concluded that"the book's educational merit outweighed its shortcomings," but said teachers should offer an alternative book for students whose parents object. Now the Taylors are asking the school board to step inand remove it. (Good luck with that.)
Meanwhile, the Obama Justice Department has filed suit against a Chicago school district that denied a Muslim middle school teacher three weeks unpaid leave to make a religious pilgrimage to Mecca. The teacher had completed a year of service when her first request was made in 2008. The teacher resigned after a second request was denied. Obama's Justice Departmentwants her reinstated with back pay,and is also seeking compensatory damages.
Merry Christmas, folks,from Obamaville USA. Peace be upon him; praise be his name.
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.


After years of lack of interest about data privacy in China—some of it due to low awareness and some of it due to low chances of making a difference—the issue has come under the public eye. Caused in part by the implementation of China's new cybersecurity, privacy scandals from China's tech giants —active in almost every part of life in China—have ignited a much bigger reaction.
In the West, many already view computers and smartphones with suspicion. It was in 2011 that Europe received its first search engine that enables privacy—Qwant—several years after DuckDuckGo made its appearance in the US. The company recently came to China as a part of the delegation of about 50 businessmen brought by French president Emmanuel Macron during his first state visit.
Eric Léandri, Qwant's co-founder and president, thinks that China has an interesting way of ensuring privacy. Among other things, its cybersecurity law requires that data from Chinese citizens remain in China.
The search engine is planning to ride the wave of China's big smart city push which relies on sensor technology, AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT). For that, they will need data, data, and more data. Coming from someone that claims not to gather user data, it's an interesting proposition.
Qwant sees the new cybersecurity rule as working in favor of their own business. Companies that want to work with data from China will have to adapt their technology to comply with the regulations. Qwant is already operating under EU laws which require data anonymization making sure that the data subject is no longer identifiable. Neither China's nor US's legal framework does not offer that level of user protection. With the age of IoT this will become a greater concern: not many are aware that this amount of interconnection brings higher risks to personal data.
Their next project is opening up an artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) research and development center in Suzhou which hosts several institutions focused on big data. Qwant has already partnered up with one of Italy's biggest utility companies A2A (in Italian) allowing citizens of Milan to simply search all the data collected by A2A sensors. Free parking spaces, real-time traffic, public transportation, air quality—all of this will be searchable through Qwant's engine.
Qwant is also hoping to spread its search engine user base in China. Despite European lawmakers' tough stance towards US tech giants and relatively high awareness of data privacy among Europeans, Qwant search engine has had a hard time drawing away users from Europe's favorite search engine Google. Up until recently, user numbers were comparatively low which is why perhaps unfiltered results are still available in China through Qwant (!). Once the Chinese version is set up it will follow local regulations, Léandri said.
However, Qwant is not looking to draw Chinese users from the clutches of Baidu Search. After years of fighting Google, they know it would be a difficult task. Instead, the company is hoping to lure the foreign crowd in China that can't be bothered with circumventing the Great Firewall to access Google's search engine.
"If we can deliver a good search experience in China, better than Yahoo and Bing,—and I think we can do that easily—then it's already something," Léandri said.


Free Business Directory for Kingston Ontario & Surrounding Area's.
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At Vandeross we support companies of all sizes build stronger foundations, respond to operational struggles, strengthen organizational structure and increase business productivity in order to stay competitive. In 2018 Ella and Katie joined forces to form Vandeross, with the goal of taking a more hands on approach when working with businesses in the Eastern Ontario region. Our combined 40+ years of experience actively working with business owners has taught us to always make your business success our priority.


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Girls basketball destroys the court and the Bearcats
Ashley Trierweiler, a senior, goes for a 3-point shot.
Gary Naka
Kathryn Stratz, Staff Writer
Girls varsity basketball took down the San Mateo Bearcats on Wednesday night, bringing in their fifth home win this season with a score of 72-21.
Within the first possession and 30 seconds of the game, Carlmont went straight to the basket, having Kaylee George, a senior, knock down a 3-pointer. Followed by a point from a free throw by Maddy Palarca-Wong, a senior, and two points from a layup by Valerie Wang, a senior, the Scots quickly took the lead.
Soon after, the Bearcats scored, but with a steal by Evelyn Gordi, a senior, the possession was returned, resulting in a foul on Ashley Trierweiler, a senior, and a scored point for Carlmont.
The Scots' effective man-to-man defense and opportunistic offensive game led them to the end of the first quarter leading 20-6.
"I think this game was a demonstration of our capabilities as a team and as individual players, so if we play as we did against San Mateo, with aggressive defense and an unselfish offensive approach, we should be able to have a lot of success," Trierweiler said.
The second quarter started off with San Mateo scoring two points, but Carlmont came back strong, with a layup and 3-pointer by Erica Mendiola, a junior. Some back and forth on the court proved the Scots' shooting skills to be on fire, with an additional 3-pointer by Trierweiler and two points from free throws by George.
I think this game was a demonstration of our capabilities as a team and as individual players, so if we play as we did against San Mateo, with aggressive defense and an unselfish offensive approach, we should be able to have a lot of success."
— Ashley Trierweiler
The Scots started to rest their starters and give the bench some playing time, which proved to be a positive game decision for the team.
"For the first time this season, every person on our team played and scored during the game at least once. Our bench really stepped it up in this game and played really well. The starters also stepped it up on the bench as well by cheering on our teammates and keeping the positive energy and focus strong, even though we were winning by a lot," Trierweiler said.
Carlmont ended the first half of the game with six more points by Trierweiler, two from Gordi, and a 3-pointer by Donya Khonsari, the team's only sophomore. This brought the score to 43-14, with Carlmont in the lead.
The second half did not treat the Bearcats well, and the Scots were not slowing down.
"Our team played an extremely cohesive game. Sharp passes and hard drives really opened the floor up and made the kick out for the threes possible," Gordi said.
The Scots kept consistent throughout the second half, utilizing their developing offensive skills.
"One strong point was finding our groove offensively after a few tough games against really physical defensive teams. Everyone on the team scored and it really pumped up our energy for the game start to end," Wang said.
This led the Scots to finish up the third quarter with a lead of 60-19.
Carlmont only let San Mateo score three points in the last quarter, yet scored a total of 12 points themselves, bringing the final score to 72-21, Carlmont.
Gordi said, "We have a lot of tough games coming up, and we play best when everyone is creating for both themselves and each other. With cohesive playing, we will be able to make plays that will help us win games."
JV girls basketball pounces on the Notre Dame Tigers
Boys varsity basketball knocks Hillsdale Knights off their steeds
JV girls basketball team dominates Chargers on the court
Tags: bball, girls'
Kathryn is a senior during the 2018 to 2019 school year and is the Highlander Managing Editor and a Scot Scoop writer. She is the last first place holder of the 2017 Diversity Series Pacemaker. She loves participating in Carlmont's cheer program, cheeseburgers, and country music.
Twitter: @kastratz
Students prepare for the next round of fall sports
Carlmont students cheer on the Warriors as the NBA Finals kickoff
Varsity football's hard work continues during the offseason
Opinion: Warriors make NBA boring
Swim banquet gives the swim team a chance to look back at the season
Scots swim their way to success
Varsity baseball takes a win against Terra Nova for the seniors
JV softball ends the season with a bang
Athletes break records at PAL track finals
Varsity baseball defeats the Sacred Heart Prep Gators


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Kian Capital announces two new hires — David Duke & David Hare
Kian Capital, a provider of equity capital and subordinated debt, is pleased to announce the recent hiring of David Duke and David Hare to support the company's continued growth.
"We are excited to welcome two quality additions to the Kian team. David Duke and David Hare will play key roles in supporting our continued growth as we begin investing our recently closed second fund. We have known David Duke for over 15 years and are confident that his 20+ years of M&A and business development experience will drive our efforts to differentiate Kian in the market as a preferred partner for owners, management teams and other stakeholders. David Hare is joining Kian as an Associate and will add depth to our investment team as we continue to execute on our strategy of providing flexible capital to established lower-middle market companies," said Rick Cravey, Co-Founder and Partner at Kian Capital.
David Duke joins the Kian Capital team as Managing Director of Business Development and is primarily responsible for sourcing new platform investment opportunities, developing and managing relationships with new and existing sources of deal flow, and directing strategic marketing efforts. David has over 20 years of experience in private equity and investment banking. Prior to joining Kian Capital, David was the Director of Business Development at Edgewater Capital Partners where he led the firms' sourcing and development. Prior to Edgewater, David was a Managing Director at Cary Street Partners. Before Cary Street Partners, he was a Co-Founder of FD Capital Advisors, the investment banking affiliate of Frazier and Deeter, a top 100 CPA firm. He was previously a Principal at Headwaters MB (now Capstone Headwaters), was Vice President with Synovus Investment Banking, a subsidiary of Synovus Financial Corporation, and held various investment banking positions with several Atlanta-based boutique firms. David holds an MBA from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at University of Pittsburgh and a BBA in Finance from James Madison University.
David Hare joins the Kian Capital team as an Associate and is primarily responsible for evaluating, underwriting, and monitoring new and existing investment opportunities. Prior to joining Kian Capital, David was an Analyst in the investment banking group at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt financings and equity issuances for public and private companies in the Technology, Media & Telecom Group. Prior to SunTrust, David was a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the financial services assurance practice. David holds a Master in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Accounting and Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, summa cum laude, from the College of Charleston. He is also a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.
We have known David Duke for over 15 years and are confident that his 20+ years of M&A and business development experience will drive our efforts to differentiate Kian in the market as a preferred partner for owners, management teams and other stakeholders. David Hare is joining Kian as an Associate and will add depth to our investment team as we continue to execute on our strategy of providing flexible capital to established lower-middle market companies.
Co-Founder & Partner at Kian Capital