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BIOECODS at Taiping, Perak
River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia has been appointed to provide consultancy services for the drainage works as part of Civil and Structure components for the proposed "Cadangan Mendirikan Sebuah Klinik Kesihatan Taiping – 2 Tingkat (Jenis KK2) Di Atas Lot 2089, Jalan Tupai, Mukim Tupai, Daerah Larut & Matang, Perak Darul Ridzuan". In this project the Government is planning to construct a drainage system to comply with the new guidelines of Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID), Urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA).
Project Background:
The Government of Malaysia via Public Works Department (JKR) Malaysia has planned to construct a new building for the Taiping Town Clinic and its infrastructure on the area approximately 7 acres in Larut & Matang District in Perak. This project consists of the construction of a double storey building block, chemical store, condenser block, TNB block, store and garage, security guard house, sewerage treatment plant, pavilion and car park. The soil profile for overall project area is consistent from silty sand at the first 10m depth to hard layer of silty clay. Ground water level is observed at 0.95m to 1.35m depth from original ground surface.
Proposed Drainage System:
The proposed drainage system which is known as Bio-Ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) is consistent with objectives of new stormwater management approach which focus on the control of both the quantity and quality of urban runoff. This has been embodied in the concept of ecologically sustainable development which is aimed at ensuring that development can occur without long-term degradation of natural resources and the environment.
The new stormwater management approach, BIOECODS, based on set of broad and holistic principles for effective stormwater environment management:
The establishment of a storage-oriented approach for controlling runoff quantity from development sites;
The identification of the environmental values (or benefits uses) of particular water bodies which are to be protected;
The establishment of objectives which will achieve required levels of flood protection and water quality enhancement;
The establishment of water quality management strategies;
The development and implementation of monitoring and surveillance programs to ensure that runoff quantity and water quality (or environmental) objectives are being maintained; and
The implementation of research programs to gain a better understanding of the behavior of aquatic systems in order to improve water quality design and management technique.
Figure 1 Layout Plan for Proposed Drainage System
By integrating stormwater management planning with landscape and environmental planning, it will add aesthetic and recreational values to the water amenities. This site is planned to become a showpiece of the new drainage system for the Perak State and will also provide the database to support the new stormwater management manual as we still lack of data for local conditions and to evaluate the effectiveness of the stormwater runoff quantity and quality control system.
Proposed Drainage Layout:
The proposed drainage system has several runoff control facilities to regulate the runoff from the site as shown in Figure 1. The receiving waterway is made up of an upgraded covered concrete lined drains before discharging to River Batu Tugoh nearby.
Design Concept:
The new environmental-friendly drainage system, BIOECODS, uses "control at source" principle simulating the natural hydrological cycle in urban areas by combining infiltration, detention storage, retarded flow as well as runoff treatment techniques. Among the stormwater facilities provided are grassed swale, underground detention storages and dry ponds. The design concept is given in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Design Concept of Proposed Drainage System
a) Grassed Swale (Figure 3)
Grassed swale is designed to cater any excess water from perimeter drain (for individual building) whilst the flow from pervious and impermeable surface will be directed to the grassed swale. The grassed swale is defined as grass earth channel combined with subsurface module which enclosed within a permeable geotextile. Grassed swale has the ability to reduce on-site peak flow rates by increasing the roughness of the channel and infiltration rates. These vegetated systems also provide runoff quality treatment by removing low concentrations and quantities of TSS, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and nutrients from stormwater. The vegetated systems remove pollutants by means of sedimentation, filtration, soil absorption and plant uptake.
Figure 3 Typical Section for Grassed Swale
b) Detention Storage (Figure 4)
The excess stormwater is stored in the subsurface detention storage. The storage modules have been designed to be places at the connecting points, junction and critical point of the system. These detention storages are provided to reduce flows from the building, regulating flow velocity which causes the gravity settling of particulates and increase the infiltration process where all these mechanisms will control the quality and quantity of stormwater runoff.
Figure 4 Typical Section for Underground Detention Storage
c) On-site Stormwater Detention (OSD)
The excess stormwater is also stored in the dry pond constructed with a storage function. The dry pond is a detention basin with the purpose to temporary store the stormwater runoff. This detention basin is design to store to the surface of 600mm of the excess rainfall under design average recurrent interval of 10-year and blend with the surrounding landscape. The outflow path is controlled by orifices in order to drain the dry pond system in less than 24 hours. Therefore, the quantity and quality of the runoff from developed areas can be maintained to be the same as pre-development condition. OSD is normally dry or empty when not in operation. It will be utilized for multi-purpose use to incorporate passive and active recreational areas such as public parks and open space or sporting facilities.
The proposed BIOECODS is an applicable concept that will fulfill new urban stormwater management objectives to restore each component of the hydrological cycle to its natural level. This new stormwater management approach has taken into broad consideration with the purposes:
to provide safety for the public,
to minimize and control nuisance flooding,
to stabilize the landform and erosion control,
to enhance the urban landscape, and
to minimize the environmental impact of urban runoff on water quality.
Acknowledgement:
REDAC would like to thank Public Works Department (JKR) for the opportunity to participate in this project.
Lai, S.H. & Mah, D.Y.S. (2012). Field Investigation of a Dry Detention Pond with Underground Detention Storage, Hydrological Sciences Journal, Vol. 57, Issue 6, pp. 1249-1255, DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2012.69201 <Website>


Here we have carried out a scrub and seal to the Sports Hall at Leasowe Leisure Centre. The works involved chemically cleaning the floor, abrasion to key the floor ready for sealant and 3 coats of Granwood sealant applied. The appearance of the floor has dramatically improved along with its grip properties.
Here we carried out a full refurbishment of a dance studio. Works included removal of a tile system ceiling, installation of a new plastered ceiling and new lights. Repainting of the walls, doors and ceiling. Sanding and sealing of the floor.


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The incident occurred at the Gandhari Amman Kovil temple in Thampanoor after the weighing scale on which Shashi Tharoor was sitting, broke and fell.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor performing Thulabharam in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP and candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, Shashi Tharoor, cancelled his election rally here on Monday after he was injured while making a Thulabharam offering at a temple.
Tharoor, who sustained injuries on the head, was rushed to the nearest hospital for preliminary treatment, after which he was shifted to a super-speciality hospital. He got 11 stitches - six and five each, on both sides of the head and is out of danger, doctors said.
Election Commission committee chairman Thampanoor Ravi has confirmed that Tharoor's campaigning plans for the day have been postponed.
"Started my paryadanam of Kazhakoottam yesterday on a unique note - with a 'thulabharam' of bananas! At least in temples I can claim to be a "heavyweight politician!" he had tweeted.
Congress' Tharoor is the two time sitting MP from the constituency. He is up against the NDA's Kummanam Rajasekharan, a BJP leader and former Governor of Mizoram; and the LDF's C Divakaran, a former trade union leader as well as the sitting MLA of the Nedumangad constituency.
All 20 seats in the state of Kerala go to polls in a single phase on April 23.


The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said that "change is the only constant". These words are an apt description of the ever-changing landscape of emerging media. In general, I believe change is a good thing. But as I enter the final week of my Emerging Media course at WVU, I'm both overwhelmed and optimistic about the future of media consumption. The number of available apps, social media channels and burgeoning trends make it difficult to keep up, let alone choose which channels are the most appropriate for a brand. And these channels will continue to grow exponentially. But my sense of trepidation is coupled with an enthusiasm for what comes next. So in that spirit of enthusiasm, I want to take a look forward this week to what I think will be some of the more significant shifts in how media will be consumed in the coming years. One thing's for certain – change will be the only constant. If he were alive today, @Heraclitus' words would deserve more retweets than Ellen's Oscar selfie.
I recently re-watched Erik Qualman's Socialnomics video. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. The statistics are a barometer of where digital media is now, and an insightful predictor of where it's headed.
As the video points out, over 50% of the world's population is under 30. Much of the future of digital media will be shaped by this segment of the population. Millennials are digital natives, vanguards of new media and superstars of personal branding. Their collective voice is louder and more impactful than any previous generation, and their influence is rivaled only by their cumulative spending power. Recent research suggests that much of millennials' social media use is actually driven by the fear of missing out. But overall, they are a generation that is defined by a hope for the future. A Pew Research study indicates that 49% of Millennials believe the country's best years are ahead. Their relative optimism is matched only by the enthusiasm of today's marketers. Digital ad spending is about to explode in response to several trends among millennials, and much of that spending will begin with mobile.
Mobile is the future of media consumption. 92.3% of Millennials used a mobile phone in 2012, and 63% used the mobile web. In 2013, 50% of mobile web users used smartphones as either their primary or exclusive means of going online. As a result, mobile ad budgets in the U.S. are expected to increase from $2.3 billion in 2012 to almost $11 billion in 2016. By 2018, mobile in the U.S. will account for 67.8% of digital ad spending. As the millennials go, so go the advertisers. Mobile is also changing the way consumers connect with brands, and when used as a second screen, mobile is augmenting the way we consume traditional media. Marketers are capitalizing on these mobile trends by improving search engine marketing techniques to include localized keywords and click-to-call features. In a recent post I discussed the increasing profitability of in-app advertising. Mobile apps will continue to grow in popularity, and may even reshape social networking.
Wearble tech is a growing business that presents some exciting possibilities for the way we communicate. More changes are on the way, including strides that will be made in the area of augmented reality. This technology is already on display with Google Glass, among others. According to industry experts, the wearable technology market is set to expand rapidly in the next several years with worldwide spending expected to hit $1.4 billion this year and $19 billion by 2018.
This year, digital ad spending will surpass 25% of all media ad spending for the first time ever. This is an indicator of digital advertising's future growth. Luckily, advertisers have figured out that engagement is king, and that user-generated content is a major gateway to the throne. I'm excited to see how mobile, social media and wearable technology will increase consumer engagement, and how they will continue to shape the relationship between consumers and brands. Overall, I share the optimism of millennials. As we move away from the fear surrounding new technology and toward the hope for what it will mean to the future of communication, the possibilities for emerging media are limitless.
What do you think? What possible trends or changes in emerging media are you the most excited about?
In 2013, social media advertising increased by 35% over 2012. This increase was driven primarily by the growth of mobile, but also by the increasing ubiquity of the major social networks. According to a Pew research study, 71% of online adults now use Facebook, 17% use Instagram, 21% use Pinterest and 19% use Twitter. As these numbers increase, social media's share of marketing budgets is expected to rise from an average of 7.4% to 18.1% in the next five years.
As advertising continues to increase, one concern is that social spending will outpace social measurement. Determining ROI for social media is already challenging, and it's nearly impossible to put a price tag on engagement. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to determine which social channels are appropriate for reaching target audiences. In the past, Facebook's 1 billion users made the network a default destination for brands. But with the changes to Facebook's algorithm, posts from friends and news media are now prioritized over posts from Pages in users' news feeds. This has drastically decreased the organic reach of brand pages to 2% of their total audience. Because of these changes, it is likely that we'll see those social media spending figures increase even more, as advertisers will now need to pay to reach the audiences they once reached organically.
Brands can no longer rely on Facebook to do their social media heavy lifting. And while not all brands need to have a presence on all social networks, there should now at least be a strategy in place for each channel. More specifically, there should be a strategy for how each channel can work together as part of an integrated campaign. Without a cohesive strategy, social media messages become fragmented and potentially inconsistent.
One example of a brand that has employed this strategy is Mercedes-Benz. On its Social Cloud, Mercedes gathers all published material relating to the brand, from independent sources such as blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram, as well as from official brand channels. Another example is Pepsi's Your Voice page. Fan submitted images are displayed alongside branded content that can be liked, retweeted or pinned.
By aggregating social content, brands can reduce the fragmentation of marketing messages and allow consumers to become a larger part of the brand. Sharing content can potentially increase engagement as well as the reach of brand messages. What do you think? Should more brands employ this approach as part of their social strategy? Are any of your favorite brands fighting fragmentation with aggregation?


The firm's report attributed the increase to the improving construction financing climate and stronger commercial and residential development markets. Experts say that as markets improve, demand increases for labor and construction material, driving up their costs. The report points out that–according to the US Commerce Department–the value of construction put-in-place in the first nine months of 2014 was $710.1 billion, up 6.1% from the same period in 2013.


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Imran Tahir has started learning Tamil ahead of playing for CSK in IPL 2018
Imran Tahir was bought by CSK for Rs 1 crore and will be sharing the dressing room with MS Dhoni yet again after they played together for RPS
The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is almost two months away but the excitement among cricket fans is rising day by day. The return of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) is another reason why the forthcoming season of this cash-rich tournament is going to have all the attention. In the mega-auction held in January, CSK bought a team which looks like a classic squad on the paper.
Veterans like MS Dhoni, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh etc will be part of the team. South African spinner Imran Tahir has also got an opportunity to play under Dhoni's leadership and ahead of the tournament, he is working on his Tamil speaking skills as well.
ALSO READ: Aiden Markram takes a one-handed blinder of Hardik Pandya. Twitterati feel South Africa has found a superman!
Tahir is currently accompanying his national team which is playing a 6-match ODI series against India at home. Meanwhile, he shared a picture with on his Twitter account in which he could be seen with South Africa team's analyst Prasanna Lara. Through his post, Tahir revealed that he has been learning the Tamil language and Prasanna is his teacher.
Here's the tweet:
Introducing my Tamil teacher @prasannalara pic.twitter.com/9MibQD7JYB
— Imran Tahir (@ImranTahirSA) February 9, 2018
ALSO READ: Virat Kohli breaks old records of Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, Azharuddin despite losing Pink ODI. Here's the list
The 28-year-old veteran spinner has been bought for Rs 1 crore and will be sharing the dressing room with MS Dhoni yet again after their previous two seasons together where they played for Rising Pune Supergiants. However, in the current ODI series, Tahir has failed to impress fans with his bowling. He found a place in the playing XI in the first three ODIs as the lone regular spinner but couldn't create any difference. He has managed to take only one wicket so far and was dropped from the Pink ODI.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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EdMedia
FM Radio Stations – Broadcasting with the Sun
David Walker, The Commonwealth of Learning, Canada
EdMedia + Innovate Learning, 2000 in Montreal, Canada ISBN 978-1-880094-40-2 Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Waynesville, NC
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This paper describes a case study on the use of community-based low powered FM radio that has been undertaken in Uganda as part of the work of the Commonwealth of Learning. It describes a media solution that employs low-powered FM radio as an effective method of delivering education and information to a rural community. It also describes the inhibitors to proliferation of community radio stations and reflects on the future directions for the use of radio as a delivery system for education.
Walker, D. (2000). FM Radio Stations – Broadcasting with the Sun. In J. Bourdeau & R. Heller (Eds.), Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2000--World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications (pp. 1769-1775). Montreal, Canada: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved January 27, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/16473/.
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Description: FFmpeg has good support for offloading decoding and encoding from the CPU, but not such good support for doing anything else with that video without using the CPU. Therefore it would be beneficial to increase libavfilter's support for OpenCL filters, which would allow to offload more operations to the GPU, making the CPU less busy. The project aimed to add more OpenCL filters to libavfilter.


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The beauty of the bog
WCP Staff November, 2020
The Kilcoe Studios Calendar has over the years become more of a project than just a business to its creator. It is a project that gets Sonia Caldwell to explore new habitats and new plant types each year and then, near the end of the time spent painting the images for the Calendar, the research begins; a whole other discovery of literature happens – both scientific and more artistic. Sonia then aims to just share snippets of this information on the plant or the habitat that can be read each month – so it is more than just a Calendar!
The images are painted directly from the plant in watercolour paint, which is a practice she began many years ago when doing sketchbook studies for her sculptural work.
The Calendar for 2021 features images from our bogs, of which there are many in West Cork and she shares with us here just some of the interesting facts about bogs that also feature in the Calendar.
A bog is an area is which area is covered with peat, which is a deposit that is formed under waterlogged conditions when the moss and grasses and the other plants cannot break down, due to lack of oxygen and the acidic habitat. Not all bogs are the same; they are a constantly changing environment throughout history.
As a result, they have created layers of history, and we have discovered ancient objects; bodies, butter, old bog roads and the whole Céide field system of wooden houses and fields from the Neolithic (approximately 10,000-4,000 BC) period, which was under four metres of peat in Co Mayo.
The study of pollen in layers of peat in the bogs has also been a rich source of information that has allowed people to study change in climate and conditions over thousands of years, with the fascinating observation of the gradual move of pollen from trees to grasses as our landscape moved from woodland to grassland.
Thankfully the Climate Change issue still seems to be being tackled at government level despite the troubles of these times. We often do not also realise that peatlands are also a sink for carbon dioxide. In Ireland Peatlands store 53 per cent of all soil carbon on the island, but only if it is left undisturbed.
Peatland originally covered approximately 17 per cent of Ireland. It now currently covers approximately five per cent. Currently 53 sites have been designated as special areas of conservation and 75 more as Natural Heritage areas. This has been hampered considerably by the 'turbary rights' system that allows individuals to cut turf for their own use, even on protected areas. Cutting turf is huge part of local culture and spending days on the bogs cutting turf was an integral part of life.
In the same way that Bogs are changing over time, so too will our views and practices. Many European countries, especially Holland, have almost destroyed all of their bogs and are now spending enormous amounts of money trying to save and reclaim what is left.
The setting up of the Irish Peatland Conservation council in 1982 was an important stage in our Bog preservation. There seems to active steps being made to preserve our Bogs but, like all things, there is a constant balance to be met between the need to live, commercial interest and preserving our wildlife.
It seems that the best balance is a combination of preserving large areas of un-cut Peatland, allowing areas that have been cut to restore slowly over time and allowing some areas to be used commercially but sensitively.
Plants native to the area and habitat can be re-established – like willow for biomass, broad leaf trees and some of the smaller native plants, which feature in the calendar and which have medicinal uses and can be used commercially for this purpose.
The plants that feature in the Calendar are the small plants – Eyebright, Tormentil, Sundew, Bog Pimpernel, Marsh Lousewort and Bog Myrtle, Wild Billberries (Fraocháns), Heath Milkwort, Bog Bean, Bog Cotton, Heath Spotted Orchid, Bog Asphodel, Marsh Cinquefoil, Purple Moor Grass {Fionnán} Heather, Devils Bit Scabious and Broad Buckler Fern. Names are given in Latin and Gaeilge also.
Thankfully Kilcoe studios was selling online prior to 2020, so it is easy to order online, but it can also be bought in most shops in West Cork, many of which are offering some sort of service to customers either online or by phone during Level Five restricitons – so give them lots of support this Christmas.
Shops stocking the Calendar in Cork are Forest and Flock, Designs; Ballydehob Post office; Quinlans, Green Dot, Bookstór, Wild Designs; and Cork Craft and Design. The Calendar is also assisted on by a local graphic designer and is printed in City Print in Cork.
Posted in Environment
We need to make environment central to the new CAP: Grace O'Sullivan, Green Party MEP
Tue Nov 3 , 2020
At the recent Plenary week in the European Parliament, I spoke about the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) package. Plenary is the intensely busy session where the entire parliament comes together to debate and vote on a multitude of issues. This month, while Brexit and Covid were obviously on the […]
It's never been more important to think global whilst acting local
West Cork fights back against planning for plastics factory
Moths in West Cork


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Morrisons pledges to create 1,000 jobs for homeless
SUPERMARKET group Morrisons has pledged to create 1,000 jobs for homeless people over the next three years.
The Bradford-based group, which is the UK's fourth largest food retailer, aims to offer 10 per cent of the jobs it creates at its new stores to "vulnerable" people like Recycling Lives Residents.
Recycling Lives offers disadvantaged members of society the opportunity to change their lives for the better; through accommodation, education, training and work experience.
A unique and innovative commercial recycler and social welfare charity, Recycling Lives now hopes to work closely with Morrisons to provide jobs for Recycling Lives Residents who are ready for full time employment and independent living.
Morrisons has launched its newest pledge in partnership with the Salvation Army and Leeds-based social enterprise Create.
After three months training, new staff can take up apprenticeships, including as a butcher, baker or fishmonger.
The first five people trained under the scheme started their first day at work in the new Morrisons store in Harehills, one of the most deprived areas of Leeds, on Monday.
A Morrisons spokesman said the group was in a period of growth and wanted to recruit new staff from all sections of the community.
Norman Pickavance, group HR director for Morrisons, said: "This initiative will help disadvantaged people to get their lives back on track.
"We look forward to taking this approach nationally and we would encourage other British businesses to join us on this initiative."
Recycling Lives Chairman and Founder Steven Jackson said: "This is great news for members of society facing an uncertain future, as it gives them an opportunity to change their lives for better for themselves. Recycling Lives is already providing accommodation, education, training, work experience and most importantly jobs to vulnerable people but the Environmental Sector is not always everybody's chosen profession. I hope we have the opportunity to work with Morrisons to provide a new lease of life to those people who simply need a helping hand."


How do I get Prize and Status points?
You get both Prize and Status points for closing an order. Traders get points for their own closed orders, partners - for the closed orders of their first level clients.
The points are credited to your account right after an order is closed.
If you own both trader and partner accounts, prize and status points are credited to all your existing accounts.
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Active clients and active trading days – why are these terms important?
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April Pocorus has always had a love for the mountains and all the recreational opportunities they offer. That love was what originally brought her to Utah from Seattle, WA where she grew up. Before living in Chicago to advance in her career as a project manager, she worked for years as a professional whitewater kayaker, as well as a ski and expedition guide all over the mountain west region. As a Sales Manager in RMC's Park City/Salt Lake City office, April turns her passion into a career and gets to share her favorite local attractions with all of her clients. She has coupled her extensive outdoor experience with a strong background in sales and has worked with the Mayor of Salt Lake City on various community projects. This unique combination of skills and experience make her a valuable resource to her RMC clients, giving her the ability to match her clients' goals with their resources and abilities.
Outside of work, April also enjoys traveling. Some of her favorite travel spots are in Central and South America.


The current CEO and founder of Amazon Inc., Jeff Bezos, on Monday 10th October 2016 unveiled a giant reusable New Rocket. The Rocket is planned to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 owned by Elon Musk who is a renowned billionaire entrepreneur and other companies as well.
He is planning the launch through his Blue Origin LLC space company based in Kent, Washington. By doing this, Bezos will raise the bar on the US commercial space industry by a remarkable margin. The New Glenn Rocket will be able to carry not only astronauts, but also cargo into space.
The fact that thrusters will be usable will save millions of dollars. The New Glenn Rocket is specifically designed for relatively longer missions into deep space, meaning it can reach the moon.
Glenn got its name from John Glenn, a prominent NASA astronaut who is a famous for being the first ever American to orbit the Earth in the 1960s. John Glenn is the sole survivor of NASA'S Mercury Seven Astronauts. Glenn main purpose is to propel commercial satellites and more interestingly to take people into space.
New Glenn has been unknown to the public for the past four years, as works on it began in 2012. Jeff Bezos is known to be a quiet and secretive man, that's why the announcement came as a big surprise. He did this in a morning detailed email to Reuters and a twitter post.
The new rocket will be named New Glenn as mentioned. One of its prominent features is that one will be 270 feet (82 meters) tall besides having a thrust of 3.85 million pounds. The 270 feet tall is for the two stage version. The three stage version will feature 313 feet and 23 feet diameter.
SpaceX on the other hand is 230 feet tall and has a thrust of 1.7 million pounds. New Glenn is intended to have a booster which will enable vertical landing. This will make sure that Blue Origin can reuse the rocket's first stage for satellite launches and even manned spacecraft.
It will have a cluster of 7 main BE-4 engines using liquid oxygen and burning liquefied natural gas. The third stage is fueled by a vacuum optimized BE-3 engine which uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
The Blue Origin's New Glenn is expected to be launched before the year 2020. It is planned to be flied from the world renowned Launch Complex in Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center which is a rocket manufacturing plant adjacent to the former. Blue Origin plans to fly the first stage back to a landing pad for refurbishment and re-flowing, just like Musk did with his Falcon rockets.
SpaceX for instance has managed to land rockets successfully six times, four times in the ocean and twice on the ground. Its 7th landing was slated for September 3rd but unfortunately it did not happen. This was because its rocket was damaged during a routine before-launch test 48 hours before liftoff. This happened at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and the main cause of the accident is still not known. The damage caused a 200 million dollar loss.
Is It Possible to Live In Mars?
Where Do You See a Life of Social Media In 2030?


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Slaegten Hofman-Bang
This booklet was published in 1986 by Prof. Niels Hofman-Bang and Dr. Erik Hofman-Bang and was used as the initial material for setting up this website in late 1999. But more importantly, the purpose of the book was to celebrate that 200 years had lapsed since the establishment of the family estate Hofmansgave in 1784. In that year, Chief Administrative Officer Niels de Hofman had decided to set up the estate for the benefit of this sisters daughters son Niels Bang on the condition that he assumed the name Hofman and arms. Due to these unique circumstances, Niels Bang later decided to include his former name in brackets in his surname, resulting in the combination Hofman (Bang). Even up until the late 1950s, there were still members of the family who wrote their names in this way. But in this family tree booklet, they are all referred to as Hofman-Bang. The other purpose of this booklet was to mark the 25th anniversary of the date when the Hofmansgave property became the self-supporting institution Hofmansgave for the benefit of cultivating agricultural developments. Considering the above two anniversaries, and the fact that Hofmansgave no longer belonges to the family, a thought arose to produce a family tree which should include all desendants of the first owner of Hofmansgave, Niels Hofman-Bang. The result is found in this booklet and the majority of its content now resides on this website.


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"When it seems that our sorrow is too great to be borne, let us think of the great family of the heavy-hearted into which our grief has given us entrance. And inevitably, we will feel about us their arms, their sympathy and their understanding."
Select a Region:
COOK, Dorothy Isobel Mair Dvernechuk - Passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family, at Trillium Hospital, Mississauga at the age 93.
Dorothy married George Dvernechuk (died 2002) in 1944 and they had 2 children; the late Robert and his son Tyson, and Judy (Alan Walker) and her children Adam, Shannon (Nick), and Dylan.
Sister of the late Billy Mair, and Muriel (Albert) and her children Anne and Ronald.
Dorothy later married Leonard Cook (died 2017) in 2006, which gave her 4 stepchildren and 4 step-grandchildren.
Memorial visitation will be held at Glen Oaks Funeral Home, 3164 Ninth Line, Oakville on Friday September 20th from 12 – 1 pm with a service to follow in the chapel at 1 pm. A reception will be held at the funeral home following the service.
Cremation has taken place and Dorothy will be buried in Clinton, Ontario at a later date.
HaltonObituaries.com
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© 2020 Canadian Obituaries


Kit Lau posted a sketch of an Acid Rain World character in a new kind of body armor, as well as a photo of a prototype of said figure on his Acid Rain World instragram page!
Anyone who collects the Acid Rain World figures is bound to be excited by this latest development! I know I can't wait to find out more about this one!
As always you can visit Big Bad Toy Store and The Toy Source for more awesome Acid Rain World figures and vehicles!
Will this be a vehicle driver, or will it be released as a single? Will you troop build it? Head on over to the Acid Rain World discussion to let us know!
I know I wouldn't mind if our armored friend was a single figure, since I'd like a few of them, and it doesn't hurt that it'll probably be released in the new crate-style packaging that Kit's been designing!
Kit Lau at Taiwan TTF 2015!
Kit Lau posted several images from his stay at Taiwan TTF 2015, as well as his customs, on his Acid Rain World Instagram page!
Taiwan TTF 2015 show exclusive Thanks for the support from Taiwan! I can try some different techniques for Acid Rain. It is a good start. Maybe I will put more colour logo on future items.
Ok ok! Because too many people asked about this big guy, I will think about it. MAYBE someday I will make few of it to sale. But 1/6 is not the main line (I build this big guy just for fun), I want to focus on 1/18.
That's right! If you checked out the captions you know that enough people have asked Kit about the 1/6 Laurel that he's seriously considering producing a retail version! That would be awesome!
Kit Lau at Taiwan TTF 2015 discussion!
Read moreKit Lau at Taiwan TTF 2015!
Kit Lau posted an image of Acid Rain World themed rubber stamps on his Acid Rain World Instagram page!
Acid Rain World rubber stamp discussion!
Read moreAcid Rain World Stamps!
More Images of the 1/6 Laurel!
Kit Lau posted more images of the 1/6 scale Laurel on his Acid Rain World Instagram page!
Read moreMore Images of the 1/6 Laurel!


To meet current Building Regulations, for dwelling houses with one upper floor & served by only one stair not more than 4.5m above ground level, at least one window per first floor habitable room must be large enough to allow a means of escape, should the usual routes become blocked. Dwelling houses with one or more upper floors above 4.5m have different requirements. You should refer to the current version of Approved Document B to ensure your design is compliant.
To comply with regulations fire escape windows must provide an unobstructed opening of at least 0.33m². with a minimum dimension of 450mm in height or width. The lowest part of the window should also be 800-1100mm from the floor. direction.
Escape window regulations may vary between different UK regions – Check before specifying.
A large range of our windows, especially the Tilt & Turn design, are available to comply with fire escape standards, meaning you can ensure safety as well as beauty.


Toward Decentering the New Testament is the first introductory text to the New Testament written by an African American woman biblical scholar and an Asian-American male biblical scholar. This text privileges the voices, scholarship, and concerns of minoritized nonwhite peoples and communities. It is written from the perspectives of minoritized voices. The first few chapters cover issues such as biblical interpretation, immigration, Roman slavery, intersectionality, and other topics. Questions raised throughout the text focus readers on relevant contemporary issues and encourage critical reflection and dialogue between student-teachers and teacher-students.
Mitzi J. Smith is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary, Detroit. She is the author of Insights from African American Interpretation; Womanist Sass and Talk Back: Social (In)Justice, Intersectionality and Biblical Interpretation; I Found God in Me: A Biblical Hermeneutics Reader; The Literary Construction of the Other in the Acts of the Apostles; and co-editor of Teaching All Nations: Interrogating the Matthean Great Commission.
Yung Suk Kim is Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University. Kim is the author of eight books, including Christ's Body in Corinth, Biblical Interpretation, Resurrecting Jesus, and Messiah in Weakness. He edited two volumes: 1–2 Corinthians and Reading Minjung Theology in the Twenty-First Century. Kim is editor of Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion and Journal of Bible and Human Transformation.


A simple program to create an web page index of images with "thumbnail" images.
Note that imgindex.py can also be downloaded alone, although I would encourage you to download it with the other information above.
Modifications Necessary: You may need to change the path to where python is located.
Usage: Once you are in the directory containing your images, you simply need to type the name of the program, perhaps preceded by "python" if you are on Windows. By default it will generate a file called "index.html" based on the JPEG images found in your current directory.
There are a variety of command-line options. View the README file for the most current information.
Description: This script was created out of frustration while using a Sony Mavica digital camera. I wound up with all these floppies containing many files labeled simply MVC-001F.JPG, etc. This script generates an index.html file (or whatever you name it), that puts all of the images in a 2-column table with the file name below the image. Clicking on the image will give you a larger version of the image. Note that the script does not actually reduce the physical size of the image, it merely uses HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes in the <IMG> tag to instruct the browsers to display the images smaller. It sets the default width to 320 pixels and default height to 240 based on the fact that the Mavica takes 640x480 images. With another camera you may need to adjust the images using the command-line options.
Bugs: View the BUGS file for information about any outstanding bugs.
Note that imgindex replaces the earlier perl script jpgindex.
If you like this program, consider sending a postcard.


Does each awt equal a process? What are awtmain processes? Is the '# of Procs' form schmon an accurate reflection of the UNIX processes being consumed by queries or is this a Teradata task identifier?
You are correct, the awtmain processes are the AMP worker task processes. The "# of procs" column in schmon monitor output includes different types of processes active on the node: For example, it includes AMP workers tasks, parsing engine tasks, and UNIX daemons, all combined.


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Национална геомагнитна обсерватория в Панагюрище е в структурата на Националния институт по геофизика, геодезия и география при Българската академия на науките.

Дейност
В геомагнитната обсерватория се поддържа единственият в България международен геомагнитен стандарт чрез абсолютни и сравнителни геомагнитни измервания. Следи се ежедневното изменение на параметрите на земното магнитно поле. Изработват се карти на елементите му. Основни потребители на събраната информация са Военно-географската служба на Министерството на отбраната, Агенция по кадастъра при Министерството на регионалното развитие и благоустройството и всички производствени организации, занимаващи се с проучване на полезни изкопаеми чрез магнитопроучвателни методи. Данни за състоянието на земното магнитно поле се използват в навигацията и за нуждите на радиосъобщенията.

История
В началото на 30-те години на XX век, във връзка с изработването на нова топографска карта на България, пред Географския институт при Министерството на войната възниква необходимост от геомагнитни данни за България. На математика Христо Калфин, началник на Изчислителното отделение към Географския институт, се възлага да създаде магнитна служба, чиято основна цел е да проучи въпроса за земния магнетизъм – научно и приложно. През 1934 г. той заминава за три месеца в Геомагнитна обсерватория в Нимек, Германия, където се запознава с основните изисквания, свързани с избора на място, архитектурния вид, големината и начина на изграждане на вариационната и абсолютната къща. Обсерваторията е открита официално на 7 ноември 1937 г.

Източници

Сгради и съоръжения в Панагюрище
Българска академия на науките
Геофизика

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


During November (remember, in this column I write about things during the month then post them on the first of the next month) I took a trip to NY with my son. It was his first time on a plane, train, and cab. He had a great time. Family problems arose that left the trip a disaster overall. So I have had little ambition or time to work on this column. For those of you that really know me you know what I am talking about.
Maybe I will burn a DVD next month.


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You are here: Home1 / Mustsharenews2 / Man Makes Violent Threats Against LGBTQ+ Community In S'pore, Police I...
Man Makes Violent Threats Against LGBTQ+ Community In S'pore, Police Investigating
July 3, 2021 /in Mustsharenews /by
Man Makes Violent Threats Against LGBTQ+ Community & Vows To Halt Pink Dot
Despite having different sexual orientations and beliefs, Singaporeans are generally accepting of each other and live in relative harmony.
Recently, however, a man was recorded making violent threats against members of the LGBTQ+ community in Singapore.
Since then, a police report has been lodged and the 23-year-old man is currently assisting with investigations.
Man makes violent threats against LGBTQ+ community in IG video
In an Instagram live video that has since gone viral, a bespectacled man can be heard threatening to "whack" members of the LGBTQ+ community.
He added that he would make sure that the annual Pink Dot event won't happen by sending "his (my) guys" to riot there.
He went so far as to say,
He'll (I'll) be the reason why LGBT will no longer exist in Singapore.
Later in the clip, the man said he'd post a video of himself burning the pride flag should someone from the LGBTQ+ community leave a hate comment on an undisclosed post.
The threats later got more personal as the man directed it to the person whom he was in the Instagram Livestream with, saying he'd set fire to the 17-year-old's house and throw his body into a longkang or drain.
23-year-old man assisting police with investigations
In response to TODAY's queries, the police confirmed that they've received a complaint in relation to the threats.
A 23-year-old man is currently assisting the police with their investigations.
Separately, LGBTQ+ rights group Pink Dot SG said in a Facebook post on Friday (2 Jul) that they're "gravely concerned" by the threats.
According to the group, the 23-year-old had been leaving homophobic comments on their social media posts for the past 2 years.
Not the 1st such incident this year
Just this year alone, Singapore has seen a number of similar incidents involving discriminatory behaviour against the LGBTQ+ community.
Earlier in January, a man reportedly removed a pride flag at a Lau Pa Sat eatery and threw it at a staff member.
Man Removes Pride Flag From Eatery Counter & Throws It At Staff, Stall Owner Says She'll Continue Supporting LGBTQ
More recently, someone ripped off a pride flag hanging from a window on 2 separate occasions.
Pride Flag Gets Ripped From Woman's Window Twice, Police Looking Into Incident
Hope the authorities will investigate the matter thoroughly
Singapore is home to a diverse population with different sexual orientations, religions, and beliefs.
Just because we don't see eye to eye on such matters doesn't give us the right to threaten one another with such venom and hatred.
We hope the authorities will conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and mete out punishments if necessary to deter others from doing the same.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Wake Up, Singapore on Facebook.
The post Man Makes Violent Threats Against LGBTQ+ Community In S'pore, Police Investigating appeared first on Must Share News – Independent News For Singaporeans.
https://thecrowdreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/violent-threats-lgbtq-5-e9BKGE.jpeg 605 381 https://thecrowdreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/TCRLogo.png 2021-07-03 16:18:592021-07-03 16:18:59Man Makes Violent Threats Against LGBTQ+ Community In S'pore, Police Investigating
Grazing Sambar deer in S'pore caught on camera with its mouth wide-op... 4 New Community Covid-19 Cases On 3 Jul Are All Linked To Previous Ones


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SigMind wins Top Prize for Bangladesh Final of Entrepreneurship World Cup
Mr. Hamidul Haque Khan, Treasurer, Daffodil International University handing over the champion prize of Bangladsh National final of the Entrepreneurship World Cup to Tanvir Tabassum, founder of Sigmind who won the champion prize.
The National Final of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) Bangladesh was held on July 14, 2019 organized by Daffodil International University at the 71 Millonaiton of the University. Tanvir Tabassum, founder of Sigmind won the first prize in the Bangladsh National final of the Entrepreneurship World Cup competition. EduBlock, Edu-tech product for learning STEM and Robotics became 1st Runner Up while HelloTask, School of Maids, Solution of Household became 2nd Runner Up in the competition. Mr. Hamidul Haque Khan, Treasurer, Daffodil International University was present as the chief guest at the prize giving ceremony and distributed prizes among the winners.
Presided over by Mr. Md. Shibli Shahriar, Head, Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the function was also addressed by Mr. Md. Asif Iqbal, Country Director of Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) Bangladesh. The juries of the competition were Mr. Shawkat Hossain, Managing Director, BD Venture Limited, Ms. Tina Jabeen, Investment Advisor, Startup Bangladesh, ICT Ministry, Govt. of Bangladesh, Mr. Bijon Islam, CEO, LightCastle Partners, Mr. Nirjhor Rahman, CEO, Bangladesh Angels and Ms. Shezami Khalil, Marketing Director, Shohoz.
The winner will represent Bangladesh at the EWC international final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in November 2019. In addition, the team will be awarded with an in-kind prize package valued at US$500,000 that includes essential business advice, guidance and services from corporate leaders such as Oracle, Google Cloud, Shopify, Slack and Stripe which is supported by Misk Foundation and GSV Labs.
EWC is an initiative led by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and Misk Global Forum with support from a collection of national and global partners, including the Global Educational and Leadership Foundation and GS Vlabs.
Winners of National Final of Entrepreneurship World Cup Bangladesh pose for a photograph with the juries
More than 102,000 contestants from 184 countries competed the Entrepreneurship World Cup. The initiative combines a broad-reaching pitch competition, aimed at ventures ranging from the idea stage to growth stage, with a virtual accelerator program to help all participants launch, strengthen and scale their enterprises. Global Finalists will face off against one another at the Misk Global Forum ahead of Global Entrepreneurship Week in November 2019.
The Champion Startup is devoted to establishing integrated state-of-the-art machine learning based technologies to detect persons, objects, faces, rearms in real-time from multiple camera feeds on its powerful server. The system has some innovative technologies like real- time search on video space for specific incident detection and post analysis. Moreover sigmind made this technology available to big clients like government, corporate clients and even a simple house owner. Sigmind reduces the workforce to operate the cameras by 80%.
In preparation for the EWC Global Finals, Tanvir Tabassum will participate in an acceleration program which features virtual training and one-to-one mentoring targeted to their company's current stage and growth trajectory.


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An Inside Look at a Groundbreaking Solar-Storage Procurement in California
A group of CCAs are looking to aggregate 30 megawatts of distributed energy resources. Here are the details.
Jeff St. John November 21, 2019
Jeff St. John
Greentech Media
Reporter covering the green technology space, with a particular focus on smart grid, demand response, energy storage, renewable energy and technology to integrate distributed, intermittent green energy into the grid.
More articles from this author >
The Bay Area CCAs want at least some of the new systems in place by next year's fire season.
Early this month, three community-choice aggregators and one municipal utility serving much of California's San Francisco Bay Area launched a 30-megawatt distributed energy storage-plus-solar solicitation.
It breaks ground on multiple fronts. First, it's one of the largest-ever efforts to aggregate distributed energy resources (DERs) at a scale that can help California's power grid meet its capacity needs.
Second, it's being launched by CCAs, the city or county energy procurement entities that are taking over an increasing share of customers from the state's investor-owned utilities — and thus an increasing share of responsibility for securing the state's long-term clean energy needs.
Then, of course, there are the blackouts. East Bay Community Energy, Peninsula Clean Energy and Silicon Valley Clean Energy are all served by bankrupt utility Pacific Gas & Electric, which has cut off power to millions of its customers over the past two months as part of a statewide fire-prevention regime. PG&E has warned that these blackouts could continue for another 10 years, despite its efforts to reduce their scope and scale over time.
The safety threats from blackouts have outraged state lawmakers and regulators, forcing counties and cities to foot the bill for emergency services to deal with them. And because CCAs' interests are aligned with the cities and counties they serve, they're positioned to act far more quickly than utilities to supply their most vulnerable customers with solar-storage systems that can help them survive blackouts.
That's important, because the CCAs want at least some of these new solar-storage systems to be in place for next year's fire season.
However, many of the details on how these novel solar-storage deployments will work, and which customers will end up getting them, are still to be determined.
The CCAs have set targets for at least 20 percent of this investment into DERs to be made in low-income and disadvantaged communities. Half of the new systems are to come from single-family homes, and the other half from multifamily and small commercial customers.
Beyond those guidelines, the CCAs are giving potential vendors plenty of flexibility, said J.P. Ross, East Bay Community Energy's senior director of local development, electrification and innovation.
"We are really open to creative approaches to this problem," Ross said. There's been a lot of interest, and they are "looking forward to seeing what comes back" by the Dec. 23 deadline for proposals.
In an interview with GTM, Ross sketched out some key details of what East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) and its partners are looking for. Here are the highlights.
Is this a first-of-a-kind project, in terms of aggregating solar-storage for grid needs?
It depends on how you look at it.
Certainly this month's solicitation is the first by a CCA for megawatt-scale DERs, Ross said. But it's not the first in California.
Southern California Edison, for example, has contracted for hundreds of megawatts of behind-the-meter batteries from Stem and Advanced Microgrid Solutions, load-shifting air conditioning systems from Ice Energy and NRG, and other DERs, as part of a 2-gigawatt procurement to make up for the unexpected closure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant in 2013. And the Demand Response Auction Mechanism pilot project has allowed multiple vendors to aggregate batteries, plug-in electric vehicles, and smart-thermostat-enabled homes and businesses in fulfillment of Resource Adequacy requirements.
But beyond breaking ground for CCAs, the new procurement could happen much faster than previous utility-led efforts to aggregate DERs. For example, beyond Advanced Microgrid Solutions' systems, which rely on large-scale batteries at a handful of commercial buildings, Southern California Edison's DER procurements, ordered by the CPUC in 2014, have yet to deliver aggregated DERs to market in advance of a 2021 deadline.
EBCE has done some advance work to prepare for integrating DERs at grid scale, Ross said. This summer, it contracted with solar installer Sunrun to provide 500 kilowatts, or 2 megawatt-hours, of solar-storage capacity to meet the CCAs' Resource Adequacy requirements, starting in 2022.
What are the models for how behind-the-meter solar-battery systems can serve grid needs?
Right now, EBCE is assuming that its vendors, including Sunrun, will use a mechanism known as Proxy Demand Response (PDR), Ross said. That's a well-established method for selling the load-reduction capacity from solar-storage systems into the markets run by state grid operator CAISO, having been piloted by behind-the-meter storage startup Stem and PG&E in 2014.
Still, "solar and storage in this program is a bit of a square peg in a round hole," Ross said.
Because PDR is a demand response program, it can only pay for demand reduction, not for any energy that solar or batteries can provide the grid. It also requires some machinations behind the scenes, like shutting off batteries a certain number of days per week to establish the "baselines" against which that load reduction is measured, that could restrain the systems from providing their full range of services, he said.
That's why, while EBCE is assuming that PDR will be the preferred mechanism from vendors, "We have made it clear that if vendors have an alternative approach, we're open to hearing them."
The California Public Utilities Commission is in the midst of rewriting the rules for how utilities, CCAs and other load-serving entities meet their Resource Adequacy requirements, which is mostly provided by natural-gas-fired peaker plants today. But with more of those plants set to close, California is increasingly looking to solar-plus-storage to meet those needs — including distributed solar-storage.
Could part of the 30 MW procurement come from existing resources?
That's definitely possible.
According to EBCE's data, about 10 megawatts of behind-the-meter batteries are already interconnected in its Alameda County service territory, about the same amount as EBCE is seeking to procure through the RFP.
"There might be some proposals that come to us that have storage in the pipeline, or even already interconnected," Ross said. "If that's the case, we might have some of that enrolled and available to us for the next Resource Adequacy year" in 2020.
Can SGIP-backed projects for high fire-threat zones be included?
Yes, according to Ross.
Back in September, the CPUC ordered the state's Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) to earmark $100 million from its "equity budget" for low-income and medically vulnerable customers in high-fire-risk parts of the state. That incentive of $1 per watt, which could cover almost the entire cost of a typical solar-battery system, could theoretically apply to qualified customers in Alameda County's highest-fire-threat areas as well, he said.
And while many of California's utility-run DER aggregation pilots have excluded SGIP-funded systems, CAISO's PDR program doesn't exclude them from participating, he said.
At the same time, $100 million spread across California "is a lot of money — but it's not that much money when we think about what's necessary for building resilience, in light of these [public safety power shutoff] events."
What kind of data can you share with vendors?
CCAs procure large-scale power resources for their customers, but they also have access to their customers' billing and smart metering data. That's allowed CCAs to open up data-sharing between customers and third-party vendors in ways that the state's utilities have been slow to embrace, as we've noted in recent coverage of Silicon Valley Clean Energy's pilot project with UtilityAPI.
This flexibility — combined with the appropriate level of data privacy protections — is playing a role in the joint CCAs' new procurement, Ross said.
For example, more than 30 vendors so far have accessed the virtual "data room" where the joint CCAs have uploaded about 10,000 representative customer types for vendors to study, each with a combination of smart-meter data and solar-potential data derived from a self-built Google SunRoof API.
Individual customers aren't identified in this anonymized data set, Ross emphasized. That allows the CCAs to share real-world data about typical residential, commercial and public-sector buildings and facilities, in many different locations across the three counties, without compromising customer data privacy.
Still, it's exactly the kind of fine-grained data that vendors will eventually seek out as they decide how to pick the handful of sites to receive solar-storage systems from the far larger list of potential beneficiaries.
"I think it speaks to the flexibility that CCAs can bring to the market, in terms of how we can forward our objectives and vision of developing local resources," Ross said. "We want to use all the tools in our tool belt."
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