Sun-harvesting solar panels function better when they’re not too hot. But luckily researchers have now discovered precisely how to cool them down.
Building solar panels at a specific height above crops can reduce surface temperatures by up to 10 °C, compared to traditional panels constructed over bare ground, they’ve found.
The results, published in the journal Applied Energy, are the latest contribution to a growing body of research on agrivoltaics: a farming method that aims to maximize land use by pairing solar panels with cropland, thus minimizing competition between energy production and food.
We already know that agrivoltaics can increase land-use efficiency, produce plenty of electricity on minimal land, and may also improve crop yields by shielding plants from heat and wind.
Oz fastest out of the blocks, ramping up production
But China dominates the lithium production value chain
Lithium is today’s “white gold” – due to its crucial role in batteries for everything from mobile phones and home storage to electric cars.
Lithium production more than doubled between 2016 and 2020, up from 40,000 tonnes to 86,300 tonnes.
Source: Scotch Creek Ventures, via Visual Capitalist.
Australia’s lithium mostly comes from hard-rock mines that produce spodumene concentrate, which is then converted into lithium.
Most of Chile’s lithium comes from salar brines which contain high concentrations of lithium.
China The Dominant Value Chain Investor Globally
China, the third-largest producer, is the biggest investor in the lithium production industry globally.
Since 2018, Chinese companies have invested more than $5 billion in lithium mining projects in various countries. China, moreover, dominates the refining and battery manufacturing stages of the lithium-ion supply chain.
By far the largest Chinese purchase was the US$4 Billion+ acquisition of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, which operates lithium mines in Chile’s Atacama desert and the Mt Holland lithium mine in Western Australia
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The English(?) chap who invented Wordle has made a few million!
Way back in October 2021, Wordle, an online word guessing game with a new challenge available daily, registered less than 5,000 visits a day to its site.
By January 2022, traffic had skyrocketed to more than 45 million!
More than 900,000% increase in less than four months.
The New York Times noticed, acquiring Wordle from its creator for a price “in the low seven figures”. The NYT says that the game will remain free and the format will not be changed.
We shall see.
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Equity markets trending lower by the day, crypto values crashing, bond markets in turmoil – even Australia’s ever booming real estate markets seem to be stagnating.
Yes, they’re headed down.
What’s the go?
Is this the major crash the doomsters have been predicting? Or more succinctly: is it a bubble popping, or a balloon deflating?
On 500ish.com M.G. Siegler describes current events as ‘The Great Deflate’.
“In the famous story of The Boy Who Cried “Bubble!”, reporters, bloggers, and everyone in between cries “Bubble!” until they’re blue in the face and everyone else is numb in the ears. And then a real bubble comes along…
“This is not, of course, a story. It is what has been happening for the past 20 years or so in the world of technology. Basically every year, many times a year since the last actual tech bubble — you know, the “Dot Com” one — many people have been certain that exuberance in tech is going to end in disaster. The size and shape of this would-be bubble is often different, but it’s always, definitely a bubble. Except, of course, when it’s not.”
Meanwhile, Paul Keating, a 20th Century hangover, demonstrates how to kowtow to Beijing.
This is how to kowtow!
It isn’t simply a matter or bowing down and banging your forehead on the stones in the Forbidden Kingdom courtyard.
You have to attack and abuse those who espouse ideas that Beijing may not like.
Keating: “Remarks by the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that China could engage in military aggression in the Pacific, encouraged by Russia’s contingent moves against Ukraine, are nothing short of demented.
Prices are surging across the board and right around the world.
The $22 Trillion a year US economy, by far the world’s largest, is being rocked by 7% inflation – the fastest rate in 40 years.
Are we headed back to the bad old days of stagflation?
Inflation has impacts on all financial transactions.
Tom Switzer, of SwitzerDaily, argues it’s not.
His reasoning?
“… if the Reserve Bank of the 1980s saw inflation of 7% (just like the Federal Reserve is now seeing in the States), term deposit rates would be about 10% and home loan interest rates would be 13%!
You can still get 1.89% home loan interest rates at loans.com.au. Clearly, times today are very different to 30 or 40 years ago, but there are plenty of Australians who can relive that nightmare when inflation kept rising and along with the interest rate that people had to endure to keep their homes. The money going into pleasing the banks meant holidays weren’t taken, new clothes weren’t bought and cars were primarily second hand. Not surprisingly in the early 1990s, we had a lulu of a recession!”
Over on Auntie, Lucia Stein notes that Aussie CPI increases are significantly lower, at only 3%. That compares well to data from nearly 50 other countries.
“Data anlaysis from Pew Research Center from 46 nations found that in the period between July and September last year, the rate was higher for 39 countries than in the same period in 2019.
While prices aren’t rising as fast here in Australia, people are still paying more at the supermarket, as they fuel up or when they are looking for a car.
The latest figures for the September quarter showed Australia’s annual inflation now running at 3 per cent (seasonally adjusted).”
CoreLogic has recorded a plateau in Sydney, with just 0.3% of growth rate in prices in December 2021, while Melbourne’s market actually dropped slightly, with a 0.1% declining rate in prices.
But, not every analyst agrees. Tim Lawless at CoreLogic says “To date, the quarterly trend remains positive across the major regions, with the only exception being Darwin houses, which is the only capital city housing sector to record a negative quarterly change,”
Record $379bn earnings forecast for resources, energy exports
Resource and energy export earnings are forecast to reach a staggering $379 billion in 2021–22 as demand for our coal and gas surges in the face of a global energy shortage.
Resources Minister, Keith Pitt
The December edition of the Resources and Energy Quarterly (REQ) from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources found that high commodity prices, good volume growth and a weak Australian dollar are driving a surge in export earnings.
Minister for Resources and Water Keith Pitt said that the resources sector once again has been shown to be the bedrock of the Australian economy and would strongly support the nation’s future growth.
“The resources sector has risen above the challenges of the pandemic and will continue to deliver for our nation in the years ahead,” Minister Pitt said.
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2022 could be the year when the global economy takes off.
Having expanded dramatically in the last decade and a half the underlying structure looks ready for some major realignments.
We’ve had more than a decade of no price inflation, microscopic or negative interest rates, growing inequality, and extraordinary asset price bubbles.
But now inflation is back, and fast rising prices will drive changes in how things are done.
Governments have pumped out tsunamis of money to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic, but those massive flows are going to dry up next year.
The future is uncertain and likely to be volatile. But one thing can be guaranteed. Change looms. The $94 Trillion global economy cannot remain as it is.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Russia is losing its future – Aleksandr Auzan, dean of Economics at… Read more: Russia Is Losing Its Future
Marc Zuckerberg’s Meta (Facebook), under pressure from legislators around the western world, is moving fast to fine-tune its business strategies.
Facebook is launching a new professional mode for profiles. Professionals will be able to earn money without the need to create a separate business page.
Meta’s major brands – Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus VR, Onavo, and Beluga – are all undergoing revamps, adding new revenue streams and, on WhatsApp at least, branching into crypto use,
Facebook’s new professionals will be able to earn up to USD$35,000 a month using the Reels (videos) Play bonus program. Previously only open to users with Pages. it will now be open to professionals – but initially at least, invitation only.
Meta’s says it is putting $1 Billion into the bonuses program, which will reward Facebook professionals, Instagram influencers and members of Instagram’s Stars program.
Professionals will have the ability to create longer, 60 second reels, save drafts at any point and create compose videos from multiple clips.
Initially professionals will only be rolled out in the US but the program will be extended to other countries soon.
Once professional mode is turned on, anyone can follow you and see your public content in their feed. However, you’ll still be able to limit specific posts or updates to friends only.
Professional mode is Facebook’s answer to TikTok’s runaway popularity. With more than three billion downloads, TikTok has surpassed Facebook.
WhatsApp is moving into the payments industry – with WhatsApp users able to set up a digital wallet – called Novi – for a crypto currency called US Pax. (USDP)
Roughly the value of a US dollar, pax will allow WhatsApp users to transfer funds instantly to other WhatsApp users for no fees.
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Sixteen years ago, everyday life was very different: smartphones as we know them today had not yet been invented, Facebook had only just been founded, and ExxonMobil was worth ten times as much as Apple.
More than a decade later, the rise of America’s digital giants has radically changed this landscape.
Research led by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia has now significantly broadened the scope of this technology, training the algorithm to accurately capture investor mood across global markets – smashing language barriers.
It works by analysing the ‘top lists’ of editorial pictures on stock image website Getty.
Using machine learning, the algorithm produces a daily score based on the types of photos used in global news reports.
Lead author Dr Angel Zhong said investors could use this information to better predict daily stock market returns, based on the mood of investors worldwide.
“You can get a snapshot of global investment mood by looking at the 10 most popular photos, rather than reading hundreds of news articles,” she said.
“This technology could have a huge impact for those wanting to get the feel of the day quickly and accurately.”
Zhong said when people are in a bad mood and facing higher uncertainty, they tend to buy and sell more impulsively and intensively.
“When the photo sentiment measure reflects a bad mood, it predicts a large increase in trading volume,” she said.
“Our study significantly broadens the scope of this tech by investigating how it applies in the international market, across developed and emerging economies.”
Machine learning is already used to scan newspaper text but this method doesn’t overcome language barriers, meaning it’s often only a measure of the developed world.
“If you only look at the text of news articles, you often miss out capturing non-English speaking markets. Analysing images removes that problem,” Zhong said.
“Based on photos in the news, we can predict stock returns in global markets in 37 countries – a healthy cross-section of developed and developing economies.”
Zhong’s study builds on the work of University of Missouri researchers, who trained the algorithm to recognise what a ‘good news’ and a ‘bad news’ image looks like, using examples in US media.
Now the algorithm uses those examples, plus more from around the world, to compare future photos and determine a daily market-level investor sentiment index – a daily score for global investment mood.
The Australian team at RMIT and Swinburne University of Technology has trained the algorithm to recognise what constitutes good and bad news coverage from 37 markets, increasing the complexity and global accuracy of the results.
From here, researchers hope to further expand the complexity of the machine learning algorithm by building a measure for each market by using country-specific news photos. The team is seeking strategic partners to accelerate this work.
China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement is dead in the water unless its commerce minister, Wang Wentao, agrees to meet his Australian counterpart, Dan Tehan.
David Uren, writing on The Strategist, suggests Dan Tehan could wield his power to Canberra’s advantage.
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Black projects emerging from a Skunk Works – normal in most advanced countries. But, in Australia …
Odds on – not developed in Australia
Australia’s track record of bringing defence innovation into being isn’t great.
Even the Owen sub-machine gun – a no-brainer – was delayed by conservative and innovation wary bureaucrats for years.
Canberra’s byzantine political and bureaucratic processes hinder both speed and risk taking.
And, the situation will worsen when we concern ourselves with software-based technologies rather than pure domain-specific hardware.
We need Skunk Works – advanced research centres separate from the normal defence acquisition processes where innovative and off-the-wall ideas can be developed.
Canberra’s shock decision to go for US nuclear submarine technology still reverberates around the world. Indian politicians are furious that the US has refused to cooperate with New Dehli on nuclear submarines for more than a decade.
Why are the Australian’s getting access? They smell racism.
In Paris President Macron’s government continues to seethe – and Australia’s chances of winning a free trade agreement with the European Union increasingly look to be in the toilet.
Why such fury?
Cutaway of the US Virginia-class submarine.
When the US first launched a nuclear submarine in the 1950s, the naval world was transformed. Dominated by battleships until 1940, and by aircraft carriers for the subsequent decade, nuclear powered and armed suddenly became the most powerful warships in the world.
Capable not just of destroying enemy nations, but whole continents, nuclear submarines roamed the world, virtually undetectable.
The US developed a massive fleet – larger than that of all its competitors and allies put together. Today Washington deploys 72 nuclear powered navy vessels – 66 of them submarines.
The US submarines use today’s most sophisticated nuclear reactors. The newest, the Virginia class hunter-killer submarines, have reactors that use bomb-grade uranium – enriched to more than 90 per cent.
Once launched, they can operate for 33 years without refuelling. Capable of creating their own air and drinking water, they can stay submerged as long as the crew can bear – and food supplies last.
The whales of the US fleet are the 14 ballistic missile submarines – large launching pads for intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Those massive machines are guarded by 52 hunter killer submarines, of which the Virginia class is the most recent and by far the most powerful.
The latest Block V Virginia Class submarine will greatly increase the number of missiles which can be carried. In effect this will make it a cruise missile submarine (SSGN). Yet it will not take away from this otherwise flexible anti-ship, anti-submarine, intelligence and special forces platform.
Naval News (US)
Both India and France, it would seem are furious at Les Anglos for getting together in another deal – and working together on the most powerful military machines in existence.
John Lichfield, writing on Unherd, explains the unfolding French fury.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, is a cautious man, solid, reliable, even a little dull. He is not (unlike some French politicians) prone to empty gestures or over-dramatic statements. On Saturday night, on live television, Mr Le Drian, accused the United States government of lying to France. He also accused Australia of “lies and duplicity”.
John Lichfield
Britain, the French Foreign Minister said, was guilty merely of its “usual opportunism”. Boris Johnson’s government was the “fifth wheel on the cart” in an unfriendly conspiracy against France by the two other English-speaking nations.
This is not normal language between allies – certainly not that of an experienced foreign minister speaking to his nation on live TV.
There was a “serious crisis” between Paris, Washington and Canberra, Le Drian said, “a serious breach of trust”.
Kym Bergmann editor of the Sydney-based Asia Pacific Defence Reporter reckons the latest Canberra decision delays Aussie undersea warfare abilities a decade.
With furious French reactions and dire economic consequences for Australia looming, the debate over the wisdom of the Morrison government’s submarine about-face is intensifying.
Set to cost Australian tax payers several billion dollars in compensation, it will also likely delay the appearance of an Australian built Collins replacement submarine fleet by at least a decade.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has floated the idea of renting a nuclear submarine or submarines from the United States in order to cover the decade long gap – but the US has never before rented out top drawer weaponry.
(The 1940 Lend Lease program provided the British Navy with a fleet of barely usable and largely outdated smaller surface ships.)
All up this is beginning to look like a half thought out decision, dreamt up in coalition watering holes.
… this deal is looking more like a back of a beer coaster list of ideas compiled by some senior political advisors rather than a coherent plan.
The nuclear-powered submarine cooperation “has seriously undermined regional peace and stability, intensified the arms race and undermined international non-proliferation efforts.”
Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry
China’s Jin Class Ballistic Missile Submarine with missile tubes open.
Soaring Chinese Naval Power
China has, at extraordinary speed, built up the world’s largest navy. Supplemented by numerous fleets of globe trotting so-called fishing vessels, Chinese maritime strength now far outstrips that of any competitor, including the United States.
Huge vessel numbers and fleets of unmanned marine drones provide Beijing with unprecedented cyber capabilities. The Chinese navy, almost certainly, knows more about Australian coastal waters than the Australian Navy.
But, cyber capabilities and large numbers of vessels, don’t immediately translate into hard power.
Washington first aimed to dominate the world’s oceans in the first decade of the 20th Century. Guided by the theories of Thomas Mahan, in 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt sent a naval flotilla around the world.
A publicity stunt to announce the arrival of a new power, all the warships were painted white to ensure high visibility. Dubbed by eager publicists, the Great White Fleet (not very woke) the US Flotilla consisted of 16 battleships and a large number of smaller warships
Rapidly put together, discipline was slack and many of the newly recruited sailors deserted at various ports of call. (More than 1,000 in Sydney alone.)
Many of the battleships were also already obsolete. But such details mattered little as the American sailors – with no booze on board – created huge parties onshore in every port they visited.
Everyone loves a party and America’s global naval power soon entered the popular consciousness – in the English speaking world at least.
In hard power terms the US Navy sealed the deal and become the dominant global naval power in the Pacific in World War II. It’s ability to develop and deploy vast numbers of aircraft carriers carried the day in the Pacific and its warships and landing craft played a key role in north Africa and D-Day, the invasion of Hitler’s Europe.
Post-war, in the nuclear age, with surface vessels becoming ever more vulnerable, the US Navy developed nuclear powered submarines – with Georgia’s Carter, later president, playing a key role.
In the seven decades since the silent service – not seen or heard – has patrolled the world’s oceans, guaranteeing US dominance of the seas.
The Roopster and son Lachlan took a slight – 9% – pandemic driven haircut in 2021, according to the Hollywood reporter.
Still did well by Aussie standards: the elder Murdoch took home $31.1 million US while 50-year- old junior, Lachlan, had be satisfied with $27.7 million.
Meanwhile Lachlan is driving a $7 Billion dollar acquisition spree, apparently determined to rebuild the now sold might of Fox Corporation.
According to the Financial Times, using Revista Data flow stats, the younger Murdoch is using a variety of Murdoch assets, including Aussie-based REA to scoop up revenue generating operations.
He’s not limiting himself to media companies, as he’s also buying into the even riskier field of sports betting.
Perhaps he ought to have a chat to James Packer before going too far down that road.
Now back in the States after seeing out the worst of the pandemic in Sydney, Lachlan is working hard on launching a new TV news outlet in the UK.
After a tussle with Andrew Neil over editorial policy, (Neil lost, now looking for other opportunities) Lachlan signed on serial controversialist Piers Morgan.
Morgan, still smarting from being ghosted by Meghan Markle, is determined to continue generating headlines.
Once keen to cultivate Piers, the dropped him cold.
Piers wanted to play wise uncle to actress Meghan when he heard she was getting engaged to Harry. Took her down to his local boozer for a chat – not classy Piers – and was then stunned when she cut off all communications.
She’s already elevated herself to royalty and heavy drinking journalist Piers no longer figured in her calculations.
Nikkei Asia reports that the coup in Guinea appears likely to keep aluminum prices at historic highs for the foreseeable future, as the West African country — home to the world’s largest reserves of bauxite — is mired in political uncertainty.
No country will be impacted more than China, the leading aluminum producer globally and the biggest consumer of bauxite, from which the production material is derived.
Sunday’s coup also may have implications for Beijing’s geopolitical strategies. Any inability to import resources from Guinea inevitably will raise China’s dependence on Australia, a country with which Beijing’s relations have soured over Canberra’s call for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
The hydrocarbon era is waning but if Australia monetizes renewables it may even grow in power
James Bowen writes that Australia is ideally situated to be the region’s hydrogen export superpower.
Seizing the opportunity could help deliver economic returns similar to those generated by fossil fuel energies including coal and natural gas over several decades.
It could also help maintain associated diplomatic relationships with key customers as they seek to remove carbon-intensive commodities from their economies to satisfy net zero emissions goals.
Ideally situated to be the region’s hydrogen export superpower.
It is strategically fortunate that the emerging centres of Indo-Pacific hydrogen demand are Japan and Korea, whose close engagement is also vital to Australia’s broader foreign policy goals.
More than a billion Chinese consumers are now online, according to a just released report from China’s Internet Network Information Center.
The number of ‘netizens’ jumped 21.75 million in June alone, easily clearing the one billion user mark.
Nearly 47% of users 469 million consumers, use the internet to order in food.
Instant delivery is a growth business in China, particularly since the pandemic began.
Nearly a third of online users are aged 50 or above and the mature cohort is now the fastest growing.
China’s online focused enterprises are increasingly tailoring their offerings to the needs of the more mature – as, when they get used to the technology, they tend to use it to buy many different types of goods and services.
Aussie Arts & Letters 
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