Set on contracts for 10 renewable energy projects in Africa this year, Gigawatt Global follows up Rwanda mission with new 28-acre solar field in one of the world’s poorest nations
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Nexttech
Creating Generational Legacies
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Entrepreneurs Programme - if you turnover between 1.5m and 10m - you could be eligible
Grants available
1. Up to $40k for consultants to help you grow your business
2. Using PhD or uni grads on specific projects - $50k per student and government matches payment (can have 2 )
3 a commercialisation grant $for$ - $100k - $3m - this is a long process - but we’ll worth it - if you get it.
Here is a great video of how the grant works....
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Finland’s homelessness is in decline
Finnish homelessness is on decline as the country applies the “Housing First” concept.
Those affected by homelessness receive a small apartment and counselling – without any preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected thus make their way back into a stable life.
And: All this is cheaper than accepting homelessness.
In 2008 Helsinki had tent villages and huts standing between trees in its parks. The Homeless couldn’t find jobs – without a housing address. And without any job, they couldn’t find a flat. It was a vicious circle. Furthermore, they had problems applying for social benefits. All in all, homeless people found themselves trapped.
In 2008 the Finnish Government started introducing “Housing First” and has set a vision
Nobody should have to live on the streets – every citizen should have a residence.
How it’s done
Housing and counselling - and no preconditions
The NGO - “Y-Foundation” provides housing for people in need. They take care of the construction themselves, buy flats on the private housing market and renovate existing flats.
The apartments have one to two rooms. In addition to that, emergency shelters have been converted into apartments in order to offer long-term tenancies.
Homeless people turn into tenants with a tenancy agreement. They also have to pay rent and operating costs. Social workers, who have offices in the residential buildings, help with financial issues such as applications for social benefits.
Y-Foundation receives discounted loans from the state to buy housing. Additionally, social workers caring for the homeless and future tenants are paid by the state.
The Finnish lottery supports the NGO when it buys apartments on the private housing market. The Y-Foundation also receives regular loans from banks. The NGO later uses the rental income to repay the loans.
“Housing First” help Homeless people get a flat – without any preconditions. Social workers help them with applications for social benefits and are available for counselling in general. In such a new, secure situation, it is easier for those affected to find a job and take care of their physical and mental health.
The result is impressive: 4 out of 5 homeless people will be able to keep their flat for a long time with “Housing First” and lead a more stable life.
In the last 10 years, the “Housing First” programme provided 4,600 homes in Finland. In 2017 there were still about 1,900 people living on the streets – but there were enough places for them in emergency shelters so that they at least didn’t have to sleep outside anymore.
Providing people with apartments is cheaper than leaving them on the street
Creating housing for people costs money. In the past 10 years, 270 million euros were spent on the construction, purchase and renovation of housing as part of the “Housing First” programme.
However, CEO of housing first, Juha Kaakinen points out, this is far less than the cost of homelessness itself. Because when people are in emergency situations, emergencies are more frequent: Assaults, injuries, breakdowns. The police, health care and justice systems are more often called upon to step in – and this also costs money.
In comparison, “Housing First” is cheaper than accepting homelessness: Now, the state spends 15,000 euros less per year per homeless person than before.
No miracle cure – but a high success rate
With 4 out of 5 people keeping their flats, “Housing First” is effective in the long run. In 20 percent of the cases, people move out because they prefer to stay with friends or relatives – or because they don’t manage to pay the rent. But even in this case they are not dropped. They can apply again for an apartment and are supported again if they wish.
Of course, there is no guarantee for success. Especially homeless women are more difficult to reach: They conceal their emergency situation more often: They live on the streets less frequently and rather stay with friends or acquaintances.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Creating Water from Air - another Israeli technology wins CES prize
Israeli tech company , Watergen has created Genny - a water-from-air system that taps into atmospheric water using patented heat-exchange technology.
Founded in 2009 by Arye Kohavi, Watergen uses its patented GENius heat-exchange technology to create the drinking water.
GENNY received the Mark of Excellence Award at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that annually recognizes the tech industry’s top smart home innovations.
Genny produces up to 30 liters of potable water for a home or office every day – significantly reducing plastic usage and disposal by eliminating the waste caused by drinking bottled water.
How does it work?
After the air is sucked in and chilled to extract its humidity, a built-in blower draws air into the system’s atmospheric water generator. There, an internal filter cleans the air by removing dust and dirt. Once clean, the air is directed through the GENius heat exchange and cooling process, and condensed into water.
The water is then filtered to remove impurities and add minerals, resulting in fresh, drinking-quality water. Once produced, the water is continuously circulated in a built-in reservoir to preserve its freshness.
GENNY also has the potential to serve as an air purifier, circulating clean air throughout homes through a small tweak in the water generation process, using the already existing technology to create a multipurpose product.
The vision - to help people become more environmentally aware, and supported by its Chairman - philanthropist Mikhael Mirilashvili, the Company has set its sights on expanding its renewable and energy-efficient clean water solution to the 2.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to safe water at home.
Last year, Watergen’s large-scale system was donated to authorities in Brazil, Vietnam and India. It also assisted rescue and recovery efforts during the 2018 California wildfires and provided clean water to the residents of Texas and Florida in the aftermath of the devastation caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
The large-scale version, called Gen-L, can produce up to 5,000 liters of clean water a day, requiring no infrastructure other than a standard electricity supply.
According to the company's website, it is “perfect for villages, off-grid settlements and factories.”
“My first priority is not how to make money but to help people, the planet and make [a] kiddush hashem [sanctification of God’s name],” said Mikhael Mirilashvili
Friday, January 3, 2020
Referron V 2 - instructions in under 2 minutes
Download referron - easy to sign in - update your profile - send your business card - Refer a person to a business you know like and trust . - Track your connection and referral activity - All within 3 taps
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Is the aging population an issue or an opportunity?
Age expert, Jon Werner, who runs a virtual accelerator, called silver moonshots, focussing on solving issues for the older adult, pointed out that 65 is the new 70... with life expectancy now about 75-85 (a few 100 years ago it was 50! ).
#work #innovation around #health #finance #education, #housing, #mobility #entertertainment and being an #olderadult is changing
John pointed out an interesting bbc article alking about the untapped potential of the longevity economy, written by Mari Shibato -
Highlights from this article
The baby boomers (with the youngest of us at 55 now aren’t keen to “get old and retire”
The Aging Population is growing
Over 80s are projected to triple, from 143 million in 2019 to 426 million in 2050.
The population aged 65 and older is growing faster than all other age groups, and global birth rates has been plummeting since the second half of the 20th Century (except in Africa)
Life stages can be quantified in fairly equal measurements of 8000 days
0 to 21,
21 to 40
40 to 65
65 to 85
If you make it to 65 years old, you have more than 50% chance you’ll make it over age 85 –
.
The Boston Consulting Group projects that by 2030, the 55-plus population in the US will have accounted for 50% all domestic consumer spending growth - 67% in Japan and 86% in Germany.
Governments are worried
Ageing has generally been considered detrimental to a country’s economic health, since it reduces the workforce and increases burdens on healthcare systems.
At this year’s G20 meeting in Japan, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that an ageing population could pose “serious challenges” for central banks with governments around the world concerned about public systems of health care, pensions and social protection for older persons blowing out as the population of retirees will increase.
How can we “unlock” the World’s Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market.
As the population of elders increases and become healthier - this longevity should be a massive asset to society . This is a group of consumers, workers and innovators - who can still be active contributors to the economy.
Spending Power
KPMG’s 2017 report of online consumers in 51 countries revealed that baby boomers spend the most online at $203 on average per transaction, compared to ‘tech-savvy’ millennials, who actually spend the least at $173 on average.
Prolonging employees’ working lives
Workers are living healthier, longer lives, and an ageing workforce can be an opportunity to reap what consultancy Deloitte calls the ‘longevity dividend’ – being able to boost economic productivity from older employees.
In Germany, more than 21% of the German population is older than 65 - who are being helped by improved work conditions, improved econometrics at work and advances and support by AI, and VR - reducing the physical demands of the manufacturing process.
Giving jobs to the younger generation
Looking at the demographic shift, the work of the 21-65 year olds seems to be cut out for them - focussing on “looking after the 0-21 and 65 plus aged groups.
The 21-65 workforce will be shifting from a “manufacturing workforce” to a “service workforce” - making for a better planet.
The universe seems to maintain its perpetual balance and flow !
Links
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Alpha DaRT is showing tumor shrinkage in 100% of cases.
Alpha Tau Medical an Israeli company, has developed “alpha DaRT”, an alpha radiation treatment is in clinical trials phase and is showing tumor shrinkage in 100% of cases.
How it works
Alpha DaRT (Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Treatment) treats the cancer cells without the collateral damage to the surrounding area and the body as a whole. It provides a highly localized and effective treatment of solid tumors using alpha radiation.
It has the capacity to destroy cancer cells, inducing irreparable double-strand breaks in cellular DNA.
THE ALPHA DaRT technology, enables the spread of alpha particles across entire tumors by utilizing the radioactive decay of an isotope called radium-224. The treatment is delivered by inserting into the tumor Alpha DaRT seeds which contain radium-224 atoms embedded into their surface. In the process of decay, radium-224 releases its alpha-emitting daughter atoms.
These atoms diffuse to a range of several millimeters, delivering a high dose of alpha radiation along the way. The advantage of the alpha radiation characterizing Alpha DaRT is its extremely high “cancer-killing potential” combined with its short range of side-effects.
These unique characteristics limit collateral damage to the surrounding healthy tissue while effectively destroying the tumor. Other radiation therapies that utilize beta, X-ray, and gamma radiation have longer path lengths that cause more collateral damage to tissue, and need to be dosed at higher levels to achieve the same local “cancer-killing-effect.”
The Initial Results
In a recent study, Alpha DaRT was shown to be effective in humans for aggressive local, radiation-resistant and recurrent tumors of the skin and head & neck. It also demonstrated a very high level of safety for patients, causing no systemic toxicity, and only short-term mild, local toxicity. The treatment led to tumor shrinkage in 100% of cases, and produced a complete response – total tumor destruction – in over 78% of cases! This sounds almost too good to be true.
Study results also showed that the Alpha DaRT possesses many attributes that can contribute to a positive overall patient treatment experience.
These include:
• A single minimally-invasive outpatient procedure for insertion of the Alpha DaRT device, without need for any special shielding or an operating room,
• A total treatment duration of only two weeks, where the patient can be at home and live their life normally, and
• Measurable tumor shrinkage in a matter of days
In addition to its value as a single-tumor treatment, Alpha DaRT has shown great potential in pre-clinical studies for the treatment of metastatic cancer, when combined with immunotherapy. Metastases are the primary mechanism of cancer death, so any treatment that can reduce the extent of metastatic growth will prolong patient survival and, it is hoped, reduce some of the suffering and dread that patients feel after a metastatic diagnosis.
Testing Alph DaRT around the world
Many leading cancer centers around the world are now investigating Alpha DaRT for various tumor types, including breast and pancreas. The trials are taking place in locations including Israel, Canada, Japan, Russia, Italy and in the United States at prestigious institutions such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Montreal University Hospital Center (CHUM).
The Company
The Alpha DaRT technology has been developed by an Israeli Medtech Alpha Tau, founded by CEO Uzi Sofer in 2016, promising a treatment for millions of patients worldwide.
The technology had been developed under the leadership of two professors from Tel Aviv University: physics Prof. Itzhak Kelson, and immunology Prof. Yona Keisari.
Alpha Tau is growing rapidly, having expanded from fewer than 10 employees in 2016 to more than 40 in 2020.
To support the growing demand for Alpha DaRT, the company is building global production facilities in Massachusetts, Israel and Japan. Key investors in Alpha Tau’s growth include Shavit Capital, OurCrowd, Medison Ventures, Alan Patricof and Sir Ronald Cohen.
Could Alpha DaRT be a major breakthrough?
Inspired by - Jerusalem Post - Hillel Fuld
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