The dollar against the pound and the yuan are either at the same levels they've been over the past 5 years (the pound) or much stronger (the yuan).

(Bloomberg) -- FTX’s viral Super Bowl ad featured multiple versions of a deeply skeptical Larry David. In light of the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse, his fellow celebrities might have done well to heed his advice.

The creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm is among the slew of stars being sued for promoting FTX’s services and products. The lawsuits allege they lured unsophisticated investors into the debacle.

Legal experts say the celebrities’ prominence and wealth make them a juicy target for investors looking to recover some of their losses, with the company and co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried essentially broke. FTX put itself and more than 100 affiliates into bankruptcy proceedings this month, shielding them from suits. The promoters, who aren’t in bankruptcy court, have no such protection.

“A lawsuit against celebrities will generate a ton of money, because they will all settle,” said John Reed Stark, former chief of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Internet Enforcement. “It’s one thing to make your fans buy your T-shirt with your face on it. It’s another to tout something that causes them to lose their life savings.”

At least three lawsuits have been filed since FTX’s implosion, including one that seeks to represent “thousands, if not millions, of consumers nationwide.” Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal and businessman and TV personality Kevin O’Leary are also among the defendants.

The celebrities could be liable if the investors can prove they failed to disclose that they were being paid to promote the crypto exchange or had invested in the company, or were hawking unregistered securities. The pending lawsuits are in federal court in Miami and San Francisco.

The stars’ representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment on the lawsuits.

FTX’s sudden collapse cost US investors more than $11 billion, according to the Miami lawsuit filed Nov. 15. The platform, with 5 million users worldwide, traded more than $700 billion of crypto last year.

“The celebrities’ liability hinges mainly on whether the products they promoted are securities,” said Shane Seppinni, who represents people suing over alleged corporate abuse and who isn’t involved in the FTX cases. If FTX’s yield-bearing accounts, which pay interest on crypto holdings, are found to be securities, “then the celebrities who promoted them could be on the hook for big damages,” he said.

To determine whether a given item constitutes a security, courts tend to fall back on the Howey Test. It gets its name from a 1946 Supreme Court decision defining a security as “an investment of money in a common enterprise with profits to come solely from the efforts of others.” If the item in question meets that definition, the court held, then it doesn’t matter “whether the enterprise is speculative or nonspeculative, or whether there is a sale of property with or without intrinsic value.”

The Texas State Securities Board’s director of enforcement, Joseph Rotunda, filed a declaration last month that the yield-bearing accounts are an offering of unregistered securities. And promoting securities without disclosing the source, nature or amount of compensation would violate securities law.

On Monday, Rotunda said his office was scrutinizing the payments the celebrities received and any disclosures made.

“We are taking a close look at them” as part of the regulator’s broader probe into FTX’s failure, he said.

Brady and Bundchen joined the company’s $20 million ad campaign in 2021 and made a commercial -- “FTX. You In?” -- showing them urging acquaintances to join up. They also took equity stakes in FTX Trading Ltd., according to the Miami complaint.

O’Leary, of ABC’s Shark Tank and CNBC’s Money Court, was both an investor in and a paid spokesman for FTX. He and tennis star Naomi Osaka, who has also been sued, both promoted FTX’s interest-bearing accounts, in which Elliott Lam, a Canadian living in Hong Kong, invested and lost $750,000, according to his proposed class action lawsuit in San Francisco.

David’s comic persona and quirky role in the Super Bowl ad may prove oblique enough to beat the litigation, legal experts said.

The commercial featured him as a skeptic of other inventions, such as the Sony Walkman and, earlier, the wheel. “Don’t be like Larry,” the ad cautioned. It made FTX one of the most retweeted brands during the game, lawyers for the investor in the Miami complaint said.

But the only allegation about the comedian “is that Larry David appeared in a commercial,” said attorney Brian Levin. “I don’t see how that, in and of itself, would give rise to liability.”

Stark, the former SEC internet enforcement chief, finds “the irony” that David played characters in the ad who keep saying no -- including to FTX -- “glaring.”

“There’s enough celebrities to choose from,” he said. “I’d probably leave him off, so as not to muddy the waters.”

As the impact of FTX’s fall unfolds, more lawsuits are expected to roll in against Bankman-Fried and celebrity endorsers from the US and elsewhere, including South Korea, Singapore and Japan, where many of the investors are based, said attorney Demetri Bezaintes. The law firm that filed the Miami complaint filed another proposed class action suit in South Florida a week later.

This isn’t the first time celebrities have found themselves in hot water over crypto promotions. Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were sued in Los Angeles over their promotion of the EthereumMax token. In a tentative ruling on Nov. 7, the judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the defendants hadn’t promoted the tokens as a security.

Kardashian agreed last month to pay $1.3 million, and not to tout digital assets for three years, to settle SEC claims that she broke the rules by promoting the token without disclosing that she was being paid. Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled were accused of violating securities laws by failing to disclose payments they received to promote initial coin offerings on social media in 2018. Both settled with the SEC, with Mayweather paying more than $600,000 and Khaled dropping more than $150,000.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/from-tom-brady-to-shaq-ftxs-celebrity-promoters-may-be-on-the-hook-for-damages/ar-AA14sMzh

Honda Sees a Future Where Cars, Bikes, Mowers Share Swappable Batteries

An environment where single-purpose batteries are replaced with swappable, sharable ones would benefit consumers and manufacturers alike.

During an interview with Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe and electrification boss Shinji Aoyama in Tokyo, the executives responsible for steering the automaker through these changing times explained to me that while building EVs is important, the ultimate goal is reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. In order to do this, electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and even hybrid eVTOL vehicles must be further developed to penetrate each corner of the transportation sector. One of the more interesting concepts we discussed, however, was creating an environment where various types of vehicles shared a common battery pack. From cars to scooters, mowers, and even houses, doing away with single-purpose batteries would be a win-win for consumers and Honda alike.

Some of this hardware already exists, and it's dubbed the "Honda Mobile Power Pack e" and "Power Pack Exchanger e." The mobile lithium-ion power pack is a carry-on battery similar to what we use now to charge our devices on the go or even jumpstart a car—just bigger and heavier. A Honda Mobile Power Pack e currently weighs about 20 pounds and provides up to 1.3Wh. The power pack exchanger is a sort of vending machine where the power packs can be recharged, stored, and dispensed to users. That's the commercial solution, at least. There's a little-known residential solution Honda is working on that takes the same concept but downsizes it to work for a home. It fits four mobile packs instead of 12, and it can also recharge the mobile units via solar power should the home be equipped for it.



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/t3bHt49/battery-swap.jpg

The premise is simple, and I'll use myself as an example: I have a lawnmower, a snowblower, a dirtbike, and a small sedan. (Yes, the latter two are Hondas.) While I drive my Civic every day, I don't ride my bike nor use my blower or mower nearly as often. In fact, I hardly ever do. This concept would allow me to own one set of batteries that I can share and swap among all of my Honda machines. Why have a purpose-built battery for my mower getting depleted all winter when I could be using that same power source for my snowblower? Likewise, use the snowblower's battery for my mower during the summer, when I could also borrow it to run my dirtbike.

When you apply this concept to a vehicle used for commuting it makes even more sense. It'd be very easy to remove the batteries of your vehicle and recharge them overnight in the pack exchanger—similar to how you'd charge an EV overnight nowadays. The biggest difference here is that if you wake up in the morning and it's a gorgeous day out, you could skip the car ride and use the batteries for your motorcycle instead. Storming? Plop them into your car and leave the bike at home. Even better yet, should the power go out on your block, the exchanger can use the power packs' power to feed it back into the house and provide electricity for "the average Japanese home," I was told. Pretty convenient, even if that could only power an average American studio apartment for now.

According to a presentation I was given at Honda's R&D facility in Tochigi, Japan, a large three-wheeled scooter could travel nearly 100 miles with two fully charged packs. No other range estimates were given for larger vehicles, though in the future these packs could also be used for ATVs, watercraft, and other rides. Engineers also demoed a Honda Power Pod e, which is essentially an electric generator. While still in the prototype stage, this would be a convenient power solution for campers or work crews who typically venture out off the grid.

Swappable batteries also open up various other opportunities; like lending a helping hand. Should you encounter a stranded motorist with a compatible vehicle, you could share a power pack with them so they can make it to their destination. Maybe a little far-fetched since you probably won't want to give your pricey battery away, but, hey, it's a possibility.

Lastly, there's the manufacturing aspect of this battery/charger environment. When you have a variety of vehicles that run on the same type of battery pack, you drastically reduce the time, money, and effort that's spent on manufacturing single-purpose batteries. It's the same concept as having a billion devices run on AA or AAA batteries. Why spend millions and thousands of man-hours engineering a battery that only works on one type of device, when it could work on hundreds?



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/x6x1wW2/honda1.jpg



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/RPBGdpy/honda2.jpg



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/3NSfNWm/honda3.jpg

Honda has already rolled out one of these exchangers in Tokyo, where subscribers can scan their RFID tags to unlock battery packs for their scooters. Other companies are already taking similar approaches in Taiwan, and another startup is said to be bringing a similar solution for tuk-tuk taxis in India.

It goes without saying that this application needs to be further developed before it can be rolled out in a market like the United States. We drive longer distances, favor larger vehicles, and our overall energy consumption is radically different than most other countries. Replicating this concept with solid-state batteries could certainly push it closer to reality. So while that solution isn't here now, I believe this concept of swappable batters makes a lot of sense.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/honda-sees-a-future-where-cars-bikes-mowers-share-swappable-batteries

ACCRA (Reuters) -Ghana's government is working on a new policy to buy oil products with gold rather than U.S. dollar reserves, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia said on Facebook on Thursday.

The move is meant to tackle dwindling foreign currency reserves coupled with demand for dollars by oil importers, which is weakening the local cedi and increasing living costs.

Ghana's Gross International Reserves stood at around $6.6 billion at the end of September 2022, equating to less than three months of imports cover. That is down from around $9.7 billion at the end of last year, according to the government.

If implemented as planned for the first quarter of 2023, the new policy "will fundamentally change our balance of payments and significantly reduce the persistent depreciation of our currency," Bawumia said.

Using gold would prevent the exchange rate from directly impacting fuel or utility prices as domestic sellers would no longer need foreign exchange to import oil products, he explained.

"The barter of gold for oil represents a major structural change," he added.

The proposed policy is uncommon. While countries sometimes trade oil for other goods or commodities, such deals typically involve an oil-producing nation receiving non-oil goods rather than the opposite.

Ghana produces crude oil but it has relied on imports for refined oil products since its only refinery shut down after an explosion in 2017.

Bawumia's announcement was posted as Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced measures to cut spending and boost revenues in a bid to tackle a spiraling debt crisis.

In a 2023 budget presentation to parliament on Thursday, Ofori-Atta warned the West African nation was at high risk of debt distress and that the cedi's depreciation was seriously affecting Ghana's ability to manage its public debt.

The government is negotiating a relief package with the International Monetary Fund as the cocoa, gold and oil-producing nation faces its worst economic crisis in a generation.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ghana-plans-buy-oil-gold-150718243.html

CEOs were paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021

What this report finds: Corporate boards running America’s largest public firms are giving top executives outsize compensation packages that have grown much faster than the stock market and the pay of typical workers, college graduates, and even the top 0.1%. In 2021, we project that a CEO at one of the top 350 firms in the U.S. was paid $27.8 million on average (using a “realized” measure of CEO pay that counts stock awards when vested and stock options when cashed in and ownership is taken). This 11.1% increase from 2020 occurred because of rapid growth in vested stock awards. Using a different “granted” measure of CEO pay (which counts the value of stock awards and options when announced (or “granted” rather than realized), average top CEO compensation was $15.6 million in 2021, up 9.8% since 2020. In 2021, the ratio of CEO-to-typical-worker compensation was 399-to-1 under the realized measure of CEO pay; that is up from 366-to-1 in 2020 and a big increase from 20-to-1 in 1965 and 59-to-1 in 1989. CEOs are even making a lot more than other very high earners (wage earners in the top 0.1%)—almost seven times as much. From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay based on realized compensation grew by 1,460%, far outstripping S&P stock market growth (1,063%) and top 0.1% earnings growth (which was 385% between 1978 and 2020, according to the latest data available). In contrast, compensation of the typical worker grew by just 18.1% from 1978 to 2021.

Why it matters: Exorbitant CEO pay is a contributor to rising inequality that we could restrain without doing any damage to the wider economy. CEOs are getting ever-higher pay over time because of their power to set pay and because so much of their pay (more than 80%) is stock-related. They are not getting higher pay because they are becoming more productive or more skilled than other workers, or because of a shortage of excellent CEO candidates. This escalation of CEO compensation and of executive compensation more generally has fueled the growth of top 1% and top 0.1% incomes, leaving fewer of the gains of economic growth for ordinary workers and widening the gap between very high earners and the bottom 90%. The economy would suffer no harm if CEOs were paid less (or were taxed more).

How we can solve the problem: We need to enact policy solutions that would both reduce incentives for CEOs to extract economic concessions and limit their ability to do so. Such policies could include reinstating higher marginal income tax rates at the very top; setting corporate tax rates higher for firms that have higher ratios of CEO-to-worker compensation; using antitrust enforcement and regulation to restrain the excessive market power of firms—and by extension of CEOs; and allowing greater use of “say on pay,” which allows a firm’s shareholders to vote on top executives’ compensation.


https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2021/

• Production of the Soviet-era Moskvich car relaunched in Russia on Wednesday at a former Renault factory.
• The relaunch comes as Russia strives for a self-sufficient economy as the country’s finances continue to be choked by sanctions and other ramifications of its invasion of Ukraine.

Production of the Soviet-era Moskvich car relaunched in Russia on Wednesday at a former Renault factory, according to truckmaker Kamaz.

The renamed Moscow Automobile Plant Moskvich expects to produce 600 cars by the end of 2022, and 200 of which will be electric. The cars should be available to buy in December, Kamaz said in a press release. Reports say the car design will be Chinese, and be very different from the original Moskvich.

The factory is part of an eight-year agreement with Kamaz to manufacture the domestically-produced vehicles. In 2023 at least 50,000 cars will be assembled, 10,000 of which will be electric, according to the statement, followed by 100,000, a fifth of which will be electric, in 2024.

The relaunch comes as Russia strives for a self-sufficient economy as the country’s finances continue to be choked by Western sanctions and other ramifications of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

By industry standards, the factory won’t be churning out cars particularly quickly in the next couple of years. Tesla’s Shanghai plant is expected to produce more than 750,000 cars in 2022, for example, while Toyota’s biggest plant in Kentucky is capable of producing 550,000 cars annually.

Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced in May the factory would be used for a relaunch of the famous cars after Renault sold its Russian assets to the state.

The French manufacturer had owned a majority stake in carmaker Avtovaz, before reportedly selling it off for just one Russian rouble and with a six-year option to repurchase. Renault Russia was also reportedly sold to the state for the same token sum.

Sobyanin said the decision to take over the Renault plant was a move to preserve thousands of jobs.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo said the decision to sell was “difficult but necessary” and was the “responsible choice towards [the] 45,000 employees in Russia.”

The Moskvich car brand was a source of pride for Russia’s capital between 1946 and 2001, with the name translating to “Moscovite” or “native of Moscow,” but the cars’ popularity faded after the fall of Communism and the Soviet Union. The manufacturer was then declared bankrupt in 2006.


https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/23/russia-relaunches-soviet-era-moskvich-car-brand-using-a-former-renault-plant.html

'There is no place in the police station where the stored goods can be saved from the rats,' prosecutor says

Indian police have said rats ate about 600kg of cannabis after a court demanded that the confiscated drugs be produced as evidence during a trial for people facing smuggling charges.

Police in the northern city of Mathura wrote to magistrates to say 581kg of the drugs had gone missing from two storerooms after being seized from traffickers more than five years ago.

Public prosecutor Ranveer Singh said the drugs were eaten by rodents and could not be produced.

“There is no place in the police station where the stored goods can be saved from the rats. The remaining [cannabis] from the huge consignment was destroyed by officers,” prosecutors told the court.

Police arrested six people on suspicion of smuggling on a motorway and seized the drugs in two consignments in 2018 and 2019.

The alleged smugglers are now on trial for drug trafficking and other narcotics charges.

Police delivered samples of the drugs to the court at the beginning of the trial but were mandated to produce the actual cache to bolster their case and obtain a conviction.

The court asked senior police officers to ensure the safety of the evidence, which was meant to be presented on Saturday.

The prosecution told the court that nearly 700kg of cannabis stored across several police stations in the district were under threat from rats.

They also spoke of the inability to deal with the rodents, which they said were overwhelming the most secure places inside police stations.

“Being small in size, the rats have no fear of police, nor can the police officers be considered experts in solving the problem,” prosecutors said.

Trials in India can take years, if not decades, and many accused often escape punishment over poor police investigations or evidence management.

Prosecutors in eastern Jharkhand state told a court in 2017 that rats consumed nearly 45kg of marijuana that was stored in a trafficking case involving 150kg of drugs.

Police in neighbouring Bihar state that year said rats drank about one million litres of alcohol kept in storerooms in one of the country’s few dry states.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2022/11/23/indian-police-say-rats-ate-600kg-of-cannabis-from-station-storeroom/

Twitter’s new ruler Elon Musk makes so many pronouncements on the platform, it’s hard to keep track. This week alone, Musk polled Twitter users over whether he should provide “general amnesty” to suspended accounts and got into a public fight over whether the disgraced founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, owns a part of Twitter. On Friday, Musk was at it again, telling people that he may make an alternative phone to face off against Apple and Google.

The tech billionaire’s comments were made, naturally, in response to a tweet directed at him by conservative podcaster and former OANN host Liz Wheeler. On Friday afternoon, Wheeler tweeted that Musk should make his own phone if Apple and Google decide to kick Twitter off their app stores. Twitter’s future in Apple and Google’s app stores has been a hot topic lately, given Musk’s commitment to “free speech”—as long as it doesn’t offend him—and lax content moderation.

“If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android,” Wheeler said on Friday. “The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?”

Three hours later, Musk told Wheeler that he would build his own phone if Twitter got banned from Apple and Google’s app stores, the official gateways to iPhone and Android devices across the globe. In what might have been an homage to Musk, who loves polling people on Twitter, Wheeler had started a poll of her own asking people if they would use a “tELONphone.”

At of the time of publication, “Yes” was the leading response, with 56.2% of the 52,707 votes cast.

“I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone,” Musk tweeted.

Both Apple and Google have policies that ban apps in its stores from containing hate or discriminatory speech, bullying, harassment, and sexually explicit content. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Apple and Google kicked Parler off their app stores for its role in helping rioters plan the event, although it was allowed back after making changes. Kanye West, who legally changed his name to Ye, is reportedly in talks to buy Parler.

While Musk has declared his intention to build his own phone should Apple and Google cross him, it’s important to remember that this man says a lot of things that don’t end up happening. Remember the Tesla Semi, which is three years past deadline? Or the Cybertruck, which turned out not to be bulletproof in a live demonstration? Heck, the only reason he owns Twitter is because he couldn’t figure out a way to get out of the deal.



https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-alternative-phone-apple-google-ban-twitter-1849822836

but the question is, what will they even do with the battery packs that are swapped out? Recycle it or refurbish it to repurpose?

Leaving New York for Florida, where the cost of living is exorbitant, means getting back about two months of net salary.

Inearly June 2022, the Wall Street Journal published an interesting article on a new phenomenon called “The Great Pandemic Wealth Migration”. During Covid-19, wealthy Americans from New York and California fled to sunnier, more tax-friendly climes.

The explanation lies in the changes in the way to work that the Covid-19 pandemic induced. Covid allowed Americans to work remotely, and many wondered why they would stay in high-tax states like California and New York.

Rumor has it that taxation in the U.S. is soft: this is not the case with income tax, the main source of government levies. The top federal marginal rate of 37%, above $523,000 of income, is misleading. In New York, you have to add the state tax (10.9% maximum), the city tax (3.876% marginal rate), and the tax to fund Social Security, the pay-as-you-go pension plan, at 6.2% (up to $147,000 of income).

In total, the marginal tax rate exceeds 53% in New York.

Thus, in New York, the median employee in the stock market sector who earns $440,000, according to the State Auditor’s Office, pays $186,000 in taxes, which is an effective rate of 42%, according to the Smartasset simulator.

If he moves to Florida, where there is no local income tax, the bill is reduced by about $45,000 and the overall tax rate drops to 32%. New York wage earners, not all of whom work on Wall Street, have a median income of $92,000, according to the U.S. Tax Foundation. The corresponding tax ($28,200) is over 30%. Moving to Florida means dropping that rate to 22% and reducing the tax bill to $20,300.

In short, leaving New York, where the cost of living is exorbitant, means getting back about two months of the net salary.

The case-by-case calculations are always more complicated, but the overall figures from the Internal Revenue Service, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, are edifying: in 2020, the latest figure available, New York lost $19.5 billion in taxable income, California $17.8 billion and Illinois $8.5 billion. The big winners are Florida with an additional $23.7 billion and Texas with an additional $6.3 billion. Like Florida, Texas also has no local income tax.

The state tax difference was less punishing until the reform passed under Donald Trump in 2017. Once, NewYorkers and Californians could deduct local taxes from their federal taxable income. That deduction was capped at $10,000 for a single person, as Republicans felt that residents of the least socially protective states should not indirectly fund the welfare state and the spending implemented by Democrats in the coastal states.

The population hemorrhage is impressive: between July 2020 and July 2021, New York lost more than 300,000 people, San Francisco 55,000, Chicago 45,000, Los Angeles 40,000, and Philadelphia 25,000. The fastest-growing cities are in Texas, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona.

In the past, wealthy New Yorkers stayed in their megalopolis because of the lack of quality schools and universities for their children in Florida and because of the excellent hospitals. These hesitations seem to be a thing of the past.

According to the Stacker website, 67 American billionaires (out of approximately 730) reside in Texas, including a newcomer, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who left California. There are 78 in Florida, a state that is generally not the one where they made their fortune, like the financier Carl Icahn, who left New York before the pandemic.

The situation is not catastrophic for California, which has recorded an unprecedented budget surplus of $100 billion due to the excellent performance of the stock market, federal aid, and the maintenance of salaries during the pandemic, while New York City has managed to balance its finances.

But that was before the Wall Street crash, which could change the situation once again by forcing the cities that lost out in this great American fiscal migration to adapt to stop the demographic hemorrhage that is leading to significant losses of income.

https://ssaurel.medium.com/the-great-american-tax-migration-afad30be4ad5

Chinese multinational automotive company, Geely, has shared a recent update from its Technology Group subsidiary showing battery swap capabilities integrated into what it calls Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs). The battery swap stations operate under the same concept as passenger EVs, but use a different swap method without having to lift the hefty construction vehicles.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd, better known as Geely, is a multinational automotive company based in China with connectiosn to several other OEMs around the globe. For example, Geely owns a large majority of Volvo Cars and just over 50% of Polestar. Same goes for Lotus.

It also completely owns its own brands under various subsidiaries like Zeekr, Maple, and Farizon Auto which is working to deliver its “Homtruck” electric semi globally in 2024 – not to mention its own marque of vehicles from Geely Auto.

Last year, the company’s subsidiary, Geely Technology Group was touting battery-swap technology in China designed specifically for rideshare vehicles that could replace an EV battery pack in one minute.

According to Geely’s latest update, its not able to hit those battery swap speeds yet, but it is able to do so one a much larger (and a much, much heavier) scale.



Image link: https://i.ibb.co/C2ZNy1j/ev-swap-station.gif

Geely shares stations that can swap 3.2 ton battery packs

Geely recently shared news of the HGV swaps in its media center on behalf of the Technology Group. With this swap technology, Geely hopes to bring more sustainability to heavier commercial vehicles like cement mixers and construction trucks.

While the trucks do not appear much different from the outside, a digital visit to the swap station tells a unique story. Behind the driver’s cabin sits large black box containing the battery cells and housing for easier access to swap.

Geely shared that the cement mixers seen above currently use a battery that can store up to 280 kWh of power, delivering around 190 km (118 miles) of range while simultaneously powering other vehicle functions, such as spinning the mixing drum.

HGVs weight a lot more than the passenger EVs Geely is used to, especially if they’re carrying wet cement – so you’re not going to lift a 31-ton truck to get a battery pack out of the bottom. In this case, Geely had to innovate, hence the battery placement behind the driver cab.

Drivers can pull in and park using designated wheel guides to ensure perfect alignment, then scan a QR code to begin the completely automated process. As you can see in the gif above, a crane housed within the swap station comes down and hoists the 3.2-ton battery up and into the battery warehouse, then swaps it out with a fresh one.

Geely states that the entire process takes five minutes from start to finish, comparable to a trip to the gas pump (but arguably a helluva lot less expensive). $5 gets drivers about 100 km (62 miles) of all-electric range.

Geely’s swap stations take up about 200 square feet and can be constructed quickly. They can also be rigged with solar panels to provide clean energy to some of the station’s operations.

While the jury may still be out on the potential of battery swaps, the technology continues to develop and expand, especially in China – adding the capabilities to large commercial vehicles that usually only make short trips only adds to the cause.

https://electrek.co/2022/03/15/geely-is-rolling-out-swap-stations-for-heavy-duty-evs-like-cement-mixers-housing-three-ton-battery-packs/

Benavidez, on the other hand is a two-time former WBC super middleweight champion, never lost the belt to any fighter though. It was all his wrong doing, first he lost the title when he was tested positive for cocaine.

What are your thoughts on this fight?

Are you planning on celebrating Thanksgiving with a traditional turkey dinner this year? If you’re like 25% of Americans who responded to a recent survey, your answer is no. With inflation impacting the cost of everything, including the main piece of any Thanksgiving meal, you may be ditching the turkey this year and opting for…pizza?

As many Americans plan their Thanksgiving meals, many are choosing to celebrate the season of gratitude without spending money. According to a recent survey from Personal Capital, one in four Americans will be skipping the traditional meal all together. But that’s not all, 88% of respondents will be cutting at least one dish to save money. That’s a lot of green bean casseroles that aren’t making it to your dinner table this year.

With the economy affecting many people’s bank accounts, 45% of people feel financially stressed by their Thanksgiving dinners. But it’s not just inflation that’s causing the strain. More than half of the respondents (53%) lost their jobs in the past year. Of course those who experienced job insecurity are also less likely to splurge on a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Guests May Have To Foot The Bill

How are Americans reducing Turkey Day costs this year? Some are celebrating their Friendsgiving meals with pizza instead of turkey. Others are keeping their Thanksgiving dinner small, while some Americans are getting more creative. For many people, Thanksgiving dinner looks like a potluck. Friends and family are typically asked to bring a side dish, dessert, or drinks. But this year, hosts are going one step further.

Going to a Thanksgiving dinner? You may be asked to pay for your meal! That’s right. The survey found that 42% of people are asking their guests to pitch in with some green, and we’re not talking salad or green beans here.

This year, 33% of Americans are also reducing the cost of their Thanksgiving budget from last year’s expenses. When you look at the generational breakdown, Gen X is being the most frugal. According to the survey, 40% of Gen Xers plan on spending less than $100 for their turkey day meal.

Cost-Saving Strategies To Keep In Mind

With tight budgets and the rising cost of everything from sweet potatoes to turkey, how are Americans saving on Thanksgiving dinners? There are a few strategies that people plan to use that could work. Paying attention to deals topped the survey at 38%. Other strategies include using coupons, comparing prices, shopping the pantry first, not traveling, and buying a smaller turkey. While these are strategies most of us know, they can be helpful to keep in mind during the holiday season.

Regardless of how you’re celebrating Thanksgiving this year, just be sure to keep the turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes. Those are the top three dishes that people would never cut from their Turkey Day feast, even when on a budget, and we understand why the classics have survived.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/1-in-4-americans-surveyed-say-they-plan-to-skip-thanksgiving-due-to-costs/ar-AA14bOW1

Apart from being more durable than the old notes, the new notes is more secure which will make it more difficult to produce counterfeit and also capable of strengthen the economy by reducing the money in circulation.
what's your take on this? Can the new notes actually strengthen the economy as claimed by the CBN? Your views please!

$30 Million in Counterfeit U.S. Currency Seized in Historical Secret Service Operation

11-17-2016

On Nov. 15, 2016, the Peruvian government, along with U.S. Secret Service Agents, executed pre-dawn search and arrest warrants in Lima, Peru. More than 1,500 Peruvian National Police officers were involved in the operation. A total of 54 search warrants were conducted and 48 people were arrested.

Thirty million counterfeit U.S. dollars and 50,000 Euros were discovered during the operation. Additionally six counterfeit plants were suppressed, eight counterfeit manufacturing presses seized and over 1,600 printing plates and negatives of varying denominations were found.

https://www.secretservice.gov/press/releases/2016/11/30-million-counterfeit-us-currency-seized-historical-secret-service

Thieves who broke into a southern German museum and stole hundreds of ancient gold coins got in and out in nine minutes without raising the alarm, officials said Wednesday, in a further sign that the heist was the work of organized criminals.

Police have launched an international hunt for the thieves and their loot, consisting of 483 Celtic coins and a lump of unworked gold that were discovered during an archeological dig near the present-day town of Manching in 1999.

Guido Limmer, the deputy head of Bavaria’s State Criminal Police Office, described how at 1:17 a.m. (0017 GMT) on Tuesday cables were cut at a telecoms hub about one kilometer (less than a mile) from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, knocking out communications networks in the region.

Security systems at the museum recorded that a door was pried open at 1:26 a.m. and then how the thieves left again at 1:35 a.m., Limmer said. It was in those nine minutes that the culprits must have smashed open a display cabinet and scooped out the treasure.

Limmer said there were “parallels” between the heist in Manching and the theft of priceless jewels in Dresden and a large gold coin in Berlin in recent years. Both have been blamed on a Berlin-based crime family.

“Whether there’s a link we can’t say,” he added. “Only this much: we are in touch with colleagues to investigate all possible angles.”

Bavaria’s minister of science and arts, Markus Blume, said evidence pointed to the work of professionals.

“It’s clear that you don’t simply march into a museum and take this treasure with you,” he told public broadcaster BR. “It’s highly secured and as such there’s a suspicion that we’re rather dealing with a case of organized crime.”

Officials acknowledged, however, that there was no guard at the museum overnight.

An alarm system was deemed to provide sufficient security, said Rupert Gebhard, who heads the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection in Munich.

Gebhard said the hoard was of great value both for the local community in Manching and for archaeologists across Europe.

The bowl-shaped coins, dating back to about 100 B.C., were made from Bohemian river gold and show how the Celtic settlement at Manching had links across Europe, he said.

Gebhard estimated the value of the treasure at about 1.6 million euros ($1.65 million).

“The archaeologists hope that the coins remain in their original state and reappear again at some point,” he said, adding that they are well documented and would be hard to sell.

“The worst option, the melting down, would mean a total loss for us,” he said, noting that the material value of the gold itself would only run to about 250,000 euros at current market prices.

Gebhard said the size of the trove suggested it might have been “the war chest of a tribal chief.” It was found inside a sack buried beneath building foundations, and was the biggest such discovery made during regular archaeological excavations in Germany in the 20th century.

Limmer, the deputy police chief, said Interpol and Europol have already been alerted to the coins’ theft and a 20-strong special investigations unit, codenamed ‘Oppidum’ after the Latin term for a Celtic settlement, has been established to track down the culprits.



https://fortune.com/2022/11/23/germany-celtic-gold-coins-heist-theft-manching-museum-organized-crime-wave/