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Obama laid out the blueprint of his economic revival plan in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday that earned him a cold Republican response.
"It is our generation's task, then, to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth - a rising, thriving middle class," he said Tuesday.
He pledged a "smarter" rather than bigger government for "the many, and not just the few" during his second term.
Obama asked a divided Congress, with the House controlled by the opposition Republicans and the Senate by his Democrats, to work together and revive American economy.
"Now let's get this done," he thundered.
"It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country - the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love," Obama said.
Obama emphasised on economic growth and job creation in the US and said that "nothing I'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime".
Delivering growth and jobs will be the "North Star that guides our efforts", he said.
"Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants," he said, focusing on the contentious issue of how to deal with America's 11.5 million undocumented immigrants.
"And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy, and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy."
Obama promised to sign a bipartisan reform bill "right away".
Republicans said Obama was airing ideas that won't work and they have repeatedly rejected.
Senator Marco Rubio, who was delivering the response, said Obama's solution "to virtually every problem we face is for Washington to tax more, borrow more and spend more".
House Speaker John Boehner also panned what he called the president's "go-it-alone-approach," accusing him of pushing "stimulus policies that have failed to fix our economy."
Obama also called for efforts to reduce gun violence.
He said an "overwhelming" majority of Americans supported "commonsense reform" on firearms including tighter background checks and restrictions on "weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines".
He cited several incidents of gun violence from the massacre of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, to the shooting of six worshippers at a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
"The families of Newtown deserve a vote... The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence - they deserve a simple vote," Obama said.
And he urged gun-control opponents to allow a vote in Congress on his proposals.
Obama also announced the withdrawal of 34,000 US troops from Afghanistan by next year.
By visiting Web sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you can give money to any number of causes. These Web sites collect small amounts from many individuals in what is known as crowdfunding to finance everything from business start-ups to charitable causes to art projects.
While online crowdfunding is still relatively new, it has already demonstrated that many small contributions can add up. Deloitte, the accounting and consulting firm, estimates that the largest 30 crowdfunding sites raised more than $1.5 billion over the last five years, and expects that in 2013 alone the number could be $3 billion.
Now, a San Francisco start-up, SunFunder, is hoping that the collective power of the crowd can help bring a bit of clean, renewable energy to people living off the electric grid in rural areas of Africa and Asia. Since its crowdfunding site made its debut last July, the company has raised $50,000 from about 300 investors to finance four business ventures that sell solar-powered products in these areas, according to SunFunder?s founder, Ryan Levinson. Anyone is eligible to join the site ? so far investors have come from 18 different countries ? and the minimum investment is $10.
Unlike some other crowdfunding operations, SunFunder does not contribute the money to these small businesses; it lends the money and charges interest. As the loan is paid back, SunFunder returns the principal to its investors. Two of the four projects are already starting to pay the money back, Mr. Levinson said.
According to Richard Turner, the marketing director at SunnyMoney, a solar business that serves rural regions in Africa, demand is booming for small-scale solar-powered systems that provide light and charge cellphones. The alternative for many people in those regions is to rely on kerosene lamps to light homes and shops, which exposes them to potential harmful problems and the risk of starting a fire if a lamp is knocked over.
With the price of solar-powered technologies coming down, a solar-powered light can pay for itself in seven weeks with the money saved on kerosene, Mr. Turner said in a telephone interview from his London office. Since its founding, SunnyMoney has sold almost 300,000 solar-powered lights, which charge during the day and provide several hours of light at night. It hopes to hit the million mark before the end of this year.
The big challenge is finding working capital to buy inventory and build out the business. ?It?s difficult to attract funding from traditional financial institutions, and it can be a long, protracted process,? he said.
Within a month of being listed on the SunFunder Web site, SunnyMoney?s latest project, providing solar lights in the Chadiza district in Zambia, had attracted 86 investors contributing a total of $10,000.
Not only was crowdfunding quicker than negotiating a loan with a bank, it also helped SunnyMoney get its message out, Mr. Turner said. ?People who invest also spread your story on social media or word of mouth, so we?re engaging people, some of whom get more involved as supporters,? he added.
Mr. Levinson says he is encouraged by the early results of the SunFunder model and that the company is exploring additional ways to raise money.
Still, SunFunder?s $50,000 is only a drop in the bucket. The question for some in the industry is whether crowdfunding can unlock a significant amount of financing for businesses bringing renewable energy products to off-the-grid areas.
?It?s still too early to tell,? said Donn Tice, chief executive at d.light design, a manufacturer of solar light products and a supplier to companies like SunnyMoney.??This is still a new concept, and it?s unclear if and when this can really scale. Many of these businesses will be looking to raise a lot of money.?
Still, he is bullish on SunFunder?s concept. More conventional forms of financing could be attracted to this industry if crowdfunding ?can demonstrate that these businesses can make money and provide a return to investors,? he said.
Quality control at the point of a fingerPublic release date: 8-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alexander Schick alexander.schick@iosb.fraunhofer.de 49-721-609-1620 Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Hannover Messe 2013
With utter meticulousness, the quality control inspector examines a car bumper for defects in the paint work ultimately, only impeccable body parts get sent to final assembly. If he finds a defect in the paint, just a point of the finger is all it takes to send the defect to the QS inspection system, store it and document it. The employee obtains visual feedback through a monitor that displays a 3D reconstruction of the bumper. At first glance, it might seem completely futuristic, though soon enough, it could become an everyday part of quality assurance: Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe engineered the intelligent gesture control system on behalf of the BMW Group. In the future, it should supersede today's time-consuming test procedures. "Previously, the inspector had to note all defects that were detected, leave his workstation, go to the PC terminal, operate multiple input screens and then label the position of the defect and the defect type. That approach is laborious, time-intensive and prone to error," asserts Alexander Schick, scientist at IOSB. The gesture control system, by contrast, improves the inspector's working conditions considerably, and triggering substantial time savings the employee can remain at his workstation and interact directly with the test object. "If the bumper is fine, then he swipes over it from left to right. In the event of damage, he points to the location of the defect," says Schick.
3D tracking records people and objects in real time
This non-contact gesture-detection system is based on 3D data. Hence, the entire workstation must first be reconstructed in 3D. That includes the individual as well as the object with which he is working. "What does the inspector look like? Where is he situated? How does he move? What is he doing? Where is the object? all of these data are required so that the pointing gesture can properly link to the bumper," explains the researcher. In order to enable gesture control, the experts apply 3D-body tracking, which records the individual's posture in real time. Even the car body parts are "tracked." When it comes to this, the hardware requirements are minimal: A standard PC and two Microsoft Kinect systems consisting of camera and 3D sensors suffice in order to realize the reconstruction. Schick and his team developed the corresponding algorithms, which fuse multiple 2D and 3D images together, specifically for this kind of application, and adapted them to the standards of the BMW Group.
"The breeding ground for this technology is our Smart Control Room, where people can interact with the room quite naturally. They can use pointing gestures to operate remote displays without any additional equipment. The room recognizes what actions are taking place at that moment, and offers the appropriate information and tools. Since gesture detection does not depend on display screens, this means we can implement applications that use no monitors, like the gesture interaction here with real objects," explains Schick. "It makes no difference what kind of object we are dealing with. Instead of a bumper, we could also track a different part."
The technology can be subsequently integrated into existing production systems at little expense. Scientists could incorporate their effective process into the BMW Group's system through a specialized interface module. The gesture detection system will be presented at the 2013 Hannover Messe, from 8 to 12 April, at the Fraunhofer joint exhibition booth in Hall 2, Booth D18.
Plans call for the installation of a prototype model at the BMW plant in Landshut in January 2013. Working in cooperation with quality control inspectors, the system will be fine-tuned onsite before it gets deployed to production in the future.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Quality control at the point of a fingerPublic release date: 8-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alexander Schick alexander.schick@iosb.fraunhofer.de 49-721-609-1620 Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Hannover Messe 2013
With utter meticulousness, the quality control inspector examines a car bumper for defects in the paint work ultimately, only impeccable body parts get sent to final assembly. If he finds a defect in the paint, just a point of the finger is all it takes to send the defect to the QS inspection system, store it and document it. The employee obtains visual feedback through a monitor that displays a 3D reconstruction of the bumper. At first glance, it might seem completely futuristic, though soon enough, it could become an everyday part of quality assurance: Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe engineered the intelligent gesture control system on behalf of the BMW Group. In the future, it should supersede today's time-consuming test procedures. "Previously, the inspector had to note all defects that were detected, leave his workstation, go to the PC terminal, operate multiple input screens and then label the position of the defect and the defect type. That approach is laborious, time-intensive and prone to error," asserts Alexander Schick, scientist at IOSB. The gesture control system, by contrast, improves the inspector's working conditions considerably, and triggering substantial time savings the employee can remain at his workstation and interact directly with the test object. "If the bumper is fine, then he swipes over it from left to right. In the event of damage, he points to the location of the defect," says Schick.
3D tracking records people and objects in real time
This non-contact gesture-detection system is based on 3D data. Hence, the entire workstation must first be reconstructed in 3D. That includes the individual as well as the object with which he is working. "What does the inspector look like? Where is he situated? How does he move? What is he doing? Where is the object? all of these data are required so that the pointing gesture can properly link to the bumper," explains the researcher. In order to enable gesture control, the experts apply 3D-body tracking, which records the individual's posture in real time. Even the car body parts are "tracked." When it comes to this, the hardware requirements are minimal: A standard PC and two Microsoft Kinect systems consisting of camera and 3D sensors suffice in order to realize the reconstruction. Schick and his team developed the corresponding algorithms, which fuse multiple 2D and 3D images together, specifically for this kind of application, and adapted them to the standards of the BMW Group.
"The breeding ground for this technology is our Smart Control Room, where people can interact with the room quite naturally. They can use pointing gestures to operate remote displays without any additional equipment. The room recognizes what actions are taking place at that moment, and offers the appropriate information and tools. Since gesture detection does not depend on display screens, this means we can implement applications that use no monitors, like the gesture interaction here with real objects," explains Schick. "It makes no difference what kind of object we are dealing with. Instead of a bumper, we could also track a different part."
The technology can be subsequently integrated into existing production systems at little expense. Scientists could incorporate their effective process into the BMW Group's system through a specialized interface module. The gesture detection system will be presented at the 2013 Hannover Messe, from 8 to 12 April, at the Fraunhofer joint exhibition booth in Hall 2, Booth D18.
Plans call for the installation of a prototype model at the BMW plant in Landshut in January 2013. Working in cooperation with quality control inspectors, the system will be fine-tuned onsite before it gets deployed to production in the future.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Managing livestock with fences and gates is so medieval. The future, says one USDA scientist, is equipping cows with GPS units and coraling them via augmented reality. It may sound crazy, but it could be the best thing to happen to the industry in a century.
The millions of cattle who roam the world's pastures are generally enclosed in fences of wood or wire, a technique that has worked well for hundreds of years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dean Anderson thinks that it's time to bring the industry up to 21st century standards.
Grazing efficiently is tough because the landscape is unpredictable. Cows may find themselves clipping the weeds on their side of the fence, while lush green grass grows just a few feet away because of weather or erosion patterns. Sure, you can move the fence, but that's an expensive and time-consuming process. So why not remove the physical fence altogether, and replace it with a virtual one?
"It never made sense to me that we use static tools to manage dynamic resources," Anderson told Venue in a recent interview. He's working on a system somewhat like the electronic fences used to keep animals in the yard without a physical barrier ? but, naturally, a bit more sophisticated.
It builds on the popular method of rotating stock through multiple smaller paddocks, which gives better control over how the animals and land interact with each other. If you could do that without having to worry about dozens of fences and gates, wouldn't you?
The Directional Virtual Fencing system works by equipping cows with GPS headsets (they look strange, but the cows apparently don't mind) that constantly report the animal's position to a central location. Soft boundaries are set by whoever's managing the herd, and can be moved by miles to new pastures or shifted just a few yards to nudge the herd towards fresh grass.
As the cows approach the edge, they get corrected ? first with a gentle noise, then a loud one, then a light shock. Anderson tested the shock gear on himself to make sure it wasn't excessive, and he's sensitive to animal welfare. These cows may be destined for the dinner table, but until then, they're living creatures and must be treated with care.
It works like a charm with most animals, although some ("Like myself," jokes Anderson) are not amenable to the system. And it's useless without solid infrastructure (water and shelter), intelligence (where there's rain or dangerous terrain), and, critically, human backup. Anderson explains:
You need that flexibility, and you always need to ground-truth. The only way you can get optimum results, in my opinion, is to have someone who is trained in the basics of range science and animal science, to know when the numbers are good and when the numbers are lousy. Electronics simply provide numbers.
It's hard to say when we'll see the Directional Virtual Fencing system in action, although Anderson says that actual physical fence companies are bullish on the technology. It's expensive at the moment and a little outside the range, as it were, of traditional ranchers ? but the benefits are hard to deny: Better-fed cattle, healthier land, less manual intervention with natural animal tendencies.
The rest of the long interview has much more information on the system and current issues surrounding livestock, and is well worth a read.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
Long-term unemployment may not be the stubborn problem we thought it was.
Some economists say there are signs it could ease in the next few years as the economy improves, raising hopes for the millions of Americans who have spent months or even years looking for work.
?There have been some improvements in the job prospects for the long-term unemployed, and while it remains a very severe social and economic problem in this country, it?s not an intractable problem,? said Rob Valletta, research advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. ?There are glimmers of hope.?
About 4.7 million American jobseekers, or 38.1 percent of all unemployed people, had been out of work for six months or more in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That?s more than four times the number of people who had been out of work that long five years ago, just as the Great Recession was getting under way.
The recession officially ended in June of 2009, but job growth has remained painfully slow during the weak economic recovery. That?s meant that people who lose a job are often in for an arduous task when it comes to landing a new position.
The median duration of unemployment is currently 16 weeks, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That?s down from a high of more than 24 weeks in mid-2010, but still around double what it was in 2007.
The large number of people who are out of work for months or even years has caused some people to wonder whether long-term unemployed workers will ever find new jobs.
Related:Are you struggling in the suburbs? We want to hear from you.
But Valletta said his analysis of government data shows that as the job market slowly improved, even some who have been out of work for a long time finally landed a new position. The problem may have more to do with cyclical economic issues, therefore, and less to do with structural changes in the economy, such as a big shift in how many workers are needed in certain fields.
Valletta thinks that long-term unemployment will likely still be a problem for at least several more years. But, he doesn?t think it will last forever.
?It?s not a permanent problem,? he said.
Not everyone is so optimistic. Sylvia Allegretto, a research economist with the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley, noted that despite several years of tepid economy recovery, the job market has continued to grow at a snail?s pace. That means there are still millions fewer jobs out there for people who want a job.
The unemployment rate was at 7.9 percent in January, and 12.3 million people were unemployed and actively looking for a job.
With unemployment still at crisis levels, she argued that it may be premature to say whether the problem of long-term unemployment will work itself out as the labor market improves.
?It?s far too early in the labor market recovery to separate out whether this is now a structural problem,? she said.
Valletta?s research also delved into who has been out of work for a long time, part of an effort to understand whether the long-term unemployed are suffering from a structural problem that is keeping them from finding new work. His research found that workers of all walks of life, from construction workers to those in financial services, have had a tough time immediately finding a job.
?They?re a very diverse group, and what that suggests is that there?s not some lump of long-term unemployed out there that are different from all the other unemployed,? he said. ?Instead, the long-term unemployed are long-term unemployed largely because of bad luck and a very hard labor market.?
Related: Long-term unemployed losing benefits as jobs picture improves
Yahoo! News is gathering brief first-person accounts, photos and video from the severe winter weather in the northeastern United States. Here's one resident's story.
FIRST PERSON | BAYONNE, N.J. -- As the "snowpocalypse" bears down on the New York area, many of us are left waiting in suspense for how much the snow storm will affect us. As I walked the 15-minute trek from my home in Bayonne on my way to the train, I began to regret not bringing an umbrella, what with the snow-rain beating down on me. Even so, the weather did not seem all that intimidating as the snow turned into wet slush on the ground.
Before the storm prediction, there were plans to see friends, go to a bar, and say final see-you-laters to my grandma and aunt over the weekend. These relatives came all the way from the Philippines to attend my wedding back in November and then stayed in New York a few months longer. This week is their last week here, that is unless their airport shuts down or their flights get cancelled, which has been begun to happen with others. The weather has not been pleasant since my grandma arrived and after living through Hurricane Sandy and now this snow storm, I'm sure she'll be thrilled once she's back in the Philippines, where it's very sunny and warm.
While there were hopes of work being cancelled, my husband and I still clocked in roughly around 9 in the morning and my cousin who goes to high school in the Bronx trudged his way to classes. We later found out that where we both work in Manhattan, our offices are closing early today, his at 4:30 p.m. and mine around 3 p.m. Since we're going to have to still walk home from the train later today, I'm a bit anxious. This morning my husband noted that the slush from this morning will probably turn to ice and he just got an e-mail saying that Bayonne's street sweeping has been cancelled. I hope everyone travels safely.
For some reason some of my friends have been seeing gas lines that are a little reminiscent of Hurricane Sandy. Good thing I filled up my tank last week. Based on the advisory warning for Bayonne though, I don't plan on driving at all this weekend. I know that our cable lines were affected by Sandy and I hope this doesn't happen again this weekend, especially since my husband his to work from home on Sunday. At least my kitchen is reasonably stocked up on frozen waffles, canned food, and pasta.
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Public release date: 8-Feb-2013
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