I had the pleasure of watching Iggy Pintado?s keynote at the recent Social Media Down Under event in Sydney. After his presentation I got to interview Iggy.
Can you tell us about Real Tweeple?
Adam Franklin: Hi, its Adam Franklin and we?re at Social Media Down Under. I am here with Iggy Pintado and I?ve got one extra question I would like to ask you following on from your presentation today. Can you tell us a bit more about Real Tweeple?
Iggy Pintado: Yeah sure, I was once asked about all the people who follow me on Twitter and whether they are real or not. And what I decided to do is take a 30 second video of them. Basically asking them who they are, what they do and what?s their passion. Then post it up on my YouTube channel called Real Tweeple and I have already introduced about 130 people to my network via Real Tweeple. It is just giving that face and that context to the people that are on Twitter.
Adam: Yeah right, that?s awesome!
Iggy: You?re next by the way
Adam: Fantastic!
Where can people find out more?
Adam: How can people find out more about you Iggy? Where should they go?
Iggy: They can find me just about anywhere, Google me, Facebook me, LinkedIn me, Twitter me, YouTube me, wherever you like I am pretty much there. Blessed with an name like Iggy Pintado.
Adam: Unique
Iggy: Because its very unique.
Adam: Google Iggy Pintado or connect with him, he is probably one of the most connected people in Australia and thanks again for speaking today. Thanks again for speaking today.
Iggy: Thanks Adam.
Connect with Iggy Pintado on Twitter ? @iggypintado or buy his book Connection Generation.
Fuel economy EPA highway (mpg): 25 and EPA city (mpg): 16
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Have you ever been injured in an accident, and wished that you had the legal representation to properly take care of the issue? Seidman Law is a law practice that has five attorneys on their staff, with more than 30 years of personal injury litigation experience between them. They are a company that has been able to provide substantial compensation to their clients in many different cases, and has a goal to ensure that they are providing the best customer service is possible to their clients. Since they are a smaller firm when compared to others, they know that providing excellent service to the client is what is going to separate them from the rest. There are many things that people look for in a personal injury attorney, with each of them being different for that particular person.
Seidman Law works in a number of different areas of practice, in an effort to better serve their clients. As a personal injury law firm, they deal with many different types of cases, including but not limited to, auto accidents, wrongful death, catastrophic injury, medical malpractice, nursing home negligence, injuries to children, as best as another neglect related injuries, railroad incident, and defective products. Depending on what you are looking for, they have the expertise and the staff to put together an excellent plan that can help you to receive the compensation that you are looking for.
Anyone that has been heard as a result of the negligence of another individual knows just how important it can be for you to have the right legal representation. By law, you are entitled to some compensation, but will never be able to receive it if you do not make the right choice and lawyers. It is important that you find a company, much like Seidman Law Offices, who has been involved in many Chicago Construction Accident Lawyer cases, and has a long track record of being able to deliver excellent services to their clients.
The Company also has a wide range of different verdicts that they have been able to help clients received. The largest grocer verdict that they have ever been able to receive for their clients, accounted for more than $25 million in total, when a trucker was run over by coworker, and the landowner was liable for not properly controlling the traffic on his land. The company also has a handful of other million dollar plus verdicts and settlements, that they have been able to help their clients reach. These verdicts come from medical malpractice,wrongful deaths, machine malfunction, injury due to a defective product, death of a child as a result of an auto accident, medical negligence, and anesthesiology error. They are the premier Wrongful Death Lawyer Chicago firm in the area, and their track record more than speaks for itself. Their long list of accomplishments, in receiving positive verdicts for their clients, some for more than millions of dollars, have made them an excellent option throughout the Chicago area. If you are looking for excellent legal representation in the Chicago area, then Seidman Law is the choice you need to make.
Most cause marketing faces the consumer. You can imagine why. The lady who buys, say, printer paper where you work almost certainly is under the obligation to find the best price she can. A pink ribbon on a box of paper almost certainly is unmoving to corporate purchasing types if it also carries a premium price or if it doesn?t meet spec.
But business to business cause marketing does take place, even if it?s not common. This is my 890th post, and in nearly six years I?ve mentioned business to business cause marketing less than a dozen times.??
Add one more.
AmpliVox, an Illinois company which makes and sells portable sound systems and lecterns, does a form of non-transactional cause marketing to benefit the fights against both breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Not surprisingly perhaps, this came about when the human element was reintroduced to the B2B equation; AmpliVox?s owner, Don Roth, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008. Listen for Roth?s part of the story when you watch the video on the left.
Shortly after his diagnosis Roth and his team developed two new versions of its polyurethane Pinnacle lectern, one in pink for breast cancer awareness and one in blue for prostate cancer awareness. AmpliVox donates the appropriately-colored podiums? which have handles and casters for easy moving? to every prostate or breast cancer group or event. AmpliVox covers all costs including shipping. The donation is for the lectern only. Any added microphones, amps, speakers or graphics would be an additional cost to the organization.
Roth says why AmpliVox did this, but is there also a business case to be made for this donation? I think there is.
First of all, we can safely assume that AmpliVox has driven out all the costs it can from making and shipping its pink and blue podiums. But even if it?s cheap for AmpliVox to produce, it isn?t no cost.
The main reason, it seems to me is that it gives AmpliVox a way to distinguish itself from competitors. And, it gives the company and its employees an ongoing story to tell... I learned about AmpliVox?s pink podiums at the bottom of a press release in the ?About AmpliVox? paragraph at the bottom of the release. The release was about an unrelated product.
If these seem like small advantages remember that Big Ass Fans, the company that makes super-sized ceiling fans mainly for industrial use, was doing just fine, but no better than that under its original name, HVLS Fan Company. The name change brought Big Ass Fans out of obscurity. (With its evocative name and donkey mascot, Big Ass Fans is now also an active merchandiser of its brand. Profits from its ?gear? store benefit Habitat for Humanity, local food banks in Lexington, Kentucky, veteran?s organizations and the Longhopes Donkey Shelter).
Providing pink and blue podiums gratis could certainly do the same for AmpliVox.
Related Story: City of Tulsa's 'weak safety culture' costs millions in employee injuries, claims
That's what got the attention of Mayor Dewey Bartlett and former Chief of Staff Terry Simonson. The city was spending millions of dollars a year on workers compensation, and the total seemed to be going up every year, surpassing $10 million in the 2011 budget year.
By most measures, the city's injury rates and workers compensation costs far exceeded most other municipalities.
But Bartlett and other city officials say that as they delved into the problem, the money became secondary.
"The money saved is really secondary," Bartlett said. "If we have an unsafe situation ... it causes a lot of problems for that individual, but also causes some very serious problems for his or her family's future. Those, to me, are the paramount reasons we need to grab hold and have some drastic improvement in our workers' comp problem."
Earlier this year, the city hired DuPont Sustainable Solutions - a division of the international chemical company - at a cost of $71,000 to perform a safety assessment.
"When we started the project, it really was about cost," said Vickie Beyer, director of the management review office. "But as we got further into the project, we realized what those numbers really meant is that we have not paid attention to the safety aspects and taking care of our employees the way we need to."
The assessment addresses problems it found with the city's "safety culture," but not what some people believe is another problem - abuse of the workers' compensation system.
"I don't think we've gone down that path," Beyer said. "We've just been trying to understand what the numbers are what they mean.
"I don't think it's necessarily about fraud," Beyer said. "I think it's about what are we doing differently than other cities."
Bartlett disagreed with the notion that the greater emphasis on safety might deter questionable workers' compensation claims because it suggests greater attention to injuries.
"That really isn't part of the focus," Bartlett said. "It really is safety of the individual. The way we have to measure that is the cost involved.
"The conjecture that people are taking advantage of it ... everybody always hears that - that's not the focus. It cannot be because that would take a huge amount of time, and I really don't think it would accomplish anything. At the end of the day, we simply have a problem of our employees not having the right attitude ... that focuses on safety.
"If we can make that change ... well, then, that question of people taking advantage, that can be evaluated at that time. But to me that's much, much less of a priority."
Original Print Headline: Bartlett: Safety costs go beyond dollars
Randy Krehbiel 918-581-8365 randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com
There are many ways to enjoy the Swiss Alps during your vacation. You can stay on the ground and have fun on the snow like going for snowboarding, sledding, toboggan rides, exploring Alpine forests, lakes and glaciers or just going for winter walks. You can also enjoy the Alps by climbing and reaching mountain peaks like that of the Matterhorn, Switzerland and Zermatt?s most iconic landmark. But up in the air also offers a unique way of enjoying the ski resort town of Zermatt. There are many Zermatt ski lifts available in various areas across the town; some are even near Zermatt hotels. You don?t have to labor so hard and climb all the way to the top of the mountain slopes because ski lifts and cable cars can bring you there easily, conveniently and definitely faster! This is the preferred way of visitors and locals alike to get to the top of the mountain ski runs and ski pistes for a whole day of Zermatt and Matterhorn skiing. There is an added bonus to taking the Zermatt ski lifts; it is by itself an adventure on its own. Up in the air your breath will be taken away as you gaze into majestic mountain peaks dotting the Swiss Alps, the snow covered slopes below you, the amazing sites of glaciers and traditional villages from afar, the land blanketed with pure whiteness. You can look at all directions and be blown away by the exquisite beauty of the Swiss Alps. Riding the ski lifts is definitely one activity that you should look forward to during your Zermatt holiday. Most Zermatt ski lifts usually start operating at around 8 in the morning and do not close until around 4:30 in the afternoon giving you more time to enjoy Zermatt skiing. You can look forward to ski lift rides with friends or your family as most ski lifts can accommodate 2 to 3 people. During your Zermatt vacation, take the time to ride the ski lift to Klein Matterhorn as it is the highest cable car in the whole world at a height of more than 12,000 feet! Amazing view waiting for you! Many of these ski lifts are just walking distance from Zermatt hotels so it is convenient for everyone. You can check out the list of available ski lifts below to see the lifts near your Zermatt accommodation, there may be more than one. Enjoy your Zermatt vacations and holidays!
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Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is one of six organizations recognized by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) with the 2012 Summit Award. The award is the highest recognition under The Power of A Awards, launched in 2009 to raise awareness of policymakers and other audiences about the wealth of knowledge and resources in the association community. MOAAs career transition assistance program, The Officer Placement Service (TOPS) won because MOAA identified a need in the community and developed a meaningful program to address it. MOAA will receive the award during the Summit Awards Dinner, October 3, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
MOAAs Scholarship Fund and the Military Spouse Employment Program were each recognized with The Power of A Silver Awards as well.
The Military Spouse Employment Program was recognized for its efforts to assist military spouses in obtaining meaningful employment and opportunities to advance their careers, and MOAAs Scholarship Fund for the commitment to the concept of servant leadership and helping to assure a bright future for the children of our military personnel.
ASAE Award-winning entries showcase how associations benefit society through volunteerism, education, social responsibility, innovation, research and problem solving.
Associations across the globe are always striving to build a better society, and its important that we celebrate and draw attention to the critical role they play, P. Allen Haney, chairman of The Power of A Awards Judging Committee said.
The entire MOAA team is very honored to be recognized by ASAE with these prestigious awards and proud of what of what we have been able to accomplish to assist veterans and their families, MOAA President and CEO Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, Jr. said. MOAA is committed to remaining engaged and eliminating the significant disparities in veteran unemployment and fostering an increased awareness of the strengths veterans can bring to high performing business organizations.
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Theresa Manzella from Hamilton, MT at one time spent everyday competing in Free Style reining around the nation. Today she is home teaching horsemanship and dealing horse issues. She joins me on Loos Trails and Tales just to give a real hands on account of what the horse business is really like today. Great conversation enjoy.
A study from researchers in Switzerland found that colonoscopy with polypectomy significantly reduces colorectal cancer incidence and colorectal cancer-related death in the general population.
via Colonoscopy screening markedly reduces colorectal cancer incidence and death.
This entry was posted on July 26, 2012 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Health, Quickly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
GE and Nissan had previously ruled out GE's WattStation as the cause of a few Leaf charging failures, and that story of EV tragedy looks to be winding to a close with a more definitive explanation. As the two tell us, a bug in the Leaf's on-board charging software can damage the relevant hardware under a perfect storm of conditions: if a drivers uses a specific (but not necessarily GE) charger, an undervoltage or similar power crisis can bring the Leaf to its knees. Nissan says it's hurrying towards a remedy, although we're working to confirm just what that entails. In the meantime, the automaker is asking owners to be cautious and avoid plugging in when there's lightning or brownouts in the making.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks took off at the end of the week, drawn by the allure of a helping hand from the world's two most powerful central banks. Traders are unlikely to resist those charms again next week.
The U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank both meet next week amid investor expectations of action to stimulate economic growth and, in the case of the ECB, tackle the spreading euro zone debt crisis.
The drumbeat of weak economic data and disappointing U.S. corporate profits and outlooks mean central banks can be stocks' best friends.
Equity prices tend to rise sharply in the hours before a Fed statement like the one expected on Wednesday as traders and investors jockey for position and a chance to make a profit.
Next week's calendar has a double-whammy. The Fed's monetary policy statement will come one day before an ECB meeting packed with intrigue. ECB President Mario Draghi said earlier this week the bank was ready to do whatever was necessary, within its mandate, to save the euro.
"People in this business like to get in front of big events, especially if (they) could be very, very positive for the market," said Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist at agency brokerage Rosenblatt Securities.
In that sense the strategy "is almost like a lottery ticket," he said.
But was that ticket already cashed? The S&P 500 <.spx><.inx> rallied to levels not seen since May on Friday, a rally that was sparked a day earlier after Draghi stoked expectations the ECB might resume its Securities Markets Programme (SMP) and possibly adopt more aggressive quantitative easing.
Reports of meetings with the head of Germany's Bundesbank fueled a Friday rally that outpaced Thursday's gains.
Equity markets have for weeks been leaning on hoped-for stimulus from the Fed or ECB. Despite weeks of softening economic data, including a dismal payrolls report for June and a poor outlook for corporate profits, the S&P 500 has risen in seven of the past 10 weeks. It closed on Friday near a three-month high.
REMARKABLE PATTERN
At the same time that traders position themselves to benefit from the Fed's latest easy-money policy, those betting against market gains get out of the way and selling pressure recedes.
"It's very scary to short the market ahead of a Fed meeting," said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Las Vegas-based Bright Trading and co-founder of Premarketinfo.com. "So you have this short-covering that drives prices up."
That helps explain the rise in stocks in the 24 hours prior to the U.S. central bank's policy decisions - a pattern that tends to hold irrespective of what the Fed actually says in its statement.
Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York performed a study of the pattern.
Starting mid-afternoon the day before such decisions, stocks in the United States, Britain, Germany and other major markets begin a sharp rise and don't stop, on average, until just before the Fed unveils its policy decision at 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT) the following day.
Since 1994 a whopping 80 percent of the premium in gains of U.S. stocks over yields on short-term government bonds has been earned in these 24-hour periods, the study found.
The pattern has grown starker as the Fed took increasingly aggressive actions to rescue the U.S. economy from recession. The two rounds of major asset purchases, known as quantitative easing, or QE1 and QE2, in recent years strongly boosted stocks.
"Perhaps this shows markets have given the Fed their seal of approval," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
"At least from a market participant perspective, they are confident the Fed will fulfill its mandate. I try to talk to individual investors to remind them that the stock market is going to react much more quickly than the economy to what the Fed does," he said.
CENTRAL BANKS OVERSHADOW EARNINGS
The focus on central bank meetings will get in the way of a heavy week of earnings for S&P 500 companies at a time when the outlook continues to worsen.
Major companies due to report include AIG , Kellogg , Procter & Gamble , Kraft Foods , Pfizer , MasterCard and General Motors .
Among the 290 companies in the S&P 500 index that have reported earnings for the second quarter, about 67 percent have beaten analysts' estimates, slightly higher than the long-term average of about 62 percent.
But just 40 percent have beaten on revenues, the worst record since the first quarter of 2009.
More worrisome is the market's outlook. Third-quarter earnings are now expected to decline 0.4 percent from a year ago, compared with an expected rise of 1.4 percent last week, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Also on investors' radar next week is another legal battle in California over patents between Apple and South Korea's Samsung . The trial's outcome could reshape the smartphone and tablet wars between the iPhone's maker and its rivals.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
Live Dial in Number:?1-877-941-1427 or 1-480-629-9664 Replay Dial in Number: 1-877-870-5176 & 1-858-384-5517 Passcode:?4550550 A telephone replay of the conference call will be available through August 2nd, 2012
Check out this amazingly fun firework. It's actually a flying vehicle powered by fireworks that propel it up in a spiral of fire. It apparently uses different stages, until the final one explodes in a ball of light. More »
Marvel turned a few heads when they selected?Joe and?Anthony Russo to direct?Captain America: Winter Soldier. ?The Russo brothers spend most of their time directing and producing TV comedies like?Community and?Happy Endings, and their last feature was?You, Me and Dupree?that is not the typical path to helming a superhero tentpole. ?As producer on the upcoming NBC sitcom?Animal Practice, Russo was on hand at the TCA Press Tour to explain why the jump from?Community to?Captain America 2 is not as far out as you might think: ?Well, I think if you look at some of the big genre episodes?the paintball episodes, etc.?there?s a cinematic sensibility being explored there that is in the language of [various kinds of] films.?
Marvel trained Russo to dodge most of the questions regarding plot and story details, but the press followed up with enough questions to obtain a few interesting tidbits. ?See what Russo had to say after the jump. ?Starring?Chris Evans,?Anthony Mackie, and?Sebastian Stan,?Captain America: The Winter Soldier is scheduled for release on April 4, 2014.
Since Evans is a funny guy and comedy is the Russos? specialty, The Huffington Post asked how comedic the script is. ?Russo answered:
I mean, we?re trying to grow him as a character, and certainly he?s come a long way, from where he started in pre-World War 2 to where he is in modern-day America. So the character has room for growth because of that huge journey that he?s been on, Number 1. Number 2, part of the appeal of these movies is the ensemble. Captain America isn?t the only character in the film, there are other characters that are perhaps lighter in nature.
Russo pointed to Bucky Barnes as one of the lighter characters.
The ?Winter Soldier? subtitle comes from a storyline by Ed Brubaker?that the brothers responded to:
I can say in general that there?s sort of a darker, edgier sensibility at work there that we found appealing, and that is going find its way into Captain [America] in the modern day.
Brubaker?s?Winter Soldier does bring Captain America into the modern day, which is probably necessary since the end of the first?Captain America brought our hero into the present so he could team up to save the world in?The Avengers. ?But the first movie set itself apart amid the comic book fare by having so much fun with the WWII era. ?Russo was asked if there might be flashbacks to the 1940s, and responded:
?Certainly Cap has this complicated history. We?re making the movie for first-time viewers, not just for fans, so, because Cap does have this complicated history ? he was this skinny guy who became a super-soldier, he was born back then and he?s living [now] ? in the storytelling, you need to convey that to an audience who doesn?t know Cap?s story.?
Regarding the first movie?s reverence for classic war films, Russo elaborated:
?[Captain America] is in a very different time and place. For as well as that style worked for his World War 2 experience and the origin of Cap?part of the fun of picking a guy out of one time period and plopping him down in another is that all bets are off. The whole world is different, and that?s part of the struggle of the character and the challenge the character faces.?
I suppose we don?t need another 2-hour period piece, but I like to hear that we will revisit that part of Rogers? life. ?I hope it is new scenes that tie into the present day rather than a recap edited from past footage.
To give you an idea of what kind of secrecy Russo is up against, these are his responses to the last four questions.
?That?s the something that Marvel would shoot me if I answered.?
?I can?t talk about any of that at all, sorry.?
?I?m very interested in that, but yeah, I can?t really say more.?
?I can?t say, but it?s part of that same mosaic.?
The Russo brothers have done some great work on television, so even if they can?t really let you and I in on the process, I am excited to see what they come up with.
New method to encourage virtual power plants for efficient renewable energy productionPublic release date: 25-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Glenn Harris G.Harris@soton.ac.uk 44-023-805-93212 University of Southampton
Researchers from the University of Southampton have devised a novel method for forming virtual power plants to provide renewable energy production in the UK.
In the last decade, small and distributed energy resources (DERs), like wind farms and solar panels, have begun to appear in greater numbers in the electricity supply network (Grid).
To ensure that energy demand is met without interruptions, the Grid requires power suppliers to provide an estimate of their production and the confidence in meeting that estimate. Depending on the confidence placed on the estimates, the Grid is able to choose the appropriate number of conventional generators needed to produce and supply energy whenever it is needed - the more accurate the provided estimates, and the higher the confidence placed in those estimates, the better for the Grid scheduling activities.
Although the deployment of DERs could reduce reliance on conventional power plants, their integration into the Grid is problematic since the DERs, given their small size, are largely 'invisible' to the Grid. Even if visible, the uncertainty and uncontrollability of renewable energy sources prevents individual DERs from profitably dealing with the Grid directly, or participating in the wholesale electricity market because they are often unable to meet the set generation targets.
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are fast emerging as a suitable means of integrating DERs into the Grid. They are formed via the aggregation of a large number of such DERs, enabling them to reach similar size and supply reliability as conventional power plants.
In a new study, University of Southampton researchers promote the formation of such 'cooperative' VPPs (CVPPs) using intelligent and multi-agent software systems. In particular, they designed a payment mechanism that encourages DERs to join CVPPs with large overall production.
Dr Valentin Robu, from the University's Agents, Interaction and Complexity Research Group, who worked on the study says: "There is considerable talk about how to integrate a large number of small, renewable sources into the grid in a more efficient and cost effective way, as current feed in tariffs, that simply reward production are expensive and ineffective.
"CVPPs that together have a higher total production and, crucially, can average out prediction errors is a promising solution, which does not require expensive additional infrastructure, just intelligent incentives."
By using a mathematical technique called proper scoring rules (a scoring rule, is a measure of the performance of an entity, be it person or machine, which repeatedly makes decisions under uncertainty), intelligent software agents, representing the individual DERs, are incentivised to report accurate estimates of their electricity production.
The researchers devised a scoring rules-based payment mechanism that incentivises the provision of accurate predictions from the CVPPs - and in turn, the member DERs - which aids in the planning of the supply schedule at the Grid. The mechanism guarantees that DERs are rewarded for providing estimates that are both accurate and have a high confidence, ensuring that software agents are given credit for high probability estimates that are close to the realised ones.
Valentin adds: "Scoring rules with specific incentive properties have long been used to design payment mechanisms that incentivise agents to report private probabilistic predictions truthfully and to the best of their forecasting abilities.
"We show that our mechanism incentivises real DERs to form CVPPs, and outperforms the current state of the art payment mechanism developed for this problem."
The researchers collected half-hourly wind-speed data for a 10-week period from 16 commercial wind farms in the UK in order to validate their approach. They will be presenting their paper at the AAAI conference (22-26 July), in Toronto, Canada this week.
###
The Southampton researchers have been exploring these ideas for some time through the iDEaS project, an industrially-funded project, which aims to explore the issues associated with the decentralised control, operation and management of future generation electricity networks. The other members of the research team are Dr Ramachandra Kota and Dr Georgios Chalkiadakis. The project is led by Dr Alex Rogers and Professor Nick Jennings from Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. http://www.ideasproject.info/
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New method to encourage virtual power plants for efficient renewable energy productionPublic release date: 25-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Glenn Harris G.Harris@soton.ac.uk 44-023-805-93212 University of Southampton
Researchers from the University of Southampton have devised a novel method for forming virtual power plants to provide renewable energy production in the UK.
In the last decade, small and distributed energy resources (DERs), like wind farms and solar panels, have begun to appear in greater numbers in the electricity supply network (Grid).
To ensure that energy demand is met without interruptions, the Grid requires power suppliers to provide an estimate of their production and the confidence in meeting that estimate. Depending on the confidence placed on the estimates, the Grid is able to choose the appropriate number of conventional generators needed to produce and supply energy whenever it is needed - the more accurate the provided estimates, and the higher the confidence placed in those estimates, the better for the Grid scheduling activities.
Although the deployment of DERs could reduce reliance on conventional power plants, their integration into the Grid is problematic since the DERs, given their small size, are largely 'invisible' to the Grid. Even if visible, the uncertainty and uncontrollability of renewable energy sources prevents individual DERs from profitably dealing with the Grid directly, or participating in the wholesale electricity market because they are often unable to meet the set generation targets.
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are fast emerging as a suitable means of integrating DERs into the Grid. They are formed via the aggregation of a large number of such DERs, enabling them to reach similar size and supply reliability as conventional power plants.
In a new study, University of Southampton researchers promote the formation of such 'cooperative' VPPs (CVPPs) using intelligent and multi-agent software systems. In particular, they designed a payment mechanism that encourages DERs to join CVPPs with large overall production.
Dr Valentin Robu, from the University's Agents, Interaction and Complexity Research Group, who worked on the study says: "There is considerable talk about how to integrate a large number of small, renewable sources into the grid in a more efficient and cost effective way, as current feed in tariffs, that simply reward production are expensive and ineffective.
"CVPPs that together have a higher total production and, crucially, can average out prediction errors is a promising solution, which does not require expensive additional infrastructure, just intelligent incentives."
By using a mathematical technique called proper scoring rules (a scoring rule, is a measure of the performance of an entity, be it person or machine, which repeatedly makes decisions under uncertainty), intelligent software agents, representing the individual DERs, are incentivised to report accurate estimates of their electricity production.
The researchers devised a scoring rules-based payment mechanism that incentivises the provision of accurate predictions from the CVPPs - and in turn, the member DERs - which aids in the planning of the supply schedule at the Grid. The mechanism guarantees that DERs are rewarded for providing estimates that are both accurate and have a high confidence, ensuring that software agents are given credit for high probability estimates that are close to the realised ones.
Valentin adds: "Scoring rules with specific incentive properties have long been used to design payment mechanisms that incentivise agents to report private probabilistic predictions truthfully and to the best of their forecasting abilities.
"We show that our mechanism incentivises real DERs to form CVPPs, and outperforms the current state of the art payment mechanism developed for this problem."
The researchers collected half-hourly wind-speed data for a 10-week period from 16 commercial wind farms in the UK in order to validate their approach. They will be presenting their paper at the AAAI conference (22-26 July), in Toronto, Canada this week.
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The Southampton researchers have been exploring these ideas for some time through the iDEaS project, an industrially-funded project, which aims to explore the issues associated with the decentralised control, operation and management of future generation electricity networks. The other members of the research team are Dr Ramachandra Kota and Dr Georgios Chalkiadakis. The project is led by Dr Alex Rogers and Professor Nick Jennings from Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. http://www.ideasproject.info/
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It's taken a year to get the sinister ticks and motions of Osaka University's Affetto baby head out of our nightmares -- and now it's grown a torso. Walking that still-precarious line between robots and humans, the animated robot baby now has a pair of arms to call its own. The prototype upper body has a babyish looseness to it -- accidentally hitting itself in the face during the demo video -- with around 20 pneumatic actuators providing the movement. The face remains curiously paused, although we'd assume that the body prototype hasn't been paired with facial motions just yet, which just about puts it the right side of adorable. However, the demonstration does include some sinister faceless dance motions. It's right after the break -- you've been warned.
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday to work with leaders of all political stripes to "arrive at a consensus" on how to reduce gun violence across the United States after the Colorado shootings highlighted the issue in an election year.
Closing out a multiday trip that began in Aurora, Colorado, where he met with families and victims of the movie theater massacre there, Obama told a mostly African-American audience that such tragedies are replayed on a smaller scale in cities throughout the country on a daily basis.
"Every day and a half the number of young people we lose to violence is about the same as the number of people we lost in that movie theater," Obama said in remarks to the National Urban League, a group that works to promote civil rights and economic improvement for African-Americans.
"I'm going to continue to work with members of both parties and with religious groups and with civic organizations to arrive at a consensus around violence reduction."
Discussing or even touching on the issue of gun control during an election year is risky, and Obama has been careful to avoid making proposals that could offend gun owners and rally his Republican opponents.
The president made a point of emphasizing his support for the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which covers the right to bear arms.
"We recognize the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation, that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage," Obama said.
"But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals. That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities."
Obama did not make any new proposals on gun control in his remarks, though he said background checks for people seeking to buy firearms were more thorough since he took office.
Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's opponent in the November 6 election, said earlier this week that additional laws would not have stopped the massacre in Colorado. The former governor of Massachusetts has backed gun control measures in the past.
POLITICAL APPETITE
Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded after a shooter opened fire at a screening of the latest Batman movie in the Denver suburb of Aurora last week.
That was not the first major massacre to happen while Obama was in office, nor was it the first event to prompt a discussion about the issue of guns in America. The assassination attempt on then-congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in January 2011, in which six people were killed and 14 wounded, also sparked a debate over how to reduce violence.
Obama noted that the political appetite to tackle the issue was low and that initiatives to address it were often stymied.
"Too often those efforts are defeated by politics and by lobbying and eventually by the pull of our collective attention elsewhere," he said.
"Other steps to reduce violence have been met with opposition in Congress. This has been true for some time, particularly when it touches on the issue of guns."
The president has little political incentive to take on the issue of guns more directly. He is trying to shore up support among white, working-class men in political battleground states such as Virginia, where a robust message on gun control would not be likely to help him politically.
His message was well received by the mostly African-American audience in New Orleans, however, and Obama's visit was meant to court that group ahead of the election, too.
The National Urban League released a report recently that said although blacks voted overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008, if the number of African-American voters drops even 5 percentage points this year, it could tip the outcome in some vital states.
Coinciding with his speech, the White House said Obama will sign an executive order on Thursday aimed at helping prepare African-Americans better for high school graduation and college.
The executive order will create a presidential advisory committee and a federal inter-agency working group to help the initiative succeed, the White House said.
BEIJING (AP) ? Beijing's mayor is apparently still on track to be promoted to China's powerful decision-making body despite public questioning of the city government's handling of floods that left at least 37 dead.
Mayor Guo Jinlong and one of his vice mayors resigned, state media reported Wednesday, in what is likely a routine reshuffling. The announcement came as more rain was forecast to hit Beijing and amid signs that the death toll from last weekend's storms could jump higher.
Saturday's massive flooding was a major embarrassment for China's capital, which spent billions of dollars modernizing the city while apparently neglecting its drainage systems.
State media, analysts and China's online community have piled on criticism of the city's handling of the crisis and its lack of preparedness.
Saturday's heavy rain was unusual in normally dry Beijing. On Wednesday evening, more heavy rain fell on the capital as forecast by the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, which warned of possible flash flooding and mudslides in the capital's mountainous outskirts, including already hard-hit Fangshan.
Beijing traffic police issued a notice on its website advising residents to avoid traveling far and to try to use public transport as much as possible, to reduce congestion. The Beijing water authority posted on its microblog a map of the city with flood-prone areas marked out and suggested traffic routes to avoid them.
Concerned about the potential havoc that might be caused by the heavy rain, some people left work earlier than usual. There were no immediate reports of flooding.
Outgoing Mayor Guo had already been tapped for a promotion to the city's top position as Communist Party secretary, so his resignation was not unexpected.
Though his promotion appears to be moving forward, the storm and its fallout are a taint on him and his mentor and ally President Hu Jintao. As Beijing's party secretary, Guo is almost certain to be named to the powerful 25-member Politburo at a party congress later this year.
The official Xinhua News Agency said Wang Anshun, a Beijing city official since 2007, was appointed acting mayor.
One of Guo's vice mayors, Ji Lin, also resigned. State media reported earlier that Ji had taken up a position as head of the city's Political and Legal Committee.
On Wednesday, China Central Television showed new amateur video of the deadly flash flood that hit the rural community of Fangshan on Saturday, with pictures of a high river of brown water roiling through the small town's streets with enough force to push cars along.
Xinhua quoted the top official in the hardest-flood-hit district as saying their fatality and injury figures were still preliminary.
"Fangshan has suffered major losses, and the numbers are still in the process of being compiled," district head Qi Hong told reporters Tuesday, according to Xinhua. The district's fatality figures were never separately released but incorporated in the overall city toll.
The Beijing News reported online that Li Shixiang, head of the Beijing government committee set up to deal with the disaster's aftermath, told members at their first meeting Wednesday that updated information about the missing and dead would be released "in due time."
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Public release date: 25-Jul-2012
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