Tag: test

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Health

Theranos blood take a look at accuracy at coronary heart of Elizabeth Holmes legal case

Theranos blood test accuracy at heart of Elizabeth Holmes criminal case

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes will attend the US government fraud court hearing against her on May 5, 2021.

CNBC

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes promised a technological breakthrough, but it really was a house of cards, prosecutors said during a trial Wednesday.

“Miss Holmes went out, told the world, and told investors, we have tests with the highest accuracy rate,” said US assistant attorney Robert Leach, adding that her expert’s testimony “lies.”

The argument was in response to efforts by the defense, Dr. Stephen Master, an associate professor of pathology and laboratory in the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, from taking a stand. In 2013, after interviewing Holmes at a conference, Master said that her claims about Theranos’ miniLab technology “fell far short of previous claims”.

Holmes’ defenders argued that the master was used as a “parrot” by the government and that his conclusions about certain Theranos blood tests were “based on emails and customer complaints,” not practical experience.

Wednesday’s hearing was the second day of the argument about what evidence can be admitted and excluded from Holmes’ criminal fraud trial, which begins August 31st.

Prosecutors, among other things, alleged that Holmes was presenting an inappropriate defense in good faith.

“Efforts to return money to victims cannot undo the fraud once it is committed,” said John Bostick, another US assistant attorney.

The judge is expected to rule on critical motions, including whether to provide evidence of Holmes’ assets and expenses, private text exchanges and regulatory reports by the end of the week.

The hearing came when a former Theranos executive who had been close to Holmes in the company’s final days told CNBC that management was discussing Holmes’ resignation as CEO on several occasions. For Holmes, however, “that was a non-runner”.

“If she had resigned, I think she would have saved herself a lot of legal danger,” said the former Theranos manager, who asked not to be named. “Everyone who knows Elizabeth knows that she saw herself as a company, and I don’t think she can see the company going on without her.”

Holmes left Stanford at 19 to start Theranos. By the time the company collapsed in 2018, she had a six-figure salary and a multi-billion dollar stake in the blood testing startup.

However, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that the technology didn’t work as Holmes claimed it did. Now she faces a dozen fraud charges for falsely claiming that Theranos technology can perform dozens of blood tests on a drop or two of blood. She pleaded not guilty.

Despite the chaos in the final months of her reign, Holmes believed Theranos could still be saved.

Holmes achieved a partial victory this week when the judge ruled that defenders can refer to Silicon Valley’s hype culture to explain why Holmes exaggerated the technology behind Theranos.

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Business

Retailers from Bloomingdale’s to Petco take a look at livestreaming to win gross sales

Retailers from Bloomingdale's to Petco test livestreaming to win sales

Source: Bloomingdale’s PR

On a recent weeknight, Jimmy Choo’s creative director, Sandra Choi, logged into Zoom to broadcast live to dozens of Bloomingdale’s customers.

The livestreamed event, organized by the department store, ran for about 45 minutes, during which Choi highlighted some of the biggest trends she’s seeing in footwear this spring — chunky, jeweled sandals, and ballet flats with ribbons. She eventually pivoted to discuss inspirations for post-pandemic fashion and gave viewers a first look at Jimmy Choo’s upcoming summer collection.

Participants who had signed up in advance received a complimentary cocktail and macarons, sent in the mail ahead of the event, to sip and snack on while watching. The first 50 people who bought a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes during or immediately after the event were told they’d receive a personalized fashion sketch as a token of appreciation. There was a separate gift basket and Bloomingdale’s gift card giveaway for everyone who watched the livestream until the end.

Bloomingdale’s has hosted more than 50 shoppable livestreamed events during the Covid pandemic. It’s one way it has tried to reach its customers at home, when they haven’t been able to visit its brick-and-mortar stores. The streams have ranged from make-up tutorials to cooking lessons to fitness classes to conversations around sustainability in fashion.

The company, owned by Macy’s, doesn’t disclose how much sales it derives from each stream, but it said the events are helping to drive purchases and to gather more information on its customers.

“Certainly in the beauty space, demonstrating product is incredibly helpful … and we’re making it easy to make the connection back to buy the products with relatively low friction,” said Bloomingdale’s chief marketing officer, Frank Berman. “The key for us is matching the right audience with the content that we’re putting together.”

As online sales accelerate, retailers are giving livestream shopping a more serious look, along with other innovative tools like shoppable features on social media apps. Some brands have already been successful with these tools in markets such as China, where livestreaming was popularized by Alibaba. But in the U.S., livestreaming remains a risky bet for retailers. Even Amazon, which was an early adopter of the strategy, has yet to draw consistently large crowds to its livestream shopping events.

The hope — especially among high-end retailers like Bloomingdale’s — is that Americans are beginning to splurge on pricey clothes, shoes, purses and jewelry to show off as they dress up and leave the house again. The behavior, often referred to as “revenge spending,” has already appeared in China. Livestreaming could be one way for these companies to showcase their merchandise to consumers who are armed with cash and ready to spend.

$25 billion market by 2023

In the U.S., the livestreaming market was worth about $6 billion last year and could reach $11 billion by the end of this year, according to consumer market research group Coresight Research. It expects the market could eclipse $25 billion by 2023.

That’s still far behind China, where livestreaming is estimated to have driven about $125 billion in sales in 2020, up from $63 billion in 2019, according to Coresight.

“We’ve seen this done this very successfully in China, there’s no secrets here,” said Coresight founder and CEO Deborah Weinswig. “Livestreaming doesn’t have to be hard at all.”

Shoppable livestreaming appears to be gaining the most momentum, so far, among American beauty brands. Companies from Bobbi Brown to Clinique to L’Oreal have leaned into virtual shoppable events as a way to test products like lip balm and skin creams in front of customers and entice them to buy the products online, on the spot.

A number of bigger chains are beginning to experiment, too. Nordstrom launched its own shoppable livestream channel earlier this year. In late April, Petco hosted its first-ever livestreamed event on Facebook, which was a mix of a pet fashion show along with a dog adoption drive. The shoe brand Aldo also in late April held its first live shopping event, tapping a celebrity stylist along with a TikTok star to help show off its products.

Nordstrom said its experimentation with livestreaming to sell products is just beginning. It joins a small but growing list of businesses in the U.S. to test a livestreaming platform.

Source: Nordstrom

Underpinning the interest from retailers is the endorsement of tech giants who have either launched or ramped up livestreaming services. TikTok has hosted shoppable livestream events with Walmart, where users can browse Walmart fashion featured by TikTok creators without having to leave the social media app. And Amazon, the biggest e-commerce player in the U.S., has embraced livestreaming on its site, featuring a rotating slate of QVC-style, interactive videos from brands and influencers at nearly all hours of the day.

There are more eyes and ears on retailer’s website than ever before. Even though Americans are likely to spend less time shopping online as they begin to socialize more outside the home, this transition period is an opportunity. Retailers can offer advice on what to wear or how to apply new makeup looks. 2021 will be a year for retailers to seize the moment.

Weinswig said a key reason why livestreaming may soon gain momentum, particularly with younger consumers, is because of the friction it can remove in the shopping process. During a livestream, shoppers may be able to ask questions and see various sizes and colors in real time. That means shoppers are more likely to keep what they buy, she said.

“Returns are 50% lower when items are bought in a livestream,” Weinswig said, citing Coresight data on the matter. “Because of the U.S. consumer’s focus on sustainability right now, that is what could ultimately drive livestreaming.”

Sales associates at one of Alibaba-owned InTime’s store display products for sale during a livestream.

InTime | Alibaba

Prime opportunity

Retailers and tech companies have closely watched Amazon’s efforts around livestream shopping, which began in earnest about six years ago.

Amazon first entered the livestream shopping space in 2016 with Style Code Live, a high energy show that let viewers shop while they watched hosts talk about the latest fashion trends. It brought in on-air personalities to host the show with previous experience at MTV’s Total Request Live and ABC’s Good Morning America. Style Code Live appeared poised to become QVC-style programming for the internet era before Amazon canceled the show, just 15 months after it launched.

Since then, Amazon’s strategy has evolved. It now operates Amazon Live, a livestreaming service that lets businesses and members of Amazon’s influencer program, both of which Amazon refers to as “creators,” show off merchandise and talk directly to shoppers.

Amazon has democratized the ability to start a livestream by launching the Live Creator app.

Amazon

Through an app called Amazon Live Creator, Amazon has democratized companies and influencers’ ability to host livestreams. With just a few taps, they can go live to Amazon’s millions of shoppers, though only a fraction of those shoppers typically tune into a stream. Under each video is a slideshow of products that can be purchased on Amazon. Influencers earn a cut of each sale made by shoppers who click through to products featured on the stream.

On any given day, there are dozens of Amazon Live streams with a mix of programming that can lean more on the casual or educational side. Influencers might go live to “unbox” their latest haul of beauty products or walk viewers through a full-body cardio workout that also highlights recommended bike shorts, dumbbells and yoga mats, all available to buy with just a few clicks. Another recent stream, which drew roughly 40 viewers, featured a “success coach and mind guide” who provided tips for “navigating life,” above a carousel of holistic beauty products for sale on Amazon.

Amazon Live has also become a fixture of the holiday shopping season and Prime Day, Amazon’s annual, two-day discount bonanza. As Amazon becomes flooded with markdowns, some of which expire in a few hours, brands will attempt to draw in deal-seeking shoppers by promoting discounted wares on Amazon Live. Last holiday season, more than 700 businesses streamed on Amazon Live, the company said.

Amazon declined to share Amazon Live usage data, such as the total number of companies and brands registered for the service.

Amazon said it encourages creators to stream longer than an hour, so that it gives viewers enough time to show up and sound off in the chat window. In the chat, viewers can talk with the host and ask questions about products featured on the stream. They can also choose to “follow” a business or influencer to get notified when they go live.

The ability to “follow” a creator has lent Amazon Live an air that’s similar to social media platforms like TikTok, Alphabet-owned YouTube, Facebook’s Instagram or Twitch, which is owned by Amazon. While consumers can’t see a creator’s follower count, the metric can be important for brands and influencers to improve their visibility on the platform.

Creators are encouraged to stream more frequently to climb internal Amazon Live rankings and “unlock more benefits.” For example, to reach “A-List” status, Amazon said companies must amass 2,000 followers and sell either 100 units or $5,000 worth of goods via livestream sales within 30 days. As creators ascend through the rankings, Amazon will reward them in certain ways, like placing their streams on the amazon.com homepage, as well as near or at the top of the Amazon Live landing page.

As Amazon Live has grown, the platform has become a hotspot for high-profile product launches, author Q&As and, occasionally, celebrity guests like pop star Dua Lipa, whose stream last March racked up 1.5 million views within the first 24 hours it was recorded.

Not all companies that sell on Amazon may have the time or resources to plan and execute livestreams. But businesses that have experimented with Amazon Live say they’ve experienced significant payoffs.

Coffee and tea maker Quivr has been able to attract a wider array of customers by promoting its nitro cold brew coffee products on Amazon Live. Last year, Quivr co-founder Ash Crawford went live for the first time from his backyard. He talked about Quivr for about an hour in front of 50 viewers. After that, Crawford was hooked and now he regularly streams on Amazon Live.

Crawford has tried out other technologies like livestreaming on TikTok and Instagram, but he found few of them have same buying power or conversion rate as Amazon Live. “It’s like clockwork or guaranteed that if we go live and I do a show, sales are increased for the next 24 hours by like 150%,” Crawford said in an interview.

Whereas TikTok or Instagram also features a mix of entertainment or catching up with friends and family, on Amazon, consumers are typically on the site with the intent of making a purchase.

“It’s about what thing are they going to purchase and how many of them,” Crawford said. “So, that’s kind of taken that step out of the equation, because on all the other platforms, you’re trying to drive them to a sales page, whether it’s your own website or Amazon.”

Zoe Zhang was a fashion designer prior to starting the U.S.-based livestreaming consulting group, And Luxe.

Source: And Luxe

‘Another arm of retail’

Many retailers are still waiting on the sidelines to see which third-party livestreaming platform will scale large enough to catch and keep consumers’ attention — a platform could potentially rival Amazon’s.

That might not end up being a social media site.

“The average social media user is not going into social media for commerce,” said Amitaabh Malhotra, co-founder of VISX.live, which is encouraging retailers to use their store associates to hold livestreams in their stores. “That’s where most of the U.S. mindset is when it comes to social media. … Most people use social media as an entertainment media channel where they’re looking at it just to see what’s going on.”

According to Mark Yuan, who co-founded the livestreaming consultancy And Luxe, retailers shouldn’t try to do livestreaming on their own, either.

“If choosing between a brand building their internal livestreaming capability or a marketplace where hundreds of brands and sellers and new influencers are livestreaming … I will choose the latter,” Yuan said. “Because consumers like one-stop shopping, and the convenience of just ‘swipe left.'”

There are a number of up-and-coming third-party livestreaming platforms, including Livescale, which has been used by brands such as L’Oreal, Lancome, Tommy Hilfiger and Kiehl’s.

ShopShops is another platform that launched in China in 2018 and recently expanded to the U.S., with a kickoff event with designer Rebecca Minkoff late last year.

“The focus on our English program right now is to recruit people who could potentially be livestream influencers,” ShopShops founder and CEO Liyia Wu said in an interview. “We’re targeting more retail associates. … Where we create the best, most authentic content, that’s where we have very high stickiness of user-ship.”

There’s also Popshop Live, which started working with the Mall of America to host livestreams last fall.

According to Coresight’s Weinswig, malls could become the perfect venue for livestreaming in the U.S., as they have been in China.

“Malls can make use of any vacant spaces and reassign employees to organize livestreaming events while physical traffic is low,” she said.

Coresight recently highlighted in a report the mall owner Your Mark, which operates around 40 shopping centers in Hunan province, and started livestreaming during the pandemic. The shopping mall Suntec City also launched Singapore’s first livestreaming shopping festival last June.

In China, where so-called revenge spending was especially pronounced as malls began to reopen, luxury brands like Hermes, Gucci and Prada reported a rapid bounce back in sales. Some of these companies could be the biggest beneficiaries of livestreaming.

“I really believe that livestream shopping is going to be another arm of retail, one that the Western world has not caught on to yet,” fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger said recently during a virtual panel at the Global Retailing Ideas Summit.

“We’ve tested it, we’ve had success with it, and we’re going … fully into it, because I really believe that the consumer is [always] walking around with a mobile device — or they’re shopping,” Hilfiger explained. “And if we combine all of that together with livestream shopping … we’re able to speak to the consumer, worldwide.”

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Business

American Airways to make use of nonunion pilots for some check flights, drawing criticism

American Airlines to use nonunion pilots for some test flights, drawing criticism

American Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft

Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto via Getty Images

American Airlines will no longer use unionized pilots to conduct certain test flights this month. A move that the Aviation Union argues would undermine the independence of these reviews.

As of Thursday, American will only hire non-union corporate pilots to test aircraft that are in long-term storage or that have recently undergone extensive maintenance before customers fly them. Previously, a group of specially trained union pilots carried out the duties together with non-union corporate pilots.

That union testing pilot group had shrunk from 24 in 2016 to around six when some left the union to become the company’s technical pilots, retired, or returned to airborne passengers, American said.

“Over the past five years American has switched our test flight to these experienced pilots and fleet experts to better cope with the unpredictability of test flights that are dictated by completion of maintenance and not on a set schedule,” said American Airlines spokeswoman Sarah Jantz .

But the Allied Pilots Association, which represents around 15,000 American pilots, is against the measure.

“The foundation of AA’s strong safety culture has been a commitment to ensuring that independent, protected, and intimidated pilots conduct these critical safety clearance flights versus management pilots who may have a conflict of interest,” said Eric Ferguson, captain of American Airlines and APA President said in a February 19 message to members. “Any step taken to crack this foundation will face the greatest opposition from APA.”

The union did not say that there were imminent or specific safety risks or that the procedures did not meet federal standards.

American said that its corporate pilots have already performed most of these flights and that they received the same specialized training as union test pilots.

“In April we will centralize this flying in accordance with the collective agreement and transfer it completely to our fleet captains and technical pilots,” said the American spokeswoman Jantz. “It is important that our expectations and standards do not change with this transition. We will continue to conduct maintenance-related flight reviews beyond FAA requirements with the same training and procedures and checklists.”

Americans said it was discussing with the union how they could involve their pilots in this type of flying. Union-represented airline pilots will continue to fly planes after being released from short-term camp before passengers fly on them.

Jantz said the number of test flights or the bar to meet them won’t change.

“All aircraft that are removed from storage must be serviced in accordance with the manufacturer’s maintenance manual and applicable FAA regulations and airworthiness guidelines,” FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said in a statement.

American said Monday that it plans to deploy most of the planes it parked during the pandemic in the second quarter to meet rising demand for travel.

The Allied Pilots Association has previously raised concerns about the flight test program, including to the Transportation Department’s watchdog in 2017, claiming there is a “culture of security complaint suppression”.

In July 2018, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation said it had conducted an audit that found that a Federal Aviation Administration inspector had “no objectivity” in his review of the US security program.

The FAA said it had completed six of the watchdog’s seven recommendations, except for one, requiring changes to be made to how inspectors assess objectivity to include potential issues such as the length of time they check the same airline. The FAA requested an extension through August.

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Politics

North Korea Conducts 1st Missile Check Underneath Biden Administration

North Korea Conducts 1st Missile Test Under Biden Administration

SEOUL – North Korea tested two short-range cruise missiles over the weekend, South Korean defense officials confirmed on Wednesday. The test was the first under the Biden administration and was added to a series of recent provocations and statements that were viewed as warnings to Washington.

The test took place off the west coast of North Korea on Sunday, just days after the country accused the United States and South Korea of ​​causing “a stench” on the Korean peninsula with their annual military exercises. It did not violate United Nations resolutions prohibiting North Korea from developing or testing ballistic missile technology.

When North Korea launches missile tests, they are usually celebrated by the state news media and quickly endorsed by the South Korean military. However, the North Korean news media did not cover the test on Sunday. South Korean officials said Wednesday that they discovered the test when it took place but decided not to report it immediately. They did not elaborate on their decision.

South Korean defense officials tend to view short-range cruise missile tests as less of a provocation than ballistic launches. They also tend not to highlight what they consider minor provocations from the north when trying to promote inter-Korean dialogue. When North Korea launched short-range cruise missiles off its east coast last April, they were immediately confirmed by South Korea. In this case, South Korean officials only confirmed the test after it was first reported by the Washington Post.

The missiles were launched at 6:36 a.m. on Sunday from a location near Nampo, a port southwest of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said Ha Tae-keung, a South Korean lawmaker briefed on Wednesday by intelligence officials. The intelligence officials said the South Korean military authorities had agreed with their American counterparts not to publish the tests, Ha said.

South Korea and the United States completed their annual 10-day military training exercise last week. North Korea has often responded to these exercises with its own exercises, which sometimes include missile tests.

Officials and analysts in the region have been watching North Korea closely to see if the country would escalate tensions to leverage ahead of possible negotiations with the Biden government.

North Korea has rejected any serious dialogue with Washington since the second summit between its Chairman Kim Jong-un and former President Donald J. Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, ended abruptly in 2019. Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump failed to reach an agreement on how quickly the North would cut its nuclear program or when Washington would grant sanction relief.

Pyongyang has made several hostile statements to the United States in the past few days, and analysts said the missile test may be part of a subtle pressure tactic, increasing the possibility that North Korea will return to a new cycle of tension on the peninsula to stamp out concessions from Washington .

“Through these new missile tests, Pyongyang is signaling to Team Biden that its military capabilities are getting stronger every day,” said Harry J. Kazianis, senior director of Korean Studies at the Washington-based Center for the National Interest, said in an email sent Comment.

The Biden government has stepped up efforts to work more closely with its regional allies South Korea and Japan to better cope with North Korea’s growing weaponry capabilities as well as an emerging China. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III visited Seoul and Tokyo last week as part of the government’s first high-level diplomatic tour of Asia.

President Biden plans to complete a policy review in North Korea in close coordination with South Korea and Japan in the coming weeks, Blinken said in Seoul. He said the review included “print options as well as potential for future diplomacy”. During his visit, Mr. Blinken also criticized North Korea’s human rights record and what he called Mr. Kim’s “repressive government” and its “widespread and systematic abuses”.

Washington made a breakthrough last week when a North Korean citizen was extradited to the US for the first time. A Malaysian court agreed to extradite the North Korean businessman, who is due to be tried in an American court for money laundering and violating international sanctions. North Korea accused Washington of being a “backstage manipulator” in this case and warned against “paying a fair price”.

Nor is it necessary to react to the recent attempts by the Biden government to enter into dialogue and reject them as a “trick of delaying time”.

As Washington strengthens its alliances with Tokyo and Seoul, Kim and Xi Jinping, China’s leaders, have vowed to bring their two communist countries closer together.

In a message to Mr. Xi published on the North Korean news media this week, Mr. Kim stressed the need to strengthen unity between the two countries in order to “deal with enemy forces.” In his own message to Mr. Kim, Mr. Xi vowed to help maintain “peace and stability” on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea’s recent missile test suggests that Mr. Kim “will tolerate continued economic dependence on China to get out of the pandemic of the offensive against Washington and Seoul,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

Categories
Politics

North Korea fires off first missile check since Biden took workplace

North Korea fires off first missile test since Biden took office

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – North Korea conducted a missile test for the first time during President Joe Biden’s tenure last weekend. Senior administration officials said Tuesday night they are monitoring the situation but stressed that the actions constituted a low-level provocation.

Pyongyang fired at least one missile, but senior administrative officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, refused to explain what type of weapon was fired, where the test was conducted, or the success rate.

At a briefing on Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby declined to comment on the missile launch.

The missile test comes when Pyongyang ignores invitations from Washington to discuss denuclearization and major joint US and South Korean military exercises resume on the peninsula.

“We have no illusions about the difficulties this task presents. We have a long history of disappointment with diplomacy with North Korea. It has defied the expectations of both the Republican and Democratic governments,” said a senior government official.

The official also said Washington was consulting with former Trump administration officials to gain additional insight into North Korea.

President Donald Trump will meet with North Korean President Kim Jong Un in Panmunjom, South Korea, in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas on June 30, 2019.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

“This type of saber-rattling is not threatening, but is intended to attract the attention of the Biden administration,” wrote Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior fellow at Defense Priorities, in a statement responding to the development.

“There is a way to negotiate freezes and potential rollbacks in exchange for limited sanction relief. But unless Washington is willing to compromise and normalize relations, Kim should continue developing and testing weapons,” Davis added.

Harry Kazianis, Senior Director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest, described North Korea’s actions as a message to the new government.

“With these new missile tests, Pyongyang is signaling to Team Biden that its military capabilities are getting stronger every day,” said Kazianis.

Last week, a senior North Korean official said Pyongyang would not respond to numerous invitations to resume nuclear talks until the United States abandons “hostile policies”.

“We have already stated our position that contact and dialogue between the DPRK and the US will not be possible if the US does not retract its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” said Choe Son Hui, first deputy foreign minister, according to a published statement by the Korean state central news agency on Thursday.

Also last week, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States when Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin began their first trip abroad under Biden’s leadership. The two visited South Korea and Japan to forge alliances and reaffirm US commitments and interests in the region.

“We take this opportunity to warn the new US administration that is trying to give something [gun] The smell of powder in our country, “Kim Yo Jong said in a statement referring to joint US and South Korean military exercises in the region.

“If it [the U.S.] wants to sleep in peace for the next four years, it should be better not to cause a stink at the first step, “she added, according to an English translation.

Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Jorge Silva | Reuters

Later on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration had no “direct comment or answer”.

″Our goal will always be centered on diplomacy and denuclearization in North Korea, “she said.” We are currently focused on working with and coordinating with our partners and allies on a number of issues, including security in the region. “

Under Kim Jong Un, the secluded state carried out its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first ballistic ICBM and threatened to launch missiles into the waters near the US territory of Guam.

Since 2011, Kim has fired more than 100 missiles and conducted four nuclear weapon tests. This is more than what his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung fired over a 27 year period.

Categories
Health

When Your Covid-19 Take a look at Comes Again Constructive Whereas Touring

When Your Covid-19 Test Comes Back Positive While Traveling

Amy and her daughter began their evacuation in PSA on February 9 with a 45-minute speedboat ride from the resort to the airport near the capital, Male. They boarded a twin-engine Hawker 800XP jet that had the stretcher, medical equipment, toilet, and seven seats. Along with them were two nurses and two pilots who were able to disembark with refueling stops in the United Arab Emirates and Greece during the 16 hours it took to get from the Maldives to Ireland.

From Ireland a second ambulance and a third crew flew to Canada and finally to the United States. They arrived on February 10th, three days after their originally scheduled return flight date. Amy tested negative throughout the trip, and her daughter tested negative before getting on the ambulance and returning home again.

The extra stay at the resort, plus phone calls and the cost of returning luggage since the plane was too small to carry, cost Amy about $ 11,000. If she hadn’t bought Covac’s coverage, the repatriation would have cost about $ 200,000, said Thompson, whose company also conducts evacuations for a fee.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has referred questions about the frequency of repatriation of Covid-19 positive people to the State Department, where a spokeswoman said these statistics are not being collected. She said those who test positive for the virus overseas “should prepare to stay overseas for an extended period and see a local doctor”.

When a person gets sick far from home, even speaking the language, knowing what to do in the midst of an evolving crisis is daunting. “If you do decide to take the risk, especially a trip to a strange place where you have no one you know, you have a plan just in case,” said Christian Arellano. “What affected us most was creeping. To find out where to go, who to talk to, where to get the medicine, where to stay, ”he said.

When the Arellanos first felt sick, they went to a medical clinic where a doctor said they had asthma. A second doctor finally diagnosed Covid-19. Christian Arellano said that despite his mother’s illness, she “walked across town to get all the medicines, thousands of dollars just for medicines”.

As the situation worsened, the couple called the US consular office in Oaxaca, which said there were no hospital beds available in the area. They suggested an oxygen tank. When Mr. Arellano’s condition worsened, the couple spent $ 25,000 on a Mexican ambulance to take him to the Naval Medical Center in La Jolla, California.

Categories
World News

Tesla is utilizing clients to check AV tech on public roads: NTSB

Tesla is using customers to test AV tech on public roads: NTSB

A Tesla Model S with autopilot

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A federal agency is calling for stricter requirements for testing autonomous driving, and the proposed changes could eventually force Tesla to change the way it introduces features for customers.

The National Transportation Safety Board is calling for stricter federal requirements for the design and use of automated driving systems on public roads. In an unreported letter to its sister agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, dated last month, NTSB chief Robert Sumwalt called Tesla 16 times to call for sweeping changes.

“Tesla recently released a beta version of its Level 2 autopilot system, which is described as fully self-driving. With the release of the system, Tesla is testing a highly automated AV technology on public roads, but with limited monitoring or reporting requirements.” wrote Sumwalt. “NHTSA’s hands-off approach to monitoring AV tests carries a potential risk for drivers and other road users.”

While both the NTSB and NHTSA are watchdogs of vehicle safety in the U.S. government, their roles are different.

The NTSB is investigating accidents to determine the underlying causes of harmful incidents, including fatal Tesla autopilot accidents in Mountain View, California in March 2018 and Del Ray Beach, Fla., March 2019. The board also makes safety recommendations to regulators and the auto industry.

It is up to their sister agency, the NHTSA, to initiate recalls of vehicles, systems, or parts that are deemed defective or unsafe for use. It is also the responsibility of the NHTSA to set standards and reporting requirements for the safety and design of vehicles, including standards for fuel economy.

Federal action could affect Tesla’s ability to test its full self-driving systems as they do today – using customers and public roads as test pilots and proving grounds.

In the past, NHTSA has been reluctant to regulate automated driving systems from Tesla, GM, Volvo, and a host of other automakers and tech companies such as Amazon’s Zoox, Alphabet’s Waymo, and a number of startups.

Agency assistant administrator James Owens said he did not want to “hamper” innovation through premature regulation. Instead, the agency left the task mostly to the states.

Tesla’s self-driving contradictions

Today Tesla sells a premium software package for $ 10,000 and markets it as “Full Self Driving” (or FSD). The company said it will soon make FSD available on a subscription basis to those who want it but don’t want to pay the upfront fee.

Tesla is also offering select customers early access to a beta version of FSD – Effectively turn customers into software testers. CEO Elon Musk recently encouraged customers with FSD to sign up for beta access.

In addition to FSD, Tesla vehicles have a standard set of automated driving functions, the so-called autopilot.

Despite those names – which for some drivers mean they can operate Tesla electric vehicles hands-free – the company warns in its owner’s manual that autopilot and FSD require active monitoring.

Musk repeatedly persuades Autopilot and FSD to gain massive following on Twitter and in media interviews, but in accordance with regulators and in the fine print of Tesla’s financial reports, the company’s legal team is referring to these systems in a muted and more precise tone.

On April 22, 2019, at the company’s Autonomy Day presentation, the CEO promised that Tesla’s self-driving technology would be so good that in two years’ time Tesla would be making cars without steering wheels or pedals. At this event, he talked about a customer-specific chip that is supposed to enable self-driving functions.

On May 2, 2019, Musk confidently announced to investors in a fundraiser that autonomous driving would transform its electric vehicle business into a company with a market cap of $ 500 billion. A few days later, Tesla completed an oversubscribed offering of stocks and convertible bonds valued at $ 2.7 billion. At the time, its market cap was under $ 50 billion. Now it’s more than $ 600 billion.

That year, on the Feb.11 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Musk said, “I think autopilot gets good enough that you don’t have to drive most of the time unless you really want to.”

And yet, in sharp contrast to Musk’s promises, Tesla calls its autopilot and full self-driving options just “advanced driver assistance systems,” according to the company’s latest financial file. And in accordance with the California Department of Motor Vehicles last year, Tesla rated its fully self-driving option as just “Level 2”.

“Level 2” refers to vehicles with some automated functions, but which require the driver to remain alert and keep their hands on the steering wheel. The highest level, level 5, would be a fully autonomous vehicle that never requires driver intervention.

DMV correspondence was first obtained from the Think Computer Foundation and published by Plainsite, an online database of public records and court documents that are otherwise difficult to access.

CNBC approached Tesla and the company’s acting general counsel, Al Prescott, for comment, but they did not respond immediately.

Clear rules could help the industry

Sumwalt’s inquiries to the NHTSA seem straightforward: he asked the agency to ask the automakers to do so Integrate collision avoidance systems into all vehicles – the NTSB has investigated several Tesla autopilot incidents – to provide robust driver monitoring systems and add protective measures that ensure drivers do not use automated driving systems that go beyond the conditions and areas in which they are safe You this.

For Tesla specifically, he recommended that the NHTSA investigate Tesla autopilot vehicles to determine if the system’s operating limitations, the predictability of driver abuse, and the ability to operate the vehicles outside of the intended ODD [operational design domain] pose an unreasonable security risk. “He added,” To date, NHTSA has shown no indication that it is ready to respond effectively and in a timely manner to potential security flaws from AV. “

Sumwalt also wants the NHTSA to make the safety reports to the federal government more specific and binding. Autonomous vehicle developers can currently provide their data voluntarily, but do not have to report it.

Despite Sumwalt’s criticism of the current processes, he commended the NHTSA for working with his agency and state and local governments to strike the right balance between rules and regulations regarding emerging vehicle technologies.

Having clear rules from a central location could help the autonomous vehicle industry in the US at large, said Taylor Ogan, CEO of Snow Bull Capital. Federal rules, even if strict, could align states and local authorities and reduce the patchwork of separate autonomous vehicle regulations in each region, he said.

Ogan is a longtime Tesla owner and proponent of Tesla and electric vehicles. His company, Snow Bull, is a long-time Tesla hedge fund that doesn’t sell stocks short.

He personally drives a 2020 Model Y Performance Tesla, which is equipped with the full self-driving option. It is his fourth Tesla. The investor said, based on his personal use of the vehicle, that he believes Tesla is the best Level 2 system on the US market today.

However, Ogan said, “My car can’t autonomously navigate a parking lot so I don’t know why people think these are working as a robotic axis. We don’t think Tesla can achieve level 3 or 4 autonomy – which means that there is no robot axis. ” – anytime soon with your current hardware. “

In his view, competitors are already outperforming Tesla in self-driving in China, where the company faces competition from Nio, Xpeng, and a joint venture between Didi Chuxing and BYD that is developing a driving “robotaxi” called the D1.

Here is the full letter from NTSB to NHTSA:

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the NTSB is part of the US Department of Transportation. It was made independent from the DOT in 1974.

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SpaceX prepares for Air Pressure check of Starlink satellite tv for pc web

SpaceX prepares for Air Force test of Starlink satellite internet

Edwards Air Force Base can be seen in California’s Mojave Desert in this photo taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station.

NASA

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to further test its Starlink satellite internet in a demonstration for the US Air Force, the company said in a recent inquiry to the Federal Communications Commission.

“SpaceX is trying to make minor changes to its experimental approval for additional testing activities with the federal government,” the company wrote on Thursday in a message to the FCC.

“The tests are designed to demonstrate the ability to send and receive information about (1) two stationary ground locations and (2) an aircraft in one location, and would include these (3) limited tests from a moving vehicle on the ground” said SpaceX.

Starlink is the company’s capital-intensive project to build an interconnected internet network of thousands of satellites, known in the aerospace industry as a Constellation, designed to deliver high-speed internet to consumers around the world.

SpaceX announced that it is partnering with Ball Aerospace, a defense and space company that will provide the antennas needed to connect Starlink satellites to an aircraft, for this test.

SpaceX found that Ball specifically manufactures “compliant antennas for tactical aircraft” – that is, military jets.

Musk’s company also found the Starlink test is being conducted as part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program, a $ 9.7 million contract for the Ball in August received. SpaceX highlighted that the FCC previously approved Starlink experimental tests, including previous Air Force tests dating back to early 2018.

“The commission previously granted SpaceX experimental clearance for activities conducted with the federal government to demonstrate SpaceX’s capability [non-geostationary orbit] System for sending and receiving information between fixed locations on the ground and airborne ground stations on board moving aircraft, “the company said in its filing with the FCC.

SpaceX, Ball Aerospace, and the Air Force Research Laboratory did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Upcoming tests

The Air Force experiment begins with ground tests near SpaceX’s Starlink manufacturing facilities in Redmond, Washington. The test for a “surface-to-air scenario” will then be relocated to Edwards Air Force Base in California.

“An antenna terminal is being built into an aircraft. SpaceX is designing a special installation kit that consists of mechanical plates for the low-profile antennas and a windproof fairing to reduce the impact on the aircraft for this installation,” SpaceX said in the FCC filing.

While SpaceX has not identified a target schedule for the tests, the company anticipates “testing will take four to six months”.

SpaceX deploys 60 Starlink satellites in orbit.

SpaceX

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SpaceX lands Starship SN10 rocket after a high-altitude flight take a look at

SpaceX lands Starship SN10 rocket after a high-altitude flight test

The Starship prototype SN9 starts at the company’s development facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX

SpaceX’s spaceship prototype exploded for the first time shortly after landing after a high-altitude flight test on Wednesday.

The cause of the explosion, or whether it was intentional, was not immediately clear.

The company test flew with the Starship rocket Serial Number 10 or SN10. SpaceX wanted to launch the prototype to an altitude of 10 kilometers or an altitude of 32,800 feet.

The Starship prototype stands about 150 feet tall, or about the size of a 15-story building, and is powered by three Raptor rocket engines. The rocket is made of stainless steel and represents the early versions of the rocket introduced in 2019.

Musk’s company develops Starship with the goal of bringing cargo and people on missions to the moon and Mars.

The SN10 flight was similar to SpaceX’s December and February when it tested the SN8 and SN9 prototypes. Both earlier missiles served multiple development goals – including testing aerodynamics, turning off the engines one at a time, and turning them around to align for landing – but both prototypes exploded on impact when attempting to land and couldn’t slow down enough.

As with the SN8 and SN9, the goal of the SN10 flight was not necessarily to reach the maximum altitude, but rather to test several important parts of the spacecraft system. SpaceX fired all three engines to take off, then shut them off one by one as the rocket neared its intended altitude.

SN10 then transferred propellant from the main tanks to the collection tanks before turning for the “belly flop” reentry maneuver – allowing it a controlled descent through the air with the missile’s four flaps. In the final moments of the descent, SpaceX turned the rocket over and brought it back into a vertical orientation. The Raptor engines were fired to slow down for landing.

Starship is one of two “Manhattan projects” that SpaceX is developing at the same time. The other is the Starlink satellite internet program. Musk previously estimated that Starship would cost around $ 5 billion to fully develop, although SpaceX has not yet disclosed how much it has spent on the program.

The company raised $ 850 million in its most recent capital raise, valued at $ 74 billion, last month.

Musk remains “very confident” that Starship “will be safe enough for human transportation by 2023” – an ambitious target as the company began serious development and testing of the missile in early 2019.

But Musk’s schedule is crucial, as Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has paid to fly a spacecraft around the moon until 2023. Maezawa announced Tuesday that he is inviting eight members of the public to join his DearMoon mission, which will be a six-day trip to the moon and back.

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Virgin Galactic (SPCE) falls after check delays push again tourism service

Virgin Galactic (SPCE) falls after test delays push back tourism service

Preflight operations are ongoing on the Unity SpaceShipTwo vehicle and the company’s mother ship Eve.

Virgo Galactic

Virgin Galactic shares fell in trading on Friday after the company’s fourth quarter results showed delays in its flight test program. The expected start of its commercial service has now been postponed to 2022.

The space tourism company reported a quarterly loss that was in line with Wall Street analysts’ expectations, but the next space flight test of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle “Unity” has been postponed from February to May. The company identified an electromagnetic interference problem with Unity on a new flight control computer. CEO Michael Colglazier said the company anticipates eight to nine weeks of proofreading.

Delays in Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft testing program, which had previously been thrown back after an engine stall during a space flight attempt in December, caused the company to postpone its schedule for starting regular space tourism flights.

Virgin Galactic’s shares fell 11.9% on Friday, trading at $ 37.23 per share. The share has risen significantly since the beginning of the year and has gained more than 55% since the beginning of the year, even after the decline on Friday.

The new plan for 2021

Colglazier gave investors an updated look at the milestones Virgin Galactic is expected to achieve this year given the testing delays.

The company’s next big event won’t be Unity, but rather the launch of the second spacecraft in the Virgin Galactic fleet – and the first of its SpaceShip III generation. According to Colglazier, the SpaceShip III vehicle has a “modular design” with “improved manufacturing and assembly processes” that the company expects to enable “better performance in terms of flight rate” and maintenance.

In the meantime, Virgin Galactic will be working this spring to address the electromagnetic interference (EMI) issue with Unity. The company’s analysis found that EMI was the main culprit behind the flight abandonment in December, and additional EMI issues during pre-flight preparations resulted in Virgin Galactic withdrawing from a space test expected earlier this month.

“To reduce EMI levels, we will add functionality to the new flight control computer. Once we have completed these changes, we will thoroughly test the system on site in both the lab and Unity and then begin our flight test program again,” said Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses on the company’s earnings conference call.

Unity’s flight attempt in May will effectively be a replica of the December test with only two pilots on board.

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic expects the first SpaceShip III vehicle “to begin gliding tests this summer,” Colglazier said. In addition, the company will begin assembling a second SpaceShip III vehicle.

“Our current flight test protocol for the first SpaceShipThree vehicle is four glide flights and four powered flights, and we expect the space flights to generate revenue,” said Colglazier.

A shadowy look at the company’s upcoming SpaceShip III generation.

Virgo Galactic

Given Unity’s past delays, Coglalzier declined to provide specific target dates for the second space flight attempt, saying only that Virgin Galactic expects it to happen “this summer”. Unity’s second space flight will carry four passengers along with the pilots – most of the people Virgin Galactic has flown at one time.

Then Virgin Galactic will conduct a third space flight test, in which Unity company founder Sir Richard Branson has been on the road for almost two decades.

The company added a fourth space flight test for Unity as part of a partnership with the Italian Air Force. Colglazier said the flight will carry three passengers and several research payloads that will serve as “suborbital astronaut training” for the Italians. That flight is expected to “take place in late summer or early fall,” said Colglazier, and will complete Unity’s flight tests.

Virgin Galactic then begins a period of maintenance outages that Colglazier expects to last about four months. The company will carry out an “analysis and rehabilitation phase” with its carrier aircraft Eve, Spacecraft Unity and SpaceShip III.

“We decided to implement improvements and accelerations of the long-term maintenance updates for our mother ship Eve to improve the predictability and frequency of the flight rate,” said Colglazier.

Given the downtime, Virgin Galactic now expects “Unity to begin flying private astronauts in early 2022” – marking the start of the company’s commercial space tourism service. The company most recently believes that “SpaceShip III will be able to complete its flight tests,” Colglazier said early next year.

Wall Street lowers expectations

Virgin Galactic pilots walk to the company’s SpaceShipTwo Unity spacecraft attached to the Eve jet carrier aircraft.

Virgo Galactic

Several analysts have adjusted expectations for Virgin Galactic’s future results, lowering prospects in light of the testing delays.

“The big news out of print was the redesign of the flight plan,” said UBS analyst Myles Walton in a statement to investors.

UBS has a neutral rating for Virgin Galactic and is lowering its price target from $ 52 per share to $ 40 per share. Walton said he saw “a bit more technical risk on the agenda than before” despite being “encouraged by the speed in building a base for economies of scale when the green light is given to commercial operations”.

Alembic Global Advisors downgraded Virgin Galactic from overweight to neutral, with the price target shifting from $ 27 per share to $ 39 per share.

“What drives our downgrade is a combination of the stock’s current valuation (the stock has risen 78% since more than doubling in 2020) and a fresh outlook from management, the additional investment and longer time it takes to achieve the Passenger travel by consumers who now appear to be on a timeline of early 2022, “Alembic analyst Pete Skibitski wrote in a note.

Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn adjusted his company’s price target for Virgin Galactic from $ 36 to $ 42 per share at the start of the year in light of the company’s strong performance.

“The updated plan, based on higher numbers and newer versions of the spacecraft, is likely to take longer than what we considered when we started reporting,” Spingarn said.

Credit Suisse pushed back its forecast that Virgin Galactic would achieve a high volume of flights from Spaceport America in New Mexico by 2025 from 2024. Spingarn also noted that Virgin Galactic appears to be “happy” with about 11-quarters cash on their runway, according to current quarterly burn rate.

“We now have a higher line of investment which, depending on the pace of further progress and the burn rate, could require additional capital by the end of 2022,” noted Spingarn.

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