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FILE PHOTO: Visitors check NIO ES8 displayed during a media preview of the Auto China 2018 motor show in Beijing, China April 25, 2018. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
April 16, 2019
By Norihiko Shirouzu, Paul Lienert and Nick Carey
BEIJING/DETROIT (Reuters) – It took one 330 kilometer trip from Chongqing to Chengdu in his Nio ES8, a seven-seater all-electric SUV, for its owner Wang Haichun to be consumed with buyer’s remorse.
Despite being billed as capable of going 335 km on a single full charge, the ES8 didn’t get anywhere near that when driving on freeways at speeds above 100 km per hour (60mph), he said, adding that after 180 km, there was only 50 km of range left.
“We had to recharge the car once and drove with a high level of anxiety throughout, constantly having to keep an eye on the range meter,” the 44-year-old manager of a property firm said. Toward the end of the trip, he shut off the air conditioner and audio system to preserve power.
“I wouldn’t want to do that kind of trip again – ever.”
So unhappy was Wang, who paid 481,000 yuan ($71,700) for the vehicle, he sold it. He and his wife have since bought a Lexus NX300h gasoline-electric SUV.
Asked to comment on Wang’s experience, Nio Inc said in an e-mailed statement the ES8 can travel more than 200 km when constantly driven at a 100 km per hour and that battery swap stations are available for quick recharging. The statement did not address Nio’s advertising of 335 km on a single full charge.
In real world conditions, all-electric cars can sometimes fall far short of advertised ranges, car engineers say. That’s particularly so when driving at length on freeways or hilly terrain and in hot or cold weather.
The problem adds to drawbacks which have hindered wider acceptance – EVs have shorter driving ranges than gasoline vehicles anyway, are more expensive and take a long time to recharge.
China, Europe and the U.S. state of California have set ambitious requirements for automakers to dramatically increase EV sales over the next 5-10 years, but those goals are at risk unless EVs can come close to matching gasoline engine cars in cost and ease of use.
CHINESE AMBITIONS
In China, the country most aggressively pursuing the adoption of EVs and home to the world’s largest auto market, some of the industry’s biggest names believe pure battery electric cars will be as cheap as gasoline counterparts by 2025.
Those making that prediction include Ouyang Minggao, executive vice president of the EV100 forum, a think tank which is widely seen as the de facto voice of government policy.
“The turning point is coming. We believe that around 2025, the price of pure electric vehicles will achieve a big breakthrough,” he said in a speech in January.
Ouyang cited a reduction in battery costs to $100 per kilowatt hours from $150-$200 currently and a planned tightening of emissions rules in China which will make gasoline vehicles there more expensive.
But others in the EV industry are less optimistic.
“Chinese policymakers think EVs will become more like conventional gasoline cars as early as 2025. But that’s naive and all automaker engineers would agree with me,” said a veteran EV engineer at Honda Motor Co.
“Sure, there’s an EV boom but hybrids and plug-in hybrids will be needed as bridging technologies,” he said.
The engineer was one of five interviewed by Reuters for this article who believe it will take a decade before battery EVs achieve cost and performance parity with gasoline cars. Most were not authorized to speak to media and declined to identified when describing the shortcomings of EV technology.
But pressure to deliver parity will only grow as China rolls back subsidies while setting quotas for sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs). China wants NEVs – which also include hybrids, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles – to account for a fifth of auto sales by 2025 compared with 5 percent now.
CUTTING COBALT
For most automakers, battery cells cost around $200/kWh, the engineers said, although costs for Tesla Inc are believed to be around $150/kWh, partly due to its much greater scale of production. Tesla declined to comment.
To cut costs, firms are working on slashing the use of cobalt, the most expensive part in lithium-ion batteries.
Firms such as China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), BYD Co Ltd and South Korea’s SK Innovation Co Ltd are developing NMC 811 technology.
It uses 80 percent nickel, 10 percent manganese, 10 percent cobalt, while a conventional lithium-ion battery uses 60 percent nickel, 20 percent manganese and 20 percent cobalt. NMC 811 also delivers more energy density, meaning batteries will cost and weigh less.
Others are developing similar technologies with slightly different ratios. Batteries jointly produced by Tesla and Panasonic Corp substitute manganese with aluminum and use less cobalt than NMC 811.
Less cobalt and more nickel increases the risk that a battery cell will catch fire – a problem still being worked on. Even so, South Korean battery makers say the next generation of batteries due in three years or so will cost much less and offer much greater driving ranges.
But the engineers who spoke with Reuters caution that even if battery unit costs are brought down to $100/kWh, this would not necessarily translate into a steep decline in vehicle costs.
That’s because the investment to improve battery quality needs to be factored in, while the cars also need sophisticated battery management systems to prevent overheating and overcharging – adding thousands of dollars to their cost.
Toyota Motor Corp, which does not have a pure EV on the market currently, says it is concerned about battery durability. Battery capacity can drop by half over 5-10 years – the reason for low EV resale values, said Shigeki Terashi, executive vice president in charge of Toyota’s EV strategy.
“Falling EV battery capacity is not a major issue in China now because sales there have only recently begun, but in time this problem will likely become more evident,” he told Reuters in a interview.
RECHARGING TIMES
A longer term effort to improve batteries are solid state batteries, where the liquid or gel-form electrolyte in a lithium-ion battery is replaced with a solid. That could help double a battery’s energy density.
“That’s the holy grail,” says consultant Jon Bereisa, a former GM engineering director who spearheaded much of the automaker’s early lithium-ion battery development.
Many in the industry believe the technology is at least a decade away from mass-market commercial use.
“There are a lot of limitations to solid state drive..it will be very difficult to adopt the technology in the automotive applications used by the general public,” said YS Yoon, president of SK Innovation’s battery business.
Advances in recharging are also key to making electric vehicles mainstream. A big obstacle is heat, which increases resistance and in turn reduces the current.
Most EVs can get a partial charge in under half an hour, although several models due out in the next year can get close to a full charge in 20 minutes.
TE Connectivity is working with automakers to cut charging time to as little as 5 minutes and Chief Technology Officer Alan Amici says that goal may be attained in five years.
But others are sceptical. Bereisa thinks battery costs could achieve parity with gasoline cars by the late 2020s but his verdict on fast fueling parity is “maybe never”.
“It’s physics,” he said, adding that to charge an EV with the same amount of energy in the same amount of time as a gasoline car, you’d need a charger powerful “enough to run a small city”.
($1 = 6.7119 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing, Paul Lienert and Nick Carey in Detroit; Additional reporting by Yilei Sun and Beijing newsroom; Joe White, Hyunjoo Jin and Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Naomi Tajitsu, Maki Shiraki and Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Source: OANN
Elon Musk’s SpaceX was awarded the contract to launch a future NASA mission designed to intercept an asteroid and deflect it away from the Earth to avoid a potentially catastrophic impact.
NASA confirmed SpaceX will provide launch services for the June 2021 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission via one of its Falcon 9 rockets.
The mission is expected to cost $69 million.
The DART will use a technique called a kinetic impactor to intercept the small moon of the asteroid Didymos in October 2022. At that point, scientists estimate the asteroid will be within 11 million kilometers of Earth. The unmanned spacecraft will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
According to NASA, the Didymos asteroid is 800 meters in diameter and its moon is 150 meters in diameter. It orbits the Sun once every 2.11 Earth years.
The space agency predicts the “impact event” will occur Oct. 7, 2022.
Source: NewsMax America
FILE PHOTO: A river boat cruises down the River Thames as the sun sets behind the Canary Wharf financial district of London, Britain, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
April 15, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom has defied the uncertainty over Brexit to land the number one spot in a ranking of how attractive countries are for business investors over the coming year, according to a survey published on Monday.
The UK overtook the United States, holder of the top spot since 2014, which was followed by Germany, China and France, according to EY, an accountancy firm which conducted the survey.
“While the UK’s position may surprise some, given current uncertainty, mergers and acquisitions activity during the period since the 2016 EU referendum has remained strong,” EY said.
Nearly three years after voters decided to take the country out of the European Union, the terms of Brexit remain unclear. The threat of a no-deal shock to the economy was averted, at least for the time being, when Prime Minister Theresa May last week secured a Brexit delay until Oct. 31.
British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday to try to reassure him that Brexit should not affect Japanese investments in the country which employ hundreds of thousands of workers.
The EY survey showed China returned to the top five investment destinations for the next 12 months despite concerns about its trade war with the United States.
The United States was a top destination for nine of the 10 most active cross-border investors, including China, EY said.
The fall in the value of the pound since the 2016 Brexit referendum was not a major driver of foreign investment in Britain, it said.
“By and large, deals are driven by strategic rationale not currency movements,” said Steve Krouskos, EY’s global vice chair for transaction advisory services.
“What hasn’t changed is that the UK has great companies, great talent, great tech and great IP. These assets attract capital. Also, remember the UK isn’t the only country dealing with significant geopolitical challenges.”
The biannual EY survey was based on responses from more than 2,900 senior executives from around the world.
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A natural gas flare on an oil well pad burns as the sun sets outside Watford City, North Dakota January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen
April 15, 2019
By Valerie Volcovici
(Reuters) – A federal court has struck down the Trump administration’s repeal of an Obama-era policy aimed at boosting revenue for taxpayers by changing how energy companies value sales of coal, oil and gas extracted from federal and tribal land.
The decision, which found the Interior Department’s repeal of the so-called valuation rule was “arbitrary and capricious”, was the latest blow to the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda in the courts, where environmental groups and some states have challenged dozens of de-regulatory actions.
“Once again, the Trump Administration has been checked by the courts in its unlawful attempt to bend over backwards to please special interests at the expense of hardworking Americans,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement late on Friday.
Becerra said the district court ruling would result in $71 million a year more in royalties for U.S. taxpayers from companies that mine or drill on federal lands.
The Interior Department is currently reviewing the decision, agency spokeswoman Molly Block said on Monday. Interior and industry group interveners have 60 days to appeal the decision.
The valuation rule was proposed by former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in 2016 to close a loophole that enabled companies to dodge royalty payments when mining on taxpayer-owned public land. It required energy companies to pay royalties on sales to the first unaffiliated customer, known as an arm’s-length sale, as the fuel moves to market.
A Reuters investigation found in 2012 that coal companies were using affiliated brokers to settle royalty payments on exports to Asia at much lower domestic prices.
In early 2017, former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the agency would move to repeal the rule, which he said increased costs for coal, oil and gas companies and hampered production on federal lands, “making us rely more and more on foreign imports of oil and gas.”
Zinke said the department’s royalty policy committee, formed in 2017 with advisers from energy companies and local governments, would propose alternatives to the rule.
Conservation groups last fall sued the Interior Department, accusing the committee being too heavily stacked with industry representatives.
In her decision on Friday, district court judge Saundra Brown said the Interior Department moved ahead with the repeal of the valuation rule without offering a reasoned justification for doing so under the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Susan Thomas)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A river boat cruises down the River Thames as the sun sets behind the Canary Wharf financial district of London, Britain, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
April 15, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Moving slowly in the fog of Brexit and slowing global growth, Britain’s economy is increasingly reliant on consumers and their spending as business investment and exports fade.
The world’s fifth-biggest economy grew 1.4 percent in 2018, the weakest increase in six years, and it looks set to slow further in 2019.
On Wednesday, the European Union delayed Britain’s departure from the bloc until the end of October, but scepticism runs high that lawmakers in London can form a consensus over Brexit.
Below are charts that highlight some of the most notable features of Britain’s economy in early 2019.
CONSUMER SPENDING: HOLDING UP
Household spending grew by the least since 2012 last year. Some of the slowdown was a by-product of the June 2016 Brexit vote, which hammered the value of the pound and pushed up inflation above wage growth through most of 2017.
But pay growth has rebounded in recent months, helping to support consumer spending.
In late 2018, households and the government were the only drivers of Britain’s weak economy. Business investment and net trade dragged on growth.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the world economy was suffering some of the same problems. “Normally when expansions are reliant on the consumer, you start watching the clock, in terms of how much longer it will last,” he said.
Graphic: UK consumer spending: still solid, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2D4Tan9
INVESTMENT? WHAT INVESTMENT?
Businesses have held back on plans for investment ever since it became clear that Britain was going to hold a referendum on its membership of the EU.
The value of business investment lost in Britain’s economy since the June 2016 referendum is roughly 10 billion pounds compared with its simple trend growth from late 2009 to the second quarter of 2016.
Graphic: UK business investment flatlines after Brexit vote, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2D1Ctcs
STOCKPILING
The extent of stockpiling going on among British manufacturers looks likely to limit the extent of any potential rebound in investment.
A survey earlier this month showed manufacturers upped their stocks of materials and parts at a pace never before seen in a Group of Seven advanced economy.
Official data has suggested stockpiling had boosted factories in February, although by how much was unclear.
Economists worry that the recent drive to build inventories has brought forward output, heralding a downturn later.
Graphic: UK factories stockpile at fastest rate in history of G7 PMIs, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2IcsBkr
WILL CONSUMERS KEEP SPENDING?
Public confidence in the economic outlook is weaker in Britain than in any other EU country, according to European Commission data.
Thus far, this has not had a big impact on consumer spending as households’ budgets have benefited from faster wage growth. But it suggests there is a risk that Britons could tighten their belts if the recovery in pay falters.
Graphic: Confidence in UK economy slides, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2I6OyRO
WHAT WILL THE BANK OF ENGLAND DO?
The Bank of England has long signaled that it thinks interest rates should rise in a limited and gradual way, as long as Brexit progresses smoothly.
But with the uncertainty set to last for several more months, the BoE is likely to sit tight, especially with indicators such as the IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index – historically a good marker for interest rate moves – a long way from levels typically consistent with a rate hike. Graphic: UK economy stalling ahead of Brexit – PMI, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2D0y4q4
The BoE’s nine rate-setters might want to avoid adding to economic uncertainty by giving different views on the outlook for borrowing costs.
A survey from the BoE showed a record proportion of Britons – more than a quarter – had no idea where rates were heading.
Graphic: Record share of UK public have no idea where interest rates are heading, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2IeGgap
(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by William Schomberg)
Source: OANN
Golf – Masters – Augusta National Golf Club – Augusta, Georgia, U.S. – April 14, 2019. Xander Schauffele of the U.S. in action on the 12th hole during final round play. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
April 14, 2019
By Frank Pingue
AUGUSTA Ga. (Reuters) – Xander Schauffele, in only his second Masters, was alone atop the leaderboard for a brief moment during the late stages of the final round on Sunday but said falling short to Tiger Woods in a major was like a dream.
Schauffele, who was playing two groups ahead of Woods, ended up one shot back of the five-times champion and when asked about the experience at Augusta National was anything but bitter.
“Like a dream, honestly,” said the 25-year-old Schauffele.
“It’s what I watched as a kid. It’s what I watched growing up. Just everything about it, and for me to be a part of it and give it a good run … it was an incredible experience today.”
Schauffele, who began the day five shots back of overnight leader Francesco Molinari, rolled in an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-four 14th hole that put him into the lead for all but a couple minutes.
But despite being in contention at the year’s first major, the American was not at all surprised by the small turnout for his post-round news conference.
“Just what I witnessed, I know it’s what everyone is going to talk about; that’s why this room’s barely full. I know where everyone’s at,” said Schauffele.
“It’s hard to really feel bad about how I played, just because I just witnessed history. It was really cool coming down the stretch, all the historic holes, Amen Corner, 15, 16, Tiger making the roars.”
Schauffele’s four-under-par 68 was one shot shy of the day’s low round and earned him his fourth top-10 result in his eighth major championship start.
While Schauffele failed to secure his first major title, he left Augusta National confident he will be in the mix on the hallowed layout again and perhaps produce a result that will command more attention.
“I did have my 30 seconds in the sun with the lead and it was a really cool feeling,” said Schauffele. “And like I said, it just proves to my team and I that we can contend and that we can win on this property.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: South Korean singer Jung Joon-young arrives for questioning on accusations of illicitly taping and sharing sex videos on social media, at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
April 14, 2019
By Joyce Lee and Joori Roh
SEOUL (Reuters) – On a recent weekend night, the dance floor at one of the hottest clubs in Seoul’s swanky Gangnam district held only a few dozen people surrounded by mostly empty tables.
A few months ago, the nightclub would have been packed with hundreds of gyrating men and women, and full tables, many costing 650,000 won ($570) or more for a night of drinking and dancing.
The world was introduced to Gangnam by the 2012 K-pop hit “Gangnam Style,” a parody of the South Korean highlife with a viral tune and amusing dancing that became the first video to reach a billion views on YouTube.
But a wave of sex crimes and other illegal activity has revealed a dark underbelly in the district, driving club-goers and celebrities away.
According to police investigators, a network of pop stars, businessmen and cops are alleged to have colluded and enabled tax evasion, bribery, and prostitution at some of Gangnam’s glitziest clubs.
Most seriously, some are being investigated over the use of date rape drugs to incapacitate women and assault them, sometimes filmed by hidden cameras.
“There aren’t many people coming to Gangnam (clubs) right now,” a worker told Reuters at a club that was relatively quiet, despite not being implicated in any of the allegations. “There’s an investigation on.”
The scandals have already led to the resignation of four K-pop stars, the closure of one of Gangnam’s most lucrative club, and investigations into at least six police officers suspected of colluding with club operators.
President Moon Jae-in called for a thorough investigation, saying the Gangnam club cases suggest possible collusion between police, tax authorities and a new privileged class including celebrities to engage in illegal operations.
More than 500 people have been investigated for drug use and sexual assault and more than 200 arrested in a nationwide roundup since Feb. 25.
Tax authorities have launched investigations into 21 clubs and host bars for possible evasion.
“If we don’t set this right, we cannot call this a just society,” Moon said.
SEX CRIME CONCERNS
The investigations, revolving around two Gangnam clubs, Burning Sun and Arena, began late last year when 29-year-old film art director Kim Sang-kyo says he tried to stop an incident of sexual harassment and was attacked by Burning Sun staff, and then abused by police who instead arrested him.
A government commission concluded that police in Gangnam violated Kim’s rights during his arrest, but Kim is still being investigated for sexual harassment and defamation. He denies any wrongdoing.
Calls to Burning Sun, which closed down after the scandal broke, were not answered, while a man who answered the number listed for Arena hung up when asked for comment. Arena has also been closed since early March for what it said were renovations. Gangnam police declined to comment.
Kim said once he shared his story he began to receive messages from other people who said they had been victimized in Gangnam clubs, and he realized the scope of the problem.
“When people saw me raising questions, they said ‘why you? Why now?’” Kim said. “‘This has been going on for 10 years, 15 years, and you can’t touch it. You can’t win.’ I’ve heard a lot of people say this, and I think it’s really scary.”
The string of scandals gained wider attention when several K-pop stars who had ties to some of the clubs were implicated in crimes unrelated to Kim’s arrest.
Singer Lee Seung-hyun, 28, better known by the stage name Seungri, is under investigation for paying for prostitutes in return for favors from foreign businessmen at Arena.
He is also accused of embezzlement at another club he was involved with until last year.
Lee has denied all wrong doing, but resigned from his position as a member of the boy band BIGBANG. Lee’s lawyer told Reuters this week his client maintains his innocence.
At least three other K-pop stars resigned after they were accused by police of sharing illicitly filmed sex tapes. It is not yet clear whether any of the shared videos and photos were taken at either nightclub.
One singer, Jung Joon-young admitted to having shared videos he took secretly while having sex with women.
“I am truly sorry. I committed a crime that cannot be forgiven,” Jung read from a handwritten statement on March 21.
WEB OF CONNECTIONS
Besides Seungri, who was an internal director at Burning Sun and previously helped run the club, police are investigating two of the club’s co-presidents and an operating director for various crimes including distributing drugs, assaulting a customer, and bribing police.
Investigators have also questioned 15 people and arrested four people with links to Burning Sun on drug charges. At least one club promoter was arrested for distributing illegal sex videos.
A man identified as the de facto owner of Arena, surnamed Kang, was arrested in late March, a Seoul Central District Court spokesman said.
Kang and other Arena executives are accused of tax evasion by avoiding paying 16.2 billion won ($14.31 million) in taxes between 2014-2017. Kang refused to answer questions on March 25 as he emerged from court. He could not be reached for comment.
Authorities are also investigating allegations that club officials provided bribes to police officers.
Six officers are now under investigation for possible collusion with the clubs, including a senior superintendent, lawmakers briefed by Police Commissioner General Min Gab-ryong said.
The superintendent, surnamed Yoon, admitted playing golf and sharing meals with a man known to be Seungri’s business partner, but denies all allegations of corruption.
He is accused of leaking confidential information and accepting bribes, including K-pop concert tickets from singer Seungri, an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.
In Gangnam, former patrons and workers lament the impact the scandals have had on the clubs and the broader entertainment industry, a key identity and export for South Korea.
Kim Se-rim, 27, said she no longer goes to clubs.
“People are like, why would you go when you know there are so much drugs, GHB, rape going on?,” she said, referring to a known date-rape drug. “And they have a point.”
($1 = 1,134.5200 won)
(Additional reporting and writing by Josh Smith.; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Source: OANN
Earth’s magnetic field is getting significantly weaker, the magnetic north pole is shifting at an accelerating pace, and scientists readily admit that a sudden pole shift could potentially cause “trillions of dollars” in damage.
Today, most of us take the protection provided by Earth’s magnetic field completely for granted. It is essentially a colossal force field which surrounds our planet and makes life possible. And even with such protection, a giant solar storm could still potentially hit our planet and completely fry our power grid. But as our magnetic field continues to get weaker and weaker, even much smaller solar storms will have the potential to be cataclysmic. And once the magnetic field gets weak enough, we will be facing much bigger problems. As you will see below, if enough solar radiation starts reaching our planet none of us will survive.
Previously, scientists had told us that the magnetic field was weakening by about 5 percent every 100 years.
But now we are being told that data collected from the SWARM satellite indicate that the rate of decay is now 5 percent per decade…
It’s well established that in modern times, the axial dipole component of Earth’s main magnetic field is decreasing by approximately 5% per century. Recently, scientists using the SWARM satellite announced that their data indicate a decay rate ten times faster, or 5% per decade.
In case you didn’t quite get that, 5 percent per decade is 10 times faster than 5 percent per century.
If the rate of decay continues at this pace, or if it speeds up even more, we could be looking at a mass extinction event that is beyond what most people would dare to imagine.
As more solar radiation reaches Earth, we would expect to see a rise in cancer rates, and this is something that even National Geographic has acknowledged…
However, if the magnetic field gets substantially weaker and stays that way for an appreciable amount of time Earth will be less protected from the oodles of high-energy particles that are constantly flying around in space. This means that everything on the planet will be exposed to higher levels of radiation, which over time could produce an increase in diseases like cancer, as well as harm delicate spacecraft and power grids on Earth.
Of course we are already seeing this. Cancer rates have been rising all over the world, and if you live in the United States there is a one in three chance that you will get cancer in your lifetime.
But as the magnetic field continues to weaken, things will get worse.
A lot worse.
The weaker the magnetic field gets, the amount of solar radiation that will reach us will rise, and eventually it would get so bad that the entire human race would be in jeopardy. The following comes from Futurism…
Radiation and cosmic rays are a real concern for NASA, especially when it comes to long-term spaceflight. Astronauts on a mission to Mars could undergo up to 1000 times the exposure to radiation and cosmic rays that they would get on Earth. If Earth’s magnetic field disappeared, the entire human race – and all of life, in fact – would be in serious danger. Cosmic rays would bombard our bodies and could even damage our DNA, increasing worldwide risk of cancer and other illnesses. The flashes of light visible when we close our eyes would be the least of our problems.
And even if some of us found a way to survive underground for a while, we still wouldn’t be able to survive because solar winds would strip away our planet’s atmosphere and oceans…
Without Earth’s magnetic field, solar winds — streams of electrically charged particles that flow from the sun — would strip away the planet’s atmosphere and oceans. As such, Earth’s magnetic field helped to make life on the planet possible, researchers have said.
So could such a scenario actually happen?
Well, some scientists are saying that our magnetic field “could be gone in as little as 500 years”, but they are telling us not to worry because Earth’s magnetic poles will “flip” and things will eventually return to normal…
The magnetic field surrounding Earth is weakening, and scientists say it could be gone in as little as 500 years.
The result? Earth’s magnetic poles could, literally, flip upside down.
Of course most scientists believe that a pole flip takes hundreds or thousands of years to happen, but they don’t actually know because they have never seen one take place.
They also believe that we would potentially be facing “trillions of dollars in damage” to our power grid and electrical infrastructure because the magnetic field would be so weak during a flip…
Storms far less powerful than these could cause much more damage if they happened to hit while Earth’s magnetic field was in the midst of a reversal, Roberts said. The result would likely be trillions of dollars in damage to our electrical infrastructure, and right now, there’s no plan for dealing with an event of that magnitude.
“Hopefully, such an event is a long way in the future and we can develop future technologies to avoid huge damage,” Roberts concluded. Keep your fingers (but not your magnetic-field lines) crossed.
Most of the experts also believe that a pole flip is still a long way off, but what everybody agrees on is that the magnetic north pole is moving toward Russia at an accelerating pace…
But what’s really catching attention is the acceleration in movement. Around the mid-1990s, the pole suddenly sped up its movements from just over 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year to 34 miles (55 kilometers) annually. As of last year, the pole careened over the international date line toward the Eastern Hemisphere.
And earlier this year, authorities had to issue an emergency update to global positioning systems because “the magnetic field is changing so rapidly”…
The most recent version of the model came out in 2015 and was supposed to last until 2020 — but the magnetic field is changing so rapidly that researchers have to fix the model now. “The error is increasing all the time,” says Arnaud Chulliat, a geomagnetist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Centers for Environmental Information.
I know that I must sound like a broken record by now, but this is important. Our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, and we are seeing things happen that we have never seen before.
Everyone agrees that the Earth’s magnetic field is rapidly getting weaker, and that is making us more vulnerable with each passing day.
Most of the experts are trying to put a happy face on things and are assuring us that everything is going to be okay.
Hopefully they are right, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: People walk past a showroom outside Tesla China headquarters at China Central Mall in Beijing, China July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee
April 12, 2019
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – U.S. electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Inc on Friday said it has started taking orders in China for a lower-priced version of its Model 3 car, as it seeks to expand its lineup and boost sales in the world’s biggest EV market.
The California-based firm said in a statement that Chinese customers can now order a standard range Model 3 variant whose starting price of 377,000 yuan ($56,167) will make it the cheapest version of the car in China.
The model will be equipped with Tesla’s Autopilot assisted driving function, the automaker said.
Tesla has been adjusting prices of its U.S.-made cars in China to remain affordable in the country, a move also aimed at fending off competition from a swathe of domestic EV startups such as Nio Inc, Byton and XPeng Motors.
Previously, the starting price for a Model 3 in China was 407,000 yuan for a rear-wheel-drive long range version with no Autopilot.
Tesla currently imports all the cars it sells in China. It is building a factory in Shanghai that will initially manufacture Model 3 cars.
(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Source: OANN
Workers walk among the newly arrived imported Toyota cars at the Shenzhen Dachan Bay Terminals in Guangdong province, China April 10, 2019. Picture taken April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
April 12, 2019
By Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s auto sales fell again in March but the pace of decline was the smallest in seven months, industry data showed, as car makers reduced retail prices to boost business after Beijing handed out tax cuts to spur consumer spending.
Sales fell 5.2 percent from a year ago to 2.52 million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Friday, marking the ninth straight month of decline in the world’s largest auto market.
But this was the smallest drop since August 2018.
“We saw a warmer recovery in March. We are optimistic and hope to see the turning point appear in around July and August” said Xu Haidong, assistant secretary general at CAAM, the country’s biggest auto industry association.
Recent government cuts to value-added tax (VAT) are expected to further benefit car sales, Xu added. “The VAT cut can drive production and employment, so an effective implementation of the policy can bring warmth to the market.”
China has cut VAT for the manufacturing sector to 13 percent from 16 percent, prompting some car makers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz to lower prices.
“We expect China’s auto market to see positive growth in the third quarter and a relatively large increase in the fourth,” said Alan Kang, Shanghai-based analyst at LMC Automotive.
In 2018, China’s car market hit reverse for the first time since the 1990s against a backdrop of slowing economic growth and a crippling Sino-U.S. trade war.
However, new energy vehicle (NEV) sales have remained a bright spot, jumping almost 62 percent last year even as the broader auto market contracted.
Last month, NEV sales rose 85.4 percent to 126,000 units, the CAAM said.
China has been a keen supporter of NEV – pure battery electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrids – and has started implementing NEV sales quota requirements for automakers.
After rolling out a generous 5-year NEV subsidy program in 2016 to support sales and encourage innovation, Beijing recently pledged to phase it out by 2020 and raise standards for vehicles eligible for subsidies amid criticism some firms have become too reliant on the funds.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom, Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
Source: OANN
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