Over a decade, the PENETRON crystalline technology has been the topmost solution in an almost endless range of infrastructure projects including the FIFA World Cup coming up in Russia soon, the world largest sports event. The latest project to be concluded in May 2018 is the 200-room Lotte Hotel in Samara.




PENETRON crystalline technology has helped to accelerate construction times by getting the hotel ready in time for the World Cup kick off next month. Its also a walking distance from the Samara Arena. The PENETRON ADMIX was specified for the project which included all below grade structures, two-level underground parking garage(11m/33-feet below ground).  PENEBAR SW  water stop was used to seal the construction joints; tie-holes and framework seams were treated with PENETRON and PENECRETE MORTAR.

The Director of SPMU-Penetron Samara, Dmitriy Martyanov noted that "using Penetron materials allowed the builders to significantly shorten construction time, which played a part in the quick construction since the project started a year later than initially planned."

"In recent years, Penetron Russia has gained a comprehensive level of experience and technical know-howin countless projects and infrastructural upgrades across the country, added Igor Chernogolov, President of Penetron Russia.

   Ramping Up Russia

The range of infrastructures that has benefited from PENETRON crystalline technology includes hotels, residential houses, bridges, water treatment plants and underground parking garages and tunnels. Some of the projects concluded by PENETRON during the ramp up to Russia include:

• Mercure Hotel, Saransk: This 104 four-star hotel was completed in time for the World Cup. Used both PENETRON and PENECRETE MORTAR to water proof the 500m2 area of the foundation.
• Central Stadium Parking Garage, Yekaterinburg: This was built underground on the in all stadiums, this huge parking lot can accommodate 440 cars; the foundation walls and floor slabs were treated with PENETRON ADMIX.
• Wastewater treatment plant, Kaliningrad: adjacent to the Arena Baltika, the plant used PENETRON and PENECRETE MORTAR for repair work on the concrete work of the aeration tanks.
• Arena Stadium Water Plant, Samara: enlarging the city's current water treatment, just like the others it also used PENETRON ADMIX for the concrete tanks and water chambers.
• Jubilee Residential District, Saransk: residential buildings and infrastructures situated here used PENETRON's crystalline technology to water proof the concrete structures, built close to the Insar and Tavla rivers.
• St Petersburg Metro, St Petersburg: the extension of the line 3 added two new stations(including a stadium stop); PENETRON topical materials was applied to the tunnel and station walls, PENEBAR SW water stop was used to seal the joints.
• Tavla River Bridge, Saransk: PENETRON ADMIX was mixed into the concrete used for load-bearing, reinforced concrete structures of the bridge.

"As we showed at the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. PENETRON's crystalline technology transforms porous concrete into a highly durable material, even in the largest projects" added CEO & President of The Penetron Group, Robert Revera. As a result the world keep enjoying durability from PENETRON, and not even the harsh weather in Russia can end the long run of solid and exuberant performance by PENETRON. 

 

The US government has given commercial drones, the very first in the country access to begin operations around the country. Drones that monitor crops, control mosquito population, and deliver defibrillators are to be tested in the US airspace.

Ten commercial drones been have been chosen to tryout new ways for unmanned aircraft to be integrated into the skies. As a result of this,  Zipline has been contacted, they currently offer a blood-service delivery in Rwanda, and Apple. 

The Federal Aviation Authority in time past had tight rules concerning the use of drones, this is due to the fact a permit is needed to fly one and also the ban imposed on beyond line-of-sight flights and night time flying.  Currently, at the time of this post, more than one million drones and 90,000 pilots are registered with the FAA. 

The UAS(Unamanned Aircraft Systems) has been designed to solve some of the challenges of integrating drones into national airspace and being partIcularly concerned on how to limit risks to public safety

Amazon Rejected

Apple were chosen and immediately has been assigned with the duty to capture images of North Carolina by drone, Microsoft, Uber and Intel has also been involved in the project. But surprisingly, Amazon were not chosen even after applying to deliver goods via drones to shoppers in New York. Also DJI, the world leading non-military drones made lots of application but were rejected as well, this was reported by Reuters and has come as a shock as reason was not clearly stated for this.

The 10 chosen projects include:

• A government agency in Florida will make use of drones to help control mosquito poupulation
• A partnership will see The Choctaw Nation of  Oklahoma and CNN work together on flying drones beyond a pi line of sight
• Food delivery services will be tested by North Carolina and Flytrex
• FedEx will work with Memphis County Airport Authority to know level of security and infrastructure and also delivering parts via drones
• Medical supplies will be delivered by the city of Reno in Nevada in a partnership with Flirtey

The FAA stated that the 10 winners were picked from 149 proposals. For now, the full details of the trials has been undisclosed, but they have decided to give each applicants two-and-a-half years to run the trials, sharing some information with the FAA along the way. 

"Data gotten from this pilots will form the basis of a new regulatory framework to safety into our national airspace" said US secretary of transportation, Elaine Chao

Research has it that more than 600 million people are living in adept poverty(thats about 8 % of the world's population). This is actually appalling, due to the fact that most continents of the world are endowed and gifted with some natural resources that when well utilised should generate a lot of revenue that will guarantee better standard of living and that should atleast reduce the poverty level of the world to 3.5% 2050. The World Poverty Clock has helped to give in details the poverty statistics of the world. Africa being the poorest continent and has 34 of its 54 Federations among the poorest countries in the world has 33% of its population in poverty, followed by Asia which has 3.6% of its population in poverty, North America  has 1.8% of its population in poverty, South America  has 4.5% of its population in poverty, Australia(Oceania) has 6.5% of its population in poverty and Europe has 0.4% of its population in poverty. 

HOW DIGITAL CASH HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF POVERTY

HOW DIGITAL CASH HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF POVERTY

Its widely known that being poor can cost you alot of money, but with the rise of digital money from PayPal, MasterCard and Crypto Currency start ups, there has been an hope for the poor, poverty will be broken, if no completely, majority of it will be. With about 2 billion people in the world without access to a bank account or a financial institution, it has become risky and difficult to save due to "unbanked" adults getting their wages and bills in cash. Thats one of the major reason why the Gates Foundation views digital currency as the tool to break the poverty cycle using even the simplest phones and electronic devices to transfer and receive money.

An awareness has to be created by the Tech companies to the public, such has remembering a PIN, and how deposit, withdrawal, and transfer can be made without difficulty, the World Bank says.
In as much as the companies will shell out the upfront costs so as to be used by all, they will also have to ensure safety and honesty of their platform and also make people feel comfortable with it.
Safaricom's mobile money system, M-Pesa launched 11 years ago in Kenya shows every possibility of a success in digital cash.

The only hiccoughs that Tech companies might face with digital cash is because of the familiarity of people with cash, people don't wake up and tend to pickup their phones to make transfers or deposits, they prefer going to the bank. Last year, Samsung gave it a shot, they launched the Contactless Companion Platform, or CCP. The system uses NEC technology that lets a phone, wearable or key fob make small digital payments. Having ran a pilot program in East Africa, they have opted to create two more, one in the Bahamas dubbed "Island Pay", and another Central America

Another digital cash that has been backed to alleviate poverty is the Cryptocurrency. A lot of them has surfaced in few years, with bitcoin being the first and the most popular and expensive of all. And its also seem to be another option for serving the world's unbanked. C.E.O and Co-founder of Ripio in Argentina, Sebastian Serrano says Ripio is on the forefront of this effort. He said his company offer a mobile bitcoin wallet and a cryptocurrency-based loan network in Argentina and Brazil, due to the high interest rates in credit and banking.

So people are more advised to get involved in financial institutions, especially the mobile money, it should be prioritised more

What Is Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining is that the method by that transactions area unit verified and side to the public ledger, referred to as the blockchain, and conjointly the means that through that new bitcoin area unit free. Anyone with access to the net and appropriate hardware will participate in mining. The mining method involves assembling recent transactions into blocks and attempting to resolve a computationally troublesome puzzle. The participant United Nations agency initial solves the puzzle gets to position successive block on the blockchain and claim the rewards. The rewards, you get from mining, area unit each the dealing fees related to the transactions assembled within the block yet as new free bitcoin.

Bitcoin Mining Using Chrome

This is the very easy guide to mine bitcoins from mining using the Google Chrome Extension BitDigger. This extension works in the background and does mining for you. You don’t need to do anything this extension will do mining by itself. You can adjust the mining speed as Low, Medium or High. Also, you can join their affiliate program so that when anyone downloads the extension using your site then you will be given 30% of their commission. This is the very easy and best way to mine bitcoins. Here is how to use the extension: First, you need to install chrome browser on your computer or laptop (If you don’t have one you can download from here). After installing Chrome, you now need to search for BitDigger (you can download from here as well) When extension installed successfully in your browser, you now have to choose the speed of mining (I recommend using Low or Medium if you don’t have powerful Computer or laptop).

Here is how to use the extension

First you install google chrome on your laptop, (download here). Once that is done, you proceed to get the Cryptotab extension. You should let chrome open and give it a access to the internet to able to mine. Experts has certified this extension right unlike other extensions like Bitdigger that has scammed alot of people. Click the link above and get started.

  

Some people in Los Angeles knew about today's earthquake before it even hit. Those who had the beta Quake Alert application on their smartphones got about a 30-second warning before the shaking hit at 12:29 p.m. PDT (19:29 UTC). The magnitude-5.3 earthquake struck about 38 miles (61 kilometers) off the coast of California today (April 5), according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). "That was the first earthquake I've felt since I got access to the @EarlyWarningLab beta app,"tweeed Alissa Walker, an editor at the real estate blog Curbed. "I had 34 seconds warning — enough time to drop, cover, and hold on, which I would have done if I knew shaking was going to be strong."The app works thanks to a network of seismic sensors that detect P-waves — the first energy that radiates from an earthquake, according to Early Warning Labs, a Santa Monica-based company that works with the USGS on early warning systems. The seismic sensors also detect the location and the magnitude of the earthquake. Once the longitudinal P-waves (short for pressure waves) are detected, the app sends a warning before the more powerful S-wave, or shear wave, arrives, which usually causes the most damage. Warnings are also sent to local and state public emergency response officials, infrastructure (such as to gas lines, subway systems and power plants) and to private businesses and the public, Early Warning Labs said.

Even if it's just a few seconds, the warning can give people time to duck, cover and hold before the earthquake hits. It can also warn people operating vehicles or heavy equipment to slow and stop, especially if they're about to drive onto an overpass, tunnel or bridge. In addition, the warning can give emergency workers, including firefighters, enough time to open their station doors.

During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, "the fire trucks in the immediate area couldn't get out, and trucks were driving from station to station to cut other trucks out and not responding to calls," Chase Rief, who is working on the app.

You can download the quakealert app here. Its not the only earthquake warning app though.
See more.

Google makes the world’s top search engine, mobile OS, and plenty of other consumer products. However, it also makes big bets on emerging technology like machine learning. That technology is beginning to make an impact on Google’s products, but its work on quantum computing is more theoretical. Maybe not for long, though. Google has just announced a new “Bristlecone” custom quantum computing chipthat could lead to a major breakthrough known as “quantum supremacy.”

 A quantum computer can take various forms — they could even run on a liquid or gas medium rather than a computer chip. What really sets a quantum computer apart from a regular digital computer is the fundamental nature of how data is encoded via quantum properties like superposition or entanglement.

A digital bit is either 0 or 1, but a quantum bit (or qubit) can be 0, 1 or a superposition of both states. Google’s new Bristlecone chip has a whopping 72 qubits compared with just nine qubits in the last one. One of the greatest challenges in making a quantum computer  viable is countering so-called quantum decoherence. Interference from the environment causes incorrect calculations and a higher error rate than any standard digital computer. You can compensate for errors by shielding your computer from interference, for example by cooling it to extremely low temperatures. You can also correct for some error in a quantum system. Google’s previous 9-qubit linear quantum computer managed impressively low error rates of between 0.1 and 1 percent.




Google intends to continue focusing on keeping the error rate down with first and second order error-correction with a technique called surface code. Researchers believe this will allow for the development of quantum algorithms on actual hardware like the Bristlecone chip. Google says that the Bristlecone chip could maintain sufficiently low error rates to reach a significant threshold known as quantum supremacy. That’s the point at which a quantum computer can perform a well-defined calculation faster than a digital supercomputer. Past estimates have suggested you’d need at least 50 qubits at low decoherence to accomplish that feat, so Google could well be within striking distance. The new chips are being operated in Google’s Quantum AI lab right now. Google researchers have also developed new benchmarking tools specifically for measuring the performance of Bristlecone. It’s possible Google will announce significant breakthroughs in the coming years thanks to this new quantum hardware. However, it might take quite a bit longer before quantum computing affects your life.

From funding attrocities in Sierraleone and outbreak of civil war in Central Africa Republic, few of Africa’s valuable resources are seem to be closely tied to violence and war as the diamond. Unveiled in a flurry of publicity and goodwill in 2003, the Kimberley Process was designed to bring an end to the excesses of the bloodstained trade ,bringing key actors together to hammer out an international certification process for the rare stones. With NGOs and over 80 countries signed up, the high-profile venture appeared to offer a fresh start for the shamed industry, promising “to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments.” Just 15 years later, that optimism has disappeared. In December, Canadian NGO Impact – previously nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its work on conflict diamonds – became the latest international observer to abandon the Kimberley Process, arguing that buyers had been given “false confidence” that their diamonds were conflict free. While observers appear to have lost all confidence that the industry will clean up its act, a revolutionary new technology could offer a path forward.

In January, De Beers, the multinational diamond producer substantially active in Southern Africa, announced that it was developing the industry’s first blockchain initiative spanning the diamond value chain, offering “a single, tamper-proof and permanent digital record for every diamond registered on the platform.” A pilot project is working towards the ultimate goal of “ensuring that all registered diamonds are conflict-free and natural” while boosting sector efficiencies. For the uninitiated, the idea of using blockchain – a digital technology best known as the basis for volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin – to bolster confidence and security in the diamond market appears bizarre. Yet despite its association with wild speculation and the rollercoaster price movements of cryptocurrencies, the technology is increasingly talked up as a transparent solution to African governance and economic problems, from crooked elections to faulty land registers and inefficient transaction systems.

 Defined by Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani in the Harvard Business Review as “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way,” blockchain allows contracts to be embedded in code and “stored in transparent, shared databases, where they are protected from deletion, tampering, and revision.” For African governments and businesses struggling under the weight of outdated administration techniques, overbearing bureaucracies, and competing asset ownership claims, the attractions of blockchain are obvious. “The question is how could you boost the level of trust in developing countries, how do you arrest that cycle? One way is by having a blockchain type system which basically takes away the need to enforce trust because the system forces it upon you,” says Garrick Hileman, a blockchain expert who teaches at the University of Cambridge. “In our global blockchain benchmarking study we found over 130 unique use cases for the technology ranging across a wide variety of industrial sectors, healthcare, insurance, gaming, media, energy, transportation and communications.” Despite the excitement, few are under any illusions about the challenges of rolling out complex technology underpinned by citizen networks across frontier markets.

As with all transformative technologies in Africa, technical, political and regulatory hurdles remain steep. “Right now it’s very new and the potential is enormous. However you’re still dealing with a nascent technological and regulatory framework, and a very nascent asset class with cryptocurrencies,” says Farzam Ehsani, blockchain lead at Rand Merchant Bank and chairman of the South African Financial Blockchain Consortium. “Given this infancy we should expect to see a lot of changes and a lot of resistance. We live in a world where there are many vested interests. There will be people with a lot to gain and a lot to lose.”

BUILDING BLOCKS OF SUCCESS

While much African blockchain activity remains at a highly speculative stage – the talk of academic researchers, thinktanks and dreamers with little more than a laptop and an internet connection – early movers are already getting to grips with the new technology and carving out innovative enterprises. Based in Nairobi and with a presence in several other African countries, BitPesa bills itself as an “online payment platform that leverages Blockchain settlement to significantly lower the cost and increase the speed of business payments to, from and within sub-Saharan Africa

VOTING FOR CHANGE

With new ways of executing financial transactions chiping away due to the undue influence of incumbents, blockchain could actually add a future use that will be idealistic and tend to challenge tye existing political and economic order in Africa. In Kenya's 2017 elections, a flawed electronic voting system and the disputed role of the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission led to a dramatic Supreme Court annulment of the vote and the order of a rerun. Under a blockchain electoral voting system, voters could theoretically check that their ballot had been correctly cast and registered with the IEBC. Could such open-sourced, peer-reviewed technology threaten the long-established pattern of fraudulent elections on the continent? “Imagine a world where you the voter with a unique alphanumeric ID could actually go check a public electoral ledger to see your vote in the column of the candidate you voted for,” says Hileman, “The authentic elections that could come out of such a process could have a massive knock-on effect. How countries would feel about having that decentralised system is a fair question but the infrastructure already exists to run such an election. The challenge is obviously that corrupt regimes in power aren’t necessarily going to want to embrace these technologies.”

At the moment, India is at a population boom in which developed areas provide more than 60 percent of the GDP. As indicated by “World Cities report- 2016” by Un Habitats, India is heading towards adding an extra 300 million urban residents by 2050. The rapid growth of urban population is placing a huge strain on accessible infrastructural and environmental resources. This gave the Indian government a call to build better cities in order to accommodate the expanding urban agglomeration in India. Dealing with the strain on accessible resources in urban cities with this increasing population is genuinely difficult. The best expectation in this scenario could be combining the cities with technology solutions. Smart use of technology and information will empower cities to utilize infrastructure and other resources much better. PM Modi’s ‘Smart Cities mission’ is one such example of the comprehensive advancement in chosen 100 cities of India. The mission very well objects to promote the selected cities for continuous development through. Smart Internet solutions. Working towards instrumenting the planning of ‘Smart Cities mission’, Internet of things (IoT) assumes a pivotal part of the general development of the chosen cities. There is an exciting connection between the concept of smart cities and the Internet of things. Fusing the physical infrastructure of a city with the latest offerings of technology has become more prominent leading to the growth of smart cities. By 2021, according to the “Ericsson mobility report – 2016”, more than 16 billion connected devices will be enabled by the Internet of things technology. Even global technology giants have already begun to affirm that the latest technological developments are driving towards IoT. It is comfortably believed that IoT is the key to improving smart cities. It enables every possible device internet connected and allows interchange of data between the networks of the connected gadget. This can be any device from headphones, mobile phones, washing machines, laptops, alarm clock to any other thing that possesses an on and off switch to the Internet. It is a large network of things or even people connected to each other. The association in IoT may be – things to things, things to people and people to people. IoT is presumed to impact consumers’ life around the globe. Its uses are unlimited whether it is for smart parking or waste management. Except from day to day utilization for self comfort, an idea of IoT will be greatly advantageous in developing smart cities in India. In a wider context, IoT is something which will simply not just be used in communication networks but also in enhancing the productivity of resources in sectors such as energy, transportation, sanitation, healthcare and much more leading to the extensive development of the city. It will aid us upgrade the way we work and live which will have a long-term effect on manageable development. This will automatically result in the growth of smart cities. Many kinds of research and attempts are constantly carried out to connect intelligence with technology. This will expect to affect one of the greatest unpredictable areas, for example, Infrastructure. IoT will tend to handle essential societal issues which are developing at pace, for example, activity blockage in the city. It will take a shot at the key difficulties of urban areas and change the way they work. The IoT will reshape the essential framework for bringing out outcomes in decreasing activity and street blockage. This will likewise bring about sparing energy at par. additionally, smart parking will likewise be an additional advantage to the enhanced infrastructure. It will alarm the drivers ahead of time about free parking spots for enhanced driving. Smart sensors in road lights will likewise be one sort of an assistance to the urban areas in sparing energy. The smart road lights will be turned on when it detects somebody is drawing nearer to the light. Other than the infrastructure, it is almost certain that India is having a heightening fight against waste management. To enhance public utilities in the city, Internet networks require adjustment of conventional data and communication technologies and new innovations to enhance effectiveness. The IoT can have a colossal part to play in the city's present waste management framework. Smart rubbish canisters empowered by IoT work with remote systems in overseeing waste adequately. Aside from the inhabitants of the area, a smart trash receptacle would itself be able to inform the city organization when attention is required. The sensor empowered rubbish containers can effectively work in diminishing trash congestion which would likewise contribute to 'Clean India mission' together with 'Smart Cities mission'. The capacity of IoT to work without human collaboration makes it remarkable and considerably more proficient in the logistics industry in India. Tracking of vehicles with IoT powered gadgets makes it more prudent and simpler than prior conventional tracking systems. Alternate preferences of IoT in this industry can be better correspondence with a driver because of vehicle streaming cameras, mobile applications, driver and vehicle tracking, speed check and some more. As technology is yet advancing, IoT will end up being a standout amongst the most critical necessities for logistics and cab industry. It can help taking brief choices of upgrades identified with work and driving staff. Aside from societal and environmental improvements, IoT will likewise be driving Indian Healthcare sector. Patients will be associated with health observing gadgets, applications and different apparatuses through IoT empowered technology to keep a consistent check on their health conditions. The more extensive utilization of IoT in human services likewise incorporates fundamental mindfulness alarms about immunization programs, pre and post pregnancy care and much more. The attribute of IoT in interfacing gadgets with each other will likewise help in the better care of patients by associating their therapeutic machines, equipments and wearables systems with each other. It is likewise presumed that IoT will transform the whole scene of Indian telecom industry. As telecom industry works on connectivity, it will wind up plainly important for telecom administrators to give continuous network at truly reasonable cost. IoT will require a solid connection to exhibit its effect on smart cities. There will better customer value and upgraded services for better IoT systems. Worldwide, numerous nations have joined the race of creating Smart cities with an underlying spotlight on supportability and infrastructural development. There will be coordinated smart answers for all individual and societal issues spreading over different areas of business. The nonstop advancement of 'Computerized India Campaign' is relentlessly opening the universe of chances for developers contributing in building smart cities. Right now, there are more than 4 million application engineers in India chipping away at IoT related ventures. The open doors for IoT in India are massive as it is a developing country which is promptly accepting different technological progressions since recent years. India can be a pioneer and in addition shopper of IoT empowered gadgets. From consistently smaller scale use to large-scale level utilization, IoT can reshape the structure of current urban areas to smart cities.