The numbers represent “quads” or quadrillion BTUs, with the total consumption totalling 100.2. Conveniently, you can pretty much interpret the below numbers as a percentage of total US energy usage.
1. Overall energy usage declined by 1%
That’s significant. Compare to 2018 below and you can see: The biggest shock to most people is that over two-thirds of energy produced in the US is “rejected.” What does that mean?
Some businesses that want to stay open say it’s hard to do so when employees can make more money by staying home.
$600 per week.
That’s what the federal government is now offering to people who’ve lost their jobs because of the coronavirus.
For many workers and employers, that money is a godsend — a way to keep food on the table while also cutting payroll costs.
But the extra money can create some awkward situations. Some businesses that want to keep their doors open say it’s hard to do so when employees can make more money by staying home.
“We basically have this situation where it would be a logical choice for a lot of people to be unemployed,” said Sky Marietta, who opened a coffee shop along with her husband, Geoff, last year in Harlan, Ky.
“COVID-19 has had a substantial financial impact on the tourism industry, and destination organizations have responded quickly by deferring marketing funds in a responsible manner,” said Craig Compagnone, chief operating officer, MMGY Global commenting on the results of a recent meetings industry survey.
MMGY Travel Intelligence, in partnership with Destinations International Foundation, has released the findings from the third wave of a series of bi-weekly tracking surveys of North American destination professionals. The surveys assess how this sector has been affected by COVID-19 and what shifts organizations are making during a period of very fluid change. The latest findings reveal that while almost the entire sector (95 percent) has moved to reduce or postpone paid promotional advertising, and 80 percent have shifted sales, marketing or messaging, half of destination organizations expect to return to several forms of paid promotional advertising within the next 60 days.
“However, search data is telling us that there is still a strong desire to travel, and we believe this pent-up demand will result in a high volume of shorter booking window trips when bans are lifted and consumers believe it is safe to get out and explore again,” added Compagnone.
The new ‘smart toilet’ technology can look for signs of disease, scientists claim, from cancer to kidney failure.
Going to the loo may never be the same again thanks to scientists who claim to have invented a device that can be fitted on toilets to detect signs of various diseases in stool and urine.
The gadget, which fits inside the bowl, uses cameras, test strips and motion sensing technology to analyse the deposits and sends the data to a secure cloud server.
The researchers said their so-called “smart toilet” technology could be useful to individuals who are genetically predisposed to certain conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, prostate cancer or kidney failure.
US neobank Chime is running a pilot in which it gives customers their $1,200 federal stimulus checks before the government begins disbursing the payments, CNBC reports.
The neobank selected 1,000 customers who received their payments instantly on Thursday through Chime’s SpotMe feature, which usually acts as an overdraft protection feature, allowing customers to go negative in their accounts without having to pay an overdraft fee.
Chime is using its own capital to front the money to customers until the government pays out the checks, and CEO Chris Britt told CNBC that he is waiting for reassurance from the government that Chime users can’t redirect stimulus payments to other bank accounts before expanding the pilot to other users. Eligible users will largely be those who direct deposit paychecks into their Chime accounts and have previously had their tax refunds deposited into their Chime accounts as well.
Most Consumers Believe They’ll Prefer Riding In Self Driving Cars In Ten Years
Autonomous vehicle startups Beep and Navya are using four driverless shuttles to transport coronavirus tests around the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Florida.
Because the routes are isolated from public traffic, the shuttles can be operated without a human safety driver, which limits human exposure to the lab samples. Though even the most advanced self-driving companies require much more testing before the technology can be scaled, this example from Beep and Navya highlights a near-term upside of autonomous vehicles: minimizing human-to-human contact.
Colleges across the nation are scrambling to close deep budget holes and some have been pushed to the brink of collapse after the coronavirus outbreak triggered financial losses that could total more than $100 million at some institutions.
Scores of colleges say they’re taking heavy hits as they refund money to students for housing, dining and parking after campuses closed last month. Many schools are losing millions more in ticket sales after athletic seasons were cut short, and some say huge shares of their reserves have been wiped out amid wild swings in the stock market.
Yet college leaders say that’s only the start of their troubles: Even if campuses reopen this fall, many worry large numbers of students won’t return. There’s widespread fear that an economic downturn will leave many Americans unable to afford tuition, and universities are forecasting steep drop-offs among international students who may think twice about studying abroad so soon after a pandemic.
A man in Bologna, Italy, chats online with his grandparents on March 19. A nationwide lockdown to control the spread of COVID-19 has been extended to at least Easter.
People in the United States and around the world are turning to the internet to do their work and stay connected with others as the COVID-19 outbreak forces people to stay home and away from the office and crowds. A median of 77% across 34 countries use the internet at least occasionally or own an internet-enabled smartphone, according to a spring 2019 Pew Research Center survey. But there are stark digital divides. Younger people, those with higher incomes and those in wealthier countries are more likely to be digital technology users. Many people surveyed also use social media, but social media usage is not ubiquitous, even in economically advanced nations like Germany and Japan.
Here are eight charts on digital connectivity worldwide.
Researchers have found a simple way to make graphene disperse in water, paving the way for graphene-based inks or paints
Graphene may be versatile, but there’s one thing it’s not all that good at – dispersing in water. Now, researchers at Umeå University have found a relatively simple way to do it. Graphene oxide is a different form of the material that can make for stable water dispersion, which can then be used as a kind of graphene paint.
Graphene is essentially a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms, arranged in a hexagonal pattern. This deceptively simple material has a range of useful properties – it’s incredibly lightweight, thin and flexible, but still strong. It’s also an excellent conductor of electricity and heat, so it’s turning up in everything from electronics to water filters to clothing.
Ideally, one useful way to get graphene into the right configurations could involve dispersing it in water. This solution could then be painted or sprayed onto a surface to make, for example, supercapacitor electrodes or conductive coatings.
The problem is that graphene and similar forms of carbon, like graphite and carbon nanotubes, are hydrophobic, meaning they repel water. They can be made to disperse using harsh organic solvents or mechanical treatments, but the former is toxic and the latter can introduce defects.
Major sports broadcasters are leaning into eSports to fill the programming gaps left from leagues canceling professional sports games because of coronavirus.
The state of play: ESPN on Sunday aired 12 hours of esports including Rocket League, NBA 2K, and Madden.
Fox Sports aired its first Madden esports tournament last week after agreeing on a broadcast deal with the NFL.
Be smart: Without live sports, the players themselves are looking to eSports to stay connected to fans.
Some athletes, like NBA star Kevin Durant, are using eSports tournaments to raise money for charity. A few tournaments will be used to fund coronavirus relief efforts.
Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and other PVH stores in North America and Europe have been closed since mid-March.
The company has furloughed about 75% of its workforce in North America.
With stores closed, the retail industry is struggling with inventory piling up in warehouses and no place to sell it, the head of the company that owns such names as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger told CNBC on Wednesday.
“Retail companies are not built to have their stores closed for extended periods of time,” PVH CEO Manny Chirico said in an interview with Becky Quick on “Squawk Box.”
PVH’s stores in North America and Europe have been closed since mid-March, along with many other businesses. The closures as expected to drag on for weeks if not months as the world tries to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
The company has furloughed about 75% of its workforce in North America, Chirico said, adding to the hundreds of thousands of furloughs taking place in an industry that employees more than 50 million people in the U.S. alone.
Upgraded points is a trusted source for a wide variety of similar in-depth airline studies, as well as advice and pointers for travelers.
Upgraded Points recently released its newest targeted study featuring a survey based on questions given to airline travelers concerning the recent global pandemic. The study seeks to understand American travelers’ plans and concerns, helping to better illuminate the travel crisis as it unfolds; while also delivering important data about the American airline industry itself – which recently asked for and will receive a reported $50 billion bailout from the U.S. government. Upgraded points is a trusted source for a wide variety of similar in-depth airline studies, as well as advice and pointers for travelers.
“The airline industry is in a great deal of trouble again,” said Alex Miller, founder of Upgraded Points. “They’ve certainly seen their share of difficulty over the years: after 9/11, during the 2008 economic downturn, etc. But this is probably the worst crisis the industry has ever faced. Without millions of travelers on planes and in airports, the industry just can’t make the revenue it needs to survive. Whole countries are asking citizens to stay indoors, and that includes enforcing travel restrictions and closing borders. No one knows exactly when this global pandemic will peak and then begin to recede. So all we can do now is wait, and gather valuable data to help understand the situation as it happens. That is the goal of this particular study.”
