The Snips Journal - Weekly Newsletter - Issue #7
This week, we have for you:
5 Snips In Numbers
5 Tiny Snips
Sit back and feel those knowledge gains coming!💪💪💪
Snips In Numbers
SiN #67 – 1.1 Seconds
That’s how fast the Tesla Roadster can accelerate from 0-100kmh/60mph with the Space X option package, as confirmed by Elon Musk on Twitter. This is crazy fast considering the standard roadster is claimed to hit 0-100kmh in 1.9 seconds!!
SiN #68 – 14.73%
That is the weekly unemployment rate of India as of May 23 according to the think tank, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Ltd. It is almost double that of the rate a month earlier – in the last week of April – at 7.40.
SiN #70 – 75%
That is the percentage of world’s population that, according to Snapchat’s report, will frequently use Augmented Reality(AR) technology by 2025. TheSnap Consumer AR Global Report 2021, done with the help of Deloitte Digital is based on interviews with 15,000+ consumers in 15 countries.
SiN #72 – 74.8%
That is the share of electric cars in the total passenger car sales in 2020, in Norway according to the World Economic Forum. This is attributable to its policy regarding waiver of the otherwise hefty import duties and taxes on EVs and the high median household income.
SiN #73 – 35.7%
That is the interest rate spread(difference between interest rate charged on loans and the interest paid on deposits) of the island nation of Madagascar for 2020 according to the data by The World Bank. For a comparison, China had an interest rate spread of 2.9%, Russia – 3% and South Korea – 1.6%!
Tiny Snips
TS #40 – Rivals Joining Forces For a Green Cause
Producing aluminium for commercial use the traditional way is environmentally degrading in 2 aspects: –
1. The process of electrolysis requires electric current to be passed through the refined alumina. This electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels.
2. In the above process, a carbon anode is inserted into the alumina which after the smelting process leads to creation of carbon dioxide.
In 2015, David DeYoung an executive at Alcoa(a major producer of aluminium) was called to the Apple headquarters. Alcoa was looking into the possibility of producing aluminum at the least impact to the environment. By that time, Alcoa was also in the midst of a purported splitting up of the company into 2 separate units.
Apple, which Harbor Intelligence analyst Jorge Vazquez estimates uses almost 15,000 metric tons of aluminum annually for its electronics gear, had invited DeYoung to explain a potentially revolutionary carbonless manufacturing process for aluminum that his group was developing.
Later that year, Apple held talks with Alcoa’s rival, London based Rio Tinto who were themselves looking to develop carbonless aluminium production. Thereafter, Apple asked both the compainies to join their resources to develop the technology together. This led to the creation of Elysis.
Elysis is a joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto is backed by funding from Apple, the government of Canada, and the provincial government of Quebec. The venture has developed a technology that makes so-called green aluminum, whose production doesn’t emit carbon dioxide.
More here.
TS #41 – Spot Fakes, SimSim!
Fake or counterfeits being sold, through ecommerce platforms, as authentic products have been a cause for concern, especially for luxury brands that claim a hefty price tag. But, nevertheless, there have been many such cases.
Alibaba, one of the biggest players in the ecommerce space has made a move in this direction. It recently updated its AI platform to be able to identify authentic and counterfeit logos of luxury brands in 30-50 milliseconds(10x quicker than the speed people blink).
The platform was trained on about 13.7 billion picture samples, which is 186 times the number of books stored in the National Library of China. The database has more than 1 million logos covering 500 luxury product categories.
More here.
TS #42 – Anjali Sud – The Indian Who Reinvented Vimeo
On May 25, Anjali Sud became the First Indian Woman to take a company public. Sud is the CEO of the video SaaS company Vimeo.
Founded in 2004, even before YouTube, Vimeo was the first company to introduce the “like” button.
Before she became the CEO in 2017, Vimeo was an ad-free video-media company playing catchup with Netflix and YouTube – it was investing in original content like Netflix and supporting creators like YouTube, all the while following a subscription model.
In her first 90 days as CEO, Sud reinvented Vimeo from being a media company to a SaaS company. Instead of just investing in content, they shifted their focus to develop tools for creators to better create production grade videos. It has become the Tik-Tok for good quality videos. Now, instead of competing with YouTube, Vimeo even lets users publish videos created using their tools to other platforms like YouTube, Twitter et al.
It has over 200 million Monthly Active Users and posted a 57% sales growth in Q1 2021. Vimeo boasts to be the biggest ad-free video platform in the world with less than 5 million videos. Though it is miniscule compared to about a billion videos on YouTube, videos in Vimeo are all of professional grade quality as it has stricter guidelines for acceptable videos.
On May 25, Vimeo got listed in Nasdaq. Though the shares were down 13% at the end of the day, the CEO has high hopes for them down the line. Its valuation lingers around $8 Billion, 33% higher than the $6 billion it fetched from investors in January.
TS #43 – Cecilia – The Bartending Robot
Meet Cecilia.ai, the bartending robot. It is the first robot bartender that can interact and chat with customers, which it does using conversational AI and voice recognition software.
Developed by people at Israel’s GKI Group, Cecilia is basically a vending machine capable of making customized drinks. The voice control features makes for contactless ordering. It is capable of making 120 drinks per hour and has the capacity to hold mix and alcohol ingredients in its back compartment up to 70 liters.
TS #44 – Dr. Smart Toilet
The stool of a person can tell a lot about their gut health. But analyzing the stool is what is difficult for those who may have gastro-intestinal problems. This can lead to patients giving unreliable data for doctors to work on, which in turn reduced the effectiveness of the treatment. The researchers at the Duke University have taken a step in this direction.
The Smart Toilet Technology is designed to be installed in the pipes of existing toilets and collect images of stools that pass through. The underlying AI algorithm is trained on more than 3000 unique images to stools to identify its characteristics. In their tests, it was able to accurately classify the stool 85 percent of the time.