Low Battery? New Tech Lets You Wirelessly Share Power

Low Battery? New Tech Lets You Wirelessly Share Power

VR at Cannes: How Will Virtual Reality Change Film?

VR at Cannes: How Will Virtual Reality Change Film?

Facebook Introduces 360 Photos – The Next Step in the VR Shift

Facebook Introduces 360 Photos – The Next Step in the VR Shift

TECHNOLOGY AND POULTRY INDUSTRY.

New Zealand's poultry industry is keeping a close eye on emerging technology which could stop male chickens in the egg industry having to be killed. The layer hen industry breeds about three million hens a year and about the same number of male chickens. The wrong breed for eating, these chicks are killed when they are a day old either by gassing or being instantly killed in a machine with a blade. Although the practice meets animal welfare standards, egg producers say they would be keen to embrace new genetic marker technology, which would identify the chick's sex before it hatched "or any sign of consciousness, which some people have some issues with". German scientists have developed a new technique which could be commercially tested as soon as next year. "In-ovo sexing" involves analysing chemical biomarkers to determine the sex of a chick on the ninth day of incubation. Australian scientists are looking at another method involving gene marking and Canadian researchers are also at work on the problem. In the United States this week, the United Egg Producers pledged to stop the mass culling of male chicks by 2020, or as soon as it was "economically feasible," according to animal welfare group Humane League, which sparked the talks. "Male chicks are useless to the egg industry, so industry disposes of these newborns in the most brutal of ways," Humane League's Aaron Ross said. In Australia, where six million male chicks are culled each year, caged-egg farmer Bede Burke in Tamworth said the industry was "excited" by the innovations. "Killing half your chickens and disposing them is a massive cost, and in ovo sex determination solves part of the problem," Burke said. Richard Rayner, chief executive of Specialized Breeders Australia, said he welcomed innovations to eliminate the "unfortunate side effect of the layer chicken industry". "It's not so much a cost issue, as it's an ethical and consumer perception issue. It's not a welfare issue as they do get killed humanely, but an ethical one," he said. In New Zealand, Brooks said roosters from layer hens - hens breed for eggs - could not simply be used for meat because poultry farms used different breeds for eating. Previous innovations to improve birds' welfare had been quickly adapted here, such as beak trimming, which was now done with a infra-red beam. "We're a tiny, tiny industry. We had 110 million meat chickens last year, that's a fifth of the size of Mississippi State [in the US]...but nevertheless we're seen as innovative."] Culled from NZFarmer.

3D PRINTED AQUARIUM.

Haruka Misawa, a Japanese artist, designer and the founder of Misawa Design Institute, has used modern 3D printing technology to craft some truly stunning minimalist aquariums and water features. Her series of installations is called Waterscape, and she has mixed real water plants and fish to create a beautiful and calming collection of aquariums that is understated and yet completely memorable. It is said that just looking at an aquarium can help reduce stress levels and lower blood pressure, and will produce a calming effect. Just looking at some of the pictures of Misawa’s Waterscape designs will make you feel like the stresses that you deal with on a daily basis are just melting away. When she was designing her Waterscapes, Misawa created a series of 3D printed objects that were inspired by the shapes and objects that would be found in nature. Things like coral, water plants and stone formations inspired the minimalist, sculptural versions that she used in each aquarium. The objects were 3D printed and placed inside of simple, stark square-shaped tanks that provided the living fish with unique and varied structures to swim around and inside of. Misawa created several structures that would trap air inside of them, so plants could be growing underwater among the fish and other aqua life. Read more @3dprint.com

BILL GATES , CHICKENS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH.

Dr. Batamaka Somé, an anthropologist from Burkina Faso who has worked with Gates foundation, has spent much of his career studying the economic impact of raising chickens in his home country. He explains the importance of chicken to the economy of Burkina Faso in the video. Bill Gates asks" If you were living on $2 a day, what would you do to improve your life? That’s a real question for the nearly 1 billion people living in extreme poverty today. There’s no single right answer, of course, and poverty looks different in different places. But through my work with the foundation, I’ve met many people in poor countries who raise chickens, and I have learned a lot about the ins and outs of owning these birds. (As a city boy from Seattle, I had a lot to learn!) It’s pretty clear to me that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens. In fact, if I were in their shoes, that’s what I would do—I would raise chickens. Here’s why: 1) They are easy and inexpensive to take care of. Many breeds can eat whatever they find on the ground (although it’s better if you can feed them, because they’ll grow faster). Hens need some kind of shelter where they can nest, and as your flock grows, you might want some wood and wire to make a coop. Finally, chickens need a few vaccines. The one that prevents the deadly Newcastle disease costs less than 20 cents. 2) They’re a good investment. Suppose a new farmer starts with five hens. One of her neighbors owns a rooster to fertilize the hens’ eggs. After three months, she can have a flock of 40 chicks. Eventually, with a sale price of $5 per chicken—which is typical in West Africa—she can earn more than $1,000 a year, versus the extreme-poverty line of about $700 a year. 3)They help keep children healthy. Malnutrition kills more than 3.1 million children a year. Although eating more eggs—which are rich in protein and other nutrients—can help fight malnutrition, many farmers with small flocks find that it’s more economical to let the eggs hatch, sell the chicks, and use the money to buy nutritious food. But if a farmer’s flock is big enough to give her extra eggs, or if she ends up with a few broken ones, she may decide to cook them for her family. 4)They empower women. Because chickens are small and typically stay close to home, many cultures regard them as a woman’s animal, in contrast to larger livestock like goats or cows. Women who sell chickens are likely to reinvest the profits in their families. The Gates foundation is betting on chicken; alongside partners throughout sub-Saharan Africa, we are working to create sustainable market systems for poultry. It’s especially important for these systems to make sure farmers can buy birds that have been properly vaccinated and are well suited to the local growing conditions. Our goal: to eventually help 30 percent of the rural families in sub-Saharan Africa raise improved breeds of vaccinated chickens, up from just 5 percent now. Bill Gates said "When I was growing up, chickens weren’t something you studied, they were something you made silly jokes about". It has been eye-opening for me to learn what a difference they can make in the fight against poverty. It sounds funny, but I mean it when I say that I am excited about chickens.

Olam, InVivo to jointly develop animal feed solutions in Nigeria.

Global agri-business Olam International Ltd. and leading French feedstock company InVivo Animal Nutrition & Health have signed a consulting agreement to jointly develop expertise in animal feed in Nigeria. The two-year consulting services partnership agreement signed in December will involve technical assistance and sharing of expertise to jointly develop solutions and products in the animal feed space. The knowledge transfer between the two companies will help develop solutions, formulate animal feed, characterize raw materials and implement R&D trials and protocols to enter the animal feed industry in Nigeria. This agreement will see, both companies tap into each other’s proven expertise – Olam for its Africa experience and InVivo NSA for its animal feed proficiency. InVivo NSA will support Olam in the design, equipment selection and installation of its feed mills across Nigeria. Its nutrition and formulation experts will work closely with Olam’s team to build a strong understanding of the local market and develop cost-effective formulations using local and imported raw materials. InVivo NSA will also train Olam’s staff on providing veterinary field support to poultry and fish farmers in order to help deliver consistent product performance. In addition, Olam will gain access to InVivo NSA’s R&D and product development facilities as well as their feed manufacturing units in other developing markets across Asia and Latin America. Olam’s Global Head of Grains, K C Suresh, said: “This partnership follows our announcement in November to enter the animal feed and related businesses in Nigeria. This knowledge-transfer agreement will accelerate our penetration into this space, allowing Olam and InVivo NSA to rapidly scale up commercial activities. In doing so, we look forward to improving productivity and returns for the local fish and poultry producers, which supports Nigeria’s economy.” InVivo NSA’s CEO, H. de Roquefeuil, adds: “Developing key partnerships with major players and accelerating our footprint in Africa is at the core of InVivo Group’s 2025 strategy. We look forward to leveraging off Olam’s Africa experience to bring our differentiated expertise to the region.” The global feed industry is a growing part of the agri-commodity complex with attractive returns and a strong growth outlook, particularly in emerging markets such as Nigeria. Olam has a 25-year history in Nigeria across multiple commodities. Its recent decision to expand into the animal feed industry was based on a comprehensive study of the sector and its existing expertise in the agri-commodity complex in the region. Nigeria was chosen as the first point of entry due to its strong growth outlook and demographics where the commercial feed market is expected to grow at over 10 percent CAGR over the next 5 years. read more at wattagnet.com