Le Parisien Determined to Identify What Voters Believe in place of what elites believe they believe.

Paris’ leading daily newspaper, the tabloid Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France has outlawed from its pages all poll-based predictions on the pending presidential election.

The centrist popular daily blames unquestioning reliance on polls, known in France as “soundings” to have led to the embarrassing set of circumstances in which Alain Juppe was unanimously predicted to become the successful candidate of the right-of-centre Republican Party.

In the event, and as MSC Newswire’s European correspondent had predicted, (see our story below) the successful candidate was Francois Fillon who now becomes the favourite to win the pending presidential (i.e. general) election.

In the same forecast, MSC Newswire had also predicted that current president Francois Hollande would not be the Socialist Party candidate in the election. In the event, and several days after our prediction, Mr Hollande stood down.

Meanwhile, according to Le Parisien, the elimination of polls, soundings, and other tendentious content will be replaced by plain and simple reporting.

The objective being to report what people are in fact thinking in place of the former practice of reporting on what a narrow elite believe, or want to believe, everyday people are thinking.

According to our European correspondent, Alain Juppe’s “Happy Identity” slogan was only finding approval among the media.

Similarly Mr Juppe’s involvement with a funds scandal, which had caused him to live in Canada, was taken seriously by voters, if not the media.

Also, the idea of a Clintonesque co-presidency (see front page), while attractive to the media, nonetheless dismayed the public at large, as it did voters in the United States presidential election.

|  From the MSCNewswire reporters' desk  |  Thursday January 5 2017  |

The End of the Politically Correct

Our foreign correspondent forecast the Trump victory, and now previews the fall of France’s Francois Hollande ....

| Napier, MSCNewsWire, Nov 24, 2016 | - The predicted fall of France’s president Francois Hollande in next year’s election will bring to a close the initial era of political correctness. He is scheduled to become the third big-economy leader victim within less than a year of the accelerating electoral power of the non-political class.

Mr Hollande is known as the King of Consensus. His determination prior to any decision to canvass every opinion and nuance in his own Socialist Party and also in the string of other French leftward parties conveyed an impression of dithering in the face of islamic insurgency.

Instead of being seen to be heading a tough reaction Mr Hollande’s nature lead him to be more at home leading candle lit marches, vigils and uttering trite panaceas in the face of the emergency. It was left to his prime minister Manuel Valls to express the public mood about the threat throughout France of rampant religious extremism.

Worse still, Mr Hollande was viewed as being over-preoccupied by the star studded Paris climate conference with its breathtaking ritual insights into the blindingly obvious instead of with the much more visible and immediate terrorist threat

The most visible manifestation of Mr Hollande’s pending loss of the presidency is the number of his own hand-picked cabinet members who are deserting the sinking ship. The “frondeurs” as the rebels are known are setting themselves up, they are still in their 30s and 40s, for the 2022 election.

There is though in the anticipated disappearance of Mr Hollande a signal point of difference with those other landmark scupperings of the political classes, Brexit and Trump. The difference is that this time everyone is expecting it.

The winner of the French Republican Party primaries is now looked to as the winner of the presidency. This is looking, in fact, increasingly like former premier Francois Fillon.Mr Hollande’s political career has been an inch-by-inch bureaucratic progression characterised by a reverse Clinton-effect process.

His life-mate Segolene Royale (pictured above with Hollande) with whom he has four children was the glamorous one. Her attempt to crack the French version of the glass ceiling was more spectacular than anything attempted by Hillary.

In the event she lost to Sarkozy.

It was now that that the blander Francois entered the lists and in doing so streamlined his approach by parting from Segolene.  The go-it-alone Francois now beat the unpopular Nicolas Sarkozy and the ElyseesPalace was his and his Socialist Party’s.

Four and a half years later he looks like a president who knows he can’t win. He is unlikely to hand over to the rather more decisive figure of his prime minister Manuel Valls.

No major economy leader, not even President Obama, personifies so closely as does Francois Hollande the twin pillars of diversity and multiculturalism which in France’s case are supercharged by the Revolutionary code of the Rights of Man.

Few doubt his sincerity of purpose. It is just that as with the other casualties of this new wave politics, the Clintons, he found himself reading from an out-of-date script.

Cinch is the brainchild of Jake Jackson, an avid camper and entrepreneur from Lancaster in the United Kingdomwho set out on the mission to find the perfect tent for festival-going.

His search was thwarted when he was unable to find one which did everything he wanted it to. Jake’s vision was ambitious, yet simple: a tent should make camping fun, easy and cheap – not suck away your time, money and sanity.

He wanted power. He wanted to access his tent from both the back and the front. He didn’t want to trip over guide ropes or tent pegs. And he wanted to be able to stand up!

So in true entrepreneurial fashion, when he couldn’t buy what he wanted, he set out to make his own. And Cinch was born.

“The concept behind Cinch came from me not being able to find what I wanted on the market,” said founder Jake Jackson, “I loved the idea of a pop up for the festivals I was attending but there was nothing out there that suited my needs fully so I went about designing my own.”

Setting off on a one-man-mission, his first step was to design his perfect tent and get some samples made, which any designer will tell you, is a challenge in itself.

“I sourced different factories and got some samples made up,” he added, “I then got a small test order which went well and made constant changes over the space of a year or two to get the tent to more of an advanced concept.

“We field tested them, listened to customers and changed them accordingly. The most difficult thing was finance to get the project off the ground. It is not really a business that you can start off with too small and scale up steadily, you have to start the business on a much larger scale for it to work.

“I tried for a good couple of years to find funding for the project but due to the economic climate there was no money available for new businesses and ideas. This is when we decided to crowd fund to get the project off the ground and it went amazingly well.”

With his designs ready, Jake took to crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in a bid to fund the project and was overwhelmed by the response. The campaign raised £30,000 in just 14 minutes and became one of the fastest raises ever to appear on the website. Jake decided to extend the campaign and went on to raise a total of £366,905 from 1,341 private investors.

“I’ve had a great experience with crowdfunding,” he said, “but not all of my experiences have been great, I’ve learned a lot along the way. I wasted a lot of time and money making the wrong decisions but always learning from them.

“It’s certainly not easy and you can’t just expect something from nothing with crowdfunding, you have to put the work in, no matter how good you think your product is. Our approach to crowdfunding was to get the product out there before the campaign and gather momentum, this is the hardest thing to do.”

Cinch is now on target to launch its first range of solar powered pop-up tents early next year and Jake has ambitious plans for the future.

He added: “The reception so far has been unbelievable, our customers are so enthusiastic and I really do think it’s got people camping that maybe would have not bothered previously which is fantastic.

“The plans are now to continue to develop the tents and the expand the range. It would be great to develop Cinch into a world wide lifestyle brand that is recognised for the coolest innovative products.”

|  A Cinch press release  | December 20, 2016  |

Amazon has filed a patent for massive flying warehouses equipped with fleets of drones that deliver goods to key locations.

Carried by an airship, the warehouses would visit places Amazon expects demand for certain goods to boom.

It says one use could be near sporting events or festivals where they would sell food or souvenirs to spectators.

The patent also envisages a series of support vehicles that would be used to restock the flying structures.

Continue to full article on BBCNews - December 29, 2016

∩ Company car tax perk to return: expert

∩ Bellamy's organic infant formula derails in China

∩ Amazon files patent for flying warehouse

∩ Belgian deputy PM to discuss free-trade deal with EU and NZ

∩ Fonterra milk price rises in NZ shops as world dairy prices take a hit

∩ As New Zealand took its seat as a temporary member for the first time of the United Nations Security Council.

∩ While you were sleeping: Stocks, greenback climb

While we don't have a magic crystal ball, a combination of what we've seen in 2016, plus one or two murmurs from the supply chains, gives enough clues to be able to make some fairly educated guesses about what's ahead.

• Samsung will be back with more than one flagship phone
• Apple is expected to launch at least two new iPhones in 2017
• LG unveiled the G5 in 2016 at Mobile World Congress
• 2016 also saw the arrival of Google's new Pixel phone

The smartphone tech of 2017

We may not see a huge leap forward in the evolution of the smartphone over the next 12 months, but that doesn't mean there won't be any surprises along the way, and here's what might be in store – though we should mention this is based mainly on leaks and rumors, so don't get your hopes up too high just yet.

Iris scanning technology hasn't appeared on many phones to date, but one handset it did show up on in 2016 was the doomed Samsung Galaxy Note 7. With the necessary components now becoming cheaper and more accurate, you can expect to see more phones feature this futuristic form of security. It's been linked with the Samsung Galaxy S8, among other handsets.

Then there's curves: If there's one running thread through all the smartphone 2017 rumors, it's curves everywhere you look. Handset makers are said to be experimenting with curved back plates, curved front screens, curved edges for displays, and more. What Samsung helped to start with the Galaxy Note Edge back in 2014 could well be the norm in 2017, whichever part of the phone you're looking at.

Continue to full article on New Atlas

Reformation in US, UK, and France Suddenly Transforms United Nations Hegemony

 The old established order, the one founded in traditionally-accepted geopolitical foreign policies began to dissolve at the same time as New Zealand took its seat as a temporary member for the first time of the United Nations Security Council.

The old order was based on policies that would continue and in the United States especially would do so on a dynastic basis. In the other two western alliance members of the permanent Security Council, United Kingdom and France this too was the order of the day.

For New Zealand its willingness to follow the great power party line now that it was a guest at High Table seemed a natural thing to do.

In this special holiday-read article we now examine events of 30 years ago that in so many ways echo delayed action events in the Security Council now and especially so in regard to the way in which New Zealand’s willingness to follow Senior School policies can leave it hanging out to dry.......................

The peak of New Zealand’s world stage role in more recent times and in a sensational sense occurred in 1985 in two incidents in two vastly separated locations.

The first of these dual episodes was Prime Minister David Lange’s appearance in March 1 at the Oxford Union debate on nuclear weapons.

The second came a few months later in Auckland with the blowing up of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior. This then became compounded with the capture of the two French agents responsible for the harbour sabotage.

The very public and compounding challenge to France, a permanent member of the Security Council, one of the five great powers that won World War 2, engendered a crusading atmosphere among the New Zealand political class.

This compounded with the national craving centred on punching above “our” weight engendered such a shared feeling of empowerment that David Lange’s Labour government carried through its sweeping globalist policies that now placed New Zealand in the very front rank of economic deregulation.

Now though and at the height of international acclaim trouble manifested itself in Oceania in the form of Lieutenant General Vernon Walters (pictured with President Nixon) in Fiji on “holiday.”

General Walters at this time, 1987, was United States ambassador to United Nations.

Prior to that he had served as deputy director of the CIA.

Two military coups in succession soon followed this soldierly vacation dalliance with the result that Fiji became a republic.

That same year 1987 General Walters was inducted into the US Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

Sabre rattling followed with the result that military intervention from New Zealand now seemed possible if not likely.

In the event, the intervention came via Australia which now instructed New Zealand not to intervene.

Another problem was that the burden of this message was delivered on a personal basis with Australian foreign office officials making high profile visits to New Zealand.

At this time the Cold War was still in progress.

This reliance on face-to-face exchanges indicated too the state of New Zealand’s military grade longer haul communications.

These were deemed to be unreliable through the activities of deep penetration agents known to have been active in the 1960s if not the 1970s, and therefore likely to have left legacies well into the 1980s.

After the world stage nuclear moral triumphs the Australian intervention over Fiji was a comedown.

Many believe now that New Zealand amplified this by its continuing coolness if not hostility and indeed, utter inability to accept the new republican regime in Fiji .

This regime in the event soon found firm friends in the form of Russia and China. These countries are the other two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council

It was now though that there was born the concept of New Zealand taking a seat on the United Nations Security Council, as one of the numerous temporary members.

As the years slipped by this became a determined goal and eventually a realisable one.

Australia had been a temporary-tier member of the Security Council on numerous occasions.

Luck now played its part as New Zealand’s debut began to take solid form. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the resulting trade sanctions of which New Zealand was and remains very much part of occurred too late in the piece to interfere in the membership process.

The China – New Zealand Free Trade Agreement was a roaring success, so no veto from there.

Britain was a natural supporter.

The United States was appreciative of New Zealand’s help with its Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.

France the other permanent Security Council member had long since buried the hatchet with New Zealand and indeed had taken over Britain’s imperial investment role in things like utilities, construction materials, electronics, financial services, urban transport and via Pernod Ricard, wine.

The permanent members, the great powers, were thus in 2014 in alignment and so New Zealand’s second tier membership went ahead..

Now and given the lead time between membership approval and admission there has taken place amid the three western power permanent members a paradigm shift akin to a reformation, and which can substantially be traced to the breakup of the state system in the Middle East.

The first indication of this shift was Britain’s announced departure from the EU and the ensuing resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron.

The second was the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

The third western permanent member of the Security Council to undergo this shift became France.

This was predicted by MSC Newswire (The End of the Politically Correct—November 24 2016)

President Francois Hollande now announced that he would not be offering himself for re-election in 2017.

As they start packing their bags for the return home the New Zealand delegation to the second tier, the impermanent one, of United Nations, and with the standing ovation accorded to their sponsored resolution, the one on Israel, still ringing in their ears, one or two veterans may cast their minds back, well, 30 years.

They will remember that time in Fiji when the United States seemed to be so present, yet so removed when the Fiji coups took place.

They will remember too just how stern and unfriendly the Australians suddenly became.

From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk - Wednesday 4 January 2017

More reading:  The End of the Politically Correct—November 24 2016

Chicago, IL (December 30th 2016) Carbon recycling company, LanzaTech has been selected by the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) to receive a $4M award to design and plan a demonstration-scale facility using industrial off gases to produce 3M gallons/year of low carbon jet and diesel fuels.

The facility will recycle industrial waste gases from steel manufacturing to produce a low cost ethanol intermediate “Lanzanol”. Both Lanzanol and cellulosic ethanol will then be converted to jet fuel via the “Alcohol to Jet” (ATJ) process developed by LanzaTech and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The ATJ technology was initially developed with DOE funding by PNNL and subsequently scaled-up by LanzaTech to produce 4000 gallons of sustainable jet fuel from Lanzanol and other sources, as well as 600 gallons of diesel fuel, for fuel quality testing, certification and a proving flight with Virgin Atlantic.

LanzaTech is currently building its first commercial ethanol facilities using waste gases, including one in China with China’s largest steel company, Shougang, and one in Belgium with the world’s largest steel manufacturer, ArcelorMittal. In the DOE funded project, LanzaTech will work with ArcelorMittal to evaluate US opportunities for leveraging this expertise to demonstrate an entirely new pathway to low carbon fuels from industrial wastes that are either flared or underutilized.

“Economics and sustainability are key to realizing the potential of alternative aviation fuels,” said Jennifer Holmgren, LanzaTech CEO. “Jet fuel accounts for as much as 40% of an airline’s operating costs and the sector has made substantial commitments to reduce their CO2 emissions by 2025. So fuels must address both of these needs to succeed at commercial scale. Thanks to the Department of Energy, the partners in this project will accelerate the commercial production of low cost, low carbon jet, gasoline and diesel in the United States.”

To demonstrate process versatility, ethanol from other waste gas streams will be converted, including cellulosic ethanol produced via fermentation of biomass syngas by Aemetis (Nasdaq: AMTX). Ambitech, an Illinois-based engineering company, will be LanzaTech’s engineering partner with additional engineering contributions from Aemetis. Other project partners include PNNL; technology providers Petron Scientech, CRI Catalyst Company, Nexceris and Gardner Denver Nash; Michigan Technological University, who will be evaluating the environmental footprint of the fuels being produced; and Audi, who will support by evaluating diesel and gasoline fuel properties. In addition the project has received support from Airlines for America (A4A) and the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), an aviation industry consortium focused on the near-term development and commercialization of sustainable alternative jet fuel for the aviation enterprise.

Statements of Support:

Suresh Baskaran, Chief Science and Technology Officer for the Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

"The ability to produce tightly-specified aviation fuel or, alternatively, high-cetane diesel is a unique feature of this technology that will enhance its competitiveness in U.S. as well as global markets.” Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis “We look forward to deepening our relationship with LanzaTech and using our cellulosic ethanol produced from California agricultural residues, to power jet planes and diesel trucks in the future.”

Steve Csonka, Executive Director of CAAFI “We are excited to see this demonstation-scale effort moving forward, and laud BETO’s selection of LanzaTech and their unique technology for this award. The aviation enterprise remains committed to the use of competitively priced sustainable alternative jet fuel, and we look forward to continuing to work with LanzaTech on several ongoing efforts which we believe can lead to near-term full-scale commercialization.“

Professor David Shonnard, Director, Sustainable Futures Institute, Michigan Technological University “The Michigan Tech Sustainable Futures Institute is excited to continue our relationship with LanzaTech, helping them innovate and develop products that meet environmental goals in addition to technical and economic targets." Yogendra Sarin, President & CEO at Petron Scientech Inc.

“Petron is pleased and excited to be working with LanzaTech to help bring ATJ technology to commercial demonstration through the appliaction of Petron's Innovative and proprietary Ethylene technology. We believe this partnership will help greatly in the development of sustainable biojet fuels, while contributing to finding solutions to global warming.”

About LanzaTech

LanzaTech’s carbon recycling technology captures and recycles a broad spectrum of gases for fuel and chemical production. Across the supply chain, LanzaTech promotes a ‘carbon smart’ circular economy, where both gas providers and end users can be resource efficient by recycling or “sequestering” carbon into new products rather than making them from fossil reserves. Founded in New Zealand, LanzaTech has raised more than US$200 million from investors including Khosla Ventures, K1W1, Qiming Venture Partners, Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, Petronas, Mitsui, Primetals, China International Capital Corp, Suncor and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. http://www.lanzatech.com

REGISTRATIONS are open for delegates to the inaugural Hort Connections 2017 to be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre from May 15-17.

The event combines the National Horticulture Convention and PMA Fresh Connections, bringng together the largest number of growers, supply chain members, government stakeholders and industry service providers in the Australian horticulture industry.

Hort Connections is a joint initiative between Ausveg and PMA Australia – New Zealand (PMA A-NZ), and will be co-hosted alongside a range of horticulture industry bodies including Australian Organic, Onions Australia and Irrigation Australia.

Ausveg national marketing manager Nathan McIntyre said growers and whole-of-supply-chain members are encouraged to take advantage of the significant early bird savings available for delegates to attend.

“This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for delegates to come together in one central location and network with their peers from many areas of horticulture, including vegetables, potatoes, onions, fresh fruit, cut flowers, certified organic growers and the irrigation industry,” Mr McIntyre said.

Hort Connections 2017 will build on the success of previous events, incorporating international speakers, an expansive trade show and networking opportunities.

PMA Australia-New Zealand CEO Darren Keating said the speaker sessions will offer a combination of cross-industry presentations as well as streams dedicated to a particular segment of the horticulture industry.

“These sessions will run in conjunction with the trade show, where delegates will be able to visit over 250 exhibitors showcasing the industry’s latest innovations and service offerings in the fresh produce and horticulture industry,” Mr Keating said.

“The event will also include a range of networking events that will ensure that Hort Connections is the most influential space on the Australasian scene for networking, education and business for the entire fresh produce industry.”

Mr McIntyre said in the coming months, the organising committee will continue discussions with more industry groups to create a truly unified event for the Australian horticulture industry.

“We are determined to ensure the Australian horticulture industry will benefit from the largest premier horticultural event in the southern hemisphere. It’s the opportune time to make sure you don’t miss out on attending this event,” he said.

For more information on the program or to register, www.visithortconnections.com.au.

The story Registrations open for Hort Connections first appeared on Good Fruit & Vegetables.

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New French laws around work time could be good for New Zealand says union

Auckland Airport has rolled out its first mobile self-service check-in kiosks, in preparation for expected record passenger numbers through the international terminal this summer.

Judy Nicholl, Auckland Airport’s general manager – aeronautical operations, says the kiosks, which can be readied for use by any participating airline at the touch of a button, will enable more dynamic use of the check-in area and are being introduced to improve queuing times for passengers.

“The kiosks are both mobile and fully-customisable, meaning we can put them out anywhere, and at any time, to meet customer demand,” says Ms Nicholl.

“Upstairs in the international terminal we are currently expanding and upgrading our departure lounge and security processing to accommodate increasing passenger numbers. However, this mobile technology will help us to continue to manage the check-in process for passengers within our existing footprint.”

Auckland Airport has invested in 45 of the kiosks, which enable passengers to check in themselves, print boarding passes and bag tags and then just drop their bags off at the counter. The kiosks have a 12 hour rechargeable battery life, and can therefore support extended peak periods.

Cathay Pacific and American Airlines have already started to use the new kiosks, with more airlines set to follow suit over the summer period.

Cathay Pacific’s Airport Services Manager, Nathan Rogerson, says the airline is already seeing the benefit of adopting the new technology into its check-in service.

“At Cathay Pacific our goal is to enable “Life Well Travelled”. Introducing mobile check-in kiosks for our double-daily flights to Hong Kong has taken the stress away from the check-in experience for our passengers, reduced our queues significantly and is allowing us to focus on our customers first. Passengers can now spend more time with their family and friends and enjoy a relaxed journey through the airport before their departure.”

The kiosks are not the only new additions to Auckland Airport’s international terminal check-in hall. A further 13 service counters have been accommodated and all flight information and above-counter screens have been replaced with larger, high-definition screens for greater visibility from distance. The back-of-house international baggage handling system has also been upgraded to prepare for the increased volumes associated with the peak summer season.

These improvements have been delivered as part of an infrastructure upgrade programme of unprecedented scale at the airport. Auckland Airport is currently spending more than a million dollars every day on infrastructure improvements, including a significant expansion and upgrade of its international terminal, and expects at least this level of investment to be maintained over the next five years.