Last week saw the US government come under fire for its treatment of immigrants trying to cross the border. Amid the unpleasant scenes, Microsoft came under heavy fire for its involvement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
But this is far from the only time a tech company has been involved with unpleasant actions. And in recent times this trend has only accelerated.
In January the Redmond company was promoting ICE’s adoption of Azure as an example of how it can help government agencies modernize. However, this relationship was criticized online, and then saw Microsoft employees demand the company cancel its contract with ICE and ‘other clients who directly enable ICE.’
“We believe that Microsoft must take an ethical stand, and put children and families above profits,” read an open letter from employees to CEO Satya Nadella. “As the people who build the technologies that Microsoft profits from, we refuse to be complicit.”
Each year there are close to 200 million cases of malaria, and more than half a million sufferers die. In Africa, where most malaria cases occur, every minute a child dies from the disease.
Every good story also ends with good winning over evil, of every hero defeating the villain. The only difference in your story is that Jesus fought the battle in your place.
Every good story tells of the battle of good versus evil. Every hero has to face an archnemesis. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie face off against the White Witch. Batman fights against the Joker. The whole family of Incredibles teams up to handle Syndrome. Gru and his minions battle Vector.
In real life you face an archenemy too. Our God tells you that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV).
It’s you versus Satan and his whole team of evil minions. Sometimes we pretend like Satan, evil spirits, and demons don’t exist. We blame our earthly struggles on the kid who calls us fat or on the teachers who treat us unfairly or on our parents for making our lives so miserable or on the neighbors who hate kids. We forget that the devil is the mastermind, the father of lies, the enemy.
Every good story also ends with good winning over evil, of every hero defeating the villain. The only difference in your story is that Jesus fought the battle in your place. Jesus won when he “stripped the rulers and authorities of their power and made a public spectacle of them as he celebrated his victory in Christ” (Colossians 2:15).
Every good story also ends with good winning over evil, of every hero defeating the villain. The only difference in your story is that Jesus fought the battle in your place. By Linda Buxa via iDisciple
This Roundtable is the fourth in the research phase of the IEA study on Capturing the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency – a study which seeks to broaden the discussion of energy efficiency policy as part of wider economic and socioeconomic strategy. The IEA Energy Efficiency Unit began this study in 2012 by considering the many impacts delivered by energy efficiency, identifying 15 key benefits frequently cited in studies, which merit further investigation. An Insights paper published in May 2012 provides a preliminary assessment of this topic and these benefits.
A series of expert round-table discussions focusing on each benefit category are guiding this work, in order to share experience, discuss issues and challenges, and identify and assemble good practice approaches for each benefit category.
This roundtable aims to provide a platform to discuss existing and promising approaches used to quantify non-energy benefits, identify a key set of indicators that are feasible and relevant for industry and policy-makers and explore methods for quantification. We will also discuss how information on non-energy benefits can be used to promote energy efficiency implementation. The roundtable will include a discussion exploring challenges, gaps and discuss how to move forward with this issue.
Session 1. Indicators and methodologies for quantifying multiple benefits of industrial energy efficiency projects. This session will cover on-the-ground experiences of assessing potential and actual non-energy benefits of industrial energy efficiency projects. Focus will be placed on indicators and methodologies, and types of data that are used or could be used to quantify non-energy benefits, and ultimately making the business case for companies to quantify multiple benefits.
What are the selling points to get companies to start collecting data on non-energy benefits & how would you entice companies to share or report information?
What is the role of other actors – energy service providers, consultants, auditors? How best to get them engaged in tracking non-energy benefits?
Session 2. Indicators and methodologies for quantifying multiple benefits of industrial energy efficiency programmes and policies.
This session will cover existing and planned initiatives to integrate consideration of multiple benefits when assessing the impacts and results of energy efficiency programmes and policies. Focus will be placed on indicators of relevance in a policy context, methods to access data, methods to extrapolate data and how this information can be used to improve policy-making and strengthen the case for policies to support industrial energy efficiency.
Integrating consideration of multiple benefits in the Australian Energy Efficiency Opportunities programme
How to translate to benefits for industrial energy efficiency programmes (more funding, greater participation, increased publicity)
This session will focus on the synergies between industrial level and programme/policy level efforts – and what approaches could be used to ensure maximum benefits in terms of useful data and information with minimum efforts. The session will also cover the value of quantifying economy-wide benefits of industrial energy efficiency and a discussion on possible approaches and challenges.
What methods are available to extrapolate data from company and programme level to capture economy wide benefits?
This discussion will be structured around IEA background paper circulated in advance of this Roundtable, with a view to providing concrete guidance to the IEA on the key messages for the Multiple Benefits Handbook. It will build on the preceding discussions with the goal of identifying a set of indicators and promising approaches to collect and synthesize data, that could be recommended as a feasible basis for future work in this area. The session will also aim to identify key challenges and solutions as well as areas requiring further analytical work. Finally, the group will consider how to raise the profile of multiple benefits within companies and in policy design, and how best to use this information to effectively drive energy efficiency investments and implementation.
Communicating multiple benefits: how to raise the profile of multiple benefits within companies AND in the policy making process?
What key messages should go to politicians about the non-energy impacts of energy efficiency in industry?
We trust that the parallel IEB 2018 and the annual German Tinnitus Symposium will enable clinical and scientific exchange between the participants of both events and create fruitful collaborations between the inner ear researchers and tinnitus specialists.
Hearing and Mind: What should we do about hearing loss to promote cognitive well-being in older age?
The RD2 series gear head series is suitable for very demanding reduction tasks. It offers expanded mounting options: RD2 gears are suitable for belt-drive operation or can be installed at right angles. The reduction gear heads of the series combine the advantages of RV trochoidal gears with easy mounting. The gear head is closed and filled with grease, so it is ready for installation. To facilitate installation even more, an adapter plate and a motor shaft coupling are included. Gear variants are available with and without a hollow shaft, for implementation of numerous customized solutions. The RD2 gear heads are available for ordering now, with the entire line-up of all sizes included in the original RD series.