Sunday, January 13, 2013
Myanmar Gangnam Style
An innovative rendition of Gangnam Style by an "elephant" which I took during my holidays in Myanmar.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
A wind investment deep in the heart of Texas
A wind investment deep in the heart of Texas: In late December, while most of us were busy wrapping presents, our Treasury team was tying a bow on our most recent renewable energy deal: an approximately $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in west Texas that generates enough energy to power more than 60,000 average U.S. homes.
Spinning Spur Wind Project is located in Oldham County, a wide open, windy section of the Texas Panhandle located about 35 miles from Amarillo. The 161 megawatt facility was built by renewable energy developer EDF Renewable Energy, a veteran in the industry that has overseen more than 50 other clean energy projects. Spinning Spur’s 70 2.3 MW Siemens turbines started spinning full time just before the end of the year, and the energy they create has been contracted to SPS, a utility that primarily serves Texas and New Mexico.
We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets. We’re also proud to be the first investor in an EDF Renewable Energy project that is not a financial institution, as we believe that corporations can be an important new source of capital for the renewable energy sector.
Spinning Spur joins 10 other renewable energy investments we’ve made since 2010, several of which hit significant milestones in the past year:
Altogether, the renewable energy projects we’ve invested in are capable of generating 2 gigawatts of power. To give a better sense of what that really means, we came up with some comparisons (click to enlarge):
Here’s to a clean, renewable 2013!
Posted by Kojo Ako-Asare, Senior Manager, Corporate Finance
Spinning Spur Wind Project is located in Oldham County, a wide open, windy section of the Texas Panhandle located about 35 miles from Amarillo. The 161 megawatt facility was built by renewable energy developer EDF Renewable Energy, a veteran in the industry that has overseen more than 50 other clean energy projects. Spinning Spur’s 70 2.3 MW Siemens turbines started spinning full time just before the end of the year, and the energy they create has been contracted to SPS, a utility that primarily serves Texas and New Mexico.
We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets. We’re also proud to be the first investor in an EDF Renewable Energy project that is not a financial institution, as we believe that corporations can be an important new source of capital for the renewable energy sector.
Spinning Spur joins 10 other renewable energy investments we’ve made since 2010, several of which hit significant milestones in the past year:
- The Atlantic Wind Connection received permission to begin permitting, an important step in advancing the construction of the United States’ first offshore backbone electric transmission system (more in this new video).
- Shepherds Flat, one of the world’s largest wind farms with a capacity of 845 MW, became fully operational in October.
- The Ivanpah project, which is more than 75 percent complete and employs 2,000+ people, recently installed its 100,000th heliostat, a kind of mirror (more in this new video).
- Just yesterday (PDF), the fourth and final phase of Recurrent Energy's 88MW solar installation in Sacramento County, Calif., reached commercial operation.
Altogether, the renewable energy projects we’ve invested in are capable of generating 2 gigawatts of power. To give a better sense of what that really means, we came up with some comparisons (click to enlarge):
Here’s to a clean, renewable 2013!
Posted by Kojo Ako-Asare, Senior Manager, Corporate Finance
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
Finding the inner programmer in every Googler
Finding the inner programmer in every Googler: This is the second post in a series profiling Googlers who facilitate classes as part of our g2g program, in which Googlers teach, share and learn from each other. Regardless of role, level or location, g2g's community-based approach makes it possible for all Googlers to take advantage of a variety of learning opportunities. - Ed.
If someone had told me when I graduated with a degree in economics that I’d one day be employed in a technical role at Google, I would have laughed. In 2008, I joined Google’s people operations rotation program, in which one experiences three different people ops areas—from benefits to staffing—over the course of two years. After just a few short months, I found myself with a passion for technology and a profound interest in programming that would draw me into teaching a class, Intro to Programming (I2P), to non-engineers at Google as a part of the g2g (Googlers-to-Googlers) program.
While on the benefits team, I was assigned a project that involved matching up hundreds of Googlers’ names with their corresponding office locations and job titles. I quickly realized that a few simple programming scripts could probably speed up my work and reduce errors. The only problem was, I had no clue how to write a program.
I began to teach myself the programming language Python, which is known for its clarity of syntax and friendliness to beginners. Slowly, I produced a multi-functional automated spreadsheet, and then a web application to share with my team. My teammates, seeing that my newfound technical skills had saved all of us time, asked me to teach them how to code; thus, in front of a whiteboard in a small conference room, I2P was born.
Since then, more than 200 Googlers have taken I2P. We encourage an open, supportive environment in the class, making it an approachable way for Googlers to broaden their horizons within the workplace and gain new skills. Some of my former students have even moved from roles in global business, finance and people operations to full-time engineering positions. That’s awesome to see, but I love that Googlers can use what they learn in I2P to make processes across the company more efficient—no matter what team they work on. For example, an administrative assistant who took the class streamlined a manual daily task by automating an email response survey for her team.
In addition to solving business challenges, I’ve also seen Googlers using the programming skills they learned in I2P to help others—both inside and outside of Google. Recently, an I2P alum increased participation in Google’s free flu shot program by writing a Python-based enrollment tool that allows Googlers to find appointments online by preferred office location and time. Thousands more Googlers signed up to receive flu shots due to the convenience provided by the tool. Because Google donates an equal number of vaccinations, such as those preventing meningitis or pneumonia, to children in the developing world, this new tool also led to thousands more children receiving crucial vaccinations.
What’s extraordinary to me is that under the g2g program, the “guy down the hall in HR” can teach programming—of all things—to his fellow Googlers. It’s been extremely rewarding to experience first-hand the results of my students’ learnings. Googlers have taken the principles and skills from I2P and put them to work in time management, email communication and even just having fun re-creating Frogger—leave it to Googlers to span the gamut of I2P skill application. I often think how awesome it would be if every Googler could take I2P and apply what they’ve learned to make processes across the company more efficient.
If you’re interested in learning how to code, here are three tips from the course that you can practice on your own. While I’ve learned these principles via programming, they can be helpful in all kinds of fields!
Posted by Albert Hwang, Team Lead of the People Technology & Operations Tools Group
If someone had told me when I graduated with a degree in economics that I’d one day be employed in a technical role at Google, I would have laughed. In 2008, I joined Google’s people operations rotation program, in which one experiences three different people ops areas—from benefits to staffing—over the course of two years. After just a few short months, I found myself with a passion for technology and a profound interest in programming that would draw me into teaching a class, Intro to Programming (I2P), to non-engineers at Google as a part of the g2g (Googlers-to-Googlers) program.
Teaching programming to an I2P class at our Mountain View, Calif. headquarters
While on the benefits team, I was assigned a project that involved matching up hundreds of Googlers’ names with their corresponding office locations and job titles. I quickly realized that a few simple programming scripts could probably speed up my work and reduce errors. The only problem was, I had no clue how to write a program.
I began to teach myself the programming language Python, which is known for its clarity of syntax and friendliness to beginners. Slowly, I produced a multi-functional automated spreadsheet, and then a web application to share with my team. My teammates, seeing that my newfound technical skills had saved all of us time, asked me to teach them how to code; thus, in front of a whiteboard in a small conference room, I2P was born.
Since then, more than 200 Googlers have taken I2P. We encourage an open, supportive environment in the class, making it an approachable way for Googlers to broaden their horizons within the workplace and gain new skills. Some of my former students have even moved from roles in global business, finance and people operations to full-time engineering positions. That’s awesome to see, but I love that Googlers can use what they learn in I2P to make processes across the company more efficient—no matter what team they work on. For example, an administrative assistant who took the class streamlined a manual daily task by automating an email response survey for her team.
In addition to solving business challenges, I’ve also seen Googlers using the programming skills they learned in I2P to help others—both inside and outside of Google. Recently, an I2P alum increased participation in Google’s free flu shot program by writing a Python-based enrollment tool that allows Googlers to find appointments online by preferred office location and time. Thousands more Googlers signed up to receive flu shots due to the convenience provided by the tool. Because Google donates an equal number of vaccinations, such as those preventing meningitis or pneumonia, to children in the developing world, this new tool also led to thousands more children receiving crucial vaccinations.
More than 200 Googlers have participated in the 11-week course (the sword definitely helps keep engagement high...don’t worry, it’s foam!)
What’s extraordinary to me is that under the g2g program, the “guy down the hall in HR” can teach programming—of all things—to his fellow Googlers. It’s been extremely rewarding to experience first-hand the results of my students’ learnings. Googlers have taken the principles and skills from I2P and put them to work in time management, email communication and even just having fun re-creating Frogger—leave it to Googlers to span the gamut of I2P skill application. I often think how awesome it would be if every Googler could take I2P and apply what they’ve learned to make processes across the company more efficient.
If you’re interested in learning how to code, here are three tips from the course that you can practice on your own. While I’ve learned these principles via programming, they can be helpful in all kinds of fields!
- Practice and theory. You learn best when you have something to apply your learning to. With programming, find a project you want to apply your skills to and build the knowledge necessary to accomplish your project.
- Bad habits die hard. If you are writing messy or convoluted code, you are building habits that will be very hard to break. Better to overcome the pain of doing it the right way initially so that you never have to go back and change.
- Get feedback. Just because a script "works" doesn't mean it works well. Always get advice from others with more experience so that you are learning how to do things better, not just sufficiently well.
Posted by Albert Hwang, Team Lead of the People Technology & Operations Tools Group
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
On a diet? Forget the carrot sticks - just chew each mouthful for 30 seconds | Mail Online
On a diet? Forget the carrot sticks - just chew each mouthful for 30 seconds | Mail Online
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2254151/On-diet-Forget-carrot-sticks--just-chew-mouthful-30-seconds.html#ixzz2GmneSfFZ
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On a diet? Forget the carrot sticks - just chew each mouthful for 30 seconds
- Birmingham researchers found this reduces appetite later in the day
- Those who chewed for longer ate half as many snacks in the afternoon as those who ate normally
- But the researchers warn part of the weight loss effect may be because eating becomes so boring
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Fighting the flab might not be down to what you eat, but to how you eat it, according to new research.
Scientists say the secret to beating a bulging seasonal waistline is to chew each mouthful of lunch for 30 seconds before swallowing.
New research shows this has a powerful effect on appetite later in the day, curbing the desire for the chocolates, sweets and snacks that can pile on the pounds over the Christmas break.
Scientists say the secret to beating a bulging seasonal waistline is to chew each mouthful of lunch for 30 seconds before swallowing, rather than what you eat
Volunteers who chewed their lunch in this way during a recent experiment carried out by psychologists at the University of Birmingham, ate half as many snacks in the afternoon as those who ate normally.
Although previous studies have shown chewing for longer curbs calorie intake during a meal, the latest research, published in the journal Appetite, shows it can also have a significant impact on snacking habits later in the day.
The findings come during a period when Britain indulges in what is traditionally the biggest gastronomic blow-out of the year.
Research suggests a traditional Christmas lunch of roast turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, sausages wrapped in bacon, bread sauce and vegetables totals just over 1,000 calories.
By the time you have also got through some Christmas pudding, biscuits and cheese, Christmas cake, chocolate and mince pies, most adults will have taken on between 3,500 and 4,000 calories.
The daily allowance for men is 2,500 calories and for women just 2,000.
The actress Gwyneth Paltrow has famously spoken of chewing each mouthful of food several times before chewing, in a bid to control her weight
The Birmingham team wanted to assess how chewing for longer at lunchtime affected ‘grazing’ habits later in the day.
They recruited 43 students, mostly female, and asked them to refrain from eating for two hours before the test.
Each student was then presented with a plate of smoked ham and cheese sandwiches, all identical in size and shape.
A third of the students were told to eat as they normally would, another third to pause for ten seconds between swallowing each mouthful and the last group to chew each bite for 30 seconds before swallowing.
Two hours after the experiment, the students were handed a small bowl of Skittles - chewy, fruit flavoured sweets - and a bowl of Minstrels, the candy-coated chocolate treats.
During the procedure, volunteers were asked to rate their appetite and enjoyment of the food.
The results showed students who ate at their normal speed and those who stopped for ten seconds between bites ate the same amount of sweets.
But those who chewed each mouthful of lunch for 30 seconds ate half as many.
But those who chewed each mouthful of lunch for 30 seconds ate half as many.
Yet the benefits came at a price, the researchers said.
‘Participants in the prolonged chewing group were less happy after lunch and had reduced ratings of lunch enjoyment, and pleasantness of the texture of lunch, compared with others,’ they said in a report on their findings.
‘These effects may be due to the novelty of prolonged chewing, or reduced palatability of the food.’
One reason it works may be that, by concentrating so much on the process of eating, the brain ‘remembers’ lunch for longer and is less likely to signal the need for more food so soon afterwards.
But the Birmingham team think it may also be that chewing for longer is so unpleasant that it dampens down cravings for snacks.
‘Because the participants did not particularly enjoy the lunch experience, this may have affected decisions about how many sweets to eat later.’
In a study last year, scientists in China found chewing each mouthful of food 40 times led to a 12 per cent drop in calorie intake during a meal.
A 2010 survey of 1,000 British people most chew their food just six times before swallowing it.
Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George’s Hospital, London, said chewing for longer forms the backbone of an increasingly popular approach to weight loss known as ‘mindful eating’.
‘That’s where you deliberately think back to the last meal you had and the whole process of eating it. As a result, you snack less because the brain is telling the body it does not need more food.
‘If you are taking longer over lunch, it means you are more mindful of what you are eating and you are more likely to remember it later. This has a positive effect on your calorie intake.
‘The simple message here is if you concentrate more on what you are eating, it will help to reduce your food intake later.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2254151/On-diet-Forget-carrot-sticks--just-chew-mouthful-30-seconds.html#ixzz2GmneSfFZ
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Sudden Death Risk Before Diabetes | dailyRx
Sudden Death Risk Before Diabetes | dailyRx
Prediabetic and diabetic men may have increased risk of sudden cardiac death
(dailyRx News) Diabetes can increase your risk for all sorts of health issues, including heart problems. According to recent research, people could be faced with the most severe of these problems even before diabetes sets in.
Results showed that men with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes had a higher risk of sudden cardiac death (death from heart-related causes soon after symptoms start), compared to men with normal blood sugar levels.
As blood sugar levels increased, so too did the risk of sudden cardiac death. In addition, both pre-diabetes and diabetes were associated with death from all causes.
The study was conducted by Jari A. Laukkanen, MD, PhD, of the University of Eastern Finland, and colleagues. The researchers wanted to see if pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes were risk factors for sudden cardiac death.
Pre-diabetes, or impaired fasting plasma glucose, is a condition in which blood sugar levels are high but not quite high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
Dr. Laukkanen and colleagues found men with pre-diabetes were 1.51 times more likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than men with normal blood sugar.
Men with diabetes had an even higher risk; these patients were 2.86 times more likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than those with normal blood sugar.
Patients with either diabetes or pre-diabetes also had a higher risk of sudden cardiac death out of the hospital. The risk of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death was 1.79 times higher for men with pre-diabetes and 2.26 times higher for men with diabetes, compared to men with normal blood sugar.
The researchers also found that every 1 mmol/L increase in fasting blood sugar levels was linked to a 10 percent increase in the risk of sudden cardiac death.
These findings highlight the importance of blood sugar control in diabetes. If blood sugar levels rise, patients may be faced with some serious complications, including death. By properly managing blood sugar, patients can prevent such complications.
The study included 2,641 middle-aged men. Pre-diabetes was defined as a fasting blood sugar level of 5.6 mmol/L or more. Diabetes patients were being treated with oral drugs, insulin therapy and/or diet.
Over the course of 19 years, there was a total of 190 sudden cardiac deaths.
The study was published December 17 in Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.
Marking the birth of the modern-day Internet
Marking the birth of the modern-day Internet: Today is the 30th birthday of the modern-day Internet. Five years ago we marked the occasion with a doodle. This year we invited Vint Cerf to tell the story. Vint is widely regarded as one of the fathers of the Internet for his contributions to shaping the Internet’s architecture, including co-designing the TCP/IP protocol. Today he works with Google to promote and protect the Internet. -Ed.
A long time ago, my colleagues and I became part of a great adventure, teamed with a small band of scientists and technologists in the U.S. and elsewhere. For me, it began in 1969, when the potential of packet switching communication was operationally tested in the grand ARPANET experiment by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Other kinds of packet switched networks were also pioneered by DARPA, including mobile packet radio and packet satellite, but there was a big problem. There was no common language. Each network had its own communications protocol using different conventions and formatting standards to send and receive packets, so there was no way to transmit anything between networks.
In an attempt to solve this, Robert Kahn and I developed a new computer communication protocol designed specifically to support connection among different packet-switched networks. We called it TCP, short for “Transmission Control Protocol,” and in 1974 we published a paper about it in IEEE Transactions on Communications: “A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication.” Later, to better handle the transmission of real-time data, including voice, we split TCP into two parts, one of which we called “Internet Protocol,” or IP for short. The two protocols combined were nicknamed TCP/IP.
TCP/IP was tested across the three types of networks developed by DARPA, and eventually was anointed as their new standard. In 1981, Jon Postel published a transition plan to migrate the 400 hosts of the ARPANET from the older NCP protocol to TCP/IP, including a deadline of January 1, 1983, after which point all hosts not switched would be cut off.
From left to right: Vint Cerf in 1973, Robert Kahn in the 1970’s, Jon Postel
When the day came, it’s fair to say the main emotion was relief, especially amongst those system administrators racing against the clock. There were no grand celebrations—I can’t even find a photograph. The only visible mementos were the “I survived the TCP/IP switchover” pins proudly worn by those who went through the ordeal!
Yet, with hindsight, it’s obvious it was a momentous occasion. On that day, the operational Internet was born. TCP/IP went on to be embraced as an international standard, and now underpins the entire Internet.
It’s been almost 40 years since Bob and I wrote our paper, and I can assure you while we had high hopes, we did not dare to assume that the Internet would turn into the worldwide platform it’s become. I feel immensely privileged to have played a part and, like any proud parent, have delighted in watching it grow. I continue to do what I can to protect its future. I hope you’ll join me today in raising a toast to the Internet—may it continue to connect us for years to come.
Posted by Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist
A long time ago, my colleagues and I became part of a great adventure, teamed with a small band of scientists and technologists in the U.S. and elsewhere. For me, it began in 1969, when the potential of packet switching communication was operationally tested in the grand ARPANET experiment by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Other kinds of packet switched networks were also pioneered by DARPA, including mobile packet radio and packet satellite, but there was a big problem. There was no common language. Each network had its own communications protocol using different conventions and formatting standards to send and receive packets, so there was no way to transmit anything between networks.
In an attempt to solve this, Robert Kahn and I developed a new computer communication protocol designed specifically to support connection among different packet-switched networks. We called it TCP, short for “Transmission Control Protocol,” and in 1974 we published a paper about it in IEEE Transactions on Communications: “A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication.” Later, to better handle the transmission of real-time data, including voice, we split TCP into two parts, one of which we called “Internet Protocol,” or IP for short. The two protocols combined were nicknamed TCP/IP.
TCP/IP was tested across the three types of networks developed by DARPA, and eventually was anointed as their new standard. In 1981, Jon Postel published a transition plan to migrate the 400 hosts of the ARPANET from the older NCP protocol to TCP/IP, including a deadline of January 1, 1983, after which point all hosts not switched would be cut off.
From left to right: Vint Cerf in 1973, Robert Kahn in the 1970’s, Jon Postel
When the day came, it’s fair to say the main emotion was relief, especially amongst those system administrators racing against the clock. There were no grand celebrations—I can’t even find a photograph. The only visible mementos were the “I survived the TCP/IP switchover” pins proudly worn by those who went through the ordeal!
Yet, with hindsight, it’s obvious it was a momentous occasion. On that day, the operational Internet was born. TCP/IP went on to be embraced as an international standard, and now underpins the entire Internet.
It’s been almost 40 years since Bob and I wrote our paper, and I can assure you while we had high hopes, we did not dare to assume that the Internet would turn into the worldwide platform it’s become. I feel immensely privileged to have played a part and, like any proud parent, have delighted in watching it grow. I continue to do what I can to protect its future. I hope you’ll join me today in raising a toast to the Internet—may it continue to connect us for years to come.
Posted by Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist
A little help from Google on your New Year’s resolutions
A little help from Google on your New Year’s resolutions: The new year has arrived, and with it all the resolutions that we hope to tackle in 2013.
But resolutions can be hard to keep. And since eating better, taking control of personal finances, travelling more and learning something new regularly top the list of New Year’s resolutions, we've pulled together some of our best tips and tricks across Google to make 2013 the year you succeed with your goals.
Eat better
Get fiscally fit
Travel more
Learn something new
Research shows that you’re more likely to achieve your resolutions if you write them down and have support. Try sharing your goals with communities around you. When you’re ready to share your new year’s ambition with the world, or if you're interested in seeing what resolutions look like around the globe, add it to the interactive resolution map on our 2012 Zeitgeist website.
No matter who you are, the web can help you do anything.
Posted by Liz Wessel, Associate Product Marketing Manager
But resolutions can be hard to keep. And since eating better, taking control of personal finances, travelling more and learning something new regularly top the list of New Year’s resolutions, we've pulled together some of our best tips and tricks across Google to make 2013 the year you succeed with your goals.
Eat better
- Counting calories? Apps such as Diet Diary can be easily accessed through Chrome or your Android device—that way it’s with you when it‘s on your mind. If spreadsheets are more your style, try one of several Google Docs templates, like this weekly meal planner.
- Find recipes for healthy meals and how-to-cook videos with apps like BBC’s Good Food for Chrome or food channels like Show me the Curry on YouTube.
- Rely on the Google+ community for motivation and learn from others via hangouts on how to prepare healthy meals.
- We know how easy it is to fall off track. Check out Google Play to find apps, books and music to keep you motivated.
Get fiscally fit
- To control your finances, you need to know exactly where money is coming in and out. This simple budget template in Google Drive already has you halfway there.
- If you prefer a more detailed budget, try using an app like Mint to track your finances on the go, available on both Android and Chrome.
- Keep track of your stock portfolio and related market news via Google Finance or with brokerage apps like E*TRADE from Google Play.
Travel more
- Use Google Flight Search to quickly compare flight times and costs across airlines. Try the “tourist spotlight” feature on Google Hotel Finder to find a room near the hottest spots in the city.
- Simply type [tourist attractions <city name>] into Google Search to see some of the top points of interest. Once you have a list of the things you want to do and see, keep it in one place and share it with your travel buddies using Google Sheets.
- Never get lost with Google Maps. Whether your plans are local or international, indoors or out, comprehensive and accurate Google Maps can help you find your way.
Learn something new
- Learn how to hone your yoga practice or crochet a granny square by following the steps of experts on YouTube. If classroom style learning works better for you, try joining a Google+ Hangout or Community to learn how to paint, cook or knit from people who share your interests and passions.
- Try a free language learning app like the Que Onda Spanish app for Chrome or the Busuu Portuguese language app for Android.
- Keep up with current events or hone in on specific interests by personalizing your Google News and setting up Google Alerts to receive information on specific topics directly in your email. If your inbox is already on overload, try the Google Currents app for news on the go.
- Learning something new doesn’t have to break the bank. Check out Google Offers for deals on classes for dancing, cooking, bartending and more.
Research shows that you’re more likely to achieve your resolutions if you write them down and have support. Try sharing your goals with communities around you. When you’re ready to share your new year’s ambition with the world, or if you're interested in seeing what resolutions look like around the globe, add it to the interactive resolution map on our 2012 Zeitgeist website.
No matter who you are, the web can help you do anything.
Posted by Liz Wessel, Associate Product Marketing Manager
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