Tom Raftery's Weekly Tech for Good Newsletter - Issue #29

Aaaand we're back.... Welcome to another edition of my (mostly) weekly Wednesday newsletter

I didn't get a chance to send out this newsletter last week as I was absolutely snowed under. And this week's newsletter is going out late, and shorter than usual for similar reasons. I need an assistant or 10! Still, being busy is a good sign, right? I recorded an amazing video last night for our virtual Sapphirenow event coming up in June. It was a customer interview, and such an inspirational story. I can't wait for it to be published so you can all check it out...

Tech for Good stories of the week

NASA successfully flew the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars this week, and published below High Def video of the flight - incredible stuff... check out the video below

NASA JPL on Twitter: "Witness the historic moment in full. The Mastcam-Z cameras on @NASAPersevere show us the takeoff, hovering and landing of the #MarsHelicopter.… — twitter.com Witness the historic moment in full. The Mastcam-Z cameras on @NASAPersevere show us the takeoff, hovering and landing of the #MarsHelicopter

UK enshrines new target in law to slash emissions by 78% by 2035 — www.gov.uk

In climate emissions news, the UK government will set some of the world’s most ambitious climate change targets into law to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 level. The legislation will incorporate the UK’s share of international aviation and shipping emissions for the first time, to bring the UK more than three-quarters of the way to net zero by 2050.

Saudi solar plant locks in new record low price for power: 1.04c/kWh — reneweconomy.com.au Saudi Arabia looks to have notched up a new record-low price for large-scale solar power, with one of seven projects recently signed up to power purchase agreements contracted to sell electricity for just over $US10 per megawatt-hour

Volkswagen ID.4 named World Car of the Year 2021 — www.autoexpress.co.uk

Volkswagen new all electric ID.4 has been named the World Car of the Year for 2021 Note, not this is World Car of the Year, not World Electric Car of the Year, an amazing achievement for Volkswagen, and made all the more impressive for me as I took delivery of an ID.4 last week to replace my 40kWh Nissan Leaf, and I absolutely love it. It is a phenomenal car.

If you are interested in knowing more about the ID.4, drop me a line. I'm more than happy to chat about it :)

Microsoft is now submerging servers into liquid baths — www.theverge.com

This is cool (literally!) - Microsoft is starting to use two-phase immersion in its data centers to cool servers using liquid baths. The cooling method could improve performance and reliability while significantly reducing the amount of water used in data centers

Apple Launches Study into Whether Apple Watch Can Detect COVID-19 - MacRumors — www.macrumors.com Apple is launching a study into whether the Apple Watch can be used to detect respiratory illnesses such as coronavirus or flu, in partnership with...

Watch: Elon Musk’s Neuralink says this monkey is playing Pong with its mind — www.theverge.com

I have mixed feelings about this one - A video posted to YouTube claims to show a macaque monkey with a Neuralink brain implant playing the game Pong using only its mind. Impressive stuff to be sure, with huge potential to help people with brain injuries, for example, but I can't help but have some ethical concerns. Having said that, check out the video. It is seriously impressive

Digital Supply Chain (DSC) podcast

On the Digital Supply Chain podcast this last week I invited

•  Michael Pytel, co-founder and CTO of Fulfilld to come on the podcast and chat about how their technology helps organisations with intelligent task management in warehouses. Check out that episode here

•  Leanne Melnyk, Diginex' Global Head of Supply Chains to come on the podcast and tell me how they help companies ensure that workers rights are not impinged in their supply chains. You can check out that episode here

Climate 21 podcast

On the Climate 21 podcast this week the conversation turned to the carbon footprint of IT

• I invited David Harris, the Group Head of Sustainable Business at London Stock Exchange Group & FTSE Russell to come on the podcast to discuss how the investor world is running away from high carbon investments. I warned David in advance that finance is not my forte so he needed to keep it simple enough for me to comprehend, and in fairness he did an excellent job. This is a phenomenal episode of the podcast. You should check it out (click here)

Wednesday whimsy

If you want a good laugh - check out this Tweet... — twitter.com “Fighting misinformation be like.... https://t.co/fyUQBa9bT9”

And finally...

Thanks for your interest and attention. If you like this newsletter, tell a friend. Heck tell all your friends!

And, if you have any comments/questions/suggestions on how to make it better, feel free to let me know :)

Have a great rest of your week