BC SOCIETY
Saved by @Alex1Powell

1. LIDAR thread. Will write a longer article in a few days. Light Detection and Ranging is technology using lasers to measure distances. In particular Robots, Autonomous Cars and industrial applications.

 2. Although LIDAR tech has been around for a while, it is very useful for autonomous driving. Either in passenger cars or "robot taxis". Since 2010 over 30 startups have been founded to build LIDARs specifically for these applications
3. There are 3 types (high level) Scanners (MEMS and non MEMS), Frequency modulated and Time modulated. Every vehicle will need LIDARs. Think of LIDAR as the CPU for autonomous vehicles.
4. Many of the companies developing LIDARs have been acquired as well. E.g. GM Cruise acquired one and the first tier auto suppliers have made investments in multiple.
5. The "furthest along" in this is Google WAYMO and Velodyne. But Velodyne LIDAR is big and expensive ($75K). So the race is on to make them smaller and <$100. $VLDR announced a sub $1000 and sub $500 LIDAR in late 2019 but $LAZR is making prototypes in <$1000 LIDAR
6. $AEVA and $INOV claim to focus on non autonomous applications as well. All these companies have filed between 30-100 patent applications to protect their technology.
7. Reading their presentations only $VLDR is selling their products in market. They expect to make over $100M in revenue. All the others have "partners" who potentially want to buy their products which are expected to ship between 2022 and 2023
8. The LIDAR market is large. According to Woodside Capital it is expected to be $8-$10 Billion by 2025.
9. The LIDAR companies are still research projects with very strong founders and teams. Most have extensive backgrounds in the space. They are however still to be market proven.
10. $VLDR. Pros. Furthest along in terms of product. Range of offerings instead of one product. Actual revenues that are meaningful.

Cons. Expensive initial product. $75K. Making less expensive LIDARS but still not production scale shipments.
11. $LAZR. Mercurial 20 year old founder. Peter Thiel backed. Strong patent portfolio. Over 50 "partners" ready to buy once products ship.
Cons. Not expecting products to ship at scale until 2022
12. $INOV. Israel company with founders & employees who have worked toogether for years. Strong backers (investors).

Product still to be shipped.
13 $OSTR. Applications beyond autonomous cars. E.g. Robots and surveillance. Good team.

Yet to ship products at scale.
14. $AEVA. Good patent filings from the 3 I read. Strong team with background in related fields.

No products until 2022 that can show revenues.
15. $MVIS. 20+ years in business. Patents granted for multiple applications.

Cons. Small team. Revenue is non exisistant. Company is likley being prepared for a sale.

16. $INOV. Interesting technology approach to solving the problem. Smaller footprint of hardware and software.

Cons. Shipping products only in 2022

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2/The biggest myth, I think, is that universities help regions by educating locals as undergraduates.

Skeptics of universities say: "But most of the people who graduate end up leaving."

3/In fact, most of what a university does for a regional economy is NOT about educating local kids.

Educating local kids is good for the nation, but doesn't help a region much.

The way a university helps a region is through

4/Undergraduates usually leave town after graduation.

But university RESEARCH pulls in OTHER smart people from other regions, and they stay there.

Here's a paper showing that this is the main way universities increase a region's human capital:

5/Research also pulls in business investment.

Companies want to partner with university labs, so they can commercialize the technologies the labs produce. So they invest in the labs, and sometimes they even put their offices in the town.
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Arielle Selya
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@ArielleSelya
1/14 How do e-cigarettes (ECs) affect cigarette smoking among youth? My new paper with @FloeFoxon simulates each scenario and finds out which one best matches actual trends... https://t.co/dBB7kcnTls @jgitchell @mikepesko @SwitchFinder @jkelovuori @TobPolicy @Clive_Bates

2/14 First, let's talk about why this question is so difficult to answer: COUNTERFACTUALS. We can't know the alternate-reality answers, like which smokers would have never started in a world without ECs, and which nonsmokers would now be smoking without ECs as an option.

3/14 So, the best we can do is use fancy/sophisticated methodologies to estimate what would have happened to youth smoking rates in the absence of ECs. In our case, simulation modeling


4/14 First, we look at the declining smoking trends *that were already happening* before ECs came (~2010), and project them into the present. This is our BASE-CASE SCENARIO about what smoking trends would be if ECs were never invented. Actual trends were LOWER than this base-case


5/14 Side note about terminology: We use the term “catalyst” instead of “gateway,” because “catalyst” is more precise about the claim we are modeling (that ECs are used first, and then causally lead to smoking). Whereas "gateway" can include other mechanisms like renormalization.
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Noah Smith
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@Noahpinion
1/People I know on the Right tend to be obsessed with the idea of "crimethink", taboos, and the (supposedly) oppressive, omnipresent enforcement of liberal cultural norms.

Why?

My new theory: A lot of it is guilt.

2/It's true that in some circles - the media, universities, many big corporations - liberal norms *are* enforced to some degree, and the enforcement has probably gotten stronger in recent years.

But I don't think this explains all of the Right's obsession.

3/The stereotype is that people on the Right tend to be more threat-sensitive. That would help explain the perception that liberal norm-enforcers are lurking everywhere, ready to pounce and anathematize anyone who makes a misstep.

But I don't think that's all of it either.

4/And of course, it's always fun - whether you're on the Right or the Left, or playing a video game, or whatever - to style yourself as the brave iconoclastic rebel fighting against the oppressive forces of blah blah blah.

But I don't think this is all of it, either.

5/The reason I think it's more than these things is that even *in private*, people on the Right express their "crimethink" ideas very gingerly and hesitantly.

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Yet Another Columnist
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@Sime0nStylites
One wonders how long Lord Frost will retain his new position. The personnel decisions made by the PM are nothing if not frequent, ruthless and mercurial.

The whole affair is very curious. While I am sure that Lord Frost’s elevation owes much to his relationship with the PM and the perceived success of the Brexit negotiation, it is very curious indeed that allegedly it took a threat to resign to secure this new role.

A role which is needed (although might have been structured differently) but was to a large effect previously undertaken (with reasonable success) by Michael Gove who one might imagine may not be entirely happy with this diminishment of his responsibilities.

What might have happened to have resulted in this dramatic and to some extent destructive move (which appears to have been played out in the context of a wider struggle that saw Oliver Lewis (previously Lord Frost’s (LF) negotiation deputy)?

The original sin, of course, is the agreement to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Who knows who did what to who or thought what about what but my speculation is the PM either did not understand the consequences of the Protocol or was assured they could be successfully addressed.
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sexnotgender.info
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Hi @officestudents @EHRC @EHRCChair @KishwerFalkner @RJHilsenrath @trussliz @GEOgovuk

The Equality and Diversity section of your job application has 'gender' in what appears to be a list of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

However...

1/15


However, 'gender' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

Sex is the protected characteristic under the Act, but that is not on your list.

2/15


You then ask for the 'gender' of the applicant with options:

Male
Female.

3/15


Again, 'gender' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

4/15


Sex is the protected characteristic and the only two possible options for sex are 'Female' and 'Male' as defined in the Act and consistent with biology, but you don't ask for that.

https://t.co/CEJ0gkr6nF

'Gender' is not a synonym for sex.

5/15
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