Member Info for nomlungu

"Good things" do not see their share price drop by 99%.

One to keep an eye on if you need a new heating / hot water system

Jackson launched the heating system at the WIRED & Octopus Energy Tech Summit in London. It will be available from December.

It consists of the ‘Cosy 6’, Octopus’ new heat pump; ‘Cosy Hub’, a home controls system; ‘Cosy Pods’, room sensors; a bespoke smart tariff; and the award-winning Octopus 5-star service.

‘Cosy Octopus’ is free for homes that don’t need any work to fit the system after the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS). Homes that need adjustments – such as new radiators, piping or a hot water tank – will get the system from around £3,000 after the grant.

https://octopus.energy/press/octopus-energy-unveils-next-stage-in-smart-heat-revolution-at-energy-tech-summit/

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4125604/heat-pumps-everyone-octopus-launches-free-heat-pump-package

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/14/octopus-end-era-ugly-heat-pumps-cosy-model/

ROCK - it looked interesting when they announced elevated Geranium and Gallium grades at their Greek orebody. And the price slowly jumped about 30% afterwards, but I thought that a placing that they had done a few months ago at a massive discount was too much of a red flag as it seemed that managements' interests were above those of shareholders.

Today they announce some sort of RTO with all sorts of caveats and suspend the shares from trading. Will it end well for current shareholders? Time will tell, but my superstitions may have saved me...

Best headline so far

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2023/sep/15/job-cut-fears-from-port-talbot-state-aid-deal-business-live

£500m to lose 3000 jobs... How will the Gammons and Xenophobes spin that?

Https://twitter.com/rowancheung/status/1702381699303350474

A new AI unicorn is in town.

Helsing — an AI defense startup, just raised $223 million Series B and broke the record for European AI startups.

This puts the company's valuation at around a whopping $1.7 billion.

Here's what the company does:

-Helsing's AI platform aims to boost defense and security for democracies, expanding live data applications.

-Helsing works closely with governments, with the German government as a recent partner.

-Helsing and its partners won a contract to provide the AI backbone for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program just this month.

-The company has been active in Ukraine since 2022.

-The round could make Helsing the largest European AI company, nudging past the recent French-based Mistral AI raise.

To note: the company had strong initial backing from Spotify founder, Daniel Ek.

Helsing’s raise is another example of AI's increasing influence in world security — underscoring the growing relevance of tech in governance and defense strategies.

So much for THG having a tech company valuation; now it is a retailer selling to cash strapped consumers who need to prioritise food and shelter.

The latest EU Unicorn after 'Helsing raises €209m Series B to bolster Defence AI Capabilities for Democracies'

https://helsing.ai/

They claim:

'Our purpose is to attain technological leadership so that democratic societies are free to make sovereign decisions and control their ethical standards.

Democracies are fragile. To protect them from internal and external threats is one of our most important responsibilities. We founded Helsing out of a belief that safety and deterrence is only possible if we embrace software and artificial intelligence to make our forces more effective.

As democracies, we have a special responsibility to develop and deploy these technologies thoughtfully and with the highest ethical standards.'

So, do not worry; when you or your family are killed by AI, it will have been trained to be ethical. Maybe it will target fat alcoholic chain-smoking xenophobes?

Saw this today: "How I stay reasonably anonymous online"

https://tmp.bearblog.dev/how-i-stay-reasonably-anonymous-online/

Some pretty reasonable precautions... But I would add that I regularly use foreign sounding names when I create accounts just to add another layer of obfuscation.

Look at it like this:

China's economy is reliant on debt and exports, and a disproportionately large amount of their exports go to the US. Some economists say that this reliance is so large that you could say that the Chinese manufacturing sector is actually a part of the American economy.

Any large scale sell off of American assets owned by the Chinese would (a) lower the value of those assets by flooding the market with even more American debt and (b) cause American interest rates to increase, which would negatively impact all of their export markets.

They would be doubly fücked.

Welcome back Adrian - how long will your latest account last?

That fishy woman introduced extra income tax for the Scots... Any wonder why she needs a Company to handle her box sales and other post office grifts?

https://twitter.com/MerrynSW/status/1702212269243826476

How can the CONservatives run with a manifesto promise to clean our rivers and beaches unless they allow them to be polluted in the first place?

Mick,

Turnip leaves are better for you than turnips

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/turnip-nutrition#nutrition

The Fat Pie Thief's words remind me of this Nautilus excellent article:

https://nautil.us/junk-food-is-bad-for-plants-too-235857/

And to think she was even briefly Health Secretary.

“critical for regenerative farming”!!!!!!!!!!!

https://regenerationinternational.org/2018/06/24/no-till-farming/

https://www.ars.usda.gov/arsuserfiles/20902500/davidhuggins/notill.pdf

No till and low till farming is becoming a big thing in regenerative farming. Using Round-Up to kill everything good in the soil is not an example of regenerative farming. The Rodale Institute are great no till promotors:

https://rodaleinstitute.org/why-organic/organic-farming-practices/organic-no-till/

Is the threat of cancel culture starting to crack you?

Trek,

DUKE's results are flat - earning are up in the same ratio as the number of shares in issue following the May 2022 placing. I was expecting an increase in EPS in line with inflation; take inflation into account and EPS are down.

'Recurring cash revenue for Q1 FY24 reached a new record of £6.0 million, an increase of 17% over Q1 FY23, and a £300,000 increase on the prior quarter'

But shares in issue increased by 17% [61.4m to 416m] at the last placing in May 2022, so earnings have stayed flat, which is slightly disappointing. Dividend yield is still nearly 9% though.

A historian's perspective

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-12-2023