This Is a Test of the Shadow Banking System - Bloomberg View

This Is a Test of the Shadow Banking System - Bloomberg View

Watch What Putin Does to His Top Prosecutor - Bloomberg View

Watch What Putin Does to His Top Prosecutor - Bloomberg View

Facebook Will Open Source ‘Big Sur’ Servers

The Morning Download: Facebook Will Open Source ‘Big Sur’ Servers that Boost Power of Artificial Intelligence By Steve Rosenbush

Good morning. Facebook Inc. says it will open source new designs at the heart of its artificial intelligence efforts. It's just one of several companies that are sharing hardware and software for free, in an effort to attract developers and resources to their platforms. In theory, open sourcing technology such as Facebook's 'Big Sur' server should boost innovation and lower costs. MIT Technology Review reports that "Serkan Piantino, an engineering director in Facebook’s AI Research group, says the new servers are twice as fast as those Facebook used before. 'We will discover more things in machine learning and AI as a result' ,” he says. Facebook launched the Open Compute Project, which has been a leader in transferring the open source principles of the software industry to hardware. Alphabet Inc.'s Google also recently open sourced its TensorFlow AI technology, and is competing for the attention of the small community of deep learning experts, Wired says. It will be up to! companies to figure out whether and how they make use of powerful open source technology moving into the market. Those skills aren't free.

U.S. Congressional Panel Examines Loan to San Bernardino Shooter - Bloomberg Business

U.S. Congressional Panel Examines Loan to San Bernardino Shooter - Bloomberg Business



Syed Rizwan Farook, a U.S. citizen who worked for the government, had obtained the loan through Prosper Marketplace Inc. a few weeks before authorities say he and his wife carried out the Dec. 2 attack, a person with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday....

His application for more than $28,000 was clean, and he said he would use the money to consolidate debt, a person familiar with the transaction said Tuesday, asking not to be identified because it was confidential. Refinancing is one of the most-common stated uses for loans arranged through the service.

Farook wasn’t on federal lists that lenders use to check borrowers for ties to terrorism, according to Scott Sanborn, chief operating officer at LendingClub Corp., one of Prosper’s main competitors.

materials and industrial processes - Technology Quarterly | The Economist

Technology Quarterly | The Economist

BMW’s factory in Leipzig uses standard industrial equipment and robots. What makes it special is the company’s intimate knowledge of exactly how its materials are made and how to control the processes that turn them into cars. This goes to the heart of materials science. “We think we are pretty much ahead of our competitors because we have the complete process and material development in our hands,” says BMW’s Mr Kranz.

In future more firms will need to be on top of their materials. 

Scamaloy - powder, 3D printing - Technology Quarterly | The Economist

Technology Quarterly | The Economist



One of these is a proprietary aluminium-magnesium-scandium alloy called Scalmalloy. It is particularly good for making lightweight high-strength components. It is being commercialised by an Airbus subsidiary and is already used in some racing cars. In powder form, Scalmalloy can also be employed in a revolutionary form of manufacturing that is ideally suited to working with many new materials: additive manufacturing, popularly known as 3D printing.

BMW - Energy Saving - Technology Quarterly | The Economist

Technology Quarterly | The Economist

This factory is different in other ways, too. “We do not weld; we have no rivets, no screws and no bolts. We just glue components together,” says Ulrich Kranz, the head of the division that since 2013 has been making BMW’s i3 and i8 electric and hybrid vehicles in Leipzig. Since the carbon-fibre body provides the vehicle with its strength, the outer panels are mainly decorative and made from plastic. These are simple to spray in a small paint booth, whereas metal requires elaborate anti-corrosion treatment in a giant and costly paint shop. In all, the i3 factory uses 50% less energy and 70% less water than a conventional facility.

The i-series are upmarket cars, but still produced in volume. BMW has succeeded in taking a new material hitherto used in low-volume specialist applications, such as aerospace and defence, and turning it into something close to mass-produced. That called for radical changes. When in 2007 the BMW board asked Mr Kranz to come up with an electric city car and a low-energy production system, he and his team went into hiding to allow ideas to flow freely.