Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. We have made it through our first week of the new year, and I hope you’ve had a restful January thus far. Nevertheless, we must not forget that if we ever had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything we ever wanted in one moment, the only way we could capture this, and not let it slip through our fingers, is by recapping the previous week’s events, that way we may proceed into this new week, ready to face all the challenges it may present. Now, without further adieu, here’s another “weekly recap.”
Warren 2020?
With the 116th Congress set to meet in a few days, the “blue wave” will finally take its seats in the House and the Senate. In addition to this exciting news, parts of the United States federal government remain shut down at the behest of President Donald Trump who is displeased with the fact that no one seems willing to give him $5 billion to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Regardless of one’s opinions on the current administration, we are only a year or so out from the Iowa caucus, and this is personally my favorite time period because we, as Americans, have the unique pleasure of witnessing politicians from all political preferences attempt to guise their intentions for running for office.
One such mystery candidate decided that she no longer wished to remain in the shadows as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Monday that, after months of speculation and videos explaining her alleged Native-American heritage, she is establishing an exploratory committee to pursue a 2020 White House bid for the upcoming election. For those of us less privy to jargon used in domestic politics, an exploratory committee is a collective of individuals tasked with determining the candidacy of potential candidates running for an elected office.
“Exploratory, draft or “testing the waters” committees are formed solely for the purpose of determining the feasibility of an individual’s candidacy for office. The activities of exploratory committees may include polling, travel, and telephone calls to determine whether the individual should become a candidate.”
–DC Official Code § 1-1101.01(6)(B)(vi))
A Stinky Shutdown
This partial government shutdown has made life difficult for many people, and to be honest, it’s smelled off from the start. In recent scented news, sections of California’s Yosemite National Park were forced to temporarily close after park visitors elected to excrete their solid waste onto the road due to toilet closures.
“We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts. We’re concerned there’ll be impacts to visitors’ safety. It’s really a nightmare scenario.”
–John Garder, Senior Budget Director, National Parks Conservation Association
China, You Good, Dawg?
China’s factory sector contracted last month for the first time in nearly three years, according to government data published earlier this week. The report stated that although output continued to expand in 2018, “new orders rose at the slowest rate since May 2017, while export sales decline for the fifth month in a row.”It continued to note that “employment remained on a downward trend which, in turn, contributed to an increase in outstanding workload. The world’s second-largest economy has been progressively becoming weaker due to a slowdown in export orders amid the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. Upon review of last year for growth in China’s economy, analysts say China’s market hasn’t done this poorly since 1990, according to CNN.
“The employment subindex, remaining in contractionary territory, dipped to its lowest level since July 2017. The subindex for new export orders inched up despite remaining in contractionary territory, implying a still-grim export situation.”
–Dr. Zhengsheng Zhong, Director of Macroeconomic Analysis, CEBM
The question on the minds of most stakeholders in the geopolitical arena, specifically those with vested interest in either the US or Chinese economies, how the trade war will play out in 2019. After President Trump imposed billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese exports, sources say the two countries may come to an agreement as early as February. If they do not succeed, tariffs may only get worse.
Google Needs A Hand
Imagine being able to control your computer or smartphone simply by making the relevant gesture depending on how you want to interact with your device. Google’s ATAP Project Soli has purposed itself with making this futuristic dream-like concept a practical reality. The Soli Project first began in 2015, and in that time, the ATAP team has had tremendous breakthroughs with the developmental tech. Pausing for a moment to give you a brief, but necessary science lesson, radar is a technology which transmits a radio wave towards a target, and the receiver of the radar signal intercepts reflective energy from that target. Operating with the goal of “harnessing the power of hand and finger manipulation to make it easier to interact with devices and screens,” Project Soli utilizes radar technology to capture signals from human hands and transmit those signals into interactions on the screens of our favorite tablets, smartphones, and computers, according to TechCrunch.
In recent news, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced earlier this week that it would grant Project Soli an official waiver to allow the team to operate their radar-sensing device at higher, more optimal power levels, given that the FCC oversees all radio wave transmissions.
“…We grant a request by Google, LLC for waiver of section…of the rules governing short-range interactive motion sensing devices, consistent with the parameters set forth in the Google-Facebook Joint ex party Filing, to permit the certification and marketing of its Project Soli field disturbance sensor to operate at higher power levels than currently allowed. In addition, we waive compliance of the rules to allow users to operate Google Soli devices while aboard aircraft…We further find that grant of the waiver will serve the public interest by providing for innovative device control features using touchless hand gesture technology.”
–Federal Communications Commission commenting on Project Soli
Roll (Blue) Wave
On Thursday, the 116th class of Congress will be sworn in, and that, in it of itself represents the most culturally, racially, and socioeconomically diverse convening of Congress in the history of the U.S. Our new Congress will feature incredible amounts of much-needed female representation, including Muslim women, as well as Native American women, both of which have yet to be represented in Congress to this point. Shockingly enough, the racial/cultural barriers broken by Thursday’s swearing-in of the 116th Congress were the work of both the Democratic and Republican parties. In addition to this, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will continue to serve as the first and only female Speaker of the House ever.
The 116th Congress, while celebrated for being incredible inclusive in terms of representing other cultures, genders, and races, will see itself in more headlines as the year roll along, because the Democrats now control the House of Representatives. House Democrats have said they hope to sit down with President Donald Trump work with him on two goals of his — passing of a massive infrastructure bill, and a bill bringing down prescription drug prices — even though he is currently under federal investigation for alleged collusion and corruptive acts. As far as their own collective priorities for the new House Democratic leadership, representatives from the Democratic Party plans on doing everything in their power to lower the cost of healthcare, tackle issues with the country’s roads and infrastructure, and most notably working on anti-corruption legislation, according to Vox.
Big Mama & Big Data
Cloudera (CLDR) and Hortwonworks, two major companies in the Hadoop big data game, today announced that have finalized their all-stock merger, according to TechCrunch. Per the announcement, the new company will retain the Cloudera brand and will continue to trade under the Company’s ticker symbol, as well as expect to generate more than $720 million in revenue from the new agreement.
“Today, we start an exciting new chapter for Cloudera as we become the leading enterprise data cloud provider. This combined time and technology portfolio establish the new Cloudera as a clear market leader with the scale and resources to drive continued innovation and growth. We will provide customers with a comprehensive solution-set to bring the right data analytics to data anywhere the enterprise needs to work…”
–Tom Reilly, Chief Executive Officer, Cloudera
The merger deal between Cloudera and Hortonworks, while novel, indicates a greater trend for the future of the tech industry, as well as the fate of human existence. I know that’s a bold statement, but allow me to elaborate. As the worlds spins madly on, we will begin to look at other resources to commodify as traditional commodities become depleted. Access to consumer data, and copious amounts of it is invaluable to companies because to have the ability to create a product that fits exactly what people expect and demand would allow for immense success.
Looking Forward
As we’ve only just begun to understand the primordial stages of 2019, the US government remains completely shut down. Last week, the 116th US Congress was sworn in, giving the Democratic leadership majority in the House, which may create a formidable force to tackle Trump’s unrelenting willingness to keep the government closed. For those unfamiliar with the current scenario, President Donald Trump has been fighting Democratic representatives in Congress to grant him his $5 billion funding request to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and shut down the government to show the world how serious he is about getting his money.
