OPEC Thinks Elon Musk's Tesla Revolution Is A Pipe Dream, And Has Published This Chart To Prove It | ||
| | ||
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has dismissed the impact electric cars will have on the automobile market. In its latest World Oil Outlook the oil cartel outlined its forecasts for key oil-using industrial sectors through 2040. While the share of traditional petrol/gasoline-fuelled cars is expected to fall, OPEC predicts that they will still account for 91% of all vehicles, down from 97% in 2013. Don't tell that to Elon Musk, founder of the electric car producer Tesla. The company reported a modest $3 million third-quarter profit on Wednesday, enough to drive up its share price. Tesla reported that its major problem at the moment is being able to produce sufficient numbers of electric cars at the pace required to meet surging demand. But OPEC remains undaunted by market exuberance over its prospects writing (emphasis added): "Pure plug-in electric cares are unlikely to gain a significant market share in the foreseeable future. Apart from a high purchase price there are issues of convenience, such as range limitations and battery performance during hot and cold weather conditions (when higher output would be needed for cooling or heating the car). Vehicle electrification will likely be mostly confined to various degrees of hybridisation, including plug-ins." Here's OPEC's chart:
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Of course, OPEC has a strong motivation for downplaying the possible impact that electric cars could have on a key part of its market. Especially since even on its own forecasts oil is expected to play an ever smaller role in global energy markets.
Nevertheless, its warning might check some of the enthusiasm over a sector that still has a long way to go to compete with traditional car makers. 32 tanks enter Ukraine from Russia: Kiev | ||
| | ||
Kiev (AFP) - A column of 32 tanks and other heavy weapons has entered Ukraine from Russia, the Ukrainian military said Friday, after the latest fighting left five dead and at least 31 injured. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a convoy made up of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer cannons and 30 trucks of troops and equipment crossed the border into the rebel-controlled Lugansk region on Thursday. Another column including trucks and three mobile radar stations crossed another border point in the same region, he said.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Ukraine Is Heating Up Again ... | ||
| | ||
Russian tanks are rolling into Ukraine again. Vladimir Putin met with top military officials to discuss the "deterioration of the situation" amid fresh fighting on fault lines in eastern Ukraine. Andrei Purgin, deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said the Ukrainian army had launched "all-out war" on rebel positions, the Russian news agency RIA said. Ukrainian military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov denied this, saying the army remained in agreed positions. "We refute these allegations ... we're strictly fulfilling the Minsk memorandum (on a cease-fire)," he told Reuters by telephone.
Russia is also charging Ukraine with deliberately shelling a school, although The Interpreter reports that Moscow has not provided evidence and public information does not point to Ukraine military positions. Representatives of the separatist regions earlier put out a joint statement calling for a redrafting of the Minsk deal, which established a cease-fire in exchange for Kiev granting "special status" to eastern territories. Rebels say Ukraine has violated the deal by seeking to revoke a law that would have granted eastern regions autonomy. Kiev says this was a consequence of Sunday's separatist leadership elections, which it says go against the agreement. At least 4,000 people have died during the conflict. SEE ALSO: The War In Ukraine Is Now A Very Active 'Frozen' Conflict Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
ZUCK: 'The Social Network' Movie Was Hurtful When It Said I Created Facebook 'To Attract Girls' (FB) | ||
| | ||
In his first public Q&A last night, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg responded to questions on everything from the colour of his shirt to the Facebook Messenger app. Sky News reports that one question asked about Zuckerberg's feelings on The Social Network, the 2010 movie which chronicled the early days of Facebook during Zuckerberg's time at Harvard university. Zuckerberg has previously called the movie inaccurate, but this time he hinted at his reaction to watching the movie: "They just kind of made up a bunch of stuff that I found really hurtful." Zuckerberg said. "They made up this whole plot line about how I somehow decided to create Facebook to attract girls." The Social Network movie depicts a series of events in which Zuckerberg creates Facebook after his college girlfriend breaks up with him. However, at the time of the events in the movie, Zuckerberg was in a relationship with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan, whom he married in 2012.
"The real story is a lot of hard work." Zuckerberg went on to say. "If they were really making a movie (about the origins of Facebook) it would be of me sitting there coding for two hours straight." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
A Brutal Takedown Of Dick Costolo's Reign At Twitter: 'People Are Losing Confidence In Him' (TWTR) | ||
| | ||
The Wall Street Journal has published a long, detailed and at times brutal analysis of CEO Dick Costolo's reign at Twitter. Seriously, go read the whole thing if you care about the fate of world's best platform for sharing news (and why it seems to be treading water compared to the meteoric rise of Snapchat and Instagram). If you follow Twitter closely, you'll notice little in the story that is specifically new. What the article does instead is put together the entire jigsaw in one place: And when you see the complete picture, it's harsh: • A vague and difficult to understand description of Twitter's audience as a series of "eccentric circles." (Does he mean concentric circles?) • Costolo wants to emphasize Twitter's wider, non-logged in audience (i.e. on news pages that have embedded tweets) to avoid comparisons to Facebook. But talking about the larger size of the Twitter audience invites comparisons to Facebook's even larger off-platform audience. • Endless management turmoil, much of it triggered by Costolo himself (especially when he hired one of his friends, Michael Sippey, to run the product team, who later left the company). • This bit is especially worrying: "In all, the CEO has replaced or lost five direct reports since the IPO. Last week, he named Twitter’s fifth head of product in as many years. Its most recent vice president of product, Daniel Graf, who came from Google Maps and was handpicked by Mr Costolo, lasted less than six months in the post." The stock has fallen from around $55 in September to around $40 now. So the scrutiny is warranted. Walter Price of Allianz Global’s Technology Fund has reduced his position in Twitter, he told the Journal: “People are losing confidence in him.” In the meantime, here's my take on the way people mostly misunderstand why Twitter is so interesting and so important. Disclosure: The author owns Twitter stock. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
