10 jili 888

Brackish groundwater is a major potential source of drinking water in underserved areas of the world, but desalinating it affordably is a challenge. A new developed by mechanical engineering professor Amos Winter, Jon Bessette, SM ’22, and staff engineer Shane Pratt manages to do the job entirely on solar energy, with no need for batteries or grid power. The system is a variation of a previous based on electrodialysis, which uses an electric field to draw out salt ions as water is pumped through a stack of ion-exchange membranes. That design incorporated both a solar array and a sensor-based control system that dialed the desalting process up and down in response to the amount of sunlight available, but it made the necessary calculations only every three minutes. “In that time, a cloud could literally come by and block the sun,” Winter says. So backup batteries were still needed. The new system, however, updates the desalination rate three to five times per second. That means it doesn’t have to make up for any lag in solar energy, so it doesn’t require batteries for energy storage. In a six-month trial in New Mexico, a prototype produced up to 5,000 liters per day despite large swings in weather and available sunlight—typically while harnessing more than 94% of the electrical energy generated by its solar panels. The team hopes to launch a company based on the technology soon.The Apprentice star also argued that a lack of clarity from the Government on the ownership test is causing “significant uncertainty” for potential investors. This came as the House of Lords continued its scrutiny of the Football Governance Bill, which seeks to establish an independent regulator for the top five tiers of the men’s game. In the upper chamber, Baroness Brady said: “We are creating legislation which will profoundly affect 160 quite unique institutions, from Premier League clubs through to the National League community clubs, but it is important for everyone to understand that the consultation with these affected businesses by the current Government has been remarkably limited, almost unbelievably so. “Just seven Premier League clubs, I was one of them, was granted a brief half-hour meeting with the Secretary of State over the summer. “And following this cursory engagement, significant decisions were made that could fundamentally affect the future of English football, most notably with the inclusion of parachute payments within the backstop mechanism. “This is particularly concerning given that fundamental issues still remained unresolved, we still lack any clarity on Uefa’s position on state interference, for example, this clearly creates profound uncertainty for clubs competing in or aspiring to European competition, as well as our national teams.” “We don’t know what the ownership test will look like, this causes significant uncertainty for potential investors as to whether they are able to own a club,” she added. Lady Brady continued: “I have spoken to many of my colleagues across all of the football pyramid, we are all alarmed about and puzzled by the lack of discussion on the Bill with ministers. “Would the minister agree that we all want to get the detail of this Bill right? And can she see any downsides to providing meaningful opportunities to hear from all clubs across the football pyramid affected by the legislation?” Prior to this, Tory shadow sports minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay had tabled an amendment which he said would allow clubs to “make their views known on this legislation” by including specific competitions on the face of the Bill. Labour frontbencher Baroness Twycross told the upper chamber: “I don’t think the leagues are confused either on which leagues this legislation will apply to.” She added: “This power is both reasonable and the result of evidence-based consultation with all key stakeholders in the industry. “This power ensures that the competitions in scope can be amended in a timely manner and ensures the scope of the regime remains relevant.” The peer later said: “Over the past three years there have been countless opportunities for all affected and interested parties to make representations.” Lady Brady also raised concerns about the financial distribution backstop, which she said is “clearly designed as a mechanism to gain direct access to, and apportionate Premier League revenue, and no-one else’s”. “I might add the backstop will allow the IFR (Independent Football Regulator) to do this even if it was against the Premier League clubs’ will, or even without the clubs’ agreement, even if it was to have a detrimental effect on the clubs and the overall competition it removes revenue from,” she added. The backstop would allow the new IFR to intervene in the distribution of Premier League broadcast revenue down the leagues as a last resort. It could be triggered by the Premier League, English Football League (EFL) or National League to mediate the fair financial distribution of this revenue if they are not able to come to an agreement. Conservative peers later raised concerns over the cost implications to clubs of establishing the regulator, although they faced claims of “filibustering” – wasting time by making overlong speeches in a bid to delay progress. Watching opposition benches blatantly filibustering to destroy the Football Governance Bill is nothing short of sporting vandalism.Football is broken. Clubs are struggling. Now those seats have been lost, do they no longer care about likes of Reading or Southend? @FairGameUK — Niall Couper (@NiallCouper) December 4, 2024 Labour peer Lord Watson of Invergowrie questioned why Lord Parkinson was showing “confected outrage” at the Bill when the former culture minister would have been defending a similar proposal had the Tories remained in power. Lord Parkinson, in his reply, said: “We want to see this regulator established, we want to see it doing its work and doing so effectively, but we also see before us a Bill that is different because of the election that was called and the result that happened, and we’re interrogating particularly closely the changes that the Government have made to the Bill – of which there are many. “And we have more concerns on these benches than we did before the election from my colleagues behind me about the way we do it.” The Tory peer pointed to Labour frontbenchers fulfilling their duties to “properly scrutinise” then-government legislation when they were on the opposition benches. Lady Twycross, in an intervention, said: “While I agree that (Lord Parkinson) is correct that I would scrutinise legislation when I was sitting on those (opposition) benches, I have never sought to filibuster a Bill to which my party had committed, which my party had laid before Parliament, and intended to filibuster it to the point of getting us stuck in treacle.” Lord Parkinson replied: “That is not what we’re doing.” Niall Couper, chief executive of the campaign group Fair Game, wrote on social media site X: “Watching opposition benches blatantly filibustering to destroy the Football Governance Bill is nothing short of sporting vandalism.”One million taxpayers will automatically receive a payment from the IRS in the coming weeks, the agency recently announced . The checks, which could amount to as much as $1,400, are for those who failed to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns. "These payments are an example of our commitment to go the extra mile for taxpayers," IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. How to know if you're eligible The payments are automatically being sent to those who qualify, the IRS said. No action is required. That includes taxpayers who filed a 2021 tax return but either left the Recovery Rebate Credit section blank or filled it out incorrectly when they actually were entitled to receive the money. "Looking at our internal data, we realized that one million taxpayers overlooked claiming this complex credit when they were actually eligible," Werfel said. "To minimize headaches and get this money to eligible taxpayers, we're making these payments automatic, meaning these people will not be required to go through the extensive process of filing an amended return to receive it." Recipients will get a letter notifying them and the payment itself by the end of January either by check or direct deposit. Checks began to be sent out earlier this month. The money will be deposited into the bank account listed on the individual's 2023 tax return. If the account is closed, a check will be sent to the agency's on-file address. If someone didn't file a 2021 tax return, they could still receive this payment, the IRS said, but they must first file a return by April 15, 2025. What to know about the rebate Americans received three stimulus payments from the federal government during the coronavirus pandemic. Two were sent out under the Trump administration in 2020 and one under the Biden administration in 2021. The first check totaled $1,200 for eligible taxpayers, the second $600 and the third $1,400. Most Americans received checks, the government said, but those who didn't get the full amount could file for the rebate credit. The IRS estimates that roughly $2.4 billion will be sent to Americans in the coming weeks.

Dan Huttenlocher, SM ’84, PhD ’88, leads the way up to the eighth floor of Building 45, the recently completed headquarters of the . “There’s an amazing view of the Great Dome here,” he says, pointing out a panoramic view of campus and the Boston skyline beyond. The floor features a high-end event space with an outdoor terrace and room for nearly 350 people. But it also serves an additional purpose—luring people into the building, which opened last January. The event space “wasn’t in the original building plan,” says Huttenlocher, Schwarzman’s inaugural dean, “but the point of the building is to be a nexus, bringing people across campus together.” Launched in 2019–’20, Schwarzman is MIT’s only college, so called because it cuts across the Institute’s five schools in a new effort to integrate advanced computing and artificial intelligence into all areas of study. “We want to do two things: ensure that MIT stays at the forefront of computer science, AI research, and education,” Huttenlocher says, “and infuse the forefront of computing into disciplines across MIT.” He adds that safety and ethical considerations are also critical. To that end, the college now encompasses multiple existing , including the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and multiple , including the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. (EECS—which was reorganized into the overlapping subunits of electrical engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence and decision-making—is now part of both the college and the School of Engineering.) At the same time, the college has embarked on a plan to hire 50 new faculty members, half of whom will have shared appointments in other departments across all five schools to create a true Institute-wide entity. Those faculty members—two-thirds of whom have already been hired—will conduct research at the boundaries of advanced computing and AI. The new faculty members have already begun helping the college respond to an undeniable reality facing many students: They’ve been overwhelmingly drawn to advanced computing tools, yet computer science classes are often too technical for nonmajors who want to apply those tools in other disciplines. And for students in other majors, it can be tricky to fit computer science classes into their schedules. Meanwhile, the appetite for computer science education is so great that nearly half of MIT’s undergraduates major in EECS, voting with their feet about the importance of computing. Graduate-level classes on deep learning and machine vision are among the largest on campus, with over 500 students each. And a blended major in cognition and computing has almost four times as many enrollees as brain and cognitive sciences. “We’ve been calling these students ‘computing bilinguals,’” Huttenlocher says, and the college aims to make sure that MIT students, whatever their field, are fluent in the language of computing. “As we change the landscape,” he says, “it’s not about seeing computing as a tool in service of a particular discipline, or a discipline in the service of computing, but asking: How can we bring these things together to forge something new?” The college has been the hub of this experiment, sponsoring over a dozen new courses that integrate computing with other disciplines, and it provides a variety of spaces that bring people together for conversations about the future of computing at MIT. More than just a nexus for computing on campus, the college has also positioned itself as a broad-based leader on AI, presenting policy briefs to Congress and the White House about how to manage the pressing ethical and political concerns raised by the rapidly evolving technology. “Right now, digital technologies are changing every aspect of our lives with breakneck speed,” says Asu Ozdaglar, SM ’98, PhD ’03, EECS department head and Schwarzman’s deputy dean of academics. “The college is MIT’s response to the ongoing digital transformation of our society.” Huttenlocher, who also holds the title of Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and coauthored the book with Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt, has long been exploring such issues. He started programming computers back in middle school in Connecticut in the 1970s on an ASR 33 teletype machine, and eventually he studied at the University of Michigan as a double major in cognitive psychology and computer science, exploring speech recognition and visual perception. “AI work back then was relatively disconnected from the physical world,” he says. “Being interested in the perceptual side of things was kind of an outlier for what was going on in AI then.” When he looked at grad schools in the 1980s, only MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford were doing significant work in AI, he says: “I applied to those three schools and figured if it didn’t work out, I’d get a job.” It worked out, of course. He headed to Cambridge and gravitated to MIT’s AI Lab in Technology Square, where he first worked on speech recognition and then transitioned into computer vision, at the time still in its infancy. After earning his PhD, he served simultaneously as a computer science professor at Cornell and a researcher at Xerox PARC, flying between New York and the burgeoning Silicon Valley, where he worked on computer vision for the digital transformation of copiers and scanners. “In academia, you have more curiosity-driven research projects, where in the corporate world you have the opportunity to build things people will actually use,” he says. “I’ve spent my career moving back and forth between them.” Along the way, Huttenlocher gained administrative experience as well. He was a longtime board member and eventual chair of the MacArthur Foundation, and he also helped launch Cornell Tech, the university’s New York City–based graduate school for business, law, and technology, serving as its first dean and vice provost. When Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the investment firm Blackstone Group, gave $350 million to MIT to establish a college of computing in 2018, he was eager to return to the Institute to lead it. “The fact that MIT was making a bold commitment to become a broad-based leader in the AI-driven age—and that it was cutting across all of its schools—was exciting,” he says. Schwarzman College took shape through task forces involving more than 100 MIT faculty members. By the fall of 2019 a plan had been nailed down, and Huttenlocher was in place as director with EECS head Ozdaglar named deputy dean of academics. “I never believed that everybody wants to do computer science at MIT,” she says. “Students come in with a lot of passions, and it’s our responsibility to educate these bilinguals, so they are fluent in their own discipline but also able to use these advanced frontiers of computing.” Ozdaglar’s background is in using machine learning to optimize communications, transportation, and control systems. Recently she has become interested in applying machine-learning algorithms to social media, examining how the choices people make when sharing content affect the information—and misinformation—recommended to them. This work builds on her longstanding interdisciplinary collaborations in the social sciences, including collaborations with her husband, economics professor (and recent Nobel laureate) Daron Acemoglu. “I strongly feel that to really address the important questions in society, these old department or disciplinary silos aren’t adequate anymore,” she says. “The college has enabled me to work much more broadly across MIT and share all that I’ve learned.” Ozdaglar has been a driving force behind faculty hiring for the college, working with 18 departments to bring on dozens of scholars at the forefront of computing. In some ways, she says, it’s been a challenge to integrate the new hires into existing disciplines. “We have to keep teaching what we’ve been teaching for tens or hundreds of years, so change is hard and slow,” she says. But she has also noticed a palpable excitement about the new tools. Already, the college has brought in more than 30 new faculty members in four broad areas: climate and computing; human and natural intelligence; humanistic and social sciences; and AI for scientific discovery. In each case, they receive an academic home in another department, as well as an appointment, and often lab space, within the college. That commitment to interdisciplinary work has been built into every aspect of the new headquarters. “Most buildings at MIT come across as feeling pretty monolithic,” Huttenlocher says as he leads the way along brightly lit hallways and common spaces with large walls of glass looking out onto Vassar Street. “We wanted to make this feel as open and accessible as possible.” While the Institute’s high-end computing takes place mostly at a massive computing center in Holyoke, about 90 miles away in Western Massachusetts, the building is honey­combed with labs and communal workspaces, all made light and airy with glass and natural blond wood. Along the halls, open doorways offer enticing glimpses of such things as a giant robot hanging from a ceiling amid a tangle of wires. Lab and office space for faculty research groups working on related problems­—who might be from, say, CSAIL and LIDS—is interspersed on the same floor to encourage interaction and collaboration. “It’s great because it builds connections across labs,” Huttenlocher says. “Even the conference room does not belong to either the lab or the college, so people actually have to collaborate to use it.” Another dedicated space is available six months at a time, by application, for special collaborative projects. The first group to use it, last spring, focused on bringing computation to the climate challenge. To make sure undergrads use the building too, there’s a classroom and a 250-seat lecture hall, which now hosts classic Course 6 classes (such as Intro to Machine Learning) as well as new multidiscipline classes. A soaring central lobby lined with comfortable booths and modular furniture is ready-made for study sessions. For some of the new faculty, working at the college is a welcome change from previous academic experiences in which they often felt caught between disciplines. “The intersection of climate sustainability and AI was nascent when I started my PhD in 2015,” says Sherrie Wang, an assistant professor with a shared appointment in mechanical engineering and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, who is principal investigator of the Earth Intelligence Lab. When she hit the job market in 2022, it still wasn’t clear which department she’d be in. Now a part of Schwarzman’s climate cluster, she says her work uses machine learning to analyze satellite data, examining crop distribution and agricultural practices across the world. “It’s great to have a cohort of people who have similar philosophical motivations in applying these tools to real-world problems,” she says. “At the same time, we’re pushing the tools forward as well.” AI impact papers Among other researchers, she plans to collaborate with Sara Beery, a CSAIL professor who analyzes vast troves of visual, auditory, and other data from a diverse range of sensors around the world to better understand how climate change is affecting distribution of species. “AI can be successful in helping human experts efficiently process terabytes and petabytes of data so they can make informed management decisions in real time rather than five years later,” says Beery, who was drawn to the college’s unique hybrid nature. “We need a new generation of researchers that frame their work by bringing different types of knowledge together. At Schwarzman, there is a clear vision that this type of work is going to be necessary to solve these big, essential problems.” Beery is now working to develop a class in machine learning and sustainability with two other new faculty members in the climate cluster: Abigail Bodner, an assistant professor in EECS and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (whose work uses AI to analyze fluid dynamics), and Priya Donti, assistant professor in EECS and LIDS (who uses AI and computing to optimize integration of renewable energy into power grids). “There’s already a core course on AI and machine learning­—an on-ramp for people without prior exposure who want to gain those fundamentals,” says Donti. “The new class would be for those who want to study advanced AI/ML topics within the context of sustainability-­related disciplines, including power systems, biodiversity, and climate science.” The class on machine learning and sustainability would be part of , an initiative cochaired by Ozdaglar and involving several dozen faculty members across MIT to develop new classes integrating advanced computing with other disciplines. So far, says Ozdaglar, it has generated more than a dozen new courses. One machine-learning class developed with input from nine departments provides exposure to a variety of practical applications for AI algorithms. Another collaboration, between computer science and urban studies, uses data visualization to address housing issues and other societal challenges. Julia Schneider ’26, a double major in AI and mathematics, took the Common Ground class on optimization methods, which she says demonstrated how computer science concepts like shortest-path algorithms and reinforcement learning could be applied in other areas, such as economics and business analytics. She adds that she values such classes because they blend her two areas of study and highlight multidisciplinary opportunities. Natasha Hirt ’23, MEng ’23, came to MIT thinking that computer science was peripheral to her major in architecture and urban planning. Then she took a course with building technology professor Caitlin Mueller on structural optimization and design—and it changed the trajectory of her MIT career. That led her to Interactive Data Visualization and Society, a Common Ground class, and several interdisciplinary classes combining computer science and field-specific knowledge. She says these provided the perfect introduction to algorithms without delving too much into math or coding,giving her enough working knowledge to set up models correctly and understand how things can go wrong. “They are teaching you what an engine is, what it looks like, and how it works without actually requiring you to know how to build an engine from scratch,” she says, though she adds that the classes also gave her the opportunity to tinker with the engine. She’s now working on master’s degrees in both building technology and computation science and engineering, focusing on making buildings more sustainable by using computational tools to design novel, less material-intensive structures. She says that Common Ground facilitates an environment where students don’t have to be computer science majors to learn the computational skills they need to succeed in their fields. And that’s the intent. “My hope is that this new way of thinking and these educational innovations will have an impact both nationally and globally,” Ozdaglar says. The same goes for recent papers MIT has commissioned, both on AI and public policy and on applications of generative AI. As generative AI has spread through many realms of society, it has become an ethical minefield, giving rise to problems from intellectual-property theft to deepfakes. “The likely consequence has been to both over- and under-­regulate AI, because the understanding isn’t there,” Huttenlocher says. But the technology has developed so rapidly it’s been nearly impossible for policymakers to keep up. “Even faculty who are leading researchers in this area say ‘I can’t read fast enough to keep up with what’s going on,’” Huttenlocher says, “so that heightens the challenge—and the need.” The college has responded by engaging faculty at the cutting edge of their disciplines to issue for government leaders. First was a written in the fall of 2023 by Huttenlocher, Ozdaglar, and the head of MIT’s DC office, David Goldston, with input from more than a dozen MIT faculty members. The brief spells out essential tasks for helping the US maintain its AI leadership, as well as crucial considerations for regulation. The college followed that up with a policy brief by EECS faculty specifically focusing on large language models such as ChatGPT. Others dealt with AI’s impact on the workforce, the effectiveness of labeling AI content, and AI in education. Along with the written documents, faculty have briefed congressional committees and federal agencies in person to get the information directly into the hands of policymakers. “The question has been ‘How do we take MIT’s specific academic knowledge and put it into a form that’s accessible?’” Huttenlocher says. On a parallel track, in July of 2023 President Sally Kornbluth and Provost Cynthia Barnhart, SM ’86, PhD ’88, issued a call for papers by MIT faculty and researchers to “articulate effective road maps, policy recommendations, and calls for action across the broad domain of generative AI.” Huttenlocher and Ozdaglar played a key role in evaluating the 75 proposals that came in. Ultimately, from interdisciplinary teams of authors representing all five schools. Each of the 27 teams received between $50,000 and $70,000 in seed funds to research and write 10-page impact papers, which were due by December 2023. Given the enthusiastic response, MIT sent out another call in the fall of 2023, resulting in an additional 53 proposals, with in March, on topics including visual art, drug discovery, and privacy. As with the policy briefs, Huttenlocher says, “we are trying to provide the fresher information an active researcher in the field would have, presented in a way that a broader audience can understand.” Even in the short time the college has been active, Huttenlocher and Ozdaglar have begun to see its effects. “We’re seeing departments starting to change some of the ways they are hiring around degree programs because of interactions with the college,” Huttenlocher says. “There is such a huge acceleration of AI in the world—it’s getting them to think with some urgency in doing this.” Whether through faculty hiring, new courses, policy papers, or just the existence of a space for high-level discussions about computing that had no natural home before, Huttenlocher says, the college hopes to invite the MIT community into a deeper discussion of how AI and other advanced computing tools can augment academic activities around campus. MIT has long been a leader in the development of AI, and for many years it has continued to innovate at the cutting edge of the field. With the college’s leadership, the Institute is in a position to continue innovating and to guide the future of the technology more broadly. “The next step,” says Ozdaglar, “is to take that impact out into the world.”NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jonathan Marchessault scored two goals and had an assist to lead the Nashville Predators to a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night. Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Reilly and Mark Jankowski also scored and Juuse Saros made 25 saves for the Predators, winners of three of their last four games. Filip Forsberg had three assists. Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho scored and Dustin Tokarski made 20 saves for Carolina. Stamkos scored the game’s first goal with 6:26 remaining in the first period. Marchessault doubled Nashville's lead with 8:15 remaining in the second, converting on a tap-in off of a cross-ice pass by Tommy Novak. O’Reilly and Jankowski briefly gave Nashville an early third period 4-0 lead before Staal and Aho combined for goals 40 seconds apart to make it 4-2. Marchessault added an empty-net goal late for Nashville. Takeaways Hurricanes: Carolina allowed its first power-play goal in the month of December when O’Reilly scored on the man advantage 30 seconds into the third period. Nashville Predators center Jonathan Marchessault (81) skates the puck past Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov (7) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Credit: AP/George Walker IV Predators: The Predators have won consecutive games for the first time since winning three-straight from Oct. 22-26. They will need more of the same if they aim to compete for a playoff spot. Key moment Jankowski's goal at 2:52 of the third gave Nashville a 4-0 lead. The goal provided insurance as the Hurricanes scored a pair of goals soon thereafter to get back in the game. Key stat Marchessault has scored in four straight games and has equaled a career high with points in seven consecutive games. He has seven goals and four assists over that span. Up next Following the three-day holiday break, the Hurricanes visit the New Jersey Devils on Friday night, while the Predators visit the St. Louis Blues on Friday night. Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi (59) skates the puck past Carolina Hurricanes left wing Eric Robinson (50) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. The Predators won 5-2. Credit: AP/George Walker IV __ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Falcons QB Cousins is looking to avoid interceptions, have bounce-back game in Minnesota homecomingShockwaves are reverberating through the e-bike industry in Canada and the United States after a year that saw several prominent brands declare bankruptcy or stop selling in the North American market, citing an inability to compete in an increasingly consolidated environment. Experts say changes that followed the industry’s unprecedented pandemic boom – from a rise in factory direct sales to rapidly evolving technology – have been devastating for independent brands. Vancouver-based DOST Bikes, California-based Juiced Bikes and iGO Electric of Montreal all declared bankruptcy or went into receivership within roughly the past year. Even global brands such as Japanese motor sports giant Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. and Swiss company Stromer recently announced they were pulling their e-bikes out of North America, citing a softened market. The speed and comfort of e-bikes set them apart from traditional bicycles, opening up the age-old mode of transport to a wider range of users. From delivery people to commuters, the resounding sentiment from most e-bike fans is it’s fun to go fast and the power assist makes long trips so much easier. In Canada, the federal standard for an e-bike’s maximum speed is 32 km/h, and range varies from about 50 to 100 kilometres. The pandemic saw e-bike sales soar, as consumers with extra time and pent-up energy splurged on devices to stay active outdoors. In 2022, the Canadian market was worth about $240-million, with about 70,000 e-bikes sold that year, according to Rize Bikes. By 2025, Rize estimates the market will reach $345-million, with more than 100,000 bikes sold annually. Prices range from $14,000 for a Stromer bike to $3,100 for an ENVO and just $600 on Amazon.com Inc. for a bike from an overseas manufacturer. But makers and retailers say the domestic industry is flatlining. While it’s nowhere near taking its last breath, the changing landscape is forcing local brands to carve out a niche for themselves just to survive, in a market that has become dominated by cheap, direct-to-consumer sales. Sam Atakhanov, the founder of multiple e-bike startups, launched DOST Bikes in 2019 – just before the industry took off. “Things were going normal. Then there was that chain of events that happened over the last few years that really crippled our industry,” he said. For Mr. Atakhanov, it all began with Apple’s release of the iOS 14 operating system in September, 2020. The update affected advertisers’ ability to reach their target audiences, which meant Mr. Atakhanov’s ads on Google weren’t working as well as they used to. Then, pandemic supply-chain disruptions threw a wrench into his company’s cash flow, bumping manufacturing lead times from three months to a year, he said. “We’re sitting here with no stock for nearly a year before the money comes in, so we’re living off of lines of credit, our own cash, investment capital. We’re digging ourselves a hole,” he said. While supply chains improved by 2022, Mr. Atakhanov said rising interest rates and a receding customer base were some of the final blows dealt to his business. Retailers had rushed to double their stock during the pandemic, but the high demand disappeared almost as quickly as it came. “Then it’s a vicious cycle, race to the bottom, everybody’s trying to offload,” Mr. Atakhanov said. The last straw for DOST Bikes was when e-bike factories overseas began bypassing local companies, like DOST, to sell directly to North American consumers, Mr. Atakhanov said. “When that happened, our value proposition for all that great design, branding, marketing, all that just went right out the window because a factory can sell for half the price.” DOST Bikes filed for insolvency in December, 2023. “It was death by a thousand cuts,” Mr. Atakhanov said. And it wasn’t unique to DOST, said Haseeb Javed, a member of the product and engineering team at electric mobility company ENVO Drive Systems in Vancouver. He conducts industry research to determine what causes companies to fail and said most of them have a story similar to DOST’s. Based upon his research, Mr. Javed said ENVO has been very careful to diversify where its products are sold so it’s not reliant on a single revenue stream. For example, the company sells through Costco Wholesale Corp., storefronts and direct to consumers online. ENVO also sells more than just e-bikes, with e-scooters, water bikes with pontoons and snow bikes with skis also in its repertoire. Mr. Javed said this helps with the company’s brand awareness. “Some business models are better for this market. But ultimately, I believe that anyone who survived, either you need to be a Chinese factory who is selling at very low margins or you need to have differentiation,” he said. Kevin McLaughlin, the CEO of Zygg E-Bikes, which operates in Toronto and Vancouver, said 2024 has been a challenging year for his subscription-based company. At Zygg, customers can rent or buy new and used e-bikes, a model that sets the company apart from stores that only sell new bikes. He said Zygg is a popular choice with food delivery workers. At the peak of the pandemic, Zygg did about $2.5-million a year in sales. This year, revenues will come in under $2-million. Amid the technological evolution of e-bikes, Mr. McLaughlin said he’s scrambling to modernize his fleet. And bikes that he bought at $2,000 and once sold for $3,000 now have a markup of just $400. “There’s enormous downward pressure,” he said. Mr. Atakhanov said his company has also had to compete with bigger brands that can afford to innovate – and market those innovations – at a much faster pace. For example, tech company DJI created an e-bike drive system that can connect to a user’s smartphone, allowing them to control things such as their bike’s lock status or power assist through an app. “My product, all of a sudden, over the weekend, looks like it’s last year’s model,” he said. While smaller companies may be struggling to keep up, the prevailing sentiment among industry players is that demand for such micromobility devices isn’t going away. Michael Pasquali, the founder of the Canadian Electric Bike Association, said people are going to continue to buy e-bikes even if the industry never again reaches the heights it did during the pandemic.

Phil Mickelson thanks Daniel Penny for 'protecting passengers from deranged' Jordan NeelyQatar tribune BucharestcTypeface:> Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Monday said he has tasked incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu with forming a new government, as Bucharest reels from a deep political crisis. Ciolacu - who has been prime minister since 2023 - is to lead a pro-European coalition of his Social Democrats (PSD), the centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL) and the UDMR/RMDSZ party representing the country’s Hungarian minority. Following parliamentary elections on December 1, eight ministers are to come from the PSD, with six from the PNL and two from the UDMR. The coalition partners also agreed to nominate PNL politician Crin Antonescu as their joint candidate for the next presidential elections, after the Romanian Constitutional Court earlier this month annulled the result of the first round of the presidential election. (DPA) Copy 24/12/2024 10East Carolina wins 71-64 over Stetson

Here, the PA news agency looks at the seven Grand Slam finals contested by the pair. Murray turned in a poor performance in Melbourne, failing at the third attempt to win a set in a Grand Slam final as Djokovic broke serve seven times and hit six aces to claim a comprehensive win 6-4 6-2 6-3. “You had an unbelievable tournament and deserved to win,” the Scot said in reference to his opponent. “I look forward to playing against you in the future.” It took five sets for Murray to claim his first Grand Slam title, becoming the first British man to achieve the feat since Fred Perry in 1936. The final clocked in at four hours and 54 minutes as Murray prevailed 7-6 (10) 7-5 2-6 3-6 6-2 to end a wait of 287 tournaments in British male tennis for a victory. “I want to congratulate Andy on his first grand slam, he thoroughly deserves it,” said Djokovic. “I really tried my best. I gave it my all. It was a tremendous match.” Congrats @DjokerNole . Incredible athlete. Perfect gentleman. #ausopen — judy murray (@JudyMurray) January 27, 2013 Murray was dogged by injury in Melbourne with a heavily strapped right foot and a tight hamstring as Djokovic fought back from a set down to land a third consecutive Australian Open title, 6-7 (2) 7-6 (3) 6-3 6-2. “His record here is incredible,” said Murray. ”Very few people have managed to do what he has done, a deserved champion.” Murray ended a 77-year wait for a British men’s victory at Wimbledon by defeating his old foe 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in SW19, serving emphatically with nine aces and only two double faults to throw off the weight of history. The Scot had been 4-1 down in the second set as the match threatened to slip away from him and with it the chance to cement his place in tennis folklore, but having wasted three championship points he finally sealed the deal when Djokovic drove into the net with his final shot. A post shared by Novak Djokovic (@djokernole) Djokovic triumphed 7-6 (5) 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-0 and after the 24 matches and five grand slam finals the pair had played against each other across nine years, the Serb had established a 16-8 overall lead and 3-2 in slam finals. “Success is being happy,” said Murray. “It’s not about winning every single tournament you play, because that isn’t possible.” What a journey. Really grateful for everything. I'll keep working hard. Love is the key! pic.twitter.com/CrT7TYRL3O — Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 31, 2016 The Serb landed a fourth win over Murray in Australian Open finals and his 11th in 12 matches to land his 11th major title, whilst the Scot made it five consecutive final losses in Melbourne, a new record in the Open era. “I feel like I’ve been here before,” said Murray after a 6-1 7-5 7-6 (3) loss. “Congratulations Novak, six Australian Opens, an incredible feat, and incredible consistency the last year.” "This is something that’s so rare in tennis... it’s gonna take a long time for it to happen again" Andy to Novak ❤️ pic.twitter.com/LN7dW8ZJED — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2016 This was Murray’s first final at Roland Garros but it brought a familiar conclusion as Djokovic triumphed against him for the fifth time in seven Grand Slam finals. The 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-4 success was a first win for the Serb in Paris and saw him hold all four slams simultaneously. Murray went on to win Wimbledon the following month and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year but, addressing Djokovic in Paris, said: “This is his day today. What he’s achieved the last 12 months is phenomenal, winning all four of the grand slams in one year is an amazing achievement.”

ALPHA PRO TECH, LTD. ANNOUNCES $2 MILLION EXPANSION OF SHARE REPURCHASE PROGRAM