Councillors have voted against a motion aimed at attracting Hong Kong residents to Test Valley. A motion was brought by Cllr David Coole that would have mandated Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) to write to the Home Office and Foreign Office to invite residents of the former British colony to the area. The move follows national announcements that former residents of the colony with a British National (Overseas) Passport are being given a path to citizenship in the UK, following the imposition of national security legislation that critics say is eroding Hong Kong’s freedoms. Cllr Coole said that it was “a multicultural and economic opportunity for Test Valley”, while others described it as a “pointless motion”.
University at Buffalo
More than $60K in startup funding and services awarded
Ryan Young, MD/MBA ’21, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences/School of Management. Photo Illustration: Douglas Levere.
BUFFALO, N.Y. Opollo Technologies, a fintech health care AI startup, took first place April 9 in the University at Buffalo’s Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (Panasci TEC).
Ryan Young, MD/MBA ’21, and Anders Rosén, MBA ’21, will receive $25,000 in startup capital and in-kind services valued at $27,000 for their company, Opollo Technologies LLC.
Opollo™ is a machine-learning algorithm that uses medical natural language processing to provide two to three times more accurate surgery duration forecasts than existing methods. The cloud-based artificial intelligence platform learns from a wide range of health care data to optimize operating room scheduling. Opollo Technologies also empowers its health care facility customers to monetize
A debate over an allowance motion at Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) became particularly heated on Wednesday (April 7) as councillors argued over the motion. Cllr David Coole had proposed that the minority opposition group leader on the council, himself, should be paid a special responsibilities allowance (SRA). These allowances are given to support extra work undertaken by councillors with additional roles. He said that being paid the allowance was “a matter of complying with the constitution”. Other councillors, however, accused him of having a “total lack of respect” for TVBC and residents by asking for the payment. The motion proposed at a meeting of the full council on April 7 said that a SRA should be paid to the leader of the minority opposition group, and backdated to May 2019. Cllr Coole argued that by having three members, the Andover Independents Party is an opposition group on the council.
Apr 7, 2021
In a major boost for the local recycling sector, Coca-Cola in South Africa and BanQu have rolled out an innovative payment platform to financially empower informal waste reclaimers and buy-back centres.
“Waste reclaimers who collect waste packaging perform one of the toughest, yet most important jobs in the circular economy and up until now, they have remained mostly invisible and unbanked,” says David Drew, director of sustainability for Africa at Coca-Cola Africa. “This innovative block-chain based solution provides a platform to financially empower waste reclaimers and small buy-back centres across South Africa.”
More than 60 000 waste reclaimers in South Africa earn a living by collecting packaging waste, many of whom are unable to find work or formal employment. Much of what reclaimers collect is sold through small buy-back centres before ultimately reaching large recyclers.
Colin Currie Records NOW returned to Scotland and living in suburban Glasgow, star percussionist Colin Currie has used the recent hiatus in performance opportunities to start his own label. This release brings together two recordings made by the BBC, one in the BBC Phil’s Manchester home at the Bridgewater Hall with Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena, the other a world premiere at the 2015 Proms with Finn John Storgards on the podium. Heinz Karl Gruber is a composer who divides opinion. Also an orchestral double bassist, he has maintained a performing career as a baritone “chansonnier” (his preferred designation) after starting his musical life as a member of the Vienna Boys Choir in the 1950s. Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Peter Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a Mad King join his own Frankenstein!! in his theatrical repertoire, and that is far from irrelevant to the music of his works for percussion.