Bell Moore Group Inc. Review: Complexities and Convenience

Do you have any idea what living in an old village feels like? Living in a place where there’s no internet, entertainments and the local stores aren’t close from where you lived. Ask your grandparents then.

Most people nowadays don’t have the opportunity to experience what it feels like to live in villages where every home practically raise plants and animals for food to survive. Village houses back in time were commonly built of woods and stone with plants and trees around them and deep wells that served other neighbors as well. People tended their farms and sold them at the town market. Life back there is plain and simple and without the complexities of today’s world because they already had everything to survive the everyday living.

People that have never been to villages couldn’t get the real beauty of village lifestyle. Back in the days, things were done differently and some of those methods are still preferable today. Living in today’s modern world is much more convenient but full of complexities and struggles to make a living and survive because you can’t survive long without money. With the use of money, you don’t have to face basic life problems like food, water, shelter or even clothing. You can go out for a meal from time to time as there are so many restaurants that can fill your hunger. Moreover, you wouldn’t need to travel far just to get basic stuff from local amenities.

Although life today is much more complex, the majority of people still embraced the modern living as it provides ultimate expression of personal freedom and convenient living. Depending on where you grew up and what lifestyle you have, Bell Moore Group Inc will definitely help you in finding a place that will suit your needs and lifestyle. For many years we have been part of providing excellent quality service to tenants and buyers in the property operations sector. Whatever your lifestyle choice is, Bellmoore Group Inc review and understands your unique needs.

Cathay Dupont Award: Biofuels Digest’s Advanced Bioeconomy Awards for 2015

Project of the Year, Deal of the Year, Partnership of the Year, Chemical of the Year, and Cap Raise of the Year — who are the big winners?

Each year, the Digest recognizes projects, feedstocks, processing technology breakthroughs, novel or improved molecules, and bioeconomy pioneers in the Biofuels Digest Awards — selected by the Digest’s editoril board.

Since many projects, especially early-stage ventrues en route to steady-state operations and commercial scale, are occasionally veiled behind a wall of unfiled patents, trade secrets and NDA agreements — we make awards at cathay dupont award of the basis of publicly available information at the time, and recognize technologies and organizations that have made the most impact on the marketplace at the time.

Projects of the Year: Cellulosic Biofuels at scale (GranBio, Abengoa Bioenergy, POET-DSM, Raizen)

Without a doubt, the advanced bioeconomy story of the year in the past 12 months has been the long-awaited commercial-scale debut of cellulosic biofuels — today, a half-dozen companies have reached commercial scale and more than 100 million gallons in renewable fuels capacity is in place.

The four projects we have selected to honor this year were not the first out — Iogen and Beta Renewables took those honors; Enerkem (honored last year) is also now at commercial scale, Dupont’s first commercial is imminent, and and we expect several more technologies such as Inbicon, Fulcrum Clariant to reach scale before long — and there are others such as Mercurius, VIrent, RedRock, Mascoma technology and many others that we exoect before the end of the decade.

The parade of plant grand openings was impressive all year: POET-DSM and GranBio in September, Abengoa in October, and Raizen (using Iogen technology) in December. And we expect that the momentum will continue with an opening by DuPont in the first half of the year.

Deal of the Year: REG (Dynamic Fuels, Syntroleum)

Renewable Energy Group announced in June that its wholly-owned subsidiary, REG Synthetic Fuels, LLC, has closed its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Syntroleum Corporation. Syntroleum pioneered renewable diesel fuel and Fischer-Tropsch gas-to-liquids technologies and built a large IP portfolio, including 186 patents issued or pending, which REG will now own. The assets acquired from Syntroleum include a 50% ownership interest in Dynamic Fuels, which owns a 75 million gallon per year nameplate capacity renewable diesel biorefinery located in Geismar, Louisiana. REG has a separate pending agreement with Tyson Foods to acquire the remaining interests in Dynamic Fuels.

In May 2014, Renewable Energy Group reached an agreement with Tyson Foods, Inc. to acquire Tyson’s 50% ownership position in Dynamic Fuels. Completion of the transaction with Tyson Foods, which was contingent upon the closing of REG’s December 2013 announced agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Syntroleum Corporation , will give REG full ownership of Dynamic Fuels and its 75-million gallon per year nameplate capacity renewable diesel biorefinery in Geismar, Louisiana. Tyson and Syntroleum formed Dynamic Fuels in 2007 as a 50/50 joint venture. The Geismar facility, completed in 2010, was the first large scale renewable diesel biorefinery built in the U.S.Partnership of the Year: Navy, Fulcrum Bioenergy, Cathay Pacific

The Navy Deal? the Department of Defense awarded $210 million under the Defense Production Act to Emerald Biofuels, Fulcrum BioEnergy and Red Rock Bio towards the construction of biorefineries that produce cost-competitive, drop-in military biofuels.

Fulcrum is, among the three awardees, the best-known, and is proceeding toward closing $175 million in financing to fund construction of its first municipal solid waste to low-carbon fuels plant, the Sierra BioFuels Plant and to fund the development of future projects. The project is expected to be completed in 2015. $105 million of the $175 million is the USDA loan guarantee, which the company secured in a conditional commitment in August 2012 and was definitively awarded last week.

Cathay? The company had already contracted with Cathay Pacific Airways to supply 375 million gallons of fuel over 10 years, accounting for about 2 percent of the airline’s fuel usage. The USDA expects the Nevada facility to produce 11 million gallons of renewable fuel each year. Plant construction is estimated to cost $266 million; the USDA’s loan will cover 40% of that.

In spring 2013, Fulcrum successfully demonstrated the conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW) into jet and diesel fuels.

Under the grants, the companies will build biorefineries to produce military spec fuel that is expected to cost the US military, on a weighted average, less than $3.50 per gallon — or cost competitive with petroleum-based fuels, with availability expected as soon as 2016, and have a 50 percent of greater reduction of emissions compared to conventional fuels. The biorefineries, once complete, will have a combined capacity for producing 100 million gallons of military-spec jet fuel and marine diesel.

Process of the Year: Honeywell’s UOP Green Fuels Technology

There are plenty of skeptics about the economics of green jet fuel for commercial aviation with the technology of today — but no one disagrees that this UOP technology works, and works great, reliably, repeatedly and at scale — and that’s what we are recognizing with this process award.

UOP has been continuing to deploy Honeywell Green Fuel in a series of commercial announcements. Most recently, UOP technology was linked to an 80 million gallon project that is at the heart of the US Navy’s advances into biofuels. Not to mention a pair of large scale (120-130 mgy) renewable diesel projects in the US, and an absolutely massive 300 million gallon project for  Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

Renewable chemical of the year — bio-succinic acid (BioAmber, Reverdia)

While several molecules have been in the newsflow this year, succinic acid “went ballstic” we wrote in July 2014 when BioAmber has signed a 210,000 ton per year take-or-pay contract for bio-based succinic acid with Vinmar International. Under the terms of the 15-year agreement, Vinmar has committed to purchase and BioAmber Sarnia has committed to sell 10,000 tons of succinic acid per year from the 30,000 ton per year capacity plant that is currently under construction in Sarnia, Canada.

As part of the new succinic acid master off-take agreement, this second plant will be expanded to an annual capacity of 100,000 tons of bio-BDO and 70,000 tons of bio-succinic acid.  Vinmar plans to make a 10% or greater equity investment in the expanded plant and has committed to off-take and BioAmber has committed to sell a minimum of 50,000 tons per year of bio-succinic acid for 15 years following the plant’s start-up date.  Vinmar also has the option to secure additional bio-succinic acid tonnage under the take-or-pay contract if BioAmber has not committed the remaining volume at the time the plant’s financing is secured.

Let’s not forget also that Reverdia, which reached commercial scale in 2012 and currently has a production capacity of about 10,000 tonnes per year of Biosuccinium at their Cassano, Italy plant, is now licensing its Biosuccinium succinic acid, a building block for the production of polymers and chemicals including PBS, resins for paints and coatings, phthalate-free plasticizers and polyester polyols for polyurethanes. The acid was the first non-fossil feedstock-derived chemical building block that allows customers in the chemical industry to choose a bio-based alternative with a lower eco-footprint for a broad range of applications, from packaging to footwear.

Cap Raise of the Year: LanzaTech

With the news in December 2014 that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund had made a US$60 million equity investment in LanzaTech— the company raised nearly double its original target of $60-$80 million with a total of $120 million to date.

Last March, the round had a first close of $60 million led by Mitsui & Co. with a $20M investment. In all, the round to date includes new investors NZ Super Trust, Mitsui, Siemens via its Venture Capital unit, CICC Growth Capital Fund I and existing investors: Khosla Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners, K1W1 and the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund. Existing investors Soft Bank Capital, PETRONAS Technology Ventures, and Dialog Group were not among the announced investors so far in this round.

The Series D funds, rather, will be used to extend LanzaTech’s core gas fermentation platform and further develop LanzaTech’s product portfolio. To date, products include fuels such as ethanol or jet fuel and commodity chemicals such as butadiene used in nylon production or propylene used in plastics manufacture.

Proceeds from this round not be used towards the first commercial plant, which is now slated to be operational in 2016. That first commercial facility is fully financed by BaoSteel, one of the largest steel manufacturers in China, and will use steel mill off gases to produce fuels and chemicals. The LanzaTech-Baosteel New Energy Joint Venture will operate the plant and it will produce ethanol and 2,3 Butanediol (BDO) at an annualized capacity of 20,000 tpa (10-12 millions gallons per year). A planned second commercial with Shougang is targeted to produce 25 million gallons of fuel per year. 

Careconnect Health Insurance Group: 5 Steps to Better Health You Shouldn't Skip

Yesterday’s celebration of Mother’s Day kicked off National Women’s Health Week, an annual reminder for all women -- moms, daughters, sisters, girlfriends, wives -- to make their health a priority. This is something all of us should be thinking about year-round, of course, but a refresher is never a bad idea.

So listen up, ladies: Even if you exercise and eat right, you may still be skipping some of the most important steps to good long-term health. Here, Stacey Rosen, MD, vice president of women’s health at Northwell Health’s Katz Institute for Women's Health, shares the top five things she wishes more women did.

Stop skimping on sleep.

Too often, women trying to “have it all” forgo shuteye in order to squeeze more into their days. But adults need six to eight hours of sleep a night; getting less than that can contribute to both short- and long-term health problems, from trouble with memory to weight gain. “Bragging about how little sleep you need has become a badge of courage for women in our culture,” says Rosen. “The truth is, your wellness is dependent on getting the right amount.”

Find a doctor you trust.

“Women are so particular about finding the right child care and hairdressers and all kinds of other services, but too often they don’t feel empowered to identify a doctor who really becomes a partner in their health,” says Rosen. That’s concerning, she adds, because if you don’t feel comfortable with your doctor you may be less likely to ask questions, bring up symptoms that worry you or stay up-to-date on check-ups and routine medical screenings.

Know your heart disease risk factors.

Heart disease is the number-one killer of women, yet many people still consider it a man’s problem. “It’s never too early or too late to find out your risk factors,” says Rosen. That includes knowing your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers; your doctor can recommend how often you should be tested.

Add strength training to your workouts.

“Women have a tendency to love aerobic activity and be less comfortable lifting weights or doing resistance exercises,” says Rosen. But adding strength training to your routine at least twice a week is important: Among other benefits, it can protect against muscle and bone loss that can occur as women get older. It’s easier than you think to get started. You don’t need dumbbells or a gym membership -- you can get a great workout using your own body weight or small props, like soup cans or bottles of water.

Schedule time for yourself.

“Stress relief and social support are vital to women’s health,” Dr. Rosen says, “but they’re often the first things we drop when we get busy.” That’s especially true for women who are raising children, caring for aging parents, juggling a career and personal life, or all of the above. Rosen makes sure her patients regularly set aside time for things that make them happy, whether it’s pursuing a hobby or laughing with girlfriends. In other words, consider this a reminder to schedule a walk with friends or a girl’s night out … doctor’s orders!

Eastern Alliance Insurance Group Review: Workers Compensation Insurance

As a workers' compensation specialist, EAIG offers you and your clients expertise and stability in the workers’ compensation market place. As an industry leader, EAIG partners with you to provide a full range of products and services tailored to meet your clients’ needs, including:

Traditional market insurance products:

·         Guaranteed Cost Program

·         Loss-Sensitive Dividend Plans

·         Large Deductible Plans

·         Retrospective Rating Plans

Alternative market programs

ParallelPay, EAIG's premium payroll deduction program

Workers' compensation claims get bigger, more complex, and more expensive with time. EAIG's superior risk management and claim management services will help your clients to prevent and manage losses, increase employee productivity, and keep claim costs down.

Online Fraud Detection: Happy New Year! The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is The Lack Of Fear Itself

Every post you make, every breath you take, every search you make, they’ll be watching you. Every bit of information you have ever entered anywhere online is stored, collated and held. For the most part, we give this data over without even thinking about the consequences, assuming it is safe.

If you think you are protected, if you think you have taken every step to keep your data safe, if you think, just because you take all precautions possible, you cannot be attacked, you are wrong. In truth, unless you have somehow managed to have no data online (which if you are reading this would be next to impossible), youare at risk, you are exposed. As the former FBI Director Robert Mueller said in 2012 “There are only two types of companies: those who have been hacked, and those that will be.”

The internet has often been likened to the old American Wild West, with very few rules governing what goes on. However, in recent years this has begun to change. As technology has progressed, governments and corporations are slowly giving structure to the internet. A reappraisal of the modern online landscape shows it is clearly no longer bandit country but one governed by major forces be they nation states or powerful corporations. Much like the world itself. And like the world, it has a dark underbelly of thieves and criminals. However, unlike in the real world, where we have a system of law and order and locks to keep us safe, online we are completely exposed.

In 2010 a website called pleaserobme.com launched to brutally demonstrate the security flaws in social media. This website used publically available information on people’s locations, taken from Facebook, Twitter and other social media with geotagging to highlight when people were not at home. For example, if you lived in London but had recently announced your arrival at JFK Airport with all the family, chances are your house was empty and much easy to rob. The controversial site showed this with shocking results.

Now seven years on, the issue has not improved. Data is still easily available and not only could it expose your house to being robbed but your entire life could be stolen. There are countless examples of people losing nearly everything from online fraud, or from having their data accessed.

This level of risk exposure goes way beyond tech issues, though those do exist: it strikes at the very heart of how we live now so much of our lives are online.

Imagine waking up one day to realise your front door cannot be locked, there is a hole in your wall, the roof of your house is missing and it’s all your fault. Feel safe? I think not. The blunt truth is our online lives are as exposed as our physical one and we are living in houses with no doors. For the past few years we have been living through an age of wishful thinking, believing that we are safe or that cyber security problems are small and will be solved, and it will all work out in the end.

This wishful thinking comes down to an organisational mindset across governments and companies the world over, that treats technology as just another commodity. People are assuming that tech can be treated like everything else, what we ‘do’. The reality is that it is at the core of entire lives. It is what we are.

Until we achieve a shift in mindset that recognises this fact, and leads the world to act accordingly, the issue of cyber security exposure will never really be solved. As we make our way into 2017 we have not even started to approach the concept of being safe online. Our companies, our lives and our governments are exposed to terrifying risk, and ultimately it is all our own fault. By failing to adapt our awareness, change our assumptions and shift our thinking to the new world order we have left ourselves open to attack.

Only with such a shift can the problem of cyber security really be tackled. It is not a matter of resources, as Richard Bejtlich, Chief Security Strategist at cybersec company FireEye, once outlined; for $1 million a team could be assembled to hack any target. But $1 million wouldn’t be nearly enough for a company to protect against attack.

To reiterate, technology is such an integral part of our lives that the assumption it can be treated as an added extra, or something to bolt on, rather than at the very core has left us completely open to a catastrophe. This may never happen, but the clear and present danger will always be with us until our collective mindset changes.

Even if we are never the victims, the threat is always there. Even if we take all possible precautions, others will leave us open to attack. To quote the late, great Joseph Heller: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” In 2017, I hope we realise they are after us and take the actions needed to become safe.

GAC Group: Innovation News

GAC Group is an international consulting firm with expertise in R&D tax credits, innovation financing and international development.

You will find out below some information about opportunities to improve your access to public funding in Singapore, and a few tips to help you finance your innovation.

We wish you a pleasant reading!

PIC SCHEME

Enhanced tax deduction: it is time to prepare your claims!

Businesses claiming PIC enhanced tax deductions in their Income Tax Return will have until the end of November 2015 to submit their declaration via paper filing of Form C or C-S. Eligible businesses filling a Form C-S online will benefit from an extension of time until mid-December 2015. With less than one month left, get in touch with us and let us help you maximize and secure your PIC enhanced tax deductions now!

New online claim process for Cash Payout

To reduce processing time, IRAS has launched the PIC cash payout e-Services which allows applicants to e-file, check the status and view the notices of their PIC Cash Payout applications. It automates the processing of those applications (IRAS Annual Report 2014-2015).

PUBLIC FUNDING IN SINGAPORE

Capability Development Grant

The Capability Development Grant (CDG) from SPRING Singapore is a financial assistance programme that helps local SMEs develop capabilities across 10 development areas, ranging from:

• Brand & Marketing strategy Development,

• Business Excellence,

• Business Strategy Innovation,

• Enhancing Quality & Standards,

• Financial Management,

• Human Capital Development,

• Intellectual Property & franchising,

• Productivity & Improvement,

• Service Excellence, and

• Technology Innovation.

The grant defrays up to 70% of qualifying project costs such as consultancy, training, certification and equipment costs. It would allow companies to take on large scale upgrading projects in areas like increasing productivity, process improvement, product development and market access.

GAC EXPERTISE

Technical teams salaries claims

We have recently claimed several CMS and system projects for HR, Stock and Client data management within technology-oriented companies. We can assist you to claim in-house salaries and/or outsourced technical projects (in Singapore or abroad) related to the management of such data and a range of other IT developments you may carry out for the purpose of your business.

Internal trainings claims

Most of the taxpayers are claiming external trainings as it is straightforward and based on invoices. Do you know that you can also claim internal trainings?

When you have an in-house employee training other employees of your company, you are entitled to claim the salaries of the trainer for the time spent on delivering the training. There is a cap at 10,000 SGD if the trainer has no certification with WDA or ITE. GAC Group can work with you to prepare those claims in line with IRAS rules and regulations.

GLOBAL NEWS AND EVENTS

PIC Talk during the French-Singapore Innovation Days

GAC Group will give a talk about the PIC Scheme during the 6th French-Singapore Innovation Days from 11th to 13th November 2015. This 6th edition of the FSID will focus on 3 main topics: Internet Of Things (IOT), Machine to Machine (M2M) and Robotic.

Competitiveness and Innovation rankings

The recent Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 by the World Economic Forum is a comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide. Competitiveness, defined as the set of institutions, polices and factors that determine the overall productivity of a country are captured in 12 aspects which compose the Global Competiveness Index. Singapore is the 2nd most competitive economy in the world just after Switzerland.