EXTRA! EXTRA! The Brits are going after litterers in a whole new way Littering is apparently a £850 million (which equals $1,146,225,000 in US dollars) problem in jolly ol’ England, according to a January 12 MSN story. However, not one to sit on its britches, a British tech company called Littercam “has developed a technology that uses AI and computer vision to detect littering and match it with the offender’s license plate. Cameras can be mounted on lampposts or plugged into existing CCTV cameras. The software is in its first six months, but it’s already being trialed in Kent, Central London, Essex, Scotland, and The Netherlands.” According to the story, the UK spends about £850 million cleaning it up from the streets. The Littercam algorithm is trained to detect the 10 most common litter types, including cigarette butts, cups, and fast-food packaging. When the computer catches a litterbug in the act, it registers the offense and matches it with the license plate. (The algorithm can also be used to detect graffiti and waste on the side of the road.) Current software does not offer facial recognition, and the data can only be accessed by authorized law enforcement agents. The car’s information will be then sent to the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and each incident will be reviewed. Littercam will then issue a penalty notice to the car’s registered owner, featuring snapshots of the license plate and the littering offense. The maximum penalty is £150, which equals about $200 US dollars. “Fundamentally, it’s about behavior change,” said Andrew Kemp, Founder of Littercam, “but more broadly, we’re a technology company that wants to take on challenging data science problems to deliver the technology of the future, particularly from an environmental perspective.” At-home car washing banned (sort of) in California According to a January 4 Associated Press story, Californians will face mandatory restrictions governing their outdoor water use as the state endures another drought and voluntary conservation efforts have fallen short. The rules adopted January 4 by the State Water Resources Control Board come after Californians failed to meet Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call for a voluntary 15% reduction in water use compared to 2020. Between the months of July and November, water usage was down by just 6%. State climatologist Michael Anderson also warned that forecasts show January, February and March could be drier than average. Despite a rainier-than-normal December, “significant parts of the state’s water system are still under stress from the extremely dry conditions earlier in 2021 that dropped many of California’s largest reservoirs to record and near-record lows,” the story said. Eric Oppenheimer, chief deputy director for the state water board, said in the story, “We need to be prepared for continued drought.” Among the water uses restricted under the new rules: Outdoor watering that results in excessive runoff into the street and sidewalks; washing cars with hoses lacking shut-off nozzles; using potable water to wash driveways, sidewalks, buildings and patios and for street cleaning or to fill decorative fountains or lakes. According to the story, much of the Western United States is experiencing a drought, but only California has adopted statewide restrictions on residential water usage. This isn’t the first time Californians have been put under water restriction laws. The state enacted similar restrictions during the five-year drought which ended in 2017. Some cities and local water districts even made them permanent. The state has also set up a website where individuals can turn in their neighbors who might be violating the rules. “During California’s last drought, people engaged in so-called “ drought shaming “, the process of publicly outing people who are wasting water by posting videos to social media,” the story said. 20 • FALL 2021 Don’t drive with a dirty window in Spain! If anyone is looking for a major change in scenery, consider opening a car wash in Spain! Why? Because car washes are becoming an important part of a driver’s life. According to a January 4 Sur story, drivers can be fined up to 3,000 euros for not keeping the windows of their cars clean from dirt, ice and snow. “According to the country’s traffic rules, vehicle windows need to be kept clean along with headlights and license plates. Under safety laws, the police can impound a car if it has ‘deficiencies that constitute a particularly serious risk to vital safety,’” the story said. According to Owner and Founder of Grupo Moure and Elefante Azul, “Car washes are an essential activity for any driver. …Today a good carwash center is equipped with highly efficient technology and a computer that manages the different phases of the process leaving an impeccable final result. Washing a vehicle is more than just mixing water with soap and rinsing,” Where or where did all the PPP money go? An in-depth report by Jim Probasco of Investopedia dug deep into the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and where and to whom the funds were dispersed. The January 23 story, outlined the PPP, which was enacted as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), and provided small businesses with approximately $800 billion in low-interest uncollateralized loans from April 3, 2020, through May 31, 2021. According to research and analysis conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the program “preserved 2 to 3 million job-years of employment at a cost of $170,000 to $257,000 per retained job-year (a job-year is defined as one job for one year.) “Almost all PPP loans are expected to be forgiven with 94% of eligible small businesses in the U.S. receiving one or more loans under the program. Roughly 25% of PPP loan funds went directly to workers who would have lost their jobs. The rest (75%) went to business owners, shareholders, creditors, and suppliers of companies receiving loans,” the story said. Also of note, according to the story: • NBER analysis of PPP found that 75% of PPP funds went to business owners, shareholders, creditors, and suppliers and roughly 25% to workers who would have otherwise lost their jobs. • Marginal propensity to consume (MPC) (spend the money on consumption) for the top 75% of PPP recipients was 0.5, about half that of workers which was 1.0. • The high cost ($170K to $250K) per job saved was another unfavorable aspect of the program. • 94% of eligible small businesses that received assistance. • Most of the negative outcome is blamed on the untargeted nature of the program due to the lack of administrative capacity in the U.S. to administer a program of this type. • A percentage of PPP loan funds that went to businesses reinforced the company’s bottom line in the form of windfall profit. “What is less certain is the degree to which small employers would have shuttered their doors permanently versus on a temporary basis, the story questioned. The data, NBER said, offer stronger support for PPP helping small companies avoid temporary closure than for preventing them from shutting their doors forever.” It appears that 25% of PPP funds were paid to businesses that used the funds to pay retained and previously unemployed workers. The remaining 75% of funds, were given to creditors who would not have been paid yet also became beneficiaries. “Business owners could use loan proceeds to pay non-payroll expenses, including rent, utilities, and mortgage interest. Using the funds for these expenses made that part of the loan forgivable.” However, it was found that some percentage of PPP funds went to, “owners and shareholders of PPP-receiving firms as residual claimants in cases where businesses would have met some or all of their payroll and other financial obligations absent PPP (AKA, windfall profits),” according to NBER. In other words, according to the story, some businesses received the benefit of PPP funds but didn’t need some or all of those funds in order to stay open and solvent.
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