Did you know that since the first public experiment in France 1783, balloons have been heavily used for science and math research? Balloon-generated imagery falls from an elevation that is between satellite and aerial imagery - high resolutions at a fraction of the drone cost. Together with data modelling, maybe balloon imagery can help model insurance risks more closely for property, land, environment? The recent partnership between Arturo.ai and Nearspacelabs.com thinks this is at least one use case worth exploring. https://www.arturo.ai/the-skys-the-limit-why-arturo-continues-to-partner-with-new-and-novel-imagery-providers image credit: Cindy Lever, Pixabay

No-one wants an unstable electricity grid. With more renewables coming on-line every day, system strength and stability relies in part on effective management of inertia.Reactive Technologies have developed a data measurement & analytics tool which provides real-time tracking of grid inertia at a previously unavailable level of granularity and precision.This in turn supports more immediate, targeted and cheaper, system interventions to stabilise the grid.  https://www.reactive-technologies.com/grids/

The giant whirling machine in the Netherlands is a test model for a new series of giant offshore wind turbines planned by General

An award-winning Australian solar-powered “water battery” has been lauded as a success with the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) revealing the system generated more than 3 GWh of electricity in its first 12 months of operation. The thermal energy storage tank, located at USC’s main campus on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, is powered by a 2.1 MW solar PV system which produces enough energy to cool 4.5 megalitres of water, effectively acting as an 8 MW battery. The cooled water is stored and used for air conditioning, which is currently the single biggest user of electricity at the campus. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/12/30/water-battery-a-winner-for-australian-university/

 "We are young and free" in the Australian national anthem has been changed to "We are one and free”. This change removes a notion that has presented a challenge for many in uniting behind our national song. The change is small in nature but significant in purpose. It is an acknowledgment that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures date back 65,000 years. It is also an acknowledgement that people who have come across the seas, 250 years ago or more recently, are as much of this nation and our story as any other Australian. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/changing-the-national-anthem-is-real-reconciliation-20210101-p56r6v.html

“The Year 12 university entrance score system is far too narrow to measure student success accurately and is holding back our nation. Reducing a child’s whole education journey to a single metric has led our education system to become increasingly irrelevant. We would begin the task of educating our children by asking what society needs of our future adults. Beyond being literate and numerate, we need them to be problem solvers, creative thinkers, curious, compassionate, resilient, self-aware, emotionally intelligent, hopeful, open-minded, great communicators, and respectful to themselves and others.” James Gutteridge The Australian 1/1/2021