Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Nov 18, 2019

choi

(1) Siddharth Philip, Why 007 May Need an SUV?

the first 2 3/4 paragraphs:

"A year ago it looked like investors and supercar fans who'd missed out on Ferrari NV's blockbuster initial public offering in 2015 might get a second chance with Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc. There was the rich British motoring heritage, aggressive performance, and Aston's movie star allure as James Bond's vehicle of choice. So what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, pretty much everything.

"Once coveted Vantage, DBX, and DB11 Volante cars are piling up at dealerships. Aston's shares have lost more than three-fourths of their value since the IPO. -- the worst performance among the UK's 350 biggest companies this year -- an dmanagement hsas been raised more funds to stabilize the business. 'We'e not happy with the way the uear has gone,' saus the Chief Executive Officer Andy Palmer.  

"Now all hopes to pull Aston out of its rust rests on a new model: the DBX, a sport utility vehicle that will go on sale in December. With a starting price pf $189.900, it joined a crowded field of high-end SUVs that includes the pricier Lamborghini Urus, cheaper Bentley Bentayga, and the $325,000 plus Rolls-Royce Cullinan. * * *

My comment:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Aston Martin, Once James Bond's favored ride, has skidded since going public last year.
(b) There is no need to read the rest..

(2) Sheridan Prasso, Huawei Says It makes Cities Safer. Not So Fast.
("Islamabad's Emergency Command Center, located in a blast-resistant building on a highway outside Pakistan's capital, has a video wall with 72 screens for 1,950 surveillance cameras. Completed in 2016 at a cost of about $100 millin, it's the nexus for one of Huawei Technologies Co's global network of Safe City 平安城市 Projects. Yet murders, kidnappings, and burglars in Islamabad all rose in 2018 from the previous year, and total crime was up 33%, according to data from Pakistan's National Police Bureau. That may have something to do with half teh cameras being out of order, according to a legislative committee. But the same pattern of rising crime holds true in the rest of country, where eight cities have contracted with the Chinese company for similar digital-policing technology. * * * A report on the Safe City initiative published earlier this month by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC research organization, found a big gap between what Huawei says in its marketing and promotional materials and the reality on the ground. While Huawei's website says the technology is deployed in 230 cities in 90 countries, CSIS was able to verify only 73 locales om 52 countries. The company's statements about improved public safety also appear overly rosy")

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: A report suggests the company's surveillance networks aren't as effective, or widespread, as it claims
(b) There is no need to read the rest.

(3) David Verbeek, A German Family Business Embraces Rocket science.
("Since 1957, when the Soviets sent the first-ever satellite, Sputnik, into space, the orbit around Earth has become populated with thousands of artificial objects. About 450 were launched last year, four times as many as a decade earlier, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and that number is poised to cllimb rapidly with a surge of broadband data transmission. * * * At about $6.2 billion in annual revenue, the satellite launch industry is less than a third the size of the satellite manufacturing market, but it's growing faster, up 34% last year, according to the Satellite Industry Association")

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Satellite maker OHB says building a launcher is the key to growth
(b) There is no need to read the rest, mainly because the German concern, OHB, may not succeed.

(4) Adam Minter, Riches from Rags; Before there was recycling, there was the rag trade. (second of the 3 feature stories)
("Few consumers , anywhere, have heard of the wiping ag industry. * * * Approximately 30% of the textiles recovered for recycling in the US are converted to wiping rags, according to Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (Smart), a trade association. And that's probably an undercount. The 45% pf recycled textiles that are reused as apparel eventually wear out, too. When they do, they're also bound for the wiping-rad companies. Nobody counts the number of wiping rags manufactured in the United States and elsewhere every year. But anyone who knows the industry acknowledges that the numbers are in the many billions -- and growing" -- used in oil and gas industry, hotels, bars and restaurants, painters etc)

Note: There is no need to read the rest.

(5) Matthew Campell and Lyu Dong, Better Living Through Genomics. China's BGI wants your genes to guide your medical care, your diet, and maybe your choice of spouse. (third of the 3 feature stories)
("At the ShenZhen headquarters of the Chinese genetice company BGI Group 华大基因（原名北京华大基因研究中心 The Beijing Genomics Institute) * * * BGI's co-founder, chairman and animating force, 65-year-old geneticist Wang Jian 汪建 * * * Whole genome sequencing, the technology that drives BGI's business , is no longer particularly new. * * * Like many science-minded entrepreneurs of his generation, Wang got his start in public funded research. BGI began life in 1999 as Beijing Genome Institute, a state-backed lab dedicated to assisting the Human Genome Project (HGP) [1990-2003; an international project led by US] -- the Clinton-era effort to assemble the first-ever comprehensive picture of human DNA")

Quotation at the window of print: "One of our dreams is that everyone has an ID card with their genome."

My comment: There is no need to read the rest. The article in part mentions Wang's dreams about genomic research, which is a pipe dream at present.