German competition

 

The French government has signalled that it is dropping a plan for a tax on domestic carbon dioxide emissions.

Jean-Francois Cope, parliamentary leader of the governing UMP party, was quoted as saying the tax "would be Europe-wide or not (exist) at all".

Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament that the government should focus on policies that increased France's economic competitiveness.

France had been rethinking the tax after a court rejected it last year .

The Constitutional Council said there were too many exemptions for polluters in the tax plan, and that a minority of consumers would bear the burden.

But President Nicolas Sarkozy's government had still been planning to push through a revised version of the measure later this year.


Had the plan been approved, France would have been the largest country to impose a carbon tax as part of efforts to tackle climate change.

"We have to amplify measures that help reinforce the competitiveness of our economy," Mr Fillon was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"In that spirit, I would like to indicate that the decisions we are going to take regarding sustainable development have to be better coordinated with all European countries, so as not to widen our gap in competitiveness with our neighbour Germany ."

Environmental agencies expressed dismay on Tuesday, while the head of the French business federation Medef expressed relief.

The European Commission said earlier this month that it was planning an EU-wide minimum tax on carbon as part of the EU's green energy agenda - though the UK opposes such a move .

The Mira Prism is a strange product

The Mira Prism is a strange product, intended to fill a gap that may or may not actually exist: the mid-tier AR market. The brand new startup is positioning the headset as the Gear VR or Google Daydream of augmented reality. It’s a fair comparison, as far as cost and utility are concerned — the $99 headset doesn’t feature any on-board electronics. It’s more or an optical visor, really. Users slide an iPhone into the headset and see its display reflected into their line of sight The Mira Prism is a strange product, while the phone’s front-facing camera takes care of some limited positional tracking.
The headset looks like a more stylized version of those magnifying glass headset jewelers wear when working with small parts — and early iterations were built from 3D printed plastic and repurposed goldfish bowls. The concept was compelling enough to spark the interest of a number of notable investors, ranging from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to serial entrepreneur and sometimes music guy, will.i.am.
Earlier this year, in fact, the company closed a $1.5 million seed round led by Sequoia, which it’s using to bring the hardware to market and help develop some software that will be available when it launches to consumer before the holidays.
It’s easy enough to figure out why investors have jumped on board. Augmented reality has arguably been an even bigger industry buzz term than virtual reality since the stratospheric ascent of Pokemon Go. Meanwhile, companies like Apple have expressed cautious skepticism about VR all while embracing AR with open arms. After all, the technology is much more accessible in terms of every day use — you can enjoy the advantages of AR out in the world without the need for a dedicated headset.
The Prism promises a much more accessible price point than most of the AR headsets on the market. During our meeting with the company, co-founders Ben Taft and Matt Stern (the CEO and COO) namecheck Microsoft’s Hololens and the DAQRI Helmet, which carry price tags of $3,000 and $15,000, respectively. Of course, comparing those technologies to the Prism, is like pitting Google Cardboard against one of those IMAX-approved StarVR headsets — it’s just a different beast altogether.
While the pricing certainly qualifies the Prism as a consumer device, its actual usefulness depends largely on the sort of content the company and its partners are able to create for it. We got a demo of a Pac-Man and Space Invaders knockoff game with killer donut holes, which the company admitted was not the most compelling piece of software, having been developed in-house. Building up a healthy library of content will be Mira’s biggest challenge, especially given its unique format which ignores the SLAM tech that gives AR its environmental awareness, a risky choice for an emerging platform in the space Veda Salon.
It’s still a fairly solid AR experience for $99 — with 360-degree gameplay that’s overlaid on the real world. The Prism also links up with nearby headsets for multiplayer gaming, and Stern placed a small circular tracking marker mat on the table that serves as a maze for the Pac-Man-like game play.
But the product still has some hard questions to answer. For starters, can it really provide that much more compelling an experience than AR on a phone — or, for that matter, a similarly priced VR headset? After all, one of AR’s big selling points is the fact that the technology isn’t as isolating or constraining as VR. You can take it out into the world and still have full view of your surroundings.
The Prism, on the other hand, is too bulky and awkward to attempt to wear outside, as the company readily admits. “We’re definitely not encouraging people to walk around with it,” Stern said doing our conversation. So, much like a VR headset, you’re going to be stuck inside with the thing. Mira is working toward something smaller and more subtle that wearers can take out into the world, undetected — or at least minimally so, inline with what Snapchat offers with the Spectacles.
But that’s probably a couple of generations off &mdash Veda Salon; so hopefully investors are in this for the long haul. In the meantime, the company has its work cut out for it creating and helping port AR experiences compelling enough to convince consumers to go inside and pop on a $99 headset.

Watch iReport of campus protest

The University of California San Diego has suspended a student who admitted to hanging a noose in a campus library, school officials announced Friday.

 

"We are feeling real pain, and we will take real action," said UCSD chancellor Marye Anne Fox told reporters. "The safety of our students, faculty, and staff is my primary concern."

 

The student, whose identity was not released, admitted Friday to police at the University of California San Diego that Server Hosting she hung a noose Thursday night in the library, police said.

 

"Detectives have interviewed the student and taken a statement," UCSD police said in a release. "The investigation is ongoing as we continue to identify and interview witnesses."

 

After Thursday's discovery, hundreds of people joined a campus rally to oppose racial intolerance. "It's OK to feel hurt and angry about this," said one participant. "We've been silent for too long."


 

One student said she feared for her safety.

 

The student's admission came the day after police were alerted to the presence of the noose in a library bookcase at the school. Fox said the admission was a result of "pressure from our UC San Diego community."

 

"This underscores the fact that our university is banding together," she said.

 

In a crime alert bulletin, police said they received several reports Thursday around 10:30 p.m. of the noose on the seventh floor of the Geisel Library. It was found hanging in an aisle facing windows.

 

"Officers spoke with people who were in the area, but no one witnessed the noose being placed on the bookcase," police said in a campus notice.

 

Hanging a noose with intent to terrorize is a crime, it noted.

 

On Friday, the school announced several measures it was taking in response to recommendations from its Black Student Union. They include the establishment of a task force on minority faculty recruitment, a new commission to addressing declining African-American enrollment and finding space for an African-American resource center.

 

"I want to emphasize these are the initial steps, and I realize we have a lot of work ahead of us," Fox said.

 

The noose incident occurred two weeks after Black History Month was mocked in an off-campus party that was condemned by the school.

 

It's unclear how long the student is suspended for.