Tesla Goes Open Source, Ganfeng Lithium Goes for Vertical Integration

Last week, Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder Elon Musk took what could prove to be a revolutionary step in the electric vehicle (EV) race by scrapping the patents on Tesla vehicles. Musk said the move was in “the spirit of the open source movement.”
As Musk explained in a blog post on his company’s website, “Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal.” He sees the decision helping other companies by accelerating the timeline for EVs and other non-hydrocarbon vehicles to be mass marketed.
Currently, large automakers are either not producing electric or hybrid vehicles, or they are producing vehicles with limited range, according to Musk. Once the problem of limited range can be overcome, EVs will become more accessible.



Gigafactories for all
With batteries sitting at the epicenter of the EV design, it is no surprise that when Musk announced his plans to build a lithium-ion battery gigafactory, a spark was lit under the lithium market.
Put simply, if Musk’s ambitious battery plans were in action today, 17 percent of current lithium battery demand would go to Tesla alone. And, as battery demand is the primary driver of the lithium market, there could be some supply chain issues down the line. For junior resource companies in the lithium space, that is nothing but good news.
Manufacturing companies, on the other hand, need to start considering securing their own vertically integrated supply chains if they want a chance at staying relevant in the future.
One such company is Ganfeng Lithium, which last last week announced that it is acquiring a lithium battery company to build a vertically integrated supply chain.
According to a news release, Jiangxi Feng Li, also known as Ganfeng Lithium, “intends to acquire 400 million yuan in Shenzhen City, the U.S. worship Electronics Limited (hereinafter referred to as the United States thanks to e) 100% equity.”
Ganfeng will play 120 million yuan in cash and the remaining in shares at an issue price of 31.48 yuan per share.
The company “United States” was established in 2002, and is focused on research, development, manufacturing and sales of lithium-ion batteries, as well as other combinations of rechargeable batteries.
Ganfeng is already well on its way to being a vertically integrated specialty products company. Gangfeng holds a 17.5-percent stake in International Lithium (TSXV:ILC), a junior  lithium company, and an 8-percent participating interest in ILC’s Mariana lithium-potash brine project in Argentina. The Chinese company also owns 51 percent of Blackstairs Lithium in Ireland, of which ILC owns the remaining 49 percent.
With other companies, like LG Chem, also looking into battery plants, and Tesla’s patents now free to be enjoyed, it will be interesting to see how the landscape of the lithium market — and lithium batteries — will change.

Separation of powers

TWO Central American countries have just completed legislative elections, with very different results for their respective governments. In Belize, which went to the polls on March 7th, the fate of the prime minister depends on how many seats his party manages to win in the country's British-style parliament. El Salvador, which held elections on March 11th, has a set-up more typical of Latin America, in which the congress is elected independently of the president.

Mauricio Funes, El Salvador's president, must be glad that his country does not have the same system as Belize. His party, the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), won 31 of the 84 seats, five fewer than in the previous election. It is now a smaller force than the right-wing Arena party. Were El Salvador's a parliamentary system, Mr Funes would probably be out. As it stands, he has two more years before his non-renewable five-year term is up.

In Belize, the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) hung onto its majority, meaning that Dean Barrow, the prime minister, will stay in power. His position is slightly more precarious than before, however: the UDP now holds only a very slim majority, with 17 of the country's 31 seats (down from 19 25). The People's United Party holds the rest. Squabbles among its leadership in the run-up to the election may have prevented it from performing better. Indeed, the party's current internal disarray was probably one reason that Mr Barrow chose to call the election when he did. (Another feature that separates Belize from most other Latin American countries is that the prime minister can call elections when he wants.)

The decoupling of the executive from the legislature suits some politicians better than others. Parliamentary systems can produce leaders who rise to power more through party ties than mass appeal to voters (think of Gordon Brown). Conversely, a Washington-style separation of powers can lead to the election of people who would not have made it through the party system. Mr Funes is an example of this: he is more centrist than most in the FMLN, which began as a guerrilla movement during the country's civil war, and as a result is not popular with the party's left-wing base. Leaked cables from the American embassy showed that in 2009, Mr Funes's aides suspected that the presidential palace was being bugged by party colleagues who had control of the intelligence service.

Fortunately for Mr Funes, his position does not depend on the confidence of his colleagues, as Mr Barrow's does. Indeed, the FMLN's nosediving popularity does not seem to have affected that of Mr Funes, who maintains an approval rating of 65%, one of the highest in Latin America. But it will make his final two years in government more difficult. As the head of a weakened party, which in many cases disagrees with him, El Salvador's president will have to build bridges with the opposition to avoid paralysis.

Belize Politics Go International

Original Article
Rarely does political drama play out on an international stage, and it is usually relegated to
small, local elections that only the residents of some small town or city would be interested in.
Recently Las Vegas and one of it's residents has been thrust into the international spotlight
through the internet and social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and various blogs. Lord Neil
B Gibson, the Las Vegas based businessman, developer and international finance figure has
rocketed into the fiery discussions that are taking place in the country of Belize, specifically
regarding an election for the position of Standard Bearer in the Cayo South Constituency Area.
Social media, news outlets and radio have been awash with discussion regarding the election of
businessman Ralph Huang to this position, and conspiracy theories abound as to the
connection he has to Lord Neil B Gibson. Accusations of corruption have already been made
only days after the election from the opposing party, and a large-scale smear campaign has
begun to play out on the global stage with regards to Mr. Huang, Mr. Gibson and the future of
Belizian governmental positions.
Interesting spins on the situation are being presented through such media outlets as Channel 5
Belize, 7 News Belize and the associated Youtube Channels of each station. Many local blogs
have also taken to the internet in an attempt to drum up the suspects of corruption with regards
to the relationships that Lord Neil B Gibson has with both Huang and other Belizian
governmental officials. The majority of the coverage centers around the fact that Mr. Huang has
admitted that Gibson both contributed to his campaign and also supported his election. The
coverage being presented is amaturish at best in it's attempts to stir up controversy, as the
press releases, posts and announcements that can be found both on the official business
websites of Neil Gibson as well as his business websites and social media have never
attempted to make even the slightest hiding of his contributions and support. Gibson went as far
as to create professional videos distributed on Youtube endorsing Huang and touching on the
reasons he believes Huang was right for the job. Gibson has also shown a long track record of
complete transparency with regard to his interest in Belizian development projects, going as far
as to publicly promote the ongoing developments attached to each potential project in Belize on
his network or websites and press.
The levels of transparency with regard to Lord Neil B Gibson's interests in Belize are far beyond
those typically put forth by any business entity. A quick perusal of the news sections of his
websites show postings regarding Belizian development interests, with postings on the subject
going back to October of 2013. Additionally, completely transparent postings on the subject of
endorsements and campaign contributions go back to early January as seen here: http://
www.lordneilgibson.com/lnbg-llc-endorses-huang/
All of the websites and Youtube videos across Gibson's network openly discuss the subject of
his endorsement of Huang, and never is their relationship attempted to be covered up in any
regard. So the question of corruption should be addressed, except possibly it should be directed
at other entities aside from Lord Neil Gibson and Ralph Huang. Possibly we should be looking
into why media outlets and bloggers in Belize are so aggressively attempting to make the
relationship between two businessmen into an issue, when the entire situation played out on the
world stage through the internet in a completely documented manner. If there were any issue
that should be covered up involving Lord Neil Gibson and Belizian governmental officials, then
why would they be posing for pictures together that are widely distributed on the internet? If
there were cover-ups happening, then why is the credited sources of all of the photographs that
are being distributed in association to the "scandal" stories of Gibson posing with Belizian
politicians being taken directly from Gibson's websites? If there was a cover-up happening,
wouldn't the transparency of the relationships actually be covered up by the parties involved?
Corruption happens in government all the time, and Belize is no stranger to it. Corruption is bad
for all people who are touched by it, and should be exposed at all costs. However, the definition
of corruption is not about a business man contributing to another business man's campaign to
run for office, and the fact that one business man lives in Las Vegas and the other in Belize is
also not part of the definition. Corruption is about a lack of transparency as to the source of
money or influence with regards to projects. Perhaps we should consider the sources of the
smear campaign against Gibson, and how they are attempting to twist facts to create doubts at
to his motivations. Perhaps it is not Gibson and Huang who should be mentioned with regard to
transparency as far as political funding sources....perhaps they should be used as a model for
the necessary change.

Tammy Lier Gibson Makes the list for the Las Vegas Top 100 Women of Influence

Original article by My Vegas Magazine.

Tammy Lier Gibson with Las Vegas Mayor,  Carolyn G. Goodman

Las Vegas' Top 100 Women of Influence

Published on: January 15, 2014) In:

LORD NEIL GIBSON ATTACKED BY INTERNET TROLL

News Business & Finance Industry
Lord Neil Gibson Battles Anonymous Internet Troll


February 14, 2014
The internet and Google have long been a source for potential exploitation of search engine algorithms in order to slander individuals, playing on the fact that Google is not an actual news source but instead is simply a list of categorized information about a topic. Because it has grown to become essentially a source for people to find out information on any topic, and is viewed by most people as the starting point for research, those who wish to misinform others about certain subjects know all too well that creating a search engine friendly internet space loaded with false information about a subject is an easy method to sway public opinion. Because the standard setup of Google listings involves a title and a short snippit from the article itself, many people feel no need to actually move past the listings themselves, and feel they can get all the information they need straight from the search page. If you were to Google someone's name as a source of research on them as a person, it is quite simple for someone with bad intentions to sway public opinion by simply creating many, many internet posts that state patently false information about the person. What is especially interesting about this phenomenon is that there is absolutely no rules regarding truthfulness in the posted pieces, as they are not necessarily posted within legitimate news spaces, or anywhere that is regulated in any way. To make matters worse, those adopting this type of attack against others have the ability to hide behind the "free speech" argument which protects them from prosecution as the slanderous information can be called "opinion." Lord Neil Gibson of Las Vegas knows this all too well, and continues to deal with an unfortunate situation that has caused damage through false information to his name that has been ongoing for years.

Lord Neil Benjamin Gibson is a Las Vegas based business man who operates several diversified entities involved in a wide range of capacities involving international investment, development, green energy and healthcare projects. In many cases the deals that are struck between his companies and outside parties are done on trust, reputation and limited access to research into past projects. Many business people who were and are involved with Neil Gibson will use Google to look into his background, past business dealings and reputation in order to make their decisions to move forward. He was easily damaged by a person who understood how to manipulate internet posts and search engines, one who wanted false information to be spread about him, and one who wanted to harm future business deals that Gibson was structuring through negative perception of him as a person.

Lord Neil Gibson followed the standard protocols that most business people would immediately gravitate to in order to reclaim his reputation from those attempting to slander him, and he filed lawsuits and motions that would force the attacker to remove the posts that were created under his name. Although the obvious outcome of the removal of untrue information within spaces that the attacker admittedly controlled was finalized through legal action, the problem remains to this day that the attacker controls spaces that are not under his name, or are controlled by him from afar. The reputation slander continued after the judgement against the attacker was enforced, and Mr. Gibson found the posts spreading negative and false information about him coming from anonymous sources that could not be tied directly to the attacker. This unfortunate situation shows the weaknesses of Google as an information source, and also illustrates how dangerous it is to not fully investigate the source of "news" that is found online.

Lord Neil Gibson continues to take steps to counter the false information that is on the internet and which is specifically set up to show up in Google searches for his name, and continues to be forced to counteract the spread of misinformation regarding him as a person. The anonymous attacker remains at large.

Verified information about www.lordneilbenjamingibson.com . and his companies can be found at www.lordneilgibson.com

Tammy Lier Gibson with Evander Holyfield and Peter Lik

RACE FOR THE BELIZE UDP PARTY LEADER IS ON FOR 2014

RACE FOR THE BELIZE UDP PARTY LEADER IS ON FOR 2014

 

The race for Deputy Party Leader of the United Democratic Party is soon to enter the home stretch leg with the finish line set for February 17th.  Two of the ruling UDP Ministers have entered their names contesting the seat of Deputy Party Leader, the second most powerful seat within the party’s hierarchy.  It is widely known that the one that holds the DPL’s seat is the chosen one to also be the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Belize.  Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Party Leader of the UDP Gaspar Vega has been challenged by Minister of Education Patrick Faber.

Both men have been canvasing the 31 constituencies and visiting with the delegates in efforts to garner support for their candidacy. Faber has publicly gone on record stating that he believes he can do a much better job at the post of Deputy Party Leader than the current holder.  Well, in what has been dubbed as the game changer, Prime Minister of Belize and Leader of the UDP went on record stating that he does not support Minister of Education Patrick Faber.  Barrow said and we quote, “I have said that while Minister Faber is, I think, an extremely well-qualified and able minister, while I think that he has a glorious leadership future in the United Democratic Party, at this time, and for this contest, I do not support him, end of story.” And that’s also the end of the quote.

Barrow went on to say that one of the major reasons for Faber not being his choice at this moment is because of Faber’s skin color and geographic location within Belize.  Barrow says that the hierarchy of the Party must be equally distributed to the districts along with a diverse composition of ethnicities.  Well, our editor here at CTV-3 news takes that to mean that the UDP Leader and Prime Minister of this country has decided to endorse looks over brains.  If the reasons for his decision are solely based on ethnicity and geographic location, Belize is in for some darker days ahead.  Leadership should not be about how one looks or where they are from, but rather, how they lead.  But that’s for another story on another day.

While Faber does not count on the support of UDP Leader Dean Barrow, he does count on the support of several big wig names within the party.  Former Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel, Dean Lindo and Mesopotamia Representative and Senior member of the party Michael Finnegan,  have all come out in full support of Patrick Faber’s bid for Deputy Party Leader.  Dean Barrow’s support for Vega struck through the political circuits of the UDP as hard hitting as a chess player saying Check.  It will be interesting to see if this move was not one of the flexing of the political muscle by Barrow who is sending a message to the rank and file of the Party; what that message is, we are sure to find out in the days ahead.

http://www.ctv3belizenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2451:race-for-udp-deputy-party-leader-is-on&catid=46:featured-news&Itemid=102

Also in the race for Cayo south which is predicted to be a good one, is Ralph Huang which will be determined on February 16th of 2014 at Roaring Creek.

Tammy Lier Gibson Reveals her Lady G Wear Fashion line...

Lord Gibson and Associates back Ralph Huang for the UDP and Belize Elections

The Following endorsement has been released by Lord Neil B Gibson and Associates.

January 3, 2014

To Whom This May Concern

Re: Mr. Ralph Huang for Stander Bearer Political Endorsement

Our business organizations would honorably like to declare our political and financial support of Mr. Ralph Huang’s candidacy for the position of Stander Bearer in Cayo South Constituency Area representative Slated Convention United Democratic Party in Belize.

 In these last five years, our organizations have worked closely with Ralph Huang in business and financial ventures. We have found Ralph to be an extremely strong professional with an extensive range of understanding of Belize, on economic impact values. 

Ralph Huang is trustworthy, honest and dedicated in investing precious hours required for this governmental position. Our organizations are confident that Ralph is the only deserving candidate for this office.

 Furthermore, our organizations have had ample opportunities in the last 5-years to analyze our future economic benefits and objectives of the various economic executions into the country of Belize. We have found Ralph's honest insight and practical approach for future country growth, with our country’s desire to invest into Belize. 

This distinction sets him apart from the other individual’s that we have dealt with in the past, to ensure our organizations future commitment to execute our organizations’ to invest into the country of Belize. Ralph Huang has shown great concern for the residents of the community and the willingness to listen to people's problems and challenges which is commendable.

 Again, we are writing today to show our allegiance and support of Ralph Huang and his campaign. It will also be an honor to spread the word of Ralph’s candidacy, abilities and competence with other global business networks to support Ralph.

We are confident that Ralph Huang will succeed and bring the Country of Belize the global

economic growth the country needs to strive forward.

Respectfully,

SFBBL TRUST AG www.sfbblag.com

VISION BANKCARD www.vbci.com

LNBG, LLC (USA) www.lnbgllc.com

CITYWIDE LENDING GROUP www.citywidelgi.com

HULET AND ASSOCIATES scott@hulet.net

FOR EVERY SEASON INSURANCE www.foreveryseason.biz

LORD NEIL B GIBSON www.lordgibson.co.uk

TAMMY LIER ENTERTAINMENT GROUP www.tammylier.com