Daily Archives: February 9, 2017

NASA Official Highlights Risk of Manned-Spacecraft Efforts – Wall Street Journal

Posted: February 9, 2017 at 6:26 am


Wall Street Journal
NASA Official Highlights Risk of Manned-Spacecraft Efforts
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTONWith the U.S. developing a handful of new rockets and spacecraft intended to transport astronauts into space, NASA's top human exploration official issued a somber warning Tuesday about potentially fatal risks associated with the programs.

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Patent Filed for Nanotech Cloud Seeding Material – Controlled Environments Magazine

Posted: at 6:25 am

The Masdar Institute research team that was one of the inaugural recipients of the $5 million grant from the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science last year has made significant progress in their work as evidenced by the filing a provisional patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

By filing a patent on their innovative cloud seeding material, the research team is bringing the material in the pathway for commercialization, thereby supporting Masdar Institutes goal of bolstering the United Arab Emirates local intellectual property, which is a key measure of the countrys innovation drive. It also signifies a milestone towards achieving greater water security in the UAE, as rainfall enhancement via cloud seeding can potentially increase rainfall between 10 to 30 percent, helping to refresh groundwater reserves, boost agricultural production, and reduce the countrys heavy reliance on freshwater produced by energy-intensive seawater desalination.

Masdar Institute Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Linda Zou, is the principal investigator of this research project, and one of the first scientists in the world to explore the use of nanotechnology to enhance a cloud seeding materials ability to produce rain.

While the field of rain enhancement which involves stimulating clouds to produce rain leverages cloud physics, atmosphere physics, and topographical studies, Zou and her team complement such work through their focus on the cloud seeding material itself.

Using nanotechnology to accelerate water droplet formation on a typical cloud seeding material has never been researched before. It is a new approach that could revolutionize the development of cloud seeding materials and make them significantly more efficient and effective, Zou says.

Offering a comprehensive overview of Zous progress, Alya Al Mazroui, Manager of the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, says, The Program is a unique opportunity to use advanced research methods for studying atmospheric processes in arid regions, where its understanding is most important to ensure water security globally. We are convinced that Masdar Institutes project, under Linda Zous supervision, will advance rain enhancement science through innovative seeding agents.

Dr. Deon E. Terblanche, Director, Atmospheric Research and Environment Branch, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), serves as a member of the international scientific advisory committee of the UAE Rain Enhancement Program Award. He believes that the novelty of Zous research has great potential to drive innovation in the field of rain enhancement: Dr. Linda Zou of the Masdar Institute is bringing a fresh and exciting contribution to the field of rainfall enhancement. Her team's research into the development of new seeding materials, taking advantage of nanotechnology, holds exciting possibilities and is followed with considerable interest, Terblanche says.

Conventional cloud seeding materials are small particles such as pure salt crystals, dry ice, and silver iodide. These tiny particles, which are a few microns (one-thousandth of a millimeter) in size, act as the core around which water condenses in the clouds, stimulating water droplet growth. Once the air in the cloud reaches a certain level of saturation, it can no longer hold in that moisture, and rain falls. Cloud seeding essentially mimics what naturally occurs in clouds, but enhances the process by adding particles that can stimulate and accelerate the condensation process.

Zou and her collaborators, Dr. Mustapha Jouiad, Principal Research Scientist in Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Nabil El Hadri, and PhD student Haoran Liang, explored ways to improve the process of condensation on a pure salt crystal by layering it with a thin coating of titanium dioxide.

The extremely thin coating measures around 50 nanometers, which is more than one thousand times thinner than a human hair. Despite the coatings miniscule size, the titanium dioxides effect on the salts condensation efficiency is significant. Titanium dioxide is a hydrophilic photocatalyst, which means that when in contact with water vapor in the cloud, it helps to initiate and sustain the water vapor adsorption and condensation on the nanoparticles surface. This important property of the cloud seeding material speeds up the formation of large water droplets for rainfall.

Zous team found that the titanium dioxide coating improved the salts ability to adsorb and condense water vapor over 100 times compared to a pure salt crystal. Such an increase in condensation efficiency could improve a clouds ability to produce more precipitation, making rain enhancement operations more efficient and effective. The research will now move to the next stage of simulated cloud and field testing in the future.

The UAE government has recognized the potential of rain enhancement to support water security and established the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science to increase rain enhancement research in the UAE and arid and semi-arid regions across the world. Awardees of the Programs Second Cycle grant of $5 million were announced last week during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2017. They include Professor Giles Harrison of the University of Reading, Professor Hannele Korhonen of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), and Dr. Paul Lawson of American firm Spec Inc.

Zous research grant covers two more years of research. During this time, her team will continue to study different design concepts and structures for cloud seeding materials inspired by nanotechnology.

Source: Masdar Institute

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Patent Filed for Nanotech Cloud Seeding Material - Controlled Environments Magazine

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So A Minister, A Rabbi And A Buddhist Took Drugs For Science… – Huffington Post South Africa (blog)

Posted: at 6:22 am

On April 20, 1962, a group of theology students and professors gathered outside Boston Universitys Marsh Chapel, waiting for Good Friday services to begin. These particular services were to be unlike any other: On their way into the chapel, Harvard psychiatrist Walter Pahnke administered the group a dose of psychedelic mushrooms.

As part of his Ph.D. thesis under Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass), Pahnke sought to test his hypothesis that psychedelic drugs, taken in a religious setting, could provoke a genuine spiritual experience. His investigation would go down in psychedelic history as the Good Friday experiment.

He was right. Nine out of the 10 students who took the mushrooms reported having a mystical experience.One of those students was the historian Huston Smith, who went on to writeCleansing the Doors of Perception, a classic philosophical work exploring the potential of psychedelic drugs as entheogens, or God-revealing chemicals.

The experience was powerful for me, and it left a permanent mark on my experienced worldview, Smith, who passed away in December, reflected. I had believed in God... but until the Good Friday experiment, I had no personal encounter with God of the sort that bhakti yogis, Pentecostals and born-again Christians describe.

Today, another research project is taking up where the Good Friday experiment left off this time, with modern research tools and leaders from not just the Christian faith but an array of world religions.

As part of a small pilot study, psychologists at Johns Hopkins and New York University are giving psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, to spiritual leaders. Their aim is to demystify the transcendent and deeply meaningful experiences that people often report having under the influence of psychedelic drugs.

A Zen Buddhist roshi and an Orthodox Jewish rabbi have embarked on consciousness-expanding journeys in the name of science, along with Episcopal, Presbyterian and Eastern Orthodox Christian clergy. The research team is about halfway done with the study, which will include a total of 24 participants. (Theyre still looking for Muslim imams and Catholic and Hindu priests.)

Theyre helping us map out this landscape of mystical experience with their incredible training and experience, Dr. Anthony Bossis, project director of the NYU Psilocybin Religious Leaders Project, told The Huffington Post.

By working with leaders of different faiths, the researchers hope to learn something about the shared mystical core of all the worlds major religions what the author Aldous Huxley called the perennial philosophy. Understanding these mystical experiences might also shed light on the therapeutic benefitsof psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs, which researchers are exploring as treatment options for post-traumatic stress disorder, end-of-life anxiety and depression, addiction and other psychological conditions.

If you give psilocybin psychedelics to 20 different people, you get 20 different experiences, Bossis said. But there is a common mystical experience... It seems that the efficacy of these medicines is in their ability, pretty reliably in the right set and setting, to activate or trigger this mystical experience.

This experience of deep connection with the sacred can have long-lasting effects. Mushroom-triggered mystical experiences have been linked with positive changes in behavior and values, and with lasting increases in the personality domain of openness to experience, which encompasses intellectual curiosity, imagination, adventure-seeking and engagement with music and art. People commonly reportthat the experience is one of the most personally and spiritually meaningful of their lives.

The term mystical experience might not sound especially rigorous, but its something that has actually been studied in depth. Psychologists define the experience based on its major components, including a sense of sacredness, feelings of unity, ineffability, peace and joy, transcendence of time and space and feelings of being confronted with some objective truth about reality.

The experiences are often said to be impossible to put into words. But Bossis and his colleagues hope that the unique expertise of these spiritual leaders will provide greater insight into their workings.

One of things I was struck by, doing this research, was the experience of love that they spoke of, he said. Its quite striking to witness... people speak about this overwhelming experience of love loving-kindness to self, love towards others, and what the Greeks called agape,this kind of universal, cosmic love that they say permeates everything, and which recalibrates how they live.

You may feel tempted to brush off this sort of talk as mere drug-induced reverie. (One thinks of the Onion articleUniverse Feels Zero Connection To Guy Tripping On Mushrooms.) But early research and anecdotal reports suggest that chemically induced mystical experiences may not be so different from those that occur as a result of years of meditation and prayer.

Mystical experiences, whether drug-induced or spontaneously occurring,seem to connect the individual with the mystical core of all the worlds major religions a sense of unity, oneness and interconnection with all beings.

I think to understand the depth of religion, one needs to have firsthand experience, saidJewish Renewal movement leader Rabbi Zalman Schacter Shalomiin an interview published in 2005. It can be done with meditation. It can be done with sensory deprivation. It can be done a number of ways. But I think the psychedelic path is sometimes the easiest way, and it doesnt require the long time that other approaches usually require.

The psychedelic path has led many people, including the American Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, to take up more traditional spiritual practices as a way to stay connected in their daily lives to the sorts of insights and sensations they first experienced with psychedelics.

In spiritual communities, we need an honest exploration of this delicate and sometimes taboo topic, Kornfield wrote in 2015. Let us approach the use of these drugs consciously.

While psychedelics may have a stigma attached in todays culture,altered states of consciousness have long been an aspect of human spirituality, and theyve featured in religious rituals around the world for thousands of years.

For the past several years, entheogens have been quietly making their way into modern medicine.A landmark study from NYU and Hopkins, published last month in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, showed a single dose of psilocybin to be effective in relieving death-related anxiety in cancer patients.

In a majority of the patients, the psilocybin triggered a mystical experience, which may be largely responsible for the renewed sense of meaning and relief from existential distress described by the patients. In fact, the extent to which the patients experienced reductions in depression, anxiety and fear of death correlated directly with the intensity of the mystical experience.

Increasingly, it appears that the mystical-type experiences measured immediately after a session is predictive of enduring positive effects, Dr. Roland Griffiths, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins and one of the studys lead authors, told HuffPost. Thats consistent across studies of healthy volunteers, addicted cigarette smokers, and in psychologically distressed cancer patients. Theres something about the nature of those experiences that is predictive of subsequent positive effects.

Dr. Craig Blinderman, director of adult palliative care services at Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, said the research presents an exciting meeting of the minds between modern medicine and ancient healing modalities.

A return to entheogens for the treatment of psycho-existential suffering may signal that medicine has come full circle, Blindermanwrote in a commentary published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, to embrace the earliest known approach to healing our deepest of human agonies, by generating the divine within.

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Pastor called as pupils fall in trance – Nehanda Radio

Posted: at 6:21 am

By Auxilia Katongomara

A pastor had to be called to pray for a group of Form Four pupils at Pumula High School in Bulawayo after they allegedly fell into a trance trying to save one of their classmates who had fits.

It is said the affected pupils, the majority of whom were girls, began acting as if they were possessed, some rolling their tongues. Bulawayo Acting Provincial Education director Mrs Ollicah Fikelephi Kaira confirmed the incident which happened last Friday.

I can confirm that an epileptic girl fell down as she tried to pick up her lip balm and thereafter other girls collapsed as well but the situation is now calm at the school. It has not happened again. Investigations show that the girl had a long standing record of epilepsy but probably other pupils who collapsed were disturbed because they had never witnessed an epileptic attack before, said Mrs Kaira.

She said about 10 girls were transported back home by the school as some of the guardians and parents were not reachable on their phones.

These children had been called for an off-session lesson by their teacher and it all happened in the shade as they were waiting for their teacher.

Pumula is one of our shining beacons, it has excelled over the years and won the Secretarys Bell award last year. This was just an unfortunate incident but we cannot conclude that they were demons as other people allege, said Mrs Kaira.

A source said a school pastor was invited to pray for pupils.

It was scary, said a pupil who cannot be named.

When The Chronicle visited the school yesterday, the issue was still topical among pupils who were still discussing the incident. The Chronicle

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Armin van Buuren records 800th A State Of Trance radio show from new studio: Listen – DJ Mag

Posted: at 6:21 am

Armin Van Buuren revealed that A State Of Trance radio has a new home last week, and now the 800th episode of his much-loved radio show has officially landed via his new studio.

It's the first show to be broadcast from Armin's new digs in Amsterdam, with the trance legend describing the build as: "a new chapter in the history of A State Of Trance."

The show is also returning to its original, two-hour format, with hour one consisting of new tunes selected by Armin himself, whilst hour two is a constant mix from the Dutch DJ.

The show has been split into two parts on Spotify for easy listening, with ASOT 800: Part Two featuring tracks and remixes by the likes of Omnia, Estiva, Markus Schulz, Ben Gold and more.

Check out the Spotify playlist and the tweet from Armin below.

New episode from our brand new studio! #ASOT800 https://t.co/pq92K0ImdK

Charlotte Lucy Cijffers is DJ Mag's Digital Editor. Follow her on Twitter.

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Donald Trump is not the cyberpunk future – The Verge

Posted: at 6:20 am

Earlier this week, always-excellent comics site The Nib published a piece declaring 2017 to be a 1990s cyberpunk dystopia. Theres a good argument that weve been moving toward a cyberpunk present for years, especially as science fictional technologies get closer to reality among other things, the comic cites personal drones, hackable smart appliances, and smartphones. But its punchline was specific to the two-week-old Trump administration: Most dystopian of all, we now have a villainous business tycoon running the nation with the biggest army of killer robot drones in the world.

Dystopian may be the right word for the current political environment, but cyberpunk is the completely wrong one.

Cyberpunk as an actual literary genre is too diverse and complex to be pinned down in a few bullet points, even before it's been splintered into post-cyberpunk and biopunk and splatterpunk and whatnot. But as a cultural reference point, it evokes a few instantly recognizable tropes. Youve got the street-smart techno-wizards, for instance. The virtual fever dreams. The barrage of brand names. The hardboiled cynicism. And, perhaps above all, cyberpunk pivots on unfathomable corporate power.

2017 is all about the limits of the megacorp

If there's one thing that defines our popular conception of cyberpunk, it's the grandly ruthless multinational company, often some kind of computing or biotechnology powerhouse, that transcends mere state authority. Sometimes the company makes government irrelevant; sometimes the company is a government, as in the million franchised states of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. The hackers-versus-suits mythos transcends any specific story: its as universally recognized as (when its not outright crossed with) Tolkiens orcs and elves. But so far, 2017 is not the year of the megacorp it's the year we're reminded of the megacorp's limits.

Last week, for example, President Donald Trump passed an executive order on immigration: a drastic ban on not just new refugees, but initially current green card and visa holders from a number of Muslim-majority nations. It was a direct threat to the largely pro-globalization tech industry, stranding some employees overseas and making it dangerous for others to go abroad in the future. And Silicon Valley a place full of people who want to cure death, rewrite reality, and fight the rise of killer artificial intelligences metaphorically cast its eyes down, shuffled its feet, and tried to formulate an objection.

At best, companies reacted immediately with vocal dismay, decrying the order in public statements and lobbying for change. At worst, they expressed vague concern and quietly provided their employees with logistical strategies, until public pressure was strong enough to do more. They were cautious, conciliatory, and pragmatic: Elon Musk, a multibillionaire who thinks nothing of declaring hell colonize Mars, determined that getting rid of the ban was "just a non-zero possibility" and asked his Twitter followers to help him rewrite it. The world's most cyberpunk-y businesses, the ones busy developing virtual reality headsets while enmeshing humanity in massive data networks that track our every move, didn't ready their salaried assassins and killer viruses as their sci-fi stand-ins would. Their leaders donated money to the ACLU and showed up at airport protests. They may have far more power than the average citizen, but they seemed just as dependent on the whims of the White House as the rest of us.

Trump isnt a manifestation of cyberpunk, hes the backlash against it

Yes, Trump himself is a businessman but not the kind that cyberpunk fiction immortalized. He's not a menacing executive mastermind or a decadent posthuman, but an emotionally fragile real estate mogul who decided that the presidency was a step up from building gaudy towers and allegedly scamming his biggest fans. His particular mix of business and politics looks less like an omnipotent fusion of government and corporation than a petty kleptocracy, bent on filling overpriced hotel rooms and personally enriching some fellow billionaires. Its the traditional mainstream Republicans, with whom Trump has a distinctly strained relationship, who are pushing hardest to outright privatize the country.

Individual pieces of cyberpunk-related fiction certainly evoke our political reality. (Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan is eerily apt, if you fuse its election arcs fascist-lite presidential candidate with his vindictive, blankly jovial opponent.) But the genres broadest tropes are rooted in exactly the kind of world order that Trump declares hell break up. Trump isnt a manifestation of our cyberpunk future, hes a backlash against it.

Late last year, author Emmett Rensin wrote an essay in The Outline decrying the idea of tech entrepreneurs as mythical heroes and villains, which Resnin argued allows them to project power in excess of its reality." While Resnin primarily contended that this perception lets modern-day robber barons get away with building a financial oligarchy, framing companies as all-powerful also obscures the larger dynamics of US politics. If you see everything through the lens of corporate warfare or sociopaths drinking Soylent, you lose track of whos holding the nuclear codes. (You also end up ignoring the threat of chemical and fossil fuel companies, whose sci-fi endgame is an all-purpose environmental apocalypse.)

Look, for all I know, Google does have corporate assassins

A company like Google wields a great deal of control over our lives. But the biggest threat right now is not that its mission statement suddenly changes to Be Evil, as popular cyberpunk plots might suggest. Its that it confidently pursues idealistic missions without accounting for how that work could be hijacked by outside forces, whether or not its a willing participant in the process. This has already occurred with mass surveillance of email metadata; what happens when the FBI reprograms ubiquitous service robots as an ad hoc police force?

Of course, were only seeing the surface level of things, so I could always be wrong. Maybe Elon Musks measured tweets are just a cover while SolarCity completes a hostile takeover of the US electrical grid while planting Russian false flags. Maybe Trump is secretly deferring to his Silicon Valley adviser Peter Thiel in exchange for a shot at eternal life in one of Thiels cyber-gothic vampire covens. Maybe the levers of power are not in the hands of people who want to pull America back to an ugly past, but ones who will dispassionately push us into a terrifying new future. At this point, though, that seems almost like a comforting fantasy.

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Ghost in the Shell’s Super Bowl teaser promises plenty of cyberpunk action – The Verge

Posted: at 6:20 am

Paramount Pictures released a new teaser for is upcoming adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, showing off an android Scarlett Johansson as she fighting her way through a cyberpunk Tokyo.

This new trailer shares some of the same footage from the films first trailer, but comes with an intriguing voiceover: They did not save your life. They stole it.

Johansson plays The Major, a robotic soldier with a human mind who is part of a task force known as Section 9, which works to combat cyber criminals and hackers, and come up against an enemy working to sabotage Hanka Robotics. Along the way, The Major learns some troubling things about her past.

While the film has attracted considerable controversy over Johanssons casting, the trailers and this new spot seem to have alleviated some concerns about the films look and feel. We dont have much longer to wait and see: Ghost in the Shell hits theaters on March 31st, 2017.

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Niche Spotlight – Katana ZERO: A Murderously Stylish Cyberpunk … – Niche Gamer

Posted: at 6:20 am

This is Niche Spotlight. In this column, we regularly introduce new games to our fans, so please leave feedback and let us know if theres a game you want us to cover!

Adult Swim Games is publishing Askiisofts stylish, murderous action-platformer Katana ZERO. The game is currently in development for Windows PC, and its already shaping up quite nicely.

The game is focused on the hardcore end of the spectrum, where one hit means death for you and your enemies. Instead of absorbing lots of comparisons to things like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Mark of the Ninja, you should hit play on the above video to see the game in motion.

Described as a fast paced neo-noir action platformer, focusing on tight, instant-death acrobatic combat combined with a dark 80s neon aesthetic, even the games soundtrack oozes a stylish, cyberpunk feel.

The protagonist primarily wields a katana, while also making use of a time-warping drug named Chronos. Youll have to traverse hand-built levels and overcome the onslaught of enemies all in the hope of taking back what is yours.

Heres a rundown on the game, via Askiisoft:

Katana ZERO is a fast paced neo-noir action platformer, focusing on tight, instant-death acrobatic combat, and a dark 80s neon aesthetic. Aided with your trusty katana, the time manipulation drug Chronos and the rest of your assassins arsenal, fight your way through a fractured city, and take back whats rightfully yours.

Key Features:

A release date for Katana ZERO is currently not known, however for now you can view the games Steam page.

If youre a developer and want your game showcased on Niche Spotlight, please contact us!

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Posted: at 6:20 am

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A Sneak Peak into the Future of the TMS Market :: Logistics Viewpoints – Logistics Viewpoints (blog)

Posted: at 6:20 am

Over the last 4 years, I have released an annual analysis of the global transportation management systems (TMS) market. The research combines the analysis of large amounts of information with interviews with executives from numerous TMS software companies. The end result is the publication of ARCs TMS Global Market Research Study, which analyzes the market shares across numerous categories of the leading TMS suppliers. I am in the process of kicking off that research once again, with a final report ready to go live in the late March / early April timeframe.

One of the key pieces of information that I look at, aside from the market shares of TMS suppliers and the industries that are driving the market, is the growth factors for the market as a whole. These growth drivers have certainly been written about here on Logistics Viewpoints before, However, one thing that I have not blogged about, but do keep a close eye on, is the factors that could inhibit the growth of the TMS market. So today, I wanted to quickly highlight a few growth inhibitors that could have a long term impact on the TMS market.

The Global Economy

The US economy has made steady gains, and the dollar has gotten stronger. However, the global economy and slowing global trade could slow the growth of TMS. With the United Kingdoms exit from the EU, many are left to wonder how this will affect trade, and whether other countries will follow the UKs lead. In the US, President Trump has pulled the country out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, and stirred up a lot of emotions and fears about the future state of global trade. All of these factors could slow global trade and the TMS market in turn.

LSPs Technological Sophistication is Increasing

Many suppliers sell robust TMS solutions they have developed. However, their sales of transportation managed services far exceed their standalone TMS deals. Historically, one of the leading complaints about logistics service providers (LSPs) was that their technology was not good enough. As LSPs overcome that barrier, potential TMS customers may increasingly choose the managed services path.

There is also an argument that a shipper needs to get to a certain level of sophistication before they can effectively make use of a TMS. Beginning with managed services can be a good starting point for these companies. The companies can then defer the TMS decision until their internal skills improve and may end up never going down the TMS path.

The Rise of Transportation Execution Solutions

Transportation execution (TE) systems and marketplaces allow shippers to connect to multiple carriers and then tender, track, and pay using the software or marketplace. These solutions do not feature optimization, but can certainly allow smaller organizations to connect to the carriers they use. These solutions are generally less expensive than a traditional TMS, but for smaller companies, they provide all the functionality that is needed.

Free TMS Solutions

Some brokerage companies offer a free TMS. The route guide is populated with carriers the broker has a relationship with, and the broker makes their money based on the spread between what shippers pay for the shipment and what the broker pays the carrier. Currently, the free TMS solutions optimization capabilities are limited. Further, the objectivity of such solutions can be questioned. But for many shippers, especially small shippers, free is hard to beat.

Conclusion

As I get ready to kick off another TMS market study, I will certainly keep a keen eye on the factors outlined above. Each of these plays a unique role in determining just how big the TMS market can get. The changing nature of global trade, and potential regulatory changes, will have the biggest impact when it comes to cross-border trade and commerce. But the alternative solutions for a traditional TMS, including the use of LSPs, transportation execution systems, and the rise of the free TMS, will certainly play a big role as well. Once my research and analysis is done, I should have some more answers.

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