Avvir Raises $10 Million: What Construction Tech Means for Investors

Motley Fool Staff, The Motley Fool
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The construction industry wastes billions of dollars each year on "nonproductive activities." What is start-up Avvir doing to limit this unnecessary spend?

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  • All the music from Prince Philip's funeral, including two pieces written at his request

    With the congregation barred from singing during Prince Philip’s funeral due to coronavirus restrictions, a four-strong, socially distanced choir performed the music inside St George’s Chapel. The quartet of singers – Tom Liliburn, Nick Madden and Simon Whiteley (who are lay clerks of St George's Chapel choir) and Miriam Allan (a soprano) – all live in nearby Horseshoe Cloister, forming part of what was an intimate and community-focused affair. The Duke of Edinburgh is understood to have taken a personal interest in the music chosen for both his funeral procession and service. Music played by the tri-service band in the Quadrangle of Windsor Castle before the arrival of the coffin included I Vow to Thee My Country, Supreme Sacrifice, Jerusalem, Isle of Beauty and Nimrod. As the procession stepped off, the Band of the Grenadier Guards played Beethoven Funeral March Nos 1 and 3. The national anthem was played by military musicians after the Queen, joined by a Lady-in-Waiting, left the Sovereign’s entrance of Windsor Castle to attend the funeral. The Rifles Guard of Honour, positioned in Horseshoe Cloister, gave a royal salute.

  • Paw Patrol: Feline drug smuggler caught on prison narcatics run

    It could have been the purrfect crime but an unlikely drug smuggler's journey was put on paws on Friday when it was intercepted by authorities in Panama. The fluffy white cat, concealing an assortment of drugs tied to its belly, was apprehended as it attempted to enter a prison. The feline felon was stopped outside the Nueva Esperanza jail, which houses more than 1,700 prisoners, north of Panama City. "The animal had a cloth tied around its neck" that contained wrapped packages of white powder, leaves and "vegetable matter", according to Andres Gutierrez, head of the Panama Penitentiary System. They were likely cocaine, crack and marijuana, according to another official.

  • Victoria Beckham Celebrates Birthday With Kim Kardashian And Husband David In Miami

    The former Spice Girl’s 47th was a star-studded affair.

  • Liam Williams vs Demetrius Andrade ring walks: What time will fight start in the UK?

    Everything you need to know ahead of tonight’s WBO world title bout

  • Land Rover driver at Prince Philip's funeral spent week ensuring he could drive at correct speed

    The servicemen in charge of the specially modified Land Rover carrying the body of the Duke of Edinburgh spent the past week making sure they could drive “at the correct speed”. And, no wonder, as leading the vehicle on its way to the steps of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, on foot were the most senior members of the Armed Forces and the Band of the Grenadier Guards. Corporal Louis Murray was behind the wheel, with Corporal Craig French, as Land Rover Commander for the Royal Hearse, both 29 years old, alongside him. The two staff instructors from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers had been picked “on a coin-toss” from a group of four who had been training for the purpose and were described by officials as a “trusted pair of hands”. Cpl French said it was his job to “ensure that the driver puts the vehicle in the right place at the right time and whether to speed up or slow down.” “We have done a lot of practice over the last few days and you get to feel what the correct speed is, and we know what pace we have to be at. It’s now like second nature.

  • More than 1,000 vicars vow to defy any vaccine passport plans for churches

    More than 1,000 vicars have indicated they will defy vaccine passport rules if they are implemented in churches, describing them as a “fundamental betrayal” of Christian belief. In an open letter to the Prime Minister concerning vaccine passport proposals, the church leaders said: “To deny people entry to hear this life-giving message and to receive this life-giving ministry would be a fundamental betrayal of Christ and the Gospel. “Sincere Christian churches and organisations could not do this, and as Christian leaders we would be compelled to resist any such Act of Parliament vigorously.” “For the Church of Jesus Christ to shut out those deemed by the state to be social undesirables would be anathema to us and a denial of the truth of the Gospel,” it added. The letter, which is signed by a mix of vicars, reverends, pastors and elders from a range of Christian denominations, also said: “There is also a legitimate fear that this scheme would be the thin end of the wedge leading to a permanent state of affairs in which Covid vaccine status could be expanded to encompass other forms of medical treatment and perhaps even other criteria beyond that. “This scheme has the potential to bring about the end of liberal democracy as we know it and to create a surveillance state in which the government uses technology to control certain aspects of citizens’ lives. “As such, this constitutes one of the most dangerous policy proposals ever to be made in the history of British politics... “We agree with those members of Parliament who have already voiced opposition to this proposal: that it would be divisive, discriminatory and destructive to introduce any such mandatory health certification into British society. “We call on the Government to assert strongly and clearly that it will not contemplate this illiberal and dangerous plan, not now and not ever.” Signatories to the letter include Christian leaders from Baptist, evangelical, free church, Church of England, presbyterian and a range of independent churches from across the UK. The call, backed by more than 1,100 clergy, is being led by Rev Dr William Philip, senior minister at the Tron Church in Glasgow, who led the successful Scottish church leaders’ judicial review last month. Unlike in England, the Court of Session heard that a ban on church services in Scotland was unconstitutional and breached human rights. It marked the first legal victory against Covid laws. The open letter, which has also been signed by Rev David Hathaway, founder and president of Eurovision Mission to Europe, comes as last week the Government was warned by its own equalities watchdog that Covid-status certificate schemes or “vaccine passports” could be discriminatory.

  • America on a knife edge ahead of Derek Chauvin verdict as protesters prepare to return to the streets

    Sand-coloured Humvees, barbed wire and concrete barricades surround the Hennepin County courthouse where the fate of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with killing George Floyd, will be determined. The plaza on which the building sits in downtown Minneapolis looks more like a military base than the heart of the local government, with armed National Guard troops occasionally peering through wire fencing at the protesters that gather outside. The heavy security presence is to be expected, given the rage that Mr Floyd's death provoked last May, setting the city ablaze with angry protests from a community which has seen police brutality claim the lives of countless black men. The three-week trial has brought the enduring tensions between law enforcement and the community to the fore, and many of the protesters who gather outside the courthouse each day fear the city is once more on a knife edge as it awaits the verdict.

  • Labour calls on Johnson to cancel India trip amid Covid variant surge

    ‘I can’t see why the prime minister can’t conduct his business via Zoom’ says shadow minister

  • Duchess of Cambridge pays final respects to Prince Philip in first royal funeral

    Kate has never attended a royal funeral until she accompanied her husband to Prince Philip's.

  • St George’s Chapel: The setting for a Covid-secure royal funeral like no other

    The nave, which was packed with family and friends at three royal weddings in recent years, is an empty space with no pews.

  • Shadow warrior: Benjamin Netanyahu takes a dangerous gamble with Iran

    Shadow warrior: Benjamin Netanyahu takes a dangerous gamble with Iran. Israel’s prime minister is creating a climate of fear and crisis as his best hope for holding on to power

  • Macron says world must ‘define clear red lines’ with Russia as tensions rise over Ukraine

    French President Emmanuel Macron said the international community has to "define clear red lines with Russia," in an interview extract released Saturday, adding that countries must be ready to impose sanctions in case of "unacceptable behavior." His remarks, made during an interview with the US network CBS, came amid high tensions over a major military buildup by Russian forces along the border with Ukraine. Macron said the world needed to make it clear to Moscow that while it preferred "open and frank dialogue," it will not shy from imposing sanctions after any "unacceptable behavior.""Indeed, we have to sanction. This is what we did after (Russia annexed Crimea in 2014) or after a series of crises which happen. And I think we have to define clear red lines with Russia. This is the only way to be credible."He added: "I think that sanctions are not sufficient in itself, in themselves, but sanctions are part of the package. I do prefer constructive dialogue, but to have a constructive and efficient dialogue, you need credibility."Russia is believed to have deployed tens of thousands of soldiers near its border with Ukraine and in Crimea. Clashes along the border, which had nearly ceased after a cease-fire reached last summer, have recently resumed.On Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced financial sanctions against Moscow and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats over a massive series of cyber attacks against US targets, as well as over Russian interference in American elections. In addition, eight people linked to the "occupation" of Crimea were sanctioned. But Biden also said he hopes to have a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming months. On Friday, Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared their support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and called on Russia to rapidly withdraw its troops from the border region.CBS said it will air the full interview with Macron on Sunday.(AFP)

  • ‘Absolutely devastating’: how Australia’s deportation of New Zealanders is tearing families apart

    ‘Absolutely devastating’: how Australia’s deportation of New Zealanders is tearing families apart. Their accents, children and homes are in one country, but people jailed for more than 12 months are being sent back to a land they don’t know, where ‘everything that made you who you were is gone’

  • Prince Philip funeral: Duke’s coffin lowered into royal vault by electric motor

    Moment ‘usually only witnessed by the royal family,’ says commentator

  • Airplane makes emergency landing in ocean at Cocoa Beach Air Show in Florida

    In this clip, an airplane lands in the ocean in front of the crowd during the Cocoa Beach Air Show in Florida. The incident happened on Saturday (17 April) and was caused by a mechanical issue. There have been no injuries reported.

  • Vaccine immunity ‘won’t just disappear’ in face of Covid variants – JCVI expert

    It comes after warnings were issued from a leading scientist that new coronavirus variants could set back the UK’s lockdown easing.

  • Dominic Cummings, the last thing the troubled civil service needs is your advice

    Dominic Cummings, the last thing the troubled civil service needs is your advice. The Greensill scandal shows that public servants have been fatally compromised

  • Family of three contract Covid from infected neighbours in hotel quarantine in Sydney

    Family of three contract Covid from infected neighbours in hotel quarantine in Sydney. NSW Health reclassifies three coronavirus cases to locally-acquired after testing showed they shared same viral sequence as infected family next door

  • French medical academy wants to wait six months between Covid jabs

    France's Academy of Medicine has called for the delay between doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to be extended from six weeks to six months, in the case of the Pfizer and Moderna injections, in order to allow more people to get the first jab. Pushing the second injection back in the under-55 age bracket would "accelerate the vaccination campaign...and achieve herd immunity much faster with the same number of doses, while ensuring satisfactory individual protection", the National Academy of Medicine said in a statement on Thursday.The academy has no decision-making power in France, unlike the High Authority for Health (HAS), which can make such recommendations with the backing of the government. On Wednesday, the delay between the first two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use new messenger RNA technology, was extended from 4 to six weeks."This will allow us to speed up the vaccination campaign without compromising public protection," Health Minister Olivier Véran explained to French weekly Journal du Dimanche.High-risk professionsThe Academy of Medicine said that, based on recent studies in the United States and United Kingdom, a single dose of the mRNA vaccine had been shown to provide very high level of protection against the coronavirus. With the more contagious British variant now the dominant strain in France, the academy said it made sense to delay second injections for those aged under 55 years with no history of immune deficiency, to allow more people in high-risk professions, such as teachers, to receive their first dose.In France, the only under-55s currently eligible for the vaccination are frontline priority workers (health workers, home care workers, firefighters) or those with pre-existing health conditions.Some scientists are reluctant to extend the delay between doses, fearing incomplete protection provided by the first injection may favour the emergence of new variants.The academy also called for the first injection to be postponed in the case of patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus within the preceding six months.

  • Prince Charles sheds a tear as he follows his father Prince Philip’s coffin into Windsor Castle

    A highly emotional Prince Charles could be seen with tears in his eyes as he bade the final farewell to his father Prince Philip at a moving Windsor Castle ceremony. The Prince of Wales, 72, was visibly distraught as he followed the coffin as he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with his sister Anne, The Princess Royal behind the Duke of Edinburgh’s coffin. In St George’s Chapel, the prince had tears in his eyes as he put on a black face mask before taking a seat next to his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.