Archive for the 'Economy' Category
UN Using Ethereum Blockchain and Iris Scanning Technologies to Distribute Funds to Refugees
May 1st, 2017Via: CoinDesk: Starting today, the United Nations (UN) will begin distributing funds to thousands of people in Jordan as part of a trial using the ethereum blockchain. For the next month, cryptographically unique coupons representing an undisclosed number of Jordanian dinars will be sent to dozens of shops in five refugee camps across the nation. […]
Facebook Conducted Research to Target Emotionally Vulnerable and Insecure Youth
May 1st, 2017Via: news.com.au: FACEBOOK has come under fire over revelations it is targeting potentially vulnerable youths who “need a confidence boost” to facilitate predatory advertising practices. The allegation was revealed this morning by The Australian which obtained internal documents from the social media giant which reportedly show how Facebook can exploit the moods and insecurities of […]
Why Deutsche Bundesbank Had to Promise to Leave 1200 Tons of Gold in New York
April 30th, 2017Via: Norbert Häring: With big fanfare, Deutsche Bundesbank announced on February 9 that ahead of plan they had repatriated 300 tons of gold from New York. This put a positive spin on a rather disturbing fact –1236 tons of gold that is supposed to be part of Germany’s currency reserve will continue to be kept […]
Musk: Level 5 Autonomy About Two Years Away
April 29th, 2017Via: Electrek: The best timeline he mentioned was based on a coast-to-coast demo drive from California to New York without the driver touching the wheel. During his TED talk yesterday, Musk reiterated that this demo drive is still planned for 2017: “November or December of this year, we should be able to go from a […]
“Cashless Society Getting Closer”
April 27th, 2017Via: Reuters: More than a third of Europeans and Americans would be happy to go without cash and rely on electronic forms of payment if they could, and at least 20 percent already pretty much do so, a study showed on Wednesday. The study, which was conducted in 13 European countries, the United States and […]
Google Trialing Ride Hailing Service in Phoenix with 100 Self Driving Minivans, 500 More on Order
April 25th, 2017Via: Vox: For years, Google — which recently renamed its self-driving car division “Waymo” — has been viewed as having the industry’s leading self-driving car technology. In the past couple of years, Waymo has had dozens of cars on the road racking up more than 2 million miles of real-world driving experience. Now Waymo is […]
New Zealand: Ongoing Dairy Pollution of Te Waikoropupu Springs Reserve
April 17th, 2017Disclosure: I am involved with the effort to bring attention to the pollution and water take issues at Te Waikoropupu Springs Reserve. — Intensive dairy farming is destroying freshwater resources around New Zealand. It turns out the crown jewel of them all, a national treasure and a globally unique ecosystem is now threatened. How does […]
U.S. Electricity Demand Peaked in 2007
April 13th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — There are many likely small components of this, such as efficiency gains, small scale solar masking loads behind the meter (might explain 1% of demand decline), and high prices for electricity in some areas. But… Via: Bloomberg: Part of the reason is that a grim […]
Delivery Robots: A Revolutionary Step or Sidewalk-Clogging Nightmare?
April 12th, 2017Via: Guardian: Sharing a sidewalk with one of DoorDash’s delivery robots is a bit like getting stuck behind someone playing Pokémon Go on his smartphone. The robot moves a little bit slower than you want to; every few meters it pauses, jerking to the left or right, perhaps turning around, then turning again before continuing […]
Chinese Firm Halves Worker Costs by Hiring Army of Robots to Sort Out 200,000 Packages a Day
April 11th, 2017Via: South China Morning Post: A viral video showing an army of little orange robots sorting out packages in a warehouse in eastern China is the latest example of how machines are increasingly taking over menial factory work on the mainland. The behind-the-scenes footage of the self-charging robot army in a sorting centre of Chinese […]
