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Category: economics – Page 82

A new smart type of food packaging promises to eliminate food poisoning by killing harmful bacteria.

According to scientists, the packaging destroys hazardous bacteria like E.coli, Salmonella, and Listeria, allowing meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables to last longer.

“Food safety and waste have become a major societal challenge of our times with immense public health and economic impact which compromises food security. One of the most efficient ways to enhance food safety and reduce spoilage and waste is to develop efficient, biodegradable non-toxic food packaging materials,” Philip Demokritou of Harvard Chan School, who co-led the work, said in a statement.

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Advocating enhanced international action on human rights of older persons — dr. claudia mahler, IE, united nations human rights, UNHCR.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC — https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/pages/aboutcouncil.aspx) is a United Nations (https://www.un.org/en/) body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world.

The Council investigates allegations of breaches of human rights in United Nations member states, and addresses thematic human rights issues such as freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities. In recent years, there have been significant advocacy efforts calling for enhanced international thinking and action on the human rights of older persons, and the four main challenges older persons are facing, in terms of human rights as discrimination, poverty, violence and abuse, as well as the lack of specific measures and services to remedy these issues.

Dr. Claudia Mahler (https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/olderpersons/ie/pages/ieolderpersons.aspx) currently serves as an Independent Expert on the human rights of older persons at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Dr. Mahler has been working for the German Institute for Human Rights as a senior researcher in the field of economic, social and cultural rights since 2010. She is also a visiting professor at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin.

Continue reading “Dr. Claudia Mahler — IE, Human Rights Of Older Persons — United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)” | >

How to check the trends of Supercomputing Progress, and how this is as close to a pure indicator of technological progress rates as one can find. The recent flattening of this trend has revealed a flattening in all technological and economic progress relative to long-term trendlines.

Top500.org chart : https://top500.org/statistics/perfdevel/

#Supercomputing, #EconomicGrowth #TechnologicalProgress #MooresLaw

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In 1987, at the beginning of the IT-driven technological revolution, the Nobel-Prize-winning economist Robert famously quipped that “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”

More than 30 years later, another technological revolution seems imminent. In what is called “the Fourth Industrial revolution,” attention is devoted to automation and robots. Many have argued that robots may significantly transform corporations, leading to massive worker displacement and a significant increase in firms’ capital intensity. Yet, despite these omnipresent predictions, it is hard to find robots not only in aggregate productivity statistics but also anywhere else.

While investment in robots has increased significantly in recent years, it remains a small share of total investment. The use of robots is almost zero in industries other than manufacturing, and even within manufacturing, robotization is very low for all but a few poster-child industries, such as automotive. For example, in the manufacturing sector, robots account for around 2.1% of total capital expenditures. For the economy as a whole, robots account for about 0.3% of total investment in equipment. Moreover, recent increases in sales of robotics are driven mostly by China and other developing nations as they play catch up in manufacturing, rather than by increasing robotization in developed countries. These low levels of robotization cast doubt on doomsday projections in which robots will cut demand for human employees.

But is it too early to assess the future of robots? Is it possible that robots are still in their infancy, and the current levels of adoption are not indicative of their future impact on the workplace? After all, Solow’s productivity paradox was ultimately resolved in subsequent decades, as investments in digital technologies paid off, transforming the world in the process.

Maybe, but maybe not. A decade after Solow’s observation, the economic impact of IT was evident. The same cannot be said about robotics.

Full Story:

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Real-estate transactions in the metaverse are reaching record highs. We spoke with companies investing in digital real estate to understand the economic model, and why investors are spending millions on virtual property. Photo: Republic Realm.

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#Metaverse #RealEstate #WSJ

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This article was contributed by Valerias Bangert, strategy and innovation consultant, founder of three media outlets, and published author.

AI job automation: The debate

The debate around whether AI will automate jobs away is heating up. AI critics claim that these statistical models lack the creativity and intuition of human workers and that they are thus doomed to specific, repetitive tasks. However, this pessimism fundamentally underestimates the power of AI. While AI job automation has already replaced around 400,000 factory jobs in the U.S. from 1990 to 2007, with another 2 million on the way, AI today is automating the economy in a much more subtle way.

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Virginia mom April Stringfield is now the owner of Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D-printed home — built in record time, thanks to new construction tech.

The massive time and money savings from 3D printing means the nonprofit is very likely to print more in the future.

The American dream: Home ownership is one of the best ways to improve your economic standing in the U.S., as it can help you build equity and improve your credit score.

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We’re moving past the bottleneck of available space launches.

The bottleneck nature of space launches is beginning to change.

In the last several years, the unprecedented growth of public-private partnerships has transformed space travel into an irresistible investment opportunity. “Since July last year we’ve had about a dozen millionaires take selfies in space,” said Tess Hatch, a partner with Bessemer Venture Partners (BvP), during a CES 2022 keynote attended by Interesting Engineering.

But there’s more to the budding space economy than tourism, alone. In fact, despite the outsized attention focused on billionaires and millionaires going to space, the vast majority is already going to support a much wider spectrum.

But how will that serve life down here on Earth?

Full Story:

Continue reading “A New Wave of Space Companies Is Coming. Can It Help Life on Earth?” | >

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler 21/12/2021. The power plant of technical service providers Faber Infrastructure and YESSS Elektro illuminates St. Pius Church and supplies two construction planning office containers with environment-friendly solar power. This is where the consulting engineers of the Ahr Valley Cooperation prepare their damage surveys for the residents affected by the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Ahr Valley – strictly on a cost-covering basis and not for profit.

See also: Economic losses from weather extremes amplify each other.

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