Welcome to the first chapter of our audiobook on personal finance! In this chapter, we’ll be exploring the basics of money and how we use it in our daily lives. We’ll cover topics like what money is, how we earn it, and how we can use it to buy the things we need and want. We’ll also talk about the different forms money can take, like cash, checks, and credit cards. Whether you’re just starting to learn about personal finance or you’re looking to brush up on the basics, this chapter is a great place to start. So grab a pair of headphones, sit back, and let’s get started!
Category: economics – Page 61
Carbon-eating blocks ingest eight tonnes of CO2 a day, says company
The carbon-negative concrete blocks absorb more CO2 during production than they emit.
A Limburg (Netherlands) company called Masterbloc has engineered an eco-friendly building material from steel slag left over from the steel industry, according to an article by The Brussels Times.
The company CEO Bjorn Gubbels claims the block stores CO2 and can help boost the circular economy.
CHUNYIP WONG/iStock.
Masterbloc’s product is CO-2 negative, with more CO2 absorbed during production than emitted. At the company’s factory, some 8-tonnes of CO2-ingesting building blocks are produced per day. This roughly accounts for a yearly output of 15,000 tonnes.
Vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes for energy storage and the electronics industry
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have created vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes on metal foils that could be a boon for energy storage and the electronics industry.
Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) have exceptional mechanical, electrical and transport properties in addition to an aligned architecture, which is key for applications such as membrane separation, thermal management, fiber spinning, electronic interconnects and energy storage.
To date, widespread integration of VACNTs into next-generation technologies is thwarted by a lack of compatible, economic, mass-production capabilities. High-quality VACNTs are typically made on substrates such as silicon (Si) or quartz wafers that are rigid, expensive and electrically insulating.
The next and most profound industrial revolution in human history is underway in Low Earth Orbit
Riding on the shoulders of the Apollo generation, the Artemis missions will pave the way for humans to return to the moon, begin human exploration of Mars, and someday for humanity to reach the edges of our solar system and beyond.
While the exploration of deep space is critical to advancing our understanding of so many unanswered questions about the universe and our place in it, it is equally as critical that the United States government and private industry work together to lead the commercialization of Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and capture the resulting massive new space economy.
As I wrote in The Washington Post recently, the most profound chapter in human history is the industrial revolution happening in LEO, just 250 miles above our heads. We are at a turning point for our civilization, pivoting from 60 years of space exploration to a new era of unprecedented economic activity, manufacturing and growth in space. This burgeoning epoch is called the Orbital Age, and it will drive a new trillion-dollar industry.
A world-first project that uses ‘self-healing’ concrete to repair sewage pipes
This technology will not only extend the lifespan of concrete structures, but also promote a circular economy.
Sewer pipe corrosion, or crown corrosion, occurs when sewage pipe material comes into contact with sulphuric acid. The aging pipe material corrodes, and the pipes crack. Over the past few years, engineers have developed sewer bots to inspect sewage pipes and go to places unsafe for humans.
Professor Yan Zhuge, an engineering expert at the University of South Australia, is trialing a novel solution.
Vladimir Zapletin/iStock.
But that also means the robots would have to go to places where existing wireless communications cannot reach them. Hurdles are aplenty.
Apes can make rational, economic decisions as humans do, research finds
They love to bet.
The Institute of Biology at the University of Neuchatel (UniNE) in Switzerland discovered that orangutans and gorillas could make rational economic decisions. According to a new study, apes are similar to humans when it comes to making choices.
Led by Penelope Lacombe, Sarah Brocard, Klaus Zuberbühler, and Christoph Dahl, the study was conducted with orangutans and gorillas housed at Switzerland’s Basel Zoo. The results were published in PLOS ONE on December 14.
“Rather than settling for a treat they are sure to receive, orangutans and gorillas prefer to bet on a bigger reward, even if they are not sure of getting it,” says UniNE.
Lisegagne/iStock.
Led by Penelope Lacombe, Sarah Brocard, Klaus Zuberbühler, and Christoph Dahl, the study was conducted with orangutans and gorillas housed at Switzerland’s Basel Zoo. The results were published in PLOS ONE on December 14.
FTX caught depositing 8 billion dollars of customer money into secret accounts
In a move to protect SBFs hedge fund from losing billions software code was altered.
Sam Bankman-Fried owned Alameda Research, a hedge fund heavily invested in FTX. In move to make sure the hedge fund assets were never sold off, when FTX began to have issues, an engineer secretly changed software code in the FTX system. The software would have sold off all Alameda Research assets, just like any other companies that were owned, in the case of FTX filing for bankruptcy.
Getty Images.
The FTX exchange code was tweaked in the Mid 2020s, to make sure Alameda Research was protected from an automatic sell off of assets, if the hedge fund was losing to much borrowed money.
Dr. Tobias Reichmuth, Ph.D. — Maximon — Structuring, Financing & Growing Novel Longevity Ventures
Structuring, Financing & Growing Novel Longevity Ventures — Dr. Tobias Reichmuth Ph.D., Founding Partner, Maximon
Dr. Tobias Reichmuth, Ph.D. is Founding Partner at Maximon (https://www.maximon.com/), The Longevity Company Builder, which empowers entrepreneurs to build impactful, science-based and scalable companies providing healthy aging and rejuvenation solutions.
Maximon recently announced the launch of their 100 million CHF Longevity Co-Investment Fund, which will be looking to invest up to CHF 10 million per company, which allows them to finance up to 10–12 start-ups in this fast growing industry over the next four years.
In 2020, Dr. Reichmuth launched the Longevity Investors Conference together with Marc P. Bernegger, another Maximon Founding Partner.
Dr. Reichmuth previously founded the climate-change infrastructure fund / asset management company SUSI Partners AG, where he spent over a decade specializing in infrastructure investments in the context of energy transition (renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage solutions) and invested more than one billion Swiss francs.
Microsoft acquires startup developing high-speed cables for transmitting data
Microsoft today announced that it acquired Lumenisity, a U.K.-based startup developing “hollow core fiber (HCF)” technologies primarily for data centers and ISPs. Microsoft says that the purchase, the terms of which weren’t disclosed, will “expand [its] ability to further optimize its global cloud infrastructure” and “serve Microsoft’s cloud platform and services customers with strict latency and security requirements.”
HCF cables fundamentally combine optical fiber and coaxial cable. They’ve been around since the ’90s, but what Lumenisity brings to the table is a proprietary design with an air-filled center channel surrounded by a ring of glass tubes. The idea is that light can travel faster through air than glass; in a trial with Comcast in April, a single strand of Lumenisity HCF was reportedly able to deliver traffic rates ranging from 10 Gbps to 400 Gbps.
“HCF can provide benefits across a broad range of industries including healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail and government,” Girish Bablani, CVP of Microsoft’s Azure Core business, wrote in a blog post. “For the public sector, HCF could provide enhanced security and intrusion detection for federal and local governments across the globe. In healthcare, because HCF can accommodate the size and volume of large data sets, it could help accelerate medical image retrieval, facilitating providers’ ability to ingest, persist and share medical imaging data in the cloud. And with the rise of the digital economy, HCF could help international financial institutions seeking fast, secure transactions across a broad geographic region.”