Lifeboat Foundation

The same goes for the broader economy. Lower subsidies, higher taxes and pricier labour have eroded some of Saudi Arabia’s traditional selling points for firms. It is unclear what will replace them.

Until the government banned the practice, residents of Abha would chop down juniper trees for firewood, to stave off the winter chill. As part of the regional tourism project, developers plan to plant 1m trees to reforest the mountains. It will be a long time before visitors can appreciate them: they grow just 5cm a year in the region’s dry climate, says Turki al-Bishri, a local guide. For all the talk of rapid change, the slow-growing juniper may offer a better glimpse of Saudi Arabia’s economic future. ■

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “No tourist Mecca”.

Universal Basic Income is soon going to become a necessity due to Robots becoming exponentially more capable of doing jobs which previously could only be performed by humans. This has become especially apparent with Elon Musk’s new venture in the form of Tesla Robot Optimus which is aimed to be shown off in 2022. Whether or not Elon Musk’s predictions will turn out to be true is yet to be seen, but it’s clear that we will need some kind of Passive income in the form of UBI.

In this video I will show you how you can use that knowledge to prepare yourself for a world with Universal Basic Income, how to make more money than anyone else and even double your income in the end.
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Continue reading “Robots Creating Passive Income — Elon Musk & Universal Basic Income” »

In response to the so-called “labor shortage,” companies are looking to finally replace replace workers with machines — and robotics companies couldn’t be happier to oblige.

David Zapico, the CEO of robotics company Ametek Inc., told Bloomberg News that his company is “firing on all cylinders” because, as he put it, “people want to remove labor.”

He’s not alone in his musings. Executives at Hormel Foods Corp and Domino’s Pizza also confirmed to Bloomberg that they’re investing in automation in an effort to reduce labor costs and respond to a “tight labor supply,” as one Hormel vice president put it.

Circa 2021

Decarbonisation of the iron and steel industry would require the use of innovative low-carbon production technologies. Use of 100% hydrogen in a shaft furnace (SF) to reduce iron ore has the potential to reduce emissions from iron and steel production significantly. In this work, results from the techno-economic assessment of a H₂-SF connected to an electric arc furnace(EAF) for steel production are presented under two scenarios. In the first scenario H₂ is produced from molten metal methane pyrolysis in an electrically heated liquid metal bubble column reactor. Grid connected low-temperature alkaline electrolyser was considered for H₂ production in the second scenario. In both cases, 59.25 kgH₂ was required for the production of one ton of liquid steel (tls). The specific energy consumption (SEC) for the methane pyrolysis based system was found to be 5.16 MWh/tls. The system used 1.51 MWh/tls of electricity, and required 263 kg/tls of methane, corresponding to an energy consumption of 3.65 MWh/tls. The water electrolysis based system consumed 3.96 MWh/tls of electricity, at an electrolyser efficiency of 50 KWh/kgH ₂. Both systems have direct emissions of 129.4 kgCO2/tls. The indirect emissions are dependent on the source of natural gas, pellet making process and the grid-emission factor. Indirect emissions for the electrolysis based system could be negligible, if the electricity is generated from renewable energy sources. The levellized cost of production(LCOP) was found to be $631, and $669 respectively at a discount rate of 8%, for a plant-life of 20 years. The LCOP of a natural gas reforming based direct reduction steelmaking plant of operating under similar conditions was found to be $414. Uncertainty analysis was conducted for the NPV and IRR values.

Aside from upturning the economics of the automobile industry, Tesla has also begun innovation efforts in how we receive our day-to-day electrical power services.

Indeed, the day you begin to pay Tesla your electricity bills may soon come if they continue their success. Welcome dear, today we will talk about Tesla’s battery farm installations in Australia and how they changed the lives of many Australian citizens.

Tesla’s ‘battery farm’ in South Australia is officially known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve. Its construction history begins with the local southern Australian government searching for plausible plans for the improvement of their electrical power grid with a battery design in the region.

Few years ago, at the mention of space mission rivalry, the US and USSR comes to mind. However, things changed in 2003 when China launched the first human crewed mission space flight. We’ve always known the US and China to be rivals on so many economic and political grounds, but now, they’ve taken it one up to space.

What’s the whole point of the space mission rivalry? And most importantly, if the rivalry continues, how exactly will it affect both countries and the world at large? Well, we will find out in just a second.

While the United States’ status in the current world order requires no explanation, the People’s Republic of China’s rise to similar power warrants some examination. Following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 whose ideologically restricted Stalinist rule caused much devastation and economic malaise in Chinese society, a new ruling class sought to change things.

The domino effect of the falling of Chinese companies is in full swing, as one after another, four Chinese real estate companies have toppled. As reported by Asia Nikkei, Modern Land China has become the latest developer from Asia’s largest economy to miss a dollar bond payment, underscoring the stress spreading across the sector, as the property balloon burst at the time when Beijing was at its most vulnerable. According to a filing on Tuesday with the Singapore stock exchange where the bond is traded, the corporation failed to pay interest and principal on a $250 million bond. This month, Fantasia Holdings, Sinic Holdings, and China Properties have all defaulted on offshore notes, while China Evergrande Group narrowly avoided defaulting last week by making a coupon payment on time.

As liquidity concerns intensify amid mounting maturities, as per reports, global rating agencies have already lowered the scores of a record 44 Chinese developers this month. Earlier, Modern Land dropped a plan to extend the bond’s repayment period, and trading in its stock and debt securities was delayed until the company made another announcement. The trade embargo is still in effect, according to the newest declaration. The fact that the Singapore stock exchange will also face the pressure of this fall, means that other countries are now going to suffer for the bad policies of Xi Jinping.

The Chinese economy has been hit by a perfect storm. In the third quarter of the ongoing financial year, official Chinese data revealed that GDP growth stood at 4.9 percent, down from 7.9 percent in the previous quarter. This decline in GDP growth is directly eating into profits of big Chinese companies.

Rising prices and low consumer spending create a perfect storm in the Chinese economy:

There are two broad factors that are affecting business earnings in China-raw material inflation and low consumer spending.

CEO Elon Musk posted an ancient Chinese poem on Weibo on Monday and this led his millions-strong followers on the social media platform to open up their wallets.

What Happened: Musk posted an 1800-year-old poem, called “The Quatrain of Seven Steps,” composed by Cao Zhi, the brother of the Emperor of Wei Cao Pi without any clear context.

Subsequently, Musk, who has 1.9 million followers on Weibo, began receiving donations from the users of the Chinese social media platform, reported CnEVPost.