Entries for the ‘Economics’ Category



Japan aims its home fuel cells at Europe

Tokyo

Following the success of a half-price subsidy for CO2-busting fuel-cell heat and energy generators for homes, Japan is now poised to ship its attention to supplying the UK and Germany with this hi-tech next-generation energy source.

With over 5,000 fuel cells providing heat and energy for conventional homes up and down Japan, the BBC has learnt [...]

Apple’s Jobs says cash hoard allows for bold moves

A host shows off the back of Apple's new ''iPad'' in San Francisco,
January 27, 2010.

CUPERTINO, California (Reuters) – Steve Jobs defended Apple Inc's decision to maintain a $40 billion cash pile and said it was better to save the money for bold risks, like acquisitions, than to spend it on stock buybacks or cash [...]

Global Warming May Hurt Some Poor Populations, Benefit Others

Researchers say that higher temperatures could significantly reduce yields of wheat, rice and maize – dietary staples for tens of millions of poor people who subsist on less than $1 a day. (Credit: Courtesy of David Lobell)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2010) — The impact of global warming on food prices and hunger could be large over [...]

Free Trade, Loss of Support Systems Crippling Food Production in Africa

ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2010) — Despite good intentions, the push to privatize government functions and insistence upon "free trade" that is too often unfair has caused declining food production, increased poverty and a hunger crisis for millions of people in many African nations, researchers conclude in a new study.

De-husking local rice. (Credit: Image courtesy of [...]

NASA’s New Mission: Will It Launch Space-Age “Microsofts & Googles”?

If the Obama's new NASA plan survives the congressional wringer of hearings, markups, amendments and votes in anything like its present form, it will mark a radical transformation of the our space program from the emphasis on the development and operations of launch vehicles and spacecraft, focused on traveling to specific destinations to the development [...]

More Money, and a New Path to the Stars

The Obama Administration plans to cancel NASA’s Constellation program that was to take American astronauts back to the Moon. Instead, NASA will oversee a competition among commercial space developers to come up with the technology to reach the stars.

Artist concept of the Ares rocket. NASA spent 9 billion dollars developing the Orion-Ares concept, but now [...]

Benevolent hackers poke holes in e-banking

ONLINE banking fraud doesn't just affect the naive. Last year, Robert Mueller, a director at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, admitted he'd come within a mouse-click of being a victim himself. Now the extent of the problem has been brought into sharp relief, with computer scientists warning that banking culture is increasing the likelihood [...]

Air Traffic Delays Cost U.S. More Than Hurricanes

ATLANTA — Air traffic delays are more than just annoying: On average, they probably cost the U.S. economy more than hurricanes do.

Most media reports focus on extended delays that leave passengers stranded in airports for days or trapped on the tarmac for hours, said Bob Maxson, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aviation [...]

Tobacco Company Helped Shape European Policy System Favoring Corporate Profits Over Public Health, Study Finds

Californians, here’s what young Carolina flue-cured tobacco looks like. This is the kind of tobacco that is made into cigarettes. This is on Center Road, one turn off Booger Swamp Road. I’ll try to show you more of the tobacco crop as the season progresses.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2010) — British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's [...]

Google phone is latest move against cellphone status quo

It has a bigger, higher-resolution screen and better camera than Apple's iPhone, and can be operated using voice commands alone, but the technical specifications of the Nexus One, Google's new Android smartphone, that have impressed gadget reviewers are not the most interesting thing about it.

More significant, say commentators, is that Google is trying to shake [...]

310 SQL queries done. Page generation took 0.519 seconds. 21.5MB