Lifeboat Foundation

GomSpace Group, a company listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier exchange, and the Luxembourg Economy Ministry agreed in principle to establish in the country a company focused on satellite operations and data processing and distribution.

By 2021 the company could employ up to 50 full-time staff, GomSpace said in a statement. The ministry will provide funding through its Luxembourg space programme as well as grants for research and development that will happen in the country, it said.

“By choosing the Grand-Duchy for their international expansion, GomSpace acknowledges the substantial efforts of the government over the last years to put in place the necessary measures to support the continued strengthening and diversification of its space sector,” Economy Minister Etienne Schneider said.

Continue reading “Investment: GomSpace to establish space company in Luxembourg” »

Will any of the jobs that exist today still be around in 20 years? Fast Future’s Steve Wells, Alexandra Whittington and Rohit Talwar explore whether automation is destined to rewrite all our futures.

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Most of America is deteriorating economically.

Economic prosperity is concentrated in America’s elite ZIP Codes, but economic stability outside of those communities is rapidly deteriorating.

Continue reading “The large parts of America left behind” »

Tech startup fund Y Combinator has announced plans for a new basic income trial in the U.S. in which participants receive $1,000 monthly.

The United States would realize roughly $9 billion a year in economic gains by instituting a simple, nationwide policy change: starting public school classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

That’s according to an exhaustive new study by the Rand Corporation, the first of its kind to model the nationwide costs and benefits of later school start times.

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How can we protect Europeans in digital age? Our proposals:
📌 An EU Cybersecurity Agency to defend us from cyber-attacks.

📌 A European certification scheme to ensure that products and services in the digital world are safe to use.

Just like the game of Monopoly, which was created to illustrate the operation of laissez faire capitalism, there is always one big winner at the end of the game.

“Wealth concentration drives a vicious, downward cycle, throttling the very engine of wealth creation itself.”

“Because: people with lots of money don’t spend it. They just sit on it, like Smaug in his cave. The more money you have, the less of it you spend every year. If you have $10,000, you might spend it this year. If you have $10 million, you’re not gonna. If you have $1,000, you’re at least somewhat likely to spend it this month.”

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The new digital payment app, called Tez, allows people in India to use a phone to pay for goods in physical stores and online, or make payments to other bank accounts. It’s different to the (already incredibly popular) Indian service PayTM in the respect that it links a phone directly with a bank account, rather than having the user regularly top up a wallet with money.

The Financial Times reports ($) that, unlike many other mobile payment systems which rely on NFC to make payments, Google offers users the ability to make use of a technology called AudioQR to transfer money. The approach allows any two phones with mics and speakers to communicate with each other using ultrasound, above the range of human hearing, to arrange a transaction. That will be particularly useful in a country where not everyone has a high-spec device.

According to TechCrunch, Google has also trademarked the name Tez in other Asian countries, including Indonesia and the Philippines. That suggests that, in the longer term, it has bigger ambitions for the service.

Continue reading “Google’s New Mobile Payment System Sends Money via Sound” »