World Bank & Financial Inclusion...

Around 2 billion people don’t use formal financial services and more than 50% of adults in the poorest households are unbanked. Financial inclusion is a key enabler to reducing poverty and boosting prosperity. WBG President Kim has called for Universal Financial Access (UFA) by 2020.

Behavioral Science for Development...

Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD): Using the Behavioral Sciences to Fight Global Poverty and Reduce Inequality

Policymakers are increasingly turning to the behavioral sciences to tackle intractable policy challenges, including increasing student learning, raising savings rates, promoting energy and resource conservation, increasing productivity, improving sanitation practices, strengthening institutions, and reducing corruption.

Behaviorally informed policy emphasizes the importance of context for decision making and behavior. It examines a wide set of influences, paying attention to the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect what people think and do. It addresses details in bureaucracies, technologies, and service delivery that are often overlooked in standard policy design but that dramatically influence the effectiveness of development programs and projects, especially in low-income contexts. Behaviorally informed policy can provide creative solutions to difficult challenges, often at low cost. Finally, it helps policy makers themselves avoid some of the decision traps and biases that affect all individuals.

The Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD), the World Bank’s behavioral sciences team, works closely with project teams, governments, and other partners to diagnose, design, and evaluate behaviorally informed interventions. By collaborating with a worldwide network of scientists and practitioners, the eMBeD team provides answers to important economic and social questions, and contributes to the global effort to eliminate poverty and increase equity.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/embed

WorldBank & Poverty...

There has been marked progress on reducing poverty over the past decades. The world attained the first Millennium Development Goal target—to cut the 1990 poverty rate in half by 2015—five years ahead of schedule, in 2010. According to the most recent estimates, in 2013, 10.7 percent of the world’s population lived on less than US$1.90 a day, that’s down from 35 percent in 1990.

http://www.worldbank.org/

Promoting a More Inclusive and Sustainable Development for China...

BEIJING, February 22, 2018—China can achieve more inclusive and sustainable development with coordinated reforms across a broad range of areas that maximize development impact and address its development challenges, says the World Bank Group’s new Systematic Country Diagnostic for China.

“China’s remarkable progress in reducing extreme poverty has significantly contributed to the decline in global poverty,” said Hoon S. Soh, World Bank Program Leader for economic policies for China, "The World Bank Group will continue to support China’s goals to eliminate extreme poverty and ensure inclusive and sustainable growth."

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/02/22/

Sustainable Development...

Sustainable development recognizes that growth must be both inclusive and environmentally sound to reduce poverty and build shared prosperity for today’s population, and to continue to meet the needs of future generations.


The three pillars of sustainable development – economic growth, environmental stewardship, social inclusion – carry across all sectors of development, from cities to agriculture, infrastructure, energy development and use, water, and transportation. The question facing countries, cities, corporations, and development organizations today is not whether to embrace sustainable development but how.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/sustainabledevelopment

Global Economy to Up to 3.1 percent in 2018 but Future Growth a Concern

WASHINGTON, January 9, 2018— The World Bank forecasts global economic growth to edge up to 3.1 percent in 2018 after a much stronger-than-expected 2017, as the recovery in investment, manufacturing, and trade continues, and as commodity-exporting developing economies benefit from firming commodity prices.

However, this is largely seen as a short-term upswing. Over the longer term, slowing potential growth—a measure of how fast an economy can expand when labor and capital are fully employed—puts at risk gains in improving living standards and reducing poverty around the world, the World Bank warns in its January 2018 Global Economic Prospects.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/01/09/

Infant deaths remain common in the developing world http://econ.st/2onHJ1T

The odds of you being alive are basically zero...

Advanced Reproductive Technology

In November 2017, a baby named Emma Gibson was born in the state of Tennessee. Her birth, to a 25-year-old woman, was fairly typical, but one aspect made her story unique: she was conceived 24 years prior from anonymous donors, when Emma’s mother was just a year old.  The embryo had been frozen for more than two decades before it was implanted into her mother’s uterus and grew into the baby who would be named Emma.

https://futurism.com/gatekeepers-future-reproductive-technology/

Your Future Doctor May Not be Human. This Is the Rise of AI in Medicine.

The applications for AI in medicine go beyond administrative drudge work, though. From powerful diagnostic algorithms to finely-tuned surgical robots, the technology is making its presence known across medical disciplines. Clearly, AI has a place in medicine; what we don’t know yet is its value. To imagine a future in which AI is an established part of a patient’s care team, we’ll first have to better understand how AI measures up to human doctors. How do they compare in terms of accuracy? What specific, or unique, contributions is AI able to make? In what way will AI be most helpful — and could it be potentially harmful — in the practice of medicine? Only once we’ve answered these questions can we begin to predict, then build, the AI-powered future that we want.

https://futurism.com/ai-medicine-doctor/

China air pollution...

China has an air pollution problem. But recently the country has worked to improve its air quality and reduce emissions. In 2017, China elected to shut down 40 percent of its factories, and announced plans to ban diesel-powered cars. In 2018, it became home to the world’s largest smog tower that is capable of reducing nearby air pollution by 15 percent.

Now, China is proceeding with a new plan: planting trees — 84,000 square kilometers (32,400 square miles) of them, to be exact.

https://futurism.com/china-plant-32400-square-miles-trees-combat-air-pollution/

How to Mine Big Data?

Machine learning. Hospitals now use predictive analytics to forecast the average stays and potential problems for operations, like hip surgery.

For instance, data from healthcare purchasers showed patients’ ages, core healthcare providers and secondary diagnosis. Using machine learning and predictive analysis, the data can now predict future costs and help identify patients who might have problems in recovery. The outcome? Hospitals make better clinical decisions, experience lower rates of readmission, offer shorter hospital stays, and provide better care.

https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2017/06/mine-big-data-like-pro/

The Etch Clock...

Every 30 seconds, the current time slowly materializes on the Etch’s thermoelastic membrane. Seven-segment numerals, reminiscent of a classic LCD clock, sit beneath the slate-­colored face.

https://www.wired.com/story/fetish-etch-clock/

BLOCKCHAIN...

The blockchain is an undeniably ingenious invention – the brainchild of a person or group of people known by the pseudonym,  Satoshi Nakamoto. But since then, it has evolved into something greater, and the main question every single person is asking is: What is Blockchain?

By allowing digital information to be distributed but not copied, blockchain technology created the backbone of a new type of internet. Originally devised for the digital currency, Bitcoin,  (Buy Bitcoin) the tech community is now finding other potential uses for the technology.

Bitcoin has been called “digital gold,” and for a good reason. To date, the total value of the currency is close to $9 billion US. And blockchains can make other types of digital value. Like the internet (or your car), you don’t need to know how the blockchain works to use.

https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/

Blockchain...

A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all crypto currency transactions. Blockchain has been popularized by Bitcoin and is very disruptive to all centralized corporate structures.

The Blockchain Explained...

“Blockchain is the early leader...
They are actually making the entire ecosystem.”

MIRACLE-GRO AEROGARDEN HARVEST WI-FI...

A garden on your countertop. Grow herbs, lettuce, tiny tomatoes in this all-in-one hydroponic setup. Companion mobile app is unobtrusive. You'll find yourself checking in on it just to watch the progress as the plants grow.
https://www.wired.com/review/miracle-gro-aerogarden-harvest-wi-fi/

Lab-Grown Meat is Coming...

Food scientists and startups are trying to make meat more ethically appealing by growing it -- cell by cell -- in a lab instead of on a farm. Even some vegans support so-called "clean" meat. But can lab grown meat overcome the dreaded "yuck factor?
https://www.wired.com/category/ideas/

ROBOTS...

A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.
So what is a robot?
Well it is a system that contains sensors, control systems, manipulators, power supplies and software all working together to perform a task. Designing, building, programming and testing a robots is a combination of physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, structural engineering, mathematics and computing. In some cases biology, medicine, chemistry might also be involved. A study of robotics means that students are actively engaged with all of these disciplines in a deeply problem-posing problem-solving environment.
http://www.galileo.org/robotics/intro.html

FALLACY...

A DECEPTIVE,  MISLEADING OR FALSE NOTION, BELIEF ETC.