Wirtschaftswetter International

Welcome to Summer 2024!

Dear Readers,

thank you for visiting Wirtschaftswetter. Wirtschaftswetter-International, our English-language section, offers you themes, information, tips and services. The next edition of Wirtschaftswetter goes online in October 2024. If there is anything you would especially like to see in the magazine or if you would like to leave us a message with your suggestions, interests, wishes or questions, we will be glad to receive your e-mail: international@wirtschaftswetter.de

by Henry David Thoreau

External Links:
The Final Report by the "Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol": Final Report - January 6th

Policy Brief - Eurofound on living conditions and quality of life, latest: Intergenerational inaqualities - How to close the gaps?

The one and only - The New York Review of Books

Themes Male Malaise - Women and Men Drifting Apart. When FB advertises with its slogan "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life" we should have read this more carefully, because we are now getting to know the same people we already surrounded ourselves with in our analog lives. Neither dialogs nor debates have increased since then, which means that people with different opinions hardly ever meet. For a few years now, however, political opinions between young liberal women and young conservative men have been drifting further and further apart. In Germany, the difference is now 30 points, in the UK 25, in the USA around 40 and in China and other Asian countries it is even over 50 points or more. One can certainly speak of a split, maybe historical similar to the fight for women's suffrage around 100 years ago. Instead the astonishing result is that young women and young men today agree significantly less with each other in their political views than their own grandparents. It will be interesting to analyze what contribution social media has made to this development. In addition, birth rates are also falling because men are not supporting women enough to have children, one researcher concludes.
Read more, extern, Opinion by John Burn-Murdoch on ft.com:A new global gender divide is emerging

And, extern, Letter by Vincent Straub on ft.com:Declining birth rates are a symptom of a male malaise

Themes. Surprises and the Mouse Lemniscal Auditory System - or how the brain learns to deal with the unexpected. Researchers at the University of Basel, Swiss have decoded how reactions to the unexpected develop in growing brains. Recognizing the unepexted is an important cognitive ability - after all, new could also mean danger.
The process to cope with suprises is complex and changes as we grow - unusual stimuli will be categorized faster and faster as "important" or "uninteresting" and are significantly less surprising the second and third time they appear. This could be called an efficience way that causes attention but no unnecessary strong reactions that would cost a lot of energy. The researchrers also find, that experience plays a key role in the development of the response in the cerebral cortex. The findings are published in the journal "Sciendes Advances", science.org: Sequential maturation of stimulus-specific adaption in the mouse lemniscal auditory system

Themes. Electric massage for plant growth. Researchers at the "Laboratory of Organic Electronics" from Linköping University have developed an electrically conductive “soil” for soilless cultivation, known as hydroponics. Result: Barley seedlings grow on average 50 percent more within 15 days when their roots are stimulated electrically with low power through this new cultivation substrate. The barley seedlings can be cultivated using hydroponics, which require little water and all nutrients remain in the system - and have a better growth rate thanks to electrical stimulation. The study is published in the journal "PNAS", pnas.org: eSoil - A low-power bioletronic growth scaffold that enhances crop seedling growth

Themes: Anything but Standard in the Time Tunnel Although they are mentioning, they "are not proposing a time travel maschine", researchers at the University of Cambridge have shown that by manipulating entanglement – a feature of quantum theory that causes particles to be intrinsically linked – they can simulate what could happen if one could travel backwards in time. So that gamblers, investors and quantum experimentalists could, in some cases, retroactively change their past actions and improve their outcomes in the present. Correcting errors that can no longer be improved? It sounds like a sensation or even a revolution if that pesky 75 percent error rate didn't exist. But maybe it can be changed in the same way? Otherwise, the garbage collection would have big problems.The study appeared in the journal Physical Review Letters. Read on, extern site, cam.ac.uk: Simulations of backwards time travel can improve scientific experiments

Quote: "To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.".

by Shakespeare, A Midsummers Night's Dream, Bottom, Act 3 Scene 1, 1595/96

+++ News +++ May 2024 - Forced Labour - Who Makes the Money? +++ . On Labour Day in 2024, Michaelle De Cock, Anousheh Karvar and Sophy Fisher discuss the highly topical question in the ILO podcast series "The Future of Work", extern site, ilo.org: Who's Making Money from Forced Labour?

+++ March 2024 - British Royal Family +++ British royal family. We heard the news about British Crown Princess Kate's health, just as we followed the news about that of King Charles the Third earlier. We wish them both the power of the favorite song "Thunderstruck" (by AC/DC) of their sons William and George, the latter grandson of the King, to overcome this insidious enemy. And we would like to add: once to hell and back in one piece is absolutely doable. Here is a legendary song by this group and its incredible singer Bon Scott, extern site, youtube.com: AC/DC - Riff Raff. And don't forget to look for the concert "Live in Colchester, England, October 28, 1978", too, sending you positive thoughts and prayers for a quick and full recovery.

+++ January 2024 - Houthi Attacks Against Commercial Vessels +++ . Several states have published a joint statement on ongoing Houthi attacks against commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea including a significant escalation over the past weeks, whitehouse.gov: Joint Statement, January 03,2024

+++ November 2023 - Updatte ILO Worldwide - Elimination of Violence against Women +++ , look and listen, ilo.org: ILO Director General Messgage for the elimnination of gender-based violence

+++ August 2023 - General Elections in UK 2024/25 and the British women +++ The maximum term of the current UK-Parliament will autmatically dissolve on Tuesday 17 December 2024. The next Polling Day could be 25 days later. But women, especially young women, in the UK currently don't know which of the two parties still represents their interests at all, as the British edition of the magazine Glamour recenctly reported, extern site, glamourmagazines.co.uk: Not on Team Rishi or Team Keir? How the two-party political system is seriously alienating young women.

+++ November 2022 - Ending Violence Against Women - ILO Chief Calls for Signing Violence and Harassment Convention C190 +++. On the occasion of the World Day for the Elimination of Violence againgst Women and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the ILO Director-General Houngbo calls all countries for the signing and implementing of Convention C190, that has already been adopted in 2019. "It's time to end violence and harrasment now", he says, more: Ratify C190 - Time to End Violence and Harassment in the World of Work +++

External Link - New York, New York

Quote: "When all else fails, take a vacation."

by Betty Williams, Nobel Peace Prize in 1976

External Links - Borowitz-Report (Satire) - "Furious Ohio Republicans Report Widespread Incidents of Women Voting", November 8 2023

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