Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow Raising Claims About Advanced Space Technology
December 16th, 2019Update: Is Starlink Going to Drop The American Culture Bomb on China? If you’re like me, you’ve been wondering: What is Starlink’s actual purpose? I didn’t entirely believe the prosaic narrative about better rural broadband Internet and a funding source for Elon Musk’s Mars aspirations, etc. Well, it might be about those things at some […]
How the 1% Scrubs Its Image Online
December 13th, 2019Via: Wall Street Journal: Jacob Gottlieb was considering raising money for a hedge fund. One problem: His last one had collapsed in a scandal. … So last year Mr. Gottlieb hired Status Labs, an Austin, Texas-based company specializing in so-called reputation management. Its tactic: a favorable news blitz to eclipse the negative stories. Afterward, articles […]
The World’s First 3D-Printed Neighborhood Now Has Its First Houses
December 13th, 2019Via: FastCompany: A giant 3D printer is currently squeezing out new homes in rural Mexico. Each one takes 24 hours and lets local families upgrade from a shack to a two-bedroom house. Could this be part of the global housing solution?
A Self-Driving Freight Truck Just Drove Across the Country to Deliver Butter
December 12th, 2019Autonomous freight transportation? Yes, now/soon/regulatory barriers. Autonomous robotaxis? Don’t hold your breath. Automakers Are Rethinking the Timetable for Fully Autonomous Cars: My guess is that, if it happens, it will happen in the freight market first. Freight is a walk in the park compared to the robotaxi concept that Musk is talking about. With freight, […]
The Afghanistan Papers
December 11th, 2019Via: Washington Post: A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable. Related, 2007: The War in […]
White House Veterans Helped UAE Build Secret Surveillance Unit
December 11th, 2019Via: Reuters: In the years after 9/11, former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke warned Congress that the country needed more expansive spying powers to prevent another catastrophe. Five years after leaving government, he shopped the same idea to an enthusiastic partner: an Arab monarchy with deep pockets. In 2008, Clarke went to work as a […]
U.S. Army Will Fund Rare Earths Processing Facilities
December 11th, 2019Via: Reuters: The U.S. Army plans to fund construction of rare earths processing facilities, part of an urgent push by Washington to secure domestic supply of the minerals used to make military weapons and electronics, according to a government document seen by Reuters. … The Army said it will fund up to two-thirds of a […]
Los Angeles Is Spending Over $1 Billion To House the Homeless. It’s Failing.
December 7th, 2019Via: Reason: The city initially ballparked the permanent units at a median cost of $350,000 a piece. Three years later, the estimated cost rose to more than half a million per unit. Some units are approaching $700,000 each. Andy Bales says he saw it coming. “I was a critic 10 years ago of this plan […]
In the Age of AI
December 7th, 2019Here’s one line from the film that sums up the situation: “I’m pretty confident that we are never again going to have this large, stable, prosperous middle class doing routine work.” Via: Frontline PBS: A documentary exploring how artificial intelligence is changing life as we know it — from jobs to privacy to a growing […]
Cloud Kitchens: Facilities That Prepare Food Only for Delivery
December 6th, 2019Via: Food Corridor: Introducing cloud kitchens, commercial facilities purpose-built to produce food specifically for delivery. These commissary kitchens are sometimes also known as ghost kitchens, shared kitchens, or virtual kitchens with the delivery-only food brands operating within them called virtual restaurants. Maybe you’re thinking: “this is nothing new” and in a way, you are right. […]
