Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
Justice Department to Phase Out Use of Private Prisons
August 18th, 2016Didn’t see that coming… Via: The Globe and Mail: The U.S. Justice Department plans to phase out its use of privately-operated prisons, which it called less safe and less effective than government-run facilities, according to a memo released publicly by the department on Thursday. In a move that hammered corrections company share prices, the Justice […]
Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month
August 18th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Starting later this month, Uber will allow customers in downtown Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from their phones, crossing an important milestone that no automotive or technology company has yet achieved. Google, widely regarded as the leader in the field, has been testing its fleet for several years, and Tesla Motors offers Autopilot, […]
Debtors’ Prisons: Life Inside America’s For-Profit Justice System
August 17th, 2016Part 1 Part 2
Aetna Ditching 70% of Its Obamacare Business
August 16th, 2016Via: Business Insider: Aetna, one of the country’s five largest health insurers, announced on Monday evening that it would be pulling out of nearly 70% of the counties in which it offers coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The firm said that after a review of its public-health-exchange business it determined that the nearly $300 […]
In Bungled Spying Operation, NSA Targeted Pro-Democracy Campaigner
August 15th, 2016Via: The Intercept: Tony Fullman is a middle-aged former tax man and a pro-democracy activist. But four years ago, a botched operation launched by New Zealand spies meant he suddenly found himself deemed a potential terrorist — his passport was revoked, his home was raided, and he was placed on a top-secret National Security Agency […]
ISIS Acquires Another U.S. Weapons Cache
August 7th, 2016Via: Reuters: Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan. The photos, which came to light on Saturday, show an American portable rocket launcher, radio, grenades and other gear not commonly used by Afghan […]
Self Driving Car Company Asks People to Generate Data with Mobile Phones
July 24th, 2016But what I really thought was interesting was the inducement to get people to do this: Comma Points and a scoreboard. In other words, Hotz turned this into a game. I wonder if he plans to use the Chffr app to offer bonus points to get people to drive on roads that present particularly difficult […]
‘Pokémon Go’: Government Surveillance App?
July 14th, 2016For commentary on this, I’d mainly offer my 2012 piece: Ingress: Google’s Strange New Game Flash forward to 2016 and Pokémon Go offers the same soft control, but now with mass appeal. You might be thinking, mass appeal? What? With 10-year-olds? It turns out that in the swipetarded zombie apocalypse, “Pokémon Go tops Twitter’s daily […]
Tens of Thousands of People Every Year Sent to Jail Based on Results from Ridiculously Flawed Roadside Drug Test
July 8th, 2016“Why are police departments and prosecutors still using them?” The article doesn’t go anywhere near the reason, which is that large Wall Street banks profit from the private gulag system in America: The prison industry as a whole took in over $5 billion in revenue in 2011. According to journalist Matt Taibbi, Wall Street banks […]
Autonomous Robots to Begin Delivering Food and Parcels in Europe
July 6th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: The next time you order food using the delivery app Just Eat in London, don’t be surprised if it’s brought to your door by a small, six-wheeled robot. London-listed Just Eat Plc. will join German retail chain Metro AG, logistics company Hermes Group, and U.K. food delivery startup Pronto Technology Ltd., in trialing […]
