Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
OpenAI Hopes to Prevent Superintelligence Doom
December 14th, 2015Via: Medium: Essentially, OpenAI is a research lab meant to counteract large corporations who may gain too much power by owning super-intelligence systems devoted to profits, as well as governments which may use AI to gain power and even oppress their citizenry.
Zombies Appear in U.S. Oilfields as Crude Plumbs New Lows
December 10th, 2015Via: Reuters: Drained by a 17-month crude rout, some U.S. shale oil companies are merely hanging on for life as oil prices lurch further away from levels that allow them to profitably drill new wells and bring in enough cash to keep them in business. The slump has created dozens of oil and gas “zombies,” […]
Beijing Red Alert for Smog
December 7th, 2015Via: BBC: Schools in Beijing are to close and outdoor construction to stop after the Chinese capital issued its first “red alert” over smog levels. The red alert is the highest possible, and has not been used in the city before, the state-run Xinhua news agency says. Authorities expect more than three consecutive days of […]
Airpocalypse Now: China Pollution Reaching Record Levels
November 28th, 2015Via: Guardian: In some areas of Shenyang, PM2.5 readings reportedly surpassed 1,400 micrograms per cubic metre, which is about 56 times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organisation. More: Beijing Residents Told to Stay Inside, Air Pollution 15X Safe Level
Police Civil Asset Forfeitures Exceed All Burglaries in 2014
November 18th, 2015Via: Armstrong Economics: Between 1989 and 2010, U.S. attorneys seized an estimated $12.6 billion in asset forfeiture cases. The growth rate during that time averaged +19.4% annually. In 2010 alone, the value of assets seized grew by +52.8% from 2009 and was six times greater than the total for 1989. Then by 2014, that number […]
America’s Poorest White Town: Abandoned by Coal, Swallowed by Drugs
November 13th, 2015What you have here mass unemployment, intergenerational poverty and welfare money flowing into the prescription drug industry. It’s like the place has been hit with some sort of zombie neutron bomb. Via: The Guardian: Leading the blight is a powerful and highly addictive opioid painkiller, OxyContin, known locally as “hillbilly heroin”. Typically it is ground […]
Constant Lockdowns Lead Schools to Buy Portable Toilets
November 11th, 2015Via: San Diego Union Tribune: Shortly after San Diego schools kicked off the new year in September, 21,000 students at 11 campuses were locked in classrooms for up to three hours following a rash of violent — and ultimately false — threats. Not surprisingly, some students had to use a bathroom. Patrick Henry High School […]
Philadelphia: Survey Finds Babies Routinely Given Smartphones
November 4th, 2015Via: Reuters: Many children under age five own their own smartphones and tablets, and they often use the devices without any supervision or help from their parents, a small U.S. study suggests. While the results – based on surveys of parents in 350 households in Philadelphia – aren’t nationally representative and the study didn’t measure […]
More Americans Than Ever Use Prescription Drugs
November 4th, 2015Via: NBC: More Americans than ever are taking prescription drugs — close to 60 percent of U.S. adults, according to new research. And most seem to be related to obesity, with cholesterol and blood pressure drugs leading the pack, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The single most popular drug is […]
Britain: Young People Suffering Their ‘Worst Economic Prospects for Several Generations’
November 2nd, 2015Via: Independent: Young people are suffering the “worst economic prospects for several generations” as a worrying age inequality gap is opening up in Britain, according to a major state-of-the-nation report. In its biggest review yet of equality across the country, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) identified the winners and losers in modern Britain. […]
