Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
One Dedicated Ebola Hospital for Each State
October 14th, 2014Via: Bloomberg: U.S. and local health officials want to set up dedicated hospitals in each state for Ebola patients, part of a new emphasis on safety for health-care workers after a nurse caring for an infected patient in Dallas tested positive for the virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also reconsidering […]
Taps Running Dry in Rural California
October 2nd, 2014Via: New York Times: State officials say that at least 700 households have no access to running water, but they acknowledge that there could be hundreds more, with many rural well-owners not knowing whom to contact. Tulare County, just south of Fresno, recently began aggressively tracking homes without running water, delivering bottles to hundreds of […]
Mississippi Sued Over ‘Hellish’ Conditions in For-Profit Prison
September 29th, 2014Via: CommonDreams: Denial of food and medical care. Cells and floors soiled with blood, urine, and feces. Excessive force by prison guards. Weeks, months, and years in solitary confinement. These are the conditions found at a “special needs” for-profit prison, the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, which is tasked by the state’s department of corrections with […]
Will Superintelligent Machines Destroy Humanity?
September 13th, 2014My money would be on nukes. How about, superintelligent machines somehow in control of nukes? Via: Reason: In Frank Herbert’s Dune books, humanity has long banned the creation of “thinking machines.” Ten thousand years earlier, their ancestors destroyed all such computers in a movement called the Butlerian Jihad, because they felt the machines controlled them. […]
“The Awkward Truth” About Large Amount of Scientific Research: It’s Bullshit
September 8th, 2014Via: BBC Radio: Every day the newspapers carry stories of new scientific findings. There are 15 million scientists worldwide all trying to get their research published. But a disturbing fact appears if you look closely: as time goes by, many scientific findings seem to become less true than we thought. It’s called the “decline effect” […]
Aggressive Police Take Hundreds of Millions of Dollars from Motorists Not Charged with Crimes
September 7th, 2014Via: Washington Post: After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the government called on police to become the eyes and ears of homeland security on America’s highways. Local officers, county deputies and state troopers were encouraged to act more aggressively in searching for suspicious people, drugs and other contraband. The departments of Homeland Security […]
Detroit Fire Department Has Alert System Made of Pop Cans, Doorbells
September 7th, 2014Via: Detroit Free Press: Detroit is so broke that firefighters get emergency alerts through pop cans, coins, door hinges, pipes and doorbells. And they make these gizmos themselves — one involving a pop can that gets tipped over by an incoming fax. The clink of the can means there’s an emergency. Then there’s the chain-reaction […]
More Screens: NZ Pupils Struggling to Speak
September 6th, 2014Via: New Zealand Herald: Fewer children starting school can speak in sentences, prompting an investigation by education chiefs. Primary schools around the country have noted a decline in the spoken-language abilities of new entrants and the Ministry of Education will look into the reports. School leaders and a specialist in linguistics suspect the problem could […]
Millions of Americans Living in Extreme Poverty
September 2nd, 2014Via: Brookings Institution: In the United States, the official poverty rate for 2012 stood at 15 percent based on the national poverty line which is equivalent to around $16 per person per day. Of the 46.5 million Americans living in poverty, 20.4 million live under half the poverty line. This begs the question of just […]
Syrian Refugees Top 3 Million; Up to 6.5 Million Internally Displaced
August 29th, 2014Via: CBC: Three million Syrian refugees will have registered in neighbouring countries as of Friday, an exodus that began in March 2011 and shows no sign of abating, the United Nations said. The record figure is one million refugees more than a year ago, while a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria, meaning that […]
