Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
‘My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine.’
June 21st, 2012The pickers are being replaced by robots. Instead of people walking around and picking products (as described in the piece below), robots pick up the racks and deliver them to a queue where a handful of remaining human workers box up the orders. The main player in this type of automation is Kiva Systems, and […]
Countries Across World Gird for Greece Turmoil
June 14th, 2012Via: Reuters: The threat of turmoil sweeping across global markets next week if Greece’s election prompts a panicky flight of money from the euro zone has policymakers from Beijing to Zurich preparing to protect their currencies and economies from an unwelcome influx. Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan is among the most vociferous, dangling the […]
Syria Issues New Currency That Was Printed in Russia
June 13th, 2012Via: Reuters: Syria has released new cash into circulation to finance its fiscal deficit, flirting with inflation after violence and sanctions wiped out revenues and led to a severe economic contraction, bankers in Damascus say. Four Damascus-based bankers told Reuters that new banknotes printed in Russia were circulating in trial amounts in the capital and […]
Greeks Withdraw $1 Billion a Day Ahead of Vote
June 13th, 2012Via: Reuters: Greeks pulled their cash out of the banks and stocked up with food ahead of a cliffhanger election on Sunday that many fear will result in the country being forced out of the euro. Bankers said up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) were leaving major banks daily and retailers said some of […]
Mexico’s Largest Television Network Sold Favorable Election Coverage to Top Politicians
June 13th, 2012Via: Narco News Bulletin: The US Embassy in Mexico City in 2009 issued a series of cables indicating that Mexican political candidates, “are paying networks to provide them with television coverage” and that leading presidential contender Enrique Peña Nieto, in particular, “is paying media outlets under the table for favorable news coverage.” The documents were […]
Indians in Gated Communities Meet Their Neighbors Online
June 12th, 2012So it goes… Via: Washington Post: Sumit Jain has fond memories of his childhood in a small town where everybody knew everybody. But as a young man, he moved to a big city for work and began living in an apartment building. Jain said he soon missed feeling connected to a community. That sense of […]
Gamer Plays Civilization II for Almost 10 Years, Turns World Into ‘Hellish Nightmare of Suffering and Devastation’
June 12th, 2012Via: Reddit: I’ve been playing the same game of Civ II for 10 years. Though long outdated, I grew fascinated with this particular game because by the time Civ III was released, I was already well into the distant future. I then thought that it might be interesting to see just how far into the […]
EU CONSIDERING TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
June 12th, 2012Via: AP: Olivier Bailly spokesman said Tuesday that, legally, limits could be imposed on movement of people and money across national borders within the EU if it’s necessary to protect public order or public security. “Some people are working on scenarios,” he said, adding that the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, was giving legal […]
Family Net Worth Drops to Level of Early ’90s, Fed Says
June 11th, 2012Via: New York Times: The recent financial crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more wealth than they had in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, the Federal Reserve said Monday. The median family, richer than half of the nation’s families and poorer than the other half, had […]
Eurozone Agrees to Lend Spain Up to 100 Billion Euros
June 10th, 2012Via: Reuters: Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Saturday to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to shore up its teetering banks and Madrid said it would specify precisely how much it needs once independent audits report in just over a week. After a 2 1/2-hour conference call of the 17 finance […]
