Archive for the 'Elite' Category
Bloomberg Wants Mandatory Flu Vaccinations for New York City Schoolchildren
December 10th, 2013Via: Politicker: On Wednesday, with just three weeks to go until he leaves office, Mr. Bloomberg’s controversial Board of Health is set to vote on new rules that would force children as young as six months old to be immunized each year before December 31 if they attend licensed day care or pre-school programs.
U.S. Doctors Choose a $2000 Drug Instead of a $50 Alternative to Treat Eye Condition
December 8th, 2013Via: Washington Post: The two drugs have been declared equivalently miraculous. Tested side by side in six major trials, both prevent blindness in a common old-age affliction. Biologically, they are cousins. They’re even made by the same company. But one holds a clear price advantage. Avastin costs about $50 per injection. Lucentis costs about $2,000 […]
What the Fluck
December 6th, 2013The piece below is about how journalists confronted the money power last century, but how they’re failing to do so today. The theory is that we need journalists to let us know that we’re being bent over a barrel, because we’re somehow confused about what’s happening to us. More muckraking journalists will save the day! […]
Google Working on Some Sort of Robotics Project
December 4th, 2013Via: New York Times: In an out-of-the-way Google office, two life-size humanoid robots hang suspended in a corner. If Amazon can imagine delivering books by drones, is it too much to think that Google might be planning to one day have one of the robots hop off an automated Google Car and race to your […]
“Lockup Quotas” Guarantee Profits for the U.S. Private Prison Industry
December 4th, 2013Via: In The Public Interest: Shar Habibi looks at the rise of “lockup quotas” in private prisons; quotas where states guarantee that prisons will be filled at rates of 90 percent or even higher. She argues that these quotas mean that even if communities realize their objective of lower crime rates, taxpayers will see no […]
Billionaire Bunkers: Beyond the Panic Room, Home Security Goes Sci-Fi
November 29th, 2013Via: Forbes: Al Corbi’s residence in the Hollywood Hills has the requisite white walls covered in artwork and picture windows offering breathtaking views of downtown Los Angeles, but it has more in common with NSA headquarters than with the other contemporary homes on the block. The Corbi family doesn’t need keys (thanks to biometric recognition […]
Italy’s Senate Expels Ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi
November 27th, 2013Via: BBC: The Italian Senate has voted to expel ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from parliament with immediate effect over his conviction for tax fraud. Berlusconi, who has dominated politics for 20 years, could now face arrest over other criminal cases as he has lost his immunity from prosecution.
Gold Fix Drawing Scrutiny
November 26th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: Every business day in London, five banks meet to set the price of gold in a ritual that dates back to 1919. Now, dealers and economists say knowledge gleaned on those calls could give some traders an unfair advantage when buying and selling the precious metal. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is scrutinizing […]
Manned Fly-By Mission to Mars in 2017?
November 20th, 2013Via: Washington Post: Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can’t send humans to Mars just yet, on Wednesday revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017. Dubbed “Inspiration Mars,” the fly-by mission would exploit a rare alignment of Earth and Mars that minimizes the […]
Behind the Pentagon’s Doctored Ledgers, a Running Tally of Epic Waste
November 20th, 2013Never forget: Trillions: I would argue that Chalmers Johnson’s estimate was corroborated on September 10, 2001, on the eve of the worst terrorist attack in US history, when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged during a press conference that the Department of Defense (DoD) could not account for $2.3 trillion of the massive Pentagon budget, […]
