Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Cities Face Growing Crisis as RVs Become Homes of Last Resort
December 18th, 2017Via: East Bay Times: Bay Area cities are coming to realize what Ramirez already knows — parking tickets won’t solve the problem of finding a place to live. From Oakland to San Jose, officials are struggling to cope with a growing influx of RV dwellers seeking a safe, permanent place for the only homes they […]
Food Insecurity in Silicon Valley
December 12th, 2017Via: Guardian: In a region famed for its foodie culture, where the well-heeled can dine on gold-flecked steaks, $500 tasting menus and $29 loaves of bread, hunger is alarmingly widespread, according to a new study shared exclusively with the Guardian. One in four people in Silicon Valley are at risk of hunger, researchers at the […]
‘Here’s How to Shut Down the Internet: Snip Undersea Fiber-Optic Cables’
December 12th, 2017Via: McClatchy: Hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable lay on the ocean floors, a crucial part of the global internet’s backbone, and only rarely do ship anchors, undersea landslides or saboteurs disrupt them. Still, a few voices now call for stronger global mechanisms and even military action to protect the cables against future […]
Screenshots from YouTube’s Video Demonitization Console
December 11th, 2017Via: TwitLonger: Google, some months ago, put out a job posting which required a number of different people to work on one project. Google claimed in the posting that they needed a third party company to work as “web search evaluators.” My contact worked for the unnamed company that put in for the job and […]
Quantum Computing Is the Next Big Security Risk
December 9th, 2017Disclosure: I have invested in technology related to quantum computing. — Via: Wired: The consequences of mastering quantum computing, while not as visual or visceral as a mushroom cloud, are no less significant than those faced by the scientists who lit up the New Mexico sky with the detonation at the Trinity test site 72 […]
America’s Farmers Killing Themselves in Record Numbers
December 8th, 2017Via: Guardian: Last year, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that people working in agriculture – including farmers, farm laborers, ranchers, fishers, and lumber harvesters – take their lives at a rate higher than any other occupation. The data suggested that the suicide rate for agricultural workers in 17 […]
General Electric to Cut 12,000 Jobs in Power Business Revamp
December 7th, 2017Via: Reuters: General Electric Co (GE.N) is axing 12,000 jobs at its global power business, the struggling industrial conglomerate’s latest effort to shrink itself into a more focused company. The U.S. company launched the cuts to save $1 billion in 2018, saying it expected dwindling demand for fossil fuel power plants to continue. “Traditional power […]
Living in Cars, Working for Amazon: Meet America’s New Nomads
December 3rd, 2017Via: Guardian: Millions of Americans are wrestling with the impossibility of a traditional middle-class existence. In homes across the country, kitchen tables are strewn with unpaid bills. Lights burn late into the night. The same calculations get performed again and again, through exhaustion and sometimes tears. Wages minus grocery receipts. Minus medical bills. Minus credit […]
Robots Are Coming for Jobs of as Many as 800 Million Worldwide
November 29th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: As many as 800 million workers worldwide may lose their jobs to robots and automation by 2030, equivalent to more than a fifth of today’s global labor force. That’s according to a new report covering 46 nations and more than 800 occupations by the research arm of McKinsey & Co. The consulting company […]
Bitcoin Hits US$10,000
November 28th, 2017Update: Bitcoin Hits US$11,000 — Bitfinex print at US$10,053. Via: Bloomberg: Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 for the first time, bringing this year’s price surge to more than 10-fold even as warnings multiply that the largest digital currency is an asset bubble. The euphoria is bringing to the mainstream what was once considered the providence of computer […]
