Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Dallas Police and Fire Pension Board Halts $154 Million in Withdrawals
December 8th, 2016Via: Dallas Morning News: The Dallas Police and Fire Pension System’s Board of Trustees suspended lump-sum withdrawals from the pension fund Thursday, staving off a possible restraining order and stopping $154 million in withdrawal requests. The system was set to pay out the weekly requests Friday. Pension officials said allowing the withdrawals would leave them […]
The Grim Truth of Chinese Factories Producing the West’s Christmas Toys
December 8th, 2016Via: Guardian: Xiao Fang thinks she’s one of the luckier workers making Barbie dolls for the Christmas market at the Mattel toy factory in Chang’an. True, she says, she works 11-hour days, six days a week, and shares a dormitory with nine other women and gets to see her husband only once a week. She […]
Amazon Just Opened a Grocery Store Without a Checkout Line
December 7th, 2016Via: USA Today: Amazon is testing a grocery store in downtown Seattle that lets customers walk in, grab food from the shelves and walk out again, without ever having to stand in a checkout line. Customers tap their cellphones on a turnstile as they walk into the store, which logs them into the store’s network […]
#familyreasons: Prime Minister John Key Named as Ideal Candidate to Head International Monetary Fund
December 6th, 2016Unbelievable. Alternate tag: #mrleesgreaterhongkong Via: New Zealand Herald: Outgoing Prime Minister John Key has been tipped as a potential candidate to head the International Monetary Fund, an appointment signed off by US President Barack Obama. An article on MSC Newswire says Key’s background in international finance would make him an ideal candidate to replace Christine […]
Pentagon Suppressed Study That Revealed $125 Billion in ‘Waste’
December 6th, 2016Via: The Hill: The Department of Defense suppressed one of its own studies that revealed $125 billion in wasteful spending, according to an investigation published by the The Washington Post. The newspaper found that the study, commissioned by Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work, was hidden because of fears Congress would cut defense spending. The […]
Army Corps of Engineers Denies Dakota Access Pipeline Route
December 4th, 2016Via: NBC: The secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers told Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II Sunday that the current route for the controversial Dakota Access pipeline will be denied. Archambaut told NBC News after he heard the decision that he was “thankful that there were some leaders in the federal government that […]
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda to Run Electric-Car Division
December 4th, 2016Via: Green Car Reports: It’s now abundantly clear that Toyota is changing course when it comes to zero-emission vehicles. After years of promoting hydrogen fuel cells while shunning and disparaging battery-electric cars, the company now plans to introduce a mass-market electric car by 2020. The fact that Toyota is reportedly only now assembling the team […]
Apple Confirms Work on Autonomous Systems for Transportation
December 3rd, 2016Via: Electrek: Apple’s car plans have long been kept under wrap by the company itself, but a new regulatory filing shows it publicly address the industry for the time. In a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) uncovered by VentureBeat, Apple urges the government not to restrict testing of self-driving vehicles… […]
Gallery of Cold War Ruins
December 2nd, 2016Via: Washington Post: This rapid-fire upgrade in technologies combined with both nations’ relentless manufacture of missiles left a quiet mark across the remote parts of each country. Early-generation nuclear missile silos were left to rust and quietly collapse, marking the map like a secret Braille. To the uninitiated, defunct Cold War sites give little outward […]
Los Angeles: Unclaimed Dead To Be Buried In Mass Grave
November 30th, 2016I thought this would be one for the Collapse category, but it doesn’t really fit because the practice is standard operating procedure: The county has interred unclaimed remains every year since 1896. Via: Los Angeles Daily News: Many were homeless. Most are now nameless. A few came from families hopeless of having enough money to […]
