Archive for the 'Economy' Category
DEA Regularly Mines Americans’ Travel Records to Seize Millions in Cash
August 11th, 2016“Basically, you’ve got to feed the monster.” Via: USA Today: Federal drug agents regularly mine Americans’ travel information to profile people who might be ferrying money for narcotics traffickers — though they almost never use what they learn to make arrests or build criminal cases. Instead, that targeting has helped the Drug Enforcement Administration seize […]
Google Employees Have Enjoyed Revolving Door During Obama Administration
August 10th, 2016Via: Watchdog.org: More than 250 people have moved from Google and related firms to the federal government or vice versa since President Barack Obama took office. The Google Transparency Project, the work of Campaign for Accountability, poured over reams of data to find 258 instances of “revolving door activity” between Google or its associated companies […]
Hillary Clinton Was a Director of Lafarge, a Company That Does Business with ISIS
August 5th, 2016Via: The Canary: Documents obtained by several journalistic investigations reveal that Lafarge has paid taxes to the terror group to operate its cement plant in Syria, and even bought Isis oil for years. … Lafarge also has close ties to Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Apart from being a regular donor to the Clinton Foundation, […]
Mercedes Is About to Unveil an Entire Fleet of Electric Vehicles
August 5th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Mercedes-Benz is planning its own distinct line of electric vehicles, challenging BMW and Tesla Motors Inc. in a bet that alternative-fuel cars have the potential to become profitable. Mercedes will add two electric sport utility vehicles and two sedans, according to two people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be named […]
The Real Value of $100 in Each State
August 5th, 2016Via: Tax Foundation: This map shows the real value of $100 in each state. Prices for the same goods are often much cheaper in states like Missouri or Ohio than they are in states like New York or California. As a result, the same amount of cash can buy you comparatively more in a low-price […]
MIT and DARPA Pack Lidar Sensor Onto Single Chip
August 5th, 2016Via: IEEE: Applications such as autonomous vehicles and robotics heavily depend on lidar, and an expensive lidar module is a major obstacle to their use in commercial products. Our work at MIT’s Photonic Microsystems Group is trying to take these large, expensive, mechanical lidar systems and integrate them on a microchip that can be mass […]
Private Company Wins U.S. Clearance to Fly to the Moon
August 3rd, 2016…including cremated human remains? Via: Reuters: A Florida-based company won U.S. government permission on Wednesday to send a robotic lander to the moon next year, the firm’s founder said, marking the first time the United States has cleared a private space mission to fly beyond Earth’s orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration’s unprecedented go-ahead for the […]
Google’s Project Wing Delivery Drones to Be Tested in U.S.
August 3rd, 2016Via: Bloomberg: The proposed drone delivery service born in Google’s experimental labs will test its system at a U.S. site, the White House announced as part of an initiative to push research and safety measures for unmanned flight. … Project Wing’s test program will be the most significant drone delivery trial to date in the […]
Delphi to Begin Testing On-Demand Robot Taxis in Singapore
August 1st, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Delphi Automotive Plc, the vehicle-electronics supplier that last year conducted the first coast-to-coast U.S. demonstration of a self-driving car, will begin testing autonomous autos in Singapore this year that may lead to robot taxis by the end of the decade. The test will involve six autonomous autos, starting with the modified Audi Q5 […]
Tesla and SolarCity to Combine
August 1st, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: Tesla: Just over a month ago, Tesla made a proposal to purchase SolarCity and today we are announcing that the two companies have reached an agreement to combine, creating the world’s only vertically integrated sustainable energy company. Solar and storage are at their best when […]
