Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Fukushima Disaster Nearly Destroyed Japan, Government Nuclear Safety Adviser Majored in Economics
March 5th, 2016Most nuclear power plants in Japan remain offline. Via: NZ Herald: Japan’s prime minister at the time of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has revealed the country came within a “paper-thin margin” of a nuclear disaster requiring the evacuation of 50 million people. In an interview to mark the fifth anniversary of the disaster, Naoto […]
Monsanto Sues to Keep Glyphosate Off California List of Carcinogens
March 5th, 2016Via: Reuters: Monsanto Co stepped up its defense of a widely used weed killer on Thursday by filing a lawsuit in California seeking to prevent glyphosate, the main ingredient in its Roundup herbicide, from being added to the state’s list of known carcinogens. The seed and agrochemicals company said it filed the suit against the […]
ARPA-E Batteries to Challenge Tesla?
March 3rd, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar Power systems in New Zealand. — If you’re interested in energy generation and storage technologies that will actually be for sale in the near to medium term, you can safely ignore most press releases about new energy technologies working only in labs. That stuff might as well be on a different […]
“Former Google CEO Schmidt to Head New Pentagon Innovation Board”
March 2nd, 2016Via: Reuters: Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive officer of Google, has agreed to head a new Pentagon advisory board aimed at bringing Silicon Valley innovation and best practices to the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday. Carter is due to discuss the new Defense Innovation Advisory Board with Schmidt during the […]
Billboards to Track People via Mobile Phones
March 2nd, 2016“All data is anonymous and aggregated, they say, meaning individual consumers cannot be identified.” Oh sure. Via: New York Times: Pass a billboard while driving in the next few months, and there is a good chance the company that owns it will know you were there and what you did afterward. Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, […]
Here’s How Electric Cars Will Cause the Next Oil Crisis
March 1st, 2016Via: Bloomberg: A shift is under way that will lead to widespread adoption of EVs in the next decade. Battery prices fell 35 percent last year and are on a trajectory to make unsubsidized electric vehicles as affordable as their gasoline counterparts in the next six years, according to a new analysis of the electric-vehicle […]
Mercedes-Benz Swaps Robots for People on Its Assembly Lines
February 26th, 2016Sure, for luxury items. Will a customer look at the price of a Mercedes and think, “They should have made a more standardized car so I could save a couple grand.” No. a Mercedes customer will not think that. Many luxury brands, from clothes to watches to yachts to planes, rely on human labor. Overall, […]
13.5 Percent of the Japan’s Housing Stock Vacant or Abandoned
February 26th, 2016I’ve been interested in Japan since I was a child, but I’ve never been there. The closest I’ll probably ever get to Japan is looking around on Google Maps. I pick a random spot and use the Street View function to see what there is to see. So right up front, this is my disclosure: […]
Dripping Blood, a Severed Arm, & 67 Tons of Cash on a CIA Plane
February 24th, 2016This is a good one. Via: Mad Cow Productions: When the ground crew at Harare International Airport comes out to refuel the plane, they’re horrified to see blood dripping down the fuselage. The plane’s crew dismisses it. Its led by two Americans, who claim they hit a bird earlier. Somebody calls the cops. … Stacked […]
Mercedes Coming for Tesla: First of Four Pure EV Models Available in 2018
February 24th, 2016This Mercedes news was from December 2015. I just spotted it because Korean firm SK Innovation was recently selected by Mercedes to supply the lithium ion cells for the vehicles. Via: Car Magazine: Mercedes-Benz will launch the first of four electric cars in 2018, as it begins an all-out assault on Tesla. CAR magazine revealed […]
