Archive for the 'Economy' Category
35 Percent in U.S. Facing Debt Collectors
July 29th, 2014Via: AP: More than 35 percent of Americans have debts and unpaid bills that have been reported to collection agencies, according to a study released Tuesday by the Urban Institute. … The study found that 35.1 percent of people with credit records had been reported to collections for debt that averaged $5,178, based on September […]
The French City of Toulouse Saved 1 Million Euro by Migrating Desktops to LibreOffice
July 28th, 2014Via: European Commission: Toulouse in south-west France is one of the successes of the free software movement, having replaced Microsoft solutions with LibreOffice. Free software and open source in general is now an established part of the city’s comprehensive digital policy, and the open model promotes economic development and employment in the region.
Fox Warner?
July 27th, 2014Via: New York Times: The much-admired Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black may be rolling in his grave at the prospect of a merger between 21st Century Fox and Time Warner Inc., which would reduce control of the major Hollywood studios to five owners, from six, and major television producers to four, from five.
The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less
July 26th, 2014Via: New York Times: Economic inequality in the United States has been receiving a lot of attention. But it’s not merely an issue of the rich getting richer. The typical American household has been getting poorer, too. The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only […]
If TaskRabbit Is the Future of Employment, the Employed Are Fucked
July 25th, 2014Welcome to the IT industry of the mid 2000s. Via: ValleyWag: The employment of the future is here, and it’s terrific for everyone except the people doing the work. TaskRabbit, which lets you outsource the things you don’t want to do to people who need money, is at the forefront of this chore revolution, and […]
Microsoft’s Station Q Researching Quantum Computing
July 25th, 2014Via: Tech Week Europe: Microsoft has set up a laboratory dedicated to producing quantum computers that will push computing power to a higher level. Station Q, based at the University of California, Santa Barbara will work on ways to construct machines with multiple quantum bits (qubits), under the leadership of Dr Michael Freedman, a mathematician […]
Superpower for Hire: Rise of the Private Military
July 25th, 2014Via: Vice: Vice takes an unprecedented look into the shadowy industry of Private Military Companies. For the past two decades these private companies, like Black Water, Aegis and G4S have silently consumed military operations around the world, doing everything from back end logistics, protection of government VIP’s and diplomats to actual combat duties. In this […]
Michigan Deptment of Agriculture Forces Farmer to Dump 248 Gallons of Organic Milk and Break 1200 Free Range Eggs
July 25th, 2014Via: The Organic Prepper: While Americans in the nearby city of Detroit face life in third world conditions, unable to even afford running water, the state of Michigan decided to direct its resources towards cracking down on a small food co-op in Standish for having the utter audacity to provide milk, butter, cream and eggs […]
Court Strikes Down Federal Obamacare Subsidies
July 22nd, 2014Via: NBC: In a potentially lethal blow to Obamacare, a federal appeals court has ruled that the federal government may not subsidize health insurance plans for people in 36 states that decided not to set up their own marketplaces under the law. The law clearly says that states are to set up the exchanges. But […]
Ax Falls at Microsoft as Company Looks to Cut up to 18,000 Jobs
July 17th, 2014Via: Recode: Microsoft on Thursday announced it plans to cut up to 18,000 jobs this year–its deepest-ever cuts–as the company looked to digest its Nokia acquisition and reposition itself for the future. Following the Nokia acquisition, completed in April, Microsoft had roughly 127,104 employees, meaning the cuts could reduce nearly 15 percent of its workforce. […]
