Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It
March 18th, 2014Via: Wired: One of agricultural biotechnology’s great success stories may become a cautionary tale of how short-sighted mismanagement can squander the benefits of genetic modification. After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have documented the rapid evolution of […]
New York: Investment Banker Found Dead on Sidewalk Outside East Side Apartment Building
March 18th, 2014And another one. Via: New York Post: A 28-year old Manhattan investment banker has died after an apparent suicide, police sources said. Kenneth Bellando, who worked at Levy Capital since January, was found dead on the sidewalk outside his East Side building on March 12, after allegedly jumping from the sixth-story roof, sources said. Bellando, […]
The One About Satellites Beaming Power Down to Earth Is Making the Rounds Again
March 17th, 2014*roll eyes* Via: Wired: For decades, the Pentagon has been the world’s largest oil consumer, and as global petroleum prices continue to rise, the military has been searching for feasible energy alternatives. Now they’re looking in space. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is building technology that will allow the military to capture solar power […]
A Tale of Two Internets
March 15th, 2014It sounds a lot like U.S. politics: “A world where you think you are making choices, but in reality, your options are narrowed and refined until you are left with merely the illusion of control.” Via: Scientific American: Imagine an Internet where unseen hands curate your entire experience. Where third parties predetermine the news, products […]
Bill Gates on Automation Eliminating Jobs: “Labor Demand for Lots of Skill Sets Will be Substantially Lower”
March 15th, 2014Via: Business Insider: Big changes are coming to the labour market that people and governments aren’t prepared for, Bill Gates believes. Speaking at Washington, D.C., economic think tank The American Enterprise Institute on Thursday, Gates said than within 20 years, a lot of jobs will go away, replaced by software automation (“bots” in tech slang, […]
Drones Will Cause an Upheaval of Society Like we Haven’t Seen in 700 Years
March 13th, 2014Via: Quartz: The human race is on the brink of momentous and dire change. It is a change that potentially smashes our institutions and warps our society beyond recognition. It is also a change to which almost no one is paying attention. I’m talking about the coming obsolescence of the gun-wielding human infantryman as a […]
How Wall Street Has Turned Housing Into a Dangerous Get-Rich-Quick Scheme—Again
March 12th, 2014Via: Mother Jones: You can hardly turn on the television or open a newspaper without hearing about the nation’s impressive, much celebrated housing recovery. Home prices are rising! New construction has started! The crisis is over! Yet beneath the fanfare, a whole new get-rich-quick scheme is brewing. Over the last year and a half, Wall […]
Chinese Economic Slowdown Sends Raw Materials Prices Lower
March 12th, 2014Via: Guardian: Mining stocks have taken a hammering on world markets after the price of iron ore – Australia’s biggest export – posted the biggest one-day fall in over four years. Figures showing an 18% fall in Chinese exports in February amplified fears of a slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy, sending raw material […]
Global Debt Exceeds $100 Trillion as Governments Binge
March 10th, 2014Via: Bloomberg: The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The $30 trillion increase from […]
Chemotherapy for People with End Stage Cancer
March 9th, 2014Is this the most egregious scam in the world? Via: CBS: More than half of end-stage cancer patients receive chemotherapy during the last few months of their life, and those who received such treatment were more likely to die in a hospital intensive care unit, hooked to a ventilator, rather than at home as they […]
