Archive for the 'Economy' Category
China: ‘Unprecedented’ Policy Changes Ahead
October 28th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: Chinese Politburo member Yu Zhengsheng said reforms to be discussed at a Communist Party meeting next month will be unprecedented, adding to signs that leaders are resolved to spur far-reaching policy changes. Yu’s comments, made in a speech at a forum to promote relations with Taiwan, were reported by the official Xinhua News […]
Black Box in Your Car to Tax and Track You
October 28th, 2013In other news, Iraq, Afghan wars will cost to $4 trillion to $6 trillion: The U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost taxpayers $4 trillion to $6 trillion, taking into account the medical care of wounded veterans and expensive repairs to a force depleted by more than a decade of fighting, according to a […]
Multi-Billion Dollar Tax Avoidance Schemes Running in Ireland
October 28th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: In that game, multinational companies find ways to legally avoid income taxes in the countries where most of their customers are. Google cuts billions off its tax bill each year by sending profits through Ireland to a mailbox in Bermuda; Facebook sends them through Ireland to Grand Cayman; LinkedIn uses Ireland en route […]
Several Large Tech Companies Colluded to Cap Worker Salaries
October 28th, 2013Wouldn’t it be neat if there really was a Hell and Steve Jobs had to go cruising along in his ridiculous superyacht through great oceans of fiery, bubbling lava for all eternity? Via: San Jose Mercury News: More than 60,000 tech workers can seek monetary damages from Apple (AAPL), Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG) and Adobe […]
High-Frequency Trading and Exchange Technology
October 28th, 2013Via: ACM: I remember coming home late one night, and my mother, a math teacher, asked why I was so depressed and exhausted. I said, “Imagine every day you have to figure out a small part of the world. You develop fantastic machines, which can measure everything, and you deploy them to track an object […]
Science Has Lost Its Way, At a Big Cost to Humanity
October 27th, 2013I’ve posted about this before, but it’s worth repeating. Via: Los Angeles Times: In today’s world, brimful as it is with opinion and falsehoods masquerading as facts, you’d think the one place you can depend on for verifiable facts is science. You’d be wrong. Many billions of dollars’ worth of wrong. A few years ago, […]
French IT School ’42’
October 26th, 2013The application process for 42 reminds me a bit of what happens to people who try to get into the French Foreign Legion. The Legion doesn’t care about your background, they just want to know if you’re up to the job. If you don’t know about the French Foreign Legion, take a few minutes to […]
Filesharing Site Revealed to be Anti-Piracy ‘Honeypot’
October 26th, 2013Via: Guardian: A high-profile file-sharing site has been revealed to be a year-long pirate “honeypot”, collecting data on users, file hosters and websites. The revelation, which had users of the forum up in arms, accompanied the purchase of the UploaderTalk (UT) site by US-based anti-piracy company Nuke Piracy. A honeypot is a facility, in this […]
A 140-Acre Forest Is About to Materialize in the Middle of Detroit
October 26th, 2013The Hantz Forest Burbclave. Via: The Atlantic Cities: After nearly five years of planning, a large-scale attempt to turn a big chunk of Detroit into an urban forest is now underway. The purchase of more than 1,500 vacant city-owned lots on the city’s lower east side – a total of more than 140 acres – […]
In Almost Every European Country, Bikes Are Outselling New Cars
October 25th, 2013Via: NPR: We know that Europeans love their bicycles — think or . Denmark specifically for cyclists. Indeed, earlier this month, , which has long had a love affair with cars, is embracing the bicycle: For the first time on record, Lauren noted, bicycles outsold cars in the country. But it’s becoming a Continent-wide phenomenon. […]
